Jeff and Graham Russell of Air Supply talk 5000+ shows

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens. It's the EightiesShow podcast. Thank you so much for
listening. Very excited to talk toGraham Russell, one half of the Air
Supply duo. Graham, nice totalk to you. How are you okay?
Great? Jeff? How we housethings? You know? What things
are good? I want you tofirst of all tell me how it is.
Can I paint the picture? Iunderstand you're in kind of a beautiful

(00:20):
place right now. Well, I'mhome, which is always beautiful, but
yeah, I live in a kindof unusual I live on a ranch that
it's kind of unusual, you know, in a good way. I'm assuming
it. It sounds pretty amazing.It's really nice. It's away from everyone,
which is what I like. WhenI'm off the road. I'm surrounded
by wild animals and that they kindof know me, you know. But

(00:42):
I've been very lucky and I've hadthis place for a long time and it's
really like a sanctuary for me.You know. It's beautiful. That's awesome.
Graham Russell of Air Supply. Itis so great to talk to you.
I was just chatting with your managerbefore we had a chance to you
and I chat and he said,he's been with you guys for thirty five
years. You guys have played overfive thousand shows in your nearly fifty year

(01:06):
career. That is unbelievable. It'squite a number, isn't it. It's
actually it's we're almost at fifty fourhundred. And the reason why we know
it in the early days when wewere in Australia, we very rarely got
a show, and so when wedid, we like celebrated and we wrote
everything down and it's just a practicewe always kept. So we write every
show down. And suddenly in twentynineteen we were at five thousand, so

(01:34):
wow, we celebrate. We celebratedthat. Now we're almost at fifty four
hundred. Yea, that is trulyamazing. It was counting county right right,
And I'm sure, like you said, there's probably plenty that didn't,
you know, officially get written downover the course of the year, and
you're still doing over one hundred showsa year in many cases every year we

(01:55):
do. Yeah we didn't through COVID, of course, but right we do.
We play over a hundred and twenty. But the thing is it's what
we love to do, you know, we just love playing live and it's
our greatest joy, you know.I mean, we love recording and all
the other aspects of it, butwe love to play. It's just such
a great moment, you know,especially now after all this time, when

(02:15):
the audience know all the songs andit's just a it's a big sing along
fast now, you know. Ohmy goodness, Graham, you're not kidding.
So I've seen you guys twice inthe last five years, and of
course we you know, we losta couple of years in there with COVID.
But I've seen you twice very recently, and I okay, I didn't
get to see you back in theeighties, but when I saw you in

(02:37):
the last five years, I thoughtyour voices sounded better than they could have
ever imagined that they have ever sounded. And like you said, the crowd
is sing along, but your voicesare incredible. Graham, Oh, thank
you. You're You're so kind.I mean, we take a lot of
care with the voices. I thinkwhat's what really helps us now is the

(02:58):
fact that in the early years wewere never wild, did or did anything
kind of weird. We never gotinto any kind of drugs, and which
is amazing because they were everywhere,you know, in the early eighties,
but we just didn't. You know. I think we were really concentrated on
our careers. We knew it.We were very fortunate to have had all

(03:20):
the big hits, and we wantedto be able to get on stage and
play them for a long time,which of course we have done, but
we never we never we never wentto all the wild parties and things like
that. You know, we justdidn't. We were We suffered for that
in the early years. We werekind of the candy coated band, you
know, from Australia. We wereall young and fresh, but we were

(03:44):
about a story to tell because wedidn't do anything, you know, and
plus we were we lived on abus for nine months a year, just
going around the US, so wetraveled every night. So I think we're
reaping the benefits of that now,you know, because we're you know,
we're pretty. We feel really good, even in this late part of our
career. We feel great. Youknow. There's not only longevity, but

(04:08):
there's also a resurgence I believe of. I mean, just recently I've talked
to thirty eight Special and Loverboy andRichard Marx and Rick Springfield and some of
these Men at Work and some ofthese other folks that you guys were all
you know, all over you know, the radio and MTV at the same
time, and everybody seems to havea real appreciation for this stage in their

(04:29):
career. I mean I would,and I noticed that when I saw you
guys, you know, just recently. The fans are so energetic, they're
so into what you're doing, andit seems like almost a whole new energy
for you guys. Yeah, Imean it really is, and I've noticed
it too. And funnily enough,all the artists you just mentioned, I
know them all. I know Colinfrom Men at Work and Rick Spree from

(04:50):
a little better than the other guys, but you're right, and I see
them, you know, we alldo the same shows and play the same
venues, and now again we seethem on the road, and yeah,
but it's nice. You know,these artists that from the eighth Is are
still having a great career. AndI think one of the reasons is the
music was so great in the Ah. I'm not saying it isn't now,

(05:12):
but there was such great bands,you know, the Police, Peter Gabriel,
all these great songs were around,and I think people just love to
hear them again. They want tomake say, oh, yeah, that
was that was the the landscape thatI was brought up and I grew up
on you know me too, Yeah, well exactly because obviously you guys were
appreciating that as well. And airSupply forty eighth anniversary this year and still

