Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: from My Heart Radio back. When you think of the
Speaker 1: rhythm section of the Beatles, Paul McCartney on bass guitar
Speaker 1: and Ringo Star on drums immediately come to mind. But
Speaker 1: my guest today has played with Paul McCartney longer than
Speaker 1: Ringo Starr. He's been a member of Paul's band for
Speaker 1: two decades. He's also played with Eric Clapton, Chris Isaac,
Speaker 1: Katie Lange Sting, My Lean Armor, Steve Winwood. The list
Speaker 1: goes on and on. I'm talking, of course, about the
Speaker 1: illustrious drummer Abel Boreal Jr. This is a bon drums
Speaker 1: with Paul McCartney performing back in the USSR live in
Speaker 1: New York City. Musical talent of this caliber runs deep
Speaker 1: in the Laboreal family. His father, Mexican bass guitarist Abraham
Speaker 1: La Boreal, and his uncle, Mexican rocker Johnny Laboreal. We're
Speaker 1: both accomplished musicians in their own right. Abe, a Berkeley
Speaker 1: School of Music trained musician, has a particular view of
Speaker 1: his role in a band. To me, the drummer is
Speaker 1: in service of the music. Number one, Number two to lead,
Speaker 1: to drive the bus, if you will, to tell people
Speaker 1: where to go, pay attention to everything. I see my
Speaker 1: job as listener. First then I have to do But
Speaker 1: first I have to listen, you know, to really hear
Speaker 1: what's going on. And I can hear when someone's maybe
Speaker 1: falling behind or a little bit lost or forgotten something,
Speaker 1: and so I have to be paying attention to all
Speaker 1: of that. And then on top of that, like for me,
Speaker 1: Keith Moon was like a lead drummer, you know, like
Speaker 1: Pete Townsend held the rhythm together while Keith play lead
Speaker 1: guitar on the drums. It's funny. It's something my dad
Speaker 1: and I would always speak of. My dad is a
Speaker 1: great musician, you know, like he when he plays live,
Speaker 1: he believes that half the audience is deaf and the
Speaker 1: other half is blind. And so you have to be
Speaker 1: able to reach all of them, you know, So you can't.
Speaker 1: For me, I just can't sit still and pretend like
Speaker 1: I'm not in it with my entire soul, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to try and reach every single person out there.
Speaker 1: You grew up in l A. Yeah, born in Boston,
Speaker 1: and your family when I was five with a short
Speaker 1: stint in Cleveland. Well, my dad being a musician and
Speaker 1: he went to Berkeley College of Music, graduated from there,
Speaker 1: and my mom was going to medical school at BU
Speaker 1: when they met, and uh, when she graduated, she had
Speaker 1: an internship in Cleveland, and my dad put his career
Speaker 1: on pause for the two years that we were there,
Speaker 1: and he raised me you know during that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: she's a doctor. Who who there's a doctor when she
Speaker 1: married a musician? Yeah, where did her smarts go when
Speaker 1: it came down to get married? Well, I have no no,
Speaker 1: And honestly, the two of them compliment each other so beautifully.
Speaker 1: They're still together. Just had their fiftieth year anniversary. And um,
Speaker 1: my mom she's a behavioral specialist now, a pediatric behavioral
Speaker 1: specialist that deals with kids who have fetal alcohol syndrome
Speaker 1: and helps diagnose and treat all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But she was a classically trained opera singer as a kid,
Speaker 1: you know, in high school and in college and plays guitar.
Speaker 1: And I used to lead folk worship at the local
Speaker 1: Catholic church. That's where my dad first saw her and
Speaker 1: fell in love. Was this beautiful woman playing guitar and
Speaker 1: was like, I need to I need to meet her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's so uh, it's an interesting mix of cultures there.
Speaker 1: And she said, I'm going to medical school and he
Speaker 1: was like, I think I love you. Yeah, exactly. See,
Speaker 1: he's a smart man. He's a genius. He's a genius.
Speaker 1: Go to l A when you're five, and what part
Speaker 1: of town are you living in for a brief period
Speaker 1: of time in Santa Monica, and then when they finally
Speaker 1: bought a home, it was deep in the valley and
Speaker 1: Woodland hills, yeh, off of a street called Winnetka. So like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where I lived for twenty years. No way, are
Speaker 1: you serious? I mean, I'm I'm a good deal older
Speaker 1: than you, but I mean I said everything I hated
Speaker 1: about the valley I grew to love. Yeah. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's a lack of pretension. Everybody just normal exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Really it's it is a it's a great normalizer, isn't it. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, the houses are all pretty cookie cutter. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe someone has a double lot here about kids in
Speaker 1: schools and soccer teams and baseball team. Yeah. Now, when
Speaker 1: you you know, you graduated high school, you pick up
Speaker 1: the first instrument you play the drums. Yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was the thing that came naturally. Pots and pans at
Speaker 1: the age of four, you know, just headphones on, rocking
Speaker 1: out to things. I would dabble, you know. They my
Speaker 1: parents encouraged, like piano lessons. I didn't really like them.
