What follows is an exclusive interview brought to you from Nick Stuart, a good friend of the band and guitar techician on the forthcoming tour. 

Nick: What CD is in your player now?
Greg Griffin :I’m listening to a lot of Neil Young.

N: What are your plans after the PM tour?
GG: I’m gonna go over to LA I was going for a couple of months, but I’m probably just gonna go for a couple of weeks to work on some new stuff that Spot’s got so that’ll be mega, we’ve got some ideas for a new record company, cos I don’t think were gonna do another album with Redemption, so we’re probably gonna do the new album with them.

N: So how are the preparations and rehearsals coming along?
GG: Yeah good man we started on Monday so we’re gonna do a couple of weeks, how long have we got to go now, about three weeks, so we’ll do a couple of weeks and try and work some new stuff in we got.

N: Do we have the band line up yet? (Obviously apart from Spot and Greg)
GG: Yeah Tony’s gonna play Lead guitar again, Nathan on the Bass, Jon on Keyboards and a new drummer called Gwyn.

N: Do you have a response to early criticisms of Proud Mary’s music with regard to influences worn on your sleeves etc?
GG: Yeah I don’t know it’s just like a lot of it was positive, I don’t think a lot of other people really got it, what the agenda was with it, and they sort of made out we were some sort of fucking boy band or something that Noel had put together, But anyone who knows Noel and knows us knows that It’s not like that at all.

N: How’s life been since the last tour?
GG: It’s been alright, good, been abroad a few times went to LA a couple of times to see Spot then I went to New York about a month or two months ago it was really top, went to see Oasis (Madison Sq. Gardens) went seeing the Phonics the other night (MEN Arena) met up with Kelly (Jones) it was top.

N: Who’s autograph would you most like to have?
GG: A personal autograph, Bob Dylan or Gram Parsons or someone obscure, probably Bob Dylan.

N: Have you ever met him?
GG: No not yet.

N: Who would you most like to meet?
GG: John Lennon, or Jesus.
N: one and the same
GG: well they started looking like each other didn’t they.
N: What would you say to him then?
GG: Buy us a pint or can I borrow some clothes of yer.

N: Which other singer would you most like to perform with?
GG: On the same stage I’ve performed with Neil Young and Chris Robinson of course, and Liam, but probably, Elvis.

N: You have one of the most striking stage personas around where did that come from?
GG: I nicked loads of moves off people like Chris Robinson, the first time I ever saw him he blew my head off, I watched him at the Apollo in Manchester about eight years ago. You know when someone comes on stage and there’s nowhere else you’re looking, or Jim Morrison when I saw him do the Hollywood Bowl on video, I saw that years ago and I was pretty obsessed with the doors when I was younger.
 
N: How do you keep your voice in shape?
GG: I don’t know I never really worked on it. I used to be really paranoid about it, but with time and experience you know like where you can go, it’s never let me down, I’ve never gone for a note and it’s just not there.

N: You’ve never had voice coaching or anything?
GG: No no, but there’s nothing wrong with it if you know you’ve got something and you want to fine-tune it. But I’m always suspicious of people who haven’t done anything themselves, at the top level of music coaching. But there’s some great teachers out there.

N: You’ve worked with Spot now for ten years how’s you’re relationship developed in that time?
GG: Great he’s a good boy man, very cool, always has been.
 
N: Where did you and Spot meet?
GG: We’ve known each other years, he was always the kid who looked the part and like wrote brilliant songs right from the word go, he gave us great songs to do when we were demo-ing  before we had a deal or anything,. Lyrically he’s outstanding, great with the melody, he’s always given me free range, he’ll just give me the lyrics and if he doesn’t like the way I’m singing something he’ll say “I want to go a little bit more like this”.

N: How and where did Proud Mary originally form?
GG: I think Spot, Chink (Adam Gray) and Cottee had something going, I was in another band, we were doing a gig and Spot and Cottee came down, and later Chink sort of knocked on my door and asked me to join. When I sat down and we were talking about and the type of music we were into, and we plugged in it was great, then when people start knocking on your door after a bit you know it’s alright.

N: The two Albums that have been put out so far there seems to be a difference in professionalism and sound quality I think, on "Love and Light", would you agree with that?
GG: Personally I like the second album better than the first one, I’m really proud of the first one, but we had more input on Love and Light.

