WEBVTT - James Alexander of The Bar-Kays Part 2 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:07.119 Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio. 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:12.320 Yo Yo, what's up, y'all? Welcome back to Part two 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.400 of the Quest Love Show. I'm Questlove in case you're lost, 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.759 and right now we're talking to the legendary James Alexander 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.919 of the legendary Barcas and James flew in from Memphis 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:30.360 specifically to sit down with us at iHeart Studios. And 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.199 if you haven't started with Part one, make sure you do. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:37.000 In that episode, we cover all the early days of Memphis, 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.800 the birth of Soul Finger and playing behind Otis Redding 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:46.960 and surviving one of the most tragic moments in music history. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.040 There's a lot of music history here, so let's get started. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.480 This is James Alexander of the Barcas celebrating. 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:56.480 Black History Month American History Month. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.600 Make sure you honor this living legend of black by 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:01.600 listening to part two. 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:03.720 It makes sure you like it to subscribe us. Also, 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:11.319 all right, thank you for starters. 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:15.320 When did you even start with the idea of okay, 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:19.280 let's rebuild a new band? Like how long did you 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.080 take off before you was like okay, let's get to it. 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:23.120 Okay. 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:29.800 This happened in December nineteen sixty seven. By April of 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.640 sixty eight had already reformed. 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.680 A new band. How did you find these guys? 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.200 I've tried to find a guy like each and every 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:40.400 guy that was already that was in the group before. 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:41.920 Found a white guy. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.600 They played the organ, you know, the same make the 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.000 band up of the same landups, you know, the same instrumentation, 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.320 a trumpet into tenor right in a rhythm section. 0:01:55.480 --> 0:02:01.480 So of course there's one main jarring friends between this 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:06.320 band and the previous band, which is I feel one 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:11.880 of the most unsung frontmen in all of soul music, 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.480 really music period. First of all, how did you nab 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.680 Larry Dotson away from the Timprez, a group that themselves 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.680 were established and I believe stacks. 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.040 So they weren't established then they were trying to come 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:30.600 into their own. What happened was they were playing at 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:34.440 a nightclub, and so by this point, you know what 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.560 I'm saying, you know, came with the idea. I said, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:37.880 you know, it's time for us to do something a 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.640 little different rather than being a totally you know, instrumental group. 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.720 So I went to this club one night. Somebody had 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.200 told me about this group called the Timprees, and I 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.640 went and heard him, and to be quite honest with us, 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:57.160 they alright, alright, okay, but this guy, Larry, I said, hey, man, 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.440 I just came to check y'all out because you know, 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.880 we thinking about getting you know, getting you know, getting 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:04.960 the vocalists. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:05.080 In our group. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:10.560 He said, I'm down, I said, when I said, said, wait, 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.200 wait wait wait wait wait wait hold up, dude, you're 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:16.000 moving a little too fast, I said, first, because i've 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.760 been you probably didn't know this, but see the TEMPERRIESE 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.880 was his group. Yeah, So I said, man, you know 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.399 we can meet, you know, a day or two later 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.240 and talk about this thing. No, you can talk to 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.000 me now, I said, dude. You know, you know I'm 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:33.720 trying to be respectful. I ain't trying to talk to 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.200 you on your gig. I'm trying to let you finish 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.480 your gig. And I talked to you tomorrow or the 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.040 next day or something like that, and I just had 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.040 to say, I'm not I'm not talking to you now. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:44.240 Did that wear you that? 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.320 In an instant he was just ready to leave us 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.280 established because that could have happened to you too. 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.920 He could be in the barcades and then I'm here 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.800 I mean, I went, man, you have to understand, we're 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:55.880 eighteen and nineteen. 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.040 I wasn't thinking about nothing like that. Man, you know, 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:01.440 I think about all of that now. Got back then, 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.800 I was thinking about nothing. But you know, so you know, 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.160 we finally talked and we ended up getting him in 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:11.240 the group. I think this is around seventy one somewhere. 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.680 I can't I can't even remote it. Anyway, I was 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.280 working with a guy that ended up being my producer 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.160 and manager, and we had started rehearsing with him. 