Question 1

CNN talks with ANDY SUMMERS and STEWART COPELAND about "THE POLICE: Around The World Restored and Expanded"

Accepted Answer

Watch video HERE.

Question 2

Forbes interview with STEWART COPELAND - read here

Accepted Answer

Stewart Copeland On ‘The Police: Around The World’ Documentary, Now Re-Released Decades Later     Still from 'The Police: Around the World.' CREDIT: IMAGE PROVIDED BY MERCURY STUDIOS  By 1980, the British rock trio the Police had already established themselves as a successful group in the U.K. and U.S. with such hits songs as “Roxanne,” “Can't Stand Losing You,” “Message in a Bottle” and “Walking on the Moon.” In that particular year, the band members—drummer Stewart Copeland, guitarist Andy Summers and bassist/singer Sting—were on their first and most ambitious international tour that saw them make stops in Mexico, Egypt, Japan, Australia, Greece, Hong Kong and India. It’s a memory that still lingers in Copeland's mind over four decades after the fact.   “That tour was probably the most fun tour of the whole [Police] adventure,” he says. “We were the first rock band in Greece and Bombay. These were really not markets—they were just extremely exotic places where bands did not tour. But we did, and it was darn photogenic.”  Footage from that tour was filmed and later released in 1982 as The Police: Around the World on VHS and Laserdisc. Having been long out of print for decades, the documentary has now been newly restored and is available in three formats: Blu-ray + CD; DVD + CD; and DVD + LP; its extras include four complete live performances. This new reissue via Mercury Studios is another indication of continued interest in the Police’s music as well as a sign of potentially more archival material to come from the band’s vaults.     Cover of 'The Police: Around the World.' CREDIT: MERCURY STUDIOS  “Recently, for some reason, we got our act together and we now have a presence on social media,” Copeland says of his former band. “And the incoming message was, ‘More product.’ ‘What have you got?’ ‘What about The Police: Around the World that no one's seen but everyone's heard about?’ Because when it was previously released, it was on Laserdisc. Nobody had Laserdisc, which was very soon an orphan technology. So although it technically has been released before, it's not been out there. And it has been remastered and all of the assets have been remastered...they've gone out and cleaned it up a lot and found a lot more live material and so on.”  The idea of playing outside of the traditional music markets at the time came from Miles Copeland, the band's visionary manager (and brother of Stewart), in a bid to maximize publicity for the band. “I would give Miles 100 percent credit for that idea,” says Copeland. “We, of course, get credit for leaping on it–‘Are you kidding? Yes!’ But Miles had that vision. And also he had the worldwide savvy to pull it off. Other rock roll real managers don't know who to call in Cairo or how to deal with what was then called the Third World. But Miles did have that worldly experience.  “Those were cool places to visit. We had a lot of fun doing it. That was the best part. But also, we got a cool movie. It was very photogenic, and Miles' vision was to establish this worldwide presence of the Police.”      The original Around the World documentarycaptured the band members performing on stage across the globe as well as soaking up the local surroundings and culture that revealed the camaraderie and humor from a group that had been known to clash. But “bands do bond,” Copeland explains, “and we were very far away from the studio, which is where all of our tensions arose. When we were out on the road playing shows and having a blast, we got along great. You can see that in the movie. Also in my own movie that I shot back in the day with a super 8 and then I later released it as Everyone Stares, you can also see how much we enjoyed each other's company.”      As seen in the documentary, the audience’s reaction to the band’s energetic performances is enthusiastic, especially in Bombay. “It was an outdoor venue with a capacity for maybe 100 people or something like that,” he recalls. “But then in the afternoon, when we did the soundcheck outside, people thought there's a concert going on. They climbed the walls and stormed. By the time we had finished the soundcheck, the place was packed with, I don't know, 3,000-4,000 people. That was not a standard-issue, fire department regulation audience there. And there were people right off the street. So that was a very visceral response. It did strike us that when Sting goes “Eee-yohhh!”, the people from the streets of Bombay go “Eee-yohhh!” That tells you something about humanity.”      Still from 'The Police: Around the World.' CREDIT: IMAGE PROVIDED BY KAYOS PRODUCTIONS.  For Copeland, the Police’s trip to Egypt seemed fitting given that he spent his youth in the Middle East where his father worked on behalf of the CIA. “We got to ride around the pyramids,” the drummer remembers about his band’s activities in that country. “In those days, you go to Giza and you walk up to [someone] who will hire you either a camel or horse for 50 piastres, and you take off across the desert and ride unsupervised and unconstrained. It was like the Wild West. We hired these horses and galloped around it and visited the three big pyramids out there. It was just an incredible adventure that you could never have today.”  1980 was a hectic year for the Police not only with the global tour but they also recorded the Zenyatta Mondatta album, which later generated the hits “Don't Stand So Close to Me” and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.” According to Phil Sutcliffe's liner notes for the Police’s 1993 box set retrospective Message in the Box, the band went back on tour just hours after the album was finally completed in the studio. “We were living the dream,” Copeland says. “That's what our whole life was for: playing shows in cool places night after night. That's the reason why we drew breath every day. I'm now in my 70th year. There are other matters of life that get one's attention, you know, grandchildren and such. But when you're 29, you just wanna play shows.”      Still of Stewart Copeland from 'The Police: Around the World' CREDIT: MERCURY STUDIOS  Coincidentally, the re-release of Around the World comes on the 45th anniversary of the band's formation in the U.K. during the height of the punk explosion—a milestone that is not lost on Copeland. “When we made those records, we didn't conceive of them as high culture that will persist through the ages,” he says. “We conceived them more like sandwiches to be consumed right now, and we'll come up with another one next week. We just 'slam, bam, thank you ma'am.' We churned them out with love and joy and excitement in our hearts, but we never expected them to last, to our surprise. They did disappear and were supplanted by the next generation of bands and everything.  “But then a weird miracle happened at the turn of the millennium where kids started to rediscover Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC and the Police, and there was kind of a resurgence of interest in the originals. My kids now listen to Led Zeppelin AC/DC and even the Police. That's something that none of us ever expected.”  As for himself, Copeland (who recently won a Grammy for Best New Age Album for Divine Tides, a collaboration with composer Ricky Kej) is continuing the legacy of his former band. He has been touring Police Deranged for Orchestra, which sees him revisiting the Police’s back catalog with an orchestra and singers. Copeland’s rearrangements of such Police classics as “Roxanne,” “Every Breath You Take,” “King of Pain” and “Demolition Man” present them in a new light while still retaining the essence of the originals.      “They have emotional baggage,” says Copeland of his the band’s music. “People grew up with those songs. And even though I can play 'hide the hit’ sometimes—where I extrapolate beyond recognition and then come back to the hook—it really does have a lot of impact because it's sort of new but it hits that emotional spot that a known song–and only a known song–can hit. It's been a really fun show. The orchestras love it too because I turn them into a rock band for the night. I use the orchestra with all of its huge vocabulary to do what a rock band does, which is wake up the room and rock the house.”  Additionally, Copeland, who is also a composer for film and television, is set to premiere his latest opera The Witches Seed at the Tones Teatro Natura located in the Italian Alps this July. “It's about the persecution of women in the Alps in medieval times,” he explains. “It’s a fun piece. It's set in the Alps and it's being performed in a quarry, which has been turned into a performance space. They project up on the huge stone quarry face and they put these productions on there. In fact, the reason I said yes to the commission was just to go there and do opera in Italy, in that location. That's living the dream: ‘Rock drummer dreams of being an actual musician and composer.’” 
    SOURCE

Question 3

ULTIMATE CLASSIC ROCK speaks with ANDY SUMMERS - read the interview here!

Accepted Answer

May 17, 2022      In an alternate universe, Police guitarist Andy Summers perhaps could have been a sumo wrestler. That’s one moment that we see in the 1982 documentary and concert film The Police Around the World.  Sting and Stewart Copeland flank Summers as he prepares for his bout, offering motivational coaching and encouragement. Of course, there’s an apparent air of satire to it all and things don’t play out well for Summers vs. sumo.  There are plenty of similarly light-hearted moments like that which show the Police having their share of fun as they travel the globe. But it also captures the opening moments of a rock band that was on the rise, playing show after show that demonstrated how they had quickly become fierce players, intensely connected as a unit.  Filming took place on their first world tour in 1979 and 1980, and there would be both milestones and challenges. The Police delivered what would come to be known as the first rock concert in India. A similarly important show in Egypt proved to be a complex situation and seemed doomed from the start because of both equipment and logistical issues. In the end, they pulled it off and the audience in attendance was none the wiser that there had been any problems threatening to scuttle the event.  Once the film was obtained, they painstakingly worked to bring it up to date, cleaning up the footage and remastering the sound for the new reissue, which is available on Blu-ray, DVD and a variety of audio formats. Additionally, they were able to locate several performances that hadn’t been previously released. “A lot has gone into it to get it to this point,” the guitarist adds. “But I’m pleased to see it out because obviously, we’re a couple of generations on since this was done. I think it’s nice for people to see it.”  Summers discussed some of his favorite moments from the original experience during a recent phone conversation with UCR.
 What do you remember about hatching the idea to have you face off against the sumo wrestler? 
Yeah, well, it’s a funny moment. I can’t remember if it was actually my own idea to threaten myself with a sumo wrestler. [It was in] the spirit of the funny things we were doing. We had a lot of time on our hands. This idea of the sumo [wrestler] came up and we actually executed it. It was a setup because we had to get permission from the sumos. We have to drive outside of Tokyo, go to the sumo house where they all lived, meet the guy and do the performance. It was done in a room that was hovering around zero temperature-wise, and I got quite sick after the fact – because it was so cold!  Miles Copeland wrote in his memoir how there had never been a rock concert in India and only one that he was aware of in Egypt. The film shows what a remarkable experience it was. It was a very vivid experience. We all wanted to go to India. I think that was actually my idea, to go to India on the way back from Australia and not straight back to Italy. Let’s go to India, Egypt, Greece and then finally, Italy. India and Egypt were pretty exhausting. Miles actually flew to Bombay and didn’t know anybody at all, and was going to search around to see if he could find somebody so we could do a gig in a little basement or something or a club. There must be something – you know, just so we could put India on the schedule – but as it turns out, he connected with these old ladies called the Time and Talent Club. They had some influence in Bombay and we ended up doing the show at the Rang Bhavan Auditorium to about 3,000 people. It was an amazing night. We played really well and I think it’s quite a standout in the film, actually. We were very excited to be in India. I went back subsequently on my own for a few days. I remember standing on stage going, “I can’t believe I’m standing here doing this,” in front of this 3,000-strong mob of Indian people, all screaming at the stage. The fact that we were in Bombay doing this, it seemed like utter madness to me, but it was kind of a great moment.  Watch the Police Perform 'Message in a Bottle' in Hong Kong      How much experience did you guys have at that point playing big shows like that? It's not the largest show, but it's a decent crowd. 
Yeah, it was decent. I mean, for us at that point, this was the very early days of the band, so that was a big one. You know, 3,000 people in India? Oh, my God, I don’t think we were pulling that kind of crowd yet in the U.K. But not long after that, we were moving really fast. We started to play arenas of 10 or 12,000. And after that, of course, it just went up and got even bigger. Ultimately, there wasn’t a stadium big enough to hold the crowds.  What did watching this film bring back for you? 
I think we all rose to the challenge. I think we were all very excited to be traveling like that. I mean, we were a hot band and everyone’s totally into the band. I think we were in those early stages before the [wave] of incredible fame that came later. We were very into being as good as we possibly could be. You know, the performances, I think they show up on DVD: It was pretty fierce. I’m particularly pleased with the Kyoto performances. We really don’t sound like anyone else. It was a very exciting time and you know, we were three young guys [traveling] around [and having a] great time in all of these countries and playing our asses off every night. What’s not to like?  The film presents the band in a light that hasn't been widely seen. You used the word "fierce," and I think that's quite appropriate. 
You know, the band had this amazing energy. We were very intent on making every show just killer and trying to win every audience over. Like most people who start out and want to have a music career, they want to "make it," as we call it. This is what we had to try and prove it with, and we were really good at it. Obviously, It’s sort of a miraculous event that the three of us met each other and it produced this thing called the Police. You know, one guy different and it would have been a very different band that probably wouldn’t have even been a band. You cannot say, “Oh, well, I could do that.” You can’t formulate that. It happened to be the unique thing that happened with the particular three of us.  There's footage of you and Sting and Stewart in India. You're playing the sitar. Was that your first time playing one? 
No, I was good friends with a professor of Indian music in London. He taught me and I actually had a sitar and I used to play it. I listened a lot to Ravi Shankar, Allauddin Khan and other people. I was pretty into Indian music, so that was another extra thrill for me to go there. But I probably do look like the most competent of the three of us, because in fact, I had sort of dived into it a bit.  What are you really glad that this film captured? 
Well, you know, it was a great time and a great moment, when it’s still reasonably innocent. There’s not so much [of us] vying [for] position. That came later – you know, [where] we’re all too famous to even travel together. The typical stuff that sets in at the level that we got to, which was sort of insane. I like the sort of innocent quality that we’re all having a good time. We seem to be all getting along, and we’re really trying to kill with the performances to make this band happen. We were as one, if you like, in that period.  The Egypt concert seems like it was challenging to pull off. 
It was fraught. I can’t remember quite what was going on in Egypt at the time but you know, the Copelands – Miles in particular and their father – had worked for the CIA, or whatever it was, and there was definitely Middle East connections. Miles must have dug deep in his phonebook and had this one phone number, which was enough to get us through the bureaucracy and whoever was in charge got the gates open, so we could get our equipment out. Now, we’ve got the equipment and we’re all stuck gazing at the pyramid of Giza and various camels and stuff, waiting to [see] if we can play. We played at the University of Cairo, but nothing worked and it was like, “This gig is not going to happen.” Everything is being filmed and there we are, all ready to go. Eventually, somehow, I don’t know if they imported something from the dam of the Suez Canal, but we eventually got electricity so we could do the show. It was sort of a tense moment.  It's been mentioned that there is going to be a series of Police reissues over the next 10 years. What else is in the pipeline? 
I mean, we didn’t make that many records. We made five records that were all No. 1 everywhere all over the world – more than most bands. So we have a vast, very popular catalog that’s never gone away. The whole thing is kind of miraculous because here we are still talking about it all of these years later. The music never seems to go away, which it makes you feel very good about it – that we didn’t just do something that appeared and was never heard again. You know, we carry on. I can only say that over the next 10 years, [there’s a lot planned]. I know we’re going to make a documentary; there’s going to be a traveling exhibition. These things will be different. Obviously, they keep repackaging things and doing stuff with the material, so I don’t really know, but Stewart and I have a very smart and energetic manager who is intent on making sure this continues on in various forms. I think the next thing will be the documentary, an amazing documentary, made by a very talented person. We’ve got to figure that out yet.  There are those CBGB recordings that were recently discovered. Have you figured out what you'll do with those? 
Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I'm going to write that down and ask our manager. [Laughs.] I’m amazed because that was very innocent. It was the first show we ever played in the U.S. at CBGB’s. It was the mecca of punk then. Sting and I flew from England; Stewart was already in New York. We got off the plane and got in the cab at Kennedy, went straight to CBGB’s and went on stage. It was amazing and we went down a storm. I am absolutely gobsmacked to find out that somebody had filmed some of it at this point. Who knew? We’ll see what we can do with it.  SOURCE

