Interview by Steve Escobar
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Mick Taylor
Being a lifelong purist I remember listening to the Rolling Stones since I was a little kid and finding it tough at first to adjust to the replacement of my favorite Stone, Brian Jones, the creator and a onetime guiding light for the Stones. After losing control of the band to Don Knott’s evil twin, Brian unfortunately fell from the vine and withered away. Enter Mick Taylor, a young, fresh and bluesy addition to the band that had we kids researching this new guy’s past and finding his guitar playing the best part of those John Mayall albums he played on. Sticking to his blues roots, Mick Taylor would remind us of who The Rolling Stones were — a blues band — playing blues riffs all over whatever was put in front of him. As great as those early Stones records were, none but maybe “Beggar’s Banquet” was ever considered a classic. Ironically though, four out of the six Stones albums that Taylor played on are indeed classics. Mick Taylor has a style all his own, not repeating cliche’d blues riffs three or four times per song like some other “guitar greats” from the same era. Mick Taylor still makes his guitar sing on his new album “A Stone’s Throw”, again sticking to his blues roots along with a little pop, rock, and Latin seasoned tunes.
Mick spoke with me from his home in Britain. Talking about starting out, John Mayall, road stories with the Rolling Stones, the new album, etc….
Listen Along
SE: At what age did you start playing guitar?
MT: I started playing with a group of school friends in a — what you call a highschool band — playing American rhythm and blues and pop music. I was like 12 or 13. And by the time I was 17 I was more and more into blues because there was a kind of underground blues scene in England for some reason from which people like myself, and before me Eric Clapton and Peter Greene, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, kind of all emerged. It’s quite interesting really.
SE: Who were you listening to as a kid? Who influenced you?
MT: Well, American music. Any English musician will tell you that the music we all listened to was American music, American rock ‘n roll, American rhythm and blues, American jazz in my case. That was the music that was popular over here and some musicians gravitated more towards the more popular kind of stuff or TAMLA/Motown and some like myself who were guitar players just naturally were drawn to a more bluesy kind of urban style of blues. Some guys played acoustic blues. The early 60’s in England were like sort of a melting pot of different ideas really and English musicians kind of reinvented that music or at least gave it their own sound in some peculiar way. But I don’t think of it as American music now. It’s kind of a universal blues scene now all over the world. I mean, in some ways blues music, be it traditional blues music or whatever you want to call it, is more popular now then it ever was. I mean it’s still not a kind of huge mainstream thing, but it’s still popular. And I think there’s always people that want to listen to somebody that can play the guitar or any other instrument really well.
SE: I sense that you’re a fan of Albert King?
MT: I was, yeah I was. When I started playing with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers I was very influenced by Albert King and over the years I’ve sort of developed my own style, my own sound, but if you listen to our new CD (“A Stone’s Throw”) we don’t just play straight blues. I think my guitar playing is still very blues oriented. You couldn’t call it anything else but bluesy. Perhaps you could call it jazzy, but I don’t play like a jazz guitar player. I don’t have a jazz guitar player’s sound. I have a blues sound I suppose.
SE: So you started playing with John Mayall’s band in your late teens?
MT: Seventeen, yeah.SE: Seventeen. So you played with him for two years?
MT: No, I was actually with him for nearly four years. I did two American tours and lots of European tours before I even joined the Stones so it was great actually playing with John Mayall in those days because I got a chance to not only play with some of the most fantastic, original blues artists from Chicago that are now no longer alive, but I got to meet alot of people and alot of musicians in the States and it was a wonderful time really.
SE: And you were with that band when you were approached to join the Stones?
MT: I’d just left John Mayall actually. We’d just come back from a tour in early 1969 and John Mayall had known the Rolling Stones since their early days when John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and the Rolling Stones were both playing in the clubs in London and all over England on the club circuit. You know, playing as part of this sort of English rhythm and blues scene really, so he knew Mick and Keith and he knew that they were looking for a guitar player to replace Brian so….he suggested me and they called me up and asked me if I would go down to Olympic Studios and do a session. And I said I would. They were recording “Let It Bleed.”
SE: Do you remember the first song you worked on together?
MT: Yeah I do. It was called “Live With Me,” very appropriately named because once I joined the Stones, it was like living with a family actually for the next five or six years. It was an interesting session actually because they were putting the finishing touches on “Let It Bleed” and the first track I played on was “Live With Me” and we did that live. And the second thing I did was I overdubbed my guitar part on “Honky Tonk Woman.”
