
Christopher Cross
Season 12 Episode 18 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Christopher Cross looks back at his long career.
Christopher Cross, a five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, joins Evan to talk about his long and legendary career, his massive success early in his career, and what the future holds for him.
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Overheard with Evan Smith is a local public television program presented by Austin PBS
Support for Overheard with Evan Smith is provided by: HillCo Partners, Claire & Carl Stuart, Christine & Philip Dial, and Eller Group. Overheard is produced by Austin PBS, KLRU-TV and distributed by NETA.

Christopher Cross
Season 12 Episode 18 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Christopher Cross, a five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, joins Evan to talk about his long and legendary career, his massive success early in his career, and what the future holds for him.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- [Narrator] Support for "Overheard with Evan Smith" comes from Hillco Partners, a Texas government affairs consultancy, Claire and Carl Stuart, Christine and Philip Dial, and the Eller Group, specializing in crisis management, litigation, and public affairs communication.
Ellergroup.com.
- I'm Evan Smith.
He's a Grammy and Academy award-winning singer-songwriter with five top 10 and two number one hits to his credit, and more than 10 million albums sold over a legendary career that spans five decades.
He's Christopher Cross.
This is "Overheard."
A platform and a voice is a powerful thing.
You've really turn the conversation around about what leadership should be about.
Are we blowing this?
Are we doing the thing we shouldn't be doing by giving into the attention junkie?
As an industry, we have an obligation to hold ourselves to the same standards that we hold everybody else.
This is "Overheard."
(audience applauding) Christopher Cross, welcome!
- Thank you, Evan.
Nice to be here.
- Good to have you here.
It's overdue that you're here.
Congratulations on your extraordinary career.
- Thank you very much.
- Wonderful to get to talk about that, and I wanna begin by talking about your staying power, because this career is in the present tense and not the past tense.
You've been at this for 45?
- Yes.
- Years?
- Yes.
- Right, your self-titled record, the one that so many of us remember, came out at the very tail-end of 1979, let's call it 1980, 45 years ago.
Does it feel that long to you?
- Yes, it does.
(audience laughs) Well, you know, time does fly, but it does.
I mean, I've been at it for a long time trying to get there, and then I've been pretty busy since, so, I suppose it does.
But, you know, time flies when you're having fun and I am having fun.
- Yeah, but you haven't stopped, I mean, I wanna just acknowledge.
At 74, with as much as you've accomplished, anybody would be forgiven for just saying, "I'm gonna take a break now.
I'm not gonna do this anymore."
So you haven't had a studio album out since 2018, haven't had a record out since 2020, you put out a compilation in 2020, you're not really doing records anymore, right?
- Yep, at the moment, yes.
- Not doing new music right now.
But you are continuing to tour, like a young guy, right?
You are about to go out with Toto and Men at Work.
- Right, this summer.
- This summer!
(audience applauding) And you are playing, I looked it up, 28 shows in a month and a half.
- Right.
- I just, I wanna just let that hang out there for a second.
Like, how?
- 74 is the new 20, Evan.
- I guess so!
How do you have the energy, how do you have the stamina, and how do you have the interest to do this?
I mean, this is, that's a real commitment of time.
- Well, I'm passionate about what I do, to start with, and that drives it.
- [Evan] Still love it?
- Yeah, still love it.
I also am very type A and so I get bored if I don't, if I'm not busy doing things.
So it's great to be busy, especially doing what I love, but, you know, I'm not driving a van all night to Oklahoma City to play a frat party.
- Oh, thank God.
- I'm coddled pretty well, you know, we have very nice tour buses and-- - So say something about the apparatus of the tour.
Someone in your position, you have the good fortune to be able to design this in a way that makes you comfortable.
- Right.
- Say something about that.
- Yeah, I'm not the Eagles or Taylor Swift, flying in my jet, but we have very, very nice tour buses that I have what's called the Star Coach and has, you know, bedroom in the back, I have my own shower and all that kind of stuff.
And I really like it.
A lot of older artists don't hold up too well, but-- - And you have your own bus?
- Yeah, I have a bus.
- You're not sharing a bus with Toto?
- Well, no, I have, Toto has lots of buses.
I have two buses.
