Occasionally, there are days when I hit a hot streak while flipping through the thousands of similar-sounding songs on the radio and I have a flashback. Those kind of flashbacks remind me of all the rabble-rousers who struck a chord for those of us sick and tired of the same bland nonsense. That's when you get that zing of a wake-up call that music runs deeper than what we are fed on a daily basis.
Not too long ago I stumbled upon a rock block consisting of the band and solo work of John Waite and realized that beyond his credentials, which would be impressive to both listeners and music experts alike, there was something else. Beautiful but raw songs, born of what I can only assume are God-given talents but also embraced by legions of longtime hardcore fans.
Because I was having a hard time articulating exactly why John Waite is so great, I decided we'd have a chat and talk about music, art, and the key to longevity... even when you have a terrible cold.
Hey John how are you doing today?
Well, I've got a small cold. I'm up to my eyeballs in antibiotics so I'm a little loopy, but other than that, I'm good. Thanks for asking.
Oh gosh, I'm sorry to hear that you're sick.
Ah, I'm not that bad.I'm on a z-pack.
Those are great.
Yeah, they're really good, but it's a bit like being from outer space for me at the moment.
If you give any bizarre answers I'll take them out when I edit, sound fair?
There you go.
Since you've got so much going on, I'd like to start out talking about Live: All Access. Live music is near and dear to many people's hearts, myself included. Is this supposed to be like a breath of fresh air for listeners, a sort of push back against all the digitized perfection of what's out there right now, since all the raw power of music and even the interesting mistakes are glossed over in most productions? What's the reason for the live album now?
Exactly what you said just there. Just write it down and that would be the answer. It's kind of like it really is a knee jerk reaction to all the synthesized, digitized, showbiz-ized kind of thing that's happened to rock and roll over the last ten years. I mean after leaving Bad English, I started a whole different writing style really. Became mostly a songwriter for a couple of years. And then gradually moved back into singing and becoming more engaged in rock. Which was great because I had a backlog of songs that were also country or blues or whatever, but I had a pretty big catalog. This time around, it was really about capturing the spirit of a live band. We had a new guitar player Keri Kelli; he had played with Slash and Alice Cooper. Our other guitar player moved to Chicago and decided he wasn't going to play gigs anymore and we were just stuck without a guitar player and then Keri showed up. I can't even remember quite how we got in touch with him, but he showed up and within three weeks we were doing shows. And about two months into it--we never rehearsed--that was a big thing. We plugged in, this friend of ours just did the session, and we just kind of sat around and played some stuff and he was on. But about two months into playing the gigs everything changed. He really seemed to get it, you know?
Like lightning in a bottle.
There you go. It's exactly it. And I realized something was going on that was intangible, really as far as technical things go. It was pure energy and music and I wanted to capture that as fast as I could. We started with two shows in south Philly, in a church that's been converted into a recording facility called Philly Sound. We bought three kegs of beer for two nights and announced it on the radio as a free concert and we did two shows. Some of the shows were great, some were a little out of tune and couldn't be used, but we got a big selection of songs. There and then, two months later I decided to try it again and by this time the band was on ten. We went up to New Hampshire, in the middle of winter.
Ugh. Cold.
Yeah, Manchester. Ice cold. And I don't know how it happened but it was just one of those things where all the planets align and everything just goes right. Although, the sound check was terrible, and I thought, "Oh no" and then we plugged in. But the audience went nuts and from the downbeat we had this incredible show. I sang my ass off, sang well, I was holding back in the end and Keri and the rhythm section were locked and it was one of those shows. A majority of the album comes from that show. It's trying to go back to that thing that you heard in Rolling Stones live stuff or the similar seventies bands that could do it really well like Humble Pie. It's like going back to that before synthesizers kind of made it so middle of the road. There are no overdubs on this whatsoever. It's completely live so that's why I'm proud of it.
It's really great. And part of the fun for me is that I've seen so much live music in my life I like to think I can really appreciate a great spontaneous performance. So many people have so many wonderful memories tied to the epic concerts of their life. The audience really does play such a large role in the whole experience.
Yes. Absolutely. You get the bounce from the audience when you are on stage. It's like being in some vast moment of communion. It's like everybody is in this space together. That's what my job is. I've said this before: the only difference between me and the audience is that I've got the mic. That there is something that happens that pulls us all together. That's rock and roll that's just worth every second. It's what it's all about.
So many people come away with life-changing experiences at a concert. Some terrible and some life-affirming. You've done your fair share of concerts for the masses and I was wondering what some of your best and worst memories of being on stage?
Oh man. Well, one of the worst would have to be being pulled off stage at the Palladium.
With the Babys, right?
Yeah, pulled off stage by an overzealous fan by the lead in my cord and my bassist. Some girl ran up and I just went straight into the audience, and that was our opening night in New York. So that was a lot of fun.
Welcome to New York.
Ha, I know right. Also, on the way back from Japan we were added to a gigantic bill in Hawaii in some gigantic stadium and they were having power outages and things like that. It was very badly put together and we all had terrible jet lag. We went on stage in broad daylight and everything blew up but the bass sound and I remember singing "Head First," just me and Ricky Phillips, him playing the bass and there are about thirty thousand people watching. But, conversely, there are moments when you do an acoustic show in a theater somewhere and there's such an immediate connection to the audience where there is such a profound oneness and your feet are on the ground and your head is in the clouds, you are somewhere else and it's almost like sleepwalking but it's a vivid experience. Like I said, these songs that I wrote and even in Bad English there are songs on an album called When You Were Mine that are almost country, but then kind of aren't. They are story songs. And you can put those songs into those shows and then do an unplugged version of "Head First" and it just brings the house down. That's where I want to live. I want to live in a world where I can do those kind of songs and then turn around and rock until the roof comes off.
