John Beaudin - Hello Gerry and welcome to Smooth Jazz Now.

Gerry Beckley - Thanks John.

John - I have been a fan since I was twelve wow that goes back to 1972!

Gerry - (laughing)

John - How is it going with the new bass player?

Gerry - Good. We have had an interesting few months because we have had a couple of good friends filling in and didn't really stop in our touring schedule. Both Chas (Frichtell) and Trent (Stroh) who have been filling in have just been fantastic and any time there is new blood it adds a little energy. We then went through the audition process and picked a guy named Richard Campbell and he is no secret to L.A. players as he was with Natalie Cole for years and Three Dog Night. We have just been working with him today and to tell you the truth it doesn't take a lot of work as he has done his homework and we are looking forward to having him but he won't start until the end of April. I think the next run is Chas, who is a dear friend and he has a permanent job with Michael MacDonald but he has been doing a great job these last few months.

John - Is Willie (Leacox) still drumming for you?

Gerry - Yes.

John - Geez, I remember Willie from the 70's and he is still drumming with the band. That's rare.

Gerry - Amazing. Yeah, tell him that. I know and I think he is integral to the America sound and he contributed a great deal in the recording in a lot of the mid period and I think he started on the third or fourth album. Anyways, he has been with us ever since and I introduce him as having been with us for 30 years I guess it is now.

John - I remember thinking that he looked like a caveman.

Gerry - (laughing) Well, he doesn't look like a caveman now.

John - Listen, I have got to tell you something right off the bat. Your 'Silent Letter' album I know wasn't the biggest success for America but let me tell you the song '1960' from that album made a huge difference in my life.

Gerry - Well, thank you John. I am proud of the album, we call it 'Silent Record,' because nobody really heard it and it didn't have a hit single on it but there are a million different things that come into effect when you put out a record and we have fortunately had more than our fair share. A lot of times there are tracks on albums that are important to us and important to others and I am glad that meant something.

John - I was born in 1960 and in the lyric you say, "My reputation's on the line." I was graduating at the time and going through normal teenage angst. Also I didn't know you were a twosome at the time and I looked at the cover and thought it doesn't matter since it was America and I picked it up and brought it home. I just love that album and it is still my favorite album of yours.

Gerry - Well, thank you and I will tell Dewey that.

John - I loved his songs too especially 'And Forever.' Getting back to '1960' it is sort of autobiographical for you but what were you going through when you wrote it, do you remember?

Gerry - I was mixing a little of this and a little of that so it all comes from me but there wasn't a particular topic that I was addressing. There were a lot of thoughts of my dad.

John - And your brother.

Gerry - Yeah my brother, you know family things. Also, we were professionally going through a catharsis and it wasn't the first album as a duo but very often you can't immediately attach the chronology of the start of a song with a time. I think I had written it a year or so before during the live album stage, the final Warners album was just the two of us but it was a live album and it didn't really show quite as bad. In this case we addressed the changes straight on and put our big faces just the two of them on the cover.

John - The album of course was sort of a play on words 'Silent Letter,' every album before that had an 'H' word for the title. I never really knew why did you guys do that?

Gerry - It kind of started by accident and once we realized that we had three records. The first one was just called 'America' and then of course after the success of 'Horse with No Name' they started to reprint it with saying includes, 'Horse with No Name.' The second (Homecoming) was titled just because we returned to the States. Then the third album which was called 'Hat Trick' was the third of the three 'H' titles. Then when we started the fourth album we made the conscious effort that we have three 'H' titles and we thought lets try this as a way of having continuity. Our friends in the group Chicago, they just numbered theirs and we thought that was kind of neat but it made continuity from album to album and that was our way of doing it.

John - Are you really sick of questions about Dan Peek?

Gerry - No, no it is quite alright.

John - I know that from recently reading your interviews that it is not really an option for Dan to come back because you guys have been a duo way longer that you have been a threesome.

Gerry - Well, we were a threesome from 1970-1977 and we have been a duo now for twenty-five years! It is not that there wasn't an incredible amount of history made that was very public knowledge for those seven years which was the bulk of the hits. I think the real true story of the success of the band is what we have been through since then and it is just too valuable to us and Dewey and I have put too much into this thing to really think of it any other way. It comes up every so often in the chat rooms and I always joke about our nine fans in the chat folders. We know then all each and every one by name but and I am sure they would be very excited to see it but it is not in the cards and we just wish him all the best. My favorite quote is by David Byrne, when asked about 'Talking Heads' he always said it is like somebody coming to him and saying, "When are you going to remarry your first wife?" (laughing)

John - (laughing) That's fabulous.

