Your new album is called Freedom and the title track interpolates The Girl Can’t Help It. You’re going to be rocking until they take you out in a box, aren’t you? When I was 35, a journalist stupidly asked me, “When are you going to retire?” I said, “I will retire when I go on stage, turn my back on the audience, shake my ass, and there’s silence.” This followed me my whole career, so when I got to 65, I said, “I will retire when I go on stage, turn my back on the audience and my ass shakes by itself.” I’m 76 now but at 75 I gave my final quote on this subject, and it was serious – I will retire when I go on stage and do not deliver to my standard.
When I feel that, I’m done. There’s also a cover of MC5’s Kick Out the Jams, with Alice Cooper. Tell me a bit about Detroit in the 60s, where you had Motown on one hand and yourself, Alice, Iggy and MC5 on the other?
We had Motown, which we all bowed down to, we were weaned on it. But all the white rock’n’roll groups, they all had that danger, that edge, that foot-on-the-gas desperation. I’ve talked about it with Brother Wayne Kramer, who passed not long ago, and Alice, and we don’t know why that is, but we can never get rid of that.
What’s the most chaotic thing that’s happened to you on stage? We were doing a show once, going down a storm, and I have a section with the drummer where we’re both playing, because I’m a trained percussionist, so it’s like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. Then the PA blew, and all the audience could hear were drums.
We looked at each other, and went, right, let’s go! So, we did a 15-minute drum solo together, because whatever happens on stage, the golden rule is you use it – you have to make it work. Finally, somebody from the side of stage put his thumbs up, and we went back into the song.
Everybody thought it was part of the show. You’re a veteran road hog. What’s the first thing you do when you get to your hotel?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
