‘We lived in the moment’
MOTHER Nature’s Kitchen transported Kevin McDermott around the world, and he shared the spotlight with some of his musical peers.
The band opened for Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker and Status Quo at Celtic Park and Wembley Stadium in 1991.
They played with Simple Minds, Sting, The Alarm and Melissa Etheridge. The album also took them across the Atlantic.
“I’d spent time busking in the States. So to go back there on a proper tour bus, and be living in decent hotels, felt so much better,” McDermott said.
“To crack America, whatever that means, you have to be seen to actually be in America. Sometimes there was not a lot of glamour involved. But just the fact that songs I’d written in Yarrow’s had taken me around the world was enough. We lived in the moment every single day. I loved it.”
The group shot a video for Where We Were Meant To Be in a crumbling mansion in Laurel Canyon – the former home of legendary escapologist Harry Houdini.
“The house has since been renovated and it’s become a bit of a tourist attraction, but back then it was absolutely dilapidated and falling to bits,” he recalled.
“The Red Hot Chili Peppers booked the place right after us and set up a studio to record their album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. But they were spooked, big time. It was a very creepy place.”
Two years ago – to mark the 30th anniversary of Mother Nature’s Kitchen – the band performed the album with a three-night residency at The Admiral Bar.
“I’m not really big on hanging my jacket on anniversaries,” he said.
“It’s disrespectful in a way. I don’t need it as a marketing device to sell a T-shirt or a hoodie. But I would still play it for people who bought it, and have supported me in all my other ventures over the years.
“Cliched as it sounds, I believe when you put a record into the public domain, it no longer belongs to you. I knew exactly what I was doing when we made it. It validated my instincts then and it still validates my instincts now.
“Mother Nature’s Kitchen belongs to anybody who’s invested in it for their own reasons. I like to be presented with the prism of somebody else’s experiences.”