Speaker 1: Saxophone lessons wasn't for me. I was always fascinated with
Speaker 1: guitar and bass, but was also intimidated because my dad
Speaker 1: is such an amazing prolific musician, So I always gravitated
Speaker 1: towards the thing that I could jam with him. He's
Speaker 1: a bass player, your dad. Yeah, interesting that the path
Speaker 1: your career went. Yeah, you know, I've I've known a
Speaker 1: few for some reason, bass players like me. Base players
Speaker 1: want to bond with you. Yeah. So you decide you
Speaker 1: don't what you You don't want to play guitar, you
Speaker 1: don't think it's right for you, and you're drumming, and
Speaker 1: how does that happen? Is your dad the one encouraging you? Who?
Speaker 1: Or is it you? Are you completely self propelled? It's
Speaker 1: it was a combination. So it would be that I
Speaker 1: innately just understood music that way, you know, would sing songs,
Speaker 1: would play little things, pick up things around the house.
Speaker 1: Music was always playing in our home. You know, we'd
Speaker 1: be listening to the Bulgarian Women's Choir and then Peter,
Speaker 1: Paul and Mary and then everything earth Wind and Fire
Speaker 1: and just like you name it. It was always in
Speaker 1: rot music. They loved, they loved music. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: we'd be listening to Pa Pavarotti and you know, whatever
Speaker 1: you name it, it was on in our home. My
Speaker 1: mom loves to tell a story of going to to
Speaker 1: see the Bill Evans Trio when I when when I
Speaker 1: was still in her belly, and every time the music
Speaker 1: would start, I'd start kicking and was like excited and
Speaker 1: the music would stop and then I'd calm down. Yeah
Speaker 1: pretty much. So five, yeah, so it's just always around,
Speaker 1: you know, always a part of my life. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I think for me, you know, they finally
Speaker 1: got me a drum kit when I was five years old,
Speaker 1: and um, it was a gift actually from a percussionist
Speaker 1: named Jamie had Ad who plays with Paul Simon now.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he put together a little baby kit for
Speaker 1: me and I'd sit down and start to play a
Speaker 1: little something that my dad would show me something and
Speaker 1: then he'd pick up a bass or a guitar and
Speaker 1: we jam and that was that. That was me growing
Speaker 1: up for at least five years, just kind of every
Speaker 1: other day we'd get together and just hang out together
Speaker 1: and and play music for an hour or so. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so very encouraging. And when I was ten, I finally said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think, I really want to do
Speaker 1: this professionally. And so my dad got me then official
Speaker 1: lessons at that point, and who was the teacher and
Speaker 1: what were they like? So my my first teacher was,
Speaker 1: unbelievably this drummer named alex A Kuna who famously played
Speaker 1: drums in the Weather Report and uh, you know, played
Speaker 1: on you know, percussion on Blondie records and every you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like all kinds of stuff. He's a
Speaker 1: world renowned percussionist and drummer. And yes, so he was
Speaker 1: my first teacher. And what was great is that he
Speaker 1: he wasn't regimented in the way that you know, here
Speaker 1: are the dots and pay attention to just this. He
Speaker 1: would have the dialogue with me of playing music together
Speaker 1: and encouraging me to explore things. So it was always
Speaker 1: more of an intuitive style of learning rather than a
Speaker 1: very strict you know, restrictive thing that didn't work for
Speaker 1: me trying to have that kind of structured I needed
Speaker 1: to be able to like, oh I I hear this thought,
Speaker 1: I feel this rhythm, and I want to try that,
Speaker 1: And luckily I was surrounded with people who encouraged that. Now,
Speaker 1: most people, when they're most musicians I've spoken to, talk
Speaker 1: about like the early days being the cover days. You're
Speaker 1: doing covers before you get into songwriting, and you're writing
Speaker 1: your own song as you're doing cover of other people's music.
Speaker 1: What was music you're ten years old, you think you
Speaker 1: want to do this professionally. What's the music that's in
Speaker 1: your head, that's on the radio or in your Sony Walkman.
Speaker 1: I don't know what technology was available when you were
Speaker 1: a kid, but I'm assuming Walkman was coming along in
Speaker 1: the in the eighties, just starting to happen. You know,
Speaker 1: what are you? Who are you? And who are you loving?
Speaker 1: What music was you love? Did you love? The big
Speaker 1: one for me at that point was Genesis and Phil Collins. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was I mean, you know, I always listened to
Speaker 1: a lot of Beatles, listened to you know, led Zeppelin,
Speaker 1: all this stuff, Police, But your fathers from where he's
Speaker 1: from Mexico City. If your father's Mexican, yeah, born and
Speaker 1: from where from Boston. She's Irish Portuguese's Yeah, she's Irish,
Speaker 1: Irish Portuguese Mexican and he's a black Mexican. Was there
Speaker 1: black music he was craving? Was he into earth Wind
Speaker 1: and Fire and well? He interestingly, he was a staff
Speaker 1: producer when he was like thirteen years old at Capitol Records, Mexico.
