It was American Songwriter. Here's the link:
http://americansongwriter.com/2012/0...ichie-sambora/
Quote:
Are there any songs that changed direction once you started playing them with the guys?
“Weathering the Storm,” which I wrote with Bernie Taupin. Actually, I should elaborate on that. This is a songwriting magazine! Being a fan of Elton [John] and Bernie for many many years, it was an honor to write with Bernie. A friend and publisher put us together. We went out to dinner and got along famously, just talking about our lives, our musical roots, our influences. We got together about two weeks later and talked some more, and he said, “Ok, I got it.” About three or four days after that, he sent me a couple of lyrics. I gravitated toward two of them, one of which didn’t make the record. I felt like “Weathering the Storm” was relevant not only to my life, but to so many people who’re going through tumultuous times right now. They’re just getting through adversity and coming out on the other end of it. It’s about that, and it’s a very triumphant song.
The way Bernie does things, he basically hands you a lyric and says “Go.” Ha! I’d never written like that. I always have lyrics and music, because they come to me at the same time. So I had a bit of anxiety about this, but once I picked up the lyric, I started singing melodies to it. I got the melodies down, then I put some chords to it, and when we presented it to the band, we all tried it a few different ways. Different instrumentation, different speeds… but the incarnation that made the record is the best interpretation of the lyric.
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And here's the one about The Wind Cries Mary:
https://destroyerofharmony.com/2014/...ichie-sambora/
Quote:
“There are times you really don’t know what day it is, let alone what time it is. It’s not bullshit it’s true. So my disagreements with Jon came in that light, I said, ‘Man, look, the money ain’t worth the f_kin’ time I need to get my head together. I’m drinking too much, f_king around too much.’ I was just outta control, I was becoming the very
thing that you’re meant to be in that position anyway…”
A rock pig?
“Exactly, and I didn’t dig it.”
...
When did you realise you needed to bail out?
“There wasn’t any one point – what really made me think I could go out on my own was when I did “The Wind Cries Mary” thing. I was in South America in month 16 of the Bon Jovi tour and was starting to feel very creatively stifled, as well as depressed. There were many days between shows because we were doing the huge stadiums, so you’d have five days off at a time to sit in your hotel room. Paramount rang and said they were in a jam for the Andrew Dice Clay movie and could I help out by jamming on “Wind Cries Mary”, to which I immediately said yes... I knew it’d creatively get the whole thing going, anything to get me going. I asked for every Hendrix video and CD to be sent, and I lived him for five days. ...it was like getting re-acquainted with Jimi. I wanted to exploit his wild side a little bit, and I wanted to get into his head. It was like studying for a test, because I was scared…”
Of what?
“... I was so mentally f___ked up that I didn’t know if I could do a solo album.”
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