← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
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Janda
97.1Fm the drive presents the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda this is the.
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Eddie Money
Story of an artist who grew up in an Irish Catholic police family, tried the family business and quit the blue to follow his dream of being a rock and roll star in California. It's a unique story, one that would require a lot of luck, a lot of talent, a whole lot of sticking with it, and a lot of help from one very important friend. Eddie Money's story is as inspiring as it is unlikely. So let's get into it in this episode of the behind the Song podcast. If you like this episode, give it a thumbs up at the end and don't forget to hit subscribe Edward Joseph Mahoney was born in New York City and grew up in Levittown on Long island, where his father relocated the family when he was a young boy. His father, brother and grandfather were New York City police officers and after graduating high school in 1967, Eddie joined the NYPD himself. One problem, they wouldn't let him grow his hair long and another he had been playing in a band since high school and music was what he decided he now needed to pursue full time. So in a move that seriously disappointed his father, who tore his posters of Jimi Hendrix off of his bedroom wall out of frustration over his son's decision, Eddie moved all the way across the country to the Bay Area of California. There, in Berkeley, he enrolled in the University of California where he could grow his hair as long as he wanted to live a more free lifestyle and devote himself to his music. Utterly broke and not knowing many people, but with a born gift for meeting people and making friends, he sold blue jeans for money at first and then he started playing around the area. He got his first break when he joined Big Brother and the Holding Company. After Janis Joplin passed away, he changed his name to Eddie Money by changing around the letters in his given last name because it sounded good and as a kind of self effacing joke because he never actually had any money. In those days he was in a band called the Rockets, living in a seedy part of North Oakland, eating ravioli out of the can and just barely scratching by so broke that after he changed his name he was jokingly called Eddie no Money. But things would soon change. After being a part of the scene in Berkeley for a few years and becoming known for his trademark gravelly voice and his stage presence, he played a show that would change his fate forever, a show that would lead to him becoming a multi platinum selling artist and one that would introduce him to a very important father figure who would play a major role in all the successes that followed. It was an amateur night at the famed Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, one of promoter Bill Graham's legendary venues in the city that had become a proving ground for rock bands ranging from Jefferson Airplane to the Grateful Dead, who made Winterland their home base, to the Sex Pistols, who played their very last show there, as did the band with a show immortalized in Martin Scorsese's the Last Waltz. Eddie Money so impressed Bill Graham after that amateur night performance that Graham quickly became an ally, a friend, and then his manager, helping Money negotiate a record deal with Columbia Records. Six credits shy of graduating from UC Berkeley, Eddie Money dropped out, finally about to realize his true dream. A little about Bill Graham, a name we know because of the careers of some of the aforementioned rock bands and many others who he booked into his venues. To say that he overcame some incredible odds to make a name for himself would be an understatement. Graham was a Holocaust survivor, born in Berlin, who had emigrated to the United States from Russia by way of France before the rise of Nazism. He ended up in a foster home in the Bronx in New York City as a child and later graduated from City College with a business degree. He moved to California afterward In the early 60s, managing stage production groups and eventually becoming a promoter. Eddie Money said of Bill Graham that he walked out of Russia with 500 other kids and half of them died of starvation before they arrived in Paris. He overcame incredible odds just to live through everything he did as a child and then he went on to become a major force in rock and roll. His story is amazing in and of itself and when he took Eddie Money under his wing, saw his potential and became his manager, Eddie Money gained a powerful friend and mentor with an understanding of what he was doing that he didn't get for a long time from his own father. When it came time to record the songs that would appear on Eddie Money's self titled debut album, released in 1977, Money had already written several songs that were recorded for it, including two very big hits, Baby hold on, which was released as the first single and went to number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and what would become his signature song, Two Tickets to Paradise, which peaked at number 