King Crimson singer and guitarist Jakko Jakszyk has discussed his brief stint as part of The Kinks for about one week back in 1994.
In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, Jakszyk recalled how his very short tenure in the band came about.
“I got a phone call one Sunday afternoon from a guy saying he works for The Kinks and he asked me if I was available for the next 10 days or so,” Jakszyk began.
“I said, ‘Yeah, feasibly – why?’ He said, ‘Ray Davies had asked me to call you.’ I said, ‘Ray Davies… from The Kinks?’ He says, ‘Yeah. Dave Davies isn’t well and he is wondering if you could replace him.’ I said, ‘Are you sure he asked for me? I’m not that kind of guitar player.'”
“He says, ‘No, he specifically asked for you.’ I thought, ‘Well that’s mad.’ But at the same time I remembered when I was a kid, I would watch The Kinks on the tele and I remember seeing Dave Davies playing a black Les Paul and getting all excited about it,” he recalled.
“So I thought, ‘Sod it, I’ll do it.’ I thought it would be a laugh. This was 1994, so I met him at a motorway service station and he gave me a cassette of new compositions and old compositions and I came home, stayed up that night, and wrote some notes,” Jakszyk continued.
“The next day I was rehearsing with The Kinks and it was mad. Two days later, we were at Maida Vale, which is an old BBC studio, and we set up to play live. So we were playing live in the middle of the day on Radio 1, which was the main pop station in England.”
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“So we played the opening number and then it goes to a live interview with Ray Davies. He [the DJ] says, ‘I understand that Dave isn’t well,’ and Ray says, ‘No, he’s stuck in Los Angeles.’
But once the DJ – who was already familiar with Jakko – asked who had taken Dave’s place, Jakszyk quickly realised that Ray had no clue what his name was.
“I’m thinking, ‘He has no idea who I am.’ I got really pissed off. In the end, he said, ‘Uhhh… It’s my granddad.’ And I thought, ‘Fuck you!'”
“Then we did some little rock solo, but I was so angry I just went bonkers and played all over the place – a bunch of tasteless rubbish, really.”
“When I finished, the DJ, Johnnie Walker, bless him, he knew who I was, and he said, ‘Great solo by Jakko, well done Jakko!’ at which point Ray Davies goes, ‘Yeah, Jakko! Well done, Jakko!'”
He continued, “Anyway, it was an odd experience and I later found out the following information… number one, Dave Davies wasn’t ill. Number two – Ray and Dave kind of hate each other.”
“So, that’s how I ended up in The Kinks for a week. I wish them well.”
Check out ‘All Day and All of the Night’ by The Kinks:
