A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man
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“We joked”: HGW interview with Cecelia Chilton.
“Daddy started playing music again”: ibid.
“When I was ten”: Keith Spera, “Alex Chilton,” Offbeat, May 1, 1995.
“summer get-togethers for musician friends”: HGW interview with Adele Brown Tyler.
“he kind of raised himself”: ibid.
“I became a fan”: Robert Gordon, It Came from Memphis.
“He’d come home from work”: Bruce Eaton interview with AC.
“We didn’t have a place to stay”: HGW interview with Rosa Eggleston.
“Sidney and Mary Evelyn ‘were some of my closest friends’”: Gordon, It Came from Memphis.
“Eggleston was a fixture”: Eaton interview with AC.
“When he told me that”: HGW e-mail interview with Louise Leffler.
“he was real eccentric and delightful”: HGW interview with Cecelia Chilton.
“He would just pontificate about various things”: HGW interview with Calvin Turley.
“By the time he showed up”: HGW interview with Adele Brown Tyler.
“There was lots of music in the house”: Eaton interview with AC.
“my father was the most unbigoted person”: HGW interview with Cecelia Chilton.
“Sidney was rooting for the Army”: HGW interview with Dale Tuttle.
“a gathering of mutual friends”: HGW interview with William Eggleston.
“Lee was a fun person”: HGW interview with Rosa Eggleston.
“Alex’s mother”: HGW interview with Adele Brown Tyler.
“They were laid-back parents”: HGW interview with Tuttle.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of structure”: HGW interview with Turley.
“I don’t remember a cooked meal”: HGW interview with Tuttle.
“I think Alex liked my family”: HGW interview with Adele Brown Tyler.
“We’d go over to Alex’s house”: HGW interview with Tuttle.
“I was given a copy”: Gordon, It Came from Memphis.
“When I got to be 11 or 12”: ibid.
“They’d be playing”: HGW interview with Tuttle.
“He was playing”: ibid.
“Though he was thin”: ibid.
“All the girls were standing”: HGW interview with Carole Ruleman Manning.
“nice Catholic girl”: HGW e-mail interview with Leffler.
“His legs were really highly developed”: HGW interview with Carole Ruleman Manning.
“Alex and I were prone”: HGW interview with Tuttle.
Chapter 4: Thirteen
“When the Beatles came along”: Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,” Goldmine.
“There were maybe half a dozen high schools”: HGW interview with Russ Caccamisi.
“We’d usually walk to Pop Tunes”: HGW interview with Dale Tuttle.
“My musical taste and knowledge”: HGW interview with Paul Jobe.
“Duke Ellington and Count Basie fan”: Bruce Eaton interview with AC.
“When I was twelve or thirteen”: ibid.
“Mother would call upstairs”: HGW e-mail interview with Louise Leffler.
“It said, ‘Love and Kisses’”: ibid.
“We’d sit on the couch”: ibid.
“There was quite the extravagant”: Eaton interview with AC.
“my brother was driving”: HGW interview with Carole Ruleman Manning.
“When you’re a young teenager”: HGW interview with Jobe.
“They had some really good music”: ibid.
“It all seemed really complex”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“One of my dad’s musician buddies”: Bruce Eaton, interview with AC.
“Alex kinda took control”: HGW interview with Jobe.
“I really wasn’t getting anywhere”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“He was a moody guy”: HGW interview with Jobe.
“All the other boys”: HGW interview with Adele Brown Tyler.
“Alex was nothing like”: O’Brien, written remembrance of AC.
“Alex had a big four-poster bed”: HGW interview with Bill Buffett.
“We stayed up all night”: HGW interview with Jobe.
“Alex was the person”: ibid.
“He had the kids”: HGW interview with George Klein.
“He was trying really hard”: HGW interview with Carole Ruleman Manning.
“Alex and I were amorous”: HGW interview with Leffler.
“I was renting a tiny”: HGW interview with Buffett.
“I kind of had a crush”: HGW interview with Adele Brown Tyler.
Chapter 5: From Moondog to Deville
“The first time I ever saw Alex”: HGW interview with Gary Talley.
“Ronnie was incredibly arrogant”: HGW interview with Russ Caccamisi.
“black as hell”: Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,” Goldmine.
“There was a dress code”: Jud Cost, The Letter liner notes.
“I didn’t care for”: Bruce Eaton interview with AC.
“We were as much wooing”: HGW interview with Caccamisi.
“enormous macho guys”: New Music News, n.d.
“There was probably a group”: HGW interview with Pat Rainer.
“an explosive temper”: HGW interview with Danny Smythe.
“There were cliques”: HGW e-mail interview with Dixie Thompson.
“I was getting laid”: Koda, ”My Dinner with Alex.”
“We told Alex”: HGW interview with Caccamisi.
“due to his talent for gambling”: Jim Dickinson, The Search for Blind Lemon.
“Everything I ever knew”: HGW interview with Wayne Carson Thompson.
“I wanted to produce a hit record”: HGW interview with Dan Penn.
“We worked out the chords”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“I was a little hung over”: ibid.
