The Foghat Chronicles

A joke post of fake liner notes leads to an unlikely 14-year correspondence with members of the ’70s band Foghat

As a handful of you may know, from the late 1990s through 2011 I exchanged several emails with members of the band Foghat. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, they were huge in the 1970s, sold millions of records, and you can still hear their songs on classic radio. This correspondence was completely unplanned, and yet I ended up interacting with five people from the Foghat universe. And it all began with a piece I wrote just for fun, based on my first concert (which was Foghat).

In the 1990s I was listening to a lot of jazz, and reading those flowery album liner notes, written by the Holy Trinity of liner-note guys—Leonard Feather, Nat Hentoff, and Ralph Gleason. All smart guys, and informative, but to my ears, their language was hilariously pompous. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun if this prose style was lavished upon a rock act that was never a critics’ darling? So I came up with a parody of highbrow liner notes, to accompany a nonexistent ten-CD box set by the band Foghat. I never submitted this piece anywhere, I just posted it to my website, and performed a few readings of it in San Francisco and New York.

But the liner notes were easily found via search engines. And for the next 14 years, I received emails from the “Foghat Family,” which ranged from weird to amusing to exhausting, to just sad. At the bottom of this thread is an email conversation with myself and Jason Peverett, the son of Foghat’s lead singer, where we go into far too much detail about all of this stuff. Please enjoy “The Foghat Chronicles.”

Yes, this image is fake.

Blue Note Presents The Foghat Summit: A Silver Platinum Anthology

One of the most baffling things about the boogie-blues sub-genre, is that despite its essentially banal profile, beauty continues to exist within these parameters. In the case of Foghat, the testosterone freight train of repetition also pulls an emotional caboose of raw vulnerability. The listener often is caught between tapping a toe or wiping an eye. Selected by scholars and historians, this definitive ten-CD anthology of Foghat recordings provides not only a vast cultural gift, but also a window to one of the world’s greatest musical partnerships.

I was 15 when I first heard Foghat, a formative moment that altered the way I thought and listened, destroying one attitude while inspiring another. I was a snob. I had been entertaining the notions of Head East, REO Speedwagon, Kansas, and other regional giants of the 1970s American musical experience. But like many of our generation, I hungered for a larger, more elusive truth. Something out there must matter. Where could I find it? “In Denver, next weekend,” advised an associate. “We can take my mom’s station wagon.”

That night in January 1977, a universe opened up. McNichols Arena became a cathedral, and it belonged to Foghat. By the power of their passion, I was led into the most exciting scene since the eponymous debut of Molly Hatchet. Like their kindred countrymen the Beatles and the Stones, this quartet of young men from England would transform an ordinary night into a magical journey.

“Lonesome” Dave Peverett was chief magician, his primary instrument of artistry the Gibson Les Paul. Still in his early twenties, clad in lambchop sideburns and white bell-bottoms, he played with the maturity of a seasoned pro, and sang with the patient wisdom of a master. The slide guitar of Rod “The Bottle” Price was full-bodied and robust, like a fine claret, yet also tasteful and beguiling. Roger Earl, the polished formalist of the group, alternately caressed and taunted his drums with lyrical pointillism. Bassist Craig MacGregor added constancy and strength, transforming his fretboard into a left-handed playpen of boogie.

I felt a satisfying boisterousness, an infinite certainty at the center of their souls, as their instruments bestowed an enthusiasm that has stayed with me ever since.

In this collection, a bonanza awaits the listener. If you have heard Charles Mingus piano solos, or Beethoven’s cello arrangements for the King of Prussia, then you might be prepared for the kind of feeling that “Fool for the City” carries, both in a live context and in these 12 unissued studio versions. The entirety of Disc Seven, which treats fans to a 63-minute take of “Slow Ride” during a Michigan hailstorm, has remained unheard until now. An impromptu E-string replacement sequence during an acoustic demo of “Rock and Roll Outlaws” transports Don Quixote to an even higher orbit.

