Re: Official Foghat Thread
You guys toured with a bunch of bands. Did you ever share a bill with Rory Gallagher? I would think he and Dave would be kindred spirits.
I don’t think so. Dave really liked him, but Rory Gallagher was one of Rod’s favorite artists. We may have done [a show with him] back in England – it’s quite possible. I saw Rory on a number of occasions. Rod Price loved Rory; in fact, he named his third son Rory. Rory Gallagher was something special. We did a show in New York not too long ago – I think Arnie Goodman had a lot to do with it – and it was a Rory Gallagher tribute. I got up and jammed with a bunch of musicians and played some of the songs he made famous. That was sad, Rory not being there. He had such great heart and feel and was an incredible guitar player. Live, he was just like dynamite. He’d just blow you away.
You’ve said that Foghat didn’t make records that the band members didn’t like, but there must be some records you like better than others. Which ones stand out for you?
I loved working on the first album, for a number of reasons. Working with Dave Edmunds was an absolute gas, as a producer and as a musician he’s brilliant. I loved doing that; in fact, without Dave’s help I don’t think we’d have got anywhere close to where we are now. But having said that, on the first album there were a number of people who helped us out: Todd Rundgren helped us out on a number of tracks. We had people coming in, helping us out playing and just hanging out and encouraging us. So, I like the first album. Fool For The City was probably one of my favorite records. That was the first album that we actually took time off the road – a long time off the road – it was deliberate. It was like the record company needed another album. The band was getting hot. We said the only way we’re going to do this is if we take time – we’d been touring for about four years, literally like 13 months a year and if we had a couple days off we’d go into the studio. But the Fool For The City record was recorded up in Sharon, Vermont, at a studio called Suntreader. Tony Stevens had been asked to leave the band again, and Nick Jameson, our longtime producer and friend, was now our bass player. Nick and I used to live up in Bearsville so were friends anyway. So Nick and I put some drums and a couple of amps and guitars in a station wagon and would drive to different studios. When Nick found this studio up in Sharon, Vermont – it was a huge room, a great big room – and I went down there and banged away on some drums, and he came down and played bass and guitar and stuff. We recorded some things, and we both agreed it was a great-sounding studio. Then when we were finished with some writing down here in Long Island, we went back up to Sharon, Vermont, locked ourselves up for two or three months and came up with a record.
One interesting thing about “Slow Ride,” which I had forgotten about but Nick reminded me recently, is that when we were recording the actual version of “Slow Ride,” about half-way through it the power went out. [laughs] We only had half a song. We came back to it a week or month later or something and had to pick it up where we were. So we’re listening to it, trying to get the drum sounds similar, doing the last three minutes of the song. That happened a few times: The power would go out – somebody would hit a [power] pole. We were out in the middle of nowhere – it was like a small mountain or a large hill, but it was in the middle of nowhere. Deer would run into the car; bears would be in the garbage can. It was a lot of fun. We got a lot done. That was really enjoyable doing that record. I learned a lot from that.
You mentioned “Slow Ride,” which was a huge success. Beyond the radio hits, what are your favorite deep tracks that you wish more people knew.
What we do each year – or what I do each year, anyway – at the end of each tour I’ll go through the records and CDs and try and get three or four new songs or old songs that we haven’t played in years, so we can put them in the set. In January, February, March, April – we have a band house down in Florida on 10 acres in the middle of nowhere. We rehearse and record down there. We sort of figure out which songs we like – there’s probably half-a-dozen songs we’ll always play, and then sometimes you run out of time. We’ve made like 18 albums, so there’s a lot of material to pick from. Favorite songs? “Night Shift” was one of my favorite tunes. I like the way we played on that. That was a really cool tune. “Don’t Run Me Down” – I thought that was a really good tune off of the Night Shift album.
I’d put “Terraplane Blues” on the list.
Yeah. In fact we played that last year. We rehearsed it again this year, but we put three different songs in this year: “Ride, Ride, “Ride,” which I don’t think we’ve played since we recorded it; “Third Time Lucky,” which the band never played. Dave used to play it on piano because Rod couldn’t play it; and another song, so something had to go. But, hmmm, we’re going to be recording this Sunday – “Ride, Ride, “Ride” and “Third Time Lucky,” that’s the only ballad we do. I had a little bit of a time trying to convince the band that we should do a ballad, because I was the one who used to say, “We don’t play no stinking ballads.” [laughs] But we got a request to do “Third Time Lucky,” and it worked out really well. Charlie Huhn, our singer, has a great voice – great guitar player, as well. In my opinion, he does justice to all the songs.
His voice is like a cross between Dave’s and Steve Marriott’s.
Actually, when he joined the band it sounded like Foghat and Humble Pie had joined forces. In fact, we used to tour a lot with Humble Pie, and Dave and I, especially, became real good friends with Stevie. We’d hang out as often as we could with him. He was special, he really was. Stevie Marriott was absolutely brilliant. I’ll tell you a quick story about him. In the early days when Foghat first came over, it was early ’72 I think, and we were doing a lot of dates supporting Humble Pie and/or the J. Geils Band, but I remember this particular one. For some reason – I think it was either Humble Pie’s crew or somebody – they were giving us a hard time about the use of lights and PA, “You can’t have this. You can’t have that.” It was just getting to be a problem, you know, we don’t ever do that to people, no matter who the opening act is. We have our stuff, and it’s like, “Go ahead and have this board and do whatever you’re gonna do.” Anyway we’re having a hard time, I think it was somebody on the crew. Stevie Marriott comes out and says, “Give ****ing Foghat anything they ****ing want and stop ****ing with ****ing Foghat. All right?” [laughs] He’s only about 5-feet tall, but he’s a very powerful personality. I love Stevie. Stevie was special.