Ian Hunter Talks Mott The Hoople And His Star Studded New Album
At 83, Ian Hunter is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. Now, he returns with a star studded new album that totally rocks! “Defiance, Part One” features no less than Ringo Starr, Slash, Billy Gibbons and Johnny Depp, just to name a few, and shows Hunter at his songwriting finest. He was kind enough to spend some time chatting about the album and the musicians playing on it, his Mott The Hoople days, their crazy first manager and whether or not he’ll tour to support this new work.
Andre
It’s Andre Gardner on 102.9 M G K. I always say one of my favorite things about doing what I do is getting to chat with some of my heroes and this is definitely one of them. I can’t believe we have Ian Hunter joining as a special guest. Ian, thank you so much for checking in today.
Ian
You’re very welcome.
Andre
And I love this new album! Ian’s got a brand new album out. In fact, it’s out now, wherever you get your music, called Defiance part one and it features, I mean, a veritable who’s who of rock superstars. You’re not gonna believe it. I mean, Ringo is on there, Todd Rundgren, Slash, and Joe Elliott. Not to mention two dearly departed rock stars, Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins, and, Ian, I guess my first question to you is I saw another interview with you where you just said this was just kind of came together as a fluke, the fact that all these amazing players are on this record.
Ian
Well, yeah, you know, because I, I came off tour with the Ram Band and, and then COVID sort of took over, you know, so everybody’s stuck at home. And my band didn’t have our home studios. And so my manager Mike Kobayashi said, well, I know people that do have home studios and another mate of mine, Ross Halfin, who is a photographer, he said I know people who do. So I was writing songs in the basement with Andy York who does my production with me, and we were just sending them out to these people who had their own studios. And yeah, I think Slash was the first one and then Billy Gibbons was the second one and it developed from there.
Andre
I do want to talk about some of the great songs on this album. I think Pavlov’s Dog is my absolute favorite I have to say right now, after listening several times, but I do want to talk about some of some of the early days and not the stuff that everybody’s always talking about. You know, David Bowie’s involvement with all the young dudes and stuff. I wanna talk about a guy named Guy Stevens, your early guy who a lot of people in their forties and fifties know his work with the Clash. And what a crazy guy he was. Was he that wild back in the day? I mean, I heard some pretty wild stories of the Clash days.
Ian
Oh, yeah, he, he started out, he was a DJ at the Scene Club in London and he would get imports from America when nobody else was getting them. And Chris Blackwell heard about him and signed him to Island Records as an A and R guy. And it kind of went from there, you know, he was, he would be in your face going, ‘you’re better than Dylan, you’re better than the Stones, you’re better than The Beatles,’ you know, and you couldn’t play, you weren’t allowed to play and he would just wind you up and wind you up and wind you up and then he would say play and we did, he did the same with The Clash, you know? Like Mick Jones is ringing me going, “what the..” but that was Guy’s way of doing it. He was tone deaf. I mean, he couldn’t, but he had an amazing taste in music, you know, he invented all those crazy titles on, you know, Brain Capers and stuff like that. And he, he actually gave Procol Harum their name.
Andre
Is that right?
Ian
Yeah, he had a cat called Procol Harum and so then he gave him that.
Andre
I’ll be darned, and he’s known as giving Mott The Hoople your name too, right?
Ian
Yeah, he was in jail. He was doing six months. Yeah. And he read the book in jail by Willard Manus, who just passed actually, unfortunately. Yeah, Willard Manus, Mott The Hoople, that was the book.
Andre
I’m hearing stories and, you know, when you see you hear stuff on the internet, Ian, you don’t know if it’s true or not. But I heard that when you were wrapping up the Brain Capers album, he tried to set Island studios on fire. Is that true?
Ian
Oh, he did set it on fire.
Andre
Really??
Ian
The studio was on fire, yeah.
Andre
He tried to set it ablaze?
Ian
Yeah, and there was no leader in Mott The Hoople until something like that happened, and then it was me! I became the leader because I had to go and tell Blackwell, you know, the studio was on fire! And I told, I rang Chris, he lived in the top of Basing Street, where the studios were, like I said, ‘you know, that the studio is on fire.’ And he said, ‘was it really necessary?’ (laughs) ‘I guess, I don’t know.’
Andre
It was a new studio. It hadn’t been around long either.
Ian
No, I know, but it wasn’t the room. It wasn’t, you know, where all the gear was. So it was, it was a pile of chairs.
Andre
I can’t believe I’m talking to Ian Hunter. This is such a joy and a privilege to have you on. And I got to tell you – listen to this new album because it totally rocks. It’s called Defiance Part One. And as I mentioned, he just came together with all these wonderful musicians who accompanied him on the album, whether it was Todd or Billy Gibbons, I mentioned Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins are on the record and that’s very special too.
