Interview by Kit Burns
Let’s get it out of the way: Eric Davenport is not, and has never been, one of the Beatles. But sometimes you have to wonder if one of John Lennon’s groupies had, you know, oblivious to him dropped an egg somewhere and out hatched this glammy rocker based in Southern California. Davenport is Legal Tender, and the album Carbon McCartney is retro rock at its purest. Davenport explains it all except his possible bloodline.
Kit Burns: Your album is called Carbon McCartney, obviously a tongue-in-cheek reference to your easily detected Beatles influence. Were you conscious of your similarity to the Beatles or did you name the record that because people brought it to your attention?
Eric Davenport: Well, people have always said to me, “Ya know, you sound a lot like the Beatles/Paul McCartney,” but I think my own original style shines through. People have always compared my music to the Beatles, jokingly calling it the “Rolling Beatle Monkees Sound.” The fact, it was my young twenty/thirtysomething mates who started calling me Carbon McCartney. Ergo, the title of the CD. But please don’t get me wrong. I am in no way comparing myself to the Great Ones, but if people want to make a comparison, I can’t think of better musicians to be compared too. I won’t deny the influence is there and sometimes people hear the influence even when I don’t. I may remind people of the Beatles (or Paul), but I
don’t think I sound exactly like them. But there will never be another Mozart, Elvis, or Beatles.
Burns: Legal Tender is just basically you, correct? Or is it a full band?
Davenport: Well, on the Carbon McCartney CD it is mostly me, but Tony Hart the drummer for the old band played on three of the songs. But the new band members are about to be announced in the next few weeks.
Burns: When did you get your start in rock & roll? Did you always have this glam meets British Invasion sound?
Davenport: Well, Elvis Presley probably started it off. I saw an Elvis movie; I do believe the first one I saw was King Creole. I liked that, that got me started wanting to play the guitar. I wanted to play guitar for a while. The next big thing came when I was in grade school, I was probably in the fourth or fifth grade, and Trudy Bennett lived across the street. She came running over one day, and I can still remember we were by the flagpole at Crestmore School, and every time I see that flagpole, it reminds me. She comes
running over and says, “You’ve gotta listen to this.” She had a transistor radio, and lo and behold, if it wasn’t “She Loves You” playing by the Beatles. Then from it, that’s what I want to do! As far as the glam meets British Invasion, I really do not know how to answer that, except to say I have always played what feels good to me. I have a vary rich back ground of influences: rock, blues, Jazz, country,
Gospel, classical, big band, heavy metal (like Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), pop, and yes, glam Like Davie Bowie and the like.
Burns: Listening to Carbon McCartney is a lot of fun. Do you feel that there’s not enough fun in rock & roll these days?
Davenport: The fun days of rock & roll seem to have gone for the most part. I always tell the young guys rock is a whole lot different to day than back in the ’50s and ’60s. The guys that owned record company actually liked, played, and collected records; now companies are middle management training grounds. It’s no longer the rock & roll business, but the business of rock & roll. It’s like everything else only to make big big money. No one’s happy to just have a recording that sells and makes you some good money. I think the worst thing is most artist are try to hard to project “that rock & roll image,” and it’s like play acting; they seem afraid to be themselves and hope people will like what they see. Most people find a formula that sells, and that’s where they stay, afraid to do anything else.
Burns: Time for the most difficult choice in your life: Paul or John? Which one and why?
Davenport: That is like asking what do you like better a good meal or good sex; they’re both good in different ways. For me (the Paul part of me) Paul and I are alike in many ways. His first instrument was a trumpet, we both did the Boy Scouts, and he is down-to-Earth and sometimes a little corny. I like the
fact that he never tries to be something, he is who he is, and he is cool. You never hear him out in public cursing trying to be hip and making a jackass out of himself; he has class and he is a honorable man and someone who likes people and his fans. The John part of me is attracted to his humor and his intelligence and like Paul, he can pen a great song, genius that he be. Half-John, half-Paul makes a whole. And they were just cool. The difference between hip and cool, hip is when everybody is doing it, cool is when you’re the only one or the first one doing it.
