Stephen Bishop On Why He Chose To Make ‘THIMK’ His Final Album

Stephen Bishop.

credit: Courtesy of Shore Fire Media

It’s not typical for a musician to record a spoken-word message for their fans on a new album, especially when that album is also their swansong. That’s the unconventional route that veteran pop singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop chose for what is his final studio release THIMK, which closes a 50-year recording career. For him, the occasion is both a relief and bittersweet.

“It’s my 20th album, and it’s just time,” explains Bishop, who is best known for such songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s as “On and On,” “Save It for a Rainy Day,” “It Might Be You” and “Separate Lives.” “I have a newborn baby to look after. My wife just delivered one last year, a beautiful baby boy. It’s my only baby. So I wanted to be there for him, and I wanted to give the time out of my busy schedule.”

Bishop stopped touring after 2020, which also informed his decision. “I’ve had my share of airport $20 sandwiches, and I’ve done the tour thing,” he says. “It was time for me to kick back and release a special album for my fans.”

THIMK — whose title was inspired by a pin that Bishop came across sometime in the 1980s with that strange name on it — is a truly all-star affair that features appearances from many musical luminaries. Among them are Sting; Eric Clapton; Art Garfunkel; Michael McDonald; Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America; Graham Nash; Kenny Loggins; Christopher Cross; Jimmy Webb; Nathan East; Leland Sklar; Greg Phillinganes; and Steve Gadd.

“I loved it,” Bishop says of the number of famous people performing on THIMK. “What can I say? It’s incredible. They answered my phone calls…. I’ve held these friendships for a long time.”

He says that most of the songs on THIMK, which consists of previously unfinished material and reinterpretations of songs from his past albums, were chosen by his wife and manager, Liz Kamlet. It was also her idea for Bishop to record the personal message on THIMK, which also features Webb performing an instrumental piano version of “On and On.” “I wanted to do it for my fans,” Bishop says about the track “A Message From Stephen.” “Hardly anybody ever does that. It was a little different. But I came up with the right things to say.”

The rootsy “Now That I’ve Hit the Big Time,” the first single off THIMK featuring Clapton and Sting, is a tribute to Bishop’s mom originally written in the 1970s. “Sting did a great background vocal, and Eric played great guitar. [Eric and I have] been friends for 50 years now; we wrote a song together called “Holy Mother.” [My mother] used to come visit me up in Hollywood from San Diego. And I wanted to do a song that talked about her and how she was.”

“She’ll Always be My Girl” is a track that Bishop first developed in the 1980s, but never came to fruition until the pandemic. “I got together with a fellow named James Bourne, who’s in the group Busted. We wound up writing it together. I thought it came out really good. And then Graham Nash sang great harmony on it.”

Among the songs that Bishop revisited for THIMK is the gentle “Only the Heart Within You” from his 1978 album Bish. It features Art Garfunkel (who appeared on the original recording) and Leah Kunkel, who died last year. “She was really important in my career, too, because she’s the one who got my stuff to Art Garfunkel,” Bishop says. “And then he recorded two of my songs and got me noticed back then. That really came in handy. She was very important in my life.”

Other tracks that Bishop reinterpreted for the new album are “One More Night,” which originally appeared on his 1976 debut Careless; the new version has Michael McDonald and David Pack on backing vocals and Nic Collins on drums. Another song that Bishop revisited is the sublime romantic ballad “It Might Be You,” which he previously recorded for the 1982 movie Tootsie. This new unplugged version of “It Might Be You” features Bishop and the song’s co-composer Dave Grusin on piano. “He’s 91 years old now,” Bishop says of Gruisin. “And he’s so great. He’s an amazing guy.”

Even with the end of touring and now recording for him, Bishop hasn’t completely ruled out performing live occasionally. “For the most part, I have arthritis in my hands, [which] developed through the years. That, unfortunately, prevents me from playing. But I did play on this album.”

Aside from keeping himself busy with making the new album, Bishop recently penned his memoir On and Off, spotlighting his decades in music that began 50 years ago with the Careless album, which yielded the hits “On and On” and “Save It for a Rainy Day.”

“On and On” — “I sat there in my little Silver Lake apartment and wrote that song,” he recalls. “I didn’t think it would be the single. I never thought it would be the single on my first album, but it got so much play that it just was overwhelming. And I wound up putting it out as a single. And it turned into a hit, which surprised me.

“Save It for a Rainy Day”— I was lucky to have Chaka Khan sing background harmony and sing that great ending part. And then, of course, I had Eric Clapton on the solo. That’s when he came to visit me in the studio when I was recording with Henry Lewy. And we got a little amp for him, and he had his guitar, and he just put down a great lead solo.”

Aside from Clapton, Bishop forged a fruitful friendship and musical relationship with Phil Collins, who, along with Marilyn Martin, recorded Bishop’s ballad “Separate Lives” for the 1985 movie White Nights. “Taylor Hackford [the film’s director] and I got together, and he described to me what he wanted in the scene. And so I came up with a song,” Bishop says of “Separate Lives.” “It really came out great. I was really happy with it.

Collins also produced, sang and drummed on Bishop’s song “Walking on Air” from 1989’s Bowling in Paris album. “I actually met him at Eric Clapton’s house. Pattie [Boyd, Eric’s then-wife] introduced me to him. Back then, he had a big beard. It looked almost unrecognizable. It was just great to get to know him. And we became fast friends.”

Bishop’s foray into movie soundtrack work, which included the aforementioned Tootsie and White Nights, could be traced to his involvement in the 1978 classic film comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House, for which he not only recorded the movie’s title song, but also appeared in it as a singing guitar player. “I was friends back then with John Landis, the director,” he says. “And he wanted to put me in the movie. I also wrote a song called “Dream Girl” or the movie that was in there. And I wrote the “Animal House” song from the script, and I wound up being in a scene.”

In that scene, Bishop’s character’s guitar is smashed by John Belushi’s character Bluto Blutarsky. “I was really surprised that that happened…I still have that [smashed] guitar. I had the whole cast sign it.”

Now with his last album under his belt, Bishop says that he still plans to do songwriting, adding: “I have a music venue that I want to do at some point called Bish’s Hideaway, where I have people come by and sing in Colorado.”

“Stephen lived in L.A. for 47 years,” Kamlet adds. “And we moved to a town right near Aspen. There are no venues. And so we’re going to hopefully try and set it up in a year or two after the baby gets walking.”

As for any highlights or regrets that he has from his long career as a singer-songwriter, he says: “I still haven’t won a Grammy yet. I think I’ve done everything. I’ve done the Oscars twice. I was a presenter at the Grammys with Minnie Riperton, which was cool. I’ve done a lot of stuff. I’ve had a lot of movie themes. I’d still like to do something in the movies. That’d be nice.”