May 15, 2024 • 31 mins
Paul is one of the most influential figures in rock history known for his work with Free, Bad Company and The Firm.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, you know, when the audience sings along with the song,
that's the greatest feeling in the world because you really
know that they've got the message at that one you
like to say a shooting Star or rock and roll
fantasy or even thought right now, you know they when
the audience is singing that with me, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to another episode of Taking a Walk, your host
Buzz Night, celebrating another milestone in music history, where on
this episode we honor the birthday of one of the
greatest singers in rock and roll. Paul Rodgers has been
part of the soundtrack of Our Life. His band Bad
Company was the first band signed to led Zeppelin Swan
(00:41):
Song label, and as you probably know, he and Jimmy
Page would later form the Firm. His music from Free
to Bad Company, the Firm, and his solo career is
classic rock goal. He's been praised by everyone from the
late Freddie Mercury to John Mellencamp for his vocals. Bad
Company earned six platinum albums With Rogers, He's led an
(01:02):
amazing life and we celebrate him next on Taking a
Walk with Buzznight.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, I think some special birthday wishes are in order
for one of the greatest singers in rock history, mister
Paul Rogers.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Happy birthday, sir.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Well, thank you. I'm so glad I made it this far.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, let me ask you now, you have had some
documented health issues and we have this other podcast that's
called Music Saved Me about the healing.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Power of music.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
How important for you as you were healing and getting better?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Was music for you?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And you believe music saves us?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, definitely, yeah, because it was very important. I couldn't
play acoustic guitar. I couldn't play guitar. I couldn't talk,
I couldn't read, I couldn't write. But everything was inside
me and I knew what was going on, but I
just couldn't communicate outside of my own body, in mind
(02:11):
and everything else. But coming back from a stroke is
really an amazing journey. It really is, because you you
start to appreciate the little things that you can't actually do,
and yes, music just to continue that little point though.
You appreciate every little thing that you can do and
you build on that and that's how you recover. And
(02:34):
music definitely was a help because I, you know, as
I said, I didn't play they couldn't play it. There's
an acoustics sitting there. I didn't even know what it was. Really,
I made noises with it.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Yeah, it took high buzz. It took about a year
and a half for Paul to come back to playing guitar.
He started playing guitar. What happened was he had an
un dart doc to me the surgery because his right
left crowded artery was a ninety block and that's what
caused the second major stroke. So after that surgery he
(03:08):
was admitted, left the hospital and we went for hyper barracks.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
That was huge.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
That was like watching a wilted plant come back to life.
And then when we got home after that therapy treatment,
I had the Stevie guitar in the case on the
couch and I lifted the guitar lit up or the
case lit up, sorry, so he could see it, and
he would walk by and put it down. And this
went on for months and then finally I took the
guitar out of the.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Case and I knew the couch it'll get dusty, should
lay open like that, the.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Cats will get into it.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
So anyhow, he eventually took a year and a half,
but he Eventually I found him sitting on the couch
with the guitar on his lap like a.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Slide guitar, steel.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Guitar, and playing it, pushing both hands across the strings,
pushing away from his body.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And right there, you know that, right there, the vibration
of those strings. Everything really is vibration in life, you know,
it really is. And the vibration of the strings kind
of woke me up. It did wake me back up.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Yeah, And then he started singing as a result of
being able to play again. So it was an interesting process.
Don't recommend it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
No, I don't recommend it, but it's certainly an interesting journey.
And I do a lot of meditation as well, So
I knew that I was cognizant, but I just wasn't
able to have my voice speak the words that I
wanted to speak. I could prepare a sentence and go
for it, and out.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Would come this garbled thing. I would and I would go,
what the heck did I just say? Who could understand that?
And I could think very clearly.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
As long as I could do that, I knew that
it would come back eventually to me.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Cynthia, it's so nice to have you on as well
with Paul. I really appreciated. Well, let me ask you, Cynthia. First,
does Paul roam around the house quite frequently singing all day?
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (05:09):
He sings every day, and it's best best concert ticket.
I've got front row seat. It's fantastic. I used to sing,
let's just put it that way. I used to sing.
But living with him for the past twenty six years,
I don't really sing so much anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh, she's a good singer. Actually, she's on the album.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Sure are you? You're all over that?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
What were you singing today?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Just by chance?
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Today I was singing just a little rain falling from
the sky.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
The grass list has head to the heavenly anyway.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I'm starting to get a bit cabaret there. But yeah,
that was the Searches. That was the first song I
ever sung. Actually it was a protest sum for strensy.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
By the Searchers.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Yeah, what have they done to the rain?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That was magical. I had chills when you were singing that,
just so you know. Oh wow, Oh man. So what
was the first album that you ever bought?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Paul?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The first album was Oldis Redding's Oldest Blue and the
first single that I bought was his backing band, Red
Beans and Rice. His backing band was called Booker T
and the MG's Red Beans and Rice and on the
other side was Be My Lady.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
It's a great record, not very.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Not very popular, didn't sell a lot of records, but
I still have a copy of that.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
It's really fantastic to listen to.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Now.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
What's the significance for you with Midnight Rose, your new
release coming out on Sun Records?
Speaker 5 (06:51):
What's the significance? Well, it's huge.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I actually I'm very surprised and very pleased to have
to be on Sun Records. You know, it's it makes
a huge difference because they've got such a legacy and
they've got a lot of experience and I mean, you know,
you know Howling Wolf and Elvis Presley.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
It doesn't get much better than that. That's that's the
full range of the music, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Really?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
So they've just been great.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
As well, not bad for a lad from Middlesbrough.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
I have yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
I don't even think this was even in your dream wheel.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I don't think it was, because it's true because
when I when I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
About six year old, something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
My best friend we got he pulled out his elder brothers,
Elvis Presley record right and Sun Records on some record
of course, and we put it on the turntable very sneakily,
and we.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
Put the needle down and we'll listen to it.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It was like because that was sacrilege because if we'd
been found doing that, we were being crucified.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
So it was well, since my baby left me, you know,
we were like, wow, listen, that isn't it great?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So the clarity was unbelievable. It was obviously vinyl, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So yeah, oh man, that's so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So and your love of the blues is so well documented.
