I started in a garage band in Long Beach.  Slowly got a record deal together.  One of the fellows in that group was Russ Kunkel, along with myself and two other guys.  The group was called The Things To Come and we were on Warner Brothers at the time.  After that ran its course Russell and I split up to get more into the recording scene.  Russell started to work with John Stewart, then one of the bass players they were using didn't make it, or whatever, so I went down to work with John and I ended up working with him for at least two years.  We did a year's worth of road stuff, Christiana Lodge, Lake Tahoe, San Rafael, that kind of stuff.....he's still doing it, still playing in all those places.  I had a great time.  His songs were really great.....it was right after ''Ca1ifornia Bloodlines''.  All those songs, 'Missouri Birds' , 'Keeping my eyes on the Omaha Rainbow'.  I stayed with John until both Russell and I left to work with Dave Mason and Cass Elliott.

That group went and did its thing for about eight months.  I had a couple of tunes on the album.  Slowly went from there.....I met Bill Szymczyk through my wife, Pepper, who was working at Dunhill as Bill's secretary.  Bill was in a pinch for a rhythm section for a session so Pepper said, ''My husband plays bass and his friend plays drums,'' so we went down and did the session for him.  At the session I met Joe Walsh, and we all had such a great time we all said, 'Sometime we'll get together and form a group.'  We did B.B.King records together, played with James Taylor a little bit, I did a couple of things for Jackson Browne, then I met James again.  Did the ''Willard'' record where James played on a couple of things.  We sang a bit, did some things with Carole King.
 

I show him the "Willard'' liner photos.

Yes, that brings back some memories.  That was at Crystal Sound.  ''Willard'' was the first album I did with John.  I actually got to meet Willard Jefferson, because he came out to see John.  The original album concept was to have a coloured picture of Willard on the front cover sitting on a step.  It never came out, so I've got the original picture and I've got that framed in my house. We rehearsed this album at Peter Asher's house and it was fun, lots of fun.  That's where I first met Kootch, and I eventually played with all these people many times again.  I think John had a big influence on my trip, just through getting into the lyrics he was writing.  The music is fairly simple, but the lyrics is what really snagged me.  Through him I met Peter, which pulls you into that place where I wanted to be, which is more into the studio thing.  You get to play with better people all the time.

Every time he would cut an album he'd give me a buzz and I'd go down and play on something or other.  I just had dinner with John not too long ago.  He and Buffy moved down to a place in Malibu Beach.  We went down there and hung out, had a great meal and he spilt steak juice on my sweater.  I finally left him in 1970 to go with Dave Mason, as I told you.  That was a real touch and go situation all the time.  We did just two live performances.  At the Santa Monica Civic and The Filmore East, right before they closed it.  Had a good time.  Russell was in that band and Paul Harris played the keyboards.  Went from there to a group called Flo which was a whole 'nother bizarre ball game Zanzini (?) Brothers.  Then just kicked around lots of sessions in Los Angeles recording with a bunch of people.  That's a while ago.

I worked on John David Souther's first album, which was really neat.  Had a good time.  Went up to San Mateo with Fred Catero producing.  Did that and went back and recorded with Ned Doheny a little on his first album.  That was the time I was with Flo & Eddie.  Stayed in town for about eight months after that, looking around here and there.  Did some more sessions for Bill, a couple of albums for B.B. King, Jackie De Shannon, just so many people I really can't remember.

Eventually, I was with Dick James, pushing tunes for Philip Goodham-Tait, and Joe Walsh called me and asked if I wanted to work for him.  I stayed with Joe for two years then, after that Wembley concert with Elton, Eagles and the Beach Boys, we finished the tour in July of that year, and in January 1976 Joe went and joined the Eagles.  It didn't really surprise me that he joined them because he used them on some of his album album cuts, and they were real good friends.  Joe was at a point where he wanted to do.....he was tired being the leader and carrying that responsibility.  He just wanted to be in a band and pick up his ass and play, because he can really do that.  We changed bands all the time.  There were personnel changes every tour and I seemed to last the longest.

