The following
interview took place at the home of Joey Molland
for inclusion in the
upcoming book
Badfinger and Beyond
- The Authorized Biography of Joey Molland
below: Joey and Basil relaxing at home
Michael: What
was Mike like as a guy to hang around with?
Joey: Mike was a very easygoing guy, liked the bevy,
liked a bit of smoke. Very easy going, very nice. Really nice guy.
Michael:
And Peter?
Joey:
Peter was the same as well, very nice, very easygoing. When I look back on it,
he was a lot more easygoing than any of the others, than any of us three. He was
probably the most talented in the band. He would never force himself on you,
when he got a position he would hold it, he wouldn’t relinquish his belief, he
never would do that, but he was very easygoing. If you
wanted to try things, or do things, he wouldn’t stand in your way.
Michael:
When you did interviews as a band in the early days there was always a
little bit of joking around going on. Would Peter try to calm that down?
Joey: No,
not that I would notice. He would actually get involved in it. Because we all
wanted to be funny.
Michael:
There have been stories over the years that make Pete out to be this
totally serious business guy, and that he was the absolute leader of the band,
when it appears to me the band was very democratic and in sync with each other.
Joey: Yeah I think that’s a lot closer to the
truth than any idea that any one person in that band was the leader of the
band.
Michael: I would like that aspect of the story to come out, because
everything that’s been done centers around Pete and I don’t think it’s all
about Pete. For many people Badfinger were a group of equals, like The
Beatles, that made great music. Nobody would begrudge Paul and George if
they did an album after John died, and they didn't invite Ringo. If they
chose to call it The Beatles people might gripe, but so be it.
Joey:
That’s exactly right, and that doesn’t say that we were all equally talented.
That’s not saying Joey was as good as Pete, or Tommy was as good as Mike, or
Mike was as good as Joey, or anything else. That’s the way it was. I don’t
think any one of them, Peter or Tommy, or Mike for that matter, would claim any
more credit than any of the other three. We all just did what we did; we worked
on songs, we respected the other person enough to let them work their part out
and do what they did. That’s why you did it, that’s why you played in a band
- so that you didn’t have to think of it. It wasn’t your responsibility.
I mean, all of these things are so far removed from
what it’s actually like being in a band. When you’re twenty-three years old
you’re not thinking about any of these detail things. You’re just not
thinking about that. We came to America and were astounded at the idea
when people said, 'Oh, this is his band,' or 'He’s the leader of that band,'
because we weren’t used to bands having leaders. The Rolling Stones didn’t
have a leader, The Beatles didn’t have a leader. You show me one of
those bands that had a leader. Gerry and the Pacemakers, they didn’t
have a leader. The Merseybeats, they didn’t have a leader. The Shadows,
they didn’t have a leader - you know what I mean?
Michael:
Do you think that’s it an American thing that there always needs to be a
number one, and to point out the focal point of something?
Joey: Perhaps. You know Herman’s Hermits, Herman was not the leader, Freddy
and the Dreamers, Freddy was not the leader, Eric Burdon was not the leader of
the Animals, it just wasn’t so. These were bands, these were people - five
guys from a back street somewhere who liked to play Rock n Roll music, and they
weren’t five guys who were kind of sniveling around looking for someone to
give them a chance to play, these guys wanted to play Rock n Roll music and
that’s a whole different attitude than looking for a gig, man. I’ve
been in bands where, yeah, that guy was the singer, and that guy was the
organist, that guy was the drummer - and that’s obvious why that happens - but
all those five guys would be one band. Whether it was the Mojos, or the
Merseybeats, or Badfinger, or The Beatles, or anybody else. There was five
guys in the band, or four guys doing it. So
to say that Badfinger had a leader, or to say that anybody was the leader, is
absolute fucking rubbish.
Michael:
There is a story floating around that you used to tease Pete about him getting
him to do the solo spot with George during the concert for Bangladesh on “Here
Comes The Sun." Did the band tease him about that?