Gary James' Interview With John Lodge Of
The Moody Blues



He's one of the most famous bass players, songwriters and singers to come out of England. As part of The Moody Blues he's helped sell more than seventy million albums. In 2018 The Moody Blues were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He's also enjoyed a successful solo career. The man we are talking about is Mr. John Lodge.

Q - John, where do you call home these days? Do you divide your time between the U.S. and England?

A - I divide my time between the two places. My band is here in the U.S. Two of the guys are in Florida and two of the guys are in Detroit. The studio I use here (in Florida) is about three miles away from me. The guy who runs the studio is a guy called Ray Nesbitt. Ray is absolutely fantastic. He's also my sound engineer on the road. So, from a musical point of view, from being a musician, this is sort of where I'm based really. But my home is in England.

Q - When you say, "my band", you're talking about your own personal band, are you?

A - Yeah. A couple of the guys have been with me for a long time in The Moody Blues anyway. Alan Hewitt on keyboards has been with me for about twenty years. I've know Alan for a long time before that. Alan was involved with a band called Warrant, sort of a Glam Rock band, I think in the '80s. And the drummer, Billy Ashbaugh was the second drummer in The Moodys, you know. He worked with Graeme Edge with The Moodys. So, he's with me.

Q - I don't even know, is there still a Moody Blues group in existence?

A - No. 2019 was really the last year for concerts for The Moodys. Graeme Edge doesn't live far from where I am, so I see Graeme quite regularly. He comes along to my concerts. So, we keep in touch. But Justin (Hayward) lives in Monaco and that's a long way from where I am. Getting Justin to tour is sort of not even on the burner anymore, as The Moody Blues that is. I would always tour as The Moody Blues. What I'm doing now is performing a lot of deep cuts on the road with my band of The Moody Blues 'cause I want to keep The Moody Blues' music alive. To me it's been part of the major part of my musical life. I'm very proud of everything we did and everything we've done. I just want to keep that alive and I know the audience wants to hear it because I know what the reaction is.

Q - You were in The Moody Blues over half a century, correct?

A - Yeah, absolutely.

Q - Which is amazing when you think about it. Nobody ever thought, at least in the beginning, you could make a career out of Rock 'n' Roll.

A - Well, I remember when I started playing. My first gig was when I was 15. But, when I was 16 or 17 we put a great band together, Ray Thomas, who was in The Moodys, and myself. We had a fantastic band. We were doing about four of five gigs a week. I remember someone saying to me, "John, that's okay now, but what are you going to do when you're 21?" (laughs) So, that was the longevity then. People didn't realize that Rock 'n' Roll was something different from the Pop side of music. The Pop side, Bubblegum and all that, did have a short lifespan, but the music I wanted to follow was a different road, the music I wanted to create. I think we were the same as all the other bands at that time that came by as well. Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis. We traveled a different road than the Pop side of things. I think the only band that's bridged that gap completely, which is just mind-blowing really, is The Rolling Stones. I mean, they've bridged the gap between the two and managed to spin the plates really well in both camps. The Stones have done incredibly well.

Q - John, you're talking to a purist here. To me The Rolling Stones were and always will be about Brian Jones.

A - If you listen to the very first records of The Stones there was something absolutely magical about them. "It's All Over Now" and things like that. Absolute magic. They weren't an AM band. They were still Rock 'n' Roll, but in a strange way a Progressive Rock/Blues band. I bought, a few years ago, a vinyl album of their hits, but it was mixed in mono because that's the way we needed to hear them when Brian Jones was in the band I think. Also, the person I think that doesn't get the recognition is really Charlie (Watts) on drums. He plays the drums so differently than anyone else. When he's dong an offbeat, if it's the same time as the hi-hats, he doesn't play the offbeat, he leaves a great big space for Keith to be able to put one of his open tune guitar riffs in there and there's something magic about when you listen to him.

Q - When you were growing up in Birmingham (England), what were you hearing about the music scene in Liverpool and London in say 1963? Were you hearing about The Beatles and The Rolling Stones?

A - Yeah. Well, it's a strange world because we all grew up at the same time. There was a thing called Brumbeat, which was from Birmingham, and there was the Mersey beat with The Beatles. Before all that started there was a ground swell of music going on in all these places and in Birmingham I remember reading there were a thousand bands in the Birmingham area playing. We're talking 1959, 1960, 1961, before any of this (British Invasion) happened. We were all finding our way. We're trying to listen to American music, listen to records that we could find from America. You have to remember, Birmingham, England and England in general there was nowhere to listen to music on the airwaves. We had BBC. We didn't have Rock stations. We didn't have all those KLX and KWLOs and everything else you had in America. We didn't have any of those. The only chance you had of listening to music in England at that time was a station in Luxembourg and it's called Radio 208. They used to be directed to England. It was all British disc jockeys playing the latest American recordings and that's where we listened to our music originally. So, we were learning everything from American records. We didn't have a history in England. I've been listening to the history of sort of Country music. I have to say Country music 'cause Rock 'n' Roll came out of it. The two mixed together. They collided as bore Rock 'n' Roll. When you hear these Country singers now, they were four years of age that had guitars, learning to play 'cause their dad played guitar or their grand dad. They're sitting around at night, singing songs, learning chords and learning tunings. We never had any of that in England. Ww had to start from ground zero, probably in 1956 in the U.K. I never even thought about music until 1956 and was only 'til I heard Rock 'n' Roll that I said, "Wow! This is something I want to be involved with," and I think that's happened to so many people in England. I bought a guitar and had no one to teach me. We had to learn ourselves by listening to American records. Trying to catch glimpses of American artists on black and white television on shows coming from America. So, it was an interesting time.

