WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: James Taylor 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:05.520 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Here we Go, 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:09.920 Suprema Some Supremo. 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:21.520 Roll called Suprema Supremo, Roll call Suprema Supremo, Roll Suprema Supreme. 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:22.400 Roll call. 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:27.840 It's ladies night. Yeah, let's celebrate. Yeah, get down on it. 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:37.400 Yeah, Wron James Taylor Supreme Supremo, Role called Suprema So Supreme. 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:38.320 Roll call. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.440 My name is Sugar. Yeah, I'm the engineer. Yeah, and 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.440 I love great music. Yeah, that's why I'm here. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:53.440 Supreme Supremo. Roll Supreme Supremo. 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.400 Roll call. My name's Boss Bill. 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:56.240 Yeah. 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.440 And I ain't no sucker. Yeah, what are we doing? 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.200 Roll call Brother Trucker, Supremo. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.480 Supremo, Roll Suprema So Supremo. 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.080 Roll call It's like yeah. 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:17.640 And James Taylor, Yeah, I ain't no lame, no fine range, 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.360 roll call Supremo, Son Sun Supremo. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:30.600 Roll I'm James. Yeah, I came up here today. I 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:35.840 guess I'm here for you. I'm ready, suprem. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.679 We'll take it. Supremo. Roll call Sprema, Roll. 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:49.240 Supremo, roll call Suprema Sun Supremo, Roll call Suprema Supremo. 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:50.160 Roll call. 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.000 Nice. All right, we got through that. 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:57.680 Just barely know. 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.520 Ladies and gentlemen, we have less than an hour to 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:10.040 unravel the complex artistry of over fifty years. That is 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.200 our guest today and probably one of my favorite singers ever. 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.720 I'll just say on a personal note to be selfish 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.440 on the show that has my name in it, James 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:27.720 Taylor is. His voice, in my opinion, is probably hands down. 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:36.360 I believe one of the most beautiful, soothing, warm sounds 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.320 that I can recall. It's kind of my trusted blanket, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:46.320 you know. It's a favorite uncle, my favorite teacher in school. 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.520 And yeah, this is coming from a guy who also 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.720 thinks that HR from Bad Brains is equally as soothing. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.399 I'm sorry, but I'm gonna take it as a compliment. 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.480 Yeah, James sale in hr Man, I'll be the first 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:08.960 to admit that, Well, one, I'm probably the only media 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:14.600 personality that doesn't care if that song was about you. 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:19.600 She's already said that it wasn't about him. Well, I know, 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.720 I know, but you. 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.680 Know, mainly mainly mainly because I think I pegged it 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:29.679 in my head. With a voice that soothing, I'd never 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.200 bothered to even look under the hood. I don't know 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.440 if I subconsciously didn't want to look under the hood 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:39.800 because it's just like that's my trusted blanket. And in 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.280 the week and a half of preparation that I decided 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.920 to search under the James Taylor hood. 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.760 Yikes, I was wrong. 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.240 And you know, his his newest book Breakshot, or his 0:03:55.280 --> 0:04:00.800 audiobook Breakshot Audible. Yes on Audible Exclusive. So it's a 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.880 must be for us an here for every artist I 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.720 ever worked with. This is literally like I'm not even 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:12.720 separating myself. It's probably I needed this too. It dissects 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:17.520 the first twenty one years of his life and which 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.200 is kind of an understatement to say, is a rather 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.320 dark journey which now really has me to the point 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:29.479 where I'm just obsessed with entertainers or comedians or actors 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:34.040 or whoever that managed to ruise me in a way, 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.839 in a way of like ladies and gentlemen, James Tayale 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:38.160 is here. 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:39.800 Everyone's looking at each other. 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.600 Like, yeah, man, it's like we got We've only got you. 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.360 We got fifty one minutes left his voice. Thank you 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.880 for coming on the show. You know, you know the 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.880 special this is Zarah is here. Yeah, and it's not 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:57.840 even a political figure thereah one of my managers only here. 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.080 Whenever someone's here. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.719 Discuss politics and Chris, it does it out, especially, you know, 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.240 if she's in the room watching how how are you? 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.159 I'm good, I'm good. Yeah, you know, it's it's like 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:18.040 a We've got a couple of projects that are coming 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.480 out at the same time and a tour h starting 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.159 up in April, so you know, it's a very like 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.359 a it's a busy season, and it's it's kind of 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.200 a promotional season, you know, and where you take your 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:37.000 stuff to market. And that's always been you know, that's 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:41.479 always been a kind of a difficult passage for me. 