DAVEY JOHNSTONE -Rock guitarist, vocalist, musical director (Elton John) -ARTIST SERIES

[Music] Davee thank you so much for coming by the sessions we have these interviews and we bring people and I was excited to have you here you are this rocker that just keeps going and just keeps at a very high standard of performance all the time this is absolutely wonderful Amanda - where did music will begin in your life we had music enter into your soul it probably entered I was probably in there when I was born and I've got a strong belief and that's kind of what happens you either you're either you know blessed with it or you're not you know there are many music lovers but not as many actual players and I think you're born with a passion you know and you sort of know it until something happens and I remember being my very first introduction to say rock and roll was I have two older sisters 10 and 12 years older than me and so when I was like four or five so we're looking at like 1955 I was here in Elvis 78 you know jealous wrong they were playing their records in that and I'm gonna what is that I loved it this is great I want to do this and I knew that you know that it was it was killing me at that time and I loved it so I've always had this thing about and you know I found out later on that this guitar playing with Scotty Moore who played with Elvis and he just passed away I think last year unfortunately he was a huge influence on because I loved that whole early Elvis I'm what I call the good Elvis yeah you know cuz it went kind of weird but that was definitely my first influence and then growing up in in Scotland my parents were big music fans didn't play anything but they would have music evenings where they'd invite people over who actually sang and played music we always had an upright piano in the house and this guy called Ted Warwick would come by the house and sing like Scottish standards that I mean this is like a guy who would be in his 50s or 60s at the time and this is again it's 50 or 60 years ago yeah and he blew me away by the sound of this guy's voice in the room and those kind of things were the things that they were like wow he's doing it so maybe I can you know and I come back from a movie with my dad we'd go see a movie every Friday night and I come back from seeing the Vikings or something yeah Douglas and I sit at the piano there dad and pick out the the tunes you know and so I knew you know this always been a few was developing it was definitely wanted to I was always a sponge for everything when I was seven somebody came around our school classroom and in Edinburgh in Scotland and it was remarkably this person just said okay we have some space for some violin lessons who would like to learn to play violin and my hand went like that I mean it was like this was a string or something I didn't do it behind just went up like that and okay and they said we'll take Davey he's in and me and three other people I think and they tested our rhythm skills and you know hearing skills yeah yeah and I played violin for four or five years and ended up in Edinburgh schools Orchestra and so that that was a great grounding so it was a little classical music yeah this was all classical so it was really formal study very formal music very quite rigid so it taught you it was great for me to learn to read music which I always art is to do even though it might get lost along the way depending on what you do with your with your career if you're a player it's great to have that that knowledge I mean if I'm working for example with say somebody like James Newton Howard who's a dear friend also or Hans Zimmer and they have a chart at least I can look at it and go oh yeah okay I know roughly what you want here you know from bar 43 to bar 62 you know a lot of people shy away from that or retreat from learning music and and and that's that's a shame so having a formal foundation was extremely important so that obviously make important that carried over into guitar now now yeah guitar and yeah because I mean I got tired of violin and I was just starting to get into the Beatles and the stones I'd be like twelve years old by this time and you know anybody who hears DayTripper or something oh you know the violin was here and then I went down here and my sister one of my sisters bought me a guitar at acoustic guitar for Christmas one year and when I was like eleven and a half or something and immediately I because they'd been playing violin so I got it the concept of strings I picked it up real fast and I want to take lessons a few months after and found that I already knew more than the teacher so I just thought you know what I'm just gonna I'm just gonna listen to the radio on and those days obviously you had to sit around the radio wait for you that song to come on right you know you couldn't just play it over again and slow it down and there you know and learn the part you have to wait for the song you know that's how I learned by sitting in my room listening to records radio being totally closed records you're sort of going out and buying some records and you're at that time the explosion of not only music from from Britain maybe the British Invasion masses absolutely massive so you're hearing this listing were there any really favorite musicians specifically musicians that you will listen to absolutely yeah when I when I was in my younger years of especially of playing guitar Hank Marvin of the shadows the lead guitar player of the shadows who were a background group for literature's not so well known over here ever because you had you own you know versions of that like adventures people but Hank Marvin was like a huge Idol and I mean since met him a bunch of times and had lunch for them and talked to him and never thought that would ever happen you know and so Hank was a huge influence and then a few years later I got more into the idea of getting deeper into guitar so I got into I bought another acoustic and reasonably good acoustic and started listening to people like Bert yansh and John Renbourn and John Martin and that stuff like that The Incredible String Band you know really cool stuff yeah and I learned how to finger pick you know which was at first I could have sworn that it was two guys playing all right that's not one guy you know and then eventually it was like oh if he uses his thumb for the bass part and the other fingers in combination oh I get it and I learned how to so this was self-taught that you yeah no one really taught it - no no I'm self-taught