Introduction
Photo of Deborah Chesher by Randee St. Nicholas taken in August 2007.
Below is a transcript of a telephone interview from Dec. 26, 2007 with Deborah Chesher, author of "Everybody I Shot Is Dead."
Deborah Chesher is a photographer and author whose latest book, "Everybody I Shot Is Dead," pays tribute to 48 musicians she photographed from 1974-1979 who have since passed away. "Everybody I Shot Is Dead" is a beautifully laid-out coffee table book with over 400 previously unpublished photographs accompanied by biographies and Deborah Chesher's personal stories. Musicians featured in "Everybody I Shot Is Dead" - most of whom are quite familiar to oldies music fans - include George Harrison, Billy Preston, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, John Denver, Donny Hathaway, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson, and members of the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, the Grateful Dead, Badfinger, T-Rex, and Led Zeppelin.
Deborah Chesher provides a detailed account of the making of "Everybody I Shot Is Dead" from start to finish on her website and in her blog. Prior to writing "Everybody I Shot Is Dead," she designed another coffee table book, "Starart," featuring music icons Joni Mitchell, John Mayall, Klaus Voormann, Ron Wood, Cat Stevens, and George "Commander Cody" Frayne.
In this interview, Chesher reminisces about her days as a rock and roll photographer back when the music business was about the music,
and she shares some of her fascinating stories about some of our favorite oldies artists.
Interview
- Amy Gold: Tell us about when you first got the idea for "Everybody I Shot Is Dead" and what your inspiration was.
- Deborah Chesher: The inspiration for it was actually the title. I was walking through my house one day and out of the blue it popped into my head: everybody I shot is dead.
- AG: Um hm.
- DC: And that sense of ... and I don't think it was at a point where someone had actually passed away that I knew I had photographed. It just ... I don't know, it just popped into my head that way. And then I thought, well, that would be an interesting way to showcase some of my photographs, to do something that would honor the 20 or so people that I had shot who had passed away. And so I opened up all the old boxes of pictures that have not seen the light of day since they were shot and started going through my files and getting on the internet Googling people. It turned out I had in the mid 40s and I was really shocked and saddened by that. But at the same time I felt very driven to do what I could do to honor these guys and girls and also to keep their memories alive and hopefully inspire people to listen to their music.
- AG: Well, I think your book is just wonderful. It's a wonderful tribute. Your photos are fantastic and the stories are fascinating as well.
- DC: Thank you.
- AG: Were all the photos for your book taken between 1974 and 1979 in Vancouver and Los Angeles?
- DC: Yes, that was pretty much it. I did do one other set of pictures on a tour of Eastern Canada with Canned Heat but unfortunately, all I could find was a slide box that was marked "Canned Heat," but the slides in it weren't Canned Heat. I don't know what happened to all those pictures. I toured with them for three weeks and I have nothing to show for it, but they kind of made their way into the book on a spiritual level because they're connected with so many of the other musicians that I had to keep mentioning them.
- AG: Um hm.
- DC: So they got their way in there anyway but if anybody has some Canned Heat photos kicking around that they don't know who took them let me know because maybe they're mine.
(both laughing)
- AG: How did you get started as a rock and roll photographer?
- DC: It was kind of sheer luck. I had gone away to school in Toronto, following my older brother who I idealized. I picked interior design. I was always interested in creative stuff and I thought, okay, there's an art form that I can do without starving because being a starving artist didn't exactly appeal to me, although I've managed to make a career out of that.
(both laughing)
- DC: And I got into these classes and absolutely hated them except for one photography assignment. I don't remember the exact assignment, but we were sent out to shoot something outdoors and we had to present slides. Of course, I didn't have a camera that shot slides and I'd only used those Instamatic-type cameras up to that point. The school I was at happened to have a big photography department. I knew some people that were in that and went to one of the guys and said "Can I borrow your camera?" He gave me a 10 minute lesson on how to use a single lens reflex camera and off I went and shot these pictures. They turned out really good and I really enjoyed doing. So I talked my dad into getting me a camera for Christmas. And my brother and I used to go to this place called the Oxford Inn in Toronto, which was a little pub inside of a hotel. They had an open mike night, my brother played guitar and so he'd play. So I just started taking pictures of people at the club and really enjoyed doing that.
