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  • 6/24/2025
Best known as the lead guitarist of influential rock band Roxy Music, and of course, for his timeless riffs, Phil Manzanera is one of the UK's most notable musicians and record producers, having shot to prominence in the early '70s with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band. In 2022, Roxy Music celebrated their 50th anniversary with a 13-arena tour across America and the UK, culminating with a sold-out show at London's O2 Arena. Now in his fifth decade as a musician, Manzanera is sharing his fascinating life, which he likens to that of Forrest Gump's, in his new captivating memoir, Revolución To Roxy . The book, containing more than 100 photographs, details the artist's life, from his early childhood growing up in the dangerous streets of revolutionary Havana, to his musical journey with Roxy and later, performing with Bob Dylan and being sampled by Jay-Z and Kanye West on their Grammy-winning song. A companion music CD, of the same name as the autobiography, is also out now, featuring ten tracks in total, including five previously unreleased songs. One of the world's leading guitarists was in New York City recently for a special show supporting the recent release. He swung by the LifeMinute Studios to tell us all about it and play some of his indelible music. This is a LifeMinute with Phil Manzanera.
Transcript
00:00Hi, my name is Phil Manzanera and you're watching me on Live Minute TV.
00:22Best known for his timeless riffs as lead guitarist of Roxy Music,
00:26Phil Manzanera is one of the UK's most notable musicians and record producers,
00:31having shot to prominence in the early 70s with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band.
00:36Now in his fifth decade as a musician, Manzanera is sharing his fascinating life
00:41in his new captivating memoir, Revolution to Roxy.
00:45The autobiography details his early childhood growing up in the dangerous streets of Havana
00:50to his musical journey with Roxy and later performing with Bob Dylan
00:54and being sampled by Jay-Z and Kanye on their Grammy-winning song.
01:06A companion music CD of the same name is also out now featuring 10 tracks in total,
01:11including five previously unreleased songs.
01:14He was in New York recently for a special show and came by the Life Minute studios
01:19to tell us all about it and play some of his indelible music.
01:23This is a Life Minute with Phil Manzanera.
01:26On the special edition of this book, because I'm self-published, I did a special edition
01:43and I thought I shall put a special CD that has unreleased tracks and some new tracks.
01:48I also stuck on some of the live stuff that I did at that guitar festival,
01:53of my solo stuff in 1991, as well as some work with my fellow Roxy members,
01:59Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson.
02:04The first track, which is named after my mum, Magdalena,
02:08so that's got a selection of stuff on it.
02:11You can actually buy that as a separate CD.
02:13As I put in the preface of the book, I'm not sure if there's a need
02:18for another memoir from a rock musician.
02:23But really, one of the reasons I did it was so that my vast family
02:28know where they came from.
02:30And people often say,
02:32oh, I wish I'd asked my parents about our background,
02:36you know, our history or their parents, etc.
02:39And then it becomes too late.
02:42And so in Colombia, I have 60 cousins.
02:45And I think the Spanish version came out six months before.
02:49And I did that so they could really find out where they came from.
02:56Apart from being a memoir and not an autobiography,
03:00it was for me also to try and make sense of what happened
03:04and what Roxy Music was.
03:06There's a duality there.
03:09It's about my family,
03:12where I discovered a whole load of crazy things
03:14that I didn't know about.
03:16With Roxy, trying to make sense after 50,
03:18it was a 50-year anniversary a couple of years ago.
03:21I discovered that one of my relations
03:23was the most famous Jewish pirate of the Caribbean
03:25who has his own Wikipedia page.
03:28And actually, when we looked at the painting of him,
03:30he looked remarkably like I did in 1972 in Roxy,
03:34with a beard, high boots,
03:37and swashbuckling kind of person.
03:40I'm sure I just saw something into this.
03:42Probably not there.
03:43But yeah, the whole series of things
03:44that we started looking into about my father,
03:48about whether he was a spy,
03:50MI6 spy,
03:51and then you're into sort of James Bond territory.
03:56And it's sort of fascinating.
03:58And then I discovered when I was 40
04:00from one of my dying aunts
04:02that my British father,
04:04he was illegitimate.
04:05And his real father
04:06was a touring itinerant classical musician from Naples.
04:11Now, you might think I'm making all this up.
04:13And so I sometimes read through the book thinking,
04:18people are not going to believe this.
