Unlike most guests on RPM45, Russell Hitchcock didn't dream of becoming a music star while growing up in his native Australia. He got into music only because his girlfriend pushed him to audition for Jesus Christ Superstar, where where he met his future band mate Graham Russell. Five years later, Air Supply began a string of seven consecutive Top Five hits, including "Lost in Love," "All Out of Love," and "The One That You Love."
In this episode, Russell talks about...
Unlike most guests on RPM45, Russell Hitchcock didn't dream of becoming a music star while growing up in his native Australia. He got into music only because his girlfriend pushed him to audition for Jesus Christ Superstar, where where he met his future band mate Graham Russell. Five years later, Air Supply began a string of seven consecutive Top Five hits, including "Lost in Love," "All Out of Love," and "The One That You Love."
In this episode, Russell talks about...
Hey, this is Mark Kassoff and this is RPM 45 this week. I guy who got into music only because his girlfriend pushed him to audition for Jesus Christ superstar. Five years later, he and his band mate begin a string of seven consecutive, top five hits. Here's our talk with Russell Hitchcock of air supply. I've watched some of your interviews with Russell, your partner, you guys seem like you have an amazing partners.
Speaker 2:We do, you know, it's been 45 years this year and we started together in a production Jesus Christ superstar in Australia for two years. And we've been on the road ever since. And I'm sure a couple of the ingredients that we didn't, we didn't have success early in our lives. So there was very little ego involved between either of us. Graham doesn't want to be as the singer and he bought up, I can't write songs. So we compliment each other tremendously there. We know each other as deeply as any, any two guys that worked together could. So I know when he's having a good day or a bad day for me, we don't step on each other's toes. Um, and I respect him and I love him as a brother. And obviously he's one of the best songwriters that's ever existed. In my opinion, it seems like you have a lot of laughs. Oh, we do. We, we kinda, might've not official back in the beginning, but if we didn't like working with each other, we wouldn't do it anymore, but that certainly hasn't, uh, by any, any means of the imagination, gotten even close to that. I mean, I, this, this time apart from, apart from the guys in the band and the touring environment, and, you know, being used to being in a different hotel three or four nights a week and getting on planes that, you know, when I at six in the morning, all that stuff, our relationship on the road is what keeps it all together. And we, you know, we laugh a lot. We have the same kind of sense of humor for people that don't know who's English and I'm Australian. So we have that kind of the Commonwealth, uh, part of our blueprint. Uh, I mean, I have a great time. And then that solar is too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It seemed like it. But you said something interesting to me, which is, you said you didn't have a lot of success at a young age. Well, we're about the same age and I know that you guys started having success in the, in the seventies. That's pretty young.
Speaker 2:Yeah. W what I actually, I wasn't a teenager when we had success. It wasn't like the Hanson's, you know, but I mean, I think when we had our first hit recording, I was 30 something that's like for a music star plus I'd never been in music before superstar. I was in a, I used to work in an office before I got into the shower and met Graham. So I had no experience in music whatsoever.
Speaker 1:You worked in an office, but was it always your goal to be a musician?
Speaker 2:Not, I listened to a lot of music. My dad was a semi-professional singer and my sisters sang in our, so there was always music in the house, but the music I was exposed to first was Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, you know, English singer, famous guy calls Matt Monroe. Then it was like dusty Springfield and, you know, those kinds of things, but it wasn't until I was in high school. And a friend of mine bought me in a 45. For those of you who don't know, that's not a gun piece of plastic, very similar,
Speaker 1:Well, you know what? My podcast is called RPM 45. So yeah. Right. It's all about the 45.
Speaker 2:Well, anyway, he brought me in this 45 and he said, you might want to listen to it. It's a new band called the Beatles. And he gave me the single for on one, hold your hand. And as far as my listening preferences were concerned, they changed that day and stayed the same up until now. I give out everything that they released. My, my bedroom wall was covered in photos of them. I I've thought pair of beetle boots. So I got into music. I was in, uh, living in Sydney, working in an office. And my girlfriend at the time said that they were additioning seniors for Jesus Christ superstar, that you should go along. And I said, why would I, you know, why should I do that? And she said, you can sing and said, everybody can see. And she said, not like you and my experience singing was at parties getting drunk and singing along with the Beatles or whoever. Anyway, I went along and got, got the pot, met Graham, and we became instant friends within a week or so of meeting each other. We started working on his songs,
Speaker 1:Takes a funny twists and turns.
