In this episode of LEGENDS: Podcast by All Day Vinyl, host Scott Dudelson speaks with one of the most recorded session musicians of all time - Waddy Wachtel.
Wachtel has created, collaborated, and contributed to some of the most iconic songs in history as a long time collaborator Stevie Nicks (touring with her for over 40 years and playing the legendary riff on "Edge of Seventeen"), Warren Zevon (producing three albums for Warren and co-writing "Warewolves of London"), James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and most recently the Immediate Family (featuring other legendary session musicians Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel & Steve Postell)
Wachtel delves into his storied career, recounting experiences with musical luminaries such as James Taylor, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon and Stevie Nicks and Keith Richards. He shares tales from the recording studios, the highs of touring, and the instant chemistry of working with the members of the Immediate Family. Anecdotes of classic songs' journeys, his style of arranging and performing an instrumental part to a song, the evolution of music production techniques over decades, are all part of this engrossing narrative.
Beyond the storytelling, the episode also explores Wachtel's involvement with the Immediate Family's latest album, "Skin of the Game" and the amazing "Immediate Family" documentary which is available to stream online.
The episode is a treasure trove of insights, detailing the milestones of an illustrious career and the fascinating intricacies of the music industry from Wachtel perspective.
Cover photo of Waddy Wachtel by Scott Dudelson
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Thank you for listening. This is The Legend's podcast by All Day Vinyl.
I'm your host, Scott Duddleson.
After you finish this episode, please subscribe, rate, and check us out on Instagram
and YouTube at All Day Vinyl.
Today, I'm excited to speak with a legend. This gentleman is one of the great
session guitarists of all time.
He helped shape the sound of legendary songs through his studio and touring
work with James Taylor, Harold King, Linda Ronstand, and Stevie Nicks,
(00:23):
who he's currently on tour with. He produced three great Warren Zevon albums,
co-wrote one of his great songs, Werewolves of London.
He's a member of the Expensive Winos of Keith Richards, and most recently part
of a supergroup of legendary session musicians called the Immediate Family.
The Immediate Family may not be immediately familiar by name,
but the musicians in the band are all very legendary.
(00:44):
Danny Korchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Steve Postel, and our soon-to-be-introduced
guests have collectively played on over 5,000 albums.
If you look up any singer-songwriter album from the 1970s, you're bound to come
across one or more of these great musicians in the liner notes.
I'm pleased to introduce to you the great Wadi Wattel. Wadi,
thank you so much for joining.
(01:05):
Thanks, Scott. Thanks for quite an intro too. Thanks. I'm really happy that
for the last 50 years, you guys have been contributing to so much great music
behind the scenes that in 2023,
2024, you're getting your due to be upfront. front.
You have an album right now, Skin of the Game. You've got a movie.
So let's start with the album. Tell me how did this come about?
(01:29):
The first time the four of us played together, Lou Adler, who produced Carol's
Records, was doing an album for Tim Curry, if you remember who Tim is.
Rocky Horror. Yeah, exactly.
And I was a new guy in town, and I had been playing sessions and stuff,
but I hadn't yet met Lou Adler.
And through David Foster, who came to a session that I was working on david
(01:51):
recommended me for a session and i got a call from lou so i walk into this session.
And there's leland who i had already met russell who i had already met and played
with and there's danny who i had never played with heard him on records going who's this guy cooch,
and why is he getting all this work and how the hell do i get in there with
(02:11):
these guys and and there was danny and we loved each other the second we met
both new yorkers first of all so So we had that in common.
It was a reggae song that Tim was doing. We had that in common.
We both were crazy about reggae, early 70s.
Harder They Come had just come out. So we were just locked in,
the four of us locked in immediately.
(02:33):
Then the next thing I knew, Lou called me to play on Carole's Thoroughbred record,
which we did an album that was great, and then we went on the road and toured it together.
So that's where we all. And how did 50 years later, what brought you back together?
Well, before that, Danny had a solo album offer from Japan to do a solo record.
(02:56):
So he was hoping that the guys would be around.
Lee and Russ happened to be in town. I was on the road with Stevie.
But Danny booked a three-day weekend.
And I was able to get there for the Sunday. day and as
soon as we the five of us started playing i'd met
steve postel before steve's the new guy you know we
(03:17):
only known him about 20 years you know so but as soon as we all started playing
it fell right into the slot and it felt so natural and right danny just said
you know i gotta i've got an offer to tour after this record if comes out and
but i can't do it without you guys it's it's got to be you guys.
So why don't we make it a band? Since we are a band, really,
(03:41):
we've been one forever. We just didn't know it.
And Danny right away said, I wish you'd call it the immediate family because
that's what we are. And we all agreed that's exactly what we are.
And we went from there. So we went from
that solo record of Danny's to getting Cordovale
offered us a record deal so we
(04:01):
did our first album and now we've been lucky
enough to get the chance to do a second l which is now it's a double out set
14 songs on it but i can't believe that happened but and when you guys when
you guys uh put together the music are you co-writing it or are you each coming
together with your own uh combination another combination of of books there's
(04:23):
some songs i wrote by myself,
there's some that danny and i collaborated on and there's some that the three
of us collaborated on and on skin in the game russell kunkles involved in the
writing as well so there's collaboration all over the place and even if there's
not even if one person brings the song in.
The way this band works is it's so homogenous that everybody contributes what should be there.
(04:49):
So it's essentially an effort of love every time and ease because we worked together for so long.
I know where Danny's going to be on the neck of his guitar, so I'm not there.
Like, versa versa, vice versa. versa.
Steve Fustel can magically fit in between the two of us and not get in the way.
(05:11):
He plays a whole different style than either Danny or myself.
Lee and Russ are just this incredible rhythm section that are flawless.
It's an incredible happening every time we play, really, live.
It's an incredible bond. Whenever I see the footage of you guys in the 70s playing
with with Carole King or James Taylor or Linda, it's absolutely amazing.
(05:37):
And a lot of that is documented in the new movie, the immediate family film.
Which I want to just note for the listeners, is directed by a gentleman named
Danny Tedesco, who is the son of Tony Tedesco, who is in The Wrecking Crew.
(05:58):
And there was a documentary a few years ago about the Wrecking Crew,
which were the legendary L.A.
Session musicians who were on all the great records.
And the immediate family, which is you guys, were the great session musicians
of the 70s, were on all the great music.
So I want to ask you how that transition, because it's important and it's not
(06:18):
necessarily addressed in the film, how that transition from the Wrecking Crew
to you, Danny and Lee and the immediate family guys.
It's an interesting transition because Hal, Tommy, Larry Nectal,
Joe Osborne, all these incredible guys, Mike Dacey, the sessions they did,
(06:40):
first of all, they never left town.
They stayed in town, worked session after session after session,
making all the records that we grew up listening to.
You never knew it was the same guys playing on 90% of the records you heard.
But the way records were made then, you'd come in, there'd be a chart.
You'd sit down, you'd play it. Next song.