“He was the darnedest thing”: Cost, The Letter liner notes.
“We had a big room”: HGW interview with Penn.
“We set up”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“The guitar player”: HGW interview with Penn.
“After Dan got all the instruments”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“Alex was one of the few”: HGW interview with Penn.
Chapter 6: America’s Youngest Hitmaker
“I guess my life”: Gina Arnold, “Ex Box Top Bounces Back as Rock Legend,” San Francisco Chronicle.
“When we cut it”: HGW interview with Dan Penn.
“The Memphis Strings were a little sloppy”: Roben Jones, Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios.
“That was a big part”: HGW interview with Penn.
“We hadn’t really worked up”: HGW interview with Russ Caccamisi.
“never had to crack a book”: Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,” Goldmine.
“We worried”: HGW interview with Caccamisi.
“Somewhere around that time frame”: HGW interview with Paul Jobe.
“I think he paid us $900”: Jones, Memphis Boys.
“Our manager”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“We were talking about”: HGW interview with Caccamisi.
“I went in again”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“Nobody was happy”: HGW interview with Caccamisi.
“My dad said”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“We weren’t too happy”: HGW interview with Danny Smythe.
Management “was scared”: HGW interview with George Klein.
“It had a great feel”: ibid.
“We were driving”: Jud Cost, The Letter liner notes.
“D
an got pissed off”: Robert Gordon, It Came from Memphis.
“Dan was just very frustrated”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“Tommy was a great guy”: Jim Dickinson, The Search for Blind Lemon.
“My dad had played some gigs”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“I was right up close”: HGW interview with Bill Buffett.
“I remember thinking”: HGW interview with Adele Brown Tyler.
“Sometime in August”: Bruce Eaton interview with AC.
Chapter 7: On the Road
“I liked the Box Tops”: HGW interview with Jerry Blavat.
“keeping me a little bit in line”: Parke Puterbaugh interview with AC, 1987.
“thought it was a regional hit”: HGW interview with Gary Talley.
“I’d never met any hippies”: ibid.
“He had a fifth of booze”: ibid.
“Jim Morrison turned around”: HGW interview with Danny Smythe.
“Suzi was a sweetheart”: HGW interview with Marc Benno.
“Suzi was part of the hippie commune”: HGW interview with Talley.
“This was my backdrop”: HGW e-mail interview with Chris Paul.
“We would tape it on Saturday”: Sarah Crump, “Noted Rock Agent, Radio DJ David Spero Shares Memories of His Entertainment Career,” Cleveland.com.
“a giant cereal bowl”: Cost liner notes, Nonstop.
“I remember the first gig”: Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,” Goldmine.
“The Beach Boys liked us”: Parke Puterbaugh interview with AC, 1987.
“the recordings were so manipulated”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“I didn’t go for that material”: ibid.
“As we were pulling away”: HGW interview with Talley.
“The phone rang at our hotel”: HGW interview with Louise Leffler.
“We discovered”: HGW interview with Smythe.
“We did all three”: ibid.
“We stayed in different motels”: HGW interview with Talley.
“The thing about Alex”: HGW interview with Smythe.
“Though Alex was the youngest”: HGW interview with Talley.
“By the time I quit”: HGW interview with Smythe.
Chapter 8: Nonstop
“People talk about 1968”: Bruce Eaton interview with AC.
“‘The Letter’ was upbeat”: HGW interview with Dan Penn.
“Dan called me one day”: HGW interview with Spooner Oldham.
“Alex and the musicians”: HGW interview with Penn.
“I was frustrated”: HGW interview with Oldham.
“It was laying around”: HGW interview with Reggie Young.
“When they got a real good song”: HGW interview with Penn.
“Ardent had a brighter sound”: Roben Jones, Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios.
“a certain yearning bluesy quality”: Lester Bangs, “The Box Tops: Dimensions, Nonstop, Super Hits,” Rolling Stone.
“Memphis pop production at its best”: Jim Dickinson, The Search for Blind Lemon.
“At American, there was no clock”: HGW interview with Young.
“Whatever I asked him to do”: HGW interview with Penn.
“Dan didn’t have his finger”: Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,” Goldmine.
“He and I always got along”: Jones, Memphis Boys.
“Dick Clark seemed really interested”: HGW interview with Gary Talley.
“They placed him”: Jud Cost, Cry Like a Baby liner notes (2000).
“The Box Tops”: Mark Lindsay, Cry Like a Baby original LP liner notes (1968).
“For years I tried to cut a song”: HGW interview with Mark Lindsay.
“I was just too busy for 1968”: Eaton interview with AC.
Chapter 9: “I Slept with Charlie Manson”
“Here I am at the top”: Gina Arnold, “Ex Box Top Bounces Back as Rock Legend,” San Francisco Chronicle.
“I remember being amazed”: Michael O’Brien written remembrance of AC.
“I don’t know that anybody’s prepared to handle fame”: Parke Puterbaugh interview with AC, 1987.
“We’d get together”: HGW interview with Paul Jobe.
“It became the main hangout”: HGW interview with Gordon Alexander.