Chances are you’ve revisited Foghat before, and are wondering why you’re holding another re-issue. One reason is a recent discovery of archival tapes in a janitor’s closet at Bearsville Records. Aficionados may now enjoy the choicest of Foghat rarities, from radio appearances to terse booking cancellations. Another reason is the secret 1998 “Cruise Ship Rehearsals,” complete with unanticipated grounding buzz.

This reissue was meticulously processed through a belt-driven BSR turntable, Audio-Technics cartridge/stylus, and Marantz flywheel-tuner/receiver powering 15 watts RMS per channel. Remixing was faithfully completed on an all-tube 4-track Sonic-Lux machine in the kitchen of legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder, retaining original R.I.A.A. high frequency roll-off characteristics. Such reverse-engineering techniques yield a full analog sound complete with needle skips, tone-arm wow and flutter, and resident amplifier hum. Each song resonates with the true clarity in which it was originally heard, and exactly how Foghat had intended.

A professor once intoned that it would take two hundred years to figure out the complete message of Ellington. The same is surely true of Foghat. We may never decipher them, but the mystery is well worth the wait.

(This sat on my website for over a year. I then received this note.)

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Subject: Foghat article

Jack,

My name is Michael McConnell and I represent the estate of Dave Peverett [he was the lead singer, and passed away from cancer]. I’m writing you regarding your article at your site that references a pending Foghat release. I was wondering if you could please furnish me with information on this. I have contacted Rhino, and as they hold all the US licenses for any Bearsville-era releases, I thought they might be intending to release this, but they haven’t any knowlege of this either. I would like to know who the label is and any contact information you could provide. Any information you can provide would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Michael McConnell

Blue Rocket Entertainment

(I thought, was this guy delusional? How could he possibly believe it was real? A 63-minute version of “Slow Ride”?? I replied to his email explaining that the liner notes were just a joke. It was just made up. No response. I posted his letter to my website, alongside the phony liner notes. Two years went by, and then I received a note from the former bass player of Foghat.)

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Subject: Thanks for the write up

Dear Jack:

I came across your web site tonight and read your review. Thanks for the nice comments in appreciation for what we’ve done. And always remember, “Gonna boogie for the doctor, gonna boogie for the nurse, gonna keep on boogyin’ till they throw me in a hearse.”

Best to you

Craig MacGregor

(I couldn’t tell—did he believe it was real also? At least he seemed to have a sense of humor. Two days later, an article I wrote about Kings of Leon appeared in Southwest Airlines magazine. I mentioned the band Foghat in passing, saying that they’ve petered out entirely. This was based on the band’s website foghat.com, which said they’ve retired, and thanked the fans for all the years. What I didn’t realize was that a reconstituted version of the band, with original drummer and logo, was flying Southwest that week. They picked up the magazine in the front seat pocket, and saw the article. Which led to an angry note from Foghat’s manager.)

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Subject: FOGHAT MISINFORMATION

Hi Jack,

Just wanted to respond to your quote in Spirit Magazine “Foghat has petered out entirely, some would even say thankfully”….I represent the band, and am also married to Roger Earl. We read it on the plane while on our CURRENT tour, while promoting our CURRENT CD “FAMILY JOULES.”

Hmmm….

If you would like a copy of our Press kit, which includes our current CD and a sampler DVD, I would be happy to send it to you. Our current website is Foghat.net.

We did not “peter out” after the death of Lonesome Dave in 2000, and still have quite a few fans out there that are enjoying our shows. FYI we did “Sweden Rock” this year to 25,000 people and it rocked, and we did a bunch of dates in Canada with Alice Cooper.

Just wanted to set the record straight, as misinformation can be damaging to a bunch of guys that have worked their asses off and enjoyed playing basic rock n roll music, AND brought enjoyment to millions of fans.

Thanks

Linda Arcello-Earl

Foghat

East Setauket, NY

(I answered, thanking her for the note, and mentioned that hers was the second Foghat-related email I received this week. I also included the original phony liner notes and the first reply letter. Which lead to another reply.)

