Gary James' Interview With Jimmy Stafford Of
Train



He was an original member of Train from its beginning days in 1994 until he parted ways with the band in 2016. He recorded eight albums with Train, selling more than ten million albums and thirty million tracks worldwide. While in Train he was nominated for eight Grammy Awards. The band ended up winning three Grammy Awards. Just to give you an idea of how wildly popular Train is, their song "Hey, Soul Sister" is the most played song in Australian radio history! It was the most downloaded iTunes song of 2010 and was the best selling single in Columbia Records history! Jimmy Stafford was Train's guitarist and really helped define the group's distinctive sound. We spoke with Jimmy Stafford about his days with Train and what he does these days with his time, including his solo album. He doesn't give many interviews these days, but he talked to ClassicBands.com

Q - Jimmy, why don't you grant interviews these days? Are you a shy guy or don't you like to talk?

A - I'm not doing many interviews these days 'cause I just don't like doing them. (laughs) That's part of the freedom of not being in the band anymore. I don't have to do all the kinds of things I really didn't enjoy doing very much.

Q - And you probably get asked the same questions all the time.

A - It's partly that, but I have just done so many interviews over my career with the band, it wasn't my favorite thing to do. I don't think of myself as a real good communicator. Sometimes I would read things back and think, "Why did I say that?" That sort of thing. I'm not really out to promote myself anymore. So it's kind of like, "What's the point in doing interviews and talking with people?" I just didn't see the point of it.

Q - But, you're not retired, are you? You're still putting out music, aren't you?

A - I'm still putting out music, but mostly for myself. I don't promote it. I mean, very little. It's more just about the art of doing it, which had gone away some when I was in the band. It became so much of a business that it was more about the business and making money than the actual art of just making music, which is what I enjoyed the most. I have freedom now to just do what I want as far as traveling. It's a luxury that I've never really had before. All the traveling I used to do with the band, I traveled around the world, but I don't feel like I saw much. You see it out the car window on the way to and from gigs. It's different now. I have that luxury of being able to travel.

Q - In 2016 you discovered all these songs that were half written in your home. Were these songs that you wrote on the road or in-between tours?

A - I mean, the short answer is yes. Both. Every time we would do an album, in the early days the band would write songs together. Always Pat (Monahan; Train member) wrote the words, but we'd work out the songs and the music and the arrangements together and then we'd go record them. In the later years, really starting around 2009 when we regrouped after a couple of years break, when Pat did his solo album, Pat started writing with outside writers, hit makers, guys that wrote hit songs. He stopped writing with the band members. But to kind of make us feel included he would say, "Hey, we're getting ready to make a new record. If you've got any ideas, throw 'em my way." So, me and Scott (Underwood), who was the other original band member in the band at the time, would come up with ideas or play him ideas we had sitting around. But they were never really considered. He was already writing songs with those hit maker guys. So I had all these songs that were written with no lyrics. You definitely don't want to give the singer of the band a finished song with lyrics. He has no attachment to those lyrics. They don't mean anything to him. They've got to come from the singer. So, he would listen to our ideas, but nothing would ever come of it. So, I had these songs sitting around that were never used in Train. I kind of forgot about 'em, but I just stumbled on 'em one day. I mean I didn't do anything for six months after I left the band. Then I just stumbled on 'em. What's this CD stuff? It was all these song ideas and I just thought some of 'em were decent, but they needed lyrics which I never really dabbled in before, so I kind of dabbled. (laughs)

Q - Did you play all the instruments on your first solo album?

A - I actually didn't on the first album.

Q - We're talking about "No Man's Land"?

