Celebrating the 22 anniversary of the release of Izzy Stradlin and The Ju Ju Hounds album
Q. On 13 October it will be 22 years from the release of the album Izzy Stradlin and The Ju Ju Hounds. The album has aged well, with charm?
A. 22 years? Wow thank you for the reminder Ricardo, I suppose we should thank the record company Geffen for allowing it to still be in print when so many great albums are discontinued. That must be evidence enough that it’s held up well over the years. Charm? Yes. Thank you for noticing hahaa
Q. How the Ju Ju Hounds arise? Izzy and you were the core of the band, ‘cause you have time being friends?
A. Izzy and I were friends before, during, and after his band GunsNRoses. I was vacuuming my apartment when I heard Kurt Loder of MTV News break the story that he’d quit the band. I remember thinking “Wow, ballsy move, but I wonder what he’s going to do next?” when the phone rang, and it was him calling from Indiana. We exchanged some small talk, and then he asked me what I was doing. I said “vacuuming my apartment’ and he said “No, I mean what are you doing musically”. I’d been in my first band The Broken Homes for 6 years, but only months before we’d lost our guitar player and band founder Craig Ross to the Lenny Kravitz Band where he still is today…so I’d gone to my friend Marc Ford’s band Burning Tree…but that only lasted until Marc went to the Black Crowes. So naturally I answered ‘nothing’ to Izzy’s question, and he replied “I’ll be at your house in 72 hours”….and he was. When he showed up it was clear he’d ridden his Harley from Indiana since he had a road tan and bugs in his teeth
Q. You were clear from the start that it would be a rock n ‘roll basics and direct band?
A. I don’t remember any specific discussions about what we wanted it to sound like, but yes that’s the music that came naturally out of the collaboration between the members.
Q. How began to compose new songs? Izzy was in Indiana after Guns n ‘Roses …
A. Yes. He drove to my house…and then..we decided to start rehearsing, but we hadn’t yet figured out who else was going to be in the band. We did a few rehearsals with Doni Gray from Burning Tree (who ultimately played drums on ‘Come on Now Inside” and “Can’t Hear Em” on the released version)
and I remember auditioning a guitarist or two..when Izzy said he’d like someone who plays like Rick Richards. My band had toured with the Georgia Satellites for quite a while, and Rick was a friend of mine, so I figured why not get Rick Richards? So I called him up and he flew out to California. We still needed a permanent drummer, and one day as I was driving to practice I got a call from Charlie Quintana who had played drums for The Broken Homes briefly (and more notably with Bob Dylan). Charlie had heard what was going on and asked me if he could come and ‘audition’. When he showed up that was it. No auditions necessary.
Q. The two best songs, Shuffle It All and Somebody Knocking have your signature with Izzy. Why not follow more collaborative composition between you both? The results sure must be better than better…
A. Thank you for the compliment. There were some great collaborations on that record. One of my favorites, Time Gone By, was written by Izzy and Rick together. Izzy is a gifted collaborator and I enjoyed writing with him very much. I agree that he should do it more…with me or without me.
Q. What were the expectations of the band upon entry to record the Total Access Studios in Redondo Beach?
A. We really didn’t want to be in Hollywood during that period. For many reasons. Alan Niven had a relationship with the guys at Total Access, and Izzy had rented a house in Palos Verdes-a beautiful suburb of LA- so he was already close to the studio. It all was going along great down there…until the Los Angeles riots broke out. When that happened we found we were sort of in the middle of it all. I remember we were recording with Stan Lynch from Tom Petty’s band on drums…just some Chuck Berry song if memory serves…and when the engineer came over the studio speakers to tell us “Automatic weapons fire on Hawthorne Blvd!!)- which was a couple of blocks from us- I turned to ask Stan if he thought we should leave. What I saw was a pair of headphones hanging in mid-air since he’d taken off so fast out of there in his Jaguar heading home…and I haven’t seen him since! Hahaha!
