A few weeks ago Nicole & I met Tony Spinner at one of his solo-gigs in Weert, The Netherlands. We have seen him all playing on stage with Toto but that’s completely different when he can do his own thing. Then he lets the beast inside out and give away a cool and steamy blues and rock ‘n roll show. Of course I took the chance to have a great interview with this nice musician. We talked for nearly forty minutes, no hurries, a relaxed conversation with a musician who really plays from the heart. When I prepared this interview I got some co-operation from Raincloudmusic (Theresa) and JoeG who send me some of these questions you will read in below. For the fun part I also got Luke, Bobby and Leland involved. Go ahead and read for yourself!!! Eddy: So Tony, welcome back in Europe Tony: Glad to be back Eddy: When I look at your website or the official Toto website, I don’t spend a lot of time home. Tony: Yeah, gone a lot! Eddy: I heard you came directly from South America to The Netherlands? Tony: Yes I did and a couple of weeks ago I also spend some weeks here. Eddy: Do you never get home-sick? Tony: I am home-sick all the time. But you know, my wife comes out on December the 2nd and she’ll stay till the tour is done. Than we’ll fly back together and have a big part of January off. Eddy: It seems a hard life being a musician and being on the road all the time? Tony: Well, it’s not harder than other jobs, I did work in construction a little while, that’s hard. The only hard part of this job is the travelling. Eddy: Yeah you are always on planes and buses and than you get to play for an hour and a half. Tony: Well, that’s why I always like to play so long till they say: “Stop, stop” and than they pull the plug. We used to play for four hours and I didn’t know they didn’t do that in Europe. In The States it’s different. You start to play around eleven o’clock at night and play till daylights sometimes. When I started to do that in Europe the club-owners came up to me and asked: “When are you going to stop?” and I would say: “When would you like for me to stop?” and they say: “Well, two hours ago”. Hahaha! It’s really hard for me to condense the shows in two and a half hour sets and even tonight we just get to play one hour and a half. I want to play this song and that song and there is just no room. Eddy: So, you have to stop after playing one hour and a half? Tony: We are supposed to, yes. Even if were not bound, the bus-driver big Stan would come up to me and says we really have to go now to get on time to the next show and get some sleep. Eddy: When I looked at your website I saw you first where playing with five people in your band and now you doing this part of the tour with just three people on stage. Can you introduce your fellow mates who play tonight to us? Tony: That’s Michel Mulder on the bass and Han Neijenhuis on the drums. (and Nicole, Tony and I continue to have some fun about the pronunciation of these difficult Dutch names) Eddy: Where did you find these guys? Tony: Well, some time ago I was planning to bring my US band with me but they couldn’t come with me because I was planning to stay longer than they were able to. You know, when I just come over for two weeks I just would break even money wise but I want to stay longer and earn some more so I can afford it to come back. DBA Agency suggested to me to get some local musicians and I found Han the drummer right away. Than they came up with this bass-player Han Groenen who played with me for I guess a year and we had another guitar-player called Sonny Hunt who played with us too. Together we decided we needed another type of bass-player. Don’t get me wrong, Han is very good but because my music is more about improvisation that was not his type of thing. He is very good in learning the songs but improvisation he doesn’t like. I asked Han if he knew a bass-player who was more into improvisation, who doesn’t need a set list and who isn’t afraid when we never play the same song the same way every time. He suggested Michel to me but it would be hard for him to join because he is very busy playing with a lot of bands. But when we jammed together it just felt good and he joined me. Because of the other guitar-player Sonny has a band in Nashville with who he plays a lot he couldn’t come and so that’s why I have a three-piece band tonight. But I like to play in just a three-piece without another guitar-player. It gives me more freedom and less chance to wreck. Now we start at this point, we play the song and than we say: “okay, I’ll meet you