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.880 This is Alan Jones Jones. Yeah, okay, I have a 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.839 lot of Alan Jones questions. Yeah, Jimmy jam And I 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:29.280 had Alan Jones questions. 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.080 I told Alan Jones, I said, man, you know, I 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.760 don't know if this guy's gonna make it, because I 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:40.479 know he probably would hate me for saying this, but 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:41.800 he really wasn't ship. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.680 He wasn't they good v Larry Dotson. He was not 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:51.719 that good. Okay, No, he wouldn't that good. But it 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.120 sounds like someone I know had to learn you had 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:55.960 to learn the ropes. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.680 Yeah, I learned the roses. I wouldn't say, you know, 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.240 but you know, I went and talk to Alan. I said, man, 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:03.920 I don't know, Man, I don't know if this guy 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.080 gonna make it or not. Because, man, you because Alan 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.360 before the plane Chris, you know, he had just got 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.240 out of the army and he's the bass player by 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.440 the way, too, and he was trying to get in, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:17.480 you know, trying to get in stacks, trying to get 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.400 in something, trying to get into the barcades, trying to 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.080 get in somebody's past. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:21.599 I don't know. 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.479 We trying to just get in, okay, but he tried 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.560 to get involved with the original barcades. We said, you know, 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.160 we don't you know, you know, you know, because I'm 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.120 gonna tell you after we got our first hind, I mean, 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.039 I ain't gonna lie to you. We had the fucking 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:39.320 big head, right because you know, hey, we came we 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.440 were a square from nowhere. We came up and after 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:43.719 we went there all that incident, now we don't go 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.800 from that. We got a record out, we got tailor 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.760 made suits, and we got you know, five or six, 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.840 seven hundred dollars in our pocket. So we thought we 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.800 were couldn't tell you nothing, couldn't. 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:57.080 There me nothing. 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.320 But anyway, we came up in the era where you 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.400 your rehearse, you rehearse, you rehearse, you rehearsed, and you rehearsed, 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:09.440 and you rehearse some more because of the repetitiveness. You know, 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.279 I tell guys this all the time. You know, I 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.599 have some guys. We call them gig daddies. And the 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:21.360 gig daddy is well in this case. You know, I 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.400 hate when a guy come to rehearsal, and when you 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.520 get to the rehearsal and he comes to your rehearsal 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.400 on his way somewhere else. Man, I'm coming here, but 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.080 I need to leave. If you can't come and stay 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:36.520 to my rehearsals. 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.160 Though, don't come, got you right? 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:45.520 So but anyway, we rehearsingharse and Larry kept getting better. 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:51.279 He got so good until one incident. We were playing 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:56.800 the La Sports Arena, and this is prior to the 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.720 essential of Rick James. Man there and there were those 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.320 cell phones, but Rick James had a big I don't 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.119 even know it was a nikon or a counting camera 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:09.200 with a lot of lens on it. So I've been 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.240 knowing to us. Rick James was in the audience taking 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:18.040 pictures of Larry Dotson's every move because by this time 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.480 you know, Alan was I was gonna say gay, but no, 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.480 I think I used a better word. Eccentric. Yes, okay, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.920 that's that's a better word to fitting. There's a spectrum, yeah, yeah, 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:36.040 masculine special, Yeah right. Anyway, I tell people all the time, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:41.640 I say Rick James is a Larry Dotson on steroids. 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:43.800 I mean, because this whole persona. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.760 I've always felt that Larry Dotson crawled so that Prince 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:48.440 could run. 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.040 Larry Dotson just had a presence. 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:54.559 And the thing is is that I know that before 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:59.600 the eighties there was kind of the spectrum that you 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.080 could lie in between. Was like your softness was your 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:10.200 falsetto smokey Ron Eisley soft voice, soft voice, or you're 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:16.200 a Growland preacher, Teddy Pendergrass or Marvin Jr. Of the Dells, 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:23.240 like your dad yelling at you. Yes, exactly. But I 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:28.400 always felt that Larry Dotson had If Hendrick sang, I 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.920 felt like that would be Larry Dotson. But even then, like, okay, 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.640 I'm gonna give you an example. Let's take Don't Stop 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:39.240 Dancing to the music. That's a very unusual song. Number 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:44.280 one I've never heard crash Cymbals and ride cymbals use 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.520 that much. Usually the high hat, which is supposed to 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.840 be the metronome, is always silent, bleeds off the snare mic. 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:52.040 We have two drums on there. 