WEBVTT - Davey Johnstone 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.720 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:18.080 My guest today is Davy Johnstone. Davy, we were talking 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.040 before we began about the pronunciation of your last name 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:26.239 Johnstone or Johnston. You said, there was a story. Tell me, okay, now, 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.360 when I was growing up in Scotland, it was Davy Johnson. 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.280 Because in Scotland they're very offhand, not worrying about the 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.320 T or the E or whatever. Davy Johnson. Just like that. 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.520 When I moved over to the States, people would see 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.120 the spelling and go, oh, Davy Johnstone. And when I 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.720 heard that, I must admit I liked it. I liked 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.280 it the sound of it Americans saying that. However, one 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.160 day when I was on the road with Alice Cooper, 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.840 I'm an airport somewhere and this guy came up to 0:00:55.920 --> 0:01:00.840 me and he said, you're used to play with, right, 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:03.960 And I said that's right, yeah, And he said you're 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.399 what's your name again, You're Davy And I said, yeah, 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:13.080 Davy Johnston and he said, no, you're Davy Johnstone. I 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.200 immediately when I like that, Yes, I am, thank you busted. 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.679 You know, so, I've always I've used that pronunciation. Now 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.200 for myself. I like it because I'm also I'm an 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:27.000 American citizen as well as a British one, so I'm 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.120 very tied into this country all the way. Now, So 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:35.280 Johnstone is okay, let's go back to Davy, because yeah, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.120 you're a child of the fifties as am I and 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.959 we all were you know, Bobby Davy whatever, and then 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.920 as we aged people tended to change to Bob Robert Dave. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:51.320 Tell me about being Davy. Well, I was always we 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:56.200 Davy growing up because my dad was Big Dave. My 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.720 dad also but his name wasn't David. It was actually Davidson, 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.800 which is a really interesting Scottish name. Davidson Wallace Johnston 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.240 was his name, and so he was Big Dave and 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:10.919 I was we Davy, and it just seemed to stuck 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.440 all the way through my childhood, through my soccer days, 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.680 and then when I started playing music, it just seemed 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.600 to be a catchier name. And I suck in the 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.400 e because it was totally accidental. Somebody was taking a 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.920 photograph of me and an Irish singer called Noel Murphy 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:32.080 who had formed a little folk duo together, and the 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:37.000 photographer wrote underneath my picture Davy with a E D 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:41.520 A V E y. So that was purely accidental. But 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.160 now so many fans and people know me as Davy. 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.680 My kids call me Davy. My wife calls me Davy 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.200 when he's been in a good mood. And yeah, so 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.040 I don't mind being called Davy. I'm not the one 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.720 of my sisters in Scotland still calls me David. I 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.799 will not call you Davy. You're David, you know. So 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.800 it's fine. Okay, you've talked about becoming a citizen. How 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.480 do you decide to do that? Well, I've lived here 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:14.040 for many years. I've lived out near in California for 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:18.160 thirty over thirty years now, especially in this area of 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:20.480 where I am now, which I love out in the country, 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:28.079 just around Calabasas area. And we decided, my wife and 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.200 I together because my wife is Danish. We both decided 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.640 about three years ago, four years ago, perhaps when things 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:42.520 were getting really really strange here politically. We had a 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.920 long conversation about it and I said, Okay, I am 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.240 not a citizen, so therefore I can't vote. I can 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.400 do everything else. I can pay tax obviously, I've always 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.000 paid my taxes. I do all the other stuff, but 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.600 I can't vote unless I'm a citizen. So I feel 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.080 it's horton now that I get my citizenship and that 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.400 you get years too, so that both of us can 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.520 vote in the upcoming election in twenty twenty. So that's 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:10.680 the main reason we did it. And when I got 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:14.920 back from Australia, we've been doing the usual applications and 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.120 the petitions, all the stuff you have to fill in 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.720 and the background stuff. And when I got back from Australia, 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:27.080 right right as COVID was coming in, my immigration attorney 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.600 who's in New York called me up and said, what 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.320 are you doing tomorrow? And I said, well, I'm getting 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.159 over my jet lag as usual. He said, can you 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.279 go to Chatsworth because I have a date for you 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.839 in a time they're going to swear you in privately. 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:43.800 So it was really beautiful the fact that I got 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.880 to go, you know, locally and just with a few 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.280 people in the actual office, and I got sworn in. 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.320 My wife was there, our kids were there, and it 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.960 was really a magical thing. And I'm really proud to 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:01.200 be a born again American. Okay, you say your wife 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:06.640 is Danish, how did you meet your wife? That's another 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.120 good one. My wife's Danish. I've always had this connection 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:18.840 with Danish people. Our record producer Chris Thomas was seeing 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:23.320 this Danish girl, a very beautiful Danish girl called Tina. Now, 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.200 unbeknown to me, I'd met Tina a couple of times, 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.440 but unbeknown to me, her best friend was my wife 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:36.160 to be Kay. And at that period time, for example, 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:43.560 Chris Thomas's girl was Tina, Rick Astley's girlfriend was Lena, 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:48.320 another Dane. All right, it gets really interesting. And so 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:53.120 on Tina's birthday one year in nineteen eighty nine, Alton 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.520 through a party for Tina because she was about to 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:00.000 get married to Chris Thomas, and it was a birthday party. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.560 So I was sitting next to this beautiful Danish girl 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:10.920 called k and the party was in Paris, so it 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.160 was a very romantic place and it was a very 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.800 romantic evening. And that was it. We were submitting with 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.640 each other and we were together for a couple of years, 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.080 and then we got married in nineteen ninety two after 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.680 we had our first child, and it's been wonderful. Were 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.840 over thirty years now and really happy. Is this the 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:37.719 only time he had been married? No, twice before. First 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.800 time was when I was nineteen years old. At that time, 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:47.000 I got Diana Partridge pregnant when I was living in London, 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:53.039 and we had a little boy called Tam. Tam is 0:06:53.040 --> 0:07:00.120 now an engineer and a writer, songwriter, filmmaker, musician, and 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.400 he lives in Cornwall in Southwest England, which is a 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:08.360 beautiful part of the world. My second marriage was to Rosa, 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.080 a Mexican girl from from Los Angeles with a wonderful family, 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:19.360 and our marriage spawned two children, Jesse and Daniel, and 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:25.200 they both still live in California and Kay. As I've 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.240 told you, it was Danish and I brought her over 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.320 here to live with me in California. And this has 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.680 been the one that's um, that's lasted obviously, and there's 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.240 no end in sight. Thank God. I'm tired of all 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:41.239 that running around and it's over. So how many kids 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:45.480 do you have with your present wife? Four with this 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.840 this wife? And unfortunately, back in two thousand and one, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.239 we had a tragedy and we lost our firstborn, Oliver, 0:07:55.240 --> 0:08:00.280 in a drowning accident in our pool. It happened when 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.720 I was on the road with the Alton John Billy 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.119 Joel Tour and we were in Chicago playing a show 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.600 that night in fact, and we had two nannies taking 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.240 care of the kids. At that point. Oliver was nine 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:19.480 years old, Juliet, my favorite and only daughter, was four, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:27.560 and Charlie they was two. So they were well shepherded 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.560 and well taken care of while we were in Chicago 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:36.360 doing this celebration for my birthday, and tragically, our little 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.679 boy got away from the nannies, found his way into 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:43.480 the pool and took up a tenth type of thing 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.880 in there, which she had always been told you can't 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.880 take that, you can't take anything into the pool, and 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.600 he did and he got tangled up in it. The 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.120 nanny didn't get to him in time, and he drowned. 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.440 I got this news when I was on we just 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:04.920 played the set of the show in Chicago, and I'm 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.920 backstage and I'm signing next to Elton and with Kay 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.840 and I get this call and the road manager said, Davy, 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:12.079 there's a call for you. And I said, I'm not 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.480 taking a phone call right now, and you know we're 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.040 doing a show, and he said, no, you've got to 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.600 take this call. I took the call, and this this 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:24.040 poor doctor had the job of telling me this unbearable 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:29.000 news that that our son had died in a drowning accident. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:35.000 The shock was so immediate. I was obviously very angry 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.560 and denial. It was like, what do you mean? Who 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.920 is this kind of thing? But finally I realized, okay, 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.480 this is the worst news that for any parent, and 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.520 I went and got my wife, I held her, I 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:54.320 told her what had happened. She immediately fell down, and 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.640 you know, Elton and grabbed her at the other side 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.920 and was holding her up to just the most unimaginable 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:08.240 feeling and changed our lives, obviously in every possible way. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.720 He was a wonderful little boy. And what I've tried 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.280 to do when I finally stopped drinking and drugging and 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.880 doing all the other stuff because I felt that I 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:23.480 felt that I had a license to drink, to drug 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.440 allisas to kill myself because I was so miserable and 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.760 so upset because what had happened. And then I realized that, 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.080 you know what, I'll be honoring him much better if 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:38.040 I stopped drinking, stopped drinking being an idiot, and and 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.840 act like a human being and face up to these 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.160 things and that's what I did. And so that's how 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:47.600 we honor our child. Now. Every year we celebrate his 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:53.360 birthday and we celebrate his his death date. And it's 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.120 the only way we could we could get through this 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.600 thing was by facing up to it properly and by 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:02.520 staying together through it, you know, helping each other. So, yeah, 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.760 that was a total tragedy. And all also my children, 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.559 my other children helped me so much during this period 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.920 of time. Alton was a massive help, and my bandmates. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.320 But I could never have gotten through it without my 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:23.960 wife and my kids and are close friends. Wow. So 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.240 it's type of thing you never get over, really right, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:33.800 you never get over it, but we've learned to, you 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.400 might say, deal with it because over the years, what 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.400 happens this kind of situation, what happened in my case 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.800 and in my wife's case. Anyway, it starts off being 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:50.560 like this giant boulder in your heart, and then as 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.360 the years go by, it gets a little softer, less 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.400 jagged edges, and it becomes more of like a small 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.400 manageable that still breaks you up when you think about 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:06.440 this wonderful little boy that we lost, But you know, 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.160 you get to a point where you can actually go ahead, 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.200 go on and deal with it and possibly help other 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.840 people who are going through similar situations, which we have done. 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.920 I've given help to a couple of friends who've had 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.760 similar types of tragedy because I've realized that people just 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.040 need to talk about it. You can't just hide away 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.800 and not talk about it. This is something that has 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.400 to be faced and dealt with, and you know, and 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.160 you make it part of your life, you know, not 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.440 something that defines you, but something that's part of your 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.200 life that you treasure. And so I'm very grateful. Okay, 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.960 talking about your kids, are they off the payroll? No, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.640 I don't know if that ever happens. Bob, my youngest 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.360 is definitely not off the payroll. Elliott's um just turned 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:02.480 eighteen last November, and he's a wonderful singer, a beautiful 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.959 looking kid, and he can't wait to get the hell 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:10.079 out of school, and he's also an artist and various things. 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.120 The next and Lion Charlie, is a sound engineer, also 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.800 a songwriter, and another musician, brilliant piano player. He went 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:23.760 to USC here in California for piano and for music production, 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:28.520 so they're kind of in the family business. My favorite daughter, Juliet, 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.440 who's actually on her way to New York City today. 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:37.640 She devised a wonderful business. Her name is Juliet Johnstone 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.920 and that's her website and everything. And she decided to 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:47.280 start painting on clothes about just when COVID was kicking in, 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.400 and it turned out to be a wonderful idea because 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:59.600 many pop stars, models, various personalities, celebs, whatever started wearing 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:04.280 her clothes. So it's wonderful that she's doing this and 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.040 she's got this ridiculous business. And recently she painted a 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:13.679 guitar for me for my seventieth birthday. I'm coming up 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.840 for seventy two now, but I she painted. She finished 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.200 it in time for me playing Dodgers Stadium with Elton 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.160 in November, which was awesome. So I got to take 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:27.280 that guitar on stage and use it. And you know, 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:31.440 a Bob, I'm blessed. I have some amazing children and 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.000 I'm a very lucky man because it's always kept me 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.800 a little bit grounded in my life, because you know, 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.480 we take our kids everywhere when we travel as much 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.880 as we can whenever it's possible, and so they've seen 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.600 the world many times in different places, and I think 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.760 they've really enjoyed that aspect of it. And they love 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.960 their own Uncle Elton, you know, or Auntie Elton, you know, whatever, 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.840 however he prefers to be called. And you know, they've 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:05.080 got some great friends because of the life we lead 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.440 and their own talents. And they've really helped me because 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.080 I mean I listened to their their music. I listened 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:18.560 to what they're listening to and it stuns me occasionally. Okay, 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.240 you talked about your daughter painting a guitar for you. 