Let's see.  What did I do after that?  I did a couple of albums for David Cassidy.  We just got through doing one this year in June.  The first one we did in November 1975 at RCA in Los Angeles with Bruce Johnston producing, and the most recent one in May and June at Caribou.  Gerry Beckley.  From there I did some work with Blondie Chaplin, who was in the Beach Boys for a while and played at that Wembley gig.  During those things there were all little incidental sessions around, little projects for people, just my friends.  I built a music room at my house, did stuff like that, worked on my old cars, wrote some songs, just tried to stay alive.  Then I got the call from Jackson Browne.  I met him when he cut his first album in 1970.  I went down and played on one track.  Tried to do one track with him and that's where I really got to know him first.  But I've seen him in a lot of places.  Parties in Los Angeles, I'd always run into Jackson at Eagles' concerts, or Joe's or James'.  I heard that he was trying to get his band together through a friend of mine, Gary Mallaber, and that he hadn't finalised the personnel.  I called John David, because I guessed he might be doing some singing on Jackson's record.  I said, "Tell him I'm not doing anything and to give me a jingle if he's interested."  He called me up, told me what the tour was and how long it was gonna be, all that kind of stuff.  I said, "O.K. Great.''  We've been out since October 1st, working like crazy.  We get back to the States for Christmas, then head out again in February for Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Could you fill in for me the backgrounds of the other members of Jackson's band?

David Mason played with Todd Rundgren for a while and did a couple of albums with him.  Mark Jordan, who plays the piano (David plays the organ) he played about four years with Dave Mason.  Gets a little confusing.  He's really good, real talented. David Lindley you already know, and he is just the greatest.  The drummer, John Mesera, used to play with Batdorf and Rodney.  Everyone's been around a bit and had some experience of touring and trying to pull it off.  The guy that was with us earlier but left before we came over to Europe, was David Landau, the younger brother of Jon Landau who produced ''The Pretender".  David's from Cambridge and an incredible guitar player.  The Boston Strangler we used to call him.  Everybody's got their own little nicknames.  I'm the Sicilian Blueflame or the Blueflame of Sicily Chateau.  David Mason is the Mouse that roared.  Jordan is the David Crosby lookalike, or I call him Pumpkin Face, he's so rolly poy.  Jackson calls Mesera Darkface. I call Jackson, Junction Browne.  It's been fun, it's been real hard, though.

Why did David Landau go?

Well, there was an awful lot of people, and the original concept for this tour was that Jackson wasn't going to play an instrument.  He wanted to give it a go at standing up there and singing, but he felt a little bit uncomfortable, I guess.  He started to play, and when he played and we had Jackson and David Lindley playing guitar, and David Landau also, there was too much happening on stage.  With Jackson's material you need to have a certain amount of space, and it's actually better to have less people than too many.  You have too many and it gets cluttered.  So David just didn't come over on this trip.  I don't know whether he will be coming with us on the next one.  It has been really gruelling, though, we've played a lot of gigs.

Do you enjoy this mix of spending time in the studios, then getting a call like this to go on the road?

Absolutely, I really enjoy it.  That's what I'd like to do all the time, a bit of each.  I like time off in between projects, do a couple of albums here and there then a couple of tours, spend some time at home.  I don't mind being out of work three or four months a year, just to be home and do my thing.  There are a lot of people on this tour.  Most tours aren't really that hard, you don't work as much as we're working.  We're working a lot of days in a row, whereas with Joe we'd do four days in a row and then take a day off, then three more and a day off and so on.  With this one we have blitzed right through.  We did thirty-three shows in thirty days in October.  Lots of double shows, two shows a night.  Our set is about an hour-and-a-half, so we'd be finishing up about 4.30 in the morning, then have to move on the next day.  But it's been fun.  We had a great bus in the States. The new "Rolling Stone" (No.228) shows the bus and what goes on.  It got crazy, just crazy.  That's a lot of people to have on a bus, and after a while there's nothing to do but get crazy.  I'm a little crazy myself, anyway.

Can we go back to your roots, and how you found yourself mixed up in this whole crazy business?

Sure.  My father!  He still is a musician, and I was born in Canada in British Columbia.  He wanted to be a professional musician and earn his living at playing music.  We migrated down from Canada to Washington State, and then down to Long Beach in about '53 or '55 or something.  He taught me how to play guitar, and I've been surrounded by it as far back as I can remember.  I was a guitar player first, then I switched to bass in 1967, probably.  Just picked it up because that was the position open in this other group.  I write tunes and have my own publishing company.  I can play piano, hold my own on drums, can play a few things.  I really love to play drums.  That's what I always wanted to be.  My dad said, "No, they don't make music. They make noise."

Have other artists recorded your songs?