Question 4

ANDY SUMMERS and STEWART COPELAND Recall THE POLICE'S Pre-Fame Days with InsideHook.com

Accepted Answer

May 19, 2022  Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland Recall The Police’s Pre-Fame Days
 The group's "The Police Around the World" is peak '80s nostalgia     Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers in "The Police Around the World"  “Because we’d gotten into other things, I think we all came to enjoy The Police and were very proud of the work and saw it as a very closed circle,” Stewart Copeland, the band’s irascible drummer, says when asked about what things were like internally in the run up to The Police’s 2007-2008 reunion tour. “We didn’t want to mess with it and were busy doing stuff. So we were very surprised when we did the reunion tour. We thought, ‘Well, this could be cool, it’ll probably be quite popular.’ We had no idea that stadiums around the world would sell out in minutes! We had no idea — because we’d forgotten about it.”  “I thought that came 10 years too late,” contends Andy Summers, ever on-brand for a band that could seemingly never agree on anything. “That should have come much earlier. It was 20 years after we’d broken up. Like, ‘Why didn’t we do this 10 years ago?’”  Hard as it may be to believe, it’s now been 15 years since The Police reunited for their victory lap tour, which boasted 151 shows across five continents and grossed $362 million. Even more astonishing, this fall will mark 44 years since the release of The Police’s debut, Outlandos d’Amour, and next year will mark 40 years since the release of the band’s final album, the chart-topping, billion-and-a-half-streaming, “Every Breath You Take”-wielding Synchronicity.  “The music’s remained sort of immortal, and it’s still selling really well, which is fantastic,” Summers says. “It continues on, as if we’ve never left. It’s amazing. It’s still a very thriving thing.”  Indeed, legions of fans or not, for a band that felt stuck in a very particular time and place for at least the first two decades after its acrimonious split in the mid-’80s, The Police suddenly feel more timeless than ever. 
A great-sounding vinyl reissue of the 1992 compilation Greatest Hits — a “wonderful record of what we achieved,” says Summers — certainly goes a long way toward providing ample reminders of the intense creative heights the trio of Sting, Summers and Copeland reached during their fractious reign as kings of MTV and the pop charts. But it’s the reissue of a spiffed-up version of the 1980s home video release The Police Around the World — which captures the band pre-Synchronicity apocalyptic costumes, hungry and on the cusp of stardom, on a trek across (mostly) the Far East — and a fantastic new live companion album of the same name that are really all the evidence you need that The Police were truly once the greatest bands in the world.  “I was the one who wanted to get it out,” admits Summers proudly. “I literally I had to find it, because all I had was a crappy old VHS copy. But a fan had a LaserDisc, and we slowly worked on the record company into getting it back out there. So I’m glad it’s out, because it came out at the end of 1982, and then it just sort of disappeared. Like, ‘What happened to that? That’s a serious document.’”  The Police Around the World follows the band on their first world tour in 1979-80, traveling on a shoestring, and long before their nascent fame warranted it. But the idea to assume global domination before the band had actually earned it, which came from their manager, the then-budding music empresario Miles Copeland (Stewart’s brother), was an ingenious one.  “It wasn’t about profit,” Copeland contends. “In fact, it was probably more about breaking even. And it wasn’t about opening new markets, because they weren’t even markets.”  Moreover, it was grueling.  “If you look at our schedule from back then, it’s astonishing,” Summers says. “Of course, we were young — or at least the other two were — but it’s amazing that we took the initiative and really went for it, traveling to all of these places where very few people had even heard of us. But it really paid off. It set us on a course.”  “It did pay off, but it sure had its ridiculous moments,” Copeland adds. “We went to a record store in Mumbai, which was called Bombay then, and they said, ‘Ah, your record’s number one!’ And we said, ‘Well, we haven’t got a record deal in India.’ They told us, ‘Oh, that’s okay. We print them ourselves.’”  That commitment — when, as Summers points outs, other English bands were reluctant to tackle lengthy tours of the U.S., let alone go to the heart of India — paid off. The band made fans, not to mention headlines, and they positioned themselves as world-beaters that MTV and U.S. radio had to pay attention to.  And the film, more travelogue than documentary, follows the band through both the heights of some of the best live performances by The Police ever captured on film and the mundane slog of day-to-day life on tour, as they travel the globe with visits to local sights between performances.   “It’s nice to see, because it became an out-of-control freight train,” Copeland says. “We definitely got some vertigo. I mean, it’s what we wanted. We weren’t afraid of it. But it was a little unsettling, the speed, the altitude. And we weren’t really interested in putting down roots, but we felt that if we did, if we tried to hold onto anything, we’d lose an arm.”  Best of all, the physical release of The Police Around the World includes bonus features of four complete live performance in more intimate settings than you’ve likely ever seen The Police. In a word, those early days were scorching.  “It was when we were still hungry,” Copeland says. “It was before we hit the stadiums. We were still playing theaters. We still had two more albums to do after this. We were still working our way in. We were still blazing. Where there was conflict, there was still collaboration and codependence. So, this movie is right in the sweet spot.”  “When you’re all dying to make it, and you haven’t got any money, there’s an extra sort of fervor in every performance,” Summers recalls. “We were very keen to impress people. ‘We’re a great band and one day we’re going to be famous.’ We wanted to make it. We wanted to be very good and play to more people, you know, on the purest level just get more fans. I don’t think we ever really lost that, but the film does really show that intensity.”  And that’s where the live album comes in.  The 1995 release Live!, which coupled unremarkable mixes of a performance in Boston in 1979 captured by the local radio station WBCN with largely uninspired performances from the Atlanta stop on the band’s 1983 Synchronicity tour, was — until the release of Certifiable, the live album and home video which captured the band’s 2007-2008 reunion tour — the only way to hear The Police as the fearsome trio the band was in its heyday. To say that it didn’t live up to the task is putting it kindly.  Now, with the Around the World live album, which features tracks recorded in Japan, Hong Kong and the U.K. on the tour of the same name, you can travel back in time to 1980, when The Police were subsisting as a live act on the superior material of their first two albums, ambitious beyond belief and full of the youthful energy — “we were very physical at that stage,” says Summers — that makes live rock and roll one of the most exciting and transporting experiences that is legal. “It’s great for people who have never seen the Police to see and hear this,” Summers says. “The performance at Osaka is great.”  “I got tired just watching it,” Copeland jokes. “Like, ‘Damn! Simmer down, puppy!’ I know better now.”  Still, while he does love the live album, Copeland made a confession about the film version of Around the World.  “I only watched about the first 15 minutes,” he says as we wrap up our conversation. “I will share with you a personal human weakness, which is that, unfortunately, in Australia, just before we set off on all the filming, I got the worst haircut in history, and I’m suffering from a bad hair day throughout this amazing adventure. So I’m sorry to confess that I know this is a climb down from my exalted position in the world, but I can’t even look at that hairdo. The pyramids look great, Bombay, incredible, Hong Kong. But man. That hairdo. No can do.”  For Summers, the trip down memory lane was a more positive experience.  “Those early days were the best, no question about it,” he recalls. “We hadn’t got to the limo stage yet. It was very important. There was loads of practice and camaraderie. And we had a great time. I cherish those early days.”   SOURCE

Question 5

THE POLICE'S Stewart Copeland discusses "Around The World Restored & Expanded" with The Hype Magazine - read here!

Accepted Answer

May 12, 2022     The Police’s Stewart Copeland On The New “Around The World” Release, Oysterhead, His Classical Career, Van Halen & More  For well over 40 years, Stewart Copeland has been known all around the world as one-third of The Police, a band with 6 Grammys, 2 Brit Awards, 1 VMA and sales of over 75 million records to its credit. As a drummer, Copeland is renowned as one of the most influential players of all-time, having inspired modern greats like the Dave Matthews Band’s Carter Beauford, blink-182’s Travis Barker and Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron. Yet that is only a small part of the story with Mr. Stewart Copeland.  After The Police disbanded in 1986, Stewart Copeland dove into the composing world. Beyond television projects, he scored a wide range of films over the next decade including Wall Street, Talk Radio, Highlander II: The Quickening, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. He also added writing music for video games onto his resume with the Spyro The Dragon series. Copeland has also been one-third of the all-star band Oysterhead, in which he collaborated with Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Primus’ Les Claypool.  Rock music aside, Stewart Copeland has been working non-stop as a composer for decade within the orchestral world ever since. Gamelan D’Drum, which largely features Indonesian instruments, was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and premiered in 2011. The Tyrant’s Crush was debuted with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as featuring Copeland on percussion. Stewart Copeland’s Orchestral Ben Hur wa sco-commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival and notably performed with the Seattle Rock Symphony and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. In early 2016, I had the pleasure of doing Q&A with him via e-mail when he was preparing for New York City performances of The Cask Of Amontillado, as based on the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name.    Prior to The Police’s record-breaking reunion tour in 2007 and 2008, Stewart Copeland directed a documentary titled Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, as comprised of Super-8 footage he had compiled from over the years. Following the tour, he released a memoir titled Strange Things Happen: A Life With The Police, Polo & Pygmies. However, fans of The Police ought to be even more excited about the group’s latest release, The Police: Around The World, which shows The Police journeying throguh 6 continents in 1979 and 1980. Capturing behind–the-scenes footage and candid personal moments as the band explores new terrain, Around The World Restored & Expanded shows the beginning of the trio’s meteoric rise to worldwide fame. It is available in the DVD+CD, Blu-ray+CD, and DVD+LP formats, following an initial release via VHS and laserdisc; it now features restored picture, remastered audio, and complete performances of 4 bonus songs not featured within the original documentary.  Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking with Stewart Copeland again, as embedded below. Beyond Around The World, we discussed The Police’s inspiration to open up its archives, his future plans in both the rock and classical worlds, his other music-oriented siblings, and whether he ever met Van Halen’s David Lee Roth. More on all things Stewart Copeland can be found by clicking here, here and here.      SOURCE

Question 6

New video from THE ROLLING STONES "Licked Live In NYC": "Don't Stop"

Accepted Answer

Question 7

View trailer for Phil Lynott Songs For While I’m Away + Thin Lizzy The Boys Are Back In Town Live At The Sydney Opera House October 1978 Here

Accepted Answer

Question 8

PHIL LYNOTT "Songs For While I'm Away" + THIN LIZZY "The Boys Are Back In Town Live At The Sydney Opera House October 1978" on multiple formats June 24

Accepted Answer

MERCURY STUDIOS IS PROUD TO PRESENT
PHIL LYNOTT SONGS FOR WHILE I’M AWAY
+
THIN LIZZY THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN LIVE AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE OCTOBER 1978 ~2xDVD+CD AND BLU-RAY+DVD+CD~
~JUNE 24, 2022~     PRE-ORDER HERE
VIEW TRAILER HERE  New York, NY (May 5, 2022)–With their driving hooks, twin lead guitars, lyrics saturated in working class lore, and the charismatic presence of singer/songwriter/bassist Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy are undeniably one of the most influential bands in Rock ‘N’ Roll. 
Mercury Studios salutes their legacy with the release of Phil Lynott Songs For While I’m Away + Thin Lizzy The Boys Are Back In Town Live At The Sydney Opera House October 1978 on June 24. Pairing the acclaimed Phil Lynott documentary with a renowned live concert film, the set will be available as a 2xDVD+CD and Blu-ray+DVD+CD (with the Phil Lynott documentary on the Blu-ray). 
Songs For While I’m Away chronicles the life and music of Phil Lynott, utilizing archival footage, interview snippets from the man himself, and music from both the Thin Lizzy and Phil Lynott solo catalog. Notable conversations with Midge Ure (Ultravox / Thin Lizzy), Darren Wharton (Thin Lizzy), Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy), Adam Clayton (U2), Huey Lewis (Huey Lewis & The News), James Hetfield (Metallica) and others, as well as Phil’s wife Caroline Taraskevics and daughters Sarah Lynott and Cathleen Lynott reveal an all-encompassing look at Phil, from his 1950s’ upbringing as a Black boy in blue collar Dublin to his rise to fame. Fully exploring his history and rippling impact on music, the film examines Lynott as a singer, songwriter, poet, father, and cultural icon.
Complementing this film is The Boys Are Back In Town Live At The Sydney Opera House October 1978. Previously released on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD, this version presents the show in the highest quality that has been made available, with not only cleaned up video and remixed audio from multi tracks, but five additional songs from this set that have never been officially released. This performance showcases the electricity of these original Rock ‘N’ Roll masters – Lynott, Scott Gorham (guitar / background vocals), Gary Moore (guitar / background vocals), and Mark Nauseef – delivering searing versions of their celebrated anthems, such as “Jailbreak”, “The Boys Are Back In Town”, “Bad Reputation” and “Me And The Boys”. 
Unveiling the story of Phil Lynott, then backing up the band’s power and prowess with a dynamic performance, Phil Lynott Songs For While I’m Away + Thin Lizzy The Boys Are Back In Town Live At The Sydney Opera House October 1978 echoes the importance of Thin Lizzy in the pantheon of rock music.  About Mercury Studios:
Mercury Studios is a multi-faceted content studio established to develop, produce, globally distribute and invest in innovative, music-rooted storytelling across a range of media including film, television, podcasting, publishing and live-streamed performance. Taking its name from the iconic Mercury Records label, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group and creates an open space for experimentation to unleash and amplify both emerging and established artists. With offices in London and Los Angeles, Mercury Studios harnesses its established relationships with best-in-class talent from music and film, seamlessly bridging the two worlds to create a completely distinctive community of trailblazers driven by original IP, innovation and collaboration.  Track Listing:

