INTERVIEW WITH RICK DUFAY APRIL 21, 2001  

Questions by ANDY CRAVEN
(Special Thanks to Terry Rains a.k.a. TED for arranging the interview and transcribing Rick's answers)

AC:  Rick, thanks for agreeing to this interview!  Could you start by telling our readers a little about your early life history and how you got into music?
RD:  I was born in Paris, France and moved to NY with my mom when I was 2 ½ years old.  My mom loved to play the piano and she also wrote songs.  I remember falling asleep under the piano while listening to her play.  Jack (Douglas) still has that very same piano at his place.  My mom also played the ukulele and taught me some basic chords on it.  I got my first guitar in 1962.

When I was about 10, my mom got a job in the music department at Prentice Hall in NJ (a book publisher) so we moved into a small apartment in Englewood Village.  She wrote songs for them including one that did quite well, ‘I've Got A Singing Heart’.  I learned the basics of how to put a song together from my mom.  Within a couple of years she married my stepfather and we moved into a house just down the hill from Tony Bennett's place.  I used to sneak up to their house and spy on them for fun.  There was this one huge room that had been converted into a music rehearsal room for the kids and I was amazed at all of the cool equipment they had - Marshalls, Les Pauls, etc.  One day, the Bennett brothers, Danny and Daegel (Tony's sons), caught me spying on them.  They invited me in, thinking I was a member of a local gang.  We quickly became good friends and Danny taught me a lot about playing guitar.  I remember the impact of seeing the Beatles on TV in 1964.  I had a little garage band, The RMD 3’s, that consisted of two guitar players and a bass player (no drums).  I eventually joined Danny and Daegel's band, Stone Chalice, and finally got my first paying gig while with them.  I got to do maybe two or three songs at each gig.  A few of us played for our high school assembly one time.  A lot of kids knew I played guitar, but I got a lot more respect for it after that show.  I later joined Pegasus and we too had a pretty decent following.

Through the Bennett brothers, I met and started dating Michele Anthony, daughter of legendary manager Dee Anthony (Tony Bennett, Joe Cocker, Traffic, Spooky Tooth, King Crimson, Ten Years After, J. Geils Band, Humble Pie, Peter Frampton, Gary Wright, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Savoy Brown, Devo, etc.). Michele went on to law school and represented such bands as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Guns & Roses before landing her present position as Executive Vice President SONY Music Entertainment.  A small world isn't it?  She ends up helping put together Aerosmith's most recent deal with SONY.

My first concert was Ten Years After at the Filmore East.  I got to go backstage and meet Alvin Lee.  At that moment I knew I was on the right path, things just smelled right.  I spent countless hours listening to and learning to play every Clapton and Hendrix lick I could.  Although I learned to read music in school, I preferred to learn and play by ear.

I left home at 17 and went out on the road with various blues bands including one called Modesty Blaze.  My first manager was the infamous Bill Graham.  He gave me a lot of inspiration but not a lot of his time, so with his blessing, I signed on with Landers and Roberts.  Soon after, Jack heard a tape of my demos and we teamed up to record Tender Loving Abuse.

AC:  Who were your early guitar influences?
RD:  Albert King, B.B. King, Hendrix, Clappo, Alvin Lee, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.  I also loved the way Leslie West slapped around a guitar in Mountain.  And a guy named Mick Abrahams.  He was in Jethro Tull and then formed Bloodwyn Pig.  He truly had his own slant on guitar.  Check out a few of the Bloodwyn Pig tracks if you can find them.

AC:  You released your debut album ‘Tender Loving Abuse’ in 1980.  This album has long since been out of print...could you tell us a bit about this release?
RD:  It barely got released, more like it escaped.  Jack heard a demo and needed a job.  We met and became best friends right away.  Our friendship has endured it all - life, death, drugs, great times, bad times and truly silly times.  He's currently producing an album for Local H. Anyway, shady types were running the asylum at the time of that release.  I was naive, loud, confident and wrong a lot in those days, as to how I went about business and whom I did business with.  Polydor wanted me to sign directly to them after that album, but I was persuaded to join the Aero camp instead.  Who knows, if I had success at that time on my own, I might have been unbearable and maybe even dead by now.  But hangin' out with a bigger asshole and bigger drug user than me is likely what kept me alive.

