Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens. Thanks for checking out my eighties show podcast.
It's former front man for the Jay Giles Band. So
many great solo hits, and he's got a great New
York Times bestseller. It's Peter Wolf. Hello, Peter. How are
you hello, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm doing great, man, It is really cool to talk
to you. I've never had the chance to interview Peter
Wolf before, so this is really cool. Thanks for taking
the time, man.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, thank you. And remember, if it's Sennia, it's got
to come out because that's what rock and roll is
all about. Doing a tune and getting right through you
having some fun until the midnight sun.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's what I was looking for. I dude, we have
so much to talk about. I'm sure we're going to
run out of time. But I love it because you
started as a DJ. You're You're one of You're one
of us.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I was. I had the Wolf of Gooop of Mama
TUFA show. It was a midnight to five in the morning,
six days a week, and it started. You know, I
did my rap and I would start off this Wolf
of Goop of Mama Goop, of making in these freezer
blattus blats thing. It's got to come out. That's what
rock and roll is all about. Welcome to the little
late and night kid from Alabama doing it through all
the ships out at sea. Give us a call down,
(01:03):
you stole. We're gonna have some fun until the midnight sun.
Rock and roll. Oh man, whatever you say, I don't care,
I slide. Just all you gotta do is just kick
it high. And it went. Jeffy went on like that
for hour after hour after hour.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
That is wild. When where did that start for you?
Where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Uh? Well, it came from when I was a young kid.
I would listen to a lot of the R and
B and soul U disc jockey's on the radio growing up,
and there was one particular called jack O Henderson and
he would do good time. Right now is the Live
fifteen And you're listening to the jock on the Wrecking
(01:44):
Machine and he would just statter like that, and I
just it just sort of came to me, and I
was such a fan. And then as I was going
to high school, and my high school was in Harlem
in New York, and I got to go to the
Paulo Theater once a week where I got to see
all the great artists and great comedians. So I just
(02:07):
all absorbed it. But basically, you know, this jockey thing
came from the early this jockeys that I would listen
to in New York. And there were some great ones,
of course, Alan Freed, Symphony, Sid the magnificent Montague that
would say things like, ladies, it's late at night. I
(02:29):
want you to take your radio and I'm going to
play some Sam Cook and he's going to move you
in ways that you've never been moved before. And I
was like eleven years old and going, what's he talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Putting late?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah? What what great cook? Muggler? What is he talking about? So,
you know, it was those kind of experiences. And then,
you know, Jeff, when I was starting to write this book,
I didn't want it to be a regular, you know,
one of these you know, so cookie cutter musicians memoir.
I was born and so and so I tried to
(03:05):
make a list of the people that I was fortunate
enough or privileged enough to get to know or meet
and try to write the book about them and not me,
but my experiences with them. And so, you know, things
like how I became friendly with Van Morrison, or got
(03:26):
to have wild encounters with sly Stone, or do a
duet with a Refa Franklin, or meet Bob Dylan the
first week he moved to New York. But it was
I didn't want to write it about me, but I
wanted to write what was my impression of them and
what did they do? And so that was the formula
(03:47):
that I used for the book Waiting on the Moon.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah, so it's out now, Barnes and Noble, Waiting on
the Moon. Artists, Poets, drifters, drifters and goddesses. Peter Wolf.
Of course, we're so familiar with your work with the
Jay Giles band, and I love I of course got
pulled into the Jay Giles band. But then when you
started doing your solo stuff, man, me and my buddy
would just crank lights out. I mean it was my
(04:11):
senior year of high school and it was just lights out.
Uh huh, We're just like cranking it. And then need
you Tonight? I thought was a great follow up. And
then of course a couple of years later, come as
you are so awesome solo songs, awesome Jay Giles, And
now we're talking about your book and I haven't had
a chance to get through the whole thing, but I
will tell you, just like your songs pull everybody in
(04:31):
this book pulled me in immediately. With the Marilyn Monroe story.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What you're talking about is the chapter called I Slept
with mel Monroe. I'm not going to go into details
on the radio, but people can read it for themselves.