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Subject: RE: FOGHAT MISINFORMATION

Your article was very funny and well-written. Roger and I just read it. Interesting that Michael McConnell thought the “release” was serious. You write very well…why don’t you give me your address and I’ll send you a copy of “Family Joules.” I’d be curious to hear your comments.

Linda Arcello-Earl

Foghat

East Setauket, NY

(I sent her my address. Who knows where this was going? A few days later, I received yet another email, which was accidentally cc’d to me.)

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Subject: RE: FOGHAT MISINFORMATION

Also please send a Press Kit and CD to this guy. No DVD. And please put the Goldmine article first on the left side for him….and all of the kits in the future.

(No CD or press kit arrived. To this day I have never received any Foghat-related material in the mail. Two weeks later, the former bass player checked in once more out of the blue.)

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Subject: Re: Thanks for the write up

Jack:

I talk to Roger from time to time and I’m putting something together now to go and play and have some fun. If you’re ever in the Philly area, drop me a line.

Thanks and take care

Craig MacGregor

(I posted his email on my website along with the others. Part of me thought all this sudden camaderie is a golden opportunity. The door was wide open for me to become the first chronicler of the Foghat dynasty. I could write the official band biography, interview the surviving members, produce the documentary, direct the bio-pic. Crack it wide open. Tell the full story. But instead, I pretty much forgot about all of it. Two years later, I received yet another email from the extended Foghat family.)

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Subject: Foghat

Dear Sir

I just ran across your listing regarding Foghat. I too have a nice little collection of emails from the Foghat camp. However, most of mine involve threats of lawsuits and the like. It has to do with “Lonesome” Dave being listed on my birth certificate as father. My biological mother traveled with him for a time during his stint in Savoy Brown (another 70s blues-rock band.) During this time she became pregnant and returned home to give birth to me in December 1969. This was only revealed to me a few years ago. When I tried to get information regarding this, I was threatened by Jason Peverett and Michael McConnell. Apparently they found my inquiries a threat to them somehow. Let me know if you would be interested in the emails, I can forward them to you. I’m still debating about how to proceed with the information I have and more that I am still looking for. 

Sincerely, [name redacted]

(I never answered him. It was suddenly no longer funny, just weird and kind of sad. And yet again, it continued. Some years later I received an email from a blogger in Florida named Jason Peverett, who was the actual son of Foghat’s former frontman “Lonesome” Dave Peverett. He was VERY excited to read this entire thread, and knew all of the parties involved. Jason and I did an interview over email for his blog. We talked quite a bit about Foghat, of course, and also covered some details of my punk book Gimme Something Better. Below is a transcript, you can also read it here online.

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Jason: Hello, Jack, welcome to the Phile. Congrats, sir. Your book Gimme Something Better is the latest book to be pheatured in the Peverett Phile Book Club. Before we get into the book and stuff, I have to ask you what you call on your website the “Foghat Chronicles.” This whole thing is pretty crazy, eh? For the Phile readers tell them what the “Foghat Chronicles” is about.

Jack: It all started in the late ’90s, I think. I was going through a phase of listening to a lot of jazz. Which meant I was reading a lot of liner notes to jazz recordings. And the more I read these essays about musicians, the more pompous they seemed. If you look at them as a writing genre, it’s actually really hilarious. I started collecting my favorite ridiculous phrases, seeing to what absurd lengths the writers would go, how far they would reach to academically categorize this music and the people who played it. So I decided to write a parody of a jazz album’s liner notes, and I thought I would weave in my experience of the very first concert I attended. Everybody has a story about their first concert, whether it’s the Rolling Stones or U2 or Green Day or the Sex Pistols. Mine was Foghat, REO Speedwagon, and Rick Derringer. So I layered in my memories of that show, and dreamed up a ten-CD box set of Foghat as the reason for the liner notes. A lot of bands were putting out box sets at the time, with extra recordings, outtakes, anything to pad out a release and make it worthy for the fans to buy one more time. I truthfully hadn’t listened to Foghat in years. I’d long ago sold off my vinyl. So I started from there.

