SAN DIEGO — How surprised is 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Colin Blunstone to still be recording and touring, let alone without the Zombies, the chart-topping English rock band he joined in 1961 when he was all of 14?

“I wasn’t aware you could have a lifetime in the music industry as a performer,” said the veteran singer-songwriter, whose 2025 California double-bill concert tour with Al Stewart opens Tuesday in Escondido.

“I think most people — including the members of the Beatles and Stones — initially thought it would last two or three years, and I was no different,” he continued. “I thought it would be a wonderful adventure, touring the world, and then I’d get back to my real life. Now, I know that you can have a lifetime career in music because I have that. I’ve been a professional musician since 1964.”

As part of the same musical British Invasion that catapulted the Beatles, Stones, Animals, Herman’s Hermits and other English bands to fame, if not fortune, in the U.S. some 61 years ago, the Zombies surged — at least for a while.

“Once the Beatles opened the door, it was a whole new world and it was incredible,” Blunstone recalled. “You suddenly realized that you could have an audience on a global level. Quite a while later, I realized you could have a career that could last many years. And it all began in 1964.”

That was indeed a momentous year for the Zombies, which started out playing classic American blues and soul before turning to pop, rock and writing its own songs.

The band’s breakthrough hit, 1964’s “She’s Not There,” rose to No. 12 in the U.K. and No. 2 in the U.S. It established the group as a distinctive musical force, thanks to Blunstone’s luminous singing, Rod Argent’s simultaneously baroque and jazzy keyboard work, and the band’s command of grace and melancholy — qualities rarely heard at the time from young acts on either side of the Atlantic.

Some of the same qualities suffused the Zombies’ two other biggest hits, 1965’s “Tell Her No” and 1968’s “Time of the Season,” both of which have since been showcased in numerous film and TV soundtracks. The latter song came out a year after the band had split up, discouraged by its lack of success despite widespread acclaim from fellow musicians and critics alike.

The song “Time of the Season” is featured on “Odessey and Oracle.” It also includes the song “This Will Be Our Year,” which has been prominently featured in the TV shows “Mad Men,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Schitt’s Creek.”

Alas, “Odessey" was widely ignored at the time. It has since come to be regarded as a classic that ranks alongside the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds,” the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and Pink Floyd’s “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” as one of the standout albums of the 1960s.

Day job, solo career

“We didn’t realize until after we’d split up that ‘Time of the Season’ had become a big hit,” Blunstone said. “We knew about the U.K. and U.S. record charts, but we didn’t know there was a big market for us in Japan, the Philippines, and even certain parts of Europe. We perceived ourselves as unsuccessful and felt that we’d done as much as we could. The fact we didn’t sound like anyone else ended up working against us.”

After an unhappy spell working a day job in London, Blunstone launched his solo career with a pair of sublime albums of his own. While 1971’s “One Year” and 1972’s “Ennismore” had little impact in the U.S., they were critical and commercial successes in Europe. Both were co-produced by his former Zombies’ bandmates, Argent and Chris White.

Blunstone made four more solo albums in the 1970s and now has 10 to his credit. In 1978, he began an extended stint as a featured vocalist on albums by the Alan Parsons Project. His upcoming California concert trek will mix favorites by the Zombies with songs from Blunstone’s solo albums and from his tenure with Parsons.

A singer for all seasons, Blunstone has also performed on albums by an array of disparate artists. They range from former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and the American country-pop band Exile to Celtic music standout Mae McKenna and ex-Jethro Tull/Black Sabbath keyboardist Don Airey.

Blunstone and Argent reunited on stage at a 2001 benefit concert in Milton Keynes, England. Three years later, they released the first new Zombies album in 37 years, “As Far As I Can See…”

“We had no intention of calling ourselves the Zombies, but we put together a great (new) band,” Argent explained in a San Diego Union-Tribune interview in 2004. “And it just so happened that so many things were replicated from the old days, within the context of having a great live band. Then, I started writing a series of songs specifically with Colin’s voice in mind, just as I had in the old days.

“We could hear a continuity with the past. It felt like a real group, with some of the harmonies and turns of melodies and chord changes we’d used before, not something contrived. For the first time, it felt honest to use the (Zombies) name again. If I thought the only thing we were doing was retracing our steps, I would have hated to do this. But I’m excited to have the chance to write new material for Colin’s voice, which gives me more pleasure than anything else.”

