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Speaker 1: Pushkin. Just a quick note here. You can listen to

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Speaker 1: all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist,

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Speaker 1: which you can find a link to in the show

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Speaker 1: notes for licensing reasons, each time a song is referenced

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Speaker 1: in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect all right.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy the episode. Ben Mont Tench has been playing keyboard

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Speaker 1: with Tom Petty since before The Heartbreakers, when they were

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Speaker 1: playing around Gainesville, Florida, in the early seventies as Mudcrutch

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Speaker 1: with Tom Petty on bass. By the time the band

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Speaker 1: moved to la and changed their name to Tom Petty

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Speaker 1: and the Heartbreakers, ben Mont's keyboard plane had become integral

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Speaker 1: to the band's sound. His plane is big and resonant,

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Speaker 1: just like the lyrics of so many Tom Petty songs.

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Speaker 1: Ben Mont blends so well with the band that you

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Speaker 1: might actually forget he's even there, like in the song

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Speaker 1: You're hearing Now time to move on from Wild Flowers.

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Speaker 1: Figuring out exactly the best way to compliment a song

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Speaker 1: is what makes Rick Rubin love working with ben Mont

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Speaker 1: so much. In addition to being a founding member of

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Speaker 1: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, ben Mont has been an

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Speaker 1: in demand session player since the eighties, he's played on

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Speaker 1: records by You Two, Fiona Apple, Your Rhythmics, and Johnny Cash.

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Speaker 1: Rick and Benmont got together over zoom to commemorate the

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Speaker 1: release of the Wild Flowers box set, but their conversation

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Speaker 1: veered other places too, like the Heartbreaker's time on the

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Speaker 1: road with Bob Dylan, ben Mont's early days with the

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Speaker 1: Heartbreakers in Florida, and how the album Full Moon Fever

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Speaker 1: led Ben Mont tench to rehab. This is broken record

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Speaker 1: liner notes for the digital Age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's

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Speaker 1: Rick Rubin's conversation with Heartbreakers keyboardist Ben Montage. Do you

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Speaker 1: remember a time before rock and roll or was there

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Speaker 1: rock and roll? From your first memories of music, I

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Speaker 1: think the first song I ever remember hearing was Frosty

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Speaker 1: the Snowman or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and those

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Speaker 1: would have been pre rock and roll. But I was

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Speaker 1: born in fifty three. Elvis showed up on the scene

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Speaker 1: big time in fifty six. I remember probably sixty one

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Speaker 1: or so, Elvis put out his latest Flame. If you

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Speaker 1: don't know that song, that's an incredible song by Doc

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Speaker 1: Poems and mort Schumann, and it just knocked me completely down.

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Speaker 1: I'd been too little. I had been too little to

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Speaker 1: hear much other than Hounddog and Heartbreak Hotel, which was

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Speaker 1: so spooky it probably scared me. Elvis Presley singing his

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Speaker 1: latest flame after he'd done the army thing and all

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Speaker 1: of that stuff. When you supposedly denuded, it was magic

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Speaker 1: and I was so moved by it as a eight

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Speaker 1: or nine year old kid. And whenever was coming on

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Speaker 1: the radio at the time was mostly pop music, but

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Speaker 1: I still liked it. I liked the Fleetwoods, I liked

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Speaker 1: sad songs. I like all of that. But something about

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Speaker 1: the Beatles just blew it all out. And I think

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Speaker 1: there were bands in Gainesville before the Beatles hit. But

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Speaker 1: as soon as the Beatles hit. I was in Panama.

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Speaker 1: My father was working for the State Department. Briefly. The

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Speaker 1: Beatles hit when I hit America. When I was in Panama,

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Speaker 1: I came back in late sixty four, everybody had a band.

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Speaker 1: I had a band. We weren't any good, but my

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Speaker 1: mom said, when we moved houses, she said, the little

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Speaker 1: kid across the street, the twelve year old boy across

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Speaker 1: the streets a pair of drums, and I know you

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Speaker 1: like and you loved the piano. Since you're born, why

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Speaker 1: don't you go introduce yourself? And I kind of dragged

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Speaker 1: myself over to introduce myself to this kid, Sandy. We

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Speaker 1: put a band together, and then Sandy, five years later,

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Speaker 1: was helping carry gear for this band called Mudcrutch, and

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Speaker 1: he told me all about them and dragged me out

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Speaker 1: to go see them play. And that's the first I

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Speaker 1: saw Tom play and Mike play. I'd seen Tom hanging

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Speaker 1: around the music store when I'd go loiter, but I

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Speaker 1: never met him. And so in that wild, small world amazing.

