QLS Classic: Gary Clark Jr.

Austin rocker and axman, Gary Clark Jr., brings blues-rock center stage in 2019 as he joins Team Supreme to talk about his journey from booking gigs at 14, to collaborating with The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton and his new album, "This Land."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is Sugar Steve and on this week's QLs Classic
Austin Rocker and ax Man. Gary Clark Junior brings blues
rock center stage in twenty nineteen as he joins Team
Supreme to talk about his journey from booking gigs at
fourteen to collaborating with The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton,
and his new album This Land, originally released March six,

(00:36):
twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Sma Supremo Ro Suprema Supremo, Roll Call Suprema Sun Supremo,
Roll Call Supremo role.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Calls, loves my name, Yeah, that you can trust. Yeah,
I love all my friends.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Who don't throw me under the plus.

Speaker 5 (01:11):
Supremo Supremo Roll Call Supremack Supremo.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Role My name is Fante. Yeah. I don't want no drama. Yeah,
I'm just here to talk about the night I met
your mama.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Supremo Roll Call Suprema Sun Sun Supremo.

Speaker 6 (01:34):
Role call.

Speaker 7 (01:34):
My name is Sugar, Yeah, Sugar Steve for the wind.

Speaker 6 (01:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Do you hear your training coming?

Speaker 6 (01:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:40):
When your train pulls in.

Speaker 5 (01:43):
Supprimo, Supremo, Supremo, Supremo roll call bill Yeah, not counting Pathos.

Speaker 8 (01:54):
Yeah, should have divorced. Yeah, Jeff Bethos, Supremo, y.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Supremo, roll call Supremo Supremo roll call.

Speaker 9 (02:06):
It's like em Yeah, that's right. I'm flossing. Yeah, because
now I know. Yeah, a black man from Austin.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Roll call Supremo Supremo, roll call, Supremo Supremo roll.

Speaker 6 (02:22):
Call on g c J. Yeah, from the at X, Yeah,
with Quest and Crew. Yeah, and I don't know what's
nice roll car.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Supremo Supremo, roll call, Supremo, Supremo, role called Suprema some
Supremo role called Suprema son something Supremo role.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Car nice, Yeah, smooth, witty, nice smooitie man dropped fold
yeah real nice.

Speaker 6 (02:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (02:54):
But he's Russian but still not a bad.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Better than a lot. Yeah. Yeah, he ringed up there.
You know you did it effortlessly.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 7 (03:04):
So I did Hendricks Clark mash up.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yes, deep cuts, I get it, deep cuts. And we're
in the house. Of course, I'm gonna sugar work. Yeah,
this is the Sugar Network edition. Of course, love supreciate
where we at se No, run your own show, bro,

(03:31):
I'm just here for a punch. I'm still under the bus, man,
I'm still under the bus. You weren't talking about me, right, Yeah,
you don't even know what's going on.

Speaker 7 (03:38):
Well, it's cool this sugar Steve and we're here at
Electrically Studios.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
That's right. We are anything else, No like for somebody
who let's move it, okay, living anyway, My role call
was the ship.

Speaker 8 (03:53):
It was it was It was like it was like
you were great many let like an onion, many levels.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh wait, we might as well just start now because
I know I'm gonna play this about twenty eleven times.

Speaker 9 (04:09):
Damns.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
All right, yeah, step mother, is.

Speaker 9 (04:21):
You sound y'all? Sounds so good?

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh man, are you background?

Speaker 8 (04:27):
Yeah, that's just a mere plugging on that ship.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well done. So that was just me. It sounds great
when I walked into the room, h unpaid Bill. Yeah,
when he's not teaching Grover to curse on Sesame Street.
And you gotta explain to you what was that? I
think y'all did that on purpose. I heard it both ways, though,
like I heard what it was supposed to be. It was,

(04:52):
what was the thing this is the red dress blue? Yeah,
like whatever that was Willow Yann Yanny Laua, Yeah that
Yanny verse is Laurel what exactly he was said, I.

Speaker 8 (05:03):
I don't I didn't see it, but I was told
by my girlfriend who's the boss, that they watched it
like a hundred times, and and everybody bought the fact
that he didn't. He did not say what everybody thinks.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
He said, wait, wait, she's literally the boss.

Speaker 6 (05:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (05:20):
Oh damn ye, my girlfriend she is my boss. She
is she's the boss. Wow, it's tough, man tough. It
used to be she wasn't the boss, and then like
in the last year, she became the boss. And I'm
not sure how I feel about that. I'm formulating the
opinions speak.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
It's love on the street. Yeah, love on the street. No,
but you you were saying that you were about to
have a get rebar mitzvad Oh.

Speaker 8 (05:45):
So for those that follow on the on the Instagram,
he is constantly the host of various rap events, US events,
various events. He's like the m of mcs. And I thought,
since I'm gonna get bar Missov again that he could
m see the Barns.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
For the second time, it's like you and is this
like a recircumcision as well? Yeah, okay, like they're all
the same things. I gotta read it or okay, yeah,
I may excuse myself from the circumcision part.

Speaker 8 (06:17):
I understand.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
But but you know, but up until that, up until
the cutting, I'm there. I'm your guy.

Speaker 8 (06:23):
Tonight, we're enjoying whiskey with each other, and it's wonderful.
I feel like we don't do this enough.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
We don't. I just want to see how far I
can get without even introducing our guests. Was trying to
segue into our guests because I brought in some that
he liked. He has an intro, but I'm just saying that.
You know, we usually just wrap a little bit for
like minutes. The Sugar networks much more organized. I get

(06:48):
a mess man, you know how I do, especially when
Boston Building here. Yeah, I know, my feet, my nikes
are up on the fact. I'm gonna eat some grapes
right now, all the exactly.

Speaker 9 (07:02):
Usually I'm just cool.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
I'm just where's that boys coming from? There's somebody here.
I love when Bill's not here so I can just
violate all the rules. Oh and you brought the ear
rings back the earrings.

Speaker 9 (07:18):
Don't get me.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
I love the ear rings. A great edit job, bill out,
Yes he did, he edited, he edited a lot out. Okay,
roll out this rolls roll them out, Red car, Come on,
all right, we have a black man from Austin, Texas.

(07:41):
Time time out. Austin is officially my second favorite place
on earthly know that, what is it? I just like
my requirements for city are you know. I don't have
the same standards that other people do. Okay, Uh, if
the record shopping is good, the food truck activity is

(08:02):
good there, that's all I mean.

Speaker 9 (08:06):
If we was legal, but you know, make certain compromises.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
It's about to be coming.

Speaker 8 (08:10):
It's coming out in as.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
We had a good time, you know. And I actually
believe that perhaps the the idea potus that might get
the votes for the Democrats, or I believe that you
think he is from I think he's the figure that
will do it. Why are you speaking in code? Because

(08:34):
you know then I don't want to get pinned down
Jesus exactly. Not, I mean not yet. You know, I'm
just saying right now, as it's looking there's a strong
possibility bet speak much more openly anyway, my second is

(08:56):
my second He's from my second favorite city. Uh in
the US and the world. He's been doing it to death. Yes,
deaf d e a f because his guitars allowed uh
since the age of twelve their bad point of here No, seriously,
in the tradition of of of the great journeyman bluesman

(09:21):
such as James Marshall, Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, all
the Kings, BB King, Albert King, Freddy King, Uh you
know Hallan Wolf, Yes, all the Kings, our guests. Gary
Clark Jr. Has been making believers of the traditional rock

(09:44):
and roll sound with his major debut U and the
EP Bright Light TP and the Black and Blue, which
was released in twenty twelve. I've seen the man myself.
I've played with him a few times. But you know
I can attest that, uh, the future of of just

(10:05):
jaw dropping ax work is definitely good hands. Lady and Joeman,
please welcome to Quest Love Supreme, the one and knowing
Gary Clark.

Speaker 6 (10:16):
I appreciate that I might need that as my alarm.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I'll do so. Tell me about Austin. Were you were?
You born in Austin, Texas?

Speaker 6 (10:27):
Yeah, born and raised in Austin, Texas.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
All right, now I have this romantic, you know, vision
of the town and whatnot, like food trucks, food trucks
and records music. What was it like pre gentrification? What
was it like? Damn? For those that don't know, Clark

(10:50):
gave a look. So tell me what's the what's the
deal with Austin?

Speaker 6 (10:58):
Like?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
What was growing up in Austin like? For me?

Speaker 10 (11:01):
I grew up south side of Austin, a little spot
called Oakhill neighborhood.

Speaker 6 (11:05):
I guess you called it somewhat of a suburb.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
I guess the south side of the suburb.

Speaker 10 (11:10):
No, I mean yeah, I guess you could say that
there's a bunch of houses with schools and parks and
ok uh, but uh, it wasn't directly right in the city,
you know what I mean? But you know, pretty pretty normal,
somewhat diverse neighborhood close to you know, uh, fifteen minutes
away from downtown. But I was it was country, kind

(11:33):
of a little bit, riding bikes, sports out of the woods,
doing stuff like that, basketball, nothing too wild.

Speaker 6 (11:39):
Yeah, fairly normal, Yeah, somewhat somewhat normal. I mean it's Texas,
the south, so there's a little bit of that.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's you know, I was going to say the one,
the one, the one physical trait that you have that's
the opposite of all the great axemen of history is
you're tall. Yeah, I'm up here, man, You're very tall.
Like all the great acts men, I feel like, you know,
are under five ten and they, you know, I feel

(12:11):
like maybe that's their entry into you know, this makes.