I mean, you're a happy fella, but the blues obviously
takes you in a different place, is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, yeah, I had a lot of angst if you're
like growing up as a teenager, et cetera, et cetera.
And when I discovered the blues, I did find that
by expressing any sadness that you might have had, all
or other people's sadness for that matter, because we used
to we used to cover all the blues guys as records,
you know, like, well, it's four.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
O'clock in the morning, and I'm sitting here with that one.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You know, BB King, and you would sing other people's blues,
but you've eventually started to sing your own over the
twelve bar blues. And eventually I started to write using
the twelve bar blues, and then I expanded out from there.
The first song I wrote was Walking My Shadow, which
was my own rif don't don't, don't, don't, doodle doo,
(09:09):
don't do And I put that to a twelve bar
and I went wow, And I wrote lyrics, and I
thought that I've just written a song, haven't I And
that was a step forward. And I went on to
expand beyond the twelve bar, you know, and make all
the structures.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
How old were you when you walk in My Shadow?
Speaker 5 (09:30):
I was about I was seventeen. Wow, yeah, just before
free Wow.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
If you listen to those lyrics, if the listeners or
the viewers on the podcast listen to those lyrics, they're
pretty heavy lyrics for a seventeen year old.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, you know, it's a lot of copying other people, really,
you know, I.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Don't require John Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
Yeah, but those lyrics are very unique, I think for
a seventeen year old for any age.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Actually, you know, I was walking along the road Hampstead
Bob Shua and I it was a heat wave.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
And I wrote that song. Well my through is dry,
my knees a week.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It's went, Oh, women, they're so damn hot, I can't
even speak and all that stuff.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, and then I had to make a riff up,
you know, and put it all together.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, that is that is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Now, who are some of the favorite blues players that
you've encountered personally over your career.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, well, every blues player i've heard I like, you know,
I like Hopkins and he's a cool cut.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
They even countered by the government.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well guys, yeah, I saw Muddy Waters at the Marquee
in London in Waldo Street in sixty seven.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I was so impressed because by that time it was
even by then he was so much a legend and
there was a big blues boom going on in England
at the time, so blues was very popular.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
It goes through cycles.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
You people often come back to the blues and then
it goes away and it comes back.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
So it's kind of an Evergreen Annual.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
You know, I saw Muddy Waters and I was so
impressed that he was like a.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Real person, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
He wasn't this icon that was separate from the audience
in a glass bubble or and things like that. He
was very personable and lovely, you know. And actually I
think they were all a bit jet lag because the drummer. Yeah,
the drummer wasn't keeping time, and Muddy did not like
that because I think he had a few drinks. Perhaps
(11:42):
God bless him. You know, it happens, or used to happen,
and so Muddy sort of like give the bass player
the look right is and they dragged well, they lifted
the drummer off. I can't remember who the players were
except for me, and the basic player got on the drum.
He did the rest of the night. But so it
(12:02):
was so you know, it was so natural and free
and it was beautiful.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
And then you've met BB King Wilson.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Yeah, BB was amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Byby was a fantastic They invited me up on stage
and I said, you sure I can go, and the
manager said, look, yes, go on, get it there. And
I went up there and I started to sing, I
don't know whether I was supposed to sing, but I
just started singing every day. Every day I had the blues,
you know, like that, and I suddenly realized I should
(12:32):
not really be singing here. And then I turned it
back around and I said, well, when you see me
worry you know, baby knows yea bby or something like.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I turned the lyric around BB's had the blues.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, And I heard it back to to BB
and he was like, yeah, Okay, that's the way it is.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I'm the blues, you know, which is true? It was
definitely Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Anyway, So what was the first time you and altered
mister Jimmy Page.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
I'd have to think about that. I think I obviously
knew their music before I met him.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I think I met him at the at the office
actually after we had a let me let me back
troll back a little bit. We we had a road
manager in Free when we were Free and he he
left us and joined led Zeppelin's team, you know, as
a road manager. And when I was starting to get
(13:32):
Bad Company together, Prive calls and he came around and
he said, you should call Peter. You know, he really
wants to talk to you. I said, Peter who. He said,
Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin. I said, he
doesn't care what I'm doing. He said, no, no, you
really should call him. He really wants to talk to
And that's how my connection with Zeppelin began. I phoned
(13:52):
Peter up and I said, so, you know, hello, Peter,
how are you blah blah blah, And he said and
I said, oh, hey, you might be interested in what
I'm doing. He said, well, I'm interested in you because
he was a Cockney guy and he's a huge, big wrestler,
you know.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
And he said.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I said, well, I come with the band Peter, and
we're called Bad Company. So I said, well, I don't
know about the name, and the.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Rest is history.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But I met Jimmy at the office having established a
connection with Peter Grant. We kind of, you know, we've
run into the Zepps all the time, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And Jimmy most recently was at the the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. I guess he had he hadn't
been out playing in a while, and everybody's talking about
what he did there with Link Ray. It sounded pretty amazing.
Are you still in touch with Jimmy?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Yes, indeed, Yeah, I'm really proud that he was able
to do that for Link.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Ray, absolutely, Yeah, because where they deserved.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Yeah, and it's cool because link Ray was an Indigenous player,
and you know here in Canada, you know, we really
you know, hold our indigenous culture close to our hearts,
and so to see that it's pretty monumental.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Jimmy, Yeah, Jimmy did a great you know, talk to
the audience about how brave he felt that link Ray was,
you know, and the record is such a cool record.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
Perry Merdeloff was also involved in that behind the scenes.
