Ain't Tougher Than Me by Citadel Records

A song inspired by the sounds of the late, great Lou Reed. At the time of writing this tune I felt he hadn’t received the acknowledgement he deserved, and ironically in 2015, post his death, thankfully he was finally honoured into the American Music Hall of Fame. My original demo version captured a smooth wiry sound whereas Mitch Easter chose to record the tune more 'Stones' like by cleverly combining a highly distorted electric along with an ultra clean guitar. The mood was to try and create a rolling four minutes blues feel, which reminded me of the slow train ride I experienced from NOLA to Memphis back in 1996. It is possibly also very reminiscent in style to ’Television' given the intricate guitar interplay that’s occurring. Darryl Mather