[no subject]

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Kenny Jones - Replacing the Irreplaceable

MODERN DRUMMER:  My understanding is that you were Keith's choice to follow 
him in the band if anything were to happen to him.

KENNY JONES:  I'm very flattered if I was.  I think it goes back to the early days 
when The Small Faces & The Who would tour together in England & Europe.  The 
press portrayed us as rival bands that didn't get along, being from different parts of 
London.  But they got it all wrong.

When we first hooked up with The Who, we felt an affinity as street bands, basically.
We toured Australia with them, & one night we would top the bill & the next night they 
would.  I'd record a lot with Pete, demo-ing stuff, & when Keith wouldn't show up
for soundchecks, I would do them.  We became blood brothers & had a lovely time,
as loony as it was.

MD:  When you played with The Who, everything felt more settled.

KJ:  It *was* more settled.  Pete told me that we had a chance to do something com-
pletely different, which pleased me.  I told Pete that I couldn't be Keith Moon & that I 
had to play my own style.  He understood completely.  But there are certain things that
Keith played that you'd want to play because they were magnificent.  I did what I did
but kept the best bits in.  I tightened the band up.  Daltrey, I think, could never quite
get used to it, although the others did.  I kept it straight in the verses, but everywhere 
you wanted to go nuts, I went nuts.

MD:  What kind of Keith Moon parts would you not want to mess with?

KJ:  I always liked what he did on the sequencer songs, like "Baba O'Reilly," (sic)
"Won't Get Fooled Again," "Sparks" - that sort of thing.  I got them as near as I could.

MD:  Something rubs me the wrong way when people say Keith Moon couldn't play
to a click.

KJ:  He played to one for *years.*  He wore cans (headphones) & had a click in his
head.  But on *any* song, not just on sequenced ones, he could go all over the place 
& come back in time.  It was wild!  He was wobbly to a degree, but it wasn't just Keith 
Moon - it was *all* of them.  That's what made The Who what they are.  If you go
back to "Can't Explain," it's very straight, though.  That was probably the last time
Moonie played hi-hat in the regular way!

MD:  With respect to bass drums, I've occasionally heard that he used the second
one just for show.

KJ:  I used to sit behind him & watch him.  He'd be playing mainly the one, but now
& then he'd it the other one.  I don't think he worked out a technique.

MD:  One letter to MD inquired about Moon's choice of sticks.  Do you remember?

KJ:  We used Premier sticks.  I used short, fat ones & he used a thin, long type of
stick.  I can't remember the model, though.  He'd get boxes of them from Premier.

MD:  Despite the loyalty to Premier, apparently Keith used Ludwig & Gretsch snare
drums from time to time.

KJ:  It depended on how easy they were to smash up!  In Melbourne in '66, I went
up to Moonie's room & he asked me to go for a drink at the bar.  Out of the corner
of my eye, I noticed he had seven or eight Premier snare drums lined up against the 
wall.  I said, "Oh, 'ell, what are you gonna do with all of *them?*"  He replied, "We
know what to do with them, don't we?"  And he picked one up & threw it.  We were
eleven stories up, overlooking the street, & he threw it *through the window* - which 
was closed.  Two of us stood looking down, watching the drum bounce & all the lugs 
breaking off as it rolled down Melbourne High Street.  We just looked at each other 
& then ran out of the room to the bar.

MD:  There's a story that Townshend was annoyed with Keith & that you "ghost
drummed" on tracks before he died.

KJ:  No, although I did the soundtrack to the film TOMMY.  Moonie was around,
but he was out of it.  I'm not going to say any more about that.  He was just being
Moonie!

(Watch for Kenny Jones & his new band, The Jones Gang, touring the U.S. in the
fall.)
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- SCHRADE in Akron

Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after 
being drunk all night. 
     - Isaac Asimov