Writer Jon Woodhouse releases ‘Music Legends on Maui’

Englishman Jon Woodhouse grew up in London as it was becoming ground zero for the international cultural revolution known as the British Invasion. He listened to the Beatles’ early records on Radio Luxembourg, the foreign radio station that played music that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did not. Woodhouse saw Jimi Hendrix playing for 200 people in a London rock club, and caught Cream’s official debut at the Sixth Annual Windsor Jazz &Blues Festival in 1966.

Woodhouse earned a Bachelor of Science in sociology from Enfield College in London in 1970, and a postgraduate diploma in education from the University of London the following year. He was teaching social studies at Ealing Art College in London when he fell in love with an American woman from California. Love won out, and he left London for the West Coast. Woodhouse was a California resident when he visited Maui in 1980. Later that year, he moved to the Valley Isle, where he has lived ever since.

In 1983, spurred by a lifelong interest in music, Woodhouse began writing about music and entertainment for the Maui News. Over the years, he has interviewed countless celebrities and music icons.

In May, Woodhouse, 73, published “Music Legends on Maui,” a fascinating 382-page look at some of the many celebrities he has met in more than 40 years of writing. The book is available on Amazon.com.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why do the book now? I would guess in another year you’ll have more great interviews.

I’m actually already working on Volume Two. And the thing about when I created this one, originally it was more than 700 pages long and 140 interviews. I realized it would have been crazy to do it, I would have lost money (self-publishing it), so I chopped it in half and went through this massive editing process. … But basically it was because of the pandemic. I actually used to be what they call a behavioral health counselor in the school system on Maui, as well as working for the Maui News. I retired from that school job at the end of 2019. Then the pandemic hit … I spent two years on it during the pandemic.

I’ll ask you a question that people ask me: Do you have a favorite interview or one that was the most meaningful?

I think I always sort of like to defer to Willie Nelson. Because you know he has a home on Maui, I’ve interviewed him many times, and he’s always so gracious and humble, and the antithesis of a superstar.

Is there someone you would like to talk to?

Sting. I’ve interviewed Andy Summers and I’ve interviewed Stewart Copeland. (All were members of the English rock band The Police.)

People are going to be reading your book and they’re going to be saying, “I didn’t know that!”

I think it’s kind of a cultural and social history, and particularly with the older Black artists. I really went into the (topic of) racism and what it was like in the South for these guys. Or Bo Diddley was in Vegas, I think it was 1959, him and his band jumped into the swimming pool — all the white people jumped out and they put a sign up saying, “Contaminated Water.” Or Dave Brubeck was trying to perform in the South and he had a Black member of his band, and they couldn’t play a lot of places. And I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but the first time the Doors played Honolulu, the (Honolulu) Advertiser said they should be called “the Dulls.” That just cracks me up.

Going back to your youth, what was your impression of Davy Jones performing at a high school dance with a band named the Lower Third?

They were great. They were like a great soul/R&B band, because at that time — I think this was probably ’65 — there was a whole movement in England of imitating Motown and all that stuff, and so he was doing like Wilson Pickett (singing) “Land of 1000 Dances.” They were really good. And then of course, later, he became David Bowie.

What’s next?

I’m thinking of trying to get into the English market. Because the English — I don’t know if you’re aware of this — they are very cultish about music, and they’re just fanatic. I was going through the Michael McDonald profile, and he was talking about his Motown albums. He said that he picked some songs (for them) that would be pretty obscure to American audiences, but the English audiences would know it. … So I’m sort of going to investigate (the English market), and of course, I still write for the Maui News.