Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Are we
Speaker 1: rolling one time for Doyling? Make sure all the pizza
Speaker 1: is eating? Here we go, Let's do it cream Sure.
Speaker 2: Supremo Supprima su Supremo, Supremo, Sir, Supremo, Supremo, sup Supremo.
Speaker 3: Hold hold up, hold up, hold up, Yeah, y'all should
Speaker 3: see my face. Yeah, interfears Woman and change.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's you on base.
Speaker 4: Supreme Su su sup My name is Sponte yeah, and
Speaker 4: I ain't got no veno, but I'm chilling you today.
Speaker 1: Yeah. My main man pinos Suprema. My name is Sugar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my core beliefs yeah, Peace love and chicken grease.
Speaker 5: So Supremo, roll called Suprema son Son Supremo.
Speaker 6: Roll called I'm unpaid Bill. Yeah that's what we know. Yeah,
Speaker 6: you take your Jamerson, Yeah, I take my Pino.
Speaker 1: Suprema. It's why you know where finally got.
Speaker 7: What rhymes with that? You know why you're doing this
Speaker 7: to me?
Speaker 2: Goddamn, he ain't.
Speaker 1: No Suprema Supremo.
Speaker 8: Yeah, my name is Pino. Yeah, I couldn't rhyme same
Speaker 8: my life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's wait roll Supprima shut Supreme. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: Wait a minute. Again, I gotta go twice. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: you on bass. Yeah, and another day in Paradise.
Speaker 5: Supremo roll supprima s supprimo roll call, subprimo, subprimo roll.
Speaker 9: This is gonna be that Chris Farley episode. Remember that
Speaker 9: time he played bass on this ship.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, y'all, this is Questlow Supreme. That's Fante, that's Steve,
Speaker 3: that's I'm big billed. That's why I'm trying to slow
Speaker 3: the theme down for you. See, you have more time
Speaker 3: to think and change your run. Right, No, no, no,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean now you know, just ride the rhythm.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're right.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to help because I was told I don't
Speaker 3: support you enough on the show, and I want and
Speaker 3: that's how you're gonna do it. Yeah, I was slowing
Speaker 3: the music down so you have more time to think
Speaker 3: about your mind. But and I did it, and you
Speaker 3: you tipped the ball in, you won the champion.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, now you finished now, Yeah it's like
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, halopeno, good.
Speaker 10: Cappuccino.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, if you do a gospel record, you
Speaker 1: could call it a hollow nobody like that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, totally you call your host.
Speaker 3: This is probably gonna be the shortest introduction ever, Ladies
Speaker 3: and gentlemen. If I only had one person to choose
Speaker 3: to play bass with for the rest of my I
Speaker 3: would choose our guest, Pino Palladino. Because the real truth
Speaker 3: is something told me to just go to Spotify real
Speaker 3: quick and see, like, you know, because they'll always make
Speaker 3: like a playlist or whatever and things you played on
Speaker 3: or whatever. And I thought, normally, like my thing ends
Speaker 3: at like at least like seventy four songs. Maybe, Yo, dude,
Speaker 3: you've played on like five hundred and ten songs, and yo, like,
Speaker 3: I thought you were just my secret, super kept secret, Yo,
Speaker 3: dog Like, I didn't realize you're playing base on all
Speaker 3: good for Daylight Soul.
Speaker 1: Now do kind of remember that?
Speaker 3: I believe the day that I was supposed to fix
Speaker 3: whatever song I forget the name of the song I'm
Speaker 3: supposed to fix for them on that album, but you
Speaker 3: came in before to play.
Speaker 8: Well, you know what happened. We were in Electric Lady,
Speaker 8: me and you and right. It was the day we finished.
Speaker 8: You got a call, right, and you're like, yeah, he's here,
Speaker 8: and You're like, what are you doing? Like, now, can
Speaker 8: you go over to De La Soul Studio and play
Speaker 8: on this song? So right, that's how that came about.
Speaker 8: So thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was I forgot about that.
Speaker 3: But I'm literally going through this thing and even with
Speaker 3: stuff that I should know, Like, I didn't realize that
Speaker 3: was you. On times of wasting, I had on times
Speaker 3: of wasting a little bit because I feel like that's
Speaker 3: other side of the game, diet, the other side of
Speaker 3: the game without me Erica James. You know, I'm not salty,
Speaker 3: but people love that song. All right, we got a
Speaker 3: limited time with you, Brot's just let's just go. First
Speaker 3: of all, Okay, where are you from?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 8: So I was born in Cardiff and Wales, Okay, to
Speaker 8: an Italian father Welsh mother. Spent most of my youth
Speaker 8: in Cardiff, moved to London nineteen eighty one and lived
Speaker 8: there until twenty sixteen when I moved to la That's
Speaker 8: a real.
Speaker 1: Brief really, all right. So then day two just became
Speaker 1: Funky's motherfucker right there.
Speaker 8: So yeah, in Cardiff where I grew up, you know,
Speaker 8: I hit a lot of different music. Down the docks
Speaker 8: area of Cardiff, there were a lot of a lot
Speaker 8: of soul music, a lot of African music, stuff like that, reggae.
Speaker 8: So I grew up listening to a lot of that music,
Speaker 8: and when I moved to London in the early eighties,
Speaker 8: I didn't really get to play that music. I was
Speaker 8: playing fretless space and it became a thing, and I
Speaker 8: played on a whole bunch of pop records and different
Speaker 8: artists were calling me for that sound. So move on
Speaker 8: to like nineteen ninety seven, when I met Dee and you.
Speaker 8: That was the first time where I really got to
Speaker 8: express that side of you know, that that roots bass
Speaker 8: playing thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, I know that here at iHeart, we're all out
Speaker 1: like ten seconds of music. So just to let the
Speaker 1: world know.
Speaker 3: The song that really set it up that I soon
Speaker 3: set it off for you and your reputation for bass
Speaker 3: playing was, of course, uh Lady Ray by Christoper.
Speaker 8: Well there's one before that, never mind Okay, yeah, sorry, bro,
Speaker 8: I have to say Paul Young Wherever Lay in My Hat,
Speaker 8: which is a Marvin Gaye cover. It's a B side
Speaker 8: of a mind gay So I know we rearranged and
Speaker 8: it had like a fretless intro and it was mainly
Speaker 8: like fretless bass.
Speaker 1: And voice penal wife fretless.
Speaker 8: That's a good question, thank you. Well, yeah, Jacko, Jacko
Speaker 8: past stories obviously. But but even before Jacko, when I
Speaker 8: was a kid, I went to a concert and saw
Speaker 8: John Martin, who's a great folk guitarist songwriter back in
Speaker 8: back in the UK, and Danny Thompson was playing upright
Speaker 8: bass with him, and that sound really did something for
Speaker 8: me when I was when I was a kid, and
Speaker 8: that was like the slidy stuff to harmonics, you know,
Speaker 8: that sort of fretless approach that Jacko also had.
Speaker 1: So is this you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, every time you go away?
Speaker 9: Yeah, right all day.
Speaker 11: I can see why you were so happy to play Olodo.
Speaker 9: It's still a classic.
Speaker 1: No, I can't find Paul Young and I'm going to
Speaker 1: tear your down and all that stuff. In high school,
Speaker 1: like were you in a high school band? Like what
Speaker 1: was your teen years?
Speaker 11: Like?
Speaker 1: Playbass?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I didn't really play guitar until I was like fourteen,
Speaker 8: I guess. And I came to it from before bass.
Speaker 8: I played like Spanish guitar, and I came to it
Speaker 8: because I went to a Catholic school and we had
Speaker 8: a priest there that would give like lessons. So that
Speaker 8: you could play like cowboy chords type of stuff, you know,
Speaker 8: in folk masses. So I kind of started playing in
Speaker 8: church church.
Speaker 1: Everybody. I was waiting for that.
Speaker 9: Black church, all church.
Speaker 1: All right, I get it now.
Speaker 8: But we didn't have much of a music of course,
Speaker 8: a music type of thing in the schools I was
Speaker 8: in in that in those times. So it's really more
Speaker 8: about sports for me. When I was a teen, I
Speaker 8: wasn't really that interested in music till I reached like sixteen.
Speaker 1: Maybe.
Speaker 3: So did you always know that the less is more
Speaker 3: approach is the way to go. There's a moment where
Speaker 3: I lived for every night, every night whenever we would
Speaker 3: get to left and right, and I'm speaking of our
Speaker 3: our time served on the Voodoo toward D'Angelo, and you
Speaker 3: know that was every night was like a two hour
Speaker 3: and fifteen minute experience.
Speaker 1: Or you know, no, indeed, sometimes sometimes three autum right
Speaker 1: right right.
Speaker 3: But when the song is over and we go back
Speaker 3: to that bridge right before the very end, that's when
Speaker 3: I learned that when you don't play nothing, that's almost
Speaker 3: as effective as.
Speaker 1: If you know the bass player.
Speaker 3: That's like, I gotta get my best flee thing on
Speaker 3: and do the best and impress people, so you would
Speaker 3: actually you would play the groove and then come back.
Speaker 1: In and I don't know, like, I was just like, wait,
Speaker 1: why does that excite me?
Speaker 3: Why is not playing some excite me more? So suddenly
Speaker 3: I was like, what happens if I just take the
Speaker 3: kick dromount for two bars and see what happens? And
Speaker 3: then when it comes back in, it's almost like I
Speaker 3: came back even more branded and I started doing that
Speaker 3: trick and people, you know, like what you know, musicians,
Speaker 3: like the highest honor is the post still a who?
Speaker 1: Like that woo who? Indeed, And that's a trick I
Speaker 1: stole from you, which is like when I don't do
Speaker 1: something and.
Speaker 11: Pay take it away and then bring it back dynamics. Man,
Speaker 11: it's even better. So how did you learn he just
Speaker 11: forgot the notes and just.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, it comes from Okay, if I think
Speaker 8: about that, it probably comes from like playing sessions for
Speaker 8: reggae guys back in the day, because you know, there
Speaker 8: I don't know the names of these guys I was
Speaker 8: playing with. Because I was a young bass player, I
Speaker 8: was listening to a lot of fusion stuff, So I
Speaker 8: want to play a lot of notes, right so you
Speaker 8: did want to hell, yeah, okay, yeah, but then these
Speaker 8: guys would just like tap out the rhythm of the
Speaker 8: baseline on my shoulder in the studio like doo doo,
Speaker 8: doo doo doo.
Speaker 1: Nothing, you know.
Speaker 8: And that told me about space and if you want
Speaker 8: to get into it. I mean, you got controls of
Speaker 8: the notes and the length of the notes, but you
Speaker 8: also have control of the spaces, right, And that's that's
Speaker 8: where the one for me.
Speaker 1: Is louder for the people in the back.
Speaker 3: Man, Yeah, I would love nothing more than for every
Speaker 3: musician to just lay back and do do less.
Speaker 6: But you know, well yeah, but that being said, Pano,
Speaker 6: do you ever want to put together a jazz fusion
Speaker 6: band where you just fucking kick ass?
Speaker 8: Oh I've done that too, yeah yeah, yeah, even play.
Speaker 3: Even the night that we wanted to go see you
Speaker 3: with Chris, like I've never seen you in that environment.
Speaker 3: I was wondering, like, well, is Pinal going to be
Speaker 3: the piano that I know the piano would be or
Speaker 3: is he going to like flex a little bit?
Speaker 1: And you like, if you can hang with.
Speaker 3: Chris David, then you can hang with anyone anything, any
Speaker 3: you know, So how old were you when you officially
Speaker 3: changed over to.
