Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on May 28, 2006 23:24:13 GMT -5
Eddie Money
Interview by Nightwatcher
January 28, 2006
One of the biggest rock vocalists from the late '70's, all throughout the 80's and into the 90's was most certainly Eddie Money. Arriving in 1977 with his self titled debut album, which on the back of two extremely successful singles "Baby Hold On" and "Two Tickets To Paradise," Money's brand of catchy, blue collar hard rock struck a chord with millions of fans. Blending strong compositions alongside the stinging guitar work of Jimmy Lyon, the album began an ascendence to the top of the charts which continued with 'Life For The Taking' and 'Playing For Keeps,' both of which reached the Billboard Top 40. Then Money's star was derailed for a couple of years when, after an accidental barbiturate overdose, he passed out, damaging the sciatic nerve in his left leg, resulting in a lengthy rehabilitation period. Making a strong comeback in 1983 with the largely autobiographical 'No Control,' bolstered by the huge success of the Top 10 singles "Shakin'" and "Think I'm In Love," along with the corresponding videos, he was back in a big way, this time becoming one of MTV's earliest stars in the process. After the slightly disappointing sales-wise 'Where's The Party,' his next album, 1986's 'Can't Hold Back' more than compensated, spawning three Top 40 hits, including "Take Me Home Tonight," which went all the way to #4. Several albums ensued, but inevitably with ever diminishing returns, his last charting single being in 1994 with "I'll Get By," which still hit an impressive # 7 in the Adult Contemporary Chart, and # 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. All of this culminated in an extremely remarkable 11 million albums sold, and counting.
Now Money is back with a great brand new album 'Wanna Go Back,' which finds the vocalist covering 60's r&b, soul and rock classics from Ray Charles, The Rascals, James Brown, The Foundations and The Detroit Wheels, among others -- songs that influenced his formative years as a singer growing up in Brooklyn. Recently I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Eddie as we discussed the new album, his extremely well received performance at 1982's US festival (during which he performed to over 650,000 people), the highs and lows of his career, as well as what's in store for one of rock's great performers. Extremely candid regarding his success, the substance abuse problems, and possessing an incredible wit, it's extremely clear that after all these years he still has a genuine love for his music and, more importantly, a strong love for his family, which more than anything seems to have been the driving force to allow him to finally conquer the demons that plagued him earlier in his career. Join us as we take a trip through the career of the Money Man himself, Mr. Eddie Money.
Special Thanks To Rikki Rampage and Lee Beverly for coordinating and a BIG thanks to Eddie for doing this interview for Rock N Roll Universe!
Rock N Roll Universe : Eddie you've got a new album 'Wanna Go Back' coming out on February 9th. What can you tell us about that, and what can we expect from this album?
Eddie Money : I'm really happy about that. My keyboard player used to play with Elvin Bishop, he's a dynamite keyboard player. As a matter of fact, he does better playing on his stuff than he does playing with me, 'cause I don't ask him to play as much as he does. He's from Memphis, he's quite the cat with the hands. We just finished making the record, it's songs that I sang in high school when I was in a group called The Grapes Of Wrath. I had my day in the sun, I sold a lot of records when I was in my 20's and 30's, but then you go, one day you're on MTV, then you're on VH1. You get older, it's time to move down a chair. It's like Mariah Carey moving down from Christina Aguilara. It just happens. It's part of the process. But right now, I made a record for people in their 40's and 50's. I did "CC Rider" by Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, "Baby Now That I've Found You" and "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations, "Good Lovin" by The Rascals, and a great version of "You Don't Know Me" by Ray Charles. That one has me playing chromatic harmonica on it. It's a real fun record. There's also "Hold On I'm Coming," and my daughter and I did a duet of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. I stuck very, very close. It was as close as I could get to the original versions. So, it's almost like a great Top 40 band doing these tracks, with the "Hey Hey Hey's", the trumpets and the horns. The only difference is that I'm doing the vocals. It's really been a fun record, we're getting a lot of great reviews on it. My daughter's on it, and I think there's a couple labels interested in signing her. So, it's a stepping stone for her. I'm really happy with it. We're doing it at the new B.B. King's that's opening up, and we'll be touring around the country doing it. I sell t shirts for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation, and until I land a deal for the album, which I probably will, a lot of the proceeds will go to the kids.
RNRU : Are there any guests on the album?