Question 9

VIEW New Video From THE POLICE "Around The World Restored And Expanded" -- "Message In A Bottle"

Accepted Answer

Question 10

View a teaser of THE POLICE "Around The World Restored & Expanded" HERE

Accepted Answer

Question 11

ROLLING STONES "Licked Live In NYC" on Multiple Formats - June 10

Accepted Answer

ROLLING STONES LICKED LIVE IN NYC  RESTORED AND REMASTERED WITH FOUR PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS, BONUS PERFORMANCES FROM AMSTERDAM AND REHEARSAL FOOTAGE  ~ON MULTIPLE FORMATS ON JUNE 10, 2022~  PRE-ORDER HERE  VIEW TRAILER HERE  “New York City, top of the world…” testifies Mick Jagger after a raucous performance of “If You Can’t Rock Me”. “It’s great to see you here looking really beautiful tonight all dressed up. You think you’re on TV or something?” 
New York, NY (April 13, 2022)- In 1964, The Rolling Stones arrived to absolute mayhem for their first show in NYC, after the release of their debut album The Rolling Stones. Having played New York City multiple times, at several venues, it was only fitting that in January 2003, as part of their 40th anniversary tour, they made it a point to return to New York’s most celebrated arena… Madison Square Garden.

The Rolling Stones’ 40-year celebration tour with the NYC crowd bearing witness to a razor-sharp performance is evidenced throughout this entire set. 
On June 10, Mercury Studios will proudly present Licked Live In NYC on DVD+2CD, SD Blu-ray+2CD, as well as a standalone 2CD and 3LP. Originally released in 2003 as an HBO special and as part of the Four Flicks package, this concert has been fully restored and remastered with four previously unreleased songs: “Start Me Up”, “Tumbling Dice”, “Gimme Shelter”, and “Sympathy For The Devil.” 
Joining Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts were Darryl Jones (bass, backing vocals), Chuck Leavell (keyboards, backing vocals), Bobby Keys (saxophone), Bernard Fowler (backing vocals), Lisa Fischer (backing vocals), Blondie Chaplin (backing vocals, acoustic guitar/ percussion), Tim Ries (saxophone, keyboards), Kent Smith (trumpet), and Michael Davis (trombone) who set the Garden’s stage ablaze. Kicking off with “Street Fighting Man”, the Rolling Stones made their way through “Angie”, “Midnight Rambler”, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)”, to name a few, as well as “Honky Tonk Women” with a special guest appearance by Sheryl Crow. 
The addition of three bonus performances from Amsterdam and rehearsal footage gives an insider’s view of the Rolling Stones gearing up for this tour. The SD Blu-ray package includes the additional 51-minute documentary Tip Of The Tongue, which captures the conception and preparation of the Live Licks tour’s innovative three show / three venue approach. Inspired to switch up venues on a nightly basis between arenas, ballrooms, or theaters, and setlists along with it, the band are captured preparing for this tour from the recording studio in Paris to the rehearsals in Toronto. 
A dynamic performance delivered at one of the most celebrated of venues, Rolling Stones Licked Live In NYC showcases a landmark, celebratory moment in the lives of the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band.  Track listing:      
  About Mercury Studios:
Mercury Studios is a multi-faceted content studio established to develop, produce, globally distribute, and invest in innovative, music-rooted storytelling across a range of media including film, television, podcasting, publishing, and live-streamed performance. Taking its name from the iconic Mercury Records label, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group and creates an open space for experimentation to unleash and amplify both emerging and established artists. With offices in London and Los Angeles, Mercury Studios harnesses its established relationships with best-in-class talent from music and film, seamlessly bridging the two worlds to create a completely distinctive community of trailblazers driven by original IP, innovation, and collaboration.  www.rollingstones.com http://www.facebook.com/therollingstones www.twitter.com/rollingstones www.instagram.com/therollingstones www.youtube.com/therollingstones

Question 12

View the ROLLING STONES "Licked Live In NYC" trailer HERE!

Accepted Answer

Question 13

THE POLICE "Around The World Restored & Expanded" On Multiple Formats - May 20, 2022

Accepted Answer

MERCURY STUDIOS PROUDLY PRESENTS  THE POLICE: AROUND THE WORLD RESTORED & EXPANDED  ~FOR THE FIRST TIME ON DVD+CD, BLU-RAY+CD, AND DVD+LP~ WITH NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED LIVE AUDIO  ~MAY 20, 2022~    PRE-ORDER HERE 	                                                 PREVIEW HERE  New York, NY (March 14, 2022)–Embarking on their first ever world tour, The Police journeyed through six continents in 1979 and 1980.  Capturing behind–the-scenes footage and candid personal moments as the band explores new terrain, The Police: Around The World Restored & Expanded displays the beginning of their meteoric rise to worldwide fame.  A poignant snapshot of this pivotal moment in their career, The Police: Around The World Restored & Expanded blends footage of the band performing live with intimate footage of Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland exploring Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Egypt, Greece, France, South America, and the US. The band was filmed on and off stage as they visited local monuments, tasted foreign cuisines, and organically grew a global fanbase.  On May 20, 2022, Mercury Studios presents The Police: Around The World Restored & Expanded on DVD+CD, Blu-ray+CD, and DVD+LP (pressed on silver vinyl). Originally available on VHS and laserdisc, the film is being presented on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time, with restored picture and remastered audio, as well as complete performances of four bonus songs featured in the documentary.   Additionally, The Police: Around The World Restored & Expanded includes never-before-released live audio on CD and LP. Boasting songs from their first two albums recorded in Japan, Hong Kong, and England, it showcases The Police playing with a frenzy and passion that would soon make them the biggest band in the world.  At the same time, the British band were enjoying their first chart success in the UK with “Roxanne” and “Message In A Bottle”. They were young, hungry, and ready to break big. As Andy Summers enthuses in the liner notes, “Like Napoleon, we wanted the world. Out of the messy and fervent atmosphere in London at that time we conceived the idea to go all around the world and film the whole adventure. As far as we knew no rock band, at least, had ever done that. We had just about enough popularity to get booked around the globe. Plans were made.”  And the rest is history…beautifully captured in The Police: Around The World Restored & Expanded.   About Mercury Studios Mercury Studios is a multi-faceted content studio established to develop, produce, globally distribute, and invest in innovative, music-rooted storytelling across a range of media including film, television, podcasting, publishing, and live-streamed performance. Taking its name from the iconic Mercury Records label, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group and creates an open space for experimentation to unleash and amplify both emerging and established artists. With offices in London and Los Angeles, Mercury Studios harnesses its established relationships with best-in-class talent from music and film, seamlessly bridging the two worlds to create a completely distinctive community of trailblazers driven by original IP, innovation, and collaboration.    DVD & Blu-ray track listing: Features performances of: Next To You Walking On The Moon Born In The 50’s So Lonely Man In A Suitcase Can’t Stand Losing You Bring On The Night Canary In A Coalmine Voices Inside My Head When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around Shadows In The Rain Don’t Stand So Close To Me Truth Hits Everybody Roxanne   Bonus Features: Complete live performances of: Walking On The Moon (Live from Kyoto) Next To You (Live from Kyoto) Message In A Bottle (Live from Hong Kong) Born In The 50’s (Live from Hong Kong)   CD Walking On The Moon - Live from Kyoto Next To You – Live from Kyoto Deathwish - Live from Kyoto So Lonely - Live from Kyoto Can’t Stand Losing You - Live from Kyoto Truth Hits Everybody - Live from Kyoto Visions Of The Night – Live from Hammersmith Roxanne – Live from Hammersmith Intro Born In The 50’s – Live from Hong Kong Message In A Bottle – Live from Hong Kong Bring On The Night – Live from Hong Kong     LP Side A: Walking On The Moon - Live from Kyoto Deathwish - Live from Kyoto So Lonely - Live from Kyoto Can’t Stand Losing You - Live from Kyoto   Side B: Truth Hits Everybody - Live from Kyoto Roxanne – Live from Hammersmith Born In The 50’s – Live from Hong Kong Message In A Bottle – Live from Hong Kong Bring On The Night – Live from Hong Kong

Question 14

Fantastic article with the great Don Airey! It covers all things Deep Purple, Ozzy, Judas Priest, and on and on.... a must read. Thank you Andy Greene and Rolling Stone!"

