How were the rehearsals in London?

It was good. Excellent. Wonderful. Yeah, great band with Ian Thomas, Willy Weeks, and Chris Stainton. Chris, I’ve known for ages, Willy for quite a long time. Ian, I haven’t played with him, but I’ve known of him for quite a while, he’s a great guy, great drummer, great player.

So you did a few days in London, and going into that, you had no real perception of what the set was gonna be like?

Not really. ‘Cause we’d done the Crossroads thing in Chicago, so I came on and played with Eric there.

Of course, a year ago.

That was last summer. And I think that was a bit of a springboard for this, really. And before then, we’d played a thing called Countryside Alliance, which is a thing that supports rural issues and this was the second year that they’d done it. The first year, Eric had done it, and I couldn’t do it because I was doing something else, I was out on tour or something. And then the second year, you know those rural issue are quite close to my heart, it’s something I wanted to do, I wanted to get involved with. And then, I agreed to do 45 minutes, and I just happened to say, “Oh, is Eric doing it this year?” And then it got back to me that Eric would only do it if he could come play with me in the band or something. So I said, “Oh, great,” I called him up, we discussed a few songs, I understood we’d do…I’d just play a short set, because there was a lot of other people on, he’d come on, do a couple songs, and that would be it. Well, he suggested songs, and it ended up eight or nine songs, and I said, “Well, should we just work on those and pick the best two?” “Yeah, whatever.” So, we went and did some rehearsing and ended up doing all eight or so songs and did most of the whole show. ‘Cause I mean Eric, he’s also a musician of many facets, he can…We’re talking about musician who can jam, he can step in and jam, as well. But also, he like to have things, to a certain degree, organized, and actually he’s become a great MD, a musical director, I saw him do the George Harrison concert, and he was fantastic there and it’s something that, in the day that I worked with him, I could never have imagined him being any sort of musical director at all. He just didn’t even want to go there.

There was a lot going on in those days, I’m sure.

Yeah. So, after we’d done the Crossroads thing, we used that as a basis for what we’re doing this time. We did a few Blind Faith things and a few other bits from his…

You did “Cocaine” I think, at Crossroads.

Yeah, and did “Pearly Queen”, and interestingly enough, he said, “Well, this time, you pick my songs that you think we should do and I’ll pick your songs I think we should do. Which turned out quite interesting, because both of us turned up each other’s songs that we probably haven’t played for a while, or, certainly, he picked some songs of mine which I haven’t played and I’d almost forgotten about.

For instance?

For instance, “No Face, No Name, No Number”, which was a good one, which I hadn’t done for years. And I think, perhaps, “Forever Man”. I’m sure if he’d be doing that on his shows, but I got the feeling he hadn’t been doing that for a while.

That’s great. And both of you guys embrace your own catalog, so it’s not, there’s no bad territory that you don’t wanna explore, I guess. 

No. I mean, absolutely, no. The only thing was there was a little bit of gray area at first, was how much it had to do with Blind Faith or not. And it was certain quite early on, this was not a Blind Faith reunion. 

Because there’s only two of you, partly.

That’s right, yeah. We decided that quite early on. Once that was established, it was easy to go on and piece the rest together

And if we could just go back for a moment, can you tell me about the first time you met Eric. I know you guys had played together before Blind Faith with some session stuff.

Yeah, he was playing with John Mayall, and I think I would have been with the Spencer Davis Group, and we played pretty much the same gigs and sometimes, we’d play on the same night as each other, and we used to run into him and get up and play, jam together, I’d get up and play with him, he’d play with us. And, in fact, a few times, I think I got to play with John Mayall when Eric was with John Mayall. And then when I moved down to London when I was about 16, and Eric was probably 18 or 19… 

He’s got three years on you.

