Journalist: After so many years coming, and knowing how passionate the Argentine public is what happens to that love? Does it make it a different show to others?
Bernard Fowler: Yes, the public’s power really helps me to cross the show. The public’s power makes it easier for me to act.
Q.: They are more than 35 years with the Rolling Stones … how was it to join the band and stay so many years with them?
BF: It has certainly been an adventure. I think I am possibly one of the most fortunate musicians in the world. I have spent 36 years with the best rock and roll band in the world. It is a band that is reputed not to keep someone external working with them for a long time. People play with them for some years and then leave, but I have been very lucky. I was blessed to be able to spend 36 years in a row with the Rolling Stones.
Q.: In all these years with the Stones, he also had the possibility of working with them in their solo facets, is it very different to collaborate with them individually to what it is with the band?
BF: It is totally different. For me it is much more difficult to collaborate as a solo artist with the Rolling Stones, that is “they are the Rolling Stones,” everything is so well coordinated. It is how a machine, a well -oiled machine. Everything is careful, organized, except that I have to make my own suitcase on each tour (laughs), apart from that, it is incredible. I don’t think any other band does it how the Rolling Stones. I am sure there are some that can, but I think I don’t think any of them like them. After how much? 60 years? They deserve it. They deserve that their rocker life is easy, they earned it.
Q.: And work with Charlie (Watts), was it special?
BF: With Charlie it was different, I was always much more involved. My participation was much older … it was much easier. There were not so many people to deal with, I just had to deal with Charlie. It was a great experience, a great experience.
Q.: After so many years, was it special to go on a tour without him? (Watts died on August 24, 2021)
BF: Yes, special and different. It was very different, but I would say that “I had the honor of playing with the Rolling Stones.” I was there with Bill Wyman with Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts. But it was a Charlie decision that the Stones followed. When I was sick in the hospital, Charlie said: “Do not cancel the tour of me, call Steve Jordan” (Richards solo band drummer). And Charlie made the right decision. I think Steve’s incorporation to Stones gave them a new energy.
Q.: Beyond his career with the Stones, he has worked with great artists and various genres, how do he decide who to work with? What motivates it?
BF: That is very easy. I choose people who make me feel good. It has to be nice, they have to be pleasant. There are many really good musicians, but there are also many idiots. I don’t care how good you are as a musician, if you are an idiot as a person, I don’t want to work with you. I want to work with great people who are not idiots.
Q.: The last time he was in Argentina, he talked about being working on a project dedicated to tango. How is that going? What situation is the project?
B. F: Ohh, the “damn” tango project is killing me (laughs). The “Tango Project” is exhausting. I am working hard, man, I am working hard on this project. If easy, I would have already left two years ago. But once I started, I realized what was more difficult than I thought, because it was important that I put mine, but did not eliminate the essence of tango. As I said the other day, it’s … I call it “tango with impudence, soul and jazz.” Tango and daring.
Q.: I understand that it was a documentary and an album, right?
Pilo Gómez: The documentary is in process and the album is almost finished.
Q.: Can you know if they are only versions or if there is any original composition?
PG: They are classical tangos versions and there are two songs that are outside the tango repertoire.
BF: You know, I put a lot of pressure to try to do this, you know, to do my best. I pressed a lot until I stopped. I think it was for a whole year where nothing, I didn’t look, I didn’t hear, I did nothing. Because I had to get away and then appreciate the work done so far. And now I can see, I can finally see the goal. The end is close, very close.
PG: We chose the best people we could find to make this tango album. The best musicians, the best arrangers. Ramiro Boero (part of the album) is one of the most important people in tango world now, are the best studies, the best people we could choose to rewrite the songs, to translate them into English and maintain the essence.
Q.: Is there any guest artist on the album?
BF: The only guest so far on the album is Tim Ries (part of many tours with the stones) in the saxophone.
PG: And there is one more guest … a secret guest.
BF: Oh yes, of course, Charly … I shouldn’t say it (laughs) Charly García.
PG: Charly is the sponsor of the album.
BF: Yes, Charly already listened to the album and loved him.
PG: He cried when he heard it. Mecha (Charly couple) told us that it was the first time he saw Charly cry in 20 years.
BF: Yes and that is incredible. I mean, making a teacher cry with emotion is incredible. That reaction means the world for me, I mean, everything means. I just wanted to honor him, so getting that reaction means everything to me.
My man. Great to see you @Charlygarcia
E.: In fact they were together the other day, how was that reunion with Charly?
PG: There is a lot of love and respect on both sides. I know Charly and if you compare Charly’s relationship with other artists and the relationship he has with him, it is totally different. The way they got along, I don’t know, is like a relationship of brothers.
E.: I know what met at a hotel during their first visit with the Stones to Argentina in 1995, but how did that relationship start? How did that special connection occur?
BF: Look, we were listening to music all night, for hours, until dawn. We listened to this, we listened to that, Charly told me “Oh, I like this”, I said “I like this another”, like that all night. Look, I don’t think I had such an experience with another person in my life with someone I didn’t know. I didn’t know who he was, he had just known him and he said “Can I go with you?” (laughs), he was just a subject there at the hotel, I didn’t know anything about him, until the next day. The next day someone gave me the perfect description and still seems appropriate to me: “Charly is the Argentine Bob Dylan.” Oh and it’s not just “Charly”, now it’s the “Doctor Charly” (laughs).
E.: Regarding the October 1 show at the Broadway Theater, can you advance something?
BF: About the show? I can tell you that not only we are going to play songs from the Rolling Stones, maybe there is some of Velvet Underground, we are surely learning some Velvet Underground songs for the show and maybe we do some songs by David Bowie …
E.: Any song from the tango album perhaps?
BF: Maybe (laughs), it will depend on production, I have an idea about a video to open the show. So maybe we can open with a special video. A video that nobody has still seen, a kind of secret.
Bernard Fowler is presented on October 1 at the Broadway Theater, tickets are available through www.plateanet.com
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
