Steve Miller thought his career was over when he released this legendary hit

Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of the Steve Miller Band, you probably can at least Hum along to his 1973 hit single “The Joker.” I’m a joker, I’m a smoker, I’m a midnight smoker has become one of the most sing-along hooks in classic rock history. But at the time, it was a throwaway song on the final album of Miller’s seven-year contract with Capitol.

In fact, Miller wasn’t convinced the song would be a hit. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if he would have a career until 1974. Luckily, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Steve Miller thought his career was over

While we often associate the Steve Miller Band with their golden years in the 1970s, Miller and his group of backing instrumentalists had been making a name for themselves since 1966. They gained respect from their musical peers (at least aside from Miles Davis) and even landed a spot as Chuck Berry’s backing band for a performance at the Fillmore Auditorium.

But commercially, the Steve Miller Band struggled to gain any significant traction. The rock band signed a seven-year contract with Capitol Records, under which they released six albums: Children of the future, sailor, Brave new world, Your saving grace, Number 5And Remember the beginning… A Journey from Eden. Occasionally it happened that a single track on one of the records took off before fizzling out again.

Simply put, it’s been a tough six years for Steve Miller and his bandmates. As they began work on their seventh and final album for Capitol, Miller became disillusioned and convinced he should give up entirely. “I thought I would have all these resources,” he admitted to AXS TV’s Dan Rather. “I ended up in this pool of 200 artists all fighting for the same resources. There was [only] There was so much to do and we were at the bottom of that list.”

The frontman fought with the label for the future hit

As Steve Miller explained in his AXS TV interview, he was at odds with Capitol Records for most of his seven-year label contract. He noticed that whenever he toured, only a small portion of the cities he and his band visited sold Steve Miller Band records in local vinyl stores. “We were always at war with Capitol Records,” Miller recalls. “Every band goes through that.”

But it wouldn’t be long before Miller would prove himself And his label that he wasn’t just any band. While listening to his seventh and final record, which included “The Joker,” with label executives, someone pointed out that the laid-back track could be a potential hit single. “I said, ‘Look, buddy, I’m not interested in hit singles anymore,'” Miller recalled.

Miller said he told the label, “I’m going out. Here is the list of 60 cities I will visit in the next 75 days. I want you to have albums in the stores where I play. Got it? I left kind of upset.” The musician said he thought it was the last album he would ever record and so didn’t mind building a bridge or two. “I thought my career was over. I thought that was pretty much it.”

He realized how wrong he was when he was driving to a show at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California, and heard “The Joker” playing on four radio stations simultaneously. The iconic hit topped the charts in the US, UK, Ireland, New Zealand and several other countries. It was also certified five-times platinum in the US – not bad for a joker, smoker and midnight drinker whose musical career was almost over.

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