(07:03):
It was a little more factory-oriented really, I would say, and I don't mean
to negate the incredible talent of any of those men. They were unbelievable.
But what happened with us in the 70s, we came to notice, like when I started,
i moved from new york to l.a i started doing sessions and i was told all right so,
(07:27):
when we do the track don't mess with your volume don't change anything don't play a solo,
what happened my lights just went crazy yeah you look illuminated you look beautiful
right now it's better lighting actually the lights in this room just kind of
went out um don't play a a solo,
(07:47):
but I'm the kind of person, when I hear a song,
I get inspired by what I'm hearing.
And I would hear in my mind what I think should be the solo.
So even though I was told not to, I just couldn't help myself.
And when the spot would come, I just couldn't see myself sitting there playing
(08:08):
rhythm through it when I had the solo in my mind.
So I would go for it. I would but just do it.
And at first that wasn't really going over well until they listened back and
they went, you know, that's pretty good.
Yeah, let's keep that. You know,
let's keep that. And then that started to be what we got hired to do.
We got hired to not only come in and read the chart, we got hired to come in
(08:32):
and add what the writers and producers hadn't envisioned.
You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. who could add this additional music to their music.
We would add, I always say, our lives are built on counterpoint.
Everything that I do as a studio musician, as a musician, is counterpoint to
(08:53):
a melody that's being sung by an artist.
And when that melody stops and there's these holes in the music,
my mind is going, what can fit there? What can I put there?
And I would do that. And likewise for these solo spots.
So we got hired more and more. and Danny the same way. And Lee would always,
and Lee's an amazing reader. He can read anything.
(09:15):
I'm okay reader, but Lee, he'll read a chart flawlessly. And, and.
But he'll always say to them, now that we've done it that way, can I try another one?
And if you don't like it, that'll be fine. And a lot of times they'll go, oh, that's great.
That's wonderful. Or they'll say, no, we like what we had, and that's fine.
But that was the difference. We started getting hired to be us rather than just
(09:40):
the guitar player who would come in and play it correctly.
And it sounds like the looseness of those sessions allowed for all the great innovations.
I mean, in the movie you recount, I don't want to spoil it, people should watch
the film, but an amazing story about you filling in the hole on Steve Perry's
O'Sherry and how you just take, you know, you hear the melody,
(10:02):
you hear the counterpoint.
Yeah, it's exactly what I just described. It was like, what do you mean there's
no solo? I know what it should be, you know.
Nailed it. And also, it was the fact that Carol, when she did Tapestry,
she'd been working with Danny.
Danny knew she wanted to use her guy. She didn't want to use someone else.
(10:27):
And same with James. Russell was playing with James.
Peter Asher had heard Russell playing for Jon Stewart and knew he was the guy to bring in.
So he brought him in and it was like the songwriters, the singer-songwriters
started to bring in their own people rather than, I was told when I moved to LA, I had a band.
(10:48):
The first thing they said was, okay, you're going to make a record,
but you're not going to play on it. I went, what? What are you talking about?
You're going to have studio musicians play on it. I said, well.
I think I could do it, you know, and then I started meeting studio musicians,
session players, and that's when I said, you know, I don't read as well as those
guys, but my ear is very quick.
(11:10):
I think I could do that for a living. I think I can do that,
and thank God I was making the right decision.
Absolutely, and a lot of those collaborations and people you've worked with,
obviously, right now, the immediate family is going on 50 years.
Stevie Nicks, even maybe more, right you were on the
first buckingham knicks even before they joined yeah yes you
(11:31):
know steve i've known stevie longer than i've known my immediate family and
that's a long time stevie and i met at the end of 70 or beginning of 71 through
keith olsen the great late beautiful friend of ours beautiful producer brought
stevie and lindsey down from northern california and he He said,
you got to play on this record.
(11:51):
I had already met Leland at that point.
But he said, you got to play on this record because they're great.
You're going to really like them. They're great singers, they're really good writers.
But the guitar player doesn't know how to play with anyone else.
He doesn't know how to play with another guitar player, so you got to work with
them. I said, okay, fine.
The three of us got along fabulously.
(12:11):
You have any recollections of those recording sessions?
Anything that can bring us back to that time? Well, Lindsay showed up.
He had an Ampex four-track machine
or two-track machine, and he had worked everything out pretty well.
So I just had to learn what he was doing.
But then I would add my own stuff, like I'm saying always.
(12:33):
But they were great. Ronnie Tutt was playing drums.
I don't remember who was playing bass, Jorge Calderon was around playing bass.
But their songs were magical.
A lot of the stuff, Lindsey had it worked out so well that he just played all
the stuff on some of those songs.
(12:54):
But like Lola, Lola, I played slide on his song. He never envisioned a slide guitar on that song.
Crying in the Night was interesting. It's such a drag that that album just flopped.
There's great material on it. It's grown in stature. Yeah, it has.
(13:15):
It's the reason they got into Fleetwood Mac because when Mick Hernery went.
But Crying in the Night, I remember they picked that to be a single,
but Keith Olsen called me.
He goes, you got to come in and we got to read you the guitars on Crying in the Night,
because it was basically acoustic because it's got
(13:35):
to be electric and you got to play slide on it and stuff
you got to dress that thing up so we made
a really cool version of it you know the single version is markedly different
than the record the album version and i was like a band finger it came out like
a band finger record sort of with the slide and stevie's vocal we did it on
the road with stevie for a while but we're not doing it right now it was a cool
(13:57):
song and around around that time,
I'm guessing was when you were working with the Everly brothers and ultimately met Warren Zivon.
That I met Warren. Yeah. When I played for the Everly's and, uh,
I think 1970, that was.
I don't think I'd met Stevie and Lindsey quite yet. I think we met during that period.
(14:20):
But that's when I had to audition for the Everly Brothers, and I auditioned
for Warren Zevon, was the band leader.
We didn't get along great right away.
We rubbed each other the wrong way, but I knew the songs so well.
When I heard that the Everly Brothers needed a guitar player,
(14:43):
I just said, well, that's me.
I know every Everly Brothers song, I know every vocal part, I know every guitar
part, there's no way I can't get that gig.
I showed up and did the rehearsal with Warren, corrected him on,
there's a song called Walk Right Back by the Everlys, and he wasn't playing it right.
That really didn't go over well when I said, okay, because he said,
(15:05):
all right, we'll play it once and then you play it with us. And I went,
well, you could leave out that we'll play it one step, because I know these songs really well.
And he said, no, no, that's the way we're going to do it.
So I got to walk right back, and I'm sitting there going, this guy's not going
to like this, but he's not playing that figure correctly.
(15:26):
So I corrected him and it didn't go over well. But nonetheless,
he said, I think you got this job. You got the job.
I said, where are the Everly Brothers anyway? Where are they?
He said, they're in the studio making their album. I said, well,
why aren't you there? What kind of band is this?
I said, I'm a studio player. Why aren't you in there? He goes,
(15:47):
hey man, just be happy you get the job. I went, I am.
