Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter on the Beatles song that hooked him

Legendary English singer-songwriter and musician Ian Hunter joined host Kenneth Womack to talk about making music with Mick Ronson, the “weird feeling when you get a message from a Beatle on your answering machine,” his new album “Defiance Part 1” and much more on “Everything Fab Four,” a podcast co-produced by me and Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon.

Hunter, best known as the lead singer of rock band Mott the Hoople – which shot to stardom in the early ’70s with the David Bowie-penned hit “All the Young Dudes” – says he grew up in the “opposite” of a musical household. As he told Womack, his parents “were good people who brought me up properly, but it wasn’t exciting enough. I had to get out of there.” He began looking for that excitement in music and, “as a lark,” entered a Butlin’s Holiday Camp talent competition as part of a trio — and won.

Though he said he never thought he’d “be a pro,” Hunter had stints in a few other bands around England and even played the famed Star Club in Germany, one of the early venues where the Beatles had cut their teeth, before finding fame with Mott the Hoople. As for the Fab Four, Hunter first remembers seeing them on the popular variety show “Sunday Night at the London Palladium” in 1963, and it was their cover of “Twist and Shout” that hooked him.

“They were different, they were a step up,” he said. “McCartney would have been Sinatra in another world. And Lennon was as rock as you could get. The combination of those two, song-wise, lyrics-wise, and vocally – you couldn’t beat it.”

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Decades later, Hunter would find himself working with a former Beatle when he got a call from Ringo Starr to join his 2001 All-Starr Band tour. Starr is also one of several famous musicians Hunter collaborates with on his new album, which includes tracks recorded with Todd Rundgren, Billy Bob Thornton (who will be a guest on this season of “Everything Fab Four”) and the late Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins. Starr drums on the single “Bed of Roses,” and Hunter had him in mind for the role as soon as he listened to the demo. “I sent it to Ringo and he liked it, so he played on it. It was perfect… He’s fun to be with. He’s still got that sense of humor.”

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As for Mott the Hoople, Hunter said, “We weren’t the greatest band in the world, but we had the spirit. And we were unselfish musically. Very selfish in other areas, but never selfish with music.”

Listen to the entire conversation with Ian Hunter on “Everything Fab Four” and subscribe via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google, or wherever you’re listening. “Everything Fab Four” is distributed by Salon.

Host Kenneth Womack is the author of a two-volume biography on Beatles producer George Martin and the bestselling books “Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles” and “John Lennon, 1980: The Last Days in the Life.” His latest project is the authorized biography and archives of Beatles road manager Mal Evans, due out in November 2023.