January 9, 2020 • 61 mins
Singer/songwriter/gunslinger Dave Mason was a member of Traffic, wrote "Feelin' Alright" as well as "Only You Know And I Know" (popularized by Delaney & Bonnie when they were on tour with Dave and Eric Clapton), and was the creator of the perfect debut album "Alone Together" and recorded the smash hit "We Just Disagree." Now that's a CV!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob left Side Podcast.
My guest today is the truly legendary Dave Mason, and
that star, as I say, rock Dave's bucks. We really
have the rock and roll lifestyle here. Okay, So Dave,
how long is this tour? Uh? This is well, it's
(00:29):
only been about let's see, it ends on the of
the month October. I've really done a lot this year.
How much? Um? Some in January early in the year.
I think it was January February early in the year,
and then um, and then the first actually, the first
part of it was the my which he was a
(00:51):
continuation from the previous year, which was my Rock and
Soul review with me and Steve Cropper. How do you
know Steve Cropper? Oh? I met Kropp a long time
ago here in l A. Really so this is after
he paid his dues in Memphis, I guess. So. Um.
I mean, you know I've been a fan since I
(01:11):
was eighteen nineteen years old. Well, it's funny. He's such
a big guy. You think of a studio guy, and
he looks like I could play basketball. Um, it's great.
It was a great show. So who else was in
the band for how many players did with my with
my band okay, and just with Steve with Steve my band.
(01:32):
And also we had um a girl from Maui, uh,
Gretchen Rhodes who was part of it. Now some of
the time you live in Maui? Is that how you
met her? Yeah? Okay, let's go back a few years.
Whose decision was it to have the Pizza album the
first alone together where it was multi colored? Um, well,
(01:56):
basically was supposed to come out like a sunburst. Oh really,
but there was no controlling the colors in the press, so, um,
every one of them, we just came out different. And
whose decision was to do that? Though? Um, it was
just a collective decision with Camouflage was the company that
(02:19):
did the design work on the album, and um, I
guess it's just to put something out you know, different.
And who's your manager? Back then? Alan Peiser was the
manager Group three management? Okay? And how did you end
up on Blue Thumb through the Group three? So in hindsight,
(02:42):
good decision, bad decision. Cross now is dead. It's not
a big deal. Good and bad. It's all good, you know,
but bad. I mean they were all you know, most
people in music business or musicians, as far as I'm concerned,
would either be either that or life or crime. It
(03:05):
would be one or the other. Okay, let's go back
to the real beginning. Where'd you grow up Worcester, England?
You know, we live in America. We're like focused solely
on Mary. We could. I know we're Worcester Masses. What's
where's Worcester in England? What's does the heartland of England
(03:26):
twelve miles from the Welsh border? Okay, Strafford on Avon? Okay?
And then what did your father or mother do for
a living there? Well, I say my dad was born
in so he was relatively old. She was fifty two. Wow.
(03:52):
My mother was I think forty six or forty seven. Um,
they have My father had a candy store for forty
eight years and um an ice cream factory. Um. And
but mostly he was he was racist. He was a
(04:12):
what horse racing? Ah, now, I know that's big in
the U. Okay, was he did the candy store exists
during the Second World War? Good question? Um? I'm not sure.
I suppose it must have done. Actually, yeah, I must have.
My father was in the First World War because I
(04:34):
was in candy ration then it was hard to get
probably okay, So but he knew, you know, he knew
a guy. He knew a guy, right, and uh the
ice cream factory he owned, Yeah, just a small one
for making ice cream for the store. And you had
as much ice cream as you wri wanka couldn't have
(04:57):
been better. I have to te time. Okay. So, had
either your parents been married before? No? So, how many
kids were there in the family. Um? I had one
sister that has passed away. There was about seventeen years
between us and just the two of you, two of us,
(05:19):
and then my father had three kids. Um, from previous Oh,
my father was married before I had from a previous marriage.
And were you close to those kids or they were
already in their own world? Not? No, not really so
we you mean, he pretty much kicked them all out
when they were sixteen seventeen. So we take care of yourself.
(05:41):
So were you like the you know, the fear haired
child that they put all their investment in you? Or
we were ignored and let able to run free all
of it? Pretty much? I was spoiled. And when did
you first start playing music? Why? Out? I guess music
(06:02):
and stuff was pretty much from you know, at school,
school choirs, stuff like that, school plays, um, and then
you know, pretty much guitar was kind of it was
like the next thing from model airplanes from me. So
(06:23):
we were pre Beatles same time as Beatles um before before.
I mean, it wasn't something. My dream was to go
in the Royal Air Force. Really, what where did that
come from? That's what I wanted to do, and so
(06:44):
I wanted to fly. Why how when did you you?
I'm sure you flew on other substances further down the road,
but when did you give up the dream? Well? Pretty much,
I just wasn't my you know, most of it was
just my math skills weren't up to par. So did
(07:05):
you try the exams for right? Did you try? Um?
Not really, because it was a question of going to
the right schools h and I just basically didn't really
try that hard. Okay, So what what age were you
when you got your guitar? Well, I guess I don't know. Well,
(07:31):
my sister moved to America anyway in the fifties, h
to San Diego, and my mother and I went and
visited her when I was around about I don't know.
Probably gosh, I don't know what your was. Maybe I
(07:52):
was twelve thirteen, Yeah, and that's where a lot of
things for me would different because then Ray, what was
happening on the radio TV was you know, I mean
I grew up with We grew up with you know,
black and white TV and one station, the BBC, and
(08:14):
a lot of stuff that for me was on the
radio radio shows and so and or radio radio Luxembourg
or things like that. Um SO bought a lot of
stuff I got turned. Of course, that was the you're
at the beginning of all that, you know, bands and
(08:35):
guitar and and then while I was in San Diego,
I found this ukulele in a trash can and just
have a clue what to do with it. But I
sort of banged away on it. And then, um, I
guess when I got back, I I was still in school.
(08:55):
I got my dad bought me a guitar when I
just take it to school. So it was basically that.
I mean, I just you know, I saw these other things,
bands and stuff. I think, well, Ship, I could do that.
I think, so you're you're a confident and gentleman. I
(09:16):
guess I didn't do any difference. Okay, So was it
tough coming back to uh, the UK after being in
San Diego? Not that I don't think. So. Okay, you
say you brought your guitar to school? Did you? Did
they have like a music program or you played? I
played in art class. I got to talk to the
(09:38):
art teacher, didn't mind if I bring this in there?
And are you self taught? And can you read music? No?
No way? Okay, So how far do you go in school? Um?
Well I went to what was called a secondary modern
pretty much of which there was A, B and C
(10:00):
in D streams and I pretty much was in the
A stream stream being the best. And how did that
end for you? Well, you go there into your m
about sixteen, and then you either go into college or
you go to work. And for part of the time
(10:21):
I figured I would try my hand at being a draftsman.
Went to a technical college for about a year a half,
and by then I was getting more and more into
playing and figured, um, you know, I just knew that
I was never gonna work nine to five because your
(10:43):
personality or something never gonna work for me. I was
never gonna There's no way because you're not good with
ordering bosses or you're not good with it, you know,
this structure, all of it. Probably I'm just you know,
and we're your parents supportive. My mother was, yeah, but
(11:03):
that would imply your father wasn't. Well. I pretty you know.
I I sort of exited myself. And it's about sixteen anyway,
out of the house. And did you support yourself after sixteen? Okay?
Playing playing music at that point? You know, sixteen seventeen
we had I think it was about that day's when
it formed. The Jaguars play you know, pubs, local gigs
(11:28):
and covers. I assume, oh yeah, all covers. So what
was the game? So what year we in? Like sixty
six years? Are like, um, I don't know what I'm
I don't know what you're I mean, I forget what
your traffic started sixty seven. The record came out in
(11:50):
the Maryland in sixty seven, so would have started basically
in sixty six. So yeah, I would have been sixty
five sixty four. So you're playing with your band, you're
playing covers, and you're happy or you see, there's gotta
be something bigger than this. Well, no, I was determined
it was going to be successful one way or another. Okay,
(12:12):
so was it a regular band with the same guys
UM at first UM, but then it sort of changed around.
There was there was the Jaguars. Then we had a
band called the Deep Feeling UM, and then I got
and then Jim Capody and I got involved in a
(12:33):
band because he lived twelve miles away from me and
he had a band called he Was, so he Jim
was like an erstwhile Elvis fronting a band called the Sapphires,
and then we uh we formed a band called the Hellian's.
(12:57):
UM actually did a record for Hi Jackie de Shannon's
song which went nowhere. I went out and backed UM.
I think it was with a Helly and so I'm
trying to remember if it was with them, went out
and did a tour with backing p J PROBYO and UM.
(13:20):
Then I kind of moved down to London and a
little bit slower. So when you're playing with these bands,
do you feel these bands are gonna make it or
you're better than the bands and you have to carry
the whole thing. I don't really know. I was just
I mean, I I mean, I was hoping any one
(13:44):
of them could really, I suppose, And so who got
you the deal with Pie? You know, I we I
think we got well with that group, the Hellians. We
got signed. We had a management company down in London.
Um M guy named Maurice King, who um the other two?
(14:09):
I forget what other acts? There was one act the
Walker Brothers. He had he had the Walker Brothers, one
of whom just recently passed, and and so that got
me more into the sort of professional seeing. And then um,
(14:30):
you know, we played a lot of gigs in Birmingham, um,
which is basically where Jim and I met Winwood? Oh
really okay, so Jim you met just because in the
BN scene he was fronting a band. And then we
you know, we it finally sort of got to where
you pulled. We tried to pull the best of all
(14:52):
the local bands and find the guys and put them together.