Three more albums by the Zombies followed, most recently 2023’s “Different Game,” and the band’s latest tour concluded last June. Argent suffered a stroke the following month, shortly after celebrating his 79th birthday with his wife. He is now retired from touring but is playing and writing new music in his home studio.

“I would imagine we would record again, as the Zombies. And it will be with the current lineup, with Rod and myself,” Blunstone said.

The soft-spoken singer spoke at length with the San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this month from his rural home in Surrey, England, about 29 miles outside London. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: We last spoke in 2014, the same year the Zombies were first nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. You told me at the time: “I know we didn’t get inducted in the end, but we were all really thrilled and excited just to be nominated.” How much more exciting was it to get inducted in 2019?

A: It was incredible! Being nominated came out of the blue; I had no idea that was going to happen. So, what I told you then was really true — we didn’t get inducted but were thrilled to be nominated. Getting inducted was a magical event for us. It was at the Barclay Center in New York, in front of 1,7000 people, alongside Radiohead, Stevie Nicks, Roxy Music, the Cure, Janet Jackson and Def Leppard.

It was a breathtakingly great evening and you realize your career has been appreciated and noted. It’s a wonderful experience to get that recognition after such a long time in the music business. It does seem to be a validation. You start to think: “I actually do have a value, and people have appreciated us.” And that is a great feeling.

Q: On Feb. 25, you and Al Stewart are opening your joint tour of California in Escondido. How far back do the two of you go?

A: To the early 1970s. We were both on CBS Records in England, and we met doing joint promotions for our early solo albums. We realized we lived quite close to one another and then we’d meet from time to time, away from the business. We’ve since often met on music cruises, especially the Moody Blues’ “Beyond The Blues” cruises, which The Zombies have done many times. We talk about the old days. And Al is a wonderful authority on wine. He’s built up a second career in the wine industry.

Q: Might the two of you do a song together on your upcoming tour?

A: We haven’t talked about it so far. It might depend on how much wine we’ve drunk!

Q: If Rod Argent had not had a stroke last summer, would this upcoming tour have been a Zombies’ tour, or a solo tour by you?

A: Well, it would have been a Zombies tour. I’m doing a “Rock Legends” cruise before I fly to California. The Zombies were booked for the cruise, so I’ve taken their slot on the cruise. Obviously, it’s incredibly sad Rod had a stroke. But before that happened, he said he wanted to slow down touring. He didn’t want to do any more long-distance touring because he found the jet lag and time-zone differences really challenging.

Q: What do you see ahead for the Zombies?

A: It’s difficult to say what will happen in the future. I think the Zombies would have started slowing down and possibly have come to a stop by the end of next year. Of course, all that changed after Rod had the stroke and wisely made the decision to not tour anymore. As far as I know, that’s how it stands. In a way I’m now finding my feet; I’m discovering if there’s an interest in my solo work around the world.

Because for most of my career, the emphasis has been on the Zombies. I did have solo success in the U.K. and Europe, but that was many years ago. And for the past 21 years, I’ve been touring with the Zombies. So, it will be very interesting to see what kind of solo career there is for me now. It’s a little scary, but also exciting. In the spring, I’m doing concerts in Germany and Holland. After that I don’t have any dates until August, so I’ll get time to do some writing and recording. I hope to have a new album of my own done by the end of the year.

Q: How is Rod?

A: He’s doing really well. He’s writing and practicing, and he definitely wants to keep recording and keep writing new music. I see him all the time. He lives quite close to me and our families have dinner together on weekends. When I come back from this tour, we need to discuss when we’ll record, and what. We need to make plans, get the ball rolling and see what we can come up with. Rod has a wonderful studio in his house, so we’ll record there.

Q: Your singing with the Zombies put you on the map, and kept you there. Am I correct you were not the band’s original lead vocalist?

A: Yes. I was the original rhythm guitarist in the Zombies and Rod was the lead singer, at least until the end of the first rehearsal! After I heard him play piano, I said: “Rod, you have to be the keyboardist.” He was very reluctant, because he saw a rock band as being guitar-driven. It’s funny, because from that point on we were always a keyboard-led band, A little later, he heard me singing and said: “You know, you should be the singer.”