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Speaker 1: What were your first impressions of Tom when you saw

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Speaker 1: him at that first Mudcrutch show? First Mudcrutch showed they

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Speaker 1: were so good, but something about Tom and Mike stood out,

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Speaker 1: even from Randall marsh on the drums and Tom Leaden

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Speaker 1: on the rhythm guitar or on actually second lead guitar,

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Speaker 1: and Petty was playing bass when they came out to

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Speaker 1: the booth where I was sitting illegally in this nightclub

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Speaker 1: because I was probably seventeen, you were supposed to be

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Speaker 1: eighteen or something. They came from whatever, they couldn't have

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Speaker 1: been a backstage and the astro lounge in Lake City,

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Speaker 1: but they came toward the booth where I was sitting

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Speaker 1: with my friends Sandy and Tom and Mike. There was

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Speaker 1: just something going on. Now. The whole band was great,

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Speaker 1: and randall the drummers who I was taken with immediately.

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Speaker 1: They were so good that four piecepan. But Tom and

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Speaker 1: Might come down, it's like whoa. And they were totally nice.

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Speaker 1: But there was something. There was always something warm but

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Speaker 1: intimidating about Patty, you know, And so I was just

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Speaker 1: a fan. I followed them around. Well, my friend Sandy

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Speaker 1: would say, they're playing here, they're playing there, They're playing

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Speaker 1: a fraternity party. And it's like, Okay, I guess I'll

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Speaker 1: go pretend to be a member of the fraternity. I

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Speaker 1: go to just sit on the floor and listen to

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Speaker 1: these guys play every chance I got. And then I

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Speaker 1: was sitting in with them pretty quickly, you know, And

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Speaker 1: then eventually I quit college to join the band. Do

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Speaker 1: you remember the very first time you got to play

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Speaker 1: with them? I do. There was a nightclub called Dubs

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Speaker 1: Dubs something lounge that had topless dancers, but they weren't

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Speaker 1: there the night I was there and mud Crutch was

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Speaker 1: playing like five sets a night or whatever, and my

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Speaker 1: friend Sandy said, Hey, they wanted to know if you

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Speaker 1: want to bring down your portable organ and sit in

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Speaker 1: with them. And I thought they must really be bored

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Speaker 1: down there if they want me. It was like three

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Speaker 1: years younger than any of them, and that matters when

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Speaker 1: you're seventeen or eighteen, and I thought, well, I want

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Speaker 1: to go see them play anyway, and I had the moment.

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Speaker 1: The portable organ I had was heavy, heavy, heavy, and

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Speaker 1: the amp was heavy, and I drag them out and

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Speaker 1: I'm driving my MoMA's station wagon and I'm looking at

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Speaker 1: the tailgate and looking at this organ and going, so,

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Speaker 1: I really want to pick this thing up and throw

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Speaker 1: it in there, just because Mudcrutch is bored. And at

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Speaker 1: the last second I went, yeah, I'll bring it, and

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Speaker 1: I brought it and I got there and I went

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Speaker 1: in and they were just playing songs that I could

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Speaker 1: either follow or I knew from whatever records they were.

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Speaker 1: They weren't super top. Forty JJ Cale's Crazy Mama was

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Speaker 1: a popular song. They played a couple of Van Morrison songs,

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Speaker 1: but it didn't feel like some cheesy cover band that

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Speaker 1: does steps or learns all this parts precisely. It felt

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Speaker 1: like a soulful band playing these cool tunes, and it

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Speaker 1: was I fit playing with them immediately, and they were

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Speaker 1: pretty clearly enjoyed the way I was playing, and they said,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're playing the University of auditorium this weekend.

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Speaker 1: You want to come and play a song or two.

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Speaker 1: There's a piano there. So I did that, and then

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Speaker 1: whenever I was home from college for a year and

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Speaker 1: a half or so, i'd sit in with them, you know,

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Speaker 1: come home for the summer playing the band. Also, from

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Speaker 1: the first time I sat in with them, it was

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Speaker 1: just it was just fun. It was just really natural.

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Speaker 1: It was really great. Plus, like I said, I was

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Speaker 1: a big fan, so it's like, oh, yeah, really these

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Speaker 1: guys were my heroes. If they were my heroes, so cool, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so cool. Do you think at that point they imagine

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Speaker 1: that this was a serious thing that they'd be doing

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Speaker 1: or do you think it was just something they would

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Speaker 1: do for Fine, At this point in time, they were

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Speaker 1: they were dead serious about it, that's what they were doing.

