Gary James' Interview With Art Sharp Of
The Nashville Teens



These guys got together in 1962 and by 1964 they had a big hit record with "Tobacco Road". It was a wild ride to the top and Art Sharp of The Nashville teens is more than happy to tell us about it.

Q - Art, as we speak, is there still a Nashville Teens?

A - The Nashville Teens still work, but under this virus thing no bands are working anywhere. But, the singer is the other singer in The Nashville Teens, Ray Phillips. So, there's only one original.

Q - How about you?

A - I don't work. He does. The other five members of the band... I haven't been on the road since 1973, but Ray Phillips, as we speak and up until about five months ago, he was doing the occasional gig here in England. That's The Nashville Teens.

Q - That being the case, have you ever thought of writing your autobiography because you did live in an exciting time. Has that ever crossed your mind?

A - When I left The Nashville Teens I went to work for Don Arden, Sharon Osbourne's father, and I was there when Jet Records started. If I started telling you the tales I don't think I would have enough lawyers to protect me.

Q - That bad?

A - Rock 'n' Roll is the name of the game. Who is bedding whom? Who is fiddling whom? I've never thought of writing my autobiography.

Q - The Nashville Teens were playing in 1962. That was the start of the band then?

A - Yes. That was when we were just a local band.

Q - How far is Weybridge from London and Liverpool?

A - London is about twenty-five miles away from Weybridge. Liverpool is two hundred and something miles away. That's what we call up north. (laughs)

Q - Were you hearing about the music scene in those places?

A - Oh, yes. The radio had that, but we were listening to Americans. Little Richard. Jerry Lee Lewis. Elvis Presley. And then a guy over here (England) called Lonnie Donnegan. He put out "Rock Island Line". The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, everybody in Britain went, "That's where we can make music. Stop copying America." And off we went.

Q - Why did you take this name The Nashville Teens? That almost sounds, well it does actually sound like a Country act.

A - Right. Ray and I singing together used to cover Everly Brothers' songs and of course we're thinking at the time, 'cause he was from one band, I was from another, we said, "As a band we've got to give ourselves a name." We had the Everly Brothers' album and there was one track on it we were covering called "Nashville Blues". We said, "Nashville!" Of course to us America in the early '60s was where it all was happening. "Nashville. Yeah, that sounds American. Let's go for that." And eventually we said "Teens" and that was it, name. Courtesy of doing The Everly Brothers' "Nashville Blues".

Q - The Teens part came in because all you guys were in your teens or late teens?

A - (laughs) Not in 1962. Ray and I were in our twenties. So, that was a bit of a lie.

Q - Alright. So, how then did you get this offer to play The Star Club in Hamburg, Germany and what was that like?

A - Well, before we went to The Star Club, our first professional gig as a band was The Storyville Club, not The Star Club. You'd read reports that would say we went to The Star Club first. We didn't. We went to The Storyville Club in Cologne. That was courtesy of Don Arden. He got an agent to come and see us when we were playing near Weybridge in a place called Kingston, which is just up the road from Weybridge in Surrey. The guy said, "Oh, would you like to go professional? I can get you a gig in Cologne's Storyville Club." That was 1963 and away we went. It's when we backed Jerry Lee Lewis that we ended up at The Star Club.

Q - You were backing up other people as well at that club, weren't you?

A - Yeah. Carl Perkins, and for awhile, Chuck Berry. Yeah, that got us on the road. Then of course "Tobacco Road" came out and we didn't have to back anybody. We were on our own.

Q - When you were backing up Jerry Lee Lewis, did you have to rehearse with him or did you know all his material?

A - There was no rehearsal. "I guess you know all my songs?" "Yeah." That was it. The bass player, the guitarist, the drummer. Of course that did not include our pianist or Ray and I. We just stood in the audience and watched the three other guys. No way did you rehearse with Chuck Berry. Sometimes he'd start the song in a different key every night. The guitarist would look at the bass player and go "E! E!" And that was it. They could follow him. The next night it would be in D. But there were no rehearsals.

Q - What was going through your mind when Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis came onstage? You'd heard so much about them.

A - Well, Ray and I obviously didn't back them up because we were waiting for our own spots on the show. That was our way of getting on tour with them. So, we did our spots and then three of us disappeared. Then on came the main act, which is Jerry Lee Lewis or Carl Perkins, and the other three went back onstage. As far as we were concerned it was us doing our act. That's what we were more worried about.

Q - Back to The Star Club. For years John Lennon would say The Beatles worked eight hours a night, seven days a week for three months.

A - Oh, yeah. Correct.

Q - That really wasn't true. No one's hands or voice could hold out or up under those conditions.

A - Oh yes they can, and they did! You went on for an hour and you got two hours off. There were three acts. You played from seven o'clock. The next band went on at nine. You went back at ten o'clock, then at midnight, then two in the morning. Oh yes, that was hard work. When we did The Storyville Club in Cologne you did eight o'clock to two in the morning and only got ten minutes an hour off.

