It was the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajkull that kick-started Eurythmics star Dave Stewart’s solo career.
The Sunderland musician hadn’t released a solo album for 13 years prior to 2011, but latest record Lucky Numbers is his third in three years.
“I was caught up in the planes being grounded when the volcano erupted and I ended up coming home to LA via Miami and Nashville. I spent time in Nashville and met some great people there.
“It reminded me a lot of when I was starting in the north east, when I would go to folk clubs and an acoustic guitar would be passed around.
“I had a weird feeling about the place, so I decided to make a record with some of the great musicians there. And then another and another.
“I made the first two albums in the same studio with the same players, so with this one I wanted to do something different. I took the musicians on a boat to Polynesia and we recorded in between eating and drinking.”
Remarkably, the 61-year-old has never played his hometown since he became a star with Annie Lennox more than 30 years ago. It was supposed to happen last year, but tragedy forced him to cancel.
“I had been on tour in America and we were supposed to be coming to England once we’d finished. But then my friend, film director Tony Scott, committed suicide. My little girls were in the same class as Tony’s twin boys and they were traumatised, so we had to cancel.
“Playing Sunderland Empire is on my bucket list. I remember my grandmother taking me and my brother to the pantomime. It was the first time I’d been to the theatre and when the curtains opened, it just blew my mind and I never recovered.
“I saw Free just as All Right Now came out and the place was going bonkers. My brother even saw The Beatles there.”
On each of his recent solo albums, a number of female artists appear on some of the songs. So far Annie, from Aberdeen, has yet to appear but Dave says they do still keep in touch.
“A piece came out in a newspaper about my photo exhibition, focusing on the fact there were no pictures of Annie. The journalist got it in her head there was a problem between us.
“Once something like that comes out it starts Chinese whispers and the next thing is we’re supposedly at war.
“But the last thing we spoke about was actually that article. When we meet in a restaurant or house we end up talking about life and children, rather than music.”
Lucky Numbers is out now
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