TRANSKRIPTIO 🔗
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Thank you for listening. This is the Legends Podcast by All Day Vinyl,
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and I'm your host, Scott Duddelson.
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After you finish this episode, please subscribe, rate, and check us out on Instagram
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and YouTube at All Day Vinyl.
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Today, I'm excited to speak with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and country rock pioneer.
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As a founding member of the Eagles, my guest was a key contributor to some of
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the most popular songs in music history, and as a member of the Flying Burrito
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Brothers and Dillard and Clark, he was an integral part in laying the groundwork
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of what was to become country rock.
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My guest is set to release a new album titled Too Late to Be Cool,
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which is first in over 20 years and produced by the legendary Glenn Johns,
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who produced the first two iconic Eagles albums.
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Excited to speak to him today about this new music and his role shaping the
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history of country rock. Please welcome my guest, Bernie Ledden.
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Hey there, Scott. Hey, Bernie. Thank you so much for joining.
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Yeah, you're welcome. Congrats on the new release, Too Late to Be Cool.
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Over 20 years since the last last record
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how long have you been working on the new
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record and what was the impetus to finally get it released
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how i usually explain it is i went on i went back out with the eagles from 2013
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through the touring season of 2015 so 25 months of touring 175 shows around
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the around the world really and it got my juices flowing and i was having a
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good time and enjoying playing that much,
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and getting my chops pretty sharp.
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And so I have always owned a lot of recording gear, but I didn't have a proper place to put it.
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It was actually in my living room at a farmhouse I had.
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And so one of the things I wanted to do is build a building to put all the gear in.
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And I started late 2015, 16 into 17 planning it.
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And we started, I guess, building it in 2017. and it took four years to build
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it, you know, and then we had to tweak it, and, but all that time, I, I decided, you know.
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Gee, if I'm building a studio, I'm probably going to have to have something
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to record, so maybe I should write more songs, you know, or try to,
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and, and I was, I will say I was a lazy songwriter, I only wrote a couple,
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three songs a year that I, that I focused on that I thought were good enough
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to record, you know, and, So that was kind of my pace through most of my career.
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And that's not really a fast enough pace to do a solo album.
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And so I started writing much more conscientiously and even would get out of
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bed in the night if I thought of something and I woke up and I had an idea in my head, I would get up.
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And eventually i put a piece of paint you know a pad and
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a pen by my bed so i could scribble an
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idea and i and i started having experiences i've
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heard about with songwriters like i heard
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i woke up with a chorus in my head and i gotta write the gotta write this down
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and i i successfully did and then put the music to it in the morning and then
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it kind of the rest kind of wrote itself i went wow this is kind of a watershed
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moment for me and and so songwriting's gotten easier,
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and we hear all writers perhaps you feel
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this way say that the you know if they write regularly and are disciplined about
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it that serendipity or the muse shows up yeah and sometimes you got to write
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for half an hour hour maybe longer and then then something comes through or
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something you know And also,
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I'll share another thing that I was talking with Mike Campbell about the guy,
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the guitar player from Heartbreakers,
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and he said that Dylan had told them.
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When you're just scribbling as fast as you can write, it's just kind of coming
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through in chunks, you know, kind of stream of consciousness.
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Do not stop it. Let it keep going as long as it will still come.
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Because if you get 17 verses instead of five, You never know which is going
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to be the first verse or which is going to be the chorus.
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And something later in that stream may be like, whoa, that's cool.
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And then you build, you know, you rethink the whole thing around that.
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So you just, to me, you just have to write. And so I tend to do it in the morning
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with guitar and
Load full transcript
coffee and just kind of noodle on the guitar.
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And usually you can write something, you know. So I have a lot of songs when
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Glenn said, hey, let's see what you got.
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And so I had about a hundred songs and gave him about 30.
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And then we picked ultimately about 15 and 11 made, made the record,
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you know, so you will, you have the makings of many more records.
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If you, if you said, yeah, hopefully I'm still writing a lot.
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You know, you started out talking about country rock, and there's really nothing
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that's exactly country rock per se. There's definitely rootsy, folkier melodies.
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You know, the song, Coast Highway, is basically a blues, but an acoustic blues.
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And there's different flavors, you know, on the record.
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Yeah, I like just a little.
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Yeah, that's very kind of Stones' Eve, Keith Richards' riff in the beginning.
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And that was fun to write because I came up with the idea for the chorus.
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I'm a little pissed off.
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And so then the verses are just, I tried to write down all the ways that were
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not profane that describe being messed over severely, fucked over,
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whatever you want to say.
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And that was really kind of fun. But now I have to remember them,
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the way I've assembled them. And it's not a story exactly.
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So it's it's been it been fun to try to
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memorize it which i believe i have now yeah well
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you just say you've been doing some shows right just in america
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yeah not yeah you you came to one an acoustic show this
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there's a show uh in two days at the
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city winery in nashville for americana
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fest which is going on here and we
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didn't know we were americana but now apparently everybody is
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yeah yeah well you uh shape the
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genre well even when i think about some of like the early and we'll talk about
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deeper but even like early dillard and clark are hearts of flowers that's put
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into like a country rock vein and i listen to hearts of flowers and i hear more
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i mean psychedelic i guess is rock but it's not a lot of like edge or like you know there's no.
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Stones which i think is rock and dillard and
clark has got a more you know it's
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country record Yeah, and also both of those were acoustic bands.
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And actually, Dillard and Clark, we didn't even use a drummer, I don't think, at all.
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And we used upright bass, so it was very acoustic. That was kind of a bluegrass
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folk country record, Dillard and Clark.
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Hearts and flowers the guy was enamored with the bgs so we
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were doing folk slash bgs harmony
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so i don't know what it was exactly it was cool it
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was different at the time let me ask you a few more questions
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on the on the new record so there's a lot of very very cool things
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on it first the songs are great second you
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reunited with glenn glenn johns who's iconic producer
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who did some of your early records i'm guessing
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you've been in touch with him the last 50 years yeah
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yeah well yes it is 50 years well he's
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far beyond that in our relationship with
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one another we're very close friends we're like brothers we talk
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frequently and we do that thing where you don't talk to somebody for six months
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and then you pick up the phone and uh and call them and they go oh my god i
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have the phone in my hand to call you you know so we we we have that quantum
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connection and you You know, I've spent many,
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many weeks staying with him in England.