It's chapter one. Yeah, but each chapter, Jeff reads like
a short story. So you can pick up chapter fourteen,
you can pick up chapter one, you can pick up
chapter you know, thirty one, and so you don't have
(04:58):
to read the book from start though. There's a timeline
in it. And also there's a chapter on the writing
and how I wrote Lights Out and chapter about Don
kove So I think you might find it very interesting
because it's, you know, the process of how the song
(05:21):
came about. It's a kind of funny tale. And Don
Covet was a writer, a great soul writer, and he wrote,
you know, lots of songs of oldest reading. He wrote
Shane of Fools for Aretha Franklin, Mercy Mercy, the Rolling
Stones recorded, and so it's a it's a kind of
memoir or profile of Don with all his kind of craziness,
(05:41):
and that's what I try to do. There's you know,
vignettes with sly Stone, and there's going over the Julia
Child's house for dinner, the great you know TV chef. Yeah,
and so there's so many different characters in there, and
but again, you know, it's more about them, and I
tried to uh right, so the reader got a feeling
of what it was like to Soota hang out with
(06:04):
Van Morrison, and so again it's it's trying to capture
those people and bring them to life.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well, chatting here with Peter Wolf and it was it's
a read that immediately pulls you in and gets you
super interested. And the funny thing is is, like you said,
it's quite an array of people that you've encountered over
your amazing career, including Eleanor Roosevelt, which I've I've found
that story to be so kind of, i don't know,
(06:35):
for lack of a better word, adorable. It's really a
cute story. That's that's a really cute thing how that
whole thing happened. So you have to read that one.
But then your your simple twist of fate with Bob Dylan,
like you said, you know when he was basically was
he unknown at.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
That point, completely totally unknown. It was. It was the first,
I think first the second week he came to New
York from Minnesota. So he was, you know, playing basically
putting out a hat and you know, people would just
throw money in the hat. He had no real gigs
to speak of, and he joined He was one of
(07:09):
many people at hooton Nannies, you know, different, you know. Uh.
And so I caught him just at that period, and
I explained how he was on a radio doing an
early interview. So I ran down and I called up
the radio station and they put him on and so
we started talking, and he, you know, gave me how
(07:32):
I can find him in the village, and I rushed
right down on the train and that became began a
very long, long friendship. And I was very honored when
Bob Illan wrote a blurb for this book. Uh and uh,
it just meant a lot to me if any reader
of rock and roll and R and B and blues, uh,
(07:53):
and just a lot of other people, poets, writers. I
got a chapter on Tennessee Williams, the great playwright. And
so it's one of those books where you can just
pick up pick up the chapter and they're not very long,
and I try to make it as enjoyable as possible
for the reader.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, and you get really right into it, so you're
That's why I said was such a great hook. You
have an idea by the by the title of the chapter,
you know of of who it's going to be, about
what you're going into, but then you get right into it.
It's super super interesting stories. And Peter, I know we've
got just another minute or two. I do want to
go back to the DJ thing for a second. Do
(08:32):
you feel like your years as a DJ do you
feel like that helped you be the frontman for Jay
Giles band and then also your solo career.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Well, it certainly did. I mean I was I was,
you know, playing in a band before I was on radio.
There was a band of art students, you know, I
was telling the book. I was. David Lynch was my roommate,
the filmmaker, and I put together this band, art band
of art students, and then I became the DJ. But
(09:03):
it was learning to deal with the phone calls and
you know, one of the roles of the frontman is
to keep keep it going so so a string breaks
for a musician or something. The frontman is to contact
to the audience, right, so you know the good you know,
going to the Apollo Theater and seeing so many of
(09:24):
the great soul artists through their thing, and you know,
that's what Mick Jagger does for the Stones, and that's
what you know, so many different you know. Uh, that's
what Tom Petty did with the Heartbreakers. That's obviously what
Bruce does. You know, you're the person that is the
spokesman for the band to the audience. Absolutely, that's something
(09:44):
I definitely learned through radio. Certainly helped very cool.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, I hope everybody goes out to get this, Peter,
are you doing any more live performances band wise, j
Gile solo anything?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Well, I have a great solo band, the Midnight Travelers,
and we are going to be doing some Uh it's
going to be an evening of I'm going to be
out on the highways and byways. We were down in
Nashville a couple of years ago and uh, blew of
the place apart. And so I do add some of
(10:15):
my favorite Kyle songs and some of my you know
songs along from my solo albums, and so it's a
good evening as for people usually come away getting what
they want. You know, it's one for the money, but
it's two for the show. And we definitely try to
put on a Blazon show.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
That's awesome. Peter wolf waiting on the Moon, Artists, poets, drifters,
drifters and goddesses, Barnes and Noble and Peter. Great talking
to you, man. Thanks for taking that time.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Anywhere anywhere really, any bookstore you like or anywhere you
get your books, and independent bookstores are always great. You
got some down there and Nashville, you know, and dating
and all around and just go, I know, you go
all throughout many states and so you know, go to
your favorite little bookstore and pick up a copy or
you know, one for a friend all and tell them
(11:08):
wolf of goof of Mama Tufa haf aloofa Senti.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Peter wolf Man, thank you so much. Great talking to you, buddy,
I'm Jeff Stevens. Thanks for checking out my eighties show podcast.
