KEYSOUNDSKEYSOUNDSKEYSOUNDS


Far left, former Poco rock’n’roller Paul Cotton


come out to the West Coast, that’s where you need to be seen,’ and he had us as the house band at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Chicago.


GD: Tat’s a club.? PC: Yes, Whiskey A-Go-Go. It’s a chain throughout the country, I think. Tere’s one in New York as well. I ran into Jimmy Hendricks. He gave me a bear hug after one of the shows and said, ‘Paul, don’t ever stop writing those kind of songs.’ Pete Townshend showed up in the dressing room. Tis was after “Tommy.” He was kind of hud- dling, because he’s a shy guy. He was huddling in the corner of the dressing room and says ‘you mates need any songs?’ And we were a huge Who fan.


GD:Was he meaning he had songs that he wanted you to perform? PC: Yeah, he had extras that we might be able to do justice.


GD: Did you have a record deal at that time when you were out in L.A. with Illinois Speed Press? PC: Almost immediately it seemed. Yeah, we were all set to get signed to Colombia Records through James William Guercio, who also discovered the band Chicago. We were actually next door neighbors, all of us. We were all on one street in Hollywood, if you could imagine the noise, the cacophony of it.


GD: Can we talk about the parties? PC: Oh yes, and I was trying to raise my son in that environment. He became a drummer, still is. But yeah, we went right to Colombia Records for two albums.


GD: So you’re developing songs and writing songs. PC: 1967, yeah.


GD: How do you feel you were as a songwriter at that time? Continued


KONK Life 7


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