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He stayed with me for the making of this record and other times.
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And so we're very close friends and it was a joy to get back in there with him.
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He's so good at what he does.
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Yeah, iconic. And another iconic element is the cover, the cover photo,
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which was shot by Henry Diltz.
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Yeah, 45 years ago. Right. so
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tell me tell me the history of how the the cover got
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re-rebirthed for this album well okay so
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back in the day so i had left
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the eagles and i had done one album for asylum with my friend michael giorgiata
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so that was part of the eagle steal every a leaving member had a right to make
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one record and so we did that one and toured opening for linda ronstadt in 77
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i guess and And then I wanted to do another album by myself,
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and we did the cover.
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Henry and our art director, Gary Burden, we had the idea, and we had to drive
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around the Hollywood Hills to find a place where the city would look big enough.
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So we ended up kind of like Beachwood Canyon, Hollywood Hills,
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looking toward downtown and toward Long Beach, where there was enough lights
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that you could fill the frame.
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You know and so anyway we did the photo and picked that shot for the cover of
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an album that never got finished because i didn't have the songs back then and
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so but that's the print he gave me,
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to use for the cover of that album you know so it's exactly the same print it's
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the one it's the one that he gave me so i've always loved it and i.
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You know, thinking about a cover for this, I found it and I went,
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wow, yeah, we need to use that, you know.
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So, you know, somebody asked me, what does that mean that you used it now?
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And I go, well, now it kind of looks like I'm representing all the musicians
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who came to L.A., you know, who were, you know, following the Pied Piper out to L.A.
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To do music. And so now it kind of just is emblematic of everybody, you know, to me.
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Absolutely well let's let's journey through the past your your
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path towards la and how how that evolved and
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i find it fascinating that in your early
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days in gainesville you grew up or at least
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had some musical connection with don felder stephen stills
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is that that correct well felder had
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contact with stephen stills but stills had left town right
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before i got there in say august
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of 64 we had moved from san diego
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i actually spent most of my teenage years in san diego and knew chris hillman
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who later was the birds bass player and one of the partners in the burrito brothers
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so i had known him in san diego and then my family was moving when i was just
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turning 17 but and i wanted to stay in san diego but i went with them as i should have done,
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and we ended up in gamesville florida and then it was a whole different.
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Creative soup of young musicians who all wanted to emulate british invasion rock and,
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you know and and we basically we played university of florida fraternity parties,
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was the main gig that everybody could get so if you started a band
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you could play for a fraternity party if you could learn enough
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songs you know but there'd be the almond brothers
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in the next house fraternity house over you know
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and petty and my little brother tom little
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brother he's only five years younger than me and petty
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was only three years younger but they were the june like they were
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in junior high when we were in high school and so
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they had a band also and there were there
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were maybe 15 20 bands on campus every
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football weekend on friday and saturday and
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and you could go to the other houses and listen to everybody else's
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band and it was really cool great great
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way to learn yeah rock you
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know you were were you into rock at that
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time or are you getting into because the when you were with hillman you were
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doing the country uh countries the bluegrass stuff right yeah in san diego they
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had a bluegrass band and the two of the guys in the bluegrass band owned a music
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store called the blue guitar and one of those guys larry murray.
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By 67 so i moved to florida in 64 by 67 larry murray had moved to la and he
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had a group on capital records that hearts called hearts and flowers that were
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about to make their second album with a famous a&r producer guy named nick venae
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who had signed the beach boys,
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and he wrote me a letter and said hey would you want to come out and join us
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on capital records to make our second record i went yes i'll be right there.
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So I got out there in August of 67, and the next week we went into Capitol Records,
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the tower that looks like a stack of 45s, and met Nick and talked about doing the record.
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I mean, because we didn't have a rhythm section, no drummer and bass player,
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we had an acoustic bass player, a jazz guy, that helped us do it.
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And the drummer was one of the guys from the wrecking crew.
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You know so and in the music then he
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started using me on sessions nick did and the
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band was the rhythm section was always the wrecking group
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so there'd be guys you know don randy and the bass player was carol k sometimes
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and i'm spacing out the drummer's name but and sometimes yeah hell blaine and
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then earl palmer also who was also a jazz guy so what a great training you You know,
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I just, I just got thrown in the deep end and because I was on that label and
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doing sessions, I was accepted right away by the local community as one of them. And so it was fantastic.
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And so Hearts of Flowers was like, you described before, like early beach,
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Bee Gees, psychedelic, but with a very country feel.
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And this is in right 66. Is that approximately right?
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August 67, we started, we probably finished it around the first of the year in 68.
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Yeah so so that was around the time supposing the
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buffalo springfield hey we're doing their thing they had
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their their country roots the birds were starting to
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move into it was before sweetheart was
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there was there a country rock scene or a country scene
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that you guys all gravitated towards
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yeah i think because especially once
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i left hearts and flowers they didn't
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get to do a third album basically and so
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i fell in with with gene clark and
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doug dillard doug dillard being a banjo hero of mine
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he'd been the banjo player in the dillards and gene clark had
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been the main writer and one of the main singers on
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the birds first album he he wrote feel a whole lot better that petty later covered
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you know great writer so i was i was sleeping on doug's couch and we would be
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writing banjo instrumentals and then gene would come over and the next day come
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back with lyrics So that's how a lot of those songs,
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we wrote all those songs in about three weeks and Gene was making another album
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for A&M Records and he told the producer about our project and he said, let's make that record.
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So we went in the studio and did the whole thing in a week.
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So the whole thing was written and recorded in about a week, six weeks.
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I mean, in a month or six weeks. And then, so at that time, there was Rick
Nelson's
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Stone Canyon Band was basically country rock.
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There had already been, I remind folks, that the Buffalo, excuse me,
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there was Buffalo Springfield.
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But the Levin Spoonful on the East Coast, Sal Yanofsky, the guitar player,
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he played in country licks all over the Spoonful stuff. So it was some, and that was 65, 66.
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So, you know, it's something that was coming, I think, just in the air.
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And then there was Poco, a very polished country rock band.
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There were others. I'm not thinking of them right now, but, and even,
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you know, the Grateful Dead weren't that far away from doing Working Man Dead,
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which was a country rock album, really, you know, and so it was kind of in the air.