He's the fellow that Paul did the Royal Sessions with.
He's sort of a wizard's He's a guitarist. He's a
very good guitarist. He connects people, Yeah, he is. He
connects people. He does a lot of work with Jimmy
and Keith Richards and other guitarists. Yeah, he called it
(15:51):
will tell him the story about the Royal Sessions.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Well, he called me up one day because we'd often
talked about early soul music and all that sort of
stuff and Isaac Hayes and all those great people, and
he said, guess where I am.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
I said, I have no idea where you are, tell.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Me it's Perry.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
He could be anywhere.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Oh he could be at your front door. Yeah, yeah,
could be outside, that's right. So I said, I'm down
in Memphis and there's a studio here called the Royal Studios,
and this is where a lot of the Blues and
Soul was done. And all the session guys that were
on those takes are there, you know, Steve Potts and
and the Reverend Hodges, Charles Hodges. Yeah, it was actually
(16:30):
a really a reverend when he's not a session, which
is very cool. And he had the big Hammond B
three and all those guys. He said, so you should
come down and we'll make an album. I said, okay,
I jumped on the plane and we went down there.
We did it was amazing.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
So those are the sort of things that Perry mrgoloff
does in life. He'll be he'll be behind the scenes,
but something cool and is going on. Chances are Perry's
had a hand in it, or a finger in it,
or his whole body into it.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Tell me about your experiences with the great Jeff Beck.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, well, Jeff Beck. We did so much together over
the years. We did a what's that movie we did?
We did a movie together.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
I can't remember what it was, the music for the movie.
The music for the movie. Yeah, what was it we did?
I can't remember, just now forgive it.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, there was one was But anyway, he was on
the tribute to Muddy Waters and there was a lot
of great musicians on that and by the time I
called him up and by the time we spoke about it,
he wanted to do the whole album. And I said, well, Jeff,
I can't give you the whole album because we've got
other people.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
We had David Gilmour, Brian.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
May, yeah, slack body guy.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
But there was there were three tracks left, and he said,
I'll do them all and he did the three tracks
that were left at that time, and it was fantastic.
He was in a league of his own. It's such
an awesome bitar player.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Yeah. The last tour we did of the US it
was Free Spirit, so we had Jeff with Jeff and
Anne Wilson and Deborah Bonham. That was quite a It
was so surreal to be because we would flip flop
with Jeff on closing, So on the nights that he
would close, we'd be dining in our dressing room and
Jeff Beck would be serenading us. And it was so
(18:34):
surreal because he was my number one guitarist and I
would just sit there and eating and go. It doesn't
get any better than you know, Yeah, what a sweetheart,
What an innovator?
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Yeah, how did he make it all look so easy?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Well?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I think it was easy for him him, but probably not,
you know, it's probably there's another satur from his point
of view, but it seemed it did seem so very easy.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Yeah, very focused individual, Jeff like laser focused.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, very I loved the record he made with Rod Stewart,
The Truth Album. There are a couple of tracks on
there that still blow my mind, really shapes of things,
share shapes that one, you know, and the guitar solo
in that is just out of this world.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, you know, the body of work with Bad Company
was so unbelievable. Do you think it hurts bands when
they're marketed as supergroups?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Well?
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Who knows, you know. I mean we were marketed as
a supergroup.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Just literally because the last member we got with, which
was Buzz had spent a couple of months with King Crimson,
so so that meant we were free with what the
hoopl and King Crimson.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
So that I understand.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
That's the record company's desire to promote you, you know,
so it's it's not a bad thing. You know, you
do have to liver the goods. Having called yourself a
supergroup though, that's true.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, I'd say the band did deliver the goods well,
thank you, I mean unbelievable. So I'm gonna cite a
particular favorite of mine. There's so many of them from
Bad Company, but I'll cite a particular favorite, Silver Blue
and Gold. Do you remember about the creation of that,
(20:26):
not only lyrically but musically and then in the studio
and everything?
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Oh sure, yeah, I wrote that on a world? Remember
that be the I've got to get another world. It's
one of these days.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
They're they're very rare item now to get a good one.
In fact, Perry's on the market period. But there's such
a great piano. They they're they're electronic electric piano, you know,
but they've got a feel to them.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
When you when you when you hit them hard, they growled.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
You know, they've got a distroyed sort of distroyed to them,
like an edginess, or you can play them very gently anyway,
very good piano. And I wrote silver, Blue and Gold
on that in a in a little beds that I
was living in in in Putney in London, and the
first the first title was silver and gold, but then
(21:17):
I thought, we'll give me silver now blue and gold
the color of the sky and tool, you know, And
I wrote that like that and took that to Pontois
where we were Bad Company were due to a record.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
I think it was what was Run of the Pack,
wouldn't it on the Run with the Pack album?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
It is.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
It is one of the greatest songs ever.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I have to tell you.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, thank you, thank you, Buzz, you know, and as well,
I have to point out mixed guitar playing is just
superb on that, just superb.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
The soul is so perfect for the track.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
It's so delicate and sweet and those high notes they
play plays it's just great.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Buzz.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
What about that track speaks to you?
Speaker 8 (22:04):
Okay, oh my god, It's just it lifts me up.
It's just it tugs at my heart. It lifts me up.
And it's you know, like a lot of those in
the audience. It's part of the soundtrack of certainly My Life.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Yeah, well, yeah, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But I could say that about so many of the
songs as well. What do you think is the secret
sauce to bands and their collaboration.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
I think that the the nucleus or the basis of
any band is their songs. If they can write songs
and then play them, that's pretty much the secret. And
that's how we started out with Free. We were playing
a lot of blues in the set, and I said
to Andy, you know, we should what we should and
do what everyone was doing then, like people like The Cream,
(23:02):
like the Cream Cream, Jimmy Hendrix and all those guys.
