Interview with Foghat at Lost Highway Festival

July 24, 2016, at 11:00 p.m.

At the Lost Highway Festival Luke Neeley and Nate of Slickster Magazine had the pleasure of interviewing the members of Foghat after their set. They talked about their new album, classic cars, golfing, and their favorite bands.

Interview with Foghat

Slickster: How was it performing a 35 minute set as apposed to what you’re normally used to?

Foghat: Should be one of the few times I won’t complain. Normally we play for about an hour and a half. But, yeah, 35 minutes was fine. We played five songs. We had a few issues to solve. There were some problems with the radio transmitters. But the people were great. The audience was fantastic. Everyone was having a good time, bouncing it off each other.

I was fortunate to have a dad that really loves music. My best memories as a kid… My dad and I would go on these long trips. He was always buying cars and shit to flip. We would be riding together, just listening to music. Obviously whenever “Slow Ride” came on, we’d turn it up a little bit.

So your dad was a car fan, was he?

Yeah, just anything he could make a buck off of, pretty much. Cars, jukeboxes…

My dad used to repair cars as well. He used to do body work. He originally worked on Aston Martins back in the mid-50s. I used to come home from school and there would be an Aston Martin parked out in front. He used to road test them and fit the panels, body panels, doors, and stuff. And he had to listen for squeaks and moans and stuff. Then later on, he had his own business repairing, restoring… Mainly what would be considered classic cars, Alfas, Astons, stuff like that. So, I’m a car nut, I love cars.

I have a question for you. Nowadays, with rock music, some people say that rock ‘n’ roll is kinda dying. I’m sure you guys have maybe heard that before, “Rock ‘n’ roll’s dead.” How do you feel about that?

I think that’s wrong.

I think so, too.

I don’t know. The Rolling Stones are really a testimony to… They go all over the world. We’re still here, and we tour about 60 to 70 days a year.

If younger bands like the Foo Fighters aren’t rock ‘n’ roll, then I don’t know what people are considering rock ‘n’ roll. But there’s so many great bands out there. Grizzly Bears, Modest Mouse…

What are some of your favorite bands right now? Like, in the past 10 years?

I like the Foo Fighters.

Foo Fighters are good.

I used to think Pearl Jam were a new band, but apparently they’re not. I enjoy Chili Peppers as well. One of my favorite bands. I love it when they play. But they’re not exactly a new band, either, are they?

They’re not. They’re not really newer.

But they’re still relevant.

Very relevant. Like, coming up, we have the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Never heard of them.

Never heard of them?

I have now.

I haven’t heard them play, so that will be a first. So, are they popular? The guys pretty good?

I’ve been a fan of theirs since they started back in like 2003.

I’m surprised I haven’t heard of them because I like to keep my ear to the ground.

Definitely check them out.

We definitely will.

So, we have a new record that just came out called Under the Influence charted on Billboard, number 17 last week. On its first week of real release, so we’re excited about that. We’ve added a couple new songs into our set. So, along with the Foghat hits, we’re playing some of the new music that’s actually going over well with the fans. It’s sort of the acid test for your new songs, if you can mix with your older songs that people are familiar with… If they go over well with the crowd, you’re onto something.

When was the last time you guys played in Navajo?

We put out one about four years ago called Last Train Home and we’ve had DVDs out every two years. So we’ve had about six projects out in the last 10 years.

What was the recording process like for the new album? Were there any challenges?

We have our own studio in central Florida. I’m an engineer, so I had to do a lot of the engineering for the album. I use pro tools eventually, but I get this recorder set up and a board and a band house. So we just go in there and record in our off months, which are generally the winter, January, February.

For about two years we collected tracks until we thought we hit critical mass. Then we combined with a really great producer named Tom Hambridge, a Grammy award-winning producer, who won a Grammy for BUDDY GUY’s last album. But he’s worked with dozens of artists.

So we went up to Nashville to complete the tracks. We have a lot of guest stars on the new record. It just dropped last month.

What do you guys do when you’re not recording and touring? What kind of stuff do you like to do? Hobbies?