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And the Eagles, I guess we're skipping over the burritos.
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So then there were the Burrito Brothers, and they were kind of unique because
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Graham Parsons was a great writer, and he also was bringing in something that
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the Eagles brought in prominently later,
00:16:27.377 --> 00:16:29.937
which is R&B influences.
00:16:30.617 --> 00:16:33.897
There's a song on the first burrito album, Guild of the Palace of Sin,
00:16:34.077 --> 00:16:36.117
and I think it's called Hot Burrito No.
00:16:36.257 --> 00:16:38.777
1. There's Hot Burrito number one and number two.
00:16:39.177 --> 00:16:42.957
I'm talking about the one that's the classic R&B ballad, you know?
00:16:43.637 --> 00:16:54.577
An amazing song, right? But so that was being brought in already by the Burritos in 68, 69, 68.
00:16:55.217 --> 00:16:59.717
So they were making the first Burrito album when we were making the Dillard
00:16:59.717 --> 00:17:04.737
and Clark album, both on A&M Records. So when everybody knew each other and
00:17:04.737 --> 00:17:06.177
would run into each other all the time.
00:17:06.857 --> 00:17:10.877
And at the Troubadour Bar. So everybody was cross-pollinating.
00:17:11.057 --> 00:17:15.297
And Ronstadt was, let's not forget, she was a pioneer of that as well.
00:17:15.857 --> 00:17:17.817
The, the, the.
00:17:18.459 --> 00:17:26.179
The the silk purse album produced by jerry not not jerry chip douglas from the
00:17:26.179 --> 00:17:30.059
modern folk quartet he was a really good producer he produced the monkeys but
00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:31.379
he did a great album on linda,
00:17:31.999 --> 00:17:34.779
and that was kind of country rock too
00:17:34.779 --> 00:17:37.779
and so the the burritos and
00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:40.519
the dillard and clark you know there were all these groups trying to
00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:43.479
do it but so then i'll
00:17:43.479 --> 00:17:47.119
just jump to the the eagles so we were
00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:50.039
all driven to succeed and so
00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:52.899
we'd all been in bands that had not succeeded for
00:17:52.899 --> 00:17:56.239
one reason or another usually often because
00:17:56.239 --> 00:17:59.799
of a business reason didn't have
00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:03.619
one of the elements you have to have and you have to have a great label you
00:18:03.619 --> 00:18:08.079
have to have a great producer you have to have a great manager you have to have
00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:13.059
good songs whether you write them or somebody else writes them you know around
00:18:13.059 --> 00:18:17.739
the The early Eagles were other songwriters like Jackson Brown,
00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:20.379
Jack Timshane, J.D. Souther, right?
00:18:20.979 --> 00:18:24.499
While the Eagle members were starting to learn how to write better,
00:18:24.719 --> 00:18:29.699
those other guys' songs were around for us to use, borrow.
00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:36.519
And so the Eagles had, you know, we were with David Geffen as our manager.
00:18:36.519 --> 00:18:41.219
We were on Asylum, which was half-owned by Atlantic Records.
00:18:42.239 --> 00:18:44.819
And we got Glenn Johns to produce it, you know.
00:18:45.979 --> 00:18:50.019
So we had all the elements we needed and we had songs that could be hits if
00:18:50.019 --> 00:18:54.499
they were properly promoted and they were because of all the business things
00:18:54.499 --> 00:18:55.559
were tended to, you know.
00:18:55.719 --> 00:19:00.039
So I kind of think of the Eagles as a batting cleanup, you know,
00:19:00.099 --> 00:19:04.879
how to use the baseball analogy with country rock and there were a bunch of
00:19:04.879 --> 00:19:09.119
other predecessor groups that just didn't succeed for one reason or another, you know.
00:19:10.411 --> 00:19:13.851
So I saw an interview with Chris Hillman, who's you and Chris Hillman.
00:19:14.111 --> 00:19:16.851
Chris said, I don't know if it was hyperbole or not, and you can tell me if
00:19:16.851 --> 00:19:22.671
it was, that JD and Glenn would go watch Burrito Brothers shows to get influenced
00:19:22.671 --> 00:19:28.971
by the music, but also learn what not to do in live performance or how they run their career.
00:19:29.491 --> 00:19:34.571
Is that hyperbole or is this from your experience, did they go to actually Burrito
00:19:34.571 --> 00:19:40.131
Brothers shows or see Dillard and Clark and get influenced by some of the stuff you were doing?
00:19:40.411 --> 00:19:43.471
Before you everybody everybody watched everybody you
00:19:43.471 --> 00:19:46.191
know i mentioned the troubadour before but so there was
00:19:46.191 --> 00:19:49.071
monday night there was an open mic thing that was called hoot night
00:19:49.071 --> 00:19:51.771
like hootenanny but it was an
00:19:51.771 --> 00:19:56.231
open mic night and that guy larry from the squirrel barkers that brought me
00:19:56.231 --> 00:20:01.131
to la
he was the mc for that on monday nights at the troubadour so he it was
00:20:01.131 --> 00:20:07.111
up to him to who to put on so but anyway he put the burrito brothers on and
00:20:07.111 --> 00:20:11.391
they wore their suits their nudie suits They looked fantastic,
00:20:11.391 --> 00:20:13.991
but they hadn't forgotten to rehearse.
00:20:14.371 --> 00:20:16.791
They were a train wreck.
00:20:17.871 --> 00:20:21.291
I mean, it just was horrible, frankly. And Chris will admit that.
00:20:21.791 --> 00:20:28.451
And so all of us went, okay, yeah, check, look good, check, rehearse.
00:20:29.951 --> 00:20:35.011
It was crazy. So in fact, the Eagles, we developed a concept called lowest common
00:20:35.011 --> 00:20:38.731
denominator of rehearsal state, you know, readiness.
00:20:39.251 --> 00:20:44.311
So our goal was to be so rehearsed that if two guys had the flu and the other
00:20:44.311 --> 00:20:46.611
two weren't talking to each other, we could do a great show.
00:20:46.851 --> 00:20:49.451
And so we, I don't think the evils ever did a bad show.
00:20:50.131 --> 00:20:51.971
That matters, you know? Yes.
00:20:53.055 --> 00:20:55.795
Absolutely well i want to go i want to go back and dig
00:20:55.795 --> 00:20:58.815
in deeper on dillard clark and the burrito brothers
00:20:58.815 --> 00:21:04.795
so this you mentioned you know this first album which i have somewhere right
00:21:04.795 --> 00:21:08.495
over here this amazing album right here so i want to i want to dig in so you
00:21:08.495 --> 00:21:13.375
were you were living on doug dillard's couch you said playing banjo were you
00:21:13.375 --> 00:21:18.775
guys before gene came along were you guys writing songs or Were you just jamming?
00:21:19.035 --> 00:21:23.375
What was the vibe going on? Yeah, we were jamming.
00:21:24.155 --> 00:21:30.415
So, you know, Bluegrass is a, there's kind of a standard songbook for Bluegrass players, right?
00:21:30.475 --> 00:21:34.675
There's a couple of hundred songs, a hundred anyway, that everybody learns.
00:21:35.935 --> 00:21:40.755
And 50 banjo and instrumentals everybody learns. And so Doug and I both knew those.
00:21:41.035 --> 00:21:44.515
I was kind of his banjo student in a way.
00:21:44.615 --> 00:21:47.275
He was kind of my banjo mentor. So we would sit around, I'd play guitar for
00:21:47.275 --> 00:21:50.075
him, and then we'd swap, and I'd play banjo, and he'd play guitar.
00:21:50.635 --> 00:21:55.255
And then Gene Clark started coming over, and a bass player, David Jackson, started coming over.
00:21:55.795 --> 00:22:01.535
And Don Beck played mandolin, and we would all start singing classic songs,
00:22:01.675 --> 00:22:05.315
you know, like Amazing Grace or whatever, you know, Circle Be Unbroken songs.
00:22:06.095 --> 00:22:10.115
And then we were playing these instrumentals at Gene, and then I was helping
00:22:10.115 --> 00:22:14.115
him write those, like, hey, why don't we do this section? And then Gene started
00:22:14.115
--> 00:22:16.695
coming back with a full set of lyrics the next day.
00:22:17.275 --> 00:22:20.515
So that's what, he was such a gifted writer. He would do that.
00:22:20.635 --> 00:22:26.235
We would have, you know, a chord pattern and some kind of melody that we developed instrumentally.
00:22:26.335 --> 00:22:30.395
And he'd come back with a set of lyrics the next day, almost every day,
00:22:30.595 --> 00:22:32.075
when we started all hanging out.
00:22:32.195 --> 00:22:36.615
That's what I mean. We wrote all that stuff in about three weeks and recorded it all in one week.
00:22:37.509 --> 00:22:40.449
So no drummer no percussion except
00:22:40.449 --> 00:22:44.229
the mandolin and in bluegrass the mandolin chop right
00:22:44.229 --> 00:22:46.989
you know there's a back there's a backbeat everybody does when they're not
00:22:46.989 --> 00:22:49.689
playing lead and so we we did it.
00:22:49.689 --> 00:22:52.569
We did it that way but so that's how we wrote
00:22:52.569 --> 00:22:55.449
and how we wrote fast you know what was
00:22:55.449 --> 00:22:59.289
what was gene like as as a person and you
00:22:59.289 --> 00:23:02.529
know you've talked about the brilliance of his songwriting but as a
00:23:02.529 --> 00:23:05.969
a creative and obviously a tortured soul what
00:23:05.969 --> 00:23:09.329
what was what was he what was he like gene
00:23:09.329 --> 00:23:12.629
was out of the birds already unfortunately and
00:23:12.629 --> 00:23:15.789
i guess that happened because he didn't want to fly he had flown and
00:23:15.789 --> 00:23:18.829
and he wrote eight miles high about flying to
00:23:18.829 --> 00:23:21.489
europe i think but he he got to where he
00:23:21.489 --> 00:23:24.389
didn't want to fly wouldn't fly and that's why
00:23:24.389 --> 00:23:27.209
he had to leave the band and hurt the birds and then
00:23:27.209 --> 00:23:30.069
he was kind of drifting around you know a little
00:23:30.069 --> 00:23:33.409
bit aimless living very nearby where
00:23:33.409 --> 00:23:36.469
doug was in where i was living in
00:23:36.469 --> 00:23:39.709
beachwood canyon which is right below the hollywood sign
00:23:39.709 --> 00:23:42.649
that canyon and so gene was
00:23:42.649 --> 00:23:45.409
hard to read he liked
00:23:45.409 --> 00:23:48.349
martinis but in the daytime he
00:23:48.349 --> 00:23:51.729
in the daytime he was great and and he
00:23:51.729 --> 00:23:57.129
liked he was a good harmonica player and this instinctive songwriter he just
00:23:57.129 --> 00:24:01.689
he was very instinctive not not so trained about music and uh he was from missouri
00:24:01.689 --> 00:24:08.529
and so was doug so they bonded on that and you know just i i mean at that point
00:24:08.529 --> 00:24:10.089
he was very functional and.
00:24:11.375 --> 00:24:16.055
And really into it, I think he really liked, because of his Missouri roots,
00:24:16.215 --> 00:24:18.675
he really liked the acoustic thing.
00:24:20.035 --> 00:24:24.675
And we were all pretty
good players. So this was, well, I mean,
00:24:24.815 --> 00:24:27.575
you know, like I said, we wrote the stuff and went straight to the studio.
00:24:27.735 --> 00:24:31.375
So that album is the documentation of that. We were all good players.
00:24:31.995 --> 00:24:36.375
And here's a funny thing, because he would have me play banjo, Doug would.
00:24:36.375 --> 00:24:42.095
So on that album i actually played banjo on about five of those songs and doug only played on two.
