SHAWN PHILLIPS FAQs

Shawn Phillips (fearlessly) petting a cheetah in South Africa, Feb- 2005

How old is Shawn, and what is his astrological sign?

 Shawn Phillips was born on February 3, 1943 (check out the track American Child on Transcendence).   He is an Aquarian, though he sometimes claims to be of the Asparagus sign which is most compatible with hollandaise sauce.

Is Shawn touring?

Shawn tours around the world, where ever his fans are located.  You can see Shawn's tour schedule for this year (and the past several years) out the Tour page.  You can also suggest a venue for Shawn in your town.

Where does Shawn live?

 He and his wife, Juliette, currently live near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with their dogs Bo and Lil' Bit, and cat Chairman Mao.

What's the scoop on the hair incident?

Here's Shawn's account:
"On August the 10th, 1976, I was on a vacation with Carla Pravetone, who I had been living with for several years, in a 9 meter open Italian fishing boat. They call this type of boat a "Gozzo". There is no enclosed cabin on this craft. It is powered by a Perkins 50 HP diesel engine. I say is, because the boat probably still exists somewhere.

We were headed south of Positano, 3 days into the trip. Earlier in the day, I had lifted up the floorboards over the propeller shaft, and sprayed the length of the shaft with an anti-rust preventative. This made the shaft quite sticky. First mistake.

Any boat with a seal at the exit of the propeller shaft leaks. In the early afternoon, I had again lifted the floorboards, and had a suction tube in my hand to remove the excess water from the bilges. I sat down with my feet across the opening and proceeded to get the water out. Apparently, further out to sea, a large craft had gone on it's way, and the wake from it's passing reached us, and rolled the boat from side to side. My hair fell out from my t-shirt, and wrapped up in the shaft, which was turning at 3,200 RPMs. Second mistake. Needless to say, things happened very fast. I was hurt real quick. It snatched all the hair from my head, and opened up the right posterior scalp area, which took 29 stitches to later close.

We realized that I was seriously injured, and immediately looked toward the closest place to go to land. We were about 2 miles out to sea. There was a town ahead of us which I knew we could reach in about 45 minutes, at full throttle, but at the rate I was bleeding, we both knew we'd never make it. At that point, I began to sweep the coastline with my eyes, and every time I passed a certain house that had a red roof, my heart would go thump in my chest. I said that we were going to go there. So we did. Turned out it had been rented for the season by an Obstetrician from Naples. First miracle.

His wife came out when they sat me in this beach chair with tubular aluminum arms, and went to wake her husband, and he came out, took one look at me, and said, in Napolitano, "Oh Christo, keest sta morendo". Which means, "Oh Christ, this one's dying". I, understanding Napolitanese, replied that I was not dying, but I was badly hurt. He told his wife to get some hydrogen peroxide, but when she returned, she said they only had a bottle of alcohol spirits, which he promptly poured over my head. I bent the arms of the chair around my legs so badly, they had to get someone from the beach to unwrap them, so the Doc could get me in his car, and off to the hospital at Priaamare.

Now, you need to understand that on the 1st of August, every single person in Italy goes on vacation. When we arrived at the emergency room in Priaamare, I was very close to bleeding out, and was on the verge of losing consciousness. I remember as they were wheeling me in on a stretcher, this man leaning against the wall, watching them do this. The attendant who was there, was not a Doctor by any means, and when I was assessed, we discovered that my glasses had split my eyelid open, and that would need stitches as well. The guy freaked out, saying he wasn't qualified to do anything near the eye, but that he could do the stitches in the back of my head. Carla was saying to him that you need to understand, this man is an American entertainer, and he can't be disfigured. At this point, the gentleman who had been standing against the wall, as I came in, stepped up, and said, "My name is Dottore Giovanni Moretti, and I am visiting my mother here in the hospital. I studied in Vienna, and I am a plastic surgeon. Would you like me to sew the eye up?"  Second miracle. I later recovered, and the first song I wrote was "Motes of Dust" (later recorded on Transcendence).

So now you have it from the horses mouth, as it were. Just me bein' stupid I guess. Won't happen again. "

Shawn Phillips

Shawn Phillips first concert
after the boating accident.
Photo by Merri Lu Parks
Read the Rolling Stones
article about Shawn's toupee

Is WOMAN about someone in Shawn's life?

Who or what inspired you to take up the instrument?  I was gigging in Toronto, at a club called the "Purple Onion", and I had a night off. Someone said I should go see this concert by a guy named Ravi
Shankar, so I did, and was completely blown away by what he did with the Sitar, and was hooked. I went backstage, after the concert, and asked him to explain the instrument to me. He was extremely kind, and showed me how to hold it, and sit with it, and what the basic parameters of it were.

 What response did you get from your contemporaries when you started to play sitar? Mostly, it was "Christ, what the hell is that, and how do you play it?"

What was the first record you played sitar on? It was on one of Donovans albums. I don't remember the name of it. Was there one called "Sunshine Superman"? That may have been it.

Were you taught sitar? and if so, who by? The only lesson I ever got was those initial
instructions from Ravi Shankar.

Did you play sitar live? If so, did you use a pick up or a mic? Yes, I used to play it live in all my concerts, and I used both mics, and pickups, but the pickups weren't very good in those days.

Did you ever play one of the electric sitars on the market in the late 1960s? No, I never played one. There is no substitute for the real thing.

courtesy of Mark Brend: "Strange Sounds Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop"  ISBN: 0-87930-855-9, July, 2005

1962-1963
The very first manager was a man named Hal Key, who is also a friend of Paul. He managed me when I first arrived in Los Angeles, and he's the man who bought me the Gibson 12 string.

1965-1967
Then came Ashley Kozak, (not his wife) who managed me first, then I introduced him to Donovan, and he promptly forgot about me.

1969-1978?
The Jonathan Weston A&M Years.

1979 - 1981
During the RCA period, a man named Bill Dern, who also handled Michael Kamen for a bit

1982 - 1985
Clancy Grass

1985 - 1993?
Rich Linnel

1994 - 2006
Arlo Hennings

The last chord of, "Steel Eyes", is an A Major, with the little finger on the 1st string at the 7th fret, and the thumb on the 6th string at the 5th fret. The A string stays open.

What did Shawn's uncle David know about the JFK assassination?

Read Shawn's email on this topic to www.jfkmurdersolved.com
 

Copyright Shawn Phillips,  all right reserved.