Paradise. Not too bad a start!
I had no idea that you’d done so many interviews. Sounds famil- iar. You had the opportunity of interviewing one of my all-time musical heroes, David Bowie. What do you recall about David? In late 1972, I met a fellow named Jim Godown, who published a monthly Memphis rag called The River City Re- view, and I became Music Editor. It was there that I really started doing a lot of writing: interviews, record re- views, live reviews, etc. Besides The River City Review, the only print out- lets in Memphis at that time were the two daily papers, and they didn’t really cover music then unless your name was Elvis Pres- ley. Consequently, for any shows that were coming into Memphis, we were the only game in town. Also, I had befriended Bob Kelley, whose Mid-South Concerts was bringing the majority of touring rock shows into Memphis and I became the producer of his radio com- mercials for these shows. Bob would give me the copy, I’d pick out the music and then go over to the 2 or 3 radio stations in town he used to promote his shows, and supervise the cutting of the radio spots for these concerts. Between the fall of 1972 and July, 1974, if you were coming into Memphis to play and had
Col. Bruce Hampton, Tommy Talton and Mark Pucci, 2012.
something to promote, you talked with me. That included David Bowie, who took Mem- phis by storm back then. We were one of the first markets outside of New York or L.A. to really embrace Bowie’s music, thanks prima- rily to airplay on WMC-FM 100 in Memphis. So when Bowie came over for his Ziggy Star- dust tour in 1973, Memphis was one of the first dates. It was the first time I interviewed any artist in a press conference situation, with a few other writers from the region in atten- dance. All of this was greatly controlled and manipulated by his English manager at the time, Tony Defries. But Bowie was gracious & a cool interview. At a party afterward, my wife Pat got to meet & hang out with Angie Bowie, too.
Prior to that, I also did my first inter- Dickey Betts and Mark at Capricorn.
view with Billy Gibbons when ZZ Top played Memphis for the first time, and we became good friends. I interviewed him every time they played Memphis until I left to go to work for Capricorn in Macon in July, 1974. Some of my other interviews for The River City Review back then included Gregg Allman, Elton John, Howlin’ Wolf, New York Dolls, Robin Trower, Big Star, Ted Nugent, Mitch Mitchell, Rick Wakeman, Greg Lake, Steve Cropper, Tracy Nelson, Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople, and Captain Beyond.
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