Alvin Lee interview | Gig review

It's been over 25 years since you last played the UK. What took you so long to come back?

I really have a special affinity with the country and it's been way too long since we last played the UK. It always felt like I was coming home. That I'd been there before.

There are only maybe three or four gigs out of the hundreds I've done that will stand out in my mind forever. One was Woodstock, the second was The Albert Hall in London, and the third was the Apollo Theatre. So the UK has always been a special place for me!

I'm really looking forward to seeing more of England as I've never really toured extensively there, other than to the Albert Hall and to Liverpool. Can't wait to see the English countryside and...erm...look for hobbits...

So going back to Woodstock, how did that music festival affect your life, and your early career?

I realised that music was more than just entertainment. That it had a real power to bring people together

Edgar Winter on Woodstock

Woodstock was a life-altering experience. Up to that point, I thought I would probably play jazz for a career, but that gig was a real eye opener.

It was against the back drop of civil-rights and the peace movement. There were people on that stage singing songs that they really believed in, and I realised that music was more than just entertainment. That it had a real power to bring people together.

Throughout your career, you've worked with your brother (celebrated blues guitarist Johnny Winter) on many occasions. What is it like to work with a family member? Did it ever get competitive with you two?

Jonny and I grew up playing together. We played ukuleles and sang Everly Brothers songs when I was about six years old.

Jonny always had a great deal of ambition, while I was just interested in the music itself, the rhythm and the harmony.

Edgar (left) and brother Johnny

It was an interior world for me while Johnny wanted to be rich and famous. He was the frontman-type, while I was just the quiet kid at the back who played all the instruments!

So it was never really competitive. We played together up to the point where I became interested in jazz, and that was when I started forming my own band.

You've played many styles of music throughout your career, ranging from pop, rock, boogie, jazz, R&B, and even disco. Where did you get your influences from?

My dad used to play alto-sax in a swing band, as well as guitar and banjo. My mom played classical piano too, my grandad played the trumpet, and his dad played the violin! So our family was always very musical.

From a very early age, I grew up listening to all the old swing records - Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw. All the big band stuff really.

Then Jonny became fascinated in the primitive Delta country-style blues. He liked all the guys such as Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.

Edgar Winter: Now

I gravitated to somewhere in between, getting heavily into the urban-style blues. People like Ray Charles, Bobby 'Blue' Bland and BB King.

So music was always around me when I was growing up. In fact, I used to think that learning to play an instrument was a natural part of growing up, just like learning to add and subtract.

To the other kids in the street, I'd be like 'What do you mean you don't play? Your dad didn't teach you any chords?' I just assumed everyone could play something! It was a natural part of my life that way.

The Edgar Winter Group were one of the first bands to use synthesizers as a lead instrument. How did that come about?

As far as I know, our song Frankenstein, from the album They Only Come Out At Night, was actually the first track to feature the synthesizer as a lead instrument, and it came about out of my frustration at being stuck behind a stack of keyboards.

Edgar Winter, complete with strap-on keyboard

I always loved the sound of the synthesizer in the old sci-fi movies, like Forbidden Planet, and when I was browsing in the music stores one day, I saw this ARP 2600 synthesizer, that had a remote keyboard, attached by a cable to the actual unit of the instrument.

I thought 'wow, looks like you could attach a strap to that and play it like a guitar,' which I proceeded to do. Now I could get out and boogie and rock, just like all your lead guitarists could do.

Another thing about the instrument is that the people who were using synthesizers were often trying to use it to emulate the sounds that already existed, such as a grand piano or a string section. My whole approach to it was 'Here's a new instrument, let's see if we can get it to create new, never-before heard, sounds!'

It was like being the mad scientist of the synthesizer, and that's how our song Frankenstein was born.

And finally, I must ask you about that front cover to the album They Only Come Out At Night, which shows you with full drag make-up. What's the story behind that?

That was Scavullo, who was a world famous fashion photographer. He's just died recently, but those were some of the shots from that session.

There were a lot of people at the time making every effort to do anything that was weird and bizarre

Edgar Winter on the seventies

I was doing it mainly as a goof, just for a joke. It wasn't really planned, but after I saw the shots, they were just so dramatic and remarkable.

There were a lot of people at the time making every effort to do anything that was weird and bizarre. Alice Cooper for instance. Bowie was another.

And I just thought it made a great cover! I saw it as a satirical comment on the times, but I was quite surprised when people took it seriously and were expecting me to come out on stage in drag.

But nope, that was never gonna happen!

Check out the Alvin Lee interview