Speaker 1: Playing bass to bass seventeen. How weird of adjustment is that?
Speaker 1: Is it transferable?
Speaker 8: Yeah? For sure? Yeah. I mean I was playing guitar
Speaker 8: in a local rock band and we had a bass player,
Speaker 8: and you know, I kept on picking up the bay
Speaker 8: and like working out the lines for him to play.
Speaker 8: Not a good ear from very early on. And the
Speaker 8: more I play bass and more it's like I want
Speaker 8: to do this, this is more fun.
Speaker 3: So like for me, the drums aren't the focus point.
Speaker 3: You're just the traffic cop as the drum. And like
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to be married to the bass player, and
Speaker 3: you taught me that it's a marriage right and not
Speaker 3: for nothing.
Speaker 1: Without being disrespectful to my entire history.
Speaker 3: But sometimes it's like if you don't have a good
Speaker 3: marriage air quotes yes with the rhythm section, which is
Speaker 3: the drum and bass, then you know your music might
Speaker 3: be in trouble.
Speaker 1: And I've been in a few situations which you don't vibe.
Speaker 8: Rhythmically right with you not on the same vocabulary right.
Speaker 3: So for you when you're in an ensemble, and now
Speaker 3: like since you're such a god at your craft, I
Speaker 3: would at least like to think that musicians respect where
Speaker 3: you come from and kind of want to fall in line.
Speaker 3: But is it hard to find musicians to come down
Speaker 3: to your level and you know, to the end. I
Speaker 3: don't mean the abyss as in like the bottom is
Speaker 3: a bad place, but like that zone where you are
Speaker 3: where you do just very little and you do just
Speaker 3: the right things, and for them not to overplay or
Speaker 3: over do.
Speaker 8: It's a good question to me, and I think it
Speaker 8: can be really frustrating sometimes when you know how something
Speaker 8: could sound if if they were just like monor adjustments.
Speaker 8: But in my experience, it never really helps to try
Speaker 8: and tell somebody that they have to come to it.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, are you allowed to tell the person?
Speaker 8: Yeah? It usually doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Doesn't work out now, it doesn't work out now.
Speaker 3: As a drummer, I've learned ways where I can force
Speaker 3: people to see things my way.
Speaker 1: I've learned like a loud flam and suddenly everyone's.
Speaker 10: Like, right, they stop playing, or if you docket their
Speaker 10: pay they'll notice that all work every time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean there's you know, and I'll slow
Speaker 1: it down or whatever I mean.
Speaker 3: But now just communication mic, so it's you know, I'll
Speaker 3: just say stop playing, you know, But is there a
Speaker 3: way that you talk to other instruments to hm reel
Speaker 3: them back or if you hear wrong note the keyboard's playing,
Speaker 3: you sort of not.
Speaker 8: Really in terms of how many. In terms of rhythm,
Speaker 8: that's that's my thing, you know, rhythm. I'm hot on
Speaker 8: that ship. That's why we hit it off so much.
Speaker 8: But you know what you said about maybe the drums
Speaker 8: aren't the driving force behind the band. I think in
Speaker 8: beat driven music for me, like if I'm gonna produce
Speaker 8: something or put a band together, the first thing I
Speaker 8: think about is the drums. You know, get that right
Speaker 8: and then everything's gonna fit in. So I think rhythmically, yes,
Speaker 8: sometimes if I feel like somebody's hanging back on the
Speaker 8: drums are slowing down, I'll push a little bit. But
Speaker 8: I don't have any kind of communication things like you said,
Speaker 8: a loud flam that would stop everyone playing or stuff
Speaker 8: like that.
Speaker 6: But you both are notorious like these from what I
Speaker 6: hear in playing on the back side of the beat
Speaker 6: all the time, and that's sort of the angelo where
Speaker 6: it lives. So like when you go to a different
Speaker 6: band where it's more like whether it's on a click
Speaker 6: or it's something like.
Speaker 1: That, or what was it like? Yeah, the Who?
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah like that that ship would not work with
Speaker 8: the Who.
Speaker 1: So you got to give what's called for.
Speaker 8: Yeah, totally, And you know that's what That's what I
Speaker 8: love too about playing so many different genres of music.
Speaker 8: It's it's like it's all about the relationship with the
Speaker 8: bass and the drums, right Like in soul music, black music, generally,
Speaker 8: the bass is important with the drums. You know that
Speaker 8: that those are the two things that really put the
Speaker 8: thing in a place. In rock music, it's more like
Speaker 8: guitars and drums and the bass is you know, it's supportive.
Speaker 8: It might be playing some some some licks and stuff,
Speaker 8: but mainly the interactions between rock guitar and drums.
Speaker 3: All right, So for every bass player that's listening, that
Speaker 3: will kill me if I don't ask the right questions.
Speaker 1: What was your first base that you purchased or the
Speaker 1: first acts that you endor Precision? Wait, you've always used
Speaker 1: a Fender Precision, Yeah.
Speaker 8: From that was the first act I had, Yeah, back
Speaker 8: in the nineteen seventy five, I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, So what you're known for, how do you
Speaker 1: how do you get your tone, Like what bass are
Speaker 1: you using?
Speaker 8: Mostly a Precision base, no more moon, Yeah, the moon
Speaker 8: comes in sometimes that's more like a jazz style based,
Speaker 8: like a Fender jazz style base.
Speaker 1: Here's a weird thing.
Speaker 3: Okay, So just recently played with Larry Graham like two
Speaker 3: months ago. Wow, and he had not only did he
Speaker 3: have the moon at a mic Oh, he didn't have
Speaker 3: a mic thing on him that we were in a
Speaker 3: studio setting, but I saw blood marks on it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, like so he really like gets into right.
Speaker 3: But his it was weird to me because I saw
Speaker 3: the moon base and I was like, wow, I wonder
Speaker 3: like if he has the same tone as Pino, because
Speaker 3: you know, he was just an cornerly practice and whatever
Speaker 3: and it didn't sound that way. So how do you
Speaker 3: what the sound that we know you for? Like which
Speaker 3: strings are you using?
Speaker 8: What?
Speaker 10: What are all your secrets.
Speaker 1: Even if you were to give it?
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's public knowledge is out there.
Speaker 8: I've done interviews before kidding hearing stuff like that. But yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean my Desert Island base would be a fan
Speaker 8: of Precision Base. It's just got one sound and a
Speaker 8: tone control, right, just one pickup on a tone. You
Speaker 8: don't have a selection of different sounds from pickups. It's
Speaker 8: pretty much one sound. And I like the sound of
Speaker 8: flat line strings on it. They feel better just physically,
Speaker 8: they feel better, and the longer you leave them on,
Speaker 8: the more warmth the sound is warm.
Speaker 1: So the older Yeah, I played your base before and
Speaker 1: those strings are really really thin, Like you can't things
Speaker 1: that I expect. Yeah, like I'm thinking Seinfeld basic.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, Yeah, you need luck wild wine strings, round wine
Speaker 8: strings for that sound really like Larry Larry sounds, you know.
Speaker 1: So how often do you break a string?
Speaker 8: Never?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you barely touched the string.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't hit the strings out at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the fender you have, right, I don't know
Speaker 1: how many fenders you have on you?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Look okay, So.
Speaker 3: Well let me ask as your life since Voodoo, has
Speaker 3: your life changed as far as the volume of bases
Speaker 3: that you have.
Speaker 8: Or since probably the who yeah yeah? With the who
Speaker 8: yeah gave me the opportunity to buy stuff in.
Speaker 3: The Voodoo days between two thousand and two thousand and three,
Speaker 3: how many bases are.
Speaker 1: You carrying around with you?
Speaker 8: Like? Two? Pretty much?
Speaker 1: That's what I remember, Okay, Yeah, So the strings you
Speaker 1: had on your Voodoo basse, do you still have your
Speaker 1: Voodoo basse?
Speaker 8: Yeah, with the same strings.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, I put those on A ninety three.
Speaker 3: Nineteen ninety three. Yeah, and it's always just stayed in
Speaker 3: working order.
Speaker 8: And yeah, they sound like I said, they sound warm.
Speaker 8: With the longest they kind of settle into the instrument
Speaker 8: just to string itself.
Speaker 1: Remember what happened to your moon base? Yeah, what happened
Speaker 1: that Voodoo base. We're not podcast, we don't get contact.
Speaker 1: We just assumed.
Speaker 9: Please continue.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I was what happened to your black moon base?
Speaker 8: It was actually the So this is weird, but the
Speaker 8: moon bases I had two stolen. So the white one
Speaker 8: was stolen. The first one I played on Voodoo album
Speaker 8: was a white base that was stolen somehow. When I
Speaker 8: checked it in in San Francisco Airport and the United flight,
Speaker 8: it just didn't come out in l A. And that
Speaker 8: was a less sort of it.
Speaker 1: Doing the Voodoo tour.
Speaker 8: Just before the Voodoo.
Speaker 10: Tour, damn, just before I didn't want to hear the story.
Speaker 1: I'm having ptsdright.
Speaker 8: But but then I had a you know, I had
Speaker 8: a well, then I contacted the company and they made
Speaker 8: me a new Moon base.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, right, Pano, we won't give you one.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but they said, you know there's a limited run
Speaker 8: of the Larry Graham so we we you know, we
Speaker 8: can't do you the white one like like Larry Bass.
Speaker 8: And I said, okay, we'll make me a black one there.
Speaker 8: So that's that's how I got the black Moon Base.
Speaker 8: Then that got stolen from a hoo gig in like
Speaker 8: two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: You who keeps stealing piano's basses.
Speaker 8: But there's a good end to this story.
Speaker 1: It came back to me, Oh thank you.
Speaker 8: That was somebody bought it from a porn store or
Speaker 8: something and they they were they were a fan and
Speaker 8: they've been watching some videos of us playing Voodoo and
Speaker 8: they saw the bass had a couple of knicks out
Speaker 8: of the neck and he's like, I think this is
Speaker 8: Pino's base. And they reached out to me and I
Speaker 8: got it back. Incredible, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: My thing is is that the Voodoo fender that should
Speaker 3: never leave your house ever again?
Speaker 8: Like yeah, well it's safe, it's safe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like seriously for me, I just got my things
Speaker 3: fall apart, drum set back.
Speaker 1: Well, no, the studio tried to auctionit it. So are
Speaker 1: y'all really.
Speaker 7: Saying that an instrument you use an instrument for every
Speaker 7: project and then we just move on.
Speaker 1: Is that what we're saying? You know what?
Speaker 3: I'm different like that, So start with fallon every one
Speaker 3: hundred episodes, I make love Wig make me a brand
Speaker 3: new drum set. It's problematic now for storage because I
Speaker 3: have about sixty three drum sets, like and I'm running
Speaker 3: out of space, so I got to stop that. But
Speaker 3: but for the most part, I've I've documented every drum
Speaker 3: set I've played on for records, you know.
Speaker 7: Every record a different set.
Speaker 8: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Sort of kind of, I mean, but not by design,
Speaker 3: like oh for this particular one, I'm to use this
Speaker 3: one for this, you know, but I I Yeah, for
Speaker 3: roots albums, I will like, hey, let me especially with Phrenology,
Speaker 3: which was like, okay, let's make the anti things fall
Speaker 3: apart record, Oh, let me try a different drum set.
Speaker 1: So that's where that comes into play.
Speaker 10: So since you're divulging some of your technique, so where's
Speaker 10: the secret sauce? And I'm thinking gain structure and the like,
Speaker 10: because you know me or how you're always talking about
Speaker 10: how the lighter you hit.
