Luther Vandross
“I love background vocals so much that I can’t breathe.” June, 1995 By phone from Luther’s apartment in Manhattan The recent must-see documentary “20 Feet from Stardom” explores the plight of the great backup singers. Millions have heard their voices, but not their names. They ply their art in the shadows in near anonymity. Despite […]
Read MoreTom Petty
“…I am in favor of going around the country in large American cars.” March, 1983 The Long After Dark Tour I don’t remember much about this interview other than that it was the first time I spoke to Tom Petty and I felt a bit apprehensive waiting in my little apartment in Somerville for him […]
Read MoreAretha Franklin
October 9, 2013 I came across the YouTube clip below the other day and seeing the young, Afro-ed Aretha Franklin brought back a happy memory: seeing the Queen of Soul in concert for the first time.
Read MoreLou Reed 2003
“…I certainly think everybody knows what it’s like to desire something that is bad for you. Cigarette smoking. Heroin. My ex-wife.” January 16, 2003 By phone from Reed’s New York home Release of “The Raven,” Reed’s last solo studio album I thought Lou Reed might hang up on me before this interview ever got […]
Read MoreChet Atkins
“I never listen to my records. I can’t stand to hear them.” October, 1994 By phone from Chet Atkins’ Nashville office “Simpatico” duet album and tour with Suzy Bogguss It took me a long time to learn to appreciate Chet Atkins. Under the influence of the Gram Parsons/Clarence White-era Byrd’s “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” I […]
Read MoreAbbey Lincoln
“….I never got any offer from the Americans. They figured I was dangerous or something.” May 14, 1996 By phone from her apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan Abbey Lincoln was more than a remarkable singer and songwriter: She was a remarkable person, who made a mark as a civil rights […]
Read MoreDickey Betts
“Gregg Allman has decided to try to justify this thing by running around the country claiming I’m strung out on drugs and too drunk to play music. It’s just ludicrous.” September 8, 2000 By phone from a hotel room in Chicago I spoke to Dickey Betts in the midst of what must have been six […]
Read MoreBarry White
“I cut the music I love to record. I do it whether it’s a hit or not. It’s the love for the music I’m into.” June 1 (or 2), 1995 By phone from the Tutwiler Hotel, Birmingham, Alabama Oh. My. God. That voice. Barry White is the kind of person you want to […]
Read MoreEdie Brickell
“I would never listen to his ideas as far as writing goes.” – Edie Brickell, on her husband Paul Simon. August 16, 1994 By phone from Montauk, Long Island, New York Edie Brickell charmed many people as the winsome lead singer of the New Bohemians – perhaps no one more so than Paul Simon, […]
Read MoreAimee Mann
“It doesn’t even pay to sell out.” January, 1996, in advance of the “I’m With Stupid” release and tour By phone from her home in Los Angeles I caught sight of Aimee Mann on TV last week. She was rocking out with Ted Leo, her unlikely partner in a new band, The Both. Singing […]
Read MoreCornell Dupree
“What I consider ‘me’ is a funky blues player.” From Dupree’s home in Ft. Worth, by phone August, 1995 Hang on and get ready for a super-funky-blues/soul ride thanks to some truly amazing video. Cornell Dupree, the subject of this interview, is the main man here and it’s a treat to hear and watch him […]
Read MoreJoe Perry (2004)
“It’s never easy to make a record.” March 19, 2004 On the road between Hot Springs and Little Rock, Arkansas, one week into Aerosmith’s Honkin’ On Bobo tour After years of talking about it, Aerosmith finally made good in 2004 on its promise to record a blues album. Nobody was more excited about it […]
Read MoreJohn Fogerty
“….that big terrible rubber band that was tied tight around my heart loosened up…” May 19, 1997 By phone from San Francisco In 2013 John Fogerty released “Wrote A Song for Everyone,” a guest-filled album consisting mostly of covers of classic songs he wrote for Creedence […]
Read MoreGary Talley of The Box Tops
“…the record started going up the charts. We were just dumbfounded.” By phone from his home in Nashville June 8, 1999 Not unknown but close to it, Gary Talley played guitar for The Box Tops, who had one of the indelible hits of the ‘60s, “The Letter.” And […]
Read MoreMark Sandman of Morphine
“Our attitude is every tour could be our last tour.” At the Middle East Restaurant, Cambridge, Massachusetts February 10, 1997 As much as I (and many others) liked Morphine’s music, it was not a band anyone ever expected to see sign […]
Read MoreCelia Cruz
“I’m the queen because there is no one else!” April, 2, 2002 By phone from her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey I traveled to Cuba for ten days in late 2001, an eye, ear and mind opening journey. It […]
Read MoreJohnny Winter’s Coming Out Party
When I heard that Johnny Winter had died on Wednesday, I flashed back to the first time I heard him play. But then whenever I thought of Johnny Winter, I thought back to that night – December 13, 1968 – which I am sure was just as […]
Read MoreRichard Addrisi: “Never My Love”
“If people tell me they’ve never heard “Never My Love,” I say, ‘That means you’ve never been in an elevator or a supermarket.’ You can’t escape the song. It’s just there.“ March 11, 2002 By phone from his home in Los Angeles In […]
Read MoreGinger Baker
“I’m just a working musician who’s struggling to play polo.” If you’ve seen the documentary “Beware of Mr. Baker,” you know interviewing Ginger Baker can be a dicey proposition, maybe even injurious to your health. When I met with Baker in Boston in 1994, he lived […]
Read MoreJames Brown
May 1992 Augusta, Georgia The sweetest words I ever heard an editor utter: “How would you like to go to Georgia to interview James Brown?”
