Tour Information

The Everly Brothers 2005 tour set list includes quite a few great songs!

Because of the immediate success of The Definitive Everly Brothers two-CD set that was released in Great Britain on May 20, 2002, Phil Everly was interviewed by Simon Mayo on "The Official Album Chart Show" on BBC Radio 2 on Monday, May 27^th. The following transcript of this interview was included in the Summer 2002 issue of the fan club's Heartaches & Harmonies newsletter.

Here's what Phil had to say about the album, touring with the band, and "retirement."

SM   Hi Phil!
PE   Hi Simon - how are you?
SM   I'm very well. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. There have been many Everly Brothers compilations that have come out before - this claims to be "The Definitive" collection. It's got pretty much everything that you've ever done on there. Do you get to see the track listing?
PE   I only heard about it - I haven't seen it yet.
SM   You haven't been intimately involved in putting it together?
PE   Just in the course of conversations about it, you know. They do a pretty good job, and it's kinda nice to keep your hands out of it - it usually gets done better.
SM   I understand Don's retired - is that right?
PE   Well - yeah - we've both stopped touring on the road - we just don't do that any more. We finished off last year. I think we've creaked around enough. We've been pretty much everywhere there is.
SM   You know, there are an awful lot of people in the UK who would love to see you doing it just a couple more times.
PE   Well, we thought we might - but, you know, I think that your body wears out. You'd think that your voice would have gone first, but it seems with rock 'n' roll your knees go - you know.
SM   But I imagine you still have that intuitive harmony sense which you always had.
PE   I still love to sing - in fact it's kinda hard not to just play. It's just - what's really nice about not touring is that sort of having to stand and deliver, you know. One thing we've always prided ourselves on doing is doing it the best we could any time we stood and did it - and, when you have to worry about it too much, it gets a little harder when you get a little older. It's a little harder travelling around. I do miss two of our boys - Phil Cranham and Pete Wingfield are from England, and I miss hanging out with the gang, you know. We've all been together on this last run about 18 years. That part I'm going to really, really miss - but we see them socially, so it's OK. But, I still kinda miss that camaraderie just getting on stage - that hurts really - it's going to be missed.
SM   Your close harmony style influenced many performers. Who did you listen to? Who inspired you to sing like that?
PE   Our main teacher was our father, Ike Everly. I think our primary influences were fairly obscure country singers like The Delmore Brothers and the York Brothers. They were kind of a traditional southern brother singing act - they were quite common. But my dad had sung with his brothers when they were younger - so dad is really the man that got us going in the right direction. Of course, we worked in an early family show, and that was our real training ground.
SM   So it was in the genes, really, Phil?
PE   I think so - you know. Both my sons play, and Donald's son plays - and so I guess it just goes on and on just with generations of that.
SM   All the listeners in the UK, having heard that you were going to be on the programme, have been asking what are the chances of you coming back - either on your own or with Don. What do we tell 'em?
PE   I don't think that I'm going to be playing - but, you know, every time I say anything it winds up being just the opposite - so I'm saying probably we won't be, but you never can tell. Something special will come up, and we might do it, you know - but I don't think we'll be doing it to the extent that we did. When we came to England all the time we always tried to travel the whole country and go to the people, and I think that's a little beyond us now - just a little hard. My best friend, Terry Slater, lives over in England, so I come over socially anyway. But - maybe I'll drop by that way, you know - I don't know.
SM   I'm just trying to select one of the tracks from this album to play, because we could just pick a track and do anything with it, because they're all so well known. I think I want to play "Bye Bye Love" - if that's OK.
PE   The first one - that's always the best.
SM   It's a cracker. Do you remember recording this? What are your thoughts on this song now?
PE   The whole of the session was almost like - it's like instantly like yesterday - you know. When we came out of that session we kinda thought we had something, but we had no idea it was going to really make a difference, and we actually were glad to be recording anything. I was happy to make the $64 that we got for recording. And knowing that we had a little money - that meant something to me - but the day was unforgettable.
SM   What did you make of the Simon and Garfunkel version?
PE   I like it - I happen to like Simon and Garfunkel anyway. I'm always glad to hear another version of something that we've done. And it's just one of the interesting things when you hear somebody else do another version - just the little variances of them - the difference in voices is kind of interesting.
SM   And good for the royalties.
PE   Well - it doesn't hurt, does it?
SM   OK, Phil - we're going to play your version of "Bye Bye Love" from the new Definitive Everly Brothers collection - and it's been great to talk to you. Thank you for your time.
PE   It's been my pleasure - thank you.

Photos courtesy of The Times-Argus

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