Interview

MAJD: As a label that was known for putting out Jamaican music, how did you get record stores to buy The Spencer Davis Group?

BLACKWELL: I licensed that record to Philips too. It was only when The Spencer Davis Group broke up, and Steve Winwood started with Traffic, that I put out his records on Island. That was in 1967, and it seemed like everything really blew up right around that time, because so many people in England were trying to make these basic, blues-based records, but people were also starting to write their own songs. In a sense, The Beatles sort of drove the whole thing, because they were a band that loved the blues and wrote their own songs, and their success kind of encouraged people. It’s like anything—you just need one example of success, and people say, “Boy, I think I could do that . . .” You know? So it was really The Beatles that drove the whole industry. They might actually be the reason why the whole world speaks English now. I really think so. I used to travel around Europe, because Millie was around the same time as The Beatles, and very few people spoke English when you were in France, Holland, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia . . .

MAJD: So John Lennon was right when he said that they were bigger than Jesus, because nobody speaks Aramaic now.

BLACKWELL: Well, the Rasta dem try. [both laugh]

MAJD: So between ’65 and ’75 you were just licensing your records in America?

BLACKWELL: I was touring a lot, because part of the deal I had with Winwood was that he would only tour if I toured with him. So I went everywhere that they did outside of England. I loved the touring because you could really feel the audience. You were much closer to everything.

MAJD: Well, you learned the business of touring, too, which was important for the kinds of acts that you signed subsequently, such as Bob Marley. Touring was crucial to Bob, who had a hard time getting on the radio.

BLACKWELL: Nobody was interested in playing Bob Marley on the radio. We had to tour him—that was the only way it could work.

MAJD: When Bob came to see you in England, did you already know him from Jamaica?

BLACKWELL: I didn’t know him.

MAJD: But you knew who he was, and he came to see you in your London office, and . . . Well, the story is famous: You gave him 4,000 pounds to go and make a record, not thinking that he’d ever show up again . . .

BLACKWELL: Well, I believed that he would.

MAJD: But nobody else at Island did.