Speaker 1: So they would send Beatles records another artist that were
Speaker 1: on Capitol down to Mexico. He would study those and
Speaker 1: then they would re enact or do cover versions. And
Speaker 1: he was in bands the Mexican flavor to it, yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: so that's where he kind of got his passion for it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know my loves you c C C exactly, I
Speaker 1: want to hold your your manos. So yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: my my grandfather was was also a singer songwriter actor there,
Speaker 1: so he was kind of the equivalent of like Paul
Speaker 1: Robeson or something and that in that time. Yeah exactly. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, very deep basso profundo voice and uh and
Speaker 1: and beautiful song. So my my dad, his brother was
Speaker 1: like an Elvis equivalent there, you know, that Johnny Laborelle
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, so the they they were an artist's
Speaker 1: family growing up in Mexico, so he brought that energy
Speaker 1: and this love of all styles of music, but yeah,
Speaker 1: in particular rock and roll. He loves. He loves good
Speaker 1: old fashioned garage rock. So Phil Collins and Journey are
Speaker 1: front and center for you. Was it because Collins was
Speaker 1: one of the few percussionist trump men. Yeah, well, it's
Speaker 1: also one of the first shows that I saw that
Speaker 1: wasn't my dad's bands, So I got to see the
Speaker 1: I think it was The Mama Tour was my one
Speaker 1: of my first big shows, you know, the laser lights
Speaker 1: and the most amazing visuals, and that was my first
Speaker 1: experience of an arena concert. You know. Everything else until
Speaker 1: then had been clubs or theaters, seeing my dad play
Speaker 1: with different people like you know, Al Jaro or musicians
Speaker 1: like Larry Carlton and and and these jazz kind of scenarios.
Speaker 1: But then to see a big rock concert and my
Speaker 1: whole life changed to see that, so I will I
Speaker 1: realized I wanted to do that, so I started studying
Speaker 1: as much of that as I could. Years ago, when
Speaker 1: we did the show thirty Rock, my character. Someone was
Speaker 1: talking about Phil Collins and they said, are you a
Speaker 1: Phil Collins fan? And I looked around the eye with
Speaker 1: I think it was a woman I was trying to
Speaker 1: seduce on the show. I took a long pause and
Speaker 1: I said, I have two years and a heart and
Speaker 1: I love Phil. I love Phil because he knew you know,
Speaker 1: I met him and Townsend who I worship him. And
Speaker 1: I was a raging, raging I mean, nobody smoked more weed.
Speaker 1: And I couldn't afford a We see the same line.
Speaker 1: I couldn't afford headphones when I was a kid and
Speaker 1: didn't have the money. So I had these two A
Speaker 1: and R speakers that I bought from my friend. My
Speaker 1: friend needed money, he was broke. He was desperate to
Speaker 1: buy like a guitar or something. He was into music.
Speaker 1: And I said, he said, I'll sell you my speakers
Speaker 1: for like two hundred bucks when they were worth far
Speaker 1: more than that. I got these big acoustic research speakers
Speaker 1: and I lay down with them next to my head.
Speaker 1: BEAUTI I laying on the floor and I smoke a
Speaker 1: huge joint out the window, and then laying on the
Speaker 1: floor and listen to Quadra Fenia and all that other
Speaker 1: stuff and and and when I saw I want to
Speaker 1: mention this aspect of it to you because you go
Speaker 1: from rooms or clubs or shows you do which I
Speaker 1: want to get to your earliest career, when you start
Speaker 1: to play with in front of an audience, What does
Speaker 1: that look like? What are your first audiences? Where? Uh,
Speaker 1: the first few places. There's this great local club that
Speaker 1: I grew up at basically watching my dad play, called
Speaker 1: the Baked Potato and um, you know I know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: famously they served the world's largest, most delicious baked potatoes.
Speaker 1: But what is that. It's a family place. So even
Speaker 1: though it's jazz music and you know, yeah at the
Speaker 1: time people smoking like crazy and drinking like crazy, but
Speaker 1: kids were allowed, you know. So I was able to
Speaker 1: go watch my dad play and all the bands there
Speaker 1: and those were some of the few first times I
Speaker 1: would play live were there. Um, And so then to
Speaker 1: go from that to then going to college. I also
Speaker 1: went to Berkeley College of Music in Boston and started
Speaker 1: playing in bands around there, in clubs you know, small,
Speaker 1: you know, two hundred to five hundred. But then I graduated,
Speaker 1: go back to l A. And then I get this
Speaker 1: gig with Steve v I, who's this guitar legend um.
Speaker 1: And that's the first kind of real professional gig that
Speaker 1: I got. And that's a theater tour of you know,
Speaker 1: two thousand to three thousand cedars. Where Where'd you go?
Speaker 1: That was all over the States. So really I was
Speaker 1: twenty one when I when I started a kid. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No.
Speaker 1: Franton told us when he was he was a child,
Speaker 1: he's out there. He's in a car with Ronnie wood Yo,
Speaker 1: and Ronnie when wanted him to come and play something
Speaker 1: with him or whenever, and they heard he was this phenom.
Speaker 1: And he said, he's in the rooms with these guys
Speaker 1: and they were all partying their asses off, and he's
Speaker 1: like sixteen or fifteen years old. Wow, that's not playing
Speaker 1: in local places. It could have been. My parents were
Speaker 1: very wise though, and they advised me in saying, look,
Speaker 1: you are amazing now, but you don't l A is
Speaker 1: a small town. That's one of the largest small towns
Speaker 1: out there, and you don't want to be known as
Speaker 1: the guy who's pretty good for his age. You want
Speaker 1: to wait until you really have your sense of self.
