BM: That’s fascinating that you mentioned the blues, because you’ve also had an impact on young, I mean really young, blues musicians. In the past year, I’ve interviewed three blues musicians under the age of 16 who say that they play the blues because of John Popper and Blues Traveler. One of them is a harp player.
JP: Wow, I don’t know what to do with that (laughs). That’s pretty cool. I don’t know which is scarier, the fact that they’re blaming me or the fact that they’re all under 16. Young punk kids out there!
(Teen-age guitar phenom) Johnny Lang co-wrote one of the songs on this album, ‘How About Now.’ We hung out one weekend for the purpose of writing. He played me these chord changes, so we wrote a little song. I had just been hanging out with Bijeau Phillips, so I think it’s kind of about her. She’s my little maniac friend.
We started hanging out at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards. She’s a trip. She’s sort of like the little psychotic sister you feel the need to take care of her but at the same time, you would date her if she’d let you.
BM: Very high school (laughs).
JP: Yeah. She told me that I need to find a fat girl. So I sent her a stripper dressed like me. She’s afraid there’s going to be some guy dressed like me in every bush. Yeah, Bijeau pushes me to try crazy stuff.
But anyway, I’m honored that young blues players are looking at me as an influence. I guess that’s what’s supposed to happen. I think of Hendrix and I think of some sort of deity. Truth is, he was just a guy.
I remember meeting Carlos Santana at the Warfield (Theatre in San Francisco). It was really funny, because Bill Graham had just started managing us. We had this gig opening for The Neville Brothers. What happened is that Carlos sat in with The Neville Brothers. It was a big surprise. Bill says, ‘I was going to have you go and blow with him,’ but I wasn’t around. I was feeling bad in my dressing room listening to our performance on a tape. I walk into the next dressing room and ask the band, ‘Do you think that maybe we could meet Santana?’ They say, ‘John, where were you? He just came in here and said hello to all of us.’ So I’m like, ‘Well fuck!’
So I run out. I don’t know where I’m going. I’m going to go find him. And there he is! And I’m completely unable to speak. This is Carlos Santana. I’m like, ‘Ahh, errhh. You’re my biggest fan.’ I was a total shmuck. And he goes, ‘Hey man, it’s cool. We’re all part of the same thing.’ I remember talking to Bill about that, and he said he remembered when Carlos Santana met Muddy Waters. It was a very similar conversation.
What’s cool about music is that people can reach other people in significant ways. Santana blew me away enough to sort of think him of something other than human, to look up to him. When you meet a little kid who looks at you that way, it’s kind of weird. I wish I drank more or at all, because it’s easier when you’re drunk. Then you’ve got that instant bonding going on. When some kid starts fawning all over me like that, I feel like I should be a responsible parent and make sure they brush their teeth and stuff.
BM: Do you think you’ll ever be a dad at some point?
JP: I used to, but I don’t think that’s where my life is taking me. I’m starting to feel that bachelorhood is a really good deal. My brother had a baby, so the gene pool pressure is off. There’s seven kids in my family…
BM: So that makes it easier.
JP: Yeah. I don’t know. I guess that’s the kind of thing you don’t really plan for. You need the girl, and as of now, I’m still looking.
BM: What do you miss most about the early days in the clubs in New York City, the Mondos and the Nightingales.
JP: Well, being able to go somewhere and have to rely on my wits instead of my name. When I walk down the street — and mind you, you can’t ever count on this, so it makes it even more annoying — but there are days that I’m very aware that everybody knows who I am. I’m treated very nicely. I mean, that’s great, but I can’t steal gum anymore. I can’t yell at somebody who cuts me off in the road anymore. I can’t think like that. I have to be aware that I’m being seen. I can’t pick my nose anymore. But as soon as I’m convinced that everybody knows who I am, that’s when, like, nobody does. Fame is a stupid thing. You can never count on it. It looms, the threat of fame.
Going through an airport is a difficult thing. But it’s what I wanted. I don’t want to pretend that I’m Greta Garbo after sticking my face on every periodical and TV I could for the last 10 years, going, ‘Hey, look at me, look at me,’ and wondering why people are looking at me. I don’t really mean to complain about that, but I do miss, just in a nostalgic way, the anonymity. Both suck and both are good. But in those days, it was kind of fun that people didn’t know, that we were kind of a secret. Once you’re found out about, it’s harder for you to innovate. Once you catch popular imagination, then a pigeonhole is created in your honor and you must reside there. That’s kind of what I wanted to do with the solo record.
I read Rolling Stone’s review of it. I’ve never been as flattered by Rolling Stone as I am now. Basically, it said, ‘I can’t figure this damn thing out. It’s weird as hell. Popper dares to be a complete flake.’ What that says to me is that it doesn’t quite fit and that’s where I want to live.
The thing that I can’t stand is that people think that Sarah McLachlan only likes one kind of music. And they’re wrong. They think that The Grateful Dead only likes one kind of music. And they’re wrong.
BM: They think the Dead were trapped in the ’60s and they were wrong. They were one of the most hi-tech bands.
JP: Absolutely. That kind of mistake is something that you’re always going to have to rail against. To be able to make an album that is confusing is really a more accurate depiction of what’s on my mind than anything else, because I am a fan of a whole lot of kinds of music. Extended jams and slam dancing. You know, some moshing.
BM: Slam dancing might be a good form of exercise.
JP: (Laughs) No, there’s too many professionals. There’s no amateur status anymore.
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