“You’re mine as I’m yours. And if we die, we die. But first we’ll live.” It may be the words of fiction, a quote from the mind of a character that understands the point of existence is to be, to live each day and take each breath as if the world might blink and then one day all that you achieved will only be remembered in the minds that have loved you, admired you, needed your ambition and passion to push them forward in their own endeavour.
The words of Rose Leslie’s Ygritte in Game of Thrones may be ones in which to take comfort in, to see as more based in a time in which life was based in a tougher climate, precarious, perilous, and to live to an age where you are revered as an elder, a person to whom life has endowed wisdom and reflection upon, and yet it is only perhaps in the face of ultimate sacrifice that we begin to live that life, we embrace the chance to do all that we wanted to and without worrying of what the consequences will be.
Whether for good or ill, we have moved away from the thought that each day must be fought for, that we are here in the blink of the Sun’s eye, we have lost the urge to see all we can, to seize every single moment with the words why not forever tripping off our tongue and drink heartily to the monster’s we have vanquished; the palace and mead hall called Heorot quacking under the stories of the legendary Danish King and his successor, the titanic myth of a man- Beowulf.
We should raise a glass more often to those who have paved the way, who have more than embraced life, they have made it their own and never once deferring or submitting to any situation thrown at them. It is to people, legends in their own right, such as Wilko Johnson that such praise and admiration for all they have done with their life, for in the soul of Wilko Johnson beats a heart that knows it has seen and experienced much and yet still rampages with the desire to do more, release new music, go back on the road, and despite having had to deal with a realisation that life is fragile, still finds the time to be nothing short of forthcoming, entertaining, honest and bountiful in his stories, reflections and adventures.
From the days of Doctor Feelgood, through his own music, including his latest single, Marijuana, his battle against cancer, the fantastic collaboration with The Who’s Roger Daltrey in Going Back Home and to his fan’s delight, being asked to take on the mantle of mute executioner Ser Ilyn Payne in Game of Thrones, Wilko Johnson didn’t shy away from any topic and with a new tour on the horizon, which includes a night at the Warrington Parr Hall on Friday 1st March, it was undoubtedly a honour to call him at home.
First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on the new single, Marijuana, I’ve listened to it again this morning and it’s an absolute stunner.
WJ: “Thank you very much!”
How did that one come about? The title especially could be seen as controversial?
WJ: “There were lots of mumblings about that – I’m not sure I should tell you! This one actually I wrote this song four years ago about when I was diagnosed with cancer and in the kind of aftermath of that, I was – well, it puts you in a funny frame of mind – anyway, I wrote this song with Clem and it’s about sitting at home on your own with the night coming on, waiting for death and I never intended to release this song, actually at that time I didn’t know if I was ever going to play again. I only intended to use the song as something to do and anyway when it came to recording the album Blow Your Mind last year, during the recording of it, I started to play the song on my own and then the band all joined in and then it didn’t sound gloomy at all, it sounded quite jolly and everyone just went yeah – let’s go with it! That’s what it’s about but I think the feeling of it is not gloomy and waiting for death. As it happens, marijuana was one of the elements of that situation, something that helped me get by.”
You’ve been almost matter-of-fact about the situation that happened, you worked with Roger Daltrey didn’t you, during that period and you got together after you were diagnosed? You’ve been admirably honest about having had cancer and what a release it’s been since for your being able to play.
WJ: “The whole experience was very strange and not what you might think. Everyone at some point or other must wonder what would I feel like if the doctor said to me “I’m sorry you’ve got a fatal disease, you’re going to die – and we can’t imagine what that would feel like, could we? In my case, when I was told this, I couldn’t feel, I felt absolutely calm, in my mind, I was thinking this is a bit sudden and I don’t know, I just accepted it, everyone has to die. I felt very, very calm, who’d have thought it? Well that’s it, that’s what happens.
