Foghat drummer Roger Earl interviewed October 18, 2010 while at home in New York.

Can I speak to Roger, please?

Speaking.

How’s it going?

Doing good, thank you.

Where are you today?

I’m home, out in Long Island. I live about 70 miles out of Manhattan on the north shore of Long Island.

I’m out in Montana.

You’re in Montana? I don’t think we’re going there this year, are we?

I don’t think so (laughs).

Maybe next year.

Yeah, there’s always next year.

It’s quite likely we could be there next year. I believe Charlie, our singer, is gonna be in Montana. He goes skiing up there. Is Whitefish in Montana?

Yep.

Yeah, he goes skiing in Whitefish.

That’s awesome.

So, how we doing Patrick? Good name, by the way. That’s my middle name.

Alright. I’m doing pretty good.

Good.

Let’s dive right into it. It’s been awhile since it came out but I have to say congrats on the latest record.

Thank you. We were real pleased with it.

It’s got the first new Foghat material in seven years. Describe the feeling you get in writing/recording and releasing new Foghat.

No time to retire (laughs). I was talking with Charlie the other day, we were having a drink, we’d finished playing and we were back at the hotel. He said ‘You ever think of retiring?’ and I said ‘Why on earth would I wanna do that?’ He laughed. No, I’m gonna roll ‘til I’m old and I’m gonna rock ‘til I drop. Thank you. The new CD has been really well received. There’s at least one first on there, which is an instrumental which Foghat has never done before. Maybe we’ll do a few more.

It’s obviously been getting a lot of attention for its bluesy nature. It has the three new songs and the covers. Talk about the writing process of this album as far as comparing it to the albums that came before.

‘Born for the Road,’ I kind of came up with most of the lyrics. Charlie added a few and got the melody. Brian came up with most of the music for that. ‘Last Train Home,’ was pretty much all Charlie’s lyrics. Obviously I put the rhythm to it. Charlie and Brian came up with the guitar stuff in the middle. It’s very much a band effort. It always was with Foghat. It didn’t always reflect that in who was credited with writing. Foghat was always a band, always a group effort, always the four of us. Sometimes five.

With a catalog like this band has, when you play live, there’s tons of classic Foghat songs that you have to play every night. How do you integrate new material into that set list?

So far, so good. The other exciting thing about it was we got to reconnect with Eddie Kirkland, who I worked with back in … I should say we played with him in 1977. The New York Palladium. We did a blues show there, or Foghat did. That was really exciting. Eddie is a great guitar player, great singer. He’s 87 now. It’s amazing how much energy the man has and passion for music. That was a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll get to do more recordings with Eddie. I’m looking forward to that. Also a number of blues festivals once the record was released got in touch with us. We did five or six major blues festivals last year, three up in Canada. We’ve been offered a couple for next year as well. Foghat was always a blues based band anyway. Anything other than three chords has to be viewed with a certain amount of suspicion. ‘Slow Ride,’ is pretty much a John Lee Hooker riff. Obviously we added a few more things to it. ‘I Just Wanna Make Love To You,’ was our first hit single and was written by Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Muddy Waters, of course. We kind of put the hat on that one. It’s not a big stretch for Foghat to be doing a blues album.

You are the rock that’s always been consistent for Foghat. What is it about your personality and drive that has made you the one guy who has always been the part of the band?

They can’t get rid of me (laughs). I won’t lay down. I’ve been knocked down once or twice but I get back up again. I don’t know, somebody has to do it. I’m the fortunate one. Careful what you wish for. Ever since I can remember, when I started getting interested in music, when I was a kid, I started buying records when I was 10 or 11 years old. There was always music in my house. My parents were big music fans and even my grandparents on my father’s side were as well. There was always music. I grew up in a household where music was a way of life. My father played piano, semi-professionally. My older brother, Colin, took up the piano. The first real concert I went to was to see Jerry Lee Lewis and I was never the same after that. It’s always been a part of my life. I’m one of those, and I’ve said this before but it’s true, I’m one of the fortunate few in this world who gets to earn a living and a good living most of the time doing something I really love and enjoy. Also, the guys in the band, they’re terrific. Brian is a fantastic guitar player, slide and lead. He’s brilliant as an engineer and a producer. He’s made hundreds and hundreds of blues albums over the years that he’s produced and engineered for King Snake Studios down in Florida. He’s a terrific human being and I consider him a good friend. Same thing with Charlie. Charlie is a brilliant guitar player and he has this incredible voice which he’s also a lot of fun to play with and work with. We all get on really well. We’re good friends on and off stage. In the winter time when we take a couple months off when we’re not doing much, we have a studio, Boogie Motel South in Florida, actually it’s a band house, we set up in the living room and rehearse and record and play there. We work on stuff. New material and the set that we’re gonna be doing for next year. We usually bring two, three, maybe four songs that we haven’t played before, into the set. Yeah, life is good.

I wouldn’t wanna stop doing this. The thing is, I really couldn’t earn a living as a fisherman. My golf game is horrible, so I’m not doing anything there. I’m kind of stuck (laughs).

Oh, man, you’re stuck rockin’ (laughs).

Yeah, I’m stuck rockin’, what a drag, huh? (laughs). Nevermind, I’ll bite the bullet on this one and I’ll just keep doing it. Roll ‘til I’m old and rock ‘til I drop.

Not to sound corny but do you sometimes feel the spirit of all these guys that have played with you all these years, when you’re playing live gigs?