Q - I believe 1963 was the breakout year for The Beatles. Were you hearing about them?

A - Okay. Let me just tell you we had a band. Ray Thomas and I had a band called El Riot And The Rebels. Once a month we used to play in this place, it think it was called Teabury, like Town Hall in Teabury. We were top of the bill and there'd be local bands playing there every week and this was 1963, could be '62 actually thinking about it. We were in there one week and the promoter says, "Hey guys, you're not top of the bill. We just got this band come down from Liverpool and they've just been in the studio and recorded a record, and so we put them at the top of the bill." And that was The Beatles. They were just releasing "Love Me Do". If you look at the archival dates you'll find out the time of that concert. They got 100 Guineas. We got 25. It was like a 110 Pound and we got 30 Pound. At the same time I did a concert in Coventry with The Stones. They hadn't released a song yet. They were in the studio, recording it. So we all sort of grew up together in a way. There was one motorway in England, one freeway in England called the M1 (M one) and on Saturday night at midnight or one o'clock all the bands would be in the truck stop as you call it. We call it the motorway services. You'd go in there and there'd be The Stones in there having coffee. There'd be The Beatles in there. There'd be Gerry And The Pacemakers. There'd be everybody. It was an incredible time growing up then.

Q - Did Brian Epetein want to manage The Moody Blues at one time?

A - Yeah. We were signed in 1966 to them (NEMS Enterprises), Brian Epstein. I can't remember if anything ever happened. I don't remember if we got any concerts. I remember Mike Pinder going to see John Lennon and saying, "Hey, tell Brian we're out of this contract," and Brian just gave us our contract back. We weren't getting anywhere and The Beatles were his band. He wasn't going to spend time with a band that weren't in the same league as The Beatles.

Q - The Beatles spent most of their time in the recording studio and NEMS was a booking agency. Brian Epstein was managing The Beatles and maybe Gerry And The Pacemakers. So, he probably should have made some time for The Moody Blues.

A - Yeah, probably. The Beatles were really different in a way. They were another band that managed to spread their hurdle over AM radio and FM radio eventually. NEMS was a booking agency. If I remember right they had all the bands like Gerry And The Pacemakers, Freddie And The Dreamers. They probably had the Big Three. They had a lot of other bands. But they were all AM bands. They were all single-oriented bands. The Moody Blues, although prior to me they had the big hit with "Go Now" and "Jesse Banks", when I joined the band and Justin (Hayward) joined the band in 1966, we didn't want to go down that Pop route at all. We didn't want to go down that AM route. We wanted to experiment with writing English Blues. And if a song took six minutes to write, we wanted to write that six minute song. We didn't want to go on the airwaves doing Pop songs that people sang. We wanted to try whether we were right or wrong. That's what we wanted to do. We wanted to get into people's emotions. We wanted to get into people's thinking, the way of thinking about music as well, thinking about lyrics. I met an agent recently after all these years and he remembered me saying to him, "Don't book us as a dance band because people can't dance to us. We may have one song you can dance to, but you won't be able to dance to the next one. We want people to sit down and listen to our music. If we do a song that's up-tempo, people can stand up and enjoy it." But we wanted to expand the horizons, which was our type of music.

Q - You were in school and moved from a music class to a woodworking class for not knowing the birth date of Beethoven.

A - (laughs)

Q - What kind of a teacher did you have? What does that have to do with anything about music?

A - Well, this is it you see. I was 13.

Q - Junior High.

A - Yeah. You have to remember there was no such thing as Rock 'n' Roll in England. When it exploded, the serious, as they called themselves, Classical musicians had no room for it and no time for it. I have no idea where he was coming from. I was into music. I used to take my guitar to school and try and learn chords. I just wanted someone to show me things. I remember saying to him, "Sir, just play me 'Whole Lot Of Shakin' on the piano. Show me how Jerry Lee Lewis does it, (laughs) and I'll find out what year Beethoven was born!", and that was the end of me, (laughs) 'cause he couldn't play it or didn't want to. But, music is music you know. I'm sure all the Classical musicians come up with something fundamentally different from what was going on. I don't think they were recognized at the time, but as time goes by I think they take it as their music. I'm sure these guys were polarized as well. The one thing he (John's music teacher) made me realize is that's what I really wanted to do. Twenty-four hours a day my guitar went with me. I wanted to be playing it. I woke up playing. I tried to work on how it worked. When I became a bass player I did exactly the same. I wanted to find out everything I could about bass playing and why it worked against a double bass player in an orchestra. I wanted to know why the bass guitar works and was a driving force in the song.

