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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.

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Speaker 1: My guest today is Davy Johnstone. Davy, we were talking

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Speaker 1: before we began about the pronunciation of your last name

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Speaker 1: Johnstone or Johnston. You said, there was a story. Tell me, okay, now,

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Speaker 1: when I was growing up in Scotland, it was Davy Johnson.

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Speaker 1: Because in Scotland they're very offhand, not worrying about the

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Speaker 1: T or the E or whatever. Davy Johnson. Just like that.

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Speaker 1: When I moved over to the States, people would see

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Speaker 1: the spelling and go, oh, Davy Johnstone. And when I

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Speaker 1: heard that, I must admit I liked it. I liked

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Speaker 1: it the sound of it Americans saying that. However, one

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Speaker 1: day when I was on the road with Alice Cooper,

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Speaker 1: I'm an airport somewhere and this guy came up to

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Speaker 1: me and he said, you're used to play with, right,

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Speaker 1: And I said that's right, yeah, And he said you're

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Speaker 1: what's your name again, You're Davy And I said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Davy Johnston and he said, no, you're Davy Johnstone. I

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Speaker 1: immediately when I like that, Yes, I am, thank you busted.

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Speaker 1: You know, so, I've always I've used that pronunciation. Now

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Speaker 1: for myself. I like it because I'm also I'm an

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Speaker 1: American citizen as well as a British one, so I'm

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Speaker 1: very tied into this country all the way. Now, So

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Speaker 1: Johnstone is okay, let's go back to Davy, because yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're a child of the fifties as am I and

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Speaker 1: we all were you know, Bobby Davy whatever, and then

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Speaker 1: as we aged people tended to change to Bob Robert Dave.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about being Davy. Well, I was always we

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Speaker 1: Davy growing up because my dad was Big Dave. My

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Speaker 1: dad also but his name wasn't David. It was actually Davidson,

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Speaker 1: which is a really interesting Scottish name. Davidson Wallace Johnston

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Speaker 1: was his name, and so he was Big Dave and

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Speaker 1: I was we Davy, and it just seemed to stuck

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Speaker 1: all the way through my childhood, through my soccer days,

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Speaker 1: and then when I started playing music, it just seemed

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Speaker 1: to be a catchier name. And I suck in the

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Speaker 1: e because it was totally accidental. Somebody was taking a

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Speaker 1: photograph of me and an Irish singer called Noel Murphy

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Speaker 1: who had formed a little folk duo together, and the

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Speaker 1: photographer wrote underneath my picture Davy with a E D

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Speaker 1: A V E y. So that was purely accidental. But

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Speaker 1: now so many fans and people know me as Davy.

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Speaker 1: My kids call me Davy. My wife calls me Davy

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Speaker 1: when he's been in a good mood. And yeah, so

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Speaker 1: I don't mind being called Davy. I'm not the one

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Speaker 1: of my sisters in Scotland still calls me David. I

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Speaker 1: will not call you Davy. You're David, you know. So

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Speaker 1: it's fine. Okay, you've talked about becoming a citizen. How

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Speaker 1: do you decide to do that? Well, I've lived here

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Speaker 1: for many years. I've lived out near in California for

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Speaker 1: thirty over thirty years now, especially in this area of

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Speaker 1: where I am now, which I love out in the country,

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Speaker 1: just around Calabasas area. And we decided, my wife and

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Speaker 1: I together because my wife is Danish. We both decided

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Speaker 1: about three years ago, four years ago, perhaps when things

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Speaker 1: were getting really really strange here politically. We had a

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Speaker 1: long conversation about it and I said, Okay, I am

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Speaker 1: not a citizen, so therefore I can't vote. I can

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Speaker 1: do everything else. I can pay tax obviously, I've always

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Speaker 1: paid my taxes. I do all the other stuff, but

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Speaker 1: I can't vote unless I'm a citizen. So I feel

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Speaker 1: it's horton now that I get my citizenship and that

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Speaker 1: you get years too, so that both of us can

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Speaker 1: vote in the upcoming election in twenty twenty. So that's

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Speaker 1: the main reason we did it. And when I got

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Speaker 1: back from Australia, we've been doing the usual applications and

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Speaker 1: the petitions, all the stuff you have to fill in

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Speaker 1: and the background stuff. And when I got back from Australia,

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Speaker 1: right right as COVID was coming in, my immigration attorney

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Speaker 1: who's in New York called me up and said, what

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Speaker 1: are you doing tomorrow? And I said, well, I'm getting

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Speaker 1: over my jet lag as usual. He said, can you

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Speaker 1: go to Chatsworth because I have a date for you

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Speaker 1: in a time they're going to swear you in privately.

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Speaker 1: So it was really beautiful the fact that I got

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Speaker 1: to go, you know, locally and just with a few

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Speaker 1: people in the actual office, and I got sworn in.

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Speaker 1: My wife was there, our kids were there, and it

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Speaker 1: was really a magical thing. And I'm really proud to

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Speaker 1: be a born again American. Okay, you say your wife

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Speaker 1: is Danish, how did you meet your wife? That's another

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Speaker 1: good one. My wife's Danish. I've always had this connection

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Speaker 1: with Danish people. Our record producer Chris Thomas was seeing

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Speaker 1: this Danish girl, a very beautiful Danish girl called Tina. Now,

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Speaker 1: unbeknown to me, I'd met Tina a couple of times,

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Speaker 1: but unbeknown to me, her best friend was my wife

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Speaker 1: to be Kay. And at that period time, for example,

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Speaker 1: Chris Thomas's girl was Tina, Rick Astley's girlfriend was Lena,

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Speaker 1: another Dane. All right, it gets really interesting. And so

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Speaker 1: on Tina's birthday one year in nineteen eighty nine, Alton

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Speaker 1: through a party for Tina because she was about to

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Speaker 1: get married to Chris Thomas, and it was a birthday party.

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Speaker 1: So I was sitting next to this beautiful Danish girl

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Speaker 1: called k and the party was in Paris, so it

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Speaker 1: was a very romantic place and it was a very

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Speaker 1: romantic evening. And that was it. We were submitting with

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Speaker 1: each other and we were together for a couple of years,

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Speaker 1: and then we got married in nineteen ninety two after

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Speaker 1: we had our first child, and it's been wonderful. Were

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Speaker 1: over thirty years now and really happy. Is this the

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Speaker 1: only time he had been married? No, twice before. First

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Speaker 1: time was when I was nineteen years old. At that time,

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Speaker 1: I got Diana Partridge pregnant when I was living in London,

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Speaker 1: and we had a little boy called Tam. Tam is

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Speaker 1: now an engineer and a writer, songwriter, filmmaker, musician, and

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Speaker 1: he lives in Cornwall in Southwest England, which is a

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Speaker 1: beautiful part of the world. My second marriage was to Rosa,

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Speaker 1: a Mexican girl from from Los Angeles with a wonderful family,

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Speaker 1: and our marriage spawned two children, Jesse and Daniel, and

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Speaker 1: they both still live in California and Kay. As I've

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Speaker 1: told you, it was Danish and I brought her over

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Speaker 1: here to live with me in California. And this has

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Speaker 1: been the one that's um, that's lasted obviously, and there's

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Speaker 1: no end in sight. Thank God. I'm tired of all

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Speaker 1: that running around and it's over. So how many kids

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Speaker 1: do you have with your present wife? Four with this

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Speaker 1: this wife? And unfortunately, back in two thousand and one,

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Speaker 1: we had a tragedy and we lost our firstborn, Oliver,

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Speaker 1: in a drowning accident in our pool. It happened when

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Speaker 1: I was on the road with the Alton John Billy

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Speaker 1: Joel Tour and we were in Chicago playing a show

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Speaker 1: that night in fact, and we had two nannies taking

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Speaker 1: care of the kids. At that point. Oliver was nine

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Speaker 1: years old, Juliet, my favorite and only daughter, was four,

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Speaker 1: and Charlie they was two. So they were well shepherded

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Speaker 1: and well taken care of while we were in Chicago

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Speaker 1: doing this celebration for my birthday, and tragically, our little

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Speaker 1: boy got away from the nannies, found his way into

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Speaker 1: the pool and took up a tenth type of thing

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Speaker 1: in there, which she had always been told you can't

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Speaker 1: take that, you can't take anything into the pool, and

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Speaker 1: he did and he got tangled up in it. The

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Speaker 1: nanny didn't get to him in time, and he drowned.

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Speaker 1: I got this news when I was on we just

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Speaker 1: played the set of the show in Chicago, and I'm

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Speaker 1: backstage and I'm signing next to Elton and with Kay

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Speaker 1: and I get this call and the road manager said, Davy,

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Speaker 1: there's a call for you. And I said, I'm not

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Speaker 1: taking a phone call right now, and you know we're

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Speaker 1: doing a show, and he said, no, you've got to

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Speaker 1: take this call. I took the call, and this this

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Speaker 1: poor doctor had the job of telling me this unbearable

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Speaker 1: news that that our son had died in a drowning accident.

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Speaker 1: The shock was so immediate. I was obviously very angry

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Speaker 1: and denial. It was like, what do you mean? Who

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Speaker 1: is this kind of thing? But finally I realized, okay,

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Speaker 1: this is the worst news that for any parent, and

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Speaker 1: I went and got my wife, I held her, I

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Speaker 1: told her what had happened. She immediately fell down, and

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Speaker 1: you know, Elton and grabbed her at the other side

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Speaker 1: and was holding her up to just the most unimaginable

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Speaker 1: feeling and changed our lives, obviously in every possible way.

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Speaker 1: He was a wonderful little boy. And what I've tried

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Speaker 1: to do when I finally stopped drinking and drugging and

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Speaker 1: doing all the other stuff because I felt that I

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Speaker 1: felt that I had a license to drink, to drug

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Speaker 1: allisas to kill myself because I was so miserable and

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Speaker 1: so upset because what had happened. And then I realized that,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I'll be honoring him much better if

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Speaker 1: I stopped drinking, stopped drinking being an idiot, and and

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Speaker 1: act like a human being and face up to these

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Speaker 1: things and that's what I did. And so that's how

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Speaker 1: we honor our child. Now. Every year we celebrate his

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Speaker 1: birthday and we celebrate his his death date. And it's

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Speaker 1: the only way we could we could get through this

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Speaker 1: thing was by facing up to it properly and by

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Speaker 1: staying together through it, you know, helping each other. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was a total tragedy. And all also my children,

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Speaker 1: my other children helped me so much during this period

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Speaker 1: of time. Alton was a massive help, and my bandmates.

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Speaker 1: But I could never have gotten through it without my

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Speaker 1: wife and my kids and are close friends. Wow. So

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Speaker 1: it's type of thing you never get over, really right,

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Speaker 1: you never get over it, but we've learned to, you

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Speaker 1: might say, deal with it because over the years, what

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Speaker 1: happens this kind of situation, what happened in my case

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Speaker 1: and in my wife's case. Anyway, it starts off being

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Speaker 1: like this giant boulder in your heart, and then as

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Speaker 1: the years go by, it gets a little softer, less

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Speaker 1: jagged edges, and it becomes more of like a small

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Speaker 1: manageable that still breaks you up when you think about

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Speaker 1: this wonderful little boy that we lost, But you know,

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Speaker 1: you get to a point where you can actually go ahead,

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Speaker 1: go on and deal with it and possibly help other

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Speaker 1: people who are going through similar situations, which we have done.

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Speaker 1: I've given help to a couple of friends who've had

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Speaker 1: similar types of tragedy because I've realized that people just

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Speaker 1: need to talk about it. You can't just hide away

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Speaker 1: and not talk about it. This is something that has

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Speaker 1: to be faced and dealt with, and you know, and

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Speaker 1: you make it part of your life, you know, not

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Speaker 1: something that defines you, but something that's part of your

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Speaker 1: life that you treasure. And so I'm very grateful. Okay,

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Speaker 1: talking about your kids, are they off the payroll? No,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if that ever happens. Bob, my youngest

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Speaker 1: is definitely not off the payroll. Elliott's um just turned

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Speaker 1: eighteen last November, and he's a wonderful singer, a beautiful

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Speaker 1: looking kid, and he can't wait to get the hell

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Speaker 1: out of school, and he's also an artist and various things.

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Speaker 1: The next and Lion Charlie, is a sound engineer, also

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Speaker 1: a songwriter, and another musician, brilliant piano player. He went

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Speaker 1: to USC here in California for piano and for music production,

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Speaker 1: so they're kind of in the family business. My favorite daughter, Juliet,

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Speaker 1: who's actually on her way to New York City today.

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Speaker 1: She devised a wonderful business. Her name is Juliet Johnstone

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Speaker 1: and that's her website and everything. And she decided to

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Speaker 1: start painting on clothes about just when COVID was kicking in,

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Speaker 1: and it turned out to be a wonderful idea because

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Speaker 1: many pop stars, models, various personalities, celebs, whatever started wearing

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Speaker 1: her clothes. So it's wonderful that she's doing this and

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Speaker 1: she's got this ridiculous business. And recently she painted a

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Speaker 1: guitar for me for my seventieth birthday. I'm coming up

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Speaker 1: for seventy two now, but I she painted. She finished

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Speaker 1: it in time for me playing Dodgers Stadium with Elton

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Speaker 1: in November, which was awesome. So I got to take

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Speaker 1: that guitar on stage and use it. And you know,

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Speaker 1: a Bob, I'm blessed. I have some amazing children and

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Speaker 1: I'm a very lucky man because it's always kept me

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Speaker 1: a little bit grounded in my life, because you know,

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Speaker 1: we take our kids everywhere when we travel as much

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Speaker 1: as we can whenever it's possible, and so they've seen

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Speaker 1: the world many times in different places, and I think

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Speaker 1: they've really enjoyed that aspect of it. And they love

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Speaker 1: their own Uncle Elton, you know, or Auntie Elton, you know, whatever,

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Speaker 1: however he prefers to be called. And you know, they've

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Speaker 1: got some great friends because of the life we lead

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Speaker 1: and their own talents. And they've really helped me because

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Speaker 1: I mean I listened to their their music. I listened

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Speaker 1: to what they're listening to and it stuns me occasionally. Okay,

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Speaker 1: you talked about your daughter painting a guitar for you.

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Speaker 1: In the room we're in right now, I can already

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Speaker 1: see like twelve guitars on the wall. How many guitars

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Speaker 1: do you own? You know? I have no idea. It

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Speaker 1: sounds gross to say, but I really don't know. I'll

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Speaker 1: find out more accurately when this Farewell Tours over, because

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Speaker 1: we have three totally separate rigs outrun the road, which

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Speaker 1: one of them, for example, is just leaving Australian Zealand

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Speaker 1: where we just finished. Another set is in the New

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Speaker 1: York area, and another set is in Europe waiting for

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Speaker 1: us to start the next leg of the Farewell Tour

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Speaker 1: in the end of March. So each rake contains about

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Speaker 1: twenty five guitars, I would say maybe thirty, so that's

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Speaker 1: ninety there roughly. I've got another a few dozen at home,

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Speaker 1: along with various satars and various other things that I

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Speaker 1: don't take on the road with me anymore because they're

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Speaker 1: just too delicate. So yeah, it's a lot of stuff.

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Speaker 1: But in my retirement, I intend to play each and

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Speaker 1: every one of them. I intend to get back and

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Speaker 1: give each one the love that they really deserve. Because

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Speaker 1: I'm very blessed I have so many instruments, so it's

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Speaker 1: wonderful I do, and we get to them whenever we can.

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Speaker 1: But sometimes I feel that they're being ignored and they're

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Speaker 1: not being giving the TLC they deserve. So I'm looking

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Speaker 1: forward to retirement when I can line them all up

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Speaker 1: and honor them for their part in my life. Now.

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Speaker 1: A lot of guitarists have favorite instruments, whether it be

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Speaker 1: brand in model, or you know, those of us who

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Speaker 1: played guitar. I don't want to say that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we all played guitar after the Beatles. Know that if

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Speaker 1: we went shopping with guitars, every guitar sounds a little

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Speaker 1: bit different. And there are people who take that guitar

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Speaker 1: on the road. There are people who only use it

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Speaker 1: in the studio. Do you have a couple of favorite instruments?

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Speaker 1: I do. I definitely have a couple of go to instruments.

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Speaker 1: Right from the beginning day when I first joined album,

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Speaker 1: for example, I wasn't playing much electric guitar, but I

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Speaker 1: had an electric guitar. But Alton tells a wonderful story

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Speaker 1: about me plugging in at the Chateau when we went

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Speaker 1: to make the first album, and it's a great story.

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Speaker 1: It's not entirely true because I did own an electric guitar,

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Speaker 1: so that was a Fender Stratocaster. But as I started

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Speaker 1: playing with him and I was able to buy a

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Speaker 1: couple of other instruments, I realized that my real favorite

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Speaker 1: was going to be a Gibson Les Paul, and then

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Speaker 1: later a Gibson Flying V. Because I began I began

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Speaker 1: to like the solid guitars because the sustain was more

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Speaker 1: evident and more clean, So I really loved that aspect

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Speaker 1: of Les Paul's. So yeah, my favorite really has been

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Speaker 1: a Gibson Les Paul. Second has probably been a Flying

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Speaker 1: V or a reverse Flying V, and then would probably

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Speaker 1: become the strat, you know, the Fender stratum. But the

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Speaker 1: other thing, Bob, is I I have so many guitars.

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Speaker 1: I mean I have a double neck made by a

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Speaker 1: company called Fernandez, which is completely jaw dropping brilliant. Um.

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Speaker 1: I use it for a lot of slide guitar and

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Speaker 1: regular one. I want to switch from neck to neck,

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Speaker 1: and it has the most pure gorgeous sound. So I

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Speaker 1: mean I I have so many of them, and so

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Speaker 1: many mandolins, electric mandolins, so many acoustic guitars, electric acoustic guitars,

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Speaker 1: so that I can use them live also, So yeah,

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Speaker 1: plenty of instruments. We have them coming out of the

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Speaker 1: Yang Yang. When you know, whenever we go to make

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Speaker 1: an album, there's so many dough Bros and Mandolins and

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Speaker 1: Mando cellos and stuff, dulcimers, you know, you name it. Okay,

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Speaker 1: you have twenty five guitars approximately in three different rigs.

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Speaker 1: Someone who's not sophisticated would say, why do you need

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Speaker 1: twenty five guitars? So why do you need all those guitars? Well,

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Speaker 1: one good reason is a backup for each guitar. There's

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Speaker 1: a prominent For example, I need to have my number

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Speaker 1: one less Paul. I need to have a backup for

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Speaker 1: that less Paul. I need to have my favorite flying

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Speaker 1: v or reverse fee and a backup for that one.

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Speaker 1: I need to have my favorite strat vender strat and

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Speaker 1: a backup for that one. I need to have my

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00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,680
Speaker 1: favorite acoustic guitar that I'll be using in that particular

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00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,520
Speaker 1: rig and a backup for that one. I need to

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Speaker 1: have an acoustic guitar open tuned because for songs like Rocketman,

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Speaker 1: I use a particular open tuning which is pretty amazing,

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Speaker 1: pretty special, So I need to have a guitar tuned

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Speaker 1: in that tuning as a backup. Also, because you know,

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Speaker 1: the main thing I don't want to do is hold

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Speaker 1: up a show when you have a problem like a

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Speaker 1: string popping and it's in a bad part of this

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Speaker 1: song where you can't just get through it with the

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Speaker 1: rest of the strings. So I have backups for each

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Speaker 1: and every instrument. And then for example, I'll have another

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Speaker 1: couple of guitars for songs like the Bitch Is Back

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Speaker 1: for example, bitches back when I recorded that I did that,

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Speaker 1: and an open g tuning very similar to the tuning

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Speaker 1: that Keith Richards uses. He uses five strings on his tuning,

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Speaker 1: I use all six, so there's a slight difference there.

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00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:04,280
Speaker 1: I learned to play g tuning from John Martin, famed

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Speaker 1: British guitar player who tragically died way too young. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's there's various tunings and I'd like to have a

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Speaker 1: backup for that one as well. So it might sound

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Speaker 1: a little over the top for some people, but really

326
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,840
Speaker 1: there's a good excuse for them. And then also, if

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Speaker 1: Alton decides on a tour he wants to do Mona

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Speaker 1: Lisas and mad hatters, I have to have a mandolin

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Speaker 1: ready and a backup for that mandolin. If he wants

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00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,320
Speaker 1: to do a honky cat, I have to have a

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Speaker 1: banjo and a backup for that banjo. So luckily I

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00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:40,119
Speaker 1: have all these wonderful instruments so that I'm never sure

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Speaker 1: of one, and I've got a wonderful guitar tech. I mean,

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00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,760
Speaker 1: Rick Salazar is an absolute genius looking after all these

335
00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:53,840
Speaker 1: different guitars, looking after the various tunings, keeping each and

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Speaker 1: every one of these instruments in tip top shape. It's

337
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Speaker 1: just I couldn't do what I do without him. He's

338
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:12,919
Speaker 1: just amazing. Okay, you mentioned Dodgers Stadium this year, and

339
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Speaker 1: of course you played with Elton in nineteen seventy five

340
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium. It's the same building. But what was different

341
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:25,200
Speaker 1: about those two gigs. Well, let's see, the first one

342
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Speaker 1: was earlier in the year. I think this last one

343
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Speaker 1: was November seventeen, eight seventeen, nineteenth and twentieth, I want

344
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Speaker 1: to say, and end of November, so it was much

345
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Speaker 1: colder and darker. For one thing, the gigs in seventy five,

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Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly when they were, but they were

347
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,879
Speaker 1: either September or early October, and so it was the

348
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 1: majority of the shows were in daylight and I could

349
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Speaker 1: see people. I could see this sea of people. It

350
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 1: was just such an awesome feeling. And we'd never that

351
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,440
Speaker 1: stadium hadn't been used since the Beatles played there, so

352
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:12,720
Speaker 1: there was a lot of these things going on where

353
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Speaker 1: we were doing. There was firsts were happening that many

354
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 1: people hadn't done since, for example, the Beatles. So that

355
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 1: was a very magic gig. And it was special in

356
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Speaker 1: another way too, because we were having to do excuse me,

357
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,439
Speaker 1: we're having to do this particular show with a new band,

358
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,280
Speaker 1: basically because Dan Nigel had been let go at the

359
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 1: end of nineteen seventy four, so I was tasked with

360
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 1: putting the new band together once we decided on who

361
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 1: the members were going to be, so in nineteen seventy five,

362
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 1: so it was all these different guys and it was wonderful.

363
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:50,399
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a great band. It was rocking,

364
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:55,800
Speaker 1: It was totally rocking. But this time, for me, the

365
00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 1: difference was after doing it for fifty years, after playing

366
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Speaker 1: some of these songs for fifty years and writing stuff,

367
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Speaker 1: and yeah, I don't know. It just had a really

368
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 1: emotional feel about it, thinking, Wow, we're never going to

369
00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,640
Speaker 1: play these songs in America again, and that really is

370
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Speaker 1: what it is. We're never going to play them live again.

371
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Speaker 1: So it was wonderful to see really close friends. They're

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Speaker 1: really good musician friends, people you know, like Date, the

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Speaker 1: wonderful David Page and James Newton Howard and just all

374
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: these brilliant musicians. Alice in Chains showed up to see

375
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,080
Speaker 1: us so much. Just good friends, Eddie Vedder all these

376
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: cats came to see the show because they're big fans,

377
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:43,639
Speaker 1: you know, and it was wonderful to see them backstage.

378
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,160
Speaker 1: I must say one point about seventy five that blew

379
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 1: me away though completely. We were backstage in the trailers

380
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:57,359
Speaker 1: waiting to go on, and there was people before the show,

381
00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 1: in the middle of the interval and after the show.

382
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 1: This is on the seventy five show. So one of

383
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: the wives, I believe it was Caleb Quay's wife, Pat.

384
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: She had a really Cockney accent, fantastic London accent, and

385
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:18,680
Speaker 1: she suddenly says, in a very English accent, Yeah, that's

386
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:24,200
Speaker 1: Gary Cooper out there. And I think to myself, Gary

387
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: Cooper is fucking dead. I'm pretty sure. So I go

388
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: over to the window, pull the curtain back and it's

389
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: Carrie Grant. So I go, oh my god. I love

390
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 1: Carrie Grant had to be like my favorite actor growing

391
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 1: up as a kid in Scotland. His movies were all

392
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 1: over the place and anyway, I just loved the suaveness

393
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,960
Speaker 1: about him. So I went out and had a chat

394
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,920
Speaker 1: with him, and he was knowledgeable about what we were doing.

395
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 1: He was saying, oh, yes, I'm really enjoying the interplay

396
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,360
Speaker 1: between you and the other guitar player and you and Elton,

397
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:01,640
Speaker 1: and the way you guys or look at each other

398
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,440
Speaker 1: and smile and laugh, and I was just like going,

399
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:08,640
Speaker 1: this is unbelievable. I'm talking to Carrie Grant, somebody who

400
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 1: you know. When I was eight years old we first

401
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:15,760
Speaker 1: got a television in Scotland and I'm seeing like one

402
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: of his movies, like The Bishop's Wife or something, and

403
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 1: there he is backstage it does you say to him? So, yeah,

404
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: that was a There were more stars in those days

405
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: that were maybe I'm a bit more jaded now, Okay,

406
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 1: you know you mentioned your retirement. This is and people

407
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 1: can't see my air quote a farewell tour. There are

408
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: a lot of people who are going through the motions

409
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: for the money. I've seen the Farewell toured twice. Elton

410
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 1: is really digging it. So I just don't see Elton retiring.

411
00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:53,159
Speaker 1: I mean, George Street was the first one to do

412
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,200
Speaker 1: is I'm retiring from touring, but he ended up playing

413
00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: single dates. You're closer certainly than I am. What do

414
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:06,680
Speaker 1: you think is really going to happen? Well? I really

415
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,680
Speaker 1: feel that when we finish off, I believe the last

416
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 1: concerts in Stockholm, I want to say July eighth. I

417
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:19,400
Speaker 1: think that's right. I must say that, as far as

418
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: I'm concerned, touring wise, we're done. This is going to

419
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:28,399
Speaker 1: be it. We're done from touring. There's a part of

420
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: me that obviously thinks, knowing out in the way I do,

421
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: it would not surprise me if sometime in the future

422
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 1: he decides to do maybe a Vegas, a small residency,

423
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: a short type of thing, because he started to enjoy

424
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: some of those shows too when we got into that.

425
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: From between two thousand and five and two thousand and

426
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,440
Speaker 1: fifteen or so, we had a couple of shows that

427
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 1: were very There were a lot of fun to do.

428
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,199
Speaker 1: They were a little tedious at times. That whole that

429
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: idea of doing something that we weren't used to. But

430
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if he went if he knows

431
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,479
Speaker 1: what it is now, so I wouldn't be surprised if

432
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,400
Speaker 1: sometime in the future he maybe does something different, maybe

433
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: with a small orchestra, or maybe something entirely different. I

434
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,119
Speaker 1: have no idea, but that's just my take on it.

435
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,640
Speaker 1: I promise you. We haven't discussed anything. We haven't talked

436
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 1: about any of it. You know. He calls me about

437
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff, and we're not going there just yet. Okay.

438
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: So I didn't see the Vegas shows. The red piano

439
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 1: and the other one. What was different about playing in

440
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 1: Vegas as opposed to a usual tour. Well, I was

441
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: at first, I didn't like the idea at all. I

442
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 1: just thought it was I was terrified. I thought, you know,

443
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 1: going to Vegas, that's like a musician's graveyard. I did

444
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: not like the idea at all. But then when the

445
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 1: fun of it, the fun aspect kicked in, we realized, okay,

446
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: this is a good giggle, and we we trimmed it

447
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 1: so that we were never there for longer than three

448
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: and a half weeks. There was no I can't I

449
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 1: can't understand people or artists who are able to stay

450
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:18,959
Speaker 1: there for a residency for a whole year or whatever

451
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: they do. Impossible. I'd go completely nuts. So we would

452
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: go there three times a year for round about a month.

453
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: The one thing that was good about it was I

454
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,959
Speaker 1: was closer to home. I could literally come off stage

455
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 1: because the shows in Vegas end early there because they

456
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 1: want people back, you know, in the casino, they want

457
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: people at the tables and the machines again, So the

458
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: shows would end about ten pm. I would literally have

459
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: my car ready to go backstage. I'd jump in it

460
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 1: and I'd be on the road before people were out

461
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 1: of the theater and home in three and a half hours,

462
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 1: you know, quick drive. I'd just drive myself home, So

463
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 1: that was a good aspect of it. And obviously being

464
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,720
Speaker 1: able to see my my wife and kids more regularly

465
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 1: because they could come out to Vegas. Also, the Million

466
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: Dollar Piano Show was a great It was slightly more

467
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 1: I was, well, a lot more sophisticated. There was various

468
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 1: people who helped put it on. Mark Fisher, a wonderful

469
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 1: designer who did a lot of the Stones things, and

470
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: Sam Pattinson in England, and they were assisted by Tony

471
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: King and and Elton's manager slash husband, David Furnish. So

472
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:35,960
Speaker 1: you know, it was a little more of a of

473
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: a I want to say, smooth, sophisticated and classy show.

