Eddie Money’s daddy challenge
Eddie Money used to play rock ’n’ roll, carouse all night and do it again the next day. These days, he’s just happy if his kids aren’t doing the same thing.
Don’t take that the wrong way. Money still is touring — just not in the manner he did in the old days.
Born Edward Mahoney, Eddie Money trained to be a police officer in his native New York City before moving to California to pursue a music career. His debut album included “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise” and shot him to stardom in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
But a drug overdose nearly killed him, and rehab stints afterward came close to derailing his career. His 1986 comeback album, “Can’t Hold Back,” featured his highest charting single, “Take Me Home Tonight.”
Money, 59, continues to tour and record in between dealing with his five school-age children, and he talked to us from his home in Florida.
What are you up to these days? I saw you had a country album out?
I was working with Vince Gill, and we put out a song called “Gimme Some Water,” and then we’re doing another song. I wrote a Broadway show, but apparently there’s no room on Broadway, so I’m pitching it out in San Francisco.
Broadway show? Like Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out?”
But it’s not a Billy Joel-type show. I had a major drug overdose, and I was making $1,000 a day. I was on top of the world, but my brother was out in Vietnam. It’s not like a jukebox show. Lots of Broadway-type songs.
How’s your daughter? I saw she was on that VH1 show (“Rock the Cradle,” which follows children of rock stars).
She’s 19. She just went camping with my cell phone charger. I couldn’t make any phone calls for four days. She had a crazy boyfriend in the Coast Guard. Now she’s seeing some other [jerk] I can’t stand. I don’t know what’s going on.
Your other kids also are in the music business?
Two boys play guitar; a couple play drums. My daughter was on “Rock the Cradle.” I had to get a publicist for her. And I called my lawyer. My lawyer represents David Bowie — it ain’t cheap. My daughter’s costing me a small fortune. I ain’t Billy Joel, you know.
How often are you on the road?
I’m on the road every weekend if I can help it. Everyone in the band has kids, and they’re divorced, so everyone’s miserable. So if they didn’t work for me, they’d go work for Styx or R. E. O. [Speedwagon]. I try to keep the band happening. We’re getting good reviews. Everyone lights up when we play the hits.
