Interview W/ Gordie Johnson (Grady/Big Sugar)

Republished from CrusherMagazine.com

A Texas gentleman with Canadian charisma, Gordie “Grady” Johnson grew up in the border town of Windsor, Ontario Canada. Still owning a working farm in Alberta and having lived in various places, both in the U.S. and Canada along the way, Gordie has now adopted Texas as his new home. And Texans have welcomed him with wide open arms and big open hearts.

Probably best known for his years as the driving force behind the unique sounds of Big Sugar, Gordie’s sexy, cool look and soft spoken demeanour is in stark contrast to his raunchy live shows that include wicked and wailing guitar riffs and a voice so unique, that this writer is incapable of finding the right words to describe it. The man is a guitar genius as well, with his ever-present slider on his pinkie, he picks, strums and plays the shit out of his guitars—add in some fun lyrics, a petite, 90-pound drummer, with a voice of an angel, named Nina Singh, and the affable “Big Ben” Richardson adding his incredible talent and style on bass, and they are able to draw in their audience with a live show that is part hard rock and part rockabilly, with a hint of blues thrown in for good measure. They have so much fun on stage, it's clear to the audience, the amount of respect they have for one another--it shows. And the music, so loud, seems to reach down into the very core of your soul.

I had a chance to sit down with Gordie for a little chat prior to Grady’s headlining performance that evening, at the Tattoo Rock Parlour in Toronto. And after seeing their live show, I would put this band in my Top 20 favorites list right now. This was clearly one of the best, and loudest, live performances I had the good fortune of seeing during Canadian Music Week.

TINA PEEK: What's it been like for you to be back “home” and playing in front of your Canadian fans again?
GORDIE JOHNSON: Oh perfectly natural. We're not used to the climate anymore. It's amazing how fast you lose your taste for the cold weather. And I hear Canadians say, "Oh we don't like it either." But it's not like that. I worked in the cold weather most of my life, and I was away. I missed one winter and I lost it; I shiver like a little poodle dog or something. When I get outside, I need to put on like a little doggy sweater or something to take a walk. That's the main thing, but the fans are great! Playing is playing, it's kind of the same to me no matter what really. Whether it's twenty people or two thousand people, it doesn't make any difference to me, likewise geography, but it's pretty cool to be back home.

TP: You grew up in Windsor Ontario and now you call Texas home. Why the move? Did you feel your music would be more accepted there than here?
GJ: No it wasn't that I was looking for acceptance, but rather, a place to make music and do something new and went to a place where I found a lot of inspiration. Not just in music, but just the lifestyle. I went down there for culture more than anything else. The climate, the food and the way people...their manner of speaking and the way they go about their life, it really agrees with me. I spent a lot of time growing up in Alberta as well and a lot of my people are still there. I grew up with a rural mentality. It's kind of like Alberta in the summer, except with the best music scene in the world. So it seemed to me like a good place to live.

TP: Really.
GJ: Yeah, I just like the people’s manners, the pace of life down there. And growing up in a border town, I still think in miles and Fahrenheit.

TP: Were you disillusioned with the Canadian music industry at one time?
GJ: No, it doesn't matter who it is. I'll tell you the truth. [laughs] Well, I wouldn't just blame it on the Canadian music industry, because every facet of the music industry sure went through a big upheaval and is still going through it. Yeah, I just wanted to unplug myself from the industry, not to be discouraging of it, but I had to unplug myself from it to create something new, because, just making something strictly to please your radio programmer and marketing guy and your manager and your agent and all that, if that's the only reason you're doing it, it gets really—it gets tiresome and gets old pretty quick. It's hard to make something inspired you know, when you're constantly bombarded with it, which I was at the time, and I just needed to unplug.

TP: Especially with Big Sugar?
GJ: Yeah, I just needed to pull myself out of it for a while and remember why I liked playing. Just get relaxed to the point where I could think of new stuff, because I really wasn't thinking of any record or come up with anything new, because every time I showed up with something new, I'd have fifteen people second guessing it, wondering if it was the right direction, but I never asked you all before and I don't really want your opinion now. [laughs]

TP: Billy Maddox ended up having to leave the band due to a mild stroke he suffered late last year. How difficult was it to find another drummer with his intensity?
GJ: Well at first it proved really difficult, because I have played with some really uniquely, amazing drummers in my career. I've been really fortunate that almost everyone who sat in the drum chair for me was a first rate, world class, inspiration kind of musician, so it was a pretty tall order. When we started to audition people, we went through lots of drummers, who were good, but it really felt like we were going to have to lower our standard from what was acceptable.

TP: And then you found Nina Singh.
GJ: Yeah, and Nina showed up at rehearsal and it was instant, during the first half of the song, we all just fell right in with her because she's just so great and she sings great and she's really cool to hang out with.