474
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: You know, we were wearing like Gucci suits and then

475
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:48,240
Speaker 1: Burberry suits, and then finally for the Million Dollar Piano Show,

476
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: sorry for the Farewell tour, where we're wearing Gucci, which

477
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,240
Speaker 1: is fine. I mean it's very sharp looking, it's very

478
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,080
Speaker 1: sharp rock and roll. I like it because it remains

479
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: the Beatles. I'm a massive, huge Beatles fan. Nobody bigger

480
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 1: than me. They'll we all say that, right, But yeah,

481
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,840
Speaker 1: I like that aspect of it. I do think at

482
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 1: some point for me personally, I'm getting over the suits because,

483
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:19,520
Speaker 1: you know what, I got into this business because I'm

484
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 1: a typical musician. I'm revolutionary. I don't want to wear

485
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 1: the same as thing as everybody else. You know, I

486
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: was wearing afghan coats and floury shirts and beads and

487
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: bell bottoms as you probably were back in the earliest

488
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 1: the late sixties, already seventies, so the idea of having

489
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:40,160
Speaker 1: a uniform still rubs a little bit, robsby the wrong way.

490
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: So I'll be glad to get out of the good

491
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: cheer or whatever suit is I'm in and back to

492
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 1: some interesting clothes. It's the same songs in the same

493
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: order every night on this tour, right it is. It's changed.

494
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: I would say four or five times. We've changed song selections,

495
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:04,240
Speaker 1: We've very rarely changed the order of things. We've tried things,

496
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 1: but each time we seemed to go back to the same,

497
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 1: the original thing. It's worked well. The only song that

498
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 1: we took out that I really miss is All the

499
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: Young Girls Love Alice, which I thought really kicked ass

500
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: and I thought a lot of the fans loved the

501
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 1: fact that there was a really deep cut that was

502
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,240
Speaker 1: in there, but we kind of substituted that with have

503
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 1: Mercy on the Criminal, which is another another deep cut,

504
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 1: and that seems to go down great. People love that too.

505
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 1: So Mona Lisa's was in there for a couple of

506
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: tours way back when we started, and and a couple

507
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: of songs have come and gone and don't Go Breaking

508
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 1: My Heart comes in when like for the Dodger Stadium,

509
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 1: Kikid came out and did her party piece on that song,

510
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,800
Speaker 1: and then dual Leapa did her her thing with Elton.

511
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 1: Instead of it being just backtrack, they still used the backtrack,

512
00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: but they were able to use Doua's voice life which

513
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 1: was great and Elton live, so that was awesome. Okay,

514
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 1: during the show, is there anything prerecorded? No, we are

515
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:13,520
Speaker 1: We are totally one million percent live. I mean, we

516
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 1: have a couple of vocal samples that we've recorded ourselves

517
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:19,640
Speaker 1: several years ago, which we still use on a couple

518
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,680
Speaker 1: of numbers, which we bolster our own live vocals with

519
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: um similar to the way that bands like The Eels,

520
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: do you know they most bands who have fairly prominent.

521
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 1: Background vocals tend to use a couple of samples here

522
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 1: and there. I don't think there's anything unfair about us

523
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: using them here and there. And we still love doing

524
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: the background parts because they're they're really meaningful parts that

525
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 1: when we wrote them, so it's fun to do them

526
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 1: live too. Okay, you're the music director, What exactly does

527
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: that mean? Really, I'm like a glorified bandleader. Really, I

528
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: mean it's not really. Music director is something that people

529
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: started calling me many years ago. And you know, I

530
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: don't really give a shit if they call me that

531
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 1: or not right frankly, but Alton's announcing me on stage. Yeah,

532
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:12,560
Speaker 1: he always says, this is Davy, my band leader. And

533
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 1: I love that. That works perfectly for me because the

534
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 1: whole thing about music director started the second time that

535
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:25,760
Speaker 1: d and Nagel were let go and I was asked

536
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:30,760
Speaker 1: to stay when I was again tasked with the job

537
00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 1: of or somebody's going to have to run the band

538
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:36,799
Speaker 1: through their paces tish them the songs. Because as far

539
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 1: back as especially the second band I'm talking about in

540
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 1: the early in the mid eighties, when after the end

541
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,440
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty four, when when Dan Najeel let go

542
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 1: of that time. I had to come up with a band,

543
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:54,880
Speaker 1: and it took quite a while for me to be

544
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:59,799
Speaker 1: comfortable with the musicians that we had, and by the

545
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: time and we got to the end of the eighties,

546
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 1: I was very happy with it. We had people like

547
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:12,279
Speaker 1: Charlie Morgan on drums, Bob Birch came in on bass,

548
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 1: Guy Babylon on keyboards. Eventually we got Nigel back, which

549
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 1: was great. He was out of the band for something

550
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,120
Speaker 1: like seventeen years. So when I think of the various

551
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:27,080
Speaker 1: combinations of bands I worked my way through. We had

552
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:29,480
Speaker 1: some wonderful players. Don't get me wrong. We used to

553
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: you know Jonathan Moffatt sugar Foot, you know from Jack

554
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:38,880
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson Stuff and his band. You know Romeo Williams,

555
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 1: all these different players. Jeff backs to play with us

556
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:44,759
Speaker 1: for a while. James Newton heard. Obviously, Ray Cooper has

557
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: been in and out of the band, and he was

558
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: more of Ray was always more of a floating member,

559
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 1: but when he comes back, he's always my permanent member.

560
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:56,880
Speaker 1: Ray and I go out to dinner all the time

561
00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,479
Speaker 1: on the road. Were the food freaks of this tour.

562
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:04,960
Speaker 1: So we tend to dine out as much as possible. Okay,

563
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:09,919
Speaker 1: have you been to Noma in Denmark? I wish i'd had,

564
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 1: but I believe it's closing the end of this year.

565
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: Ray and I have got our sightset for going there

566
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,320
Speaker 1: when we're there in early July, so we're hoping we

567
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:21,400
Speaker 1: can we can get in. Okay, So what's the best

568
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 1: meal you've had on the road. Well, for me, you

569
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:30,520
Speaker 1: can't go wrong with no Bo. We love Japanese food.

570
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: No restaurants are in very many of the major cities,

571
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know that. Although in Atlanta we found Umi,

572
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:47,360
Speaker 1: which is a ridiculously great Japanese restaurant in the Buckhead

573
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:50,279
Speaker 1: area of Atlanta, which we love. That area. There's some

574
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:53,799
Speaker 1: wonderful restaurants and a couple of friends of mine own

575
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:59,080
Speaker 1: the restaurants and they started this place and it's just unimaginable.

576
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:01,839
Speaker 1: It's so great. So it's definitely on a par with

577
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:05,560
Speaker 1: Nobu and maybe slightly better in some areas. So I'm

578
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 1: big on Japanese food. But obviously when we want to

579
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 1: take some of the guys like I take Rick, my

580
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 1: tech occasionally he likes Japanese food, but he's really big

581
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,160
Speaker 1: on steak, so we'll go to one of the many

582
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:20,760
Speaker 1: wonderful steakhouses, of which, as you know, there are several.

583
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,799
Speaker 1: We just love great food, so it's one of it.

584
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:27,360
Speaker 1: To me, it's one of the biggest, big joys of life.

585
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:30,919
Speaker 1: So I make sure that I eat well on the road.

586
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 1: Do you work out on the road. I have a

587
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:39,839
Speaker 1: set of stretchers that I do every morning, and I

588
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 1: swim whenever I can because I like to swim at home.

589
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:47,240
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm I'm undergoing a bit of shoulder problem,

590
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:51,760
Speaker 1: so I'm doing physical therapy for that. I've got wonderful

591
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:54,640
Speaker 1: therapists here in my area that are helping me out.

592
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 1: So yeah, as we get older, you know, fifty years

593
00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 1: of guitar sling and Bobby, you know that's like you

594
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: play guitar, you know, imagine doing it every other night

595
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 1: on stage for three hours. You know, suddenly your neck

596
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,680
Speaker 1: and your shoulder starts to give way. So I have

597
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:15,279
Speaker 1: guitar players neck and shoulder right now. Okay, Elton has

598
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:18,439
Speaker 1: a huge catalog. If I were to call out a song,

599
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 1: would you be able to play it right like that?

600
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:24,759
Speaker 1: Or what would it take to recall it? Well? Put

601
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:26,439
Speaker 1: it this way, if it was one of the ones

602
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:29,919
Speaker 1: I played on, absolutely, I mean, because there are quite

603
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:32,360
Speaker 1: a few that I didn't play on leading up to

604
00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:36,520
Speaker 1: you know the band. Oh, let's face it. If you

605
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:39,799
Speaker 1: see his greatest hits, I'm on every track. So yes,

606
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,480
Speaker 1: if you caught a few mentioned a track or a

607
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:44,600
Speaker 1: deep cut that I played on, I'm pretty sure I

608
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:47,600
Speaker 1: could play it for you. And doeselt never call out?

609
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: I mean, you've been with him all these years forget

610
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:52,720
Speaker 1: to farewell tour? Is he ever just playing and say

611
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 1: let's play you know, Harmony, or let's play Teacher, I

612
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,839
Speaker 1: need you or whatever. Well, he'll suggest, you know, we'll

613
00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:02,279
Speaker 1: be talking about sets. We do that, him and I

614
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:06,359
Speaker 1: do that before each tour anyway, and so we'll come

615
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,920
Speaker 1: up with things like you said, Harmony, you know, high

616
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 1: Flying Bird or whatever to be. The thing is, he

617
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 1: has no fucking idea how to play these socks. So

618
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 1: this is why they call me musical director Bob, because

619
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:26,840
Speaker 1: when it started happening, I realized he didn't know the songs,

620
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:28,719
Speaker 1: he'd forgotten them, he didn't know how to play him.

621
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: So what I decided to do. I've got a very

622
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 1: good friend called Adam Chester, who's a wonderful piano player, singer, songwriter.

623
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 1: Adams a dear friend. He loves our music. He loves

624
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:43,799
Speaker 1: Elton's music, all his sides. One day I called him

625
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:47,280
Speaker 1: up and I said, Adam, I need you. I'm tired

626
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 1: of showing up for a TV rehearsal, for camera rehearsal.

627
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 1: Elton's not there because he want rehearse. I'm tired of

628
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 1: doing a band rehearsal without piano. I'm just sick of it.

629
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:03,799
Speaker 1: So would you like to be my Elton? And he

630
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:08,680
Speaker 1: went yeah, So, so I bring him in with the

631
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: whole band. He's not perfect, he sings the songs really well.

632
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:17,040
Speaker 1: We do a change of key depending on where Elton's

633
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:20,759
Speaker 1: voice maybe at the current time or whatever. And so

634
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 1: that by the time Elton's ready to come into rehearsal,

635
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 1: we're really good to go. We have the arrangements down,

636
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: everything's totally good to go. All he's got to do

637
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:33,120
Speaker 1: is remember his part. So and he does that so quick,

638
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 1: Elton so fast. There's a good reason. I mean, he

639
00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:38,799
Speaker 1: hates the rehearse and I don't blame him. It's can

640
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:43,040
Speaker 1: be a thankless task. I do enjoy it when it's

641
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: fun because these songs are so playable, there's so much

642
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:51,280
Speaker 1: fun to play. They're not fun to play if somebody's

643
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:54,600
Speaker 1: not enjoying it. So I don't I don't even think

644
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 1: about putting Alton through that that phase of it. I

645
00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 1: wait till we're not perfect, and he's pretty much ready

646
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:02,439
Speaker 1: to just go, Okay, what was that chord? What's this chord?

647
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 1: And then we work it out and he plays it.

648
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:10,000
Speaker 1: And usually for a tour, he won't need more than

649
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,560
Speaker 1: about I don't know, an hour to two hours rehearsal,

650
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:17,879
Speaker 1: and that's for a major tour because we're all good

651
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: to go. He comes in for you know, an afternoon,

652
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:22,800
Speaker 1: we do a few songs, we have a tea break,

653
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:25,280
Speaker 1: we do another few songs, we have a tea break,

654
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 1: and then he goes, I think that'll do. Let's just

655
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:29,799
Speaker 1: go and do it. So really, we rehearse when we

656
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 1: were on stage, and we've always done that. So many

657
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,200
Speaker 1: of the of the jams and the various moves, the

658
00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:40,319
Speaker 1: maneuvers that we get into doing on stage are all

659
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:44,240
Speaker 1: done purely live. We just work him out as we're playing.

660
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: And he's always loved to do that, and I love that,

661
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: and you know, as soon as he might play a

662
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 1: little thing and rocket Man and I'll jump on it

663
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:55,359
Speaker 1: and we'll use that for a while. And you know,

664
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:58,520
Speaker 1: it's all about you know, ebbs and flows, and we

665
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:01,400
Speaker 1: know each other so well that we do that, and

666
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 1: the band follows us, and that's the way it works. Okay,

667
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:16,000
Speaker 1: let's go back to the beginning. Edinburgh. What'd your parents

668
00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 1: do for a living? My mom was a wonderful old

669
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:24,720
Speaker 1: Scottish housewife. I have two sisters, so there was my

670
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 1: My two sisters are one is ten years older, the

671
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,840
Speaker 1: other one is twelve years older. So I was the baby.

672
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 1: I was the afterthought. And my dad worked in the

673
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:38,880
Speaker 1: Department of Agriculture. He was a civil servant and he

674
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:46,720
Speaker 1: was also very worldly person. He very well read. Taught

675
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:52,320
Speaker 1: me a lot about stuff and about manners, about respect.

676
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 1: He was a really good man. And he also helped

677
00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:02,200
Speaker 1: me so much with my soccer career because football is

678
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:05,400
Speaker 1: like a religion in Scotland. I mean not American football,

679
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:09,000
Speaker 1: I mean the real football, so that kids in America

680
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: in Britain, they grew up with football. So I was

681
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: fitball crazy when I was a kid. That's what they

682
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 1: call it fitball crazy because I loved it. And every

683
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:21,960
Speaker 1: waking minute I was in the park or I was

684
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:26,200
Speaker 1: in playing in teams, I was playing for my city,

685
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:31,920
Speaker 1: I was eventually playing for Scottish schoolboys. So I loved it.

686
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: So Dad was great. He was very supportive and all

687
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:38,440
Speaker 1: that stuff. He had a very serious injury. He had

688
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:42,720
Speaker 1: rheumatari arthritis. It really crippled him from quite an early age.

689
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 1: But he'd still show up at every soccer game that

690
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:48,360
Speaker 1: I played as a kid. I mean I'm talking in

691
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 1: the rain and the snow, you know, typical British weather,

692
00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: and he'd show up. And when I started playing guitar,

693
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: he was the one who said gave me the most encouragement.

694
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:01,919
Speaker 1: You know, other people were saying what are you doing?

695
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,600
Speaker 1: You know, like my teachers at school would say, well,

696
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 1: that's a waste of time. Only one teacher ever said

697
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,799
Speaker 1: to me, you're doing the right thing. Carry on, my

698
00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 1: art teacher when I he asked me what I was

699
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:15,840
Speaker 1: going to be, when he was asking the whole class,

700
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 1: what are you going to do when you grow up?

701
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:19,320
Speaker 1: What are you going to do when you leave school?

702
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:22,520
Speaker 1: And my answer was I'm going to be a professional musician, sir,

703
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,440
Speaker 1: And he basically was ready to hit me over the

704
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:28,120
Speaker 1: head with a book and said that's stupid. There's no

705
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 1: way give that idea up. So um my dad was

706
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 1: the one who said, don't listen to those guys. You know,

707
00:44:36,239 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 1: believe in yourself, go for it. And so by the

708
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,680
Speaker 1: age of fourteen, I was playing in pubs, which is

709
00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 1: where most folk music is played, because I I kind

710
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:53,600
Speaker 1: of graduated from being a massive Beatles fan. I am

711
00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:56,440
Speaker 1: again a massive Beatles fan again, but in those days,

712
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 1: learning every George Harrison like by listening to the radio

713
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 1: Radio Luxembourg or Radio Caroline, one of those pirate ships

714
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:06,239
Speaker 1: or are rolling stones to it, I'd learn all the

715
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:11,200
Speaker 1: parts right there sitting by the radio. I graduated from

716
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:16,320
Speaker 1: that to listening to folk guitar players who, in my mind,

717
00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 1: were way better than anybody I was listening to on

718
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:22,160
Speaker 1: the pop scene. I was listening to people like the

719
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 1: Incredible string band John Martin, Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Joni Mitchell.

720
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:31,719
Speaker 1: Suddenly I was hearing I'm going to like, what the

721
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:35,000
Speaker 1: hell these people are the real stars, you know, And

722
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: then I started to hear bluegrass people in America, and

723
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:41,000
Speaker 1: I'm going like, Okay, this is way advanced. This is

724
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,280
Speaker 1: the stuff I want to play. So that's the reason

725
00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 1: that I started playing more acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer,

726
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:54,839
Speaker 1: and then eventually star a folk singing guy called Archie

727
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 1: Fisher played the saitar and he invited me to his

728
00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 1: home to hear it one day, and I heard it

729
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:02,720
Speaker 1: and that I've got to get one. And of course

730
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:08,600
Speaker 1: i'd heard Jarles Harrison playing on Norwegian wood and thought, okay,

731
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:11,920
Speaker 1: I'm in. I'm sold. You know, I'm a sucker for

732
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 1: a great siding instrument. Anything strained, and I got one,

733
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:18,319
Speaker 1: which I still have to this day. I got it

734
00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 1: when I was eighteen. I still have it to this day,

735
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 1: the same one. Okay, so you're growing up, are you

736
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:27,040
Speaker 1: the kind of kid who's a loner? Remember the group?

737
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: You're a good student, bad student. I was a good student.

738
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:33,799
Speaker 1: I was good, but I was lazy because I was

739
00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:37,680
Speaker 1: more interested in music. I did just what I needed

740
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:41,080
Speaker 1: to get by, and I was very upset with my

741
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 1: dad said you got to go to extra math tuition

742
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:45,759
Speaker 1: because you're failing and you are not allowed to fail

743
00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: this class. So I hated him for it at the time,

744
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:53,800
Speaker 1: but I did end up getting my result all levels.

745
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: Over there, they have all levels and A levels. All

746
00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:00,040
Speaker 1: level is like high school. A level is more like

747
00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:02,399
Speaker 1: what you do to get into college. So I got

748
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:05,799
Speaker 1: six A levels, which stunned me. I was surprised as hell,

749
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:08,759
Speaker 1: but it meant I was ready to go to Art

750
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 1: college because that was my major. And I decided, just

751
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 1: before I was going to go, I'm not going to

752
00:47:15,160 --> 00:47:16,840
Speaker 1: go to Art college. I'm going to go to London.

753
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 1: So I had about well, my mom gave me what

754
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:24,400
Speaker 1: she had in her purse. It was eleven pounds, which

755
00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: was about twenty bucks. So I got on a train

756
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:30,839
Speaker 1: with my banjo, my guitar, my mandolin, and I went

757
00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: to London and I looked up a guy, Noel Murphy,

758
00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:38,359
Speaker 1: this wonderful Irish folks who just passed away a few

759
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:42,480
Speaker 1: months ago. Unfortunately, Noel had said to me once when

760
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:46,440
Speaker 1: he heard my playing in a pub in Scotland. He said,

761
00:47:46,719 --> 00:47:49,200
Speaker 1: listen man, you're crazy good. He said, if you're ever

762
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,640
Speaker 1: in London, looked me up. Well. When I heard that,

763
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:55,799
Speaker 1: I thought, okay. I went to London and I went

764
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 1: to his apartment and I knocked on the door, and

765
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 1: of course he answered it and said, um, what the

766
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:07,279
Speaker 1: fuck are you doing here? That was literally it. I mean,

767
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:10,160
Speaker 1: I went, you know, we started playing. He said, okay,

768
00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:12,880
Speaker 1: you might as well play, So we we. We began

769
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,440
Speaker 1: this very successful folk duo partnership, and we were a

770
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:22,600
Speaker 1: massive draw on the on the folk scene between like

771
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:26,240
Speaker 1: I don't know, sixty seven and sixty nine, and then

772
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,799
Speaker 1: I graduated to something a little more I don't know

773
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:32,760
Speaker 1: what you would call it, um folk pop or something

774
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 1: magna carta, a band like that. And see, there was

775
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 1: all this folk rock stuff going on at that period

776
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:43,799
Speaker 1: of time, and very many folk physicians like myself, we're

777
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:48,320
Speaker 1: getting snapped up by bands. Um, Dave Swarbrick got snapped

778
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:53,799
Speaker 1: up by Fairport Convention. Rick Wakeman got snapped up by

779
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:57,600
Speaker 1: the firstly by the Strobs and then by yes um

780
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,360
Speaker 1: people like Ralph mct hell were coming on the scene.

781
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:05,640
Speaker 1: I was playing with him also Kat Stevens, and then

782
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:08,319
Speaker 1: I got you know, I was starting to do session work.

783
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:10,920
Speaker 1: So when I did that a little bit slower, a

784
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:14,520
Speaker 1: little bit slower, how'd you get session work? Okay? Well

785
00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:19,440
Speaker 1: I got session work because basically from from my studio, sorry,

786
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 1: from my playing in pubs and playing in folk clubs. Basically,

787
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:25,160
Speaker 1: people would just call me up. They would hear me,

788
00:49:25,640 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 1: and they would say, look, I think you'd be great

789
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:29,920
Speaker 1: on this record. Will you do it? And I was

790
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:32,640
Speaker 1: like absolutely, I mean I never turned a gig down.

791
00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:35,560
Speaker 1: You don't do you don't turn a gig down. And

792
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:41,520
Speaker 1: so I started playing with those kind of people, you know,

793
00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 1: obscure kind of folk artists, but who had record deals.

794
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 1: Colin Scott, Ralph mctel was a bit of bit better

795
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 1: known Kat Stevens obviously, and Gus Dudgeon, Elton's producer at

796
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:59,640
Speaker 1: that time. Wait, before you get to Gus, you knock

797
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 1: on Murphy's door, you have twenty dollars in your pocket.

798
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 1: Do you end up sleeping in his apartment? What is

799
00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:11,160
Speaker 1: your lifestyle like before you work with Elton? And did

800
00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:17,799
Speaker 1: you ever contemplate giving up? Okay, this is a good

801
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:19,800
Speaker 1: run up to that, Bob, So I'll tell you what happened.

802
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:26,360
Speaker 1: So I'm fifteen years old. I'm working with a partner

803
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:31,399
Speaker 1: who's a wonderful singer called Titch. So we go by

804
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 1: the really original name of Titch and Davy, and we

805
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:41,080
Speaker 1: get really interesting people digging our stuff. Again. Folk clubs,

806
00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:44,040
Speaker 1: all folk music took place in pubs in those days.

807
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:46,839
Speaker 1: That's just what happened. I think it went to coffeehouses

808
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:50,880
Speaker 1: later on, but pubs were where it was very rosy

809
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: folk clubs, and again I was playing banjo at this

810
00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:57,920
Speaker 1: By this point, people were going shit crazy. Whenever I

811
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:02,040
Speaker 1: play one of the Dubliners reels or something Irish tunes,

812
00:51:02,239 --> 00:51:06,600
Speaker 1: they'd be going nuts. Per serk. So I was already

813
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:08,680
Speaker 1: a bit of an item. When I was fifteen as

814
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:13,400
Speaker 1: a banjo player, we suddenly started getting gigs supporting people

815
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,920
Speaker 1: like the Incredible String Band, and there was one band

816
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:19,839
Speaker 1: called the humble Bums. I don't know if you're aware

817
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:25,840
Speaker 1: of Jerry Rafferty, yes, and Billy Connolly right, was still

818
00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:30,760
Speaker 1: my friend to this date. Billy Connolly couldn't believe again

819
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:34,319
Speaker 1: my playing and what was going on with us. So

820
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 1: we became firm friends. And this is again, is all happening.

821
00:51:37,160 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 1: When I'm fifteen and sixteen years old. I continue to

822
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:42,600
Speaker 1: be close to Billy and these other guys who are

823
00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:45,239
Speaker 1: hearing me play, and they're all going, Jesus christ Man,

824
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:47,040
Speaker 1: you know you can do this or you can do that.

825
00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:53,279
Speaker 1: So me and my friend Titch hitchhike to Liverpool and

826
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:57,840
Speaker 1: we we just got there. We don't know anybody. We

827
00:51:58,040 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: end up staying at my aunties house and Soot, which

828
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,560
Speaker 1: is about half an hour on the train from Liverpool.

829
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:07,279
Speaker 1: And we go to Liverpool because the Beatles are from Liverpool.

830
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:11,640
Speaker 1: So we go there thinking maybe somebody will discover us.

831
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:14,680
Speaker 1: So we go to this area of very dodgy area

832
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:18,680
Speaker 1: near the Bluecoat Museum where some of those guys studied,

833
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:23,880
Speaker 1: and found this very very dodgy club called the Green Moose.

834
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:26,839
Speaker 1: And we went in there and there was all these

835
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:31,160
Speaker 1: hippies and folk singers, and there was one guy called

836
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 1: Willie Russell who's a friend of mine to this day.

837
00:52:35,719 --> 00:52:43,319
Speaker 1: He was a poet, writer and wonderful, wonderful singer. He

838
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 1: we got on immediately. Willy Russell turned out to be

839
00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:49,360
Speaker 1: one of the greatest playwrights and he is one of

840
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:54,040
Speaker 1: the greatest living playwrights in British history. He wrote. He

841
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:59,719
Speaker 1: went on to write Educating Rita and Blood Brothers Shirley Valentine,

842
00:53:00,280 --> 00:53:03,080
Speaker 1: and he's you know, living. He still lives in Liverpool

843
00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:07,280
Speaker 1: and has a place in Portugal. Anyway, I digress. Willy

844
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:11,319
Speaker 1: and I became firm friends. So suddenly you had me,

845
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:16,799
Speaker 1: Willy Russell, Billy Connolly, Noel Murphy, this kind of kind

846
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:20,080
Speaker 1: of gangster folk people, and we could drink more and

847
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:23,040
Speaker 1: smoke more harsh than anybody else, So we were rapidly

848
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:27,239
Speaker 1: getting a name. So I kind of had I was

849
00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 1: ready to go to London. People weren't that surprised when

850
00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 1: I showed it up there because they kind of knew

851
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:36,720
Speaker 1: who I was. So yes, Noel Murphy, apart from saying

852
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:39,640
Speaker 1: you know, what the fuck are you doing here, said okay,

853
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:43,200
Speaker 1: well you better come in. Maybe we should think about

854
00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:46,760
Speaker 1: talk about this, So you know, we rolled a few splits,

855
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:49,760
Speaker 1: talked about what we could possibly do together, and obviously

856
00:53:49,880 --> 00:53:53,280
Speaker 1: him being an Irish singer and me being an exponent

857
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 1: of the tenor banjo and mandolin acoustic guitar, we could

858
00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:02,000
Speaker 1: do this folk duo. So we were first called Murph

859
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:06,440
Speaker 1: and Shagas. That's another one of my names. Shagas was

860
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 1: a name that he came up with. You probably know

861
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:11,200
Speaker 1: what a haggas is, Bob, or maybe you don't, yeah,

862
00:54:11,239 --> 00:54:15,840
Speaker 1: but anyway, he thought, well, Davey resembles a shaggy Haggas,

863
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:18,640
Speaker 1: so I'm going to call him Shagas. So that was

864
00:54:18,719 --> 00:54:22,239
Speaker 1: my name for a couple of years too, and then

865
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:25,480
Speaker 1: eventually we decided to give ourselves more of a band name,

866
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 1: and we called ourselves Draft Porridge and in the in

867
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:33,920
Speaker 1: the latent days of the folks in there, Draft Porridge

868
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:36,960
Speaker 1: became quite a thing. So all this kind of thing

869
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:40,160
Speaker 1: was happening. People are starting to talk about us. We

870
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:44,400
Speaker 1: were getting this massive following, and eventually I get starting

871
00:54:44,440 --> 00:54:48,200
Speaker 1: to ask to do sessions. So that's where the gust

872
00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:51,759
Speaker 1: thing comes in. Okay, so Gus calls you, do you

873
00:54:51,840 --> 00:54:54,479
Speaker 1: know who Elton is? At that point? He's an empty Sky,

874
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:59,880
Speaker 1: which wasn't that successful the first self titled album, Tumbleweed Connection,

875
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:03,439
Speaker 1: never mind the live album and the Friends soundtrack. You're

876
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:06,880
Speaker 1: called by Gus? Is this just another gig? Or do

877
00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:12,560
Speaker 1: you say? Wow? Well? I had heard about Elton from

878
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:15,319
Speaker 1: Gus because Gus and I took a meeting. We had

879
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:19,160
Speaker 1: metturing sessions for this group, Magna Carta that I was

880
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:22,360
Speaker 1: with for about a year, and before I was a

881
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:25,719
Speaker 1: bona fide member of that group with a three piece

882
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:30,840
Speaker 1: folk group. Gus was producing them, so I was actually

883
00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:34,080
Speaker 1: a session man on that thing too. So that's where

884
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,839
Speaker 1: we first met and we took a meeting sometime after

885
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:40,719
Speaker 1: because I was so bold away by what he was

886
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: doing and the way he made my instrument sound. He

887
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: was obviously a schooled engineer as well as a great producer,

888
00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:49,560
Speaker 1: so we took a meeting one day and he told me,

889
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:52,000
Speaker 1: he said, I worked with this guy called Regge and

890
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 1: his real name, he's calling himself Elton John and he

891
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:59,480
Speaker 1: said he's just had a big successful show in la

892
00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:02,480
Speaker 1: and you probably be hearing about him, and I went okay,

893
00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:05,319
Speaker 1: and that's the first time I'd heard of him. And

894
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:08,239
Speaker 1: I remember going back to Scotland a few weeks later

895
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:11,319
Speaker 1: for a visit with my folks, and my dad and

896
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:14,120
Speaker 1: I were watching a show called Top of the Pops

897
00:56:14,160 --> 00:56:16,120
Speaker 1: which I think is probably still on in the UK,

898
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:23,120
Speaker 1: and Elton was on doing border song and I remember thinking, well,

899
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 1: this guy's got a killer voice. I love his piano playing,

900
00:56:27,320 --> 00:56:29,520
Speaker 1: and look at that head of hair. My dad and

901
00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:32,160
Speaker 1: me both said, look at this guy's here. He's got

902
00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:36,319
Speaker 1: this thickest, coolest looking head of hair we'd ever seen, right,

903
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:38,759
Speaker 1: And that was the first thing that kind of I

904
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:41,680
Speaker 1: noticed about him. So anyway, I went back down to

905
00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:46,240
Speaker 1: London and I've done a couple of months later or something,

906
00:56:46,920 --> 00:56:50,360
Speaker 1: Gus calls me and said, look, I'm doing a poetry

907
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 1: album with Bernie Taupin. The idea is for to do

908
00:56:57,080 --> 00:57:02,280
Speaker 1: acoustic album whereby yourself, if you're into it, Caleb Quay,

909
00:57:03,960 --> 00:57:09,560
Speaker 1: Sean Phillips, the American musician, and a couple of other

910
00:57:09,560 --> 00:57:11,800
Speaker 1: people here and there are going to be in the studio.