So, at that time of life, that’s a big gap.  He rather took me under his wing, and I remember introduced me to friends.  I was living in kind of what we call “digs”, do you know that expression?  It means kind of like, um, it’s what theatrical people lodge in.  Lodging house, you know, boarding house kind of thing, in North London.  I had just come down from Birmingham, I had just pretty much left school, I suppose, left home, moved down to London, living in digs, and I hooked up with him, and I met some of his friends, and he had a flat in SoHo in London- 

He’s already rollin’…

He’s already … going.  So, but, you know, we used to sit around and listen to music, talk about, you know, music, blues, and stuff, talk about guitarists, and singers, and, um, then, there was, I think what happened is I was, then he split from them and formed Cream.  And at the same time, I was just at the point of leaving Spencer Davis’ [?? Name check, 00:11:31] group, if I hadn’t already.  Now you’re asking me now, I’m not much of a story, and you’ll have to maybe get some of the look at these dates.  I can’t remember… I’m sure he formed Cream, and then after that I’m sure I put Traffic together.  Or maybe I put Traffic together before Cream… It was just a bit difficult for us to work together, because we’ve both got new projects going, you know.  And, um, and then that went through to, then at some point when Cream finished, he immediately got on the phone to me and said, “Look, let’s do something together”, and that’s when we did Blind Faith, which was, I mean, it’s interesting, having read Eric’s book, because there were things, to the day I read his book, I wasn’t really even aware of, even at the time.  And, of course, those were kind of heavy times, and you know, I didn’t even really know what direction we were going in, and did you buy what Eric says in his book, he wasn’t sure either, so.  We also got caught up by one or two things, as well, so, although I think that the Blind Faith record does stand very well, I feel, I think, that, when, you know, when we played live, when we toured, we got subject to a lot of pressures to play different things.

Cream….

And Traffic, and to play more, kind of, stadium rock music than the more delicate stuff that we had kind of approached here in the Blind Faith [record] and that I had kind of approached in Traffic.  The kind of pixie rock didn’t always kind of go down too well.

To twenty thousand people.

[Laughs] So, I mean, but that was just one of the things.  And there were lots and lots of things.  Of course, then there was a lot of pressure because of financial pressure to do certain things, and there was a lot of money flying around then for that kind of band, and so it kind of prevented us in a way, I think, from really finding our equilibrium.  It need’nt necessarily have done, but I think it was just a phase that we were all going through at the time.  It just made it very difficult to find what it was initially and to stick with the initial thing that we’d begun, and so it kind of fell apart, really.

But it doesn’t seem like it fell apart through any sort of animosity between you-

Oh, it certainly didn’t!  Certainly didn’t.  Well, having said that, I’m not sure… I mean, I certainly wasn’t sure at the time of Eric’s relationship with Ginger, and, there again, it was indeed ‘til I read his book that I was, you know, I found I was aware of things that I hadn’t realized all these years about his relationship with Ginger.  I still don’t think that was really, that there was animosity.  It was perhaps, more, it had an artistic difference there, and certainly there was no animosity at all.

But you hear Eric’s perspective, which was pretty much exactly what you said, that you couldn’t find an equilibrium... So, then you guys go your separate ways, and obviously over the years you’ve remained friends…

Well, yes, we hadn’t really been in touch, to tell you the truth.  Because, of course, Eric had gone through his dependence, dependency situations, which, and so, to be honest, we didn’t really stay in touch after that day.  You know, our paths crossed a couple of times, and I think it wasn’t until the late eighties I went and saw him play the Albert Hall.  I think I may have got up and play with him.  But, it was just a fleeting kind of, um, you know, meeting.  We were certainly never in constant touch, but I think there’s something we felt, I think maybe I probably felt and suspect he may of felt that there was just some kind of unfinished business there which you don’t need to be, you know, dealt with.

And that’s where we are today…

That’s where we are today.  Well, and that was, I think, this countryside alliance thing started when you said he wanted to come and play with me.  And then, um, the next step was the Crossroads thing, which you know worked very well.  We both enjoyed it; I certainly had a, it was fantastic and Eric seemed to enjoy it, so I think it was taken to the next, it’s next stage.  There are no plans to do anything else, I must say, after this.

And you also have some loose ends to tie up at Madison Square Garden with Eric, judging by that last-

The last Blind Faith show? Well, I don’t remember too much about it, but I think we played in the round.

I read that there were cops on the stage, and that your keyboard got destroyed, and that your drums were stolen… 

Yeah, there was a lot of, there was a lot going on in those heady days.  That’s right.  I don’t think Eric told me- I mean, I don’t remember anything about it at all, but he said that we actually played in the round.  I didn’t remember that at all.  And I didn’t really remember much about cops on the stage and all that.  A lot of those days are like, lost in the mist of time for me!

What is it like, being next to Eric, playing onstage with him, hearing him come out of your monitors, you know, that feeling you get.

Great.  I mean, he, it’s fantastic.  He’s a great musician and a great singer, and, which, he never used to sing when I played with him; he never sang at all.  Now, he’s a great singer, great player, great musician, just, great.

