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Speaker 1: Taking a Walk.

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Speaker 2: If you go on with a bit, yeah, I'm not released.

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Speaker 3: It's a Shoesday night, and some in the Boon Docks,

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Speaker 3: there's no Boon Docks. There's no Shoesday night. It's the

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Speaker 3: only night in the world when you go on stage,

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Speaker 3: because it's the only you're in the there, and then

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Speaker 3: you're in the here, and now the there and then

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Speaker 3: tomorrow night doesn't exist. Last Night's history. And I think

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Speaker 3: when you attack it like that, Thatt Awards come back

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Speaker 3: ten times.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to this episode of the Taking a Walk Podcast,

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Speaker 1: and today we're joined by one of the most iconic

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Speaker 1: voices in music, Jim Kerr, the charismatic front man of

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Speaker 1: Simple Minds, known for their hits like Don't You Forget

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Speaker 1: About Me? And Alive and Kicking. Jim has been a

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Speaker 1: driving force in the music industry for decades. Jim Kerr

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Speaker 1: joins Buzz Night Now on the Taking a Walk Podcast.

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Speaker 3: Jim Kerr, It's.

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Speaker 4: An honor to have you on Taking a Walk, sir, Well, how.

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Speaker 3: Could I resist a title like that Taking a Walk?

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Speaker 2: I mean, I still.

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Speaker 3: From the earliest days that was my whole thing, and

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Speaker 3: I'm still a walker. I'm still a hiker. I'm still

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Speaker 3: a whatever. That's how I get around. So for that

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Speaker 3: reason alone, although I hear many great things about your show,

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Speaker 3: but for that reason I role you had me at

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Speaker 3: the title.

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Speaker 4: Oh you're so kind, Thank you. So since it's called

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Speaker 4: taking a walk.

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Speaker 5: Though, I do have to ask you this devilish question

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Speaker 5: of mine that I do start out the podcast with,

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Speaker 5: If you could take a walk with somebody living or dead,

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Speaker 5: who would that be and where would you take a

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Speaker 5: walk with him?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Wow, God, that is a devilish question. You absolutely

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Speaker 3: ray for all the obvious reasons. Right now, I'd love

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Speaker 3: to take a walk with my old dad, that's for sure.

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Speaker 3: He's no longer here, but he was a walker, and

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Speaker 3: he and I were very fortunate we got the chance.

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Speaker 3: Especially once my band got successful. I was able to

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Speaker 3: take him with me on quite a few trips and

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Speaker 3: we would go off peace.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: There would be the gig and the tour and all that, which,

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Speaker 3: of course was what it was all about. But as

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Speaker 3: soon as there was a day off, we would go

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Speaker 3: off around whatever city or whatever desert or whatever national park.

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Speaker 2: Walking and talking and thinking was our thing.

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Speaker 3: So I've been very lucky in my life the amount

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Speaker 3: of people I've met, everyone from Nelson Mandela to the

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Speaker 3: Dalai lama Uh.

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Speaker 2: And if I had mentioned those names.

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Speaker 3: You would have I'm sure you would have said, yeah, well,

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Speaker 3: I can understand that, but I'm still gonna go with

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Speaker 3: my old dad.

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Speaker 4: That's a good one.

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Speaker 6: And I will tell you many folks who I asked

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Speaker 6: the question, they either bring up their dad or their

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Speaker 6: mom as someone they would like to take that walk with.

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Speaker 4: So you know, and I can't disagree.

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Speaker 3: Well, the people who taught us to walk, the people

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Speaker 3: who taught us to take our first steps.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so great. Well, congratulations on the City of

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Speaker 4: Diamonds release Live in the City of Diamonds, which goes

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Speaker 4: across four decades, which clearly shows how much joy you

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Speaker 4: have in performing live and continue to have in performing live.

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Speaker 4: There's also a documentary we'll talk about as well and

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Speaker 4: the making of that. But I did want to ask

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Speaker 4: you what was the earliest moment you knew you were

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Speaker 4: connected with music for a lifetime.

