WEBVTT - Steve Cropper 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:17.000 My guest today is the one in the truly legendary 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.200 Steve Kropper. Steve, great to have you here. So, how 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:26.880 you been handling COVID very delicately? Okay? So have you 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:32.680 been vaccinated yet? I have not. That is my choice, okay, okay, 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.920 and that's your choice because and if they come up 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.080 with this thing about a vaccination to get on the plane, 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:44.879 that's today I stopped flying. Okay, okay. There's only two 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.320 people on this planet and not hear anymore. They're in 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.919 the planet. My mom and Daddy. The only people tell 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:57.160 me what to do. So you have a new album. 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:01.080 How did that come together? Well, but because of this pandemic, 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.840 and it came together and now it's it's almost over. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.720 The pandemic is almost over. But during the lockdowns, so 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:10.640 it was John Tivers I did to pull up these 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.040 old tracks and do something with him and they turned 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.880 out great. So and I had just written them off. 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.560 Did you know Tivin before this? Oh yeah, known him 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:24.680 for a long time. So all the songs we wrote together. Okay, 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.040 So he approached you and just for those out of 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:31.600 the loop, exactly what is on the record. I wouldn't 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:36.200 say exactly. I'll tell you what happened. Let me tell 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.280 you about the album. He has a studio in his house. 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.160 I do not. I have never had a studio at 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.840 my house. When I go home, I go home. I 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:49.160 don't take my work home with me. But with the 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.520 computer age, you know, you're on doing emails or whatever. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.160 And when I get up in the morning, I'm usually 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.880 on the computer before seven thirty. And today I got 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.840 off at nine third. Two hours of just getting rid 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:10.280 of stuff and answer things and it's fun. Okay, we've 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.960 got two things going up. What are you? Who's looking 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:14.840 for you that it takes two hours to go through 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:20.640 your email? Everybody just trying to sell something. And I 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.840 bet you I have deleted every morning at least twenty 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.559 or thirty emails, and I try to not be subscribed 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.080 to them, and I hit that and they call back. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.560 So I have an old car. Just to give you 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.280 an example, Okay, I bet I get three or four 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:40.800 calls a day wanting to extend my warranty on my 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:46.200 old car. Okay, what kind of car is it? And 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.560 Infinity a good one? Really? You see Avanti the old 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.280 student baker, Did I hear that correctly? I could go 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.040 for an old car, but it's not. It was new 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.120 when I bought it. I have a twenty eleven. My 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.040 wife has a twenty our team. Okay, so you get 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.640 all the email and phone calls that are junk calls? 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:10.239 How many personal and business personal business email and calls 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:16.920 do you get? Hundreds? And what are they looking for? Well, 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:22.840 that's a good question. Either an autograph or want me 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.880 to play something. We'll do a concert or you know, 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.360 perform or whatever. And what does it take for you 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:36.560 to say yes? A question? Do you want to do this? 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.080 I will say? Is you always say so? Guys that 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.320 are farm more important than I am, I don't know 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.800 how they deal with life. It's amazing because if a 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:48.880 little guy like me guess that kind of mail, they 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.960 must be getting thousands a day. So if I emailed 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.040 you for some reason I had your email address and 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.480 I asked you to play on my record, you would 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.600 say yes, Well, that depend on what the record is. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.640 I'd have to hear it first, Okay, But you're open 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:10.520 to everybody absolutely. Okay, Well, that certainly gives you more opportunity, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.320 but it certainly takes you two hours to get through this? 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.440 And is it mostly on the computer or how many 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:23.400 people still call it's motionally on a computer? By email? Okay? Now, 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.560 you have a big birthday coming up this year, and 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:28.600 I don't want to go too deeply into that at 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.599 this moment. But what's it like having some of your 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:38.280 best buddies pass? It's not fun. So I am one 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.720 of the few lucky people on this planet. I can 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.119 say that my father lost my best friend. I've lost 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.280 all my other friends and families. Is your father in law? 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:52.160 How old is he? Same age? Okay? And what about 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:57.960 how do you handle all your contemporaries dying? Say it again, 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.320 contemporary dives that what you said? You know, know your 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.040 old musician friends, your old buddies who are dying. Even 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:06.719 I'm younger than you, I'm still experiencing this. It's weird 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.200 that my friends die and it makes me think about 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:13.280 dying myself. Well, you're trying not to think about it. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.800 I try not to think about it. But you know, 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.520 there's only one guy left and the out of the 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.320 original band, and uh, as far as book of ten 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.200 m g s, it would be book A ten MG. 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:31.039 Now three of the other mgs are gone. They have 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.640 since gone. Ben. You know, the funny thing is these 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.040 people are in plain sight and one day they're gonna disappear. 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.160 And everybody says, oh, I could have seen him, I 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:45.159 could have talked to him. It's really so sad. So 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.080 Tivin approaches you and he says, well, we wrote these 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:53.400 songs together. Let's let's lay him down. Yeah. And I said, 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:54.960 if you want to bring these things back to life, 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:56.880 you're gonna Ben a singer. He says, I got one. 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.039 I said you better send me something. So he did. 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:00.920 And when you do, and I said, where's this guy 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:05.039 been on my life? Roger Real or something else? I 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:10.200 never heard it? Hands? Okay, So where'd you come from? Well, 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.040 it's up north. That's probably why I never heard of. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.040 We never crossed pass We should have crossed passed somewhere 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:19.800 down the line, but we didn't. Okay. And did you 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.680 do it via the computer? Did you go to John Studio? Well, 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.760 every song on this album, if you listen to it, 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.560 was done. The vocal was done through an iPhone and 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.080 even my engineers, yeah, which is amazing. That was mixed 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.520 in Pro Tools, so it was bounced down to Pro tools, 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.760 which I don't think pro tools didn't change anything, but 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.279 it was all done with an iPhone and it's for 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.640 the sake of the record and promotion. It's too bad 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.440 because that would have been a real good, uh promotional item. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.239 But now they're into movies. You can edit your own movies, 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.400 just like Hollywood and all that. So let's hope they 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:55.799 can do that. And I know that the iPhone people 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.800 have been bragging about their phones or their microphones in 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.560 their in their telephone us for a long time, and 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:03.760 people just took it for granted. They were more into 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.040 the picture thing with selfish and so forth, which is fine, 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:10.200 and people just kind of forgot that that's a real 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:15.280 good mike in that iPhone. And then how did you 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.960 lay down your guitar? Well, originally it was just the 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.600 rhythm tracks mainly with a loop, and then we brought 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.720 in extra drummers. Now, as far as all the solo licks, 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:30.760 when Roger finished the vocals, I said, I'm not laying 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.000 down any any lead licks until I hear the vocal 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:35.360 and so I just get inspired by that. That's the 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.000 way I get inspired. I hate working things out. I 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.840 don't like that at all. I just don't work things out. 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.520 I like the spawning Eddie and listen to something for 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.520 the first time, and and and let the emotion just 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.360 flow and let it go and be a chanler. I'm 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.200 actually the exact same way. That's how you get inspired. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.560 So let's just soon the vocal is cut. You don't 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.680 want to hear it until you're in the studio with 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:06.200 the guitar strapped on, ready to play. Correct. Okay, And 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:09.760 let's say in one song, how long is it gonna 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:11.440 take you to work out what you're gonna play and 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:16.640 lay it down. Not very long. So we do piece 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.080 things together sometimes and I'll get hit with something and 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.480 play something in the engine will say that was a 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.400 good look you did three takes ago, or if it's 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:26.680 not completely say let's say another one, and then we 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:28.680 put them all together. So that's the way we do it. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.840 The same thing with vocals. Okay. So if I if 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.480 you laid down a lick and it was a half 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.720 hour later, the engineer said, play that lick again. Could 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.599 you remember it and do it? Probably not? If you 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.520 pleasure to me, I could probably duplicate it, But to remember, no, 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.680 it comes and goes, but it comes about as fast. 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:50.360 I mean it goes about as fast it comes, So 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:55.360 there you go. I have always approached I have always 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.920 approached sessions the same way. So when we were learning 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.360 a song and the old days, we learned it together 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:03.760 at the same time, heard it for the first time, 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.920 and the and the writers, we weren't there the night before. 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.120 You used to we would write songs the night before 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.640 we cut them. Today you might write a song and 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.280 it might be two years before it gets cut. You 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.000 just don't know what's gonna happen today. It's certainly different now. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.439 In the old days we're talking about pre internet, you 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:21.959 would have made this record. There was a limited number 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.760 of records, and everybody would have been aware of it, 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.120 whether it was successful or not, depending on what was 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.760 in the grooves. Today you can put out a record 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.080 and almost nobody can know about it. How does that 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.640 affect your inspiration to do it? You just do it 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.600 one at a time, and uh, you know, when you're 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.360 when you're overdubbing something or listening to something, you treat 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.720 it as the only song on the planet at the time. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.520 And there's only two singers that I've ever worked with. 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:52.240 The singer song as though it was gonna be the 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:59.079 last song they would ever sing. Otis reading for number one, 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:03.360 Number two, rods shuret even though and I I refer 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.120 to Rod the fact that he knew that he would 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.560 take the track home that night and change the lyrics, 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.120 change the idea or whatever, and knowing that for the 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.320 musicians in the studio at the time, he would sing 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:15.560 it as though he was on live on stage for 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:20.880 the last time. I've always been how did you get 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:27.760 hooked up with Rod Stewart through Tommy Dodd? Okay, so 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:29.480 that of course makes a question, how did you know 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:34.400 Tom Doubt? I don't think we have a month or 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:36.680 a year to do this, but how did I know 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:42.600 Tom Doubt? Atlantic was our distributed stacks and he was 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:44.920 a vice president or in our director for a long time, 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.400 then became a vice person and okay, I've known him 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.080 since since sixty three, let's put it that way. Okay, 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:59.960 So right now you're in Nashville, Yeah, okay, why Nashville? 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.760 You you grew up in Memphis, you were in California 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:07.440 for a while, You're in Nashville. Why these different places? Well, 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.280 I was asked by some friends of mine to come 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.280 here and write some songs, and I said no. Then 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.559 I met my present wife. This June will be thirty 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.840 thirty two years that I've been married to her. And 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:20.800 I met her in this town and I was she 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:22.720 was up here from Dallas. She was living in Dallas 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:24.280 and I was living in l A at the time, 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:27.120 and so I took her out to l a show 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:28.679 to the house and she said, I'd rather have a 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.560 house in Nashville. Okay. So we've raised two kids and 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:37.480 head place. Wow, it's hard to say that that I'm 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.240 in in the music city of the world. And it's 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.120 hard to say that I didn't come here for the music. 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.840 But I didn't here because of my present So was 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:51.760 it was? It loved first sight? Absolutely? Did Did she 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.680 feel the same way or did you have to work? 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.800 I think so, except she tells it a little different 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.040 that she didn't. The good news is she didn't know 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.600 who I was, and she said, all another one one hit. 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:07.240 Wonder Then she found out letter that I had written 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:11.559 more than one song. So you've been married thirty years, 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.720 you have two kids, what are they up to? Well, 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.880 one of them is has our own merchandising company and 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:19.640 the other one is in college. That I put him 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.120 on the plane yesterday to fly back to Fort Collins. 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:27.120 He's going to Colorado State in four columns Colorado and 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.840 he'll be home back here from school. Let's out, which 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.080 is the end of my I think? And how many 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:38.960 times you've been married twice? And do you have kids 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.679 from your first marriage? I do older kids. And how 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:44.440 how many of you have and how old are there? 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.959 I have another boy and another girl, the boy being 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.880 the oldest. Then what are they up to? I said 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.720 that my my son is retired. My daughter works for 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:59.319 Ashley Furniture. Wow. And are they on the payroll or 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.679 totally independent? She is? And he he rant managed a 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.640 bookstore for a long time and he decided not to 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.000 He's he overmarried too. He married a girl in Memphis 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.360 that's head of the card services, and they transferred to 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.880 her to Atlanta, and that's where he went to college. 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:18.880 So he's very happy to be back in Atlanta. He 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:25.720 loves it. Okay, so you're in Nashville, and you've did 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.040 a lot of early work in Memphis. You grew up 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.439 in Memphis. Most people have not been to those places. 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.480 They say, oh it's Tennessee. Having been to those places, 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.960 I experienced them is radically different. Would you say the 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:48.000 same the two cities. Yeah, uh, totally musically inclined and otherwise. 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.400 Memphis is a melting pot. Now, Nashville gets a lot 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.599 of people here too, from Kentucky in different places, but 0:13:55.760 --> 0:14:02.800 Memphis gets at all Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri. So they 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.480 get a lot of entitled an album one time called 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.840 Melton Park. And that's been going on since way a 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.960 long time ago, when the river boats were gambling boats 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:16.200 or so forth. Wow. Yeah, people don't realize that when 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.440 you're in Memphis, you look over the river, it's Arkansas. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.600 You don't realize that it's just that close. Never Mississippi, 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.800 just down south. Okay, So what age were you at 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.600 when you moved to Memphis ten years old? And where 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.160 were you the ten years before that? Missouri? Some people 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.800 call it Missoury. Just a state with three names Missouri, Missouri, 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:41.080 and Missouri. And there's say, misery, Why do you call 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:42.960 a Missoury? I said, obviously you didn't grow up on 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:47.760 a farm. So where was this farm in Missouri? Well, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.720 it's not too far. If you know where West Plains 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.520 is and there and that those places. It's not in 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.440 the Booth Hill. It's in the southern part, right in 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:01.400 northern Arkansas or southern Missouri. The line is not too far, 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:03.960 thirty miles away, I guess something like that at the most. 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.600 But it's uh. It's it's just uh west of the 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:13.240 Booth Hill. And your father was a farmer. He was 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.800 originally uh, and then he met my mother at teacher's college, 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.400 and uh. He was a teacher, and so was my mom. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.040 The thing about me was very simple. They didn't have 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.000 babysitters in those days. There was no work to and 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.560 we didn't have any close relatives that she could drop 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:33.000 me off at. So she put me to school. I 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.920 was full when I started a month later. I was five, 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.280 So you know, I started when I was five years old. 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:41.880 The thing was, my mother told me, I don't know 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:43.960 this to be a fact. She said, I did as 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.520 good as the registers. She said, I didn't really have 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:48.120 any choice. I had to move you up. So she 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:50.280 took me from the first grade to the second grade 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.360 and on to the third grade. Except she's as a 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.080 retired teacher, she stayed on the on the teacher's board. 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.720 So we moved to West Plains, which was in those 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:01.880 days is if you were raised on a farm. That 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.560 was a big town nineteen miles from the farm. And 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.080 she put me back. So I took the third grade twice. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.120 I was in the fourth grade for about three weeks 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.280 and she said, these city boys are too big for 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:18.080 my son, so she put me back. What kind of 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.960 student were you? I did pretty good until I started 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.920 playing guitar. I was a straight AS student, and I 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.480 spent most of my time playing the guitar instead of studying, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.880 so my grades went down a little bit. I started 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:38.080 making season bees, right, And what your parents? They were teachers? 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.720 What did they say about that? They didn't like it 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.800 very much, but they never discouraged me in the guitar playing. 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:48.960 And I remember I never thinked. People would ask me, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.080 why what do you think last night, which was the 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.280 song that we had number three in the world, Uh, 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:56.360 why was it such a hit? And I said, I 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:58.360 don't know, but I do remember that my mother the 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.760 first time I played on the record, she started doing 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:02.280 a twist. I said, well, I guess it was the 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.080 first twist instrumental. That's the thing. I com credit it 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:10.280 to Dad at that at that at that so your 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.640 parents were supportive did they understand the level of success 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:19.639 that you achieved. I don't not until later. No, And 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:21.720 how were you were you an only kid or with 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:23.840 other kids in the family. I was the only one, 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.439 So I remember the time. I do remember this. My 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:30.400 dad came home. We were eating dinner, and he looks 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.600 up and he says, I've been transferred to Tulsa, Oklahoma. 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.159 We're moving to Tulsa. And I said I'm not and 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.399 he looked at me very sternly and said, so you 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.960 don't have a voice in this conversation. I said, yes, 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.520 I do. I've got a working band making money. And 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.199 he said, oh okay. He said, well I've got to go, 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:50.200 and he did. And my mom stayed until I graduated 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:55.320 from high school. And uh they found a duplex to 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.440 put me in that that sort of thing. But Dad 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.040 went ahead to Tulsa. He was gonna put me in 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:03.240 Oklahoma State, in the Norman Oklahoma and uh, I said, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.440 I don't you know, but you'll be going to Oklahoma 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.680 State much better than Memphis. And said, uh, I want 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.520 the band. That's all I care about. The thing is 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.359 that on my entrance to x AM, I failed the 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.960 English part, but I raised it so high in the 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:19.880 math part, they let me take the take it over, 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:22.280 and I did it with There was a girl that 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.040 took it over to There was only two of us, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:26.480 and she had already had two years of pre college 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.000 and she failed it as well, and that's why she 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.480 got to take it again. Of course we passed it secondary. 