Yes Men
By Tom Lanham
I
t was a popular, yet perhaps far-fetched
concept that was titillating impression-
able society a few years back. And it
was relatively simple, all told, and loosely
based on comic Danny Wallace’s book Yes
Man, which was later satirized to a zanier
degree in Jim Carrey’s film version of the
same name: If you simply responded to
every task, proposal or invitation you were
pitched positively instead of negatively,
you could theoretically change your life for
the better. In short, say yes to everything,
big or small, like ‘Want to go skydiving
this weekend?’ or ‘Now’s a good time of
year to visit Borneo,’ and, well, what’s the
worst that could happen? Push your
boundaries beyond the comfort zone and
magically transform yourself into a better
person. Testimonies were popping up
everywhere of meek Walter Mittys who
were now Herculean – or at least relatively
happy – after a year of agreeing to every-
thing.
Luke Spiller likes this concept. In theo-
ry as well as practice. Not that the British
musician has spare days he can devote to
acquiescence – his schedule as the lead
singer of The Struts is jam-packed for
months to come coinciding with the late-
October release of its glam-rocking sopho-
more set for Interscope, Young &
Dangerous. But he’s had nothing but great
result by saying yes to initially left-field
requests. He swears it’s true. “I mean,
there’s definitely a line that you should not
cross,” he says. “So if I said yes to every-
thing, it would be insane. You should see
all the people who contact me through
Instagram alone, going, ‘Hey buddy — ya
wanna go for a beer before the show?’
Complete strangers. And I’m like,
‘Ummm…I don’t really know you!’ I
wouldn’t say I’m frightened, but it’s just
common sense, isn’t it? But otherwise, I’m
down. I’m always down.”
Make no mistake, Spiller is the kind of
guy fans want to be seen hanging out with,
an honest to goodness old-school rock star,
even if it’s just for a quick selfie at the
merch table. Retro-minded to a fault, he’s
got the dashing good looks and chiseled
cheekbones of a young John Barrymore.
The fringe-jacketed, shag-haired sartorial
style of his idols from another era, like
Bowie, Bolan, and Night at the Opera/Day at
the Races-circa Freddie Mercury (whose
classic Queen costumer, Dame Zandra
Rhodes, was so impressed with his "star"
quality she came out of retirement to
design special stage outfits for him; he still
can’t quite believe his good fortune). “And
the ironic thing is, I tend to be a hermit, for
the most part,” says the bon vivant, who
lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend of
four years, model Laura Cartier Millon (in
2015, Interscope wisely transplanted
Spiller and his bandmates, guitarist Adam
Slack, bassist Jed Elliott, and drummer
Gethin Davies). “But if I genuinely like
someone, and I see something in them that
I admire and find interesting, I will go out
of my way to make some sort of connec-
tion and build a relationship, just like I
would with anyone.” Or, to put it another
way, he elaborates, “I’m not someone who
would go to a certain dinner because so
and so there was very important, or so and
so could do something for me. I’ve turned
down meetings with a lot of people that
others would view as important just
because they don’t really interest me. My
spare time is rare, and I want to use it
accordingly, making myself happy.”
And that’s how pop diva Kesha wound
up on a slamming remix of the Young track
“Body Talks.” It was pure, inexplicable
serendipity Spiller recalls. And sort of
complicated. A guitarist friend who had
backed another artist on an earlier Struts
22 illinoisentertainer.com november 2018
tour bumped into the group a year ago, but
when Spiller inquired how said performer
was doing, he said that he wasn’t sure. “He
goes, ‘I’m with Kesha now. Wanna meet
her?’” Spiller says. He said yes. “And
Kesha had already heard about us – she’s a
big rock chick, and she loves Zeppelin and
all this big rock stuff. So we were kind of
like musical kindred spirits, and when we
asked her to be on the song, she said yes,
too.” On a day off from touring, Spiller
flew to Hollywood to cut the vocal with
her. She apologized that she hadn’t even
listened to the chorus yet, which startled
him at first. “But then she said, ‘When I
was asked whether I wanted to do this
song or not, I just listened to the first four
bars and said, ‘Yes. I’m in.’ I thought that
was pretty funny.”
Spiller and Million certainly hadn’t
planned on spending the holidays in
Hawaii a couple of years ago. But again, he
felt good vibes from studio whiz Marti
Frederiksen, and therefore unusually
receptive to his spur of the moment ideas.
Only three days after I met him, Marti
goes, ‘Hey, man – what are you doing at
Christmas?’ I said I didn’t know - it was
still a month off. And he said, ‘You should
come out and stay with me on Maui – it’ll
be sweet!’ So I was like, ‘Yeah! Alright!
You’re on!’ So after the last show of the
tour, me and Laura headed on out.” Pause
for dramatic effect. “And ended up having
one of the most incredible vacations of our
lives!” No hyperbole. Frederiksen just hap-
pened to be working with another Spiller
hero, a Mr. Steven Tyler, who was spend-
ing his Yuletide recording solo experi-
ments like a hushed acoustic version of the
Aerosmith “Dream On.” The couple was
duly dumbfounded.
Being cut from the same Jagger-flashy
cloth, Spiller and Tyler instantly hit it off.
“And I ended up becoming part of his
small entourage on the island,” marvels
the Strut, who – odd for his generation –
has a deep, abiding respect for his rock and
roll elders. “It was such a bizarre, surreal
experience because we were doing all the
usual things there, like meeting up and
having breakfast. But I got to witness him
in the studio, Marti’s home-made studio in
his condo, and that was an interesting
experience, watching Steven’s microphone
technique and how quietly he actually
sings. He has amazing control over what
he does, and in terms of raw projection, he
doesn’t shout and scream as much as peo-
ple would expect. So it’s really down to
just pure, incredible technique, which is
why he can still do this at the age he is. I
found it very inspiring.”
And that might be this artist’s most lik-
able attribute — his innate humility and
eager willingness to learn. He doesn’t see
his relationship with Tyler as teacher/stu-
dent, exactly. But they have become good
friends; he says, “Although I don’t get to
see him as often as I’d like.” Spiller has also
befriended another Hawaii-based legend
(and you’d be surprised how many rockers
call the place home, starting with Todd
Rundgren) – gregarious Alice Cooper man-
ager Shep Gordon, whose regular lanai-
held dinner parties are dirty who’s who of
film and music talent who happened to be
on the Island that particular week. And
Gordon has one strict rule concerning his
think-tank-ish get-togethers — no business
shall be conducted at any point during the
evening. No joke. Cut a deal and get
bounced. Naturally, through him, The
Struts met Cooper himself, who was play-
ing Las Vegas the same day the quartet was
filming the video for its recent “Freak Like
Me” single, a celebration of all things – and
people – deemed too eccentric for public
consumption. “So I just walked over to
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