Interviews are fun. You go to a hotel, you get a free meal, enough booze to mellow you out just a little, and you ask some bozo musician a few ridiculous questions. When we were asked to do Leslie West, though, we were just a bit hesitant. Why? Because we just never were Mountain fans. Even acknowledging his talentSi we always considered him a fat Eric Clapton.

But we made up a few questions and went to the Windfall Records office in Manhattan. There we were ushered into a comfortable but small office, and suddenly we realized we weren 't even going to get a free lunch out of this. Did these people really expect a complimentary interview? In very low spirits, we were introduced to Gary Kurfirstian (Leslie's manager) and Rich Totoain (a local East Coast under assistant promo man). They both sat in on the interview. They were cool and easy to talk to, but we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the big man.