Pino Palladino

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Are we
rolling one time for Doyling? Make sure all the pizza
is eating? Here we go, Let's do it. Cream shut.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Supremo Suprima, su Supremo, Supremo, Sir, Supremo, Supremo, sup Supremo.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hold hold up, hold up, hold up. Yeah, y'all should
see my face. Yeah, interfears woman and change. Yeah, that's
you on base.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Supremo. A lot of sun sun Sure.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
My name is Sponte. Yeah, and I ain't got no veno,
but I'm chilling you today. Yeah. My main man Pinos Suprema.
My name is Sugar.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
My core beliefs yeah, Peace love and chicken grease.

Speaker 5 (01:16):
So Supremo, roll called Suprema son Son Supremo.

Speaker 6 (01:21):
Roll called I'm unpaid Bill. Yeah, that's what we know. Yeah,
you take your Jamerson, Yeah, I take my Pino.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Suprema.

Speaker 7 (01:38):
It's why you know where finally got what rhymes with that?
You know why you're doing this to me? Goddamn, he ain't.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
No Suprema Supremo. Yeah, my name is Pino. Yeah, I
couldn't rhyme the same my life.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, he's.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Wait.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Roll Supprima shut Supreme. Wait a minute, wait a minute again,
I gotta go twice. Yeah, that's you on bass and
another day in Paradise.

Speaker 5 (02:27):
Supremo ro supprima supprimo roll call, subpremo, subpremo roll.

Speaker 8 (02:38):
This is gonna be that Chris Farley episode. Remember that
time he played bass on this ship.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, okay, y'all, this is Questlow Supreme, that's Fante, that's Steve,
that's I'm big billed. That's why I'm trying to slow
the theme down for you. See, you have more time
to think and change your run. Right, No, no, no,
you know, I mean now, you know, just ride the rhythm. Okay,
you're right. I'm trying to help because I was told
I don't support you enough on the show, and I

(03:01):
want and that's how you're gonna do it. Yeah, I
was slowing the music down so you have more time
to think about your mind. But and I did it,
and you you tipped the ball in, you won the champion. Okay,
all right, now you finished. Now, Yeah it's like something
like that. Okay, well, halopeno, good.

Speaker 9 (03:26):
Cappuccino.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Wait a minute. If you do a gospel record, you
could call it a hollow Nobody like that, yeah, totally,
you call your host. This is probably gonna be the
shortest introduction ever, Ladies and gentlemen. If I only had

(03:54):
one person to choose to play bass with for the
rest of my I would choose our guest, Pino Palladino.
Because the real truth is something told me to just
go to Spotify real quick and see, like, you know,

(04:16):
because they'll always make like a playlist or whatever and
things you played on or whatever. And I thought, normally,
like my thing ends at like at least like seventy
four songs. Maybe Yo, dude, you've played on like five
hundred and ten songs, and yo, like, I thought you

(04:39):
were just my secret, super secret.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Dog Like, I didn't realize you're playing base on all
good for Daylight Soul. Now do kind of remember that?
I believe the day that I was supposed to fix
whatever song I forget the name of the song I'm
supposed to fix for them on that album, but you
came in before to play.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, you know what happened. We were in Electric Lady,
me and you and right. It was the day we finished.
You got a call, right, and you're like, yeah, he's here,
and You're like what are you doing, Like now, can
you go over to De La Soul Studio and play
on this song? So right, that's how that came about.
So thank you.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah that was I forgot about that. But I'm literally
going through this thing and even with stuff that I
should know, Like, I didn't realize that was you. On
times of wasting. I had on times of wasting a
little bit because I feel like that's other side of
the game, diet, the other side of the game without
me Erica James. You know, I'm not salty, but people

(05:45):
love that song. All right, we got a limited time
with you. Brot's just let's just go. First of all, Okay,
where are you from?

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Okay? So I was born in Cardiff and Wales, Okay,
to an Italian father Welsh mother. Spent most of my
youth in Cardiff. Moved to London nineteen eighty one and
lived there until twenty sixteen when I moved to la
That's a real.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Brief really, all right. So then day two just became
Funky's motherfucker right there.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
So yeah, in Cardiff where I grew up, you know,
I hit a lot of different music. Down the docks
area of Cardiff, there were a lot of a lot
of soul music, a lot of African music, stuff like that, reggae.
So I grew up listening to a lot of that music,
and when I moved to London in the early eighties,
I didn't really get to play that music. I was

(06:43):
playing fretless space and it became a thing, and I
played on a whole bunch of pop records and different
artists were calling me for that sound. So move on
to like nineteen ninety seven, when I met Dee and you.
That was the first time where I really got to
express that side of you know, that that roots bass

(07:05):
playing thing.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, I know that here at iHeart, we're all out
like ten seconds of music. So just to let the
world know. The song that really set it up that
I soon set it off for you and your reputation
for bass playing was, of course, uh Lady Ray by Christoper.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Well there's one before that, never mind Okay, yeah, sorry, bro,
I have to say Paul Young Wherever Lay in My Hat,
which is a Marvin Gaye cover. It's a B side
of a mind gay So I know we rearranged and
it had like a fretless intro and it was mainly
like fretless bass and voice penal wife fretless. That's a
good question, thank you. Well, yeah, Jacko, Jacko past stories obviously.

(07:48):
But but even before Jacko, when I was a kid,
I went to a concert and saw John Martin, who's
a great folk guitarist songwriter back in back in the UK,
and Danny Thompson was playing upright bass with him, and
that sound really did something for me when I was
when I was a kid, and that was like the
slidy stuff to harmonics, you know, that sort of fretless

(08:09):
approach that Jacko also had. So is this you yeah,
every time you go away?

Speaker 8 (08:23):
Yeah, right all day.

Speaker 10 (08:28):
I can see why you were so happy to play
old Bodo.

Speaker 7 (08:31):
It's still a classic.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
No, I can't find Paul Young and I'm going to
tear your down and all that stuff. In high school
like were you in a high school band? Like what
was your teen years? Like? Playbass?

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah, I didn't really play guitar until I was like fourteen,
I guess. And I came to it from before bass.
I played like Spanish guitar, and I came to it
because I went to a Catholic school and we had
a priest there that would give like lessons so that
you could play like cowboy chords type of stuff, you know,
in folk masses. So I kind of started playing in

(09:09):
church church.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Everybody.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I was waiting for that.

Speaker 8 (09:17):
Black church, all church.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
All right, I get it now.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
But we didn't have much of a music of course,
a music type of thing in the schools I was
in in that in those times. So it's really more
about sports for me. When I was a teen, I
wasn't really that interested in music till I reached like
sixteen maybe.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
So did you always know that the less is more
approach is the way to go. There's a moment where
I lived for every night, every night whenever we would
get to left and right, and I'm speaking of our
our time served on the Voodoo toward D'Angelo, and you

(09:57):
know that was every night was like a two hour
and fifteen minute experience or you know, no, indeed, sometimes
sometimes three autum right right right. But when the song
is over and we go back to that bridge right
before the very end, that's when I learned that when

(10:18):
you don't play nothing, that's almost as effective as if
you know the bass player. That's like, I gotta get
my best flee thing on and do the best and
impress people. So you would actually you would play the
groove and then come back in and I don't know, like,
I was just like, wait, why does that excite me?
Why is not playing some excite me more? So suddenly

(10:41):
I was like, what happens if I just take the
kick dromount for two bars and see what happens? And
then when it comes back in, it's almost like I
came back even more branded and I started doing that
trick and people, you know, like what you know, musicians
like the highest honor is the post still a who?
Like that woo who? Indeed, And that's a trick I

(11:02):
stole from you, which is like when I don't do
something and pay take it away and then bring it
back dynamics. Man, it's even better. So how did you
learn he just forgot the notes and just.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well, you know, it comes from Okay, if I think
about that, it probably comes from like playing sessions for
reggae guys back in the day, because you know, there,
I don't know the names of these guys I was
playing with. Because I was a young bass player, I
was listening to a lot of fusion stuff. So I
want to play a lot of notes, right, so you
did want to hell yeah, okay, yeah, but then these

(11:39):
guys would just like tap out the rhythm of the
baseline on my shoulder in the studio like doo doo,
doo doo doo.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Nothing, you know.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
And that told me about space and if you want
to get into it. I mean, you got controls of
the notes and the length of the notes, but you
also have control of the spaces, right, And that's that's
where the one for me.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Is louder for the people in the back. Man, Yeah,
I would love nothing more than for every musician to
just lay back and do do less.

Speaker 6 (12:11):
But you know, well yeah, but that being said, Pano,
do you ever want to put together a jazz fusion
band where you just fucking kick ass?

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Oh I've done that too, yeah yeah, yeah, even play.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Even the night that we wanted to go see you
with Chris, like I've never seen you in that environment.
I was wondering, like, well, is Pinal going to be
the piano that I know the piano to be or
is he going to like flex a little bit? And
you like, if you can hang with Chris David, then
you can hang with anyone anything, any you know, So
how old were you when you officially changed over to.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Playing bass to bass seventeen?

