In this compelling Takin’ A Walk replay, host Buzz Knight sits down with blues rock guitar virtuoso Kenny Wayne Shepherd for an intimate conversation about his remarkable musical journey. From picking up the guitar at age seven to becoming one of the most celebrated blues guitarists of his generation, Kenny shares the stories behind his legendary career in this music history podcast.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd discusses his early influences, including discovering Stevie Ray Vaughan’s music and how that pivotal moment shaped his destiny as a blues guitarist. He opens up about releasing his debut album “Ledbetter Heights” at just 18 years old, the pressure of early success, and how he’s evolved as both a guitarist and songwriter over three decades in the music industry. If you are a fan of music inspiration stories this Buzz Knight podcast is for you.
The conversation explores Kenny’s creative process, his approach to honoring blues traditions while pushing the genre forward, and memorable moments from his extensive touring career. He reflects on collaborating with blues legends, the importance of authenticity in music, and what drives him to continue creating and performing at the highest level.
If you are a fan of Bob Dylan, you will Kenny Wayne Shepherd's extraordinary inside music story of what it was like to tour with Dylan and how he supported Kenny's career. Truly a priceless rock legend story.
Kenny also shares insights on this rock music interview into his guitar collection, recording techniques, and the balance between technical mastery and emotional expression that defines great blues rock guitar playing.
Whether you’re a blues enthusiast, aspiring rock music guitarist, or music history buff, this episode offers rare insights from one of the genre’s most respected artists.
The Takin A Walk Podcast explores musician storytelling on previous episodes with everyone from legends like Patrick Simmons from The Doobie Brothers, Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and Steve Earle , to artists exploring their indie music journey and viral music success like Sam Ryder, Will Paquin and many others. Share these Rock and Roll Stories with your friends.
Takin A Walk-Music History on foot is hosted by BuzzKnight and is part of Iheart Podcasts
#grammy winner stories #kenny wayne shepherd interview #bob Dylan music history #inspiring icons #guitar mastery #music icons podcast #interviews with musicians #creative journeys #music legends #will paquin #artistic reinvention #best 80's music podcast #guitar hero
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a walk, you know, going to school and coming
home from school, and rather than like doing what all
the other kids are doing after school, I would go
straight to my house and pick up my guitar and
sit down in the living room or in my bedroom
for hours and hours and hours aba playing the instrument,
trying to figure out how to make it sound.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, where your host
Buzz Night talks with musicians about their inspirations, their music,
and in today's case, what it means to be in
the music business since he was a teenager. Blues guitarist,
singer and songwriter Kenny Wayne Shepherd joins Buzz Today for
a conversation about all things Kenny Wayne. Kenny and Buzz
(00:41):
will get into everything from what it was like to
have his first record out at sixteen, to his relationship
with the late Eddie Van Halen, and to what's going
on in music today. Kenny's got a new project out
called Dirt on My Diamonds Volume two. Also chat with
Buzz about that. Kenny Wayne Sheppard joins me Buzz Night
now on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
The Great Kenny Wayne Shepherd on Taking a Walk. Thanks
Kenny for being on man.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So tell me how your father had an influence on
you as a musician and as a person.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I mean, my dad was a dish shockey. Well
he was a jack of many trades. He he's not
like he's he's still with us, so you know, I
don't want to refer to him in the past tense.
But back when I was a kid, he was a dischockey,
programm director, general manager of a variety of different radio
stations in my whole town over the years. And so
(01:39):
I grew up around music my whole life. And my
mom was a big music fan as well, so you know,
between the two of them, we had music playing around
the house all the time, in the car everywhere we went,
and all different kinds of music too. So my dad,
you know, would play country music and then we listen
to rock and you know, James Brown and fog at
(02:00):
R and B and jazz and just everything under the sun.
And you know, because he was at the radio station
that those guys usually get tickets and backstage passes to
all the hot concerts that come through town. So you know,
we always got to go see bands play, and I'd
get to go backstage and kind of see the behind
the scenes of the touring world and meet a lot
(02:23):
of famous musicians when I was a kid, and so
all of that stuff, the absorption of music and the
exposure to the touring industry, all of that was I
was soaking that up and it was all going to
contribute to who I would eventually be as a professional
recording the touring artists. But at that eighty age, nobody
(02:46):
had a clue at that point.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So the first moment that you were watching a performance
by somebody that just knocked your socks off, who was it.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, there's a number of different performers, you know, But
when I was a kid, I saw, like I said,
I mean, so many different people. I mean I remember
going to Hank WiM's junior concert Melong Away because he
was a country guy that rocked, you know. I remember
seeing James Brown many many times and just I mean,
he was one of the greatest entertainers on the planet,
but two completely different types of performers.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
A life changing moment for me was getting to meet
and watched Skeevie rape On play for the first time
when I was around seventy years old. So that's really
what lit the fire at me and gave me like this,
you know, relentless determination to learn the instrument because I
wanted to figure out how it to play with that
kind of passion and intensity that he played with. So,
(03:41):
I mean, there was a number of performers that really
impressed me and had an impact on it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
It's a pretty impressive list so far.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I mean, right, yeah, and the list and the list
goes on. But those are just some of the ones
off the top of my head that are very very
different musical genres and different types of performers. But I
kind of took something away from each one of them.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So what at the age of sixteen.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Intensely fueled your deep emotional, you know, connection with music
and how it all manifested itself into your brilliance? What
was going on as a sixteen year old that really, like,
you know, made you sound like you were way wiser
than those years.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, I don't. I'm not exactly sure, you know, because
I had the child Prodigy label put on me, which
is like fine, I mean, I'm looking back, I go, yeah,
it's not normal. It's not typical for a kid that
young to be playing that kind of music that way.
So at the time, I really didn't think much of it,
(04:52):
Like I really didn't have any idea what they were
talking about because I was just playing guitar and I
just loved playing the instrument. But I think as a teenager,
you know, there's so much going on in young people's lives,
more now than ever, to be honest with you, in
the world we live in. But really, like as a teenager,
you're going through so many changes, trying to figure out
(05:13):
who you are, where you fit in your first experiences
with love and relationships and things like that. But like
I always found like comfort and the instrument, and so
that was where I just felt completely at home. Was
you know, going to school and coming home from school
and rather than like doing what all the other kids
(05:35):
were doing after school, I would go straight into my
house and pick up my guitar and sit down in
the living room or in my bedroom for hours and
hours and hours every day play the instrument, trying to
figure out how to make it sound good. And I
think there was just great satisfaction in that. And it
was like my companion. Now I was kind of like
the uh, you know, the friend you could always rely on.
(05:57):
And so it ended up, giving me an identity and
a purpose I think at a very young age, which
is not common. I mean, you know, because I signed
my record deal when I was sixteen. I started recording
my first album when I was seventeen, and that's very abnormal.
