Fito de la Parra drummer for Canned Heat interviewed by Jason Saulnier on July 13, 2022.
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Current band members: Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra, Dale Spalding, Rick Reed, Jimmy Vivino. Formed in Los Angeles, Canned Heat has enjoyed a lengthy, colorful, wildly interesting, and acclaimed career that began in 1965. Starting as a pure blues band, they are generally acknowledged as the first blues band to cross over into the rock and pop mainstream by-virtue-of their two memorable classic hits, Going Up the Country and On the Road Again. (Going Up the Country has been a staple in Geico commercials for over a year now and counting.) The band also had a chart hit in 1970 with Let’s Work Together. The band’s set at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 was not only one of the highlights of the festival but Going Up the Country was featured prominently in the 1970 Woodstock documentary. The band became renowned for interpreting classic blues tracks by older blues artists, making them into their own songs by adding a mix of various musical styles including rock, pop, jazz, raga, psychedelia and, of course, their version of the blues. (On the Road Again was an updated version of the 1953 version of the song by bluesman Floyd Jones, while Going Up the Country was a remake of a 1927 blues song.) The band’s classic 60s line-up of Fito, lead singer Bob Hite, guitarists Al Wilson and Henry Vestine and bassist Larry Taylor is still regarded as one of the best band of the 60s “hippie era.” They also gained the respect of many of the older blues artists whose songs they have covered. And, much to the band’s delight, they even recorded and performed with many of their older blues idols over the years. The band has survived and thrived over the years despite numerous lineup changes and currently, with de la Parra as the band’s anchor, continues to tour relentlessly worldwide to both longtime and new fans who have come to love the band’s classic sound. de la Parra wrote a critically acclaimed autobiography (Living the Blues) which chronicles in extreme detail the band’s successes and excesses from over the years, which is now in its fourth printing. Tragic, humorous and highly entertaining, the book is a must read. In addition, Mike Judge (creator of the Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill TV series, amongst others) will be directing and producing a film about the band based on Fito’s book.