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Interview at Sun for the BBC
Sometime last year Pete Pritchard arranged to have Scotty interviewed by his friend of 40 years, Geoff Barker of the BBC. It's rare now that Scotty agrees to any interviews but has done a couple recently at the request of his friends. The BBC was doing a program in celebration of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the recording of That's Allright, Mama this summer and the interview was scheduled at Sun Studio in Memphis during January of 2014. A session with Chris Isaak and Matt Ross-Spang ensued. They were kind enough to share their pictures and story with us here.
Pete and Geoff had flown in from London and Scotty and Gail, along with her son Wayne, drove from Nashville. Recently Gail was given the prototype for the limited run signature guitars by Mike Voltz. Mike, who had been in Anaheim, CA for the winter NAMM show, left a day early to attend this event. Geoff said, Scotty and Gail had brought the ES 295 prototype (no Bigsby) down from Nashville. Mike Voltz of Gibson was there. Earlier in the day we went to the Gibson factory and he gave us a tour of the assembly lines.1 They also brought along a Hofner that Pete had previously given to Scotty who, no longer playing, felt it should go back to Pete.
Mike had one more ES 295 (of the '81') that required Scotty's signature and here's a pic of that happening. It is now hanging on the wall in the corridor that leads from the shop at the factory.1
Whilst there, a guitar Chris had ordered was being finished off and he saw that happening and did a bit on it himself. (A special paint job...all white).1
In addition to Scotty, J.M. Van Eaton was there and interviewed. As a drummer, J.M. as you know, was a Sun sessionist in the '50s and played on hundreds of recordings, including those of Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich and also toured with Billy Lee Riley and Conway Twitty.
Geoff said, We were so pleased to see him [J.M.], he drove 50 miles to get to Sun that night!
The session involved Chris on vocals and rhythm guitar, Pete on bass and Matt Ross-Spang on lead guitar. They recorded a cover of That's Allright, Mama, done the way it was originally. Geoff said, the only thing amplified was the [Matt's] guitar. Chris's acoustic and Pete's bass totally acoustic. No headphones needed either. Just like Sam used to do it.1
Matt Ross-Spang, a guitarist and Memphis native who is also the producer and recording engineer at Sun Studio told us, Man! What a night! I always tell people (or they tell me) that I have the coolest job in the world.2
2014 marked my 10th year at the studio, and it started out extra special. I am lucky enough to already call Chris Isaak, Scotty Moore, Gail Pollock, Jerry and Halley Phillips, J.M. Van Eaton and Pete Pritchard friends but to get them all in the (SUN!) studio together couldn't be any better. Having the coolest job in the world can also be the scariest, especially when the BBC calls and mentions a great session involving Chris, Pete and Scotty, and oh by the way, they volunteered you to play Scotty's parts...with Scotty there... at Sun Studio... just like it was cut in 1954 to analog tape...2
To add to the excitement/terror, Scotty and Gail told me they'd bring his ES-295 prototype and his custom Gibson guitar gifted by some fellow named Chet Atkins! [sic]2
I apologized to Scotty before we started cutting, and dubbed myself "Sloppy Moore". I think you can see my goosebumps from the photos, but the tracks turned out great thanks to Scotty's direction and approval. It will air sometime soon on BBC radio, I know its one night I will never forget! 2
Matt used the studio's ES295 for the session. He said, I played the prototype and the Scotty's Chet Atkin's guitar, both sounded incredible but had older strings that weren't holding tune, so I quickly switched to the house 295 with bigsby, that Scotty signed years ago! Scotty came onto the studio floor from the control room towards the end of the session.2
With the session and interviews complete, everyone was prepared to leave the next day. Scotty and Gail returned to Nashville and Chris Isaak also went to Nashville to induct Roy Orbison into the Musician's Hall of Fame. About that time they were having some extremely bad weather, snow and ice, across the southern U.S. and ironically, Pete and Geoff's flight was diverted to Detroit instead of Atlanta to avoid the snow. The BBC program is expected to air sometime this year and we'll have more on that as we hear it.
page added February 14, 2014 Special thanks to Geoff Barker, Matt Ross-Spang and Sean Davis for the use of photos, to Geoff and Matt for their input, and to Pete Pritchard and Gail for their help with this page. 1 quote from Geoff Barker This interview will be initially broadcast on Monday May 19, 2014 at 10 p.m. on BBC Radio 2, see Scotty Moore And The Guitar That Changed The World. Hi Jim,
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