And when did Jim start playing the drums stopping in
front man M Bay, I don't know, basically he I mean,
he was never a drummer. He just could just do it. Okay,
So how did you meet Winwood in Birmingham? Met him
(15:14):
at a place called the Elbow Room. And so you
were just hanging out or you went to you were
performing or he was performing. It was an after hour
sat my private club, unvite a couple of guys that
Jamaican guy in UM guy named Don Carlos. And at
this point, when would it already had his hits with
the Spencer David Well, dimpos was a hit when he
(15:36):
was fifteen. So and so how did it is? How
we did you decide you could form a band? We
just started kind of hanging out basically, just just hanging out,
smoking a lot of hash, listening to all kinds of
music and just just hanging out when we could. And
(15:57):
I guess he got to the point where he just, um,
I didn't want to be Spencer Davis group anymore. So
when you would do something different. And during that time,
through all that, I was um a roadie for them
for about three or four months. Okay, So when you
(16:19):
were you know, Windwood was a star and when you
got to meet him, was he just another musician or
you say this guy is a star or this is
a guy that can work with Well, I wasn't. I'm
a star. I mean he just was. You know, he
was just a an inordinate amount of of of natural talent.
(16:41):
So Um and Jim and I we were fans, and
so you know, it's just sort of But then, like
I said, we just started hanging out basically. Um, and
so you were a roady for the end of the
Spencer Davis group or from the beginning of I was.
I was. I mean, I you know, I sang I'm
(17:03):
singing the harmony on Somebody Help Me. Well really, um,
I mean, uh, me and Jim are both on give
Me Some Love and I'm a Man. Really I didn't
know that. Okay. So during when you met him, before
the heyday of the Spencer Davis group, Um, because you
(17:24):
were singing on all those songs I'm a man, give
Me some Love. Those were the hits in the US,
I know. He yes, I mean they had, you know,
keep on running writing things for you, big hits in England, Europe. Okay,
So what well you were hanging with Winwood. Have you
(17:47):
stopped being in your own band touring around? Are you
still doing that simultaneously? Um? Well, I at that point
I didn't really have it well. Played with a guy
named Don Kove for a little while in London, and
then when it got more to the point where the
four of us were like we're gonna you know, Steve
(18:09):
is really going to leave and we're going to form
a band. So I didn't do anything for about three
or four four months or more. And that's why I
was playing road manager with Spencer Davis Group. Okay, were
your road manager or road like a road He was
kind of a road I mean, so he did a
little bit of everything. I was just there to hang
(18:29):
out with Steve. Okay. Did it feel like a step down,
as you know, doing the behind the scenes stuff instead
of being on the flat? I don't care. I mean
I knew we were going to form a band. So
and how did everybody react when Steve said he was
going to leave the Spencer Davis Group. Um, not too happy.
Spencer flipped out. I mean, I I under I get it.
(18:53):
I mean he was the Spencer Davis Group exactly. There
was nothing after that, you know. So, and that's basically
how you know, kind of Traffic started? How do how?
Why was it named traffic? We were trying to come
up with a name, you know, and pretty much every
(19:16):
band was the and we're trying to think of something different.
We spent weeks with what about this? What about this?
What about this? And then Jim and I were at
a a um a movie, an afternoon movie in Worcester,
(19:38):
and in the cinema when you came out, the front
doors had steps that went right down onto the high street,
and we walked out and he just went, I got
it traffic. And did you think it was a good idea? Immediately? Yeah?
Immediately it was like yeah, perfect, Okay, Just so I
(20:02):
know how far is Wooster from Birmingham. Um, it's about
thirty miles okay, relatively close. Yeah. And then how did
Chris Wood get involved? Chris was a friend of Steve's
and he was always going to be involved. Um, I guess,
I mean they were friends. He was an art school guy. Okay,
so now you formed traffic. Chris. Chris Blackwell comes into
(20:23):
the situation. Well, he he managed Spencer Day, he had
Spencer Davis group. Anyway, it's at Steve. I mean, did
you feel like, well, now I've really hit the big
time or well I knew that that at that point,
having being involved with Steve, being involved in it, it
was certainly going to get attention. And then it was
(20:49):
Blackwell helpful, unhelpful, good dad? Mhm um in what sense? Hey?
Is he atively or just okay, he was a businessman.
(21:09):
Doesn't he get credit for producing that first record? No,
he didn't produce the first year. No, but I think
he takes credit though probably Okay, took everything else pretty much.
So okay, there you have it. Now when you want
to go, are you signed individually? I mean Jimmy Miller
produced the first album. He brought Jimmy Miller. Chris brought
Jimmy Miller over to produce Traffic, and Jimmy Miller one
(21:32):
of the unsung heroes of rock and roll. So what
was he like because he died way before his time.
Jimmy was just great, just very cool personality, great producer.
But with Traffic, it was, you know, we were Steve
wanted to get away from the from the young Ray
(21:54):
Charles dubbed that he got and do something different. So
and at first we were gonna we talked about a
lot of covers and doing you know, Bobby Bland stuff
or but when it started, that was my when I
(22:14):
sort of went, you know what, I'm gonna need to
start writing. Oh, you didn't write before then? No? Uh.
The first song I ever wrote was their biggest hit,
fantasy song called Hole in My shoe right, which was
(22:38):
the beginning of the end. Why was it the beginning
of the end. It was the beginning of the end because,
um because mostly because I guess, I don't know, probably
a bunch of reasons. I'll never know really why. Um.
But most of everything, most of the things that I wrote,
(23:01):
we're all, we're because I was there for the first
two albums. Um. But let's start with the first album.
First album, you're in the band and then you're out
of the band. Well, I wrote sort of nearly half
the songs, and we and we were kind of like
when the first little group of people that just sort
(23:24):
of we sequested ourselves away in that house in Berkshire
which had no no electricity, no running water until we
started putting it in there, um, just to see what
we could come up with. And I was trying to
you know, I didn't know what I could do or
(23:46):
couldn't do, so I wrote on my own, um, and
they were pretty much naive songs because I had no
I mean, street Smart was not part of my ringing, okay,
but literally between the album coming out in the UK
and the U s you you're no longer in the band. Um, Yeah,
(24:13):
pretty much, um. And the thing I was that happened
was that that hold of my shoe became a number
two record in in England and was a hit in Europe.
And for me, it all happened so fast and suddenly
(24:35):
you're that thing that you've been wanting. Is there press this?
That it all got too much for me and I
couldn't deal with it. It was basically what happened. I'm
just a kid from Worcester, you know, I grew up.
My upbringing was not unlike Tom Sawyer, were running around
(25:00):
the fares, building rafts, bose narrows and okay, so you
wrote it all too much for me. So I left
and you left, and you intended to do what I
didn't know, but you felt you were done with this
music game. No no, no, no, no no, no, no, no,
not at all. I mean I never got into this
(25:23):
be star. I got into this to make music and
and make money, which came first? Make music or make money? Um?
When the music always comes first? Okay, So when you
leave traffic, the spotlight is upon it. Did you see
it in the money from hole in my shoe? Um?
(25:45):
Who knows? I have no clue? Must have seen something.
I mean blackbo took all the publishing on everything because
I didn't know any different. Okay, so when you leave
the band, what are the other three members saying? Uh
m hmm, I don't know. They pretty much sort of
(26:05):
went on as their own, the three of them. And
how did you come back to the ban for the
second they were they were in well whilst I was
whilst in that time that I had left. See part
of it was I was so Traffic was an interesting
group of well because we all have a very diversified
(26:27):
musical tastes. I mean, we loved all kinds of music,
so which I thought was its strength. And um, it
didn't really matter who wrote the hit song to me
because at least that got attention to the band. And
there was so much other material there. Um. And so
(26:52):
after I had to take a break from the fame.
From the fame, I guess of it. But that's when
I m got to know Hendricks. Um, I like to
know McCartney. I produced an album called Music the Dolls
House for the whop called the Family, UM put out
(27:16):
the first compatible stereo single. UM. And so I and
I'd come back and I come back to America a
few times and for what reason, Because mostly for the
reason I finally came here, because this is where it
(27:37):
all starts. This is where it all starts, This is
where it all comes from. Okay, we just copied you up.
We just copied everything and sold it back to you.
We were asleep at the wheel and we The other
big thing is too, as I see we all in
England Europe is we didn't have all that segregation going on.
(27:58):
We didn't, you know, so we had all those great
that's why that blue stuff started happened so much over there.
There wasn't any radio segregation of music over there, so
we heard it all. So you're saying you heard it
all in the UK. So were you caught off guard
when you experienced the segregation in America? I mean, I
(28:26):
don't know if I really if I really paid that
much attention at the time and be honest with you, um,
but anyway, I sort of came back and forth a
few times and then and also at the time, I
during that period of time too, I went to Greece
(28:49):
for a couple of months, to the island of Hedra
to work on songwriting because I thought my stuff was
sort of uh the you know, hold of my Shoe
was just a little fantasy thing that was ahead. Um,
(29:09):
but I wanted to write more mm hmm, just about
just life things, real things. Tom My. Whole thing was
wrong writing is to write something that's timeless. I don't
want it to be trapped in a fashion or time
or place. Since you had a number of hits, did
you right trying to have a hit or you said
(29:31):
they just yeah, well I have a a you know,
I have a somewhat of a pop sensibility. Okay, so
how do you come back into traffic for the second
I was in New York and they were at the
I think they were at the record plan to New
York working on the second album, and all they had
(29:54):
were five songs. M and I was at the studio visiting,
and I said, well I got five songs. Oh all right,
well we want to come sure, let's recording. Well, you
had except for forty thousand head Men, which is a
(30:15):
great track. You have the three best tracks on the
album feeling all right, Well, it feel it all right,
but that's a famous one. But it started the album
started where you could all join in. And my favorite
songs on the second side, crying to be heard. So
were those songs you've written in Hedra pretty much? Okay?
