Eagle-Eye Cherry Gives Props To His Pop

07/24/1998 2:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(7/24/98, 12 p.m. PDT) - In a day and age when the offspring of legendary musicians go out of their way to avoid talking about their famous parents, it's refreshing to hear a new artist praise his father. Not only does Eagle-Eye Cherry speak highly of his dad, the late jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, but his version of "Desireless," one of his father's songs, serves as the title track of his recently-released U.S. debut album.

"I have so much respect for my father," he says. "He's a person I really loved a lot. He was a cool cat. I'd say he's one of the most fascinating people I've ever met...This is a chance for me to keep his spirit alive and remind people about what he's done and what his generation did for music."

After all, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter credits his father with introducing him to music. "My dad put me on a drum stool as soon as he could," he says. "I was playing drums all through my childhood. I actually knocked my first tooth out missing a cymbal and falling on my face when I was about three years old. That was my initiation. But it was cool, because my dad never pushed me too hard."

Don Cherry, of course, isn't Eagle-Eye's only relative that has found fame in the music business. His older sister is Neneh Cherry, who had a hit in 1989 with "Buffalo Stance" from the album Raw Like Sushi. "I learned the whole music business side of it from being around my sister," he says. "She kind of guided me and [advised] me to not rush into the business."

However, Eagle-Eye admits that the family ties added some pressure on him. "It definitely made me take my time a bit, because I did feel like if I go do this, people are really going to be pulling out that magnifying glass and checking extra hard," he says. "I know they won't have a problem calling out the firing squad if they don't like what they hear. But I think that was really good, because in a way I ended up not going into it too fast. I waited until I felt ready."

Eagle-Eye, who is enjoying the success of "Save Tonight," which recently cracked Billboard's Modern Rock chart, is preparing to make his American live debut in August. The Swedish-born musician lived in New York for some time, but recently relocated back to Stockholm. "I've never played [in the U.S.] as a frontman. As a drummer, I did gigs in New York as a drummer, but not since all this stuff started happening. It'll be a cool way to come back."