Monday, September 21, 2009

Pleased to Meet Me

In the fall of 1986, Jim Dickinson and I began a Sire/Warner Bros project on the Minneapolis band "The Replacements". All of the recording was done at John Fry's Ardent Studios in Memphis. This project would last well into 1987 and finally be released in July of 87. The Replacements at the time were Paul Westerberg,Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars. They had just canned Tommy's older brother Bob from the band after a notorious appearance on Saturday Night Live where Bob appeared in a diaper and .. I mean diaper only! SNL had to pull the plug on the performance.. the Mats (as we began to call them) were pressured by the record company to relieve themselves of Bob.. so that they could go on and make a more grown-up record. The Mats are a true rock and roll band. This story goes on and on, but now some 22 years later Bob Mehr is doing research on the band to write their biography. We spent a couple of hours on the phone with Bob yesterday, recollecting some events of the sessions that led to "PTMM" the Mats still have a large and loyal fan base and have a definite chronological niche carved out in Rock and Roll history. We are really looking forward to the publication. Paul has gone on to solo success and Tommy has had concentric success with his own material and since 1998 has also played bass with Guns and Roses. We'll post some more info as the story unfolds. If you are unfamiliar with the band, it would be a good time to check them out..

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