Gary James' Interview With Harry Chapin's Drummer
Howard Fields



Howard Fields was not only Harry Chapin's friend, but his drummer as well. In a seven year time period he performed hundreds of shows with Harry, recorded six albums with him, and appeared on television shows with Harry that included Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, The Midnight Special, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Merv Griffin Show. Howard Fields spoke with us about Harry Chapin.

Q - It's the strangest thing Howard, I saw Harry Chapin in concert at the Landmark Theatre, I want to say in 1979 or 1981. He was late in getting to the show that night, two hours late. As he walked down the aisle carrying his guitar, the audience started applauding. But I don't remember Harry having a drummer that night. Were you there?

A - Well, first of all if you look on my website, www.howiedfields.com.

Q - Which I did.

A - There's a little section I have called Harry Chapin: The Howard Fields Years, and there's a complete chronological list of just the shows that the band did with him. I'm pretty sure we didn't do The Landmark Theatre with him. I think that was a solo show. I didn't put shows down that were solo shows.

Q - Two different sources have two different numbers on the shows you performed with Harry. Was it over 800 shows or over 900 shows?

A - I'm pretty sure it's 900. But we did many two-show nights. So it's probably 800 dates, but 900 shows.

Q - You first met Harry in 1975 when he was performing in the show The Night That Made America Famous, and you were playing drums in that show?

A - That's right.

Q - Would it be fair to say that was your first break?

A - Yeah, I would say so. I think I met him in the rehearsals for that show. That probably started late '74. The opening night would be, I don't know, around March 1st. I know it only ran for five or six weeks. But yes, that was my break. I played in a band with Harry's guitar player, Doug Walker, who actually replaced his original guitar player, Ron Palmer. He and I were playing in a band. Doug had known Harry and Tom and Steve Chapin for quite awhile, since they were teenagers. I think they met at the Grace Church Choir. Grace Church was a church in Brooklyn Heights, and that's where they met. He used to mention that to me. The band that Doug and I were in came to and end some time in '74. He said, "Steve Chapin called me and told me about a Broadway show that his brother Harry had been approached by some Broadway producers." "The Cat's In The Cradle" was climbing up the charts. He asked me if I would be interested in auditioning to play drums in that show. I said, "Sure." So, I auditioned for Steve. Very informal audition. Just myself and Doug on guitar and Steve Chapin on bass guitar. Just jamming a little bit, and Steve told me I got the job if there is one, 'cause nothing was certain. There was only talk of this Broadway show which was probably in the late Summer, early Fall of '74. Months passed and nothing happened. I didn't know what to think, but all of a sudden, in the Winter I think, we started our rehearsing. Maybe November, December. Anyway, there's a little bit of history, but yes, it was my break for sure.

Q - And how fortunate that you knew all Harry's songs.

A - Oh, well, I didn't know all his songs.

Q - His hit songs I should say.

A - Well, yeah.

Q - "Cats In The Cradle", "Taxi", "WOLD".

A - Yeah. I had heard those three songs on the radio. You couldn't help but hear them. I remember seeing him once on a TV show, Soundstage.

Q - P.B.S.

A - Yeah. That's with the original band, the four piece, acoustic band. I remember seeing that and saying to my girlfriend at the time on the phone, "I was just watching this guy, Harry Chapin." This was the time I was playing with Doug Walker in the band. I said, "Doug knows him." She knew Doug. I said, "This is the guy Doug knows and his brothers." But that was probably my next exposure to Harry's music, just watching that TV show. I mean, I didn't own one of his albums. I really didn't know his stuff until we started rehearsing for the Broadway show because there was a good handful of things from his album plus a good handful of songs that never appeared on his albums. Old songs he'd written, maybe a couple of new ones he wrote for the Broadway shows. By the way, as I said before, the Broadway show only ran for like six weeks. Quite honestly that was the best thing that could've ever happened. I mean, that's a pretty good failure on Broadway, six weeks. But at that point he decided to add drums to his band. He never had drums before. He also replaced his original guitarist, Ron Palmer with Davy Walker. So, he and I were the new guys in the band, along with his brother Steve who he added on piano, and also Tom Chapin, his other brother. For six months he was opening up for us and playing as a sideman, but that wasn't what Tom wanted to be doing. So he only lasted for about six months.

