Eddie Money at Konocti

An interview with Eddie Money


"You can't keep a good man down" goes the chorus to one of Eddie Money's best-loved early songs, and it's a boast that's proved eerily prescient for the Bay Area bar band king-turned-San Fernando Valley squire. A formidable hitmaker (don't even pretend you don't know the words to "Two Tickets To Paradise," "Think I'm In Love," or "Take Me Home Tonight"), the former Edward Mahoney has been beset by drug problems, marital woes, lawsuits, and changes in musical fashion, but he's never thrown in the towel. Now, over two decades after "Baby Hold On" first hit the charts, the Money man is back with Ready Eddie (CMC Int'l), an album that's easily the toughest, most passionate, and most radio-friendly record he's made since 1982's No Control.

Eddie's appeal has always lain primarily in his lack of pretense, and Ready Eddie shows that nothing's really changed; he's still just the schlub from the neighborhood nightclub who made good, and he knows it. Taking time out from dropping his sons off at Little League practice, Eddie spoke frankly to LAUNCH about his sordid past and hopeful present. Like your wiseguy uncle, Eddie might occasionally be too coarse for polite society, but you never doubt for a second that he's anything other than 100% real.

LAUNCH: When did you first come out to California?

EDDIE: I came to California in August of '68, and I moved into Berkeley in September. I lived on Vine Street and Shattuck.

LAUNCH: Did you come out with the intention of becoming a professional singer?

EDDIE: Well, I was a police trainee, and I quit the police department because my hair was gettin' really good in the back, y'know? I couldn't see myself in uniform for 20 years, and I moved to Berkeley. I went to Merrick College, when it was down there on Shattuck Avenue. Those days were wild, man, and I was right in the middle of it. During the People's Park riots, I was working on Telegraph Avenue as a bellbottom salesman.

LAUNCH: What are your memories of the local music scene at the time?

EDDIE: The scene at Berkeley was great. A lot of the guys I was playing with used to play with John Lee Hooker, so it was very blues-influenced. I used to work the Keystone in Berkeley, and I used to work Homer's Warehouse down in San Jose, and I used to work Lavalle's, which was a pizzeria, and the Longbranch. And I played a buncha frat parties, stuff like that. To make a long story short, I got a deal with Bill Graham and went on the road [opening for] the Rolling Stones, the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Steve Miller Band, and a whole buncha really great acts. And I guess the rest is rock 'n' roll history. [laughs]

LAUNCH: So you've got plans to tour this summer?

EDDIE: Oh, yeah; I was gonna do a big tour with Styx, but I think Dennis DeYoung has been fighting with everybody.

LAUNCH: Yeah, I saw this press release that said he has a newfound allergic reaction to stagelights, or something...

EDDIE: Yeah, I dunno; that's crazy to me. I love the stage; I love getting up there and performing "Baby Hold On" and "Two Tickets," "Shakin'," "Take Me Home Tonight," "I Think I'm In Love," "I Wanna Go Back," and you know...

LAUNCH: So you never get tired of playing the old hits?

EDDIE: Well, you know what? To tell you the truth, it's what I do for a livin', and to see the joy that a lot of people get that grew up with my music...I mean, "Two Tickets To Paradise" was everybody's prom song, y'know? Back in the '70s, I could always get up with any bar band and do my own material, because they knew it all. But it was a trip; I sold a lot of records, made some mistakes, got hooked on cocaine back when they said cocaine wasn't addictive. [laughs] And I've had my bouts with the booze, and stuff...

LAUNCH: So you're pretty clean these days?

EDDIE: I'm pretty clean... [laughs] I'm pretty clean.

LAUNCH: Care to elaborate?

EDDIE: Naw, naw...I have my slips now and then--it's hard for me to stay away from the herb, y'know? But I'm doin' a good job. I've got five kids, and with the insurance I have right now, they random-test me; so I'm usually pretty straight.

LAUNCH: So, under the circumstances, do you think it's still appropriate to refer to yourself as "the man with no control"?

EDDIE: [Sighs] Well, to tell you the truth, man, I don't know...I'm still pretty crazy; I still get myself in a lot of trouble and sh-t. I'm still out of my mind, y'know? I still have a great time. Rock 'n' roll keeps you young; it's kind of like a young man's fancy, y'know what I'm saying? I remember when I was young, dumb, and full of c-m! [laughs]

LAUNCH: Ah, but you're older and wiser now...