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.280 In the room we're in right now, I can already 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.440 see like twelve guitars on the wall. How many guitars 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.240 do you own? You know? I have no idea. It 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.640 sounds gross to say, but I really don't know. I'll 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:42.000 find out more accurately when this Farewell Tours over, because 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:48.800 we have three totally separate rigs outrun the road, which 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.400 one of them, for example, is just leaving Australian Zealand 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:57.560 where we just finished. Another set is in the New 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.080 York area, and another set is in Europe waiting for 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.280 us to start the next leg of the Farewell Tour 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.560 in the end of March. So each rake contains about 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:13.720 twenty five guitars, I would say maybe thirty, so that's 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:19.520 ninety there roughly. I've got another a few dozen at home, 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.240 along with various satars and various other things that I 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.960 don't take on the road with me anymore because they're 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.480 just too delicate. So yeah, it's a lot of stuff. 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.880 But in my retirement, I intend to play each and 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.760 every one of them. I intend to get back and 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.560 give each one the love that they really deserve. Because 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.440 I'm very blessed I have so many instruments, so it's 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.720 wonderful I do, and we get to them whenever we can. 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:52.920 But sometimes I feel that they're being ignored and they're 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.400 not being giving the TLC they deserve. So I'm looking 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.280 forward to retirement when I can line them all up 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.840 and honor them for their part in my life. Now. 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.760 A lot of guitarists have favorite instruments, whether it be 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.040 brand in model, or you know, those of us who 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.040 played guitar. I don't want to say that. I mean, 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.719 we all played guitar after the Beatles. Know that if 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.960 we went shopping with guitars, every guitar sounds a little 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:22.080 bit different. And there are people who take that guitar 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.000 on the road. There are people who only use it 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.480 in the studio. Do you have a couple of favorite instruments? 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.719 I do. I definitely have a couple of go to instruments. 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.240 Right from the beginning day when I first joined album, 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.479 for example, I wasn't playing much electric guitar, but I 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.840 had an electric guitar. But Alton tells a wonderful story 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.720 about me plugging in at the Chateau when we went 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.280 to make the first album, and it's a great story. 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.520 It's not entirely true because I did own an electric guitar, 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.880 so that was a Fender Stratocaster. But as I started 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.879 playing with him and I was able to buy a 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.760 couple of other instruments, I realized that my real favorite 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.480 was going to be a Gibson Les Paul, and then 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.440 later a Gibson Flying V. Because I began I began 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.840 to like the solid guitars because the sustain was more 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.800 evident and more clean, So I really loved that aspect 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.160 of Les Paul's. So yeah, my favorite really has been 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.320 a Gibson Les Paul. Second has probably been a Flying 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.119 V or a reverse Flying V, and then would probably 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.159 become the strat, you know, the Fender stratum. But the 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.159 other thing, Bob, is I I have so many guitars. 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:38.840 I mean I have a double neck made by a 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:44.000 company called Fernandez, which is completely jaw dropping brilliant. Um. 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.400 I use it for a lot of slide guitar and 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.080 regular one. I want to switch from neck to neck, 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.119 and it has the most pure gorgeous sound. So I 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.720 mean I I have so many of them, and so 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:03.840 many mandolins, electric mandolins, so many acoustic guitars, electric acoustic guitars, 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.280 so that I can use them live also, So yeah, 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.000 plenty of instruments. We have them coming out of the 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.160 Yang Yang. When you know, whenever we go to make 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.879 an album, there's so many dough Bros and Mandolins and 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:21.280 Mando cellos and stuff, dulcimers, you know, you name it. Okay, 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:27.200 you have twenty five guitars approximately in three different rigs. 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.200 Someone who's not sophisticated would say, why do you need 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:35.879 twenty five guitars? So why do you need all those guitars? Well, 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:40.520 one good reason is a backup for each guitar. There's 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.960 a prominent For example, I need to have my number 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.679 one less Paul. I need to have a backup for 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.119 that less Paul. I need to have my favorite flying 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.720 v or reverse fee and a backup for that one. 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.639 I need to have my favorite strat vender strat and 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.879 a backup for that one. I need to have my 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.680 favorite acoustic guitar that I'll be using in that particular 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.520 rig and a backup for that one. I need to 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:10.879 have an acoustic guitar open tuned because for songs like Rocketman, 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:16.400 I use a particular open tuning which is pretty amazing, 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.479 pretty special, So I need to have a guitar tuned 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.280 in that tuning as a backup. Also, because you know, 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.560 the main thing I don't want to do is hold 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.679 up a show when you have a problem like a 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:29.960 string popping and it's in a bad part of this 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.520 song where you can't just get through it with the 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.160 rest of the strings. So I have backups for each 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:39.439 and every instrument. And then for example, I'll have another 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.560 couple of guitars for songs like the Bitch Is Back 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.399 for example, bitches back when I recorded that I did that, 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.919 and an open g tuning very similar to the tuning 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:56.200 that Keith Richards uses. He uses five strings on his tuning, 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.320 I use all six, so there's a slight difference there. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.280 I learned to play g tuning from John Martin, famed 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:09.840 British guitar player who tragically died way too young. So yeah, 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.679 there's there's various tunings and I'd like to have a 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.919 backup for that one as well. So it might sound 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:18.520 a little over the top for some people, but really 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.840 there's a good excuse for them. And then also, if 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:23.960 Alton decides on a tour he wants to do Mona 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.600 Lisas and mad hatters, I have to have a mandolin 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.120 ready and a backup for that mandolin. If he wants 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.320 to do a honky cat, I have to have a 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.960 banjo and a backup for that banjo. So luckily I 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:40.119 have all these wonderful instruments so that I'm never sure 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.880 of one, and I've got a wonderful guitar tech. I mean, 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:49.760 Rick Salazar is an absolute genius looking after all these 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.840 different guitars, looking after the various tunings, keeping each and 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.880 every one of these instruments in tip top shape. It's 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.920 just I couldn't do what I do without him. He's 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:12.919 just amazing. Okay, you mentioned Dodgers Stadium this year, and 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.040 of course you played with Elton in nineteen seventy five 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.800 Dodger Stadium. It's the same building. But what was different 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:25.200 about those two gigs. Well, let's see, the first one 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.560 was earlier in the year. I think this last one 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:37.240 was November seventeen, eight seventeen, nineteenth and twentieth, I want 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:41.480 to say, and end of November, so it was much 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:46.640 colder and darker. For one thing, the gigs in seventy five, 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:49.040 I can't remember exactly when they were, but they were 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.879 either September or early October, and so it was the 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.080 majority of the shows were in daylight and I could 0:22:56.160 --> 0:23:01.600 see people. I could see this sea of people. It 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:06.840 was just such an awesome feeling. And we'd never that 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.440 stadium hadn't been used since the Beatles played there, so 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:12.720 there was a lot of these things going on where 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:16.560 we were doing. There was firsts were happening that many 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.280 people hadn't done since, for example, the Beatles. So that 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:22.720 was a very magic gig. And it was special in 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:26.119 another way too, because we were having to do excuse me, 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:30.439 we're having to do this particular show with a new band, 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:35.280 basically because Dan Nigel had been let go at the 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:38.960 end of nineteen seventy four, so I was tasked with 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:41.760 putting the new band together once we decided on who 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.840 the members were going to be, so in nineteen seventy five, 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:48.080 so it was all these different guys and it was wonderful. 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:50.399 I mean, we had a great band. It was rocking, 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:55.800 It was totally rocking. But this time, for me, the 0:23:55.880 --> 0:24:00.600 difference was after doing it for fifty years, after playing 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:06.200 some of these songs for fifty years and writing stuff, 0:24:06.200 --> 0:24:08.760 and yeah, I don't know. It just had a really 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.520 emotional feel about it, thinking, Wow, we're never going to 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.640 play these songs in America again, and that really is 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:18.320 what it is. We're never going to play them live again. 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:23.000 So it was wonderful to see really close friends. They're 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:26.080 really good musician friends, people you know, like Date, the 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:30.120 wonderful David Page and James Newton Howard and just all 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:34.320 these brilliant musicians. Alice in Chains showed up to see 0:24:34.400 --> 0:24:37.080 us so much. Just good friends, Eddie Vedder all these 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:40.320 cats came to see the show because they're big fans, 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:43.639 you know, and it was wonderful to see them backstage. 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:47.160 I must say one point about seventy five that blew 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:52.600 me away though completely. We were backstage in the trailers 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:57.359 waiting to go on, and there was people before the show, 0:24:57.520 --> 0:24:59.800 in the middle of the interval and after the show. 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:04.159 This is on the seventy five show. So one of 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:07.280 the wives, I believe it was Caleb Quay's wife, Pat. 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:12.520 She had a really Cockney accent, fantastic London accent, and 0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:18.680 she suddenly says, in a very English accent, Yeah, that's 0:25:18.760 --> 0:25:24.200 Gary Cooper out there. And I think to myself, Gary 0:25:24.240 --> 0:25:27.560 Cooper is fucking dead. I'm pretty sure. So I go 0:25:27.600 --> 0:25:30.840 over to the window, pull the curtain back and it's 0:25:30.920 --> 0:25:35.040 Carrie Grant. So I go, oh my god. I love 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:38.560 Carrie Grant had to be like my favorite actor growing 0:25:38.640 --> 0:25:40.560 up as a kid in Scotland. His movies were all 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:44.639 over the place and anyway, I just loved the suaveness 0:25:44.640 --> 0:25:47.960 about him. So I went out and had a chat 0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:52.920 with him, and he was knowledgeable about what we were doing. 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:56.320 He was saying, oh, yes, I'm really enjoying the interplay 0:25:56.359 --> 0:25:59.360 between you and the other guitar player and you and Elton, 0:25:59.440 --> 0:26:01.640 and the way you guys or look at each other 0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:04.440 and smile and laugh, and I was just like going, 0:26:04.560 --> 0:26:08.640 this is unbelievable. I'm talking to Carrie Grant, somebody who 0:26:08.720 --> 0:26:10.960 you know. When I was eight years old we first 0:26:11.000 --> 0:26:15.760 got a television in Scotland and I'm seeing like one 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:18.320 of his movies, like The Bishop's Wife or something, and 0:26:18.400 --> 0:26:21.520 there he is backstage it does you say to him? So, yeah, 0:26:21.560 --> 0:26:25.080 that was a There were more stars in those days 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:30.600 that were maybe I'm a bit more jaded now, Okay, 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:34.560 you know you mentioned your retirement. This is and people 0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:38.359 can't see my air quote a farewell tour. There are 0:26:38.359 --> 0:26:41.119 a lot of people who are going through the motions 0:26:41.240 --> 0:26:45.840 for the money. I've seen the Farewell toured twice. Elton 0:26:46.040 --> 0:26:51.119 is really digging it. So I just don't see Elton retiring. 0:26:51.160 --> 0:26:53.159 I mean, George Street was the first one to do 0:26:53.160 --> 0:26:57.200 is I'm retiring from touring, but he ended up playing 0:26:57.680 --> 0:27:02.040 single dates. You're closer certainly than I am. What do 0:27:02.080 --> 0:27:06.680 you think is really going to happen? Well? I really 0:27:06.720 --> 0:27:09.680 feel that when we finish off, I believe the last 0:27:09.720 --> 0:27:14.240 concerts in Stockholm, I want to say July eighth. I 0:27:14.280 --> 0:27:19.400 think that's right. I must say that, as far as 0:27:19.400 --> 0:27:23.879 I'm concerned, touring wise, we're done. This is going to 0:27:23.960 --> 0:27:28.399 be it. We're done from touring. There's a part of 0:27:28.440 --> 0:27:33.040 me that obviously thinks, knowing out in the way I do, 0:27:34.000 --> 0:27:37.600 it would not surprise me if sometime in the future 0:27:38.119 --> 0:27:43.040 he decides to do maybe a Vegas, a small residency, 0:27:43.119 --> 0:27:46.760 a short type of thing, because he started to enjoy 0:27:46.800 --> 0:27:48.680 some of those shows too when we got into that. 0:27:49.560 --> 0:27:52.320 From between two thousand and five and two thousand and 0:27:52.359 --> 0:27:54.440 fifteen or so, we had a couple of shows that 0:27:54.520 --> 0:27:56.240 were very There were a lot of fun to do. 0:27:56.760 --> 0:27:59.199 They were a little tedious at times. That whole that 0:27:59.359 --> 0:28:02.480 idea of doing something that we weren't used to. But 0:28:02.640 --> 0:28:05.560 I wouldn't be surprised if he went if he knows 0:28:05.600 --> 0:28:09.479 what it is now, so I wouldn't be surprised if 0:28:09.560 --> 0:28:13.400 sometime in the future he maybe does something different, maybe 0:28:13.440 --> 0:28:16.919 with a small orchestra, or maybe something entirely different. I 0:28:16.920 --> 0:28:19.119 have no idea, but that's just my take on it. 0:28:19.400 --> 0:28:22.640 I promise you. We haven't discussed anything. We haven't talked 0:28:22.680 --> 0:28:26.720 about any of it. You know. He calls me about 0:28:26.880 --> 0:28:32.720 all kinds of stuff, and we're not going there just yet. Okay. 0:28:32.760 --> 0:28:35.840 So I didn't see the Vegas shows. The red piano 0:28:35.920 --> 0:28:38.440 and the other one. What was different about playing in 0:28:38.560 --> 0:28:42.800 Vegas as opposed to a usual tour. Well, I was 0:28:42.960 --> 0:28:45.000 at first, I didn't like the idea at all. I 0:28:45.280 --> 0:28:47.720 just thought it was I was terrified. I thought, you know, 0:28:47.960 --> 0:28:51.080 going to Vegas, that's like a musician's graveyard. I did 0:28:51.160 --> 0:28:55.120 not like the idea at all. But then when the 0:28:55.240 --> 0:28:59.520 fun of it, the fun aspect kicked in, we realized, okay, 0:28:59.640 --> 0:29:03.640 this is a good giggle, and we we trimmed it 0:29:03.720 --> 0:29:07.640 so that we were never there for longer than three 0:29:07.640 --> 0:29:12.400 and a half weeks. There was no I can't I 0:29:12.440 --> 0:29:16.600 can't understand people or artists who are able to stay 0:29:16.600 --> 0:29:18.959 there for a residency for a whole year or whatever 0:29:19.000 --> 0:29:23.400 they do. Impossible. I'd go completely nuts. So we would 0:29:23.440 --> 0:29:27.200 go there three times a year for round about a month. 0:29:29.080 --> 0:29:30.800 The one thing that was good about it was I 0:29:30.880 --> 0:29:34.959 was closer to home. I could literally come off stage 0:29:34.960 --> 0:29:38.440 because the shows in Vegas end early there because they 0:29:38.440 --> 0:29:41.000 want people back, you know, in the casino, they want 0:29:41.040 --> 0:29:44.080 people at the tables and the machines again, So the 0:29:44.160 --> 0:29:47.480 shows would end about ten pm. I would literally have 0:29:47.600 --> 0:29:50.400 my car ready to go backstage. I'd jump in it 0:29:51.000 --> 0:29:53.840 and I'd be on the road before people were out 0:29:53.840 --> 0:29:56.920 of the theater and home in three and a half hours, 0:29:56.960 --> 0:30:00.760 you know, quick drive. I'd just drive myself home, So 0:30:00.800 --> 0:30:03.200 that was a good aspect of it. And obviously being 0:30:03.200 --> 0:30:05.720 able to see my my wife and kids more regularly 0:30:05.760 --> 0:30:09.520 because they could come out to Vegas. Also, the Million 0:30:09.600 --> 0:30:12.560 Dollar Piano Show was a great It was slightly more 0:30:13.080 --> 0:30:16.880 I was, well, a lot more sophisticated. There was various 0:30:16.880 --> 0:30:20.200 people who helped put it on. Mark Fisher, a wonderful 0:30:20.360 --> 0:30:23.200 designer who did a lot of the Stones things, and 0:30:23.360 --> 0:30:28.400 Sam Pattinson in England, and they were assisted by Tony 0:30:28.520 --> 0:30:33.600 King and and Elton's manager slash husband, David Furnish. So 0:30:34.120 --> 0:30:35.960 you know, it was a little more of a of 0:30:36.000 --> 0:30:41.120 a I want to say, smooth, sophisticated and classy show. 0:30:41.520 --> 0:30:44.120 You know, we were wearing like Gucci suits and then 0:30:44.600 --> 0:30:48.240 Burberry suits, and then finally for the Million Dollar Piano Show, 0:30:48.680 --> 0:30:53.200 sorry for the Farewell tour, where we're wearing Gucci, which 0:30:53.320 --> 0:30:57.240 is fine. I mean it's very sharp looking, it's very 0:30:57.800 --> 0:31:00.080 sharp rock and roll. I like it because it remains 0:31:00.200 --> 0:31:03.880 the Beatles. I'm a massive, huge Beatles fan. Nobody bigger 0:31:03.880 --> 0:31:07.760 than me. They'll we all say that, right, But yeah, 0:31:07.800 --> 0:31:10.840 I like that aspect of it. I do think at 0:31:10.840 --> 0:31:15.640 some point for me personally, I'm getting over the suits because, 0:31:15.680 --> 0:31:19.520 you know what, I got into this business because I'm 0:31:19.520 --> 0:31:22.600 a typical musician. I'm revolutionary. I don't want to wear 0:31:22.600 --> 0:31:24.840 the same as thing as everybody else. You know, I 0:31:24.920 --> 0:31:28.280 was wearing afghan coats and floury shirts and beads and 0:31:28.360 --> 0:31:31.920 bell bottoms as you probably were back in the earliest 0:31:31.960 --> 0:31:35.560 the late sixties, already seventies, so the idea of having 0:31:35.640 --> 0:31:40.160 a uniform still rubs a little bit, robsby the wrong way. 0:31:40.600 --> 0:31:42.560 So I'll be glad to get out of the good 0:31:42.640 --> 0:31:45.760 cheer or whatever suit is I'm in and back to 0:31:45.840 --> 0:31:48.960 some interesting clothes. It's the same songs in the same 0:31:49.080 --> 0:31:54.480 order every night on this tour, right it is. It's changed. 