Best known as the leader of the Steve Miller Band, Steve Miller himself stopped by Sweetwater and sat down with Mitch Gallagher for this special interview. He talks recording, his early gigs, and much more.
I'm such a fan. It was actually my father, who wasn't even a Rock n' Roll fan, who bought me my first Steve Miller Album for my Birthday. He only liked three Rock acts.That was October of '73, I was 15, and the Joker was the Album. He also bought me my first CCR and Harry Nilsson album. Here's to you, Dad! God rest your soul...
Steve is genuine rock and roll: I love the way he got into the RR Hall of Fame and proceeded to rip them a new one over the shitty way they treat musicians. Long overdue!
I recall learning (decades ago, now) how Steve's introduction to the music industry was finding out that he made zero income from The Joker LP because his manager stole every penny of it-probably legally, too. Steve went on hiatus to go to college for a degree in Business, and became his own manager. That is no small feat. I also recall that he had some sage advice from one of the musical legends that he grew up around (forget who) told him to forget naming a band, use your own name, it will save you a LOT of grief in the future and a lot of the avenues left open to other band members. This is what happened to John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, where a other band members sold the rights to John's entire catalogue of songs (CCR was essentially all John) to Fantasy records, who had screwed the band in the past, without his knowledge or consent, even though they agreed any such decision had to be unanimous. It took John Decades of legal wrangling (and surely lots of time and even more money) to get his rightful property back from his backstabbing former bandmates schemes. The excuse "I'm tired of deciding what songs can or can't go to what complication or movie or commercial- I don't care about the music anymore, just the money". The music industry is rife with opportunists, thieves, liars, backstabbers and mobsters.
As an aside Jet Airliner wasn't able to be released by Paul Pena 20 some years after Steve had been playing it exclusively. Not precise on the details but Paul gave Steve that gem. The original by Paul is a must hear.
An interviewer who allows his subject to fully answer the questions! What a breath of fresh air! Add to this a set of intelligent questions and you have a compelling interview with a very interesting Steve Miller. I now want to check out the rest of the Sweetwater channel.
Steve Miller is the perfect example of the “overnight success” who had been playing since age five, for 35 years when suddenly everyone knew who he was, one of the 20 or so artists who made rock what it is. Fabulous interview.
Steve Miller is a rock and roll icon... I love his harmonies (with himself) and his timeless music. His songs are timeless...just amazing. Mitch Gallagher, you are amazing as well...keep up the great work my friend!!!
I love Steve Miller and have since I heard his 1968 LP , "Sailor. " What a great LP! So many wonderful hits! Living in the USA, Space cowboy, Dear Mary, and so on. Steve is easy to listen to and very mellow. This was a great interview and I am so happy to learn of Steve's past and his influences, plus the enormous list of greats that he knew and worked with throughout his life and career. Steve is a rare talent and has entertained me and brought me happiness through his music for so many years. Thank You, Steve ! I think you're a great guy and may God Bless you always.
Mitch knows how to interview. Let's the guest speak more then asks great per-tenant questions that people want to know the answers to. You make the interview all about the subject Mitch way to go and very informing, never a disappointment. This was another great one of a classic artist, very insightful. Truly thank you.
@@appletongallery The interviewer is doing his job, letting Steve Miller tell his story of his archives and the music he created and performed. In addition he relates his experiences with Les Paul which are quite interesting and compelling. Why would you criticize the interview and the interviewer here when it serves no purpose whatsoever?
He’s the only one where I turn it all the way up, every single time he comes on! First 6 albums are genius and he’s always been so humble and real since day one! He also was pretty much the first person to get a grant from the record label to build his own studio and diy his own album!
Great to come across this vid. Steve's a legend, so good to hear about his background in the blues etc, a truly wonderful singer songwriter, The Joker what a song, one of the best.
Now you know why Steve Miller can bash the rock n roll hall crew. The guy is sincère honest and a hard working dude. Not a bad guiter player, performer, writer. Thankyou sir.
steve miller is a big part of why I wanted to be a musician,my mother and I would ride around for hours and hours listening to him on 8 track tape in a pinto,,the man is a true American icon
845callaway loved it when he told the bitch on the side of the stage he’d wrap you up , and told the truth how the RRHOF screws the artists , yeah , you play for free at the RRHOF and we the RRHOF will sell your performance and you’ll not get a dime from it , and by the way , your wife’s and kids tickets are 10 grnd ea !! Kinda pouring salt into the wound huh
Fabulous interview as always. In our opinion, it took WAY too long for Steve Miller to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Steve 'called them on the carpet' that very night.