Then when I left the Everly Brothers.
Lindsey and Stevie had no money yet. So Lindsey took the job for a while with
the Everlys, playing guitar. Introduced them to Don and Phil.
I had no idea. They played for a little while. And you were on that Everlys
(16:08):
brother, what was it called? Stories We Can Tell? Stories, yeah.
Yeah, because I had made such a stink about it.
Right. And the reason I saw that record years ago, and I looked at the back,
and I saw all the players on it. And I'm like, wow, this is the A-list of all great LA musicians.
It was, yeah. And we got in there. Warren and I think Warren got there with
(16:29):
me. Both of us got in there.
And it was funny because I remember John Sebastian being there.
And we were both bent over unpacking our guitars.
And we both came up with the exact same Les Paul.
It was amazing. And we looked at each other and went, what is this, a mirror?
It was like perfect it was like a Marx Brothers
(16:52):
movie where you know doing the mirror thing it was
amazing you know he remembered that moment too I spoke to John about
it years ago how did you go
from playing with the Everlys and Warren to ultimately producing Warren and
what is it like producing Warren Zevon sounds like a I love his music and his
(17:12):
perspective and his point of view and if that's how he is or was in person I
must have been a wild experience it was wild Yeah.
And that was the period where Warren was very alphaholic, so it was a very tough period.
I wound up producing him because I worked on that first album,
the blue album, I call it, the one Jackson produced.
(17:35):
And I went to England with Linda.
I think it was with Linda. I didn't meet him, but someone else.
But when I was there, I got interviewed by somebody about that album.
And i made the mistake well it wasn't a mistake turned out to be but with my
big mouth i said they said what did you think of jackson's production on the
(17:57):
album and i said well and it was crazy i mean there was a lot of people there
during these sessions it was out of control,
warren was out of control pretty much most of the time anyway and it was it
was quite a task to get anything done really it was hard so i said well quite
honestly you know i think he had his his hands a little too full,
(18:18):
and he really didn't know what to do because it was tough.
It was hard. So when I got home, the phone rang, and I pick it up,
and it's Jackson Brown calling.
And I said, well, hey, Jackson, how you doing? He goes, I'm fine.
He goes, listen, I read your interview. I went, what?
(18:40):
You you i thought you know i'm in england no one's ever going to see this in america,
i read your interview you did yeah you know the one where you said i didn't
know what i was doing and i had my hands too full i went oh before i could say
anything as you know so you're right
he says you were absolutely right he says that's why i'm calling you i want
you i need you to help me co-produce his next record oh you gotta be kidding
(19:03):
me you don't even know me because i know you well enough now to know where I
stand with you and where I stand with him,
and I need you to help me do this." So I was thrilled,
and that's how I got to produce that record with Jackson.
I got to do what I do, which is most of the time is try to lead bands whenever I can.
(19:25):
I could hear Warren's tunes, I could hear the arrangements there should be,
so we'd We'd had small bands.
And again, it was Russell Conkle, Lee Sklar, Danny Kortschmar came in,
Jeff Peccaro, had all the great players in Los Angeles in and out of that studio
working with us, always. It was fantastic.
And the songs were great. And we had werewolves in the back pocket.
(19:49):
And we didn't know that that was going to be the song that made his name and
made our life happen. Yeah.
Composition-wise, I had no
idea. We thought no one's going to like this one. That's what we thought.
When the record company picked Werewolves to be the single, we were aghast,
(20:11):
Warren and I. We just went, you got to be kidding me.
Of all the songs on this record, that's what they want to go with? We're thinking.
We were so wrong and happily so, so incorrect in our judgment.
Iconic. I loved the story you recount in in the movie about having John McVie
and Mick Fleetwood on drums and going through 62 takes of this to all to decide
(20:34):
that the second take was the right, the right one.
You know, after we did take two, Jackson said, that was pretty good.
You want to hear it? And Mick goes, nah, let's keep going. Keep going.
I went, Oh, okay, let's keep going. We were so happy. They came to do it with
us. We said, let's keep, let's keep going.
We kept going and kept going. It's like five in the morning going Jackson.
(20:55):
Take two was good. Wasn't it? I said, yeah, you want to hear it? I went, yeah.
So we never came in and listened to anything. We just kept going and going.
It was amazing. And it's take two, essentially what we hear as the final. Yeah. Amazing.
That's great. Yeah. And then I'm guessing around the same time or approximately
(21:16):
you were working with Linda Ronstadt as well.
Is that right? That'll Be The Day was the first track that you were on with her?
Well, that was the first single at all. Single. I think the first thing I played
for her was one of the ballad things. But that was the first time I heard myself on the radio.
That'll be the day. I freaked out. It was great. Cheers.
(21:41):
Unbelievable. And I love that three of the most iconic female artists of all
time, Carole King, Linda Ronson, Stevie Nicks,
are musicians who you've collaborated with over the years many, many times and closely.
What is it that having their music that you bring to it?
(22:02):
Your perspective well again it's that that counterpoint word and a melodic a melodic sense,
of accompaniment you know i mean and it i don't know if it just coincidentally
happened that these three incredibly talented women all dug us so much that
we wound up being the guys to play those those records.
(22:23):
With Stevie, we hadn't seen each other in years, and I got a call from Jimmy Iovine's office.
We spent all that time together early before Fleetwood, and once Fleetwood happened,
I was with them during the early sessions.
I played on the Sugar Daddy, that song Christine's, and then we went our separate ways.
All of a sudden, I got a call from Jimmy Iovine's office saying,
(22:46):
you want you to come play on Stevie Nicks' solo record.
We hadn't seen each other in years.
We just, our chemistry was so good together, obviously, because we're still working together.
Linda, it was just, again, it was like I added an element of a little more of
(23:10):
a rock and roll element to Linda's records that I think she was looking for
and Peter was looking for.
Like Carol said to me when I met her in the hallway, she looked at me and she
goes, I said, are we related?
I said, I don't know. I hope so. I'm not sure. But we both had fairly blonde hair.
(23:32):
It was a long time ago. We kind of looked like cousins for sure.
You know, when you bring up related, I heard a story. You're not related to
this person, but I heard a story.
I don't know if this is true, that you grew up with Leslie West from Mowden.
I grew up in Jackson Heights, New York. And at one point, when I was 16,
(23:54):
my dad, my mom died when I was very young.
My dad got married when I was 16. We moved out to a different town.
It didn't work out. So my brother, my father, and I moved into Forest Hills, New York.
And where we lived, the building was like, there's one building here,
this little awning here, and another building here, this little complex,
(24:17):
these two apartment buildings.
And I was pretty much a truant at school.
I was much more concerned with staying home, learning songs,
playing guitar than I was sitting in the high school.
So it's not a real thing to model after kids, but I wouldn't recommend doing
that. But nonetheless, I was doing it.
(24:39):
And one day, I came out of my building, and I heard someone playing guitar, which was really odd.
And I went, wow, is that a guitar? I'm hearing what the hell's going on here.
