{"id":886746,"date":"2026-10-18T15:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/886746\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T15:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:34:09","slug":"three-dog-nights-last-original-member-danny-hutton-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/886746\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Dog Night’s Last Original Member: Danny Hutton Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRolling Stone\u2018s interview series Last Man Standing<\/a> features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and musicians who are the last remaining members of iconic bands. In some cases, they are the only classic-era member in the current touring lineup. In others, they are the only ones still alive. In either case, the task of keeping the torch lit has fallen onto their shoulders, whether they wanted that responsibility or not.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you turned on the radio at just about any point between 1969 and 1974, it was rare more than a few minutes passed before a Three Dog Night<\/a> song came on. Their run of hits \u2014 including \u201cJoy to the World,\u201d \u201cOne,\u201d \u201cMama Told Me Not to Come,\u201d \u201cBlack and White,\u201d and \u201cNever Been to Spain\u201d \u2014 helped them sell millions of records, and made them the first rock band since the Beatles to regularly headline baseball stadiums in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut unlike CSNY, the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and other stadium acts that followed in their wake, the members of Three Dog Night were far from household names, even at the peak of their fame. That\u2019s partially because they didn\u2019t have a singular frontman, and instead divided vocal duties between Chuck Negron, Danny Hutton<\/a>, and Cory Wells. <\/p>\n

\n\tTheir reliance on outside songwriters also played a role in their diminished critical esteem, even though they had an incredible ear for talent, completely re-arranged the songs in the studio, and helped introduce visionaries like Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, and even Elton John to mass audiences, forever changing the course of music history.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was the era of the singer-songwriter when everybody had to write their own songs and tell all their personal feelings,\u201d Hutton, 84, tells Rolling Stone via Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s fine, but I didn\u2019t come from that era. Also, some bands are perfect at one thing. They do country, and it\u2019s fabulous. I liked to do a great country song, but man, I wanted to kick ass and do a grungy thing. I wanted to do a blues song. I wanted to do a ballad. I didn\u2019t want to be trapped in one musical thing. And that hurt us a lot. People say, \u2018Well, who are you? You don\u2019t have a backstory.\u2019 It wasn\u2019t like, \u2018You\u2019re a blues guy from down south and that\u2019s what you do.\u2019 We were interpreters. People didn\u2019t get that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the glory days of Three Dog Night, Negron, Hutton, and Wells were joined by guitarist Michael Allsup, keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon, drummer Floyd Sneed, and bassist Joe Schermie. But Hutton and Allsup are the only two left alive, and Hutton has been keeping the group going with an entirely new lineup, which includes his sons Dash Hutton and Timothy Hutton (not the actor), since Allsup retired in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI want to put this politely, and I would have had a hard time saying this 10 or 15 years ago, but Three Dog Night started as my group,\u201d Hutton says. \u201cIt was always my group. I formed this whole idea. I was the one who had hits on the charts before we started. I was the one who was friends with Brian Wilson, and made things happen for us. And now, today, I\u2019ve found the best people I can to serve Three Dog Night songs. It\u2019s different, but I\u2019m very proud of what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHutton\u2019s family moved to Boston from Buncrana, Ireland, when he was two years old, and then permanently resettled in Los Angeles when he was 11. \u201cI\u2019ve had, sweet Christ, three accents,\u201d he says. \u201cI had an Irish accent, a Boston accent, and I moved to California, where they don\u2019t really have an accent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Boston, his mother operated a boardinghouse, and one of the rooms was rented out to notorious hitman Elmer \u201cTrigger\u201d Burne, who played a pivotal role in the infamous Great Brink\u2019s Robbery of 1950 where $2.775 million ($37.1 million today) was stolen from the Brink\u2019s building. \u201cWe had police protection for six months, Irish cops coming 24 hours a day,\u201d says Hutton. \u201cSo after six months, my mother said, \u2018I\u2019m sick of this.\u2019 She didn\u2019t say, \u2018Let\u2019s go to L.A.\u2019 She said, \u2018Let\u2019s go to Hollywood.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tThey had just $400 when they got off the train in L.A. Hutton\u2019s mother worked as a waitress until she was hit by a car on Hollywood Boulevard, broke her leg, and collected enough money in a lawsuit to buy a house in Beachwood Canyon, beneath the Hollywood sign.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis placed adolescent Danny right in the center of 1950s Hollywood. When he walked to school every day, it wasn\u2019t uncommon for him to catch a glimpse of Liberace, Lucille Ball, I Love Lucy actor William Frawley, parody artist Spike Jones, B-movie director Ed Wood, television horror host Vampira, Elvis Presley friend\/bodyguard Red West, and Blackbird Jungle actor Dan Terranova.<\/p>\n

\n\tHutton has a vivid memory of seeing Blackbird Jungle at the Pantages Theater in 1955. \u201cEverybody went nuts because it was a violent teen movie with [Bill Haley\u2019s] \u2018Rock Around the Clock\u2019 in it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the first time kids heard rock & roll on big speakers. Around the world, Germany, England, they rioted and absolutely rampaged and ruined cinemas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was initially more invested in sports than music, but after bicycling across England and Ireland one summer, and seeing thousands of people scream for Irish showbands, Hutton began thinking about a career in music. \u201cI had bought an acoustic guitar in Belfast,\u201d he says, \u201cand I came back and started taking lessons. That was the start of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHutton is a Zelig-like figure who was acquainted with all sorts of 1950s icons as a teenager, including legendary photojournalist Earl Leaf, who served as an early mentor. But this was merely setting the stage for his life in the 1960s, where he was somehow friends with nearly every major counter-culture figure on the L.A. scene, culminating in the birth of Three Dog Night near the end of the decade. It started when he landed a job at Disney Studios several years earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was your life like when you worked at Disney?