SE: You know, I read once that Brian Jones rearranged that from a country song to a funky, bluesy rock song.
MT: No, No, they did. In fact I’ll tell what I found out not long after I joined them actually….Keith was using alot of open tunings then, open G tuning. And I found out really that just prior to me joining the Stones, Ry Cooder had been playing with them a little bit and working with Mick Jagger on the soundtrack to that movie “Performance.” And so , I think that Keith was very influenced by Ry Cooder’s tuning, you know the open delta blues style tunings, and that’s where he got that open G tuning from. Because if you listen to Rolling Stones music prior to 1969, there’s none of that open tuning, very distinctive chord stuff like you get on “Brown Sugar” and “Honky Tonk Woman”…and what else….”Start Me Up”. Anything you care to mention, you know. It’s all got that big sort of heavy open tuning chord. So alot of the time Keith would be playing open tuning and I’d play in regular tuning or we’d switch back and forth. We never really thought of ourselves…I never thought of myself as a lead guitar player and he certainly didn’t think of himself as just a rhythm guitar player. We just sort of played together and whatever happened happened. In fact in the studio it was quite creative actually because I got a chance to try alot of different things I’d never done before because when we made records with John Mayall we used to go into the studio and it was basically like doing a set on stage. I mean we’d set up the equipment and he’d count the songs in and say, ” This is a twelve bar in G” and off we’d go. And we’d do two takes and that would be it. But with the Stones it was different. They had a different approach to recording. They had the luxury of being able to spend more time in the studio and alot of the songs were actually written just by playing together and jamming and throwing different ideas around. Most of their music was written in the studio. Very little of it actually was composed by Mick and Keith together outside of the studio. I mean some songs were, but most of it was just a kind of loose collaboration in the studio and it would gradually come together.
SE: Now you’re a songwriter. Did you write some songs back then?
MT: No, not in the very beginning, no. Well, actually I had co-written some stuff with John Mayall. Yeah, yeah I had. But in the very beginning with the Stones I didn’t write anything. I mean, I did contribute alot in terms of ideas and there’s a few songs that maybe I should have got some credit for. But everybody kind of knows that.
SE: Any songs in particular that come to mind?
MT: “Time Waits For Noone,”..um…”Moonlight Mile,” “Sway,” and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” Not very many, but you know, they’re good songs.
SE: So, I know that Brian Jones unfortunately was kind of a mess towards the end…
MT: Well, everybody says he was. I mean I never actually met him you know, but…yeah I suppose he was, otherwise… I mean, I think it was kind of 50/50. I think he wanted to leave anyway and they wanted him to leave as well. As to what the reasons were it would be unfair for me to speculate because I kind of know that there were problems…it possibly had to do with a woman..(laughing)
SE: Yeah?
MT: Oh yeah. It was probably to do with women, you know and all the usual kinds of stuff that guys in bands fight about when they’re in a band together. At least that’s probably how it started anyway. But I’m not going to say anymore. (laughing)
SE: What do you think of his playing though?
MT: I thought he was quite creative, but you see that’s another thing that I don’t know. I mean…he does have a sort of mystique about him because he was the original member of the Stones and he was the one who thought of the name, and he played slide guitar. Some people say he was the best musician in the band. I mean..others say that he may have been in the very beginning, but he really wasn’t. Like I said, I can’t really comment on that. I think he had alot of interesting ideas that he brought to the Stones though.
SE: You two kind of parallel because all throughout your time with the band you both never really strayed from your roots. Whereas, say after you left the group, they just went any way the wind blew.
MT: I think that during the period I was with them, we did actually go in alot of different directions. I mean, there were alot of songs that we did that they’ve never really repeated. The same type of song like…well…let me think…I mean there’s all kinds of songs on “Goats Head Soup,” which is not my favorite album, but still has got some good stuff on it and “It’s Only Rock and Roll” has a few tracks. I mean, it’s quite varied if you listen to all the songs.. they’re quite varied. But you’re quite right. All of those records are very distinctive and some of the records they’ve done since then have been distinctive, you know.
SE: Well…(laughs)
MT: Well no, they have. I mean, some of them have.
SE: Some of them.
