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like they were magical, man. Brownie would say stuff like. [Brownie accent] “You work for me,
Sonny, and I'll look out for you”, or something like that. They were pals at that point still. They
hadn't burned the bridge, but I remember asking Brownie about it and Brownie’s explanation
was…he said that what happened is that when they did the A&M Record, Sonny was too tight
to hire a band.
BiTS: So I gather.
MH: And that he would only hire the
drummer, this guy, what was his
name? Had a weird name like Stutz or
something like that. I can't think of his
name. He's the guy that plays on the
Johnny Winter produced Sonny
albums. (Styve Homnick, Ed) He was
a cool drummer. Yeah, he said that
when Sonny wouldn't do that, that that
was kind of the last straw for him
because I guess the way Brownie
looked at it is that album was their
chance at success because they had a
full band on the whole album. He felt
like the only way to properly promote
the gigs they were doing after that was
to have a full band so they could do all
the songs off of it and Sonny would not
renege to that.
BiTS: Which is a great shame. It's actually a very fine album. It's one of my favourites, believe
it or not.
MH: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, Brownie, I think, felt like that was his last shot at really them
doing something together that was a success. But Sonny, being a penny pincher, it would ruin
their career and that was when he really pulled the plug on getting along on stage. I mean, it's
sad because to me they were like the Sunshine Boys, man.
BiTS: Tell me, Mark, what are your plans for the future? I mean, apart from the Blues Blowout,
but are you planning to go into the studio again?
MH: Well, I just did. I went into the studio in July, and I went in in October. So I do have a new
album that's going to drop this year and that album features a number of great musicians that
I've been working with for a while. Junior Watson's going to be on it. Kadar Roy on bass. Wes
Starr’s on drums on the entire record. Billy Flynn is on half of it. Randy Bermudes is on half.
Bob Welch is on half of it. I've got Oscar Wilson on a song. I've got Joe Beard on a song and it's
a lot of originals on this record.
BiTS: That's wonderful. And that's coming out when?
MH: I'd say May or June.
BiTS: Oh, that's wonderful. And what about the immediate future? Have you got gigs coming
up somewhere?