photo by Randi Anglin
Back in the eighties . I got a letter from an American Indian girl , who wrote to me , and she said , “ I was taught never to cry . I was at a party and I was so depressed ” and she was getting very emotional , she told a friend , “ I ’ m very scared and paranoid .” And a friend said said , “ Come in here .” And they went into a room where there was a record player , and she said , “ I want you to hear this album .” And she put on the What a Day album , and she said she cried for the first time in years , and the Lord just released her and set her free .
And I think by the time you get to “ Now I Can See ” if you ’ ve listened to it from the start up to that point , I believe something happens spiritually , and I really believe it . And something happened in that young lady ’ s life that you know … I don ’ t ever forget stories like that .
[ Bruce ] Man .
[ Phil ] In fact , the first song I recorded for the album was the opening track . That is “ What The Lord Will Do for You ” and Gary Hedden was recording me . I sang down the song . And he said he had had a migraine that was splitting . It was just so painful . He told me that by end of the song , his migraine headache was completely gone .
[ Bruce ] Wow .
[ Phil ] And so that really made an impression on him . That ’ s the kind of stories about the What a Day album I like to share . I did release a 40th anniversary CD ten years ago , but we ’ ve run out of all those CDs , so we don ’ t even have any hard copies of the album . But Tom Gulotta , my good friend , has helped me with my Bandcamp site , we ’ re making a special deluxe version . I believe we ’ re going to have LPs pressed .
Also we ’ ll have the main Hedden mixed CD and a bonus CD of all the demos and alternate mixes . We spent yesterday going through the first side of the album and highlighting different parts and making a little bit of a different mix . As far as I ’ m concerned , you can ’ t touch Gary Hedden ’ s mixes . I think they ’ re perfect , but sometimes people like to hear a little different side of it . And so that ’ ll be for some fun ear candy . And then we ’ re going to have photos and some memorabilia .
[ Bruce ] First of all , congratulations on the 50 years . So , I did want to jump now to the present , if we can go there .
[ Phil ] Yeah .
[ Bruce ] 2022 was quite a year for you , physically . Tell us about the accident and your recovery process since then .
[ Phil ] Last May in 2022 , I was in the kitchen ,