sit that's a huge driving passion that you hmm - one little bit it's not easy and you still made it happen absolutely and and there wasn't a whole lot of money I mean our family was a you know middle working class middle class whatever you call in Scotland so they were kind of shocked to see me developing at this rate because by the age of 13 I was getting asked to join bands they were in their 20s you know it was kind of weird and and my I was kind of freaked out by I would say well why'd why do you think I can work in your band you know I'm I'm a school kid you know in your men yeah you know they said well you better than us okay I'll join and I must admit that the the odd few quid here in there pounds dollars whatever yeah that's a really inspiring you know when I saw that I could make some money out of it was it's great so you starting out this professional career now did this did this expand to other bands did you start okay about as this kind of like as a business now that you wanted well it became obvious and we see I was my major in school was art and English so I was already in that kind of artistic thing but even my art teacher when he was going around the class one day asking the students you know what are you gonna do when you leave school and because most kids in Scotland and at that time left school when as soon as they could you know City there were 15 they get there leaving certificate gone you know so what are you gonna do when you leave school and I said well I'm gonna be a professional musician and he said to me don't be so silly don't be so stupid boy you know and it was I'm gonna do with you like ah you know I would take trips into the city and to Edinburgh and there was one music store that I'd always go and I'd stare at this powder blue Stratocaster and it was like one day one day you know I've got like five of them innit says crazy yeah I was in various folk groups because the folk revival was very big in those days and that didn't me a lot of good because it led me to learn other instruments banjo mandolin there was two very big heroes for me in the nose days on the folk scene as such one was a Scotsman called Archie Fisher who's still working so playing and a brilliant singer-songwriter guitar player just great guy all the way around and and very very encouraging and I walked into his invited me to his apartment one night and what walked in there and he was sitting on a rug Persian rug with incense things going playing the sitar and I just went oh I gotta get one of those you know cuz I was that's a freak for anything with strings on it so a year or so later I was i rustled up enough money to send off a check to Bombay India where they built me a body what was termed professional Indian sitar and it arrived another year later in a gigantic case is their big you know in a case like a coffin you know and I had to go down to London Docks and pick it up because by then I had left home realizing that if I was gonna try music Scotland wasn't gonna be the place where I would do anything because there are very few record companies in fact maybe one where did you see the opportunity somebody at a folk club called Knoll Murphy funnier funniest guy in the planet Irish guy we were you know I just loved his music he loved my playing and he was playing at this club in Scotland today he's I was kind of part of this band that played there and he made the mistake of saying if you're ever in London look me up so you know about six months later I told my mom I said and dinosaur and I gotta go you know and I was 17 the deal was I said look they were petrified obviously and I said well look what about this if I try for two years and if I don't make it I'll get a real job because my bank managers they get a real job oh that little did I know that was gonna be working harder than any but yeah and not miss the Dove is the deal the rough deal so I got on the train and with 11 pounds in my pocket this about 20 bucks absolutely and knocked on my friend's door who said if you're ever in London and he kinda said what are you doing here I said well you you invited me and they were okay so we became a duo and he sang Irish traditional songs and I played tenor banjo and guitar and mandolin and it kind of went from there and I got a like a reputation around town around London and started to get session work so how fast did that happen by the time very quick that's me within about six months that's amazing one of the reasons being that not many people played mandolin and banjo that well and not many people nobody played sitar I was like the guy so I got a call from Gus dudgeon who the latest such a new wonderful record producer and he produced a band called Magna Carta that I was working with at the time and he was also producing new singer-songwriter called red white and he said look Reggie's got a session coming up you know he hates being called reg by the way this is the last time I'll ever refer but in those days that was it you know he just made a bit of a splash in in this country and back in England he was kind of people knew who he was vaguely and that was about it and so I said we're doing a new album with reg with Elton and we've been looking for a guitar player to play this part the specific part on a song called Mad Men across the water and they tried two or three other players in the Hydra motel and I get I just found this out recently it was Elton told me that a guitar play called michael Chapman whose great 4/6 our play and he's still playing on the folks here in Britain now he had recommended me for the par how amazing he said you know you want David for this part you know so anyway yeah you found that out recently yeah it's not like a month ago Alma told me oh that's great because that's all I always thought of his Gus you know because he'd produced me with other bands and they'd seen me playing and anyway he he made the call and I went in there and there's all this heavy weight you know Harvey Flores on bass and Ray Cooper on percussion and Terry Cox on drums and like great great players and I was like oh my god Paul Buckmaster done all the string arrangements so again charts everywhere you know and I'm gonna this is gonna be interesting and I thought one of the things that I that I thought immediately was well I can do this and I think that's a big plus for people who play music right if you if you have any doubt whatsoever you're in the wrong game right you should just know that you're gonna go for it the self confidence but but you