RUSSELL HITCHCOCK of AIR SUPPLY: Not Taking Ourselves Too Seriously
An interview by Bridget Herlihy.
Air Supply came about through the serendipitous meeting of Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell at rehearsals for a stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Melbourne in 1975. Little did they know that within a few short years they would not only be jettisoned to superstardom, but would also become one of the most popular, and successful, groups of all time. Their big ‘break’ came with the release of ‘Lost in Love’ in 1979, which was quickly followed up with a succession of worldwide hits with the likes of ‘All Out Of Love’, ‘Every Woman In The World’, ‘The One That You Love’, ‘Even The Nights Are Better’, ‘Making Love Out Of Nothing At All’, to name but a few. Suffice to say that the probability of anyone having not heard Air Supply at least once in their life is relatively slim.
It wasn’t until conducting research for this interview with Russell Hitchcock that I realised how much of my childhood had a soundtrack of Air Supply’s biggest hits. Without being conscious of it, I know many of Air Supply’s hits by heart. These songs, often thematically touching on matters of the heart, have indeed become timeless classics, and are finding a new audience since appearing in contemporary films, television series and commercials.
Forty-seven years after their inception, the duo – featuring Hitchcock on vocals and Russell on guitar – are still going strong, touring regularly around the world to sell out audiences, with their dedicated fan base still very much intact.
Air Supply are returning to Aotearoa – a country that the twosome hold close their hearts – to charm fans both old and new with the ‘Lost In Love Experience’ at the Auckland Town Hall this weekend (Sunday 4th December). As the name suggests, the performance will take the audience on a sweet walk down memory lane with a set that includes not only their greatest hits, but some newer material as well.
As I’m sure will be music to their fans’ ears (pun intended), the duo show no signs whatsoever of slowing down. It is also worth noting that Russell Hitchcock is indeed one of the most charming and likeable individuals – complete with a very dry sense of humour – that you could possibly meet.
Thank you for taking the time to have a chat today – it is lovely to meet you, albeit virtually. Whereabouts are you at the moment?
I’m in Los Angeles, at home. I have lived here on and off for 34 years; since ’87, whenever that was. I’m not good at maths (laughs).
Maths isn’t my strong suit either. So you are well and truly ensconced in LA?
Oh yeah. We started coming here first in 1980 when ‘Lost In Love’ was a hit here. The record company was here and the lawyers were here and the promo people were here, so it didn’t make sense to keep flying back to Australia every three months to do stuff. So we are very established here.
So there isn’t much chance of you moving back to the Antipodes?
No. I mean I have daughter here; she’s 33, and obviously… I don’t know why I keep saying that… I’m here for the duration now.
You were last in New Zealand in May 2019 for the last night of your Australasian orchestral tour. What have you been doing since then?
We are just constantly touring. We don’t stop typically. The pandemic killed us for most of last year; we did March 2021 but then stopped and didn’t play again until January of this year, so it took a chunk out. But that’s what we do; we have always considered ourselves to be a touring band, and we have just been on the road. We record new things and they are released on our website, or through our Spotify, and whatever those things are now that I’m not familiar with (laughs). But its 99% touring.
Do you still enjoy touring as much as you always have, or is it more challenging now since the pandemic?
Well, it challenging for the travel, hotel, you know… pain in the butt kind of thing. But I love performing on stage; we all do. For instance, we did three shows in the last four days; we flew home yesterday from Tampa in Florida, and we had to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning at the hotel, went to the airport for a 7 o’clock flight, and it was delayed for six hours with a mechanical problem. We got home late in the afternoon, and tomorrow we have to leave again for three dates in Texas and Oklahoma. So that part of touring is a drag, but you can’t complain about it as you have had as much success as we have, and continue to do so. And music is what we do; I can’t do anything else I have discovered after all of these years, and I don’t want to do anything else, and I’m still very good at what I do. So I see no reason to stop.
The fact that you still enjoy what you are doing speaks volumes; it is clearly what you are meant to be doing and no doubt your dedicated fan base is delighted that you are continuing to do it as well. Have the responses from your fans changed much over the years?
They haven’t really. I think what has changed for us is that the audiences are getting older, as we are. It’s a cyclical thing; we find older people coming to the shows, and we come out [on stage] sometimes and think “wow they look old”, but we find that there is an influx again of younger kids; teenagers who have been exposed to our music via their parents. We get a lot of placements in movies in the US with our songs, and television commercials, and kids love the music. So the enthusiasm is still there from the audience, certainly. Especially in Southeast Asia; the Philippines is tremendous place for us to go as we are legends over there they tell us, so its always good to go over there and people scream and yell at you for good reasons for a change!
