Son of a preacher man
Alabama 3’s Larry Love talks to Tracey Davies about his evangelical upbringing, jamming with Stephen King and his time in Brixton Prison
Above: Image by Lairy Love
Even without his trademark hat there’s no mistaking the inimitable presence of Larry Love, lead singer of Alabama 3, the band who rode through the Britpop era wearing only Stetsons and southern irony.
Alabama 3 is a Brixton-based band with its roots imported directly from America’s deep south. They’ve been singing their gritty blend of sweet country acid house for nearly two decades and are known as much for their evangelical personas as their inherently cool tunes such as “Hello...I’m Johnny Cash” and “Monday Don’t Mean Anything”. The number of band members yo-yos more than Oprah’s dress size but is primarily lead singer Larry Love, fellow vocalist The Reverend D Wayne Love, The Mountain of Love on harmonica, Sir “Eddie” Real plays percussion, Rock Freebase is on guitar, LB Dope plays the drums and finally, The Spirit of Love on keyboards.
The hit that blasted the band into the universal spotlight is the grimly catchy “Woke Up This Morning” from the hit US TV series The Sopranos. “[Creator] David Chase was driving down the New Jersey freeway and considering using a different track for every episode until he heard ‘Woke Up This Morning’,” says Larry. “First he thought we were from Alabama and then he finds out we’re a band fronted by a Welsh lad living in f***ing Brixton!” he laughs.
“I’m very proud to live in south London; it’s a good multicultural kind of mix here which very much forms our music,” says Larry. “Although I don’t know how I managed to go from living on the Brixton frontline to speaking with an American accent wearing Stetsons!”
The band are the complete antithesis to their Britpop peers. “Coming out of that era, I just didn't like Union Jacks and all that shaking hands with the Prime Minister, I think that’s wrong,” he says. “I’m from South Wales and the son of preacher man. My father’s a Mormon preacher, my brother’s a Mormon preacher, my sisters married Mormon preachers, so I was brought up on American gospel music. It was all this evangelical type of vibe and when I was 14 or 15 I discovered that there was a very fine line between gospel music and blues.”
After college Larry moved to Brixton and with fellow raver Jake Black, also known as The Reverend D Wayne, founded one of the era’s most unforgettable bands, releasing their debut studio album Exile on Coldharbour Lane in 1997. “My parents are proud now, although we had some philosophical religious problems at certain ages,” admits Larry with a wry grin. “I won a BAFTA a month ago for [the soundtrack of] this film called The Priest and I sent my mum and dad down to collect the award, so they’ve got to be proud of me!”
The band recently played a charity gig at Brixton Prison. “I’ve played a few prison gigs. This was for Rock against Racism along with the Jail Guitar Doors programme, a charity which donates musical instruments to the inmates and put guitars in their cells,” says Larry. “It was remarkably different to when we played there seven years ago. The last time there were screws down in the chapel, around the side, I couldn’t swear, couldn’t shout, I had to take out all the sex, drugs and rock and roll aspect of it,” he laughs. “This time, I’d read an interview with the governor and he said his favourite band was Alabama 3. So I called him up and said, ‘Paul, you’re familiar with what we do, right? What can we do, we’re Alabama 3, can we swear?’ He said ‘Do what the f*** you want’. Three or four songs in and it really kicked off, it went mental!” laughs Larry. “I’m not saying I was pulling a Bono, but we’re putting something back into the community – it was an honour to be asked.”
Their famous followers include authors Irvine Welsh and Stephen King, who had the band play at his London book launch. “Steven King jammed with us. He was at Temple Bar doing a book launch and we were playing. I said across the hall [in a deep southern accent], ‘Stephen, would you like to sing the blues and raise the dead tonight?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, man.’ And he did!”
Since parting company with their record label, Alabama 3 are enjoying their outlaw status and have launched a new project called “Alabama 3’s Twelve Steps to Nowhere”. Every month people can download 12 days of three free tracks from their website. At the end of the year and after 36 tracks, the fans decide which 12 will go on the album.
During the summer the guys have a throng of festivals planned, including Scotland’s T in the Park and Glastonbury, where they’ll also feature as an acoustic set-up called Alabama 3 Acoustic. They are also back and forth to the States touring throughout July, August and September.
Larry likes to spend his precious downtime in south London and particularly “anywhere who’ll give us a lock-in and lets us wear our shades after midnight”. Once a month they can be found in Jamm on Brixton Road hosting their regular club, Outlaw, where they introduce two or three new bands to the scene. At any Alabama 3 gig you would never guess from the crowd who was coming on stage. “I’m proud that we have an extremely wide demographic,” says Larry, “from Hells Angels to grandmothers to acid house casualties.” And with this you can be sure that the boys from Alabama 3 will be preaching their faux-evangelical-country-acid for many generations to come.