Interview Leftovers: Steve Gorman of The Black Crowes
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
I saw The Black Crowes for the first time in 1991, opening for ZZ Top at the Richfield Coliseum. It was a "complicated" tour for the band (that's the term I used to reference the tour during my recent conversation with BC drummer Steve Gorman) and truthfully, they weren't very good, which was disappointing to me, as Shake Your Money Maker had been one of my favorite albums of the previous year. But they came a long way in a short period of time and quickly found their sea legs as a band, becoming a unit very worthy of the tag bestowed on them by Melody Maker as the "Most Rock 'n Roll Rock 'n Roll Band in the World."
20 years later, they're doing what every band does to celebrate a 20th anniversary - they're calling it quits - at least for now. They're calling it an "indefinite hiatus," and I'd say that they've earned the break - leaving us with some good music to enjoy while they're away. Croweology is the band's current project - a 20 track trip through the looking glass of the band's career output to date, performed acoustically, although to call it an acoustic album would be deceptive - at many points on the album, it flat out rocks (as my buddy Tony "TNT" Tilford would say). Give honorable mention as well to Before The Frost, the album that preceded the release of Croweology - any way that you'd like to look at it, they're punching out on top.
The chat with Gorman for the Riverfront Times was a lot of fun and 30 minutes of 86 mph conversation that left me with way more material than I needed for the final piece. The first part can be found here with additional "outtakes" here, including a very cool story about his experience working on Warren Zevon's final album The Wind. The rest of everything that was left follows below, and I think you'll find that there's some very tasty stuff. After the interview, I quickly remembered why Gorman is the guy that does a lot of the Black Crowes press - he has a limitless number of good stories and a great personality - it was a really enjoyable interview!
Early on in your career, the band had a couple of complicated tours with Aerosmith and ZZ Top. As a member of the band during that time, what was your takeaway from those experiences?
Aerosmith was a drag - it was something that we went into thinking that it would be a lot of fun, really great and exciting. It was our first introduction to the real business of big time rock. And that's nothing against the guys in the band, it's their machine was just sort of, we were just a bump on their ass for that tour. But that was fine because it wasn't the Aerosmiith that we grew up listening to, it was Aerosmith 1990. Which was still a very good band, [but] it wasn't something we were really enamored with personally. We decided to keep telling ourselves that "well, we're getting in front of a lot of people."
We weren't very good yet either - we were playing really fast and we were just trying to get noticed. We came off that tour and then did a tour with Robert Plant which was the exact opposite. That was a great professional environment to hang in. He was a very constantly creative and interesting person to hang out with and did make himself completely available to us constantly. So that was way more what we kind of thought being on tour with a big guy would be like. By the time ZZ Top rolled around, we were very confident and we figured out how to do those big shows in arenas and all of that shit was going on.
When all of the shit started where they wanted to fire us, we honestly - people think it was a big setback, we could not have possibly cared less. We never even discussed it. When they did fire us, we thought "well fucking great, now we can finally do some of our own dates." We saw the value in it because you can't help but notice "wow, everyone's talking about this." Beyond that, we didn't care. But again, that's not even the guys in ZZ Top - Billy Gibbons has always been awesome to us and with us and we're friends. That didn't have anything to do with anything, that was just business and so that's why it didn't bother us, it was like "well this isn't our business, this is their business."
I had just seen the band in Cleveland, and you left the ZZ Top tour shortly after that show. Pre-internet, when you would hear about something like that on the radio, it was really shocking. But I think you're right, you definitely got some good mileage out of the incident, because it was all that anybody was talking about.
Well it was funny because they actually fired us in Atlanta, so that's our hometown. We were doing three nights at The Omni and we walked off stage after the second night and they said "you're off the tour." It was amazing because that night at midnight, Chris went on [syndicated rock radio call-in program] Rockline [laughs], which you remember, used to be a big deal. And then two days later, David Fricke came to Atlanta to do the cover story for Rolling Stone. It couldn't have been more "really, you guys just fired us? Awesome! Great, thanks!" We threw together a six week theater tour, which was our first headlining tour outside of clubs and we were just elated. We couldn't have been happier, like "oh fucking right on, we can go play a full show now." We brought out Jellyfish to open, which we loved their record - we'd never been happier.
Touching on Shake Your Money Maker a little bit, it was fun for me to pick out the band's influences while listening to that album. The band had a sound that was instantly classic and yet not a clone sound of the bands that had come before.
It's funny, for all of the Stones comparisons, you can't say on any level Chris ever sounded remotely like Mick Jagger - not voice wise, phrasing or lyrically - it's a whole different thing. If you want to say Rod Stewart, well our band, truth is that we don't play anything like The Faces. If you A/B our music and The Faces, it's pretty hard to find. It's not to say that we don't love those records - we listen to The Faces, The Stones and we listened to Nirvana when that came out. We listen to everything, but those people were sticking those things on us, which truth be told if you're going to say I sound like a band, I'll take the Stones - that's hardly a problem.
As a live band, we took way more cues from Led Zeppelin, how they played live, [and we] took way more cues from Little Feat and The Grateful Dead, I mean we certainly tried to. That's the bands that we were emulating with how we did things live. Truth is, because we're all pretty much self-taught musicians, we weren't good enough to do covers for the first three years that we were a band - we had to write our own songs. But our playing style, the reason we have our own sort of style is because we only know playing with each other and how we interact with each other and everyone's individual things they do. At this point obviously it's years since it's made sense to compare us to another band.
