Jim
R
eminded of the halcyon-days inci-
dent a few weeks ago, Kerr, now 59,
guffaws. He remembers that night
he says, plus a few more during that Bay
area go-round, like the evening a local pro-
brought her family along -- I have grand-
kids now," Kerr marvels at the passage of
time. Not 'It's us' qualifier needed these
modern days -- facial recognition technolo-
gy will pick Burchill out of the densest
crowd.
L to R: Charlie Burchill, Jim Kerr
IE: It's hard to believe, but you actually
own your own hotel now, Villa Angela in
Taormina, Sicily. And the property is gor-
geous.
JIM KERR: Thank you very much. I was
there last week, but I haven't been there
much because we've been so busy. But
when I got into the whole thing 20 years
ago, I thought Simple Minds was coming to
an end. It was a bit of a fallow period, and
one thing led to another, and I wound up
10•2018
moter wrangled the band tickets to see
Grace Jones. "And I think it was the first
time I'd ever had California grass, so I had
to check out after only about three songs,"
he sighs. "Lots of great diminishing memo-
ries, but memories all the same."
And he hasn't stopped making new
ones -- Simple Minds, with Burchill still
along for the ride, is out there touring
behind its 18th studio album, Walk Between
Worlds, and just finished an overseas run
with Kerr' ex-wife Chrissie Hynde's combo
The Pretenders. Their daughter, Yasmin,
came out to support the folks. "And she
owning it. But I was just there last week,
and it was great to see people having a
great time.
IE: It was 1982 when you discovered this
hotel?
JK: In 1982 we played Sicily, and we had
the time of our lives. It was my birthday
there, and someone said they were going to
take me to this great place for lunch tomor-
row. And they took me pretty much to
where I now have the place. And it just
blew my mind, so I kept going back and
going back -- it got under my skin and
8 illinoisentertainer.com october 2018
became part of me, and led me to thinking
20 years ago, should Simple Minds come to
an end, this where I want to come and live.
And lo and behold, here we are.
IE: What family do you have now? Are you
remarried?
JK: Well, I'm not married again, but I've
been with the same Japanese woman for
nearly 20 years, so we're as good as mar-
ried.
IE: Hotels can turn into money pits. But
you seem like a hands-on guy - are you
there solving problems on a regular basis?
JK: Well, we built the place, as well. I mean
actually built it from the ground up. I
bought the land, and everyone said I was
mental. Everyone. My people in Scotland,
my accountant, wiped their hands – they
said, "You don't know what you're doing,
Italy's the worst place in Europe to invest,
Sicily is the worst place in Italy to invest."
And I was like, "okay, okay -- I'm not doing
it." But then I turned around and did it any-
way and the next week ignited the papers.
And boy, I did fly by the seat of my pants.
And I DIDN'T know what I was doing.
IE: What problems did you face?