Excerpt from John Wesley Harding interview, May 18, 2009
http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/0...esley-harding/
It’s been 20 years since your first albums on Sire, and in the interim you’ve probably been on more labels—major, tiny and in-between—than anyone in the history of the record industry.
It could well be true. But that’s kind of the way things are going. Back before I began, it would be very usual to be on the same record label for ages, that whole concept of growing an artist, then developing. If the music industry had been then what it’s like today, there’d have been no Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.
They’d have broken up back in the Peter Green days, long before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Exactly. But on the other hand, one has to take advantage of the way things are today. For the first time, on this record, I had my **** together, or got together for me, and put it out in a way that suits the size of artist that I am and the way I make music and the way it could all make sense financially. My great failing over the last few albums was just to give ‘em to whatever record label will have them. It’s better to have control of your own stuff, but it’s more work. And it’s worked very well.