The Steve Miller Band still flies like an eagle
Miller's group, Joe Cocker to perform
The Steve Miller Band still flies like an eagle

By Gene Triplett

Published: May 23, 2008

Time may keep on slippin' into the future, but it's not getting past Steve Miller without being put to good use.

Not this year anyway, as 2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of his band's first two albums, "Children of the Future” and "Sailor.” To celebrate, he's unleashing "Live from Chicago,” a special DVD boxed set documenting his two-night stand at the 2007 Ravinia Festival in the city where he interned with the blues greats.

He's also just completed enough new tracks to fill three albums — his first studio recordings since 1993's "Wide River.”

And he's embarked on a 37-city North American tour that will bring him to the Zoo Amphitheatre on Thursday with show-opener Joe Cocker.

"We just played three nights at the Fillmore just to have some fun and warm up, and then we went into Skywalker Ranch to record and we brought in Andy Johns to do the engineering, and we've just had a phenomenal month of recording and playing gigs and we're ready to go, man,” Miller said from his mountain home in the central Idaho Rockies.

The third of the three sold-out shows marked his 109th appearance at the storied San Francisco auditorium. He took his first bow there in 1967, lured away from the fading Chicago blues scene by the promise of the flower-power movement and its accompanying rock 'n' roll renaissance.

"Those days are long gone,” he said. "That (sense of community) was one of the most remarkable things about those times. It's sort of tough to keep something like that together. ... That was really a pretty idealistic time. Probably couldn't pull something like that off nowadays. But it was like a big co-op, a community of artists and promoters and lawyers and poster designers and sound people. Everybody was working on it together, and that's what it took to make it all happen, and it changed the whole world of rock 'n' roll, and when you go see a rock 'n' roll concert today, it was those people back in San Francisco that had that idea and brought it to fruition, made it all happen.”

But Miller still is making things happen four decades after the Haight-Ashbury heyday, revisiting the bluesy roots that predate even those heady times. The bonus features disc from the DVD contains a film of Miller taking a taxi-cab tour through the south side Chicago neighborhoods he used to frequent in 1964-'65, after he'd moved there from Dallas. This was where the smoky clubs and barrooms regularly featured such heavy blues hitters as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Little Walter.

"It was a rude awakening because everything was gone,” Miller recalled. "You'd get to this place, and it'd be like the new world. This is where Big John's used to be, or this is where Pepper's Lounge was, where I first saw Howlin' Wolf, or this was Silvio's, and you'd get there and there'd be like townhouses or modern apartment buildings and stuff like that. Everything had really, really changed a lot. And it was interesting, but what was good about it was hopping in the cab and knowing you were heading over to Pepper's, it really made me think about all of that.”

Certainly, blues has informed even the poppiest of Miller's songs over the years, from "Livin' in the U.S.A.” to "Abracadabra,” but when he re-entered the studio for the first time in about 15 years, many of the songs he and the band laid down were covers of the classics by masters such as Robert Johnson, Charles Brown, James Cotton, Slim Harpo, Elmore James and Bobby Bland. There are some new originals, too, but the blues was obviously weighing heavy on Miller's mind.

"I think we'll probably break it up into a couple (of albums), but they'll come out quickly,” he said. "I think in today's world there's no sense in overwhelming people. Go, hey, here's 40 new songs. I like shorter records, 35, 45 minutes as opposed to 70 minutes of endless stuff. I was just working on the segueing this morning, and it's really interesting because there's three records in here and I'm trying to stretch it to two.”

Miller isn't sure whether Capitol, his longtime label, will issue the music or he'll put it out himself. And when he's asked about the long period between studio efforts, his answer is quite pointed.

"I mean, the record business sucks. Now I think we can put it out without having to go through any record company bull----.”

Miller said Capitol is already "real chapped” at him anyway, since he produced and released the DVD on the Coming Home imprint. The company, which specializes in concert DVDs, spent $2 million producing the film, which was shot with multiple high-definition cameras and recorded in 5.1 (Dolby) Surround Sound.

"That's about a million and a half more than Capitol Records has spent on the Steve Miller Band in the last 15 years,” he said. "And it was kind of fun watching it on a big screen with guys from Capitol Records who were getting smaller and smaller and smaller in their seats, realizing that they hadn't done anything. So that's kind of the record business. But I don't want to bore my audience with grousing about my boss.”

After all, life's too short, and Miller is just beginning to realize that. Maybe it started with that cab ride through Chicago's south side.

"I'm finally beginning to deal with the fact that I'm gettin' older,” he said. "I don't feel old, and I work out and I'm in shape and I go out and play rock 'n' roll all the time. So it's kind of hard to feel my real age. But I'm 64 this year and, you know, the last 10 years went by in it seems like about a year. I mean, 1998 doesn't seem that long ago. So that means the next 10 years are gonna go by twice as fast, so I'm savoring each tour and each thing we do. Because you don't know how long it's gonna run and how long the body's gonna hold up. I'm willing right now. I feel great.”

And there's no time like the present.

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