– Deborah, was your family name a blessing or a curse with regard to expectations?
Crikey! It’s a bit of a heavy load, and it was a difficult thing to carry in the industry, because so many people expected that I would do LED ZEPPELIN – I was hounded by people who wanted me to go for a female version of it, to record disco versions of their songs, you name it – but that wasn’t an issue. In the grand scheme of things, I’ve had a blessed life, and I’m extremely proud to be a Bonham! I didn’t have any expectations for myself – having seen LED ZEPPELIN when I was eight years old, at “The Birmingham Odeon” in England, I was blown away by the sheer power of it and the fantasy of it, and the musicality, and the musicianship, and I just knew I that that was something I wanted to do. Now, what I didn’t realize is that not everyone releases several albums and every album goes to number one. (Laughs.) Ever since I have known about the music industry, since John got into LED ZEPPELIN when I was six, all I knew was number one albums. So yeah, it was a learning curve to find out that it doesn’t always go that way, and things can be more difficult, especially if you’re carrying something behind you of the magnitude and weight of LED ZEPPELIN. Still, I’ve had an incredible career, playing with some of the most incredible people on the planet, and I’m really glad I did it.
– You became not only a musician but a songwriter too.
I don’t know where or why or what inspired me. I guess it’s just a mixture of everything I’ve always listened to. You know where someone’s coming from in their music, and mine goes back to the West Coast music such as Joni Mitchell, FLEETWOOD MAC, CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG – I absolutely love that music! But I’m also a big Motown and James Brown fan. And then, of course, there’s LED ZEPPELIN, FREE and BAD COMPANY, Steve Winwood with TRAFFIC, and LITTLE FEAT. I’ve got a real eclectic taste in music, so it’s just come out that way in writing. I’m sure there’s little bits of all sorts, filtered through without me really thinking about it. It’s listening to all of these different people that has made me what I am today, with a big dollop of my own thing going on.
– Most of the artists you mentioned are Americans, but there’s this unmistakable Britishness in your music, which also has a rural vibe to it that seta you apart from the crowd.
Well, my first and foremost love were Maggie Bell and Elkie Brooks, from the time Maggie was with STONE THE CROWS and Elkie with VINEGAR JOE. I was a Dusty Springfield fan as well before that, and I liked Christine McVie with early-days FLEETWOOD MAC, too. I’ve grown up listening to LED ZEPPELIN, who were absolutely British, through and through, to HUMBLE PIE, to FACES and THE KINKS, so there’s always going to be that edge of Britishness, and it isn’t going to change. I’m really happy where I am right now, at this point, at this age. I’m not a city girl. I’m really not. I could live in Los Angeles, in California, if I had a ranch. The thing that keeps my mental stability right, and keeps me happy, is that every day I wake up and I hear the birds singing, that I’ve got my dogs and my horses. It is idyllic, and that keeps my feet on the ground. I’ve lived in London and I’ve lived in Los Angeles when I was younger, and I wouldn’t want that life again.
– So you can relate to this Albert Lee song, “Country Boy”?
Oh, I love that song! He’s one of my favorites, too. I mean, what a guitarist! I love Albert, I love him. I’m playing Cropredy Festival in the UK with FAIRPORT CONVENTION, a very special festival to me, in August, and Albert’s playing there as well, so I’m looking forward to that.
– And it all started in 1979, when you recorded your first demos in Robert Plant’s house, although you got signed to a label only a few years later. So that deal wasn’t done on the strength of those demos?
No, no, no, no. When I first did it, it was after John had passed away, in 1980. I wanted to see what I was capable of, as I’d been doing a lot of music at school but it was very much classical opera, and Robert had a little studio, so I rang him and said, “Look, can I come over? I’ve written a couple of songs, and I just want to have a go at it!” My nephew, Jason, who played drums, came along, and a couple of friends who were guitarist and bass player. We piled over to Robert’s and started to play, and he came out and said, “I’m going to give you this record. Go on, listen to this and tell me what you think!” It was Ann Peebles’ album called “I Can’t Stand The Rain”: I heard this her voice and went, “Oh, my goodness!” I thought, “Yeah, that’s where it needs to go, this is how it needs to be – you got to dig deep into that soul!” And here I am today, I’ve done a duet with her. So it’s a sort of big circle has come around. It’s crazy! (Laughs.) But back then, I did some more demos, and I started working with a band just to get the feel of what it was like. Then, more demos that I sent off anonymously – because I really didn’t want to go down the line of “everybody jumping on the bandwagon of LED ZEPPELIN” – and I got a deal with Carrere Records. That’s how the first album [1985’s “For You And The Moon”] came about.