A - Yeah. On that album, if you look at the credits, I brought in some heavy hitter musicians around Nashville to play on that record. I did all the guitar work on the record, but my demos were all programmed drums. They weren't meant to be records 'cause I was hoping those songs would become Train records and we'd re-arrange them, re-record them, even re-write them, you know? So they were just cheaply done demos. So, when I finished writing the songs with lyrics I actually brought in a live drummer, a couple of drummers, bass players, keyboard players. They were all heavy hitters. The bass player was a guy that plays with Joe Bonamassa. The drummer had played with Elvis. And then the other drummer I used was with the Average White Band. The keyboard player was Aerosmith's keyboard player, Buck Johnson. Still is. So, I had some really great musicians on that record. But you know, I paid them and I paid a studio to record that record in. So it wasn't a cheap record for me to make. Way cheaper than making a Train record. It wasn't on that level. (laughs) But the next record after that I did do everything myself. I built my own studio at my lake house so I can work both places. I did all the recording. I programmed the drumming and I played the keyboards. I played all the instruments, did all the mixing. I didn't have to pay for studio time. After that first album I was like, "Man, if I want to keep doing this it might just be cheaper to buy the gear and do it all myself." And a lot of people are doing that these days. Even Billie Eilish and her brother recorded their first few albums at home in their bedroom, on their own with him doing all the music. A lot of artists are doing that. The gear and the plug-ins on all the gear are capable of making records. You couldn't do that back in the day. You just didn't have good enough gear to do it at home. You had to pay to go into a recording studio. But even like with Train on the last few albums I did with them, the demos that Pat would bring in when he would write songs with these outside writers, the demos were so good. They could've just been records. And we would actually take those demos into a recording studio and basically just replace some of the parts. We'd replace the drums and guitars with the guys in the band. But were pretty much recording, re-recording stuff that really didn't need to be re-recorded 'cause it was done well enough the first time. Train was a band still then, and so we had to have the band on the recordings or we were afraid it just wouldn't sound like a band.

Q - I suppose when Train went into a recording studio it was 32 track or 64 track or maybe even more?

A - Yeah. It's limitless when you're living in the Pro-Tools, digital world.

Q - Isn't it amazing that The Beatles recorded "Sgt. Pepper" on an 8 track machine?

A - Yeah. And those early Beatles records were actually 4 track and around "Sgt Pepper" they figured out how to put 4 track machines together and have 8 tracks to work with. I mean, that was a big deal. They sound great! It's almost better in a way 'cause these days you have so much available. It's limitless what you can do and sometimes you end up like a chef in kitchen, over-cooking the meal a little bit. It happens a lot these days and I try not to do that. I'm very cognizant of that, not doubling and tripling instruments. Try to get one instrument to sound as good as you can. If you need to double it to make it sound better, then do it, but I really tried to really old-fashion kind of record stuff and not pile stuff on just for the sake of making it sound bigger or thicker. Sometimes that's not always better. There's many times when I do over-cook it when I do. In the mixing process I'll go back and take things off. You know, "Does this really need to be there? Is this really helping the song to sound better? Let's hear what it sounds like without it. It's fine without it. Okay, I delete it."

Q - You're not only the singer, the songwriter, the guitarist, you're also the producer.

A - And the engineer. (laughs) I'm all of it.

Q - You don't feel the need to have an outside guy's opinion then?

A - I don't, and for a few reasons. The main one being I spent so many years in a band where you had ideas, you'd throw 'em out there and sometimes they'd get used and sometimes they wouldn't. But when I write a song, a lot of times I kind of have a vision in my head of how it's supposed to sound at the end of the day and I don't want someone telling me that something won't work. I trust my own ears and my own judgment on that stuff. What I end up putting out is what I was hearing. I don't stop working on it until it's the way I want t hear it. Of course there's been a learning curve with that. The first album I made all by myself was my second album and the second album doesn't sound nearly as good as this most recent album that I made because I've just been learning as I go along. But, I'm not doing this to make money or sell a bunch of records or anything like that. I'm kind of doing it for the art of doing it.

Q - What happens with these songs when you're through recording them? What do you do with them?

A - I just put it out there and move on.

Q - On your website? (www.JimmyStaffordMusic.com)

A - Well, that's one place. It goes on the website. It's everywhere, everywhere you can download or stream music. It's on Apple Music. It's on Spotify. It's everywhere you can download or stream music worldwide. So, I just put it out there. That's kind of it. I don't like the business end of it. If I was going to hire anybody to work with in relation to that music I'm doing on my own it would probably be someone to market and promote what I've done because, and I've heard this from other musicians and even in Train; you work so hard on a record, writing, recording, the whole process of recording which takes months and months. And then in some cases, like with Train and bigger bands, you go out and tour that record and promote it for a year, sometimes two years, around the world, and by the time you're done with that you don't listen to that record anymore as an artist. I never go back and listen to my records, including Train records. I remember hearing an interview with Geddy Lee from Rush before, and he said those guys were the same way. Once they were done with an album they never go back and listen to it. I didn't understand it at the time. I'm a Rush fan. I'm like, "Your music is so great I'd be listening to it all the time," but not when you created it and lived with it. I get it now. When I'm crafting a song and writing it and working on it and putting an album together for a year, when I'm done with it, I move on.

