Speaker 1: Request Left Show is a production of iHeart Radio, and.
Speaker 2: In Part two we talk about Steve's later years, the
Speaker 2: evolution of the Average White Band, that incredible my guitar
Speaker 2: Jiff Lee weeps moment that Prince did at the Rock
Speaker 2: and Roll Hall of Fame with you know Prince and
Speaker 2: Steve Winwood, and also his work with Duran Durant, Tom Petty.
Speaker 2: Please check out part one first and get to know
Speaker 2: one of the people that I admired the most.
Speaker 1: All right, Steve Roddy, Ladies and gentlemen, what's up, what's up?
Speaker 2: What's up? I know it's been a long time, but
Speaker 2: here it is the long awaited part two of our
Speaker 2: special one on one QLs with my hero, my idol,
Speaker 2: Steve Rome. So in part one Steve was talking about
Speaker 2: going up in Brighton, England. His drumming influence is him
Speaker 2: being a tap dancer playing in Brownstone, and that conversation
Speaker 2: ended with him just joining the Average White Man.
Speaker 1: So let's start with part two right now. This is
Speaker 1: a special one on one.
Speaker 2: Quest Love Supreme with Steve Roon the Great All right,
Speaker 2: Alan Gory clearly is of the Ilk of Ray. Charles
Speaker 2: Hamish has a wonderful like falsetto and you know, they're
Speaker 2: they're extremely soulful. But how how much of the marketing
Speaker 2: of these funky white boys are they were lying on
Speaker 2: during this time period a lot.
Speaker 3: Of people who actually told average white band was a
Speaker 3: black man and when and when we moved.
Speaker 4: Down on stage, they date, what the hell is this?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: And there was a lot there.
Speaker 3: Was a lot of okay, show us really that that
Speaker 3: went on yet, I mean there was a lot of it.
Speaker 4: But the band could play. The band was authentic.
Speaker 3: Do we We weren't trying to be anything else other
Speaker 3: than average white band and play soul music.
Speaker 4: We love soul music. It was just what we did.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've had guys, I've had I've had bands
Speaker 3: with guys that I've been played in with bands, and
Speaker 3: we've been playing average white band stuff. And I remember
Speaker 3: we played at Long Beach once and average White band
Speaker 3: were playing across the street right and I think they
Speaker 3: were opening for Tara Power. And I got hold of
Speaker 3: Honnie and Alan and they came over and I had
Speaker 3: them sit in with my band and show them how
Speaker 3: it was done. And it was that they were They
Speaker 3: were like, oh, so that's what it is, and I think.
Speaker 3: I think that you'll find that with bands when people
Speaker 3: come and sit in with like you know, it's there's
Speaker 3: if there's two or three of us from the Heartbreakers
Speaker 3: that are playing together, right, you get that they get
Speaker 3: that feeling of what that was like, and it's a
Speaker 3: powerful thing. I remember when I was playing with George
Speaker 3: Harrison mm hmm, and and Ringo was set at the rehearsal.
Speaker 3: Ringo was there and and Ray Cooper had another drum
Speaker 3: kits set up because he played double drums with me
Speaker 3: sometimes and some stuff back there, and I said to
Speaker 3: ring and the ringer, let's said. So Ringo came up
Speaker 3: on the stage and started to play, and all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, it was like, Oh, this is what the
Speaker 3: Beatles felt like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, there's a there's a way of that's those
Speaker 4: people when those guys.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this much then, because I know
Speaker 2: that as a drummer, the bass player emma drummer are
Speaker 2: married to each other. Now you're in a group with
Speaker 2: two interchangeable bass players and two interchangeable guitarists. Yes, who
Speaker 2: do you prefer on bass? And who do you prefer
Speaker 2: on guitar? Do you prefer Alan Gory on bass or
Speaker 2: Haym and Stewart on bass.
Speaker 3: Well, they're both, they're both different that they both played.
Speaker 4: They both played different different thing.
Speaker 3: Alan Alan had like a real nice round, round sound
Speaker 3: with the bass, and Hamish. Hamish had this sort of
Speaker 3: more more more aggressive, sort of like schoolboy crashed.
Speaker 4: That's the way you're playing playing the bass.
Speaker 2: He would playing with the pick correct U Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: but who had the better pocket for you at least?
Speaker 3: But both the same. I mean, they were both both
Speaker 3: both great bass players. I mean, it was it was,
Speaker 3: it was a joy.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 3: When Alan picked up the guitar and started to play
Speaker 3: play the way that he played, he would play guitar,
Speaker 3: and then how how Honye would would would fit these
Speaker 3: rhythm patterns to Alan picking.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and how it was it was it would look
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, A question I always wanted to ask. Or and
Speaker 2: B nineteen seventy six Person The Person Live album, which
Speaker 2: incidentally is probably any any list I make of my
Speaker 2: favorite albums of Walter, that's number one. So there's a
Speaker 2: moment on TLC where you guys go absolutely ape shit
Speaker 2: in the zone, and that's kind of the moment where
Speaker 2: I assume that it's Hamas Stewart taking this harmonics bassilo
Speaker 2: you know, kind of like Jack Opistoria's portrait to Tracy
Speaker 2: playing harmonics, Like it sounds like a yeah, yeah, yeah
Speaker 2: right during that moment, because even when I was looking
Speaker 2: up old photos, there's five photos of that period between
Speaker 2: seventy five and seventy eight in which both of them
Speaker 2: are playing bass at the same time. So I assume
Speaker 2: that that was a part of TLC. Every night at
Speaker 2: least for that tour. Are they both playing bass at
Speaker 2: the same time, because I've never seen I've seen guitarist
Speaker 2: play tandem.
Speaker 4: There was one song that we had two bases of
Speaker 4: I forget what it was.
Speaker 2: Now, probably love your Life It could be right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, because Hamis is like sort of
Speaker 2: go to like that's his go to ye rhythm reference,
Speaker 2: and he kind of plays a bass like a guitarist.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I always.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's that's the thing is Hankys
Speaker 3: is gonna he has a way of playing. I mean,
Speaker 3: I can't say one of them was better than than
Speaker 3: the other. I mean, they just said it would just
Speaker 3: it would they figure it out which one which one
Speaker 3: was going to play bass on which song it was.
Speaker 4: It was never really a fight.
Speaker 3: Over it who was going to play bass, but it
Speaker 3: was maybe have you said, what's you let me played bass?
Speaker 4: Let me okay, and then playing guitar.
Speaker 3: And it would always we'd always, we'd always work at
Speaker 3: tracks until that that thing just sort of fell in
Speaker 3: in the place, into the into the into the into
Speaker 3: the pocket.
Speaker 2: Okay. So that said, during Alan Gory's uh, pick up
Speaker 2: the piece of solom you and him are literally hitting
Speaker 2: these riffs at the same time. Now, is this a
Speaker 2: result of listening kind of muscle memory? No, No muscle
Speaker 2: muscle memory where you know what he's want to do
Speaker 2: one a solo or let.
Speaker 4: Me tell you something about that album.
Speaker 3: Yes, we recorded I think maybe we recorded in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: We recorded in Philadelphia, and we and we played we
Speaker 3: played in Cleveland and most of the most and there
Speaker 3: was another one too, I think maybe maybe new But
Speaker 3: there's like four different concerts over the course of a
Speaker 3: year that we recorded. That solo section was always in there, okay,
Speaker 3: but everybody liked the solo from a different place. Most
Speaker 3: of it, the bulk of that album is taken from.
Speaker 4: From Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland. But there was this song here.
Speaker 3: I don't even I can't remember which ones, but I remember,
Speaker 3: but I remember this whole thing that we were sitting
Speaker 3: there the solos in pick up the pieces.
Speaker 4: Okay, I like the one from there. I like the
Speaker 4: one from there.
Speaker 3: I like and and so I re said, well, let's
Speaker 3: see what happens please to that.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, oh man, Like in my mind, in my mind,
Speaker 2: you guys are the tightest motherfuckers. That was like, whoa,
Speaker 2: they know exactly what's gonna happen. Okay, well, explain to
Speaker 2: me listening how much how much how much sweetening post
Speaker 2: sweetening has to happen after you get the tapes? Like,
Speaker 2: do they go and sing some parts over? Are you
Speaker 2: like I dropped a drumstick? Let me hit the snare?
Speaker 3: No? No, never, I never did anything. No.
Speaker 4: It was basically what you heard is what you got.
Speaker 2: That is crazy.
Speaker 3: Maybe they'd be a vocal line or something that would
Speaker 3: nest be necessary to but it was.
Speaker 4: It was spot. I mean really, if there was.
Speaker 3: Like a little bit they just changed to the vocal maybe,
Speaker 3: but it basically what you heard was what you got.
Speaker 4: That was it.
