THE ROCK-SHOTS INTERVIEW: ANDY KING OF THE HOOTERS ON FAME FORTUNE & FIVE YEARS FROM NOW

THE ROCK-SHOTS INTERVIEW: ANDY KING OF THE HOOTERS ON FAME FORTUNE & FIVE YEARS FROM NOW

Jackie Kallen

Beginning with this issue, the ROCKSHOTS INTERVIEW will become a regular feature of our magazine... because you asked for it! We’ll be bringing you enlightening Q & A sessions with some of the hottest stars in music; if you have any suggestions on who you’d like to see in this section, please drop us a line. This month, Jackie Kallen talked to Andy King, the Hooters’ inimitable bassist. King describes how it feels to be in what might very well be the most talked-about band of the year—and what lies ahead for the quintet from Philadelphia. Next month, we’ll feature those rockin’ gals, the Bangles— you won’t want to miss it! See you then!—Ed.

First of all, Andy, how did you guys ever get the name the Hooters?

Well, Jackie, it’s kind of a backwards story. The band was in the studio doing some demo tapes, before we even had a name, and we were using the Hooter Melodica, which is a small instrument that has become our logo. We were getting a sound level and one of the engineers asked to hear more of that “hooter thing.” Someone in the group said, “the hooter thing?” And it just became the nickname for the instrument and all of a sudden we were the Hooters!

Before that—didn’t you have a name?

Not really. The band was just kind of knocking around and it was still in its embryonic form. And we came up with the name the Hooters before we actually did any live shows.

Well, I guess you’re stuck with it non You’ll always be known as the Hooten

Yeah, I know. It struck us as kind of si at first, but when you think of it, t Beatles is kind of a silly name, too. Not too many people realize that yo were Cyndi Lauper’s band at one on time and you guys wrote “Time Ah Time.’’ Are people starting to findth out more and more now?

Oh, yeah. You know, for awhile whe we were headlining our own showsi were doing “Time After Time” as ane core and we’d tell the people that * wrote it with Cyndi. Now that the band getting a lot more press, people a reading about our work with Cyndi. Tl band has been around. Rob and were in another band called Baby and they did two albums for Records. So there’s a lot of musical experience between us. I think that’s why we’re all willing to work so hard. We’ve all done the local club scene, doing four sets a night, loading our own equipment and all that. We remember when we made barely enough to make our truck payment.

That’s a familiar story.

Well it’s not that far back for us. We still remember it very clearly. It’s like, all right —we’re getting our shot now, so let’s go for it! There’s another artist out of Philadelphia who we were not exactly competitive with, but we were on the same level with. He got a recording contract with RCA and when he got it, he just totally relaxed and acted like he had reached the pinnacle, which was getting that contract. So consequently nothing happened for him. With us, we realized that getting a contract was just like getting signed into the majors.

That’s when the work really begins.

Right. Now instead of being compared to other local Philadelphia bands, we’re being compared to Phil Collins and the Talking Heads and Tears For Fears. So we realize that we have to work really, really hard or we’re just going to get swamped by these people.

Did it surprise you that your first single, “All You Zombies,” was a big hit on Christian radio?

You know, it’s not really meant to be a pro or anti-religious song. That’s one of the very first songs the band ever wrote and it was performed at the first Hooters concert almost six years ago. It really wasn’t an important song to us, but somehow it got released as the first single. As soon as it came out, we started getting a lot of mail from a lot of die-hard Christian people. We’re a band of faith and we believe in being good people, but the-line religious meaning. If anything, it was written to get people to use their minds.

It’s fine to have faith and believe in whatever you want to believe in, but makeqqq sure you’re not just blindly walking into something.

Your music is known to be very danceable. That seems to be one quality that appears in most of your materij Do you think that’s one of the reason you’ve done so well?

Yeah, I think that's part of it. It's just

an “up” feeling. A lot of times it mayi be a disco record in terms of that kii danceability, but the positive energyi and the upscale attitude of our musJ what the fans relate to. We’re a positive band and we’re positive pel in what we try to do. Another thingf has helped us is our unique sound, know—the mandolin, the hooter some of the interesting instrumental I think that’s what’s caught people’s also.

You must have gotten a lot of £tfen| from being on last summer’s Aid.” Was it a thrill to be a part| that?

Oh yeah. You can’t even measure*] that did for the band. At the time, weV just in shock to be included in sometfl so massive—so exciting. And it was a major cause. Now that time has by, the promotional benefits we rei have become more apparent. Wen that that’s where 90 percent of ourl first heard about us.

Just think—millions of people saw j show all over the world.

I know...that’s how we got startej Australia. Over there our albumM double platinum. We went down and there were thousands of peo| the airport waiting to meet us. amazing. We did some terrific shows! there. It was pretty staggering to think] we were halfway around the world] everyone knew us and loved us.

You must be getting used to thati scene now.

We are. But it’s still pretty wild. It’s funny because we notice it more and more wherever we go. It’s interesting. We itarting noticing it when we were opening for Squeeze...