I have one for myself and all my female singers, which makes the bus quiet and clean, and then the crew and the band are on the other bus.
God knows what goes on there.
But so, but I have this Star Coach kinda thing, so, in the back, it's very nice to have, you know, king bed, and I have shower, and all that.
And I like it.
There's a consistency to rather than staying in hotels that I like.
And so I do really, really enjoy it.
But also, except for playing the hour on stage, I, you know, have my time to myself and do what I want and so it's not that exhausting.
I've got it pretty easy, yeah.
- Is the show the same, night to night?
I mean, I know bands that say, "We're never gonna play the same songs on consecutive shows," or some bands will do, like, three nights in a city and say, "We're only gonna play, you know, songs we don't normally play."
Like, how do you construct in your own mind what the show should be, daily?
- Well, when I do, with Toto and Men at Work, you know, we only have little segments.
I'm doing 50 minutes, same with Men at Work.
Toto plays a bit longer.
So that dictates 50 minutes I gotta pretty much play the hits.
- Five-oh?
- Yeah, pretty much play the hits.
I, you know, do "Sailing", "Arthur", all the songs people expect to hear.
I wouldn't not do that.
And by the time I play those, it's pretty much, we're pretty much done.
So I don't have a lot of time for what people have deep cuts.
Now, when I play my own show of 90 minutes or two hours-- - You might?
- I do that, and I will rotate a lot of what I do.
But in this particular instance, it's kind of the, you know, just the facts, ma'am.
Because I, some artists don't do that, they'll leave out a song or two, but I feel owe it to the crowd to be able to-- - And also the crowd is coming to see that!
- They are!
- I mean, let's acknowledge, right?
- They are, and I do the songs fairly faithfully.
- They wanna see that.
- Yeah, so that's what my set's like.
I'm sure Men at Work's the same way.
And Toto, for the most part, sticks to, certainly, the songs that people know, so-- - Right, "Africa", blah, blah, we know it, yeah, yeah.
- That dictates that.
But if I get to play longer, like I said, definitely will, there'll be deep cuts.
And I did a show in Austin.
I doubt anybody was there, but I did, at Cactus Cafe, but I said it was the no hits show.
And you, it was 20 bucks.
- You advertised it that way?
- Right, and 20 bucks, and you go to Cactus Cafe, and I'm not playing any hits, only deep cuts.
And we had about, you know, a nice crowd of 80 people.
And I played all these esoteric songs of mine-- - [Evan] And they were happy about that?
- Yeah, well, yeah, people came for that reason.
They knew good and well what it was.
But they were very well behaved and appreciative, so at the end of the night, I did play "Sailing" for them, but that wasn't the plan.
But, no, and it was kind of interesting 'cause people came and I've only played these obscure tunes that mean a lot to me and to some people who, you know, like those songs.
- I have to believe Christopher Cross fans would like to hear you play anything.
- Well, that's kind of you say, but, so, that was a neat experiment to do that, so.
- How much of the stamina and the staying power that your career has demonstrated is propelled by this concept of yacht rock, which, remember, did not exist in 1980?
This is a phenomenon that is only about 20 years old.
I think it was 2005, that this genre, which was a made up genre, initially, at least, was created or was, you know, the phrase came into existence.
And now, suddenly, it went from being slightly mocking to being kind of a positive, right?
- Yeah, it's a love-hate thing for us.
I mean, the guys that did the videos, you know, if anybody's seen 'em, they're pretty kitschy and kinda silly.
- They are!
- But I will say it certainly breathed new life into the music for Toto and all of us, Michael McDonald, and all of us who were featured-- - Steely Dan, Kenny Loggins, right?
- All of us from that era, it's really breathed the life into, as matter of fact, you probably know, but my daughter, Madison, just produced a, a documentary for HBO Music Box-- - Indeed.
- Called "Yacht Rock", and it's really gotten a lot of attention.
So, no, SiriusXM, it's their biggest channel.
So it's brought the music, mainly, that all that go back, to a younger audience, which is kinda fun.
It's been a great promotional tool and just, it's brought our audience, now it's broad, 20 to 70, so it's great.
- People show up at your shows in captain hats, you're not-- - They do.
- You're not offended by that, necessarily?