Q - Earlier you said there's a period of six months when you didn't do anything. I guess then you made so much money in Train you didn't have to worry about paying bills.

A - No, I don't. I'm fortunate in that sense. Even when I left the band it was just me and Pat. We were the only two original band members. I owned half of the company and that included a merchandise company, a touring company, the band name, a wine company that we owned. So, I'm good. Financially, I'm good. The kids are probably good. I didn't sell my royalties. All my royalties will keep coming in forever. So yeah, I don't worry about money, which is nice.

Q - It is, because I can't tell you how many horror stories I've listened to about bands being ripped off by record companies or management.

A - Or, they blew their money on drugs, fancy cars, all that kind of stuff. I grew up in a middle class, blue collar family in Illinois. A small town. I think I was just raised to be frugal and I still am. I have a nice house, but I'm not extravagant. I have what I have and I'm happy with what I have. I don't have fancy cars. I have a couple of nice vehicles and they're fine. I was never like a drug user. I don't spend money on drugs. I feel like I should be fine in my life and my children too. I'll try to leave them a little bit.

Q - The place in Illinois where you grew up, Morris, Illinois, was that a welcome place for musicians?

A - It was a very small town, like 12,000 people. There was just one main street with a couple of bars on it. Local bands would play there. During high school I had a band, for all four years in high school. There weren't many bands in town. Us and one other band. The other band, their range of music was geared more towards Hard Rock. So they didn't get asked to do weddings and school dances like we did. We had a huge repertoire where we could play weddings, high school proms and dances and we could do bars and rock out for four hours. So we worked a lot during high school. Probably three to four shows a week maybe.

Q - How'd you do that? Must be you did double shows on weekends.

A - Yeah. We would do a show on a Friday night, Saturday night and maybe on a Wednesday night or Thursday night. And not just in our town. There wasn't enough places to play in our town, only a couple of places. Anywhere within I'd say a hundred miles of Morris we would do shows and there was always weddings and private shows.

Q - And your school work didn't suffer?

A - I didn't really care. I was fortunate with my school work I guess because I was pretty determined from an early age that I was going to be a musician and that was what I was going to do. So, I didn't need to go to college. That wasn't like even part of my plan. I didn't want to learn like a backup trade, even though that was risky. I got lucky. (laughs) It's risky not to have a backup, especially if you're an actor or a musician, that type of artist because what are the chances really of making a career out of that? But I was like so convinced and determined that that's what I was going to do that I didn't want to have a backup to fall back on. I always felt if I went to college and learned how to do this, like that's probably what I would end up falling back on and doing. Then I wouldn't live the dream that I had.

Q - What's interesting is , you're the second guy to tell me something like that in that last two weeks. Dave Sabo of Skid Row told me he received a scholarship, but didn't use it because he didn't want anything to fall back on.

A - That's funny because I had a similar thing happen. There was a class in high school in my Senior year and Junior year, drafting. It was a drafting class for designing homes. I was good at that. A guy came down from Chicago University to meet with me and a couple of other kids about a scholarship to the school for that and I was just not interested. I met with the guy, but I said, "I'm gonna be a Rock star." (laughs)

Q - And he said what to that?

A - He probably laughed. I probably didn't say that. I said it's just not something I'm interested in doing. I have other interests. And it took a long time. I didn't have a hit song 'til I was 34 years old. So, I always had to have a day job to support myself, but nothing too serious.

Q - What day jobs did you do?

A - Oh, I did a number of things. Even through high school, in the summer time I made pretty good money in that band for being in high school. But I still did local jobs in high school. I worked out at a nuclear power plant actually. Just maintenance, mowing lawns, painting stuff. All that odds and ends jobs. Whatever they needed, me and other guy. When I moved to L.A. I worked for a film editing company in Hollywood, which was actually a really good job. I worked there for years the whole time I lived in L.A. I was a driver. I would just deliver film and tapes to and from the editing facility to the movie studios. So, I was on the Paramount and Warner Bros. lots, two, three times a day sometimes. It was a fun job and because I was just out all day doing stuff, I was able to swing by the record stores and drop off flyers to promote my band's show, even hang some flyers up on telephone poles here and there on the way down to Burbank Warner Bros. studios. As long as they got their tapes on time and I had some time left over I'd do some work for the band.