00:24:43.475 --> 00:24:49.435
Amazing amazing and you guys did you did one show right at the troubadour no
00:24:49.435 --> 00:24:53.895
there were there were more than one show but yeah there was one particular notable
00:24:53.895 --> 00:24:59.175
notable notable yeah tell me i don't know what happened can i can i tell you
00:24:59.175 --> 00:25:00.855
what i read happened and you can tell me if
00:25:00.955 --> 00:25:03.655
triggers any any memory oh no i have
00:25:03.655 --> 00:25:06.355
memories yeah go you tell me okay what i
00:25:06.355 --> 00:25:09.335
what i read it was from david jackson in an interview he said
00:25:09.335 --> 00:25:12.655
prior to the show gene and doug
00:25:12.655 --> 00:25:15.735
got drunk at dan's hannah's possibly tripping
00:25:15.735 --> 00:25:20.095
on acid during the show doug broke
00:25:20.095 --> 00:25:22.995
his violin maybe jumped on his violin
00:25:22.995 --> 00:25:26.275
and don beck was
00:25:26.275 --> 00:25:29.815
this let's see the mandolin player he left
00:25:29.815 --> 00:25:32.915
the show mid-show yeah any any
00:25:32.915 --> 00:25:35.895
of this truth to your memory yeah that
00:25:35.895 --> 00:25:39.355
yeah that sounds right so the other thing is that the band had
00:25:39.355 --> 00:25:42.875
started had gone electric in the
00:25:42.875 --> 00:25:45.755
interim because i guess we well we
00:25:45.755 --> 00:25:50.315
had been listening to merle haggard classic album the one with singing me back
00:25:50.315 --> 00:25:54.775
home and mama tried and all that stuff on it yeah the one with him the one with
00:25:54.775 --> 00:25:59.315
him hanging off a box car on the railroad and we were so we were listening to
00:25:59.315 --> 00:26:02.895
that and of course the guitar players on that were fantastic.
00:26:03.435 --> 00:26:08.915
James burton was one of them yeah and so i guess so we collectively decided
00:26:08.915 --> 00:26:15.115
we would go electric which basically meant i changed to a telecaster and i'd
00:26:15.115 --> 00:26:18.995
play i'd play electric guitar in my top 40 band in Gainesville.
00:26:19.175 --> 00:26:24.735
So I was cool with that. And we got a drummer who had also played with the Byrds
00:26:24.735 --> 00:26:28.075
briefly in the early Burritos, John Corneal.
00:26:28.555 --> 00:26:33.635
And David Jackson, who was playing upright bass with us, switched to electric
00:26:33.635 --> 00:26:36.555
bass, which he was very good at already.
00:26:36.955 --> 00:26:40.075
And then Don Beck was maybe still playing mandolin.
00:26:40.515 --> 00:26:44.075
And so we're on sort of six pieces down on the troubadour stage.
00:26:44.075 --> 00:26:48.175
And something happened between Gene Clark and Doug Dillard.
00:26:48.335 --> 00:26:50.555
I don't know what, but they kind of just stopped.
00:26:51.055 --> 00:26:54.315
They just stopped doing what they were doing. They were the front people.
00:26:54.775 --> 00:26:58.175
And then there was just a silence and silence.
00:26:59.213 --> 00:27:02.173
Paralysis and then gene excuse me dug
00:27:02.173 --> 00:27:05.073
through his fiddle on the ground and then he's
00:27:05.073 --> 00:27:08.373
he stomped his his fiddle and broke it and then
00:27:08.373 --> 00:27:11.713
they kind of looked at each other and just went i think we should leave and
00:27:11.713 --> 00:27:16.373
they just walked off stage and then i think don beck thought that was just so
00:27:16.373 --> 00:27:21.193
off the wall and outrageous and not acceptable that he quit on the spot and
00:27:21.193 --> 00:27:25.853
walked off the stage so the other three of us which was the bass player me and
00:27:25.853 --> 00:27:27.993
the drummer are standing there like,
00:27:28.613 --> 00:27:31.333
holy shit you know and there's the audience everybody's just
00:27:31.333 --> 00:27:39.233
like in shock right so i said to myself we are going to exit in with with style
00:27:39.233 --> 00:27:46.133
we're not going to creep off the stage in disgrace so i said to them buckaroo
00:27:46.133 --> 00:27:50.733
which was the buck owens signature theme song.
00:27:53.153 --> 00:27:57.193
So i had to tell you and i just kicked it off and they fell in and we did about,
00:27:57.993 --> 00:28:01.493
two rounds of the A and B section finished cleanly.
00:28:02.293 --> 00:28:06.513
I walked up to the mic and said, thank you very much. And we walked off like,
00:28:06.613 --> 00:28:10.113
Hey, whatever those guys did, we're not like that.
00:28:11.613 --> 00:28:16.193
You know what I mean? So I just wanted to be a professional if I could there
00:28:16.193 --> 00:28:18.093
at that moment. Kind of bizarre.
00:28:18.753 --> 00:28:22.673
Yeah, that's classic. Thank you for sharing that. And the Dylan Clark did a
00:28:22.673 --> 00:28:25.613
second album, which I see there's a credit that you're on it.
00:28:25.613 --> 00:28:30.873
Did you play on a lot of that record or no no me me and hillman i was already
00:28:30.873 --> 00:28:36.573
in the burritos by then and hillman and i were invited together to go guest
00:28:36.573 --> 00:28:40.453
on that second jordan clark album so,
00:28:41.113 --> 00:28:44.133
maybe a couple songs there's there's
00:28:44.133 --> 00:28:47.293
maybe kansas city southern that song i'm not
00:28:47.293 --> 00:28:50.433
sure what else rob i i honestly
00:28:50.433 --> 00:28:54.313
i can't remember the credit on the album may tell you and so
00:28:54.313 --> 00:28:57.273
by that time you in the burritos so how so you left
00:28:57.273 --> 00:29:00.893
you left illidan clark how did you end up reconnecting
00:29:00.893 --> 00:29:03.733
with chris hillman and get into
00:29:03.733 --> 00:29:06.653
the the burrito brothers both bands were
00:29:06.653 --> 00:29:10.133
on a&m records and a&m records especially
00:29:10.133 --> 00:29:16.313
then herb alpert and jerry moss had bought the charlie chaplin film studio on
00:29:16.313 --> 00:29:20.613
la brea and they had built recording studios in a couple of the sound stages
00:29:20.613 --> 00:29:26.733
but it still was a This quadrangle of open space in the middle surrounded by kind of,
00:29:26.793 --> 00:29:29.813
you know, like a movie lot and with a gate in the front.
00:29:30.033 --> 00:29:35.713
And we used to rehearse in Charlie Chaplin projection where he would view films.
00:29:36.593 --> 00:29:44.193
And so anyway, we were all on the A&M lot a lot recording or rehearsing, both groups.
00:29:44.433 --> 00:29:48.213
And so I had reconnected with the burritos and gone to see them,
00:29:48.313 --> 00:29:49.233
as I said, at the entry window.