I walked out of the hospital and walked home, when I got outside the hospital, it was a very beautiful winter’s day and I remember looking up at the bare trees against the sky and it looked so beautiful, just the whole feeling of being alive just hit me and I started walking and I was feeling so good and by the time I got home, I feel so good, maybe this is some kind of delayed shock and in a minute, I’m going to collapse in a quivering heap of cowardice but I didn’t, it carried on like that and I was phoning my friends and telling them and feeling extraordinary and almost ecstatic. This is the way it went on, it led to one of the most amazing years of my life and a lot of strange things happened to me then and I carried on playing and then the situation somehow got into the newspapers and the media picked up on it, the next minute I know it’s in all the newspapers.
I went to Japan and to say goodbye to my friends and I did a couple of gigs there and everybody knew, it was such a fantastic feeling from the audiences and what else could I do? I just carried on and I’ll just wait for the crunch to come. I had refused any treatment, they told me that they couldn’t save my life, treatment couldn’t cure me – so I said I didn’t want to go through all of that chemotherapy, I felt alright apart from this huge lump growing in my stomach, it was massive – it was the size of a melon, my guitar used to rock on it when I was playing! I spent my time going around doing gigs, it was great, all the time though just waking up every day as you do, it’s the first thing you think of – when is it going to hit me?
During the course of doing that, I met a surgeon, his name was Charlie Chan – I met him at a festival and time went by then Charlie came to my house later that year and he said, look – there’s something strange here, because if you were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in January then you should be dead by now or very, very sick – I wasn’t sick apart from this big lump I had. He said I want you to go to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and see my friend Emmanuel Huguet who was the head transplant surgeon there and I went to see Mr. Huguet and he had a look at it and said he felt he could operate. I had been told it was inoperable and Mr. Huguet said I think we can do it; your type of cancer is slightly different pancreatic cancer – in fact it was the same type that killed Steve Jobs and he said we think we can do it but we’ll have to be quick. I been going through this for months then suddenly there’s someone saying we can save you – so I said wow go ahead and go ahead they did, that led to hospital.
One of the weird things that happened was that after a few months had gone by, Roger Daltrey had gotten in touch with me and said that hey man, let’s do that album – we’d been talking over a year ago about doing an album together and nothing actually ever came of it, we never got it together. Anyway, Roger rang me and said come on let’s do it! This was after about ten months, I thought my time was up so I thought I’d do the album with Roger and that would be the last thing I’d ever do and we went in and did this album and it was great fun and it went really well and when it was released it was a tremendous hit. I think it was the second-best selling record of that year. It was the most successful record that I’ve ever been involved with and we were just going to start when I went into hospital for the operation and the record’s a huge hit and it went to no. 2 in the charts and I kind of missed all the fun of it as I was lying in hospital full of tubes recovering from my operation. I remember people coming in and giving me silver and gold discs and things and they’re saying the record’s doing really well and I’m going “Ugggggh”! Yes, it was a very strange year of my life!”
You’ve never stood still have you. That reflects on everything that you’ve just said to me – you’ve always lived in the moment, you’ve always embraced life for what it is, whether that’s working as a teacher, as you did for while, and you did English Literature – I feel very bonded with you on that because that’s what I studied at University. You did that, you did the work with Roger Daltrey, the Going Back Home album – working with Dylan Howe who’s sadly passed away now, Norman and Mick Talbot, you’ve done this next album and I remember seeing you support The Stranglers in Sheffield which was a marvellous night – it was lovely! You’ve never stood still have you?
WJ: “The thing is I’ve never planned my life, I’ve never had a manager, I just go where it’s going, I tend to live my life like that, it’s had its ups and downs. I spent most of the 80s and 90s without having a record deal really. I’ve got to make a living, travelling around the world playing places and the whole “big time” thing that seemed to be happening to me in the 70s with Dr. Feelgood sort of faded away but I didn’t mind that – I just carried on, I just went where life took me, you know. In the particular case of the cancer, it was kind of like that. I was told you’ve got cancer, you’re going to die, and I thought blimey this is the end, I didn’t plan it this way, I didn’t plan anything at all! All you can do is use your time. I’m not trying to make out that I’ve got an ideal method of living because living like that also leads to awful periods of when things aren’t going well. You wish you were efficient and worked to a plan and doing things properly instead of ending up in some of the stupid messes I’ve ended up in, you’ve got to fight your way through the brambles really.”
