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Home , Bryan Bassett, Charlie Huhn, Dave Edmunds, Foghat, Humble Pie, Pat Travers

A short talk with , Founding member of .

Tom Allen: Let me begin by saying this all started back in 1972. I was a 13-year old SF Bay Area guitar slinger playing in a newly formed power trio after a stint in a 9-piece funk band. My best friend and drummer, Eric Parkinson, also from the Bay Area, was my chaperon since he was older and had a car. I had to lie about my age at most of my gigs, but my playing got me through. Eric and I would record 8-track tapes of music we loved for the car ride to gigs and rehearsals, and we’d pump that music into our heads to start our love of all things rock.

One day on Skyline Road in Oakland, CA on the way to rehearsal, he put in a tape of a band named Foghat. The song was Chateau Lafitte 59 Boogie. I heard that screaming slide, those hard rocking vocals, and that shuffle beat drumming that made the song. But the track that got me was Foghat’s remake of I Just Want to Make Love to You. Balls out rock. It affected for life what I listened to and what I wanted to play.

I was on an all-out Foghat hunt and bought everything they did, and I continued that even after I become friends with current Foghat guitarist . Bryan is an excellent musician and recording engineer, and we started our friendship with the commonalities of recording. I consider Bryan one of the true friends on my short list.

There have been lineup changes for Foghat over the years. Bryan Basset on slide and lead gives a guitar clinic performance each time he steps on stage. on vocals (Victory, , ) still rocks. And Rodney O’Quinn (), filling in on tour for Foghat bassist Craig McGregor, is the backbone of the rhythm section. But Foghat is still led by drummer and founder Roger Earl--one of the nicest human beings I have ever met, with a sharp sense of humor that always has me in tears from laughing.

Blessed as I am with my friendship with the band, I am also lucky to be able to play on stage with them on occasion. You want to talk about goosebumps and going full circle with the band that changed your life, well I still have those goosebumps, and each time on stage, they never go away. Blasting a Marshall stack with your heroes makes for a really fine evening.

These days I own a software company and a record label, working mostly as a producer, and I play on artist recordings as a session player. Only on occasion do I still have the opportunity to play live, but it was after my most recent performance with Foghat that my old friend Eric and I sat down with Roger Earl to just chat. Here is our discussion about music, drums, and life.

INTERVIEW Conquest Sound: What music did you hear at an early age that made you want to play?

Roger Earl: Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, early Elvis Presley--all the Sun Records stuff, and I was a huge Johnny Cash fan. My older brother, Colin, became a Johnny Cash fan. Even though he didn’t have a drummer in the early years, I just loved his music and songs. There was just something about the lyrics--they had an honesty and there was always some kind of story. Even if you didn’t particularly like the story, there was always a story -- so I’m a big Johnny Cash fan. In fact, we just recorded a couple of Johnny Cash songs with another band that we have going called Earl and the Agitators.

Conquest Sound: That is the best band name ever.

Roger Earl: Bryan came up with that. And Scott Holt is the main singer and lead guitar player. There’s me, Rodney, Bryan, and Scott Holt. Do you know who Scott Holt is?

Conquest Sound: He was with Buddy Guy.

Roger Earl: Yeah yeah, he played with Buddy Guy for about ten years. In fact, he played on the last album. He sang on Upside of Lonely on the last album. Yeah, that’s Scott singing. And he played guitar on three or four other songs as well.

Conquest Sound: Great voice

Roger Earl: Yeah, and beautiful guy as well-- great talent and great to play with. We put a four-song CD together and eventually we’ll get around to finishing the album. Basically it’s just gotta be mixed, but every time we talk about it, Scott and I come up with a few ideas for another song, so we keep f*cking ourselves. Uh no---shooting ourselves in the foot. Sorry.

Conquest Sound: Did you gravitate towards drums originally? Was there another instrument or did drums just get it right from the beginning?

Roger Earl: Piano. I wanted to play piano. My father played piano and my older brother played piano-- and that’s where the Jerry Lewis influence comes in.

Conquest Sound: Your brother played on a Foghat cut. I love him on, what was it? 459--?

Roger Earl: 495 Boogie. Yea. He had a whole bunch of riffs. The band he was in in England was called Mungo Jerry and they had a bunch of hits/top ten singles over there. And the lead singer, Ray Dorset--lead singer in the first band I was in. What were we called--I can’t remember-- -and then we were called something else. Anyway, so piano. My dad played piano. Colin played piano. My dad took me to see Jerry Lewis when I was like twelve or thirteen years old and I believe the first time I saw him he brought his own drummer over from the states. I think it might have been J.M. Van Eaton. I’m not sure, but great drummer, and after that I said, “Dad, I wanna get a motorbike,” because I worked after school and he said, “I’m not gonna help you with that, Son.” He didn’t think it was a good idea for a 13-year old to have a motorbike. He had one, mind you, but not me. He was probably right; I’d probably be dead right now. So I said, “Well, I want a drum kit” and he said, “Hmm, I know someone who teaches drums.” A friend of my father’s was a drum teacher--great drummer--jazz drummer--he taught a number of early . He taught the drummer from --Chris Hayes. So I took lessons for about two years and I’d save up, ya know. I’d work three or four nights after school --three days during the week and then Saturday mornings and when I was about 15 and he said, “Yeah, you can get a drum kit.” Dad signed on the dotted line. I put half the money down and I was off.