I definitely saw the progression from that first show that I saw on the ZZ Top tour and the next Black Crowes show that I saw a few years later.
Oh yeah. The Shake Your Money Maker tour, we were just in school for two years. When we started the Southern Harmony tour in the summer of '92, that was like okay, this is where we're getting to now. By the time our third record came out in the fall of '94, that's when it was no longer like we're trying to get somewhere, that felt like ok, we're here, this is where we're at now. We started playing together in 1987 and I had owned a drum kit for two years when we made Shake Your Money Maker.
It was amazing to see the reaction because I remember thinking “wow, you people are reviewing us and critiquing us like a real band.” It didn't dawn on me that we were a real band. It's like I guess if you put a record out, you're jumping in the big shark tank. I'm sitting there going “man, we've only been together three years, this is going to take a while.” It was six or seven years as a band before we really felt that everything we've learned, we're able to apply it in a way that's making a lot more sense.
It's like anything, you gotta start at the bottom and work your way up. The commercial success of Shake Your Money Maker thankfully didn't deter us from what we always wanted to be, which was to just get to be a really great live band. You know, that record sold that many copies because of a lot of elements – promotion sells records and your live show sells tickets, and we were always more focused on the ticket part. We love making records and we love our records but the idea that you're going to go spend a year talking about one album as opposed to the band, we were always promoting The Black Crowes, not just one record.
I think that you certainly had a bit of foresight, focusing on touring instead of record sales, because these days, bands are obviously making the bulk of their money touring, because they're not making that money off of album sales.
Oh, totally. That was always the thing with us. It's amazing to talk to people now and to remember in the '90s that we used to get royalty checks [laughs]. It's like "wow, that was great!" You know what I mean? You're sitting at home and every three months a check comes for record sales, that's shocking. It was about an hour and half after some kid in a dorm room figured out Napster, that was the last check that we ever got. It was like "man, that kind of blows." But that's just what it is - thankfully we were always doing the live thing, because it is an amazing thing for technology to end so many careers. It built so many careers, but it certainly ended just as many.
The Black Crowes are on tour for the rest of the year, a tour that appropriately is called "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys." Their new album Croweology is in stores now. Visit their official website for all things Black Crowes including the latest tour dates.
View Comments30 Years of Don’t Say No: An ATV Interview with Billy Squier
Written by: Mark Zander
I had the pleasure of running a brief radio interview tour last week with Billy Squier. During the course of the morning's slate of interviews, the interview that my friend Mark Zander (host of the syndicated rock radio program The Rockin' 80's) did with Billy stuck out as one of the really good ones. I asked Mark if I could use part of his interview here and he happily agreed, so I'm pleased to share with you the following discussion regarding the new Shout Factory! 30th anniversary reissue of Don't Say No.
Spring of 1981, finishing freshman year in high school. Girls on the radar, big time. Then all of the sudden, two of the biggest albums to shape my rock n' roll life came out in the same month of April?? No way!
Way!
Along with Van Halen's Fair Warning, Billy Squier's Don't Say No is a hard rock soundtrack to a life lived by me in that very important year of growth and change. Lead off unassumingly by "In The Dark," the record tracks (even today!) right through to the finish as a carefree time capsule of rock fashion and attitude. It was my pleasure to talk with Billy about his (ours!) masterpiece...
I have to ask you this regarding the process heading into Don't Say No when you were recording it, which came after Tale of the Tape was released the previous year in 1980. After spending time with Piper in the '70s, Tale of the Tape was no doubt a respectable solo debut, but I'd say that it probably didn't make the impact that you were looking for initially. Once Don't Say No was written, recorded, released and it became a smash, can you honestly say you were ready and were you expecting it?
Actually I think I was pretty well prepared. Going back to Tale of the Tape for a second, I actually was quite happy with Tale of the Tape. It moved me up a notch on the ladder and it got a lot of airplay. "You Should Be High, Love" was the number one top requested song for almost two months in the country on rock radio. It really increased industry awareness a lot. I had a real good tour in support of that record with Alice Cooper. So I felt when I went to do Don't Say No that Tale of the Tape had really positioned me very well for what I was going to do next, if I could deliver - but I really felt good. That was my initial solo album and I felt real good about where I was after that.
So I went into Don't Say No with a lot of confidence and I did feel that it was in a sense, my time. It was my time if I chose to seize it. You know, that I did have people paying attention, that people would be looking for my next record to some degree and that if I delivered, I really had a chance of making a big impact. You know, that being said, what do you do? I decided to more than ever, hone my material and get a body of songs that really hung together [and] not try to do too much. I have a lot of musical influences and I tried to eliminate some of the influences that were on the extremes of the spectrum, so to speak. Try to think about who is Billy Squier - what do you want people to hear of you and where do you really sit in the musical sort of pantheon. I was kind of fine tuning it that way and obviously if you listen to Piper or things like that, there's a lot of times more of a pop influence - you're hearing me go back and forth between my influences.
Don't Say No, although it still has pop sensibilities, I was aligning myself more in the hard rock camp. I said, "that's really who I am." The bands I grew up with that I really liked the most, what do I want to play when I strap on a guitar - I'm playing rock music. I'm not playing Herman's Hermits, I'm playing the Rolling Stones [laughs]. Those factors contributed to how I approached doing the record and I had confidence to go out and do what I felt good about doing. I think there's always a tendency when you're trying to make it and even when you have made it sometimes, you might be aware of what's going on around you and you wonder what you should be doing. If something else is successful, should you be doing that? You're sort of, if not imitating, you're being affected by what's going on around you.