EM : I used the horn players from Etta James' band, I used the drummer from a band called Cold Blood from San Francisco, just some really great musicians from the Bay Area. If I'm gonna use musicians, I want to use blues guys. L.A. is more like L.A. guys, there's a difference. The guys that really came through for me on this record were really, really great cats from the Bay Area. Like the guitar player I used was Jeff Tamelier, he's the guitarist with Tower Of Power. A great, great guitar player. It's a great record, and they're a bunch of great guys. Edgar Winter's drummer's playing with me now, Chris Frazier, and he really adds a nice touch. He's got that Mitch Mitchell touch. He adds a nice touch to the band. You've got to have a good drummer, that's a fact. When I had Gary Ferguson playing for me, he was such a drunk, but he was a great drummer. Which was great having a drunk drummer in the band, because every time you f*cked up you could blame it on him. "Who broke that window? It was that f*cking drummer." (Laughs)
RNRU : You're releasing this first independently instead of going with a label. Is there a reason that you went this route with the album instead of going with an established label?
EM : Yeah, we could probably go with Legacy or something, I've got a lot of really great friends at Sony Music still. I might go with them for distribution. Or, I might just put it in my own little piggy bank and sell it on the Internet. I don't know, Randy's handling all of that. All I know is I cut 36 vocals in three days, on one shot of Cortisone.(Laughs) I'm not a steroid kind of guy, man, but I just had to knock it out. Cortisone stays with you for the rest of your life, so I only use it like three or four times..maybe once a year. I had a bit of a sore throat, we had to do the vocals, it was a week late. So, I went to this voice doctor and he shot me in the ass with this Cortisone. I got through like 40 vocals in three days. Man, they came out great. We also did "Please, Please, Please" by James Brown, "Expressway To Your Heart" by The Soul Survivors, and "Land Of 1,000 Dances," the original one by Cannibal & The Headhunters from 1964.
I'm also thinking about doing Broadway. I went to see 'Jersey Boys,' but even before I went to see that, I got thrown off the police department for smokin' pot and growing my hair long back in the 60's. It was the same time that 'Godspell' and 'Hair' were coming out. I decided to write a play about leaving the police department, moving out to California, I was in Berkely when Governor Reagan declared martial law on the town. Then, I had a really bad drug overdose, which was terrible, then I wrote the 'No Control' album. Basically, it's an autobiographical play called 'Two Tickets To Paradise.' It's really funny. I'm actually going on the third act right now. Huey Lewis is a good friend of mine, and he just got a major part on Broadway, so if I get the whole thing down on CD, with actors playing like my sisters when they were little, my father... put the whole thing together so you can visualize it while you're running through the script. I'm trying to put it on Broadway. It's got everything in it. Getting signed by Bill Graham, being a big star on MTV, which is what I was. I was making $1,000 a minute, $75,000 for 75 minutes. I was on top of the f*ckin' world. Then, I thought I was snorting some cocaine, and it turned out to be a barbituate, I was drunk off my ass, went out like a light, and I killed the sciatic nerve in my left leg. Knocked out my kidneys, got all f*cked up. I almost died. The whole thing's going to be in the play. At the end of the play, I'm going to meet my wife, go straight and sober, be on top of the world. Ronnie Spector might do a guest appearance. It would be really cool.
RNRU : What are your expectations for this album sales wise?
EM : Well, you know what, I gotta tell you the truth. I remember I used to Sh*t Gold. But then, the Japanese came out with the dupe deck, and that cut down the recording business about 40%. Now, with the kids downloading and all that, they only buy one song on every record, the record business has been cut in half since I was out there making money. I don't really know.
RNRU : Are there any plans for a single off the album, and if so, which one would that be?
EM : We're getting a lot of response off the record, which is great. Right now, we're just planning on selling it and having some of the proceeds go to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. I've had my day in the sun. I'm not going to freak out. After Bill Graham died tragically, I put out a great album called 'Love And Money.' But by that time, everybody was already buying my greatest hits. Let's face it, if I'm going to listen to Led Zeppelin, I want to hear the first album, you know? So, I wasn't really selling the records that I was selling back in the 70's and 80's. My last single was in '94, with "I'll Get By." That was a pretty cool tune. But since then, I haven't been on the charts, but I think I'm going to send this out to all the oldies stations, and we're going to have people jumping on it. There's a label interested in it in Germany right now. I think we're just going to lay low, sit on it and see what happens. But, you can buy it on the Internet, and there's a lot of Eddie Money fans out there that buy things. I'm not really betting my life or the livelihood of my children's future on selling all these oldie records of the 60's. But, I've got a really cool picture of me when I was 15 doing the vocals on it. I had kind of short hair because my father was a cop. It's pretty cool.