I fish, therefore I am. [laugh] I have a garden. I cook. Hang out with the grandkids, take them fishing. We usually play on weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, that kind of thing. During the weeks we have off, 90 percent of that time we fly everywhere. We bring our guitars, I bring my snare, pedals, and symbols. We travel with a road crew of three, a guitar tech, a drum tech, and an in-house engineer. We have a manager as well. We have more people in the office running it. It runs real smooth. We have four people running the office. We have a bookkeeper, a personal assistant, and my middle daughter does media for the band.

In the old days, we used to use tour buses and go out for months at a time. Not see your family, travel, and do circles around the states. But now we almost play all year long but we do more like three to four days a week, fly in, fly out. So we have a home life. Charlie’s a great golfer, he likes to golf.

Charlie: It’s a rock ‘n’ roll pension program.

Who’s the golfer?

Charlie: I try. [laugh]

I’m learning. He taught me. Actually, he’s really good, he just doesn’t play very often. He’s the sort who says, “Do we play for money?” [laugh]

When I was a kid there was a church behind our house. We would hit golf balls over at the church. And the groundskeeper would collect them all and bring them back in a bucket.

Really? That’s a nice guy.

Yeah, we would just hit them back over there again. I think he enjoyed it. Obviously. Seems like he would have stopped bringing them back over if he didn’t like it.

My old neighbors would have kept them. “You damn kids!”

I’m just excited to meet you guys.

Are you guys a magazine or what?

We’re an online magazine, slickstermagazine.com. We do lots of stuff with indie music, video games, movies, we have a whole section devoted to horror movies called the Vault of Horror. We have a Girl of the Week every Monday that comes out. It’s pretty popular, it keeps us going.

Did you do some scouting today?

It’s unbelievable. I saw a girl literally walking around wearing a thong.

God bless America. [laugh]

God bless America.

It’s good for us to play at a younger person festival.

‘Cause we had our time in the sun back in the late 70s and 80s, in the festival circuit, which was awesome. So it’s nice to be able to get out and play with younger bands and stuff.

A lot of your music was used in movies, right?

Quite a few. Dazed and Confused. A lot of people that are of a younger generation that know us through that movie. And through the Guitar Hero game. “Slow Ride” was on Guitar Hero 3. It was the first song we’d had played. So we sort of have three generations of fans. Fans, their kids, and now their kids’ kids.

Chili’s just put out a commercial with “Slow Ride” in it. A 40th anniversary. So it kind of dates it, but…

That’s alright. So you guys are gonna do a lot of touring then, just based off the new album?

We tour about 50 to 60 shows every year regardless, but we’re gonna alter our set list to include some of the new material and promote it. We’ve been doing a lot of press and interviews to back it up. The tour won’t be totally centered around the new album but it will be a feature in the set.

What’s one of the most underrated bands right now? Don’t say Kings of Leon.

Let me see…

What do you think is?

Most underrated band? I’d say BRMC, the band that’s coming up next.

We don’t hear much of them, it’s almost like a cult following.

It’s not a mainstream, I think, but it’s pretty kick ass.

It’s cool to see bands like Eagles of Death Metal playing around. They were popular 25 years ago in other groups. They just formed together and made a joke name. It’s great how they got that name, and unfortunate about what happened. They’re still out there slugging it out.

That’s a total testament to rock ‘n’ roll. They did not let that stop them.

And then the Foo Fighters selling out Wembley. That’s like 100,000. For three days.

That’s like back in the Oasis days, when they were doing that.

What ever happened to them?

They split up. Gallagher’s still kicking it, though. Have you guys heard any of his new albums?

No, I’d like to, though. I liked Oasis.

Gallagher has two albums out. They’re pretty good.

I was a Johnny Marr fan, too. But he’s not necessarily new, but he’s always performing with different acts and working with lots of different guys.

He performed on “Champagne Supernova.” That was Johnny Marr doing guitar.

And I liked his association with Modest Mouse. I think that’s one of my favorite records from a few years ago. I saw that tour. And then he had his own band, and did a couple albums that were really good. Really interesting guitar player. I’m a Blues bass player. But he doesn’t really incorporate that sort of Blues style into his playing but he has a really interesting guitar sound.

Well, guys, we don’t want to take too much more of your time.

Thanks a lot, man.