MT: I think in those days we…I say we because it was a collective thing..I mean I was very much a part of the band…
SE: Very much!
MT: Well, I was in my early twenties and they were in their mid twenties and when I joined them it was like the beginning of a new band. They hadn’t even played together live for two years so the whole thing about touring and making an album every year was quite a new thing.
SE: You know, everyone that I’ve ever known who was a Stone’s fan only wants the Mick Taylor stuff.
MT: Yeah I know because I meet alot of these people on the road. I don’t know why that is. Because it’s good…maybe for a few people it’s for nostalgic reasons, but also, I’ve actually met alot of younger musicians on the road that like that stuff..which kind of surprises me.
SE: Well you added a certain quality that they just don’t have anymore.
MT: Alot of other people say that too. It’s a musical thing, yeah.
SE: It’s like when I hear all of these bootlegs of your live shows, and then I hear something like “Love You Live” and I mean, what were they thinking, you know?
MT: Yeah.
SE: Compared to the bootlegs, “Love You Live” was an insult.
MT: Oh yeah, yeah, I see what you mean, yeah. I’m sure that one day that stuff will be released actually.
SE: I hope so.
MT: Yeah, I think so.
SE: So, was there kind of a weird feeling replacing the guy that formed the band and named it?
MT: No, not at all. No, no there really wasn’t. I mean, there’s some people that even think that I joined the Stones because Brian Jones died you know, but that’s not really true. I mean the story as I told you…no it didn’t feel weird at all in fact, I kind of instantly felt like I was with a bunch of guys that you know…they were like five or six years older and I used to actually think of them as old when I was twenty one (laughs). The very first time I met them, the first session I was telling you about when we recorded “Live With Me,” I mean everybody sort of drifted off and started doing different things and nobody had really said to me if they wanted me to join the band…or what they wanted me to do, because I wasn’t sure if I was there just to do a session or whether they wanted me to join the band, so at one point I just said, “Well, if you guys aren’t gonna play I’m going home.” (laughs) And I did.(laughs) I said “O.K. Can I go now if you don’t need me anymore. I don’t want to sort of hang around the studio doing nothing.” And then the next day they asked me to join them. We became good friends after that and things got kind of crazy because, but for no other reason then we were traveling all the time with young families. I mean, we lived in the South of France, we did two big American tours, and the rest of the time we were pretty much in the studio cause when you think about it…we did six albums in six years.
SE: They don’t do that anymore.
MT: Yeah.
SE: It’s more like one album every six years.
MT: Yeah.
SE: And with all that touring, you must have started to get on each others nerves.
MT: No, not really. I think we got on each others nerves in the studio…well some of us. It got to a situation where we weren’t all always in the studio at the same time. We were always together when we were just playing, trying to make up songs or messing around jamming, you know. Alot of the times Keith wasn’t there or Bill wasn’t there, or Mick and Keith were doing mixing sessions together…in fact, I used to sit in on the mixing sessions alot. But by about 1974, the band started to develop extra musical problems that got in the way of everybody’s personal life. And just from the perspective of a young musician I didn’t really sort of think that I really was going to stay in the band much longer and I didn’t see why I shouldn’t try and do something else. And so, I left in 1975.
SE: Your first solo album was great.MT: Yeah. I liked it yeah. It came out at a weird time because it came out during the time when punk music and all kinds of other stuff was happening, and also I didn’t go on the road and play which is criminal really…but I didn’t..so it didn’t really help, you know…so things kind of fell apart for me after that.
SE: You mentioned the punk scene which reminds me of what I was trying to say earlier when I said that the Stones went off into all these different directions. When you were with the band, it was basically rock, blues, and country which is all kind of related…
MT: Yeah. They were the main three influences. You could crystallize what you just said in the sense that you’ve got a song like “Sweet Virginia” and you know, you’ve got a song like “Brown Sugar” and you’ve got “Dead Flowers”….Yeah, there’s alot of country influence there.
SE: And then after you left they went punk, they went disco, they went soul, they went reggae..They didn’t know what the hell to grab onto.
MT: Yeah, although I actually liked the one…the very first album they did after I left.
SE: “Black and Blue”?
MT: “Black and Blue”, yeah.
SE: I like that one also, but for me I think it was I can still hear a hint of your influence on it.
MT: I don’t know what it is. I just like some of the songs. I like “Crazy Mama” and I like “Hand of Fate”. I think they’re really good rock n roll songs.