0:31:54.520 --> 0:31:59.200 I would say four or five times. We've changed song selections, 0:32:00.360 --> 0:32:04.240 We've very rarely changed the order of things. We've tried things, 0:32:04.960 --> 0:32:07.080 but each time we seemed to go back to the same, 0:32:08.160 --> 0:32:11.160 the original thing. It's worked well. The only song that 0:32:11.200 --> 0:32:13.600 we took out that I really miss is All the 0:32:13.640 --> 0:32:17.120 Young Girls Love Alice, which I thought really kicked ass 0:32:17.200 --> 0:32:19.120 and I thought a lot of the fans loved the 0:32:19.160 --> 0:32:21.480 fact that there was a really deep cut that was 0:32:21.520 --> 0:32:24.240 in there, but we kind of substituted that with have 0:32:24.400 --> 0:32:27.280 Mercy on the Criminal, which is another another deep cut, 0:32:27.880 --> 0:32:31.520 and that seems to go down great. People love that too. 0:32:31.600 --> 0:32:35.920 So Mona Lisa's was in there for a couple of 0:32:36.360 --> 0:32:39.680 tours way back when we started, and and a couple 0:32:39.680 --> 0:32:43.000 of songs have come and gone and don't Go Breaking 0:32:43.040 --> 0:32:45.920 My Heart comes in when like for the Dodger Stadium, 0:32:45.960 --> 0:32:48.880 Kikid came out and did her party piece on that song, 0:32:49.400 --> 0:32:52.800 and then dual Leapa did her her thing with Elton. 0:32:53.520 --> 0:32:57.040 Instead of it being just backtrack, they still used the backtrack, 0:32:57.120 --> 0:32:59.640 but they were able to use Doua's voice life which 0:32:59.640 --> 0:33:03.520 was great and Elton live, so that was awesome. Okay, 0:33:03.680 --> 0:33:08.840 during the show, is there anything prerecorded? No, we are 0:33:09.240 --> 0:33:13.520 We are totally one million percent live. I mean, we 0:33:13.600 --> 0:33:17.120 have a couple of vocal samples that we've recorded ourselves 0:33:17.160 --> 0:33:19.640 several years ago, which we still use on a couple 0:33:19.680 --> 0:33:23.680 of numbers, which we bolster our own live vocals with 0:33:24.400 --> 0:33:27.440 um similar to the way that bands like The Eels, 0:33:27.680 --> 0:33:31.760 do you know they most bands who have fairly prominent. 0:33:31.760 --> 0:33:35.120 Background vocals tend to use a couple of samples here 0:33:35.160 --> 0:33:37.960 and there. I don't think there's anything unfair about us 0:33:38.080 --> 0:33:42.040 using them here and there. And we still love doing 0:33:42.080 --> 0:33:45.600 the background parts because they're they're really meaningful parts that 0:33:45.680 --> 0:33:48.920 when we wrote them, so it's fun to do them 0:33:49.000 --> 0:33:52.520 live too. Okay, you're the music director, What exactly does 0:33:52.560 --> 0:33:57.920 that mean? Really, I'm like a glorified bandleader. Really, I 0:33:57.960 --> 0:34:01.280 mean it's not really. Music director is something that people 0:34:01.280 --> 0:34:04.640 started calling me many years ago. And you know, I 0:34:04.680 --> 0:34:06.200 don't really give a shit if they call me that 0:34:06.320 --> 0:34:09.799 or not right frankly, but Alton's announcing me on stage. Yeah, 0:34:09.880 --> 0:34:12.560 he always says, this is Davy, my band leader. And 0:34:12.640 --> 0:34:16.600 I love that. That works perfectly for me because the 0:34:16.680 --> 0:34:21.440 whole thing about music director started the second time that 0:34:21.600 --> 0:34:25.760 d and Nagel were let go and I was asked 0:34:25.760 --> 0:34:30.760 to stay when I was again tasked with the job 0:34:30.760 --> 0:34:33.080 of or somebody's going to have to run the band 0:34:33.360 --> 0:34:36.799 through their paces tish them the songs. Because as far 0:34:36.840 --> 0:34:42.120 back as especially the second band I'm talking about in 0:34:42.160 --> 0:34:46.920 the early in the mid eighties, when after the end 0:34:46.960 --> 0:34:49.440 of nineteen eighty four, when when Dan Najeel let go 0:34:49.480 --> 0:34:52.960 of that time. I had to come up with a band, 0:34:53.080 --> 0:34:54.880 and it took quite a while for me to be 0:34:54.920 --> 0:34:59.799 comfortable with the musicians that we had, and by the 0:34:59.840 --> 0:35:01.880 time and we got to the end of the eighties, 0:35:01.880 --> 0:35:06.000 I was very happy with it. We had people like 0:35:06.080 --> 0:35:12.279 Charlie Morgan on drums, Bob Birch came in on bass, 0:35:13.120 --> 0:35:17.960 Guy Babylon on keyboards. Eventually we got Nigel back, which 0:35:18.040 --> 0:35:19.800 was great. He was out of the band for something 0:35:19.840 --> 0:35:23.120 like seventeen years. So when I think of the various 0:35:23.160 --> 0:35:27.080 combinations of bands I worked my way through. We had 0:35:27.080 --> 0:35:29.480 some wonderful players. Don't get me wrong. We used to 0:35:29.560 --> 0:35:33.560 you know Jonathan Moffatt sugar Foot, you know from Jack 0:35:33.640 --> 0:35:38.880 Michael Jackson Stuff and his band. You know Romeo Williams, 0:35:39.239 --> 0:35:41.480 all these different players. Jeff backs to play with us 0:35:41.719 --> 0:35:44.759 for a while. James Newton heard. Obviously, Ray Cooper has 0:35:44.760 --> 0:35:46.480 been in and out of the band, and he was 0:35:46.560 --> 0:35:50.440 more of Ray was always more of a floating member, 0:35:50.800 --> 0:35:54.160 but when he comes back, he's always my permanent member. 0:35:55.160 --> 0:35:56.880 Ray and I go out to dinner all the time 0:35:57.040 --> 0:36:00.479 on the road. Were the food freaks of this tour. 0:36:00.560 --> 0:36:04.960 So we tend to dine out as much as possible. Okay, 0:36:05.120 --> 0:36:09.919 have you been to Noma in Denmark? I wish i'd had, 0:36:10.000 --> 0:36:12.400 but I believe it's closing the end of this year. 0:36:12.840 --> 0:36:14.960 Ray and I have got our sightset for going there 0:36:15.040 --> 0:36:18.320 when we're there in early July, so we're hoping we 0:36:18.400 --> 0:36:21.400 can we can get in. Okay, So what's the best 0:36:21.440 --> 0:36:26.200 meal you've had on the road. Well, for me, you 0:36:26.239 --> 0:36:30.520 can't go wrong with no Bo. We love Japanese food. 0:36:32.320 --> 0:36:35.480 No restaurants are in very many of the major cities, 0:36:35.560 --> 0:36:41.480 I'm sure you know that. Although in Atlanta we found Umi, 0:36:41.960 --> 0:36:47.360 which is a ridiculously great Japanese restaurant in the Buckhead 0:36:47.400 --> 0:36:50.279 area of Atlanta, which we love. That area. There's some 0:36:50.320 --> 0:36:53.799 wonderful restaurants and a couple of friends of mine own 0:36:53.840 --> 0:36:59.080 the restaurants and they started this place and it's just unimaginable. 0:36:59.120 --> 0:37:01.839 It's so great. So it's definitely on a par with 0:37:01.960 --> 0:37:05.560 Nobu and maybe slightly better in some areas. So I'm 0:37:05.600 --> 0:37:08.600 big on Japanese food. But obviously when we want to 0:37:08.600 --> 0:37:11.040 take some of the guys like I take Rick, my 0:37:11.120 --> 0:37:14.640 tech occasionally he likes Japanese food, but he's really big 0:37:14.680 --> 0:37:17.160 on steak, so we'll go to one of the many 0:37:17.200 --> 0:37:20.760 wonderful steakhouses, of which, as you know, there are several. 0:37:22.040 --> 0:37:24.799 We just love great food, so it's one of it. 0:37:24.880 --> 0:37:27.360 To me, it's one of the biggest, big joys of life. 0:37:28.680 --> 0:37:30.919 So I make sure that I eat well on the road. 0:37:31.320 --> 0:37:34.840 Do you work out on the road. I have a 0:37:34.880 --> 0:37:39.839 set of stretchers that I do every morning, and I 0:37:39.880 --> 0:37:42.520 swim whenever I can because I like to swim at home. 0:37:43.600 --> 0:37:47.240 Right now, I'm I'm undergoing a bit of shoulder problem, 0:37:47.440 --> 0:37:51.760 so I'm doing physical therapy for that. I've got wonderful 0:37:51.800 --> 0:37:54.640 therapists here in my area that are helping me out. 0:37:55.800 --> 0:37:58.719 So yeah, as we get older, you know, fifty years 0:37:58.719 --> 0:38:01.000 of guitar sling and Bobby, you know that's like you 0:38:01.040 --> 0:38:04.160 play guitar, you know, imagine doing it every other night 0:38:04.200 --> 0:38:07.040 on stage for three hours. You know, suddenly your neck 0:38:07.080 --> 0:38:10.680 and your shoulder starts to give way. So I have 0:38:10.960 --> 0:38:15.279 guitar players neck and shoulder right now. Okay, Elton has 0:38:15.280 --> 0:38:18.439 a huge catalog. If I were to call out a song, 0:38:18.520 --> 0:38:20.520 would you be able to play it right like that? 0:38:21.040 --> 0:38:24.759 Or what would it take to recall it? Well? Put 0:38:24.760 --> 0:38:26.439 it this way, if it was one of the ones 0:38:26.560 --> 0:38:29.919 I played on, absolutely, I mean, because there are quite 0:38:29.920 --> 0:38:32.360 a few that I didn't play on leading up to 0:38:33.120 --> 0:38:36.520 you know the band. Oh, let's face it. If you 0:38:36.600 --> 0:38:39.799 see his greatest hits, I'm on every track. So yes, 0:38:39.840 --> 0:38:42.480 if you caught a few mentioned a track or a 0:38:42.520 --> 0:38:44.600 deep cut that I played on, I'm pretty sure I 0:38:44.600 --> 0:38:47.600 could play it for you. And doeselt never call out? 0:38:47.680 --> 0:38:49.960 I mean, you've been with him all these years forget 0:38:49.960 --> 0:38:52.720 to farewell tour? Is he ever just playing and say 0:38:53.120 --> 0:38:56.160 let's play you know, Harmony, or let's play Teacher, I 0:38:56.239 --> 0:38:59.839 need you or whatever. Well, he'll suggest, you know, we'll 0:38:59.880 --> 0:39:02.279 be talking about sets. We do that, him and I 0:39:02.360 --> 0:39:06.359 do that before each tour anyway, and so we'll come 0:39:06.440 --> 0:39:09.920 up with things like you said, Harmony, you know, high 0:39:09.920 --> 0:39:15.160 Flying Bird or whatever to be. The thing is, he 0:39:15.200 --> 0:39:18.759 has no fucking idea how to play these socks. So 0:39:19.600 --> 0:39:21.960 this is why they call me musical director Bob, because 0:39:22.640 --> 0:39:26.840 when it started happening, I realized he didn't know the songs, 0:39:26.880 --> 0:39:28.719 he'd forgotten them, he didn't know how to play him. 0:39:29.560 --> 0:39:33.000 So what I decided to do. I've got a very 0:39:33.000 --> 0:39:37.960 good friend called Adam Chester, who's a wonderful piano player, singer, songwriter. 0:39:39.000 --> 0:39:41.640 Adams a dear friend. He loves our music. He loves 0:39:41.640 --> 0:39:43.799 Elton's music, all his sides. One day I called him 0:39:43.880 --> 0:39:47.280 up and I said, Adam, I need you. I'm tired 0:39:47.320 --> 0:39:51.920 of showing up for a TV rehearsal, for camera rehearsal. 0:39:52.360 --> 0:39:55.040 Elton's not there because he want rehearse. I'm tired of 0:39:55.040 --> 0:39:58.840 doing a band rehearsal without piano. I'm just sick of it. 0:39:58.960 --> 0:40:03.799 So would you like to be my Elton? And he 0:40:03.880 --> 0:40:08.680 went yeah, So, so I bring him in with the 0:40:08.719 --> 0:40:13.200 whole band. He's not perfect, he sings the songs really well. 0:40:14.400 --> 0:40:17.040 We do a change of key depending on where Elton's 0:40:17.120 --> 0:40:20.759 voice maybe at the current time or whatever. And so 0:40:20.840 --> 0:40:23.160 that by the time Elton's ready to come into rehearsal, 0:40:24.600 --> 0:40:27.480 we're really good to go. We have the arrangements down, 0:40:27.560 --> 0:40:30.000 everything's totally good to go. All he's got to do 0:40:30.120 --> 0:40:33.120 is remember his part. So and he does that so quick, 0:40:33.160 --> 0:40:36.680 Elton so fast. There's a good reason. I mean, he 0:40:36.719 --> 0:40:38.799 hates the rehearse and I don't blame him. It's can 0:40:38.800 --> 0:40:43.040 be a thankless task. I do enjoy it when it's 0:40:43.080 --> 0:40:47.000 fun because these songs are so playable, there's so much 0:40:47.000 --> 0:40:51.280 fun to play. They're not fun to play if somebody's 0:40:51.280 --> 0:40:54.600 not enjoying it. So I don't I don't even think 0:40:54.600 --> 0:40:57.520 about putting Alton through that that phase of it. I 0:40:57.600 --> 0:41:00.520 wait till we're not perfect, and he's pretty much ready 0:41:00.520 --> 0:41:02.439 to just go, Okay, what was that chord? What's this chord? 0:41:03.040 --> 0:41:04.880 And then we work it out and he plays it. 0:41:05.000 --> 0:41:10.000 And usually for a tour, he won't need more than 0:41:10.080 --> 0:41:13.560 about I don't know, an hour to two hours rehearsal, 0:41:14.360 --> 0:41:17.879 and that's for a major tour because we're all good 0:41:17.880 --> 0:41:20.400 to go. He comes in for you know, an afternoon, 0:41:20.560 --> 0:41:22.800 we do a few songs, we have a tea break, 0:41:23.239 --> 0:41:25.280 we do another few songs, we have a tea break, 0:41:25.480 --> 0:41:27.120 and then he goes, I think that'll do. Let's just 0:41:27.200 --> 0:41:29.799 go and do it. So really, we rehearse when we 0:41:29.800 --> 0:41:33.960 were on stage, and we've always done that. So many 0:41:34.000 --> 0:41:37.200 of the of the jams and the various moves, the 0:41:37.239 --> 0:41:40.319 maneuvers that we get into doing on stage are all 0:41:40.400 --> 0:41:44.240 done purely live. We just work him out as we're playing. 0:41:45.040 --> 0:41:47.040 And he's always loved to do that, and I love that, 0:41:47.120 --> 0:41:49.640 and you know, as soon as he might play a 0:41:49.680 --> 0:41:51.920 little thing and rocket Man and I'll jump on it 0:41:52.480 --> 0:41:55.359 and we'll use that for a while. And you know, 0:41:55.400 --> 0:41:58.520 it's all about you know, ebbs and flows, and we 0:41:58.640 --> 0:42:01.400 know each other so well that we do that, and 0:42:01.520 --> 0:42:12.600 the band follows us, and that's the way it works. Okay, 0:42:12.680 --> 0:42:16.000 let's go back to the beginning. Edinburgh. What'd your parents 0:42:16.040 --> 0:42:20.200 do for a living? My mom was a wonderful old 0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:24.720 Scottish housewife. I have two sisters, so there was my 0:42:24.719 --> 0:42:27.319 My two sisters are one is ten years older, the 0:42:27.360 --> 0:42:30.840 other one is twelve years older. So I was the baby. 0:42:31.000 --> 0:42:34.799 I was the afterthought. And my dad worked in the 0:42:34.840 --> 0:42:38.880 Department of Agriculture. He was a civil servant and he 0:42:39.200 --> 0:42:46.720 was also very worldly person. He very well read. Taught 0:42:46.719 --> 0:42:52.320 me a lot about stuff and about manners, about respect. 0:42:52.960 --> 0:42:58.560 He was a really good man. And he also helped 0:42:58.560 --> 0:43:02.200 me so much with my soccer career because football is 0:43:02.239 --> 0:43:05.400 like a religion in Scotland. I mean not American football, 0:43:05.400 --> 0:43:09.000 I mean the real football, so that kids in America 0:43:09.320 --> 0:43:13.680 in Britain, they grew up with football. So I was 0:43:13.880 --> 0:43:16.040 fitball crazy when I was a kid. That's what they 0:43:16.080 --> 0:43:19.560 call it fitball crazy because I loved it. And every 0:43:19.640 --> 0:43:21.960 waking minute I was in the park or I was 0:43:22.000 --> 0:43:26.200 in playing in teams, I was playing for my city, 0:43:26.560 --> 0:43:31.920 I was eventually playing for Scottish schoolboys. So I loved it. 0:43:32.680 --> 0:43:35.200 So Dad was great. He was very supportive and all 0:43:35.200 --> 0:43:38.440 that stuff. He had a very serious injury. He had 0:43:38.520 --> 0:43:42.720 rheumatari arthritis. It really crippled him from quite an early age. 0:43:43.239 --> 0:43:46.200 But he'd still show up at every soccer game that 0:43:46.239 --> 0:43:48.360 I played as a kid. I mean I'm talking in 0:43:48.400 --> 0:43:51.640 the rain and the snow, you know, typical British weather, 0:43:52.200 --> 0:43:55.120 and he'd show up. And when I started playing guitar, 0:43:56.480 --> 0:43:59.880 he was the one who said gave me the most encouragement. 0:44:00.160 --> 0:44:01.919 You know, other people were saying what are you doing? 0:44:01.960 --> 0:44:04.600 You know, like my teachers at school would say, well, 0:44:04.680 --> 0:44:07.759 that's a waste of time. Only one teacher ever said 0:44:07.840 --> 0:44:10.799 to me, you're doing the right thing. Carry on, my 0:44:10.920 --> 0:44:13.960 art teacher when I he asked me what I was 0:44:14.000 --> 0:44:15.840 going to be, when he was asking the whole class, 0:44:16.120 --> 0:44:17.640 what are you going to do when you grow up? 0:44:17.920 --> 0:44:19.320 What are you going to do when you leave school? 0:44:19.680 --> 0:44:22.520 And my answer was I'm going to be a professional musician, sir, 0:44:23.400 --> 0:44:25.440 And he basically was ready to hit me over the 0:44:25.440 --> 0:44:28.120 head with a book and said that's stupid. There's no 0:44:28.160 --> 0:44:32.680 way give that idea up. So um my dad was 0:44:32.719 --> 0:44:35.440 the one who said, don't listen to those guys. You know, 0:44:36.239 --> 0:44:39.920 believe in yourself, go for it. And so by the 0:44:39.960 --> 0:44:44.680 age of fourteen, I was playing in pubs, which is 0:44:44.680 --> 0:44:49.160 where most folk music is played, because I I kind 0:44:49.200 --> 0:44:53.600 of graduated from being a massive Beatles fan. I am 0:44:53.640 --> 0:44:56.440 again a massive Beatles fan again, but in those days, 0:44:57.160 --> 0:45:00.520 learning every George Harrison like by listening to the radio 0:45:00.840 --> 0:45:03.840 Radio Luxembourg or Radio Caroline, one of those pirate ships 0:45:04.239 --> 0:45:06.239 or are rolling stones to it, I'd learn all the 0:45:06.280 --> 0:45:11.200 parts right there sitting by the radio. I graduated from 0:45:11.280 --> 0:45:16.320 that to listening to folk guitar players who, in my mind, 0:45:16.920 --> 0:45:19.279 were way better than anybody I was listening to on 0:45:19.320 --> 0:45:22.160 the pop scene. I was listening to people like the 0:45:22.200 --> 0:45:29.680 Incredible string band John Martin, Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Joni Mitchell. 0:45:29.800 --> 0:45:31.719 Suddenly I was hearing I'm going to like, what the 0:45:31.840 --> 0:45:35.000 hell these people are the real stars, you know, And 0:45:35.040 --> 0:45:37.480 then I started to hear bluegrass people in America, and 0:45:37.480 --> 0:45:41.000 I'm going like, Okay, this is way advanced. This is 0:45:41.040 --> 0:45:43.280 the stuff I want to play. So that's the reason 0:45:43.760 --> 0:45:49.640 that I started playing more acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer, 0:45:50.360 --> 0:45:54.839 and then eventually star a folk singing guy called Archie 0:45:54.880 --> 0:45:57.960 Fisher played the saitar and he invited me to his 0:45:58.000 --> 0:45:59.640 home to hear it one day, and I heard it 0:45:59.640 --> 0:46:02.720 and that I've got to get one. And of course 0:46:02.760 --> 0:46:08.600 i'd heard Jarles Harrison playing on Norwegian wood and thought, okay, 0:46:09.200 --> 0:46:11.920 I'm in. I'm sold. You know, I'm a sucker for 0:46:11.960 --> 0:46:16.560 a great siding instrument. Anything strained, and I got one, 0:46:16.640 --> 0:46:18.319 which I still have to this day. I got it 0:46:18.320 --> 0:46:20.960 when I was eighteen. I still have it to this day, 0:46:21.000 --> 0:46:24.520 the same one. Okay, so you're growing up, are you 0:46:24.600 --> 0:46:27.040 the kind of kid who's a loner? Remember the group? 0:46:27.160 --> 0:46:31.640 You're a good student, bad student. I was a good student. 0:46:32.120 --> 0:46:33.799 I was good, but I was lazy because I was 0:46:33.840 --> 0:46:37.680 more interested in music. I did just what I needed 0:46:37.680 --> 0:46:41.080 to get by, and I was very upset with my 0:46:41.160 --> 0:46:43.480 dad said you got to go to extra math tuition 0:46:43.520 --> 0:46:45.759 because you're failing and you are not allowed to fail 0:46:45.800 --> 0:46:49.160 this class. So I hated him for it at the time, 0:46:49.600 --> 0:46:53.800 but I did end up getting my result all levels. 0:46:53.840 --> 0:46:56.560 Over there, they have all levels and A levels. All 0:46:56.640 --> 0:47:00.040 level is like high school. A level is more like 0:47:00.280 --> 0:47:02.399 what you do to get into college. So I got 0:47:02.480 --> 0:47:05.799 six A levels, which stunned me. I was surprised as hell, 0:47:06.360 --> 0:47:08.759 but it meant I was ready to go to Art 0:47:08.760 --> 0:47:13.000 college because that was my major. And I decided, just 0:47:13.040 --> 0:47:15.080 before I was going to go, I'm not going to 0:47:15.160 --> 0:47:16.840 go to Art college. I'm going to go to London. 0:47:17.719 --> 0:47:21.440 So I had about well, my mom gave me what 0:47:21.600 --> 0:47:24.400 she had in her purse. It was eleven pounds, which 0:47:24.480 --> 0:47:27.680 was about twenty bucks. So I got on a train 0:47:28.320 --> 0:47:30.839 with my banjo, my guitar, my mandolin, and I went 0:47:30.880 --> 0:47:35.680 to London and I looked up a guy, Noel Murphy, 0:47:35.920 --> 0:47:38.359 this wonderful Irish folks who just passed away a few 0:47:38.360 --> 0:47:42.480 months ago. Unfortunately, Noel had said to me once when 0:47:42.480 --> 0:47:46.440 he heard my playing in a pub in Scotland. He said, 0:47:46.719 --> 0:47:49.200 listen man, you're crazy good. He said, if you're ever 0:47:49.239 --> 0:47:51.640 in London, looked me up. Well. When I heard that, 0:47:51.680 --> 0:47:55.799 I thought, okay. I went to London and I went 0:47:55.840 --> 0:47:58.880 to his apartment and I knocked on the door, and 0:47:59.000 --> 0:48:03.160 of course he answered it and said, um, what the 0:48:03.200 --> 0:48:07.279 fuck are you doing here? That was literally it. I mean, 0:48:07.800 --> 0:48:10.160 I went, you know, we started playing. He said, okay, 0:48:10.160 --> 0:48:12.880 you might as well play, So we we. We began 0:48:13.000 --> 0:48:17.440 this very successful folk duo partnership, and we were a 0:48:17.480 --> 0:48:22.600 massive draw on the on the folk scene between like 0:48:22.880 --> 0:48:26.240 I don't know, sixty seven and sixty nine, and then 0:48:26.280 --> 0:48:29.799 I graduated to something a little more I don't know 0:48:29.800 --> 0:48:32.760 what you would call it, um folk pop or something 0:48:33.160 --> 0:48:36.560 magna carta, a band like that. And see, there was 0:48:36.600 --> 0:48:39.600 all this folk rock stuff going on at that period 0:48:39.640 --> 0:48:43.799 of time, and very many folk physicians like myself, we're 0:48:43.840 --> 0:48:48.320 getting snapped up by bands. Um, Dave Swarbrick got snapped 0:48:48.400 --> 0:48:53.799 up by Fairport Convention. Rick Wakeman got snapped up by 0:48:53.840 --> 0:48:57.600 the firstly by the Strobs and then by yes um 0:48:58.920 --> 0:49:01.360 people like Ralph mct hell were coming on the scene. 0:49:01.560 --> 0:49:05.640 I was playing with him also Kat Stevens, and then 0:49:05.680 --> 0:49:08.319 I got you know, I was starting to do session work. 0:49:08.360 --> 0:49:10.920 So when I did that a little bit slower, a 0:49:11.360 --> 0:49:14.520 little bit slower, how'd you get session work? Okay? Well 0:49:14.520 --> 0:49:19.440 I got session work because basically from from my studio, sorry, 0:49:19.480 --> 0:49:23.160 from my playing in pubs and playing in folk clubs. Basically, 0:49:23.239 --> 0:49:25.160 people would just call me up. They would hear me, 0:49:25.640 --> 0:49:27.600 and they would say, look, I think you'd be great 0:49:27.640 --> 0:49:29.920 on this record. Will you do it? And I was 0:49:29.960 --> 0:49:32.640 like absolutely, I mean I never turned a gig down. 0:49:33.239 --> 0:49:35.560 You don't do you don't turn a gig down. And 0:49:36.440 --> 0:49:41.520 so I started playing with those kind of people, you know, 0:49:41.719 --> 0:49:45.080 obscure kind of folk artists, but who had record deals. 0:49:45.800 --> 0:49:49.560 Colin Scott, Ralph mctel was a bit of bit better 0:49:49.640 --> 0:49:56.560 known Kat Stevens obviously, and Gus Dudgeon, Elton's producer at 0:49:56.600 --> 0:49:59.640 that time. Wait, before you get to Gus, you knock 0:49:59.719 --> 0:50:03.920 on Murphy's door, you have twenty dollars in your pocket. 0:50:04.920 --> 0:50:07.880 Do you end up sleeping in his apartment? What is 0:50:07.880 --> 0:50:11.160 your lifestyle like before you work with Elton? And did 0:50:11.160 --> 0:50:17.799 you ever contemplate giving up? Okay, this is a good 0:50:17.880 --> 0:50:19.800 run up to that, Bob, So I'll tell you what happened. 0:50:21.000 --> 0:50:26.360 So I'm fifteen years old. I'm working with a partner 0:50:26.440 --> 0:50:31.399 who's a wonderful singer called Titch. So we go by 0:50:31.440 --> 0:50:36.560 the really original name of Titch and Davy, and we 0:50:36.680 --> 0:50:41.080 get really interesting people digging our stuff. Again. Folk clubs, 0:50:41.120 --> 0:50:44.040 all folk music took place in pubs in those days. 0:50:44.120 --> 0:50:46.839 That's just what happened. I think it went to coffeehouses 0:50:46.920 --> 0:50:50.880 later on, but pubs were where it was very rosy 0:50:51.080 --> 0:50:54.520 folk clubs, and again I was playing banjo at this 0:50:54.640 --> 0:50:57.920 By this point, people were going shit crazy. Whenever I 0:50:58.000 --> 0:51:02.040 play one of the Dubliners reels or something Irish tunes, 0:51:02.239 --> 0:51:06.600 they'd be going nuts. Per serk. So I was already 0:51:06.640 --> 0:51:08.680 a bit of an item. When I was fifteen as 0:51:08.719 --> 0:51:13.400 a banjo player, we suddenly started getting gigs supporting people 0:51:13.440 --> 0:51:16.920 like the Incredible String Band, and there was one band 0:51:17.040 --> 0:51:19.839 called the humble Bums. I don't know if you're aware 0:51:19.880 --> 0:51:25.840 of Jerry Rafferty, yes, and Billy Connolly right, was still 0:51:25.880 --> 0:51:30.760 my friend to this date. Billy Connolly couldn't believe again 0:51:31.000 --> 0:51:34.319 my playing and what was going on with us. So 0:51:34.360 --> 0:51:37.160 we became firm friends. And this is again, is all happening. 0:51:37.160 --> 0:51:40.560 When I'm fifteen and sixteen years old. I continue to 0:51:40.600 --> 0:51:42.600 be close to Billy and these other guys who are 0:51:42.600 --> 0:51:45.239 hearing me play, and they're all going, Jesus christ Man, 0:51:45.440 --> 0:51:47.040 you know you can do this or you can do that. 0:51:47.719 --> 0:51:53.279 So me and my friend Titch hitchhike to Liverpool and 0:51:53.320 --> 0:51:57.840 we we just got there. We don't know anybody. We 0:51:58.040 --> 0:52:00.560 end up staying at my aunties house and Soot, which 0:52:00.600 --> 0:52:03.560 is about half an hour on the train from Liverpool. 