Speaker 1 (12:47):
How weird of adjustment is that? Is it transferable?

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah? For sure? Yeah. I mean I was playing guitar
in a local rock band and we had a bass player,
and you know, I kept on picking up the bay
and like working out the lines for him to play.
Not a good ear from very early on. And the
more I play bass and more it's like I want
to do this, this is more fun.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
So like for me, the drums aren't the focus point.
You're just the traffic cop as the drum, And like
I'm supposed to be married to the bass player, and
you taught me that it's a marriage right and not
for nothing without being disrespectful to my entire history. But
sometimes it's like if you don't have a good marriage
air quotes yes with the rhythm section, which is the

(13:32):
drum and bass, then you know your music might be
in trouble. And I've been in a few situations which
you don't vibe.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Rhythmically right with you not on the same vocabulary right.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
So for you when you're in an ensemble, and now
like since you're such a god at your craft, I
would at least like to think that musicians respect where
you come from and kind of want to fall in line.
But is it hard to find musicians to come down

(14:05):
to your level and you know, to the end. I
don't mean the abyss as in like the bottom is
a bad place, but like that zone where you are
where you do just very little and you do just
the right things, and for them not to overplay or
over do.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
It's a good question to me, and I think it
can be really frustrating sometimes when you know how something
could sound if if they were just like monor adjustments.
But in my experience, it never really helps to try
and tell somebody that they have to come to it.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
I was gonna say, are you allowed to tell the person?

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah? It usually doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Doesn't work out now, it doesn't work out now. As
a drummer, I've learned ways where I can force people
to see things my way. I've learned like a loud
flam and suddenly everyone's.

Speaker 9 (14:47):
Like right, they stop playing, or if you docket their
pay they'll notice that all work every time.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, but I mean there's you know, and I'll slow
it down or whatever I mean. But now just communication
mic so it's you know, I'll just say stop playing,
you know, But is there a way that you talk
to other instruments to hm reel them back or if
you hear wrong note the keyboard's playing, you sort of not.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
Really in terms of how many. In terms of rhythm,
that's that's my thing, you know, rhythm. I'm hot on
that ship. That's why we hit it off so much.
But you know what you said about maybe the drums
aren't the driving force behind the band. I think in
beat driven music for me, like if I'm gonna produce
something or put a band together, the first thing I
think about is the drums. You know, get that right

(15:38):
and then everything's gonna fit in. So I think rhythmically, yes,
sometimes if I feel like somebody's hanging back on the
drums are slowing down, I'll push a little bit. But
I don't have any kind of communication things like you said,
a loud flam that would stop everyone playing or stuff
like that.

Speaker 6 (15:55):
But you both are notorious like these from what I
hear in playing on the back side of the beat
all the time, and that's sort of the angelo where
it lives. So like when you go to a different
band where it's more like whether it's on a click
or it's something like that or what was it like?

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah the Who?

Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, yeah like that that ship would not work with
the Who.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
So you got to give what's called for.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, totally, And you know that's what That's what I
love too about playing so many different genres of music.
It's it's like it's all about the relationship with the
bass and the drums, right Like in soul music, black music, generally,
the bass is important with the drums. You know that
that those are the two things that really put the
thing in a place. In rock music, it's more like

(16:41):
guitars and drums, and the bass is you know, it's supportive.
It might be playing some some some licks and stuff,
but mainly the interactions between rock guitar and drums.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
All right, So for every bass player that's listening, that
will kill me if I don't ask the right questions.
What was your first base that you purchased or the
first acts that you endor Precision? Wait, you've always used
a Fender Precision, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
From that was the first act I had, yeah, back
in the nineteen seventy five, I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Okay, So what you're known for, how do you, how
do you get your tone? Like what bass are you using?

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Mostly a Precision base, no more moon, Yeah, the moon
comes in sometimes that's more like a jazz style based,
like a Fender jazz style base.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Here's a weird thing. Okay, So just recently played with
Larry Graham like two months ago. Wow, and he had
not only did he have the moon at a mic. Oh,
he didn't have a mic thing on him that we
were in a studio setting, but I saw blood marks
on it. So yeah, like so he really like gets

(17:48):
into right. But his it was weird to me because
I saw the moon base and I was like, wow,
I wonder like if he has the same tone as Pino,
because you know he was just an acornerly practice and whatever,
and it didn't sound that way. So how do you
what the sound that we know you for? Like which
strings are you using?

Speaker 3 (18:08):
What?

Speaker 1 (18:09):
What are all your secrets even if you were to
give it?

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's public knowledge is out there.
I've done interviews before kidding hearing stuff like that. But yeah,
I mean my Desert Island Basse would be a fan
of Precision Base. It's just got one sound and a tone. Control, right,
just one pickup on a tone. You don't have selection
of different sounds from pickups. It's pretty much one sound.

(18:35):
And I like the sound of flat wine strings on it.
They feel better just physically, they feel better, and the
longer you leave them on, the more warmth the sound
is warm.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
So the older Yeah, I played your base before and
those strings are really really thin, Like you can't things
that I expect. Yeah, like I'm thinking Seinfeld basic.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Absolutely, Yeah, you need luck wild wine strings, round wine
strings for that sound really like Larry Larry sounds, you know.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
So how often do you break a string?

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Never?

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, because you barely touched the string.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, I don't hit the strings out at all. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
So the fender you have, right, I don't know how
many fenders you have on you?

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Look okay, So well let me ask as your life
since Voodoo, has your life changed as far as the
volume of bases that you have.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Or since probably the who yeah? Yeah? With the who
yeah gave me the opportunity to buy stuff in.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
The Voodoo days between two thousand and two thousand and three,
how many bases are you carrying around with you?

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Like? Two? Pretty much? That's what I remember okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
So the strings you had on your Voodoo basse, do
you still have your Voodoo basse?

Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, with the same strings.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Oh yeah, I put those on A ninety three.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Nineteen ninety three. Yeah, and it's always just stayed in
working order.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
And yeah, they sound like I said, they sound warm.
With the longest they kind of settle into the instrument
just to string itself.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Remember what happened to your moon base? Yeah, what happened
that Voodoo base. We're not podcast, we don't get contact.
We just assumed.

Speaker 8 (20:24):
Please continue.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Well, yeah, I was what happened to your black moon base?

Speaker 3 (20:28):
It was actually the So this is weird, but the
moon bases I had two stolen. So the white one
was stolen. The first one I played on Voodoo album
was a white base that was stolen somehow. When I
checked it in in San Francisco Airport and the United flight,
it just didn't come out in l A. And that
was a less sort of it.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Doing the Voodoo tour.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Just before the Voodoo.

Speaker 9 (20:48):
Tour, damn, just before I didn't want to hear the story.

Speaker 6 (20:51):
I'm having ptsdright.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
But but then I had a you know, I had
a well, then I contacted the company and they made
me a new Moon base.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
They're like, yeah, right, Pano, we won't give you one.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, but they said, you know there's a limited run
of the Larry Graham so we we you know, we
can't do you the white one like like Larry Bass.
And I said, okay, we'll make me a black one there.
So that's that's how I got the black Moon Base.
Then that got stolen from a hoo gig in like
two thousand and eight.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
You who keeps stealing piano's basses.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
But there's a good end to this story. It came
back to me, Oh thank you. That was somebody bought
it from a porn store or something and they they
were they were a fan and they've been watching some
videos of us playing Voodoo and they saw the bass
had a couple of knicks out of the neck and
he's like, I think this is Pino's space. And they

(21:46):
reached out to me and I got it back. Incredible, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
My thing is is that the Voodoo fender that should
never leave your house ever again?

Speaker 3 (22:02):
Like yeah, well it's safe, it's safe.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, Like seriously for me, I just got my things
fall apart. Drum set back. Well, no, the studio tried
to auctionit it.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
So are y'all really saying that an instrument you use
an instrument for every project and then we just move on?

Speaker 7 (22:20):
Is that what we're saying?

Speaker 1 (22:20):
You know what? I'm different like that? So start with
fallon every one hundred episodes, I make love Wig, make
me a brand new drum set. It's problematic now for
storage because I have about sixty three drum sets, like
and I'm running out of space, so I got to
stop that. But but for the most part, I've I've

(22:43):
documented every drum set I've played on for records, you know.

Speaker 7 (22:48):
Every record a different set, That's what I'm.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Saying sort of kind of, I mean, but not by design,
like oh for this particular one, I'm to use this
one for this, you know, but I I Yeah, for
roots albums, I will like, hey, let me especially with Phrenology,
which was like, okay, let's make the anti things fall
apart record, Oh, let me try a different drum set.
So that's where that comes into play.

Speaker 9 (23:11):
So since you're divulging some of your technique, so where's
the secret sauce? And I'm thinking gain structure and like,
because you know, a me or how you're always talking
about how the lighter you hit.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
A drum, Yes, the more effective. I just discovered the
lighter you hit that's where the pop comes on.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
The bass, right, because if you hit well, if you
hit any instrument too hot, it's going to choke it, right,
if you the string too hot, it's going to bounce
against the threat and choke the the envelope with the note,
you know. So I mean a light touch it gives
you more bottom man for sure.