So I went into that building, the other building, and I went from floor to floor
until I found the apartment it was coming out of. The noise was coming out of it.
(25:01):
I knocked on the door. Every set guy opens the door. And I said,
are you playing guitar in here?
And he goes, yeah. I said, oh, okay. I said, my name is Bobby Wachtell,
and I can help you. You need help.
I was playing, you know, I started playing guitar when I was nine.
So by the time I was 17, 18 years old, I knew what to do.
(25:23):
You know, I wasn't ready to do sessions yet, but I was, I could play.
And I could tell Leslie needed help.
So that's what I said. You need help. I can help you. So we became brothers,
we became such dear friends.
Like I said, we lived in the same building. He and his brother,
Larry, me and my brother, Jimmy, and my dad, and they lived with their mom.
(25:47):
So we spent countless hours together and taught Leslie everything we could.
Played drums when they put their band together, I played drums till they found a drummer.
We spent a lot of time together. That's incredible.
Well, you taught him well, apparently. he's my pretty rip in
my ace student and when i heard the city
(26:08):
queen and realized who that was i went out
of my mind that's some great guitar playing also great guitar playing and it's
obviously we gotta we gotta mention you play with keith richards and in the
film it's amazing keith richards he's in there and he's gushing over you he
fucking loves you Pretty amazing.
(26:29):
Tell us how you end up connecting with Keith Richards and what is it like being
in that rare company to play guitar with him? It's extraordinary.
I met Keith when I was in London with Linda.
He came to a show we did and we bonded right away. We dug each other right away.
(26:50):
When he would come to LA, I'd see him here and there and we'd hang out you know
hang out always whenever we could just get together and make noise sit around
talk and play a little and then i got a phone call one day.
From some British lawyer saying,
(27:11):
I'm such and such and I'm an attorney for Keith Richards, and he's looking for you.
I said, oh, he's looking for me. He said, well, you found me,
why don't you give him my number?
He was great. He was very funny.
Listen, he's at Larrabee Studio. Do you know where that is? Yeah, of course I do.
He goes, would you give him a call? He wants to talk to you. i said
(27:34):
okay call it larabee keith richards
please can waddy how are you man i said
i'm good what are you doing how are you he goes i'm great he just says listen i'm
putting a band together and you're in it what he
goes yeah you're the other guitar player okay i said
yeah okay fine with me man fine with me he says come on what are you doing come
(27:55):
up here and he was him and steve were there steve jordan and he were there they
were working on the rock and roll we called the hail hail rock and roll movie
the chuck berry film right yeah so i went to taylor hackford and helen,
and the three of us said we're a band now i said that's fantastic i love it
thank you that's great because there's no audition for you you know that's it you're the one,
(28:19):
and i said great and then that was it that's how i got there amazing any any
remembrances of the talk is cheap album sessions or any key key memories that
you can share plenty you know,
One of the memories is I brought that same Les Paul I was talking about that
I unpacked with John Sebastian.
(28:41):
It's an incredible 1960 Sunburst, beautiful instrument that over the years had
been broken several times, dropped and fallen.
The neck had just been replaced on it, not replaced, but patched.
I brought it with me to Canada. We went to Montreal to do the Talk is Cheap record.
I unpacked it and as I unpacked it, when I ran my hand up the back of the neck,
(29:05):
I could feel the wood was coming apart.
I went, oh my God, no.
You got to be kidding me. Oh no, my guitar is not working. I can't use my guitar.
I had my Stratocaster with me also, but that's my main guy, that Les Paul.
And i was in shock so i went oh
(29:25):
look my guitar is fucked
man i can't use it and he goes
oh hey i've got another one here use this one and it
was one of these they called it a less pull but it was this bizarre
looking kind of black skinny thing with one
cutaway and weird instrument and i'm
nervous enough about being there and how i
(29:46):
wish that song which is on the album was the
first thing we did and like i
said i would go for solos live i always go so i'm
there playing a guitar i'm not familiar with a song i don't even know and we
get to the solo spot and i'm just going for it you know that's it and that was
(30:06):
the take and then after that the same night we did the the the single, Take It So Hard.
That was take one, Steve Jordan playing bass, Charlie playing drums,
Ivan, incredible on the keys, Keith and I on the guitars.
The song structure was.
(30:28):
Melodic thing that was going on was so different than how
it wound up being that and it
was amazing the track was amazing i mean we were all like what
that's it and i had a live solo again and and
it was so wild because the next day
the engineer said keith wants to do that song
(30:48):
again he wants to give it another shot and
we're like on what okay i'm going okay and something was got a little miffed
by it i went hey look if keith richards wants to do something again we're doing
it okay oh yeah okay okay so we went in to do it again couldn't do it it just,
(31:09):
did not work and i i looked at
steve i said what are you doing he was i don't know i don't
know i just can't make it happen now on the base it's not
not working and we keep looking at it while looking at
each other like well what so i
said all right that's it the other one's the take so take one take
it so hard amazing that's a great album i'm a
(31:29):
big fan of that one you also played
on bridges to babylon as well right one of the
only guitar players outside of ron wood mctaylor brian jones to play on a stones
record yeah jimmy page played on one and wayne perkins and harvey what was his
name harvey mandel is that it yeah he played on hot stuff black and I know.
(31:54):
I was blown away.
What's it like being in the studio with Nick and Keith and Charlie? Very interesting.
Very inspirational and long. A lot of fun.
And a lot of great music. Jim Keltner was with me too.
(32:14):
Jim and I were there every day for however long that went on.
It seemed to go on for quite a while.
And it was astounding.
We were just set up in a big circle,
playing through small amps, and it was amazing.
The single from that album was a song called, Has Anybody Seen My Baby?
(32:38):
Don came up to me and said, you're going to play lead on that tomorrow. What?
Yeah, you got to play on that song. He said, Keith doesn't want to play on it,
but if you play on it, then he'll play on it. I go, okay.
I got there and started playing on it.
And there was something sounded funny to me in the track something didn't sound
(33:01):
right what's going on here I said Don don't you hear this something wrong,
somebody's playing a wrong chord here and we soloed all the instruments and found it was Mick,
and it's his song but there was something wrong with the way he was playing
this chord and Don said well would you tell him I said me I'm not producing this Yes, you are.
(33:25):
He goes, yeah, I know, but could you tell him?
I said, okay, yeah, sure.
Nick, let me ask you something. I said, isn't this the right chord for that thing? Yeah, yeah.
I said, well, you're playing it wrong. What?
Come with me. Come here. And we went into the lounge where he had his notebook and stuff.
(33:49):
They are so diligent about what they do, both of us, Keith and Steve,
Keith and Mick, it's incredible.
Mick has everything written down in this journal ledger. He showed me, anybody see my baby?
Here's all the lyrics and above it were the chord symbols.
They were correct. He goes, isn't that right? Isn't that right?
(34:12):
I said, yeah, that's right, but you're not in it right.
He goes, you fix it. I said, okay, I'll fix it. That was great.