- AG: Cool.
- DC: And then I started using those guys as my guinea pigs. I thought I'd find myself an internship with a photographer but I left there really quickly and went back home to Calgary for a couple of months. I ended up working for some guys who had a sound company and through that met this guy over the phone in Vancouver who ran one of the big concert sound companies, and when ...
- AG: That was your main connection, right?
- DC: That was my only connection. So when the sound company that I was working for went bust after a couple of months, I decided to go to Vancouver. I don't know that I had a plot or plan in mind. Knowing me I probably did, but I just went out there and I called this guy and he invited me to a concert, and I think it was a John Lee Hooker show.
- AG: That was your first concert, John Lee Hooker?
- DC: Yeah, but not the pictures I have of him in the book because I've also lost those photos, the first set of photos that I took.
- AG: Right.
- DC: I would just go to the shows that he let me go to and when I showed him some pictures he sent me over to meet Gary Switlo. He ran the ticket agency that now is Ticket Master Canada but back then it was a partnership, a small town kind of thing. Gary introduced me to some of the record reps and I started getting hired to shoot backstage pictures of the record rep and the artists that they put in the trade magazines. So that's how I got there. It's kind of a little bit of luck, I guess.
- AG: Yes, that is quite a story. From reading your book I can tell how much you love rock music and the blues.
- DC: And country.
- AG: And country, yes.
- DC: And jazz, anything that's played well.
- AG: Right.
- DC: And classical too. Back then I was really into Holst's "The Planets."
- AG: Oh yes.
- DC: "The Planets," that was one of my favorites.
- AG: I love that piece, too.
- DC: Yeah.
- AG: So was it more a love of music or a love of photography that led you into being a rock and roll photographer?
- DC: Well, I obviously had a love of music initially from way back when, like every young girl does.
- AG: You were born and raised in Calgary, right?
- DC: Yes, which is sort of a, yeah, interesting place. But yeah, I was raised in Calgary but I always had a connection to California because my father had racehorses down here.
- AG: Right.
- DC: So we'd come down here a couple times and I had a real affinity and love for California and for things like the Beach Boys' music when I was a young kid.
- AG: That's one of the ... you interviewed Carl and Dennis Wilson - not interviewed, I mean photographed.
- DC: Yes, I photographed the Beach Boys twice. Lucky me. And I actually saw them once when I was around 12 years old. I saw them when they still had their striped shirts and short haircuts.
- AG: Right. Did they travel to Calgary to do a concert?
- DC: Yeah, I saw them in Calgary. Somehow my mom let me go to a concert with a couple of friends and dropped us off and then picked us up.
- AG: Oh, okay.
- DC: The Beach Boys were the headliners and I think Sonny and Cher were on the bill and Dino, Desi and Billy.
- AG: Wow, that's great.
- DC: I totally don't think I answered your question. What was the original question?
- AG: I think my question was something like ...
- DC: Which was more important, the photography or the music?
- AG: Yeah, exactly.
- DC: I would say they were intertwined in the sense that you couldn't take either part out at that point. I loved music first but I had also had a visual arts background. I had taken art in school and I liked it and I had taken pictures that were pretty good, although not with really good cameras.
- AG: Right.
- DC: I guess they were two separate courses that intertwined together and I don't think I could have separated them out. After I wasn't shooting - after my first book came out I basically - I didn't stop shooting pictures but I stopped doing concerts and I have to say, It's really hard for me to go to a concert and sit.
- AG: You naturally would want to get up and shoot something.
- DC: I'd want to be part of the whole thing. You get so entrenched into that kind of scene and the lifestyle and what It's like to be behind the scenes. It's really hard just to go and sit in the audience.
- AG: Yeah, I gather, after all your gigs, that where you naturally feel more comfortable is behind the scenes.
- DC: Shooting live concerts is one of the most difficult things to do and It's one of the most exciting and It's also one of the most satisfying things to do, especially when you get your pictures back. Nowadays, of course, they use digital cameras which, to me, is cheating.
- AG: So you never got into digital photography?
