WEBVTT

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Her communities. This is Renee Den
you know, on the line now with

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Brian Bassett fog Hat. Of course
we play fog Hat on the River one

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oh five nine. You know,
I love them coming to Mohegan's Son on

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May nineteenth, literally around the corners. So Brian, thank you for joining

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us. Ay so glad to be
here, you know, I mean,

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I for me, especially in this
industry and growing up in this industry,

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fog Hat has every thing I need
as far as the elements of what makes

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great music. I love like cobo, I love bass and horns and breakdowns

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and like I don't know, just
like funk and rhythm and rock and the

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voice and every I just love everything
about fog Hat. I've loved playing your

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music over the years. Well thanks
so much, and we love playing it.

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I mean playing live is what we
live for, really, and you've

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all been together for a long time. You're one of the founding members of

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the band. I mean, this
has got to be kind of like a

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surreal experience to still be out there
having a great time. I've been doing

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what you've loved and for so many
years. Right, Yeah, it's you

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know, we're so surprised. I
think back in the day in the seventies,

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and uh, you know, and
I've been in I'm not quite a

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funding member, but I've been in
a plus twenty some years. But you

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know, when you get a run
of five or ten years in a band,

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you think, oh, that's great. But you know, the band

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was found in the nineteen seventy one, so that's the long run, you

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know. But we're you know,
forty plus years now. So to still

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be able to do what you love
is a blessing. Well. And some

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of your iconic songs are still played
today and in regular rotation, as we

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would say in radio, from Slow
Ride, full for the City, obviously,

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I just want to make love to
you. Those are songs that are

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just iconic anthems in the classic rock
world. What's it like today to play

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those songs on stage and see younger
feasts enjoying them and rocking along to them

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as well. Yeah, that's the
great thing, in a surprising thing.

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I think some of the big hits, you know, in movies that appealed

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to some of the younger crowd,
and also in some of the video games,

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you know, like Guitar Hero I
think had Slow Ride on it,

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and that brought a lot of young
fans to our you know, to our

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music. So it's great and it's
you know, we always were a live

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band and to play those songs in
front of a live audience is really where

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we get our energy. And to
see people still rocking out to it after

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all these years, you know,
it's it's great for us. You know,

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we just have a ball doing it. And when you're you're playing some

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of these classics songs and people are
in the audience, they're getting ready,

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they're like, oh, we know, it's it's it's it's got to be.

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It's it's got to be coming.
How do you plan your set list

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because you have like multiple encore songs
that you can choose from, So how

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do you know which one is going
to be the encore of the night.

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Well, you know, every year
we try to do it. In fact,

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we just came out of rehearsals and
we try to do a little bit

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of a surprise every year for our
repeat you know, fans, We have

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a lot of people come and see
you know, every year at some point,

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and so we always play our main
hits that everyone expects us to hear,

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but we'd like to go into the
deep album tracks and pull out a

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couple of surprises, you know,
every concerts, every concert year we try

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to change it up a little bit, you know, maybe pull some old

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blues out that we haven't played for
a while, or pull some deep tracks

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that may be some people's favorite that
doesn't get as much radio airplay as some

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of the other songs. So just
to keep ourselves entertained and also our crowd

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interested in our live set, we
try to change just a little bit every

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year. And fog Hat, even
though we're saying like rock and or classic

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rock, there's a lot of funk
in it and it's perfect for you with

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some of your history in the industry
with Wild Cherry and of course Molly Hatchett

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has a huge Connecticut drawing by the
way, as you know, but now

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with Focket, so the I don't
even know how you would describe fog Hat

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as someone who wouldn't know. For
me, though, it's like the quintessential,

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Like the timeframe of when all these
hits are coming out, it just

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seems like that was the black and
um and sort of trend setting a little

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bit. But like it's got that
funk, it's got that groove and that

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baseline of rock and roll, right, So I don't know how to that's

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the best way I could describe Fogcat. Yeah, we were always described over

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the years as boogie rock, but
I think, you know, rarely it's

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a you know, just up tempo, driving blues rock. You know.

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Fogat came out of Savoy Brown,
which was part of the British blues invasion,

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you know, along with Cream and
John Mayo and those bands that took

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American blues and rocked it up and
sent it back to America. So yeah,

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that's you know, there's a lot
of blues rock in our music,

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and were keeping up tempo and fun, like you said, the hard driving

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and danceable. So it's a good
mashup of a lot of good elements for

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live music. You know. I
still remember from from my album when I

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I have like all these albums that
were passed down to me for in generations.

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And also I started working as a
third shift overnight DJ in nineteen eighty

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eight, so this has just been
my life's work. And it's funny because

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I look at the album covers and
I remember when I would get an album,

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it was such a big deal.
From the graphic design of it,

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reading the cover and just like sitting
there and listening to all your your music.