(30:36):
But you talk about A Hole in the Hole of
My Shoe being your first track most people, right, you know,
I read a hundred songs. The first ninety were bad.
Were you someone where every track, every song you worked
on and then it became quality? Uh? Well, I you know, basically,
I don't. I'm not I'm not very I'm not very prolific.
(30:59):
If I write something, it's I mean stuff. I well
if I if it doesn't feel right, I just throw
it out. So I am usually just concentrate. I concentrate
on what my version of quality is rather than quantity.
I guess my question would be those three tracks on
(31:20):
the second album with those songs that you wrote right
after A Hole of My Shoe or you written a
lot of other ones. No, no, they weren't. That's when
I mean it took me. It was just took me
two years to write those eight songs on alone together. Okay,
but let's go back to the second traffic and what's
the story. I'm crying to be heard? I don't even
(31:43):
remember just whatever it's saying. Okay, how I mets a
song I've never done. I've never sang that. I've never
performed that song. Why. I mean, I thought it was cool,
but hey, don't have that voice anymore for one thing,
(32:06):
and um, you know I'll do all join in, um,
But for me, crying to be heard was just a
it was an album track. It's important to me. But
at any event, what's the story? And you can all
join in? Remember how that came together? Um? I think
(32:28):
I wrote most of the lyrics for that sitting in
a cafe, outdoor cafe in Athens. And you know what
inspired it? Just basically what exactly what it's saying pretty much?
And what's the story of behind feeling all right? Feeling
all rights? Um? Feeling all right is about not feeling
(32:52):
too good myself. That's what feeling all right is? What
was the inspiration for that girl? Of course a woman?
And did it really all are okay? You have this?
Did the song a lot of times? When you're in
that mood, that the press mood, the creativity comes and
it comes out all in one batch. Did the song
kind of right itself? Or did you work on it
for a long time? I mean part of it too
(33:15):
was I was trying to musically I was trying to
write the simplest thing I possibly could come up with
because I had been playing sitar for some time, which
I used on the first album, and George Harrison gave
me the sitar that he learned on UM to start with.
(33:36):
So I've been playing sitar and I've been listened to
our Indian music, So having been listening to that basically
around a drone UM, it was part of the for
me was trying to write the simplest possible thing I
could come up with, and other than one chord, two chords. Okay.
(33:59):
Now that's all you know is literally legendary played a
lot today. Does Black well in the publishing on that
or do you no? I don't know in the publishing
on it, but you still get the writer's share I do, okay.
And then do you know how Joe Cocker ended up
covering it? Um? Not until Denny Cordell, I mean, the
(34:19):
producer got him to cover it. I mean that's the
definitive version. Okay, So you like it? Oh? Yeah, you're kidding.
I wish I'd have done it like that. I mean
I do on pretty much on stage, but it's you know,
it's an adaptable song. You can do it in so
many ways. You could do as a reggae song if
(34:40):
you want. So how did it end with Traffic? How
did Traffic decided to break up? So after the second
album came out, and of course my songs were the
single picks, And then I got a call to come
(35:03):
to a meeting at Chris Blackwell's house, and um so
I go over there and Chris and Steve and Jim
are they're sitting on the couch and I sit down
and the psycho okay, what's going on? And Steve looked
at me and says, I don't like the way you're saying.
I don't way. You're right, I don't like the way
you play. And you're out of the band. And that's
(35:27):
how it ended. And what did you say? I didn't
say anything too much, got up and left. And do
you see Winwood ever since then? Or he didn't see me?
But you maintained a relationship with Capaldi, right, coalities passed
(35:48):
away before that sort of sort of, But the band
itself ended up imploading, sure that they didn't have your
hit songs? Well possibly, okay, So track, you're done with Traffic?
Where does that leave you? Around the street pretty much
wondering what the hell I'm gonna do. And we tried
(36:11):
a couple of things. I mean, it was one point
where Steve had left the band and she left the band,
but the other three of you were carrying on. We
could try to carry on with a guy named winder
k Frog, but it was you know, you're not going
to replace Winwood. So you know, after all that, I
(36:35):
just finally went, you know what, I'm out of here.
That in the cents in the dollar taxes in England,
it was like, you know, fuck this ship, I'm out
of here. I'm going west. And that's when I up
and left and came here to Los Angeles, came to
(36:56):
Los Angeles. Now, especially with today's situation, we're all very
familiar with immigration law. You can't stay here forever unless
you get a green card or you get a special visa.
How'd you end up being able to stay? I have
I am a I am an alien resident. Okay, But
back then, back in sixty eight or so, you applied
(37:19):
and you got that. Yeah, okay, you citizen now are
still in it, still an alien resident. Do you vote
in the UK? No? Do you care about Brexit? I don't.
I hope that passes because I think it should just
very simply why, Because I just don't think that wrapping
(37:39):
yourselves around the rest of Europe is going to benefit
England in any way. And do you go back at
this pointing back maybe twice three times really in fifty years? Okay,
so you don't sell any records there, never have. So
you're in America and I have no other reason to
go back there. You're in America, and then what do
(38:03):
you decide to do? Well? I came stayed with Graham
Parsons for for a little while. How do you know Graham?
I knew him through um met him through the rolling stones.
We've we've gotten, We've gone through Hendricks, We've gone through Harrison.
How did all this happen? Are you just the kind
(38:23):
of guy where everybody gets along with us? You could
meet every you could run into everybody, and there's only
one place. It's not like America where you had you
know how many music centers l A, New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia,
New York, Detroit, San Francisco. It was just London. And
(38:44):
that's so you've runned everybody there. We've done limited number
of studios, and Jimmy Miller was producing the Stones and
Hendricks and the Stones and Traffic and the rest of
us were all using the same studios, and wasn't unusual
for people to just drop by each other's sessions. And
when you start, so I am played on Street Fighting Man?
(39:10):
What are you playing on Street Fighting Man? Uh? Some
of the drums and that weird horn at the end
of it. How do you end up playing the weird horn?
Brian was a little too, he wasn't there actually, and
then Hendricks and IWI um during that period of time
(39:33):
where I left, there was a little rift going on
with him and no Redding, and jim and I actually
talked seriously about me taking Noh's place, but that would
be playing bass, and we did some recordings me playing
sitar and bass, so I have no clue where they are.
(39:56):
And then I got to sing on Crosstand Traffic and
then played the acoustic guitar and all along the watch Tower. Ah. So,
but then you come to the US, and then I
finally come to the US, and I've known a band
over here, which I tried to tell Chris Blackway, you
should really really signed this band if you want a
(40:17):
really great man, which was Delaneum Bunny. So I knew
all those people and I played and play guitar with
them for a while. Now were you you were also
in the band same time Clapton was in the band. Well, mhm,
(40:39):
Delaneum Bonny opened the Blind Faith to her. Actually where
I saw the Blind Faith tour in Chicago, taste was
the opener. But we opened a lot of the dates.
We were run a lot of the dates, and that's
where Eric got to really grab all, you know, get
to know all that. And were you cool with Eric? Yeah?
(41:00):
I mean I was in the I mean I was
in the beginning of I was in the band of
Derek and the Dominoes at the very beginning. And how
did it? How did that end? Um? It mostly ended
because that's when Eric got into Heroin. There's a lot
of not a lot of not a lot was getting done,
(41:21):
and I was getting frustrated and just so, okay, this
is I can't deal with this. Who else was in
the band at that point, well, Jim Gordon and most
of the Delinean Bonny band, Bobby Gordon, Um, Karl Radl
(41:42):
And so how do you end up writing you only
you know and I know which is on the Delinean
Bonny album on tour. Well, I had written those that's
part of a loan together and those those eight songs
were written over a period of two years, and I
wrote only you Know and I Know up at Cass
(42:03):
Elliott's house. You ultimately did an album with Cass. How
did you meet Cass through Graham Parsons. Graham was the
type of person who knew everybody himself, right, and but
he at the time was on herrowin too, right, Um,
I guess, I mean I was wasn't aware at the time,
and Cass was done with the mamas and the papas,
(42:25):
and what was your relationship with her? Well, the thing
was there was a couple living there at the house
up in Mulholland that I were really close friends of
mine from London, and I had no idea that they
were there, and so it was like, oh my god, people,
I actually know. This is great. So that was the
reason that I started going there a lot, spending a
(42:47):
lot of time there and right, and so how you
wrote only you Know and I knew there. I started
writing it there and that and um, I think and
I was pretty much at the time, I was kind
(43:08):
of living at the Chateau Marma. She's where I wrote
I can't start worrying and finished only you know and
I know. Um, I think at one point Jim come
over or something somewhere. We got together and and he
(43:29):
had I had some music and a rhythm of something
that I was doing, and he had these lyrics, and
I read the lyrics and they went, oh, m okay,
they'll fit with it, and that became look at you,
look at me, okay. And then at the point, if
you're living in the Chateau Bauman, you must have had
(43:50):
some money from somewhere. Um, whether you know, there was royalties,
and there was stuff that I and I played show
you know, dates with them with Lillanium Bonny um. And
then I was also pretty much working on that record
deal with Blue Thumb. So how did that come together? Well,
(44:11):
when did you decide you wanted to do a solo album? Well,
I figured I was. I mean, that was the whole
object of it. I mean, there was I came here,
not nobody really, I mean that sort of when I
came here is pretty much when the traffic albums started
(44:31):
to come out over here. So nobody had a clue
who I was. Yeah, um, except I had those eight songs.