- DC: I have digital cameras but not for shooting concerts.
- AG: Right.
- DC: You know, to me there's a purity to it ... the idea of getting involved in the music and doing the pictures. I always shot very little film. I always waited for my shots. I knew what I was going for. It always had to do with what they were playing and trying to break down that wall.
- AG: Kind of getting into the music, I would say, performing, I guess?
- DC: I was always trying to get inside their soul.
- AG: Yes.
- DC: Through the music.
- AG: Through the music, yeah.
- DC: It's like you want to know the song, you want to know what's coming, you want to anticipate their Achilles heel where you can actually get past their guard.
- AG: Capture their high points or emotions.
- DC: Sometimes I'm successful at it and sometimes I'm not, but that's what you go for. And the excitement of being ... when you shoot on film, you don't see what you shot.
- AG: Right, until after.
- DC: And so you're really trusting yourself as an artist, too, not just a recorder. I'm not shooting a bunch of digital, checking to see if I got the shot.
- AG: Right.
- DC: I'm basically trusting that I'm in tune with ... I become part of the ... I don't know what you'd call it.
- AG: You become one with the artist?
- DC: Well, you just become one with the whole thing, you become actually an integral part of it. There's the band, there's you, there's the audience, the music, and you're all entwined in that moment, and what you're trying to capture is that the highest point of what is going on.
- AG: Well, I think that does come across in your book.
- DC: Oh good.
(The conversation then turned to some funny and crazy things that happened during Ms. Chesher's years as a rock and roll photographer.)
- DC: I suppose the craziest thing that happened to me was when I invited Blue Oyster Cult to come to my house and go swimming and they did.
- AG: Cool!
- DC: That was kind of crazy because they had a day off the following day and they were looking for something to do and I said, "You can come to my house and go swimming if you like." I gave them the address and the directions but I didn't plan for anything because obviously they weren't going to show up, that would be ridiculously stupid. I lived in the house with six guys in Richmond, BC. It was right near the airport so we had airplanes flying over and cows over the fence. It wasn't quite so built up then. All of a sudden these guys pile out of this car and I'm like, "Oh my God! You guys are here. I can't believe this." So we spent the afternoon doing cannonballs into the pool. One of the guys had a tape recorder and he was really interested in taping the airplane noises going over the house and then also trying to get the cows to talk to him.
- AG: Oh, how funny!
- DC: It was a lot of fun. It was more like shock fun than anything else.
(both laughing)
- AG: So you weren't expecting them to show up.
- DC: No. I didn't lay out the tables of food or anything. It was just "come on over and go swimming" more or less like "I know you guys aren't going to come but here, have the address if you want." It was a pretty interesting surprise that they actually showed up and we had a very good time.
- AG: Well, that's really neat. You know, you have a lot of fantastic photos in "Everybody I Shot Is Dead," but one that really made my jaw drop was ... There was one of Michael Bloomfield. It looks as if there's fire shooting out of his mouth or something, either It's shooting out or he's eating fire?
- DC: He's eating fire. Well yeah, I guess when you eat fire you actually blow it out, right.
- AG: Wow.
- DC: Yeah, he did that. If you notice the pictures at the beginning of that section of the actual venue that he was playing in, it is a really upscale theater that holds 3,000 people. It's called the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver. That's the only picture I actually have of the concert. I don't know what happened to my other pictures of him. I know I took the ones that were at the sound check but that's the only live shot I have for some reason. I don't know what happened to those but I'm glad I have that one. It's the only color photograph of him on stage eating fire that I know of.
- AG: Well, it certainly is a colorful photograph.
- DC: There's just a picture of him practicing eating fire at his family's house in this book that was done on him which is called "Michael Bloomfield - If You Love These Blues: An Oral History."
- AG: Wow.
- DC: So this is the only performance one that I know of and according to his brother, he hasn't seen any other ones either so I'm glad I caught that. But yeah, he would do that on occasion, not every show, just when he felt like. I didn't know it was coming, I didn't know he was going to do it. I just got lucky.
- AG: I'll say. That is one rare photo. All the photos in "Everybody I Shot Is Dead," they've never appeared anywhere else, right?
