WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Bruce Springsteen 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.040 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:10.040 What's up? 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:11.320 Man? Hello? 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:12.639 How you doing? 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:17.880 What? What up? I'm good? How are we? We're good? 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:19.400 Doing good? Right? 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:20.639 Thank you for doing this for us? 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.080 Man? Of course? How are we? 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.760 We're great? Better? Now? Where you right? 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.320 Now? To see? I'm at my home. It's my studio. Okay. 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.240 I couldn't tell what it was the background. I don't know. 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:36.720 It's a hockey rinkor yes, I announced it's a studio. 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:37.919 It's a studio. 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.519 I got it all right, ladies and gentlemen. This is 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.559 Quest Love Supreme. I'm Quest Love where with Team Supreme. 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:47.120 Take a little brother? 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:48.520 How you doing good? 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:48.760 Man? 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:50.320 Good man? Sitting with the vols? 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:51.760 Yes? 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:52.680 Good, damn good? 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:55.360 Hello? How are you? 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.880 I am living the American dream? Friend, living the American. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:00.800 In sugar Steve? 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.600 Yes, how's everybody doing? I've got a couple of bosses 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:07.400 in here in this so I'm going to behave. 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.600 I got a few bosses too in here. Shout out 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:16.840 to my boy John Landau. Who's listening? Wait is umbe Bill? 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.199 Like? Did he go off for cigarettes and didn't tell us? 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:21.600 Or just that man is working? 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:22.360 Man? I think he's just. 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.720 Working on another Tony Award winning production that's coming soon. 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.319 I think, yes, I know, okay, okay. 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.720 Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is a quest left supreme, 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:37.280 and I will simply say that our guest today is 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.959 one of the great master storytellers. He is one of 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:49.440 the most respected and well loved craftsman of song. He's 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:55.040 literally the embodiment of the working class hero, the everyday American, 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.920 you know, representative of the people. And he's basically giving 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:04.160 us the honor today of celebrating with him the release 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:09.040 of his twenty first twenty first album entitled Only the 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:14.000 Strong Survive. And if that idiom is familiar to you 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:19.360 and you're a soul record aficionado, and then you pretty 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.120 much know that that classic was pinned by I'm from Philadelphia, 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.800 so any chance to pick up Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.520 And of course Chicago's owned the iceman Jerry Butler. That's 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.120 where that song title derived from. That classic song. And 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.240 you know, our guest today has basically been bestowed with 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:45.280 every honor worth having in this field. Over one hundred 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.880 and thirty five million LP sold, twenty Grammys. 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.840 He has an Oscar Tony two Golden Globes, shit. All 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:54.400 he needs is to Emmy to get his egot. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.520 I sound like I'm in trouble. My wife just want 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.320 one to know she got the Emmy, all right, So 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:06.079 he got all right. 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:11.280 So as a combination, as one, we got egot status. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:11.480 Here. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:14.440 You're also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.880 and Songwriters Hall of Fame Kennedy Center Honor. You receive 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:24.119 the Presidential Metal Freedom. All this before the ripe old age. 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:29.440 Of twenty one. So everything, yeah, pretty much. Let me 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.360 just say, let me just say that I literally my 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:34.880 very first Springsteen show. 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:39.400 I literally saw this man climb the speakers and the 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:44.440 wall of the Apollo Theater to the balcony level and 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.760 twenty years my senior. So that means I gotta step 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.680 my game up. And gentlemen, please please please please welcome 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:58.880 the one and only the Boss, Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen. 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.800 You got my Yes, you have my and you have 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:12.640 my confirmation name. I come from a long line of Fredericks. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.839 That was my dad and my grandfather. We were all Fredericks. Wow. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.800 So first, first of all, you know, congrats on the 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.800 new album. I always wanted to know, how do you 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:30.520 determine the pivot or the direction. 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.480 Of how an album will go. 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.840 Like, I love when artists, you know, they feed their 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.120 fan base what their fan base needs and what well, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.680 what their fan base wants, and then sometimes you have 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.000 to give them what they need and what they don't expect, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.640 and you're often known, you know, it's it's almost like 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:52.960 a push and pull where we will get that classic 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.279 Jersey Springsteen sound, but then you'll do a departure record 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.000 like a Nebraska or The Ghost of Tom Joe, that 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:04.360 sort of thing. So for you, what was the sort 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:06.039 of mind state of where you wanted to go for 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:06.599 this album? 