Those two on the Dave Mason and Cass album.  Cass did one as her solo tune, it was called 'Here We Go Again' and the other one was called 'Next To You'.  Got to be the B side of the single, but nothing ever became of it.  Both of those I will record again when I get the chance to record my own tunes.  It'll probably happen this coming year.  I feel better about that now.  I got about thirty that I'd like to do.  They're more in the laid back type of things.  A couple of rock 'n' roll songs, but the majority are just love songs.  I've been influenced by everyone I've ever played with.  John Stewart, Dave Mason, David Crosby, Joe.....the impression I've got from him is how nasty you can actually get on guitar.  You can stir up energy real quick if you know how to use your axe.  I love Joe, he is a good friend, and no matter who he plays with he's definitely gonna add something, because he definitely can play the guitar real well.  Now he's with Eagles, what they left was the country thing with Bernie and added some rock 'n' roll.  Glenn is really raunch city, so I think that's what he's added.  It's nice to hear Joe and Felder play off each other, because their styles are completely different.  If you can get two guitar players that can really cook together, stay out of each other's way and they're not inhibited in any way, they'll cook you right into oblivion.

How did you meet up with Russ Kunkel to get into your group I'd never heard of ?

Well, Things To Come, the name came after.  We both lived in Long Beach.  The guy who was playing keyboards in the group I was with said, "I know this drummer.  You've got to hear him.  He's really great.  Let's go over and see him."  We went over to Russell's house, an apartment house, and he set up his drums outside and started to play for us.  He blew me away.  Did this crazy solo for about 20 minutes.  So we just started playing, and we've been together ever since.  It used to be called The Satin Five, we were The Barons, it was nuts.  Then we got this crazy guy named Steve Renolvsen, a very far out person, he came up with the name Evil.  So, for a while, that's what we were called.  Then, when we left Long Beach, we left Steve behind, and the four of us became The Things To Come and reopened The Whisky A Go Go.  At the time we went up in '68 it was all black, soul music.  Then Elmer Valentine decided to change it back into rock 'n' roll and The Byrds, which at that time still included Chris Hillman and David Crosby, the original band, opened-up the changeover.  We were the opening act for The Byrds, Electric Flag, Traffic, Cream, we were the resident band.

After we moved out, Chicago moved in as resident band.  At that time they were called C.T.A.  Then there was Hourglass, who went on to be The Allman Brothers, and Duane was there.  All these people staying in these little, shabby apartments and playing at The Whisky.  This dumpy motel down the street.  Bought our black leather pants!  That whole thing was really neat for a while.  We played all our own stuff, all original material, and very hard rock 'n' roll.  Real loud!  Marshall stacks.....we purchased the amplifiers from Cream, actually.  When they left they sold them to a musical service and we picked them up from them.  CREAM printed on the back.  Turn it up to ten and scream.....

Was it through this residency that Warners picked you up?

Let's see, how did we get that deal?  There was a girl at Warner Brothers, Pat Slattery, who was a friend of my wife to be. Pat took some people from Warner Brothers to see us at The Whisky.  They said, "Give us a demo tape."  We did that and they said, "That band's great but the songs stink."  We said, "Thanks!"  We looked around for material and they gave us this producer, Dave Hassinger, and we cut some things with him and released a single.

Was this your first experience of the studios?

No.  We had been recording all the time we had been in Long Beach.  A good friend of ours, Dale Davis, had set up a studio at a place in Claremont, and we'd go up there, so we basically had some experience in there.  We'd go up and try things, cut some stuff, but it still takes a lot of getting used to.  Then, somehow, the guy that was managing Things To come (whose name remained nothing at the time), he was managing David Crosby and Peter Fonda.  He picked us up and that's how we got turned on to David.  He listened to our stuff and he really thought some of it was good, so he said he would like to produce a couple of things on us.  Warner Brothers was definitely into that, so we did a couple of cuts with David.  The problems started with Stephen Stills.  David was going to produce an album of us, then he got hung up with Stephen, and then they put together the Crosby, Stills and Nash thing.  It has worked out for the best.  Russell still works with David, and I still see him, but we never did do an album.  We just did four singles for them. I wrote one of them called, 'Hello', Russell wrote another one called 'Come Alive', the other two were obscure pickup tunes that we had done to appease the publishing people at Warner's.

Could you listen to them now?

Sure, oh yeah, it doesn't bother me.  It's terrible, disgusting, but it brings back great memories for me, all that stuff.  I've still got all those demo tapes at my house, and every once in a while I get out of it and go and listen to these things and think, 'Oh, my God, listen to that stuff, would you believe it?'  Great times.  It's like listening to John's records, you know.  They're wonderful. His songs are wonderful.  We did these four or five days up at Lake Tahoe.  Henry Diltz played banjo and harmonica, Russell played drums while I played bass and John played guitar.  We'd go skiing all day, drink red wine and get totally shit faced, ski back down again, come back in and play in this lodge just for room and board.  God, it was awful.  Get sick, go home with no money, bad cold.....''We had a great time, dear!"

Eventually, your group ran its course.....