RNRU : The album, at least initially, is only going to be available on your website, and you have CD Baby as being the official online source for fans to purchase the album, along with ITunes, Napster etc., where they can download the album. What role do you see the Internet in terms of promotion for music?
EM : How much? I gotta tell ya math is not my subject. How many can you sell on the Internet? I would say you could sell up to 100,000 units. It might take a year or so, but if you're getting a lot of airplay, and maybe going on Jay Leno or David Letterman, who knows? I could make some calls and see if I could get back on TV. I don't have a manager anymore. Since Bill Graham died, nobody else could really fill his shoes. Why pay somebody 12% when all they're doing is booking gigs for you? I have Christianne Weiss, who's really great, out of New York, who kind of represents me, but she's just my booking agent.
RNRU : What about radio play? It seems that your music is pretty much a staple still at classic rock radio...
EM : Yeah I know, and I really wish I hadn't sold my publishing, because now it's all over Sirrius and XM, and I'm getting all this airplay. I sold my publishing to buy my ex wife a house that she threw me out of. That wasn't a lot of fun. (Laughs) But, I've got my sobriety, my voice still sounds good, I'm not a fat piece of Sh*t. I get out there and have a great time. I get out there and play my saxophone, I'll be doing some of these new songs at B.B. King's, I've hired a trumpet player and another saxophone player. We'll be doing songs like "Higher and Higher," my daughter Jessica's going to be singing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" with me. We're going to do "Mockingbird" together. I'm excited about having my daughter out on stage, having some of the big labels come down and check her out.
RNRU : Has your daughter asked you, or have you given her any advice regarding the music business?
EM : Give her advice? Are you kidding me, man? She was out of her mind, hanging out with the wrong people. The apple don't fall far from the tree. I spent $64,000 on three rehabs for her last year, I could've bought three Kia's fully loaded. Give me a break. (Laughs) But, she's got her act together now. She's doing really good, she's studying her ass off right now because she wants to get out of high school. Dealing with teenagers in the house, it's driving me out of my f*cking mind. (Laughs)
RNRU : You mentioned the drug use awhile back. What effect has the rock and roll lifetyle had on your personal relationships?
EM : When I started writing music, I was smoking a bunch of pot. Then there was that period back in the 80's when they said blow wasn't addicting, I got into all that Sh*t. I never freebased, or stuck a needle in my arm. I was like one of these rich college kids, I guess. But I had Bill Graham as a manager, so I never got really super out there, because he was on my ass like a fly on honey. All the shows had to be great. He taught me a lot. I used producers like Tom Dowd, who worked with Ray Charles. Having Bill Graham as a manager was great. Walter Yetnikoff when he was running CBS... I'm from the old school. I've been making records since 1976. I've sold millions of f*cking albums, I should've saved the money. Hey, who knew? (Laughs) But, life's okay. I'm still not drinking, I'm cutting back on my cigarettes. But I AM looking for some clean urine if you can help me out. (Laughs)
RNRU : You just mentioned producers, and you've worked with some legendary producers throughout your career. Bruce Botnick, Tom Dowd, Ritchie Zito...
EM : Yeah, Bruce Botnick did the first three Doors albums, he worked with Jim Morrison, he worked with some crazy lead singers. I also worked with Andy Johns and Ron Nevison as my engineer, both of those guys were the engineers for Led Zeppelin's first albums. They're the ones that tried the overhead mics on the drums. They really changed the sound of rock and roll. Also, Ritchie Zito, who was the biggest producer in the 80's, and he did everybody from Heart, Bad English, Cheap Trick, Vixen, everybody. Of course Tom Dowd was a legend, he did everything from "Layla" to "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window" with Patti Paige back in 1954. He also worked on the atom bomb in World War II, Tom was quite the guy. I made records with Ron Nevison when he was doing so much f*cking freebase it cost like $650,000 to make a record. Bill Graham had to come down there and sit on his ass for 6 or 7 days just to get him to finish the f*cking album. Then, it didn't have any singles on it. So, I've got my first million dollars in the bank that I made off the first two albums, then I hire a producer who's doing freebase with Maureen McCormick. I'm standing next to Maureen McCormick, all the lights are out, they've got the temperature on the air conditioner down to like 57 degrees. Their eyes are blue, they look like 'Children of The Damned', spending all my money smoking this rock Sh*t. I'm like, "What the f*ck is going on here?"(Laughs)
RNRU : Which one do you feel did the best job at capturing your vocal performance?
