Cherie Currie Exclusive: “Kenny Do the Right Thing and Give Me My Record!”

By Ray Shasho

The Runaways original lead singer Cherie Currie returned to the stage for the first time since opening for Joan Jett and The Blackhearts in 2010. Currie opened at the Foundry in Cleveland on August 7th and has played two Florida dates in Pensacola and West Palm Beach later that month. She also played a historical show at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California supporting Danzig on August 30th. It was one of the final shows at the venue since its inception in 1972. The Amphitheatre will be demolished to make room for The Wizardry World of Harry Potter theme park. Currie witnessed her very first concert, the David Bowie ‘Diamond Dogs’ Tour at the venue in 1974. The David Bowie concert was Cherie’s epiphany. Bowie became her inspiration while granting her the stage presence needed to become lead vocalist in The Runaways.

Cherie Currie’s tour continues and is receiving rave reviews. Watch for additional tour dates on www.pollstar.com or www.cheriecurie.com.

Cherie Currie was brought up in Encino, California. Her mother Marie Harmon was leading lady to Roy Rogers and Sunset Carson in westerns of the 1940’s. She also appeared in dramas and comedies for Universal. Actress Sondra Currie is Cherie’s oldest sister. Cherie’s twin sister Marie joined Cherie after her Runaways days to form the band Cherie and Marie Currie. Cherie’s ex- husband and her best friend is actor, producer and director Robert Hays (Airplane! He played Ted Striker). Robert and Cherie’s son Jake Hays performs in her band and with his own band called Maudlin Strangers.

Producer/manager Kim Fowley and young guitarist Joan Jett discovered Cherie at the Sugar Shack, an under21 club in North Hollywood. Because of her look, she was asked to audition as lead singer for an all- female rock band called The Runaways. For the audition, Cherie selected “Fever” a Suzi Quatro cover tune most recognized by singer Peggy Lee. The band refused to play the song, so Jett and Fowley wrote “Cherry Bomb” a play on words with Cherie’s name while referring to her bombshell good looks. The tune became an anthem for The Runaways. Cherie Currie was only 15 years old when she became The Runaways lead singer.
The Runaways were signed to Mercury Records. After the release of their self-titled studio album The Runaways (1976), the group quickly embarked on their first U.S. tour and performed at legendary venues like CBGB’s in New York and the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland. The band headlined a show at the Royal Oak Theatre outside Detroit with Cheap Trick and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers as supporting acts. Later that year, the band launched their first European tour including stops at the Roadhouse in the U.K. and the Apollo in Scotland. Because of the bands teenage stature, the group was dubbed, “Jailbait rock: music’s newest sensation.”
The punk /new wave/rock band’s must successful lineup was comprised of Cherie Currie (lead vocals & keyboards), Lita Ford (lead guitars/ backing vocals), Joan Jett (rhythm guitars & vocals), Sandy West (drums) and Jackie Fox (bass). *Micki Steele and Peggy Foster both played bass briefly for The Runaways in 1975. Vickie Blue played bass in 1977/78 and Laurie McAllister in 1978/79.
The Runaways second release Queens of Noise (1977) featured the heavier guitar-driven tracks that The Runaways were most noted for and initiated by their lead guitarist Lita Ford.
The band became an even bigger sensation in Japan selling-out to frenzied audiences. During the tour, Jackie Fox quit the band and flew home, Joan Jett filled in on bass for the rest of their Japan dates. After returning to the U.S., Vicki Blue became their new bassist and Joan Jett their lead vocalist after Cherie Currie left to pursue a solo career.
The Runaways Live in Japan was also released in 1977.

A clash between bandmates deciding on the bands musical direction led to The Runaways demise in 1979.

A Runaways compilation album entitled Flaming Schoolgirls featuring Cherie Currie was released in 1980 after the breakup of the band.

In 1978, Cherie Currie released her debut solo album Beauty’s Only Skin Deep. The album was produced by David Carr and Kim Fowley and only available in the U.S. as an import.
In 1980, the Cherie and Marie Currie band launched their debut album entitled Messin’ with the Boys on Capitol Records. The album spawned the hit single “Since You Been Gone” (#95 on U.S. Charts) written by Russ Ballard of Argent. The album featured various esteemed session players including Toto band members Steve Lukather, Mike Porcaro and Bobby Kimball. Later in 1998, the twin sisters released a compilation album entitled Young & Wild.

Cherie was also spotted by Dennis Brody of the William Morris Agency while performing at the Golden Bear in Newport Beach. The meeting led to an acting career. Cherie has appeared in Foxes with Jody Foster, Wavelength with Robert Carradine, Parasite with Demi Moore, Twilight Zone: The Movie with Dan Aykroyd and TV shows Murder She Wrote and Matlock.

Author Cherie Currie released (2) books … Neon Angel -The Cherie Currie Story (1989) and Neon Angel -A Memoir of a Runaway (2010).

In 2010, The Runaways movie was released. The part of lead singer Cherie Currie was portrayed by Dakota Fanning.

Cherie is also an extraordinary relief and chainsaw wood carving artist. Visit her site at www.chainsawchick.com

I had the great and warm pleasure of chatting with Cherie Currie recently about her current U.S. tour, life in the Runaways, upcoming collaborations with Lita Ford, her unreleased album, Joan Jett, A famous husband, Chainsaw Chick and so much more.
Here’s my interview with the original lead singer of The Runaways, actress, author, relief and chainsaw woodcarving artist …CHERIE CURRIE.
Ray Shasho: Hi Cherie how are you?
Cherie Currie: “I’m doing good Ray.”
Ray Shasho: How’s the tour coming along?
Cherie Currie: “Oh my goodness … it’s been great! The fans have been really terrific and I’ve been signing after each show for a couple of hours and it’s been fun.”
Ray Shasho: You’ve also got a couple of dates in Pensacola and West Palm Beach Florida.
Cherie Currie: “We’re coming in a day earlier so we can see some sites. It’s going to be three grueling days getting back to the Gibson Amphitheatre as well. But we’re really looking forward to it.”
Ray Shasho: The show at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles will be historic, one of the final shows at the venue before it’s demolished?
Cherie Currie: “Yea, I had no idea that they were tearing it down and putting in a Harry Potter ride. That’s where I saw my very first concert, the David Bowie Diamond Dogs Tour in 1974 and that was the show that made me realize, this is what I wanted to do, I wanted to be on stage. It was an epiphany of what I wanted to do. A couple of weeks later I was approached by Joan and Kim …it was just bizarre. So that Harry Potter ride better be really damn good.”
(All Laughing)
Ray Shasho: Did you ever get the chance to hang-out with David Bowie?
Cherie Currie: “I got to meet him; he came to see us at the Rathskeller in Boston. He came with Iggy and Steven Tyler had come to that show as well, so I got to meet him that night.”
Ray Shasho: I interviewed Lita Ford back in March, her latest album received rave reviews and she’s just knocking em’ dead out on the road.
Cherie Currie: “You know what … Lita and I have become really good friends. Being moms we both really realized how young we were. We were just babies. I mean, her oldest son is sixteen. Lita and I are actually working a little bit together again and it’s really fun … I’m excited.”
Ray Shasho: I heard Lita had a tough chick persona while you were in The Runaways and it may have been one of the reasons for your departure from the band.
Cherie Currie: “I was a little afraid of Lita. She was really tough but had to be that way, I guess for her own reasons. We had Joan, Lita and Sandy and they were really good musicians and I was a little intimidated by all of it because my voice was kind of strange and I never considered myself as a really good singer at all. I felt I wasn’t quite good enough to be in that band.”

“Anyway, Lita and I have been doing a little bit of singing together and it’s really a gas to hear her sing because she didn’t sing in The Runaways. I was talking to her the other day about it and I said why didn’t you ever try? And she was just into mastering her guitar, and she sure did, she’s such a great player and songwriter too.”

