Davey Johnstone “Deeper Than My Roots”: A Family Affair

It’s to no one’s surprise that Johnstone’s children possess the raw talent that naturally exudes from him. And together, his family created a solo album that is nothing short of sonic perfection. His daughter Juliet, designer of her cult-favorite hand-painted carpenter pants, and sons Charlie, Jesse, and Tam, all helped Johnstone create the album and all contributed unique parts to make the record whole.

However, it was his youngest son Elliot, who sang lead vocals on the tracks and proved to us all that albeit musically gifted, he too possesses the same raw talent from his father. His voice perfectly harmonizes in synchronicity against the soulful guitar riffs and brings us back to the true essence of what rock and roll really is. 

In an exclusive interview with office, Johnstone speaks to us about what it was like creating this album with his children, his inspiring perspective on what it was like for him as a musician starting out, and countless stories of what music was really like in the 70s.

Continue reading below. 

How are you on tour, how's it going?

It's going great. It was kind of weird the first week because our keyboard player tested positive. So he couldn't even go to rehearsals and do that. So straight away, my job as musical director, I had to fly into gear because that's when some changes had to be made. To work everything out, without this keyboard player, which has got a lot of important parts in the show. So anyway, he was gone. So that was that and we did that for three or four shows. We did the first three shows in fact, without him and then he joined us in Dallas and that's where Elton got COVID.

So he had to go on a sequester for five days and we missed the Dallas show. But he feels fine now and feels great. So we are back on track again, but it's been difficult with so many people getting COVID, we had a couple of truck drivers get it and one of our personal drivers got it. It's just one of these things who knows.

I saw too that this was already rescheduled from 2020, so still, it's kind of crazy to think that two years later you're still facing difficulties with it.

He says to the people, "you’ve had your tickets for 725 days" or something, which is true. A lot of people were supposed to go to these gigs back then. So, yeah, it's rearranged, it's screwed with everybody's schedule, but what are you gonna do? This is what it is.

Well, I mean good for you guys too, because there have been plenty of shows that I've been excited to go to and they just got canceled completely without any rescheduling.

Well, thankfully that's kind of the case with our tour, 'cause it's a farewell tour. This is the last time that most people are gonna see us perform. So, we wanted to make sure that we could honor everybody’s tickets. We also knew that even when we went into lockdown with COVID, we realized at that point we were like a year in advance sold out. It's a challenge, but we've got a pretty good production team and they're making sure that all of these gigs will be done. We're not just canceling any outright. We're postponing them and playing them when we can.

That's amazing and cool to hear. My dad has been a fan of you guys and I grew up listening to all of your music. Is it possible to surmount in words the feeling of how generationally impactful your music is, and if so, what is that feeling for you?

It's a very strong feeling because we've been fortunate enough to play for many generations. After all, when I started development, I was 20 years old. So, I was a baby basically, and we had no idea this thing was gonna do what it did, but at the same time, our work ethic was very strong, meaning that we were just gonna play a lot of live music and we were gonna record at least two albums a year. And we did that for the first several years. I think that's one of the reasons that we had so many big hits and long-lasting hits is that people realized that when they came to see us and to play live, they would see and hear almost the same thing that they had heard on record.

They loved the fact that we were good players and not just guys who were out there joking off. That's been the case over every decade that we've been in this business. To have a lot of hits in the seventies and again, in the eighties and some in the nineties and a few even, in the last 20 years from The Lion King onwards, we've been very fortunate to be able to identify with the public for all these years. It's a great feeling when people still want to come back and hear you playing those songs. Another reason why this tour is so gratifying is that we have a lot of people our age and older people coming to see the show.

We have those people's kids, their grandkids, and then a lot of young people who just want a chance to see us and see what all the fuss was about during that time. I think we've all got a lot of gratitude that as musicians, we're still out here, we're able to play, and we're able to relate to people through music, which is after all the reason we started doing it.

How is the feeling of this tour compared to the ones when you were first starting?

