Photo by Joe Greene
Peter
Continued from page 6
Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. I
believe that's when we all first met. We
all have respect for Bob, and he has it for
us. Our roots and our paths have
crossed many times, and there's the
whole Detroit factor. We're friends with
people in his band. Bill Szymczyk, who
with music that I helped create so many
years ago, and still have audiences
wanting to hear it. That's the great joy of
it all – getting out there after decades,
and people are still responding to the
songs.
IE: The Onion recently published a piece
about you that didn't seem so complimentary on the surface, but it ultimately described your true success. What did
you think of that?
PW: I'm so glad you brought that up.
Somebody showed it to me and I started
laughing. I took it as a compliment,
because they're saying, "Well, here's this
washed-up guy who hasn't had a platinum record in so many years, and he's
still doing exactly what he wants to do
12•2014
produced a lot of Geils records, produced Seger records. It's a good match.
My solo band The Midnight Travelers,
opened up for Bob when he came to the
arena here in Boston. I looked at the side
of the stage and saw Bob watching the
whole thing. After the show he grabbed
me and picked me up and said, "Pete,
you haven't missed a step." It was great
seeing him again and those were nice
words to hear.
IE: What's the best thing about performing with J. Geils Band?
PW: The biggest thrill is reconnecting
40 years later." To me, that's the mark of
success. What's funny is that people forgot it's the Onion. It's satire. It's sort of
like when people are listening to
Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central) and
he's saying, "We here are going to take
abortion clinics, put them in rocket ships
and send them to Mars." I remember
going to a newsstand in Boston and buying Time magazine and reading this article about how Beethoven's 10th
Symphony was found in some Viennese
attic. They told how it turned out to be
twice as powerful as the 9th symphony,
which was considered one of the great
8 illinoisentertainer.com december 2014
Peter Wolf, J. Geils Band