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Speaker 2: I had a great opportunity last year where I was

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Speaker 2: able to.

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Speaker 3: BBC asked me to do a program BBC Radio on essentially.

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Speaker 2: My favorite ever rock.

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Speaker 3: Group who just happened to be American the doors, and

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Speaker 3: the reason they asked me was that the producers had

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Speaker 3: heard me elsewhere telling the story of being in the

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Speaker 3: back of my dad's car he had just got. It

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Speaker 3: wasn't a new car, it was a second hand car,

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Speaker 3: but it was her new car, and I was afraid

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Speaker 3: in a summer night, and.

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Speaker 2: He came back with the car.

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Speaker 3: We were all excited, and while mom was making the

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Speaker 3: and he said, come on, give you a right and

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Speaker 3: we went. The big thing about the car. You will

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Speaker 3: laugh because I know, being American, the idea of cars not.

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Speaker 2: Having a radio.

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Speaker 3: But when I grew up, the first few years I

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Speaker 3: grew up, most cars didn't have a radio. So not

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Speaker 3: only was it his new car, the new family car,

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Speaker 3: but it had a radio. And so we drove to

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Speaker 3: the outskirts of the city, and being very scotty, she said,

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Speaker 3: I just got to go to this pub and see

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Speaker 3: your friend. He's always in there, and I'm just gonna

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Speaker 3: have a ten or fifteen minute.

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Speaker 2: Chat you and your brother.

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Speaker 3: You know, listen to the radio. Big deal. Great.

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Speaker 2: And he came out and brought some chips and.

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Speaker 3: Christs and stuff. And as I tell you, this is

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Speaker 3: so unlikely. The weather in Scotland can change like that.

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Speaker 3: And within he said it'd be ten minutes. He was

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Speaker 3: probably there an hour and within that hour the weather

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Speaker 3: changed and as we were sitting in the car, the

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Speaker 3: clouds got kind of doom and gloom late and thunder.

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Speaker 3: Didn't hear a lot of thunder with thunder. It was kinny,

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Speaker 3: scary lone Behold. As we're listening to the radio, the

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Speaker 3: song comes on with the sound of thunder and rain

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Speaker 3: at the beginning of it, and then there's this haunted

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Speaker 3: voice and there's a killer on the road. His brain

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Speaker 3: is squirming like a toad. Take a long holiday. Let

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Speaker 3: the children play Oh Man Riders on the Storm. Now.

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Speaker 3: I would have been ten, and that's when I knew

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Speaker 3: there was another kind of music other than just the

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Speaker 3: pop hits that we listened to on the radio. And

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Speaker 3: it's amazing. A couple of days later, driving in the

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Speaker 3: same car my dad, it came on. I said, I

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Speaker 3: love this song, and my dad said, that's a great song.

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Speaker 3: And then he went that young fellow just died and

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Speaker 3: I said what He said, Yeah, it was in the

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Speaker 3: newspaper he just died. I said, what's his name?

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Speaker 2: He said, Jim, same as you, same as me.

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Speaker 3: My dad' said Jim as well, And listening to that,

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Speaker 3: there's such a haunted, the echoes, the whole thing, beautiful poetry.

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Speaker 2: Something bad's about to happen.

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Speaker 3: I think in terms of your question, that's when I

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Speaker 3: first developed a deeper curiosity about music.

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Speaker 4: Oh what a beautiful story. And I always wanted to

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Speaker 4: go back to Scotland from a trip about a year

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Speaker 4: ago because we had this cool driver who had a

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Speaker 4: soundtrack actually that he put on to kind of accompany

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Speaker 4: us on the drive, and that's the only thing that

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Speaker 4: was missing. I mean, we had our share of great music,

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Speaker 4: everything from Simple Minds to Genesis to The Strawbs, but

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Speaker 4: we didn't have any doors.

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Speaker 3: So well, there you going. Well I would have liked

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Speaker 3: that because I'm a Genesis fan, and I and the

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Speaker 3: Strobs was also a band that everyone respected.