“But we’ve been talking about doing some shows together.”
Ray Shasho: You actually opened for Joan Jett And The Blackhearts back in 2010?
Cherie Currie: “I sure did, over in Orange County. It was amazing, a sold-out crowd of nine thousand people. I really didn’t expect to come back into this business at all, but after that show I got such great reviews and immediately got offered a record deal and to do a tour. Kenny Laguna was my manager back then and he wanted me to do the record with Blackheart. It’s still not being released and there’s not much I can do about that. We went right into the studio immediately after that show in 2010 to cut a record. Matt Sorum produced it. Billy Corgan is on it and wrote a duet for him and me, The Veronicas, Juliette Lewis came in and sang … Slash and Duff was on it. For some reason Kenny hasn’t mastered it.”
Ray Shasho: I wonder why Kenny is taking so long to release it.
Cherie Currie: “That’s been my question for the last two and a half years, so when my management contract was expiring in March … I wouldn’t re-sign.”
Ray Shasho: That’s a real shame, you’ve got some great artists on the album and Matt Sorum from Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver produced it.
Cherie Currie: “He’s very talented and really put everything into this album. Kenny wouldn’t let me play any shows after I performed with Joan either. For someone my age, a year is like five. Why wouldn’t he let me play? Even with the movie and my book, that would have been PR enough for me to be able to get out there and have fun and play Runaway songs, and say hi to the fans old and new, but he wouldn’t let me do it.”
Ray Shasho: I wonder if Kenny is protecting Joan’s legacy is some way.
Cherie Currie: “That seems to be what everybody else is saying because there’s no rhyme or reason to it. I’ve really had to work super hard trying to forgive this man for this. To me it just does not make sense.”
Ray Shasho: Joan really hasn’t had anyone else achieve the level of success as she has after The Runaways, but now Lita is back and drawing huge crowds and the original lead singer of The Runaways Cherie Currie is touring.
Cherie Currie: “Without a record it’s very difficult for me, so it’s a cruel and unusual punishment. He just wants me to sign a record contract that I will not sign. It’s one of those 60/40 contracts that they own you for life. Are you f*ing kidding me? He was one of my best friends for seventeen years and I just really want him to do the right thing and give me my record. It’s so hard to go out and do these shows with no record. The record has been finished for three years. I’ve had to walk away and let it go and I thought the evil was out of this business. Joan’s record is coming out in October and it just blows my mind because she hadn’t even thought about making a record when I went in to make mind. I wish her the best, but it will be a cold day in f*ing hell before I ever let anyone do this to me again.”

“I really knew there was a conflict of interest way back when we signed with him, and believing without Blackheart I wouldn’t have a chance in hell. But I’ve had so many offers after I signed with him and the people were mistaken. I signed with him because I trusted him. I’ve known him for seventeen years and is really good friends with my son and my wonderful ex-husband Robert Hays and felt like family to me, so I feel extremely betrayed by the whole thing. I don’t think Blackheart had any other hits out of that record company besides Joan, so it doesn’t seem to make sense to me.”

