WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Steve Ferrone Part 1 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:08.600 The Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeartRadio. So 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:13.319 in twenty twenty two, Questlove Supreme started doing one on 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.400 one interviews and we wanted to get everybody's voices out there, 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:21.640 and I jumped at the chance to interview my absolute hero, 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.160 my personal god, Steve Feroni, of the average white man, 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.040 who also is drummed for countless people from Tom Petty 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:34.040 and the Heartbreakers to Duran Duran to Shaka Khan so 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:38.760 many others. In Part one, Steve speaks about his upbringing 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:43.680 and Italy, experience of racism, tap dancing also and the 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.640 journeys of being one of the best drummers on the planet. 0:00:47.120 --> 0:01:00.000 This meant the entire world to me. Ladies and Joe, 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:05.080 Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme. I'm giving 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.800 you full warning right now the center is going to 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:09.960 be very awkward. I will try not to make our 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:15.680 guest today feel uncomfortable and straight away from fan worship 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.839 and just try to be as professional as I can. 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:25.319 I will say though, that you know, every journey. 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:30.880 Has to start with a spark, every journey, so me personally, 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:35.320 I will say that, you know, before directing and producing 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.600 and developing TV shows and podcast hosting and movie and 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.280 TV scoring and late night house band leading and producing 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:49.760 and songwriting for artists and when they djaying, music education, designing, flatwear, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.600 my own sneaker line, clothes merch, my own drum line, 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:00.480 teaching college, whatever it is, I will say that there 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.440 still has to be a spark, and that spark starts 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.440 with a love of music and more specifically playing music 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:09.280 and specifically the drums. 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.040 Everyone knows my passion is drumming. 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.480 In nineteen seventy five, while on the road with my 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:20.320 musician parents in Toronto, Canada, on a Saturday, I caught 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.680 an episode of my all time favorite television show, Soul Train, 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:30.959 and it absolutely peaked my curiosity. You know, I was 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:34.239 already a fan of the average white band and they're 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.600 scary ass logo, but my four year old self was 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:43.520 transfixed on the one figure on stage who was neither 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:51.760 white nor average, sitting behind a white forty seven wit 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:54.520 and gretch drum kit. I kind of made a declaration, 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.240 mostly to myself, that what that guy's doing, that's what 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.079 I want to do for the rest of my life. 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.760 And pretty much from that point, for any album that 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.760 adorned that weird logo of a white Woman's ass in 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.040 the place of the w We copped those records, and 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.320 I studied it and kind of molded myself in our 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.800 guest image. And what really makes that sentence weird is 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.720 I think the only time I really allowed myself to 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.840 morph into the style of our guests was probably seven 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:29.840 years into my career. I Want had a side project 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.840 called The Philadelphia Experiment on a song called Ain't It 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.680 the Truth, which I kind of immersed myself kind. 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:37.920 Of a what would Perny do? Moment? 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.760 And Look, if I'm talking too much advanced math, I'm 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.600 gonna slow down. Look, even on a hip hop level, 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:50.240 his drums are everywhere, nas Is Halftime, Eric Ban Rock 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:55.080 Him's microphone Fiend, TLC's Ain't Too Proud to Big track 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.760 called Quest check the rhyme in ways that they ain't 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.840 rough any right, Gang Stars Gotta. 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:02.120 Get over. 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:12.000 Brand, Nubian word is Bond, Jungle Brothers the promo, Jill 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.160 rob Gs Dope Rhyme's. 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:24.479 Start Us Music Sounds Better with You, Kanye West Through 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.839 the Wire, Mary J. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:32.440 Blige, Love Is All We Need and Love without a Limit, 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.160 pe Rock and Seale Smooth Take You There. B I 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.200 G Is Notorious but not even just the samples, just 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.880 the iconic songs. I'm every woman, Clouds, what You're gonna 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.360 do for me? All Night, Thing, on the Wings of Love, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.240 Tears in Heaven, love a Girl, Earth Song, keep Rising 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.919 to the top, Glow and name the all the iconic artists, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.800 They're not official until he's the timekeeper. 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:00.560 Name him. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.920 Freddie King, Brian Auger, Bloodstone, Bette Miller, of Retha Franklin, Sherlyn, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.760 Paul Simon, Melissa Manchester, I told she's gonna get awkward, 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:14.440 Stephen Christy mcviee Scurti, Politti, Mick Jagger, Patty Austin, George Benson, People, 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.240 Bryce and Jennifer Holliday, Duran Duran, Algerrue, Howard Jones, Cindy Lauper, 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:22.159 Anita Baker, George Harrison, Eda, James, Marcus, Miller, Brian Ferry, 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:26.440 Tracy Chapman, Johnny Cash, Zickie Marley Slash, Stevie Nicks, LeAnn Rimes, 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.719 Steve Perry, and of course Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:35.600 I will say that pretty much. You know this guy 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:40.600 is my hero. Even before Prince, before Michael Jackson, I've 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.680 been dying to have a conversation with a person that 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.440 gave me the spark to fall in love with music. 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.440 Thank you very much for talking to me. Steve Farhon, 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:52.920 all Right, that wasn't too awkward, right, it was just 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:54.120 a five minute No, that. 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.440 Was that was pretty That was pretty cool. There's a 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.039 lot of people. I didn't even know that. 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:06.240 No, when we did the Elvis Costello episode, Uh, my engineer, Steve, 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:13.279 his intro was about twenty four minutes, so my my 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.720 initial intro was like seventeen, but I cut it down 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:16.520 to a good five. 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.880 But I was one of my favorite rap groups. 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.359 So which one was it? 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:23.000 AMG? 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:29.120 Really AMG? That's aw Yeah, Okay, I didn't I didn't 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:29.719 even there's that. 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.919 It's like a Janine they used the they used them 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:39.640 a schoolboy crush, okay for Jeanne Janine the reprise. 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.360 All right, Wow, you're you're you're you're highly aware of 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:48.680 how you get utilized. Now, what I'll say that's weird 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:53.240 about this moment is the first time that you and 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.760 I were supposed to talk for Quest Loft Supreme was 0:06:56.040 --> 0:07:00.840 on March fifteenth, twenty twenty, which is kind officially the 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:02.840 day the world shut down because of COVID. 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:05.320 Yeah, yeah, you were. 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.000 You were doing you were doing a residency at A 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.280 at A thirty rock sitting in on the SETH Meyers Show, 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.760 and the day that we were supposed to speak, that's 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.000 when we realized that we were in a pandemic. 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:19.080 So we were in trouble. 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.040 Yeah, we have to put that on ice. Now. 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:26.560 What's even weirder is you know I had been begging 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.680 and begging and begging and begging John Mayer and his 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.000 people like when you come to New York, I gotta 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:34.000 go to the show, so. 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.800 You know, to really enjoy the experience. 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.640 So to speak, our listeners know that in the pandemic, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:43.640 I started micro redosing, So. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.240 You know, I was, I was in my zone. I was. 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.480 I arrived at Madison Square Garden. I was ready to 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.960 really take in the music and enjoy the show. And 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.560 the first thing I do when I see Pino Palladino, 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.120 he tells me do And of course you know, I 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:01.880 was microdocent. 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.800 So it sounds like a mirror for Roon tested positive 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.240 Can you sit in? And I was like huh what like? 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.880 And literally I was like, well, let me see the 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:13.400 set list? 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:15.800 And I was like, wait a minute, I had to 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:19.240 learn fifteen songs and how many minutes and they're like 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:20.600 forty seven minutes. 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.960 So literally I was like, oh no, m boy. 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:31.880 So you know it's it's like I didn't get to 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:33.840 talk to you, but I got to play on your 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:37.280 drum set. And what's even weirder is that after two 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:42.840 and a half years of avoiding this dodgeball of a virus, 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.080 today I finally tested positive. 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.280 So welcome to the club. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.920 Right, Yeah, we're connected, man, we are connected. 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:51.920 Oh my god? 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.439 How you so you know what it's It's like having 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.320 the sniffles, like I was expecting my taste to go 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:00.920 away and all that stuff. I'm I'm having a Paul man. 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.960 I'm stay in bed all week. I'm watching movies. I'm 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.040 gonna work. You know, I'm working on the Sliding Family 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.520 Stone documentary now, so you know, I'm in fine health. 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:11.800 I couldn't be happier. 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.360 Before I forget congratulations on the OSCO All. 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.880 Right, my man, thank you, thank you. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.160 You are God. You are way too hard for me. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.720 We don't work hard, but I work I work fun. 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:23.840 Were are you right? 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:26.240 Now? As we speak, I'm at a friend of mine's 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.120 house in Burbank because my house is being torn apart 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:30.280 by contractors. 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:32.080 Okay, we have a lot in common. 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.839 I also purchased a farm about a year and a 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.480 half ago, and I'm still it's almost it's almost in 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:41.640 money pit territory. 