And I went to some of those and, of course, after I started taking piano lessons as a kid, I had about a year of piano lessons when I was six, and had demonstrated some talent but, you know, did some recitals and all that stuff and then this woman decided that I was like some kind of special case and she took me on and she was like the greatest piano teacher in the area, but she was a tyrant. And when you’re 6? years old that’s like -- not fun. [Laughter] So, I went from this nice guy that was like, you know, lived about two blocks away that taught little kids piano to this like, you know, harridan, you know, who was like an excellent piano teacher, but only if you were gonna be, you know, Van Clyburn or something. That’s who she took on.

BUZZ: I understand.

MIKE: And so I started, after about a year of that, I wore my parents down – ‘cause I mean most kids when they’re that age aren’t that interested in practicing the piano for an hour every day, you know. So you can take lessons from Mrs. Poop Butt, or whatever her name was, I can’t remember, she was some rich chick that lived in Dayton, but, you know. So, I stopped taking piano lessons by the time I was about 7? .

BUZZ: But you still liked to mess around with the keyboards?

MIKE: Well, I played, well not really, I played a little bit, but I liked to sing and then I started playing drums when I was about 12 and played drums in the band and I started, I had a little trap kit and spent hours listening to popular music of all kinds. Playing my drums in front of this big Motorola, you know, this big monster, you know with the radios and record players in them – they had big sound on them, man, and my parents were amazing tolerant when I think about it. I mean, here I am with a drum kit set up in the living room in front of this thing playing drums for like hours, you know. I don’t know how they put up with it.

BUZZ: So did you do anything structured in High School or did you just – just when you got out ---

MIKE: Oh, I just sang a lot. I sang with quartets and then we got a band together and that’s how I started playing keys again was ‘cause they wanted me to play drums and I pawned my bass drum and – which I used to do occasionally, you know for fifty bucks or something when I needed the money. And they said, well shit, when can you get it back and we need to do this right now and I couldn’t get rid of that for a couple weeks, so they hired some other guy and I said, well, hell, I’ll play the piano. And they said, well you can’t play the piano and I said, well shit he can’t play the drums, you know. [Laughter] So, you know, as good as they were – there was a couple of guys in that band that were good musicians, the rest of us were just like feeling our way along the wall in the dark, you know, in terms of like actual technique and technical ability.

But, it was a great place to begin because we started playing some little jobs and stuff for, you know, the Masonic Temple dance or some shit, you know. Then some indulgent adults would hire us. We played – had about three horn players and no guitar. There was not a guitar player in either one of my classes, junior or senior in High School, no guitar players. And we had like tenor trumpet, baritone sax, piano, bass drums, and we played, you know like, Rhythm and Blues. All these other guys could read, so we’d play like old time shit too, so we could play dances, and that helped me like kind of get a grasp on popular American music theory to some extent.

You know, you play enough kind of Rogers and Hart and Cole Porter tunes and, you know, actually well constructed thoughtful music and you start to get an idea of like how it works, you know. Plus, listening to all the music I listened to at my parent’s house and around where I grew up. Plus, I had the added influence of growing up right next to the Black section of town and I used to play a lot of basketball over at this place, Lincoln Center, it was about 50 yards from my back door and they had the best juke box in the County anyway. It was like that was the Black recreation center and I was like the --- one of the few White guys that would go in there.

BUZZ: What age were you about at that time?

MIKE: That was like Junior High, High School.

BUZZ: Uh-huh. When you got to Kansas U, you indicated you started playing and singing officially in your biography in that point in time, and you met professionally. What type of professional gigs?

MIKE: Just playing in bars and college, you know in KU, and then playing in Kansas City.

BARNCARD:The Red Dog.

MIKE: Yeah, the Red Dog, yeah. In Kansas City, back in those days, I mean, you know, I place like Kansas City or Tulsa or any, you know, Omaha, those places all had lots and lots of places with a lot of big music. You know, I mean, that was when – that was a wonderful era for – for I mean – and prior to that, too, I mean live – live bands were like a big thing. You know, like there were, in Kansas City there were probably 30 places that had bands.

