Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Lisa Barragan on demandpodcast, where we get to dive a
little deeper with guests who have appearedon my midday show on Big one hundred.
So excited about today's guests. Akey player, founding member in one
of the biggest bands of the eighties. He's a Rock and Roll Hall of
Famer. John Taylor of Duran DuranI was definitely a Duranti in the eighties.
(00:25):
Duran Durand will becoming a Capital Onearena September thirteenth with Nia Rodgers and
Chic and Bistill. Tickets are availableat Duran Duran dot com. Out Here,
John and I talk about the tour. We talk about the band's induction
last year into the Rock and RollHall of Fame. Plus we discuss all
the mayhem of the eighties with thediehard Duranis, and lots more. Here
(00:47):
is my conversation with Duran Durand's JohnTaylor. Hi, Lisa, Hi,
how are you. John? I'mgood, Thank you. I'm just I've
been back in Los Angeles for aboutfour days. We just finished UK tour,
so I'm just trying to, youknow, get over the jet lag
and get in you know, stayon the beach. Well, we're really
(01:10):
excited that Duran Durant is going tobecome at Washington. You're playing Capital One
Arena September thirteenth. Tickets are onsale now. You can find out more
at Duran Durant dot com. Sowhat can we expect on this future pass
tour? Oh gosh, you canexpect expect everything and and you'll get you
and you're going to get it.Um. I mean, you know,
(01:30):
we did. We're a bit inthe business of entertaining people, you know,
so we're sort of here to youknow, give people what they want.
I think we've got a fairly goodappreciation of what people want when they
come to a Duran Durand show,and you know, and that's our intention,
you will, to give them whatthey want and and a bit more
(01:51):
so, you know, how doesthat breakdown? A lot of hits,
um, you know, very glamorous, very artistic, show, kind of
sexy, kind of cool, excellent, A lot of music to dance too.
Do you have a favorite song toperform live? No, not really,
I mean, I mean I loveplaying Ordinary World. You know,
(02:12):
it's a beautiful song, you know, and it stops you know, everybody
sort of takes a breath when wesing it. I love playing Rio,
I love playing Save a Prayer,you know, I like playing wild Boys,
like playing of You to a Kill. I mean, you know,
I think that the songs that arethe most popular typically are popular for a
reason, you know, and that'sthey've been really well put together, and
(02:36):
you know, so they're good songsto play. John, When you and
Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran in nineteenseventy eight, any idea forty five years
later you'd still be going strong?Oh god, not at all. I
mean, I mean we were gosh. I mean, just the idea that
we thought we could be in asuccessful band was kind of radical, you
(02:59):
know, and I think, youknow, we kind of we got our
ideas about being in music out ofpunk rock, you know, which was
a very which was happening at thattime, and you had a lot of
young, young kids that didn't reallyknow all that much, you know,
that were there were getting record dealsand having hits, you know, and
(03:20):
we thought, wow, maybe youknow, we could do that. You
know, we thought our ideas thatwere as good as anybody's, but nobody
was thinking about long term career likethat, because even even the artists that
have been around, I mean whenI was a teenager, you had bands
like The Stones and the who youknow that have been around since the sixth
News, and everybody was saying theywere over. You know, they were
(03:43):
all dinos doors, you know,and had nothing left to give. And
the sooner that they broke up orwent away, the better. And yet
they all they all hung in there, you know, they all found a
way to stay stay engaged. It'ssuch a it's such a brilliant way of
life, you know. And ifyou can, if you're lucky enough to
make your way in music and tobe able to do it as a career,
(04:04):
and the audiences, you know thatthe people are prepared to show up
for you every couple of years.And I hadn't come across anything better than
that, any better way to toto live or work than that, you
know. Well, John, isit true that you first were playing guitar
and then switched to bass and oneof the reasons was you discovered chet Well,
(04:27):
yeah, I suppose in a way, yeah, I mean, I
mean punk rock was a real guitarplayers music. You know, everybody wanted
to be a guitarist, and soyou know, that's kind of how I
started. I didn't really think aboutbass. But as we were evolving the
early Juran Duran, we couldn't finda bass player. Nobody wanted to play
(04:49):
bass, and and we've met Roger, who was like the first really kind
of I would say, proficient musicianthat I'd ever worked with, and I
just picked up a base one daythere was one lying around and we started
jamming, and I sort of foundmy whole whole, my home, my
(05:10):
whole as well by the artistic shapedhole, and I just fit in.
