Richard Lloyd was one of the guitarists behind Television, the New York band widely considered to be one of the founders of the punk rock movement, and contemporaries of Patti Smith and the Ramones.
Their debut album Marquee Moon, released in 1977, is still considered by many to be one of the greatest debut albums of all time, and a defining moment in the history of the genre. Lloyd has also enjoyed a notable solo career.
He will soon be in South Africa to work with Johannesburg-based musician Jim Neversink, and will make an appearance at Neversink’s gig at Belavista in Bertrams on February 27.
What has been your greatest achievement to date?
Just being part of rock ‘n’ roll history — having been a member of Television which was the group to found CBGBs and make it into an alternative rock club, where it is now arguably the most famous club in all of rock ‘n’ roll history. Recording Marquee Moon, which still remains in print and stands as one of the great debut albums, and for myself, creating a place for myself as one of the great guitar players in rock.
What haven’t you achieved yet?
I am in the middle of writing a memoir, which is something worth telling, and writing books of guitar instruction under the banner of The Alchemical Guitarist, so that I can repay those who taught me by passing on my own insights into the nature of the guitar, which is an incredibly profound instrument and which demonstrates the deepest laws of music, and an understanding of the laws of music is an understanding of the laws governing reality itself.
What did you do last Saturday night?
Zilch
What makes you depressed (about your field)?
Nothing. I am one of the few people blessed with a career where the word for work is play, and where my definition of a successful musician is one who is “paid to go where tourists pay to go, and when you get there, they applaud.” What could be better than that?
What makes you optimistic?
That I am still breathing, and that I still feel like a 14-year-old who wants to jump up and down on the bed. I’m excited about life, and my own life, and it is good down to the last drop — so long as I share the wealth and help others, I am satisfied.