Leslie West: A Mountain of a Musician

Leslie West and his band Mountain wrote the definition for heavy metal music nearly 35 years ago. Their songs “Nantucket Sleighride” and “Mississippi Queen,” have forever engraved the band into rock and roll immortality. West set the bar for hard rock guitar and inspired a generation of players, including many young slingers today who point to West and his inventive style as the standard for metal guitar.
Mountain comes to town March 20 to perform at the Leelanau Sands Showroom for one show.
Despite the group’s legendary status with fans and their musical peers, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has panned Mountain. This doesn’t concern lead guitarist and founding member Leslie West.
“I really don’t pay attention to those kinds of things,” said West. “I just enjoy playing and people seem to still enjoy me playing, so I leave it at that.”
Just how good is West?
In 1971 Pete Townshend of The Who asked West to play lead guitar on the “Who’s Next” album. West recalls it being somewhat humorous:
“At first I thought it was a joke and then Kit Lambert, manager of The Who asked if Felix (Pappalardi) could come along with me and play keyboards. Well Felix had produced Cream, co-wrote all of their hits, and I thought he had played some keyboards with Cream, so I said sure,” said West. “We get to the studio and Felix starts unpacking his bass rig and everyone is looking at him kind of funny since The Who had a bass player. Then he went to the control board like he was the producer and Townshend didn’t like that. So after a few songs Felix tried to come in and play bass and Townshend got mad, and Felix replied, ‘Make up your mind -- you either want me to play or not -- I am busy‘. Well, Townshend said to him, we thought you were Felix Caviliere from the Young Rascals here to play keyboards. Well, Felix got embarassed and left.”

GLORY DAZE
Felix Pappalardi and Leslie West formed Mountain in July of 1969. A month and three concerts later they performed in front of a half million people at a festival in upstate New York. After Woodstock, the group released its debut album in 1970, “Mountain Climbing.”
Despite the song‘s wide popularity, even today, “Mississippi Queen” from the debut album never rose above #21 on the charts. Yet the group to date has sold millions of copies of their collective works.
From 1970 through 1972 Mountain with Pappalardi on bass, West on guitar and Corky Laing on drums set the standard for powerhouse rock trios. The group enjoyed immense popularity, headlining several festivals. Pappalardi would eventually quit to pursue his producing interests, including going on to produce Lynyrd Skynyrd.
In late 1972 West along with Laing would form another super group with legendary Cream bassist Jack Bruce. The group released two albums before breaking up a year later, bringing a reunion with Pappalardi and the release of “Avalanche.” But Mountain as they were known would break up in 1974 for good.
In 1983 Pappalardi’s wife would shoot him to death. Ironically his wife Gail Collins co-wrote several of Mountain’s hits as well as painted the artwork and took the photo’s that made Mountain albums some of the most unique in their day.

WESTWARD HO
West released a few solo albums during the 1970s with Laing joining him, but eventually he drifted away from the industry in the early 1980s. He returned in 1988 to release his solo album “Theme,” with a follow up album in 1989 titled “Alligator.”
During the 1990s West would hook up with shock jock Howard Stern to serve as his music director before reuniting with Corky Laing to reform Mountain. The two have remained close friends for the past 35 years. Richie Scarlet joins the group on bass, Scarlet is of Ace Freley and Sebastian Bach fame. Mountain and West are as busy now as ever and are enjoying renewed interest in their music.
“This is my job -- I still love to play the guitar -- so yeah I am busy, but I don’t mind,” said West. “We have toured Europe five times in the last two years and will be heading back there this spring. It is different over there because things are not based on charts like in the States. There are great audiences over there and they love their hard rock and heavy metal.”
Despite a chart-oriented industry Mountain has several festival gigs lined up this summer and the group kicks off a new tour this week sponsored by VH-1 Classics to promote the release of their new DVD, “Sea of Fire,” The DVD will be released for the first time when they arrive in Suttons Bay. In addition Sony is re-releasing “Mountain Climbing,” and “Nantucket Sleighride,” the group‘s second album next month.

TOPS ON THE LIST
Numerous guitarists including Richie Sambora, Eddie Van Halen and Ritchie Blackmore all have cited West as their major influence. This has led VH-1 Classics to have West host several episodes of their popular show “Metal Mania,“ where West will select from the studios 3,000 videos, playing his favorites and talking about the bands and the music they made. VH-1 Classics has grown from 3 million viewers a year ago to over 25 million today, pointing to a renewed interest in classic rock.
How does West define heavy metal or hard rock?
“When I started they didn’t call it heavy metal but they can call it whatever the hell they want,” said West. “It is like pornography -- I don’t know how to describe it, but when I see it I know what it is. “When I hear heavy metal music I know what it is.”
West also feels there are a lot of great bands out there and is constantly looking for groups. In 1999 he produced the debut album for Atlantic artists, Clutch, and has his eye on another band out of Boston that he feels has potential.
“I look for young kids that remind me of me when I was young -- the ones that remind me why I even started in this world of making music,” said West. “I love a guy from up your way, he can play the guitar, and in fact I love the whole Kid Rock Band. You tell Kenny Olson to get his guitar and come and join me on stage, he has an open invitation any night.”

ICONS OF ROCK
If West isn’t busy enough he is launching a show on the QVC Shopping Network called “Icons of Rock,” it will feature several classic rock stars including Mark Farner.
“There is another guy that lives up your way,” said West. “Mark is not only a great guitarist, he remains one of my closest friends in this business. They don’t come much better than Mark Farner.”
West appears on the George Harrison tribute CD, “Songs From The Material World,” with Todd Rundgren, Bill Wyman, Wayne Kramer and a few others. The CD was released last week.
Mountain is also returning to the studio, working on a new CD that is scheduled for release late this fall.
Does Leslie West have time to do anything else?
“Yes, eat! I love food. My brother and my cousin have 24 restaurants in the New York area. My brother and I also have interest in a Tapas Bar called Sala (Sala is one of New York’s top tapas bars, often receiving five stars for its food and service). Originally I wanted to open up a blues club and my brother said we want to open up a tapas club, I said topless, that is dynamite, he said no ‘tapas,‘ not topless, I said what the f…is tapas. It is a great place and I am glad to be a part of it, because we have good food and great looking women coming.”
Leslie West and Mountain put heavy metal into the blues 35 years ago, creating a new hard driving raucous sound that continues to inspire young and old alike today. If you plan to go ice fishing on West Bay do it before March 20 because after West, Laing and Scarlet hit the Leelanau Sands Showroom Stage the sound waves alone will break up the ice. For ticket information call the Sands Showroom box office (877) 271-7980.

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