“But Joan is a sweetheart and is a good person; she just works and works, probably three hundred days out of the year, and has been doing that for the last thirty years. I commend her for all she’s done.”
Ray Shasho: ‘Chainsaw Chick’ … wow, you’re so incredibly talented. The woodcarvings that you have created with your chainsaw are magnificent! I visited your website and was in absolute awe of the beautiful works that were showcased.
Cherie Currie: “If you click on the new feature camera on the front page (view my photo album at the bottom of the page) that will take you to albums of my most recent works. The website alone is pretty massive. That new feature camera at the bottom of the page will take you to album after album … I shoot things from start to finish to show people how it’s done and you’ll see some really cool things. I did a bench for the Kelly Thomas Foundation for them to auction off for the homeless. It’s a guitar bench, for his memory. He was the guy that was beaten to death by the Fullerton police.”
Ray Shasho: How long did it take you to finish the guitar bench?
Cherie Currie: “I was a relief carver before I was a chainsaw carver. I would do two- dimensional carvings with Dremels and then I would stain, so I got into painting before I got into this. The bench kind of incorporates all of that in one piece. I used different wood stains to do the flowers, vines, leaves, guitar, birds and the book, so that took me start to finish and because I was on a deadline about a week and half. I was working just about every day, eight hours a day, trying to get it done in time for the auction.”
Ray Shasho: When did you first decide to use a chainsaw?
Cherie Currie: “It was a fluke. I was already doing relief carvings … tabletops, wall hangings and things like that, and I was on my way to the beach in Malibu and I saw these guys carving at the side of the road. They had some gallery there at the very top at Mulholland; I didn’t stop but couldn’t get it out of my mind. Every night I went to bed I kept thinking about it, and every morning … this voice in my head kept saying you have to go back, a voice that we don’t listen to but we need to listen to. So about a week or two later I did go and walked into the gallery and saw these beautiful mermaids, dolphins, tikis and seals. I was just in awe because they weren’t crude or what you expected of a chainsaw carver, kind of like Mountain Man crude/ chopped up kind of thing. Instead, it was very-very delicate and detailed. So I talked with the owner Rio and then I heard the voice … You can do this! So I asked him if he could apprentice me and he saw some of my artwork and he said yes. But I learned that you can’t really teach someone how to chainsaw, you can teach them the basics and how to not kill themselves which is the most important thing.”
“My third piece was three sea turtles swimming around a piece of coral and that was accepted into the Malibu Arts Expo which is so hard to get into. They are all artists that choose what pieces go into this Expo at Pepperdine University and it’s a big deal. They didn’t even take Rio’s pieces, they took the sea turtles, that’s when I realized that I was on to something and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Ray Shasho: I’ve witnessed some beautiful pieces on your website, are they all for sale?
Cherie Currie: “Everything on my website has been long sold. But what I do now is take special orders. So they just reach out on my website and I’ll carve anything and everything that someone would want. They just tell me what they want, design it, I carve it and they have it. I take what I do seriously and I’m a perfectionist, so I do the very best that I can.”
Ray Shasho: “You have a remarkable gift Cherie.
Cherie Currie: “Thank you so much! Even my son who is in my band, and also has a band of his own was drawing in two dimensions at the age of four. He’s been a tattoo artist since he was seventeen years old. He’s extraordinary, an amazing artist and just incredible. There are a lot of tattoo artists that don’t draw. Jake will sit down and just blow your mind. He’s brilliant and just a great human being.”
Ray Shasho: Your biography on your website says you were overworked and underpaid during the height of The Runaways, explain why.
Cherie Currie: “We weren’t making any money. All we ever heard was … we had debts to pay and all that. We got a little per diem of twenty dollars a week and if we needed Tampax or something we’d have to ask. Or can we have a dollar for a cheeseburger … and we were selling places out! I mean we had merchandising and all that stuff and never saw a penny of it. The first check that we ever got was after we came back from Japan and we were there for a long time. After everybody else was paid, I think they gave us a check for $1,700.00 each or something. And we just worked all the time and selling places out all the time. Everybody else was stealing our money. We never even got royalties or anything so we ended up suing in 1997. We sued Kim Fowley and PolyGram for royalties and for the name The Runaways, which Lita, myself, Joan and the late Sandy West owned. We paid fifty percent of all of our royalties to insure that fact. So we were working all the time and not making any money.”
Ray Shasho: Do you think you were taken advantage of because you were young teenage girls?
Cherie Currie: “We weren’t just taken advantage of … we were absolutely robbed! Then the IRS came after me after I left the band for $20,000.00 of unpaid taxes and Kim Fowley had even said my sister had made $20-40,000.00 from him. He was laundering money in a way and should have been put in prison for it. But I ended up having to pay the IRS all this money. I could only afford paying $100 per month and I paid that every month since I was seventeen until I married my wonderful husband Robert Hays. I think I still owed $2300.00 which he paid off after we got married. So I was paying taxes on money that I never saw. We were screwed over big-time!”
Ray Shasho: I saw an interview that Kim Fowley gave around the same time The Runaways movie was released. He was an odd fellow wasn’t he?
Cherie Currie: “He was brilliant when it came to getting The Runaways marketed, I got to take my hat off to him for that, but he was emotionally abusive, but back then I guess it was no holds barred with people who wanted to get from point A to point B, I imagine. There weren’t much morals involved, I’ll say.”
Ray Shasho: Cherie, what was the trigger that got you to stop using drugs?
Cherie Currie: “In 1984 that was the year, I had lost my acting career, I wasn’t making music anymore and I was freebasing cocaine, I guess they call that crack these days. Literally, I just happened to look in the mirror one day and I had that moment of clarity, I saw a dead person looking back at me and it scared me to death. I was actually living with my drug dealer at the time and I just packed up everything and moved home to my Aunts house. I started working selling linens at the mall and just got really humbled and then went on to become a drug counselor for addicted teens. Then I started drawing and that’s how I ended up going to Price Stern Sloan as an artist for children’s books. They asked how long I’ve been drawing and I said a year, and then explained to them The Runaways story. They said wow; we’ve been looking for our first young adult book and this is it. It’s kind of odd how one thing led to another.”
Ray Shasho: Did you enjoy your acting career?
Cherie Currie: “Loved it, it happened so fast. I did a show at the Golden Bear in Newport Beach and Dennis Brody from William Morris was there and approached me. He asked, did you ever think about being an actress? I always thought of myself as an entertainer so why not. The first two things he sent me out for was Foxes and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. And I got both of them. I chose Foxes because I really wanted to work with Jody Foster. For me to be brought into a film like that and right out of the gate was a miracle for me. It was really hard to get that, I did a lot of screen tests and I think it was down to me, Rosanna Arquette and Kristy McNichol. I was very-very lucky that I got that part.”
Ray Shasho: Your ex- husband is actor, producer and director Robert Hays, probably most recognized as Ted Striker from the Airplane I & II movies.
Cherie Currie: “Was, is kind of an odd word, yes we were married but we’re actually closer now than we ever were. He was here yesterday, he takes care of my dog when I go away and I take care of him. He broke his neck a few years back and he was very lucky, it was the same break as Christopher Reeve had. And I took care of him. I mean, he’s my best friend, I love him and he’s the greatest man on the planet. We just adore each other and go to all the events together. He doesn’t date and I don’t date. We’re a wonderful family with two houses. But Jake has really benefited a lot from that and we love each other deeply. I’d do anything for him.”
Ray Shasho: Your son Jake plays in your band and also has a band of his own?
Cherie Currie: “Jake Robert Hays. He’s 22; the band is called Maudlin Strangers and Jake writes all the music and is an amazing singer, he’s got a voice that’s just killer. He’s also a producer and plays guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. He has actually drummed for me when my drummer couldn’t make it to Cleveland; he played drums for that show. Jake is a music man and an artist. The main thing about having Jake on this tour with me is that he gets to see how the business works. He’s learned so much of what to do and what not to do. And not let him get in the position that I’m in where you let somebody have the kind of power to completely stop you in this business for no reason at all.”
Ray Shasho: When you auditioned with The Runaways, didn’t they want you to audition with a Suzi Quatro song but “Cherry Bomb” was quickly written for you instead?
Cherie Currie: “They asked me to learn a Suzi Quatro song considering my background was Dean Martin and The Andrew Sisters and all that (laughing). So I ended up picking “Fever” from Your Mamma Won’t Like Me, I was a big Quatro fan. I thought that song could showcase my voice. So I learned “Fever” and the girls weren’t happy, they wanted a rock and roll song. So Kim and Joan looked at me and wrote “Cherry Bomb” right there for me to audition to.”
Ray Shasho: It’s amazing how it was written so quickly just for the audition and while you were standing there.
Cherie Currie: “Well they thought Cherry…Cherie and they just thought I was a cherry bomb. They just wrote this song and it was a great.”
Ray Shasho: I chatted with Suzi Quatro not long ago in a Skype interview from England. She looked fantastic!
Cherie Currie: “I just love Suzi; she’s just a wonderful human being, I’m so happy that she’s still in this business because we need her. She was the original badass and kick-ass female musician. Suzi held her own and was in the business when we were coming in and she knows firsthand that it was trying to say the least.”
Ray Shasho: Cherie, here’s a question that I ask everyone that I interview. If you had a ‘Field of Dreams’ wish like the movie, to play, sing or collaborate with anyone from the past or present, who would that be?
Cherie Currie: “I would have to say David Bowie. Number two would be Suzi Quatro. I almost would rather Suzi Quatro but Bowie would be right up there too. No, Bowie link Suzi Quatro (All laughing).”
Ray Shasho: How about David Bowie and Suzi Quatro on stage with you?
Cherie Currie: “That would be a dream …and link Lita Ford. If I could stand on the same stage as Bowie, Quatro and Lita …I could die and go to heaven … I’m sorry, I can’t just pick one.”
Ray Shasho: Cherie, thank you for being on the call today, but more importantly for all the great Runaways music and brand new music into the future.
Cherie Currie: “Ray, good luck with your next book, thanks sweetie … bye!”

Cherie Currie official website www.cheriecurrie.com
Cherie Currie Chainsaw Chick
Cherie Currie on Facebook
Cherie Currie on Myspace
Cherie Currie on Twitter
The Runaways website http://therunaways.com/
Jake Hays (Maudlin Strangers) on Facebook

Purchase Neon Angel ‘The Cherie Currie Story’ and Neon Angel ‘A Memoir of a Runaway’ at amazon.com

Very special thanks to Pati deVries of Devious Planet and Robert Rowland of Red Entertainment

Coming up NEXT … My recent interview with Roger Earl -legendary drummer and founder of FOGHAT.

Contact classic rock music journalist Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com

Purchase Ray’s very special memoir called ‘Check the Gs’ -The True Story of an Eclectic American Family and Their Wacky Family Business … You’ll LIVE IT! Also available for download on NOOK or KINDLE edition for JUST .99 CENTS at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com - Please support Ray by purchasing his book so he can continue to bring you quality classic rock music reporting.

“Check the Gs is just a really cool story ... and it’s real. I’d like to see the kid on the front cover telling his story in a motion picture, TV sitcom or animated series. The characters in the story definitely jump out of the book and come to life. Very funny and scary moments throughout the story and I just love the way Ray timeline’s historical events during his lifetime. Ray’s love of rock music was evident throughout the book and it generates extra enthusiasm when I read his on-line classic rock music column on examiner.com. It’s a wonderful read for everyone!” …stillerb47@gmail.com


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Corky Laing: Mountain Legendary Drummer talks about Brilliant Rock Opera Release

 

By Ray Shasho

Canadian powerhouse drummer Corky Laing is essentially associated with rock and roll folklore and as one of the elite drummers in the world. Laing is a longtime member for hard rock/heavy metal giant’s Mountain and the blues-rock power trio of West, Bruce & Laing. But Laing’s musical collaborations are seemingly endless. A list that includes alliances with John Lennon, Jack Bruce, Meat Loaf, Noel Redding, Mahogany Rush, Ten Years After, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Bo Diddley and Gov’t Mule …to name a few. Laing is also a producer and composer.