Speaker 1: So they encouraged me, and also one of my other
Speaker 1: mentors was Jeff brecro Uh, the drummer for Toto, who
Speaker 1: sadly is no longer with us. But you don't you
Speaker 1: don't want to go right from high school to the NBA? Yeah, basically,
Speaker 1: which is what he did. He played in Sonny and
Speaker 1: Share when he was fifteen, and then he was in
Speaker 1: Steely Dan and then did all this kind of stuff
Speaker 1: and he he just he pulled me aside. He said,
Speaker 1: the one thing I regret is that I didn't take
Speaker 1: time to go to college and really really figure out
Speaker 1: who I am. So he gave me a drum kit
Speaker 1: as a gift, one of his personal ones, and sent
Speaker 1: me off to college with you know, saying, come on,
Speaker 1: I want you to do this. So I went to
Speaker 1: Berkeley and Boston. Yeah. So I went right back to Boston,
Speaker 1: fell in love with how were there? I was like,
Speaker 1: I did the full four for the Kid from l
Speaker 1: A going back east? What was that like? Oh? Scene,
Speaker 1: music scene was amazing. Although the Kid from l A.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite stories is in the middle of
Speaker 1: winter seeing the sun come out for the first time
Speaker 1: in about three months, and I put on shorts and
Speaker 1: a T shirt and went outside not realized fifteen degrees outside,
Speaker 1: you know, so lessons like that. But I I loved
Speaker 1: it to the late eighties by now, right, So yeah,
Speaker 1: eighty nine through nine I was there, And what and
Speaker 1: what music is in your head? Then? Uh, it starts
Speaker 1: to shift from this very frantic jazz infusion jazz to
Speaker 1: too much more rock and roll. And I'm falling in
Speaker 1: love with the whole grunge movement sound Garden and nine
Speaker 1: nine inch Nails and Pearl Jam and that's what you
Speaker 1: think you should be playing? Yeah, so that's what this
Speaker 1: is what I want to play exactly. And it really
Speaker 1: speaks to me on on all the levels, um, you know,
Speaker 1: just the the intensity of the riffs and and the
Speaker 1: intensity of the dynamics musically, and and the fact that
Speaker 1: it wasn't you know about just sex, drugs and rock
Speaker 1: and roll. It was there was some thoughtful lyrics and
Speaker 1: thoughtful emotions. Actually make use of your Berkeley School of
Speaker 1: music exactly. It was a musicianship required. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: know that and that that that exactly. Uh. And and
Speaker 1: what was great is that the club scene there. It
Speaker 1: was one of those things where you would play a
Speaker 1: show and be experimental and I would honestly have these
Speaker 1: conversations or friends would say, Wow, man, that really sucked.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next week. You know, you're like so
Speaker 1: people would come back and support each other and and
Speaker 1: be into the journey of trying stuff. And I could
Speaker 1: not have done that if I had started right away
Speaker 1: in l A. So when you're there, what does a
Speaker 1: school you're a famous rock and roll drummer, What does
Speaker 1: Berkeley have to offer? What do they teach you? What
Speaker 1: it does is it It gave me a place to grow,
Speaker 1: It gave me fertile ground. It gave me it's not
Speaker 1: so much specifically what the teachers had, but what the
Speaker 1: other students that were there had. So we were learning
Speaker 1: from each other. You know, I again, go hang out
Speaker 1: with another drummer, gop jam with the guitar player, do
Speaker 1: all this stuff, and you realize that you're just in
Speaker 1: this incredibly fertile area where you can be as creative
Speaker 1: as you feel and and try things and and suddenly
Speaker 1: discover new sounds and you know, play with different combinations
Speaker 1: of musicians and instruments. And then yes, obviously their structure there,
Speaker 1: but again the structure, like even for me, it was
Speaker 1: too restrictive. To be just a drum student. There So
Speaker 1: I ended up switching my major to music synthesis and
Speaker 1: production because I figured, if I'm going to learn something
Speaker 1: that's outside of my wheelhouse, it should be something applicable
Speaker 1: to other things. It's drumming hard, is it trumping? You
Speaker 1: think drumming is hard for people to learn? Well, the
Speaker 1: elements of it, and and depends on your in my soul,
Speaker 1: I'm a drummer cool because I can't stop banging on things.
Speaker 1: I'm always banging out the rhythm. Is it hard to learn?
Speaker 1: It is hard? Well, there again, it's it's like anything
Speaker 1: that you start out at. You have to suck, you know,
Speaker 1: dare dare to suck is basically the name of it.
Speaker 1: So the coordination of getting everything to line up is
Speaker 1: one element, and then obviously keeping the tempo is the
Speaker 1: next element, and then making not only both to those things.
Speaker 1: Then they have to feel good. You have to make
Speaker 1: people dance, you have to make them want to yeah.
Speaker 1: And then the fills that's a whole other thing. To
Speaker 1: not speed up or slow down, or to be consistent
Speaker 1: with the sound. And so after a while, though, these
Speaker 1: these are the things you tweak over time. So it's
Speaker 1: the ten thousand hours thing. It's all of that, and
Speaker 1: you know like you have you have to, Yeah, dare
Speaker 1: to suck. Musician Abe Laboreal Jr. If you love conversations
Speaker 1: with legendary drummers, be sure to check out my talk
Speaker 1: with Mick Fleetwood. What did you think of when you
Speaker 1: first came across the TikTok phenomena? It happened in the
Speaker 1: most charming way. I said, I can't get on a skateboard,
Speaker 1: so I hung myself off the back of a of
Speaker 1: a golf cart. And the next thing I know, we're
Speaker 1: all on halftime sports programs and god knows what else
Speaker 1: his whole life has changed. And I said, let me
Speaker 1: tell you, Nathan Fleetwood micos here the rest of my
Speaker 1: conversation with Mick Fleetwood at Here's the Thing dot org.