But it gave me a lot of things that I
(06:18):
think were really important to me as a teenager at
the time, and certainly it served me well to my
adult life.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
And I know then you really became a student of
so much of the genre of blues and so many individuals,
and you obviously were swept away like we.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
All still are, by Jimmy Hendrix. Can you talk about
that influence.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, Well, Jimmy Hendricks was fascinating to me because you know,
his musical ideas were incredibly I don't know, it was
like groundbreaking, especially being considered the time, the era in
which he was making music, when all that stuff, I
mean rock and rolls, it was a relatively new genre
of music. But if you at the same time consider
(07:07):
how limited they were with the technology, right there's I mean,
multi track recording hadn't even been around for all that
long in the overall scheme of things, and you know,
the guitar pedals, the effects that you could use, and
in the studio you kind of had like delay and
reverb and compression, and then you know for pedals, I
think there's a handful of effects pedals for guitar players,
(07:30):
and Jimmy probably had all of them, you know. But
like what he was able to create and the sounds
he was able to come up with in the studio
that hadn't necessarily been done before or hadn't been heard
like that before, it's just really impressive. And also if
you look back and you go, wow, even to this day,
I don't know that anybody's I mean, he hasn't really
(07:52):
been outdone, and his music still sounds groundbreaking, you know,
even to this day, and it still continues to influence
new generations positions. So it's pretty remarkable. But the thing
that he did most for me was he It's like
he gave me permission. By listening to his music, you
could tell that, like he was very lose baits in
(08:13):
his playing and in his music that he created, but
took he didn't just stop right there. He took it
and ran with it and took it into so many
different directions, and it kind of gave me permission to
do the same thing. You know, it's like to not
be boxed into one particular category, not have to keep
my music confined to one particular space, but to kind
(08:36):
of take elements of all the things that I had
been exposed to and combine them and try and create
something that sounds a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I'm not even thinking you've tapped that completely. I know
you're completely open to different places. Your example, you know,
collaboration with five Finger Death Punch, And I just have
a sense with you and the way you think about it,
and by your comments about Jimmy's influence, we haven't even
(09:06):
seen the beginning of your work.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, I certainly feel like there's more to be said
and more music to be created, and more learning to
be done as far as being a student of the instrument.
But yeah, I just don't. I just know that, like,
in order to keep the music genre relevant, you have
to continue to it of me and you have to
(09:30):
continue to do things differently, otherwise it just all becomes
too predictable. And so I like the idea that, like,
when you hear that a Kenny Wayne Shepherd album is
coming out, I would venture to guess that most people
aren't entirely sure what it's calling sound like before they
hear it, you know, because they know and I think
they trust that as a artists, I'm going to pursue
(09:53):
whatever inspiration comes up in the moment. And so each album,
I mean, there's certain common things and there's common elements
to my music all the way back to the first album.
But I mean, you listen to some of the songs
on my newest albums during on My Diamonds Volume one
and now Volume two that just came out, I mean,
you're hearing things that you've elements in those songs that
(10:16):
you haven't heard from me ever before. And so that's
just a sign that I'm continuing to try new things
and continuing to try and break new ground for me
and my band. And it's all in an effort to
keep the music and the genre evolving, you know, because
that's what's important.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
So on Volume one, I love the collaboration with Davy
Johnston and on Saturday Nights all right for Fighting, tell
me about your past relationship.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
With him and what it was like collaborating on that.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Well, we didn't actually collaborate on it, like I had
a moment, so I texted him because he's a friend
of mine and he's a great guy and a great
guitar player. And I just said, bums in the studio,
you know, And I say, we're about to cover one
of your guys songs. And I wasn't sure if I
was going to be able to really, I didn't want
to mess it up. And it's got some tricky little
(11:09):
things in there, and so I knew that as it
like a backup plan if I had to, like pull
of hell Mary, I just let him know that I
might be calling him and ask him to come down
and play guitar on it if I didn't feel that
I was doing it justice. But the end result I
was happy with. And so you know, he never ended
(11:29):
up needing to come into the studio as a favor
for me. So but no, it was great. I mean,
he's he's one of those guitar players, like you know,
you just I think, you know, musicians are well aware
of his talents, but you know, you just don't hear
his name brought up enough in my opinion, you know,
because he's incredible and played so many iconic guitar parts
(11:50):
on so many legendary songs over the years and so,
but as a human beings, one of the greatest guys
I know.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So what varied, if anything, in the creative process from
Volume one to Volume two.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Not much. I mean we record a lot of this stuff.
It was written and recorded right around the same time.
So what happened was is like I had all these
songs that we started recording them, and you know what, Generally,
for me and I don't go in with a lot
of preconceived ideas, and my demos are always very basic.
It's like CUSI, guitar and a volt and that's it,
because I can kind of hear in my head what
I think the song needs to sound like. And I'm
(12:27):
a real fan of the old school way of making records,
where I believe by going into the studios where the
magic is supposed to happen. So I leave a lot
of I don't go in with a bunch of tracks
that I put together at my house and then telling
everybody what exactly what to play. It's like we we
create the songs in the studio. But anyways, as you're
(12:49):
doing that, then you you start to listen back to
what you've done and I go, oh, how this song's
really speaking to me and that song's really speaking to me.
And after you get about three songs you feel very
sure about, then you see the album start to take
a direction. And then you look at the rest of
the material that you have. You wish other songs kind
of complete that musical statement. And so I did that
(13:11):
and then I said okay, and then I looked at
everything else and I was like, well, we have two
albums worth the material here, and then it just became,
you know, a question of how do I want to
release this stuff? And again I'm always looking for, you know,
new ways or different ways of doing things. So we
decided I thought it would be a compelling idea to
(13:33):
do it kind of like a double out, but instead
of releasing together at the same time, Stagger the releases
make them companion pieces. But it is the first time
we've ever put out two albums of new material in
less than twelve months from one another, so and it
keeps the fans engaged and it gives us new music
to play. This year we were featuring in the show,
(13:54):
we were featuring songs from Volley one, and then now
that Volume two has just come out, then that's set
the stuff for the tour for next year. And I
also believe that, like you know, each one of these
albums is eight songs long. And I started doing some research,
and you know, some of the most iconic albums ever
recorded have eight songs on them, because it goes back
(14:15):
to the days when vinyl albums, like that's the main
way that people consume music. And if you don't know,
like you can only put so much music on each
side of a vinyl record. If you put too much
on there, it starts degrading the quality of audio. So
it generally it works out to be about four songs
per side. And so that's why so many albums back
(14:37):
in the day were eight songs. So and then in
today's world, where there's so many things that are competing
for our attention and so many extractions, phones, social media, television, commercials, jobs, everything,
it's like so many things are coming at us. It's
it's almost unrealistic, like to expect people to be able
(15:00):
to sit down and listen to an album that has
ten or twelve or fourteen or sixteen songs in one city.
And my goal as an artist is I still like
to make records, not just songs, because I want to
take people on a journey, and I want them to
have an experience. So an eight song record, if you
(15:21):
live in a major city, you could actually get in
the car, put the record on on your way to
work and probably get through the whole thing by the
time you get through all the traffic and make it
to your job. Or if you're going on a road trip,
you can put the record on and hear it start
finished before you have to pull a liver over for
a bathroom. So it's kind of like trying to hedge
(15:42):
my bets of you know, a quality product. There's no filler,
there's no songs on there just to fill spaces. Every
song that's on there has a legitimate purpose, but it's
also hedged my bets on the best possible way to
get somebody to be able to hear the entire experience
for start to finish.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Can you talk about your process of the way you
order an album and put you know, put it together,
you know in terms of track by track, how much
contemplation goes into that And you're thinking, there.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, a lot of it. I mean there's a lot.
That's another thing. That's why we want people to actually
listen to the records, because we put a lot of
effort in the order that the songs are in, and
you consider, like, first of all, like the first thing
you need to do is figure out what's your first song,
what's your opening state, and then you can go from there.
And then you consider you know, the mood of the songs,
(16:35):
and you know the emotional journey you want people to take.
