Nicky Hopkins Interview (1976)

by Joelle Steele (Nancy Martelli)

It was the summer of 1976, and I co-owned a small recording studio in Portola Valley, California, just a little south of San Francisco. Piano man Nicky Hopkins stopped by on occasion to work with my partner, a sound engineer. One afternoon, Nicky was out on the back deck overlooking a dry creek surrounded by oak trees, and I interviewed him for a music magazine I wrote for.

NM: Let’s start with the basics: How did you become a piano player?

NH: [chuckles] I suppose I was about three when I began toying about with our piano. A few years later, I had a few lessons. And when I was a teenager, I received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. I studied there for a couple of years.

NM: I love your honky-tonk piano sound.

NH: Ah, thanks, dear. I love the sound of an acoustic piano, and that honky-tonk sound you like can’t be duplicated on an electric instrument. Though I have played some electric piano and organ when necessary.

NM: Like on “Revolution”?

NH: Yes, but acoustic is really the only piano I want to play … love to play. The sound is superior to anything electric.

NM: Do you have a favorite genre of music?

NH: Umm, probably blues, but that’s the roots of rock ‘n’ roll and R&B now, isn’t it?

NM: Agreed. So, do you have favorite piano players?

NH: Oh, that’s hard to say. There are so many. Herbie Hancock. Chuck Leavell is great, though the Allmans aren’t really my kind of music for the most part.

NM: Where did you go after the Royal Academy of Music?

NH: I left when I was about 16 and joined some obscure bands for a couple of years. Nothing there to talk about. I ended up in hospital and then couldn’t work for almost two years.

NM: I see. And now you’re mainly known as a session musician?

NH: Yes, that was a decision I was forced to make because of my health. I have ileitis [Crohn’s disease], a chronic disease. I’ve had several surgeries for it, but it prevents me from touring most of the time, and so session work was the best alternative for me, for a musician.

NM: You are known for being able to fit in with the music of just about every band you’ve worked with.

NH: Well, that is the role of a session musician, isn’t it? It’s not about my style or my music, it’s about the music of the band I’m working with. If I can’t hold my own on their musical terms, then I’m going to be a starving musician. [laughs]

NM: So what was your first session gig?

NH: Umm, I’m not quite sure. It may have been The Who, “My Generation.” That was definitely one of the earliest. Then there was the Rolling Stones, a little single, “We Love You.” I think it was the B-side of “Dandelion.”

NM: What about Jeff Beck?

NH: Ah yes, well, there was “Truth.” I love that a lot because we did some older classics like “Greensleeves” and “Old Man River.” The Jeff Beck group produced so many exceptional musicians and singers – Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood … I managed to tour with them here in the U.S. after that, and then I was with Quicksilver Messenger Service for a year or thereabout.

NM: There seem to be a lot more bands than that.

NH: Yes, but we could sit here all day long and never truly cover all of them, and some of them don’t stand out in my mind.

NM: Okay, then how about “Tommy”?

NH: Oh, there’s one. I have had a long musical relationship with The Who, and this was an important experience for me. I worked on the arrangements for most of the songs, and I also played on most of the tracks.

NM: I hear you weren’t as happy with Jefferson Airplane.

NH: [laughs] No, not really. I played on “Volunteers” but I wasn’t happy with it at all.

NM: What was it like working with John Lennon and George Harrison on their solo albums?

NH: With John, we made “Walls and Bridges” and “Imagine,” We were done in a little more than a week. So different from George! His albums took weeks to finish. I played on “Living in the Material World” and “Dark Horse.” I don’t think they were his better works. Didn’t live up to the standards of “All Things Must Pass.”

NM: You also worked on an album with Ella Fitzgerald. How did that happen?

NH: That was “Ella.” I knew Richard Perry who produced it. Ella was new to the Warner Brothers label, and she was recording some popular songs.

NM: That must have been very exciting, to work with such a music icon.

NH: Very much so, but I was never able to spend much time with her.

NM: And now you’ve made two solo albums. Are you happy with them?

NH: Actually I’ve made three. The first was in ‘65 or ‘66. I’m not surprised if you never heard of it. [laughs] Nothing to talk about on that one. Then I made “The Tin Man Was A Dreamer” in  ‘72-3. I was very happy with it. Not so much with “No More Changes,” which I made a year or so ago. On “Tin Man” I worked with George Harrison … Mick Taylor … others. I think it was a good album, but the sales were disappointing. After CBS fired Clive Davis, they dumped the albums by minor artists like myself. “No More Changes” was … awful. I don’t even want to think about it. [laughs]

NM: Okay, I’ll spare you that trip down memory lane. So, moving on and winding up … Many people believe that the West Coast music scene has died. What’s your take on it?

NH: Yes, definitely dead. Lost its soul. You own this place [recording studio] and you’re a San Francisco girl, right? What do you think?

NM: I tend to agree. It’s certainly not what it was just five years ago.

NH: Exactly so.

NM: What direction do you think music is headed these days?

NH: I’m not sure. It’s splintering off. Some new sounds are already starting to emerge. It’s very difficult to predict right now, but we seem to be moving towards a very different world musically speaking.

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