Gary James' Interview With
Leslie West
First he was a Vagrant. Then he climbed to the top of the Mountain, so to speak, in Rock. The man we are talking about is Mr. Leslie West.
Leslie West has a new album out called "Theme For An Imaginary Western". (Passport Records)
Q - Leslie, you've seen a lot of changes in the music business since you first started your career.
A - Yeah. It wasn't a business. (laughs)
Q - As you listen to a lot of the music around today, what do you like or don't like about it?
A - I'll tell you what, I don't really like a whole hell of a lot of it. But what I do like is the fact that it doesn't matter what I like. You know what I mean? In other words, there's a bunch of kids somewhere who've been playing their instruments for a couple of years and they've got an album out. I don't mind that. You'd think a lot of guys would mind that from my school, but I don't mind that. I don't care. There's enough room for everything. Some of this Metal trash crap I could do without. I'm happy as a lark. Let there be music everywhere. The people will buy if they like it or they won't buy it.
Q - You were teaching guitar for awhile in Long Island, weren't you?
A - I had a school that I started. We were going to have twenty-three different franchises around the country and I got involved with a guy named Howard Stern, who's a disc jockey and a real good friend of mine in New York. He had a TV show on Fox and it got canceled. But we did five pilots for them. I put a band together for that. I spent most of my time doing that. But I had a school for awhile in the City.
Q - You were charging $150 an hour for a guitar lesson?
A - It was $500 for a series of eight, half-hour, eight, forty-five minute sessions. But it was me alone. It wasn't me and six guys in a class. Hey, if you want to drive a Cadillac, you've got to pay for a Cadillac. I don't think that was too much. I know some computer guys who charge a thousand buck an hour.
Q - How many people signed up for lessons?
A - I had four hundred students the first two weeks. I had to give away hundreds of students. I could've retired. One of the editors of Guitar Player (magazine) gave me the idea for it. I didn't want to go on the road anymore. I was straightening myself out from drugs and the '70s. I really felt good. I didn't want to risk going on the road and getting messed up again.
Q - With so much emphasis on image these days, could Mountain have gotten a record deal if they were just starting out?
A - I have no idea. The things that Felix and I had that a lot of groups don't have today is we really went eye to eye on stage. It was a battle between Felix and myself. Every night. Every song. There was really something to that. First of all, if I had to start all over again from scratch, forget about who I am, forget that I have a style and that you can pretty well tell it's me playing when you hear it. I don't know if I'd start out from scratch today and learn to play all over again, knowing how many groups there are and knowing this is not the way I started. The business is not like that. You had a choice to go in and do an album with a record label. They stuck you with two to three albums. I mean, the first album I put out, my solo, Leslie West, "Mountain" was not a hit, but "Mountain Climbing" was. That was my second album. It was only my second group in my life. So I was a little bit unique. But some of these guys in groups today have been in hundreds of groups before they even come close to a hit. That's because the record companies don't have the time and you better get almost a hit record the first time out.
Q - Your fourth gig was an appearance at Woodstock. How did you land that?
A - An agent with Jimi Hendrix's agent. That's how we got that show.
Q - Were you in the Woodstock movie?
A - No, because my manager, Bud Praeger, who now manages Foreigner, my ex-manager wanted too much money. The fact of the matter is I would've done it for nothing. We were on "Woodstock II", the album. And we got Gold and Platinum records for that.
Q - Why didn't The Vagrants achieve greater success?
A - Because we just couldn't get down on tape the live shows. We never really had any recording sound.
Q - Where were you when you got the news that Felix Pappalardi had been shot?
A - Indiana.
Q - And what went through your mind?
A - I thought to myself it's good thing I wasn't in New York 'cause they might have questioned me. The funny thing is, at the time he was suing Corky and I for like six million dollars because we were out on the road. We weren't using the name Mountain. His wife, we sort of knew it was going to happen sooner or later. And I had to call the New York police to find out if it was true because we heard rumors like this before. When I fount out it was true, I really got sick.
Q - Is Jack Bruce the best bassist in the world?
A - In my eyes.
Q - What kind of work are you doing with Kramer guitars?
A - I've been using Kramers for awhile now, for about two years, since the Van Halen tour. Edward introduced me to the President of Kramer. For an out and out Rock 'n' Roll, kick ass, you can't beat that guitar.
Q - At what age does a Rock 'n' Roll musician stop rockin'?
A - I'll call you and tell you when I find out.
© Gary James. All rights reserved.
Leslie West died on December 23rd, 2020. He was 75 years old.
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