1. What was your reason for releasing a revised Badfinger book?

1997's first edition's hardcover and softcovers had sold out. I wanted the book to continue to be available in the marketplace, especially as I felt the alleged pending VH-1 TV documentary was going to happen and that would spark a lot of new interest in Badfinger. I felt the book should be a revised edition because it is a biography, so it inherently strives be as accurate and detailed as possible. Within my budget, I dug up more info, corrected anything I discovered to be wrong factually in the previous edition, fixed some typos, added pictures, and put in a CD of material to help augment the story. The story, though, essentially remains the same with new events and happenings added from 1998 to the year 2000, and nearly complete listings of the studio and live dates of The Iveys and Badfinger put in new appendices.

2. Were there any important new discoveries?

Before I published the first book, I worked very long and very hard to be as thorough and as accurate as possible. And thus, in doing a second edition, it turned out there weren't many events of great significance left to uncover. There were some important events previously reported which I later found the time frames to be different. For example, Tom's getting the Porsche happened in 1972, not 1970 as reported in the first edition. I had been given conflicting accounts on that earlier, and many unsure memories abounded about that incident. When I did the first book, I had originally ascertained late 1970 was likely the era, and mostly I based this on Joey's strong assertion in an interview. But Bill Collins diary totally cleared that event as happening in 1972. Otherwise, there were some event's dates which were discovered to be off a few days or a few months here and there, and I corrected those.

3. What do you consider to be the most important additions to this revised book?

Certainly the CD. Music is what draws people to this group in the first place, and I've included a lot of unreleased gems and other significant rarities like "Hey, Mr. Manager." Hopefully this CD will spark more interest in releases of more material. The interviews with Pete and Tom are special because they show you a lot of Pete and Tom's outward personalities, which are pretty much as people interviewed for the book described them. The phone conversations are like moments in time that capture emotions and thoughts going through Pete and Tom's head. They give you deeper insights into the overall story which is so tragic on so many levels.

4. How did you pick the material for the second edition CD?

Well, I wanted material that would enrich the experience of going through the book. I had put out some key demos already with the earlier hardcover edition, like the original two songs that became "Without You", but there was a lot more left to choose from. What was great was this new book gave the opportunity to let people hear some recordings which otherwise would likely not ever get out through a larger record company- like the interviews, the phone calls, and the rougher sounding demos, such as "Man Without A Heart." I know many people will be greatly appreciative to hear these things.

5. "I Believe In Love" on the CD is a very unusual Tommy Evans song. Was he trying to fit in with The Dodgers' style?

Tommy's writing during the Dodgers period is, overall, a little more upbeat and sunny in nature than the darker moody material he often presented during Pete's day. Actually this Dodgers demo is called "I Believe In You." That is what is listed in the book. The CD booklet has a typo in the title. It will be corrected in future printings.

6. What significance do you see in the new "live" and "studio" appendices?

Better context of the band's career. Also, fans can use this info and go to libraries and dig up reviews and ads of the time. People who were at these events may regain a clearer memory and perspective by having these time frames and details pinpointed. I think many fans really enjoy reading other people's personal memories and feelings regarding events they were at. So I encourage people greatly to talk about that and also to relay their personal stories related to the recorded music or meeting the band members.

7. Why did you include the Apple mix of "Hey, Mr. Manager" and what do you think of it? How do you view the whole Head First situation?

I feel the song is greatly significant to the story for it's lyrics,plus the obvious development of Tommy as a quality commercial-pop writer. Even though Tommy didn't have a lot of "hits" from his writing, I truly feel many of his songs could have been Top Ten or Top Twenty songs if produced better or covered by other artists. Another reason I put this song on this book CD was to show the sound of the rough mixes is actually pretty decent, despite reports otherwise, and that this discovery will further increase people's interest in purchasing an entire CD of the album when it comes out. Yet, I am a strong advocate that the best scenario for "Head First" is truly a new mix of the album being done and released. But that is going to be difficult to pull off for the near future, based on my recent discussions with Rhino Records. Hopefully that will be happening someday. A Rhino Records attorney faxed me a clearance in 1999 that they would not interfere with any projected CD of the "Head First" Apple Studios rough mixes (tapes they do not have in their possession), and that their discussions with a Warner Brothers attorney also led them to believe Warner Brothers also would not interfere. This was after I had a meeting with a Rhino Records attorney and presented legal documents, etc. to him and for Warner Brothers to go over which proved their lack of ownership of anything to do with this project. They pretty much acknowledged that fact, yet they were not about to hand over the Kerner/Wise mix masters or the 16-track masters in their vault to anyone. There is that axiom "ownership is 9/10th's possession." One would probably have to go to court to try and get any of those tapes handed over to them. Warner Brothers got them from Polley in 1975, just before Pete died. When Pete died, no one retrieved them.

8. On the first CD track, "Man Without A Heart," you can hear Pete is learning his way around the piano. How did he use the piano (composing, Badfinger live, demos) and did he have as good a talent for piano as for guitar?

Pete was a great guitar player, but not a virtuoso keyboard player. He improved as he went along and his recorded parts were usually the type that fit the arrangements really well. With Badfinger, the musical arrangement was of major importance. Bill Collins early on encouraged the keyboard aspects and when you hear "Man Without A Heart" you pretty much can tell a significant influence of the song is inspired by Pete sitting at the piano blocking out basic chords. This was one of Pete's very first songs.

9. The "afterword" has a lot of new information. How did you approach that?

Basically. I tried to accentuate what I considered the important developments since the publication of the last book. That would entail CD, LP releases, documentary developments, and the legal update. The court case over Joey Molland getting producer royalties and expenses for the CD Day After Day: Live was completed. I capsulized the case for readers.