SE: When I was a kid I’d hear rumors that you actually played on “Hand of Fate”.
MT: Yeah, well there were alot of different guitar players on that. I mean, I always thought that Ronnie Wood was gonna take over for me so I don’t really know why they bothered to even think about having anybody else. Cause I’ve know Ronnie Wood since I was fifteen and he and I used to play together even before the John Mayall days and ….since I was on board and wanted something to do I started playing with Ronnie Wood again in early 1974. And then Mick and Keith came down to his studio and we all started playing with him. So they became good friends of his as well, and it was kind of obvious to me that if I did leave, that he would kind of…or at least I thought it was anyway, that he would immediately take over. But they did try out a few other guitar players… but he did join anyway.
SE: Just a couple more Brian Jones questions…
MT: Yeah.
SE: When you all heard that he died, you were all in the studio working on ” Don’t Know Why”?
MT: I don’t know the exact song, but it was from that period, yeah, and I think Eric Clapton was in the studio with us as well.
SE: That must have been weird.
MT: It was the same studio obviously that we had just finished “Let It Bleed” in. But we were doing some other stuff that’s only been released on bootleg and the “Metamorphosis” album I think. Was it weird?….well for me as an outsider to the whole situation it wasn’t weird. It was kind of…I can’t say that they were totally ….well, they were very upset obviously, but it wasn’t like…”Oh no, this can’t possibly be true!”, you know, but his death was an accident. All these conspiracy theories that I hear about, that’s alot of crap. He actually suffered from asthma, you know?
SE: Yeah.
MT: He was asthmatic, so he did have health problems anyway..besides any self inflicted ones.
SE: Were there any songs that they started with Brian, and because of his situation you later had to either go and touch up or finish?
MT: No, no. I don’t ever remember hearing anything actually. Uh…Nobody’s ever asked me that before…I don’t ever remember hearing anything at all that was sort of …”Oh, listen to this Mick. This is something we did a couple of years ago”. I don’t remember hearing anything….We were constantly making up little tunes and little blues songs all the time that have come out on bootlegs and stuff. And there were always alot more songs left over than we could put on an album. But I don’t really remember hearing anything other than what is actually part of the official Decca/London Records catalog…But there must be some stuff.
SE: This might be a too personal question, I don’t know…
MT: Well, there’s really only one way to find out.(laughing)
SE: Did you get an equal cut in the band? And do you…
MT: Oh, I did when I was with them, yeah.
SE: Do you still get compensated for those records?
MT: No, not as much as I should. No, no.
SE: But you still get some kind of compensation?
MT: Yeah, some…(laughs)..very little.
SE: Really.
MT: Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s a very sore point. I mean, it’s not something I dwell upon anymore, but I….it’s something that I really did dwell upon for years and years, and years. And it became a very negative source of discontent.
SE: Yeah, I bet. I mean, you hear about the Monkees being millionaires now due to the sales of their old records, and they hardly even played on those records!
MT: Yeah, I know. It’s something that I’ve learned…the only way….the only thing I can say is that I’ve learned to be philosophical about it. (Laughs) I’ve had to be philosophical about it. I mean, I saw them all together backstage at Wembly last year, and it wasn’t an uncomfortable atmosphere. I mean, you know…when I lived in New York in the late 1980s, Keith and I used to play together alot. He’d play on my sessions. I’d play on his. We’d walk home together at six o’clock in the morning…So there never was really any animosity. There was alot of bad feeling when I left. I mean, I did kind of leave them in a bit of a bind. They were very upset that I’d left.
SE: Do you think that’s kind of why?
MT: I’d like to think that it was why. I actually think that it was more of a political business thing.
SE: Yeah?
MT: Yeah…I mean, you know….the Rolling Stones have not always been as successful as they are now. Because they’ve always more or less been at the top, people tend to assume that they’ve always been alot more wealthy, or alot more whatever than they actually are. I mean there were periods when I was with the band when we nearly split up twice. I mean, Bill Wyman and I almost quit around about the same time for no other reason than there was just a lack of direction, and Keith was having personal problems, you know. All of this stuff is well documented in various books and stuff, you know. I’m gonna write a book one day. (Coughs)
SE: I was gonna ask you about that.
