Since dominating the 90s with his eclectic American Rap/Rock, Huey Morgan has been based in the UK, working as a radio and television broadcaster, author and DJ – most notably as host of The Huey Show on BBC Radio 6 Music. Now, the original Fun Lovin’ Criminal is back where he belongs: on tour and making music. He’s coming to the O2 in Oxford on 17 May, performing with his new band, Huey Morgan: The Fun Lovin’ Criminal, playing a mix of ‘funk, soul, hip-hop and memories’.
“I am having a bit of a Huey Renaissance here. After my band broke up (those guys didn't get the message so they’re still playing shows) I had been retired from music. About a year ago, Alan McGee got in touch with me, and he says, ‘Yo, man, you need to start making some music’. That got me out playing again, and I'm super happy doing that. On top of all that, at 56 I'm making my debut solo record.”
How does that feel?
All these things are happening for me because I've decided that it's okay to be where I'm at. I think a lot of people aren't happy with their lot – I think that's a British term. When you get to be my age, you realise you're not getting any prettier – you know? This is the youngest you're ever gonna be, that kind of thing. It makes you realise a lot about yourself and that's okay. I think what we do in this self-help era, is to criticise ourselves and motivate ourselves negatively to do things. I [believe in] positive motivation – when you find things about yourself that are good, that you can make better, that you can help other people with, and share. That's one of the reasons I believe my radio show does so well, because every week I really love to give people a three hour break from all the nonsense in the world. You don't hear me talking about politics, I talk about what that song was and what the next song was, because I think it's my duty to give people that that break.
I just think a lot of times what people want to do is change aspects of themselves that are immutable. There are certain things about you, when you're by yourself, that you know to be true. Those kinds of things can be negative as well as positive. So I think it's like the old song says, ‘accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative’.
And that’s what you’re doing now?
I'm a PMA guy; positive mental attitude. I got the tattoo and everything. I think people just concentrate on the negative when it comes to their self. What I'm trying to do with myself is not do that, because there's plenty of times I can. I'm my own worst enemy. There's no one on the internet that can tell me something I haven't already told myself, you know. But I think it's important knowing that at the same time, the good things that are there are there for a reason. They offset the things that maybe you don't do great.
Does it still sting if you read something negative about yourself?
There’s this exercise when I do [when I’m meditating]: who am I? And then the next question is, who's asking? So if someone says something like, Huey, your album's terrible, or Huey, your radio show is terrible, I'll be like, well, that's cool. They can think that all they want. It doesn't affect what I do.
I've never been one to read reviews. When I first I was about to put a record out, the head of my record label, Davitt Sigerson (who was a lovely guy, amazing dude) was a mentor to me. We didn't have a manager at the time, and he said to me, have you heard this? It was a long quote by Theodore Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena [from Roosevelt’s speech, Citizenship in a Republic, 1910]. It's a couple of paragraphs about how the man who's actually doing the deed is the one that should be lauded, not the person pointing out the faults.
I had never understood the idea of critics before that, because I never really thought that I was doing anything that was worth critiquing. I was living my life as a dude, right? But when you put a record out and you're in the public eye, that stuff happens. Reading that tempered me against any kind of negative influence from critics. Because it is just people going, oh, yeah, well, you could have done that better. I don't go out of my way to get upset. I mean, I’m too old to get emotionally badgered by people on the internet.
You sound like you’re very much at peace with yourself. What drives you?
Being given a second chance to do anything is very rare: if you get a first chance in some things, that's very rare. But given this opportunity to make music again, I'm going to do everything I should have done the first time and try to really get to the heart of the matter of the subjects that I'm trying to write about – in my books or my music – so people find an emotional authenticity in it. That's one of the things I really don't like about a lot of the modern music I'm hearing from people my age: I feel like they're just making music so they can cash in, because they've been around for a long enough time that people recognise their name.
So where will the difference lie?
I am in that position now where people recognise my name [and] this record, if it comes out, they'll check it out but if it's just Scooby Snacks mark two, they're gonna be like, ‘Oh, the dude hasn't learned a fucking thing’.
I think being creative is all about evolution and progress, and that's what I'm gonna try to do on this new record. Being given this opportunity that I never thought I'd have – that I didn't really think I deserved – frankly, I'm gonna do the best I can with it, creatively and spiritually.
I'm not trying to sell a million records and be on Top of the Pops anymore, for damn sure, but I'm trying to put something out that is worthwhile for people. If you're going to buy my record, I want it to be worth the money, whether you find something intellectually intriguing in it, or spiritually intriguing, or the song is cool, or whatever. To do that, especially at this stage in my life, I'm aware of all the variables, and psyched to have the opportunity to explore them all.
HUEY MORGAN: THE FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINAL
17 May, O2 Academy Oxford
Tickets and more information at hueymorgan.com