Gerry - If you think about it that way it is that kind of thing.

John - I was talking to Rick Emmitt, who used to be the lead singer and guitarist of 'Triumph,' the rock band here from Canada and he says he understands that because people love reunions, whether it is good for the people involved or not is be sides the point almost. He says, "I can understand why people always ask me and I am always willing to answer but that is not my agenda and I have already done that."

Gerry - Also, 'Sting' always gets hit with 'The Police' reunion thing and in his case he usually says, "Why should I do that, we have accomplished and we went out on top." In that case I actually have an argument in favor of it and that is that everyone on record has said that it wouldn't be about the money. In the case of something as huge as say a 'Police' reunion there is probably a hundred million dollars there and if they are saying why would they truly want to do that, well there is a hundred million dollars there and a third world country you could feed. To me all of a sudden that starts to sounds like the kind of reunion that would justify it. But I have never met the man so I can not give him my point of view.

John - With of course the Rock n Roll hall of fame induction it came up again that it is still no reunion in the near future. Now, that Janet Jackson thing hearing the riff from 'Venture Highway' on 'Someone To Call My Lover' was cool.

Gerry - Yes that was the neat thing and it was very, very flattering and we are huge fans of Janet and most people are. She has really done a great job over the years advancing herself as an artist but even more so we are even bigger fans of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the production team. It was really their call because there are some wonderful remixes of that song that don't even involve the lick but the basis of the track was originally build with that guitar lick and that is just an incredible rush for us. Not just for their work with Janet but we have been listening to them since they were members of 'The Time' and 'Human' by Human League was one of my favorite tracks of all time that they produced.

John - That is a great pop song!

Gerry - Yes and they produced that and I have been a big fan forever and it was an absolute thrill. I finally go the chance to meet Jimmy on a plane and got to tell him face to face and he said likewise that they have been fans of ours and had wanted to do this for a long time. So, we just sent him the box set and said that we hope you can find something else and it was great.

John - Yeah, no kidding. So, was that a sole writer's credit for Dewey?

Gerry - It was a writer's credit for Dewey on 'Venture of Highway' and I wrote the guitar lick.

John - That was my next question and who came up with that?

Gerry - I added that to Dewey's song and we all for years have always thrown in our own two cents worth but it was Dewey's tune and Dewey's lyric so he is credited as the writer. So, in this case it was a little bit different because that was what they used was this guitar lick. But it is all good news as they say!

John - In my travels I've run into a few teenagers who really love your music which goes beyond and before Janet Jackson touched you. That's gotta be gratifying?

Gerry - Well, I appreciate that and I see that kind of thing from show to show. We had a little experience with this in our lengthy involvement with the 'Beach Boys' and we worked and toured with them for years and years and saw that when we were only a group of three or four years in duration. Seeing a 'Beach Boys' show where all the kids were singing along with their parents and I thought that has got to be pretty cool and sure enough you just stick around long enough and that has happened with us! Quite a while ago I had a circumstance where a lady said she was a huge fan and always raised her daughter on our music and her daughter had just given birth to their first granddaughter and all three of them were there and it is just something how those examples really mark time and mark it in a really great way!

John - Interestingly, some people do want the America reunion with Dan(Peek) but when you do his songs live it's important to point out that you played on all those songs, sure they are Dan Peek tunes but they also featured you and Dewey. Two thirds of that formula is still there.

Gerry - Yeah, in the case with us, sure that's true. It isn't like Creedence (Clearwater Revival) is out there without John Fogerty who wrote and sang all the songs or Journey who's touring without Steve Perry where the lead vocalist is missing. In our case Dewey and I contributed the majority of this material and we have added the Dan Peek singles that are well known. Dan toured for quite a few years and he played our songs and we thought that was really kind of neat so we never really felt that we didn't have a right to play his songs, I mean we're on those records too and because it's not the majority of the show. I think we do 'Don't Cross the River' and 'Lonely People' and we kind of share the singing and we try to give him as much credit as he deserves.

John - What's in the set list in this current tour?

