Bob Seger 1977 by Ken Settle
ON SONGWRITING
How, I wondered, could this be explained?
“I’ve got a theory,” said Seger, who remembers
dates of gigs, attendance figures, and sales of
albums the way ballplayers reel off the names
of all the pitchers they’ve ever hit home runs
against, the pitch, the inning, the ballpark, the
temperature and the humidity.
“Up until 1974, we never did big stages. Up
until 1974 I didn’t have the Silver Bullet band,
either. From 1970 to 1974, I went through
about six or seven bands and never had any
staying power. I couldn’t find musicians I could
work with and relate to. I was working with
musicians from Tulsa, Los Angeles, New York.
Nobody ever wanted to live in the same town.
Now everybody in my band is from Detroit, so
OCT/NOV
when we rehearse we don’t have to meet in
someplace like Atlanta.
Also, it’s the first time we had a good
booking agency. We were with an agency
out of Detroit which could never really put us
anywhere. It wasn’t their fault, though, because
the records weren’t anywhere either. Up until
1974, we’d go into a town and there wouldn’t
be any records in the stores. Even in Chicago,
which is only 300 miles away or Columbus,
Ohio, where we’d play maybe ten times a year,
the records wouldn’t be in the stores. But
when we signed with Capitol the second time,
all the older were gone and the younger guys
had taken over and they wanted FM acts. They
wanted to push us.
DIGITAL EDITION
GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
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