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:45.520 So contractors, you know, are working on. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:50.000 These to fire my contact. Yes, it's going. 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:55.079 Same same you too, same guys. I got I got 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.160 downs two years ago and now you know we're still 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.679 we're still waiting for it. I didn't I just had 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:04.199 to free so I'll work. There's just way too much 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.520 money to invest in it, so I gotta wait until 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.600 maybe October, so it'll probably be three years before I 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:10.319 get inside my home. 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.280 It'll get done when it's supposed to get done. That's 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:12.880 what I can. 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:14.680 Say, absolutely absolutely right. 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:18.600 So you know, I start off with every episode with 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.959 the first five basic questions. Number one for our listening artists, 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:24.280 could you tell us where you were born? 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:24.920 Yeah? 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.920 I was born in Brighton in England, in the south 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:29.880 coast of England, bat now south of London. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.200 I will say that probably Brighton, England ninety four is 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.160 probably the second best Root show. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.160 Of all time. What did you play? 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.040 I don't know. We did a gig with Roy Ayers, 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:49.000 and that's where we discovered that the engineer of our 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.920 show is just as important as the musicians on stage. 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.600 And we kind of learned, you know, because the thing is, 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.559 it's like, unlike America, Brighton at least has an understanding. 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:02.240 I don't know if it's that a lot of reggae 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.280 concerts over there, but they have a deeper understanding of bass. 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.320 And you know, we realized, like we would just push 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:10.960 the sound limit like the average show. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:13.400 You know, if you trust the sound. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.480 Company, maybe you're allowed to do like one hundred and 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.600 two dbs, maybe one hundred and eight dbs like we 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:20.960 were one hundred and forty DB's. 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.240 We weren't loud, but we just had a lot of bass. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.160 And so at the point where the audience was holding 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.319 their stomach, like you know, they were getting a colonic, 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.679 they still dance, yeah, but still dancing, we realized, like, oh, 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.520 we have to be the most offensively loudest band in music. 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.480 And so, you know, we maybe the first three years 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.120 we were like everyone's nightmare, but nothing compares to that 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.280 one night with roy Aers in nineteen ninety four in Brighton, Like, 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.000 I know, you just celebrated. 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.480 A birthday yeah, seventy two. 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.240 Yes, happy belated, thank you. So I know that you 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.120 were born in nineteen fifty. Now you weren't born in 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.480 the States, you know, dealing with Jim cro Deep South racism. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.280 But you know, I'm certain that it was alive and 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.000 well across the world. But what does it mean to 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:08.760 grow up at least for the first ten years of 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.760 your life in Brighton, Like, what experiences did you have? 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.040 You know, Well, there's a there's a photographs not around here. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:16.880 I wish I had it with me in my house. 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:18.720 There's a photograph of me at school. I was like 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:23.920 the only black kid in school and we're watching a 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.200 Punch and Judy show and guess what, we were just 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.560 having fun. It didn't come into the question that I 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.480 was a different color ever. I mean when I was 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.640 when I was little kay until one day that I 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:36.880 was out with my friends and. 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.120 We were playing. I lived in a row of houses. 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.000 On a street, and then there was there was this 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.440 alleyway that led up to this little cottage, and then 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:51.040 there was this crescent with big houses. And in this 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.800 cottage at the top of this little alleyway, there was 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.439 a guy that was a retired Harley Harley Street surgeon. 0:12:58.360 --> 0:12:59.760 And so we used to play up. There was a 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.040 couple of trees and we'd play cowboys and Indians and stuff. 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:03.680 And we got a bit too close to this guy's 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:08.199 house and he came out with the swordstick and and 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.320 he pulled his swordstick and he said, get out of here, 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.280 making all that noise made, And he looked right at 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.439 me with this point. I said, you two black bastard. 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.040 And I had no idea what it was that he said, right. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:26.640 I didn't know. I didn't know well what that meant, 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.040 you know, but I felt it. I burst in the 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.600 tears and I ran home and I told my grandmother. 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:34.679 Who are you living with your grandparents? 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.200 Living in my grandparents and my mom yeah, And my. 