(LW)Three. They made me an Explorer with the modules in it, that one [points to the Electra], and a new one they gave me at the show, a gray color with a double cutaway.
(LW)Uh, I think about 11. I’ve got John Phillip’s gigantic custom-made Guild 12-string. It’s as big as Zemaitis’ guitars. My brother picked it up. It belonged to John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas. Hey, tell me something. Who’s your favorite guitarist?
(LW)うーん、11本位だと思う。俺はJohn Phillips (The Mamas & the Papasのリーダー)カスタムメイドの12弦ギルド(アコースティック)を持っていた。それはゼマティスと同じ位巨大なギターだった。俺の弟が手に入れてきたんだ。ママス&パパスのJohn Phillips自身が持っていた物なんだぜ。どうだい、何か言ってくれよ。 君のお気に入りのギタリストは誰だ?
(GP)Hendrix.
(GP)ヘンドリックス。
(LW)I gotta say, it’s either Eric or Hendrix. For motivation, I gotta say Eric. For taking a style and doing something crazy with it? Hendrix, boy. He was just so fluid. He was so sexy onstage, man. Do you know that I played with him the night before he died?
(LW)No, in New York at Unganos. He was in New York, man, before he went to England. What happened was Steve Miller was playing Unganos, and I went there to see Steve Miller. And I sold him a Les Paul. Jimi Hendrix was in town, in the club. I’d never played with him, I never met him, and sure enough, he came down. There were no amps. I said, “Look, I got a loft on 36th Street.” We got in a limousine, went to my loft, picked up my amps. My roadie woke up, and there was Hendrix standing by his bed. This guy woke up, and then he had these Screaming Yellow Zonkers – you know, those popcorn things? He was eating them. You know, I was in awe, and here’s this roadie getting up, and he saw Hendrix. He didn’t know what to get first! Jimi just said, “Calm down” – you know, real mellow. We got back in the car, went and played all night. Jimi played bass. One of the newspapers was there, and they took a picture of it. All the papers in New York City have copies of the photos. Tim Davis was playing drums.
(LW)いいや、ニューヨークのクラブ「Unganos」でだ。彼はイギリスに行く直前までニューヨークにいたんだ。その夜、Steve MillerがUnganosに出演していたので、俺は奴に会いに行ったんだ。で、奴に俺のレスポールを売った。Jimi Hendrixも街にいて、クラブにやって来た。俺は一度も彼と会ったことも無く、一緒にプレイしたことも無かった、で、間違いなく、彼はやって来たんだ。でも、そこにアンプは無かった。で、俺は「待てよ、36番通りに俺の機材倉庫があるぜ」って言ったんだ。早速俺たちはリムジンに乗って機材庫に乗り付け、俺のアンプを積み込んだ。俺のローディーは起きていて、奴のベッドの横にはHendrixが立っていた。奴は起きていて、Screaming Yellow Zonkersを持っていた、、知ってるだろ、ポップコーンだ。奴はそれを喰ってたんだ。俺は(Hendrixを)敬っており、ローディーは起き上がり、そして、そこにHendrixがいたってわけだ。奴はおろおろしてた! Jimiはただ「落ち着け」って言ったんだ、、優しくね。で、俺たちは車に戻り、クラブへ行って一晩中プレイした。Jimiはベースを弾いたんだ。一つの新聞社がその場にいて、彼らがその様子を写真に収めた。ニューヨークの全ての新聞がその写真を掲載したんだ。Tim Davis(Steve Miller Bandのドラマー、バンドの共同設立者)がドラムを叩いた。
(GP)Do you remember what Jimi played on bass?
(GP)Jimiがどのようなベースプレイをしたか覚えていますか?
(LW)We just played a slow blues. And then when we were doing Mountain Climbing, Jimi was the first one to hear it finished. He was doing Band of Gypsys in the Record Plant, with Buddy Miles. And he came in when we’d finished mixing and he listened to it. And you know “Never in My Life”? [Sings the riff.] He loved that little stop in there. He said, “Oh, I love that.” I thought it was great! I said, ‘Wow! J.H.” Oh, man.