– It took you five years to get there?
I went and played out on stage for quite a while, round up and around where I lived, for two years, and got signed up in 1982. Then it was writing songs and recording, and finding the right players, so by the time everything was done, the album got released. Yeah, five years later.
– But if you’d been writing all this time, why did your songs make only half of the album?
That’s a record company for you! I wasn’t really writing that type of music, so my songs were changed very much by the producer and the record label boss – I didn’t really have a lot to do with it. And then they wanted me to sing these other songs as well, and I went along with it: in hindsight, I shouldn’t have, but I was very young, and I got cajoled into this Eighties sort of soft rock, which wasn’t really me.
– Apart from your originals on that album, there’s one song that stands out, “On The Air Tonight” by CAMEL’s Peter Bardens. Who chose this piece?
The record company were looking for some songs, as they wanted this sort of sound, and Pete Bardens sent this one in. It was played to me, and I must admit I did think it was a fantastic song, so I agreed to do it. I went to see CAMEL quite a lot when I was very young, so I was very familiar with Pete’s music. I wished I’d then gone and worked with him, but that didn’t happen.
– How did it feel to be working with German players instead of your regular band?
Difficult. Nobody spoke English… Well, they did, but everybody elected to speak German in the session, so I had no clue about what was going on. It was taken out of my hands – I just turned up and sang. But I became friends with the English guy who was a sound engineer in the same studio – he was working with Tony Carey from RAINBOW, so I hung out with them, and I didn’t even know what was really happening in my album. Then Tony came in and played on the title track, and that worked out great. But I spent the next ten years trying to get my rights back. I mean, it was a good ten years as I had to get out and work, temporarily, for a company that provided secretaries and typists to the music industry in London. I worked for every single record label in marketing and in PR, and I ended up in the legal department where I learned about contracts and how contracts work. That’s how I was able to get my rights back: I couldn’t afford to take on a big lawyer, so I just learned and earned money. That was a great thing for me. At the time, I didn’t think it was, but looking back, it saved me, because I would have gone down the wrong path. I didn’t really realize how John’s death had affected me. I knew that my whole world had fallen apart when I was eighteen, and after a couple of years, I thought, “Life goes on!” – but it didn’t. There were demons in me about it, so it was good that everything fell apart with Carrere Records, because I had to regroup and rethink, and deal with those demons, which has taken a long time.
– There’s a huge difference in your vocal approach to “The Moon” and “The Old Hyde” that followed it all those years later.
There was a difference in ten years between those two albums, and in that time my voice had matured. I was also singing more the sort of songs I wanted to sing, using more of the blues rock and folk vibe, and I was playing a lot live as well. By this stage, I’d met my guitarist, who’s now my husband, Peter [Bullick], and we were out doing any gigs that we could take. So yeah, my voice started to change.
– How important is your relationship with Peter to your career – in terms of your entire psychological outlook?
I’ve been with this band for many years, we go out as a family, but having Pete with me, and he just happens to be one of the finest guitarists ever, is everything to me. Everything! I met him at a friend’s wedding: he got up and played one note, and I couldn’t really see him because I’m short-sighted and I hadn’t got my glasses on, but I thought, “Wow, the feel that this guitarist had!” And I turned to my friend and said, “Who’s playing that? I’m going to marry him!” (Laughs.) My friend told me to stop being so stupid, but anyway, we met that night, and thirty-five years later, here we are. We’re a team. Don’t get me wrong – we’ve had our disagreements and our battles, because we’re twenty-four/seven together, but I couldn’t do it without him, and I wouldn’t want to.
– You wrote a song called “Go Now” for “The Old Hyde”: did you think of it as a sequel to the old Bessie Banks piece that THE MOODY BLUES covered?
Not until we were recording it. It was Mo Foster, who was producing the album at the time, that brought that up to me, and I went, “Oh, gosh, yeah!” But actually, I wrote it in a fit of temper, having had an absolutely mega fallout with Pete. So Pete’s been really good for me, songwriting-wise. (Laughs.) It’s pretty autobiographical: I think I remember telling him, “You better go now. Just go!” – and the song came out of that. Luckily, he came back, because I thought it was all over.