Amazing. But it was an extraordinary experience to be with the whole band at that time.
Incredible. Well, Wadi, thank you. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for all the music you've contributed to.
(34:33):
Thank you for these great stories. And there's so many. What I love about the
documentary in particular, you've just shared a small slice of your amazing history.
But when you open it up and you talk about the immediate family,
and then you add Danny and Russ and Leland, and it's just absolutely incredible.
So thank you guys for everything. It's an amazing reality to have a movie built
(34:57):
around us. I'm telling you, it blows us away.
Thank you for listening to the Legends Podcast by All Day Vinyl.
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate it, share it, subscribe,
and follow us and check us out at All Day Vinyl on Instagram and YouTube.
Thank you for listening. This is The Legend's podcast by All Day Vinyl.
I'm your host, Scott Duddleson.
After you finish this episode, please subscribe, rate, and check us out on Instagram
and YouTube at All Day Vinyl.
Today, I'm excited to speak with a legend. This gentleman is one of the great
session guitarists of all time.
He helped shape the sound of legendary songs through his studio and touring
work with James Taylor, Harold King, Linda Ronstand, and Stevie Nicks,
(00:23):
who he's currently on tour with. He produced three great Warren Zevon albums,
co-wrote one of his great songs, Werewolves of London.
He's a member of the Expensive Winos of Keith Richards, and most recently part
of a supergroup of legendary session musicians called the Immediate Family.
The Immediate Family may not be immediately familiar by name,
but the musicians in the band are all very legendary.
(00:44):
Danny Korchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Steve Postel, and our soon-to-be-introduced
guests have collectively played on over 5,000 albums.
If you look up any singer-songwriter album from the 1970s, you're bound to come
across one or more of these great musicians in the liner notes.
I'm pleased to introduce to you the great Wadi Wattel. Wadi,
thank you so much for joining.
(01:05):
Thanks, Scott. Thanks for quite an intro too. Thanks. I'm really happy that
for the last 50 years, you guys have been contributing to so much great music
behind the scenes that in 2023,
2024, you're getting your due to be upfront. front.
You have an album right now, Skin of the Game. You've got a movie.
So let's start with the album. Tell me how did this come about?
(01:29):
The first time the four of us played together, Lou Adler, who produced Carol's
Records, was doing an album for Tim Curry, if you remember who Tim is.
Rocky Horror. Yeah, exactly.
And I was a new guy in town, and I had been playing sessions and stuff,
but I hadn't yet met Lou Adler.
And through David Foster, who came to a session that I was working on david
(01:51):
recommended me for a session and i got a call from lou so i walk into this session.
And there's leland who i had already met russell who i had already met and played
with and there's danny who i had never played with heard him on records going who's this guy cooch,
and why is he getting all this work and how the hell do i get in there with
(02:11):
these guys and and there was danny and we loved each other the second we met
both new yorkers first of all so So we had that in common.
It was a reggae song that Tim was doing. We had that in common.
We both were crazy about reggae, early 70s.
Harder They Come had just come out. So we were just locked in,
the four of us locked in immediately.
(02:33):
Then the next thing I knew, Lou called me to play on Carole's Thoroughbred record,
which we did an album that was great, and then we went on the road and toured it together.
So that's where we all. And how did 50 years later, what brought you back together?
Well, before that, Danny had a solo album offer from Japan to do a solo record.
(02:56):
So he was hoping that the guys would be around.
Lee and Russ happened to be in town. I was on the road with Stevie.
But Danny booked a three-day weekend.
And I was able to get there for the Sunday. day and as
soon as we the five of us started playing i'd met
steve postel before steve's the new guy you know we
(03:17):
only known him about 20 years you know so but as soon as we all started playing
it fell right into the slot and it felt so natural and right danny just said
you know i gotta i've got an offer to tour after this record if comes out and
but i can't do it without you guys it's it's got to be you guys.
So why don't we make it a band? Since we are a band, really,
(03:41):
we've been one forever. We just didn't know it.
And Danny right away said, I wish you'd call it the immediate family because
that's what we are. And we all agreed that's exactly what we are.
And we went from there. So we went from
that solo record of Danny's to getting Cordovale
offered us a record deal so we
(04:01):
did our first album and now we've been lucky
enough to get the chance to do a second l which is now it's a double out set
14 songs on it but i can't believe that happened but and when you guys when
you guys uh put together the music are you co-writing it or are you each coming
together with your own uh combination another combination of of books there's
(04:23):
some songs i wrote by myself,
there's some that danny and i collaborated on and there's some that the three
of us collaborated on and on skin in the game russell kunkles involved in the
writing as well so there's collaboration all over the place and even if there's
not even if one person brings the song in.
The way this band works is it's so homogenous that everybody contributes what should be there.
(04:49):
So it's essentially an effort of love every time and ease because we worked together for so long.
I know where Danny's going to be on the neck of his guitar, so I'm not there.
Like, versa versa, vice versa. versa.
Steve Fustel can magically fit in between the two of us and not get in the way.
(05:11):
He plays a whole different style than either Danny or myself.
Lee and Russ are just this incredible rhythm section that are flawless.
It's an incredible happening every time we play, really, live.
It's an incredible bond. Whenever I see the footage of you guys in the 70s playing
with with Carole King or James Taylor or Linda, it's absolutely amazing.
(05:37):
And a lot of that is documented in the new movie, the immediate family film.
Which I want to just note for the listeners, is directed by a gentleman named
Danny Tedesco, who is the son of Tony Tedesco, who is in The Wrecking Crew.
(05:58):
And there was a documentary a few years ago about the Wrecking Crew,
which were the legendary L.A.
Session musicians who were on all the great records.
And the immediate family, which is you guys, were the great session musicians
of the 70s, were on all the great music.
So I want to ask you how that transition, because it's important and it's not
(06:18):
necessarily addressed in the film, how that transition from the Wrecking Crew
to you, Danny and Lee and the immediate family guys.
It's an interesting transition because Hal, Tommy, Larry Nectal,
Joe Osborne, all these incredible guys, Mike Dacey, the sessions they did,
(06:40):
first of all, they never left town.
They stayed in town, worked session after session after session,
making all the records that we grew up listening to.
You never knew it was the same guys playing on 90% of the records you heard.
But the way records were made then, you'd come in, there'd be a chart.
You'd sit down, you'd play it. Next song.
(07:03):
It was a little more factory-oriented really, I would say, and I don't mean
to negate the incredible talent of any of those men. They were unbelievable.
But what happened with us in the 70s, we came to notice, like when I started,
i moved from new york to l.a i started doing sessions and i was told all right so,
(07:27):
when we do the track don't mess with your volume don't change anything don't play a solo,
what happened my lights just went crazy yeah you look illuminated you look beautiful
right now it's better lighting actually the lights in this room just kind of
went out um don't play a a solo,
(07:47):
but I'm the kind of person, when I hear a song,
I get inspired by what I'm hearing.
And I would hear in my mind what I think should be the solo.
