LINK: Christopher Cross – his career, the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Michael McDonald, Deep Purple…

Picca mi segnala questa interessante intervista  a CHRISTOPHER CROSS, dove c’è una curiosa storiella che vede protagonista i LZ e Jimmy Page, che riporto qui sotto insieme a link. Si parla inopltre di DEEP PURPLE e DAVID LEE ROTH.

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/christopher-cross-his-career-beach-boys.html

GM: You also opened for Led Zeppelin early in their career.

CC: I had a band called Flash. We were like Brian Wilson meets Frank Zappa. It was an attempt at complicated pop. I’m a big fan of Frank’s as well as Brian Wilson. Frank covered “Ride like the Wind” at one of his shows and asked me to sing, but I couldn’t make it. I do have a tape of it. In those days, they would have two acts and a local band playing 30 minutes before those bands went on. So the main acts on the bill were Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. Joe Miller was sort of managing us at the time and gave us the opportunity to open about seven shows for Tull and Zeppelin. It was really cool. We weren’t very good. The second day we were on the tour, Jimmy (Page) and Robert (Plant) came up to me and Jimmy said, “How do you kids follow us around? Do your parents have money or something?” They didn’t realize we were on the show. I said, “We have a band, and we’re opening for you.” And so the next night we’re playing and I look over, and there’s Page and Plant, standing in the wings watching us. They were only there for a short time; I almost sh*t my pants when I saw them watching us. As the next week or 10 days went on, I spent a little time with the guys in Zeppelin; they were all very nice. I got to watch them play over that period, and they were just unbelievable. I’d sit and watch them at sound check, too. (John) Bonham would show up and play for 45 minutes by himself, and it was crazy. Jimmy would come up and be warming up and wailin,’ and it was pretty fantastic. Back when my band opened for Zeppelin, they were using these rare Hiwatt amplifiers; no one had them beside Page and (Pete) Townshend. I said to Jimmy, “These amplifiers are really cool, and I’ve seen them in magazines but nobody really carries them over here.” He said, “Yeah, they’re made by this guy, and right now he only makes them for Pete and I.” I told him, “It’s my dream to have one of those amps! He said, “Well, give some money to my roadie, Clive, and we’ll send you one.” So I gave Clive $700, which was a lot of money back then. Everybody said that I’d never see my money again. A month or two later, I came home from school, and there were these boxes in my living room. It was a 4-by-12 cabinet and a Hiwatt head, and they shipped it to me. So not only was I the coolest guy in town with a Hiwatt amp, but I’d gotten it from Jimmy Page. Years later, I came up and played with The Beach Boys at a huge July Fourth show in Philadelphia in 1985, and Jimmy Page was a special guest on that show; he also played with The Beach Boys that day. I grabbed him at the show and introduced myself, and then he knew me as Christopher Cross. He was very nice. I said, “Let me tell you this story,” and he had no recollection of the story, but he said, “You know what I love about this story, man? It sounds like I was really nice to you, and I haven’t always been the nicest guy.”