Aaron Neville

Aaron Neville has a new autobiography, "Tell It Like It Is," wherein he is brutally honest about his life...his drug use, his joyriding, his incarceration and his ultimate musical triumph. We delve into the highlights of Aaron's life here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
My guest today is the one and only Aaron Neville,
who's got a brand new autobiography. Tell it like it is, Aaron,
Why a book? Why now say liked?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
And why not? Well, I mean, I don't know how
many more? Yes, I figured I just do it while
I'm still got on my mind. Some of my mind anyway,
you know, was left of it.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
So how did you actually write the book?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
With a wonderful writer, her name is Beth Edelman, and
she told me the first things that I want this
book in your voice. And that's what he did. He
put it in my voice.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
But absolutely seems that way. Okay, a couple of things.
You mentioned a number of things in your book. You
say you're retired. Tell me about being retired.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, I'm retired. Uh. When the COVID pandemic came in
two thousand and maybe twenty, Uh, I was supposed to
go to California and Sarah to him and she don't
think I should be on the airplane six hours and
with you know, with this thing going around, because they
were taking people and taking the temperature and if they

(01:26):
had a fever or something. They put them in quarantine
and some of them wind up dying by theyself somewhere,
and I just, you know, I'm glad she decided me
not to go. And through the years I've and I've
been doing a little singing, but I have asthma, and
I don't have the breadth to you know, hit the
notes like I used to, Just like Lynda Rond says,

(01:46):
say she didn't want to cheat the people. You know,
I wouldn't want to go out there and old though
he don't sound you know, you know I got records.
You know that's thinking to hear all they wanted me
on the record. I still call them records.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I do too. Okay, Uh do you miss it?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
You know, in a little I don't miss none of
the traveling and hotels and buses and all that special airports.
I call that airport agony, especially what's going on right now.
But people are just getting stuck in airports for a week.
And I've had that done that. You know, your your

(02:31):
flight has been canceled and we don't know where your
luggage is.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, you grew up in New Orleans, but you're living
up in New York State on a farm. That's really different.
What's it like?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
It's great, it's mondful. I mean this place they have
is so beautiful, and it's like I call it in
Shanton Forest because we have all kinds of animals, bad deer,
we have fox, we have rabbits, we have all kinds
of birds and and it's just peaceful, you know. So
like we kind of cut back on the farm. But

(03:08):
Sarah's still making the air and level. He looks her.
She mixed with a tumor of ginger, cayenne, honey and
lemon and what else the upple side of vinegar and
something I drink every day.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Wow, it's keeping in good health. So, but living in
the city and living in the country is different. Do
you have friends you see in the country. Are you
more of a loner or you a social kind of guy?
What kind of guy are you?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
I have three cats, a dog, me and Sarah, you know, so, hey,
I see the male man. I mean, you know, I
get out sometimes. It took a ride, Yester, gone for
like a few hours, get to see people. But that's
that's the enough for right now. With all the stuff
going on as well.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
And you talk in the book about staying in contact
with some people by the phone. So in phone or
in email, you staying in contact with people, how much
you're talking connecting.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
I have a couple of few friends, like Morvin. He
and I grew up together. He's in the book. We've
done some stuff together. We talk about uh pity Pat
talk to him every day. He's got cancer and so
I try to, you know, help him field have a
feel good day, you know. And my keyboard player, Mike Goods,

(04:36):
we talk every day, and I talk to my kids.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
And how about email? Do you use the computer?

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Nah? Not really. I mean I can send the email
on my phone, you know, the computer. I'm not computer
sad at all.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Okay, most of the book is about you growing up
and all the bad activities and all the trouble you
got in. Was that conscious? You wanted to lay that
out that there's much more of that than your music career.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
The thing about it, I couldn't have, you know, done
the book. What I'm telling it all, you know, I'm telling
it like it is and like it was, and that's
how it was back in those days. I was stuck
and stupid a lot of times, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
So tell me what it was like, you know, New
Orleans has a different legal system a lot of people
in what way, since you've traveled the world, is New
Orleans different from the rest of the country and the
rest of the world.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
New Orleans is like my brother Sarah says, that an
island that's stuck onto the United States because it's a
mixture of all kinds of different cultures. You know. They
have a Caribbean, trans Italian, Kish, and Creole, you name it,
and it's you know, you your bond with music. All

(06:01):
through your life there's music, and you're gonna die with music.
With the second line, you.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Know, Okay, So, uh, tell me about your family growing up.
So when what did your parents do for a living.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, my dad when we were kids, him and my
uncle Jolly was my mother's brother, George Landry. They were
merchant marines. They would go out on the on the ships.
A couple of times they got shot at me. One
time they almost the ship almost got sunk. And then
when when he was home, he he was a cab driver.

(06:40):
He worked in a furnished, a moving place. They worked
at a car place. They worked, he worked at the
boys home. He was he was a he was a trooper,
you know, and my mother. She took care of us
while they were gone, and she uh went to beauty

(07:00):
school while we went the project. Then she went to
nursing school so she could fix her hair and help
people in the hospital.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
And how many kids in the family, Well, there.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Was six of us. There was Aunt Charles, me, Myla,
my brother Cyril, and our younger sister cook It she
died in nineteen seventy one.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
And you know, if your father's out on the boat
and your mother's there and there's all those kids, how
much supervision was there or could you do whatever you wanted?

Speaker 2 (07:37):
No, it wasn't that. It is a respecting you know.
My mom was the greatest. Well we would as she
would have us. Well, first it was just met Charles,
and when I was three years old, my sister came
and Syly didn come till about seven years later. So,
but my mom used to be on the floor with us,
playing games and telling reading stories and whatever my mom

(08:01):
should have done, she did it. You know. She always
had a smile on her face and uh always made
hers still good, you know.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
And were you a good student? Bad student?

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I was a good student, But think about it, I
always had a song in my head, you know. So
I don't know if the teachers thought, the nuns thought
I had had the deal whatever. A lot of times
I was like, yeah, got a song going in my head.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
So tell me more about you know where this was
there music in the house and you started to sing along.
How did you ultimately get interested in music admitting by
the music bug?

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Well, my mother and father were big nactin cole Fans.
They had all his records and h Charles Brown and
Louis Jordan, uh Dinah Washington and and before we were born,
my mother and her brother Jolly was song and dance team.

(09:07):
I mean they were the best dancers in the Organs
and they had a chance to go out on the
road with Louis Prima. My grandmother wouldn't let him go
because of the Jim Crow laws. They say they wouldn't
have been treated to night right, you know. So my
mother said that she would never stop any of us
from our you know dream, So she let Charles go
out when he was fifteen. She signed for me to

(09:29):
play in the French quarters when I was fifteen with
a whole blind band, and they used to put on
the show sometimes and I host in the project. The
jolly would throw my mom over his back and between
his legs, and Lindy happened all that, you know, and
she taught us how to dance.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Okay, when did you realize you could sing?

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Uh? My brother Ought said, when I was a kid
in the in the crib by just staying fell asleep.
So I guess I was trying then. But I used
to mimic nating cool and I used to sing. I
went to the movies. I was about eleven, something like that.