Speaker 1: After the break, Abe la Boreal Jr. Tells us about
Speaker 1: the fateful day when he was invited to play with
Speaker 1: Sir Paul. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. My guest today is drummer Abel Boreal Jr.
Speaker 1: This is Abe showcasing his talent with French Canadian singer
Speaker 1: songwriter milean farmer on her tour. While it may seem
Speaker 1: like La Boreal is completely at home on every stage
Speaker 1: he walks on, there was a growing period between that
Speaker 1: first big break to being the drummer everyone has on
Speaker 1: speed dial. La Boreal shared with us how he came
Speaker 1: into his own alongside another major star. I got a
Speaker 1: chance to audition for Seal and ended up doing his
Speaker 1: first big US tour that um and through that, you know,
Speaker 1: he was how does he find you? He through Uh,
Speaker 1: this amazing band called Eleven, this producer, engineer, guitar player,
Speaker 1: singer songwriter named Alan Johnnies and his now sadly departed wife, um,
Speaker 1: Natasha Schneider, And they were fans of mine and friends
Speaker 1: with Seal, and he was for a drummer and they
Speaker 1: recommended me to him, and uh, yeah, he called me
Speaker 1: out of the blue one day and I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: that it was really him on the other end of
Speaker 1: the phone, and you know, you know, hey man, you
Speaker 1: know it's Seal. It's like, you mean the guy whose
Speaker 1: record I like? And you know, so yeah, he invited
Speaker 1: me to come audition, and um, where that actually in
Speaker 1: this in the building that I'm in right now Center staging. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's it's yeah, this place that has been a
Speaker 1: very important part of my life for a long time.
Speaker 1: So then I toured with him for about four or
Speaker 1: five months, and uh, it was great to be a
Speaker 1: part of that's when Kiss from a Rose came out
Speaker 1: and Prayer for the Dying and all these great songs
Speaker 1: and uh, to be a part of that journey, to
Speaker 1: see him transition from again theaters to then arenas and uh,
Speaker 1: and then I I took a step back from that
Speaker 1: ended up going I worked with this French artist, a
Speaker 1: woman named Milen Farmer. That's the first time I ever
Speaker 1: really played these enormous you know, twenty thousand, thirty thousand
Speaker 1: seat arenas and stadiums, and which was good for me
Speaker 1: because that would have been overwhelming, I think with music
Speaker 1: that was dear to my soul and emotion, I think
Speaker 1: it would have been overwhelming. It was easier to do
Speaker 1: that with music that I enjoyed but wasn't so entrenched
Speaker 1: in me. Uh, you know, like it would have been
Speaker 1: hard to start with Paul or to start with Sting,
Speaker 1: you know, but it was easier to do this and
Speaker 1: like get used to Oh, the adrenaline rush and will Okay,
Speaker 1: how do I how do I adjust myself to to
Speaker 1: the first time you hear twenty thousand people scream at
Speaker 1: the top of their lungs is really overwhelming. Note I
Speaker 1: haven't done one thing yet. Then after you finish with
Speaker 1: seal and you go off and you take a little,
Speaker 1: a little sojourney with me len Famaire, Yes, what so
Speaker 1: that's like nineties six, And then because of that than
Speaker 1: the French equivalent of Elvis Johnnie Lady. He he saw
Speaker 1: us play and I was like, wait, I want that drummer,
Speaker 1: so he he hired me. So I I ended up
Speaker 1: spending like three or four years going back and forth
Speaker 1: between me, Lenn and Johnny just working in France, touring
Speaker 1: every little hamlet. It was lovely. I mean, at the
Speaker 1: time it was a little bit difficult. Culture shock, and
Speaker 1: obviously we didn't have the tools then that we have
Speaker 1: now Internet and uh, you know, guides to be able
Speaker 1: to know what the street is that I'm on right now? Yes,
Speaker 1: you you. I got lost a lot and and ate
Speaker 1: some weird things that I thought, Oh I think I
Speaker 1: think that's a stake. Oh that's brains, Okay, cool, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so things like that. Yeah, you you discover
Speaker 1: to ask more questions than did that end because you
Speaker 1: wanted to come home. That was the goal. The I
Speaker 1: didn't it isn't. I always just kind of let I
Speaker 1: trust things to happen. So I ended up doing some
Speaker 1: recording with with Katie Lange, who I just adore and
Speaker 1: she's just just one of the best people. And then
Speaker 1: and you wrote music with her. Yeah, so we did
Speaker 1: this record, and that's what made me like stop doing
Speaker 1: the French thing for a minute and just to like, like,
Speaker 1: because I had written some songs with her for for
Speaker 1: her record Invincible Summer. Now, let me ask you how
Speaker 1: that happens, Meaning you've worked with some of the most
Speaker 1: famous people in history. Yeah, where does the opportunity come?
