2023 Big Jim's House Interview with Bob Seger

Beasley Digital

Transcript

00:00hello hey jim hey bob how are you buddy good how are you sir wonderful well thanks for doing this

00:11by the way oh yeah did your doctor's appointment go okay everything went great man i am i am

00:16doing wonderful excellent okay so um we want to start off by saying happy birthday okay do you

00:22know we do seager de mayo every year on csx for you oh yeah yeah i love that it's funny it's cool

00:30yeah i appreciate it it's been six years now we've been doing this and it's fun because the listeners

00:35not only ask for songs but they've always got a story and we do all seager music all morning and

00:40stories and stuff and it's it's just it's fun we have a great time with it bob oh great yeah a lot

00:47of people in michigan got stories that's for sure you know yeah we haven't talked since um

00:54the lonely one you know we found it the lonely one we got it we got the song you have the acetate not

01:00the acetate we have the audio a guy found it um at at a garage sale and he killed listener and he

01:07didn't have the and he had transferred it and he sent it to us and we cleaned it up and stuff and

01:14played it wow yeah wow we've got it unbelievable how old were you 16 i was 17 and um max crook who

01:26produced dell shannon i went to his studio and recorded it you know a friend of mine doug brown

01:33that i used to play with for a short time uh met him and introduced me to him to dell and then we

01:41he introduced us to max and so i had this song and and uh and and i i said you know we could i

01:50recorded it i recorded it at a studio you know it was wild do you have do you have one of the acetates

01:57uh no i gave it to a girlfriend oh when i was really young and i never saw it again yeah well

02:05we've got the audio i'll send it over but yeah we've got it and and we were always told and i think

02:09in an interview you said that song was the precursor to uh well it it's like one of the first songs i

02:18ever wrote yeah yeah uh and um i don't remember being a precursor to anything but uh uh i can't think

02:28of that now it's a long time ago always wonderful like it led to night moves or something you're talking

02:3360 years ago as we're talking about this stranger stranger in town is celebrating the anniversary of it

02:39that is such a cool album i mean for all the tracks bob but it there's so many swings in it and and i

02:46know you produced it you know not only muscle shoals but it's so sonic there's so much going on in that

02:52album and i is that just the mood you were in when you were recording it well you know we did half of

02:56it at muscle shoals so uh and then um uh half of it with the silver bullet man you know and i used to

03:05do it that way because they they were better with the ballad type stuff like we've got tonight things

03:11like that you know they were very good with that stuff so uh i would i cut we've got tonight there

03:17i got to cut famous final scene there uh until it shines there um and of course they sent me old time

03:23rock and roll you know uh and uh i sang that we've got tonight bob is always one of them it's such a

03:30beautiful song but yeah it's kind of a standard now yeah but when you you're singing when you wrote

03:36it at the time was that for someone not really it was just uh i wrote a song just i hope i don't get

03:44too long on this i wrote a song called this old house okay and it had the same melody but i didn't

03:51think the lyric was very good so i kind of tucked it away and then i started playing the chords i started

03:57singing a different song to it one day and it was we've got tonight and that ended up being we've

04:02got tonight and i remember um the first time i ever met garth brooks was at a thing in in in um

04:10at the the cmt music awards it won song of the year after kenny and uh sheena had done

04:19really we've got tonight yeah well i've got a big trophy when he's big black glass trophies uh

04:26we've got tonight's song of the country song of the year isn't that wild that is why we've got

04:31tonight but i've always wondered bob you know like we've got tonight well it the way you did it was

04:37beautiful and and very just like you said a standard but if the if another person did it it could sound

04:43really whiny like the girls getting ready to leave like come on we've got tonight who needs tomorrow you

04:48can you can i can hear it going like you know don't go well we've got tonight well i got the idea

04:55of the song i've told this story many times on stage from watching um it was a it was the the sting

05:04and robert redford was talking to this girl and it was four in the morning he says four in the morning

05:11and i don't know anybody and and i and then i don't know that i remembered that line and i said

05:18that's pretty cool you know like uh you meet somebody and we've got tonight that's what we've

05:23got you know and um yeah so that that was where the lyric came from that movie i get a lot of lyrics

05:32from movies do you really feel like when you're watching something just get inspired like for give

05:36me give you another example what's another one oh famous final scene well of course that's very

05:44cinematic to begin yeah it is i i got the idea of of that song from leonard cohen's song famous blue

05:51raincoat i love the song the words famous you know yeah and i i said well let me see well what can i do

05:57started playing piano still got the same piano i wrote it on in my living room today seriously in

06:05michigan yeah i i wrote uh fire down below on that piano we've got tonight famous final scene

06:10it's a 1968 bosendorfer uh it's it's one piece austrian bridge really pretty cool piano and it's in

