John Payne was the lead singer and bassist of Asia from 1991 until the keyboard wizard who hired him, Geoff Downes, quit abruptly and without warning for a reunion of the original line-up. Among other projects, Payne went on to lead his own incarnation of Asia. Drummer Roger Earl is the last original member of the blues-based English rockers Foghat.
Payne and Earl both live in the US, but with both acts co-headlining a bill in London as part of their own respective tours, we put the pair together on a Zoom call.
Roger, Foghat’s last appearance in the UK was at the Rainbow Theatre in London in 1974 – more than fifty years ago. Why on earth has it taken so long to return?
Earl: Maybe our manager at the time maybe didn’t know what he was doing, but for quite a while we couldn’t work in England because our previous manager had blackballed us. Even if people wanted to book us, they couldn’t.
But surely you wanted to come back?
Earl: Of course we did, but we were working so hard in America. It’s something that Rod Price, our guitar player [who died in 2005] and I, were determined to do. But for lots of reasons it never happened. Until now. That makes me very happy.
In these times when people don’t have a lot of money, specially curated double-bills such as this one seem like the way to go.
Payne: They really open a lot of doors that otherwise would be closed, so here in the States we do a lot of them.
Earl: I still remember coming here [America] for the first time in 1969 when I was in Savoy Brown and we did shows at the Fillmore East and West. I love that [promoter] Bill Graham would put us on with someone like BB King. That was very adventurous of him, but it worked.
Are you fans of each other’s music?
Earl: John Payne? Never heard of him! Nah, of course we are.
Payne: I always thought Foghat was a very strange name! But I love their music.
Earl: He’s had some incredible players in his band.
Payne: They just don’t last very long. Quite recently, we had a guitarist that played just one show.
Earl: I’ve had six people from this band pass on. It’s very sad. But I’m here still playing, it’s what you do.
John is referring to It Bites guitarist Francis Dunnery. What happened there?
Payne: Frank told me: ‘I’m not a chameleon player’, but with our long discography he had to cover Steve Howe, Guthrie Govan and the rest. A bit of improvisation is fine, but in the end it just didn’t work out, though we remain great friends.
Will he be on the new album [Aviana]?
It’s possible he could be a guest.
For those unaware, John, in a nutshell, how are you allowed to use the Asia name?
Payne: I spent fifteen years with that band, releasing eight albums. I was pretty pissed off when Geoff rejoined Original Asia, but in retrospect I now see it was necessary. I still wanted to carry on doing Asia stuff, and with my share of the name it was agreed that I could. It causes a bit of confusion in the marketplace, but I’ve a big catalogue of my own Asia material to pull from.
The Asia setlist on this tour has been chosen in part by the fans, right?
Payne: Yeah. And I was pleasantly surprised that so many of them want to hear material from my own years with the band.
In a social media post last summer you addressed the possibility of rejoining Geoff Downes in the ‘other’ Asia, saying: "My door is always open, but perhaps too much time and misunderstandings" were in the way.
Payne: It’s a subject that some people get heated and passionate about.
You handled it delicately.
Payne: Thanks. I see it like a relationship, if your girlfriend doesn’t love you anymore there isn’t much you can do. I did think I might get asked back when John Wetton died [in 2017], but it wasn’t to be. Maybe in the future… who knows?
Roger, are Foghat working on a new album?
Earl: A couple of years back, Sonic Mojo took root in the Billboard blues chart for 37 weeks, so yeah. We started work on a new one just a couple of weeks ago. At the moment, six or seven songs are in the can and also we’ve found a bunch of live tracks that might prove useful. It should be out early next year.
After all these decades, what should we expect from a Foghat concert?
Earl: It’s only rock’n’roll, but we like it, like it. [He laughs]. We play Slow Ride, Fool For The City, Stone Blue and I Just Wanna Make Love To You. Scott Holt, our lead singer and lead guitarist, spent ten years playing with Buddy Guy so I don’t really need to say anymore. And me? I play drums in a rock’n’roll band. It’s what I’ve done all my life. And I have fun… sometimes too much fun, but I won’t go there.
The Shepherd’s Bush Empire show takes place on November 16. Get tickets.
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