Izzy and I grabbed the tapes and the guitars…and maybe or maybe not some guns…and headed up to his house to defend it from any looters..or whatever…seems like a bit of an overreaction, but at the time it seemed like the world was ending. Fires everywhere, gunshots all the time…scary stuff. So the next day we moved the whole thing to Chicago..where it’s safe..hahaha
Q. Is it true that you had no record deal signed when you started recording?
A. I really don’t know. I figured my job was to help Izzy make the best record we could make, and hoped everything else would sort itself out. Which it did…for a while at least..
Q. What was your relationship and work with producer Eddie Ashworth?
A. I think Eddie came with Total Access Studios…I never really thought about it…one day he was just ..there. Our working relationship was perfect. Eddie’s a really easy-going guy with a wonderful personality and had the extraordinary ability to capture the vibe of what we were doing on tape. That’s not an easy task. Eddie became a part of the band and moved with us to Chicago, and later to London to play mandolin. Lovely man.
Q. What was the first song recorded?
A. Wow..good question. I think maybe it was Can’t Hear Em since Doni was on it..before Charlie came along. The song wasn’t finished though until we were in Chicago and I’d seen Mikey Dread play at the Cubby Bear. I invited him back to the studio where Izzy asked him if he’d do a speaking part on the song. That made the track, and it ended up being a really cool thing. It was just Izzy and I in Chicago at that point, and Mikey called his drummer and guitarist Djate Richards down to join us. We stayed awake all night just playing…some Izzy songs and some Mickey Dread songs…I learned so much from them about reggae playing…Izzy and I both did. Djate is credited on the album as well. I’m forever grateful for that experience. Rest in peace Mikey. Hi Djate!
Q. What were your recording schedules? Office Opening hours or schedules Beatles style (until dawn)?
A. It depends on which day hahaha! Izzy was in his first year of sobriety back then, so late nights were rarer than usual…but that night with Mikey Dread lasted a week at least!
Q. How does the participation of Craig Ross as lead guitarist on Somebody Knocking?
A. Craig came down before we’d enlisted Rick as a permanent member. We didn’t have a guitar player yet so I asked Craig if he’d come down to help out, even though he was already with Lenny and too busy to tour with join the band. When Craig had to leave, I called Marc Ford. Marc couldn’t be credited officially on the album because of contractual restrictions with The Black Crowes, but that’s him playing lead on Somebody Knockin’.
Q. How did the collaboration of Ronnie Wood emerged on the album? Is it true that the call came first from Ronnie Wood to hear his new album?
A. Izzy and Ronnie had met a few years earlier when the Stones invited Axl and Izzy to join them on stage for one of the first Pay Per View cable TV concerts to be televised in USA. The show was in Atlantic City on the Steel Wheels Tour, just days after GnR had opened for the Stones at the LA Coliseum. Izzy invited me along as a guest. I remember the four of us, Axl ,Izzy, Alan Niven and myself flying to Atlantic City as guests of the Rolling Stones. Memories don’t get much better than that one.
Ronnie had arrived in LA to record his own album Slide On This at A&M studios at the same time we were already working at Total Access. I’m not quite sure who called who, but when it came time to pick him up to take him the the studio Izzy and I were both so excited we showed up at his house a bit early. He told us he’d just then put a movie on and wanted to watch the whole movie first before going to the studio!. Izzy and I were so excited we could hardly keep still…and were horrified when he announced that the movie was going to be Spartacus…which is nearly 3 hours long!! Hahaha..we finally got him there though…that was one of the loooong nights hahahaa.
Q. Having a true Stone in a record with a Stone musical orientation, must have been amazing …
A. We had a few Stones and Faces hanging around. Yes it was very nice. Nerve-wracking, but nice!
Q. In Take a Look At The Guy also participated a legendary piano player: Nicky Hopkins. That was one of his last recordings before dying prematurely at 50 …
A. That particular track was Ian McLagan on piano. Nicky played on a few others, but Mac, who played on the original with Ronnie, tracked it again live in the room with all of us. It was a wonderful moment for us, and I hope he enjoyed revisiting that song with us as well.
