First off, what are you up to now?
I’m on tour in September – I’m playing in the Northeast and in Canada. I’m playing in Ohio, New York, Chicago….
I know you had an early start to playing by learning from guys like Hendrix – correct?
My best friend in my teenage years was Velvert Turner – he was a Black kid that knew Jimmy and took lessons from him. He’d come to my house since I lived close to Jimmy’s apartment. He would show me what Jimmy taught him. It’s hard to describe that to someone else – it’s about the vibration and electricity. John Lee Hooker one told me that the secret of learning how to play the electric guitar was to learn one string first. Play it up and down the neck and shake the guitar. He actually said to take all of the other strings off but I couldn’t afford to do that so I just played the one strong. I learned verticality.
You were a bit of a free spirit as a teenager and even afterwards – traveling all over the country to learn from so many great artists and to find your own way – what gave you the impetus and the guts to do so?
I knew someday success would happen – I didn’t know when or what it would look like. I was willing to give up everything else to be successful – that is the secret of success in anything. To forsake everything else to pursue that one aim.
To be singular of focus?
Exactly. To be singular of focus. That’s the secret of success in any field.
I didn’t really travel all over the country. I went to Boston, New York, L.A. then back to New York. I played guitar every day – I learned more doing that than anything else. I couldn’t even afford an amp for my electric guitar. In fact I threw my clothes in the Pacific when I was stuck on Highway 1 because I couldn’t carry them and my guitar.
How did that happen? Sounds like a story there?
We were in San Francisco and was hitchhiking to L.A. Unfortunately, Route 1 was shut down due to a mudslide. So the guy just dropped us off there in the middle of the night – we were determine to walk the rest of the way to L.A. The Pacific was on my right as we were walking – I just got too tired carrying my clothes and guitar, so I put some of my clothes in my guitar case and threw the rest in the Pacific.
There’s that focus again?
Exactly!
How did growing up in Pittsburgh influence you?
I was there until I was six, then went back for Summers. I grew up in an impoverished place – where the steel mills were. You either worked next to vats of molten steel or in a coal mine – that was Homestead. It was a ghost town for a while though I think it’s coming back. I was lucky to get out.
I had a friend who’s girlfriend dumped him – he joined the Marines afterwards. He would rather go to Vietnam than stay and work.
I think growing up there gave me an inner strength – I had to pick myself up. No one was going to do it for me.
What did your parents think of all of this?
They were proud when it all worked – when Television was big.
How surreal was your first live performance being with John Lee Hooker – what was going through your mind then?
At the Jazz Workshop, I snuck in and sat in his dressing room. This was before the days of bodyguards. I sat in a chair and he turned and looked at me and asked who I was and what I did. I told him I played the guitar and he told me he thought I’d be good and asked me to come on stage with him.
I shook violently then. He threatened to chase me down if I didn’t do it! After everyone did their solos he put it on me and I did mine. I wasn’t very good but that was the first time I performed in front of paying people!
How did you find your own style after watching and learning from such heavyweights like Al Anderson, Led Zeppelin, John Lee Hooker and Hendrix at the time?
I never wanted to copy anyone. I was the opposite of Eric Clapton who learned how to play by listening to records. I just learned by playing the guitar and found people I wanted to fit in with. That’s how Television was formed – with Tom, Billy and Richard.
When you and Terry Ork formed Television – how did you come across your unique style as a band with Marquis Moon- was it intentional or just organic?
It was all natural – we all had songs but they didn’t like mine as much so we put those aside. It was like joining a circus then. We had the glamour of poverty – the ripped clothing and don’t-care attitude. Yes we cared about getting a record deal and record out – but we turned down more deals than anyone else. Sire Records – they paid bands like the Talking Heads, Blondie and the Ramones $5,500 to produce an album. You can’t make a good record that way.
What did Terry learn from working with Andy Warhol’s work with the Velvet Underground?
Terry worked with Andy – he’d do silk screen at night and Andy would sign them. Terry learned from Andy and wanted to form an anti-political scene of his own and did that by managing CBGB. They wanted folk acts at the start but Terry brought in acts like Television and that’s when it started making money. Before that it was mostly just folk music.
We’d hang out at Max’s Kansas City in New York – there was a backroom there where all of the glorious people – the creme de la creme – hung out. That’s where I met him. You had to be a regular to be invited in the back. That’s where everything happened.
I lived in poverty then and ate the hors devours they gave out before 8:00 until I could go into the backroom. That was the boiling point of artistic endeavors then.
What were some of the more memorable moments of your time with Television?
All of it was fantastic. Going to England and playing in front of 2,000 after playing in front of 200 at CBGBs.
Also, playing at Terry’s loft and just rolling on the floor laughing as we played because it was just all so exciting and weird. Terry and Richard were poets and the words were just so great – the music caught up afterwards!
You have also had a successful solo career and done a lot of session work and produced other acts- did you enjoy that as much as Television? What is different about that for you that you like/don’t like?
It was all good until I stepped on my own foot. I was afraid of success so I managed to avoid it! It was a weird paradox of not wanting to be so successful I needed a bodyguard but wanting the music to be successful. But the drug use and the record label catching me doing drugs caught up to me, and they dropped me.
You decided to publish you memoir – Everything is Combustible. What prompted you to do so?
I always knew I had to spill the beans of my adventures. The autobiography was the mechanism of my confession. I was influenced by Carl Jung’s biography. It was about his inner life- not his outer life. I knew I had a strong inner life and it was my duty to talk about it.
There was a teacher in the early 1900s who asked their students to tell their autobiography to one another. It was a mechanism to see how much they were really lying about themselves. The students couldn’t pull it off – they all lied about themselves. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to write a book so I wouldn’t have to carry those stories in my head any longer.
Did it work for you? Was it cathartic?
It was like a purge yes. It felt cathartic, yes.
What are your thoughts on the state of the music industry today and in Pittsburgh specifically?
It’s a big mess now. Everybody can make a record now in their underwear – and do. It’s flooded now. The machinery of success still operates but the music now – especially the pop music – it doesn’t impress me much. The hits are like garbage to my ears. I know they are done well – I just don’t like it. There was a story about an AI manufactured personage who sang – the song was good as a pop song. It took two minutes for the song to be written and sung.
I want something more visceral. I stopped listening to music mostly anyway once I started performing it.
Were you concerned it would overtly influence your style?
Early on I was. But I’m not afraid of that now – I’m just not interested.
Lastly – are you a sports fan at all?
I used to be a Steelers fan. I haven’t been now for years. I would not watch it for years then get into it for a year then be out again. That’s where I am now.