About Veritas. ([Athens, Georgia]) 1970-1970 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1970)
^ Veritas Page 6 Steppenwolf Interview John Kay, lead singer VERITAS: How did the group come up with the name Steppenwolf? I A: We didn't, it was our producer's. None of us had read the book. This book, great book, but generally what I'm interested in is the name, Steppenwolf—German, but, wolf you know; it's animalistic, like you guys are (motioning at dirty hippie interviewer); raunchy, primitive, that kind of stuff. It sounded just as good as any name at that time. We didn't have a better idea so we took that. VERITAS: Did you start with a Dunhill group? A: Steppenwolf did. But our first group, Sparrow, was a Columbia group. That's where we learned from our mistakes, which we didn't repeat when we became Steppen wolf. VERITAS: What are you trying to accomplish with your music? A: Mainly, number one to satisfy myself, because you really can't go out there and play something that is designed to go over with the audience if you don't dig it. That's what I did when I was a single act bumming around with a guitar. If they didn't dig me, they didn't dig me. The most important thing was that I dug what I was doing. The majority of rock musicians that I know who are anybody are into playing what they dig, and if that goes over with the audience—it's great. VERITAS: Then music is mainly an art form with you? A: Yeah, see, like this last album that we've finished is the best album so far. We've had some problems in the group the last year and a half which we finally ironed out by getting some new people who are not only good musicians but whose attitudes and life style jives with the rest, more than the previous members did. When you get that kind of a foundation where you get along with one another, then it's very easy to work that way. If you have people who are hassling and there's fights, then you really don't get a helluva lot done. Doing this new album is sort of like a second coming. We hope to go on to a lot more progressive things. I mean pro gressive in our particular musical develop ment. That doesn't mean compared to Jethro Tull or anybody else. We're ourselves. We've got to keep moving ahead so we know that we're doing something that's new for us. So, you keep writing songs, and you keep trying them out. You finish and the ones you don't dig go in the can. VERITAS: Is there anyone who has inspired your music? For instance, Mike Bloomfield says that he has been inspired by several black blues artists; you know, 8.8. King, Muddy Waters, etc. A: Yeah, but, I dug on people in a different bag. You see, I started playing as a single act during the days of the folk revival. And so, the people that I was into were people like Lightning Hopkins, Sun House, and Robert Johnson. YOU know, and count less others. I was aware of 8.8. King and Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and all of those clowns-and I dug them a lot. But I wanted to start from the roots so that I understood what the hell I was doing. And I never really went up into, you know Muddy Waters and stuff. We've done two songs so far in our career that Muddy Waters has played. But I'm more concerned you know, with your rural blues people than the amplified guys—in terms of influence, you know. Once we got our own band together then the influence was more from within than from outside. I had absorbed all that I was going to absorb at that stage as an individual from Lightn' Hopkins and all these different people. I was exposed to some Blue Grass during the folkdays. VERITAS: Bluegrass seems to be making a comeback. A: Bluegrass is great music. But it's been going down for a long time. Because people like Bill Monroe can't go on forever. Flatt and Scruggs sort of packed it in. They were sort of a commercialized form of that anyway. A lot of people never heard of Don Reno and Red Smiley and, you know the Kentucky Colonels and even the Dillards. VERITAS: What effect did the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix have on the music world? A: First of all, I don't think that anyone is going to change his lifestyle because of it,„The fact that two prominent people O.D.'d on something that was because of them being prominent. The fact that there's people dying in skid row every day, you know, bums dying of alcoholism is usually ignored. Although suddenly the deaths of those two people is supposed to be something more meaningful than if it's just another human being. So, when you talk to other people, Grateful Dead, etc., that's the way it went. It was almost expected that those two people would drop that way. Jimi Hendrix was living almost the reincarnation of the James Dean legend. Out of nowhere, big overnight, incredibly popular, I'm sure he didn't have any place to go musically at that point. He'd been putzing around with Band of Gypsies and he didn't dig that because of Buddy Miles and he tried the old Experience and Noel Redding was taking the bottle to bed every night. He was at a stalemate, almost. It's quite possible that he might have been able to get over that and into a whole new bag like Dylan's been going through many changes. Who knows, he may have done it purposely, or it may have been an accident, nobody really knows. But there will be a lot of things written about it and to most people it will be like another James Dean thing. VERITAS: What place have you enjoyed working most? A: The Royal Albert Hall in Lon don,,, You can't really go by geographic areas „,We've enjoyed a considerable amount of popularity in the South which surprised us. VERITAS: Concerning static about appear ance; has there been any? A: There are two choices. Either you constantly let that thing annoy you or you ignore them. When you reflect upon their situation (those who harass longhairs) and our situation, we've got them beat,,,in terms of doing something that we really want to do and getting paid for it in the mean time. It's endless, really. Some resent what you're doing some resent the freedom that you have. External stuff is such irrelevant s---. I mean we have so many idiots with long hair among the sub-culture. You know, there are a very substantial amount of sincere and dedicated people with suits and short hair. The days of saying that guy's got long hair, he's automat ically groovy are gone. It all boils down to the thing of being judged on the thing of individ ual merit rather than what you look like. There's enough people who've jumped on the bandwagon of wanting to have long hair who should still be wearing grease and ducktails and motorcycle boots. The external thing is meaningless. It's certainly noway of identi fying anyone as anything. You don't know where you're at until you talk to somebody. VERITAS: Do you feel that your artistic style is prostituted by record companies? A: They certainly were to Sparrow by Columbia Records; that's why we broke up. They had the attitude of" Let's cut some commercial hit records then we'll let you go into the street and cut an album." They signed us because of what we played on stage. Once we got into the studio they wanted something else. When I negotiated the deal with Dunhill, there was only one thing I wanted: guaranteed release of two albums a year and complete artistic freedom and that we've had all along. We cut in the studio that we want to cut in. We use the producer that we want to cut with and we record the material that we want to cut. And, when , YA ru ^.^ lUi IL 11-5 't ^i '//"illI a lite %p'map. ^lll^^ Emit™' ™4aff' 'fill u I IL'&G# "=^fr unf( aTn -W4mP !te M^^mqfflLne. fr we're ready we give them some product that they can sell for us. Essentially that's all that a record company should do, unless you have a manufactured act that needs an A&R man from the publishing firm that hands them songs. That's not my trip. That's why I call it nonsense. For the most part, ever since our first album, just about 99% of everything we've done had been original, for better or worse. VERITAS: When you get out for a jive performance, for instance some groups say that they'd rather just jam. Do you ever feel this way? A: We're not that kind of a group to tell you the truth. We did all our jamming in the Sparrow days. What happens is that you're tremendously affected by the mood that you're in, the particular situation, the audience, the acoustics, equipment, and un less you can fall back on knowing that no matter how bad you feel that night you can always fall back on a certain arrangement that you know works. At least you have that security, that foundation. Then if good things have happened you extend that; you go above that. You don't stick to the same melody part, you may adlib some lyrics. It comes out in degrees. At the Royal Albert Hall we certainly didn't play it like the record. It really depends upon the circumstances. You certainly start off with a couple of songs that public's reaction to it. That determines a whole lot of it too. If you get into a certain geographic area where they want to hear the way it was on the record you can die if you don't do it that way. Then you stumble upon
