WEBVTT - Eric Bazilian 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:07.920 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Bob Left Sets podcast. My 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:13.040 guest today is guitarist and songwriter extraordinary Eric Bazillium. He'll 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.680 know him from the Hooters, also as a songwriter of 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:21.599 Joan Osborne's one of us bon Jovi songs, Billy Myers 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.760 Kissed the Rain. We'll go on and I'm Eric. How 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.840 you doing, I'm great, Bob. Thanks. So let's start from 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.200 the beginning. You live in Sweden. I do live. I 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.200 live in Stockholm now. I've been living there, uh since, 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.559 since the summer. I've spent every summer there since I 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.960 met my wife in nine and then every other Christmas. 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.879 Done a couple of full years, but we decided to 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.400 do it again. Now did she meet you based on 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.479 your fame? Absolutely not. She sat next to me on 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.040 a flight from from JFK to Stockholm. We were on 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.279 our way to do a festival by that basically by 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.960 the North Pole. She had been. She had lived in 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.360 l A for a bunch of years, moved back to Sweden, 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:01.280 went back to l A to keep her green card 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:06.240 active and see if the the ex boyfriend was a thing. 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:12.160 So we sat next to each other, um exchanged phone numbers, um, 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.960 stayed in touch, found myself back there a few few 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.360 weeks later, and you know, it happened and the rest 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.600 is history. So you've been bands, most specifically the Hooters 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.560 were still together. Is who the members married to? Does 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.480 that affect the harmony of the band? It really can? Yeah? Yeah, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:33.840 I mean I was married what I call my training 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.600 marriage um before this, and she uh, she was also 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.360 our bands stylist and visual director. Um. So she's responsible 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.920 for those colors that we wore and that got weird, 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:50.400 it got really it complicated things a lot. Okay, So 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.800 you're from Philadelphia. I am from Philadelphia. Okay, when how 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.080 did you first get into music? Um? I saw the 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.040 Beatles on edge before that. Were you into music? It 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.080 get all before the people. My mom My mom was 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.480 like a child prodigy concert pianist. She like, yeah, she 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.120 went to Curtis when she was nine, Curtis the famous 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.679 Curtis Institute, and um uh she was studying at the 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.560 University of Pennsylvania. She met my father when she was eighteen, 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.600 got married, had me And Okay, wait, did you finish 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:22.680 college or she drop off? When she finished college in Wow, 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.640 did you finish a pen? She did? She she graduated 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.440 Penn after I did, so what motive hit her to 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.400 go back? She and my dad got divorced when I 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:33.320 was twenty one, and so she wanted to, you know, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:38.040 find herself. And she apparently I don't remember this, but 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:39.680 apparently she asked me, you know, what do you think 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.400 I should study? And I said, well, because my mother, 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.680 being even though she was a musician, had a serious 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.880 scientific bent about her. So I said, well, how about science? 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.720 So anthropology. So she ended up majoring in physical anthropology. 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.440 That's unbelievable. So your parents get divorced when you're twenty one. 0:02:57.440 --> 0:02:59.960 I have a very good friend whose parents got divorced 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.680 right after we graduate from college. It really messed him up. 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.680 Didn't mess you up? I didn't think it did at 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.639 the time. In retrospect, yeah it did. I mean, it's it, 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:11.760 you know, it shakes the foundation. But you know, I 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:17.200 was I wasn't living at home. Um, but you know, yeah, 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.240 I think on some level it definitely did. So since 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.600 she's a concert pianist, did she introduce you? She make 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.800 you take piano lessons as a little kid. She didn't 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.760 make me. I I asked her for them, and I did. 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:31.400 She used to play the piano in the house all 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:32.959 the time, and I would sit next to her while 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.760 she was rocking chopin really and I would you know, 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.000 that was the first that was really my first rock experience. 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.080 Even though she was playing chopin. I would just see 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:43.760 the way, you know, her eyes would roll up into 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.040 her head and she would you know, I want that? 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.360 Did She also play records in the house, not that much. 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.000 But then my uncle, my my father's brother, played guitar. 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.440 He was a folk musician. Yeah, of any noted, no, no, no, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:03:59.600 but he taught me my first guitar chords and my 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.240 first song on guitar. But the first song that I 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.840 ever learned to play and sing was El press Nueva 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.520 by Joan Bayaz and I learned it in Spanish. And 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.280 how old were you? I was nine or ten? I 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.040 think I was ten at that point, Okay. So you 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.680 start playing piano at what age six? Probably okay? And 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:18.760 when you when you pick up the guitar at what not? 