I was loading and unloading pallets of LPs at a warehouse. And then I used to hang out at a place called the House of Pancakes across from Liberty Records on Sunset Boulevard, across from Hollywood High School. All the bands would all go there and hang out there, Jan and Dean<\/a> and the Righteous Brothers. <\/a>Anyway, Pat and Lolly Vegas, who ended up in Redbone, they said, \u201cYou should meet this guy, Kim Fowley.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tSo they gave Kim my address, and he actually climbed over my fence. This big bald guy came in and he says, \u201cOh, my balls!\u201d Kim was crazy and very charming. He ended up living in my attic, and I kind of became his driver. He brought [singer-songwriter] Jackie DeShannon and [producer] Jack Nitzsche over one night to play them this new group, the Beatles. They didn\u2019t even know about them. He turned us into Beatles nuts before they even broke here. They had all these flop records on Swan Records and VJ. Nobody remembers that.<\/p>\n

\n\tKim took me to Gold Star when Manfred Mann came into town and they had \u201cDo Wah Diddy Diddy,\u201d and Paul Jones was the lead singer. So then I drove Paul and myself and Kim. We went down one night to see T-Bone Walker on Western Avenue. That\u2019s where the blues clubs were. Earl Palmer, the drummer, was down there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did Fowley help your career take off?
Kim called me when I was at Disney and he said, \u201cYou should go over to Hanna-Barbera. They\u2019re starting a rock & roll record label.\u201d I went over and they handed me a lyric. It was \u201cHippity Hoppity Kangaroo,\u201d and they said, \u201cGo in the other room and let\u2019s see what we can come up with.\u201d So I went in for half hour, wrote the song, came back and they went, \u201cOkay, we\u2019re going to hire you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd I said, \u201cWhat am I going to do?\u201d They said, \u201cWell, you\u2019re a young guy. You know what\u2019s going on in town.\u201d At the time, what they were starting to do is they would find a local hit someplace in the country, and then they would grab it and put it on their new label. So they said, \u201cGo out and find acts.\u201d I ended up writing, and then doing songs where I would do the drums, I would do the bass, and then if there was a guitar solo, I\u2019d slow the track down and play it, then I would do the lead vocal and all the harmony parts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIs this how you and your song \u201cRoses and Rainbows\u201d ended up in The Flintstones in 1965?
Yeah. I played them the song. They said,\u00a0 \u201cWe really like this. We\u2019re introducing Pebbles and Bam Bam, and we\u2019d like to put you in. it\u2019s the first show of the season. What we\u2019re going to do is we\u2019re going to draw you and Fred and Barney are going to be sitting in Bedrock, and you\u2019re going to come on TV singing \u2018Roses and Rainbows.’\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s fine with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThen the record ended up being a top 10. But I had never performed live in front of anybody, and they said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to put you on American Bandstand.\u201d I was on American Bandstand with the Lovin\u2019 Spoonful, and then they said, \u201cOkay, we got you on a tour.\u201d And they put me on tour with Cesar and Cleo, but Cesar and Cleo changed their name to Sonny and Cher when they had \u201cI Got You, Babe,\u201d which was number one. So that was the start of all of that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRight at this time, the L.A. scene is blowing up with new groups like the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield.
Yeah. I moved to Laurel Canyon probably in \u201964 up on Weepah Way. And one day these guys come up the street, they rented houses almost next to each other, Stephen Stills and Neil Young. So I got to be friends with them. And it\u2019s funny, Neil was dressed in this black leather outfit with fringes. And I really liked Stephen. He\u2019s very talented. So that was the start of the whole scene. Mark Volman from the Turtles lived up the street.<\/p>\n

\n\tI ended up doing a TV show where I met this dancer named June Fairchild. We dated and she moved in. Her girlfriend was Mimi Machu, who also was a dancer, and she lived above us. Her boyfriend was Jack Nicholson. Jack was a writer at the time with Roger Corman. Jack used to come down with Harry Dean Stanton, and Harry would come with his guitar and bang out songs. I remember buying Revolver and listening to it on the floor with speakers on both sides of me. Jack smoked a joint and heard the album for the first time.<\/p>\n

\n\tEveryone says Buffalo Springfield was better in concert than on record.
Oh yeah. I went to one or two of their sessions and the production was not good. When you saw them in person, you say, \u201cWow, they\u2019re better than the record.\u201d On the records, the quality didn\u2019t come through.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut I knew that whole scene. I was here when that writer in New York [Tom Wolfe] came over to interview Timothy Leary [for The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test]. I got a knock on the door that was this guy in a white suit looking for him.<\/p>\n

\n\tWow. So how did you become friends with Brian Wilson?
I was fiddling around, doing demos at Gold Star, and he walked past. I had been a huge fan of the Beach Boys. I maybe just shook his hand or something. But later, I left Hanna-Barbera and went to MGM with Frank Zappa. And my manager was David Anderle at the time. He called me up and said, \u201cDanny, I just got a job. I\u2019m the president of Brother Records. Do you want to meet Brian Wilson?\u201d\u00a0 I went, \u201cGod, are you kidding?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I went to meet Brian, and we got along great. He was a real sweetheart. We really clicked and I ended up being one of about four or five people that all hung out together. He had this crazy house. It was very innocent, but everybody was doing marijuana and pep pills. I remember once we sat down at a table and he said, \u201cEverybody ready?\u201d I went, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d He said, \u201cWell, you see all the silverware there? We\u2019re going to just start hitting things.\u201d And he recorded all the sounds we were getting. He was very adventurous.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeren\u2019t you there when he made Pet Sounds?