911
00:57:12,440 --> 00:57:17,480
Speaker 1: Bernie is going to recite his poetry and you guys

912
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:20,360
Speaker 1: will play whatever you want in the background. You bring

913
00:57:20,360 --> 00:57:24,560
Speaker 1: your guitar, your sitar, your mandolin, and Bernie's just going

914
00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:27,280
Speaker 1: to read poetry. You're going to smoke a lot of dope,

915
00:57:27,280 --> 00:57:29,400
Speaker 1: and then you're going to play whatever comes into your head.

916
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:33,360
Speaker 1: So that's what happened. I showed up at the studio.

917
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:37,440
Speaker 1: I met Bernie, who was a great guy. Straightaway, got

918
00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:41,600
Speaker 1: un fantastic with him, and that's what we did. We

919
00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:45,640
Speaker 1: sat around and got to know each other. Gus was producing,

920
00:57:46,080 --> 00:57:48,840
Speaker 1: Clive Franks was engineering. Clive went on to be our

921
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:52,560
Speaker 1: front of house guy. So this album was so much

922
00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:56,520
Speaker 1: fun to record because Caleb and I were just We

923
00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:58,400
Speaker 1: got to know each other on that record, and it

924
00:57:58,480 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 1: was obvious that at some point we would do some

925
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:04,120
Speaker 1: other stuff together. It was just one of those things.

926
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 1: So after Bernie's recordings, I guess Bernie must have said

927
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:14,360
Speaker 1: to Elton, you've got to check this guy out. And

928
00:58:15,160 --> 00:58:17,720
Speaker 1: I got the call to do the mad Mare across

929
00:58:17,760 --> 00:58:24,360
Speaker 1: the Water thing, and I showed up with more stuff

930
00:58:24,400 --> 00:58:26,919
Speaker 1: than they asked me for. I was booked to play

931
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:32,800
Speaker 1: banjo on a song called holiday En, so I brought

932
00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:36,680
Speaker 1: my banjo. I also brought my mandolin, and for some

933
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:42,600
Speaker 1: reason I brought my sitar and walked into the studio.

934
00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:47,080
Speaker 1: In those days, he was he was reg so Gus

935
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:49,760
Speaker 1: introduced me, and he was very very shy. Elton was

936
00:58:49,760 --> 00:58:52,960
Speaker 1: sitting his piano, didn't he wasn't really into eye contact.

937
00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:55,840
Speaker 1: He was just looking at the piano and it seemed

938
00:58:55,920 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 1: quite shy and nervous. And I said, okay, well can

939
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:00,760
Speaker 1: you play me the song we're going to do? And

940
00:59:01,120 --> 00:59:06,520
Speaker 1: he played the song and I straight away said, well,

941
00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:09,200
Speaker 1: I don't think it's banjo on that. I think mandolin

942
00:59:09,280 --> 00:59:14,160
Speaker 1: is going to be better. And he said okay, let's

943
00:59:14,160 --> 00:59:17,480
Speaker 1: try that, and then to go one more. After we

944
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:20,680
Speaker 1: ran the song down a couple of times. He didn't

945
00:59:20,760 --> 00:59:23,680
Speaker 1: have an intro for it, and Gosus said well, how

946
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:26,160
Speaker 1: are you going to start it? And Elton said, well,

947
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:28,479
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure. And I said, well, why don't

948
00:59:28,480 --> 00:59:31,520
Speaker 1: you just start it? It's just me, like a nineteen

949
00:59:31,600 --> 00:59:33,880
Speaker 1: year old kid from Scotland, and I said, why don't

950
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:36,880
Speaker 1: you just started straight in? I said, it sounds like

951
00:59:36,920 --> 00:59:40,160
Speaker 1: you've just come in with that bust, and I last

952
00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:43,680
Speaker 1: that just come in you me and I'm coming with

953
00:59:43,680 --> 00:59:46,000
Speaker 1: the mandolin and the piano, and that's what we'll do.

954
00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:50,600
Speaker 1: And he went, okay, let's try that soap full of

955
00:59:50,640 --> 00:59:53,360
Speaker 1: shit young scotsman, you know. So we do that, and

956
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:57,240
Speaker 1: every he goes, that's great. So here I am surrounded

957
00:59:57,280 --> 01:00:03,160
Speaker 1: by people like Herbie Flowers, Barry Morgan, I mean, brilliant musicians,

958
01:00:03,200 --> 01:00:07,680
Speaker 1: Chris Spedding, Ray Cooper, all these great wonderful session players,

959
01:00:07,680 --> 01:00:11,040
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting there and going, okay, this is really

960
01:00:11,040 --> 01:00:14,240
Speaker 1: getting interesting. I'm working with these guys and straight away

961
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:17,720
Speaker 1: you could tell, okay, these guys are they're the cream.

962
01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:20,640
Speaker 1: I've done a bunch of sessions, but this is another

963
01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:24,360
Speaker 1: another world, you know. So then the next song he

964
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:27,040
Speaker 1: asked me to play. I believe it was the song

965
01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:29,640
Speaker 1: that they had originally wanted me to try, which was

966
01:00:29,680 --> 01:00:33,240
Speaker 1: the title track of that record, mad Man Across the Water,

967
01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:36,280
Speaker 1: and I found out later they tried it with a

968
01:00:36,280 --> 01:00:39,520
Speaker 1: couple of other guys. They tried it with Mick Ronson,

969
01:00:39,560 --> 01:00:42,600
Speaker 1: who was also a dear friend of mine, and Michael Chapman,

970
01:00:42,680 --> 01:00:45,680
Speaker 1: another friend of mine, who was a wonderful folk guitar player.

971
01:00:46,680 --> 01:00:49,320
Speaker 1: They'd done versions and for whatever reason, it hadn't been

972
01:00:49,360 --> 01:00:53,160
Speaker 1: what they needed, and so they said, this is the

973
01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:55,920
Speaker 1: riff for the piano, like for this song I have.

974
01:00:56,640 --> 01:01:01,760
Speaker 1: So he played the riff for Madman and I was

975
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:05,560
Speaker 1: sitting there next to him with my guitar, and I said, well,

976
01:01:05,600 --> 01:01:09,400
Speaker 1: what about this? And I'm very much a first I'm

977
01:01:09,640 --> 01:01:12,479
Speaker 1: I'm an ideas guy, and my first ideas are usually

978
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:14,680
Speaker 1: the ones that are best, just the way it works

979
01:01:14,680 --> 01:01:18,160
Speaker 1: with me. And I played what I thought, and they

980
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:22,560
Speaker 1: all said, you know, Elton Gus and Steve Brown was

981
01:01:22,720 --> 01:01:27,120
Speaker 1: the manager at that point, that's it, eureka. So we

982
01:01:27,240 --> 01:01:30,680
Speaker 1: cut it and yeah, and I went on to play

983
01:01:30,720 --> 01:01:34,360
Speaker 1: on a few other tracks on that album. See on

984
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:37,440
Speaker 1: those in those days you probably know this, Boblem. I'm

985
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:40,200
Speaker 1: sure you do. And those days when artists were doing

986
01:01:40,240 --> 01:01:44,120
Speaker 1: an album, they had to do, you know, a three

987
01:01:44,120 --> 01:01:46,439
Speaker 1: hour session, you know, you had to get at least

988
01:01:46,440 --> 01:01:49,040
Speaker 1: one track done, usually more. If you could do more,

989
01:01:49,080 --> 01:01:52,600
Speaker 1: you would, you know, so for a day's work, say

990
01:01:52,600 --> 01:01:55,120
Speaker 1: if you were doing two full sessions, you'd hope to

991
01:01:55,160 --> 01:01:58,760
Speaker 1: get three finished tracks. And we did, you know one

992
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:02,320
Speaker 1: of the next afternoon as we got a tiny d

993
01:02:02,320 --> 01:02:07,560
Speaker 1: answer leave on and I think we did some more. Yeah,

994
01:02:07,560 --> 01:02:09,400
Speaker 1: that's what I did the overdubs on holiday and I

995
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:14,479
Speaker 1: did suitar and and extra stuff on that and yeah,

996
01:02:14,480 --> 01:02:20,000
Speaker 1: so the work rate impressed me. The songs really impressed me.

997
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:24,960
Speaker 1: Elton's voice, the piano playing, I mean, I was hooked.

998
01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:27,320
Speaker 1: I thought, this this guy is great. I mean, it's

999
01:02:27,320 --> 01:02:29,320
Speaker 1: the best thing I've heard in a long time. So

1000
01:02:29,400 --> 01:02:32,520
Speaker 1: I went back to my little cottage in Oxford Shore

1001
01:02:32,560 --> 01:02:34,360
Speaker 1: where I was living with my first wife and our

1002
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:38,360
Speaker 1: little baby. And a few days later I got the

1003
01:02:38,400 --> 01:02:43,320
Speaker 1: call um from Steve Brown who who said, um, he

1004
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:46,320
Speaker 1: would like you to join his trio. He wants to

1005
01:02:46,640 --> 01:02:51,360
Speaker 1: be a quartet with you on guitar. And I was like, wow, okay,

1006
01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:55,080
Speaker 1: I said, well that's really I'm flattered. I said, but

1007
01:02:55,480 --> 01:02:58,120
Speaker 1: can I think about it? And he said of course,

1008
01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:00,400
Speaker 1: you know, um, and I said you know what, I

1009
01:03:00,400 --> 01:03:03,560
Speaker 1: don't need to think about it. I'm in I'd love

1010
01:03:03,560 --> 01:03:08,120
Speaker 1: to do it. So that was it. And believe it

1011
01:03:08,240 --> 01:03:11,919
Speaker 1: or not, between that conversation, I saw Elton a couple

1012
01:03:11,960 --> 01:03:17,160
Speaker 1: of times shopping in the King's Road and he was

1013
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:20,720
Speaker 1: so he was a different character. He was friendly, exuberant

1014
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:23,400
Speaker 1: and buoyant, and maybe because he realized that I wasn't

1015
01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:26,720
Speaker 1: just a bullshitter or something, and we became We were

1016
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:29,680
Speaker 1: good mates at that point. But I still hadn't met

1017
01:03:30,080 --> 01:03:33,280
Speaker 1: d Murray the bass player. I'd met Nigel, but I'd

1018
01:03:33,280 --> 01:03:35,560
Speaker 1: never played with him because they didn't play on the

1019
01:03:36,080 --> 01:03:41,080
Speaker 1: albums in those days. So here I am, this upstart

1020
01:03:41,160 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 1: guitar player just turning twenty, and I'm arriving in the

1021
01:03:48,720 --> 01:03:52,800
Speaker 1: chateau nor rehearsal because, as I told you at the

1022
01:03:52,840 --> 01:03:56,000
Speaker 1: beginning of this whole thing, Alton makes to rehearse. I said,

1023
01:03:56,040 --> 01:03:57,680
Speaker 1: aren't we got to at least have a run through

1024
01:03:57,800 --> 01:04:00,880
Speaker 1: with Dea, Nigel and you, and now it's gonna be fine.

1025
01:04:01,760 --> 01:04:04,720
Speaker 1: So we get there and we literally start playing together

1026
01:04:05,760 --> 01:04:16,160
Speaker 1: in the chateau, and that's how it all started. Okay,

1027
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:20,480
Speaker 1: a couple of questions. Yes, the sounds are very different

1028
01:04:21,120 --> 01:04:24,920
Speaker 1: from your perspective. What's the difference with Gus Dudgeon as

1029
01:04:24,920 --> 01:04:30,920
Speaker 1: a producer Chris Thomas. Wow, Well, I find that all

1030
01:04:30,960 --> 01:04:34,000
Speaker 1: producers are really different because they all put their own

1031
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:40,800
Speaker 1: mark on things. Gus being an engineer at Decca Records

1032
01:04:40,880 --> 01:04:42,840
Speaker 1: before he even became a producer. I mean, he was

1033
01:04:42,880 --> 01:04:45,320
Speaker 1: one of those engineers with a white coat and the

1034
01:04:45,320 --> 01:04:47,160
Speaker 1: whole thing, like in Abby Road they had in the

1035
01:04:47,160 --> 01:04:50,360
Speaker 1: early days, and so he really learned about how to

1036
01:04:50,480 --> 01:04:57,000
Speaker 1: make up instruments properly and the the whole thing. And we

1037
01:04:57,120 --> 01:05:02,280
Speaker 1: began to have a wonderful relationship because thinking about you know,

1038
01:05:02,520 --> 01:05:04,760
Speaker 1: Alton was the only other melodic guy in the band.

1039
01:05:04,800 --> 01:05:08,480
Speaker 1: He played piano and occasionally he would do an overdub

1040
01:05:08,520 --> 01:05:12,680
Speaker 1: on Melotron or far Fisa Oregon if something that was

1041
01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:14,840
Speaker 1: lying around. But really I was the guy doing the

1042
01:05:15,280 --> 01:05:19,360
Speaker 1: other instruments and guitar overdubs obviously, and bought other textures

1043
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:22,800
Speaker 1: who wanted and we'd employ them in every album. It

1044
01:05:22,960 --> 01:05:27,680
Speaker 1: was a very very very close knit now and that

1045
01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:31,120
Speaker 1: happened for all these classic records now in the eighties

1046
01:05:31,200 --> 01:05:37,400
Speaker 1: when Alton when we reformed because Alton famously or whatever

1047
01:05:37,800 --> 01:05:41,080
Speaker 1: got the original band back together. At the end of

1048
01:05:41,200 --> 01:05:44,840
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one called me saying, I want to get

1049
01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:47,640
Speaker 1: Dea nageling you together again with me, just the four

1050
01:05:47,640 --> 01:05:50,280
Speaker 1: of us, and we go back into the studio. This

1051
01:05:50,320 --> 01:05:52,040
Speaker 1: time I want to go in with Chris Thomas because

1052
01:05:52,080 --> 01:05:55,040
Speaker 1: I've been working with him and I'd like to try that,

1053
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:59,240
Speaker 1: And I said great, So we all went to We

1054
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:01,920
Speaker 1: did a whole year of touring before we did an album,

1055
01:06:02,440 --> 01:06:05,440
Speaker 1: which was kind of cool. Who went straight into touring

1056
01:06:05,920 --> 01:06:08,720
Speaker 1: and obviously it was like we'd never stopped playing together.

1057
01:06:08,800 --> 01:06:13,120
Speaker 1: And so after the year of touring, we went to Montserrat,

1058
01:06:13,920 --> 01:06:19,120
Speaker 1: George Martin's air studio out there with Chris producing. And

1059
01:06:20,120 --> 01:06:22,240
Speaker 1: we've always enjoyed that way of working, by the way,

1060
01:06:22,280 --> 01:06:26,680
Speaker 1: that residential area where you're kind of prisoners together. You're

1061
01:06:26,680 --> 01:06:28,960
Speaker 1: all in one area, you know, where you get to

1062
01:06:29,720 --> 01:06:32,800
Speaker 1: live and work together and have breakfast and maybe come

1063
01:06:32,880 --> 01:06:35,360
Speaker 1: up with an idea of dinner together and go to

1064
01:06:35,400 --> 01:06:38,760
Speaker 1: bed and wake up start again. So we've always enjoyed

1065
01:06:38,800 --> 01:06:42,080
Speaker 1: that way of work. So Montserrat was a natural follow

1066
01:06:42,120 --> 01:06:44,560
Speaker 1: on to our work at the Chateau and also at

1067
01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:50,280
Speaker 1: Carriboo Ranch. So we get to Montserrat. I had met

1068
01:06:50,360 --> 01:06:54,560
Speaker 1: Chris previously. I met him up at Paul McCartney's studio

1069
01:06:54,560 --> 01:06:56,920
Speaker 1: in the malof Kintire when he was doing one of

1070
01:06:56,960 --> 01:07:00,240
Speaker 1: Paul's albums, and we got on very well, and what

1071
01:07:00,240 --> 01:07:01,880
Speaker 1: a great guy, you know. And I loved his work

1072
01:07:01,920 --> 01:07:05,720
Speaker 1: on Beatle's White album. I loved his work on Tender Stuff,

1073
01:07:06,160 --> 01:07:10,040
Speaker 1: which I was starting to hear. Chris and I became

1074
01:07:10,160 --> 01:07:13,479
Speaker 1: very close because of what we were started doing straight

1075
01:07:13,520 --> 01:07:16,760
Speaker 1: away because he also, like me, likes to work very quickly,

1076
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:20,360
Speaker 1: and also like Gus, Gus was always a very quick worker.

1077
01:07:20,480 --> 01:07:23,800
Speaker 1: So we're very fortunate that all those guys liked to

1078
01:07:23,880 --> 01:07:26,920
Speaker 1: work the way that Elton liked to work, which is,

1079
01:07:27,240 --> 01:07:30,800
Speaker 1: hang onto your hat. You better be stayed with us

1080
01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:33,240
Speaker 1: because this is going to be fast, and we don't

1081
01:07:33,600 --> 01:07:36,880
Speaker 1: fuck around the studios like Howard Ground to us, so

1082
01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:41,000
Speaker 1: that once we've run a song twice, we're ready to

1083
01:07:41,040 --> 01:07:44,240
Speaker 1: take it. I mean I'm talking about from when it's written,

1084
01:07:45,000 --> 01:07:48,880
Speaker 1: run down, played and recorded. That's what we do, you know.

1085
01:07:48,960 --> 01:07:52,880
Speaker 1: So it's like hang on to your hat because we

1086
01:07:52,920 --> 01:07:55,880
Speaker 1: ain't stopping for anybody. So Chris was quite used to

1087
01:07:55,920 --> 01:07:58,520
Speaker 1: work in that way and loved it and loved what

1088
01:07:58,560 --> 01:08:01,040
Speaker 1: we were doing, and I loved what he was doing

1089
01:08:01,080 --> 01:08:04,600
Speaker 1: because it was a different way of approaching guitars as well,

1090
01:08:04,680 --> 01:08:09,520
Speaker 1: because he brought that more chiangly sound of the of

1091
01:08:09,560 --> 01:08:14,080
Speaker 1: the eighties guitar wise in but he loved again what

1092
01:08:14,200 --> 01:08:17,640
Speaker 1: I'd do Les Paul Wise. In fact, we began to

1093
01:08:17,720 --> 01:08:24,360
Speaker 1: call my Les Paul work BF cheese. And the reason

1094
01:08:24,400 --> 01:08:27,120
Speaker 1: for that became was who we came to an overdub

1095
01:08:28,640 --> 01:08:30,439
Speaker 1: and he'd say, you know what, I can really hear

1096
01:08:30,479 --> 01:08:34,040
Speaker 1: some big fact Gibson's on this, and I would say, yeah,

1097
01:08:34,040 --> 01:08:38,280
Speaker 1: that's a great idea. So big fact Gibson's became, you know,

1098
01:08:38,560 --> 01:08:43,040
Speaker 1: this term for really loud, overdriven Les Paul sound, you know.

1099
01:08:43,600 --> 01:08:46,080
Speaker 1: And so yeah, Chris and I get gotten great for

1100
01:08:46,120 --> 01:08:49,439
Speaker 1: all these records. And but in the eighties Elton did

1101
01:08:49,960 --> 01:08:53,439
Speaker 1: change around quite a bit. You know. He went a

1102
01:08:53,439 --> 01:08:57,280
Speaker 1: couple or three albums with Chris, then back to Gus

1103
01:08:57,280 --> 01:09:02,679
Speaker 1: again for a couple of records and then a live album,

1104
01:09:03,040 --> 01:09:08,280
Speaker 1: and he kept having hits, which was fucking awesome. So yeah,

1105
01:09:08,360 --> 01:09:11,120
Speaker 1: it was as far as the difference between them, I

1106
01:09:11,200 --> 01:09:15,679
Speaker 1: must admit I equally loved working with Gus and Chris Thomas.

1107
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:20,519
Speaker 1: Both brilliant in their own way. Okay, so you're asked

1108
01:09:20,520 --> 01:09:24,599
Speaker 1: to join the band, you're at the chateau. Everyone had

1109
01:09:24,600 --> 01:09:28,280
Speaker 1: a fantasy of what the chateau was until the Beg's

1110
01:09:28,400 --> 01:09:31,519
Speaker 1: documentary showed it and looked like kind of a dump.

1111
01:09:32,080 --> 01:09:39,280
Speaker 1: So what was the chateau like? Well, it was pretty

1112
01:09:39,360 --> 01:09:42,800
Speaker 1: run down. I mean it really was, definitely, but let's

1113
01:09:42,840 --> 01:09:45,760
Speaker 1: face it, it was a French chateau. I mean, from

1114
01:09:45,760 --> 01:09:50,280
Speaker 1: the outside it looked incredible. It was like two buildings,

1115
01:09:50,880 --> 01:09:56,000
Speaker 1: both chateau esque and their design wonderful old buildings, beautiful

1116
01:09:56,000 --> 01:10:00,559
Speaker 1: old buildings. And one building was the residential part. The

1117
01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:03,960
Speaker 1: other side was where the studio was in. And when

1118
01:10:03,960 --> 01:10:08,560
Speaker 1: I say run down, you know, they had sweeping staircases

1119
01:10:09,120 --> 01:10:12,400
Speaker 1: stuff like that, but there were It wasn't much a

1120
01:10:12,520 --> 01:10:18,160
Speaker 1: dormant There wasn't like old fashioned, beautiful framed guilt photograph.

1121
01:10:18,200 --> 01:10:21,680
Speaker 1: There was nothing like that. I mean, any pictures in

1122
01:10:21,720 --> 01:10:25,240
Speaker 1: the rooms, which were kind of shabby too, were just

1123
01:10:25,320 --> 01:10:27,479
Speaker 1: kind of something stuck up there and pinned up there.

1124
01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:33,240
Speaker 1: It was definitely not somewhere suave. This was somewhere where

1125
01:10:33,280 --> 01:10:38,840
Speaker 1: you'd probably go to make a porno movie, right, And

1126
01:10:38,880 --> 01:10:42,800
Speaker 1: I believe later on sometime in the late eighties. That's

1127
01:10:42,800 --> 01:10:46,960
Speaker 1: exactly what started going on there, which is tragic, but

1128
01:10:47,160 --> 01:10:50,840
Speaker 1: it was the idea of being in France, being about

1129
01:10:50,880 --> 01:10:54,840
Speaker 1: twenty miles from Paris and the middle of nowhere, all

1130
01:10:54,920 --> 01:10:58,440
Speaker 1: living together, you know, waking up, going down for breakfast,

1131
01:10:58,960 --> 01:11:01,960
Speaker 1: having a bit of baguet and some cheese and some coffee,

1132
01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:06,759
Speaker 1: and then starting to play. That's what it would be like. Literally,

1133
01:11:06,800 --> 01:11:10,320
Speaker 1: I would come down in the morning and Elton that

1134
01:11:10,320 --> 01:11:13,280
Speaker 1: would already be there sitting at an electric offender rose piano,

1135
01:11:13,840 --> 01:11:17,120
Speaker 1: playing away and obviously writing something, and I'd grab a

1136
01:11:17,160 --> 01:11:19,200
Speaker 1: baguette and a coffee and I wander over to where

1137
01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:23,280
Speaker 1: he was sit down, and I vividly remember him starting

1138
01:11:23,320 --> 01:11:28,519
Speaker 1: to write things like Honky Cat there and thinking, oh

1139
01:11:28,600 --> 01:11:32,519
Speaker 1: banjo straight away and late, you know, later in the day,

1140
01:11:32,560 --> 01:11:34,640
Speaker 1: would be working on something and he'd go, oh, this

1141
01:11:34,720 --> 01:11:38,559
Speaker 1: song called Salvation another wonderful deep Cup, which ended up

1142
01:11:38,680 --> 01:11:41,919
Speaker 1: being the first track that we actually recorded for those sessions.

1143
01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:46,120
Speaker 1: I remember the way he started Rocketman and we were

1144
01:11:46,160 --> 01:11:48,880
Speaker 1: looking at each other at this point, the four of us,

1145
01:11:49,439 --> 01:11:56,719
Speaker 1: and going, okay, this is really really special because during Rocketman,

1146
01:11:56,800 --> 01:11:59,720
Speaker 1: when we were mucking around with the basic idea for it.

1147
01:12:00,400 --> 01:12:04,920
Speaker 1: We'd start doing backgrounds. D and Nigellavy, we start owing

1148
01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:10,120
Speaker 1: and I and we've never sung before together, but straight

1149
01:12:10,120 --> 01:12:12,320
Speaker 1: away it sounded like, oh, okay, this is going to

1150
01:12:12,400 --> 01:12:15,719
Speaker 1: be fun, this is going to be really great. And again,

1151
01:12:15,760 --> 01:12:21,760
Speaker 1: because we were so self contained, Alton keyboards, Me on

1152
01:12:21,960 --> 01:12:25,320
Speaker 1: guitars and other strain instruments, Nigel and drums, and D

1153
01:12:25,479 --> 01:12:29,080
Speaker 1: on bass, and all of us on backgrounds, we didn't

1154
01:12:29,120 --> 01:12:31,280
Speaker 1: need anybody else. Because he didn't want to have a

1155
01:12:31,760 --> 01:12:34,799
Speaker 1: live I didn't want to have a livish orchestral sounding record.