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.400 Eight or nine? Not? Probably nine? And so you were 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.800 taught how to read music? To this day, can you 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.039 read music? I was taught to try to read music. 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.360 It's like I learned the alphabet, but I could never 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.640 like make music out of it. I've had a recent 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.599 experience with with reading because I am Someone showed me 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.359 a video of Chris Theely doing a Bach solo violand 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:44.480 sonata on mandolin. Now, mandolin, here's a mandolin. My my 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.120 career basically in the United well in the in the 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:52.640 United States, began with these cards. So I owe a 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.279 lot to the mandolin, but I never really addressed it 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.680 as a serious instrument. It was a spice in the Hooters, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.159 the Hooters Arsenal of sounds. Um. Someone showed me this 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.400 video of Christinely playing this Bach piece and I said, 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.200 I'm I'm gonna learn that. And this was right when 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.440 we had moved to Stockholm, and I walked into the 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.440 famous Hellstones music store and he had just gotten in 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.000 this ninety five Gibson mandolin. The price was right. I 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.839 didn't have a mandolin in Sweden. Bought the mandolin, went home, 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:25.800 downloaded the sheet music, printed it out. And that was 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.760 early September. And I am still struggling to play this piece, 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.800 but I can kind of read a little bit. Now. Wow, 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:38.040 so okay, you're playing guitar and piano a little bit 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.039 and then are you listening to the transistor? Philly has 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.600 a legendary radio stage. Yeah, oh, I listened to. You know, 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.040 it's funny that the Beatles weren't the first thing that 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.479 that shook my rock to my question? So what was ironically? 0:05:50.560 --> 0:06:04.599 The first record I ever bought was do Move? Uh 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:13.960 nak We can't play the too because we get into publishing, right, 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:16.880 But that was certainly good. But continue, So the first 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.800 song I learned was Sukiyaki, right, which is really called 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.800 Aruko by Ki Sakamoto. And I would stay home from 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.480 school feign illness to listen to the radio to hear 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.320 that song, which they were playing every playing every hour. 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.600 Your father was a psychiatrist. He didn't realize you were 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:37.120 feigning illness. No, he didn't notice. How many siblings do 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.720 you have? None? None? You're the old there's a lot 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.760 of pressure on you. Okay, So the Beatles. It's February 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.960 sixty four, February nine, The Beatles come on, Sullivan. How 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.040 does that change? My parents had gone to Baltimore to 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.080 look at it a Steinway for my mom, and I 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.919 opted to stay home because I wanted to watch the Beatles. 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.240 So I went over to our friend Bernie's house. You know, 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.960 they walked out, they did um all my loving and 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.600 you know, wow, And I remember when they remember because 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.880 underneath it they put the status of all the people. 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.000 And then he's married. I think it was. It was 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.440 during It was either at that point or I want 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:16.240 to hold your hand where I realized I want to 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.000 be him. First I looked at Paul, because no one 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.600 Paul was cute and he and and dark haired and 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.400 and I wanted to be him. And then I looked 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.400 at George, who was playing the solo for till there 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.080 was you, and I said, no, I want to be him. 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.560 Then I saw John, who was like the coolest guy alive. 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.560 I said no, I want to be him. And then 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.760 I saw Ringo, and no one had more fun than Ringo. 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.800 I realized I wanted to be all four of them. Okay, 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:41.840 So then what happened next? So what happened that next 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.160 was the next day Bernie and I started our first band. 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.800 Bernie was gonna play drums, and once again, Bernie's your 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.280 best friend, best friend. Okay, Bernie had any musical experience, 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:54.560 none whatsoever. Okay, and did you start said band? We did? 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:56.840 We did, We did it with our friend Paul. So 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.360 it was a trio. We and I called us the 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:04.080 Limes stuff like the quarry Men. And so before this 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.600 had happened and I had learned to play this Joan 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.760 Bayz song, my uncle I knew a guy named Gene 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.480 London who had a local kids show in Philadelphia, and 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.120 I performed on that show. So performed playing the guitar 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.640 and playing the guitar, singing the song. Well, that's pretty dramatic. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.960 Unfortunately they the tapes are long gone, but he brought 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:25.960 us back. So the Limestones performed on the Gene London show. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:27.920 We did A Hard Day's Night and House of the 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.080 Rising Sun. I mean, I'm speechless. So in high school 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:33.120 you must have been the biggest thing going. This is 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.079 so I was getting the crap kicked out of me 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.080 because I had long hair. Wow, you went to public 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.240 school or private? I went to public school through sixth 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.079 grade and then I went to private school. But you 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.640 didn't get yours k I actually did. In private school. 