Q - I take it you always wanted to be part of a recording, touring band then.

A - Sure. Yeah. Straightaway. I think Ray Thomas and I made our first record when we were 16. I used a couple of cover versions. One was a Jerry Lee Lewis song called "Down The Line" and the other was "Blue Moon". We went into the studio and recorded those. I've still got that record on a great big old 78. (laughs)

Q - Are you talking Elvis' version of "Blue Moon Of Kentucky"?

A - No. We hadn't heard of "Blue Moon (Of Kentucky"). Those songs never arrived. When the records came, Sun came out on London Records in the U.K. So, they used to not release that many because it saturated the business. So, we played catch-up really quickly in the U.K., the musicians.

Q - I guess so. And then you took over the world!

A - Well, we tried to. (laughs)

Q - As much as you were into music, you went to the Birmingham College Of Advanced Technology for Engineering and you got a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Is that correct?

A - Yeah.

Q - But at one time, Ray and Mike wanted you to move to London to pursue a career in music and you said, "No. I want to stay behind and get my degree." Was that your idea or your parents concerned that your musical dreams might not materialize?

A - It was me. My father was really interested in what I was doing musically and Mother just thought if I'm happy, it's a good enough for her. But I'm one of those people that like to see things through. When I was a young kid I wanted to be a car designer. Coming from Birmingham, that's where all the great cars turned up from. Even Rolls-Royce and Bentley, they're all in the Midlands area of Birmingham. I really wanted to be a car designer. I think I drove my first car when I was 7 or 8 years of age. I just loved cars. So, when I started college I was still working every night, playing in bands. When Ray and Mike wanted to go down to London I still had a year to go at college. I said, "I really still want to perform with you guys, but I've got a year to go at college. I worked really hard to get this far doing this as well." I said, "I wish you great luck," 'cause they were great friends of mine. "I just want to finish this year off. Hopefully our paths will meet again," and I finished the year. It was not long after that, that Ray rang me and said, "Hey John, have you finished college yet?" I said, "Yeah. I just finished," and then he said, "Well, get to London now." And I did and that was it. That was June of 1966.

Q - And the rest is history.

A - Yeah. (laughs)

Q - Bass Player magazine voted you as one of the most influential bass players on the planet Earth. What does that mean to you?

A - It was amazing to be honest. All the great bass players I listened to, just to be part of it, just to be even mentioned would have been great. Jamie Jameson. Carol Kaye. Just brilliant. Paul McCartney. John Entwistle. It's just been a fantastic ride for me. I just love bass. I love bass playing. I've always tried to find a different way of interpreting a song with the bass. If it's brought me where I am, I'm really pleased. It's just been exciting for me. To be honest, it's all about the Yellow Brick Road, the Tin Man, and the Straw Man. They all went after the accolades and realized the accolades weren't really worth it at the end of the day. (laughs) I've never wanted the accolades. It's just wonderful to have them, I have to tell you, but it's not what I've been after. I just want to play my bass and make sure everything I do on that bass is the right thing, for what I think is the right thing for that particular song.

Q - Your first solo album, "Natural Avenue" was released in 1977, but you never toured behind it. Was that because of The Moody Blues schedule?

A - Yeah. I recorded the album and released it. I was getting ready to go on the road. I had a band together and then we decided to go in the studio and record "Octave". We hadn't worked together as a band (The Moody Blues) for like four years. So, suddenly I'm now looking at, "Do I tour or do I sit down and start writing songs for a new Moody Blues album?" And it was writing songs for The Moody Blues album because I am a Moody Blue and always will be. I was upset that I never toured with "Natural Avenue" because there are some songs on there I would really like to do onstage at the time. When you've written songs and recorded them you really want to get out and play them for an audience and see what the reaction is, to see if we're still on the same planet basically. But, we went into the studio and recorded "Octave" instead, but was a scheduling situation.

Q - Was this "The 10,000 Light Year Tour of 2017" the last time you toured the United States?

A - No. I toured this year (2020). I had a fantastic tour this year. I had a wonderful tour last year (2019) because I was invited on the Yes tour. So, we had a tour called "The Royal Affair". We did thirty cities across America with Yes, me and Carl Palmer. We had a fantastic tour. This year I was on the "Rock 'n' Romance Cruise" out of Florida with Don Felder. We had a fantastic time. And then after that I did about fourteen dates through Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, up the East Coast and I finished in Boston. I think finished about March 8th (2020).

Q - Just in time.

A - Just in time. Yeah.

Q - And now you're booked to do this Flower Power cruise in 2021. Do you think that will happen?

A - Well, I hope it's gonna be on. I don't know what's gonna happen really. I mean, I hope it's gonna be on. They are great times. Who knows with the virus that going around now. I have no idea, but I just hope that everybody stays safe and we can find an answer to all of this and we try to get life back to normal. I think live music is the one thing that sort of ignites people and unites people. It gives you energy and it makes you feel good. Every time I come out of a concert, I feel, yeah, I love it! It's great, Rock 'n' Roll.

Official Website: www.JohnLodge.com

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