1156
01:12:35,000 --> 01:12:37,400
Speaker 1: He wanted this one to be a band, to sound

1157
01:12:37,520 --> 01:12:43,720
Speaker 1: like a band, you know, And I think we achieved that. Okay,

1158
01:12:43,760 --> 01:12:48,800
Speaker 1: that's successful, and you're on the road. Meanwhile, now you're

1159
01:12:48,840 --> 01:12:51,599
Speaker 1: a member of the band. To what dig we are

1160
01:12:51,600 --> 01:12:56,160
Speaker 1: you saying I'm getting a steady paycheck, but maybe I'm

1161
01:12:56,200 --> 01:13:04,559
Speaker 1: missing out on other opportunities with other people? You mean? Yeah, Well,

1162
01:13:04,560 --> 01:13:07,200
Speaker 1: you know, Bob, here's the here's the kicker for the

1163
01:13:07,240 --> 01:13:12,160
Speaker 1: whole thing. Because as soon as we started doing this

1164
01:13:14,320 --> 01:13:19,759
Speaker 1: um honky Chateau, this first album, I mean, Madman Across

1165
01:13:19,800 --> 01:13:21,920
Speaker 1: the Water was already doing very well. It was starting

1166
01:13:21,920 --> 01:13:24,040
Speaker 1: to do stuff in the chart, so that was exciting

1167
01:13:24,439 --> 01:13:28,640
Speaker 1: knowing that there was something happening for when we went

1168
01:13:28,680 --> 01:13:31,760
Speaker 1: to the States. But Honky Chateau, we finished it in

1169
01:13:31,760 --> 01:13:34,760
Speaker 1: two weeks. It was all. It was done in two weeks,

1170
01:13:34,840 --> 01:13:39,080
Speaker 1: so straight away it was quite obvious, Okay, we're going

1171
01:13:39,120 --> 01:13:41,360
Speaker 1: to get back to London. We're going to do a

1172
01:13:41,400 --> 01:13:44,559
Speaker 1: concert at the Raw Festival Hall with our orchestra, so

1173
01:13:44,600 --> 01:13:47,920
Speaker 1: we're going to promote madmu Across the Water. We'll do

1174
01:13:47,960 --> 01:13:50,880
Speaker 1: it with you know, all the guys who played on

1175
01:13:50,920 --> 01:13:56,680
Speaker 1: the record, and then the second half will be the

1176
01:13:56,720 --> 01:13:58,920
Speaker 1: band set, no other way around. Band will do the

1177
01:13:58,960 --> 01:14:02,320
Speaker 1: first half set and we'll promote the new album. We'll

1178
01:14:02,360 --> 01:14:05,120
Speaker 1: play the new album live and the second half will

1179
01:14:05,160 --> 01:14:08,559
Speaker 1: be the orchestral set with the whole of Madness Across

1180
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:12,120
Speaker 1: the Water and a few things from like your song,

1181
01:14:12,640 --> 01:14:16,160
Speaker 1: Border Song, Burned Down the Mission, you know all that

1182
01:14:16,240 --> 01:14:21,400
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So already there was this plan. We

1183
01:14:21,400 --> 01:14:24,360
Speaker 1: were on this train and nobody was getting off. It

1184
01:14:24,439 --> 01:14:26,599
Speaker 1: was like, this is what it's going to be. So

1185
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:29,519
Speaker 1: we did the festival whole show, which was televised as well.

1186
01:14:29,960 --> 01:14:32,280
Speaker 1: I believe there's some kind of anniversary thing coming out

1187
01:14:32,760 --> 01:14:37,240
Speaker 1: around about now, about that we did. That show went

1188
01:14:37,280 --> 01:14:41,400
Speaker 1: off great, and a couple of weeks later, we're going

1189
01:14:41,439 --> 01:14:44,040
Speaker 1: off to America and I'm going there for my first time.

1190
01:14:46,920 --> 01:14:49,920
Speaker 1: Twenty year old kid going Okay, this is crazy. And

1191
01:14:50,000 --> 01:14:53,679
Speaker 1: I must admit at that point after the Festival Hall show,

1192
01:14:53,720 --> 01:14:57,759
Speaker 1: I was a little bit. I was a little bit unsure.

1193
01:14:57,840 --> 01:15:00,120
Speaker 1: In fact, I told Elton. I called Elton about for

1194
01:15:00,200 --> 01:15:02,439
Speaker 1: the gig and I said to him, look, you know what,

1195
01:15:03,240 --> 01:15:07,280
Speaker 1: I think you need a tried, intrude, you know, rock

1196
01:15:07,360 --> 01:15:10,720
Speaker 1: guitar player, because I don't know if I'm really into

1197
01:15:10,720 --> 01:15:13,559
Speaker 1: all this. Posing See, the band never told me. The

1198
01:15:13,600 --> 01:15:15,679
Speaker 1: other guy has never told me what is what their

1199
01:15:15,720 --> 01:15:18,960
Speaker 1: live show was like, so I had no parameters. I'd

1200
01:15:18,960 --> 01:15:22,000
Speaker 1: know nothing. I'd know, you know, no idea what to

1201
01:15:22,040 --> 01:15:24,800
Speaker 1: expect when we got on stage that first time. And

1202
01:15:24,960 --> 01:15:27,439
Speaker 1: not that it was that outrageous, but it was different.

1203
01:15:28,080 --> 01:15:30,000
Speaker 1: And I was coming into a scene that I was

1204
01:15:30,160 --> 01:15:33,559
Speaker 1: wholly unfamiliar with. You know, I was a little folk musician.

1205
01:15:34,640 --> 01:15:36,680
Speaker 1: Granted I'd played some good shit on the album and

1206
01:15:36,880 --> 01:15:39,720
Speaker 1: I was often running, but I had an awful lot

1207
01:15:39,720 --> 01:15:42,799
Speaker 1: to learn. So I was unsure. So I said to Welton,

1208
01:15:42,880 --> 01:15:44,960
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if i'm your he said,

1209
01:15:45,000 --> 01:15:48,280
Speaker 1: you're the guy. He said, I know it. I knew

1210
01:15:48,280 --> 01:15:50,000
Speaker 1: it as soon as I met you, as soon as

1211
01:15:50,000 --> 01:15:53,559
Speaker 1: I heard you playing. I've you've done the first album.

1212
01:15:53,640 --> 01:15:56,080
Speaker 1: It sounds great. Let's just go with it. It's going

1213
01:15:56,120 --> 01:15:59,160
Speaker 1: to be cool, You're going to be fine, and so

1214
01:15:59,760 --> 01:16:04,160
Speaker 1: we went for it. Yeah, okay, Well let me ask

1215
01:16:04,160 --> 01:16:09,799
Speaker 1: you this. Famously, Bernie writes the lyrics, gives him to Elton.

1216
01:16:10,160 --> 01:16:14,360
Speaker 1: He comes up with the melody the song to what

1217
01:16:14,600 --> 01:16:20,760
Speaker 1: we were others involved, yourself included obviously. Do you mean

1218
01:16:20,880 --> 01:16:27,840
Speaker 1: during that writing Yeah, okay, during the writing process, we'd

1219
01:16:27,880 --> 01:16:30,760
Speaker 1: all be I mean, occasionally he'd be on his own

1220
01:16:31,080 --> 01:16:33,920
Speaker 1: and maybe he'd finished something and rushed through and say, guys,

1221
01:16:33,920 --> 01:16:37,840
Speaker 1: listen to this. But much of the time, in fact,

1222
01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:42,280
Speaker 1: most of the time, we'd be all sitting together, either

1223
01:16:42,320 --> 01:16:44,639
Speaker 1: in the breakfast room, where we had a little semi

1224
01:16:44,720 --> 01:16:48,320
Speaker 1: sarkle of instruments and so we could all play whenever

1225
01:16:48,360 --> 01:16:53,400
Speaker 1: we wanted, or in the studio, where he'd well, maybe

1226
01:16:53,439 --> 01:16:56,080
Speaker 1: we'd we'd go from the breakfast room over to the

1227
01:16:56,160 --> 01:16:59,200
Speaker 1: studio to record a track that we were happy with.

1228
01:16:59,280 --> 01:17:02,320
Speaker 1: Let's lay that down. And after we'd laid that down.

1229
01:17:02,920 --> 01:17:06,640
Speaker 1: He would say, Bernie got a Bernie wouldn't even be there.

1230
01:17:06,680 --> 01:17:08,439
Speaker 1: Most of the time, we just look at another lyric

1231
01:17:08,479 --> 01:17:10,479
Speaker 1: and go and put it up there on the piano.

1232
01:17:10,880 --> 01:17:13,519
Speaker 1: And he started fucking around. And we were just on

1233
01:17:13,640 --> 01:17:16,080
Speaker 1: the basic track for the for the first song, and

1234
01:17:16,160 --> 01:17:19,640
Speaker 1: he's already writing the second song. So I would be

1235
01:17:19,680 --> 01:17:22,600
Speaker 1: sitting next to him with an acoustic guitar, and I

1236
01:17:22,800 --> 01:17:24,439
Speaker 1: have a pad of paper with me, and I start,

1237
01:17:24,520 --> 01:17:26,800
Speaker 1: you know, sketching down a couple of chords. When I

1238
01:17:26,800 --> 01:17:29,679
Speaker 1: see where he's going with it. D would be plunking

1239
01:17:29,720 --> 01:17:31,799
Speaker 1: away in the background. We'd all would all be listening,

1240
01:17:32,560 --> 01:17:35,000
Speaker 1: so that by the time the song was actually written,

1241
01:17:36,880 --> 01:17:40,360
Speaker 1: we all felt invested in it because we were we

1242
01:17:40,360 --> 01:17:42,960
Speaker 1: were all there, and you know, occasionally there would be

1243
01:17:42,960 --> 01:17:44,559
Speaker 1: the odd thing of oh what about that instead of

1244
01:17:44,560 --> 01:17:49,080
Speaker 1: that or something, you know, but it was just like

1245
01:17:49,160 --> 01:17:53,320
Speaker 1: this machine that wouldn't stop. And Elton was on such

1246
01:17:53,360 --> 01:17:58,760
Speaker 1: a role which carried him on. Really. He went on

1247
01:17:58,760 --> 01:18:03,599
Speaker 1: this role for so many years where he was actually

1248
01:18:03,640 --> 01:18:07,760
Speaker 1: the song write up, no question about it. It wasn't

1249
01:18:07,800 --> 01:18:10,120
Speaker 1: until later on in the seventies when I started writing

1250
01:18:10,160 --> 01:18:12,720
Speaker 1: a few things with him and other people did and

1251
01:18:12,760 --> 01:18:16,360
Speaker 1: again in the eighties that he started. He was on

1252
01:18:16,439 --> 01:18:18,559
Speaker 1: such a role in such a thing for what he

1253
01:18:18,640 --> 01:18:22,920
Speaker 1: was doing. It's kind of like I think Leononan McCartney

1254
01:18:23,000 --> 01:18:24,760
Speaker 1: must have felt that way when they were writing their

1255
01:18:25,439 --> 01:18:28,040
Speaker 1: their you know, classic songs that that five or six

1256
01:18:28,120 --> 01:18:31,120
Speaker 1: year period. I often liken that. I mean not saying

1257
01:18:31,120 --> 01:18:32,960
Speaker 1: that we're the Beatles or anything. I'm just saying I

1258
01:18:33,160 --> 01:18:37,400
Speaker 1: liken it to that time when the creative creativity is

1259
01:18:37,439 --> 01:18:40,320
Speaker 1: so off the charts that you really have to hang

1260
01:18:40,360 --> 01:18:43,760
Speaker 1: in and pay attention to keep up. But on the

1261
01:18:43,800 --> 01:18:46,240
Speaker 1: good side of it, because you feel a part of it,

1262
01:18:47,439 --> 01:18:51,040
Speaker 1: you're totally invested all the way, you know, And that's

1263
01:18:51,040 --> 01:18:52,960
Speaker 1: what it was like. We were a band. Let me

1264
01:18:53,000 --> 01:18:55,800
Speaker 1: just put it that way, Bob, you were a band. Okay,

1265
01:18:56,040 --> 01:19:00,599
Speaker 1: fifty years later things are different. Did you ever say, hey,

1266
01:19:00,640 --> 01:19:09,080
Speaker 1: maybe I deserve credit the publishing. No um, because there

1267
01:19:09,120 --> 01:19:11,480
Speaker 1: have been a few songs where I have gotten publishing

1268
01:19:13,520 --> 01:19:17,080
Speaker 1: because I did care write several songs with him. I

1269
01:19:17,120 --> 01:19:19,680
Speaker 1: don't know, I reckon, I've written about a dozen with him,

1270
01:19:20,200 --> 01:19:23,000
Speaker 1: you know, proper compositions. Maybe maybe he's many as twenty.

1271
01:19:23,040 --> 01:19:27,120
Speaker 1: I've encountered them, to be honest, I often did toy

1272
01:19:27,240 --> 01:19:33,240
Speaker 1: with the fact that some of the bigger guitar driven hits,

1273
01:19:34,400 --> 01:19:37,559
Speaker 1: you know, I would think, m that's me all over there.

1274
01:19:37,560 --> 01:19:39,920
Speaker 1: There's not much else going on at that point, you know,

1275
01:19:40,200 --> 01:19:42,800
Speaker 1: and I would I would toy with the idea. But

1276
01:19:42,880 --> 01:19:44,759
Speaker 1: you know, I've got to tell you and all honestly,

1277
01:19:45,680 --> 01:19:49,559
Speaker 1: I've never my relationship without and there's never been about that.

1278
01:19:49,600 --> 01:19:52,200
Speaker 1: I would never go to him and say, yeah, what

1279
01:19:52,320 --> 01:19:55,840
Speaker 1: about my my guitar parts there, I've got to tell you,

1280
01:19:55,840 --> 01:19:58,240
Speaker 1: Bob and all honestly, I have seen so many bands

1281
01:19:58,640 --> 01:20:02,880
Speaker 1: break up because of that fact. Right there, people squabbling

1282
01:20:02,920 --> 01:20:05,320
Speaker 1: over well, that's my bit, so I should get a

1283
01:20:05,360 --> 01:20:09,400
Speaker 1: part of that or and that's my part. We were

1284
01:20:09,400 --> 01:20:16,160
Speaker 1: a band and didn't think. We didn't presume to jump

1285
01:20:16,240 --> 01:20:19,760
Speaker 1: on the train that most other many other bands have done.

1286
01:20:20,680 --> 01:20:25,479
Speaker 1: And you know, we stayed together for that reason, and

1287
01:20:25,520 --> 01:20:29,880
Speaker 1: I think that's very important. Okay, there is money involved.

1288
01:20:30,360 --> 01:20:35,320
Speaker 1: Who did you negotiate with from then to now over compensation?

1289
01:20:38,600 --> 01:20:42,040
Speaker 1: There's not been much negotiation allowed, to be totally honest

1290
01:20:42,040 --> 01:20:45,120
Speaker 1: with you, Back in the day, it was John Reid,

1291
01:20:45,240 --> 01:20:49,880
Speaker 1: and John's was a brilliant manager, absolutely brilliant and really

1292
01:20:50,080 --> 01:20:54,120
Speaker 1: made the whole thing happen. His exuberance and his understanding

1293
01:20:54,160 --> 01:20:59,080
Speaker 1: of rock and roll, his already his experience from working

1294
01:20:59,080 --> 01:21:03,920
Speaker 1: with Motown, and just his old knowledge and his gunghole attitude.

1295
01:21:04,479 --> 01:21:07,920
Speaker 1: That was the train that we were all on. And

1296
01:21:08,080 --> 01:21:11,559
Speaker 1: John was very fair. There was very There was a

1297
01:21:11,600 --> 01:21:18,240
Speaker 1: great deal of difficulty coming negotiation wise from Elton's proper

1298
01:21:18,720 --> 01:21:21,920
Speaker 1: manager of the whole thing, who was Dick James. It

1299
01:21:21,960 --> 01:21:24,960
Speaker 1: was quite some years before they could, you know, move

1300
01:21:25,000 --> 01:21:28,320
Speaker 1: out of that situation. So Dick had Elton locked up

1301
01:21:28,360 --> 01:21:32,080
Speaker 1: into a pretty tight situation. So that was the first

1302
01:21:32,600 --> 01:21:37,600
Speaker 1: thing that caused breakdowns if you like, or where we

1303
01:21:37,600 --> 01:21:41,639
Speaker 1: could never get certain things sorted out. When I started

1304
01:21:41,640 --> 01:21:46,880
Speaker 1: writing with Elton, when it became okay, Davy wrote this

1305
01:21:46,920 --> 01:21:50,040
Speaker 1: with Elton, there was never any issue. That's what it was,

1306
01:21:50,600 --> 01:21:54,759
Speaker 1: you know, Davy, Elton and Bernie, And as I said

1307
01:21:54,960 --> 01:21:57,760
Speaker 1: a little while ago, there's many many songs like that.

1308
01:21:57,880 --> 01:22:02,320
Speaker 1: So I'm certainly not going to pick bones about a

1309
01:22:02,360 --> 01:22:05,920
Speaker 1: couple of songs that have done me very well in

1310
01:22:05,960 --> 01:22:09,360
Speaker 1: my career that a lot of fans and guitar players

1311
01:22:09,439 --> 01:22:13,679
Speaker 1: have held me in great esteem for quite frankly, it's

1312
01:22:13,680 --> 01:22:18,080
Speaker 1: been worth it. To me to have the position that

1313
01:22:18,200 --> 01:22:20,800
Speaker 1: I still have after all these years, and that I

1314
01:22:20,840 --> 01:22:24,720
Speaker 1: still enjoy because quite frankly, Bob, I know too many

1315
01:22:24,720 --> 01:22:28,240
Speaker 1: bands that have broken up for bad attitudes, and you know,

1316
01:22:29,400 --> 01:22:34,280
Speaker 1: I'm fine put it that way, Okay, irrelevant of the songs,

1317
01:22:34,280 --> 01:22:38,839
Speaker 1: like you're on this final tour, how do they decide

1318
01:22:38,840 --> 01:22:44,080
Speaker 1: what you make? Well, that's become more of an issue

1319
01:22:44,200 --> 01:22:51,400
Speaker 1: of it's a band. It's Elton John is now a brand,

1320
01:22:51,600 --> 01:22:55,920
Speaker 1: not a band. It's now a brand. You must have

1321
01:22:55,960 --> 01:23:00,759
Speaker 1: seen that coming for several years. It's not a bunch

1322
01:23:00,800 --> 01:23:06,200
Speaker 1: of musicians anymore. It's a brand you have. You can

1323
01:23:06,240 --> 01:23:10,640
Speaker 1: now have Elton John Walmart glasses, you can have this.

1324
01:23:10,920 --> 01:23:13,519
Speaker 1: You can have Elton with a leaper, you can have

1325
01:23:13,600 --> 01:23:19,639
Speaker 1: Elton with um you know, various other artists. He doesn't

1326
01:23:19,680 --> 01:23:25,840
Speaker 1: always consider that his band is on a par with

1327
01:23:25,880 --> 01:23:29,000
Speaker 1: what he does, or at least his management don't. I'm

1328
01:23:29,000 --> 01:23:31,280
Speaker 1: pretty sure Elton feels the same way. When we are

1329
01:23:31,360 --> 01:23:35,400
Speaker 1: doing the Farewell tour, we're all on stage. It's just

1330
01:23:35,439 --> 01:23:37,960
Speaker 1: a band the same way as it ever was. You know.

1331
01:23:38,000 --> 01:23:40,639
Speaker 1: It's me and Nigel and Ray and Elton up there

1332
01:23:40,800 --> 01:23:44,240
Speaker 1: with the other guys doing our best you know. As

1333
01:23:44,280 --> 01:23:47,880
Speaker 1: far as the money aspect of it, we are. All

1334
01:23:47,920 --> 01:23:51,200
Speaker 1: I can tell you, Bob is that we're paid very

1335
01:23:51,240 --> 01:24:02,439
Speaker 1: well as musicians. Okay, let's go back. Conkey Chateau is

1336
01:24:02,479 --> 01:24:05,800
Speaker 1: a huge success. The next album is Don't Shoot Me.

1337
01:24:05,840 --> 01:24:08,200
Speaker 1: I'm only the piano player. You know, back when there

1338
01:24:08,280 --> 01:24:13,160
Speaker 1: was so much less information about musicians and music, I

1339
01:24:13,360 --> 01:24:16,000
Speaker 1: fame it and I read it all. I family remember

1340
01:24:16,520 --> 01:24:20,000
Speaker 1: Elton saying, oh, that album is a throwaway. When I

1341
01:24:20,080 --> 01:24:24,599
Speaker 1: love that album, tell me about making that album. I

1342
01:24:24,640 --> 01:24:27,960
Speaker 1: love Don't Shoot Me as well, because I stepped up.

1343
01:24:28,400 --> 01:24:32,280
Speaker 1: I gained more confidence as a rock guitar player by

1344
01:24:32,280 --> 01:24:36,360
Speaker 1: that point, and we had done a couple of tours.

1345
01:24:38,240 --> 01:24:42,360
Speaker 1: One of the things about the early days was recording

1346
01:24:42,760 --> 01:24:48,720
Speaker 1: tour album, tour, separate single, tour album. To you know,

1347
01:24:48,800 --> 01:24:52,559
Speaker 1: it was always we were working very rare. We were

1348
01:24:52,600 --> 01:24:55,919
Speaker 1: not working for that first five or six years, seriously.

1349
01:24:57,160 --> 01:25:00,759
Speaker 1: But Don't Shoot Me was especially fun for me. Also

1350
01:25:01,000 --> 01:25:04,000
Speaker 1: because I had bought a few guitars in America. I'd

1351
01:25:04,040 --> 01:25:06,920
Speaker 1: bought the less Ball. Actually, Elton gave me a Les

1352
01:25:07,080 --> 01:25:09,599
Speaker 1: Paul that I picked out for him on a tour.

1353
01:25:10,000 --> 01:25:12,679
Speaker 1: I picked out a Les Paul and the old Man's

1354
01:25:12,760 --> 01:25:16,800
Speaker 1: guitar shop that you might remember, of course, said he yeah,

1355
01:25:16,840 --> 01:25:20,960
Speaker 1: and he wanted a Les Paul and I said, well,

1356
01:25:21,040 --> 01:25:23,200
Speaker 1: see that one up on the pedestal up there, that's

1357
01:25:23,240 --> 01:25:26,200
Speaker 1: the one you should have. And he said okay. So

1358
01:25:26,240 --> 01:25:29,760
Speaker 1: I played it and he took it. And when I

1359
01:25:29,840 --> 01:25:32,599
Speaker 1: had some guitars on about a month later, he said

1360
01:25:32,960 --> 01:25:36,240
Speaker 1: take my Les bowl. So I was like, okay. So

1361
01:25:36,320 --> 01:25:38,599
Speaker 1: I was happy. I still have that guitar too, of course,

1362
01:25:39,479 --> 01:25:42,120
Speaker 1: but one second, tell me about the guitars getting stolen.

1363
01:25:43,080 --> 01:25:47,519
Speaker 1: Uh my god, Bob, what a nightmare? What a what

1364
01:25:47,680 --> 01:25:52,200
Speaker 1: a fucking nightmare. We were doing a tour of England

1365
01:25:53,080 --> 01:25:56,720
Speaker 1: and this was right before we recorded Don't Shoot Me

1366
01:25:57,040 --> 01:26:01,120
Speaker 1: and No Sorry. This was after Don't Shoot Me. This

1367
01:26:01,200 --> 01:26:03,880
Speaker 1: was after we recorded Don't Shoot Me. Sorry. I'm I'm

1368
01:26:03,920 --> 01:26:05,800
Speaker 1: getting a missing album. So do you want to tell

1369
01:26:05,840 --> 01:26:07,920
Speaker 1: the Shall I tell this story first? About this? No,

1370
01:26:07,920 --> 01:26:11,559
Speaker 1: I'll just keep going. I can follow you my audience. Yeah.

1371
01:26:11,600 --> 01:26:14,439
Speaker 1: So we've done a tour in Sheffield, so this would

1372
01:26:14,439 --> 01:26:18,080
Speaker 1: be late nineteen seventy two, winter of nineteen seventy two,

1373
01:26:18,080 --> 01:26:22,679
Speaker 1: after Don't Shoot Me and I band I have picked

1374
01:26:22,760 --> 01:26:25,000
Speaker 1: up a couple of guitars. In the States. I picked

1375
01:26:25,080 --> 01:26:30,200
Speaker 1: up also the third mandolin ever made by Fender, and

1376
01:26:30,280 --> 01:26:34,479
Speaker 1: it's an electric mandolin, and the serial number is zero

1377
01:26:34,680 --> 01:26:40,160
Speaker 1: zero zero zero three. And I treasure this little thing

1378
01:26:40,160 --> 01:26:43,240
Speaker 1: and it sounds killer on stage. I've never had electric

1379
01:26:43,320 --> 01:26:49,240
Speaker 1: mandolin before. It sounds amazing that one. I had another

1380
01:26:49,240 --> 01:26:53,599
Speaker 1: guitar that I bought in Nashville, which was a sixty sorry,

1381
01:26:53,920 --> 01:26:58,520
Speaker 1: a fifty eight les Paul gold Top with soapbar pickups.

1382
01:26:59,320 --> 01:27:07,400
Speaker 1: I adored this thing and it sounded incredible. D had

1383
01:27:07,439 --> 01:27:11,880
Speaker 1: two bases. I had also my my strat. I had

1384
01:27:11,920 --> 01:27:15,160
Speaker 1: another offender. I had a less special, one of those

1385
01:27:15,200 --> 01:27:17,559
Speaker 1: wonderful one pickup ones at Leslie West used to play.

1386
01:27:19,080 --> 01:27:24,360
Speaker 1: So Yeah. The truck driver without equipment decided he was

1387
01:27:24,439 --> 01:27:28,040
Speaker 1: tired one night, and after the show he pulled into

1388
01:27:28,760 --> 01:27:33,719
Speaker 1: like this part car park by this pub and locked

1389
01:27:33,720 --> 01:27:36,280
Speaker 1: the truck up and went to sleep. Came down in

1390
01:27:36,320 --> 01:27:39,280
Speaker 1: the morning and the whole truck had been stolen. They

1391
01:27:39,320 --> 01:27:43,800
Speaker 1: took the whole fucking truck and all these instruments were taken,

1392
01:27:45,160 --> 01:27:48,680
Speaker 1: and it was just horrible. My first experience of that,

1393
01:27:48,960 --> 01:27:51,920
Speaker 1: it didn't go well with me. It happened again in

1394
01:27:51,960 --> 01:27:55,200
Speaker 1: the future, but this time that it happened was like, Okay,

1395
01:27:55,560 --> 01:27:57,560
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be too much of a collector.

1396
01:27:57,880 --> 01:28:02,720
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna pick up really really wonderful ancient instruments

1397
01:28:02,720 --> 01:28:06,040
Speaker 1: because I'm scared of traveling with them and having them stolen.

1398
01:28:07,600 --> 01:28:10,000
Speaker 1: And I have great instruments still to this day. But

1399
01:28:10,160 --> 01:28:13,360
Speaker 1: that was a real setback, one that you learned to

1400
01:28:13,920 --> 01:28:16,439
Speaker 1: live back, to live with, you know, But okay, I

1401
01:28:16,479 --> 01:28:20,559
Speaker 1: didn't like it. Frampton famously got his guitar back decades later,

1402
01:28:20,600 --> 01:28:23,680
Speaker 1: although there was a plane crash involved, etc. Now with

1403
01:28:23,800 --> 01:28:26,640
Speaker 1: the internet, have you ever found the stuff that was

1404
01:28:26,680 --> 01:28:31,880
Speaker 1: stolen resurface? Wouldn't that be great? Because I promise I'll

1405
01:28:31,920 --> 01:28:35,280
Speaker 1: look at because along with that hall that they took,

1406
01:28:36,280 --> 01:28:40,720
Speaker 1: they also got an acoustic Gibson mandolin from you know,

1407
01:28:40,880 --> 01:28:44,600
Speaker 1: like early nineteen hundreds, like nineteen eight or something that

1408
01:28:44,720 --> 01:28:48,920
Speaker 1: was in the hall and it had my name on

1409
01:28:48,960 --> 01:28:52,840
Speaker 1: the flight case. Now ten years later, I'm doing a

1410
01:28:52,880 --> 01:28:59,720
Speaker 1: session in LA for Eddie what's his name? Who's Eddie? Who? Oh?

1411
01:29:00,200 --> 01:29:03,639
Speaker 1: How am I forgetting his name? Who produced Hendrix Nye

1412
01:29:03,680 --> 01:29:07,559
Speaker 1: Kremer and Hendrix Eddie Kramer? For god, I'm so sorry, Eddie.

1413
01:29:07,800 --> 01:29:09,640
Speaker 1: You're probably gonna hit me the next time I see you.

1414
01:29:10,520 --> 01:29:14,200
Speaker 1: And he said to me, oh, I'm working with this

1415
01:29:14,320 --> 01:29:18,479
Speaker 1: Polish band and they have one of your mandolins. And

1416
01:29:18,520 --> 01:29:22,479
Speaker 1: I'm what, what do you mean? He said, yeah, this

1417
01:29:22,640 --> 01:29:25,920
Speaker 1: Polish rock band. They've got you one of your mandolins.

1418
01:29:25,960 --> 01:29:29,240
Speaker 1: I saw your name on this flight case in get

1419
01:29:29,360 --> 01:29:35,000
Speaker 1: ask and I'm going no, so immediately I get people

1420
01:29:35,000 --> 01:29:36,879
Speaker 1: on it. And of course this is the early eighties,

1421
01:29:37,680 --> 01:29:39,720
Speaker 1: you know, cell phones are still not happening there and

1422
01:29:39,720 --> 01:29:42,479
Speaker 1: there's nothing like that. No, I can't run over there

1423
01:29:42,640 --> 01:29:44,519
Speaker 1: and nail it down all the rest of it. So

1424
01:29:44,600 --> 01:29:46,800
Speaker 1: I never did get it back, Bob. But I'm I'm

1425
01:29:46,840 --> 01:29:49,200
Speaker 1: looking at I have my sources, people who troll around

1426
01:29:49,280 --> 01:29:51,840
Speaker 1: looking for things, because I'm sure I'm going to see

1427
01:29:51,840 --> 01:29:54,680
Speaker 1: those a couple of those instruments again. As you say,

1428
01:29:54,760 --> 01:29:58,400
Speaker 1: with the internet, Spanish show up sometime. Okay, let's go

1429
01:29:58,439 --> 01:30:04,759
Speaker 1: back to Don't Shoot Me Right. What a great collection

1430
01:30:04,800 --> 01:30:10,839
Speaker 1: of songs on that record. Daniel was almost too easy

1431
01:30:11,080 --> 01:30:14,559
Speaker 1: to record because we were literally sitting around the piano.