22. Two Tickets to Paradise was written for a girl friend he was dating while at UC Berkeley, a sorority girl with a mother who strongly disapproved of Money, who At that time was working at JCPenney in between taking classes and playing in bands. He said that the song is a state of mind, an escape to anywhere when the odds seem stacked against you. He said he wrote it about taking the girlfriend on a bus ride up to the Redwood Forest, but that it could be anywhere. That represented a little break from reality. The lyrics are simple, the chorus repeats, it's not very long. Eddie Money and the band do a great job of getting the emotional tone of the song through the punchy roughness of just wanting to escape. The lyrics go like this. I've got a surprise especially for you Something that both of us have always wanted to do. We've waited so long I'm going to take you on a trip so far from here I've got two tickets in my pocket now Baby we're going to disappear We've waited so long and then the chorus I've got two tickets to paradise Won't you pack your bags we'll leave tonight it's the simple promise of this song that makes it so endearing. Because who among us hasn't wished to get away from it all at one point or another? When it came to the music and recording his debut, Eddie Money was surrounded by a killer team recorded to basically be a studio version of Money's well honed live show. He and some pretty key players assembled at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. Bruce Botnik was signed on as the producer, having produced the Doors LA Woman album. Andy Johns was hired as the engineer, having worked on several Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin albums. Session players with real pedigrees, including working on recordings with Paul McCartney and George Harrison were brought on as were former members of the Steve Miller Band. Money's guitarist Jimmy Lyon, who would later play with the Greg Kinn Band, made an incredible contribution to the single sound of the album and he co wrote many of the songs. But Two Tickets to Paradise was all Eddie Money. He said that he wrote it very quickly in his seedy little apartment in North Oakland years before on piano, and that he thought it should actually have been the first single released from the album. As for the sorority girl, years later, he mentioned that he was just glad that he didn't end up with her. Two Tickets to Paradise and Baby hold on became the first of many top 40 hits for Eddie Money, who had meteoric success throughout the 80s. He found dealing with the excesses of the rock and roll lifestyle difficult, though struggling with drug addiction and alcoholism for years. At a party in 1980, he ingested a substance that turned out to be a synthetic barbiturate and that caused him to damage a nerve in his leg after passing out for over 14 hours. As a result, he walked with a limp for the rest of his life, and that event did give him some pause when it came to his lifestyle. But he only fully stopped after promising his wife and family that he would much later in the 2000s. He reignited his career with Take Me Home tonight in the mid-80s with Ronnie Spector, who he convinced to come out of retirement to sing on the song for his sixth album, which went platinum. When Bill Graham died, shockingly in a helicopter crash in 1991, it really hit Eddie Money hard. Graham was flying from a Huey Lewis and the News concert on a rainy night when the helicopter hit a tower, and Money said afterward that he had lost the man who was like a second father to him in that crash. It took Eddie Money's own father years to fully grasp the fact that his rock and roll son was actually a success, and Money' said that it was only after spending time with him on tour and seeing the ins and outs of what it takes to be a rock star. Playing shows for hours on end, signing autographs, meeting people, doing interviews, which by the way, Eddie Money was known to be very good at employing that gift of gab that he was known for. Did his father ever really accept his son's decision to leave the police force? Money was married twice and he had five children. His album sold in the multi millions with his self titled debut being his biggest seller. The song Two Tickets to Paradise was the title of a musical about his life and career, going from a working class Irish family to full on rock stardom. Eddie Money died in 2019 of complications from heart surgery. He was battling esophageal cancer at that time. When he was diagnosed, he said, I've been to jail, I've been to college and I've been to rehab. What haven't I done? It was an amazing time. I was a rock star and I had a blast. And his story is incredible, made possible by talent, moxie and luck and fueled by the idea that we all have when we're young and seemingly invincible, that nothing can stop us if we just give it a try. I'm Janda and this has been behind the song. Special thanks as always to Christian Lane for the music you hear on these podcast episodes. Check us out on TikTok and you can find me on the air weekdays from 9 to 2 Central on 971 FM. The Drive in Chicago and at wdrv.com on the way, much more classic rock and roll.