Tell me that Tommy doesn't sound like a cross between Brando and Truman Capote!
Here's a short 10 minute radio interview with Tommy Bolin recorded in January 1976 in New York during the USA leg of what turned out to be the final tour.
He talks about his beginnings, Purple and his solo albums & tour and more!
Tommy's voice sounds like Truman Capote...I think that it's Barry Fey in the background feeding him answers....Tommy sounds distracted here...He sounds tired and somewhat sedated...He also sounds like a really nice person whom anyone would be glad to call a friend...It's a cryin shame what happened to him...
Wish to hear more of these rare interviews and see video stuff from any of the tours he did.I don't have any material that is not here on the site but I have checked almost everything.
Thanks for the super entertaining site David. This is a must for every rock'n roll fan.
By the way, Glenn is doing amazingly.
T: Lars, a musician from Finland
I wish Jon would just lighten up on the Mk 4 thing...Imagine trying to replace Rithie Blackmore, and you're 23 years old and American..Tommy had a gigantic pair to tackle that assignment, and he excelled beyond expectations...In my opinion, CTTB was a superior album to Stormbringer...It had a fresh, open sound that was absent in Stormbringer...Glenn said that the band broke up due to "sex, drugs and rock n roll". Jon supposedly ended up shagging Glenn's chick...Glenn ended up with Tommy's girlfriend Karen...Basically, you had the old guard of Ian and Jon who were older and already stacked with cash...You had the young guns with Tommy and Glenn, and they were into exploring life and music...David was caught in the middle and the center couldn't hold..I remember well in high school in 75-76 that there was this whole Mk2,3,4 debate going on as we sat on the hoods of our cars during lunch period...It was a scene right out of the movie Dazed and Confused....I was a Blackmore defender and was totally unwilling to accept anything but...A friend forced me to listen to CTTB through his Marantz receiver and tower speakers at ear shattering volume.....After that mega plex, lead break in the middle of Comin Home, I was converted..I had never heard such playing, so percussive and yet with such a ballsy, stratocaster bite to it....Tommy was just great....Jon, in other interviews, remembers Tommy fondly, but this interview left me a little cold....
The story with Glover reminds me a bit of the story with Simper....some people never learn. Yes, they should have told him that they want to get rid of him and why. Although I have respect for Jon Lord, I don´t know why he tells the story that way. Hmmm...maybe his remembrance becomes slowly weak??? The thing with Tommy and Glenn is another story. We all know that Glenn, and surely Tommy too, were slowly losing ground in a way, there´s no need to deny that. We all love GH and what he achieved personally and musically in the meanwhile. But that doesnt mean that his behaviour back then was always the best. He surely became a bit of arrogant, Glenn himself did never deny that in later interviews.On every concert, live recording or filmed concert everyone can see and feel the gap between the Hughes/Bolin fraction and Coverdale/Paice/Lord. Of course, this was part (not the only reason) of why they finally broke. There´s no need to deny that.Sure, there were also other reasons, the difference of the musical background for instance and the further direction in which this would lead to and so on. But the term of "cabaret" which Lord used, isn´t that wrong at all. There were times when Bolin and Hughes did a kind of parody when they performed the older DP tracks. I´m sure, a lot of you will disagree with what I said and want to cut me into pieces
but that is just my opinion. We will never know the whole truth, the games which were going on behind the curtains ect. so it will always hard to judge from an outside position, what really went wrong.
Im looking forward to read all your other comments about this thread.
bye for now, Lisa
This interview in 1989 is so, so sad....The 1st thing that came to my mind was the concept of "survivor's guilt"...At least that's what I hear coming through Glenn's voice here...I'm not sure if Glenn was clean here or not, but in more recent interviews he seems to have accepted and processed Tommy's death...I think Glenn's spirituality gives him the comfort in knowing that one day they'll be together in heaven---never to lose again...
What is the status of Bolin Fest 2007?
Thanks, Joe
I think what makes Bolin so compelling was his versatility...It wasn't the same blah, blah, blah...He had a big vocabulary on guitar and played a lot of really unusual chords...Besides that, he looked like Elvis and played the part well, probably too well, but he was special....
I can tell you that I was at Tommy's final show...I was 16 and hopped up on basically the same strange brew that later did him in....He played way loud and I remember well the power chords on Teaser hit me in the solar plex area...He was a rock star of the 1st order...For those too young to remember, I can only say that the death of Brandon Lee affected me in the same way...It was one of those " this can't be happening" sort of reactions...
I was at Tommy's final show in Miami....What a loss...
For my $, CTTB was DP's most interesting effort...I think David was at his peak vocally, and what can you say that hasn't been said about Tommy? He was such an innovative player who just had such a great imagination in the way he approached guitar...He and Glenn were so locked in musically that it was sick..They were truly twin sons of different mothers...
Glenn and Tommy were true soul brothers...love to hear Glenn pay tribute...He has been a real dogged defender of the man and I respect him for that greatly...
jpw
Hey there and welcome to the club.I havent been here for long ether and it still takes me a while to do things on here!
But yes your be fine
xxkelzangelxx
Does Glenn mention Tommy at most of his shows?
jpw