So how did it come together with Blue Thumb? Well,
(44:51):
like I said, that was through Group three because they
managed Llanium Bonny and that's how I got to that,
and that led to Blue Thumb. And did you think
that going to Blue Thumb was good? Or would you
have rather rather been at Warrener Brothers Columbia. Um at
(45:12):
the time, Um, I still like the idea of independent
labels because without a lot of artists on them, right,
But I figured I'd get a little more attention and
being on someplace where there's a huge run. To what
degree did they give you attention in the studio? Well? They,
(45:36):
I mean Tommy La Puma was basically who was a producer, producer,
just a real great guy. Um. And Tommy knew all
those musicians that I finally finished at working with them there.
So did you have any idea that every did you
think everything was turning out? Well? All I knew was
(46:02):
was making a record. Okay, Well, the record came out
from the consumer side. It certainly have the multicolored plastic,
It had this three piano uh cover you could hang
up as a poster, and it was one of the
few albums of all time you could literally play from
beginning then there's not one cluck around the whole. The
great thing about it was when when when there really
(46:24):
was radio, which sadly is when the biggest reasons don't
put anything new at it anymore is nobody on. But
then you had DJs and people who were turning onto
the music. And the thing about one thing about that
album is it was very hard to see where the
(46:44):
groves where the church started in. Just put it on
and play the whole Sam a side so um yeah.
But then you got into a fight with Blue Thumb
right you didn't want came a hit. And because of
my experience with Blackwell and promises, certain things that he
made that he were nagged on. Is I just I said, okay, great,
(47:09):
and I want to you need to if you want
to do another one, you need to renegotiate the album
need my dear, And they wouldn't do it. And so
I was working on that second album. So it was Headkeeper,
the second album, Hey Keep. It was the second album
which is supposed to be a double album and R
(47:33):
and they just um, I kept reneging on it. And
I just said, I took the tapes and hit all
the tapes and put them somewhere all the masters. Okay,
So they went ahead and just put out an album
off the rough two tracks stuff that was left there.
(47:55):
And that's when I went in the press and I said,
don't buy the damn album. So this was before you
made your deal with Columbia. Yeah, okay, So where did
that leave you emotionally? When they put out all the
rough mixes? I was passed? And did you ever make
peace with them? With kras Now? No? Did you ever
(48:22):
get paid on that? Right? Those records? Who knows? He's
probably shuffled so many out of the back door. Who
knows what he did? I think they all everybody got screwed, right,
I'm got screwed. Tommy got screwed. And so how did
you end up making a deal with Columbia? That's a
(48:44):
good question. UM, trying to think of a series of
events after after Um, I think it was after that
there was a fellow named Don Graham Don Sherman to
(49:08):
manage me for a little while. UM, I'm trying to
remember if it was him that that's how we got
to the Columbia deal. Okay, was were they? I mean
there was after the success of Alone Together, there was
gonna be somebody that was gonna stap of course, so
(49:30):
they were looking for you. Would you say, I would
imagine that, you know, I could have probably gone to
them or warners, or I probably could have gone to
all of them. So how was your experience being on Columbia?
Columbia is a very very experience, okayy um. I mean,
(50:00):
you know, I've always had freedom to do whatever I
want in the studio because I really don't. I tried
once to do something it was like that was stupid,
so um, and then there was a whole live side
(50:24):
of things trying to you know, become a I mean
for me, I had to hit I added Alone Together
hit record, but I really wasn't. I really wasn't prepared
to be a solo artist. So I mean we did
Colombia and we had um um, I forget what I
(50:49):
forget what to order? The first album was was It's
Like You Never Left? Was Was that the first one?
I don't think it's gone for a while or something
or us to Dave Mason album. I think I think
Dave Mason was first, but I would have to look
it up myself. Yeah, and then you know, like the
(51:10):
problem with those the problem with the labels, which looking back,
I wish they were still well, I wish a number
of things were still around for artists, but they aren't.
Um um, I mean things you know, you were, you had.
(51:32):
I mean, the thing was back then, when I was,
back in the days when we first started, somebody made
a decision and the whole and that moved the whole company.
And then as things progressed and we got into the
bullshit of consensus, you know, well everybody's got opinion. Yeah, okay,
that's gonna knows too, but unlet's just somebody there. So
(51:55):
when you had somebody behind you that has some power
at the company, you know, you can pretty much get
something done. And then eventually it just you know, all
sort of and then every because then somebody would be
there from a little while and then they were gone.
(52:16):
I mean, there was a great article back in the seventies,
early seventies on the front of the Wall Street Journal.
You always put that little little column there now to
the bottom. Used to be on the side, and they
used to be right there in the center of the page.
Oh yeah, yeah, with all the news, and it was
always something a little different. And they did a thing
on the record business and they said, of all the
(52:40):
records put out by every label that exists in the US,
two make money. So you know, there's a lot of
cases where I mean, you got bands that did stuff
and made great albums, and the people that were there
to help and do it so only weren't there anymore.
(53:01):
So a lot of stuff was sholled. Um. Yeah, I
was scarious. The labels were the labels were an expensive
way to borrow money and try getting it back. Okay,
so how does we just disagree happening? How does that
become ahead? Um? Well, how does it become a hit? Um? Then?
(53:28):
And I did the I think at that point I
had I'm trying to think it's the I I get
because I don't specifically remember the times but the specific
order of things. But I think there was a period
where and now part of all some things I had,
(53:55):
some number of things happened. I and I went through
bankruptcy while you were signed to Columbia. I went through
a bankruptcy, and um, it was a legitimate bankruptcy. The
thing about a bankruptcy is is that the minute you
declared bankrupt, you're free and clear to do whatever you
(54:17):
want to go and do, unless as fraud involved, and
then you're screwed. But the part part about it is
within the recording agreements of the time, there was no
provision for that. And I really wanted to go with Ahmed,
and I was broke at the time. An Armored loaned
(54:41):
me fifty dollars personally and took me on the corporate
jet for ten days to Europe to a number of
rolling Stones consins, and then we got back and he said,
there's no precedent for this. We don't know what to do.
(55:02):
I said, but if you can sign me it's legal,
it's fine, it said corporate attorneys. They don't know what
to do, he said. I just at the time, Clive
was at Columbia, and Clive had made an offer to
go back to Columbia, and Army said, just just go
(55:25):
take the offer. So so I went back to Columbia.
And that's when I had did um the letter Flow album,
which was again put out. It was put out colored album,
Blue and uh and had we just disagree on it.
(55:47):
And at the time I had a great band, Mike Finnegan,
Jim Kreeger, Gerald Johnson, and it was a song Jim
Kreeger had written and he brought it to me one
day said I got this and he said this, think
it's perfect for you. You know. It was like it
was just a great song. And so that's why I credit.
(56:13):
And then the guys, the the guys out on the
street were important, really important, the labels, the work, the
radio promotion, promotion guys, Mike Gustler one of them, UM,
a couple of other guys. They really helped make that
(56:34):
a hit. And Steve Popovitch was another great guy. UM
and Clive actually, I mean I always thought Clive is
a great record guy. It's a great ear for stuff
you're not you know. That whole to me, all that
(56:57):
whole asking him for over some bar mits for party
whatever it was, it was a lot of bullshit. I
think he's just getting I think that you had a
problem when you got too powerful, except of those places,
especially powerful or you do it couldn't make anything happen.
He was screwed. So and then I tried a couple
(57:21):
more things and with them and um Mariposta album, which
to me was a really good album. Um, I didn't
sell I mean, it went gold, but and then it
just sort of fell apart after that, and then Joe
Wizard did the last album I did, and Columbia did
(57:46):
nothing to push it was one of the reasons why
Joe Wizard left Columbia. Yeah. Yeah, and that's the story basically. Okay,
So now you're done with columb down with Colombia, do
you what do you think where you think you're at
at that point? We hit the eighties doing what I've
(58:10):
always done, playing playing live. So at this point in time,
how much do you work? How many days a year?
I mean I've never stopped basically and then never stopped
really working. I mean the last couple of years is
(58:31):
that this year is probably the least I've worked. I
mean last year I took four months off first. I
haven't gotten out on So where can you play? Pretty
much anywhere in the world US, just the US, US,
some Canada, Okay, And you see a new audiencewer is
(58:54):
the same die hard Dave Mason. It's the saying, well,
it's just people who grow up with me. Basically, you know,
my my audience is basically fourdies to seventies. And do
you still occasionally I get you know, there's a young
kids come and usually they're like, Wow, it's all new
(59:18):
to them, but nobody's playing it to them. There's no nobody.
I mean, radio is just I mean, everybody talks about
the Internet and the power of the Internet. Terrestrial radio
is probably more powerful than the Internet. It's still a
very powerful media. So there's nobody there, so you don't
(59:42):
put It's why we don't put music out anymore. And
we're getting screwed worse by the Internet companies than we
were by the labels. Five thousand plays on on Pandora.
It's about saying your checks the same as the price
of a T shirt. I mean, half of our revenue
(01:00:03):
stream is gone, so or you're left with it's playing live.
I mean, that's why I still play. I played for
a couple of reasons, probably the same reason I gave
at the very beginning of the interview. I love I
love playing, and I'm really good at disappointed at being
Dave Mason. And it's the only revenue stream that I am.