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Speaker 1: And I wanted to be a musician. And I was

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Speaker 1: in college as an art student, and because John Lennon

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Speaker 1: went to art college and that's where he met Stu

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Speaker 1: Sutcliffe and the Beatles were born. So I was literally

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Speaker 1: in art college waiting to find a band, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't find it in New Orleans, where the college was,

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Speaker 1: but I found it back home on break and Tom

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Speaker 1: in particular, Mike too had the drive an ambition to go,

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Speaker 1: wait a minute, there's somewhere beyond Gainesville. Come on, let's

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Speaker 1: do this. Bands get record deals and make records with

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Speaker 1: real companies, not just pressed on their own label and

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Speaker 1: financed by a guy who owns a pepper farm in bushvill, Florida.

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Speaker 1: God bless him though. So yeah, it was a It

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Speaker 1: was serious business because we were so music was everybody's life.

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Speaker 1: All you do is go over to any of your

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Speaker 1: friends houses and they put on a record, And I

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Speaker 1: go to Tom's apartment. I put on the new todd

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Speaker 1: Or Hungering record, which was incredibly psychedelic, a little too

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Speaker 1: psychedelic in ways, and he'd put on a Grand Parsons

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Speaker 1: and Namy Lou Harris record, greet as Angel and say

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Speaker 1: have you heard this? Or they'd say they played the

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Speaker 1: City Startus album and go no, no, no, this ain't

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Speaker 1: the one. Hunky Dorry that's the Bowie record. And we

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Speaker 1: just play things back and forth at each other and

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Speaker 1: learn stuff and get excited. So music was always life.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't just some passing fancy. How different was the

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Speaker 1: world pre Beatles to post Beatles For you guys, I

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Speaker 1: don't know about for them because I met them. You know,

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Speaker 1: this is like when I sat in with them, was

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Speaker 1: probably seven years into the Beatles, because it would have

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Speaker 1: been seventy I think. So the Beatles broke up, but

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Speaker 1: everything exploded and the songwriting was mysterious and gorgeous. It

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Speaker 1: was really deep. People say the world went to technicolor,

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Speaker 1: and I remember color. I remember that the world was

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Speaker 1: beautiful and magical and strange before the Beatles came. But

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Speaker 1: really it went three D or four D or something

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Speaker 1: when the Beatles hit. It's amazing. And I was only ten,

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Speaker 1: you know, if you're like thirteen or fourteen and then

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Speaker 1: junior high school, going too high school, that really must

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Speaker 1: have been something. For like Tom and Mike and everybody.

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Speaker 1: It was the best thing. It was the best damn thing.

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Speaker 1: Nineteen sixty four through nineteen sixty six or sixty eight.

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Speaker 1: The quality of music that was showing up was another level.

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Speaker 1: Can you remember, can you remember other artists or particular

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Speaker 1: tracks or albums where it was just like the world

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Speaker 1: stopped for you, like really the ones that changed your life.

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Speaker 1: The first time I heard Aretha, whatever it was, whether

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Speaker 1: it was Think or Chains or Natural Woman or Never

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Speaker 1: Loved a Man, whatever it was that came on the radio,

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Speaker 1: it was Aretha. That was a stop time thing. Those

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Speaker 1: muscle shoals cats combined with Aretha, Franklin, some Tammy Wynette

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Speaker 1: stuff would come on the radio. It was all in

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Speaker 1: the same station. Got George Jones, you got Ray Charles,

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Speaker 1: you got Frank Sinatra, you got Novelee, bands from England.

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Speaker 1: You might have a stone cold country hit, so that

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Speaker 1: since everybody wasn't on TV, and I'm a young kid

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Speaker 1: that's more curious about the sound than the look. I

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Speaker 1: honestly like, I didn't know if whoever the country singer

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Speaker 1: I heard, Tammy Wynette or whatever was black. I just

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Speaker 1: kind of like, wow, this is a fantastic or honest

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Speaker 1: to God, if Aretha was black. Honest to God, I

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Speaker 1: just was listening and hearing this and going, this is

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Speaker 1: bloody amazing. And since you had one after the other,

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Speaker 1: I mean, how can you have Frank Sinatra and Ray

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Speaker 1: Charles and the brand new Beatles record, and Wilson Pickett

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Speaker 1: and Aretha Franklin and Tammy Wynette and it's all in

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Speaker 1: a row. Yeah, greatest music of all time. Well, the

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Speaker 1: greatest radio of all time because it was so diverse.

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Speaker 1: But also you drive along the FM radio in Gainesville,

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Speaker 1: do you know Walk on Gilded Splinters by Doctor John No,

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Speaker 1: it's long and it is spooky. And if it's one

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Speaker 1: in the morning and you're just burning off steam, driving

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Speaker 1: like the roads between towns in northern Florida and a

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Speaker 1: song like that comes on, it's going to mess you up.

