A GUITAR PLAYER'S STORY: ALBERT LEE

Albert Lee is one of the top guitarists in the world. He is well known to Everly Brothers’ fans as their lead guitarist since the 1983 Reunion Concerts. Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Joe Cocker and a great assortment of country stars have had Lee as their guitarist. He has also traveled the world with his own band, Hogan’s Heroes.

I first met Lee in Oxford, England during the Everly Brothers November 2005 UK Tour. We renewed our acquaintance when he agreed to sit down for an interview during his weekend appearance at E-String Grill and Poker Bar. The first thing I wanted to know was what was he doing playing at a small place like E- String. Lee explained, “You know I just love to go out to play. Even when I am at home and I will see if any of my friends are playing at a local bar and play with them for 50 bucks. That is the way I will get my practice. So I just love doing it. I am here tonight because I am a good friend of Pete’s (the owner). He flies me in here to do this. So it’s just good fun.”

His musical journey started at age 10 in Blackhurst, London, England, with formal piano lesson he took for two years. Lee’s was not interested enough in the piano to practice and finally quit at the age of 12. However fate stepped in to claim his interest in playing the guitar. He explained” “We had a guy named Lonnie Donogan who was the king of skiffle. He had a bunch of hit records and just got all the kids my age into playing the guitar. This was the mid 50’s. But, I never thought I would be good enough to do it for a living. It happened very quickly. By the age of 16 I got a guitar, had a group, went on the road in a professional band that went to Scotland and backed a singer. It was a fairly well known singer at the time and we played dance halls up in Scotland. He taught himself to play the guitar because there was no one to learn from. Lee said, "I saw people playing but didn’t see any really good rock and roll guitar players. I was just listening to all of the rock and roll records that were coming out. I was a big fan, of course, of the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Ricky Nelson".

Like so any of his fellow UK musicians he paid his dues by playing in Hamburg, Germany during the early 60’s. "It was an exciting time that was fun,” Lee explained. “We were all musicians playing in a small area of three or four clubs. So we go from club to club because you would play on for an hour then be off an hour while another band played. So you would go around the corner to see this other band play. We were getting a good weekly wage for that time and at our age”.

In 1968 country western music caught his interest and he put together a band called Country Fever. They played 18 months and backed American country artists such as Guy Mitchell and Jody Miller. Lee was encouraged by many of these American artists to go to America. He explained. “Throughout the sixties I always wanted to go to America. It was ever since I met the Everly Brothers. I actually met Phil first in 1962 and their band. This was the time Don was sick and went back to the states. The guitar player they had at the time was named Don Peak. By that time I was playing quite well and he said you should go to the states. So I would run into the Everly’s when they would come to England to play. Phil was always really nice to me and remembered me from the first time I met him. I hung out at one of their rehearsals. Phil was rehearsing a song to record without Don because he had gone back to the states. So he remembered me from that time.

Since he brought up the Everly Brothers, I wanted to know what it was like when he first met them? Lee said, “I was totally in awe because I was a huge Everly fan. I remember going up to the Savoy Hotel into Phil’s room and he opened up his guitar case and there was his big black J200 with the white pick guards. In fact I have the sister guitar to that. Don gave me his later on in the seventies after he split with his brother and I ended up doing quite a bit with him. We were hanging out and became best mates”.

I asked him about a quote he once made about Don Everly making the best pizza in Nashville. He responded, “Yes he was a very good cook. I knew him in LA when he lived in Sunset towers. We use to go up there on Sunday and party. We’d have hot dogs and whatever and drink little beers. It was a good musical afternoon. It was great fun”.

Albert Lee

Lee talked about some of the other people who hired him to play for them. Regarding Eric Clapton: “Well I knew Eric in the sixties in England. We played the same circuit and same clubs. But it was later on, about 79, we ran into each other on a recording session. He asked me to join his band. I thought this was cool and I never dreamed it would happen. So I went on the road with him that lasted for about five years. It was good fun. He gave me a lot of solos. I even played a little piano with him. It was a good experience. He was a good guy to work for”.

Regarding Emmylou Harris: “That was before Eric in LA in late 75 early 76. I had been playing with Joe Cocker. I had seen her play a couple of times and knew some of the guys in her band. I went along with one of her gigs and went backstage after the show. They said, Oh Albert, we were just thinking about you. What are you doing the next couple of weeks? James Burton was going off to play with Elvis so he couldn’t do a couple of her gigs. So to make a long story short, he stayed with Elvis and I got the gig with Emmylou. I realize at that moment that I was living in America. I was playing in a band whose music I really loved. From that moment on I was living in America.”

About Joe Cocker: “Poor old Joe, he was going through a bad period at the time and drinking a lot. But, it was always a good band. We had a couple of different bands when I was with him but really good music. No one had more soul than him. He was quite a character. I am so happy that he pulled though that and survived all that. If there was ever a candidate for not surviving it was he. He pulled through it thank goodness.”

In 2001 Lee was involved with an Earl Scruggs and Friends project that earned him a Grammy. He explained, “I was asked to do a track on his record. We played on Foggy Mountain Breakdown, which eventually was nominated and won a Grammy. And I got a Grammy for it. This was one of the first country records I ever bought, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, by the original Flatt & Scruggs. Then years later I played on the Earl Scruggs version and got a Grammy for it. It’s a strange world. Lee continued about how the song was recorded and the video made for it. Most of the players overdubbed our parts at different times. But, of course we did the video together. So that was fun for all of us at the TV studio just going through the motion of doing the solos.

We went back to discussing the Everly Brothers as I wanted to know about his experience playing on the November 2005 UK Tour and why he thought they decided to cancel their shows in the US. He confirmed what Phil Everly told some of us in June, but Lee elaborated the situation surrounding the decision. He told me," I think it was because Phil wasn’t happy with the way he was singing. He hardly sang in three years. You really couldn’t count the Simon and Garfunkel tour because they were only doing two or three songs. So he felt he wasn’t really giving it all. It was amazing. It was a turn around because Don was very enthusiastic and really wanted to do it. At the end of the UK tour he said to the band, "Have I said this is our last tour on stage at any time? We said no. He said good, then we can come back again. But at the end of the tour Phil decided he didn’t want to do it. It’s his choice, we all wanted to do it. But, I can’t really see it happen again. There may be an odd gig that comes up where they may do a few songs. But, to do a major tour would take a lot of persuading of Phil. There is no reason for them to do it. We had the Everly Brothers for all those years and all that wonderful music. The Everly’s gave the world a wonderful gift."

Lee then told me of his future plans. He went on, "I’d never retire and want to keep playing. I am really busy and doing a lot of work with my band, Hogan’s Heroes, in the UK. We play all of Europe. I have yet to bring them to America. I am going to have to either do that or put together an American band because I get a lot of requests of doing things like this gig in the states with my own band. So it will happen before I am 65".

All of Albert Lee’s fans hope he will continue to give the world his gift of playing the guitar.