Interview with Mickey Lee Soule
By David Lee Wilson
Man, am I excited about this one! I received an interview
with Mickey Lee Soule done by David Lee Wilson in May 2002.
He's allowing me to post it on this site. I've always said
(mostly to myself) that I would kill to get an interview
with Mickey Lee Soule. Well, I didn't conduct this one, but
it's just as good. I've said it before, and I'll say it
again, Mickey's piano on the Elf albums was the single
greatest influence on that music (along with Ronnie's
voice!). I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as
I did. (I did no editing of this interview - it's posted
exactly as I received it. Didn't want to change any of
Mickey's words.)
Interview by David Lee Wilson
For some, well for me at least, there are stories
infinitely more interesting than the ones told by, of or
about the easily named characters in Rock music. It is the
off center-stage perspectives that really color a story and
one can find an extremely full color palette in the example
of original RAINBOW keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule.
For our purposes we will say that Soule began his
professional career with the criminally under appreciated
ELF. ELF was a most unique Rock and Roll band whose three
discs of Boogie flavored Blues-Rock could in a single
listen travel across fields of Progressive-Rock flamboyance
only to end in the grandest examples of a three-chord power
jam. The bulk of ELF’s material was written by Soule
and the (pre-) legendary Ronnie James Dio, (Ronald Padavona
was the credit on the first album), and produced by DEEP
PURPLE’s Roger Glover and Ian Paice. Though they were
recorded nearly thirty years ago, these discs remain some
of the best examples of high-powered Honky-Tonk ever put to
tape. If it was said that the group died far too soon there
would be little room for argument, at least until it is
understood that by ELF’s passing we got something as
grand as Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW.
Of course RAINBOW chiseled out its own solid niche in Rock
music and it is with RAINBOW that Mickey Lee’s name
is most famously connected. That connection, the true story
of how it came about, how it all ended and what he has done
in the years since recording that group’s landmark
debut, is detailed below for the first time from
Soule’s perspective. This is an intimate
insider’s story told with no agenda to push which, as
alluded to already is so much more interesting than any
party line previously available.
Soule re-entered the touring field as well as the DEEP
PURPLE extended family a few years back when he was hired
on as the group’s keyboard technician. It was during
a brief break in touring duties with DEEP PURPLE that
Mickey Lee was able to take the call that yielded the
following.
DAVID LEE There are a few different
versions of how Ritchie Blackmore first launched RAINBOW,
the most popular one being that Ritchie asked Ronnie Dio to
sing on a solo single and then the rest of what was ELF
joined in on it, is this accurate?
MICKEY LEE SOULE Well, sort of except it
was the whole band that was asked. We were the supporting
act on a few DEEP PURPLE tours when we, ELF that is, had
our first albums out. At that time Ritchie wanted to do a
solo project and it was only really going to be a couple of
songs in the beginning but then he decided that he wanted
to do a whole album so he asked our band to play on the
album for him and we did that. It was shortly after doing
that that he decided to leave DEEP PURPLE and form his own
band called RAINBOW. So, it was actually Ritchie’s
band but he sort of took the whole band ELF along. I was
actually the only one that didn’t want to do
it.(laughs)
DL Really? Why was that?
MLS Well, we had spent quite a long time
slowly working our way up the ladder and we had a couple of
albums out and the record company that we had at the time
was just getting ready to sink some time and energy into
us. We had a couple of full page ads in Rolling Stone and
you know, everybody kind of saw the RAINBOW thing as
instant success or instant money but I kind of looked at it
like, "Well, we have been trying so long and so hard to do
this on our own and we are very close now.” And to be
honest, it was the music, I mean, RAINBOW and
Ritchie’s music is pretty much guitar music and I am
a keyboard player.(laughs)
DL So, you would like to have carried a
little of the melody yourself then?(laughs)
MLS Yeah, but it wasn’t even so much
that as it was that in ELF I kind of had wrote half of the
songs with Ronnie, we wrote the songs and pretty much gave
direction to the band so it was a nice feeling to see a
little bit of success come from that and then it kind of
went away as soon as we formed RAINBOW.
DL When you first started into being a
group with Ritchie was ELF necessarily dead at that point
or did you have intentions of picking it back up after you
were done with the RAINBOW record?
