A Conversation with Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
(continued)

PM: Speaking of that working out, how about [rap star] Shaggy cutting "Angel of the Morning"? What was your reaction to that all these years later?

CT: Well, first of all, it didn't sound a whole lot like "Angel of the Morning," and I was just pleased that the guy was so honest about where he got it from. Another guy could have just claimed it was his--and I might have had to sue or something like that.

PM: Right.

CT: But he was so honest about it. And I really loved it. I thought it was really very, very well done.

PM: It was a pretty cool cut.

CT: Yeah. And I liked him a lot. I went to meet him, brought him some champagne when it was heading to number one. And we had a wonderful afternoon together with all the guys involved in it, and the mother of his children, and his kids. I loved the day I spent with him.

PM: Wow. In general terms, how did that cut's earnings--or how will that cut's earnings--stand up to the original, or to something like "Wild Thing"?

CT: [sighs]

PM: In real general terms.

CT: Well, put it this way: Since I've been out of the gambling, I've had this record company in mind [Train Wreck Records], which all of a sudden we're very fortunate to have the Texas Music Group behind us and paying the bills for us, where I used to pay them all myself. But it's a lot to run a record company, and to do it when you're not really selling many records and to try to do it on a global basis. So I had a couple of things that came nicely in the middle of everything and paid all the bills, and one was "Angel of the Morning."

PM: Right.

CT: I had to borrow from my royalties to get the company going, and then borrow to make the recordings, and it was a constant borrowing thing. And then a couple of things came in the way of that and got me clean. "Angel" was one of them. So it was just a real wonderful thing. And now we have to get to the point where we can survive, and we just about are, to where we can kind of break even on the road, and maybe head the other direction to be financially not dependent on that kind of stuff. But it's allowed to me to make the music I wanted to make these last few years, and to do this thing with Carrie, and to do it at a little different level, to hire some more musicians and stuff like that. So...

PM: It's a Godsend.

CT: Yeah.

PM: And now is Train Wreck Records overseen or owned by or something by Texas Music Group?

CT: No. Train Wreck Records is my label for all of Europe. Train Wreck Records owns all of the product. And in the States, we lease the product to the Texas Music Group.

PM: I see.

CT: And depending on how well the record does, they have it for several years. And they've been just terrific with it.

PM: Now, who is the Texas Music Group?

CT: It started as Antone's Music.

PM: Oh, okay.

CT: At the Antone's Club and the blues stuff that they had out of that.

PM: Right.

CT: And they were recording these blues things, and then from there they started to develop new artists, and they set up the umbrella thing called The Texas Music Group, which is Antone's Records and Lone Star Records, and I forget what the other one is--there are three labels. continue

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