Speaker 7 (12:15):
Up for well I never heard I never thought about hype.
But but Hendrix was short.

Speaker 11 (12:20):
I mean it's about I mean, I've heard about having
big hands where that can.

Speaker 9 (12:26):
Finish it, finish it, finish it be extremely help. Thank you.

Speaker 7 (12:31):
You're supposed to be doing this.

Speaker 11 (12:38):
An advantage, no, I mean probably for other instruments too,
but having having large hands would make playing an instrument easier.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
I would know. This is all I got.

Speaker 11 (12:50):
I haven't been looking at your hands. I mean, you're
but he's just a tall person, so his hands are
probably tall.

Speaker 10 (13:00):
Nice King Albert King six four, he is, he's a
big Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Okay, I didn't yeah, okay.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
In the Kings, but yeah, man, growing up in Austin
was nothing.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
What was your family situation into I grew up uh.

Speaker 6 (13:17):
In the house with three sisters, mom and pops. Yeah,
boy right in the middle.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Oh, okay, the only boy, the only boy. Okay, yeah,
what did your what did your folks do? Musicians as well?

Speaker 10 (13:32):
Now, well, my pops eat. I love my pops, but yeah,
he you know, he plays a little bit. I actually, uh,
you know, when I started realizing what was happening, he
had some guitars in the house. I ended up kind
of breaking one. But my dad, my parents just kind

(13:53):
of normal jobs. My dad sold anything. He sold everything
from homes to cars, to men's suits, the ladies shoes
to uh, he did everything. He worked security for concerts
and you know, he was just he was he was
doing whatever he had to do to make sure that
we had what we needed. My mother was an accountant's

(14:15):
perfect like he hustle.

Speaker 9 (14:17):
She managed.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
It's working out like as of this.

Speaker 9 (14:23):
A little bit.

Speaker 6 (14:24):
Yeah, my mom, she's been helping me out for a
long time.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
So that's what un But yeah, and none of them
are in music in the church or none of that stuff.

Speaker 6 (14:35):
Uh no, no, not really.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
It's a unique situation.

Speaker 10 (14:38):
Yeah, but I mean I got family members. I got
uncles who are musical musicians, you know, writers, and uh,
somebody used to play with Stevie Ray Vaughan. If you're
familiar with Austin, Texas and Texas Blue seeing W. C. Clark,
that's my cousin. Used to play bass with them. Great

(14:59):
guitar players. Pee Wee Craton used to play with Johnny
Otis Sugary Otis, right, So, yeah, that's so it.

Speaker 6 (15:08):
Was in my in my family were not right at
my house, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Also weird enough the house band for they called them
Blue Records. What's your name? Blow Fly, blow Fly? Yeah,
clar a lot of this stuff. Well, yeah, like Johnny
Owais was a part of that. I didn't realize that
until much later. So how did you get interested in music?
Like what was the moment that.

Speaker 10 (15:36):
The moment that made me I saw Michael Jackson five okay,
the Victory Tour or yeah, this is the Bad the
Bad Tour.

Speaker 6 (15:44):
I was born in eighty four, so this is like
eighty eight eighty.

Speaker 9 (15:47):
Cheryl Crow, Michael Jackson.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, so that's the first time you met Cheryl Crow.

Speaker 6 (15:52):
That was the first time I saw Yeah, that was
the first time.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
It was crazy, like little did you know? How like
your connection with her? Then? Would you know?

Speaker 6 (16:03):
I can't stop loving you.

Speaker 10 (16:06):
You know, we had the noose bleed seats, you know
what I mean, see anything, But yeah, that was that
was what got me into music. You know, the lights
showed the energy everything, you know. I got to kindergarten,
I was like, where's the stage at? Really I just
wanted to be in that.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
You know, what is this?

Speaker 6 (16:24):
You know what is these vibes?

Speaker 1 (16:25):
So you you chose a path that is rarely chosen,
especially for like black musicians, especially in growing up in
the age of when hip hop is really developing and
and you know, R and B at the time when
you're coming of age like new jack swing and and

(16:47):
hip hop are really find their footing. And but yet
like blues music and the way that you play, you know,
one of the one of the reasons why I'm really
excited that you hear is because I really don't know
your story. But having seen you beforemed at least somewhere
between ten to twelve times, like already had like your

(17:10):
story painting out my head that you know you're living
off of like pork and beans. But that's a compliment,
you know, that's like a leg he said, nice, Like, yeah,

(17:33):
I did it. That story work. No, but you you
you sing with so much conviction and a type of
I don't know how to describe your voice, like it's
it's not like a voice I've ever heard singing before.
But I felt like, you know, like you went through

(17:55):
things and that sort of thing. I mean that that
was kind of what the vibe iways lived in. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (18:00):
I think he sings like he plays the guitar. Like
the guitar and his voice are kind of a similar.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, which started first for you? Did you start playing
first or singing first?

Speaker 6 (18:08):
I started singing first, Yeah, I was.

Speaker 10 (18:10):
My sister started coming home with trophies for singing competitions
and trophies.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
So what's the age gap between you and your siblings?

Speaker 10 (18:25):
So I'm three and a half years younger than my
older sister. I got a sister younger than me two years,
and then I got a baby baby sister who's younger about.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Like ten years. Okay, cool. Yeah, So the older one,
she was the one that was singing. She could sing good, she.

Speaker 10 (18:44):
Could sing great. She's you know, you can play piano
really well, sight read, can you know, do all that?
All that kind of stuff, And I just I wanted
some trophies. So I signed up for the choir in
sixth grade along with basketball. He used to get hell
all the time for showing up to basketball practice, like,
what's up singing something?

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Man?

Speaker 6 (19:05):
That was quiet practice.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
That's right. She can't be a music nerd and a
school John rough Man, so brough we get a ball. No.

Speaker 6 (19:16):
I was like a Dalmatian, great dang PUPPI es tall
and awkward.

Speaker 10 (19:24):
Tall, you know, got no handles, super tall for no reason,
got no hops, sad, just a waste.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
But your hands are so big.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
She's a dunkey.

Speaker 6 (19:39):
I got a nice fifteen foota though, in case stop me.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
But his attention with that, Yeah, she told her that
wrong foot her not injured?

Speaker 9 (19:51):
Niggah, that would be well that yeah, you're right, yeah, yeah,
thank you, But I'm what.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Do you anyway? Where were we? Okay? So just from
seeing your sister win these trophies, that was your inspiration.

Speaker 10 (20:14):
Yeah, that's why I thought I was gonna you know,
you're talking about being the time of hip hop and
R and B.

Speaker 6 (20:19):
I thought I was gonna be a singer in an
R and B group.

Speaker 10 (20:22):
I had a group with this guy Robbie called Young
Soul and We had dance moves and choreography and.

Speaker 7 (20:30):
Like an SNL skit like Ary Clark, We're in it was.

Speaker 6 (20:34):
It was terrible, but we loved it.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
You know, who were y' all kind of modeling yourself
after the group?

Speaker 6 (20:39):
You wanted to be boys to man as yet all
the yeah all for one.

Speaker 9 (20:46):
Man, mister you know wow, all the groups singing blackbery
in my last.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
That was my joint.

Speaker 6 (20:54):
And I had that guitar in it too, and I
was like, I was like, this goes together. I could
do both.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
I could be.

Speaker 9 (21:01):
That was mistering me playing the guitar, played guitar.

Speaker 12 (21:06):
He was acoustic. He was like the knockoff baby Face. Well,
I mean but the niggas.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
I mean, but the niggas, I thought, big face like
everybody else. Baby Face started his baby face. Remember he
said that right now he was on the No, he
was on the face. He was on He's on as Arista.

Speaker 9 (21:26):
Yeah, supreme rabbit hole Gary in my back.

Speaker 11 (21:28):
Wait wait, so that was literally the video is literally
the moment when you start to think about picking up
the guitar too.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
That video you're just referenced, No no.

Speaker 10 (21:39):
No, Tito Jackson watching old videotapes and tr Jackson mayde
want to play guitar.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah wait, you said you broke your dad. Uh you
can tell similar to Tito Jackson, there was no repercussions though, right,
Uh not like that. Okay, okay, so uh that's singing.
But when you were so what you were twelve when

(22:05):
you first started playing guitar or yeah, so what was
your first what was the first acts that you got?

Speaker 10 (22:11):
I got an ivan as RX twenty like a black
electric guitar, two humbucker pickups at Maple Neck, and I
got a little ten watt.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
Guitar amp from Walmart or something and plugged in.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
And everyone starts with the the department story like it
was like a rock acts or something, I think it
was the name of it. A little ten watt and
all your stuff, Like you learned to play, you pretty
much start yourself, like you know, lessons or anything like that.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
I no, no, not really. I started listening to the
radio my dad when I first got my guitar.

Speaker 10 (22:48):
My dad said, if you want to play guitar for really,
you got to listen to Eric Clapton in Santana.

Speaker 6 (22:53):
So he dropped off some records in my room and
said good luck with that. Do that do your homework too?

Speaker 1 (23:00):
But with that really, So, what were the first records
that you remember buying? Well, not not for guitar education purposes,
but just in your life. What was your first album
do you remember purchasing?

Speaker 6 (23:17):
My first album that I remember purchasing was Immature?

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Wow? Which one right now, dude, yoc? Which which alpum was?
Which one was it?