So rehearsals in London for a few days and you guys got through everything? Or you got a good start?

Yeah, we got a good start because then you know some things we started throwing out a few things hem because we found out –there’s some perspective material that’s quite intricate and tricky and has got a lot of stuff going on. And in some ways its best to kind of head for simpler territory and then let the performance take over. Otherwise you spend all your time trying to remember bits and remember parts. So we’ve kind of erred a little bit on the simpler side. You know obviously we have to throw out some stuff because obviously there’s a shed load of material and we don’t have time to do all of it we’ve found that we’ve honed it down and kept things that are better and more enjoy a  to play

So it’s stuff from your catalogue and stuff from Eric’s catalogue and some blues? And you probably touch on all decades of your musical careers?

We certainly do. Yeah it seems like we do, thinking about it. Yeah we do.

As far as the anticipation for this show, it's pretty major—

It is its extraordinary. It’s a great enjoyable thing for me to play with Eric and its great to work out his songs. But it’s a little bit surprising in a way the way there seems to be this big amount of anticipation about it which is great there seems to be a lot of excitement and I’m certainly very excited about it.

I read this quote that you had said, and I just wanted to ask you about it. You said, “Blind Faith was a long time ago, and we’ve come a long way since then.” Did you mean personally or did you mean professionally?

Well, I think both. Of course, I guess, I don’t know where that came up, but I suppose since I said “We’ve come along way,” I suppose I meant Eric as well. Obviously, he’s gone through big changes, which his book explains in great detail, he’s gone through massive personal changes in his life, and it’s had a profound effect on him. As I have really, but not quite as drastic as Eric’s. but even so, you know, living through the kind of sixties and the seventies and now, coming up to my 60^th birthday, it’s a long journey. And I still have a love of music, as does Eric. There’s no doubt about it, he still has a love of music. And, um, so but, in following our love of music, we’ve gone through a lot and still kept that foremost in our minds. And also gone through different kinds of music, I certainly have gone through, you know, that pop period in the 80s. And, you know, I suppose Eric did in a way.

There’s an interesting going on between you to guys.

It is interesting. That’s right. So it is quite interesting now that we have suddenly come together now I suppose at this point in our lives to I suppose, really, do some unfinished business.

Three nights only?

Three nights only. Well, yeah, we’ve got no plans to to do anything else.

What about all your British fans?

Well. I’d be happy to do it, but I mean, you know, but it’s one of those things that we decided we wanted to do it bit by bit because the last thing we really want to do is to end up playing something that we both wish we were doing something else. Because that would not be the right thing to do. But, um, it would be fantastic to do it. I say that because Blind Faith were, and have remained, something much stronger in America than they have in England and in Europe. You know, there’s a different, a different view of music a lot in America. I mean, it’s getting much closer but, um, you know it’s still a different thing in England to what it is in America. The heritage side of it is just a little bit different. So, but I’d love to take, you know, to do a thing with Eric and, you know, take it on if this thing goes  -- if these three dates go well – then I’d love to continue.

Is there talk, and I should probably ask you this after the fact, but is there talk now about making each night different, or…

Yeah. Yes. We’ve certainly talked about that. And we spent these three days looking at timings of things and seeing what we can put in, because we’ve definitely got a surplus of material that we can, uh, so we can do different things.

Can you tell me maybe just three or four songs that you’re really excited about now, uh, that are just…hot?

There’s the, yeah, um, yeah I mean we’re touching on some things like “Sleeping in the Ground” which is fantastic at hand. To hear Eric play “No Face, No Number” is great. And, um, uh, and of course some of that Blind Faith stuff is great to play. Really good to play.

Nice.

Yeah. Fantastic. Really good. Yeah, and I think in a way it was nice to see Eric with a small band like that because it forced him, you know, just out a little bit. Which was great to see. Yeah that’s what’s great about these shows, cause it’s a tight little band.

Yeah, it is just a five-piece band.

As opposed to Eric’s normal band which might be eight or nine pieces.

That’s right. We did discuss this, um, this was the first thing we really discussed about – what size band? And I was quite keen to keep it small because it makes it more…

Dynamic.

You know, you have to work harder. You know, it’s good stuff. It brings things out.

So you don’t seem nervous at all.

Not really. Not really. I’m looking forward to getting back into the Garden again after so long.