– Mo was fantastic: a fantastic player, a fantastic composer and, most of all, a fantastic human being. How did you get him to produce your record?
He asked me! He said, “If you want to do another album, I’ll produce it. You can come round to my studio.” He had a little tiny studio in Princess Mews in London. And that’s how we did it. Now, there’s a big hole in my heart with Mo gone, that was heartbreaking. I still get upset if I think about it, because he was just one of the funniest people around. We would be sat recording, and he’d start telling me these stories about all the different people he’d worked with, and I’d be crying with laughter – he was a real raconteur! We became very, very close: me, him, his wife Kay, and Pete. I was deeply, deeply distressed when he passed away, but we did the “One Mo Time” concert as a memorial for him that really was good, and a fundraiser. because, sadly, my dear friend Kay, has Alzheimer’s – she got it very young, in early sixties – and Mo was her primary carer, so when he passed away, we formed what we called ‘Kay’s posse” and looked after her. Yeah, Mo was just wonderful – we had such a great time and we did a TV show together, in Belfast. So making “The Old Hyde” was very special. When I look back, it was fraught with emotion throughout the whole recording process. There was no room for mediocrity with Mo. If he thought I was slacking or not really giving it all, I’d get a rap on the knuckles – he didn’t stand for it, he’d go “Look, Deb, you’re just not concentrating!” and I’d say, “Okay, I’m a bit tired. I don’t want to do any more!” (Laughs.) And he’d be like, “Well, come on!”
– Well, with his academic background, he could come across like a teacher.
He was a teacher! For one of his birthdays I bought him a conductor’s baton and said, “Here you go! You can conduct me now!” (Laughs.)
– How did the two of you meet?
An old friend of mine, that I’ve known since I was about fifteen, moved to London way before me, and he knew Mo, so he introduced us. I was singing somewhere, and Mo heard me, and that was it. We became friends, and I’m so glad that that happened.
– You had a few prominent guests on that record, including Robbie McIntosh.
I met him at a gig. I went to see him play, and he was phenomenal. We got talking, and he said, “Oh, I’ll come and do something on your album if you’d like!” I went, “Would I like?!” (Laughs.) “Yeah, very much so!” So he came and played, and was superb.
– And Mick Fleetwood?
That was thanks to my other dear friend, John Dominic, who was also a friend of Mo’s. He was in THE BO STREET RUNNERS with Mick, and was an honorary member of our band, playing harmonica; he also was a TV commercials director, so he’d done very, very well in London. When we were recording “The Old Hyde,” I tried to explain how I wanted the drums to sound on one track [“Open Up Your Heart”], and I said, “Oh gosh, it needs that Mick Fleetwood vibe on it!” And John replied, “Why don’t I ask him if he’d like to come and play?” I went, “Oh, don’t be ridiculous! Mick Fleetwood? Really?” Anyway, John rang him up, and Mick said, “Well, I’m in London actually next week. I’ll come and do it!” So my Pete went and picked him up from his mother’s apartment in London, and brought him to the studio. He walked in, and I was a gibbering wreck, because he was this big tall man who’s drumming I absolutely loved. I went in mind straight back to my brother, John, picking me up from school: we were driving home, and he had FLEETWOOD MAC’s “Tusk” on, really up loud, because he just loved Mick’s playing. I recalled that and came over to speak to Mick, and (squeals) only this squeak came out. (Laughs.) Then I had a photograph taken with him, and he put his arm around me – it was a “pinch yourself” moment! I’ve had a lot of those in my life, but that was certainly one of them.
– What does it say about your personality, Deborah, that all these people are eager to work with you?
I’ve no idea. I think, I’ve just been blessed. I mean, I really have. When I think of some of the people I’ve worked with and still continue to work with, I have to, again, just pinch myself. I’m just very grateful, indeed, and extremely happy. I know I’ll die a happy old woman, that’s for sure.
– Your next album was “Duchess” that featured another great drummer, Jerry Shirley.
Jason [Bonham] did an amazing job on “The Old Hyde” but, prior to recording the “Duchess” album, there was a memorial happening for Steve Marriott in London, with Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher and HUMBLE PIE with Peter Frampton, and my Pete, who was involved with Sanctuary Records at the time, was asked if he would come on board and produce the show they wanted to record. He said, “Yeah, but only if Deb can get up!” They were like, “Okay, but what does she want to do?” We had a track on “The Old Hyde” called “Black Coffee” – although it’s an Ike Turner song, it’s a version that HUMBLE PIE did that I love so much – and they said, “Look, Jerry Shirley is in control of the whole show, and if he’s happy, send him your stuff!”