Q - Didn't it cost a lot of money to move from Morris, Illinois to Los Angeles? I don't know what year you moved there.

A - This was in 1983 when I moved there. It was a fun time to be in Hollywood 'cause I actually lived in one apartment building North of Hollywood Blvd, so I was in the heart of Hollywood. All the '80s hair band stuff was happening around there. I'd see the guys from Motley Crue walking down my street. All the musicians and bands lived on my street, Sycamore Avenue. They had cheap apartments there. I know that my apartment then was 250 bucks a month. My parents paid for that for the first year there 'cause I did go to music school there. That was my excuse to kind of get me to Hollywood. I remember talking to my parents (saying), "Look, I'm not gonna go to a major college, so look at all the money I'm saving you. (laughs) But I would like to go to this music school. Do you think you guys could pay for this for one year?" And they've always supported my music career. So, they paid my rent for a year while I went to school and they paid my tuition for the school and sent me money to live on for a year while I went to school and then I got a job. I entered the real world and paid my own rent.

Q - What did they teach you in this music school? How to read music?

A - A lot of stuff that I didn't really need to know. It was more of an excuse. I used it as an excuse to move to Hollywood on my parent's dime. (laughs) But I enjoyed going to school. I enjoyed learning all the stuff, but a lot of it I already knew, like the ear training classes I would have to go to every day. That's how I learned to play guitar. I didn't learn to play guitar by reading charts. I learned by listening to AC/DC and Cheap Trick records. Listening to what they were doing and copying it. So, like the ear training stuff I felt like I was already pretty good at. The learning how to read music stuff, I didn't care to learn. To me, that's like if you're a Classical musician or if you're an Arranger that's going to work arrangements for other people to read. But that was not my interest. I wanted to play guitar in a Rock band and write songs. But, by writing songs you don't need to actually write them down on paper. They had tape recorders by then. (laughs) You could put your ideas on tape.

Q - I always thought that Arrangers had to read music, but through the years I found out that's not always the case.

A - Not, it's not. Studio musicians need to have a basic understanding of charts. I mean, I can follow along on a chart, but again, that's not what I wanted to do. I didn't want to be a studio musician playing on other people's records. I wanted to play guitar in my own band and write our own songs and play on my own records.

Q - I don't know how old of a guy you are, but since you moved to Los Angeles in 1983, would it be fair to say the bands of the late 1970s influenced you to pick up the guitar?

A - Yeah, and even earlier. Actually, I'll be 58 tomorrow (April 26th 2022). I kind of don't pay attention to them anymore. I've always kind of looked at life as a Point A and Point B and everything else in-between is just your time on Earth. But, I'm getting closer to Point B and further from Point A everyday. (laughs) It's just life. My influences started even earlier than the late '70s. My parents had a great vinyl collection when I was growing up, which I now possess. My mom was into all the Motown and even stuff like Ray Charles. She was into the early Pop records like Connie Francis, Bobby Vee. My dad was more of an early Rock 'n' Roll guy. He had the early Elvis records, Buddy Holly, even the early Beatles. He didn't have any late Beatles, but he had the very early American recordings that probably most Americans owned at that time, in the early '60s. He had The Dave Clark Five, The Everly Brothers. That's the stuff that I really got into. But whenever I had baby sitters that would watch me at home, that's what I would do. I would sit in front of the record player. Back then you could just stack your records, so when one record finished, the needle would go over and the next one would drop on the other on, (laughs) and skid around for a couple of seconds and then the needle would drop on that. But I used to just sit there and pick out records for my baby sitters to put on the record player and I'd listen to records. And I loved the Elvis movies when I was a kid. Then I got into Rock 'n' Roll pretty young, probably ten, like real Rock 'n' Roll like Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, that kind of stuff in the early '70s. Elton John. I started buying my own records and those were the records and those were the records I would buy. A lot of Grand Funk, and I still have all those records. That progressed into KISS and Queen and David Bowie and Aerosmith and then eventually AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. In the '80s I got into the whole New Wave direction. I didn't go into the Hair Band stuff. I like some Hard Rock music, but I prefer the Hard Rock stuff like Black Sabbath, the Scorpions, Judas Priest, as opposed to the '80s Hair Bands.

