They told me, ‘We love Eddie but we can’t work that hard.’ If you get thrown off a Rolling Stones tour because you’re too good, I think that’s quite a complement.”īut like many a rock stars whose success comes so fast, Money succumbed to the usual vices. I got thrown off the Rolling Stones tour in 1979 for getting too many encores. Not to blow my own horn, but what the heck? I opened for the Stones, the Clash and a bunch of big bands. "Then when my mother dies, I take him on the road with me and he finally began to realize I was really talented. Can you believe that shit? He thought rock and roll was a fly by night job," Money says. "I played Madison Square Garden with Santana and Cyndi Lauper and my father comes to the show and was still pissed off I quit the police department. There’s nothing like playing in a rock and roll band," Money says. “I grew my hair long, had a bunch of girlfriends and was playing in a rock and roll band. He was a fantastic guy,’’ Money says of the promoter who died in a helicopter accident in 1991. It was the mid ‘70s and Money was well on his way. Graham subsequently signed him to his own label - which was distributed by the formidable Columbia Records - setting up the now familiar string of hits. “I told everybody to get up close so the place would look packed and we went into ‘Two Tickets To Paradise’ and ‘Life For The Taking’ and really rock and rolled the place and apparently Graham’s people liked the show I put on.” “I had a large following because we played all the local clubs,” Money recalls. "If you get thrown off a Rolling Stones tour because you’re too good, I think that’s quite a complement.” tweet this It was during an amateur night, at Winterland, another famous venue Bill Graham owned in the early days, that some powerful people finally took notice. It was a nightmare, and lots of bad things happened. At one point, I ended up in jail because my roommate was selling marijuana and my landlord busted me. "I didn’t know a soul, but I was smoking a lot of pot so I didn’t give a shit. Eventually, I moved up to Berkeley," Money remembers. "My father was very pissed off at me because I quit the police force, and moved out to California. My career really took off, but it took off because we had some great songs.”īut not everyone was on board. “Next thing I knew I was doing Saturday Night Live and Letterman and Leno. He quit the police department, moved out to California - alone, not knowing anyone - and eventually signed a record deal with the late Bill Graham, the San Francisco impresario who founded the legendary Fillmores East and West, America’s prime music venues in the mid ‘60s. The rest, as they say, is history, and Money still seems eager to share it all. Because whoever won the battle of the bands got to play the high school prom.” “I was working at it ever since high school when we played in the battle off the bands. “I was always trying to get better and better and better,” he insists. Money continued to work at honing his craft, fitting in some original songs at local gigs. They didn't really want him, but they couldn't find anyone better. Money eventually joined a band called Grapes of Wrath. “Police were called pigs back then,” he recalls. But 22 years? My father would always tell me that if I had remained a cop, I’d be retired by now.”īut in the late ‘60s, the police and rock and roll didn’t exactly enjoy the best relationship, which meant that Money’s segueway into rock singer wouldn’t be the most accommodating move. “I couldn’t see spending 22 years of my life in a cop uniform,” he says. But he insists it wasn’t the life he was cut out for. Money tried out an early stint as a New York City policeman, a tradition he inherited from his father and grandfather. Songs such as “Baby Hold On To Me,” "Two Tickets To Paradise,” “Take Me Home Tonight,” “Think I’m In Love,” “Shakin’,” “Endless Nights,” and many others defined his style as a gravelly voiced, no-nonsense guy next door. You probably know Money from his reign on the charts in the late ‘70s through mid ‘80s. The former Edward Mahoney is still, at heart, an Irish homeboy, always loaded with a wisecrack and an unapologetic urge to say whatever’s on his mind. I got a nice shout out by Lady Gaga in Rolling Stone a couple of months ago. That’s kind of like a Billy Joel or Bon Jovi. “I’ve been getting really great reviews,” he breathlessly proclaims moments into the interview.
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