Page’s guitar playing that I thought was incredible,
and the same with Pink Floyd. I can sing the solos
from Pink Floyd as well as I can sing the lyric of any
of their songs. I enjoyed that more than the Eddie
Van Halen kind of stuff. I was not as attracted to that
as I was David Gilmour or Jimmy Page.
“And then Jeff Beck’s earlier stuff with Rod
Stewart when he was a blues player, as opposed to
the incredible place that he’s gone to, but I just really
liked the simplicity when he was playing the blues.
Eric Clapton is another one. Duane Allman is another
one. And then I would have to say my favourite guitar
player is Prince. Again, his craftsmanship with his
guitar, melody – he was an extraordinary player.”Where did the country-rock influence in your own
material come into the mix?
“Well, it’s a combination of things. Bob Seger. Jackson
Browne. Those kinds of writers. Lynyrd Skynyrd.
They were huge influences for me, just as a listener,
but then what I loved about country music was that,
as a writer, they sing stories. A Boy Named Sue is a
perfect example. That has a beginning, a middle and
an end. And so, I enjoyed that a great deal, and so,
singer-songwriters like Bob Seger or Jackson Browne,
Bob Dylan, they did that too – Johnny Cash, Merle
Haggard, Waylon Jennings. All of those artists, they
told stories, and so I just naturally gravitated towards
that because that’s the way I like to write.
“What I end up doing versus the range of things
that I listen to is very different. But as a writer, it
again goes back to the storytelling and I like to have
a beginning, a middle and an end to something that’s
quite direct. Pink Floyd’s another great example
where so much of their music is metaphorical. Mine
is not. Mine is pretty straightforward.”How did the sessions for the Reckless & Me album
come together?
“It was actually really cool. I was doing a television
show called Designated Survivor, and so we had very
limited time, so I would fly into Los Angeles. We
recorded at Capitol Records, which was really cool,
in Studio A. There’s a picture of me standing in front
of a picture of Paul McCartney standing in front of
Frank Sinatra! So you couldn’t not be aware of the
significance of where you were.
“Jude [Cole, Sutherland’s producer and co-writer]
put together an incredible group of players – Waddy
Wachtel on guitar, Jim Cox on piano, Brian MacLeod
on drums. Jude and I would go back and forth on
guitar, Jude played some bass and we had a couple
other guys come in, but we would do five tracks in
two days.
“So we did half the record in one go and then Jude
would take the stuff back to his studio and kind of
put on a little accordion piece or mandolin piece and
kind of fill it out from there. And then about seven
weeks later, I came back and did the other five in twobig mistake I made was, we had a studio and I got the
kind of cases where you would have all the guitars
out, and you’d go, ‘Well, there’s two slots missing
there. I know exactly what I’d like to fill that with.’
And before you knew it, you had 80 to 100 guitars.
“Some people collect baseball cards, some
people collect cars or art. For me, guitars are that.
They’re beautiful works of art. And what I found
so interesting was every guitar makes you play
differently. For whatever reason, you pick up that
guitar and there’s a specific goal you want from your
playing. But I got to the point that I had so many,
I wasn’t able to play them all. That’s when I went,
‘Well, this is ridiculous, they all need to be played’.
“I had real vintage guitars but they were all
bought for playability. I never had a guitar that was
a collectible guitar but didn’t play really well. And
so at some point I just went, ‘Well if you can’t play
them, then they need to go to someone else who
will.’ And so I brought the collection down to really
about 20 guitars. And I use all of them.”What are some of your favourite guitars from
the collection?
“I have two 1954 Les Paul Juniors, one a TV Yellow
and one a sunburst. I have three guitars that I go
out on the road with, a Gibson Dove, a Gibson
Hummingbird and in the UK or in Europe I have a
Fano, with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in the back,
and then in the States I have a Tele with a Hot Rails
in the back and that’s really the only pickup I use.
“There’s one that I haven’t played a lot, which is a
1967 Firebird. And the fact that it’s original and that
it didn’t break its neck... it’s such a rare thing. I don’t
pull that out a lot. But the guitar that I use the most
is the Tele, electric-wise. Just ’cause if I do need that
front humbucker, it’s quite versatile. But live, I just
tend to use the Seymour Duncan back pickup.”Who were the guitar players you admired when you
were growing up?
“I was a big fan of Peter Frampton. I thought he was
an incredible guitar player. And then obviously Jimmy
Page was a huge, huge influence. I liked the melodic
quality, even though Led Zeppelin was a very hard
rock band, there was a melodic quality to Jimmy“EVERY GUITAR MAKES YOU PLAY
DIFFERENTLY. FOR WHATEVER
REASON, YOU PICK UP THAT GUITAR
AND THERE’S A SPECIFIC GOAL YOU
WANT FROM YOUR PLAYING”
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