WEBVTT - Justin Hayward 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.400 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.200 My guest today is Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.639 Justin so good to have you on the podcast. Thank you, 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.439 my my pleasure. I believe. Okay, you have a new single, 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.520 Living for Love. Tell me how that came to be? 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:32.600 While I sit down and play the guitar, you know, 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.479 and these things jump out of the guitar. I've got 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:43.280 a beautiful um Gibson J two hundred and I sat 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:49.400 down one night and in January this year, and the 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.720 song just popped out. So I had eight percent of 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.440 it within a few minutes. And then I woke up 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:59.400 the next morning played it again and I thought, oh, 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:03.480 this is really nice, so I I finished the rest 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:08.080 and then I went down to um the studio that 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.440 I use in Genoa, which is not far from here, 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.920 and recorded it and I really love it, you know, 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.119 I'm still I'm still loving it now. And he released 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:21.480 it to two weeks ago. But I've been doing it 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.120 on stage on the UK tour and I'm thinking when 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:30.520 when I do the gig and I think, um, well, 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:32.640 I wonder if I still like it after singing it 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.480 every night? And then I came back and put it 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.440 on and I thought, oh, it's great. Yeah, I love it. 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.120 That's how it happens. You know what you're asking me? 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.360 How do these How is it? How? I don't know. 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.440 Just I just plick up a plectrum in the guitar 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.800 and these things. I'm a songwriter. This happens. Okay, let's 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:51.680 talk about a few things. You talk about your J 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.040 two hundred. Are you a gearhead? Do you have a 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:59.120 lot of guitars, recording equipment? I have some nice things. Yeah, 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:04.360 I'm discrim anating, so I don't have a lot of stuff. Yeah, 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:08.239 I have a lovely Martin D twenty eight that I've 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:12.320 had since the sixties. And that's an interesting story how 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:17.280 I got that guitar. But that's another thing. Tell me 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.000 the story of how you get the dw Okay, so 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:25.400 do you you know d Martin Dwight? Absolutely, absolutely right. 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:30.840 So it's a nineteen fifty seven Dwight. And when in 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.520 the sixties, there used to be when we first went 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.280 to America, there used to be maybe five or six 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.600 bands on the on the bill, and we were never 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.000 top of the bill. But one day we got to 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:47.680 be headlining but in the early years we weren't. So 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.280 you get five or six bands and even a light shows, 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.119 kind of psychedelic light show on the bill. And there 0:02:54.360 --> 0:03:00.120 was at that time these young uh lads, I have 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.840 to say then because they were boys. Yes, they were boys. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.320 So boys who used to travel around America and look 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:12.000 for really beautiful guitars because you could do that then 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.520 in the sixties they hadn't been found or they were 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.519 in it's a hard work for British people to say, 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:23.200 but pawn shops p A w N or people's homes 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.800 or little music shops tucked away in places, and these 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.839 boys would know these guitars, how beautiful they were, and 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.520 they only chose really the best ones. And when we 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.840 would come off stage, each there's only one guitar in 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.000 the movie Blues, that's me, but some some groups would 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.120 have two or three guitar players. And when you walked 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.600 off stage at these gigs, you were just about to 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:51.360 be paid, and you'd walk past about six beautiful guitars 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.840 that these boys had in the van and they'd line 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.160 them up as you came off stage on your way 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.080 to the dressing room or whatever they call the a 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.040 synch room, you know in those days, and you and 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.560 I looked at some I looked at this D twenty 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.320 and I thought, oh, that that is really looks so sweet, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.200 you know, And I picked it up and it was 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.080 the nicest acoustic guitar I've ever played, and it still 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:20.000 is to this day. So that's how I came by 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.440 a few of these guitars in the sixties. That's how 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:26.679 it used to happen. But that's how that one happened. Okay, 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.440 when it comes to guitar, certainly D is the acoustic standard, 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:36.200 but certainly with Gibson's, everyone even of the same model, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:42.480 will sound different. Have you found that with your guitars? Absolutely? 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:48.880 But um I met the guys who made my my 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.960 three three five, My red Gibson three three five was 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:57.120 made in three I had. I actually had a three 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.320 three five brand new in sixty three, but I couldn't 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.200 afford to keep it then in the Moody Is. I've 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.719 been in the Moodies for about a year and I 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.400 had enough money to put a deposit down on another 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.760 three through five. So I found the prep my present 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.920 three three five, And when I was able to go 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:17.720 to the US and visit Kalamazoo in Michigan. I just 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.400 turned up and they were like, hey, just earned you know, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.480 pictures of your three three five and that the serial number. 