17 minute read
Alabama 3 Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers.
“Larry Love, do you remember when I came upon you in that place of suffering in the valley of darkness? I took away all your pain and put love in your cold, cold heart and from that day forward, told you to go out and spread my word through music sweet, pretty, Country Acid House music. From that day, Larry, you not only joined my church, you embraced my whole philosophy, my whole way of life, because remember little man, don’t you go to Goa”, recalled The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love in his American Deep South drawl during the opening moments of Alabama 3’s 1996 debut single ‘Ain’t Goin’ to Goa’. And thus began an account of how one of the strangest and most imaginative bands to emerge in the ‘90s came about which has since passed into legend.
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But far from being junkies looking for sobriety and enlightenment via the twelve-step plan, who one day, strung-out on methadone, see a spirit and become faithful followers of the First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine (UK), the genesis of Alabama 3 actually came about at an all-night squat party in Peckham, South London in 1995 when the Possil, Glasgow-born Jake Black (soon to be reborn as The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love) met Welshman Rob Spragg (soon to be rechristened Larry Love). Spragg began singing lyrics to a Hank Williams song over an Acid House backing track, whilst Black, a die-hard Jazz fan, added some Bebop Skat to the mix.
Two years later, Alabama 3, who, just to confuse music journalists of the day even more, were actually an eight-piece with no ties to Alabama whatsoever, released their debut album, ‘Exile on Coldharbour Lane’. With both its title and sleeve imagery being a homage to The Rolling Stones’ ‘Exile on Main St.’ (1972) and the combination of Country, Blues and Acid House contained on it
being wilfully out of step with the prevailing Britpop scene of the day, the Union Jack waving NME awarded ‘Exile on Coldharbour Lane’ one star and proclaimed it to be “a monumental waste of time”. Alongside other singles taken from ‘Exile on Coldharbour Lane’, ‘Ain’t Goin’ to Goa’ ((1996, UK#90 / reissued 1998, UK#40); ‘Speed of the Sound of Loneliness’ (1997, UK#72) and ‘Converted’ (1998, UK#100) sat ‘Woke Up This Morning’ (1997, UK#78 / reissued 1998, UK#79), which would soon be picked up by screenwriter and producer David Chase to be the theme tune for his latest project, ‘The Sopranos’ (HBO, 1999-2007).
A further twelve Alabama 3 albums followed (‘La Peste’, 2000; ‘Power in the Blood’, 2002; ‘Last Train to Moshville Volume 2’, 2003 acoustic album; ‘Outlaw’, 2005; ‘M.O.R.’, 2007; ‘Revolver Soul’, 2010; ‘There Will Be Peace in the Valley… When We Get the Keys to the Mansion on the Hill’, 2011 acoustic album (does not feature D. Wayne Love); ‘Shoplifting 4 Jesus’, 2011; ‘The Men from W.O.M.B.L.E.’, 2013; ‘The Wimmin from W.O.M.B.L.E.’, 2014 and ‘Blues’, 2016) and with each, the band’s fabricated story continued to entertain many, but mystify others.
Sadly, on 21st May 2019, The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love, in the words of the band, “passed over to the higher ground”, his last words reportedly being “Tweet, tweet, Possil Fleet”. Despite this terrible loss, Alabama 3 vowed to continue to spread his message, coming together to record their thirteenth album, last year’s ‘Step 13’, soon after. Now, following nearly three years off the road, Alabama 3 have returned to the live arena for the fifteen-date ‘Step 13: The Divine Intervention Tour’.
Two days before the tour began, we caught up with an understandably anxious Larry Love as he was busy making the final preparations for getting the getting the colourful cast of characters who make up Alabama
3 back out on the road. “Busy with nerves, Alice, yes!”, he says after I suggest that this must be a busy time for him. “We’re starting in Cambridge on Thursday [17th March]. It’s good, yeah! It’s like getting some forty-eight legged centipede on the road, but we’ll get there! It’s a bit like ... it must be like one of those freakshows back in the day, [laughs] in the 19th Century! I’ll have to ring up Evans Trainers and book all different circuses!” When I ask him if he is pleased to be getting back out there, he replies, “Yeah, we are, yeah! I mean, apart from that we haven’t done it for about three years and I’m a bit terrified, but I think once the first gigs are done, yeah, it’ll be good!”