- No, if they wanna look like an idiot, that's their-- - That's up to them.
You know, what's it?
Last time I looked, it was still a free country.
That's how this goes.
- Well, it's a matter of speaking.
(audience laughing) So, yeah, they did, they come dressed real silly, but that's a small, people, it's a huge part of their life.
It's the landscape of the, you know, the musical landscape of their life, so a lot of people identify with, you know, all that.
And the boys that made the videos, who knows, you know, what they were thinking, it's just.
But if you saw the documentary, which I think you did-- - I did.
- You know, Donald Fagen, at the very end, you know, is pretty funny.
I won't give it away, but he, yeah.
- He, yeah, I mean, watch the documentary.
- Yeah, Donald is not, it's kinda tongue in cheek what he does.
- He's not a big fan of the concept?
- Right.
- Yes, yeah.
But you know, Michael McDonald, just to speak of Michael McDonald for a second, you and he are, together, interviewed for a portion of that documentary and I don't know that I fully appreciated the relationship between the two of you.
Right, he sang back up on-- - [Both] "Ride Like the Wind".
- And a bunch of other things.
- Right, but, like, you guys were really the sort of core of this type of, you know, so it was suggested to me that, if there's a Mount Rushmore of yacht rock, (audience laughs) that the two of you would be on it.
You would be probably Thomas Jefferson, he might be George Washington, but the two of you are, like, serious, your cap, by the way, would look great chiseled into the side of a mountain, I think.
But, like, the two of you were really the core elements of this and of that period of all of our lives.
- Yeah, I think online you can find a mockup of Mount Rushmore with our faces.
- Oh, are you serious?
- Yeah, it's Michael and I, I think Kenny Loggins, Donald Trump.
- Donald Trump?
He wants to get on there somewhere.
- He's on everywhere.
- He does wanna get on there somewhere.
- Yeah, he's on there somewhere.
- Yeah, good one.
- But no, there's something like that, where they mocked up a, yeah.
- Yeah, amazing.
So let's go back to the record, the first record, the self-titled.
So this is December, late December of '79.
I actually remembered, incorrectly, that the first single released was "Sailing", but the first single released was "Ride by the Wind", wasn't it?
- "Ride Like the Wind", right.
And I, you know, was having a very hard time getting Warner Bros. to believe in my songs.
They liked my voice, they thought it was radio-identifiable, but the songs they were not so sure about.
So when we made the record, they said, "I still needed a hit song," so I wrote this other song on the first album called "Save Me Mine," which I kinda stole from Boz Scaggs 'cause he started the song with the chorus.
And I thought, "Well, that's it."
So then I wrote a song like that, which I.
But in doing the album, the producer, Michael Omartian, convinced, so the record company thought that was the single, "Save Me Mine," but Michael Omartian, the producer, said, "Look, the four on the floor bass drum, it's very dance and all that," so he convinced them to go with "Ride Like the Wind".
And then, after that, Mo Ostin, who's, rest his soul, chairman of the board of Warner Bros. suggested "Sailing" as the second single and I told him he was crazy.
- Crazy, right?
- It was introspective and dark and no one would, and we should go with, "I Really Don't Know Anymore", this other track Mike sang on.
And I was on the phone, I was touring with Fleetwood Mac and on the phone with Mo, and he said, "Well, we're gonna go with 'Sailing'," and I said, "Well, I think you're an idiot."
(audience laughing) And I said, then I heard silence, and I said, "Sir."
- Sir, sir.
- Sir.
But, you know, he was right.
- As he very often was.
- Yeah, oh, he was one of the greatest record director of all time.
So there you go, shows you what I know.
- So "Ride Like the Wind" goes to number two, "Sailing" goes to number one-- - But the only reason "Ride Like the Wind" went to number two is 'cause Blondie had "Call Me" as a single, and it was only available as a single.
So that affected the singles hits.
- Otherwise it would've gone to number one.
- It should have, and if I see her, you know?
- Debbie!
That Debbie Harry, I'm gonna get you!
Yeah, so I wanna fact check some things about this.
So I've heard you say, in fact, I think you said it in the "Yacht Rock" documentary, the only reason you were able to make that record is because you financed the demos by selling marijuana.
- That's true.
- That is true?
