Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Roger Earl of the band Foghat. How are you doing today, Roger?
Roger Earl: I’m doing great, Mark. How are you doing?
Rock My Monkey: I’m doing pretty good. I’ve read conflicting stories about the release date for this new live cd. So let’s hear it straight from the source. When was Foghat Live 2 released?
Roger Earl: I don’t know. (both laugh) It’s been out since middle of June.
Rock My Monkey: Middle of June. Okay.
Roger Earl: It’s been out for some time now.
Rock My Monkey: How does it feel to be the only musician to appear on all Foghat albums?
Roger Earl: Lonely. (laughs) I’m not the only one. The only surviving one. Craig MacGregor, our bass player, joined us in ’75. So he was on Night Shift, the Live album. Of course he’s on the current Live 2 album. You know, it’s a bit sad in some ways. We lost Dave. That was pretty tragic.
Rock My Monkey: Carl from the extremely popular cartoon, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, claimed that ‘I like the drummer from Foghat. That’s my drummer.’ Have you ever watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and is Carl a favorite of yours at all?
Roger Earl: Never heard of him, and never watched it.
Rock My Monkey: Oh, alright.
Roger Earl: Is this like a tv show?
Rock My Monkey: Yeah. It’s actually kind of a late night cartoon series. A lot of college kids watch it. I guess one of the creators must be like a big Foghat fan.
Roger Earl: I’m pleased to hear that, actually. Up on the website the fans, like if they hear anybody talking about Foghat they write about it. Actually, I don’t really watch tv. I watch the news, CNN, and I watch the soccer channel. And occasionally if it’s sort of late at night and we’re up for it, we have dinner and bed and watch a movie. Otherwise I don’t really watch tv. It’s like, I’m busy! I’d rather listen to music, to be honest with you, than watch tv.
Rock My Monkey: Do you take it as an honor or an annoyance that pop culture seems to love and embrace Foghat, and still to this day chooses to reference the band and use it’s music so much in movies and tv shows?
Roger Earl: No, I don’t consider it an annoyance. I think it’s really cool people mention the band. That’s fine by me. As long as they keep talking about us, that’s fine by me. It’s when they stop talking about you, you got to worry. The band has had some serious longevity. I mean, we’ve been around since 1971. So I think it’s really cool that we have a younger audience. I guess sixteen and 25, a lot of people come to our shows. It’s very gratifying to know that people still consider our music viable, listening to a bunch of old farts, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Tell me about the “I’m A Fool For Foghat” contest. Is that still going on, and when is the deadline for that?
Roger Earl: The deadline I believe is-when is the deadline for “I’m A Fool For Foghat”? I think it’s sometime next year, February, something like that. March, maybe. A number of people have started doing it. I guess it takes time to film and make stuff up. It should be funny.
Rock My Monkey: So people still have plenty of time to get their videos together, and I’m assume they can find information on that at the Foghat website?
Roger Earl: Yeah, Foghat.net. They can find all that information.
Rock My Monkey: Is there any plans for an official video single for this release?
Roger Earl: Video single? We worked on a couple of things. We have a ton of film footage from a number of shows. We’ve talked about it. It takes some time to get it together. As of this moment, no. But we are also talking to a couple of other film companies around the country to put something out, so maybe next year we’ll have something out.
Rock My Monkey: What is the story behind Foghat.com and Foghat.net? Is one more of an archive, and the other for latest info? Does the band have control over both of them?
Roger Earl: No, Foghat.com is a historical site that’s run by Lonesome Dave’s estate. And Foghat.net is the current band from like 2000 on. You can get your t-shirts, information on the band. There’s also a history of the band on there, pictures, current stuff, what we’re doing, what we’re thinking of doing, where we’ve been, why we’re going to go there again, etcetera.
Rock My Monkey: What makes this the sequel to Foghat Live and not, say, King Biscuit Flower Hour or Road Cases?
Roger Earl: I wasn’t very pleased with the sound on Road Cases. The performance I thought was good, particularly Dave’s performance. But I wasn’t very keen, I wasn’t at all happy with the way the sound came out, the way it was mixed. I had nothing to do with the mixing on that. So I wasn’t very keen on that. The King Biscuit Flower Hour is taken from radio shows, and the sound quality, to even being kind, is pretty dodgy in places. Whereas, our first album, our first live album in 1977, the band had complete control over mixing there, and the songs we picked. I believe there was six songs on there. Originally it was going to be a double album, but Warner Brothers, who was the parent company ????? (6:33), didn’t think it was wise to put out a double live album, because they didn’t think it would sell. So we got a bunch of the songs and I think there were six on there, something about like forty five or fifty minutes on both sides. We had complete control of it. I was really pleased at the time about the performance and the sound of the record. Nick Jameson mixed and produced that. He’s been our long time producer. And as I said, we had complete control over it. And also on this album we had complete control over the sound. We used our own mobile recording unit, the Blue Brain Mobile Unit. Bryan Bassett was in charge of that. He did the mix on the album. The live sound was recorded by Carl Davino and Bryan Bassett, who of course was playing guitar at the time, but he turned a couple knobs on. And I was particularly pleased with the performance, and the especially the way it sounds. Sonically I think it’s a terrific sounding record, and I think we got it right in the night. So I had no problems calling it Foghat Live 2.