Speaker 3: A drum, Yes, the more effective. I just discovered the
Speaker 3: lighter you hit that's where the pop comes on.
Speaker 8: The bass, right, because if you hit well, if you
Speaker 8: hit any instrument too hot, it's going to choke it, right,
Speaker 8: if you the string too hot, it's going to bounce
Speaker 8: against the threat and choke the the envelope with the note,
Speaker 8: you know. So I mean a light touch it gives
Speaker 8: you more bottom man for sure.
Speaker 10: Which is kind of counterintuitive, almost like you would you know,
Speaker 10: but that just takes out the bottom nd and the
Speaker 10: harmonics or how how.
Speaker 1: Do you like? Is that part of that? Not really?
Speaker 8: I mean, you know, I love the sound that James
Speaker 8: Jamison made on the bass, and that was the idea
Speaker 8: back in ninety three. When I got that base, I
Speaker 8: immediately put those old heavy cation Labella strings on it
Speaker 8: and just left them on ever since. You know. But
Speaker 8: they don't have any top on them, so if you
Speaker 8: play like Jacko style harmonics, you won't get them out
Speaker 8: of those flat strings at all. So it's more about
Speaker 8: the fundamental sound. And you know, I don't really have
Speaker 8: the tone on very much either. The tone is kind
Speaker 8: of on half or sometimes less than half, so it's
Speaker 8: a real thump.
Speaker 1: Well what about the volume coming?
Speaker 10: Like, yeah, how do you do your game structure until
Speaker 10: you get to your amp or whatever?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I mean I just I just literally have the volume
Speaker 8: on fall and then it's up to whoever's getting the sound.
Speaker 1: What kind of amp? Yeah?
Speaker 8: Well B fifteens are great, right, the MPG B fifteens
Speaker 8: for studio or live or yeah, studio, yeah, but live.
Speaker 8: I mean I used one on a tour recently, live
Speaker 8: because everyone's on your ears now, so you don't need
Speaker 8: that big sound behind you because you can hear it clearly,
Speaker 8: you know.
Speaker 3: Okay, So if I'm learning bass again, I'm using the
Speaker 3: opposite of you, bass player, I still respect, but kind
Speaker 3: of the opposite Flee.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: What type of strings am I? Are? Those like heavy
Speaker 1: duty strings that can take the pounding.
Speaker 8: And not necessarily but he probably uses like a medium
Speaker 8: gauge round wild string, I would guess, because then you
Speaker 8: get the pop out of it, and the round wild
Speaker 8: strings allow you to get that bounce when you hit
Speaker 8: it with your thumb.
Speaker 3: Now, do you have the ability to go full throttle
Speaker 3: pop if you? If challenge I mess with a little bit.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but no, that's that's not my bullpark.
Speaker 1: Really okay, okay, but if.
Speaker 3: I guess your particular uh, your particular choice of strings,
Speaker 3: if you haven't changed them since nineteen ninety three, and like,
Speaker 3: what if you run into a situation like now Ampex
Speaker 3: tapes are hard to find right now. I was recording
Speaker 3: at a time where the Impact tapes were everywhere. But
Speaker 3: had I known then stock up on Ampex tapes, I
Speaker 3: would have stocked. But now here we are in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three and you can hardly find them. What if
Speaker 3: you're in a situation in which strings that you haven't
Speaker 3: changed since thirty years ago, go like, is there a
Speaker 3: likelihood of this?
Speaker 8: Well, you know, one of them broke on a two
Speaker 8: with D actually on twenty fifteen to two D. The
Speaker 8: E string on that on that thing broke and I
Speaker 8: put a new version of it on and it sounded
Speaker 8: like it wasn't very good at.
Speaker 1: All, So they changed the recipes throughout the.
Speaker 8: Well, no, but those strings just sound different when they
Speaker 8: get older. So if you got three strings like thirty
Speaker 8: years old and one new one.
Speaker 11: Just the it's the same for microphones, really, oh yeah,
Speaker 11: like I bought a annoyman U eighty seven and like
Speaker 11: fresh out the box, it sounded very harsh and Brita
Speaker 11: and my dealer was telling me, he was like, yeah,
Speaker 11: the older, the older mice over time, like you were saying,
Speaker 11: they warm up like just that age.
Speaker 10: You know, spits all over them.
Speaker 1: That's the flavor. Yeah, you know for real. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: So besides James Jamerson, is there other unsung heroes that
Speaker 3: you know you don't think get enough credit?
Speaker 1: Bass playing once yeah?
Speaker 8: Oh man, absolutely, I mean we know about Stanley Clark,
Speaker 8: Jacob Pastoriscus a huge influence. Larry Graham too now getting
Speaker 8: the prophecy deserves, you know. But yeah, for me, like
Speaker 8: Michael Henderson is up there absolutely, man, Michael Henderson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I gotta tell our listeners. I believe, yes, this
Speaker 3: is definitely Michael interested If you buy the Stevie Wonder
Speaker 3: Talk of the Town, Yeah in London, that's his I
Speaker 3: believe that's his word corn on that version of I
Speaker 3: always made the Lover where he's just it's ungodly like
Speaker 3: that to me.
Speaker 8: His solo album is like going Places. Yes, the base
Speaker 8: playing on that, Oh my good.
Speaker 1: I know why we're laughing.
Speaker 8: I know why we're laughing, but we're not messing around
Speaker 8: with that.
Speaker 3: It's good to hear someone speak of places where I praised,
Speaker 3: because we have.
Speaker 1: A different places. That's a jam though.
Speaker 3: All right, So what was your first gig as a professional,
Speaker 3: like your first session gig?
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, yeah. It was at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth
Speaker 8: in Wales. Quite a famous studio. A lot of a
Speaker 8: lot of great records were done there over the years,
Speaker 8: but that was my first session. My friend was playing
Speaker 8: keys in the show band. When I say show band,
Speaker 8: they would do everything from Glenn Miller to like the
Speaker 8: bony Am to whatever pop was in the charts, you know,
Speaker 8: like So they were in the studio for some reason,
Speaker 8: I don't know why, and I just went down to
Speaker 8: hang and the bass player in the band, you know,
Speaker 8: they wanted like some slap and pop bass and the
Speaker 8: bass player they had wasn't familiar with that style, and
Speaker 8: I happened to be there. So my friend told the
Speaker 8: musical director and he's like, would you would you try
Speaker 8: playing this baseline? So that was the first time I
Speaker 8: put a pair of headphones on in the studio and
Speaker 8: played with the band, and I just loved it, man,
Speaker 8: I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: How old were you.
Speaker 8: Nineteen?
Speaker 1: Maybe? Okay, we we know of you, Okay, I guess
Speaker 1: Paul Young was well. Was Dules Holland first?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 8: Jules Holland got me to move down to London, so
Speaker 8: he offered me.
Speaker 1: Well, let me explain. Was Jules was Jules hollend and
Speaker 1: Squeeze right? He was originally and Squeeze first career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had just show host before he.
Speaker 10: Had a solo thing with the Millionaires. Yeah, a millionaires
Speaker 10: so and then the talk show came much later, I think.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what was that experience like playing How long
Speaker 1: did you play with them? Oh?
Speaker 8: I would play with Jewels for probably like a year,
Speaker 8: eighteen months or something like that.
Speaker 10: There's a great album cover.
Speaker 8: Yeah that was fun man, I love those days. It
Speaker 8: was fun days. And so playing with Jewels, I was
Speaker 8: just playing my friend of base and I went down
Speaker 8: to audition in London because sax player in Jules's band.
Speaker 8: I knew him in Cardiff and he said, Jewels is
Speaker 8: looking for bass player. So I went down to London
Speaker 8: and audition, just sat in his room and played with him.
Speaker 8: Followed the left hand piano thing, you know, the boogie
Speaker 8: woogie piano thing. And we hit it off and he said,
Speaker 8: you know, why don't you just join the band. I'll
Speaker 8: pay you fifty pounds a week and sleep on my couch.
Speaker 8: So that's how I moved to London years nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 1: Okay, so was that a good living? Oh?
Speaker 8: Financially yeah, hell no, it was okay, it was okay.
Speaker 8: I survived on it.
Speaker 1: I always asked this question.
Speaker 3: I'd never get like a satisfactory answer, which, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to time travel and also deal with
Speaker 3: the inflation part of it all.
Speaker 1: Like I want to know in eighty one, in your mind,
Speaker 1: what is a good living?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 1: What would been ideal for you? Is it five hundred
Speaker 1: pounds a week?
Speaker 8: Not even like, you know, two hundred that I would
Speaker 8: have been happy with two hundred a week back, I
Speaker 8: would have thought I was doing really well.
Speaker 3: So what does fifty pounds a week get you in
Speaker 3: London in terms like are you just crashing a room
Speaker 3: and a calcul Yeah?
Speaker 8: Back, and it was eating yeah pretty much. Well, Jules's
Speaker 8: mom used to cook for us, bless her. That was nice,
Speaker 8: but yeah, not a very healthy diet, you know, pack
Speaker 8: of the cigarettes, some weed, you know, usual thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as far as touring is concerned, like you also
Speaker 1: had the tour of this unit.
Speaker 8: Correct, yeah, we too. Oh this year did you say sorry, no,
Speaker 8: no no?
Speaker 1: With Jewels?
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, we did some touring. That's my first tour
Speaker 8: of America actually in New York.
Speaker 1: Really. Yeah.
Speaker 8: We did a tour of the East coast, just traveling
Speaker 8: up and down in Miles Copeland's van. Miles Copeland was
Speaker 8: the manager back in Starts, right, yeah, manager of the police, okay.
Speaker 1: Was he also the manager of Jewels? Okay, So we
Speaker 1: did a little touring with that.
Speaker 8: We released one record that didn't do too well.
Speaker 1: Nice album coming but what yeah exactly.
Speaker 8: But whilst I was in New York, I went into
Speaker 8: sam Ash Music on forty eighth Street, where all the
Speaker 8: great music stores were back in the day, right, And
Speaker 8: I walked in there and I saw this music man
Speaker 8: fretless base on the wall. I was like, oh, I
Speaker 8: like to try that. So I asked the guy if
Speaker 8: I could try it. And I played it and I
Speaker 8: could I could play it in tune, you know, it
Speaker 8: just it really suited me, that base. So I bought
Speaker 8: that base there and then and that was the base,
Speaker 8: the base that led to all the the fretless sessions
Speaker 8: that I got to do after that.
Speaker 1: So such an unusual sound than what you were previously
Speaker 1: playing on.
Speaker 3: Was there any convincing Paul Young or Chris I always say,
Speaker 3: Chris de Barge, Christ.
Speaker 8: Chris de Burg?
Speaker 3: All right, Chris de Burgh, Like was there any or
Speaker 3: not even them like their producers or.
Speaker 8: You know how that all came about him? Whilst I
Speaker 8: was with Jeweles, I got a call from a friend
Speaker 8: of mine, Chris Slade, who was a drummer at the
Speaker 8: time with Gary Numo. He went on to play with
Speaker 8: ac DC and a whole bunch of stuff and played
Speaker 8: with Tom Jones back in the early days. So this
Speaker 8: guy done incredible.
Speaker 3: Wait, you're trying to tell me the same guy that
Speaker 3: played cards with Gary Numan it was also the guy
Speaker 3: that could have been played on It's not unusual.
Speaker 8: Not because but the album after that, there's an album
Speaker 8: I was involved in called I Assassin by Gary.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know what, Here's here's the weird thing.