Jason: What did you say about dad? He was a chief magician, I think is what you said. That’s brilliant. Did you ever see Foghat in concert?

Jack: The line “chief magician” was stolen from somebody’s liner notes about a jazz recording, I can’t remember exactly where it came from. All of the quotes about the Foghat members were actual things written about Elvin Jones, or Miles Davis or whomever. The drummer’s “pointillism,” the slide guitar being like a “fine claret.” Except the bass player’s “playpen of boogie.” That one was mine. I saw Foghat when I was 15. I had nothing to compare it to. I grew up in Montana, and no big touring bands ever came through. For the Foghat show, I actually took the bus from Montana to Gillette, Wyoming, and my friend and I borrowed his mom’s station wagon and then drove to Denver, Colorado to see them. So yeah, I travelled three states to see my first concert.

Jason: It was funny, because at that time we were talking about the box set idea my dad wanted to put out, and some of the things you mentioned are real and exist... except for the 65-minute take of “Slow Ride.” LOL. So, I vaguely remember us talking about the article. Then you got an email, right? What did you think first of when you received it? I betcha thought what the fuck. What did this email say?

Jack: I posted these fake liner notes to my website, just for fun. I never submitted the piece to any publication. Earlier I had written about the concert in a newspaper column, because it’s one of those conversations everybody has, swapping stories about your first concert. So I had written about the show already. I finished these phony notes and just posted them online. And they sat there for probably two years, occasionally I’d get an email from a friend, or somebody who knew me. And then I suddenly got this email from a guy who said he represented the estate of Lonesome Dave Peverett, and he wanted more information about the box set. I was shocked. I thought it was very obvious that the entire thing was a joke. One CD was allegedly a 63-minute version of “Slow Ride” recorded live during a hailstorm. I even added a bunch of extraneous detail about the recording and mastering techniques, all this specific stuff about turntable flywheel characteristics and wow and flutter measurements, and how the Foghat tapes were rescued from the closet and mastered by Rudy Van Gelder in his kitchen in New Jersey. He was probably the world’s most famous sound engineer. He had recorded and mixed some of the great jazz albums back in the day, from Coltrane to Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. To me, it was kind of ridiculous that Foghat would suddenly enlist the services of this guy to mix their box set. He has spent his entire life working with jazzbos. But this guy, Michael, apparently just skimmed over all of my treasured nuanced parody and badly wanted to believe there was a box set.

Jason: That was Michael who was working with us at the time, and was my dad’s manager. Did you reply to this email? Did you hear back? You didn’t, right?

Jack: I replied back to him and thanked him for the note, but I told him it was just a joke. There was no box set. None of it was true. He never replied back. I don’t know how he reacted to this news, but I imagine he probably felt a little stupid.

Jason: Then 2 years later you receive an email from Foghat's bass player Craig MacGregor. You must've thought this was cool. What did you think?

Jack: I was pretty surprised he came upon the story, he must have been googling his own name. Nobody had ever linked to this story, anywhere online. It was just sitting there in obscurity. I also couldn’t tell if he thought it was a joke, or not. From the tone of his note, it was unclear. But he thanked me for keeping the Foghat legacy alive, and quoted something about boogying until they take him away in a hearse. I’m guessing that was a Foghat lyric, but I don’t really know.

Jason: Yeah, that is a line from a Foghat song my dad wrote. Then two days later the shit hit the fan. Foghatgate broke out, am I right? You wrote an article for Southwest’s magazine? What was the article about?

Jack: The story was primarily about Kings of Leon, but also about this resurgence of guitar-rock in popular culture. There were several bands that had long hair and guitar riffs, like the Hives, and Jet, and I mentioned that it was kind of funny how things recirculate in our culture. How music from your own past often gets re-interpreted by new artists and suddenly there’s guitar rock on the radio again.