You had a pretty good business selling marijuana at the time.
- You know, my daughter, it's funny how they are, she's 32 now, but, you know, they have a way of bringing, she produced the doc, so, bringing that stuff outta you, you know?
'Cause these kids are kinda very open about it.
And I told my daughter later, "I'm so sorry I said that."
She said, "Why?
It's great!"
You know, 'cause of their generation.
- It's a very Austin story.
- Yeah, so yeah, I was living in San Antonio and, the long and short of it, it was San Antonio and I got a little thriving weed business going and I made it about $50,000 and I came up and invested it.
I had it in Broadway Bank!
- In 1980, right?
- No, no, this, no, no, Evan-- - This is even before!
- This is like '74.
- '74!
That was really, $50,000 was a lot of money at that time.
- And I had it in Broadway Bank and then I came up here and there was Steve Shields, a guy had said, in Austin, was building a studio and he had a little other room, a small room, and I said, "Look, if I buy a little eight track system with my money and put it in there, can I record in your big studio when no one's in there, like, at five o'clock in the morning?"
And he said, "Okay," and that's where I did my demos.
But that's how I got the whole thing going, was by this illicit-- - All because of that.
- This illicit activity, yeah.
- Well, let's stay with illicit.
Something else, a story that you have now told is that you wrote the lyrics to "Ride Like the Wind" after dropping acid and driving from Houston to Austin.
On that trip, having dropped acid, that's when you wrote the lyrics of that song.
- I see people leaving.
(audience laughing) "Let's get out of here."
"He's a drug addict!"
- This is the real history of your music, I love it!
- Well, yeah, so what happened was, interesting story about "Ride Like the Wind", we used to play seven nights, so we get this club in Houston, and during this song by Paul, in fact, I don't think I've told McCartney this, I gotta tell him, during this "1985", a Wings song, we used to jam, make songs longer 'cause we, you know, and I started doing that.
(humming) During the middle of, 'cause it was in C minor, like Paul's "1985".
And I knew I had something 'cause, when we started playing that riff, people were, like, really getting into it, so.
- [Evan] Thought you had something.
- Yeah, so then I finished out the rest of the song and I had the music, but we were driving down from Houston to record here at Austin, my studio, that I'd financed illicitly.
And it was a beautiful day, sunny day, and I sat in the passenger seat of the van and got out a yellow pad and we all took acid and on the way down and wrote the lyric on a yellow pad.
- And the rest is history!
- Yeah, although it was funny 'cause I remember I had a red sharpie writing on a yellow pad on acid and I was like trying to read the yellow sharpie, but, the red sharpie.
But yeah, that's how it goes.
- Amazing.
- It's, I guess I would say I'm not proud of it, but, tell you the truth, it's silly, I mean.
I was a musician, you know, and we were always a little ahead of the curve.
- That was the time?
- Well, yeah, it is part of the culture.
- Well, let me ask you a about a story that does not involve drugs, and that is the origins of "Sailing".
You know, I probably for years did not know, I think it's probably most of the time since that song was, I did not know the story of that song.
I always assumed it was a metaphor.
No, it's actually about sailing.
- Well, it is a metaphor as well.
- But it's really though, literally, the origin of the story is that you had an older friend who took you sailing?
- Yes, I did - Al Glasscock!
- And Al used to take me sailing.
I was, you know, I had a rough family life, to some degree, and my brothers were older and they didn't want anything to do with me.
And Al was living down the street and I was driving by his house one day and he was jamming with his little band and-- - Right.
- Anyway, we got to be friends.
He was a few years older.
And we'd go down to the coast and sail and it was just a lovely getaway for me because he was, like I said, in a lot of ways, the older brother, maybe, that wasn't-- - And it was the inspiration for this song?
- Yeah, the getting away, you know, the escapism and then the song, "the canvas, can do miracles", to me, is also expressive of arts, the arts, and getting away, a canvas, a painter's canvas.
But yeah, so, and people ask me when, actually on "Howard Stern" Howard asked me about this.
So I told him about this guy.
It was funny 'cause I said, filmed the story, and Howard said, "I love this story and it's just so great.
What was his name?"