The band was Rod’s idea and he got two guys from his school to be in it. It was so causal and left to chance. I can’t believe this is how a 60-plus-year career began. So much of the Zombies was just a matter of chance. Maybe that’s true of all bands. Rod wanted a band because his cousin, (bassist) Jim Rodford, was in a big local band, the Bluetones. And Jim ended up being in the Zombies from the time we reunited in 2004 until he died in 2018.

Q: Until the progressive-rock era started in the late 1960s, there were very few bands in England that were led by a keyboardist apart from the Zombies and Brian Auger & the Trinity.

A: For the first few years, Rod played upright piano at our shows and we would just put a little microphone inside the piano. Rod used to do these (intense) Jerry Lee Lewis things on the piano with his thumbs coming all the way down the keyboard, and he had to hammer the keyboard really hard. This sounds a but gory, but I would gauge how well the band had done each night by how much blood was coming out of Rod’s thumbs.

Q: Ouch.

A: Three or four years after the Zombies started, Rod got a Hohner electric piano and we recorded “She’s Not There.” The instrument had a great sound but was a little unpredictable. In very hot nightclubs, it would get a bit damp from all the condensation in the room, and then it wouldn’t play anymore. So, Rob would have to stop, take the top off — he’d have a hairdryer with him — and dry the electric piano to get it to play!

Q: Did he ever do a hairdryer solo?

A: (laughs) Perhaps we should reintroduce it now. We could give people haircuts during intermission, with a hair wash and blow dry!

Q: When the Zombies broke up in late 1967, you took a day job.

A: I was so disappointed that I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in the music business. I called an employment agency, and asked: “Do you have any jobs?” I took one in commerce.

Q: Commerce?

A: I was going to try and talk around that. It was at a really large insurance company. People have asked me: “Did you sell insurance?” But you have to know something before you can sell it, and I knew nothing at all. I was on the phone at the office all day, bluffing as best I could. I didn’t go into that job as an avocation, because I wasn’t sure what the future held for me. I was there for nine or 10 months before I started recording again and began my solo career.

Q: Last April you released a five-song EP, “Less Is More.” It’s a very spare recording, just you singing and playing acoustic guitar. Is that how you wrote the songs for your first solo album, more than 50 years ago?

A: Some of the songs, yeah. It’s a very interesting and basic way of doing things, and tells you a lot about songs. If it sounds strong in a very simple form, it’s a good song. Because you’re not getting seduced by the sound of the production and the performances; you’re listening to the bare bones of the song.

Q: One of the standout songs on your EP is “The Sun Will Rise Again.” Its construction makes it sound like — with a minor tweak or two — it could be a full-fledged bossa-nova. Are you a fan of Brazilian music?

A: Yes. I think a lot of my songs are bossa-novas. It’s a favorite of mine. I fondly remember (Brazilian guitar legend) Baden Powell. I’m not sure I’m a good enough guitarist to play bossa-novas well.

Q: Your current band features two members of the Zombies, drummer Steve Rodford — who is Jim Rodford’s son — and guitarist Soren Koch, and two members of the Strawbs, keyboardist Dave Bainbridge and bassist Chas Cronk. What qualities do you look for in bandmates as players and as people?

A: You look for wonderful musicians who are also great blokes. Because when you are traveling on tour, you are in each other’s pockets.

Q: When Ringo Starr was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, he told the audience: “When you’re (in a band) in a van, and you fart, own up.”

A: (laughs) That’s very good advice. I have memories of that when (the Zombies) were in a van, and it is very important that you own up. Also, if we are going to talk on this subject, you can definitely light a fart. It’s very impressive and I’ve seen it done. You have to be careful, because you can burn yourself. I have to stress that this was many, many years ago.

Q: Did the Zombies ever throw TVs out of hotel room windows, like Keith Moon of the Who liked to do?

A: I don’t remember throwing TVs out of windows. The Zombies were very studious guys and never got into any trouble. I do remember the ’70s were very much wilder and raucous. The ’60s were a relatively naive time for us … Perhaps when I hang up my guitar, it will be time for new adventures.

Q: Do you have any intention of hanging your guitar up any time soon?

Q: No. The way I have always thought about it is that I love to write songs, record and tour. And while my voice is strong enough, I’d like to keep going. I’ve had this conversation with my daughter many times. It’s important for any artist to be honest with themselves. I would imagine most people’s voices deteriorate as they get older. Mine is as strong as it ever was. But I promised myself that, if it deteriorates, I’ll be honest and start to slow down. At the moment, it’s doing fine.

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