Leaving the safety of one’s enterprise at 75 years of age might feel like an intimidating prospect for lesser mortals, yet Phil Mogg is no mere human, and the English singer felt there was nothing to lose stepping out on his own. In 2019, when UFO, the ensemble Phil had been fronting since 1968, celebrated their half-century anniversary and went on permanent hiatus, he planned to retire anyway, and the heart attack the veteran suffered in August 2022 seemed to indicate he would never perform again. Yet a little bit further down the line, fans found themselves hearing that easily immediately recognizable, and invigorated, voice in a new context, if not exactly in a new stylistic framework, on an eponymous album of MOGGS MOTEL, where fresh music and alluring lyrics came together with flourish and panache. And sense of humor too – because contemplating one’s mortality without a smile should appear alien to this fine gentleman, which is why our conversation turned out so funny.