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Speaker 1: It was just this wonderful amount of discovery. And Tom

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Speaker 1: and Mike Bludcrutch in general loved country music, and I'd

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Speaker 1: pretty much written off anything that was hard country. George

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Speaker 1: Jones was country as hell, but he had songs like

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Speaker 1: White Lightning and the Races on that you couldn't deny.

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Speaker 1: But they knew the stuff that was played in the

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Speaker 1: morning before the morning news at six in the morning,

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Speaker 1: the guys with the Billman road type hats and the

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Speaker 1: upright basis and the fills and everything that I would

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Speaker 1: just go I want to watch a cartoon. He go

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Speaker 1: past me, and they were diving into that. They're also

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Speaker 1: so deeply into the Rolling Stones and Bob and Wilson Pickett,

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Speaker 1: which is where we learned so much stuff. Everything was

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Speaker 1: blended together. Everything. They were listening to bluegrass, country, rhythm

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Speaker 1: and blues tom which c James Brown in nineteen sixty five.

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Speaker 1: Just a kid, He's gonna go see James Brown. He said.

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Speaker 1: It was astonishing. They were open to everything. And they

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Speaker 1: got playing electric piano through a Marshall stat and turning

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Speaker 1: it up so much that it distorted like a guitar,

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Speaker 1: and we played some school auditorium and cracked the ceiling.

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Speaker 1: I was so proud. Will be back in a few

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Speaker 1: with more of Rick's conversation with ben Mont. We're back

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Speaker 1: with more from Ben montench. You sit in an unusual

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Speaker 1: place for a musician because you've you are a founding

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Speaker 1: member of one of the biggest and longest running rock

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Speaker 1: bands in the world, and at the same time you're

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Speaker 1: maybe the most sought after studio keyboard player in the world,

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Speaker 1: which is very different. It's an entirely different world, so

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Speaker 1: you get to experience two different lives, whereas if you

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Speaker 1: only played in your band, your experience of music would

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Speaker 1: be one thing, but you get to play with everybody,

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Speaker 1: different producers, different musicians constantly, And I just want to

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Speaker 1: talk about what that's like. What's it like to experience

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Speaker 1: these different things versus just being the guy in the band. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know the thing that I wanted to do from

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Speaker 1: when I was pretty young and Herd Book or t

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Speaker 1: in the MG's, and then when I was fifteen or so,

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Speaker 1: got Similtis records and some Wilson Picket records that were

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Speaker 1: cut as stacks and realized these guys are playing with everybody.

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Speaker 1: I thought, well, I want to be in the band,

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Speaker 1: but I would love to be in a band like

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Speaker 1: Book continuing the MG's that's playing with everybody, or I

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Speaker 1: would love to be a session musician. And I never

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Speaker 1: thought of there's a certain echelon of session musicians that

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Speaker 1: I never thought of as the people who just kind

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Speaker 1: of show up as a job and do it. Now,

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Speaker 1: none of the session musicians I've met or people who

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Speaker 1: just kind of show up as a job and do it.

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Speaker 1: There are people that are so good they can turn

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Speaker 1: sheet upside down and look at the mirror and read

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Speaker 1: it and play it on first sight. So I played

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Speaker 1: on a lot of records. I had a good run

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Speaker 1: that I'd love to do again of playing with all

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Speaker 1: sorts of diverse people, and maybe I can, and you

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Speaker 1: learn so much. But also the band was very insular

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Speaker 1: and didn't know anything except our world and a couple

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Speaker 1: of our friends who were really cool musicians. And through

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Iovin, I found myself really in the Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: session world because he invited me along to a Dylan session.

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Speaker 1: He did, and Bob said to me come back, and

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Speaker 1: he had me work on Stevie Nicks's first solo record,

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Speaker 1: and I met a whole other group of session musicians,

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Speaker 1: and I guess they spread the word, said hey, you

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Speaker 1: should check this Canta. But the best thing was always

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Speaker 1: learning that, oh man, I'm not good enough to be

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Speaker 1: in this room. I better really listen up and step up.

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Speaker 1: But imagine yourself. You're in a room with one of

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Speaker 1: Bob Dylan's greatest bands, David Mansfield and everybody Keltner and

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Speaker 1: Drummond Holy Moley, and across the room is Bob Dylan

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Speaker 1: singing a song and I'm just like I'm in the

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Speaker 1: deep end. I better learned to swim and I met

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Speaker 1: all these wonderful people, James Gadson, who's just the drummer

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Speaker 1: for all time, him and Kelton and Ringo and Watts.