Q - Who tended to all sound alike.

A - Yeah, they kind of did. And they all looked alike too. I lived in Hollywood, so those were the bands that were playing when I'd walk down Sunset Strip. All the kids were lining up to see that night. And they all looked the same too, the people going in to see them. I didn't look like that. I didn't feel like I fit in to that scene. I was more into U2 and REM and The Cure and Depeche Mode. That kind of stuff. The Smiths. All those kind of bands in the '80s.

Q - But again, it was your dream from an early age to be part of a successful, touring, recording band, wasn't it?

A - Yes. I don't think I really thought it through. I didn't really know all the aspects and the avenues that music could take. I never dreamed of having a Grammy. That was never part of my goal. That was out of reach. I think my dream was to be able to make a living playing music. That's what I would always say to myself. I just want to be able to make a living playing music. But I always felt like I would be a guitarist in a popular band, maybe just a hired, side musician that played for bands. I remember driving around Hollywood in the early days when I lived there and hearing that somebody lost their guitarist. I'm like, "I wish they knew about me. I'm available." (laughs) A lot of trial and error in different bands while I was in Hollywood. It's funny 'cause I always felt like I could tell, like every band I would join, I could tell if they had talent or ambition, but maybe not both. Or the chemistry of the band wasn't right. I was in one band thinking the drummer has what takes and I have what it takes and we're the only two in this band who have what it takes. (laughs) The rest of the band I could just tell by playing with 'em, being around 'em, they just weren't going to end up successful musicians. And the drummer did end up going on to have some success. He was the drummer for the band Grant Lee Buffalo, who I was a big fan of and didn't know he was the drummer. I was looking at the album credits and I'm like, "bloody hell!" Joey Peters is the drummer, the guy that I played with in that band.

Q - Is that the only guy you played with that went on to have success?

A - From any past bands?

Q - Yes.

A - On that level I would say yes. There was a keyboard player in the same band actually who at the time I had pegged as someone who didn't have what it took, but he's still working in the music industry for different artists, actually making a career out of it. But yeah, that's about it until I found a band looking for a guitar player in a music magazine in L.A. They were calling themselves The Apostles. They were adverting for a guitar player and I went and met with them and joined up with them. That band I felt had the chemistry and everybody in that band had the potential to make it, and three of the four of us went to form Train.

Q - To someone from the outside looking in, the life of Jimmy Stafford looks glamorous, but from your viewpoint was it all that you imagined it to be?

A - Yeah, and then some. I didn't expect the kind of success Train ended up having. None of us did. We never talked about that stuff and when we got nominated for a Grammy on our second album, that was like beyond any of our wildest dreams. We never expected that and then we won! (laughs) It was just like a dream. It was life changing. Forever after that you're not just Train, you're Grammy Award winning Train. It's like a whole new band name. (laughs) Even in the later years when it got even bigger like with "Hey, Soul Sister" and our touring, all of a sudden we were headlining big, huge 17,000 seat outdoor sheds in the summertime. Bands that I loved and admired and respected were like our opening acts, bands like The Script and The Fray, and John Mayer in the early days supported Train for only like the first year of his career. Then Train supported him. (laughs) It was like all this stuff started happening instead of like the early days, traveling in a van and then a beat up bus that broke down all the time, to having a nice bus, but the band and crew were on it too. Then having sperate buses for the crew and one for the band. Then after "Soul Sister", I had my own bus. (laughs) So, I could bring my family out. I could bring my friends out. It was my bus. I didn't own it. The buses are rented for the tours, but each band member, myself, Pat and Scott had separate buses for maybe the last half a dozen years I was in the band.

Q - One of the things that really caught my attention about Train is the fact that "Hey, Soul Sister" is the best selling single in Columbia Records history. When you think about all of the artists that have been on that label...

A - Bruce Springsteen, Dylan, Billy Joel.

Q - Janis Joplin.

A - Wow! That's crazy to think that it sold more than "Born To Run". And we shared a manager with Springsteen for a decade, Jon Landau. I just recently got a Diamond Record for "Hey, Soul Sister". I didn't even know they made Diamond. I thought it stopped at Platinum and you just got Double Platinum, Triple Platinum records.

Q - What is Diamond for?

A - Ten million, and there's only been sixty-nine Diamond Records given out in history and nine of them went to The Beatles.