Speaker 2: You're breaking my heart, man, Yeah, it's badass bad That
Speaker 2: bad was badass, and we didn't we didn't play with
Speaker 2: the click either.
Speaker 3: That was the thing we'd where you get at the end.
Speaker 3: We got, we were at that. We were at all
Speaker 3: at the same place every time.
Speaker 2: You're the packet king. Yeah, I've been. I've been stalking
Speaker 2: the current president of Atlantic, Craig Calman, uh to let
Speaker 2: me listen to all of the recorded live tapes of
Speaker 2: you guys, because I yeah, you know, I know if
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 3: In there, if you go if you actually get access
Speaker 3: to all that stuff, what they have, there's outtakes of
Speaker 3: stuff and different versions of stuff that we did, right,
Speaker 3: It's I think part of it was, yeah, like if
Speaker 3: I ever Lose This Heaven, we all we all listened
Speaker 3: to that. I mean, I remember when I was out
Speaker 3: here with Bloodstone and I used to love to ride
Speaker 3: downtown and listen to that album. It was it was
Speaker 3: just kind of like a soundtrack for Downtown, you know,
Speaker 3: and if I ever Lose This Heaven, it was just
Speaker 3: a great what a great track. But you know when
Speaker 3: when when we were into the studio, they tried cutting
Speaker 3: that song a couple of times with a couple of
Speaker 3: different people and everybody had got sort of gone in
Speaker 3: there what I heard, and they copied the same.
Speaker 4: It's very simplistic bass.
Speaker 3: Jump, but the drum field that the Quincy had used
Speaker 3: for for the for the thing. When I went in
Speaker 3: and sat down, I decided to play just to play
Speaker 3: that song, I mean, and I just sat there and
Speaker 3: I remember and listened to the first the first sake
Speaker 3: of it. I don't know even know if that was
Speaker 3: the one we used it, but I remember Roger Ball
Speaker 3: coming over and kissing me on the top of my head.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was that the song you recorded with him in
Speaker 2: the studio?
Speaker 4: No, I don't remember what the first song. I don't
Speaker 4: remember what the first song was.
Speaker 2: Were there were there any songs of Robbie on the
Speaker 2: cut the Cake album? Or is that all you?
Speaker 3: No? It's or me where we was gone?
Speaker 2: All right? So, you know, because you joined Durand around
Speaker 2: in eighty seven, I'm certain that you could tell the
Speaker 2: difference between kind of the teen idol fandom of like
Speaker 2: screaming girls and regular fans who just like into the
Speaker 2: sound and into the band. What was you know again?
Speaker 2: I know there was a novelty or curiosity of these
Speaker 2: funky ass white boys or whatever. But at least between
Speaker 2: seventy five and eighty seven is there. What are the
Speaker 2: fans like?
Speaker 3: They were wherever Durham went. There were the days right
Speaker 3: and the directions. Yeah, they used to they used to be.
Speaker 3: They camp outside of the studio and they were all
Speaker 3: very nice, you know. I mean I remember when we
Speaker 3: were in London and we were recording as there was
Speaker 3: this girl, Michelle. I was still in touch with her, right,
Speaker 3: I was there and I had my kids with me, okay,
Speaker 3: and they were little. They go out and there was
Speaker 3: there was like there was this gate, you know, and
Speaker 3: they go out and they sort of talk to the
Speaker 3: Duranis through the gate and finally Michelle said, I said, Michelle,
Speaker 3: you want to look after after the kids because I
Speaker 3: was inside working, right, And they go out there and
Speaker 3: they'd sit with the Durani's and they'd have chips and
Speaker 3: candy and they were just hanging.
Speaker 4: They love. My kids loved hanging out with these with
Speaker 4: these fans.
Speaker 3: And I mean Michelle said to me, she said, wow,
Speaker 3: you wouldn't do that now, would you?
Speaker 5: And I said, well maybe not, but but back then
Speaker 5: they were they were they were so nice that I mean,
Speaker 5: they were they were just fans, and they all they
Speaker 5: wanted was another photograph?
Speaker 2: Right? Was it like that for a w B though,
Speaker 2: like that level fandom?
Speaker 3: No, no, No, I think it was a totally different
Speaker 3: different thing that with the average white man.
Speaker 4: It was sex basically, it was. It was sex and
Speaker 4: dragon rock and roll with with with with average white man.
Speaker 3: But but I think I think it was it was
Speaker 3: a different Yeah, I mean, you know, I was.
Speaker 4: I think I was like thirty five or something.
Speaker 3: And I think, and I think and I think that
Speaker 3: Duran Duran Duran also started to mature as as as men.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know when when they first started, they
Speaker 3: were came straight straight out of college to be the
Speaker 3: biggest band on the planet. Right, it was wild, you know,
Speaker 3: and that's why they had that some wild boys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I see.
Speaker 3: So then by the time I joined them, I was
Speaker 3: the I was the oldest teen idol and they were
Speaker 3: they would they calmed down somewhat, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, you guys were seriously.
Speaker 3: But you know what was funny was at one point
Speaker 3: nobody really took Duran Duran that seriously, you know. I
Speaker 3: mean other than being like a team, they were phenomenon
Speaker 3: a team phenomenon, you.
Speaker 2: Know really and then a good musicianship though.
Speaker 4: But they did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, eventually it was like they were working on it.
Speaker 3: I mean, like they said, they came out and then
Speaker 3: you know, and then they were great producing out now
Speaker 3: and you know that that could put that together of
Speaker 3: Bernard Edwards and they worked together and in the power
Speaker 3: station and studios and all the money and all the
Speaker 3: time to do a record and make make a song happen.
Speaker 4: You know, But they started to they started to.
Speaker 3: Mature as as people are musicians and you know, now
Speaker 3: they've been around a long time and they and they
Speaker 3: still they still valid and still make music and aren't
Speaker 3: just sort of resting on their laurels. And you know,
Speaker 3: we were around around they just really matured into a
Speaker 3: bunch of really great players.
Speaker 2: Well, shout out to durand A and they just got
Speaker 2: a I'm part of the Rock and Roll Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame committee, So I'm very happy that they got inducted finally.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, yeah, that's fantastic news.
Speaker 3: But they but but yes, absolutely that you can't say
Speaker 3: that they're not valid.
Speaker 4: They've been making records. I mean I remember I remember,
Speaker 4: you know, I was working.
Speaker 3: With George Harrison and I go over to London and
Speaker 3: they had an apartment on Sloan Street.
Speaker 4: They get me an apartment on So and I have
Speaker 4: to drive out to the rehearsals at Race Studios. I
Speaker 4: get there, ride there, Oh, I take a ride down
Speaker 4: the King's Road. I get in my car.
Speaker 3: I'm driving down the King's Road and I see this
Speaker 3: guy and I say this, a little muscle muscle bound, buffed,
Speaker 3: and I say, that looks like Warren Coocarillo.
Speaker 4: But he's skinny, skinny.
Speaker 3: Rock and roll guy, a little skinny rock and roll guitarist.
Speaker 3: And and then I look and it is Warren. And
Speaker 3: I hadn't seen him in a couple of years, and
Speaker 3: he'd been pumping iron and he buffed out, you know,
Speaker 3: and I, Warren, what the hell you're in town?
Speaker 4: He said, I need you to do a session for me.
Speaker 3: And this is what I'm still driving very slowly right
Speaker 3: and King So and I I got the window down
Speaker 3: and say, well, I don't know what my schedule is.
Speaker 3: He said, let me know, and he takes reaches into
Speaker 3: his bag and takes a cassette and he throws it
Speaker 3: through my car window and said, that's the song. Give
Speaker 3: me a call when you get when you find out
Speaker 3: what you're scheduled. So I drive off down the road
Speaker 3: and I take this cassette and a puppet in the cassette
Speaker 3: player in the car and it's the ordinary world. Oh
Speaker 3: And I call up Bar and I say, you don't
Speaker 3: need me to play on this.
Speaker 4: You know this, You could just put out this demo
Speaker 4: right now. This is a hit record. You know this
Speaker 4: is great, this is a hit song.
Speaker 3: And he's like, no, no, no, we want you to
Speaker 3: play with So they insisted I play on it. I
Speaker 3: don't know if I bought anything else to it, but boy,
Speaker 3: what a beautiful song and what a great hit record
Speaker 3: that was in them young.
Speaker 2: So I have a question about your your studio sound.
Speaker 2: So the thing that always attracted me to your sound
Speaker 2: was your tone, particularly the snap of your snare, Like
Speaker 2: I think, like you really came alive on the soul
Speaker 2: Search and record. Just your drumming technique, Like I love
Speaker 2: the fact that you know, we now live in the
Speaker 2: age where and drummers hate when I start speaking down
Speaker 2: on gospel chops, you know, but for me, God with you,
Speaker 2: I know, but for me, gospel chops is if you're
Speaker 2: a chef you got to know how much garlic and
Speaker 2: salt and pepper and spices to add to your meal.