I don't get it either 🤔 I was at the opening and one of the first groups to go through also the concert . I was amazed that he wasn't in the hall . In my opinion way to much politics .
I was at a concert in Medford Oregon 1975 and Steve Miller made a Surprise Appearance! A moment I will never forget❤️ and being close to the stage made my night! He lived in Williams Oregon at the time!
I started listening to Steve Miller in the seventies in my late teens, his "space rock" kinda vibe & quality sound recordings really pulled me in to "another space & time" Where I could 'Transcend' my day to day worries! Thankyou Steve Miller!
Rock royalty of the most authentic strain. His godfather was Les Paul -- I didn't know that. Sounds like he worked incredibly hard. That hard work plus the finest of influences and 'being there' created this great rocker. I still listen to the live version of "Evil" all the time. I saw Howling Wolf open for Tull in Milwaukee in 1972; otherwise I have only read of all those early influences he experienced so intensely. Great interview! I hope I am that articulate when I'm 74.
What an amazing interview. I've seen Steve Miller perform maybe three times in the past 45 years. I photographed him up close in the Portland Memorial Coliseum, my hometown since birth and still today, his concert in 1980, on high-speed transparency film, in my first 35mm camera that I bought just 8 years before while attending college and art classes. I'll come back and edit this link here in a few minutes with some close-ups I took of Miller plane behind his head like Jimi Hendrix was known to do. the link to my Facebook album actually shows many different famous musicians up close, photographed over 45 years in various places along the west coast but mostly my hometown of Portland Oregon. But as I just moved my storage facility a couple days ago and what I consider myself as really just an average American that's worked for 30 years in the high-tech computer industry, designing and helping to build my own home for my wife and daughter and I at age 33 in 1988, and later hired to teach Astronomy as an Adjunct professor at age 50 in a local University here in Portland Oregon. Now at 66 years of age and looking at the conditions of our nation, I realize that someone like Steve Miller could actually run for president of the United States at his age. This guy is a professional at his rock and roll business and producing and directing, but he's still so much more. He's the example of what a talented and gifted musical artist can do in his mid-70s. I came here today by way of accidentally reading his history and for the first time realizing what happened when they inducted him into the Rock and roll Hall of Fame a few years ago. He spoke from his heart about the greed of money, and how it can be destroying the business of art today. I've done a little bit of that myself as I used to call into the famous NPR Talk of the Nation program, and I eventually held the record for calling into it, live with millions of Americans listening. I didn't speak as harshly as Steve did at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction for him, but I was making a point about the banks wrongfully foreclosing on people who designed and built their own homes 20 years before 2008 when the banks decided to make a business out of rampant and illegal foreclosure upon American homeowners.
I'm a huge fan of Steve Miller and NUMBER 5 is my fav album. Has been a very big influence on my playing. I would play his solos note for note. Love Steve!
Steve also has a house we stayed at in a popular Western ski town with a killer studio in the basement. To access the studio, you drive into the garage, press a button and the floor lowers to the studio level and a door opens directly to the studio. So cool. Jamming in the studio, need to do a gig? No problem, open the wall, load the truck, press a bottom and drive away with the gear still warm from rocking out. Whoo Hoo. Steve is a cosmic warrior, from the San Francisco hippie, Fillmore days. Right up there with Janis, The Dead and Jefferson Airplane. His psychedelic stuff is awesome, really creative and trippy. That is Steve's musical root. Yes blues for sure, but blues on acid man. Haha...
my wife's aunt was a house keeper for "Stephen" for awhile in that western ski town. loved living in that area, even though I couldn't afford that neighborhood.
Definitely big respect to Steve Miller and his comments about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Been listening to this guy since I was a younger person in the sixties and on up into the 70s. Great music
He lives for music. It would be interesting to know his hobbies apart from music, places he’s traveled, etc. Steve is so dedicated to music. A great life I’m sure.
Love his music, he’s humble, interesting, and I’ve always loved his Voice!🙂❤️memories being a teen in the 70’s. I still have a few vinyl albums of SMB!