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Speaker 4: So what inspired you then to form Johnny and the

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Speaker 4: Self Abusers in.

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Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy seven.

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Speaker 3: That was this just I don't know what happened, but

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Speaker 3: out of nowhere came this thing that was cold punk rock.

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Speaker 3: So obviously there was a huge music element to it,

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Speaker 3: but it was more a philosophy and the philosophy to

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Speaker 3: mostly young British working class kids was like a bolt

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Speaker 3: of lightning, because not that we resented our stature in

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Speaker 3: life or anything the working class communities and it was

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Speaker 3: a great pride in that, but there was a feeling

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Speaker 3: that a viewer from working class that you couldn't be

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Speaker 3: an artist, or you know, you have to come from

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Speaker 3: Paris or Vienna, or you have to go to the

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Speaker 3: great arts schools in London or whatever. It was just

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Speaker 3: a step beyond not very many working class certainly no

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Speaker 3: people we knew, but out of nowhere, somehow this punk

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Speaker 3: thing came along with the theology, very simple theology that said,

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Speaker 3: you know what, any one can give it a go,

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Speaker 3: and anyone kind of gave it a go, and.

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Speaker 2: We were one of those who gave it a go.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't like you were going to be judged because

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Speaker 3: you couldn't play like Eric Clapton. A year before you'd

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Speaker 3: be judged because you couldn't play like Eric Clapton, or

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Speaker 3: or you couldn't play keyboards like Requitment, or or you

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Speaker 3: didn't go to music college. It was something much more visceral,

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Speaker 3: like that, have you got something to see and can

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Speaker 3: you see it, and whether you said it through music

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Speaker 3: or kids were starting their own fashion label, some of

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Speaker 3: which have become world beating, and still people were making

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Speaker 3: little documentaries, publishing their own fanzines published.

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Speaker 2: There was this great energy and we were swept up

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Speaker 2: in that.

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Speaker 3: We being Charlie Burschell, my songwriting partner who lived in

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Speaker 3: the same street as me in Glasgow. We met when

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Speaker 3: we were eight years old and in our case we

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Speaker 3: took our whole passion for music and this punk wave

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Speaker 3: that came swept us up in It carried us along.

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Speaker 2: To the extent of rather than just sitting saying one

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Speaker 2: day we're going to get a band, we got a band.

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Speaker 2: We knew.

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Speaker 3: We knew we didn't have the chops, we knew that

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Speaker 3: we hadn't done the ten years of wood shedding. But

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Speaker 3: we got up, we plugged in, We did our thing,

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Speaker 3: and something happens that usually never happens when people start

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Speaker 3: a band. The audience went mental. They went crazy.

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Speaker 2: I when I say the audience, I'm talking about fifty people.

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Speaker 3: But you know it was a little pub. They went't

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Speaker 3: crazy like and we know because we used to go

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Speaker 3: and see the band's playing on bars and the audience

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Speaker 3: never went crazy. They went crazy, which made us think

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Speaker 3: we had a vibe. And before we came off, I

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Speaker 3: found myself already haggling with the bar owner to try

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Speaker 3: and get her free up from ten pounds a week

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Speaker 3: to twelve pound a week because I could see, I

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Speaker 3: could see our value instantly, beers were being bought. It's amazing.

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Speaker 5: How do you maintained such a great creative energy, you know,

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Speaker 5: all these years?

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Speaker 3: I think, well, it's great that you mentioned energy, because

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Speaker 3: it all comes down to that. I think you know

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Speaker 3: your spiritual energy, your physical energy, your creative energy, you

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Speaker 3: name it. But I think it comes through a combination

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Speaker 3: of things. We don't even have to try to remember

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Speaker 3: how lucky, how fortunate we are. And when you feel

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Speaker 3: like that, you're already you know, you're just you retain

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Speaker 3: the only energy that you hadn't It doesn't diminish as

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Speaker 3: well as realizing how lucky we are, because who wouldn't

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Speaker 3: want to be you know, who wouldn't want to have

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Speaker 3: a life doing something that you love? Never made the

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Speaker 3: success and the extra rewards that alone. So the great

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Speaker 3: fortune in because the amount of you know, the amount

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Speaker 3: of people that start bands and want to be musicians

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Speaker 3: and want to you know, we're in the zero point

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Speaker 3: zero point zero point one percent, so we're incredibly fortunate.