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:43.000 Father was in West Africa serially O wow, okay, okay, 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:44.920 but he was never around. I mean he showed up 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:46.319 when I was nine for a couple of days. I 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:46.920 was about it. 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.559 But my grandmother then told got my grandfather and did 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:53.160 one of those defend my honor? 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:56.040 Oh you went to the house. 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.440 He went to the house, and my grandfather went up 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.640 there and grabbed this guy and him up against the 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:01.959 wall and said, don't you ever talk to. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:03.200 My grandson like d again. 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.000 But uh uh oh wow. 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.120 The way that it got explained to me at that 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.280 point in time, I think probably I was maybe five 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.080 or six years old, as a little kid. My mother 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.360 said to me that, she said, you know what, there's 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.880 people out there that think that way, and uh and 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.600 there to be pitied, which was something that wasn't desirable 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:24.520 as far as I didn't want. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.800 I didn't want to ever be pitied. And so anyway, so. 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.240 That's that's what that's that's the way I kind of 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:36.200 looked at it. But yes, you're absolutely right, there's there's 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.240 there was a big difference, the big difference. I believe 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:45.320 those social problems that bruised Black America and and and 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.920 I see that, I see it and I and and 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.800 it's different for me because slavery never came into it. 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:59.600 Wow, that's amazing. I can't even imagine a life there. 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:03.040 Is racist ray. Yes, slavery didn't know. I think there's 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.520 a difference in the in the in the way that things. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:06.240 You know, it's weird. 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.480 So in the States, I'm I'm part of a one 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.200 percent that's there's one percent of African Americans that can 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.480 trace their family name, their slave ship and where they 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:19.080 came from. 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.280 I'm in that lucky few. I also found out that 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:23.160 Elo cool j. 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.880 Is there was two percent of African Americans that had 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.840 nothing to do with slavery. I guess his family settled 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:37.480 in a place in Ohio that just didn't have slavery, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.360 and like somehow he was able to his family was 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:46.720 able to avoid any of that strife, which is, you know, 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:47.680 kind of a rare thing. 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.520 Can you tell me what your first musical memory was? 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:54.120 Oh? 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:58.360 Well, you know what I was told. 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.360 Was was that I used to sit in the high 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:04.840 chair and we didn't have TV back then. 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.320 We had radio, okay, And I'd. 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.080 Sit in the high chair with my spoon eating and 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.360 then some music would come on and I'd start banging 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.960 my spoon on the on the on the high chair 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.320 table there to just keeping time with whatever music was 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.640 on the radio. And that's was when they they decided that. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:24.840 My grand my grandma, my grandmother, and my. 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:29.120 Mother decided that I needed to channel that that ability somewhere. 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.680 So my grandmother was a big fan of of of 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:37.960 tap dancing. She she loved Fred Astaire and Jim Kelly 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.120 and Tic Tac Toe and those guys. Was. She was 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.480 aware of them, and so she sent me to tap 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.400 dancing school when I was better, as soon as I 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.000 could walk, at about three years old. 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.360 Yeah, I was going to say, I just discovered that 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:52.560 about you maybe a week ago when I was doing 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.920 my research, and that's kind of my entry and too. 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:57.480 Drums. 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.680 I went to perform an arts school in the grade, 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:05.040 and it was one of those situations where you go to. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.040 Your drum lesson and the drums are right. 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.040 There and you're sort of like, let me at them, 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.320 let me at him, and they're like nope, and they 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.240 point to a practice pad on the corner and you 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.600 got to learn, like your roommate's like, it's almost like 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:19.520 I had to practice to work my way up to 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.000 the drum set. But even before I got to the 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.360 practice pad, Yeah. 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:27.399 I had to take tap dance. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.679 So yeah, yeah, all that bow jangles me and my 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.320 shadow like like I was, I was a hoofer, Like. 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:37.600 Good, were you good at it? 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.840 I was pretty good at it. I was pretty good 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:42.840 at it. I want medals and stuff? 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.920 Really, can you can you still hoof now? Or is that. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:49.159 Replacement? 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:50.160 Okay? 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:53.439 I got that light on my feet anymore? 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.800 But I could probably I can probably I can do 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:57.600 a timestep still, okay. 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:01.680 Yeah, Like around around maybe nine, age nine or age ten, 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.800 I kind of eased out of that and just became 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:06.040 strictly like music. 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:07.919 Well, you know, I. 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.280 Have to say my first, like my moment that you had, 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.200 that you said that you had with Average White Band, 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.680 I had when I was about five years old. My 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:21.359 parents used to take me. They used to take me. 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:23.960 We had this I guess you call it Vaudeville or 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:24.560 something like that. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:25.560 Vaudeville. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:30.760 There was a theater called the Hippodrome in and the 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.640 Beatles played there actually, so it's kind of bingo hall 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.199 now I think it is. But this is one of 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.080 those theaters that got sort of neglected and sort of 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:43.600 let go little theater. And they used to take me 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:48.600 there to see these shows. And you know, usually it 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:53.520 was comedians and pantomime at Christmas and stuff. And they 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.800 took me there to see this show. And there was 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.000 a band. There was a band, a close harmony group 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.520 called the Deep River Boys Deep River Boys from Brooklyn, 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:09.040 oh really, and they were very very big on radio. 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.880 Luxembourg was was where you would where. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.880 People would go to to listen to something other than 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.480 the BBC, because the BBC used to just play classical 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:20.800 music and it wasn't they didn't play anything at all, 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.520 you know. So you go to Radio Luxembourg and you 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:25.800 tune into Radio Luxembourg and they had a show on 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.960 there and and I guess they also it was also 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.159 a show that was that was that was good for 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.480 like uh, the the American Forces were all over Europe 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:37.439 at that point. They had the basis in France and 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.359 Germany and and uh and and so they used to 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.840 be on that on on the American Forces broadcasting. But 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.119 they had a regular show on this on this and 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.560 they they on Radio Luxembourg and they appeared at the Hippodrome. 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.280 So my parents took me down there and they did 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.680 maybe it was kind of like gospel music, but I'd 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.000 never heard anything like that, and I got really excited 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.840 and started dancing around in the in the. 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.159 Audience listening to this music is like what's this? You know? 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:08.159 Oh wow? Where it is that? 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.200 Even you find vanilla ice cream, you give a vanilla 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.000 I skream to a baby first time they have it, 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:13.800 They're like, why didn't you give me this before? You know, 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.600 you got to build this baby food? Why where was 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.080 this vanilla ice cream. Well that was what what what 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.360 what I got with from their music, and they sent 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.000 them manager. They took me and they brought me backstage 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:27.480 and befriended, befriended me. 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.040 They made me Deep River Boys number six. And that 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.639 was the time. That was when I found out that 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:34.399 I was black. 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:38.359 Oh word, okay, Yeah, I. 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:39.320 Had no idea. 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.800 I had no idea that I was black until I 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.520 went and saw these guys and they took me back 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:48.760 back to my parents, my grandma, my mom, and my 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.679 grandmother took me backstage to meet them, you know, with 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.040 the they've been invited back. And I looked at these 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.520 guys and they were six foot tall, which was then 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.440 back then was gigantic, was a giant, and I said, 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:03.520 I wish I could be black black. 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:05.280 You guys, we. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:09.679 Used the word back then. We never said black was 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.200 colored because it was respectful. It was disrespectful to say 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.040 black black. So I wish I was colored like you. 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:20.280 And this guy Harry Douglas, who I stayed in touch 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.080 with for years, he passed away sometimes sometime ago. 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:26.800 You matained a friendship with him, Yes, all. 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:27.399 Through the years. 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.439 Yes, it was just amazing and uh, and it. 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.439 Was the first Americans that you interacted with. Yes, well, yes, 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:36.959 how weird was it to hear? Did they have an 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:37.640 accent to you? 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.040 I didn't even know. I was just like, I was 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:41.680