0:52:04.040 --> 0:52:07.279 And we go to Liverpool because the Beatles are from Liverpool. 0:52:07.320 --> 0:52:11.640 So we go there thinking maybe somebody will discover us. 0:52:11.719 --> 0:52:14.680 So we go to this area of very dodgy area 0:52:14.880 --> 0:52:18.680 near the Bluecoat Museum where some of those guys studied, 0:52:19.200 --> 0:52:23.880 and found this very very dodgy club called the Green Moose. 0:52:24.840 --> 0:52:26.839 And we went in there and there was all these 0:52:26.920 --> 0:52:31.160 hippies and folk singers, and there was one guy called 0:52:31.200 --> 0:52:35.239 Willie Russell who's a friend of mine to this day. 0:52:35.719 --> 0:52:43.319 He was a poet, writer and wonderful, wonderful singer. He 0:52:43.760 --> 0:52:46.560 we got on immediately. Willy Russell turned out to be 0:52:46.600 --> 0:52:49.360 one of the greatest playwrights and he is one of 0:52:49.400 --> 0:52:54.040 the greatest living playwrights in British history. He wrote. He 0:52:54.080 --> 0:52:59.719 went on to write Educating Rita and Blood Brothers Shirley Valentine, 0:53:00.280 --> 0:53:03.080 and he's you know, living. He still lives in Liverpool 0:53:03.360 --> 0:53:07.280 and has a place in Portugal. Anyway, I digress. Willy 0:53:07.320 --> 0:53:11.319 and I became firm friends. So suddenly you had me, 0:53:12.120 --> 0:53:16.799 Willy Russell, Billy Connolly, Noel Murphy, this kind of kind 0:53:16.840 --> 0:53:20.080 of gangster folk people, and we could drink more and 0:53:20.120 --> 0:53:23.040 smoke more harsh than anybody else, So we were rapidly 0:53:23.080 --> 0:53:27.239 getting a name. So I kind of had I was 0:53:27.280 --> 0:53:29.759 ready to go to London. People weren't that surprised when 0:53:29.800 --> 0:53:31.960 I showed it up there because they kind of knew 0:53:31.960 --> 0:53:36.720 who I was. So yes, Noel Murphy, apart from saying 0:53:36.760 --> 0:53:39.640 you know, what the fuck are you doing here, said okay, 0:53:39.640 --> 0:53:43.200 well you better come in. Maybe we should think about 0:53:43.200 --> 0:53:46.760 talk about this, So you know, we rolled a few splits, 0:53:46.840 --> 0:53:49.760 talked about what we could possibly do together, and obviously 0:53:49.880 --> 0:53:53.280 him being an Irish singer and me being an exponent 0:53:53.320 --> 0:53:57.040 of the tenor banjo and mandolin acoustic guitar, we could 0:53:57.040 --> 0:54:02.000 do this folk duo. So we were first called Murph 0:54:02.040 --> 0:54:06.440 and Shagas. That's another one of my names. Shagas was 0:54:06.480 --> 0:54:08.520 a name that he came up with. You probably know 0:54:08.560 --> 0:54:11.200 what a haggas is, Bob, or maybe you don't, yeah, 0:54:11.239 --> 0:54:15.840 but anyway, he thought, well, Davey resembles a shaggy Haggas, 0:54:15.920 --> 0:54:18.640 so I'm going to call him Shagas. So that was 0:54:18.719 --> 0:54:22.239 my name for a couple of years too, and then 0:54:22.239 --> 0:54:25.480 eventually we decided to give ourselves more of a band name, 0:54:25.840 --> 0:54:30.560 and we called ourselves Draft Porridge and in the in 0:54:30.600 --> 0:54:33.920 the latent days of the folks in there, Draft Porridge 0:54:33.920 --> 0:54:36.960 became quite a thing. So all this kind of thing 0:54:37.040 --> 0:54:40.160 was happening. People are starting to talk about us. We 0:54:40.160 --> 0:54:44.400 were getting this massive following, and eventually I get starting 0:54:44.440 --> 0:54:48.200 to ask to do sessions. So that's where the gust 0:54:48.239 --> 0:54:51.759 thing comes in. Okay, so Gus calls you, do you 0:54:51.840 --> 0:54:54.479 know who Elton is? At that point? He's an empty Sky, 0:54:54.600 --> 0:54:59.880 which wasn't that successful the first self titled album, Tumbleweed Connection, 0:55:00.080 --> 0:55:03.439 never mind the live album and the Friends soundtrack. You're 0:55:03.480 --> 0:55:06.880 called by Gus? Is this just another gig? Or do 0:55:06.960 --> 0:55:12.560 you say? Wow? Well? I had heard about Elton from 0:55:12.600 --> 0:55:15.319 Gus because Gus and I took a meeting. We had 0:55:15.360 --> 0:55:19.160 metturing sessions for this group, Magna Carta that I was 0:55:19.200 --> 0:55:22.360 with for about a year, and before I was a 0:55:22.400 --> 0:55:25.719 bona fide member of that group with a three piece 0:55:25.760 --> 0:55:30.840 folk group. Gus was producing them, so I was actually 0:55:30.920 --> 0:55:34.080 a session man on that thing too. So that's where 0:55:34.080 --> 0:55:37.839 we first met and we took a meeting sometime after 0:55:37.840 --> 0:55:40.719 because I was so bold away by what he was 0:55:40.760 --> 0:55:43.200 doing and the way he made my instrument sound. He 0:55:43.320 --> 0:55:46.640 was obviously a schooled engineer as well as a great producer, 0:55:46.960 --> 0:55:49.560 so we took a meeting one day and he told me, 0:55:49.840 --> 0:55:52.000 he said, I worked with this guy called Regge and 0:55:52.760 --> 0:55:55.920 his real name, he's calling himself Elton John and he 0:55:56.000 --> 0:55:59.480 said he's just had a big successful show in la 0:55:59.640 --> 0:56:02.480 and you probably be hearing about him, and I went okay, 0:56:03.120 --> 0:56:05.319 and that's the first time I'd heard of him. And 0:56:05.400 --> 0:56:08.239 I remember going back to Scotland a few weeks later 0:56:08.280 --> 0:56:11.319 for a visit with my folks, and my dad and 0:56:11.400 --> 0:56:14.120 I were watching a show called Top of the Pops 0:56:14.160 --> 0:56:16.120 which I think is probably still on in the UK, 0:56:17.080 --> 0:56:23.120 and Elton was on doing border song and I remember thinking, well, 0:56:23.480 --> 0:56:26.680 this guy's got a killer voice. I love his piano playing, 0:56:27.320 --> 0:56:29.520 and look at that head of hair. My dad and 0:56:29.560 --> 0:56:32.160 me both said, look at this guy's here. He's got 0:56:32.160 --> 0:56:36.319 this thickest, coolest looking head of hair we'd ever seen, right, 0:56:36.520 --> 0:56:38.759 And that was the first thing that kind of I 0:56:38.880 --> 0:56:41.680 noticed about him. So anyway, I went back down to 0:56:41.760 --> 0:56:46.240 London and I've done a couple of months later or something, 0:56:46.920 --> 0:56:50.360 Gus calls me and said, look, I'm doing a poetry 0:56:50.400 --> 0:56:57.040 album with Bernie Taupin. The idea is for to do 0:56:57.080 --> 0:57:02.280 acoustic album whereby yourself, if you're into it, Caleb Quay, 0:57:03.960 --> 0:57:09.560 Sean Phillips, the American musician, and a couple of other 0:57:09.560 --> 0:57:11.800 people here and there are going to be in the studio. 0:57:12.440 --> 0:57:17.480 Bernie is going to recite his poetry and you guys 0:57:17.480 --> 0:57:20.360 will play whatever you want in the background. You bring 0:57:20.360 --> 0:57:24.560 your guitar, your sitar, your mandolin, and Bernie's just going 0:57:24.640 --> 0:57:27.280 to read poetry. You're going to smoke a lot of dope, 0:57:27.280 --> 0:57:29.400 and then you're going to play whatever comes into your head. 0:57:29.760 --> 0:57:33.360 So that's what happened. I showed up at the studio. 0:57:34.200 --> 0:57:37.440 I met Bernie, who was a great guy. Straightaway, got 0:57:37.480 --> 0:57:41.600 un fantastic with him, and that's what we did. We 0:57:41.680 --> 0:57:45.640 sat around and got to know each other. Gus was producing, 0:57:46.080 --> 0:57:48.840 Clive Franks was engineering. Clive went on to be our 0:57:48.920 --> 0:57:52.560 front of house guy. So this album was so much 0:57:52.600 --> 0:57:56.520 fun to record because Caleb and I were just We 0:57:56.640 --> 0:57:58.400 got to know each other on that record, and it 0:57:58.480 --> 0:58:01.800 was obvious that at some point we would do some 0:58:02.040 --> 0:58:04.120 other stuff together. It was just one of those things. 0:58:05.760 --> 0:58:09.920 So after Bernie's recordings, I guess Bernie must have said 0:58:10.200 --> 0:58:14.360 to Elton, you've got to check this guy out. And 0:58:15.160 --> 0:58:17.720 I got the call to do the mad Mare across 0:58:17.760 --> 0:58:24.360 the Water thing, and I showed up with more stuff 0:58:24.400 --> 0:58:26.919 than they asked me for. I was booked to play 0:58:27.000 --> 0:58:32.800 banjo on a song called holiday En, so I brought 0:58:32.880 --> 0:58:36.680 my banjo. I also brought my mandolin, and for some 0:58:36.760 --> 0:58:42.600 reason I brought my sitar and walked into the studio. 0:58:43.520 --> 0:58:47.080 In those days, he was he was reg so Gus 0:58:47.160 --> 0:58:49.760 introduced me, and he was very very shy. Elton was 0:58:49.760 --> 0:58:52.960 sitting his piano, didn't he wasn't really into eye contact. 0:58:53.000 --> 0:58:55.840 He was just looking at the piano and it seemed 0:58:55.920 --> 0:58:59.280 quite shy and nervous. And I said, okay, well can 0:58:59.280 --> 0:59:00.760 you play me the song we're going to do? And 0:59:01.120 --> 0:59:06.520 he played the song and I straight away said, well, 0:59:06.680 --> 0:59:09.200 I don't think it's banjo on that. I think mandolin 0:59:09.280 --> 0:59:14.160 is going to be better. And he said okay, let's 0:59:14.160 --> 0:59:17.480 try that, and then to go one more. After we 0:59:17.640 --> 0:59:20.680 ran the song down a couple of times. He didn't 0:59:20.760 --> 0:59:23.680 have an intro for it, and Gosus said well, how 0:59:23.680 --> 0:59:26.160 are you going to start it? And Elton said, well, 0:59:26.320 --> 0:59:28.479 I'm not really sure. And I said, well, why don't 0:59:28.480 --> 0:59:31.520 you just start it? It's just me, like a nineteen 0:59:31.600 --> 0:59:33.880 year old kid from Scotland, and I said, why don't 0:59:33.920 --> 0:59:36.880 you just started straight in? I said, it sounds like 0:59:36.920 --> 0:59:40.160 you've just come in with that bust, and I last 0:59:40.160 --> 0:59:43.680 that just come in you me and I'm coming with 0:59:43.680 --> 0:59:46.000 the mandolin and the piano, and that's what we'll do. 0:59:46.240 --> 0:59:50.600 And he went, okay, let's try that soap full of 0:59:50.640 --> 0:59:53.360 shit young scotsman, you know. So we do that, and 0:59:53.440 --> 0:59:57.240 every he goes, that's great. So here I am surrounded 0:59:57.280 --> 1:00:03.160 by people like Herbie Flowers, Barry Morgan, I mean, brilliant musicians, 1:00:03.200 --> 1:00:07.680 Chris Spedding, Ray Cooper, all these great wonderful session players, 1:00:07.680 --> 1:00:11.040 and I'm sitting there and going, okay, this is really 1:00:11.040 --> 1:00:14.240 getting interesting. I'm working with these guys and straight away 1:00:14.240 --> 1:00:17.720 you could tell, okay, these guys are they're the cream. 1:00:17.840 --> 1:00:20.640 I've done a bunch of sessions, but this is another 1:00:20.720 --> 1:00:24.360 another world, you know. So then the next song he 1:00:24.440 --> 1:00:27.040 asked me to play. I believe it was the song 1:00:27.080 --> 1:00:29.640 that they had originally wanted me to try, which was 1:00:29.680 --> 1:00:33.240 the title track of that record, mad Man Across the Water, 1:00:33.960 --> 1:00:36.280 and I found out later they tried it with a 1:00:36.280 --> 1:00:39.520 couple of other guys. They tried it with Mick Ronson, 1:00:39.560 --> 1:00:42.600 who was also a dear friend of mine, and Michael Chapman, 1:00:42.680 --> 1:00:45.680 another friend of mine, who was a wonderful folk guitar player. 1:00:46.680 --> 1:00:49.320 They'd done versions and for whatever reason, it hadn't been 1:00:49.360 --> 1:00:53.160 what they needed, and so they said, this is the 1:00:53.280 --> 1:00:55.920 riff for the piano, like for this song I have. 1:00:56.640 --> 1:01:01.760 So he played the riff for Madman and I was 1:01:01.960 --> 1:01:05.560 sitting there next to him with my guitar, and I said, well, 1:01:05.600 --> 1:01:09.400 what about this? And I'm very much a first I'm 1:01:09.640 --> 1:01:12.479 I'm an ideas guy, and my first ideas are usually 1:01:12.520 --> 1:01:14.680 the ones that are best, just the way it works 1:01:14.680 --> 1:01:18.160 with me. And I played what I thought, and they 1:01:18.400 --> 1:01:22.560 all said, you know, Elton Gus and Steve Brown was 1:01:22.720 --> 1:01:27.120 the manager at that point, that's it, eureka. So we 1:01:27.240 --> 1:01:30.680 cut it and yeah, and I went on to play 1:01:30.720 --> 1:01:34.360 on a few other tracks on that album. See on 1:01:34.440 --> 1:01:37.440 those in those days you probably know this, Boblem. I'm 1:01:37.480 --> 1:01:40.200 sure you do. And those days when artists were doing 1:01:40.240 --> 1:01:44.120 an album, they had to do, you know, a three 1:01:44.120 --> 1:01:46.439 hour session, you know, you had to get at least 1:01:46.440 --> 1:01:49.040 one track done, usually more. If you could do more, 1:01:49.080 --> 1:01:52.600 you would, you know, so for a day's work, say 1:01:52.600 --> 1:01:55.120 if you were doing two full sessions, you'd hope to 1:01:55.160 --> 1:01:58.760 get three finished tracks. And we did, you know one 1:01:58.760 --> 1:02:02.320 of the next afternoon as we got a tiny d 1:02:02.320 --> 1:02:07.560 answer leave on and I think we did some more. Yeah, 1:02:07.560 --> 1:02:09.400 that's what I did the overdubs on holiday and I 1:02:09.440 --> 1:02:14.479 did suitar and and extra stuff on that and yeah, 1:02:14.480 --> 1:02:20.000 so the work rate impressed me. The songs really impressed me. 1:02:20.880 --> 1:02:24.960 Elton's voice, the piano playing, I mean, I was hooked. 1:02:25.520 --> 1:02:27.320 I thought, this this guy is great. I mean, it's 1:02:27.320 --> 1:02:29.320 the best thing I've heard in a long time. So 1:02:29.400 --> 1:02:32.520 I went back to my little cottage in Oxford Shore 1:02:32.560 --> 1:02:34.360 where I was living with my first wife and our 1:02:34.440 --> 1:02:38.360 little baby. And a few days later I got the 1:02:38.400 --> 1:02:43.320 call um from Steve Brown who who said, um, he 1:02:43.360 --> 1:02:46.320 would like you to join his trio. He wants to 1:02:46.640 --> 1:02:51.360 be a quartet with you on guitar. And I was like, wow, okay, 1:02:51.480 --> 1:02:55.080 I said, well that's really I'm flattered. I said, but 1:02:55.480 --> 1:02:58.120 can I think about it? And he said of course, 1:02:58.160 --> 1:03:00.400 you know, um, and I said you know what, I 1:03:00.400 --> 1:03:03.560 don't need to think about it. I'm in I'd love 1:03:03.560 --> 1:03:08.120 to do it. So that was it. And believe it 1:03:08.240 --> 1:03:11.919 or not, between that conversation, I saw Elton a couple 1:03:11.960 --> 1:03:17.160 of times shopping in the King's Road and he was 1:03:17.200 --> 1:03:20.720 so he was a different character. He was friendly, exuberant 1:03:20.720 --> 1:03:23.400 and buoyant, and maybe because he realized that I wasn't 1:03:23.760 --> 1:03:26.720 just a bullshitter or something, and we became We were 1:03:26.760 --> 1:03:29.680 good mates at that point. But I still hadn't met 1:03:30.080 --> 1:03:33.280 d Murray the bass player. I'd met Nigel, but I'd 1:03:33.280 --> 1:03:35.560 never played with him because they didn't play on the 1:03:36.080 --> 1:03:41.080 albums in those days. So here I am, this upstart 1:03:41.160 --> 1:03:48.600 guitar player just turning twenty, and I'm arriving in the 1:03:48.720 --> 1:03:52.800 chateau nor rehearsal because, as I told you at the 1:03:52.840 --> 1:03:56.000 beginning of this whole thing, Alton makes to rehearse. I said, 1:03:56.040 --> 1:03:57.680 aren't we got to at least have a run through 1:03:57.800 --> 1:04:00.880 with Dea, Nigel and you, and now it's gonna be fine. 1:04:01.760 --> 1:04:04.720 So we get there and we literally start playing together 1:04:05.760 --> 1:04:16.160 in the chateau, and that's how it all started. Okay, 1:04:16.240 --> 1:04:20.480 a couple of questions. Yes, the sounds are very different 1:04:21.120 --> 1:04:24.920 from your perspective. What's the difference with Gus Dudgeon as 1:04:24.920 --> 1:04:30.920 a producer Chris Thomas. Wow, Well, I find that all 1:04:30.960 --> 1:04:34.000 producers are really different because they all put their own 1:04:34.000 --> 1:04:40.800 mark on things. Gus being an engineer at Decca Records 1:04:40.880 --> 1:04:42.840 before he even became a producer. I mean, he was 1:04:42.880 --> 1:04:45.320 one of those engineers with a white coat and the 1:04:45.320 --> 1:04:47.160 whole thing, like in Abby Road they had in the 1:04:47.160 --> 1:04:50.360 early days, and so he really learned about how to 1:04:50.480 --> 1:04:57.000 make up instruments properly and the the whole thing. And we 1:04:57.120 --> 1:05:02.280 began to have a wonderful relationship because thinking about you know, 1:05:02.520 --> 1:05:04.760 Alton was the only other melodic guy in the band. 1:05:04.800 --> 1:05:08.480 He played piano and occasionally he would do an overdub 1:05:08.520 --> 1:05:12.680 on Melotron or far Fisa Oregon if something that was 1:05:12.760 --> 1:05:14.840 lying around. But really I was the guy doing the 1:05:15.280 --> 1:05:19.360 other instruments and guitar overdubs obviously, and bought other textures 1:05:19.360 --> 1:05:22.800 who wanted and we'd employ them in every album. It 1:05:22.960 --> 1:05:27.680 was a very very very close knit now and that 1:05:27.760 --> 1:05:31.120 happened for all these classic records now in the eighties 1:05:31.200 --> 1:05:37.400 when Alton when we reformed because Alton famously or whatever 1:05:37.800 --> 1:05:41.080 got the original band back together. At the end of 1:05:41.200 --> 1:05:44.840 nineteen eighty one called me saying, I want to get 1:05:44.880 --> 1:05:47.640 Dea nageling you together again with me, just the four 1:05:47.640 --> 1:05:50.280 of us, and we go back into the studio. This 1:05:50.320 --> 1:05:52.040 time I want to go in with Chris Thomas because 1:05:52.080 --> 1:05:55.040 I've been working with him and I'd like to try that, 1:05:55.200 --> 1:05:59.240 And I said great, So we all went to We 1:05:59.360 --> 1:06:01.920 did a whole year of touring before we did an album, 1:06:02.440 --> 1:06:05.440 which was kind of cool. Who went straight into touring 1:06:05.920 --> 1:06:08.720 and obviously it was like we'd never stopped playing together. 1:06:08.800 --> 1:06:13.120 And so after the year of touring, we went to Montserrat, 1:06:13.920 --> 1:06:19.120 George Martin's air studio out there with Chris producing. And 1:06:20.120 --> 1:06:22.240 we've always enjoyed that way of working, by the way, 1:06:22.280 --> 1:06:26.680 that residential area where you're kind of prisoners together. You're 1:06:26.680 --> 1:06:28.960 all in one area, you know, where you get to 1:06:29.720 --> 1:06:32.800 live and work together and have breakfast and maybe come 1:06:32.880 --> 1:06:35.360 up with an idea of dinner together and go to 1:06:35.400 --> 1:06:38.760 bed and wake up start again. So we've always enjoyed 1:06:38.800 --> 1:06:42.080 that way of work. So Montserrat was a natural follow 1:06:42.120 --> 1:06:44.560 on to our work at the Chateau and also at 1:06:44.560 --> 1:06:50.280 Carriboo Ranch. So we get to Montserrat. I had met 1:06:50.360 --> 1:06:54.560 Chris previously. I met him up at Paul McCartney's studio 1:06:54.560 --> 1:06:56.920 in the malof Kintire when he was doing one of 1:06:56.960 --> 1:07:00.240 Paul's albums, and we got on very well, and what 1:07:00.240 --> 1:07:01.880 a great guy, you know. And I loved his work 1:07:01.920 --> 1:07:05.720 on Beatle's White album. I loved his work on Tender Stuff, 1:07:06.160 --> 1:07:10.040 which I was starting to hear. Chris and I became 1:07:10.160 --> 1:07:13.479 very close because of what we were started doing straight 1:07:13.520 --> 1:07:16.760 away because he also, like me, likes to work very quickly, 1:07:17.880 --> 1:07:20.360 and also like Gus, Gus was always a very quick worker. 1:07:20.480 --> 1:07:23.800 So we're very fortunate that all those guys liked to 1:07:23.880 --> 1:07:26.920 work the way that Elton liked to work, which is, 1:07:27.240 --> 1:07:30.800 hang onto your hat. You better be stayed with us 1:07:30.800 --> 1:07:33.240 because this is going to be fast, and we don't 1:07:33.600 --> 1:07:36.880 fuck around the studios like Howard Ground to us, so 1:07:36.920 --> 1:07:41.000 that once we've run a song twice, we're ready to 1:07:41.040 --> 1:07:44.240 take it. I mean I'm talking about from when it's written, 1:07:45.000 --> 1:07:48.880 run down, played and recorded. That's what we do, you know. 1:07:48.960 --> 1:07:52.880 So it's like hang on to your hat because we 1:07:52.920 --> 1:07:55.880 ain't stopping for anybody. So Chris was quite used to 1:07:55.920 --> 1:07:58.520 work in that way and loved it and loved what 1:07:58.560 --> 1:08:01.040 we were doing, and I loved what he was doing 1:08:01.080 --> 1:08:04.600 because it was a different way of approaching guitars as well, 1:08:04.680 --> 1:08:09.520 because he brought that more chiangly sound of the of 1:08:09.560 --> 1:08:14.080 the eighties guitar wise in but he loved again what 1:08:14.200 --> 1:08:17.640 I'd do Les Paul Wise. In fact, we began to 1:08:17.720 --> 1:08:24.360 call my Les Paul work BF cheese. And the reason 1:08:24.400 --> 1:08:27.120 for that became was who we came to an overdub 1:08:28.640 --> 1:08:30.439 and he'd say, you know what, I can really hear 1:08:30.479 --> 1:08:34.040 some big fact Gibson's on this, and I would say, yeah, 1:08:34.040 --> 1:08:38.280 that's a great idea. So big fact Gibson's became, you know, 1:08:38.560 --> 1:08:43.040 this term for really loud, overdriven Les Paul sound, you know. 1:08:43.600 --> 1:08:46.080 And so yeah, Chris and I get gotten great for 1:08:46.120 --> 1:08:49.439 all these records. And but in the eighties Elton did 1:08:49.960 --> 1:08:53.439 change around quite a bit. You know. He went a 1:08:53.439 --> 1:08:57.280 couple or three albums with Chris, then back to Gus 1:08:57.280 --> 1:09:02.679 again for a couple of records and then a live album, 1:09:03.040 --> 1:09:08.280 and he kept having hits, which was fucking awesome. So yeah, 1:09:08.360 --> 1:09:11.120 it was as far as the difference between them, I 1:09:11.200 --> 1:09:15.679 must admit I equally loved working with Gus and Chris Thomas. 1:09:16.000 --> 1:09:20.519 Both brilliant in their own way. Okay, so you're asked 1:09:20.520 --> 1:09:24.599 to join the band, you're at the chateau. Everyone had 1:09:24.600 --> 1:09:28.280 a fantasy of what the chateau was until the Beg's 1:09:28.400 --> 1:09:31.519 documentary showed it and looked like kind of a dump. 1:09:32.080 --> 1:09:39.280 So what was the chateau like? Well, it was pretty 1:09:39.360 --> 1:09:42.800 run down. I mean it really was, definitely, but let's 1:09:42.840 --> 1:09:45.760 face it, it was a French chateau. I mean, from 1:09:45.760 --> 1:09:50.280 the outside it looked incredible. It was like two buildings, 1:09:50.880 --> 1:09:56.000 both chateau esque and their design wonderful old buildings, beautiful 1:09:56.000 --> 1:10:00.559 old buildings. And one building was the residential part. The 1:10:00.600 --> 1:10:03.960 other side was where the studio was in. And when 1:10:03.960 --> 1:10:08.560 I say run down, you know, they had sweeping staircases 1:10:09.120 --> 1:10:12.400 stuff like that, but there were It wasn't much a 1:10:12.520 --> 1:10:18.160 dormant There wasn't like old fashioned, beautiful framed guilt photograph. 1:10:18.200 --> 1:10:21.680 There was nothing like that. I mean, any pictures in 1:10:21.720 --> 1:10:25.240 the rooms, which were kind of shabby too, were just 1:10:25.320 --> 1:10:27.479 kind of something stuck up there and pinned up there. 1:10:27.760 --> 1:10:33.240 It was definitely not somewhere suave. This was somewhere where 1:10:33.280 --> 1:10:38.840 you'd probably go to make a porno movie, right, And 1:10:38.880 --> 1:10:42.800 I believe later on sometime in the late eighties. That's 1:10:42.800 --> 1:10:46.960 exactly what started going on there, which is tragic, but 1:10:47.160 --> 1:10:50.840 it was the idea of being in France, being about 1:10:50.880 --> 1:10:54.840 twenty miles from Paris and the middle of nowhere, all 1:10:54.920 --> 1:10:58.440 living together, you know, waking up, going down for breakfast, 1:10:58.960 --> 1:11:01.960 having a bit of baguet and some cheese and some coffee, 1:11:02.800 --> 1:11:06.759 and then starting to play. That's what it would be like. Literally, 1:11:06.800 --> 1:11:10.320 I would come down in the morning and Elton that 1:11:10.320 --> 1:11:13.280 would already be there sitting at an electric offender rose piano, 1:11:13.840 --> 1:11:17.120 playing away and obviously writing something, and I'd grab a 1:11:17.160 --> 1:11:19.200 baguette and a coffee and I wander over to where 1:11:19.200 --> 1:11:23.280 he was sit down, and I vividly remember him starting 1:11:23.320 --> 1:11:28.519 to write things like Honky Cat there and thinking, oh 1:11:28.600 --> 1:11:32.519 banjo straight away and late, you know, later in the day, 1:11:32.560 --> 1:11:34.640 would be working on something and he'd go, oh, this 1:11:34.720 --> 1:11:38.559 song called Salvation another wonderful deep Cup, which ended up 1:11:38.680 --> 1:11:41.919 being the first track that we actually recorded for those sessions. 1:11:42.680 --> 1:11:46.120 I remember the way he started Rocketman and we were 1:11:46.160 --> 1:11:48.880 looking at each other at this point, the four of us, 1:11:49.439 --> 1:11:56.719 and going, okay, this is really really special because during Rocketman, 1:11:56.800 --> 1:11:59.720 when we were mucking around with the basic idea for it. 1:12:00.400 --> 1:12:04.920 We'd start doing backgrounds. D and Nigellavy, we start owing 1:12:05.000 --> 1:12:10.120 and I and we've never sung before together, but straight 1:12:10.120 --> 1:12:12.320 away it sounded like, oh, okay, this is going to 1:12:12.400 --> 1:12:15.719 be fun, this is going to be really great. And again, 1:12:15.760 --> 1:12:21.760 because we were so self contained, Alton keyboards, Me on 1:12:21.960 --> 1:12:25.320 guitars and other strain instruments, Nigel and drums, and D 1:12:25.479 --> 1:12:29.080 on bass, and all of us on backgrounds, we didn't 1:12:29.120 --> 1:12:31.280 need anybody else. Because he didn't want to have a 1:12:31.760 --> 1:12:34.799 live I didn't want to have a livish orchestral sounding record. 