Yeah. He said to me one evening, \u201cHey, come on down a session. Come on down to Western. I\u2019ll be recording.\u201d So I went down and I walked in and I just heard this beautiful soundtrack, and I thought, \u201cWow, that is just gorgeous.\u201d And then he stopped it and he said, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s take a break.\u201d And I said, \u201cBreak? That\u2019s done.\u201d He said, \u201cNo, no, no, that\u2019s not done.\u201d I thought it was just an instrumental.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen he came back and he added a French horn from a guy in a corner. The song had three accordions on it. It had all this crazy stuff. So I never even heard the melody. And at the end of the song, Hal Blaine, the drummer, pulled out a little box and he said, \u201cHey, Brian, what about putting this on an overdub on the drum?\u201d It was like a big chopstick hitting a bottle with orange juice in it that he put tape around. He clicked it and did this rhythmic thing on it. If you hear \u201cGod Only Knows\u201d after I told you that, it\u2019s all you\u2019re going to hear. It\u2019s a plastic orange bottle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s like you got to watch Da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa or something by witnessing that session.
Yeah. Then he takes me in the hallway and he says, \u201cDanny, I just wrote this thing. What do you think?\u201d He sits at an upright piano in the hall and he sings, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be nice if we were older\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd later I thought, my God, I was there hearing these songs before they were released by him. And I can\u2019t emphasize, here\u2019s the Wrecking Crew. They\u2019re these 30-year-old guys and they played with Sinatra and everything. And he was in complete control of everybody, in a good way. He would sit there and go, \u201cReady guys? Okay, start. One, two.\u201d And they\u2019d start, maybe four seconds, \u201cHold it, hold it. Come on, tempo. Let\u2019s get the tempo right. Hey, tune up, Bob, you\u2019re out of tune.\u201d He was like a commander.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut then if somebody said, \u201cHey Brian, what if I did this?\u201d he\u2019d go, \u201cLet\u2019s try it. Cool, I love it.\u201d I learned so much, and he\u2019d come over to the board and [engineer] Chuck Britz would be mixing, and he\u2019d go over and go, \u201cNo, turn that up, boom, boom, boom.\u201d I love the Beatles, but no one could do what Brian did. He wrote, arranged, produced, engineered. That album obviously had a co-writer [Tony Asher] doing all the lyrics, but some of the songs that he wrote, like \u201cCaroline, No\u201d and \u201c\u2019Til I Die.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019re just devastating.
They\u2019re fabulous. He was my mentor. That was the start for me. What I learned mainly from him was how good something had to sound in the studio. That whole thing from the Buffalo Springfield, I knew that something was wrong. It helped me earlier. I was at RCA Studios and I wrote a song called \u201cFunny Love Can Be.\u201d Frank Zappa was there for it. When I got it home, I thought, \u201cWhere\u2019s all the bottom? There\u2019s no bottom on this, the big sound.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI went back and I said to the engineer, \u201cWhat happened to the bottom?\u201d He said, \u201cYou never had bottom. Let me take you in the other room and let me play you something I just recorded a couple of days ago, and you want to hear some good bottom.\u201d I go in there and he plays me \u201cSatisfaction.\u201d I went, \u201cI got it.\u201d My clothes were flapping.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo how did Three Dog Night form?
The history has been kind of rewritten a little bit, but I formed Three Dog Night. On the Sonny and Cher tour, Corey [Wells] was in their opening band called the Enemy\u2019s. And I said, \u201cThat guy has got a great blues voice.\u201d And my theory always has been get people around you that are better than you. I think B people hire C people because they kind of want to stay up there as boss. A people hire A-minus people.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut if you\u2019re good at what you do, make it better. Get people better than you. Don\u2019t worry about it, get the best lawyer, get the best musicians. Yeah, they play better than you, but you know what? Be the guy that makes the phone calls. Be the guy with the ideas. There\u2019s nothing wrong with it. But it\u2019s different if somebody phones and says, \u201cHey, you want to join my band or my idea?\u201d I was always the guy going, \u201cHey, hey, I got an idea. You want to, boom, come over to my project?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd know thy weakness. I know my weaknesses. That\u2019s a humble way of saying I know my strengths. So that\u2019s what I did. Things cooled down with me as a solo act and then I learned all the stuff with Brian. I like to collect cars. That sounds fancy Nancy, but I used to always buy cars and sell them for more. And I always loved beautiful cars, one of a kind, cars that get bad reviews and no one bought them, and they get bad reviews because they were so different.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd so I went to Concours d\u2019Elegance at the Biltmore Hotel on Western, and they had all these cars outside. And they had three or four cars and they were all different and they were all incredible. And I thought, wow, because I used to always do three-part harmony, all the harmony. I thought, \u201cSo what if I get two other guys, three lead singers?\u201d And that was the start of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a good idea.
At Motown, they\u2019d have five great singers, but they\u2019d have one guy up front and three or four guys dancing in the background. And I always thought that on one recording, you can use many singers. Our band had four musicians and three singers, but actually we were three horn players. I always said, \u201cIf you\u2019re singing background, sing like you\u2019re the lead singer. I want the power out on your voice.\u201d Everybody said, \u201cYou guys, man, you had a big fat harmony,\u201d because there was nobody leaning back with a Mickey Mouse falsetto.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you meet Chuck Negron?
