Patterson Hood

Drive-By Trucker digs Big Star’s Radio City (Ardent, 1974).

The first Big Star album I bought was a double CD of #1 Record and Radio City in 1992. Rykodisc had released Third/Sister Lovers separately, so I bought all three albums the same day, and that was my soundtrack for a year. They’re perfect, but if I have to boil it down to just one then Radio City gets me the most.

A friend in my hometown Florence, Alabama had turned me onto them as a teenager when he played Radio City after some Kinks round at his house. Hearing September Gurls the first time, I just thought it the most perfect pop song imaginable. I love powerpop and I love punk, and Radio City hits the sweet spot in the middle. Their Southern slant on being Anglophiles is really important to me, that Memphis booty swing that a lot of white powerpop doesn’t have. If I could write a pop song like September Gurls I would. It’s not for lack of trying. I sometimes cover it solo, Kanga Roo, too, but you’ve got to have someone who can play that cowbell just right.

When I was putting together Drive-By Truckers I moved to Athens, Georgia. I was the sound guy in the High Hat club and organised a Big Star tribute show. Word got round, and pretty soon Mike Mills wanted in. Mike called Jody Stephens who came over to play drums with him, so we ended up with this Big Star tribute with an Actual Member Of Big Star. I’d met Jody before I even I bought those Big Star CDs. The manager of my first band with Mike Cooley, Adam’s House Cat, was friends with Jody and he’d come see us play in Memphis.

They should have been so successful, but radio was changing and they didn’t play out a lot. I was shocked at how few Big Star shows there were. There was no underground back then. And with their personalities I’m not sure how well they would’ve gotten along in a van.

Drive-By Truckers’ new album The New OK is out on December 18.