Q - That's a brutal work schedule!

A - On Saturday and Sunday you did a matinee. (laughs)

Q - They really worked you guys.

A - Us and every other band in the United Kingdom worked Germany.

Q - You didn't have to hang around the club as long as you came back when it was your turn to perform. At least that's the way it was in Hamburg I was told.

A - You'd go to the local bar. By five o'clock in the morning you were pissed as a pudding. Drunk.

Q - Did anyone in the audience notice?

A - No surprise there. You've got to realize, so were the audience (drunk) at four o'clock.

Q - How big was the audience there?

A - Oh, there were still a few there, Friday into Saturday, Saturday into Sunday.

Q - Were there a lot of German groupies provided to the bands?

A - You picked up the girls out of the audience. They were not provided. It's like everywhere else. The groupies were always here, there and everywhere.

Q - Especially for the British bands.

A - Oh, yes.

Q - I don't even know, were there German bands that played The Star Club?

A - Oh, yeah. There were a couple.

Q - Mickie Most produced "Tobacco Road"". Did you like that song? Did you feel it would be a hit?

A - I worked in a record shop in Woking, Surrey. When we were rehearsing as a band, we all still had jobs. I would get the records that we could play. "The Twelve Sides Of John D. Loudermilk" was an album I was selling in the shop. I said, "Let's have a go at a couple of these songs." If you listen to John D. Loudermilk's version of "Tobacco Road" it's slow, and we speeded it up and away we went. We put it in the act. Don Arden put us in a studio with Mickie Most. He said, "See what you can come up with." We did three songs, "I Like It Like That", "Tobacco Road" and "Parchman Farm". We did "Parchman Farm" first. Mose Allison's "Parchman Farm". Mickie Most went, "Yeah. Didn't quite like that. What else you got?" We did "I Like It Like That", which is the B-side of "Tobacco Road". He didn't quite like that. He said, "You got any other songs we might like?" And we played "Tobacco Road" and he stood up and said, "That's the one." There was a big, fat guy sitting next to Mickie Most. He also got up and said, "That's the one!" That man was Peter Grant, who went on to manage Led Zeppelin. Those guys both stood up in the studio and said, "Tobacco Road, that is it!" And the rest is history.

Q - Did you guys tour America in 1964?

A - We could not get to America for the tour that was booked. The Musicians Union in America would not agree, but we did get a visa to do the The Brooklyn Fox (Theatre) with Murray The K Kaufman, Christmas, 1964.

Q - Who else was on the bill?

A - That was with The Shirelles, The Drifters, Chuck Jackson, Dionne Warwick.

Q - How long did you remain in the U.S. for that?

A - It was a ten day show.

Q - And then it was back home?

A - And then it was back home. There were lots of problems with the unions and visas.

Q - If memory serves me right, the thinking was for every British group that came to America, there had to be an American group going to Britain.

A - That was it. It was a swap. Believe it or not, our swap was The Duke Ellington Band. That was our only trip to America. We were booked on a tour, but the visa wouldn't allow us out of New York State.

Q - Would you have been the headliner on the tour or was it a package tour?

A - It was a package tour. We just knew there was one booked, but we weren't allowed on it and that was the end of the story. Whoever it was and wherever it was, well, we weren't there so we didn't even think about it.

Q - Would that have been one of those Dick Clark bus tours?

A - I think it was a Dick Clark tour, yeah.

Q - He was a powerful guy. Seems to me he could've pulled a few strings for you.

A - Well, it would seem, yeah, but the unions ruled. That was it.

Q - With "Tobacco Road" being such a hit, you must have toured all over Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

A - No. We never got to Australia, for whatever reason. We only did Europe and that was it. We never went anywhere else.

Q - Outside of that Murray The K show then, if you didn't catch The Nashville Teens there, you didn't see the group.

A - We did CBS television and you can see the black and white film on YouTube.

Q - Do you remember the name of the show?

A - Paul Anka was the main star of the show. I think it was Shindig! We went in and did the show.

Q - What did you follow-up "Tobacco Road" with?

A - That came off the same John D. Loudermilk album called "Google Eye". That was Top Ten here (England). Then we had another recording which just about got in the charts here, again off "The Twelve Sides Of Loudermilk", called "This Little Bird". So, we took those three records off of Loudermilk's album.

Q - Lucky you bought that album!

A - Well, I didn't have to buy it. I worked in a record shop. (laughs)

Q - You could just take it home and listen to it.

A - That's it. I took it home to the rehearsals and put it back on the shelf in the shop the next day.

Q - And it wasn't scratched.

A - Well, it might have been. Who knows?

Q - You were also produced by Andrew Look Oldham. What was he like to work with in the studio?

A - He was great. He did "This Little Bird". Marianne Faithful had the big hit with it. We were right at the bottom of the charts here with it, but yeah, he was good. I liked him.

Q - He just did that one session with you?

