Bobby Gillespie: 'Alex Chilton's Music Was As Good As The Beatles'

Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie has paid homage to the late Alex Chilton saying his musical output was "as good The Byrds or The Beatles."

The Big Star and The Box Tops singer died in New Orleans yesterday (March 17) after suffering heart problems. He was 59.

Gillespie is an outspoken admirer of Chilton's work and today told BBC 6 Music he was a "genius of rock 'n' roll".

“When we started Primal Scream, Alex was a huge influence on us, and he still is,” Gillespie said.  “Even if he’d only ever produced the first Cramps album he’d still be one of my rock n roll heroes. But he did a lot more than that.

"He just made so many great records, and they were crazy rock ‘n’ roll records. But they were also art records and beautiful records, mournful records, sad records, joyous records. What I’m trying to say is that Alex Chilton was one of the greats."

Gillespie went on to explain that Primal Scream went to Arden Studios in Memphis, Tennessee to record their early material purely on the basis that Chilton and Big Star had recorded there.

"We made records there because of Alex Chilton and Big Star," Gillespie continued to the station. "Get Your Rocks Off was recorded at Arden.

"It was like a pilgrimage to go there and record in the same studio that Alex Chilton and Big Star had made Sister Lovers with Jim Dickinson, which was a huge inspiration to Primal Scream when we started."

Unlike The Beatles and The Byrds, Gillespie added that Chilton never got the mainstream acceptance he so deserved.

"He never did, and he never would, because guys like Alex Chilton are too far out, they’re too hip, too advanced for most people to recognise,” he said.

"I think he made far out rock 'n' roll records – real mad crazy art punk rock 'n' roll."