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:50.320 I went to a Quaker school, and I thought, oh, 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.679 I'm you know, I'm gonna be certain. No, it all 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.600 changed in like ninth grade. Uh, And like the guy 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:57.640 who was kicking my ass and eighth grade suddenly is like, 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.520 you know, my biggest defender of So you see the Beatles, 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.360 you need an electric guitar, API I got. Well, I 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:06.199 wanted to play bass because I wanted to be like 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.280 Paul first, So I got. I got you know, Dan 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.439 electro bass for eighty dollars. Okay, eighty dollars your parents 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.839 give you. Um, I had saved it, um, and I 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.760 got the bass. And we thought that Paul, who knew 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:21.640 a couple of chords, was going to play guitar. Well, 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.680 Paul couldn't play guitar, so Paul played bass. I played guitar. 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.360 And where'd you get a guitar? Paul had a guitar, 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.040 he had a Superro, he had like a thirty and 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:33.880 you had the amps too. I think we had one 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.920 amp between us, which is what the Beatles had for 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.400 a while. And we did, Um, yeah, we did. We 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:42.679 did the TV show and then um, that's sort of 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:47.400 never really caught fire. It wasn't until I was fifteen, 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:52.520 um that my first real band jailed. It was still Bernie, 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.240 Bernie and I and then um, there was a kid 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.880 that I went to Hebrew school with and Paul Vernick, 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.839 who kept trying to get me to play with him, 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:03.520 but he was such a nevish he was just like, 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:05.760 come on, man, come on man, I can sing, I 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:07.760 can play. Okay, fine, And then Bernie. It turns out 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.160 he went to high school with Bernie, and uh, Bernie said, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:12.920 you know, this kid is really good. So we got 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.120 the three of us got together. By this point, Bernie's 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.400 playing bass, We get a drummer. This kid opens Paul 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.240 opens his mouth, and I'm like, oh god, this is like, 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.120 you know, Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney. This was like the 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.200 voice and he played great rhythm guitar and he wrote songs. 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.160 So we had our first real band at fifteen sixteen. 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.760 It was called Evil Seed, and I just got in 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.559 touch with What are The guy who managed us back 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.760 then got in touch with me. He had recordings which 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.599 I thought were all gone, Wow, Where are Paul and 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.960 Bernie today? Paul is no longer with us. He had 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:53.040 substance issues, which ultimately kim okay. Bernie is in northern 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.240 California doing, you know, living a real life, having a 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.319 real job, still playing bass. We get together sometimes and 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.040 it's like where one brain with four hands Okay, so 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.679 you have Evil Seed, you're fifteen years old. What happens next? Musically? 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.920 You know, we start getting really good. Uh, and then 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.560 they come over to the house and fire me because 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:16.559 I have another year of high school left. I was 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.000 a year younger and um, and I was also taking pictures. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.079 I was really into photography at that point as well. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.599 I don't know whose idea it was, but they fired me. 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.199 And then three months later they came back cap in 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.640 hand and said, sorry, man, would you come back? And 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.160 did you go back? I did? I did because it 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.439 really was a great band. I mean, listen, how much 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.319 were you working in terms of you know, playing like 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.240 forts parties and stuff like that. We we actually someone 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.440 actually did hire us for about misfah and they shut 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.080 us down after the first song. They did not want 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.400 to hear Cream and Hendricks covers. So this was a 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.920 band you played in the living in the basement or 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.240 in the party room, but you didn't play out. We did. 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:54.839 We did. We played you know, coffee houses. There was 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.760 one legendary coffee house called the heck It Circle, like 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.480 he could he They got us um where a lot 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:03.559 of weird, a lot of weird ship went down but 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.559 I managed to stay away from all that. So so 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:08.760 this band, Evil Seed takes you all the way through 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:10.760 high school, all the way through high school yep, and 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.319 then you yourself go to PEN and I myself go 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.560 to Pen. Band kind of breaks up. At this point, 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.079 Paul has already had his his substance issues have already 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:20.520 gotten the better of him, and it turns out that 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.600 there are other mental mental health things involved. So yeah, 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.320 I go off to Pen and my first week there, 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.520 I go to an electronic music class that they have. 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.880 They have him Moog synthesizers, serial number zero zero three, 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:36.520 and I see this guy in there with really long 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:38.800 blonde hair down to his waist and I recognize him. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.320 He's in another Philly band called Wax that I've seen 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.920 open for the Birds, and um, we start talking and 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.240 hanging out and it turns out that his band, Wax 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.120 guitar player had left. At that point, their configuration was 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.080 two electric pianos, two drummers, a bass player, and a singer. 