It's former front man for the Jay Giles Band. So
many great solo hits, and he's got a great New
York Times bestseller. It's Peter Wolf. Hello, Peter. How are
you hello, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm doing great, man, It is really cool to talk
to you. I've never had the chance to interview Peter
Wolf before, so this is really cool. Thanks for taking
the time, man.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, thank you. And remember, if it's Sennia, it's got
to come out because that's what rock and roll is
all about. Doing a tune and getting right through you
having some fun until the midnight sun.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's what I was looking for. I dude, we have
so much to talk about. I'm sure we're going to
run out of time. But I love it because you
started as a DJ. You're You're one of You're one
of us.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I was. I had the Wolf of Gooop of Mama
TUFA show. It was a midnight to five in the morning,
six days a week, and it started. You know, I
did my rap and I would start off this Wolf
of Goop of Mama Goop, of making in these freezer
blattus blats thing. It's got to come out. That's what
rock and roll is all about. Welcome to the little
late and night kid from Alabama doing it through all
the ships out at sea. Give us a call down,
(01:03):
you stole. We're gonna have some fun until the midnight sun.
Rock and roll. Oh man, whatever you say, I don't care,
I slide. Just all you gotta do is just kick
it high. And it went. Jeffy went on like that
for hour after hour after hour.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
That is wild. When where did that start for you?
Where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Uh? Well, it came from when I was a young kid.
I would listen to a lot of the R and
B and soul U disc jockey's on the radio growing up,
and there was one particular called jack O Henderson and
he would do good time. Right now is the Live
fifteen And you're listening to the jock on the Wrecking
(01:44):
Machine and he would just statter like that, and I
just it just sort of came to me, and I
was such a fan. And then as I was going
to high school, and my high school was in Harlem
in New York, and I got to go to the
Paulo Theater once a week where I got to see
all the great artists and great comedians. So I just
(02:07):
all absorbed it. But basically, you know, this jockey thing
came from the early this jockeys that I would listen
to in New York. And there were some great ones,
of course, Alan Freed, Symphony, Sid the magnificent Montague that
would say things like, ladies, it's late at night. I
(02:29):
want you to take your radio and I'm going to
play some Sam Cook and he's going to move you
in ways that you've never been moved before. And I
was like eleven years old and going, what's he talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Putting late?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah? What what great cook? Muggler? What is he talking about? So,
you know, it was those kind of experiences. And then,
you know, Jeff, when I was starting to write this book,
I didn't want it to be a regular, you know,
one of these you know, so cookie cutter musicians memoir.
I was born and so and so I tried to
(03:05):
make a list of the people that I was fortunate
enough or privileged enough to get to know or meet
and try to write the book about them and not me,
but my experiences with them. And so, you know, things
like how I became friendly with Van Morrison, or got
(03:26):
to have wild encounters with sly Stone, or do a
duet with a Refa Franklin, or meet Bob Dylan the
first week he moved to New York. But it was
I didn't want to write it about me, but I
wanted to write what was my impression of them and
what did they do? And so that was the formula
(03:47):
that I used for the book Waiting on the Moon.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah, so it's out now, Barnes and Noble, Waiting on
the Moon. Artists, Poets, drifters, drifters and goddesses. Peter Wolf.
Of course, we're so familiar with your work with the
Jay Giles band, and I love I of course got
pulled into the Jay Giles band. But then when you
started doing your solo stuff, man, me and my buddy
would just crank lights out. I mean it was my
(04:11):
senior year of high school and it was just lights out.
Uh huh, We're just like cranking it. And then need
you Tonight? I thought was a great follow up. And
then of course a couple of years later, come as
you are so awesome solo songs, awesome Jay Giles, And
now we're talking about your book and I haven't had
a chance to get through the whole thing, but I
will tell you, just like your songs pull everybody in
(04:31):
this book pulled me in immediately. With the Marilyn Monroe story.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What you're talking about is the chapter called I Slept
with mel Monroe. I'm not going to go into details
on the radio, but people can read it for themselves.