We just fit in together, andwe found it very to communicate and and
we wanted to do something that nobodyelse was really doing at the time,
which was like a build a reallycool funky rhythm section, which yes,
we were hearing in disco music andsome of the big some of the big
(05:31):
stars were doing funky rap, makingfunky records like you know, The Stones
did Miss You and David Bowie wasdoing Fame. You know, so a
lot of the big British stars weregoing to America and making these really cool,
funky records. So we kind ofwanted to be kind of wanted to
sound like that. John. Twentytwenty two was such a huge year for
(05:51):
Duran. Duran, you played theQueen's Jubilee, you were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.What was that experience at the Rock Hall?
Like, oh that was It wasso amazing. I mean to be
just to be part of a continuum, um, you know, to be
part of it again back to music. Who wouldn't want to be in music?
You know, you're part of athing that has you know, Eminem
(06:14):
over here, Dolly Partner over there, the rhythmics over there, you know,
and here we are doing our thing, and you know, it's you
know, I think music also isa is a it's a it's for outsiders,
you know, you know, likewe all none of us were like
we didn't we weren't we weren't successfulstudents, none of us, you know,
(06:38):
we didn't really fit in. Youknow, we were always kind of
odd shape. And I think whenyou find something like that and suddenly you
know you fit in with all theseother freaks, because all of those people
that I just mentioned, they're extraordinaryfreaks, you know, and you just
feel like, oh, yeah,you know, I'm in the middle of
this lot. You know, it'sfantastic. John Duran, Duran was the
(07:01):
it band in the eighties. Imean, all the success, you played
live Aid, you were on theband aid Christmas song, you did a
James Bond theme. Duranty's are themost loyal fans. I mean, there
wasn't that kind of fan pandemonium sinceBeatlemania when Durani's were, you know,
following you around all the time.If you could go back and give a
piece of advice to the John Taylorfrom that era, the peak of you
(07:26):
know, the duranis, what wouldyou what would you tell him? That's
sober now? Joe? Wait?Yeah, I mean I'm a big believer
and everything happens for a reason,you know, and you know everything.
I mean it was a lot too. It was a lot to take in,
(07:46):
you know, for like shy suburbankids from I don't know how I
survived, thank god, you know, thank god I had a group,
you know, a bunch of guyswith me and we all sort of took
the strain together. I wouldn't changeI really wouldn't change any of it.
You know. I think I'm nervousabout going back and you know, re
(08:07):
engineering, you know, because Imight not be sitting in my beautiful living
room having this conversation with you,you know, excitedly talking about our upcoming
too. You know, everything happened, you know, in order to get
us to this moment, So youknow, i'd be careful changing anything.
Do you still get a lot ofJoanne's approaching you when you're in la um,
(08:30):
you know, I mean you getpeople coming in. I mean,
you get nods of appreciation, youget acknowledgement. You know, you do
get that, But it in noway it hidits your ability to live a
normal life. I mean it waspretty intense, you know in the eighties.
You know, it was like youcome out of your house in the
(08:50):
morning, or you'd come home atnight. There was there was always people
outside of my house, you know, And and that that that novelty wears
off. Yeah, you know,that really wears off after a while,
and and so you're kind of willingit to go away and then boom,
it goes away and you missed it. Having said that, I'm okay with
it today. You know, whateverit is, what's been the most rewarding
(09:11):
part of your career? Wow,I think just too like comment, like
I alluded to with the Hall ofFame, I think just to fit into
this, to this continuum of music, I mean, I still go back.
I mean, I've just spent thismorning listening to some records by Briany
(09:31):
Roxy music from around about nineteen seventyfive and thinking to myself, Wow,
why am I still listening to this? Thinking how amazing it is? You
know, and that you know,I think that you know, you're either
lucky enough to be so inspired ata period in your life, like when
I was sixteen seventeen, I wasso inspired by the music that was happening
(09:54):
around me. Then I'm still makingmusic. But you know, you also
still have to on a daily basis. You have to still look for for
new nourishment. You know, you'vegot to find to some degree you can't.
You can't still you know, eatoff yesterday's play. You know,
you've still got to look for fornew things to inspire you. But you
(10:16):
know, I love that. Ilove deep diving. You know, if
you see me and I'm listening tomusic, most of the time, I'm
going to be listening to something thatI've never heard before, you know,
But sometimes it's all you know,but it's also nice to go back and
listen to something you know that wasvery special for you when you were a
teenager. I think, wow,you know this really, this really hit
me and it still hits me.John, Thank you so much for spending
(10:39):
time with us today, John Taylorof Duran Duran. You got to get
your tickets to see Duran Duran atCapital One Arena September thirteenth. Head to
Duran Duran dot com. John,thank you so much, Thanks me so
thanks for your time.