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to join us interview, it is lovely to speak to you and I will try not to keep you too long! Could we start by going right back to the beginning and asking where, when and how Alabama 3 first came together?
Yeah, it was probably about 1994/95 and I was messing around with kind of computers and samplers at the time. I was mixing in old Blues records with sort of Techno music and then I met Jake [Black, aka The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love], the one that died [on 21st May 2019] at some party in Peckham and I just started singing Hank Williams songs over Techno music and he started DJing and it went from there really. It was a really stupid idea, Alice, but it seems to have lasted! But, our idea was to mix ... where everyone else was sampling James Brown and Funkadelic and stuff like that, I liked the idea of sampling old Blues and Country records and at the time, everyone thought we were a novelty, but hey-ho, we’re still standing!
Absolutely! Alabama 3 formed in 1995 and you released your first album, ‘Exile on Coldharbour Lane’, featuring the singles ‘Ain’t Goin to Goa’ (1996, UK#90, reissued 1998, UK#40); ‘Woke Up This Morning’ (1997, UK#78); ‘Speed of the Sound
of Loneliness’ (1997, UK#72) and ‘Converted’ (1998, UK#100), in 1997. This was the era of Britpop and Cool Britannia, but you decided to mix Country and Blues with Acid House to create a sound all of your own. How much was the sound of Alabama 3 a reaction to what was popular on the UK music scene at that time?
I think we decided to talk in American accents because we were all a bit like ‘Britpop’s was only there because Kurt Cobain died’, you know what I mean? I love the wars between America and Britain, ‘Who’s first?’ and we just thought, ‘well, we’ll go back to the source’, you know what I mean? If Oasis are stealing off The Beatles and The Beatles stole off Little Richard, then we’ll steal off who Little Richard stole off! So, we thought we would return to the source. Britpop in the sense of all that Union Jack waving and everything like that, I thought was a bit naff. But yeah, the Britpop press didn’t like us at all and they called us ‘a novelty act’!
Despite other much more positive reviews, there is a very famous NME review which awarded ‘Exile on Coldharbour Lane’ one out of ten and described it as “a monumental waste of time”. With the NME having been such champions of the Britpop scene and your music having been such a reaction to what was going on at the time, did this review give you a feeling of mission accomplished?
That’s it, yeah! I remember that, yeah! Sort of [felt like mission accomplished], yeah, because I was a bit ... because I liked journalism and all that and I thought some journalists would be a bit more imaginative, but yeah, it was a bit like we were that far out! I couldn’t blame them really, because they were making a living out of hanging out with Liam Gallagher and waving Union Jacks and when we said, ‘No, we’re all from America’, they didn’t really like it and we refused to do interviews unless we put on these cod-American accents, which didn’t help at all! [Laughs].
You took the idea of the myth and legend surrounding Rock ‘n’ Roll bands a step further by giving each member of Alabama 3 a pseudonym. Until his sad passing on 21st May 2019, there was The Very Reverend D.Wayne Love (real name Jake Black) and there has been a long line of other members, whilst the core line-up of the band these days consists of yourself, Larry Love (Rob Spragg) on vocals; The Spirit (Orlando Harrison) on keyboards; Rock Freebase (Mark Sams) on guitar; LOVEPIPE (Steve Finnerty) on guitar and Harpo Strangelove (Nick Reynolds - son of Great Train Robber, Bruce) on harmonica. I told my mum I was interviewing you last night and even though she has known your music for at least twenty-five years, she still thought you were from the Deep South of America!
I’m an American in a Welshman’s body, yeah!
Today, do you still find that all the myths you built around yourself all those years ago confuses people?