Read More“Tracks” by Robyn Davidson
Last week I went to see “Tracks.” It’s a new movie, but it took more than 30 years to get made. In June, 1981 I was writing for The Real Paper, the smaller of Boston’s two alternative weeklies and the place where I began my journalistic career in January, 1981. My editor handed me […]
Read MoreBilly Joel (1998)
“…if I only knew me from “Tell Her About It” and “Uptown Girl” and “Just the Way You Are,” I might not like Billy Joel either.” Not many pop stars are honest or insightful enough to acknowledge their haters point of view. Billy Joel did and that’s one reason I dug talking to him. Here’s […]
Read MoreJack Bruce (1993)
“I couldn’t be happier.” I blew my chance. It only occurred to me today, two weeks after Jack Bruce’s death at age 71 from liver disease, that I should have thought to thank him for his part in my becoming a bass player. The first song I learned, copying […]
Read MoreAretha Franklin (1995)
Aretha Franklin hates the new biography about her, “Respect” by David Ritz. She’s condemned it: “a very trashy book…full of lies and more lies about me.” I didn’t hate it. It’s the best book yet about the Queen of Soul. That said, I’m kind […]
Read MoreOscar Brown Jr.
“Liberating the slaves is not popular.” It’s a mystery: What killed Oscar Brown Jr.’s career? Rule out drugs, booze, out of control ego or any of the usual suspects in tales of show biz ruination. The cause of Brown’s baffling fade remains unclear, but undoubtedly had to do […]
Read MoreMerle Haggard (1999)
“…you’ve got these perfect people performing perfect music and it’s perfectly boring to me.” At the end of the 1990s, Merle Haggard was one disgruntled country music legend.
Read MoreScotty Moore
“I didn’t get rich, but it was better than picking cotton…” We can debate who invented rock and roll, but there is no question that it was Elvis Presley who turned it into an earth shaking phenomenon. He also did something equally revolutionary at the same time: He made the guitar the most […]
Read MoreBob Dylan speaks: the MusiCares speech
“A lot of people don’t know this, but the blues, which is an American music, is not what you think it is. It’s a combination of Arabic violins and Strauss waltzes working it out. But it’s true.” – Bob Dylan After reading provocative excerpts from the 30-minute speech Dylan gave at the MusiCares […]
Read MoreDavid Maxwell
“See, I’ve always had this identity crisis, whether or not I was a jazz or blues musician.” For decades Boston blues fans could sleep easy knowing that David Maxwell was on the scene. From the 1970s until February 15, 2015 – when Maxwell died at […]
Read MoreElvis Costello (and Burt Bacharach, Part 1)
“I think there’s as much self revelation in “What Is This Thing Called Love” by Cole Porter as there is in any song by Kurt Cobain.” Elvis Costello is nobody’s idea of Dionne Warwick. But in 1998 he pulled off playing both the Warwick and Hal David roles when he teamed up with Burt […]
Read MoreBurt Bacharach (and Elvis Costello, Part 2)
“No one has to push me to be complex.” If there has been a musical menage à trois more sublime and more successful than that of composer Burt Bacharach, lyricist Hal David, and singer Dionne Warwick, I can’t think of it.