Corky Laing has recently added a brand new chapter to his illustrious musical career. Laing’s most recent project is a fascinating collaboration with two internationally acclaimed professors (Prof. Matti Häyry and Dr. Tuija Takala) intermingling the decree of genetic engineering with a rock opera music scheme. The concept album entitled … Playing God is performed by the Perfect Child, an incredible ensemble of musicians and singers. At the core of the rock opera is Corky Laing who astounds instrumentally, lyrically and vocally. The album concept is brilliant and the music is colossal. It’s an awe-inspiring rock musical production and a cross between … Welcome to my Nightmare, The Wall and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Corky Laing and the Perfect Child is … Corky Laing (drums, vocals, percussion, guitar), Bonnie Parker (bass, vocals), Denny Colt (guitar, vocals), Lasse Väyrynen (guitars, guitalele, bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Matti Häyry (guitars, guitalele, keyboards, vocals), Tuija Takala (guitar, vocals), Maya Paakkari (vocals), Harri Väyrynen (guitar, bass, vocals), Mikaela Mansikkala (vocals),Hanna Paatero (backing vocals), with Special Guest: Eric Schenkman (guitar) of the Spin Doctors.

… I gave Playing God - by 'Corky Laing & the Perfect Child' -Five (5) Stars.

The album is available to purchase on the Gonzo Media website and will be available soon on amazon.com -September 10th.

Corky Laing also records and performs live with his band Corky Lang & The Memory Thieves featuring Bonnie Parker & Denny Colt. Both bandmates also performed magnificently on the Perfect Child rock opera. 'The Memory Thieves' released the album House of Thieves in 2012.

Corky Laing studio and live albums with Mountain … Climbing! (1970), Nantucket Sleighride (1971), Flowers of Evil (1971), Mountain Live: The Road Goes Ever On (1972). Avalanche (1974), Go for Your Life (1985), Man’s World (1996), Mystic Fire (2002), Masters of War (2004).

Corky Laing studio and live albums with West, Bruce & Laing … Why Dontcha (1972), Whatever Turns You On (1973), Live ‘n’ Kickin’ (1974).

Other studio releases featuring Corky Laing … Corky Laing- Makin’ It on the Street (1977), The Secret Sessions (1999), Cork- Speed of Thought (1999), Cork- Out There (2003), Jason Hartless Jr. –First Division (2004), Stick It! (2004).
Corky says …

“The drums are the best instrument in the world. When you’re a kid you go to your dad and say, dad, I want to grow up and I want to be a drummer. Your dad says ...You’ve got to choose one or the other.”

Recently, I had the great pleasure to chat with Corky Laing about his brilliant and awe-inspiring rock opera entitled Playing God. We also talked about recent news concerning longtime bandmate Leslie West, the inception of “Mississippi Queen,” Mountain past and present, playing with Mick Ronson and much-much more!

Here’s my interview with legendary drummer, composer, producer, singer, and member of classic rock legend’s Mountain and West, Bruce & Laing … CORKY LAING.
Ray Shasho: Hello Corky! Where are you at today?
Corky Laing: “Hey Ray! I’m outside of New York way-way up on the ocean by Orient Point.”
Ray Shasho: So you no longer live in Canada?
Corky Laing: “No, I was in Canada while my son was finishing college and now we’re back in the U.S. of A. Ray.”
Ray Shasho: I’ve enjoyed chatting with several legendary Canadian music artists …including Burton Cummings, Frank Marino and Gino Vannelli.
Corky Laing: “The Canadian music industry is very small and sort of a family, it’s an oasis of talent especially in the rock field. Most of those guys I know from way back, it’s great. It’s nice to see they are still around, passionately involved, and working it. There are lots of great musicians from Canada. It’s become a world thing now for rock; it used to be really exclusive to the states and now everybody has opened up. It’s an oasis of talent because my theory is … Canadians have to hustle more and they don’t mind it. Canadians are basically blue-collar workers in a lot of ways and they do what they got to do, very similar to the UK attitude. They take nothing for granted; it’s not about the bling-bling … it’s about the commitment.”
Ray Shasho: Corky, let’s talk about your new concept album entitled Playing God … It’s an awe-inspiring rock musical production … a cross between ‘Welcome to my Nightmare,’ ‘The Wall’ and ‘The Rocky Horror Picture show,’ I thoroughly enjoyed the album, what a magnificent musical journey! What was your inspiration for making the album?
Corky Laing: “I’ll tell you what happened … I was lecturing in Canada, my brother is a professor at McGill, and he sort of brought me in to do guest lecturing, and I’d go in and talk about international marketing and the traditional side of the music business. I started with that and I ended up teaching an entire course at University of Western Ontario for about 6 to eight months… and I loved it. What happened is through the network, a couple of professors from the University of Helsinki and The University of Manchester saw me online lecturing and saw a show that I did while I was playing over in Sweden, and they came by and were big fans of Mountain, but I didn’t realize at the time that they were top professors in the philosophy field. They called me and said that they had some opportunities to guest lecture over in Helsinki and Manchester and I said I’d love to. It wasn’t a matter of money … I just loved the idea.”

“But dig this ... It wasn’t about lecturing about the music business, it was about the philosophy of rock. In other words, they would talk about it from the vanish point, how did you survive ethically, in a business or lifestyle that had no rules. It was pretty frivolous when I started. So I began doing more lectures and people were getting more serious about the lifestyle.”

“Then they went on to say … we’ve written these philosophical books and actually put together an opera idea regarding genetic maneuvering and manipulation. They said, “We really love the way you write, would you consider writing a couple of songs for this opera?” This was a couple of years ago and I said why not. What I had the opportunity to do was to use a lot of the ideas that never got used in Mountain and also in West, Bruce and Laing, because I catalogued most of my ideas. So I was able to use them and apply them to certain scenarios. So they wrote the story and I would commute back and forth to Finland every month for the last year and half or so and it started developing.”

“I was able to do anything I wanted to do. All I had to do was to bring the storyline into the song. So I told them there would be a lot of drums because I was going to write to the drumming. Since the actual content was so sophisticated and I had no idea about opera, I just did what I do and they accommodated it. I’m thrilled that you are enjoying it because it is quite an ambitious idea to use the opera as a philosophical teaching tool in universities. That was their idea, it’s not a commercial album sort of speak, it’s an album that satisfies the story. So the fact that it’s accessible and someone like yourself who is very exposed to a lot of music can actually say … wow this makes a dent here … it’s very reassuring on that level. All in all it was a fantastic experience for me.”

“I don’t usually sing a lot but because I had to sing the parts, I’m actually playing different characters on the CD. When we go to do the show in Switzerland, it will be our first workshop where we actually perform the show on stage. I’ll be performing the parts, singing and playing and then various performers from all over Europe are coming in to perform the band ‘The Perfect Child’ which is the band that plays in the show. And I’m preparing for it as I speak to you.”
Ray Shasho: One of the many tracks that I enjoyed on the album is “Perfect Boy.” Who is the female singer on that track?
Corky Laing: “That’s interesting, there’s a band that I have and been working on here in Long Island (Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves) and have done some dates. Bonnie Parker & Denny Colt and they have a band called ‘Tang’ a heavy metal band, they’ve been around for years starting out in the mid 80’s. They’re great …guitar player and bass player. I knew Bonnie for years from way back to the Bonnie Parker Band. She’s just a great little singer and really a powerful little nuclear bomb. She’s a beautiful girl with this power and her girlfriend is Denny. So those girls sing on it and except for Maya Paakkari a Finnish singer who has that Eartha Kitt sort of vibe, she’s the other female singer.”
Ray Shasho: Corky, you have an intriguing voice that instills throughout the entire album.
Corky Laing: “I’m actually playing a few parts. I actually have the opportunity to play God and it’s quite a powerful place to be. I also play Tony who is my favorite character. When they first started asking me, they needed an old blues guy who makes the deal with sort of with the devil to get money to pay for his drugs and his gambling fees and he’s all washed up. That was Luke and my initial introduction and it sort of fit me like a glove. So basically my singing parts are the God’s, Luke, Tony and Sophie’s father.”