Speaker 3: If you ask Wendy and Lisa about you know, the
Speaker 3: influential records, like it's so weird they mentioned every album
Speaker 3: but that, like they'll mention I Assassin and the one
Speaker 3: that came out, like if you listen into that, if
Speaker 3: you listened to eighty two record, the album that came
Speaker 3: after Prince basically like it's kind of his newest store.
Speaker 8: He listened to that. Yeah, oh that freaks me out.
Speaker 8: It's amazing. Wow. So so yeah, this guy Chris Slade,
Speaker 8: he he phoned me up whilst I was with Jules
Speaker 8: on and he said, look, I'm working with Gary Newman.
Speaker 8: He's looking for a fretless bass player. Do you have
Speaker 8: a fretless And I said, well, as it happens, I
Speaker 8: just bought just a few months ago.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 8: He said, well, bring the fretless and and you know,
Speaker 8: let's see how it goes.
Speaker 1: So I went to the.
Speaker 8: Studio met Gary. He had a bunch of tunes like
Speaker 8: just drum beats and really minimal kind of keyboard things,
Speaker 8: and he just wanted me to do some fretless shit
Speaker 8: all over the record. So that album became my calling
Speaker 8: card in a way because I got to make up
Speaker 8: on my own baselines. People heard that and then yeah,
Speaker 8: you know, I got on Top of the Pops with Gary,
Speaker 8: which is a big thing at the time, and you know,
Speaker 8: the sound was pretty fresh because it didn't sound like
Speaker 8: Jacko's sound, but he was fretless, probably a cross between
Speaker 8: like Jacko and Mick Kahn, you know Mick Kahn from Japan,
Speaker 8: the band Japan.
Speaker 1: I'm not familiar with the word.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So he played fretless bass and he had a
Speaker 8: unique style. So I would put myself somewhere in the
Speaker 8: middle of that, like with jazz references, but also like
Speaker 8: auti style of bass playing.
Speaker 6: Right, you know, how do you approach the construction of
Speaker 6: fretless bass lines versus fretted Is it a different approach?
Speaker 1: Do you think about it differently? Yeah?
Speaker 8: Totally in what sense? Well, the way I would approach
Speaker 8: it on the fretless bace is more from a melodic sense,
Speaker 8: you know, just trying to find melodies because it's a
Speaker 8: very expressive instrument.
Speaker 7: Right, I'm going to try to spell this word and
Speaker 7: I'm going to figure out what.
Speaker 2: This means.
Speaker 3: All right here, Right, So you you've seen a bass
Speaker 3: player before, right, in terms of like the part that
Speaker 3: they play with their left hand. Okay, a fretless bass,
Speaker 3: I would say, is the sound of like, you know,
Speaker 3: the difference between electric what Adam Blackstone plays and in
Speaker 3: upright Christian McBride plays, like the jazzier sound. A fretless
Speaker 3: can give you the sound of an upright jazz in
Speaker 3: my incorrect or.
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, I mean, you don't have any threats, so
Speaker 8: you can just slide the notes. You know, it's a
Speaker 8: different and it's a different envelope to the note. It's
Speaker 8: a different shape.
Speaker 1: It's a lady in red you know. So that's the
Speaker 1: sound of the threadless. You don't know, lady, Yeah, we
Speaker 1: know your work.
Speaker 8: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: But now wait, now you got me curious about.
Speaker 8: Assassin, right, so like we take Mystery to bed. That's
Speaker 8: one of the titles. I remember that.
Speaker 9: Yes, that's a lot of notes. That's like more notes
Speaker 9: than usual.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so let me ask you, do you respect?
Speaker 1: And I've just seen them two weeks ago? Do you respect? Oh? Boy?
Speaker 8: John Taylor?
Speaker 1: John Taylor?
Speaker 3: Sure man, yo, he was killing all right. So I
Speaker 3: saw the Red Rocks. They're on tour with Mount Rodgers
Speaker 3: right now. You guys should really see them like they're
Speaker 3: they're still on top four. I believe it feels like
Speaker 3: some of those songs on the real album are also fretless.
Speaker 8: I don't think so, but you know, well maybe I'm
Speaker 8: not familiar with that album actually, but I think it
Speaker 8: was more sonic thing back in the eighties because he
Speaker 8: didn't he didn't play bass bass right, It wasn't much
Speaker 8: Bottoman based on it, And you would probably play your
Speaker 8: bass track in the control room, you know, when everything
Speaker 8: else had already been put down. So you're going for
Speaker 8: a more kind of you know, a sound that's going
Speaker 8: to pop out of the speakers. You don't really have
Speaker 8: to support, like play play support bass.
Speaker 1: Can you play upright bass?
Speaker 8: No, not at all.
Speaker 1: Have you touched it up right base? I've touched it.
Speaker 8: I love it, but I can't play it. It's a
Speaker 8: different instrument altogether, really, yeah, so just gun to your head, like,
Speaker 8: oh no, I tried to do a gig on it
Speaker 8: and I was My hand was so painful after like
Speaker 8: one get you know, one song. Really, it's such a
Speaker 8: physical thing. It's a different muss. Well, this is what
Speaker 8: I play is like a guitar, right, It's a bass,
Speaker 8: but it's a bass guitar. So that's a whole different thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what steps are in between Newman and Paul
Speaker 1: and Chris.
Speaker 8: Like sir Newman. That led to Paul Young in a way,
Speaker 8: because you know, Paul and his producers got to hear
Speaker 8: those Newman records and imagine that sound on the record
Speaker 8: he was making. And then like Dave Gilmour from Pink
Speaker 8: Floyd I did his solo record. That was a big,
Speaker 8: big one for me, just to get a call from
Speaker 8: him and you know, I want you to come and
Speaker 8: do this album with me in Paris. I was like,
Speaker 8: oh my god, this is it so for you?
Speaker 1: Is Lady in Red sort of like the the world's
Speaker 1: wake up call? Like get that guy.
Speaker 8: It might have been bro. I think more of the
Speaker 8: poor Young stuff because Chris Chris came to me from
Speaker 8: Paul Young. Christal Brook. Yeah, because everyone kind of wanted
Speaker 8: that sound for a minute, that fretless sound, so.
Speaker 10: At some point that you say, I don't want to
Speaker 10: be pigeonholed into this sound, and uh.
Speaker 8: Much later on, I took it happily for a long time.
Speaker 1: We take fifty dollars a week.
Speaker 8: No, it went for for a good while, yeah, but
Speaker 8: it did get it did get a little tossing, yeah,
Speaker 8: after a while, because you know, when people want you
Speaker 8: to do what you did, not what you're going to do.
Speaker 8: It's a different thing, right.
Speaker 3: That was a freaking gym and a halfway. I gotta
Speaker 3: I gotta say that again when people.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, if if somebody calls you to do
Speaker 8: a session and you're there because they want you to
Speaker 8: do what you've already done, that's different to what you're
Speaker 8: going what you could do. You don't get a chance
Speaker 8: to do what you're going to do because they already
Speaker 8: decided the sort of thing they want.
Speaker 11: Because they're booking you off of password, not where you're
Speaker 11: where you may be artistically currently.
Speaker 1: Yes, so your life must be hell after voodoo.
Speaker 8: Well that that caught some trouble. Yeah, but you know
Speaker 8: that was the amazing thing about Well I met I
Speaker 8: met you and D on the same day, right right, yeah,
Speaker 8: on the BB King session. Yes, and I didn't even
Speaker 8: know he was coming, you know, no idea, So you
Speaker 8: walk in with him and Russ Alvado and like, what's
Speaker 8: going on here anyway? Anyway, that I lost my trainers
Speaker 8: thought there.
Speaker 1: But well, if you're causing problems friendlessly.
Speaker 8: So so you know, as you know, me and D
Speaker 8: hit it off from that session. He hear me playing
Speaker 8: he's like, I like that sound. I wanted to come in.
Speaker 8: But the thing is he knew nothing about my past.
Speaker 8: So I already had like a career before that. But
Speaker 8: he wasn't coming to me from you. Yeah, he's just
Speaker 8: like this dude, I like what he's doing and uh,
Speaker 8: and let's get together.
Speaker 11: But for you, was that was that exciting for you
Speaker 11: to kind of have the opportunity to reinvent yourself in
Speaker 11: a different way?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, But did you know who or what the
Speaker 1: Angelo was? Because it's not like we came. I mean,
Speaker 1: by that point, all we had was send it on.
Speaker 1: That's all we had. We had sended on.
Speaker 8: We didn't have see song wise, I had heard.
Speaker 1: Brown Sugar, Okay, so you knew about him through.
Speaker 8: I didn't know. I didn't know the whole album. I
Speaker 8: didn't change.
Speaker 3: So what I knew was this was this was two weeks.
Speaker 3: So I always could I always credit Voodoo's.
Speaker 1: Beginning the last day of Philadelphi half life.
Speaker 3: So D'Angelo rushes to Philadelphia the one time he was
Speaker 3: on time.
Speaker 1: Play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he he like rushed to Philly when he got
Speaker 3: word that you know, a certain head wrapped lady was
Speaker 3: in our side of town, uh working on the record.
Speaker 8: She down there, she down there.
Speaker 3: And I was like yeah, but I almost feel like,
Speaker 3: now that I look at it, it wasn't the excitement
Speaker 3: of like, oh, she's down there, let me come and play.
Speaker 1: It was like, wait, she down there with y'all. She's
Speaker 1: said that Tarik's script. What that moment. I don't give
Speaker 1: away all the thoughts. It's the first and the last time.
Speaker 1: That was like an hour earlier. Like I didn't even
Speaker 1: ask him to come. He's like, I'm here. So that
Speaker 1: to me was like the first day of Voodo.
Speaker 3: We knocked the hypnotic out for our record, and then
Speaker 3: we had like time to kill and we were just
Speaker 3: like all right, let's let's start playing.
Speaker 1: So we we had to test each other to see where.
Speaker 3: Your knowledge was or whatever, and it's like, okay, we're
Speaker 3: gonna get along famously because I had told you that
Speaker 3: I judged him.
Speaker 1: I looked at it. I looked at his timblans and
Speaker 1: they were like worn down, and I judged him.
Speaker 3: And Bob Power is trying to sell me on this guy,
Speaker 3: Like yo, Bob, Bob Power wants me to drum on shit,
Speaker 3: Damn motherfucker. He's like Yo, there's a guy. I think
Speaker 3: you'll love him. Man, He's like the next out Green
Speaker 3: Da Da Day.
Speaker 1: And I was just like, R and B. This sucks,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, R and B, Like you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like I wanted soul and not R and B.
Speaker 1: And I looked at him.
Speaker 3: He just walked in and because the tongue of his
Speaker 3: teams was just it was leaning right, I was like, no, man,
Speaker 3: this guy's corny. So I purposely, like, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: going to hang with my dad for Christmas, I can't
Speaker 3: do it. So I'm not on Brown Sugar for that reason.
Speaker 3: But then also Ron Carter didn't want to play on
Speaker 3: a song called Shit Damn Motherfucker, so they.
Speaker 1: Decided to go to get Wrong. So Ron Carter was
Speaker 1: going to play bass on Shitdamn Motherfucker and I was
Speaker 1: going to drama on it.
Speaker 3: And also Bob Powers trying to get a two for
Speaker 3: the drama song on Bob Duism was one of the
Speaker 3: first songs that Bob Power worked on, So me and
Speaker 3: Ron were supposed to do We did drama, but He's like,
Speaker 3: I refused to play on a song with that title.
