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Show Leo Kottke naturally stoned By RUDY KOPPL Chronicle Staff "I can't play the guitar when I'm stoned. I just drool on my guitar. I tried it once in Minneapolis and I drooled all over my twelfth fret. I get distracted, my mouth hangs open, and I daydream when I play stoned," Leo Kottke said last week when he was in Kingsbury Hall for a rock concert which featured Joyous Noise, Joy of Cooking and himself. Leo Kottke doesn't smoke cigarettes cigar-ettes because, he said, it affects his hearing. Drinking liquor causes his hands to grow numb and coffee makes him shake. Naturally is the only way Leo can play guitar. Kottke seems nervous during performances. per-formances. "Just before I go on stage I get depressed and onery. I have a low point before I go on stage. Instead of butterflies I develop de-velop a temperment," he said. When on stage Leo plays with the microphones constantiy and tells strange stories in between his music. mu-sic. He plays with the mikes, he said, "...because I'm perverted. Really, really that is it!" He thought the atmosphere here in Salt Lake was a great improvement improve-ment over Los Angeles and the other big cities. Kottke said, "When you're in Los Angeles you're in hell. I hate that place. I enjoy this better than the city, but I don't think it would make any difference on what I'm playing." play-ing." "Anything I write doesn't happen for the moment. It happens in my mind for something that already has happened. It's an expression of it, if it gets that good. If I write a' good song I can usually trace it to a feeling and I can trace that feeling to maybe my first can of beer when I was a kid or something some-thing like that. It's never anything to do with 'it's a foggy day' or 'the aspens are pretty'." For a musician that is involved with his music Leo takes great time to let people know his ideas. Kottke said, "I may not want to be a superstar, but I've got an ego that won't quit. I can' help it. If someone wants my opinion I spout it out even if I've never formed one before." An egotistical egotis-tical insomniac? "Maybe not egotistical, ego-tistical, maybe egocentric. My wife is trying to change all that and she is succeeding if I bid," he said. Leo Kottke has been put down for his vocal ability numerous times. John Fahey, a guitarist and producer of Kottke's first and second album, said Kottke sounded like goose farts. Leo replied, re-plied, "John didn't like my voice when I sent him my first few tapes, but he liked my instrumental. instrumen-tal. So I thought I'd explain why there are no vocals on my first album. The best explanation I could come up with is that I'm not fond of singing. But now I am, because I found out where it belongs. I'm not trying to be a singer. I just like to sing because it makes it more fun for the audience. audi-ence. "Moose farts, that's what the reviewer re-viewer in the 'Rolling Stone' said about my voice. Actually John thinks I sound more like Frank Sinatra than anything else. My manager thinks I sound like Donald Don-ald O'Connor. Some reviewers like it. They like it because it's plain with no show biz in it. That's what gets me about John Fahey thinking I want to be a superstar." All towns have transformed into images of motels for Leo and still he has a month and a half of touring left. Even though he doesn't want to be a superstar, unconsciously he will ride to the top by just being himself. |