Rock My Monkey: Was this recorded all at one show, or is there some stuff from other shows as well?
Roger Earl: The live performance is recorded at one show, at Sycuan in a theater in southern California near San Diego. It’s about a six hundred seat theater. We were there for three days, two days to help set up, get the mike set, run through, rehearse some stuff, make sure everything was right and everything was working. But it was recorded just from one show. There’s about six other songs on the second cd that were taken from studio rehearsals. Before we go out each year we go in the studio and record our rehearsals, just to see, just to make sure we’re on the right track. You can sit there and play and go ‘Oh, that sounded great,’ but when you hear a playback you can hear ‘That wasn’t right.’ But we were pleased once again with the way everyone was playing and performing, and there was room on the second cd, so we figured we’d put some studio rehearsal stuff on there. There’s about six songs on there, I think.
Rock My Monkey: What is there about Metro City Records that made them the right label home for Foghat?
Roger Earl: When we were talking to them they were very, they were obviously big fans of the band. They were very knowledgeable about the band’s history. And to be honest with you, they were the one record company out there that really wanted to do something with the band. That was basically it. They really wanted to do something. They were very keen. That’s what you need. If you’re going to have a partner in something like that, you need somebody who’s really wants to do it, as opposed to being half hearted.
Rock My Monkey: When people see you guys live nowadays, what can people expect from your live shows? Is it still kind of more of a stripped down kind of a thing, or do you guys add video screens or anything else to make it more of a show?
Roger Earl: We call it stripped down. We never really used video screens with the band. There are certain concerts that we do throughout the year that they’ll have the ability to do that, but the band doesn’t carry that. What we do is we bring our guitars. I carry my snare drum, pedals, cymbals, and sticks. The promoter supplies the back line, the amps and drums, through our specifications in our rider. And most of the time they get it right. It’s a lot more cost effective. I mean, what happened before like back in the ‘90s when Dave was alive, we were touring by bus. What would often happen is we’d be out on the road and we’d have to take some crummy gigs during the week just to pay for fuel for the bus and pay for the bus driver. Now we’re a little fussy about where we play and what we can do, and we can choose our dates. It’s a nice position to be in. The band’s doing real well, in fact. We probably haven’t been doing this well in like 20, 25 years.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think is more important in a live show? Getting the notes right, or making it a memorable show?
Roger Earl: What was the first part of that?
Rock My Monkey: What do you think is more important in a live show? Getting the notes right, or making it a memorable show?
Roger Earl: Both. You got to get the notes right. That’s part of being a musician, getting the notes right. And playing in tune is a good idea, too. I think it’s everything. We’ve all been playing for a long time. I’ve been playing 45 years, and Craig has been playing since he was, he’s about the same. Probably the same with Charlie and Bryan. So all these guys are great players. I mean, Charlie Huhn has played with Ted Nugent and sang in Humble Pie for ten years. Bryan Bassett has been playing since he was about twelve years old. These guys play great. I don’t worry about the musicianship. That’s almost sort of, you know, every one of us has a certain, takes a certain amount of pride in our playing. We don’t get up and play stoned or drunk or anything stupid like that. We save that for after the show. I really enjoy playing, and so does everybody else. It’s a real thrill to get up and play still. I get a real kick out of playing. It’s a lot of fun. So you get an hour and a half to sort of usually get it right, and people pay good money to come and see us, so I think it’s important you put on a good show and you play right. You play right for yourself. The show is, I think the fans generally enjoy it. We’re still out there earning a living and doing well, so I guess we must be doing something right.
Rock My Monkey: Are there any songs on here that are attached to special memories or stories? What song on here might have something in there that makes you hold it a little closer to your heart?
Roger Earl: You know, none in particular that I can think of right at the moment. Generally speaking, just about every record we made I was really pleased with the way stuff turned out. There may have been a couple as I sat down and listened to everything, but that would be fifty cd’s worth. But no, actually the important thing now for us is we get a chance to sort of each year before we go out on the road, we like pick maybe half a dozen songs. Either some new ones or some old songs we haven’t played or never played before. And we rehearse in during the winter, like February, March, April, around that time, before we start to get busy, so we can put them in the set. So it helps keep it fresh, and some people who come to see us again the next year, they’ll hear different songs. I still enjoy playing everything we ever did. I mean, like playing “Slow Ride” is still a gas after all these years. “I Just Want To Make Love To You” is tons of fun to play. So is “Fool For The City”. There’s no particular song. I mean, I really enjoy playing the stuff, all of the stuff.
Rock My Monkey: Being a professional musician for as long as you have, is there any lesson you could share with the young musicians that read this website that might be kind of spinning their wheels trying to make it?
Roger Earl: Trying to make it? I recognize this: It must be very difficult these days for like young people to sort of-their geeks! When I was growing up in London, I mean, I joined my first band when I was seventeen. We used to play in pubs and bars. We would rent union halls and places to play. We could always do that. But young players now, you have to be over 21 to go into a bar. You can die for your country at eighteen, but you can’t have a drink. That’s wrong. Just play music because you enjoy playing and you love to play music. To do it because you want to earn a living is probably going about it ass backwards. You play music because you really enjoy it. And just keep doing it as often and as well as you can. Practice, practice, practice. And if you’re not enjoying it, do something else.