- DC: Some of the backstage ones may have appeared in a trade paper like "Radio and Records" but none of the live photos have been published. I had a shot of Lowell George, which I loved, that's on the inside of their double live album, "Waiting for Columbus," and I don't have the slide. I don't know what happened to the slide. I don't know what happened to all my color shots of Little Feat live. I only found the black and white ones. I would have liked to have included it in the book because It's a really great picture, but I don't have it. So, as it turns out, I don't believe any of the ones in there have ever been published before.
- AG: About how many bands and artists have you come in contact with over the years as a rock and roll photographer?
- DC: Hundreds.
- AG: That's a lot. That's quite a life.
- DC: I feel like it was at the best time for music because we still had the bands of the '60s, like I got to shoot the Grateful Dead, I got to shoot Jefferson Starship, Michael Bloomfield who was actually from the '60s and brought the electric to Bob Dylan back in the day. So I got to shoot a lot of people that had been part of the '60s movement, but at the same time I got all the newer bands of the '70s which were really great until it kind of went south toward the end of the '70s.
- AG: Most of those artists that you photographed are on my website. It's really neat to meet and talk to somebody who's met these people.
- DC: Yeah, it was great. I was very fortunate and they're extremely interesting people. They were playing because they loved to play more so than because they wanted to be famous.
- AG: Right. Or make huge bucks.
- DC: And because they wanted to meet girls, of course.
- AG: Oh well, yeah, that's a given, I guess.
(both laughing)
- DC: Rock and roll mythology.
- AG: Yeah.
- DC: So I think there was a certain purity about music then that I'm not sure exists today. Everything just had such an interesting feel to it and it didn't matter what genre they were in, like Marc Bolan who was more glam rock or John Lee Hooker who was an old time blues guy. They were just all really interesting, nice people.
- AG: Um hm. True professionals.
- DC: Yeah. Not even so professional, it was more like this is just what they did. I think they were having as much fun as anybody else was. So it wasn't about "this is my profession, I have to behave a certain way." It was just very authentic.
- AG: Oh, I meant professional in that they take their art very seriously.
- DC: I don't know if it was one of those periods where people step back and took their art seriously, like now everything seems to be planned and marketed. It's like you need to know what the return of this or that is, and the artists back then weren't thinking about that. The record companies obviously were because they got most of it.
- AG: Yep.
- DC: But the artists were just playing because they loved to play. So I don't know that was it, and obviously a lot of times they didn't behave very professionally (laughing), which was part of the fun of it. But they were doing it because they loved to do it. For example, Michael Bloomfield was not interested in making money. He just wanted to do what he did. He didn't like all the other stuff that surrounded it, like the people trying to put him in the spotlight. He walked away from that on several occasions. But he loved to play the blues. That was his thing. I'm sure there's a lot of artists still doing that today, but I don't know how they can emerge out of the dark clouds ...
- AG: How they can survive the music business ...
- DC: ... the way they package people and the American Idols and all of that.
- AG: Yeah. How to survive the music business intact.
- DC: Well, the business is so ... It's kind of like a new frontier in a way. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out because the record companies don't seem to have much power anymore and most people are doing stuff on their own. But the problem with being able to do stuff on your own and the technology that's available to all of us to be whatever we want to be now, means there's a lot more dreck. Because everybody thinks they're a star. I mean, just go on YouTube.com and see what ... And sadly, what gets the most plays are those things that are pretty much atrocious, you know.
- AG: Yeah.
- DC: And then they get raised to celebrity and Reality TV and that whole influence.
- AG: But then fortunately, they die out.
- DC: Eventually, but then there's new ones to replace them and unfortunately the people who are the really excellent artists ... well, It's a real struggle when you're an artist. It's really hard to balance the business side of it that you need to have these days and to be a true artist. You know, those aren't often in the same brain.
- AG: Yes, they're diametric, really.
- DC: So if you're really that true of an artist and really have music inside you that needs to come out and you can do it, it doesn't mean anybody's ever going to get a chance to hear it.
- AG: Right, you have to have a really trustworthy entourage, I think, a manager who won't abscond with the funds and things like that.