Then, very early one morning, the phone rings, I answer, and it’s Jerry. Again, I’m a huge HUMBLE PIE fan and a big Jerry Shirley fan, and again, this all goes back to my brother John, because when John and Robert were in America, if HUMBLE PIE were playing down the road, they’d try and get the stage time earlier so they could go down and see the band because they loved it. So I pick up the phone, and Jerry, real cockney, says, “All right, is that Deb?” “That’s Jerry Shirley!” And I go, “Oh, my giddy aunt!” (Laughs.) “I’ve just heard your version of ‘Black Coffee’,” he says. “Gal, you can sing! You’ve got lungs like Steve. Marriott would be proud of you! I’d love you to come and do the show!” So I went and did three songs with Zak Starkey playing drums, who became a great friend from there, and at the end of the concert, Jerry said to me, “If you ever need a drummer, I’m your bloke!” And I went, “You’re on!” And when we decided to go and do the next album, I called him up to see if he wanted to come and join the band – and he joined the band for about ten years. He stayed with us until he retired.
– Jerry’s credited with co-writing a couple of songs there, with “Hole In My Heart” credits also listing Steve Marriott. Was it a PIE outtake that you completed?
Jerry and Steve had started to write it years ago – they got a basic idea and a little melody – and then Jerry showed it to me and said, “We didn’t get any further…” I went, “Okay, I’ll finish it!” So I wrote the rest of it, and everybody got credited. It was incredible. I had to get myself right into the vibe, I had to know where he was at, why he was writing it. That’s how I’ve written a song with Steve Marriott. (Laughs.) Yeah, another special moment. And then I became friends with his lovely daughter Molly, who’s an incredible talent herself – she’s a great singer and looks just like her dad.
– There is an interesting song on that album that’s different from everything that you’ve done before or since, because usually you work with images and emotions, but there’s a whole story in “Duchess And The Shufflemeister”: what’s it about, though?
I got sort of banned by telling the story from Pete and my band. He said, “Never, ever say what that song’s about!” – because it’s about my two dogs. So now you’ve heard it! (Laughs.) I rescued this incredible spaniel who was originally named Beethoven, but we called him the Shufflemeister, because we would be playing LITTLE FEAT late at night in our music room, and he would come in, so you’d hear this shuffle of his feet on the wood floor and his shoulders used to move like this (shows the movement), and he just reminded us of Richie Hayward, the drummer from LITTLE FEAT. And then there was my other dog, Sally, a beautiful half-greyhound – she’s on the artwork of the “Duchess” album – who was so regal! She’d have this way about her, where she would just sit and look at you with her pointed nose, and she got known as the Duchess. Her and Beethoven, this small dude of a dog, became the closest of close, so I just ended up writing that song. And I was told never to tell that story!
– I would never imagine that. I imagined it was about you and Peter.
No, my two dogs, unlike “Go Now” that I told you about and “No Angel” that also was on “The Old Hyde”: it was the same thing, another big row and then making up. But no “Duchess And The Shufflemeister” was about Sally and Beethoven.
– Another remarkable piece on “Duchess” was “Chains” that somehow reminded me of Sandy Denny.
Well, Dave Pegg from FAIRPORT CONVENTION is on mandolin on that! And yeah, you could all day long hear the beautiful Sandy Denny singing it. I absolutely always loved this beautiful English folk, Celtic type of song, written by SUTHERLAND BROTHERS, because Maggie Bell recorded it on her “Suicide Sal” album, so I decided to do it, and then Dave, another big friend and a huge friend of my brother’s, came on board, and it was great. I just loved what Maggie did! I was, and still am, huge fan of Maggie Bell, and my greatest joy was joining her on the "Acoustic Cream" album I did a couple of years back. There was a whole line of great people on that, Bobby Rush for a start – and I love that man! What a performer! They asked me to come and do this tribute, which featured some of the most incredible artists, and then they said Maggie was doing it, and I was like, “Oh, my goodness!” We all gathered at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, so Maggie and I got to hang out, and I watched her sing with Bobby. I was singing with Bernie Marsden and Joe Bonamassa, and it was great. It was really, really good! Sadly, now Bernie’s gone – he was a dear, dear friend.
– I always wanted to hear Maggie do a duet with Paul Rodgers, but they never got around to it, but when I heard you sing “Hold On” with Paul, it was like dream coming true.