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Speaker 1: I got to play with all these cats. And it's

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Speaker 1: not a feather in the cap thing. It's simply a

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Speaker 1: life experience. Like do you want to, you know, stand

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Speaker 1: on the highest peak, not in order to tell people

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Speaker 1: you did it, but in order to have your breath

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Speaker 1: taken away. Yeah, And that's what that's like with the

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Speaker 1: Dylan session. Your first non Heartbreaker friends would call me

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Speaker 1: up to do something, but for the first few years

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Speaker 1: of the bands, Tom would not let us play sessions.

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Speaker 1: So maybe the first bunch of sessions I did that

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Speaker 1: had any consequence were maybe Dylan and Stevie amazing. Talk

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the difference in playing with

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Speaker 1: different people. What's inspiring about playing with someone different than

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Speaker 1: who you normally play with. The inspiring part is usually

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Speaker 1: if the groove is really cool. The best part is

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Speaker 1: if you don't have to think, But it's also really

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Speaker 1: good if you go into a room and you're challenged

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Speaker 1: to play with somebody and you can't quite and it

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Speaker 1: takes you a while to find your way in. Butause

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Speaker 1: your job is to find your way in. So you

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Speaker 1: might find a band with a bass player that you

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Speaker 1: can't really see where he's coming from, but you have

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Speaker 1: to be with him because you're part of the rhythm section,

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Speaker 1: and you find your way in. You might find a

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Speaker 1: drummer who has an entirely different field than you're used to,

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Speaker 1: and you have to go, how do I slot with this?

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Speaker 1: I learned one really cool thing from Danny Korchmar on

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Speaker 1: the first not the first day, but when we were

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Speaker 1: working on the Dylan record. He said, listen, if somebody

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Speaker 1: tells you to play a part and you think it's

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Speaker 1: really stupid, and you're sure, and the producers like, no,

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Speaker 1: no plays a sparts what I want, don't play it

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Speaker 1: because that's the stupid part on that record. Even if

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Speaker 1: it's a hit or whatever, that's the stupid part on

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Speaker 1: the record. And you're going to be the guy that

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Speaker 1: played the stupid part. Nobody's going to know that the

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Speaker 1: producer or held a gun to your head and made

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Speaker 1: you play the stupid parts. It's like, if you don't

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Speaker 1: think it's good, don't play it. Now. You can lose

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Speaker 1: gigs that way. If You're sitting in a room behind

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Speaker 1: the Hammond and the Vox Continental and Bob Dylan's Bob

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Speaker 1: Dylan is the background singers are all to your right.

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Speaker 1: The brilliant background singers are all to your right playing

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Speaker 1: percussion and singing. And across the room you see Jim

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Speaker 1: Keltner and Tim Drumm is next to him, and they

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Speaker 1: are these great guitar players are like Danny Korchmar and

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Speaker 1: Steve Ripley and Fred Tackett around the room, and Bob

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Speaker 1: Dylan is teaching you a song and the song is

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Speaker 1: every grain of sand or whatever it is. And the

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Speaker 1: piano player was great too, Carl pickhart Man. It's like

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Speaker 1: you're at a concert by your favorite musicians, but instead

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Speaker 1: of being in an audience, you're standing in the midst

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Speaker 1: of them. Wow. Yeah, and you're and you don't really

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Speaker 1: know the song so well. You know, it's it's a

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Speaker 1: it's an amazing moment of discovery being in that room

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Speaker 1: and its sounding good, and it just like it's almost

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Speaker 1: like it's playing through you. You know, it is playing

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Speaker 1: through you. And the thing about the sessions with Keltner

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Speaker 1: that time was that it was kind of like a

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Speaker 1: sculptor will tell you that you chisel away at the

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Speaker 1: marble and the figure will reveal itself. And when it's

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Speaker 1: totally revealed itself, that's that's what happens. And I would watch,

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Speaker 1: we would play the songs and they would slowly appear,

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Speaker 1: they'd become themselves in any session, and that's true with

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Speaker 1: Bonnie Rate, it was true with the replacements. It was

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Speaker 1: really hard for me to figure out what Paul Westerberg wanted,

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Speaker 1: but I think I got it. I liked what he

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Speaker 1: played better than what I played. Henley would always challenge

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Speaker 1: me to go farther and farther and farther and farther

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Speaker 1: and farther farther. No, you can do this, but it's

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Speaker 1: not there yet to a perfectionist level. That to me,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, don, your rough vocal was better than any

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Speaker 1: of the ones that are perfect. But that's how I

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Speaker 1: am to going to going to the other extreme where

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Speaker 1: you can just you just go play and you don't analyze,

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Speaker 1: and it's just straight up rock and roll, which is

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Speaker 1: what Mudcrutch was and which is what some of the

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Speaker 1: Heartbreakers stuff was. We'd fine tune, we'd zone in, but

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Speaker 1: it was it was just this feeling of joy and

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Speaker 1: depth and sorrow and hi in the physical sense, like

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Speaker 1: you're lifted. Yeah, it felt like it pretty naturally happened

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Speaker 1: in The Heartbreakers for the most part. And then any

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Speaker 1: additional colors or embellishments just for a you know, if

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Speaker 1: we wanted something special for a moment, we might have

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Speaker 1: to figure out what that was, but that but that

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Speaker 1: would only be icing on the cake. Really. Wildflowers was

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Speaker 1: the exception, because I remember that Wildflowers, you were being

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Speaker 1: very particular about what Steve would do and reordering the

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Speaker 1: bridge is too good to be king and things like that.