Speaker 3: I will never play on a song called that. He
Speaker 3: would never call it shit damn motherfucker. So Bob Powers
Speaker 3: is like, all right, I'll do the demo. So the
Speaker 3: thing was day two, we rented out Battery Studios to
Speaker 3: work on Bitch right, and then.
Speaker 1: De was just like, ViBe's not right, man, like I
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: So for some reason they were like, yo, we're going
Speaker 3: to the house at Hendrix, like we need a new studio.
Speaker 3: So then we go to work at Electric Lady.
Speaker 1: For a week.
Speaker 8: Right, this is what Russ too, right, Yes, we're Russ.
Speaker 3: Famously, they had to have an intervention and talk with
Speaker 3: me because my whole thing was like I know my sound,
Speaker 3: I know my eq's whatever, and Russ was just very quiet.
Speaker 1: So he just like sat in the corner. I thought
Speaker 1: Russ was like D's boy.
Speaker 3: I didn't know Russ was the master. And so after
Speaker 3: like four days like D and these managers.
Speaker 1: Pulled me to side like yo, man, like you know
Speaker 1: you you know, Russ is the engineer. Just let him
Speaker 1: do what you do.
Speaker 3: And at first I was like, what does this guy
Speaker 3: know about like my sound, like because I wanted to craft.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to sound like and.
Speaker 8: Rightfully too right.
Speaker 1: I had no idea Russ was the master, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So we worked for about a week and then I
Speaker 3: came on a Sunday to work again, and he's like, Yo,
Speaker 3: we gotta go to power place, uh, power station station
Speaker 3: studios and work with bb King real quick. And I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: my drummer one thinks, yeah, I'm gonna get you drum
Speaker 3: on it. But you know, Steve's already like Steve George.
Speaker 3: So when Steve Jordan was there, then next thing I knew,
Speaker 3: me and Angie were just babysitting little Mike.
Speaker 1: Right, So all right, I'm babysitting.
Speaker 7: Lord.
Speaker 1: I'm asleep while y'all like working on this song for
Speaker 1: like what two three hours and d comes into me
Speaker 1: wakes me up. It's like, yo, man, Yo, that white
Speaker 1: boy is the ship. I was like, huh, you don't understand.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be part of our army.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 1: He knows what he's doing. Wow.
Speaker 3: Now I was telling him like, yo, man, but you
Speaker 3: know what about we had just gotten what's his name?
Speaker 3: He did the root and Spanish shot y. Yeah, he
Speaker 3: he was all go in my mind, I'm like, no, dude,
Speaker 3: Charlie like, let's stick with him. Listen he says, dope,
Speaker 3: man's level bass player.
Speaker 1: It's just next level.
Speaker 3: And I couldn't imagine because it's not like I knew
Speaker 3: of j Dilla sound like that, So that wasn't even comparison,
Speaker 3: Like now you'd be like, yo, yo, he plays just
Speaker 3: like Dyla things like that wasn't that wasn't even our vernacular,
Speaker 3: and that for the life of me. And I went
Speaker 3: in and looked and I just saw this like six
Speaker 3: foot seven giant and it was just like, yo, there's
Speaker 3: no way you're going to convince me this guy is
Speaker 3: the Lord Jesus Christ whatever.
Speaker 1: And then I played with you, so it's yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it's for real. Like he the way he described you
Speaker 1: was like urgent, like he was gasping for the last
Speaker 1: breath of his life.
Speaker 3: And I was like, for the life of me, did
Speaker 3: I wish I'd known what happened in that session? Like
Speaker 3: what how many takes did y'all do with nobody?
Speaker 1: Not many?
Speaker 8: Maybe two? But you know, there was a media connection
Speaker 8: as soon as we literally second verse of that song
Speaker 8: where d took the lead he was playing I think
Speaker 8: he was playing piano and took the lead, and he
Speaker 8: took the lead and I'm playing, I'm like, he sounds
Speaker 8: so good, and it kind of informed me, you know,
Speaker 8: like all of a sudden, I was like, man, I
Speaker 8: can do yeah, and I just went for some shit,
Speaker 8: you know. Hearing his voice inspired me to try some
Speaker 8: Jameson style, you know, walking around a little bit more,
Speaker 8: playing some busy, busy bass stuff, and I felt him
Speaker 8: react to that immediately. Something happened on that tune. But
Speaker 8: that was BB king too. Wow, you know bb made
Speaker 8: that happen.
Speaker 3: Do you now run into musicians that just insist that
Speaker 3: you play draggy or behind the beat or those things or.
Speaker 8: There was a little bit of that, but not much.
Speaker 8: And the thing is, you know, as well as I
Speaker 8: do that shit don't work. It only works in.
Speaker 1: The right environment when we're all together.
Speaker 8: And for me, the right environment is me you indeed,
Speaker 8: and if Spanky was still alive he isn't. But shocky,
Speaker 8: I mean, it's such a profound understanding of what that is,
Speaker 8: but we couldn't put it into woods right. It's like
Speaker 8: a micro second management thing when you're playing, it's just
Speaker 8: the feel happens.
Speaker 1: It took a big to adjust to because I think
Speaker 1: even for me, I saw this as my chance to
Speaker 1: escape the.
Speaker 3: What I thought in my head was gonna be like
Speaker 3: the claws of the Roots, like, okay, well we're not
Speaker 3: clearly we're not going to make a mark on our
Speaker 3: own music, so this might be an every man for himself.
Speaker 8: Thing, right, right, you started to stray a little and think.
Speaker 3: Well, it's not like I was like, all right, let
Speaker 3: me plant my flag elsewhere to see if I can
Speaker 3: get out there. Like it wasn't like the South promotion thing.
Speaker 3: But it was also like was just paranoid that the
Speaker 3: way that he wanted me to play like. I was
Speaker 3: intrigued by the j Deller shit, but I'm like, wait,
Speaker 3: you want me to act like I'm a drunk three
Speaker 3: year old and you know.
Speaker 8: Well it's a challenge right to try and sound like
Speaker 8: you can't play it right.
Speaker 3: But I'm thinking, I like, man, little John's gonna laugh
Speaker 3: at me, and this drum is gonna laugh at me.
Speaker 1: This drum is gonna laugh at me.
Speaker 3: And so it took it took me a good maybe
Speaker 3: two weeks to get used to because you got these
Speaker 3: things instantly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I didn't know who to follow because you
Speaker 1: dragged behind.
Speaker 3: But then he really drags behind you, and I'm trying
Speaker 3: to figure out, like, well where do I fit in
Speaker 3: between you guys?
Speaker 1: It took like a good two weeks to.
Speaker 8: But when that shit really kicks off of man, I
Speaker 8: mean you're I mean you're playing, you're on time, if
Speaker 8: not on time in front of time, that rhythmic tension, right.
Speaker 8: We never talked about it deeply before, but that's what
Speaker 8: it feels like to me. Because if I'm trying to
Speaker 8: play that stuff and a drumma will start to slow
Speaker 8: down with you right right, then it's not working.
Speaker 9: It has to have you know, So here's on top
Speaker 9: of your behind and D somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, we're pretty we're both behind the deal. But
Speaker 8: but quests will also come in. You know, you'll join
Speaker 8: us on some things like it might be a little
Speaker 8: nut on the hight or one kick drum will be misplaced.
Speaker 3: Just yeah, yeah, he d wants me to like my
Speaker 3: high hat always has to be like one of my
Speaker 3: three things, either my kick, my snare or my high
Speaker 3: hat has to be consistent. Yes, and then I have
Speaker 3: to divide half my brain to drag this in another
Speaker 3: way but still.
Speaker 1: Keep this consistent. But then playing with DiAngelo and Pino.
Speaker 3: DiAngelo gets the sort of gets the glory position of
Speaker 3: either playing right on top of the thing or really dragging.
Speaker 3: And before when he would draged, I'd go with him
Speaker 3: and he would stop the song like no, no, don't
Speaker 3: go with it where you were at, stay where you
Speaker 3: had And I'm just like, wait, dude, like I have
Speaker 3: my own problems and trying to figure out which limb
Speaker 3: goes which speed, and then this guy is like slightly
Speaker 3: behind me. But I could deal with that, but you
Speaker 3: are really throwing me off.
Speaker 1: So it really took.
Speaker 3: It took ten hours, and you know, we'd spend anywhere
Speaker 3: between six to twelve hours consistently playing.
Speaker 1: So I just consider that tour my y'all.
Speaker 7: You're talking before y'all even hit the stage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, no, this is just this is the
Speaker 1: album this is in.
Speaker 7: Yeah, just because it seemed like at some point just
Speaker 7: watching y'all during that time and watching a mirror because
Speaker 7: we shouldn't make note that, like I don't recall a
Speaker 7: time in your career where you've done what you did
Speaker 7: for Voodoo, like you Paul stuff. And it seems like
Speaker 7: when y'all got on stage, everybody, Anthony and Hamilton backgrounds,
Speaker 7: everybody included. It was like spiritual.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think that we all came one at a time,
Speaker 3: Like first it was D, it was D and me,
Speaker 3: it was us three, and then we brought James Poison
Speaker 3: in and then it's almost like you have to bring
Speaker 3: him and Spanky started coming.
Speaker 1: So it's almost you had to do one at a
Speaker 1: time thing, and that person had to figure out, like.
Speaker 8: What is going on here?
Speaker 7: When y'all all figured it out, it must have felt
Speaker 7: like y'all were moving as one at some point, right.
Speaker 8: Like that's exactly right. Yeah, it's the most it's yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean the Soultronics when we had in the band.
Speaker 1: Yo, y'all, I still have Crazy Sure was out now?
Speaker 11: The Live in Stockholm Angelo, Oh yeah, yeah it is.
Speaker 11: I've cleaned my house so many times out man, y'all, man,
Speaker 11: I love that record.
Speaker 8: That's so rid.
Speaker 1: That is so rid.
Speaker 8: But the funny thing was, right, you got to remember
Speaker 8: back when we were doing this, I was already forty
Speaker 8: forty one, right, so.
Speaker 1: You're still forty one to.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 1: But the nominal act doesn't crack, whales don't fail. There.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna step off the microphone. You can tell me,
Speaker 8: I'm yeah, that sort of thing is so rare, and
Speaker 8: that was the first time I've been in great bands before,
Speaker 8: but it's the first time I'd experienced that kind of feeling.
Speaker 8: And as I say, I was in my forties at
Speaker 8: the time, So you know, when we got together and
Speaker 8: there we also room with the full band before the tour,
Speaker 8: and I heard that band playing, I was like, these
Speaker 8: guys don't know. These guys do not know what I know,
Speaker 8: because you couldn't have had enough experience to know how
Speaker 8: special that was.
Speaker 1: Did you have a favorite night on the Voodoo Tour?
Speaker 8: No, I just know I don't every night.
Speaker 1: Every night I had Yo Man for me. I hate
Speaker 1: I hate saying the story the Minneapolis show. I don't
Speaker 1: remember it all right. So I blamed John Paroles for this.
Speaker 3: So John Parrales, who's always been kind of a playful
Speaker 3: thorn in Prince's side since like him and Prince are
Speaker 3: at the same age. He started writing in Minneapolis at
Speaker 3: the same time Prince came up, so he's kind of
Speaker 3: been like the one consistent local Minneapolis writer that you
Speaker 3: know that Prince would sort of you know, artists claim.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, I never read my reviews or whatever, but clearly.
Speaker 3: Like you know, and but he was also not afraid
Speaker 3: to tell the truth and be like, nah, I'm not
Speaker 3: feeling this and that that you're phoning it in whatever.