Changing tack slightly, you’re now embarking on another tour and you’re coming to Warrington which is the closest gig to Liverpool and Manchester effectively, to take that one another tour, with this latest album and all that’s come out of it, you say you don’t plan but you must do something within you which says that I’m going to do this next tour, I’m still going to thrill the crowds because you do!
WJ: “As I said, I just take things as they come and sometimes things just go your way. If I hadn’t had been so ill and dying, Roger Daltrey would never had suggested we did this, that would never have happened and it’s something that turned out really good. I’ve ended up down this blind alley – this is the end but look what’s down there! It would never have gotten done and I’m so pleased to have done that. The same again with having had that success with Roger Daltrey, you think I’m going to die that’s a bit sad but what a way to go! The surgeons at Addenbrookes Hospital were about to seize me and kill me and for a year I’d discounted it from my mind.”
It reminds me in many ways, you being a literary buff, of the Beowulf saga – that effectively you are Beowulf, hanging from the dragon, knowing that you’ve got to dislocate your own arm to carry on and defeat the malignancy that is casting its shadow across your realm, and that’s the only way I can imagine it!
WJ: “Well, well, well – what a great idea!”
I hope that doesn’t offend!
WJ: “You can say that, it’s like ordinary life writ large! Sometimes big things come along, they might not be dragons but it might be a bump in your stomach, it’s still a fight to the death and to the life as well.!”
Talking of life as it were, not only are you celebrated, quite rightly, as one of the preeminent musicians, let’s just say of the last 50 years and quite rightly so but there’s not many musicians who would have gone into one of the biggest television franchises over the last 20 years as well in Game of Thrones? That must have been quite a thing for you to say- I’m going to be in this- this is cool!
WJ: “Then again, there’s another example of me just blundering into things! This occurred before the cancer. It was the cancer that put a stop to it. I’d never done any acting before and don’t know how it all came about as I’m a bit stupid as to what was going on all around me, I got this offer to this thing – I didn’t know what it was, I went along and did it and it great. When the thing was broadcast, it went boom! They told me it’s an American T.V. series and I said o.k. – I don’t watch much television and when I arrived there and started doing it – I went blimey, this is really big!
There were hundreds of people with megaphones, and people with names on the backs of their chairs and it such great fun and then suddenly it was this huge, huge successful thing and I’m thinking great, I did two series I think and then before the third series was done, the cancer made itself known and of course they couldn’t keep me on. Apparently though my character had a lot more in store for him but anyway, I had to step back and go to hospital. That was a great thing you know, that was kind of like a preview of what was about to come up, I was finding myself, after years of hardworking and moderate musical success, people coming up me in the street, wanting selfies and autographs and they’re shaking your hand, wondering if it’s because of Game of Thrones or the cancer or because I’m Wilko Johnson!”
You’re coming to Warrington with the wonderful Glen Tilbrook.
WJ: “It’s going to be a good show!”
Have you played Warrington before – I couldn’t find any references?
WJ: “Let me see, I know that I have – I’m just looking forward to going back on the road. After I recovered from my illness and the operation, I didn’t know if I’d recovered enough to play again but even that worked out good, so I’m going to go back out on the road and all of these things have made me more famous! I used to tour and play all around the world, gig after gig, the agents have organised it to make it more easier for me, for my health. They will organise a tour so there’s a few months off and then another tour. I’ve found that I quite kind of like this and the last thing we did was in November we toured Japan which is a regular thing and I came off the road after Japan and I just thought I’m just sitting around! Someone like me- I need to get out there and do some stuff and I no, I think I’ll watch You Tube, anyway that’s all done. Tomorrow I’m going to Spain, we’re doing some gigs in Spain and Portugal and then we get back we’ll commence the U.K. tour and you don’t know how much I’m looking forward to it!”
I’m truly looking forward to seeing you in Warrington on 1st March up front and centre on that one! I just want to say thank you for your time, it’s been an outstanding pleasure, it really has.
Wilko Johnson and the band will be performing at the Warrington Parr Hall on March 1st. Tickets are available from the Box office.
Ian D. Hall