With Don't Say No, I didn't do that. Don't Say No, I really felt like "nope, I'm going to trust myself and I'm going to write the way I want and structure my lyrics the way I want." I'm not going to worry about what else is going on around me. When it was done, before it came out, I felt that this was the record that I had been spending my whole career to this point getting ready to make. I was totally happy with it. I remember saying to people before it came out - I didn't say "if it doesn't sell five million copies," I said "if this record isn't successful, I'm out."
Really?
Yeah, because there's nothing more I can do. I'm not making it up - I remember clear as day, this is the best I can do. If this doesn't cut it, I'm gone. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that [laughs].
A lot of people don't know this, but you approached Brian May [of Queen] about producing Don't Say No.
Brian was going to produce Tale of the Tape and then they got drawn out - that was around the time that they were doing The Game and "Flash" and stuff like that. He got a little bogged down and couldn't do it, but he said, "I think you should use Mack, if you can get Mack to do it. I think that Mack would be great for you." Because [Reinhold] Mack was working with Queen as well [as co-producer of The Game]. So although Brian didn't work on the record, he was pretty instrumental in forming that union between Mack and I - Mack was a big part of the success of that record - the sound of that record and the way he put it together, it was definitely important. I could not have done that record without him.
Let's talk about the reissue - there are a couple of live bonus tracks on this 30th anniversary edition that were recorded last year. Were there any initial discussions about going back in the archives to get something that was done around that time, maybe on the initial tour for the album?
We talked about it, but it was my choice to put on the tracks from last year because I felt that to me, I get some artistic prerogative, you know? I felt like that a lot of the stuff that was recorded back then had come out one way or another, either on radio shows or King Biscuit releases, or we had used stuff. I thought that I approached the songs from Don't Say No that I did last year quite a bit differently than I did back then and I thought that it was more interesting. I thought, let me put something on it that's a current reflection of what I did back then. So that was purely a decision that I made and Shout Factory! was magnanimous enough to let me do it.
I really got involved in the process kind of late. They had licensed the album from Capitol and they were going ahead and doing it. They actually contacted me to see if they could get a couple of bonus tracks and that's how I found out about it. When I found out it was Don't Say No, I thought, well this is such an important record to me, I'd like to try to get involved as much as I can. So I sort of jumped in at the end and got the remastering engineer who had done such a great job on the Tale of the Tape remaster. Then I got a friend of mine [former Creem editor Ben Edmonds] who's a great rock writer to do the liner notes, the guy who knows me better than probably anybody. So we were able to at the last minute, put together a pretty good package with those tracks and the liner notes. We got some pictures out of the archives that hadn't been seen before, so that's new. I think as far as reissues go, it's worthwhile. Because by now, everyone should have worn out Don't Say No and you should get a new one. That's a cheap plug [laughs].
What's the story behind “My Kinda Lover?”
Actually when I was writing that one, I was thinking about Tom Jones. Don't ask me why, I have no idea - Tom Jones is not that big of an influence on me, although we certainly would see him on Ed Sullivan and stuff like that. I got the beginning of the song and I don't know why, I had that melody and I was thinking, "God, if Tom Jones did this, it would be like," [imitating Tom Jones singing voice] "You've got me running bay-bay." [laughs] I had this image of him in my head, thinking this would be a great song.
Wow, that really gives it a different spin for me.
But yeah, when I did it, of course I wasn't trying to be Tom Jones, I wasn't trying to do it as a Tom Jones song, but I just remember thinking, "man, this would be great." I remember meeting his manager a couple of years later, I think we were in Tahiti or some place like that, in a bar. I cut this song and he knew who I was and he actually knew the song. At that point unfortunately, Tom had made his foray into country music, so he never did it. That was a strangely Tom Jones influenced track, which you would obviously never hear! [Laughs].
The 30th anniversary edition of Billy Squier's Don't Say No is available now. Click here for more information about the reissue and Billy's upcoming activities.
View CommentsCelebrating 20 Years of Cowboys From Hell: A conversation with Philip Anselmo
Written by: Chris Akin
I'm pleased to welcome ATV friend Chris Akin back for another post, this time featuring a conversation recorded this past week with Pantera vocalist Philip Anselmo. With the pending release of the 20th anniversary deluxe edition of Cowboys From Hell, the opportunity to speak with Anselmo came around and I knew that Chris would enjoy the chance to sit down with Phil again.
During the 10+ years that Chris and I spent doing a metal radio show together, we spoke with Pantera many times for conversations that were always memorable and highly quotable. Our interviews were often with Anselmo himself and we spoke with him many times beyond that during his stints with both Down and Superjoint Ritual. Listening to the interview audio, it's very obvious that Anselmo is in a much better (and lucid) state of mind these days. Here are the results of that conversation for your enjoyment.
It's been twenty years since Pantera burst onto the scenes with their instant classic "debut" release, Cowboys From Hell. In that time, the Texas foursome redefined what people considered to be American Heavy Metal. Yet, surprisingly when considering how amazingly successful this band became, their history has been equally as turbulent. Drug addictions, band breakups, a band member's murder and the ultimate blame on frontman Philip Anselmo this murder by surviving drummer Vinnie Paul has made these twenty years both memorable and forgettable for the surviving players in the band. For vocalist Philip Anselmo, the two decades that took him to the highest of highs have been bittersweet to say the least. Catching up with Addicted To Vinyl, Anselmo reflected on the good times as a hardworking unsigned band went from the smallest of clubs to the biggest stages in the world on the strength of their blood, sweat and tears.