1:12:35.000 --> 1:12:37.400 He wanted this one to be a band, to sound 1:12:37.520 --> 1:12:43.720 like a band, you know, And I think we achieved that. Okay, 1:12:43.760 --> 1:12:48.800 that's successful, and you're on the road. Meanwhile, now you're 1:12:48.840 --> 1:12:51.599 a member of the band. To what dig we are 1:12:51.600 --> 1:12:56.160 you saying I'm getting a steady paycheck, but maybe I'm 1:12:56.200 --> 1:13:04.559 missing out on other opportunities with other people? You mean? Yeah, Well, 1:13:04.560 --> 1:13:07.200 you know, Bob, here's the here's the kicker for the 1:13:07.240 --> 1:13:12.160 whole thing. Because as soon as we started doing this 1:13:14.320 --> 1:13:19.759 um honky Chateau, this first album, I mean, Madman Across 1:13:19.800 --> 1:13:21.920 the Water was already doing very well. It was starting 1:13:21.920 --> 1:13:24.040 to do stuff in the chart, so that was exciting 1:13:24.439 --> 1:13:28.640 knowing that there was something happening for when we went 1:13:28.680 --> 1:13:31.760 to the States. But Honky Chateau, we finished it in 1:13:31.760 --> 1:13:34.760 two weeks. It was all. It was done in two weeks, 1:13:34.840 --> 1:13:39.080 so straight away it was quite obvious, Okay, we're going 1:13:39.120 --> 1:13:41.360 to get back to London. We're going to do a 1:13:41.400 --> 1:13:44.559 concert at the Raw Festival Hall with our orchestra, so 1:13:44.600 --> 1:13:47.920 we're going to promote madmu Across the Water. We'll do 1:13:47.960 --> 1:13:50.880 it with you know, all the guys who played on 1:13:50.920 --> 1:13:56.680 the record, and then the second half will be the 1:13:56.720 --> 1:13:58.920 band set, no other way around. Band will do the 1:13:58.960 --> 1:14:02.320 first half set and we'll promote the new album. We'll 1:14:02.360 --> 1:14:05.120 play the new album live and the second half will 1:14:05.160 --> 1:14:08.559 be the orchestral set with the whole of Madness Across 1:14:08.560 --> 1:14:12.120 the Water and a few things from like your song, 1:14:12.640 --> 1:14:16.160 Border Song, Burned Down the Mission, you know all that 1:14:16.240 --> 1:14:21.400 kind of thing. So already there was this plan. We 1:14:21.400 --> 1:14:24.360 were on this train and nobody was getting off. It 1:14:24.439 --> 1:14:26.599 was like, this is what it's going to be. So 1:14:26.640 --> 1:14:29.519 we did the festival whole show, which was televised as well. 1:14:29.960 --> 1:14:32.280 I believe there's some kind of anniversary thing coming out 1:14:32.760 --> 1:14:37.240 around about now, about that we did. That show went 1:14:37.280 --> 1:14:41.400 off great, and a couple of weeks later, we're going 1:14:41.439 --> 1:14:44.040 off to America and I'm going there for my first time. 1:14:46.920 --> 1:14:49.920 Twenty year old kid going Okay, this is crazy. And 1:14:50.000 --> 1:14:53.679 I must admit at that point after the Festival Hall show, 1:14:53.720 --> 1:14:57.759 I was a little bit. I was a little bit unsure. 1:14:57.840 --> 1:15:00.120 In fact, I told Elton. I called Elton about for 1:15:00.200 --> 1:15:02.439 the gig and I said to him, look, you know what, 1:15:03.240 --> 1:15:07.280 I think you need a tried, intrude, you know, rock 1:15:07.360 --> 1:15:10.720 guitar player, because I don't know if I'm really into 1:15:10.720 --> 1:15:13.559 all this. Posing See, the band never told me. The 1:15:13.600 --> 1:15:15.679 other guy has never told me what is what their 1:15:15.720 --> 1:15:18.960 live show was like, so I had no parameters. I'd 1:15:18.960 --> 1:15:22.000 know nothing. I'd know, you know, no idea what to 1:15:22.040 --> 1:15:24.800 expect when we got on stage that first time. And 1:15:24.960 --> 1:15:27.439 not that it was that outrageous, but it was different. 1:15:28.080 --> 1:15:30.000 And I was coming into a scene that I was 1:15:30.160 --> 1:15:33.559 wholly unfamiliar with. You know, I was a little folk musician. 1:15:34.640 --> 1:15:36.680 Granted I'd played some good shit on the album and 1:15:36.880 --> 1:15:39.720 I was often running, but I had an awful lot 1:15:39.720 --> 1:15:42.799 to learn. So I was unsure. So I said to Welton, 1:15:42.880 --> 1:15:44.960 you know, I don't know if i'm your he said, 1:15:45.000 --> 1:15:48.280 you're the guy. He said, I know it. I knew 1:15:48.280 --> 1:15:50.000 it as soon as I met you, as soon as 1:15:50.000 --> 1:15:53.559 I heard you playing. I've you've done the first album. 1:15:53.640 --> 1:15:56.080 It sounds great. Let's just go with it. It's going 1:15:56.120 --> 1:15:59.160 to be cool, You're going to be fine, and so 1:15:59.760 --> 1:16:04.160 we went for it. Yeah, okay, Well let me ask 1:16:04.160 --> 1:16:09.799 you this. Famously, Bernie writes the lyrics, gives him to Elton. 1:16:10.160 --> 1:16:14.360 He comes up with the melody the song to what 1:16:14.600 --> 1:16:20.760 we were others involved, yourself included obviously. Do you mean 1:16:20.880 --> 1:16:27.840 during that writing Yeah, okay, during the writing process, we'd 1:16:27.880 --> 1:16:30.760 all be I mean, occasionally he'd be on his own 1:16:31.080 --> 1:16:33.920 and maybe he'd finished something and rushed through and say, guys, 1:16:33.920 --> 1:16:37.840 listen to this. But much of the time, in fact, 1:16:37.880 --> 1:16:42.280 most of the time, we'd be all sitting together, either 1:16:42.320 --> 1:16:44.639 in the breakfast room, where we had a little semi 1:16:44.720 --> 1:16:48.320 sarkle of instruments and so we could all play whenever 1:16:48.360 --> 1:16:53.400 we wanted, or in the studio, where he'd well, maybe 1:16:53.439 --> 1:16:56.080 we'd we'd go from the breakfast room over to the 1:16:56.160 --> 1:16:59.200 studio to record a track that we were happy with. 1:16:59.280 --> 1:17:02.320 Let's lay that down. And after we'd laid that down. 1:17:02.920 --> 1:17:06.640 He would say, Bernie got a Bernie wouldn't even be there. 1:17:06.680 --> 1:17:08.439 Most of the time, we just look at another lyric 1:17:08.479 --> 1:17:10.479 and go and put it up there on the piano. 1:17:10.880 --> 1:17:13.519 And he started fucking around. And we were just on 1:17:13.640 --> 1:17:16.080 the basic track for the for the first song, and 1:17:16.160 --> 1:17:19.640 he's already writing the second song. So I would be 1:17:19.680 --> 1:17:22.600 sitting next to him with an acoustic guitar, and I 1:17:22.800 --> 1:17:24.439 have a pad of paper with me, and I start, 1:17:24.520 --> 1:17:26.800 you know, sketching down a couple of chords. When I 1:17:26.800 --> 1:17:29.679 see where he's going with it. D would be plunking 1:17:29.720 --> 1:17:31.799 away in the background. We'd all would all be listening, 1:17:32.560 --> 1:17:35.000 so that by the time the song was actually written, 1:17:36.880 --> 1:17:40.360 we all felt invested in it because we were we 1:17:40.360 --> 1:17:42.960 were all there, and you know, occasionally there would be 1:17:42.960 --> 1:17:44.559 the odd thing of oh what about that instead of 1:17:44.560 --> 1:17:49.080 that or something, you know, but it was just like 1:17:49.160 --> 1:17:53.320 this machine that wouldn't stop. And Elton was on such 1:17:53.360 --> 1:17:58.760 a role which carried him on. Really. He went on 1:17:58.760 --> 1:18:03.599 this role for so many years where he was actually 1:18:03.640 --> 1:18:07.760 the song write up, no question about it. It wasn't 1:18:07.800 --> 1:18:10.120 until later on in the seventies when I started writing 1:18:10.160 --> 1:18:12.720 a few things with him and other people did and 1:18:12.760 --> 1:18:16.360 again in the eighties that he started. He was on 1:18:16.439 --> 1:18:18.559 such a role in such a thing for what he 1:18:18.640 --> 1:18:22.920 was doing. It's kind of like I think Leononan McCartney 1:18:23.000 --> 1:18:24.760 must have felt that way when they were writing their 1:18:25.439 --> 1:18:28.040 their you know, classic songs that that five or six 1:18:28.120 --> 1:18:31.120 year period. I often liken that. I mean not saying 1:18:31.120 --> 1:18:32.960 that we're the Beatles or anything. I'm just saying I 1:18:33.160 --> 1:18:37.400 liken it to that time when the creative creativity is 1:18:37.439 --> 1:18:40.320 so off the charts that you really have to hang 1:18:40.360 --> 1:18:43.760 in and pay attention to keep up. But on the 1:18:43.800 --> 1:18:46.240 good side of it, because you feel a part of it, 1:18:47.439 --> 1:18:51.040 you're totally invested all the way, you know, And that's 1:18:51.040 --> 1:18:52.960 what it was like. We were a band. Let me 1:18:53.000 --> 1:18:55.800 just put it that way, Bob, you were a band. Okay, 1:18:56.040 --> 1:19:00.599 fifty years later things are different. Did you ever say, hey, 1:19:00.640 --> 1:19:09.080 maybe I deserve credit the publishing. No um, because there 1:19:09.120 --> 1:19:11.480 have been a few songs where I have gotten publishing 1:19:13.520 --> 1:19:17.080 because I did care write several songs with him. I 1:19:17.120 --> 1:19:19.680 don't know, I reckon, I've written about a dozen with him, 1:19:20.200 --> 1:19:23.000 you know, proper compositions. Maybe maybe he's many as twenty. 1:19:23.040 --> 1:19:27.120 I've encountered them, to be honest, I often did toy 1:19:27.240 --> 1:19:33.240 with the fact that some of the bigger guitar driven hits, 1:19:34.400 --> 1:19:37.559 you know, I would think, m that's me all over there. 1:19:37.560 --> 1:19:39.920 There's not much else going on at that point, you know, 1:19:40.200 --> 1:19:42.800 and I would I would toy with the idea. But 1:19:42.880 --> 1:19:44.759 you know, I've got to tell you and all honestly, 1:19:45.680 --> 1:19:49.559 I've never my relationship without and there's never been about that. 1:19:49.600 --> 1:19:52.200 I would never go to him and say, yeah, what 1:19:52.320 --> 1:19:55.840 about my my guitar parts there, I've got to tell you, 1:19:55.840 --> 1:19:58.240 Bob and all honestly, I have seen so many bands 1:19:58.640 --> 1:20:02.880 break up because of that fact. Right there, people squabbling 1:20:02.920 --> 1:20:05.320 over well, that's my bit, so I should get a 1:20:05.360 --> 1:20:09.400 part of that or and that's my part. We were 1:20:09.400 --> 1:20:16.160 a band and didn't think. We didn't presume to jump 1:20:16.240 --> 1:20:19.760 on the train that most other many other bands have done. 1:20:20.680 --> 1:20:25.479 And you know, we stayed together for that reason, and 1:20:25.520 --> 1:20:29.880 I think that's very important. Okay, there is money involved. 1:20:30.360 --> 1:20:35.320 Who did you negotiate with from then to now over compensation? 1:20:38.600 --> 1:20:42.040 There's not been much negotiation allowed, to be totally honest 1:20:42.040 --> 1:20:45.120 with you, Back in the day, it was John Reid, 1:20:45.240 --> 1:20:49.880 and John's was a brilliant manager, absolutely brilliant and really 1:20:50.080 --> 1:20:54.120 made the whole thing happen. His exuberance and his understanding 1:20:54.160 --> 1:20:59.080 of rock and roll, his already his experience from working 1:20:59.080 --> 1:21:03.920 with Motown, and just his old knowledge and his gunghole attitude. 1:21:04.479 --> 1:21:07.920 That was the train that we were all on. And 1:21:08.080 --> 1:21:11.559 John was very fair. There was very There was a 1:21:11.600 --> 1:21:18.240 great deal of difficulty coming negotiation wise from Elton's proper 1:21:18.720 --> 1:21:21.920 manager of the whole thing, who was Dick James. It 1:21:21.960 --> 1:21:24.960 was quite some years before they could, you know, move 1:21:25.000 --> 1:21:28.320 out of that situation. So Dick had Elton locked up 1:21:28.360 --> 1:21:32.080 into a pretty tight situation. So that was the first 1:21:32.600 --> 1:21:37.600 thing that caused breakdowns if you like, or where we 1:21:37.600 --> 1:21:41.639 could never get certain things sorted out. When I started 1:21:41.640 --> 1:21:46.880 writing with Elton, when it became okay, Davy wrote this 1:21:46.920 --> 1:21:50.040 with Elton, there was never any issue. That's what it was, 1:21:50.600 --> 1:21:54.759 you know, Davy, Elton and Bernie, And as I said 1:21:54.960 --> 1:21:57.760 a little while ago, there's many many songs like that. 1:21:57.880 --> 1:22:02.320 So I'm certainly not going to pick bones about a 1:22:02.360 --> 1:22:05.920 couple of songs that have done me very well in 1:22:05.960 --> 1:22:09.360 my career that a lot of fans and guitar players 1:22:09.439 --> 1:22:13.679 have held me in great esteem for quite frankly, it's 1:22:13.680 --> 1:22:18.080 been worth it. To me to have the position that 1:22:18.200 --> 1:22:20.800 I still have after all these years, and that I 1:22:20.840 --> 1:22:24.720 still enjoy because quite frankly, Bob, I know too many 1:22:24.720 --> 1:22:28.240 bands that have broken up for bad attitudes, and you know, 1:22:29.400 --> 1:22:34.280 I'm fine put it that way, Okay, irrelevant of the songs, 1:22:34.280 --> 1:22:38.839 like you're on this final tour, how do they decide 1:22:38.840 --> 1:22:44.080 what you make? Well, that's become more of an issue 1:22:44.200 --> 1:22:51.400 of it's a band. It's Elton John is now a brand, 1:22:51.600 --> 1:22:55.920 not a band. It's now a brand. You must have 1:22:55.960 --> 1:23:00.759 seen that coming for several years. It's not a bunch 1:23:00.800 --> 1:23:06.200 of musicians anymore. It's a brand you have. You can 1:23:06.240 --> 1:23:10.640 now have Elton John Walmart glasses, you can have this. 1:23:10.920 --> 1:23:13.519 You can have Elton with a leaper, you can have 1:23:13.600 --> 1:23:19.639 Elton with um you know, various other artists. He doesn't 1:23:19.680 --> 1:23:25.840 always consider that his band is on a par with 1:23:25.880 --> 1:23:29.000 what he does, or at least his management don't. I'm 1:23:29.000 --> 1:23:31.280 pretty sure Elton feels the same way. When we are 1:23:31.360 --> 1:23:35.400 doing the Farewell tour, we're all on stage. It's just 1:23:35.439 --> 1:23:37.960 a band the same way as it ever was. You know. 1:23:38.000 --> 1:23:40.639 It's me and Nigel and Ray and Elton up there 1:23:40.800 --> 1:23:44.240 with the other guys doing our best you know. As 1:23:44.280 --> 1:23:47.880 far as the money aspect of it, we are. All 1:23:47.920 --> 1:23:51.200 I can tell you, Bob is that we're paid very 1:23:51.240 --> 1:24:02.439 well as musicians. Okay, let's go back. Conkey Chateau is 1:24:02.479 --> 1:24:05.800 a huge success. The next album is Don't Shoot Me. 1:24:05.840 --> 1:24:08.200 I'm only the piano player. You know, back when there 1:24:08.280 --> 1:24:13.160 was so much less information about musicians and music, I 1:24:13.360 --> 1:24:16.000 fame it and I read it all. I family remember 1:24:16.520 --> 1:24:20.000 Elton saying, oh, that album is a throwaway. When I 1:24:20.080 --> 1:24:24.599 love that album, tell me about making that album. I 1:24:24.640 --> 1:24:27.960 love Don't Shoot Me as well, because I stepped up. 1:24:28.400 --> 1:24:32.280 I gained more confidence as a rock guitar player by 1:24:32.280 --> 1:24:36.360 that point, and we had done a couple of tours. 1:24:38.240 --> 1:24:42.360 One of the things about the early days was recording 1:24:42.760 --> 1:24:48.720 tour album, tour, separate single, tour album. To you know, 1:24:48.800 --> 1:24:52.559 it was always we were working very rare. We were 1:24:52.600 --> 1:24:55.919 not working for that first five or six years, seriously. 1:24:57.160 --> 1:25:00.759 But Don't Shoot Me was especially fun for me. Also 1:25:01.000 --> 1:25:04.000 because I had bought a few guitars in America. I'd 1:25:04.040 --> 1:25:06.920 bought the less Ball. Actually, Elton gave me a Les 1:25:07.080 --> 1:25:09.599 Paul that I picked out for him on a tour. 1:25:10.000 --> 1:25:12.679 I picked out a Les Paul and the old Man's 1:25:12.760 --> 1:25:16.800 guitar shop that you might remember, of course, said he yeah, 1:25:16.840 --> 1:25:20.960 and he wanted a Les Paul and I said, well, 1:25:21.040 --> 1:25:23.200 see that one up on the pedestal up there, that's 1:25:23.240 --> 1:25:26.200 the one you should have. And he said okay. So 1:25:26.240 --> 1:25:29.760 I played it and he took it. And when I 1:25:29.840 --> 1:25:32.599 had some guitars on about a month later, he said 1:25:32.960 --> 1:25:36.240 take my Les bowl. So I was like, okay. So 1:25:36.320 --> 1:25:38.599 I was happy. I still have that guitar too, of course, 1:25:39.479 --> 1:25:42.120 but one second, tell me about the guitars getting stolen. 1:25:43.080 --> 1:25:47.519 Uh my god, Bob, what a nightmare? What a what 1:25:47.680 --> 1:25:52.200 a fucking nightmare. We were doing a tour of England 1:25:53.080 --> 1:25:56.720 and this was right before we recorded Don't Shoot Me 1:25:57.040 --> 1:26:01.120 and No Sorry. This was after Don't Shoot Me. This 1:26:01.200 --> 1:26:03.880 was after we recorded Don't Shoot Me. Sorry. I'm I'm 1:26:03.920 --> 1:26:05.800 getting a missing album. So do you want to tell 1:26:05.840 --> 1:26:07.920 the Shall I tell this story first? About this? No, 1:26:07.920 --> 1:26:11.559 I'll just keep going. I can follow you my audience. Yeah. 1:26:11.600 --> 1:26:14.439 So we've done a tour in Sheffield, so this would 1:26:14.439 --> 1:26:18.080 be late nineteen seventy two, winter of nineteen seventy two, 1:26:18.080 --> 1:26:22.679 after Don't Shoot Me and I band I have picked 1:26:22.760 --> 1:26:25.000 up a couple of guitars. In the States. I picked 1:26:25.080 --> 1:26:30.200 up also the third mandolin ever made by Fender, and 1:26:30.280 --> 1:26:34.479 it's an electric mandolin, and the serial number is zero 1:26:34.680 --> 1:26:40.160 zero zero zero three. And I treasure this little thing 1:26:40.160 --> 1:26:43.240 and it sounds killer on stage. I've never had electric 1:26:43.320 --> 1:26:49.240 mandolin before. It sounds amazing that one. I had another 1:26:49.240 --> 1:26:53.599 guitar that I bought in Nashville, which was a sixty sorry, 1:26:53.920 --> 1:26:58.520 a fifty eight les Paul gold Top with soapbar pickups. 1:26:59.320 --> 1:27:07.400 I adored this thing and it sounded incredible. D had 1:27:07.439 --> 1:27:11.880 two bases. I had also my my strat. I had 1:27:11.920 --> 1:27:15.160 another offender. I had a less special, one of those 1:27:15.200 --> 1:27:17.559 wonderful one pickup ones at Leslie West used to play. 1:27:19.080 --> 1:27:24.360 So Yeah. The truck driver without equipment decided he was 1:27:24.439 --> 1:27:28.040 tired one night, and after the show he pulled into 1:27:28.760 --> 1:27:33.719 like this part car park by this pub and locked 1:27:33.720 --> 1:27:36.280 the truck up and went to sleep. Came down in 1:27:36.320 --> 1:27:39.280 the morning and the whole truck had been stolen. They 1:27:39.320 --> 1:27:43.800 took the whole fucking truck and all these instruments were taken, 1:27:45.160 --> 1:27:48.680 and it was just horrible. My first experience of that, 1:27:48.960 --> 1:27:51.920 it didn't go well with me. It happened again in 1:27:51.960 --> 1:27:55.200 the future, but this time that it happened was like, Okay, 1:27:55.560 --> 1:27:57.560 I'm not going to be too much of a collector. 1:27:57.880 --> 1:28:02.720 I'm not gonna pick up really really wonderful ancient instruments 1:28:02.720 --> 1:28:06.040 because I'm scared of traveling with them and having them stolen. 1:28:07.600 --> 1:28:10.000 And I have great instruments still to this day. But 1:28:10.160 --> 1:28:13.360 that was a real setback, one that you learned to 1:28:13.920 --> 1:28:16.439 live back, to live with, you know, But okay, I 1:28:16.479 --> 1:28:20.559 didn't like it. Frampton famously got his guitar back decades later, 1:28:20.600 --> 1:28:23.680 although there was a plane crash involved, etc. Now with 1:28:23.800 --> 1:28:26.640 the internet, have you ever found the stuff that was 1:28:26.680 --> 1:28:31.880 stolen resurface? Wouldn't that be great? Because I promise I'll 1:28:31.920 --> 1:28:35.280 look at because along with that hall that they took, 1:28:36.280 --> 1:28:40.720 they also got an acoustic Gibson mandolin from you know, 1:28:40.880 --> 1:28:44.600 like early nineteen hundreds, like nineteen eight or something that 1:28:44.720 --> 1:28:48.920 was in the hall and it had my name on 1:28:48.960 --> 1:28:52.840 the flight case. Now ten years later, I'm doing a 1:28:52.880 --> 1:28:59.720 session in LA for Eddie what's his name? Who's Eddie? Who? Oh? 1:29:00.200 --> 1:29:03.639 How am I forgetting his name? Who produced Hendrix Nye 1:29:03.680 --> 1:29:07.559 Kremer and Hendrix Eddie Kramer? For god, I'm so sorry, Eddie. 1:29:07.800 --> 1:29:09.640 You're probably gonna hit me the next time I see you. 1:29:10.520 --> 1:29:14.200 And he said to me, oh, I'm working with this 1:29:14.320 --> 1:29:18.479 Polish band and they have one of your mandolins. And 1:29:18.520 --> 1:29:22.479 I'm what, what do you mean? He said, yeah, this 1:29:22.640 --> 1:29:25.920 Polish rock band. They've got you one of your mandolins. 1:29:25.960 --> 1:29:29.240 I saw your name on this flight case in get 1:29:29.360 --> 1:29:35.000 ask and I'm going no, so immediately I get people 1:29:35.000 --> 1:29:36.879 on it. And of course this is the early eighties, 1:29:37.680 --> 1:29:39.720 you know, cell phones are still not happening there and 1:29:39.720 --> 1:29:42.479 there's nothing like that. No, I can't run over there 1:29:42.640 --> 1:29:44.519 and nail it down all the rest of it. So 1:29:44.600 --> 1:29:46.800 I never did get it back, Bob. But I'm I'm 1:29:46.840 --> 1:29:49.200 looking at I have my sources, people who troll around 1:29:49.280 --> 1:29:51.840 looking for things, because I'm sure I'm going to see 1:29:51.840 --> 1:29:54.680 those a couple of those instruments again. As you say, 1:29:54.760 --> 1:29:58.400 with the internet, Spanish show up sometime. Okay, let's go 1:29:58.439 --> 1:30:04.759 back to Don't Shoot Me Right. What a great collection 1:30:04.800 --> 1:30:10.839 of songs on that record. Daniel was almost too easy 1:30:11.080 --> 1:30:14.559 to record because we were literally sitting around the piano. 1:30:15.320 --> 1:30:18.880 He wrote the song. The whole song start to finish 1:30:19.000 --> 1:30:23.559 in about twenty minutes, and let's cut it, okay, Gusta 1:30:23.720 --> 1:30:25.840 let's do it now. Okay, we did. We sat down, 1:30:26.640 --> 1:30:29.880 played it down once, fixed out a couple of things 1:30:29.880 --> 1:30:33.559 in the arrangement, played it again, and a third take 1:30:33.640 --> 1:30:35.599 we got it. We got the master. That was it. 1:30:35.600 --> 1:30:39.720 It was just beautiful, relaxed, laid back feel, and we 1:30:39.800 --> 1:30:44.799 just cut it live obviously electric piano, Elton singing live, vocal, 1:30:45.560 --> 1:30:51.559 drums and bass, and my acoustic guitar, and it just 1:30:51.840 --> 1:30:55.839 sounded so great when we heard it, and immediately everybody 1:30:55.880 --> 1:30:58.719 was going, single, that's got to be a single. It's 1:30:58.760 --> 1:31:02.280 just so singable and so cute and so beautiful. And 1:31:02.320 --> 1:31:04.280 then one of the things that I loved about this 1:31:04.320 --> 1:31:06.200 about Daniel when I think back to that track and 1:31:06.240 --> 1:31:09.000 the way we cut it, were the overdubs that we 1:31:09.040 --> 1:31:11.280 put on it because we kept it very, very sparse. 1:31:12.439 --> 1:31:15.760 But straight away we'd fallen in love with the melotron. 1:31:15.880 --> 1:31:19.839 I've always loved melotron flute sounds thanks to the Beatles. 1:31:20.320 --> 1:31:23.280 You know that wonderful Strawberry Fields sound at the beginning 1:31:23.280 --> 1:31:27.719 of that. I've always loved that sound. So I said, hey, Alton, 1:31:27.800 --> 1:31:29.760 you know what, we need a solo on this. Why 1:31:29.760 --> 1:31:32.759 don't you play a solo on melotron with that wonderful 1:31:32.760 --> 1:31:37.160 fluty sound. He did the solo and and the beginning 1:31:37.200 --> 1:31:38.720 of the track. He just threw in a little thing 1:31:38.720 --> 1:31:40.960 at the beginning of the track, and the first time 1:31:41.040 --> 1:31:43.839 we ran it through, he played it and that was it. 1:31:43.840 --> 1:31:47.040 It was done, and it was like, okay, well that 1:31:47.120 --> 1:31:52.160 was easy. So then I said, well, you know, the 1:31:52.280 --> 1:31:55.040 solo sounds so cool. It's got a great little melody 1:31:55.080 --> 1:31:58.080 that you composed on the spot. And I said, why 1:31:58.080 --> 1:32:01.400 don't we have a little bit of banjo playing mandolin 1:32:01.520 --> 1:32:04.120 style but way back in echo And Gus said, that 1:32:04.200 --> 1:32:06.240 sounds like a good idea. Let's do it. So we 1:32:06.520 --> 1:32:09.040 fucked with the marks and did our usual playing around 1:32:09.800 --> 1:32:14.040 and we have this wonderful banjo that people often wonder, 1:32:14.240 --> 1:32:19.360 what is that during the soul of Daniel? But yeah, 1:32:19.400 --> 1:32:22.200 it didn't even much. And one of the cool things 1:32:22.240 --> 1:32:26.040 about it was to get the vocal that Gus thought 1:32:26.040 --> 1:32:30.719 should be on that record. He walked out up one morning, 1:32:31.920 --> 1:32:33.800 because usually what we do is we do all the 1:32:33.880 --> 1:32:37.519 vocals at the end. We changed that, you know, as 1:32:37.560 --> 1:32:41.000 we as we progressed, and it probably was with Daniel. 1:32:41.800 --> 1:32:44.960 So Gus woke Elton up at seven thirty one morning 1:32:45.400 --> 1:32:47.280 and said, Elton, I want you to come and do 1:32:47.320 --> 1:32:50.839 that vocal and he was like, what, I've come fast asleep. 1:32:51.160 --> 1:32:52.479 He said, well, I just wanted you to do the 1:32:52.560 --> 1:32:54.600 vocal when you've kind of got a sleepy voice. He 1:32:54.640 --> 1:32:56.679 said that would be fucking easy because I'm half asleep. 