AC:  I believe it was the first album to be digitally recorded - correct?
RD:  No, actually Ry Cooder did the first one.  It really worked for him because sonically, digital could handle his type of music better.  My stuff was too extreme.  We had nothing but trouble with it.  It was, however, the first so called "rock album" to be recorded digitally.

AC:  You are good friends with producer Jack Douglas who produced many great rock acts including Aerosmith, John Lennon, Cheap Trick and Slash's Snakepit to name a few.  Did this relationship lead to you meeting Aerosmith prior to joining?
RD:  I had met Steven at a club in NY about a year before.  He noticed me cause I was hangin' out with Ronnie Wood a lot then.  Ronnie, Jack and I were never up to much good but we did have a lot of fun.  Steven had to know who this guy was who was "hangin' out with a Rolling Stone" as he put it.  Then through Jack, I came back to haunt him a year later when none of the guys they had tried out to replace Brad [Whitford] worked out.  I probably still haunt Steven to this day.  

[RICK & TOM HAMILTON - AEROSMITH 1982/3]

AC:  What do you remember of your first meeting with Steven Tyler and the rest of the guys in the band?
RD:  Steven and I had an arm wrestle that night at the club.  In our own way, we were sizing each other up I guess.  I met the rest of them a year later where they were rehearsing.  Me, Tom and Joey got on after a short while.  It was Joey who called me and said "Hey Doof, get your ass down here."  I wasn't sure if I even wanted the gig - they weren't much of a band at that point really.  More like three factions - Tom/Joey, Jimmy and then Steven.  When I joined, I think it gave them all something in common to complain about besides each other.  That, plus the fact that I didn't take any shit from Steven.  I probably gave him as much, if not more, than he gave me.  I think the other guys liked that.  I would annoy them all from time to time though.  Jimmy and I were like oil and water in every way.  It's as if he was allergic to me.  I could see it the first time I met him.  He was thinking "Oh no, this guy is as big of an asshole as Steven is and I have to try and play guitar with him and share a stage with him uuugggghhh…one is enough!"  Tom showed me more guitar parts than Jimmy ever did.  Jimmy didn't like my style too much, as a person more than anything else.

AC:  The Aerosmith album 'Rock In A Hard Place' was released in 1982.  It is well publicized that Tyler was in a chronic state at the time.  The general consensus is that you breathed life back into what many had written off as a dying band.  What are your fondest and worst memories of your time in Aerosmith?
RD:  Fondest memories?  Some good gigs with good reviews about me in the next day's paper.  That used to piss Steven off.  Some even said I played circles around Crespo.  I didn't play guitar circles around him, but on stage I used to literally run around in circles around both of them.  Anything to try and put some life on that stage as bloody tired as they were.  I didn't care.  I was a hired gun and I did what I was hired to do.  Lowest point?  Trying to jump out of the plane over El Paso on the way to Hawaii.  Apparently that didn't go over too well with anyone.  I spent the night in jail and had to stay with the crew in the crew's hotel, which was fine with me.  The band was kinda mad at me.  The picture of Tom and me on the MP3 site [and above - AC] is from that gig, which went well and all was forgiven...by almost everyone that is.  I did get outta line.  Our head of security back then saved my life a few times.  We are still the best of friends today.  He understood the absurdity of it all.  We hung out more than anyone else did.  Now that I think about it, maybe he was instructed to do so.  So that no one would kill me or visa versa.  I'll have to ask him about that.

AC:  After leaving Aerosmith in 1984, what did you do musically between then and recording [what would be released in 2001 as] 'Written In Stone'?
RD:  Took the first couple of years to finish using and finally kick heroin.  A record company gave Jack and I $35K to make some demos but we snorted it all.  I finally went to St. Martin to kick heroin once and for all.  When I got back to NY, Steven called me.  He had heard I was trying to clean up.  A mutual friend had come by to visit me right after I got back and even gave me $100 cause I was flat broke.  I had spent every last dime I had to get off dope.  I bought food with the money, which I guess convinced him I was serious about getting clean, and he told Steven.  I was still pretty sick though.  I knew I couldn't stay in NY.  As it ends up, the label flew me to Paris in '87.  From there I moved to London and lived there for three years. The 'Written in Stone' recordings took about a year and half in total including demos, writing, etc.  

