2004-03-14

http://www.metrobeat.net/gbase/Expedite/Content?oid=oid%3A2311

Being part of the music industry for so long, what changes have you seen through
the years?
Everything about the music industry has changed so much over the past 19 years.
It’s a whole different experience. Used to be, you had to be with a record
label, because it cost too much money to make an album. The last album that I
made here in Nashville with some friends, I made for Warner Brothers and it cost
a million dollars to record. Of course they never released it, but it cost them
a million dollars. It isn’t like that anymore. These days because of technology
it’s much more inexpensive to record an album.

So the record labels have lost some of the control that they used to have?
Well, in the old days the record companies controlled everything, and as far as
our catalog, they can still release anything they want to anytime they want to
and don’t have to ask for any input from us. That’s why they have those big tall
buildings. They make all the money and they call all the shots. But that has
changed with the new technology. Take us, for example. With this new record, we
paid to record it and we weren’t beholden to anyone. You see a lot of artists
being able to release their own music. The maybe not-so-funny thing is that our
last record, Legacy, sold three-quarters of a million records, and the guys in
the band will never see a penny of income from that record. Yet, take our new
release, Running Horse, that we released ourselves; if we sell 20,000 copies,
the guys in the band will actually make money. I would rather sell 50,000
records to people that really care about Poco and have the guys in the band
actually make some money than sell 500,000 records and have RCA build a new wing
on their building. That’s a huge shift in the industry, and the record companies
are scared.

With the advent of more Americana radio stations, have you noticed a surge in
popularity?
I haven’t really noticed a huge change, but I’m sure that the Eagles are selling
more records than ever. You know that new song “There’s A Hole in the World,”
it’s more like “there’s a whole in my wallet.” Just kidding. Actually, I
understand that Glen Frey said something really nice about us on their new CD,
which is pretty cool seeing how Henley pretty much ignores us entirely. And for
Frey to give us some credit is nice.

You are referring to your obvious influence on the Eagles?
You know, they used to come to our rehearsals before they had a band and they
would watch us play and practice. When Randy Meisner, our bass player, left Poco
and they hired him and Bernie Leaden, that was my favorite Eagles lineup
actually, when it was the four of them. It’s funny, Timothy invited us down to
the show when they recently played Nashville, and I went and was a little
shocked to see that they are a 12-piece band now. I was like, “What happened to
you guys?” It was like a Las Vegas revue; all they needed was dancing girls.
They sounded great, but 12 guys? Come on.... Actually we owe a lot to the
Eagles. If it weren’t for them selling a gazillion records throughout the ‘70s,
it would’ve been harder for Poco. The record labels thought if the Eagles are
selling 12 million records a day, then who knows how many Poco will sell. So we
do owe them a lot.

During the early days of Poco, did you ever cross paths with Gram Parsons?
Actually, when we first started Poco it was Jim Messina, Richie Furay and me and
we weren’t sure what kind of band we wanted to be. We had the three of us, and
we sort of knew what kind of music we wanted to play. We were kind of feeling
around to find out what would be the ultimate sound of the band. A bunch of
different friends came by and we would play and see how it sounded and to see if
it was going to work. Gregg Allman came by and for a few weeks he was actually
going to be in the band, and one of the other people that came by to try out was
Gram. He was old friends with Richie; they used to be roommates back in New York
in the ‘60s, back before Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Gram came by and sang with us
for a few weeks. It didn’t work out because ultimately he pulled me aside and
said, “It’s going to have to be me or that guy Jim [Messina]; that guy is never
going to amount to anything.” I told him that that wouldn’t work because we
liked Jim, so ultimately it didn’t work out and Gram went on and hooked up with
Roger McGuinn.



inteL8er,

RDB
http://blomstedt.jwdx.com
"Everything under the Sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon"




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]