I can across this interview with Steve Miller and thought some people here might be interested in what he has to say.

Steve Miller, the unoriginal

By DARRYL STERDAN, QMI Agency


Steve Miller's new release, Bingo!, his first new studio album in 17 years, is a collection of blues covers.

Steve Miller is back in the game — and playing by his own rules as usual.

The singer-guitarist has just released Bingo!, his first new studio album in 17 years. But if you think he spent that time painstakingly crafting new material that can stand next to ’70s hits like The Joker, Jet Airliner, Rock’n Me and Take the Money and Run, think again.

“I’m 66 years old, and I don’t give a f--- about that stuff anymore,” laughs Miller from his home in Ketchum, Idaho. “I don’t even think about it.

“If I wrote new originals, you’d just go, ‘Ehh, not as good as Fly Like an Eagle.’ That’s just the nature of the game. Nobody wants to hear new originals — nobody.”

Instead, he’s banking on the belief that what his fans really want to hear are blues covers. Bingo! — the first of two discs he cut — finds Miller applying his distinctive double-tracked space-cowboy vocals and strummy guitars to classics from Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King and Jimmy Reed, along with newer fare from former Fabulous Thunderbirds axe-man and fellow Texan Jimmy Vaughan.

While gearing up to play Bingo! in Toronto and Montreal in the coming weeks, the outspoken rocker talked frankly about the death of his longtime sideman Norton Buffalo, his undying love for record executives and how time kept on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ away between CDs. Here are the highlights:


Why has it been 17 years since your last CD?

The main reason is just record companies. The last album I put out was in ‘93 with Phonogram. They were just absurd to work with. It was just such a waste of time and so annoying. We were gonna do an 18-month world tour. We got to Australia. The first gig was for 80,000 people at a racetrack — and I found out they had only 3,000 CDs for sale in the entire country. I take those kind of things personally. So I grabbed the manager of Phonogram in Australia by his necktie and pulled his head down on the table and started TALKING! TO! HIM! After that, I just went, ‘I don’t need this.’ Life was good. We were selling a million records a year because of classic-rock radio. We were touring. And it was so pleasant to just remove those guys from the equation. But I’ve been recording all along. I just go in the studio, cut a bunch of stuff, pass out a few copies, forget about it and go back to the road. I did an acoustic recording. I did a bunch of jazz tracks. But this was the first serious album I had done. I didn’t know how it would turn out. But it just kept getting better and better.

How did you pick these songs?

Well, the first thing was I hired a bunch of 13 year olds and paid them $10 an hour to load my entire CD collection into my computer. That actually went on for a couple of years. Then one day, I hit the blues button. And 6,000 songs came up. I got fascinated. The next thing I knew, it was four days later and I had culled 6,000 down to about 170 songs. I had grown up with a lot of these songs. I grew up in Texas in the ’50s, before radio became homogenized. We heard a lot of blues and R&B and country music. And these songs were big hits in the late ’50s and early ’60s in Texas.

But you never had any desire to write new material?

When people my age write their own stuff, you can smell the burning brain tissue. If I started writing songs, I wouldn’t be as optimistic as I was when I was younger. They’d be songs about politics and the IRS, and who cares? Whereas this stuff is really joyous, great music. And we put as much work into each one of these as you would put into your own songs. It wasn’t like we just sat down and knocked them out. These things have been slowly simmered over a long period of time. The effort that went into the guitar playing was just as great as the effort that would go into writing lyrics. So for me, it was really a satisfying deal.

It must be weird to go out and play without Norton (Buffalo, Miller’s longtime harmonica player, who died in October).

Yeah. We played together for 33 years — a lot longer than some marriages. He was such a partner. And it happened so fast. You hear people say that, but it’s true. We had just finished a 29-city tour. He wasn’t feeling good at the end. He called me the next day and told me he had brain cancer and lung cancer. And he was gone 60 days later. It was just so unexpected. And it’s heartbreaking to not have him there. But that’s what happens when you get old; people you love start dying. Life becomes kind of bittersweet. Tours and record projects become more important. You want to make the most of your time and you wish you had a couple of hundred more years, but you don’t.

In light of that, don’t you wish you’d put out more albums over the last 17 years?

Nah. I think my recording history is full and magnificent and has done quite well. And the fact that I didn’t have to go through all that BS with those record company people has been absolutely delightful.

darryl.sterdan@sunmedia.ca

this thing is finally coming out? been in the works for over 2 years....huge stevie guitar miller fan here...can't wait...

Thanks for posting. Some interesting quotes

Yeah, that was a good interview, thanks!

"When people my age write their own stuff, you can smell the burning brain tissue."
Kinda true with the Stones...

Good to see that the Space Cowbow is back in the game with 'new' material!

Keep on rollin'
Gangster

I listened to it. Blues 101. Tedious and predictable and not a little bit generic. You DO get the last recordings of the late, great Norton Buffalo however.

This quote bothers me: “If I wrote new originals, you’d just go, ‘Ehh, not as good as Fly Like an Eagle.’ That’s just the nature of the game. Nobody wants to hear new originals — nobody."

My answer: we'd like to hear new original music..if it's good.

I'm a Steve Miller fan but whenever I hear him interviewed....the impression i get is that
he takes himself way too seriously.

But what the heck was Abracadabra?