1:32:57.320 --> 1:33:01.679 So Elton arrives the studio and Gus says, okay, let's 1:33:01.680 --> 1:33:04.080 just do a vocal on it. So's he's wrapped up 1:33:04.080 --> 1:33:07.200 in his fur coat and his shades, you know, and 1:33:07.280 --> 1:33:10.200 his headphones obviously, and to run the track and it 1:33:10.320 --> 1:33:13.599 sounds exactly like it should do. He's got that slightly 1:33:13.680 --> 1:33:19.040 husky sound about it, and that was the vocal we use. Okay, 1:33:19.080 --> 1:33:23.080 My two favorite tracks on that album are Teacher I 1:33:23.160 --> 1:33:26.599 Need You and Elderberry Wine. Any stories you can tell 1:33:26.600 --> 1:33:31.439 me about those two, Yeah, because actually another wonderful overdubbed 1:33:31.479 --> 1:33:33.439 story on Teacher I Need You, which I love too, 1:33:33.439 --> 1:33:36.000 by the way, and again it just showed the way 1:33:36.040 --> 1:33:39.080 that we were a band. I mean, it's just a 1:33:39.160 --> 1:33:42.760 band playing on that track and all the vocal the 1:33:42.800 --> 1:33:45.120 background vocals, which were a lot of fun to do. 1:33:45.720 --> 1:33:48.439 But on one of the overdubs there's that there's that 1:33:48.600 --> 1:33:55.120 wonderful teacher A teacher, Oh yeah, teacher. Well guests who 1:33:55.200 --> 1:34:00.920 played the buddom That was Elton Wow, because he had 1:34:00.960 --> 1:34:04.760 the idea for doing that overdub and said, well, why 1:34:04.760 --> 1:34:06.600 don't you fucking play it? You know what it is, 1:34:06.640 --> 1:34:08.599 do you just do it? He said, I'm not a drummer. 1:34:08.600 --> 1:34:11.360 I said, it doesn't matter. Anybody could do that. So 1:34:12.000 --> 1:34:14.879 we take one of Nigel's Tom's out to the studio 1:34:15.520 --> 1:34:18.120 and Elton did it. And I tell you something, Bob, 1:34:18.640 --> 1:34:23.160 I bet Alton doesn't even remember that. He'll probably hear 1:34:23.200 --> 1:34:26.080 this and he'll go, did I Because there's a lot 1:34:26.080 --> 1:34:30.040 of things that I do remember details, and that was 1:34:30.080 --> 1:34:32.160 one that I thought was so cool that he did 1:34:32.200 --> 1:34:36.200 that because it was such a fun song and very 1:34:36.280 --> 1:34:39.599 much inspired the whole record in fact, was very much 1:34:39.640 --> 1:34:43.120 inspired by Mark Boland because we were kind of in 1:34:43.240 --> 1:34:46.280 glam rock phase that then. You know, we were wearing 1:34:47.120 --> 1:34:50.959 Granny Takes the Trip clothes and you know, lyrics suits 1:34:51.040 --> 1:34:55.479 and platform shoes, the whole thing. We were all the 1:34:55.479 --> 1:34:58.320 way into that whole thing, very much in competition with 1:34:58.360 --> 1:35:02.360 the Bowie thing. Dave Barry was another friend, but also 1:35:02.680 --> 1:35:04.880 it was all new competition. All these records were coming 1:35:04.880 --> 1:35:07.200 out at the same time. You know, you'd get a 1:35:07.280 --> 1:35:09.439 t Rex song and one of ours and one of 1:35:09.520 --> 1:35:13.640 David's and it was just a wonderful time. And the 1:35:13.640 --> 1:35:15.680 other one you mentioned. The other song you mentioned was 1:35:15.680 --> 1:35:21.680 Elderberry Wine, which I love because it's so loose, and 1:35:21.760 --> 1:35:25.320 again very early take of the track, we decided it 1:35:25.479 --> 1:35:29.880 sun It's so cool for two reasons. I really loved 1:35:29.960 --> 1:35:33.519 that track. Two main reasons. One that we discovered what 1:35:33.640 --> 1:35:36.599 could happen with double track and the piano and then 1:35:37.080 --> 1:35:39.439 using the very speed turn it down so you got 1:35:39.479 --> 1:35:42.960 that wonderful you know, pub effect, pub pub piano effect, 1:35:43.240 --> 1:35:46.360 you know, which we went on obviously to use that 1:35:46.439 --> 1:35:48.519 on many other songs in the future. But it was 1:35:48.600 --> 1:35:52.080 Ken Scott who showed us that trick, and it did 1:35:52.240 --> 1:35:54.920 require to play the song. It wasn't like he just 1:35:54.960 --> 1:35:58.439 could take that track and somehow magically have it album. 1:35:58.479 --> 1:36:01.760 Had to play the part again. And so when we 1:36:01.800 --> 1:36:05.320 heard the sound, we all went, oh my god, because 1:36:05.360 --> 1:36:07.760 nobody'd ever heard that sound before on anything. It was 1:36:07.760 --> 1:36:10.680 the first time I'd ever been used. Like shit, we 1:36:10.760 --> 1:36:14.599 are actually innovators. Now we're doing a beatleshit. Here, you know. 1:36:15.160 --> 1:36:18.439 And the other thing was when the guitar parts came 1:36:18.479 --> 1:36:22.760 around for that song, because suddenly, when I double tracked 1:36:22.760 --> 1:36:25.000 the rhythm part and the little lines in there, they're 1:36:25.040 --> 1:36:29.240 all on one track, the same kind of shit started happening. 1:36:29.880 --> 1:36:32.120 We're going like, oh, that sounds a bit like George 1:36:32.520 --> 1:36:35.439 and I love what we're doing here. And and then 1:36:35.479 --> 1:36:41.559 it repeated itself on Midnight Creeper and again on the 1:36:41.760 --> 1:36:44.719 arpeggio things on Have Mercy on the Criminal. We started 1:36:44.720 --> 1:36:47.559 to use these double trackings in a way that I 1:36:47.600 --> 1:36:50.479 think the Beatles were using them kind of, and you'd 1:36:50.479 --> 1:36:52.719 get a slight out of tuneness that would that would 1:36:52.760 --> 1:36:56.920 just bring that sound that would made people just go, oh, fuck, 1:36:56.960 --> 1:37:00.200 I love this, And we did. We loved every thing 1:37:00.200 --> 1:37:03.640 we were doing. We're so excited about the process of 1:37:03.680 --> 1:37:06.960 the recording that we were just lost in that world. 1:37:07.560 --> 1:37:10.320 That was the joy of it. Since we're this deep 1:37:10.360 --> 1:37:17.360 into the album Crocodile Rock, what fun that was to do, Bob, 1:37:17.439 --> 1:37:20.160 I mean, what great fun and what a great little track. 1:37:20.560 --> 1:37:23.200 And you know, ballocks to all the people who said, oh, 1:37:23.320 --> 1:37:26.840 he's just doing this this thing, and you know, that's 1:37:26.840 --> 1:37:29.599 a really cool little track. If people think the time 1:37:29.640 --> 1:37:33.760 to listen to it. It's a brilliant track, great work 1:37:33.800 --> 1:37:36.360 by Gus because the idea was we wanted to do 1:37:36.400 --> 1:37:38.680 a little bit of a rock and roll tribute but 1:37:38.800 --> 1:37:41.439 also a bit of a send up, hence my kind 1:37:41.439 --> 1:37:45.800 of ventures shadows type and Dwayne Eddie takes on that. 1:37:45.920 --> 1:37:48.280 There's about eight tracks of guitar and now all doing 1:37:48.280 --> 1:37:51.880 different things because we wanted that to give, you know, 1:37:51.960 --> 1:37:56.120 to show our love of rock and roll. And obviously 1:37:56.200 --> 1:38:00.960 the la la la la la la rich Alton did 1:38:01.040 --> 1:38:05.240 and you know what a cool little song. And I 1:38:05.320 --> 1:38:07.920 think who was it tried to sue us. I think 1:38:07.960 --> 1:38:09.880 it was Pat Boone or somebody tried to sue us 1:38:09.880 --> 1:38:13.000 on the track said it was Speedy Gonzalez or something. 1:38:13.040 --> 1:38:16.599 It's like, oh, please get a life, you know, but um, 1:38:17.160 --> 1:38:20.120 great fun. We weren't doing anything. At least people were 1:38:20.160 --> 1:38:22.200 talking about us, and I think that's something we had 1:38:22.240 --> 1:38:24.839 to realize. You know what, we're going to get this. 1:38:24.840 --> 1:38:27.120 This is going to happen now because people are buying 1:38:27.120 --> 1:38:29.360 our records and a lot of people are are listening. 1:38:29.400 --> 1:38:34.400 So that's a good thing. Okay, Next comes Goodbye Yellow 1:38:34.439 --> 1:38:43.040 Brick Road. When does it become a double album, Okay, 1:38:43.840 --> 1:38:49.240 I believe. Actually it was quite early on. I want 1:38:49.240 --> 1:38:52.920 to say the idea was already in the back of 1:38:52.960 --> 1:38:57.800 their minds because of the success of Punky Chateau and 1:38:57.800 --> 1:39:01.040 Don't Shoot Me Massive, and then again of course, now 1:39:01.160 --> 1:39:03.840 the Black Catalog is started to sell. The live album 1:39:04.000 --> 1:39:06.679 is suddenly a hit, so is the Elton John album, 1:39:06.720 --> 1:39:11.639 and it's all starting to sell. So they're obviously thinking, 1:39:11.840 --> 1:39:13.800 all right, we've done this. We've done a live album, 1:39:13.800 --> 1:39:16.680 we've done this, we've done orchestra done it. We'll have 1:39:16.720 --> 1:39:18.680 to do a double album. So I know there was 1:39:18.720 --> 1:39:22.160 talk of doing it, and I even remember a working 1:39:22.200 --> 1:39:32.680 title of silent film talking Pictures. Wow, that was the 1:39:32.720 --> 1:39:37.200 working idea for the thing. Anyway, we're in the Chateau 1:39:37.240 --> 1:39:41.360 and we have, as usual, we have so many songs 1:39:41.360 --> 1:39:47.240 as a lot of songs. By the way, Elton usually 1:39:47.479 --> 1:39:50.280 refers to yellow Rick Rhode is what's Davy going to 1:39:50.360 --> 1:39:54.040 play on this one? Because it's just it's just so 1:39:54.400 --> 1:39:58.519 guitar heavy, which I love because we we we employed 1:39:58.600 --> 1:40:01.640 so many different sounds, ideas and whatever, and it was 1:40:01.680 --> 1:40:04.080 just so much fun for me and for everybody because 1:40:04.080 --> 1:40:08.559 we were all getting off on it, but there was many, 1:40:08.600 --> 1:40:13.920 many songs and the idea of doing an opening track 1:40:14.040 --> 1:40:16.840 that was going to be something majestic and had an 1:40:16.840 --> 1:40:21.439 instrumental We knew that's what we wanted to do. So 1:40:22.160 --> 1:40:25.479 Elton wrote the first part the piece, and I don't 1:40:25.520 --> 1:40:27.720 mean I don't mean the synthesize of piece. That was 1:40:27.760 --> 1:40:31.160 all done after by David Henschel when we decided we 1:40:31.240 --> 1:40:34.439 need something at the very beginning before the band comes 1:40:34.479 --> 1:40:40.640 in with the slow movement, and so Elton and I 1:40:40.920 --> 1:40:45.800 Indian agel we knew what it was. We'd already Elton 1:40:45.840 --> 1:40:48.720 had already written love Lives fitting I had worked out 1:40:48.760 --> 1:40:51.040 my guitar parts what I thought they should be on 1:40:51.080 --> 1:40:54.680 that song. And we did the whole thing from the 1:40:54.680 --> 1:40:57.000 beginning of the quiet part of Funeral for a Friend 1:40:57.439 --> 1:41:00.320 all the way to the end the basic track, so 1:41:00.400 --> 1:41:04.599 there wasn't any gaps in it. And that's a long time. 1:41:04.680 --> 1:41:07.120 That's got to be I don't know, nine minutes, something 1:41:07.160 --> 1:41:09.639 like that, eight or nine minutes. I'm not sure how 1:41:09.640 --> 1:41:14.599 long it is. But it was so exciting because you know, 1:41:15.240 --> 1:41:17.320 we've always liked the red light in the studio. When 1:41:17.360 --> 1:41:19.880 the red light goes on that's like religion. You're in 1:41:19.920 --> 1:41:22.920 the studio, shut the fuck up. But of course we're 1:41:22.920 --> 1:41:28.000 just about to start funeral for a friend, the most quiet, delicate, haunting, 1:41:28.040 --> 1:41:30.720 beautiful thing, and Ellen's by the plan of and I 1:41:30.720 --> 1:41:36.559 can hear Alton going one, two, three and instead of four, 1:41:38.320 --> 1:41:42.960 and we just all completely fall about and there was 1:41:42.960 --> 1:41:47.160 this wonderful far and obviously the tension was so but 1:41:47.320 --> 1:41:49.640 as soon as he let that go and it's we 1:41:49.760 --> 1:41:52.479 have a tape of it somewhere, it broke the tension 1:41:52.520 --> 1:41:53.960 and we all kind of relaxed a bit and we 1:41:54.200 --> 1:41:57.040 stopped laughing, and then we started again and did the 1:41:57.040 --> 1:42:01.760 whole thing through. And then as is my one, I 1:42:01.840 --> 1:42:08.480 started the over dubbing guitars and went pretty crazy on 1:42:08.479 --> 1:42:12.640 on that whole thing too. And you know, it was 1:42:12.720 --> 1:42:16.920 great because you have a song that lyrically, musically is 1:42:16.960 --> 1:42:19.760 already done. You know what's coming up. So we were 1:42:19.800 --> 1:42:23.679 already having ideas about where we would do background vocals, 1:42:23.680 --> 1:42:25.840 where we would do this, what we might add at 1:42:25.880 --> 1:42:31.559 specific points and the song, and nobody really was was 1:42:31.600 --> 1:42:34.559 telling us do this or do that, because it was 1:42:34.640 --> 1:42:38.479 only gossip was obviously there and not being a musician 1:42:38.520 --> 1:42:44.800 that wonderful ideas person and greater interpreting your ideas. But 1:42:44.960 --> 1:42:47.240 nobody was telling us anything. So it was us doing 1:42:47.240 --> 1:42:51.120 exactly what we thought would be right when when we 1:42:51.120 --> 1:42:55.840 were doing it, okay, you know this was about it. Really. 1:42:55.840 --> 1:42:58.400 A couple of years later it became standard de camp 1:42:58.560 --> 1:43:02.960 vocals and a punch in. Well, you guys conscious of that, 1:43:03.080 --> 1:43:05.479 or you say leave the mistakes in or what was 1:43:05.520 --> 1:43:12.479 the philosophy? Um there was in the days that we started. 1:43:12.520 --> 1:43:16.400 It was more a question of punch ins. Because Alton's 1:43:16.439 --> 1:43:19.360 vocals were always so good. There was never a question 1:43:19.360 --> 1:43:21.640 of having to do well. You know, we didn't think 1:43:21.640 --> 1:43:23.439 about it because it wasn't the way that we worked. 1:43:23.680 --> 1:43:26.599 As you mentioned, it happened a little bit later on. 1:43:27.160 --> 1:43:30.000 I don't say Elton's vocals was so great. I remember 1:43:30.080 --> 1:43:33.719 him saying to me one time round about the Yellow 1:43:33.720 --> 1:43:36.040 Brick Road period. Oh my god, he said, I hate 1:43:36.080 --> 1:43:39.479 my vocals on on mad Man across the Water. They 1:43:39.600 --> 1:43:43.120 drive me fucking crazy. And I'm going what I said, 1:43:43.160 --> 1:43:46.760 They're so amazing because they're so young, they're so you 1:43:47.680 --> 1:43:51.439 they're just unbelievable. They're vulnerable, but they have that sound. 1:43:51.960 --> 1:43:58.240 That's why people like you man, So so we carry 1:43:58.240 --> 1:44:01.519 on with all that, and really the comping thing didn't 1:44:01.640 --> 1:44:05.479 really start to happen until the early eighties when we 1:44:05.520 --> 1:44:08.439 did the Chris Thomas records, because he had already started 1:44:08.479 --> 1:44:13.720 working that way with Chrissy Hyend and Pete Townsend on 1:44:13.760 --> 1:44:16.800 his solo album and stuff like that. So Chris was 1:44:16.960 --> 1:44:19.400 versed in that and Alton wasn't. He thought that was 1:44:19.439 --> 1:44:21.640 a great idea. Why not? And he still did a 1:44:21.640 --> 1:44:23.439 couple of vocals where most of it he had and 1:44:23.479 --> 1:44:27.040 they just do a quick comp to get certain things 1:44:27.080 --> 1:44:31.960 here and there. But um, I've most of the things 1:44:31.960 --> 1:44:34.560 that I've been experienced when I've experienced Alton doing a 1:44:34.640 --> 1:44:39.120 vocal bar one when need to don the Sun go 1:44:39.160 --> 1:44:42.320 down to me? That was an interesting one. Well that 1:44:42.439 --> 1:44:45.840 was nineteen seventy three. But he threw the wobbler of 1:44:45.840 --> 1:44:50.200 all time during that vocal m He literally was so 1:44:50.360 --> 1:44:54.400 frustrated and kept thinking that it sounded like shit that 1:44:54.439 --> 1:44:57.960 he it was like, fuck, bas I don't want to 1:44:58.000 --> 1:45:00.720 do this anymore. Said it to Anger Hunk, and if 1:45:00.800 --> 1:45:03.720 j doesn't like it, said it to Lulu and we 1:45:03.720 --> 1:45:05.600 were cracking up, obviously because it was funny what he 1:45:05.640 --> 1:45:07.760 was saying, I mean, he's very funny guys, you know, 1:45:08.360 --> 1:45:12.080 And he wasn't laughing. He was deadly serious. He said, 1:45:12.160 --> 1:45:14.800 I hate this. I don't want if this vocal goes 1:45:14.840 --> 1:45:17.479 on the album, I'm gonna fire everybody. I mean. It 1:45:17.640 --> 1:45:19.799 was one of they say, you know. And of course 1:45:20.439 --> 1:45:21.840 when he heard it the next day, it was like, oh, 1:45:21.840 --> 1:45:25.720 that sounds pretty good. And you know, but for the 1:45:25.800 --> 1:45:30.920 most part, doing vocals with Elton or a pleasure because 1:45:30.920 --> 1:45:34.000 he is so good, I mean live, I never hear 1:45:34.080 --> 1:45:37.800 him sing outitude an ever period. Okay, let's stay with 1:45:37.840 --> 1:45:41.519 the album. You mentioned earlier All the Young Girls Love Alice. 1:45:41.680 --> 1:45:43.799 That happens to be my favorite song on the album, 1:45:43.800 --> 1:45:45.680 which people tend out to talk about but you were 1:45:45.760 --> 1:45:47.760 doing for a while, but fare Well tour, tell me 1:45:47.800 --> 1:45:52.800 about that track. Well, that was just a riot to do. 1:45:54.000 --> 1:45:58.160 Again in our in our beatlesque way of working that 1:45:58.240 --> 1:46:01.679 we developed, we were just into furthering all these different 1:46:01.720 --> 1:46:04.320 sounds and having fun doing what we wanted to do 1:46:04.360 --> 1:46:08.759 and making up different sounds. When Elton had written Alice, 1:46:08.800 --> 1:46:11.280 we loved the song straight away and I had this 1:46:11.520 --> 1:46:17.439 idea around the riff that actually the riff was his 1:46:17.880 --> 1:46:21.280 piano riff. I didn't invent the riff, the actual damped 1:46:21.320 --> 1:46:26.600 vamp little dirt. It's actually a piano lick, God bless him. 1:46:26.120 --> 1:46:28.400 And I learned to on guitar and double it and 1:46:28.400 --> 1:46:30.800 it was sounding great. And then I thought, oh, what 1:46:30.920 --> 1:46:33.080 about if I used my Uni vibe on this, which 1:46:33.120 --> 1:46:36.680 is a really cool pedal in those days where if 1:46:36.720 --> 1:46:41.400 you floored the pedal it had this wonderful super wobble 1:46:41.439 --> 1:46:46.000 effect like a fast Leslie cabinet or something wonderful hairy sound. 1:46:46.400 --> 1:46:48.439 And I just added a bunch of crunch to it 1:46:49.200 --> 1:46:53.400 through my own amplifier and used my volume pedal then 1:46:53.479 --> 1:46:56.160 to bring the whole thing in out of nowhere, so 1:46:56.240 --> 1:47:03.360 you don't hear anything until you hear this good invitation. Well, 1:47:03.360 --> 1:47:08.519 I've been doing it for fifty years. But it was 1:47:08.680 --> 1:47:10.519 such a blast to do because as soon as people 1:47:10.640 --> 1:47:12.600 heard that, it was like, oh fuck, we love this. 1:47:13.280 --> 1:47:15.400 And of course I double tracked it just to be 1:47:15.439 --> 1:47:19.920 a show off. And yeah, it was just a riot, Bob, 1:47:19.960 --> 1:47:24.519 because to have that much fun, it's almost not fair. 1:47:24.680 --> 1:47:27.479 It shouldn't be allowed. You know. We were having so 1:47:27.560 --> 1:47:32.479 much fun, you know, and it was serious work. We 1:47:32.560 --> 1:47:35.040 knew that and we knew it had to be great 1:47:35.080 --> 1:47:37.240 whatever it is what we do. But we were going 1:47:37.240 --> 1:47:41.320 through this phase of it seemed like almost everything he 1:47:41.400 --> 1:47:45.000 wrote and that we recorded together and the way that 1:47:45.040 --> 1:47:48.360 we orchestrated things, we had this magic thing that was 1:47:48.400 --> 1:47:52.360 going on that people loved. And I've heard so many 1:47:52.360 --> 1:47:54.479 people talk about all the young Girls Love Alice and 1:47:55.439 --> 1:48:00.920 like you, many people think that that is just such 1:48:00.960 --> 1:48:03.960 a classic album, which whit is. But getting back to 1:48:04.000 --> 1:48:09.200 what you said earlier, because of the amount of good 1:48:09.240 --> 1:48:12.600 songs that were coming up, there were no songs that 1:48:12.640 --> 1:48:15.040 we were recording that were sounding like B sides. For example, 1:48:16.160 --> 1:48:18.320 usually when you're recording something, you have a few extra 1:48:18.360 --> 1:48:20.799 tracks and Okay, that'll be a B side or whatever. 1:48:21.760 --> 1:48:24.920 Nothing sounded like a B side on good By Yellowick Road. 1:48:26.479 --> 1:48:32.800 So suddenly we had like fifteen sixteen tracks and we're going, well, Gus, 1:48:33.080 --> 1:48:34.760 we're going it's got to be a double album then, 1:48:35.400 --> 1:48:37.400 because now the first track on the album is going 1:48:37.439 --> 1:48:39.920 to be half of the first side, so it's going 1:48:39.960 --> 1:48:42.720 to have to be a double album. So that's when 1:48:42.720 --> 1:48:46.200 it all became that's the target, and that's when the 1:48:46.280 --> 1:48:51.400 running order became important. And Gus is actually a wizard 1:48:51.400 --> 1:48:55.360 at that. He's great at doing sequencing a record, and 1:48:56.920 --> 1:48:58.680 we knew what the beginning was going to be, but 1:48:59.000 --> 1:49:01.240 we let him go with the rest of the sequence 1:49:01.280 --> 1:49:06.599 sing pretty much and what about Saturday Nights all right? Well, 1:49:06.640 --> 1:49:10.560 we knew that was going to probably, you know, annihilate 1:49:10.640 --> 1:49:14.040 some people because of its aggression and the whole thing. 1:49:14.160 --> 1:49:17.479 And wow, what fun that was for me to do 1:49:18.760 --> 1:49:22.800 because on the basic track of that one, again it 1:49:22.880 --> 1:49:26.439 was we had tried it to record that previously. The 1:49:26.479 --> 1:49:29.679 song had been around for quite a while. He wrote 1:49:29.680 --> 1:49:33.000 it back in when we tried to do an album 1:49:33.000 --> 1:49:37.400 in Jamaica, and for one reason or another it didn't 1:49:37.400 --> 1:49:39.320 pay off. I mean, the main reason was the studio 1:49:40.120 --> 1:49:42.880 was just not possible. It just didn't have the ship 1:49:43.000 --> 1:49:45.080 we needed to do a record down there. It was 1:49:45.120 --> 1:49:48.160 just what it was. So we went back to the chateau. 1:49:48.880 --> 1:49:50.760 So we knew the song in our head and I 1:49:50.800 --> 1:49:53.320 already had an idea of about some intro parts and 1:49:53.560 --> 1:49:57.240 how I would do, how would approach it. And Alton 1:49:57.400 --> 1:50:01.400 was really Adam meant that there would be no piano 1:50:01.479 --> 1:50:03.920 on it. He just loved what I was doing so much. 1:50:03.920 --> 1:50:06.479 He said, I just want you to keep going. I 1:50:06.520 --> 1:50:10.360 had another guitar at, another one out, another one. So 1:50:10.520 --> 1:50:14.920 being a guitar player, as you probably saw, apart from 1:50:14.960 --> 1:50:18.040 the bassic guitar, all the way through, suddenly there was like, 1:50:18.600 --> 1:50:21.439 I think eight guitars on the intro, but by the 1:50:21.479 --> 1:50:24.519 time we got to the solo section, there's like ten guitars, 1:50:25.040 --> 1:50:27.800 and on the second half of the guitar solo there's 1:50:27.840 --> 1:50:32.080 twelve guitars totally rocking out, all maxed out, you know. 1:50:33.720 --> 1:50:36.120 In fact, one of the biggest sounds I got guitar 1:50:36.200 --> 1:50:40.840 wise came from a little Fender Champ amplifier that many 1:50:40.840 --> 1:50:43.680 people use as a practice amp. Well. I found that 1:50:44.240 --> 1:50:48.360 by turning everything up to hell obviously and turning your 1:50:48.360 --> 1:50:50.840 guitar up to hell, and then you got the sound 1:50:50.880 --> 1:50:55.120 from Monster sound. I found out later that that's the 1:50:55.160 --> 1:50:59.559 sound that John used John Lennon used on Revolution. I 1:50:59.680 --> 1:51:03.040 found out when we were chatting one day about guitars, 1:51:03.760 --> 1:51:06.240 and I was like, really, is it does I can 1:51:06.280 --> 1:51:08.760 get it now because it's such an in your face 1:51:08.840 --> 1:51:12.240 sound and it's so distorted it makes sense, you know. 1:51:13.600 --> 1:51:15.600 So yeah, I had the best time with doing it, 1:51:15.680 --> 1:51:18.519 and after i'd kind of done with all my guitar parts, 1:51:19.160 --> 1:51:21.400 and then the slight part at the end of the solo. 1:51:23.080 --> 1:51:25.679 I said, you gotta play piano on this. You got 1:51:25.720 --> 1:51:29.280 you gotta do. Jerey Lewis, you gotta do Little Richard, 1:51:29.400 --> 1:51:33.920 you know, do you somewhere on the track. So when 1:51:33.920 --> 1:51:36.680 the pack piano first comes in at the beginning of 1:51:36.680 --> 1:51:39.960 the chorus, it's not in for the first two verses. Obviously, 1:51:40.160 --> 1:51:43.080 the first part of the song. It comes in that lisando. 1:51:43.160 --> 1:51:45.600 As it comes in, it's like, all right, it's a 1:51:45.680 --> 1:51:50.320 Nott John song. And then it really makes sense. But 1:51:50.400 --> 1:51:54.280 it was such fun to record. And he always talks 1:51:54.280 --> 1:51:56.559 about him dancing around the studio when we were cutting 1:51:56.600 --> 1:51:59.280 the track, and it's true he did. He had a long, 1:51:59.320 --> 1:52:02.760 long micro phone chord because nothing was wireless in those days, 1:52:03.200 --> 1:52:06.080 and he was right, you know, jumping over instruments and 1:52:06.160 --> 1:52:09.840 amplifiers and cabinets and come on, you fuckers. He was 1:52:09.880 --> 1:52:14.599 shutting recording this track. But it all worked. You know, 1:52:15.160 --> 1:52:17.679 the aggression certainly paid off on that track. It comes 1:52:17.680 --> 1:52:20.240 out you know what that is as soon as it starts, 1:52:20.880 --> 1:52:25.160 and again, you know, we played the shit out of 1:52:25.160 --> 1:52:29.120 that and thanks to Gus and the engineers and the 1:52:29.160 --> 1:52:31.599 way that we were working at that point. We were 1:52:31.640 --> 1:52:34.680 just doing whatever, and everything was on hell. You know, 1:52:35.000 --> 1:52:38.639 all the settings were on hell. So the next album 1:52:38.800 --> 1:52:42.680 is Cariboo. Cut it the Ranch and niter Land, Colorado 1:52:42.720 --> 1:52:45.639 with a high altitude. How did you end up cutting there? 