were prepared you had the training you had the foundation yeah you had the music studies so you were prepared so you had that self confidence yeah in order to get that self confidence what we're saying is you really have to prepare yourself and put the hard work in absolutely just absolutely it is extremely hard work and although it's not really work I didn't look at it as work because it was what I wanted to do it was it's love it's an annoyance of passion exactly calling and yeah clinics day after that session with Elton we did three tracks we did Mad Men across the water tiny dancer and Levon in the in one day the following day I got a call from his management saying I would like to know if you'd like to join his his touring band and he wants to do more of a rock thing just make a quartet so it became Elton Nigel Olsson on drums D Mary on bass and me on guitar and everything else because then those days there wasn't the there weren't many keyboards there was maybe b3 an organ you know having Mellotron yeah and a Farfisa organ that's kind of it right you know and so I did all these overdubs on all their early albums it was great and so I became very busy very quickly you know we were making two in three albums a year in those days where are most bands nowadays take a little longer and it's a different but it's a gated but the recording scene years ago was very very different to I mean how you recorded years ago I mean even just saying you did three songs in one day that's also pretty amazing when you think about how it's done now well the thing is we still do that now yeah we still I mean the last time we were in the studio and the latest album we the same thing but that's a great quality that's old-school right it is old-school and it's real yeah you're not like stressing or belaboring a part that really should just be left alone or taking a mistake out they should be left in yeah because I think great accidents are part of music you know I mean you only have to listen to a Beatles arm or a Stones album I wrote you a record to hear tons of mistakes absolute and they all work because they're a little soulful you know so I'm a great believer in that and and great playing yes but also leave the mistakes and leave the hissing leave leave the stuff it's a little bit odd yeah don't worry about it too much don't stress that well I think it's become a little bit - for me a little bit too linear again it's very all guys almost like it's almost like classical music again you know it's like whereas and back in the day we were making records it was like we would show up in the studio and you'd wish you creativity yeah and your playing ability that they made the records that got you through the actual song or what it was as opposed to any nice specific plan yeah how powerful so were your organizing what you know business-wise were you balancing the business I were you maintaining all these contacts and you were networking you were making you know you were traveling and touring and meeting more people well as soon as as soon as the Elton thing started we we we got incredibly busy because you know he made it quite clear that part he wanted to do was be a star he wanted to be the biggest star that ever was and it's pretty much achieved man you know a few times over you know I unbelievable but so he was doing all the interviews and all this stuff and getting up incredibly early and doing all that that's side of it but at the same time he was really looking after us business-wise and yeah I've always had somebody who I would go and say well this is what they're they're offering and this is what it is and this is a here's a contract and you know it was all done so you really took care of business yeah yeah which is great to hear because there many many cases it's not done that way well it's not and then lay down the line okay great there are some that absolutely you know that's what happens I mean and everybody suffers something the Beatles suffer and the songs and Barry staying got ripped off by Zach I mean people get done in by by by people in business because they see a very naive business wise musician so deaf it definitely helped me a lot to have some sense as to what I wanted and what do you think gave you the skills in business it was that was beers I had too many kids when I was very young haha or interesting everything that's a great motivator absolutely you have to stay focused on I'm bringing an incoming that so we gotta have a house yes in fact that was the first thing that I that I said to Elton's management when I you know I said well I'm your house you know and knows that I was living in an apartment like everybody else wasn't I'm just like well I have to have a house and okay we can probably work that into the deal and you know this kind of thing so I was motivated by by life itself if you like and also by having you know elderly parents in Scotland so the first thing that I was able to do when I had some money well I had a chunk of money was by dama house you know and it was the best feeling in the world so not only was a confirmation that I don't have to get a real job but I'm working hard enough to to do this and and achieve this and how beautiful so that was a nice that's a nice moment how beautiful what do you think what do you think gives you the motivation to continue where does that motivation come for you to keep pushing as hard as you can and as much to do when the touring and writing in the plane where's that come from it really comes from that connection with the people who come along to see us and this is it's because it's such a separate world I mean recording is one thing but playing live was just what we do most of the time yeah you really have to have a connection with the people if you get on stage and you just stare down at your shoes and don't do anything and expect people to adore you you're not going to be around very long you know so we got there with intent of killing them you know going out there and making them laugh because I'm smile make them cry and also hopefully playing something different every night that's what it's been for me you know I never played the same solo twice in a row I just don't do it I mean there's a couple of parts that people expect to hear so you do them but if there's a you know there's a solo break comes up I never played the same thing twice and you know most of our band is that way inclined we we like to stretch it take it out to the cause Elton's fair like that what and Elton's like that because I