What is your first musical memory?
My father was a musician and teacher, who loved church music, played the organ and carillon and devoted much of his life to boys choirs and the Anglican Church. So I was raised in a different kind of musicalk tradition. But I remember being in our neighbors’ house—that of a teacher named Jack Davidson—when I hear Chuck Berry’s “School Days” on the radio for the first time. When I heard that guitar ringing a bell, my life was never the same.
What was the first album you owned?
Chuck Berry’s A Dozen Berries.
Were you not a musician, what would your profession be?
A baseball analyst and writer for ESPN, working hard to keep my day job.
What song do you wish you had written?
“Love Minus Zero, No Limit” by Bob Dylan, the greatest love song ever written, or “Wish List,” by Pearl Jam, because I do wish I were the messenger and that all the news was good.
What was the first concert you attended?
Again, I think it was Chuck Berry at Whalom Park outside of Fitchburg, Massachusetts
What three bands or artists, dead or alive, would be part of your ultimate one-night concert performance?
Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and Little Feat with Lowell George.
What instrument would you like to play, that you currently cannot?
The piano. But I kept skipping piano lessons to play baseball.
With whom would you like to collaborate?
Richard Thompson and Derek Trucks.
Which one of your songs would you put in a time capsule?
"She Fell From Heaven," to be re-opened when religious and political freedom—for which my ancestors came to this country—are restored.
What one album can you not live without?
Waiting for Columbus by Little Feat. You know that you’re over the hill when your mind makes a promise that your body can’t fill.
Who was (or is) your biggest influence as a musician?
My father, because music was his passion, and his mind was forever open.
Compiled by Bob Ham
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PETER GAMMON' Never Slow Down Never Grow Oldis out now on Rounder Records.
http://www.rounder.com
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