You know, and then there was another 15, 20 places that had trios or duos or, you know, and there was like Jazz bands and Rhythm and Blues bands and Rock-a-Billy bands and you know, Country, Country bands in the same – all through that, that whole belt from like Dallas to Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita, Kansas City, Omaha, all through there, man, there was like great, great, all kinds of great music and a lot of places for, you know, if you were half decent, you know, you could get a job and learn how to play music, I mean really learn, because you can’t really learn much sittin’ in a garage, in spite of what some people will tell you. [Laughter]

BUZZ: For the benefit of those listening, our own Stephen Barncard just came over and sat down, who has a bit of a history with Mike going back to those Kansas days, I understand. So from Kansas you were playing clubs and small gigs and things like that. Was there something that kind of was like a break for you that –

MIKE: Well, we started – we* were working all over the Country, you know, we weren’t just working there. Pretty soon – after I dropped out of school, you know, I had a full basketball scholarship and I was like – I was only there – you know, really, that’s what brought me to Kansas in the first place. I was really attracted to Lawrence where KU is when I first visited there, but I was – that was like just an afterthought, I wasn’t’ really planning on going to school there.

I was gonna go to school in Marquette and I’d pretty much made up my mind and then I visited KU and it was so cool, I just happened to catch it on one of those amazing days in the spring, which can either be like freeze your nuts off or beautiful, and it was beautiful and it’s a really lovely campus and a lot of nice people and – but after I was there a year and was playing ball and got more and more interested in music I, you know, I became pretty convinced that that’s what I wanted to do. Like – as only an 18 year old can be convinced. You know, I was on fire and then we – we started doing that and playing around like I said, but then we started broadening our kind of horizons and we were traveling all over the Country playing.

We were playing in, you know, through the Southwest and in the South and in the Midwest and in the East and we were playing in New York City at this place called the Cheetah in 1968 and Tom Wilson who’s a record producer who had done work with everybody from Miles Davis to Bob Dylan – he heard us playing there and wanted to make a record deal and he got us a – that was like right after the Beatles and people were running around signing bands madly and he got a production deal of some kind with Capital. I’m sure we got boned because we got like ten grand or something and he got the rest and then he produced this album for us which consisted of him sitting in the booth reading the New York Times and us playing – doing live tracks with a seven piece band and live vocals, and him like saying, That was great, do another one. [Laughter]

BUZZ: Before we go any further, who was – you were talking about “we” and “us”, who is the “we” and “us”?

MIKE: This was a band called the Serfs.

BUZZ: The Serfs, okay.

MIKE: Yeah. And then that was who I, you know, was with those guys for about five or six years, it was my band more or less. And it was when I was doing that that I met Jimi Hendrix and while we were making that record we were working at the Record Plant in New York City and so was he and he heard us playing and asked me and a couple of the other guys if they – the tenor player Freddy Smith and this percussionist named Larry Faucet, to join him, you know, that evening ‘cause he wanted to try something with, you know, with that kind of lineup and I was playing organ bass with foot pedals and he thought that would, you know, be an interesting idea to kind of combine the sensibilities of an organ trio, that’s what that’s called, like guitar, organ, drums, no bass and, you know, in a rock n roll/blues kind of format and so, you know, we just did some jammin’ and wound up on Electric Lady Man.

And that – I remember a lot of people that thought, you know, I think people started to take me more seriously then for some – I mean, that’s a certain amount of cache and all of a sudden – Oh, okay, we knew he was good, but I guess, maybe it is – it’s pretty good then. [Laughter]

BUZZ: I was gonna get to the Jimi Hendrix experience in a second. You’ve played with an amazing list – played or recorded with – performed or recorded with – an amazing list of people. For the benefit for those who are listening and finding a little bit about you for the first time, I’m going to read most of them out loud right now, because it’s incredible.

MIKE: Good, because I can’t remember.

BUZZ: Yeah, Jim Hendrix, Dave Mason, Maria Muldaur, Dr. Hook, Allen Tousant, Dr. John, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Frampton, Bobby Lomack, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Eddy Money, Leonard Cohen, Santana, Fogelberg, Rod Stewart, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and it goes on and on, Joe Walsh, Michael O’Donald, Taj Mahal, Billy Bob Thornton and Crosby, Stills, Nash, it’s an incredible list of people that you’ve recorded with. Jackson Brown’s on the list, too, Manhattan Transfer, Poison, I mean it’s –

MIKE: Poison, yeah, how’d they get in there.

BUZZ: I don’t know.

MIKE: I did James Addiction last year, too.

