Chords for Dan Fogelberg ~ Cleveland Interview '87

theater that's where he joins us from live.
Hello Dan, welcome.
Hello Wilma, nice to be here.
Welcome to Cleveland again.
How many times have you been here?
Ever?
I've never really kept count.
Oh yeah, I've played at Blossom quite a bit.
Oh, welcome back.
Thank you.
When I say up close
that's how it is.
When I say up close that's how it is at the front row, which is nice.
It's a beautiful facility.
I've never been here before and it's kind of nice doing an acoustic solo show rather than a rock and roll show to be in an
intimate setting like this and multiple nights instead of just one night where people can't get close to see or hear anything.
You were an art major, is that right, in college?
I was for a brief time until they decided that I shouldn't be an art major at their university.
Oh, they decided that you didn't?
It was kind of mutual.
I see, because music
I would think because you do so beautifully with it has always been inside you and had to come out.
Is that right?
Yeah, I mean
I remember the first time my mother said that I was singing in public was at the Prince Valiant movie when I was about four
and I added to the soundtrack off during the film.
Did you?
Yes.
Was it the applause?
Did you get any applause?
Not then, certainly not in the theater,
but later on in life and then you were sure that you had to do it?
Well, I played rock and roll all through high school in bands, you know,
so you didn't really get so much applause in those situations.
We played for a lot of dances and I just knew as soon as I started playing professionally, that's what I wanted to do.
[Eb] There's certainly something about your music that reflects life and you can tell in listening to your songs that there is feeling and
true experiences coming through.
If we look at your music that way, Dan,
[N] how has your music changed reflecting your life?
In other words,
how has your life changed over the years and how do we as the listeners see it in your music?
Well, not everything I write is reflective of my life.
For instance, the High Country Snows album.
Well, I guess it is.
I guess most of the things I do just
coincide with the particular changes in my own life.
The albums reflect that.
The High Country Snows album was a move to my ranch in Colorado,
so I was dealing with the great outdoors a little more.
This last Al Mexiles was about a divorce
I went through after moving to the ranch.
So I think each album really pretty much reflects of what I've gone through in the last two years.
The leader of the band was about your dad?
Yes.
A good feeling there?
How do you say, as you look back on your father, you smile.
Do you see love or do you see discipline there?
What was going on?
Oh, no, love.
A great deal of love.
He was an amazing musician, an amazing teacher.
And the line in the song about me being a living legacy of him is very true.
I mean, I am always trying to live up to what he showed me.
I mean, he gave me the freedom to be a musician as I wanted to be a musician.
He didn't try to force me into any other sorts of music,
but he exposed me to all sorts of music, classical and jazz and big band.
And I decided on rock and roll and folk and pop music.
And he was very, very proud of me when he passed away.
And he got to hear the song leader of the band.
And he went out in a blaze of glory because people were calling from all over the country,
interviewing him as the leader of the band.
Oh, how wonderful for both of you.
How wonderful.
Some people, as they listen to your music, say that in the end, in your music,
it seems to reflect loneliness, that the inevitable in life is loneliness.
You smile there, too.
Do you see it that way?
Do you think in the end we are all lonely?
Well, as an existentialist, as a practicing existentialist,
in the 60s and 70s, I would I could say yes or no to that, I suppose.
I hope that my music always has an essence of hope in it.
I mean, if I'm dealing a lot of the time with the existential side of things,
the personal loneliness that everyone feels,
I hope the music still gives them a chance to feel that someone else has gone through this.
That's the main thing.
I really don't think that all my music is that sad.
I've written a lot of different styles of music.
I think that the songs that have been the biggest hits for me, perhaps, have a certain loneliness to them.
But, you know, I don't go out of my way to do that.
If I can communicate to people and have them say,
thanks for writing that, I felt that, too.
That's the main thing.
I don't mean to put you on the spot before we go to the break here, but
with all you have, and we look at your life and say, wow, how great to be so popular and have so much success.
