Meet Glen Campbell

glen-campbell

Meet Glen Campbell? Wait, we already know Glen Campbell. Yeah, “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston” and “By The Time I Get to Phoenix” … that Glen Campbell. He’s only released, what, like 70 albums? Sold 45 million of those albums, by the way. He’s the recipient of many awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a couple of Grammies and both CMA and ACM awards. He's costarred in big movies, including one which John Wayne handpicked him for, True Grit. And let’s not forget the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour on CBS television.

He’s recently released a new album on which he’s recorded his versions of songs from some of today’s biggest artists, ironically called Meet Glen Campbell. So I asked him, what’s the deal on the title of the new album?

JC - You have this amazing new album out featuring you covering great songs from U2, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne and John Lennon among many others, and ironically, the album title is Meet Glen Campbell.

GC - Yeah, I know, the real Glen Campbell (laughing).

JC - As far as I know, you didn’t go anywhere and we all know who Glen Campbell is.

GC - I think Julian [producer Julian Raymond] just wanted to make people wonder what it was.

JC - I think this CD could win you some more Grammies to put on your mantle.

GC - Thank you! That would be good. I haven’t had one in a long time!

JC - How did this whole project get started?

GC - Julian came down and saw me at a gig on the Colorado River, and he’s a very nice guy, and very talented too. So, he was with Capitol Records and he asked me, would I like to do an album? I said, yeah, but just tell me what you want to do because I just wanted to hand over the producer reins to someone else for this album. I had heard some of Julian’s work before and it’s just fabulous. I also told him that the reason I hadn’t made any new albums in a while was because I used up most of my brain over the past 30 years. So he told me what he wanted to do and he kept bringing me these great songs that were blowing my face off. And I told him, these are awesome! I had so many great songs to select from.

JC - And on the album, the songs, for lack of a better term, have that late '60s classic Glen Campbell sound, and maybe what I am hearing is the “wall of sound” sound?

GC - And the musicians on the record are very good, so that definitely helps a lot, too. They can play these songs upside down. And Julian really knows what he’s doing. He and his engineer get everything flawless. It’s amazing.

JC - Had you heard the Johnny Cash version of the Nine Inch Nails song before, the one Rick Rubin had produced?

GC - Oh yes, definitely, that was great, wasn’t it? Just incredible.

JC - I love your version of The Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These” on this new album.

GC - Well, honestly, that was one of my favorites on this album, but, really, I was blessed by just having so many great songs to choose from to record and I get to live long enough to record some of them.

JC - I look at the incredible career you have had with all the awards and success. From my perspective, though, one of the coolest things about your career was that you were a session musician in the early days where you got to work with people like Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, The Monkees, The Beach Boys and many more. I remember the first time I saw you was on a TV show and all I remember is that you were playing this ridiculous guitar riff that left my jaw on the floor. In those days you could turn on the radio and hear Glen Campbell singing background vocals, playing bass and guitar on so many different songs.

GC - Well that’s very kind of you to say. It was a lot fun in those days. The late Tommy Tedesco [another renowned session guitar player once described as the most recorded guitarist in history] recalled to me a story once about a Jan & Dean session, and Jan always had everything written out on sheet music and charts; it was amazing. So Tommy came in and started playing the sheet music that was on his music stand and it was a strange riff so Jan said, “Stop, what are you doing? That sounds crazy.” And little did Tommy know that Jan had purposefully turned the sheet music upside down and Tommy was playing it backwards! I thought that was the most remarkable thing.

JC - You’ve had some of your biggest hits recording the songs of Jimmy Webb [“By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston”] and I read you might be doing a record together?

GC - Yes, Jimmy has so many great songs and I want to do another album with him because he’s such a great writer.

JC - The U2 song on the new album, “All I Want Is You,” is amazing.

GC - Isn’t that a great song? What more can I say than that really, I’m just so lucky to be able to 1, experience listening to some of these songs for the very first time and then 2, to record them with Julian has just been a truly rewarding experience. He and I just picked them together and it’s been fantastic.

JC - Are there other songs that you liked that, for one reason or another, did not make the album?

GC - Oh yes, definitely. We might even have a Meet Glen Campbell II.

JC - Will we see Glen Campbell live in New York anytime soon?

GC - I definitely want to come back to New York and play, for sure!

JC - No pun intended, Glen, but it’s a pleasure to Meet You!

GC - Same here and thank you. I really enjoy talking to people with taste who know what they’re doing and you got it!