And then you also have to consider the keys that
the songs are in and the tempos. You know, and
so you don't want to put a bunch of slow
to or mid tembo songs all back to back. You
want to break them up with the more up tempo songs,
and and otherwise, you know, it's all about like what's
(16:58):
the experience of the listener and all so what keeps
it interesting and doesn't become waring. And then the keys
have to work. One song has to flow into the
next song, and so there's a number of things that
are considered before we sign off on final tracks.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
All right, so close your eyes for a second. You're
driving down the road.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You're in your let's say the nineteen seventy Plymouth Duster,
and you've got a long drive ahead and you need
some good driving songs. What would be coming on the
radio is you're driving that bad boy down the road.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Well, for I'll have to be, if I'm being completely honest,
for a lot of the trip, I would just be
listening to the sound of that V eight engine that's
under the hood, because that's music to my ears. But eventually, yeah,
put some music on. I gotta tell you, like, one
of my go to albums that always puts me in
a good mood is this z Eazy Top album called Fandango,
(17:57):
which is like a half studio a half live album
and just some incredible performances on that record, especially the
live music, and so like I just know, like if
I'm kind of at a loss of what can I
listen to right now, that's going to be perfect. It's
(18:18):
you know, that's an easy one to pull out, and
that just kind of gets the ball rolling.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
But I love how the sound of the car is
such a driving force too.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I love your covers of Dylan A Ballad of a
Thin Man certainly and Everything is Broken, just really wonderful.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Can you tell me about your time on the road
with Bob.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
And what you learned from being on the Road with
Bob Dylan.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, yeah, so I did two different tours with hell.
When my first album came out, I did its entire
tour opening up for him, and then when the second
album came out, another tour opening up for him. And
besides like watching him, because you know, he's an iconic
musician and performer and songwriter. What I really learned about
(19:15):
him and this is just my experience, but like he
was like one of the first lessons that I learned
about not taking on other people's opinions of someone, because
just because someone had a certain experience with an individual,
it doesn't mean that that's going to be my experience.
(19:36):
And so and a lot of times people want to
tell you, I'm speaking more like a negativity, right, Like
you know, people are like, oh, you know, Bob, he
doesn't want people looking at him. You know, he doesn't
you can't talk to him, you can't look his way
if he's walking in the room, or you know, all
these stories that you would hear people say. And I'm like,
(19:58):
and so when I've bet he was the exact opposite,
Like he was so nice to me, he was so outgoing,
Like every single day I did a sound check. He
came out and watched my sound chick, and then he
came up on the stage after I was done, and
he walked right up to me. He shook my hand,
and he would stand there and talk to me every day.
(20:21):
And then at one point he told me, he said, hey, man,
He's like, I don't care if you have a new
record coming out or if you're just working up some
new material. You can come out on the road with
me anytime. And it was just like, not any of
the things that people had said about him, and a
lot of time stories taken on a life of their own.
(20:42):
But yeah, I was like, wow, you know, you can't
listen to all that stuff, like you really have to
treat every individual encounter as a unique situation that's between
you and that person. Because just because someone else might
have had an experience and maybe you don't even know
what they're telling you is entirely accurate, but that doesn't
mean that's what my experience is going to be. And
(21:03):
that was a big lesson And I've learned that lesson
many many times over in the years that I've been
doing what I do. And you hear all these outlandish
stories about people, and that I meet the lot, I'm like,
this is not the same guy that they're trying to
make him out to be.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Tell me about playing with bb King.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Did you find it particularly interesting that he never played chords?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Oh, he would play chords. He would play a phrase
and then ended with a chord, you know. But what
I guess the thing is is that Babe never really
played rhythm guitar like. He always weaved his guitar playing
in and out in between him singing. But he always
had such a big band backing him up that could
fill then you know, the musical gaps so well that
(22:03):
you know it didn't beat it. And he had a
really guitar player as well. So but that was his style.
That's what really worked for him. And sometimes that's great.
I wish that I could do that because it frees
you up to focus more on your singing when you
have to sing. But a lot of times I struggled
with like other guitar players and the way they play
(22:23):
certain parts, and like, if I failed the guitar tracks
on the record, so then when I'm performing, I want
all those parts to sound exactly like I played them.
That sometimes it's just not possible, so like it becomes
a distraction to my ears sometimes if I hand over
guitar parts somebody else, and so as a result, there's
(22:44):
just certain songs that I can't necessarily sing and play
at the same time. So maybe those songs, if I'm
the one doing the lead vocals, don't make it into
the live show.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Sometimes you played a lot of small venues obviously when
you were starting out, and now you're not playing many
small venues.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Do you miss those places?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
No? I mean, you can go back to any of
those places anytime. I mean, I'll go sit in with
friends that are doing gigs and bars and stuff like
that whenever I have, you know, time to do that.
I mean, and I don't know. I feel like I've
played everything from you know, a little hole in the
wall gigs to you know, opening up for the Eagles
(23:26):
and the Rolling Stones in front of eighty thousand people.
So every experience is pretty cool and it's all right.
I mean a lot of people like the small places
because it feels more intimate, But I think the theaters
is kind of where it's at. I think my fan
base likes to have reserved seating. I don't think they
want to be on their feet all night. You know,
there's not a lot of times bar environments can be unpredictable.
(23:50):
You throw a lot of alcohol in the equation, and
you know the fireworks can go off. So you know,
the theaters and amphitheaters is kind of where sad for sure.
I think you know it's the nice middle ground between
the small places and the super big places.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Tell me about your evolution ultimately, I think it was
maybe twenty nineteen of them, not mistaken where horns became
more part of your presentation.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
Can you talk about that?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, I do use soarings on a few songs here
and there on different albums over the years, not really
a lot, but I always liked the idea of horns.
But I was doing the Traveler record, and a lot
of that record is pretty rockin, right, Like we did
a Buffalo Springfield song Mister Soul. We did a Joe
(24:43):
Walsh cover. The opening track Woman Like You is pretty
rockin and so there's there's several songs on that record
that rock pretty hard. And so I heard there was
a song called I Want You, which is a pretty
if you asked me, like, what's my initial what's the
Kenny Wayne Shephard definition in one song with contemporary blues,
(25:05):
I would play that song because like, it has all
the elements of it, like I think actual blues, not
blues rock, but like modern US music. So I heard
horns on that song, so I was like, well, let's
bring these guys in and have to play horns on
that song. And I was like, well, while we're here,
let's see what it sounds like gone this song or
that song. And the next thing, you know, I was like, Wow,
(25:27):
let's see what it sounds like. Put them on almost
every song and it was really interesting, especially with the
Mister Soul because that thing is really really rocking, and
you know, you wouldn't think about putting a horn section
on a song at wrongs like that, but it was
actually a really cool experiment, sounded great, and so because
I had used them on so much of the record,
then I decided I need to bring horns out of
(25:49):
the road, and so then we took them out and
we had a horn section out on the road, and
that was cool for us and for the fans too.
Because there's a lot of fans that have seen us
many times over the decades, and it gives them a
new experience in the live setting, and us as well musically.
So we've got to continued that. There's horns all over
(26:09):
the new record, Dirt on my Diamonds, both of them
Volume one and Volume two, and you know, it's cool.
Like I said, it brings a different vibe to the band,
and it musically, every time you add or subtract an
instrument to the band, then it affects every all the
other players and so then you have to adjust accordingly.
(26:30):
So it keeps everybody on their toes music as well.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Do you think sometimes there's too much perfection in the
way things are produced these days in general?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
No? No, because no, because there's not. I mean, it
depends on what you're talking about. But like pop music,
like the really popular stuff nowadays, they're not striving for perfection.
Those people are like a lot of it. I'm not
saying anybody in particular, but you know when you hear
these songs and pop music becomes so saturated that like
(27:04):
you could hear like you could listen to the radio
and you could hear like five different songs and they
all sound like they could be the same artists, yep,
but different artists. That's the lowest common denominator. That's not
striving for perfection. That's trying to cash in on what's trending.