Accepted Answer

January 25, 2022   Keyboardist Don Airey on His Years With Ozzy Osbourne, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath   The heavy-metal veteran has also played with Judas Priest, Jethro Tull, Rainbow, UFO, Whitesnake, and Bruce Dickinson     "You do have thoughts about being in the garden and bouncing the grandchildren on your knee, but it's part of your blood system, playing and touring," Don Airey says. "It's an addiction." Mauricio Santana/Getty Images   Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features keyboardist Don Airey.    During the past 50 years, whenever a major British hard-rock or heavy-metal band needed a genius-level keyboardist, they knew they could call Don Airey. He’s the guy that Rainbow and Black Sabbath hired in the Seventies to help them with albums like Never Say Die! and Down to Earth. In the Eighties, Ozzy Osbourne brought him in to finish off Blizzard of Ozz and bring it out on the road. In the years that followed, he worked with Judas Priest, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Whitesnake, Jethro Tull, Brian May, UFO, Gary Moore, and many, many others.   Airey’s life changed forever in 2001 when Deep Purple asked him to sub for Jon Lord for a handful of European gigs. That stint led to a permanent position in the band that has included six studio albums and countless journeys around the globe. Their newest album is the covers collection Turning to Crime, where they put a Deep Purple spin on songs like Bob Dylan’s “Watching the River Flow” and Bob Seger’s “Lucifer.”   Airey phoned up Rolling Stone from his home in Sunderland, England, to look back at his amazing life journey through the world of metal, explain why he didn’t mind being excluded from Deep Purple’s induction into the Hall of Fame, and look ahead to the future of the band.   How has your life been during the pandemic? 
Very different from what my normal life was. A complete change. My wife said it’s the longest time I’ve ever been off, and we’ve been married 43 years. I think the longest I’d ever been home was three weeks before going off on the road somewhere. It has been very nice for me, but rather a test for her.   Do you miss the road? 
I’m not sure. I thought I would miss it terribly, but it’s been nice to have a change and nice to look back, something you don’t have much chance to do when you’re in the music business if you’re working all the time. That’s been a good part of it.
 Are you looking forward to the Deep Purple tour that starts in February? 
Yes, but I have a degree of trepidation about it. I’m hearing stories from bands that went on the road and they’re having to stop because of Covid. Rival Sons had to stop their tour. There was a big tour by the band Caravan and they had to abort it with four gigs to go. People are taking as many precautions as they can, living in bubbles, but this thing isn’t over yet. Let’s hope we get through it safely.   I want to go back here and talk about your life. What’s your first memory of being a kid and being really aware of music? 
I remember it very clearly. I was sitting on the floor of the kitchen. I was only three, and there was a piano player on the radio playing a lullaby I knew. I thought, “That’s amazing.” And I realized we had one of those in the front room of the house. I remember running into the front room and sitting down by the piano and trying to play it, to my mother and father’s amazement.   When did you first become aware of pop music? 
I think it was when Bill Haley came to Sunderland in 1957, and it caused an absolute riot. He played at a cinema in Sunderland. The people just destroyed it. They ripped up the seats and went mad. That’s the first time I knew something was going on. And the next big thing I remember is Elvis. Everybody on the playground was talking about Elvis. Maybe I was seven years old or something. I kept hearing the words “Elvis Presley,” and everyone was so excited.   Who were some of your early musical heroes? 
I was a great jazz fan. I wasn’t so keen on pop music as such. My father had a very large collection of 78s that he collected when he was a young man, and we had a record player. I used to listen to people like Fats Waller, Fletcher Henderson, and lots of British big bands. Of course, he started collecting LPs as well. That was a big inspiration to me, people like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, Bill Evans. That was what was really turning me on when I was 11 or 12. I looked down on pop music a bit.   Were you thinking about becoming a jazz piano player? 
Yeah. I had great ambitions. I was taking classical lessons on the piano. Of course, when you do that, everyone wants to be a concert pianist. But there wasn’t much hope of that. I wasn’t good enough, really. And it’s a very hard life. But I used to play jazz at school. We had a little jazz band. One of the teachers ran it, and we used to give little concerts. Someone played the bass. There was a saxophone player, a trumpet player, me on the piano, and the occasional drummer.   One day, life changed when the Beatles single “Please Please Me” came out. Life became very exciting. I found all sorts of people that wanted me to join their groups, which I did. And that was the start for me of working with rock & roll.   Did you see any rock concerts as a teenager that really blew your mind? 
Oh, yeah. I went to a lot of jazz concerts. I remember seeing Ornette Coleman. But in terms of rock, I saw Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. They were an amazing band. They had a guitarist named Mick Green, and up in Sunderland, really far north, nobody had ever heard a guitar player like that.   I saw the Spencer Davis Group with Stevie Winwood. I remember thinking, “God, he’s not much older than me.” Well, he wasn’t. He was a month older than me. But I’ll never forget his singing or his organ playing. It was just fantastic.   I didn’t see the Beatles. My sister did, and still talks about it. But as I said, I saw a lot of jazz concerts. And I saw Yes in their early days. Jeff Beck, too.   You studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. How did you grow as a musician during your time there? 
What happened was, I was at Nottingham University first for three years. I did a degree in English Literature and Music. I kept my playing going while I was there. I thought I should do something with my piano playing, so they accepted me for a year at Royal Northern for a post-grad piano course. I had the great fortune to have a teacher called Ryszard Bakst, who had just come over from Poland to settle in England. He was the most amazing musician I’ve ever known. He kind of deconstructed me and then put me back together again. By the end of the year, I could play classical piano. He knocked in me what music was all about. It was tremendously beneficial to me.   What were your goals after you finished school? 
I didn’t really have any. I had a basic feeling that I wanted to be in the music business, but how do you get into it? It was very closed. You had to be in London. It was a very hard business to be in. You had to just hope something would turn up.   When I was in music college in Manchester, I sort of supported myself by playing in the nightclubs. I’d do three or four nights every week. I’d back the singers. I’d back comedians. I’d write parts for the horn players. It was a great experience.   One day, the phone rang. It was an agent that saw me play in the club. He offered me a gig on a cruise liner. I said, “When does this leave?” He said, “Tomorrow. Can you be in Southhampton at 6 a.m.?” [Laughs] I said, “Yes.”   He said, “Can your bass player come?” He lived upstairs. I said, “I’ll just go and ask him.” His name was Adrian Evans. He lived in the flat above me. I said, “Do you fancy going on a six-week cruise of the Mediterranean?” He said, “Yes.” He had an old Austin car and we packed all our gear in there and set off for Southampton almost immediately. That’s how my professional career started.   I ended up being the bandleader on the cruise liner. I think I was the first person they ever had that could actually do the job.   What sorts of songs were you playing? 
It was everything. We played a lot of jazz numbers. We played a lot of standards. I had a very good sax player called Martin Dobson. They had some terrific acts come on. We had a singer called Lita Roza. She was the English version of Sarah Vaughan. She was a marvelous musician. You were working seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. It was a great experience. But you kind of knew there was no future in it besides to put a bit of money in the bank, which I did.   How did you meet Cozy Powell? 
I came to the end of a contract with Norwegian Cruise Line, and I decided I had to get into a proper band. I flew to Buffalo, New York, and went to the Moog factory and bought a Minimoog. I then flew back to England, and I had a Fender Rhodes [electric piano], a Clavinet, and a Minimoog. I started playing in clubs in London.   One day, Cozy’s bass player Clive Chaman came into the club. He asked me if I wanted to audition for Cozy. I said, “Yes.” I’d seen him play and he had a big hit single called “Dance With the Devil.” That was the start of it. And it was a long friendship, musical and otherwise.   What made him such a distinct drummer? 
The volume he played at, for start. I’d never heard anyone sound like that on drums before. It was very much an English thing to play drums like that. They were trying to get above the guitars. That’s because when Marshall amps started coming out in the second half of the Sixties, you couldn’t be heard unless you really played loud. You couldn’t be heard, and he was the first person I really heard play like that.   He was a fantastic musician, much better than anybody really credited him for. He caught onto things very quick. He had great ideas about everything, and he was a lovely bloke. That year I spent with him on the road playing British dancehalls on the back of the pop hits, it was just a wonderful experience. We were a really good band. I’m still in touch with [guitarist] Bernie Marsden and [bassist] Neil Murray and Frank Aiello, the singer.   How did Cozy Powell’s Hammer lead to the formation of Colosseum II?

Well, when Cozy phoned and said he was knocking it on the head with the band, I was terribly upset about it. I went from being in a band one minute to suddenly not being in a band. I said to my girlfriend Doris, before she became my wife, “Let’s go on a holiday.” We went off to Wales for a week. I hired my gear out to a tour manager I knew. He said, “The group I’m working for is hiring a keyboardist. Can we borrow your keyboards for a week?” I said, “Yeah, yeah. Great.”   I came back from holiday and there was a message that said, “Your keyboards are ready to pick up.” And so I went down to this seedy rehearsal room in Chelsea and went in and suddenly realized it was [guitarist] Gary Moore and [drummer] Jon Hiseman. I knew of Gary and was already a big fan of his. Jon saw me and said, “Can we help you?” I said, “Yeah, I’ve come to pick up my keyboards.” He goes, “Can you play those things?” I said, “Yeah, a bit.”   We sat down and jammed. Gary gave me a piece of music called “Wings,” or something, and we just jammed for three hours. At the end of it, they offered me the job. I was apparently the 53rd keyboard player that tried out.   There was so much talent in that band. They could have been huge. Why do you think you guys didn’t make it? 
It was kind of overwhelming sometimes. We never really got it down on record, but the live shows … I still have people coming to see me at Purple gigs telling me they were at a Colosseum II gig somewhere and they still hadn’t gotten over it. We used to just get onstage and explode, especially Gary. He was unbelievably talented. He had this wild side to him, and he just used to let go on these musical adventures. It was very thrilling, if you could keep up with him. And Jon, of course, was one of the greatest drummers that ever lived, in my humble opinion.   So Strange New Flesh and the other albums just didn’t capture the magic of the live show? 
No. On the records, you always had that thing in your mind to be a bit more commercial and do things that might appeal to the public. But really what they wanted to see was the raw excitement of the live show. You tend to go into the studio and try and be a bit more disciplined than you were onstage. You have to keep songs down to five minutes, but sometimes we’d go onstage and they’d go on for 15 minutes.   Sometimes Jon and Gary would have a pre-arranged signal and they’d just leave me, mid-solo, to hold the crowd while they had a beer. They’d never tell me when they were going to do it. It was exciting. And of course, we were traveling in a van, staying in small hotels. We went from clubs to playing in places around Europe that held 1,500 people. We were starting to really get somewhere, then Gary left. He left to join Thin Lizzy.

Tell me about your experience on the Andrew Lloyd Webber album Variations.   That was rather wonderful. Andrew wanted to use us. I think he’d seen a concert and he was on MCA as well, so he’d heard the albums. He heard War Dance and wanted to use us. He used Rod Argent as well, and Barbara Thompson, Jon [Hiseman]’s wife. And his brother, [cellist] Julian Lloyd Webber. It was the most unpromising scenario, but it just seemed to click from the first moment.   Andrew was very charming. He also knew what he wanted. He formed a great bond with Gary Moore. Gary really took to him, and gave Andrew a lot of ideas. It was a joyous session. We did it all in four or five days, and thought nothing of it. Next thing we knew, we were Number Two in the album charts, just behind Abba. [Laughs.] It was the suddenly theme song of the new BBC art show. We filmed a documentary and played at the Royal Festival Hall. And then we took the show to Los Angeles and New York. It was very exciting.   Tell me about getting the job to record with Black Sabbath. 
That was actually through Jon Hiseman. As well as running a band, he also ran a PA company called Colosseum Acoustics. And Sabbath used to use his gear. I think Tony Iommi phoned Jon up and said, “We’re looking for a keyboard player. Do you know anybody?” And Jon recommended me. He phoned me up and said, “You gotta be at Morgan Studios tomorrow for Black Sabbath. Don’t worry. They’re very nice people.” But they had a fearsome reputation. Tony had punched a couple of journalists and Ozzy had a reputation for being quite wild.   I turned up with three or four keyboards. I’d met Ozzy before. When I showed up, he said, “Would you fancy a cup of tea?” I said, “Oh, yes, please.” We sat around having a cup of tea and listening to the tracks. And then off we went. We had a great sessions. I couldn’t believe how good Tony was. What a competent musician he was as a guitarist. He was very versatile.   It was a weird time for the band. They were about to part ways with Ozzy. Did you sense any of that tension? 
They were kind of falling apart. I remember Bill Ward saying to me, “I don’t know what to do with your man Osbourne. He’s driving us all mad.” Bill was really worried about Oz. It was a bit of a strange time for the band. I think they could feel they were splitting up, but I’m very proud to be on that record. It was a great session.   Did they talk about bringing you on the tour? 
They asked me, yeah. They were going to America and wanted me to come. But I kind of got wind of the fact that Rainbow were about to come in for me. I didn’t turn them down. I said, “Are you sure? You sound very hesitant about whether you actually want a keyboard player or not.” I just kind of left it and didn’t follow it up with their manager.   So how did the Rainbow period start? 
I got a phone call from Cozy Powell. They’d phoned me twice before and I was always leaving on a tour or something. I could never go and audition. But Cozy said, “Airey, get your ass over to New York tomorrow.” And when the boss speaks, you do what you’re told. He met me when I got off the plane at JFK and took me to a hotel in Connecticut. Next day, they took me to meet Ritchie [Blackmore].   He said to me, “Do you like Bach?” I said, “Yeah.” He gave me a piece of Bach to read, which I kind of knew, but I pretended I’d never seen it before, so he thought I was sight-reading it. We played it together. I forget what piece of Bach it was, but we kind of rocked it up together. And then he said to me, “Do you know Beethoven’s Ninth?” I said I did. We worked on the song that became “Difficult to Cure.” That was kind of my audition with the band. And then I went into rehearsals with them. It was just me and Cozy and Ritchie, just the three of us, in the middle of winter.   This is the first album with Graham Bonnet on lead vocals after Dio left. How was that transition? 
It was funny. The first day I walked into the rehearsal studio, there was a bit of a revolving door, and I saw Ronnie going out the other side. I thought, “Oh?” I didn’t know Ronnie was going to be there. We started and after a couple of hours, I said to Ritchie, “Is Ronnie coming back?” He said, “No, no. Ronnie’s gone.” That’s all he said. [Laughs.]   We didn’t have a singer. We tried a couple of people, but it didn’t really work out. When we went in to record, we had our bass player, Jack Green, who really wasn’t up to the job, though a very nice guy. And we had a singer called Pete Goalby, who did great things with Uriah Heep, but he didn’t quite get what Ritchie was going on about.   We made Down to Earth without a singer until about the last week when Graham Bonnet turned up. He turned up quite by chance. Cozy used to play a game where he had all these cassettes with hits on them. He’d play them for three seconds. It was called “Guess the Single.” He played the Marbles’ “Only One Woman.” Everybody went, “What happened to that guy?” We traced him to Australia and flew him to France were we were recording in the Château [Pelly de Cornfeld].   Graham was very bewildered. He’d never heard of Ritchie. He’d never heard of Deep Purple. I said, “Why don’t we do ‘Mistreated’?” I gave him the track and kind of went through it with him. He came down into the room where all the gear was and he was white as a sheet. He started to sing and after three syllables, he had the gig. It was an extraordinary sound. I remember Ritchie looking up and Cozy just grinning. He was something else, Graham Bonnet.   This is the punk era where a lot of bands were modernizing their sounds to survive. Do you think that’s what Ritchie was trying to do? 
I think he did. He wanted to go trans-Atlantic. He was very impressed by Lou Gramm and Foreigner and Journey. He loved all those things. The management was very keen on that. They’d play us Journey tunes and be like, “Why can’t you do something more like that?”   But Cozy didn’t want to go that way. We had this triumph at [the Donington Monsters of Rock festival]. It was an absolute stupendous occasion. It was the first real big festival on British soil. As we walked off, the band broke up. Cozy left. He said he didn’t like the new direction. He hadn’t liked “Since You Been Gone” very much, even though his playing is absolutely essential to that being a hit. And then Graham left because Cozy left. I think Joe Lynn Turner was a very fine singer. He had that trans-Atlantic sound. I was in it for another year, but at the end of it I was so exhausted that I just handed [Ritchie] my notice and left.   How did you feel about the decision to make Rainbow more commercial? 
I thought it was ill-conceived. It thought when we played Donington we were arguably the best rock band in the world apart from Queen. It was a devastating sound. I remember my father came to a gig at Newcastle City Hall. When he came back, I could tell he was impressed. I went, “What did you think, Dad?” He said, “It’s the loudest, most impressive thing I’ve ever experienced since [I fought in World War II].” It had just a tremendous impact, but we kind of lost that when Cozy and Graham left.   I know what Ritchie was trying to do. He was trying to be more commercial, but I think he eventually come a cropper with it. Rainbow petered out eventually. He had to then do the obvious thing, which was re-form Deep Purple.   How was the making of Difficult to Cure? 
Difficult would be the best word to say. [Laughs] We were in a lovely studio in Copenhagen. Don’t get me wrong. It was a nice hotel and nice studio with good working conditions. We had loads of material, but we were breaking in a drummer, Bob Rondinelli, who was a bit of a novice at that time. He didn’t quite get it. With Cozy, we’d do two or three takes and that would be it. I remember doing 30 takes of one tune with Bobby since he kept on getting it wrong. It was just difficult.   Great drummers don’t grow on trees. They are a very rare breed. Great musicians are a very rare bread. It’s not easy to replace someone. He probably wound up doing a great job for Rainbow towards the end. And then, of course, when he joined Sabbath, he really learned how to play. He was quite a force to be reckoned with.   How was Joe Lynn Turner as a singer? 
Just great. He’s a bundle of fun, effervescent, and he’s a great singer. He’s never at a loss for a tune, never at a loss for a lyric even though Roger Glover was writing most of the lyrics. Joe just had this boundless enthusiasm that he still has despite all the setbacks you get in the rock & roll lifestyle. He just keeps bouncing back. I got on very well with him. I liked him tremendously.   During your last Rainbow tour, did you start feeling like you wanted to leave? 
Yeah. When I quit, I just said I was leaving. There were many reasons for leaving, one of which was, I had been the road for eight years almost continuously. I had my son Michael by this time and I really didn’t know him. I just thought it was time to take stock and take a bit of time off, which I did. Of course, I was doing sessions in London all the time. Eventually, Sharon Osbourne called me up and asked if I was available for an American tour. I said, “Yes.”   Tell me about first meeting Randy Rhoads. 
I first met him at the studio, Ridge Farm. He was very quiet. He gave off this lovely vibe. He was a sweet guy, a good-looking guy. You saw him and went, “He has a real rock god kind of thing.” But he was very quiet. He had a very gentle sense of humor, and he wanted to know all about Gary Moore from me. It was a very good session, the first Blizzard of Ozz album. This was 1980 when I was still in Rainbow.   What stage was the album at when you came on board? 
I just came in to do keyboard overdubs. They’d finished the album, more or less. They had all the tracks and rough vocals on everything. I think the first track they played me was “Crazy Train.” They wanted me to put something on it. I went, “I’ve got nothing to add to that! I’d just spoil it.” The guitar playing was just immense. I’d never heard anyone play quite like Randy.   Tell me about making “Mr. Crowley.”