And I said, "Well," 'cause I knew I was in trouble then.
and I said, "Listen, it's not important now, Howard, let's just," and he said, "No, I wanna know his name."
And I said, "His name is Al Glasscock."
And of course Howard went crazy with that.
But you know what, the next day, Howard called me in my car, those days were just, the car phone was like this thing, and he put out on the radio, "If anybody knows Al Glasscock, call me."
Well, of course, his viewership was massive.
Within 10 minutes, somebody calls and says, "I work with him, I know this guy."
- So he reunited the two of you?
- And he reunited us on the phone and I met Al in town here for lunch and gave him a gold record and so it was a lovely.
And Howard asked him, "Did you think you influenced it?"
He said, "Well, I thought that we had some good times.
I thought maybe, you know, maybe inspired him in some way."
But Al was a lovely person and it's funny 'cause Howard said, "I tried to make something out of the whole thing," but he said, "He was such a genuine person, I couldn't do it."
And Howard said, "We need more people like you in New York."
- I love that.
So you gave Al Glasscock a gold record, but the reality is this record sold five million copies.
Your self-titled record was quintuple platinum.
- Right, so you're saying I should have given him more money?
- No, no!
I'm just, I mean, you had gold records to spare, I guess!
But what an extraordinary accomplishment that was, first record.
You won Record of the Year, Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, the four big Grammys, along with one for Best Arrangement.
Those four big ones was the first time anybody had won those four Grammys.
- It was a very meteoric situation.
And it, you know, it's a curse, the blessing and a curse.
No matter what you did after that, it would never be as good as the green record.
- But of course, the following year, you do the theme song for the movie "Arthur", right?
You co-write that song with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager-- - Peter Allen.
- And Peter Allen, who is Liza Minnelli's husband, right?
Liza Minnelli is in that movie, right, and that then goes to number one and that wins the Oscar for Best Song.
Like, I mean, as sophomore curses go, that's pretty good.
- Pretty good.
(audience laughs) But as far as you know, albums, I meant.
You know, when my brought up my next record, it was just, it doesn't matter, you know, like I said.
People get it in their heads, it doesn't matter whether it's, whatever it is, whether it's a Tarantino film and people think "Pulp Fiction's" the best one and he'll never, you know, you get in that.
But I'll take the blessing.
Believe me, I feel very blessed to have had what happened and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it's intimidating, yeah.
- Well when you're on that, you know, kinda that rocket ship, that sort of stratospheric success at the beginning, it is hard to match it.
But, also, you're one of the only people who's been able to do that.
- Well, Elvis said, or Colonel Parker, said, "You don't have to be nice to people on the way up if you don't expect to come back down."
Very few, you know, very few people are at Elvis's level, but no, I just, I've always just done what I do, you know, and the albums have always been based on where I'm at at the time and my life experiences and what I wanna express in the music, excuse me, whether it's commercial or not or people like it, I can't control that part.
- What has your sense been of the way the music business has changed in this period of time?
Obviously, it's an entirely different universe right now.
You know, not just streaming, but the ways in which people have taken control of their own careers, started their own labels.
It's no longer the days of 1980, '81.
Talk a little bit about your own evolution as you think about the music business.
- Well, you know, I think there was a, people criticized record companies for all the money they made, and I do think CDs were too expensive.
I think they were a little greedy with that.
But the bottom line is, I mean, when you look at someone like Warner Bros, who was very instrumental in my career, you look at how much money I made and how much money they made, you know?
But there was a cycle to life, you know, Evan, with that.
They'd put up the money to make a record, couple hundred thousand dollars, you go in the studio and record it, go on the road, you do radio promotion, in-store promotion, that sort of thing, play concerts, and then it was time you go back in the studio and make another record.
And they sort of took care of all the logistics of all that.
They had buildings and lawyers and PR people.
And so all you did was just do that.
But that all changed.
And so the record companies are gone.
And now it's, while you can make a record at home, you know, with technology and put yourself out on YouTube, it's so hard.
I would not wanna be trying to have my career now that I had back then 'cause it's just a complete different model.
And I feel for people who are trying to, you know, get their head above the crowd.
You've got the Beyonces and the Taylor Swifts, but those are anomalies-- - [Evan] But they're the exceptions?
- Yeah, I think, for the most part, it's very difficult.
