In a new interview with music writer Joel Gausten, veteran bassist Bob Daisley (Ozzy Osbourne/Rainbow/Black Sabbath/Gary Moore) discusses the creation of Moore Blues For Gary, a new all-star tribute to his friend and bandmate Gary Moore, who passed away in 2011. Excerpts from the chat appears below:

Joel: We’ve got to talk about Joe Lynn Turner, who is on fire on this record.

Bob Daisley: He did a great job on ‘The Blues Just Got Sadder,’ and that needs a good singer. I thought, ‘Who’s got a really good voice?’ I phoned Joe, and he said, ‘Yeah!’ ‘The Blues Just Got Sadder’ is a song I wrote with Dennis Wilson, who I’ve known since my Kahvas Jute days. Dennis and I wrote a few songs a few years ago, and I always thought, ‘This would be a good song for Gary Moore to do.’ I never got to play it for him before he passed away. Because of the title, ‘The Blues Just Got Sadder,’ it’s my personal tribute to Gary by saying, ‘The Blues is sadder now that you’ve gone.’ I’ve got Steve Lukather on that track; what a great player he is! There a blinding amount of stuff that he’s done over the years. He’s Ringo’s guitarist at the moment, and he’s in Toto. He’s worked with all these other people, including all those huge albums with Michael Jackson and people like that. He was great; Steve Lukather is a lovely guy. He said, ‘I’m honored to play on this.’ That says a lot for Gary and me to get that sort of respect."

Joe also did 'Power Of The Blues', and that’s with Jeff Watson on guitar. It’s almost like Mother’s Army pays tribute to Gary Moore, but with the drummer from the Gary Moore band, Darrin Mooney. It all sort of fell into place. ‘Parisienne Walkways,’ with Ricky Warwick, was another song we did on the album. It’s not really a blues track, strictly speaking, but it’s a real trademark track for Gary. I thought, ‘That’s going to go there.’ When Steve Morse agreed to do it, I thought, ‘Wow! Perfect.’ Steve was another well-respected musician and guitarist who said he was honored to do it."

Joel: I’m looking at the track listing, and all of these songs are heavyweights. There’s not a weak one in the bunch here, but which songs did you enjoy recording the most?
 
Bob Daisley: "I enjoyed them all for many reasons. One of the songs is the one that Glenn Hughes sang, ‘Nothing’s The Same [Without You].’ The first time I ever heard that when Gary recorded it, I thought, ‘What a great song!’ It was a really good song, and I felt very touched by it. At the time, my mom had recently died; it just rang that bell, you know? When I decided to do this tribute album for Gary, I thought, ‘That song is a must.’ It turned out really, really well. It’s a good version. When I began to do the material, I thought, ‘Well, I don’t want to re-create what Gary’s done. I don’t want to compete with Gary in any way and say, ‘This version’s better than yours or just as good as yours.’ It’s just my take on it.

Another song is ‘That’s Why I Play The Blues.’ I remember being in the studio with Gary in London at the end of 2003. I flew over there to do the Power Of The Blues album. All the tracks were done virtually live. It was just the band playing live in the studio and being recorded. The version of the song that we were doing in the studio at the time had keyboards and brass on it. Gary ended up not using the brass on that track, but I still have a recording of the version with the brass on it. It just sounds so authentic. But I remember just standing there playing with Gary and Darrin Mooney on drums and the keyboard player, the brass and all that. I thought, ‘I’m enjoying this so much! It just doesn’t get any better than this!’ I was savoring every second of it, and that really stuck in my mind.

‘The Loner’ is another one. We used to have fun playing that one on stage. It used to go on for like 20 minutes sometimes. The intro alone that Gary did was three or four minutes long sometimes, and there was an outro that could go on for another 10, 12 minutes – even longer. It wasn’t boring or self-indulgent. You could see that the audience loved it. That song had to go on there as well. It’s not really a Blues song as such, but it’s another great Gary Moore song that’s not out of context with all the Blues stuff. Doug Aldrich did such a lovely job of playing on that.

There’s another song on there that I co-wrote with Dennis Wilson called ‘This One’s For You.’ I thought it was a good song as another tribute to Gary, but with his sons on it. His son Gus sang it, and his other son Jack played guitar on it. Even though I wrote it with Dennis, I think it’s a nice little hats off to Gary with his sons there. I’m happy with every track.

Joel: When I listened to the album for the first time, I thought about how Gary clearly was somebody who earned the name “Guitar Hero.”
 
Bob Daisley: "Oh, sure! The thing about Gary was that he wasn’t just a virtuoso. Over the years, there have been lots of virtuosos. They’re fast, and they can play complicated stuff with speed or whatever. But with Gary, it all came from the heart. He had so much emotion in his playing. He could play something slow or just a few notes, and it was very emotive."

The complete interview is available at this location.

The sky was crying when Gary Moore passed away on February 6th, 2011. From Thin Lizzy to Colosseum II, together with his solo hits "Parisienne Walkways" and "Out In The Fields", Gary influenced a whole generation of guitar players and guitar playing.

The bass player/producer Bob Daisley had played with Gary since the 1980's, and is known for suggesting to Gary that he should make a blues album - the rest is history, Still Got The Blues was an immense hit, followed by a series of classic modern blues albums. Bob, also known for his contributions to Rainbow and Ozzy Osbourne, was the driving force behind Moore Blues For Gary.