Speaker 2: And sometimes you can overdo it, but you always have
Speaker 2: these clean feels, so.
Speaker 3: Really good piece of meat, really good cut of meat
Speaker 3: with too much spices and.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you don't need spices, you know. So that said,
Speaker 2: can you walk me through a typical session for AWB, like,
Speaker 2: you know, like do you have a say in the
Speaker 2: tone of your drums? You know, like I know that
Speaker 2: your signature gretch set kind of comes in at the
Speaker 2: tail end of the tour, Like are you allowed to
Speaker 2: tune your drums or is it a thing where like
Speaker 2: the engineer says, don't touch my microphones, don't touch my drums,
Speaker 2: just play.
Speaker 4: At that point in time, I did it. I did
Speaker 4: it myself, you know, I was my own.
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't say that I'm really a great
Speaker 3: drum tuner other than the fact that I want to
Speaker 3: dank thing.
Speaker 4: I want the dank thing to sound like.
Speaker 3: Right, the first cut the cake was was it was
Speaker 3: the sonar kit that they had in the studio Atlantic.
Speaker 4: It was in a little box, right You ever see
Speaker 4: that to.
Speaker 3: Photographs of that drum kit, It's like in a little
Speaker 3: box and the symbols were right there, and it was
Speaker 3: and that was that was, that was, that was cut
Speaker 3: the cake. And then by the time but the time
Speaker 3: he got around to soul searching, it was I got.
Speaker 3: I wanted to always wanted a Gret drum kit and
Speaker 3: I could afford one, and I got That's when I got.
Speaker 2: So there wasn't such a thing as we'll endorse you,
Speaker 2: here's a free kit.
Speaker 3: Well, the endorsement that I had with Gretch at that
Speaker 3: point was they gave me a fifty percent discount.
Speaker 2: Okay, now they give you away, but back then, it
Speaker 2: wasn't giving a set that you didn't Okay, I see.
Speaker 3: And I got this drum kit and I set it
Speaker 3: up and set it up in the in the studio,
Speaker 3: and there was something that I wanted to try because
Speaker 3: I always felt that there was, uh you talk about
Speaker 3: the sound of the tone of the snare drop, that
Speaker 3: there wasn't quite the pop that I wanted to get
Speaker 3: at the crack that I wanted to get out of
Speaker 3: the drum with the microphone just on the top. So
Speaker 3: Jean Paul, who was Les Paul's son, was our engineer,
Speaker 3: and I said, I said, GM could we put the
Speaker 3: microphone like underneath the snare on facing up so that
Speaker 3: we can and we can blend those two things so
Speaker 3: that we can get the christness of the snare underneath
Speaker 3: plus the pop on the top. And he said, yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: we can do that. So they they they that's when
Speaker 3: they started to do that. And then I then in
Speaker 3: soul Searching, I actually asked him to put like a
Speaker 3: little delay or a little echo on there as on
Speaker 3: the underneath as well, And that's why it has that
Speaker 3: sort of roomy sort of yeah, and and and that
Speaker 3: was it was.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 3: It was such great fun to be able to experiment
Speaker 3: with stuff like that back in those days.
Speaker 4: You know, a Reef Marden was very old.
Speaker 2: Trying to say, how how is a Reef Martin as
Speaker 2: a coach incredible? Are you guys writing in that studio?
Speaker 3: We were in there writing as we Sometimes we'd start,
Speaker 3: we'd have an idea of a groove and then we'd
Speaker 3: write it in the studio. It was expensive, but not
Speaker 3: as expensive as would be to do that today.
Speaker 2: You're talking about the studio that's Atlantic Records. M Yes, okay,
Speaker 2: so yeah, I worked when we did the Hamilton brutally Yeah.
Speaker 2: I worked on the Hamilton Cast album at that particular studio,
Speaker 2: and I always wanted to know, okay, one, did they
Speaker 2: only have one studio? And how does time get how
Speaker 2: does time get divided? Like do you have just a
Speaker 2: week to get in the studio and then we got
Speaker 2: to get out because the reef is coming or Bette
Speaker 2: Midler's coming or I know.
Speaker 4: We used to just go in and start recording and then
Speaker 4: we were there. That was it was.
Speaker 2: That was it.
Speaker 3: We'd have like a couple of weeks or something and
Speaker 3: we just work in there. Sometimes we got That's how
Speaker 3: Benny and Benny and us got recorded was because we
Speaker 3: got stuck. We sort of got we weren't going anywhere.
Speaker 3: So somebody suggested us doing an album with Benny King,
Speaker 3: and then we did the Benny King album and then
Speaker 3: went back to I think it was Soul Searching. I
Speaker 3: think it was Soul searching.
Speaker 2: May no, it may or maybe Warmer communications.
Speaker 4: Warman communication. I think it was Warman Communications.
Speaker 2: So do you guys work out in sound check or like,
Speaker 2: how is songwriting traditionally done well?
Speaker 3: We we always had a tape recorder running at all
Speaker 3: times because what we discovered was that we jam, and
Speaker 3: out of the jam would come something that the nucleus
Speaker 3: of a song. Yeah, but this is where a reef
Speaker 3: was really good when we were in the studio, was
Speaker 3: we go in and we start to play this song,
Speaker 3: and we play and we played this song then and
Speaker 3: then the reef would say, everybody come in, and we
Speaker 3: come in and he gets to a certain point in
Speaker 3: the song, like we'd be playing, still looking for this
Speaker 3: groove right right, still trying to find and he would say, okay,
Speaker 3: this two bars right and there it was, Oh, okay, okay,
Speaker 3: I get it. That's where we are with it. This
Speaker 3: is this is where that the song is going to be. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: it would be this. He spot a section of the
Speaker 3: song that was where he wanted the thing to sit.
Speaker 2: And that's the magic.
Speaker 3: And then you guys know, there's the magic. Now, now
Speaker 3: go and do that, you know, school boy, schoolboy crash.
Speaker 1: We tried.
Speaker 3: We must have done it about twenty twenty two, twenty
Speaker 3: four times when and it just would not hang together,
Speaker 3: would not would not really, and so we said, okay,
Speaker 3: pack it up, go home, go out, come back tomorrow.
Speaker 3: We'll do it. We'll do it tomorrow fresh when you
Speaker 3: come in. We all went off to that stuff, went
Speaker 3: out and came back back the next day. We walk
Speaker 3: in there. Okay, let's run it down. So we run
Speaker 3: it down, and he said, okay, let's do let's do
Speaker 3: a take. Let's do a take. We did the take,
Speaker 3: and then we went in and listened and it just
Speaker 3: wouldn't No, here we go again. It's not it's just
Speaker 3: not hanging together. And and Gene Paul says, you want
Speaker 3: to listen to the run through. He had the presence
Speaker 3: of mind to press that record bat in the first
Speaker 3: time school question.
Speaker 2: And the run through is what you sat with? Did
Speaker 2: he loop that?
Speaker 4: Nope, you just.
Speaker 2: Went the run through wound up being the master version
Speaker 2: the run through? Was it? Wow? In seventy seven, especially
Speaker 2: on the Montro and your second appearance on Soul Train,
Speaker 2: you guys had a bongo player in the group. Who
Speaker 2: was that guy?
Speaker 4: Semi figure out?
Speaker 2: That was Semi figure out? Okay, yeah, what was the
Speaker 2: idea of letting him in the group.
Speaker 4: Well, Sammy was crazy.
Speaker 2: Sammy.
Speaker 4: Sammy was a guy around town.
Speaker 3: He used to play in a band called Racist from
Speaker 3: Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2: Wait what.
Speaker 4: Racist?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Racist Racist?
Speaker 3: And Sammy was the best Sammy Davis impersonator ever really well,
Speaker 3: I should say it is because he's still alive, really yeah.
Speaker 3: And he was a very funny guy, and we started
Speaker 3: doing things like Queen and My Soul and everything.
Speaker 4: And it was like, look at the use of the
Speaker 4: cast Sammy. Sammy came with us.
Speaker 2: You didn't feel like it was in your way. No,
Speaker 2: because the thing is on the live I don't know
Speaker 2: if you ever listened to via the Montro seventy seven
Speaker 2: live album, but his presence there really doesn't allow you
Speaker 2: to do your peronisms. So in my mind it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: you got to be more tight. It was. It was.
Speaker 4: It was a little different animal, but it was. It
Speaker 4: was cool. I love Sammy, you know.
Speaker 3: The only thing that used to annoy me felt savvy
Speaker 3: was he had this giant rainstick.
Speaker 4: Nice. Yeah, it was huge.