They were playing their own material so that they had
their own story and their own voice in a way,
you know, And I said, we should concentrate on, you know,
moving away from the blues a little bit and just
focusing on our own material.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
And we wrote all the way to all Right Now,
and it was really good.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
But there was one song we couldn't not do on stage,
even though we were doing the whole set of our
own material, and that was the Hunter and with Albert
King The Hunter, which is still a great record. It's
on the Born under a Bad Sign album, and Born
on a Bad Sign itself is a great song, great record.
We couldn't get off the stage without playing The Hunter.
(23:47):
So I said to Andy, let's write. Let's try and
write a song that is at least as good as
The Hunter, and even something that everybody can sing along to,
you know, something simple like you know, like all now baby.
And I said, well, maybe that's it, and he took
that away and came back with bomb bomb bum and
(24:09):
all that.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
You see.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
So I had to write the lyrics, and so it
was like I wanted to end up with all right now.
So something happened before. What happened before? Well it's a
boy mate's girl story. And there she stood in the street.
What was she doing, smiling from a head to her feet,
big smile, And I said, hey, what's this? And the
(24:32):
lyrics just flowed out like that and we did that
song that night. Anyway, basically, to come to your question,
come back to your question. The point is I think
that you collaborate by collaborating, really by getting together and
making it work.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
How does it make you feel when You either see
your fans listening to the music as you're performing it
and you know you're connecting with them, or you meet
a fan and they tell you how their music, You're
music has connected with them.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
How does it make you feel?
Speaker 7 (25:03):
Well?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
You know, when the audience sings along with the song,
that's the greatest feeling in the world because you really
know that they've got the message at that point. You know,
like to say with Shooting Star or rock and roll Fantasy.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Or even all right Now.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know they when when the audience is singing that
with me, it's amazing. Yeah, it's a it's a buzz.
Speaker 6 (25:24):
A memory I have is when we were playing Queen
plus Paul Rodgers Run tour and we were playing in Kharkov,
the Ukraine, and there were three hundred and fifty thousand
people at this concert and it was a benefit concert
for AIDS research and the people could not speak English,
but they knew all of the words to all right Now.
And for me, that was a moment that's, you know,
(25:46):
stuck in my mind. I thought, Wow, how amazing. You know,
they don't really know what they're saying, but yet they
know all of the words.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
But they feel good.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Saying it, and it brings people together to I mean,
you're such your an army then basically you're all singing together.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Your plan.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
You're a clan. That is such a joyful experience of togetherness.
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Yeah, sorry, but have you listened to the new album?
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Yes, I think it's joyous.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I think it's uh, it's it just really has an
incredible spark and spunk to it, and it's it's tremendous.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Thanks buzz you get you get it good? Yeah? Do
you have a favorite track at all?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I I you know what, I've gone through it and
just kind of listen you start to finish, and uh,
that's kind of how I've I've digested it, to be
honest with you.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
Yeah, me too. You know I listened to it. You know,
it's a long time.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
It takes a long time, uh, after you've mixed the
album and got it all done, to listen to it
just as it is as it sounds as a listener,
would you know, normal like first time listener would hear it.
It's it's because you hear all the things that what
you were struggling with the way through the process of
recording it. You know, I remember, for the shooter and
all this kind of stuff we would struggle. I would
(27:07):
struggle with and living it up too. I wanted to
get hit the right mark, the right tone, and I
tried a number of you know, lyrics to it, and
all that kind of stuff went on. But now that
it's just there and there's nothing more you can do.
It's mixed, it's produced.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
It's everything.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I can just listen to it as a normal person would.
I think it's quite a good album.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Even with that.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I like just listening just as if it's you know,
back to the pure album days, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Always exciting was that when you got an album home
and it was a great big cover, you know, and
all the artwork and you pulled out this vinyl and
there it was. I mean, it was a great moment
when I pulled out my our vinyl and there was
Sun Records on the label in the center.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Whoa.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, it took me back to the childhood days when
we pulled out l this press.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Well, in closing, so let's let's play a little bit
of a mystical uh imagination game here. So you're able
to go into the studio with anybody either in your past,
of your career that you've been with living or dead,
(28:23):
or someone you haven't been in a studio with in
your career. Who would that session be with?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Probably Holland Wolf when it recorded Smoke Stot Bliging woll
Smoke Staggled Lightning. Yeah, yeah, no drums on drums, you.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Tell me something?
Speaker 6 (28:52):
Well, I think Andy Fraser on bass or Pino Palladino.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yeah, well, Bozz was pretty good to you. It was players.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Okay, who do you want on drums?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I'd have John Bonham on drums, Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Yeah, okay. And then on keyboards, oh yeah, yeah, I
would agree with that. Or Spike Edney too from Queen.
He's very good soul too for Blairers. Okay, so this
is like a symphony rock band. And then what about well,
(29:31):
I know on guitar.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
On guitar, well, well.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
Off actually, and how about a little bit Jimmy Hendricks.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Oh well he's not bad, he's not.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
You could do vocals, oh you and Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Actually I leave it to to Jimmy to halem Wolf
to be honest.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
Voice.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, it was like a single play at thirty three
and a third the way he sang, you.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Know, yeah, so you'd be the producer of this. Yeah, yeah,
I'd be the manager.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Oh well, I'm so grateful for this time Cynthia and Paul,
and Paul, Happy happiest of birthday to you and great
health and thanks for the joy that you've you've given
us with all of your music and that you.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Continue to give us with your music.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Thanks for this virtual edition of the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
It's really been fantastic.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
It's been my playing buzz it has it's been a
buzz buzz.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Thank you, Cynthia, Thank you, Paul.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
Take care and I love your dog picture. Is that
your dog Espaniel?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
That's Elmer, Elmer.
Speaker 6 (30:58):
Oh, he's gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Thank you, You're bless you both.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Bless you to take care.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Of Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking
a Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your
friends and follow us so you never miss an episode.
Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, you know, when the audience sings along with the song,
that's the greatest feeling in the world because you really
know that they've got the message at that one you
like to say a shooting Star or rock and roll
fantasy or even thought right now, you know they when
the audience is singing that with me, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to another episode of Taking a Walk, your host
Buzz Night, celebrating another milestone in music history, where on
this episode we honor the birthday of one of the
greatest singers in rock and roll. Paul Rodgers has been
part of the soundtrack of Our Life. His band Bad
Company was the first band signed to led Zeppelin Swan
(00:41):
Song label, and as you probably know, he and Jimmy
Page would later form the Firm. His music from Free
to Bad Company, the Firm, and his solo career is
classic rock goal. He's been praised by everyone from the
late Freddie Mercury to John Mellencamp for his vocals. Bad
Company earned six platinum albums With Rogers, He's led an
(01:02):
amazing life and we celebrate him next on Taking a
Walk with Buzznight.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, I think some special birthday wishes are in order
for one of the greatest singers in rock history, mister
Paul Rogers.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Happy birthday, sir.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Well, thank you. I'm so glad I made it this far.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, let me ask you now, you have had some
documented health issues and we have this other podcast that's
called Music Saved Me about the healing.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Power of music.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
How important for you as you were healing and getting better?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Was music for you?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And you believe music saves us?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, definitely, yeah, because it was very important. I couldn't
play acoustic guitar. I couldn't play guitar. I couldn't talk,
I couldn't read, I couldn't write. But everything was inside
me and I knew what was going on, but I
just couldn't communicate outside of my own body, in mind
(02:11):
and everything else. But coming back from a stroke is
really an amazing journey. It really is, because you you
start to appreciate the little things that you can't actually do,
and yes, music just to continue that little point though.
You appreciate every little thing that you can do and
you build on that and that's how you recover. And
(02:34):
music definitely was a help because I, you know, as
I said, I didn't play they couldn't play it. There's
an acoustics sitting there. I didn't even know what it was. Really,
I made noises with it.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Yeah, it took high buzz. It took about a year
and a half for Paul to come back to playing guitar.
He started playing guitar. What happened was he had an
un dart doc to me the surgery because his right
left crowded artery was a ninety block and that's what
caused the second major stroke. So after that surgery he
(03:08):
was admitted, left the hospital and we went for hyper barracks.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
That was huge.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
That was like watching a wilted plant come back to life.
And then when we got home after that therapy treatment,
I had the Stevie guitar in the case on the
couch and I lifted the guitar lit up or the
case lit up, sorry, so he could see it, and
he would walk by and put it down. And this
went on for months and then finally I took the
guitar out of the.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Case and I knew the couch it'll get dusty, should
lay open like that, the.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Cats will get into it.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
So anyhow, he eventually took a year and a half,
but he Eventually I found him sitting on the couch
with the guitar on his lap like a.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Slide guitar, steel.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Guitar, and playing it, pushing both hands across the strings,
pushing away from his body.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And right there, you know that, right there, the vibration
of those strings. Everything really is vibration in life, you know,
it really is. And the vibration of the strings kind
of woke me up. It did wake me back up.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Yeah, And then he started singing as a result of
being able to play again. So it was an interesting process.
Don't recommend it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
No, I don't recommend it, but it's certainly an interesting journey.
And I do a lot of meditation as well, So
I knew that I was cognizant, but I just wasn't
able to have my voice speak the words that I
wanted to speak. I could prepare a sentence and go
for it, and out.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Would come this garbled thing. I would and I would go,
what the heck did I just say? Who could understand that?
And I could think very clearly.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
As long as I could do that, I knew that
it would come back eventually to me.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Cynthia, it's so nice to have you on as well
with Paul. I really appreciated. Well, let me ask you, Cynthia. First,
does Paul roam around the house quite frequently singing all day?
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (05:09):
He sings every day, and it's best best concert ticket.
I've got front row seat. It's fantastic. I used to sing,
let's just put it that way. I used to sing.
But living with him for the past twenty six years,
I don't really sing so much anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh, she's a good singer. Actually, she's on the album.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Sure are you? You're all over that?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
What were you singing today?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Just by chance?
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Today I was singing just a little rain falling from
the sky.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
The grass list has head to the heavenly anyway.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I'm starting to get a bit cabaret there. But yeah,
that was the Searches. That was the first song I
ever sung. Actually it was a protest sum for strensy.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
By the Searchers.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Yeah, what have they done to the rain?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That was magical. I had chills when you were singing that,
just so you know. Oh wow, Oh man. So what
was the first album that you ever bought?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Paul?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The first album was Oldis Redding's Oldest Blue and the
first single that I bought was his backing band, Red
Beans and Rice. His backing band was called Booker T
and the MG's Red Beans and Rice and on the
other side was Be My Lady.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
It's a great record, not very.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Not very popular, didn't sell a lot of records, but
I still have a copy of that.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
It's really fantastic to listen to.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Now.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
What's the significance for you with Midnight Rose, your new
release coming out on Sun Records?
Speaker 5 (06:51):
What's the significance? Well, it's huge.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I actually I'm very surprised and very pleased to have
to be on Sun Records. You know, it's it makes
a huge difference because they've got such a legacy and
they've got a lot of experience and I mean, you know,
you know Howling Wolf and Elvis Presley.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
It doesn't get much better than that. That's that's the
full range of the music, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Really?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
So they've just been great.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
As well, not bad for a lad from Middlesbrough.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
I have yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
I don't even think this was even in your dream wheel.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I don't think it was, because it's true because
when I when I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
About six year old, something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
My best friend we got he pulled out his elder brothers,
Elvis Presley record right and Sun Records on some record
of course, and we put it on the turntable very sneakily,
and we.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
Put the needle down and we'll listen to it.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It was like because that was sacrilege because if we'd
been found doing that, we were being crucified.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
So it was well, since my baby left me, you know,
we were like, wow, listen, that isn't it great?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So the clarity was unbelievable. It was obviously vinyl, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So yeah, oh man, that's so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So and your love of the blues is so well documented.