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Speaker 1: For the most part, we would flow into it. But

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Speaker 1: Mike was saying, because we've been talking about it lately

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Speaker 1: with people that with you, what would happen is we

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Speaker 1: were used to playing the song and we would get it.

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Speaker 1: It would be really really good. We go, this is it,

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Speaker 1: this is the take, and this is kind of what

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Speaker 1: happened with Mary James's last dance. But we do something

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Speaker 1: and it's like, that's it. We're not going to top that,

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Speaker 1: and you would go, yeah, but try it this way,

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Speaker 1: and there is enough trust in you to go, Okay,

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Speaker 1: what if we do in a very minor way. Change

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Speaker 1: the pattern on each instrumental lick during Good to Be King,

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Speaker 1: not the piano lick, but the cello lick. What if

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Speaker 1: we do that a little bit differently here and leave

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Speaker 1: it out there? It's like what But we did it

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Speaker 1: and that was really rewarding. After a quick break, we'll

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Speaker 1: be back with the rest of Rick's conversation with Ben Montage.

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Speaker 1: We're back with the rest of Rick's conversation with Ben Montench.

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Speaker 1: They jump right into talking about the Heartbreakers tours with

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Speaker 1: Bob Dylan. Talk about the shows with Bob. How did

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Speaker 1: it happen? How did it come about? Well, apparently Elliott

399
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Speaker 1: Roberts was managing us and he was managing Bob at

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Speaker 1: the same time, and he had this brilliant idea, would

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Speaker 1: you do a Tom Petty set and then Bob would

402
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Speaker 1: come out? How did it work? We played with for

403
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Speaker 1: two years for several tours, and it was different different times.

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Speaker 1: There was one thing where we'd come out and play altogether,

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Speaker 1: Bob would leave and we'd play a set of hours,

406
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Speaker 1: three or four songs and then Bob will come back,

407
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Speaker 1: or else we would leave and Bob will come out

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Speaker 1: and do this really powerful acoustic set and go back

409
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Speaker 1: and forth like that. We'd all played together. The last

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Speaker 1: tour that we did with him, Roger mcgwinn opened solo acoustic,

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Speaker 1: then we would come on and play a few songs

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Speaker 1: with mcgwinn, and then mcgwinn would leave and we'd do

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Speaker 1: a set of hours and then Bob would come home

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Speaker 1: with us, and that was a really that was a

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Speaker 1: really great tour to me. It started in the rehearsals

416
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:26,280
Speaker 1: were so disastrous though we'd played together for a couple

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Speaker 1: of years that I was kind of like, let me

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Speaker 1: out of here. Of course, the fact that I was

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Speaker 1: doing massive amounts of cocaine couldn't have had any impact

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Speaker 1: on that. I got slapped on that tour. The Bob

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Speaker 1: gigs were great because Tom would say that Bob changed

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Speaker 1: keys all the time. You do all that. He did

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Speaker 1: a little bit of that. It wasn't like every day

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Speaker 1: he's like throwing something at you, but he would say

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Speaker 1: do you know this? As you're walking on stage, you like,

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Speaker 1: we never hearsed it, I don't care. I know it

427
00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:55,680
Speaker 1: and I know it by heart, and you say, okay,

428
00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:58,239
Speaker 1: just hearn me and maybe Mike and he'd do that

429
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,399
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Amazing was the first What was the

430
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,360
Speaker 1: first thing the Heartbreakers did post the Bob Tour? What

431
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,640
Speaker 1: was the next project between legs of the Bob Tour

432
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:13,199
Speaker 1: or after the Bob Tour? We I think during a

433
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 1: break we recorded a record of just really hardcore rock

434
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 1: and roll songs, just live on the floor and a

435
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:24,120
Speaker 1: couple of different studios, really like hard straight ahead rock

436
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 1: and roll, like two guitars, bass, drums, piano, go. Then

437
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: when it finished, Mike had a bunch of really cool demos,

438
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,320
Speaker 1: not demos, tracks where he played everything, programmed the drum