00:29:49.413 --> 00:29:53.253
And so we were aware of one another. he was aware of, I mean,
00:29:53.393 --> 00:29:58.593
he, Chris Hillman, was aware that I was in Dillard and Clark. And so, we broke up.
00:29:59.349 --> 00:30:04.669
That incident you just mentioned on stage. And so, I mean, I guess I was making
00:30:04.669 --> 00:30:05.769
it known I was available.
00:30:06.169 --> 00:30:13.009
And coincidentally, the bass player on the first Burrito album, Jeff, so he had quit.
00:30:13.389 --> 00:30:19.229
And he was a fantastic R&B bass player, rock R&B player.
00:30:19.369 --> 00:30:22.629
But Hillman had played bass in The Birds, so he went back to bass.
00:30:23.129 --> 00:30:26.389
And they thought, well, they'd get a guitar player instead of another bass player.
00:30:26.389 --> 00:30:31.769
So they got a lead guitar player with me and a harmony singer and Chris went
00:30:31.769 --> 00:30:37.329
back to bass and so that's what the Burrito Deluxe lineup was Did you get a
00:30:37.329 --> 00:30:39.169
nudie suit when you joined?
00:30:39.269 --> 00:30:45.789
No, no they had spent their budget on nudie suits and they had gone on a famous
00:30:45.789 --> 00:30:50.069
train tour where they booked the train to go around the country where they spent
00:30:50.069 --> 00:30:53.109
their advance You were on that, right?
00:30:53.209 --> 00:30:56.209
You were on the train tour is that
00:30:56.209 --> 00:30:59.129
the festival express or is that something different that was different
00:30:59.129 --> 00:31:03.269
that was the burrito brothers train tour oh wow 69 you
00:31:03.269 --> 00:31:07.209
know 68 probably so uh
00:31:07.209 --> 00:31:10.009
anyway where were we oh so
00:31:10.009 --> 00:31:12.949
you didn't you didn't get a nudie suit but you did you did you
00:31:12.949 --> 00:31:16.069
were lucky enough i'm gonna show it right here i think
00:31:16.069 --> 00:31:23.749
i hope to get a record a radiation suit yeah we yeah yeah for the burrito deluxe
00:31:23.749 --> 00:31:33.829
thing graham on this limited budget got these plastic plastic suits in the end of gloves.
00:31:34.909 --> 00:31:38.089
What is he trying to say i don't know we still don't know yeah
00:31:38.089 --> 00:31:40.829
when you got it did when you got there and he gave this
00:31:40.829 --> 00:31:43.789
to you is it just kind of like yeah put this on
00:31:43.789 --> 00:31:46.769
put it on and do it yeah it was probably a food
00:31:46.769 --> 00:31:50.869
worker suit actually you know it's such
00:31:50.869 --> 00:31:53.909
a bizarre cover the burrito and the
00:31:53.909 --> 00:31:57.109
yeah i love it i gotta
00:31:57.109 --> 00:31:59.829
tell you about the burrito survived quite a
00:31:59.829 --> 00:32:02.849
long time so grant parsons moved into the chateau
00:32:02.849 --> 00:32:06.289
marmont on the fourth floor and there
00:32:06.289 --> 00:32:09.229
was a balcony off the back of the living room and he
00:32:09.229 --> 00:32:12.969
put that burrito out there on a paper plate and it
00:32:12.969 --> 00:32:16.129
remained out there for months and months and months until the
00:32:16.129 --> 00:32:21.989
whole thing turned green but it still had the sequence on it and is that that's
00:32:21.989 --> 00:32:28.669
what that's this that's that burrito yeah classic is this early early burrito
00:32:28.669 --> 00:32:33.029
or is this after months of wear at the chateau marma no no that's that's It's
00:32:33.029 --> 00:32:34.329
the original version, yeah.
00:32:34.829 --> 00:32:41.329
And so what was the chemistry in the band like between Hillman and Graham Parsons
00:32:41.329 --> 00:32:46.209
coming after Gilded Palace of Sin, you know, probably before,
00:32:46.209 --> 00:32:47.689
obviously, recording Burrito Deluxe?
00:32:47.909 --> 00:32:51.109
Yeah, so at some point in there, the Stones came through L.A.
00:32:51.189 --> 00:32:53.009
And stayed and did a residency.
00:32:54.281 --> 00:32:59.061
And Graham was very enamored of the Stones and Keith Richard and started hanging
00:32:59.061 --> 00:33:03.201
out with them, staying up all night. And he was not writing songs.
00:33:03.421 --> 00:33:07.881
And so we didn't have, I didn't arrive into a band that had songs.
00:33:08.161 --> 00:33:11.441
We wrote some songs together, older guys.
00:33:11.781 --> 00:33:15.201
And Chris wrote Cody Cody.
00:33:16.441 --> 00:33:20.361
But it was not a song-rich environment right then.
00:33:21.721 --> 00:33:24.601
And Graham was hanging out with the Stones. he was more
00:33:24.601 --> 00:33:27.841
like in the stones than he was in the burritos at that point and
00:33:27.841 --> 00:33:32.081
that just got worse and worse until we
00:33:32.081 --> 00:33:35.121
were in some venue that we were going to play in the valley in in
00:33:35.121 --> 00:33:39.741
the afternoon to do a sound check slash rehearsal and graham just didn't show
00:33:39.741 --> 00:33:46.581
and hillman just went that's it and he he fired him fired graham and then we
00:33:46.581 --> 00:33:51.501
did the festival express tour which the the film eventually came out,
00:33:51.681 --> 00:33:53.481
and you can see the Burrito Brothers.
00:33:53.881 --> 00:33:56.721
I sang Lazy Day, that was a Graham song.
00:33:57.281 --> 00:34:02.101
Then we were a four-piece band with Sneaky Pete and Michael Clarke on drums.
00:34:02.741 --> 00:34:07.581
And actually, viewing that film, that was a pretty good little band.
00:34:07.921 --> 00:34:14.141
If I'd been a harder worker as a songwriter, maybe that could have worked.