I hope so, yeah! I mean, the thing we said where we all met in rehab, we were just taking the piss out of ... not taking the piss out of, we were referencing N.W.A. ‘Straight Outta Compton’ [‘Straight Outta Compton’, 1988], we had ‘Straight Outta Rehab’ [at an early gig, Alabama 3 were billed as Straight Outta Rehab, suggesting that they all strung-out on methadone and saw a spirit]! We were just making it up that we found the step twelve with Elvis, people still believe that though! Yeah, I mean, I’m glad people still believe we’re American, you know. I mean, that’s a compliment on our stylisation. I mean, there’s not three of us, which always causes a bit of confusion! [Laughs].
Incidentally, I remember my mum having your debut album, ‘Exile on Coldharbour Lane’ in the car when I was a teenager!
Oh no, that’s awful! I’m so sorry! [Laughs].
With the sadly departed The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love (left) in 2009
Oh no, it was great! We loved that album, so ...
Thank you, it’s nice to know we’re a good family band! [Laughs].
Clean family fun?!
That’s exactly right! Put that on the byline, ‘Larry Love promises clean family fun! All ages welcome!’
Obviously, no interview with you is complete without asking about ‘Woke Up This Morning’, which of course became the theme tune for ‘The Sopranos’ (HBO) in 1999 until the show ended in 2007 after six seasons. How did ‘Woke Up This Morning’ come to be chosen as the theme tune for ‘The Sopranos’ and would you say that your association with the show and becoming known to many for that particular song has been a blessing or a curse?
First off, yeah, HBO were releasing it on cable channel in 1999. Someone got in touch and said, ‘Oh, someone wants to use a track for £500’ and we went ‘Yeah, alright’ and about six months later, it was over the programme! So, initially, we didn’t sign a very good deal with them and secondly, the story is that David Chase [creator / executive producer of ‘The Sopranos’] was driving down that freeway where Tony Soprano is and ‘Woke Up This Morning’ came on the radio and he thought it made perfect sense. He said it was all about gangsters, but I said ‘I wrote it about a woman called Sara Thornton, who’d had enough of her husband abusing her, so she shot him’ [Thornton actually stabbed her husband in 1989 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Her conviction for murder was overturned in 1996]. It’s a song about female empowerment and why we sometimes need to use guns. But, it’s been a real blessing, you know. I mean, thank God, we didn’t write the theme music for ‘Friends’ [NBC,1994-2004]! Do you know what I mean! There’s nothing wrong with the ‘Friends’ theme tune, but having to play that all your life! So yeah, it’s been really good.
People have got into us through that, so it’s been a blessing I would say, Alice.
Well, it’s funny you should say about the theme tune for ‘Friends’, because that was by The Rembrandts (released as a single on 23rd May 1995 and featured on the album ‘L.P’, released on the same day, pop pickers!), wasn’t it? What the heck happened to them?! But you’re still going!
Exactly! Maybe they’re living in Brixton pretending they’re American! [Laughs].
They could well be! One advantage of having ‘Woke Up This Morning’ used as ‘The Sopranos’ theme tune I guess is that it opened the door for your music being featured on many other television programmes and films. With the way the music industry has changed over the course of Alabama 3’s career meaning less people are buying records and so forth, artists have had to seek out new ways of making money, so I suppose this had worked out in your favour, hasn’t it?
Yeah, I mean, I would say to any new musicians now, it’s like ‘There’s no point looking at record sales, we have to be a bit more kind of ... you have to cast your net wide’ and I’d say to young people, you know, ‘Get used to doing films of your songs and get your friends who’ve got cameras to make films and everything and get used to putting your music to score’, you know. With Netflix and all these streaming services, there is kind of work out there, but you’ve just got to look and you’ve got to think a bit differently about how you kind of raise your revenue, do you know what I mean? You’ve got to be careful you don’t end up doing Cornflakes adverts! We got requested about fifteen years ago, ‘Could we have ‘Woke up this morning, got yourself some Bran?’ I was like, ‘No!’
Moving on to present day and your thirteenth album, ‘Step 13’ was released last September. Could you
give us an insight into the writing and recording process of the latest album?