at the other end”, than we jam and than we finish, hahaha. Eddy: Total freedom, I guess you don’t have that when you play with Toto? Tony: With Toto it is, reproducing their hits and their records. I used to do that with my own bands. I more enjoy the freedom of not knowing what is going to happen. But even with Toto they have points in the show where there is room to improvise but my part is always the same because I am supporting, I support Toto and in that respect it’s not so much fun. I don’t get to improvise, I have to do the part the right way and do this anytime. It’s two complete different things, Toto and my own band. My own band is my way to release my beast. But playing with Toto has taught me time, especially with Simon. When I first got in the band I was playing along and Simon got this funny look on his face and said in his best English accent: “Spinner, Spinner, why are you playing behind the beat”. “What do you mean, man?” Simon: “You are dragging” And I: “Yeah that’s what you do man, that’s the blues.” Simon: “It’s not the blues, it’s not the blues, play on top”. I didn’t know what he meant and they showed me. Eddy: I see you play a lot in The Netherlands, what’s your special connection with our country? Tony: It’s the first place I started and we played The Netherlands to death. Now we are also doing Germany and try to get that market going. After that we’ll try out France, Sweden and England I hope in the near future. Eddy: Okay, now it’s time to learn a bit more about Tony Spinner. When did you start learning the guitar? Tony: The first time I picked up a guitar when my sister was learning to play, she was eleven and I was about eight. I wanted to do that to but lessons weren’t for me because they did show me the way I wanted it to be. I wanted to play like Elvis and Chuck Berry, you know and all they wanted me to learn was notes. He said to me I had to learn to read the music first, so I took about six or seven lessons and said: “Nah, that’s no fun”. But with eight years old, that was just to soon. With fourteen I got interested again when I saw Jimi Hendrix at the Woodstock movie. Well, first I saw Alvin Lee and I that was what I wanted but when Hendrix came on I was stunned and said: “What the hell was that? I have to get me a guitar.” I got my sisters old guitar which had four strings left, I remember and my neighbour’s dad was playing in a surf band. He tuned that thing for me but said that I had to get two more strings. But you could be play a lot on those top four string I had and he taught me the boogie on that old junky acoustic guitar. I think the brand was Decca or something like that. A terrible guitar! I got my parents so nice to put two more strings on the guitar. So when I learned a couple of songs my dad said he would get me a real guitar, an electric one. The first electric guitar he got me he actually got from a truck-driving friend. He gave my dad his son’s old guitar with a little Gibson amp. It wasn’t much better than my first guitar but it was electric. It made a lot of distortion so that was rock and roll. When I was about sixteen I had a few more guitar lessons to learn what bar-chords were. I actually knew but I didn’t know the names of this was an A and that was an E. So this guy taught me to do the chords the right way and what they were called but I still can’t read music to well. It’s funny, Lukather would come up to me and says: “Let’s play that and this…. whatever difficult named chord” And I would say: “What’s that, show me your hands, let me see where you put your hands”. Luke would say: “Oh man, you got to learn the stuff”. But I can’t, I am to old and to lazy, hahaha. You know, when I see it I know what it is, but when someone asks to play something, I have no idea. I just play from the heart and from what I feel. Eddy: I got a question from JoeG. You are a serious blues-player, who are those players that got you into this line of music? Tony: Well, I got into the blues secondary, first I liked rock ‘n roll and through this line of music I discovered the Blues. Especially through Johnny Winter and later Stevie Ray Vaughn. Johnny Winter and Chuck Berry played rock but once in a while they played a blues song. Than I went to the library and lend some records by Lightning Hopkins, I like him because he tells a story. The real blues, the Delta blues I like but with me being a rock ‘n roll guy I needed a bit more action. You can play rock or any kind of music and combine it with blues if it comes from your heart. I call that earth music. Eddy: So if anyone asks, what kind of music does Tony Spinner make, you would say? Tony: I would say it’s rock with a blues influence. It’s not blues, it’s more rock. Eddy: Is there still musically anything left you didn’t try yet and would like to? Tony: Oh yeah, the Toto guys tell me I have to get into jazz to brighten my horizons. They play a kind of be bop and jazz on the tour bus sometimes. Than I ask: “What’s that, I am puzzled”. To me that kind of music is like algebra and I flunked that three times when I was in high school. It’s over my head and I am just a simple person. You know, one note to me means as much as a thousand, sometimes it seems like musical acrobatics, it’s like mathematics against feel. Sometimes I get bootlegs from these guys that play the stuff some slower, I can relate to that and understand them but stuff from Coltrane, that’s scary, it’s very hard to follow. Allan Holdsworth, he is way over my head. John Mc Laughlin, it’s not natural to me. I appreciate it but I don’t sit and listen to it all day, hahaha! Eddy: The set up on stage with Toto, it’s that the same as when you play with your own band? Tony: It’s different. In Toto I have to be quiet with the distortion. So I us an amp that has a pre-amp which is a kind of overdrive so you can turn the amp down. In my own band I use an amp that just has one volume, no pre-amp so it’s clean in the way you get distortion, you just turn the thing all up. I have this little fender amp on stage, it’s more the old-school sound. I can use that with Toto because there are so much musicians on stage, it would take up all the space. So it’s a completely different thing. Eddy: With Toto you get to sing the song ‘Stop Loving You’, why you get to sing that song? Tony: Because I have the right range for it. But still sometimes it’s a struggle. I remember the first show of this tour, I couldn’t reach the notes because I had a cold. Still have a cold right now, I am getting over it and now all the Toto guys have it, hahaha. They are mad at me, hahaha! When I had to do this song for the first time I said to the guys: “Please don’t make me sing now” and they went: “Man, you can do it.” I did but I do apologize to all the listeners of that night, it didn’t sound so well, hahaha. Eddy: JoeG also wants to know more about that Telecaster you are using with Toto, is it a re-issue from that ’57 model? Tony: Actually, somebody build that for me straight out of a block of wood. It’s Darin Hammon, who was working in a music store. I knew him for a while. My friend who owned the music store told me Darrin builds guitars. This Darrin is a blue grass player and I didn’t think much of that but my friend pulled out a acoustic guitar and started to play the thing. It sounded great and it happen to be he build the whole guitar from scratch. It was so nice so I asked if he also could build electric guitars. “Yeah, my friend said, Darin could build anything you want”. I asked what his speciality was and he told me he build a pretty good Telecaster. So he bought a block of ash wood and maple to build the neck. He didn’t buy a neck and a body, he made them himself from these pieces of wood. I had laying some hum buckers and the pot’s laying around and he used them on the guitar. Eddy: When was the first time you actually heard from Toto? Tony: That’s a funny story. ‘Hold The Line’ just had come out. I was still in high school and there was a kind of talent show, you know a battle of the bands kind of thing going on my school. My band was doing stuff like ‘Johhny BGood’ and the band that won did play ‘I Supply The Love’. That was the first time I heard Toto, it must have been ’77 or ’78. I knew the guy who played guitar in that winning band and he took me home and let me hear the Toto album. For me it was to pop back then, I was totally into Jimi Hendrix, you know. If it wasn’t Hendrix, it wasn’t anything for me, hahaha. But now my mind welcomes every standard of music. Eddy: How did you came in contact for the first time with Toto and tell me about the day they asked you to join? Tony: Well in ’99, a friend of mine Greg Morrow who is a session drummer in Nashville, was doing a session with Clint Black, a country session. And Toto’s road-manager Martin who also manages Clint asked Clint if he knew someone who sang because Toto needed some background singing for their new tour. So he called me up and asked me: “What are you doing right now” I said: “I am just playing here and there, nothing special” “Oh, he said, Toto is looking for background singers.” And I replied: “So, and… what’s that got to do with me?” “Well, I heard you can sing and we need a singer, you should try.” “I am not a singer, I am a guitar player that sings a little.” You know, I see myself as a guitar player, I can’t sing without holding a guitar. So Martin tried to convince me anyway to try it out, he would give me a free trip to L.A. and a chance to meet the band. That was cool, so I thought: “Why not”, I’ll give that a try. I did that and they made me sing ‘Africa’ and ‘Rosanna’ but I couldn’t remember the lyrics so it was Dave who hit some notes and said to me to sing whatever so I made up those lyrics myself, hahaha. After that they said: “We’ll call you”. As soon I got back to the hotel the phone went and they asked me: “You want the job?” I went: “Uh, I don’t know, I didn’t thought about it yet”. They wanted me for singing, they even didn’t know I played guitar as well. I went: “Uh… what it’s going to pay?” and Luke would say: “don’t worry about that, we will take care of you very well.” So, I really could use a good job because back at home the playing was kind of dried up, so I agreed to come. The first couple of weeks we rehearsed and I didn’t know what to do with myself, I was standing there. Luke noticed that and he asked me what was wrong, I seemed to be very uncomfortable. “Well, I don’t know what to do with myself just standing there singing”. Luke would say: “Well hold the microphone standard, I start fearing because that’s not my thing to do. One day he needed a second guitar-part and he asked his tech to play but that guy said to Luke to ask Spinner, he plays guitar as well. He asked me to play something and then he said: “Oh you can play guitar as well. So bring your guitar and play along. If you play something I don’t like, I will tell you too. And I went: “Man, thank you, now I feel comfortable up there”. That was really nice of him because this man doesn’t really need a second guitar backing him up but he let me do it anyway, so cool! And along the way he gave me more parts to play. Eddy: You can be heard on the live albums of the band but did you ever play on a studio piece of Toto? Tony: No, not really, they don’t need me for that. I am not a member of the band. They have enough people in L.A. to do that, I live in Arkansas, that’s not next door. So it doesn’t make sense. Eddy: Theresa from the Network would like to ask if you ever did meet Jeff Porcaro? Tony: No, unfortunately I never did but I know him from the stories. Eddy: Do you have some nice stories from the last tour to share? Tony: Well, just this last part of the tour was so cool, we really stick together more then in the rest of the world as these South American countries are kind of strange to us all. We are kind of family, share stories, make jokes and stuff. Real nice. Eddy: What is your perfect day off? Tony: I love to go out to eat. I love to hunt for bootlegs, especially Duane Allman. I always ask around wherever I am if people know good places to get them. That’s why I love to go to Japan, there is a place in Shinshingu, they have everything. Eddy: I heard a story about Luke that he found Toto bootlegs in a store in Japan and he had to pay for them? Tony: Yeah, I remember, I was with him back then. When we were walking around in that story he yelled: “He look, here is a whole bunch of Toto stuff” and he was really not happy about it. He put them all in his cart and they wanted to make him pay for that stuff. He couldn’t believe it but hey, it is how it is, you can’t change that! At Toto’s level, this thing can really hurt because it takes money away from the band. At my level it’s not such a problem if people want or have bootlegs. It might help spread the word. I myself like the bootlegs, especially from musicians that passed away. It gives you opportunity to travel back in time. Eddy: And do you also have other hobbies besides music? Tony: I used to love to go out fishing but that’s a long time ago that I had the time for it. I love to hang out with my wife. Than I have my classic car, a 1964 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport. But I am not home enough to really have that thing running. When they are like that you really have to start them up everyday. I also collect little model hot wheels cars. Not the real thing like Leland has, that’s to expensive for me. Eddy: Okay Tony, time for some fun now, I mailed some of your Toto buddies to send me a funny question, something they experienced with you what might be funny or make you blush from shame… Tony: Oh Oh, I can’t