06:20perfect shape too i've kept it up yeah you mentioned you mentioned till it shines that's one of those

06:26songs that we found ourselves playing more often and you know the guitar and that's glenn at the end of

06:32that just going off at the end of that song yes and in the middle yeah he plays the middle solo as

06:38well yeah i love that song i love uh there's a line about an echo down a canyon never coming back so

06:44clear i don't know what it is about that song but that puts me in a better place it's got a pretty

06:48nifty lyric i really like the lyric of that song my my wife loves that song yeah how much did glenn work

06:54with you on on stuff like that i mean sit in and play guitar well he sang on against the wind

06:58we're both doing the ending of against the wind it's me and glenn right against the wind against

07:04the wind that's us both of us is singing it and um uh you know he was always helpful he he uh

07:12turned me on to bill simsik who ended up mixing against the wind great engineer uh in in in from

07:20florida bay shore that's where the eagles used to record and so just that whole connection with me

07:26and glenn we would we would bounce songs off of each other you know when he was with the eagles

07:31and i was with me and my guys and yeah it was it was pretty cool i that i remember that that was a

07:40good album's uh a stranger in town yeah a lot of pretty cool songs you think you think bob

07:47you know uh did you remember the movie body heat yeah kathleen turner liam hurt and kathleen

07:53turner are you kidding me yeah okay i saw that movie in aspen i was visiting glenn and he had a

08:01a little uh condo downtown in aspen colorado and i went to see a movie you know and uh the first night

08:10i stayed there and and it was body heat and i'd forgotten that i'd okayed that song for the movie

08:18so here's mickey rourke playing the arsonist in body heat remember and the song starts playing

08:25i said whoa i think it was on a monday night or something and i was like the only one in the theater

08:32i called mike boyla the next day and i said wow i just saw body heat he said oh yeah you approved

08:40that two two years ago good for me

08:43so that that was that was pretty cool you know and um i i i always like that song to uh feel like

08:54a number that was fun well i feel like a number to me is is always interesting especially here in the

08:58motor city i think because of the blue collar and the hard-working nature of detroit it prints with

09:04people and it printed from day one i'm just a i'm just a cog in the wheel here yeah you know

09:08uh yeah and um i i wanted to get that out you know and um you just come up with this stuff you

09:16don't know where it comes from it's so mysterious songwriting you know i started playing that rip on

09:21a guitar you know yeah by myself and and and there it was it came i feel like a number

09:31yeah yeah and then you know like even so when you talk about hollywood nights and it's funny because

09:38i remember i think it was don brewer told us that like when he was drumming it he hated when you put

09:42it in the middle of the set because it would kick his ass with the drum beat oh yeah yeah yeah oh yeah

09:47yeah it's it's pretty powerful and it's fast it's around 160 beats a minute it's pretty fast yeah well

09:55like when you're recording that do you get amped up like you're fired up in the studio you want to get

09:58that energy and have everybody else kind of feel it yeah now when we recorded that album that was the

10:04first album i did with david teagarden so he's the drummer on the uh on the song as he is on

10:10hollywood nights you know and still the same and um i'll tell you i got a story about hollywood

10:17nights so i'd always liked little feet the band and i called up billy pain and we were at cherokee

10:24studios doing hollywood nights and david had put two different sets of drums on it he played one set

10:30and then he played another set over that set so there's two sets of drums on the record

10:34it's both they're both him and i i said can you do something with this uh billy and he and he played

10:41it and and he said can i get time can i take a copy of that i say sure take it and so he called me the

10:48next day and he said i was driving home and playing that song he says i look at the speedometer and i was

10:5620 miles over the speedometer that's high praise that's quite a compliment

11:02yeah uh yeah he was a wonderful piano player just i love playing with great musicians i i

11:12it's just so much fun you know you feed off it right i mean you feed off what they're doing oh yeah

11:17like on ain't got no money i got uh don felder on that one uh eagles also and he plays great on that

11:26one i always wondered if like i know with fire lake and i know we're talking a lot about stranger

11:30in town obviously but with fire lake there's there the whole band is so much a part of that song

11:34i wonder if somewhere there is a version of just them singing fire lake just them singing fire lake

11:41yeah um well the eagles did it of course they sang the backgrounds right that's what i'm saying i

11:48always wondered bob if like if just the the eagles doing the backgrounds i mean it's beautiful it's

11:52such an amazing song it's that wonderful blend yeah you know randy and don and and uh glenn yeah

12:00it was pretty unbeatable do you ever step back and look at some of the songs and the memories do

12:05they kind of wash over you when you hear your own music yeah i listened to till it shines a couple of

12:10times this morning because i i'd kind of forgotten that when i and then and then the second time

12:15i said that's a pretty damn good lyric i would work hard on my lyrics yeah as the eagles did we