I phoned Corey when he was in a blues band later on. I said, \u201cCorey, I\u2019d like to get this band together,\u201d and we looked for a tenor. We thought about Billy Joe Royal and a couple of other guys who could really sing high. But I met Chuck at a party at the Whisky a Go Go. Afterwards, there was a party up in the Hills thrown by Brian Epstein. There were no Beatles there, but Jeff Beck was there and Frank Zappa came and did a whole presentation to Brian Epstein.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Chuck was there. I just met him and I didn\u2019t know much about him, but he was very charming, and we slowly became friends. He told me he was on Columbia Records and he played me a song called \u201cDear John.\u201d And I liked his voice, and I knew he had a high voice, but I didn\u2019t know how versatile he was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI had Corey come up to my house, and then I invited Chuck up and I said, \u201cHey, come on up. I got a buddy. Let\u2019s just jam.\u201d So we basically auditioned him. He didn\u2019t know it. It was a good way to find out different styles. I didn\u2019t want to do one of those uptight auditions. So we got him to sing all sorts of songs, and we went, \u201cGod, that guy has got it.\u201d So that was how we started.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYou nearly recorded \u201cDarlin’\u201d for Brian Wilson on Brother Records before the group took off. What happened there?
I told Brian about us, and Brian said, \u201cCome on up to the house.\u201d He was living in Bel-Air, and he\u2019d bought Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 house, and painted it purple. And he had a full-grown studio there. So we went up, and Brian, at the time, he loved the Beach Boys and all that stuff, but he wanted to try a boutique kind of a thing. He wanted to start producing some other people and just experiment.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the thing with us is we could sing anything, any style, and I think he wanted something kind of funky. And Beach Boys, I loved their harmony, but that\u2019s more Four Freshmen kind of stuff. He wanted to expand with us. So he said, \u201cLook guys, I got two songs. One is called \u2018Time to Get Alone,\u2019 and the other one I wrote for you, Danny, because you say \u2018Darling\u2019 a lot. So Danny, check this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo we recorded the two songs and we put on rough vocals. We didn\u2019t have the vocals all really done or anything like that. And the Beach Boys came back from tour, and Mike Love, who was kind of a tour manager kind of guy, and he \u2014 rightly so; I would have done what he did \u2014 said, \u201cWhat are you doing? That song is a hit. We need it. We\u2019re the Beach Boys. What are you fussing around with these other unknown guys?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA lot of people presented it as if Mike was some villain. [Editor\u2019s note: This is how Negron framed it in his 1999 memoir Three Dog Nightmare.] I don\u2019t think he was a villain at all. He just was doing his best interest. That sounds like a very selfish word, but if you make a deal with somebody and it\u2019s in your best interest and it\u2019s in their best interest, that\u2019s good. \u201cBest interest\u201d is only bad when it\u2019s really bad for the other person. But for us, it ended up being Three Dog Night, so I can only thank him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere did things go for the group from there?
We went through a couple of different musicians. Our manager, after Brian wasn\u2019t working with us, said, \u201cGo out and get a band. You don\u2019t want to be three vocalists and go out and have a bunch of hired bands behind you. Become a band.\u201d So that\u2019s what we did.<\/p>\n

\n\tLater, they all started calling us a cover band, and we were never a cover band. We resurrected songs that never were hits, except for \u201cTry a Little Tenderness.\u201d So we all sat down and brought out all our records and ideas of songs that should have been hits.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe played a couple places, but really couldn\u2019t get much done because everybody said, \u201cYeah, you\u2019re good, you\u2019re unknown, but you\u2019re not playing any hits for covers.\u201d And we said, \u201cWell, we want to do these kind of songs.\u201d So then our managers set us up at the Troubadour in the afternoon and brought a couple of record companies. And after we finished our set, Jay Lasker from ABC Dunhill came over to us and said, \u201cI love you guys. I think you\u2019re great live, and I\u2019d love to sign you. I want to get this record out as soon as possible.\u201d And I said, \u201cWell, that\u2019s good, but we don\u2019t have any songs yet.\u201d And he said, \u201cNo, what you just did.\u201d We said, \u201cWhat? That?\u201d And he said, \u201cYeah, I love it.\u201d So that was the start of it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYou picked out some amazing songs for that first record, like \u201cThe Loner\u201d by Neil Young.
Yeah. Neil came down to the Whisky with this little amplifier, and he played \u201cThe Loner\u201d to me and I just said, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s cool.\u201d Then I went to help him lift this little amp that had this great sound, and it weighed about a thousand pounds. It had been customized. I said, \u201cThis guy knows what he\u2019s doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI also found a Beatles song that they hadn\u2019t ever recorded, and they gave it to Cilla Black, called \u201cIt\u2019s For You,\u201d which was a waltz. And I did that whole vocal arrangement, the a cappella. I always said, \u201cIf you\u2019re going to do a\u00a0cover song, you can\u2019t do it the way the other artists did it or else it is just karaoke.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDanny Whitten is such a great songwriter too. You used his song \u201cLet Me Go.\u201d\u00a0
Danny was also a guy I was thinking of as a possible third singer for Three Dog Night. When I lived in Laurel Canyon, the Rockets lived up the street. They became Crazy Horse. He wasn\u2019t quite the tenor we needed, but he was the sweetheart. I remember going over there. They finally moved out into the valley and I was over at their little house. They had just finished \u201cCinnamon Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI just feel so sad for Danny. Danny really got into heroin. And then after a party at my house, my guitar was missing, and he sold it. I left a scathing note to him. I was sad angry. Then he went out and OD\u2019d. Neil wrote that song about it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Needle and the Damage Done.\u201d
Yeah. He died right after I kicked him out of the house. I felt really horrible. He was a sweet guy.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou can\u2019t blame yourself.\u00a0
I know.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHarry Nilsson\u2019s \u201cOne\u201d was the song that really broke you guys big. How did that happen?