(10:12):
I sang mona Lisa, pretend none of that songs. And
he let me in, give me candy and all. And
my brother Or had a do wop group. They would
sit out on the park bench in the evening and harmonized,
and they would go around and win the talent shows
and get the girls and all, you know. And I

(10:32):
used to run up to them and they'd run me away,
get away to me my kids. You know. I just
I was persistent. I kept on. He was odd. A
guy named issacle Garden we called him easy cool. And
a dude named Turk. And finally Isaul said, hey, Kevin.
He called me Kevin. I don't know why, but I
didn't care just love. He said, you hit this note,

(10:54):
and he showed me the note. Then before you know it,
they were showing me all the notes how to do
the harmonies, which I had later on with the Mickey
Mouse Morse. I'm doing all the background, but doctor John
is playing the keyboard, Rob Watson and starg Us, I'm
doing all the background. Uh, the thether Brothers, Uh, Bird

(11:15):
on the wire. I'm doing all the background and from
them teaching me.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Okay, And at what point did you say, I want
to make it this, I want this to be a career.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
I didn't know about a career and all that, but
all I knew I wanted to sing. You know. I'd
go to the movies and I look at the the
Cowboys and I'd come out at the moving back in
the project and I'd be yodling, and you know, had
a mopstick named Pimo Sabi because my host and uh

(11:49):
it was just and my brother Ought worked at a
record shop and he used to bring along all of
the records. But like the Clovers and Over the Sunny Tilon,
the Oreos, the Hawk Tom's and different groups. Climac Fatter

(12:09):
Clid mcfatter was one of my favorite inspirations. H besides
nakink cold because Clyde had that high tenor, you know,
and my brother Aught had had a real high tenor,
like a strong high tenor. But I don't think they
ever gave his voice the right you know.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Okay, what was it like growing up in the projects?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Man? It was like paradise back then. You know. It
was like a village. You know, everybody knew everybody. And
we had a big oval playground but concrete that went around.
We could state on or ride a bicycle. We played football,
We played at marbles and spinning tops and kites all

(12:58):
in that in that space, and it was like, you know,
it was just a great place.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
And you talk about football, were you a sportsman.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Back in the days? Then I got to be a
teenage I played sandlot football, you know, on the leveo,
on the medium, on the neutral ground.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Okay. You talk about hearing about heroin and wanting to
try it, you know, I was growing up they had
all these TV shows saying not to try it. So
what was it like? And tell me about that experience.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
I heard all that, but not to try it. But
I mean something inside of me was inquisitive, you know,
I was inquisitive. You I'm fella. As soon as I
got to be of age and I saw somebody else
doing it, I said, hey, man, hook me up, you know.
And it happened to be my brother with his gug Bob,

(14:00):
and uh so I was playing music on the weekends,
making you know, twenty dollars a night or whatever. That
was big money back then. So I come to him
and told him that I want to school, you know.
So he got it and he taught me out of
the first time. No, you you shouldn't do this, Okay,

(14:21):
I ain't gonna do it next time. Next day, I said,
didn't some more? I want to get some more and
I'm gonna do it. And I did it. And it
was on that.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
And so you did it? How did you do it?
Did you snort? Did you pop? Do you inject?

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Uh? Charles's girlfriend, Bob. She tied me up and caught
me with the you know, my band. She said, oh,
you got a million dollar bands. I hadn't never done
that until, you know, there was a million dollar bands then,
and uh hey, I fell in love with it. And
it wasn't in love with me though, you know, And

(15:00):
it didn't kill me that until late on.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
So it lived up to your thoughts of what it
was going to be. Oh yeah, but many people say,
like with any drug, you know it's good at first,
and then you're always chasing that initial hide. It never
lives up to it.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
That's what it called chased, the chasing the dragon, because
you're looking for that first hit. You never get that
in i' montell yo, d.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
So, okay, you have this girlfriend Joelle, but her family
doesn't like you, so tell me about that.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, it's like this also when I was sixteen, I
got this tattoo in my face. On my sixteenth birthday,
I had been down in the night walk. My boy
Melvin had just moved on the night once, so I
went and the night wab was like, you know, a
rough area because the guy back down there used to say,

(16:03):
I'm from the nine and I don't mind dying. All
kind of stupid ship like that. And uh so I
had Melvin's uncle's pistol, wasn't it And we took taking
goofballs and all the you know, abitious And I'm down
in the Sweet Sweet shop looking at the recast record

(16:24):
box and couldn't hold of sea and they have my
hands in my pocket and I felt some hands on
my shoulder turn me around. I thought it was Melvin,
go introduce me to somebody, and this big tall guy
turned me around and punched me out and knocked me
back up against the recast box and I run my
tongue across my teeth and he cracked my teeth, and
that was the most. I didn't care about getting punched,

(16:48):
but he cracked my teeth, and I come up and
I shot him, and uh Me and Melvin left out
the joint h and ran because I mean we were scared.
I didn't want hill him, you know, But then we
found out that he wasn't dead. And anyway said about
my my wife's people. I had a tattoo. I had

(17:12):
to get gold teeth in my mouth from that punch.
You know, I had gold teeth. My hair was processed
be call of the counk. So I looking at him,
and I can I blame mister Rufe and I want
me to come around his daughter, you know.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
So how did you convince them that you were okay?

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Because she let him know that she wanted to be
with me, So you know, I'd go up there and
sit on the sofa sometime, and I play a piano
or whatever. When my dad would come home, he used
to wait for his sister watching her ballroom, so he
had to spoti five come on arm in the newspaper
on the other arm, and he come in and said, hey,

(17:51):
mister Route, and he said, all right, groll and he
spanks up from being with me. But she, you know,
I don't know. I guess it was a bad boy
in me. Whatever she liked, you know, well, we loved
each other.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Okay, let's go back a step. Tell us more about
the dagger tattoo on your face.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well, back in the projects at cross right here or
something or something here, one guy at a scull and cross.
This is almost a scull and crossbond. I'm glad it wasn't,
because my daddy would have commit murdered. So with this,
he made me scrubbed with drill opad and out the
consult and I look at him not and I have

(18:37):
no idea why i'd done that.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Okay, So you're telling me at the time to have
a face tattoo was not that uncommon where you were living.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
No, it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Okay, And then as you continue to live your life
to what the greeded people comment about that tattoo word
judge you on that tattoo.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Oh, they had all kinds of rumors out Bet. Later
on they said, oh, that tatoos stopped even going on
American Bandstand. I never was s gedully going on to
American bands dance that I was just a rumor and
when I go on showed they put makeup on him
to cover it up or whatever. You know.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
You also make the point about the spot above your
eye that your mother said that the doctor said that
he could have it removed, but you said, it's like
one of the greatest She said no, and you said,
that's one of the best things that's ever you know,
been about you.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, I'm glad she didn't get it taken off. You know.
It's like it's me And like when the guys used
to call me in Melvin moble Face, and Melvin he
thought I didn't they were dissing me. I said, oh yeah,
mobile Face. You know after that, I used to say
when I got to be friends. But some of the
wrestlers bet Bet, the hit Man, Heart, Cactus Jack, h

(20:00):
a bunch of them. I used to stay if I
was gonna be in the wrestler that my Monica would
be mole faith.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
But little kids or you know, can be really mean.
When you were a little kid, did people bother you
about the mool.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
No, not really No. I think it was something God
put there for a reason. You know. It was like
a beacon, you know, is the respect.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Okay, So you're growing up, you're growing in the projects.
Did you feel what was the vibe in the world
you were living in that you could break out and
become rich and famous? Or it was about everyday life
and just be happy where you are.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Every day life, be happy like you. Oh, I know
nothing about no riches than anything like that. Then they
didn't cross my mind back in the project. Oh I
was rich if I had a fact full of marbles,
you know, and some candidate. I'm cool because like one
of my first jobs at Saint Monica's Catholic School was
cleaning the boys in the girl's bathroom and not keeping

(21:13):
it with enough money to buy marbles and candid.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Ultimately, Joe Well gets pregnant, you get married, you drop
out of school. Tell me about that.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah, Well, we had went to the this movie. She
told her mama was going to the movie, and uh,
and people always bragging about how many girls didn't had
and all that. Joy was the first girl I ever went,
you know. But she told her mama was going to