Speaker 6 (23:30):
Which the one with I Feel the Funk?

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Feel the Funk? We heard that come out ninety five.
I don't want to say they sampled us. That was
the first time we got sampled Mature. Sample one of
the one of them joints, one of them joints sounds
from Solid Treatment. Wow. Matter of fact, they did too,
because the drums was sound Treatment. But they took the

(23:56):
they did. I had that album somehow.

Speaker 9 (23:59):
I don't know if it was the intention and you
remember it, so it must have been good.

Speaker 12 (24:03):
Okay, let me be good. Okay, So this is Gary Club, Jim.
Do you remember do you remember when Immature came back.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
As I am X.

Speaker 9 (24:13):
Yeah? I did what a different member or something?

Speaker 12 (24:16):
No, it was the same three niggas, but it was
it was like yeah, because they had that jam and
they did a cover that. She did a cover of
Love Me in a Special Way on that album that
was like pretty.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Good markets straight up, Yeah, that asked, But I had
that album?

Speaker 6 (24:35):
Had I had that album?

Speaker 1 (24:37):
You're my favorite R and B fan of all time?
For real? Your R and B knowledge puts me to shame.

Speaker 9 (24:45):
Like Mark, if Markey Houston knew that Gary Clark Jr.
Like was it? That's just I just don't think he
would know that. He probably would be off the wall.

Speaker 6 (24:52):
Yeah, yeah, that was That was the first record I bought.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 8 (24:59):
All the men man, you wanted to say like Phoebe King,
Robert Johnson, He's like nah, no, eat.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
So at what point, at what point do you consider
the genesis of where you are right now in your career? Like,
at what point are you who's putting you on to
uh Electric Lady Land, who's putting you on to the
first like the Cream albums or Zeppelin or any of

(25:35):
those things?

Speaker 6 (25:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (25:36):
So assuming that, assuming that, I mean, I'm assuming that
you Jimmy von Cat right, that was?

Speaker 10 (25:41):
Yeah, Well that all happened. I lived down the street
from a girl named Eve Monsei. I met her in
third grade. White Girl came from Houston. Jewish girl.

Speaker 6 (25:55):
She came out and was like, ah, she came.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
I told her.

Speaker 6 (26:04):
So she was playing guitar like a year before me and.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
And her.

Speaker 10 (26:10):
Her dad worked on video games and he would put
video games in a in all these different venues around town.
And so when he was working on him, he had
him in the garage and they had a basketball go
so all the kids from the neighborhood would go over
there and play arcade games, you know, and you start
hooping or whatever, and then uh, you've had.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
A band and it was like.

Speaker 10 (26:31):
A three piece band, her and a couple of other girlfriends,
and they would be playing this rock and roll stuff,
and you know, she had a black stratocaster and a
Fender twid Hunter white ant well you know, the red
knobs on it. And I thought it was the coolest
thing ever, you know what. So I'm playing basketball and
I'm hearing this. So I ended up getting interested in, like, uh,

(26:53):
what she was doing. It was just like the coolest
thing in the neighborhood. So I just I just became
interested in that.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
You know.

Speaker 10 (27:00):
I've been listening to my boys to men and working
on my dance steps and writing my you know, my
R and B hits and then I was like, you know,
let me see what's happening over here. So that's seeing
her having a guitar and thinking about Tito Jackson how
much I love that.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
And you know, uh, it's the first time in which
you know, someone's making the Jackson's reference with.

Speaker 9 (27:24):
And he really deserves it because people don't be picking
them up as much as they should.

Speaker 10 (27:27):
Yeah, so it was all that kind of all that
kind of went together. And I remember that they had
that Jackson movie, The American dream.

Speaker 12 (27:35):
Man Listen that is a classic watching every all four
like that one in the Temptations movie Bussy TV exactly.

Speaker 10 (27:45):
So they they had a they had a soundtrack for
that and at one point they had a live version
of them doing Who's Loving You?

Speaker 6 (27:52):
Who's Loving You? But they but they did uh Isaac
Hayes walking by, and so Tito's playing out.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Jermaine is also, let it be noted, Jermaine is killing
that baseline. So that's weird. That affected me as a
as a sampler that was a well known public enemy sample. Yeah,
so that's how I got, you know, into that, But
you just hearing it first generation without even the references.

(28:26):
That's crazy that you picked up on that.

Speaker 10 (28:29):
Yeah, I was like, man, this is this all goes together.
I'm gonna start hanging out down the street and you
figured out how to play this guitar.

Speaker 9 (28:36):
Man.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Wow. Babyface was also in the audience that night. He
mentioned that on the show, I'm gonna do a lot
of references to pass that. Yeah, I'm awn reference center.

Speaker 9 (28:50):
By the way, two short parents were accountants as well.
I'm just I'm going with the thing.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah. Well, I know, I know that you weren't built
over night. So how many hours do you recommend it
took you to really really master I mean, because I
mean at the rate where Rolling Stones declaring you as
Operation Next and the future and yes you you definitely

(29:21):
have the chaps for that ship. Like I was, again,
jaw drop, like, how what was your practice technique?

Speaker 6 (29:26):
Like my practice technique was I quit going to school hours,
you know what, I just quit.

Speaker 10 (29:36):
I would show up the first period and someone would
be like, hey, man, let's go play guitar.

Speaker 6 (29:43):
I got some herb and we just dipped, you know,
and we would just you know, I was introduced to
Grateful Dead and and.

Speaker 10 (29:55):
You know, people had Muddy Waters Records, and it was
just I would just go do that instead of doing
my school work.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Austin started changing.

Speaker 10 (30:04):
Okay, so all day. You know, when I got to
be about fourteen. I played my first gig in ninety eight.
It was sophomore in high school. I guess, and I mean,
you know what it is like. You start getting gigs
and then it becomes you get one gig, two gigs
three four nights a week, five nights, so that's one

(30:26):
nights a week, four hours.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
That's where the domino started. That's that's from fourteen on.

Speaker 6 (30:31):
From fourteen on, that was it.

Speaker 9 (30:33):
And your parents was cool.

Speaker 6 (30:34):
They was like, okay, they were okay with it.

Speaker 10 (30:39):
They were okay with it until I started getting phone
calls from the school true where I.

Speaker 9 (30:46):
Was, because fourteen is the beginning of high school. So
it's like what you do?

Speaker 6 (30:50):
Yeah, I was there, and then I just ghosted wow.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Or did you like get it?

Speaker 6 (30:55):
I ended up finished.

Speaker 10 (30:56):
I had to do Saturday, I had to do after school,
I had to go before, I had to do all
that stuff I had in completing my junior year of
high school.

Speaker 6 (31:02):
Because I lost it. I was They used to call
me hot wire.

Speaker 10 (31:05):
I used to take my parents' cars, sneak out in
the middle of the night, go down to the clubs.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
This is what we want to know. Wait a minute,
you were hot? Are your parents card?

Speaker 6 (31:16):
They called me how Ward. I just used to have
the key.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Put it, put it down the streets. Better nickname than keys. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah,
I mean having once. You know, shame on me doing
it twice though. Kick on the bell.

Speaker 10 (31:32):
Now, this happened multiple times. This is three four times
a week. Get out and go to the club.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Oh, you would get away with it.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
I would get I would sneak out of the window.
How about the window, and I would.

Speaker 10 (31:45):
Wait till my post would be sitting He would be
watching Star Trek or something, and he would start to
fall out.

Speaker 9 (31:52):
Is it because they were too busy looking at the girls?
I don't know what he but your sisters I met
that in that way. Sorry, your sister's like they.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Say electric blue.

Speaker 7 (32:11):
Or something like that.

Speaker 9 (32:14):
I just meant, how did you get past them?

Speaker 1 (32:16):
But I was just there focusing on the girls. Your sisters.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
Yeah, I was always upstairs playing guitar.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
You were good at it.

Speaker 6 (32:25):
I was good.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
I was.

Speaker 9 (32:27):
I was on mind at school.

Speaker 6 (32:30):
Yeah, I was moove with it. But you know I
popped in one time.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Where would you go?

Speaker 10 (32:34):
I would go to a spotle joe Gan, Eric Ball,
go to Anton's. I'll go to my friend's houses and
we would you know, they would have house parties and
bands would be playing, would be DJs.

Speaker 6 (32:44):
So you know, I might not have been able to go,
but I made myself able to go.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
I would they normally have given you permission to play
these parties or was it like okay, no, no, based
on this is the wrong crowd, or based on like
are they seeing you and knowing that, oh, he's going
to be our future. I'm not saying that every son
has to, you know, do that for his parents, but no.

Speaker 6 (33:13):
Not at all. It was it was a distraction.

Speaker 9 (33:15):
You know.

Speaker 10 (33:16):
I started, you know, I'm sneaking out, I'm leaving the house,
I'm smoking weed all the time, I'm stealing the car.

Speaker 13 (33:22):
They don't they can't find it in your best life, Yeah, exactly,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 10 (33:26):
I'm getting calls from the school, I'm not present, you know,
all this type of stuff. And so now they weren't
really with it at all, you know, but my mom
made a compromise with me. She was like, look, I
can't take this away from me because I know how
much you love it. But what you can do is
if you can sneak out and go run around and
play for all those drunks down in sixth Street, you

(33:47):
can play for Jesus.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
So you can go play in the church.

Speaker 6 (33:50):
The church.

Speaker 9 (33:50):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
But did they let you ask grinding the church or
were you just doing a straight up gospel? But who knows.
I mean, the thing is that I would also think
that Austin, Texas was rather open minded to different experiences.

