As a kid, I thought of Ian Hunter as the ultimate rock star. I had this fold-out poster of him from Circus Magazine, with his wild corkscrew hair barely contained by a top hat, and his dark shades giving him an inscrutable cool.
Though I loved “All The Way From Memphis” and “All The Young Dudes,” my favorite Mott The Hoople song was, and still is, “Roll Away The Stone.” There’s a moment before the last chorus that kills me, where Hunter has a brief spoken word interlude that begins, “There’s a rockabilly party . . .” He’s inviting a girl to meet him on a Saturday night. “Gonna bring your records?” Hunter asks. “Oh, will do!” the girl squeals. And then Hunter laughs and says, “Made it!”
To me, that moment was the distillation of the rock star life of my dreams. Girls, laughter, electric guitars, records, parties. And those two words: “Made it!” At 13, I wasn’t sure what Hunter was referring to. The fact that the girl made it to the party? Or maybe that he made it with her? Now I think it’s bigger than that. “Made it!” takes in a musician’s struggle to wade through the obstacle course of the biz and get to the top. And Hunter waded through a lot. There’s such a joy in his laugh and in those two words, with a subtext of “To all you naysayers, piss off! To all you who believed, come join the party!”
Fast forward about thirteen years. I’m working the late shift at Tower Records in Nashville, parked behind the counter in the cassette department. On a rainy Sunday night, 11:55 pm, five minutes before closing time, a tour bus pulls up outside the front door, and in walk Ian Hunter and his guitarist Mick Ronson. Rock royalty in the store. I’m stunned. They bought a couple of albums, then got back on the bus. I didn’t have a chance to say anything, but it was cool just to see them up close. They must’ve come from a gig, as Hunter was wearing leather pants and a white sparkly blazer, while Ronson was in some kind of spaceman fringe.
Fast forward another twenty years. I’m eating breakfast, reading an interview with Hunter in the latest issue of MOJO. He’s just turned 71. That’s almost impossible to process. The Circus poster. “Made it!” The night in Tower. And now he’s the age of the average white-haired, retirement community grandpa. Huh?! Except he’s still rocking, still writing songs, still making records. At the end of the interview, he says, looking at the where the music biz is today, “I know that what I’m doing now is marginal, but I’m comfortable with myself.”
Man, can I relate to that.
I am a huge fan too. Heard he’s touring solo this summer. I was at a club show in NYC once where he was at and I chickened out and sent my wife to get he autograph for me!