Q - You're in some great company there!

A - Yeah. So, we're one of only sixty Diamond Records. I'm grateful for it and proud of it, but I didn't write that song. I just played on it. It was a song written for my band and we performed it.

Q - Did you also know that "Hey, Soul Sister" is the most played song in Australian radio history?

A - Whoa! I did not. I have a Double Platinum Record for it from Australia, but I didn't know that. I had no idea. How come nobody tells me these things? (laughs) That's something to tell the grand kids, you know?

Q - You guys in Train were sort of living the life that The Beatles tried to tell us about in A Hard Day's Night. The backstage, the hotel, the venues. So many musicians want it, but when they get it they're not so thrilled about it.

A - I loved all that stuff. I loved the touring, the traveling, the fans. You kind of get used to it. If you show up at a hotel and there are no fans waiting for you for autographs in the lobby, you're kind of like, "What the hell is wrong with this place? (laughs) Where is everybody?" I never minded any of that. I was always one to go out to the fence backstage where they keep the buses and take pictures with people. I appreciate that. I think we all did.

Q - I see there's even a yearly cruise devoted to Train. The group must have a lot of fans! This must be a big deal. For the fans to get up close and personal is not something that existed in the early days of Rock 'n Roll.

A - I know. It's crazy to see some of the bands that do it, like KISS. This is going to be their last one this year or I think they already had it and then they're done with their cruise. They're getting old. This is their last tour. I think they're ready to hang it up. You wouldn't think that you could go on a boat with KISS. As a child, that would have floored me to even think you could do that. We have great fans. That cruise was always something fun to do and get up close to the fans and hang out, have other great bands on the cruise with you. We had The Script on a cruise with us, Matt Nathanson always on our cruise. I love Matt. We had The Wailers out with us one year. Lots of good bands. It was always fun, but it's a lot of work doing the cruises 'cause you're doing three or four shows over the week out at sea and you don't want to do the same thing every night. We would learn a lot of cover songs. We put work into it. It was always a good time. Actually, my last show with the band was on the 2017 cruise. It was funny 'cause that very last show I played with the band was almost an omen that I was leaving, even though I knew I was leaving. The fans even knew I think. It was White Day. It was a weird cruise 'cause Pat and me had come to our agreement and we knew that was my last time playing with the band. I wasn't invited to a lot of the band stuff like the band dinners. They would have a couple of band dinners on the cruise and I wasn't invited to them, which I thought was kind of shitty. I was a little bit ignored on that cruise. Even the pre-show get-together to go through the set and what we're going to do and what we're changing; I felt a little sad. I remember I was having sushi with my wife on the ship and there was a big back room, a private room there. We were sitting at the sushi bar and I could see the band members kind of sneaking in, going to this back room for a dinner that I wasn't invited to. And it was my band still. (laughs) It was just kind of weird. On the very last show that we did it was "Wear White Day." They have like themes on the cruise. I was never into doing that stuff. So, it was "Wear White Day." I had no idea. I wasn't told that we're supposed to wear white. Minutes before the show I get taken by security down to the backstage area to get ready to go on. I'm wearing all black. (laughs) I've got black jeans on. A black t-shirt. All the other guys in the band are all in full out white. It was too late to go change. I wasn't told. It was almost like Pat wanted me to stand out as the black sheep, no pun intended. So, I went onstage, the only one wearing black. That was my last show.

Q - That's what happens with bands. All for one, one for all in the beginning. And with the money and success, people begin to drift apart.

A - Yeah. That's what happens. I mean, I loved the band. And really that's why I left at the time that I did. It didn't feel like my band anymore. I didn't even feel welcome in my own band anymore. So, it was just the right time to get out and let Pat be Train. So, it's a little bittersweet for me 'cause I devoted my life to that band. In the early days of the band I did everything. Before we had a manager I managed the band. Before we had a publicist I did all the publicity for the band and contacted newspapers and let then know about shows. I designed our posters. I designed our flyers. I took care of the mailing list. I took care of our finances for a few years until we got people that took over those jobs and I could just be a guitar player in the band. But eventually I didn't even feel like I was the guitar player in my own band anymore. I wasn't being creative 'cause the songs were being written by other people. It wasn't my home anymore. It's a little bittersweet for me. It's a little sad.

Official Website: www.JimmyStaffordMusic.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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