Speaker 3: I mean it was probably like six foot tall, and
Speaker 3: he would we used to travel on a legit and
Speaker 3: he would bring this thing in the on the on
Speaker 3: the plane and lay it down right down the middle
Speaker 3: of the leg. It's tiny, right, so it would be
Speaker 3: right and take up most of the thing.
Speaker 4: And as that as we would go to take off,
Speaker 4: it would be like.
Speaker 2: It was just annoying, but he was a he's.
Speaker 3: A funny guy, Sammy. I love SEMy to death. He
Speaker 3: was he was just really great.
Speaker 2: Devin, how are band decisions made? Like? Is it is
Speaker 2: it the idea that you all get to say? Or
Speaker 2: who are these alphas that say this is what we
Speaker 2: should do?
Speaker 4: We'd have a bad meeting.
Speaker 2: Okay, are you guys by seventy nine, are you guys
Speaker 2: still friends? Are you kind of phoning in from home?
Speaker 2: Are you tired of each other yet?
Speaker 3: Or seventy nine you're talking about the Arista years?
Speaker 2: Well, no, no, feel no threat before you go to ft.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we we were, We were still upt in,
Speaker 3: were still held many on making making Vega.
Speaker 2: Now, why was there an exodus to Arista? Because also
Speaker 2: Aretha goes to Arista as well. Like I noticed that
Speaker 2: there's there's at least four or five Atlantic acts that
Speaker 2: get wooed away by Clive Davis, and.
Speaker 3: That I think that's what That's what I have management management,
Speaker 3: we're pushing heavily for us to move from Atlantic to
Speaker 3: go to Arista. I don't, I know, I wasn't not
Speaker 3: sure about it because I love being.
Speaker 2: Atlantic now without without ruffling you know, And here's the thing.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm actually friends with Foster. I'm a fan of
Speaker 2: his work, Like I love the New Birthed too, you
Speaker 2: know all that stuff. And you know, and I'll admit
Speaker 2: that maybe younger in my twenty the thirties, you know,
Speaker 2: I might side ey the fact that Wow, like Chicago
Speaker 2: used to sound some Wayne, then they got with Foster.
Speaker 2: And then Earth Wind and Fire used to sound some Wayne,
Speaker 2: then they got with Foster. Now you know, Sean comes
Speaker 2: out when I'm nine, So you know I'm not I'm
Speaker 2: not cynical, So I will say the nine year old me,
Speaker 2: I loved you know what you're going to do for me.
Speaker 2: I loved Into the Night, you know, I loved helpings
Speaker 2: on it like I like those songs, like I listened
Speaker 2: to Shine constantly. But clearly it's a more mature sound.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I wasn't very I mean, there was a what
Speaker 4: can we David?
Speaker 3: It's fun because he's a great musician, right yeah, And
Speaker 3: I think he's a great producer. But I don't think
Speaker 3: that he was in a tune. I think he's more
Speaker 3: tuned to artists than he is with a band.
Speaker 4: Okay, because average.
Speaker 3: White band was such such a special combination of how
Speaker 3: the how the parts of everybody fit together to make
Speaker 3: to make average White band. I understand that the producer
Speaker 3: has got to do, you know this his job to
Speaker 3: come in make some changes. But I don't think that
Speaker 3: you can actually lose the essence of a band like
Speaker 3: average White band without having having some some some problems.
Speaker 3: And and the the problem that I found with it
Speaker 3: was when we finished that album and we sat down
Speaker 3: and started to play it, six people with the band
Speaker 3: one sounding right, So we.
Speaker 2: Had to have the elements of overproduction that you had
Speaker 2: in the studio. It didn't trans it didn't translate live right.
Speaker 3: No, And we ended up getting we had to get
Speaker 3: and we got another keyboard player to come in and
Speaker 3: play with us, and we got a couple of background
Speaker 3: vocalists to come in with us. And I found myself
Speaker 3: sitting on stage playing those songs and saying, ware the
Speaker 3: hell did everage want band go?
Speaker 2: I see at the turn of the eighties, especially on
Speaker 2: like songs like catch me before I have to testify whatever,
Speaker 2: Like this is sort of the introduction of like you know,
Speaker 2: I could hear the sensonic drums or like sort of
Speaker 2: drum machine, you know, and kind of the Filma and
Speaker 2: Louise car Jump for a lot of these bands who
Speaker 2: were killing in the seventies. And this goes for the
Speaker 2: Ohio players in the comedy everyone they have a decision
Speaker 2: to make to either sink or swim. How aware of
Speaker 2: you of what technology is and your role in it?
Speaker 2: Is it like, Okay, this Roger Lynn box might replace me.
Speaker 2: Do I embrace it and learn how to program it?
Speaker 2: Or the Simmons drum was like, do I roll with
Speaker 2: the punches or do I just fight the power and
Speaker 2: be like, Nope, I'm not learning technology, I'm playing drums.
Speaker 4: Well, I like I like the Simmons drums.
Speaker 3: I mean I used the must stay with Me tonight,
Speaker 3: Jeffrey Osmond and I had to fight George do for
Speaker 3: that because I said, I said to George, we cut
Speaker 3: it with the real jumpkin And I said, yeah, George,
Speaker 3: I said, I think this thing could use I'd heard
Speaker 3: that blinded me with science, and I thought, right, I
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 4: I like the sound of that.
Speaker 2: So you you were all you were all for it.
Speaker 3: I was all for I was all for that. I mean,
Speaker 3: drum machines had never interested me. Really, the program or anything.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean even though I did program at
Speaker 3: the so misled on the Duranda and things started off
Speaker 3: as me programming something for them to play too. They
Speaker 3: were writing in the studio, so I programmed that, and
Speaker 3: then I had to figure out how to play.
Speaker 2: So what were your opinions on like people that clearly
Speaker 2: were going to define the era, i e. Princess music.
Speaker 2: You know the fact that now deep snare sounds are
Speaker 2: kind of the thing that's involved, kind of the opposite
Speaker 2: of what was your signature sound? Are you are you
Speaker 2: with us or are you sort of fighting?
Speaker 3: No? I mean, I mean, look, I used to fight
Speaker 3: the click. I mean when they first started saying, you know,
Speaker 3: we got a cut with a click. I mean, I
Speaker 3: think when you're talking about the songs you're talking about,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden we were cutting stuff to a
Speaker 3: click and just sort of walk in there and it
Speaker 3: was played to the click, and that.
Speaker 4: Was that was it.
Speaker 3: When before we used to go in and have to
Speaker 3: find the tempo right, the tempo would come from the song. Okay,
Speaker 3: this is the song's tempo and this is what we're
Speaker 3: playing it at okay, and you know, and it was
Speaker 3: it was kind of uninvolved. You know, I had when
Speaker 3: you know, when people started to play, I'd worked hard
Speaker 3: on my tempo and I remember a ref you know,
Speaker 3: you say we're going to cut this with a click,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh, come on, Areca. Yeah, some of it,
Speaker 3: but but no, I mean even even the early stuff
Speaker 3: with Shacker, Love is fulling on me.
Speaker 4: The click that's playing.
Speaker 3: But I'm every woman cut with a click?
Speaker 4: Played that?
Speaker 2: Please answer this morning? Who is playing bass on Some Love?
Speaker 2: Is that her brother Mark?
Speaker 4: Anthony Jackson?
Speaker 2: That's Anthony Jackson playing Some Love? I think so wow,
Speaker 2: it's crazy.
Speaker 3: Okay, that was the day we cut A Reef would
Speaker 3: put aside the whole day to cut Love is fulling
Speaker 3: on me.
Speaker 4: We did it in one take.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say, for a song to
Speaker 2: get cut, how long when you're not working on your
Speaker 2: projects per se, when you're working as a session musician,
Speaker 2: how long do you guys have to get it right?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, shacka with a Reef with Shaka was
Speaker 3: was like we go in and we've had a definite
Speaker 3: idea about how this thing would would be right, and
Speaker 3: we go in and we rehearse the.
Speaker 4: Parts and we get everything and run it down, Run
Speaker 4: it Down.
Speaker 3: Shaka would show up, like you know, whenever she showed
Speaker 3: up two o'clock in the afternoon or something. And when
Speaker 3: she walked in there and she got in that booth
Speaker 3: and she opened her mouth, everything went out the window.
Speaker 4: Everything changed.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you had the vibe with her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like, oh okay, with all the stuff
Speaker 3: that we've been sitting there rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing.
Speaker 4: It was it was all about it.
Speaker 3: It was her and she would it would.
Speaker 2: Change one thing that I just found out your work
Speaker 2: with the Burke Family. Yes, I wasn't aware that the
Speaker 2: Invisible Man Band was basically the Five Stairsteps as another name. Yes,
Speaker 2: and a lot of hip hop fans are unaware that
Speaker 2: that's you drumming on Keep Rising to the Top. Yeah,
Speaker 2: when you're when you're drumming with other acts.
