🎤 Interview Joe Osborn Interview

A hugely talented musician and such an important part of the Carpenters story. I love his bass on Crystal Lullaby.
 
In light of the recent passing of bassist Joe Osborn, I thought it was fitting to post an interview I did with Joe a few years ago as a standalone, as well as the interview I did with Joe and drummer Hal Blaine.







Thanks for sharing. I’ll have a listen to these later on :)
 
Thanks, Chris for re-posting these! Can I ask when they were originally recorded?

My pleasure! The interviews were taped in late September/early October of 2013. We taped for about an hour with Hal then got Joe on the phone and taped the segment with the two of them together. Joe's interview was recorded about a week or so after.
 
Thanks, Chris - great stuff :)

Thank you! It was kind of funny because we had some technical issues when trying to record Joe, as you'll hear occasional dropouts on the line. Shreveport, where Joe was living was experiencing quite a bit of rain and Joe's telephone box outside which held the phone equipment for the house was full of water, so his landline was completely trashed! We decided we'd give the cell phone a shot - and if you had even five minutes around Joe you'd know that he wasn't exactly up on technology. Even the cell service was a little spotty, but we managed to tape just over 45 minutes worth of discussion, of which I edited down to 28:00 to include dialog relating to Hal and Joe's work exclusively with Karen and Richard.
 
I think your interviews with Hal Blaine, Joe Osborn and John Bettis should be required listening for all Carpenters fans....they are just fascinating glimpses into the creative process. On record they "make it sound easy," but the actual process is the exact opposite!
 
I think your interviews with Hal Blaine, Joe Osborn and John Bettis should be required listening for all Carpenters fans....they are just fascinating glimpses into the creative process. On record they "make it sound easy," but the actual process is the exact opposite!

It can be very grueling at times no doubt! What's so amazing about a lot of these guys I've come to learn, is that the ones who go down in history as being considered one of the "greats" never go into it with that hope or aspiration. They did what they were passionate about in an organic way - no tricks, smoke and mirrors or any of that stuff like you have today. They weren't trying to make a name for themselves in a "Hey, look at me and how amazing I am!" sort of way. It really should give people a whole greater level of respect for these guys as they were truly the best!
 
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If you had to assign someone the title, "The Third Carpenter," is anyone more deserving than Joe Osborn?
 
John Bettis?
John Bettis is the only person I've seen given that title, and it's certainly a reasonable call. But if you think in terms of the most ubiquitous presence on Carpenters recordings...? Anyway, the question in my post wasn't intended to be rhetorical. Just a musing in light of Mr. Osborn's passing.
 
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If you had to assign someone the title, "The Third Carpenter," is anyone more deserving than Joe Osborn?

I did a 2-part interview with John the following year and titled the interview The "Third" Carpenter: An Interview with John Bettis. I felt that much like the late Sir George Martin was dubbed the "5th Beatle", Bettis was most deserving of being named the "3rd Carpenter." :)

Links here:
Carpenters: The "Third" Carpenter: A Conversation with John Bettis, Part 1
Carpenters: The "Third" Carpenter: A Conversation with John Bettis, Part 2
 
@Chris May - Did you ever get to interview Tony Peluso? Just curious. Your interviews are wonderful to listen to!

Thanks Mark! Unfortunately Tony was already ill by the time I tried to interview him. The same was the case with Doug Strawn.
 
Tony always showed much more emotion when speaking...like you could see his feelings were genuine. While others in the Carpenter circle spoke more like it was a business first. You could tell when Tony spoke it came right from his heart. Too bad an interview wasn’t possible.
 
For reference, I've gone in and replaced the broken link with the corrected link to Joe's interview on the original thread post at the top.
 
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