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Speaker 3: But along with that, and to an equal amount, there's

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Speaker 3: a fantastic sense of purpose, especially.

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Speaker 2: When you're tooling, because well, what do you do.

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Speaker 3: You know, you turn up on a tone and you

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Speaker 3: go out that night and it's always at the end

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Speaker 3: of the night. Although actually I quite like watching the

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Speaker 3: audience coming in as well. They come in and they

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Speaker 3: have a certain kind of energy because they've been excited

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Speaker 3: and the gigs there and maybe they haven't seen you

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Speaker 3: for a long time, maybe never seen you at all.

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Speaker 3: They had they're going to a show, they're going to

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Speaker 3: forget their problems of the day. But if you can

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Speaker 3: go on and you can deliver beyond the odds to

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Speaker 3: the extent that you know, they came in with a

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Speaker 3: spring in their feet, but by the end of the

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Speaker 3: night they actually physically jumping up and down, regardless of

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Speaker 3: their age, holding each other, hogging each other. Something is

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Speaker 3: transformation has happened in that. Let's face it, a lot

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Speaker 3: of these venues are pretty cold gang places when there's

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Speaker 3: no people in them. Something beautiful has happened and at

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Speaker 3: the end of the night, you get the chance to

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Speaker 3: take twenty seconds and see what you've done. It's a

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Speaker 3: fantastic sense of purpose.

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Speaker 2: And so.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how other people look at it or

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Speaker 3: think about it, but those things alone have helped us

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Speaker 3: maintain the approach and the energy that I'm glad that

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Speaker 3: you may notice.

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Speaker 4: Isn't it amazing? Now how a constant among so many

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Speaker 4: things is when one leads with gratitude as well.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, people ask for advice quite often interviews.

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Speaker 3: People will say what piece of advice would you? I mean,

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Speaker 3: I tell you what we found gratitude And it's not easy.

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Speaker 3: Nothing's easy, but we've found out this when you attack

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Speaker 3: things with one hundred percent but also with gratitude, with

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Speaker 3: love and our study, the doors did actually open easier

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Speaker 3: than we thought. Now, whether that's you know, this karmic

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Speaker 3: thing of just energy that you give off attracts a

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Speaker 3: certain kind of energy as well. People say that. I

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Speaker 3: tend to believe it because it's it's the story. I mean,

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Speaker 3: if you go on tour without see you go on

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Speaker 3: to go on tour and you think.

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Speaker 2: It's all about you, it's not about you.

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Speaker 3: It's the last thing you you were all about you

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Speaker 3: stay at home playing your garage, you know, to say, well,

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Speaker 3: I don't want to play those songs and stay in

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Speaker 3: your garage and do that. You're going out to be

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Speaker 3: of service. And I think when you have that attitude,

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Speaker 3: people might not articulated, but they sensed. They buy into it,

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Speaker 3: and they're going to work the next day and they

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Speaker 3: become your biggest sales people because they say to their friends, man,

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Speaker 3: who were at this thing last night.

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Speaker 2: It's the story of her career.

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Speaker 3: They blew us away, or it was great, or I

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Speaker 3: can't wait to see it again. On the other hand,

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Speaker 3: if you go on, I mean a lot of people

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Speaker 3: to be tired and tour or.

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Speaker 2: You know, things got to I didn't have a good.

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Speaker 3: Sound, or get over yourself. I'll just get over yourself.

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Speaker 3: Someone has invested so much to come and see you,

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Speaker 3: and I'm not even goes without saying they've invested financially,

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Speaker 3: but they've invested emotionally their time. They're looking forward to

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Speaker 3: they're coming with friends from school who they saw you

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Speaker 3: back twenty thirty years ago. And if you go on

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Speaker 3: with a bit yeah, I'm not really it's a shoesday

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Speaker 3: night and some in the Boon Dogs. There's no Boon Docks,

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Speaker 3: there's no shoesday night.