1432
01:30:15,320 --> 01:30:18,880
Speaker 1: He wrote the song. The whole song start to finish

1433
01:30:19,000 --> 01:30:23,559
Speaker 1: in about twenty minutes, and let's cut it, okay, Gusta

1434
01:30:23,720 --> 01:30:25,840
Speaker 1: let's do it now. Okay, we did. We sat down,

1435
01:30:26,640 --> 01:30:29,880
Speaker 1: played it down once, fixed out a couple of things

1436
01:30:29,880 --> 01:30:33,559
Speaker 1: in the arrangement, played it again, and a third take

1437
01:30:33,640 --> 01:30:35,599
Speaker 1: we got it. We got the master. That was it.

1438
01:30:35,600 --> 01:30:39,720
Speaker 1: It was just beautiful, relaxed, laid back feel, and we

1439
01:30:39,800 --> 01:30:44,799
Speaker 1: just cut it live obviously electric piano, Elton singing live, vocal,

1440
01:30:45,560 --> 01:30:51,559
Speaker 1: drums and bass, and my acoustic guitar, and it just

1441
01:30:51,840 --> 01:30:55,839
Speaker 1: sounded so great when we heard it, and immediately everybody

1442
01:30:55,880 --> 01:30:58,719
Speaker 1: was going, single, that's got to be a single. It's

1443
01:30:58,760 --> 01:31:02,280
Speaker 1: just so singable and so cute and so beautiful. And

1444
01:31:02,320 --> 01:31:04,280
Speaker 1: then one of the things that I loved about this

1445
01:31:04,320 --> 01:31:06,200
Speaker 1: about Daniel when I think back to that track and

1446
01:31:06,240 --> 01:31:09,000
Speaker 1: the way we cut it, were the overdubs that we

1447
01:31:09,040 --> 01:31:11,280
Speaker 1: put on it because we kept it very, very sparse.

1448
01:31:12,439 --> 01:31:15,760
Speaker 1: But straight away we'd fallen in love with the melotron.

1449
01:31:15,880 --> 01:31:19,839
Speaker 1: I've always loved melotron flute sounds thanks to the Beatles.

1450
01:31:20,320 --> 01:31:23,280
Speaker 1: You know that wonderful Strawberry Fields sound at the beginning

1451
01:31:23,280 --> 01:31:27,719
Speaker 1: of that. I've always loved that sound. So I said, hey, Alton,

1452
01:31:27,800 --> 01:31:29,760
Speaker 1: you know what, we need a solo on this. Why

1453
01:31:29,760 --> 01:31:32,759
Speaker 1: don't you play a solo on melotron with that wonderful

1454
01:31:32,760 --> 01:31:37,160
Speaker 1: fluty sound. He did the solo and and the beginning

1455
01:31:37,200 --> 01:31:38,720
Speaker 1: of the track. He just threw in a little thing

1456
01:31:38,720 --> 01:31:40,960
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the track, and the first time

1457
01:31:41,040 --> 01:31:43,839
Speaker 1: we ran it through, he played it and that was it.

1458
01:31:43,840 --> 01:31:47,040
Speaker 1: It was done, and it was like, okay, well that

1459
01:31:47,120 --> 01:31:52,160
Speaker 1: was easy. So then I said, well, you know, the

1460
01:31:52,280 --> 01:31:55,040
Speaker 1: solo sounds so cool. It's got a great little melody

1461
01:31:55,080 --> 01:31:58,080
Speaker 1: that you composed on the spot. And I said, why

1462
01:31:58,080 --> 01:32:01,400
Speaker 1: don't we have a little bit of banjo playing mandolin

1463
01:32:01,520 --> 01:32:04,120
Speaker 1: style but way back in echo And Gus said, that

1464
01:32:04,200 --> 01:32:06,240
Speaker 1: sounds like a good idea. Let's do it. So we

1465
01:32:06,520 --> 01:32:09,040
Speaker 1: fucked with the marks and did our usual playing around

1466
01:32:09,800 --> 01:32:14,040
Speaker 1: and we have this wonderful banjo that people often wonder,

1467
01:32:14,240 --> 01:32:19,360
Speaker 1: what is that during the soul of Daniel? But yeah,

1468
01:32:19,400 --> 01:32:22,200
Speaker 1: it didn't even much. And one of the cool things

1469
01:32:22,240 --> 01:32:26,040
Speaker 1: about it was to get the vocal that Gus thought

1470
01:32:26,040 --> 01:32:30,719
Speaker 1: should be on that record. He walked out up one morning,

1471
01:32:31,920 --> 01:32:33,800
Speaker 1: because usually what we do is we do all the

1472
01:32:33,880 --> 01:32:37,519
Speaker 1: vocals at the end. We changed that, you know, as

1473
01:32:37,560 --> 01:32:41,000
Speaker 1: we as we progressed, and it probably was with Daniel.

1474
01:32:41,800 --> 01:32:44,960
Speaker 1: So Gus woke Elton up at seven thirty one morning

1475
01:32:45,400 --> 01:32:47,280
Speaker 1: and said, Elton, I want you to come and do

1476
01:32:47,320 --> 01:32:50,839
Speaker 1: that vocal and he was like, what, I've come fast asleep.

1477
01:32:51,160 --> 01:32:52,479
Speaker 1: He said, well, I just wanted you to do the

1478
01:32:52,560 --> 01:32:54,600
Speaker 1: vocal when you've kind of got a sleepy voice. He

1479
01:32:54,640 --> 01:32:56,679
Speaker 1: said that would be fucking easy because I'm half asleep.

1480
01:32:57,320 --> 01:33:01,679
Speaker 1: So Elton arrives the studio and Gus says, okay, let's

1481
01:33:01,680 --> 01:33:04,080
Speaker 1: just do a vocal on it. So's he's wrapped up

1482
01:33:04,080 --> 01:33:07,200
Speaker 1: in his fur coat and his shades, you know, and

1483
01:33:07,280 --> 01:33:10,200
Speaker 1: his headphones obviously, and to run the track and it

1484
01:33:10,320 --> 01:33:13,599
Speaker 1: sounds exactly like it should do. He's got that slightly

1485
01:33:13,680 --> 01:33:19,040
Speaker 1: husky sound about it, and that was the vocal we use. Okay,

1486
01:33:19,080 --> 01:33:23,080
Speaker 1: My two favorite tracks on that album are Teacher I

1487
01:33:23,160 --> 01:33:26,599
Speaker 1: Need You and Elderberry Wine. Any stories you can tell

1488
01:33:26,600 --> 01:33:31,439
Speaker 1: me about those two, Yeah, because actually another wonderful overdubbed

1489
01:33:31,479 --> 01:33:33,439
Speaker 1: story on Teacher I Need You, which I love too,

1490
01:33:33,439 --> 01:33:36,000
Speaker 1: by the way, and again it just showed the way

1491
01:33:36,040 --> 01:33:39,080
Speaker 1: that we were a band. I mean, it's just a

1492
01:33:39,160 --> 01:33:42,760
Speaker 1: band playing on that track and all the vocal the

1493
01:33:42,800 --> 01:33:45,120
Speaker 1: background vocals, which were a lot of fun to do.

1494
01:33:45,720 --> 01:33:48,439
Speaker 1: But on one of the overdubs there's that there's that

1495
01:33:48,600 --> 01:33:55,120
Speaker 1: wonderful teacher A teacher, Oh yeah, teacher. Well guests who

1496
01:33:55,200 --> 01:34:00,920
Speaker 1: played the buddom That was Elton Wow, because he had

1497
01:34:00,960 --> 01:34:04,760
Speaker 1: the idea for doing that overdub and said, well, why

1498
01:34:04,760 --> 01:34:06,600
Speaker 1: don't you fucking play it? You know what it is,

1499
01:34:06,640 --> 01:34:08,599
Speaker 1: do you just do it? He said, I'm not a drummer.

1500
01:34:08,600 --> 01:34:11,360
Speaker 1: I said, it doesn't matter. Anybody could do that. So

1501
01:34:12,000 --> 01:34:14,879
Speaker 1: we take one of Nigel's Tom's out to the studio

1502
01:34:15,520 --> 01:34:18,120
Speaker 1: and Elton did it. And I tell you something, Bob,

1503
01:34:18,640 --> 01:34:23,160
Speaker 1: I bet Alton doesn't even remember that. He'll probably hear

1504
01:34:23,200 --> 01:34:26,080
Speaker 1: this and he'll go, did I Because there's a lot

1505
01:34:26,080 --> 01:34:30,040
Speaker 1: of things that I do remember details, and that was

1506
01:34:30,080 --> 01:34:32,160
Speaker 1: one that I thought was so cool that he did

1507
01:34:32,200 --> 01:34:36,200
Speaker 1: that because it was such a fun song and very

1508
01:34:36,280 --> 01:34:39,599
Speaker 1: much inspired the whole record in fact, was very much

1509
01:34:39,640 --> 01:34:43,120
Speaker 1: inspired by Mark Boland because we were kind of in

1510
01:34:43,240 --> 01:34:46,280
Speaker 1: glam rock phase that then. You know, we were wearing

1511
01:34:47,120 --> 01:34:50,959
Speaker 1: Granny Takes the Trip clothes and you know, lyrics suits

1512
01:34:51,040 --> 01:34:55,479
Speaker 1: and platform shoes, the whole thing. We were all the

1513
01:34:55,479 --> 01:34:58,320
Speaker 1: way into that whole thing, very much in competition with

1514
01:34:58,360 --> 01:35:02,360
Speaker 1: the Bowie thing. Dave Barry was another friend, but also

1515
01:35:02,680 --> 01:35:04,880
Speaker 1: it was all new competition. All these records were coming

1516
01:35:04,880 --> 01:35:07,200
Speaker 1: out at the same time. You know, you'd get a

1517
01:35:07,280 --> 01:35:09,439
Speaker 1: t Rex song and one of ours and one of

1518
01:35:09,520 --> 01:35:13,640
Speaker 1: David's and it was just a wonderful time. And the

1519
01:35:13,640 --> 01:35:15,680
Speaker 1: other one you mentioned. The other song you mentioned was

1520
01:35:15,680 --> 01:35:21,680
Speaker 1: Elderberry Wine, which I love because it's so loose, and

1521
01:35:21,760 --> 01:35:25,320
Speaker 1: again very early take of the track, we decided it

1522
01:35:25,479 --> 01:35:29,880
Speaker 1: sun It's so cool for two reasons. I really loved

1523
01:35:29,960 --> 01:35:33,519
Speaker 1: that track. Two main reasons. One that we discovered what

1524
01:35:33,640 --> 01:35:36,599
Speaker 1: could happen with double track and the piano and then

1525
01:35:37,080 --> 01:35:39,439
Speaker 1: using the very speed turn it down so you got

1526
01:35:39,479 --> 01:35:42,960
Speaker 1: that wonderful you know, pub effect, pub pub piano effect,

1527
01:35:43,240 --> 01:35:46,360
Speaker 1: you know, which we went on obviously to use that

1528
01:35:46,439 --> 01:35:48,519
Speaker 1: on many other songs in the future. But it was

1529
01:35:48,600 --> 01:35:52,080
Speaker 1: Ken Scott who showed us that trick, and it did

1530
01:35:52,240 --> 01:35:54,920
Speaker 1: require to play the song. It wasn't like he just

1531
01:35:54,960 --> 01:35:58,439
Speaker 1: could take that track and somehow magically have it album.

1532
01:35:58,479 --> 01:36:01,760
Speaker 1: Had to play the part again. And so when we

1533
01:36:01,800 --> 01:36:05,320
Speaker 1: heard the sound, we all went, oh my god, because

1534
01:36:05,360 --> 01:36:07,760
Speaker 1: nobody'd ever heard that sound before on anything. It was

1535
01:36:07,760 --> 01:36:10,680
Speaker 1: the first time I'd ever been used. Like shit, we

1536
01:36:10,760 --> 01:36:14,599
Speaker 1: are actually innovators. Now we're doing a beatleshit. Here, you know.

1537
01:36:15,160 --> 01:36:18,439
Speaker 1: And the other thing was when the guitar parts came

1538
01:36:18,479 --> 01:36:22,760
Speaker 1: around for that song, because suddenly, when I double tracked

1539
01:36:22,760 --> 01:36:25,000
Speaker 1: the rhythm part and the little lines in there, they're

1540
01:36:25,040 --> 01:36:29,240
Speaker 1: all on one track, the same kind of shit started happening.

1541
01:36:29,880 --> 01:36:32,120
Speaker 1: We're going like, oh, that sounds a bit like George

1542
01:36:32,520 --> 01:36:35,439
Speaker 1: and I love what we're doing here. And and then

1543
01:36:35,479 --> 01:36:41,559
Speaker 1: it repeated itself on Midnight Creeper and again on the

1544
01:36:41,760 --> 01:36:44,719
Speaker 1: arpeggio things on Have Mercy on the Criminal. We started

1545
01:36:44,720 --> 01:36:47,559
Speaker 1: to use these double trackings in a way that I

1546
01:36:47,600 --> 01:36:50,479
Speaker 1: think the Beatles were using them kind of, and you'd

1547
01:36:50,479 --> 01:36:52,719
Speaker 1: get a slight out of tuneness that would that would

1548
01:36:52,760 --> 01:36:56,920
Speaker 1: just bring that sound that would made people just go, oh, fuck,

1549
01:36:56,960 --> 01:37:00,200
Speaker 1: I love this, And we did. We loved every thing

1550
01:37:00,200 --> 01:37:03,640
Speaker 1: we were doing. We're so excited about the process of

1551
01:37:03,680 --> 01:37:06,960
Speaker 1: the recording that we were just lost in that world.

1552
01:37:07,560 --> 01:37:10,320
Speaker 1: That was the joy of it. Since we're this deep

1553
01:37:10,360 --> 01:37:17,360
Speaker 1: into the album Crocodile Rock, what fun that was to do, Bob,

1554
01:37:17,439 --> 01:37:20,160
Speaker 1: I mean, what great fun and what a great little track.

1555
01:37:20,560 --> 01:37:23,200
Speaker 1: And you know, ballocks to all the people who said, oh,

1556
01:37:23,320 --> 01:37:26,840
Speaker 1: he's just doing this this thing, and you know, that's

1557
01:37:26,840 --> 01:37:29,599
Speaker 1: a really cool little track. If people think the time

1558
01:37:29,640 --> 01:37:33,760
Speaker 1: to listen to it. It's a brilliant track, great work

1559
01:37:33,800 --> 01:37:36,360
Speaker 1: by Gus because the idea was we wanted to do

1560
01:37:36,400 --> 01:37:38,680
Speaker 1: a little bit of a rock and roll tribute but

1561
01:37:38,800 --> 01:37:41,439
Speaker 1: also a bit of a send up, hence my kind

1562
01:37:41,439 --> 01:37:45,800
Speaker 1: of ventures shadows type and Dwayne Eddie takes on that.

1563
01:37:45,920 --> 01:37:48,280
Speaker 1: There's about eight tracks of guitar and now all doing

1564
01:37:48,280 --> 01:37:51,880
Speaker 1: different things because we wanted that to give, you know,

1565
01:37:51,960 --> 01:37:56,120
Speaker 1: to show our love of rock and roll. And obviously

1566
01:37:56,200 --> 01:38:00,960
Speaker 1: the la la la la la la rich Alton did

1567
01:38:01,040 --> 01:38:05,240
Speaker 1: and you know what a cool little song. And I

1568
01:38:05,320 --> 01:38:07,920
Speaker 1: think who was it tried to sue us. I think

1569
01:38:07,960 --> 01:38:09,880
Speaker 1: it was Pat Boone or somebody tried to sue us

1570
01:38:09,880 --> 01:38:13,000
Speaker 1: on the track said it was Speedy Gonzalez or something.

1571
01:38:13,040 --> 01:38:16,599
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, please get a life, you know, but um,

1572
01:38:17,160 --> 01:38:20,120
Speaker 1: great fun. We weren't doing anything. At least people were

1573
01:38:20,160 --> 01:38:22,200
Speaker 1: talking about us, and I think that's something we had

1574
01:38:22,240 --> 01:38:24,839
Speaker 1: to realize. You know what, we're going to get this.

1575
01:38:24,840 --> 01:38:27,120
Speaker 1: This is going to happen now because people are buying

1576
01:38:27,120 --> 01:38:29,360
Speaker 1: our records and a lot of people are are listening.

1577
01:38:29,400 --> 01:38:34,400
Speaker 1: So that's a good thing. Okay, Next comes Goodbye Yellow

1578
01:38:34,439 --> 01:38:43,040
Speaker 1: Brick Road. When does it become a double album, Okay,

1579
01:38:43,840 --> 01:38:49,240
Speaker 1: I believe. Actually it was quite early on. I want

1580
01:38:49,240 --> 01:38:52,920
Speaker 1: to say the idea was already in the back of

1581
01:38:52,960 --> 01:38:57,800
Speaker 1: their minds because of the success of Punky Chateau and

1582
01:38:57,800 --> 01:39:01,040
Speaker 1: Don't Shoot Me Massive, and then again of course, now

1583
01:39:01,160 --> 01:39:03,840
Speaker 1: the Black Catalog is started to sell. The live album

1584
01:39:04,000 --> 01:39:06,679
Speaker 1: is suddenly a hit, so is the Elton John album,

1585
01:39:06,720 --> 01:39:11,639
Speaker 1: and it's all starting to sell. So they're obviously thinking,

1586
01:39:11,840 --> 01:39:13,800
Speaker 1: all right, we've done this. We've done a live album,

1587
01:39:13,800 --> 01:39:16,680
Speaker 1: we've done this, we've done orchestra done it. We'll have

1588
01:39:16,720 --> 01:39:18,680
Speaker 1: to do a double album. So I know there was

1589
01:39:18,720 --> 01:39:22,160
Speaker 1: talk of doing it, and I even remember a working

1590
01:39:22,200 --> 01:39:32,680
Speaker 1: title of silent film talking Pictures. Wow, that was the

1591
01:39:32,720 --> 01:39:37,200
Speaker 1: working idea for the thing. Anyway, we're in the Chateau

1592
01:39:37,240 --> 01:39:41,360
Speaker 1: and we have, as usual, we have so many songs

1593
01:39:41,360 --> 01:39:47,240
Speaker 1: as a lot of songs. By the way, Elton usually

1594
01:39:47,479 --> 01:39:50,280
Speaker 1: refers to yellow Rick Rhode is what's Davy going to

1595
01:39:50,360 --> 01:39:54,040
Speaker 1: play on this one? Because it's just it's just so

1596
01:39:54,400 --> 01:39:58,519
Speaker 1: guitar heavy, which I love because we we we employed

1597
01:39:58,600 --> 01:40:01,640
Speaker 1: so many different sounds, ideas and whatever, and it was

1598
01:40:01,680 --> 01:40:04,080
Speaker 1: just so much fun for me and for everybody because

1599
01:40:04,080 --> 01:40:08,559
Speaker 1: we were all getting off on it, but there was many,

1600
01:40:08,600 --> 01:40:13,920
Speaker 1: many songs and the idea of doing an opening track

1601
01:40:14,040 --> 01:40:16,840
Speaker 1: that was going to be something majestic and had an

1602
01:40:16,840 --> 01:40:21,439
Speaker 1: instrumental We knew that's what we wanted to do. So

1603
01:40:22,160 --> 01:40:25,479
Speaker 1: Elton wrote the first part the piece, and I don't

1604
01:40:25,520 --> 01:40:27,720
Speaker 1: mean I don't mean the synthesize of piece. That was

1605
01:40:27,760 --> 01:40:31,160
Speaker 1: all done after by David Henschel when we decided we

1606
01:40:31,240 --> 01:40:34,439
Speaker 1: need something at the very beginning before the band comes

1607
01:40:34,479 --> 01:40:40,640
Speaker 1: in with the slow movement, and so Elton and I

1608
01:40:40,920 --> 01:40:45,800
Speaker 1: Indian agel we knew what it was. We'd already Elton

1609
01:40:45,840 --> 01:40:48,720
Speaker 1: had already written love Lives fitting I had worked out

1610
01:40:48,760 --> 01:40:51,040
Speaker 1: my guitar parts what I thought they should be on

1611
01:40:51,080 --> 01:40:54,680
Speaker 1: that song. And we did the whole thing from the

1612
01:40:54,680 --> 01:40:57,000
Speaker 1: beginning of the quiet part of Funeral for a Friend

1613
01:40:57,439 --> 01:41:00,320
Speaker 1: all the way to the end the basic track, so

1614
01:41:00,400 --> 01:41:04,599
Speaker 1: there wasn't any gaps in it. And that's a long time.

1615
01:41:04,680 --> 01:41:07,120
Speaker 1: That's got to be I don't know, nine minutes, something

1616
01:41:07,160 --> 01:41:09,639
Speaker 1: like that, eight or nine minutes. I'm not sure how

1617
01:41:09,640 --> 01:41:14,599
Speaker 1: long it is. But it was so exciting because you know,

1618
01:41:15,240 --> 01:41:17,320
Speaker 1: we've always liked the red light in the studio. When

1619
01:41:17,360 --> 01:41:19,880
Speaker 1: the red light goes on that's like religion. You're in

1620
01:41:19,920 --> 01:41:22,920
Speaker 1: the studio, shut the fuck up. But of course we're

1621
01:41:22,920 --> 01:41:28,000
Speaker 1: just about to start funeral for a friend, the most quiet, delicate, haunting,

1622
01:41:28,040 --> 01:41:30,720
Speaker 1: beautiful thing, and Ellen's by the plan of and I

1623
01:41:30,720 --> 01:41:36,559
Speaker 1: can hear Alton going one, two, three and instead of four,

1624
01:41:38,320 --> 01:41:42,960
Speaker 1: and we just all completely fall about and there was

1625
01:41:42,960 --> 01:41:47,160
Speaker 1: this wonderful far and obviously the tension was so but

1626
01:41:47,320 --> 01:41:49,640
Speaker 1: as soon as he let that go and it's we

1627
01:41:49,760 --> 01:41:52,479
Speaker 1: have a tape of it somewhere, it broke the tension

1628
01:41:52,520 --> 01:41:53,960
Speaker 1: and we all kind of relaxed a bit and we

1629
01:41:54,200 --> 01:41:57,040
Speaker 1: stopped laughing, and then we started again and did the

1630
01:41:57,040 --> 01:42:01,760
Speaker 1: whole thing through. And then as is my one, I

1631
01:42:01,840 --> 01:42:08,480
Speaker 1: started the over dubbing guitars and went pretty crazy on

1632
01:42:08,479 --> 01:42:12,640
Speaker 1: on that whole thing too. And you know, it was

1633
01:42:12,720 --> 01:42:16,920
Speaker 1: great because you have a song that lyrically, musically is

1634
01:42:16,960 --> 01:42:19,760
Speaker 1: already done. You know what's coming up. So we were

1635
01:42:19,800 --> 01:42:23,679
Speaker 1: already having ideas about where we would do background vocals,

1636
01:42:23,680 --> 01:42:25,840
Speaker 1: where we would do this, what we might add at

1637
01:42:25,880 --> 01:42:31,559
Speaker 1: specific points and the song, and nobody really was was

1638
01:42:31,600 --> 01:42:34,559
Speaker 1: telling us do this or do that, because it was

1639
01:42:34,640 --> 01:42:38,479
Speaker 1: only gossip was obviously there and not being a musician

1640
01:42:38,520 --> 01:42:44,800
Speaker 1: that wonderful ideas person and greater interpreting your ideas. But

1641
01:42:44,960 --> 01:42:47,240
Speaker 1: nobody was telling us anything. So it was us doing

1642
01:42:47,240 --> 01:42:51,120
Speaker 1: exactly what we thought would be right when when we

1643
01:42:51,120 --> 01:42:55,840
Speaker 1: were doing it, okay, you know this was about it. Really.

1644
01:42:55,840 --> 01:42:58,400
Speaker 1: A couple of years later it became standard de camp

1645
01:42:58,560 --> 01:43:02,960
Speaker 1: vocals and a punch in. Well, you guys conscious of that,

1646
01:43:03,080 --> 01:43:05,479
Speaker 1: or you say leave the mistakes in or what was

1647
01:43:05,520 --> 01:43:12,479
Speaker 1: the philosophy? Um there was in the days that we started.

1648
01:43:12,520 --> 01:43:16,400
Speaker 1: It was more a question of punch ins. Because Alton's

1649
01:43:16,439 --> 01:43:19,360
Speaker 1: vocals were always so good. There was never a question

1650
01:43:19,360 --> 01:43:21,640
Speaker 1: of having to do well. You know, we didn't think

1651
01:43:21,640 --> 01:43:23,439
Speaker 1: about it because it wasn't the way that we worked.

1652
01:43:23,680 --> 01:43:26,599
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, it happened a little bit later on.

1653
01:43:27,160 --> 01:43:30,000
Speaker 1: I don't say Elton's vocals was so great. I remember

1654
01:43:30,080 --> 01:43:33,719
Speaker 1: him saying to me one time round about the Yellow

1655
01:43:33,720 --> 01:43:36,040
Speaker 1: Brick Road period. Oh my god, he said, I hate

1656
01:43:36,080 --> 01:43:39,479
Speaker 1: my vocals on on mad Man across the Water. They

1657
01:43:39,600 --> 01:43:43,120
Speaker 1: drive me fucking crazy. And I'm going what I said,

1658
01:43:43,160 --> 01:43:46,760
Speaker 1: They're so amazing because they're so young, they're so you

1659
01:43:47,680 --> 01:43:51,439
Speaker 1: they're just unbelievable. They're vulnerable, but they have that sound.

1660
01:43:51,960 --> 01:43:58,240
Speaker 1: That's why people like you man, So so we carry

1661
01:43:58,240 --> 01:44:01,519
Speaker 1: on with all that, and really the comping thing didn't

1662
01:44:01,640 --> 01:44:05,479
Speaker 1: really start to happen until the early eighties when we

1663
01:44:05,520 --> 01:44:08,439
Speaker 1: did the Chris Thomas records, because he had already started

1664
01:44:08,479 --> 01:44:13,720
Speaker 1: working that way with Chrissy Hyend and Pete Townsend on

1665
01:44:13,760 --> 01:44:16,800
Speaker 1: his solo album and stuff like that. So Chris was

1666
01:44:16,960 --> 01:44:19,400
Speaker 1: versed in that and Alton wasn't. He thought that was

1667
01:44:19,439 --> 01:44:21,640
Speaker 1: a great idea. Why not? And he still did a

1668
01:44:21,640 --> 01:44:23,439
Speaker 1: couple of vocals where most of it he had and

1669
01:44:23,479 --> 01:44:27,040
Speaker 1: they just do a quick comp to get certain things

1670
01:44:27,080 --> 01:44:31,960
Speaker 1: here and there. But um, I've most of the things

1671
01:44:31,960 --> 01:44:34,560
Speaker 1: that I've been experienced when I've experienced Alton doing a

1672
01:44:34,640 --> 01:44:39,120
Speaker 1: vocal bar one when need to don the Sun go

1673
01:44:39,160 --> 01:44:42,320
Speaker 1: down to me? That was an interesting one. Well that

1674
01:44:42,439 --> 01:44:45,840
Speaker 1: was nineteen seventy three. But he threw the wobbler of

1675
01:44:45,840 --> 01:44:50,200
Speaker 1: all time during that vocal m He literally was so

1676
01:44:50,360 --> 01:44:54,400
Speaker 1: frustrated and kept thinking that it sounded like shit that

1677
01:44:54,439 --> 01:44:57,960
Speaker 1: he it was like, fuck, bas I don't want to

1678
01:44:58,000 --> 01:45:00,720
Speaker 1: do this anymore. Said it to Anger Hunk, and if

1679
01:45:00,800 --> 01:45:03,720
Speaker 1: j doesn't like it, said it to Lulu and we

1680
01:45:03,720 --> 01:45:05,600
Speaker 1: were cracking up, obviously because it was funny what he

1681
01:45:05,640 --> 01:45:07,760
Speaker 1: was saying, I mean, he's very funny guys, you know,

1682
01:45:08,360 --> 01:45:12,080
Speaker 1: And he wasn't laughing. He was deadly serious. He said,

1683
01:45:12,160 --> 01:45:14,800
Speaker 1: I hate this. I don't want if this vocal goes

1684
01:45:14,840 --> 01:45:17,479
Speaker 1: on the album, I'm gonna fire everybody. I mean. It

1685
01:45:17,640 --> 01:45:19,799
Speaker 1: was one of they say, you know. And of course

1686
01:45:20,439 --> 01:45:21,840
Speaker 1: when he heard it the next day, it was like, oh,

1687
01:45:21,840 --> 01:45:25,720
Speaker 1: that sounds pretty good. And you know, but for the

1688
01:45:25,800 --> 01:45:30,920
Speaker 1: most part, doing vocals with Elton or a pleasure because

1689
01:45:30,920 --> 01:45:34,000
Speaker 1: he is so good, I mean live, I never hear

1690
01:45:34,080 --> 01:45:37,800
Speaker 1: him sing outitude an ever period. Okay, let's stay with

1691
01:45:37,840 --> 01:45:41,519
Speaker 1: the album. You mentioned earlier All the Young Girls Love Alice.