EM : The best job, I've got to tell you the truth, probably Ron Nevison. He was out of his mind, but the tones on that record are really phenomenal. He did a great job on that record. And of course, Ritchie Zito did a great job, too. We always had really good engineers. Andy Johns, I worked with for four albums, I think he went through three wives while we were doing four albums. (Laughs)
RNRU : Going back to when you were talking about moving from New York to California earlier. You moved to San Francisco, where you joined up with Big Brother and The Holding Company...
EM : You know what happened.. it was so crazy. Big Brother and The Holding Company, Janis Joplin died and they were looking for a lead singer. I was living in Berkely at the time, and I went over there and started doing vocals. I sounded great with these guys, and they loved me. We started doing some rehearsals, then Nick Gravenites, the Jewish blues singer who I always thought sucked from the beginning, he came out from Chicago, and he was like a Svengali with these guys. Next thing I know, he was singing, fronting the band, and I was out of there. So, my claim to fame was about 20 minutes with those guys. Then I was working with The Rockets, both of those guitar players from Oakland and Berkeley, that was a very great blues town. John Lee Hooker used to be playing out of there, Buddy Guy, Ella Fitzgerald. Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, they were on the circuit out there at the time. So I ended up getting a couple of really good blues guitar players that fronted The Rockets when I first started. Then I fired them and got Jimmy Lyon on guitar. The rest was history.
RNRU : What's going on with Jimmy? Does he still play?
EM : Jimmy Lyon, I hear he weighs 300 f*cking pounds. They won't even let him fly helicopters anymore. I don't know what happened to him. He quit playing rock and roll, became an airline pilot, next thing I know he's like Jabba The Hut. (Laughs)
RNRU : What was the San Francisco scene like when you first got out there?
EM : Oh man, it was amazing. You had concerts in the park with Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Taj Mahal, all kinds of great things. Provo Park in Berkeley had three free gigs, I saw the MC5 out there. I saw Led Zeppelin when they played with Country Joe & The Fish three weeks before the first album came out. They did everything note for note the way the record was going to play. I saw them two nights in a row, less than 50 feet away, it was f*cking incredible. Then I saw Queen when they first came through, Elton John, Bad Company, everybody came through San Francisco. Bill Graham had the greatest venue in the world for rock and roll. The Fillmore, The Carousel Ballroom, The Avalon, The Berkeley Community Theater, The Shoreline Ampitheater. Then he got The Fillmore East in New York, The Davis Theater in Sacramento. He was covering his tracks, that guy. Great facilities to play music. Working with Bill Graham, I opened up for The Rolling Stones, I was on tour with The Who, Fleetwood Mac, J Geils Band, Steve Miller... who the f*ck haven't I played with? I did so many great shows. It only made me better. I was always hanging out, going to sound checks, seeing what people were doing. Because I was always trying to kick everybody's ass. I got hired by The Rolling Stones to do seven shows, and we wound up only doing four because we started getting three encores a night. Next thing I know, I'm off the tour. (Laughs) That's just life in the big city. I wouldn't want anybody kicking my ass.
RNRU : During that same tour, in '78, you did the shows with The Stones, Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. Which of those were the most fun for you?
EM : Well, I liked working with Cheap Trick because me and Robin Zander are about the same age. Rick's a crazy maniac on guitar, he's a lot of fun. Robin got all the chicks, we were both chick magnets. We had a blast. That's when we were young, dumb and full of cum. Rock and Roll. (Laughs)
RNRU : In '77 you released your debut album 'Eddie Money', which reached # 37 on the album charts and contained the hits "Baby Hold On" and "Two Tickets To Paradise," both of which were huge Top 40 hits. What was the biggest effect on you suddenly having so much success?
EM : You know what? I expected it. Because it's like the tip of the iceberg. I was playing clubs in Berkeley, California, San Jose, Sacramento, Richmond, El Cerrito... and I worked my ass off. I knew those songs were going to be a hit because I tried all those songs out on an audience. "Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star," "Jealousies" that first record... songs people loved were songs that I did in the set. If they were gonna love them live, they'll love them on a record. I owe a lot of my success on my first three or four albums because all those songs I did live before I even got signed. I had enough material for both albums when I first came out. "Gimme Some Water" I wrote for another band. They broke up, so I took it back and did it myself. I wrote that for a band called Rage. When the guitar player's old lady hates the singer's old lady, next thing you know, there's not a f*cking band anymore. (Laughs) The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.