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:31.800 And I met the guys who made it, and they said, 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.200 we because we've seen your guitar in pictures on on 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.080 on video on the TV and kind of stuff like that, 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.440 we know your guitar and we will remember it because 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.880 there wasn't that we remember those kind of things. It 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:48.680 has a big bag Factsbury factory, Bigsby, and two pieces 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.520 of mother of pearl where the stop to help us were. 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:56.480 So they remembered it. And they said that the next 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:00.240 one on the line didn't have what mine had. They 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.600 knew that that when they take them off the line, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:07.600 they know that one's nice and one's like, you know, 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:13.800 one was fabulous, and one's like, oh, doesn't quite come together. 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:19.200 So that's that's the way instruments are, isn't it okay? 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.719 In terms of electrics, you have the three thirty five, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.520 that semi hollow body. Do you have any other electrics 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:31.800 that you favor. I've got my telecaster from That's that's 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.000 what I bought when I first joined the mood is 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:41.440 sixty five and then I've got a Tom Anderson that 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:50.520 is beautiful. I've got a Parker that is really uh 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.120 really good for recording. How you plug it straight in 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:58.160 direct into the desk, got beautiful sound. That's about it. Okay, 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.080 you said you're in Genuay. Know you cut the record 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.240 in Italy. Are you living full time in Genoa? And 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.480 why Genoa? I'm not living in general. No, I'm down 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:13.320 the road. Okay, you're you're living. You go to Genoa 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.400 to record, You're living in Italy? What inspired you to 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.480 live in Italy? No, I don't live in Italy. I 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.440 live just across the border, across the French border. Well, 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.840 let me ask you a different way, what inspired you 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:27.960 to live in that area as opposed to the UK. 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:31.840 I had a holiday home in this part of the 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:37.160 world in the eighties and I was coming back here 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:43.520 and then I got to know musicians along the Coat Dessore, 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:48.800 along the Riviera coast from sort of Marseille through to 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.720 live Orno in Italy, and there was a lot of 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.520 English musicians in the eighties and early nineties who were 0:07:54.560 --> 0:08:01.160 playing with Italian rock stars or French rock stars who 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.160 all wanted English kind of guitar players and musicians because 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:11.480 English players got rock and roll, and I'm not sure 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.320 that the Italians and the French did. But anyway, the 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.960 Italian the French artists wanted really English guitar players because 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.960 they had a different kind of background cultural background. I 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.600 think English with rock and roll music, with the three 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.280 chords and um So I met a lot of people 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.839 musicians along this coast recording and they became really friends, families, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:39.199 and and I became part of that group and community, 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:44.320 and that led me to Italy and to record there. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.280 I can't I can't say I can actually afford to 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.840 go and record in London because it's like joke, money, 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.800 but where do you live? I live in Los Angeles, 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.560 And we could talk about today's economic world and what's 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.200 going on in the UK, but uh, let's let's stay 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.160 with the money. You know you, so, could you could 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.240 you afford to go and rent a studio in l A? Now? 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:10.960 I will tell you. I will tell you like a 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.160 week l A. Since it's a hot bed of the 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:20.360 music industry and universal music is located here. There are 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:25.280 many home studios, and the home studios are so good 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.200 that the only reason someone goes to a big studio 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.200 is to cut basics to get a certain drums sound 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:36.560 or something. So many times you can go to a 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.320 big studio for a day or two, and except for 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:43.080 a couple of elite studios, the prices have actually gone down. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.520 So as far as the old days, you know, locking 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:52.520 out a studio for six weeks, Um, nobody does that anymore. 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:58.200 So could someone afford the thousand dollars to dollars to 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.040 record one or two day is in a big studio 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.160 if they are a major label artist, yes, if they're 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.200 in putting out their records independently, they will do their 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.960 best not to do that, but maybe one day. But 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.559 that begs a question of money. You had great success 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.559 fifty years ago in a band with multiple members when 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:23.440 the royalties were low, So how is your financial situation today? 