They played me the song and went, “We need some kind of intro.” The thing that was funny was that I had all the keyboards in the control room. And there was Max Norman, the engineer, there. And the band were sitting behind the desk like a judge and jury. I threw them all out and said, “Come back in half an hour and see what I come up with.”   Out they went and Ozzy came back after half an hour. We played him what we’d done and he was like, “It was like you plugged into my head.” That was that. I then added a few bits and pieces to the actual track. But there wasn’t a lot you could do with that track. The guitar just said everything. I didn’t want to spoil it.   How many Blizzard of Ozz songs do you think you play on? 
I only played on four or five tracks. I played on “Goodbye to Romance.” I put that trumpet thing on at the end. I also played on “Revelation (Mother Earth)” and “Suicide Solution.” The guitar wasn’t finished on “Suicide Solution.” I think the last thing I did on that was with Randy. He played me the part and there was a Hammond organ. When you hear the guitar, it’s an amazing sound, but there’s a Hammond organ in there with him. It’s very tied to him. He really listened and he really made you listen to what he was doing. You hear the Hammond at the end where it goes into a bit of a freak out. It’s quite a disturbing track at the end.   How was the tour? 
It was amazing because they’d gone from playing clubs and then small arenas to suddenly it was a big tour with 5,000 or 10,000 people every night. It was a bit of a shock to the system. We also had a huge set which took some putting up and getting down. It was a big road crew. It was a big deal. There were a lot of problems with the gear and getting the PA working properly, getting the keyboards hooked up to the system. But it worked out. It started to go very well. And then, of course, the most dreadful thing happened.   Why weren’t you on Diary of a Madman? Ozzy phoned me up about doing it, but I couldn’t since I was still on tour with Rainbow. I didn’t make any contribution to it.
 But you went on the tour. 
Yeah. And I have many fond memories of Randy from it. It was in the days before mobile phones or internet. We’d find ourselves in a hotel in Rhode Island, just the four of us. Ozzy and Sharon weren’t there. The tour manager wasn’t there. We didn’t know how we were going to get to the next gig.   We didn’t know who to phone. We tried to management in Los Angeles, but there was no answer. And so Randy goes, “I know what to do.” He went off and came back with this big tray with eight Long Island iced teas. He put them down and said, “This will sort the problem out.”   We started drinking these iced teas. And sure enough, by the time we finished them, the tour bus had turned up. And off we went.   He had some lovely quirks about him. He used to carry a little portable television with him. If there was a lapse in the conversation, he’d just take it out and plug it in and start watching cartoons or something.   After the tragedy, you kept playing shows. It must have been really hard emotionally. 
We couldn’t believe what had happened. We were like, “What have we done to deserve that?” It wasn’t like the band was a mad bunch of party animals. Sharon kept a tight rein on everything, which I loved. It was a great band to be in. There were no drinks backstage and hardly any drinks on the bus. It was great.   We were all in terrible shock, but we eventually started to try and find a replacement guitarist. What do you do? You have to carry on. We ended up in L.A. and we auditioned various people, none of which were very suitable. Bernie Tormé came in for a few gigs, but he just got overwhelmed by everyone being so upset. It just affected him. He said he couldn’t work like that.   Eventually Brad Gillis turned up. I went in a room with Brad and we started going through the set. After two songs, I was like, “You know this. God bless you, man.” He just knew everything, so we didn’t have the agony of teaching someone Randy’s guitar parts.   Brad just slotted right in. It was his first real gig. He turned up somewhere like Baltimore. He paid his own fare and had $10 left in his pocket. He did such a great job, and he put everybody at rest. We were able to do the shows and carry on, but the sadness was just enormous.   The trauma must still affect you today. 
I think about Randy every day. I can still hear him. I remember the last time I spoke to Ozzy, I said, “I can still hear his guitar in my head.” I can still hear his laugh. He had a very infectious giggle if he liked something. He’d have this laugh.   When I first joined the band, we’d go in the back of the gig and there would always be a live tape of the show. I very much sensed that the British way of playing keyboards wasn’t going to fit with that band. I had to find something different. I was looking for a lot more sound effects from the synthesizers, voices. We had a vocoder onstage and I was doing a lot of effects. I was putting more of a halo around the sound than actually being part of the sound.   If Randy liked something when I played it on the tape, he’d let out this laugh. I knew I was doing alright. He was a lovely guy to work with, but he was also a very imposing figure. He knew what he wanted, and he was a force to be reckoned with.   I don’t think he was a very happy guy towards the end. He wasn’t happy with the way things were going. I used to say to him, “Don’t worry about it, man. In 10 years’ time, you won’t think anything of this. You’re young. You get ups and downs and disappointments. You’ve just go to ride it.” It was hard work being on the road with the Ozzy Osbourne band. It was five or six gigs a week.   Tell me about the Bark at the Moon sessions. 
I left the band at the end of the 1982 tour in August for various reasons. One of which was that Gary Moore called me up and said he had a lot of work for me if I wanted. But it didn’t quite work out with Gary. It was a good band, but he had all these singers that were great singers, but they weren’t as great as he was. It was a bit of a hodgepodge. And then Ozzy called me up and said he had a new guitar player and wanted me on an American tour.   And so we were writing material in hotel rooms, humble motels I’d say, during the American tour of 1983. We got quite a lot of stuff together. We rehearsed in New York, and then at the end of the tour, we went right to Ridge Farm Studios, which is where they recorded the first two Blizzard of Ozz albums. We set up shop there and did Bark at the Moon.   Obviously, I don’t think going back to Ridge Farm was the greatest thing because there were too many memories of Randy. And Jake E. Lee was a little bit over-awed by the weight on his shoulders, but he came through nevertheless. He was a fine guitar player, and a very amusing young guy too.   I don’t remember much about the making of the album. I know that Ozzy got very upset about the way things were going halfway through.   What was he upset about? 
I can’t remember, but I think I came in the line of fire for some reason. With bands, there’s a lot of things going on on the financial side that cause a lot of trouble. The tours were very expensive, and I think Sharon was having to deal with a lot of financial troubles to keep it going. I think that kind of wore through a bit. Eventually the album was quite successful. It was definitely a successful tour, and Jake E. really came into his own. He took the bull by the horns and played his ass off every night.   What’s your best memory of playing the US Festival? 
[Laughs] Oh, heavens. My main memory is that our road crew berated us for not taking it seriously. It wasn’t that we weren’t taking it seriously, but they told us we should change the stage and upgrade things since it was going to be a big deal. And so we rehearsed for three days because Bob Daisley had just come back into the band, so we rehearsed a new set. We were all primed and ready to go.   We get there and it was like a scene from the Bible. I think there were 400,000 people there, maybe more, and it was very dry. There was this red dust in the air from where people were walking. It looked like something from a biblical epic. It was very hot and they had hoses at the front of the stage that they sprayed over the audience all the time to cool everyone down.   We went onstage and Ozzy just slipped into the old set. We didn’t do the new set. He just started and we did the normal set. It was pretty successful, but nerve-racking, I have to say. I remember that.   There are so many legends about the Ozzy tour with Mötley Crüe in 1983 and how debauched and insane it was. Tell me about it. 
[Laughs] I’d met Mötley Crüe before. The first gig they ever played out of L.A. was at a club in Calgary. We were there with Ozzy. Rudy Sarzo knew them, so we went to see them. They were different. They were pretty good. We went to say hello to them in the dressing room, and there was a fight going on. They were all fighting each other, punching each other up with bodies flying everywhere. We kind of left. That was my first experience with Mötley Crüe.   But they were putting up a storm every night. They were a damn good band. The guitar player, Mick Mars, was the kind of brains behind it all, I think. And Nikki Sixx wrote most of the songs. Vince [Neil] was the first person I ever heard calling people “dude.” He was brought up in Redondo Beach, and so he was a surfer. He had all this surfer lingo. I used to love talking to him, but I couldn’t understand a word he said, really.   But it was all going on with them, I have to say. They kidnapped me and took me on their tour bus one night. I went overnight on it. [Laughs] It was like the end of the Roman Empire or something.   I don’t know how they did it. It just seemed to give them more energy the more they did. Of course, their record was flying up the charts. It was exciting being around them.   What was Ozzy like in this time period? You always hear that his drinking had gotten completely out of hand. 
This is when things really started getting to him. Post-traumatic shock had gotten to him, really hit him about Randy. He became a bit withdrawn, I have to say. I think there was a lot of drug-taking going on. He wasn’t eating. He wasn’t sleeping. Eventually something happened. We were in Chicago and he had some sort of mild heart attack, I think.   He was in the hospital, and I went to see him. He was hooked up to all these machines. He said, “We gotta get these for onstage. Look at all these flashing lights.” It taught him a lesson, though. He came out and we all said, “Ozzy, you’re going to kill yourself if you keep doing this.” And he somehow got through the rest of the tour. Things got very much better. He really got ahold of himself.   I remember we went to Japan. We did this amazing gig with Jake. It was just a fantastic occasion. The fans were glad to see us, and we were glad to see them, and Ozzy was in top form. That night I got the most dreadful phone call that my mother had died. I went down and told Ozzy. He was at breakfast. He said, “We better have a drink for the old girl.” He ordered a couple brandies and calmed me down. Then he said, “You’re going home. That’s what you’re doing. You’re not staying.” I was so confused. I said, “I can do the rest of the tour.”   But God bless them. I did one more gig and they put me on a first class flight back to England. That really was the end of my time with the band. I knew it was coming to an end, and that was it. I did do two more gigs with them. I did Rock in Rio. That was my swan song.   How did you wind up on the 1987 Whitesnake album? 
I knew those guys very well. Neil [Murray] is a very close friend. He still is, really. David had tried to get me in the band a couple of times. I knew [guitarist] John Sykes. I’d been following him for quite a long time. I think they phoned me up just to do the sessions. They flew me out to Vancouver, but the original plane I took caught fire halfway across the Atlantic. We had to turn back. [Laughs] It was quite frightening. I landed back in London and phoned up their office. I said, “The flight has gone back.”   When I finally got to [Little Mountain Sound Studios], Bon Jovi was in the other studio doing Slippery When Wet. I remember that.   It was pretty downbeat for a Whitesnake session. Something happened to Coverdale and he wasn’t singing. Something was wrong with his throat. He didn’t want to sing. They were pretty depressed about the tracks. They didn’t know what to do. But when I heard them, I went, “Wow! The guitar playing, the bass playing, the drumming …” I thought it was amazing.   I did a couple of things the first night, and then I went out to dinner with David. He was kind of moaning on a bit. I went, “Man, you have something here we’re all striving for. Keep it going. Get it done.” It seemed to cheer him a bit.   I was only there for five days. The best track was “Still of the Night.” He played it to me and it had this big hole in the middle. I said, “What happens there?” And John Sykes said, “You do.” We did it very quickly. John Sykes was very, very easy to work with. He had a lot of ideas. We got things done very quickly.   You’re on “Here I Go Again,” too. 
There are two versions. I did the slow version, like the one that was done when Jon Lord was on keyboards, and then we did a souped-up version. I think the main keyboards were done by another keyboard player [Bill Cuomo], but he did copy some of the lines I put in. You both play on it? 
I think so. There might be another keyboard player as well. They really appreciated what a great song it was. [A&R executive] John Kalodner was hovering about, I believe. He was always very good at encouraging people and seeing what was working and what wasn’t. But David went from the pit of despair about the way things were working to the top of the world very, very quickly. He deserved it. He’s a wonderful singer and wonderful songwriter.   How did you wind up on the Jethro Tull tour? 
[Laughs] Quite by accident. They just phoned me up and said, “Do you want to come to an audition?” I learned a few songs. I learned “Songs From the Wood” and packed up a few keyboards in the car and went to this audition. It went very well. I remember Ian Anderson going, “Well, Don Airey. You’re very good at playing our music. Let’s see if we can play some of yours.” And so I had to make something up and we jammed to that. At the end of the day, Ian just said, “If you’d like to be in the band, we’d like to welcome you in.” I agreed and joined for a year. It wasn’t quite my cup of tea.   Why? 
There was something very restrained about them. It was a very quiet dressing room. There were never many guests or anything, or very much excitement. But musically it was very satisfying, but it just wasn’t heavy rock. It wasn’t English classic rock. It was kind of folk-rock. But I appreciated it even so. Ian is a true genius. You know that when you’re around him. He has so many ideas all the time. He’s a little bit on the difficult side, I must say. He’d probably say the same thing about me.   How did you wind up on Painkiller by Judas Priest? 
Same thing, again. Somebody called my manager. And I’d met them all when we did Donington. They were second on the bill to Rainbow. They turned up at soundcheck and they were just amazing. I remember Ritchie standing there and going, “Wow. This is something else.” We chatted to them there. And [years later] they invited me down to France. It was Jacques Loussier’s studio in Provence. It was a very exotic old castle with a recording studio in it.   It was a funny old job. They keyboard was pretty limited to two or three tracks. I had to put a bit of a Moog bass on a few tracks because Ian Hill was quite ill. I think he wasn’t available. I did a little bit of bass playing on it, which I think made the album. I’m not so sure. I was never supposed to reveal it, I don’t think.   That was their last record before Rob Halford left. Did you sense at the time that they weren’t getting along? 
They are such lovely people, in the same way that Sabbath were. People that come from Birmingham are very mellow and friendly. They were all like that. [Guitarists] Glenn [Tipton] and Kenny [K.K. Downing] were just two guys acting as one. When they played together, it was phenomenal. I can’t remember whether [drummer] Scott [Travis] was there. I think he was just there for a couple of days, and I really was just dealing with the two of them. Rob was there, but Rob seemed to be keeping himself really separate and I didn’t really get to know him.   What split them up was that court case. It was hanging over. They’d all been talking about it. It was about two kids that committed suicide listening to a Judas Priest track. It was turning into quite a big deal. I know Rob was very upset about the fact that his lyrics had driven kids to shoot themselves, but also how ridiculous could a court case be that they were being sued for the death of two disturbed children? I remember him saying to me, “This could really bring us down and be the end of everything.” He was really worried about it.   Did they ask you to tour with them? 
I think they did. I can’t remember. There was always that with them, that they wanted me to be part of the band. I was very flattered. They were one of the best live bands I’d ever seen. When they played at Donington, they were just astonishing. I think my favorite video is “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’.” That’s just a great work of art to me. [Laughs] Any time I’m feeling low, I’ll play that.
 You took some time off in the mid-Nineties. 
Yeah. I flew in from Nice after the Judas Priest thing and had a meeting with Gary Moore at a rehearsal studio in London. He was talking about a blues project he was doing and he wanted me to be a part of it. I was very glad to be asked. I did that. That was very successful. It lasted about a year. At the end of it, I was pretty well done for being on the road. I had three children I hadn’t really seen. I didn’t really know any of them. And so I came off the road. The family was struck by a tragedy. My oldest son became extremely ill. He was in and out of hospital for about three years. That took up a lot of my time and energy.   A miracle happened and he got cured. My son Michael is now my keyboard tech in Purple. They just promoted him to production manager. Let’s hope he doesn’t want to fire the keyboard player as his first act. [Laughs] My son, the big boss.   Tell me how you joined Deep Purple.