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.800 Well, I knew I was done writing for a while, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.280 so that had a lot to do with it. I 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.040 made a record with the East Street Band called A 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.760 Letter to You, and I hadn't written for the band 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:20.760 in quite a few years. And then I wrote most 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.240 of that record in about a week and a half 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.200 for two weeks, and we made it in four days. 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.800 And it was very Yeah, it was very summational. It 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.680 was sort of like this was my story up to 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:39.360 this point, and it just felt like and we made 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.240 a film that went with it, and it felt like 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.640 after that, I just felt like, well, I'm done. I 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:49.080 don't have anything I feel I want to write about 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.480 at the moment, so we're in the middle of COVID. 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:57.560 And also I enjoyed the act of recording. I like 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.760 being in the studio, you know, making sounds, and so 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:07.000 basically I started it was like, well, maybe i'll record 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.680 some things I haven't written, which I haven't done very much. 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:13.480 I did a sort of an Americana record called Secret 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:18.480 Sessions a while back, but I but I hadn't you know, 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.000 I'm usually writing my own material, so this was an instance. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.719 We said, well, I'm going to try and sing some 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.320 other things, you know, and so I just started doing that. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.200 I just coming in the studio, taking a song and 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.120 seeing what my voice sounded like like like on it. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:38.640 And I made a record with basically sort of singer 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.760 songwriter overtones or some rock overtones, and I put it away. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.960 It was pretty much I recorded all of it. We 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.560 didn't mix it, but when I listened back to it, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.680 it wasn't focused enough. So some way or another, I 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.479 ended up recording this dude, Frank Wilson's Do I Love You? 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.360 And if people know Motown, they know Frank Wilson was 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.919 more in the back line of Motown, but he did 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.359 sing and perform, and he was a great singer, songwriter 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.040 and producer and performer. And so we had this this 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.760 cut that was a hit in the northern soul scene 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.560 in England, right where they sort of dig up a 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:23.680 lot of unusual motown records and unusual soul records, and 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.200 so this was a It was well known in that scene, 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.000 but in the States it really wasn't known at all. 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:33.120 And I said, this is an incredible song. So I'm 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.680 just gonna see if I can get up in that 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.480 vicinity where Frank Wilson was singing and see if I 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.880 can sing it, and if we can get a production 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.760 that is powerful enough to stand up to, of course 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.560 the fab incredible Motown records, you know. So we cut 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.440 that and I felt like I touched on or something. 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:54.480 And then we did a few other I think I 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.760 did when she was My Girl the four Tops. The 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.400 Tops record that they had a big hit after they 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.560 left Motown, and I said, oh, that's fun. I had 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.520 a little disco thing to it, and and and uh, 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.200 I'm kind of in the range of Levi, you know, 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.200 of Levi Stubbs. I mean, I can't sing like him, 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:13.120 but I'm in I'm in his. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:18.480 Range, So yeah. 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.240 I got that gruff baritone, so I can sing those 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:22.120 songs in those keys. And uh so I started to 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.840 just you know, I cut two or three soul things 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.760 and and and and it felt very focused and fresh 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.520 and like I hadn't done it before. And it also 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.080 focused on my voice, which is something I haven't given 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.959 a lot of focus to. Usually on the records, I'm 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:41.040 I'm focusing on my songwriting, if the lyrics are any good, 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.079 if the song's powerful enough, and then my voice is 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.960 there in service of that material, of of my songwriting 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.800 and of my production, and and it's it's usually I 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.520 don't start voice first and think, oh, what's gonna sound 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.000 great me singing? But in this case, I got a 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.200 chance to say, Okay, I'm gonna just use my voice 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.040 as as the measuring stick of where I'm going to go, 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.520 and if I can sing something well in this genre, 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:07.640 I'm gonna take a swing at it and have some 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.880 fun with it. But it really began as a result 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.160 of sort of feeling like I was done writing for 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.839 a while and I'd finished sort of what I had 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.440 to say with with my band for a moment and 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:21.800 then looking just for something to do to stay active 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:26.160 and engaged, and and and keep the conversation going with 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.440 my audience and my fans, and and just have some fun. 