04:20They think I'm just making the whole thing up.
04:21And then I sort of went looking for proof.
04:24And we found a lot of proof.
04:26And we still are discovering proof
04:28on all sorts of levels.
04:31And there's still work to be done.
04:33When I was 60 years old,
04:34my father was transferred to Havana, Cuba.
04:39So that's 1957.
04:41To supposedly open up the office
04:43because he worked for an airline.
04:45It's now called British Airways.
04:46I get sent to a Cuban school.
04:48I learned to speak Spanish within tres meses.
04:51Y ahora puedo hablar español.
04:53And my mom starts having guitar lessons.
04:55She teaches me some chords for boleros
04:58and classic evergreen Spanish songs.
05:01But in the background,
05:02Fridio Castro is in Sierra Maestra
05:04brewing up at the Revolution.
05:06Eventually, the revolution arrives in Havana.
05:11And we live opposite the chief of staff
05:15of the dictator, Batista,
05:17and his general, Tabernilla.
05:20His name was.
05:20If you've ever seen Godfather Part II,
05:23there's a great scene
05:24where all the mafia heads come and meet in Havana.
05:28And it's in 1958,
05:29exactly when we were there,
05:30going into 1959.
05:32And there's a great scene
05:33in Godfather Part II
05:34where there is a New Year's Eve ball happens.
05:37And the president and all the ladies
05:40in their jewelry and everything
05:41are dancing away.
05:42And meanwhile,
05:43the tanks are coming into
05:46a place called Santa Clara,
05:47which is halfway to Cuba.
05:48And there's Che Guevara
05:49and Camilo Senfuegos.
05:52And they're on their way to Havana.
05:54So some guy comes in in the film and says,
05:56the tanks are coming.
05:58Let's get the hell out of here.
05:59And hilariously,
06:00they all go whizzing out
06:01of the presidential palace,
06:03jump in their big cars
06:05and head for the airport
06:06to catch a plane out of there
06:08so they can get away.
06:09If you took a drone up,
06:11move it to the right,
06:12and you look down,
06:13you'd see our garden.
06:15I had a gun battle
06:16with machine guns
06:18and people attacking his house.
06:20And us on the bathroom floor
06:22with my mother screaming,
06:23very sweet Colombian lady,
06:25but not averse to giving it a bit of welly.
06:28If bullets are flying around everywhere
06:29and there's a gun battle going on.
06:31While all these people in their cars
06:33are going to the airport,
06:34which was military airport,
06:36which is near our house.
06:37I watched it again recently
06:38and it brought back
06:40loads of memories of that night,
06:41which was pretty scary.
06:44Eventually, it was too dangerous
06:46to stay there
06:47and we get sent out of Havana.
06:49But that's where my first part
06:50part of my music DNA,
06:53I guess, came from.
06:56We went to Hawaii
06:57and I heard Hawaiian music
06:59and we were there
07:00when it became a U.S. state.
07:02And then we went to Venezuela
07:03and then an English boy
07:05who was at a boarding school
07:07in England came over
07:08who showed me some Chuck Berry riffs
07:10and I was like,
07:12what's this?
07:12And it was quite difficult to play.
07:14They used to call it R&B then,
07:15but that has a totally different meaning
07:17R&B now.
07:19I thought, wow, this is good.
07:20And I was at school
07:21to start with in Venezuela,
07:22British school,
07:23and me and my Venezuelan friend,
07:25college kids would come over
07:26and play at parties
07:27and they would play Buddy Holly,
07:31Beach Boys.
07:33And we could see the girls
07:34from our class looking at them.
07:36So we looked at each other
07:37and said, we've got to go electric.
07:39So we've got to get electric guitars
07:41and we've got to learn.
07:42And then I started listening
07:43to the World Service,
07:45the BBC World Service.
07:47I used to hear music
07:48starting to come out of England
07:50with a band called The Shadows
07:52and Cliff Richard and all that.
07:53And I saw Elvis films in Venezuela.
07:56Ironically, Blue Hawaii
07:57came out at that time.
07:58I'd just been in Hawaii,
08:00so extra drawn to Elvis.
08:01But like many musicians,
08:04you know, that was so exciting.
08:06I begged my parents
08:07to send me to London
08:08to a boarding school, age nine.
08:10I turned up in September 1960
08:12and I was there
08:14for the whole of the 60s.