You know, it's not striving to be the best you
can eat. It's so no. I mean, you know, I
(27:27):
do think that there are some artists certainly that are
striving for perfection, and we kind of walk the line
between you know, being the We strive to be the
best we can be on any given day, right, But
I also know, like the whole that you can dig
(27:48):
yourself if you start overanalyzing things and going down the
rabbit hole. It's like, you know, trying to make things
perfect if you because if you try to make things perfect,
then it also it can possibly lose the realness in
the music, you know, because because it's too perfect. So
(28:08):
I embrace some of the flaws. And my goal actually
from my band, I feel the best representation of what
we do is to capture the essence of a live
performance in studio. So that means that like sometimes you know,
there may be a missed lick here and there, or
something is not perfect, but we got the vibe and
(28:30):
the energy is there and that's what's most important, and
so that's the track that we're going to use.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I love how you have the respect for, you know,
so many of the greats you know before you, and
how you've never been bashful at shining a light on
you know. I'll just think of you know, Pinetop Perkins
as an example, and I think that's so sweet on
how you've always approached the past and the history. But
(28:59):
I think also just going back to what we talked
about earlier, your you know, open mindedness to other things
that are part of the present as well that you
really embrace. Is there anybody in the present that you
embrace that you want to tell us about and shine
a light up?
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Well, I think there's a lot of there's a lot
of good young talent out there, and I don't I'm
aware of just about all of them because I like
watching you know, who's coming up next. And it's also
interesting to be on this side of the equation now
because at one point I was like, you know, part
of the generation that we were the new blood. We
(29:38):
were the young guns, the up and comers, and now
I'm transitioning into like, you know, I'm kind of becoming
part of the older generation. I'm watching the new young
generation come up, so and it's nice to watch that
because it brings back a lot of that BS and
it also helps me to to feel, you know, reassured.
I think like a lot of my heroes did that.
(29:59):
The He's going to continue because there's new life being
brought into it. But so there's a long list, I mean,
just off the top line head some of the people
out here on this Hendrix tour that I'm doing. Christine
kingfish Ingram, I mean, he's already made an incredible name
for himself, a great player, great singer. It's already I
think he's already won like two Grammys. I mean, you know,
(30:20):
the guy's he's an incredible musician. And there's some ladies
out there that doing a killer job. I mean, Shamika Couple,
she's part of my job, but like I think she's
incredible and uh, and then you have Samantha Fish and
she's just blazing hot at Ali Bettibles is blazon and
trail for herself. And you know, there's the list goes
(30:41):
on and on. There's a lot of but those are
just a jew off the top of my head.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
You had some great history with Van Halen, including you know,
touring obviously with them on the last tour. Can you
talk about the experience of working with van Halen.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yeah, well, so, I mean, we have a lot of history.
It's really interesting how far back our history goes. But
I toured with Van Halen in the nineties when they
were van Halen three and they had Gary Scharon. It's
elite here. So that was my first tour with Halen,
did that whole tour with them, and that's when Ed
and I became friends and maintained a friendship all the
(31:21):
way up until when he passed away. And so we
did the nineties tour with them, and then we were
asked to come back in twenty fifteen and we did
what was to be the last Van Halen tour ever,
which nobody knew at the time. Obviously, spent a lot
of time with him, especially in twenty fifteen on that tour.
Every day another like Bob Dylan, like every day Ed
(31:44):
came and found me wherever I was at and we
sat and talked, and you know, he always went out
of his way to spend time with me, to make
me feel important and that was really special. And so
he's another one of those guys where you can hear
it just depends on who you're talking to, you know,
it's like and which side of the story that person
(32:05):
was on. But like, he had never he could not
have been nicer to me, and he had never presented
himself as anything other than a very very kind person
and really outgoing, like in regards to sharing his time
and his friendship with me. But backing all the way up,
like our families are kind of linked in an interesting
(32:29):
way because my dad is the guy that actually brought
Valerie Burtnelly and her brothers to their first Van Halen
concert back in like the nineteen eighties when I was
a kid, which is where and he brought he got
them backstage to meet van Halen, and that's the night
(32:50):
that Valerie met Eddie van Halen and they start and
they that was the beginning of their relationship. And so
you know, we actually our paths are linked all the
way back to when I was hid because of that,
and it's kind of fascinating if you look at that,
you go, wow, there's that moment and then you know,
(33:12):
in the nineteen nineties, I'm out on the road with
those guys opening up for them, and then again in
twenty fifteen, and you know, got this friendship going with it.
It's pretty interesting, you know, how intertwined to a certain
degree our families are.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Where have you got these amazing guitars that you have
as part of your collection? The sixty one Strat and
I think it's a Monterey Strap.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Where did you pick these up? All different places?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, it just depends on the guitar. But the sixty
one I got at the Guitar Center in Hollywood on
Sunset Boulevard podcast. I was probably eighteen years old when
I was finally able to buy that guitar. And then
the Monterey strap. My dad gave that to me as
a birthday president. I want to say when I was
en maybe twenty, but I think nineteen. And I mean
(34:05):
every guitar has kind of a different story behind it,
you know. I got a fifty fifty eight Strat. I
was on the road with Van Halen in the nineties
and I did an in store autographs signing any guitar
center in Houston, Texas before the show that night, and
once I finished signing all the autographs, I looked up
on the wall and there was just mint condition fifty
(34:25):
eight strat hanging on the wall. So I left Guitar
Center with that guitar that night and proceeded to play
it on the tour for the rest of the tour
and for many years after that. Still have that guitar.
So everyone kind of has some little special story. And
you know, I've never sold any of my gear, so
I kind of get I don't know, I've become sentimentally
(34:48):
attached to my instruments and stuff because they all I
kind of have a certain experience attached.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I think they're attached to you as well.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah, maybe so, you know.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
In closing, if there was a sixteen year old up
and coming musician who was just starting out maybe who
just got signed, what advice from your time would you
give that individual on how they could kind of make
it in this awesome business but this difficult business.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Well, the thing is is there's so many things are
so different today than they were when I was sixteen
and signed my record. When I was yelling, there was
no such thing as the internet, so the only way
you could really get exposure was by getting out and
putting a band together and playing you know, at least
dive bars and just trying to build a name for
(35:45):
yourself and a small fan base and some kind of momentum,
you know. And so nowadays you have like social media,
and you know, every and you can record stuff on
your cell phone. Every computer comes with some kind of
recording program in it. People are making records in their bedrooms,
(36:07):
and so there's so many opportunities that are available to
young artists today that didn't exist what I was a kid.
But you know, the one thing that the one thing
that I think is really most important is I never
got into playing mutsic. I wasn't seeing dollar signs and
(36:27):
music awards, you know, I was looking at people that
were heroes to me, that inspired me and motivated me
to try and make my instrument sound something like them.
And I just got personal satisfaction out of that, Like
it genuine and genuinely made me happy, you know, putting
(36:50):
in the work and then seeing it payoffs. Where like
I was trying so hard to play this slick, finally
I figured out how to do it, you know, and
that accomplishment and then the next accomplishment just learning how
to play and so that evolved into a career for me,
and you know, I've been able to do it now.