Speaker 9 (23:44):
Which is kind of counterintuitive, almost like you would you know,
but that just takes out the bottom nd and the
harmonics or how how.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Do you like?

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Is that part of that?

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Not really? I mean, you know, I love the sound
that James Jamison made on the bass, and that was
the idea back in ninety three. When I got that base,
I immediately put those old heavy cation labella strings on
it and just left them on ever since. You know.
But they don't have any top on them, so if
you play like Jacko style harmonics, you won't get them

(24:18):
out of those flat strings at all. So it's more
about the fundamental sound. And you know, I don't really
have the tone on very much either. The tone is
kind of on half or sometimes less than half, so
it's a real thump.

Speaker 9 (24:30):
Well what about the volume coming like, yeah, how do
you do your game structure until you get to your
amp or whatever?

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah? I mean I just I just literally have the
volume on fall and then it's up to whoever's getting
the sound. What kind of amp? Yeah? Well, B fifteens
are great, right, the MPG B fifteens for studio or
live or yeah, studio, yeah, but live. I mean I
used one on a tour recently. Live because everyone's on
your ears now, so you don't need that big sound

(24:57):
behind you because you can hear it clearly, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Okay, So if I'm learning bass again, I'm using the
opposite of you, bass player, I still respect, but kind
of the opposite Flee.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, yeah, totally.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
What type of strings am I?

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Are?

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Those like heavy duty strings that can take the pounding.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
And not necessarily but he probably uses like a medium
gauge round wild string, I would guess, because then you
get the pop out of it, and the round wild
strings allow you to get that bounce when you hit
it with your thumb.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Now, do you have the ability to go full throttle
pop if you if challenge.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
I mess with a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but no,
that's that's not my bullpark.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Really okay, okay, But if I guess your particular uh,
your particular choice of strings, if you haven't changed them
since nineteen ninety three, and like, what if you run
into a situation like now Ampex tapes are hard to

(26:05):
find right now. I was recording at a time where
the Impact tapes were everywhere. But had I known then
stock up on Ampex tapes, I would have stocked. But
now here we are in twenty twenty three and you
can hardly find them. What if you're in a situation
in which strings that you haven't changed since thirty years ago,
go like, is there a likelihood of this?

Speaker 3 (26:26):
Well, you know, one of them broke on A two
with D actually on twenty fifteen to two with D.
The E string on that on that thing broke and
I put a new version of it on and it
sounded like it wasn't very good at.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
All, So they changed the recipes throughout the.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
Well, no, but those strings just sound different when they
get older. So if you got three strings like thirty
years old and one new one.

Speaker 10 (26:47):
Just the it's the same for microphones really Oh yeah,
Like I bought a annoyman U eighty seven and like
fresh out the box, it sounded very harsh and Brita
and my dealer was telling me. He was like, yeah,
the older, the older mice over time, like you were saying,
they warm up like just that age.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
You know, spits all over them. That's the flavor. Yeah,
you know for real mm hmm. So besides James Jamerson,
is there other unsung heroes that you know you don't
think get enough credit? Bass playing once?

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah? Oh man, absolutely, I mean we know about Stanley Clark,
Jacob Pastoriscus a huge influence. Larry Graham too, now getting
the prophecy deserves, you know. But yeah, for me, like
Michael Henderson is up there, absolutely, man, Michael Henderson.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, I gotta tell our listeners. I believe, yes, this
is definitely Michael interested If you buy the Stevie Wonder
Talk of the Town, Yeah, in London, that's his I
believe that's his word corn on that version of I
Always made the Lover where he's just it's ungodly like

(28:07):
that to me.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
His solo album is like going places. Yes, the base
playing on that, Oh my good so.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
I know why we're laughing.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
I know why we're laughing, but we're not messing around
with that.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
It's good to hear someone speak of places where I praised,
because we have a different places.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
That's a jam though.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
All right. So what was your first gig as a professional,
like your first session gig?

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, okay, yeah. It was at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth
in Wales. Quite a famous studio. A lot of a
lot of great records were done there over the years,
but that was my first session. My friend was playing
keys in the show band. When I say show band,
they would do everything from Glenn Miller to like the
bony Am to whatever pop was in the charts, you know.
Like So they were in the studio for some reason,

(29:00):
I don't know why, and I just went down to
hang and the bass player in the band, you know,
they wanted like some slap and pop bass and the
bass player they had wasn't familiar with that style and
I happened to be there. So my friend told the
musical director and he's like, would you would you try
playing this baseline? So that was the first time I
put a pair of headphones on in the studio and

(29:23):
played with the band, and I just loved it. Man,
I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
How old were you.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Nineteen? Maybe?

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Okay, we we know of you, Okay, I guess Paul
Young was well. Was Dules Holland first?

Speaker 3 (29:36):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah yeah. Jules Holland got me to move
down to London.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
So he offered me, h well, let me explain. Was
Jules was Jules hollend and Squeeze right? He was originally
and Squeeze first career.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yeah, he had just show host.

Speaker 9 (29:50):
Before he had a solo thing with the Millionaires. Yeah,
a Millionaires so and then the talk show came much later,
I think.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
Okay, so what was that experience like playing How long
did you play with him?

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Oh? I would play with Jewels for probably like a year,
eighteen months or something like that.

Speaker 9 (30:07):
There's a great album cover.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah that was fun man, I love those days. It
was fun days. And so playing with Jewels, I was
just playing my friend of base and I went down
to audition in London because sax player in Jules's band,
I knew him in Cardiff and he said, Jewels is
looking for bass player. So I went down to London
and audition, just sat in his room and played with him,

(30:33):
followed the left hand piano thing, you know, the boogie
woogie piano thing, and we hit it off and he said,
you know, why don't you just join the band. I'll
pay you fifty pounds a week and sleep on my couch.
So that's how I moved to London. Years is nineteen
eighty one.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Okay, So was that a good living?

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Oh? Financially yeah, hell no, it was okay, It was okay.
I survived on it.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
I always asked this question. I'd never get like a
satisfactory answer, which, you know, I'm just trying to time
travel and also deal with the inflation part of it all.
Like I want to know in eighty one, in your mind,
what is a good living, like, what would been ideal
for you? Is it five hundred pounds a week?

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Not even like, you know, two hundred that I would
have been happy with two hundred a week back, I
would have thought I was doing really well.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
So what does fifty pounds a week get you in London?
In terms like are you just crashing a room and
a calcul yeah?

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Back, and it was eating yeah pretty much.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
Well.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Jules's mom used to cook for us, bless her that
was nice, but yeah, not a very healthy diet. You know,
pack of the cigarettes, some weed, you know, usual thing.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, as far as touring is concerned, like, you also
had the tour of this unit.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Correct, Yeah, we to oh this year did you say sorry, no,
no no?

Speaker 1 (31:57):
With Jewels?

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Yeah, yeah, we did some touring. That's my first tour
of America actually in New York.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Really.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Yeah. We did a tour of the East coast, just
traveling up and down in Miles Copeland's van. Miles Copeland
was the manager back in Starts, right, yeah, manager of
the police, okay.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Was he also the manager of Jewels?

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Okay, So we did a little touring with that. We
released one record that didn't do too well.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Nice album coming but what yeah exactly.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
But whilst I was in New York, I went into
sam Ash Music on forty eighth Street, where all the
great music stores were back in the day, right, And
I walked in there and I saw this music man
fretless base on the wall. I was like, oh, I
like to try that. So I asked the guy if
I could try it. And I played it and I
could I could play it in tune, you know, it
just it really suited me that base. So I bought

(32:46):
that base there and then and that was the base,
the base that led to all the fretless sessions that
I got to do after that.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
So such an unusual sound than what you were previously
playing on. Was there any convincing Paul Young or Chris?
I always say, Chris de Barge, Christ Chris de Burg
all right, Chris de Burgh, Like was there any or
not even them like their producers or.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
You know how that all came about him? Whilst I
was with Jeweles, I got a call from a friend
of mine, Chris Slade, who was a drummer at the
time with Gary Numo. He went on to play with
ac DC and a whole bunch of stuff and played
with Tom Jones back in the early days. So this
guy done incredible.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Wait, you're trying to tell me the same guy that
played cards with Gary Numan. It was also the guy
that could have been played on It's not unusual.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Not because but the album after that, there's an album
I was involved in called I Assassin by Gary. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
You know what, Here's here's the weird thing. If you
ask Wendy and Lisa about you know, the influential Records,
like it's so weird. They mentioned every album but that,
like they'll mention I Assassin and the one that came out,
like if you listen into that, if you listened to
eighty two record, the album that came after Prince basically
like it's kind of his newest store.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Hesten to that. Yeah, oh that freaks me out. It's amazing. Wow.
So so yeah, this guy Chris Slade, he he phoned
me up whilst I was with Jules On and he said, look,
I'm working with Gary Newman. He's looking for a fretless
bass player. Do you have a fretless And I said, well,
as it happens, I just bought just a few months ago.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
You know.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
He said, well, bring the fretless and and you know,
let's see how it goes. So I went to the
studio met Gary. He had a bunch of tunes like
just drum beats and really minimal kind of keyboard things,
and he just wanted me to do some fretless shit
all over the record. So that album became my calling
card in a way because I got to make up

(34:47):
on my own baselines. People heard that and then yeah,
you know, I got on top of the Pops with Gary,
which is a big thing at the time. And you know,
the sound was pretty fresh because it didn't sound like
Jacko's sound, but he was fretless, probably a cross between
like Jacko and Mick Kahn. You know Mick Kahn from Japan,
the band Japan.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
I'm not familiar with the word.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yeah, So he played fretless bass and he had a
unique style. So I would put myself somewhere in the
middle of that, like with jazz references, but also like
auti style of bass playing.