MLS Yeah, it was pretty much dead at that
point. As soon as Blackmore wanted to form the band as a
“band” as opposed to just a solo project then I
was kind of out voted. Everyone else wanted to do it and I
kind of didn’t so I went along with it and that is
how the first RAINBOW happened but it didn’t last too
long in that form.
DL Which is one of the things that became
a trademark of the band, I mean, I don’t think that
you can pick up any two successive studio records and find
the same lineup intact. There are scads and scads of live
records though especially the version of the band with Cozy
Powell and Ronnie but I don’t think that I have heard
anything live with that first lineup. Did that version of
the band not tour much?
MLS We never actually got out on the road!
What happened was we all moved to Malibu because that is
where Ritchie was living and we started rehearsals and we
didn’t get very far at all, actually I don’t
think that we even started rehearsals and Ritchie wanted to
replace the bass player. That was more of, it wasn’t
a musical choice really it was just a whim of
Ritchie’s or a personal thing. So, the bass player
was replaced with Jimmy Bain and we rehearsed a little
longer and then Ritchie wanted to replace the drummer and I
was very disappointed in that. He was my best friend and we
had gone through a lot together and he was a great drummer.
It was just that it was his style, his style was more like
the American R&B style of drumming and Ritchie had been
used to a different style, you know, Ian Paice, so I was
very disappointed in that decision and that is kind of one
of the things that led me to leave. It is very hard to talk
about really because I don’t want to sound like I am
bitter about anything. You know, Ronnie and I are still
very good friends to this day although we have kind of gone
our separate ways and I don’t run into him that often
anymore but back in those days we were all much younger I
guess. A lot of things happened behind the scenes that kind
of made me get out of the music business entirely.
DL Things with RAINBOW or just kind of
“things in general?”
MLS Well, it started with RAINBOW. You
know, ELF had been a band that kind of grew up together and
we had gone through a lot and it was very much of a family
kind of thing and as soon as we got into the RAINBOW thing
it became very cut-throat and very business like. I was
finding that along the way that people were taking all the
money that I was supposed to be making and, I don’t
know, one of the things that happened is kind of a long
story. . .
DL I’d love to hear it if you would
tell it.(laughs)
MLS I don’t know if I should tell ya
or not because I don’t want it to come out
wrong.(laughs) Basically the way that it happened was that
when the bass player left he hadn’t really been a
member of ELF as long as the rest of us and Ronnie who was
the leader of the band, so to speak, got myself and the
drummer aside and said, “Look, Ritchie wants to get
rid of the bass player, he wants to replace him and there
is not much that we can do about it but we will make a pact
between the three of us that we will all stick
together.” And so I said, “Yeah, OK,
sure.” But then a couple of weeks later Ronnie
approached me and said, “Well, now Ritchie wants to
replace the drummer and there is not much that we can do
about it but lets make a pact between you and me that we
are going to stick together.” And then right there I
knew that the old days were over. I had an opportunity at
that time to do something different and I went to Europe
and played on one of Roger Glover’s albums and I did
a tour with the Ian Gillan Band and a couple of other
things so I basically left RAINBOW on my own but I was
probably going to be the next one on the list to get the
axe anyway. I wasn’t getting the creative input that
I wanted from it and there were a lot of things going on at
that time, personally, in my life. I had just had a son and
I was pretty fed up with the business side of things and
the way that all of us had been treated by various record
companies and things and there was a lot of drugs going on
at the time so I basically just got fed up with the whole
thing after a while and just got out of the music business
completely for almost ten years. I ended up doing some
other things, got involved in the theater and whatever but
that is basically what happened to the first RAINBOW. We
never did get out on the road. The drummer was replaced by
Cozy and I am not even sure who replaced me, it might have
been Don Airey, I can’t remember exactly who was next
in line but that is why you are not going to hear anything
live by that band.
DL There it is, mystery solved!(laughs)
MLS That’s it.(laughs)
DL That is a shame too because when people
reference the band they will almost always go to “The
Ronnie era” and then to the first record. I can
certainly understand your feelings about the lack of input
that you had on that record and it certainly wasn’t
the guitar/keyboard battlefield that Ritchie had with Jon
Lord in PURPLE but there were some really tasty bits on
that disc, don’t you think?
