A Conversation with Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
(continued)

PM: If and when you have some time, what do you guys like to do in your spare time that may not be musical?

CR: [laughs] Chip?

CT: Oh, I don't know.

[laughter]

CT: I don't have much spare time.

CR: I like to play around with my mandolin. [laughs] But that's not very unmusical. Let's see...

CT: Well, once a year I take a trip with my ex-wife and kids. We go to Vegas and visit my gambling partner and I gamble like hell with him for two weeks. And that's always fun.

PM: Oh, really?

CT: Yeah, yeah. I can't wait--but I love it when it's over and I can just go back to totally music. But that's a fun thing for me to do. I always look forward to it, because the kids--our family and his family--get along wonderfully, and we just have a good time for a couple weeks.

PM: And when you gamble like hell, is it about cards or horses or--

CT: It's horses. He saves a bunch of records for me. And I always save stuff too, just for that period of time. But now it's so distant from me, like I don't--there was a time when I was leaving the television on while the races were on while I was doing my music work. But in the last bunch of time I haven't even been doing that, so it's just far away from me.

PM: So one more question: Musically or otherwise, is there something that comes to mind that you'd still like to do that you haven't tried yet?

CT: I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's waiting around the bend someplace.

PM: [laughs] You, Carrie?

CR: Yeah, I don't know. Musically?

PM: You're a youngster. There are a lot of things you probably want to do.

CR: Yeah, I mean, I just--I'm always wanting to just get better at anything I'm doing. I always want to be a better fiddle player, and I never want to stop learning with that. And every night I play with Chip, I'm learning. And now it goes to the singing thing, too, I'll always want to be getting better. But that's why it's so great to be out doing it every night.

CT: Yeah, I mean, for me, Frank, I was away from learning a lot about things for many years, because being a gambler--a professional gambler, at least for me, the way it was--it was all-consuming. So even though I spent time with my kids and coached the baseball teams and whatever, the basketball stuff, and loved being around my kids, it was my kids and very little else but gambling. So stretching out now and traveling around and looking at the scenery, there are so many things that I'm learning. As to what I would want to do down the line, I don't know. I feel like I'm going to school again, and that's a real interesting part of this whole thing, is to learn, to learn stuff--and thank God, because I'm really dumb about so many things.

PM: [laughs]

CT: I mean, I learn a lot from Carrie and whoever else we're traveling with, just different ideas, different things about art, and just about life.

PM: Well, as a real lover of duos, it's amazing to me what an interesting dynamic you guys have, and what a lovely pair of people you are. I really am grateful for your time today.

CR: Well, thanks Frank. It's nice talking with you.

PM: Thanks. And I hope to see you in town or somewhere soon down the line, and we'll have a drink.

CT: Okay, Frank. Thanks a lot.

CR: Bye.

	print (pdf)
	listen to clips
	trainwreck records
	texas music group
	photgraphers:
	todd wolfson
	alan messer
	bill groll
	sarah wilson
	puremusic home