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I started playing a ukulele when I was about 12 years old. I remember when I bought my first one, my grandmother made fun of me telling me I would never learn how to play that thing, and I had just wasted my money, but I loved playing it, and when I discovered the guitar was tuned just like the ukulele, but had two more bass strings on it, I slid right into playing the guitar. I’ve never been a really great guitar player, I don’t even know the names of some of the chords I play, even after fifty-five years of playing one, I still don’t know the names of each string, but I know how to tune it and I love playing my chords. |
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The first time I heard Phil Sloan sing “The Eve of Destruction” to me, it struck a chord deep within my heart. I thought, “this song is based on reality,” at least reality the way I perceived it. As I recall, our producer, Lou Adler was not that hot on the song, but in my first three-hour recording session with Dunhill, Lou said, the third song we were doing sounded like the first song, “Let’s do something else.” So, I whipped the handwritten lyrics out of my back pocket, smoothed out the wrinkles, and said, “Let’s do this Eve of Destruction tune.” I think someone in the booth said, “Well, maybe we can put it on the B-side of a record.” So the song got recorded in one take. If you want to read the whole story, it’s on my blog page under “Eve of Destruction.” |
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I met Cass Elliott at Fordham University when she was singing with “The Big Three.” We became close friends, and I met Denny and John through her. So, when they came to California looking for someone to produce their new music, I happened to be riding a number one tune, so they asked me if I knew a producer and I said, “I sure do, his name is Lou Adler.” So I told Lou about them, he said to bring them to my next recording session and he’d give them a listen. They sang three songs, that’s all it took. Lou was mesmerized, actually we all were. So, in order for them to make some bridge money, Lou suggested they do the background vocals on my album “Child of Our Times.” |
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I tell people that very few artists can actually pay the rent through with their gift. Whether they be a musician, an author, a painter, an actor, whatever their gift might be. Out of the many tens of thousands of gifted artists, so few ever pay the bills with the money they generate from their art. So, I tell people who ask me, just work your art, if you love it, do it with no concern about what others think of it or have to say about it, it’s your art, it’s your expression of your feelings.
Randy Sparks told me one time that a young man came into his office and asked him to critique his music, his gift, his talent. After playing a few songs, Randy looked at him with that twinkling gleam he always has in his eye, and told him, “Personally, I don’t think you have a chance to make it in the music business, and if you believe what I’ve just said, I’ll be right.” Even as I recall these words, I just sit here and laugh at the truth of what Randy said. |
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Oh my, there have been so many. The list would probably start with my younger days listening to rhythm and blues artists that no-one’s ever heard of these days, then moving into early rock, and then all the different artists I worked with, Sammy Davis, Andy Williams, Bobby Darrin, Bob Gibson, Nick Woods, Art Podell, Dolan Ellis, Clarence Treat, Larry Ramos, Paul Potash, Barry Kane, Randy Sparks, so many names I can’t remember. I think I’ve probably been influenced by every artist I’ve ever seen perform, or performed with, because that’s what we do, we influence one another, we encourage one another. I see somebody do something that looks like it would be fun to do, whether it’s singing a song or skiing down a mountain, and I think, “Wow, I’d love to try that.” So, I do, and if it works and It’s fun, I keep on doing it. If it doesn’t work, and it’s not fun, I don’t do it anymore. Pretty simple, huh! |
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