Speaker 3: So you know, it's it's ninety nine and Voodoo comes
Speaker 3: out and John Parrales decides to like kind of.
Speaker 1: Just write a.
Speaker 3: Ack no no, this for the local Minneapolis thing, like
Speaker 3: not a mock obituary, but basically like a Prince your
Speaker 3: numbers up and there's a new king in town, that
Speaker 3: sort of thing, which you know, as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 3: both Voodoo and Black Messiah were always love letters to
Speaker 3: our hero and so you know it is that what
Speaker 3: made Prince do Rainbow Children? Well, no, just you make
Speaker 3: my sunshine thing and yeah, yeah that as well. So
Speaker 3: the thing was, I knew he felt some sort of way,
Speaker 3: but it was also so undeniably funky that he couldn't
Speaker 3: deny it himself. So it's like, okay, I'll give you
Speaker 3: this one, like this has to be live changing funk
Speaker 3: for me to So when the show came to town,
Speaker 3: you know, Paralys was at it again, like I've been
Speaker 3: hearing reports that this is the show of the year, right,
Speaker 3: and so and so of course he summons for us
Speaker 3: to come to Paisley Park the night before before the show.
Speaker 3: The night before the show, right, I did not know this.
Speaker 1: I ain't got it. I should have known him better.
Speaker 1: But you know again, it's it's like, hey, it's our hero.
Speaker 3: We're gonna hang out with our hero. So we get
Speaker 3: to Minneapolis. We get there like midnight, and Alan Weis
Speaker 3: was actually like y'all going out there. I was like, yeah, well,
Speaker 3: you know, he operates between one am and six in
Speaker 3: the morning, so let's do it. So Robbie the driver
Speaker 3: comes to get us at three in the morning and
Speaker 3: we go out there. And I should have known him better. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was first thing he came in. So how does
Speaker 3: it feel?
Speaker 7: Huh?
Speaker 1: And so we were just like, yeah, it feels like me,
Speaker 1: but I'm just playing.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: Was he on his own? Was he?
Speaker 8: Or did he have like he was?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: So the weird thing was he was, I believe at
Speaker 3: the time he was working on what we call the
Speaker 3: New Powersoul record, and you know, he's blasted music whatever
Speaker 3: and something.
Speaker 9: So what year is?
Speaker 1: This is two thousand?
Speaker 3: This is June of two thousand and so we're walking
Speaker 3: down you know, all the hallways at Paisley Park are
Speaker 3: super dark, and of course it's like these lifestyles murals
Speaker 3: of him, so it feels like three stooges where you
Speaker 3: know the controversy, this is painted controversy cover and you swear.
Speaker 1: To God that the eyes are watching you as because
Speaker 1: they are right right, yeah, probably Scooby Doode.
Speaker 3: And I stopped e and I stopped the and I
Speaker 3: heard the song and I'm just like, I said, oh boy,
Speaker 3: and he's like what I said, So, you know, by
Speaker 3: that point, and I've made it clearer to many Prince
Speaker 3: dot Org fans that I am a seventy eight to
Speaker 3: eighty eight Prince person. Anything outside of that, Yes, I
Speaker 3: love him as an artist, but this is my era,
Speaker 3: and I've been very vocal about like his patches, and
Speaker 3: I don't like the new keyboards he uses and the
Speaker 3: drummer scenes and of course he's in some loud song
Speaker 3: and whatever it was, Okay, No, the cameras are watching me,
Speaker 3: so my.
Speaker 1: Face, I forget that I'm not on radio anymore.
Speaker 3: And so I was just like, let's wait it out
Speaker 3: until the fate comes on, because I don't want to.
Speaker 3: I don't want to have to do demo face yeah,
Speaker 3: right right right when you like some, when you don't
Speaker 3: like some, and so like right when the song was faded,
Speaker 3: and then we like walked in and you know, again
Speaker 3: I failed.
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, who, what's you? What's this? What's
Speaker 1: you working on? He's like some some new funk like whatever,
Speaker 1: Like he's like.
Speaker 10: Destroy you.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 3: So yeah, he like went through the whole thing and
Speaker 3: tried to be like, don't trust down leads and you
Speaker 3: know this guy's boot legacy, that guy boot legamy, he's
Speaker 3: gonna boot leg you and steal your money and da
Speaker 3: da d d da da and he would leave and
Speaker 3: De and I would just look at each other.
Speaker 1: Like what's going on here?
Speaker 10: I just want to ask you some question about nineteen.
Speaker 1: Exactly. And you know, then we like went to play,
Speaker 1: like we went in the room to jam a little bit,
Speaker 1: and that wasn't working because the thing was like we
Speaker 1: had such a musical synergy.
Speaker 3: And then to play with someone normal, which is weird
Speaker 3: because friends is anything but normal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but don't translate, right, and so that was weird,
Speaker 1: and man, like we just we left.
Speaker 3: So we asked him, He's like, so are you going
Speaker 3: to come to the show tomorrow, like will you come,
Speaker 3: and he's like, no, I got to go to I'm.
Speaker 1: Gonna go to Marrakesh.
Speaker 3: And you know, I said, wait, you you go to
Speaker 3: miss our show, like this is our show is dedicated
Speaker 3: to you, like everything, and he's like, no, I got
Speaker 3: to go to Marrakesh.
Speaker 1: And that's that.
Speaker 3: He never went to Marrakes. But you know he had
Speaker 3: all the spies in the thing. And you know, Larry
Speaker 3: Graham infamously left during shit damn, Like he got up
Speaker 3: and left and like went out there and it came
Speaker 3: back when the show was over. Ron Carter left too,
Speaker 3: And all I remember was there was a moment during
Speaker 3: the encore where I think suddenly D went from bewilderment
Speaker 3: to anger, Like it's like D woke up and realized, like, yo, man,
Speaker 3: I think he was trying to punk us last night.
Speaker 1: And you don't want to think that your hero doesn't
Speaker 1: wish you, you know, like what do we do to
Speaker 1: this guy? And all I remember Man was like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get him. We're gonna piss all on his carpet.
Speaker 1: And we did the most ungodly version of Lady ever
Speaker 1: and Eric.
Speaker 3: Came out, and it was even to the point where
Speaker 3: the same schoolyard taunts that Prince was telling Paul Peterson
Speaker 3: when he left the family like Bunk of the month,
Speaker 3: punk of the month, Like we started like pe punk
Speaker 3: of the Month, Like like are we doing this?
Speaker 1: You went from Pee for the Month to Prince.
Speaker 3: Punk of the Month like literally in his Yeah, and
Speaker 3: then and then I had to get some phone calls
Speaker 3: like a week later. But for me that was like,
Speaker 3: that was like the best show we've ever done. I
Speaker 3: hope I asked enough voodoo questions for the fan base.
Speaker 11: Gone, No, Voodoo was my first I mean clearly was
Speaker 11: my first time hearing you. But you know, for you
Speaker 11: hearing you say that, you were like forty at that time.
Speaker 11: You know, I hope artists like that hear this. They
Speaker 11: understand like listen, that was my first time and I was,
Speaker 11: you know, twenty one, you know, twenty whatever, and like
Speaker 11: that was my first time really hearing about Pino Palladino.
Speaker 11: You know what I'm saying, So like you were to me,
Speaker 11: you were a new guy, right, you know what.
Speaker 8: I'm saying In two thou that generation and those music, Yeah, y,
Speaker 8: that's a new me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, were you shocked at the kind of the heroes
Speaker 3: welcome that you got from the musician community.
Speaker 8: Yeah, totally. I mean I was already kind of respected
Speaker 8: in certain places, you know, in the music community, but yeah,
Speaker 8: to get the props at that point was really Yeah,
Speaker 8: that was very exciting.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about how it was different in that way?
Speaker 1: Why was it different?
Speaker 11: Way to feel different?
Speaker 8: Well, I guess because that's the music. I really really
Speaker 8: loved it. And then I was like, you know, I
Speaker 8: was always like very conscientious about like feeling right. You know,
Speaker 8: I wanted to feel right, and when I got to
Speaker 8: play with the Inquest in that band, then it was
Speaker 8: I didn't even have to think about it. It just
Speaker 8: came through, you know, and that was beautiful. And then yeah,
Speaker 8: just to have people say, wow, that that ship sounds amazing,
Speaker 8: and yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3: So a notable night for me was the night that
Speaker 3: we were recording Aquarius for Common in Philadelphia and then
Speaker 3: we took a dinner break and then you got a
Speaker 3: phone call and you said immediately you said, wait, no
Speaker 3: one knows I'm here, who's calling me? And you step
Speaker 3: outside the room to take the phone call, and then
Speaker 3: you come back in and you're like, guys have an announcement.
Speaker 3: So instantly I'm like, oh damn, something happened to your family,
Speaker 3: Like what's going on? And he's like John's twistle just
Speaker 3: died of the Who, and I have to go out
Speaker 3: and replace him. Like I have to believe right now.
Speaker 1: What you tell me.
Speaker 6: That's the most fucked up call I've ever heard of
Speaker 6: my left okay coming on pretty much.
Speaker 3: And I never got to ask you this question because
Speaker 3: what I do know is that you had to learn
Speaker 3: forty one songs.
Speaker 8: I don't remember the amount, but there wasn't a set list.
Speaker 8: It was just learn, you know, like see thes like this.
Speaker 9: And that plays all the notes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so one, what was your WHO? I Q? Before
Speaker 1: that phone call?
Speaker 8: Wow, I probably knew four or five songs.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, I wasn't expecting that. I thought you used
Speaker 3: to go and say, like four or five records. See,
Speaker 3: you kind of knew nothing about the Who at that point.
Speaker 8: I brought some of the records when I was a kid,
Speaker 8: I bought won't get fooled again. And then I remember,
Speaker 8: I can't explain my generation the big hits, but I
Speaker 8: really wasn't familiar with their albums for some reason. I
Speaker 8: just I missed that stuff, you know, I was I
Speaker 8: was a big led Zeppelin fan, and I was in
Speaker 8: like progressive rock like Yes and folk music and stuff
Speaker 8: like that. So somehow missed.
Speaker 10: Most of the who You and Getty Lee, Just Have
Speaker 10: You and Geddy Ever like him?
Speaker 8: Actually yeah, yeah, but uh not that familiar with with
Speaker 8: a lot of rush albums out there.
Speaker 1: So they send a plane to you. They sent a
Speaker 1: plane to Philadelphia.
Speaker 8: Correct, No, no, I have to get a regular plane.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I thought they just the bells and whistles
Speaker 1: on you. So what was do you do you remember
Speaker 1: what that week was like?
Speaker 3: Because I still, for the life of me, don't understand
Speaker 3: why they just didn't hold off on like a week's
Speaker 3: worth of shows. Like I'm sure the fan base will understand.
Speaker 1: John just died. They were like, no, we're still going
Speaker 1: on stage.
Speaker 8: Well, the story I heard was that they wanted to
Speaker 8: cancel the tour. You know, there was so much gonna
Speaker 8: that was riding on it. I guess they was financially
Speaker 8: the cruise, you know, having committed the time to it,
Speaker 8: they wanted to be able to pay everyone. So the
Speaker 8: story I heard come from who but the story I
Speaker 8: heard was a Pete said to the manager, what's Pino doing.
Speaker 8: If you can get Pino, then we can carry on,
Speaker 8: which is pretty incredible. So pd I had confidence in me.
Speaker 8: I guess he knew me as a session player because
Speaker 8: I've worked with him. Yeah, so that's that's how it went.