Philip, what's going on man?
What's happening, big brotha!
When they pitched this project to you, I'm sure you probably thought the same thing that I did, like "damn, has it already been 20 years since this record came out?"
Yeah man, I'm feeling it, don't think I'm not. It's unreal! This may be as generic as it gets, but when people say, when all of them old timers say "life goes by so fast," man, they ain't joking - they're not lying to you.
View CommentsA Peculiar Life: The ATV Interview with Richard Page
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Life is full of happy accidents -- I was in the midst of setting up an interview with Gary Wright via his publicist and mentioned to him that former Mr. Mister vocalist Richard Page (Wright's current tour mate) had a new solo album out.
Wright relayed to his publicist that Richard was willing to speak with me if I had interest in talking to him. Interest? You'd better believe that I was interested.
As the lead vocalist/bassist for '80s pop/rock quartet Mr. Mister, Page found incredible (although short-lived) success when the band released their second album Welcome To The Real World, an album that went straight to number one, lodging two number one singles, “Broken Wings” and “Kyrie” in its wake. Go On..., the follow-up to Real World, failed to match the success of their previous album, and the band's follow-up release Pull was shelved and never officially released (although we've got some news on that one that will make you smile).
After a period of recording silence, Page made his return in 1994 as the vocalist for producer Patrick Leonard's Third Matinee project, an excellent yet sadly ignored follow-up to Leonard's previous Toy Matinee release. Page made his official solo debut two years later with the release of Shelter Me, an album that showcased the continued lyrical growth that had been previously displayed on the Third Matinee album Meanwhile (and musically, his solo releases have evolved from the sound that many were familiar with on the Mr. Mister albums, embracing a more jazzy/adult contemporary vibe). Another recording break would follow, with Page focusing in on songwriting and enjoying life with his family.
View CommentsGetting Connected: The ATV Interview with Gary Wright
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
As a younger guy in my mid-30s (unlike my Jurassic ol' pal Bear), it's always a bit of a rock and roll history lesson any time that I get the opportunity to talk to a classic artist like Gary Wright. The rock and roll resume of Wright is mind numbing to read and even more awe-inspiring to hear about in person from Wright himself. I spoke with Gary on the night before Ringo Starr's annual All-Starr Band tour played in Cleveland at Nautica Stage. The artists on the Ringo tour enjoy quite a posh experience, touring with a former Beatle, flying from gig to gig on his private plane.
The idea of the Ringo tour itself is quite genius – Ringo gets a band of seasoned professionals, each with their own successful singles, and the mix of Beatles, Ringo and classic rock material congeals into an evening of music that is good clean fun (along with plenty of peace and love, of course). Wright recently released Connected, his first pop music album in 20 years, just in time for the Ringo tour. Now that the tour has come to a close, Wright will be in Chicago this weekend for the 34th annual BeatleFest, and he'll use the occasion to perform “To Discover Yourself” (a digital bonus track on Connected co-written with longtime friend George Harrison) for the first time. I spent a good amount of time talking with Wright about that Harrison connection, the new album and his impressive career.
What did you end up doing with your day off?
I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
What did you think?
It was good. It seemed like when they edited everything together, it was done so fast that it was almost distracting. I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of the meat of some of the great artists, you know, Sly and the Family Stone and all that. They just had such tiny little tidbits in the films that they showed. It was well done, but I would have liked to see a little bit more of the performances of those people.
As an artist, how long has it been since you've been in Cleveland?
You know, I'm not sure. I know I played here a lot in the '70s with Spooky Tooth and my Dream Weaver album and touring with Yes, Frampton and Fleetwood Mac. As of late, I'm not sure – maybe around 2005?
I know you did a solo show back in April in NYC – Have you been doing a lot of shows in the past few years, playing your own material?
Uh, a fair amount, yeah. I've been doing some things with other artists. I went out with Christopher Cross, Al Stewart, Ambrosia and Edgar Winter. I've done several package shows like that. Last April, I did about 9 shows on the east coast and I'll do more of those in October and November.
The new album is being billed as your first pop album in 20 years. What brought you back to the idea of doing another album in that genre?
Just my desire to make a pop album and do it in the spirit of simplicity with simple production and not having too many things play on it. That's my roots – my roots are R&B and I've always felt that that's the way my music should be. It's a combination of R&B and ethereal space music.
It's timeless – it sounds like a Gary Wright album.
Oh, thank you!
You produced this album – did you record it at home?
Yes, I did.
This is your second go-around with Ringo's band, and as I understand it, this album started coming together before the last tour in 2008.
That's right. I started writing it before the tour.
Listening to "No One Does It Better" – that's a track that has quite a bit going on. How long does it take you to put together a track like that.
I wrote that in the studio, all of the music anyway. I finished the lyrics up when I went on a holiday to Colorado. All in all, maybe three weeks to a month. If you add up all of the time that I spent writing the lyrics, the production and the vocals.
You've got some cool special guests on this new album – you've got Ringo and Joe Walsh on the first single “Satisfied.” You've got some history with Ringo.
Yeah – I had worked with Ringo before on George Harrison's earlier albums and I also played keyboards on [Ringo's] “Back Off Boogaloo” and “It Don't Come Easy.” I had written a song with him on his new album Y Not called “Peace Train.” During the session I said “I've got a song that I want to play for you, Ringo.” I played him “Satisfied” and he liked it and I said “do you want to play drums on it,” and he said “sure.” I did the session at his studio and he put electronic drums on it that he played. Then, I asked Joe if he would want to play a solo and he agreed and I went up to his studio and he he laid his solo down. And then Skunk Baxter also came over to my place and put a rhythm guitar part down.