“In my opinion, Gary was one of the best guitarists who ever lived”, says Bob Daisley. “It was an honour for me to have worked with him and to have known him so well. When Gary passed away in 2011 the world lost one of the all-time greats. I don’t think that enough was said or done at the time to acknowledge the loss of such a great player so I took it upon myself to pay personal tribute to the man and record some new versions of his music, mostly from his blues catalogue.

"I asked many members of the Gary Moore family tree, and some other great players, to contribute to the project. The response was not only encouraging, but very moving. It seems that the name Gary Moore is also synonymous with the words ‘respect’, ‘honour’ and ‘greatness’. I didn’t set out to recreate anything that Gary had done, or to compete in any way, these arrangements and performances represent a ‘hats off’ to Gary and nothing more. Long live the memory of Robert William Gary Moore. Yes, he was an­other ‘Bob’ - something that I wasn’t aware of for all of those years that I worked with him. I feel such gratitude towards the people who contributed to this album and I’m honoured to have worked with them all.”

John Sykes (ex-Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake) makes a triumphant return after a long absence with an uber-emotional rendition of "Still Got The Blues", with the soulful vocals by Daniel Bowes (Thunder) complementing each other.

"Parisienne Walkways" is played by Steve Morse (Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs) and Ricky Warwick (Thin Lizzy, Black Star Riders, The Almighty), with the unlikely pair resulting in a miraculous chemistry.

Gary's friends are here - his rocking keyboard / guitar / vocal sidekick Neil Carter sings "Empty Rooms", which he co-wrote with Gary. Don Airey (Deep Purple, Rainbow) and Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) had joined forces with Gary on numerous occasions, together with Eric Singer (KISS) and Darrin Mooney (Primal Scream). Brush Shiels, the leader of Gary's first professional band Skid Row, also makes an appearance.

Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio), Steve Lukather (Toto), Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow), Jeff Watson (Night Ranger), Damon Johnson (Black Star Riders, Alice Cooper) and Stan Webb (Chicken Shack) also unsparingly pour all their emotions to show their appreciation to Gary.

Gary's sons Jack and Gus are also involved, playing guitar and singing on "This One's For You", showing that the ‘Blood Of Emeralds’ still runs their veins.

During his blues days, Gary made two albums to thank the guitarists that made him who he was: Blues For Greeny for Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, and Blues For Jimi for Jimi Hendrix. Now this is his turn to be rewarded with an album full of love and respect. We still got the blues for you.

Moore Blues For Gary, due for a release on October 26th, is available to pre-order here. Listen to "Parisienne Walkways" below.

Tracklisting:

"That’s Why I Play The Blues"

Vocals - Jon C. Butler; Guitars - Tim Gaze; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Drums - Rob Grosser; Keyboards - Clayton Doley

"The Blues Just Got Sadder"

Vocals - Joe Lynn Turner; Lead Guitar - Steve Lukather; Rhythm Guitar And Slide Guitar – Tim Gaze; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Drums - Rob Grosser; Keyboards - Clayton Doley

"Empty Rooms"

Lead Vocal, Keyboards – Neil Carter; Bass Guitar, Harmonica, Backing Vocals – Bob Daisley; Drums - Rob Grosser; Guitars - Illya Szwec; Backing Vocals - Rosanna Daisley

"Still Got The Blues (For You)"

Vocals - Danny Bowes; Guitars - John Sykes; Keyboards - Don Airey; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Drums - Rob Grosser

"Texas Strut"

Vocals - Brush Shiels; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Guitars - Tim Gaze; Drums - Rob Grosser

"Nothing’s The Same"

Vocals - Glenn Hughes; Fretless Acoustic Bass – Bob Daisley; Cello - Ana Lenchantin; Guitars - Luis Maldonado

"The Loner"

Guitars - Doug Aldrich; Drums - Eric Singer; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Keyboards - Don Airey

"Torn Inside"

Vocals, Lead Guitar – Stan Webb; Bass Guitar, Riff Guitar – Bob Daisley; Drums - Darrin Mooney; Keyboards - Lachlan Doley

"Don’t Believe A Word"

Vocals, Lead Guitar – Damon Johnson; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Drums - Rob Grosser; Rhythm Guitar - Illya Szwec

"Story Of The Blues"

Lead Vocal - Jon C. Butler; Bass Guitar, Riff Guitar, Backing Vocals – Bob Daisley; Lead And Rhythm Guitar – Tim Gaze; Drums - Rob Grosser; Keyboards - Lachlan Doley; Backing Vocals - Rosanna Daisley

"This One’s For You"

Vocals - Gus Moore; Lead Guitar - Jack Moore; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Drums - Rob Grosser; Rhythm Guitar - Illya Szwec

"Power Of The Blues"

Vocals - Joe Lynn Turner; Lead Guitar - Jeff Watson; Bass Guitar, Riff Guitar – Bob Daisley; Drums - Darrin Mooney; Rhythm Guitar - Illya Szwec

"Parisienne Walkways"

Guitars - Steve Morse; Vocals - Ricky Warwick; Bass Guitar - Bob Daisley; Drums - Rob Grosser; Keyboards - Clayton Doley

"Parisienne Walkways":

"Still Got The Blues (For You)":