I was working on some orchestral things for a festival. I had four arrangements to do with a very tight deadline, and Roger Glover phoned me up. He said, “What are you doing this weekend?” I said, “I’m just home.” He said, “Jon [Lord] has had to go into hospital. Can you come and cover for him for three gigs?” I said, “This weekend?” I go, “OK, what’s in the set list?” Roger goes, “What do you fancy?” [Laughs.]   We worked out a set list. And after I worked out the arrangements, I worked on the Purple songs. I was very familiar with them, of course, but I still had to stay up for two nights straight. I then packed my bag, and set off for Heathrow. They put me on the wrong flight, so there wasn’t a ticket for me. I got to the rehearsal, which was booked for six until nine at night, at a quarter to nine. [Laughs] They just made a mistake with the plane they put me on.   We had a quarter of an hour to rehearse. Roger said, “Shall we do ‘Woman From Tokyo’?” I said, “OK.” At the end of it, Roger came up and said, “Welcome to the band.” It had gone very well. And then [guitarist] Steve [Morse] said, “We’ve got this song called ‘Fools.’ Do you know it?” I go, “Yeah, a little bit.” He said, “I’ve rewritten the middle of it.” He taught me the middle, and that was the end of it.
 Next day, Steve came to my room for about an hour and taught me one of his instrumentals called “The Well-Dressed Guitar.” Next thing I know, I’m onstage with Deep Purple at the Skanderborg Festival in front of 30,000 people. [Laughs] It was a bit of a shock.   What did you learn about Jon Lord’s parts once you started playing them?

As soon as I got on, I was very conscious that if I tried to be Jon Lord, it was never going to work. I just had to be myself. It was pretty hairy. It’s one thing going through the music on your own. But when the band starts playing, it’s a different dimension. It’s a very exciting one. I remember that I came off [after the first show] and I didn’t know whether I had done a good job or a bad job, but everyone seemed quite happy about it.   The next morning at breakfast, Ian Gillan came up to me and said, “You know the intro to ‘Lady [Double Dealer]’?” I had done a couple-minutes intro to it. And when you’re a keyboard player, and a member of the band comes up to you and asks about something you’re playing, it’s usually, “Can you just cut it down a bit? It’s too long.” That’s what I was expecting Ian to say. But he said, “You know that bit you do at the start of ‘Lady’? Make it longer. We want more of that.”   They were very encouraging. It was one of the greatest tours I’ve ever done in my life, standing in for Jon Lord. It went from three gigs to 24 gigs. Jon never came back to the band.   They eventually made you a full-time member?   Yeah. I finished the tour. It was two days before 9/11. It was Sept. 9. I enjoyed the tour, but never for a minute did I think that Jon would leave. I don’t know how anybody could leave a band like that. It was beyond me. That’s as good as things get. It’s great music, great players. The management was very together. It was just a wonderful scenario.   I didn’t hear anything until about Christmas. I had come home from doing a solo gig in London for a big corporate Christmas gig. I had a 10-piece soul band I used to do the arrangements for and MD. I came back thinking it was time to do something else. And there was a message on my answering machine. It was [Deep Purple manager] Bruce Payne saying, “Would you join the band?” I said, “Yes.”   It was a funny feeling going from, “It’s about time I found something else to do with my life” to “joining Deep Purple.”   Were you thinking for a while that Jon was going to come back and you were going to lose the gig? 
I didn’t understand why he’d left. I really didn’t. I know the band seemed very pleased to have me on board since things had brightened up. I think Jon had grown very introspective. He started soul-searching about maybe he’d made the wrong choice to be a rock & roll musician, and he should have been a classical musician. I think that’s why he left. He was going to be a composer. I think at one stage he said he did want to come back, but the general consensus was, it wasn’t going to happen.   The first one or two years with the band were a little strange. I never knew whether I was really part of it or not, so you just keep your head down and do what you do and try and do it to the best of your ability. It pays off in the end. The band changed and became really conscious of who they were. We really started working really hard. That was a total delight.   When they made Bananas in 2003, you were fully part of the writing process, and seemingly a real member of the band. 
Yeah. I joined in 2002. They didn’t make me a full member until 2006. The thing is, I think I was making too much money. I feel like I was making more than some of them. I was doing it for a fixed fee, which I was very happy about it. But sometimes the tours were losing money, and I wasn’t. [Laughs] I love hearing [drummer] Ian Paice tell me the story.   But in 2006, I had a couple of other offers. Judas Priest wanted me to go on the Nostradamus tour since I’d done the album with them. Gary Moore was making overtures to me. He wanted me back in his band. Things came to a head and I said to Purple, “You need to let me know where I stand.” There was no hanging about. They just made me a member of the band, and I’ve been there ever since.   Deep Purple has such huge following overseas, but I feel like many American rock fans just know “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star,” and the cover of “Hush.” 
It’s funny because when we play in the States, I go, “Why aren’t we playing ‘Black Night’?” They go, “Well, it wasn’t a hit here. Nobody knows it.” I go, “What? Everybody knows ‘Black Night.’ ” But they’re quite right. They aren’t really familiar with a lot of the Purple canon.   I think the secret for the band in America, because they have been quite successful over the past few years, is the fact that we don’t pull any punches. We aren’t playing to tapes. There’s no ProTools going through the PA, which most bands use these days. What you see is what you get. I think most people really appreciate that.   This is the most stable lineup the band has ever had by a very wide margin. 
Yeah. Paice says it’s the most successful the band has ever been, and the most stable. It’s a very nice thing to be part of. It’s very civilized, but there’s no slacking when we go onstage. It’s 120 percent. When they kick off … I don’t know what it is, but there’s something very strange about Purple. When those guys start playing together, something unforeseen happens. I often say I feel like someone has come up behind me with a plank of wood and banged me on the back of the head. It’s a big wake-up call.   How was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame experience? 
When we heard about it, they tried to break it to me and Steve. “Well, they’re not going to induct you two.” They thought we’d be upset. We just said, “Why would they? We weren’t in the classic edition of the band.” It was a great occasion. It was a great night for the band, and a great night for Vickie Lord, Jon Lord’s widow, to be up there. She received the honor onstage.   Lars Ulrich couldn’t have been nicer to us. He gave us a nice intro. We went on and played “Hush.” When I came off, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers came up to me, picked me up, whirled me around, and called me a “bad mofo.” That really made my night.   Was there actual talk of Ritchie Blackmore playing with you guys that night? 
There was no controversy about it. Ritchie just didn’t want to be there. I think an overture was made to him, but I don’t think he likes a lot of hoo-ha. He doesn’t like formal occasions like that. He often thinks, “I could be home writing a song.” He doesn’t like to waste time. I think he would have viewed that as a waste of time, but it would have been nice had he been there. I found it very nice to see David Coverdale there, and Glenn [Hughes], of course. As you get older, you realize a few things. When you see old friends, it’s a good bonus.   The fans keep dreaming about seeing Ritchie Blackmore back onstage with you guys for at least one more song. I imagine that’s unlikely at this point. 
Umm … I just can’t see it happening. A lot of fans talk about it, and record companies talk about it, but just organizing something like that … It sounds very simple, but the logistics of it … When bands are on the road, you have a flow going. Things work. To do something like that might … If Ritchie turned up, I’m sure the band would say, “Do you want to come out?” And he’d say, “Yes.” But if it was planned, like, “Ritchie is coming back for one gig,” it just wouldn’t really work out. How could you justify it? How could you make it pay? It’s just kind of impractical. There’s nothing personal about it. And Ritchie wouldn’t do it. I’m sure of that.   Some fans were upset the Hall of Fame didn’t bring you in. There are other bands with members who joined very, very recently, and they got in. I’m thinking of Josh Klinghoffer with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Reeves Gabrels with the Cure, but there are many others. You’ve been there 20 years. 
Yeah. Steve has been there 26 years. We are the newcomers. But what can you say? I was just pleased to be there. It was a rather wondrous night. To see people who have become such good friends and colleagues get the recognition for what they deserve and what they’ve done in their lives was satisfaction enough for me. That’s because they don’t get a lot of plaudits. When you’re in a working band, real life passes you by. You’re in this bubble. That’s where you live. It’s not very often that people pat you on the back and go, “Well done.” It was nice to see. I was very charmed about it.   Tell me about making Turning to Crime and why you guys decided to do a covers record. 
It was done during lockdown. We had to cancel everything. All the touring was canceled. “What are we doing to do?” The last album, Whoosh!, had come out, but we weren’t able to promote it because of the pandemic. Initially I thought it was the end of everything, and life was we knew it was going to change. It was a very frightening time.   Bob Ezrin called a phone conference and got us all together. It was his suggestion. He said, “You guys make music by all being in a room together. Why don’t we try and do it remotely, but we do a covers album?”   The idea took hold, and he was very enthusiastic about it. We had a coupe of phone conference and all the suggestions came up. The only rule was, “No Beatles, no Stones, no Who.” We wanted a bit more obscure. There are at least three songs on the album I’d never heard before, but they meant a lot to people, like “Lucifer” [by Bob Seger].   The first concert Steve Morse ever saw was Bob Seger. He played “Lucifer” and it knocked him for six. It changed his life, so we did that.   “Oh Well” [by Fleetwood Mac] was everybody’s favorite. I picked the Ray Charles number [“Let the Good Times Roll”] and the Mitch Ryder thing [“Jenny Take a Ride”] and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu.”   I did four or five demos. Steve did four demos, with drum machines. Roger did four. We just circulated them, and things were gradually added. I think when Ian Paice put his drums on, suddenly it became very real: “This is going to work.”   I love “Watching the River Flow” by Bob Dylan. 
I was only familiar with the Leon Russell version. I was very surprised when Roger’s version came through, which is more like the original. I sort of jollied it up with a jolly piano part.   Tell me about the big medley at the end where you smash together “Green Onions,” “Dazed and Confused,” and a bunch of other classics. 
I put that together. Usually in the encore of our show, we come out and do “Hush.” We always play something into it. We sometimes do “Green Onions,” or “Peter Gunn,” or “Caught in the Act (Going Down).” I just stuck all those intro tunes together.
 Do you think you’ll play some of these songs on the tour? 
God, I hope so. I think so. It all depends. If people get the album … I think it’s a really joyous celebration of being a musician. We’ve made it under very strange circumstances. You heard about musicians going out of business, having to sell their homes. It was a very bad time for the music business. It was a ray of hope, and it gave us all something to do. It was worthwhile, I think.   Do you think Purple are ever going to finish that farewell tour? 
We started the farewell tour in 2017. It was due to end in 2019. But the thing is, when you’re a musician in a band, you think you’re in control of it, but you’re not. The business is running you. Of course, there was so much demand for the band to continue from the promoters and agents, that we said, “OK, we’ll do one more year.”   I can’t say for certain, but hopefully if things get better this year, we’ll be able to do a lap of honor. It’ll last longer than a year, is my guess.   Are you able to visualize the last concert ever with Purple, and walking offstage and it being over? 
The words of T.S. Eliot come to mind: “This is the way the band ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.” I think we won’t know it’s the last gig. We won’t have a clue that this one is going to be the last one. That’s how it’s going to end. It’s going to be no big scenario.   Do you ever think about retirement? 
I like what Buddy Guy said. He said, “Musicians don’t retire. They drop.” You do have thoughts about being in the garden and bouncing the grandchildren on your knee, but it’s part of your blood system, playing and touring. It’s an addiction. I hope I keep playing for a while yet.   That’s great. And Deep Purple are actually booked on a cruise ship next month. 
Yeah. In my case, the circle is complete since I used to work on cruise ships. Some of them used to go to Miami. I resided in Florida for a year of my life. I’m going back to Florida and going to play a cruise. It’s rather wonderful.   SOURCE

Question 15

THE BEATLES AND INDIA highlighted in The Washington Post!