Well, obviously when we started the first 10 years — I mean no rock band expects to last 10 years for a start, not even five years. Maybe if you have a five-year run, you're doing well. At the start of it, our audiences were all our age. That's what the whole record buying-public was in the early seventies. When I think about it, there were so many great bands out there touring at the same time. You could go and see Led Zeppelin and The Who, and many others, all within a week.

So there was an electric feeling about playing rock and roll in that period of history. And, when I say history, I mean that because the tail end of the Beatles breaking up, there was a kind of a lull where everyone went “well, what are we gonna do now? The Beatles are gone.” And then all of a sudden, all these British bands started doing this next invasion. We were one of those bands and we got audiences who were mental. They were crazy because they were digging it so much, but, I think maybe they were smoking a lot of weed or something, but they were enjoying what we were doing.

The way it's changed now is we still have that element of the hardcore music fans coming to our shows. So, the whole thing is kind of morphed into different ways of showing their allegiance to their favorite band. And, it’s our job to hopefully give them some enjoyment for a few hours where they can forget about all that's going on in the world.

I can't even imagine that throughout the years, even you going on all of these tours and then kind of seeing it lead up to the point where you are right now. I know you joined when you were fairly young and just a kid. At what point did it occur to you that this is what you were gonna be doing for the rest of your life? Did you know that you always were gonna be a musician?

Yeah, I did when I was very young. In fact, when I was at school, in Scotland where I'm from in Edinburgh, that's my hometown. When I was at school, my major was art. I was a fairly good painter and I was shit at academic work. I mean, I was useless really, so I had to get an extra tutor for math just to get through that kind of thing. I played guitar since I was 11 or 12 years old. So by the time I got to be 14 or 15, I was being bitten by it. And I was realizing that I was pretty good and there was a good chance that I could do this if I wanted.

And I remember my art teacher was asking everybody in the class what they were gonna do when they left school. And I told him, I was gonna be a professional musician, and he kind of said, “Well, don't be so stupid. Boy, don't be so stupid you gotta get a real job.” And I'm going, “What do you mean a real job? You're an art teacher. Is that a real job?” And he got very kind of uptight, but everybody considered at that point, if you were gonna be a professional musician, you were crazy. I mean, there was no way, because you were next to nothing at succeeding, but that wasn't the point to me. The point was, this is what I love doing. And I was pretty good at it and I thought I've got as good a chance as anybody making it. All I have to do is believe in my talent, go, and travel to where the music is.

Let's talk about your fashion. I know you wear Juliet's [Johnstone] clothes a lot so let's talk about some of your inspirations. When you're getting ready for a tour or you're getting ready for a show, is there something specific that you like to throw on and wear?

I'm kind of superstitious when it comes to clothes. For example, I did a concert back in the 70s somewhere and I was wearing this amazing suit that was kind of a dark floral suit and it was velvet and lined and all this cool stuff, giant flares. I had a bad night on stage. Things went wrong like my amplifier blew up. So at the end of the show, when I got back in the limo, I said to the driver, “Do you want this suit? 'Cause I'm done with it.” And he was like, “Sure, I'll take it.”And I took off my clothes in the back of the limo and I threw them over the front of the limo driver and said, “There you go take it.” And I stomped into the hotel wearing my underwear, my shoes, and my shirt. And, I think I had a bottle of vodka or something. So I must have looked like a creature out of some kind of mad, psychedelic magazine.

As far as what I like to wear, I've always enjoyed wearing whatever the cutting edge fashion is. Back when I was a little kid, when the Beatles first came on the scene, they were wearing these Beatles jackets, which had round collars, so no lapels. All these kids wanted a Beatle jacket and of course, you couldn't get them. My mother was a bit of a seamstress so as a surprise for me, she made me a Beatle jacket with the round collar and that was it. I was walking out, in my hometown of Edinburg on a Saturday night, going to hang out with my friends and I'm wearing a Beatle jacket and they're all going like, “Where did you get that?”

