Written By Cary Barnhard

Besides being a hit song writer, dynamic stage performer and MTV icon, John Waite is also an eloquent, introspective and genuinely engaging person. Heat Beat had the distinct pleasure of speaking with John from his home as he prepared to return to the road.

HB: What was your first gig?

JW: My first gig ever in front of people was at a youth club in Lancaster. My brother's band was playing and the bass player went for a pint of beer because being in a youth club you can't buy anything alcoholic (and they're a bit older than me). But, he didn't come back. My brother went into this Jimi Hendrix song and there was no bass player. So he stopped and came over and gave me the bass guitar and said, "Play this note!" So, I played the note, which turned out to be like a D and away I went! I had a career.

HB: Before that you had planned to go into illustration?

JW: Yeah. Most of the hip kids, and there were only a few of them because Lancaster was a pretty hardcore town, went to art school. That's where all the kids wound up that were like bohemian kids. All over Great Britain tat was kind of like a standard thing. If you couldn't do anything else that was academic, they sent you to art school. But I actually really wanted to go. All my heroes went there and my interest in art was as deep as music. They're the same thing to me, really. I really wanted to be an illustrator, so I spent four years at art school. And I probably would have pursued that had I not been in the band that played the art school dances. The next thing I knew I was a professional musician.

HB: You were wrongly accused of jewel theft around that time?

JW: We did a gig actually at the Morcam, it's like a night club, and Lonnie Donnigan, the famous British Skiffle singer had played the night before, with us opening. His drummer's drum kit went missing and the police showed up at our sound check looking to see where the drum cases were. And that turned into being accused of a jewel robbery and pulled into a police station. I'm pretty honest and straight forward in most things, but I had no idea what they were talking about. I think it was an excuse to just question the band and put us through a lot of crap. I left town about three weeks later because it looked very bad for me.

HB: Where did you go from there?

JW: I went down to London soon afterwards with a band called England. I lived in London for two years playing the Marquee Club and clubs around London City. And then I came home back to Lancaster and I got a letter from this singer that I'd known in London and I went to Cleveland for five months and joined a band called The Boys. It was a great experience. It was my first taste of America and I fell in love with it completely. When that fell through, I came back to London. The next thing I knew I was in a band called The Babies.

HB: When you were playing in London, what was it like at that time?

JW: Unbelievable! It was like 1972-73. There was tremendous musicianship and a sense of a real energy and fashion wrapped up in the city itself. It was very hardcore. I was living in a room that was like 8x10 with the roadie and the guitar player; living off milk and rice. We couldn't afford more that like one pint of beer in the pub and stuff. We were all signing on the unemployment. But, there was a tremendous sense of romance to be in London. It was hard. It was winter and there was nothing to keep the place warm with, but you had the guitar, and you had the dream. It was a great period, really.

HB: Did The Babies have to struggle for credibility?

JW: Not really. I think the whole thing with the manager calling us The Babies was to get us some attention, which it certainly did! We could have been called…. whatever, The Chefs, that actually came up once, "Let's call ourselves The Chefs", it wouldn't have the same notoriety. HB: What was it like to have the success of "Missing You"?

JW: Great! I always tried to be obscure. I've tried to sort of make my mark and walk away, and with "Missing You" I couldn't. And I think at that time in my career it was time to accept the fact that I was capable of having that kind of success, and I had just to do it! Stay in the game, you know. It was fun, but it was also difficult on my marriage and it was very difficult, I think, on my parents and everybody. I was suddenly number one around the world. It was tough on my wife; it was tough on everything. But it only comes at certain times and you just have to go; go on tour and leave and do the work or everything you've done in your life has been for nothing at that point.