(21:47):
see a movie called Vera Cruz. And she got pregnant
then and we went back in the Mama said, well,
what the movie was about? He said, oh, very was cruising.
Mom looked at a relations crazy but uh. And then
nine months later, I haven't came up, but they turned it.
He was there and then they turned him.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
And I, okay, what are her parents say when it
turns out that Joel is pregnant.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
I don't know, but this it didn't say nothing to me.
They probably said they wanted to rather beat her. I
don't know her dad was, you know, because he's a
rough character.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
But okay, so to what degree are you freaked out?
You're student teeth.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
I'm not a freaking I love Joe and I wanted
to marry. I tell my mom I wanted to marry
because he got married on January the tenth, and the
ship my mom assigned for me, I didn't make eighteen
till January twenty fourth. I couldn't wait that long. I
wanted to, you know, and Joe's parents didn't come to

(22:53):
the wedding, and my friend Marvin Melvin was in penitentia,
so Marvin was my best man, and uh, I think
her friend and the army was up, made a made
a minor whatever, and my parents were.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
At And that's when you dropped out of high school.
And so how did you provide for the family.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, I was working night it jobs like uh at
one time, helping to build pre prefabricated houses. Uh. Me
and my friend Varne and we started painting together, and
uh later on I started working on the riverfront. But
that was about later on, unloading cargo ships on the ducks.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Okay, so Aaron is born, you get arrested, and the
family changes his name to Ivan, right, tell us about
getting arrested.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Well, me and Marvin stagged league little Red and and
Charles and a guy named Robert who was planning on
going to this picnic that Joe's school was giving up
and beat the spring Louisiana and uh so me and
Marvin said we're gonna get a call to go out there,

(24:17):
and Robert Blason, I'm gonna help my daddy called and
so sure enough he came up and had his daddy's car,
as we thought anyway, but me and Marvin had got
one that night before and stashed it. So we all
run up to the picnic and the whole while he's saying, oh,
I'm gonna call after calling a A motors. Something happened
be wrong my daddy call. He's gonna be mad because

(24:37):
I was supposed to go and look for a job
and blah blah. He's putting it in our heads, you know.
So meanwhile, something happened to the car, and me and
Marvin have got in the ford and uh drove to
driving to the fellow station and see if and get
something to fix the chiproleet. And while we driving, some
friends about passing the car, and Marma said catching, and

(25:00):
I stepped on the gas and all of a sudden
I looked up there and stopped that intersection and I
hit break the brakes forward, I said, break the stuff,
and we hit him and knock him by half a block.
Then we told him said, look, uh, don't call the police.
Were straighten up. We'll straighten up and we get back in.
We could straighten up and anything, you know. So anyway,
we made our story. We won't in the food was

(25:22):
in the shiverlet and we walked down the highway and
hit him. The police said, was all in that foot. No,
we went in and Shivelet come to see by getting
something to fix it. They left. They come back then,
the two of them in the covered shotgun tot y'all
say you're one in that damn car. Now we want
to carkis to in this card. It brought us in
the car, brought us a little jail house and uh

(25:47):
so we still to our store. We want in the
fobs and shiverlet police come here. You the driver. Driver,
I'm I don't even have no driver less, he said,
come out of there. I'm sitting in the car and
the front seat he hit, hitting a little slapjack in
his hand like that. And now I reme much you
going on tell me the truth? I said, I didn't
tell you the truth of it. And here on the radio,

(26:09):
come on the Ford Bostos and solah blah blah, and
the chepher that said, no, did you note that's Robert
he's knowing no robber Blue did it? Cause I said,
I told you, And suppose of them damn call us out.
So that's how that went.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Down, And how long Were you in jail that time?

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Six months?

Speaker 1 (26:30):
So now you talk about the state prison in Gola,
it's being pretty rough. Were you in Angola at that point?

Speaker 2 (26:38):
No, I was in the New Orleans Spanish prison, and
I looked like I was trying to get the Angola,
but I never made it. My brother Charles did almost
four years in Angola for two marijuana cigarettes. So, uh,
the guy I did say, I'd be glad to start
giving you all ten years of stealing the people. Cause

(26:59):
so no, I went past prison.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Okay, So what was it like being in prison?

Speaker 2 (27:04):
It was It was kind of fun. Really. The first
night I was in there, I had a dream that
I had broke out and I was having fun all
around the Orleans and all of a sudden I had
to get back in or something bad is gonna happen,
and I'm trying every kind of way at them. I
couldn't get back in. On open my eyes and saw
the balls. I said, that was crazy. I mean, you know,

(27:27):
had had some assholes, and then some time that did
be fighting over stuff like looking at the television at
the Mickey Mouse Club. Uh, and and that show us
my girl I was here before you. That's getting a
fight about and that when they sell.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
It, so we hear you know all about prisons with
fights and gangs and arguing over stuff. Was that your experience?

Speaker 2 (27:53):
No, that wasn't all. That wasn't like that all they had,
you know, some of the tears was like stupid dead
one tail called X. And then at one time they
was calling it the house a shop because they had
this guy in the urban Stell the stand and Crabby.
There were two assholes. I mean they would they would
be down there beating up dudes and they wound up

(28:16):
going to penitentia doing the same ship. And uh I
when I first went in, I got a reds of
blad and I melted it down in a toothbrush to
make a shame, which I never had to use. I'm glad.
And we did a lot of singing. You know, everybody

(28:39):
go to jail, they think they can sing. So you
know they saw singing spirituals that they get the holy
goes to ooh Lord here mercy.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Okay, what does Joel say when you get arrested?

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Well, Christian say, I mean I'm going to jail.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
You know.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
That's when they changed I have a name to from
into having and it.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
You know, you make a big point about that in
the book. Are you still pissed about it?

Speaker 2 (29:07):
No? No, I mean no, I got my understanding is
way better than it was back then, you know.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Okay. Another thing which you referenced in your story with
a Ford and Chevrolet, is it you guys were stealing
cars on a regular basis.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Well, I don't know. It made it so easy. All
you needed was sel a papery to stigarette, pack, ball
it up and put it behind the next ignition on
the three schools and put it in a loose in
the study. I mean, you know, hey, who did something
like that? So?

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Would you steal a car because you had to get somewhere?
Or did you steal a car because like there's nothing
better to do, let's go joy riding.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
This jar riding? You know, that's it? And uh, one
time me and Melvine he kept one for about a month.
They had a red Uh, but it was fifty one
convertible Plymouth. We kept it for about a month. It
was stash it and be washing it like it was ours.
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Weren't you worried that someone was gonna be looking for
the car?

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Well, you know, somebody's gonna be looking for it. And
then you know the one time me and Melvin riding
and the police pull up on the side and look
in the car and didn't see no key. That right,
pull over.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Now you make a point in the book that you're
constantly returning the cars in perfect shape.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
But let's say that must have cracked.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
You must have cracked up a few.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Another, but just cracked that one up coming from the picnic.
You know, Other than that, we bucked them close to
the where it took them.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
And when did you get your first car?

Speaker 2 (30:48):
By nineteen seventy eight? It was the last of the
big thunderbirds. It was like my pride and joy. It
was silver and red.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
And how long did you have that car?

Speaker 2 (31:04):
A few years until because that was seventy eight, probably
tell about uh eighty maen.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Okay, So at this point in time, you're married, you
get out of jail, you have a kid. What are
you doing for work? Then?

Speaker 2 (31:28):
I had to work on the docks on I worked
grand boats. I had coffee boats, what else, rubber, cotton,
you name it all. I'm down the river. It never
was in the same spozzy, you know. That's that made
it so cool and they paid good.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
But that's backbreaking work. That's really hard work.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Thing about it, I said, if another man can do it,
I can't do it. But that fact a how I
messed my backup back then, because you know, we want
I didn't know know about using your legs and all that.
We just bent over and manhouding, which is actually man
holding us. So but because the older guys they had
a niche to but it didn't make the thing. They

(32:15):
had one initial lift and the rest of the time
it's gotten, just gotten it, you know. And they made
it easy and we caught on later on, But before
that was breaking our back.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
But you go on that you have had back problems
as a result of that.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Probably that and other I don't know what else, but
I'm not I never used my legs to bend over
and pick up heavy you know, coffee sacks and the
earl drums, turning them and and they had this hook
and the club on one hand, and one time I
took the hook all them right through my wrists. Yeah,

(32:54):
it was you're.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Thankful And to what where are you singing at this point?

