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Walter Trout Interview: Fish Jokes Not Included By Jim Wormimgton What blues is and is not, what it can be and shouldn’t be--these are matters open to debate. Blues/rock guitarist Walter Trout has his opinions, but he won’t let any argument limit his guitar playing style. Trout heard a lot of jazz in his home as he was growing up and it had an effect on his view of music. When he got into blues as a very young man he found he wanted to approach it with an open mind. That hasn’t changed. “I get accused of playing a lot of notes,” Trout says. “But I’m coming out of Charlie Parker and John Coltraine and you can’t play any more notes than those guys. I’m trying to use that mindset and do it in a blues framework, so sometimes I take it pretty far out. The (blues) purists hate it and I don’t care.” With guitar heroes as diverse as Junior Watson and Jeff Beck, Trout is more-than-prepared to press the boundaries between blues and rock. He does so with a contagious, unique energy, cranking out solos in a lively improvisational style that lets you know that his influences run the spectrum and music runs in his veins. Some of Trout’s largest scale career successes have been across the ocean. “I started as a European act on a small European label…on my second album, in 1990, I had a massively huge hit: MTV, number one record in Holland (and a couple other countries) that year. I still have the charts at home that have me at number one. There I am, under me is Bon Jovi, Madonna, and Bryan Adams. I only did it once. I’m a one-hit-wonder there; but I went, in the course of two months, from playing little clubs to playing at a free concert in the park, in The Hague, in Holland, and I drew 500,000 people…it enabled me to get an audience and a lot of them have stayed with me for twenty years.” That song, “The Love That We Once Knew,” (re-recorded for American release) can be found on an album called Livin’ Every Day. Trout’s been jamming for more than four decades. The list of musicians he’s played with or shared a stage with over those years is impressive (for an extensive bio check out his official website: http://www.waltertrout.com/bio.php ); but Trout is a very accessible guy and utterly without pretension. After hearing him blast out a set that rocked Chicago’s House of Blues, I got to sit down with him for an interview. The following is a portion of that conversation. Jim Wormington: I took a look at your touring schedule and, man, it is jam-packed. What’s that like, the constant traveling? Walter Trout: I’m probably one of the lucky musicians in that I, 95% of the time, really still enjoy the road. I find it an adventure. Things like--we played last night, we got back to the hotel at two, maybe three. We left at eight this morning, drove here. It took us eight hours. We got here at something like four o’clock. Didn’t have a hotel. They didn’t have a dressing room. So we hung out here (at the House of Blues) for six hours. Didn’t bathe. Didn’t change our clothes. I went out and walked around Chicago for three hours and got some exercise. I’m, like, hallucinating now from tired. Wormington: Sleep’s not important. Trout: This is one of those things that, a week from now, I’ll be laughing about. One thing: I’m never bored. And I consider that a blessing. I may be beat up, tired, maybe grumpy, but I’m never bored. I’ve been doing this for forty years and I love it. Wormington: You are a hard working player. Trout: It’s what I wanted to do as a kid. I wanted to be a touring musician who got up and played for people. Wormington: So you’re living the dream even though it beats you up. Trout: Yeah. Sometimes your dreams will beat you up a little bit. They’re worth pursuing, you know? Wormington: From what I can tell you’re a Fender man. Do you ever stray sometimes, pick up a 'Paul (Gibson Les Paul) to get a different sound? Or are you pretty much faithful to Fender? Trout: Well, here’s the story. I just made an album with John Porter and he’s got ninety-five guitars, literally. He brought in this incredible ’59 Les Paul. I was in the studio, it was time to play a solo, I had the Les Paul going and it sounded really cool, and I said, “Wait a minute.” And I picked up my Fender. Wormington: So there’s something about the sound of it, the feel? Trout: The feel of the Strat, yeah. Wormington: The ’73 Strat is still your favorite axe? Trout: Yeah, it is. It has my spirit in it. It’s like an entity. Wormington: Hearing Mike Bloomfield play guitar was a pivotal moment for you when you were young. Were there other equivalent or near-equivalent sound revelations for you? Trout: Um, there were a few. The first time I heard Bob Dylan. His first album made me want to play the guitar. Up to that time I was playing the trumpet…I was trying to be a jazz trumpet player. Along came Bob Dylan and suddenly I wanted to strum and sing. It blew my mind. The other thing was February 9th, 1964, eight o’clock, Channel 2, in Philly. Wormington: Gotta be The Beatles. Trout: The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Boom. Done. Then