A - Just that one record. That was it. We went in with whoever Don Arden said we would go in with. It was as simple as that. We were just kids in a Pop group. We didn't know the business. We just went in the studio. "Here's your producer." "Hello." We played the record. They did their job and that was it. We never talked about it. We never argued. We didn't know what a studio was.

Q - Did Decca Records do a good job promoting The Nashville Teens?

A - (laughs) No. And you'll read reports here, there and everywhere that Decca did not promote their bands as well as they should have. That's the record company that turned down The Beatles.

Q - One of 'em anyway. They were turned down by many labels.

A - They were before E.M.I. got them, yes. (laughs)

Q - You left The Nashville Teens in what year?

A - Early '73 to join Don Arden's office.

Q - What were your job duties there?

A - Looking after his bands and the likes of Lynsey de Paul. She was big here. And of course there was the Electric Light Orchestra. I booked all the studios for them, booked all the musicians, all the violins behind the Electric Light Orchestra. That was on Jet Records. I was touring America with the Electric Light Orchestra.

Q - In what capacity?

A - Keeping an eye on things for the management. Don Arden managed them as well as the record label, because the likes of the Mafia were always in on where the money was. I've got a couple of nice pictures I took of Jeff Lynn in Nashville, Tennessee.

Q - You were acting in a tour manager capacity? Is that what you're telling me?

A - No. The tour manager is the guy who booked the hotels and made sure the band got from A to B. I was looking after the management's interests, the record company's interest. I was just there to keep an eye on things, to report back.

Q - What was the Mafia trying to do? How do they figure into this picture?

A - If you get Don Arden's book, Mr. Big, it will reveal his connection with the Mafia. When we were in New York we were driven around in a big Cadillac by a big Mafia guy. His name escapes me, but I did ask about him and he was taken out of the game. He was killed by his own people.

Q - Art, you certainly have been around the block, so to speak.

A - (laughs) I've been in the band. Worked for the record company. Worked for the management company. I worked with 'em all, with Ozzy Osbourne, Jeff Lynn, Gary Moore. I've done the rounds with 'em all.

Q - Did you ever encounter Brian Epstein in your travels?

A - When we did a show here called Ready, Steady, Go!, a big, big '60s television show, The Beatles were on the same show one night. It was recorded in London. He also managed Billy J. Kramer. Epstein came into the room where you could see whoever is being recorded. It was a room with a television screen. And he came in and said to me while Billy J. Kramer was on, "I wish Billy J. Kramer could be like you boys, with a bit more bollocks." So that was my only encounter with Brian Epstein. (laughs)

Q - Did you get the sense that maybe he would've liked to manage The Nashville Teens?

A - No. (laughs) It was a brave man that crossed Don Arden. He was our manager.

Q - I guess you met all The Beatles then?

A - I got all The Beatles' autographs and gave them to my sister. Right now my niece owns The Beatles' autographs. That's worth a couple thousand Pounds nowadays.

Q - I take it you liked The Beatles.

A - Oh, they were brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. They were my heroes. Their songs. Everything about it was what? You've taken away from the likes of Johnny Mathis and other ballad singers. All of a sudden there was a British band that could write and sing.

Q - Did you ever meet Brian Jones?

A - No.

Q - How about Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison?

A - We did a gig with Hendrix somewhere in England. And so, I met him once. He did a version of "All Along The Watchtower", Bob Dylan's song. There's a radio station in Manchester here, a Blues station, and it goes back a couple of months and it put our version, The Nashville Teens' version of "All Along The Watchtower" as Record Of The Week, and he said, rumor has it that Jimi Hendrix heard our version of "All Along The Watchtower" and said, "I like that! I like what they're doing. I'm going to do a version of that," which he did. We never had a hit record, but he did. This disc jockey seems to think it was courtesy of him hearing our version that he recorded it. I don't know how true that is at all.

Q - Art, you came of age in such an interesting period of time.

A - It was absolutely brilliant, '64. It was only twenty years after the war ended (World War II), '44, '45. The whole country was in the doldrums. And all of a sudden Pop music came along and every kid on the street was in a band. If you had hit records, as we did, it puts you on a new high. Occasionally you got paid and bless 'em, the groupies.

Q - German and British.

A - German and British, yeah.

Q - Did you go to these exclusive clubs in Britain, membership only, where all the bands would hang out?

A - Oh, yeah. There were one or two in London that I went to. The Scotch Club. You'd have John Lennon over on that table. You on that table. One of The Stones on another table. You never thought twice about it. You went in, you got pissed, listened to whatever band was on. All good fun. Happy days. Never thought about the future. But here we are, or I am. It's only Rock 'n' Roll, but I like it. (laughs)

Q - Right. Or Rock 'n' Roll Is Here To Stay.

A - Well, it is in this household. All the books, I've got. All the records, I've got. Yeah. I love it! Great days. I loved every minute of it.

Q - That's what I like to hear.

A - I've enjoyed this interview. Very good.

Official Website: www.Nashville-Teens.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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