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:31.440 Just have some fun with it. Okay. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.960 So you mentioned something with the when you talked about 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.480 the Secret Sessions, which was that you recorded it in 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:41.439 four days. 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.400 Now that was a letter to you. I recorded, Yes, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.040 secret Sessions. We actually recorded very quickly also, but but 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:51.800 and and live as was a letter to you. 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.000 So I have a question about that process because you know, 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:59.760 currently right now I'm probably in the worst place where 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:01.960 an art can be, which is like I'm on the 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:06.120 ninth year of working on the same album. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.080 I've been there now nine I haven't been nine years, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.320 but I've been years. So I have a little bit 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:15.839 of a feeling where you're coming from. 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.800 But the thing is is that when you when you 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.640 turn in an album in four days, well, first I 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.080 got to know is that your own accord or is 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.680 that John on your shoulders? Like, yo, you got a 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:32.880 weekend to finish this ship? 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.840 And then no, no, we never play it like that. 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.560 We we always play it like nobody cares how quick 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.199 you made that record. The day it came out. If 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.440 you rush to make a bad record, why would you 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.559 do that? You know, I mean, what a bad record? 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.640 That's all? What's it mean to your fans? And yeah, 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.480 and your your audience if you if you're hurrying up 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.280 and get a bad record out there, why so you 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.600 can go on to you know, it just doesn't. It 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.040 never made sense to me, and I never did it 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.800 right from when I was in my early twenties. If 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:07.840 it took me a year, I took a year. If 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.400 it took me a month, that took a month. If 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.080 it took me a few days, I made it in 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.280 a few days. And I made records all across that 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.960 spectrum where it took me years and where it took 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.360 me just days to put them out. And it depends 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.280 on the album, the record itself. It's quality. When I 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.560 feel like I've achieved what I was after, then I 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:27.520 put the record out. 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.720 Like at least with me, I feel like at least 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.640 need to let it simmer for maybe a month or 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.199 so before I feel different about it, Like I'm excited 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.400 about it when I you know, when you drive home 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:41.800 and you got bet rough picks in the final mix, 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.360 and you're excited and you played a billion times, and 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.760 you test it for everyone, and then there have been 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.280 times where like maybe two months later. 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.440 I don't I don't get those goosebumps anymore. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.560 And then I readjust the song and then do something different. 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:04.520 It doesn't it doesn't scare you to quickly execute something 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:05.199 that fast. 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.280 And well, I listen to my ears, you know, my 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.520 ears are telling me it's good. Then I believe them, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.160 you know. And then I have I also have John 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.720 is my is my sounding board. So I play something 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:21.200 for him and he'll say yeah, yes, no, He'll give 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.760 me his opinion about it. So we've had a forty 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:28.440 five year partnership where we've done that every single record, 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.880 you know, for a very long time, you know. And 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.559 so we you know, so we have a sort of 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.200 a system. And of course I have the band and 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.560 and you know, they have their feelings and opinions and 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.439 and so I just play it. I play it like that. 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.720 And also you have a certain amount of time it 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:49.480 takes just for the record company to get ready to 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.400 release it, whether it's two or three months or so. 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.040 And if I'm not sure, I'll just sit on it. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.880 If I'm sure, I put it out. And if it's good, 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.240 then I'm sure. But if I'm not sure, if I'm 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:02.000 sort of like I'm in the middle, I just sit 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.400 on it and I wait. I wait for it to 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:09.760 speak to me. I'm always just listening, listening, listening, listening 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:12.080 for the music to speak to me, to tell me 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.080 what it is, what it wants to be, what's the 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.960 relationship between my fans and I that the record is 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.760 going to inspire or instigate? You know, where is it 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.520 going to take our conversation next? So I you know, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.480 I reasonably trust my ears, and if I get it 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.200 done in a short period of times, then then it's 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.320 all all for the better, you know. But if it 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:34.360 takes time, I'll take. 