Yeah, it was an effing nightmare! Because we’re all booked to go into a residential studio up in Lincolnshire for about two weeks and what happened? COVID! So, we were like the last ones who couldn’t get a booking for a studio and we went straight into lockdown just as we were doing the album, so we ended up where we were all separated around the country and I ended up doing the vocals in my toilet in a flat in Brixton! [Laughs]. But I think there was a gap where we all had to be tested and everything and then we rushed into a studio for about a week! So, it was a bit chaos! But, with what was happening, I can’t feel sorry for myself, but it was a bit of a, yeah, difficult process. And also, Jake died the year before and it was our first album out without him there, so I was very concerned all the way through about how it was going to sound, but it I think it turned out alright in the end, do you know what I mean?
Yeah. Well, it’s a great album, anyway!
Thank you!
So, nearly twenty-seven years after Alabama 3’s formation, do you find that you still have as many ideas for what you would like to achieve musically and lyrically now as you did back at the beginning?
Yeah, I mean, going back to your first question about our style and the Country and Western and Blues and stuff like that, I knew that the older I got, the more room there was in those genres ... I mean, Country and Western and Blues and that sort of stuff, you can sing that when you’re 79, do you know what I mean? It’s not like I’m just doing an Indie band, in terms of what we can do, the fields we can plough up for inspiration, they still remain wide open. You know, I only need to play some Hank Williams and I could get inspired again to write another song, so in that sense ... you know, we’ve just started working on a new album now
and we did a load of film score stuff a couple of months back. So, as I say, Alice, to have that template, we can go anywhere, do you know what I mean, because of the style and make ‘a stupid idea’ and ‘a waste of time’, as the NME said, but I’m still able to do that, which I really like. And I think my voice is going to be good in about ten years time, do you know what I mean? When I’m about 70! [Laughs]. And then we’ll be on our fifty-seventh album! But I’m starting to get good now as a singer. It’s like George Jones and Tammy Wynette ... the older we get, the better we get, you know!
In two days time (17th March), you are back out on the road for the fifteen-date ‘Step 13: The Divine Intervention Tour’. What can people expect from an Alabama 3 gig these days and do you still get as much pleasure playing to a crowd in 2022 as you always have?
Yeah, we’ve gone for ... because we believe that our dear leader [Jake Black aka The Very Reverend D.Wayne Love] has ascended ... he hasn’t gone to heaven, he’s on this other plateau with the lizards and Elvis and all that, so we don’t believe he’s particularly gone, so it’s going to be like a cult-like sort of atmosphere in that we’re all bowing down to some strange deity, but with really good Rock ‘n’ Roll. But, yeah, we’re really looking forward to going back out on the road. I think a lot of it, it’s not just about our music, it’s about the energy that comes from people gathering together, you know, and we like to create a church-like atmosphere or fervour. But yeah, you know, we’re always excited about it. That’s why I’m so fucking nervous, do you know what I mean?! Because I’m excited, but I’m kind of scared! But yeah, we really thrive off a crowd, but it’s our first tour in two and a half years, so yeah! I’m looking forward to it, but I hope it’s going to be alright!
It’s going to be great, you’ll be fine!
Thanks!
Last question and in these days of
war and pestilence, we were wondering, do you have a final message for all the converts to the First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine (UK)?
Thanks Alice! Alright, give my love to your mum as well, yeah? And tell her I’m American, right?! Alright Alice, God bless mate, I’ll see you soon, yeah?
Let’s give the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse a rest for the night and come down and shake your shimmy! [Laughs].
Amazing, that is absolutely perfect, thank you! And thank you for a wonderful interview, it has been such a pleasure to talk to you. We wish you all the best for the tour and for the future.
‘Step 13’ is out now on Submarine Cat Records. Alabama 3’s fifteen-date ‘Step 13: The Divine Intervention Tour’ runs until 29th April. For all upcoming dates, visit the links below:
www.alabama3.co.uk
www.facebook.com/ thealabama3
