The following interview with Max Romeo, conducted by David Rodigan, was broadcast on Kiss 100 FM on Sunday 27th June 1999.

(intro music: Revelation Time )

Rodigan: You've been working for a long, long time. When I was a youth growing up, Max Romeo was this hot artist from Jamaica, and came over to the UK 30 years ago, and you're still making music. How do you keep going? What's the secret?

Max: The secret is to love yourself, and to love what you do. I love entertaining, I love making people happy, that's my speciality. And it keeps me going, for 32 years.

Rodigan: Where did you actually start out, and how old were you when you cam into the business, as a youngster down in Jamaica?

Max: I was about 17 years old. I started out as a little guy taking samples to the record store for orders, for a company called Ken Lack records. This man named Blondel Kalneck, very nice guy, he heard me singing one day, and figured I should give it a try. The first song I did 'I'll Buy A Rainbow To Put On Your Finger', was a hit, was No.2 on the national chart.

Rodigan: Was that as Max Romeo?

Max: No. It was with a group called The Emotions, I was the lead singer. There was Lloyd Shakespear, brother of Robbie Shakespear, and another guy called Kenneth Knight. We worked together on a few tracks, and then I met up with Bunny Lee, and he kind of invigorated me to go solo. And I went solo, and Bunny Lee came up with the name Max Romeo.

Rodigan: There was some story that you talked to a girl for a considerable time, and the father of the girl decided that you really were a bit of a Romeo.

Max: Yeah, that's right. He pushed his bicycle out for work, was about 8 'o' clock in the morning, I was standing at the gate with the girl. He came back home at 5, I was standing in the same position, at the same post! (laughs).

Rodigan: You were obviously sweet on the girl!

(Track played: 'No Peace')

Rodigan: Well it's most certainely stood the test of time. That's 'No Peace', from an album that's been lying dormant, but has been reactivated by Blood & Fire records. What was the score there Max? How did it all happen? Did they approach you? Did you approach them? What was the deal here?

Max: Actually, Steve Barrow was the guy who approached me. Steve Barrow knows a lot about reggae music. A matter of fact, he keeps a whole archives of reggae records, and he has everything I do, Steve Barrow's got it. So he put it together, and he came to me with the idea, and I said, fine, fantastic. Because the music business is in a slump today for good music. It's all this dancehall bit, it get's violent, out of hand. It was a good idea for me to have something like that to kind of change the tempo.

Rodigan: When you made the 'Revelation' album, how long did it take you? Because it was very much your project.

Max: Yeah, it was my project. I did it at Black Ark studio, Lee Perry was there, engineer, his studio, he participated in it as well. I produced it, it didn't take me more than about 5 hours, to put the tracks together, and another 4 hours to do the voicing. 'Cos I already knew what I wanted to do.

Rodigan: And which musicians did you use. Were they your favourite musicians? Who did you gather round you?

Max: Yeah, they were like, Mikey Richards on drums, there was Boris Gardiner on bass. Winston Wright, Bo-Peep on guitar, Ronnie Bop. Familyman played on a few tracks as well.

Rodigan: So you were there, directing them and building those rhythms, and then you would put the vocal on?

Max: And then I would put the vocal on.

Rodigan: Now what about this Lee Perry character. Isn't he just one of the most eccentric people in the business? How did you get on with him, you and him were very close weren't you?

Max: Very close. I think Lee Perry is one of the greatest producer who ever walk the land in Jamaica. He did a lot of things, we've been together for years, before I even start recording on the label we were friends. Were his eccentricism came in, I don't know . It was just a sudden 90 degree turn in the middle of everything. He just change his concept and figure that he should approach it as a clown.

Rodigan: Were you surprised by that, having seen his genius. You were there, you were part of it, you witnessed those creations in that Black Ark studio...

Max: I wasn't really surprised, he's that type of person. He transformed by the minute, from ever since.

Rodigan: What do you think was the secret of his sound? How did he get that magnificent sound in that small studio, with very basic equipment?

Max: Yeah, it was a very small, miniature studio. I don't know, it's in his head!

Rodigan: It's wonderful. It's amazing how someone can bring a presence to sound, because of what they create. Now, my favourite track, 'Tacko'. What made you write that song? What is the exact meaning of Tacko?

Max: Well, at the time when they say his Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie, was dead, there was no proof, and Jamaica was a little apprehensive in believing that somebody could be dead and then buried within 24 hours. So, they say that Rasta was confused, and what have you. The word tacko means that you are an idiot. So you are an idiot to think that Rasta is confused, we are never confused (laughs).

(track played: 'Tacko')

Rodigan: We're just reminicing here, about a record that made Max Romeo a household name 30 years ago, and rather like Jimmy Cliff in 'The Harder They Come', when they banned his records from the radio, he became even more popular as the character he played in the movie. And in a sense that happened to you, because you made this what, at the time, was a very risque record called 'Wet Dream'. Now of course it's nothing compared to what people make. But, back in the day it was extremely risque, the BBC banned you, and you flew in to this country 30 years this week for your first visit. You'll never forget, it was the 20th of June. What was the vibe like for you when you got to England, here you were with this enormous pop hit on your hands. What was it like?