TP: What's it like having a woman in the band? You've never had a woman as part of your band before.
GJ: Hmm, no, but we have always traveled with women on our crew, as a tour manager or for a house mixer or monitors or merchandise. We weren't looking for girl drummer, and we didn't hire a "girl" drummer. We hired an awesome drummer, and the fact that she's 90 pounds and whatever her story is...she's got parents that are from Vancouver, there are lots of ways you can describe her, but bad-ass drummer was the first one that came to mind. [laughs] It is nice having a female on the road though, because I think you just get a more balanced view of life when you're on the road. Because when it's just guys, it gets to be like a pirate ship just merauding the seas you know? [we both laugh] By the time you get home, it's like you've been in prison for six months. The amount of cussing and profanity that pass your lips is pretty horrific.

TP: You and "Big Ben" Richardson have been friends for many years, over twenty actually, and your friendship has lasted longer than most marriages. [Gordie laughs] How do you both make it work, keep things fresh, and keep from getting on each others nerves? *at this exact moment, Big Ben shows up and makes hand motions that he's heading out for a bite to eat*
GJ: [laughing] Here he is. He just showed up, [we're both laughing] and he's getting on my nerves right here, right during an interview! You know it's weird, it's just one of those things where we've known each other for so long, and that we don't always agree on stuff, and we don't always get along, but I think we are just such pragmatic people that we realize it's too much to expect that everyone is just always going to get along. So, you call each other a stack of motherfuckers once in a while, and then you're over it and move on! And a lot of times Big Ben will tell me something, which I absolutely do NOT agree with, but I've also known him for so long that I'll stand back and go, "This just doesn't feel right, but you know what? If I trust anybody, it's that guy." And I'll just go with it. Now, even if I end up saying, "I told you so" later, he's also big enough to take an "I told you so" once in a while. So we just have a thing, and he defers to me sometimes. I'll tell him something that he just doesn't agree with, or he was going in another direction and he'll just shrug it off and go, "Okay. It's your turn to be wrong or it's your turn to take the wheel for a minute". [laughs] So it's a good relationship that way and I think that's...we've always got along like that, whether we were working together or not over the years.

TP: How did you guys meet?
GJ: Oh jammin' in Toronto years ago. Back in the '80s we were playing in bands, and mostly you'd just start going to jam sessions at Grossman's or Lee's Palace or The Horseshoe. Wherever there was a jam going on we'd get up and play together, and that's how we first met.

TP: Your most recent album, Cup Of Cold Poison was recorded at Willie Nelson's Pedernales studio. I've heard he's a terrific guy and would give his friends the shirt off his back. How did you...
GJ: ...oh, you know what though? Let me amend that. Here's the beautiful thing about that cat. It's not only would he give his FRIENDS the shirt off his back, it's that he gives STRANGERS the shirt off his back. I don't want to leave anybody the impression that I'm his drinking buddy or something. I don't have his home number. But, I could phone him at home and he wouldn't get...he's not the kind of guy who would get like, he's a big star or anything like that, or "How'd you get this number?" I mean, I have been on his property. I work in his studio all the time, and when we asked him to be a guest on our record, he said yes. And there was no...like we didn't have to talk to managers and lawyers and get our agent to call. It was nothing like that. He just...

TP: He's a really humble guy...
GJ: Yeah, that's right. He's just like, "You're some local guys and so sure, let me see if I can help you out."

TP: So how did you come to record there and get him on the album?
GJ: Well, when I first moved down there, I was looking for a studio to work out of, and Willie's place just has everything I need in a recording studio, especially in terms of, not just the equipment, he has a list of equipment that's just from my dreams anyway, but whenever I take a band in there, if I'm producing a record and I've got a band walking on the floor out there, man, they just show up inspired, because, it's Willie's place. Willie sings into that microphone. Merle Haggard sang into that microphone, you know...Ray Price, Johnny Cash and all those guys. Kris Kristofferson. They've all been in the place. What are you bringin' to the studio today? Everybody, no matter what style of music, they're all like, "Oh man, this is AWESOME! We're in a place where greatness has walked the floor boards!" So it has something beyond what you can put on the equipment list for me. So I've been working out there, I've done a lot of records there over the last several years, so I kind of consider it my home room.

TP: Do you think it's more difficult for Canadian musicians to break into the States today, as it was say, when you were starting out with Big Sugar?
GJ: To tell you the truth, I stopped thinking about it.

TP: Because you live in Texas now?
GJ: Well because I just stopped trying to break into anything. I'm just making music and yeah, you know, I kinda' looked at part of the scene and just kinda went, "Well, why would I struggle so hard to be counted among a bunch of bands that I don't really have that much respect for, or care for their music." And they go about certain aspects of the business and I don't want to go about my business that way, so why would I struggle to be counted among that number of participants in an endeavor that I don't really care to be mired down into? I just wanna make music. Part of why I went to Texas is that kind of outlaw attitude toward, "Hey, we make music here. Ya'll better take your music business to Nashville or L.A. or New York or where you wanna' take it." But in Texas , it's just strictly about making music.