I've gone three decades and I got a loyal fan base,
(37:12):
and I'm grateful for all of that. I'm able to
support my family doing what I love to do. But
at the end of the day, it's like, especially with
the social media, and you start looking at the numbers
and you start going how many people are following me
and I posted up a clip of some music and
how many people liked it, And it's like they're good tools,
but it's also a lot of ambunition to beat yourself up,
(37:33):
you know, and for a lot of disappointment. And so
at the end of the day, you know, I don't
know what life would be like if it took a
different path for me, because this is the path that
I'm on. But I know that I just wasn't in
the beginning. I wasn't concerned about it. I wasn't even
I was just thrilled to have an opportunity to play
(37:53):
my instrument. And so if you just play music for
the love of playing music, and that's your reason for
doing it, then there won't be all this disappointment attached
to it. You know, because you can still appreciate playing
your instrument because of the personal satisfaction, and then if
(38:15):
all that other stuff comes along with it, then that's
just icing on the cake. And then you've got to
figure out how to navigate that when it comes. But
I just feel like it. There's so many people that like,
this is the age of instant gratification, and you have
to be patient and you have to just accept whatever
(38:35):
is going to happen is what's going to happen, and
you just you know, if you're going to pursue it,
put your best into it, and if it works out,
then that's fantastic. You have to give it one hundred
percent minimum. But if it doesn't work out, that's okay too,
Like that's all right. Don't let it take away your
joy of playing music.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Keep slinging Virtual high five Kenny, Wayne Shephard, thanks for
being on Take It Away.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Thank thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking
a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your
friends and follow us so you never miss an episode.
Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a walk, you know, going to school and coming
home from school, and rather than like doing what all
the other kids are doing after school, I would go
straight to my house and pick up my guitar and
sit down in the living room or in my bedroom
for hours and hours and hours aba playing the instrument,
trying to figure out how to make it sound.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, where your host
Buzz Night talks with musicians about their inspirations, their music,
and in today's case, what it means to be in
the music business since he was a teenager. Blues guitarist,
singer and songwriter Kenny Wayne Shepherd joins Buzz Today for
a conversation about all things Kenny Wayne. Kenny and Buzz
(00:41):
will get into everything from what it was like to
have his first record out at sixteen, to his relationship
with the late Eddie Van Halen, and to what's going
on in music today. Kenny's got a new project out
called Dirt on My Diamonds Volume two. Also chat with
Buzz about that. Kenny Wayne Sheppard joins me Buzz Night
now on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
The Great Kenny Wayne Shepherd on Taking a Walk. Thanks
Kenny for being on man.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So tell me how your father had an influence on
you as a musician and as a person.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I mean, my dad was a dish shockey. Well
he was a jack of many trades. He he's not
like he's he's still with us, so you know, I
don't want to refer to him in the past tense.
But back when I was a kid, he was a dischockey,
programm director, general manager of a variety of different radio
stations in my whole town over the years. And so
(01:39):
I grew up around music my whole life. And my
mom was a big music fan as well, so you know,
between the two of them, we had music playing around
the house all the time, in the car everywhere we went,
and all different kinds of music too. So my dad,
you know, would play country music and then we listen
to rock and you know, James Brown and fog at
(02:00):
R and B and jazz and just everything under the sun.
And you know, because he was at the radio station
that those guys usually get tickets and backstage passes to
all the hot concerts that come through town. So you know,
we always got to go see bands play, and I'd
get to go backstage and kind of see the behind
the scenes of the touring world and meet a lot
(02:23):
of famous musicians when I was a kid, and so
all of that stuff, the absorption of music and the
exposure to the touring industry, all of that was I
was soaking that up and it was all going to
contribute to who I would eventually be as a professional
recording the touring artists. But at that eighty age, nobody
(02:46):
had a clue at that point.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So the first moment that you were watching a performance
by somebody that just knocked your socks off, who was it.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, there's a number of different performers, you know, But
when I was a kid, I saw, like I said,
I mean, so many different people. I mean I remember
going to Hank WiM's junior concert Melong Away because he
was a country guy that rocked, you know. I remember
seeing James Brown many many times and just I mean,
he was one of the greatest entertainers on the planet,
but two completely different types of performers.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
A life changing moment for me was getting to meet
and watched Skeevie rape On play for the first time
when I was around seventy years old. So that's really
what lit the fire at me and gave me like this,
you know, relentless determination to learn the instrument because I
wanted to figure out how it to play with that
kind of passion and intensity that he played with. So,
(03:41):
I mean, there was a number of performers that really
impressed me and had an impact on it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
It's a pretty impressive list so far.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I mean, right, yeah, and the list and the list
goes on. But those are just some of the ones
off the top of my head that are very very
different musical genres and different types of performers. But I
kind of took something away from each one of them.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So what at the age of sixteen.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Intensely fueled your deep emotional, you know, connection with music
and how it all manifested itself into your brilliance? What
was going on as a sixteen year old that really, like,
you know, made you sound like you were way wiser
than those years.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, I don't. I'm not exactly sure, you know, because
I had the child Prodigy label put on me, which
is like fine, I mean, I'm looking back, I go, yeah,
it's not normal. It's not typical for a kid that
young to be playing that kind of music that way.
So at the time, I really didn't think much of it,
(04:52):
Like I really didn't have any idea what they were
talking about because I was just playing guitar and I
just loved playing the instrument. But I think as a teenager,
you know, there's so much going on in young people's lives,
more now than ever, to be honest with you, in
the world we live in. But really, like as a teenager,
you're going through so many changes, trying to figure out
(05:13):
who you are, where you fit in your first experiences
with love and relationships and things like that. But like
I always found like comfort and the instrument, and so
that was where I just felt completely at home. Was
you know, going to school and coming home from school
and rather than like doing what all the other kids
(05:35):
were doing after school, I would go straight into my
house and pick up my guitar and sit down in
the living room or in my bedroom for hours and
hours and hours every day play the instrument, trying to
figure out how to make it sound good. And I
think there was just great satisfaction in that. And it
was like my companion. Now I was kind of like
the uh, you know, the friend you could always rely on.
(05:57):
And so it ended up, giving me an identity and
a purpose I think at a very young age, which
is not common. I mean, you know, because I signed
my record deal when I was sixteen. I started recording
my first album when I was seventeen, and that's very abnormal.
But it gave me a lot of things that I
(06:18):
think were really important to me as a teenager at
the time, and certainly it served me well to my
adult life.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
And I know then you really became a student of
so much of the genre of blues and so many individuals,
and you obviously were swept away like we.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
All still are, by Jimmy Hendrix. Can you talk about
that influence.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, Well, Jimmy Hendricks was fascinating to me because you know,
his musical ideas were incredibly I don't know, it was
like groundbreaking, especially being considered the time, the era in
which he was making music, when all that stuff, I
mean rock and rolls, it was a relatively new genre
of music. But if you at the same time consider
(07:07):
how limited they were with the technology, right there's I mean,
multi track recording hadn't even been around for all that
long in the overall scheme of things, and you know,
the guitar pedals, the effects that you could use, and
in the studio you kind of had like delay and
reverb and compression, and then you know for pedals, I
think there's a handful of effects pedals for guitar players,
(07:30):
and Jimmy probably had all of them, you know. But
like what he was able to create and the sounds
he was able to come up with in the studio
that hadn't necessarily been done before or hadn't been heard
like that before, it's just really impressive. And also if
you look back and you go, wow, even to this day,
I don't know that anybody's I mean, he hasn't really
(07:52):
been outdone, and his music still sounds groundbreaking, you know,
even to this day, and it still continues to influence
new generations positions. So it's pretty remarkable. But the thing
that he did most for me was he It's like
he gave me permission. By listening to his music, you
could tell that, like he was very lose baits in
(08:13):
his playing and in his music that he created, but
took he didn't just stop right there. He took it
and ran with it and took it into so many
different directions, and it kind of gave me permission to
do the same thing. You know, it's like to not
be boxed into one particular category, not have to keep
my music confined to one particular space, but to kind
(08:36):
of take elements of all the things that I had
been exposed to and combine them and try and create
something that sounds a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I'm not even thinking you've tapped that completely. I know
you're completely open to different places. Your example, you know,
collaboration with five Finger Death Punch, And I just have
a sense with you and the way you think about it,
and by your comments about Jimmy's influence, we haven't even
(09:06):
seen the beginning of your work.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, I certainly feel like there's more to be said
and more music to be created, and more learning to
be done as far as being a student of the instrument.