Jason: So, you mentioned Foghat in this article... were you thinking when you mentioned Foghat in the article you might hear from somebody involved with Foghat again?

Jack: No. I hadn’t thought about Foghat in years. Other than the band was part of my youth, and I mentioned it in the story.

Jason: What did you say about Foghat in the magazine? Something about them petering out entirely?

Jack: I checked the foghat.com website, and there was a note up thanking the fans for all the years. So I assumed they had folded. A lot of ’70s bands ended, and moved on. I mentioned this in the story, that a lot of those bands, like Foghat, have petered out entirely. This was based on the foghat.com website.

Jason: And you got a reply back after you answered this new email? You got an email by mistake, right?

Jack: Well, as it turns out, there was a new version of Foghat still touring, and they happened to be flying Southwest that week, and picked up the inflight magazine, and read this about them. Obviously they were not happy. Their manager wrote me back. She was the wife of Roger, Foghat’s drummer. He was the only original member left in the band at that point. So she found my email address and sent me a harsh note saying the band had NOT petered out entirely, and that they were currently on tour, and had a new website. She was defending the band, and I understand that. I then sent her a link to the original Foghat box-set liner notes, and she replied back that she and Roger thought it was funny, and were both surprised that Michael had believed it to be true.

Jason: I know they said in the email they were gonna send a CD and press kit. Did you ever get a CD and press kit? I know you didn’t receive a DVD. LOL.

Jack: Nothing ever arrived in the mail. I always wondered, why not the DVD? What was on it, that I shouldn’t see!

Jason: That was the end of everything, right? Well, until I contacted you, that is. Do I fall under the “Foghat Chronicles”?

Jack: Soon after this exchange with the current band, I got another email from Craig MacGregor, inviting me to look him up if I’m ever in Philadelphia. And then a few years ago I got a very heartfelt email from a young man who claimed he was the illegitimate child of Lonesome Dave Peverett, fathered while Savoy Brown was on tour. He had been trying to get the attention of the band’s management, and the Peverett estate, and was asking me if I could help him. The tone of his note seemed earnest, and it didn’t seem like he was making it up. But I didn’t want to be involved with this at all, any more than I already was, and so I chose not to respond. Initially it was kind of amusing to hear from all these people connected to Foghat, but the last exchange made me realize that sometimes life is not always a barrel of laughs, especially if someone has never met their father and is trying to connect and piece together his life. I have performed the series of emails at literary readings on occasion, but I don’t read the last note from the fatherless son, because it’s just too serious and depressing. I sometimes wonder if he ever got closure around that.

Jason: Yeah, that guy contacted us as well. We never saw or heard from him. Is there anything else I missed about the whole thing? Have you been through this with any other band?

Jack: No. I don’t write much about music at all, actually.

Jason: Okay, let’s talk about you. Did you go to school to be a writer? I studied journalism, but never went to college.

Jack: I took some writing classes in college, but I really learned on the job. I started two magazines, wrote for a lot of theater groups, and then was hired as a newspaper columnist in San Francisco. That’s how I became a writer.

Jason: Where are you originally from, and where did you go to college?

Jack: I grew up on a cattle ranch in southeastern Montana. I went to college in Montana, Oregon, and San Francisco.

Jason: What made you decide to move to San Francisco?

Jack: I liked the people I met from San Francisco. It had a lot of history that I was interested in, particularly the Beats and the hippie culture. And I knew I had to get the hell out of Oregon and see more of the world.

Jason: If it wasn't for the internet and blogs like AOL Journals what the Phile started out on and now Blogger, I wouldn’t be able to write anything and get it published. How do you think the internet has changed the press and writing? Apart from opening up a can of worms about fake liner notes, that is.