Oh, thank you. Maggie’s got a lot to do with how I sing, because I grew up listening to her, and she was just phenomenal – still is! I’ve known her for a long, long time, and I’ve always been in awe of her, though, I was always a bit of a dork around her. I would play “Suicide Sal” all the time, because she did a version of “Wishing Well” by FREE and I was, and still am, a fan of that band, and I just couldn’t believe the way she sang it. She was a pioneer, a woman singer in a man’s world, a trailblazer singing her heart out. I first met her and Paul Rodgers, briefly, back in the Seventies, and it was crazy when I when I met up with him much later on in my life. And now we’ve become such great friends, so yeah, it’s a blessed life, to have people like that in my world, in my sphere! I don’t know how that’s going to pan forward for the youngsters today, I don’t know who they look up to the way I’ve looked up to artists and like my brother looked up to artists. I’m sure there are good artists, but I’m behind the times, because I seem to just slip straight back to the Seventies when I play music. I’m trying to pull myself out, but I keep going back to the good old faithful. I put the vinyl on and I think, “Good grief!” You know, I was just playing “Can’t Find My Way Home” by BLIND FAITH this afternoon, Steve Winwood with Eric Clapton, and it sounded amazing. If that was done in the late Sixties, I rest my case.
– And how did it feel duetting with Paul?
Crazy, absolutely crazy! I had to pinch myself.
– How did that happen that you lent him your band ten years later?
It started with raising money for the animals. Cynthia and Paul came over and stayed with us, at our house, so he was talking about different music with Pete, who is one of the biggest FREE fans – his huge influences were Paul Kossoff and Rory Gallagher – and one day, Paul said, “You really get my stuff, don’t you?” Well, you know, I’ve been listening to it all my life. Then, we thought “Maybe we could do a little charity show, under the radar, in our hometown of Chichester, in a small, six-hundred-capacity venue?” And Paul said to me, “Yeah. I’ll use your band and let’s see how it goes!” I replied, “Great! We’ll open up and then they come back on with you,” which is what happened. And it was a smash: they blew it out the park, people went mad, and Paul was absolutely thrilled. So we did it again, and again, and then it was sort of, “Okay, why don’t we just take this on tour?” That’s how it came about.
We did the UK tour, and it was fantastic, because we played the smaller, but iconic, like Colston Hall, venues, most of which ZEPPELIN played back in the day, and it went down a storm. It finished with the live recording from the Albert Hall, which got released on CD and DVD and went to Number Two in the “Billboard” charts, and Paul said, “Let’s do this in America!” – so we played the USA and one date in Canada. We had to leave Toronto right after the show, but we plan to return to Canada later on this year, because my father was stationed in Calgary during the war, and I want to find out where he was, as he talked fondly to me about Canada all the time. He was even offered a Canadian citizenship, so he was tempted to stay but he came back and married my mom. If he stayed, we wouldn’t have had John, Michael or me.
– I saw Paul with your group in Toronto. And you were effectively left without a band then.
I was, but I took that on the chin. (Laughs.) No, I was so proud of the guys! I knew that I could rehearse them here, without Paul being around, so I would do the Paul part. In fact, I was known as Paula Rodgers for a while! The only thing I couldn’t do was throwing that mic stand up and catching it – every time I threw it up, it hit the drummer, so I was banned from doing that! I worked with the band solidly in our rehearsal studio to get them ready, so they were match fit, and then we arrived in Utah where Paul was able to step in. Yeah, I was so proud: gosh, it’s my husband on guitar and the rest of the band I’ve been with forever playing with Paul Rodgers! To see them up there doing that was very cool. And I got a chance to completely get out of my comfort zone: in the UK, I teamed up with [guitarist] Doug Boyle, who was with Robert Plant for quite a long time, and we stripped it back just to him on acoustic and me singing. And it was, though I say it myself, spectacular, because he is such a talent. He took me to places that I’ve not been before, as I’ve not experimented in that almost-jazz that we did.