BUZZ: Yeah, it’s there. Amazing. Was there anything --- how many gigs did you do with Hendrix?

MIKE: Just that one, just that one session.

BUZZ: Uh-huh.

MIKE: He – I was contacted sometime after that about possibly doing something around the time he was doing the Band of Gypsy’s thing, some guy, some management guy contacted me about, you know, exploring the possibility of maybe doing some gigs with him and it wasn’t too long after that that he died.

BUZZ: Um-huh.

MIKE: ‘Cause he wanted to get in – he wanted to get a band with a B3 and, you know, I would have been happy to do it.

BARNCARD: . . . that thing with Gill Evans that he was about to do – was that the same . .

MIKE: I can’t remember.

BUZZ: Did you have a similar type experience with Big Brother?

MIKE: Big Brother was a different deal that was after I moved to California. And that was not too long after Janis had died and they were, you know, they wanted to – they were interested in my singing and my organ playing. ‘Cause they’d always been a guitar band.

BUZZ: Right.

MIKE: They were pretty rough, you know, those guys, I mean they weren’t like – that’s like going from you know the sublime to the ridiculous when you’re talking about Jimi Hendrix and then Big Brother ---

BUZZ: Right.

MIKE: I mean, one’s like – you know, there’s like, you know, amazing innovative technical mastery and like barely playing. [Laughter]

BARNCARD: Especially without Janis.

MIKE: Oh, yeah, I mean Janis was the whole thing.

BARNCARD: Yeah.

MIKE: But, those guys were really good dudes, but they were like real rough, you know, raw. And they, but they still had a big following in the Bay area and they were working a lot and – they just – I just played a bunch of gigs and worked on a couple albums with them, I think, and it was like – it was a good thing because it didn’t require any, like, commitment, like – you’re in. You know, it was like, Can you play with us sometimes? And I went, Yeah, sometimes I can. [Laughter]

BUZZ: Aside from CSN, which we’ll get to in a minute, can you tell us any particular stories or things about any of these people that kind of really stand out?

MIKE: Oh, I could tell you stories about all of them, you know, but ---

BUZZ: Real highlights.

MIKE: It’s like, it’s just – I mean, you know, I mean, like you said, I’ve been doin’ this for 40 years, I’ve played with a pretty amazing array of talent and I think maybe, you know, what stands – one of the things that just popped into my head was like working with Jerry Wexler, who’s one of the guys who founded Atlantic Records with Ahmet Ertegun, and his history was pretty impressive and because of my background and how much I loved Rhythm and Blues and, you know, he called me out of nowhere to do an album with me.

He just called me on the phone and said this is Jerry Wexler, I like the way you sing and I’d like to do something with you. And, I thought somebody was putting me on. It’s like – it would have been like somebody like sayin’ – you know, this is, you know, Jesus Christ – diggin’ your deal, baby. [Laughter] You know, l like, I actually thought it was like – but being around Jerry Wexler was really a wonderful experience because of his history with so many wonderful artists. Like everybody from Ray Charles to Aretha Franklin to Soloman Burk, on and on.

His experience and his humor and his – he was a terrific . . . on tour and had a fabulous memory and a great story teller, I mean, the guy was just ---- and a wonderful producer and just a joy to be around, you know. He took me to Muscle Shoals and did an album there. I’ve done a few albums of my own and with other groups that I was involved with, but that was like a particular highlight for me, simply because of his status within the industry and within, you know, at the upper reaches of popular American music importance, you know what I mean, because of his – I mean, he found Ray Charles. [Laughter] You know, like --- and, you know, just being – you know starting a label in the 40’s like that which was like essentially before black music was accessible in the white markets and, you know --- I mean and being responsible for like introducing Rhythm and Blues, what they called Race Records and stuff like that, to a wider audience and being a pioneer and just all that stuff and just being close to him and consider him, you know, counting him as a friend.

I still talk to him – and, he’s like one of the real highlights of my – of my career. Just – because hell, I could – in an afternoon, I could hear 50 stories that, you know, will have me laughing my ass off and, you know --- Is that right, I didn’t know he wore a girdle —you know [Laughter]

BUZZ: So how did you end up – or how did CSN find you or how did you end up with them?