Ian
Yeah, yeah, and also very sad, you know? But iut was John, I know Johnny Depp and, and he was working with Jeff, and Johnny said ‘I’m up for doing a couple and Jeff’s up for doing a couple.’ So there’s Defiance Part one and Defiance Part Two and they did a track on each album.
Andre
And what incredible tracks. They are, I do want to get to those tracks in a minute because they are so good. I wanted to also mention how cool it was – somebody just mentioned to me a few minutes ago as I was saying I was going to get to chat with you – that they saw you live and you did a great version of You Really Got Me. And I thought, yeah, that’s because Mott did that instrumental version on their debut album as the first track. I guess the vocal version came out later at one point, but that was an interesting choice to start with an instrumental of that.
Ian
And especially when you’re opening for The Kinks on the road!
Andre
Right!
Ian
(Laughs) Yeah, we sat in the dressing room and we were trying to figure out who was going to go into their dressing room and tell Ray, you know, look, half our show is your song and he was, he was OK with it, you know, so we went on and did it for about half an hour before they went on and did it properly, you know?
Andre
Fantastic version. Now everybody knows the story how Bowie came in and produced All The Young Dudes, gave you that song and really revitalized your career. But I’m more interested now in learning about what it was about “Suffragette City” that you didn’t like that you didn’t feel was right for Mott The Hoople, because I could totally hear you singing a lead on that.
Ian
It wasn’t that. It was just the song itself. The song was ok. We had good songs. This was a good song. Um, but the, the beat was, the BBC was totally closed to us because we put a couple of singles out already and they hadn’t happened. And when you do that, you know, then the labels and BBC just don’t want to play singles from you anymore. So we knew it had to be something special. And Suffragette was good, but it wasn’t special. And then he gave, he sat down and played Dudes and it was like, yeah, we’ll, we’ll go with that one.
Andre
And the rest is history. Ian Hunter’s new album is called Defiance Part One.
Another question I’ve always wanted to know is, Ian, when was the, do you remember the first time you heard Ships By Barry Manilow?
Ian
Well, he rang me actually, before I heard it he’d gone into Clive Davis’s office and Clive would do that. He would play songs in the background hoping that, you know, like, er, these people would pick up on them cos they weren’t really songwriters. I mean, Barry Manilow as an arranger, basically, and he picked up on it because I think his dad had just passed, and when I, heard it he modulates a lot and it, it’s just a different neck of the woods completely. You know, it’s just great, you know? It’s fine.
Andre
This is Ian Hunter I cannot believe I am speaking to, and he has got a brand new album out. It’s called Defiance Part One with all these amazing guests appearing on it. The first single that they put out was called Bed of Roses, which was featuring Ringo Starr. You’re a former Ringo All Starr band member. And that song sounds great!
Ian
Oh, his thing is, ‘you know, if I like it, I’ll do it. If I don’t like it, I won’t do it,’ you know? Fortunately he liked it, and we sent it because it was a demo, it was done in my basement, and he came back four days later and it’s perfect.
Andre
Oh, it’s lovely, a wonderful, wonderful track. Now, a lot of people have asked me when they found out I had the privilege of speaking with you now that your album is out, do you plan to hit the road to support this album?
Ian
Well, we’re kind of busy with the second one Part Two, you know? So, I don’t know when I’ll actually get around to doing that, you know, I have tinnitus as well, which doesn’t help. But, I’m sure we’ll get round to it at some point, yeah, but it’ll be more like acoustic and, you know, Q&A, stuff like that.
Andre
I love Pavlov’s Dog working with the DeLeo Brothers. Oh, my God, those guys are so great. And Eric Kretz.
Ian
Dean rang me this morning. They were just leaving in a couple of weeks. Yeah, Dean, they’re really nice. All of them. How I met him was I did the Vipers thing because Johnny Depp asked me to get up with the Viper and Robert was playing bass at the time with them and it struck me how nice the guy was. He was so polite because I didn’t know nothing about Stone Temple, you know? And then like, I said to my manager, ‘let’s see if they want to do one.’ And then Robert got up and then said, Dean wanted to do it and then Dean said, wanted to do it. And now, and now we’re mates (laughs).
Andre
Oh, great. What a great groove that is too. I always thought Robert, too. if you haven’t had a chance to dive into the S T P catalog, is one of the most underrated bass players out there, he’s such an incredibly inventive player.
Ian
Quality, quality. There’s a track on Defiance Part Two, you know, the power on Highly Intermingle, is brilliant.
Andre
Oh, can’t wait to hear that. What a joy to have you on the show here, Ian. This is Ian Hunter. He’s my special guest on Classic Rock 102.9 M G K and it’s such a joy to be able to speak with you, Ian. And best of luck on your brand new album called Defiance Part One. It is out now wherever you get your music and we’ll anxiously await part two! I wish you all the best, sir.
Ian
Alright, good one, thank you!
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