mean the contest that I've seen with him he really sometimes I see Upton three four times in a row you're not gonna get the same she's never gonna get almost kind of like a like a jazz player he's kind of like finds different things that really is intriguing and creative and spontaneous yeah it's frightening actually it's frightening it's what I think about you know here you are on stage with these touring on what you're doing you say Elton in the same way we say Elvis one name and you get it you get it you have the power of the career power of the movement of what that is that's true what does it feel like when you're on stage in your playing and you and you're looking over and seeing that you've gone through this journey now without than all these years I know it must be an amazing feeling of just it really is it really is because it's it's all been very heartfelt and so it's all been wonderful and tragedy filled great things awful things you know and so it's been a life it's been a life and the great thing is it continues to be a life because you know we we're on as friends were just on the same level you know we just talk you know and and but through the wonders of modern science he's got his own kids now yeah and he realizes oh my god all these years you know you've had children he's watched me have you knows all my kids you know he's actually terrified of my of Charlie my 18 year old piano playing knock whose USC who is really great and Elton loves his playing he just you know I think that's the thing really is that we're all music lovers Elton's a big music lover he's a massive vinyl collection recently in the last year and a half two years he started collecting vinyl again and it's become quite you know it's become quite a big thing again you know a CD collection was just forget about it it was off the charts but I don't know if he's even still got any even now he listens to pretty much strictly vinyl but how beautiful that the vinyl gives a certain sound that I grew up with and I still love it and as pristine and as clean as digital of the CDs are it's almost too clean I like with into the Beatles music I'm the old violence yeah as opposed to that so there's something there that that old-school feeling that music so it sounds like you guys are a family on the road Europe you've been through ups and downs you pursue and what you're doing here this young generation as they watch this here they see someone as profound a musician as you are and continue to be what in closing what would just say what kind of message would you leave this next generation now imagine these kids are watching this and they've they've admired you they may have seen you in concert they listen to your recordings what can you say to them that can give them some kind of a guidance or hope for them to tap into their passion what can you say we've had a lot of young people come back or come to our shows over there not only people you know our peers and people order than us but over the years we've had their children come and their children the next generation well yeah and sometimes we get little kids who are you know six or seven and the front row with their parents or whatever and they're just like spellbound and that is what we love the younger people coming bite obviously know is it's greater there are six or seven but I mean it's great to see the teenagers coming back and digging it you know as much as they're loving going to Coachella and and because that's what my my children do my son just had a blast at Coachella laughing and my daughter went three years in a row and she's in New York City knows yeah but she's learned so much from my life in music and I've taken her on two with me I've taken my son on tour I think that the main thing is not to be intimidated a lot of kids give up early because their piano player maybe intimidates them or the whole idea of reading music and an orchestra intimidates they you know what this is too much I can't do this you have to really find out what your part in all this is if you're a player and follow it out to the hill because something amazing is gonna happen I mean I I know kids know who are for example I have a 12 year old he's my youngest and he's a wonderful sinner and some friends of his and maybe just overall there are great musicians on a different level and I've always seen them progresses through five or six years old and I've always said to them here play this and he'll itself jamming because I love that's another thing I love jamming with kids it's if you you can actually teach them show them that this Eminem track is actually the same as a Speedos track yes exactly the dead saying yeah I was playing why don't we do it in the road from the White Album yeah and I said you know this is this is lose yourself by you know what you mean data and then I went okay stop it and I put on why don't we why don't we do it in the road you know and then I put on Eminem come back oh and they get that it's the same thing not a whole lot has changed in music I think the one good thing has changed and I would like to see young people pursue is the pure love of it and as I said earlier and not to be intimidated or afraid of it go for it go for because what you got to lose think about it you know anything about your career and what you've done and what you continue to do you made this dream reality this is powerful that's a powerful message for this generation to see that listen it can be done you're living proof of it you're continuing to do it you love it every day it has been a calling you followed it you are passionate on what you do you are dedicated you're not afraid to put in the hard work to make it happen you're still researching you're still learning you're still growing this is a powerful message that you have done Devi in your life in your career oh thank you absolutely I hope I hope it carries on it's definitely working with my own kids so let's see what happens with the rest of the planet they're willing to put in the hard work that's that's what we're seeing I hope they're willing to put in the hard work that is fantastic on behalf of the session as Debbie thank you so much for your welcome your talent Oliver thank you so much

Channel: The Sessions Panel

Views: 50,931

Rating: 4.9043064 out of 5

Keywords: TheSessionsPanel, Davey Johnstone, Dom famularo, Elton john, guitarist, drum, the sessions, artist series, music business

Id: DV1DNvhhPI0

Length: 29min 24sec (1764 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2018