When you weren’t able to tour due to the pandemic, were you and Graham writing new material?
Well, he does all of the writing, I can’t write anything really. I stayed home and watched television and drank wine, basically for ten months (laughs).
I have heard from a very reliable source that even today, 47 odd years since Air Supply was formed, that you and Graham remain very much in synch with one another on stage, and what was evident was a mutual friendship and respect for one another.
We met on the first day of rehearsals for Jesus Christ Superstar in ’75, and for some unknown reason we just clicked. We had the same name ‘Russell’, and we started to work together on his songs only a couple of weeks after he met, so we had that instant musical bond. We both came from the same backgrounds, working class from England and Australia respectively, both loved the Beatles, both had the English sense of humour, and that kind of stuff. But when it got down to doing the work, as the years started to roll by…. we don’t step on each other’s toes. I can’t write songs, so I don’t say ‘I want my songs on the record’ or ‘I want to sing this’; he doesn’t want to be the lead singer, and he is very conscious of where he wrote – and writes – with my voice in mind. But we still have a very democratic way of working. We weren’t kids when we got into the business, so being Australian – and he came to Australia when he was 17, and in New Zealand it’s the same thing – you can’t have an ego and a family, because they beat it out of you. If you get to be too big for your britches they will knock you down in a heartbeat. I would like to think that we are always very level-headed, and had a certain maturity that other people didn’t have, and it’s been a good thing for us during the years. When I’m not doing Air Supply I’m very immature, trust me (laughs).
In what way?
I like stupid things; I like toys and I like stupid stuff.
By the mid 1980s you had tied with The Beatles for the highest number of Top 5 songs on the Billboard Top 100. What do you think the ‘X factor’ is when it comes to these songs? Obviously they were very popular, but they are as beloved now as they were when they were first released.
First of all, to be mentioned in any sentence with The Beatles is phenomenal, and I have always said that its incredible, and then you see that The Beatles had the top 5 songs on the charts once; but that was untouchable. In terms of their longevity, I think it’s the songs themselves; if you don’t have a good song you can’t make a good recording and people won’t listen to it, and I think that we have always had that base. Graham writes simply; he will be the first to admit that. Not a lot of chords not complicated, lyrics are – not stupid simple – but simple because they have the emotion that is straight from heart to heart, and people have carried that with them.
I mean, we’ve had letters from people who were going to commit suicide until they had heard our record, a lady who had our concert video play in her hospital room when she gave birth because she wanted the child to be exposed to us when he or she came into the world. Those things make you know and believe that people…they don’t just like your songs, they love them, and they take them to heart extremely, and they keep them with them for all their lives.
Your music seems to facilitate some kind of time travel; I can hear one of your tracks and it takes me straight back to my childhood.
I hear a song on the radio wherever, and I remember where I was when I heard that song for the first time, and what was going on in my life when I heard it. Those kind of memories that attach you to the moment through song are quite special.
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What do you have planned for your upcoming Australasian shows? Reaching 47 years is a huge accomplishment.
It is. One doesn’t think about it until it gets brought up – it’s just another year for us in a way. It’s in between 45, which was a big deal, and 50, which will be the biggest deal ever. Our show is hits, ‘Lost In Love’, ‘Sweet Dreams’, etc, then Graham does a bit in the middle of the show; a solo piece on his own which is great. I think we have a new drummer from the last time we played in New Zealand, but the band is phenomenal. They are young and they look good, which makes us only good, and they are great players. It’s a great show. It’s a dynamic show, and for people who haven’t seen us before it’s a rock n roll show, it’s not an evening of tea and crumpets and string quartets. We are very proud of it; its been going down extremely well, to a fanatical degree.
When we came back after the pandemic people were just ecstatic that we could be in one place and listen to music together, and be very exuberant and involved. We don’t expect that, but we want it. We know how strong the songs are and how strong the show is – it’s going to great. We don’t take ourselves seriously at all; we take the music seriously, but we just want to have fun and want everybody to do the same when they come and see us!
Air Supply are performing in Auckland next weekend (Sunday 4th December) as part of their 45th Anniversary – The Lost In Love Experience shows. Tickets for this show have now sold out.
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