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Well, since you said that, I'd be down in the
ship old singing, and the guy said, man, you think
gonna have been just being in the ship, oh you know,
to be on TV even uh this or that, you know?
And I said, no, man, I got a family see it,
and I'm gonna be down in the ship. Will one
day I'll get out, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
And how do you ultimately make records back then? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (33:28):
How did you get your deal?

Speaker 1 (33:29):
You ultimately do? Tell it like it is? How much
recording enough.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
It is?

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Tell me, like to tell me the story.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
When I got out of jail in nineteen sixty, that's
when Lara Williams came down and another distract named Lara McKinley,
and they hooked me up with many records with Alan
Tuccent and I got to recall my first record, alln
Tu Cent Rover Uncle over You. I wrote running the
in the Paris prisonal call every day about knowing I'm

(34:01):
dreaming of the dead, that I'll be home soon. Every
day long about three I'm dreaming of the dead. I'll
be free. You know. That was my first record, and
that's when I went on the road with Lead Williams.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Okay, you make the point that even though that was
a gigantic kid, you got almost no money.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
No money. Well, I mean the first one they was
telling me that, uh, you know, go get the bat
and rude or something like that. You know, it's that
fine over you. Was on the Charice on the R
and beach charts. Anyway, it might have been on the
regular shot our remembers, but a while back. But uh,
I went on the road, and I remember Rachelle was

(34:44):
telling me he'd be able dubb that song over you.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
So let's just go back before you're on the road
to what degree is racism or problem? And we're in
New Orleans when you're growing up.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
But what racism, Well, I mean, you know, think about
it relected to bothers. It was a place where you know,
you could go on places you know you wasn't supposed
to go, you know, but uh we went sometimes vented
in the place we weren't supposed to go. And uh

(35:18):
like like to say, uh, sometimes you go in the
grocery store and buying something and you get a personal money,
they throw your chains back at you or something like that,
and you know, and like in the project, I didn't
know anything about no racism. You know, there's only white

(35:39):
people I saw. Really was the priests and the nuns
at the school or the grocery man would have you know.
And most of the guys around the project they were cool.
But you know, you on Balance after they moved on
Balance Street there Lebruso's grocery. This guy, he was nice.

(35:59):
The majority of them, they they didn't want to touch
your hand and ship like that. You know.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
And but you you talk about the police stopping you
for no good reason and putting you in jail for
seventy two hours.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, well that was the thing, that a thing called
pendent investigation. So me and my bothers be you know,
just hanging it. One time the police jumps out and
my mama's step His name was Turtle, and uh, he said,
aarone coming in the car, he said, man, when I'm
going to jailer he said, oh, well, thank you something
by the time we get to the priest, you know,

(36:35):
stuff like that. And uh. They had one night in
the alley between two ballrooms, me and my brother Cyril
and a guy named Jake who I made the song
Brother Jake about. His name was Alfred Rudolph. The police
had come there, told I'm just standing in front of

(36:55):
the front of the bar and so I said, man,
I'm tired of being like a roach. Every time the
light come on. We gotta run. And so Jake pulled
up there and I went out to tell them to
come on the joint. And the police must have just
popped around the corner to come foop right around it.
So me and Jake and Cyril went back in his
alley and one of them stood by the gate. Let

(37:18):
me tell you their now, Barroard Marie. Marie stood by
the by the gate, and Bararard came in and for
summer reason, he hit Cyril. With Cyril and Jake. They
were militant, you know, they were like the cyril name
was Umbuku and uh. He hit her with that big
long flashlight and I saw a color I had never

(37:38):
seen before. It was like called the mom and the truth.
I grabbed this guy's hand and if he's alive today,
he got my fingerprints in his in his wrists. And
I looked a him. I could see the man at
the gate sent playing please note because he saw what
I was gonna do. I was gonna grab the gun,
I said, hit my brother back in. He said, you're
all gonna die in this fucking alley, you know, and

(37:59):
he was trembling, and and suddenly that god was there.
Gods didn't know him, going on, go to jail and
get the ship over you know. So I told a certainly, come,
let's go down and get out and go to jail,
go to central locker. They put us in the car,
brought us to Napoleon and Britannia. There about seven cars
the police waiting. If I wouldn't have been there, they

(38:21):
probably killed Jake and Cyril with the man howling and
pulling him out the car. They took her and get
out the car. They know who you are and all
that shit, you know. And so I told something said,
may be cool, let's go to jail and get the
ship over with. So we did, and that's when Jake
we got out. Jake started in the song. I said

(38:42):
he had to ride the rail because he was started
hit shiking, I mean, catching freight trains around the country.
And when all the way around, come over down to Florida,
come back to New Orleans and went around one of
the score places, and the dude caught him off golden

(39:02):
and hit him and knock him down and head hit
the curve and he died. And uh so, me and
Cyril we had went to New York. But y'alls and
we come back. We're in the ballroom here the police
coming in Sam too. I said, okay, we're gonna get
this ship over knock. They had a wine out for us,
you know. So we get in the car and went

(39:23):
down there and just squashed the ship. But and while
we're in the car, bro looking at Aaron Nelt, Cyril Net,
Alfred Rudolph d o a y'all was glad to hear that,
said say, yeah, you probably had another one that that's
just still Please cool it, man, Let's go down and

(39:46):
get this ship over with. And so we did. But
it was one of them things, you know, like John
there for seventy two hours, and every time the ship changed,
they bring the central lock up and pushing in front
of the lineup. And if you happen to look like somebody,

(40:06):
you can wind up with a charge on. So, yeah,
it was that was part of my growing up, you know.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
So the people you grew up with, your friends, how
many are still alive and how many died before their time?

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Most of them died before the time. Marvin is still here.
Don Hobbard is still here. Pitt It Pat the one
I'm talking. He's got cancer up. But I talked to
him every day to lift his spirits and all. But
that's about it. You know. Another one just died. He

(40:44):
wasn't in the game and he's just it's time to
get out of here, you know. But most of them gone.
I saw him fall by the wayside.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
So you're in New Orleans. Facts dominoes from New Orleans.
He's gigantic in the fifties. To what degree were you
aware of the musicians were successful? And to what degree
did you come to know them? Doctor John, Allen Tussain
all these other people.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Well fast Domina. I thought he was the you know,
Ris or whatever, and uh, doctor John. He and I
ran the space together back in the day. Is you
know the first time I went in the studio. He
I'm gonna do some background on somebody who's recalling all Onta.
He recorded all my face stuff on Miny Records from

(41:39):
nineteen sixty to about sixty full stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Well, Alan and Mac were you know, these are icons
in America and the rest of the world. Were they
icons in New Orleans?

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Oh? Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
They spent okay, so Alter, you're on sure with Larry
Williams based on your head. Eventually you go to Los Angeles.
You fly there because Larry Williams is gonna help you
make it. Larry Williams has some success, but he turns
out to be a crook almost for sport.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Well he was. When we was on the road, he said,
I'm fat of being temped out here. That's what we
call it. See, I'm going on pimp and back to
LA And he did so. When I got up there,
he picking that from the airport. He stopped off at
a one of his little hotels, like told to one

(42:39):
of his women, and I can hear him up, you know,
speaking louds of whatever. And I'm sitting in the car
and the police pull up. Guys said, hey, it was polite.
Say how he said, who are you? Said, aaron Nevia
blah blah blah. So what do you to, mister Williams.