Accepted Answer

Question 16

"THE BEATLES AND INDIA" on BlackBook

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January 31, 2022  Trailer: ‘The Beatles and India’ Follows the Fab Four to the Maharishi      One of the basic tenets of hippiedom was the rejection of the purely Occidental point of view, in favor of seeking out less financially-driven wisdom through more far reaching cultures, primarily those of the East. The Beatles, not exactly hippies but certainly swirling around in the same zeitgeist, were notably getting more experimental with each album during their short existence, partly by having become a decidedly more globally conscious musical entity.  But by 1968, they also just needed a genuine vacation away from their crushing popularity in the West – and India, with its peace-proffering Hindu philosophies and luminous sitar players, most definitely appealed to the Fab Four’s increasing appetite for the exotic. A new documentary, The Beatles and India – streaming exclusively on BritBox in the US as of February 15 – fascinatingly follows them around on that life-altering visit.     In the truly captivating first trailer, a reporter’s voice is heard asking John Lennon, “Did you enjoy the trip over to India?,” to which comes the snarky reply, “The journey was terrible, but the trip was alright.” Yet it would be George Harrison who would ultimately be most spiritually affected by the experience, even fully embracing Hinduism a year later after meeting Hare Krishna leader Swami Prabhupada. But he would also fall hard for the music – and here we see the “Quiet Beatle” sitting barefoot on a lawn, sitar “jamming” with legend Ravi Shankar, who now joyfully recalls, “When George and me got connected it was like…wi-fi!”  The main purpose of the trip, however, was to meet the exalted Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who was to teach them about Transcendental Meditation – which one imagines might have come in handy after so many years spent trying to outrun thousands of crazed, screaming female fans. We hear an unidentified voice describe the Maharishi as, “the most powerful, magnetically charismatic person I ever met.” And considering how the band’s manager, mentor and best friend Brian Epstein had passed away from an accidental drug overdose in August of the previous year, the doc suggests that they were seeking someone, especially someone who claimed to have the answers to life’s great questions, to fill that howling void.      John enthusiastically explicates the effect the trip had on him (and likely Paul and Ringo, to maybe a slightly lesser degree): “One of the happiest times of my life was in India. It was such a groove, it was such a pure thing.” And with none of the usual real world pressures, we’re told, their creativity thrived. Indeed, songs like ‘Dear Prudence,’ ‘Mother Nature’s Son,’ ‘Sexy Sadie,’ ‘I’m So Tired,’ ‘Julia,’ and ‘The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill’ were all apparently written during their stay – laying the foundation for the White Album‘s groundbreaking experiments in cross cultural pollination. (Silva Screen Records is releasing a 19-song companion album titled The Beatles And India: Songs Inspired by The Film.)  As we all know now, it wasn’t all incredible bursts of creativity and humbling waves of enlightenment. In the doc it’s revealed that the CIA had actually infiltrated the Ashram in order to destabilize India (which sounds about right). But even more telling, another unidentified voice describes the Maharishi thusly: “A great spiritual leader, or maybe a great charlatan and crook, depending on which side you’re looking at him [sic]?” The dubious guru died of natural causes in 2008, but not before numerous accusations of sexual abuse, insatiable greed and mistreatment of his workers had surfaced, with the band eventually publicly renouncing him. (He left a $2 billion fortune upon his death, putting him squarely in televangelist territory.)  Of course, 21st Century Beatlemania is at an all time high right now, with the wild popularity of Disney+’s recent eight hour documentary Get Back. But at 96 minutes, The Beatles and India more pithily explores what was surely the most pivotal moment in their career, reminding us of a time when both pop music and its most important band were still so full of possibility.  “The sun is up, the sky is blue…”         SOURCE

Question 17

Pete Compton discusses THE BEATLES AND INDIA with Den of Geek - read here

Accepted Answer

The Beatles and India Doc Captures More Than One Spiritual Journey Co-director Peter Compton explains how the local community came forward to tell the story of The Beatles and India.       In 1968, The Beatles, the biggest band in the material world, went searching for lesser-known alternatives in the spiritual one. Directed by Ajoy Bose and co-directed by Pete Compton, The Beatles and India is more than just a travelog of the band’s famous trip to Rishikesh, India to study transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The documentary shows how Indian music helped refine the group’s sound and how the country embraced the band as cultural ambassadors with deep roots which continue to this day.  The Beatles impacted India almost as much as the country influenced them. The group was first introduced to Indian music while filming Help!, a comedy which spoofed a Kali cult as a comic book villain. The 1965 film featured Indian musicians in a restaurant scene, and the band noticed the instruments. George Harrison first used sitar on John Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” from the Rubber Soul album. Upon hearing it at the time, Ravi Shankar, one of India’s most venerated classical musicians, told a reporter “If George Harrison wants to play the sitar, why does he not learn it properly?” The documentary includes the story of how the guitarist took him up on it.  Harrison met Shankar at a dinner party for the North London Asian Music Circle in 1966. The elder sitar master taught melodic structure and technique, but also noted the importance of the instrument’s part in spiritual discipline. The next time George brought semitones into the studio, it was for the full throttle raga-rock song “Love You To,” from the 1966 album Revolver. The Beatles’ meditational trip up the Ganges is most associated with the song “Sexy Sadie,” Lennon’s beautifully acerbic response to a guru’s folly, but the band didn’t stop practicing the underlying spirituality. This is evidenced in the book Search for Liberation: Featuring a Conversation between John Lennon and Swami Bhaktivedanta.     Silva Screen Records also released a 19-song companion album, The Beatles and India: Songs Inspired by The Film, which features such Indian artists as Shankar’s daughter Anoushka Shankar, Vishal Dadlani, Kissnuka, Benny Dayal, Dhruv Ghanekar, Karsh Kale, and Soulmate. The Beatles and India expands on Bose’s 2018 book Across the Universe: The Beatles in India, which features an extensive interview with Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd, the initial spark to the journey to India. With her interview as running commentary, the film expands on the research to retrace the steps to the ashram and beyond.
Co-director and cultural researcher Pete Compton spoke with Den of Geek about the mystical and musical connections between The Beatles, Hinduism and India. 
Den of Geek: This is an extension of the book by your co-director, Ajoy Bose, what roles did each of you fill on this?

Peter Compton: Ajoy did the research when he put his book together. Then we hooked up at a talk on The Beatles White Album at a convention at Monmouth University in New Jersey. We got on well together and decided to put the film together. His groundwork is pretty incredible for this film because he tracked all of these people down, over a dozen people in the film, that were in the Ashram in 1968, which is pretty remarkable really considering that was over 50 years ago. 
Have you always had the same interest in The Beatles and with India or was this a learning experience for you? 
Always The Beatles for me. The origins of the film came with Reynold D’Silva, the producer. He was born in Brennen, India, and grew up in Mumbai, then Bombay, in the late ‘60s. He became a part of that music scene. He came to live in Britain and launched a record label and hooked up with George Harrison’s company, HandMade Films, in the ‘80s and released a few soundtracks. Every time he returned to India he was always asked about doing a film about The Beatles and of all these people he had met with George Harrison. 
He just got stirred to put things together, and my meeting Ajoy Bose was the clincher, really. That started something that was markedly different from the usual Beatles’ documentary. It’s the wider issues. You’ve got The Beatles and the Maharishi, which is a great story, and their effect in India. I don’t think people realize the massive influence The Beatles have there. 
I had never heard the story of George’s mother listening to Indian music while she was pregnant until now, what was the source for that? 
Yeah, sure. That’s a bona fide special one. That is from the book [Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison by Joshua M. Greene]. He spoke to the sister of George’s mother, so George’s Auntie. She’s the one that came up with that anecdote, and I have no reason to doubt her. The BBC had a program on Sunday mornings, which I’ve tracked down, at 10:30 in the morning during WWII. It was a program for Indian servicemen stationed in Britain during WWII, and they would play a half an hour of contemporary Indian music, and that is what she would listen to. We were hoping to put some of that music in the film, but it’s pretty ancient. It just wouldn’t stand up in the film at all. 
Was Indian music more known at the time in England than in America? 
I don’t think so. I think the whole Indian thing is entirely spurred by the Ravi Shankar/George Harrison connection, which expanded everything. Before that it was all classical recitals. Shankar had come to Britain and did recitals that you could put off as a middle-class clique type of thing.
I was amazed. With The Beatles, you would find out something like that every week. In this new Ravi Shankar biography [Indian Sun], we find out that he recorded at Abbey Road studio five years before The Beatles, which I never knew. There was that kind of undercurrent. It was good for us to find the one person who is still alive who was at the meeting with Ravi and George. It would have been great had he taken photos or something like that, but of course, there’s no, absolutely no photographic evidence of that meeting.

I also didn’t know Paul McCartney was at that first meeting until I watched your film. 
Yes, exactly. He didn’t want to be left out. I think that things moved fast. Within a few months, George is being guided on a tour of India by Ravi Shankar. George and Patty, as we highlight in the film, go to every major site in India. He’s completely immersed in it almost immediately. [The Beatles 1966] stopover in Delhi was quite limited, but all four Beatles did get out of the suburbs of Delhi to the villages. Everyone thinks it was like a 24-hour turnaround, but they were there for two or three days. Unfortunately, most of the photos were all by George, so we couldn’t use them. 
Do you happen to know if George Martin was on the session on Abbey Road, as an engineer or anything, when Ravi Shankar recorded there? 
It’s difficult to say. The other twist to that story is, Bhaskar Menon, who became the president of Capitol Records, started work on that day as an apprentice at Abbey Road. The connections to The Beatles, the serendipity is phenomenal, it really is. And of course, he’s the man who traveled by train to Calcutta to Mumbai to transport the four-track recorder when George was recording there in January ‘68. They only had like two-track machines Then they load up the equipment and head west to help. 
Unlike a lot of musicians, The Beatles were never accused of musical colonialism in India, is there any easy answer as to why? 
I think it’s just their kindness and generosity. The footage in the film with George recording Wonderwall, everyone is having a fantastic time. He has his arms around the musicians, and they’re laughing and joking etc. And it shows through in Get Back as well. Everyone in the studio is an equal in Get Back. The tea lady gets a welcome. There’s that great scene with the clapper boy, when Paul was telling him how he writes songs. 
When Mataji Nirmala Devi first brought Hindu spiritual practices to England she was rudely dismissed. How was Maharishi seen in England prior to The Beatles association? 
He appears in the British consciousness, obviously, because of The Beatles. There’s a British newsreel in the film, which is very comedic, about the Maharishi. He is seen as this sort of funny guy that’s entranced The Beatles. The story was big, really, all around the world at the time. There’s very little new information that came out about that time. This is the sort of thing that is being uncovered now. The main people that got in are the RAI, the Italian TV company. They got extensive black and white film in there when they all went down on the beach, singing on the beach. They kind of got lucky, they got an invite into the Ashram, which was closely guarded. 
I was thinking about the poster you show of Maharishi promising levitation on command. 
I think that’s a story to note, because that’s Maharishi appearing at a Howard Johnson in the American Midwest somewhere in ‘61. A lot of Beatles locations in America and the U.K. have disappeared very fast. Liverpool has completely changed. The bizarre thing is that the Ashram, those Gerry-built buildings still stand today, and it’s just an incredible place. These guys saw a real magic about it, completely. Maharishi’s plush bungalow, and the Beatles’ bungalow, have been gutted when it fell into disrepair, everything was nicked and all the video stolen, all of the art there, that’s all gone. But you can walk around. It’s pretty much as it was. 
You really capture the bond between Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Was it your intent to show that his study of music was as serious as his study of spiritualism? 
I think so. We don’t really highlight it in the film, but he kind of deserted his guitar-playing for a long period after meeting Shankar, and put the effort into his sitar. But it is a life’s work, and he didn’t have that dedication, so he went back to rock guitar. I think that’s one of the great mysteries in The Beatles’ story. You have someone who was just going to become an electrician, and then five years later, he’s imbued with, I suppose you could call it Indian influences. His spirituality just shines through. It affected a lot of people.

