Foghats Roger Earl talks Hendrix and more
Rockford Rocked Interviews
Hi Roger. Looks like you and the guys have been very busy touring.
Let's talk about the first big band you were in, called Savoy Brown. When did you guys get to the States?
Roger Earl
First time I came here was when I was in Savoy Brown yeah. It was really, really cool. We got to New York City and stayed wherever the hotel was. We had about a week before we had our first show date. The guitar player for The Young Rascals took us under his wing and said do you want to go out and jam? And so myself, Kim Simmons and Lonesome Dave went, He took us down into Harlem. We got into some of the jazz clubs and played. It was really cool, you know? It felt like coming home coming here to the States, especially in New York City and Chicago. Because Chicago was, bloody horses, chess records. I mean, it was a chunk, very insightful. but, you know for somebody coming from London, England, it was like the Holy Grail.
RRI
I can definitely see that
RE
You know a lot of people go on about The Beatles, who of course, were a fantastic band the real band but. I think a number of people don't quite realize is The US was the land where it all came from. It really had this wonderful melting port of people from Europe and Africa. And they all brought their tunes, melodies. and timing. People came from all over. Without the Blues there would be no contemporary music Blues gave us the rock'n'roll, Bebop and jazz and of course, the country and western hillbilly music, religious music as well. I'm really fortunate, I've played in this business and been successful at it because I love it. I love playing music. I love being a musician. I love jamming and like doing all that stuff and you know, like the music. I'm very fortunate.
Foghat
RRI
What are you listening to these days? Anything out there spark your interest?
RE
Not really. We just finished a new album, so I've been kind of working on that. I put in a Humble pie CD recently... Oh God, I'm stuck in the past!
RRI
Right and I mean, how could you not like Steve Marriott, you know? If my kids heard Humble Pie, I think they would really dig it.
RE
Music is like a moment in time for a lot of people. They're into music, you know, it reminds you of moments when you were somewhere or of someone special. Music is like a part of your soul.
My father, he was a professional musician, but he played piano. Aston Martins in in the 50s there was always music in the house, and he brought home records like Jerry Lewis and stuff because he had the piano playing and told us kids can play the piano. Yeah. I was very fortunate that both my parents loved music and there was always music in the house and my grandmother also had a one of those record players.
RRI
Foghat had a couple songs on the Activision Guitar Hero video game. Thoughts?
RE
Yeah, but that actually wasn't us playing on it, they can track similarly, but of course the drums aren't quite right! I thought that was fantastic though. There was another band that had a hit record on there. I think they came from Detroit, and they called up our manager and said, look, we want to get a lawsuit against them because they've got our song on there and it is not us. And I said, are you bloody kidding? You can't even pay for that kind of publicity.
RRI
On Foghat's first album (1972) were you guys going for any kind of a certain sound?
RE
The band was always influenced by the Blues and early rock'n'roll. Maybe you know, some bebop stuff like that. Dave and I were always tight and when Rod Price joined the band on lead slide guitar, he was also a Blues guitarist so that's really what the nucleus of the band was always about.
RRI
The Foghat song Slow Ride was featured on the movie Dazed and Confused soundtrack. Thoughts?
RE
Dazed and Confused, has been very, very good to me! Yeah, they had Slow Ride and I just want to Make Love to you within that.
RRI
I had read that you actually auditioned for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Or was that band of gypsies?
RE
Yeah, Chaz Chandler called me up when I was working in the studio at the dance studio and said have you heard of Jimi Hendrix, and I said we've all heard about Jimmy. He said, " Would you like to audition? So, naturally I said, yes and asked, Shall I borrow my dad's car and pull my drums up to central London? Anyway, it's raining lightly outside we're all lined up outside about midday and then Jimmy walks up and he just starts talking to me about some songs he's written the night before and I think he talked to a few other people outside. There were four or five drummers before me, and Jimmy was really cool. He gave me a lot of time but I have to be honest with you. I don't think I was very good. We started playing and I hadn't a clue what to play, but then he played a slow Blues, so then I could see what I was doing. He played a Chuck Berry Song did a couple other things, etc. I think I played for about 40 minutes with him, which was really cool. After that I did get a chance to get up and jam with him in New York.
RRI
Absolutely. Fast forwarding to Foghat's live album in 77. That's right up there with Frampton, Thin Lizzy and UFO'S Live stuff. It seemed like everybody was doing a live album during that time. The album sounds really organic. Was there any over dubbing going on before releasing it?
RE
No, We used the RCA mobile unit. The sad part was we I think we recorded like a number of shows. Rochester, Syracuse, etc. But we were actually playing probably an hour and a half. Warner Brothers, in their infinite wisdom, decided that we were only putting one record out. Our manager was talking to somebody just the other day and they had found the tape with the rest of the songs. So maybe that will come outs sometime in the future.
Rockford Rocked Interviews
What do you remember about the 1981 Tour with Blue Öyster Cult and Whitford St. Holmes band.
Roger Earl
Great band and I don't recall the exact tour, but we've got lots of days together. Yeah, I actually made a record with Derek St. Holmes a while ago,
We've been friends for years.
RRI
Thanks for chatting with me today!
RE
Thank you. Actually, today's been a brilliant day. We didn't get home till like 2:00 am last night. I got up at 7:00! I'm downstairs having a coffee now. Thanks, mate.
Cheers!