Jack: I think the internet has given an amazing opportunity to writers who want to get published. Anybody can do it now. But conversely, the value of writing has dropped. Websites know they can pay writers little or nothing for their hard work, because people want exposure. Huffington Post has built an entire media empire on people working for free, and there is a substantial backlash against them by writers who want to be paid for their work. Online writers are no longer journalists or authors, we are simply “content providers.” And if somebody turns down work because there’s no pay, there’s always somebody waiting for the gig, because they’re young and hungry. So it’s very, very, very difficult to make a living as a writer these days. I was lucky in that I got my feet in the business before the internet, and was able to get experience and exposure before the net scooped it up. People with blogs often find it harder to get noticed, because there’s so much blog writing now out there.

Jason: You write for a number of magazines and websites, right? What is your favorite subject you like to write about?

Jack: I used to love writing about obsessive people, people with a peculiar passion about something, because they are so absolute in their beliefs. Even when I was doing my own magazines, I was adamant to write – or try to write – about things nobody else was writing about. Always striving to write about something either nobody had heard of, or writing about something in a unique way. I don’t do that much anymore, because the gist of an obsessive-person story is always the same. They’re obsessed about something, it’s kind of entertaining, but there’s rarely any more of a story arc than that. Also, I felt I had plumbed the depths of wacked-out American subcultures, and it can give you a psychic windburn and permanently affect you if you’re not careful. These days I write mostly first-person travelogues, and I do a lot of readings and storytelling events, which are more autobiographical than anything else.

Jason: When did you first decide to become a writer?

Jack: I was always the weird kid who relished the writing assignments in grade school – people would pass my papers around the classroom and read them out loud. But I never thought I would ever make a living at it. Growing up in Montana, it was a very hands-on world. Not much time for abstract thought. By the first year of college, I knew I wanted to pursue writing, so I transferred schools and moved away and started life over, and then after school I moved to San Francisco and started life over again.

Jason: You used to publish a magazine called The Nose. How long did that magazine last?

Jack: Six years.

Jason: That’s a good number of years, Jack. I am guessing the Phile will last about eight years or so before I get fed up with doing this. What kinda mag was The Nose?

Jack: It was originally tailored as a West Coast version of SPY magazine, a satirical investigative magazine that used the format of journalism as a tool to mock authority and tear down the pompous. It evolved into more of a fun, exploitation style publication. We used to read 1950s magazines for inspiration. All the publications by Robert Harrison, like Whisper, and Confidential. They had such a great spirit, and although considered sleazy back in that era, they were actually the most widely read magazines in the country. We copped some of that style, and a great deal of the visual layout design. And we also did parodies of other magazines that irritated us. When Men’s Journal launched as this up-market lifestyle magazine for adventurous white-collar men and their expensive outdoor hobbies, we stole their first issue’s cover photo and made it into a magazine called Deadbeat Dad, with stories on how to avoid your family, and ads for electronic “wife-tracking” devices. A lot of the contributors went on to careers in New York and Hollywood.

Jason: You had another magazine as well, right?

Jack: Before The Nose, I started a magazine called U.S. Rag. Desktop publishing was brand-new, and we took advantage of the Mac computer and proximity to Silicon Valley, i.e. free bootlegged software. It was a fictional humor magazine similar to National Lampoon. Sometimes it was funny. But pretty amateurish.

Jason: Okay, let’s talk about your new book Gimme Something Better. Explain what the book is about, Jack. You co-wrote it with a woman named Silke Tudor, right? Where did you meet her, and how did you split the work?

Jack: Gimme Something Better is an oral history of punk rock in the Bay Area, beginning in the mid-’70s and continuing through the 1990s. Silke and I worked together at the SF Weekly newspaper, we were both columnists, running around town looking for cool things to write about. We got the book deal, made a list of people in the punk scene that we knew, and started from there. We interviewed about 300 people, probably 700-800 hours worth of recording. We advertised on craigslist for volunteer transcribers, and emailed them the mp3 files. Looked through all the transcripts, and pieced together a history of this music and the culture. It took three years and it was supposed to be only a year. The publisher wanted a 300-page book and we turned in 800 pages, so we compromised and settled for 500 pages. The rest of the chapters we posted online for free at gimmesomethingbetter.com.

