WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Bruce Hornsby 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.040 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.520 Hello, Hello, Hello, what's going on, y'all? It's Questlove. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.520 We've been re releasing a lot of the QLs episodes 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:21.040 that we taped during the pandemic. In today's classic episode 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.880 with Bruce Hornsby, who has been incredibly cool when we 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.960 spoke to him in twenty twenty, is no exception. Bruce 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.440 is an absolute open book when he talks about the 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.400 music he loves and finding success in the eighties with 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.879 the Range and his relationship with that material. And he 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:44.360 also gets into his collaborative relationships with the Grateful Dead 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:49.360 and fellow QLs guest Bonnie Rait, and his unexpected connection 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.680 to a legend from my hometown. Yes, I'm always in 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:57.680 Philadelphia despite what you heard. Yeah, his role in the 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.120 life of Alan Iverson is in the eye opener. So 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.399 this year Bruce released an album and to Go Park, 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.520 which features Bob wear Ezra from Vampire Weekend and Bonnie Ray. 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:11.720 So I want you to check it out. And this 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.640 episode is fun, spirited pack with some stories and Bruce Hornsby, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:33.720 Me Fontagelo, Unpaid Bill and Sugar Steve. Enjoy it, Ladies 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.559 and gentlemen, what's up? This is another episode of course 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:41.280 Love Supreme. I'm your host Questlove Jenkins. Where we're teams 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.040 Supreme Today, Sugar Steve. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:49.040 In the house. Hello, Hello Quarantine Steve, Quarantine Bill. Yeah, 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:50.160 what's up man? How you doing? 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:52.120 Holding it down? 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:57.160 Okay? Its asterisk or just the definitive. 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:01.680 It holding it semi calling down. Everything's good, working on 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:03.160 some music for the street all as. 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.240 Well, Okay, gotta keep the streets happy and fan takeolo. 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.639 I'm good brother, I'm good man, doing the work as well. 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.079 I can't complain cool, cool, all right. 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:19.320 Mark Yesterday is a Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, producer, composer. 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.000 He has actually come to us in many. 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.600 Forms of the past, for real, for real, for real, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:26.560 either as. 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:30.000 A soloist or fronting one of his many projects sounds 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:34.600 like Quesla, either a member of the range the Noisemakers 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.120 at one point Ambrosia and Ambrosia. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.799 Yes, not really, but okay, we'll take it. 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.200 We'll take it. Wait a minute, you know what, and 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.640 I often do this. I'm not interrupting my own intro. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.120 Yes or no, all right. 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.919 I'm a soul trained collegist. Is that you on soul train? 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:55.800 With Sina Easton. 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.160 That's hilarious. You've nailed me. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:06.440 Yes, yes, I think like I have all the episodes 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:08.800 that I keep him on loop. And like three weeks 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.680 ago she was on doing Sugar Walls and I was like, wait, 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.960 that was okay, okay, okay. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.400 Well well look yeah, there's a funny story about it. Look, 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.280 I played with her for two years and sure we 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:25.480 did Soule Train and I'm out there looking like a 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:30.679 complete clown. Most likely I haven't seen that for years. 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.800 But I'll tell you what, as a parent of a 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.760 Division one basketball player who's now a pro in Germany, 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.800 I used that to uh for a great benefit. My 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.920 son Keith played at LSU and he was live on 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.200 national TV his junior year against testas A and l 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.760 on ESPN one, and he had a pretty rough game. 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:51.640 And we're back at the hotel, the Cook Hotel on 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.560 LSU campus and he just bumming. He's really down, and 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.040 I said, you know what, I'm going to change your 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.640 mood right now. Go to YouTube and look up she 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:05.240 Easton strut and the Sheena Easton Sugar Walls featuring me 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.160 looking like a complete idiot. And so he looked at 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:13.000 his dad just sort of undulating around with sunglasses on, 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.240 and it just he just fell out and his mood 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.440 chains just like I predicted. And so you know what, 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.360 whatever works to help your kids get through the tough times. 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.360 My clownish appearances in Sena videos work. 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.440 I assure you, that exaggerating laz and gentlemen. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.120 Anyway you had say on, I forgot we was still 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:34.520 on the intro. 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:35.560 Yeah, he's on a show. 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.440 We don't even talk about his work with DJ net 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:42.240 Jack Dsonnet and my high school mate Christa McBride. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:43.919 Yes, Philadelphia schoolmates. 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:45.760 Yes, yeah, not to mention. 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.320 You know your your musicianship, your DNA is all over 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:55.159 our favorites by Bonnie ray Don Henley, so many projects. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:56.840 This intro is going to be forever leads. 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:58.039 Uh. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:03.480 He played with Squeeze yep, when I don't know, it's 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.159 on Wikipedia. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:06.880 Just to be accurate. I played on one. I played 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.200 on one of their records, a great record. Walk a 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:13.480 Straight Line is a beautiful but you know that one. No, 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.000 it's it's a great not a hit, but it's a 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.640 beautiful song album Squeezehead. 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:19.760 What album is it on? 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:24.560 It's called play? Okay, early mid nineties, Uh, and I 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.240 played accordion yeah on this so right, yeah, let. 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:29.599 Me just say the two words so we can start 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:36.000 the episode. Bruce Hornsby the Quest Love sup, Thanks you anyway, Yeah, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.320 we often fall in a rabbit holes even before we 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:38.960 get the name of the. 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:43.479 Artist who cares. It's fine, Bruce Hornsby, Easton veteran. 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.320 So right now you're celebrating the release of your twenty 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:47.920 second record. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.200 Correct, Yes, that's that's true, sir. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:56.880 So, So without my knowledge of your your your deadhead years, 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.600 can I can I assume that the fact that you 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:06.599 have about I believe it is twenty six live albums. 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:09.520 That's the lesson that you learned from playing with the 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:10.120 Grateful Dead. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.800 Well okay. People always ask me, how did playing with 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.400 the Dead change your musician ship, change your approach, et cetera. 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.280 I was always an improvising musician. I went to school. 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.120 I was one of those music school geeks. I started 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.400 off at Berkeley for two semesters, but then I went 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:32.400 to University of Miami. Sun Tan, you known to a 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.920 lot of people for your paid vacation for rich Nordon kids, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.680 Northern white kids. Anyway, I came out with that background, 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.720 and so the improvisational aspect of the Dead was not 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.560 anything that was sort of epiphanal for me, epithantic it. 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:56.040 What I got out of them mostly was inspiration on 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:00.960 the songwriting level. People don't realize that they have fifty 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.280 truly great songs. Half of them sound like they could 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:06.880 have been written one hundred years ago or plus. Old 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:12.800 folk music a deep well of influence there. So so 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.040 I love them. I miss Garcia. He was quite a guy. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.560 He was a rocket during the Garcia years. 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.280 Oh yes, the last spot I played with them, just 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.920 for twenty months or so. I played about one hundred 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.640 shows with them from eight from nineteen ninety to ninety two. 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:30.240 We'd opened for them before that. 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.160 Okay, Oh so you played the ninety two Okay. 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:35.360 Yeah, but then I was sitting with them when they 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.680 were geographically close to me up through ninety five, up 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:38.360 right up to his. 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:43.120 Dead Okay, so yeah, I went to one Garcia show 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:48.240 I think in Houston when Branford Marcellis was singing with them. 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.600 Yes, my guy. Yes, Branford and I played together with 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.040 It Dead quite often. It's his birthday's coming up here 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.200 pretty soon, fellas, So maybe you should shout his ass out. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:04.640 Yeah, are you on without a net the deadline? 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:10.000 No, that's Branford's on that, Okay. To respond to the 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:15.560 twenty six live albums to which you're referring, that's albums, 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.280 I mean they're just available online. There's no there's no 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.920 CDs made of those. But frankly, we're like a lot 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.320 of bands. I write the songs, we record the songs, 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.600 and then we learned how to play the songs. So 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:32.760 consequently the live thing expands everything that we started with 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.400 on the original record, and so so quite often live 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.680 is the best way to hear us because it's very loose, 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.520 it's very free. Branford sits in with this quite often 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.160 because he knows that we're winging it like crazy, because 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:46.560 I don't know what I'm gonna do. So if I 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:48.120 don't know what I'm gonna do with the band, guys 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:49.720 definitely don't. And it makes it great fun. 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.080 It is there a pressure for you to make a 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.160 memory each and every night, knowing that some of these 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.480 fans will. 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:00.760 Follow you there. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:05.160 To me, is no more loyal fan base than you know, 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.719 anything associated with the Dead Yes, six degrees within it. 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.040 So yeah, that's how did that affect your actual the 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.400 way that you put on shows. 