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:59.319 And I'm like, put me in. So I joined that band, 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:03.800 and that was challenging because he was at that even 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:08.040 at that point, Rob Himan was like that was Robbin. Yeah, Okay, 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.240 challenging because of his personality or because you weren't up 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.760 to snuff musically. I was up to snuff, but I 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.200 really had I mean I really did have to up 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.760 my game the musically. It was really some sophisticated music. 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.400 It was even then even instead we're talking about like 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:26.400 September seventy one. Okay, so you joined that band. How 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.880 much time goes to that band as opposed to school? 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.000 A lot? In fact, I basically almost flunked out second 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.840 semester freshman year. But you graduated a physics major. Right 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:41.560 by everybody's standards. Physics is not easy. You know, I'm wired. 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.120 I'm wired. Funny, I guess I was getting seasoned history 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.720 courses and a's in physics. Yeah, he just just comes naturally. 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:49.719 It didn't I had to work hard. But if I 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:51.839 worked hard, I'd get it and and the feeling of 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.199 satisfaction was similar to learning a piece of music. You 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.640 know that understanding Newton, understanding einst I there was there 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.360 was a moment, you know, there was magic eye paintings. 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:05.640 For me. It was like that I would stare at 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:07.199 a problem, and stare at a problem, and all of 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.560 a sudden I would see it clearly, and then if 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.440 I looked away, it would disappear. Okay, the obvious question 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.400 people would ask today is you have anything to do 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:20.720 with physics today? Not externally, but I think internally my process, 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.920 the way my subconscious mechanism works. I think it's the 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.440 same thing. I was going to ask that question second. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.440 So you certainly answered it. But when people don't get 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.040 today today, when it's funny, because it's our generation and 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.000 even younger generations, they send their kids to school as 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.000 a glorified trade school to get a job. Where we went. 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.080 Our parents said, if you go and you graduate, we 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.720 don't care what right. That's what That's what mine said exactly. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.240 So you are now playing with Rob in this band Wax, 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.880 to what degree? Do you have a dream of further success? 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.680 That's all I really want to do. In the meantime, 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.160 I took all the premed requirements and you know, got 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:59.920 my degree. Rob graduated three years before I did. H 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.280 So he and the singer David went off and just 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.680 kept writing songs. Meanwhile, Rick Schurdoff, who was the drummer 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.240 in that band, goes and gets a job for Clive 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.920 Davis as an A and R slash producer. His first 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.760 act of a and our heroism is he finds Mandy 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.360 for Barry Manilow. By Clive's terms, that's a huge victory. Yeah, 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.080 well by anybody's terms. I mean, Clive is always about 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:22.400 when you would go for a meeting with Clive, when 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.000 you want to hire somebody, he would say, bringing five 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.200 songs that are out there that you believe will be 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:29.960 covered and be hits. That's exactly what he what. I 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.120 think that was one of them. I think peaceful Easy 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.280 Feeling was one. I think Mandy came later. I don't 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:37.880 think that was an audition song. So so so Rick 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.320 goes off there and you're left at pen doing what 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.120 studying physics? And I had a band, you know, my 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.840 my roommate who had known from high school years. He 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.600 had a Hammond organ, and then we found some other guys. 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.160 We had a band called Cyclic Blowfield and his funky calypsos. 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.400 Definitely the seventies. And to what degree were you known 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.760 in Philadelphia? Not at all? We played fat part ease um, 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.840 you know, w and what to what degree was there 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.280 a scene in Philly at that point? There wasn't. That's 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.760 the thing there really wasn't much of a scene. Yeah, 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.360 the famous Tower Theater where David Bowie cut his live album, 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.280 So there was a live music scene, but none of 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.920 the local people were populating. The Tower didn't really start 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:23.840 going until the mid seventies, right seventy four, even seventy 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.520 There was a spectrum and where the roof blew off? 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.120 Where the roof? Yeah, yea for those I don't know, 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.920 that's a famous arena in Philadelphia. So the roof blows 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.640 off the spectrum. But were you an avid concert going yourself? Oh? Yeah, yeah, 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.160 I was a photographer too. Did you have a dream 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.560 of being a successful to be the Annie Leeb of it? No, 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.160 I had a dream of being John Paul George and Ringo. 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.720 But in the meantime, I enjoyed taking pictures of these 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:48.280 people and I love being in the dark room. I 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.560 loved printing them. So it was purely a hobby. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.840 except that at that point, bands would play two nights 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.200 at the Electric Factory. They play Friday and Saturday. I've 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:58.680 got on Friday. First in line, get right up front, 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.280 which is literally pushed up against the stage, which is 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.720 about a yard high. Shoot Shoot Shoot, Shoot, Go Home. 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.280 Developed the negatives, let him dry overnight, spend all day printing, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.680 go back down, get first in line, and sell prints 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.400 to kids online. So you were obviously dedicated. You would 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:14.920 sell them to the sell them to the people in 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:16.880 the line. How much would you selve them for? Buck? 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:18.919 Buck and a half? Maybe? How big were the prints? 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.280 Five by seven? Eight by ten? Really? Yeah? And what 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.240 was somebody's supposed to do with the print during the show? Yeah, 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.200 you know, nobody ever seen. But then I would I 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.120 started handing them to the bands on stage. People would 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.280 come out, someone would come out and say, with the 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.399 individual who handed those photographs to Rod Stewart please come backstage? 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.560 And did you meet Rod Stewart? I did? I did? 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.560 And Ronnie Wood. It was the first Faces tour and 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.640 like like an idiot, I sold the Negatives while Rod 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.520 Stewart was so cool back then he was So those 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:51.200 were the first rock stars you met? Or did you 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.000 met other people? Um? I actually had um? Well, but 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.000 yeah that was them, Jeff back ten years after. I 0:17:58.080 --> 0:17:59.800 really went after ten years after because I wanted to 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.880 be Alvin Lee and I actually got to be friends 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.040 with them because I was fifteen sixteen, but I looked 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.040 twelve my voice didn't change a lot of sixteen. So 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.680 this begs the question greatest guitarists in rock history. Ah, 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.920 that's that's a pantheon. I mean I have my favorites 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.480 for different things. George Harrison obviously, because he was the 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.240 first guitarist that had parts, he really played orchestra Ley. 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.720 Then came the Holy Trinity, Clapton, Beck, and Hendricks. Okay, 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.560 of those, how do you rank those three or the unrankable? 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.160 They're kind of unrancable, I say, technically Beck right, hands 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:38.280 down if you like panatonic blues, Clapton revolutionizing the guitar 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.760 as a world Hendricks. Okay, so let's go back. So 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.200 Rick Shart off to New York working for Clive, and 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.600 Rob is playing in his own band because he graduated 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:49.880 three years before. He and David the singer are writing. 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.919 They're just writing songs so that Rick can signed them 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:57.439 to Arista. Right when I'm about to graduate, they get signed, right, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.520 that's Baby Grant. That's Baby Grant. So again it's a 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:02.680 keyboard player and a and a singer. They need a 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.959 guitar player. Okay, So were you in touch with them 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.840 when they called you? Yeah? I touch all through. Okay, 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:10.560 so you called, so you must have thought you made it. 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.160 I thought, this is it. You know, I'm gonna I'm 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.600 gonna make a lot of money right away, and you 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:17.240 know we're going to go on the road and all 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.240 that great stuff that goes along with it. And then 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.520 what happens, Well, well, we're still working on the songs 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.480 and and you know, Rob's playing me these songs. And 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.200 you know, the thing about meeting Rob was I met 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.240 my equal, you know. I mean, Paul, who was in 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.080 The Evil Seed was an amazing songwriter singer, but Rob, 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.560 you know, his musicality just was on another level. I 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:41.639 mean really it was. To me, it was like Steely 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.680 Dan on steroids, the way his his sense for chord 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.879 changes and melodies, and and David who wrote all the lyrics. Then, um, 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.639 so it really really challenged me and it made me 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:53.960 up my game, especially when it was time to arrange 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.960 these songs and come up with signature guitar parts, and 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.359 I would come up with like instrumental sections. I'd go 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.359 off and would it and come back with this you know, 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:05.120 three minute exploration and they loved it because you could 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.800 do that. Then yeah, well listen, nothing better than having 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.639 your work be loved. So you make the record who 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.480 produced that record? Rick Rick and Rob Okay and the 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.040 record comes out. I have to own that record where 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.280 you're not on the cover and you got the person 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:20.560 made out of vegetables. And that's the second album. Well 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.239 that's the second album. I don't know if I own 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:24.800 the first. First one has has a Botero painting. I 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:26.879 have to go back to my collection. I certainly remember 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.600 the second. So you get to make two records. But 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.719 by my standards, nothing really happens with either of those rounds. Now. 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:34.119 I mean, we had a couple of shows where it 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.359 really felt like it was happening, and afterwards we're going, 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.880