Always one of the greats; so good to see how much he continues to do to capture and promote the blues and jazz. Everyone should own his first five albums; he was so ahead of the field, progressive rock/psychedelia included. The second side of Recall the Beginning is right up there with side two of Abbey Road.
Love Steve Miller! He's got balls of steel for his press interview regarding The R&R House of Fame's ill treatment of the inductee's and their families and ticket costs! Bravo Steve!!! Bravo!!!
Todd Flowers , I agree. Steve has played here in Eugene/Springfield and is the man. My buddy T-m(not sure he wants his name out) played drums for him at the Hult center and said Steve was a true perfectionist and bossy(lol, that the people were there for him, not the Band) he said Steve was cool. This interview though, says a lot about his life and his musicianship. I could almost feel the bars, clubs and music as he spoke. I sing a few of his songs in my band and they are always well received.
Excellent interview. Not a lot of videos of Steve going on with his stories at length, so this was a great look at what kind of guy he is. Nicely done!
Such great road trip music. Steve Miller's songs are so sing alongable. Lyrics are sometimes bizarro...like they really don't make sense, but it's fine! The songs just flow with soul and sonic perfection.
This interview hits all the notes for me. I've just recently started going back to the early Steve Miller albums and really enjoying and learning from them. Great guitar playing and good songs.🙏😷🎶🎸❗👀
We can't help but admit that he wrote some of the soundtrack of Our Lives, and I've seen him a few times over the course of the years, but I have to say; a very nice self-effacing man! Humorous, interesting, great story good music and an all-around nice guy! Rock on Steve & bless your heart! And to say that is actually saying something, 35 years in, & you meet a few people; not all of them can hang with this cat!
My son is Miller my dog Is Steve I love this man. The music got me through a really crap childhood ...to listen to the music made me the person i am today. Steve Miller Yeah!
I met Steve in '72....he had come down with mono or hepatitis during a European tour and came back to the states to get well while staying at his parents lakeside home in Heath, TX.....I came by to see Bud (Bud and his family leased a house from us...also near the lake in Heath) and Steve was there just sitting in the living room with his guitar and working on some songs.....he wasn't Steve Miller! he was just Bud's younger brother...a musician.......a year or so later...I was in college and heard The Joker on the stereo in the door room across the hall.....I ran in there to get a better listen....damn!! that was one of the songs he was working on!....Love listening to the stories he had to tell here.....
Best interview of Steve Miller! what a great guy. i had no idea he knew Les Paul for all those years! And all the other guitar greats he knew and played with - Wow! thanks Sweetwater!
My dad is around Steve's age, and is a musician himself, so since I was a little girl I fell in love with him and his music! Broke my heart when I found out he was 53 years older than me and I'd probably never get the chance to experience him live in concert 😭
Book Of Dreams is on my top album list. I heard that record when I was a kid and never stopped listening to it. Finally saw Steve in Dallas in the late 90's at a 4th of July show, wow what a great concert. Eric Johnson and Warren Haynes opened for him and the SMB played for 3 and 1/2 hours! Killer sound!
Great music, great stories, great recording artists... Steve Miller is just epic and always will be.. P.S. I love my Novation 49 SL MK 2 midi controller I ordered from Sweetwater... ☮🔥
I love his music, and he seems to be such a cool person. Such a pity that the radio only plays The Joker, Abracadabra or Fly Like an Eagle. Hopefully I'm going to see you live one day, Steve!!
I listen to him on you tube premium, it plays all his songs, not just hits, nobody listens to radio in Australia, just Bluetooth Spotify, Amazon music etc
I haven’t listened to radio in about 20 years seriously Also been a trucker since 94 I didn’t think anyone listen to radio anymore except maybe am news am morning Steve miller is awesome once I saw him open up for the Grateful Dead way back in the way way back before time
I just downloaded Living in the USA my favorite Steve Miller song. I had to see what happened to him. That song reminds me of when I was about 14 and I went to Melbourne Fla to visit my sister and she had this album.
I have dug on some Steve Miller since hi first album ! I recently purchased a new bass guitar and Amp from Sweetwater and I'm very pleased with the service ,prices ,and quality ! The service department is Phenomenal as well !✔ if your shopping for Gear , don't buy it until you compare Sweetwater Selections and Prices !✔ Rock on with some Steve Miller !✔✔✔