MT: Yeah, yeah. That’s why it’s so easy to talk about it because I’ve been writing stuff for a couple of years now…in fact, I just …a couple of weeks ago I suddenly found that I had all my old diaries from the early seventies. Like when I was on tour I kept a diary. And I though I’d lost all that stuff, so it’s good that I found them.
SE: Do you ever think about getting legal as far as The Stones royalty thing?
MT: Yeah…yeah. I think about it and I talk to them….I mean, it’s just an ongoing situation, but it’s not something that I….There was a period in my life when in the sort of early 80s when it kind of more or less consumed my life in a very negative way. And I got very bitter about it. And it stopped me from playing and it stopped me from actually enjoying what I actually should have been enjoying doing — which is playing my own music and playing with my own band. And that’s what I enjoy doing now. So it doesn’t really effect that. I would never let it effect anything that I’m doing now. But..as to what I can do about it, I don’t know. I’ll probably sort it out with them the next time I see them. (laughing)
SE: I’m sure there’s alot of lawyers out there rubbing their hands together right now, hoping that you decide soon.
MT: Well, I’m not sure that’s true, you know? I would like to think that there are one or two that have got enough guts to represent me if I needed any representation or offer any…because you see…(laughs)…you know, unfortunately in this world things are not always fair, you know. Truth and justice, and all that kind of stuff tends to belong to those with the most power…..and it does (laughs).
SE: Sounds like a divorce.
MT: Uh…exactly. (laughs) Exactly. So I guess that puts me in the category of being legally separated from The Rolling Stones, but not finally divorced yet (laughs).
SE: Exactly. I read once that during part of recording the “It’s Only Rock and Roll” album that you were in the hospital…
MT: Oh, I was yeah.
SE: What was wrong?
MT: I was taking heroin. I mean not very much, but you know in those days it was more of a recreational thing….but you know being young and everything and sort of not knowing how to handle it, everybody said, “Oh, you’ve got to go into a clinic.” So I did for a week and it didn’t do much good. I still went back to it again a few years later. Me and Keith both had very, very heavy drug problems…which we don’t now, but we did.
SE: Both of you are pretty much clean now, huh?
MT: Yeah, yeah.
SE: That’s good to hear. Now this is probably impossible to answer, but is there any one story from the road that stands out in your mind? Be it fun or whatever?
MT: Oh, (sigh)…There’s so many, but whenever I’m put on the spot and I have to think of one, I can never think of one. But there’s so many.
SE: See, you need a book!
MT: Yeah, I should get my diaries and have a look. Oh there’s so many funny things. I mean there’s…one thing that I did notice from reading my diaries was that in those days unlike these days, their tours are so big and they’re so separated from the rest of the world….while they’re on stage the dressing room area is packed away and they leave straight away in a car and fly off to the next place…When I joined the Stones, alot of the tours we did were more or less the same as any other rock and roll tour. I mean, we played, we’d sit backstage, we’d meet people, we’d go out to clubs. We’d do all the usual things and we’d get notes stuck under our doors saying, “Departure time is at 12pm. Please be in the lobby at 11:30. Have your baggage ready. There’s two shows today in Houston. When we arrive in Houston we go to the hotel, then we’ll go to the first show. We’ll be staying at the hall between shows and the promoter will provide dinner.” …and then at the other end of this note it says,…”Has anybody seen Mick Taylor’s pignose?” (laughs) There’s all sorts of funny things like…I remember Mick and Keith having a fight once because…we were doing a show in Seattle and we were all sitting in this restaurant and I think Keith had given Mick his favorite leather jacket during the performance and Mick had tossed it into the crowd…thrown it away. So Keith got very upset about this and they almost had a fight about it at the dinner table, you know. Stupid stuff, you know.
SE:(laughs) The outsider wouldn’t think that normal stupid stuff like that happens….
MT: Oh, it does. (laughs) It did then. I don’t know whether it does now. Backstage with them at Wembly (last year) was so strange because it was so quiet. Nobody was allowed in the dressing room. I was in the dressing room with Ronnie and Keith, and Charlie had his own dressing room. I mean, they all had their own dressing rooms and there was nobody backstage at all. There was a backstage area for VIP guests, but the band had their own area separate from that…and it was a bit more rough and ready when I was with them.
SE: Oh, I bet. So you did a gig with them in 1981 or 1982?