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Speaker 2: It's the only night in the world when you go on.

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Speaker 3: Stage, because it's the only you're in the there, and

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Speaker 3: then you're in the here and now there, and then

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Speaker 3: tomorrow night doesn't exist. Last night's history. And I think

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Speaker 3: when you attack.

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Speaker 2: It like that, that awards come back ten times.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more of the Taken a

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Speaker 1: Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk podcast.

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Speaker 7: So let's take it to First of all, you know

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Speaker 7: live in the City of Diamonds and use that as

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Speaker 7: a backdrop to this major series of tour dates that

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Speaker 7: Simple Minds is going to have. I think it's a

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Speaker 7: brilliant way to sort of pump everybody up for what

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Speaker 7: they're about to see.

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Speaker 5: And get them all super excited. And you're playing a

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Speaker 5: lot of big, big venues and places you probably have

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Speaker 5: been and maybe some places that you have not been.

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Speaker 5: So talk about first of all, how much fun it

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Speaker 5: was going back over City of Diamonds, and then how

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Speaker 5: you're looking forward to this tour.

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean the very act of putting out a

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Speaker 3: live album and putting together a beautiful package and whatever

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Speaker 3: it is. You know. So the various formats, whether it's

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Speaker 3: a double or a quadruple, and all that. Live albums,

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Speaker 3: whether very nature or old school, you know, that's what

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Speaker 3: you grew up my generation. And if you favorite band

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Speaker 3: put out a live album, I mean it was intrinsically

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Speaker 3: a fans thing, a specific fans thing. Live tracks usually

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Speaker 3: didn't get played on radio or anything, so it was

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Speaker 3: usually capturing a moment a band wanted to capture a

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Speaker 3: moment in tame. Maybe in that moment in time there

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Speaker 3: would be songs the fans knew, but maybe there'll be

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Speaker 3: three or four with the live arrangement, knock spots off

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Speaker 3: the record arrangement, or the band happened to be playing

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Speaker 3: really great at that moment. Because when you think, you

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Speaker 3: know the way, it's a bit back to front. You

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Speaker 3: write songs, you've never played them.

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Speaker 8: When you go and record them and then you go

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Speaker 8: and play them live, well, it's not till you go

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Speaker 8: and play them live you think you know what, there's

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Speaker 8: something about this live version.

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Speaker 3: It could be the looseness of it, or it could

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Speaker 3: be the tightness of it. There's something in that spirited

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Speaker 3: thing and through the year simple Mains. I mean, our

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Speaker 3: first ever live album was to quite a nice little thing.

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Speaker 3: We got gone here. First album was recorded in Paris

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Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty.

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Speaker 2: Six eighty sexuy five.

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Speaker 3: It was called Live in the City of Light. And

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Speaker 3: then we recorded a certain point an album of loss

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Speaker 3: in Los Angeles Live in the City of Angels Amsterdam.

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Speaker 3: It's quite actually, it's quite caused a.

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Speaker 2: Bit of a ferrari because.

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Speaker 3: Right now as we speak, people from Antwerp and Belgium

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Speaker 3: will jump up and down and say we're the city

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Speaker 3: of diamonds. But historically, historically, historically, historically Amsterdam was the

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Speaker 3: original city of diamonds. So that's not why we recorded there.

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Speaker 3: We recorded there because of all the great places and

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Speaker 3: of all the great audiences. They just happen to have

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Speaker 3: this amazing venue there, which is purpose built, is purpose

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Speaker 3: built for music. Not many venues are, so the logic

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Speaker 3: there is quite easy to understand. But there's also a

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Speaker 3: fantastic crowd and the band we have a heck of

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Speaker 3: a popularity for some reason in Holland, so all of that.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, it was a moment in time and in

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Speaker 3: this world where since we have your career things have

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Speaker 3: come and gone and the changes that we've seen, mostly

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Speaker 3: based on technology. Society has changed everything. The one thing

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Speaker 3: I'm glad that has not changed for simple minds as

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Speaker 3: playing live. We use technical tools, but essentially you turn

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Speaker 3: up in town, you get up on stage that night,

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Speaker 3: and you put the band together and you try to

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Speaker 3: catch some lightning in a bottle. And that's what the

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Speaker 3: live records attempt to do. The try and capture a moment.