1:52:45.960 --> 1:52:50.960 And what was it like with the altitude, etc. Bob, 1:52:51.000 --> 1:52:52.720 you know what, you asked the best questions. I knew 1:52:52.720 --> 1:52:56.280 this would be a long chat we have today. Caribou. 1:52:57.560 --> 1:53:00.599 The plan to go there was because simply we'd run 1:53:00.640 --> 1:53:05.479 out of residential places and the chateau was getting old. 1:53:06.080 --> 1:53:08.479 As we mentioned, it was starting to get a bit 1:53:08.560 --> 1:53:11.080 rough around the edges. We just wanted somewhere a bit different. 1:53:11.400 --> 1:53:14.240 We tried Jamaica. It was a kind of a letdown. 1:53:15.240 --> 1:53:19.520 We'd heard about Carbo Ranch because of Joe Walsh's album Barnstorm, 1:53:19.520 --> 1:53:22.400 and I'm a huge Joe Waltz fan and a buddy 1:53:22.400 --> 1:53:24.639 of Joe, and I adore him. He's just a great, 1:53:24.680 --> 1:53:28.040 great player and a great man. And we heard that 1:53:28.120 --> 1:53:32.320 album and me and especially me and Elton were just like, 1:53:32.479 --> 1:53:35.080 oh my god, listen to these silence, listen to the 1:53:35.080 --> 1:53:37.960 guitar sounds, you know. So we decided to go to 1:53:38.000 --> 1:53:40.400 Carbo because it was a great sounding studio. What came 1:53:40.439 --> 1:53:43.120 out of there sounding great. So we made the trip 1:53:43.280 --> 1:53:45.760 in January, that's our usual time to go and make 1:53:45.800 --> 1:53:49.200 a new album. That became our time, and off we 1:53:49.280 --> 1:53:52.040 went January, not knowing how fucking cold it was going 1:53:52.080 --> 1:53:56.559 to be there and snowbound. It was amazing beautiful, and 1:53:56.600 --> 1:54:01.720 we each had a log cabin to stay in, wonderful 1:54:02.120 --> 1:54:08.200 beautiful log cabins, beautifully, you know, with um brass beds 1:54:08.240 --> 1:54:13.839 and wonderful quilts and weighing nicer than the chateau. Luckily, 1:54:13.920 --> 1:54:17.519 lots of snow gear, and there was snow plows up there. 1:54:17.920 --> 1:54:20.719 In fact, the first day I arrived, I went looking 1:54:20.720 --> 1:54:23.360 and walking around the property and ran into this guy 1:54:23.840 --> 1:54:26.719 working on a snow plow, and it was Terry Cath 1:54:26.960 --> 1:54:32.440 from Chicago, and we right and we became great friends 1:54:32.640 --> 1:54:37.680 there and then, and it was just it took a 1:54:37.720 --> 1:54:39.920 couple of days to get used to the studio there 1:54:40.520 --> 1:54:43.400 because it was so different. There was no windows in it, 1:54:43.920 --> 1:54:45.800 even though and it was a very large. The thing 1:54:45.840 --> 1:54:48.200 about the chateau that was so special was that had 1:54:48.240 --> 1:54:52.000 these floors ceiling windows and because you know, obviously giant 1:54:52.120 --> 1:54:57.240 double thick windows because in the country, no, we didn't 1:54:57.280 --> 1:54:59.200 have sound to really worry about. There was no other 1:54:59.320 --> 1:55:03.360 outdoor sound. But Cariboo had no windows, so we were 1:55:03.400 --> 1:55:07.240 back to that kind of a little bit claustrophobic studio vibe. 1:55:07.800 --> 1:55:11.200 But it was a big room so that was okay. 1:55:11.800 --> 1:55:15.800 The altitude really fucked with us straight away. We all 1:55:15.840 --> 1:55:18.160 got kind of headaches and stuff and found that we 1:55:18.200 --> 1:55:20.960 had to take aspir in the morning or something like that. 1:55:22.080 --> 1:55:24.839 Nigel got hooked on oxygen. We all kind of did, actually, 1:55:25.120 --> 1:55:27.560 but Nigel still has it on stage these days. That's 1:55:27.560 --> 1:55:32.080 from Cariboo Ranch, believe it or not. And we found, 1:55:32.760 --> 1:55:38.520 to our surprise that Elton was singing about another ton 1:55:38.600 --> 1:55:41.800 and a half higher than he usually does, so that 1:55:41.880 --> 1:55:46.600 when you listen to the songs of Caribou and Captain Fantastic, 1:55:46.600 --> 1:55:49.760 which we recorded there also and the following album, he's 1:55:49.800 --> 1:55:54.480 singing so high. It was very difficult for us to 1:55:55.640 --> 1:55:59.960 reproduce that, you know, after the mid eighties, because he 1:56:00.000 --> 1:56:02.040 couldn't sing that high anymore. He was done after his 1:56:02.560 --> 1:56:05.600 throat issues. He couldn't get up there, so we had 1:56:05.640 --> 1:56:09.320 to eventually scale everything down. So going back to that, 1:56:11.200 --> 1:56:16.080 his vocals were wonderful, but incredibly high. You know, everything 1:56:16.120 --> 1:56:18.160 was pitched really high. You might notice that the next 1:56:18.160 --> 1:56:21.960 time you hear a track from that album. We loved 1:56:22.000 --> 1:56:25.440 working there because we suddenly we made our own. The 1:56:25.440 --> 1:56:28.040 only difference is we didn't have like a little breakfast 1:56:28.080 --> 1:56:31.400 practice room. Everything was in the studio, So we just 1:56:31.480 --> 1:56:34.360 have our breakfast in the lodge, all hang out there, 1:56:34.480 --> 1:56:37.520 do our thing, go for a snowmobile, have a ride 1:56:37.520 --> 1:56:39.839 and a horse, you know, do whatever you know, and 1:56:39.880 --> 1:56:46.160 then go to the studio and start writing recording. There's 1:56:46.160 --> 1:56:49.560 a track on there called on the first Caribou album 1:56:49.920 --> 1:56:54.760 called I've Seen the Saucers, which is a very very 1:56:54.760 --> 1:56:57.000 interesting song. I've always thought it was a it's a 1:56:57.040 --> 1:57:00.200 great deep cut, but the one that not a lot 1:57:00.200 --> 1:57:03.040 of another fans have really paid much attention to. I 1:57:03.040 --> 1:57:05.640 don't think, but I really think it's quirky and a 1:57:05.720 --> 1:57:09.320 lot a lot of fun. For that track, Ray Cooper 1:57:09.360 --> 1:57:14.280 had the idea of using a water gong on it. Now, 1:57:16.080 --> 1:57:18.240 Ray when he does things, he didn't never do anything 1:57:18.280 --> 1:57:24.760 by halves. So Ray's gone was I don't know, ten 1:57:24.840 --> 1:57:28.680 feet in diameter, and we had we've had that in 1:57:28.720 --> 1:57:30.800 the studio It was hard enough getting in the studio. 1:57:32.080 --> 1:57:34.600 Then we had to find a tank big enough to 1:57:34.760 --> 1:57:37.680 drop the water going into because that's the idea. You 1:57:37.760 --> 1:57:40.560 hold the gong suspended above the water and then you 1:57:40.640 --> 1:57:44.240 slowly drop it in. So it goes from this gone 1:57:45.960 --> 1:57:49.520 right the support studio. We almost drowned the studio. We 1:57:49.520 --> 1:57:54.280 almost ruined it with and mold and shit. So but 1:57:54.360 --> 1:57:56.840 the sound was great. The sound was great on that track. 1:57:56.880 --> 1:57:58.920 So the next time you hear it, listen for the 1:57:58.960 --> 1:58:05.879 water Gone okay and the Bitch's Back. Bitch's Back was special, 1:58:06.800 --> 1:58:10.040 um because we wanted to do it was obviously going 1:58:10.080 --> 1:58:12.800 to be a rock track, and Elton wrote it very 1:58:12.840 --> 1:58:17.240 quickly and he said, I want, you know, I want 1:58:17.280 --> 1:58:21.680 a really different intro, something really machine gun doing something different, 1:58:22.280 --> 1:58:24.200 you know, And I went, okay, well that, so I 1:58:24.320 --> 1:58:27.760 did the g tuning idea and came up with, um 1:58:29.080 --> 1:58:32.240 what it was, which is essentially doing a bark or 1:58:32.400 --> 1:58:33.800 they're going to did a little bit, a little bit, 1:58:33.840 --> 1:58:36.360 a little bit bad about and do the inversions with 1:58:36.400 --> 1:58:40.280 your first and third finger and sorry, your second and 1:58:40.320 --> 1:58:43.760 third finger for all your guitar nuts out there. And 1:58:44.680 --> 1:58:46.880 it's a great sound and the way I got that 1:58:46.960 --> 1:58:51.120 sound was by plugging directly into the console, not through 1:58:51.120 --> 1:58:54.240 an amplifier, so that sound has got a really high 1:58:54.400 --> 1:58:57.320 end kind of fipip sound to it. It's that direct 1:58:57.360 --> 1:59:00.520 sound to it. So we did two guitars like that, 1:59:01.000 --> 1:59:04.440 and then I added a couple of heavier guitars later on. 1:59:05.720 --> 1:59:09.600 We were always great for varying the textures of whatever 1:59:09.640 --> 1:59:12.000 guitars we put on. We would make sure that there 1:59:12.040 --> 1:59:13.880 was one was a bit different from the other, and 1:59:13.920 --> 1:59:16.320 then if a lead guitar track, it was obviously from 1:59:16.360 --> 1:59:21.360 the other four. So I'm the Bitch's back. Had the 1:59:21.400 --> 1:59:25.240 two direct inject guitars doing the riff, then a couple 1:59:25.280 --> 1:59:27.960 of overdriven guitars doing that, and then like a solo 1:59:28.000 --> 1:59:32.120 sign guitar doing other pickup links. But again, a really 1:59:32.160 --> 1:59:36.040 fun track to record, and we had Tar of Power 1:59:36.440 --> 1:59:39.040 come up there for a few days to do some horns, 1:59:39.800 --> 1:59:41.920 and so we had a built in sec solo with 1:59:42.040 --> 1:59:46.160 Lenny and those guys up there. So it was awesome. Okay, 1:59:46.240 --> 1:59:49.640 going to the next job, which you referenced earlier, Captain Fantastic, 1:59:49.680 --> 1:59:52.920 which is also cut in Caribou Ranch. There's a lot 1:59:52.960 --> 1:59:56.400 to dig in there, so maybe leave that for another time. 1:59:56.440 --> 1:59:58.680 But I'm only going to ask you because your memory 1:59:58.720 --> 2:00:01.480 is so damn good. My favorite track on that is 2:00:01.560 --> 2:00:06.920 tell Me when the whistle Blows. Remember anything on that? Oh? Absolutely, 2:00:07.000 --> 2:00:11.600 What a great song and what a different song. Because 2:00:11.640 --> 2:00:15.840 it's such a unique song. We all thought right from 2:00:15.840 --> 2:00:18.400 the off, it's got to be a really different treatment, 2:00:18.440 --> 2:00:22.280 different from the way that we'd play anything else. We 2:00:22.280 --> 2:00:26.760 were going for a real, a real soul blues type 2:00:26.760 --> 2:00:30.320 of thing, and the idea was to cut it with 2:00:30.400 --> 2:00:34.839 electric piano, so none of that melodic pianos, regular acoustic 2:00:34.840 --> 2:00:39.240 piano stuff, really nice dark electric piano sound. D's bass 2:00:39.240 --> 2:00:43.000 and Nigel Strump's really cut it like that, leave it sparse, 2:00:43.440 --> 2:00:47.280 and then later I would overdub some guitar lines. And 2:00:47.360 --> 2:00:52.920 that's exactly the way we did it. The idea from 2:00:52.920 --> 2:00:55.800 my guitar sound. I kind of stole a couple of 2:00:56.200 --> 2:00:59.000 tricks from a couple of other guitar players. I stole 2:00:59.040 --> 2:01:06.040 an idea from Steven Stills about using the bass pick 2:01:06.520 --> 2:01:09.080 pick up on your guitar and taking all the travel 2:01:09.120 --> 2:01:12.240 off that pickup so that it's really round sounding and 2:01:12.440 --> 2:01:17.160 really cool. And I stole a couple of David Gilmore 2:01:17.840 --> 2:01:22.160 ideas with the way he kind of approaches notes so 2:01:22.240 --> 2:01:25.000 that you'd hear all the inflection of just one guitar, 2:01:25.120 --> 2:01:28.440 not a whole bunch of instruments, and so it was 2:01:28.480 --> 2:01:31.960 a very style. It was our most stylized track we've 2:01:31.960 --> 2:01:36.040 done up to that point, I think. And then we 2:01:36.080 --> 2:01:39.800 asked Gene Paige to do the orchestral arrangement because we 2:01:39.880 --> 2:01:42.480 loved what he was doing with that Philadelphia soul sound 2:01:43.240 --> 2:01:46.600 and his stuff was just off the charts. It was 2:01:46.640 --> 2:01:49.720 so cool and at first, in fact, when we first 2:01:50.080 --> 2:01:53.000 when we heard it, none of us liked it. We 2:01:53.040 --> 2:01:55.840 heard it, but it was so fucking weird that when 2:01:55.840 --> 2:01:57.960 we heard it as far as it was like, really, 2:01:58.400 --> 2:02:00.760 oh my god, that's a bit cheese, and then there's 2:02:00.760 --> 2:02:04.840 a there's this, But then you know, the more we 2:02:04.880 --> 2:02:08.080 heard it, he was like, Okay, got it because he's 2:02:08.080 --> 2:02:12.240 a really special was a very special arranger. Okay. The 2:02:12.320 --> 2:02:18.760 album after that also cut in uh Colorado Rock of 2:02:18.840 --> 2:02:22.480 the West. He's one of my two favorite tracks on 2:02:22.600 --> 2:02:25.839 that you actually have a writing credit which has grows 2:02:25.840 --> 2:02:30.240 some funk of your own. What happens there? Well, well, 2:02:30.440 --> 2:02:34.760 that song I love on the album The way the 2:02:34.760 --> 2:02:38.440 track comes in after Island Girl, because it follows Island Girl, 2:02:38.600 --> 2:02:41.640 which is the Puppy first hit. I think off the record, 2:02:43.840 --> 2:02:46.640 the way it grows some funk comes in couldn't have 2:02:46.680 --> 2:02:50.520 been more exact the way I imagine it when we 2:02:50.560 --> 2:02:53.600 wrote it. We wrote it the night before and Elton's room. 2:02:53.840 --> 2:02:57.040 We were screwing around writing. We wrote a couple of 2:02:57.040 --> 2:03:01.880 songs in His and His Lug happen that week, three 2:03:01.920 --> 2:03:05.640 songs in fact. But Gross and Funk happened after we'd 2:03:05.680 --> 2:03:08.480 written the song which is the opening song on the album, 2:03:08.840 --> 2:03:13.000 the medley, Yell Help Um, And that was purely my 2:03:13.080 --> 2:03:17.120 idea from I was listening to a lot of Jjkle 2:03:17.480 --> 2:03:20.360 stuff back then, and I was based in my rhythm 2:03:20.440 --> 2:03:24.640 ideas for that song on that. But Gross and Funk 2:03:24.800 --> 2:03:28.040 was much more of a Okay, here's a great rock riff, 2:03:29.320 --> 2:03:33.240 but what about changing the key so that starts off 2:03:33.240 --> 2:03:36.320 with a slamming rock driff and then goes into a 2:03:37.000 --> 2:03:43.040 two part harmony guitar line. Down damn down, Dada da. 2:03:43.800 --> 2:03:46.480 So it was like, oh, yeah, this is gonna work 2:03:46.480 --> 2:03:49.320 because Caleb and I were doing two guitar parts, and 2:03:49.360 --> 2:03:52.000 then later on in the song, Ray Cooper was able 2:03:52.040 --> 2:03:55.160 to use the vibes in such a way, the Eddie 2:03:55.240 --> 2:03:58.560 Kendrick's vibe at the end of the song. You know, 2:03:58.680 --> 2:04:01.240 the musicians we add in that band allowed us to 2:04:01.280 --> 2:04:05.480 do some great things on that album. Apart from Caleb 2:04:05.520 --> 2:04:07.960 and Me doing the guitars, which you were really astounding 2:04:08.240 --> 2:04:11.520 on a lot of that record. But James as keyboard, 2:04:11.600 --> 2:04:15.080 James Newton Harder's keyboard on the album is fucking unbelievable. 2:04:16.200 --> 2:04:18.520 James and I have always really worked well together and 2:04:18.640 --> 2:04:22.120 had a lot of fun together. Yeah, so it's all 2:04:22.160 --> 2:04:25.680 been so much fun. I think you grow some funk. 2:04:25.680 --> 2:04:28.160 I believe Kicky and I did some background vocals on 2:04:28.200 --> 2:04:32.200 that song as well. Okay, the next album is Blue 2:04:32.240 --> 2:04:36.880 Moves in the fall of seventy six. This is simultaneous 2:04:36.920 --> 2:04:40.880 with Elton coming out as gay, which is not a 2:04:40.880 --> 2:04:43.960 big deal today. I think it's been over emphasized. I 2:04:43.960 --> 2:04:47.000 don't think it really was as big a deal as 2:04:47.040 --> 2:04:51.640 they said back then. But the album was not as successful. 2:04:51.800 --> 2:04:54.000 Sorry seems to be the hardest word. Ended up being 2:04:54.040 --> 2:04:59.760 a huge hit. Did you get a bittersweet vibe from 2:04:59.760 --> 2:05:05.160 the reception and what was going on there? Yeah, to me, 2:05:06.200 --> 2:05:09.040 even when we were recording the album. There's some great 2:05:09.040 --> 2:05:12.360 stuff on it, no doubt, absolutely no doubt. But as 2:05:12.360 --> 2:05:21.200 it went on to me, it was a little it 2:05:21.360 --> 2:05:25.800 was almost like diluted. It was almost like fresh orangues. 2:05:25.840 --> 2:05:31.880 It's been diluted. Suddenly it became not what I remembered 2:05:31.880 --> 2:05:35.400 it being. And it wasn't because suddenly there was seven 2:05:35.440 --> 2:05:38.920 people in the studio instead of four, you know, or 2:05:38.920 --> 2:05:41.120 five when Ray would be a part of the band 2:05:41.160 --> 2:05:45.360 as well. It was more than that. It was like, 2:05:45.400 --> 2:05:47.400 hold on, how many people were in that band? Shit 2:05:47.920 --> 2:05:56.640 to Elton, myself, Ray Rogier, Pope, Caleb Quay, Kenny Passarelli, 2:05:56.960 --> 2:05:59.600 James S. Newton heard Roger Pope? Is that right? Roo? 2:06:00.200 --> 2:06:03.520 So yeah, seven people a lot of people. It's a lot, 2:06:03.880 --> 2:06:06.640 a lot more ideas. And I think Alton was being 2:06:06.720 --> 2:06:12.480 extremely generous in suggesting that we write some songs it. 2:06:12.760 --> 2:06:15.880 It was so very very kind of him in that way. 2:06:15.880 --> 2:06:18.840 It kind of in a booknd to what we were 2:06:18.840 --> 2:06:22.560 talking about earlier about about if people think they should 2:06:22.680 --> 2:06:25.280 get a piece of a certain song on this record. 2:06:25.320 --> 2:06:28.520 I feel that Alton was more bringing us in that 2:06:28.560 --> 2:06:32.720 particular band into songwriting, which was a very generous thing 2:06:32.800 --> 2:06:36.440 to do for any artist or any musician, I feel, 2:06:36.960 --> 2:06:40.400 and I don't think it hurts the record in that 2:06:40.720 --> 2:06:42.760 the way the record turned out, because it turned out 2:06:42.800 --> 2:06:45.480 to be a much more to me, a much more 2:06:45.560 --> 2:06:49.840 sober collection of songs than anything we'd come up with before. 2:06:50.840 --> 2:06:55.080 Things that didn't quite make sense to me. To me, 2:06:55.160 --> 2:06:57.680 it wasn't cohesive as cohesive any of the albums that 2:06:57.720 --> 2:07:02.040 we've done previously. That's again chefs my personal opinion. I 2:07:02.080 --> 2:07:03.920 have no idea how the rest of the guys feel 2:07:03.960 --> 2:07:06.280 about it. And I think that the album cover and 2:07:06.280 --> 2:07:10.640 the packaging kind of the album covered that is the 2:07:10.680 --> 2:07:12.600 insert and the picture was kind of happy, and that 2:07:12.720 --> 2:07:16.640 was fine, But the album itself all being blue with 2:07:16.680 --> 2:07:21.960 that Patrick Proctor painting, it was fine, and I guess 2:07:22.000 --> 2:07:23.840 it's what they wanted to do at the time, and 2:07:23.920 --> 2:07:27.400 it was very artsy, but maybe for me I thought 2:07:27.440 --> 2:07:32.440 it was a little too artsy. Okay, do you realize 2:07:32.480 --> 2:07:36.960 the end is coming? After that album? Elton breaks up 2:07:36.960 --> 2:07:39.960 the band? You're on your own? Did you see that coming? 2:07:40.320 --> 2:07:45.160 And what did you feel when that happened. I did 2:07:45.160 --> 2:07:47.720 see it coming. I didn't know what was coming after it. 2:07:49.480 --> 2:07:52.960 I did see an end to the thing, and we'd 2:07:53.000 --> 2:07:57.520 talked a little bit about stuff and because of his 2:07:57.680 --> 2:08:00.920 health mainly and the amount of work we were having 2:08:00.960 --> 2:08:04.080 to do to tour with all the product that was 2:08:04.120 --> 2:08:07.400 out there and the demand to see Elton and the band, 2:08:07.560 --> 2:08:11.000 and it was phenomenal. It was a wonderful time. But 2:08:11.120 --> 2:08:14.400 he was very, very straight up about it. He sat 2:08:14.520 --> 2:08:17.960 the whole band down with Sean Reid, all of us together, 2:08:18.160 --> 2:08:21.840 and he said, guys, I can't do this anymore. I'm done. 2:08:22.200 --> 2:08:24.360 I have to dissolve the band because I don't know 2:08:24.360 --> 2:08:26.160 what I'm going to do next. I just need time 2:08:26.720 --> 2:08:31.360 for myself to recover from what we've been doing for 2:08:31.400 --> 2:08:34.880 the last seven years or whatever I've been doing. I 2:08:35.000 --> 2:08:37.960 need a break. I need to be me and find 2:08:38.040 --> 2:08:41.879 myself and have rest, etcetera, etcetera. And he gave everybody 2:08:41.920 --> 2:08:45.360 a really nice handoff to say, you know, you guys 2:08:45.360 --> 2:08:47.920 have been amazing, and all the rest of it now 2:08:48.400 --> 2:08:51.640 all down the line. For myself, the situation has always 2:08:51.680 --> 2:08:54.240 been a little bit different. Elton's always been in touch 2:08:54.280 --> 2:08:58.200 with me. I think the longest period when he didn't 2:08:58.240 --> 2:09:01.760 call me was after what he decided to do another 2:09:01.800 --> 2:09:04.360 band thing and I was already working with Alice Cooper 2:09:05.000 --> 2:09:07.680 and then that segued into some work with Meat Love. 2:09:07.760 --> 2:09:10.240 So I was already a very busy session guy, and 2:09:10.320 --> 2:09:12.680 he wanted to work with with other I think he 2:09:12.720 --> 2:09:15.600 wanted to work with other people. He had asked me 2:09:15.680 --> 2:09:19.600 a couple of times about doing a couple of projects, 2:09:19.640 --> 2:09:24.280 and I did a I think I played on one 2:09:24.320 --> 2:09:27.640 of his solo records, A single Man. I played on 2:09:27.640 --> 2:09:29.960 one track of that. So I've always been in touch 2:09:30.040 --> 2:09:34.120 with him more than anybody else music wise, hence the 2:09:34.360 --> 2:09:39.200 musical director kind of tag. But I did get up 2:09:39.200 --> 2:09:41.680 in jam with a band that he had right before 2:09:42.240 --> 2:09:45.240 we got back together in nineteen end of eighty one 2:09:45.320 --> 2:09:47.840 beginning of eighty two. He had either a tour I 2:09:47.840 --> 2:09:52.440 think that encompassed that Central Park gig that he did 2:09:52.640 --> 2:09:56.440 where he wore the Many Mouse sorry not many Mouse, 2:09:56.720 --> 2:10:00.280 Daisy Duck costume, Donald Duck costume. Right, he had Central 2:10:00.360 --> 2:10:04.920 Park and back then he had d and Nigel back 2:10:04.960 --> 2:10:07.120 in the band, but he had two other guitar players 2:10:07.480 --> 2:10:10.760 he had Um I kind of Tim Rennick, I think, 2:10:10.760 --> 2:10:13.200 and Richie Zero. I want to say that's my guests 2:10:13.840 --> 2:10:16.960 UM and I think, I don't think Ray was even 2:10:16.960 --> 2:10:20.960 in that that band and some background singers, three background 2:10:21.000 --> 2:10:23.360 singers who I can't remember who they were, so it 2:10:23.400 --> 2:10:28.760 was different, but it wasn't people who were owning the music. 2:10:28.800 --> 2:10:30.320 I didn't feel I want to see it at the 2:10:30.320 --> 2:10:32.920 Forum when when the show came through, and you know, 2:10:32.960 --> 2:10:34.600 Elton said, well, why don't you get up on a song? 2:10:34.640 --> 2:10:37.480 And I got up on bite your lip, get up 2:10:37.480 --> 2:10:40.960 on dance and blew some some rock and slight guitar 2:10:41.120 --> 2:10:42.960 and it was great good to see him see them 2:10:43.000 --> 2:10:45.680 and do that again. But I could tell right then 2:10:47.480 --> 2:10:50.000 he wasn't happy with what was going on then, and 2:10:50.040 --> 2:10:52.360 if he was going to tour again, I could tell then. 2:10:53.240 --> 2:10:55.960 It was almost like it's going to happen very soon. 2:10:56.760 --> 2:11:00.240 And yeah, but I was just getting done with the 2:11:00.280 --> 2:11:03.120 meat loaf thing. He hopped to call me and said, 2:11:04.040 --> 2:11:06.040 I really think we should put the band back together. 2:11:06.480 --> 2:11:09.160 It's so funny, Bob, because here in that phrase. I've 2:11:09.200 --> 2:11:12.520 heard it done jokingly in so many sitcoms and different 2:11:12.520 --> 2:11:16.240 things and used in different contexts. But when he said 2:11:16.520 --> 2:11:18.400 I really think we should get the band back together, 2:11:18.480 --> 2:11:21.080 I said, you're absolutely fucking right, we should. You know, 2:11:21.560 --> 2:11:25.800 it was just okay, let's do it. And again we 2:11:25.840 --> 2:11:30.080 went into Mark two and it went the same way. Okay, 2:11:30.120 --> 2:11:32.840 when he does break up the brand, how much does 2:11:32.840 --> 2:11:35.960 that fuck you up? How do you lift yourself off 2:11:35.960 --> 2:11:40.640 the floor? Are you okay financially? What happens in that 2:11:40.800 --> 2:11:46.720 interim before you start to work with Alice Cooper, etc. Well, 2:11:46.720 --> 2:11:50.240 first of all, I started to do sessions with other people. 