08:15The Beatles happened,
08:16The Stones happened,
08:17The Kinks happened,
08:19Cream happened,
08:20The Who happened,
08:21Jimi Hendrix turned up in England.
08:24And then we heard about
08:25all these bands
08:26from the West Coast.
08:27The Doors,
08:29Jefferson Airplane,
08:30Grateful Dead,
08:32Velvet Underground in New York.
08:33And we were just obsessed
08:34in Miles Davis
08:35and you just name it.
08:37It was just a whole musical revolution.
08:39And it's a story
08:40that lots of British musicians tell.
08:43They found a particular band
08:45that just did it for them
08:46and inspired them
08:48to keep wanting
08:49to be in a band.
08:51The other day,
09:04I was doing an article
09:05about this event
09:06I did in 1991
09:07of Guitar Legends.
09:09One night,
09:10I ended up playing
09:10with Les Paul.
09:12But if you're a guitarist
09:13and you're playing
09:14at Les Paul
09:15and then you play
09:16with Les Paul
09:16and with Roger McGuinn,
09:18with Richard Thompson,
09:20all sorts of fantastic musicians
09:22that I didn't realise were there.
09:24And then another night,
09:25obviously,
09:25with Bob Dylan.
09:27First of all,
09:28if I were to talk about Bob Dylan,
09:29can I just say
09:30I think he's incredible.
09:31I love Bob Dylan,
09:33everything about him.
09:34I was the musical director
09:35and I had an evening for Expo.
09:38And I had a budget
09:39of like $7 million.
09:40I could bring up
09:41the best guitarist in the world,
09:42the best musicians,
09:43and it was going to be
09:44five nights broadcast live
09:45in America and in the UK.
09:47And so I had a concept
09:48for every night.
09:49So I thought,
09:50oh yeah, right,
09:51we'll have one night
09:51that's jazz,
09:52one night that's blues,
09:53one night that's folk,
09:54one night that's heavy rock.
09:56All the people who were left
09:58ended up on my night.
09:59Such as Bob Dylan,
10:01Keith Richards,
10:03Jack Bruce.
10:04Then I was tasked
10:05to actually rehearse
10:06Bob Dylan,
10:07which I obviously
10:09was terrified by this.
10:10The day came
10:11and we're rehearsing
10:12there in Seville
10:13under the stage.
10:14It's like 90 degrees outside.
10:16And the door opens
10:17and in comes
10:18Jeff, his manager,
10:19with Bob,
10:20who's wearing a parka,
10:22green parka
10:23with sort of furry bits.
10:25And I say,
10:26right,
10:26this is great.
10:27I've got the best musicians
10:28in the world here.
10:29Best drummer,
10:30Miami Horns,
10:31greatest group,
10:32Jack Bruce,
10:33bass.
10:34What would you like
10:35to do?
10:36I went out,
10:38bought all his records.
10:40I didn't need to
10:40because I knew most of them.
10:42And he said,
10:44oh,
10:45do you know
10:45Tex-Mex's song
10:47from 1947?
10:49I said,
10:49oh, gee,
10:50what?
10:51I'm stumped.
10:52So anybody else know?
10:54No.
10:55Right.
10:56Oh, that's it.
10:56Well, look,
10:57you play it
10:58and we'll learn it.
11:00And so he proceeded
11:01to play it.
11:02They play it differently
11:03every time.
11:04They play about six times
11:04and play it differently.
11:05And I'm looking,
11:06my bubbles going in my head
11:08saying,
11:09what are you going to do?
11:10We've paid him a lot of money.
11:11He's got this live TV.
11:13And then people started
11:14making excuses
11:15to leave the room.
11:16And then virtually
11:17everybody left the room.
11:18So it's just me
11:19and Bob left.
11:20And he said,
11:20you know what?
11:21Let's just play
11:21acoustic guitars.
11:23I said,
11:24oh,
11:24I'm thinking inside,
11:25no,
11:26they're going to kill me
11:27this person.
11:28I said,
11:29also,
11:30Bob,
11:31I'm sort of thinking,
11:32how can I show you this?
11:33You have to play
11:34all along the watchtower,
11:36but not your version,
11:38the Jimi Hendrix version,
11:40because it's called
11:40Guitar Legends,
11:41you know.
11:42Let me say,
11:42all along the watchtower
11:43only has three chords in it.
11:44So we start playing
11:46and he doesn't come up
11:47and sing.
