Michael Des Barres' Longevity
Whether you know him as the lead singer of Silverhead, Detective, Chequered Past or The Power Station, whether you’ve seen him in To Sir, With Love or MacGyver, whether you’ve heard him on the radio as a free-thinking DJ, Great Britain’s Michael Des Barres checks all the boxes. A real Renaissance man for the ages, he was once married to the notorious groupie Pamela Des Barres. His new release — Live! by Michael Des Barres and the Mistakes — is a totally rocking affair a la The Faces or Mott the Hoople with covers of T. Rex, Marvin Gaye, Little Richard and more. At 73, he sounds better than ever!
GOLDMINE: Your voice, unbelievably enough, is actually getting stronger with age.
MICHAEL DES BARRES: It is! Isn’t that weird? Maybe it’s because of my sobriety and all of that bollocks, but I do run and I do cling to life because I love life, and I want to sing my ass off until I’m 100 years old.
GM: To what do you attribute your longevity in this business?
MDB: It’s been 60 years! Longer even. I did my first commercial when I was eight years old. It’s been a long time. But it doesn’t feel like it. It feels more like one long incredible moment with me bouncing from gig to gig. That ball has not stopped bouncing. I should say balls in plural, shouldn’t I? I’m very happy about that.
GM: I love what you did with the Marvin Gaye song (“What’s Going On”). I’ve never ever heard it done like that!
I did the same thing with (Bob) Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody.” I record for Steven Van Zandt’s label reboot, I don’t have much time. But yeah, it’s great to reconstruct those songs. They’re both 12-bar, hell, three chords! So you can do anything with them. Obviously, I thought to do “What’s Going On” when the sh*t hit the fan. Same with the Dylan. Hey, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody, right? I sped it up, of course, to make it more rock and roll.