it became an electric guitar. Then Bloomfield, and that focused me in a blues direction. Wormington: I’m curious. Are there any rock guitar players that you really admire? Trout: Jeff Beck. To this day, if I watch Jeff Beck I pretty much wanna just quit. He’s unbelievable. He pretty much destroys me. When I watch him I just shake my head. It’s not so much his technique; it’s what he thinks up. You can get to a point where you have all this technique, and then it’s a matter of what you think. It’s a matter of your imagination. And that guy’s imagination is off the hook. There’s a blues player who I put in that category. That’s Junior Watson. I think he’s a genius. He plays in a traditional blues format but no one thinks like this guy. To me he’s a genius. He played with me on __Full Circle__. Check him out sometime. Wormington: I’ll have to. Walter, you’ve conquered some addictions and things that have ruined other musicians’ careers and even ended some of their lives. I understand there was an encouragement from Carlos Santana that was a part of what helped get you past those things, but I’m wondering what kept you clean after that? Trout: Once I got done with all that, I was a completely different person. It was really nice to look in the mirror…it was really nice to suddenly just say, “Okay, I’m going to be who it is in me to be, see who I actually am.” It does not cross my mind to get wasted. No matter what I go through. I may have some tears and some anger and throw some stuff at the wall but I don’t want to get high. Wormington: The monkey is off your back, totally. Trout: For twenty-two years, twenty-three years this July. Wormington: That’s a long time. Good for you. Based on some of the lyrics and some of the liner notes on your album The Outsider, it seems fair to assume faith plays some part in your life. Has that been true for you since childhood or is there a more recent personal awakening that you can point to? Trout: It was there in childhood and then it went away in the dope years. Wormington: A familiar story. Trout: But I did, um…how into this do I want to go for publication? (pause) I had a revelation before Santana turned up. I had a revelation that God said to me that if I would… Trout is visibly moved, has a brief moment where it seems difficult for him to go on. Wormington: Your call. You don’t have to go any deeper than you want to. Trout: …if I would show him the strength to be the person he made me to be, to use the talent he gave me, and quit being an idiot, he would give me the desire of my heart. And he was as good as his word. When I quit getting loaded he presented this woman to me and we fell in love and we had three kids. He gave me a career. So, it’s hard to argue with something like that. Wormington: It’s tangible. Trout: Yeah. Wormington: You’ve got a new project coming out. When’s that going to be released? Trout: In July. Wormington: Two questions: has it got a title yet and how would you describe the album? Trout: It’s called Common Ground and I think it came out pretty good. The title track is a gospel song, it’s pretty blatantly religious. But I think, in a certain sense, there are a few tunes that are a whole new level of songwriting for me. Then there’s just some good old blues on there. I have some incredible players with me, guys that came into the studio. I had Jon Cleary--he played with Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, he has his own band now. I had Hutch Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger). And I had Kenny Aronoff--he’s the number one rock drummer in the world. Look him up. Wormington: Is everything in the can then? Trout: It’s done. It’s being mixed right now. Wormington: Very cool. That’s gotta be exciting. I like to ask at least one non-musical question just ‘cause it’s kinda fun. My last name is Wormington so, as you might imagine, I’ve been called “Worm” and every nickname in the book. Trout. I’m thinking you might’ve gotten a little teasing here and there with that last name. Trout: When I first went solo, all the newspapers in England--everything was about my name, every headline. So in ’91 I made a CD named No More Fish Jokes. Wormington: laughing Trout: On the back cover of the CD I’m holding a big, dead trout. I have a trout on my shirt. I have a fish through my head. Wormington: still laughing Trout: And my bass player at the time has a shark’s head on and we’re standing there. I made a collage of the headlines. (Originally) I gave it to my record company and said, “This is the cover.” And they said, “No, it’s not.” I said, “Yes, it is.” And they said, “No, it’s not.” So (it ended up) on the back of the album. Wormington: working hard to stop laughing That’s great. That’s funny. getting up to go You’re a tremendous player, man. I enjoyed listening to you guys a lot. Trout: Thanks. Wormington: I can tell you feel it’s a feeling for you. Trout: It is. It’s about expression. Wormington: Hey thanks a lot, Walter. Trout: Good meeting you, Jim. Wormington: Good to meet you. |
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