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.400 I think I probably started taking a little more out 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.160 than I had been doing. You know, I was always improvising, 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.760 but I got a lot freer, much to the chagrin 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:24.560 of a lot of my fans. You know, when you 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:30.439 come out having these big hit radio songs, you acquire 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.360 an audience that I call sort of a soft core one, 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:37.079 people who are only there to hear the songs. They know, yeah, 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.720 that's right. And so I was never that guy. So 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.160 I've it's been my self appointed job to piss those 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.680 people off for many a year, and so been nasty 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:53.120 letters abound in my world for thirty two years. 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.360 Now you're saying that you've gone shows without playing maldern 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:58.680 Rain or the way it. 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.800 Is, or well, not many. I've become a lot more 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.880 kind about it in my sonescence here in my sixties, 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.160 but there have been shows. But the only times that 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.640 I didn't do that was when I felt the audience 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:16.000 was so jacked, so responsive, so deeply involved in what 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.440 we were doing without playing those old war horses, that 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.000 I could get away with it, and it wasn't a problem. 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.280 Of course, I still get a couple of nasty letters 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.959 from people who again are softcore fans, and they would 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.120 just come to hear those five or six songs that 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.840 they know. But so, yeah, now it's really gotten bad 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.480 because my last two records have really gone. I'm a 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:45.720 modern classical music devo te and so that a stringent atonal, chromatic, 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:51.400 dough decophonic sound has been filtering into my music, much 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.760 to many fans chagrin. I apologize to that, Matt. 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.560 That is actually the That is the first time we've 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.920 ever heard the word do decophonic used on quest those 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.920 and that is amazing and I'm. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.280 Happy to be a first to give you all a 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:06.880 first here. 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.000 Yeah, I saw you play once downtown and uh, there 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:11.920 was a lot of feedback and it was in the 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.600 key of F. So so they played everything in the 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:20.600 key of F. And for that it was fucking hilarious 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.960 because every song was just in F, no matter what, 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.800 in what range. They took everything into F and so 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:28.520 like because they kept out feeding back and so like, 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:30.720 so is not to be a total They played everything 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:32.240 in F and it was hilarious. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:36.080 Well, look, if you're a musician of any worth, you 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.120 should be able to transpose instantly. You can't. You're not 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.079 going to play with me, and so uh. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:48.880 That we share a guitar player, Doug Doug Dryberry, who 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.760 used to be a noisemaker many years ago, is Sesame 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:52.840 Streets guitar player. 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.959 So well, not that many years ago, Doug. Doug was 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.480 with me for fifteen years, and uh, I made a 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.000 change that maybe six five or six years ago. But Doug, 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.600 it's a great asset, a great utilitarian sort of an 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.080 orchestral guitar player. It's a it's a great New York 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.040 guitar player named John Leventhal, most well known for the 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:18.040 Sean Colvin Great Records and Levinthal had played on my 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.440 sixth record, Spirit Trail in ninety eight, and I wanted 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:27.720 somebody to give me eleven Thalien sound, and so I 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.240 got Doug and he did a great job for me. 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.880 I started hearing another sound in my head. So alas, 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.040 I made a change, but I love Doug and he 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:37.600 did a great job for us, like I say, for 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:38.280 fifteen years. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:38.760 Awesome. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.240 So your musical roots, I know that you started out 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.440 in Virginia. What city were you born in? 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:50.240 I was born in Richmond, and I grew up in Willisburg, 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:52.200 fifteen miles down the road, and I still this is 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.360 where I am now. I moved back after ten years 0:12:54.960 --> 0:13:00.480 in la I moved back in nineteen ninety here for 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:05.240 back here for thirty years and we're in Guardians. Yeah, 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:06.360 you can have that ship. 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.760 I went there once. They took us on the trip 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:12.880 there like third grade one time, and like that was it. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:14.840 No, I diddit. 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:20.360 Roots show there, our get the Sponte, the the one 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:21.079 we did. 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:22.360 Like one O six in part live. 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:29.080 Oh yeah, so how did you how did you go over? 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:30.360 How did they. 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:32.160 Our song? 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.559 Break you off with nice for about four minutes and 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.600 then the rest of the show was like, Okay, they're 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:38.480 just they're just out there. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:45.559 They were like, where's mister cheeks? That we're done? So yeah, 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:46.240 I can relate. 