Speaker 2:It does. You know, the interesting thing was once when I got into the show, the first time I sang with everybody, or we sang with everybody in the cost of it just blew my mind. I mean, I, I was, it was like, I got hit my lightning. I said, why hadn't I been doing this for a long time before? But any, any case, you know, she said, life luck is what it is. And then you ended up where you're supposed to be, hopefully. And, uh, that was the beginning of a great relationship and a great career
Speaker 1:You guys got together. Um, and you initially had a hit, you know,
Speaker 2:Australia, correct? Yeah. It was a song that he'd written called love and other bruises, which I think is a great title. We recorded the whole album. Then in a week, the song was a monster. In fact, it was our first gold album. We were off to the races. Really. We had another hit after that called empty pages. And then miraculously, we got asked to open for rod Stewart in Australia. So we did six shows with him. And after the second show, I think he came back and said, do you guys want to come to the U S and open on my U S tour? So, you know, who would say no to that? Right. We'd been in a band for only two months. So we did the rod Stewart tour and came back to Australia and we were dead in the water, but like we never existed.
Speaker 1:And of course in the U S at that time, you hadn't hit yet. Right?
Speaker 2:Sweet. We went back to Australia in that downtime that we had a lot of that crime wrote among other songs, uh, lost in love and all out of love. We got a record deal with a new company cause the other one had dropped us. And, um, they released lasting love. And once again, in Australia, that was huge. It just, you know, went straight to the top. And my wife just coming in, Hey, sweetheart, that went to the top of the charts here. And it took two years to get to the U S before a cloud Davis got hold of it. And, uh, you know, you probably know the rest. Uh, I know the rest.
Speaker 1:Um, but the, the version that we got here was not quite the same version. That was a big hit in Australia.
Speaker 2:I expressed my, uh, misgivings and my, you know, attitude towards that, but it didn't make a difference to climb of course, cause nothing makes a difference to climb, but I, you know, some started everything for us on an international basis. And, but now every time I hear it now I love it. So that's, that's that's water under the bridge. Now
Speaker 1:I was a radio DJ at the time and I played all of them. What a string of hits. I didn't know this until I started researching you guys that you tied the Beatles for top five hits.
Speaker 2:We were equal to them in that we had seven consecutive top five songs. But when you put it in the context of their success, well, no, they had the top five songs on billboard at, at one time, you know, seven consecutive, top fives pales in comparison. However, it was a step that we're very proud of. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's still an amazing, amazing accomplishment. Yes, it is. Absolutely. And then there was a little bit of a delay. You had a couple of songs that weren't that big hits, and then you came back with making love out of nothing at all, which was a number two hits.
Speaker 2:Right. And, uh, that, that was a Jim Steinman song who of course had written for meatloaf produced most of his, if not all his hit records, we met him in New York. He was eccentric to say the least in my opinion. And, uh, he played us making a lot of, kind of nothing at all. And, um, it was about 15 minutes long. So, you know, we said we can't do that. It's too long, Jim. So he got it down to the version that you heard. It became a huge ship all over the world. And it was number two in us because that kept us at our number one was another gym, Bonnie Tyler, total eclipse. We were quite Brown docks that we didn't make it to number one.
Speaker 1:Well, you still sold a ton of them right now. One thing I noticed looking at your discography here was that your hits were actually bigger in the U S than they were in Austin.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. Yeah. Why do you think that is? Um, well probably the population has got a big thing to do with it. Cause obviously, you know, a 10th of the U S population. Well, you know, there's, there's a, there's a thing called the tall poppy syndrome and it happened to BGS. It happened to a bunch of Australian ex where you have success in your home country and you want to go overseas and whoever they are, they don't want you to go overseas. They want you to stay and be successful in Australia and straight like kind of oil and insula. So we always say, we didn't want to be the most famous banner in Australia. We wanted to be the biggest band in the world. So we left the country basically in 1980 and really never went back. And I think we suffered tremendously. I know we did in the media and that probably has an effect on people and their attitude towards your plus. You know, we didn't play shows there live and people just, there's something else to replace you, no matter what you're doing, you know, if you're good enough. And luckily we'd always considered ourselves a touring band and we can still go to the Philippines or Mexico or Hong Kong and sell out stadiums to this day because we kept a presence and a profile and we've always been there.
Speaker 1:So the Australians were like offended because you kind of went big time.
Speaker 2:I think they were an eye on Australia and I think we were, but once again, when anybody sees this in Australia, they'll be offended that I said that, but you know, it's my, my, my belief and my truth. And that's the way I feel about it. I mean, but we went back, uh, I think last year we played at the Sydney opera house with the Sydney symphony, which was a crowning achievement for us, you know, starting in Australia and, and, uh, it doesn't get any better than that or bigger than that. I mean, we played to 175,000 people in Cuba in 2005, but being able to play at the opera house in Sydney with the Sydney symphony was my mind blowing to me. So, you know, as you know, music is a very fickle interesting based, you know, Alicia can go with the flow and adapt when you have to and put up with rejection and don't get overexcited about the success. Then you're in for a hard ride.