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:39.440 It, okay. 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:43.200 So you're a band leader of not just these arbitrary 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.559 group of musicians, but you know, you're probably one of 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:53.120 the last acts in which your fan base knows every 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.960 last band member, almost every solo you know, like, you know, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:13:59.679 they have their favorites and whatnot. 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:05.240 So, as a band leader that has a well loved fan. 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.800 Base of people that have mined your musicians, how exactly 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.440 does your band get the news. 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:17.480 That you wanna that you want to do a solo flight? 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:19.960 You know, like even though I guess the first time 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.040 you did it was with Nebraska, correct. 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.400 Yes, you know, and that was by accident, so I 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:26.920 didn't know I was doing it at the time, but 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.440 I did. But I mad linking that record. 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:31.560 Yeah, But I mean, do you just tell them like 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.600 a laid back guys, like I'm I'm gonna do this 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.120 one alone or do you have to have a meeting? 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:41.280 And I think this record came up where it was 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:45.320 like we we cut Letter to You, had an incredible time, 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.360 probably the best sessions I've ever done with the East 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.360 Street Band in the studio. We made it in no time. 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:54.520 We did two songs a day, every day, and we 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.920 very very minimal, minimal, minimal overdubs. A guitar solo here, 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:05.600 a guitar solo there. So of course, yeah, all live singing, vocals, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:11.080 vocals too, everything, everything, everything is cut live in the studio, 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:15.120 singing playing, no overdubs. What was the reasoning behind that, 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.080 It's just how it worked out. I was assuming I 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.080 was going to re sing the vocals, and then when 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:21.600 I went to re sing them, they weren't as good 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.400 as what I cut live, and so I left them. 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.680 You know, it was pretty basic you know. So uh 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:30.680 after that, I assumed, well, I'll do something else with 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.080 the band, because you know, we had such a great time, 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.040 but the music just doesn't work like I have to. 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.960 Like I said, I'm not telling I'm listening, you know, 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.920 I'm I'm not I'm not telling my talents where to 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.520 go or or I'm listening to where they're telling me 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:49.920 they want to go, you know, and and what I 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.120 might be good at next. So on this record, I 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.480 remember having a little conversation with Steven just see you 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.840 know Steve. He said, well, we were gonna, you know, 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.160 we're talking about how we were gonna do a covers record. 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.920 And then I realized, well, the covers record was a 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.720 whole other thing. And it was once again I'm back 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.280 into cutting a lot of material and choosing some of it. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.520 Like on the band record Letter to You, I used 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.920 everything I cut, but on this on this record, I 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.120 cut a lot of material and I choose just some 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:21.400 of it. 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:23.320 You said you swung a lot of times to figure 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.080 out which record you wanted. I was wondering how you 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:26.600 narrowed the process down. 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.240 Yeah, you know, so this was a record where I 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.720 know it was gonna take me a lot of concentrated 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.760 studio time, and the guys at this point sort of 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:36.480 we don't go in and spend a year in a 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.040 studio like we used to. You know that that's sort 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.400 of so. So it ended up being me and my 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.840 producer ron An Yellow and our engineer Rob Lubray, and uh, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:52.120 we kind of just started doing quote of course demos 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.400 and then devilones end up being what you end up releasing, 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:59.360 you know. Of course this has happened to me many times. 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.600 The band is used to this happening to me at 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:06.080 this point, and it's a give and take a process 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.720 that we're used to recording with the band recording some 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.760 solo music, you know, and I don't know where it's 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.160 going next myself, like I said, I'm listening to find 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:15.720 out also, like the audience is. 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:17.600 I just wanted to know how many songs are on 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.400 the floor, like how many didn't make it? 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.800 A lot and probbly on this record there was probably 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.359 well there's fifteen on I don't even want to think 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.439 how many are how many were off any idea? 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:29.800 Rob? 