(43:00):
I said, it's gonna be my manager, Your manage it.
What do you you know you'll stick a man a
burglar or what a pimp? I said, No, I'm a singer.
He said, okay, well they call me Red. I move.
I'm out of Wilsa district. So I see you over there,
and a few days later I saw red over there.
He said, told you and that that it was on

(43:23):
every time we left the the house that get picked
up half the time.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Now ultimately you get arrested and join a firefighting crew.
Tell me about that.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Well that happened on I had done maybe with three burglars.
This is the third one. It's on Sunset Boulevard. And
a guy rant at a step in van with the
sliding doors, and it was a man's clothing store and
it was next to a woman's clothing store. The man's
clothing store at a Burgerlon. So they popped the lock

(43:58):
on the woman's store, went through the wall had a
hole this big, but you can walk, walked through the
arm little suits, so it looked like somebody that saw us.
And everybody left. It went different spots, and me and
a guy named Steve set out on this bench on Sunset.
So he said everything quieter would check out, so he went.

(44:22):
He stood. I said, must be all right, so I
went back. As I was coming towards the truck, I
heard some talking, so I slipped the door open, the
guy in and slid the door back closed, and I
could hear him as they getting closed, and guy, Michelle,
someone's in the place. And I'm high, I had hair

(44:42):
on and we eating coke, so I had to do
that to be done that dumb shit. So I'm all
kind of visions gone through my head. I'm trying to
pitch it, and the guy out, hey, what are you
doing that? And I said, man, be clean enough, leave
us alone. And the lady said, I didn't hire nobody
to clean up my police, and that shit was so

(45:03):
funny than me. I was tumble standing back of the
food in that damn truck, and all of a sudden
I heard Larry come out and they got in the squabbling,
and Larry hit to do it and knock him down.
The woman started screaming. The parking lot felled up. I'm
trying to get the door open, and it would not
open nothing. It would not budge until the Sheriff of
Hollywood and all them that. Then they slid up like

(45:25):
it was greased. I sat on the running board a
little cigarette and just waited, you know, And he come
up and said, what's that. I said, I guess I'm busted,
you know. But they ran Larry and them all through
the Hollywood heels and uh put me in the car
over the hand because behind my back from about that
was about ten o'clock till about three in the morning

(45:48):
while they calm in the hills, and right now I
got to click my thumb to get it right from
that handcuffed being so tight on my wrists and uh anyway,
the man asked me who was there. I'd give him
some phony names. He knew I was lying. He said,

(46:08):
I'm gonna send you to Saint Quentin. I said, I
guess that it was Saint Quentin, and uh Larry got
me out in a bond, got me a lawyer, and
the lawyer talked to the probation department and all that.
So uh I went to court sound guilty on two
cons at second degree burgers and then let me go

(46:31):
home for about a month to you know, well, come
back and do my time. So when I come back,
uh Larry had set it up for me to hang
out with these two girls then Audie and Kim who
ill called Chuckling and Vanilla, and uh I was hired.

(46:52):
I don't know what all happened at that, but they
were giving me a send off a party, and I
was trying to get hired, and start could feel them
and I got the jail. When I got in front
of the judge. It was supposed to be Judge brand
who my mom and Joe that wrote letters to and
all that he was supposed to go light and instead

(47:12):
Judge Brandt was on vacation and Start as I was
in there giving out time like it was free ice
water or something five to lfe, ten to twenty, you know,
all that kind of and I'm thinking about running and
I kept saying, no, it's run. You ain't gonna be
the same. So you got to take you issue. So
I stood in front of judge. I felt like I

(47:35):
was about two feet tall, and he said, Aaron Never's
found guilty of two counts to second green burglar. I
finally sent you with the love prescribe. He been saying
that to everybody. You know, my heart just sunk. He said,
one of fourteen years of Saint Quentin. And he said
but when he said but, I was holding on to

(47:56):
a piece of kite through it. But what he starts
to spend that time to put you on a three
year provision, providing you do the first year for the County.
Thank you Johanna, thank you Saint Jude, you know. And
uh so that was cool, you know. And I got

(48:17):
that to the central I mean not central lot to
Elie County and they had my hand because of this
black dude from Kelp from Texas. Told lanky dude to
walk around like he's the baddest line in the jungle.
You know, everybody come get out of my say, man,
you better freeze that ship man. And then we're walking

(48:39):
through the to the Ellie conneck. They got about ten
guys together and some dude and them, so take that
fucking hat off and the whole god, I didn't even
have no hell say tell your mama to take I
had a sucker and you know, I'm ready for whatever.

(48:59):
So the first thing the man say, well do you
want to do your time inside outside? That's a no brainer, man,
I'm want too much time outside. Okay. So I went
to the wayside on the Rancho close to Pasadena up
in the and what the mouth there was anyway, they

(49:20):
had a forest forest fire camp with a T shirt
to fight forest fires, and the place was like a
little town. It had like, uh fit the barracks on
one side, fit the on my side with yeah library
or uh where you eat and everything in the middle
and on the end there where you trained for the

(49:42):
forest fires. And I try to suck up everything and
try to learn it to the utmost so i'd be safe.
And this guy, Robert, he walking down the walk with
get out of my way, and he messed with a
couple doing had him hand up against the building and ship.
It didn't detern though, until we got to Camp eighteen,

(50:03):
which was we locked up and got officers barracks when
bricks and had the state of the old gym, cafeteria
and everything. All the rest of the camps are like shacks,
wooden shocks. So Robert, still acting stupid, he messed with
the little white dude, I'm gonna take the food or something.

(50:24):
Dude had him turn upside down. So he went to Siberia.
That's what they call the hole. You don't go to Siberia.
So we never seen him in the more and one day,
I'm the sergeant took a liking to me. He said,
what you doing in place like this? I said, I've
done some stupid shit, man, I gotta pay for it,

(50:44):
you know. And one day I was he got me
at the buffe his office, you know, with the buffer machine,
and one of my records came on and the man
said that was mister Aaron never so I said, no,
you mean missed sixteen nine fifty five. We left, but yeah,
so he was cool. Man. I was glad I was there.

(51:06):
And the forest fires back then wasn't like they are
the day though to day they on steroids.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
So how depressing was it to be in the work
camp with your record on the radio and having been
on tour as a singer.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
It wasn't the person at all. I figured I was
in the right place. I was satisfied. I wasn't getting
no visitors. But this this guy from Mena and Louisiana,
his family would come up and his mother would call
me out, you know, to sit with them. I mean
I was. I was. I mean his too. Chicana dudes one.
Then Pedro and John we worked out together and I

(51:46):
was looking at the Hawk. I was like, man, I
love this, you know, building my body up, and uh
so when I came out there, I was like, my
clothes wouldn't fit me.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
So this is when you first started to work out. Yeah,
Now it seems from the outside the youth continue to
work out the rest of your life. Is that true?

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Oh yeah, man, sir, I worked at twice this morning,
so you know, at least full time of the week.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
And do you like the process or you like the
way it makes you look or the way it makes
you make strong? What about it is appealing to you?