There were times on stage, especially at the Albert Hall, when Jimmy Page sat up in one of the boxes and Brian May in the other, and Doug just went off into this sort of Spanish flamenco, incredible guitar playing, but I couldn’t figure out where he was going; I just said, “Go with it, go with it, go with it!” And then bang! – we were back in. It was absolutely spectacular! I thoroughly enjoyed that. But that was scary in America, because there were huge venues, big sheds for thousands of people, and to walk out with just a guitarist, my dearest friend Ian Hatton, who I was in a band when I was about eighteen and who’d been in a band called BONHAM with my nephew Jason… I called Ian, because he lived in New York, and said, “Do you fancy doing this with me? It’s got to be acoustic and it’s just going to be me and you. The two of us are going to walk out onto this mega stage in front of all these people. Do you think we can do it?” He replied, “Yeah!” Bless his heart. He played his soul out a different style to Doug, with a more laid back feel, but just as fantastic. That was scary, but we did it, and it was good.
– Did you feel more vulnerable than emboldened walking out onto a stage like that?
When you know that Ann Wilson, who you loved all your life, is about to follow you, and that you’ve got Paul Rodgers coming on afterwards, you’ve got to really sing. My only joy was that Pete had Jeff Beck coming on stage after him, and Pete said, “Now you know how I feel!” But yeah, we had a great time, and we have great memories now.
– You mentioned the Albert Hall. How many times did you play there?
Oh, one, two, three, four… about five times, and each time is still the greatest buzz just treading those boards, walking out and thinking, “My goodness!” I stood where John had played the drums and had a photo taken, but I was also thinking about me singing where all the musicians that have been my inspiration for all my life played. It doesn’t get any better than that! Where do you go from playing one of the greatest venues of all time. And it still has this incredible magic about it when you actually get there! You see it and you walk in and you think, “Oh, yeah, we’re playing the Albert Hall!”
– Let’s move to your “Spirit” album. You had Robert Plant on harmonica there, so you didn’t dare ask him to sing “What It Feels” with you?
No, not at that point. It’s a difficult one, because I know what it’s going to be. Even back then, I thought it was going to be all about LED ZEPPELIN again. Don’t get me wrong: nothing would give me greater pleasure than to record something with Robert, and I’ve since sung live with him quite a few times now – he’s instigated it, and it’s been amazing. To sing with Robert is just something else! I feel very confident now, but then I thought, “No, I’ve really got to push for independence, for getting somewhere in my own right!” – and I felt that I couldn’t ask it. If he’d have said to me, “Do you want me to sing on that?” then that would be different, but he offered to play harmonica, and I thought that would be great. And his harmonica playing on it was just spectacular – I melted at that. It would have been very obvious to have sung, but he didn’t; he did the typical Robert thing – he did completely the opposite of what anybody would have expected him to do, which was what makes him such a great talent and a great innovator. He never goes down the the obvious path, and I love that about him. So no, it wasn’t the right time, but who knows what the future holds? I’d like to think that before it’s all said and done, and it’s all over, we might just do a song together.
– Your next step was also unexpected: you reissued your first album as “Looking Back At The Moon”: why go back to the beginning?
That was because so many people kept asking about it, and Pete thought that we should have just put it back out. There was a couple of tracks on there that we’ve never ever released on an album, so I thought, “Okay, yeah!” It’s a part of life and a part of my career, and there’s a couple of songs on there that I love, such as “Heaven” that we’ve never officially recorded, because it worked on that demo and no other player captured what we captured back then. That’s got some dear friends on it from the Midlands. where I was growing up, Wayne Terry on bass and Gary Morris on guitar, so I’m glad I’ve got that.
– You never wanted to remix or, maybe, re-record, say, “For You And The Moon”?
We did it live a couple of times, and it’s got a bit of magic, but no, I didn’t really want to redo it because it’s in its own time signature as well, and it’s difficult to get that: it’s not on a metronome, it’s moving itself and it just works – it slows down and speeds up, and it’s really fantastic. I love the way we did it.
– That album was credited to Debbie Bonham, the rest of your records have “Deborah Bonham” on the cover, and then, all of a sudden, there’s this "Bonham-Bullick" release. A new beginning, that?
I wanted to feature Pete more, because he’s an important part of everything that I do, and he’s an incredible guitarist. I also wanted that people who didn’t know me and think, “Oh Deborah Bonham, just some woman singing some songs!” heard that I’m not that lightweight, I wanted to give the impression that actually this is a lot bigger and a lot deeper, that this is a pretty hard-hitting rock-, blues-, soul-, whatever-band. So I wanted to call the album “Bonham-Bullick” – and then the record company thought that it would be a good idea to actually put it out as that, so that Pete would be in the guitarist magazines and that sort of thing. It was a great idea, but it backfired a little in that, on live shows, promoters were like, “Hold on a minute. We book Deborah Bonham, and this is who people come to see, and if we put “Bonham-Bullick” on posters, they won’t know who it is!” We hit a bit of problem, and so we decided to pull it back to “Deborah Bonham” – and really, at this age, that’s who it is and that’s what it is, and if people don’t know it by now, well, let them come to a show and find out.
