Slow Ride: Foghat to bring ’70s rock to Caloosa Sound Amphitheater
When it comes to gritty 1970s hard rock anthems, few songs bring into focus those pictures of long hair and loud music blasting from big muscle cars quite like Foghat’s “Slow Ride.”
Nearly 50 years since that song rocked the charts, the English group is bringing their act to Fort Myers next week for a show at the Caloosa Sound Amphitheater in Fort Myers Oct. 12 in anticipation of their long-awaited 17th album, new album, Sonic Mojo, to be released Nov. 10 Foghat Records.
Foghat drummer Roger Earl, currently the sole original member still playing in the group (original singer and lead guitarist Dave Peverett died of cancer in 2000), spoke with Breeze Newspapers ahead of the show over the phone from Long Island where he has called home the last few decades. For a band with eight gold records, they have stood the test of time.
They are ready to release their 10th album with new singer Scott Holt as well as longtime guitarist Bryan Bassett (known for his guitar work on Wild Cherry’s “Play that Funky Music”). Their latest album “Sonic Mojo” will be released Oct. 10 and the band will be playing three songs of the album, which was recorded in the band’s studio outside of Orlando.
Their latest work mixes their hard rock edge with their blues influences, as well as country and gospel. Earl cites Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer Earl Palmer (Little Richard, Fats Domino) as an early influence as well as blues drummers Freddy Below and Frances Clay as other key influences.
Earl grew up in post-World War 2 in bombed-out London with a family that grew vegetables and raised chickens under food rationing. The son of a car factory worker, the sound of ’50s rock and roll pioneers Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis is what initially led Earl to music. And of course Chuck Berry. “We would all be out of business if it weren’t for Chuck Berry,” Earl said. Later would come a love for country legend Johnny Cash and the blues titan Willie Dixon.
Foghat’s first claim to fame was a version of Dixon’s song “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” a blues standard first recorded by Muddy Waters which the band turned into a radio hit. Earl said the group would later meet Dixon while performing in Chicago in the 1970s.
“He invited us to his house on the south side of Chicago,” Earl said. They stayed up late playing music, eating and listening to some of Dixon’s old records, Earl said. Earl said Dixon was imposing at six feet, six inches tall. “He was very warm and very knowledgeable about music he produced and wrote. He was easy to talk to and a smile never left his face,” Earl said.
Earl’s older brother Collin got him into Johnny Cash, by buying his Sun Records albums. Cash was not well known in England at the time. “What I liked about Johnny is he always had a story,” Earl said. Collin would become a successful musician in his own right, playing with the group Mungo Jerry who had a major hit with “In the Summertime.”
Before Foghat, Earl and other members of the group played in the band Savoy Brown.
There is only one song that Foghat closes out their sets with – it’s “Slow Ride.”
“It’s an industrial love song,” Earl said. With song lyrics that kids today would call a hookup song, and the power chord anthem of the main riff, the song clocks in at more than eight minutes long. “Slow Ride” was catchy enough to become a radio hit yet sophisticated enough with its bass jams, rhythm changes and extended solos to retain significance decades later.
Earl credits the arrangement to the band’s bassist at the time – Nick Jameson, who would go on to be known as a character actor on shows like “24” and “King of Queens” and as a voice actor. Earl said it was Jameson who came up with the timing of the smashing cymbals for the chorus part of the song. “Just go ‘bang,'” Earl recalls Jameson saying to him.
The loss of Peverett was tough on Earl personally. He suffered from kidney cancer before dying at the age of 56. “I don’t think he got the best treatment,” Earl said. “I miss him.”
The band’s new singer Scott Holt “gives everything he’s got,” Earl said. “He never gives less than 110%.” Another former member, bassist Craig McGregor, died of lung cancer in 2018.
“It’s a tough business unless you are willing to give everything you’ve got,” Earl said.
The show at the Caloosa Sound Amphitheater at 201 Edwards Drive in Fort Myers starts at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $37.
To reach NATHAN MAYBERG, please email nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com