439
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:40,919
Speaker 1: machine and everything, and they put those together to an

440
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 1: album called Let Me Up Have Had Enough, But they

441
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: left half the live straight rock and roll things off

442
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,240
Speaker 1: of it, so it's kind of an unsuccessful record that

443
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:53,960
Speaker 1: it's a NIX and match and mismatch. And then it

444
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:56,840
Speaker 1: just got so crazy and frantic that I think after

445
00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:00,280
Speaker 1: that is when like eighty eight or whatever, we took

446
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 1: a break and Tom ran into Jeff Lynn again and

447
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 1: there you go, Yeah, what was it? What was it

448
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 1: like when Tom decided to do the solo record? What

449
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 1: was the feeling? Well, for me, I was really hurt.

450
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,439
Speaker 1: I didn't know he was doing a solo record. I

451
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: had heard we were going to record on such and

452
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,640
Speaker 1: such a day, and so a few days before that day,

453
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: I called up Bugs, the guy who knows everything, and said, so,

454
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 1: what time I was supposed to show up at the

455
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: studio Wednesday? And he went on, nobody told you. Nobody

456
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:36,400
Speaker 1: told me what. Tom's making a solo record with Mike

457
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,919
Speaker 1: and Jeff Lynn. And I'm like what? And I was.

458
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,200
Speaker 1: I was really angry because I was blindsided, and because

459
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:47,200
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, where your band? What are you talking about?

460
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: Is you're gonna make a record with Jeff. I actually

461
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 1: said to you, like six months ago, why don't we

462
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 1: try something with Jeff? Because I loved the Cloud nine record?

463
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:57,960
Speaker 1: So what do you mean the band is involved? But

464
00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:00,719
Speaker 1: they were having so much fun. Back at it now,

465
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,720
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I've been doing sessions all along. Why

466
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: shouldn't Tom have the fun of playing with other people?

467
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 1: Why shouldn't he do it? Why shouldn't he and Mike

468
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 1: do it? I do it all the time. But also

469
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: I was really in bad shape, drinking and drugs, and

470
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine said, yeah, Tom's making a

471
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,639
Speaker 1: solo record. You're not on it, you know, what that means,

472
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:26,439
Speaker 1: You have plenty of time to go to rehab. So

473
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:28,479
Speaker 1: I went to rehab. So I got sober because of that.

474
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 1: And I never expected Heartbreakers the last anyway, So I

475
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: was like, oh, no, this is the death knell, you know,

476
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:39,199
Speaker 1: But it wasn't. He never heard all anybody else. We

477
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: played free Falling more than anybody in the world ever play,

478
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 1: you know, and God bless me had me come in

479
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:47,480
Speaker 1: and play a little piano on one song on that record.

480
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:50,919
Speaker 1: One last thing to just to ask you about you

481
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,640
Speaker 1: come into a session, what are you focusing on when

482
00:27:54,640 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: you're playing? I think the melody and and the groove.

483
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:04,199
Speaker 1: I don't go straight to the words. I'm trying to

484
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 1: hear the space around the voice, and I'm trying to

485
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 1: find how I can support the groove, and if that

486
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 1: means by playing around it, I do that. But I

487
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: look for the groove and what compliments the melody. Would

488
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 1: you say that you're looking for parts or you just

489
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: accompanying what's happening. Often they're the same thing, Like from

490
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 1: the first time we played Refugee till we finally got it,

491
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:34,920
Speaker 1: from the first time we played here it comes with

492
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 1: my Girl at the waiting. I had the part that

493
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 1: snipped suited the song for the groove and the vocal immediately,

494
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 1: and that was the right thing to continue to play.

495
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 1: And it's kind of still is today. And sometimes it's

496
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,960
Speaker 1: like crawling back to you where it's just totally blind

497
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:59,680
Speaker 1: listening to this palm and listening to Steve float and

498
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 1: try to float along, or sometimes some songs when I'm

499
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,360
Speaker 1: playing organ, I'm trying to pull something out of the sky.

500
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: I know there's a shimmer that can go around the

501
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 1: song that I can accomplish with the Hammond, but I

502
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,959
Speaker 1: kind of have to hold onto the drawbars and slowly

503
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 1: pull them in and out and kind of hold on

504
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: for dear life and almost pray for that right shimmer

505
00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 1: to come through me. Yet so much of it is

506
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: out of our control. It's another thing that I think

507
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 1: most people listening don't might not understand that it really

508
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 1: is a magic process that happens. It's a magic process.

509
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: The thing about the thing about it is you need

510
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:46,239
Speaker 1: to practice, or if you don't practice, you need to

511
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: know that you can play and get across what is

512
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: in your head and heart. And that's what the technique

513
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: is for the technique is so that you can express

514
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 1: the magic when it comes through, at least for me.

