14
and I’d go out there and visit him every
day until he was getting better enough to
be discharged and we then decided that
this was the perfect time to go and write
an album, so he and I got a plane and we
flew out to Nassau in the Bahamas.
on one of the other songs as well. I got
to know him a bit after that and I worked
with him again on a later album - it was
magic - I mean absolute magic. It’s one
of those moments in your life and you
think, “Jeez, this is something else.”
We sat out there and he’s recuperating
and then we started writing this album
which ended up being called I Survive.
It was a fantastic experience, not just
the writing part of it but the recording of
it … we would always talk about it and
who we’d like to come and play on the
album and I said to him, “You’re never
going to get a bigger Beatles fan than
me. McCartney is my hero. Could we get
McCartney to come in and do backing
vocals?” Thinking to myself “that ain’t
going happen.” Well, he knew everybody,
Adam, you know? He knew people all
the way up to Downing Street - there
wasn’t a door that was closed to him.
So, he phoned Paul up and he arranged
to meet him and they had dinner... Next
thing he said to me, “Paul and Linda
are coming to the studio tomorrow and
they’re going to come and do the vocals
on this track called Star Song.” I couldn’t
believe it. My god! So, I’m sitting there
waiting for the door to open and for
McCartney to walk in. Jesus. Now, I’d
seen him on regular occasions when I
was at the Bag of Nails but I didn’t know
him to talk to him. You knew he was over
there, you know, they were the Beatles,
for god sake. And him and Linda turned
up and they did the backing vocals and
I was thinking, “Oh my god, here I am all
these years later,” and I’ve got the guy
who I hold in such high-esteem and he
was there singing backing vocals on my
song. This is really incredible. He played
Tell me the highs and lows of your
career?
I’ve had a lot of those high moments,
I’m privileged to say. Over my career
I’ve worked with probably some of the
best rock musicians on the planet and
I’ve been there as a producer and as a
writer and it’s been a fantastic journey.
At the same point when we were doing
that album, Adam was doing a film called
Stardust with David Essex. It was the
follow up film to That’ll Be the Day and
the manager’s role, Mike, was originally
played by Ringo Starr in the first movie
and in the second movie, Stardust,
Adam played the manager and I used
to go to the film set regularly with him
and I remember seeing Larry Hagman,
who was in Dallas - JR Ewing.
It was in that film that he established
that character. I was there, I watched
it. He became JR and that’s where it all
came from. David Essex was there and
Keith Moon was in the band and there
was all sorts going on. Adam begged
the director to let us have the theme
song – the song that we’d recorded with
McCartney called Star Song, and the guy
wouldn’t give in. He said, “No I’ve got the
track I’m going to use,” and it turned out
to be David Essex’s song I’m Going to
Make You a Star.
Before that, Adam used to do a show on
TV, a big kids show called Budgie and
again, I’d be on the set most days with
him and Budgie was like the predecessor
for Only Fools and Horses because that’s
really where John Sullivan got a lot of the
character for Del Boy - from Budgie.
Where did life take you next?
Well, I did more albums with Roger and
I worked with many different musicians
and artists and then I emigrated to
America. I got married again to a South
American actress and I lived in LA for
six years and worked and recorded
out there. I reunited with Leo while I
was there because we hadn’t seen one
another for a period of time and we did
an album together. We used a studio
called Sunset Sound and it was the
studio where the Beach Boys did Good
Vibrations.
I’m producing this album for Leo and
working with legends like Steve Cropper
and others who were in Otis Redding’s
band - they were the original Blues
Brothers. And the guys from Toto were
there too… so these were the musicians
on the album that I’m producing. It was
great because when you’re in some of
these studios- there’s more than one
studio and in the break time you go off
and bump into the other guys and have
a chat. One day I was sitting outside
there in the sunshine chatting away with
Frankie Valli, he was a lovely guy, little
Frankie, and then on another day I’m
sitting there talking to Smokey Robinson
and just chewing the fat, you know? And
it was wonderful. The same thing used
to happen at Air Studio. There would be
Roxy Music in one studio and Kate Bush
in another.
I used to bump into so many people. I