John Ford Coley talks career ahead of show with Three Dog Night and Ambrosia

IDAHO FALLS — Award-winning musician John Ford Coley said an upcoming concert in Idaho Falls will be a trip down memory lane.

Coley, alongside Three Dog Night and Ambrosia, will be playing at the Mountain America Center on Jan. 22.

“Over the years, I’ve kind of discovered that people mainly want to go down memory lane,” Coley said. “So when we play the songs that they remember from the ’70s, it’s something that really seems to strike a chord with most people. And that’s why they come.”

“Just come on out,” Coley said. “We always have a really fun time. You’re going to recognize probably so many of the songs, if not all of them.”

Coley is perhaps best known for his 1970s hits in the Grammy-nominated duo England Dan and John Ford Coley. His popular songs include “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” “Nights Are Forever Without You,” “We’ll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again,” “Love Is The Answer” and “Sad To Belong.”

When asked if he ever gets sick of the old songs, Coley said he doesn’t, though he wasn’t necessarily fond of them at first, as was the case with “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.”

“It’s surprising the way it turned out because when they brought the song to us, neither Dan nor I liked the song,” Coley said. “Neither one of us wanted to do it. We thought it was a female song. We wanted to write our own songs.”

But Coley said his tune quickly changed.

“They talked us into it, so we did it,” he said. “And then I saw the first royalty check that we got off doing that song. I want to tell you just how quick a musician can become a mercenary.”

“I found myself calling up the writer of the song, Parker McGee, going, ‘Hey Parker, buddy, what else you got?’” he said.

Coley said the music industry has definitely changed since the 70s. He said it’s not as melodically driven as it used to be, and people are also not as engaged with it.

“Back during that time we were making records, everybody was involved in music,” Coley said. “Kids loved it. You had the radio on all the time. You watched all the music shows. You’d go to the record store. You’d get the new records, and you couldn’t wait.”

“Now we don’t have that same kind of interest,” he said. “Kids aren’t doing that. They’ve got their iPhones. They don’t sit and listen to an album all the way through from top to bottom. They get the one song that they stream.”

Coley and England Dan played together until about 1980. Coley said he went on to pursue a film career, and Dan went off into country music. Coley has acted in nine films, and he’s got a few stories to tell from them.

Coley said his first film was called “Scenes from the Goldmine,” released in 1987. He said on the set he quickly befriended fellow actor Pamela Springsteen, who was trying her best to get out of the shadow of her brother Bruce Springsteen.

“(On) her last day, she sees me, runs to me, grabs me by the arm, and says ‘John, I talked to my brother Bruce last night. He knows who you are, and said he’d love to get together with you sometime. You guys could write, play, and whatever musicians do.’ I said, ‘Really?’” Coley said.

“She said, ‘No. I was just acting, but did you believe me?’” Coley said. “It was cold, man. I discovered that day there will never be world peace as long as there are siblings.”

Coley’s stop in Idaho Falls later this month comes as he’s been touring all over the world. He’s been from coast to coast, along with Canada, the Philippines, Israel and Ecuador. He said he’s been to Idaho before and thinks it’s a beautiful area.

For tickets and more information on the upcoming concert visit the Mountain America website. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the show starts at 7 p.m.