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Speaker 4: And they pump people up to go out to see

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Speaker 4: you all over the world.

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Speaker 3: Right there you go, yeah, they go, that's a great

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Speaker 3: live band, which is still something to be right. Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Well, in closing, I wanted to ask if you could

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Speaker 5: take us back to June twenty seventh, two thousand and eight,

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Speaker 5: the performance there for Nelson Mandela's ninetieth birthday party.

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Speaker 4: What was that experience?

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Speaker 3: Like, I mean, you know, we've been, as I say,

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Speaker 3: very fortunate. We've been able to play some amazing gigs

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Speaker 3: and especially you know when you play Wembley Stadium more

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Speaker 3: you know, even back in the day to turn up

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Speaker 3: playing at live a JFK stadium, but to play at

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Speaker 3: these concerts, the first one which was calling for the

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Speaker 3: release of Nelson Mandela. I mean the political situation in

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Speaker 3: South Africa was things were on the move, but certainly

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Speaker 3: our government was dragging its feet and there was a

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Speaker 3: few things our government could have done politically that would

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Speaker 3: have speeded up the protests. So when Jerry Damas came

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Speaker 3: and asked us to get involved in this concert, it

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Speaker 3: was kind of basically the year before had been lively

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Speaker 3: the first big global concert, and Jerry saw how you

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Speaker 3: could really There had always been the great American there'd

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Speaker 3: always been great agid prop and protest singers and stuff,

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Speaker 3: but to put on where they were really calling for

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Speaker 3: the end of a party was something that something there

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Speaker 3: comes a time in your life where you think it's

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Speaker 3: got to be about something more than just selling records

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Speaker 3: and selling T shirts. We have a microphone and we're

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Speaker 3: being asked to I mean, you wouldn't want to do

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Speaker 3: it every year, and you wouldn't want to do it

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Speaker 3: every album, but we're being asked to add.

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Speaker 2: Our voices to something that.

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Speaker 3: Really was important to us, an important to a lot

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Speaker 3: of people of a generation. So it was an amazing

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Speaker 3: thing and obviously to to then subsequently, because there is

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Speaker 3: a voice in your head as well sometimes you think

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Speaker 3: we're getting a bit too big for a boots here,

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Speaker 3: or we're getting out of our lane, or you know,

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Speaker 3: does it really matter, does the world really listen? And

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Speaker 3: I'll never forget that. When Mandela was eventually able well

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Speaker 3: to be freed and on his way to becoming the

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Speaker 3: President of South Africa, he came to London to thank

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Speaker 3: the actors involved and he said, he said, when there

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Speaker 3: was no voice alowed, somehow we always could hear the

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Speaker 3: voice of the artist, the poets, the filmmakers, the documentary makers,

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Speaker 3: the writers a journalists, and he said that gave us

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Speaker 3: the very oxygen we needed to continue.

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Speaker 2: So it was an amazing experience.

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Speaker 5: Mister Kerr, mister James Kerr, I absolutely love speaking with you.

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Speaker 4: I feel like we were just almost you know, like

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Speaker 4: we were at one of the pubs there in Glasgow,

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Speaker 4: just hanging out and yeah, having a conversation.

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Speaker 5: I appreciate everything you continue to give and that Simple

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Speaker 5: Minds continues to give us. And thank you sir for

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Speaker 5: being on Taking a Walk.

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Speaker 3: Hi, thank you. I enjoyed every minute talking to you

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Speaker 3: all the best.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a

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Speaker 1: Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends

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Speaker 1: and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking

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Speaker 1: a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: and wherever you get your podcasts.