“I think some of the conflicts are very contemporary. It’s pretty deep but relevant. I really got involved heavily when I realized the content. The actual subject matter is one of those things I don’t think will go away too quick, it’s very controversial. Biogenetics is about trying to become perfect at whatever we do. That in itself is so contemporary with everyone trying to take whatever medication, whatever science … to live longer, better, or trying to be perfect.”
Ray Shasho: I think most of all, it’s just really good music on top of all that.
Corky Laing: “That’s really the best compliment you can give. That’s my neighborhood I try and come into. I had a chance to really stretch. To be told, do whatever you can and use every fiber of your being to come up with anything because you will not be shut down. It’s quite a wonderful place to be, especially at my time in my life.”
Ray Shasho: You also sang on “Eyes in the Mirror” and on that track you sounded very Peter Gabriel.
Corky Laing: “I’ve got to keep you on the line here … this is very good (All Laughing). That’s a lovely complement. I have to say, I was a little bit reluctant to do as much singing. I was basically singing everything to demonstrate to the other singers, because we roll out stuff musically but basically for the attitude. Over a period of time we couldn’t get some of the singers we wanted so they said we just love the way it feels … let’s just go with it. So I’m glad you get it.”
Ray Shasho: Your mom loved Cuban music and so you grew up listening to Latin rhythms?
Corky Laing: “We were in Montreal and she loved to dance. Somehow I got known for the cowbell and Timbales. People would say, well what brought that on? I’d say, when I started I played dance music and tried to imitate Latin music. Then when Mountain came together I said to Felix that I’d like to get some tom-toms, the reason I didn’t have them is because I couldn’t afford them. I had the timbales and Felix said …no-no man that’s the only thing that could cut through the huge Sunn Amplifiers. Timbales as you know are like nuclear warheads when you hit them hard. So between the cowbell and the timbales, from a percussion point of view, I was able to cut through the Marshalls and the Sunn Amps. Oddly enough, that’s where somehow I’m associated with heavy metal, because of the metal in the timbales. I don’t mind it; it sort of confuses me a little bit when they associate me with a heavy metal grandpa of drumming. I scratch my head on it …but I’ll take it! (All laughing)”

“I just used a good deal of what I know on the opera. You’ll hear tons of bass drums and tom-toms and I kept the cymbals at a minimum because of the grit that comes with the actual drums and so that was sort of translated quite a bit in that. Then there was a quasi Arabic feel towards the end that I picked up from a Northern Moroccan group and it helped soothe the whole story line at the end. Ray, I just let ‘er rip and I didn’t expect a lot of the stuff to translate to the actual record … but you know what, it did and I’m thrilled.”
Ray Shasho: Corky, I’d like to talk a bit about Mountain … first of all, how’s Leslie West doing?
Corky Laing: “I’d have to say I haven’t talked with him for awhile, but that’s only because he’s been pretty much on his own. I was talking with Warren Haynes and I ran into Alice and they all love Leslie, they were asking the same question. He’s just staying to himself. Leslie and I had a couple gigs that we did before he had his leg amputated and he was in terrible pain in those days. Going to a gig was even hard to communicate with him. I hope he’s doing well, I know he’s recorded a couple of records with some of his friends like Slash, so I know he’s playing. So I think he’s probably alright.”

“Ray, when you put yourself in his position, he’s one of those guys who loves to get around. For a big guy, I’ve always been amazed in over forty years how he moves faster and more than anybody I know that has half of his weight. So I think it’s got to be quite discouraging not to be able to get the places literally that he would want to get. Example, he just can’t fly around, it’s a whole situation when he gets on a plane or he has to travel because it has to be accessible. In conclusion … I hope he’s doing well; he’s been playing a bit, has his own trio and does some blues. But Mountain is in the sunset. We can’t get up and play the shows that people would want Mountain to play. Even if we’re fifty years older, it’s not about that, it’s about the energy and conviction that the band was known for, even when it wasn’t playing that great, we always played very hard. So I would say he is doing as well as expected.”

“If Leslie wanted to ever do something, I would do whatever he wanted to do. Right now he’s using a good friend of mine Bobby Rondinelli when he plays a couple of gigs around New York.”
Ray Shasho: Corky, I’ve attended hundreds and hundreds of rock concerts over my lifetime, but the rowdiest show I’ve ever been to was at a Mountain concert in the early 70’s at the Capital Centre in Maryland. Mountain opened for The J. Geils Band. The announcer, who I believe was a local deejay named Barry Richards, introduced the band and was hit with a bottle. Then Leslie West began wailing this incredible solo and people began jumping up on the stage and went wild … it was incredible!
Corky Laing: “That’s funny. When I played with Meat Loaf for a stint, he used to get nailed all the time. In England, what they would do is they had these plastic beer bottles and they’d drink the beer, piss in the beer, and then put the cap on very loosely and throw that on stage. It’s called a piss bomb. I remember playing with Meat Loaf and having to duck from those piss bombs. You either loved Meat Loaf or you hated him. In England it was a very fine line.”

“Mountain was a pretty wild ride. Leslie was a very moody guy depending on what day it was in the week and what type of drug he was taking or I was taking… whatever it is. Again, you’re going back to a time when there were no rules. You did what you had to do at the time and hoped it worked and if it didn’t work in many cases …who the f*ck cares. I’m sorry to say, but the commitment to the music at that point was … I’m not sure how solid that was; it was more about the whole atmosphere. It was more about hard rock and the impact of music as opposed to the subtlety of the music and that went a long way. So there were good things that came out of it.”
Ray Shasho: So when Saturday Night Live created the sketch “More Cow Bell” featuring Christopher Walken and the SNL Players portraying Blue Ӧyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” … they really should have been portraying Corky Laing with Mountain playing “Mississippi Queen.”
Corky Laing: “It has come up quite a bit. Blue Ӧyster Cult copied me and I copied The Chambers Brothers. Everybody copies somebody. The cowbell was just an idea of function, to do the count, so everyone knew where (1) was. Think about the audio aspect, when you get into an arena and you’ve got those amps at full blast … I would use the cowbell just to keep the time. I did “Mississippi Queen” way back before Mountain. It was one of those spontaneous wrote itself in the limo kind of songs. We were in Nantucket and I was playing with my local band ‘Energy’ and there was this beautiful chick called Mollie who was dancing with this really good friend of mine Roy Bailey, and it was in the middle of the summer in 1969. The lights blew-out in Nantucket, it’s a small island and they never had air conditioning until that summer. So everybody turned on their air conditioners blowing out the power on the entire island. So all there was … was this emergency spotlight shining on this beautiful chick who was wearing a see-through dress. I’m playing drums, and the organ, the bass, and the guitar go off …and there are just drums. We were in the middle of playing “Cripple Creek” and people were getting off the dance floor except Mollie and Roy kept dancing. I knew she was from the South and I wasn’t going to stop playing to get them off the dance floor. I just kept staring at her and then screamed at her … Mississippi Queen! I kept rambling on and on and then screamed …You know what I mean! So that’s the story.”

“What happened is, when the end of the summer came after Woodstock and we had to go into the studio, Felix said do you have any songs; we’ve got an album to do. He sent Leslie and I to the back room and said you guys go back there and write something. Leslie had already done his solo album with Felix called Mountain. So Leslie says you got any words? He knew I had been writing with my local band and I said yea, I actually wrote these words out for this thing that I played with just the drums. So I played it for him and he immediately came up with the lick. It was within f*ing seconds! We looked at each other and literally laughed ourselves sick and thought … wow this is f*ing cool!”
Ray Shasho: Did you get the chance to jam with Jimi Hendrix?
Corky Laing: “Yes I did. A lot of guys did way back, but he was a big fan of Mountain. I have articles that I kept personally where they ask him what are you listening to …and he says I’ve been listening to Nina Simone and Mountain. That’s what he was listening to at the time. Leslie jammed with him ….it was an era where we all crossed paths. It wasn’t like a big deal, nobody was God yet and there was nobody that was a hero yet like Clapton. Everybody played all the time and there were no egos involved. When it sort of kicked into the 70’s, big business came in and everybody had to watch out what they were playing and who they were playing it for ….becoming paranoic … too much cocaine Ray, too much cocaine.”
“If I could say one word that would wrap up my life it would be either blessed or lucky.”
Ray Shasho: One of my favorite guitarists that I also feel is one of the all-time greatest players is Mick Ronson. You’ve also worked with Mick and Ian Hunter in the past.
Corky Laing: “In the musician world Mick Ronson was magical. There’s a record that I did that I was very proud to do called The Secret Sessions and Mick Ronson, Ian Hunter and I were a band at one point in the late 70’s. Ian and I wrote and recorded about six to eight songs and then Ian was offered his own record deal and put out You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic. With the arrangement that we had he gave me these songs that Mick Ronson, myself, Ian Hunter and Felix Pappalardi played bass. Then we had Paul Butterfield playing harmonica and John Sebastian came in from the Spoonful. We had some great players.”

