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Interview Podcast Audio Steve Winwood
Songs from Nine Lives

Over a 42-year career in music, there are bound to be peaks and valleys.

For rock legend Steve Winwood, what is widely considered his most creatively bereft phase--the "Roll With It," "Don't You Know What the Night Can Do," and "Higher Love" era in the mid-1980s--just so happened to make him a bazillionaire.

In a nod to the undulations of his incredibly career, the one-time member of Blind Faith, The Spencer Davis Group, Go, and Traffic has dubbed his latest solo album Nine Lives.

Winwood spoke to MP3.com about finding inspiration more than 40 years since he wrote his first song, as well as his New York City shows with Eric Clapton and his upcoming tour with Tom Petty.

MP3.com: Hello, sir. How are you? Steve Winwood: Very well, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate it. Oh, you're welcome. Thanks. It's a bit of a gigantic understatement to say that you've accomplished a lot in music over the past five decades or so. But I'm curious about your inspiration on this record, Nine Lives. Does your inspiration these days come from the same place as it did 10, 20, and 30 years ago? I think it probably does, yes. OK. Yeah. Because when I started Traffic in the very early days, our main idea was to try and put together different elements of music, you know, rock, jazz, folk, ethnic music. And I would say that apart from perhaps a brief diversion during the mid '80s--although those elements were certainly there then as well--that's pretty much what I've done all along and it's essentially the same now. OK. And in terms of songwriting, when you sit down to start writing songs, is your process still the same? I'm just curious if those sorts of things change over the course of such a long career that you've had. Well there are various techniques, which have to be employed in songwriting. And they can vary. Sometimes you can start with music or sometimes start with a lyric or sometimes start with a title or a groove. Depending where you start there, it can change because obviously through the years I've kind of tried to develop more flexibility in writing and different ways of doing it.

Actually, I haven't written any lyrics on Nine Lives. I've been working with a [lyricist] called Peter Godwin, unlike the last album, I did, About Time, for which I did quite a few lyrics. So it changes from time to time depending on what the situation is. Yeah, that makes sense. When did you start working on this new record? Has it been in the works since the last record came out in 2003? Did years go by between that and this one or have you been at it the whole time? On and off the whole time. I took various times out playing on the road as well and doing live stuff or playing with a particular band. And I think I've been playing a lot more than I've been playing lately. In fact, the album About Time opened up a bit of a bigger audience for me in, for instance, Europe where my '80s style didn't really go down as well. OK. Now I'm doing more world music and jazz, and it's opened up more of a market for me in Europe. So I was working out there a bit. I was working on and off on the album on ideas. In fact, Nine Lives was very much inspired by what the actual band had been playing, jams we were playing and the music that the band plays. And we recorded it pretty much live at the same time, which sounds fairly obvious but a lot of records aren't made like that. Sure--no, it's a much more natural progression for things to come out of that kind of jam session live setting. That's right. And a lot of the music was actually inspired by the music that the band actually plays. And it's the same band that I recorded with that I'm playing live with as well. Got you. OK. You released the last record on your own label. And at this point in your career, you can probably just kind of do whatever you want. Why did you decide to go with Columbia? Why was that the best fit for you for this record? Well, it wasn't a real disaster, About Time. In many ways, it was very successful. Obviously there's a kind of desire to reach a wider audience. But then, in the same way, of course the music business is changing rapidly. So much so. Yeah. And not necessarily for the worse either. I think there are some good ways that the music industry's changing. Yeah. I suppose I'm just trying everything. I'll see how this goes. This is just a one-album deal I'm doing with them. I'm just going to see how it goes. That makes sense. Let's talk about your three-night run with Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden in New York in February. I would guess that for many fans of the two of you together and fans of you individually, as separate artists, those were probably monumental shows for a lot of people. What was the experience like for you? Well wonderful, fantastic. Fantastic experience. Eric is a very generous person, which is quite well known. But he's also very generous musically as well. So he always wants me to sing on his songs, play guitar solos in his songs. And it was a great experience to do it because when we were getting together in the early stages to try and formulate what songs we play, Eric suggested that I pick his songs and he picks my songs. OK. Yeah, that's a great idea. And it worked out really interestingly. It made us work just a little bit more outside of our comfort zones and also we had a scaled-down band as well. It was only just three other musicians, Ian Thomas, Willy Weeks and Chris Stainton. Yep. That also took us outside of our comfort zones. Well, speaking for me, it did, anyway. And if anything, it kind of gave a bit of an edge and a lift to what we did. Absolutely. You mentioned Eric's generosity as a musician. I got a chance to see him doing the Derek and the Dominos thing last year and I was really taken by the fact that he really let his two guitarists, Doyle Bramhall III and Derek Trucks, have center stage more than you would expect.

And it was really eye-opening to see that level of generosity when everyone in the building is there to see him and he's really giving the spotlight to these other very talented young artists. It was a very eye-opening experience. Right. Yeah. I believe he mentioned during one of the nights you guys played together that we might see more of the two of you together sometime down the road. Is that something that you would love to do every once in a while--get a chance to get on stage with him? Sure, yes, absolutely. I'd love to. I had a great time. And we said that we would want to see how it went, see if we enjoyed it. I certainly enjoyed it. I mean, we've got a fairly full schedule this summer. I have and I know Eric has. He's got a lot of things that he's doing. So it's not out of the question that we'll do anything, but where and when that is, I don't really know. Got you. Yeah, you're touring with Tom Petty this summertime. That's right, yeah. Right. Yeah. Maybe fans can look for it sometime later this year or next year or something like that? Who knows. Yeah, got you. Going through your biography over the years, the people that you've worked with closely over the years is basically a who's who of music. Just to name a couple of people, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric, as we mentioned, Lou Reed, James Brown, George Harrison, B.B. King, Muddy Waters. Yeah. Of all the people that you worked with over the years, who had the most profound impact on you both as a musician and also as a fan? Well, that's a very difficult question to answer. I'm going to sidestep slightly in as much as to say that I think that working with all those people that you mentioned has had an effect on me and I've learned from, in varying degrees, from working with all those people. And I think that that has probably helped mold me into what I am as well. OK, sure. It was a great experience playing with all of those people, Muddy Waters to Hendrix to Clapton, it's all been a great experience. And I'm hoping that in some way a little bit of all of those has actually kind of rubbed off on me. Got you. That makes sense. Well, Steve, I very much appreciate the time. I look forward to getting a chance to check you out sometime this summer on tour. And good luck with the Nine Lives record and everything after it. Wonderful. Well thank you very much. Thanks for the time. Thanks a lot, Jim. OK, all the best.