Speaker 1: Who opened the door for you? To say, Kade, I
Speaker 1: gotta show you a couple of songs I've written, Like
Speaker 1: when do you know that's cool to pitch? Well, it's
Speaker 1: it was more of a It started as a group effort,
Speaker 1: me and and the bass player named David Pilch. He
Speaker 1: had been writing a few things and I was always dabbling,
Speaker 1: Like I say, I'm a frustrated guitar player and on
Speaker 1: all the gigs that I've been on, I always end
Speaker 1: up singing backgrounds as well, so I do have uh
Speaker 1: an understanding of melody and so yeah, so I started
Speaker 1: messing around, and I had a few ideas I I played,
Speaker 1: I would make my own demos and send them to her,
Speaker 1: and then she started writing lyrics to them and and
Speaker 1: really fell in love with with a few of my ideas.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it just happened very organically. And I'm not
Speaker 1: very good at asserting like, Okay, I'm going to I'm
Speaker 1: going to sell the world on what I do. It's
Speaker 1: more of the natural. These little things pop up, and
Speaker 1: opportunities pop up, and surprisingly they lead to the next
Speaker 1: You played with k D for how long? I did
Speaker 1: two full tours with her, but basically from kind of
Speaker 1: nineties seven till about two thousand one, I toured with her,
Speaker 1: and then you're getting close to and then that's what
Speaker 1: basically I was tour with her when nine eleven happened. Um,
Speaker 1: we were in the middle of Denver about to play
Speaker 1: a show, and uh and yeah, obviously the world changed.
Speaker 1: Everything changed. We all went home trying to figure things out.
Speaker 1: At that point, Yeah, home was l a just before
Speaker 1: then I had started. I made a record with Paul
Speaker 1: that hadn't quite come out yet. We in the early
Speaker 1: two thousand one, we recorded Driving Rain. And that's the
Speaker 1: first time that I shook his hand and knew I
Speaker 1: had made a Uh this wonderful producer named David Kahn,
Speaker 1: who has produced everybody from Tony Bennett, Fishbone to the
Speaker 1: Bengals to you know, like you name it, he's produced
Speaker 1: and um, yeah, it's amazing. Again, that was another phone
Speaker 1: call I'll never forget where you know. He We had
Speaker 1: never worked together before, but he knew me by reputation
Speaker 1: and um, and asked me if I was available for
Speaker 1: two weeks to to make a record with Paul McCartney. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, after I dropped the phone and picked it
Speaker 1: back up and said sure, sure, yeah, absolutely no problem
Speaker 1: and yeah, so showed up in the studio and and
Speaker 1: that's really another beautiful thing is that the way Paul
Speaker 1: and I met, it wasn't an audition. It wasn't me
Speaker 1: trying to emulate somebody else. It was two musicians getting
Speaker 1: to know each other as peers. If anyone could even
Speaker 1: you know, deign to call themselves appear, But I was
Speaker 1: doing my job. I was doing what I do and
Speaker 1: and we go yeah, and we gone on like a
Speaker 1: house on fire. You know. Really it was a lot
Speaker 1: of laughter, a lot of you know, his ability to
Speaker 1: to write music, even on the spot. You know, he
Speaker 1: would he would come in with the demo and go,
Speaker 1: oh wait, oh, I forgot to write the bridge on that.
Speaker 1: Hold on, I'll be right back, and you know, run
Speaker 1: away for five minutes and come back. Okay, okay, I
Speaker 1: got it all right, let's let's and then we'd record
Speaker 1: it to segue to that from a moment. You know,
Speaker 1: one thing you see when you watch Get Back, as
Speaker 1: I've said ad infinitem to my friends, is that how
Speaker 1: hard working they were. Oh. Yes, you know they're gonna
Speaker 1: play this Evan song forty times if they have to
Speaker 1: play at forty times, and they dig around and they
Speaker 1: play with the words and they say whatever, but they're
Speaker 1: gonna get this thing. And they're very hard working. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering in a world where you come on
Speaker 1: stage and like we said, they start screaming at the
Speaker 1: top of your lungest you haven't even played one note.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the most famous guy in the world,
Speaker 1: in the world and everywhere you go people just can't
Speaker 1: you know. They love him and love him and love him.
Speaker 1: But I wonder when the show's over, does he come back?
Speaker 1: So he's just say, oh, it really sucks in that one.
Speaker 1: Does he does? He still have that hard working drive.
Speaker 1: What's really great is, and this is true for all
Speaker 1: of us in the band, is we have we laugh
Speaker 1: really hard and love every mistake that we make. We
Speaker 1: we embrace them wholeheartedly. When a show is perfect, it's
Speaker 1: kind of boring, you know. It's not you don't have
Speaker 1: that thing to pin your hat on, you know, to
Speaker 1: be able to say, oh, wait, yeah, remember when when
Speaker 1: I dropped my stick? You know, and and it becomes
Speaker 1: a whole thing. So honestly, it's not it's never that that,
Speaker 1: you know, beating yourself up. It's always this energy of boy,
Speaker 1: did we miss that one up? And and often, you know,
Speaker 1: when that has happened, we'll even stop and restart a song.
Speaker 1: It's like, wow, no, sorry, guys, we we completely screwed
Speaker 1: that up. We're going to try that again. But in
Speaker 1: the audience loves that though, because then that's an event.