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.440 Will you make a project you know over a in 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.400 this case, it took us a couple of years to 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.920 make this album, and uh, and then you take it 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.520 by its little hand and lead it into the marketplace, 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.760 you know, and and launch it. And that's that's always 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.000 sort of a can be a you know, a confusing process, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:03.599 but but it's one that I've I've gotten used to. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:08.440 And not only that, it's become much much better as 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:14.840 time has gone by. I'm talking to people almost completely 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:20.679 who I who I admire and and respect, and and 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.000 that makes all the difference. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:22.240 You know. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:26.320 I mean back in the beginning, you'd sort of go 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.440 to Rolling Stone and hope that some intern who is 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:35.520 interviewing you, you know, cutting your teeth on on your 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:41.000 your project and reviewing it, that that could be really 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:45.360 uh just just made it a daunting kind of a 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:49.520 process to get into. But but you know, I've been 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.719 feeling really good about this, this particular project and the 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.440 people I've met and talked to about it. 0:06:55.800 --> 0:07:01.040 So you're saying, even this late in the game, when 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:08.320 you create product, you still go through the process of 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.840 its critical reception. It's how it fares well with your 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.720 fan base and whatnot. You still have those. 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:23.560 Absolutely, you know it. It's still a part of the work. 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:30.160 It's it's where you you know, music used to happen. Well, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.680 it used to happen in the street, and it used 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:37.640 to happen in the in the on the farm. Uh. 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:39.680 But it used to happen in the church and in 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:44.040 the court, you know, those who are or in academia somehow, 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:50.400 you know. And I think that having music exists in 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:56.640 a commercial context where it's saleable, is a better choice. 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.960 That's better than the court or the church. In my opinion, 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:06.280 It's not better than essentially folk music, which is which 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.800 is sort of free, but it's definitely a step in 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:14.560 the right direction to have it to take it to 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.760 market in order to get people to hear it. 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:20.640 So when you're in your formative years at least for 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:28.080 like your first five or six albums, are you obsessively 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.720 looking to see like do you take a Lester Bangs 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.679 seriously or even a Christa Gal Or I'm trying to 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.760 figure out, like who is the the pitchwork of his day, 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.480 like the the critic that or John. 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.920 Landau, John Lando or Hillman out out in Los Angeles 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:46.720 or Robert Hillman. 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.479 Yeah, yeah, so that that would mean something. 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.640 To you, absolutely, I mean, just inas much as it 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.640 it either pushes the project along and gets it out 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.680 there for people to hear or it doesn't. That was 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:08.079 always the priority. In fact, I made such ruinous deals 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.640 and decisions early on, mostly due to bad advice, that 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.400 I never really saw records as a source of income. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.320 They never were, so I always just looked at it 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.920 as a way to support touring and also as a 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.480 way to just get my thing out there, to get 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:28.360 my art out there. 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:31.600 Well, that's weird to hear, because I thought I was 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.079 the only artist that was like, eh, record sales whatever, 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:35.960 like when we tore that's how I make my money. 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.200 And the records so were like the flyer that you advertise, Hey, 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:41.600 I'm coming to town, that sort of thing. 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.040 Well, it's also the medium that we work in if 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.920 you're a recording artist, and I think that's something I've 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.839 gotten better at over time. I cringe when I listened 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:56.319 to my early stuff, but over time I've gotten better 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.760 at recording and gotten closer to what I hear in 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.280 my mind when I when I think about it too. 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:08.760 I'm just curious what James Taylor album makes you. I 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.800 I I'm kind of concerned. I'm like, oh, please, don't 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:12.680 let it be one of my favorites. 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:12.800 Ye. 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.200 Yeah, I'm like like for you, like, what's what's your like? 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:17.160 Yeah? 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.839 What what album that Every fan like, Oh my god, 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.120 oh my god, you're just like whatever. 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:26.319 Well, the first one, the James the one. 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.480 But even then, it's like, if I recall correctly, you've 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.600 spoken a few times that you know you were creating 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.559 that right when the Beatles were creating. 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.760 The White Album. Yeah, White album, correct, So like whenever 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:42.080 the Beatles weren't tried in the studio. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.640 You were there, that's right, we were. They let you 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:49.080 race the board and just yeah, they did. I guess. 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.520 There weren't digital cameras in those days, so you you 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:54.480 you couldn't take a picture of it and expect to 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.640 have it the next day, right, a polaroid, I guess. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:02.400 But no, I never actually thought about that. Man. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.760 Did you realize that you were in the eye of 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.640 probably the most celebrated creative storm in music history? 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.680 I did. I was aware of that in a sort 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.840 of But you know, in those days, I really I lived, 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:21.320 you know, a day at a time, maybe a week 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.880 at a time. I just didn't I didn't really expand 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:27.880 beyond what was sort of in the room, you know 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:36.080 it all. Yes, it seemed surreal to to have been, 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:38.520 you know, a year prior to that, I'd been here 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.960 in New York and my band had failed, and I'd 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.680 sort of limped back to North Carolina to lick my wounds, 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.079 you know, and then lo and behold, a year later, 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:53.199 I'm auditioning for for Paul McCartney and George Harrison. So 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:58.960 it was on one lem level unbelievable. But you know, 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.600 I just accepted it as as what was happening now. 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:09.120 You know, how did even worried about you get to 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:10.120 to Paul and George? 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.600 Were you the first artist sign to? Yes, okay, I was. 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.200 The first artist signed. And my lucky break was that 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:22.240 my main partner actually through most of my musical life 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.640 as man a guitarists from from New York, lives in 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:31.880 Los Angeles, now named named Danny Kortchmark, Cooch and Coach 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:36.560 had backed up Peter and Gordon, a sort of British 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:40.400 invasion group like Chad and Jeremy. They had had a 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:44.840 World Without Love was a song of Theirs and Knight 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:49.720 and Rusty Armor, you know, sort of a British novelty duo, 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:54.920 you know, very much British invasion sort of mold. But 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.120 and then the year after that, I had been in 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.160 the band with Coach here in New York. So I 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.480 called Coots after I got to London. I said, if 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.120 you still got a number for Peter Asher And it 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.880 turned just thinking that he might have some contacts in 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.120 the music business in London, And as it turned out, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.800 he had just signed on his head of a n 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.760 R for this brand new label that the Beatles were starting, 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.960 Apple Records. So he was basically looking for people to sign, 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.760 and it couldn't have been it couldn't have been better timing. 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.240 It was just you know, it really threaded the needle 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.920 and the and the window was very short for you know. 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:41.640 I was signed, Billy Preston was signed, Mary Hopkins yeah, 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:51.320 m j Q. Yeah, Okay, that's amazing. I didn't realize 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.160 that a group called Bad Finger and a guy named 0:13:55.559 --> 0:14:01.000 Jackie Lomax, but the five or six there seven acts 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.680 that were signed within the ten month period, that Apple 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.720 was actually open to other people. That's that is to say, 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.600 before Alan Klein came in and just shut it down. 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.640 It was I'm sure it was hemorrhaging money, but I'm 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:22.000 also sure that it was just a unique opportunity you 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.600 know too. And they gave me that that first chance. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.440 So that's that's how I ended up. I got my 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:34.600 little demo reel to reel tape to Peter Asher. He 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.880 I played him a number of songs and and he said, 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:38.840 let's go up and and see if we can play 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:40.640 this for a beatle up. 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.200 Up at uh. I love how casual that just comes right, 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.800 you know, It's like, yeah, let's just see if the beatles. 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:50.400 Here and the way Peter remembers that the day we 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.120 went up to I got my guitar in my little 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:58.560 cardboard case and I follow him up to, uh, this 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.760 building in Baker Street in London where their temporary first 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:07.000 offices were in and he, uh sort of installs me 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.320 in a room and says, is there a beadle in 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.280 the house? Leans out into the hall. 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:18.280 And that's amazing, that's amazing. 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:20.960 And I say, I say it's as Peter remembers it, 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:25.280 because because I myself, the whole day is just like blur. Yeah, 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.360 I mean I was. I was like made for one 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:30.640 ten and plugged into two twenty. You know, it was 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.440 a totally total reference, totally shocked. 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:34.680 You know. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:42.480 Well, okay, we brought up Peter Asher, who's such a 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:46.040 at least I consider it. I mean, would you say 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.920 that Asher is like one of the Mount Rushmore figures 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.440 of what I think of when I think of the 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:57.520 California sound or definitely that. 