And as far as you know, I think I really may have inspired Juliet myself with a lot of the stuff I used to wear because she's seen some photos of me wearing the most ridiculous things, from some of our past concerts, with Elton and other people. And she's gone, “Dad, do you still have these pants?” They'll still raid my closet for stuff that I may have worn that maybe Yohji Yamamoto did for us, or Gucci, and different people. But right now when we are doing the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour with Elton, we have to wear Gucci clothes, because Gucci is sponsoring the whole thing.

You just released your solo album and you had your whole family a part of it. What was it like creating it with all of your kids and family?

It was fantastic. It was actually my youngest kid who was the star of the album. Elliot is the vocalist on almost the whole record. And it was phenomenal because, you know, it was kind of an accident the way it happened because of COVID. I was at home and I wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while. I was in the same boat as everybody else. And so I suddenly thought, well, I'm free now where I can do whatever I want. So I've always enjoyed writing music and composing my stuff. And this time I thought, well, I could write what I want and when I'd written two or three songs, I realized they were sounding good.

I thought, well, maybe I could do a whole album. So I asked Elliot if he would be into singing a couple. And he said, “Well if I like them, I'll sing them.” And I believe he did like the songs enough to sing them. Charlie, the next youngest, is a wonderful recording engineer as well as a great piano player. So I got him to record us, and I got him to play some piano and keyboards. Jesse, my son from another marriage, is a wonderful drummer, and a great musician. So I had him play drums on, God, six or seven of the tracks, I think. My eldest boy, Tam, who lives in the UK, produced two of the instrumental tracks on the record.

It's just amazing to have all these kids getting to work on my project. The thing was, I don't think they would've done it unless they liked what the music was. I remember saying to Elliot "look, if you don't like any of this stuff, you don't have to do it." And so thankfully they all enjoyed the music and they were happy to contribute and they played and sang amazingly. For me, I just had to play all the guitars, bass guitars, and mandolin instruments on the record.

The only guests on the record were Nigel Olsson, who's our drummer with Elton's band, and then my friend Denny Seiwell, who's a great drummer from Paul McCartney and Wings. It was a wonderful tribute to be able to do this and have it turn out so great. I like the record a lot and funny enough, Elton's a fan of the record because when he heard it, he FaceTimed me and he said, “my God, this is gotta be the sweetest thing I've ever heard.” He was so sweet when he called because he asked to speak to Elliot. I gave the phone to Elliot, and he proceeded to tell Elliot what a great singer he thought he was and if he wants to be a star, he's got every possibility of doing it and he'll help him in any way he can. That's such a beautiful thing for a young person to hear, especially from such an established icon as Elton John, you know? So that was wonderful.

I love that. I know this is technically Elton's last tour. So with this new record, do you think that you guys will all go on tour?

By the time this tour with Elton is over my God, that will be 2023 in the summertime. I think that's when we're scheduled to finish. So by then, I don't think I'm gonna want to go anywhere on the road. I wanna put my feet up and enjoy being at home for a while and I'll record lots more music and wherever possible, I'll ask my kids to sing and play on it. They have their careers to follow and I'm sure they're all gonna be massively successful the way that Juliet is already becoming. I mean, I'm so thrilled. The number of people that I see who are wearing her clothes it's crazy. Dua Lipa and Elton had that big record and recently she showed up to do a thing with Elton and she was wearing Juliet's pants and I'm going, “This is great!”

It's wonderful for me to see my kids being successful. Charlie's already having a very successful time working with some rap stars down in North Hollywood, and he's recording them and writing with them. So, you know what, as long as my kids do what they want to do in life, that's all I care about. And if I can help them in any way, then that's my pleasure and my privilege to do so. I think to give a kid the help and the encouragement to do what they want to do, I think that's the biggest thing that a parent can do.

So nowadays, songs go viral online and there's the whole social media aspect to music. What are your thoughts on the codependency of music streams and an online presence?