So even though I was told not to, I just couldn't help myself.
And when the spot would come, I just couldn't see myself sitting there playing
(08:08):
rhythm through it when I had the solo in my mind.
So I would go for it. I would but just do it.
And at first that wasn't really going over well until they listened back and
they went, you know, that's pretty good.
Yeah, let's keep that. You know,
let's keep that. And then that started to be what we got hired to do.
We got hired to not only come in and read the chart, we got hired to come in
(08:32):
and add what the writers and producers hadn't envisioned.
You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. who could add this additional music to their music.
We would add, I always say, our lives are built on counterpoint.
Everything that I do as a studio musician, as a musician, is counterpoint to
(08:53):
a melody that's being sung by an artist.
And when that melody stops and there's these holes in the music,
my mind is going, what can fit there? What can I put there?
And I would do that. And likewise for these solo spots.
So we got hired more and more. and Danny the same way. And Lee would always,
and Lee's an amazing reader. He can read anything.
(09:15):
I'm okay reader, but Lee, he'll read a chart flawlessly. And, and.
But he'll always say to them, now that we've done it that way, can I try another one?
And if you don't like it, that'll be fine. And a lot of times they'll go, oh, that's great.
That's wonderful. Or they'll say, no, we like what we had, and that's fine.
But that was the difference. We started getting hired to be us rather than just
(09:40):
the guitar player who would come in and play it correctly.
And it sounds like the looseness of those sessions allowed for all the great innovations.
I mean, in the movie you recount, I don't want to spoil it, people should watch
the film, but an amazing story about you filling in the hole on Steve Perry's
O'Sherry and how you just take, you know, you hear the melody,
(10:02):
you hear the counterpoint.
Yeah, it's exactly what I just described. It was like, what do you mean there's
no solo? I know what it should be, you know.
Nailed it. And also, it was the fact that Carol, when she did Tapestry,
she'd been working with Danny.
Danny knew she wanted to use her guy. She didn't want to use someone else.
(10:27):
And same with James. Russell was playing with James.
Peter Asher had heard Russell playing for Jon Stewart and knew he was the guy to bring in.
So he brought him in and it was like the songwriters, the singer-songwriters
started to bring in their own people rather than, I was told when I moved to LA, I had a band.
(10:48):
The first thing they said was, okay, you're going to make a record,
but you're not going to play on it. I went, what? What are you talking about?
You're going to have studio musicians play on it. I said, well.
I think I could do it, you know, and then I started meeting studio musicians,
session players, and that's when I said, you know, I don't read as well as those
guys, but my ear is very quick.
(11:10):
I think I could do that for a living. I think I can do that,
and thank God I was making the right decision.
Absolutely, and a lot of those collaborations and people you've worked with,
obviously, right now, the immediate family is going on 50 years.
Stevie Nicks, even maybe more, right you were on the
first buckingham knicks even before they joined yeah yes you
(11:31):
know steve i've known stevie longer than i've known my immediate family and
that's a long time stevie and i met at the end of 70 or beginning of 71 through
keith olsen the great late beautiful friend of ours beautiful producer brought
stevie and lindsey down from northern california and he He said,
you got to play on this record.
(11:51):
I had already met Leland at that point.
But he said, you got to play on this record because they're great.
You're going to really like them. They're great singers, they're really good writers.
But the guitar player doesn't know how to play with anyone else.
He doesn't know how to play with another guitar player, so you got to work with
them. I said, okay, fine.
The three of us got along fabulously.
(12:11):
You have any recollections of those recording sessions?
Anything that can bring us back to that time? Well, Lindsay showed up.
He had an Ampex four-track machine
or two-track machine, and he had worked everything out pretty well.
So I just had to learn what he was doing.
But then I would add my own stuff, like I'm saying always.
(12:33):
But they were great. Ronnie Tutt was playing drums.
I don't remember who was playing bass, Jorge Calderon was around playing bass.
But their songs were magical.
A lot of the stuff, Lindsey had it worked out so well that he just played all
the stuff on some of those songs.
(12:54):
But like Lola, Lola, I played slide on his song. He never envisioned a slide guitar on that song.
Crying in the Night was interesting. It's such a drag that that album just flopped.
There's great material on it. It's grown in stature. Yeah, it has.
(13:15):
It's the reason they got into Fleetwood Mac because when Mick Hernery went.
But Crying in the Night, I remember they picked that to be a single,
but Keith Olsen called me.
He goes, you got to come in and we got to read you the guitars on Crying in the Night,
because it was basically acoustic because it's got
(13:35):
to be electric and you got to play slide on it and stuff
you got to dress that thing up so we made
a really cool version of it you know the single version is markedly different
than the record the album version and i was like a band finger it came out like
a band finger record sort of with the slide and stevie's vocal we did it on
the road with stevie for a while but we're not doing it right now it was a cool
(13:57):
song and around around that time,
I'm guessing was when you were working with the Everly brothers and ultimately met Warren Zivon.
That I met Warren. Yeah. When I played for the Everly's and, uh,
I think 1970, that was.
I don't think I'd met Stevie and Lindsey quite yet. I think we met during that period.
(14:20):
But that's when I had to audition for the Everly Brothers, and I auditioned
for Warren Zevon, was the band leader.
We didn't get along great right away.
We rubbed each other the wrong way, but I knew the songs so well.
When I heard that the Everly Brothers needed a guitar player,
(14:43):
I just said, well, that's me.
I know every Everly Brothers song, I know every vocal part, I know every guitar
part, there's no way I can't get that gig.
I showed up and did the rehearsal with Warren, corrected him on,
there's a song called Walk Right Back by the Everlys, and he wasn't playing it right.
That really didn't go over well when I said, okay, because he said,
(15:05):
all right, we'll play it once and then you play it with us. And I went,
well, you could leave out that we'll play it one step, because I know these songs really well.
And he said, no, no, that's the way we're going to do it.
So I got to walk right back, and I'm sitting there going, this guy's not going
to like this, but he's not playing that figure correctly.
(15:26):
So I corrected him and it didn't go over well. But nonetheless,
he said, I think you got this job. You got the job.
I said, where are the Everly Brothers anyway? Where are they?
He said, they're in the studio making their album. I said, well,
why aren't you there? What kind of band is this?
I said, I'm a studio player. Why aren't you in there? He goes,
(15:47):
hey man, just be happy you get the job. I went, I am.
Then when I left the Everly Brothers.
Lindsey and Stevie had no money yet. So Lindsey took the job for a while with
the Everlys, playing guitar. Introduced them to Don and Phil.
I had no idea. They played for a little while. And you were on that Everlys
(16:08):
brother, what was it called? Stories We Can Tell? Stories, yeah.
Yeah, because I had made such a stink about it.
Right. And the reason I saw that record years ago, and I looked at the back,
and I saw all the players on it. And I'm like, wow, this is the A-list of all great LA musicians.
It was, yeah. And we got in there. Warren and I think Warren got there with
(16:29):
me. Both of us got in there.