1692
01:45:41,680 --> 01:45:43,799
Speaker 1: That happens to be my favorite song on the album,

1693
01:45:43,800 --> 01:45:45,680
Speaker 1: which people tend out to talk about but you were

1694
01:45:45,760 --> 01:45:47,760
Speaker 1: doing for a while, but fare Well tour, tell me

1695
01:45:47,800 --> 01:45:52,800
Speaker 1: about that track. Well, that was just a riot to do.

1696
01:45:54,000 --> 01:45:58,160
Speaker 1: Again in our in our beatlesque way of working that

1697
01:45:58,240 --> 01:46:01,679
Speaker 1: we developed, we were just into furthering all these different

1698
01:46:01,720 --> 01:46:04,320
Speaker 1: sounds and having fun doing what we wanted to do

1699
01:46:04,360 --> 01:46:08,759
Speaker 1: and making up different sounds. When Elton had written Alice,

1700
01:46:08,800 --> 01:46:11,280
Speaker 1: we loved the song straight away and I had this

1701
01:46:11,520 --> 01:46:17,439
Speaker 1: idea around the riff that actually the riff was his

1702
01:46:17,880 --> 01:46:21,280
Speaker 1: piano riff. I didn't invent the riff, the actual damped

1703
01:46:21,320 --> 01:46:26,600
Speaker 1: vamp little dirt. It's actually a piano lick, God bless him.

1704
01:46:26,120 --> 01:46:28,400
Speaker 1: And I learned to on guitar and double it and

1705
01:46:28,400 --> 01:46:30,800
Speaker 1: it was sounding great. And then I thought, oh, what

1706
01:46:30,920 --> 01:46:33,080
Speaker 1: about if I used my Uni vibe on this, which

1707
01:46:33,120 --> 01:46:36,680
Speaker 1: is a really cool pedal in those days where if

1708
01:46:36,720 --> 01:46:41,400
Speaker 1: you floored the pedal it had this wonderful super wobble

1709
01:46:41,439 --> 01:46:46,000
Speaker 1: effect like a fast Leslie cabinet or something wonderful hairy sound.

1710
01:46:46,400 --> 01:46:48,439
Speaker 1: And I just added a bunch of crunch to it

1711
01:46:49,200 --> 01:46:53,400
Speaker 1: through my own amplifier and used my volume pedal then

1712
01:46:53,479 --> 01:46:56,160
Speaker 1: to bring the whole thing in out of nowhere, so

1713
01:46:56,240 --> 01:47:03,360
Speaker 1: you don't hear anything until you hear this good invitation. Well,

1714
01:47:03,360 --> 01:47:08,519
Speaker 1: I've been doing it for fifty years. But it was

1715
01:47:08,680 --> 01:47:10,519
Speaker 1: such a blast to do because as soon as people

1716
01:47:10,640 --> 01:47:12,600
Speaker 1: heard that, it was like, oh fuck, we love this.

1717
01:47:13,280 --> 01:47:15,400
Speaker 1: And of course I double tracked it just to be

1718
01:47:15,439 --> 01:47:19,920
Speaker 1: a show off. And yeah, it was just a riot, Bob,

1719
01:47:19,960 --> 01:47:24,519
Speaker 1: because to have that much fun, it's almost not fair.

1720
01:47:24,680 --> 01:47:27,479
Speaker 1: It shouldn't be allowed. You know. We were having so

1721
01:47:27,560 --> 01:47:32,479
Speaker 1: much fun, you know, and it was serious work. We

1722
01:47:32,560 --> 01:47:35,040
Speaker 1: knew that and we knew it had to be great

1723
01:47:35,080 --> 01:47:37,240
Speaker 1: whatever it is what we do. But we were going

1724
01:47:37,240 --> 01:47:41,320
Speaker 1: through this phase of it seemed like almost everything he

1725
01:47:41,400 --> 01:47:45,000
Speaker 1: wrote and that we recorded together and the way that

1726
01:47:45,040 --> 01:47:48,360
Speaker 1: we orchestrated things, we had this magic thing that was

1727
01:47:48,400 --> 01:47:52,360
Speaker 1: going on that people loved. And I've heard so many

1728
01:47:52,360 --> 01:47:54,479
Speaker 1: people talk about all the young Girls Love Alice and

1729
01:47:55,439 --> 01:48:00,920
Speaker 1: like you, many people think that that is just such

1730
01:48:00,960 --> 01:48:03,960
Speaker 1: a classic album, which whit is. But getting back to

1731
01:48:04,000 --> 01:48:09,200
Speaker 1: what you said earlier, because of the amount of good

1732
01:48:09,240 --> 01:48:12,600
Speaker 1: songs that were coming up, there were no songs that

1733
01:48:12,640 --> 01:48:15,040
Speaker 1: we were recording that were sounding like B sides. For example,

1734
01:48:16,160 --> 01:48:18,320
Speaker 1: usually when you're recording something, you have a few extra

1735
01:48:18,360 --> 01:48:20,799
Speaker 1: tracks and Okay, that'll be a B side or whatever.

1736
01:48:21,760 --> 01:48:24,920
Speaker 1: Nothing sounded like a B side on good By Yellowick Road.

1737
01:48:26,479 --> 01:48:32,800
Speaker 1: So suddenly we had like fifteen sixteen tracks and we're going, well, Gus,

1738
01:48:33,080 --> 01:48:34,760
Speaker 1: we're going it's got to be a double album then,

1739
01:48:35,400 --> 01:48:37,400
Speaker 1: because now the first track on the album is going

1740
01:48:37,439 --> 01:48:39,920
Speaker 1: to be half of the first side, so it's going

1741
01:48:39,960 --> 01:48:42,720
Speaker 1: to have to be a double album. So that's when

1742
01:48:42,720 --> 01:48:46,200
Speaker 1: it all became that's the target, and that's when the

1743
01:48:46,280 --> 01:48:51,400
Speaker 1: running order became important. And Gus is actually a wizard

1744
01:48:51,400 --> 01:48:55,360
Speaker 1: at that. He's great at doing sequencing a record, and

1745
01:48:56,920 --> 01:48:58,680
Speaker 1: we knew what the beginning was going to be, but

1746
01:48:59,000 --> 01:49:01,240
Speaker 1: we let him go with the rest of the sequence

1747
01:49:01,280 --> 01:49:06,599
Speaker 1: sing pretty much and what about Saturday Nights all right? Well,

1748
01:49:06,640 --> 01:49:10,560
Speaker 1: we knew that was going to probably, you know, annihilate

1749
01:49:10,640 --> 01:49:14,040
Speaker 1: some people because of its aggression and the whole thing.

1750
01:49:14,160 --> 01:49:17,479
Speaker 1: And wow, what fun that was for me to do

1751
01:49:18,760 --> 01:49:22,800
Speaker 1: because on the basic track of that one, again it

1752
01:49:22,880 --> 01:49:26,439
Speaker 1: was we had tried it to record that previously. The

1753
01:49:26,479 --> 01:49:29,679
Speaker 1: song had been around for quite a while. He wrote

1754
01:49:29,680 --> 01:49:33,000
Speaker 1: it back in when we tried to do an album

1755
01:49:33,000 --> 01:49:37,400
Speaker 1: in Jamaica, and for one reason or another it didn't

1756
01:49:37,400 --> 01:49:39,320
Speaker 1: pay off. I mean, the main reason was the studio

1757
01:49:40,120 --> 01:49:42,880
Speaker 1: was just not possible. It just didn't have the ship

1758
01:49:43,000 --> 01:49:45,080
Speaker 1: we needed to do a record down there. It was

1759
01:49:45,120 --> 01:49:48,160
Speaker 1: just what it was. So we went back to the chateau.

1760
01:49:48,880 --> 01:49:50,760
Speaker 1: So we knew the song in our head and I

1761
01:49:50,800 --> 01:49:53,320
Speaker 1: already had an idea of about some intro parts and

1762
01:49:53,560 --> 01:49:57,240
Speaker 1: how I would do, how would approach it. And Alton

1763
01:49:57,400 --> 01:50:01,400
Speaker 1: was really Adam meant that there would be no piano

1764
01:50:01,479 --> 01:50:03,920
Speaker 1: on it. He just loved what I was doing so much.

1765
01:50:03,920 --> 01:50:06,479
Speaker 1: He said, I just want you to keep going. I

1766
01:50:06,520 --> 01:50:10,360
Speaker 1: had another guitar at, another one out, another one. So

1767
01:50:10,520 --> 01:50:14,920
Speaker 1: being a guitar player, as you probably saw, apart from

1768
01:50:14,960 --> 01:50:18,040
Speaker 1: the bassic guitar, all the way through, suddenly there was like,

1769
01:50:18,600 --> 01:50:21,439
Speaker 1: I think eight guitars on the intro, but by the

1770
01:50:21,479 --> 01:50:24,519
Speaker 1: time we got to the solo section, there's like ten guitars,

1771
01:50:25,040 --> 01:50:27,800
Speaker 1: and on the second half of the guitar solo there's

1772
01:50:27,840 --> 01:50:32,080
Speaker 1: twelve guitars totally rocking out, all maxed out, you know.

1773
01:50:33,720 --> 01:50:36,120
Speaker 1: In fact, one of the biggest sounds I got guitar

1774
01:50:36,200 --> 01:50:40,840
Speaker 1: wise came from a little Fender Champ amplifier that many

1775
01:50:40,840 --> 01:50:43,680
Speaker 1: people use as a practice amp. Well. I found that

1776
01:50:44,240 --> 01:50:48,360
Speaker 1: by turning everything up to hell obviously and turning your

1777
01:50:48,360 --> 01:50:50,840
Speaker 1: guitar up to hell, and then you got the sound

1778
01:50:50,880 --> 01:50:55,120
Speaker 1: from Monster sound. I found out later that that's the

1779
01:50:55,160 --> 01:50:59,559
Speaker 1: sound that John used John Lennon used on Revolution. I

1780
01:50:59,680 --> 01:51:03,040
Speaker 1: found out when we were chatting one day about guitars,

1781
01:51:03,760 --> 01:51:06,240
Speaker 1: and I was like, really, is it does I can

1782
01:51:06,280 --> 01:51:08,760
Speaker 1: get it now because it's such an in your face

1783
01:51:08,840 --> 01:51:12,240
Speaker 1: sound and it's so distorted it makes sense, you know.

1784
01:51:13,600 --> 01:51:15,600
Speaker 1: So yeah, I had the best time with doing it,

1785
01:51:15,680 --> 01:51:18,519
Speaker 1: and after i'd kind of done with all my guitar parts,

1786
01:51:19,160 --> 01:51:21,400
Speaker 1: and then the slight part at the end of the solo.

1787
01:51:23,080 --> 01:51:25,679
Speaker 1: I said, you gotta play piano on this. You got

1788
01:51:25,720 --> 01:51:29,280
Speaker 1: you gotta do. Jerey Lewis, you gotta do Little Richard,

1789
01:51:29,400 --> 01:51:33,920
Speaker 1: you know, do you somewhere on the track. So when

1790
01:51:33,920 --> 01:51:36,680
Speaker 1: the pack piano first comes in at the beginning of

1791
01:51:36,680 --> 01:51:39,960
Speaker 1: the chorus, it's not in for the first two verses. Obviously,

1792
01:51:40,160 --> 01:51:43,080
Speaker 1: the first part of the song. It comes in that lisando.

1793
01:51:43,160 --> 01:51:45,600
Speaker 1: As it comes in, it's like, all right, it's a

1794
01:51:45,680 --> 01:51:50,320
Speaker 1: Nott John song. And then it really makes sense. But

1795
01:51:50,400 --> 01:51:54,280
Speaker 1: it was such fun to record. And he always talks

1796
01:51:54,280 --> 01:51:56,559
Speaker 1: about him dancing around the studio when we were cutting

1797
01:51:56,600 --> 01:51:59,280
Speaker 1: the track, and it's true he did. He had a long,

1798
01:51:59,320 --> 01:52:02,760
Speaker 1: long micro phone chord because nothing was wireless in those days,

1799
01:52:03,200 --> 01:52:06,080
Speaker 1: and he was right, you know, jumping over instruments and

1800
01:52:06,160 --> 01:52:09,840
Speaker 1: amplifiers and cabinets and come on, you fuckers. He was

1801
01:52:09,880 --> 01:52:14,599
Speaker 1: shutting recording this track. But it all worked. You know,

1802
01:52:15,160 --> 01:52:17,679
Speaker 1: the aggression certainly paid off on that track. It comes

1803
01:52:17,680 --> 01:52:20,240
Speaker 1: out you know what that is as soon as it starts,

1804
01:52:20,880 --> 01:52:25,160
Speaker 1: and again, you know, we played the shit out of

1805
01:52:25,160 --> 01:52:29,120
Speaker 1: that and thanks to Gus and the engineers and the

1806
01:52:29,160 --> 01:52:31,599
Speaker 1: way that we were working at that point. We were

1807
01:52:31,640 --> 01:52:34,680
Speaker 1: just doing whatever, and everything was on hell. You know,

1808
01:52:35,000 --> 01:52:38,639
Speaker 1: all the settings were on hell. So the next album

1809
01:52:38,800 --> 01:52:42,680
Speaker 1: is Cariboo. Cut it the Ranch and niter Land, Colorado

1810
01:52:42,720 --> 01:52:45,639
Speaker 1: with a high altitude. How did you end up cutting there?

1811
01:52:45,960 --> 01:52:50,960
Speaker 1: And what was it like with the altitude, etc. Bob,

1812
01:52:51,000 --> 01:52:52,720
Speaker 1: you know what, you asked the best questions. I knew

1813
01:52:52,720 --> 01:52:56,280
Speaker 1: this would be a long chat we have today. Caribou.

1814
01:52:57,560 --> 01:53:00,599
Speaker 1: The plan to go there was because simply we'd run

1815
01:53:00,640 --> 01:53:05,479
Speaker 1: out of residential places and the chateau was getting old.

1816
01:53:06,080 --> 01:53:08,479
Speaker 1: As we mentioned, it was starting to get a bit

1817
01:53:08,560 --> 01:53:11,080
Speaker 1: rough around the edges. We just wanted somewhere a bit different.

1818
01:53:11,400 --> 01:53:14,240
Speaker 1: We tried Jamaica. It was a kind of a letdown.

1819
01:53:15,240 --> 01:53:19,520
Speaker 1: We'd heard about Carbo Ranch because of Joe Walsh's album Barnstorm,

1820
01:53:19,520 --> 01:53:22,400
Speaker 1: and I'm a huge Joe Waltz fan and a buddy

1821
01:53:22,400 --> 01:53:24,639
Speaker 1: of Joe, and I adore him. He's just a great,

1822
01:53:24,680 --> 01:53:28,040
Speaker 1: great player and a great man. And we heard that

1823
01:53:28,120 --> 01:53:32,320
Speaker 1: album and me and especially me and Elton were just like,

1824
01:53:32,479 --> 01:53:35,080
Speaker 1: oh my god, listen to these silence, listen to the

1825
01:53:35,080 --> 01:53:37,960
Speaker 1: guitar sounds, you know. So we decided to go to

1826
01:53:38,000 --> 01:53:40,400
Speaker 1: Carbo because it was a great sounding studio. What came

1827
01:53:40,439 --> 01:53:43,120
Speaker 1: out of there sounding great. So we made the trip

1828
01:53:43,280 --> 01:53:45,760
Speaker 1: in January, that's our usual time to go and make

1829
01:53:45,800 --> 01:53:49,200
Speaker 1: a new album. That became our time, and off we

1830
01:53:49,280 --> 01:53:52,040
Speaker 1: went January, not knowing how fucking cold it was going

1831
01:53:52,080 --> 01:53:56,559
Speaker 1: to be there and snowbound. It was amazing beautiful, and

1832
01:53:56,600 --> 01:54:01,720
Speaker 1: we each had a log cabin to stay in, wonderful

1833
01:54:02,120 --> 01:54:08,200
Speaker 1: beautiful log cabins, beautifully, you know, with um brass beds

1834
01:54:08,240 --> 01:54:13,839
Speaker 1: and wonderful quilts and weighing nicer than the chateau. Luckily,

1835
01:54:13,920 --> 01:54:17,519
Speaker 1: lots of snow gear, and there was snow plows up there.

1836
01:54:17,920 --> 01:54:20,719
Speaker 1: In fact, the first day I arrived, I went looking

1837
01:54:20,720 --> 01:54:23,360
Speaker 1: and walking around the property and ran into this guy

1838
01:54:23,840 --> 01:54:26,719
Speaker 1: working on a snow plow, and it was Terry Cath

1839
01:54:26,960 --> 01:54:32,440
Speaker 1: from Chicago, and we right and we became great friends

1840
01:54:32,640 --> 01:54:37,680
Speaker 1: there and then, and it was just it took a

1841
01:54:37,720 --> 01:54:39,920
Speaker 1: couple of days to get used to the studio there

1842
01:54:40,520 --> 01:54:43,400
Speaker 1: because it was so different. There was no windows in it,

1843
01:54:43,920 --> 01:54:45,800
Speaker 1: even though and it was a very large. The thing

1844
01:54:45,840 --> 01:54:48,200
Speaker 1: about the chateau that was so special was that had

1845
01:54:48,240 --> 01:54:52,000
Speaker 1: these floors ceiling windows and because you know, obviously giant

1846
01:54:52,120 --> 01:54:57,240
Speaker 1: double thick windows because in the country, no, we didn't

1847
01:54:57,280 --> 01:54:59,200
Speaker 1: have sound to really worry about. There was no other

1848
01:54:59,320 --> 01:55:03,360
Speaker 1: outdoor sound. But Cariboo had no windows, so we were

1849
01:55:03,400 --> 01:55:07,240
Speaker 1: back to that kind of a little bit claustrophobic studio vibe.

1850
01:55:07,800 --> 01:55:11,200
Speaker 1: But it was a big room so that was okay.

1851
01:55:11,800 --> 01:55:15,800
Speaker 1: The altitude really fucked with us straight away. We all

1852
01:55:15,840 --> 01:55:18,160
Speaker 1: got kind of headaches and stuff and found that we

1853
01:55:18,200 --> 01:55:20,960
Speaker 1: had to take aspir in the morning or something like that.

1854
01:55:22,080 --> 01:55:24,839
Speaker 1: Nigel got hooked on oxygen. We all kind of did, actually,

1855
01:55:25,120 --> 01:55:27,560
Speaker 1: but Nigel still has it on stage these days. That's

1856
01:55:27,560 --> 01:55:32,080
Speaker 1: from Cariboo Ranch, believe it or not. And we found,

1857
01:55:32,760 --> 01:55:38,520
Speaker 1: to our surprise that Elton was singing about another ton

1858
01:55:38,600 --> 01:55:41,800
Speaker 1: and a half higher than he usually does, so that

1859
01:55:41,880 --> 01:55:46,600
Speaker 1: when you listen to the songs of Caribou and Captain Fantastic,

1860
01:55:46,600 --> 01:55:49,760
Speaker 1: which we recorded there also and the following album, he's

1861
01:55:49,800 --> 01:55:54,480
Speaker 1: singing so high. It was very difficult for us to

1862
01:55:55,640 --> 01:55:59,960
Speaker 1: reproduce that, you know, after the mid eighties, because he

1863
01:56:00,000 --> 01:56:02,040
Speaker 1: couldn't sing that high anymore. He was done after his

1864
01:56:02,560 --> 01:56:05,600
Speaker 1: throat issues. He couldn't get up there, so we had

1865
01:56:05,640 --> 01:56:09,320
Speaker 1: to eventually scale everything down. So going back to that,

1866
01:56:11,200 --> 01:56:16,080
Speaker 1: his vocals were wonderful, but incredibly high. You know, everything

1867
01:56:16,120 --> 01:56:18,160
Speaker 1: was pitched really high. You might notice that the next

1868
01:56:18,160 --> 01:56:21,960
Speaker 1: time you hear a track from that album. We loved

1869
01:56:22,000 --> 01:56:25,440
Speaker 1: working there because we suddenly we made our own. The

1870
01:56:25,440 --> 01:56:28,040
Speaker 1: only difference is we didn't have like a little breakfast

1871
01:56:28,080 --> 01:56:31,400
Speaker 1: practice room. Everything was in the studio, So we just

1872
01:56:31,480 --> 01:56:34,360
Speaker 1: have our breakfast in the lodge, all hang out there,

1873
01:56:34,480 --> 01:56:37,520
Speaker 1: do our thing, go for a snowmobile, have a ride

1874
01:56:37,520 --> 01:56:39,839
Speaker 1: and a horse, you know, do whatever you know, and

1875
01:56:39,880 --> 01:56:46,160
Speaker 1: then go to the studio and start writing recording. There's

1876
01:56:46,160 --> 01:56:49,560
Speaker 1: a track on there called on the first Caribou album

1877
01:56:49,920 --> 01:56:54,760
Speaker 1: called I've Seen the Saucers, which is a very very

1878
01:56:54,760 --> 01:56:57,000
Speaker 1: interesting song. I've always thought it was a it's a

1879
01:56:57,040 --> 01:57:00,200
Speaker 1: great deep cut, but the one that not a lot

1880
01:57:00,200 --> 01:57:03,040
Speaker 1: of another fans have really paid much attention to. I

1881
01:57:03,040 --> 01:57:05,640
Speaker 1: don't think, but I really think it's quirky and a

1882
01:57:05,720 --> 01:57:09,320
Speaker 1: lot a lot of fun. For that track, Ray Cooper

1883
01:57:09,360 --> 01:57:14,280
Speaker 1: had the idea of using a water gong on it. Now,

1884
01:57:16,080 --> 01:57:18,240
Speaker 1: Ray when he does things, he didn't never do anything

1885
01:57:18,280 --> 01:57:24,760
Speaker 1: by halves. So Ray's gone was I don't know, ten

1886
01:57:24,840 --> 01:57:28,680
Speaker 1: feet in diameter, and we had we've had that in

1887
01:57:28,720 --> 01:57:30,800
Speaker 1: the studio It was hard enough getting in the studio.

1888
01:57:32,080 --> 01:57:34,600
Speaker 1: Then we had to find a tank big enough to

1889
01:57:34,760 --> 01:57:37,680
Speaker 1: drop the water going into because that's the idea. You

1890
01:57:37,760 --> 01:57:40,560
Speaker 1: hold the gong suspended above the water and then you

1891
01:57:40,640 --> 01:57:44,240
Speaker 1: slowly drop it in. So it goes from this gone

1892
01:57:45,960 --> 01:57:49,520
Speaker 1: right the support studio. We almost drowned the studio. We

1893
01:57:49,520 --> 01:57:54,280
Speaker 1: almost ruined it with and mold and shit. So but

1894
01:57:54,360 --> 01:57:56,840
Speaker 1: the sound was great. The sound was great on that track.

1895
01:57:56,880 --> 01:57:58,920
Speaker 1: So the next time you hear it, listen for the

1896
01:57:58,960 --> 01:58:05,879
Speaker 1: water Gone okay and the Bitch's Back. Bitch's Back was special,

1897
01:58:06,800 --> 01:58:10,040
Speaker 1: um because we wanted to do it was obviously going

1898
01:58:10,080 --> 01:58:12,800
Speaker 1: to be a rock track, and Elton wrote it very

1899
01:58:12,840 --> 01:58:17,240
Speaker 1: quickly and he said, I want, you know, I want

1900
01:58:17,280 --> 01:58:21,680
Speaker 1: a really different intro, something really machine gun doing something different,

1901
01:58:22,280 --> 01:58:24,200
Speaker 1: you know, And I went, okay, well that, so I

1902
01:58:24,320 --> 01:58:27,760
Speaker 1: did the g tuning idea and came up with, um

1903
01:58:29,080 --> 01:58:32,240
Speaker 1: what it was, which is essentially doing a bark or

1904
01:58:32,400 --> 01:58:33,800
Speaker 1: they're going to did a little bit, a little bit,

1905
01:58:33,840 --> 01:58:36,360
Speaker 1: a little bit bad about and do the inversions with

1906
01:58:36,400 --> 01:58:40,280
Speaker 1: your first and third finger and sorry, your second and

1907
01:58:40,320 --> 01:58:43,760
Speaker 1: third finger for all your guitar nuts out there. And

1908
01:58:44,680 --> 01:58:46,880
Speaker 1: it's a great sound and the way I got that

1909
01:58:46,960 --> 01:58:51,120
Speaker 1: sound was by plugging directly into the console, not through

1910
01:58:51,120 --> 01:58:54,240
Speaker 1: an amplifier, so that sound has got a really high

1911
01:58:54,400 --> 01:58:57,320
Speaker 1: end kind of fipip sound to it. It's that direct

1912
01:58:57,360 --> 01:59:00,520
Speaker 1: sound to it. So we did two guitars like that,

1913
01:59:01,000 --> 01:59:04,440
Speaker 1: and then I added a couple of heavier guitars later on.

1914
01:59:05,720 --> 01:59:09,600
Speaker 1: We were always great for varying the textures of whatever

1915
01:59:09,640 --> 01:59:12,000
Speaker 1: guitars we put on. We would make sure that there

1916
01:59:12,040 --> 01:59:13,880
Speaker 1: was one was a bit different from the other, and

1917
01:59:13,920 --> 01:59:16,320
Speaker 1: then if a lead guitar track, it was obviously from

1918
01:59:16,360 --> 01:59:21,360
Speaker 1: the other four. So I'm the Bitch's back. Had the

1919
01:59:21,400 --> 01:59:25,240
Speaker 1: two direct inject guitars doing the riff, then a couple

1920
01:59:25,280 --> 01:59:27,960
Speaker 1: of overdriven guitars doing that, and then like a solo

1921
01:59:28,000 --> 01:59:32,120
Speaker 1: sign guitar doing other pickup links. But again, a really

1922
01:59:32,160 --> 01:59:36,040
Speaker 1: fun track to record, and we had Tar of Power

1923
01:59:36,440 --> 01:59:39,040
Speaker 1: come up there for a few days to do some horns,

1924
01:59:39,800 --> 01:59:41,920
Speaker 1: and so we had a built in sec solo with

1925
01:59:42,040 --> 01:59:46,160
Speaker 1: Lenny and those guys up there. So it was awesome. Okay,

1926
01:59:46,240 --> 01:59:49,640
Speaker 1: going to the next job, which you referenced earlier, Captain Fantastic,

1927
01:59:49,680 --> 01:59:52,920
Speaker 1: which is also cut in Caribou Ranch. There's a lot

1928
01:59:52,960 --> 01:59:56,400
Speaker 1: to dig in there, so maybe leave that for another time.