Speaker 1: You were there, Remember I was there that night that
Speaker 1: that happened. He got the lyrics to Yesterday. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really, it's a great thing when that happens. Perfection
Speaker 1: is boring exactly. And when you're with him and with
Speaker 1: that band, I should say, you go off and perform
Speaker 1: with other people as well, some other legends of music.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're off with Sting, you're off with Stevie Wynwood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who I worship When you played with Wind and Clapton, Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah I did. I did that tour, the Blind Faith Repertoire,
Speaker 1: which was just I mean that that music is amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a big part of my laying on the floor
Speaker 1: with the A and R speakers next to my head
Speaker 1: the time of my life. But so you're touring with them,
Speaker 1: and you're working with them, is in the seams of
Speaker 1: other tours, like we're literally McCartney saying we can't go
Speaker 1: to Rio because I am with Sting. You're gonna wait
Speaker 1: for Aim to finish with Sting. It's happened. It's happened
Speaker 1: a few times. It's sadly has happened. A few times.
Speaker 1: You're like, you know, there was a Grammy performance I
Speaker 1: couldn't do because I was in Japan with Clapton, and
Speaker 1: you know, so my sub Dave Grohl, did a very
Speaker 1: nice job. You know. Yeah, so stuff, stuff like that
Speaker 1: has happened. But when you're with these different people, do
Speaker 1: they direct you as somebody directing you or do they
Speaker 1: hire you because you know what to do and they
Speaker 1: don't have to say anything. Does anybody ever come up
Speaker 1: to you and offer you some opinions? It's it's funny
Speaker 1: all of those guys, and I've been lucky that it's
Speaker 1: It's never been like a musical director uh scenario. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know where where somebody has the final word, it's they.
Speaker 1: They came up in bands, and that's how they still
Speaker 1: treat the interaction. They want people who have their own personality,
Speaker 1: who are going to be themselves. But at the same token,
Speaker 1: respect the music. That's always been my number one rule.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not going to sit there and and
Speaker 1: and try and play heavy metal drums on a on
Speaker 1: a Clapton tune, so you know, so it's about knowing
Speaker 1: the music. Yeah, you know, and again it's not classical music.
Speaker 1: My hands aren't tied to play exactly apart. It's living
Speaker 1: and breathing and something that we can can all agree.
Speaker 1: You know, you adjust to to fit the audience, You
Speaker 1: adjust to fit the setting, and also who else is
Speaker 1: in who else is in the band, and to make
Speaker 1: room for people like you know, I've played with Sting
Speaker 1: when there's been an upright bass player and three horn
Speaker 1: players and five background vocalists and organs and all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and I would have to play a little bit more restrained.
Speaker 1: And then I've played with him where it's been stripped
Speaker 1: down two guitar players, bass and drums, and there's much
Speaker 1: more room to pivot and to have fun, you know,
Speaker 1: do things that might throw an entire orchestra off. But
Speaker 1: if it's just for people, we know where each other
Speaker 1: are are supposed to be and how to Readjust every
Speaker 1: scenario is different. I think the people who their musical
Speaker 1: styles are. I mean there's some overlap, but they seem
Speaker 1: so different. And I think about people who, yes, they
Speaker 1: have music in their repertoire that you can play loud,
Speaker 1: you know, stadium rock, But I wonder what quotient, what
Speaker 1: amount of their catalog can be played in a stadium.
Speaker 1: A lot of Stings music seems better played in like
Speaker 1: an under ten thousand seat space Yeah, it seems like
Speaker 1: it's a kiss more intimate. Definitely. Clapton seems like even
Speaker 1: though you can rip it on, you can play the
Speaker 1: opening licks of LEI leg everybody that's exactly where we're going.
Speaker 1: Not everybody is the same. You can play Helter Skelter,
Speaker 1: you can play Revolution, you can play back on the USSR.
Speaker 1: You can rip it. I mean you can rip it
Speaker 1: and then it can get really intimate. Absolutely, it's amazing
Speaker 1: the dynamic that especially that he can command and again
Speaker 1: that we can do that in a stadium is crazy.
Speaker 1: You know, people get quiet, they do they want to
Speaker 1: hear absolutely every every word. Drummer Abe la Boreal Jr.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying this episode, don't keep it to yourself,
Speaker 1: Tell a friend and be sure to follow us on
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. When we return, Abe la Boreal Jr.
Speaker 1: Share some anecdotes about some of the biggest rock stars
Speaker 1: he's worked with. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. Drummer Abe la Boreal Jr. Has shared
Speaker 1: the stage with some of the most accomplished rock stars
Speaker 1: in history. This is Layla from Eric Clapton live at
Speaker 1: Buddhakan with abe La Borel Jr. On drums. I wanted
Speaker 1: to know just a few of his favorite memories of
Speaker 1: playing with these great artists. With k D, I have
Speaker 1: to say, every every single night, I have never seen
Speaker 1: someone takes such command and control of an entire room.