- DC: But at that point It's even hard to find that person and how do they go about finding that person? So I'm sure there's some really brilliant musical talents that can't quite figure out how to get from A to B on the business side.
- AG: Undoubtedly.
- DC: And in the old days, I think that A&R people at the record companies - the actual guys that went out and found the bands - they were not the evil record company people. They were the good guys and they would develop bands. They'd find that talent and help them.
- AG: Right. Groom them.
- DC: And I don't think that really happens anymore.
- AG: Yeah, I think you're right.
(The conversation then turned back to "Everybody I Shot Is Dead.")
- DC: I have a lot of passion for this particular project and It's really my love of these people and their music that drives it. So I could talk to somebody for a year about it if they wanted me to and not be at a loss for words.
- AG: I could tell it must have been very personal. I can see the passion in your book, in the stories.
- DC: Oh good, I'm glad that comes through because It's truly coming from my heart, It's not something that I thought out ... I mean obviously I came up with a clever title and I thought, "okay, that's a really clever title."
- AG: That is a clever title.
- DC: That would be a great marketing thing, people would take notice, but that's where that ended for me. From that point forward it was immersing myself in looking at these pictures and what it did for me just going through the pictures to begin with. It's like going through your old albums when you were a kid and you look at pictures that you haven't seen for a really long time. It just bring up ... there's such a sensory attachment to things like that and then I got to start listening to their music because I hadn't been listening to as much music as I am now and to get back into the music and then start researching and going in and finding as much footage on them as I could and just learn everything. When you're 19 years old shooting pictures of people, you're not interested in learning every little bit about them and you don't get the time to get to know them that well. So to get to know them and fall in love with them all over again, It's been a really emotional journey for me, filled with sadness and joy and anger and all kinds of different things.
- AG: Reading your stories I got a lot of different emotions. Sometimes I got happiness, sometimes I got sadness - there is a little sadness in there. I mean, because they've all passed away. I got kind of a mixture of emotions, as one would get (as you say) going though an old photo album.
- DC: Right, and that's what I was trying to do with it ... I know most rock and roll books are mostly photography. And yes, my book is mostly photography, but I wanted to give something more because I felt extremely privileged to have been able to have "been there and done that." And I wanted to share that experience with people, because I wasn't just a hired gun with a camera, I was also a huge fan.
- AG: Well, you were friends with some of these people, I can tell.
- DC: Yeah, and you develop friendships with people, but It's the fact that I'm just like everybody else. I just got lucky to be in the situation and live that, so I wanted to do a book that would give people the opportunity to be there with me or to feel like they were there.
- AG: Like they were there backstage with you.
- DC: Yeah, that's what I was trying to do with the stories. I know a lot of people dream of what It's like to hang out with rock stars, although, at the time it was just what I was doing and it wasn't like - I wasn't pinching myself every time I went to a show, going "oh my God, I get to be here" - but in hindsight I definitely pinch myself now.
(Ms. Chesher was then asked if there was anything she'd like to set straight regarding any of the musicians she photographed.)
- DC: It took me a long time to figure out, for example, Peter Wood, who was with Al Stewart and he co-wrote "Year Of The Cat" with Al Stewart and also went on to play on Pink Floyd's "The Wall" tour and played with Lou Reed and Cindy Lauper and lots of people like that. We'd gotten to know each other but half of our knowing each other I don't remember, and the actual text in his section reflects that and is more about my journey of trying to figure out where he fit into my life and where I fit into his.
- AG: Oh, this is the Peter you were talking about in your book, how you knew so many Peters from England and how it was hard to keep all those Peters straight?
- DC: Exactly, that was my little metaphor kind of thing.
(both laughing)
- DC: So, when I was doing research on him, there were all these different dates of his birth and his death and it turned out that all the information on the internet was incorrect.
- AG: Yeah.
- DC: It was really interesting because he's kind of an enigma. Even people that I talked to that were in the Al Stewart band didn't know either. They weren't sure exactly. It was like Peter Wood's life was shrouded in mystery. I was finally able to sort it out last June when I went to the Book Expo in New York and I was able to get in touch with his widow.
- AG: Uh huh.