(LW)俺たちは、ひたすらスローブルーズのみを演奏した。 別の話だが、Mountain Climbingアルバムの録音をしていた時のことだが、Jimiが完成した物を聴いた最初の人だった。同じRecord PlantスタジオでJimiはBuddy Milesと共にBand of Gypsysの録音中だったんだ。で、俺たちのミキシングが正に完了した時に、彼がコントロールルームを訪れ、聴いたってわけだ。Never in My Lifeっていう曲を知ってるか?(リフを口ずさむ) 彼はこの曲を気に入ってね。彼は「こいつは最高だ」って言ったんだ。スゲえことだろ! 俺は「ワオ! J.H.が(褒めてくれた」って叫んだ。スゲえだろ。
(GP)When did you start getting into Clapton?
(GP)Claptonにのめり込んだのはいつごろですか?
(LW)When I was tripping on acid. Felix produced one of the Vagrants records. When I was getting into the guitar, I bought this album by Cream, the first album [Fresh Cream]. And then when I found out Felix was producing them, Felix was my idol. You know what I mean?
(GP)Did you enjoy playing the Atlanta Pop Festival?
(GP)Atlanta Pop Festivalでの演奏は楽しめましたか?
(LW)They made an album of that. They put it on the back of the Isle of Wight. That was really a great show, man. I had more fun at that than Woodstock, because we were already established.
(GP)A lot of people liked your version of “Stormy Monday.”
(GP)多くの人があなたのバージョンのStormy Mondayを気に入っています。
(LW)Yeah, that was nice cut, huh? We were very lucky that we all clicked that night. When those things work, when everybody is right on, you know. But when you’re not, it can be the most disastrous.
(LW)Just worked. All we did was tour. It was just such hard work.
(LW)ただただ、働いていた。ツアーばかりでね。とにかくしんどかった。
(GP)How did you travel?
(GP)旅はどのようにしていたのですか?
(LW)A Lear jet. [Laughs.] If I had to do it again, I don’t think I would have taken a Lear jet. Felix, really – it was his idea. It was my fault, because I suggested it, and he got used to it. It cost a lot of money – $600 an hour. He didn’t want to do anything but get out of the house, get in the car, get on a plane, get in a car, do the gig, and go back, get on a plane, and go home. You know, he didn’t want to stay on the road. We did that for a couple of tours. But it was a lot of fuckin’ work! And it was really, really gravy.
(LW)It was great at the time, man. You knew whether or not they wanted you to do an encore. Now it’s just they don’t want to go home yet.
(LW)あのころは最高だったぜ。アンコール、アンコール。誰もまだ家に帰りたく無かった、って感じ。
(GP)What were the best bands you traveled with?
(GP)一緒にツアーした中でベストなバンドは?
(LW)I worked mostly with Jethro Tull, Ten Years – a lot of Chrysalis acts. Oh, this is funny. You know Martin [Barre], from Jethro Tull? One of his biggest things was he wanted to be recognized by his peers. And he never was recognized by his peers – eh, a little bit. But he wanted that more than anything. It’s very hard when you’re in a group that’s a name around the group, and nobody knows who’s who. Like in Chicago – until the guy killed himself, nobody knew who the fuck he was. Peer recognition – that’s more important than anything. And he knew I had it, because he felt the same way as Mick Ralphs did. We were inspired, and they somehow grabbed on to the way I played. I don’t know what it was. It was very into me and Felix playing together. Like in their groups, they never could get the bass player to play the big power licks. And the greatest thing was to play those things and to play off from there – you know, run the solo off from there. So they took to that. We toured with the same acts for about two years, I would say. We were all with World Premier Talent, so we all worked together. We got along very good. In fact, we came back to Detroit, where you were from, with Jethro Tull. And the customs officers in Toronto let us get on. Everything was fine. We got to Detroit, they had thirteen custom officers – six chicks and seven guys – to frisk us all. They pushed us in a room, and I said, “The people with the heroin you’re looking for went through with the attaché case, in a suit and tie.” It was really funny – all of us got nabbed, all of us. We were last on the plane, drunk. What were you doing then?
(LW)He made it possible for me to have a job. Because, see, up until then, people were strumming. Herman’s Hermits were singing, and Peter Noone was looking pretty. But all of a sudden instead of strumming the guitar, these guys [Cream] were into digging in. That was a whole other world. And I saw them on acid at the Fillmore. At that time I was imitating Townshend, smashing the guitars up in the Vagrants – you know, that whole act with the smoke bombs and everything. I saw Eric on acid, and I said, “I better shit or get off the pot.” In other words, learn to play the guitar without smashing it. And I learned. I got a vibrato that night. I didn’t have one up until then. That was the beginning of it. So Eric was the start of a whole new ballgame for me.