Speaker 1: The room was as much a part of her voice
Speaker 1: as she was, so she could she could use the
Speaker 1: mic technique and and just fill the room almost like
Speaker 1: an opera singer, you know, almost not needing the microphone
Speaker 1: in front of her to fill that room, and just
Speaker 1: beautiful emotion and intensity. And again the same thing, the
Speaker 1: dynamic of being able to whisper a song and then
Speaker 1: hit the high notes on constant craving or crying. You know,
Speaker 1: her version of crying is still it gives me goose
Speaker 1: bumps just thinking about it. What about Clapton, I mean
Speaker 1: because to me, I wrote in my memoir that all
Speaker 1: those jokes from my generation where people said Clapton was
Speaker 1: God in mind when I grew up as a kid,
Speaker 1: Clapton was God. Yeah. I mean again, what a tone
Speaker 1: that really does come from his hands, you know, And
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what guitar, he picks up. There's his tone,
Speaker 1: his fingerprint, his his energy. You know, there would be
Speaker 1: nights where between him and Doyle Bramble, who was playing
Speaker 1: guitar also in the band, and the two of them
Speaker 1: would trade solos back and forth, and I was in
Speaker 1: heaven because you know, for me as a drummer, I'm
Speaker 1: not so much focused on what I'm playing. I'm focused
Speaker 1: on what they're doing, and I'm listening to them like
Speaker 1: I get to be the ultimate audience and just to
Speaker 1: sit there and listen to these incredible musicians play and
Speaker 1: and you know, they they end up orbiting so far,
Speaker 1: and my job is just to make sure that we
Speaker 1: still know where they're tethered to, that that we're not
Speaker 1: all going so far that we lose the audience. Eric
Speaker 1: would just have these nights where he was on fire
Speaker 1: and would not want to stop playing, And those were
Speaker 1: beautiful moments Whenwood seems like such a gentle soul. I've
Speaker 1: never met him. Was he like that in person? He's
Speaker 1: like a very very deep yea quiet very it's both right,
Speaker 1: like honestly, he's both like. One of my favorite moments
Speaker 1: in that band was playing Can't Find My way Home.
Speaker 1: That is one of the best songs, you know, and
Speaker 1: it just had this beautiful dynamic to it and the
Speaker 1: way they would sing harmony on that together, you know,
Speaker 1: both both Steve and Eric, and it's just lovely. Man Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was a fun hang on the road to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the after show of just having a little
Speaker 1: glass of wine and and you know, I wish I
Speaker 1: could have met him too, because I just love his music. Yeah, Sting,
Speaker 1: I've met and Stings somebody who I saw him the
Speaker 1: other day in New York. I just bumped into and
Speaker 1: and and he was He's always his wife is always
Speaker 1: so nice to me. Had a quick with them on
Speaker 1: the on the street uptown and Uh. And he's somebody
Speaker 1: who you know because he has that movie star glow
Speaker 1: to him. Absolutely, he's got that edge. And right when
Speaker 1: you think you don't like him because he's so handsome
Speaker 1: and he's so rich and talented, then he sings a
Speaker 1: song that breaks your heart. Yes, he sings a song
Speaker 1: that breaks your heart, and you think the guy really
Speaker 1: is pretty damn good. He's the real deal. And again,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the loveliest The first time I
Speaker 1: UH was hired, you know, because basically he hired me
Speaker 1: without us ever having played together. It was again through
Speaker 1: word of mouth, and you know that he had this
Speaker 1: tour that he had to finish up and promote, and
Speaker 1: so he again through reputation and hired me for a
Speaker 1: few months. And on our first day of saying hello,
Speaker 1: it was the biggest bear hug I've ever received, and
Speaker 1: you know, welcome to the family. You know. So it's
Speaker 1: he's that kind of guy, just a real tender spirit
Speaker 1: and uh you know, yes there's the trappings of of
Speaker 1: rock and roll and villas and whatnot, but it was
Speaker 1: at his core royalty. Yeah, but he's a guy who
Speaker 1: shows up with his bag and his base on his
Speaker 1: back and is ready ready at for the lobby call
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes before departure, you know. So that's that's the
Speaker 1: kind of guy he is. Yeah. And when I saw
Speaker 1: you the first time, I couldn't take my eyes off
Speaker 1: you know. So you five guys, great night, great show,
Speaker 1: great fun. But you fit into a category of you
Speaker 1: can tell there's no place else you'd rather be. You
Speaker 1: have such a contagious enthusiasm. There's a smile on your face,
Speaker 1: not all the time, you're getting down and down and
Speaker 1: you're playing, but you seem so happy, you seem so
Speaker 1: filled with joy when you're up there playing music. I mean.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is you've drummed for him longer than
Speaker 1: Ringo Star drummed with Can you believe it? What are
Speaker 1: you guys doing now? The COVID seems to be dissipating
Speaker 1: a little bit. You guys, are you gonna go on
Speaker 1: tour with somebody? I'm hoping so there's still, you know,
Speaker 1: things in the works, and I'm hoping that soon we'll
Speaker 1: be able to do some shows, you know, Like the
Speaker 1: last time we played with Paul was um the end
Speaker 1: of So I'm which show the Dodger Stadium and at
Speaker 1: the end of July, and it was it was an
Speaker 1: amazing show, Like thank god, it was a wonderful show.
Speaker 1: But we were meant ago do you know, to play
Speaker 1: a European tour and to play glaston Barry and all
Speaker 1: of these exciting things and uh and yet to have
Speaker 1: the Yeah, I think so. So I'm hoping. I'm hoping
Speaker 1: that we might be able to to to redo some
Speaker 1: of that this year. Well listen, I have a real
Speaker 1: jones for drummers because I if I played popular music,
Speaker 1: I want to play the drums, and you're one of
Speaker 1: the greatest of all time. My friend, you are so great.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see you up there again. Matt Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, Thank you so much. Man. My thanks to
Speaker 1: musician Abe Laboreal Jr. I'll leave you with Abe performing
Speaker 1: with Sting on message in a bottle in montro I'm
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing, is brought to you by
Speaker 1: my heart radio jes What is it? Yeah, gorleness good,
Speaker 1: Let's go Beffar to despair. I'll sup the soul untruth.
Speaker 1: I said that that's soul construths. Yes, yes,