Speaker 3: Again, my favorite, my favorite percussion part on All Night Thing.
Speaker 3: Duly played the percussion on that the cow bell. Yeah,
Speaker 3: all I want to go added they ding ding ding
Speaker 3: ding chicken gom think don't don't get right, think don't.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask, did you guys track live? Because
Speaker 2: even with you matching their ad libs at the end
Speaker 2: with the drum fills or whatever, Like, was that song
Speaker 2: just cut at the same time with everyone or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we cut it like yeah, and and then I
Speaker 3: mean basically we cut it live. The vocals are live
Speaker 3: as well. And and then I guess they did a
Speaker 3: bit of the ad libs and stuff. They loved it,
Speaker 3: so they just either kept it or did another they
Speaker 3: redid it.
Speaker 2: Did you have a relationship with the Five Steer Steps?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Why you know? What was your relationship with the Burke family.
Speaker 4: It was a guy called Alex Masucci who used to
Speaker 4: work fan your records? Okay, who was who had who
Speaker 4: was a friend with?
Speaker 3: I guess he signed Clarence and and uh and and Alex.
Speaker 4: I met Alex to to.
Speaker 3: I used to go and hang out with Ray Bretto
Speaker 3: and all those people up there at the Corso and
Speaker 3: and Alex asked me to play on this record, So
Speaker 3: I just want to play. I wasn't even aware of
Speaker 3: the Stairsteps things connection.
Speaker 2: No, it was just you realize that the guy did child.
Speaker 4: No, I had no idea. Oh wow, matter fact, this
Speaker 4: is all news to me right now. Wait seriously, yeah, seriously.
Speaker 2: You don't know that the five stairsteps, an invisible man
Speaker 2: man that did all right thing. And well surely you
Speaker 2: know that. I mean, you know Kenny burkean Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 4: I spoke to Kenny not so long ago. And you
Speaker 4: know what's funny.
Speaker 3: It's in northern California, up near Carmel. There's a radio
Speaker 3: station and they play all night thing all the time.
Speaker 2: Dude, it's that was a black That was a black
Speaker 2: radio staple and seventy nine eighty. You know, even in
Speaker 2: my dad's band, like the my the way that you know,
Speaker 2: my dad would do like five sets a night, but
Speaker 2: his band would have to do three dance sets of
Speaker 2: like the songs of the day or whatever, and they
Speaker 2: used to kill that song. I of course I should
Speaker 2: have known that was you drumming, because you know, again
Speaker 2: you have the perfect pocket by this point, How do
Speaker 2: you Are you your own manager? Are you your own negotiator?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I do on my own stuff. You know, I've done that.
Speaker 3: I mean, there was a couple of people would come
Speaker 3: in and say, you know, I'd really like to manage you,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, well, you know, so you just keep.
Speaker 2: Your own dates, keep your own dates, and you keep
Speaker 2: Now at that point, are you like, are you a
Speaker 2: quadruple scale guy or are you like whole album give
Speaker 2: me twenty thousand or whatever, double Scoe, double scope, So
Speaker 2: you were still a scale guy, double scale. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you could make a solid living just absolutely. You never
Speaker 2: ran out of work. Is there is there a particular
Speaker 2: song that you were asked to play on that got
Speaker 2: away that you weren't able to play on because you
Speaker 2: had something else to do. No, John Robinson miss a
Speaker 2: date on Thriller or Off the Wall or something like,
Speaker 2: you do this.
Speaker 4: Gig real quick, you can't do it, like no, I
Speaker 4: don't think. I don't think.
Speaker 2: So okay, okay, So you know NB eighties. Of course
Speaker 2: you know you'll you'll join Duran Durant. But could you
Speaker 2: talk about the the Clapton period?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2: How did you guys hook up?
Speaker 3: I was with Duran Durant and we were in London
Speaker 3: and we got invited to a Bob Goldors Sniper's.
Speaker 4: Party which is at the hard Rock Cafe.
Speaker 3: And I went there and I was hanging out there
Speaker 3: here and it's funny, you just spanned out by a
Speaker 3: were there and and and they had they had little
Speaker 3: squabble going with with Deranda, and I was like there
Speaker 3: was like rival rib theres like this rival thing between
Speaker 3: them and uh and so, uh, I'm at this party
Speaker 3: and Phil Collins comes up to me and I've met
Speaker 3: Phill a couple of times before and feels like, hey, Steve,
Speaker 3: did you ever meet Eric Clapton? And I said, well, no,
Speaker 3: I said, I met him once. He came to an
Speaker 3: average white band show and I just met him briefly,
Speaker 3: just to say hello.
Speaker 4: That was about it.
Speaker 3: He said, we come over, come over, and Pie's come
Speaker 3: over here with him, come over and hang out with us.
Speaker 3: So I go over and I sit down and I'm
Speaker 3: there with Eric and we're just sitting there talking. We
Speaker 3: talked for a bit and I remember what the conversation
Speaker 3: was about, really, you know, and uh. And then I said, well,
Speaker 3: I better get back over to my crowd over.
Speaker 4: There's nice meeting you. That was and I did to
Speaker 4: see you Phil, And I went back over and I
Speaker 4: hung out with my band a lot, and that was it.
Speaker 3: Go back to New York and uh, and I get
Speaker 3: this phone call and guy said, listen, would you would
Speaker 3: you like to go and play with there at Clapton?
Speaker 4: I don't know well that sounds like fun. Yeah, what's
Speaker 4: what's the geek?
Speaker 3: And they said, well, he's playing a couple of clubs,
Speaker 3: one in Boston and one in New York m And
Speaker 3: I said, well, yeah, great, he's in the band Greg
Speaker 3: filling games in Nathan East.
Speaker 2: Ah, okay, well my buddy's my man.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, fine, that sounds good. And so we went
Speaker 3: up to Boston and we we we rehearsed a bit.
Speaker 3: I think Eric wound up in the hospital after day
Speaker 3: one of the one of his drinking periods, and so
Speaker 3: we were just rehearsed on our own and and and
Speaker 3: then he showed up with us last day or two rehearsal,
Speaker 3: and then we went and played in this club, and
Speaker 3: then we went down and played the club in New York,
Speaker 3: this club in New York.
Speaker 2: When you're in this position, you know, when I drum
Speaker 2: with other people, I to think like a shape shifter,
Speaker 2: like I don't think I have a definitive sound. My
Speaker 2: default sound, of course, is your sound, which, weird enough,
Speaker 2: I never use. Even though if I were to just
Speaker 2: start drumming, I would basically say what would Faron do?
Speaker 2: Right now? Even though my brand of drumming is kind
Speaker 2: of way different than that. However, I do find myself
Speaker 2: shape shifting a lot, like currently right now with DiAngelo,
Speaker 2: I'm sort of somewhere in between Tiki Forwood of Funkadelic
Speaker 2: and Jerome Brayley h drumming in ways I haven't drummed before.
Speaker 2: But for you, if you're with Clapton, is how hard
Speaker 2: is it to not channel Ginger Baker, like Okay, should
Speaker 2: I give him a cream moment or like or is
Speaker 2: it just strictly like I'm gonna drum like I do?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think, I think. I think.
Speaker 3: I always refer to Okay, I defer to the song
Speaker 3: first and played. I just go and play the song,
Speaker 3: and I don't think about anything. But in listening to
Speaker 3: the song. When I'm listening to the song, there's always
Speaker 3: bits that sort of stand out that go like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: if I don't play that, then I noticed that it's
Speaker 3: big enough, big enough moment for me.
Speaker 4: I should play I.
Speaker 2: Should do that.
Speaker 4: And sometimes that's stuff like that. I don't notice some
Speaker 4: stuff until later.
Speaker 3: But I mean, I never really, I never really think
Speaker 3: too much about I mean, I played a bit of replaced.
Speaker 3: Like a lot of people in bands, I mean, I
Speaker 3: remember I did a I did a I played for
Speaker 3: this band called the Pooh et Poo. It's a it's
Speaker 3: a like we need a pooh. They're Italian band and
Speaker 3: they've been together for like over forty years and they're
Speaker 3: sort of like progressive rock band and they've been together
Speaker 3: forever and and and their drummer, Stephano, retired, and they
Speaker 3: asked me to go and do this, do an album
Speaker 3: and sort of to move them forward, not just one
Speaker 3: album and a bit of a tour, just to keep them,
Speaker 3: just to keep them going. And I went over and
Speaker 3: did that, and and there was I had to listen
Speaker 3: to a lot of their music and I did, and
Speaker 3: that he did, Stefano would recorded he sort of know
Speaker 3: that you give it a nod. And but the rest
Speaker 3: of the time I played myself and try to bring
Speaker 3: something something to the song. And then so I did
Speaker 3: this interview and this dis guy says to me, I
Speaker 3: don't know if you realize that how big a thing
Speaker 3: this is that you're doing, replacing Stefano in a band
Speaker 3: that's been together for that long. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: I've done it before.