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.920 So how what what is that description? 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:06.840 Because if someone that's not familiar with your work, like 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:11.360 I don't know how your album's got in my household, 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.200 but they were there because and it wasn't like I mean, 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.400 now they have titles for it soft rock, yacht rock, 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:21.800 or whatever they want to call it. 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.320 But yacht rock that's good, I know. 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.320 Well, you know, it's made this sort of niche, comedic, 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.440 you know, reference comeback thing, but that's made it cool again, 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.560 like stuff that again a Lester bangs or a christa 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.720 gal like, I'm better than this type of whatever, Like 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:48.480 now it's worship and revered and those things. But how 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.880 did you and Peter like figure out this plan to 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.200 sort of is it folky? 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.720 Is it country? Is it blues leaning? Is it you know? 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.640 How would you describe the sound that you two molded 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:10.520 that I felt really defined the next ten years of 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.680 what pop music would be, the California sound if you will. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:20.160 Well, yeah, you know I was. I was just playing 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.479 on the guitar the songs that I'd written, and counting 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.720 on a a sort of community of players. Russ Kunkle 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.160 on the drums, coach guy named Lee Sclar playing the bass, 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:39.159 Carol King on the on the piano. I basically was, 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.919 but essentially I was counting on them to be, you know, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.639 to do head arrangements of my guitar arrangements, you know, 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:52.640 so that you sort of pass it on to another musician, 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:57.439 usually a keyboard player. But basically you write out it 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:01.240 just a simple chord chart and pass it around and 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:02.399 count it off. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:02.679 You know. 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.680 This strange thing about well, actually it's still the case 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:11.639 that often the time when the song is recorded for 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.280 posterity is the first time it's played. You know, that's 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.920 an odd thing that you don't, yeah, that you don't 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.359 get to or even the seventh take. But the point 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:23.600 is you haven't had a chance to tour it for 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:27.120 twenty performances and sort of you know, nail it down 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.919 and refine it. And I've always thought that would be 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:33.280 a good way to go. 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.440 Okay, So the question I have about Sweet Baby James 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:42.040 is how do you have an active record deal and 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:46.840 you're still homeless, like, or at least I've heard you 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:51.440 mentioned a few times that for that first album you're 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:57.240 kind of just a nomad, like crashing on couches and 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:03.080 how like was money just not available back then, or 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:04.160 like how did you. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:08.280 Well enough money was you know, and I didn't have 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.959 a place to stay in Los Angeles, so Peter had 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:17.119 a house at the corner of Olympic and Highland, and 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.320 and you know, I just would crash there with at 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:24.119 Peter's house while while we were recording in Sunset Sound. 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:30.440 But I started building a house for myself in I 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:35.200 think in nineteen seventy two in the back in the 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.160 woods on Martha's Vineyard Island, where my family had sort 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.480 of fetched up because my folks had taken me there 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.760 and had taken all of us there in the summertime 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.840 from North Carolina. My mom was a you know, she 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.520 really was culture shocked by moving to North Carolina and 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.760 where my dad was worked with the University of North Carolina. 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.720 So she wanted to bring us up north every every 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.919 and try to keep our sort of Yankee roots to 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:11.600 the extent we could. And so my family all gravitated 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.760 towards that place as being the happiest place, you know, 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.040 and and we ended all ended up living there. But 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:22.000 your question was about being homeless. I suppose that it 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:23.760 was sort of rootless. 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:29.920 Okay, right, no, no, no, yeah, let me clarify. It wasn't 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.119 like he was sleeping on the street cords like it 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:34.080 was all this guy out. 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:36.320 But I don't know. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.879 In my mind, I just feel like there's a certain 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:45.520 level of comfort that one has to have, at least 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:49.800 I think in order to find their creative space. Where 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:53.640 I've been in a few situations in which if my 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:58.920 personal life is in shambles, that affects my creative output. 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:01.600 And so am I. 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:04.760 You know, to hear you hear describe that you were 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.520 crashing on couches and you didn't have a house. I'm 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:11.119 I'm wondering, like, is the the rest of the stress 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:18.119 of of of not having roots pun intended? Does that 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:19.760 affect your creative output or not? 