Where do you start with the writing process these days – do you start on guitar, or where does it start for you.
A lot of times I'll just write a song on an acoustic guitar and then I'll take it into the studio and I'll put it together in the context of all of my keyboards and the rhythms that I come up with. Other times I'll get a drum groove going and get a thing happening and that will inspire me to write a song. It's different every time. It's never the same.
I was surprised to hear that you wrote "Dream Weaver" on an acoustic guitar. Back then, how did it get to the point where the guitars exited the mix? It was unique for the time period to have an album that was all keyboards without a guitar prominently in the mix.
That's true, and I hadn't planned it that way but actually when I started writing the songs, I started to fill in the spaces with a Clavinet or a Rhodes and the other keyboards that I have. And then I thought “this sounds really cool just as it is, I'm not going to add any guitars to it.” So I did it, and it worked to my advantage because radio jumped all over it saying “this has no guitars on it,” so it was kind of cool.
Back when you were touring heavily in the '70s and '80s, what was your keyboard rig like?
Well, I had four Mini-Moogs, a Poly-Moog and an Oberheim polyphonic synthesizer. The other two keyboard players – there was a keyboard bass player, Steve Porcaro, he played keyboard bass on a Moog. I had another keyboard player who had a Hammond organ, a Fender Rhodes and another Oberheim. And then drums and two background vocalists.
I think that Ringo's concept for the All-Starr tour is brilliant, taking out people that are great musicians, but they also come armed with hit records. And I think that this year's lineup is particularly great.
Yeah, it is and it really works well – they're a great band. It's actually a very entertaining show, it's really well done, I think.
Watching some of the Youtube stuff from this tour, it seems like you all really spent a lot of time making sure that you have the proper sounds and samples to make each song sound faithful to the original. How long did you have to spend rounding stuff up on your end?
It took a while. I definitely wanted to zero in on getting the stuff to sound exactly like it did on the record.
If you buy the digital edition of this new album, there are a couple of George Harrison-related bonus tracks. George obviously was a longtime friend of yours. What's the history on these two tracks?
“To Discover Yourself” was written by George and I back in 1971. “Never Give Up,” he came over to my house and played a solo around '88 or '89 in that time period. They are available on the website on the digital edition. I'm coming out with another thing that's really cool – it's the new album on a USB drive which is encased in a little pendant with the Ohm symbol written on it. It's an Ohm necklace and you pull it apart and it's a little flash drive that comes out. It's got the entire album including all of the bonus material. It has video interviews of me talking about George Harrison, the All-Starr band, the making of Dream Weaver and Connected. It has extra photos, a video of George and I together – he sang on one of the songs that I did, “Don't Try To Own Me.” And it has the original "Dream Weaver" demo on acoustic guitar plus five other tracks. The URL of the website is www.thedreamweaver.com.
Your archives must be pretty well organized to be able to dig out a song that was written in 1971.
Well, I had all of the lyrics and I remembered the song quite well. I never forget songs that I write. I actually recorded that on the day that George passed away.
How did you come to know George originally?
I was invited to play on his first session for All Things Must Pass, which was “Isn't It A Pity.” Klaus Voorman called me up – Klaus was a friend of George's and played bass on most of the album. He asked me if I wanted to come and play keyboards, [because] George needed another keyboard player. I went to the sessions and I met George and we immediately hit it off. I wound up playing on the rest of the album and I played on his subsequent albums and we wrote songs together. We became really good friends.
The first time that I ever heard “Love Is Alive” came via Joe Cocker's version on his Night Calls album.
[laughs] Here's something funny – as we arrived today at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that's what was playing. I don't think they planned it, and in fact, I asked the guy when we walked in if they had done that on purpose. [laughs]
This far into your career, what keeps you engaged in making new material. What's your goal?
Well, my goal is to get it out to as many people all over the world as I can, to promote it by doing tours and interviews like I'm doing now, and get more fans. I think it's important.
When you're not recording and touring, what are you up to generally? Do you still do any session work?
Not really. Occasionally, I'll do some stuff like that if it's for Ringo or other friends of mine. Sometimes I will write with other people on certain projects. I actually was supposed to get together and write with someone from the Black Eyed Peas, but then the Ringo tour came up and I ran out of time. So I will do those kind of projects from time to time. I'm going to write a book next year, so I think that's going to take a bunch of my time.
That's one reason that I was interested to talk to you, because of all of the really cool things you've done over the years. I'm sure you have no shortage of stories for that book.
[laughs] No, I don't!
I look at "Dream Weaver" as the gift that keeps on giving. Obviously it was in Wayne's World, and now this year, it's in Toy Story 3.
That's right, and it was in The People vs. Larry Flynt. It just keeps reinventing itself.
Were you familiar with Wayne's World at the time Warner Brothers approached you?
I had seen it a couple of times on TV, the version that they did when Madonna was there. I thought they were funny, and then when I saw the film, I thought it was hilarious. I like those guys.
SNL Short Wayne's World & Madonna - Justify My Love from His Dudeness on Vimeo.
I can imagine that certain artists that were not familiar with the film might not have been so keen on having their music included in the movie, because they wouldn't want to risk being a punchline. For those that bought in, it was obviously a great move.
Yeah, I think so too.
Prior to your musical career, you studied psychology – was that plan B in case the music thing didn't work out?