Would you say you're lonely, or are you a happy, fulfilled human being?
Oh, no, I'm a very happy man.
I just came from a ranch in Colorado last night.
I have a wonderful lady that I live with there, and a bunch of great animals.
That just comes out in the writing, because most of it's written late at night, I suppose.
I'd have to write more in the daytime.
I can understand that.
We're going to pause briefly here, come back, take some calls for you.
[Em] And as we go to this break, we're going to listen [C] to some of your music.
We'll be right back. _
[F] Welcome [E] back.
Dan Fogelberg is with us live now from the Front Row Theater, where he is performing this week.
If you have a question or a comment for him, give us a [N] call.
578-1000, the number.
We're going to take some calls for you.
Before we do that, you mentioned the new lady in your life.
You're 33 now.
36.
36.
Yes.
All right.
Isn't that honest?
Very nice.
What do you think you have to offer at 36 that you didn't when you were_
How old were you when you first got married, that marriage that failed?
30_
I don't remember.
31.
It wasn't that long ago.
It wasn't that long ago.
All right.
What do you have to offer now that you didn't, let's say, at 30?
What have you learned in these last six years? _
I've got a Maine coon cat.
It's a great little animal.
About life, though.
About life and relationships.
I think the communication is the most important thing.
I think people have a tendency to not communicate enough with each other.
And I think it's very important to be open and honest with one another.
Not brutally honest with one another, but communication, I think, is the main thing.
People have to be friends enough and love each other enough that they can talk to each other about anything.
That's why people are together.
Do you think we'll start seeing some of these new feelings [Eb] represented in your music?
I would imagine so.
I haven't really started writing for the next album yet, but I would hope so, yeah.
Do you want to talk about your beard being gone?
[Bb] My beard being gone?
Is it?
Is it?
It is.
Because a lot of people were saying, where's his beard?
What made you take it off?
[N] A bottle of 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon, as a matter of fact, one night.
Oh, I don't know.
You just go through changes.
I just decided to shave it off one night, and that's that.
There was no premeditated thing at all.
Do you like yourself better with it or without it?
I like it both ways.
Unfortunately, I can't have it both ways unless I wear a fake beard.
No.
Let's take some calls.
Ready?
Yeah.
Here we go.
Good afternoon.
Your question?
Hello, Mr.
Fogelberg.
It's quite an honor to talk to you.
I'd just like to say I thank you for writing other ones.
I constantly listen to it, and I'm awfully happy that CBS put all your records out on CD,
because they're all so nice to hear.
And I wish you a lot of luck, and I'll be there all three nights.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Well, that's a nice compliment.
Your question or comment.
Hello?
Yeah, Dan.
Where did you get the inspiration for the song, Longer, then?
For Longer?
I was actually sitting in a hammock, laying in a hammock under the stars in Maui, in Lahaina, Maui.
And I was very kicked back, and I had my acoustic guitar out there.
And it was just one of those wonderful nights when that song, I think, was floating around in the stars
and just kind of decided to make me a tone.
Your question.
Hello?
Dan, I'd like to know, can you please tell me what is the most simple, important ingredient to you
that accounts for you being on top so long and accounting for your great success and longevity?
I think versatility.
I think the ability to be able to come to a place like Blossom,
with a rock and roll show like we did this summer, and then to come back into an area like this
and do a totally different show, an acoustic show.
I think it's changing as an artist.
You have to keep experimenting and taking risks and taking chances.
Some are more successful than others, but like the Bluegrass record may not have been my most successful commercial record.
But artistically, it's the thing that keeps people interested, I think.
You have to keep people interested.
You can't keep repeating yourself.
Let's say, just as that one gentleman who called said he's going to be there all three nights,
if you at home would like to join in there, it's tonight through Wednesday night at the Front Row Theater.
If you'd like ticket information, there's the number, 449-5-6-7.
Thank you very much, Wilma.
Welcome back once again.
Thank you.
Let's go