Speaker 6 (35:19):
Right, you know, how do you approach the construction of
fretless bass lines versus fretted Is it a different approach?

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Do you think about it differently?

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Yeah? Totally in what sense? Well, the way I would
approach it on the fretless bace is more from a
melodic sense, you know, just trying to find melodies because
it's a very expressive instrument.

Speaker 7 (35:37):
Right then, I'm going to try to spell this word
and I'm going to figure out what this means.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
All right here. Right, So, you you've seen a bass
player before, right in terms of like the part that
they play with their left hand. Okay, a fretless bass,
I would say, is the sound of like you know,
the difference between electric what Adam Blackstone plays and in
upright Christian McBride plays, like the jazzier sound. A fretless

(36:04):
can give you the sound of an upright jazz in
my incorrect or.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah yeah, I mean, you don't have any threats, so
you can just slide the notes. You know, it's a
different and it's a different envelope to the note. It's
a different shape.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
It's a lady in red you know.

Speaker 6 (36:18):
So that's the sound of the threadless You don't lady.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, we know your work.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
But now wait, now you got me curious about.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Assassin, right, so like we take Mystery to bed, that's
one of the titles. I remember that.

Speaker 8 (36:38):
Yes, that's a lot of notes. That's like more notes
than usual.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Oh yeah, so let me ask you, do you respect?
And I've just seen them two weeks ago? Do you respect?

Speaker 3 (36:56):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Boy?

Speaker 3 (36:57):
John Taylor?

Speaker 1 (36:57):
John Taylor? Sure man, yo, he was killing all right.
So I saw the Red Rocks. They're on tour with
Mount Rodgers right now. You guys should really see them
like they're they're still on top four. I believe it
feels like some of those songs on the real album
are also fretless.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
I don't think so, but you know, well maybe I'm
not familiar with that album actually, but I think it
was more sonic thing back in the eighties because he
didn't you didn't play bass bass right, It wasn't much
Bottoman based on it, and you would probably play your
bass track in the control room, you know, when everything
else had already been put down. So you're going for
a more kind of you know, a sound that's going

(37:39):
to pop out of the speakers. You don't really have
to support, like play play support bass.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Can you play upright bass?

Speaker 3 (37:47):
No, not at all.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Have you touched it up right base?

Speaker 3 (37:50):
I've touched it. I love it, but I can't play it.
It's a different instrument altogether, really, Yeah, so just gun
to your head, like, oh no, I tried to do
a gig on it and I was My hand was
so painful after like one get you know one song. Really,
it's such a physical it's a different muss. Well, this
is what I play is like a guitar, right, It's
a bass, but it's a bass guitar, so that's a

(38:12):
whole different thing.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, So what steps are in between Newman and Paul
and Chris.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Like Sir Newman. That led to Paul Young in a way,
because you know, Paul and his producers got to hear
those Newman records and imagine that sound on the record
he was making. And then like Dave Gilmour from Pink
Floyd I did his solo record. That was a big,
big one for me, just to get a call from
him and you know, I want you to come and

(38:46):
do this album with me in Paris. I was like,
oh my god, this is it so for you?

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Is Lady in Red sort of like the the world's
wake up call? Like get that guy?

Speaker 3 (38:56):
It might have been bro. I think more of the
poor Young stuff because Chris Chris came to me from
Paul Young, Christal Brook. Yeah, because everyone kind of wanted
that sound for a minute, that fretless sound, so.

Speaker 9 (39:07):
At some point that you say, I don't want to
be pigeonholed into this sound, and uh.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
Much later on, I took it happily for a long time.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
We take fifty dollars a week.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
No, it went for for a good while, Yeah, but
it did get it did get a little tossing, yeah,
after a while, because you know when people want you
to do what you did, not what you're going to do.
It's a different thing. Right.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
That was a freaking gym and a halfway. I gotta
I gotta say that again when people.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
Well, you know, if if somebody calls you to do
a session and you're there because they want you to
do what you've already done, that's different to what you're
going what you could do. You don't get a chance
to do what you're going to do because they already
decided the sort of thing they want.

Speaker 10 (39:50):
Because they're booking you off of password, not where you're
where you may be artistically currently.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Yes, so.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Your life must be hell after voodoo.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Well that that caught some trouble, yeah, but you know
that was the amazing thing about Well I met I
met you and D on the same day, right right, yeah,
on the BB King session. Yes, and I didn't even
know he was coming, you know, no idea. So you
walk in with him and Russ Alvado and I'm like,
what's going on here anyway? Anyway that I lost my
trainers thought there.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
But well, if you're causing problems friendlessly.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
So so you know, as you know, me and D
hit it off from that session. He hear me playing,
He's like, I like that sound. I wanted to come in.
But the thing is he knew nothing about my past.
So I already had like a career before that. But
he wasn't coming to me from Yeah, he's just like
this dude, I like what he's doing and uh, and

(40:46):
let's get together.

Speaker 10 (40:47):
But for you, was that was that exciting for you
to kind of have the opportunity to reinvent yourself in
a different way?

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Oh yeah, but did you know who or what the
Angelo was? Because it's not like we came. I mean,
by that point, all we had was send it on.
That's all we had. We had sended on.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
We didn't have see song wise, I had heard.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Brown Sugar, Okay, so you knew about him through.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
I didn't know. I didn't know the whole album.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
I didn't change. So what I knew was this was
this was two weeks. So I always could I always
credit Voodoo's beginning the last day of Philadelphi half life.
So D'Angelo rushes to Philadelphia the one time he was
on time. Yeah, he he like rushed to Philly when

(41:41):
he got word that, you know, a certain head wrapped
lady was in our side of town, uh, working on
the record.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
She down there, she down there.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
And I was like yeah, But I almost feel like,
now that I look at it, it wasn't the excitement
of like, oh, she's down there, let me come and play.
It was like, wait, she down there with y'all. She's
said that Tarik's script. What that moment.

Speaker 7 (42:06):
I don't give away all the thoughts.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
It's the first and the last time.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
That was like an hour earlier.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Like I didn't even ask him to come. He's like,
I'm here. So that to me was like the first
day of Voodo. We knocked the hypnotic out for our record,
and then we had like time to kill and we
were just like all right, let's let's start playing. So
we we had to test each other to see where
your knowledge was or whatever, and it's like, okay, we're
gonna get along famously because I had told you that
I judged him. I looked at it. I looked at

(42:32):
his timblans and they were like worn down, and I
judged him. And Bob Power is trying to sell me
on this guy. Like yo, Bob, Bob Power wants me
to drum on shit. Damn motherfucker. He's like, Yo, there's
a guy. I think you'll love him. Man, He's like
the next out Green Da Da Day. And I was
just like, R and B. This sucks, you know, hey,
R and B, Like you know what I mean, Like

(42:55):
I wanted soul and not R and B. And I
looked at him. He just walked in and because the
tongue of his teams was just it was leaning right,
I was like, no, man, this guy's corny. So I purposely, like,
you know, I'm going to hang with my dad for Christmas,
I can't do it. So I'm not on Brown Sugar
for that reason. But then also Ron Carter didn't want

(43:17):
to play on a song called shit Damn motherfucker, so they.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Decided to go that's got to get wrong.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
So Ron Carter was going to play bass on Shitdamn
motherfucker and I was going to drama on it. And
also Bob Powers trying to get a two for the
drama song on Bob Duism was one of the first
songs that Bob Power worked on. So me and Ron
were supposed to do we did drama, but He's like,
I refused to play on a song with that title.

(43:44):
I will never play on a song called that. He
would never call it shit damn motherfucker. So Bob Powers
is like, all right, I'll do the demo. So the
thing was day two, we rented out Battery Studios to
work on Bitch right, and then de was just like,

(44:04):
ViBe's not right, man, like I you know. So for
some reason they were like, yo, we're going to the
house at Hendrix, like we need a new studio. So
then we go to work at Electric Lady for a week.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Right, this is what Russ too, Right, Yes, we're Russ.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Famously, they had to have an intervention and talk with
me because my whole thing was like I know my sound,
I know my eq's whatever, and Russ was just very quiet,
so he just like sat in the corner. I thought
Russ was like D's boy. I didn't know Russ was
the master. And so after like four days like D
and these managers pulled me to side like yo, man,
like you know you you know Russ is the engineer.