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:53.199 I've been about. What about Colonial Williams Williamsburg? They still well, we. 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.679 Made it our self appointed job as local counties to 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.040 pelt tourists and local College of Women marry students with 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.520 water balloons, and so we would ride through town and 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:06.360 just wear an ass out. 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.480 Uh Jesus christ Man. 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.439 Yeah, our karma was probably not so good then hopefully improved, 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.120 but uh we actually got stopped by the cops and 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.000 take it to the cop the police station our senior 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.080 year in high school. Uh, some young, well appointed young 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:31.000 College of Women marry grad students. We just pelted him 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.760 and he flagged the cops down and we were through. 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.640 So that's but yeah, that was as exciting as it 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.560 got in the little last town of Winnsburg, which I love. 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:43.120 Obviously I moved back here, but yes, Williensburg is my town. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.560 Yeah, yeah, we got Karen. 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:48.600 Okay, I'm right down the street. 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.840 Yeah, I'm I'm in North North Carolina, born and raised 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.840 where I'm in Raleigh. And I saw your son. He 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.680 went to Ashville, right, he went to Yes, yes, he's 0:14:58.720 --> 0:14:59.360 in the mountains. 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:04.640 Yes, you saw him Plans State, yeah, man, Yeah, he 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.400 put twenty three on ency State and then they recruited him. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:11.200 Mark Gottfried recruited him, but he picked LSU and it 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.000 worked out great for him. But yes, Robby's a good 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.400 old town. We like playing that museum, the outdoor. 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:20.080 One had the art museum out uh huh. 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.080 Yeah, it's nice, it's really nice. And you know Branford 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:23.800 lives in Durham. 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:25.760 Yeah, Man, Branford, So Branford. 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.160 He actually I'm I graduated from North Flina Central and 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.200 Branford taught there. He was there the artist in residents 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.240 for years, and uh, he's just super cool dude, man. 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.400 Yeah, the best. He's also a fellow prankster with me. 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.120 So I could talk about that, but I'll I won't 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.800 do it because he may not approve. We'll see. 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.120 What was your first musical memory. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.520 Well, it's not a memory when someone's recorded you at 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.480 a at age three or four. You know, you don't, 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.200 at least I don't remember that. But since the tapes 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.440 around then you feel like you remembered it. There's a 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.360 tape of me singing hound Dog at age about three 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:09.320 and a half or four. Yeah, krocking all the time, 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.800 you know all that business. Uh and some other songs too, 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:15.680 with the Wind and the Rain in her Hair by 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.080 Pat Boone. Our parents were turning us on to this stuff. 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:24.920 So yeah, sadly, alas, I probably heard Pat Boone's tooty 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:29.240 fruity and not little Richard Riches. As sad as that sounds, 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.080 that's that's that was what was happening in my house. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.080 But yeah, ye siblings or was it just you? 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:41.760 Yes, I'm the emotionally disturbed middle child, and so yes, 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.960 I have an older brother and a younger brother and I. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.200 It's it's interesting since I was in the middle. I 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.920 was really close with each of them and they were 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.560 friendly always, but not like not like relationship that I 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.480 had with each of them. My older brother was the 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:02.920 original deadhead in our family, Bobby Hornsby, and I used 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.080 In my freshman year of college, I was a little 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.960 Brucey playing Fender Rose and singing lead in a dead 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.040 cover band called Bobby High Test and the Octane Kids. 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.800 So that was Bobby Hornsby and my younger brother ended 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.719 up writing a lot of songs with me later in 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.639 the aforementioned Mandolin Rain is a co write with my 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:26.200 younger brother, John Valley Road School about a song about 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.080 a young girl who gets knocked up, as they used 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.399 to say, put in the family way, and they sent 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.480 her away to the school for unwed Mothers a while. 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:36.840 A strange way to have a hit, the top five 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.800 song that one. So he yeah, so he wrote that 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.840 with me. He wrote songs for several years, but now 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.960 he's out of it. But yeah, they're was I was. 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.399 I'm the middle guy, the little student. I was a 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:50.480 jock as a kid, though I was into music a 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.000 little bit but I mostly wanted to hoop. 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.080 Yeah, I was gonna say, your your relationship with basketball. 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:01.080 I'm a Philadelphian, so yeah, it has been no it. 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:07.359 How your involvement uh in the life of Allen Iverson, Uh, 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:11.359 some could say literally saved his life at the time. 