Interview in The Sunday Times
FAME AND FORTUNE
Paul Carrack: “I signed away the rights to a classic pop song”
The musician wrote How Long and performed with The Eagles, but had some ‘terrible contracts’
Karen Robinson, The Sunday Times.
Paul Carrack had his first hit in 1974 with his band Ace before going on to work with Squeeze, Mike and the Mechanics and many other acts. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid.
View the original article here.
Paul Carrack taught himself keyboards and guitar before leaving school in Sheffield at the age of 16 to be in a band. A subsequent band, Ace, had a top 20 hit in the UK and US in 1974 with his song How Long. Carrack then played keyboards with Roxy Music and Squeeze — singing on the latter’s 1981 single Tempted — before joining Mike and the Mechanics, who topped the US charts with The Living Years in 1988. He has also worked with Elton John, Eric Clapton, The Eagles and Madness as a session musician in the studio, on stage or as a songwriter.
Carrack, 68, is married, has four children and lives in Hertfordshire.
How much money is in your wallet?
I don’t carry a wallet for cash, but there’s about 60 quid in my pocket.
What credit cards do you use?
A NatWest credit card — I think I get rewards with it — and there’s a tour credit card for hotels and incidentals.
Are you a saver or a spender?
Definitely a saver. When I was growing up, nobody had much money, though I didn’t think we were poor; we were probably marginally better off than people around us. For years after leaving school, I had no money, so when I started to make some I always tried to save.
How much did you earn last year?
I turned over somewhere in the high six figures. I run my own label and have my own touring band, so all the costs of the business are mine — from producing records to marketing them.
Have you ever been really hard up?
In 1973 my band had all its equipment stolen. Kathy — my girlfriend, later my wife — was working as a lab technician and bringing in all of £15 a week, so I got a job at a Jaguar dealer giving cars a quick valet after they’d been serviced. I was paid 42½p an hour, less tax. I’d formed Ace with friends; we played in pubs to earn a few quid. Eventually we got a record contract and just a year later we were in the charts.
Do you own a property?
Home is a grade II listed, five-bedroom house in Hertfordshire. We’ve lived there for 30 years — I’ve just had to put a new roof on it — but it wasn’t our first property: Kathy and I had a small terrace house in Shepherd’s Bush [west London] that we bought for £36,000 in 1979. We had one son when we bought it but by the time our daughter arrived, we decided we wanted to leave London. Our house is part of a larger property divided into three. We’ve got a wing with a nice garden and a separate garage where I made a lot of recordings — and a lot of hits — even though it was freezing cold in the winter and roasting in summer. I had it upgraded a few years ago. I wish I could have done it 20 years earlier but I couldn’t afford it.
What was your first job?
My brother’s friend got me a job at the gas board. I lasted six weeks.
Paul Carrack (centre back) with Mike and the Mechanics. Photo: Paul Natkin.
What has been your most lucrative work?
It wasn’t writing How Long as I’d signed away the rights — we had terrible contracts. It’s the last 20 years that have been most lucrative. Doing everything myself, I’ve made more money than being No 1 in America.
Are you better off than your parents?
Absolutely. I grew up in the Crookes area of Sheffield — the singer Joe Cocker, who was a little older than me, lived two streets away. He was a bit of a hero but a bit scary too. My dad was a painter and decorator, my mum ran our paint shop, and we lived at the back with a kitchenette, outside toilet, tin bath and no hot water or central heating. My father had a fatal accident at work when I was 11 and my brother John took over the shop aged 15. He worked there until he retired at 70 and passed it onto a guy who was working with him. It’s still there, still called Carracks. My mother had been really poor growing up and had an unbelievable work ethic: she ran the shop, brought up two kids, baked bread (my father didn’t like shop-bought bread), scrubbed the floor . . . amazing.
Do you invest in shares?
Not as such. I have a pension and ISAs — and a financial adviser.
What is better for retirement — property or pension?
They say a spread is the best. We bought our house to live in and as it’s a quirky property that would probably be difficult to sell, our plan is that we will move into the recording studio and whomever of our four children wants to look after us can live in the house.
When did you first feel wealthy?
It was great to pay the mortgage off, which I did as soon as I possibly could.
What has been your best investment?
Investing in myself. It’s given me the independence to call my own shots: I don’t feel beholden to the vagaries of record companies. But setting up on my own was a massive learning curve.
And the worst?
We bought an apartment on the Costa del Sol in Spain in 2006 at the top of the market. I don’t know what it’s currently worth, though at least we go there and enjoy it now — I was too busy before.
What is the most extravagant thing you have ever bought?
I’ve got a 1954 Fender Telecaster guitar that I paid 5,000 quid for 20 years ago. Apparently it’s worth £40,000 now. It’s a great machine.
What are you worried about?
I’ve been a worrier ever since coming home from school at the age of 11 to find my father had died. I used to worry about something happening to me and leaving my kids. I’m not so worried about that now — I think they’d be OK. And getting old and being doolally — I’d hate not to recognise people.
What is your money weakness?
I buy nice clothes and I don’t wear them. I like [the menswear designer] John Varvatos. His clothes are quite expensive, so I buy them and then think I look too flash and put on a T-shirt and jeans. It drives Kathy mad. I’ve also got a lot of hats — I wear them on stage. I’m a baldy but I’m not trying to hide it, I just think it looks a bit more rock ’n’ roll.
What aspect of the tax system would you change?
It’s not the paying of large amounts of tax, it’s the not knowing where it all goes.
What is your financial priority?
It has always been to try to secure the family’s future for any eventuality that can be covered by having money. We’ve helped the kids a little and want to help them more, but they never really ask for much. They are mostly in salaried occupations, though one son, Jack, is the drummer in my band — he’s the chip off the old block.
Do you support any charities?
Kathy and I have standing orders and like to give to the Salvation Army at Christmas, because we feel they’re not political. My band plays charity gigs if we have time — it’s not a lot of effort.
What would you do if you won the lottery jackpot?
I’d make sure the kids were set up financially, and give some away — you’ve got my number.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt about money?
It’s difficult to make and easy to lose.
Paul Carrack's album Live 2000-2020: The Independent Years is available now to pre-order, and he tours the UK from January 17 (paulcarrack.net/live)