The first single was \u201cNobody,\u201d and then the second one was \u201cTry a Little Tenderness.\u201d And \u201cTenderness\u201d was a song that we covered. Corey loved Otis Redding. So it got to 50 or 60 on the charts. But you must remember Otis Redding covered Frank Sinatra. That was the cover of a cover. And then Aretha covered Otis on \u201cRespect.\u201d We\u2019ve all done covers.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnyway, then \u201cOne\u201d started getting a lot of reaction. And after it became a hit I used to go to London and I stayed at the Britannia Hotel. I\u2019d usually go in December because I was a bachelor and I would go over there for Christmas. So I got a knock on my door and I opened the door and it\u2019s Harry Nilsson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d never met him. And he said, \u201cDanny, I want to thank you, man, for making me a lot of bread. I loved your version of \u2018One.’\u201d And he said, \u201cWhat are you staying in this dump for? Come on over to where I am.\u201d He was on King\u2019s Road. And he said, \u201cThere\u2019s a flat below me that\u2019s available.\u201d So that\u2019s where I ended up spending every Christmas. That\u2019s how I met Harry. And Harry ended up bringing Ringo and John Lennon to my house during the Lost Weekend. That was a crazy time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTo go back a bit, you covered \u201cLady Samantha\u201d before most anyone had heard of Elton John. How did that happen?
I knew him. I knew Reggie Dwight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow?
When I was in England at that flat, I went to Dick James Music looking for songs. And they said, \u201cYou need to meet Reggie Dwight. And he\u2019s got a lyricist, Bernie [Taupin].\u201d So Reggie came over and he played me \u201cBad Side of the Moon\u201d and some other songs. I went, \u201cWow, this guy is great.\u201d So next time I saw him, I said, \u201cWe\u2019re playing at the Revolution in London, so why don\u2019t you come on down with Bernie?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo he came down and I\u2019m doing the set, and afterwards I thought, \u201cOh, he didn\u2019t come.\u201d And then the doorman came up to me and said, \u201cHey, these two guys are here and they weren\u2019t on the guest list. I didn\u2019t let them in.\u201d I went, \u201cOh, fuck.\u201d And there\u2019s a bar downstairs, and they were down in the bar having a drink.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo we really bonded. I said, \u201cGod, I love your song.\u201d And he said, \u201cOh, yeah, I want to be this songwriter and I love doing that.\u201d Then he started singing along to some of the songs that were playing in the background. I said, \u201cOh, you\u2019ve got a great voice.\u201d He went, \u201cAh, that\u2019s not really my thing. I\u2019m a songwriter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI just ended up being really good friends, and I think his first transatlantic phone call was between us. And then when he came to L.A., when he first came in town, so I took him to his first L.A. restaurant, the Black Rabbit. And he came up to the house and just played piano all night. Then obviously the Troubadour thing happened.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGoing back a bit, Bernie and Elton have always said \u201cLady Samantha\u201d was the first song they wrote they were really proud of. It\u2019s amazing that\u2019s the one you guys picked.
Yeah. He sent me a four-page letter, which I have. And it was before his career really took off. He just said, \u201cDanny, thank you so much. The royalties from that song kept Bernie and I paying the rent and eating food.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I know him on that level. And then when he was in town, he sent me \u201cYour Song\u201d and a bunch of the other demos, so we covered it on [our third album] It Ain\u2019t Easy. We did a pretty good version, but it was before he released his. And I think we had one or two hits already. I thought, \u201cHis version is great and I would hate just because of our popularity that people would mindlessly buy it. God, that\u2019s really going to cut into his career.\u201d So we didn\u2019t release it [as a single]. And obviously, his was fabulous anyway, but I didn\u2019t want to get in the way.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen I brought him over to Brian\u2019s house, and he was a huge fan of Brian\u2019s. So, when we got to the gate and pushed the button, Brian answered by singing the first verse of \u201cYour Song.\u201d And Elton just about collapsed. We had a great evening.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Laura Nyro\u2019s \u201cEli\u2019s Coming,\u201d you also picked up on a young talent very early.
We heard that on the radio, and she was great. I accidentally changed some of the lyrics. We did it a little differently from hers. I remember I got a knock on the door when we were looking for songs for the second album and it was Danny Whitten. He came over and he was on White Whale Records with Mark Volman from the Turtles. Danny said, \u201cHere\u2019s a song I think you guys would really like, but we can\u2019t do it. It\u2019s got strings on it and it\u2019s got a big night out kind of thing.\u201d And it was \u201cCelebrate.\u201d So, Danny gave me the demo for \u201cCelebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy do you think the critics didn\u2019t get you guys?
I grew up with the music of big bands from the 1940s. My point of view was always musical. And the critics were going, \u2018Well, yeah, look, they\u2019re having all these hits because they\u2019re doing all these cover songs.\u2019 I used to say, \u2018That song was not a hit. That was an album cut that never happened on their album.\u2019 Randy Newman said that \u2018Mama Told Me Not to Come\u2019 would never have been a hit without us. We made that song a hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI thought about it afterwards and I know some of the writers, and I think I saw it differently later. We were such a hot band. We were the first guys to do stadiums after the Beatles, before anybody. So we were huge, and there\u2019s always that backlash.<\/p>\n

\n\tI know you weren\u2019t happy with your Rolling Stone cover story.<\/a>
I see it from a writer\u2019s point of view, they went, \u201cOh, let\u2019s concentrate on the management and how this operates.\u201d It\u2019s almost thinking like a boy band kind of the mentality, like we were groomed. But man, man, this was my baby.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the studio, we never used outside musicians. We\u2019d have a guest maybe play an instrument, but that was our band on every song. We didn\u2019t use ringers. Our band kicked ass. We kicked ass. Technically, whether you liked it or not, we could sing anything, play anything.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd with three singers, there wasn\u2019t one focal point like most bands.
And that got me in trouble in a way. As I said, I was kind of the middle guy. I was the guy that was a little bit of the referee when songs would come in. In general, both of them want to sing them. I would always look at who I thought could do it the best, present it the best. And I would usually be the tiebreaker and go, \u201cYou know what? I think you should do it.\u201d They grudgingly agreed, but that ended up meaning they sang a lot of more of the hits than I did. And there\u2019s that perception with the public that that\u2019s kind of the leader of the band, the people who sing most of the hits.<\/p>\n

\n\tTell me about meeting Jimi Hendrix. I know you jammed with him.
Jimi came down and played with us and blew our mind. And then Michael [Allsup] went to a jam session and Jimi played bass. Michael played lead. In New York, we double dated at a club called the Hippopotamus, no longer there. And he was just the sweetest guy. I mean, he was so humble. We both had models, these beautiful girls, and we were at this small table. He leans over and he said something to the girl and she backed up like she was surprised. And he went, \u201cDoes my breath smell?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was just gentle. What a talent. I was backstage. We did a festival and before he went on, he was backstage and he was tuning and he didn\u2019t have his guitar all in tune. He went out and when he hit certain notes, he just bent them into tune. The guitar was like another part of his body.<\/p>\n

\n\tChuck quickly became a pretty severe drug addict. That must have made your life pretty tough for the group to handle.
Yeah. That whole thing started with Chuck really liking cough syrups. In the early days he had me do it once with him and it was like, \u201cWhoa, I can\u2019t do that again. I don\u2019t think my liver liked that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen cocaine came into the scene in Laurel Canyon, it was just wonder drug. Before that, everyone was taking pep pills or methadone or black beauties, speed. And they came with a horrible comedown. I\u2019m not talking about people shooting up. I never shot up, none of that stuff. But then all of a sudden they get introduced to cocaine and it\u2019s like, \u201cOh, my God, it feels so good. The next day there\u2019s no come down and you can work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then obviously, it wasn\u2019t that innocent. It got darker and you\u2019d have to start taking a pill because you got so wired on it and you\u2019re up for days. And then heroin came into the scene. I never messed with that. And that\u2019s when the guns and the thugs started coming in. It got very dark. And then Chuck and our keyboard player, Jimmy [Greenspoon]\u2026 I don\u2019t know if they started snorting or whatever. I think Jimmy started first with Johnny Winter. I think they both fiddled with it for a moment. Anyway, I shouldn\u2019t be saying this stuff. I don\u2019t want to get in trouble.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWe can move on. Were you surprised when \u201cJoy to the World\u201d hit so big? It\u2019s a somewhat strange song to hit number one.
I thought it was nuts. Hoyt Axton had the same manager as us. They put him on tour with us as an opening act. So we got to know Hoyt. We would be on a tour bus and he would follow us in a big black Cadillac. And he was like our bodyguard. You got to remember in \u201969 and \u201970, you were down in Dallas, Texas, and if you had long hair, you\u2019d likely be beaten up. They\u2019d say, \u201cYou girl, what are you doing?\u201d And we had a Black drummer [Floyd Sneed]. Nobody really thinks about it, but we were one of the first integrated bands.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo anyway, we became really good friends with Hoyt. He was doing a children\u2019s album, and Michael [Allsup] and Joe Schermie, our bass player, went to some demo session he was doing, and they heard \u201cJoy to the World.\u201d He wanted to do a children\u2019s hour TV special, and it didn\u2019t happen, so he was just farming out the songs individually.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHoyt had this big deep baritone voice, and he sang the song to us in the studio and I went, \u201cWhat the hell is that?\u201d Chuck said, \u201cWell, you know what? Let\u2019s just have fun with it.\u201d We thought, \u201cWell, let\u2019s just put it on the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWe started arranging it, and then Michael came up with doing a modulation on the outro going out, and we said, \u201cMan, that sounds pretty good.\u201d Then we forgot about it, and I think we released two singles first, and then the radio people went nuts. It was number one for six weeks on the charts. I think it sold 10 million records, finally, finally. So, you just never know.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s astounding when you look at how many hits you had in a short period of time. Everything you touched turned to gold.\u00a0
We had 21 Top 40 hits. We don\u2019t get credit. I think the only album that really got a good review in Rolling Stone was the Harmony album [in 1971]. Bud Scoppa did a very nice review on it,<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you leave the band in 1975? What happened?