TP: And they're very loyal to their musicians in Texas , aren't they?
GJ: Yeah, and the ones that come in, too. I mean, the first day we showed up there, we had a gig and people comin' to see us play, and literally after our first show, we had people saying, "Oh I hope you all are gonna stay here, you should live here, you should buy a house here, we love you guys!" If they like you, you're one of theirs', and we've been really accepted there. So it's given us a sturdy home base. It's the first place I've ever lived, where I have felt really home sick when I was away from it. I've traveled all my life, and I've lived in a dozen different places, in the U.S. and in Canada, and that's the first place where I really get home sick for when I'm away for a week and I really wanna go back.

TP: Do you have a farm or a ranch there as well? l know you have one in Alberta, you still have that one?
GJ: Oh yeah, yeah. It's still working in full-on operation in Alberta .

TP: Cattle...
GJ: Cattle and gravel and oil and crops and all kinds of stuff. But down South, I've got a piece of land, about 30 acres to myself, which by Alberta standards is kind of small. I've lived in cities, too. I've lived in Detroit, Toronto...I've lived in a lot of big cities in my life, and now I just wanna wear my boots and my wranglers everyday and I don't feel like putting a shirt and tie on just in my day to day living. It just seemed to suit my attitude.

TP: Do you get out to your farm in Alberta often?
GJ: Oh yeah, sure. Sure.

TP: How does the music with Grady, differ than the music with Big Sugar?
GJ: Hmm...a lot of environmental influence in the music. Big Sugar sounded the way it sounded because of the environment it was made in...even when I was livin' out in Alberta , the band was based in Toronto and it really reflected the multi-cultural nature of the city, especially the neighborhoods I lived in, west Indian culture was so prevalent. Everywhere I lived, I lived in Kensington Market, Vaughn/Eglinton and that was just part of living here, and I associated that with the sound of that music, even though we were playin' stadium rock, there had to be some reggae in the mix. [laughs] That was just natural you know? And the people that played in the band, brought that too, themselves. So we just let it be what it was. It would be insincere of me to make that music in Austin Texas, because we don't have that as part of the culture down there. What we do is more of a reflection of what happens in that town. I mean, first of all, we don't call it a cowboy hat, we just call it a hat. Just because you wear one, doesn't mean you play country music. It means you love it, but I know hard core metal bands, punk bands, honkytonk, singers of all descriptions, everybody that just has an appreciation for music and all the different kinds of music that we're exposed to, we speak back out.

TP: First record you ever bought?
GJ: Well, the first record I ever bought might be a stretch, I remember the first record I stole. I stole a record when I was a kid. But the first record I ever had...acquired...was The Who Live At Leeds. I stole it at some friends house, whose older brother had a crate full of records and we listened to it, and I figured that one didn't have much of an album cover, I betcha' he'll never miss it. [we laugh] So I stole it. And I still have it.

TP: Really?
GJ: Yeah I still have it. Yes I do.

TP: First concert you ever went to?
GJ: First concert I ever went to, Rush "Hemispheres Tour" 1977, Cobo Arena, Detroit .

TP: So how much longer do you plan on touring in Canada and in general?
GJ: Oh, in general? Well, I don't--it don't matter if they've gotta wheel me out in a wheelchair, I'll still be on tour.

TP: So you don't plan on taking a break, even to write another album?
GJ: Well we're writing now anyway. I'd like to work on it in earnest by the summertime, but we'll see how busy we get. I mean, now that we have Nina in the band, it feels like we have a lot of new musical ideas to devote to some new music. So while we feel inspired, I'd like to try and get that done this summer.

TP: So you'll be touring pretty much throughout this year anyway.
GJ: Yeah. Well, it's pretty carved up though you know? Between...I'm either touring, or producing records, most of which I can do at home in Texas, but even that gets me traveling around, so I never know one week to the next. I might get a call saying, "You gotta go to Nova Scotia ." Or I'll get another one saying, "You gotta go to Los Angeles." "You gotta go to Houston." "You gotta go to Vancouver ." I'll go where they send me.

TP: Great. So that's about it, unless you have any messages to your fans, or anything you'd like to add that I haven't asked?
GJ: Oh, no. I think you got it. You covered it, and I think that having Nina in the group has really given us this, just everything fell into place when we got her you know? Even the way the band looks and everything about our artwork. I mean, we've always had a woman on the cover of our albums.

TP: That's true, actually.
GJ: Now we have a woman in our promo pictures too, so that's good. [laughs]

TP: Yeah, that is good. Well I can't thank you enough for taking the time with me today Gordie, I really appreciated it!
GJ: Well thank you!