Jason: Is punk your favorite type of music?

Jack: I like a lot of different types of music. But I definitely identify with the punk DIY spirit. I was in high school when the Sex Pistols toured America, and I think that had a significant impact on me. All my books have been very hands-on, I designed the first two myself. And I launched a literary festival in San Francisco. The world isn’t going to knock on your door and offer you opportunities. You have to go out and make your own movie.

Jason: You approached a number of bands for interviews for it. Did anybody turn you down? I hate it when I get turned down for an interview.

Jack: Some turned us down initially, but once they realized we were interviewing their friends and fellow musicians, and people they went to high school with, they reconsidered and did the interview.

Jason: What do you think of today’s music, Jack? Are their any bands that stick out?

Jack: I have no idea. I’m old! But I do like a lot of music from my friends who are musicians. I hate going to concerts and big shows. I hate waiting in line.

Jason: Do you think punk is dead, sir?

Jack: Punk is dead. Rock is dead. Hip-hop is dead. Jazz is dead. If you’re reading this, I hope you’re arguing with your friends about this stuff. Because you’re supposed to. I do know this... there are still punk shows going on every week in the Bay Area, out in the hinterlands of Oakland in a warehouse somewhere, with no advertising and no address, and I don’t know about them because they don’t exist for me, they are happening because those kids want to do it themselves.

Jason: I believe the Sex Pistols last show was in San Fran, am I right? I am guessing you talk about that in the book.

Jack: We have a chapter about that show, and we interviewed many people who attended, as well as the promoter, and members of the Avengers and the Nuns, who opened for the Pistols that night, as well as members of Negative Trend, who were supposed to close the show after the Pistols but instead were shoved out the door with their equipment. It was the first real intersection of punk rock and the established rock-concert production machine, i.e. Bill Graham, and 5,000 people showed up, the bands were paid peanuts, and the promoters kept all the money. You can watch the entire concert online now. It was a pretty bad show, from what people remember. The sound was terrible.

Jason: Green Day, which is a band my son and I really like, are from the Bay Area. I know they are mentioned in the book... do you think they sold out with having a Broadway show of their music?

Jack: If you read our book, the guys from Green Day never strayed from what they did or what they wanted to do. But there was an enormous backlash against them when they jumped to a major label. And yet, that’s what they always wanted to do – write and perform music for a large audience. You can tell in their earliest songs, they were destined for something more. Calling someone a “sell-out” is a tricky thing. Sometimes a band changes its focus so obviously, to achieve success, that it’s embarrassing. I don’t think Green Day ever did that. But to insist that people not make a living from their music, is a very stifling and simplistic way to look at it. There was a button from the hippie days, that a friend once gave me. It’s from the ’60s, and it says, “I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO SELL OUT.” So that notion has been around a long time. And I’m sure bands will be accused of it through eternity.

Jason: They are probably the most famous of the bands from that area I am guessing. I saw them in concert in the mid-’80s and they played for no more then 30 people. Then I saw them twenty or so years later at the Arena here in Orlando and they sold out. They had pyro and everything. That's not very punk like, is it? It’s more like Kiss.

Jack: At that point it’s entertainment. But if young kids see a Green Day show, and absorb some of the lyrics, and get angry with the status quo in our country, and the politicians we keep electing, I think that’s always valid. There aren’t a lot of arena acts who beat that drum. I think in their eyes, that’s one of the reasons why they keep going.

Jason: Please come back when your next book comes out. I wish you continued success and if you ever want to interview me... LOL. Jack, thanks so much for being on the Phile, and I hope you will come back again. Take care.

Jack: Sure, thanks for having me!

I realize all of this is waaay too much Foghat for you, but if your appetite is whetted in any way, Foghat’s upcoming shows include August 17, Rock the River festival in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; and August 31, Best in the West Rib Cook Off in Sparks, Nevada.