515
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 1: Is it all again? I'm asking this as a non musician.

516
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:07,640
Speaker 1: Do you do you imagine what you want to play

517
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: and play it or does it happen more automatically. It

518
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: happens automatically, so there's no thought. There's no thought of

519
00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 1: what chord. You never think about what chord you need

520
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: to play at any point in time. Your hands just

521
00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: go to the positions they want to go to. I

522
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 1: think it's chicken and egg. You know, I don't know

523
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:33,040
Speaker 1: which comes first. I know that if I'm playing a solo,

524
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 1: if I sing along with it, it's going to be

525
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: infinitely better. But it's kind of a form of prayer,

526
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: it's kind of form of breathing, and sometimes it's just

527
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 1: down to man. This reminds me of that Jerry Lee

528
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 1: Lewis song I'm going to play with Jerry played. Yeah,

529
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 1: you know, it's instinctive, but it doesn't mean it's not

530
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: learned over the course of I've been playing since I

531
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,720
Speaker 1: was probably eight and I'm sixty seven, so the course

532
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: of whatever that is fifty nine years or whatever. Every

533
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: time I listen to a record, every time I play

534
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,280
Speaker 1: the piano. Every time I do anything, it's going to

535
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 1: go into it. You know, it's not they it's a

536
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: write off for research, that's write off records and films

537
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And it's actually not bullshit because

538
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: it is going to seriously impact the way that you

539
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 1: make the music, that you make films. You see, not

540
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: just for the score, but for the visual texture that

541
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 1: will come through the music records because the space you'll hear,

542
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: the group you'll hear, the sound you will hear, or

543
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:39,360
Speaker 1: just the fact that you may not notice any of that,

544
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 1: but but it will have an effect on you, just

545
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: as how your day is going. Just as when you're

546
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: worried about the people up in the hills where the

547
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 1: fires are, you know that all goes in there. And

548
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: if you're a really gifted, blessed, brilliant person, then what's

549
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:00,400
Speaker 1: going to come out is what comes out of a

550
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,719
Speaker 1: little Richard or Bob or Aresa you know, or Tom

551
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: Johnny Cash. The experience that I have with you with

552
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,560
Speaker 1: Johnny Cash, it can't be conveyed. And you want proof

553
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,960
Speaker 1: that it's a prayer. The way the way you make

554
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: records as a form of prayer. That but so is good, golly,

555
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: miss Molly, and so is heartbreak Hotel. Absolutely so a

556
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: form of prayer. Absolutely, But if you if your ears

557
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: are open, if your eyes are open, and that's the

558
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 1: whole thing, Jesus will let he who hears, who can hear,

559
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: let him hear, you can see, let me see. You

560
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: don't have to be Christian, you don't have to go

561
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 1: to any kind of religion to understand what that's doing.

562
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 1: It's all in front of you. The pain is suffering.

563
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: If your fellow man, it's all right there for you

564
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 1: if you let it in. And man, there's a lot

565
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: of static at least I got a lot of stack

566
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: that tries to keep it away. But when I play music,

567
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 1: and when I play music with the people that I

568
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 1: am somehouse hosts, playing music with the people that are

569
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: especially bloods like the Heartbreakers or Mudcrutch, then I'm I'm

570
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 1: halfway there. Thank you so much for doing this, and

571
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 1: thank you for playing man, Thank you for the music. Well,

572
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:19,480
Speaker 1: thank you, jeez. Rick, I love you. It's great seeing you,

573
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 1: and I will I will see you soon and hopefully

574
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 1: we'll be in a studio together soon making something fun.

575
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 1: I love you too. Rick. I'm really glad to see

576
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: your face and I would just love to let's just

577
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 1: hang out, shoot the ship and make some music. Thanks

578
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: to Ben mont Tench for catching up with Rick and

579
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,719
Speaker 1: rehashing some of the best moments of his incredible career.

580
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: You can hear all of her favorite songs that feature

581
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: Ben mont Tench on our playlist at broken Record podcast

582
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel

583
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 1: at YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcasts. There you

584
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: can find extended cuts of our past episodes and also

585
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 1: new ones. Broken Record is produced with helpful Leah Rose,

586
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: Jason Gambrel, Martine Gonzalez, Eric Sandler, and its executive produced

587
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:08,040
Speaker 1: by mil Lobell. Our theme musics by Kenny Beats. Broken

588
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:11,040
Speaker 1: Record is a production of Pushkin Industries, and if you

589
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 1: like Broken Record, please remember to share, rate, and review

590
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,200
Speaker 1: our show on your podcast staff. I'm justin Richmond, Case