I kept replaying the three sitar-based songs The Beatles did while I was writing these questions. The two songs George Martin produced were Hindustani, northern Indian music, but “Within You Without You” are southern Indian modes. 
Ajoy would be the one to ask about that. “Within You, Without You” is slightly different because they used Indian session players. Whereas before, it was in-house playing. As far as I know, that was actually the first time they brought Indian musicians in to create that amazing sound.  
We hear this with Ajit Singh, [the owner of Pratap Music Shop in Dehradun, who brought a bunch of instruments and musicians to play Pattie Harrison’s birthday party]. I love the fact that he played “Within You Without,” and George gives him a big smile. That’s the humility there again. He got so much respect, and he was a very accomplished Indian musician as well. We have some archive footage of him playing which we couldn’t put in the film. He was highly respected in the Indian musical community. 
A lot of these people in the industry have died. The helicopter pilot died last year, and Ajit Singh died last year, so it’s great that we got to them and got their stories or they would have just faded away. 
The helicopter pilot told a really funny story. 
It’s just amazing. His story is kind of fantastic, everyone thinks John was going to ask the big question about “what’s the meaning of life.” He told me off camera, that with the plexiglass and noise, you just couldn’t have a conversation, it just couldn’t happen, because it’s just like thunderous engine noise. 
That was also the trip where Maharishi said the villagers were praying for his death. I interviewed Susan Shumsky a few years ago, she opened my eyes about the Four-Star Film production. Can you expand on the competing media promises Maharishi was giving? 
In the film, George and Paul go to Sweden in October 67 to tell Maharishi to cool it off. So, he’s already got something going on there.He’s already filming. We got this footage, high-quality color footage, of the Ashram and Maharishi with his followers. That’s from a documentary. That film was never seen. We got that on our trip in 2019. The Indian government took exception, they didn’t want so much Western influence, which is what happened in the end, with the Hippie Trail, etc. But that [documentary] was a clincher on the departure.
The Beatles never paid the Maharishi a percentage out of their salary. Of course, the Maharishi went on that Beach Boys’ tour shortly after, which was a complete disaster. You got Maharishi doing the first set, and then the Beach Boys, and then they didn’t give him any dates, and it kind of collapsed. In the end, it did all right, the Ashram, you’ve got a massive hotel, which is still standing today. They certainly changed it around. Rishikesh is the center of meditation and yoga now in India. It’s a completely mad place. It’s everywhere. 
I’d heard about CIA accusations, but how did you get that interview with the KGB agent? 
Someone put us on to that. [Yuri Bezmenov] had done that interview, a right-wing commentary. It’s very difficult to get access to footage. It was Ajoy that had found the questions that were asked in the Indian Parliament. Unfortunately, Bezmenov died about ten years ago, so there is no way of getting in contact with him. This was very serious, though, with the Indian Government, who invited the Russian Prime Minister to come and visit India at that time, the West definitely felt threatened by the communist influence in India.  
Could you just tell me a little bit about the demoralization of American society?

I suppose it still goes on today. The government is pulling the strings every day now. I think it’s the same thing with Bezmenov. He talked about Mia Farrow and American actors and actresses coming to the Ashram and being put under the spell of the Maharishi. But he seems to have gotten on quite well with him, there’s quite a few photos with him with the Maharishi.  
Were you part of the process of compiling the musicians for the accompanying CD? 
No, that was done by the producer, Reynold D’Silva. He always wanted to do that, and he kind of gave them all free range. They chose the tracks in there and then they just got on with it. And a lot of them appear in the film in that final section, talking about how The Beatles influenced them. When the film premiered in Spain, in October, we got three of them to come over and do a short set before the screenings. It turned out really well. 
The Beatles and India: Songs Inspired by The Film is available from Silva Screen Records. The Beatles and India is available to stream exclusively on BritBox.

Source
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Question 18

VIEW THE BEATLES AND INDIA trailer here!

Accepted Answer

Question 19

Two Rockers on a podcast - RICKY BYRD on THE JAY JAY FRENCH CONNECTION - listen here....

Accepted Answer

"Legendary rock n roll guitarist, singer & songwriter Ricky Byrd is this week's guest on The Jay Jay French Connection. Ricky spent over a decade playing Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - & has performed, recorded & toured with the likes of Roger Daltrey, Ian Hunter, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mavis Staples, Smokey Robinson, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Page, Dion & Elvis Costello - just to name a few. Hear Jay Jay & Ricky discuss their deeply rooted connection through all things rock n roll, and be sure to check out Ricky's recently released record "Sobering Times," available on all digital platforms and through rickybyrd.com. Sobering Times is an honest and intimate reflection of recovery delivered through his signature brand of Rock 'N' Roll. As Goldmine Magazine states "...The Faces and The Rolling Stones with a dash of Otis...It rocks like a b*tch. His vocals are the best of his career...early indications make it seem likely that this will be his career statement." Don't miss this conversation, only on The Jay Jay French Connection: Beyond the Music! Produced & edited by Matthew Mallinger"   LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Question 20

RICKY BYRD Talks Songwriting, Creativity and Inspiration, Sobriety, and Kittens with Entertaining Insights Podcast with Dr. Nancy Berk - links to listen here"

Accepted Answer

Ricky Byrd's new interview with Entertaining Insights Podcast is available at: Entertaining Insights website Apple Podcasts Spotify iHeartRadio

Question 21

"How Recovery Helped RICKY BYRD Navigate the Pandemic" - an insightful new interview now live on ASCAP.com"

Accepted Answer

November 11, 2021 How Recovery Helped This Creator Navigate the Pandemic This article is brought to you as part of the ASCAP Wellness Program.    Since making landfall in the United States, the coronavirus pandemic has lorded over us like a menacing storm spanning far and wide, merciless and indiscriminate. But in March 2020, New York City was its lightning rod. For the first couple of weeks, residents of the Big Apple quite literally didn’t know what had hit them, and by the time they did, it was already too late for many.   “Last March in New York was scary,” says Ricky Byrd, an ASCAP member and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer best known for his decade spent as a guitarist and backup vocalist for legendary rock band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.   Byrd likens those first few weeks to a Steven Spielberg movie: “There were sirens everywhere, people were dying, there were morgue trucks…I remember sitting on the couch and thinking, ‘Man, I am so grateful I am not that person anymore.’”   He’s referring to Ricky Byrd, the addict. That version of Byrd hasn’t existed for about 34 years, but the Ricky Byrd of today – the “Recovery Troubadour,” as he’s become known for his unique brand of recovery-centric music – is confident he wouldn’t have made it this far in life, and certainly not nearly two years into the pandemic.   Ironically, however, it’s his hard-earned pivot from that self-destructive version of himself, now long gone, that Byrd credits with the resilience and tactical toolkit that he possesses today and has found particularly useful in navigating the pandemic with confidence, composure and event contentment.    Ditching drugs and alcohol 34 years ago wasn’t easy, but it prepared Byrd for every challenge he has faced since, including this one. “When the pandemic hit, I went into ‘recovery automatic,’” he says, describing a sort of psychological autopilot setting that kicked into gear when things started to get rough last year.   It’s easy for Byrd to imagine how the pandemic could have gone the other way for him, had he not had the confidence to seek recovery nearly four decades ago.   “I can imagine convincing myself and my family that I’ll be back in 15 minutes,” he says, referring to making a drug run, “even though we’re in this freakin’ movie where you don’t want to even see anybody. I remember, we were washing cans every time we went to the market, yet I could imagine convincing myself that it was fine. That’s how I would have thought as an addict. You justify stuff that you do, in spite of knowing the consequences. Even though you didn’t want to leave your house and people were so sick – and dying. I was just so grateful that that wasn’t me anymore. I would not be here today, for sure.” Of course, Ricky Byrd is here today, in all his glory and then some – louder, badder and shredding harder than ever. “My guitar playing got so much better when I got clean,” he says. “I got more consistent, and I wanted to learn again.” For evidence, look no further than Byrd’s most recent release, Sobering Times. “The lyrics speak to addiction, recovery, hope and inspiration,” Byrd says. And for anyone in need of recovery or interested in not only its life-saving potential but its life-proofing benefits, simply read on.   How Recovery Helped Ricky Byrd Navigate the Pandemic   1. It taught him that he didn’t have to struggle in silence   Similar to this pandemic, ubiquitous as it is, recovery can be a challenging, personal and sometimes isolating process. However, also not unlike the pandemic, recovery is something that many of us are going through together, even if it doesn’t always feel that way.    Putting his recovery out in the open for all to see was instrumental in helping Byrd get to a place of consistent sobriety. As he puts it, “I got high in front of everybody, didn’t I?”  Byrd’s megaphone of choice was the one he already knew well – his music – and his recovery-focused songs and albums – like Sobering Times and 2017’s Clean Getaway – have since inspired countless others to follow his lead along the path to getting sober.    So when the pandemic took hold and the country went into lockdown, he knew that this was not a battle he needed to fight alone. Almost immediately, he joined a Zoom group that took place at noon every single day. “I just fell in love with it,” he says. “There were a lot of different kinds of people in there, and I wound up going to that meeting every freaking day for maybe the first seven months of this thing.”   “I became part of the group,” he says. “That was unbelievably helpful – to me, and maybe stuff that I said to the other people. It really carried me through the worst parts of this.”   2.  It allowed him to rediscover childhood joy   As the haze of addiction cleared, Byrd’s true passions came back into focus. “Baseball is the only sport that I watch. Period,” he says.    Growing up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, Byrd found the sport at an early age and became instantly obsessed. “There’s just something about baseball,” he says. “People who don’t understand it, they watch it and they’re completely bored, but I understand the technique and what’s happening behind the scenes – and I love that.”    While the pandemic isn’t over yet, baseball is back and with every game he watches Byrd is transported out of this dark chapter and back to his childhood, along with the feeling that hooked him on America’s Pastime in the first place. “I think that is probably the most important thing,” he says. “I just sit there and then I’m 12 years old again, and nothing else matters for like three and a half hours.”   3. It showed him there’s more than one way to get to where you’re going   One of the most frustrating things about this pandemic is that it is not a problem with a simple solution, or even a single solution; from vaccines to masks to social distancing to all-out isolation, there are myriad ways to be safe and even more opportunities for missteps. But Byrd hasn’t thrown his hands in the air, because he’s learned that life rarely throws us a challenge with just one solution, including getting clean.    “There are 100 different ways to get sober,” he says. And switching to a wide-angle lens allowed Byrd to place his drug problem into context and see a new path forward.    “Someone suggested I focus on the alcohol instead of just the drugs, and I started thinking, ‘You know, every single time I drink I end up picking up other stuff; maybe if I cut the head off the snake, as they say in mob movies, I could fix this thing.’”   It’s one of the most important lessons he teaches today – that the last thing anyone should feel is pressure to recover in a specific way. “You want to go to church? You want to join a bowling league? Whatever works and makes it happen for you is the way to go,” he says. “Whatever keeps you on the right side of the grass.”   4. It taught him not to panic every time something unexpected happens   When Byrd thinks back to how he dealt with unexpected challenges in the fog of addiction, he shakes his head. “I had lousy coping skills back then. Panic mode,” he says. “I made a lot of decisions out of fear before I got into recovery, and that never works out well.”    He describes his outlook before recovery as always waiting for the other shoe to drop – fearing the inevitable, yet plowing ahead with his addictions nonetheless. He remembers living afraid of what was around the corner – especially in an industry like music, he says, which is “up and down and sideways.”    Thankfully, recovery changed all that, or at least the way he perceived that instability. “Over time, it taught me how to deal with things,” Byrd says. “Now I very rarely go into panic mode. I’ve grown to believe there may be something great around the corner.”    So when the pandemic threw Byrd, along with the rest of us, into deep, uncharted waters, he was ready to confront the challenge head-on. Simply put, he says, “I’ve been in training for this.” He doesn’t claim to have all the answers. But he’s learned to accept the things that are out of his control, and to take ownership of those that are within his reach.   “It’s a scary world to live in,” he says. “There’s a lot to be afraid of. But, with that said, you can’t have that rule your life, where you’re like a deer in the headlights and you’re afraid to do anything. If recovery taught me nothing else, it’s to keep my eyes and ears open, not panic, and realize that everything happens for a reason.”   5. It revealed that anything is possible when you take it one step at a time   When Byrd first started on his recovery journey, like anyone, he had a lot more questions than answers. Fortunately, he found an ally who would serve as a guiding voice through the early stages of his process. That said, the answers he received didn’t make a whole lot of sense, at least in the beginning.    “I’d ask, ‘What do I do?’ My guy that I was working with back then, he would always respond with, ‘Just do the next right thing.’ Do the next right thing? I’d ask, ‘What does that mean?’ And again, he’d say, ‘Just do the next right thing.’ I’d say, ‘Okay, I have no idea what you’re talking about. What is the next right thing?’ And then he’d say, ‘More will be revealed.’ I’d get so angry!”   “But the point is,” Byrd says, “more was revealed.”    The longer he stayed in recovery, the more he learned. “It’s just like you have to learn how to roll a joint or make a good martini,” Byrd explains. “You learn how to be in recovery.”  It’s an easy parallel to draw with the pandemic, and a lesson that has enabled Byrd to trust the process and appreciate the progress that is being made day by day. “Don’t expect everything to happen in one day,” he says. “Just keep doing the next right thing.”   ********   SOURCE

Question 22

RICKY BYRD'S new video "I COME BACK STRONGER" out NOW! Watch here...."

Accepted Answer

Ricky Byrd recently released his new video “I Come Back Stronger”, which can be viewed below. Continuing Byrd’s journey as a recovery troubadour, “I Come Back Stronger” (co-written with Richie Supa) spreads a message of hope and resilience to those who struggle with addiction and substance abuse. “It’s about the lessons life puts in front of us at every turn,” he says. “Whether we are willing to learn from them is the big question. I believe we can learn way more from our failures than our successes. So in the words of Mr. Sinatra...pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.”

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