Conquest Sound: Your first album was produced by , and the single “I Just Want to Make Love to You” got decent airplay. Did that really propel the band?

Roger Earl: Yea, initially, when we first put the band together, Harry Simmons, the manager of , said he was gonna stop us from working because we left the band. We didn’t leave him high and dry. We just said, “Look, we wanna leave now but we’ll wait until you get a new band.” Kim Simmons is a great guy. Anyway, we finished the record. Derrick Taylor, who was The Beatles publicist, for some reason took a liking to the band and we’d already made a couple of demos and Derrick booked us a couple of dates. He got us a date with Captain Beefhart. They were great. Great band --a lot of fun. We played a bunch of really cool dates. And we did a couple of other things. We’d already got our record deal with Bearsville thanks to . Our manager called us up one day and said, “Let’s tour regional here and then a bunch of different places,” and so we came over. I think the first tour was like 13 months. So that was really good for Foghat.

Conquest Sound: I love watching you play the traditional grip and the match grip. Have you always played both?

Roger Earl: I started out with traditional and then about halfway through Foghat’s tenure I started changing because they didn’t have particularly good monitors back then and you had to sort of hit harder, so I do both. I don’t think there’s really a difference --with traditional grip you can play more, press more rolls and stuff like that and get a little bit more finesse. ---That’s a word that doesn’t come up much for Foghat, is it? (laughs)

Conquest Sound: You played on the Ronnie Montrose Tribute Concert. Did you ever tour with Montrose?

Roger Earl: Yea, we did his first album. He was on the bill with us. We got on really well. Great band. He had a fantastic band. They’re releasing a new album. The drummer plays for KISS. . I left a message for him on his phone the other day. I think I said something about his name, but he wanted a pair of drumsticks.

Conquest Sound: How did that relationship with DW start? How’d you get hooked up with them?

Roger Earl: I was with Ludwig forever. And then Bill Ludwig left. And every time I’d call them up I’d get an answering machine. They never called me back. And their stands were always breaking. Cheap sh*t. And I’m on the road--like on a bus nine months of the year--and I just couldn’t get through to them--and so when we put the original band back together I’d played on a couple of different DW kits when I was in the studio and in couple of drum stores and I called DW up and they said, “Come on down.” They took me for a tour around the factory. Super people. Just the best. Everybody there loves their work and everything is like--precise--even their so-called Pacific Kit. I mean, they’re great drums. Good sounding drums. After we did the tour I was with John Goode in his office and he said, “So, uh, why do you wanna use DW drums?” And I said, “’Cuz they’re the best”--with a smile. I said, “Look, I was with for like 25 years. Bill Ludwig and I were good friends but after he left, I wasn’t getting any joy about getting stuff replaced” and I told him about how bad and crappy some of the hardware was and I said basically, “DW, you make great drums and you don’t just wanna have endorsers who are with a different f*cking drum company every week.” I won’t play anything else. You know, we do shows--we did one up in Canada. My road manager said, “Well they don’t have a DW kit out there,” and I said, “Well then, we’re not playing there.” Of course they did have a f*cking DW kit--we got a new backline company--so I go on the phone to the backline company and he says, “I got a Yammi,” and I said, “That’s really nice but I don’t play Yamahas.” “Oh, well I got a Yammi.” I said, “Good, I’m really happy for you, but I play DWs. Can you get one?” “Well, no, I’ve got a Yammi.” So I said, “Maybe we’ll use another backline company.” He said, “Oh, I can get a DW kit for you if you want.” I said, “Thank you.” And that was that. Yamaha makes a nice drum kit. Most kits are decent. Different drummers sit on a drum kit and it sounds completely different than another drummer. I’ve seen that. Somebody sits down and they play and you think HELL and then someone else sits down and you think OH. Same drum kit, different drummers.

Conquest Sound: John Goode at DW is such a drum aficionado.

Roger Earl: Yea, he’s a beautiful man. The wood whisperer. I got a new drum kit a few years back --maple and mahogany. They sound like f*cking cannons. They don’t go wrooooommmwroooom; they actually go BOOOHHHMMM.

Conquest Sound: They resonate so beautifully.

...... Tom Allen: Past conversations with Roger had always revolved around other topics, but this time I had to let Roger know how I felt, so with deep sincerity I said, “Foghat changed my life.”

And without skipping a beat, he replied, “Oh, another life ruined.” (And as much as that is typical humor from this man, he really did change my life musically.)

......

Thank you to Foghat, Roger Earl, Linda Earl, Bryan Basset, and the entire Foghat family for making me one of the hats! Roger called me “The Fifth Hat” --an honor I wear proudly.

Check out Foghat.com for tour information, merchandise, and information about the band.