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:36.000 Huh say that again? Forty? Yeah? Oh so there was 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.400 so there was forty. So in other words, I put 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:45.280 out fifteen and I left forty down. Yeah, so I 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.199 you know, trying to find out what is going to 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:50.959 be the best record, you know, or have to make 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.119 the most sense to me and my audience, you know. 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.320 So that's not unusual. I've made records where I've cut 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.680 seventy songs, eighty songs, and you know, they come out 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.760 on sets in different places where. But on this particular record, 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.840 there were forty songs we left we left in the can. 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:08.160 Okay. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:14.440 So since this album is essentially kind of at least 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.919 the spirit of it is a return to the music 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.159 that you kind of fell in love with in your childhood, sure, 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:24.400 I guess I'll start with the first question I asked 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.720 every guest on the show, even though this is like 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:27.600 the fourth question. 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.320 What was your what was your very first musical memory? 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:37.680 My first musical memory was Disney Records. What was these 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.159 seven snow White and the seven Doors? Wow? Hi ho, 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:48.719 hi hole, it's we go. So my first recollection was 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.880 something like that, you know, or you know those little 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.720 yellow records that played on seventy eight speed. I don't 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:58.760 know if you guys are old enough to remember these, 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.359 Oh no, I remember, yeah, but they were a little 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.840 seventy eight, so it's you know, a kid colors, red, yellow, blue, 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.720 and they played at seventy eight and they were basically 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.800 themes from movies. So that would be my first real 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.920 musical memory as a child. But after that, my mother 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.960 was young, she had me when I was when she 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.560 was in her early twenties. She played the radio. She 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:25.520 had the radio on all time every day, you know, 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.439 in the car and in the kitchen, and she listened 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.720 to Top forty and so right from a very young age, 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.960 I was exposed to like the great music of the 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.879 fifties and that sort of was where what kind of 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.800 inspired me, you know, And really I'm basically a Top 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.479 forty influence musician. That's how I kind of grew up. 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.720 And I started there and then I went searching in 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:51.280 blues and folk in a lot of different other places 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.159 for influences, but really I started out just listening to 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:55.359 Top forty on the radio. 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:01.720 That's a little unusual though, because I would think, I mean, 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.720 I would consider you maybe like the second generation of 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.480 rock and roll. So you're not, I mean, you're not 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.359 exactly a greaser. And I know that you in your 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:14.199 teen years. You know, it was the late sixties. But 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:20.159 it's very unusual for me to see not not agreeable, 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:25.080 but at least an amicable musically amicable environment in the household, 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.560 because normally, like the music of the kid is rebellious music, 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.960 and the parents turn that shit, you know, right, But 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.760 you're you're saying that your your parents weren't like that 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:38.400 at all, like, babe, Well, my. 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.760 Dad was a bit like that, but my mother, no, 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:46.119 she was a young woman and she was into Uh, 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.240 you know, we're Southern Italians, which means we like music, 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.879 we can sing, and we can perform. Where that come 0:20:56.080 --> 0:21:03.000 where they come from. You know, if you're coming from 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:06.200 Southern Italy where I'm where I'm from only a generation 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.480 or two removed, so I'm on that side of my family, 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.600 I'm a I'm a new American okay, and you know, 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:18.680 so uh, if you're coming from there, and as the 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.960 whole side of my family did, they were all you know, 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:26.240 singers and dancers and and and all of that went on. 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:26.600 You know. 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.800 So since you mentioned it, of those forty songs that 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:34.240 are on the floor, is one of those songs, what's 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:34.560 the song? 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.600 See wiggle waggle Oh. 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.440 No, wiggle wobble Man wiggle wobble. You played a hell 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.640 of a version of wiggle wobble on the air that night. 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.159 To this day, I'll say that, you know, I've been 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.840 on I've been on The Tonight Show for for you know, 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.000 thirteen years, and of course you and I know that. 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:59.919 What's weird because I don't think he does his Springsteen 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.000 impression in front of you as much as when you're 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:10.080 not there. But that that wiggle wobble moment during the commercial, Now, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:14.480 I gotta explain back when I think you were celebrating. 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:17.639