(44:41):
Just let him do what you do. And at first
I was like, what does this guy know about like
my sound like because I wanted to craft. I didn't
want to sound like and.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Rightfully, too right.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
I had no idea Russ was the master, you know
what I'm saying. So we worked for about a week
and then I came on a Sunday to work again,
and he's like, Yo, we gotta go to power place, uh,
power station station studios and work with bb King real quick.
And I'm like, well, my drummer one thinks, yeah, I'm

(45:12):
gonna get you drum on it. But you know, Steve's
already like Steve George. So when Steve Jordan was there,
then next thing I knew, me and Angie were just
babysitting little Mike. Right, So all right, I'm babysitting Lord.
I'm asleep while y'all like working on this song for
like what two three hours and d comes into me

(45:33):
wakes me up. It's like, yo, man, yo, that white
boy is the ship. I was like, huh, you don't understand.
He's gonna be part of our army.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Man.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
He knows what he's doing.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Now I was telling him like, yo, man, but you
know what about we had just gotten what's his name?
He did the root and Spanish shot y. Yeah, he
he was all go in my mind, I'm like, no, dude,
Charlie like, let's stick with him. Listen, he's just dope
man's level bass player.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
It's just next level.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
And I couldn't imagine because it's not like I knew
of J Dilla sound like that, So that wasn't even comparison,
Like now you'd be like, yo, yo, he plays just
like Dyla things like that wasn't that wasn't even our vernacular,
and that for the life of me. And I went
in and looked and I just saw this like six

(46:30):
foot seven giant, and it was just like, yo, there's
no way you're going to convince me this guy is
the Lord Jesus Christ whatever. And then I played with you,
so it's yeah, man, it's for real. Like he the
way he described you was like urgent, like he was

(46:51):
gasping for the last breath of his life. And I
was like, for the life of me, did I wish
I'd known what happened in that session? Like how many
takes did y'all do with nobody?

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Not many? Maybe two? But you know, there was a
media connection as soon as we literally second verse of
that song where d took the lead he was playing
I think he was playing piano and took the lead,
and he took the lead and I'm playing, I'm like,
he sounds so good, and it kind of informed me,
you know, like all of a sudden, I was like, man,

(47:22):
I can do yeah, and I just went for some shit,
you know. Hearing his voice inspired me to try some
Jameson style, you know, walking around a little bit more,
playing some busy, busy bass stuff, and I felt him
react to that immediately. Something happened on that tune. But
that was BB king too. Wow, you know, bb made

(47:43):
that happen.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Do you now run into musicians that just insist that
you play draggy or behind the beat or those things or.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
There was a little bit of that, but not much.
And the thing is, you know, as well as I
do that shit don't work. It only works in.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
The right environment when we're all together.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
And for me, the right environment is me you indeed,
and if Spanky was still alive he isn't. But shocky,
I mean, it's such a profound understanding of what that is,
but we couldn't put it into woods right. It's like
a micro second management thing when you're playing, it's just
the feel happens.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
It took a big to adjust to because I think
even for me, I saw this as my chance to
escape the what I thought in my head was gonna
be like the claws of the roots, Like, Okay, well
we're not clearly we're not going to make a mark
on our own music, so this might be an every

(48:44):
man for himself.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
Thing, right, right, you started to stray a little and think.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
Well, it's not like I was like, all right, let
me plant my flag elsewhere to see if I can
get out there. Like it wasn't like the South promotion thing.
But it was also like, was this paranoid that the
way that he wanted me to play like? I was
intrigued by the J Deller shit, but I'm like, wait,
you want me to act like I'm a drunk three

(49:09):
year old and you know.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Well it's a challenge right to try and sound like
you can't play it right.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
But I'm thinking, I'm like, oh man, little John's gonna
laugh at me, and this drum is gonna laugh at me.
This drum is gonna laugh at me. And so it
took it took me a good maybe two weeks to
get used to because you got these things instantly. Yeah,
And I didn't know who to follow because you dragged behind,
but then he really drags behind you, and I'm trying
to figure out, like, well where do I fit in

(49:38):
between you guys? It took like a good two weeks to.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
But when that shit really kicks off of man, I
mean you're I mean you're playing, you're on time, if
not on time in front of time, that rhythmic tension, right.
We never talked about it deeply before, but that's what
it feels like to me, because if I'm trying to
play that stuff and a drumma will start to slow
down with you right right, then it's not working. It

(50:07):
has to have you know.

Speaker 8 (50:09):
So here's on top of your behind and D somewhere
in the middle.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Oh yeah, we're pretty we're both behind the deal. But
but quests will also come in. You know, you'll join
us on some things, like it might be a little
nut on the high at or one kick drum will
be misplaced.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Just yeah, yeah, he d wants me to like my
high hat always has to be like one of my
three things, either my kick, my snare or my high
hat has to be consistent. Yes, and then I have
to divide half my brain to drag this in another way.

(50:44):
But still keep this consistent. But then playing with DiAngelo
and Pino, DiAngelo gets the sort of gets the glory
position of either playing right on top of the thing
or really dragging. And before when he would draged, I'd
go with him and he would stop the song like no, no,

(51:04):
don't go with it where you were at, stay where
you had And I'm just like, wait, dude, like I
have my own problems and trying to figure out which
limb goes which speed, and then this guy is like
slightly behind me. But I could deal with that, but
you are really throwing me off. So it really took.
It took ten hours, and you know, we'd spend anywhere
between six to twelve hours consistently playing. So I just

(51:30):
consider that tour a myr y'all.

Speaker 7 (51:31):
You're talking before y'all even hit the stage.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah, no, no, this is just this is the album
this is in.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
Yeah, just because it seemed like at some point just
watching y'all during that time and watching a mirror because
we shouldn't make note that, like I don't recall a
time in your career where you've done what you did
for Voodoo, like you Paul stuff, And it seems like
when y'all got on stage, everybody, Anthony and Hamilton, backgrounds,
everybody included. It was like spiritual.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Yes, I think that we all came one at a time,
Like first it was D, it was D and me,
it was us three, and then we brought James poison
in and then it's almost like you have to bring
him and Spanky started coming, so it's almost you had
to do one at a time thing and that person
had to figure out.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
Like what is going on here?

Speaker 4 (52:21):
When y'all all figured it out, it must have felt
like y'all were moving as one at some point, right.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Like that's exactly right. Yeah, it's the most it's yeah,
I mean the Soultronics when we had in the band.

Speaker 10 (52:35):
Yo, y'alls, I still have Crazy sure was out now
the live in Stockholm Angelo, Oh yeah, yeah it is.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
I've cleaned my house so many times out man, y'all, Man,
I love that record a lot.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
That's so rid. That is so rid. But the funny
thing was, right, you got to remember back when we
were doing this, I was already forty forty one, right.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
So you're still forty one to.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
No.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
But the non act doesn't crack, whales don't fail.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
There I'm gonna step off the microphone.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
You can tell me.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
I'm yeah, that sort of thing is so rare. And
that was the first time I've been in great bands before,
but it's the first time I'd experienced that kind of feeling.
And as I say, I was in my forties at
the time, so you know, when we got together and
there we also room with the full band before the tour,
and I heard that band playing, I was like, these
guys don't know. These guys do not know what I know,

(53:39):
because you couldn't have had enough experience to know how
special that was.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Did you have a favorite night on the Voodoo Tour?

Speaker 3 (53:46):
No, I just know I don't.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Every night.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
Every night I had Yo Man for me.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
I hate I hate saying the story the Minneapolis show.
I don't remember it all right. So I blamed John
Paroles for this. So John Parrales, who's always been kind
of a playful thorn in Prince's side since like him
and Prince are at the same age, he started writing

(54:14):
in Minneapolis at the same time Prince came up, so
he's kind of been like the one consistent local Minneapolis
writer that you know that Prince would sort of you know,
artists claim like, oh, I never read my reviews or whatever,
but clearly like you know, and but he was also
not afraid to tell the truth and be like, nah,
I'm not feeling this and that that you're phoning it

(54:36):
in whatever. So you know, it's it's ninety nine and
Voodoo comes out and John Parrales decides to like kind
of just write a ack no no this for the
local Minneapolis thing, like not a mock obituary, but basically
like a Prince your numbers up and there's a new

(54:59):
king in town, that sort of thing, which you know,
as far as I'm concerned, both Voodoo and Black Messiah
were always love letters to our hero and so you
know it is that what made Prince do Rainbow Children? Well, no,
just you make my sunshine thing and yeah, yeah that
as well. So the thing was I knew he felt

(55:24):
some sort of way, but it was also so undeniably
funky that he couldn't deny it himself. So it's like, okay,
I'll give you this one, like this has to be
live changing funk for me to So when the show
came to town, you know, Paralys was at it again,
like I've been hearing reports that this is the show
of the year, right and so and so, of course

(55:49):
he summons for us to come to Paisley Park the
night before before the show. The night before the show, right,
I did not know this. I ain't got it. I
should have known him better. But you know again, it's
it's like, hey, it's our hero. We're gonna hang out

(56:09):
with our hero. So we get to Minneapolis. We get
there like midnight, and Alan Weis was actually like y'all
going out there. I was like, yeah, well, you know,
he operates between one am and six in the morning,
so let's do it. So Robbie the driver comes to
get us at three in the morning and we go
out there. And I should have known him better. Yeah,

(56:32):
he was first thing he came in. So how does
it feel?

