During a recent conversation with Dave Lawrence, Mahavishnu Orchestra guitarist John McLaughlin talked about the early days, confirming he gave lessons to Jimmy Page, while also teaching some stuff to John Paul Jones before the guys went on to form Led Zeppelin.
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What was it like for the promoters to book this mixture of jazz and hard rock that Mahavishnu Orchestra offered?
“The whole attitude, the whole vibe was very different. The attitude was enlightened – if I can use that word.
“Because they would get a band, some main band, and then they’d say, ‘Who’s the opposite of that? Let’s find somebody who is nothing like the headliner, and we put them together – maybe people will discover some music.’
“Which is why Mahavishnu ended up doing gigs with The Eagles, one of my all-time favorite bands… Aerosmith, James Taylor, Leo Kottke, George Carlin, Cheech & Chong… [Laughs] We had some amazing combinations.
“Even later when [John’s other band] Shakti came, from 1976, we did gigs with… What was the name of that band? Like a heavy metal band…?”
Black Sabbath?
“Black Sabbath! Yes. I was thinking Metallica – it wasn’t Metallica. Black Sabbath [on the 1976-1977 ‘Technical Ecstacy’ tour]. I mean, we’re sitting on a carpet with acoustic instruments, and there are like some real headbangers in the audience. But they loved it!
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“So it was a whole other vibe in those days. The music was paramount, and people were ready to listen to anything. ‘It’s different but it’s music, so let’s check it out.’
“As opposed to today where everything is just… You’ve got this kind of band, okay, put this [same] kind of band [to open]. We’ve become so kind-of conservative as a society.”
What about your session with The Stones in the mid-’60s?
“Yeah. I always liked Mick [Jagger]. Because Mick was feisty. He got busted for grass once and he was in the courtroom and the judge was going to fine him a couple of hundred pounds or something. And he just stood up and said, ‘This is all bullshit. I’m gonna drop some acid right now!’ [Laughs] That’s Mick.
“The band, The Stones, it was not my favorite band. I was much more into The Beatles because The Beatles… They reflected this psychedelic period much more accurately.
“The way they organized the music. Because in the very beginning, I never liked The Beatles. But from [1966’s] ‘Revolver’ when they started tripping, and me too, I became a big fan. In fact, The Beatles were the big influence on me.
“The whole ’60s was such an amazing decade. One thing after another, including [John] Coltrane, and Miles [Davis], and Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, The Beatles, The Stones… It was just so creative. Steve Wonder, Motown… Just great stuff coming out all the time.”
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Is it true that you gave guitar lessons to Jimmy Page?
“Yeah, but he was like 17 and I was 18 [John was 18 back in 1960]. What am I going to teach him? ‘You know this chord, Jimmy?’ Not too much, but we became friends.
“And all of that gang, John Paul Jones… I was playing with John Paul Jones in an R&B band Herbie Goins and the Nightimers. And I taught him harmony before Zeppelin was even formed.
“But to come back to the music of Mahavishnu – there was no intent on my part to make fusion music in those days. The situation was, there were so many competing – in a nice way – influences, in me. Whether it was jazz, of course, R&B…
“Because, in my opinion, if you take the rhythm and blues out of jazz, you don’t have much jazz left. If you take the blues out of jazz, you don’t have much jazz left. That’s what I got from Miles and Coltrane.
“And, of course, a long time ago, when I first picked up the guitar and I was completely swayed and dominated by the music of Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, Son House… The great Mississippi blues players.
“And then there was this Hispanic influence that blossomed subsequently with my association with Paco [de Lucia]. There was the Indian influence because by 1971 – when the first Mahavishnu came out – I’ve been studying Indian music for two years, I was into Sri Chinmoy, my meditation guru. You know, asking the great existential questions of life.”