And it was funny because I remember John Sebastian being there.
And we were both bent over unpacking our guitars.
And we both came up with the exact same Les Paul.
It was amazing. And we looked at each other and went, what is this, a mirror?
It was like perfect it was like a Marx Brothers
(16:52):
movie where you know doing the mirror thing it was
amazing you know he remembered that moment too I spoke to John about
it years ago how did you go
from playing with the Everlys and Warren to ultimately producing Warren and
what is it like producing Warren Zevon sounds like a I love his music and his
(17:12):
perspective and his point of view and if that's how he is or was in person I
must have been a wild experience it was wild Yeah.
And that was the period where Warren was very alphaholic, so it was a very tough period.
I wound up producing him because I worked on that first album,
the blue album, I call it, the one Jackson produced.
(17:35):
And I went to England with Linda.
I think it was with Linda. I didn't meet him, but someone else.
But when I was there, I got interviewed by somebody about that album.
And i made the mistake well it wasn't a mistake turned out to be but with my
big mouth i said they said what did you think of jackson's production on the
(17:57):
album and i said well and it was crazy i mean there was a lot of people there
during these sessions it was out of control,
warren was out of control pretty much most of the time anyway and it was it
was quite a task to get anything done really it was hard so i said well quite
honestly you know i think he had his his hands a little too full,
(18:18):
and he really didn't know what to do because it was tough.
It was hard. So when I got home, the phone rang, and I pick it up,
and it's Jackson Brown calling.
And I said, well, hey, Jackson, how you doing? He goes, I'm fine.
He goes, listen, I read your interview. I went, what?
(18:40):
You you i thought you know i'm in england no one's ever going to see this in america,
i read your interview you did yeah you know the one where you said i didn't
know what i was doing and i had my hands too full i went oh before i could say
anything as you know so you're right
he says you were absolutely right he says that's why i'm calling you i want
you i need you to help me co-produce his next record oh you gotta be kidding
(19:03):
me you don't even know me because i know you well enough now to know where I
stand with you and where I stand with him,
and I need you to help me do this." So I was thrilled,
and that's how I got to produce that record with Jackson.
I got to do what I do, which is most of the time is try to lead bands whenever I can.
(19:25):
I could hear Warren's tunes, I could hear the arrangements there should be,
so we'd We'd had small bands.
And again, it was Russell Conkle, Lee Sklar, Danny Kortschmar came in,
Jeff Peccaro, had all the great players in Los Angeles in and out of that studio
working with us, always. It was fantastic.
And the songs were great. And we had werewolves in the back pocket.
(19:49):
And we didn't know that that was going to be the song that made his name and
made our life happen. Yeah.
Composition-wise, I had no
idea. We thought no one's going to like this one. That's what we thought.
When the record company picked Werewolves to be the single, we were aghast,
(20:11):
Warren and I. We just went, you got to be kidding me.
Of all the songs on this record, that's what they want to go with? We're thinking.
We were so wrong and happily so, so incorrect in our judgment.
Iconic. I loved the story you recount in in the movie about having John McVie
and Mick Fleetwood on drums and going through 62 takes of this to all to decide
(20:34):
that the second take was the right, the right one.
You know, after we did take two, Jackson said, that was pretty good.
You want to hear it? And Mick goes, nah, let's keep going. Keep going.
I went, Oh, okay, let's keep going. We were so happy. They came to do it with
us. We said, let's keep, let's keep going.
We kept going and kept going. It's like five in the morning going Jackson.
(20:55):
Take two was good. Wasn't it? I said, yeah, you want to hear it? I went, yeah.
So we never came in and listened to anything. We just kept going and going.
It was amazing. And it's take two, essentially what we hear as the final. Yeah. Amazing.
That's great. Yeah. And then I'm guessing around the same time or approximately
(21:16):
you were working with Linda Ronstadt as well.
Is that right? That'll Be The Day was the first track that you were on with her?
Well, that was the first single at all. Single. I think the first thing I played
for her was one of the ballad things. But that was the first time I heard myself on the radio.
That'll be the day. I freaked out. It was great. Cheers.
(21:41):
Unbelievable. And I love that three of the most iconic female artists of all
time, Carole King, Linda Ronson, Stevie Nicks,
are musicians who you've collaborated with over the years many, many times and closely.
What is it that having their music that you bring to it?
(22:02):
Your perspective well again it's that that counterpoint word and a melodic a melodic sense,
of accompaniment you know i mean and it i don't know if it just coincidentally
happened that these three incredibly talented women all dug us so much that
we wound up being the guys to play those those records.
(22:23):
With Stevie, we hadn't seen each other in years, and I got a call from Jimmy Iovine's office.
We spent all that time together early before Fleetwood, and once Fleetwood happened,
I was with them during the early sessions.
I played on the Sugar Daddy, that song Christine's, and then we went our separate ways.
All of a sudden, I got a call from Jimmy Iovine's office saying,
(22:46):
you want you to come play on Stevie Nicks' solo record.
We hadn't seen each other in years.
We just, our chemistry was so good together, obviously, because we're still working together.
Linda, it was just, again, it was like I added an element of a little more of
(23:10):
a rock and roll element to Linda's records that I think she was looking for
and Peter was looking for.
Like Carol said to me when I met her in the hallway, she looked at me and she
goes, I said, are we related?
I said, I don't know. I hope so. I'm not sure. But we both had fairly blonde hair.
(23:32):
It was a long time ago. We kind of looked like cousins for sure.
You know, when you bring up related, I heard a story. You're not related to
this person, but I heard a story.
I don't know if this is true, that you grew up with Leslie West from Mowden.
I grew up in Jackson Heights, New York. And at one point, when I was 16,
(23:54):
my dad, my mom died when I was very young.
My dad got married when I was 16. We moved out to a different town.
It didn't work out. So my brother, my father, and I moved into Forest Hills, New York.
And where we lived, the building was like, there's one building here,
this little awning here, and another building here, this little complex,
(24:17):
these two apartment buildings.
And I was pretty much a truant at school.
I was much more concerned with staying home, learning songs,
playing guitar than I was sitting in the high school.
So it's not a real thing to model after kids, but I wouldn't recommend doing
that. But nonetheless, I was doing it.
(24:39):
And one day, I came out of my building, and I heard someone playing guitar, which was really odd.
And I went, wow, is that a guitar? I'm hearing what the hell's going on here.
So I went into that building, the other building, and I went from floor to floor
until I found the apartment it was coming out of. The noise was coming out of it.
(25:01):
I knocked on the door. Every set guy opens the door. And I said,
are you playing guitar in here?
And he goes, yeah. I said, oh, okay. I said, my name is Bobby Wachtell,
and I can help you. You need help.
I was playing, you know, I started playing guitar when I was nine.
So by the time I was 17, 18 years old, I knew what to do.
(25:23):
You know, I wasn't ready to do sessions yet, but I was, I could play.
And I could tell Leslie needed help.