Q - Suppose that Broadway show had gone on for two years or three years. That would've been a steady gig for you guys. You know the room.

A - No argument there. That's true, but this was a better steady gig. I mean, after we did a good handful of shows that first year, I remember where we did one concert, and Monday nights are dark on Broadway. There are no shows. So, the show opened the end of February and on March 31st, the Monday night, there was a show booked, a concert in Chicago and that was the first show we all did together, the first real concert. It was kind of like an experiment to see how it went. I think we came back and found the show was closing after one week. So that, as I said, I really felt was the best thing that could have happened. Harry was inclined to have a bigger sound 'cause he was playing bigger venues because of the strength of "Cats In The Cradle". So, after another week the show closed and we did maybe a couple of shows in April, a few more in May. By the time the Summer rolled around we were rolling pretty good and that was it. That was really the beginning of the 900 shows you asking about.

Q - But why was Harry working 250 to 300 dates a year? Did he have to do it to promote his records? I know he was on Elektra Records. How good of a job did they do for him?

A - I know we did about 150 shows a year plus TV shows, plus approximately an album a year. I'm not sure where you came up with 250. He certainly was doing more solo shows. At a certain point when he started taking upon responsibilities for himself for his humanitarian efforts he was bound to amount money to this organization, that organization. I don't know exactly when that started 'cause we're talking about '75. That was the beginning for me. I don't know when his World Hunger Year all started, maybe 'til '77. Look, we're all human. My buddy John Wallace said, "We're all human, but Harry was super human." You're probably not far off to say he was working 250 to 300 nights a year. If they weren't performances there were other things that he was doing. He was super human. Time and distance were meaningless to him having to get somewhere. To say he was a great multi-tasker was an understatement. He could just do a lot of different things at once. Looking at a calendar didn't mean anything to him if he had one day off, or two or three days off in a given month.

Q - In one interview you remarked Harry could be difficult to deal with at times. Why would that be? Was he a perfectionist?

A - No, he wasn't. I think it relates back to what we were just talking about. At a certain point, I'm thinking '79, '80, he really had a lot of pressure on him again to come up with certain amounts of money for certain organizations. Don't ask me the amounts. Don't ask me what organizations. But it all stemmed from the World Hunger Year Organization he put together. It wasn't the only thing, but there were other things that stemmed out of that. We thought that he was really spreading himself way too thin. Promoters were not happy if they had a show scheduled, let's say in May, then they find out they have a nice show scheduled with the band in May and then they find out at end of March he's doing a solo show at some little college somewhere. He couldn't afford to take the band to all these things. However, he had x number of dollars scheduled from that show to go to this organization or that organization. So he was spreading himself a little thin, and not just the band tried to appeal to him in that way, but his management, booking agency. So that I think is the answer to that question, that he was a little bit difficult to work with. It came out of that. Musically I would say he was no more difficult to work with than any other songwriter or musician that I've ever worked with. He sometimes didn't make it to rehearsals and we got a little ticked at him if that happened 'cause he was calling the rehearsals and sometimes wouldn't show up. This was leading up to when we were trying to get new songs together for the next album and he sometimes wouldn't show up at rehearsals and that was a drag. He was no more difficult to get along with than any other difficult musician. It wasn't a big deal.

Q - I saw Harry on Johnny Carson and he was talking about performing at the Air Force Academy. Looking at your list on your website, he performed there several times. So, they really liked him at the Air Force Academy, didn't they?

A - Well, yeah.

Q - You were with him for that gig, weren't you?