Rock My Monkey: What are the chances of the band doing a full coast to coast tour of the U.S. anytime soon?
Roger Earl: We just finished one. We just have two more dates to do. We’re playing one more date in Lake Tahoe at Harrod’s, and then after that we have one more date in Connecticut. So that’s pretty much coast to coast, isn’t it? Every year, Mark, we play from coast to coast. We play-this is basically what we do. We’ll play like two or three days a week. Some dates we fly in. Commercial jet, we’ll fly to wherever we’re going. As I said before, that’s how we get a chance to pick and choose what we want to do, and what we don’t want to do. We’ll be touring again next year. As I said, we’ve got two more dates to go, and we start again in January. I believe our first date is in Biloxi, and I believe in the 31st of January the beginning of February we have a date in New York City at a theater there. We’re already booking for next year.
Rock My Monkey: When can fans expect a new studio release of new material?
Roger Earl: Not for a while. (laughs) Actually, we start rehearsals and recording in February. In fact, I’m going down there-we’re building a studio down in Florida as we speak. Actually, it’s basically a house, and we have all the equipment. I’m driving down there next week with drums and amplifiers and stuff like that, to start putting the studio together.
Rock My Monkey: I read that you’re an avid fisherman. What was the biggest fish that you’ve been able to catch this year?
Roger Earl: (laughs) This year. I didn’t get a chance to do much fishing this year, so no real monsters this year. Actually, I haven’t been fishing maybe about a dozen times this year. That’s a sin! I was busy. I was busy. Last year we did well. We caught lots of fish. This year, as I said, I probably went out about half a dozen times, but I took my youngest daughter and my grandchildren out fishing, so I was busy trying to untangle the hooks and stuff. But we caught some fish. We caught some blue fish and some bass, striped bass. So we had a good time of it. And if they’re not going to eat them, they put them back.
Rock My Monkey: Now, my friends at work, when my co-workers found out that I was going to do an interview with you, a couple of them wanted me to ask if there’s any chance you would ever grow your mustache out again?
Roger Earl: It’s white now, so I guess if I had a full beard I could probably sort of double as Santa at Christmas. (both laugh) Who knows? It’s only hair. It’s still growing on my face. It’s getting a bit thinner on top though, but it’s only hair. Actually, I shaved my hair off about five years ago.
Rock My Monkey: Now is the time in the interview I like to call The Lightening Round. I’m going to name something in the news or something in popular culture, and you sum up your thoughts in one short sentence, or just a couple of words. Ready?
Roger Earl: Ready.
Rock My Monkey: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Roger Earl: Never heard of him.
Rock My Monkey: The NBC show Heroes.
Roger Earl: Never heard of him.
Rock My Monkey: The iPhone.
Roger Earl: The what?
Rock My Monkey: The iPhone.
Roger Earl: Never used one.
Rock My Monkey: President Bush.
Roger Earl: Sucks big time.
Rock My Monkey: Fox News.
Roger Earl: I watch it.
Rock My Monkey: Recording Industry Association Of America versus Jammie Thomas.
Roger Earl: What is that about? Let’s talk about that one. I don’t know anything about that. Explain it to me.
Rock My Monkey: Well, Jammie Thomas was the first person that the Music Industry Association Of America was successful so far in suing. She’s actually made the news as far as being the first person. She’s actually going to try it in a higher court and try and set some precedents.
Roger Earl: What did she do?
Rock My Monkey: They’re accusing her of downloading music.
Roger Earl: Oh, for free?
Rock My Monkey: That’s what they’re accusing her of.
Roger Earl: And then giving it away, right?
Rock My Monkey: That’s what they’re accusing her of.
Roger Earl: The English used to hang, draw, and quarter people like that. I think that might be a little bit vicious, so why don’t we just make her walk the plank? Or him.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we do choose one final question that we ask every single band from classic rock legends like yourself to the most extreme metal bands, partially to stump people, but also to see who wimps out and won’t answer. This year I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody world wide famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Roger Earl: (chuckles) I so don’t want to get involved in predictions like that. It’s far too sad. I just lost a good friend a week ago and I didn’t even know about it. One of the fans called me up and told me. Tom Dawes was a producer on two or three of our albums, and he died like a week ago, and I didn’t even know about it. Predicting somebody’s demise I don’t think is a particularly healthy pursuit, so I’m going to pass on that one, too.
Rock My Monkey: Well, I thank you very much for doing the interview, and anybody that’s listening to the audio version of this interview can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. I’m asking people to click on the album cover above and below this interview to purchase Live 2 by Foghat. And I do hope to see you guys up on tour up in the Northwest sometime soon. Thank you very much for your time.
Roger Earl: Mark, it’s been a pleasure talking to you. And you let me know, when we’re going to be out there, you have the number of the office, call me up, and there’ll be a couple of tickets there for you, and I’ll be looking forward to meeting you.