Nicky was simply an astounding musician. I have cassette tapes of endless jams with him, and all of them are amazing. He died at 50?? Shit! I’m 50! He was pretty fragile at the time…I remember him walking straight into a glass door face first and we were all horrified thinking we’d killed Nicky Hopkins when he got up and was fine. Just the bill of his baseball cap was sticking straight up hahaa!
We were sitting there discussing how the the piano part he’d been playing on Come On Now Inside sounded a bit too much like Moonlight Mile, but when we mentioned it to Nicky, forgetting that it was him on the original, he said “what’s wrong with me ripping myself off?” We didn’t have an answer to that one…
Q. Izzy has always supported his passion for Faces. Ian McLagan played in six songs. He came through Ronnie Wood?
A. I was in a band with Mac a little while before Ju Ju Hounds. Ian McLagan and the Bump Band. In fact, Craig and Marc were members as well at different times. I’m sure we both asked him to do it at different times, and he agreed. Twice! I still speak with Mac as often as possible.
Q. It has been said that Ju Ju Hounds is the best Keith Richards album without Keith. Do you think that is so purist lost potential for greater commercial success?
A. I think many factors attribute to why it didn’t have more commercial success in the USA. At the time the album and shows seemed to be well-received in Europe and Japan, but when we got home it was as though all anyone wanted to know was why he left GnR, and why we weren’t doing GnR songs. That sort of killed a lot of the vibe for us. Very frustrating for us, and especially for him.
Q. Why the Ju Ju Hounds disbanded? You had already recorded two songs (Memphis and Good Enough) that finally included on the next solo album of Izzy …
A. Those two songs were taken from the last time the Ju Ju Hounds recorded in a room together- at Caribbean Sound Basin, Maraval, Trinidad. That was when Izzy left us there. We weren’t quite finished with the 2nd album…all he had to do was sing it. There were a lot more songs. I’ve been trying to find the answer to that question for 22 years.
Q. Since then you keep contact with Izzy Stradlin, with Rick?
A. I have kept in contact with Rick for 30 years. We’ll always be great friends. I’d very much like to be friends with Iz again too, if I could find him. I find it very hard to understand how people who’ve spent so much time together and shared so many experiences can just walk away and shut down…but I suppose I’m not the only one who wonders that from time to time.
Q. You play the Ju Ju Hound frequently? Still hear it?
A. Actually, for many years it was very difficult for me to hear it. Lots of frustration and unanswered questions plagued me for many years, and some still do. Sadly at that time this led to some very self-destructive behavior on my part which ended by me being incarcerated with the California Dept of Corrections. State Prison.
So no, it’s been a while.
Coincidentally though, on my recent drive home from Texas where I’ve begun working with Hunt Sales (Iggy Pop, David Bowie) I re-connected with Alan Niven who I also hadn’t seen since 1994 or 95. Alan just yesterday sent me the live EP we’d recorded when the band was really at the top of it’s game in Dublin and Belfast. What a great band that was. It sounded like I was listening to it for the first time.
Q. What are your current musical projects?
A. I was recently on the road with a band for almost 9 years without stopping. I needed a break after that, so I did nothing for almost a year while half-heartedly looking around in LA for something new and REAL. I couldn’t find it..at all. I knew I needed a great singer and an even better drummer, but most of all it had to be real after my last experience had left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. At least I’d learned a lot during that time and I’m grateful for having been given the opportunity.
I’m a bass player and collaborator in writing. I can’t do it alone, and I’ve been doing this long enough to realize nobody’s interested in hearing from me on my own, so I need other guys.