– You realize that your B&B acronym could suggest “bed and breakfast”?
Well, that’s pretty much me and Pete” bed and breakfast! (Laughs.) I think that record is one of my biggest achievements, just because of producing it and getting the best out of all the players, and certainly out of Pete. He played his heart out on that record, and it was just great to enable that. We had to change back, and the next album that we’re in the throes of putting together will be credited to Deborah Bonham or DEBORAH BONHAM BAND. It will be all self-written songs, so it’s an exciting time for us.
– What about this dreamcatcher logo on the “Bonham-Bullick” album?
I’ve always had the dreamcatchers, all my life. There’s a dreamcatcher on the “Spirit” album as well, and I think it’s there in the background on “Duchess” and it might even be on somewhere on “The Old Hyde”… It’s all about catching your dreams, and I certainly have caught mine. I could never have dreamt, years ago, that I would have done what I did, that I would have walked out on the Albert Hall stage or that I would have worked with some of the greatest singers and players of all time. I never thought that that could happen, but it has, and yeah, it’s been a ride, it really has.
– Talking about symbols: I noticed that you always wear a Bonzo pendant.
Yes, I’ve had this for many, many, many years. It was made for me by a dear friend, Mac from Ireland, who was a very close friend of Pete’s and who worked in Carnaby Street and made the jewelry for lots of the Eighties rock bands. Sadly, he passed away now, but Pete commissioned him to make this for me when we first met, about thirty-five years ago, and I’ve worn it ever since. I never take that off.
– You covered Ann Peebles’ “I’ll Get Along” on your last album, and you said earlier that you recorded a duet with her. When did that happen and when will it be released?
It’s currently out now on an album called "Think Loud" – but it is coming out as a single too. I’m just waiting to hear the date. We’re desperately trying to put the video together, I’ve done my part of the video, so we’re waiting on Ann and Paul Brown from THE WATERBOYS, who was on this version of “I Can’t Stand The Rain” that we did together. We recorded it years ago, when we did some shows together, and she came to stay at our house. Only it went on the back burner: nothing happened with it, nobody actually did anything with it, it was one of those things – we did it and that was that.
But years later, the guy who we were working with then, Ian Grant of Track Records, is now being very active to find a cure and to raise money for Parkinson’s, which is incredible of him, given that he’s suffering with this disease himself. And the music community has come out in droves to help Ian achieve that and made this album called “Think Loud 4 Parkinson’s” that’s got some amazing artists on there. Of course, when asked, I went, “Yeah, sure, I’ll be involved!” Ian said, “What about that recording that you and Ann did?” and I replied, “Let me have a listen to it, because it was a while ago…” But it sounds great, so I’m quite excited about releasing it as a single and putting out the video. And it’s raising great money! Albums like that normally only raise awareness, given the cost of making them and stuff, but this one has triggered some massive donations, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey got behind it and they have made big donations as well, so it’s fantastic. And if we can find a cure for Parkinson’s, that would be wonderful!
– I’m joking, of course, but is it proper for an English lady to be as emotional as you are?
I don’t know. Probably. I mean, we English have always been keeping a stiff upper lip, but I’ve never been like that. Ever since I was little, my heart’s always been on my sleeve. My dad was very proper, and I never let him go to sleep at night without telling him I loved him, which was an odd concept for him to grasp, because I’d have to wait till he hugged me and told me he loved me back, which he had no problem doing. But he was born in 1918 and brought up in the world where English never showed too much emotion, only that didn’t work with me. My mom was very emotional, so I guess that’s where I get it from.
– Could you have become the artist that you are without being emotional?