Speaker 8: And the manager phoned me up and said, look, you've
Speaker 8: heard the Jonas passed away. I think it was Wednesday.
Speaker 8: He said, we got a gig in Hollywood Bowl on Saturday.
Speaker 1: I need a yes or no? You said yes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean so what's like, describe your cheat sheet? Describe
Speaker 1: your like how do you commit all that to memory? Yeah?
Speaker 8: I did have a couple of cheat sheets, just just
Speaker 8: I mean, nothing that anyone else would have understood.
Speaker 1: Can you read no? Wow? What can you read chord charts? Yeah?
Speaker 8: I can follow cod shots, but yeah, I mean I've
Speaker 8: got better at it over the years, but I really
Speaker 8: try not to. I trust my ear.
Speaker 9: I've always talked about before thrust your ear. People bore
Speaker 9: blessed with good ears.
Speaker 1: Man. Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's some musicians that go by feel and some
Speaker 3: musicians that go by technical that sort of thing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and both of those ways will work. You know,
Speaker 8: there are players that can do both. They are players
Speaker 8: that can read whatever you put in front of them
Speaker 8: and can also improvise. But I can't read it.
Speaker 1: So by that night, by Saturday night, what's going through
Speaker 1: your head?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 1: Are you just cramming twenty four to seven and you're
Speaker 1: going to sleep to the song I have?
Speaker 8: Like, really, I had one day in one night and
Speaker 8: I just was up for twenty four hours just literally
Speaker 8: headphones based, just trying to go through as many songs
Speaker 8: as I could.
Speaker 1: You know, what was the hardest song to do to
Speaker 1: figure out?
Speaker 8: Well, there wasn't one song that was really hard technically
Speaker 8: because I didn't try and play what John was playing.
Speaker 8: I couldn't have played a lot of those baselines because
Speaker 8: his technique was so unique. I couldn't. I couldn't do it.
Speaker 8: So but Pete told me straight away when I got
Speaker 8: they said, just learn as much as you can. And
Speaker 8: you know, I don't want to be John, I want
Speaker 8: to be you. So that gave me. That freed me
Speaker 8: up a little bit. But having said that, there's so
Speaker 8: many iconic baselines on whose songs that I did have
Speaker 8: to learn.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of it notes, so eventually once
Speaker 3: you settled into the group, then they realized that, But
Speaker 3: is it I kind of baselines in terms of like
Speaker 3: like he does this in the fourth part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they muscle memory they expected to hear those.
Speaker 8: Notes kind of yeah. And there are things that you
Speaker 8: if you didn't have them in the song, you really wouldn't.
Speaker 8: It wouldn't sound like a song, like melodic lines and stuff.
Speaker 8: And the Who fans in the front row would be
Speaker 8: mim in to the baselines as well, so they know
Speaker 8: all the stuff.
Speaker 9: No pressure.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but I wouldn't be playing it a lot of times.
Speaker 1: So how long did it take for you to actually
Speaker 1: get a place of muscle memory? Like, Okay, I got this.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean I had it on the first night
Speaker 8: pretty much. I pretty much knew I pretty much once
Speaker 8: we've done the show, I was like, Okay, it's gonna
Speaker 8: be fine.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, are you still with the Who? Like I
Speaker 1: don't know what.
Speaker 8: They're Yeah, they're still playing. But I stopped touring with
Speaker 8: them in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, But was it hard to walk away from that?
Speaker 8: It was? Yeah, it was absolutely yeah, because I've been
Speaker 8: there a long time. I've been touring with them fourteen years.
Speaker 3: So when you commit to them and I know they're
Speaker 3: not a twenty four to seven touring unit. Is it
Speaker 3: a thing where it's like, Okay, we have you on
Speaker 3: retainer to always be available.
Speaker 8: No, they don't do that shit.
Speaker 1: You just get gig the gig. Yeah, but what if
Speaker 1: you what if you decided to order D'Angelo again?
Speaker 9: Yeah, right, you had that problem.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I had taken on some who shows. I
Speaker 8: didn't want to let those guys down, and then d
Speaker 8: suddenly put some shows in that I couldn't do. Yeah,
Speaker 8: so but that all worked out.
Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 3: You had to raise your own Pino. Yes he's not there,
Speaker 3: Rocco Palladino. Oh yeah, oh you best believe. And I
Speaker 3: hate to say this, but god damn, yeah, but he's
Speaker 3: your son. Sound think you'll get offended?
Speaker 8: God damn?
Speaker 1: How how old is your sign?
Speaker 8: Man? He's study one? Okay, yeah, now do Rocco is
Speaker 8: currently drumming with a he's playing with usef DA.
Speaker 1: Yes, you said, but he's also he killed the Picnic. Yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: no doubt. Yes, he came to the Picnic and kills.
Speaker 8: But Rucco's here now. Actually he's playing Fabiano my daughter,
Speaker 8: My oldest daughter is also playing in the band this
Speaker 8: called J Paul j A I Yeah, Paul, Wow, they're
Speaker 8: playing to Paul. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, So Fabiano and
Speaker 8: Rucco are playing with him at the moment he's playing
Speaker 8: at the mine tonight.
Speaker 1: This is so weird.
Speaker 11: It's like those are kind of I mean, maybe not
Speaker 11: as much Paul, but definitely use Those are all kinds
Speaker 11: of children love voodoo.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I think so, and I think so with
Speaker 8: Jay as well. Yeah yeah, I definitely inspired by that stuff.
Speaker 1: That is crazy. I remember meeting your kids when they
Speaker 1: were away.
Speaker 8: They were Radio City when we played in two thousands.
Speaker 8: You know, Rocco is like six or something.
Speaker 1: I wondered like, did they pay attention?
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, you think so. That's what happened to Rocco.
Speaker 1: So for him seeing that show Radio City Music Art, I.
Speaker 8: Think definitely that and also just being around me when
Speaker 8: when I was doing that music.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Rocco is like Rocco plays with di'angelo. That's
Speaker 3: how good Rocco Palladino is. And yeah wow, that's just.
Speaker 7: How many children do you have?
Speaker 8: Yeah, Fabiana, my oldest is a keyboar player. Songwriter, singer songwriter.
Speaker 8: She has a record coming out soon. And then Giancarla
Speaker 8: is also very musical, but she actually doesn't work in
Speaker 8: the music business. And then Rocco does work in the
Speaker 8: music business.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm so lucky.
Speaker 3: How do you divide your now that you're your own
Speaker 3: planet and you're not just like, you know, just just
Speaker 3: a session yet, right, So, like, at what point did
Speaker 3: you decided to establish.
Speaker 1: Your brand and do these like records and all this.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that pretty much came through round about twenty eighteen.
Speaker 8: I suppose that when when we started recording the first
Speaker 8: record I've done an album with John Legend with Blake
Speaker 8: Mills producing.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you on that record.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well and Chris too.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: He called me and Chris to play on that record,
Speaker 8: and that's how I met Blake.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's such a it's weird living in kind
Speaker 3: of in the non uh what do you call it,
Speaker 3: non tangible record way?
Speaker 1: Yes, where I don't recredits anymore.
Speaker 3: I just listened to it on Spotify, so I know.
Speaker 3: When I was going with your history, I'm like, wait,
Speaker 3: you're on that, You're on that. Yeah, I didn't realize
Speaker 3: you on that record. Okay, so talk about your work
Speaker 3: with the Drumheads and playing because you guys just on
Speaker 3: a whole nother level of musicianship.
Speaker 1: Well that's with Christ and Sharky.
Speaker 8: And yeah, I mean that's crazy. I mean Chris, as
Speaker 8: you know, played with D. I think you recommended him
Speaker 8: for that when you could do it right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So that's where Chris met Sharky and me and
Speaker 8: Kristen Sharky would hang and hit it off obviously. Then,
Speaker 8: to cut a long story short, we were on the
Speaker 8: twenty twelve tour with D and Chris had a gig
Speaker 8: at the Billboard Live in Tokyo and we were going
Speaker 8: to take Pooky with us, right the keyboard player and
Speaker 8: a horn player. I can't remember who it was, but anyway,
Speaker 8: the day before we due to fly out after the
Speaker 8: after the tour with D, Pooky said he couldn't make it,
Speaker 8: So we lost a keyboard player and then we lost
Speaker 8: the horn player he pulled out too, so it's just me,
Speaker 8: Sharky and Chris and we had to fly out to
Speaker 8: Japan and we played like three nights at the Billboard Live.
Speaker 8: So that was the start of the drumhead shit. Really,
Speaker 8: we just played as a trio, which is what we
Speaker 8: went back to the Blue Note recently.
Speaker 3: Now, is it intimidating playing in a combo that doesn't
Speaker 3: have a lead singer or doesn't have someone for you
Speaker 3: to hide behind?
Speaker 1: Now? Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 8: I love it, especially with that lineup because it's it's unique. Well,
Speaker 8: we played so many different styles of music, and well,
Speaker 8: you know, Chris is just unbelievable. All kinds of weird
Speaker 8: and wonderful stuff can come from him.
Speaker 1: It's my guess that you are the anchor of definitely
Speaker 1: that unit.
Speaker 3: Because when I last saw you guys at the Blue Note,
Speaker 3: you were the one that was tapping your book constantly,
Speaker 3: like you tap your foot and your chin goes up
Speaker 3: and down. And so I realized, like, okay, so you
Speaker 3: give christ freedom to do what he wants to do,
Speaker 3: and you have to keep that in your head.
Speaker 1: So you're the anchor of it.
Speaker 8: I know.
Speaker 3: If it's confusing for me, it has to be crazy
Speaker 3: for you to keep counting all those things because Chris
Speaker 3: is such a radical.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm with that lineup too. You know, I feel
Speaker 8: like those two guys of the Virtuosi, and that's never
Speaker 8: been my forte you know, it's so I like that
Speaker 8: place in the middle there trying to you know, enable
Speaker 8: just enable the music so that they can do their thing.
Speaker 8: I mean not purely unselfish. I mean I care about
Speaker 8: me too a little bit. But yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 8: And when Chris goes for some of that stuff, you know,
Speaker 8: you just have to be ready to go with it
Speaker 8: wherever it's going. Be very kind of fluid and malleable.
Speaker 1: You know. It's question I think fans would like to know.
Speaker 3: Have you ever had a session in which was like
Speaker 3: I gotta get through this, like in terms of complexity,
Speaker 3: or just a producer that.
Speaker 1: Is driving you to the limit. No, not really.
Speaker 8: I had one producer I won't mention the name of
Speaker 8: one time that I figured that if he kind of
Speaker 8: made me angry, I would play better.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: It was kind of weird so that people still do
Speaker 8: psychological Yeah, he's like, what's the matter with you? Can't
Speaker 8: you do any better than that?
Speaker 1: And I was like what you cant? Lice asked? Was
Speaker 1: this the eighties, nineties or two thousands or.
Speaker 8: It was after Voodoo right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like, I'm ready to.
Speaker 4: Wait.
Speaker 1: Can I ask a question?
Speaker 6: Including you Steve, Like on sessions like voodoo, which are
Speaker 6: notoriously went on for years. Like does it become too?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 1: Does it does the dragging out of it?
Speaker 9: Does the frustration of that taking forever?
Speaker 1: Does it become a thing?
Speaker 7: Or is it not?
Speaker 6: I've never been in the studio that long my life
Speaker 6: like it. You know, you read about it, and it's
Speaker 6: just like we're not allowed to talk about this. That's
Speaker 6: fine too, No, No, I just I'm just I'm fascinated.