1929
01:59:56,440 --> 01:59:58,680
Speaker 1: But I'm only going to ask you because your memory

1930
01:59:58,720 --> 02:00:01,480
Speaker 1: is so damn good. My favorite track on that is

1931
02:00:01,560 --> 02:00:06,920
Speaker 1: tell Me when the whistle Blows. Remember anything on that? Oh? Absolutely,

1932
02:00:07,000 --> 02:00:11,600
Speaker 1: What a great song and what a different song. Because

1933
02:00:11,640 --> 02:00:15,840
Speaker 1: it's such a unique song. We all thought right from

1934
02:00:15,840 --> 02:00:18,400
Speaker 1: the off, it's got to be a really different treatment,

1935
02:00:18,440 --> 02:00:22,280
Speaker 1: different from the way that we'd play anything else. We

1936
02:00:22,280 --> 02:00:26,760
Speaker 1: were going for a real, a real soul blues type

1937
02:00:26,760 --> 02:00:30,320
Speaker 1: of thing, and the idea was to cut it with

1938
02:00:30,400 --> 02:00:34,839
Speaker 1: electric piano, so none of that melodic pianos, regular acoustic

1939
02:00:34,840 --> 02:00:39,240
Speaker 1: piano stuff, really nice dark electric piano sound. D's bass

1940
02:00:39,240 --> 02:00:43,000
Speaker 1: and Nigel Strump's really cut it like that, leave it sparse,

1941
02:00:43,440 --> 02:00:47,280
Speaker 1: and then later I would overdub some guitar lines. And

1942
02:00:47,360 --> 02:00:52,920
Speaker 1: that's exactly the way we did it. The idea from

1943
02:00:52,920 --> 02:00:55,800
Speaker 1: my guitar sound. I kind of stole a couple of

1944
02:00:56,200 --> 02:00:59,000
Speaker 1: tricks from a couple of other guitar players. I stole

1945
02:00:59,040 --> 02:01:06,040
Speaker 1: an idea from Steven Stills about using the bass pick

1946
02:01:06,520 --> 02:01:09,080
Speaker 1: pick up on your guitar and taking all the travel

1947
02:01:09,120 --> 02:01:12,240
Speaker 1: off that pickup so that it's really round sounding and

1948
02:01:12,440 --> 02:01:17,160
Speaker 1: really cool. And I stole a couple of David Gilmore

1949
02:01:17,840 --> 02:01:22,160
Speaker 1: ideas with the way he kind of approaches notes so

1950
02:01:22,240 --> 02:01:25,000
Speaker 1: that you'd hear all the inflection of just one guitar,

1951
02:01:25,120 --> 02:01:28,440
Speaker 1: not a whole bunch of instruments, and so it was

1952
02:01:28,480 --> 02:01:31,960
Speaker 1: a very style. It was our most stylized track we've

1953
02:01:31,960 --> 02:01:36,040
Speaker 1: done up to that point, I think. And then we

1954
02:01:36,080 --> 02:01:39,800
Speaker 1: asked Gene Paige to do the orchestral arrangement because we

1955
02:01:39,880 --> 02:01:42,480
Speaker 1: loved what he was doing with that Philadelphia soul sound

1956
02:01:43,240 --> 02:01:46,600
Speaker 1: and his stuff was just off the charts. It was

1957
02:01:46,640 --> 02:01:49,720
Speaker 1: so cool and at first, in fact, when we first

1958
02:01:50,080 --> 02:01:53,000
Speaker 1: when we heard it, none of us liked it. We

1959
02:01:53,040 --> 02:01:55,840
Speaker 1: heard it, but it was so fucking weird that when

1960
02:01:55,840 --> 02:01:57,960
Speaker 1: we heard it as far as it was like, really,

1961
02:01:58,400 --> 02:02:00,760
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's a bit cheese, and then there's

1962
02:02:00,760 --> 02:02:04,840
Speaker 1: a there's this, But then you know, the more we

1963
02:02:04,880 --> 02:02:08,080
Speaker 1: heard it, he was like, Okay, got it because he's

1964
02:02:08,080 --> 02:02:12,240
Speaker 1: a really special was a very special arranger. Okay. The

1965
02:02:12,320 --> 02:02:18,760
Speaker 1: album after that also cut in uh Colorado Rock of

1966
02:02:18,840 --> 02:02:22,480
Speaker 1: the West. He's one of my two favorite tracks on

1967
02:02:22,600 --> 02:02:25,839
Speaker 1: that you actually have a writing credit which has grows

1968
02:02:25,840 --> 02:02:30,240
Speaker 1: some funk of your own. What happens there? Well, well,

1969
02:02:30,440 --> 02:02:34,760
Speaker 1: that song I love on the album The way the

1970
02:02:34,760 --> 02:02:38,440
Speaker 1: track comes in after Island Girl, because it follows Island Girl,

1971
02:02:38,600 --> 02:02:41,640
Speaker 1: which is the Puppy first hit. I think off the record,

1972
02:02:43,840 --> 02:02:46,640
Speaker 1: the way it grows some funk comes in couldn't have

1973
02:02:46,680 --> 02:02:50,520
Speaker 1: been more exact the way I imagine it when we

1974
02:02:50,560 --> 02:02:53,600
Speaker 1: wrote it. We wrote it the night before and Elton's room.

1975
02:02:53,840 --> 02:02:57,040
Speaker 1: We were screwing around writing. We wrote a couple of

1976
02:02:57,040 --> 02:03:01,880
Speaker 1: songs in His and His Lug happen that week, three

1977
02:03:01,920 --> 02:03:05,640
Speaker 1: songs in fact. But Gross and Funk happened after we'd

1978
02:03:05,680 --> 02:03:08,480
Speaker 1: written the song which is the opening song on the album,

1979
02:03:08,840 --> 02:03:13,000
Speaker 1: the medley, Yell Help Um, And that was purely my

1980
02:03:13,080 --> 02:03:17,120
Speaker 1: idea from I was listening to a lot of Jjkle

1981
02:03:17,480 --> 02:03:20,360
Speaker 1: stuff back then, and I was based in my rhythm

1982
02:03:20,440 --> 02:03:24,640
Speaker 1: ideas for that song on that. But Gross and Funk

1983
02:03:24,800 --> 02:03:28,040
Speaker 1: was much more of a Okay, here's a great rock riff,

1984
02:03:29,320 --> 02:03:33,240
Speaker 1: but what about changing the key so that starts off

1985
02:03:33,240 --> 02:03:36,320
Speaker 1: with a slamming rock driff and then goes into a

1986
02:03:37,000 --> 02:03:43,040
Speaker 1: two part harmony guitar line. Down damn down, Dada da.

1987
02:03:43,800 --> 02:03:46,480
Speaker 1: So it was like, oh, yeah, this is gonna work

1988
02:03:46,480 --> 02:03:49,320
Speaker 1: because Caleb and I were doing two guitar parts, and

1989
02:03:49,360 --> 02:03:52,000
Speaker 1: then later on in the song, Ray Cooper was able

1990
02:03:52,040 --> 02:03:55,160
Speaker 1: to use the vibes in such a way, the Eddie

1991
02:03:55,240 --> 02:03:58,560
Speaker 1: Kendrick's vibe at the end of the song. You know,

1992
02:03:58,680 --> 02:04:01,240
Speaker 1: the musicians we add in that band allowed us to

1993
02:04:01,280 --> 02:04:05,480
Speaker 1: do some great things on that album. Apart from Caleb

1994
02:04:05,520 --> 02:04:07,960
Speaker 1: and Me doing the guitars, which you were really astounding

1995
02:04:08,240 --> 02:04:11,520
Speaker 1: on a lot of that record. But James as keyboard,

1996
02:04:11,600 --> 02:04:15,080
Speaker 1: James Newton Harder's keyboard on the album is fucking unbelievable.

1997
02:04:16,200 --> 02:04:18,520
Speaker 1: James and I have always really worked well together and

1998
02:04:18,640 --> 02:04:22,120
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun together. Yeah, so it's all

1999
02:04:22,160 --> 02:04:25,680
Speaker 1: been so much fun. I think you grow some funk.

2000
02:04:25,680 --> 02:04:28,160
Speaker 1: I believe Kicky and I did some background vocals on

2001
02:04:28,200 --> 02:04:32,200
Speaker 1: that song as well. Okay, the next album is Blue

2002
02:04:32,240 --> 02:04:36,880
Speaker 1: Moves in the fall of seventy six. This is simultaneous

2003
02:04:36,920 --> 02:04:40,880
Speaker 1: with Elton coming out as gay, which is not a

2004
02:04:40,880 --> 02:04:43,960
Speaker 1: big deal today. I think it's been over emphasized. I

2005
02:04:43,960 --> 02:04:47,000
Speaker 1: don't think it really was as big a deal as

2006
02:04:47,040 --> 02:04:51,640
Speaker 1: they said back then. But the album was not as successful.

2007
02:04:51,800 --> 02:04:54,000
Speaker 1: Sorry seems to be the hardest word. Ended up being

2008
02:04:54,040 --> 02:04:59,760
Speaker 1: a huge hit. Did you get a bittersweet vibe from

2009
02:04:59,760 --> 02:05:05,160
Speaker 1: the reception and what was going on there? Yeah, to me,

2010
02:05:06,200 --> 02:05:09,040
Speaker 1: even when we were recording the album. There's some great

2011
02:05:09,040 --> 02:05:12,360
Speaker 1: stuff on it, no doubt, absolutely no doubt. But as

2012
02:05:12,360 --> 02:05:21,200
Speaker 1: it went on to me, it was a little it

2013
02:05:21,360 --> 02:05:25,800
Speaker 1: was almost like diluted. It was almost like fresh orangues.

2014
02:05:25,840 --> 02:05:31,880
Speaker 1: It's been diluted. Suddenly it became not what I remembered

2015
02:05:31,880 --> 02:05:35,400
Speaker 1: it being. And it wasn't because suddenly there was seven

2016
02:05:35,440 --> 02:05:38,920
Speaker 1: people in the studio instead of four, you know, or

2017
02:05:38,920 --> 02:05:41,120
Speaker 1: five when Ray would be a part of the band

2018
02:05:41,160 --> 02:05:45,360
Speaker 1: as well. It was more than that. It was like,

2019
02:05:45,400 --> 02:05:47,400
Speaker 1: hold on, how many people were in that band? Shit

2020
02:05:47,920 --> 02:05:56,640
Speaker 1: to Elton, myself, Ray Rogier, Pope, Caleb Quay, Kenny Passarelli,

2021
02:05:56,960 --> 02:05:59,600
Speaker 1: James S. Newton heard Roger Pope? Is that right? Roo?

2022
02:06:00,200 --> 02:06:03,520
Speaker 1: So yeah, seven people a lot of people. It's a lot,

2023
02:06:03,880 --> 02:06:06,640
Speaker 1: a lot more ideas. And I think Alton was being

2024
02:06:06,720 --> 02:06:12,480
Speaker 1: extremely generous in suggesting that we write some songs it.

2025
02:06:12,760 --> 02:06:15,880
Speaker 1: It was so very very kind of him in that way.

2026
02:06:15,880 --> 02:06:18,840
Speaker 1: It kind of in a booknd to what we were

2027
02:06:18,840 --> 02:06:22,560
Speaker 1: talking about earlier about about if people think they should

2028
02:06:22,680 --> 02:06:25,280
Speaker 1: get a piece of a certain song on this record.

2029
02:06:25,320 --> 02:06:28,520
Speaker 1: I feel that Alton was more bringing us in that

2030
02:06:28,560 --> 02:06:32,720
Speaker 1: particular band into songwriting, which was a very generous thing

2031
02:06:32,800 --> 02:06:36,440
Speaker 1: to do for any artist or any musician, I feel,

2032
02:06:36,960 --> 02:06:40,400
Speaker 1: and I don't think it hurts the record in that

2033
02:06:40,720 --> 02:06:42,760
Speaker 1: the way the record turned out, because it turned out

2034
02:06:42,800 --> 02:06:45,480
Speaker 1: to be a much more to me, a much more

2035
02:06:45,560 --> 02:06:49,840
Speaker 1: sober collection of songs than anything we'd come up with before.

2036
02:06:50,840 --> 02:06:55,080
Speaker 1: Things that didn't quite make sense to me. To me,

2037
02:06:55,160 --> 02:06:57,680
Speaker 1: it wasn't cohesive as cohesive any of the albums that

2038
02:06:57,720 --> 02:07:02,040
Speaker 1: we've done previously. That's again chefs my personal opinion. I

2039
02:07:02,080 --> 02:07:03,920
Speaker 1: have no idea how the rest of the guys feel

2040
02:07:03,960 --> 02:07:06,280
Speaker 1: about it. And I think that the album cover and

2041
02:07:06,280 --> 02:07:10,640
Speaker 1: the packaging kind of the album covered that is the

2042
02:07:10,680 --> 02:07:12,600
Speaker 1: insert and the picture was kind of happy, and that

2043
02:07:12,720 --> 02:07:16,640
Speaker 1: was fine, But the album itself all being blue with

2044
02:07:16,680 --> 02:07:21,960
Speaker 1: that Patrick Proctor painting, it was fine, and I guess

2045
02:07:22,000 --> 02:07:23,840
Speaker 1: it's what they wanted to do at the time, and

2046
02:07:23,920 --> 02:07:27,400
Speaker 1: it was very artsy, but maybe for me I thought

2047
02:07:27,440 --> 02:07:32,440
Speaker 1: it was a little too artsy. Okay, do you realize

2048
02:07:32,480 --> 02:07:36,960
Speaker 1: the end is coming? After that album? Elton breaks up

2049
02:07:36,960 --> 02:07:39,960
Speaker 1: the band? You're on your own? Did you see that coming?

2050
02:07:40,320 --> 02:07:45,160
Speaker 1: And what did you feel when that happened. I did

2051
02:07:45,160 --> 02:07:47,720
Speaker 1: see it coming. I didn't know what was coming after it.

2052
02:07:49,480 --> 02:07:52,960
Speaker 1: I did see an end to the thing, and we'd

2053
02:07:53,000 --> 02:07:57,520
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about stuff and because of his

2054
02:07:57,680 --> 02:08:00,920
Speaker 1: health mainly and the amount of work we were having

2055
02:08:00,960 --> 02:08:04,080
Speaker 1: to do to tour with all the product that was

2056
02:08:04,120 --> 02:08:07,400
Speaker 1: out there and the demand to see Elton and the band,

2057
02:08:07,560 --> 02:08:11,000
Speaker 1: and it was phenomenal. It was a wonderful time. But

2058
02:08:11,120 --> 02:08:14,400
Speaker 1: he was very, very straight up about it. He sat

2059
02:08:14,520 --> 02:08:17,960
Speaker 1: the whole band down with Sean Reid, all of us together,

2060
02:08:18,160 --> 02:08:21,840
Speaker 1: and he said, guys, I can't do this anymore. I'm done.

2061
02:08:22,200 --> 02:08:24,360
Speaker 1: I have to dissolve the band because I don't know

2062
02:08:24,360 --> 02:08:26,160
Speaker 1: what I'm going to do next. I just need time

2063
02:08:26,720 --> 02:08:31,360
Speaker 1: for myself to recover from what we've been doing for

2064
02:08:31,400 --> 02:08:34,880
Speaker 1: the last seven years or whatever I've been doing. I

2065
02:08:35,000 --> 02:08:37,960
Speaker 1: need a break. I need to be me and find

2066
02:08:38,040 --> 02:08:41,879
Speaker 1: myself and have rest, etcetera, etcetera. And he gave everybody

2067
02:08:41,920 --> 02:08:45,360
Speaker 1: a really nice handoff to say, you know, you guys

2068
02:08:45,360 --> 02:08:47,920
Speaker 1: have been amazing, and all the rest of it now

2069
02:08:48,400 --> 02:08:51,640
Speaker 1: all down the line. For myself, the situation has always

2070
02:08:51,680 --> 02:08:54,240
Speaker 1: been a little bit different. Elton's always been in touch

2071
02:08:54,280 --> 02:08:58,200
Speaker 1: with me. I think the longest period when he didn't

2072
02:08:58,240 --> 02:09:01,760
Speaker 1: call me was after what he decided to do another

2073
02:09:01,800 --> 02:09:04,360
Speaker 1: band thing and I was already working with Alice Cooper

2074
02:09:05,000 --> 02:09:07,680
Speaker 1: and then that segued into some work with Meat Love.

2075
02:09:07,760 --> 02:09:10,240
Speaker 1: So I was already a very busy session guy, and

2076
02:09:10,320 --> 02:09:12,680
Speaker 1: he wanted to work with with other I think he

2077
02:09:12,720 --> 02:09:15,600
Speaker 1: wanted to work with other people. He had asked me

2078
02:09:15,680 --> 02:09:19,600
Speaker 1: a couple of times about doing a couple of projects,

2079
02:09:19,640 --> 02:09:24,280
Speaker 1: and I did a I think I played on one

2080
02:09:24,320 --> 02:09:27,640
Speaker 1: of his solo records, A single Man. I played on

2081
02:09:27,640 --> 02:09:29,960
Speaker 1: one track of that. So I've always been in touch

2082
02:09:30,040 --> 02:09:34,120
Speaker 1: with him more than anybody else music wise, hence the

2083
02:09:34,360 --> 02:09:39,200
Speaker 1: musical director kind of tag. But I did get up

2084
02:09:39,200 --> 02:09:41,680
Speaker 1: in jam with a band that he had right before

2085
02:09:42,240 --> 02:09:45,240
Speaker 1: we got back together in nineteen end of eighty one

2086
02:09:45,320 --> 02:09:47,840
Speaker 1: beginning of eighty two. He had either a tour I

2087
02:09:47,840 --> 02:09:52,440
Speaker 1: think that encompassed that Central Park gig that he did

2088
02:09:52,640 --> 02:09:56,440
Speaker 1: where he wore the Many Mouse sorry not many Mouse,

2089
02:09:56,720 --> 02:10:00,280
Speaker 1: Daisy Duck costume, Donald Duck costume. Right, he had Central

2090
02:10:00,360 --> 02:10:04,920
Speaker 1: Park and back then he had d and Nigel back

2091
02:10:04,960 --> 02:10:07,120
Speaker 1: in the band, but he had two other guitar players

2092
02:10:07,480 --> 02:10:10,760
Speaker 1: he had Um I kind of Tim Rennick, I think,

2093
02:10:10,760 --> 02:10:13,200
Speaker 1: and Richie Zero. I want to say that's my guests

2094
02:10:13,840 --> 02:10:16,960
Speaker 1: UM and I think, I don't think Ray was even

2095
02:10:16,960 --> 02:10:20,960
Speaker 1: in that that band and some background singers, three background

2096
02:10:21,000 --> 02:10:23,360
Speaker 1: singers who I can't remember who they were, so it

2097
02:10:23,400 --> 02:10:28,760
Speaker 1: was different, but it wasn't people who were owning the music.

2098
02:10:28,800 --> 02:10:30,320
Speaker 1: I didn't feel I want to see it at the

2099
02:10:30,320 --> 02:10:32,920
Speaker 1: Forum when when the show came through, and you know,

2100
02:10:32,960 --> 02:10:34,600
Speaker 1: Elton said, well, why don't you get up on a song?

2101
02:10:34,640 --> 02:10:37,480
Speaker 1: And I got up on bite your lip, get up

2102
02:10:37,480 --> 02:10:40,960
Speaker 1: on dance and blew some some rock and slight guitar

2103
02:10:41,120 --> 02:10:42,960
Speaker 1: and it was great good to see him see them

2104
02:10:43,000 --> 02:10:45,680
Speaker 1: and do that again. But I could tell right then

2105
02:10:47,480 --> 02:10:50,000
Speaker 1: he wasn't happy with what was going on then, and

2106
02:10:50,040 --> 02:10:52,360
Speaker 1: if he was going to tour again, I could tell then.

2107
02:10:53,240 --> 02:10:55,960
Speaker 1: It was almost like it's going to happen very soon.

2108
02:10:56,760 --> 02:11:00,240
Speaker 1: And yeah, but I was just getting done with the

2109
02:11:00,280 --> 02:11:03,120
Speaker 1: meat loaf thing. He hopped to call me and said,

2110
02:11:04,040 --> 02:11:06,040
Speaker 1: I really think we should put the band back together.

2111
02:11:06,480 --> 02:11:09,160
Speaker 1: It's so funny, Bob, because here in that phrase. I've

2112
02:11:09,200 --> 02:11:12,520
Speaker 1: heard it done jokingly in so many sitcoms and different

2113
02:11:12,520 --> 02:11:16,240
Speaker 1: things and used in different contexts. But when he said

2114
02:11:16,520 --> 02:11:18,400
Speaker 1: I really think we should get the band back together,

2115
02:11:18,480 --> 02:11:21,080
Speaker 1: I said, you're absolutely fucking right, we should. You know,

2116
02:11:21,560 --> 02:11:25,800
Speaker 1: it was just okay, let's do it. And again we

2117
02:11:25,840 --> 02:11:30,080
Speaker 1: went into Mark two and it went the same way. Okay,

2118
02:11:30,120 --> 02:11:32,840
Speaker 1: when he does break up the brand, how much does

2119
02:11:32,840 --> 02:11:35,960
Speaker 1: that fuck you up? How do you lift yourself off

2120
02:11:35,960 --> 02:11:40,640
Speaker 1: the floor? Are you okay financially? What happens in that

2121
02:11:40,800 --> 02:11:46,720
Speaker 1: interim before you start to work with Alice Cooper, etc. Well,

2122
02:11:46,720 --> 02:11:50,240
Speaker 1: first of all, I started to do sessions with other people.

2123
02:11:50,800 --> 02:11:54,960
Speaker 1: I started to work with other producers like Richard Perry,

2124
02:11:57,280 --> 02:12:02,280
Speaker 1: robert A Pere, Bill Schnay because they again knew what

2125
02:12:02,360 --> 02:12:04,680
Speaker 1: I did, and they would invite me to play on

2126
02:12:04,720 --> 02:12:07,040
Speaker 1: their track and also artist occasional I would just say,

2127
02:12:07,040 --> 02:12:08,880
Speaker 1: would you come and play on my record? I'd like

2128
02:12:08,960 --> 02:12:12,400
Speaker 1: Alice Cooper and people like that. So I built up

2129
02:12:12,520 --> 02:12:16,880
Speaker 1: some I was never really that short of work immediately

2130
02:12:16,920 --> 02:12:21,920
Speaker 1: following Elton, and my intention at that point was, Okay,

2131
02:12:21,960 --> 02:12:25,680
Speaker 1: well we're going into nineteen seventy seven. I just kind

2132
02:12:25,680 --> 02:12:28,400
Speaker 1: of take some time for myself. So I went to

2133
02:12:28,440 --> 02:12:34,800
Speaker 1: Tahiti for a month and almost didn't come home. I

2134
02:12:34,920 --> 02:12:38,840
Speaker 1: fell in love with Bora Bora, absolutely loved it. Got

2135
02:12:38,840 --> 02:12:42,000
Speaker 1: completely away from music and anything to do with touring

2136
02:12:42,080 --> 02:12:47,320
Speaker 1: or anything, and really cleansed myself, you know, and and

2137
02:12:47,560 --> 02:12:52,400
Speaker 1: we finally came back and slowly got back into life

2138
02:12:53,320 --> 02:12:57,640
Speaker 1: in California, because I just started living in California. I'd

2139
02:12:57,640 --> 02:13:02,320
Speaker 1: rented a place in Hollywood. And to be totally honest, Bob,

2140
02:13:02,320 --> 02:13:05,000
Speaker 1: there was also an awful lot of the rock star

2141
02:13:05,240 --> 02:13:09,280
Speaker 1: thing coming creeping into my my life. Then when I

2142
02:13:09,320 --> 02:13:12,080
Speaker 1: say the rock star thing, what I mean is dangerous

2143
02:13:12,120 --> 02:13:15,600
Speaker 1: amounts of alcohol and drugs and women started to creep

2144
02:13:15,600 --> 02:13:18,760
Speaker 1: into the picture. And it began to get very very

2145
02:13:18,880 --> 02:13:25,360
Speaker 1: dodgy and scary. Quite frankly, Um, I managed to come

2146
02:13:25,360 --> 02:13:28,840
Speaker 1: through the other end, but not through, you know, not

2147
02:13:28,960 --> 02:13:31,600
Speaker 1: from a lot of bumps and bruises and and and

2148
02:13:31,880 --> 02:13:36,800
Speaker 1: you know, potholes, false starts and what have you. You know,

2149
02:13:37,080 --> 02:13:40,560
Speaker 1: as as we all do, as life, as life takes us,

2150
02:13:40,880 --> 02:13:43,440
Speaker 1: it can't all be up, you know, it certainly can't

2151
02:13:43,440 --> 02:13:48,160
Speaker 1: all be up. And I had a great time. I

2152
02:13:48,280 --> 02:13:50,680
Speaker 1: got to tell you, I went on for like a

2153
02:13:50,720 --> 02:13:53,560
Speaker 1: couple of years of really having a good time. I

2154
02:13:53,720 --> 02:13:55,360
Speaker 1: put it this way, I thought it was having a

2155
02:13:55,400 --> 02:13:59,200
Speaker 1: good time. Um. Although the parties were quite legendary amongst

2156
02:13:59,240 --> 02:14:02,320
Speaker 1: the people who who came and enjoyed them for a

2157
02:14:02,400 --> 02:14:06,160
Speaker 1: couple of years, but like any other person in that situation,

2158
02:14:06,160 --> 02:14:09,000
Speaker 1: when you're hosting that kind of event on a regular basis,

2159
02:14:09,120 --> 02:14:12,000
Speaker 1: you suddenly wake up and go, well, either you don't

2160
02:14:12,040 --> 02:14:14,520
Speaker 1: wake up, or you wake up and say, you know what,

2161
02:14:14,680 --> 02:14:18,400
Speaker 1: everybody's around my house? I think what happened? What really

2162
02:14:18,440 --> 02:14:22,360
Speaker 1: shook me up? One night, it was about three four

2163
02:14:22,400 --> 02:14:27,280
Speaker 1: in the morning when a dear friend of mine happened

2164
02:14:27,320 --> 02:14:30,160
Speaker 1: to be Lowell. George May rest in peace. So I'd

2165
02:14:30,200 --> 02:14:32,560
Speaker 1: dore little Feet, that one of my favorite things of

2166
02:14:32,600 --> 02:14:35,720
Speaker 1: all time. And Richie and Lowell and those guys would

2167
02:14:35,720 --> 02:14:38,200
Speaker 1: hang out at the house as well. So they were

2168
02:14:38,200 --> 02:14:43,720
Speaker 1: into notorious, notoriously into various forms of you know, stuff,

2169
02:14:44,000 --> 02:14:46,960
Speaker 1: and so they'd be they'd be fixtures in the house.

2170
02:14:47,400 --> 02:14:49,800
Speaker 1: But I was fast asleep on it, and it was

2171
02:14:49,840 --> 02:14:53,240
Speaker 1: about four in the morning, and it was Lowell's wife

2172
02:14:53,320 --> 02:14:56,600
Speaker 1: banging on the door, wanting to come in and party,

2173
02:14:56,680 --> 02:14:59,640
Speaker 1: you know, and those kind of things. That kind of

2174
02:14:59,680 --> 02:15:04,440
Speaker 1: thing already happening, and people like Oliver Read the actor

2175
02:15:04,600 --> 02:15:06,920
Speaker 1: showing up. I don't know all of her fucking read

2176
02:15:06,960 --> 02:15:09,320
Speaker 1: and he shows up in my house, and you know,

2177
02:15:10,160 --> 02:15:14,000
Speaker 1: it was just bizarre. And I suddenly thought, all right,

2178
02:15:14,080 --> 02:15:20,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to get again, a little bit of respectability,

2179
02:15:21,240 --> 02:15:23,800
Speaker 1: get that into my life. And I figured the best

2180
02:15:23,840 --> 02:15:27,440
Speaker 1: way to do that was to get married and have

2181
02:15:27,520 --> 02:15:30,960
Speaker 1: some kids. And that's what happened with my second marriage

2182
02:15:31,040 --> 02:15:36,680
Speaker 1: and had two wonderful children. Rosa my wife at that

2183
02:15:36,720 --> 02:15:40,280
Speaker 1: time I met. She was a dancer with Alice Cooper's band.

2184
02:15:40,440 --> 02:15:43,640
Speaker 1: When I went to work with Alice, so you know,

2185
02:15:44,360 --> 02:15:50,000
Speaker 1: mister rockstar picks up the dancer. And the tour was

2186
02:15:50,400 --> 02:15:54,840
Speaker 1: Rose my wife at that time, and Cheryl Cooper, Alice's wife,

2187
02:15:54,840 --> 02:15:57,760
Speaker 1: with the two female dancers, and there were two gay guys,

2188
02:15:57,800 --> 02:16:00,520
Speaker 1: and you know, that period was it was kind of

2189
02:16:00,560 --> 02:16:04,839
Speaker 1: interesting because working with Id segued into working with Alice,

2190
02:16:05,480 --> 02:16:09,120
Speaker 1: and it was so much fun. It was just hilarious.

2191
02:16:09,160 --> 02:16:11,880
Speaker 1: And Alice is still a dear friend to this day

2192
02:16:12,200 --> 02:16:16,920
Speaker 1: and his wife, Cheryl. That marriage at that time wasn't

2193
02:16:17,000 --> 02:16:20,160
Speaker 1: to be. It really was what I had mentioned to you.

2194
02:16:20,520 --> 02:16:22,400
Speaker 1: It seemed to be like a way of me gaining

2195
02:16:22,440 --> 02:16:29,240
Speaker 1: some kinds of respectability, responsibility also, but it didn't pan out.

2196
02:16:29,360 --> 02:16:32,800
Speaker 1: I just wasn't willing to stop my ways, my rock

2197
02:16:32,879 --> 02:16:35,920
Speaker 1: star ways, and I wasn't certainly wasn't ready the quick

2198
02:16:35,920 --> 02:16:38,600
Speaker 1: touring when Elton when the band came back together, So

2199
02:16:39,040 --> 02:16:44,120
Speaker 1: really that second marriage was doomed. And what about getting clean,

2200
02:16:44,600 --> 02:16:49,680
Speaker 1: because Elton famously got clean. Yeah, I thought it was

2201
02:16:49,720 --> 02:16:51,640
Speaker 1: amazing when I was so proud of him when he

2202
02:16:51,680 --> 02:16:57,360
Speaker 1: got clean. Of course, like many, like many alcoholics and

2203
02:16:57,440 --> 02:17:00,440
Speaker 1: drug addicts, you know, it wasn't for me that time.