No, no, no! Not at all! I think it’s part and parcel of it. I like to talk to people from the stage and tell them what the songs mean to see if it resonates with them, and I love meeting people afterwards. And the amount of people after we did “The Old Hyde” song was staggering. I told you earlier that I struggled for many years, and still do now, with the death of John and then my second brother, Michael, and my dad and my mom. Mom and dad, okay, that has to happen – my mom got to a good age of eighty-four, although my dad wasn’t particularly old, he was seventy-one – because that’s the natural order; but Michael and John wasn’t a natural order, so for some reason I felt isolated for a long time, so going and singing that song on stage was cathartic, because I’d meet people afterwards who’ve gone through terrible trauma or experiences of losing loved ones and all of this, and I didn’t feel alone anymore. I’d get into long conversations to the point where Pete would go, “We finished packing the gear away and you’re still talking?” So I’ve learned to keep it a bit shorter because, obviously, you can be there late in the night, but it was lovely. John used to say, “It’s always about the fans. Always. They’re the ones that put you up there. You only continue playing whilst people want to hear you!” And I think that’s really important.
Sometimes, throughout my career, I’ve got lost in thoughts such as, “Well, I should be doing something more that helps save the world, or save people, like these incredibly brave people that work for Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières. They go into war zones and help people, and what am I doing I’m just going round, getting on a stage!” And it wasn’t until I started talking to people that I realized: music, that I was thinking maybe wasn’t important enough, has such an effect. It’s a healer. I’m not trying to compare it to what those who save lives or try to save the oceans do, but it is an important thing, music. It gives people hope.
– If we could talk about animals as entities possessed of hope, I’d say you give hope to these creatures too. So please tell me: how did this animal sanctuary of yours come about?
Oh, I guess I’ve found animals a comfort since I was a very, very young child. They’re non-judgmental. They’re the most incredible, love-giving creatures. I just always loved them, so when I was in a position to do something for cats, dogs and horses… horses in particular, because I worked for a race yard and I saw the injuries they endure and the injustices done to these beautiful, majestic creatures that are used for our pleasure. I saw the aftercare where, basically, once they can’t race, that’s it. I saw that happening firsthand and I swore to myself, when I was about sixteen, that one of these days I was going to get involved in helping the plight of ex-racehorses, which is a difficult subject for a lot of people because it’s a rich man’s sport. It’s considered that the rich people should take care of these animals, but they’re not easily rehomed – they’re huge creatures, so it’s not like rehoming a dog, they’re bred to race, so they don’t know anything else at that point, and they’re owned by syndicates. I got involved in that and rescued many, for my sins, and then I started up a racehorse sanctuary. I’ve rescued another one, a couple of weeks ago; I’ve got him here and he’s named Koss, after the great Paul Kossoff; he’s in the field now and doing really well. It’s just something that I love doing.
And I got involved with other animals as well. I have them at home to personally care for and pay for. Any money I earn goes there. I don’t buy expensive shoes and expensive clothes – it’s all horses, horses, horses. I get shoes for horses, instead. Every time the farrier comes to do their feet, Pete says, “Oh, my goodness, you have more shoes than Imelda Marcos!” (Laughs.) Raising money for the various charities. I got involved with Paul Rodgers. His wife, Cynthia, is a great, great animal rescuer. So we just joined forces and decided, “Okay, let’s do this!” And we had a great time doing it because we got to do shows at the Royal Albert Hall with Paul and raised fifty thousands for our chosen charity: that night it was Willow’s Animal Sanctuary in Scotland. Cynthia does an awful lot in Canada, and we get involved with the different animal charities there. Running Free is one of them, War Horse Creek, Piggly Wiggly’s: there’s loads of ones that Cynthia is very involved in that we naturally come up and get on the back of.
But I’ve just recently become a patron for oceans, where I live, in West Sussex. We’re called Sussex Underwater, and that’s really about protecting the inshore waters from trawlers coming in and destroying all the marine life. It’s been phenomenal getting involved in that because it’s far-reaching.If everybody around our coast and all over the world does their bit, and we can save the oceans and the creatures within it, we’re going to be okay. The human race and this planet depend on our oceans, and so unless we do something now and all start to realize this, and not just think of it as the “out of sight, out of mind” thing, there will be no future. I can see what’s going on: the pollution that happens, the oil dumping, the inshore trawling, the wrecking the kelp forests, the destroying of the coral, the sewage, all of this, so it’s a big thing that I’ve just got involved with. I’m very proud of ot. That’s my thing at the minute. There’s something great about giving, that’s why people do it, and there’s something great about getting involved in something. It’s usually the underdog things that I like to get involved in with the animals, and it’s been massively healing for me. The animals have kept me grounded – I have to get up early to go and muck out stables, and I ride – and a great joy to be able to change the racing industry, which I believe we’ve done: it’s taken a long time, but it’s a lot more ethical now, and we’ve been integral to that movement.
