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SM: My band, The Wilson Mower Pursuit, was making a lot of headway at the time, and one of
the club owners saw us, and started booking us into a few of his clubs, turns out the owner was
Punch Andrews, who, as it happens was Bob Seger’s manager. I met Bob briefly, and then we
started to open for him occasionally, what a great time in my life that was. Things were really
starting to pick up, career-wise.

Bob eventually
Shaun Murphy, Bob Seeger, Marcy Levy asked me to do a
session for the song
Katmandu, and that
course set that
wheel in motion.
Fast forward a few
months…I was out

in LA with Motown,
but was caught in
the revamping of the
Motown company,
so I was pretty much
on hold with what
their plans were.
Suddenly, a call
came in from Punch:
‘Bob wants to know if you’d like to sing some backups for him on the road’. Well, I’d really never
done anything quite like that, so, how hard could it be???

I immediately called the Motown offices, told them; ‘when you get serious, call me, otherwise,
I’m going back to Detroit and work’! Then after a short hiatus with Bob Seger And The Borneo
Band, his star was rising. I’d left for another play on Broadway: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band On The Road, A Robert Stigwood extravaganza. A number of my bands filled a few years,
and Bob called again, he’d been listening to some tapes and thought I’d better come back out and
join the band…..and I was there till he retired 11/1/19.

LL: On to working with Eric Clapton! Please tell us all about it!
SM: Now here’s a perfect kismet! I had to drive to one of Punch’s clubs to pick up a band check,
and lo and behold, Bob Seger was in the office, but what was most interesting was that Cream

was playing that very club, that very moment!! So I got to meet Eric, and of course chat a few
minutes with Seger….What were the odds that two of my favorites, in the same venue, at the
same time?!?

I have to digress a bit, to tell you that while on the road with Seger, at the beginning, I was singing
with Marcy Levy, (aka, Marcella Detroit) Well, again, fast forward, Eric Clapton was doing a new
album Called “Behind The Sun”. Eric asked Marcy if she knew of another singer with a strong
voice that would be a good fit for the recording. Right away, my name came up!!! I got a call and
Eric’s manager asked if I would care to fly to sing on this record, like in a couple of days….sure,
‘do you have a passport?’ Thankfully, I said yes, ‘oh good, because we’re recording in Monserrat
in the Caribbean. In a daze, I gathered myself, flew down and Phil Collins was the producer, a
more detailed, put together schedule, I’d never seen, everything went like clockwork, perfectly
timed! We went in to do the first song. At the end, Eric came in the vocal booth and said: ‘Would
you two like to do the touring for this record?’ We looked at each other, and in unison, cried YES!
Could it have been more perfect? YES, we did Live Aid as well!!