Gerry - Well, the set has had one thing in common for years and that is that it has all of the hits in it. I try to be careful to not just say it's a greatest hits show because we've also made efforts to keep people up to date so to speak because we continually write and record and put out albums. You get some action here and a little action on radio there and we think it keeps the show alive to continually adjust things. Having said that we would really be remiss if we left out any of the hits so we try to do them all. It's a lot of songs so that's the good news. People think of the group as 'Horse with No Name' and then they go maybe 'Sister Golden Hair' Oh, I forgot 'Tin Man' and then there's 'I Need You' and then they get up to 'You Can Do Magic' and so you see the look on peoples faces as they go, "Oh I forgot they did that song."

John - I love when that happens of course being in radio for so many years it doesn't happen to me that often but it's a cool thing.

Gerry - It's not a bad problem to have because a lot of classic acts are known for one or two songs and in their show they basically hold those songs off until the end and you sit through an hour or so of lesser known material but in our case most of the songs are well known. Then the challenge is to pick an assortment of stuff from the albums and we go right back to 'Riverside' which is the very first song from the very first album and we come up to stuff from the latest album 'Human Nature.' So we try to make a little cross-section with the available time that's remaining.

John - The real true blue fans who know the music will want to hear some new stuff.

Gerry - Yeah. There's also a real need to play things like 'Sand Man' and 'Three Roses' you know the stuff from the first album that weren't singles but people are really familiar with so we do our best so I think people will really enjoy it.

John - Considering America rose to the top really fast and you were really young.

Gerry - Yeah. I was 17 at the start.

John - I'm sure you look at the young stars today with a different perspective than any of the rest of us do because that kind of jet - action rise to fame can kill someone..

Gerry - Oh, yeah!

John - Aren't you thinking in the back of your mind "Hold on kid, it's a bumpy ride?"

Gerry - Yeah and also the kind of focus that a career might need from album to album and the kind of give and take between a true artist that is a writer/performer of his own material and a record company that's virtually non existent now days. The whole machine is geared at this 'get it up and get it out there.' I know acts and I'm not going to name names but these people sold ten million copies the first time and the second album sells three million and it's considered a failure and they're dropped and that's really a shame. You don't know what kind of work would have been done by these acts and they very often do break up because their hearts are broken or whatever. It's just a far more disposable scenario now. I think this year in particular when you have people so unbelievably qualified as John Mayer and Norah Jones. You just hope that the business has the ability to hang on to people like this and give them the nurturing that they deserve not that a huge hit isn't going to be a stress on anybody. It's what everyone is after, I mean they want success and when they get it it's an incredible pressure but what you have to do is try to keep the big picture in view. We came up in an era at Warner Brothers where it was vital to the label to have people like Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks and Ry Cooder. These people weren't selling a lot of records but it identified the shape of that house and that house was a place where artists could come and exchange ideas and record albums within reason you know we're not talkin' about million dollars over budgets. It was just a wonderful environment to exist.

John - I have these favorite questions that are really more about me than the artist. They are questions that I always ask especially when I feel that an artist and I are on the same page. The main one is about secret little bands having a favorite band or artist that isn't well known but is like a Ry Cooder or Bonnie Raitt. Rolling Stone magazine always gave Raitt space in the seventies but she certainly wasn't a top ten act. I'm always curious on what unpopular acts are in someone's CD collection.

Gerry - Like who? Who are you thinking of from your point of view, I'm curious?

John - Well Tasmin Archer (www.tasminarcher.net) from England for one. Do you remember her?

Gerry - Yeah, I remember the name.

John - She released a song called 'Sleeping Satellites' which was a minor hit in North America. It was a great tune but interestingly that was one of the weakest songs on the album and then she seemed to disappear. I always thought she was an act that deserved to be given breathing room, to explore her creativity. Anyways, lets move on. Are you watching American Idol?

Gerry - No I'm not. I'm aware of it, I know what it is and I kind of caught last seasons wrap up to the finale but I can't even tell you what nights it on. I get the premise. Why is there someone there I should be seeing?

John - No, I'm just curious because American Idol is a very interesting weird way to get into the industry and it's really an exposed vulnerable way to get in.

Gerry - Oh yeah, very much!

John - In the beginning for you, Dan and Dewey was there a point where you guys stopped and thought "Holy shit! This is a lot of work!"

Gerry - The first year with the success that we had and let me point out that the time frame changes depending on which decade you look at it. In the seventies acts were kind of expected to do an album a year. If you look at the Beatles they were doing three a year.