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:22.680 You know, I never thought about it, but I think 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.360 you're right. If I can think back to any two 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.440 particular creative periods, it's always been a sort of protected 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:35.080 period during the time that I'm that I'm writing, you know, 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:38.320 And I think you're right. I think it does take 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:42.840 that the songs for Sweet Baby James, that that first 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:47.240 Warner Brothers album, that which you'd you know, rightly describe 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.359 as sort of the the beginning of the California sound. 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.399 But you know, back to that question for a second, 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.840 you know, Peter, I and I didn't really discuss the sound. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.400 We just, you know, as I said, I just introduced 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.359 the songs to these other players, and we played it 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.520 the way we heard it, you know, it and recorded it. 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:16.640 It really wasn't directed in any real sense other than 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.800 just the the you know, the sort of template the 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:24.000 form of my playing it on the guitar. 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:30.480 Were you somewhat aware of what the marketplace was and 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:37.040 how somewhat different than the marketplace that you were that 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.560 this output was presenting itself. I'm not saying it was 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:47.600 radically radically different, but you know, I feel as though, you. 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:53.240 Know, I definitely distanced myself and identified myself as being 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:58.320 apart from music business. You know, to me, music business 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:02.800 was still Dean Martin playing at the sands, you know 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.720 in Las Vegas. Well, in fact, Dean Martin was a 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:10.919 great singer and and and did some great songs, but 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:16.600 at the time we identified that as being another generation. Yeah, 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:19.480 that's right, sort of, so you want to avoid the 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:23.400 Kopa tensil Tensil town. Yeah, I swore I'd never play 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:27.600 Las Vegas. You know, we I got two Grammys. I 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:28.360 didn't show up. 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:33.200 I said, ooh oh, even like, oh yeah, that's so funny, 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:39.200 and how each artist. Okay, I'm slowly discovering that every 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:43.200 clique or people that I would think were the establishment. 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:47.200 They have their I'm sort of yeah, I'm above. 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:49.280 That, which is weird because not like I see you 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:53.480 as the establishment, but even now you're saying like in 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:55.199 your way, like I'm rebelling against that. 0:23:55.280 --> 0:24:00.359 And we very much wanted to to distance our else 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:04.679 from it. And I mean we uh that's that was 0:24:04.720 --> 0:24:08.160 the sense in the you know, the zeitgeist in the 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:12.879 in Los Angeles at the time was was that we 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:18.000 belonged to a different generation and uh, you know, a 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:24.720 sort of the sort of demographic bulge you know that 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:29.240 happened after the war, that baby boom bulge in the 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:33.560 population when it came to college age. It's sort of 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.240 it manifested in a way with with FM radio too. 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:39.719 It sort of started to and the Beatles and Dylan 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:40.720 and you know. 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:42.760 I wanted to ask I'll let you give you a question. 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:45.200 I wanted to I just want to say, hippies. 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:49.400 But that's the thing though, But I feel coming into 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:53.719 the seventies, though, what I felt like there was this 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:57.240 sort of air at least with like with with Neil 0:24:57.280 --> 0:25:02.000 Young's after the after the Gold Rush, that there was 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:06.600 this sole disillusionment with with all the lofty ideas of 0:25:06.640 --> 0:25:09.680 what the hippies were trying to present in sixty seven 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:12.679 sixty eight. It was kind of a more of a 0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:15.119 cynical thing, even though you didn't go that route, Like, 0:25:15.320 --> 0:25:18.280 was this your response to it, like just to be. 0:25:19.880 --> 0:25:23.920 Establishment, like you know, I'm I'm a serious singer songwriter. 0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:24.360 I'm not. 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:30.160 Right. No. That was part of it too, is that 0:25:30.280 --> 0:25:32.600 there was nothing serious about it. You know, it was 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:38.960 like it didn't have any pretensions. You know, Wow, was 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:41.960 was the was the idea? You know? I mean, yes, 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:45.719 I was judgmental of other music, but you know, I 0:25:45.800 --> 0:25:48.960 realize now that to be judgment metal of Frank Sinatra 0:25:49.040 --> 0:25:53.560 because he's he's my parents' generation, you know, is that's absurd? 0:25:53.720 --> 0:25:58.320 And you know so, uh, you know, I've I've come 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:03.639 around to to understanding that that those I've got an 0:26:03.640 --> 0:26:06.359 album coming out of a you know, American songbook type 0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:12.000 tunes arranged for the guitar called called American Standard, which 0:26:12.040 --> 0:26:14.600 is also the name of a toilet manufacturer. 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:20.720 Is hate you for bringing that up? 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:29.920 Next to the Beatles, I'll probably say that, Uh, soul 0:26:30.080 --> 0:26:35.000 music interpretations of your songs are probably the most interesting. 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:37.960 That's really how I got to introduce to it. So 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:42.480 let me tonight. I was going to say my obsession 0:26:42.520 --> 0:26:45.160