But yeah, I just don't. I just know that, like,
in order to keep the music genre relevant, you have
to continue to it of me and you have to
(09:30):
continue to do things differently, otherwise it just all becomes
too predictable. And so I like the idea that, like,
when you hear that a Kenny Wayne Shepherd album is
coming out, I would venture to guess that most people
aren't entirely sure what it's calling sound like before they
hear it, you know, because they know and I think
they trust that as a artists, I'm going to pursue
(09:53):
whatever inspiration comes up in the moment. And so each album,
I mean, there's certain common things and there's common elements
to my music all the way back to the first album.
But I mean, you listen to some of the songs
on my newest albums during on My Diamonds Volume one
and now Volume two that just came out, I mean,
you're hearing things that you've elements in those songs that
(10:16):
you haven't heard from me ever before. And so that's
just a sign that I'm continuing to try new things
and continuing to try and break new ground for me
and my band. And it's all in an effort to
keep the music and the genre evolving, you know, because
that's what's important.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
So on Volume one, I love the collaboration with Davy
Johnston and on Saturday Nights all right for Fighting, tell
me about your past relationship.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
With him and what it was like collaborating on that.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Well, we didn't actually collaborate on it, like I had
a moment, so I texted him because he's a friend
of mine and he's a great guy and a great
guitar player. And I just said, bums in the studio,
you know, And I say, we're about to cover one
of your guys songs. And I wasn't sure if I
was going to be able to really, I didn't want
to mess it up. And it's got some tricky little
(11:09):
things in there, and so I knew that as it
like a backup plan if I had to, like pull
of hell Mary, I just let him know that I
might be calling him and ask him to come down
and play guitar on it if I didn't feel that
I was doing it justice. But the end result I
was happy with. And so you know, he never ended
(11:29):
up needing to come into the studio as a favor
for me. So but no, it was great. I mean,
he's he's one of those guitar players, like you know,
you just I think, you know, musicians are well aware
of his talents, but you know, you just don't hear
his name brought up enough in my opinion, you know,
because he's incredible and played so many iconic guitar parts
(11:50):
on so many legendary songs over the years and so,
but as a human beings, one of the greatest guys
I know.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So what varied, if anything, in the creative process from
Volume one to Volume two.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Not much. I mean we record a lot of this stuff.
It was written and recorded right around the same time.
So what happened was is like I had all these
songs that we started recording them, and you know what, Generally,
for me and I don't go in with a lot
of preconceived ideas, and my demos are always very basic.
It's like CUSI, guitar and a volt and that's it,
because I can kind of hear in my head what
I think the song needs to sound like. And I'm
(12:27):
a real fan of the old school way of making records,
where I believe by going into the studios where the
magic is supposed to happen. So I leave a lot
of I don't go in with a bunch of tracks
that I put together at my house and then telling
everybody what exactly what to play. It's like we we
create the songs in the studio. But anyways, as you're
(12:49):
doing that, then you you start to listen back to
what you've done and I go, oh, how this song's
really speaking to me and that song's really speaking to me.
And after you get about three songs you feel very
sure about, then you see the album start to take
a direction. And then you look at the rest of
the material that you have. You wish other songs kind
of complete that musical statement. And so I did that
(13:11):
and then I said okay, and then I looked at
everything else and I was like, well, we have two
albums worth the material here, and then it just became,
you know, a question of how do I want to
release this stuff? And again I'm always looking for, you know,
new ways or different ways of doing things. So we
decided I thought it would be a compelling idea to
(13:33):
do it kind of like a double out, but instead
of releasing together at the same time, Stagger the releases
make them companion pieces. But it is the first time
we've ever put out two albums of new material in
less than twelve months from one another, so and it
keeps the fans engaged and it gives us new music
to play. This year we were featuring in the show,
(13:54):
we were featuring songs from Volley one, and then now
that Volume two has just come out, then that's set
the stuff for the tour for next year. And I
also believe that, like you know, each one of these
albums is eight songs long. And I started doing some research,
and you know, some of the most iconic albums ever
recorded have eight songs on them, because it goes back
(14:15):
to the days when vinyl albums, like that's the main
way that people consume music. And if you don't know,
like you can only put so much music on each
side of a vinyl record. If you put too much
on there, it starts degrading the quality of audio. So
it generally it works out to be about four songs
per side. And so that's why so many albums back
(14:37):
in the day were eight songs. So and then in
today's world, where there's so many things that are competing
for our attention and so many extractions, phones, social media, television, commercials, jobs, everything,
it's like so many things are coming at us. It's
it's almost unrealistic, like to expect people to be able
(15:00):
to sit down and listen to an album that has
ten or twelve or fourteen or sixteen songs in one city.
And my goal as an artist is I still like
to make records, not just songs, because I want to
take people on a journey, and I want them to
have an experience. So an eight song record, if you
(15:21):
live in a major city, you could actually get in
the car, put the record on on your way to
work and probably get through the whole thing by the
time you get through all the traffic and make it
to your job. Or if you're going on a road trip,
you can put the record on and hear it start
finished before you have to pull a liver over for
a bathroom. So it's kind of like trying to hedge
(15:42):
my bets of you know, a quality product. There's no filler,
there's no songs on there just to fill spaces. Every
song that's on there has a legitimate purpose, but it's
also hedged my bets on the best possible way to
get somebody to be able to hear the entire experience
for start to finish.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Can you talk about your process of the way you
order an album and put you know, put it together,
you know in terms of track by track, how much
contemplation goes into that And you're thinking, there.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, a lot of it. I mean there's a lot.
That's another thing. That's why we want people to actually
listen to the records, because we put a lot of
effort in the order that the songs are in, and
you consider, like, first of all, like the first thing
you need to do is figure out what's your first song,
what's your opening state, and then you can go from there.
And then you consider you know, the mood of the songs,
(16:35):
and you know the emotional journey you want people to take.
And then you also have to consider the keys that
the songs are in and the tempos. You know, and
so you don't want to put a bunch of slow
to or mid tembo songs all back to back. You
want to break them up with the more up tempo songs,
and and otherwise, you know, it's all about like what's
(16:58):
the experience of the listener and all so what keeps
it interesting and doesn't become waring. And then the keys
have to work. One song has to flow into the
next song, and so there's a number of things that
are considered before we sign off on final tracks.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
All right, so close your eyes for a second. You're
driving down the road.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
You're in your let's say the nineteen seventy Plymouth Duster,
and you've got a long drive ahead and you need
some good driving songs. What would be coming on the
radio is you're driving that bad boy down the road.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Well, for I'll have to be, if I'm being completely honest,
for a lot of the trip, I would just be
listening to the sound of that V eight engine that's
under the hood, because that's music to my ears. But eventually, yeah,
put some music on. I gotta tell you, like, one
of my go to albums that always puts me in
a good mood is this z Eazy Top album called Fandango,
(17:57):
which is like a half studio a half live album
and just some incredible performances on that record, especially the
live music, and so like I just know, like if
I'm kind of at a loss of what can I
listen to right now, that's going to be perfect. It's
(18:18):
you know, that's an easy one to pull out, and
that just kind of gets the ball rolling.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
But I love how the sound of the car is
such a driving force too.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I love your covers of Dylan A Ballad of a
Thin Man certainly and Everything is Broken, just really wonderful.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Can you tell me about your time on the road
with Bob.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
And what you learned from being on the Road with
Bob Dylan.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, yeah, so I did two different tours with hell.