John - Yeah and Elton John for instance released I think four albums in 1971, two in 1973, 1975, 1976 and of course some of those were live or best of albums.

Gerry - Yeah, that's true but now for most people it's more like one every two or three years so it's adjusted but in our case one a year was plenty. We were fortunate that the identity of the band revolved around these three identities initially and we shared the writing so it wasn't all on one guys shoulder to come up with twelve more hits and we each had to contribute a few each but having said that it was a very hectic decade. I'll put the lid on maybe the first ten years was pretty ridiculous. You're suppose to do the album which means write it before hand then record it and then you're suppose to be out on the road every available minute. If you assume that people have somewhat of a life. Well? In Dewey's case he was married pretty much from the start so it's a big challenge to get all of the things happening.

John - Here you guys were in the seventies releasing great singer/songwriter stuff in an era hungry for that very thing. On some level at least partly that's come back in music as you mentioned before, just look at John Mayer.

Gerry - What I think what John has done is amazing. First the guys an amazing guitarist. You don't just get that kind of Chops overnight. Look at David Gray who's a great singer/songwriter in that old ilk way plus he's got this rhythmic thing combined with just those general good bones of singer/songwriter and I think that combination is really great. Also in Norah Jones, now there's a voice that sounds and I don't mean disrespect but sounds a hundred years old that sounds incredibly experienced. It's just an exciting time.

John - Let's go back to a specific album. Again this is another like 'Silent Letter' that wasn't popular but I really enjoyed Harbor with 'God of the Sun' and 'Sarah.' That was recorded in Hawaii, right?

Gerry - Yeah, we did that one on the island of Kauai actually if you like that stuff you ought to try and get a copy of 'Van Go Gan.' I did a solo album about four, five years ago which was a great opportunity for me to make an album kind of on my own beat. When you work with a partner or in a band it's a democracy as it should be and I think the success of America is about that. I did the album Called 'Van Go Gan' that was really an incredible experience and it really came out well. You'd have to go online and find it. Melody Boulevard had it and Amazon I think. If you like those particular songs you'd enjoy that record. There's also a remix album called 'Go Man Go' which was where other than me took the songs of 'Van Go Gan' and remixed them. They're kind of an interesting pair but you should really start with 'Van Go Gan.' I have good friends Robert Lamm and Carl Wilson on it, also Timothy Schmit sang so it was the usually collection of friends but basically it's all me and it came out quite well.

John - I was a big Chicago fan in the seventies and eighties and I've always liked Roberts (Lamm) voice.

Gerry - Oh Yeah. He's a good friend and great singer. You know what something interesting happened today. As we book our year of tour dates the dates certainly don't come in at once and it's an ongoing process. I got a date today that we ok'd for June that's in Virginia somewhere that's with Chicago and I have to tell you it is the first date that we have ever done together. We have known them for almost 30 years and he's (Robert Lamm) is one of my closest friends and it's never been able to work out. I just couldn't believe it so I had to call him. It's so great!(laughing).

John - I would of thought that you guys did whole tours together!

Gerry - Well, we should and I've always been saying that and so has Robert. If it was up to the two of us we would of done it a long time ago.

John - Tell me about the 'View From the Ground' era and how was it with Russ (Ballard) considering he has a reputation for wanting to do everything on an album.

Gerry - Well 'View From the Ground' was far more self controlled than the next one 'Your Move' but because 'View from the Ground' included the hit 'You Can do Magic' which Russ wrote and produced in the infinite wisdom of the label that if a little's good a lots better so they sent us over to England to do an entire album in that fashion. Yeah, the way Russ works is he plays every note. It did include some of our own writing but he would do the tracks and we were basically just singers on the project which was fine for the time. If you look at the entire canon of the work, I don't mind doing an album that way but I certainly prefer to be more involved. The era between the second album that we totally produced 'Hat Trick' and the George Martin years, well, we came out of that when the sales started to taper. With the usual label involvement of a million different ideas and a million different approaches and for us that got a little bit out of focus and with each given year there was a different A&R(Artist & Repertoire) guy but come 'View From the Ground' we basically said look we're going to do the bulk of this album and you can get a couple of producers to do additional material.

John - So, it was a mutual ending with George Martin right?