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:40.879 So go ahead, no, no, you continue. Well, I was 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.280 gonna say that. I got reprimanded one time for calling 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.840 it Memphis State. It always was. Now it's Memphis University. 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:52.840 And so my daughter's golf coach said, Steve, it's Memphis 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.000 University's something infish state anymore. I said, It'll always been 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.359 in the state as far as I'm concerned. So, m 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.280 my daughter played the high school college of golf, came 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.240 out of pretty good golfer. So how good a golfer 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.959 are you? Well? I used to be pretty good at 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.119 my age terrible, but I played with a lot of 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.280 guys in the nineties and all, and I said, well, 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.159 when I grow up, that's what I'm gonna do. You know, 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:19.520 you don't go on the road for fifty years and 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:24.320 been over like you used to. So, uh, people have 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.119 back trouble. Everybody does. And so I waited and waited 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.720 and waited to until I had some time off to 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:32.880 get my back work on. And the doctor said, Steve, 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:34.520 I can't help you anymore. So what do you mean 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.040 you can't help me? He said, because three and four 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.040 years together, and I'm telling you, when you've been over 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.480 it's like having or two before in your back. I 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.440 can't bend over and pick up anything anymore, and never 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:48.160 could anybody. Well, it's funny because you're the first person 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.880 who ever told me a similar story. I have back 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.800 problems too for fifty years, and I had to get 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:56.840 an injection. I used to get him in. The guy 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.680 who did the injection said, who did your surgery? Who 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:06.680 few is the disks? Yeah? So, uh, of all people, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:08.880 Peter Jacobson was a pretty good friend of mine, still 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.639 is and he is one of the chief investors in 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:17.280 the Backs Clinic down in Florida. And he said, if 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:18.840 you have back trouble, I'll put you the head of 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:23.160 the line and you get in there. So my doctor said, 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.919 we can't shooting anything in there. I can't cut him apart. 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.240 They fused together. So that's what the m R. I showed. 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:34.080 And so I suffer with it absolutely Okay, So what 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:41.399 major parents move from Misery to Memphis. I well, it 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:43.280 had to be my dad getting a job he was on. 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.439 We moved from the farm to West Plains, Bressouri because 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.359 he was on the police force, filled out an application 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:51.760 of the railroad and and got picked up as a 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:57.040 railroad detective immediately. And that's when we went to Memphis. 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:01.480 And I remember right before we crossed the Mississippi, my dad. 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.560 I was asleep in the back seat. My dad wiggled 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.560 me up and he said, so you better get up. 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:07.359 You might want to see this. And it was a 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:11.439 river a mile wide. You know, I grew up on 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:13.600 rivers and strangers that I've never seen anything that big 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:17.760 in my life. It's amazing. So your father was a teacher, 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.399 then he was a railroad cop, and then he was 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.920 a teacher with the FBI for years. Really. Yeah, on 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.520 the good side, what kind of relationship did you have 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:34.200 with your dad? Very good relationship. And uh, I never 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.880 met anybody that ever said anything negative by my dad, 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.359 And everybody really liked my dad. He was just nice 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.520 to everybody. And I didn't even know my dad had 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:45.480 a sense of humor. But when the when some of 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.920 the boys would come over from from high school and 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.879 all he would start telling Jockson said, I didn't know 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.600 my dad could do that. He'd have everybody's stitches. And 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.639 that's just the way he was. But he was also 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.320 very serious, had a serious Uh as he got older. Uh, 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.720 he could have made a lot of changes and things, 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:06.760 but he didn't. He didn't. He didn't but end anything. 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:11.160 He just said back and listen. So, so you moved 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.720 to Memphis at age ten. That's a hard transition for 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.600 a kid to go from one school to another, making friends, 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:19.800 et cetera. Yeah, it's like going to Disney World for 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:21.600 the first time. So what was it like for you? 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:24.840 Pretty amazing. I mean everything that I looked at and 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:28.119 saw her her was was a shock treatment and I 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:30.880 just dealt with it. And uh, he was talking about 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:32.879 best friends. Donald Duck Dunn and I met on a 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:36.440 softball field one in the sixth grade, so we were 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.600 out well in the tenth or level. We were sophomores 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.400 and juniors when we started a band, and we got 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:44.320