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And I remember looking through all the
Fogat album covers and things like it

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was so so much fun. I
kind of missed those days a little bit,

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I have to say, absolutely.
And that's how I listened to music

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when I was growing up. You
know, getting an album and it was

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a big deal, you know,
music being released, you know, an

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album at a time back then by
your your favorite bands. And there wasn't

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so many things to entertain yourself back
then. You know, there was no

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internet, there was no video games, so when a record came out,

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that was a big deal. Everybody
had a great stereo or you know,

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you've saved your money up to get
a great stereo and just you know,

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you put that new record on and
read every word on the back cover and

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look at all the pictures. I
mean, it's sort of got lot in

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the digital era. But now the
vinyls coming back, I think a lot

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of you know, younger people get
to experience that same thing that we did

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when we listened to those early records. Yeah, it was fun and like

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from the and it's funny whenever I
hear or say fog hat. I don't

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know, maybe because I'm in the
business and who knows. Everybody has their

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own weird quirks. But I just
see your logo in Might when I hear

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fog hat, I actually like see
it from the album, you know what

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I mean. It's like the weirdest
thing ever. I don't know why I

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would even think of that, but
you know, it's really cool to be

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chatting with you. I'm glad you
guys are coming. I'm glad you guys

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are still playing. I know the
band has gone through some changes, some

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heartbreak over the years, as with
you know, rock and roll, right,

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but you know here you are coming
in to Connecticut. You're gonna be

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playing at Mohegan Sun on May nineteenth. Tell me about a little bit about

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the show and how it's gonna,
you know, sort of relate to all

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ages of the audiences. I know
you were just telling you just came out

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of practice and you're talking about that
the set lists and things like But tell

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me about the show and what we
can expect to say. Well, a

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little bit of old, a little
bit of new. We're just completed a

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new studio record, which we hope
to release sometime this year, and uh,

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it's in the mixing, mastering process
right now, So you might hear

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a little bit of a new material. Also are classic hits and you might

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even hear something a little funky towards
the end of their said in the encore.

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So that's we like slip in my
old wild cherry hit the schedule,

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and and we love playing mohegan Son. I mean, that's one of our

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favorite venues. We like to play
there at least once a year if we

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can. The wolf Stand. It's
a beautiful venue where you get up put

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some personal to the band. It's
a great stunting room, and you know

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we love playing there. Well,
come on, it's just going to be

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a fun live show, you know. That's that's what we like to do.

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Play, you know, some live
rock and roll and get people all

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up on their feet and rocking out
with us. Now for a bassist who's

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funky, right, Like do you
I mean you don't have are you okay

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with arthritis? Like seriously, I
don't know how you do that? Like

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I always think of guitar players and
like all the stuff, and especially with

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the music that you play, because
it's like a nonstopping. Yeah, because

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I think of like Earth Winning Fire. I think of when when when Chicago

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did this, you know, the
CTA stuff, or like like even Molly

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Hatch. But some of the songs
that you play, it's just like a

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dozen't stop to this day, you
guys. I work out to my favorite

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classic Rocks tunes. I will put
that up to any dance pop tunes ever

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because it's incredible. But I just
think of, like, my fingers are

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hurt sometimes when I think about the
fact that you have to play at all.

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Well, you know, over the
years, your fingers sort of adapted

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the punishment. I think, you
know, when I think back to when

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I first started, I mean I
did actually have blisters on my fingers,

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you know, from playing hours and
hours when I was young. But over

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the years, you sort of get
used to it, and um, you

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know, becomes second nature after a
while, you know. I think about

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it sometimes like that, when we
rehearse or learn new material, it's like,

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oh, my brain can still learn
new songs. That's actually good to

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know, right because then you're like, Okay, that's a good thing right

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there. Yeah, so it's still
working. So but yeah, it's a

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musician it's an interesting thing about how
you know, you learn and recame material

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your body. You know a lot
of songs. Yeah, you know,

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I'll play a song that we haven't
played for several years and you're you know,

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it's like body memory. I don't
know, it's almost like an athlete

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in a way. But you go, oh, yeah, that's right.

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You go when my brain like what
comes next? And then my handle autom

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actually go to a certain spot on
my guitar, like my hand knows my

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brain doesn't. So very it's a
very unday playing. But you know,

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at this point, it's sort of
like breathing. It's like second nature to

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just pick up guitar and play.
Well, I love it. Thanks for

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that description. I have to let
you know that I have my my workout

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tapes, which I don't even know
why I would say that's you because I

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don't know the last time I worked
out, so as sometimes I just play

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the music, but I always have
slow ride on there. I always have

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I just want to make love to
you. I always I always have empty

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pages, cross down traffic. I
know we're going to different bands and such,

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but those are those songs. And
then um, I do a lot

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of CTA. I do a lot
of all that, like upbeat stuff and

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grand funk I'll put in their footstomp
on music like I put all those songs

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in there, like on one continuous
track, and like I am like if

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I would have really worked out to
all of that, I would be in

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such great shape right now. But
very good. I should try that.

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That sounds like a good workout tape
right there. Absolutely, But anyway,

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well, it's been a pleasure to
chat with you. Obviously, piece of

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music history here on the river Wood
of five nine. I heeart meeting here

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in Connecticut, Brian Bassett from a
fog hat. You will see them at

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Mohegan sun May nineteenth, and hopefully
you'll come back and visit us again.

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I'd be glad to. I can't
wait to get up there. All right,

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have a great day you too,