Speaker 5: I did it.
Speaker 4: I did it with Duran Duran, I did it with
Speaker 4: an average white band.
Speaker 2: I did it.
Speaker 4: I did it with I did it with with Eric.
Speaker 3: Clappton, because there was basically that introduction was Phil Collins saying,
Speaker 3: I can't do this. I got my own gig to
Speaker 3: do try.
Speaker 4: Steep, so then I had to go I have to
Speaker 4: to go do that with Phil Collins. There's been Stan
Speaker 4: Lynch with the Heartbreakers. I've replaced.
Speaker 3: I've replaced so many people, great drummers that have done
Speaker 3: at great moments, that have had iconic i'd say iconic moments,
Speaker 3: and I don't think too many people have missed them,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean, it's just that I've gone and
Speaker 3: done that and and but I play the song and
Speaker 3: I don't really think too much about what everybody else
Speaker 3: plays when I listen. When I listen to something, there's
Speaker 3: certain fields that it's like, well, you know that's that
Speaker 3: I can't not play that, that's got to be there
Speaker 3: right right. But I listen more to the song than
Speaker 3: I do to what the drumm's paying.
Speaker 2: So one of the most magical nights that I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: One was the first time I ever seen you play live,
Speaker 2: and two you're playing drums for another hero of mine,
Speaker 2: which is Prince. I was there in the Rock and
Speaker 2: Roll Hall of Fame. Yeah, then they go when you
Speaker 2: guys do my guitar gently weeps. Was this at all
Speaker 2: sound checked or rehearsed?
Speaker 4: Well, we rehearsed.
Speaker 3: We rehearsed here with Elements of the Heart. But Tom
Speaker 3: Scott Thurston was playing bass. When we got to New York.
Speaker 3: There was Windwood, and there was Jim Cabbaldi, and Jim
Speaker 3: was a very funny guy, and and and he was
Speaker 3: playing he was going to play percussion there right, and
Speaker 3: and Jeff Young was playing keyboards as well, and and
Speaker 3: then Prince materialized over there, and I'm like.
Speaker 4: I said, what's Winwood was sitting? I said, what's Princeton.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't know he's coming.
Speaker 3: He said, no, no, no, he said, I think he's still.
Speaker 3: This is sort of like last minute addition to the band.
Speaker 3: And there was a little bit of an uneasiness because
Speaker 3: apparently what had happened was Olivia wanted people that were
Speaker 3: connected with George to play. Olivia Harrison wanted were connected
Speaker 3: with you. But the Grammy people have persuaded them to
Speaker 3: let Prince come and play, right, So I said to Winwood.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm going to.
Speaker 4: Go over and say hello to him. So he said,
Speaker 4: would say you're not and I said, yeah, I'm going
Speaker 4: to go over. I'm not frightened him.
Speaker 2: So I go.
Speaker 4: I go on and I say, Hi, Prince, how are
Speaker 4: you doing, Steve Ronnie? Nice to meet you. And he says, oh,
Speaker 4: he says, I know who you are and as it,
Speaker 4: and I.
Speaker 3: Thought, I feel for you right right, yeah, I played
Speaker 3: on a feel for it, and I said, well, we
Speaker 3: had a little bit of a chat and I said, okay,
Speaker 3: well I'm going to go back over there.
Speaker 4: Really nice to meet you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I go back over and women like, what's
Speaker 3: what did he say?
Speaker 4: And I said, he's really nice, go over and say
Speaker 4: hello to him.
Speaker 3: Don't introduce you. So all of a sudden, I hear
Speaker 3: Schoolboy Crashed being played I hate something and I thought
Speaker 3: it was like somebody from the from the Lehman Band
Speaker 3: or something, just messing with me, you know. And I
Speaker 3: look across the stage and Prince is looking right at
Speaker 3: me playing Schoolboy Crash and I'm.
Speaker 4: Like, dang, he does know who I am.
Speaker 2: You're god, but you know.
Speaker 3: And so we played a little bit and then Tom
Speaker 3: sort of went up to Prince and said, listen, just
Speaker 3: take that solo at the end, and you know, just
Speaker 3: did you guys? I had no idea, and he put
Speaker 3: on a whole show. He put on the whole show.
Speaker 3: When he fell into the audience, we had no idea.
Speaker 3: We thought he'd fallen off the stage. The whole band
Speaker 3: was we just killed Prince. And then the guy big
Speaker 3: drag catches him and pushing him back up on the stage,
Speaker 3: and then the guitar went up on the top and
Speaker 3: then everybody was like.
Speaker 4: Where did that go? You know, that was it was.
Speaker 4: It was a show for us. It wasn't for them.
Speaker 2: It was as he told me that that was. I
Speaker 2: asked him, I said, was that a revenge solo? Because
Speaker 2: you know, Rolling Stone had comprised a one hundred best
Speaker 2: guitarist lists. Yeah, and they never mentioned Prince, which to
Speaker 2: me is like, dude, he's a monster on guitar. How
Speaker 2: do you guys not? And you know, he he sort of,
Speaker 2: you know, it's kind of scoffed, like, well, they know now,
Speaker 2: you know, that's sort of But I you know, I
Speaker 2: instantly felt like that was his moment to let them
Speaker 2: know that, you know, I'm a motherfucker or guitar.
Speaker 3: It's an incredible solo. It's just incredible. It was just
Speaker 3: just incredible.
Speaker 2: Of all the bands that you've been anchor members of,
Speaker 2: what is the more favorable for you as far as
Speaker 2: just experiences? Is it the Heartbreak?
Speaker 3: I spent twenty five years with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Speaker 3: That's the longest that I'd ever ever associated myself with
Speaker 3: any band. I loved that band, and I love the
Speaker 3: experience of making music with that band. You know, constantly,
Speaker 3: always relevant, always fresh, always doing something new. Tom's motto was,
Speaker 3: I may have made a lot of money, but it's
Speaker 3: not going to stop me from being an artist.
Speaker 4: What more could you want? Yeah?
Speaker 2: What was Do you remember the last show that you
Speaker 2: did with him?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Hollywood Bowl?
Speaker 2: Was there anything particularly?
Speaker 3: I got inducted into the Rock Walk in Brighton, in
Speaker 3: my hometown in England on the pier right. They gave
Speaker 3: me this plaque and they put a plaqueup on the
Speaker 3: pier and Julia, my fiance, she she she decided that
Speaker 3: she was going to start off like getting people to
Speaker 3: make one of those little films with they say, oh, congratulations, Steve.
Speaker 4: You know all these people leaving nice messages, right.
Speaker 3: And she got older, she got older Nathan, and Nathan
Speaker 3: just went crazy and got like, you know, Eric Clapton
Speaker 3: to say stuff and.
Speaker 4: All these people. And she was trying to get me
Speaker 4: to watch it for the longest time, right, I know you.
Speaker 3: So, so we're going over to England to do this thing,
Speaker 3: and we're sitting waiting for the plane and she says,
Speaker 3: she pulls out a computer and she says, right, we're
Speaker 3: going to look at this now.
Speaker 4: And I said okay.
Speaker 3: And I sat there and I see all these people
Speaker 3: that left beautiful messages for me, and I was just
Speaker 3: sitting there's done. It was so nice that everybody. All
Speaker 3: the stuff that people were saying. It was like being
Speaker 3: at my own funeral.
Speaker 4: People say the nicest stuff about something. And it got
Speaker 4: it got to the very end.
Speaker 3: And she put Tom introducing me at the Hollywood Bowl
Speaker 3: and he used to and saying one of the best
Speaker 3: musicians I ever played with, and he said I was
Speaker 3: a great person too. Did I help a lot other people?
Speaker 3: I guess maybe because I did the stuff in AA
Speaker 3: or something. And I just lost it in the airport.
Speaker 4: I just started blubbering. I just I just couldn't. It
Speaker 4: was it was and she was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Like, no,
Speaker 4: this is this is good teas. This is good tea.
Speaker 2: I think it's good too. That's that's kind of a
Speaker 2: theme on the show. Like I for at least five years,
Speaker 2: I hate it when people bestowed praise on me, and
Speaker 2: so I'm fighting tooth and nail and kind of learning
Speaker 2: to accept love and appreciation.
Speaker 3: You know, because we listen, there's there's something that that
Speaker 3: that that your that your people who are going to
Speaker 3: watch it, that they should they should see that when
Speaker 3: we when you inducted me into the rock walk down
Speaker 3: here in the the in in Los Angeles, when we
Speaker 3: played pick Up the Pieces, I think we looked I
Speaker 3: think we looked that pretty good together.