N: To what do you attribute the obvious respect you gain from other musicians, both great musicians and aspiring musicians and bands ?
GG: I reckon its because we’re a really good band, and certain aspects of the music industry, journalists whatever panned us right from the start. A lot of people realise that, Paul Weller, the Stereophonics, Oasis.A lot of bands out there, good bands recognise that we got the raw end of the stick.

N: Going back to the albums and stuff one of the questions in my mind is why not record an album not as a live album but in the studio recorded live, because I think PM are fantastic live and I don’t think that raw energy will ever come across on an album otherwise?
GG: I totally agree with you and it’s something that we’ve never, we’ve spoken about it but, because of our line up, that’s how we like to work.
N: Even so, shifting the line up its…
GG: It's just getting it to a stage where it sounds like it does live, and the songs we do live don’t sound like it does on the album but the album needs to be recorded at a listening level when you go on tour you need to knock peoples heads off.

N: Which is PM the song that means the most to you and why?
GG: From a performance level, "Salt of the Earth", or any track that gets sung back at us like "Very Best Friend", but when you sing the line ”lets drink to the hard working people” and there's a full room of people with there drinks in the air man…Some not in the glass anymore, that happened man in Scotland all this beer came right out of the lights at me

N: How did you enjoy the solo tour last year?
GG: Top, a bit nerve wracking cos for like ten years everytime I’ve looked stage left Spot has been there you know it was a bit weird, but Spot tour managed the whole thing for me and everyone behind the scenes and the crew were Proud Mary people.  Some people got the wrong end of the stick with it thinking I was leaving the band and there was a few comments on the website saying “who’s gonna be the new singer” but I was doin it cos I’d written a couple of songs on my own and I just wanted to do it.

N: Any plans to do any more solo gigs in 2006?
GG: I really want to yeah but no firm plans at the moment, I wanna put a record out if I can, if someone’ll have me.

N: The inevitable question, have you written any songs lately?
GG: I’ve written a couple and there’s loads of ideas.

N:PM’s early influences are well documented Stones, Creedence Neil Young etc. would you say those influences are still as strong or have they changed at all as a band or personally
GG: I listen to the music I’ve always listened to ya know, I really like the Stones ,Beatles, Dylan, Neil Young, Gram Parsons. When I look to listen to new music I usually go round to Adam Cottee's house. He’s introduced me to, some really cool stuff, like the other day he’s just played me the White Stripes new album. But our influences we’ve always looked back like The Band, Bob Dylan the albums they made then it was like a totally golden time in the 60’s and 70’s. But our influences do change cos you need to develop. We’ve only done one album on our own without Noel (Gallagher) and we have developed.

N: "Love and Light" was produced by you guys?
GG: Yeah so we know our way round a mix desk now. We were part of the whole process, where as when the first one was mixed we weren’t even there we were on tour and Noel mixed it. People tend to forget how big a deal it was to Noel as well. Noel hooked up with us because we were an established band with good songs, good gigging ability and recording ability, and Noel paid a lot of money for the record, so people don’t know how big a deal it was to him and us.

N: You have massive following in Manchester but also other major cities such as London and Glasgow what do you put that down to?
GG: Glasgow is my favourite place to play because of the people there, I always had an impression it was such a hard place, but we went there and we were totally welcomed by everybody. We went and did a gig that was sold out and we came on stage and the fuckin place went mental, and when you get that back off a crowd its awesome.

To end the interview, Nick has now put forward some of the questions that you fans have asked Greg, so here are your answers:

Big Gav: How can you smoke Benson and Hedges and still sing like that?
GG: I don’t smoke Bensons I smoke Embassy No.1.

Snakeskin: Who would you consider to be your hero?
GG: Danny Griffin my uncle

Snakeskin: What is your favourite song of all time?
GG: "Imagine".

Snakeskin: What is your most prized possession?
GG: My 17th birthday present the signet ring my uncle got me, he’s not here anymore.

Snakeskin: Who is the coolest celeb you’ve met?
GG: Liam Gallagher, fuckin hands down.
 
Andie T : Are there any recordings available from the band you were in with Carwyn?
GG: Carwyn has some I’m sure, I’ll have to try and get hold of one for Andy, cos we are pals.

So that's the interview with Greg.  Hopefully it has answered some of your questions about the band and what they have been up to as of late.  We are currently working on bringing you a interview with Paul in the next few days so keep checking back to see when it has been put up.