By Martin Popoff

There’s a bit of melancholy attached to the unleashing of the surprise new Nazareth album that is Rock ‘n’ Roll Telephone. After all, one might have assumed that Dan McCafferty was done like dinner due to his retirement on health issues. That was announced quite a while ago, and yet here it is, the Scot legend howling away over a grinding hard rock collection daringly recorded with grit and fire and spark.

The melancholy? Well, given that Dan has now officially been replaced in Nazareth by local lad Linton Osborne, the tinge of sadness comes from the idea that as we all get older... I hang up the rock ‘n’ roll telephone and wonder if this will be the last time I’ll be chatting with Dan, personally a friend through music and a number of interviews (and one cherished round of pub pints) now for more than 40 years.

“Well, it’s been no problem,” begins McCafferty on recording his last (?) record with the band. “Obviously I’ve had COPD for a few years. Up until last year, I could manage. I was getting through the shows and stuff. Then what happened was, we went in and made the record and I was kind of struggling. I went into it and I was okay, and then I went to the states, and I had to go to the hospital with an ulcer which is a completely different thing. It sounds like I’m falling apart. And then of course, because you lose so much blood doing that, I wasn’t very well. So I was managed to do about four gigs in Canada and then I had to quit. I just wasn’t well enough to play. So then we came back home and finished up. We had a little bit of a break and then went to do a gig in Switzerland, and I couldn’t breathe after about three songs. So I decided it was time to hit it on the head. Very sadly, I must say. Because, well, it’s a job I’ve had for about 45 years (laughs). So a bit of a bummer. yeah, but the album is the business.”

Didn’t really want to talk about retirement, Dan. I always suspected that he was of that breed of extreme road dog who just couldn’t picture his life any other way. That was kind of confirmed here, even as I tried to say, damn, aren’t records more important than playing live anyway? I mean, you can still do that...

“Well, at the moment, Martin, I’m, at the moment I’m working on Rock ‘n’ Roll Telephone. I’m doing a lot of interviews, talking to people like yourself, all over the world. But then when the album gets released, then I’ll go and... there are a couple of offers in the fire, recording and stuff. But I’m trying not to think about that at all. I’ll wrap this up and tie it in a bow and say, good bye baby (crying voice) to another one of your children (laughs). It’s true. And then I’ll think about what I’m going to do next.”
“Something to do with my misspent youth, I would imagine,” reflects Dan, asked about where he might have worn himself down. “And also, well, I didn’t help it with the smoking. But I’ve stopped smoking ages ago. I did my share at the time of many things. But the other thing is, my father died of emphysema. So I’ve heard the theories of some doctors I’ve spoke to, it could be a gene as well. Because I have a friend in the village I live in, she has COPD as well, and she’s never put anything in her mouth smokable ever. So who knows, you know? You can only play with the cards you’re dealt, young man.”

As for the contours of the bombastic new album, a record at once lively and often slow and grinding, sung, not surprisingly, with more grit and desperation than usual...

“All through its history, this band has always done what we feel like doing at the time. Obviously people change. I mean, you get older and wiser—or stupider (laughs). You know, I’m not making any claims in which way I got. But still, you just do what you think is good, and then hopefully other people will think it’s good. And that’s always been our criteria. So nothing really changed on this album. It’s just that on this one, I mean, Lee and Jimmy have been writing a lot of songs on the last couple of albums, and they’re just come up with so much stuff and it’s all good. So it’s a case of pick the ones you wanna do and let’s make a job of them. So we kinda know what we’re doing when we go into the studio. Generally speaking, we have a plan. As we do in life, we have a plan. And the thing was, we’ve played together for so long. Pete and I obviously for a million years. But Jimmy’s been with Nazareth for nearly 20 years, Lee’s been there for 11. So you can speak to the people. It’s like, ‘’What about trying this, Dan?’ ‘Could you sing that again, Dan?’ And nobody gets upset. It’s like, everybody’s got their eye on the gold ring. They want to make a good record.”

Any significance behind this title, Rock ‘n Roll Telephone?

“Actually, we just thought it was a great title (laughs). Especially with the old British telephone boxes; these things are a thing of the past now. But what happened was—and this is true story. We were doing gigs in Russia last year, and Jimmy was going through security at the airport and he left his phone. You know, you always take your phone out of your pocket. And in Russia, not having a phone is really being cut off. But everybody’s got phones now so it wasn’t a problem, really. But he did get wound up about it. So it’s just like, I’m stuck in Russia and I can’t even speak to my girlfriend, or my wife, or whatever. And it’s like... and never both at the same time, by the way (laughs). Sorry, that was a really bad old joke. But anyway, there’s humour in the song and I think it’s really cool track, really. But it just seemed like a good title. There’s no reason why you think it’s a good title; you just think, that’s a good title.”

Further into the record, Dan says, “I like quite a few of them, actually. I like ‘Boom Bang Bang’ for obvious regions, nudge nudge, wink wink. There’s a lot of humour in there. And I also like ‘The Right Time’ because it’s a very hopeful song, you know? ‘Speakeasy,’ I think’s a hoot. All the songs are pretty good. ‘Winter Sunlight’ is about as romantic as it gets for me, you know, and of course ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Telephone.’ Really, it’s a pretty varied, interesting album, he says, blowing his own trumpet.”

But the second surprise is that Nazareth is in fact planning to soldier on, with a new singer. “We have a guy named Linton Osborne, who is a great singer. And he has already done a gig in Scotland; I think they wanted to see how it was going to go. And then there are a couple in Russia, three in Russia, maybe. And then they’re going to the Czech Republic and then they’re going to Canada. In July, I believe. Good luck with that.”

Oddly, Dan was not part of the hiring process. “No, I wasn’t. I know Linton well, though, because he’s a local guy. Well, he’s local-ish. For the size of your country he’d be a next door neighbour, but in Scotland, he’s local. So yeah, and he’s a good singer. I’ve known Linton for years; I’ve seen him in different bands or whatever, so good luck with that, boys, really.”

“I’m really going to miss the road,” reflects Dan, in closing. “Oh God, obviously I’ve been doing this for 50-odd years, so I’m kind of fond of playing music. The studio was always great because if something doesn’t work, let’s do this, let’s try that. Because we never were a formula band, really. But the road I love, because, well, you meet new people on their own turf, and they don’t care if you traveled 300 or 400 miles that night to play to them. They just say, ‘Hey man, I paid 20 bucks’ (laughs) and I kind of liked that. It was very enjoyable and it is personal. I mean, you see people’s faces, and they’re smiling at you or going, ‘You suck, man’ (laughs). Generally speaking they are smiling at you. So yeah, I’m going to miss them both. Very much. What am I most proud of? Making 24 recorded albums, I guess. And playing just about every place in the world that had a plug. I mean really, I’ve enjoyed much of it; I thought it was great. And it’s funny, since I got sick, the amount of people who run into me, from other bands and say, ‘Oh, come on, Dan, get better,’ blah blah blah. So at least you know you’ve had... you’ve made a few ripples in pool, you know what I mean?”