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.280 It's too curious, like what was it about him? Because 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.159 the thing is that I'm not one, I'm not a 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.399 sports guy, but I'm still trying to understand the mentality 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.679 of college sports fans and how they see that just 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.239 as important as professional sports. And but what was it 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.199 at the time that made you want to get involved 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:32.920 in his situation? 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.560 Well, I think addressing first the college versus pro thing. 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:38.240 You've got a whole lot of people, for instance, in 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.879 the southern part of the United States, where say, in basketball, 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.280 they're only maybe they're only outside of Florida, there's only 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.320 the Atlanta Hawks and the New Orleans Pelicans. So for 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.480 most of this vast area, college sports is king. That's 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.360 one reason why the SEC, I think, is so huge, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.159 because they only came into and the a SEC too, 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.919 so those are the only games in town. And that 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.639 Having said that, what what did you just ask me? 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:07.760 Other than that. 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.399 Well, what made you personally get involved with Alan iverson situation? Oh? 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.440 Okay, okay, So well, Chuck as we call him, Bubba Chuck, 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:21.360 that was Chuck was his name, uh locally, at least 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:23.560 in the hood of Hampton. When they when he got 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.240 sent to jail, graffiti all over Hampton said free Chuck. 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.119 I just got chills thinking of going down and seeing 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.639 all this because he was a beloved figure. Even as 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:35.159 a kid. People just knew he was special. There's an 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.040 aau program in our area, legendary program called the Blue 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.879 Williams League Boo wiam the Summer League, and Chuck was 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.280 a star in that. And then he played at Bethel 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.440 High School and he led his team. He was a 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.399 fantastic football player too. He was just special athlete. He 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:54.160 got he got over two hundred offers h in football 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:55.920 as well, and so so. 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:57.800 He was just as good at football as he was 0:19:57.840 --> 0:19:58.480 in basketball. 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.280 Well, it's arguable who can say he was just fantastic 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.919 at both. So you know what he is saying, greater, greater, 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:05.359 He was just great in both. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:07.080 What was his position in football? 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.960 He was a quarterback, Okay, yeah, and he was so 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.479 fast and he had all that duke, all those all 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:14.560 those changing directions. You know, he'd go this way and 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.520 then go there. You just he was crossing people off 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:22.000 on the football field. So the story goes that I 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.480 went to see him played at Fort Eustace. We have 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.920 a very great military presence, huge military presence in our area. 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.320 In one of the bases is Fort Ustess. They had 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.760 a Christmas tournament. Chuck was playing. Bethel High School was playing. 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.200 So I went to see the game and Anne Iverson, 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.920 his mom, came up to me and, oh, I don't know, 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.120 asked me to sign something, and so I told him, yeah, yeah, 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:47.040 we left. We loved Chuck, et cetera. And uh So, 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.080 then after his junior year where he led his team 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.480 to the state championship in football and then in basketball, 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:59.159 he was in a bowling alley in pocosin Virginia, a 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:03.760 little an area Newport News or Hampton, I guess, And well, 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.119 a brawl broke out and he and a bunch of 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:11.800 others were arrested for brawling in a bowling alley and 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:16.240 also maving by mob. So he was He and three 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.160 or four of his friends were convicted and sent to jail. 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:22.520 And I thought it was a travesty, miscarriage of justice. 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.520 So we're I'm proud to say that we and Virginia 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.400 elected the first black governor in America, Doug Wilder. And 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:30.679 he was and he was the governor then, and I 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:34.440 had done some work for him, some events for him. 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.720 So I started lobbying him through his chief of staff 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.000 as a friend of mine. And I don't know, I 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.840 was just one of many probably to do this, but 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:49.720 but but Wilder. Around Christmas time of say ninety two, Wilder, 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:54.040 Doug Wilder pardoned Allen. Now he should have pardoned everybody, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.600 And about two weeks later, the hubub was so intense 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.320 that finally he did let everybody go. So was not 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:04.280 to show favoritism to the local favorite son, Killer Hooper, 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:08.040 you know, killer Jock. So about two months later I 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:09.640 get a call out of the blue from his high 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.600 school coach, a guy named Mike Bailey, and he says, hey, Bruce, 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.440 Alan knows about what you did for oh you. Also, 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:21.399 I had just become friends with our mutual guy, Spike Lee, 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:24.880 and so Spike and I. The first thing I did 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:27.960