MIKE: Well, I was playing with Maria Muldaur --- we had a really good band in those days, too. Earl Palmer who was playing drums and he had done all the Little Richard records and Fats Domino records, he was a New Orleans drummer and he’s still alive – he was a veteran back then, but that was in the like late 70’s, ’77, ’78 around in there and a bunch of other really fine musicians, but we played at Summerfest in Milwaukee.

BUZZ: Right.

MIKE: And that had only been going on for a few years, I think, at that time, and Amos Garrett was this guitar player with Maria who’s a really interesting musician, amazing stylist, and he was a friend of Stephen’s and ---

BUZZ: Stephen Stills?

MIKE: Yeah, Stephen Stills. And Stephen was playing with like Chris Hillman and a couple of guys, I think it was kind of a folkie kind of vibe and, I can’t remember for sure, but I remember Amos introducing me to Stephen and we hung out and got to know each other a little bit that afternoon and about two or three months after that I got a call about 9:00 one night and it was Stephen and he said, Hey, I’m down here at the Record Plant and I wanna cut a track, do you wanna come down and play? And, I said, Sure, and I said, 9:00, its kind a late to start a session. I didn’t know Stephen then. [Laughter]

BUZZ: Which Record Plant was that?

MIKE: The old one that was down in LA on ---

BUZZ: Okay.

MIKE: It was on Santa Monica, I think then, right.

BARNCARD: Yeah, . . . California.

MIKE: Yeah. The one with the Buddy Miles whirlpool in it, you know, the hot tub, the old one, you know –

BARNCARD: The hot tub and the rack, right?

MIKE: Right.

BUZZ: And what record was it that you cut? Can you remember?

MIKE: I can’t remember, we cut a track and I don’t – I don’t remember what it was, it --- I can’t even tell you if it wound up on one of his albums or not. But, that was the first time I worked with him and – and then that began our relationship and we, you know, I worked with him off and on for the next several months and then – I was working on an album, I believe, I mean this is going back, and then he put a band together and asked me to join the band, the California Blues Band and – with Bonnie Bramlett and some other people. And through Stephen I met David and Graham, ultimately, you know, naturally, and then started, you know giggin’ with them.

BUZZ: And when was your first tour with CSN?

MIKE: I believe it was 1979.

BUZZ: Okay. During that time ---

MIKE: Somewhere in there – it was either ’78, ’79, ’80 – somewhere in there. I should know these things.

BUZZ: Well, they got back together, I guess, in ’77 with the Sailboat Album, CSN, and so then that would have been right about between that and when ---

MIKE: Whenever. I didn’t do that album, I mean, I didn’t do that album, but then I – and, after I started playing with them live I did all their albums, all the CSN albums after that, too.

BUZZ: Probably started out with Daylight Again.

MIKE: Could be.

BARNCARD: Should ask about David’s forgotten, lost album because Michael was very instrumental in that.

MIKE: What’s that?

BARNCARD: David’s solo album – 1980.

MIKE: Oh, right.

BARNCARD: . . . “Might as Well Have A Good Time” and . . .

MIKE: I can’t remember if I was involved in that or not.

BARNCARD: You played on a lot of them.

MIKE: Did I?

BARNCARD: Yeah, you were all over them, the early stuff.

MIKE: I should know – well, that’s when it was – when Crosby was one of the only guys sicker than me. [Laughter] Which, as I told you, made it a lot easier to be ill. When you’re quite ill, if you’re around someone who’s more ill than you, it’s like – I’m fine.

BARNCARD: You guys had a song – Give Me A Bump.

MIKE: That’s right – yeah.

BUZZ: I was just coming to that, you know, I saw –

MIKE: I’m anticipating you, man, I’m out in front of you.

BUZZ: I know you are – darn.

MIKE: I’m doin – I’m fuckin’ up the interview here. If you were Regis Philman, you’d hit with a ruler or something.

BUZZ: Well, you know, I gave you a couple hints back there in Delaware last month.

MIKE: Yeah.

BUZZ: But, you know, I saw – I’ve seen several times, a bunch of times the video where you did Barrel Of Pain and In The Daylight Again video.

MIKE: Right.

BUZZ: And David was probably getting close to being at his lowest point ---

MIKE: Yeah, I happened to see some of that recently and it was pretty – pretty shocking to see, you know – you know – I thought – gee, usually they put dirt on dead people, you know, I mean, he looked like death on a corner eatin’ a Lifesaver.