No, no. I actually hadn't even considered doing music. At that time, I wanted to go be a doctor. I studied a year of medicine and then I did some post-graduate work in psychology in Germany. And then I decided I really didn't want to be an academic or a doctor. That's when I really got back into music. I'd always played music when I was in college and in high school on the weekends with various bands, because I loved music so much that I enjoyed playing it.
What instrument did you start out with?
Keyboards, piano and then organ.
Was Spooky Tooth your first involvement with a band?
Yes, it was.
It's really amazing the number of projects that spawned from that group.
That's right – Foreigner, Humble Pie, Mott The Hoople, my own career...
What's next for you after the Ringo tour wraps up?
I'll probably start another album in the next year or so, and I'll be touring a lot, so I have plenty on my plate.
Visit Gary Wright's official website for more information about Connected and his upcoming activities
View CommentsRappin’ with Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett about his new solo release, credited to Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants (also available on vinyl!). Presumably, Shiflett was able to locate some new peasants, because he's currently out on tour supporting the new release, playing a series of shows that will bring him to Cleveland for a show on Thursday, August 5th at the Grog Shop, with Cleveland locals Ohio Sky supporting (paging Pat the Producer, are you listening?).
Shiflett will also be in St. Louis this coming Monday at the Old Rock House, so I spoke with him in advance of that show for the Riverfront Times to get some dirt about the tour and what fans can expect. You can check out the first part of the interview here. We also spent quite a bit of time nerding out about guitars and talked a bit about the new Foo Fighters album as well. That part of the conversation will be online on Monday at the RFT music blog, so stay tuned...
View CommentsExploring “The Things We Left Behind” with Blue Rodeo
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Every now and then, you have these spontaneous reminders that tap you on the shoulder to let you know that indeed, "maybe we ain't that young anymore." Like the other day, when I realized that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Casino, the 1990 album that introduced me to Canadian alt-country imports Blue Rodeo. Which means officially that I've been buying Blue Rodeo albums religiously for 20 years now - there's never a question or any waiting around to read a review - as soon as I know the release date, it's on my purchase list.
And in those 20 years, they've never let me down with any of the albums that they've released. There have been a couple (Palace of Gold, Small Miracles) that have taken a couple of extra listens, but overall, the consistency has been admirable and it always interests me that these guys don't have more of a fanbase here in the U.S., particularly with Wilco fans.
They've certainly done okay for themselves, and with the release of The Things We Left Behind, which is studio album #12 for the band, they show no signs of running out of steam anytime soon. Featuring a total of 16 new tracks, it really is an interesting listen that breaks the traditional rotation between Keelor and Cuddy numbers in favor of an overall flow, tracked specifically with four sides of vinyl in mind. That's right - this sucker is a double album, and the vinyl has the full gatefold sleeve treatment and a nice bonus inclusion of CDs for on-the-go listening. It's worth a few extra bucks to import the vinyl from Canada, but if you're not a vinyl person, you can buy the CDs or digital download too.
Blue Rodeo are currently in the midst of a 15 date U.S. tour that will bring them to St. Louis tonight (for the first time in a loooong time), and Chicago on Saturday night, where they're booked at their traditional Chicago home away from home, Martyrs'. I spoke with Jim Cuddy about the band's long overdue return to St. Louis, the new album, and quite a few other topics. Although the chat had Chris Farley fanboy overload potential, I kept it professional.
Check out the interview here (via the Riverfront Times) and also some additional "outtakes" from the interview.
Enjoy!
P.S. - for those that are heading out to a show, you'll enjoy this review of the recent Atlanta show. It's nice to see that they're apparently changing up the set a bit from night to night. "It Could Happen To You" has been a recent opener, and for Atlanta, it was "Cynthia" from Five Days in July that kicked things off! And in even better news, they've got longtime BR associate Anne Lindsay out on the road with them, playing fiddle!
View CommentsStranger in a Strange Band: A Conversation with Kelly Hansen of Foreigner
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
I have to give Mick Jones a lot of credit. With over 25 years of success with Foreigner on his resume (not to mention a nice little side career producing albums like Van Halen's 5150 and Billy Joel's Storm Front), it's not like he had anything else left to prove. The proof is in the pudding as they say, or in the case of Jones, the proof is in the hits - stacks and stacks of gold and platinum records, and plenty of hit singles from those albums have likely done plenty to comfortably line Jones' bank account. Wouldn't it be a good enough time to just sit back and enjoy retirement?
Apparently for Jones, the answer was an easy "no," as he made the decision in 2004 to cut ties with longtime Foreigner singer Lou Gramm and move ahead with a new lineup featuring veteran singer Kelly Hansen (Hurricane) at the helm. As a Foreigner fan, it's not my first choice to see a band called Foreigner that comes without Lou Gramm at the microphone. But unfortunately, Lou Gramm of today is not the Lou Gramm of old, the result of side effects of brain surgery in the late '90s. So while I admire the courage of Gramm to stand behind that microphone, it was pretty painful as a fan to watch those Foreigner shows after the surgery, because although Gramm "improved" over the course of several years, the classic voice had been forever tarnished.
As a fan of some of Kelly Hansen's past work, it was an easy endorsement for me to get behind his job placement as the new lead singer of Foreigner. For any of the skeptics, well, if they've seen a show, there's a good chance that they're among the converted. Foreigner are touring behind Can't Slow Down, their first new album in nearly 15 years (and a damn good one), and they're on the road this summer for a co-headlining tour creatively titled "United in Rock" with their old pals Styx (with Kansas handling opening duties). Of course they're visiting nearly every city in America (including Cleveland at Time Warner Cable Amphitheater on June 26th!), and damn, you're going to hear a lot of hits for the price of the ticket! I spoke with Hansen this past week for a piece that ran on the Riverfront Times music blog, prior to the band's date in St. Louis. We talked for about a half hour, so there was a ton of material that I didn't get to use in the RFT piece, which means that you get to read the musical overspill here. Enjoy!