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:54.280 Okay, if that explains it. I was about to say 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.320 it sounds like a herd of elephants, and and Larry 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.080 Dunson wouln't know that, by the way. But even what 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.640 I'm trying to do is figure out how you guys 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:11.199 went from your gup bucket Memphis discipline sound and the 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.280 second that you start releasing like your records like anything 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:16.640 before Cold Blooded. 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.480 There was an aggressive rock feel to it. 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:23.480 Now, most people I interviewed from the time period, it's 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:25.040 like it's okay, Slide was. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:26.000 In this influence. 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:31.160 Hendrix was an influence, but you guys like, it's one 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.600 thing when your guitarist is loud. I e Ernie Eisley 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:39.440 like Osley Brothers a soul, but Ernie's loud right, Funkadelic's funky. 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.800 But you guys as a unit were more aggressive, more 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:44.959 louder than anything. 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.280 And I was trying to figure out what it was. 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.839 At first I thought, Okay, was it the fact that 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.320 the engineer didn't know better than use compression like everything's loud. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.440 Never heard drums that loud. It sounds like I heard 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.480 of elephants? Like what was just the modus operandi in 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:00.240 terms of. 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.760 Of how we should sound? Were you trying to break 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.520 out of the We trying to break out of the pack. 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:07.439 We tried to break out of the pack. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.840 And I don't know way what pack that was, because 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.320 God riscis so Me and Maurice Slide have had just 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:20.080 as countless ours conversations about I missed that guess so 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.840 much because it was kind of like we had a 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.240 lot of one bad leader to the other conversations. 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.959 Your directions are very similar, both from Memphis, both had 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.600 original bands, both lost the original bands, and both had 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.720 to rebuild the band. Basically go into the right define 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.600 the seventies. Are you age wise? Were you slightly older 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:44.320 than the cats that you hired. 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.199 Didn't you? Guys? Yes? No, we were still all around 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:47.720 the same age. 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.440 Okay, okay, Mars was like ten years older than the 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:51.520 rest of Earth Wind and Fire. 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.160 So yeah, And but now you know the guys I 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:55.920 have now of course younger. 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.040 Yes, and I'm kind of like the og. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:00.800 In fact, I got to tell you this a little 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.160 funny story. I said, because I got two or three 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.600 bass players in mind, I'm gonna get this big king's chair. 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.880 I would sit up on the throne with a grobo 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.360 and a crown and with a magic wand to say. 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:14.200 And just leave the band. 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.200 That's some bull, but I mean, but you know, I 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.199 was thinking about it anyway. As old people say, as lone, 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.680 as the blood is running warm in my veins and 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.679 I don't get off the riders of her fingers or 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.640 something like that, I will still trying to do it. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.960 What was the first session that the new version of 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.880 the Barcades did outside of the Barcades, Like, because of 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.120 course Isaac is also in the sidelines, like he talking 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:46.920 about the hot buttered soul sessions, and. 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:51.440 Like I said, you know, Don Davis came around, you know, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.560 Al Bell started using us. Sometimes we played on some 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.640 like I can't even think of the song right now, 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.840 when we played on some some B sides of staples singers. 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:05.040 But most of the staple singer stuff were done in 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.960 most of the shows. Let's see. Uh, we played on some 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:10.239 Eddie Floyd records. 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.520 But the person that used us a lot in the 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:19.240 studio initially as a rhythm section was Rufus Thomas. 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:20.680 So it's that you guys on. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:27.400 That's that's our rhythm sex ah and okay, the two, 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:31.840 the two, the breakdown, no breakdown, believe it or not. 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.040 The breakdown was the Isaacca's movement. That was his rhythm section. 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:39.280 Okay, the Funky Chicken and push and pull, and then 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.520 I can't even remember the land up on the Memphis train. 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.320 You know, train number one is gone, Yes, train number 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.880 two is being I played based on that. 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:50.560 But I can't remember who else was on that session. 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:55.400 You know, by this time, you know, I started getting high, 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:57.120 so I started to. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.400 Say, you're young and it's the psychedelic sixties. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:04.440 So how are you guys adjusting to that part of 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:05.320 rock star life? 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.120 To be quite honest with you, we were a hot mess. 