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (56:40):
And so we were just like, yeah, it feels like me,
but I'm just playing.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Right.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Was he on his own? Was he?

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Or did he have like he was?

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Okay? So the weird thing was he was I believe
at the time he was working on what we call
the new Power Soul record and you know he's blasted
music whatever and something. So what year is this is
two thousand? This is June of two thousand and so
we're walking down. You know, all the hallways at Paisley

(57:12):
Park are super dark, and of course it's like these
lifestyles murals of him, so it feels like three stooges
where you know the controversy, this is painted controversy cover
and you swear to God that the eyes are watching
you as because they are right right, yeah, probably Scooby Doode.
And I stopped e and I stopped the and I
heard the song and I'm just like, I said, oh boy,

(57:36):
and he's like what I said. So, you know, by
that point, and I've made it clearer to many Prince
dot Org fans that I am a seventy eight to
eighty eight prince person. Anything outside of that. Yes, I
love him as an artist, but this is my era,
and I've been very vocal about like his patches, and
I don't like the new keyboards he uses and the

(57:58):
drummer scenes and of course he's in some loud song
and whatever it was, Okay, No, the cameras are watching me,
so my face, I forget that I'm not on radio anymore.
And so I was just like, let's wait it out
until the fate comes on because I don't want to.
I don't want to have to do demo face. Yeah
right right right when you like some, when you don't

(58:20):
like some, and so like right when the song was faded,
and then we like walked in and you know, again
I failed. I was like, hey, who, what's you? What's this?
What's you working on? He's like some some new funk
like whatever, Like he's like.

Speaker 9 (58:38):
Destroy you.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Anyway. So yeah, he like went through the whole thing
and tried to be like, don't trust down leads and
you know, this guy's boot legacy, that guy boot legamy,
he's gonna boot leg you and steal your money, and
da da d d da da and he would leave
and De and I would just look at each other
like what's going on here? I just want to ask
you some question about nineteen exactly. And you know, then

(59:05):
we like went to play, like we went in the
room to jam a little bit, and that wasn't working
because the thing was like we had such a musical synergy.
And then to play with someone normal, which is weird
because friends is anything but normal. Yeah, but don't translate, right,
and so that was weird and man like we just

(59:27):
we left, so we asked him, He's like, so, are
you going to come to the show tomorrow, Like will
you come? And he's like, no, I got to go
to I'm gonna go to Marrakesh. And you know, I said, wait,
you you go to miss our show, like this is
our show is dedicated to you, like everything, and he's like, no,
I got to go to Marrakesh. And that's that. He

(59:50):
never went to Marrakes. But you know, he had all
the spies in the thing. And you know, Larry Graham
infamously left during shit damn, Like he got up and
left and like went out there and it came back
when the show was over. Ron Carter left too, And

(01:00:12):
all I remember was there was a moment during the
encore where I think suddenly D went from bewilderment to anger.
Like it's like D woke up and realized, like, yo, man,
I think he was trying to punk us last night.
And you don't want to think that your hero doesn't

(01:00:33):
wish you, you know, like what do we do to
this guy? And all I remember Man was like, yo, man,
we're gonna get him. We're gonna piss all on his
carpet and we did the most ungodly version of Lady
ever and Eric came out. And it was even to
the point where the same schoolyard taunts that Prince was

(01:00:56):
telling Paul Peterson when he left the family, like Bunk
of the month, punk of the month, Like we started
like pe punk of the month, Like like are we
doing this? You went from Pee for the Month to
Prince Punk of the Month like literally in his Yeah,
and then and then I had to get some phone

(01:01:17):
calls like a week later, But for me, that was
like that was like the best show we've ever done.
I hope I asked enough voodoo questions for the fan base.

Speaker 10 (01:01:31):
Good Voodoo was my first I mean clearly was my
first time hearing you. But you know, for you hearing
you say that, you were like forty at that time.

Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
You know.

Speaker 10 (01:01:41):
I hope artists like that hear this they understand like listen,
that was my first time and I was, you know,
twenty one, you know, twenty whatever, and like that was
my first time really hearing about Pino Palladino.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
You know what I'm saying. So like you were to me,
you were a new guy, right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
In two Thou that generation and those music. Yeah, that's
a new me. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Were you shocked at the kind of the heroes welcome
that you got from the musician community.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Yeah totally. I mean I was already kind of respected
in certain places, you know, in the music community, but yeah,
to get the props at that point was really Yeah,
that was very exciting.

Speaker 7 (01:02:25):
Can you talk about how it was different in that way?
Why was it different?

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Way to feel different? Well, I guess because that's the music.
I really really loved it. And then I was like,
you know, I was always like very conscientious about like
feeling right, you know, I wanted to feel right, and
when I got to play with the Inquest in that band,
then it was I didn't even have to think about it.
It just came through, you know, and that was beautiful.

(01:02:49):
And then yeah, just to have people say, wow, that
that ship sounds amazing, and yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
So a notable night for me was the night that
we were recording Aquarius for Common in Philadelphia and then
we took a dinner break and then you got a
phone call and you said, immediately you said, wait, no
one knows I'm here, who's calling me? And you step

(01:03:17):
outside the room to take the phone call, and then
you come back in and you're like, guys have an announcement.
So instantly I'm like, oh damn, something happened to your family,
Like what's going on? And he's like John's twistle just
died of the Who, and I have to go out
and replace him, Like I have to believe right now?

(01:03:38):
What can you tell me?

Speaker 8 (01:03:40):
That's the most fucked up call I've ever heard of
my left okay coming.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
On pretty much. And I never got to ask you
this question because what I do know is that you
had to learn forty one songs.

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
I don't remember the amount, but there wasn't a set list.
It was just learn, you know, like see thes like this.

Speaker 8 (01:03:59):
And that plays all the notes.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Yeah, so one, what was your WHO? I Q before
that phone call?

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
Wow, I probably knew four or five songs.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Oh wait, I wasn't expecting that. I thought you used
to go and say, like four or five records. See,
you kind of knew nothing about the Who at that point.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
I brought some of the records when I was a kid,
I bought won't get fooled again. And then I remember,
I can't explain my generation. The big hits, but I
really wasn't familiar with their albums for some reason. I
just I missed that stuff, you know, I was I
was a big led Zeppelin fan, and I was in
like progressive rock like Yes and folk music and stuff

(01:04:48):
like that. So somehow missed most of the who You
and Getty Lee, Just Have You and Geddy ever like him?
Actually yeah, yeah, but uh, not that familiar with with
a lot of rush albums out there.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
So they send a plane to you. They sent a
plane to Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
Correct, No, no, I have to get a regular plane.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
Oh okay, I thought they just the bells and whistles
on you. So what was Do you do you remember
what that week was like? Because I still, for the
life of me, don't understand why they just didn't hold
off on like a week's worth of shows. Like I'm
sure the fan base will understand. John just died. They

(01:05:30):
were like, no, we're still going on stage.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Well, the story I heard was that they wanted to
cancel the tour. You know, there was so much gonna
that was riding on it. I guess they was financially
the cruise, you know, having committed the time to it,
they wanted to be able to pay everyone. So the
story I heard come from who. But the story I
heard was a Pete said to the manager, what's Pino doing?

(01:05:56):
If you can get Pino, then we can carry on,
which is pretty incredible. So pd I had confidence in me.
I guess he knew me as a session player because
I've worked with him. Yeah, So that's that's how it went.
And the manager phoned me up and said, look, you've
heard the Jonas passed away. I think it was Wednesday.

(01:06:18):
He said, we got a gig in Hollywood Bowl on Saturday.
I need a yes or no?

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
You said yes, Yeah, I mean so what's like? Describe
your cheat sheet? Describe your like how do you commit
all that to memory?

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
Yeah? I did have a couple of cheat sheets, just
just I mean, nothing that anyone else would have understood.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Can you read no?

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
What can you read coord charts? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
I can follow cod shots but yeah, I mean I've
got better at it over the years, but I really
try not to. I trust my ear.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
I've always talked about before thrust your ear.

Speaker 8 (01:06:54):
People bore blessed with good ears.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Man. Wow. Yeah, there's some musicians that go by feel
and some musicians that go by technical that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
Yeah, and both of those ways will work. You know,
there are players that can do both. They are players
that can read whatever you put in front of them
and can also improvise. But I can't read it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
So by that night, by Saturday night, what's going through
your head?