MLS Well it is not that I was disappointed
in what I played or anything and not to sound wrong but I
have always thought that that first album was the best
RAINBOW album and not just because I was in it but because
I just like the songs better. It was just more of a
personal thing, it was like the difference of being like a
session player where you just kind of do what you are told
by whomever is producing the record or has written the
songs and being part of the actual creative process
yourself. If you have had something to do with the songs
then you have some input, it is your vision considered in
how you would like it to be played or heard or whatever and
that was only part of it. It wasn’t any big ego
thing, it was just that among many other factors that made
me disappointed with the whole scene. But that first
RAINBOW album, I actually kind of like it. On top of it
all, I am basically a piano player and I can play the other
keyboards but it is not my forte. There is a whole other
technique to playing the Hammond Organ for instance or
synthesizers or whatever and I have always liked the plain
sound of an acoustic piano. You don’t hear that as
much when you hear Rock and Roll records anymore whereas
back in the old days that used to be a very important part
of the rhythm section and that is how I grew up playing. I
had all of these people somewhere in the back of my mind,
Johnny Johnson who used to play with Chuck Berry and Little
Richard and other pianists that I had heard through the
years and that is kind of my style and what I love to do so
when I was asked to play Organs and synthesizers and
mini-moogs and all of these different things, I did it but
I don’t think that I did it as well as I think that
others could do it. It is still true to this day, I just
don’t have the interest in it.
DL Were the songs that ended up on the
record presented to you by Ritchie or were some of the
numbers formed in jams with the full band?
MLS They were worked out somewhat but
Ritchie would write the riffs or the chord progressions and
then he got together with Ronnie and they came up with the
lyrics and so it was pretty much the two of them with
Ritchie having the original idea for the song and then
Ronnie adding the lyrics to it.
DL Whereas in ELF it was primarily you and
Ronnie?
MLS Yeah, though David Feinstein, the
origional guitarist, did bring in some finished songs for
the first record as well. The very first ELF record we kind
of gave credit to everyone because the way that we looked
at it was that everyone contributed to the final thing,
even if it was just a drum fill or whatever, it was part of
it all and everyone kind of worked at it in an equal way
even though it was Ronnie and myself that might have come
up with most of the initial ideas for the songs. Yeah,
Ronnie and I would sit through all hours of the night and
just play until we came up with something.
DL With no offense intended toward Ronnie,
was he a very good bass player or was it just that he
wanted to be a front man that you hired a bass player and
let Ronnie just sing in ELF for the last two records?
MLS Yeah, I mean, I thought that he was
always a very good bass player especially that he would
play and sing at the same time which there is a little
extra difficulty in that. He wasn’t very fancy but he
played very simple, solid bass lines and he is actually a
great musician. When he was younger he played trumpet and
all kinds of different things. It was actually his choice
really, he decided that he wanted to just be a front man.
He could spend more time and more of his efforts on singing
and not have to worry about the bass and that is why we got
the bass player eventually.
DL There has been talk from both Ronnie
and David Feinstein about an original ELF reunion, is that
something that you would want to do?
MLS Yeah, there has been a lot of talk
about that but you know, it is something that I
wasn’t completely opposed to if we could do it as fun
as opposed to trying to conquer the world or
something.(laughs) Everybody has kind of said,
“Yeah.” Ronnie has said, “Yeah, I would
do that” but it has never really gone anywhere and I
kind of predict that it never will. I mean, there really
isn’t a big reason to do it and Ronnie is busy with
his own career and you know, it is just one of those
things. When I am in Europe I get asked all the time and it
is apparently a big rumor over there, it has been three or
four years that I have been getting asked and I always say,
“Well, there has been some talk about it but there
hasn’t been any progress on it.” I really
don’t think that it will ever happen to tell you the
truth.
DL It would certainly be interesting to
some, me for instance.(laughs) I love those records. It
would be interesting to have all of the people who were
involved with ELF be in on it but I think that Ronnie
mentioned Joey DeMaio of MANOWAR would actually be the bass
player.
