Great! And so I haven’t smoked since. Believe it or not, I’m really good friends with Howard Stern...
Good. Yeah. He is a hoot.
I sent him a copy of the album. Actually I sent him two songs, right? I sent him the opening song “Left By the Roadside to Die” and there’s an instrumental called, “The Stern Warning” on it. He gave me the idea because he called me one day he says, “On your first Mountain album, I heard an acoustic song, what was the basis of that?” I said, “The basis for that was Felix told me if I wrote a song with this beautiful Guild twelve-string acoustic, I could keep the guitar. So he gave me the guitar. I sent these two tracks to Howard and he wrote me back just the other day and he says, “Just awesome as usual. Un- like an athlete that loses the power as they get older, you seem to get better and better.” Is that rock and roll? “You’ve got rock & roll down to a science.”
That is great! That is perfect! It’s just that you were talking about the power… I’ve noticed my voice, it’s gotten much more powerful since I stopped smoking even though, you know, people tell me, “Wow! It sounds so strong!” But I’m telling you that’s the reason, man.
Oh, that’s great. That is so great. I’d probably still have my leg if I hadn’t smoked, but you know, at least it wasn’t my hands.
Yeah, that’s the truth. Well, I was also glad that on the album you paid tribute to Ben E. King by doing “Stand By Me.” I wanted to ask you to tell us about that young lady with the sweet voice who’s singing on there, who is that? She’s just years old, she’s my niece.
Oh. She’s very sweet- sounding. And the jux- taposition between your voice and hers is just great. I thought that would work. I thought that would work. Her father wrote some songs with me on my last album, Un- usual Suspects. And what, she was like 13 then, and she was singing Broadway show tunes. I said, “Well, why don’t you just try singing this? I’ll sing the chorus, you sing the song.” And Ben E. King lived. He lived about one town away from me. He just recently died…another guy that died. Well, hey listen man, I really appreciate you
doing this. I’ve got to go off and take care of something. Believe it or not, I’ve got to go to the doctor’s for some blood work but.
Well, let me ask you one more thing, just a little favor. It was a good friend of mine back in the early 70’s that turned me on to Mountain and Cream, and I just wanted you to say “hey” to him. His name is Doug Hooper and without him I would have never discov- ered Mountain and all these years of great music. Sure man. Doug Hooper, I think I have you to thank for turning me on to your friend, and I appreciate it a lot man, thanks.
Oh, thank you so much. Leslie, thank you for your time, and I wish you con- tinued good health and keep on rockin’, man, this is one of the best al- bums I’ve heard in a long time. That’s really nice man. I appreciate it. Take care Michael. •
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