(01:00:27):
So you're gonna die on stage or at some point
you're gonna miss the last show. And on that note, Dave,
thanks so much for doing the podcast I don't like
we can top. Thank you until next time. This is
Bob left Sex
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob left Side Podcast.
My guest today is the truly legendary Dave Mason, and
that star, as I say, rock Dave's bucks. We really
have the rock and roll lifestyle here. Okay, So Dave,
how long is this tour? Uh? This is well, it's
(00:29):
only been about let's see, it ends on the of
the month October. I've really done a lot this year.
How much? Um? Some in January early in the year.
I think it was January February early in the year,
and then um, and then the first actually, the first
part of it was the my which he was a
(00:51):
continuation from the previous year, which was my Rock and
Soul review with me and Steve Cropper. How do you
know Steve Cropper? Oh? I met Kropp a long time
ago here in l A. Really so this is after
he paid his dues in Memphis, I guess. So. Um.
I mean, you know I've been a fan since I
(01:11):
was eighteen nineteen years old. Well, it's funny. He's such
a big guy. You think of a studio guy, and
he looks like I could play basketball. Um, it's great.
It was a great show. So who else was in
the band for how many players did with my with
my band okay, and just with Steve with Steve my band.
(01:32):
And also we had um a girl from Maui, uh,
Gretchen Rhodes who was part of it. Now some of
the time you live in Maui? Is that how you
met her? Yeah? Okay, let's go back a few years.
Whose decision was it to have the Pizza album the
first alone together where it was multi colored? Um, well,
(01:56):
basically was supposed to come out like a sunburst. Oh really,
but there was no controlling the colors in the press, so, um,
every one of them, we just came out different. And
whose decision was to do that? Though? Um, it was
just a collective decision with Camouflage was the company that
(02:19):
did the design work on the album, and um, I
guess it's just to put something out you know, different.
And who's your manager? Back then? Alan Peiser was the
manager Group three management? Okay? And how did you end
up on Blue Thumb through the Group three? So in hindsight,
(02:42):
good decision, bad decision. Cross now is dead. It's not
a big deal. Good and bad. It's all good, you know,
but bad. I mean they were all you know, most
people in music business or musicians, as far as I'm concerned,
would either be either that or life or crime. It
(03:05):
would be one or the other. Okay, let's go back
to the real beginning. Where'd you grow up Worcester, England?
You know, we live in America. We're like focused solely
on Mary. We could. I know we're Worcester Masses. What's
where's Worcester in England? What's does the heartland of England
(03:26):
twelve miles from the Welsh border? Okay, Strafford on Avon? Okay?
And then what did your father or mother do for
a living there? Well, I say my dad was born
in so he was relatively old. She was fifty two. Wow.
(03:52):
My mother was I think forty six or forty seven. Um,
they have My father had a candy store for forty
eight years and um an ice cream factory. Um. And
but mostly he was he was racist. He was a
(04:12):
what horse racing? Ah, now, I know that's big in
the U. Okay, was he did the candy store exists
during the Second World War? Good question? Um? I'm not sure.
I suppose it must have done. Actually, yeah, I must have.
My father was in the First World War because I
(04:34):
was in candy ration then it was hard to get
probably okay, So but he knew, you know, he knew
a guy. He knew a guy, right, and uh the
ice cream factory he owned, Yeah, just a small one
for making ice cream for the store. And you had
as much ice cream as you wri wanka couldn't have
(04:57):
been better. I have to te time. Okay. So, had
either your parents been married before? No? So, how many
kids were there in the family. Um? I had one
sister that has passed away. There was about seventeen years
between us and just the two of you, two of us,
(05:19):
and then my father had three kids. Um, from previous Oh,
my father was married before I had from a previous marriage.
And were you close to those kids or they were
already in their own world? Not? No, not really so
we you mean, he pretty much kicked them all out
when they were sixteen seventeen. So we take care of yourself.
(05:41):
So were you like the you know, the fear haired
child that they put all their investment in you? Or
we were ignored and let able to run free all
of it? Pretty much? I was spoiled. And when did
you first start playing music? Why? Out? I guess music
(06:02):
and stuff was pretty much from you know, at school,
school choirs, stuff like that, school plays, um, and then
you know, pretty much guitar was kind of it was
like the next thing from model airplanes from me. So
(06:23):
we were pre Beatles same time as Beatles um before before.
I mean, it wasn't something. My dream was to go
in the Royal Air Force. Really, what where did that
come from? That's what I wanted to do, and so
(06:44):
I wanted to fly. Why how when did you you?
I'm sure you flew on other substances further down the road,
but when did you give up the dream? Well? Pretty much,
I just wasn't my you know, most of it was
just my math skills weren't up to par. So did
(07:05):
you try the exams for right? Did you try? Um?
Not really, because it was a question of going to
the right schools h and I just basically didn't really
try that hard. Okay, So what what age were you
when you got your guitar? Well, I guess I don't know. Well,
(07:31):
my sister moved to America anyway in the fifties, h
to San Diego, and my mother and I went and
visited her when I was around about I don't know.
Probably gosh, I don't know what your was. Maybe I
(07:52):
was twelve thirteen, Yeah, and that's where a lot of
things for me would different because then Ray, what was
happening on the radio TV was you know, I mean
I grew up with We grew up with you know,
black and white TV and one station, the BBC, and
(08:14):
a lot of stuff that for me was on the
radio radio shows and so and or radio radio Luxembourg
or things like that. Um SO bought a lot of
stuff I got turned. Of course, that was the you're
at the beginning of all that, you know, bands and
(08:35):
guitar and and then while I was in San Diego,
I found this ukulele in a trash can and just
have a clue what to do with it. But I
sort of banged away on it. And then, um, I
guess when I got back, I I was still in school.
(08:55):
I got my dad bought me a guitar when I
just take it to school. So it was basically that.
I mean, I just you know, I saw these other things,
bands and stuff. I think, well, Ship, I could do that.
I think, so you're you're a confident and gentleman. I
(09:16):
guess I didn't do any difference. Okay, So was it
tough coming back to uh, the UK after being in
San Diego? Not that I don't think. So. Okay, you
say you brought your guitar to school? Did you? Did
they have like a music program or you played? I
played in art class. I got to talk to the
(09:38):
art teacher, didn't mind if I bring this in there?
And are you self taught? And can you read music? No?
No way? Okay, So how far do you go in school? Um?
Well I went to what was called a secondary modern
pretty much of which there was A, B and C
(10:00):
in D streams and I pretty much was in the
A stream stream being the best. And how did that
end for you? Well, you go there into your m
about sixteen, and then you either go into college or
you go to work. And for part of the time
(10:21):
I figured I would try my hand at being a draftsman.
Went to a technical college for about a year a half,
and by then I was getting more and more into
playing and figured, um, you know, I just knew that
I was never gonna work nine to five because your
(10:43):
personality or something never gonna work for me. I was
never gonna There's no way because you're not good with
ordering bosses or you're not good with it, you know,
this structure, all of it. Probably I'm just you know,
and we're your parents supportive. My mother was, yeah, but
(11:03):
that would imply your father wasn't. Well. I pretty you know.
I I sort of exited myself. And it's about sixteen anyway,
out of the house. And did you support yourself after sixteen? Okay?
Playing playing music at that point? You know, sixteen seventeen
we had I think it was about that day's when
it formed. The Jaguars play you know, pubs, local gigs
(11:28):
and covers. I assume, oh yeah, all covers. So what
was the game? So what year we in? Like sixty
six years? Are like, um, I don't know what I'm
I don't know what you're I mean, I forget what
your traffic started sixty seven. The record came out in
(11:50):
the Maryland in sixty seven, so would have started basically
in sixty six. So yeah, I would have been sixty
five sixty four. So you're playing with your band, you're
playing covers, and you're happy or you see, there's gotta
be something bigger than this. Well, no, I was determined
it was going to be successful one way or another. Okay,
(12:12):
so was it a regular band with the same guys
UM at first UM, but then it sort of changed around.
There was there was the Jaguars. Then we had a
band called the Deep Feeling UM, and then I got
and then Jim Capody and I got involved in a
(12:33):
band because he lived twelve miles away from me and
he had a band called he Was, so he Jim
was like an erstwhile Elvis fronting a band called the Sapphires,
and then we uh we formed a band called the Hellian's.
(12:57):
UM actually did a record for Hi Jackie de Shannon's
song which went nowhere. I went out and backed UM.
I think it was with a Helly and so I'm
trying to remember if it was with them, went out
and did a tour with backing p J PROBYO and UM.
(13:20):
Then I kind of moved down to London and a
little bit slower. So when you're playing with these bands,
do you feel these bands are gonna make it or
you're better than the bands and you have to carry
the whole thing. I don't really know. I was just
I mean, I I mean, I was hoping any one
(13:44):
of them could really, I suppose, And so who got
you the deal with Pie? You know, I we I
think we got well with that group, the Hellians. We
got signed. We had a management company down in London.
Um M guy named Maurice King, who um the other two?
(14:09):
I forget what other acts? There was one act the
Walker Brothers. He had he had the Walker Brothers, one
of whom just recently passed, and and so that got
me more into the sort of professional seeing. And then um,
(14:30):
you know, we played a lot of gigs in Birmingham, um,
which is basically where Jim and I met Winwood? Oh
really okay, so Jim you met just because in the
BN scene he was fronting a band. And then we
you know, we it finally sort of got to where
you pulled. We tried to pull the best of all
(14:52):
the local bands and find the guys and put them together.
