back to page 1

KB: I have to make a Beatles comparison here - don't hang up on me! "Moonlight" to me sounds like a later McCartney style tune - how do you feel about that?

JM: Well it's a compliment, though I'd have never thought of it like that.

KB: It's probably just where you're from.

JM: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I grew up a couple of miles from those guys. We walked the same streets - y'know, I learned to play me guitar and the Chuck Berry style songs on Penny Lane, for crying out loud! But yeah, raised with the same kinda music all me life - the same traditions going on, even the same music before rock'n'roll, like your vaudeville and that.

KB: ...which is actually a great segue for "Another Honeymoon."

JM: Yeah, "Another Honeymoon" comes right outta there.

KB: Have you written anything else like that, or is this a new departure for you?

JM: Not really that style, no. It took me a while to write that one 'cause the chord inversions are kinda weird. I play by ear, and the inversions I created didn't really relate to a key for me, so it took me a while just to be able to play and sing it! You know the way it plays that real regular sequence of D, Bm, Em, A, but the melody starts over here on the Em so it felt kind of awkward puttin' it together, but when I did get it together I really enjoyed it!

KB: "This Must Be Love" is quite catchy as well - it sounds like a single to me. As I was listening to the album I was thinking how most people throw their strongest tunes up front. This one just keeps hitting. Then I went to joeymolland.com and saw the video for "Isn't That a Dream?," which is the last song, and I thought, well damn, it's a real statement here instead of just a couple of new tunes.

JM: Well, it'd be nice to have another hit, wouldn't it? You never know. I certainly don't think too much about it, just keep writing, but things do happen. I just got invited recently by some Hollywood producer to get involved in a Broadway show, so you never know. I'd be really excited to do something like that.

KB: Hey do you do any appearances on other people's projects?

JM: I will do, sure, if they ask and I'm available.

KB: Okay, so next week I'm working on a new one here.

JM: oh, yeah!

KB: Just puttin' ya on the spot, but that'd be great if we ever got together. You've been a lifelonger for me. And I have to do True Confessions here, Joe, since I've got you. The Straight Up album was my haircut album - it went to about five barbers with me and I kept telling 'em I want to look like this guy.

JM: ha ha ha...

KB: Yeah, they all tried to cop that shag for me.

JM: ha ha. Yeah, we used to go to a place called Smile in London - a hairdresser up on a second floor in Knightsbridge. Nice place, nice people.

KB: ...lotta rock stars?

JM: ...yeah, lots of people. It was a big deal who your hairdresser was in those days, because of the Sassoon look, y'know! People would generally let their hair grow and then when you'd made a bit of money in a band, then you could go to a hairdresser and get it cut!

KB: Everybody knows the story of Badfinger, linked up with the Beatles, and one of the most successful bands signed to Apple and everything. Has all the new Beatlemania going on in recent years translated to new Badfingermania for you?

JM: No, not really, no. Most people don't talk about Badfinger being involved when all that stew's going on about the Beatles, so it doesn't much carry over.

KB: I just thought that with people rereading Richard DiLello's book (The Last Cocktail Party) and all.

JM: The Badfinger people are aware of all that stuff and those people are very loyal and keep coming back. We do get a good cross-section of people in the audience and that's great, but all in all, it didn't really wash over to us. When people understand our relationship to the Beatles I think it does draw their attention to us, like in the VH1 Behind the Music special, one of the great things in that for me was when McCartney came on the TV and said, "Badfinger - yeah!" I'd think everybody who saw that and wasn't into Badfinger before, seeing something like that would go, wow, y'know, maybe I'll go and have a listen.

KB: I'm sure a lot of them did. How old were you when you guys signed with Apple?

JM: I was twenty-two when I joined Badfinger.

KB: Were they the Iveys then?

JM: No, I joined right there when the named changed. That's why my name is on that Magic Christian album, even though I didn't play on it. That was a compilation of an Iveys album called Maybe Tomorrow and three or four new songs recorded for the Magic Christian and they put it all together. Then the bass player left and they auditioned guitar players and I got the job. It worked out okay, I guess!

KB: Yes! How long have you been in Minneapolis?

JM: Since '85.

KB: I wanted to see you when you hit a friend of mine's place in Maryland last year.

JM: Dave Rode's place?

KB: Yeah, Club 66!

JM: Dave's a good friend of mine.

KB: We were talking about you when I played there last year and he told me the last time you were there that you were really rockin' out, blues-like. What's your live show like these days?

JM: Well, the Badfinger show is a compilation of songs from all the records. We do "Suitcase," "Come & Get It," "I Don't Mind," "Baby Blue," "Sweet Tuesday Morning," "The Dreamer," "Money," "Flying," my new song, "Happy." I think what Dave's talking about is a trio I had - Joey Molland's Badfinger was a trio. So yeah it would rock a little more. We've got a five-piece now - keyboards, got more vocals, you know just to keep it interesting, so hopefully now it really rocks. Anyway the Badfinger show is not much jamming, but I've got a band up here in Minneapolis called Shakespeare's Pipe and we just do cover songs. Like "Shape You're In" by Clapton, "Back on Top" by Van Morrison, stuff like that - more blues stuff. My brother Doug's in the band and it's just a lot of fun. We play wherever they'll book us really and don't try to make any money, you know.

KB: So you're really still playing all the time.

JM: Yeah, I love to play. It's what's enjoyable for me and plus I always want to get better as a player. If you're going to continue to get better, you've gotta play. And of course you gotta keep your vocals in shape too - I'm sure you know that.

KB: And you seem to be surrounded by family talent.

JM: My brother plays acoustic guitar on the album as well. And my son Joe III plays electric. He's going to college right now for audio engineering and studio design. He's doing quite well and I'm very proud. But he's a heckuva guitar player! I gave both me sons, Sean & Joe a guitar years ago. I just left 'em in their corners for them if they wanted to pick 'em up, and a few years later when Joey was sixteen he started to play the guitar. He's just gotten better and better at it, so I asked him to play on me record. I gave him that song, "What Else," and said have a look at the end of that and see if you can come up with something, and he did. He actually came up with an idea for a riff that works with it and he developed that into a jam over the end of it, a psychedelic thing which was exactly what I wanted. I didn't tell him what to do or anything - it was a great pleasure for me of course, even though I was producer and I had to shout at him!

KB: Nice, man. The apple doesn't fall far.

JM: That's what they say, isn't it?

KB: Okay, well, let's wrap it up with this one. Where do you see your career going at this point and what would make you happy to do from here on out?

JM: Well, I could just do this forever, y'know, making records, puttin' 'em out and talking to people... but definitely just keep playing.

KB: Well, I hope to catch you next time around.

JM: Yeah, we'll make sure you know.

KB: Joe, formerly Joey, thanks very much for clearing up the present, past, & future for us! It's been a great pleasure. Cheers.

JM: Yeah, cheers.


Get more info at Joey Molland's official web site: www.joeymolland.com and for more on Kyf Brewer visit www.kyf.com