Website
| Album Reviews
Back
to interviews.
Q Who's been your greatest
musical influence and why?
A Wow, a few people actually, early on
Paul Simon, Jackson Brown (for the song Writing), Bruce Coburn, Billy Bragg, Elvis
Costello. These days I listen to Ellis Paul and Cheryl Wheeler. I've always enjoyed music
that says something.
Folkmaster: That shines through in your recent album
Travelers' Code.
Q If you could be one person
in History, who would you be?
A Laughing, not Rutherford B Hays, Erm, first thing that comes to mind
Edmund Hillary or maybe (laughing again) George Mallory.
Q There's quite an
interesting link in your music to the sense of adventure and Travelling because you've
actually done quite a lot of that yourself haven't you?
A Yes I've been travelling around the U.S
for about four and a half years, playing music full time, but before that I was a
professional Black Jack player (the only real job I ever had!) I travelled all over the
world, in fact I've been thrown out of England's finest clubs a few times for playing
Black Jack so well!
Q You were a Black Jack World
champion at one time weren't you?
A It's not a matter of being World
champion, there were a few of us playing world wide and at one time I was considered to be
the best among them. I will never be as good a song writer as I was a Black Jack
player!...but my heart is in music, I'm glad to be doing it.
Q What made you give up
gambling and pursue music as your career?
A I got in some legal trouble some time
back doing a favour for a friend by obtaining a large cashiers'
cheque with a false I.D. as a result I got sent to a Half Way House with probation. One
condition of the probation was that I could not travel, so that put an end to my Black
Jack playing and that pushed me into a career in music, thankfully.
Q Any advice you can give to
anyone who wants to get into Black Jack?
A Yeah, don't play!!
Q Getting back to travelling,
you actually did a walk across the Soviet Union didn't you?
A Well, it started in the U.S., we walked
from Los Angeles to Washington D.C., the great Peace March for Global Nuclear
Disarmament, consisting of three to four hundred people and folks said we can't do the
same in Russia, so the next year we did. We went to Russia and
walked from Leningrad to Moscow, two hundred Americans, two
hundred Soviets. It was such a great time to be over there, it was
a hopeful time, Gorbachev was talking about Glasnost, it was 1987 and Rock 'n' Roll was
still illegal, but people were aware of what it was and were into music so we
celebrated that at the end of the walk by holding the first ever outdoor stadium concert
in the Soviet Union.
Q Was that planned, or did
that just happen?
A It was planned, my friend Alan Affelt
called up the guy who organised the Soviet walk, Bill Graham and said "if I can get
'Show Time' (an American Cable TV station) to put up half a million dollars will you
produce this concert" and then he called show time and said, "If I get Bill
Graham to produce this concert, will you put up a half a million?" and they both said
"Yes". The rest is history.
Q I hear James Taylor, Bonnie
Raitt and Santana where also there?
A Yeah, and of course my band. I had
taken a couple of years off from gambling in the mid eighties to do the peace activism
thing, to write songs, sing about social issues and be with the band and then (laughing) I
went back to gambling for a few years after that.
Q Where do you think the
future of the music industry lies?
A In the digital domain that's for
sure, I enjoy Mp3's and am a great fan of Napster, because, from my point of view it gets
my music out there effectively.
Q What is your favourite
movie and why?
A "Harold and Maude" probably,
I don't know why, it just moved me. It was about a suicidal young boy who liked to torture
his mother with fake suicides and ends up falling in love with an 80 year old women who
taught him to love and live life, (laughing) it actually is better than it sounds, but I
don't want to give away the ending.
Q Tell us about your new
album?
A I'm very excited about it, it's the
album I've always wanted to make, we've already done the basic tracks, I've got a sample
disc here for you.
Q How would you describe this
to the Travelers' Code?
A Well I'm very proud of the songs on all
my records and this sort of continues that, I think that this is my best collection of
songs coming up; Because I've spent such little time in the studios I feel that I've never
actually captured my vocals, but in this album I will achieve that.
Q Where was your most
memorable live performance and why was it special to you?
A Well it's got to be the Soviet Union,
that was the biggest crowd I've ever played for, something like thirty thousand screaming
Russians who were starved for popular (Western) music. It was not only me, I was a member
of a band, we were the guests, we played just one song called "I am a Patriot"
by Stephen Lenzant. Jackson Brown taught us that song in a cornfield in the middle of the
peace march in 1986.
Q If you could use one of
your songs to promote something, what would it be and why?
A Well there's a song on the new album
called California and sub-titled Rutherford Hayes in the morning. He was a turn of the
last century American Politician who was elected President without the popular vote, he
was the last one, so maybe that could support election reform in the U.S (more laughter)
Q If you could sit next to
somebody famous at a dinner party, who would it be and what would you ask them?
A I think I'd like it to be Billy Bragg,
I'd like to ask him his view on current issues, (whatever is current at the time!) He's a
sharp guy, I love the way he thinks with an amazing wit and presence.
Q What is the first song you
heard which meant something to you?
A "The sound of silence" by
Paul Simon
Q If you were stranded on a
desert island what few essentials would you take?
A My guitar, a bed and an expresso
machine. A water heater as well, that's practical!
Q What is your legacy, what
would you most like to be remembered for?
A I'd like to be thought of as somebody
who wrote great songs.
Q What was the most
embarrassing thing to ever happen to you on stage?
A (Laughter) This one gig I showed up for
in New Hampshire and nobody came, but I suppose that wasn't that embarrassing in the sense
that I didn't have to do the show. I have been embarrassed a lot despite my high
motivation to not being embarrassed. One time my fingernail got caught in the string as I
played a song.
Q What is the most outrageous
thing you've ever done?
A Well I've walked across the U.S.,
jumped out of a plane. I dodged Scotland Yard in Leicester, the last time I was here, with
a Black Jack playing computer on my ankles!
Q Tell me the
story/inspiration behind various songs of yours:- "Child of Hearts?"
A Well I have a daughter who lives in
Moscow (you guys now know how that came about!) and I am a little
hard on myself in this song because she lives there and it's hard for me
to be a 'present father'. This song was written after I'd not seen
her for a while, she was four and she
didn't like me that much, it blew me away.
Folkmasters' comment: that song
is so great because it captures such a great deal of emotion, it's very moving.
Q "The stars all live at
Sunnys House?"
A Well I'm from L.A. where you don't get
to see many stars and I was walking to my friends house in Central
California Coast and looked up and said "look all the stars live at Sunny's
house". Sunny herself has an interesting story, which doesn't all come across in the
song.
Q "Mr Schwinn?"
A I was up in the Eastern part of
Washington visiting some friends, who have a lot of hobbies, including owning their own
radio station. They also restore old bikes and they were showing me some of the old bikes
and came across one which was given to them by an old man who had been saving it all his
life for the women he would marry, that's the story. After watching a Harry Chapin
video we got more inspiration and then used the name Schwinn because it is the most
popular brand of bike in the U.S.
Q "Last Great Kiss of
the 20th Century?"
A I just made that up, it was one of the
oldest songs on the album, I wrote that in 1984/5, before anybody
gave any thought to when the end of the Century was. It was a lot of fun to play 2 or 3
years ago when a few people started getting the clue that the start of the century wasn't
really at the end of 1999, so I would play the song and pick out the people in the
audience who were squirming in their seats wanting to say that the century doesn't end in
1999 and then I would get to the punchline in the song and there would be a relieved look
in their faces.
Interviewed by the Folkmaster and kindly written up by
Sledge.
Read another interview
Website | Album
Reviews |