BUZZ: But, there were some shiny moments, I thought, you know, his performance.

MIKE: Oh, there were, that’s what’s amazing.

BUZZ: Yeah.

MIKE: Shining through there – I mean, like, that’s what’s incredible.

BUZZ: Daylight –Delta, for instance.

MIKE: Oh, that was beautiful.

BUZZ: Yeah, absolutely gorgeous. So, how, you know, without getting – I’m not gonna ask you any personal things concerning David or – but, mostly from what could be . . . . by most folks, how bad really was it?

MIKE: It was bad. I mean, you know, the – that was a dark period in my life, too. It took me, I sobered up right – about six months after he went to prison, I think.

BUZZ: Uh-huh.

MIKE: I wrote to him in prison, he saved the letters, he gave them to me. I guess not too many people were writing to him. [Laughter] But, you know, it was bad because, you know, it was like the way that kind of thing happens is like, you know, I mean – you know – all anybody was tryin’ to do was have a little fun. And like marijuana and other kinds of drugs and stuff had always been part of the musical milieu all the way back, you know, I mean in popular American music there’s always been, you know, I mean anybody that was halfway hip had smoked a joint or at least had been around enough to say, no thanks. And, you know, that one thing leading to another and like, you know, it’s just ignorance and, you know, like overreaching. You know, like you start off – it starts off as just trying to have a little fun and then next thing you know what used to be a luxury has become a necessity. You know, and you’re not only – you’re not just drinking or using drugs because you want to, you’re doing it ‘cause you have to, you know, you’ve become, you know an addict. That’s what happened to me – it’s what happened to David, it’s not what I wanted to have happen, but that’s what happened, you know.

BUZZ: And I guess that’s something that affects everybody around you daily as long –

MIKE: Oh, yeah, absolutely, it’s like a giant eraser, you know, it’s like, you know everything that matters to you, it comes along right behind you and erases it gradually, you know, its like – family, oh we can take care of that, we can erase that, you know it cost me a lot in terms of my professional life, too. I screwed up a lot of opportunities that I had in that period, solo deal with Columbia Records and another group thing with Les Dudek and Jim Krieger and I mean I made some bad decisions and based on, you know, using an addict brain, you know and not making, you know just not being smart and not – it had replaced music as the most important thing in my life.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s what happened. And because of that it cost me, you know, I mean, I don’t regret it too much, I only regret it in the sense that, you know, it did harm some other people that were involved with me, but you know the trade off is now that, you know the dark past allows me to be useful to other people that are going through the same thing. You know, in other words, like my experiences – what I – allows me to talk to other people that are in trouble and they know that I know what I’m talking about and with – you know, that’s a tool I can use to reach somebody so they can maybe not have to die, you know.

BUZZ: I understand you’ve been very active and as a matter of fact, I’m going to quote David I know from – you know I interviewed both David and James, and I know from those interviews that James when he found out that David was his birth father first sought out you at the same time that his father had written a letter to David and David said, quoting David, “Yeah – he knew somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody and he got to Mike and said, you know, well, what, you know, what do you think? And Mike said – oh, yeah. Mike was my sponsor for many, many years – many years. And Mike said absolutely you need to talk to him, he needs to talk to you. He wants to talk to you. I know personally, for sure, he wants to talk to you and he needs to talk to you and you guys need to – need each other . God bless Mike ‘cause he was totally right, of course.”

MIKE: [Laughter] Well, that was a no brainer.

BUZZ: Yeah.

MIKE: I mean, James was obviously totally sincere in what he wanted – why he wanted to see David, I got it, you know, intuitively I knew he wasn’t some guy lookin’ for a handout or something, you know what I mean.

BUZZ: Right.

MIKE: He struck me as a very, you know, emotionally mature guy and, you know, and had a career and was like, you know, he was just – he just wanted to find out about where he came from, you know.

BUZZ: So James was able to get a hold of you and you guys met, I suppose?

MIKE: Well, no, actually we didn’t meet for awhile. We first just had a real long conversation and I just said, tell you what I’m gonna do – well, he was sensitive enough to know not to just come poppin’ up out of the sidewalk and go Hi, you know.

BUZZ: Right.

MIKE: And I told him I’d talk to David, which I did, and then, you know, told David how they could connect, and I’m not sure who made the first move after that. I don’t remember exactly if I told James it would be all right for him to call or if David reached out to him, I’m not sure how that worked.