“You’ll hear some of the best work that Ronson did apart from Bowie on The Secret Sessions. Even Mick himself, God bless him was one of the most beautiful people, said, that he really enjoyed that because when Felix and I played we stuck to the old American bass and drums when it came down to recording, we played very thick. Mick loved the idea because he could do his high-end guitar playing that I call his spacey stuff. There’s a song called “The Outsider” that Mick plays solo on. He played some amazing guitar, there are about four or five tracks that he played on. I have to say Ray you’re exactly right, one of the best of all time players.”
Ray Shasho: One of the drummers that influenced you early- on was Gene Krupa?
Corky Laing: “He was my number one influence as of drummers. Of course there was Art Blakey in those days … I didn’t know anything about drumming you just know what you love. But to look at Gene Krupa, and watch Gene Krupa as well as listen to him, there was just so much heart and soul. And I loved him. Then who follows in his footsteps but Keith Moon. Keith Moon was just a psychedelic version of Gene Krupa. Amazing performer and I always loved Keith and always wanted to be Keith. Again, I was lucky enough to be with the same management company as they had in Europe so we became close friends. As much as I sat behind him at Madison Square Garden, right with his drum roll, right behind him, I watched everything he did for three days and I still cannot do one of them. And that’s the way I drum, I drum eye to hand, for me it’s all in coordination. So I always wanted to be Keith Moon.”

“But at the same time, my influence would be a Ginger Baker because of Felix’s association with Cream. My all-time favorite character drummer is Levon Helm. John Bonham …yes, I just did the Bonzo Bash a few months ago. They celebrated his birthday with about 15-20 drummers that played on his drum kit. Each drummer played a different Led Zeppelin song and I was cordially invited to play on that and it was great.”
Ray Shasho: Here’s a question that I ask everyone that I interview, If you had a “Field of Dreams” wish, like the movie, to play or collaborate with anyone from the past or present …who would that be?
Corky Laing: “It would be Elvis Presley. I’ve always wanted to play with Elvis and I felt there would come a time. When he was on stage and got into that whole martial arts thing, it’s like visually, he’s a drummer and he’s very physically looking. His songs were very subtle about how rhythmic they were. He started to get into some real good sh*t …and yes, that would be my wish.”
Ray Shasho: Corky, thank you for being on the call today and more importantly for all the incredible music you’ve given us with Mountain, West, Bruce & Laing and into the present with your brilliant rock opera … Playing God.
Corky Laing: “All the best Ray, stay in touch and God bless!”

Playing God …the sensational ‘Rock Opera’ by Corky Laing and the Perfect Child is available to purchase on the Gonzo Media website and will be available soon on amazon.com -September 10th
Corky Laing official website www.corkylaingproduction.com
Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves www.memorythieves.com
Cory Laing on Facebook
Corky Laing on Myspace
Very special thanks to Billy James of Glass Onyon PR

Coming up NEXT a recent interview with Cherie Currie former lead singer of 'The Runaways'

Contact classic rock music journalist Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com

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Slide Guitarist Roy Rogers talks ‘Twisted Tales’ Final Album with Ray Manzarek

By Ray Shasho

Eight years ago, slide guitar virtuoso Roy Rogers began an amazing musical collaboration and momentous friendship with The Doors legendary keyboardist Ray Manzarek. After Manzarek’s untimely death in May of 2013, Rogers felt awkward at first about releasing Twisted Tales their final studio album together. 

Rogers stated … “I just decided to release it, music is made to be heard, there’s no agenda, it’s good music, fun music, and a great testament to our collaboration.”

Twisted Tales was released on June 18^th 2013 and dedicated to the memory of Ray Manzarek. The unlikely musical duo of Manzarek and Rogers substantiated the concept “opposites attract,” and in this case… beget innovative, eclectic, and obscure musical magic. Although Rogers is perceived for slide guitar and delta blues, Twisted Tales is a completely new adventure.

The lyrical content is primarily penned by songwriter/poets Jim Carroll and Michael McClure. Some of the tracks on the album are reminiscent to a concept album. There are minor hints of Zappa, Burdon, and The Doors intermingled with diverse melody. Noteworthy tracks include … “Just like Sherlock Holmes” and “Eagle in a Whirlpool” highlighting the slide virtuosity of Roy Rogers and keyboard mastery of Ray Manazarek ... “Street of Crocodiles” An obscure, fun and interesting ditty!  My favorite track… “Black Wine/Spank Me with a Rose” …An incredible mix of musical artistry and … “Numbers” The final track on the album may conceivably be Manzarek’s swan song while echoing the music of The Doors.

I gave Twisted Tales the final studio release by Ray Manzarek and Roy Rogers (4) STARS.

Roy Rogers and Ray Manzarek also released … Ballads Before the Rain (2008) and Translucent Blues (2011).

ROY ROGERS: In 1976, Rogers and David Burgin formed an acoustic duo. They recorded the album Rogers and Burgin: A Foot in the Door and performed on the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest movie soundtrack.  

In 1980, Rogers formed his own band Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings.  The band quickly became universally recognized.

Upon returning from Europe, Rogers was asked to join John Lee Hooker’s Coast to Coast Blues Band. Rogers toured and performed with the legendary blues performer for four years, establishing a strong personal and professional relationship with Hooker. Roy Rogers went on to produce four historic recordings for John Lee Hooker … The Healer, Mr. Lucky, Boom Boom and Chill Out. Some of the tracks included co-producing credits with Ry Cooder and Van Morrison.

In 1985, Rogers released his critically-acclaimed solo debut album entitled Chops not Chaps and was nominated for the W.C. Handy Award. Rogers continued a string of successful releases with the album Slidewinder (1988) which featured guest performances by John Lee Hooker and Allen Toussaint and Blues on the Range (1989).

Roy Rogers incredible talents were also featured on the soundtrack for the film The Hot Spot (1990) which he recorded with Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal.

In 1991, Rogers collaborated with harmonica virtuoso and vocalist Norton Buffalo to record the highly acclaimed R&B album. The duo followed with Travellin’ Tracks in 1992.

Subsequent studio albums by Roy Rogers … Side of Hand (1993), Slide Zone (1994), Rhythm and Groove (1996), Pleasure & Pain (1998), Everybody’s Angel (1999), Slideways (2002), Roots of Our Nature with Norton Buffalo (2002), Split Decision (2009).

Over the years, Roy Rogers has collaborated with some of the greatest musicians in the world including … Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Miller, Sammy Hagar and most recently Ray Manzarek.

Roy Rogers scored eight Grammy nominations as a performer and producer.

Rogers remains one of the elite slide guitar players in the world.

I had the unique pleasure of chatting with Roy Rogers recently about the release of Twisted Tales, his most recent and final collaboration with The Doors legendary keyboardist Ray Manzarek. 

Here’s my interview with legendary slide guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer …ROY ROGERS.

Ray Shasho: How are you doing Roy?