wait, hahaha! Eddy: Luke asked me to ask you to show your big toe, what’s that about? Tony: That was in a middle of a tour when we did Night Of The Proms, I had some serious problems with my big toe and I couldn’t wear shoes. I was wearing sandals and I was kind of limping around on stage with my big blue toe hanging out. Eddy: Another question from Luke was: “Ask Tony if he ever did masturbate in front of a big recluse spider? Tony: Hahaha, well actually I always do that in front of a big poster of Luke. But I hide that in my closet so my wife doesn’t catch me, hahaha! Eddy: Okay, Leland really likes to know if you don’t know the difference between domestic and international terminals? Tony: Oh my God, I always get lost on big airports. I got of from a flight and I saw this little sign: “baggage claim to the right”. So I went that direction but I couldn’t find those this section from our flight. I asked someone and he told me, it’s right here so I stood there for ten more minutes. Then I thought, this isn’t right so I called the tour manager and asked him: “What’s going on?” and he responded: “Where are you? We are at the baggage claim.” I said: “Which one”. “Well at the right one, at the international claim”. And I was there waiting at a domestic baggage claim section. But hey, that’s me, I am simple, my mind works slow. So I learned my lessons, stick with the band. Eddy: And Bobby really likes to know, if you are cleaning your back yard, you throw stuff over the fence to your neighbours? Tony: Hahaha, Bobby remembers that? In my world, whenever we clean our yards, we just throw the junk over the fence yes, hahaha. And they throw their stuff over to me, hahaha… Eddy: Okay Tony, we are almost at the end. In my interviews I always like to play a little word game, to get a reaction on a name or a word. The first word is the most important, I guess… Music? Tony: Love… Eddy: Oh, you stole my next word, Love? Tony: Music, hahaha… Eddy: Studio? Tony: Focus… because you have to be focussed in a studio… Eddy: Playing live? Tony: Total freedom… Eddy: War? Tony: Sad… Eddy: Fame? Tony: Ridiculous. I saw it already before Toto with other so called famous people I played with. You have to live up to a certain standard and that makes people feel uncomfortable and insecure and that makes them act a certain way that is not true to themselves. It’s hard to handle if you now first have found yourself. Eddy: Bobby Kimball? Tony: Bobby is one hell of a fine guy, he is smart and always happy… Eddy: Steve Lukather? Tony: Crazy, he is one of a kind. I never met anyone like him. He has a big heart, he is very soulful and a fine musician. He really really is a very deep person and has a lot of emotions about everything. He can make you laugh when you are feeling bad… Eddy: Mike Porcaro? Tony: He is kind of quiet, like me. We are the quietest guys in the band. But Mike can be so be so viciously funny sometimes. He likes to wind some one really up and yell to somebody like he is mad but the person doesn’t see he is winking to the other people around. Than he tells, he is just kidding! I like Mike… Eddy: And how is he doing now? Tony: I don’t know, I called him about a month and a half ago but it hadn’t change too much, just hanging in there… Eddy: Greg? Tony: He is one of the best keyboard players I ever heard. Really amazing, he has the perfect pitch. He knows so much about music… Eddy: David Paich? Tony: Oh, I haven’t seen him in a while, he is a great piano player. His style is indescribable! Eddy: Simon Phillips? Tony: Simon… Of course an amazing drummer, very polite. You can rely on him if you need to talk with someone. Eddy: Leland Sklar? Tony: Oh God, I love Leland, I just met him. He is the most comfortable guy to talk to, very outgoing. He is very funny and intelligent. He is a real artist, you should see some of the art he did. Eddy: Toto? Tony: Hmmm, a wide spectrum of talents in music. You know, all the people in the band are very different, have total different backgrounds in music but when they all come together, it’s the perfect match! Eddy: …and the last one is… Tony Spinner? Tony: Sometimes I am still figuring out who I am, hahaha! I am almost satisfied about all the things I have done. When I was younger I took myself to serious, growing up I wanted to be a rock star and stuff. Basically finding out in life who you are is just try to be happy, do the things you want to do and don’t worry too much. The last couple of years I really started to relax in everything More photos from this night at THIS LINK