MT: ’82, yeah. I was in Kansas City and I spent a couple of days with Keith actually, yeah. I don’t think that Mick was too thrilled about me getting up on stage and playing, but the rest of them kind of seemed to want me to, so I did. But I stayed on stage too long. I only meant actually to get on stage and play a couple of songs, but the others sort of kept urging me on, so I did. What I noticed was that it was such a fast sort of bad sounding show,….
SE: Yeah.
MT: And alot of numbers I didn’t know. What I did notice about their show last year at Wembly was that in spite of all the years that have passed, and in spite of how good all the records are that I did with them, they actually sound and play much better than they used to when I was with them. They don’t sound slick, but they sound very relaxed, and very confident. They just have a kind of maturity that they didn’t have then…as musicians I mean. Maybe it’s cause of the extra musicians they’ve got and they’ve been working together for so long….but they really did not only sound good, but they played good. Keith played good. His guitar was in tune and Ronnie Wood got a chance to play which I’ve always thought he never gets a chance to play enough. He’s a very good guitar player I think.
SE: I’ve heard he’s a very good bass player.
MT: He is. He’s a good bass player, yeah.
SE: I agree that they’re probably technically really clean. Like you said, Keith tunes his guitar now.
MT: Well, it wasn’t just technically. On certain numbers they really sounded loose, you know, funky. But there was an intensity during the 70s that wasn’t there obviously.
SE: Yeah. I was gonna say. They just don’t have that vibe anymore.
MT: No, possibly, no. But from my perspective, you know, I thought it might actually make me feel a little bit nostalgic, but it didn’t because I realize that they’re a different band now. They’re not the same band, but they still sound really good…to me anyway.
SE: But wouldn’t you agree that the reason that all of the great stuff that they did in the 70s with you live or in the studio will never see the light of day because they wouldn’t want it to overshadow what they’re doing now?
MT: No. I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s true.
SE: You don’t?
MT: No, I really don’t. I might have agreed with you about four or five years ago, but not now. I’m sure all that stuff will come out. The real question is …is there anything left to release that’s really good that hasn’t already been released on bootleg and is available to everybody? But of course stuff that’s available on bootleg is not necessarily gonna reach as big an audience as stuff that they release officially. But…there’s a tiny part of me that agrees with you, but my head tells me.. no, there’s not really any reason.
SE: What made me think of that was when you mentioned that Mick didn’t dig you being on stage at that show in ’82..
MT: Oh, that’s just because of me and his personal…I mean, out of all of them, he was the one that was really pissed off that I left. So we’ve never really got on very well since then.
SE: Really.
MT: No, not really. I mean, it’s just one of those things.
SE: I’ve talked with people who’ve come to the conclusion that Mick Jagger is notorious for being a penny pinching, cheapskate millionaire and is using being mad at you as a reason for being a bit stingy as far as the royalty checks go.
MT: That could be one of the reasons why I’m not properly paid for those albums, yeah.
SE: And you lived in New York? I’m sure if you were there now there’d be a line of attorneys at your door right now.
MT: Well, I don’t know. Why don’t we see what the response is to your article.(laughs)
SE: Yeah. (laughing)
MT: Just say that Mick Taylor’s having a great time and enjoying life, but if there’s a lawyer out there that would like to help him with his Rolling Stones royalties give me a call. (laughs)
SE: You’d probably be the first person to sue Mick Jagger who wasn’t pregnant.
MT: Yeah (laughs). That’s very funny. That’s a good headline as well. (laughs)
SE: I’ve also read once that you said that when you left the band, you had no nose left and you were a drug addict.
MT: No, no, no. I dabbled in drugs when I was with The Stones. I never thought of myself as a drug addict. I did develop a serious drug problem after that. But when I think back upon my time with The Stones it seems like…mild compared to alot of things that happened, you know. But obviously I can’t talk too much about it cause I’ll have nothing to write about.(laughs)
SE: That’s true. (laughs)
MT: Hmm.
SE: So after that you played with Jack Bruce?
MT: Yeah, but it didn’t last very long.
SE: Then from that you played with Dylan for awhile.
MT: Oh, yeah. Now that was fantastic. I loved that. If I could have carried on doing that for a few more years I would’ve loved it because I loved working with him. He was such a great guy to work with. He as so casual and spontaneous and easy to get along with. I mean, alot of people don’t say that, but I found him a lovely guy to work with. I have alot of respect for him and he seemed to have alot of respect for me and we worked very well together.