When my first album came out, I did its entire
tour opening up for him, and then when the second
album came out, another tour opening up for him. And
besides like watching him, because you know, he's an iconic
musician and performer and songwriter. What I really learned about
(19:15):
him and this is just my experience, but like he
was like one of the first lessons that I learned
about not taking on other people's opinions of someone, because
just because someone had a certain experience with an individual,
it doesn't mean that that's going to be my experience.
(19:36):
And so and a lot of times people want to
tell you, I'm speaking more like a negativity, right, Like
you know, people are like, oh, you know, Bob, he
doesn't want people looking at him. You know, he doesn't
you can't talk to him, you can't look his way
if he's walking in the room, or you know, all
these stories that you would hear people say. And I'm like,
(19:58):
and so when I've bet he was the exact opposite,
Like he was so nice to me, he was so outgoing,
Like every single day I did a sound check. He
came out and watched my sound chick, and then he
came up on the stage after I was done, and
he walked right up to me. He shook my hand,
and he would stand there and talk to me every day.
(20:21):
And then at one point he told me, he said, hey, man,
He's like, I don't care if you have a new
record coming out or if you're just working up some
new material. You can come out on the road with
me anytime. And it was just like, not any of
the things that people had said about him, and a
lot of time stories taken on a life of their own.
(20:42):
But yeah, I was like, wow, you know, you can't
listen to all that stuff, like you really have to
treat every individual encounter as a unique situation that's between
you and that person. Because just because someone else might
have had an experience and maybe you don't even know
what they're telling you is entirely accurate, but that doesn't
mean that's what my experience is going to be. And
(21:03):
that was a big lesson And I've learned that lesson
many many times over in the years that I've been
doing what I do. And you hear all these outlandish
stories about people, and that I meet the lot, I'm like,
this is not the same guy that they're trying to
make him out to be.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Tell me about playing with bb King.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Did you find it particularly interesting that he never played chords?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Oh, he would play chords. He would play a phrase
and then ended with a chord, you know. But what
I guess the thing is is that Babe never really
played rhythm guitar like. He always weaved his guitar playing
in and out in between him singing. But he always
had such a big band backing him up that could
fill then you know, the musical gaps so well that
(22:03):
you know it didn't beat it. And he had a
really guitar player as well. So but that was his style.
That's what really worked for him. And sometimes that's great.
I wish that I could do that because it frees
you up to focus more on your singing when you
have to sing. But a lot of times I struggled
with like other guitar players and the way they play
(22:23):
certain parts, and like, if I failed the guitar tracks
on the record, so then when I'm performing, I want
all those parts to sound exactly like I played them.
That sometimes it's just not possible, so like it becomes
a distraction to my ears sometimes if I hand over
guitar parts somebody else, and so as a result, there's
(22:44):
just certain songs that I can't necessarily sing and play
at the same time. So maybe those songs, if I'm
the one doing the lead vocals, don't make it into
the live show.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Sometimes you played a lot of small venues obviously when
you were starting out, and now you're not playing many
small venues.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Do you miss those places?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
No? I mean, you can go back to any of
those places anytime. I mean, I'll go sit in with
friends that are doing gigs and bars and stuff like
that whenever I have, you know, time to do that.
I mean, and I don't know. I feel like I've
played everything from you know, a little hole in the
wall gigs to you know, opening up for the Eagles
(23:26):
and the Rolling Stones in front of eighty thousand people.
So every experience is pretty cool and it's all right.
I mean a lot of people like the small places
because it feels more intimate, But I think the theaters
is kind of where it's at. I think my fan
base likes to have reserved seating. I don't think they
want to be on their feet all night. You know,
there's not a lot of times bar environments can be unpredictable.
(23:50):
You throw a lot of alcohol in the equation, and
you know the fireworks can go off. So you know,
the theaters and amphitheaters is kind of where sad for sure.
I think you know it's the nice middle ground between
the small places and the super big places.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Tell me about your evolution ultimately, I think it was
maybe twenty nineteen of them, not mistaken where horns became
more part of your presentation.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
Can you talk about that?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, I do use soarings on a few songs here
and there on different albums over the years, not really
a lot, but I always liked the idea of horns.
But I was doing the Traveler record, and a lot
of that record is pretty rockin, right, Like we did
a Buffalo Springfield song Mister Soul. We did a Joe
(24:43):
Walsh cover. The opening track Woman Like You is pretty
rockin and so there's there's several songs on that record
that rock pretty hard. And so I heard there was
a song called I Want You, which is a pretty
if you asked me, like, what's my initial what's the
Kenny Wayne Shephard definition in one song with contemporary blues,
(25:05):
I would play that song because like, it has all
the elements of it, like I think actual blues, not
blues rock, but like modern US music. So I heard
horns on that song, so I was like, well, let's
bring these guys in and have to play horns on
that song. And I was like, well, while we're here,
let's see what it sounds like gone this song or
that song. And the next thing, you know, I was like, Wow,
(25:27):
let's see what it sounds like. Put them on almost
every song and it was really interesting, especially with the
Mister Soul because that thing is really really rocking, and
you know, you wouldn't think about putting a horn section
on a song at wrongs like that, but it was
actually a really cool experiment, sounded great, and so because
I had used them on so much of the record,
then I decided I need to bring horns out of
(25:49):
the road, and so then we took them out and
we had a horn section out on the road, and
that was cool for us and for the fans too.
Because there's a lot of fans that have seen us
many times over the decades, and it gives them a
new experience in the live setting, and us as well musically.
So we've got to continued that. There's horns all over
(26:09):
the new record, Dirt on my Diamonds, both of them
Volume one and Volume two, and you know, it's cool.
Like I said, it brings a different vibe to the band,
and it musically, every time you add or subtract an
instrument to the band, then it affects every all the
other players and so then you have to adjust accordingly.
(26:30):
So it keeps everybody on their toes music as well.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Do you think sometimes there's too much perfection in the
way things are produced these days in general?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
No? No, because no, because there's not. I mean, it
depends on what you're talking about. But like pop music,
like the really popular stuff nowadays, they're not striving for perfection.
Those people are like a lot of it. I'm not
saying anybody in particular, but you know when you hear
these songs and pop music becomes so saturated that like
(27:04):
you could hear like you could listen to the radio
and you could hear like five different songs and they
all sound like they could be the same artists, yep,
but different artists. That's the lowest common denominator. That's not
striving for perfection. That's trying to cash in on what's trending.
You know, it's not striving to be the best you
can eat. It's so no. I mean, you know, I
(27:27):
do think that there are some artists certainly that are
striving for perfection, and we kind of walk the line
between you know, being the We strive to be the
best we can be on any given day, right, But
I also know, like the whole that you can dig
(27:48):
yourself if you start overanalyzing things and going down the
rabbit hole. It's like, you know, trying to make things
perfect if you because if you try to make things perfect,
then it also it can possibly lose the realness in
the music, you know, because because it's too perfect. So
(28:08):
I embrace some of the flaws. And my goal actually
from my band, I feel the best representation of what
we do is to capture the essence of a live
performance in studio. So that means that like sometimes you know,
there may be a missed lick here and there, or
something is not perfect, but we got the vibe and
(28:30):
the energy is there and that's what's most important, and
so that's the track that we're going to use.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I love how you have the respect for, you know,
so many of the greats you know before you, and
how you've never been bashful at shining a light on
you know. I'll just think of you know, Pinetop Perkins
as an example, and I think that's so sweet on
how you've always approached the past and the history. But
(28:59):
I think also just going back to what we talked
about earlier, your you know, open mindedness to other things
that are part of the present as well that you
really embrace. Is there anybody in the present that you
embrace that you want to tell us about and shine
a light up?