Roy Rogers: “I’m doing alright, a little bit of hot weather here out west but it’s cooling down. It’s been kind of hot here! I’m here in Northern California; I live up near a big lake between California and Nevada by Lake Tahoe. So I’m up in the Tahoe National Forest. I’m a bay area guy, grew up in the bay area and raised our family out in the San Francisco Bay area. But we moved up here about five years ago and I love living in the mountains man.”

“You’re in the Tampa Bay area, when I think about Tampa, I think of Skipper’s Smokehouse. I used to play there a lot.”

Ray Shasho: You’re sort of in-between gigs right now?

Roy Rogers: “I’m actually doing some local gigs and then I head back over to Scandinavia again in October. I don’t tour as much as I used to, it’s more of a young man’s game anyway. If there’s a festival, I’ll fly out and maybe work at some smaller venues like Ray and I did. We’d go out and he didn’t want to hit it for long periods of time like a lot of people. As long as you can have that pivot date like a festival, book around that and fly back home, and don’t stay out on the road for a long period of time.”

Ray Shasho: I think there are a lot of countries that continue to support the blues.

Roy Rogers: “It’s true. Our culture, our music especially is so strong and that’s our biggest export in a lot of ways, what that means and where it comes from and people really get that … the whole thing of where jazz comes from and all the multifaceted things of that and the blues and rock and roll and into pop music. It’s so strong and a worldwide phenomenon. It’s really amazing when you think of it in those terms.”

Ray Shasho: Without the birth of the blues, there may have never been jazz, rock, pop or even country music?

Roy Rogers: “I always point out to people, Jimmie Rogers the so-called father of country music, when you listen to Jimmie Rogers stuff of the 20’s, you can totally get where he got that from and listening to the field hollers and plantation folks. You know as well as I do, the delineation of music was to sell it. Music was always cross-pollinated and people were either ignorant and didn’t know how that cross- pollination worked, the musicians certainly felt that way. It didn’t matter if you were Elvin Chamblin or Charlie Christian you could still play and appreciate the riffs.”

Ray Shasho: Twisted Tales, your latest and final album with Doors legend Ray Manzarek is a riveting piece of music that features an eclectic mix and some very obscure tracks. I heard a lot of musical styles in the album including …Frank Zappa, Eric Burdon and The Doors.

Roy Rogers:  “It’s very eclectic. Interesting analogies there, it’s probably all that in there somewhere. We had a lot of fun. Obviously I wrote some of the songs but especially the songs that Ray had, he was sitting on these lyrics of some friends of his which was sort of an extension of the first record Translucent Blues but much more eclectic musically as you were saying. We just knew it was going to take it that way because the lyrics almost demanded it. It gave it a skew that made it interesting to arrange it. That was the great thing about collaboration because we both wanted to make different records. Every time you make a record you can extend ideas that you have from previous stuff.  But it’s a new record and a brand new day … what side of the bed did you get out of today? We both felt that way and were both into pushing the envelope and that was part of the reason why we got along so well. Because we really became very good friends over the past seven or eight years and it was about that.”

“We started literally as a duet playing more of an extension of his solo thing and telling stories about The Doors and that sort of a thing. That was fun and we established our relationship doing that. But we both knew eventually that the band was going to push it in a way it needed to be pushed. The new album was fun to make. Even when I was producing John Lee Hooker stuff long ago and you had people in the studio, I firmly believe that it’s not that you can’t make good records with a lot of angst and what are we doing in the studio, but I could never make a record and take a year to make a record. You make a statement and go in unprepared and you let it flow and that translates to the record. I like records like that.”

Ray Shasho: I chatted with Billy Cobham recently and he said the Spectrum album was recorded amazingly fast. I think you’re right; many of the classic albums and tracks were recorded quickly and without a lot of preparation. 

Roy Rogers: “Yea, look at Miles Davis Kind of Blue. Very seldom, even in the Hooker days … we didn’t always get it on the first take, but if we tried it two or three times and didn’t get it, we would put it to rest and tried it on another day. This thing about having to be perfect or trying to go for perfection … I don’t buy that at all. You just want to make a statement and have fun with it. That’s what I like about this record a lot, obviously very eclectic material but it covers a lot of ground and there’s a lot of depth in there that people can either find or not find.”

Ray Shasho: I really enjoyed the album. It sort of reminded me of a concept album at times. The music camaraderie between you and Ray became even more apparent on the track “Black Wine/Spank Me with a Rose.”

Roy Rogers: “Black Wine” was a first take for Ray’s vocals. We were doing “Black Wine” and obviously it’s a long tune, we even edited it, I think it’s six and half minutes or something. Ray was doing the vocal live as we were playing it, not going in and doing the vocal again. So he was doing his thing and playing and that’s the vocal we used. He was so ecstatic because it’s unusual to do the vocal live as you’re cutting the track; it’s not always done and getting it right. He was ecstatic after that and that’s when he did that thing at the end of the record. He was so happy that he went into this ad-lib thing. That’s why it’s such a glorious train wreck. I said Ray; we have to end the record with that. It was a perfect way to end the record and became a very precious moment in light of his demise.”

Ray Shasho: The album was a pleasant surprise. Fans of Roy Rogers may have thought the album would spotlight a majority of blues tracks.   

Roy Rogers: “I don’t really consider myself a real traditional blues artist and never have. I’ve always wanted to stretch it. Even though I have covered my fair share of Robert Johnson stuff, I always feel that certainly in the blues, I respected enough where you have to make it your own and have to work with it. I don’t care if it’s in a Captain Beefheart kind of way or the traditional blues. The whole thing about the collaboration with Ray is … he was a Southside of Chicago kid and I didn’t know that when I first met him. He said I remember when music shifted from “How Much is That Doggie in The Window” to “Hoochie Coochie Man” (All laughing). I said, well that was about ten years before I was around, because Ray was eleven years older than I was. But I don’t really consider myself real traditional although I’m obviously known for that slide guitar kind of thing.”

Ray Shasho: When was the last time you saw your musical partner Ray Manzarek? 

Roy Rogers:  “The last time I saw Ray, we were discussing the artwork for the album. He was leaving for Germany to go to this place to kind of detox and he had gotten a bad diagnosis but was certainly going to take it one day at a time. Then he’d come back and who knows maybe play a few shows, well he never made it back obviously. It’s just ironic because it was very important for the both of us to get the record out. So I’m just happy to get it out, I sort of held it for a bit and was vacillating between how should I do this, it was awkward. So I just decided to release it, music is made to be heard. There’s no agenda, its good music, its fun music and a great testament to our collaboration.”

Ray Shasho: When did you and Ray Manzarek first meet?

Roy Rogers: “We met about eight years ago here in the bay area. He used to do solo shows. Sometimes he did shows with Michael McClure, they would do the poetry and then he would backup Michael. Ray would sometimes do solo shows and he would do mainly Q&A’s and answer questions about The Doors and Jim Morrison. Then he’d go into… this is how I played the intro to “Light My Fire” and that sort of thing. It was kind of a one on one with Ray. The guy that was booking him as a solo artist was the same agent that booked my band. He said you know Ray is doing a solo show why don’t you go sit in with him. So I called him up and Ray heard of me, so I took my little amp and sat in with him and it was just one of those situations man … instant simpatico.”

Ray Shasho: Did you ever think one day that you’d be collaborating with The Doors legendary keyboardist?

Roy Rogers: “I used to always kid Ray …I was a blues aficionado from ‘day one’ so I wasn’t a big fan of The Doors.  All I wanted to do was to see Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. So I used to laugh and say, Ray, it’s so ironic because I wasn’t a big fan of you guys, obviously I knew you guys and he’d say … “Well to hell with you Rogers!” (All laughing)  He’d say …“Okay we’re going to play “Love Me Two Times,” are you sure you want to play this one Rogers?” (Laughing)”

“Our friendship really started from a duet and we travelled actually a lot. We did a couple of tours in the Midwest and one back east, and this was as a duet and before the band. We also cut a fairly obscure record as a duet called Ballads Before the Rain … no vocals, no blues, and completely instrumental, mainly acoustic guitar and piano. That was really the gelling of the friendship.”