I mean, you're a happy fella, but the blues obviously
takes you in a different place, is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, yeah, I had a lot of angst if you're
like growing up as a teenager, et cetera, et cetera.
And when I discovered the blues, I did find that
by expressing any sadness that you might have had, all
or other people's sadness for that matter, because we used
to we used to cover all the blues guys as records,
you know, like, well, it's four.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
O'clock in the morning, and I'm sitting here with that one.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You know, BB King, and you would sing other people's blues,
but you've eventually started to sing your own over the
twelve bar blues. And eventually I started to write using
the twelve bar blues, and then I expanded out from there.
The first song I wrote was Walking My Shadow, which
was my own rif don't don't, don't, don't, doodle doo,
(09:09):
don't do And I put that to a twelve bar
and I went wow, And I wrote lyrics, and I
thought that I've just written a song, haven't I And
that was a step forward. And I went on to
expand beyond the twelve bar, you know, and make all
the structures.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
How old were you when you walk in My Shadow?
Speaker 5 (09:30):
I was about I was seventeen. Wow, yeah, just before
free Wow.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
If you listen to those lyrics, if the listeners or
the viewers on the podcast listen to those lyrics, they're
pretty heavy lyrics for a seventeen year old.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, you know, it's a lot of copying other people, really,
you know, I.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Don't require John Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
Yeah, but those lyrics are very unique, I think for
a seventeen year old for any age.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Actually, you know, I was walking along the road Hampstead
Bob Shua and I it was a heat wave.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
And I wrote that song. Well my through is dry,
my knees a week.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It's went, Oh, women, they're so damn hot, I can't
even speak and all that stuff.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, and then I had to make a riff up,
you know, and put it all together.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, that is that is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Now, who are some of the favorite blues players that
you've encountered personally over your career.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, well, every blues player i've heard I like, you know,
I like Hopkins and he's a cool cut.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
They even countered by the government.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well guys, yeah, I saw Muddy Waters at the Marquee
in London in Waldo Street in sixty seven.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I was so impressed because by that time it was
even by then he was so much a legend and
there was a big blues boom going on in England
at the time, so blues was very popular.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
It goes through cycles.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
You people often come back to the blues and then
it goes away and it comes back.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
So it's kind of an Evergreen Annual.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
You know, I saw Muddy Waters and I was so
impressed that he was like a.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Real person, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
He wasn't this icon that was separate from the audience
in a glass bubble or and things like that. He
was very personable and lovely, you know. And actually I
think they were all a bit jet lag because the drummer. Yeah,
the drummer wasn't keeping time, and Muddy did not like
that because I think he had a few drinks. Perhaps
(11:42):
God bless him. You know, it happens, or used to happen,
and so Muddy sort of like give the bass player
the look right is and they dragged well, they lifted
the drummer off. I can't remember who the players were
except for me, and the basic player got on the drum.
He did the rest of the night. But so it
(12:02):
was so you know, it was so natural and free
and it was beautiful.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
And then you've met BB King Wilson.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Yeah, BB was amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Byby was a fantastic They invited me up on stage
and I said, you sure I can go, and the
manager said, look, yes, go on, get it there. And
I went up there and I started to sing, I
don't know whether I was supposed to sing, but I
just started singing every day. Every day I had the blues,
you know, like that, and I suddenly realized I should
(12:32):
not really be singing here. And then I turned it
back around and I said, well, when you see me
worry you know, baby knows yea bby or something like.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I turned the lyric around BB's had the blues.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, And I heard it back to to BB
and he was like, yeah, Okay, that's the way it is.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I'm the blues, you know, which is true? It was
definitely Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Anyway, So what was the first time you and altered
mister Jimmy Page.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
I'd have to think about that. I think I obviously
knew their music before I met him.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I think I met him at the at the office
actually after we had a let me let me back
troll back a little bit. We we had a road
manager in Free when we were Free and he he
left us and joined led Zeppelin's team, you know, as
a road manager. And when I was starting to get
(13:32):
Bad Company together, Prive calls and he came around and
he said, you should call Peter. You know, he really
wants to talk to you. I said, Peter who. He said,
Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin. I said, he
doesn't care what I'm doing. He said, no, no, you
really should call him. He really wants to talk to
And that's how my connection with Zeppelin began. I phoned
(13:52):
Peter up and I said, so, you know, hello, Peter,
how are you blah blah blah, And he said and
I said, oh, hey, you might be interested in what
I'm doing. He said, well, I'm interested in you because
he was a Cockney guy and he's a huge, big wrestler,
you know.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
And he said.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I said, well, I come with the band Peter, and
we're called Bad Company. So I said, well, I don't
know about the name, and the.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Rest is history.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But I met Jimmy at the office having established a
connection with Peter Grant. We kind of, you know, we've
run into the Zepps all the time, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And Jimmy most recently was at the the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. I guess he had he hadn't
been out playing in a while, and everybody's talking about
what he did there with Link Ray. It sounded pretty amazing.
Are you still in touch with Jimmy?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Yes, indeed, Yeah, I'm really proud that he was able
to do that for Link.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Ray, absolutely, Yeah, because where they deserved.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Yeah, and it's cool because link Ray was an Indigenous player,
and you know here in Canada, you know, we really
you know, hold our indigenous culture close to our hearts,
and so to see that it's pretty monumental.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Jimmy, Yeah, Jimmy did a great you know, talk to
the audience about how brave he felt that link Ray was,
you know, and the record is such a cool record.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
Perry Merdeloff was also involved in that behind the scenes.
He's the fellow that Paul did the Royal Sessions with.