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Well, I think there's a lot of there's a lot
of good young talent out there, and I don't I'm
aware of just about all of them because I like
watching you know, who's coming up next. And it's also
interesting to be on this side of the equation now
because at one point I was like, you know, part
of the generation that we were the new blood. We
(29:38):
were the young guns, the up and comers, and now
I'm transitioning into like, you know, I'm kind of becoming
part of the older generation. I'm watching the new young
generation come up, so and it's nice to watch that
because it brings back a lot of that BS and
it also helps me to to feel, you know, reassured.
I think like a lot of my heroes did that.
(29:59):
The He's going to continue because there's new life being
brought into it. But so there's a long list, I mean,
just off the top line head some of the people
out here on this Hendrix tour that I'm doing. Christine
kingfish Ingram, I mean, he's already made an incredible name
for himself, a great player, great singer. It's already I
think he's already won like two Grammys. I mean, you know,
(30:20):
the guy's he's an incredible musician. And there's some ladies
out there that doing a killer job. I mean, Shamika Couple,
she's part of my job, but like I think she's
incredible and uh, and then you have Samantha Fish and
she's just blazing hot at Ali Bettibles is blazon and
trail for herself. And you know, there's the list goes
(30:41):
on and on. There's a lot of but those are
just a jew off the top of my head.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
You had some great history with Van Halen, including you know,
touring obviously with them on the last tour. Can you
talk about the experience of working with van Halen.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yeah, well, so, I mean, we have a lot of history.
It's really interesting how far back our history goes. But
I toured with Van Halen in the nineties when they
were van Halen three and they had Gary Scharon. It's
elite here. So that was my first tour with Halen,
did that whole tour with them, and that's when Ed
and I became friends and maintained a friendship all the
(31:21):
way up until when he passed away. And so we
did the nineties tour with them, and then we were
asked to come back in twenty fifteen and we did
what was to be the last Van Halen tour ever,
which nobody knew at the time. Obviously, spent a lot
of time with him, especially in twenty fifteen on that tour.
Every day another like Bob Dylan, like every day Ed
(31:44):
came and found me wherever I was at and we
sat and talked, and you know, he always went out
of his way to spend time with me, to make
me feel important and that was really special. And so
he's another one of those guys where you can hear
it just depends on who you're talking to, you know,
it's like and which side of the story that person
(32:05):
was on. But like, he had never he could not
have been nicer to me, and he had never presented
himself as anything other than a very very kind person
and really outgoing, like in regards to sharing his time
and his friendship with me. But backing all the way up,
like our families are kind of linked in an interesting
(32:29):
way because my dad is the guy that actually brought
Valerie Burtnelly and her brothers to their first Van Halen
concert back in like the nineteen eighties when I was
a kid, which is where and he brought he got
them backstage to meet van Halen, and that's the night
(32:50):
that Valerie met Eddie van Halen and they start and
they that was the beginning of their relationship. And so
you know, we actually our paths are linked all the
way back to when I was hid because of that,
and it's kind of fascinating if you look at that,
you go, wow, there's that moment and then you know,
(33:12):
in the nineteen nineties, I'm out on the road with
those guys opening up for them, and then again in
twenty fifteen, and you know, got this friendship going with it.
It's pretty interesting, you know, how intertwined to a certain
degree our families are.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Where have you got these amazing guitars that you have
as part of your collection? The sixty one Strat and
I think it's a Monterey Strap.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Where did you pick these up? All different places?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, it just depends on the guitar. But the sixty
one I got at the Guitar Center in Hollywood on
Sunset Boulevard podcast. I was probably eighteen years old when
I was finally able to buy that guitar. And then
the Monterey strap. My dad gave that to me as
a birthday president. I want to say when I was
en maybe twenty, but I think nineteen. And I mean
(34:05):
every guitar has kind of a different story behind it,
you know. I got a fifty fifty eight Strat. I
was on the road with Van Halen in the nineties
and I did an in store autographs signing any guitar
center in Houston, Texas before the show that night, and
once I finished signing all the autographs, I looked up
on the wall and there was just mint condition fifty
(34:25):
eight strat hanging on the wall. So I left Guitar
Center with that guitar that night and proceeded to play
it on the tour for the rest of the tour
and for many years after that. Still have that guitar.
So everyone kind of has some little special story. And
you know, I've never sold any of my gear, so
I kind of get I don't know, I've become sentimentally
(34:48):
attached to my instruments and stuff because they all I
kind of have a certain experience attached.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I think they're attached to you as well.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah, maybe so, you know.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
In closing, if there was a sixteen year old up
and coming musician who was just starting out maybe who
just got signed, what advice from your time would you
give that individual on how they could kind of make
it in this awesome business but this difficult business.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Well, the thing is is there's so many things are
so different today than they were when I was sixteen
and signed my record. When I was yelling, there was
no such thing as the internet, so the only way
you could really get exposure was by getting out and
putting a band together and playing you know, at least
dive bars and just trying to build a name for
(35:45):
yourself and a small fan base and some kind of momentum,
you know. And so nowadays you have like social media,
and you know, every and you can record stuff on
your cell phone. Every computer comes with some kind of
recording program in it. People are making records in their bedrooms,
(36:07):
and so there's so many opportunities that are available to
young artists today that didn't exist what I was a kid.
But you know, the one thing that the one thing
that I think is really most important is I never
got into playing mutsic. I wasn't seeing dollar signs and
(36:27):
music awards, you know, I was looking at people that
were heroes to me, that inspired me and motivated me
to try and make my instrument sound something like them.
And I just got personal satisfaction out of that, Like
it genuine and genuinely made me happy, you know, putting
(36:50):
in the work and then seeing it payoffs. Where like
I was trying so hard to play this slick, finally
I figured out how to do it, you know, and
that accomplishment and then the next accomplishment just learning how
to play and so that evolved into a career for me,
and you know, I've been able to do it now.
I've gone three decades and I got a loyal fan base,
(37:12):
and I'm grateful for all of that. I'm able to
support my family doing what I love to do. But
at the end of the day, it's like, especially with
the social media, and you start looking at the numbers
and you start going how many people are following me
and I posted up a clip of some music and
how many people liked it, And it's like they're good tools,
but it's also a lot of ambunition to beat yourself up,
(37:33):
you know, and for a lot of disappointment. And so
at the end of the day, you know, I don't
know what life would be like if it took a
different path for me, because this is the path that
I'm on. But I know that I just wasn't in
the beginning. I wasn't concerned about it. I wasn't even
I was just thrilled to have an opportunity to play
(37:53):
my instrument. And so if you just play music for
the love of playing music, and that's your reason for
doing it, then there won't be all this disappointment attached
to it. You know, because you can still appreciate playing
your instrument because of the personal satisfaction, and then if
(38:15):
all that other stuff comes along with it, then that's
just icing on the cake. And then you've got to
figure out how to navigate that when it comes. But
I just feel like it. There's so many people that like,
this is the age of instant gratification, and you have
to be patient and you have to just accept whatever
(38:35):
is going to happen is what's going to happen, and
you just you know, if you're going to pursue it,
put your best into it, and if it works out,
then that's fantastic. You have to give it one hundred
percent minimum. But if it doesn't work out, that's okay too,
Like that's all right. Don't let it take away your
joy of playing music.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Keep slinging Virtual high five Kenny, Wayne Shephard, thanks for
being on Take It Away.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Thank thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking
a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your
friends and follow us so you never miss an episode.
Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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