J. D. Souther
J. D. Souther
John David Souther or JD Southeris an American musician, singer-songwriter, and actor. He has written and co-written songs recorded by artists such as Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth2 November 1945
CountryUnited States of America
college drums happy holiday inn jazz music playing small somewhere teaching theory trio worked
If it hadn't worked out professionally, I would be teaching music theory and composition in a small college somewhere and playing drums in a jazz trio at the Holiday Inn on weekends, and I'd be happy there, too.
band both cool dad enjoyed era found home huge jazz music required skill sort turns
My dad was a huge big band and jazz fan, and we both sort of enjoyed be-bop, but man, it required so much skill to play it. And then there was cool jazz, the era that Miles, Coltrane, and Ornette ushered in, and that found a home in me. It turns out that that music was just really where I breathed.
cords wrote
I had no idea what those cords were in the bridge of 'Prisoner In Disguise' when I wrote them. I had to go over to Don Gorman, the piano player, and ask what in the world I was playing.
buzzing full legal score scratched structure tablets time
I'm always writing something. There's always some structure sitting around someplace. There's always things on the computer, things scratched on score paper, legal tablets full of lyrics. It's never not buzzing around me all the time. I'm always doing it.
fully
I never fully understand all the drama and machinations within the Eagles.
louis ray respect sinatra singers until
I didn't even respect singers until I heard Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.
distant entry formula
I don't think I ever thought of growing up to be anything other than a musician. There really wasn't a plan B. Well, a kind of a distant plan B was to be a Formula One driver, but there really wasn't an entry point.
converted lived love loved magical number
I love Massachusetts for a number of reasons. I once loved a magical girl who lived in a magnificently converted barn, a half-hour or so from Boston. I love your winters. I love the snow.
held maybe until
I never even held a guitar until I was 23 and living in California, but then loved it. I'm really not an accomplished instrumentalist. Maybe that has something to do with why I write and sing.
half hard length record roll
Think back to the early rock n' roll records, and the average record length in the '50s - and well into the '60s - was two and a half minutes. It's very hard to put that much songwriting into two and a half minutes.
chicks dixie mine
A song of mine called 'I'll Take Care of You' was on that 'Wide Open Spaces' Dixie Chicks album.
ahead connection felt mtv music rat terrible time tired work
In the '80s, I got tired of the rat race. It was a terrible time for music. I wasn't part of that whole MTV craze. I did 'Go Ahead and Rain,' which was Madeleine Stowe's first bit, but felt no connection to it. I went many years where I didn't have to work.
band heard house influenced learned opera singing song standards time
I think I've been influenced by everything I've ever heard. The first thing I ever heard was my grandma, who was an opera singer. The first song I ever learned was the 'Nessun Dorma' from Puccini's 'Turandot.' My father was a big band singer, so I used to hear him walking around the house singing standards all the time.
eccentric huge issue robert
I'm a huge Robert Altman fan and don't take issue with his filmmaking, as eccentric as it is. But I just think 'Nashville' was a world he didn't know.