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.440 I remember back during the time we were working on 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.040 Black Rock was also during the time when it was 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.960 drafting people. And I got a letter from the draft board, 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.120 so I had to go down to the draft board. 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.720 So I put on one of my outfits that I 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:28.760 were on stage, and I smoked I half a joint 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:30.400 of angel Thus. 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:32.520 And I went down to stare them. No. 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:37.440 I you know, when the physician came in to, you know, 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:38.360 do the examination. 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:40.320 I said, what are you doing to me? 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.400 And I had this cape on and I had like 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:48.280 a zoro head on the you know, a mask, and 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.400 they fell for that, like okay. No. After they called on, 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.920 they said, you know, call the police. And when they 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.400 did that, I ran up out of there. And all 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.440 I can remember is I ran around the corner and 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.360 went into a phone boot and I think I called 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:04.439 I called my girlfriend or something like that. I said, 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.640 I man, this phone boove around here, come pick me up. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.880 And I got picked up. Now, madam, I'm hound angel 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.280 Us got you. And also I had this guy told 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.800 me that some man get you some lunum for and 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.960 take you know, maybe you know seven eight little small 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.400 pieces take it and drinking and swallowing. So when they 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.560 do an examination you, they look at your stone, they 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.520 see this a luna four and there's something's wrong with 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:31.000 this guy. 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:33.480 How long was it until they were like, no, he's 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:34.680 not fit for fighting. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.000 They didn't call back no more. They didn't call me 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:37.440 no more. 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.840 So Verdie White told me a story that he starved 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:45.760 himself until he was ninety six pounds. They were trying 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.240 to draft him into the army, and he took three 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.920 weeks to starve himself to like ninety six pounds, and 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:53.840 they went into He's not gonna. 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.240 Let it take that much. That our Little Richard story too, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.480 Give me all the stories. What else? Fourteen? 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:04.160 Now the man you just learned how to play bass 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.400 a little bit. So Little Richard is in Nashville at 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.360 a club called in you Era, a club at this 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:15.480 time Jimmy Hendrix's playing guitar, Billy Cox is playing bass. 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.440 So they quit and moved to London. 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.400 So Little Richard got this, you know, this residency gig 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.920 at this club in Nashville. So he found out about 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.640 this little young base player down in Memphis, and he says, 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.320 we want to try him out. So now I go 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.880 and ask my dad. I said, Dad, I got an 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.480 opportunity to play with Little Richard. Will you please drive 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.480 me to Nashville? And guess what my dad? My dad 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:48.880 said hell no, I. 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:49.560 Said, Dad, why? 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:53.400 I said, this is the golden opportunity And he said no. 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.400 I said why Dad? He said, because he assists it 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.600 not gay not he said, not e centric or nothing 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:06.840 like that, you know, older people. Then I said, Dad, please, 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.040 So I finally convinced him. So, my dad had a 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.040 forty four magnum Have you ever seen one of those? 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:16.400 I do long barrow. 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.800 I loaded it up, put it under the front seat 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:24.240 of his car and drove me to Nashville to this club. 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:29.800 So Nashville is about now. It's about about a three 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.360 hour drive from Nashville to Memphis. Memphis to Nashville's about 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.440 a three hour drive back then it took about four 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.560 and a half hours because it was not expressway all 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:38.800 the way. 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:39.200 Gotcha. 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.400 So he drove me to the club and walked me 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.760 to the door, and he said, I'm gonna be out 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:46.560 in the car sleep. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:48.800 But he said, it's just like this. 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.040 He said, that's just to say anything out of the 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.520 way that you you come out here and get me. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.680 And I killed this a little bit, and he was serious. 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.520 Well, he was here to tell you at the time 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.639 that I played with little Richard. Little Richard never said 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:07.840 anything out of the way to me. 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.879 You just brought up isac case and I forgot about something. 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.280 How did the idea of son and chef start. 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:27.040 Son a chef came from? 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.000 To be quite honest with you, we were trying to 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:34.240 find ourselfs okay, And we had recorded Chef with Isaac 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.560 Cays and. 