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
Are you just cramming twenty four to seven and you're
going to sleep to the.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
Song I have? Like, really, I had one day in
one night and I just was up for twenty four
hours just literally headphones based, just trying to go through
as many songs as I could.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
You know, what was the hardest song to do to
figure out?

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
Well, there wasn't one song that was really hard technically
because I didn't try and play what John was playing.
I couldn't have played a lot of those baselines because
his technique was so unique. I couldn't. I couldn't do it.
So but Pete told me straight away when I got
they said, just learn as much as you can. And
you know, I don't want to be John, I want
to be you. So that gave me. That freed me

(01:07:59):
up a little bit. But having said that, there's so
many iconic baselines on whose songs that I did have
to learn, you know, a lot of it notes.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
So eventually, once you settled into the group, then they
realized that. But is it I kind of baselines in
terms of like like he does this in the fourth part. Yeah,
and they muscle memory they expected to hear those notes.

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
Kind of Yeah, And there are things that you if
you didn't have them in the song, you really wouldn't.
It wouldn't sound like a song, like melodic lines and stuff.
And the Who fans in the front row would be
mim in to the baselines as well, so they know
all the stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
No pressure.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
Yeah, but I wouldn't be playing it a lot of times.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
So how long did it take for you to actually
get a place of muscle memory? Like, Okay, I got this.

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
Yeah, I mean I had it on the first night
pretty much. I pretty much knew I pretty much once
we've done the show, I was like, Okay, it's gonna
be fine.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
Wow, Okay, are you still with the Who? Like I
don't know what they're.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
Yeah, they're still playing. But I stopped touring with them
in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
Okay, yeah, but was it hard to walk away from that?

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
It was? Yeah, it was absolutely Yeah, because I've been
there a long time. I've been touring with them fourteen years.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
So when you commit to them and I know they're
not a twenty four to seven touring unit, is it
a thing where it's like, Okay, we have you on
retainer to always be available.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
No, they don't do that shit. You just get gig
the gig.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Yeah, but what if you what if you decided to
order D'Angelo again?

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Yeah, right, you had that problem.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
I did.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Yeah, yeah, I had taken on some who shows. I
didn't want to let those guys down, and then d
suddenly put some shows in that I couldn't do. Yeah,
so but that all worked out.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
Of course. You had to raise your own pino. Yes,
he's not there, Rocco Palladino. Oh yeah, oh you best believe.
And I hate to say this, but god damn. Yeah,
but he's your son. Sound think you'll get offended?

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
God damn?

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
How how old is your sign?

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
Man? He's study one? Okay, yeah, now do Rocco is
currently drumming with A he's playing with usef DA.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
Yes, you said, but he's also he killed the picnic.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
Yeah, oh, no doubt. Yes, he came to the picnic
and killed But Rucco's here now. Actually he's playing Fabiano.
My daughter, my oldest daughter, is also playing in the
band this called J Paul j A. I Yeah, Paul, Wow,
they're playing to Paul. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, so Fabiano
and Rucco are playing with him at the moment. He's

(01:10:52):
playing at the mine tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
This is so weird.

Speaker 10 (01:10:55):
It's like those are kind of I mean, maybe not
as much Paul, but definitely use those are all kinds
of children love voodoo.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Yeah, yeah, I think so, and I think so with
Jay as well. Yeah, yeah, I definitely inspired by that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
That is crazy. I remember meeting your kids when they
were away.

Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
They were Radio City when we played in two thousands.
You know, Rocco is like six or something.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
I wondered like, did they pay attention?

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
Oh yeah, you think so. That's what happened to Rocco.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
So for him seeing that show Radio City Music Art, I.

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
Think definitely that and also just being around me when
when I was doing that music.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Yeah, the Rocco is like Rocco plays with di'angelo. That's
how good Rocco Palladino is. And yeah wow, that's just.

Speaker 7 (01:11:43):
How many children do you have?

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
Fabiana, my oldest is a keyboar player, songwriter, singer, songwriter.
She has a record coming out soon. And then Giancarla
is also very musical, but she actually doesn't work in
the music business. And then Rocco does work in the
music business. Yeah. Yeah, I'm so lucky.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
How do you divide your now that you're your own
planet and you're not just like, you know, just just
a session yet, right, So like, at what point did
you decided to establish your brand and do these like
records and all this.

Speaker 3 (01:12:16):
Yeah, that pretty much came through round about twenty eighteen.
I suppose that when when we started recording the first
record I've done an album with John Legend with Blake
Mills producing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
I didn't know you on that record.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
Yeah, well and Chris too. Yeah. He called me and
Chris to play on that record, and that's how I
met Blake.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
Yeah. That's that's such a it's weird living in kind
of in the non uh what do you call it,
non tangible record way, Yes, where I don't recredits anymore.
I just listened to it on Spotify, so I know.
When I was going with your history, I'm like, wait,
you're on that, You're on that. Yeah, I didn't realize
you on that record. Okay, So talk about your work

(01:12:56):
with the Drumheads and playing because you guys just on
a whole nother level of musicianship.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
Well that's with Chris and Sharky and yeah, I mean
that's crazy. I mean Chris, as you know, played with D.
I think you recommended him for that when you could
do it right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Yeah, so that's where Chris met Sharky and me and
Kristen Sharky would hang and hit it off obviously. Then
to cut a long story short, we were on the
twenty twelve tour with D and Chris had a gig
at the Billboard Live in Tokyo and we were going
to take Pooky with us, right the keyboard player and

(01:13:36):
a horn player. I can't remember who it was, but anyway,
the day before we due to fly out after the
after the tour with D, Pooky said he couldn't make it,
So we lost a keyboard player and then we lost
the horn player. He pulled out too, so it's just me,
Sharky and Chris and we had to fly out to
Japan and we played like three nights at the Billboard Live.

(01:13:56):
So that was the start of the Drumhead. Shit. Really,
we just played as a trio, which is what we
went back to the Blue Note recently.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
Now, is it intimidating playing in a combo that doesn't
have a lead singer or doesn't have someone for you
to hide behind?

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
Yeah? I love it. I love it, especially with that
lineup because it's it's unique. Well, we played so many
different styles of music, and well, you know, Chris is
just unbelievable. All kinds of weird and wonderful stuff can
come from him.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
It's my guess that you are the anchor of definitely
that unit. Because when I last saw you guys at
the Blue Note, you were the one that was tapping
your book constantly, like you tap your foot and your
chin goes up and down, and so I realized, like, okay,
so you give christ freedom to do what he wants

(01:14:53):
to do, and you have to keep that in your head.
So you're the anchor of it. I know, if it's
confusing for me, it has to be crazy for you
to keep counting all those things because Chris is such
a radical.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
Yeah. I'm with that lineup too, you know, I feel
like those two guys of the virtuosi and that's never
been my forte.

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
It's so I like that place in the middle there
trying to you know, enable, just enable the music so
that they can do their thing. I mean not purely unselfish.
I mean I care about me too a little bit.
But yeah, it's really interesting. And when Chris goes for
some of that stuff, you know, you just have to

(01:15:35):
be ready to go with it wherever it's going, be
very kind of fluid and malleable. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
It's question I think fans would like to know. Have
you ever had a session in which was like I
gotta get through this, like in terms of complexity or
just a producer that is driving you to the limit.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
No, not really. I had one producer I won't mention
the name of one time that I figured that if
he kind of made me angry, I would play better. Yeah.
It was kind of weird so that people still do
psychological Yeah, He's like, what's the matter with you? Can't
you do any better than that?

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
And I was like what Cantlice asked, was this the eighties,
nineties or two thousands or.

Speaker 3 (01:16:19):
It was after Voodoo, right?

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Yeah, I was like, I'm ready to.

Speaker 6 (01:16:31):
Wait can I ask a question, including you Steve, like
on sessions like voodoo, which are notoriously went on for years,
like does it become too like? Does it does the
dragging out of it? Does the frustration of that taking forever?
Does it become a thing?

Speaker 4 (01:16:45):
Or is it not?

Speaker 6 (01:16:46):
I've never been in the studio that long my life
like it. You know, you read about it, and it's
just like we're not allowed to talk about this. That's
fine too, No, No, I just I'm just I'm fascinated.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
My answer is quick. You know, I was selfishly say
that I have the best seat in the house. So
I've never had a drought, a D'Angelo drought, and I
feel bad for you people that only get your you know,
d'angela fixed once every ten to twenty years, whereas you know,
I still got shited on this computer that the world's
never going to hear again. But you know, I'm satisfied,

(01:17:21):
but I also feel frustrated that it takes forever. But
it's certainly worth it. But like you know, it's weird
in terms of preference, though I like Black Messia a
little better. I don't know if it's because it's last
or whatever, but just like I have the time of
my life with Voodoo. But for me, there's something about

(01:17:43):
the moments in catching til it's done yes or uh
oh God, especially oh God, the way the way we
know life. You know, we did Another Life? Did we
do that without planning?

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
You know? I played on the later you and d
played on that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
I feel like we went okay, so was it till
it's done where we all had to do it together?