Max: It was like a rags to riches situation. I was like a little ghetto kid, I run away from home at the age of 14, so I was on my own bouncing about. Until I drifted in to the music business.

Rodigan: You run away from home at 14?

Max: I was a runaway kid, yes.

Rodigan: So how did you manage on the streets? Where did you sleep? How did you live?

Max: Well, the streets of Kingston was different, it was tame then, we were actually under the British rule, and there was a lot of discipline. Morality was tolerable, it's different from today. You couldn't do it today, you'd die. But I did, and I drifted around for a while. But after making this song, and hearing that's it's in the British chart, I was ecstatic, it was good. So here I was. I was in London for the first time. First I've ever travelled, and I'm in this big city. But we had a lot in common, 'cos there's a lot of Jamaicans in London, so I felt at home.

Rodigan I used to laugh, when I read in the NME at the time, your explaination of the meaning of the song, it was so funny. But in fact, it was a novelty record really wasn't it?

Max: Yeah, it was. The word wet dream was very suggestive, you couldn't say damn or anything like that in them days. It was strict.

Rodigan: It was. 'Fatty Fatty' by The Heptones was banned on Jamaican radio, because it was considered to be too rude, in the same year.

Max: The moral standard was very high, both in Jamaica and England. It was tough for a guy to come and say 'Wet Dream' openly, it was something. And then it was picked up by the skinheads, it was their anthem. So I immediately shot up to stardom.

Rodigan: Indeed you did, although it wasn't a refelction of the kind of songs you went on to record, and had been recording before. As we're listening here to all these songs that you wrote , you are a songwriter as well as a singer.

Max: I was forced to do that song by Bunny Lee. I was actually threatend, if you don't do that song you can't stay around me! (laughs)

Rodigan: Striker Lee! It was on a rhythm that he had created for Derrick Morgan...

Max: Derrick Morgan, 'Hold You Jack'.

Rodigan: You're as lean and as mean looking as you were back then, I don't think you've put an ounce of wait on have you? You're obviously very fit., what sort of diet do you follow?

Max: I haven't followed no diet, it's just my metabolism. It's like I can't get fat, no matter what I eat.

Rodigan: But you are still obviously Rasta by faith, and that means the diet is no meat.

Max: Yeah, it's no meat, it's a lot of vegetables. I actually don't consider it a diet. I've never been on a diet, I've never been ill, other than a cold. I've never been to a doctor.

Rodigan: I didn't mean diet in terms of losing weight, I meant diet in the sense of the food you ate, it's the way I said it...

Max: OK, I eat a lot of nuts and grains and vegetables.

Rodigan: Another tracks here, 'Three Blind Mice', you've taken the nursery rhyme, and turned it around into something quite special. Whose idea was it to do this record, and to write this song?

Max: I wrote it but it was King Tubby's idea. It's the only song I've ever done with King Tubby. It was his idea, he came into the studio and said "I have this fantastic rhythm called 'Three Blind Mice', can you do something on it?" I said let me hear a cassette. And then I just wrote a dancehall scene, with police raiding the dance and what have you. Victimisation in the dancehall as I put it.

(track played 'Three Blind Mice')

Rodigan: So Max, there was the Upsetter period, your own production here that's now out, there was some stuff with Bullwackies in New York, where you were a resident for a while. What does the year 2000, the millenium, hold for Max Romeo? What's the gameplan Max?

Max: Obviously, there's not much gameplan. Matter of fact, I'm giving 15 more years of my time to the music business, and that 15 years will be more spent on the road than in the studio.

Rodigan: That's the intention. Because people like yourself, Culture, Burning Spear, The Wailing Souls, you tour extensively. You're hardly at base camp, you're on the road because of the vast catalogue of songs and repertoire, people turn to up to see you and listen to those sounds.

Max: Yeah, that's true. I just did Brazil, I did Italy. Actually, I just did an album in Italy, strictly acoustic. It's blending Italian music with Jamaican music and it worked out fairley well.

Rodigan: An acoustic set in Italy ? Because I was fascinated, I did something recentley in Rome, and I was amazed to know how many sound systems there are in Rome. They're crazy about the music, record shops and everything. Paris as well. It seems that Europe is a major growth area for the music, it's like it's been re-born in Europe.

Max: It is, really. Everybody is involved in Europe. It's nice to listen to reggae with a different language, different culture. I mean, the music is what reggae is about, uniting the world. And I think we're doing a good job of it.

Rodigan: Absolutely. Well, Max Romeo, you've been doing a good job of it for many, many years, thank you for joining us tonight on Kiss 100.

The full interview is available on my tape trade list.