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:30.079 Which multiple members? What does that members? No? No? When 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.760 you have the songwriting in your group, uh, there were 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.480 different people who wrote different songs, some acts the same 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.840 person wrote all ten songs. As we know, most of 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.280 the money is in the songwriting unless you have an 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.720 overall deal where you mix the recording revenue in the 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.679 publishing will pay for a minute once. Some people own it. 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.400 Some people don't own it. Some people sold it. Record 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.520 royalties are lower. They have to split five ways. Uh, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.960 when you go on the road, the money has to 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.920 be split. So it's different from being a solo artist 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.240 who owns all the songs. Never Mind, fifty years ago 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:13.480 royalty rates were lower. And your question is, well, now 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.600 that it's fifty years later, how good is the income 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:24.760 stream from the moodies I'm doing Okay. I've spent my 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:29.160 life on the road as well. Okay, I'm going I'm 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:33.520 doing all right. Thanks, okay, and you I could I 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:37.320 could afford, I could afford to speak to you about. Okay, 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:43.280 And do you still own your own publishing? Um? I 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.280 own the I never did own the copyrights of my 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.840 early material and who who did own it? I own 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.160 a ship up the copyrights? Um the t R oh 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.520 okay and but the the So you're still getting the 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:06.680 song writing for writing the songs. Some people sell those 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:13.400 royalty streams. Do you still own yours? I'm doing okay, okay, 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.960 So let's go looking good. Thanks, Okay. Let's go back 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.520 to the song. You talked about your seeing the guitar 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.920 you come up with the sound. Is that normally how 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.200 you write on inspiration? Or is it sometimes a more 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:34.120 labored process. UM, well, that that's a good question. I'm 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:39.120 not sure that I I, Um, you know, if we 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.240 if song writes us sat around and waited for inspiration, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.600 I think we're working a long time. I find that 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.600 I if I put my mind to it, if I 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.679 if I decided to sit down, if I decided to 0:12:54.679 --> 0:13:00.199 write a song, and I can, I can do it. Now. 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.520 There was much more pressure in the early days of 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:07.360 the band because with the first with the albums of 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:12.200 the mood Is, there was always there was always the 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:16.800 thing where, oh, Justin will have something because he always 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.800 had stuff ready. You know, I'm the son of two teachers, 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.959 and I always had my stuff ready, so I would 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:29.160 never studio time was really precious to me. So if 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.720 there was a studio, if there was a session happening 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:33.880 on the Saturday, on the Friday night, I would have 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.760 something and be ready to go. And the other and 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.480 that was great. The others knew that, oh, Justin will 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:41.719 have something, and so we could kick. I could kick 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.760 the ball down the pitch and that was that was great. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:46.679 But there was a lot of pressure to do that 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.080 because the records kept coming, so I had to just 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.200 move on quickly from one to the other. Now I 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:58.360 have more time about it because I can. I'm still 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:03.280 um can I put it. I'm still want to be 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:08.200 true to my goal goals of making music and earned 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.480 playing music live, so I can. I can take my 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.840 time over that. I'm offered a lot of work on 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.800 the road, which most of it I say, Yeah, that's great, 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:24.840 and I can be choose what I do and when 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.000 I write it and do it as a pleasure not 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.480 as a pressure. Okay, you talked about seeing the G 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.960 two hundred picking it up when you were not on 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.440 the road. Do you play the guitar every day? And 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:44.080 how often do you just pick it up and get inspired? Ah? 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.080 You see? You you keep using this word inspired. You know, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.400 if we, like I said, we sat around waiting to 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:55.680 be inspired, we you wouldn't do much. So what maybe 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.200 you would, but you know, just looking at looking out 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.280 the window waiting for somebody, or we're looking for a 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:06.120 girl to come by, and oh that's nice. But I 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.760 find it's you have to put your mind to it. 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.080 I can't. I can't remember what you're saying about the guitars. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.120 What do you say about that? Well, I I guess. 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.360 I guess it sounded like with the new song that 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.560 you were just drumming and something keen to you. Ah, 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:27.320 that's how it usually works. I enjoy playing so that 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:33.360 stuff just comes stuff just comes out. And in this 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:38.840 particular song, you've talked about it being optimistic, harkening back 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:43.320 to an era there was more optimistic. Is that true? 