Time out. Isn’t it true that you did so well as an opening act for Squeeze that

were jealous and they actually lulled the plug on you one night to get Sou off the stage quicker?

Jit wasn’t actually the band. It was their tour manager. We weren’t really blowing them offstage every night or anything, but we were doing very well. They were in a funny position because we were a new band and we had nothing to lose. We’d go out there every night and do our best. Squeeze is trying to regain territory they lost by breaking up. So there was a lot of pressure on them. One night we went two minutes over on our set and they just timed off our monitors and turned off the lights. We only had about a minute-anda-half left in the song. We were cool. We just kept playing until we finished and the cfowd loved us!

Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian played on Jagger’s “Hard Woman’’ video, didn’t they?

Yeah. They helped Mick rearrange the song and change it around some. They even did some of the playing. The most exciting thing for us is to have people we respect show that same respect to us. Having Mick Jagger listen to our ideas was pretty amazing. We felt pretty lucky that we’ve had the right breaks.

Who else have you met that you really look up to?

It was kind of neat to run into a couple of the guys from Kansas and haying them tell me that they were fans of mine. I also got to meet Nancy Wilson from Heart and she knew who I was. It was great. I’ve had the biggest crush in the world on her for about eight years. You know, when I met her I was a lot smoother and less nervous than I thought I’d be. I thought I’d probably drool or something. But we ended up having a really nice conversation and she ended up giving me a call at my house the next day and we talked some more. To me it was a real fantasy come true. Maybe a big romance will develop.

Or at least a good duet.

Didn’t David Uosikkinen have a pretty severe drug problem for awhile?

Yes, David at one point had some problems in that direction. He’s really pulled it together, though, and I think all of us are mature enough to avoid that scene. We already went through the period of wanting to anesthesize ourselves to whatever. And I think part of that is because we’re seeing a lot of the things we’ve always wanted come true. So we don’t need to escape because what we want is happening for us.

You probably appreciate it more when you’re sober and coherent.

For sure. All of us changed our attitudes a while ago. It’s been three or four years now and we feel it’s a lot better to be aware—to be conscious of what’s going on around us. The thought that you experience things more fully when you’re in a drugged state is a big fallacy. At least I feel that it is. I can’t act like a saint, you know, because I’ve put more things in my body than I ever thought I would. But I’ve learned that you can experience things much more fully when you have all your senses totally in gear.

Do you try to spread this message to your fans?

Definitely. We’re very happy to see that young kids today are accepting this attitude much earlier. We feel very lucky that we have the opportunity to influence kids in a positive way. The mail we get is very encouraging. It substantiates the fact that the kids realize what we’re telling them. There’s this grandmother who writes to me all the time telling me how I’ve changed her granddaughter’s life and God bless me and all that. I love that. Just knowing that maybe we’re adding a little something positive to the world is worth everything to me.

Do you answer your fan mail?

answer all of mine. Especially now when we’re on the bus and we have hours and hours of travel time. I answer several hundred letters a week. We have our own postcards and the office sends them out to us on the road with postage already on them and I just write a quick note on there and send them off. Sometimes I get letters from kids who are severely depressed and they’re reacting to the song “Where Did The Children Go?” They say it means lot to them to know that someone cares and understands. I’ll write them a letter telling them that there was a point in my life when I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I was very depressed and I even thought of suicide. I just want to show them that there is light and to hang in there. If you work hard, you can achieve some of the things you want. Do you guys tend to lead rather private lives when you’re not onstage?

Yeah. I’m a pretty shy person and have a bit of a hard time with people feeling like I’m boring compared to what am onstage. When I’m onstage, I feel like a rock star. Whatever that means, just feel like I have this ability to take energy from an audience and do something with it and give it back to them. But when I’m offstage, I just feel normal. I don’t like the feeling that I have to entertain somebody off the stage. Actually, I find that most people respond to that very nicely. They like the fact that you’re just normal and soft-spoken and have some-

thing nice to say.

What can a Hooters fan expect wfig seeing you in concert for the first timi I think they’ll hear a more aggressiv sound than is on the record. When* play live, we hit hard and we have all of enthusiasm onstage and we like to9 dressed up. We wear nice clothes and* do some choreographed moves—we pr* tend we’re Earth, Wind & Fire—and thi can expect to hear a couple of surprise; We do a couple of versions of otto peoples’ material but not the way they'v been heard before.

Where do you think the Hooters willb

and what do you think they’ll five years from now?

I think by then there will be about! Hooters albums and several solo albuf Everybody within the band has ideasij don't really fit into what the Hootersj at this point. Myself especially. I from a band where we were doing a 75 percent my material and I wass ing lead vocals. In the Hooters, Eric do most of the writing. So I ha'j lot of desire to get in front of a band:) play guitar. We’re all going to branch! and I think people will hear a Icj changes with each new album. I dontf us as a band that continuously rep* itself. I don’t think you’ll be hearing‘j vous Night II.