I was burned out. I completely stopped. We stopped working with [producers] Richie Podolor and Bill Cooper even though they were like magic to me. One of the other members was like, \u201cYeah, let\u2019s use somebody else.\u201d So I really wasn\u2019t participating in any of the mixing or choosing. I was pretty rock and roll, having my fun. I had a party house and everyone in the world was there. It was Lennon, Ringo, [Doug] Weston, [Blue Sky Records founder] Steve Paul, Tom Waits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTom Waits came when he was kind of forming himself. He was living in Silver Lake, and Tom and I, we went to a Beverly Hills party, and he did not want to know about it. He was just doing his On the Road kind of thing. But it was also Warren Beatty, Billy Preston, David Cassidy. Oh, do you remember Paul Getty, the guy who got kidnapped?<\/p>\n

\n\tSure. J. Paul Getty\u2019s grandkid.
He slept on my couch for a week when he was in Italy. He came to L.A. with his mother and they were suing the old man, because they weren\u2019t paying any money. He had no place to stay, so he slept on my couch for a week with his girlfriend. I remember my mother liked him, so she went up the street to the Canyon store and then brought him a pack of Player\u2019s cigarettes.<\/p>\n

\n\tI just stopped showing up to the studio. And I was so far gone that once I passed out at home and was gone for so long that when I woke up my left arm and my leg were not really working. I had some friends help me, and I went up to my bedroom and I looked in the mirror at myself and it snapped. I was smoking two packs a day. I was drinking and taking different drugs. No needles or any of that stuff, but I was completely non-functioning. I just said, \u201cI\u2019m done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThen a dealer came up to my house with an ounce of cocaine and he said, \u201cWell, here, Danny.\u201d I said, \u201cI\u2019m done.\u201d I put it in the cupboard underneath the bathroom sink. He came back a week later with a scale. And he said, \u201cLet\u2019s weigh it.\u201d And I said, \u201cIt weighs the same.\u201d He said, \u201cYou didn\u2019t touch it?\u201d I said, \u201cI\u2019m done. I\u2019m done with drugs. I\u2019m done with smoking. I\u2019ve got to get healthy.\u201d And he said, \u201cDid you cut it?\u201d No. So that was the start of getting clean. And then I moved into Alice Cooper\u2019s old house, and I\u2019ve been living here since \u201977.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat happened after you got clean?
It was the start of my next life. I spent a year where I started exercising, walking, running, all of that stuff. And then I went into the Troubadour and I saw this punk band called Fear. And I went, \u201cOh my God, what is this?\u201d And I just loved them. So I ended up managing Fear and I got into the whole scene with X, Redd Kross, all of the [L.A. punk] bands.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThree Dog Night reunited in 1981. How did that happen?
That\u2019s because we got a call that somebody was going to do a big bogus tour of the Far East using our name. So we all got together at a conference and started talking to each other and decided to do it again. We did not know that Chuck was really still on heroin. So that lasted a while, and Chuck constantly was going to the dentist who couldn\u2019t figure it out. We were starting a big tour and he was in the back of the bus and said, \u201cI\u2019ve got to go\u2026 I can\u2019t finish the tour.\u201d So we were just furious. We were in the hole for getting sued for a lot of promoters and stuff like that. And then Chuck spent just years in the wilderness and to his credit, I think he went into 20 different places and he finally found a place called CRI-Help and he came out of it. I really admire him for that. He came out of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy didn\u2019t he ever rejoin the group?
Because we were almost going to get back together again, but he married a girl whose father owned I think the merchandising franchise to all the basketball teams. So he had plenty of money. So we got lawyers involved and lawyers poisoned the well, that\u2019s all I can tell you. We couldn\u2019t make it work again.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut you made peace with him before he died, right?
I did, yes. Actually we\u2019re doing a documentary and in the documentary you can see them saying, \u201cWould you ever get back together with Chuck?\u201d And I said, \u201cNo, never.\u201d And then when I found out he was really in bad shape and he was dying, I just thought, \u201cWhat am I doing?\u201d So then it was great. We hugged.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did that feel?
Wonderful for the both of us. Healing. We started talking about all the times we missed, that we could have been together.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you regret you didn\u2019t do that much earlier?
Yeah. But at the time he was angry, almost angry like an ex-wife or something. He would just say horrible things about me. And I don\u2019t mean to put us on the same level, but it was like Lennon and McCartney\u2026even Keith and Mick. It was hurtful things. And I didn\u2019t really respond. I always think of hurt. I mean, anger comes from hurt. I think he was hurt and then I was hurt because he was saying that, but he was saying that because he was hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDid his book upset you?
Well, [Three Dog Night] keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon wrote a book too. Autobiographies are self-centered and not in a bad way. And I know at my age, some things that you believe happened, you find out later, that didn\u2019t happen that way. It\u2019s human nature. A lot of it was factual, and then there was some things that we remember differently.<\/p>\n

\n\tLosing Cory Wells in 2015 must have been really hard too.
Oh, yeah. Vocally, very, very, very few people could do what he could do. He was an incredible voice. He could do the bluesiest thing and he can go into the sweetest falsetto. We had bumped heads on different ways to do things. I think I\u2019m good at the big picture of seeing things, and he was a man of the moment. He\u2019d get emotional. We did bump heads on directions to go and the setlist, that kind of stuff. We just had different philosophies on that, but he was a one of a kind singer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Michael stopped touring, you became the last founder still in the band.