He's sort of a wizard's He's a guitarist. He's a
very good guitarist. He connects people, Yeah, he is. He
connects people. He does a lot of work with Jimmy
and Keith Richards and other guitarists. Yeah, he called it
(15:51):
will tell him the story about the Royal Sessions.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Well, he called me up one day because we'd often
talked about early soul music and all that sort of
stuff and Isaac Hayes and all those great people, and
he said, guess where I am.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
I said, I have no idea where you are, tell.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Me it's Perry.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
He could be anywhere.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Oh he could be at your front door. Yeah, yeah,
could be outside, that's right. So I said, I'm down
in Memphis and there's a studio here called the Royal Studios,
and this is where a lot of the Blues and
Soul was done. And all the session guys that were
on those takes are there, you know, Steve Potts and
and the Reverend Hodges, Charles Hodges. Yeah, it was actually
(16:30):
a really a reverend when he's not a session, which
is very cool. And he had the big Hammond B
three and all those guys. He said, so you should
come down and we'll make an album. I said, okay,
I jumped on the plane and we went down there.
We did it was amazing.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
So those are the sort of things that Perry mrgoloff
does in life. He'll be he'll be behind the scenes,
but something cool and is going on. Chances are Perry's
had a hand in it, or a finger in it,
or his whole body into it.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Tell me about your experiences with the great Jeff Beck.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, well, Jeff Beck. We did so much together over
the years. We did a what's that movie we did?
We did a movie together.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
I can't remember what it was, the music for the movie.
The music for the movie. Yeah, what was it we did?
I can't remember, just now forgive it.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, there was one was But anyway, he was on
the tribute to Muddy Waters and there was a lot
of great musicians on that and by the time I
called him up and by the time we spoke about it,
he wanted to do the whole album. And I said, well, Jeff,
I can't give you the whole album because we've got
other people.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
We had David Gilmour, Brian.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
May, yeah, slack body guy.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
But there was there were three tracks left, and he said,
I'll do them all and he did the three tracks
that were left at that time, and it was fantastic.
He was in a league of his own. It's such
an awesome bitar player.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Yeah. The last tour we did of the US it
was Free Spirit, so we had Jeff with Jeff and
Anne Wilson and Deborah Bonham. That was quite a It
was so surreal to be because we would flip flop
with Jeff on closing, So on the nights that he
would close, we'd be dining in our dressing room and
Jeff Beck would be serenading us. And it was so
(18:34):
surreal because he was my number one guitarist and I
would just sit there and eating and go. It doesn't
get any better than you know, Yeah, what a sweetheart,
What an innovator?
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Yeah, how did he make it all look so easy?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Well?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I think it was easy for him him, but probably not,
you know, it's probably there's another satur from his point
of view, but it seemed it did seem so very easy.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Yeah, very focused individual, Jeff like laser focused.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, very I loved the record he made with Rod Stewart,
The Truth Album. There are a couple of tracks on
there that still blow my mind, really shapes of things,
share shapes that one, you know, and the guitar solo
in that is just out of this world.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, you know, the body of work with Bad Company
was so unbelievable. Do you think it hurts bands when
they're marketed as supergroups?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Well?
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Who knows, you know. I mean we were marketed as
a supergroup.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Just literally because the last member we got with, which
was Buzz had spent a couple of months with King Crimson,
so so that meant we were free with what the
hoopl and King Crimson.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
So that I understand.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
That's the record company's desire to promote you, you know,
so it's it's not a bad thing. You know, you
do have to liver the goods. Having called yourself a
supergroup though, that's true.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, I'd say the band did deliver the goods well,
thank you, I mean unbelievable. So I'm gonna cite a
particular favorite of mine. There's so many of them from
Bad Company, but I'll cite a particular favorite, Silver Blue
and Gold. Do you remember about the creation of that,
(20:26):
not only lyrically but musically and then in the studio
and everything?
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Oh sure, yeah, I wrote that on a world? Remember
that be the I've got to get another world. It's
one of these days.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
They're they're very rare item now to get a good one.
In fact, Perry's on the market period. But there's such
a great piano. They they're they're electronic electric piano, you know,
but they've got a feel to them.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
When you when you when you hit them hard, they growled.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
You know, they've got a distroyed sort of distroyed to them,
like an edginess, or you can play them very gently anyway,
very good piano. And I wrote silver, Blue and Gold
on that in a in a little beds that I
was living in in in Putney in London, and the
first the first title was silver and gold, but then
(21:17):
I thought, we'll give me silver now blue and gold
the color of the sky and tool, you know, And
I wrote that like that and took that to Pontois
where we were Bad Company were due to a record.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
I think it was what was Run of the Pack,
wouldn't it on the Run with the Pack album?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
It is.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
It is one of the greatest songs ever.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I have to tell you.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, thank you, thank you, Buzz, you know, and as well,
I have to point out mixed guitar playing is just
superb on that, just superb.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
The soul is so perfect for the track.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
It's so delicate and sweet and those high notes they
play plays it's just great.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Buzz.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
What about that track speaks to you?
Speaker 8 (22:04):
Okay, oh my god, It's just it lifts me up.
It's just it tugs at my heart. It lifts me up.
And it's you know, like a lot of those in
the audience. It's part of the soundtrack of certainly My Life.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Yeah, well, yeah, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But I could say that about so many of the
songs as well. What do you think is the secret
sauce to bands and their collaboration.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
I think that the the nucleus or the basis of
any band is their songs. If they can write songs
and then play them, that's pretty much the secret. And
that's how we started out with Free. We were playing
a lot of blues in the set, and I said
to Andy, you know, we should what we should and
do what everyone was doing then, like people like The Cream,
(23:02):
like the Cream Cream, Jimmy Hendrix and all those guys.