2:11:50.800 --> 2:11:54.960 I started to work with other producers like Richard Perry, 2:11:57.280 --> 2:12:02.280 robert A Pere, Bill Schnay because they again knew what 2:12:02.360 --> 2:12:04.680 I did, and they would invite me to play on 2:12:04.720 --> 2:12:07.040 their track and also artist occasional I would just say, 2:12:07.040 --> 2:12:08.880 would you come and play on my record? I'd like 2:12:08.960 --> 2:12:12.400 Alice Cooper and people like that. So I built up 2:12:12.520 --> 2:12:16.880 some I was never really that short of work immediately 2:12:16.920 --> 2:12:21.920 following Elton, and my intention at that point was, Okay, 2:12:21.960 --> 2:12:25.680 well we're going into nineteen seventy seven. I just kind 2:12:25.680 --> 2:12:28.400 of take some time for myself. So I went to 2:12:28.440 --> 2:12:34.800 Tahiti for a month and almost didn't come home. I 2:12:34.920 --> 2:12:38.840 fell in love with Bora Bora, absolutely loved it. Got 2:12:38.840 --> 2:12:42.000 completely away from music and anything to do with touring 2:12:42.080 --> 2:12:47.320 or anything, and really cleansed myself, you know, and and 2:12:47.560 --> 2:12:52.400 we finally came back and slowly got back into life 2:12:53.320 --> 2:12:57.640 in California, because I just started living in California. I'd 2:12:57.640 --> 2:13:02.320 rented a place in Hollywood. And to be totally honest, Bob, 2:13:02.320 --> 2:13:05.000 there was also an awful lot of the rock star 2:13:05.240 --> 2:13:09.280 thing coming creeping into my my life. Then when I 2:13:09.320 --> 2:13:12.080 say the rock star thing, what I mean is dangerous 2:13:12.120 --> 2:13:15.600 amounts of alcohol and drugs and women started to creep 2:13:15.600 --> 2:13:18.760 into the picture. And it began to get very very 2:13:18.880 --> 2:13:25.360 dodgy and scary. Quite frankly, Um, I managed to come 2:13:25.360 --> 2:13:28.840 through the other end, but not through, you know, not 2:13:28.960 --> 2:13:31.600 from a lot of bumps and bruises and and and 2:13:31.880 --> 2:13:36.800 you know, potholes, false starts and what have you. You know, 2:13:37.080 --> 2:13:40.560 as as we all do, as life, as life takes us, 2:13:40.880 --> 2:13:43.440 it can't all be up, you know, it certainly can't 2:13:43.440 --> 2:13:48.160 all be up. And I had a great time. I 2:13:48.280 --> 2:13:50.680 got to tell you, I went on for like a 2:13:50.720 --> 2:13:53.560 couple of years of really having a good time. I 2:13:53.720 --> 2:13:55.360 put it this way, I thought it was having a 2:13:55.400 --> 2:13:59.200 good time. Um. Although the parties were quite legendary amongst 2:13:59.240 --> 2:14:02.320 the people who who came and enjoyed them for a 2:14:02.400 --> 2:14:06.160 couple of years, but like any other person in that situation, 2:14:06.160 --> 2:14:09.000 when you're hosting that kind of event on a regular basis, 2:14:09.120 --> 2:14:12.000 you suddenly wake up and go, well, either you don't 2:14:12.040 --> 2:14:14.520 wake up, or you wake up and say, you know what, 2:14:14.680 --> 2:14:18.400 everybody's around my house? I think what happened? What really 2:14:18.440 --> 2:14:22.360 shook me up? One night, it was about three four 2:14:22.400 --> 2:14:27.280 in the morning when a dear friend of mine happened 2:14:27.320 --> 2:14:30.160 to be Lowell. George May rest in peace. So I'd 2:14:30.200 --> 2:14:32.560 dore little Feet, that one of my favorite things of 2:14:32.600 --> 2:14:35.720 all time. And Richie and Lowell and those guys would 2:14:35.720 --> 2:14:38.200 hang out at the house as well. So they were 2:14:38.200 --> 2:14:43.720 into notorious, notoriously into various forms of you know, stuff, 2:14:44.000 --> 2:14:46.960 and so they'd be they'd be fixtures in the house. 2:14:47.400 --> 2:14:49.800 But I was fast asleep on it, and it was 2:14:49.840 --> 2:14:53.240 about four in the morning, and it was Lowell's wife 2:14:53.320 --> 2:14:56.600 banging on the door, wanting to come in and party, 2:14:56.680 --> 2:14:59.640 you know, and those kind of things. That kind of 2:14:59.680 --> 2:15:04.440 thing already happening, and people like Oliver Read the actor 2:15:04.600 --> 2:15:06.920 showing up. I don't know all of her fucking read 2:15:06.960 --> 2:15:09.320 and he shows up in my house, and you know, 2:15:10.160 --> 2:15:14.000 it was just bizarre. And I suddenly thought, all right, 2:15:14.080 --> 2:15:20.680 I'm gonna have to get again, a little bit of respectability, 2:15:21.240 --> 2:15:23.800 get that into my life. And I figured the best 2:15:23.840 --> 2:15:27.440 way to do that was to get married and have 2:15:27.520 --> 2:15:30.960 some kids. And that's what happened with my second marriage 2:15:31.040 --> 2:15:36.680 and had two wonderful children. Rosa my wife at that 2:15:36.720 --> 2:15:40.280 time I met. She was a dancer with Alice Cooper's band. 2:15:40.440 --> 2:15:43.640 When I went to work with Alice, so you know, 2:15:44.360 --> 2:15:50.000 mister rockstar picks up the dancer. And the tour was 2:15:50.400 --> 2:15:54.840 Rose my wife at that time, and Cheryl Cooper, Alice's wife, 2:15:54.840 --> 2:15:57.760 with the two female dancers, and there were two gay guys, 2:15:57.800 --> 2:16:00.520 and you know, that period was it was kind of 2:16:00.560 --> 2:16:04.839 interesting because working with Id segued into working with Alice, 2:16:05.480 --> 2:16:09.120 and it was so much fun. It was just hilarious. 2:16:09.160 --> 2:16:11.880 And Alice is still a dear friend to this day 2:16:12.200 --> 2:16:16.920 and his wife, Cheryl. That marriage at that time wasn't 2:16:17.000 --> 2:16:20.160 to be. It really was what I had mentioned to you. 2:16:20.520 --> 2:16:22.400 It seemed to be like a way of me gaining 2:16:22.440 --> 2:16:29.240 some kinds of respectability, responsibility also, but it didn't pan out. 2:16:29.360 --> 2:16:32.800 I just wasn't willing to stop my ways, my rock 2:16:32.879 --> 2:16:35.920 star ways, and I wasn't certainly wasn't ready the quick 2:16:35.920 --> 2:16:38.600 touring when Elton when the band came back together, So 2:16:39.040 --> 2:16:44.120 really that second marriage was doomed. And what about getting clean, 2:16:44.600 --> 2:16:49.680 because Elton famously got clean. Yeah, I thought it was 2:16:49.720 --> 2:16:51.640 amazing when I was so proud of him when he 2:16:51.680 --> 2:16:57.360 got clean. Of course, like many, like many alcoholics and 2:16:57.440 --> 2:17:00.440 drug addicts, you know, it wasn't for me that time. 2:17:00.480 --> 2:17:02.760 When I saw him do it, I thought, it's so 2:17:02.800 --> 2:17:06.039 great he's doing it, and I was so happy for him. 2:17:06.160 --> 2:17:09.959 I was having a wonderful period of time because I 2:17:10.040 --> 2:17:14.200 just met my wife, my present wife, Kay back then 2:17:14.240 --> 2:17:16.520 in nineteen eighty nine, and he got sober in nineteen 2:17:16.680 --> 2:17:20.039 ninety so it was the perfect timing for me to 2:17:20.120 --> 2:17:24.720 have this year getting to know my new wife. Oh, 2:17:24.760 --> 2:17:26.440 we weren't married at that point. We were together for 2:17:26.440 --> 2:17:28.480 the first two years, had a baby, and then we 2:17:28.600 --> 2:17:31.959 married in ninety two. But it was a wonderful time 2:17:32.000 --> 2:17:37.040 to have a vacation, really start enjoying family. This this 2:17:37.160 --> 2:17:40.080 woman I was in love with, and suddenly I thought, 2:17:40.280 --> 2:17:43.520 that's it. I found the right combination for me and 2:17:43.720 --> 2:17:46.480 you know, for her, I think. And we had a 2:17:46.480 --> 2:17:50.920 beautiful baby and we decided to travel everywhere together and 2:17:51.440 --> 2:17:53.560 that's what we did. There was still a lot of 2:17:53.600 --> 2:17:57.039 party in going on, mainly drinking because the Danes are 2:17:57.080 --> 2:18:00.720 probably as big drinkers as the Scots, and I wasn't 2:18:00.760 --> 2:18:06.560 ready to stop drinking, definitely not. And ten years of that, 2:18:08.560 --> 2:18:10.400 my wife and I was still very much in love. 2:18:11.120 --> 2:18:15.039 But when we lost our son in two thousand and one, 2:18:15.200 --> 2:18:20.960 that was such a jolt. Obviously it sounds like a 2:18:21.720 --> 2:18:23.800 very weak way of putting it, but it shook me 2:18:23.840 --> 2:18:28.400 to the core, obviously. But I didn't stop drinking for 2:18:28.480 --> 2:18:32.680 another seven years after that because I was I think 2:18:33.320 --> 2:18:37.360 I was on a course to killing myself. Nothing mattered. 2:18:38.280 --> 2:18:41.160 I didn't matter if I was around or not, and 2:18:41.280 --> 2:18:44.879 I was still when I got back to working. The 2:18:44.920 --> 2:18:47.520 band were always very you know, Elton was great. He 2:18:47.600 --> 2:18:50.040 was very supportive all the way through it. I mean 2:18:50.240 --> 2:18:52.879 he supported me in more ways than I can tell you, 2:18:54.640 --> 2:18:57.600 and the band were kind to me. It was difficult 2:18:57.640 --> 2:18:59.000 because you know, I went back. It was right in 2:18:59.080 --> 2:19:01.080 the middle of the Billy Joe whole thing that I 2:19:01.200 --> 2:19:05.320 lost my son and saw that going back after four 2:19:05.400 --> 2:19:07.760 or five months of being away in dealing with that 2:19:07.920 --> 2:19:14.560 grief was really difficult. It was really hard, and you know, 2:19:14.600 --> 2:19:17.680 I found myself getting into antidepressions and stuff like that, 2:19:18.040 --> 2:19:21.199 which didn't help with the drinking. So I wasn't stopping 2:19:21.200 --> 2:19:28.119 any of it until the fall of two thousand and nine. 2:19:28.920 --> 2:19:32.120 And with Elton, he invited me back to his place 2:19:32.120 --> 2:19:34.000 where we're doing in the middle of a tour, and 2:19:34.080 --> 2:19:37.200 occasionally over the years he'd invite me back for a 2:19:37.240 --> 2:19:39.800 few days and we'd hang out and you know, listen 2:19:39.840 --> 2:19:43.120 to music and do you know whatever, have dinners and 2:19:43.400 --> 2:19:47.880 just have fun, and to inviting me back after while 2:19:47.920 --> 2:19:51.080 we're on tour in two thousand and nine and the fall, 2:19:51.360 --> 2:19:54.360 and he sat me down at breakfast one day. He 2:19:54.440 --> 2:19:57.119 just comes down for breakfast and we're having like bald 2:19:57.160 --> 2:20:00.959 eggs and toast and marmalade and cups teen we're chatting 2:20:00.959 --> 2:20:03.400 away and he just turned to him and he said, 2:20:04.000 --> 2:20:07.039 you know, I think you should do something about your 2:20:07.120 --> 2:20:12.520 drinking and your drugs and stuff. And my first I said, really, 2:20:13.120 --> 2:20:17.800 I said, the drummer is much worse than me. He said, 2:20:17.840 --> 2:20:20.200 I'm not talking about the fucking drummer. I'm talking about you. 2:20:21.000 --> 2:20:26.280 So right there was a wonderful nudge from one of 2:20:26.320 --> 2:20:30.240 my dearest friends of all time telling me you better 2:20:30.440 --> 2:20:34.560 sort this out. It's time. So he got me on 2:20:34.600 --> 2:20:37.039 that path and from there I met several people who 2:20:37.040 --> 2:20:40.440 have been so helpful. And the people I've met in 2:20:40.560 --> 2:20:47.080 that program have just been so unbelievable. And yeah, I 2:20:47.120 --> 2:20:50.160 have not a drinks since two thousand November two thousand 2:20:50.160 --> 2:20:53.960 and nine or thirteen years, okay, over thirteen years. So 2:20:54.120 --> 2:20:56.800 you went to AA or you went to rehab, or 2:20:56.840 --> 2:21:02.640 you did it yourself. I've done both, Bob, for good reasons. 2:21:03.800 --> 2:21:08.800 I did it myself first, and I was wonderful and 2:21:09.000 --> 2:21:11.840 got it and got the whole thing and adored it. 2:21:12.080 --> 2:21:15.320 And then some years later the beginning of this Farewell 2:21:15.360 --> 2:21:19.920 tour actually and I was having an issue with pain 2:21:20.000 --> 2:21:23.520 medication for neck and shoulder injuries. I've still go I'm 2:21:23.520 --> 2:21:27.680 still going through thanks a lot of guitars. And I 2:21:27.760 --> 2:21:32.400 decided to go to Eric Clapton's place, Crossroads, which I 2:21:32.440 --> 2:21:35.920 had heard about from some friends. And I have a 2:21:35.920 --> 2:21:39.440 dear friend in music Cares Harold On, who helped me 2:21:39.680 --> 2:21:41.920 hook me up with that. And I decided at the 2:21:42.000 --> 2:21:44.840 end of a leg of the tour, and I sat 2:21:44.879 --> 2:21:46.720 down with Alton and said, look, in two weeks time, 2:21:46.920 --> 2:21:48.840 I want to go and sort this out. And he 2:21:48.840 --> 2:21:51.760 said I think that's awesome you're doing that so because 2:21:51.800 --> 2:21:54.440 I you know, I was worried about the pain medication 2:21:54.520 --> 2:21:56.680 and it never affected my drinking or anything like that, 2:21:56.840 --> 2:22:00.560 but I was worried about other ways of not being sober. 2:22:01.280 --> 2:22:06.200 And I went to Crossroads for a month, had the 2:22:06.240 --> 2:22:10.640 best time I had, you know, wonderful counselors and therapists, 2:22:11.520 --> 2:22:16.080 and came out of there free of everything. And freedom 2:22:16.240 --> 2:22:19.320 is the is the key, Bob. In fact, that was 2:22:19.360 --> 2:22:21.800 the That was the reading I've read this morning. It 2:22:21.800 --> 2:22:24.320 was all about freedom. You know, when you have a 2:22:24.360 --> 2:22:27.360 life where you feel free and you're not worried about anything, 2:22:27.360 --> 2:22:30.480 you're not guilty about anything, you don't owe anybody anything, 2:22:31.040 --> 2:22:33.560 you're not concerned about somebody saying your name, and you 2:22:33.640 --> 2:22:35.920 turn around thinking, well, what the fuck is that? You know? 2:22:36.240 --> 2:22:41.640 It's that's real freedom, and that's what I have nowadays. Okay, 2:22:41.800 --> 2:22:47.080 you cut us an individual project in the seventies, you 2:22:47.160 --> 2:22:50.400 put out an album last year. Did you ever have 2:22:50.520 --> 2:22:53.480 a desire to be your own act or these are 2:22:53.520 --> 2:22:57.680 just side things you had to get out of your system. Yes, 2:22:57.840 --> 2:23:00.360 definitely sight things, you know. The opportunity here to do 2:23:00.440 --> 2:23:03.400 my first solo record was when I just joined Elton 2:23:04.800 --> 2:23:07.280 literally six months in to play with him. He said, 2:23:08.040 --> 2:23:10.280 I love what you do. You've got to make you right. 2:23:10.320 --> 2:23:12.280 I said, yeah, I do. I said it's not very 2:23:12.280 --> 2:23:14.360 commercial what I write. He said, doesn't matter. He said, 2:23:14.360 --> 2:23:16.680 I'm forming a record label and I'd love you to 2:23:16.720 --> 2:23:18.720 be one of the artists on it. He said, I 2:23:18.760 --> 2:23:21.800 have Kiki d I have a band called Long Dancer. 2:23:22.200 --> 2:23:24.280 I'd like you to be one of the artists on it. 2:23:24.760 --> 2:23:27.360 I said, I love tim. I'm very touched that I 2:23:27.360 --> 2:23:29.840 get to make an album. So I got gusts to 2:23:29.879 --> 2:23:34.600 produce it. Um. I really enjoyed doing it. I used 2:23:34.600 --> 2:23:37.640 a lot of good friends like Joe and Armor Trading. 2:23:38.640 --> 2:23:40.960 I got to play piano on a couple of tracks myself, 2:23:41.000 --> 2:23:46.120 which was fun. I used Dudley Moore's drummer on a 2:23:46.120 --> 2:23:48.760 few tracks. I was able to use d and Nagel 2:23:48.840 --> 2:23:51.360 on a few tracks. I just and I used Elton 2:23:51.400 --> 2:23:54.000 on the opening track on the record, which was really 2:23:54.000 --> 2:23:58.040 great fun and but it was definitely not out of 2:23:58.040 --> 2:24:04.000 commercial venture and but one that many many people mentioned 2:24:04.080 --> 2:24:06.600 how much they enjoyed the music on it over the years, 2:24:06.600 --> 2:24:08.959 and I'm grateful for that. It never got slammed because 2:24:08.959 --> 2:24:11.600 I don't think a lot of people heard it, quite frankly, 2:24:12.080 --> 2:24:14.440 but the people who did hear it seemed to love it. 2:24:14.520 --> 2:24:19.360 So fast forward almost fifty years to COVID and I'm 2:24:19.360 --> 2:24:23.560 sitting it home, thinking, wow, I'm going to be home 2:24:23.600 --> 2:24:25.360 for a while. This might be a good time for 2:24:25.400 --> 2:24:29.640 me to write some music and enjoy early retirement, because 2:24:29.680 --> 2:24:32.880 who knows what's going to happen. So that's exactly what happened, 2:24:33.000 --> 2:24:37.800 except in this case what I've written something. I've got 2:24:37.800 --> 2:24:42.480 some talented kids, Bob, I've told you that I would say. 2:24:42.640 --> 2:24:45.240 There was one song I wrote it brings to mind. 2:24:45.360 --> 2:24:50.160 You know why all started again. It's to do with 2:24:50.200 --> 2:24:55.279 the Beatles, I suddenly thought, and I got the kids together, 2:24:55.840 --> 2:25:00.320 Elliott the singer, Charlie the engineer, keyboard player. I said, guys, 2:25:00.959 --> 2:25:03.000 why don't we just record a song. We're just sitting 2:25:03.000 --> 2:25:07.320 at home here, nothing's going on, you know, let's wrest 2:25:07.360 --> 2:25:11.920 record something together. And they said, okay. So I picked here, 2:25:11.959 --> 2:25:15.480 there and everywhere. Well, just a great Beatles song, as 2:25:15.520 --> 2:25:19.480 you well know. And we didn't copy the Beatles version, 2:25:19.560 --> 2:25:21.360 but we did it in a way that was I 2:25:21.400 --> 2:25:25.840 think beautiful, and we did it all up in Charlie's bedroom, 2:25:25.920 --> 2:25:29.200 literally sitting on the bed doing it, and you know 2:25:29.320 --> 2:25:32.880 it said the acoustic guitar part first, then the Mandolins, 2:25:33.200 --> 2:25:36.720 then put some bass on it, and then I had 2:25:36.720 --> 2:25:40.039 Elliott sang on it, and then Charlie put some keyboard 2:25:40.080 --> 2:25:43.880 on it. This is the way we did the whole record. Really. Obviously, 2:25:43.920 --> 2:25:47.199 as I started to write more, I started to concentrate 2:25:47.280 --> 2:25:50.480 more on the guitar aspect because I was writing a 2:25:50.600 --> 2:25:54.480 thing that was more my kind of record. And Yeah, 2:25:54.480 --> 2:25:58.680 what came out was just a really enjoyable collection of 2:25:58.760 --> 2:26:02.600 songs I feel, and Elliott sang lead on almost all 2:26:02.640 --> 2:26:07.039 of them. I sung the vocal on one and I 2:26:07.120 --> 2:26:11.280 did two instrumentals, and it was just a joyous thing 2:26:11.320 --> 2:26:14.640 to do this stuff with my children. And the studio 2:26:14.680 --> 2:26:17.879 that I'm in right now belongs to my friend Marlin Hoffman, 2:26:18.320 --> 2:26:22.400 who's sitting next door, I think, eavesdropping, And we did 2:26:22.440 --> 2:26:27.800 the whole thing in the studio which is Marlin's home studio. Okay, 2:26:27.840 --> 2:26:31.760 what is one thing people don't know about Elton or 2:26:31.800 --> 2:26:40.400 a misconception? Quite a lot of thing that Elton doesn't 2:26:40.440 --> 2:26:49.000 remember about Elton. Elton makes a really good cup of tea. 2:26:49.760 --> 2:26:53.720 Once in the studio in Book Studios, another residential place 2:26:53.840 --> 2:26:56.840 in Denmark, who were making a record called Sleeping with 2:26:57.000 --> 2:27:02.800 the Past, and I was doing a guitar overdub and 2:27:02.879 --> 2:27:05.560 he came over to me, came into the room where 2:27:05.560 --> 2:27:09.080 I was, had my amplifier and my guitar and put 2:27:09.120 --> 2:27:13.240 a cup of tea down and I said, oh, thanks, Helton, 2:27:13.280 --> 2:27:14.840 and I carried on doing the soul or whatever it 2:27:14.879 --> 2:27:17.680 was I was doing. How to drink of the tea 2:27:17.879 --> 2:27:21.280 A few seconds later, put my guitar down, put the 2:27:21.360 --> 2:27:24.840 headphones down, and went out of the studio to find him. 2:27:24.959 --> 2:27:28.160 I said, Elton, this is the best cup of tea 2:27:28.200 --> 2:27:30.960 I've ever had. I said, how would you know how 2:27:31.000 --> 2:27:35.280 to make the tea that I love? He said, Davy, 2:27:35.360 --> 2:27:38.760 I've known you for like sixteen years already, surely i'd 2:27:38.800 --> 2:27:40.600 know how to meet you a fucking cup of tea. 2:27:40.720 --> 2:27:43.119 And there's another thing about album that people don't know 2:27:43.480 --> 2:27:46.640 that I'll squeeze in. And it's another domestic fact about 2:27:46.640 --> 2:27:50.720 our hero, Sir Elton. He and I went up on 2:27:51.440 --> 2:27:54.040 we went up to see the Warner Brothers tour. It 2:27:54.160 --> 2:27:58.039 was a rock and roll tour with little feet tier 2:27:58.080 --> 2:28:03.440 of power Graham Central Station. This is in nineteen seventy 2:28:03.480 --> 2:28:07.880 three in the fall, and what a tour. And we 2:28:07.879 --> 2:28:11.240 were both little feet freaks. So he says, come on 2:28:11.400 --> 2:28:14.480 jumping my rolls. We jumped in the rolls with his driver. 2:28:15.000 --> 2:28:18.959 We took off up to Manchester. We checked into a 2:28:18.959 --> 2:28:22.320 sleazy little hotel, had some Indian food and went to 2:28:22.320 --> 2:28:25.600 see the concert, which blew our minds. We ended up 2:28:25.640 --> 2:28:28.600 on stage with the Dubies and Lowell and all these 2:28:28.640 --> 2:28:32.520 people and having a great time. And we ended up staying, 2:28:32.520 --> 2:28:34.680 you know, hanging out partying with the band. And we 2:28:34.800 --> 2:28:38.760 came back late lately. We probably got back to my 2:28:38.879 --> 2:28:43.160 house in London about five in the morning. I opened 2:28:43.200 --> 2:28:46.800 the door and again I've got a nanny. My wife's 2:28:46.840 --> 2:28:51.800 away at that time, the first wife. There is a 2:28:51.840 --> 2:28:56.200 disaster in the kitchen, my young son, Tam, who's only 2:28:56.760 --> 2:28:58.920 just coming up for a year and no by this 2:28:59.000 --> 2:29:06.280 time he's three. There's coffee, tea, milk, whatever you can find, 2:29:06.400 --> 2:29:10.840 PORI jokes, everything all mashed up together on the floor. 2:29:10.959 --> 2:29:13.600 And he's in the middle of the kitchen floor and 2:29:13.680 --> 2:29:19.800 I walk in and he goes Da Hi and Alton. 2:29:19.879 --> 2:29:22.600 We both look at it and he shrieks. Obviously he 2:29:22.640 --> 2:29:26.720 doesn't like mess. And I said, oh man, I can't 2:29:26.720 --> 2:29:31.840 believe this, and he said, look, you take take take 2:29:31.879 --> 2:29:34.080 time upstairs and change him, clean him up, do what 2:29:34.080 --> 2:29:36.959 you gotta do. I don't know what that is. I'll 2:29:37.000 --> 2:29:40.320 clean up down here. This is Alton Joe. And I'm 2:29:40.320 --> 2:29:44.160 taking my infant son, my three year olds down upstairs 2:29:44.200 --> 2:29:46.879 to clean him up and bathe him. And I'm thinking, 2:29:47.440 --> 2:29:51.000 Alton's a good guy. You know, he's downstairs cleaning my kitchen. 2:29:51.080 --> 2:29:55.320 And I go downstairs and I swear it's fucking spotless. 2:29:56.360 --> 2:29:58.480 So I don't know many other people who can claim 2:29:58.560 --> 2:30:02.040 that to have something that Elton has done for them, 2:30:02.080 --> 2:30:05.720 but a great cup of tea and a great kitchen cleaner. 2:30:07.080 --> 2:30:11.359 Plus he's my buddy. Great stories. Let's say it really 2:30:11.600 --> 2:30:14.960 is the end? Yeah, can you sit at home and 2:30:15.000 --> 2:30:19.480 be retired? I mean, is that really an option for you? No? 2:30:19.520 --> 2:30:21.280 I wanted at home and be retired. I would never 2:30:21.320 --> 2:30:23.760 do that, Bob, I'm not. I'm not that guy at all. 2:30:25.040 --> 2:30:28.440 I'll be I'll continue to make music forever. And I've 2:30:28.480 --> 2:30:31.640 got a couple of things up my sleeve. One that 2:30:31.680 --> 2:30:35.800 I've been working on for many years, just gathering slowly 2:30:35.840 --> 2:30:39.840 gathering stuff for it, which is a documentary based on 2:30:40.400 --> 2:30:44.240 the original band and the way this whole thing came together. 2:30:44.360 --> 2:30:47.800 I mean, I'm talking about you know, Elton, Me, d 2:30:48.480 --> 2:30:54.200 Nigel and then later on Ray and it's really coming 2:30:54.240 --> 2:30:58.760 together and the stories are hilarious for the most part. 2:30:58.920 --> 2:31:01.720 Obviously there's some deep other kinds of stuff going on 2:31:01.800 --> 2:31:05.840 in there. You know, there's everything you could imagine. So 2:31:06.080 --> 2:31:08.840 when this thing is over, I'm getting back to it 2:31:09.400 --> 2:31:12.520 and probably take me about a year to finish, I 2:31:12.560 --> 2:31:15.360 would imagine. So either the very end of next year 2:31:15.440 --> 2:31:18.400 or the beginning of twenty twenty five, there'll be a 2:31:18.440 --> 2:31:26.080 documentary and it's a tentatively titled Harmony. Okay, one other thing. 2:31:26.720 --> 2:31:30.720 If you're not working, you playing the guitar every day, 2:31:31.800 --> 2:31:35.720 you know what. Normally I don't because I wouldn't necessarily 2:31:35.720 --> 2:31:38.280 pick up a guitar between tours because I just wanted 2:31:38.320 --> 2:31:42.800 to get away from music. But I found that, especially 2:31:42.840 --> 2:31:46.240 with COVID, as soon as I felt free enough and 2:31:46.640 --> 2:31:50.920 loose enough to do something for myself, the daily playing 2:31:51.000 --> 2:31:53.920 became fire against something that I haven't done for many, 2:31:53.920 --> 2:31:58.080 many years. So that's a very very acute question you 2:31:58.080 --> 2:32:00.360 asked me there, Bob, Because Yeah, I suddenly started to 2:32:00.480 --> 2:32:03.520 enjoying it again. Because there wasn't a deadline. I didn't 2:32:03.520 --> 2:32:06.240 have to worry about doing a certain thing, working a 2:32:06.240 --> 2:32:08.600 new song, a song that we've done with Elton for 2:32:08.640 --> 2:32:10.920 the band. It was just all about what I wanted 2:32:10.959 --> 2:32:14.680 to do, and that's what I'm enjoying. I'm going to 2:32:14.840 --> 2:32:19.400 enjoy getting back to well on that. No, Davy, this 2:32:19.440 --> 2:32:23.080 is a natural point of demarcation before the band gets 2:32:23.120 --> 2:32:26.640 back together, and so many things, and they're certainly you know, 2:32:26.879 --> 2:32:28.840 you talk about sleeping with the past. I got a 2:32:28.840 --> 2:32:31.879 lot of questions about that, but I think we're going 2:32:31.959 --> 2:32:33.920 to bring it to an end for today. So I 2:32:33.959 --> 2:32:36.959 want to thank you so much for spending this time 2:32:36.959 --> 2:32:40.560 with my audience. I've enjoyed this so much, Bob, and 2:32:40.600 --> 2:32:42.520 thank you so much for inviting me. Thanks for having 2:32:42.560 --> 2:32:44.879 me on here. And I'll call Dave Page to thank 2:32:44.920 --> 2:32:48.000 you for suggesting it. Oh listen great, I'm going to 2:32:48.120 --> 2:32:52.160 contact Page two in any event, till next time. This 2:32:52.280 --> 2:32:53.400 is Bob left Sex