Speaker 1: My answer is quick.
Speaker 3: You know, I was selfishly say that I have the
Speaker 3: best seat in the house, so I've never had a drought,
Speaker 3: a D'Angelo drought, and I feel bad for you people
Speaker 3: that only get your you know, d'angela fixed once every
Speaker 3: ten to twenty years, whereas you know, I still got
Speaker 3: shited on this computer that the world's never going to
Speaker 3: hear again. But you know, I'm satisfied, but I also
Speaker 3: feel frustrated that it takes forever.
Speaker 1: But it's certainly worth it.
Speaker 3: But like you know, it's weird in terms of preference,
Speaker 3: though I like Black Messia a little better. I don't
Speaker 3: know if it's because it's last or whatever, but just
Speaker 3: like I have the time of my life with voodoo.
Speaker 3: But for me, there's something about the moments in catching
Speaker 3: til it's done yes or uh oh god, especially oh God,
Speaker 3: the way the way we know life.
Speaker 1: You know, we did Another Life. Didn't we do that
Speaker 1: without planning?
Speaker 8: You know? I played on the later you and d
Speaker 8: played on that.
Speaker 1: I feel like we went okay, so was it till
Speaker 1: it's done where we all have to do it together?
Speaker 1: Something we played till it's done together? Yeah? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: Another Life is literally.
Speaker 3: It was just unplanned. It wasn't like, hey, what's that part? Okay,
Speaker 3: do we get it in twelve bars? It was just
Speaker 3: like he just started playing it and then like and
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, this should be like a bridge
Speaker 3: or something. Okay, I'm gonna do a turnaround for two bars,
Speaker 3: and he just like it. The synergy was was otherworldly.
Speaker 8: Well, you guys really have that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to be cool.
Speaker 3: Because at the very beginning, in the very beginning, I
Speaker 3: think there was like unspoken tension there that we didn't
Speaker 3: resolve for like four or five years. Yes, and the
Speaker 3: first thing he plays me is like sugar Daddy, and
Speaker 3: it kind of in a taunting way, not a taunting way,
Speaker 3: but it's almost like the ex wife.
Speaker 1: You know, the husband's showing you the new girlfriend to
Speaker 1: the ex wife. And I'm like, how am I? How
Speaker 1: am I supposed to compete with Gatson? With James Gatson
Speaker 1: playing his lap? Yeah?
Speaker 3: And the story, yeah, the story of that is basically,
Speaker 3: he was just all right, play with the song, and
Speaker 3: he's like just sitting there like that, okay, okay, so
Speaker 3: I'll do that and then all right, let's roll.
Speaker 1: It and they're like, no, we got it. He's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I was. I was hitting my leg and he's like, no, no,
Speaker 1: that was perfect.
Speaker 8: And I'll tell you what really happened there, something like that.
Speaker 8: But James was just drum checking, right, he was just
Speaker 8: trump track and playing a bass, strumming the high and
Speaker 8: tapping his legs like that, and d said, keep playing that, James.
Speaker 1: Keep playing that right, and just fell until by accident.
Speaker 8: Found a bait. I just went dump dump, don't dump, don't.
Speaker 1: Right, And then literally I'm like, how am I supposed
Speaker 1: to compete with that shit?
Speaker 8: And so yeah, but your thing is so unique of
Speaker 8: me too, Betray my Heart. We recorded that song in
Speaker 8: yeah seven Do you realize that ninety seven?
Speaker 1: Right? I remember brought that one back to life. So Steve,
Speaker 1: any Pino moments.
Speaker 10: Oh man, I did want to ask you about you
Speaker 10: were a part of the one of the Simon and
Speaker 10: garlf Uncle reunion tours or maybe it was just a
Speaker 10: show or two at the Garden or something. I'm not
Speaker 10: I can't remember that one.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was all too two thousand and what was
Speaker 8: it five or something?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 10: So what was that like to work with with Paul
Speaker 10: and I mean to be in such a weird kind
Speaker 10: of setting, I mean, and those baselines are also very iconic.
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Is that Carol Ka who did a lot of
Speaker 1: that stuff originally?
Speaker 8: Maybe she did some of it. Joe Osborne right was
Speaker 8: the was the l a session guy back in back
Speaker 8: in the days and did a lot of that stuff
Speaker 8: only living boy in New York. You know that iconic
Speaker 8: based on man. Yeah, So was that a fun gig
Speaker 8: or it really was? It was amazing for me because
Speaker 8: the Simon and girlf Uncle album with Cecilia I become
Speaker 8: a bridge over trouble Water. Yeah, that album was so
Speaker 8: big for me when I was before I even knew
Speaker 8: I was going to be a musician. So to come
Speaker 8: around full circle and get to play live with those guys.
Speaker 1: Wasn't the base Yeah?
Speaker 10: They the baselines are so kind of penoish in a
Speaker 10: lot of that music, you know, there's a lot of.
Speaker 8: But but yeah, I mean very melodic though.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And it was a fantastic band. Jim Caltoner was
Speaker 8: on drums.
Speaker 1: What's it like playing with him?
Speaker 8: Tremendous man, hero, incredible man earl. Yeah you should get
Speaker 8: him on here? What an edge? What a legend? Yes,
Speaker 8: it was just a fun too. And then of course
Speaker 8: we would you know, pull pull an audience. So wow.
Speaker 8: We would do two sound checks pretty much every day. Yeah,
Speaker 8: one for each of them then one together.
Speaker 10: Wait.
Speaker 8: Really like they were divided as a you know, not
Speaker 8: necessarily divided, just they had particular things that they wanted
Speaker 8: in the sound check.
Speaker 10: So with the Who and with Paul Simon, didn't you
Speaker 10: also end up doing being part of some studio recordings
Speaker 10: as well, albums that they were putting out.
Speaker 8: I did a Paul Simon album Surprise, but that was
Speaker 8: just Paul Yeah, he wasn't that Simon golf? Right?
Speaker 1: And the Who?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I did the last record Who did, which which
Speaker 8: was a really good record.
Speaker 10: Actually, What was I like to work with Pete Townsend in.
Speaker 8: That in the studio, work with him over the years
Speaker 8: in that environment. Pizza absolute genius. Man, He's incredible. It's
Speaker 8: just great being around him, great playing music with him.
Speaker 1: I want to skip a little bit ahead.
Speaker 3: Could you talk about working on the side rock record
Speaker 3: with John You didn't play bass on You only did
Speaker 3: it live. No.
Speaker 8: I did some other record, but not much of it,
Speaker 8: like maybe a couple of tracks, because that was kind
Speaker 8: of during the pandemic. I think you record a lot
Speaker 8: of that stuff.
Speaker 3: Really okay, because my shock was that, you know, for
Speaker 3: those that don't like the side rock record for John
Speaker 3: Mayer was like his version of the yacht rock Yes,
Speaker 3: like if he had he released a record in eighty
Speaker 3: three to eighty four like that period, what would he
Speaker 3: sound like? Which all of you, all the musicians on
Speaker 3: that record didn't sound like themselves.
Speaker 8: But yeah, well I only played a few tracks. I
Speaker 8: sort of let you down on that woman.
Speaker 1: But did even the songs you played on, did you
Speaker 1: have to unsound like yourself?
Speaker 8: No, not at all. No. Those songs that I played
Speaker 8: on were ones that he did before he went in
Speaker 8: the studio to do that record, So they were just
Speaker 8: a random one off songs that that he wanted to
Speaker 8: record anyway.
Speaker 1: Okay, so when he went in to do the full.
Speaker 8: Album with Sean Hurley on bass and uh Aaron on drums, Yeah,
Speaker 8: I wasn't around for that.
Speaker 1: I see questions, conversations. I was just taking your ball
Speaker 1: commercial right now?
Speaker 3: When when when this show is happening, phones are down,
Speaker 3: so I'm not getting text.
Speaker 1: To stop. It's like, You're gonna let me know. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm under the impression that eight o'clock is when we
Speaker 1: stop this. We're trying to get to Fine, you're gonna
Speaker 1: communicate that to me. We don't get any dating to
Speaker 1: each other. No, I called you. I didn't know your phone.
Speaker 8: Off.
Speaker 1: Your phone, my phone is off. I turned my phones
Speaker 1: off and my my text all that stuff is off. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I was just frustrated.
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, I thought I was asking too many
Speaker 3: questions all about punctuality.
Speaker 9: We're very concerned about Peno's next gig.
Speaker 1: Clearly has to be at the gig.
Speaker 9: But it's good because let me know.
Speaker 1: Okay, I didn't know that. I'm sorry.
Speaker 8: I already told him we're gonna be late.
Speaker 1: So okay, we're good. Well, let's wrap it all right.
Speaker 9: Also, don't ask you know what the gig is a
Speaker 9: big secret. So there go going on.
Speaker 1: We don't know what gig it is. We don't know
Speaker 1: what it is.
Speaker 9: Well I don't you might because can we.
Speaker 1: Follow you to this gig? Do I want to follow
Speaker 1: you to this gig? M I could said.
Speaker 3: The last time you told me about a gig, I
Speaker 3: went to go see. I wound up playing the gig
Speaker 3: and the mushrooms that kicked in.
Speaker 9: That was the hell of a day.
Speaker 1: All I wanted to do was watch my idol drum
Speaker 1: and then suddenly like the show yes COVID.
Speaker 8: So I just didn't know about the mushroom part of that.
Speaker 1: That's well yeah, but then you know, I've got guys,
Speaker 1: the mushrooms that kicked in.
Speaker 8: Man, if you're around tomorrow nights or you got any
Speaker 8: time tomorrow, I'm in the studio with Blake over in
Speaker 8: Sound City.
Speaker 3: Really, I'm finally glad that Blake, of all people, Blake,
Speaker 3: the way that he talks about voodoo's like his old dream.
Speaker 3: So the fact that he finally connected with you, I
Speaker 3: know one you know is his dream to connect with
Speaker 3: the Also, I'm sure I'm that's happening. No, I think
Speaker 3: I'm gonna cut it so that Peter can get to
Speaker 3: his session or we.
Speaker 7: Are legend in the building who actually still works.
Speaker 3: No, I will say that, you know it's it's your mind.
Speaker 3: You make you make us all play better, you make
Speaker 3: us listen better, and you know for that, I thank you.
Speaker 8: Man, and thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Every race. Everybody, Now get out of here and go
Speaker 1: to your gig. This is.
Speaker 7: You know, hey, thank y'all be listening to the Quest
Speaker 7: Love Supreme. This podcast is hosted by an Afro, a mouth,
Speaker 7: a rapper, an engineer, and a man with too many
Speaker 7: jobs a k a. A Mere Quest Love Thompson, Why
Speaker 7: You a Saint Clair, Fonte, Coleman Sugar, Steve Mandel and
Speaker 7: unpaid Bill Sherman.
Speaker 1: The executive producers who get paid the big bucks.
Speaker 7: Amir Quest Love Thompson, Sean g and Brian Calhoun ask
Speaker 7: them for money. Produced by the people who do all
Speaker 7: the real work Britney Benjamin, Jake Payne and Yes Slyya
Speaker 7: Saint Clair. Edited by another person who does the real work,
Speaker 7: Alex Conroy and those who approve the real work. Produced
Speaker 7: for iHeart by Noel Brown and Mike John and don't
Speaker 7: forget man, it's making me sound good right now because
Speaker 7: up too. Audio engineering by Graham Gibson at Iheart's La Studio,
Speaker 7: Thanks Sean.
Speaker 1: West. Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For
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