11:48So eventually,
11:58it all stops
11:59and I sort of
12:00scratch my head
12:00and think,
12:01help,
12:02you know,
12:02what am I going to do?
12:04So I thought,
12:04oh,
12:05I know he loves
12:06this guitarist
12:07called Richard Thompson.
12:09I found out where he was,
12:10he was playing a gig
12:10in Amsterdam.
12:11I said,
12:11Richard,
12:12would you like to play
12:13with Bob Dylan?
12:14Everybody in the world
12:15would like to play with Bob Dylan.
12:16Richard turned up
12:17and it was
12:18the day of the live broadcast
12:20and no one's got any idea
12:21what we're going to play.
12:22Except we know
12:23we're meant to play
12:24all along the watchtower
12:25and when he turns up
12:26and sings it,
12:27what's going to happen?
12:27It's live.
12:28So I say to Richard,
12:29go into his dressing room,
12:30find out
12:31what he wants to play.
12:32Richard goes in
12:33and says,
12:34what do you fancy playing tonight?
12:36And he said,
12:37do you know this Tex-Mex song
12:38from 1947?
12:41Ah!
12:42And he proceeded
12:42to play it differently
12:43every time,
12:44you know,
12:44so Richard comes out
12:45and sort of scratches his head.
12:46If you watch the video
12:48on YouTube,
12:50you can see everybody
12:51like looking at each other
12:52going,
12:53C,
12:54G,
12:55you know,
12:56and I've got no idea
12:57what he sang.
12:58I've got no,
12:59absolutely no idea.
13:00I still can't work it out.
13:01I've looked at it
13:01hundreds of times.
13:02I thought it was just me,
13:04personally,
13:05but then I've read
13:06subsequent things
13:07that happened
13:08when the band
13:09played the last
13:10waltz gig
13:10that's filmed
13:11by Scorsese.
13:12It happened
13:13to George Harrison
13:14here,
13:15Madison Square Garden.
13:15He's inscrutable,
13:17but he's a genius.
13:23In the UK,
13:24you don't really appreciate
13:26how important
13:27the Rock and Roll
13:28Hall of Fame
13:28is here
13:30in America.
13:38We weren't ever
13:39looking to be inducted
13:41or anything,
13:42but then out of the blue,
13:43the scene came through.
13:44You're up for selection
13:45and then suddenly you're in.
13:47We hadn't played together
13:48for about five years,
13:49so we said,
13:50you know what,
13:50we'd better try
13:51and acquit ourselves.
13:52as well,
13:52so we came here
13:53and rehearsed
13:54for a week,
13:55even though there were
13:55only three or four tracks,
13:57because we knew
13:57there'd be a lot
13:58of musicians there.
13:59We didn't want to look
14:00like a bunch of amateurs.
14:02We'd regressed
14:03to being inspired amateurs.
14:04And I remember
14:05getting into
14:06the Barclays Centre here
14:08and looking up around me.
14:09It's enormous
14:10and thinking,
14:11wow,
14:12this is a big deal.
14:13Oh, look on that table,
14:14there's a whole
14:15Fleetwood Mac
14:16and there's Janet Jackson
14:17and it was great.
14:19It was a great evening.
14:20We really, really enjoyed it
14:22and very kindly
14:23Simon Le Bon
14:25and John Taylor
14:26from Duran Duran
14:27inducted us,
14:28said some nice things.
14:30Ladies and gentlemen,
14:31it is our pleasure
14:32to induct
14:32into the Rock and Roll
14:34Hall of Fame
14:35Roxy Music.
14:37It was great.
14:38Yeah, so we're very pleased.
14:40We thought,
14:41it's coming up
14:42for the 50th
14:43and I was
14:43around at Brian's
14:45house.
14:46He lives near me
14:47in the country.
14:47He may have suggested,
14:49do you fancy playing?
14:50I was quite surprised
14:51because he normally doesn't.
14:54I said,
14:55yeah,
14:55it's a good way
14:55to celebrate it
14:56and then
14:57after we did that,
14:59we said,
14:59well,
14:59why don't we do
15:00a 50th anniversary
15:02goodbye tour
15:04which we did
15:05and we did
15:0611 dates in America,
15:09one in Canada
15:10and three in the UK
15:11and we finished
15:12at the O2 in London
15:14which was
15:15great
15:16actually
15:17but at the end
15:18of that
15:18me and Andy
15:19thought,
15:19you know what,
15:20I think it's time
15:21to stop.
