Musician, songwriter, performer and producer, Nick Lowe was a key figure in some of the most enduring music of the period immediately following the establishment of hotpress.
Along with manager Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson, he formed seminal label Stiff Records in 1976. As a producer he sired Elvis Costello’s first four albums, and much of Graham Parker and the Rumours’ early output. He’s also worked with The Pretenders, The Damned and The Men They Couldn’t Hang to name just a handful. He hit the charts both as a member of Rockpile and in his own right with classics such as ‘Cruel To Be Kind’, ‘I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock And Roll’ and ‘I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass’. Along the way he married Carlene Carter, acquiring Johnny Cash as a stepfather-in-law.
“You could say I’ve accidentally rubbed shoulders with commercial success on various occasions,” he laughs. “They were heady times indeed, and I’m proud of the work I did with Elvis, Graham and The Pretenders. But I did a lot of stuff back then and quite a lot of it was rubbish. I’ve been extremely cynical in my time, but I know now that I’m lucky enough to have had a career in pop music. Usually, you’ve got two or three years if you’re lucky. I’ve had almost 40 years.”
Lowe's latest album, At My Age, his first in six years, takes a wry look at what he calls his “advanced middle age”.
“One of the great things about getting older is you start relaxing a bit more,” he says. “Back then I used to moan about the injustice of how some talentless plod seemed to be getting all the money and the attention when I was struggling away. Now I see clearly why all that stuff happens the way it does.”
Things took a dip in the early 1990’s for Lowe, but just when all hope seemed lost, his song ‘What’s So Funny (About Peace Love And Understanding)’ was featured on the soundtrack of the movie The Bodyguard starting Whitney Houston. He received a royalty windfall of over a million pounds.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time in my life,” he grins. “I’d really just figured out a way of writing and recording for myself. But it was going to take some money to finance it, and then out of the blue along comes that. It re-invigorated my career."
Johnny Cash covered several of Lowe’s songs, including ‘The Beast In Me’ featured on his American Recordings series of albums. Must’ve been strange calling him “Dad”?
“Oh, I adored him, and when me and Carlene were living in a humble abode Johnny and June came to stay with us for a couple of weeks. He seemed to fill the house and June was such a honey. They’d walk up and down the street holding hands with him wearing the black clothes. But I was always embarrassed to offer him songs and it took me about 12 years to pluck up the courage. Like everybody else I miss him a lot but his career is a lesson for everybody.”

At My Age is out now on Proper Record.