00:34:14.541 --> 00:34:20.861
But Chris didn't think it could, so he went and he found Rick Roberts the story
00:34:20.861 --> 00:34:26.861
was busking on the street at ucla and but rick had a satchel of songs like colorado
00:34:26.861 --> 00:34:34.361
and all that and so he was invited into the band but you know he was more of a soft rock guy yeah yeah,
00:34:35.101 --> 00:34:40.761
and so it changed the whole nature changed a great deal and then sneaky quit
00:34:40.761 --> 00:34:46.141
yeah and and the steel guitar player quit and we got al perkins and we did.
00:34:47.151 --> 00:34:50.891
The Blue Burrito album. I think Sneaky was still on that maybe,
00:34:51.051 --> 00:34:54.551
but Sneaky quit first and then I quit.
00:34:54.771 --> 00:34:57.731
And I walked in. We came off the road.
00:34:58.451 --> 00:35:02.731
We'd been in New England, Cape Cod, the burritos one summer.
00:35:02.931 --> 00:35:09.631
And I went to the Caves Guitar Shop in Santa Monica and said to the lady that
00:35:09.631 --> 00:35:12.251
I knew there, yeah, I'm thinking about leaving the burritos.
00:35:12.411 --> 00:35:15.311
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. And she said, hey, John and Glenn are putting
00:35:15.311 --> 00:35:16.751
a band together. Why don't you call them?
00:35:17.251 --> 00:35:25.251
So I knew they were working with Ronstadt, and I knew Ronstadt's producer-manager, John Boylan.
00:35:25.271 --> 00:35:27.711
I called John and said, what's going on?
00:35:27.771 --> 00:35:30.031
He goes, oh, yeah, you'd be great with them.
00:35:30.331 --> 00:35:36.451
And he paid for a rehearsal hall at SIR, and we spent one afternoon there and
00:35:36.451 --> 00:35:37.491
decided to work together.
00:35:37.991 --> 00:35:44.971
And in the hallway were the Jackson 5 closed, and they were in the next big room, Jackson 5.
00:35:45.631 --> 00:35:52.391
So that was it. We started and Glenn Frey was signed with David Geffen already with J.D. Souther.
00:35:52.991 --> 00:35:56.011
But Geffen wanted to keep J.D. and not keep Glenn.
00:35:56.611 --> 00:36:00.811
So Glenn had reached out to Henley about starting a band.
00:36:01.031 --> 00:36:05.751
And it all happened really, really fast. And then we walked into Geffen's office
00:36:05.751 --> 00:36:09.511
and said, Well, we're a band. Here we are. Do you want us or not?
00:36:10.411 --> 00:36:13.451
He listened in one rehearsal and signed us.
00:36:13.551 --> 00:36:20.371
It's his first band on Asylum Records. So, again, that happened really fast. So, interesting.
00:36:21.051 --> 00:36:26.191
What I read from Geffen's recollection was that you walked in and you're like, we're here.
00:36:26.711 --> 00:36:34.131
Do you want us? You were the guy. And I got to imagine that Glenn and JD had
00:36:34.131 --> 00:36:38.031
their band, but you were the guy who had, obviously Randy was in Poco.
00:36:38.411 --> 00:36:43.691
You had been laying that foundation that they were building upon for many years,
00:36:43.791 --> 00:36:49.291
many years before. Yeah, I had more cred at that time in the industry in town.
00:36:50.248 --> 00:36:55.908
Yeah. And in terms of your songwriting, you brought in Train Leaves here this
00:36:55.908 --> 00:36:57.128
morning into the Eagles.
00:36:57.828 --> 00:37:00.828
I'm curious with the Burrito Brothers. Well, let me take a second.
00:37:01.088 --> 00:37:05.208
With Dillard and Clark, you mentioned you did a lot of the instrumentals and
00:37:05.208 --> 00:37:07.928
then Gene came in and wrote a lot of lyrics.
00:37:08.228 --> 00:37:12.568
With the Burrito Brothers and songs like Older Guys, was it the same type of
00:37:12.568 --> 00:37:18.508
dynamic where you do instrumentals or were you also getting into lyrics as well?
00:37:19.088 --> 00:37:21.908
Yeah, I'd always been into lyrics, just not with Dylan Park,
00:37:22.048 --> 00:37:24.768
because honestly, Gene was too good, you know?
00:37:25.388 --> 00:37:29.708
With the Burritos, nobody had any songs. So actually, I brought God's Own Singer,
00:37:29.888 --> 00:37:31.788
and I had written that already totally.
00:37:32.688 --> 00:37:36.968
Yeah, we kind of wrote together, older guys. We kind of wrote in the room in
00:37:36.968 --> 00:37:39.248
Charlie Chaplin' projection room.
00:37:39.788 --> 00:37:44.568
But yeah, so then I got to the Eagles. I reached back two bands and got trained Lisa this morning.
00:37:45.228 --> 00:37:49.808
And I think I wrote the music to the B section, the chorus, you know and gene
00:37:49.808 --> 00:37:54.208
wrote all the lyrics so in any way it was a song that i had i was a co-writer on,
00:37:54.768 --> 00:37:58.008
that i thought i could i could sing in the eagles
00:37:58.008 --> 00:38:03.968
and it's a twofer right yeah so so i brought it to him that you know they loved
00:38:03.968 --> 00:38:09.168
it and so that worked out so in terms of songwriting and and in the eagles there's
00:38:09.168 --> 00:38:13.928
a song called my man and it's got some lyrics in there that make me think It's
00:38:13.928 --> 00:38:16.908
about Graham Parsons, got the Hickory Wind reference.
00:38:17.288 --> 00:38:19.468
Is there truth to that?
00:38:20.228 --> 00:38:24.788
Yes, absolutely. So what happened is we had made the first two Eagle albums
00:38:24.788 --> 00:38:27.368
pretty fast because we had the songs.
00:38:27.388 --> 00:38:31.168
And then the third album, we'd been on the road, and we didn't have any songs.
00:38:31.188 --> 00:38:35.448
We went back to England to try to do a third album with Glenn Johns,
00:38:35.528 --> 00:38:40.828
and we did two songs for sure, including Best of My Life, we did with Glenn for a third one.
00:38:41.988 --> 00:38:48.528
But Graham was doing some recording solo stuff, and he had had me in to do overdubs,
00:38:48.668 --> 00:38:51.068
like play Dobro and whatever, maybe sing something.
00:38:51.548 --> 00:38:55.428
Down at Capitol Records in a small studio, like a couple of evenings,
00:38:55.868 --> 00:38:59.188
right before we flew, the Eagles flew to England to make the third album.