EDDIE: Well yeah, I'm 50 years old right now. But I'm still skinny, my voice has held up, and I'm trying to knock the cigarettes off; I'm down to a pack a day now. I'm lookin' good, feelin' good, and I'm really happy about the new record.

LAUNCH: Yeah, let's talk about that. Ready Eddie totally has that classic Money sound to it.

EDDIE: Yeah, the record's a lot like the No Control album, or the first Eddie Money record. I used Frankie Sullivan from Survivor on guitar. My guitar player, Tommy Girvin, plays a lot like Joe Satriani, but I wanted somebody to play it a little sloppy, and [Frankie's] favorite guitar player is Keith Richards. A lot of the young guys in the garage can just pick up this record and learn the solos, just like with the first record. I made this record for 180 grand. I used to make records for $650,000; I'd have to pay for getting an entire Steinway refinished, because we did nothing but chop a buncha blow on it, ya know? [laughs] But now, when I make a record, I concentrate, I'm two steps ahead of myself on everything. And this record is doing really great. Now, some of the people at the original rock stations are a little shy on "Don't Say No Tonight," because it's a bit of a sissy tune. I'll admit that, but so was "Baby Hold On," y'know? There's a little sissy in all of us--a little Andy Gibb in all of us. [laughs]

LAUNCH: Did you ever cross paths with Andy Gibb, back in the day?

EDDIE: Yeah, he snorted all my blow! The guy had three times as much money as me, and the next thing I know, I was holding an empty bindle. I used to party with John Belushi, fer chrissakes, back at the Chateau Marmont. They had no room service there, but they had the greatest wine list in the world! I had a big suite up there--Errol Flynn's original suite.

LAUNCH: I've heard a rumor that, at one point, you did so much cocaine that it caused you to have a stroke. Any truth to that?

EDDIE: No, that's not true. What I did was this bathtub barbiturate called phenatol, which was a synthetic heroin that actually killed a lot of young people. I was drinkin' at McNally's one night, right there on College Avenue, and I snorted some of that stuff thinking it was cocaine. It was like, lights out, man; I went into a coma and fell asleep on my leg, and my kidneys got messed up. I killed the sciatic nerve in my left leg, and it took about a year before I could walk again. But my next album, No Control, was about that overdose, and people ate the goddamn thing up and made it double-platinum. I was rich again! And I was right back out there--the first show I did was the Us Festival, in front of 650,000 people.

LAUNCH: You share a similar background, style and outlook with guys like John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Seger. Do you feel like those guys tend to get a lot more respect than you do?

EDDIE: Yeah, but I've burned a lot of bridges. I've had a lot of fights with Rolling Stone magazine and Entertainment Tonight, and all that crap. I was young; they put you in a side room at the CBS convention for a minute, and before you know it you're throwing seven cases of champagne into a f--kin' fireplace! [laughs] I never really gave a sh-t about publicity, and stuff like that, and it's all comin' back to me now. I've made so many goddamn enemies, I doubt if they'll even let me into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame--I'm like the Pete Rose of rock, y'know? [laughs]

LAUNCH: Has VH1 ever contacted you to do a Behind The Music? You seem like a perfect candidate for it.

EDDIE: Yeah, but you know, when I saw the one about Motley Crüe, with Nikki Sixx talking about the needle in his arm--I mean, I don't wanna see this on TV with all my kids looking at me as being a big dope addict and a womanizer, showing shots of my first wife, and stuff like that. I got kids in parochial school, y'know?

LAUNCH: Most of today's recording artists can't seem to sustain a career for more than a year or two. How have you managed to keep a loyal fanbase for over 20 years?

EDDIE: I think the secret to my success is good tunes that are very autobiographical. I mean, my wife threw me out of the house last year because I was f--kin' up, and I wrote songs like "Turn The Light Off" and "I Can't Hold On." It was horrible fightin' with my wife, but look at the great songs I got out of it! I've been very lucky, and I'm very happy that I made this record. It was the No. 1 most-added record on the rock charts three weeks ago; but if it had gone the other way, I would've been ready for it. It can either be Eddie Money at the Oakland Coliseum, or Puppet Show & Eddie Money in Des Moines--it doesn't make any difference to me. I'm still getting out there and playing new material, and the fans still get a big kick out of it. And I laugh at myself; I always tell jokes onstage. Like, "My wife told me she wanted to go someplace she's never been before, and I said, 'Try the kitchen!'" [laughs]

LAUNCH: No wonder she threw you out of the house.

EDDIE: Well, you know...I'm a wild man!