When we were at our height, obviously there was no online. There was nothing like this. So the whole thing about music and being a musician was that you had to take your music to people. So that meant traveling, that meant playing live. That meant going to talk to as many radio DJs that would listen to you. You know, it was a lot of hard work, a lot of leg work. So in many ways, I think it's incredible for artists to have this possibility. I mean, it's amazing. I know that for this album I’ve done so many online interviews.

I've been able to do a lot of stuff that normally I wouldn't have been able to do. So I think it's incredible for artists to have those platforms, to springboard off and, and do their thing. It's because we had none of this. It was down to how much you were willing to travel around and play to people. It was about annoying people and knocking on their door because there was none of that. We didn't even do TV back then because very few rock and roll shows were on television, all through history.

I remember growing up, listening to everything, and even today I was listening to all of your music. For younger generations of musicians who look up to you, your music, and the bands you've been a part of, what message would you offer them?

Forget it. Just get a real job. Don't do this now. Of course, I wouldn't say that. That's what was said to me. I think it's really important that they learn their craft well. If they're a musician, they should get as good as they could get. Work on honing their craft and becoming great.

So number one: work on your instrument or your talent, whatever that might be, singing or whatever, become as great as you can be and never lose sight of how grateful you should be to be able to do that kind of a job. If you get to do what you love doing, then you are way ahead of everybody else on the planet right away. I've always thought, “God, I'm so lucky I get to do this.” I remember the very first time I stayed in a beautiful hotel in New York or something when I was 20 years old, and I'm thinking, “my God, you know, is this what it's gonna be like?” But I wasn't looking to the next year or the next five years or whatever, I was living very much in the moment.

So that's the other thing that I would tell any young people is that don't worry too much about what's coming up. 'Cause you can't worry about doing anything about it anyway, nothing much you can do about the future. Look after where you are now and take care of yourself and try not to be too crazy. That's probably my number one bit of advice. 'Cause we were all way too crazy back in the seventies. It was very fortunate that some of us are still here quite honestly.

Out of all of your years, what would you say is your proudest accomplishment music or not music-related?

My daughter — obviously, all my kids. That's my proudest accomplishment, all my children for absolute certainty, nothing, nothing beats that. And I think any parent will tell you that. But as far as, in my work, gosh, that's a good question. I really can't think of a good answer because there have been so many great moments and powerful moments. I think probably the thing that keeps recurring in my brain and keeps coming back to me is 1974 on Thanksgiving, in New York City. We had gotten to know John Lennon very well over that year. And he'd been traveling with us throughout that year. He came up to Colorado to Caribou Ranch, where we were recording, and we did a version of, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” that he played and sang on, which was amazing. And he would come to our shows with us throughout the year.

And then at the end of our last show, it was gonna be in New York City at Madison Square Garden, Thanksgiving, 1974. Before the show, I was tuning up all the instruments and he came into the dressing room, had his guitar and he was so nervous. I mean, he was petrified and he said, “will you, will you tune my guitar?” I've gotten to know him very well, but at that moment, as he's asking me to tune his guitar, I'm thinking, this is my hero. This is a guy who is one of the main reasons that I'm doing what I'm doing right now.

I'll never forget that feeling of amazement, pride, gratitude, everything just hit me at that one time. And I had him sit down and I tuned his guitar for him. And he was so nervous and we had a good laugh. And I, I just kind of made him relax and made him giggle a bit. And we played the show, which was remarkable and people were still talking about to this day. Then after the show, Elton called me up and he said, “Hi, it's Elton. What a great show. That was an amazing show. John wants to come over and hang out with you. Is that okay?” And I said, “No, tell him off.” And I said, “No, don't be so stupid. Of course, tell him to come over.”

So Lennon came over to the Plaza hotel. And I remember waiting, I was inside my suite, but I was at the end of one of the long hallways in the Plaza. I remember looking out of the peephole and John came walking down the long hallway, wearing the black flat hat, the black shades, the scarf all in black. He is walking down towards me to hang out and I just kept thinking, this is it. If I have a heart attack now, it's all good. So that was a moment that I'll never forget.