Two degrees of separation from Elvis...
He's supported Wanda Jackson. He's worked with Imelda May. His book, 'How to Make it in Music', has sold twenty-two-thousand copies. Jack Daniels paid him to go on a rockabilly tour of the UK. He married a stripper in Vegas. Oh yeah, and he's an amazing blues guitarist! This is the incredibly interesting and even more talented JD Smith.
Hardcore. And you supported Wanda Jackson…
I supported Wanda Jackson at the Luminaire. It was random... the manager had my name on file, he got in touch and asked if I wanted to support Wanda Jackson. First I asked is she still alive. It was me, Hot Rocket Trio and Wanda. She's lovely, but I didn't get to see any of her show. Me, Ben the Bassist of Hot Rocket Trio and Owen the drummer were just sat backstage with her manager (who's her husband) who was just feeding us beers. He was getting us free beers and telling us about Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. So I didn't get to see any of her set. We just had this guy from Tennessee telling us how he saw Jerry Lee a couple of weeks ago… I got pretty drunk and got paid 85 quid. I got a signed picture of Wanda to my name and everything.
So you were supporting Wanda Jackson, you had worked with Imelda May on your first album, what happened to your momentum?
Errr…. I became an alcoholic. That'll do that to you. It's kind of a circumstance of gigging. Especially for two years, 2009/2010, I did over 700 shows. And as you know there's the bit before the gig, there's getting to the venue, there's the gig then there's the after party. It's an easy trap to fall into. It is a hard life. I got really, really tired... it's so much like a chase. I love playing, and I do still love playing. If you're doing it every single night though, and you're drinking as much as I used to you sort of get into this routine, you don't enjoy the gigs and they just become an excuse to drink. And now when I play I only do 5 or 6 shows a month. I only do paid gigs and I enjoy them a lot more. And I have so much more time in the evening to do things and sort myself out. I can read books. And remember them. I'm loving it! I can go to the cinema, and be a normal person as much as I can be. Not playing means I can promote it more. It means I can claw my reputation back a little, because people started to know me as drunk JD. I had to stay away from the 12 Bar for 6 months. I was never bad at the Windmill - I was always on my best behaviour, but places with old habits. Silver Bullet, I stopped going for a while. And then you start to reintroduce yourself back into the world I suppose.
As a reformed artist...?
Well, yeah. Now I write. I'm going back into the studio this year with material, with ideas and with structure. And I never used to do that. My publishers, Bucks, knew me as this live act, really loud, and it's different in the studio, it's hard to capture that live sound. It's dry in the studio. Do what Tom Waits did on Night Hawks At The Diner and bring all your friends and pretend it's a live album. That's what Rage did on their first album, they played the whole thing live to friends. They did it at Sun City. They did 6 tracks in one evening, they played the whole thing live, that's why it sounds like what it does, they were so well rehearsed, one take on every song.
When you're playing a live show, do you assess the audience and then work out what you're going to do, do you have a set list or are you making it up as you're going along?
It's all improvised. It's all made up. I don't have set lists, I don't know what my songs are called. There's structure. The blues by its nature is a structure, you can follow a rule. And you can read an audience, how busy a room is, how much people are talking, and then play your set to the crowd. I've watched too many acts, they have a set list and they'll just stick to it, and it won't work. They'll be playing upbeat songs and the crowd is listening, then they play the break-up song and it goes quiet and no one cares, you've lost them, for the rest of the set they're not coming back. I prefer the heavy, loud shows. I know I can do that. Whereas if you stick me somewhere like the Slaughtered Lamb, whenever I play there everyone's quiet and attentive and watching. I always hate it. I prefer the busy bar. When I toured for Jack Daniels, I would go on stage for 150 pissed chavs and get them dancing. Most acoustic acts are the opposite. Playing an O'Neills in Glasgow, most people would be fucked. I prefer it. For that entire tour in all those O'Neills bars, no one clapped. The Glasgow show, I did an hour and a half, no one clapped, no one paid any attention, but after the set loads of people are buying me drinks. It was the same in Liverpool. That's how those shows work. If you're craving a round of applause, you're not gonna get it. That's what I tell people who play 12 Bar. There might be only 3 people in the room but the sound goes right through the bar. You don't know who's listening. One time I played there to a room of three or four people and the Libertines/Babyshambles manager comes up to me after my show and says 'Sorry I wasn't in the room, but I really like your stuff'. I like getting heckled. I want someone to shout something, I want people to get involved. If it feels like they're involved it's a different gig, I can remember that show.
For years I used to co-run this show on the King's Road. Every night, these 3 guys would come down that worked locally. And one of them would come up to me at the beginning of the show and apologize, he'd say "I'm sorry I'm gonna get drunk and I'm gonna heckle you, I'm sorry" and 2 hours later he'd be drunk and he'd be heckling me. And he'd start out with Elvis songs, he'd be shouting for Elvis songs and eventually he'd just be shouting Suspicious Minds over and over, so one time I played it, and handed him the microphone and he didn't even know the words. He was too drunk. His friends came and apologized after the show. I'm used to it.
So what's next…
Going back in the studio. I've found a producer to work with, who I met at *secret venue* that time that you came down. The two of us are on the same wave length. I'm massively into electronic music, always have been. So we're planning something blues, but quite electronic. It will still have the slide element to it. That's why I like working with him. He's done something similar with a couple of people he's worked with and stuff that he's sat and done himself. The idea is the Beck album, Midnight Vultures, which is a fantastic record - that sort of idea. I wanna get away from the traditional blues album. Alex from Swampmother will also be involved, we are writing songs together. She'll be doing backing vocals. She is such an amazing musician, she can hear things no one else can hear. She'll hear what to do. She's an incredibly gifted natural musician, she's the best I know, and the only one I'll listen to.
Anything else you want to throw in here…
I haven't even mentioned that I went to Vegas and married a stripper.
We'll get to that next time. For now, there's more about JD here...
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