Speaker 1:I mean, I have to say, you know, I mean the string of records that you had was amazing and while it's all going on, what's your experience of that? I mean, it must be like riding a wave.
Speaker 2:It was, and I've said this a million times in interviews, uh, the years, 1980 through 83 or 84, wherever it was, we were on the road all the time. One year we left in February and didn't get back home to Australia till Christmas. So it got to the point and this wasn't taken it for granted or being blessed. I abandoned, but we'd be on the, on the road. It's three o'clock in the morning driving from somewhere to another venue, another venue, not a hotel. And we had a couple of guys on the buses that used to look after us and get me a B, and they would come and say, wow, you know, even the nights a better was just my top 10. And we go, all great. Can you get me a, B, we never had the chance to stop and really enjoy it. I regret that because it was an amazing time for us. And, um, it's only when you, you look at the hard formation. In fact, my wife and I just a writer to a room downstairs and now has been good at a bunch of memorabilia, some gold records and things. And I have the billboard shot and the record world shot and the cash chart all on the same big thing. And it was the one that you love was number one on old magazines. And when you pass that and you look at that and you go, well, you know, I did that. I was part of that. That's the enjoyment now. But at the time it was just too fast and too many cities, too many countries, too many conflicts.
Speaker 1:Now, from a us perspective, it basically ends after making love out of nothing at all.
Speaker 2:Correct. And, and ever since then, uh, we've had a couple of hits on the dance chops with a couple of songs, but everything that we take to radio that's new. And I had friends very high up in radio. And in LA I take them new songs. We have some good, I adore you. If anybody wants to look it up and it's beautiful, played it for this guy. And he said, it's a gorgeous song. And I go, where are you going to play it? And you sit down, we're not going to play it out. Our audience, our demographic. They don't want to hear that. Don't want to hear lost in love. They want to hear here. I am. You said, we've actually made studies that if people turn on a radio station and they don't hear something for me within 15 seconds, they'll go to another station. And that's really sad. It's sad because people aren't getting exposed to not just us. I mean, you can't get a new Billy Joel and Elton John, you name it. You can't get them played on radio anymore. And I say this to people on radio that we get interviewed. And have you guys done any senior year where we've only recorded 25 original CDs? I guess you didn't need the last 23 of them because you went.
Speaker 1:So when this string of hits ends is your attitude. Wow. We had a great run or is your attitude damn it's over?
Speaker 2:No, no, I never, I never said damn, it's over the original stuff. Hasn't stopped. In fact, I expect a gram or a zoom thing last week and piece, he said in the break, he's written another 25 new songs. So he doesn't stop. And I'm sure in amongst those that are going to be some gyms, whether you get to hear them or not is another story.
Speaker 1:You're still traveling all over the world, not right now, but you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, we, uh, we did that last night, uh, before this all hit in March, but we've, we've toured extensively every year in Latin America, Southeast Asia,
Speaker 1:Southeast Asia. It seems like you're very big there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were, I think the first band to go to South Korea and play a show in 82, Japan was very big for us. For a number of years, we go back to Hong Kong frequently. We're super big in the Philippines. That's one of the places we're going there. You can't leave the hotel really without some kind of class Indonesia, Thailand, pretty much everywhere in that region. And as I said, we're still very, very big in the Latin American countries, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina replied, you know, Costa Rica, Paraguay, yours line. You throw a, throw a dot on the map down there with your eyes closed
Speaker 1:And over a hundred shows a year.
Speaker 2:Another statistic. I'm very proud. I'm still does it ever get old? The travel gets old and the TSA gets old,
Speaker 1:I guess, used to be so much easier. Didn't it?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. But, um, you know, that's another thing you, you, if you want to be successful, you have to do the work. And if you have to do the work, you've got to get there. And you've got to put up with a lot of things that you wouldn't necessarily want to do. And it interferes with everything, your personal life, it's hard. And people that can go to a show, you know, they go to a show and I see two hours, hopefully entertainment. And then they go home and they don't realize that a lot of times you're going to get on a bus and drive for 14 hours and play the next night. We'll get up. Especially in Mexico, most places, there are two flights a day, one at six in the morning and one at six at night. So you take the 16th. I am one, because if you get there at six at night, it's too late to get everything set up. Then you get there before noon afternoon, do the sound check at five or six? The ticket says nine o'clock start. The show starts at 10 30 or 11. Then you do the show. Get back to the hotel at one 30 in the morning. Then you go to get up at four in the morning to leave again at six in the morning, you go to the next, but it's, you know, it's, I mean, when, when you've been doing it, as long as way, it's just part of the deal.