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.320 Alan Jones was kind of like a visionary. 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:46.600 We would have these grown conversations about stuff. In fact, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:48.880 most of the songs that you hear the bark as 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.680 they came out of hours sitting up in the rest rut. Well, 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:55.280 you may not stay in the rest rut that long. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:18:00.480 You sitting in the restrut and the waitress. Really, we 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.159 leave so somebody else can occupy this space. When you 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.080 said that, what can. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:06.840 I help you? You want something else? Yeah, can bring 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.520 me another right, right, right? 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.280 Ordered nothing to just give the cocals, right, But we 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:17.000 said in riskurants for hours and hours, that was your office. 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.640 Just talk back, Yeah, gotcha, go back and forth. That's 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:21.960 how a lot of ideas and songs came up. 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.399 I always wanted to know the inside joke with Jimmy 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:31.760 Jamini is the method of the bar Kays kind of 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.879 song cannon and how songs sound like other songs. But 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.400 here's the deal. So I've been on a late night 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.960 show seventeen years now. 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:43.760 Wow. 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.800 You know the thing is is that I'm also in 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.959 hip hop, so I don't necessarily see it with the 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.359 same scope that someone outside of hip hop would see it. 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:59.400 Cause again it's like you could listen to fighting Fire 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:04.679 with Fire. I clearly hear the ad libs of the 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.640 Ojys when the World's at Peace live version from Live 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:14.399 to London or whatever, even with shine sound like on 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:19.560 your face or you know, or shake it from to 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.360 the front or whatever. I do this practice a lot, 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.840 which is I'll put a song on for ten seconds right, 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.560 turned it up, then I'll stop it, and then I'll 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.200 let like a minute go by, and then I'll be like, 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.480 all right, let's start to play something. So even without 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:37.600 like something, the band would catch on what I would do, 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.680 but I purposely would play a song loud away so 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.600 the influences in their head and then they start to 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:48.080 mold it into another song. Is what is the process 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:53.240 for which you guys are conducting songwriting sessions for this 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.400 level of barks that I will. 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.680 Tell you really what we did because we were a band, 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.760 and you know, in the clubs, we were pretty much 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.439 like a lot of bands, a cover band, okay, So 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.400 we always made it a practice or whatever the hot 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.439 songs were, we would learn them and then sometimes to 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.440 start our writing sessions, we might play two or three 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:21.720 hot songs, right, and then maybe this happens with a 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:25.640 lot of bands, but we were the type band. If 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.600 you play us, you could play on your face whatever 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.080 the song may be, over and over again, and eventually 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:36.879 we would end up playing away from it. If it 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.280 makes any sense, then that But see, yeah, I mean 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.240 flipping it. But the flipping that you talked about and 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.439 the flipping that I'm talking about is two different things. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.000 My flipping is because of the and I don't mean this, 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.320 I don't negatively or anything. But when we play stuff 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.000 so repetitive over and over and over again, it starts 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.600 sounding it takes song. 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.480 The life of us, if that makes sense of sense? Gotcha? 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.400 In other words, I could be played the same baseline 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:12.720 that Verdein plays and it's gonna sound different from the 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.280 way Verdein plays it because I'm different from Verdein, which 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:17.240 that's a whole nother story. 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.360 Because we have a base. I got you, I got you. 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:21.639 What year did you sign to. 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:26.440 Mercury in nineteen seventy six? Why did you choose Mercury? 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:30.119 We didn't choose Mercury. Mercury chose us. Now what happened 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:34.280 is the whole recording situation was way different than than 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:39.359 than what it ended up being. Stax Records closed in 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:40.520 nineteen seventy five. 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.080 And there's one question I wanted to ask about that because, 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:47.160 I mean, you mentioned the hippo drum and you mentioned 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.240 Al Bell. How did al Bell wind up being the 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:53.119 default leader of Stack? 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:53.359 Like? 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.600 What was this role in Stax if Stax was already 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.760 being operated by someone else? 0:21:58.960 --> 0:21:59.040 Like? 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:06.119 How did Al Bell Jim Steward moved Al Bell to 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.800 Memphis from Washington, d C. Al Bell was a DJ 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:16.439