Yeah. We\u2019re still working. Our audience, in general, is not there to hear new songs, even though we\u2019re working on a new album. And we really needed a guy that could be blues, but could sing high, do the whole thing. So I was thinking about getting a guy and Steve Perry recommended, saying, \u201cGet this guy, his name is Woody Mankowski. This guy kicks ass.\u201d So Woody is with us now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd 10 years ago, five years ago, we were kind of like a jukebox doing old songs. And I really was lazy about singing. So when Woody came in and when we were rehearsing, I went, \u201cHoly crap.\u201d Some of the songs we take turns singing verses. I said, \u201cI can\u2019t follow that guy the way I\u2019m singing.\u201d So I started going from my house every day up to Mulholland and driving for an hour or two singing and doing vocal lessons. And it\u2019s improved my singing incredibly out of fear. I\u2019m singing better than I\u2019ve ever sang. Believe it or not, I\u2019m singing higher than I\u2019ve ever sung.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not any of those Mickey Mouse falsettos. And I\u2019m amazed. So anybody coming to see us, we\u2019re the real thing. For example, we\u2019re doing [Nik Kershaw\u2019s] \u201cWouldn\u2019t It Be Good\u201d that [my old band] Danny Hutton Hitters recorded on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. And it kicks bottom.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe last Three Dog Night album was in 1976. You say you\u2019re working on a new one?
We\u2019re in a process now. We\u2019ve finished the album. Then we went out and we tested some of them and then realized\u2026no. I wrote a lot of this stuff and I was trying to sound modern. So I revisited it and we\u2019re going to finish it up. And Woody\u2019s an incredible sax player, so that\u2019s really broadened our sound. He\u2019s like Junior Walker, the real deal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen was the last time you saw Brian Wilson?
About two or three weeks before he died. My wife and I went over to his house and he\u2019s sitting in a chair. And when I walked in, the first thing he said to me is he said, \u201cDanny, sing \u2018Going in Circles.’\u201d That\u2019s a song that we did that was in the movie called X Y & Zee with Elizabeth Taylor in it. And if you get a chance, listen to the lyrics in that song, it says how he was feeling.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd I said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to do an a cappella. Let\u2019s do it on the piano.\u201d He says, \u201cOh, I\u2019m not playing the piano.\u201d And I was really worried then because he would come over to my house or I\u2019d go to his house and he always, when he talked, went over the piano and started tickling it and talking. It was part of his little crutch. I thought, \u201cOh my God, he\u2019s not playing that.\u201d I knew something was up, but what a legend.<\/p>\n

\n\tI remember one story where Alice Cooper had a party in the Beverly Hills Hotel. So afterwards Brian says, \u201cCome on, let\u2019s go to my house.\u201d So I went to his house and he was playing a song and then Alice Cooper and Iggy [Pop] came in and he looked at me and he looked at them and he said, \u201cCome on, let\u2019s sit down.\u201d We\u2019re sitting and Iggy was standing and he said, \u201cLet\u2019s do Shortnin\u2019 Bread.\u201d He gave everybody parts and we\u2019re all singing \u201cShortnin\u2019 Bread.\u201d And finally, I think they got fed up and said, \u201cSee you later.\u201d But I always thought if someone could have seen the situation\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have so many amazing stories. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ve just scratched the surface. Do you ever think about writing a memoir?
Well, the problem for me, everybody\u2019s asked me that, I mean, I got stories. But I think to write a really true book, you have to hurt some people. You have to say things. I don\u2019t want to do that. Yeah, I got stories that would embarrass people, embarrass me.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou could write it and leave it in a safe somewhere for 40 years.
Well, what good\u2019s that going to do me? I\u2019ll embarrass my relatives.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you think Three Dog Night will continue after you retire?
Yes, I would like it to. I don\u2019t see why not. People say, \u201cOh, it\u2019s not the original guys.\u201d What do you mean? That\u2019s not the point. The point is our purpose and what we do, how we perform these songs. I think people should come after I pass, which will not be for a long time. But after we play now, and I wouldn\u2019t say this two years ago, but this new thing now, people are saying, \u201cMy God, you guys were hitting the buttons.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo you never think about retirement or you want to go as long as you can?
I would like to keep going as long as I can. Maybe slow down a little bit, but no, I enjoy it, and people enjoy it. I\u2019ve been in all 50 states and a lot of countries, and you end up going to places you would never ever go to. And sometimes they\u2019re not as good, and sometimes you\u2019re amazed. You go, \u201cGod, I never knew this place existed.\u201d So it\u2019s an adventure. I think at my age, you have to have purpose every day and good stress, what I mean by good energy, but stressful, purpose, and be social.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tI read the average American male lives to about 77. But maybe you don\u2019t have a job, maybe you lose your spouse, maybe you\u2019re alone. For so many people, your identity is what you do for a living and you lose that. And I\u2019m so lucky that I have all of this stuff to keep me going. If I\u2019ve got another ten years left, that would be great.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd what I want is a compressed death. I\u2019m not afraid of dying. It\u2019s the transition to death. People are going to go, \u201cHe lived to 94,\u201d and the last six years he was in pain on his back in bed. I want people to go, \u201cGod, he was fine two weeks ago but he dropped dead.\u201d That\u2019s the way to go. And on my tombstone, I want \u201cEnjoy yourself. It\u2019s later than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rolling Stone\u2018s interview series Last Man Standing features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and musicians who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[209937,88,169720,216,209727,371894],"class_list":["post-886746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-danny-hutton","tag-entertainment","tag-last-man-standing","tag-music","tag-three-dog-night","tag-three-dog-night-co-founder-chuck-negron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}