It's chapter one. Yeah, but each chapter, Jeff reads like
a short story. So you can pick up chapter fourteen,
you can pick up chapter one, you can pick up
chapter you know, thirty one, and so you don't have
(04:58):
to read the book from start though. There's a timeline
in it. And also there's a chapter on the writing
and how I wrote Lights Out and chapter about Don
kove So I think you might find it very interesting
because it's, you know, the process of how the song
(05:21):
came about. It's a kind of funny tale. And Don
Covet was a writer, a great soul writer, and he wrote,
you know, lots of songs of oldest reading. He wrote
Shane of Fools for Aretha Franklin, Mercy Mercy, the Rolling
Stones recorded, and so it's a it's a kind of
memoir or profile of Don with all his kind of craziness,
(05:41):
and that's what I try to do. There's you know,
vignettes with sly Stone, and there's going over the Julia
Child's house for dinner, the great you know TV chef. Yeah,
and so there's so many different characters in there, and
but again, you know, it's more about them, and I
tried to uh right, so the reader got a feeling
of what it was like to Soota hang out with
(06:04):
Van Morrison, and so again it's it's trying to capture
those people and bring them to life.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well, chatting here with Peter Wolf and it was it's
a read that immediately pulls you in and gets you
super interested. And the funny thing is is, like you said,
it's quite an array of people that you've encountered over
your amazing career, including Eleanor Roosevelt, which I've I've found
that story to be so kind of, i don't know,
(06:35):
for lack of a better word, adorable. It's really a
cute story. That's that's a really cute thing how that
whole thing happened. So you have to read that one.
But then your your simple twist of fate with Bob Dylan,
like you said, you know when he was basically was
he unknown at.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
That point, completely totally unknown. It was. It was the first,
I think first the second week he came to New
York from Minnesota. So he was, you know, playing basically
putting out a hat and you know, people would just
throw money in the hat. He had no real gigs
to speak of, and he joined He was one of
(07:09):
many people at hooton Nannies, you know, different, you know. Uh.
And so I caught him just at that period, and
I explained how he was on a radio doing an
early interview. So I ran down and I called up
the radio station and they put him on and so
we started talking, and he, you know, gave me how
(07:32):
I can find him in the village, and I rushed
right down on the train and that became began a
very long, long friendship. And I was very honored when
Bob Illan wrote a blurb for this book. Uh and uh,
it just meant a lot to me if any reader
of rock and roll and R and B and blues, uh,
(07:53):
and just a lot of other people, poets, writers. I
got a chapter on Tennessee Williams, the great playwright. And
so it's one of those books where you can just
pick up pick up the chapter and they're not very long,
and I try to make it as enjoyable as possible
for the reader.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, and you get really right into it, so you're
That's why I said was such a great hook. You
have an idea by the by the title of the chapter,
you know of of who it's going to be, about
what you're going into, but then you get right into it.
It's super super interesting stories. And Peter, I know we've
got just another minute or two. I do want to
go back to the DJ thing for a second. Do
(08:32):
you feel like your years as a DJ do you
feel like that helped you be the frontman for Jay
Giles band and then also your solo career.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Well, it certainly did. I mean I was I was,
you know, playing in a band before I was on radio.
There was a band of art students, you know, I
was telling the book. I was. David Lynch was my roommate,
the filmmaker, and I put together this band, art band
of art students, and then I became the DJ. But
(09:03):
it was learning to deal with the phone calls and
you know, one of the roles of the frontman is
to keep keep it going so so a string breaks
for a musician or something. The frontman is to contact
to the audience, right, so you know the good you know,
going to the Apollo Theater and seeing so many of
(09:24):
the great soul artists through their thing, and you know,
that's what Mick Jagger does for the Stones, and that's
what you know, so many different you know. Uh, that's
what Tom Petty did with the Heartbreakers. That's obviously what
Bruce does. You know, you're the person that is the
spokesman for the band to the audience. Absolutely, that's something
(09:44):
I definitely learned through radio. Certainly helped very cool.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, I hope everybody goes out to get this, Peter,
are you doing any more live performances band wise, j
Gile solo anything?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Well, I have a great solo band, the Midnight Travelers,
and we are going to be doing some Uh it's
going to be an evening of I'm going to be
out on the highways and byways. We were down in
Nashville a couple of years ago and uh, blew of
the place apart. And so I do add some of
(10:15):
my favorite Kyle songs and some of my you know
songs along from my solo albums, and so it's a
good evening as for people usually come away getting what
they want. You know, it's one for the money, but
it's two for the show. And we definitely try to
put on a Blazon show.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
That's awesome. Peter wolf waiting on the Moon, Artists, poets, drifters,
drifters and goddesses, Barnes and Noble and Peter. Great talking
to you, man. Thanks for taking that time.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Anywhere anywhere really, any bookstore you like or anywhere you
get your books, and independent bookstores are always great. You
got some down there and Nashville, you know, and dating
and all around and just go, I know, you go
all throughout many states and so you know, go to
your favorite little bookstore and pick up a copy or
you know, one for a friend all and tell them
(11:08):
wolf of goof of Mama Tufa haf aloofa Senti.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Peter wolf Man, thank you so much. Great talking to you, buddy,
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