Gerry - Yeah. It was six or seven albums in a row over six or seven years and George had done just a fantastic job and received the credit he was really due. Believe it or not for all of that work with the Beatles there was some debate as to how important George was and we couldn't believe that that was the case. Immediately right out of the box with 'Tin Man' and 'Lonely People' he had a couple of huge hits with us and we followed that up with 'Sister Golden Hair' which was our second number one record. I tell you watching George be able to go through that was a highlight for me.

John - I always loved what he did with strings.

Gerry - Yeah. I think it was a direction that was neat to research and to kind of get on tape. I wouldn't want to do every record that way. I'm kind of particular to those. I think he did a really great job. I loved the earliest stages of the outside elements on Beatle records. The 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Yesterday' songs where elements other than the four guys playing started to come in. It can get out of hand and so you gotta watch that.

John - Weren't you scared to death when you first met George Martin?

Gerry - You know one thing that I do have is confidence. I feel pretty confident in my own ability. I don't mean to say that I was not affected by it. I was affected by it in ways stronger than any other thing. If anyone asks me about the George Martin years I usually say I group all of that stuff together as the single greatest experience but I wasn't scared I was just really looking forward to it. I kept saying "I can't believe it, this is going to be so great." We were over in England working with him and stuff and we really got along well and I stay in touch with George. We speak, not all the time but we speak a few times a year. I was in London once and he was having a book signing at Harrods and I thought I would go up and say hi, so I called his office and they said he was up there now. So my wife and I walked up and there was this long line of fifty or sixty people and I thought, oh God I don't want to trouble him. He had a lady there who was in charge of things so I snuck over to the side and I whispered to her, "Could you just tell George that Gerry Beckley was here." So, she leans into his ear as he's signing a book and suddenly he stops and he looks up and says, "Where, where's Gerry?" and he stopped the whole line and he kind of came marching over and it was hugs and everything. He just made me feel so great by that gesture and my feelings are mutual. It just felt great and as we were leaving I could hear him addressing the line of people, "Do you know who that is?" It was truly a neat moment. So I'm hoping that the feelings are mutual, you know.

John - Wow, Gerry thanks for sharing that. That's one of those unforgettable moments. I think the fans sometimes forget that you're a regular guy too and you get touched by moments like that, just the way everyone else would.

Gerry - Yeah. It meant a lot to me. I can't tell you enough on how much of a great guy he is. It was apparent to me through all of those years that there was an invisible hand on those(Beatle) records. I don't want to get started on all of those stories but I'll tell you a couple of interesting things. George has always gone on record that the best Beatles album would have been 'The White album' had they'd been able to edit it to a single record but they couldn't there was just so much material and there was no way to edit it. You know things like that because it's always debated between 'Sgt. Peppers' or 'Revolver' or whatever. Also, we've often talked of music with George because we've spent so much time with him and we would always talk about our influences and he said second to none the strongest influence for him musically was Brian Wilson and if you think about the competition that was going on at that time.

John - Oh yeah, especially with 'Pet Sounds.'

Gerry - Yeah with 'Pet Sounds' and how they were listening to each other. It was quite an admission on his part. He would never try to emulate though. It's not like he would say, "Lets try to do this like Brian Wilson."

John - The Beatles have also gone on record with that information. I remember specifically 'Pet Sounds' was a biggie.

Gerry - Yeah, Paul said it was the greatest album ever and it was 'Pet Sounds' that kind of egged them on to create 'Sgt. Peppers.' There's this neat thing with this Queens Jubilee. I see Brian (Wilson) quite a bit, I have dinner with him quite a bit and he's good friends with Paul now. It's kind of neat after all these years.

John - Yeah. It's like we all grow up, isn't it?

Gerry - (laughing) Oh Yeah!

John - I really took notice of America again when you teamed up with Chip Davis Of American Gramaphone and Mannheim Steamroller fame with the album 'Hourglass' in 1994. I also interviewed Chip since I've played New Age music on air for years. How did you connect with him?

Gerry - Well they came to us. Chip had that very successful label as far as his own products with that Mannheim Steamroller thing and he was trying to branch out. He cut a licensing deal with John Denver and he came to a few of our shows and said, "This is my kind of act, I'd love to do an album." It's one thing to be a fan and it's another thing to be a label. It's a difficult chore but we were very grateful to him to give us that chance. It's a lot of work and it didn't go beyond that one record.

John - Gerry Thanks for spending the time to do the interview. I look forward to the show.

Gerry - John, you're very welcome! It was really fun talking with you.

Interview from March - 2003