Speaker 1:I used to travel for my business a lot. I mean, nothing like what you're talking about, nothing, but I thought that was hard. I mean, what you're doing is when you're doing it is incredibly hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. You know, and, and, uh, it's in, kind of becomes part of your DNA. In fact, uh, in the past, if we dated, I think the longest break we ever had before, this was about three weeks. And, uh, everybody was texting each other saying, don't wait to get back on the road and this and that, this, this been an extended vacation. And I love it. But, uh, sometimes on Saturday, I'll think I shouldn't be somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Okay. Did she ever see a point where you're just going to say, Hey, look, I've done this enough. It's a time to slow it down. Or is that a far, far in the future?
Speaker 2:Well, we threatened to slow it down every year. I think the last two or three years would work more than we ever did. Um, and I'm not at the point now, you know, my body is still feels okay. And on one hand I could say, I've got enough now. And that's it. And look back, you know, 45 years of incredible achievements and, and meeting people. I never thought I'd be in the same room with no. On the other hand, I think, you know, it takes me twice as long to get up and go to the bathroom in the morning now because my knees are blocking up all those things that happened to you. When you get old,
Speaker 1:I can definitely relate to all who is your audience now?
Speaker 2:That was not a cliche. It's from six to 60 early. We were fortunate enough to have the audience that began with us in the eighties, which was a lot of very young, young girls and their boyfriends then that extended to their families when they had kids, their kids come and their grandchildren come. So they've been passing the music onto the next generation. And also the last four or five years, I think maybe a bit longer. We've kind of another influx of very young teenagers. We sometimes have meet and greets after the show. It's proud of about show. Sometimes. Now when you ask 16 year olds and 18 year olds, we don't understand why you're here, you know? And they said, uh, well, first of all, we love the music and our parents turned us onto your music. We've always loved it. But you know, we listened to this and this and this and this and this, not just you, but we love your music. So that's a, that's who we have. We've, we've had people in the audience in the last few years that actually sores open for Roadster. And we've, we tend to find that people that come to see us usually stick with it.
Speaker 1:I heard that you have people who come follow you around like a deadhead. So you call them Airheads.
Speaker 2:They do like that. That's a term of a demon folks. What I want to ask you about another appearance
Speaker 1:That you guys made. And it surprised me, frankly, I'll probably lose my man card for saying this, but I watched the bachelor with my daughter.
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 1:When you guys showed up on the bachelor, I did have to tell her who you were, but how did that happen?
Speaker 2:Um, our manager was approached actually sitting, having dinner by the pool and rush restaurant somewhere on the road. You know, I said, I've got to take this call, came back and he asked, grab an item for a minute. And he said, we'd been offered. Cause he's a finale of the bachelor and all that. I don't think Graham was familiar with it at all. And my wife and I were bachelor curves.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I don't have to feel bad admitting it.
Speaker 2:Uh, we, we love it. So we got to do it and we couldn't tell anybody because it was supposed to be the, you know, but it was a live finale. And a lot of people said the same thing. Uh, well, I can't believe you're on that. That's awesome. And a lot of other people said in the comments on Facebook, who, the effort, these guys, and they get anybody like younger or more hip, but it was great. And plus, you know, we got to meet, you know, Colton and, uh, I can't remember the name now, Cassie, but the funniest part was we were staying at a hotel quite close to NBC studios. And, uh, we went there. We pre-drink afterwards, my wife and I, and she's crazy crazy than I am. And, uh, some of the members of previous casts came into the bar and her two favorite hunks came in, what are their names and Hagen Ben Higgins. So, you know, we had photos taken with them and had drinks, Ben Higgins. Right. So that was real fun. Cause we got to talk to them and they were really gracious. And I've kept in touch with Jason A. Little bit that, um, you know, Gina always threatened. She says I have Ben's number. Just be careful.
Speaker 1:All right. Well I tell people, I just watch it to bond with my daughter.
Speaker 2:There you go. Hey, that's, that's an easy out right there.
Speaker 1:So I heard that you have a new album with a symphony that you record.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's called the lost of love experience. It's a double CD. One city is alive concert. The other CD is a instrumental versions of the hits and a couple of things. And it was recorded with the Brock symphony. It certainly wasn't a, we need the money. Let's do this move. It was certainly an artistic decision that worked out beautifully
Speaker 1:And it's called the lost in love experience experience. Okay, great. Well, is there anything I haven't discussed with you that you'd like to talk about?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I think you've done a wonderful job. Thank you. Well, thank you. I've enjoyed talking with you. Me too, man.
Speaker 1:Thanks to Russell Hitchcock of air supply. And thank you for listening. If you like what you heard, there's more where this came from. Subscribe RPM 45. That's R P M four five. No spaces is on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, pretty much every podcast platform. I hope you'll be back next Wednesday for another episode of our PM 45.