He is truly an English rock icon. Ian Hunter may be 83 years old, but the intentions are still the same. Only his group of friends keeps expanding. His new album Defiance Part 1 is an example of this. He managed to put together an unlikely guest list with Ringo Starr, Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Todd Rundgren, Brad Whitford (Aerosmith), Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses) and Mike Campbell (Tom Petty).
But Taylor Hawkins, the late drummer of the Foo Fighters, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott and actor Johnny Depp also participated. They are all fans of Hunter and of course his former group Mott The Hoople. At the time David Bowie’s favorite band who gave them the monster hit All The Young Dudes. The band name comes up again in every interview with the singer. Mott The Hoople had everything it took to become a supergroup, but success never really got off the ground. Now Hunter can laugh about it. ‘ We made great records that didn’t sell very well. That’s a fact. But we have left something behind for history and that is actually much more important.’ The respect that Hunter has among top musicians is still great.
Hunter first made himself heard at the end of the 1950s. In the years that followed, the man from Shropshire worked with top musicians such as Bad Company’s Mick Ralphs, bassist Jaco Pastorius and saxophonist David Sanborn. But his right hand during the successful years was guitarist Mick Ronson. Yes, the man who was so instrumental in Bowie’s Spiders From Mars. ‘ Mick played with me until his death. Just like Jeff (Jeff Beck), he was an absolute natural. The strange thing is that Jeff’s guitar parts on my record were the last parts he played in a studio.’ Hunter has lived in America for years, simply because life is cheaper and simpler there. I moved to America in 1975. Just after I got out of Mott The Hoople. Why? Because the English government wanted to rake in all our hard-earned money. I remember Robert Plant moving to America at the same time as I did. Only for him it was about significantly more money.’
The songs for his new album were created during the Covid lockdown. ‘ I immediately got help from my good friend Ringo Starr, Todd Rundgren and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco). Actually, it went very quickly. Everyone I approached immediately said ‘yes’. Hunter himself does not find it surprising that he is still making records at his advanced age. ‘I have become better and better at what I do. But doesn’t that apply to everyone? A teacher or a plumber is also getting better at his profession, right? My age is not an obstacle. Those 83 years don’t interest me one bit.’ During his life he met big stars. For example, Mott The Hoople toured with Queen in the 1970s. ‘ They had just had their first hit and they were something of a natural storm live. I really wanted them as our support act. I had never seen anything like it live. Freddie Mercury is perhaps the best singer I have ever experienced live up close. But the whole band was fantastic, from another planet.’
He had a good relationship with the band members of Queen, but also with David Bowie. ‘ Yet I didn’t call him a friend. He wasn’t the man I would go out with tonight. But he was just a fan of Mott The Hoople. When David heard in 1971 that we wanted to stop, he jumped into the breach. At first he gave us the song Suffragette City but I didn’t think the song suited the band. Then David wrote All The Young Dudes. David took us to the Olympic Studios where we recorded his song with Mott The Hoople.’
As with Mercury, Hunter noticed that Bowie had the same character trait: ‘Both wanted to be superstars and both could be unscrupulous. You also need that to achieve that status. I didn’t and don’t have that. I just wanted to play rock ‘n’ roll. When we scored that one big hit with Mott The Hoople, everyone suddenly started to like us. I thought that was really terrible.’ Both Bowie and Mercury are no longer alive. Hunter does and has no plans to stop yet. ‘ I decided a while ago not to play live anymore. But I can still make records very well. I am also proud of Defiance Part 1. Logically, with all the names who contributed to it.’
Ian Hunter – Defiance Part 1 and Defiance Party 2: Fiction (Sun Records) are out now.
