he Specials’ Terry Hall has been to hell and back but lived to tell the story.
After struggling with depression for most of his life, the Coventry, England, native
sought help ten years ago and has a handle on what can be a devastating mental
illness if left untreated. Luckily, he’s always had music. As the frontman of the iconic
Two-Tone outfit, Hall has carved a legendary career out of his love for ska, reggae, rock
and everything in between. As The Specials embark on a tour across the United States in
support of their first ever No. 1 album Encore, Hall had some time to talk. —Kyle EusticeT
THE SPECIALS
198 Thrasherkid, people have said, “Smile,” and it’s, like,
I don’t have much to smile about. What am I
meant to smile at? It’s just a commentary on how
I live. It’s great to be able to write about it now
that I’ve gotten my clarity about my illness.
When I was in my illness I couldn’t because
I didn’t know what it was.
I quit drinking 13 years ago because I was a
complete mess.
I think depressed people have all sort of drunk
themselves to death because it’s the only
solution, and it’s very, very hard.
Especially in the music business.
Yeah. We’re in a privileged position where we can
talk about how we feel and our opinions on
ourselves and society. I think it’s important to usethat, really. There are enough songs about losing
your girlfriend and wanting her back. There are
loads of those songs, but there aren’t that many
about how it feels to be depressed.
You had a cancer scare in 2013 and you
decided you needed to quit smoking.
I underwent an operation in my mouth and lost
part of my tongue, which was the scariest thing
because I sing. But it was sort of ridiculous
because after the operation we went to Australia
to play and I was singing with stitches in my
mouth. At one point, my stitches got caught
in my teeth, which meant I couldn’t sing.
It was ridiculous.
On that note, I love that you end
the album with “We Sell Hope.”
I knew I wanted that to be the last
song and it was written around being
the last song because throughout the
album, we touched on quite a few
issues, and a lot of issues are
very desperate and horrible
states to be in, really. But the
conclusion that we all reached
is, the only way forward is to
show love and respect for each
other. It’s really hard to sort of
see that through. And a lot of
people can’t show love, but if
you just influence them by just
showing love and respect,
it will adsorb. Everybody has
their ups and downs, but it
really all does boil back down
to that word—love.I was impressed Encore debuted at No. 1 on
the UK chart and I believe this is first one.
We’ve never had a No. 1 album. We’ve had
singles at No. 1 like “Ghost Town” and
“Too Much Too Young.” It’s taken 40 years,
but we finally got there.
How did it feel to see the record do so well?
It was great because when we decided to record
some new stuff, it was predominately so we
could have new songs in our set. So we started
writing songs and recording without thinking
about us making a record. Then a friend at
Universal Music says, “We’d love to put it out.”
So we said, ‘Okay,’ again not thinking too much.
It was only a week before release that my
manager said, “This is selling a lot pre-sale and
it’s got a chance of going to No. 1,” and we were,
like, “Wow!” It’s shocking because it was never
really in our minds. We just wanted to write
some new songs, but it was a great payoff, really.
Everybody knows Top of the Pops is a big
deal. Once you got on the show, it was like
you kind of made it in Britain. Looking
back, is there something that you wish you
would have done differently?
No, I don’t think we’d have
managed it differently. It was
totally weird because when we
started the band, it was
in the midstof punk rock and our contemporaries were
bands like The Clash and Sex Pistols. All we
wanted to do was be in the band and have our
voice. Top of the Pops is something we grew up
with and then to actually do it was surreal
because it wasn’t our intention. A lot of stuff
we’ve done have been sort of, not happy
accidents, but it’s, like, not intentional. I think if
you hang around and you try to
write good songs and make
good records, it will happen.
I think that’s sort of how we got
through our careers, really.
I want talk about “The Life
and Times (Of a Man Called
Depression).” I love the line,
“I refuse to succumb to your
version of what happy should look like.”
I’ve had mental health problems most of my life
and it was only in the last ten years that I’ve
been undergoing quite heavy treatment for it
with lithium and a lot of drugs. But what it’s
given me is a certain amount of clarity and so I
can look back at my life and sort of pinpoint
episodes that have sparked depression. That’s
really what the song’s about. Also, it’s about the
concept of if you don’t walk around with a
beaming smile constantly, you’re depressed or
something. It’s just sort of people’s perception of
what depression is and that world of depression,
it’s sort of very dangerous. I’ve lost friends with
it. They’ve committed suicide. It’s a very serious
illness that, because it’s sort of an
internal illness, people can’t
see. Since I was a“There are enough songs
about losing your girlfriend
and wanting her back”
“There are enough songs
about losing your girlfriend
and wanting her back”
ATIBA