TR: I was about 13 and still at school; it was our school group. I was that age, but everyone else was a bit older, about 18 or 20. That was when we started playing and we played around the area and did a bunch of things. That was the first one.

CL: You played a gig with Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers; is that how you got into his group?

TR: Yes I played with Peter, we were away doing a gig at Peterborough (at the Palais), we got together and started talking about it. I just wanted to get on the road and play a lot because we were just doing gigs at home and I wanted to move out a bit. So he said 'I want you to join the band'. So that was it and we did that for a while. About a couple of years.

CL: The only thing you recorded with him was 'Hand Don't Fit The Glove'?

TR: Yes.

CL: And then you formed a group with Eric Leese and Keith Webb.

TR: That's right, and that's the one we went to America with. I had been playing with Pete for a while and some people were leaving and some people were coming and going and I just felt like putting a group together of my own, because I had started writing myself, and had a lot of different things I wanted to do. So I put the group together and then the whole thing came together and we went to the States.

CL: When did you record your first album? Eric Leese wasn't on it, was he?

TR: No, he left the band before we did an album. So we went to Pete Solley, he joined us just before we went to America. Peter joined us three days before we went; we jumped on it and put it together and toured with Cream.

CL: Did you go to the States to record 'Bang Bang You're Terry Reid'?

TR: No; we did it in London.

CL: It was never released here though.

TR: No, it was just done through One Stop records. CBS ... I don't know what happened there.

CL: Then you signed with Peter Grant. Is this why there are rumours that you were offered the job of lead singer with Led Zeppelin?

TR: Yes. You remember when all the bands were breaking up and reforming. Jimmy was putting a group together and I was with Peter with Rack Management. Peter Grant and Mickie Most were partners, so I signed with Most, in turn signing with Grant.

CL: Did you suggest Robert Plant for the group?

TR: I suggested Robert because I knew him a bit and I had seen him around and I thought he was just perfect for the group at that time. What Jimmy was up to doing and what he wanted to do seemed right there, that high intensive voice, it matched the solos and it matched the guitars. We did a tour with him when he was with The Yardbirds - Beck and Page were on guitars. I could see what Jimmy wanted to do, I saw what direction he wanted to take it. At the time I wanted to work on different things, I didn't want to do it .

CL: You recorded a single 'Better By Far'

TR: Things just got bloody bananas with that one, that was a whole trip. We were playing rock and roll, sweating our asses off in clubs doing all these street gigs, and Mickie wanted to do a suit presentation number. I said 'You must be kidding. For a start you're going to get this beautiful suit and I'm going to go on stage and by the time I come off it's going to be ruined, it just isn't on.'After that we did the albums and just belted off to America.

CL: How do you look back on those two early albums now?

TR: I like the tunes, I don't like the production much. When we went to America we were a three piece group. Then we did a Stones tour and another guy joined me called Lee Miles he played bass and then after that I was in England and I put another band together with all, sorts of litigation and problems.

CL: Was this when Chesley Milligan managed you?

TR: He was a good lad, it wasn't anything to do with Chesley, the litigation was another situation. We did a
tour of the States and toured around England a lot with Alan White on drums, Chris on bass. It was a great band but we couldn't record at first because of hassles with the previous record company.

CL: You went into the studio to record over here though.

TR: We started to do 'River', but the trouble was that he had all this litigation hanging over our heads and we didn't know when it was going to come out. I was just working on tunes, and I then started to experiment. When we were in the studio we did a deal with Atlantic which cleared everything up and we signed a new contract. A lot of time had passed by then.

CL: How did you get into the film 'Groupies'? ('Groupies' was an American film that came out in 1970. It was about the exploits of various American groupies such as Miss Harlow, Cythia P. Caster, Goldie Glitter, Lixie, Andrea Whips and Chaz, a 16 year old queen. It has music by Terry Reid, Spooky Tooth, Ten Years After and Joe Cocker.

TR: I didn't really have much choice. I'd open my door to get my milk in the morning and these two, three guys would run in with this movie camera; that was how it was done, a very professional film was 'Groupies'. We were hanging out in New York City and LA and they decided to make a film of what we were up to.

TR: It was kind of an embarrassment. They were shooting the whole thing and it was bound to be misread. There were a load of people in SF at that time who'd been taking a lot of different drugs and they were spaced out people who were quite different from people who were around anywhere else at that time. After going there a lot you'd get to know them all and everybody would hang out, you'd take everybody as everybody.

CL: Where did you meet David Lindley?

TR: David and I met at the Sky River Rock Festival which was held in Washington State; he was playing with Kaleidoscope at the time. Then he wrote me a letter saying he would like to get together and play. So I wrote back and said 'Get on over here' and that's what he did - he jumped on a plane with all his guitars and we based the band in
England. Lee came too.

CL: What about Lindley's green wellies.

TR: He's still got them, he won't part with them. With his lambswool socks over the top - milking boots.