BUZZ: Well, what actually happened was that at the same time that was goin’ on, David got a letter from James’ parents, who was explained the whole story to him.

MIKE: Oh, is that right? I didn’t know that.

BUZZ: Yeah. And so it kind of all came together at the same time.

MIKE: I know he was in the hospital waiting for a liver transplant at the time.

BUZZ: That’s right.

MIKE: So, I thought, you know, this might be your last chance.

BUZZ: That’s exactly correct and as it turned out it wasn’t within a week or two after the surgery that they met for the first time. You’ve been with CSN now for 20 – what 25 years?

MIKE: Yeah, since, like --- yeah.

BUZZ: Twenty-six –

MIKE: Twenty-five, six years, yeah, long time.

BUZZ: And most of the those years there’s been a tour – what do you got going when you’re not touring with them? You have other gigs going?

MIKE: Oh, yeah, a lot. I play – oh, I been playing with, you know, doing a lot of -- you know, over the years done a lot of sessions with other people and worked a lot with Taj Mahal and worked a lot with Etta James and different people, you know, Michael McDonald and, you know, touring with different people when, you know – I’ve been pretty lucky in –

BUZZ: And I understand you have a lot of TV and radio spots.

MIKE: Yeah, I used to do a lot of that. I used to do – there’s not as much now because there’s advertising stand, but I used to do a lot of commercials, singing commercials – and, I still do them sometimes. Hell, I missed a couple on this damn tour. You know, you get called to sing – I mean, I hate missing those National spots, you know, that mailbox money is good ‘cause it keeps you – keeps you in health insurance, you know, if you do enough of them, but –

BUZZ: Cigar money.

MIKE: Yeah, cigar money and that and working in TV and I used to do a lot – I’ve done a lot of work for networks and --- as far as like writing original music and for promotion and I’ve done – sung a lot of – several main titles for television shows and film, you know, film work, you know, as far as playing Hammond on scores and stuff like that and workin’ on other people, you know, doin’ sessions for other people’s albums and producing. You know, I’ve done production on a couple of things. Lately I’ve done – did an album with the Phantom Blues Band, which was the – we were the band Taj Mahal’s playing for quite a few years and one – in 2001 we were the Blues Band of the year, we won the WC Handy Award as the Blues Band of the Year, so we – you know, I keep my hand in doing other things.

And, it’s good, you know, it makes it more, you know the more you can do, the more varied experience you can have the better you become. A steady diet, I mean, as much as I love playing with Crosby, Stills and Nash, that’s like just a niche kind of thing, you know, it’s a certain kind of a job for me, I mean, I do a lot of singing with them, but I don’t sing any singing like I sing, you know, ‘cause I can sing, you know. But, with them it’s like I sing what I’m supposed to sing and that’s being a professional, you know, it doesn’t bother me, but I wouldn’t want to do it all the time.

You know what I mean, it’s like, you know, it’s like professional experience is like doin’ things – there’s a certain satisfaction of being able to fit yourself into whatever the niche is and take care of business, you know, and not like – not do too much, not do too little, do what you’re supposed to do, you know – like, hey, you got the job, you know, you don’t have to impress anybody. [Laughter]

BARNCARD: Mike’s gotta sing the Blues anyway.

MIKE: Yeah, that’s right.

BARNCARD: Yeah, and if you’ve never heard the Blues – like, he sings the Blues, man.

BUZZ: Well, I saw Barrel Of Pain and, you know, I have an idea.

BARNCARD: Stills will give you a shot once in awhile, but I mean –

MIKE: Oh, yeah, when I work for Stephen solo I get to sing. Yeah, I would, but I understand that, I mean, you know playing with these guys there’s enough – they’re doin’ a two hour, two hour and a-half show, there’s three of them up there, people were there to see CSN, they don’t need to be giving anybody any star turns, you know. It’s not about that, you know. And I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been able to work with these guys for so long, because it, you know, a lot of great music and wonderful experiences and really good people, you know. I mean, there’s not a better person in the world than Graham, I mean he’s got to be – he’s one of the nicest guys there is you know, genuinely nice man. And David and Stephen are certainly, you know, characters in their own right, you know, not that they’re not nice, but they’re not, you know, they’re nice some of the time, Graham’s nice all the time. [Laughter]

BUZZ: That’s kind of bringing me up to today, ‘cause this year’s a little bit different from last year.

