Blondie Chaplin recently spoke with Lee Zimmerman for an in-depth feature for Goldmine Magazine. He discussed his work with The Flames, Brian Wilson/The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Rick Danko of The Band and The Tasty Kings, a semi-regular conclave of legendary musicians. Here’s an excerpt:
GM: So getting back to The Beach Boys. What’s your relationship with them at this point?
BC: Well as far as Buddy Boy [Brian Wilson], everyone knows his story, but I go and see him occasionally and just say hi, and he always wants me to sing “Wild Honey.” He expects me to sing “Wild Honey whenever I walk into the house!
GM: So let’s move to the present. Tell me how you came to be involved with The Tasty Kings.
BC: Well, Andrew Morse wrote all these songs, around the pandemic/COVID time. Nobody was doing too much. People were doing those solo things from the house, that kind of stuff, which I never got into. Not that it was weird. I just never did that. So he got a hold of me and wanted to see how my voice would sound with some of his songs. And it was great for me, because COVID had a way of sidelining everybody. What do you call it? The plague, right? I got a chance to go to Austin, where he was working in the studio. Andrew had some songs, so I sang about one or two of them, and I ended up doing the whole album, flying from back and forth.
And I thoroughly enjoyed it because it gave me a chance to sing. Otherwise, I was just sitting at home worrying about the plague and getting the shots and going around with the mask on and making sure that I didn’t get too close to anyone or didn’t touch anybody. So that was a lot of fun to be able to get involved with that gang. And I loved it very much, and I’m quite thankful that I had the chance to do it. I was aware of who was playing and stuff like that, and it was great. I knew Charley Drayton and I met Charlie Sexton. He was a really lovely guy, and his guitar work is brilliant. Of course, I knew Darryl Jones from the Stones.
There’re some great musicians on there, and I was pleased to lend my voice to it, and I was even more pleased that they loved what was contributing. And that’s what you hear now.
GM: So are there any plans for a follow-up that you know of?
BC: Well, it seems like everything held together pretty well. So you would think there would be a follow-up. I’m open, so we’ll see what happens. The powers that be put it together, but I think it’s worth a follow-up, because it was a pretty rich, varied album, and I think it has legs enough to go give it another shot.
To read the rest and see exclusive memorabilia, head to Goldmine Magazine.