South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
A musical life from Byrds to Burritos and more
Chris Hillman is a man of many bands
LOSANGELES— Tom Petty once described him as one of rock music’s most well-kept secrets, and Chris Hillman is fine with that.
Sixty-one years after he picked up his first guitar, Hillman says musicwas never about becoming rich and famous, something he mocked in the whimsical 1967 hit “SoYouWant to Be aRock andRoll Star” that he co-wrote with fellow bandmateRogerMcGuinn for theByrds.
Itwas never about getting into theRock& RollHall of Fameeither, although Hillman, McGuinn and their fellow Byrds are there too.
That’s thanks in large part to the group having laid the groundwork for the musical subgenres folk rock and country rock in the late 1960s with songs likeHillman’s “Between Time,” that put a driving, rock-based melody to a country heartbreak ballad, and the band’s interpretation of songs like Bob Dylan’s “Mr. TambourineMan” that famously featuredMcGuinn’s jangling, 12-string electric guitar.
None of itwas deliberate, but organic, Hillman says now, explaining howhe went through a half-century of performance simply pursuing themusic that he loved, frombluegrass to folk to country to rock.
“I just had such a passion for the music,” he said by phone recently fromhis sun-dappled hillsidehome overlooking the Pacific Ocean inVentura, California.
“I never thought Iwould get paid,” added Hillman, a friendly, modestman of 76. “Iwas just having somuch fun.”
That passion is revealed in his just-published memoir, “Time Between: My Life as aByrd, Burrito Brother, and Beyond.” It recounts howa carefree surfer kid froma small California beach townhad his idyllic 1950s life redirected at age 15when his mother, having given in to his repeated pleas, bought him a $10 guitar during a shopping trip to Tijuana, Mexico, with the promise that if he actually learned to play the thing, she’d eventually help him get a better one.
Not that he didn’t face and overcome plenty of dark moments over the succeeding half-century, beginning with the first and probably darkest, his beloved father’s suicide whenHillmanwas just 16.
In the following years he’d see numerous friends fall victim towhat he calls the hedonistic lifestyle that lured somanymusicians of his generation.
Most prominent of them was likelyGramParsons, whoplayed with Hillman in both theByrds and the FlyingBurrito Brothers and died in aCalifornia desert hotel roomof a drug overdose at age 26.
Afew years before, Parsons and Hillman had written the song “Sin
City,” a searing indictment of the Los Angeles music scene’s dark side of money, drugs and fame in those years.
Hillman, whocredits his Christian faith with steering him pastmuch of that tumult, doesn’t go into great detail about those moments in the book other than to observe that Parsons and others made bad choices.
“I didn’twant towrite
about somebody with a drug habit or finding them passed out or dying,” he says, adding hewarned his publisher not to expect that.
“I’m not going to hand you a rock ’n’ roll salacious book because I didn’t really livemy life like that,” he says he told them.
One couldmake the case that enough others already have, which is one of the things he says inspired him to begin his ownbook.
“Alot of peoplewould write thingswhowere not even around or alive at that point in time,” he says. “One book out, the guy never even talked tome.”
Initially he thought his would be something to set the record straight for his children and grandchildren. But as he progressed he began to see it as a story of redemption that might have broader appeal.
It tells howhis mother held the family together after his father’s death, moving them fromthe bucolic San Diego-area
beach town ofRancho Santa Fe to Los Angeles and, soon after, howshe had enough faith in her still-teenage son to allow his return back so he could join the Scottsboro Squirrel Barkers, San Diego’s hottest bluegrass band at the time.
By this point he’d become skilled on both guitar and mandolin and he played the latter with the SquirrelBarkers, whose members also included Eagles co-founder Bernie Leadon at one time.
He returned to Los Angeles, where he’d pick up the bass guitar this time and join theByrds.
Soon theywere making country-rock and folk-rock history with songs like “Eight Miles High” and “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better.”
Over the years hewould play in eight different bands alongside a veritable who’swhoofLAmusicians of the time, includingDavid Crosby, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay.
“Roger askedmesix
months ago, ‘Howmany bandswere you in?’ he says ofMcGuinn. “I said eight. He said, ‘That’s unbelievable.’
“I guess I kept all the insane people sane. That wasmy job in the band,” he says, laughing heartily before quickly adding, “No, just kidding.”
Staying close to home with his wife, Connie, these days because of the pandemic, he recently performed a concert from his office with his old DesertRoseBandmates Herb Pederson and John Jorgenson.
He’s anxious to get back in front of live audiences.
He recently took part in a “car concert” at theVentura County Fairgrounds but says that justwasn’t the same.
“I’m singing and all I hear are car horns. That was their applause,” he says, laughing again.
“They’re going beep, beep, beep and I’m going, ‘Oh God, I hope that’s not my last live performance.’ ”