Yeah, it really did, it couldn't go anywhere but into debt.  We didn't have any management.  I don't think it was ever really meant to be.  There were so many outside influences on the whole thing that it had to stop.  Russell and I both got married, and we really wanted to play, do other things, so we.....I shouldn't say "we".  It was independent of each other, but it happened that we both split to get out there to see if we really could do it on our own.  We started cutting demos for 15 dollars a song, that kind of stuff.  People liked the way we played and that's all it takes.  If you can get heard, you can get the chance, and if you can do it, then you've got half a chance.

How long after the break-up did you and Russ meet up with John Stewart?

Pretty quickly.  Within a year, or so.  Russell was working with him first for a while.  I wasn't even aware of his Kingston Trio connection.  He's a great guy.  Some people can't get it on with him, and vice versa for sure, but he's nuts.  A great guy and a great songwriter.  I just never understood why the people weren't listening to his songs.  What they want to hear is Kiss and all this other shit that I can't even believe.  All this garbage!  Maybe I'm getting very old .....

There's nothing wrong with that.  So am I.  Am I right in guessing that with John you would be working on and off, which gave you the opportunity to keep in touch with studio work?

Yes.  There was a year when he knew we would do, maybe, two weeks here, a little recording, a week there.  If I could make it, great, and I would make it all the time.  I lost one job doing a gig for John.  I had a steady job at the time we played The Christiana, and when he asked me to do this thing I went through all this turmoil in my mind.  'I know I'm gonna lose this job if I go up there.'  I called up sick for about five days, then when I got home I got really sick and had to stay in bed for another three or four days.  They called up and said, "Well....."

Eventually, again, I suppose that ran its course.  As much financially as anything.  After John's thing, Russell had left and we had gotten a few other drummers, and the last gig I played with John was at The Ice House in Pasadena.  Then I went to the Dave Mason band.  That was my biggest thing then, because he was really hot and so was Cass.  It was wonderful for a while.  I had known Cass for a while before I ever worked with her, through another friend of mine.  She went surfing with us one day many years ago.  She sat on the beach!  She was lovely.  I used to really love Cass, she was such a sweetheart.  She taught me how to sing a little better.

I suppose opportunities to sing are limited?

I do a little bit of background stuff with Jackson.  Sing on just one song.  I could sing on a lot more.

There's a weird trip with the microphone situation.  Working with Joe, which was a full, straight ahead rock 'n' roll band with the qualude crowd.....you know.  ''Hey, boogie, boogie," screaming all the time.  We'd pretend to get into it a little better. We'd say, "Go ahead, yell anything you like.  You paid, we've got your money."  Just kidding with the people, goofing off.  If there was a lull in the set with Joe, I could get away with running up to the microphone and saying,  "How many smokers we got out there?"  "Yeeaaah."  "How many drinkers we got out there?"  "Yeeaaah."  ''How many fools we got out there?"  "Yeeeaaaah!" You could say anything.  I did that once with Jackson.  He said, "No, don't do that!"  Jackson's a whole 'nother kind of thing. They took my microphone away!  Jackson says some really nice things in his songs and is real proud of his music and the way it's presented.  I can get into that, for sure.  It's a little different from Joe's band!  David Mason was in Joe's band as well, so we've kicked around for a long time, got through a few things together.

Are you hoping to get into production and that side of things eventually?

Yeah, I've dabbled with that a little bit.  I did about half an album, six or seven tracks, for a female singer on ABC Records a couple of years ago when I was still working with Joe.  I'd like to do it again, I'd like to produce somebody at some point.  I don't think I can tour for ever.  I really want to get my writing trip going.  My writing is together, I just don't have the time.  I know exactly who I would call and who would come and play on the album.  With Jackson, he writes everything.  All the lyrics, writes all his changes and puts them all together.  My thing is interplay between people.  I'm really open to suggestions, because I don't think I know all there is to know about putting it all together.  But I haven't made four albums before, either! I've played on quite a few and seen how other people put it together and that's shown me in my own mind that when I do it, I'll call this guy for drums because of his suggestions which he would give, and so on.  That's why I feel my songs are more group orientated than solo.

Apart from going halfway round the world with Jackson, and maybe recording your own album, do you see anything else clearly defined for yourself in the future, or is it all roll with the flow?

My family.  I'm really into my family.  I have these two boys and they are just the best.  I live in my house in Southern California, and I love to spend my time there with them.  That's really what I want to do.  Spend my life with them.  Go out on the road, make some bucks, be able to take them and show them things they've never seen before.  Man, I can't think of anybody I'd rather do that with.  Oh, and stay healthier than I am right now!