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2011.04.07

A Conversation with John Wetton(1)

テーマ： UK～エイジア～ジョン・ウェットン(1674)

カテゴリ：雑記

by Carla Huntington, on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 4:35pm
Carla's Corner

King Crimson, UK, ASIA, Icon and innumerable vocal appearances with many music industry legends and bands, John Wetton has a resume that is admired by fans and musicians alike.

With an upcoming tour with ASIA starting shortly, John has surprised his fans with a return to one of his musical roots, a long awaited reunion with keyboard master and UK alumni Eddie Jobson. An evening in Boston and then off to musically heal the people of ravaged Japan, John Wetton is grabbing life by the horns and enjoying the moment. This man is busier than ever.

Soon to release yet another amazing solo cd, “Raised in Captivity,” John graciously took a few minutes off of his busy schedule to speak with us at NewEARS…

Well first things first. Your upcoming dates in Japan, are you still going there after the terrible disasters they have just had and the nuclear power plant problems?

JW: Well I figure the last thing that they need over there is for us to start cancelling out on them. Unless the flight is cancelled or it is declared a no-go, we will do it. I have contact people there and they are saying what they really need to do is to get back to normal as soon as possible and that includes going to shows. It’s important for them to feel part of the rest of the world because it is very easy for them to feel like pariahs and it is important for them to feel cared for, so we are going anyways. It’ s great to make people smile.

That’s wonderful and I really admire you for that type of attitude. I am sure that a lot of people over there will be really happy about that decision. I think it is pretty brave. Speaking of which, you had a bit of a health scare yourself a few years ago?

JW: Yes, I had a bit of a scare and ended up having a triple bypass and now I am working harder than I ever have in my life and I’m enjoying it.

JW: Yeah, it made me realize what I already knew and that was that you really have to live in the here and now. That’s it. Nothing you can do about what will happen, yesterday has already been and gone, so you only have today really and you might as well make the most of it. Can’t sit around on the settee watching daytime television, I really have to get on with my life. (laughs) It’s great. If I get called back to meet my maker at least I have made a really good shot of it. It’s been 4 years since the operation and I feel great. I go and get my checkups and everything seems to be ok.

That’s good news because we would all really miss you! A lot. (laughs)

JW: That’s great,… so would I! (laughs.) I feel better than I ever have now.

I remember the first time I saw you back in 78 with UK in Boston. It was an incredible show. I have seen you many times with ASIA and just recently with the local School of Rock kids in Massachusetts. They were really pretty good. Does that amaze you how well they do especially as they weren’t even around to be familiar with this music?

JW: Oh they are absolutely incredible. They blew me away. A really great group of kids. They love all the old music and listen to it all the time. I still keep in touch with a lot of them. Great bunch of kids.

So how did this reunion thing come about with Eddie?

JW: Well that was all Eddie’s doing really. He is the one driving the bus. I probably would have been quite happy just doing enough with ASIA but he decided to take out a band called UKZ.

Yes, we had him here a couple of years ago…

JW: Yes, so we started talking again and he mentioned that he would like to “take the old girl out” one more time and I asked him, “Ok, what would you like to do?” He mentioned about doing 3 gigs to see if this is something I wanted to do or not. I went out there with the band and by the time I got there the promoter was advertising it as a “UK Thirtieth Anniversary” concert and I have to say it went really well. There were some absolutely ecstatic people at the concerts and from there Eddie asked me if it came up again, would I like to do it? So I just told him to let me know what was on the table and I would see if I could. Recently I was in California recording a solo album and we had a dinner together and he told me about a couple of gigs in the US and Japan and asked me if I would like to do it? So as long as it didn’t clash with ASIA I said sure. He has some terrific guys in the band. Really talented and it takes a lot of the pressure off of us by having them up there with us. Marco Minnemann played with us before and Alex Machacek played on my solo album, although we haven’t officially met yet. He laid down a track for me. He actually has turned out to be in the vain of Alan Holdsworth and I just gave him the track and he got on with it. Really good solo. I am very happy that we have these 2 fantastic players with us. It’s going to be great.

Now you are also starting the ASIA tour soon?

JW: Yes, I only have 2 days between the end of the UK gig and the start of the ASIA tour.

JW: Well yes. I remember we had some problems and we split off a couple of times. I remember that we had some issues with the record company. Things went really a bit backwards with sales for ASIA. Our first album was so huge that when the next one came out the sales that we had on that didn’t look great in comparison. By the numbers we did well with that one too but after having such a huge hit with the first album, anything after that didn’t look well as far as the record companies were concerned. It was all backwards really. In any other language a million plus records aren’t bad at all. Kind of like Death Wish II selling better than I. It was more bother than worth than keeping the band going at that time. In 92 was when I thought things were going a bit stale. All people wanted to do was hear “In the Heat of the Moment” or “Sole Survivor.” I felt a bit like a performing monkey. (laughs) I wanted to take some time off and work on some other projects. In the meantime another version of ASIA popped up and we all kind of lost contact for a while but in 2006 we decided to make a go of it again and really the only way to do that was to have all the original members back together again. You take one of the original members out of the band and the chemistry just isn’t the same. So there we are. It was only supposed to be for 17 dates but at the end of the 17 dates we all turned around and said, “Do we want to carry on doing this?” and said, “Yes!” Really what triggered us making another record was my heart operation. Suddenly I couldn’t go on tour again at that time and what I could do was write. So after a few weeks on my back and I had written a lot of stuff and we decided to go with the album.

Sometimes good things happen from bad things…

JW: Well yes. Now we have done two records and are looking at a third.

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