(34:13):
I mean I once went to a I want well no,
I mean I was torn in Austin by ninety four,
so he's about ten years old. So yeah, in church. Yeah,
I'm just saying that by this point, like I would
think that they would have been open to it. I
once went to a free jazz church. What was that like?

(34:35):
Imagine like the last the last last era of like
whole Trane's life for Jesus. Yeah, okay, wow, Yeah, there
is a go Go church in d C.

Speaker 9 (34:50):
Damn. Yeah yeah, all praise do Chuck Brown?

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Wow, write you know you want to go go?

Speaker 6 (35:01):
You know about to go go?

Speaker 1 (35:02):
I know a little bit.

Speaker 9 (35:03):
Okay, but we know.

Speaker 6 (35:06):
What's up down.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
The man's traveled the world all actually slight slight uh
detour in this conversation since we're talking about Austin. All Right,
you gotta you gotta put me down with what are
your already two? Give me your top five barbecue joys?

(35:32):
Ye took me in that hour? Does the name Sam's
Beef mean anything to you? Okay, I'm relieved. Sam's Beef
is like Austin's version of Freddy's from House of Cards. Okay, Okay,
got you.

Speaker 7 (35:48):
It's not a chain.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
That's not a chain. Nah. It's just like even as
even as even as uh slogan, you don't need no
teeths to eat my beef, my beef, you don't need teeth. Yeah,
but it's like a back porch, no need teeth, you know,
flies come on and I don't even mind. You know,
it's just so back. But I didn't know if that

(36:12):
was super authentic or not, you know, I was I
would like to think that it was like the authentic.

Speaker 9 (36:18):
Let me just ask the question that you're saying authentic.
Where does Austin come in the barbecue scheme of things?
When it comes to city so it's Austin, like the data.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Man Dallas, I put it in Saint Louis. I think
in America, Saint Louis is the barbecue rib. You know,
Saint Louis is hard. It's different Kansas City though, don't well,
Kansas City got smoke for Saint Louis. I don't know
K's City barbecue coming from somewhere from North Carolina because
barbecue is more so it's like like pool port.

Speaker 12 (36:48):
Like when people and run our way when they say
like barbecue, they specifically mean pull pork, so like, and
I'm in the eastern side of No Carolina.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
So for our joint, I base it's a vinegar base.
So then, but when you go to the west side,
like where the mountains is that they use like a
tomato bass and we don't fun with them. We be
like making, We're making, you know, slappy jokes barbecue, so them,
but the vinegar base is good.

Speaker 6 (37:17):
So like.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Spot, what's the what's the awesome? Give me your top five?

Speaker 10 (37:24):
Man Sam's Okay, I used to go to SAMs all
the time. There's a spot called the barbecue that I like, Uh,
Terry Blacks, Okay, there's another one. If you're going for
like some fancy barbecue. It's a spot called Lamberts. I
got a lot of love for them because they fed

(37:46):
me every Thursday, gave me a couple of drinks.

Speaker 6 (37:51):
Uh what was that for?

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Let me see?

Speaker 6 (37:58):
Let me see, Let me.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
See, because it's any good because I had the Stubs right.

Speaker 6 (38:02):
Because I like Stubbs as a music venue.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Stuff. That's because I.

Speaker 9 (38:07):
Went like hearing so much and I had it out
the same make the barbecue sauce.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, but I get the feeling that you know, Stubs
and Republic and all those spots are like what for
Philly cheese steaks?

Speaker 9 (38:21):
Like what.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Cats? Yeah, like one that two hours in line. That
was a long story, like two hours in line for
Republic Barbecue. I thought, Man, there has to be an underground.

Speaker 9 (38:37):
Spot that gymstaks because it's a line. But it's some bullshit.
Don't go to Philly and eat a gym, you know,
but you know, you know, you've seen the rats all.

Speaker 8 (38:46):
If you go to Philly, you need the quest Love
text message. It's like four pages long. It rates all
the cheese steakery in all the Philadelphia from like from
like Cobb Beefery to like get old whatever.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
You might get robbed at this place.

Speaker 8 (39:03):
Yeah, but you can only go to this place at
this time because if now you might die. Like it's
like that gotsha and if your white, definitely don't go
to this place like it says this.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Is what you said.

Speaker 8 (39:12):
Anybody tells you exactly what to order, order it, you
should that should be your next book.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
I gotta give you know, I gotta keep.

Speaker 6 (39:19):
People safe feeling man, I'm gonna hit.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
You up, yeah, like gold istue peoples. But don't get
this ship. You feel down, bro, because you are you
are rock star skinny.

Speaker 9 (39:28):
I don't even think you you would throw down, but
you might have a fast tabolism And it's like I
get that it's got big hands.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Can we At this point? Are you where you said
you were fourteen? Are you even making demos or recording
the like what's your songwriting process? Like are you even

(40:00):
writing songs at this point? Or you're just playing? Like
what's the music of the day? What is the music
of the day if you are playing at if you're
playing in a blues band in Austin, Texas, like, what
are the what are the go to songs that I
should know? The blues the whole genre, So everything just one.

Speaker 6 (40:25):
You gotta have. You gotta have a for me. It's
like you gotta have a slow a slow blues, major blue,
the slow minor blues.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
You gotta have.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
You gotta show uh.

Speaker 10 (40:42):
Red House, Yeah, Red House is something but or like
something like BB King three o'clock blues?

Speaker 1 (40:50):
How would where would like? Something like like Pride and
Enjoy by Stevie Vaughan? Where would that fall?

Speaker 10 (40:55):
Pride and Joy is kind of a it's kind of
an unspoken rule that if you're in Austin because you
don't touch.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
It, can can you? Can?

Speaker 9 (41:04):
You?

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Are you able to schools on Stevie at least mean
personally straight up? I don't I need to know more
about Stevie Rayvaughn. I know that he's a god. I
don't know why he's a god or anything like. Are
you able to explain what makes him god or the ship?

Speaker 10 (41:23):
I've never heard him be described as god. But I
think the thing that that people love about Stevie Ray
Vaughan is is there's this there's this kind of Americana
thing about him. There's this fierce blues thing about him

(41:44):
that you know he gives props up to Albert King
and all the grace and then he's got this rock
and roll fierce a thing about him.

Speaker 6 (41:55):
And if you if you're coming from Texas and you
play guitar, man.

Speaker 10 (41:57):
For somebody to make it out of Austin, Texas playing guitar,
it was kind of a big deal.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
And just tone.

Speaker 10 (42:05):
I think the thing that makes him the guy is
the tones that he got and out of a stratocaster.
You know, I don't think anybody had heard that powerful,
that strong of a tone coming from from a guitar
like that.

Speaker 6 (42:22):
I think it's been.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
It's just tone. I have so many I don't know. Man, no, no, no,
you're doing good. You're doing good. That's that's the number
of me.

Speaker 6 (42:31):
Yeah, that's the answer.

Speaker 12 (42:33):
Because I remember me and my son used trying to
play Pride and enjoy it on guitar Hero.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
We used to suck it up on that.

Speaker 12 (42:39):
I was like, it's to be pretty hard, it's not easy,
and he was white stayed obviously.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
I guess we should say that. That's what i'n get
to is Okay. So when I watch when I watched
cats like bb King and I mean, I'm gonna take
Hendrix out the equation, we could take Hendricks out, and
we could probably take in Chicago his daughters Johnny Cooker,

(43:07):
Yeah not buddy, So all right, taking those two out.
But as far as blue blues guitar are playing and
it coming from it leaving the the Mississippi Delta, and
like who is credited or who is the definitive electric

(43:34):
blues guitar player? And and how can you tell who's
the real deal and who's not the real deal? Like
if I if I were watching BB King, all right?
For example, when he does a blues he'll stick to
one note, so he'll play the note, see, but he'll
play various ways various like you know texters to it. Sure,

(44:04):
but you know, I know that a lesser expert would
be more impressed with speed or you know, noise and
really not So how can you determine who is a
righteous blues man versus here? All right? And I'm not

(44:26):
trying to make you God, God, that's an.

Speaker 8 (44:31):
Interesting question because he's kind of both of them. There's
like the shredder blues man and then the slow hand
blues man, and I think like there's a difference.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Right, So what's more important? Like no one as me
as a drummer. Like you know, I'm not a gospel drummer,
but people respect my slowness and my pocket right that
speaks enough. But you can chops with you one, not
with these bones. But no. But I'm just saying that,

(44:59):
you know, is there for you? Is it more important
for slow hand blues or is it like about shredding
and volume and fullness.

Speaker 10 (45:15):
I think it's it goes down to does it make
the hair stand up on your arms? Does it give
you chills? Does it make you feel like you want
to cry? Does it make you feel like you want
to scream at the top of your lungs. Does it
make you feel something? I think you can do both.
I think you can play, you can shred and do

(45:37):
all that, and I think you could play to the
slow hand b be king thing. But when you hit
it out and you feel it and and you undenially
your eyes roll back in the back of your head.

Speaker 6 (45:50):
If if something makes me do that, I'm like, that's
just what it is. That's what music is supposed to do.

Speaker 10 (45:57):
I don't care if you're a guitar player, don't care
a drummer, don't carry you uh or whatever genre you know,
if you sing a note and it's like.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Whoa orgasm? Just for so, just for context, like what
is so give us an example of somebody that would
be considered us you said, a slow hand blues player
versus like a shredder, like with a lot of decks.