MLS That was one idea that Ronnie had but
actually the most recent thing was that Roger Glover would
play. He seemed very interested in doing it and he produced
the ELF records so he is kind of like one of us but I
don’t know. I haven’t heard a word from anybody
in quite a long time about actually pursuing it. DEEP
PURPLE did an Orchestra tour where Ronnie sang a few songs
and I did some traveling with him and we did talk about it
quite a bit but even then I didn’t really think that
it was going to happen.
DL When it came to your leaving RAINBOW
how did you handle telling Ronnie and Ritchie?
MLS Well, like I said, I had a couple of
opportunities and I just approached Ronnie one day because
he was my friend and I told him that I really wasn’t
happy and that I had a couple of other opportunities and I
thought that I would leave. After I talked to him a little
bit I told Ritchie and there wasn’t really any
problem, nobody was really pissed off at anybody or
anything, it was just a very smooth event.
DL They have re-issued both the RAINBOW
and ELF catalogs in various forms and then several times. .
.
MLS Haven’t seen a dime.
DL You knew right where I was
going!(laughs) Nothing at all?
MLS Not a cent.
DL How does that happen?
MLS Well, in the past I have tried to find
out some things but, you see, what happened was, it is a
very complicated situation. DEEP PURPLE’s original
management in England was like two partners and there was
one that was an accountant and through the years that
partnership split up and the accountant has died and he
took with him a lot of information. It is very hard to
track down and if we were talking about huge amounts of
money then it might be worth trying to chase it but I
don’t think that it is huge amounts of money or
anywhere near it, at least for me so I haven’t really
pursued it that much but when I am in Europe I see all
kinds of things over there, the various ways that records
have been repackaged, ELF and RAINBOW, and I don’t
know anything about any of it.(laughs) I haven’t
received a cent. Now, granted we were given a fairly good
advance in the beginning to do the ELF records so I saw
that money but as far as getting any royalties from writing
or performing, it just hasn’t happened.
DL Wow, that answers a lot. I have seen
Ronnie be handed things to sign from the Connoisseur label
by fans and he will almost always say something like,
“Thief” or “Bastard” and now I know
what that was about!(laughs).
MLS Yeah.(laughs) Well, I believe the
Connoisseur records, I believe, that is owned by one of the
partners that was in the original DEEP PURPLE management
and they actually became our managers as well, when we
first had the record out on PURPLE Records. Like I said, it
is so complicated to try and chase down because this
partnership has been split up and part of the records are
not even available for anything back that far and it is
just a nightmare to try and figure anything out. I did
consider trying to hire a lawyer once to chase it down in
Europe but I just don’t believe that there is that
much money involved to warrant hiring a lawyer, at least
for me. We had some success but we didn’t sell like a
billion records or anything. On the RAINBOW stuff I
didn’t have any writing credit so it is more just the
ELF stuff. All of the RAINBOW songs were actually written
by Ronnie and Ritchie.
DL Alright, so you were done with RAINBOW
and then you went on to other things like GILLAN, I think
you are even mentioned in his book?
MLS Yeah.
DL Then you went into theater? What kind
of work did you do in that field?
MLS Well, I kind of got out of the
business completely and I had just had a new son and I
actually went back to school for a while and I got involved
in theater in school. I went to graduate school for
directing and I actually lacked my thesis because I ended
up moving to New York with a girl and, I mean, a lot of
things happened. I split up with my wife and so I was in
New York and I did some off-off Broadway acting and I
directed a couple of workshops for this one company and I
office managed for a while and got quite involved in it and
really loved it but it is very difficult and it is like the
music business in a lot of ways, especially in New York.
There is no money in theater unless you happen to get
involved in some production that is successful. I finally
ended up going out to California and stayed at
Ronnie’s house for about six month’s and just
tried to find a new direction after a while and eventually,
it was about six years ago I guess, I went down to Florida
where my son lives. It was his last year in High School and
I went down there and I was still very good friends with
his Mother and so I stayed down there for a while and I
heard that DEEP PURPLE was in town recording. I found out
where it was and I just kind of showed up there one day
unannounced and I hadn’t seen anybody in like twenty
years and everybody’s mouths just kind of dropped
open!(laughs) We went out to a pub later on and they
eventually asked me what I was doing and I said,
“Well, I am down here helping out my ex-wife with her
business and I am here for my son’s last year in High
School and he is graduating soon and I will probably find
something else to do then.” And they said,
“Well, we are getting ready to go around the world
and we can find a spot for you if you want to come”
and that is how I ended up getting into the technicians
thing. I enjoy the lifestyle and I did kind of miss the
music, just being around it so I have been doing that for
about the last five or six years. I have just recently
started to work on a project of my own but time will tell
if that bears any fruit.(laughs)
DL Is this like a solo record or a band
project, what is it all about?