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Everything? The feeling of the iron, you know, and even
the stuff when you're running or doing cody and stuff.
But I liked all of it because I know I'm helping.
I feel it, you know, even when if it hurt,
it's good.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Hurry, Okay, you go back to New Orleans after you
do your time? Is this when Joel essentially kicks you
out of the house.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
It wasn't. It wasn't that I know when I go
back from doing my time. Is nineteen sixty four, and
my daughter I understand his bond.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
And uh.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
So we moved in in a house on Chestnut Street,
and uh let's see sixty five, Hurricane Betsy came and
uh me and Melvin started doing roofing work after that
because his dad knew what it was a roofer and

(53:22):
we made money doing that. That ran out and this
guy named Sydney and Uh, George came by with a
big bag of weed. They wanted to use my house
to you know, bag it up manicure. But if they
do with it, my children are at school. Joe was
at work, said, yeah, have all come up. So they

(53:44):
gave us a big cake pan full of weed and
then gave us a bag with the stems. He got
a letther cake pan out and kid was good. So
we're selling dollars joints, you know. And I went uptown
where George used to live and uh, selling dollar joints,
and all of a sudden, this guy dropped the handkerchief

(54:07):
to the narcotic agent that tangle I Red was on
the corner. He was a dope pusher and tangled Red
has just got in the car and pulled off by
me being red like, they jumped down on me. And
I had about twenty joints, and I'm thinking, wow, I'm
going there and go. Charles already up there doing five
years to two joints and he was cutting sugar cane

(54:31):
or it was dean in humane. Later on, anyway, my
daddy got my lawyer and he came up with something
like motion to suppress the evidence, and I got me off,
got me off, and you know, wow.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
But how does your wife end up moving out of
the house?

Speaker 2 (54:52):
That wasn't until after that was like seventy two, that
was later.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Okay, So what was happening between this thing with getting
arrested with the twenty joints and uh then uh, your
wife moving out? You moving to New York? What were
you doing in that period? Working on the docks singing music?

Speaker 2 (55:13):
What I was working on the docks singing recording? Uh,
I worked the painting houses, driving the truck. I worked
with both brothers constructing where they would uh, putting cables
under the ground, you know, underground cables. They did some

(55:37):
hard weight, but they paid. The riverfront paid the best.
If you got three days on the riverfront, you had
a good payday. And uh, that's what I was doing.
I didn't mind. And when I went to the hiring
hall in the morning, had you know a lot of
hundreds of people out there trying to get work. And
the guy would always have me because you know what,

(55:59):
I came to wait because some guys would get out
there and doing the rain dance. You know, as soon
as they get on the gate, man, I sure we
shoul rain so I can go home, said, well, why
did you come out of there brought somebody else could
have who wanted to work for the air their job,
you know.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
So tell us about ultimately going to New York.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Well that was after let's see, seventy Joe left. Jason
was born in seventy and one. Joe left around seventy three,
and uh me and Cyah went to New York to
be with Charles Taker. We could, you know, do some
music stuff up there, which we did do some music

(56:40):
stuff we did, like a trio called Myself the Wild
Chappe of Tulis, which is my uncle John's Indian drive.
And uh we played clubs we did we didn't want
called catch a rising Star with Richard Bells, a comedian.
He was in See and he told the people when

(57:02):
these guys came up, we thought this coming in the robbers,
but give him a listener, give really sound good. I
mean we were jamming. I was playing keyboard and singing.
Syriah was playing his gum dad and singing. The show
was going on singing.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Okay, so you go back to New Orleans and you
end up working with your uncle Joly.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Well with let me see nineteen seventy six. Well, first
of all, I got another story. Then nineteen seventy five.
This guy, he was a singer all in his name
little Sonny, and he's coming to me and my brother

(57:44):
lawn lug it. Hey, man, you score me some coke? Man,
I know. The guy had, of course tell him no,
I don't know. I don't know when that brother, you know,
he kept on. I gave in and I scored some
coke on. I did it a couple of times, and
he brought his boy, Freddy, and I scored for Freddy
twice and the mother with you know you didn't hear

(58:05):
the mother with hunted since you I didn't pay attention
to it. And when I did pay attention that it
was too late, because uh Freddy called me on the phone,
say you get some more that. I said, no, man,
the man going out of town. And I said, well,
you know i'd get some hair on. When he said that,
my heart just I knew what the hell it was. Said,

(58:26):
no brain, no dealing man. And I was helping a
so called friend out, you know. So I hung up
and Pooshi passed and I tell him about it. He
gave me a giant and I smoked it and laying
he just waiting because I knew something's gonna happen. The
last thing I know I heard, I'm running through the alley,
bang on the door, and I got them walked through

(58:48):
and I had to look small window like opening, saw
Freddie out there with a steal gray suit with a
star skin husch gun on him. Say it Freddy out
of posse. Ain't no ready, that's office to see. That's
when I went to the court again. And first of all,

(59:11):
just my lawyer said, just pray you don't get this judge.
As soon as I got my papers, Judge Edward G. Boyl,
the hanging judge. So me enjoy going My mama's dead then,
so we enjoyed was going to the steps on our
knees at Saint Anstraine and gone to Saint Jude and
saying our prayers. And I went to the court and

(59:34):
was so found guilty of too uh sales and arcotics.
The agent and the man told me that sends you
the one to fifteen years in the federal penitentiary. And
you said, I don't know why I'm doing this, but
I'm gonna spend that sentence and put you on a

(59:55):
three of probation. Say thank you, honor, but I had
to go in a battle for about six months after that.
You know, I'm walking out the courthouse and this black
dude who was the Federal Marshal, his pistolf, He said,
I don't know you had in this courthouse, but these
shackles was for your ass. You ain't got me now,

(01:00:16):
I ain't coming back in your no more. And that
was it. But the judicial system.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
So you had to be clean for six months. What
was going on with you and the dope after that?

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Well, I was still in my six months up. I
went back again. I mean I was kind of dead.
I was like doing time right then.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
So tell me that it's after that you work with
your uncle johny.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Yeah, he called out of love his down Shall was
still in the yoke and aught and cereals with the Meters.
So he called us nice, said I wanted to do
my Indian music with me, and so we went in
the studio and set in nineteen seventy six and then
the Wild Chappatola's album with the Meters and the Nether

(01:01:10):
Brothers and a guy named Willie Harper helping us do
the background. And I mean we went there. We didn't
have to tell nobody what note to take it. It
was just and we had never been together, all four
of us, and had been two of us or three
of us. You know, this is all four of us together,
and it was just so easy and the album playing

(01:01:32):
out so good, and he said, well, we wanted to
do the Nether Brothers because Joall has said that that
her mama and our mama had told him that she'd
like to see all of us together. So said, yeah, man,
that's a good idea. So in nineteen seventy seven we
started rehearsing and stuff, and we got to deal with

(01:01:54):
Capital's Records to make album that Jack Niche produced, and
uh came out in nineteen seventy eight. That's when I
was able to buy my seventy eight Thunderbird, and Uh,

(01:02:16):
I guess that was the start of the Never Bros.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Okay, from that point, is it pretty much go up
and up and you're working on the road or is
it dipped down again?

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Uh? It wasn't. It was working. I didn't I had.
I didn't have to go back on on the river
front anymore after that because we started working regular and
h it was like to eighty one when we were
playing at Tippetinas and Bett Midler came in and I

(01:02:49):
was singing telling like it is, and She's just slid
down off us stool like it was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
She dug it and she asked us did we have
a contract, cause that was just the one one record
deal with Capitol Records. He said, no, we don't have
a record. She called Jered Morrison, herb alphat at the
A and M Records. Man, check these guys out, you know.
So she set it up so we had a chance

(01:03:14):
to do an album for A and M Records. That
was nineteen eighty one. Joe Down was the producer. And
that's what I'm saying, man, it's time for me to
get off the pot, you know. So I was ready.
I was scared, you know. It was like the kid
in me, you know, just I know about the streets,

(01:03:36):
but I don't know about no rehab and all that stuff.
But the manager at the time, his name was Bill Johnson.
He set it up for me to go in this
place called DePaul, which used to be a sanitarium. So anyway,
we had to go do this album in New York
called Fire on the Bayer and I's brought them up

(01:04:00):
drugs up there to hold me to come back. But
I'm scared because I'm you know, I don't know when
the rehab he is. And it was like the little
kid in me. It was like, you know. So one
one morning, about three o'clock in the morning, I'm in
the in the room and this guy named Elliott, he
was a writer. He was doing the story on us,