Speaker 10 (46:23):
There a slow hand blues player. I would have to
say somebody like Derek Trucks. There's somebody who plays, you know,
kind of slide guitar, and he's somebody that I think
is authentic when it comes down to doing it, do
what it's supposed to do. On the other on the
other hand, when it comes down to shred and I

(46:44):
think Eric Gales can do that, you know, I think
that he he can shred and you know people freak out,
you know what I mean, and actually really feel it
and not are just impressed by that super fast bro.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Who's an unsung hero in your in your mind? Like,
who's the guitarist that we need? You know, is a
maverick but you know it hasn't either gotten a deal
just wanted to stay local or just kind of behind
the scenes, Like is there a guitarist that you know
that's just like.

Speaker 6 (47:20):
Yeah, I would have to go back to Eric Gales.
He did.

Speaker 10 (47:23):
We did a show together and he opened up for
us at Austin. I was like, this is a bad idea.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
So is he Is he still alive or is he? Oh?

Speaker 6 (47:34):
Yeah, it was like two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
You know what's weird. I'll say that anytime I've even
done shows with Eric Gal's on on the bill, it's
weird because I feel like he has to pay his bills,
like doing the Sideman stuff. Like I think, uh, wait,
which is we're talking about Eric Gale, like old jazz

(47:59):
cat Eric Eric Gils. No, he's he's from Memphis, credit Memphis. Okay,
there's an Eric Kale. That's I think I'm thinking about
your Areaale.

Speaker 8 (48:08):
We're talking about a lefty young guy who's not who
you're thinking about.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Yeah, No, no Eric Gale, I'm thinking about. Yes, he's
a shreder. Sometimes when uh Living Color Bassis, Sugar Old Vernon,
No sugar Hill Bassis. Also Doug Dog. Sometimes if Doug
Wimbush is on a gig, he'll hire Eric Gils as
his guitar. So back when Doug was the m D

(48:33):
for Lauryn Hill. Like again, like I never really got
to seeing him in his true context, maybe like once
or twice, but normally when I see Eric Gales, he's
either like backing up a rap group or doing something
totally it's like he gotta pay his bills and really
can't can't get loose with it. But I mean he

(48:54):
seems happy, so you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (48:56):
I mean he came through and crust. Like I was
telling everybody was like, this is a terrible.

Speaker 8 (49:10):
When the opener crushes the headliner. No one needs that ship.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Do you do you feel do you feel this unspoken
pressure to live up to the myth of of obviously
the Jay word, because I'm certain for a lot of people,
what is it jew.

Speaker 8 (49:35):
Never happened, won't ever happen, You're not gonna You're not
gonna live up to You're gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
You're a fad ass motherfucker. Guys, Guys, Jimmy.

Speaker 9 (49:49):
Jimmy, yes, and when you're his house, shame shame.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
I'm like, you can't even me. My default was I thought, oh,
guitar black guy, all right, see, let me see he
rises up to the level of Jimmy. And but the
thing was, it was like the way the way that

(50:14):
you did, I just caught you on a fucking excellent
night because even my guitar player his mouth was open,
like you did a gig. Okay, so this is right
when Doyle and show Crow were like, you gotta see
this guy perform. So you weren't signed just yet. It

(50:36):
was like a small bar. It was like a small
out of the way bar in the village that you
just happened to be at. I think it was valent time,
so maybe it was like two thousand and nine ten,
but this is just you in a trio. But it
was I, you know, and I know him the king

(50:57):
of you know, hyperbole, and oh my god, it's the
next thing. But even Rolling Stone, who was with me
that night, when they reviewed that show, then they were like,
you know, this guy's next, and to prove it, I mean,
they gave him the lead review. When I saw that
the EP got the lead review and Rolling Stone, I

(51:21):
was like, damn not since when I was ten years old.
I mean I've been reading Rolling Stone like all my life,
and I know the power of like the lead review.
And when Prince an Unknown Prince got the lead review
for a Dirty Mind four and a half, like I
was like, wow, this rock magazine, which has no connections

(51:44):
to like this isn't I want to be your lover
that you know, this is like an unspoken unproven musician.
They gave him the lead review, so this must be
some shit. They gave you the same treatment, So I'm like,
do you feel is there an unspoken pressure? Now? I
must like Eric Clapton told me that I was the best,

(52:05):
you know, modern blues guitarist that he's ever seen, and
you know, for a lot of us that aren't really
you know, in the vocabulary of rock music or blues, Like,
is there do you feel like a pressure to live
up to that?

Speaker 10 (52:23):
Or I don't feel any pressure. I don't feel any
pressure to live up to that necessarily, but I think
about it when it's brought up.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
How many times journalists ask you like.

Speaker 10 (52:42):
These types of questions like yeah, but I think the
thing for me is is I've always kind of not
said much about it, but to not sound cocky or
not to not to sound like I know, I know
that I got into this thing not to be in

(53:02):
last place, talk to the.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Nice.

Speaker 10 (53:08):
So yeah, I put that on myself, and regardless of
what other people say, you know, I want to I
want to be I want to be, you know, I
want to get a chance to jam with you, you know,
talking about like some real ship. I want to be
with the motherfuckers doing this shit. And I'm not gonna

(53:29):
be okay with just being like I didn't get into this.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
You that, okay, That's why I wanted to. I was like, okay,
you definitely play like that. Then you know, some people
are like, you know, man sucks, thanks anyway, but you know,
just the way that you played, and again, it's like
the way that blues rock has been defined and redefined.
I mean it's to the point now like where we

(53:54):
just basically thought like, okay, all guitar grids from now
on are just going to be white dudes, and if
a black one comes along, then you know, like oh
maybe maybe not. But you know, you were definitely the
real I think there was pressure also in Lenny to
live up to that.

Speaker 9 (54:13):
When did that come into But the thing is like his.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Lenny's acts work was never to that level, but because
he looked the part. You know, I'm sure a lot
of people expected that, you know, when really it's Craig
that's the axe men of it.

Speaker 9 (54:29):
But you know it's I missed that on a Lenny
Kravitz episode.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
I yeah, and plus, you know, especially with black people,
I feel like a lot of our associations with rock,
Like one of the one of the main reasons why
I wanted to do the See with Cody was because
it was a rock song that wasn't a rock song.
Because half the time, it's like, you know, rappers be

(54:55):
thinking about smells like teen Spirit, like some Headbang or
or like iron Man, like that's our rock experience, and
there's it's such a it's such a vast, you know,
vocabulary to it that a lot a lot of the
world doesn't know because a lot of us just aren't

(55:16):
in on the playing field anymore. So do you feel
do you feel see a rock tune? Is that what
the stuff?

Speaker 9 (55:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (55:27):
I wouldn't, but that's just why I don't know. I mean,
he literally named it rock and roll.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
I mean, I mean good lyric but what the okay
for me? For me, it was I didn't want to,
you know, if we were going to go there. Like
when Quincy Jones tried to get beat It out of
Michael Jackson, he literally said, I want you to do
your version of my Sharona and Michael was like, Okay,

(55:54):
I'll be back in three days, and then came back
with beat It, which is you you know, and and
anything that Mike has done after that, you know, like
the Dirty Diana like slashes everywhere to me, like I
you know, I liked I like black and my favorite

(56:17):
Rolling Stones album is probably their worst review joint, which
is Black and Blue. You know. It's just like there's
a certain rock that I like that's not that doesn't
have twelve exclamation points behind it.

Speaker 6 (56:28):
So I'm a little beast of burden.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
That's some girls. Yeah, the Black and Blue album was
like that, that was there. Okay, we're going to try
and get funky a little bit, but it didn't work
that way. But I like sloppy stuff, so you know,
I'm a check out. I never got into the Stones
the catalog like that.

Speaker 9 (56:48):
I know it is and don't make us feel bad
just teachers, you know, sometimes.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
It don't you don't know, so yes, anyway, now I
gotta go back to I gotta go back to what
when did you first start songwriting? What was your like
the first recording.

Speaker 6 (57:06):
My first recording was a song that I recorded with well,
my friend Eve.

Speaker 10 (57:11):
It was called barsol blues and uh, it was just
kind of a shuffle blue shuffle, and it was me, her,
my cousin Ryan, and I can't remember if it was
my sister playing drums or not, but play drums. Yeah,
my little sister plays drums. We got she got a

(57:33):
drum kit the same year that I got a guitar.
My cousin Worm got the bass the same year, and
so we all had the family band. And my sister
I played keys and did all that too. So my
pops would try and put us together to perform for
the family, and we used to call them Joe and yeah,
it was like a whole thing.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Was Joe, Joseph.

Speaker 9 (57:57):
Or any of your sisters still involved the music?

Speaker 6 (57:59):
Uh, they're involved in music, but not trying to go
get it like I was, you know.

Speaker 10 (58:06):
But yeah, So I recorded on a do you remember
those little karaoke thing like a two yes, like a
little Singlelodian things. So I used to record that way.
So we might we put one mic in the room
like hang it off the you know, the garage hanging
down in the middle of the room, and so we
would record and uh, since you couldn't sing it in
the mic, I would go back and flip it, you know,

(58:27):
put another tape in and put on the B side
or whatever, play the thing and then sing the vocal
over it and go do some overdoves and keep flipping tapes.