They were playing their own material so that they had
their own story and their own voice in a way,
you know, And I said, we should concentrate on, you know,
moving away from the blues a little bit and just
focusing on our own material.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
And we wrote all the way to all Right Now,
and it was really good.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
But there was one song we couldn't not do on stage,
even though we were doing the whole set of our
own material, and that was the Hunter and with Albert
King The Hunter, which is still a great record. It's
on the Born under a Bad Sign album, and Born
on a Bad Sign itself is a great song, great record.
We couldn't get off the stage without playing The Hunter.
(23:47):
So I said to Andy, let's write. Let's try and
write a song that is at least as good as
The Hunter, and even something that everybody can sing along to,
you know, something simple like you know, like all now baby.
And I said, well, maybe that's it, and he took
that away and came back with bomb bomb bum and
(24:09):
all that.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
You see.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
So I had to write the lyrics, and so it
was like I wanted to end up with all right now.
So something happened before. What happened before? Well it's a
boy mate's girl story. And there she stood in the street.
What was she doing, smiling from a head to her feet,
big smile, And I said, hey, what's this? And the
(24:32):
lyrics just flowed out like that and we did that
song that night. Anyway, basically, to come to your question,
come back to your question. The point is I think
that you collaborate by collaborating, really by getting together and
making it work.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
How does it make you feel when You either see
your fans listening to the music as you're performing it
and you know you're connecting with them, or you meet
a fan and they tell you how their music, You're
music has connected with them.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
How does it make you feel?
Speaker 7 (25:03):
Well?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
You know, when the audience sings along with the song,
that's the greatest feeling in the world because you really
know that they've got the message at that point. You know,
like to say with Shooting Star or rock and roll Fantasy.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Or even all right Now.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know they when when the audience is singing that
with me, it's amazing. Yeah, it's a it's a buzz.
Speaker 6 (25:24):
A memory I have is when we were playing Queen
plus Paul Rodgers Run tour and we were playing in Kharkov,
the Ukraine, and there were three hundred and fifty thousand
people at this concert and it was a benefit concert
for AIDS research and the people could not speak English,
but they knew all of the words to all right Now.
And for me, that was a moment that's, you know,
(25:46):
stuck in my mind. I thought, Wow, how amazing. You know,
they don't really know what they're saying, but yet they
know all of the words.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
But they feel good.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Saying it, and it brings people together to I mean,
you're such your an army then basically you're all singing together.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Your plan.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
You're a clan. That is such a joyful experience of togetherness.
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Yeah, sorry, but have you listened to the new album?
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Yes, I think it's joyous.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I think it's uh, it's it just really has an
incredible spark and spunk to it, and it's it's tremendous.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Thanks buzz you get you get it good? Yeah? Do
you have a favorite track at all?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I I you know what, I've gone through it and
just kind of listen you start to finish, and uh,
that's kind of how I've I've digested it, to be
honest with you.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
Yeah, me too. You know I listened to it. You know,
it's a long time.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
It takes a long time, uh, after you've mixed the
album and got it all done, to listen to it
just as it is as it sounds as a listener,
would you know, normal like first time listener would hear it.
It's it's because you hear all the things that what
you were struggling with the way through the process of
recording it. You know, I remember, for the shooter and
all this kind of stuff we would struggle. I would
(27:07):
struggle with and living it up too. I wanted to
get hit the right mark, the right tone, and I
tried a number of you know, lyrics to it, and
all that kind of stuff went on. But now that
it's just there and there's nothing more you can do.
It's mixed, it's produced.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
It's everything.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I can just listen to it as a normal person would.
I think it's quite a good album.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Even with that.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I like just listening just as if it's you know,
back to the pure album days, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Always exciting was that when you got an album home
and it was a great big cover, you know, and
all the artwork and you pulled out this vinyl and
there it was. I mean, it was a great moment
when I pulled out my our vinyl and there was
Sun Records on the label in the center.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Whoa.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, it took me back to the childhood days when
we pulled out l this press.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Well, in closing, so let's let's play a little bit
of a mystical uh imagination game here. So you're able
to go into the studio with anybody either in your past,
of your career that you've been with living or dead,
(28:23):
or someone you haven't been in a studio with in
your career. Who would that session be with?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Probably Holland Wolf when it recorded Smoke Stot Bliging woll
Smoke Staggled Lightning. Yeah, yeah, no drums on drums, you.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Tell me something?
Speaker 6 (28:52):
Well, I think Andy Fraser on bass or Pino Palladino.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yeah, well, Bozz was pretty good to you. It was players.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Okay, who do you want on drums?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I'd have John Bonham on drums, Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Yeah, okay. And then on keyboards, oh yeah, yeah, I
would agree with that. Or Spike Edney too from Queen.
He's very good soul too for Blairers. Okay, so this
is like a symphony rock band. And then what about well,
(29:31):
I know on guitar.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
On guitar, well, well.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
Off actually, and how about a little bit Jimmy Hendricks.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Oh well he's not bad, he's not.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
You could do vocals, oh you and Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Actually I leave it to to Jimmy to halem Wolf
to be honest.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
Voice.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, it was like a single play at thirty three
and a third the way he sang, you.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Know, yeah, so you'd be the producer of this. Yeah, yeah,
I'd be the manager.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Oh well, I'm so grateful for this time Cynthia and Paul,
and Paul, Happy happiest of birthday to you and great
health and thanks for the joy that you've you've given
us with all of your music and that you.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Continue to give us with your music.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Thanks for this virtual edition of the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
It's really been fantastic.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
It's been my playing buzz it has it's been a
buzz buzz.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Thank you, Cynthia, Thank you, Paul.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
Take care and I love your dog picture. Is that
your dog Espaniel?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
That's Elmer, Elmer.
Speaker 6 (30:58):
Oh, he's gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Thank you, You're bless you both.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Bless you to take care.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Of Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking
a Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your
friends and follow us so you never miss an episode.
Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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