The whole thing’s been a fluke,” says Ian Hunter, “a lovely fluke.”
Back in 2019, even Ian Hunter thought that he was finished. He had released his last solo album, Fingers Crossed, in 2016. That same year saw the release of Stranded In Reality, a 30-CD boxset of his solo material that felt like a whopping great full stop to an amazing career. UK and US tours with Mott The Hoople in 2019 seemed to take things full circle.
To mark his 80th birthday, he did five nights at The Winery in New York City, playing through his back catalogue.
“I thought that was it,” he admits. But Ian Hunter underestimated himself. Def Leppard manager Mike Kobayashi came to The Winery shows and offered to manage him. So there he was: 80 years old with a new manager – aguy who manages one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
Then in 2020, Covid hit, he says: “And me and a million others went downstairs into the basement and started writing songs. Because there was nothing else to do.”
Three years later, Hunter has a new record deal – with Sun Records, no less, the label that inspired him to get involved in rock’n’roll in the first place – and we have Defiance Part 1, ten new songs featuring a Who’s Who of rock, including some of the last recordings from Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins, as well as input from Slash, Billy Gibbons, Ringo Starr, Joe Elliott, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, Todd Rungren, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Dean and Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots, Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford, movie star musos Johnny Depp and Billy Bob Thornton and more.
It’s a thrilling record that reminds you of why you like rock’n’roll in the first place. Smart, ballsy, touching, defiant.
“It’s an intelligent racket,” shrugs Hunter. “We sent the right tracks to the right people.”
So here he is at 83 with his foot on the monitor delivering one of the hardest rock albums he’s done in years, with guys from Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. “Why not? That’s why the album is called Defiance. ‘What’s he doing making a rock’n’roll album?’ But it came naturally. There was no plan. I just kept writing and that’s what came out.
“I just wake up in the morning and there’s an idea. I don’t write for business. If it comes, it comes. And I just got on a tear.” ➤
So Covid was an unexpected inspiration?
Well, I’m lively. And if there’s nothing else to do, you might as well. Plus, it was like: I shouldn’t be doing this at my age, so that’s another reason to do it. When we came off the road with the Rant Band, it’d been 10 years of album after tour and it felt like time for change. I wasn’t quite sure what that change would be but, you know, you just sit down and write. And then I had Mike, and there’s another guy, [photographer] Ross Halfin – do you know Ross Halfin?
I do know Ross. Very well.
Ross has been a mate of mine for a long time. I’m one of the few people he hasn’t fallen out with.
Oh, give it time, Ian.
I’ll tell you why I like him: because he tells you what to do to take a good picture. I’m no good at that. He’s like: “Chin up, chin down, move this way, move that way”. It’s great to do that because then you don’t have to think about it. But between him and Mike Kobayashi, they were saying, “How about somebody else doing your songs?” And I sent them a couple and then it was like, “Well, Slash likes this one. Billy Gibbons will do that one.” And that’s how it started. I kept writing and they kept getting people involved. And Andy York, who was co-producer with me, we suggested people too. I suggested Ringo, because [first single] is his groove. It’s a headnodder. He