(01:04:23):
so he was in. I'm playing the piano. My friend
John Brenners from Petaluma, California, he had had let me
his recorded tape recorder, and I'm playing Sam Cook and
the soul said, were you there when they crucified the Lord?
And he's so wonderful? And I had to stand up

(01:04:44):
in front of my class in the sixth grade and
Reppe recited a poem called Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue
teach me how to pray? And I started playing like
somebody told me how to play it and how to
sing it. And I recorded on one of my albums.
But that was like the little kid in me. I

(01:05:05):
have a that that recording. I called him my my
inspiration up tape because I could hear the frightened Aaron Neville,
you know, and uh, if you want to send it
to you. Uh. Anyhow, I had a lot of things

(01:05:25):
happened on that on that session. Matter of fact, Whitney
Houston and my mom sang background on some of the
songs on Fire on the Buyer, and Uh, Keith Richards
said that to him, that was the best album of
the year, and uh, the strength I was doing Mona
Lisa and Joe Donn got Leon Pandorvis he is a

(01:05:50):
keyboard player for Saturday Night Live. And Water was there,
who was out friend from New Orleans has done a
lot of Alan Tuson and stuff, a lot of bunch
of other people stuff and Joe was hip Tim. So
Joe asked him and said, well, what else do you
need a piano in your run? He said, no, I
just need a tune in folk. So he wrote the

(01:06:11):
Choice with a tune and folk. And while we're in
the studio, uh, the New York String session, they played
Leon's person that was killer Man and they snickering at
at whatever, like he's a country bumpkin and stuffing. You know,
he gets put the put the music out there, and

(01:06:34):
they played it and after that they had to get
up and hit their pons on the on the music
stand and give him his problem. I had tears him, asking, man,
get that man is proper, you know. And I was
dedicating that song to my mom and dad and it
was a very special recording for me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
What did you learn in rehab?

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Well, I learn that dope it's not your friend, and
that when you take it, it's attacking your organicize, you know.
And when you get that good feeling and there's just
no good feeling, it's doing something you kidney or you
liver your pankers or some shit, you know, and h

(01:07:22):
but uh, it didn't stop me. I stopped, Yeah, stopped
when that time and the next time, but I had
nineteen ninety one, we went on the road the Nevils
doctor John Arma Thomas. We went to Japan and Australia,

(01:07:45):
New Zealand. First night I turned in the bed and
I tried to turn back my back. I wouldn't turn.
Aller to do is roll out the bed, crawl to
the phone and call it the road man, say John's
come get me. Middle wheelchair. Got to go to the hospital.
He came and got me, and they they didn't know

(01:08:05):
what was wrong, and I could. They didn't understand what
I was staying. I don't know what they were saying,
or I was staying pain hurry, pain hurry. It was
hurting everywhere, and they was giving me vaca and the
ship and massages and whatever else they do, but none
of it work. So we over there like a month.

(01:08:28):
If I would have left, the gigs would have folded
because my record was hit over there. It was everybody
plays the fool. And so I would tell tell him
to rule me to the stage in the wheelchair and
put a chair out on the stage and I stand
up and I hold hold my thighs because this felt

(01:08:49):
like they was opening up with the side of the
you know, and I had to walk and I sat
down on a chair and once I st to singing,
I didn't pay attention to the paint. I looked at
the audience and it was in. It was cool until
the gig was over, and then the paint come back

(01:09:10):
and hurt everywhere. So that was like a month. I
came home. I went to one doctor said, oh, we
got to go in. I said no, I think I'll
get another second opinion, and went to another doctor said
the last thing we want to do, said, uh, said,
he had had his back operator on and he sent

(01:09:31):
me to stress relief chiropractice and he told him to
do a lot of walking, but also give me in
the Viking and you know, so you get hooked on him.
And uh. So that was ninety one. I was off

(01:09:53):
and on it, you know. And then about two thousand
and two I went into a re have another rehab,
the same one I haven't had been in.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
So you went to rehab that time. What was different
about going other than you were in different drugs? What
was different about going to rehab the second time?

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Well, that's one of the guys, Drew Pinsky, and you
probably heard him, of course, he said he said one's
too many and the thousands not enough. Said, damn, that
makes so much sense. Once too many and a thousand
not enough. And you know they give you all the
history of it too, what it's doing to your thing,

(01:10:34):
you know. So I got out at and I was off.
That was like like two thousand and two. Two thousand
and four, My wife Joelle had had this call and
she worked at the hospital, and she said, I am
going to adopt. I know most of the day, you know,

(01:10:56):
and our friend next door doctor Chris Boom. I said, Chris,
did you come over here and take a look at
at Joel? And he came over and he checked out
and he said, Joel, I think you get a cat scan.
So she went to get a cat scan and the
doctor said, wow, she had small cell lung cancer right

(01:11:21):
close to a trick. So it was inoperable. And doctor,
so she had three months and something punched me in
the heart. Joe said, so in other words, you give
me the death sentence. I said, oh no, that was
I came up. I can't explain that feeling, you know.
So me and her and my sister we started having

(01:11:44):
a prayer vision with all the churches and prayer and
and Joe lived by another three years.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
So now that's a big factor in your life. Religion
and seeing Jude. Will you ever question your faith or
you're always a believer.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
Always a believer that people say will get mad and Joe,
this is God's will. You know, I get mad at
as Joel. Look God, I say, unless she's going to
heaven because I watched them go through hell.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
But you also talk about going to pray at the shrine.
Do you pray today? And do you go to church today.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
I pray I've been doing since the pandemic. I've been
doing it on TV. I say rose every day and
watched the Mask and I just got prayers that I say.
I got a little altar, little peel and kneel on
and stay prayers looking at at the at the trees
or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
You know. Okay, you in the book, you go on
and on how much you love Joel and you don't
talk about any third parties. But were you faithful all
these years?

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
That's the meeting known for you to find out. I mean,
I'll tell you about the the two girls that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
That time out to.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
I don't know what happened because I was I was inegraated,
So just leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Okay. So now you know, fire on the bio comes out,
Bill Graham becomes your manager. So you know, do you
feel like you really admitted because you were frustrated before?
What's he experienced?

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
You mean when Bill Graham came in? Yeah, well he
was knocking doors down for us. You know, it was
like he was showing us off. You know, this this
is the nevils how much tell to check him out?
You know, the Great of Dead Huey Lewis, Santana, Uh
build his tongue that we went on the Amnesty toil

(01:14:00):
with you two and Peter Gable Stinging, John Bias, Miles Davis,
old bunch of people's on that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
So you were on tour, you know, constantly, and a
lot of times with Household and Nemax, you know, the
Rolling Stones, et cetera. Did you hang with these people?
Did you become friends or did you pretty much just
hang with your brothers now?

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Because I was friends at all the man Keith's still
friends and you know he coporeduced my album, My True Story,
and Santana. He's like a brother Huey Lewis, you know
with his name is Jared Goliah He he and I
used to talk together.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
And how did you meet Linda Ronstaff?