2204
02:17:00,480 --> 02:17:02,760
Speaker 1: When I saw him do it, I thought, it's so

2205
02:17:02,800 --> 02:17:06,039
Speaker 1: great he's doing it, and I was so happy for him.

2206
02:17:06,160 --> 02:17:09,959
Speaker 1: I was having a wonderful period of time because I

2207
02:17:10,040 --> 02:17:14,200
Speaker 1: just met my wife, my present wife, Kay back then

2208
02:17:14,240 --> 02:17:16,520
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine, and he got sober in nineteen

2209
02:17:16,680 --> 02:17:20,039
Speaker 1: ninety so it was the perfect timing for me to

2210
02:17:20,120 --> 02:17:24,720
Speaker 1: have this year getting to know my new wife. Oh,

2211
02:17:24,760 --> 02:17:26,440
Speaker 1: we weren't married at that point. We were together for

2212
02:17:26,440 --> 02:17:28,480
Speaker 1: the first two years, had a baby, and then we

2213
02:17:28,600 --> 02:17:31,959
Speaker 1: married in ninety two. But it was a wonderful time

2214
02:17:32,000 --> 02:17:37,040
Speaker 1: to have a vacation, really start enjoying family. This this

2215
02:17:37,160 --> 02:17:40,080
Speaker 1: woman I was in love with, and suddenly I thought,

2216
02:17:40,280 --> 02:17:43,520
Speaker 1: that's it. I found the right combination for me and

2217
02:17:43,720 --> 02:17:46,480
Speaker 1: you know, for her, I think. And we had a

2218
02:17:46,480 --> 02:17:50,920
Speaker 1: beautiful baby and we decided to travel everywhere together and

2219
02:17:51,440 --> 02:17:53,560
Speaker 1: that's what we did. There was still a lot of

2220
02:17:53,600 --> 02:17:57,039
Speaker 1: party in going on, mainly drinking because the Danes are

2221
02:17:57,080 --> 02:18:00,720
Speaker 1: probably as big drinkers as the Scots, and I wasn't

2222
02:18:00,760 --> 02:18:06,560
Speaker 1: ready to stop drinking, definitely not. And ten years of that,

2223
02:18:08,560 --> 02:18:10,400
Speaker 1: my wife and I was still very much in love.

2224
02:18:11,120 --> 02:18:15,039
Speaker 1: But when we lost our son in two thousand and one,

2225
02:18:15,200 --> 02:18:20,960
Speaker 1: that was such a jolt. Obviously it sounds like a

2226
02:18:21,720 --> 02:18:23,800
Speaker 1: very weak way of putting it, but it shook me

2227
02:18:23,840 --> 02:18:28,400
Speaker 1: to the core, obviously. But I didn't stop drinking for

2228
02:18:28,480 --> 02:18:32,680
Speaker 1: another seven years after that because I was I think

2229
02:18:33,320 --> 02:18:37,360
Speaker 1: I was on a course to killing myself. Nothing mattered.

2230
02:18:38,280 --> 02:18:41,160
Speaker 1: I didn't matter if I was around or not, and

2231
02:18:41,280 --> 02:18:44,879
Speaker 1: I was still when I got back to working. The

2232
02:18:44,920 --> 02:18:47,520
Speaker 1: band were always very you know, Elton was great. He

2233
02:18:47,600 --> 02:18:50,040
Speaker 1: was very supportive all the way through it. I mean

2234
02:18:50,240 --> 02:18:52,879
Speaker 1: he supported me in more ways than I can tell you,

2235
02:18:54,640 --> 02:18:57,600
Speaker 1: and the band were kind to me. It was difficult

2236
02:18:57,640 --> 02:18:59,000
Speaker 1: because you know, I went back. It was right in

2237
02:18:59,080 --> 02:19:01,080
Speaker 1: the middle of the Billy Joe whole thing that I

2238
02:19:01,200 --> 02:19:05,320
Speaker 1: lost my son and saw that going back after four

2239
02:19:05,400 --> 02:19:07,760
Speaker 1: or five months of being away in dealing with that

2240
02:19:07,920 --> 02:19:14,560
Speaker 1: grief was really difficult. It was really hard, and you know,

2241
02:19:14,600 --> 02:19:17,680
Speaker 1: I found myself getting into antidepressions and stuff like that,

2242
02:19:18,040 --> 02:19:21,199
Speaker 1: which didn't help with the drinking. So I wasn't stopping

2243
02:19:21,200 --> 02:19:28,119
Speaker 1: any of it until the fall of two thousand and nine.

2244
02:19:28,920 --> 02:19:32,120
Speaker 1: And with Elton, he invited me back to his place

2245
02:19:32,120 --> 02:19:34,000
Speaker 1: where we're doing in the middle of a tour, and

2246
02:19:34,080 --> 02:19:37,200
Speaker 1: occasionally over the years he'd invite me back for a

2247
02:19:37,240 --> 02:19:39,800
Speaker 1: few days and we'd hang out and you know, listen

2248
02:19:39,840 --> 02:19:43,120
Speaker 1: to music and do you know whatever, have dinners and

2249
02:19:43,400 --> 02:19:47,880
Speaker 1: just have fun, and to inviting me back after while

2250
02:19:47,920 --> 02:19:51,080
Speaker 1: we're on tour in two thousand and nine and the fall,

2251
02:19:51,360 --> 02:19:54,360
Speaker 1: and he sat me down at breakfast one day. He

2252
02:19:54,440 --> 02:19:57,119
Speaker 1: just comes down for breakfast and we're having like bald

2253
02:19:57,160 --> 02:20:00,959
Speaker 1: eggs and toast and marmalade and cups teen we're chatting

2254
02:20:00,959 --> 02:20:03,400
Speaker 1: away and he just turned to him and he said,

2255
02:20:04,000 --> 02:20:07,039
Speaker 1: you know, I think you should do something about your

2256
02:20:07,120 --> 02:20:12,520
Speaker 1: drinking and your drugs and stuff. And my first I said, really,

2257
02:20:13,120 --> 02:20:17,800
Speaker 1: I said, the drummer is much worse than me. He said,

2258
02:20:17,840 --> 02:20:20,200
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the fucking drummer. I'm talking about you.

2259
02:20:21,000 --> 02:20:26,280
Speaker 1: So right there was a wonderful nudge from one of

2260
02:20:26,320 --> 02:20:30,240
Speaker 1: my dearest friends of all time telling me you better

2261
02:20:30,440 --> 02:20:34,560
Speaker 1: sort this out. It's time. So he got me on

2262
02:20:34,600 --> 02:20:37,039
Speaker 1: that path and from there I met several people who

2263
02:20:37,040 --> 02:20:40,440
Speaker 1: have been so helpful. And the people I've met in

2264
02:20:40,560 --> 02:20:47,080
Speaker 1: that program have just been so unbelievable. And yeah, I

2265
02:20:47,120 --> 02:20:50,160
Speaker 1: have not a drinks since two thousand November two thousand

2266
02:20:50,160 --> 02:20:53,960
Speaker 1: and nine or thirteen years, okay, over thirteen years. So

2267
02:20:54,120 --> 02:20:56,800
Speaker 1: you went to AA or you went to rehab, or

2268
02:20:56,840 --> 02:21:02,640
Speaker 1: you did it yourself. I've done both, Bob, for good reasons.

2269
02:21:03,800 --> 02:21:08,800
Speaker 1: I did it myself first, and I was wonderful and

2270
02:21:09,000 --> 02:21:11,840
Speaker 1: got it and got the whole thing and adored it.

2271
02:21:12,080 --> 02:21:15,320
Speaker 1: And then some years later the beginning of this Farewell

2272
02:21:15,360 --> 02:21:19,920
Speaker 1: tour actually and I was having an issue with pain

2273
02:21:20,000 --> 02:21:23,520
Speaker 1: medication for neck and shoulder injuries. I've still go I'm

2274
02:21:23,520 --> 02:21:27,680
Speaker 1: still going through thanks a lot of guitars. And I

2275
02:21:27,760 --> 02:21:32,400
Speaker 1: decided to go to Eric Clapton's place, Crossroads, which I

2276
02:21:32,440 --> 02:21:35,920
Speaker 1: had heard about from some friends. And I have a

2277
02:21:35,920 --> 02:21:39,440
Speaker 1: dear friend in music Cares Harold On, who helped me

2278
02:21:39,680 --> 02:21:41,920
Speaker 1: hook me up with that. And I decided at the

2279
02:21:42,000 --> 02:21:44,840
Speaker 1: end of a leg of the tour, and I sat

2280
02:21:44,879 --> 02:21:46,720
Speaker 1: down with Alton and said, look, in two weeks time,

2281
02:21:46,920 --> 02:21:48,840
Speaker 1: I want to go and sort this out. And he

2282
02:21:48,840 --> 02:21:51,760
Speaker 1: said I think that's awesome you're doing that so because

2283
02:21:51,800 --> 02:21:54,440
Speaker 1: I you know, I was worried about the pain medication

2284
02:21:54,520 --> 02:21:56,680
Speaker 1: and it never affected my drinking or anything like that,

2285
02:21:56,840 --> 02:22:00,560
Speaker 1: but I was worried about other ways of not being sober.

2286
02:22:01,280 --> 02:22:06,200
Speaker 1: And I went to Crossroads for a month, had the

2287
02:22:06,240 --> 02:22:10,640
Speaker 1: best time I had, you know, wonderful counselors and therapists,

2288
02:22:11,520 --> 02:22:16,080
Speaker 1: and came out of there free of everything. And freedom

2289
02:22:16,240 --> 02:22:19,320
Speaker 1: is the is the key, Bob. In fact, that was

2290
02:22:19,360 --> 02:22:21,800
Speaker 1: the That was the reading I've read this morning. It

2291
02:22:21,800 --> 02:22:24,320
Speaker 1: was all about freedom. You know, when you have a

2292
02:22:24,360 --> 02:22:27,360
Speaker 1: life where you feel free and you're not worried about anything,

2293
02:22:27,360 --> 02:22:30,480
Speaker 1: you're not guilty about anything, you don't owe anybody anything,

2294
02:22:31,040 --> 02:22:33,560
Speaker 1: you're not concerned about somebody saying your name, and you

2295
02:22:33,640 --> 02:22:35,920
Speaker 1: turn around thinking, well, what the fuck is that? You know?

2296
02:22:36,240 --> 02:22:41,640
Speaker 1: It's that's real freedom, and that's what I have nowadays. Okay,

2297
02:22:41,800 --> 02:22:47,080
Speaker 1: you cut us an individual project in the seventies, you

2298
02:22:47,160 --> 02:22:50,400
Speaker 1: put out an album last year. Did you ever have

2299
02:22:50,520 --> 02:22:53,480
Speaker 1: a desire to be your own act or these are

2300
02:22:53,520 --> 02:22:57,680
Speaker 1: just side things you had to get out of your system. Yes,

2301
02:22:57,840 --> 02:23:00,360
Speaker 1: definitely sight things, you know. The opportunity here to do

2302
02:23:00,440 --> 02:23:03,400
Speaker 1: my first solo record was when I just joined Elton

2303
02:23:04,800 --> 02:23:07,280
Speaker 1: literally six months in to play with him. He said,

2304
02:23:08,040 --> 02:23:10,280
Speaker 1: I love what you do. You've got to make you right.

2305
02:23:10,320 --> 02:23:12,280
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I do. I said it's not very

2306
02:23:12,280 --> 02:23:14,360
Speaker 1: commercial what I write. He said, doesn't matter. He said,

2307
02:23:14,360 --> 02:23:16,680
Speaker 1: I'm forming a record label and I'd love you to

2308
02:23:16,720 --> 02:23:18,720
Speaker 1: be one of the artists on it. He said, I

2309
02:23:18,760 --> 02:23:21,800
Speaker 1: have Kiki d I have a band called Long Dancer.

2310
02:23:22,200 --> 02:23:24,280
Speaker 1: I'd like you to be one of the artists on it.

2311
02:23:24,760 --> 02:23:27,360
Speaker 1: I said, I love tim. I'm very touched that I

2312
02:23:27,360 --> 02:23:29,840
Speaker 1: get to make an album. So I got gusts to

2313
02:23:29,879 --> 02:23:34,600
Speaker 1: produce it. Um. I really enjoyed doing it. I used

2314
02:23:34,600 --> 02:23:37,640
Speaker 1: a lot of good friends like Joe and Armor Trading.

2315
02:23:38,640 --> 02:23:40,960
Speaker 1: I got to play piano on a couple of tracks myself,

2316
02:23:41,000 --> 02:23:46,120
Speaker 1: which was fun. I used Dudley Moore's drummer on a

2317
02:23:46,120 --> 02:23:48,760
Speaker 1: few tracks. I was able to use d and Nagel

2318
02:23:48,840 --> 02:23:51,360
Speaker 1: on a few tracks. I just and I used Elton

2319
02:23:51,400 --> 02:23:54,000
Speaker 1: on the opening track on the record, which was really

2320
02:23:54,000 --> 02:23:58,040
Speaker 1: great fun and but it was definitely not out of

2321
02:23:58,040 --> 02:24:04,000
Speaker 1: commercial venture and but one that many many people mentioned

2322
02:24:04,080 --> 02:24:06,600
Speaker 1: how much they enjoyed the music on it over the years,

2323
02:24:06,600 --> 02:24:08,959
Speaker 1: and I'm grateful for that. It never got slammed because

2324
02:24:08,959 --> 02:24:11,600
Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people heard it, quite frankly,

2325
02:24:12,080 --> 02:24:14,440
Speaker 1: but the people who did hear it seemed to love it.

2326
02:24:14,520 --> 02:24:19,360
Speaker 1: So fast forward almost fifty years to COVID and I'm

2327
02:24:19,360 --> 02:24:23,560
Speaker 1: sitting it home, thinking, wow, I'm going to be home

2328
02:24:23,600 --> 02:24:25,360
Speaker 1: for a while. This might be a good time for

2329
02:24:25,400 --> 02:24:29,640
Speaker 1: me to write some music and enjoy early retirement, because

2330
02:24:29,680 --> 02:24:32,880
Speaker 1: who knows what's going to happen. So that's exactly what happened,

2331
02:24:33,000 --> 02:24:37,800
Speaker 1: except in this case what I've written something. I've got

2332
02:24:37,800 --> 02:24:42,480
Speaker 1: some talented kids, Bob, I've told you that I would say.

2333
02:24:42,640 --> 02:24:45,240
Speaker 1: There was one song I wrote it brings to mind.

2334
02:24:45,360 --> 02:24:50,160
Speaker 1: You know why all started again. It's to do with

2335
02:24:50,200 --> 02:24:55,279
Speaker 1: the Beatles, I suddenly thought, and I got the kids together,

2336
02:24:55,840 --> 02:25:00,320
Speaker 1: Elliott the singer, Charlie the engineer, keyboard player. I said, guys,

2337
02:25:00,959 --> 02:25:03,000
Speaker 1: why don't we just record a song. We're just sitting

2338
02:25:03,000 --> 02:25:07,320
Speaker 1: at home here, nothing's going on, you know, let's wrest

2339
02:25:07,360 --> 02:25:11,920
Speaker 1: record something together. And they said, okay. So I picked here,

2340
02:25:11,959 --> 02:25:15,480
Speaker 1: there and everywhere. Well, just a great Beatles song, as

2341
02:25:15,520 --> 02:25:19,480
Speaker 1: you well know. And we didn't copy the Beatles version,

2342
02:25:19,560 --> 02:25:21,360
Speaker 1: but we did it in a way that was I

2343
02:25:21,400 --> 02:25:25,840
Speaker 1: think beautiful, and we did it all up in Charlie's bedroom,

2344
02:25:25,920 --> 02:25:29,200
Speaker 1: literally sitting on the bed doing it, and you know

2345
02:25:29,320 --> 02:25:32,880
Speaker 1: it said the acoustic guitar part first, then the Mandolins,

2346
02:25:33,200 --> 02:25:36,720
Speaker 1: then put some bass on it, and then I had

2347
02:25:36,720 --> 02:25:40,039
Speaker 1: Elliott sang on it, and then Charlie put some keyboard

2348
02:25:40,080 --> 02:25:43,880
Speaker 1: on it. This is the way we did the whole record. Really. Obviously,

2349
02:25:43,920 --> 02:25:47,199
Speaker 1: as I started to write more, I started to concentrate

2350
02:25:47,280 --> 02:25:50,480
Speaker 1: more on the guitar aspect because I was writing a

2351
02:25:50,600 --> 02:25:54,480
Speaker 1: thing that was more my kind of record. And Yeah,

2352
02:25:54,480 --> 02:25:58,680
Speaker 1: what came out was just a really enjoyable collection of

2353
02:25:58,760 --> 02:26:02,600
Speaker 1: songs I feel, and Elliott sang lead on almost all

2354
02:26:02,640 --> 02:26:07,039
Speaker 1: of them. I sung the vocal on one and I

2355
02:26:07,120 --> 02:26:11,280
Speaker 1: did two instrumentals, and it was just a joyous thing

2356
02:26:11,320 --> 02:26:14,640
Speaker 1: to do this stuff with my children. And the studio

2357
02:26:14,680 --> 02:26:17,879
Speaker 1: that I'm in right now belongs to my friend Marlin Hoffman,

2358
02:26:18,320 --> 02:26:22,400
Speaker 1: who's sitting next door, I think, eavesdropping, And we did

2359
02:26:22,440 --> 02:26:27,800
Speaker 1: the whole thing in the studio which is Marlin's home studio. Okay,

2360
02:26:27,840 --> 02:26:31,760
Speaker 1: what is one thing people don't know about Elton or

2361
02:26:31,800 --> 02:26:40,400
Speaker 1: a misconception? Quite a lot of thing that Elton doesn't

2362
02:26:40,440 --> 02:26:49,000
Speaker 1: remember about Elton. Elton makes a really good cup of tea.

2363
02:26:49,760 --> 02:26:53,720
Speaker 1: Once in the studio in Book Studios, another residential place

2364
02:26:53,840 --> 02:26:56,840
Speaker 1: in Denmark, who were making a record called Sleeping with

2365
02:26:57,000 --> 02:27:02,800
Speaker 1: the Past, and I was doing a guitar overdub and

2366
02:27:02,879 --> 02:27:05,560
Speaker 1: he came over to me, came into the room where

2367
02:27:05,560 --> 02:27:09,080
Speaker 1: I was, had my amplifier and my guitar and put

2368
02:27:09,120 --> 02:27:13,240
Speaker 1: a cup of tea down and I said, oh, thanks, Helton,

2369
02:27:13,280 --> 02:27:14,840
Speaker 1: and I carried on doing the soul or whatever it

2370
02:27:14,879 --> 02:27:17,680
Speaker 1: was I was doing. How to drink of the tea

2371
02:27:17,879 --> 02:27:21,280
Speaker 1: A few seconds later, put my guitar down, put the

2372
02:27:21,360 --> 02:27:24,840
Speaker 1: headphones down, and went out of the studio to find him.

2373
02:27:24,959 --> 02:27:28,160
Speaker 1: I said, Elton, this is the best cup of tea

2374
02:27:28,200 --> 02:27:30,960
Speaker 1: I've ever had. I said, how would you know how

2375
02:27:31,000 --> 02:27:35,280
Speaker 1: to make the tea that I love? He said, Davy,

2376
02:27:35,360 --> 02:27:38,760
Speaker 1: I've known you for like sixteen years already, surely i'd

2377
02:27:38,800 --> 02:27:40,600
Speaker 1: know how to meet you a fucking cup of tea.

2378
02:27:40,720 --> 02:27:43,119
Speaker 1: And there's another thing about album that people don't know

2379
02:27:43,480 --> 02:27:46,640
Speaker 1: that I'll squeeze in. And it's another domestic fact about

2380
02:27:46,640 --> 02:27:50,720
Speaker 1: our hero, Sir Elton. He and I went up on

2381
02:27:51,440 --> 02:27:54,040
Speaker 1: we went up to see the Warner Brothers tour. It

2382
02:27:54,160 --> 02:27:58,039
Speaker 1: was a rock and roll tour with little feet tier

2383
02:27:58,080 --> 02:28:03,440
Speaker 1: of power Graham Central Station. This is in nineteen seventy

2384
02:28:03,480 --> 02:28:07,880
Speaker 1: three in the fall, and what a tour. And we

2385
02:28:07,879 --> 02:28:11,240
Speaker 1: were both little feet freaks. So he says, come on

2386
02:28:11,400 --> 02:28:14,480
Speaker 1: jumping my rolls. We jumped in the rolls with his driver.

2387
02:28:15,000 --> 02:28:18,959
Speaker 1: We took off up to Manchester. We checked into a

2388
02:28:18,959 --> 02:28:22,320
Speaker 1: sleazy little hotel, had some Indian food and went to

2389
02:28:22,320 --> 02:28:25,600
Speaker 1: see the concert, which blew our minds. We ended up

2390
02:28:25,640 --> 02:28:28,600
Speaker 1: on stage with the Dubies and Lowell and all these

2391
02:28:28,640 --> 02:28:32,520
Speaker 1: people and having a great time. And we ended up staying,

2392
02:28:32,520 --> 02:28:34,680
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out partying with the band. And we

2393
02:28:34,800 --> 02:28:38,760
Speaker 1: came back late lately. We probably got back to my

2394
02:28:38,879 --> 02:28:43,160
Speaker 1: house in London about five in the morning. I opened

2395
02:28:43,200 --> 02:28:46,800
Speaker 1: the door and again I've got a nanny. My wife's

2396
02:28:46,840 --> 02:28:51,800
Speaker 1: away at that time, the first wife. There is a

2397
02:28:51,840 --> 02:28:56,200
Speaker 1: disaster in the kitchen, my young son, Tam, who's only

2398
02:28:56,760 --> 02:28:58,920
Speaker 1: just coming up for a year and no by this

2399
02:28:59,000 --> 02:29:06,280
Speaker 1: time he's three. There's coffee, tea, milk, whatever you can find,

2400
02:29:06,400 --> 02:29:10,840
Speaker 1: PORI jokes, everything all mashed up together on the floor.

2401
02:29:10,959 --> 02:29:13,600
Speaker 1: And he's in the middle of the kitchen floor and

2402
02:29:13,680 --> 02:29:19,800
Speaker 1: I walk in and he goes Da Hi and Alton.

2403
02:29:19,879 --> 02:29:22,600
Speaker 1: We both look at it and he shrieks. Obviously he

2404
02:29:22,640 --> 02:29:26,720
Speaker 1: doesn't like mess. And I said, oh man, I can't

2405
02:29:26,720 --> 02:29:31,840
Speaker 1: believe this, and he said, look, you take take take

2406
02:29:31,879 --> 02:29:34,080
Speaker 1: time upstairs and change him, clean him up, do what

2407
02:29:34,080 --> 02:29:36,959
Speaker 1: you gotta do. I don't know what that is. I'll

2408
02:29:37,000 --> 02:29:40,320
Speaker 1: clean up down here. This is Alton Joe. And I'm

2409
02:29:40,320 --> 02:29:44,160
Speaker 1: taking my infant son, my three year olds down upstairs

2410
02:29:44,200 --> 02:29:46,879
Speaker 1: to clean him up and bathe him. And I'm thinking,

2411
02:29:47,440 --> 02:29:51,000
Speaker 1: Alton's a good guy. You know, he's downstairs cleaning my kitchen.

2412
02:29:51,080 --> 02:29:55,320
Speaker 1: And I go downstairs and I swear it's fucking spotless.

2413
02:29:56,360 --> 02:29:58,480
Speaker 1: So I don't know many other people who can claim

2414
02:29:58,560 --> 02:30:02,040
Speaker 1: that to have something that Elton has done for them,

2415
02:30:02,080 --> 02:30:05,720
Speaker 1: but a great cup of tea and a great kitchen cleaner.

2416
02:30:07,080 --> 02:30:11,359
Speaker 1: Plus he's my buddy. Great stories. Let's say it really

2417
02:30:11,600 --> 02:30:14,960
Speaker 1: is the end? Yeah, can you sit at home and

2418
02:30:15,000 --> 02:30:19,480
Speaker 1: be retired? I mean, is that really an option for you? No?

2419
02:30:19,520 --> 02:30:21,280
Speaker 1: I wanted at home and be retired. I would never

2420
02:30:21,320 --> 02:30:23,760
Speaker 1: do that, Bob, I'm not. I'm not that guy at all.

2421
02:30:25,040 --> 02:30:28,440
Speaker 1: I'll be I'll continue to make music forever. And I've

2422
02:30:28,480 --> 02:30:31,640
Speaker 1: got a couple of things up my sleeve. One that

2423
02:30:31,680 --> 02:30:35,800
Speaker 1: I've been working on for many years, just gathering slowly

2424
02:30:35,840 --> 02:30:39,840
Speaker 1: gathering stuff for it, which is a documentary based on

2425
02:30:40,400 --> 02:30:44,240
Speaker 1: the original band and the way this whole thing came together.

2426
02:30:44,360 --> 02:30:47,800
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm talking about you know, Elton, Me, d

2427
02:30:48,480 --> 02:30:54,200
Speaker 1: Nigel and then later on Ray and it's really coming

2428
02:30:54,240 --> 02:30:58,760
Speaker 1: together and the stories are hilarious for the most part.

2429
02:30:58,920 --> 02:31:01,720
Speaker 1: Obviously there's some deep other kinds of stuff going on

2430
02:31:01,800 --> 02:31:05,840
Speaker 1: in there. You know, there's everything you could imagine. So

2431
02:31:06,080 --> 02:31:08,840
Speaker 1: when this thing is over, I'm getting back to it

2432
02:31:09,400 --> 02:31:12,520
Speaker 1: and probably take me about a year to finish, I

2433
02:31:12,560 --> 02:31:15,360
Speaker 1: would imagine. So either the very end of next year

2434
02:31:15,440 --> 02:31:18,400
Speaker 1: or the beginning of twenty twenty five, there'll be a

2435
02:31:18,440 --> 02:31:26,080
Speaker 1: documentary and it's a tentatively titled Harmony. Okay, one other thing.

2436
02:31:26,720 --> 02:31:30,720
Speaker 1: If you're not working, you playing the guitar every day,

2437
02:31:31,800 --> 02:31:35,720
Speaker 1: you know what. Normally I don't because I wouldn't necessarily

2438
02:31:35,720 --> 02:31:38,280
Speaker 1: pick up a guitar between tours because I just wanted

2439
02:31:38,320 --> 02:31:42,800
Speaker 1: to get away from music. But I found that, especially

2440
02:31:42,840 --> 02:31:46,240
Speaker 1: with COVID, as soon as I felt free enough and

2441
02:31:46,640 --> 02:31:50,920
Speaker 1: loose enough to do something for myself, the daily playing

2442
02:31:51,000 --> 02:31:53,920
Speaker 1: became fire against something that I haven't done for many,

2443
02:31:53,920 --> 02:31:58,080
Speaker 1: many years. So that's a very very acute question you

2444
02:31:58,080 --> 02:32:00,360
Speaker 1: asked me there, Bob, Because Yeah, I suddenly started to

2445
02:32:00,480 --> 02:32:03,520
Speaker 1: enjoying it again. Because there wasn't a deadline. I didn't

2446
02:32:03,520 --> 02:32:06,240
Speaker 1: have to worry about doing a certain thing, working a

2447
02:32:06,240 --> 02:32:08,600
Speaker 1: new song, a song that we've done with Elton for

2448
02:32:08,640 --> 02:32:10,920
Speaker 1: the band. It was just all about what I wanted

2449
02:32:10,959 --> 02:32:14,680
Speaker 1: to do, and that's what I'm enjoying. I'm going to

2450
02:32:14,840 --> 02:32:19,400
Speaker 1: enjoy getting back to well on that. No, Davy, this

2451
02:32:19,440 --> 02:32:23,080
Speaker 1: is a natural point of demarcation before the band gets

2452
02:32:23,120 --> 02:32:26,640
Speaker 1: back together, and so many things, and they're certainly you know,

2453
02:32:26,879 --> 02:32:28,840
Speaker 1: you talk about sleeping with the past. I got a

2454
02:32:28,840 --> 02:32:31,879
Speaker 1: lot of questions about that, but I think we're going

2455
02:32:31,959 --> 02:32:33,920
Speaker 1: to bring it to an end for today. So I

2456
02:32:33,959 --> 02:32:36,959
Speaker 1: want to thank you so much for spending this time

2457
02:32:36,959 --> 02:32:40,560
Speaker 1: with my audience. I've enjoyed this so much, Bob, and

2458
02:32:40,600 --> 02:32:42,520
Speaker 1: thank you so much for inviting me. Thanks for having

2459
02:32:42,560 --> 02:32:44,879
Speaker 1: me on here. And I'll call Dave Page to thank

2460
02:32:44,920 --> 02:32:48,000
Speaker 1: you for suggesting it. Oh listen great, I'm going to

2461
02:32:48,120 --> 02:32:52,160
Speaker 1: contact Page two in any event, till next time. This

2462
02:32:52,280 --> 02:32:53,400
Speaker 1: is Bob left Sex