Speaker 3 (01:18:07):
Something we played till it's done together?

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
Yeah? Okay, yeah, Another Life is literally it was just unplanned.
It wasn't like, hey, what's that part? Okay, do you
get it in twelve bars? It was just like he
just started playing it and then like and I was like, okay,
this should be like a bridge or something. Okay, I'm
gonna do a turnaround for two bars, and he just

(01:18:30):
like it. The synergy was was otherworldly.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
Well you guys really have that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
Yeah, we have to be cool because at the very beginning,
in the very beginning, I think there was like unspoken
tension there that we didn't resolve for like four or
five years. Yes, and the first thing he plays me
is like sugar Daddy, and it kind of in a
taunting way. Not a taunting way, but it's almost like
the ex wife, you know, the husband's showing you the

(01:19:01):
new girlfriend to the ex wife, and I'm like, how
am I? How am I supposed to compete with Gatson?
With James Gatson playing his lap?

Speaker 3 (01:19:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
And the story, yeah, the story of that is basically,
he was just all right, play with the song, and
he's like just sitting there like that, okay, okay, so
I'll do that and then all right, let's roll it
and they're like, no, we got it. He's like, no, no, no,
I was. I was hitting my leg and he's like, no, no,
that was perfect.

Speaker 3 (01:19:26):
And I'll tell you what really happened there, something like that.
But James was just drum checking, right, he was just
trump track and playing a bass, strumming the high and
tapping his legs like that, and d said, keep playing that, James.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
Keep playing that right, and just fell until by accident.

Speaker 3 (01:19:42):
Found a bait. I just went dump dump, don't dump, don't.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
Right, And then literally I'm like, how am I supposed
to compete with that shit?

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
And so yeah, but your thing is so unique of
me too, Betray my Heart. We recorded that song in
yeah seven do you realize that ninety seven.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
Right, I remember brought that one back to life. So
Steve any Pino moments.

Speaker 9 (01:20:10):
Oh man, I did want to ask you about you
were a part of the one of the Simon and
garlf Uncle reunion tours or maybe it was just a
show or two at the Garden or something.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
I'm not I can't remember that one.

Speaker 3 (01:20:23):
Yeah, it was all too two thousand and what was
it five or something? Yes?

Speaker 9 (01:20:27):
So what was that like to work with with Paul
and I mean to be in such a weird kind
of setting, I mean, and those baselines are also very iconic.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Absolutely? Is that Carol Ka who did a lot of
that stuff originally?

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
Maybe she did some of it. Joe Osborne, right was
the was the l a session guy back in back
in the days and did a lot of that stuff
only living boy in New York? You know that iconic
based on man? Yeah, So was that a fun gig
or it really was? It was amazing for me because
the Simon and girlf Uncle album with Cecilia I become
a bridge over trouble water. Yeah, that album was so

(01:21:01):
big for me when I was before I even knew
I was going to be a musician. So to come
around full circle and get to play live with those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
Wasn't the base Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:21:10):
They the baselines are so kind of penoish in a
lot of that music, you know, there's a lot of.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
But but yeah, I mean very melodic though. Yeah. Yeah,
and it was a fantastic band. Jim Caltoner was on drums.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
What's it like playing with him?

Speaker 3 (01:21:27):
Tremendous man, hero, incredible man earl. Yeah, you should get
him on here? What an edge, what a legend? Yes,
it was just a fun too. And then of course
we would you know, pull pull an audience. So wow.
We would do two sound checks pretty much every day. Yeah,

(01:21:50):
one for each of them then one together.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
Wait.

Speaker 3 (01:21:52):
Really like they were divided as a you know, not
necessarily divided, just they had particular things that they wanted
in the sound check.

Speaker 9 (01:22:00):
So with the Who and with Paul Simon, didn't you
also end up doing being part of some studio recordings
as well, albums that they were putting out.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
I did a Paul Simon album Surprise, but that was
just Paul, Yeah, he wasn't that Simon golf right?

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
And the Who?

Speaker 3 (01:22:13):
Yeah, I did the last record Who did, which which
was a really good record.

Speaker 9 (01:22:17):
Actually, what was I like to work with Pete Townsend
in that in the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
Studio, work with him over the years in that environment.
Pizza absolute genius. Man, He's incredible. It's just great being
around him, great playing music with him.

Speaker 1 (01:22:31):
I want to skip a little bit ahead. Can you
talk about working on the side rock record with John?
You didn't play bass on? You only did it live? No.

Speaker 3 (01:22:40):
I did some other record, but not much of it,
like maybe a couple of tracks, because that was kind
of during the pandemic. I think you record a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:22:47):
That stuff really okay, because my shock was that, you know,
for those that don't like the side rock record for
John Mayer was like his version of the yacht rock. Yes,
like if he had he released a record in eighty
three to eighty four like that period, what would he
sound like? Which all of you, all the musicians on

(01:23:10):
that record didn't sound like themselves.

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):
But yeah, well I only played a few tracks. I
sort of let you down on that woman.

Speaker 1 (01:23:17):
But did even the songs you played on, did you
have to unsound like yourself?

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
No, not at all. No. Those songs that I played
on were ones that he did before he went in
the studio to do that record. So they were just
a random one off songs that that he wanted to
record anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:23:35):
Okay, so when he went in to do the.

Speaker 3 (01:23:37):
Full album with Sean Hurley on bass and uh uh
Aaron on drums, Yeah, I wasn't around for that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:46):
I see questions, even conversations. I was we can take
your ball commercial right now? When when when this show
is happening. Phones are down, so I'm not getting text

(01:24:09):
to stop. It's like, you're gonna let me know. I'm
I'm under the impression that eight o'clock is when we
stop this.

Speaker 7 (01:24:19):
We're trying to get to Fine.

Speaker 1 (01:24:21):
You're gonna communicate that to me. We don't get any
dating to each other.

Speaker 3 (01:24:25):
No, I called you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
I didn't know your phone.

Speaker 3 (01:24:28):
Off.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
Your phone, my phone is off. I turned my phones
off and my my text all that stuff is off. Sorry,
I was just frustrated. I'm like, okay, I thought I
was asking too many questions.

Speaker 8 (01:24:40):
We're all about punctuality.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
We're very concerned about Peno's next gig. Clearly has to
be at the gig, but it's just let me know. Okay,
I didn't know that. I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
I already told him we're gonna be late, so okay,
we're good.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
Well let's wrap it all right.

Speaker 8 (01:24:56):
Also, don't ask you know what the gig is a
big secret, So there going on, we don't know what
gig it is.

Speaker 3 (01:25:01):
We don't know what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:25:01):
Well I don't you might because can we follow you
to this gig? Do I want to follow you to
this gig?

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
M I could said.

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
The last time you told me about a gig, I
went to go see. I wound up playing the gig
and the mushrooms that kicked in.

Speaker 8 (01:25:19):
That was the hell of a day.

Speaker 1 (01:25:22):
All I wanted to do was watch my idol drum
and then suddenly that call me like you learn the show? Yes, COVID.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
So I just didn't know about the mushroom part of that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
That's well yeah, but then you know, I've got guys,
the mushrooms that kicked in.

Speaker 3 (01:25:37):
Man, if you're around tomorrow nights or you got any
time tomorrow, I'm in the studio with Blake over in
Sound City.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
Really love to have you. I'm finally glad that Blake,
of all people, Blake, the way that he talks about
Voodoo's like his old dream. So the fact that he
finally connected with you. I know one, you know is
his dream to connect with the Also, I'm sure I'm
that's happening. No, well, I think I'm gonna cut it

(01:26:04):
so that Peter can get to his session or we.

Speaker 7 (01:26:08):
Are legend in the building who actually still works.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
No, I will say that, you know it's it's your mind.
You make you make us all play better, you make
us listen better, and you know for that, I thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
Man, and thank you so much every race.

Speaker 1 (01:26:28):
Everybody, Now get out of here and go to your gig.

Speaker 4 (01:26:33):
This is.

Speaker 7 (01:26:35):
You know, hey, thank y'all be listening to The Quest
Love Supreme.

Speaker 4 (01:26:44):
This podcast is hosted by an Afro, a mouth, a rapper,
an engineer, and a man with too many jobs a
k a.

Speaker 7 (01:26:51):
A Mere Quest Love.

Speaker 4 (01:26:51):
Thompson, Why You A Saint Clair, Fonte Coleman, Sugar, Steve
Mandel and unpaid Bill Sherman.

Speaker 7 (01:26:58):
The executive producers who get paid the big bucks.

Speaker 4 (01:27:01):
Amir Quest Love Thompson, Sean g and Brian Calhoun ask
them for money. Produced by the people who do all
the real work Brittany Benjamin, Jake Payne and Yes Shy
of Saint Clair. Edited by another person who does the
real work. Alex Conroy and those who approve the real work.
Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown and Mike John And

(01:27:23):
don't forget man, it's making me sound good right now
because up too. Audio engineering by Graham Gibson at Iheart's
La Studio, Thanks Sean.

Speaker 3 (01:27:34):
West.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more
podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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