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:49.920 Can you amplify that? Um? I think I was lucky 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.960 enough to be in a generation that didn't have the 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:59.320 weight of constant news bombarding them because there wasn't took 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.640 place to uh you know, I hardly listened to the radio, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.000 but me and my brother used to listen to Radio 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:11.480 Luxembourg and we had about three or four records, and 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.240 my brother's friend had three or four and my friend 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.240 and then you could have a whole nights entertainment with 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.480 about world records. But I come from a time when 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:27.320 the music was particularly wonderful. Now music is great today. 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.280 I would there are kids out there falling in love 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.840 right now to the music that's just being made at 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:39.240 this moment, and they'll remember that all their lives. And 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.720 it was a time for me when I knew that 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.720 I could get a job. I was in a loving 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:53.200 family with my brother and my sister, and it was 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:58.320 a time of optimism under under and a commitment that 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.800 you that another war like my parents had gone through 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.200 would never happen again. So it was a safe, secure, 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:10.320 optimistic world. And in that world there was wonderful music. 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.640 That was our lives and we were living for love. 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.720 I was living for love and girls and boys around us, 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.920 and I had I had a wonderful school, and I 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:31.560 lived not in luxury, but I lived in the English countryside, 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.760 which is the most beautiful. And you know, you've only 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.280 realized these things later, don't you, Bob, buttely I realized that. 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.639 So it was. It was. It was really good, you know, 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:43.960 it was kind of funny. I was laughing all the time, 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.480 and I was living for love and that's it. And 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:54.240 if if we were able to do that now, I 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.400 think the world would be a better place. I'm full 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:03.800 bringing love back. That's what I'm for, not against anything. 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:08.240 I'm just for stuff. Okay, what did your parents do 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:12.080 for a living in the country side that they were Well, 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.639 we lived in Swindon, which is set in the west 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.840 country of England. It's in the veil of the White Horse. 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:25.240 My parents both taught in different schools. My father talked 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.199 in quite a rough school. He taught when when I 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:30.679 was a small boy, he taught Latin. It was just 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.680 but he taught Latin, English and what was quaintly called 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.960 divinity in those days. And my mother taught domestic science, 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.040 and she taught in a girls school. My father taught 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:45.879 in a boys school. My mother's taught in a girls school. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.600 I was lucky enough to pass the eleven pross along 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.679 with my brother the same, and we went to what 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.560 was known as a grammar school. If you passed this 0:18:57.640 --> 0:18:59.840 exam when you were eleven, you went to a better 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.399 last of school. It was a state exam. It wasn't 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.120 you didn't have to pay anything for it. But that's 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.560 the way it was then. And my brother and I 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.320 went to a beautiful school. Yeah, but my parent, like 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:18.160 I said, my parents English, English, literature, grammar, um, Latin 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:24.600 disappeared after you know in the but then my mother 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:29.399 domestic science. And you reference your brother and your sister. 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.920 Where are you in the family, oldest, middle, youngest, Well, 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.640 my brother died young, but he was in the Royal 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:42.120 Navy and um, so we lost him. He was only 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:45.880 forty one when he passed. But I'm the second son, 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.480 and my sister is quite a few years younger than me, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.960 eight or nine years younger than me. And what kind 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.440 of kid were you growing up? Were you the type 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.000 who played sports and had a lot of friends? Were 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:07.879 you more introvert? Did? Maybe every child is introverted? Um? Um? 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.359 What was like? I don't know. I always had a 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.040 lot of friends, always had a lot of fun laughs. 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:20.159 Um fALS a lot with my brother of course, you know. 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:26.080 And that's the way brothers are, um, jumping on each 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:27.800 other and trying to get the better of each other. 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.320 My brothers only was only about eighteen months older than me, 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.080 so we were kind of the same. So we were 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:38.880 punching each other all the time. Um. But I don't 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.240 know what child, or what kind of childer was really, 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.680 But I know that I loved music. I come from 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:49.760 a family with a very strong faith, and so I 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:55.199 loved the music of the English hymnal or hymn's ancient 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:59.680 and modern? Was was was a hymn book in the 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:03.399 anger look in church, and I love those. We used 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.600 to sing them in in assembly every morning. Every morning 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.400 in school you'd have an assembly and you'd sing those 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.800 and sing them at church, and I got to know them, 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:17.800 and I love those melodies and the things in Him's 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.080 ancient modern so that it's only about four or five, 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:25.000 and I can one of my earliest memories as loving 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:31.880 this music and these and under hymns. So that's that's 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:40.520 what I grew up with. At what point did you 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:45.880 start playing a musical instrument? Oh? I My parents knew 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:51.399 that I love music, so they sent me for like 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.800 one or two piano lessons. I knew that wasn't gonna work. 