Where do I start?
Several songs changed my life. It has no bearing on how much I may or may not like the songs. But they did change my life. One of them was I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett. You know, when that song comes on now, I nod my head in a passing way to it. I do still like it. But, man, when I first heard it...
The power, the guitars...I remember never having liked anything so hard, so real. Maybe those weren't the words I used then, but the sentiment is the same. It was the guitar. That song made me sit up and notice the guitar.And I have been in love with it ever since.
Next up is Bat Out Of Hell, and this still is a favorite of mine. I owe my brother Billy for this one. He had the Bat Out Of Hell album, that wonderful timeless piece of musical perfection, and let me borrow it, and everything changed.
How can you describe something like this? How can I get across the way that song still makes me feel when I hear it? I don't think I can. But it's sex, and fun, and excitement, and youth, and power, and a hundred other things all rolled up into one. As a song-writer, Steinman taught me not to be afraid to do it how I heard it in my head, and that's something I am finally doing now, and loving the results.
There are so many others...Prove It All Night by Springsteen, If It Makes You Happy, by Sheryl Crow. So many others. And they have all made me stop and think "Oh My God..." in one way or another.
So, what about my songs?
That's simple. I'm not singing about anything that hasn't been sung about a hundred times before. But I am doing it my way. I can't tell anyone's story, I can only tell my own. The events in that story, well, I am sure you've heard them all already, but as I said, this is my take on them. That's all you can really ask of any songwriter; to be honest about his own experiences, and present them in his own way.
And maybe one day someone will hear of my my songs and think "Oh my God...!", and maybe he or she will sit here and write something like this about it. Then, even if I have never made a penny from these songs (and I have to tell you I haven't!), I'll still have been successful.
Home: Wicklow, Ireland. Dublin originally.
First Band: The Duke Street Kings...named after a line in a Springsteen song.
Guitar:Telecasters, all the way.
Other Instruments: Harmonica. Some keyboards but not very well!
Favourite Band: The Wallflowers, or lately, I also love The Darkness. But if we're talking the oldies but goodies...it has to be CCR.
Favourite Song: So many, so many. But at a push? Bat Out Of Hell.
Favourite Album: Darkness On The Edge Of Town, by Springsteen. Also Bat Out Of Hell by MeatLoaf, and Songs From The West Coast, by Elton John.
Favourite Singer: Springsteen, hands down. But if we're going just by voice, then it's gotta be Jacob Dylan. And Nancy Wilson, Stevie Nicks or Aretha Franklin for a chick. Is chick politically correct?
Life Philosophy: This is not a rehearsal, man.
Favourite Drink: Guinness, what else!
Food: I make a great meat loaf!
Quote: The only thing that's real is music. - Colm Rochford