From my perception, Foreigner is working more than some of the other similar bands in their genre, and to me, it seems like the band is working more today than they did back in the day.
It's quite possible. There was a very heady time at the beginning where there was a lot going on, and we are working an awful lot. It's a challenge for me vocally to make sure that I stay in shape, and it's a challenge for everybody. Through the course of the past five years, it's like a sports team – you have all sorts of injuries, you have family illness and death. You have an incredible array of things that are difficult to deal with on the road, and as they say, the show must go on. We support each other and help each other through all of these times. When I can't speak, as I didn't yesterday all day long, everybody's very understanding, and they make fun of it. They go “oh, we're going to have a great day, Kelly's not talking!” [laughs] It's really interesting, you become a family, and you deal with all the same issues of a family, while you're on the road.
That's an interesting point. I look at the Foreigner catalog as one that is similar to the Journey catalog as something that must be very challenging to sing night after night because of the high keys that so many of these songs were written in. So you would have to keep in shape vocally to be able to pull this off.
Very much so. Some people think that the fact that the set is slightly shorter because there are three bands on the bill – to accommodate three bands on the bill, everybody has to take a couple of songs out. They think it should be easier, because you're doing a shorter set. The fact of the matter is that because it's an 80 minute set that we're doing on this tour, it's very jam packed, with a lot of high energy tunes. There's not a lot of big lulls in there for me to take breaks or talk to the audience and things like that. In some ways, it's even more stressful.
I think that although you're faithful to the catalog, and the way that people expect to hear the hits, you definitely bring your own style to Foreigner.
Well, I'm just trying to be me, and not be anybody else. My feeling is that a great song with a great melody, is really easy to fuck up. If you are too much into your own self-gratification and want to impress people with how many licks you can sing, you don't want to serve the song. I think it's important to serve the song, because these are great songs. There's a reason why they've been permeating the culture for the past 30 years. I think hopefully, I'm smart enough to recognize that. So that's really all it is – it's not that hard, you try to be faithful to the songs. We all try to really listen to all of the records and understand what the Foreigner vibe is. With Mick at the helm directing that, I think we're being successful with that.
When Mick assembled that initial lineup with you, Jeff Pilson, and Jason Bonham among the list of players, it was a pretty impressive bill of folks to put under the Foreigner name.
I think that oddly enough, maybe 15 years ago vocally, I might not have been right for this band. I think that as I've matured and worked on my own singing, I think that I fit the band better. I think that my voice has gotten a richer timbre that fits this band. When grunge rolled around in '91, and no one wanted to hear my style of vocal, I spent a lot of time learning things. I thought I was really proficient as a singer technically in Hurricane, but I felt I was missing heart, I wasn't giving of myself. That's one of those things that has been hard for me to do in my whole life, is to let emotions out. I think that I've learned to do that a lot. It took a lot of practice for me to learn how to feel things, but I think along the way, it made me a better singer. Maybe it's just serendipity that this all happened at the time that it did.
I was surprised and happy to see how much writing input you had on the new album.
This was the last element of the puzzle that Mick and I hadn't tackled together. We had literally done every other thing that you can do together in this band. That's one of the things that I was simultaneously looking forward to, and worried about. When it really comes down to it, you can sing a song, travel on a bus, do early morning TV and radio – all of those kind of things. Writing material and working on a new album together with someone with the stature and success of somebody like Mick Jones is a little bit daunting. The only thing that made it easier for me is that I've spent almost five years with Mick on the road, we know each other pretty well, and he had great confidence in me. I just said that I'm not going to be worried that everyone is going to look at me and say “that's a fuckin' stupid idea, we're not going to use that.” I just allowed myself to chime in, and when those guys said no, I said okay. The next thing, maybe I said, “hey, that's a good idea.” You have to take it in and do it as it goes. Both of those guys, who are both very successful, more so than me, although I've had my modicum of success, they've done a lot more. They just welcomed me in and let me be part of the process, and I think it worked out well – I think we complimented each other very well.
I think you know that there have been guys in other bands, in a similar position like you have, that find out the hard way that their input isn't welcomed or wanted.
Right. They quite easily could have done that, but Mick has always been super supportive of me. Contrary to, without being specific, some other interviews of other singers that I've read about, he's never told me how to sing these songs, or been in control of how I present these songs – he had faith and confidence in me, and he said “this is your thing, do your thing.” It was the same thing with the writing – he felt that I needed to be there and needed to be involved as the singer of the songs, to lend my viewpoint and contribution. It wasn't like a struggle or a negotiation – he said I want you in here, writing these songs with us.
What was the process like, working in the studio with Mick?
Well, there wasn't a singular process as far as the actual conception of songs, that came from all different forms – sometimes a title, sometimes a riff, sometimes us just playing around in a circle together until something popped up, giving us an idea to work on. The recording process, both Marti [Fredriksen, co-producer of Can't Slow Down] and Mick are very strong in their opinions about what they want. Sometimes to the point where I'd say, “listen, I'm the fuckin' singer, let me try it my way first.” And they'd go, “no no no, do it this way, it's going to be great, just do it this way and we'll see how it works. If it doesn't work, we'll try something else.” So sometimes I was an instrument in their hands, as far as my voice goes. Sometimes it was something that I would do spontaneously that they never could have thought of, where they went “wow, that's really great, we gotta use that!” So it was a combo kind of pack in that way, and I didn't mind, because I know that I'm working with two guys who have good ears and good history. And if they think it should be a certain way, far be it from me to say I'm not going to fuckin' try your idea.