“I’d only known Alex”: ibid.
“This was when I was really starting to get serious”: Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,” Goldmine.
Alex told one friend: Bruce Eaton interview with AC.
“I’d never seen that many groupies”: Puterbaugh interview with Thomas Boggs.
“I stayed at Dennis’s house”: Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”
“the whole Manson family moved in”: ibid.
“got wind of that”: Neil Strauss, Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead.
“Suzi was laid-back”: HGW interview with Jobe.
“I never saw or heard them argue”: HGW interview with Alexander.
“Chips Moman came in”: Puterbaugh interview with AC, 1987.
“He loved this . . . Dylan song”: HGW interview with Wayne Carson Thompson.
“I think Chips saw that I had some potential”: HGW interview with Gary Talley.
“My biggest disappointment”: ibid.
“I’d visit”: HGW interview with Alexander.
Chapter 10: 1969
“It was a real volatile thing”: HGW interview with Gary Talley.
“not the husband or dad type”: HGW interview with Paul Jobe.
“I don’t remember the details”: HGW interview with Talley.
“The morale was lousy”: Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,” Goldmine.
“There were personnel conflicts”: Colin Escott, “The Box Tops,” unpublished article accessed via Rocksbackpages.com.
“Alex was getting twice as much”: HGW interview with Talley.
“I don’t want to put Roy Mack”: HGW interview with Wayne Carson Thompson.
“Management totally mistreated the band”: Parke Puterbaugh interview with Thomas Boggs.
“Ardent was the only place”: Robert Gordon, It Came from Memphis.
“Fry had better equipment”: Jim Dickinson, The Search for Blind Lemon.
“We were incredible Anglophiles”: HGW interview with Terry Manning.
“I first met Alex”: HGW interview with John Fry.
“Alex and I became friends”: Daniel Coston interview with Terry Manning.
“in a less snobbish era”: Ellen Willis. “Rock, Etc.” New Yorker, August 9, 1969.
“There was little pre-production”: Coston interview with Manning.
“It was really just the three of us”: Barney Hoskyns interview with Richard Rosebrough.
“Alex was on a learning curve”: ibid.
“I’d learned to do things very meticulously”: Dave Hoekstra, “The Star of Alex Chilton.”
“There were all these rules”: Mike Boehm, “Alex Chilton’s Following Is a Cult Above,” Los Angeles Times.
“He was kind of subdued”: Hoskyns interview with Rosebrough.
“Alex was around a lot”: HGW interview with Fry.
“the highest kind of rock-and-roll”: Robert Christgau, “Esquire review as quoted in Box Tops press release, Bell Records.
“Those yokel hacks”: Lester Bangs, “The Box Tops: Dimensions, Nonstop, Super Hits,” Rolling Stone.
“We debated”: Gary Talley,“The Box Tops: Setting the Record Straight.”
“I remember hearing him say”: HGW e-mail interview with Swain Schaefer.
Chapter 11: Free Again
“I was trying to learn to write”: Bruce Eaton interview with AC.
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��He had started ‘The EMI Song’”: Coston interview with Terry Manning.
“a family thing”: HGW interview with Terry Manning.
“Alex and I’d get loaded”: HGW interview with Swain Schaeffer.
“teenybopper, bubblegum stuff”: Barney Hoskyns interview with Richard Rosebrough.
“I really wanted to quit”: Gordon Alexander, “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star,” Dixie Flyer.
“He spent a couple of days”: Michael O’Brien written remembrance of AC.
“There was no point”: HGW interview with Gary Talley.
“In 1970, when I left the group”: Eaton, interview with AC.
“a hell of a song”: HGW interview with Wayne Carson Thompson.
“I wanted to exploit”: HGW interview with Terry Manning.
“crazy rock & roll [pedal] steel guitar leads”: ibid.
“Parsons was a very expressive”: Martin Aston, “Alex’s Wild Years,” 1985.
“had so many meanings”: HGW interview with Terry Manning.
“Although it was largely recorded”: HGW interview with John Fry.
“Jerry offered a deal”: Bob Mehr, Free Again: The 1970 Sessions liner notes.
“They loved it”: ibid.
“As kids who went to this”: HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.
“I would spend a lot of time”: ibid.
“With a summer job”: O’Brien written remembrance of AC.
“Alex was really involved”: HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.
“He was always real nervous”: ibid.
“I seemed to hang around”: Eaton interview with AC.
“Todd Rundgren had made his first”: ibid.
“Alex and I started hanging out”: HGW interview with Keith Sykes.
“I was sick of bands”: Robert Gordon, It Came from Memphis.
“Alex had so many influences”: HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.
“struggling like all of us to develop our cultural voice”: Jefferson Siegel, “Stars Remember Karin Berg,”
“He looked like”: Barney Hoskyns interview with Bud Scoppa.
“Roger McGuinn called me”: ibid.
Chapter 12: Big Star Ascends
“an old married couple”: HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.
“Steve and me and Chris”: Daniel Coston interview with Terry Manning.
“He was real excited”: Barney Hoskyns interview with Richard Rosebrough.