Warner E.Hodges on earning Bob Dylan’s approval, his love for AC/DC & Dan Baird

Hodges is set to perform in Barnoldswick for a second time later this year alongside his International All-Stars band after gracing the intimate Music & Arts Centre last night for what was a rare performance without his aforementioned band. The All-Stars, composed of Georgia Satellites’ Mauro Magellan; Jason & The Scorchers’ Pontus Snib; Keith Voegele from Bottle Rockets; and Conny Bloom from Electric Boys, make for a star-studded line-up, but how difficult was it to put together?

“Well, I've been very fortunate,” Hodges said. “I've known Pontus for a long time. Pontus was actually the last drummer on the last Jason & The Scorchers thing, so I've known him forever. I've known Keith because of the Bottle Rockets forever. Mauro Magellan I played with in Dan Baird's band for 15 or 18 years, so something like that. Conny, I've known through Pontus. I’d met Conny years ago too, and Conny actually toured; he opened up for my band a year and a half, two years ago, and he ended up on stage with us half the night anyway, so I knew he was going to work. So it's just, I've known the guys forever, wanted to work with them and have never been able to find a way to make it work, and now we finally have done so,” Hodges stated.

By his own admission, Hodges has been fortunate to have the opportunity to perform with a number of musical greats. While performing alongside the Warner E. Hodges band, the guitarist worked alongside Brad Pemberton from Steve Earle & The Dukes, The Mavericks’ Jerry Dale McFadden and the aforementioned Tom Petersson from Cheap Trick. The opportunity to collaborate with Petersson came after a chance encounter in a rock and roll club. For Hodges, who describes himself as a “Cheap Trick fanatic”, it was a moment he remembers very fondly.

“We got to talking. And Tom said to me, 'Why haven't you ever hired me to play on one of your records?' And I kind of laughed, but Tom, I don't have Cheap Trick money. And he said, well, what do you pay the other guys? And I told him he went, 'Well, I'll do it for that.' And it was like, well, you're on your next record. You're on it. And he showed up. It was absolutely wonderful,” Hodges said.

“It was wonderful to have a hero that I remember standing in front of the mirror wishing I was in his band, you know, listening to the record live at Budokan, you know, and then standing in the studio with him standing right beside me playing my record. That was wonderful,” the guitarist finished.

Meeting AC/DC

The expression “never meet your heroes” is one that is thrown around religiously, but for Hodges, he’s ecstatic to have met his heroes. On a tour of Australia in 1987, Jason Ringenberg, the frontman of Jason & The Scorchers, and Hodges were given the opportunity to host Australian MTV, where Hodges, who is openly a major fan of AC/DC and has seen the band perform 107 times but will be “108 in August", as he stated on our call, played 12 AC/DC songs in a one-hour block, much to the dismay of those running the channel.

“They got really pissed off at me. But I was like, you told me I can play what I want to play. So I played what I wanted to play. And I had said on Australian MTV that I wanted to meet Angus and Malcolm,” Hodges stated.

“And they came to our show on my birthday that year. I walked into the dressing room and literally did a double take. I looked over at the sofa, looked back and then looked back again. It was like Jesus Christ. They had come to the soundcheck. They hung out all evening. It was really cool. As a fan, it was really cool because I'm a major AC/DC fan. Since I've semi-become friends now, they know I'm a major fan,” the guitarist said.

“Bob Dylan’s stamp of approval”

In 1989, Jason & The Scorchers, the four-piece band that featured Hodges, Ringenberg, Perry Baggs and Jeff Johnson, had the opportunity to tour alongside Bob Dylan after they’d released an acclaimed cover of ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie’ on their 1983 ‘Fervor’ record. Although the cover earned the band “Bob Dylan’s stamp of approval”, in Hodges’ words, they were initially reluctant to perform it when touring with the ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ singer.

“It was funny because we weren't doing the song when we were opening for him,” Hodges reflected. “We had a good version of the song; it propelled us and helped us when we got our record deal. But we were out playing with Dylan. We were not doing the song because in deference to him, it was his song, not ours. And he'd come back to the dressing room on the fourth or fifth show, and he'd say, ‘Why aren't you boys doing Sweet Marie?’ (in a flawless impression of Dylan) Well, it's your song. I said, yeah, your version's better than mine. You should be doing it. So, of course, then we started playing the song. Bob Dylan's stamp of approval,” Hodges said with a hint of pride.

The band’s experiences with Dylan made for what was an unforgettable chapter in Jason & The Scorchers’ history – a chapter that became even more memorable when Dylan decided he wanted to purchase Hodges’ '62 Jazzmaster guitar. An offer Hodges politely declined.

“I think it became a joke to him,” the guitarist said when looking back. “I mean, he tried to buy it off me, and I told him. I said, 'Bob, this is my first guitar. My mom and dad bought me this in 1969. I'm not selling you the guitar. And then it just became him screwing with me trying to buy the guitar. I think it was him having fun. But he said, 'Hey, when are you going to sell me that guitar?’ (Dropping another flawless Dylan impression) I'm not going to. Leave me the f*** alone. Bob Dylan. Crazy. I think he was just looking for ways to entertain himself,” he said with a laugh.

“A walking rock-and-roll encyclopaedia”

Earlier this year, Hodges released his latest studio album – 'Absolutely' – a project that involved the guitarist’s long-time collaborators and friends Joe Blanton and Dan Baird, who retired from music full-time but occasionally dabbles. When it came to Baird’s involvement in the project, Hodges admitted “it was kind of spontaneous”.

“I had just told him when we started writing songs; he knew Joe (Blanton) and I had a little bit of a schedule, and the same thing when we were recording; he knew what it was. Come if you want to, don't come if you don't want to. And he showed up about a third to half of the time,” Hodges stated.

“We've worked together so long, I know how Dan is, and it will be better if he's in the room. But we also knew, if there are days he probably ain't coming, let's just keep working, you know. But there was no like, hey man, are you going to come today? I wasn't going to bother him that way. He knew he had an open invitation; he came when he felt like it,” the guitarist said.

Baird, who was initially in the Georgia Satellites alongside Magellan, has known Hodges since the early 1980s and later began playing with Hodges in the early 2000s with more regularity. After a fruitful partnership in the studio, Baird invited Hodges to embark on a European tour with him, which subsequently led to the creation of Homemade Sin – a project which spawned five studio albums. When asked how Baird’s involvement helped make the album better, Hodges was effusive in his praise of his long-time collaborator.

“Dan's going to keep you from stepping in something you don't need to step in, or he's going to contribute something that's like, wow, I wouldn't have gone there. Dan Baird’s forgotten more rock and roll than most people I ever met. I did enough records with him; I know. He is a walking rock-and-roll encyclopaedia. It's incredible,” the guitarist stated.

After years of collaborating with Baird, would Hodges say that the partnership has helped make him a better musician?

“Absolutely. (Working with Dan) was like going to rock and roll college, man. I always thought I knew a lot about music. I thought I'd been there, done that, and got the T-shirt a few times. And there wasn't a day that went by where I didn't learn something from Dan. Every day. It was an amazing thing. I should have had to pay to have been there,” Hodges finished.

You can catch Warner E.Hodges and his International All-Stars at Barnoldswick’s Music & Arts Centre in September. Tickets are available at https://www.barnoldswickmusicandartscentre.com/warner-e-hodges-international-all-stars