(05:38):
sounding, still sounding amazing and stilldoing all these shows. Um. One
term that's kind of emerged out ofthe last few years is yacht rock,
which I you know, I hearyou know, Christopher Cross and Robbie Dupree
and Pure Prairie League and Air Supplyon the yacht Rock channel. And it's
so funny because I always had thisreal affection for late seventies early eighties pop

(06:02):
music, which obviously you guys fellright into. What is your experience with
it? Because I think it's great. I think it's fantastic, and all
the songs seem to have kind offit in in that sort of genre,
I guess, but it's been sortof created. What do you think about
that? I think it's really cooland I think it's a it's great to
have a platform for that kind ofmusic, like the artist again that you

(06:23):
just mentioned. It's great to havesomewhere where you can go and you know
you're gonna hear those great songs again. And people are at that point in
their lives that they if they wereteenagers at that point, they're they're getting
up there now and they want torelive those things and they have great songs.
I mean, I love the Beatles, you know, and I played

(06:44):
Beatles often and that was sixty yearsago, you know, right when I
play them in particular, for me, it's like the first time. And
so I understand that people that grewup with us and Rick Springfield and all
these other artists, that's a placefor them where they want to go,
you know. Yeah. And alsoI don't know if people that are in

(07:08):
their fifties relate to a lot ofwhat's going on on the radio for a
younger crowd. I mean, howdo I say this. In the eighties,
the music was for everyone, YEA, for a lot of music on
the radio. Now it's not foreveryone. It's for a certain group of
people. And you either fall intothat or you don't, you know what

(07:30):
I mean? Yes, yeah,no, I know what you're saying there,
and you know, it was interesting. I heard, I heard it.
We run we rebroadcast the Casey casesome American Top forty shows on our
station on the weekend. I heard, Yeah, it's so great because it's
literally like I'm listening to it inhigh school again, you know. Yeah,
but one recently he was It wasfrom like eighty one, and of

(07:51):
course that was that was such acrazy time because there was like an Australian
explosion here in the US with youguys and Men at Work and Rick Springfield
and a CDC and Little River Band. It was like, holy cow,
there's this special thing happening where youguys were bringing this great music to us.
Yeah, it really was an explosion, and I think each artist successively

(08:13):
paid the way for another, likea Little River Band were before us,
and I remember when we were inrecording in nineteen eighty and they said,
what are you doing here? Youneed to be in the US, And
of course we went. But theypaid the way for us, and I
think we may have paid the wayfor in excess and Men at Work,

(08:33):
although in excess or a lot heavierthan we do than we were, but
each one has paid the way,you know, and of course A live
unit and John paid the way forall of them. And then look at
ACDC, they just they're still enormous, you know. So there was a
lot. It was kind of likethe Australian Matthia in eighteen eighty one and
eighty two. It was really coolbecause before that Australian artists really hadn't had

(08:58):
a shot at a worldwide market.Then suddenly they did and that whole chasm
opened up and they streamed in.But apart from that, they were great
artists, all of them, youknow, every single one. They were
great because they learned their craft inthese Australian pubs. That was the only

(09:20):
place to play the eighties and theseventies, so they learned it the hard
way and they were just ready togo. And I mean, look at
the success that they all had.It was incredible, especially in excess and
ACDC just incredible. Yeah, ittruly is. And just another minute or
so here with you, Graham,and I appreciate you sharing all this.

(09:41):
I love hearing your reflections on,you know, a nearly fifty year career
and stuff too. But one thingI noticed when I saw you guys a
couple of times in the last fewyears, is you bring an incredible energy
to your show. Oh, thankyou. Yeah. We take a lot
of time to have a great show. You know, we're all rehearsing and
tweaking everything. But I think youknow, when I go and see a

(10:03):
live show, I want I wantto be entertained, you know. I
don't want people to stand there,and I know a lot of people do
like that, and I'm not bringingthat down by any means. But when
we get on stage, we're movingeverywhere. We want to bring the audience
in and give them something that theyare never going to forget. So it

(10:24):
is high energy and people are reallysurprised if it's the first time they've seen
us. And during every show,I always ask how many people have never
seen us, and it's usually halfthe audience, which surprises me. But
when when they leave that auditorium,they're going to remember our show, and
that's our job, you know,to make sure they remember it, give

(10:45):
them something they'll never forget, andwe always try to do that. Well,
Graham, you said that very verywell. Congrats on your forty eighth
anniversary. The new album is calledThe Lost in Love Experience, by the
way, with the symphony, whichis awesome new single, be Tough.
Watch the video, very very powerful. Everybody should check that out as well.
Gram Russell of Air Supply really reallynice to talk to you. Oh,

(11:07):
thank you, Jeff. It's areal pleasure, a great interview,
and I appreciate everything. All thetime you play out songs and for your
great comments. I really do appreciatethat.