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
Well, the nether brothers were playing at the World's Fair
in nineteen eighty four in New Orleans. We were playing
at Pete Fountains Club on the ground and the Welfare
and she was Linda was there with Nelson Riddle's band
at the Amphitheater and after her show she came somebody

(01:15:14):
told him that her never brother was playing, so she
came to see us. Somebody told me she was an
audience and I dedicated a song to and I call
up on stage, but she told her. She told the
press that she don't usually do nothing imprompt like that,
but she wasn't gonna say no there I never and
we sang some duop together and all the after the

(01:15:35):
expo autograph she stayed to Aaron Love, I'll sing with
you anytime, any place, anywhere and any key. And it
was on then. So that was eighty four. Eighty five. Men,
Alan Howson was starting a thing called New Orleans Artists
Against Honger and Homelessness, and I asked her to come

(01:16:01):
down and do the benefit but she so sure, so
and the manager Peter Ashley, came down and we were
down at two Cents Studio and the first thing we
thought to sing together because we both came up Catholic,
was ive Maria and we sang that in harmony and

(01:16:22):
uh peter A said yeah, should do it record together.
I said, hey, I'm paying for that, and Linda was damned.
So you know, that was eighty five, So it took
a couple of years, but it was right on time,
you know. When she called me to do the four
songs on Cry like a Ryan Stone, and we did

(01:16:43):
don't know much And I told her Mesh at the Grammars,
I was joking, but not joking because it was that
great of a song, you know, And sure enough, so
I still missed up. We talked, you know, every a
few days a week or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
So what was it like having that level of success
after all these years?

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
That was great? Man. I was able to do a
lot of Joel and kids and all, and you know
that right them and the wrongs and life is good.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
So is this all instinctive? You don't have to rehearse?
You can just show up and sing no problem back then?

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
Yeah, yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
So then you're working with your brothers, you ultimately make
solo albums. Do you feel at this end that you've
gotten the respect and achieved the success you deserve?

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
I think so, you know, I'm not. I appreciate the
people that bought my records and came to my constrations
and all. And I ain't got no regrets, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
And you know you're on your brother the road with
your brothers. The money has to be split, you know,
four ways, never mind the other players. How are you,
how did you do? And how are you doing financially?

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
But it did good, I mean, you know it as ways.
But I's done the record with Lenda that opened a
lot of doors. So it's you know, then when I
did the Judge Johnson granted that open Country people, you know,
and m we did good, you know, and like I

(01:18:35):
feel like I played but the baddest band in the land,
the Neville Brothers. Like this guy named Eric Copp used
to be a tech man and played keyboard it. He
used to announces the New Orleans the Mighty Mighty Never
brother They used to run a chill when they say
that because we were in Mighty Mighty Never Brothers.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
And so you know, there's a hit you get performing
live you can't get sitting here your living room. So
what was the key to winning the audience over? What
do you mean you show up on stage, you get
big applause. How do you make sure the audience is
with you and lift the audience up through the show.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
Just don't go fake and be you be real? You know,
do what you do. This is what I do. I'm
not gonna tap dance and jump up and down. I'm
gonna say, you know, and I'm gonna make my voice
touch you say something in you because it touches something
in me.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
Okay, you start to gain success everywhere you go, do
people recognize you?

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
Oh? Yeah, well man, heyp and so you like that
or do you not like that? It's cool? You know
when when we're living in the city, we'll be walking
down the street and all of a sudden you might
hear somebody hit the bridge legend, oh she and stuff

(01:20:01):
like that. You know, that's that's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
And how about ultimately being on TV and in movies?
How did that come about?

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
And did you enjoy that? I did? Uh? I think
the first time I did was with Dennis Quid and
John Goodman and Jessica Lang and Timothy Hutton on Everybody's
All American, which they did done in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Then I did it one in New Orleans but uh,

(01:20:31):
Zander Lee but who was it? J Ryan Hull and
Nicholas Cage and I forget the latest name. Anyway, I
played a bartime in that one. I played a jail
a jail cell buddy with Mickey Rope in a movie
called The Last Ride. So you know, it was all cool.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
And then Joel dies, But ultimately you meet your new
wife who's a photographer. How does that happen?

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
How does that happen? Joe died January fifth, two thousand
and seven. And I was a basket case. The doctor
gave me some kind of nerve pure for my nerves
and stuff, and every time I laid on it felt
like little things creatures were scurring around on the bed. Said,

(01:21:26):
now I can't take this. But meanwhile, Joelle had all
this narcotics, said that she didn't want to take. She
had morphine, the uh percose perkadan, but the other one
is that I can't think of the name of it.
But anyway, she had all this drugs. So I went

(01:21:49):
to that because that's it was familiar. And then but
that ran out. I would get the doctors the right prescription.
I could get them on this street, you know. And
uh so two thousand and eight, you know, I was
I had to go on the road. Nobody else knew

(01:22:10):
what I was going through. You know. That was my
my solo. Uh that was just for me. And uh
let's see it get kind of emotional, you know. Anyway,
the Nevills was going back Joell after after she was

(01:22:36):
diagnosed with the cancer. Hurricane Katrina came in two thousand
and five, so we moved to Nashville, and that's where
she died in Nashville. And uh, like I said, took
all those drugs and May. Matter of fact, I met

(01:22:58):
Dreell in May, and I met Sarah and two thousand
and eight people magazines sent out to to photograph the
Nevels for their return to the Jazz best since Katrina.
And we did it at the Nevile's office up on
the balcony, and when I saw something about it, I

(01:23:22):
just I don't usually do that, but it's just my
eyes caught hers and I just never stopped looking at
the whole time she was taking it. She was so professional,
you know she and she got pictures just right. And
after the session was over, everybody else left and I

(01:23:44):
stuck around until she had never heard of never Bro.
So I'll give up a copy on my book and
I give let her hear some of the music and on,
and I asked my phone numb. She gave me an
office number, and I waited a couple of days and
I called and it was cool. And also I started

(01:24:09):
calling every other day and we got start getting closer,
and so I'd go up to New York and be
with them. By that time, I moved from Nashville to
coming to Louisiana. That's like about on a half from

(01:24:29):
New Orleans across the lake. And so she would come
there sometime and I backs and forwards and the next thing,
and it's talking about moving together and uh, and were
trying to make sure we could, you know, buy something

(01:24:52):
together and all. And so I want to check my
credit and stuff. And she'd look at the credit and
my credit was down in the dumps. And I thought
everything on up and up, but she started looking and
finding all kinds of discrepancies. Uh, things getting was missing.

(01:25:12):
A lot of money was missing, and the business manager
we had to wind up sewing to get some of
the money back. And so anyway back and forth from
New York. One time she was in Coventant and was

(01:25:33):
getting ready to go out to dinner, and I want
my pocket to get the cookies and and pull the
cockies out of about ten vikings fell on the ground
and Sarah she had and Data is a guy who
who was the drug addict before, and she knew what
it was about. She said oh no, not this ship again. No,

(01:25:54):
So I had to make a choice. I gave her
had about two hundred pills and gave U she's just
this caught it. That was it number over. So here
I am. But this November we'll be married thirteen years.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
Wow. Great story. Let's go back to New Orleans. To
what degree is New Orleans although you don't live there
anymore the same or is it different? After Katrina?

Speaker 2 (01:26:27):
It was different? I mean it was like that water
is sit there for so long and then telling them
what was in that water from all of the like
they have these train cars out on the facts with
all these different chemicals in it and all that everything
people had under this, you know, under cleaning, under the
sink and dead folks, all that was in that water.

(01:26:51):
I had that friend of mine who still lived on
that they she had never had an allergy, but now
she had to get a shot alleges shot every month.
So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
And what about your kids? What are your kids up to?
And to what degree do you have a connection and
support them?

Speaker 2 (01:27:06):
They talk all the time. Well, you know I haven't.
He's on the road a lot, my son Jason, him
and his wife, they have a band Jason nevan Is
Funker Stole Band. They do a lot of new all
and stuff, but they did that sound too. They was
just in somewhere in Mexico or a son airon. He
does some kind of jobs. My daughter in the staying

(01:27:31):
seat waits for the Civil sheriff Department.

Speaker 1 (01:27:36):
Okay, Aaron, I want to thank you so much for
taking time with my audience. You know, these stories are
amplified and they're a lot more in his book, which
is very easy to read. So once again, Aaron, thanks
for taking the time to tell your stories.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (01:27:51):
Bob, you bet. Until next time. This is Bob left
sets

Speaker 2 (01:28:18):
Sh