- DC: We went out and had a nice glass of wine and dinner and went through everything. I was able to get the actual birthday and death date so those are factual. Another example is the way people think that Michael Bloomfield died of a self-induced overdose, which is not true.
- AG: Oh.
- DC: He was found in his car in a bad part of town in the passenger's seat with no ID on him and no car keys.
- AG: Wow.
- DC: So, he was placed there.
- AG: He was "placed," you said?
- DC: Yes. They also found cocaine in his body and he never did cocaine so ...
- AG: Oh!
- DC: ... so there was some questionable stuff about it. I personally don't think that he overdosed himself.
- AG: Well, It's good to let people know that.
- DC: Yeah, he's got a reputation of having been a junkie and I don't think that I would use that term with him. But I don't know that for a fact because I didn't spend that much time with him. But this is just my opinion based on what I knew of him. The times I was with him I never saw him do a drug and I never saw him high. His biggest problem was that he suffered from insomnia. He could not sleep. And so I think when he was doing the drugs it was more of a medicinal self-medicating thing.
- AG: But he seemed to be one of the musicians you got to know the best. That was my impression.
- DC: Yes, I would say probably. In a very short period of time we just connected. And I still feel very connected to him.
- AG: Yeah.
- DC: He did a lot of moving and shaking with this book. It may sound a little out there in "La La Land," but I feel a connection with a lot of the people in the book and I feel like they're all there ...
- AG: In spirit?
- DC: You know, It's very odd some of the things that have happened during the actual making of the book and also with what's happening since then. How things have worked out. It just seems like there's other things at work here. So yeah, I feel like they're around.
- AG: In spirit.
- DC: Yep. And I think as a collective, they have a little bit of power.
- AG: My goodness!
- DC: Yes, so be careful what you write. (No!)
(both laughing)
- AG: I will (laughing). Well, let's see ... besides all these people in "Everybody I Shot Is Dead," I know you photographed a lot of other people who aren't dead, like Joni Mitchell and ...
- DC: Yes, I photographed her for my first book. She was in my first book, "Starart." It's the fine art of six musicians that I put into a coffee table book long before people were accepting of the idea that an artist could do more than one thing well.
- AG: So you show their art and you also show photos of them as well?
- DC: There's photos that I took to go along with their chapter in the book. I had shot Joni at her house. And also Ron Wood is in the book, John Mayall, Cat Stevens, Klaus Voormann, George Frayne (Commander Cody). If you go on my website you can see parts of that book on there. That book came out in 1979.
- AG: Yeah, I also noticed on your website - or maybe it was in your blog - you also write screenplays, right?
- DC: Yes.
- AG: You do a lot of neat things.
- DC: I try to find things to do that I have passion for. I get ideas and then I have to sort them out and figure out which ones I am going to do. Some of them I just jump into, throwing caution to the wind. Like the "Everybody I Shot Is Dead" book. I instantly decided I was going to do that and I just went in and did it without thinking. Which is a good thing, in my opinion. But with screenwriting and film, It's more of a collaboration and a bigger risk because of the amount of money involved. There's a lot of money involved in doing a book but it was really fun because it was just me and the musicians.
- AG: And your memories.
- DC: Well it was just me and them working on it. I didn't have anyone else. I decided not to go to a publisher. I had published my first book myself because the publishing houses that made offers couldn't guarantee the quality I had promised the artists.
- AG: Right.
- DC: And so then when it came time to do this book, I had thought I would get a publisher because there's always that little voice in back of your head that says, "well, you're not really legitimate unless you get one of the big publishers." With my first book there was no such label as "self-publishing."
- AG: Yes.
- DC: I want to do quality things. I want to make quality books because they're there forever.
- AG: Right.
- DC: The thought was there to get a publisher but within a few months of working on it myself I thought, why would I look for a publisher? What's a publisher going to bring to the table? It's really exciting to be able to do a book where you have no one telling you what to do and you can do it the way you want. You don't have an editor or a guy upstairs in charge of the money saying, "well, we prefer if you did this" or "we don't like the way you wrote this."
- AG: Artistic freedom.