MLS I t is music that I have written and
is sort of based around a piano but I have some other
musicians that are helping me out with it and I give them
as much input as they want. At this point I don’t
even know what it is going to become, I don’t even
know if anybody is going to be interested in it but maybe a
band project or maybe just a solo project.
DL The thing with PURPLE is interesting
especially on this Summer tour that you are doing because
it is like six degrees of separation completely negated
.(laughs) You have at least four or five guys touring with
this package in some capacity that were once members of
RAINBOW.
MLS Yeah, it is pretty amazing how things
have worked out. It should be interesting. I mean, Ronnie
and I had a lot of fun together last time and it is like
everything from the past is forgotten and I certainly
don’t blame him for any choices that he might have
made and it is just kind of fun to be around somebody from
the old days like that. We practically grew up together and
we had a lot of fun. Then I have just gotten to know Don
Airey recently because he took Jon Lord’s place and
he is a very nice guy. We get along fine but it is strange,
the connection there. There are even a couple of people on
the road crew who were around from the early days of DEEP
PURPLE that are now with DIO or somebody.
DL Yeah, Willie, Ronnie’s assistant
is an old timer too.
MLS Yeah.
DL Ritchie Blackmore’s attitude
toward his band mates and people in general is legendary,
with all of the people who have suffered Ritchie in the
past on one tour is this kind of like the Blackmore
Anti-appreciation society sometimes?(laughs)
MLS Well, you know, there are a lot of
people here who knew him. Ritchie is a very difficult
person to be involved with on any level. I don’t
dislike him or anything and back when I was in RAINBOW I
got along personally with him fine. I didn’t really
agree with a lot of the things that he chose to do but he
always treated me fine and I never held anything against
him in that respect. As far as music goes, he is an amazing
musician and I sort of give him the right to be eccentric.
Many of the great artists of all time have that as well,
they are eccentric and maybe that is just part of it but
that doesn’t make him any less difficult so
practically anyone that I know, it is like it is almost
unsaid but we all know that Ritchie Blackmore is what he
is. The whole world knows it now but like I said if I ran
into him today I would shake his hand and buy him a drink.
I respect the man even though he seems to be from another
planet.
DL What is the atmosphere of the band with
Steve Morse in it, much more laid back I would assume? Is
it an easy gig to have now, working for DEEP PURPLE?
MLS Oh yeah, it is amazing how things have
come together as far as the whole organization is
concerned. It is really a good time, it is a big family.
Occasionally someone will leave here and there but it has
got the same general people that were in it and we all get
along great. It is a lot of fun, we all respect each other.
Everybody goes out of their way to try and help each other
as opposed to being difficult.
DL The leaving of Jon Lord, is that
something that you had known about for some time?
MLS I knew that it wasn’t going to
go on forever. I think that Jon still enjoyed the music and
being involved with it and everyone else in the band but I
think that he just got tired of touring. He had an
opportunity, I think that he has a classical deal in the
works or something in Europe and that is his first love
anyway. I kind of thought that it was only a matter of time
and I kind of heard a little bit ahead of time before it
was officially announced that that was what was going to
happen and it was too bad because Jon and I had kind of a
special relationship but Don Airey has worked out great for
the band. He has got the right kind of style, he has the
classical background and he can be pretty flashy on the
Hammond Organ when he wants to be and it has really worked
out well.
DL Yeah, I think that I read that Lord
left his Hammond and all the Leslies with the band so is
Don using Lord’s equipment now?
MLS He is using Jon’s Hammond and
then the other keyboard’s are Don’s. They
wanted to retain that Hammond sound which you can’t
really get from anything but a Hammond so I don’t
know if he is going to use that exact same Organ but I am
sure that there will be Hammond of some sort there.