SE: Is it that because you’re in Britain and he’s in New York that you’re not working together now?
MT: Oh, probably yeah, probably. I’d love to play with him again. It would be great.
SE: Are you comfortable with probably always being regarded as a member of that band?
MT: I am regarded as a member of that band, but not just as a member of the band. It depends on what perspective you’re talking to me about. I mean, some people talk to me purely about blues guitar playing, some people talk to me about John Mayall…That’s what’s kind of interesting about still being out there and still playing cause we get a very interesting cross section of people. And more and more of the people coming to our shows seem to be young people that weren’t even around then and just like that music, which is encouraging cause if they like that music, they probably like our music as well. So that’s good, you know.
SE: I was just wondering if at any point you were trying to separate or move on from that.MT: Not consciously, no. I mean, I can’t really. There was a period in my life when I would’ve liked to have pretended that I wasn’t with The Rolling Stones simply because I never got paid any money (laughs) for playing on those records, but yeah, what the hell. Everybody knows I did and everybody knows I had a big influence so I’m kind of proud of it really…very proud of it. And whatever happens with the other situation happens, you know. It’s not that I don’t give a damn, but I don’t really think about it that much anymore. Like I said, I’ve learned to be philosophical about it.
SE: Right. Would you call the new album more of a blues album or….
MT: I don’t know what I’d call it, but I tell you what, when we were sitting around tossing ideas about what to call it, I wish I hadn’t said, “Let’s call it A Stone’s Throw”. I actually meant that in a lighthearted way. It wasn’t consciously done to draw attention to the fact that I was with The Rolling Stones, but everybody thinks it was so…so be it, you know. I was gonna call the album “Secret Affair”. That was my original working title. So perhaps I’ll call my next one “Secret Affair”.
SE: The songs sound very personal. Are any autobiographical?
MT: Mmmm, semi. Not really…not in a literal sense, no.
SE: Who do you listen to today?
MT: The same people I’ve always listened to. Ray Charles, B.B. King. I sometimes listen to some flamenco playing. All kinds of stuff really. I don’t listen to as much music as I used to.
SE: From listening to your new album, it sounds like you’re into alot of different rhythms and percussions.
MT: I do like Latin music. I’ve always liked Latin music. In fact, on stage we play a couple of things that aren’t on the album that are all very Latin oriented. There’s an instrumental we do called “Going South”.
SE: So do you prefer being a solo artist?
MT: Well, I really don’t think of myself as a solo artist. I mean, I always think of a solo artist as somebody who could stand there with a guitar, or sit at a piano and sing and play on their own for at least an hour. And I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t play the way I play without a really good band because we improvise alot you see.
SE: Yeah.
MT: We improvise alot more than we do on that CD.
SE: I was just wondering if you preferred it just being “Mick Taylor” or do you sometimes like to just be on the sidelines…
MT: Oh, no, no. I actually love being out front. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.
SE: Oh, really?
MT: Yeah. I love being out front singing and playing, but it’s not just about me. I mean, it’s the way the band plays and the way the other guitar player plays..who’s very good…the keyboard player…it’s everybody really.
SE: One last question. Do you still have all the guitars you’ve collected over the years?
MT: No, I don’t. Most of the best guitars that I had, and that Keith had..although Keith has replaced most of his…we had alot of our guitars stolen when we were making “Exile On Main Street” in the South of France. I basically play a Stratocaster and a Les Paul. They’re my favorite guitars.
SE: What kind of amp do you use onstage?
MT: A Fender Twin and a Marshall, together.
SE: Well, Thank you so much for the interview.
MT: It was a good one. It was fun talking to you.
SE: Again, the new album is great and I hope you get what’s yours in this Stones thing.
MT: Oh, I’m sure I will.
SE: Because, you probably hear this all the time, but you gave them a sound that they’re never gonna have again. I mean, as good as you say they sound now…
MT: They do. They definitely do.
SE: Yeah, they sound good, but there’s no vibe. Like I said, to the fan… the outsider.
MT: Yeah, yeah. Perhaps you’re right. I could never be an outsider though. Like I said before, I’m not totally divorced from The Rolling Stones yet. (laughs)
SE: Thanks again.
MT: All the best.
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www.MickTaylor.com