12:27always uh pushed each other so here we are it's like 1978 stranger in town comes out did you find

12:33when's the first time you heard a song from this album on the radio do you remember

12:37um still the same was the first single it was pretty big the album sold a million copies in one

12:46month wow the first month so it was pretty big yeah because we noticed when you came in studio once

12:55bob i remember when when we we did ride out and you came in and even then you took the headphones and

13:01pressed them against your head and you were listening to you were so intently listening to your own

13:06music i can't imagine what that's like to hear your song coming over the radio yeah it's what's a

13:11wonderful feeling it there's nothing like it you know it really is the first time i ever heard one

13:17of my songs anywhere was on television uh there was this little channel 20 television and they played

13:25the lonely one one night really yeah i loaned them the acetate and they played it on channel 20 uh some

13:33some late night program and i stayed up and yeah it was and i heard that i heard my song i said uh

13:41wow it was you never get over that feeling it's a wonderful feeling hearing yourself on the radio

13:49it never it never ends i always thought it'd be interesting to be like in a bar or something

13:53and you hear a band in there doing covers and they say cover your song and not knowing you're there

13:58oh yeah it's bizarre yeah man congratulations on everything bob and you're doing well i am doing

14:05well uh we stayed in florida an extra week uh i normally we spend our my birthday up north of my

14:13cabin yeah but my son has a film deal this weekend he's helping a friend out with a film oh that's

14:18great and so we're gonna we're gonna come home monday instead and celebrate my birthday on monday

14:24so the whole family's together because he wouldn't be there otherwise cole's awesome by the way great

14:29guy oh yeah he's a great kid great guy great kid well yep we wanted to say happy birthday on behalf

14:34of everybody here and if you have a moment just to talk to the listeners in detroit you know just talk

14:39to them right now the the the station is yours bob well i just want to thank everybody for being

14:44detroit it's been so great to me and uh just my whole career there you know starting on doing east

14:54side story on cklw in windsor you know uh years ago in 1965 i think it was uh you're right on through

15:04j i just have so many memories um i remember when i did east side story it was on a christmas show

15:14and and this girl came walking down the hall and i said wow what a beautiful woman and it was diana

15:23ross and she was younger than me wow she was on the show you know and i got to talk to levi uh of the

15:34four tops and and uh he told me i told him how much i like to reach out and he says that song kills me

15:41every night that's as high as i could go

15:43and uh and i remembered that i said okay push it hard yeah so that's what i did yeah it's been it's

15:58been a wonderful career it really has been and and i have so much affection for the the people of

16:04michigan um we went to green bay and played up there and a bunch of youpers came half the audience

16:12was from the up michigan's great i can't say enough good stuff about it everything you've done

16:20for us here at csx and the and the times that we've spent with you bob over the years you know

16:25um we we appreciate it i hope you know how much we appreciate the the relationship you've had with

16:30with csx oh it's it's been a wonderful relationship yeah everybody there all the great disc jockeys and

16:37you and everybody you know and uh yeah your own show now big jim's show right big jim's house yeah

16:44there you go there you go so that's that's wonderful i'm glad to keep on rocking i'll get

16:50you some pasties from the up and you'll do a liner for me someday so okay we'll do hey you got it

16:57before you go one more thing in your lifetime have you ever seen a lions team this good no

17:04well i shouldn't say that 1955 they were very good uh leon hart uh um um night train lane great

17:17defensive back uh i think hop along cassie was our running back we had a great team in 55 we won i think

17:26that's the last time we won a championship absolutely so what do you think what are you

17:29expecting from the lions this year because this seems like the expectations are through the roof

17:32i i i think they're going to win the division yeah i really do i think um uh brad did a great job at

17:39the draft he's got got some good picks i'm real excited about the the his picks and and plus

17:47everybody's coming back and i think we're going to be strong and and uh i'm excited about uh getting

17:54getting jake to the quarterback he's he's uh he was in the heisman hunt until he got hurt oh

18:00absolutely you're talking about hooker absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah for tennessee so um yeah it's

18:06gonna be a good year do people understand what this town would turn into if the lions even made it to

18:11the super bowl oh my god oh boy and the super bowl is going to be there one some pretty soon

18:17known the drafts the drafts here next year but that's what it is yeah yeah yeah um i'm i'll be

18:24there i know you will i'll try to sneak into the to the lions draft room maybe they'll let me be a fly

18:30on the wall bob you don't need to sneak in there man bob seeger and happy birthday on behalf of

18:35everybody here at csx and stranger in town the the 45th anniversary one of your best albums man

18:40we appreciate the time and everything and and you be well and you're always welcome on csx you know that

18:46oh thanks so much jim all right god bless you it's my home it's my home yep we'll talk soon thank you my

18:53friend

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