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:59.000 I couldn't get the mathematics. I was never good at mathematics, 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:02.800 but so I couldn't get the mathematics of music is 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.159 beyond me or just to differ us too lazy. But 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.560 I could kind of play. My grandfather had a piano. 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.439 Most houses after the war had a piano. They were 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:22.240 subsidized form with the purpose of making us do home entertainment, 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.040 you know. I think that was the post war government idea, 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.640 and it was a good idea. So most families would 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:33.119 have a piano that costs very very little, and my 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:35.679 grandfather would very kindly just say I go in the 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:37.760 front room and bash on the piano. You know, I 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.480 don't care, so I was able to do that. But 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:44.920 I knew that I wanted a guitar, so I pested 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:48.639 and pested my parents when I was about eight, and 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.199 they didn't buy me a guitar. They bought me a 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:56.640 ukulele that didn't cost very much, so I could plain 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:58.800 the uk I knew. I'd played the ukulele straight off. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.200 It's kind of easy, ding ding ding ding. I don't 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:06.200 know whether you're a player, but that's so extitute, and 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:08.359 the spacing is the same as the top four strings 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:10.960 of a guitar. So it's like, yeah, okay, complay that. 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:13.040 So I'm going to pester you some more for a guitar. 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:15.800 So I got a guitar when I was ten, and 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:20.320 then I was forming groups. Okay, what error was that? 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:22.919 In popular music? What was on the radio when you 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:30.479 were forming groups? Buddy Holly? Well, in fact, but Buddy 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:35.920 died what fifty nine February fifty nine. But in England 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:40.160 and in Great Britain, it's hard to explain how it's hard. 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:42.960 It's hard to convey how big Buddy what what a 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:46.960 huge artist Buddy Holly was and a huge influence to people. 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:51.320 So Buddy Holly Everly Brothers, thank goodness. And in Great 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:54.360 Britain we had Cliff in the Shadows, who I love 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:58.320 then and I love them now today. And then of 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:01.360 course everything changed. But I was in nineteen sixty three 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:04.399 and I was in London in six four. I was 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:09.080 a professional musician then, because um, I got a job 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:12.320 when I was about seventeen playing guitar for a rock 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:16.639 and roll singer. But yeah, so Buddy Holly, the evil is. 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:20.760 I was never an Elvis guy, you know. I my 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:24.159 girlfriends always loved Elvis, but it was Buddy for me 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:28.159 all the way. And a lot of English rock and 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:32.000 roll heroes as well. So needles say in the US, 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:35.879 when the Beatles broke really in January sixty four, it 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:39.040 changed everything. I could delineate the ways, but I won't. 0:24:39.359 --> 0:24:44.720 They broke earlier sixty two in the UK. To what 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:49.160 degree did the Beatles change the game? And what were 0:24:49.160 --> 0:24:54.879 you inspired? Were you a fan? You use that word again? 0:24:56.920 --> 0:24:59.840 Don't be inspired, don't you, Bob? You want the secret 0:24:59.880 --> 0:25:04.080 to of how to be inspired? No, there are no secrets. Actually, 0:25:04.160 --> 0:25:06.560 I think you can only open your mind, take a shower, 0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:10.000 go out and exercise the inspiration might happen, but if 0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:12.960 you try and a trick inspirit, inspiration can't do it. 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:20.280 Um yeah, okay, So the Beatles. I remember in my 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:25.080 hometown of Swindon hearing Love Me Do on the radio 0:25:26.840 --> 0:25:32.080 and I walked out of my house in Swindon and 0:25:32.160 --> 0:25:35.400 I remember this as clear as anything. I walked down 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:39.119 the street after hearing Loved Me Do and know and 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:44.520 I knew my life was going to be different. You anybody, 0:25:44.560 --> 0:25:50.800 any kid of that era, particularly a little herbit like 0:25:50.960 --> 0:25:57.639 me playing guitar, would know that something has happened, something 0:25:57.680 --> 0:26:00.760 has changed in the in the way the Beatles made 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:07.280 that record, and it was monumental, you know, that's yeah, 0:26:07.320 --> 0:26:10.560 And I wasn't disappointed that there's a strange thing. Also, 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:13.359 I remember that just after Love Me Do, there was 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:17.879 a guy on the radio. It's quite a nice old gentleman, 0:26:17.920 --> 0:26:20.520 but he was like in charge of what people thought 0:26:20.560 --> 0:26:26.119 about music, was on the BBC and he was on 0:26:26.200 --> 0:26:28.479 lots of programs. It all was wheeling in when they 0:26:28.520 --> 0:26:31.879 wanted to know something about music or discussed music or 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:37.960 anything like that. And so after we'd as young people, 0:26:38.000 --> 0:26:42.480 we discovered the Beatles and they discovered us I saw 0:26:42.520 --> 0:26:46.359 this man on the on the on the television my 0:26:46.480 --> 0:26:50.800 girlfriend's house, and he and he was saying, my this, 0:26:51.040 --> 0:26:55.560 you know, like the Beatles that will never last, you know, 0:26:55.600 --> 0:26:57.600 I give them like a few weeks, didn't at this 0:26:57.640 --> 0:27:01.479