00:39:00.148 --> 00:39:03.008
And we said goodbye in the parking lot and all that.
00:39:03.128 --> 00:39:07.068
And then a few days later, we flew to England. And by the time I got over jet
00:39:07.068 --> 00:39:09.108
lag, I found out that Graham had passed away.
00:39:10.148 --> 00:39:16.108
And he was one of the first people I knew intimately that had passed that young.
00:39:16.108 --> 00:39:19.688
He was only 26 and I was 25 maybe.
00:39:19.908 --> 00:39:21.868
No, yeah, 24 maybe.
00:39:22.428 --> 00:39:27.308
So it hit me hard and the Eagles thing kind of bogged down partly maybe,
00:39:27.428 --> 00:39:30.768
you know, for me, I was just kind of depressed.
00:39:30.808 --> 00:39:34.348
So I started writing the My Man song and I didn't finish it there.
00:39:34.548 --> 00:39:38.588
I finished it and all that. Came back from not finishing that album and then
00:39:38.588 --> 00:39:41.228
changed producers to Bill Simczyk.
00:39:42.057 --> 00:39:47.137
And Felder started playing on the records. And we went in the record plan in L.A.
00:39:47.597 --> 00:39:52.337
And during that time, I finished My Man and recorded it for that third album for On the Border.
00:39:53.177 --> 00:39:57.417
And I heard it's been My Man. The title has been used.
00:39:57.997 --> 00:40:01.217
Or, you know, God's Own Singer. So it's not My Man. It was another one of my
00:40:01.217 --> 00:40:04.917
songs. It was used on Graham's Grafestone.
00:40:05.277 --> 00:40:06.017
Was it really?
00:40:06.477 --> 00:40:10.157
God's Own Singer, yeah. Wow. Where is his Grafestone? Is it in,
00:40:10.157 --> 00:40:12.837
like, North Carolina? or where is he from?
00:40:13.157 --> 00:40:17.277
Somewhere out there? He was from Waycross, Georgia, but I don't know if he was
00:40:17.277 --> 00:40:20.957
taken back to Winter Park, Florida, where his main family was from.
00:40:20.957 --> 00:40:22.237
I'm not really clear on that.
00:40:23.077 --> 00:40:28.037
You know, I mean, famously, Phil Kaufman stole his body from Air Freight,
00:40:28.117 --> 00:40:30.617
that whole movie that was made about that.
00:40:31.397 --> 00:40:37.177
So after Phil Kaufman set him on fire and the fire showers saw the fire and
00:40:37.177 --> 00:40:39.097
they went and put him out, then
00:40:39.097 --> 00:40:44.517
his family claimed him and took him back east and did a proper burial.
00:40:44.997 --> 00:40:52.217
Insane story. Yeah. Well, I want to wrap up with one last question that ties back to the new record.
00:40:52.637 --> 00:40:57.357
So you've got a song which has got a music video to it called Too Many Memories.
00:40:57.657 --> 00:41:02.717
And in that video behind you, there's a lot of images from your career.
00:41:02.917 --> 00:41:06.277
So I'm curious, you've just shared so many amazing memories.
00:41:06.457 --> 00:41:09.517
Is there something that you look back,
00:41:10.037 --> 00:41:13.597
and there's so many things is there something one that you can look back and
00:41:13.597 --> 00:41:19.757
be like holy shit like what a life that was this happened or this was that of
00:41:19.757 --> 00:41:24.617
all those memories is there a summation of one that you can point to.
00:41:25.492 --> 00:41:30.272
No, not one thing. And as I've said to other questioners about it,
00:41:30.392 --> 00:41:35.812
but no, the, and the title is too many memories and that's, that's actually slightly inaccurate.
00:41:36.132 --> 00:41:39.052
It's, it's, it's just, there's all these memories. The thing is,
00:41:39.092 --> 00:41:43.012
is people are often troubled about whether they have a regret or something,
00:41:43.192 --> 00:41:47.032
you know, but I can honestly say at this point, I really don't have regrets,
00:41:47.172 --> 00:41:50.572
you know, cause I've cleaned up a lot of stuff, including with Glenn Frey,
00:41:51.212 --> 00:41:54.912
which is why, which is why I went out for that tour or was invited to.
00:41:55.592 --> 00:41:58.332
So you know no it's and it was that was a
00:41:58.332 --> 00:42:02.272
fun video to do and and
00:42:02.272 --> 00:42:05.492
a lot of those photos came out of my own personal archives photo archive
00:42:05.492 --> 00:42:09.292
so yeah it was a trip to do it and revisit you
00:42:09.292 --> 00:42:12.432
know and talking with you today i mean revisiting the
00:42:12.432 --> 00:42:15.172
the bands and you know what the dynamics were and
00:42:15.172 --> 00:42:17.872
so but one thing i'll just share this is kind
00:42:17.872 --> 00:42:20.752
of cool so i i can play the tape
00:42:20.752 --> 00:42:23.812
backwards and see that it went
00:42:23.812 --> 00:42:26.892
all of those connections went back to this guy larry
00:42:26.892 --> 00:42:30.472
larry murray who was in the bluegrass group in san diego who
00:42:30.472 --> 00:42:35.592
invited me to come join him on capital records in 67 and on capital records
00:42:35.592 --> 00:42:40.672
was linda ronstadt that i played on stone ponies record for her producer and
00:42:40.672 --> 00:42:46.812
that turned into me being in her band in 1969 while i was at the burritos also
00:42:46.812 --> 00:42:50.052
i was also in ronstadt's the Corvettes.
00:42:50.832 --> 00:42:57.252
But Ronstadt led directly to the Eagles you know so it's been really just a
00:42:57.252 --> 00:43:00.112
continuum and one thing led to another and.
00:43:01.112 --> 00:43:08.092
It is pretty cool the whole thing Bernie I want to thank you so much for the
00:43:08.092 --> 00:43:12.372
time today I want to thank you for all the amazing music for the vision you
00:43:12.372 --> 00:43:17.372
had and what you've created so I appreciate you and thank you for listening
00:43:17.372 --> 00:43:19.452
to the Legends podcast by All Day Vinyl.
00:43:19.652 --> 00:43:23.832
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00:43:24.432 --> 00:43:29.892
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