CL: Tell us about the night he got laid out on scrumpy.

TR: It was terrible. It wasn't just the scrumpy, he was drinking it with guinness. I said 'Just don't light a match, we'll have an explosion!. We had to take him to hospital.

CL: What about the samurai movies you and David go and see?

TR: At the Toho La Player. David's really into them. He collects those swords. We went to a porno one, that was great.

CL: What about when you and David play McCabes?

TR: We tell Irish and Scottish jokes half the evening. It's a really small place and everyones' just sitting around, so you get talking to the audience. We rehearse about 6 or 7 songs and ad-lib the rest. It's the kind of thing I like doing as well as putting a record out.

CL: Where did you meet Lee Miles?

TR: I met Lee with Ike and Tina Turner.

CL: In 1970 you didn't do many gigs, you just went into a cottage and rehearsed with the group didn't you?

TR: I was just working on things, that was when all that litigation was going down which slowed it up a bit. Then we put the group together with David. After that all cleared up we did 'River'. I decided to recut a lot of it in the States I wasn't all that happy with it, so 'I changed a lot of it. CL: 'Dream' and 'Milestones' were the only tracks you used from the ones cut in this country?

TR: That's right.

CL:How did you get to play at Mick Jagger's wedding?

TR: That was a loon. They asked me. I was playing down at The Marquee and someone came down and said Mick wanted us to do the wedding. I said 'When is it' and he said 'We've got to leave tomorrow'.We jumped on the plane, flew out there, took a bus down to St. Tropez and of course everyone was there at the hotel, it was just nuts, great party. Everybody got up and jammed, Stills, Ronnie Wood, all going bananas.

CL: David Lindley said that there was at least four albums worth of material left over from the 'River' sessions.

TR: There was a lot of material left over.David and I still play together; we've been doing some gigs in LA. I'd love to do an album with David some time, just me and him.

CL: He's always talking about doing his own album.

TR: He'll do one - he's got material all over the place.

CL: You were playing a lot here in '73, including a gig at The Rainbow ...

TR: The Rainbow gig just didn't happen, all the gear blew up. I couldn't hear anything, the monitors blew up, it was a total disaster.

CL: What were you doing in the three year gap between 'River' and 'Seed Of Memory'?

TR: I was just doing various gigs, checking out different studios. Just before we did 'Seed Of Memory' I changed record companies and went with ABC. 'Seed Of Memory' was basically my and Graham Nash's project. I had the songs and played them to Graham; he liked them and said I should do an album. Everybody wanted me to do a rock and roll album. It s a very personal album.

CL: How did it sell in the States?

TR: It didn't sell a lot, basically because ABC didn't promote it. We had a lot of air play on it and we get a lot of air play now, but they didn't go full hog for it. There were so many chnages going on in the company, it was hard to tell what they were going to do with anything. So I ended up leaving the company.

CL: And it was at this time that you were living in Oxnard in a Chicano community?

TR: It was very different from England. A lot of Mexican farm people and workers. I didn't live in the town, I lived on the beach. People come from all over to live on the beaches. This was about 60 miles outside LA. L!'s alright, but I don't like living in the city that much. You've no room to move around. It's nice where I live, it takes an hour to drive into town - that's in Ventura, I've got a house on the beach there.

CL: After 'Seed Of Memory' you went out on the road touring Who was in the band at this time?

TR: There was a creole called Soko Richardson, who was with Ike and Tina Turner, and there were two of the Ikettes -Lee Miles on bass and Doug Rodrigues on guitar. Half the band was out of Tina's band, and that went into the whole thing. We were doing gigs in the States with girl singers and it was great. The trouble was that I got messed around by the troubles with ABC and the band couldn't hang around forever while we got things organised.

CL: What about 'Rogue Waves'?

TR: Lee Miles was still working with me, and we got a four piece rock and roll band together and decided to do the album just using those people. We did all the songs that I had with this rock and roll band and it was quite good, but there were not that many thrills on it. We cut all the album live in the studio.

CL: No overdubs?

TR: No vocal overdubs at all, all the lead vocals were done live, except for a few three-part harmonies.

CL: What are your plans for the future?

TR: I've got a whole bunch of new material I'm going to start recording when I get back. I'm fed up with resting and I want to get this next album recorded soon.

CL: How's it working out with Capitol?

TR: I like working with them. Since I've been here they've been real helpful.
We're talking about going to Japan this next year. But when you start going to Japan and you start coming here you've got a lot of distance - not just the distance in miles but the distance in people. The music's always the same but everything feels different.

CL: Why did you include the cover versions on 'Rogue Waves'?

TR: I did a few covers on that album just because I just wanted to do a bunch of those old songs. For the next album I've got a lot of material and I think I'm going to do all my own material again.

CL: Would you like a hit single?

TR: Yeah, it would be great. It would intensify the whole thing and the recognition of being able to do what I want to do.