Former UFO frontman Phil Mogg was a guest on Eddie‘s SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, on September 11th, the singer spoke about why he decided to pull the plug on UFO in 2022, more than 50 years after the band’s formation.
He said, [as per blabbermouth.net], “It’s easier when you look back on it. But I think after Pete [Way, late UFO bassist] went… He was suffering a few problems which are rather popular in rock bands, so I hear, he was suffering a few setbacks. But I think when Pete went, it kind of took the real sort of the original flavor out of the band and he was kind of irreplaceable in that sense. You could, obviously, get another bass player, which we did, but it’s not the same. It was like taking a big lump out of the band, and as bad as it was at certain times, it was kind of the character of the band. And I know for some time after Pete went, I felt a little bit — it meant I’d have to do double the amount of jokes. It meant I’d have to do double the amount of drinking because he was gone. It meant I’d have to double up. I didn’t have anyone to hide behind because Pete would do the interviews too. ‘Cause he would come out with such ridiculous things, you’d go, ‘Ah, this is great.’ He could have come out with some crap. No, but he was good at it. So I think after that, I think the steam went out a bit, and we were slowly shutting down. And I didn’t particularly wanna see UFO go in sort of ever-decreasing circles. So I think that was the general gist of it.”
When queried about the possibility of UFO playing one final concert as a way of saying goodbye to the fans, Mogg replied, “Oh, there’s so many permutations on that one. Not really, because I can’t see it happening in such a way that it would be worthy of doing. It would have to be pretty damn good. And if you stick something out there and it falls below par, then the audience, people who come along will be disappointed. I’d be disappointed if it was below something else. And I think that’s the chance that I really wouldn’t want to take unless it was, like, ‘Yeah, this is happening. That’s great.’ You might go, ‘Oh, well, I’ll give that a shot.’ But I can’t see it coming together — I can’t see the stars aligning. So, yeah, it would be too difficult.”
Phil Mogg‘s new solo band, called Moggs Motel, released their debut album on Cleopatra Records on September 4th. Listen to song Apple Pie, here, and the second single, Sunny Side Of Heaven, here.
4 Responses
Good decision Phil. Some things are just better left alone.
I agree RPS…..it was never the same without Pete Way….and the ” noodler ” on guitar…
Sometimes you gotta admit, it is time to end.
Phil’s new solo album is really good!