MIKE: But, Stephen’s my best – one of my best friends.

BUZZ: I understand that.

MIKE: You know, he really is, I mean I love that guy, he’s my – my daughter’s godfather and we’ve got a history and – he and my wife have got a relationship that’s amazing, you know. Don’t misunderstand me, but she – he really trusts her, he talks to her about shit every once in awhile. You know, like six months after the fact I’ll say, well, this, this and this, and she’s – yeah, well he called me about that -- he was concerned about that – oh, really.

BUZZ: I’d like to talk a little bit about this year’s tour for a minute if we can, Mike, ‘cause, you know, we had the addition of a couple new band members, which –

MIKE: Yeah.

BUZZ: I know gave you less room on the bus, but ---

MIKE: [Laughter]

BUZZ: What’s your impression of this year’s tour?

MIKE: I think it’s been fabulous. I think it’s been really, really a good – a good thing, a positive thing. I think, you know, my only concern – I’d worked with Jeff Pevar when I played in Connecticut with this big Rhythm and Blues review called the Mohegan Sun All Stars and we worked together – I’ve probably done ten or fifteen shows with him with that band at the Mohegan Sun Casino and that’s like – so, and I’d worked with him before with Mark Cohn I think for a television show years before that when I first met him. But, then I worked with him many, many times, so I knew about – I knew about his ability and what a good musician he is and, of course, I was familiar with him with CPR, but before that and James I always admired and besides he fantastic musical talent he’s a really nice guy.

Easy to be around, very – that’s important, you know, ‘cause like you said less room on the bus, you know, if you’re living in a small condominium it’s always good to have somebody besides homemade sons of bitches in the condo, you know. [Laughter] And so, you know, but there was – I think there was a little bit of – I think everybody – I think it took a little bit of guts to do it, because, you know, who knows what’s gonna happen, especially in terms of like how Stephen might react to –

BUZZ: Another guitar?

MIKE: Yeah, another guitar player and how it’s gonna sound, you know, it requires everybody to play with more, I mean --- you know, I play less now, you know there’s only so much room sonically, so, you know, hopefully everybody’s gonna like look around the bandstand and go --- Ah, more people….. play less. [Laughter]

BARNCARD: You were doin’ like two keyboards a lot of times, you were doin’ the pads and ---

MIKE: There was a lot of stuff, but, you know – yeah that too and – which I don’t mind, I don’t mind playing less. I like playing less and more thoughtfully and having to, you know, being able to just, you know, it makes it better, but it’s really injected a lot – a new energy, I think, into the show. I think the most prominent change, I think, has been – well there’s been several, but I think the most noticeable difference is, I think having Jeff has made Stephen more conscious of his role. And, consequently he, you know, there’s a tendency, you know, you’re doing this for a long time, years and years, I mean you can’t be at your best every night, but I think he’s been playing – I think he’s had the most consistent tour I’ve seen him have in years in terms of his playing, you know, he shows – he shows up every night, man, he doesn’t phone it in ever ‘cause if he does he’ll get run over. [Laughter]

BUZZ: I think I have to agree with that. I’ve seen about a dozen shows as of the moment and it’s really been a great one. There’s something else that’s kind of new this year because there used to be a lot of criticism amongst the, at least the internet family, about the fact that they were – that CSN had become more of an oldies act than anything else and this new material has ---

MIKE: Well, yeah, the new material is really good to do, too, but the fact is – its like they could be an oldies act like no other oldies act if they, with the amount of material they have, like Crosby was talking today about taking this – a tune, one of the new tunes out that we’d done the last few nights, Luck Dragon, and – ‘cause he’d like to see them do So Begins the Task or Daylight Again or – then we went on and named about, you know, fifteen tunes and I mean, you know, they could do – you know, what I would like to see, an oldies act, shit, you know, it’s not oldies when they’re fuckin’ great songs.

I mean, if you’re doing – if you really use the whole book and their whole book is staggering. And, it’s like, it’s not a matter of, you know, the criticism would be – it is legitimate when they’re only playing, you know, a fraction of what their book involves, you know. And that’s what they used to do. They, you know, they would be --- there was no need for that, you know, obviously there’s a – you have to have – you have to be cognizant of putting together a show that works that you can generally count on as being effective, but, there still could always be some interchangeable parts where you could, you know, where you wouldn’t have to be confined to, you know, these 25 songs.

BUZZ: Right.

MIKE: You could always, you know, rotate five new ones in and out every couple of nights. You could say, okay, these guys are going to the bench and these five are coming out. But, I think, that’s legitimate what you said and I think, but – even doing that the way, even if they did what I just suggested, which is not, you know, any secret, I’ve talked to them about it and they didn’t believe me. [Laughter] But, I think there’s a certain kind of re-energizing force at work, you know, as there is with any musician when, you know, you’re performing new material, you know, you’re more excited about that, it keeps you more interested. You know, it doesn’t matter how well or even if you haven’t don’t Daylight Again or whatever it is for a certain period of time, it does take on a certain newness again, certainly, but it doesn’t take on as much newness as something that’s really new, new.

BUZZ: Right.

MIKE: And, you know, I think it’s really helped the band and I know it’s helped David and Graham, at least their attitude, to be able to perform new material and, you now, good material.

BUZZ: And have audiences give them standing ovations.

MIKE: Oh, and get great responses from it, too, you know. And, like, that’s the – that’s – you know that’s the kind of platform that, you know, they can take advantage of their status as, you know – I mean, audiences will have a certain amount of patience for new material as long as you, you know, introduce it --- it’s interspersed with stuff that’s recognizable. If you tried to do a whole night like that, they wouldn’t like it. You know, but there is certainly is a balance between, you know, doing stuff – keeping them comfortable with, you know, a certain amount of older material and then – here’s this. And then people they’re more, you know, they’ll accept that. Coming from people they already know they like and -- like and admire that, you know, they’re gonna be more apt to listen with an open mind than they would with – to anybody else, you know. Don’t you think?

BUZZ: Absolutely agree. It’s been really, to me, refreshing this year to ---

MIKE: Oh, me too. I dig it, you know, plus the fact on some of this stuff Stephen isn’t playing and that helps I think because then he can – he can rest, you know. ‘Cause like he, a lot of the high energy – higher energy type stuff that we do he’s involved in and, you know, well, lets face it, he’s not in the best shape of any human I know, and, you know, he’ll do – he does a better job if he has a chance to take a breather every, you know --- he’s got about two or three times during the set where he can like take three minutes to catch his breath and relax, I think that’s useful, you know.

BUZZ: Mike, this tour is almost over, like about two more weeks and you got some time off. What do you have on the horizon?

MIKE: Hurricanes – no [laughter]. I’m gonna work with Etta James again, like I said I’ve been working with Etta off and on for 20 years, too. Etta’s really great because she, you know, she used to – I was her musical director for a couple years in the late 80’s when these guys – they didn’t do anything for awhile. And, I’m gonna start working with her again, and she’s really great because she was working some this summer and last summer, too, and I did – I missed some of it, but she has a guy that plays piano and organ with her, unless I’m available, and then he plays piano and I play organ, and she is absolutely great because she said - I want you playing with me when you can and if you can’t – she knows it’s, you know, like – Hey, that’s a better gig than I can give you. [Laughter] And she’s cool with that, you know, and so I’m gonna work with her and I’m gonna do another Phantom Blues Band album and I’m gonna go do something called the Blues Cruise, which is about ten blues acts on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

BUZZ: When is that?

MIKE: That’s in January.

BUZZ: In January, well, we’ll have to put a plug in for it.

MIKE: Yeah.

BUZZ: That sounds like a lot of fun.

MIKE: Yeah, man, I’ll send it to you. It’s like – I think it’s already sold out. But, I think – No, I think, know what I heard – I think they got a bigger boat, so it’s not sold out. But, it’s cool, I’ve done a couple of them and it’s really a cool deal.

BUZZ: That’d be a lot of fun. Well, listen, I want to thank you – they’re about to open the gates here and let the people come in to see you play tonight, but I want to thank you for taking an hour of your time and spending it with us, and it’s been a pleasure.

MIKE: Thank you for asking me. I’m always -- you know, I’m happy to do it. Anybody that wants to talk to me, I’m, you know, like – Hey, Sonny, listen to me. [Laughter]

BUZZ: And thank you, Stephen, for stopping by and joining us also.

MIKE: Yeah, Stephen!!