AC:  'Written In Stone' has just been made available to fans via your MP3 site at: http://www.mp3.com/rickdufay.  What made you finally decide to bring these superb tracks out of the vaults and make them available to the fans?
RD:  Terry Rains a.k.a. TED.  Last fall, I made and sent her a CD of the "London Sessions" to listen to for fun.  I left on a trip to NY/Boston the very next day.  While in NY, I planned on discussing future plans and ideas for the new material I had been working on with the gang there.  TED had helped me put together some ideas for those meetings.  I called her that first night from Boston and the first words out of her mouth were "You've got to get this stuff out there somehow!  It fuckin' rocks!"  Before I even had time to ask questions, she put together an entire plan of just how we would be able to do it, by using the internet, MP3 technology, the MP3.com web site/CD program and the worldwide fan base online.  I was still quite naïve about computers then.  I was using an ancient Mac that had no sound or anything really.  Sending an email was still a challenge for me.  She gave me the "guts" of her old computer and a friend of mine rebuilt it for me.  I got DSL and then started really discovering the possibilities.

AC:  The track 'Written In Stone' was first conceived in demo form whilst you were still in Aerosmith.  What stages did the track get to then and where did the inspiration for the track come from?
RD:  The band had been asked by the label to come up with a few new tunes in preparation for beginning work on a new studio album.  Jack (Douglas) and I first worked on the basic guitar riffs on the Aero tour bus.  I was going for a blend of Aero sound - sort of Sweet Emotion meets Walk This Way.  The working title of the song became "On the Bus".  Tom, Joey and I went into a studio in NJ and laid down some basic tracks for it.  Steven later went to the Record Plant with Lee DeCarlo and laid down some scat vocals for it.  That was it.  I wonder whatever happened to those tapes.  Joey did some pretty cool drums on the track.  When I finally recorded the song in London, I left the Steven"ish" style vocals and basically wrote the words to the song for, to and about him.

AC:  The personnel involved on 'Written In Stone' were a very solid band.  How did you hook up with drummer Chris Slade [AC/DC, The Firm] and the rest of the musicians?
RD:  Through my manager/publicist at the time Simon Porter.  We started rehearsals with a couple of local guys but it was awful.  Simon then suggested Martin Smith.  He had played bass with ELO for a while and had his own studio at his house.  He was quite the opposite of me, very conservative.  When I went to meet Martin the first time, I saw this red Porsche outside.  I walked in with my big black leather coat on, looking like some kind of tourist attraction and asked him, "Is that your red Porsche out there mate?"  He said, "Yes it is."  I said, "You got the job!"  He said, "I'm not sure I want it looking at you!"  Laughing, I said, "All right, now you definitely got it, you're not getting away from me now!"  We sat in his car and listened to my little demos.  He told me, "I'll let you know if I want to work with you when I come back here in a week.  I want to hear a verse and chorus to three of these songs.  I want to hear some lyrics and I want to hear some song form."  I said, "You got it!"  I worked my ass off that week.  When he came back, it was like Christmas.  He said, "I'm dying to work with you man, you've got a great voice, you've got a great style and I'm really looking forward to it!  Come over to my house next week and we'll put some stuff down in my little studio."  We did all of the demos at his place, 16 tracks in all.  After we had those demos, I told Simon I'd sure like to get Chris Slade and he went and got him.  I'd seen Chris with Jimmy Page and had a feeling we would work well together.  Nick Coler came to us through Martin.  Those were some great times.

AC:  What are your thoughts now on these tracks, 12 years after they were recorded?
RD:  Some of them are more revealing now than they were then.  It brings me back to a really good, fun time.  We got to be creative with no record company constraints. I think others will be able to sense the fun we were having when they listen to this stuff.  I had a great time living in London, meeting new people all the time, being off heroin though still drinking a bit too much.  It helped me to really find my own creativity and confidence again.

