Behind the scenes with P.F. Sloan

Music | May 9th, 2015

Songwriter behind the number one hit “Eve of Destruction” to perform in Fargo

It all started with a guitar lesson from Elvis Presley in 1958. Songwriter P.F. Sloan, who will perform in Fargo for the first time on May 16, was just 12 years old at the time.

“He showed me the chords to ‘Love Me Tender’ and talked to me for about 30 minutes about life and what love is and what are the important things in life,” Sloan remembered. “Basically, it was the closest I had come to meeting god.”

Certainly, that moment inspired Sloan, 69, to pursue music. To this day, the singer-songwriter has written hundreds of songs and at least 20 of them became “US Hot 100” hits, including “You Baby,” “Eve of Destruction” and “Secret Agent Man.” He wrote many of them while he was still a teenager.

Then why doesn’t P.F. Sloan’s name sound very familiar?

Because The Mamas and The Papas, The Turtles and Johnny Rivers, among others. That’s why. A number of Sloan’s songs were branded by these more household names, whose voices, faces and styles were deemed better for performance by record labels.

“I had difficulty with that, but over the years I realized that I was really blessed not to have to go out on the road and encounter a really difficult life,” Sloan said.

The songwriter said he was heavily influenced by all the great music happening around him when he first started learning.

“It’s sort of like runners at the 100 yard dash. If the person running next to you is running faster, you run faster,” he said.

“Maybe it was growing up at 13 or 14, at the beginning of all this rock and roll music,” he said. “Maybe it was hearing Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, hearing all those people, hearing the way they defined their feelings in a song. We didn’t know that they didn’t write it. We just knew that the songwriting itself was so defined.”

Not only was he influenced by these famous artists, but he also worked directly with some of them.

“I happened to help The Beatles get their first record contract, the same with The Rolling Stones,” Sloan said, adding that it was more of a natural fit for him to be behind the scenes.

Good songwriting, he says, comes to fruition when the artist shares his or her gifts in the most meaningful way possible. He knows a song is good when the music has a certain positive effect on the listener.

“It’s all the way from being thrilled to what you hear or being swept away in emotion or you nod your head in agreement saying, ‘that’s the way I feel,’” Sloan said.

His show next Saturday at the Avalon West will be the venue’s first concert since the closing of The Venue at The Hub. Sloan will perform solo, supporting the release of his memoir, “What’s Exactly The Matter With Me,” and a new album.