DL It seems as though you are just as
content to work behind the scenes as in front of it?
MLS Oh yeah, definitely. They all let me
get away with murder!(laughs) I mean, I just have to make
sure that everything is up and running. You know, they have
local crews nowadays and as long as you find a way to get
it done, you know? The other guys on the crew help me out
as far as if I have technical problems because they are
much more proficient at fixing them then I am but then I
help them out in other ways so it is a pretty easy gig for
me except for the actual traveling part of it which can get
to anybody. This last one that we did, we were in Russia
and it was probably the most difficult tour that we did,
probably the most difficult tour that I have ever been
involved with. The conditions where bad.
DL It was winter too, wasn’t it?
MLS Yeah although it was a fairly mild
winter compared to what it usually is during that time of
the year over there. We started out in Moscow and St
Petersburg and we had done those places before and that was
fine but then the tour went to some smaller places in
Russia and we went to Siberia and we went to the Ukraine
and I can’t begin to tell you how difficult that it
was.
DL Places that are still new to
electricity and running water?(laughs)
MLS Yeah, kind of like that.(laughs) I
came back from that completely exhausted and you know, I am
not as young as I used to be so I don’t know how long
I am really going to last at this.(laughs) Sometimes it can
be a breeze and sometimes it can be very difficult and it
is not like when you are twenty years old and it is just
partying all the time. Now it is like, “Just get it
done so I can sleep.”
DL Are you all beyond the practical jokes
and shenanigans that younger bands and their crews play on
each other?
MLS Oh, not too much but there is still
some of that that goes on but nothing like the old days. I
was involved in a couple of scenes in the old days that
were straight out of, well any story that you have ever
heard.(laughs)
DL Give me one?
MLS Oh, Jeez, well we got thrown out of a
whole city in England once. We checked into a hotel and the
bar was closed, this is the whole DEEP PURPLE and ELF crew
and bands. They had this kind of metal gate that came down
and covered up where the booze was and we immediately broke
into and proceeded to pass it all out and everybody got
very drunk. They were taking fire extinguishers and
knocking on people’s doors in the middle of the
night, I mean, other guests, not members of the band
parties or anything. . .
DL Completely innocent victims?
MLS Completely innocent, and eventually
the cops came and threw us out of there. Not only out of
there but also we had to go on our bus outside of the city
limits! We found a place to park and spent the rest of the
night there. That is just one example but you know there
are still some things that go on but nothing like that. We
have all outgrown the destructive stage I guess and we only
destroy each other now.(laughs)
DL Right. I guess Ritchie kept his freak
flag flying right up until he left PURPLE and was still
dropping couches out of hotel windows so it seems that it
is a quieter band now, offstage anyway?
MLS Yeah, well.(laughs)
DL Is there a single memory from anywhere
along your career in music that made you glad you chose to
do this as opposed to being a pharmacist or something?
MLS That is hard. I can’t see myself
as every having done anything differently really but there
was a couple of times where I have looked back at the way
that I kind of gave up the music business and kind of
regretted it but that was only a couple of moments when I
was real down on my luck and now I kind of look back and am
glad that I made the decisions that I did and I am real
happy now. I have gotten to the point where I can actually
make music again with the right attitude. I look at it
like, it is fun, I know how to do it, I was given a certain
talent and I am just trying to make the best use of it as
opposed to becoming rich and famous. I just feel very lucky
that I have had these opportunities to not only play in
bands and record but to even just be a technician with DEEP
PURPLE. I have been all around the world and I have seen
places that I never dreamed that I would see so I have
actually been pretty lucky. To sum it up in one thing, I
couldn’t do it.
DL To be happy that you made the trip at
all is something a lot of people never feel.
MLS Yeah, people have asked, people in the
band and everything, why I haven’t tried to get back
into it in a musical way and I don’t know. I guess it
was some kind of demon that I was fighting that I
can’t really describe but I am kind of over that now
and I can sit down and try to make some music. It is really
fun for me now and when I am home I sit in with a blues
band that plays around a little bit and it is a lot of fun
and it keeps my chops up and I run into interesting
players. So, right now, things are going pretty well and
hopefully soon I will e able to play you some new music.