How did you guys connect with Marti?
Well, Mick had known Marti for a long time. They had worked on some stuff together previously with Lou, but also they wrote/produced a song for Ozzy, called “Dreamer.” They had done a lot of work [together] over the previous ten years. We really needed Marti's energy, spark, fire and determination, to get things done on time. Because as artists sometimes, we can take too long to do something or to take too long get to doing something, and Marti was right there going “come on, today we're doing it, we're going to finish this today.” (laughs) He was very forceful about it, but in a really great way and it was something that we definitely needed.
Whether it's the rock stuff on this new album, or the slower tunes, there's some really great stuff on there. I love “When It Comes To Love.”
I like “When It Comes To Love.” I've been getting reports, because now the disc with all the new material is available on Itunes, even though the triple disc set is available in Wal-Mart, and it's going to be available in another form at other outlets as well, in case you're not near a Wal-Mart. But the all-new disc is available on Itunes, and I'm starting to get the reports of the download numbers,which include the top numbers of the singles, but the very next one that's being most downloaded is called “I Can't Give Up.” I kind of think that that's probably my best vocal performance on the record, so who knows, maybe that's another single.
Those are two of my favorites, and I also love the title track, which I saw you play live in January.
We were doing “When It Comes To Love,” and we're doing “In Pieces” and “Can't Slow Down” now, just because if we add “When It Comes To Love,” that means we have to take another classic out, and that's not what we want to do. It's very difficult to make those decisions, but you have to do what you have to do. (laughs) There's a lot of tunes that we know that we can't put in the set, because we just don't have enough time. I'm very happy with the record. There are songs on there like “Angel Tonight,” which was very last minute – we didn't know if it was going to make the record. There was an element about it that wasn't working. When the record came out, I was surprised to hear a bunch of people saying how much they thought that that was their favorite song, it was very funny.
The re-recording of “Fool For You Anyway” at the end of the record is a great version of a song from the catalog that I've always loved.
I don't know if you know what the deal is with that. We did that with Mark Ronson, who is Mick Jones' stepson. Mark Ronson produced Amy Winehouse, and he's done a lot of stuff on his own. While we were working on the rest of the album in a state of the art way with Pro-Tools, and all of the modern gear, Mick and I would travel over to Brooklyn when Mark's schedule permitted, to this beat up old building with no air conditioning. It had a tiny little studio with an eight track tape machine and we went over there and recorded “Fool For You Anyway.” It was a real shock to the system, to work on those two different ends of the technological recording spectrum. Working with Mark on that really reminded me of my first days, making records on tape, waiting for the machine to rewind and it takes all day to get the sounds. It was a real trip.
On the topic of “Fool For You Anyway,” are there any other tracks for you personally that are off the beaten path in the catalog, that are tracks that you dig?
Oh, there's all kinds. We've done “Break It Up” and “That Was Yesterday.” I'd love to do “Love Has Taken It's Toll.”
Oh yeah!
You just don't have enough time in the show. I love that verse in that song – it's so great. Every once in a while, we talk about it, we work something up, we throw something in.
Did you enjoy this? Check out the RFT portion of the interview right here.
View CommentsNew live album on the way from Jackson Browne & David Lindley
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
You'll either wince or smile at the words "new live album" and "Jackson Browne" in the same sentence. For me personally, I'm happy that Jackson is starting to dig around in the vaults with some of his recent releases.
During an interview last week on Nicole Sandler's Radio or Not program, Browne revealed the news that he's currently finishing work on a double live album, recorded during a tour of Spain in 2006 with longtime collaborator David Lindley. The album will see release in May as a prelude of sorts to a summer tour that will feature Lindley touring with Browne and his band. (And Cleveland is finally going to be on that list of tour dates, right Jackson? RIGHT?)
View Comments
Finding The Light in Darkness: A conversation with Springsteen author Lawrence Kirsch
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
As we break the seal on 2010, I'm looking forward (as so many Springsteen fans are) to the much-discussed commemorative box set for Bruce Springsteen's classic release, Darkness on the Edge of Town. We don't know at this point specifically what shows/materials will be incorporated into the bonus elements of the release, but it is allegedly going to hit the shelves this year. If you bought the previous box set for Born to Run, I think you'll agree with me that this new release will be something to look forward to as a Bruce fan.
My anticipation for the release of this set doubled late last year with the release of The Light in Darkness, Lawrence Kirsch's excellent chronicle of the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. Told from the fan's perspective, by the fans themselves, Kirsch took the numerous fan story submissions, combined them with over 200+ classic photographs from the tour, and delivered an amazing gift to Bruce fans. With time travel via DeLorean still unlikely, The Light in Darkness is the closest that you'll ever come to attending a show on the Darkness tour.
After finishing the book (my review is posted here), I had some further questions and wanted take a look under the hood at the assembly process behind releasing something like The Light in Darkness, one that is most certainly mammoth. Kirsch was more than happy to answer a few questions, and I'm glad that I took the time to inquire, because he certainly had plenty to say, and I think that all music fans will enjoy reading the story of how The Light in Darkness (and Kirsch's previous book For You) moved from a concept to the actual release.
View Comments