Really only Dave and Rod, of course. Both those musicians had a huge imprint on this band. Sometimes we’ll be playing a song and we’ll go ‘This isn’t feeling right,’ and we’ll go back to the original version or I’ll listen to how Rod does a certain phrase and I’ll go ‘Ah, that’s how it goes.’ I’ve always been fortunate. I’ve played with great musicians and all the bass players we’ve had have all been terrific players. I don’t know if that was me choosing them or if they just happened to be that good. I always played with real good musicians. I’ve also been pretty busy over the last year or so. I’ve done other session work and played with other bands. I don’t know, I really like what I do (laughs). The interesting thing is now, because I’ve done such a large body of work that I’ve performed on, I get called to do various session work but they wouldn’t call me unless it was to perform something similar to what I’m good at and how I play.

How difficult of a decision was it for you to keep Foghat rolling after Dave passed and did you think at the time that you’d still be doing it like this 10 years later?

I don’t know really. At the time it was difficult. Dave and I had played in different bands over the years and of course, we played together for a long, long time. Then, when we rejoined forces in ’92, ’93, something around there, it was really good. It was really hard when Dave died. We got on really, really well. It was a lot of fun, especially the last tour we did together. It was the last bus tour the band did as well. Dave was always the DJ in the band. We’d get offstage, we’d dry off and if we had to go on to the next show, we’d have some wine and cheese and whatever else was out there. Dave would say ‘What do you wanna listen to tonight? Should we listen to blues or rock and roll or country or any specifics?’ Dave would have a suitcase full of cassettes and CDs, we had both. Dave was always the DJ and the main musical influence. He was the one who would come up with like, if we did other people’s songs, like we did ‘In the Mood for Something Rude,’ the album where just about every song is written or done by someone else. Dave would come up with the majority of that material. He was kind of like the heart and soul of it.

My four year old son is a huge fan of this band and it all started with him hearing ‘Slow Ride,’ on ‘Guitar Hero.’ Talk about reaching a whole new generation with that.

(laughs). We have done it. We do shows now and the whole front row will be anywhere from, especially if it’s an all ages show, it’ll be like eight to 20 years old. Kids will bring along their little ‘Guitar Hero,’ guitars to be signed. Also, I noticed that there’s a huge amount of young folks between 10, 20, 25 that are coming out to see us. Either their parents or older siblings have turned them onto us. It’s very gratifying that you’ve been doing this for, what is it, 40 years I guess. Damn. 40 years. Ouch. The music is still viable, especially with young people. I always thought every generation has their own type of music but it’s kind of cool that you’ve got teenagers digging something that you did 35, 40 years ago. It’s very gratifying, it really is. It’s cool to meet with the young folks out there. The old bastards don’t wanna go out anymore. They’re too old and tired. ‘I don’t wanna go out on a Saturday night, it’s noisy’ (says in an old lady voice).

I’m 35 and I’m already feeling that way.

Yeah, thank goodness for the young folks. The band has been doing terrific, especially the last five years or so. We’re as busy as we care to be. It’s good. Life is good.

Speaking about age, my father-in-law is in his 50s and the other day we were working on the car and he said ‘If I knew I was gonna live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself.’ That’s such a true statement. You’re in an interesting position because you’re the drummer and the most physical person in the band and you’re still pounding the drums in your 60s. Would you say you’ve taken care of yourself over the years?

I don’t know. I think I’ve been given a pretty good constitution so I can thank my parents for that. I always ran throughout my whole life. I don’t run anymore. I’ve had work done on my right knee and my left knee isn’t as good as it used to be. Walking is something I do and I haven’t ridden a bike for a year but there’s other reasons for that. I take care of myself. I just got back from the gym today. I work out with light weights. I stretch. Playing the drums, there’s some physicality to it that you have to deal with. If you wanna play drums in a rock and roll band, you can sit there and play light. If it’s a jazz band or something. There’s still some movement that you have to do. The biggest problem I have for the moment is sitting. Sitting down on planes, sitting in cars, sitting on trains. Then you’re also sitting down for an hour and a half to play. I try to take care of myself. It’s important. If you’re gonna live life you’re gonna have to be able to do it. I haven’t always taken such good care of myself. I’m a product of the ‘60s and ‘70s. I do my best.

I know you’ve played with everybody, but if you could set up your ultimate festival show and could play with any bands past or present, which ones would you choose?

Let’s see. There were two bands that I always loved playing with that was J. Giles. We did tons of shows with them. They’re the most professional and tightest band I think I ever heard. Great players, great music. Humble Pie, definitely. When they were one. Stevie Marriot was great. I’ll tell you a brief story about one of my run-ins with Stevie. This was back in the early ‘70s when Foghat was earlier and Humble Pie was monsters. I think it was on the west coast. For some reason, the road crew with Humble Pie were giving us grief for the use of lights and sound onstage and all that stuff. Somehow, Stevie Marriot heard about the issues that were going on with their crew giving us a hard time. He came out onstage and said ‘Give fucking Foghat anything Foghat fucking wants and stop fucking with fucking Foghat, alright?’ (laughs). He was about five feet tall but the man had the most incredible amount of energy. I don’t know if you got to see Humble Pie when Stevie was playing with them but his voice and his guitar playing was absolutely amazing. We became real good friends. We toured a lot. Humble Pie, J. Giles Band, Rolling Stones, I never played with them but I used to see ‘em as a teenager growing up in London. I used to go and see ‘em at the Marquee and places like that. The Stones would headline. Then again, the Allman Brothers on a good night, it’s difficult to top them, I think. I used to love the Allman Brothers. Little Feat. Hold on, it’s getting to be a festival, isn’t it? (laughs). Definitely Little Feat. They’re probably one of my all-time favorite bands. I’ve played with them a number of times over the years. I got to know and meet their drummer a few times. Beautiful guy who just passed away recently. Real sad. That’ll do. Little Feat, Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers, Foghat, Humble Pie, J. Giles Band. Not necessarily in that order.

Thanks Roger, I appreciate the interview.

Good talking to you.

Bye.

Bye.