A - I'd have to look back at the list. I know we did it once, very early on, probably '75, maybe '76 and maybe a second time. I know for sure once. He might have gone back and done it on his own a second time. I'd have to look down the list. He went to the Air Force Academy as a student, whatever they call it when you go to one of those military schools. He quit and I believe he referred to that on the Carson show that night. He said, "They kicked me out or they didn't want me there and I quit." He loved the fact that he was able to go back there years later and get ten thousand bucks out of it.

Q - That $10,000 stuck in my mind at the time.

A - That was a good concert fee back in '75 or '76 or whatever it was for his stature, for sure.

Q - Did you ever read the book Peter Coan wrote on Harry?

A - Yes. I think I read it. I met Peter. He was out there with us a lot while he was writing that book. So, I met him several times. Drove here and there with him once in awhile, getting to a gig or home from a gig if we were near home. He drove with Harry an awful lot. He got a lot of good interview time with him in his car. I don't remember the book that well. I remember he was there the night Harry was involved in the fatal car accident, at his house. We were supposed to be doing a concert in his town, a free concert, Huntington, New York. When we got the news we all convened at Harry's house. An awful lot of people were there. Peter was one of them. I think he was just putting the finishing touches on his book. I said, "Peter, it looks like you have to write another chapter." He said, "Yeah. I guess so."

Q - If Harry had been driving a larger, heavier vehicle on July 16th, 1981, he would be alive today, wouldn't he?

A - I'd say you're right. If he had a sturdier vehicle he might be alive. No one can say for sure. That was his stepdaughter's car. It was an awful night. I sometimes drive past that exit. It's Exit 40 on the Long Island Expressway and I pull over on the shoulder for a minute, right there past the exit. That's where he died in the car, on the shoulder past the exit.

Q - You're a drummer, but you also teach guitar and piano. Do your students know about your background?

A - Sometimes. In the earlier days when I started teaching in the '80s, I'd say more so. They probably know about it. They don't ask too much about it.

Q - Are you teaching kids or adults too?

A - Adults too. The adults are more inclined to know about it and they ask me about it a little bit. Whatever they ask me, I answer.

Q - You are still in a band with Harry's brothers, playing his music, correct?

A - Yeah, that's right. I play in a band with Steve Chapin and Big John Wallace and Steve's son and John's son, the five of us. We used to be called The Steve Chapin Band, but the past couple of years we changed it to The Harry Chapin Band because Steve, John and I were in The Harry Chapin Band. We do a lot of Harry's songs at our concerts. We have a handful of things coming up this year (2020). We also join forces with Tom Chapin and his two daughters, Abigail and Lilly, and Harry's daughter, Jen Chapin. When we do those shows, all of us together, we call them Chapin Family shows. We have a few of them coming up this year also. We try to keep his music alive. We see a lot of old people at these concerts, but you see people in their, I don't know, 30s, 40s and 50s, and you see some kids. Young kids. They're really enamored by Harry's music courtesy of their parents and grandparents. It's nice to see a few generations there.

Q - No one has really stepped up to the plate and picked up where Harry left off, have they?

A - I guess there's some people doing some good things. I would say you're right as far as the energy he put out. Again the first thing I said in our interview is that he was super human. He was just relentless when he had goals, even if it didn't look like things were going well. He would always fight the good fight and try to be with the good people, try as hard as he could to accomplish those goals.

Q - Harry came across as personable. He had a presence about him. When Johnny Carson called him over to sit down and talk, that was not something Johnny Carson did with a lot of musicians.

A - Yeah, well, he was a good talker. He was a good person to interview. He was never at a loss for words and he had interesting stories and he could turn a good phrase. So I'm not surprised that Johnny did that as opposed to some of the other people that were just there to perform and that was the end of it. He was good up there in the seat next to Johnny or Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin. I remember that's another show we did apart from all the things, The Midnight Special, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. He was a good person to interview.

Official Website: www.HowieFields.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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