Pop Quiz: Catching up with Steve Miller.
Steve Miller, 72, the man whose songs like “The Joker” and “Fly Like an Eagle” are playing on thousands of radio stations around the world at this very moment, is coming back to where it all started. The Dallas native returns to the Bay Area, where his career ignited in the late ’60s, for a one-night-only concert billed as San Francisco Fest 2016 at AT&T Park on Sept. 4. Modeled on Bill Graham’s famed Day on the Green shows, the lineup also includes Santana, Journey and the Doobie Brothers. Miller talked to us from his home in New York.
Q: I’m looking at the lineup for this concert, and you’re basically the only band that hasn’t lost its front man.
A: I’m still around. That’s true. The thing that’s really interesting about these guys is, having been what we’ve all been through, you realize these are great professional musicians and they’re still performing at a real high level. I think it’s amazing that we’re still on our feet. It’s a pretty big package of San Francisco talent.
Q: I assume there’s a little less ego involved now than at the original Day on the Green concerts.
A: It’s almost 45 or 50 years later. Everything was different. I remember having Day of the Green shows with the Eagles where it was really rough and ugly. But I’ve always been friendly with people. I’ve known all these guys a long time. Earlier, there was a lot of competition. You didn’t know if you were going to have a career in three years.
Q: You’re playing up to 80 shows a year on your own. Do you foresee a time when you will want to cut back?
A: I’ve been doing it since I was 12. I’m still doing it. I don’t know if you go on like B.B. King until you drop dead or you just stop. The thing I love about what I’m doing is I’m doing it a level where my audience is big enough and strong enough and it’s OK. The hotel rooms suck — it doesn’t matter if it’s the Four Seasons or the Holiday Inn — but the actual playing and audience part is great. I like working.
Q: B.B. King sounds like a solid role model.
A: I really enjoyed his three funerals. It changed my mind about everything. I always thought I would be cremated somewhere and no one would notice. F— that! I want five parades. I saw B.B.’s life being a great life — how far music had taken him and how beloved he was when they put his body in a wagon and drug it all over the States. Before he was buried in Mississippi, his body had been paraded in Vegas and New Orleans. That’s what I want. I want an open casket and to look like “The Walking Dead” and scare everybody.
Q: You have to leave behind fossils for people to discover in 5 million years.
A: With a big diamond skull ring with the S.M. initials on my finger. Christ, people in my family were dying at my age, and I feel like I’m 29. It doesn’t make much sense. As long as I can stay healthy and keep doing it, I’m going to do it.