- And the reality is that people could go on streaming and hear your music and I'm not sure you're getting anything approaching what that's worth to you?
- Oh, no way, no way.
As much as I'm a fan of Apple, they were as complicit as anybody.
- But you can build the audience, I suppose.
I mean, you were telling me before we came out here that the economics of touring these days is also has its own set of complications in terms of the expense of it.
- Right, yeah, we used to, you know, do 30% net of gross.
Now it's, like, 8%.
But you're right and it's like, so how does a kid who makes a record at home in his basement and then puts it on YouTube and how does he get 500 people to come to Saxon Pub to hear 'em?
It's very, very difficult.
And, like I said, we're very lucky that, you know, the career I've had.
But now it's a completely different model.
Musically, I think there's a lot of really talented kids out there.
I can't say that I've got my ear to the ground with that, but I do hear things that I think are impressive.
But, for the most part, I listen to, you know, NPR and Bloomberg, you know, radio for the most part.
And if I'm gonna listen to music-- - You're such a civilian, I love that!
- Well, I joined the human race, you know?
I think, for me, if I'm gonna listen to music, it's probably Miles Davis or Bach, you know?
- Yeah, can't mess with that stuff.
- Well, and Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, stuff I like, but I mean, generally, I'll listen to jazz or listen to classical music.
- I wanna talk, in the last few minutes we have, about your influences when you were growing up, the stuff you listened to.
You have this great personal story, you know, when you were a kid.
Your dad was stationed first at Walter Reed in DC, was a doctor who took care of Dwight D. Eisenhower's grandkids.
- Right, David and Julie, yeah.
- David and Julie.
Then you were in San Antonio?
No, is it San Antonio first?
- Then Japan and then DC-- - Japan, DC, San Antonio.
- And then back to San Antonio.
- And then back to San Antonio?
- Yeah, how the hell did my parents move back to San Antonio, I have no idea.
- So, you were actually, you were born in San Antonio and then you also grew up and went to high school in San Antonio, Alamo Heights High School?
- Go Mules, yeah.
- Right, but did not graduate from Alamo Heights?
- No, I came back.
After my junior year, there was no great academic loss, trust me, but after my junior year, I wanted to hit Asbury and wanted to see what was going on.
And I came back and I had long hair.
I had hair, believe it or not.
It was long hair and, at the time, you know, it was a different time, but Bill Sweeney, the vice principal, said, "You're not coming in with that hair," and I said, "Well, I'm not coming in."
And I dropped out.
- And that was the end of it?
- But I was voted most talented.
- His loss, that's exactly right.
- I was voted most talented and played for the prom, but I did not get back in.
- But you could not actually graduate?
- Did not graduate.
- Right.
- And then, years later, I played for the hundredth anniversary of my high school and a bunch of my lawyer friends that I used to hang out with and sell marijuana to, they went to Dr. Brown, who was head of the school board at that time, they got me an honorary high school diploma.
- That's it!
There you go!
(audience applauding) I love that!
- And Dr. Brown explained, you know, "This isn't like Barack Obama getting an honorary doctorate from Harvard.
This is an actual high school diploma you did not earn."
But he said, "You have friends in high places."
- It's all good!
Who were your influences?
I know you've talked about Joni Mitchell a lot, out in the world, as a big influence of yours, but who else musically was a big influence of yours?
- Well, you know, early on, certainly Buddy Holly, Beverly Brothers, Ritchie Valens, all that music, Ricky Nelson, all that stuff when I was young.
But then as I got more into being, really exploring music, Joni's probably the biggest of all of 'em, lyrically and harmonically, Randy Newman's a big one, you know, of course Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, all the Beatles, of course, it goes without saying.
- People from that era, naturally, you listen to them and they influenced you.
- Yeah, and Steely Dan, all these people, we all influenced kind of each other.
But I'd say Joni, one of the biggest, and, like I said, Randy Newman is another one who's a big influence.
Leonard Cohen, also, you know, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits.
Tom's a massive influence.
- What was the first band you were in?
- I was in a band in eighth grade called The Psychos.
(audience laughing) - I love the names of first bands, man.
That's so great.
- And that's always about the, it doesn't matter what the band sounds like, what's our name gonna be?