Read MoreBen E. King (1987)
“I’ve come to accept that ‘Stand By Me’ is my secret key to survival…” In early 1987 Ben E. King – who died April 30 at 76 – was enjoying an entirely unexpected return to the upper reaches of the pop charts. The original recording of his 1961 song “Stand By Me” had become a […]
Read MoreLee Mitchell
“Lo and behold, Al Green came out with ‘I’m So Tired of Being Alone’….Those songs I was supposed to sing….I just knew that it would have been a successful thing for me.” In a parallel universe Lee Mitchell – not Al Green – emerged as the top male soul star of the […]
Read MoreB.B. King (1980)
“A guy comes out of the gumbo, he likes to walk on concrete awhile.” October 14, 1980 Lippman House, Harvard University, Cambridge When B.B. King came to Harvard University, it was a special day. Not only for the fortunate few who got to witness an intimate performance in a small wooden house […]
Read MoreMy Dinner With Ornette
“I’m interested in bringing instant enlightenment.” I met Ornette Coleman for dinner on a late fall evening in a fashionable restaurant in downtown Boston. He was in town to meet the press a week before a December 15, 1984 concert at Berklee Performance Center with Prime Time, his “double” […]
Read MoreMighty Sam McClain (1998)
In memoriam: Mighty Sam McClain (1943-2015) “I came from eating out of garbage cans. So if I died tomorrow, I did good.” Mighty Sam McClain wrote a song summing up his old friends’ feelings about hanging out with him after he gave up his bad habits: “Too Much Jesus (Not Enough Whiskey).” Now I […]
Read MoreNina Simone (1992)
“I don’t think I’m difficult. Not at all.” The prospect of interviewing Nina Simone was thrilling. And slightly terrifying.
Read MoreMose Allison (1994)
“One of my first public appearances was at a talent contest. I sang and played Fats Waller’s ‘fododo-de-yacka-saki want some seafood mama.’ I could just see the teacher saying, “This boy is going straight to hell.” Wondering what Mose Allison was up to lately, I checked his […]
Read MoreCurtis Mayfield (1996)
“It isn’t every day a 54-year-old quadriplegic records a record….” There are comeback stories. And then there’s Curtis Mayfield’s comeback story. In mid-August, 1990, he was about to perform at an outdoor concert at an athletic field in Brooklyn. The opening act, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, had finished their set. Mayfield, guitar […]
Read MoreAl Kooper (1995)
“I was pretty much robbed all my life….” The big bucks versions of “The Cutting Edge 1965-1966,” the latest entry in the Bob Dylan bootleg series (note: not actual bootlegs), includes a 20-track disc of a single song, “Like A Rolling Stone.” It brings to life one of the most famous recording sessions in history […]
Read MoreAllen Toussaint (1996)
“If I was to say my joy, piano is first.” I loved Allen Toussaint before I knew who Allen Toussaint was.
Read MoreTed Hawkins (1994)
“….I’m wringing wet with sweat, my throat’s on fire and my hand is aching. But I had to keep going…” “Cold and Bitter Tears – The Songs of Ted Hawkins” is a tribute album boasting no celebrity names. James McMurtry, Kasey Chambers and Mary Gauthier are probably the most recognizable of the Americana and country […]
Read MoreJohn Trudell (1992)
“…an Indian is someone you rob, someone you steal from.” If you’re into “Serial,” “The Jinx” or “Making of A Murderer,” check out “Incident at Oglala,” a 1992 documentary about Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist imprisoned for two murders there is reason to believe he did not commit. You will also meet John Trudell, […]
Read MoreLloyd Price (1998)
Lloyd Price is angry. His anger comes through on almost every page of a new memoir as idiosyncratic as its title: “sumdumhonkey.”
Read MoreDavid Bowie (1995)
When liver cancer killed David Bowie on January 10, 2016, he had made sure the world would be thinking about his art as well as his death.
Read MoreChubby Checker (2003)
Chubby Checker believes he deserves more than just a plaque in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He wants what he insists is his just due: a 30-foot tall statue on the plaza in front of the Hall of Fame building in Cleveland.
Read MoreDan Penn (1995)
Dan Penn is far from famous, but most everyone – at least most everyone of a certain age – knows his work. Penn produced the Box Tops’ immortal “The Letter” and co-wrote a clutch of stone soul classics (“Dark End of the Street,” “Do Right Woman,” “I’m Your Puppet,” “Cry Like A Baby,” “Sweet […]
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Wilson Pickett (1999)
“We didn’t go in there bullcrapping around. We meant business.” – Wilson Pickett Pop quiz: Name the top three greats of sixties soul. If you answer James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding, you won’t get much of an argument from anyone. But who comes next on the […]
Read MoreJay Geils (2005)
Jay Geils made his mark playing blues and his fortune playing rock and roll. But his first love was jazz. Jay—who died on April 11, 2017 at age 71—made that clear when I interviewed him at his split-level home in Groton ten days before a date at Tempo, a Waltham restaurant, to celebrate the […]
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D.J. Fontana (1997)
D.J. Fontana etched his place in rock and roll history playing drums for Elvis Presley. He was more than just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
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