Danny Hutton has got stories.
And the Three Dog Night founder/vocalist is more than willing to share them during a generous phone interview that ate up all the available space — and then some — on my voice recorder.
We spoke of Jerry Garcia and Elton John — spent plenty of time on the subject of his dear ol’ pal Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys — and touched upon his days working with such punk acts of X and Fear. He even mentioned that he’d read my recent interview with Robby Krieger of The Doors.
Of course, he also talked a ton about Three Dog Night — a band that sold tens of millions of albums and ranked among the most popular acts in the world from the late ’60s into the early ’70s — and how the group’s significance is often downplayed because the members didn’t write their own tunes.
Oh, yes, but what they did on those numbers was often something truly special — fitting Harry Nilsson’s “One,” Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” Hoyt Axton’s “Joy to the World” and others with sparkling rock/pop/funk arrangements and turning them into massive hits.
Fans can look forward to hearing those songs — and so many other favorites — when Three Dog Night performs Sept. 14 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Little River Band, the author of such splendid numbers as “Help Is on Its Way” and “Cool Change” (possibly the finest Yacht Rock tune ever recorded), is also on the bill. Showtime is 7 p.m. and tickets start at $90.05, mountainwinery.com.
Here’s my interview with Hutton.
Q: I’m impressed that you prepped for our interview by reading some of my work. I don’t remember any rock star ever doing that before.
A: I do my homework. I want to get the tone. I do a lot of radio stuff. Generally, it’s guys who are ready to do their attack on you or they are the happy, crazy morning guys. You’ve got to get your energy set up for the person you are going to talk to, I think.
Q: Well, no attacking here, I promise.
A: Hey, I always say you can say whatever you want — ask me anything. And I realize — I’m almost 82 — I don’t have to answer. (Laughs) But I’m open to about anything. It’s crazy to limit what you’re going to be asked. I don’t think that interviews are interesting that way.
Q: Well, since you bring up your age, I’m wondering how do you — at nearly 82 — find the energy and motivation to keep rocking?
A: Well, I love it. I bought Alice Cooper’s house, in Laurel Canyon, and I have a studio here …
Q: Hold up a second. You bought Alice Cooper’s house? Are there like guillotines and secret dungeons and macabre stuff like that in the house?
A: I think people have to understand that music and live shows — it’s all theater. Alice Cooper is a really cool, sweet, normal guy. He’s a great golfer. No, this house is beautiful. It’s like a big cabin up in Laurel Canyon. And I’m 15 minutes from the Sunset Strip.
Were you into punk at all?
Q: Sure. And I’m also aware that you worked with the L.A. hardcore punk act Fear.
A: Yeah, I was their manager for two years. And I (worked with) X, The Go-Go’s, Black Flag, Circle Jerks — all those guys. I started a whole (tour) circuit. Everybody was in L.A. — they couldn’t get out of L.A. — so I get everyone up to San Francisco and down to Austin, Texas and through Arizona.
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Q: Tell me about the current lineup of Three Dog Night.
A: My two sons (Dash and Timothy Hutton) are in the band now. I know everyone says, “nepotism.” But they had auditioned — they had been playing since they were five. One son (Dash), the drummer, was in Haim. Do you know them?
Q: Absolutely. They’re good.
A: He was their drummer for years. The reason I bring this up is I love (playing in Three Dog Night) — I’m on a tour bus with my two sons. And the other guys have been in the band for years. And we’re cooking.
Q: Take me back to the early days of the band. Story goes that Three Dog Night started out as a straight-up vocal trio, before the rest of the backing players came on board.
A: We were working with Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) at first — he called us Redwood. And that didn’t work out. Our manager said to us, “You guys, you don’t want to be a vocal trio — go out and get a band.” So, we went out and got a band. For six months, we’d find backsides of records — just doing live stuff — that no one had ever heard. Except “Try a Little Tenderness,” they were all songs that had either come out and didn’t (get popular) or were B-sides.
Q: And through those live gigs, you’d end up attracting the attention of a label and scoring a deal.
A: A record company — ABC Dunhill — said, “We love you.” We said, “OK, we have to get an album together and get the songs.” They said, “You have the songs — the songs you were just playing.” We said, “No, no, we didn’t write any of that stuff.” They said, “Well, that’s your first album.” That’s how that all started.
Q: And the result was the self-titled debut of 1968, the first in a long string of hit albums for the band.
A: All of sudden we’ve got Neil Young, Randy Newman and all these people are submitting records to us. Am I supposed to turn down a Randy Newman song in order to use one of my songs? And it ended up just continuing, the whole process, through the years. The new (Three Dog Night) album, I wrote six songs on it. I just wanted to show everyone we could really do it.