He's got some Wisconsin roots..and his godfather is/was Les Paul (his former guitar teacher in Waukesha, WI)


IORR............but I like it!

Classic Rock ............ July 2010



ROCKMAN

Quote
Rockman



Classic Rock ............ July 2010

Thanks Rockman for providing more evidence of his arrogance.
Heck..he might be correct (knows way more than me) but he rubs me the
wrong way sometimes. I like much of his music...but as i said...maybe Abracadabra should
have remained an instrumental. ;-)


IORR............but I like it!

arrogance? what evidence?

Quote
StonesTod
arrogance? what evidence?

Rockman's quotes...and other SM interviews I've heard.

(imo) when he's ripping on other rock guitarists and other blues guitarists...the implication is that he
is way better. he might be...but that is for others to decide. He strikes me as arrogant/cocky..that's all...apparently you disagree.

i like straight (no bullsh*t) talk..but not arrogance. there's a difference.

googled "steve miller" arrogant and was (sort of) surprised to find this: [national.citysearch.com]


IORR............but I like it!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-16 20:07 by sweet neo con.

I love his quotes.
don't like him, but what he's saying is very smart.
arrogant, yeah, but true.

except that Buddy Guy was one of the few original blues giants already there back in the 50s.

Quote
sweet neo con

Quote
StonesTod
arrogance? what evidence?

well (imo) when he's ripping on other rock guitarists and other blues guitarists...the implication is that he
is way better. he might be...but that is for others to decide. He strikes me as arrogant/cocky..that's all...apparently you disagree.

i don't read anything that suggests he thinks he's better than anyone - from what i've heard and read, steve's a pretty humble guy. love the new album, btw. can't believe it's been 17 years since wide river, which is a fanfuckingtastic record...

Quote
Amused
I love his quotes.
don't like him, but what he's saying is very smart.
arrogant, yeah, but true.

except that Buddy Guy was one of the few original blues giants already there back in the 50s.

not really - he's second or third-gen, at least in the way steve is referring to it....

Hey StonesTod obviously you're welcome to you opinion. I'm a fan of his music too.

also ..FYI ..i added to my previous post while you & Amused were responding.


IORR............but I like it!

...it's just his point of view...and he's pretty damm right in my oppinion.

Keep on rollin'
Gangster

Quote
Gangster-of-love
...it's just his point of view...and he's pretty damm right in my oppinion.

hey "Gangster"...seeing as you must be a big Steve Miller fan.....from interviews etc..
do you feel that he's arrogant? A person can be correct...and be arrogant at the same time.


IORR............but I like it!

Quote
sweet neo con
Hey StonesTod obviously you're welcome to you opinion.

that's very kind and gracious of you. maybe if i like it, i'll keep it...

Quote
Rockman



Classic Rock ............ July 2010

Merriam Webster says...

Arrogance - an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions


IORR............but I like it!

Quote
StonesTod

Quote
Amused
I love his quotes.
don't like him, but what he's saying is very smart.
arrogant, yeah, but true.

except that Buddy Guy was one of the few original blues giants already there back in the 50s.

not really - he's second or third-gen, at least in the way steve is referring to it....

...in a way. he hasn't been raised on a plantation in the 30s (which already makes him 2nd-generation) or travelled in the 40s (which could make him 3rd-gen), but he already was there in Chicago in the mid 50s if I remember correctly, so only a couple of years after Muddy cut his first records there.
he already was there when Chess Records ruled the world, just not cutting records under his own name.
frankly, he never recorded a classic blues album under his name.
never even a very great one...

but he played the craziest motherfvcking shit back in the classic days.
I'm a bit of a player myself and I got a DVD of him playing guitar lessons - what a wonderful thing to do for a legend.

he talked how everybody played the same things so he practised hard to stretch out his fingers more...

I think what Miller is reffering to is that Buddy finally made it in the late 70s to early 90s, when most of blues players (sorry Alligator!) were really shit compared to the original ones.
but he was there before, too...

Classic Rock ............ July 2010



ROCKMAN

My favorite Steve Miller record is the single version of this song from '81.

Great guitar and harmonies and very Buddy Holly.

(And much better if you just LISTEN to it, rather than watch the cheesy video...)

Steve Miller .........Classic Rock ............ July 2010



ROCKMAN

where are you pulling this interview from rockman??

Classic Rock magazine ......



ROCKMAN

Yeah, it reads like the same old "classic rock" story....the Greatest Hits crowd leaves for a hot dog during the new song.

And yet, unlike 99.9% of working musicians, artists in that situation are making a boatload of money.

Hard to sing the blues about that.

I remember a few years ago Miller was mocking out Mick. Miller said something that Mick should give it up and something about Mick's "flabby arms". What an idiot. Does anybody remeber that?

Quote
More Hot Rocks
I remember a few years ago Miller was mocking out Mick. Miller said something that Mick should give it up and something about Mick's "flabby arms". What an idiot. Does anybody remeber that?

nobody does.

Quote
loog droog
Yeah, it reads like the same old "classic rock" story....the Greatest Hits crowd leaves for a hot dog during the new song.

And yet, unlike 99.9% of working musicians, artists in that situation are making a boatload of money.

Hard to sing the blues about that.

yeah, he sounds like a real prince of a guy...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-18 05:03 by cc.

He is over rated as a guitarist IMO and his new CD is a bore. Yawn. Wake me up with some cold water.