So that's what I said. You need help. I can help you. So we became brothers,
we became such dear friends.
Like I said, we lived in the same building. He and his brother,
Larry, me and my brother, Jimmy, and my dad, and they lived with their mom.
(25:47):
So we spent countless hours together and taught Leslie everything we could.
Played drums when they put their band together, I played drums till they found a drummer.
We spent a lot of time together. That's incredible.
Well, you taught him well, apparently. he's my pretty rip in
my ace student and when i heard the city
(26:08):
queen and realized who that was i went out
of my mind that's some great guitar playing also great guitar playing and it's
obviously we gotta we gotta mention you play with keith richards and in the
film it's amazing keith richards he's in there and he's gushing over you he
fucking loves you Pretty amazing.
(26:29):
Tell us how you end up connecting with Keith Richards and what is it like being
in that rare company to play guitar with him? It's extraordinary.
I met Keith when I was in London with Linda.
He came to a show we did and we bonded right away. We dug each other right away.
(26:50):
When he would come to LA, I'd see him here and there and we'd hang out you know
hang out always whenever we could just get together and make noise sit around
talk and play a little and then i got a phone call one day.
From some British lawyer saying,
(27:11):
I'm such and such and I'm an attorney for Keith Richards, and he's looking for you.
I said, oh, he's looking for me. He said, well, you found me,
why don't you give him my number?
He was great. He was very funny.
Listen, he's at Larrabee Studio. Do you know where that is? Yeah, of course I do.
He goes, would you give him a call? He wants to talk to you. i said
(27:34):
okay call it larabee keith richards
please can waddy how are you man i said
i'm good what are you doing how are you he goes i'm great he just says listen i'm
putting a band together and you're in it what he
goes yeah you're the other guitar player okay i said
yeah okay fine with me man fine with me he says come on what are you doing come
(27:55):
up here and he was him and steve were there steve jordan and he were there they
were working on the rock and roll we called the hail hail rock and roll movie
the chuck berry film right yeah so i went to taylor hackford and helen,
and the three of us said we're a band now i said that's fantastic i love it
thank you that's great because there's no audition for you you know that's it you're the one,
(28:19):
and i said great and then that was it that's how i got there amazing any any
remembrances of the talk is cheap album sessions or any key key memories that
you can share plenty you know,
One of the memories is I brought that same Les Paul I was talking about that
I unpacked with John Sebastian.
(28:41):
It's an incredible 1960 Sunburst, beautiful instrument that over the years had
been broken several times, dropped and fallen.
The neck had just been replaced on it, not replaced, but patched.
I brought it with me to Canada. We went to Montreal to do the Talk is Cheap record.
I unpacked it and as I unpacked it, when I ran my hand up the back of the neck,
(29:05):
I could feel the wood was coming apart.
I went, oh my God, no.
You got to be kidding me. Oh no, my guitar is not working. I can't use my guitar.
I had my Stratocaster with me also, but that's my main guy, that Les Paul.
And i was in shock so i went oh
(29:25):
look my guitar is fucked
man i can't use it and he goes
oh hey i've got another one here use this one and it
was one of these they called it a less pull but it was this bizarre
looking kind of black skinny thing with one
cutaway and weird instrument and i'm
nervous enough about being there and how i
(29:46):
wish that song which is on the album was the
first thing we did and like i
said i would go for solos live i always go so i'm
there playing a guitar i'm not familiar with a song i don't even know and we
get to the solo spot and i'm just going for it you know that's it and that was
(30:06):
the take and then after that the same night we did the the the single, Take It So Hard.
That was take one, Steve Jordan playing bass, Charlie playing drums,
Ivan, incredible on the keys, Keith and I on the guitars.
The song structure was.
(30:28):
Melodic thing that was going on was so different than how
it wound up being that and it
was amazing the track was amazing i mean we were all like what
that's it and i had a live solo again and and
it was so wild because the next day
the engineer said keith wants to do that song
(30:48):
again he wants to give it another shot and
we're like on what okay i'm going okay and something was got a little miffed
by it i went hey look if keith richards wants to do something again we're doing
it okay oh yeah okay okay so we went in to do it again couldn't do it it just,
(31:09):
did not work and i i looked at
steve i said what are you doing he was i don't know i don't
know i just can't make it happen now on the base it's not
not working and we keep looking at it while looking at
each other like well what so i
said all right that's it the other one's the take so take one take
it so hard amazing that's a great album i'm a
(31:29):
big fan of that one you also played
on bridges to babylon as well right one of the
only guitar players outside of ron wood mctaylor brian jones to play on a stones
record yeah jimmy page played on one and wayne perkins and harvey what was his
name harvey mandel is that it yeah he played on hot stuff black and I know.
(31:54):
I was blown away.
What's it like being in the studio with Nick and Keith and Charlie? Very interesting.
Very inspirational and long. A lot of fun.
And a lot of great music. Jim Keltner was with me too.
(32:14):
Jim and I were there every day for however long that went on.
It seemed to go on for quite a while.
And it was astounding.
We were just set up in a big circle,
playing through small amps, and it was amazing.
The single from that album was a song called, Has Anybody Seen My Baby?
(32:38):
Don came up to me and said, you're going to play lead on that tomorrow. What?
Yeah, you got to play on that song. He said, Keith doesn't want to play on it,
but if you play on it, then he'll play on it. I go, okay.
I got there and started playing on it.
And there was something sounded funny to me in the track something didn't sound
(33:01):
right what's going on here I said Don don't you hear this something wrong,
somebody's playing a wrong chord here and we soloed all the instruments and found it was Mick,
and it's his song but there was something wrong with the way he was playing
this chord and Don said well would you tell him I said me I'm not producing this Yes, you are.
(33:25):
He goes, yeah, I know, but could you tell him?
I said, okay, yeah, sure.
Nick, let me ask you something. I said, isn't this the right chord for that thing? Yeah, yeah.
I said, well, you're playing it wrong. What?
Come with me. Come here. And we went into the lounge where he had his notebook and stuff.
(33:49):
They are so diligent about what they do, both of us, Keith and Steve,
Keith and Mick, it's incredible.
Mick has everything written down in this journal ledger. He showed me, anybody see my baby?
Here's all the lyrics and above it were the chord symbols.
They were correct. He goes, isn't that right? Isn't that right?
(34:12):
I said, yeah, that's right, but you're not in it right.
He goes, you fix it. I said, okay, I'll fix it. That was great.
Amazing. But it was an extraordinary experience to be with the whole band at that time.
Incredible. Well, Wadi, thank you. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for all the music you've contributed to.
(34:33):
Thank you for these great stories. And there's so many. What I love about the
documentary in particular, you've just shared a small slice of your amazing history.
But when you open it up and you talk about the immediate family,
and then you add Danny and Russ and Leland, and it's just absolutely incredible.
So thank you guys for everything. It's an amazing reality to have a movie built
(34:57):
around us. I'm telling you, it blows us away.
Thank you for listening to the Legends Podcast by All Day Vinyl.
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