Speaker 2: We absolutely did.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: You know what I want to ask about that night?
Speaker 2: How you know it's weird. The weirdest part about that
Speaker 2: whole was it wasn't until I left that I realized
Speaker 2: that was Steve Perry I was playing with. He's such
Speaker 2: a he's so mysterious. I thought Steve Perry is like
Speaker 2: one of the I thought he was a roadie or something,
Speaker 2: and he was so nice to us.
Speaker 3: That was The funniest thing. Steve am really good friends
Speaker 3: with Steve learn him for a long time. And he's
Speaker 3: very much reclusive. But he and I was always trying
Speaker 3: to encourage. Man, you know, if I had a voice
Speaker 3: like that, i'd be out there. Oh but I don't
Speaker 3: have the range that I used to. I said, man,
Speaker 3: you can sing.
Speaker 4: You know, what are you gonna do? If I had
Speaker 4: that voice, I'd be out there singing.
Speaker 2: Now. Don't just thinking that he can't sing anymore or no,
Speaker 2: he can still sing.
Speaker 3: He still makes records, but he's he has a lot
Speaker 3: of a lot of insecurity about it, you know. But
Speaker 3: he's just a wonderful singer and a wonderful human being.
Speaker 3: He's just a great guy, you know. And and and
Speaker 3: so he liked to go He was sort of liking
Speaker 3: to go to see people rehearse and sitting in rehearsals,
Speaker 3: and so he liked to be around that, you know.
Speaker 4: So I told him that, you know, Hamish was in
Speaker 4: town for this thing, and.
Speaker 3: And and I said, we're gonna we're gonna be rehearsing
Speaker 3: over the rehearsal studio.
Speaker 4: And he said can I come? And say, yeah, sure
Speaker 4: of course. So we get over there and we start playing.
Speaker 3: I think it was person to person and when we're
Speaker 3: playing it, I'm I'm missing a harmony in a vocal harmony.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm missing a note, you know, And and
Speaker 3: and Hamry said, well what we'll They're all seeing the like, no,
Speaker 3: there's a note missing. Not ho much one it is,
Speaker 3: but it's missing. And they were trying and they're really
Speaker 3: annoying that there's nothing missing. Steve, and I'm getting more
Speaker 3: and more upped. Steve is sitting there and he knows
Speaker 3: exactly what note is missing. So so Steve says, can
Speaker 3: I can? I yeah, come come, So he sit there,
Speaker 3: boom and there it was right that, Yeah, there you
Speaker 3: see that was missing.
Speaker 4: And I said, you're in the band. And what I said,
Speaker 4: you're in the.
Speaker 2: Good I've got that moment like I thought he was early.
Speaker 2: And then he's playing percussion.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's playing cowbell. He said, he's right out the
Speaker 4: But the funniest thing was was.
Speaker 3: When I when I introduced him, it was that all
Speaker 3: the audience is like looking at me, right, And I said,
Speaker 3: let's start over that side there on background vocals. We
Speaker 3: got Steve Perry and everybody sort of went huh.
Speaker 2: I was on the drum set, like wait a minute,
Speaker 2: this is Steve Perry this whole time, Like I did
Speaker 2: not know he needs to sing more, man, he needs.
Speaker 4: To please please. I'm going to tell you, you know,
Speaker 4: pointing to this thing.
Speaker 3: He's just he's got this voice that's just so special.
Speaker 3: He's got an instrument that's so special. And and I
Speaker 3: don't know, I don't know anybody now from you know
Speaker 3: that's in it from area that can sing in the
Speaker 3: in the same key as they did back in the
Speaker 3: eighties and the or even the nineties. But you know,
Speaker 3: you can drop a he as long as you can sing,
Speaker 3: because you know, I mean, I get I get annoyed,
Speaker 3: you know when you talk about the gospel chops.
Speaker 4: Yes, I get annoyed.
Speaker 3: The people who think they're on on America's got talent
Speaker 3: and they got like thirty seconds to sing every dang
Speaker 3: note that they can that's in the book.
Speaker 4: And I hear people.
Speaker 3: Singing those songs like that, and it's like, just sing
Speaker 3: the dangs. Sing the Might the word mean something, don't?
Speaker 4: It ain't about what you can do with it. Make
Speaker 4: that word?
Speaker 3: You know. I heard somebody singing some of that somebody
Speaker 3: did a cover of a average white band some and
Speaker 3: they sent me this singer that was.
Speaker 2: Well singing all them. Yeah, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 2: wrap this up momentarily. I just have a few more
Speaker 2: questions left. Number one of your career, as far as
Speaker 2: your actual performance is concerned, what do you feel is
Speaker 2: your most memorable satisfactory performance in terms of drumming, in
Speaker 2: terms of tone, like if I want to know what's
Speaker 2: the definitive three steven songs? What is it? And I
Speaker 2: don't mean popular, I just mean in terms of, yeah,
Speaker 2: you you locking it in the pocket?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I have to say, I have to
Speaker 4: say school boy crush.
Speaker 2: Okay, and were you playing were you playing the bells
Speaker 2: and drums at the same time?
Speaker 4: No, I added that as an afterthought on the recording. Okay, cool,
Speaker 4: Yeah that was but every time you do it, yeah,
Speaker 4: I just hold the bells. But but but I just
Speaker 4: thought it's just so kind of that that sort of
Speaker 4: fit the song somehow. And then and then all the
Speaker 4: rappers liked it, so that was good.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly that Wildflowers, the whole album with Tom Petty
Speaker 3: was that was his amazing experience.
Speaker 4: I love the album Secret.
Speaker 2: Story, Pat, I love so much he's been on our show.
Speaker 3: I think that's one of the most beautiful albums.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you about the Glow Sessions, but
Speaker 2: I will just because you know, that was definitely Rick
Speaker 2: James's craziest period in his career. But I mean the book, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know. I was going to say, from one to ten,
Speaker 2: how crazy were the Rick James Glowed Sessions? Great? But
Speaker 2: and that was a lot of reverb on those sneers, man,
Speaker 2: yeah it was.
Speaker 4: It was crazy. But Rick Man, well, he just had
Speaker 4: such an energy that was really cool. I love these music.
Speaker 3: I mean, I just I went and saw bad I
Speaker 3: went saw this little band playing in one of one
Speaker 3: of the clubs in Los Angeles, I forget Peppermint or
Speaker 3: something like that at school, and and it's that they
Speaker 3: were playing. They were playing some Rick James and they
Speaker 3: were like, man, that's a great what a great energy.
Speaker 2: That sum Yes, give it to me baby, Yes, all right.
Speaker 2: So I was going to say, what was the hardest
Speaker 2: session you ever had in your your cannon?
Speaker 4: Oh hardest, like.
Speaker 2: Take after take after take after take after take didn't
Speaker 2: nail it got through by the skin of my teeth,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: It was the schoolboy Crush was was pretty hard. But
Speaker 3: I think there was a song one secret story. I
Speaker 3: forget what it's called now, but there's this and it
Speaker 3: was it's in seven four and and Pat wanted wanted
Speaker 3: to keep the bass drum beat, but he had to
Speaker 3: done something with the sink clap and the sort of
Speaker 3: busting overbeat over this book.
Speaker 4: The bubblet uh and and I had to figure out what,
Speaker 4: what what how to play it?
Speaker 3: So I said, well, yeah, I said, tell you what,
Speaker 3: Just run the tape and I'll play and and see
Speaker 3: if I can come up with something. And I was
Speaker 3: trying to figure out how to play this thing and
Speaker 3: just playing, and then finally I got settled into this
Speaker 3: one sort of pattern with it, and I tried to
Speaker 3: do something and I almost fell off off the drum.
Speaker 4: Kit doing it, and so I just abandoned it.
Speaker 3: And then I went and I went in, and then
Speaker 3: I went in. I went back in there and said, okay,
Speaker 3: was there anything in there in that and he said, yes,
Speaker 3: you played it once was it is says post.
Speaker 4: My feet off of the ground at the same time.
Speaker 3: It's just I had to really sort of I had
Speaker 3: to go in and sit down on woodshed a little
Speaker 3: bit just to get comfortable with my balance and as
Speaker 3: I played that, but it doesn't sound that much, but
Speaker 3: it's just a little bit.
Speaker 2: It's just you were kind of going there with the
Speaker 2: especially with the Brian Auger stuff, like you were doing
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, quasi prog rocketsh like id
Speaker 2: meters and yeah, yeah, I was young.
Speaker 4: I was very useful with Brian Oga. I was twenty
Speaker 4: three years old. I listened to that stuff and it's like, wow,
Speaker 4: it's so young.