And when did Jim start playing the drums stopping in
front man M Bay, I don't know, basically he I mean,
he was never a drummer. He just could just do it. Okay,
So how did you meet Winwood in Birmingham? Met him
(15:14):
at a place called the Elbow Room. And so you
were just hanging out or you went to you were
performing or he was performing. It was an after hour
sat my private club, unvite a couple of guys that
Jamaican guy in UM guy named Don Carlos. And at
this point, when would it already had his hits with
the Spencer David Well, dimpos was a hit when he
(15:36):
was fifteen. So and so how did it is? How
we did you decide you could form a band? We
just started kind of hanging out basically, just just hanging out,
smoking a lot of hash, listening to all kinds of
music and just just hanging out when we could. And
(15:57):
I guess he got to the point where he just, um,
I didn't want to be Spencer Davis group anymore. So
when you would do something different. And during that time,
through all that, I was um a roadie for them
for about three or four months. Okay, So when you
(16:19):
were you know, Windwood was a star and when you
got to meet him, was he just another musician or
you say this guy is a star or this is
a guy that can work with Well, I wasn't. I'm
a star. I mean he just was. You know, he
was just a an inordinate amount of of of natural talent.
(16:41):
So Um and Jim and I we were fans, and
so you know, it's just sort of But then, like
I said, we just started hanging out basically. Um, and
so you were a roady for the end of the
Spencer Davis group or from the beginning of I was.
I was. I mean, I you know, I sang I'm
(17:03):
singing the harmony on Somebody Help Me. Well really, um,
I mean, uh, me and Jim are both on give
Me Some Love and I'm a Man. Really I didn't
know that. Okay. So during when you met him, before
the heyday of the Spencer Davis group, Um, because you
(17:24):
were singing on all those songs I'm a man, give
Me some Love. Those were the hits in the US,
I know. He yes, I mean they had, you know,
keep on running writing things for you, big hits in England, Europe. Okay,
So what well you were hanging with Winwood. Have you
(17:47):
stopped being in your own band touring around? Are you
still doing that simultaneously? Um? Well, I at that point
I didn't really have it well. Played with a guy
named Don Kove for a little while in London, and
then when it got more to the point where the
four of us were like we're gonna you know, Steve
(18:09):
is really going to leave and we're going to form
a band. So I didn't do anything for about three
or four four months or more. And that's why I
was playing road manager with Spencer Davis Group. Okay, were
your road manager or road like a road He was
kind of a road I mean, so he did a
little bit of everything. I was just there to hang
(18:29):
out with Steve. Okay. Did it feel like a step down,
as you know, doing the behind the scenes stuff instead
of being on the flat? I don't care. I mean
I knew we were going to form a band. So
and how did everybody react when Steve said he was
going to leave the Spencer Davis Group. Um, not too happy.
Spencer flipped out. I mean, I I under I get it.
(18:53):
I mean he was the Spencer Davis Group exactly. There
was nothing after that, you know. So, and that's basically
how you know, kind of Traffic started? How do how?
Why was it named traffic? We were trying to come
up with a name, you know, and pretty much every
(19:16):
band was the and we're trying to think of something different.
We spent weeks with what about this? What about this?
What about this? And then Jim and I were at
a a um a movie, an afternoon movie in Worcester,
(19:38):
and in the cinema when you came out, the front
doors had steps that went right down onto the high street,
and we walked out and he just went, I got
it traffic. And did you think it was a good idea? Immediately? Yeah?
Immediately it was like yeah, perfect, Okay, Just so I
(20:02):
know how far is Wooster from Birmingham. Um, it's about
thirty miles okay, relatively close. Yeah. And then how did
Chris Wood get involved? Chris was a friend of Steve's
and he was always going to be involved. Um, I guess,
I mean they were friends. He was an art school guy. Okay,
so now you formed traffic. Chris. Chris Blackwell comes into
(20:23):
the situation. Well, he he managed Spencer Day, he had
Spencer Davis group. Anyway, it's at Steve. I mean, did
you feel like, well, now I've really hit the big
time or well I knew that that at that point,
having being involved with Steve, being involved in it, it
was certainly going to get attention. And then it was
(20:49):
Blackwell helpful, unhelpful, good dad? Mhm um in what sense? Hey?
Is he atively or just okay, he was a businessman.
(21:09):
Doesn't he get credit for producing that first record? No,
he didn't produce the first year. No, but I think
he takes credit though probably Okay, took everything else pretty much.
So okay, there you have it. Now when you want
to go, are you signed individually? I mean Jimmy Miller
produced the first album. He brought Jimmy Miller. Chris brought
Jimmy Miller over to produce Traffic, and Jimmy Miller one
(21:32):
of the unsung heroes of rock and roll. So what
was he like because he died way before his time.
Jimmy was just great, just very cool personality, great producer.
But with Traffic, it was, you know, we were Steve
wanted to get away from the from the young Ray
(21:54):
Charles dubbed that he got and do something different. So
and at first we were gonna we talked about a
lot of covers and doing you know, Bobby Bland stuff
or but when it started, that was my when I
(22:14):
sort of went, you know what, I'm gonna need to
start writing. Oh, you didn't write before then? No? Uh.
The first song I ever wrote was their biggest hit,
fantasy song called Hole in My shoe right, which was
(22:38):
the beginning of the end. Why was it the beginning
of the end. It was the beginning of the end because,
um because mostly because I guess, I don't know, probably
a bunch of reasons. I'll never know really why. Um.
But most of everything, most of the things that I wrote,
(23:01):
we're all, we're because I was there for the first
two albums. Um. But let's start with the first album.
First album, you're in the band and then you're out
of the band. Well, I wrote sort of nearly half
the songs, and we and we were kind of like
when the first little group of people that just sort
(23:24):
of we sequested ourselves away in that house in Berkshire
which had no no electricity, no running water until we
started putting it in there, um, just to see what
we could come up with. And I was trying to
you know, I didn't know what I could do or
(23:46):
couldn't do, so I wrote on my own, um, and
they were pretty much naive songs because I had no
I mean, street Smart was not part of my ringing, okay,
but literally between the album coming out in the UK
and the U s you you're no longer in the band. Um, Yeah,
(24:13):
pretty much, um. And the thing I was that happened
was that that hold of my shoe became a number
two record in in England and was a hit in Europe.
And for me, it all happened so fast and suddenly
(24:35):
you're that thing that you've been wanting. Is there press this?
That it all got too much for me and I
couldn't deal with it. It was basically what happened. I'm
just a kid from Worcester, you know, I grew up.
My upbringing was not unlike Tom Sawyer, were running around
(25:00):
the fares, building rafts, bose narrows and okay, so you
wrote it all too much for me. So I left
and you left, and you intended to do what I
didn't know, but you felt you were done with this
music game. No no, no, no, no no, no, no, no,
not at all. I mean I never got into this
(25:23):
be star. I got into this to make music and
and make money, which came first? Make music or make money? Um?
When the music always comes first? Okay, So when you
leave traffic, the spotlight is upon it. Did you see
it in the money from hole in my shoe? Um?
(25:45):
Who knows? I have no clue? Must have seen something.
I mean blackbo took all the publishing on everything because
I didn't know any different. Okay, so when you leave
the band, what are the other three members saying? Uh
m hmm, I don't know. They pretty much sort of
(26:05):
went on as their own, the three of them. And
how did you come back to the ban for the
second they were they were in well whilst I was
whilst in that time that I had left. See part
of it was I was so Traffic was an interesting
group of well because we all have a very diversified
(26:27):
musical tastes. I mean, we loved all kinds of music,
so which I thought was its strength. And um, it
didn't really matter who wrote the hit song to me
because at least that got attention to the band. And
there was so much other material there. Um. And so
(26:52):
after I had to take a break from the fame.
From the fame, I guess of it. But that's when
I m got to know Hendricks. Um, I like to
know McCartney. I produced an album called Music the Dolls
House for the whop called the Family, UM put out
(27:16):
the first compatible stereo single. UM. And so I and
I'd come back and I come back to America a
few times and for what reason, Because mostly for the
reason I finally came here, because this is where it
(27:37):
all starts. This is where it all starts, This is
where it all comes from. Okay, we just copied you up.
We just copied everything and sold it back to you.
We were asleep at the wheel and we The other
big thing is too, as I see we all in
England Europe is we didn't have all that segregation going on.
(27:58):
We didn't, you know, so we had all those great
that's why that blue stuff started happened so much over there.
There wasn't any radio segregation of music over there, so
we heard it all. So you're saying you heard it
all in the UK. So were you caught off guard
when you experienced the segregation in America? I mean, I
(28:26):
don't know if I really if I really paid that
much attention at the time and be honest with you, um,
but anyway, I sort of came back and forth a
few times and then and also at the time, I
during that period of time too, I went to Greece
(28:49):
for a couple of months, to the island of Hedra
to work on songwriting because I thought my stuff was
sort of uh the you know, hold of my Shoe
was just a little fantasy thing that was ahead. Um,
(29:09):
but I wanted to write more mm hmm, just about
just life things, real things. Tom My. Whole thing was
wrong writing is to write something that's timeless. I don't
want it to be trapped in a fashion or time
or place. Since you had a number of hits, did
you right trying to have a hit or you said
(29:31):
they just yeah, well I have a a you know,
I have a somewhat of a pop sensibility. Okay, so
how do you come back into traffic for the second
I was in New York and they were at the
I think they were at the record plan to New
York working on the second album, and all they had
(29:54):
were five songs. M and I was at the studio visiting,
and I said, well I got five songs. Oh all right,
well we want to come sure, let's recording. Well, you
had except for forty thousand head Men, which is a
(30:15):
great track. You have the three best tracks on the
album feeling all right, Well, it feel it all right,
but that's a famous one. But it started the album
started where you could all join in. And my favorite
songs on the second side, crying to be heard. So
were those songs you've written in Hedra pretty much? Okay?