Ray Shasho: What were your future plans with Ray?

Roy Rogers: “He’d always do the stuff with Robby Krieger and continued to do so and toured with him, so this was a parallel universe if you will. We were definitely planning on promoting the record and our next meeting was going to be … Now what songs are going to translate live? Some songs translate better than others when performed live. So that was going to be our next meeting. So we were greatly looking forward to touring it, but he had a pretty good run of it didn’t he.”

Ray Shasho: Did Ray know he was sick or was it unexpected?

Roy Rogers:  “Totally unexpected. We did a last tour in Hawaii in February, four dates on four different islands and he had a great time. He did say he was getting a little tired but that’s all. I said Ray we’re all tired after the tour and he said, “Yea, well I think I’m gonna go to the doctor when I get home.” So one day he goes to the doctor and within two or three weeks he got a diagnosis that nobody wants to hear. He wasn’t sick for a long period of time because he was really diagnosed in the first part of March and was gone by the middle of May.”

“He was a very deep cat. I called him a renaissance man. He wrote books, he was obviously in a film, interested in a lot of different music. We didn’t always talk about music; we had very similar political leanings and both liked to read a lot of good books and he was a very well-read. He was just a very interesting guy. At the memorial they had for him, that echoed to just about everyone who got up and spoke. They said the same thing, from the earliest days to the present; he was that same kind of guy. He was the steadying influence type of guy.”

Ray Shasho: When you worked with John Lee Hooker it was much like how Johnny Winter helped Muddy Waters?

Roy Rogers: “When I had Johnny in the studio with “Hook,” there was the analogy for both of us. Of course all those great records he produced for Muddy. It was very similar. Johnny was very close in friendship with Muddy from what I’ve read and the same for me and Hooker. We had a very close friendship. I had toured with John and was in a lot of situations with him on the road as well as in the studio. When you can make music like that with geniuses in their own right, guys like Muddy and guys like “Hook” they can dig as deep as you can go when they feel like it. Not many people can even think about doing that. To see those guys dig down on stage, if they feel like it, and they’re in the mood, it’s a done deal and they own it. It’s just a great thing to behold and how that can move people so dramatically.”

“I just took my kids to see The Rolling Stones and they’ve never seen them before. Of course I’d been a fan of The Stones for a long time and saw them when they first came out. My kids loved them. Here are these guys in their late 60’s and early 70’s, and whether you like them or not, they still know how to rock. They had a bare bones show and not all the bells and whistles that they had before. It was a juggernaut man and it still amazes me, and the audience can rise and fervor, almost like a revival meeting (All laughing).”

Ray Shasho:  I’ve been patiently waiting to ask you this question, have you ever met the Cowboy Roy Rogers?     

Roy Rogers: “Are you kidding me … three times! Here’s my favorite Roy Rogers story. I was nominated for a Grammy the same year as Roy Rogers the Cowboy. He was nominated with Clint Black in a different category for a song he did. I was nominated for a song I did with Norton Buffalo who I did some records with, for a song I wrote called “Song for Jessica” when my daughter was born. So you got two Roy Rogers. They still held the Grammy's in New York at Radio City Music Hall at that time. Roy and I were staying at the same hotel and they completely screwed up the phone calls. So we both go there and his son Dusty was with him and I get to meet him. I’ve got this great picture hanging on the wall with me smiling with this sh*t eating grin on my face and Roy has his arm around me. Its Roy and Roy both wearing our medallion things when you’re nominated, everybody’s a winner type of thing. Neither one of us won the Grammy. So I had a great conversation with Roy.”

“The best part of the story, honest to God truth … My wife and I are going to leave, I’ve got a car coming to pick me up and take us to JFK. I’m out in front of the hotel and the driver comes and looks at me and says, “Roy Rogers, I’m a big fan of slide guitar, it’s a pleasure to give you a ride to the airport.” So we’re half way passed the East River on the way to JFK and the dispatcher comes on and says … “Who the hell do you have in the car?” The driver says, “I’ve got Roy Rogers.” The dispatcher says, “No, you don’t!” The conversation between the driver and dispatcher then went like this … “Wait a minute, is he a musician?”… 

“Yea”… “Was he nominated for a Grammy?”… “Yea”… “Does he have a hat on?”… “Yea” … “Well, is he the cowboy?” … “No man, he’s the blues musician.”… “Dammit, you’ve got the wrong guy!”

 So, I got Roy Rogers limo to the airport. I got the wrong car, isn’t that great? He probably never forgave me for that. He was supposed to pick up the other Roy Rogers. I will probably laugh about that till my dying day (All laughing).”

Ray Shasho: That’s a great story Roy! How were you treated in grade school with a name like Roy Rogers?

Roy Rogers: “Are you kidding me, I wore my cowboy boots about one day and then I never wore them again (All laughing).”

Ray Shasho: Roy, here’s a question that I ask everyone that I interview, If you had a “Field of Dreams” wish, like the movie, to play or collaborate with anyone from the past or present …who would that be?

Roy Rogers: “Man, there’s too many to go there, but it would certainly have to be doing something with either Robert Johnson or up to either a Captain Beefheart or Keith Richards. Captain Beefheart was a fascinating character; he influenced a lot of people and not for everybody, but that’s okay. I think that’s the thing for me. You said collaboration, sure we’d all like to sell as much music as we can, but you don’t have to try and make music for everybody, you just want to make good music. Miles said it best; there are two kinds of music, good and bad. Robert Johnson would have been so interesting, not just only because he’s a ‘Blues God’ of sorts, but the guy could have gone electric. It would have been very interesting to see where he would have gone. That’s how I think of that. His capabilities would have taken him to a lot of different realms if he was out of his traditional one. So that would have been interesting for sure. Keith Richards I’ve always liked.”

“If I had better chops it would probably be somebody like Ben Webster because I dig that kind of stuff completely, it moves me.”

Ray Shasho: Roy, what are your future plans?

Roy Rogers: “I’m starting to woodshed now for my next project. Although there are a lot of different directions that I could go frankly and I haven’t decided which one. I could make a solo record and if I have the material do maybe the singer/songwriter thing. I love collaborating and would like to do possibly a big band record with slide guitar, which has never been done. My secret desire would be to make another Wall of Sound record. I’m not talking about a Phil Spector type of Wall of Sound but a new approach to that.”

“It’s going to depend on the material for me frankly. That was the thing about Twisted Tales … Ray already had some great lyrics and I already had some stuff, it was really a back and forth thing about arranging and writing the tunes and those were in place. We had a lot of those lyrics from Michael McClure and Jim Carroll, so that helped things.”

“I could also do classic covers. That would really cover much more of a range of material, not just blues, but maybe even do some standards that I think would translate for slide guitar.”

Ray Shasho: Roy, thank you for being on the call today and more importantly for all the great music you’ve given us and continue to bring. Come to Florida soon!

Roy Rogers: “Good talking with you man, I wish you success with your project and it’s always great to talk shop. Look for me to come to a festival there, no plans, but maybe sometime next year.”

Purchase Twisted Tales the latest album by Roy Rogers and Ray Manzarek at amazon.com

Roy Rogers official website www.roy-rogers.com

Ray Manzarek official website www.raymanzarek.us

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Contact classic rock music journalist Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com

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Check the Gs is just a really cool story ... and it’s real. I’d like to see the kid on the front cover telling his story in a motion picture, TV sitcom or animated series. The characters in the story definitely jump out of the book and come to life. Very funny and scary moments throughout the story and I just love the way Ray timeline’s historical events during his lifetime. Ray’s love of rock music was evident throughout the book and it generates extra enthusiasm when I read his on-line classic rock music column on examiner.com. It’s a wonderful read for everyone!”    …stillerb47@gmail.com    

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