12. Al GreenLet’s Stay Together

Al Green was my favourite singer, and ‘Let’s Stay Together’ was the first promo I got. I was working in my friend’s parents’ record shop over the Christmas rush, and they paid us in records. This was 72, I was 17, and this album just blew up. I got to work with Al later, so that was surreal. He was quite manic by the time I worked with him, which was like 89, and I had quit drugs. And you know, I’m not saying I ever saw him do drugs, but he had an energy that was quite up and down. We did a lot of really cool things together like the Johnny Carson show. There’s a chapter in the book that tells all those stories, but he really was my favourite singer, and then I got to write a song that he sang, so that was pretty amazing. 

Al could tell a story and sell a story, but you kind of feel his life. One of the best songs on this album is him singing, ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?’, wow.