Speaker 6 (58:36):
It sounded like shit, but that was how we recorded stuff.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
You know, how did you how did word spread around Austin?
And it is Austin the only place that you can
really have reached. Are there surrounding cities in Texas that
you can also have a good musical fan base? Yeah,
it's awesome, just the only blue city. No, that's the

(59:00):
load of questions.

Speaker 6 (59:02):
That was good.

Speaker 10 (59:07):
Yeah, you can go to San Antonio, the San Marcus's
a couple of places to play.

Speaker 6 (59:13):
I went down to the Valley and played down there.
Up to Dallas for worth.

Speaker 10 (59:19):
Uh what about Houston or yeah, you go down to Houston.
The blues community is pretty small down there. So if
you if there's another blues guy or another blues band
on the scene, say hey, man, you need book this
guy down in Texas, and there's like a whole blues
society and so everyone hooks each other up.

Speaker 6 (59:38):
And so yeah, I would run down to Houston in
Dallas with my parents and.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Now, besides those cities that I named the Captain obvious ones, h,
what is the rest of the Texas environment like city was,
I don't really mess with it, even to this day
hasn't established a cigre.

Speaker 10 (01:00:01):
I mean, you gotta get from point A to point B.
But there's some places you just don't stop.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Gad ass ye. I mean for the largest state in
the United States, it's I don't like to know if
there's more than seven cities or that are welcoming.

Speaker 9 (01:00:17):
Or you know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:19):
Look, man, anytime I'm going out west. Anytime I'm going out.

Speaker 10 (01:00:22):
West, I get stopped sweet Water, I get stopped going
out Well, every time I get stopped and pulled out
a car, it's a whole situation every time. Really, it's
like that, and you're heading out east towards Louisiana. You
don't stop. You just keep it moving, get past the bridge.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Even to this day, when you get in the car,
the whole goals just just make.

Speaker 6 (01:00:49):
Sure you got enough gas to get past and you
just keep it moving right up.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Niggas need a new green book at it. It's real now.
When we went to were like like going through Texas
like we had to.

Speaker 12 (01:01:02):
We stayed one night and god, rent would I want
to say it was I can't remember the name, but
basically it was like a hotel and a Walmart and
a McDonald's and like, we didn't what.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Else you need? That's a party. We stayed. We just
stayed in and like I called my honger. I was like,
so we in this town. She's like, oh my god.
She's like no, straight up. She's like, oh no, don't
suck around out there. I was like, damn, but it's
still real.

Speaker 9 (01:01:35):
From somebody from Carolina, that's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Yeah, yeah, it's still real. Wow, Okay, that's what Texas
they literally.

Speaker 9 (01:01:48):
Yo, you mentioned your friend Eve. This is the same
Eve who had the band in the beginning, right, So
do you guys still make music together or what is
that with her? Because you mentioned her twice in music references.

Speaker 10 (01:02:00):
Yeah, we're still we're still cool. Actually we stopped. I
got fired from her band.

Speaker 4 (01:02:07):
What you do?

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
How she like you now?

Speaker 9 (01:02:11):
He did something?

Speaker 6 (01:02:12):
What you do?

Speaker 9 (01:02:12):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:02:12):
I didn't.

Speaker 10 (01:02:13):
I didn't do anything. They just, you know, respectfully. They Yeah,
they decided that my services were no longer.

Speaker 9 (01:02:20):
Needed a lot of solo.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
You know, listen, listen, I'm going to ask you, because
this is what I don't know about you, because at
one point, at one point the guy that was hosting
the party kind of looked at me like, okay, let's
wrap it up.

Speaker 9 (01:02:36):
What is.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
No Because again I can listen to you do fourteen
minutes solo?

Speaker 8 (01:02:43):
How many choruses can you?

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
So when we're doing the blues, how long am I
supposed to run through the format before I do that
role where I let you know, Okay, Gary, it's time
to get to the last burst of weekend?

Speaker 9 (01:02:58):
When is it not said it rude?

Speaker 6 (01:02:59):
You know what?

Speaker 10 (01:03:00):
A few years ago, you would have had to stop me,
You would have had to go do that role, and
I would have snapped out of it and gone, all right,
let's get back into the first. A lot of times
what happens when I do that is I don't know
what the next verse is. Okay, so I'm just buying timeline.
I don't remember the worst of my own shit.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
But the thing is like, I feel like you're you're
not microwave. You're such a slow cook that I'm willing
to give you six rounds and unspoken six rounds of
stuff to let you get into it. So I never
know when you've made your statement, when it's time to
like in the song, right right, right, Yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (01:03:43):
Don't know either.

Speaker 10 (01:03:44):
I always feel like I can keep going. I feel
like I could keep there's more, there's more, there's more,
there's more. I could keep going till I pass out.
But I've become more refined due to UH find and
police showing up.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
I've come more refined.

Speaker 9 (01:04:04):
Is it the same drum cue did you give everybody?

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Or is that just there's a certain language that I
have that the roots instantly know when it's time to
wrap something up or that sort of thing. But that's
only us playing together for decades.

Speaker 8 (01:04:18):
There's also the roots television fill right, which is like
crank crank.

Speaker 6 (01:04:24):
I felt like I felt like he gave me one
of those that the Grammacy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Like a plan because the thing was the thing was
is that? Yes, shout out to Keith McPhee, the most erotic. Yeah,
his his stopwatches have stopwatches. Key big Fee is the
guy that right now he's planning like the Grammy jam

(01:04:52):
in twenty twenty three years from now. That's that's what
Keith is. So you know, in his mind, he's like, Okay,
he did a one hundred and fifteen seconds. Good. You
know we still got a you know, we got chucked
you on the side of the stage. You ready to
run the jewels anybody? And I'm trying to let Keith

(01:05:17):
know that, like fine wine takes like just let.

Speaker 9 (01:05:20):
Them let orgasmo. Yeah, that's what we call it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
But pretty much Keith's one of those guys that like
lose his mind after like a three minute solo. So
I have to you know, I kind of got that.

Speaker 6 (01:05:33):
I was like, all right, I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 10 (01:05:37):
What's the longest solo you have a dig I think
I got clocked somewhere around twelve fourteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
It's Maggot Brain.

Speaker 6 (01:05:46):
Yeah, maggot bright rock and roll. I think funk a
delic is rock.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
Yeah, of course, absolutely true. Indeed I should have put
that in earlier, but yeah, absolutely good segue.

Speaker 12 (01:06:00):
How'd you go about in terms of, like, after you're
playing all these bands and like kind of doing demos
and stuff, how did you go about getting your first deal?

Speaker 10 (01:06:13):
I was, I was, I was doing some shows with
Doyle Bramhall. We've been doing some stuff. He give me
some work.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
I was kind of How did you hook up with
Doyle and for the listeners, Doyle bra Doyle Bramhall really,
I mean, truth be told, Doyle Bramhall was or could
have been. I could be stepping over my boundaries. He was.
He could have been the Gary Clark Jr. Of the

(01:06:45):
early nineties. He was a guy that like again Eric
Clapton gave the gave the the endorsement of life, the
co sign of time for Yeah, for Doyle back and
like nineteen ninety one said, this guy's amazing blues guitarist,
can do everything and sing and all those things. This

(01:07:07):
guy's the next thing. Doyle and the Roots actually signed
the gef and at the same time. And Doyle, if
you're familiar with there's a film called Before the Music
Dies that you should watch. Doyle's a big part of that.
The guy that made that movie. The guy that made
that movie really did it. Because of Doyle's situation. Doyle

(01:07:29):
was supposed to be the second coming of blues guitar
ology and it just didn't work out. He did draft
after draft with records, and you know, he eventually got
dropped by his label and then he.

Speaker 12 (01:07:46):
Had to play pay the bills. So I came mainly
as a session guy. I never knew his like the mythology.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Of he should have been a guy like basically it's
like reverse Jimmy Hendrix. It's like if you started out
as Jimmy Hendrix and just ended up playing with Little Richard,
that sort of thing. But you know he he married
Susannah Melbourne princess, right, So that's how we got to
know him in the very short lived Edith Funker project

(01:08:14):
with Erica and Susannah and Wendy and Lisa and everybody.
And it was during that time, that Edith Funker period
that I was asking Doyle like, well, who do you
know that's like next? And that's when he first told
me that, you know, kid from Austin, Gary Clark Junior.
So when I think Sheryl Crow and Doyle they were

(01:08:37):
torn together, told me like, you got to come and
see this guy play. And it was that I think
Brooklyn Bowl was the first time I seen you Ah play.
I don't know, was that your own set or was
that with Doyle or you know what, I don't remember
how long ago. Yeah, I don't remember how honestly, So

(01:08:57):
you were playing with Doyle and then how did that
go lead to a label situation for you, h I
was you weren't in Archangels?

Speaker 6 (01:09:06):
Were you in that band?

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
I'm not making a joke, was he?

Speaker 6 (01:09:12):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
You?

Speaker 9 (01:09:13):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:09:14):
I was like I was maybe, Okay, No, I wasn't.
I wasn't.

Speaker 10 (01:09:18):
But you know you know about that band of course, Yeah,
Charlie Sexton, Tommy Shannon, damn.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:09:26):
Yeah, So I was doing this struggling.

Speaker 10 (01:09:31):
Starving artist thing and I'm sitting there in the house
full of candles, not by choice.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Poorking beans in the spoon. Yep, okay there. So so.