Speaker 2: So I want to mention before going you have a
Speaker 2: new project Ebunctions and that's yeah, yeah, you on drums
Speaker 2: and Jeff back one keys and what he Mankowski on vocals,
Speaker 2: Ethan Farmer, Yeah, and same area.
Speaker 4: That was fun to do.
Speaker 3: We did that in the lockdown at my studio and
Speaker 3: U and they brought the songs over and and and
Speaker 3: a bass player they had and Jeff had done all
Speaker 3: the stuff with the keyboards and they'd done most of
Speaker 3: the rough vocals and stuff, and then they Ethan came
Speaker 3: over to the house and my engineer at the end
Speaker 3: of the guy who engineered.
Speaker 4: Eric Dwongur and he does the engineering for me, and.
Speaker 3: We'd figured out how to do it so he could
Speaker 3: engineer me from Long Beach, right and so and so
Speaker 3: he was in Long Beach and we were there.
Speaker 4: In the room and massed up, and you know, it
Speaker 4: really is something.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you've experienced this with your band,
Speaker 3: but it really does give something when when you can
Speaker 3: actually even if you if you're overdubbing to a track
Speaker 3: that's already there, if you if you put down bass
Speaker 3: and drums at the same time, it just adds that
Speaker 3: little feel of there's that interplay that happens between between
Speaker 3: between the base place. It just makes the track field.
Speaker 3: I think love warm up.
Speaker 2: So are you guys planning on like going out live
Speaker 2: with it.
Speaker 4: And moving well, I'd like to go out and play.
Speaker 3: We were we were doing this little gig of this
Speaker 3: this uh uh Pastromi I think it's called Joe's Pastrami place.
Speaker 3: We were playing on Friday nights. They were going there
Speaker 3: and playing. I was playing with Jeff. So it were
Speaker 3: your bunchs gonna come play and I'm too busy, But
Speaker 3: I would, really, I would. I would hope that we'd
Speaker 3: go and play a gig at least one you know
Speaker 3: at some point or at least one.
Speaker 2: There's one song I want to ask about that I
Speaker 2: forgot to ask about. It's It's on Shaka's fourth album,
Speaker 2: she did an extremely ambitious medley called Bebop Medley.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, she's basically marrying all these old jazz
Speaker 2: song that was a reef. Yeah did you piece that together?
Speaker 2: Or yeah?
Speaker 3: We cut?
Speaker 4: We cut a piece of it every day.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I thought you'll did that in one fell swoop, and
Speaker 2: I always wanted to know how did you guys get
Speaker 2: that together? So you guys cut had to cut and
Speaker 2: paste that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, cut, ref would would would recall it that bit,
Speaker 3: and then he'd take it home and listened to it,
Speaker 3: and then he'd write the next bit, and then we
Speaker 3: come back in the next day and then we play
Speaker 3: the next bit, and then he tag it on and
Speaker 3: then we go take it away and then write the
Speaker 3: next bit.
Speaker 2: There were times where I saw you play with soccer.
Speaker 2: Have you guys ever attempted to do the Bebop metley live?
Speaker 4: I think we have done it live. I think we've
Speaker 4: done it.
Speaker 2: Jesus Age christ right exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, yeah we did. I think yes, we did.
Speaker 4: We did it live.
Speaker 3: There's a there's a I think we did it at
Speaker 3: the concert. Maybe we did something at the roxy.
Speaker 2: You did you did a I've seen only maybe like
Speaker 2: four or five songs from that particular.
Speaker 4: Thing, but I think we found I think we may
Speaker 4: have done it there. That was that was fun.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's really hard because I've played with
Speaker 3: so many great musicians and so much that's so much
Speaker 3: fun playing in my career and continue to do so
Speaker 3: grateful and grateful for that, but it's hard to sort
Speaker 3: of narrow it down to say. You know, I always
Speaker 3: feel like I'm leaving somebody.
Speaker 4: Out right, So I usually I usually I use it
Speaker 4: when I do.
Speaker 3: When I do something like this, I always make a
Speaker 3: big point of thanking, thanking the School of Lake Local
Speaker 3: a though two and the School of Local forty seven.
Speaker 2: You know, so you really are a union guy?
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, I tell you, you know, they may be
Speaker 3: they may be they may be pay pay pay for
Speaker 3: a pension, and I'm like, give me the money pension.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm really happy that they did.
Speaker 2: Now, those guys are always on my case.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm kind of in a different category where I don't
Speaker 2: depend on that, but I also understand that musicians have
Speaker 2: to make a living. Oh wait, speaking of which we
Speaker 2: do have something in common. You were I didn't realize
Speaker 2: that you were in eighty five the house drummer for SNL. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: how was that gig for you? You just did it
Speaker 2: for one year? Correct.
Speaker 3: I had the gig for three seasons, but in the
Speaker 3: middle of the second season, I started to get really
Speaker 3: busy with Eric Clapton and Duran Duran, and so I
Speaker 3: was out of town a lot, and so funny, I
Speaker 3: just said, now, it's silly me keeping this gig. This
Speaker 3: you give it to something, so you decided to let someone, Okay. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So for you L, Lauren has always been really really
Speaker 3: nice with me. I mean he's always every time I
Speaker 3: always introduced myself and he.
Speaker 4: Says, I know who you are.
Speaker 2: So my final question is is there ever a thing
Speaker 2: as stopping.
Speaker 4: You know, playing?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, So for you, drumming is still passion you
Speaker 2: still have.
Speaker 4: I love doing it. I love playing the drums. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I love making music.
Speaker 2: I have a dream. And I thought, you know, if
Speaker 2: COVID wasn't here by the time I turned fifty, I said,
Speaker 2: before I die, you know, And unfortunately, uh, Malcolm uh
Speaker 2: is no longer here with us. But before I pass away,
Speaker 2: I have to see the core five members of the
Speaker 2: group play one more time. Are you guys at all
Speaker 2: as far as the average white band is concerned?
Speaker 4: Are well?
Speaker 2: Is there an average white band thread on your phone?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 3: You know, we took every once in a while and
Speaker 3: I tried to get those scotsmen to my piece.
Speaker 4: You know, it's like who's that.
Speaker 2: Who's who's that? Odds here hemus?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, some it depends on the day, sometimes odds
Speaker 3: and sometimes the odds and sometimes you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, uh, Molly passed away, you know, I mean
Speaker 3: I tried to get something back together and and and you.
Speaker 2: Don't easy pieces and yeah, all these projects with one
Speaker 2: or two members.
Speaker 4: But you know, I mean, I mean, you know, I
Speaker 4: mean I was talking actually took me with hybris.
Speaker 3: I thought, man, you know, it would be great to
Speaker 3: have quest that come produces the average right man, Now
Speaker 3: he enjoyed as much as we would.
Speaker 2: I would. I would honestly say to you, I would
Speaker 2: probably risk the ire of anybody I've ever worked with
Speaker 2: and walk away in the heartbeat if I knew that
Speaker 2: I could facilitate an average right White Band reunion.
Speaker 3: But I get I'll tell you what I do. I'll
Speaker 3: get your allegory's telephone number, I send it to you.
Speaker 2: So he's the missing piece and if he agrees with it,
Speaker 2: and then you think everyone else will fall.
Speaker 4: I think I can persuade Hambrich.
Speaker 3: I think that could be done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want a proper clothing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it would be a good thing to do, because,
Speaker 3: like I say, everybody can still play.
Speaker 4: Yes, it would. It would be fun thing to see
Speaker 4: what would happen.
Speaker 2: Your mouth of God's ears? Yeah, you know I And closing,
Speaker 2: I just want to say yes, I really truly hope
Speaker 2: that you know that literally, you know you you sparked
Speaker 2: a revolution of where I am right now in my life,
Speaker 2: like this starts with you.
Speaker 3: I'm truly I'm truly grateful for that because it's nice
Speaker 3: to see if somebody walk up to you and say, man,
Speaker 3: you've been a great inspiration and I can.
Speaker 4: Actually tell meun and say, man, that guy plays his
Speaker 4: ass off.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: Thank you. And also thank you for that snare drum.
Speaker 2: I'm literally using it all over.
Speaker 4: The day to use it. I saw you do it.
Speaker 4: I say it on the TV.
Speaker 2: Absolutely on the next roots album.
Speaker 4: Wouldn't it be wonderful if all those instruments got used
Speaker 4: that way down?
Speaker 3: I mean that that people got them and didn't just
Speaker 3: put them in glass cases and look at them and
Speaker 3: think with a lot.
Speaker 2: Of man that that snare has a snap like no other.
Speaker 2: But I thank you for that. Plays and gentlemen, the
Speaker 2: great Steve Roon, my musical hero on Quest Love Supreme. Hi,
Speaker 2: thank you for taking the time out to listen to this,
Speaker 2: and we will see you on the next goram all right, see,
Speaker 2: I'll leave. Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.