Q: The critics might have dinged the band for not writing its own songs back in the day. But I’m sure the actual songwriters loved cashing all those checks that came with Three Dog Night covering their songs.
A: Except we didn’t cover songs. We resurrected them. Cover implies it’s like copying. We turned them into hit songs. “One” was on the Nilsson album for like eight months and did nothing. And we got it and changed it.
Our whole thing was let’s find or recreate or do the best songs we can. We didn’t care about genre. We’re probably one of the few groups that, if you listen to our albums, almost every song is a different feel, a different genre.
We never had a theme and some people — the critics — I don’t think got that.
Q: Oh, but the fans sure did.
A: We became crazy successful. After the Beatles, we did the first stadiums — before Crosby, Still & Nash and everybody. We were the first guys who used big screens. We played the Cotton Bowl (in Dallas) and stadiums back east — a lot of big ones.
Q: Did you play a stadium in Northern California?
A: The first show we did up there was at The Fillmore in ’69. I think Santana was opening.
Q: Tell me about being in the studio with Brian Wilson
A: During the whole “Pet Sounds” album, I was in the studio watching it go down.
Q: Whoa. So many all-time great songs — including the truly transcendent “God Only Knows.”
A: I’ll destroy you forever, if you like that song. You want to hear why?
Q: Umm, maybe?
A: (Session musician) Hal Blaine came up to Brian — and Brian was really good if somebody came up with an idea, he’d listen and say, “What are you thinking?” (Blaine) came up with this plastic orange bottle, which obviously no longer had orange in it, and he played this rhythmic thing on it with a stick — almost like a large chopstick — and Brian loved the part. The next time you here “God Only Knows,” that will never leave your head. You’re going to hear that part all the way through it, on this romantic beautiful song, and it was a plastic orange bottle.
Q: I love that you can tell stories about both Brian Wilson and Fear. Who else can we talk about?
A: I started Elton John. (Laughs) I went to England, looking for records, so they sent Reggie Dwight (aka Elton) to my hotel. He was just the sweetest guy and he played me some demos. He didn’t have it all together. I mean, they were great songs, but he didn’t have whatever that thing that would happen with him.
There was this song called “Lady Samantha” that he did and we had it on our second album. He sent me this letter, a two-page letter — and then made a transatlantic phone call to me — and said that Bernie (Taupin) and him were starving. So, I helped pay the rent and paid for his food for a while.
When he came to L.A., we were at my house. And I knew (Troubadour owner) Doug Weston really well and I got (Elton) into the Troubadour. I also brought him over to Brian Wilson’s house. When Brian answered the speaker at the gate, Brian was singing “Your Song” to him. So, Elton was blown away.
Q: Oh, my goodness. You have some of the best stories ever.
A: You can ask me names. And I might have a story
Q: OK, I’ll play along. Did you ever hang out with the Grateful Dead?
A: We played with them when Pigpen was in the band in L.A. Garcia always appeared to be a lovely guy. I was not a fan (of the Grateful Dead). I get the concept. I am more of a fan of cutting the fat. I understand, completely, jam bands — it’s a different form of jazz. But it didn’t speak to me, personally.
Q: Any other interesting L.A. music industry tidbits from back in the day?
A: Brian Wilson came to my wedding wearing a black executioner’s hood.
Q: A what? That’s a bizarre fashion accessory to wear to a friend’s nuptials.
A: Of course. But he and my wife got along great.
Q: That’s one very understanding wife. Mine would’ve probably freaked out. But I guess Brian was known for doing and saying some unusual things.
A: If you were to ask him if you were fat — and you were fat — he’d say, “Yeah, you’re fat.” But it was all innocent. He didn’t have a bad bone in his body.
Q: Three Dog Night’s sales figures and other career stats lap that of so many of the acts in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yet, the fact that the group didn’t write its own songs has seemingly barred Three Dog Night from admittance.
A: I don’t care if we are ever in the Hall of Fame. We have Hall of Fame acts who open for us. And then there are certain artists — I don’t want to mention names — who didn’t write anything. And they’re in the Hall of Fame. I sound like a bitter old man.
Q: Nah. You sound like you’re doing pretty great, actually.
A: I did 33 pushups today.
Q: 33!
A: Yeah, I should’ve done more.
Q: Now, you’re just making me look bad. But that’s OK. I still plan to turn out to see you and the rest of Three Dog Night in concert at the Mountain Winery. And I even plan to bring my wife along with me to the show.
A: OK, great. I’ll make sure to wear an executioner’s hood.