- Yeah, that's our name.
The Psychos.
- I read a lot of Poe and Hess when I was young, and so it was kind of dark, so we were called The Psychos and, there's three of us, and the other two guys were too embarrassed to sing, so I was the singing drummer, yeah.
And I began to sing and we would play at, what we affectionately called in those days, at make-out parties, which were parties parents would give at their home.
Little did they know that the kids were making out somewhere, but they'd pay us, like, 50 bucks.
And then I formed a band, the big band here in San Antonio, it was called Flash.
We were kind of a big deal in San Antonio.
We did some opening spots for Led Zeppelin and a lot of cool stuff.
- Did you think at the time that you were playing in The Psychos or Flash that this was something you would do for the rest of your life?
- No.
- I mean, so many people at that age play in bands and then they go to college or they do whatever they do and then they never come back to it.
- Yeah, my father was a physician, you know, my three uncles were, and my, so, no, I figured, you know, I would do something legitimate.
But no, I just, you know, it was just, you know what happens?
My father was a physician, but struggled with alcohol and so, but he had played bass in college with Lawrence Welk and some other people.
And he told me that music was the best thing he ever had in his life and he-- - Your dad played with Lawrence Welk?
- He did, which is actually, Lawrence Welk, he was pretty cool, actually.
You know, he was a very talented man, musically-- - Every PBS viewer just sat up straight, actually, as you mention the guy.
- Well, you know, in spite of the bubbles and all that stuff, Lawrence Welk was a fine musician and his musicians were great.
- I know, I mean, it's easy to parody Lawrence Welk, but he was Lawrence Welk for a reason, right?
- Yeah, so, but he, my father, when he'd had a little bit too much to drink, he would get out his bass, upright bass he still had, and he would play along with his Glenn Miller and records and stuff like that.
And I saw a joy in him that I didn't ever see, 'cause he lived a pretty dark life, and I made a connection between the power of music to bring my dad into that light.
And so I went down to the record store and said, "Do you have any, my dad listens to Glenn Miller and Pete Fountain, do you have any music like that for young people?"
And he came out with a record and said, "Yeah, this is like, that kind of music for the younger set."
- [Evan] And what was it?
- "Timeout," Dave Brubeck.
- Dave Brubeck.
(audience gasping) - And I took it home and put it on, I was mesmerized.
Blue Rondo, all those songs, especially with the drummer, Joe Morello.
So I asked my parents for a drum set, I was 12, got a drum set, and that's what started it.
But it was really through my dad's, watching him, you know, get out, escape the gravity of his alcoholism that got me into it.
- It's a hell of an origin story, man.
That's great.
- Yeah, it was very inspiring in a sad sort of way.
But it, fortunately he, you know, he died of cirrhosis, but he did live to see the Grammys and stuff and I'm thinking he was proud, he was proud.
- We are so lucky to have had the opportunity to listen to you today.
- Well, very kind of you.
- It so great to hear your story.
Christopher Cross, congratulations on everything you've done, thank you for continuing to do it, and I hope you just keep going.
- Well, thank you very much.
- Good, all right, Christopher Cross, thank you so much.
Thank you man, I love this!
All right, great!
(audience cheering) We'd love to have you join us in the studio.
Visit our website at austinpbs.org/overheard to find invitations to interviews, Q&As with our audience and guests, and an archive of past episodes.
- There's some great producers, Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, who did a lot of Janet Jackson work, they told me that they heard "Ride Like the Wind" come on the radio and they actually pulled over and turned up the radio.
And they told me, they just went.
You know, they said, "This is great!"
- [Narrator] Support for "Overheard with Evan Smith" comes from Hillco Partners, a Texas government affairs consultancy, Claire and Carl Stuart, Christine and Philip Dial, and the Eller Group, specializing in crisis management, litigation, and public affairs communication.
Ellergroup.com.
(jaunty flute music)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S12 Ep18 | 10m 23s | Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Christopher Cross looks back at his long career. (10m 23s)
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Support for Overheard with Evan Smith is provided by: HillCo Partners, Claire & Carl Stuart, Christine & Philip Dial, and Eller Group. Overheard is produced by Austin PBS, KLRU-TV and distributed by NETA.