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Ed O'Brien on wanting to quit Radiohead when his daughter was born
Ed O'Brien says that when his children were small he did not want to be in Radiohead any more. In an interview with Sherna Noah of the Press Association, he says it came to a head in 2006, when his daughter Oona, his second child, was born around the time of a six-week American tour.
I was like, 'I don't think I can do this anymore. I don't want to do it anymore anyway'.
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His role models were two musicians with families, Johnny Marr and Neil Finn of Crowded House. Both told him that when he was with his family he should really be there.
Neil said, 'When your kids are 14 or 15, they're not going to thank you if you leave Radiohead to bring them up. They'll be like, 'What the f*** are you doing?'
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His wife, Susan Kobrin, told him she did not want him to leave either. O'Brien grew up with his mother and sister in a split family, and keeping his own family together has always mattered most to him. Caring for someone else's emotional needs is harder than going out to work, he says.
Motherhood is the most taken-for-granted job on the whole planet and most men have no idea.
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The interview was pegged to his signature Sustainer Stratocaster with Fender, a guitar he decided to make after waking one morning convinced it had to exist. In the new year he is back in the studio for his first record outside Radiohead, inspired by the year his family spent living in Brazil.
He spoke as Ontario's coroner announced an inquest into the death of Scott Johnson, the band's drum technician, killed when the stage collapsed in Toronto in 2012. O'Brien calls the delay disgraceful and says Johnson's parents need answers.
We're not going to let this go away. You want to make sure that somebody is answerable to what happened.
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