Marcq En Baroeul (France)
"Fete de la musique" June 21. 2003
A chat with Mick Taylor 21-06-03
Jeroen : Had BB, Albert and Freddie King a big influence on your guitar playing
in the beginning?
Mick : Yes, I learned a lot from Freddie and Albert.
When I was 14-15 years old I could almost play every blues lick. I listened
to a lot of old blues records and I was like a sponge. It was so easy for me to pick it up.
Jeroen : When you just started songwriting, from whom dit you learn the most?
Mick : I learned from the Stones of course and Bob Dylan had a great influence on
me. Bob is such a great poet. First he wrote the poems and after that he made the melodies.
Jeroen : Mick, which guitarplayers did inspire you for playing slide-guitar?
Mick : Well, Elmore James, Muddy Waters and of course Earl Hooker (a great slide guitarplayer)
Jeroen : In your shows you always seem to switch from slide to normal
playing. What is the reason for that?
Mick : I like to do both. It is very hard to say. It is a feeling you have at that moment.
Jeroen : What do musicians need to play in your band?
Mick : (laughed) We are not the best goodlooking band. I want a bigger band.
Anyway another guitarplayer, so that I don't have to do everything. It is pretty hard to do it all alone.
Jeroen : Mick, what do you prefer more: playing live or in the studio?
Mick : I like to do both actually. But I love to play live and the more I do so, the better I feel.
Jeroen : Do you agree it was a great show tonight?
Mick : Oh yes, it was a good show. Nice audience and it was our first show after
Haverhill (England), so it was very pleasant to play with my own band again.
Jeroen : Mick, you feel good, but you must be tired?
Mick : Yes, I have been traveling for 2 days now. From the north of England to the
south, then to London and finally to France.
Jeroen : Do you still practice every day?
Mick : No, I do not practice anymore.
Jeroen : But I hear new licks in your solos every time?
Mick : Every day is different. I play a lot on my ears and it depends on how the band is playing.
Jeroen : Why do you switch a lot between playing with your own band and playing as a guest
Mick : It is not a plan. It is just something that comes on my way.
Jeroen : Why are you always playing the same songs? You have some
beautiful songs, like "Morning comes".
Mick : I don't know why. Sometime we change some songs, but we always have
a setlist. You are right. We played "Morning comes" 2 times, once in the US and once in Finland. It is difficult.
(many thanks to Jeroen)