- DC: Exactly. Or they're saying "you're a photographer, you're not a writer. We'll put a writer on this."
- AG: So all this frustration all but kills the project, I guess.
- DC: Well It's just what happens when you're at their bidding. I'm not the kind of person that likes to be at other people's bidding.
- AG: I understand totally.
- DC: Creatively, I think there's a certain amount of control that you have to have as an artist, and that's what I chose to take. But with screenplays and making films, in its own nature It's a collaborative medium, so you can't do that unless you're Orson Wells.
- AG: It's a team effort, I guess, as they say.
- DC: And I think that makes a film better. Whereas with the book I didn't think it would make anything better if I had other people involved. But I did have three people who read what I wrote in order to make sure there were as few typos as possible and to make sure that I was somewhat grammatically correct, that it made sense and was interesting to read.
- AG: That it is.
- DC: But I did not have an editor. My biggest compliment was when John Rogers, who wrote my AP feature article, sent an email to my publicist to set up an interview and asked to interview me and my editor.
- AG: Wow.
- DC: And that to me was a really huge compliment.
- AG: That is a compliment, yeah.
(The conversation then turned to Ms. Chesher's plans for the immediate future.)
- DC: Well, this project's not finished yet, even though the book is out. I have to continue with the purpose of the book, which is motivating people to listen to these musicians. I mean, obviously people are still listening to Led Zeppelin and the Bee Gees maybe, but a lot of these people have fallen by the wayside as far as mass appeal and I think, to me, It's really important that younger people learn about these musicians because these are not the imitators of the imitators, do you know what I mean?
- AG: Yes.
- DC: That's a goal of mine, so I'm going to try and do some college speaking dates. I already have one lined up for this March. I'm also planning a really great gallery show for Los Angeles where I get sponsors so I can bring the family members out for the show.
- AG: That could turn into a media event.
- DC: That would be great. Anything I can do to get the word out and keep the memory of these musicians alive. And then I'm also working on a movie.
- AG: Oh!
- DC: We're working toward producing one of my screenplays into a movie, but those things take their own time.
- AG: Yeah, since It's a team effort.
- DC: Since you're not totally in control of it, you're ending up answering to other people, the guys that have the money.
- AG: Right.
- DC: I don't know how long that's going to take but that's my next big project. I think you'll like it because the story takes place in 1967 and is very music driven.
- AG: "Everybody I Shot Is Dead" just came out in November, right?
- DC: By the time it was in the stores it was probably mid to late November. So now It's just beginning to build steam.
- AG: Yeah, so once the word gets out, I think people will remember these artists, you know, maybe a new generation.
- DC: It's interesting that a lot of the reaction I've had has been from younger people, which is really great. People are always thinking, "well, only baby boomers will buy this book," and that's not true at all.
- AG: The sons and daughters of baby boomers as well.
- DC: A lot of the younger kids are actually listening to the music that I listen to. They listen to the Doors, they listen to Led Zeppelin, they listen to the Beatles, and I think it is because of the lack of contemporary stuff. There are no great icons anymore.
- AG: Yeah.
- DC: It seems like the people today ... other than in country, obviously, country manages to stay alive no matter what.
- AG: Yeah, that's true.
- DC: But in rock and roll it feels like the artists in the rock and roll segment of the music industry, they're just not able to produce the amount of stuff that the people back then did. There aren't groups that are able to put out 11 amazing albums. You know, they might get one.
- AG: Yeah.
- DC: And if they're lucky they might get a couple of hit songs, but there just doesn't seem to be the longevity anymore.
- AG: Yeah, sort of patchy at best.
- DC: I mean like how many ... Look at the Rolling Stones. They started when I was in grade school.
- AG: Well, now they're still going pretty strong.
- DC: They're still going and they have a huge body of work and they're still creating. That's what the young musicians of today need to learn, how to stick with something. We're such an instant gratification society now. People aren't willing to put the effort.
- AG: People don't persevere.
- DC: Yes, and that's where the greatness comes from: perseverance and struggle. And there just doesn't seem to be enough of that anymore.
(interview wrap-up)
- AG: Well, this has been great and thank you so much.
- DC: Thank you. It's my pleasure, truly.