(30:36):
But you talk about A Hole in the Hole of
My Shoe being your first track most people, right, you know,
I read a hundred songs. The first ninety were bad.
Were you someone where every track, every song you worked
on and then it became quality? Uh? Well, I you know, basically,
I don't. I'm not I'm not very I'm not very prolific.
(30:59):
If I write something, it's I mean stuff. I well
if I if it doesn't feel right, I just throw
it out. So I am usually just concentrate. I concentrate
on what my version of quality is rather than quantity.
I guess my question would be those three tracks on
(31:20):
the second album with those songs that you wrote right
after A Hole of My Shoe or you written a
lot of other ones. No, no, they weren't. That's when
I mean it took me. It was just took me
two years to write those eight songs on alone together. Okay,
but let's go back to the second traffic and what's
the story. I'm crying to be heard? I don't even
(31:43):
remember just whatever it's saying. Okay, how I mets a
song I've never done. I've never sang that. I've never
performed that song. Why. I mean, I thought it was cool,
but hey, don't have that voice anymore for one thing,
(32:06):
and um, you know I'll do all join in, um,
But for me, crying to be heard was just a
it was an album track. It's important to me. But
at any event, what's the story? And you can all
join in? Remember how that came together? Um? I think
(32:28):
I wrote most of the lyrics for that sitting in
a cafe, outdoor cafe in Athens. And you know what
inspired it? Just basically what exactly what it's saying pretty much?
And what's the story of behind feeling all right? Feeling
all rights? Um? Feeling all right is about not feeling
(32:52):
too good myself. That's what feeling all right is? What
was the inspiration for that girl? Of course a woman?
And did it really all are okay? You have this?
Did the song a lot of times? When you're in
that mood, that the press mood, the creativity comes and
it comes out all in one batch. Did the song
kind of right itself? Or did you work on it
for a long time? I mean part of it too
(33:15):
was I was trying to musically I was trying to
write the simplest thing I possibly could come up with
because I had been playing sitar for some time, which
I used on the first album, and George Harrison gave
me the sitar that he learned on UM to start with.
(33:36):
So I've been playing sitar and I've been listened to
our Indian music, So having been listening to that basically
around a drone UM, it was part of the for
me was trying to write the simplest possible thing I
could come up with, and other than one chord, two chords. Okay.
(33:59):
Now that's all you know is literally legendary played a
lot today. Does Black well in the publishing on that
or do you no? I don't know in the publishing
on it, but you still get the writer's share I do, okay.
And then do you know how Joe Cocker ended up
covering it? Um? Not until Denny Cordell, I mean, the
(34:19):
producer got him to cover it. I mean that's the
definitive version. Okay, So you like it? Oh? Yeah, you're kidding.
I wish I'd have done it like that. I mean
I do on pretty much on stage, but it's you know,
it's an adaptable song. You can do it in so
many ways. You could do as a reggae song if
(34:40):
you want. So how did it end with Traffic? How
did Traffic decided to break up? So after the second
album came out, and of course my songs were the
single picks, And then I got a call to come
(35:03):
to a meeting at Chris Blackwell's house, and um so
I go over there and Chris and Steve and Jim
are they're sitting on the couch and I sit down
and the psycho okay, what's going on? And Steve looked
at me and says, I don't like the way you're saying.
I don't way. You're right, I don't like the way
you play. And you're out of the band. And that's
(35:27):
how it ended. And what did you say? I didn't
say anything too much, got up and left. And do
you see Winwood ever since then? Or he didn't see me?
But you maintained a relationship with Capaldi, right, coalities passed
(35:48):
away before that sort of sort of, But the band
itself ended up imploading, sure that they didn't have your
hit songs? Well possibly, okay, So track, you're done with Traffic?
Where does that leave you? Around the street pretty much
wondering what the hell I'm gonna do. And we tried
(36:11):
a couple of things. I mean, it was one point
where Steve had left the band and she left the band,
but the other three of you were carrying on. We
could try to carry on with a guy named winder
k Frog, but it was you know, you're not going
to replace Winwood. So you know, after all that, I
(36:35):
just finally went, you know what, I'm out of here.
That in the cents in the dollar taxes in England,
it was like, you know, fuck this ship, I'm out
of here. I'm going west. And that's when I up
and left and came here to Los Angeles, came to
(36:56):
Los Angeles. Now, especially with today's situation, we're all very
familiar with immigration law. You can't stay here forever unless
you get a green card or you get a special visa.
How'd you end up being able to stay? I have
I am a I am an alien resident. Okay, But
back then, back in sixty eight or so, you applied
(37:19):
and you got that. Yeah, okay, you citizen now are
still in it, still an alien resident. Do you vote
in the UK? No? Do you care about Brexit? I don't.
I hope that passes because I think it should just
very simply why, Because I just don't think that wrapping
(37:39):
yourselves around the rest of Europe is going to benefit
England in any way. And do you go back at
this pointing back maybe twice three times really in fifty years? Okay,
so you don't sell any records there, never have. So
you're in America and I have no other reason to
go back there. You're in America, and then what do
(38:03):
you decide to do? Well? I came stayed with Graham
Parsons for for a little while. How do you know Graham?
I knew him through um met him through the rolling stones.
We've we've gotten, We've gone through Hendricks, We've gone through Harrison.
How did all this happen? Are you just the kind
(38:23):
of guy where everybody gets along with us? You could
meet every you could run into everybody, and there's only
one place. It's not like America where you had you
know how many music centers l A, New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia,
New York, Detroit, San Francisco. It was just London. And
(38:44):
that's so you've runned everybody there. We've done limited number
of studios, and Jimmy Miller was producing the Stones and
Hendricks and the Stones and Traffic and the rest of
us were all using the same studios, and wasn't unusual
for people to just drop by each other's sessions. And
when you start, so I am played on Street Fighting Man?
(39:10):
What are you playing on Street Fighting Man? Uh? Some
of the drums and that weird horn at the end
of it. How do you end up playing the weird horn?
Brian was a little too, he wasn't there actually, and
then Hendricks and IWI um during that period of time
(39:33):
where I left, there was a little rift going on
with him and no Redding, and jim and I actually
talked seriously about me taking Noh's place, but that would
be playing bass, and we did some recordings me playing
sitar and bass, so I have no clue where they are.
(39:56):
And then I got to sing on Crosstand Traffic and
then played the acoustic guitar and all along the watch Tower. Ah. So,
but then you come to the US, and then I
finally come to the US, and I've known a band
over here, which I tried to tell Chris Blackway, you
should really really signed this band if you want a
(40:17):
really great man, which was Delaneum Bunny. So I knew
all those people and I played and play guitar with
them for a while. Now were you you were also
in the band same time Clapton was in the band. Well, mhm,
(40:39):
Delaneum Bonny opened the Blind Faith to her. Actually where
I saw the Blind Faith tour in Chicago, taste was
the opener. But we opened a lot of the dates.
We were run a lot of the dates, and that's
where Eric got to really grab all, you know, get
to know all that. And were you cool with Eric? Yeah?
(41:00):
I mean I was in the I mean I was
in the beginning of I was in the band of
Derek and the Dominoes at the very beginning. And how
did it? How did that end? Um? It mostly ended
because that's when Eric got into Heroin. There's a lot
of not a lot of not a lot was getting done,
(41:21):
and I was getting frustrated and just so, okay, this
is I can't deal with this. Who else was in
the band at that point, well, Jim Gordon and most
of the Delinean Bonny band, Bobby Gordon, Um, Karl Radl
(41:42):
And so how do you end up writing you only
you know and I know which is on the Delinean
Bonny album on tour. Well, I had written those that's
part of a loan together and those those eight songs
were written over a period of two years, and I
wrote only you Know and I Know up at Cass
(42:03):
Elliott's house. You ultimately did an album with Cass. How
did you meet Cass through Graham Parsons. Graham was the
type of person who knew everybody himself, right, and but
he at the time was on herrowin too, right, Um,
I guess, I mean I was wasn't aware at the time,
and Cass was done with the mamas and the papas,
(42:25):
and what was your relationship with her? Well, the thing
was there was a couple living there at the house
up in Mulholland that I were really close friends of
mine from London, and I had no idea that they
were there, and so it was like, oh my god, people,
I actually know. This is great. So that was the
reason that I started going there a lot, spending a
(42:47):
lot of time there and right, and so how you
wrote only you Know and I knew there. I started
writing it there and that and um, I think and
I was pretty much at the time, I was kind
(43:08):
of living at the Chateau Marma. She's where I wrote
I can't start worrying and finished only you know and
I know. Um, I think at one point Jim come
over or something somewhere. We got together and and he
(43:29):
had I had some music and a rhythm of something
that I was doing, and he had these lyrics, and
I read the lyrics and they went, oh, m okay,
they'll fit with it, and that became look at you,
look at me, okay. And then at the point, if
you're living in the Chateau Bauman, you must have had
(43:50):
some money from somewhere. Um, whether you know, there was royalties,
and there was stuff that I and I played show
you know, dates with them with Lillanium Bonny um. And
then I was also pretty much working on that record
deal with Blue Thumb. So how did that come together? Well,
(44:11):
when did you decide you wanted to do a solo album? Well,
I figured I was. I mean, that was the whole
object of it. I mean, there was I came here,
not nobody really, I mean that sort of when I
came here is pretty much when the traffic albums started
(44:31):
to come out over here. So nobody had a clue
who I was. Yeah, um, except I had those eight songs.