Speaker 10 (01:09:45):
Just so happens like a little bit later, Doug gets
me a calling and he says, this isn't promised, but
you know, I've been talking to Clapton and I think
he wants you to come out to do his Crossroads festival.
And if you're not familiar, it's a big guitar or thron,
A lot of guitar solos, a lot of the greats
come out and they do this big festival thing and

(01:10:07):
people jam at the end or whatever. And being a
guitar player, I watched them, you know, the DVDs. I
knew what was up, and so I was like really,
and so next thing, I know, I get a letter
in the mail. Cool, You're invited to come to clap
and Crossroads. I get on a plane. I got like
twenty dollars in my pocket.

Speaker 6 (01:10:25):
I show up there and like, what year is this?
This is two thousand and ten.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
Oh wowka, And so.

Speaker 10 (01:10:30):
I show up, do rehearsal next time, do the show,
And in the middle of the show, this whole sound
goes out in Toyota Park, like the whole front of
the house sound.

Speaker 6 (01:10:45):
I'm in the middle of my thing. I'm the new guy.
Nobody knows who the hell I am, and I'm seeing people.

Speaker 10 (01:10:49):
Booing shit and screaming. I'm just seeing this, and Doyle goes, hey, man,
the sounds out. Just keep doing anything when it come
around and do this, uh you know, you come back
into your verse. We're trying to work this thing out.
So I'm just freaking out. Im just playing. No one's
hearing me. I keep seeing this. I'm like, damn, I
came all the way I hear the Chicago and fucked

(01:11:11):
it up. And so it just so happens at the
end of my solo where I, you know, I started
wrapping it up, all the sound comes back on everybody
freaks out. It becomes this huge moment. It becomes like
one of the most exciting moments of the whole thing.
It's not because I didn't anything epic. So anyway, I

(01:11:31):
got I'm hanging out backstage.

Speaker 6 (01:11:33):
I'm like, man, this that was terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
Blah blah.

Speaker 10 (01:11:36):
Tom Wally Andy Oliphant, who used to work at Warner
at the time, approached me and gave me their business
cards and said, uh, we're thinking about doing something with
you know.

Speaker 6 (01:11:46):
And I did that whole thing and ran around in
different spots and ended up wrong with them.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
And.

Speaker 6 (01:11:54):
He's not, the whole thing is different, gotcha.

Speaker 10 (01:11:58):
But yeah, so that that was that was it just
being backstage thinging that was terrible And they're like, what
do you think about rocking the Warner?

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Wow? What was that like? Like, were you apprehensive outsigning the.

Speaker 6 (01:12:08):
Deal or yeah? Of course I was a lot of vis.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
Did you get to talk to Clapton at all?

Speaker 9 (01:12:16):
No.

Speaker 10 (01:12:17):
I walked up to him and I was really excited
and I said, hey, man, thank you for inviting me.

Speaker 6 (01:12:22):
You know, you have no idea and just go thanks
for coming. Walked off in his little boat shoes and
shorts and.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
Wow. Yeah. So when you first started recording your first record.

Speaker 12 (01:12:37):
Excuse me, what was it like going from I guess
it's kind of, you know, just kind of just the
shoe stream, you know, budget shit to actually now what
we were able to do differently in terms of the sound.

Speaker 10 (01:12:47):
Yeah, I thought I was, but I was working with
with people who I won't necessarily name, and I didn't
like it.

Speaker 6 (01:12:55):
But these were producers or yeah, and I didn't.

Speaker 13 (01:12:59):
I didn't for the EP or for Black and Blue.
For both, I was like real talk shots.

Speaker 10 (01:13:11):
I mean, no, no, no, it turned out to be
all right, But I just I was in a place
where I felt like I was free and creative and
I wanted to express everything and have all my my.

Speaker 6 (01:13:25):
All my ideas fully realized. And there was this kind
of like you, yeah, let's get to it.

Speaker 10 (01:13:32):
Let's do it like this way, let's get to it,
you know, And I would present ideas and so that's boring.
I'm like, well, only played for thirty seconds, man, let
me let me.

Speaker 6 (01:13:40):
Get to the change. Yeah, And so I didn't like
feeling like I couldn't move at my own pace.

Speaker 10 (01:13:46):
You know, being from Texas. If we get twenty seconds
on the crosswalk, I'm taking all of them. So that
was like, that was that was my mentality. But as
I get older, you know, I understand and I had
to learn, you know, I hadn't learn, but I was
uncomfortable at first.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
I didn't like it.

Speaker 10 (01:14:03):
I didn't like anybody tell me what to do because
I started playing music because I was the only place
where nobody could tell me what to do.

Speaker 6 (01:14:10):
So I was like, well, what the hell am I doing?

Speaker 10 (01:14:11):
Yeah, music business, But you know it's all good little
maturity and you know, taking a step back and understanding
that it's not just about you.

Speaker 6 (01:14:22):
That was a real reality check.

Speaker 9 (01:14:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
So was Sonny Slid, the album in which you felt
that you had your control in your your true voiceover.

Speaker 6 (01:14:33):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
Well.

Speaker 10 (01:14:35):
I just wanted to try it. I wanted to be
able to have I wanted to be able to make
an album where I'm like this, I'm.

Speaker 6 (01:14:41):
Fully responsible whether it works or not.

Speaker 10 (01:14:44):
I know what my strengths and my weaknesses are, and
I've never been able to test him, and I want
to do that. Like I said, I didn't get into
this to be last place, and I didn't get into
this to only give a quarter of what I think
that I can give.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
So that was where that came from? How did because
that's you, I from not saying that's you playing the
guitar on the Fire We Make? Uh, how did that
come about? Delicia Keys and Drake Record? How did that that? Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:15:12):
That was Miguel I mean not Miguel Maxwell.

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
Maxwell. He hooked that he hooked all up or Fire
We Make was at Max my band? I thought was
my bad? I meant said, I mean Drake was that
was the breakable right right?

Speaker 6 (01:15:29):
I don't know, I didn't I missed that. I remember
being that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:36):
Yeah, how did that session come about?

Speaker 6 (01:15:38):
At least your Keys asked me to do uh an
event with her, Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
No child Alive? Wait, no child, black child left behind black.

Speaker 6 (01:15:53):
Black black, but the name of her black child and
then the black blas.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
That's the party, but keep Alive is the organization organization? Yeah,
we was all right.

Speaker 10 (01:16:11):
So we did a version of Wild my guitar gently
weaves and and so we kind of linked up that way.
It was pretty cool, and she asked me to be
a part of this this Uh our record called me
up and went up to the studio here in New York,
and uh, do.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
People do when when guests tell you to do their
record because you're You're on Donald Uh Gambino's album and
your mom met So.

Speaker 9 (01:16:39):
I just was laughing at something.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
I'm just saying that he loves Hi Bill. How you doing, Billy? No?
But is it when guests asked you to appear on
their albums? Are they are they just like do you

(01:17:01):
and do what you do and that's it? Or do
they have like very specific uh instructions and and and.

Speaker 9 (01:17:09):
Are you all that specific instruction or do you just
take the ones.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
To go do you?

Speaker 10 (01:17:15):
Well, I've done most sessions that I've done has been
just kind of like do you. But I worked with
Cody and Gambino and they're both like it goes like this,
you know, and it's like I kind of put my
own no, I don't do it goes like.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
This, Okay, yeah, I don't do that.

Speaker 12 (01:17:39):
So the solo that you played on the on the
Your Mama joint like that, that's them kind of directing
or is it well as much as you versus.

Speaker 10 (01:17:46):
The solo part. The solo part was was all me
because you can't you can't tell me how to do
that part. Damn right, that's gotta be just from the heart.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:17:59):
But but as far as like chord changes and things
like that and a little transition chords, was like.

Speaker 6 (01:18:04):
Not that one, this one? Yep, that no perfect, you know. Yeah,
so but it was cool. It's like I respect that is,
I know what I want, I know what you're capable of.
Let's do that, all right.

Speaker 12 (01:18:19):
I was watching your the like I guess the new
ep K or the promo video that you got for
the new record This Land, and it was one clip
where you were playing your solo and you were solo
and like in the control room, and.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
That's how I cut all my vocals. So I thought
it was interesting. Is that how you always kind of
play like just right there in the moment, like you know,
like right in front of the console.

Speaker 6 (01:18:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:18:44):
Not, it depends sometimes I will, but sometimes I like
to be in the room with the band. But for
that one, I just turned the amp Caesar d is
one for twelve cabinet Marshall and just turn that up
and just ran for the two level. God, I still
want to be in there, you know. And I wanted
to hear how it translates. I like to hear I
was going to translate on the speakers.

Speaker 6 (01:19:05):
You know. Yeah, for the most part.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
With your vocal, it was one the same clip you
were you were cutting your vocal, you were playing, you
were singing, and you were singing like you was singing
through a fifty eight through it. It's just like a
regular joint. Is that what you cut most of your
vocals on? Or do you do like the fancy I guess,
Mike so or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:19:22):
I've done all of it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
I don't really have a preference.

Speaker 6 (01:19:28):
Is it on check?

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
Let's go?

Speaker 9 (01:19:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
Is it on? Okay? Yeah? I didn't know if you
had a preference for just more that kind of raw
like live sounded like a you know, a smaller mic.

Speaker 6 (01:19:38):
No, I don't know the difference. What what do you use?

Speaker 8 (01:19:41):
What my personally good one?

Speaker 1 (01:19:42):
Yeah, my personal mic is it's a manly reference. It's yeah,
it is. I've told you for seventy five years, never
told you about about the man so mainly, I mean
they're mainly known for like that outboard gear, but they
make the mic and so.