Right when I was starting to worry I’d never be able to find what I was looking for, I got a call from my friend Hunt Sales in Austin,Texas. He sent me a few songs and I immediately realized I’d found both singer and drummer in one person! Bonus!
I just got back home from recording with him in Austin in time to write this interview, and together we hope to have something new coming for 2015 – if the “Music Business Gods” allow us, of course…
Q.What do you think that so many years later the people and in the musical publications still talk about the album?
A. I think it’s simply wonderful, and Im very grateful…and I hope the reason they listen in not only because Izzy was in GnR.
Q. The rock n ‘roll is dead?
A. This is an issue that’s generating much controversy these days, and I’ve noticed that it depends a lot on who says it and where they are located in the world. I think we need to be more specific to which region of the globe we’re referring to when discussing this topic. In North America we still have 99% of the people living outside of cosmopolitan city centers like LA, NYC, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, et cetera. In these somewhat more rural areas we now have a few generations of people to whom the idea…the ethic..the fashion, the style…the image ..the swagger and the confidence of rock and roll that my contemporaries lived and breathed 24 hours a day, is no longer important to their lives. They’re focused on jobs and work and trying to survive. Kids have so many other options with video games, technology, screens…They no longer have the time or the desire to learn what the hell ‘rock and roll even is. These are places where radio is still king, and most of what they describe as being ‘rock’ is what guys like us would describe as heavy metal or hair band music. Butt Rock hahaa! The working people hear music mainly in their cars while driving to and from their jobs. They are being force-fed only the mainstream hits they hear on the radio stations, which all play the same shit because they’re all owned by the same people. Then, when one of these bands come to their town, they go to the concert. It doesn’t seem to matter to them if its Nickelback, Kid Rock, or Travis Tritt or they guy with the hat orJay Z or whatever. They make no distinction between the genres. They go because they saw them on TV or heard them on the radio. It’s a self-propagating issue I’m afraid. We’ve ended up with a nation of “RnR tourists”, if I can borrow the illustrious Chris Robinson’s phrase.
However, in the cities you’ll find most of the forward thinking young people who are still working valiantly at learning from previous generations and really studying the history of music.
Even though they face almost insurmountable challenges like fewer places to play, a couple of generations who’ve decided that recorded music has zero value, they’re doing the best they can and some great music is coming from them. All over the world as well. Its very frustrating that young people abroad are sometimes under the impression that they’re hearing everything that comes out of US and Canada, when that’s certainly not the case. There are thousands of bands they’ll never get to hear unless they search for them on the internet, bands that will never get a recording contract because nobody will risk spending any money on supporting their development. Luckily many fans do take the time to dig around for these gems, and some of the luckiest of them are somehow able to scrape together the money to get to the countries where their efforts are appreciated. Europe, South and Central America, and Japan have always seemed to appreciate American rock and roll much more than the Americans do themselves. Sometimes you guys have to help us so that we’re able to come back here and show these people that there are people out there who understand what we’ve been trying to do. Rock and Roll is a quintessentially American commodity. It’s time that it is treated as such before we don’t have anyone left alive who knows how to make it. I hope someday the business people here will realize this and we’ll get some rock radio stations back in the mix, since I’ve always believed there is an audience here who wants it. Once someone figures out there’s money in it, it’ll happen. I just hope that by then it’s not too late.
I know for a fact that if the Ju Ju Hounds album hadn’t involved Izzy Stradlin formerly of Guns N Roses we’d have been dead in the water from the start. We’d never have even been signed, let alone been able to tour the world. Luckily the business guys saw enough potential dollar signs in it to leave us alone and allow us to do what we’re good at. We got lucky on that one.
Thank you very much for your kindness and time, Jimmy. Keep on rockin’ and greets from the Dominican Republic…
You’re very welcome Ricardo, and I’m so very sorry I was late. Mucho gusto!
Copyright © 2014 Ecos del Vinilo.
Todos los derechos reservados. Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial sin previa autorización del autor.