So how did it come together with Blue Thumb? Well,
(44:51):
like I said, that was through Group three because they
managed Llanium Bonny and that's how I got to that,
and that led to Blue Thumb. And did you think
that going to Blue Thumb was good? Or would you
have rather rather been at Warrener Brothers Columbia. Um at
(45:12):
the time, Um, I still like the idea of independent
labels because without a lot of artists on them, right,
But I figured I'd get a little more attention and
being on someplace where there's a huge run. To what
degree did they give you attention in the studio? Well? They,
(45:36):
I mean Tommy La Puma was basically who was a producer, producer,
just a real great guy. Um. And Tommy knew all
those musicians that I finally finished at working with them there.
So did you have any idea that every did you
think everything was turning out? Well? All I knew was
(46:02):
was making a record. Okay, Well, the record came out
from the consumer side. It certainly have the multicolored plastic,
It had this three piano uh cover you could hang
up as a poster, and it was one of the
few albums of all time you could literally play from
beginning then there's not one cluck around the whole. The
great thing about it was when when when there really
(46:24):
was radio, which sadly is when the biggest reasons don't
put anything new at it anymore is nobody on. But
then you had DJs and people who were turning onto
the music. And the thing about one thing about that
album is it was very hard to see where the
(46:44):
groves where the church started in. Just put it on
and play the whole Sam a side so um yeah.
But then you got into a fight with Blue Thumb
right you didn't want came a hit. And because of
my experience with Blackwell and promises, certain things that he
made that he were nagged on. Is I just I said, okay, great,
(47:09):
and I want to you need to if you want
to do another one, you need to renegotiate the album
need my dear, And they wouldn't do it. And so
I was working on that second album. So it was Headkeeper,
the second album, Hey Keep. It was the second album
which is supposed to be a double album and R
(47:33):
and they just um, I kept reneging on it. And
I just said, I took the tapes and hit all
the tapes and put them somewhere all the masters. Okay,
So they went ahead and just put out an album
off the rough two tracks stuff that was left there.
(47:55):
And that's when I went in the press and I said,
don't buy the damn album. So this was before you
made your deal with Columbia. Yeah, okay, So where did
that leave you emotionally? When they put out all the
rough mixes? I was passed? And did you ever make
peace with them? With kras Now? No? Did you ever
(48:22):
get paid on that? Right? Those records? Who knows? He's
probably shuffled so many out of the back door. Who
knows what he did? I think they all everybody got screwed, right,
I'm got screwed. Tommy got screwed. And so how did
you end up making a deal with Columbia? That's a
(48:44):
good question. UM, trying to think of a series of
events after after Um, I think it was after that
there was a fellow named Don Graham Don Sherman to
(49:08):
manage me for a little while. UM, I'm trying to
remember if it was him that that's how we got
to the Columbia deal. Okay, was were they? I mean
there was after the success of Alone Together, there was
gonna be somebody that was gonna stap of course, so
(49:30):
they were looking for you. Would you say, I would
imagine that, you know, I could have probably gone to
them or warners, or I probably could have gone to
all of them. So how was your experience being on Columbia?
Columbia is a very very experience, okayy um. I mean,
(50:00):
you know, I've always had freedom to do whatever I
want in the studio because I really don't. I tried
once to do something it was like that was stupid,
so um, and then there was a whole live side
(50:24):
of things trying to you know, become a I mean
for me, I had to hit I added Alone Together
hit record, but I really wasn't. I really wasn't prepared
to be a solo artist. So I mean we did
Colombia and we had um um, I forget what I
(50:49):
forget what to order? The first album was was It's
Like You Never Left? Was Was that the first one?
I don't think it's gone for a while or something
or us to Dave Mason album. I think I think
Dave Mason was first, but I would have to look
it up myself. Yeah, and then you know, like the
(51:10):
problem with those the problem with the labels, which looking back,
I wish they were still well, I wish a number
of things were still around for artists, but they aren't.
Um um, I mean things you know, you were, you had.
(51:32):
I mean, the thing was back then, when I was,
back in the days when we first started, somebody made
a decision and the whole and that moved the whole company.
And then as things progressed and we got into the
bullshit of consensus, you know, well everybody's got opinion. Yeah, okay,
that's gonna knows too, but unlet's just somebody there. So
(51:55):
when you had somebody behind you that has some power
at the company, you know, you can pretty much get
something done. And then eventually it just you know, all
sort of and then every because then somebody would be
there from a little while and then they were gone.
(52:16):
I mean, there was a great article back in the seventies,
early seventies on the front of the Wall Street Journal.
You always put that little little column there now to
the bottom. Used to be on the side, and they
used to be right there in the center of the page.
Oh yeah, yeah, with all the news, and it was
always something a little different. And they did a thing
on the record business and they said, of all the
(52:40):
records put out by every label that exists in the US,
two make money. So you know, there's a lot of
cases where I mean, you got bands that did stuff
and made great albums, and the people that were there
to help and do it so only weren't there anymore.
(53:01):
So a lot of stuff was sholled. Um. Yeah, I
was scarious. The labels were the labels were an expensive
way to borrow money and try getting it back. Okay,
so how does we just disagree happening? How does that
become ahead? Um? Well, how does it become a hit? Um? Then?
(53:28):
And I did the I think at that point I
had I'm trying to think it's the I I get
because I don't specifically remember the times but the specific
order of things. But I think there was a period
where and now part of all some things I had,
(53:55):
some number of things happened. I and I went through
bankruptcy while you were signed to Columbia. I went through
a bankruptcy, and um, it was a legitimate bankruptcy. The
thing about a bankruptcy is is that the minute you
declared bankrupt, you're free and clear to do whatever you
(54:17):
want to go and do, unless as fraud involved, and
then you're screwed. But the part part about it is
within the recording agreements of the time, there was no
provision for that. And I really wanted to go with Ahmed,
and I was broke at the time. An Armored loaned
(54:41):
me fifty dollars personally and took me on the corporate
jet for ten days to Europe to a number of
rolling Stones consins, and then we got back and he said,
there's no precedent for this. We don't know what to do.
(55:02):
I said, but if you can sign me it's legal,
it's fine, it said corporate attorneys. They don't know what
to do, he said. I just at the time, Clive
was at Columbia, and Clive had made an offer to
go back to Columbia, and Army said, just just go
(55:25):
take the offer. So so I went back to Columbia.
And that's when I had did um the letter Flow album,
which was again put out. It was put out colored album,
Blue and uh and had we just disagree on it.
(55:47):
And at the time I had a great band, Mike Finnegan,
Jim Kreeger, Gerald Johnson, and it was a song Jim
Kreeger had written and he brought it to me one
day said I got this and he said this, think
it's perfect for you. You know. It was like it
was just a great song. And so that's why I credit.
(56:13):
And then the guys, the the guys out on the
street were important, really important, the labels, the work, the
radio promotion, promotion guys, Mike Gustler one of them, UM,
a couple of other guys. They really helped make that
(56:34):
a hit. And Steve Popovitch was another great guy. UM
and Clive actually, I mean I always thought Clive is
a great record guy. It's a great ear for stuff
you're not you know. That whole to me, all that
(56:57):
whole asking him for over some bar mits for party
whatever it was, it was a lot of bullshit. I
think he's just getting I think that you had a
problem when you got too powerful, except of those places,
especially powerful or you do it couldn't make anything happen.
He was screwed. So and then I tried a couple
(57:21):
more things and with them and um Mariposta album, which
to me was a really good album. Um, I didn't
sell I mean, it went gold, but and then it
just sort of fell apart after that, and then Joe
Wizard did the last album I did, and Columbia did
(57:46):
nothing to push it was one of the reasons why
Joe Wizard left Columbia. Yeah. Yeah, and that's the story basically. Okay,
So now you're done with columb down with Colombia, do
you what do you think where you think you're at
at that point? We hit the eighties doing what I've
(58:10):
always done, playing playing live. So at this point in time,
how much do you work? How many days a year?
I mean I've never stopped basically and then never stopped
really working. I mean the last couple of years is
(58:31):
that this year is probably the least I've worked. I
mean last year I took four months off first. I
haven't gotten out on So where can you play? Pretty
much anywhere in the world US, just the US, US,
some Canada, Okay, And you see a new audiencewer is
(58:54):
the same die hard Dave Mason. It's the saying, well,
it's just people who grow up with me. Basically, you know,
my my audience is basically fourdies to seventies. And do
you still occasionally I get you know, there's a young
kids come and usually they're like, Wow, it's all new
(59:18):
to them, but nobody's playing it to them. There's no nobody.
I mean, radio is just I mean, everybody talks about
the Internet and the power of the Internet. Terrestrial radio
is probably more powerful than the Internet. It's still a
very powerful media. So there's nobody there, so you don't
(59:42):
put It's why we don't put music out anymore. And
we're getting screwed worse by the Internet companies than we
were by the labels. Five thousand plays on on Pandora.
It's about saying your checks the same as the price
of a T shirt. I mean, half of our revenue
(01:00:03):
stream is gone, so or you're left with it's playing live.
I mean, that's why I still play. I played for
a couple of reasons, probably the same reason I gave
at the very beginning of the interview. I love I
love playing, and I'm really good at disappointed at being
Dave Mason. And it's the only revenue stream that I am.
(01:00:27):
So you're gonna die on stage or at some point
you're gonna miss the last show. And on that note, Dave,
thanks so much for doing the podcast I don't like
we can top. Thank you until next time. This is
Bob left Sex
Host
Bob Lefsetz
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