John interview on Abbey Road

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

This was forwarded to me by a kind soul. It should be published in the Ocean
County Weekly in the next few weeks.

6/5/01

Q: Do you know the people you're playing with on this Abbey Road tour or was
this something that just kind of came together?

A: Oh, now I'm confused.....I've met Todd before, I don't think I've met Ann
Wilson. Alan I think I've met before. I don't know any of them that well.
I'm sure I will after the next few weeks.

Q: Are these people whose work you admired?

A: Ummm...yeah, yeah. It's kind of different from what I'm used to but I'm
getting my fingers around it.

Q: Is doing Beatles material something that you're excited about?

A: Well, the Who started as a pop band doing Beatles songs because that's
what people wanted to hear, that's all. We started out playing Twist & Shout
and I Saw Her Standing There and probably the whole of the first and second
album. But we're not playing that stuff.

Q: Some people might say that its very humble thing for you to be doing this
tour. Many would argue that the Who were every bit as important as the
Beatles and the people you're playing with aren't near as famous as
yourself, they're sort of second-stringers.

A: Ummm....no, I always play with people who aren't as famous as me. They're
famous enough to play with me. Anyone's famous enough to play with me. I
don't feel very humble at all (laughs).

Q: What's going on now with the Who?

A: There's a bunch of stuff that's possible that we'll doing but we haven't
chosen which yet. We have to try out new songs for an album. I think that's
our best bet, working on songs for a new album, write some material. We'll
see where it takes us.

Q: Are you guys getting along these days?

A: Ummm, yeah, we get on very well.

Q: Do you think an album of all-Entwistle Who songs would make a good album?

A: Yeah, it certainly would be a lot different. It happened before -- there
was a compilation called The Ox which was all the songs I'd written up to
that point, but that was about 30 years ago. It'd be interesting to do now
and I've been suggesting it for years.


Q: Who were some of your favorite bass players when you were coming up?

A: Oh, dear...no one really influenced me, I was more influenced by
guitarists than bass players. I decided I didn't want to play bass, so I
played guitar licks on the bass instead, a lot more melodic than most bass
players. There wasn't really anyone to follow. When I was learning to play I
learned by playing along with records, but I didn't want any outside
influences.

Q: When you're out touring with your own band, do you concentrate on stuff
you did with the Who or do you mostly songs from your solo albums?

A: Its a mixture. We don't really do a lot of solo stuff because most people
ask for the Who songs. It's basically Who stuff with a little mixture of
others.

Q: The benefits of being in the Who are obvious, but you ever feel trapped
by it as a musician, like you'll never be able to get away from it?

A: Always, and I think the rest of the Who feel that way as well, especially
Pete. Pete has his own sort of taste in music that's slightly different. He
gets a chance to perform his own stuff onstage anyway, which is what I do
with my band.

Q: Are Pete and Roger nice guys?

A: Ummmm......yeah, yeah. Several nice guys (laughs).

Q: Do you have a favorite Who album?

A: Uhhhhh.....uhhhhh.....I probably like the songs on Who's Next, but I
don't particularly like the mixes. I guess that was our strongest period,
when we went through the sort of large venue, snob rock period.

Q: What's the secret to staying together this long without strangling each
other?

A: I think the breaks we had, where we weren't playing together, I think
they helped out a lot. It helped me in particular, so after a break and
working with different musicians when I come back to the Who I have
something different to offer. The secret to staying together is not to play
together, I guess.

Q: You've won all these crazy awards. The Who won a Lifetime Achievement
Grammy and a magazine voted you Bass Player Of The Millennium. Is that an
honor or do you get a sense of being given a gold watch?

A: Yeah, the millennium. That would be a long time. Of all the bass players
that's ever been, I got voted Number One. That's a lot truer than the  poll,
I guess (laughs). When people come up and go, Hey -- you're a legend, I
always thought legends were
Ulysses and King Arthur and people like that. I'm a minor legend, I guess.
It makes you feel extremely old and just about to die. Its those Fuck Off
And Die Awards, they get you.

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm