About Christopher A. Landt Expertise Hello, If it has anything to do with ELO, The Move, The Idle Race, or Jeff
Lynne give me a try. I will be glad to help out in any way possible! I
look forward to hearing from you...
Expert: Christopher A. Landt Date: 6/13/2007 Subject: Jeff Lynne today
Question QUESTION: Hey Christopher, I've been a huge ELO/J.Lynne fan for 30 years and I'm curious, is Jeff Lynne now a recluse? I've seen nothing on him or what he is doing since 2001 Zoom project. It appears that he is reclusive?? Also, what is the status of he and the former ELO members, are they still on the outs? There is no mention of any of these things ANYWHERE that I can locate.
Any info would be great!
ANSWER: Hello Rhonda,
I would not say Jeff is a recluse. He is a very private person, but not a recluse. He is all over, you just need to know where to look.
Last year he helped produce Tom Petty's new LP. He was spotted doing a cameo at the Tom Petty Concert in LA. I have seen pictures of him at a few awards shows and such (spoted with Sir Paul and others). He did a lot of work on the new ELO re-issue CDs, And I belive he just finished working on the Re-issue release of the Traveling Wilburys CD/DVD package.
Besides that I know he is very busy producing and his name pops up everywhere. There is a new Broadway Show called Xanadu. He is credited as doing part of the score. I am not sure if he worked on the show or the credit is for his original work. Oh, and plus have you notice how many ELO songs are getting into movies and Comercials. There he is again. I have heard that he remixes old ELO songs so they fit better into the spots they need.
So no, I would not call him recluse. But I am sure he likes to stay as private as possible.
About the other band members. Bev is in England working with a new band and doing a radio show last I heard. And Kelly, Mik and Lou are still doing the ELO music tour thing as "The Orchestra" www.theorchestra.net.
I hope this helps a little.
Enjoy,
Christopher...
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Wish somebody would clue Jeff in on the fact that he was YEARS ahead of his time, the reason the songs are catching on in a big way today is that they were 30 years AHEAD of the 70's when they were released. If he were to do another live concert, tickets would sell for megabucks, I for one would pay hundreds to see him again. wonder if anybody has clued him in, he's always promoting the Beatles, heck he'd do us all a favor to promote himself by doing another tour, get different promoters rather than the ones for Zoom that never publicized therefore led to cancellation and CASH IN on what he was underrated for back in the 70's. Do you also know if there were hard feelings between the original band members and Jeff, I know everywhere on youtube people are wanting to see the 74-79 line-up together again. How bout Wizzard as an opening act----WOW! LOL Lynne and Wood would disagree on who was opening for who??? LOL
Answer I think Jeff knows he was way ahead of his time. But he was burnt in 2001 and gun shy now.
In 2001 he reformed ELO, did a new LP that was super fantastic, and scheduled a tour. CD sales were low, and the concert series was canceled due to low ticket sales.
About the hard feelings. in the late 80s Kelly Groucutt sued Jeff for a ton of money he felt he was owed. Then Jeff replaced all the string guys with keyboards and synths, then Jeff Sued Bev to keep any new band from using the ELO name. So there must be hard feelings. Though I hear Bev and Jeff are friends, they just have different ideas. Bev loves to play live and Jeff Hates to. Bev hates to record and that is Jeffs Passion.
So You see it would be complicated. So for now I enjoy what Jeff has left us and relax in the reality that it will never get old.