15:22It went well
15:23and we sort of,
15:24we got away with it
15:25so let's quit
15:27while we're ahead
15:27and people seem
15:28to like it
15:29even though
15:30we have business
15:31to do,
15:31bits and pieces
15:32to bring out
15:33and when we played
15:34here in Madison Square Guns
15:36it's the last ever
15:36Roxy.
15:38So if you missed it,
15:40you missed it.
15:40Make me a deal
15:43and make it straight
15:45next we have
15:46an album out
15:47with Andy Mackay
15:48from Roxy Music
15:49and Paul Thompson
15:49the drummer
15:50which is difficult
15:51to define
15:52what kind of music
15:52is it.
15:53It's sort of
15:54improvised
15:55but it's not jazz.
15:56It's more like
15:57sonic stuff
15:57and it relies
15:58on an immersive
15:59visual context.
16:01In some ways
16:02it's a bit like
16:03going back
16:03to the second half
16:04of the 60s
16:05psychedelia
16:05with lights
16:06but I noticed
16:07that there was
16:08a thing at
16:09South by Southwest
16:09just recently
16:10where the
16:11Polyphonic Spree
16:12did a thing
16:13in a sort of
16:14huge planetarium
16:15type environment
16:16so this idea
16:17of immersive music
16:19that's what we're into
16:20and that's coming
16:21out in June.
16:23AMPM
16:23it's called.
16:30Bizarrely
16:30I ended up
16:31being a producer
16:32of about
16:33I don't know
16:33how many tracks
16:349, 10, 11
16:35of Rod Stewart
16:36and Jules Holland
16:37doing jazz numbers
16:39from the 30s
16:40rearrangements
16:41with the big band
16:42which was something
16:44that I never expected
16:45me to do
16:46the Forrest Gump thing
16:47how did I end up
16:48doing that?
16:49But I wanted to meet
16:50Rod
16:50and he was great
16:51it was number one
16:52in England.
17:02having my riff
17:08a guitar riff
17:09from my solo album
17:10sampled by
17:11Jay-Z and Kanye West
17:12and it being number one
17:13and winning a Grammy
17:14and the only Grammy
17:16I've ever won
17:17or been a part of
17:18that was pretty big
17:19and it's been used
17:20in films
17:21and even the trailer
17:22for the latest
17:22Gladiator 2 film
17:24which was incredible
17:25and that just came out
17:26of the blue
17:26and no intention
17:27so thank you 88 Keys
17:29who sampled it
17:31and then gave it to them.
17:33I'll tell you
17:34one of the great ironies
17:35is that
17:36I did a solo album
17:37in 1976
17:38called K-Scope
17:38and I was recording
17:39at a friend's house
17:41he was the bass player
17:42in Yes
17:43Chris Squire
17:43and I knew I had
17:44the musician's book
17:45the next day
17:45and I thought
17:46I haven't got anything
17:47to record
17:48so I was watching
17:49the TV
17:49with my guitar
17:51and I was just going
17:51ding ding ding
17:52I thought oh that'll do
17:54I went to the next day
17:55and recorded that
17:56an irony of ironies
17:58like 40 years later
17:59it becomes this huge hit
18:01and I thought
18:02that's real rock and roll
18:03anything can happen
18:04you've just got to
18:05keep going
18:06and sooner or later
18:07the karma will come back.
18:26music
18:28it can do magical things
18:29doing the book
18:30it's made me realise
18:31that one constant
18:33in my life
18:33has been music
18:34you know
18:34ever since
18:35my mother showed me
18:36how to play a few chords
18:38and to be able
18:40to sing some songs
18:41along with those chords
18:42it's been with me
18:44the whole of my
18:45time through ups
18:46and it's a bit
18:48a sort of useful
18:49meditative tool
18:51and we know
18:51that music is good
18:53for people's mental health
18:54and it brings back
18:55memories
18:56and has resonance
18:56for so many people
18:57on so many different occasions
18:59very pleased to be part
19:00of music
19:01so I have no regrets
19:02from that point of view
19:03and I'm always learning
19:04it brings people together
19:06To hear more of this interview
19:23visit our podcast
19:24Life Minute TV
19:25on iTunes
19:25and all streaming podcast platforms

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