James Taylor on The Beatles, Drugs, Carly Simon and Carole King

you're saying at the Oscars this year in the tribute section to those have died in the past year in the industry you sang the Beatles in my life that's a very evocative song there are places I'll remember all my life some forever not for better some have gone and some remain that must have resonated as much for you as for others as time goes by you know you you you start to lose people even for me at 62 there are a lot of people who have gone and there was a lot of high risk kind of stuff that that was just part of being in show business and in rock and roll when I was younger and that took a lot of people out so it is evocative that song in it it's a great it's funny to think of them writing that song in their sort of mid 20s you know the Beatles were in 68 were at the basically at the height of their you know their powers sergeant pepper's had come out a year and a half before they were making the White Album and I was using the same studio they were recording in using the time they weren't using basically the interstices between their their recording sessions so I would come in and listen to what they had just cut Hey Jude or rocky raccoon or you know and and then occasionally you know Paul or George would would stay on and play on a song of mine or you know so what influenced what what impact did that have on you do you think it was a validation then came fire and rain with those opening words just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone they become so much more haunting when you learn the story behind them and I know you've spoken about this before but can you briefly describe the circumstance that led to fire and rain well when I was in New York with with the flying machine for that year I I had a girlfriend Susie and I were were really close and you know I went to England and she committed suicide after it she was having terrible problems with her family they had committed her actually because they wanted to control her really it wasn't necessary but they committed her in a state Asylum and and she she eventually killed herself so but you didn't know that and and but my friends I was recording this album with the Beatles and they didn't want to burst my bubble you know I was just you know wait let's wait until he's got the thing in the can and then you can we can let him know about it and so that's that's the way that first for a sample you know the second verse was written in a in a in a recovery place sort of a rehab for for for a drug a drug rehab place in in western Massachusetts very near where I live now and was it was sort of about that chapter and then you know the third one was about sort of a kind of a bleak look at trying to pick up and get started again you've said about your addiction the thing about drugs with me is that they were eventually boring and when they weren't boring it was a humiliating stupid accident in the end it was simply too narrow I felt as though I lived on a postage stamp if it is that stultifying why does it take such a grip on people for so long or indeed until they die the key for an addict is is how much of a relief the addict felt when they first discovered their drug of choice when that really works for them watch out for the for the back end because you'll hold on till the very you know you'll be the last person to admit that it's it's that it's gotta go it's a dead end it's the same day over and over again and and increasingly painful I watched it take my brother and I watched it really restrict my father's potential and and really so and and my particular drug of choice was so illegal and so dangerous that and also so stultifying serves so so powerful that I really I just needed to have another chapter in my life at the age of 35 I wasn't ready to cash it in you're reluctant to talk about your first wife Carly Simon which I'll respect but but can we talk for a moment about your music together because for a time there you were America's indeed much of the world's favorite singer-songwriter no I'm happy to talk about Carly mmm so I'm how important was that part of your life it must have been very well you know consuming at the time it was and but it was a very public marriage and a very you know for me it was just premature you know I had no business making that you know it amazes me that people get married at the age of in their 20s at all you know I mean what do you know very little no it was just it was sort of it was kind of doomed I mean really it was just I I was unfit to be a husband and father and we necessary it must be a very tough thing to say and to acknowledge yeah no it's not hard to say if it's just patently true yeah yeah well there's another song from October Road called my traveling star you wrote presumably about life on tour that coming back home was like going to jail the sheets and the blankets and the babies and all that sentiment didn't stop you doing it all over again did it the sheets in the blankets the baby quite happily well no I think when a gentleman becomes involved with a with with a woman the fair sex if she wants to get married well you step up to the plate and now you're back on the road with Carole King she speaks very fondly of how you you coached the shine backroom songwriter onto the stage and the troubadour in LA back in 71 and changed her life how do you remember that the trooper was one of the very first times that she was actually billed as an opening act but the first time that she stepped up in the context of my set and saying up on the roof was at Queens College and it was she was a very tentative and and but you know the the music takes over and those songs that she wrote are so are such vehicles you just can't lose you know once you once you hook into it it's sort of here away we go the accolades keep building it's not that long since you last Grammy and your induction to the Hall of Fame as both a singer and a songwriter so you really have had a fortunate life it is gratitude is the right attitude and I'll probably end with that platitude typestyle thanks very much for talking with us thank you thank you Carrie

Channel: ABCLibrarySales

Views: 3,238,850

Keywords: Footage, TV, Entertainment, Film, News, ABC Television, Library Sales, Archive, James Taylor, The Beatles, Music, Carole King, Drugs, addiction, rock

Id: 15xiQxLAnd4

Length: 7min 40sec (460 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 28 2017