AC:  In 1994, you joined forces with vocalist Karen Lawrence [1994, LA Jets and background vocals on Aerosmith's Get It Up] to form the group 'Blue By Nature'.  How did you hook up with Karen and what are your views now on the band after your departure in 1998?
RD:  I think I first met Karen in 1979 at a recording studio in Los Angeles through Jack Douglas.  He was producing one of her 1994 or LA Jets records - I don't remember which.  During the early '90's I had put together a band and we were playing some local gigs here in LA.  Karen and Fred happened to see my name up on a marquee and decided to check out the show.  I knew someone who knew me from "those days" was in the audience when I heard "Hey, play 10,000 Bands!"  Karen and her friend Emma did background vocals for my band from then on until we quit doing shows.  Six (or so) months later, Karen and Fred called me and asked me if I would come check out some songs they had put together.  That was the beginning of Blue By Nature.  We had a great run, put out some great albums and had some great times together.  After I left the band, it seemed like a bad attempt to try and get that old energy back.  The fire and chemistry just wasn't there anymore. I'm currently doing rehearsals with Dan (Potruch) and Charlie (Diaz) - the drummer and bass player from Blue By Nature.  We're great friends and play really well together.

AC:  'Blue By Nature' was a great kick-ass blues-rock band.  Did it feel good to be part of a permanent band again?  Or did you miss the freedom that being a solo artist brings?
RD:  Yeah, it felt good and it was a lot of fun.  In Blue By Nature, I was really able to express myself creatively, much more so than I ever could in Aerosmith.  When it worked, it really worked.  There was a magic vibe among us.  I was at a place in my life where that was exactly what I needed and I was very comfortable with it.  

AC:  What are you up to now musically? 
RD:  I've just started rehearsals with Dan and Charlie.  I want to put together a setlist that somehow encompasses the entire kaleidoscope of music from my life, both past and present.  A tapestry of rock and blues, old and new, all blended together onstage as an expression of what I'm truly all about.  I also hope to get back in the studio soon to work on my new album some more.  I've recorded eight tracks, of which I'll probably keep five and record some new ones that I've been working on recently.

AC:  What are your main guitars and amps? Any particular favorites?
RD:  My favorite guitar has to be my Strat.  Amps, my “Arsehole” set-up - a Marshall Silver Jubilee which I bought in London during the time I was making the WIS album.  It came in a 12- inch speaker cabinet.  I took it out of that and made a separate cabinet for the head, hence the 'Arsehole'.  I had a friend beef it up some on the output stage too.  I'm not even sure how many watts it pushes now but it gets the job done.  As for speakers, I push an AC30 cabinet with it.  I've taken the AC30 head out of that cabinet because I just use the head in the studio.  I take the heads out of all of my combos, the twin as well so I can mix and match.  Also much easier to lug about.  I also have a '69 Marshall Super Bass and a '69 Marshall Super Tremelo both 100 watt heads.   The bass head is nice for guitar, nice crunch in the mids.

AC:  Now time for some fun.  You are the leader of your own super group.  Who would be in your ultimate band besides yourself of course?
RD:  Drums: John Bonham and Ginger Baker; Bass: Jack Bruce; Guitars: Leslie West, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and me; Keyboards: Steve Winwood and Al Kooper; Vocals: Steve Marriott along with Eric, Leslie and me.

AC:  Where do you see your music heading in the future?
RD:  Simpler.  Less is more. Might be nice to see it on some little record label too.

AC:  Is there anything you would do differently in your career if you had the chance to go back and do it all over again?
RD:  Perhaps take the business end of things a bit more seriously, be a bit wiser.  Though, in some ways, I believe that I have been able to remain much more true to myself and to my music because of that distance.  So who really knows.  The ties that bind can also tear you apart.  It seems that artists today have to make a choice between the business and the music.  If that's the case, I'll always choose the music.

AC:  Finally, any parting comments for your fans around the world?
RD:  I want them to know that I always strive for the truth.  And that I truly appreciate those who understand that, and who give a shit.  I hope my music somehow enriches the lives of others and helps them to enjoy this thing we call life.

Thanks to Rick for taking the time to partake in the interview.

RICK DUFAY LINKS
RFMD - WRITTEN IN STONE REVIEW
RICKS MP3 SITE
JOIN RICKS YAHOO CLUB

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