Speaker 6 (01:20:02):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:20:03):
When I was rebuilding my studio in my crib, I
bought a Norman uh the U A seven, which is
like the classic mic or whatever, and so I got it,
and I was just like, yo, man, this ship sound cold.

Speaker 1 (01:20:15):
This is cold as fuck.

Speaker 6 (01:20:17):
I don't like this.

Speaker 1 (01:20:18):
And so my homie, my dealer homie, he was like, well, yo,
he said. The Normans are generally very cold out the box,
he said, but over time, as they age, that's when
they get kind of warm. I was like, nigga, I'm
trying to got I'm trying to Yeah, I ain't got
no time of that. I got you need. So he
was like, yo, but the one you need is the

(01:20:38):
manly referenced. I was like whatever, So he let me
shoot out. I had like a whole like locker ship.

Speaker 12 (01:20:43):
I have a U eighty seven U sixty seven fuddled
yeah man, I shout it out against U eighty seven
U sixty seven.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
I had a ribbon mic like an r c A
like the old Elvis Mike. I had that one. I
had the road, which was like my for like years.
I shout it out against like six seven mics. It
kicked all their asses for like I mean, and it
was it was like a thousand dollars cheaper than the
U eighty seven.

Speaker 6 (01:21:09):
I might have to give me a manly.

Speaker 1 (01:21:12):
Reference the truth, man, But what I got I got
like a little s M. Fifty eight too, like I'll
cut vocals through that, which is like a shure, is
just one of those. And I mean that in the
clip that I saw, like from your album, it looked
like you were singing in one of those, and I
used that one too.

Speaker 8 (01:21:26):
I don't even did Michael Jackson record like Man in
the Mirror.

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
On fifty seven. Yeah, I'm one of those people that
I've been under Suores. Uh uh what do you call
it up and endorsement? Sure, for like decades now, but.

Speaker 8 (01:21:45):
You know that's over now, yeah, said the engineer.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
Wait we don't yeah, wow, when did we end that relationship?

Speaker 8 (01:21:58):
Can I ask a question?

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
Sure?

Speaker 8 (01:22:00):
Carry Color Jr. You seem to be like the Roots.
This weird anominally of well yeah, like Peo like fans
or people playing like black music, but it appeals to
white audiences and it's a rarity, like you play for
Bonnarou and you play these festivals for white jam kids.

(01:22:21):
That's it doesn't happen that often in the same way
the Ruts, the fucking Roots played in my college. We've
talked about this and my college spring fling. When I
was a graduating.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
I loved it. Let's just go with that.

Speaker 9 (01:22:35):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (01:22:36):
But but I don't know what do you attribute that to?
Because you're I mean, I find I think I have
an answer, but I was wondering what your answer was.
I mean, other than it's all great music, which I'm
sure is an easy answer. But like, do you ever
think about that?

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
I do?

Speaker 6 (01:22:51):
Oh, well, I'm thinking about it. Certain Chappelle skit.

Speaker 8 (01:22:59):
Understandable.

Speaker 6 (01:23:00):
Oh yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:23:04):
Just good music is good music? I mean, like it
is what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Yeah, Well, can I ask you I'm not trying what
I'm gonna add on to it? Is it harder for
you now? I know that you're going in different or
we should mention also that this land I forgot that
much it is out right now? Is it harder for
you to keep the flame alive? Uh? In which kind

(01:23:34):
of the the environment of the musical environment of the
youth is the kind of the exact opposite of it.
Whereas you know, traditional rock was the front and center
rebel music, that was the middle finger to society, where
now it's almost Uh, it's kind of like a rarity

(01:23:56):
where you can find quality, really good tradition on rock music?
Is that hard and now I know you're going different
directions with this album as well, but is it is
it hard defining or or standing by your your your
queen your acts in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 6 (01:24:18):
It's hard. Nah, I don't know. I wouldn't know what
to do without it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
Yeah, I wish you could see it. Hey, let me
know when you want to do the R and B
immature album I'm working on.

Speaker 6 (01:24:40):
I'm working on it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:24:42):
Man, listen, I'm on in on that. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:24:44):
Hell, Bill, he'll bring his manly reference and everything.

Speaker 9 (01:24:48):
Bill was the remix to your I don't know if
this is the remix, but were you kind of asking like,
do you do you ever feel some type of way
when you look in the crowd it's not as many
black people as you as maybe one would like to see.

Speaker 5 (01:24:57):
Is that like the.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
Question I ask? But I just interest that.

Speaker 8 (01:25:04):
That always interested me. It's why the rout issue with that.

Speaker 9 (01:25:07):
But maybe Gary does. It's different for every artist. Well,
I'm sorry. Black Thought was known as having not an issue,
but at times he's been known to say the more
we grew up.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
And we grew up in the hype Williams video era,
which was like the real record business budgets, and I
think if you grow up with that and those images
and whatnot, and you know what you're seeing on the road,
you know when groupies are chasing me, it's like five

(01:25:41):
five dudes at my hotel when wanting to know, like
what kind of microphone does D'Angelo use? Like what he
was breaking down. I've had that conversation many a time
in a hotel.

Speaker 9 (01:25:52):
Like I've also seen earlier on in the Roots career.
I've seen the response when you've had like an all
Black grounds, like, yeah, we had all Black grounds.

Speaker 8 (01:26:02):
My point was, I've seen I've seen Gary play a
number of times, and he will freak out white hippie
kids in the same way he freaks out African American.
It's like, and that's a rarity. I'm I'm giving that compliment,
you know what I'm saying, Like, I don't you don't
you see that enough? In the same way the Roots
complay to all my audience and and it doesn't matter,
and that I love and I feel like the ability

(01:26:24):
to do that is transcendent. And I don't understand and
I don't understand it, and that's my that's my question.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
And I was adding, is an endangered species. Do you
feel some sort of way about it?

Speaker 11 (01:26:36):
But the answer is simple. Black people gave up on
rock music after Living Color.

Speaker 1 (01:26:46):
Sugar Network. Yeah, Steve, you did it. Let's go, here's
your theme.

Speaker 8 (01:26:54):
Say something.

Speaker 9 (01:27:03):
And then they told us Lenny didn't count.

Speaker 1 (01:27:05):
Lenny is Jewish.

Speaker 9 (01:27:07):
That's what I.

Speaker 6 (01:27:09):
Like.

Speaker 9 (01:27:10):
Lenny grab his way, you know that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
Living Color and who else do we have? Well? Nothing
after that. I mean we had Prince. I mean really
Prince was but but did.

Speaker 7 (01:27:20):
He just cause the guitar doesn't mean yeah, he was
R and.

Speaker 6 (01:27:25):
B for.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
He saw he was black people. The Isisley Brothers.

Speaker 9 (01:27:35):
Definitely delic So we keep it in the spirit of like.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
By seventy six. By seventy six, Funkadelic basically became Yeah
because was a Parliament song. Yeah, I mean, you know,
and GARYT Shatter himself will say that, you know, I
felt that after when they making One Nation under the
Groove and suddenly we just sold out and became Parliament.
So I'm just saying that.

Speaker 9 (01:28:03):
Doesn't it seem like based on the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and everything else, It depends. It depends
on who you're asking what rock and roll is. Because
I mean, there's a whole very derivative situation and then
I don't know, it's just weird to me.

Speaker 11 (01:28:15):
The funk lineage is like outside of rock, like Princess
funk and pop, you know, but more than rock.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
But he he's rock. I never grew printing in rock.
It was probably the reason why Rolling Stone had left
him off the one hundred Greatest Guitar Players, Like but
in the Rock and Roll that right there, Yeah whoa, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:28:36):
Unfair is the best?

Speaker 1 (01:28:39):
Yes, like they Rolling Stone literally forgot to list Prince
in one of the the one hundred you know what saying.
And thus when Prince did the my guitar gently weeps
guitar solo at the that was his revenge, Like that
was his like motherfuckers like.

Speaker 6 (01:29:01):
You.

Speaker 12 (01:29:02):
But I think with him though, I mean this is
just I think with him, with artists like that that
are just so big and just so known for so
many hit records, it's hard to imagine what gets overlooked
is just the musicianship.

Speaker 1 (01:29:15):
So even like with Michael Jackson, like Michael.

Speaker 12 (01:29:16):
Would say, like he would talk about Prince, he would say, well,
people look at Princes as an artist, but they just
look at me on the dance, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
But Mike used to saying, it's god damn face off,
you know.

Speaker 9 (01:29:28):
What I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:29:28):
Sometimes I forget that Mike is an excellent saying an
extracy right, because you just see the white sox and
the dances and shit that you forget that this is
some real fucking musicianship going on. I feel as though
Prince really took the space that the Isisley brothers had
in the seventies. I can rap you on that. And
it's so natural for Ernie Eisley to do a solo

(01:29:49):
in the seventies, you know that, you just you never said, oh,
this is not rock and roll, this is you know,
it's that sort of thing.

Speaker 9 (01:29:56):
Somehow, somewhere it became harder, harder for black dozey caught
and roll.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
Well, gar.

Speaker 9 (01:30:04):
Gary, I mean, we are older.

Speaker 13 (01:30:14):
All the time, don't worry about are not.

Speaker 6 (01:30:21):
The baby here at the kids table in my own
damn house.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
I still Gary. So I have a somewhat relevant question.

Speaker 8 (01:30:32):
I think he was asking about his hands again.

Speaker 11 (01:30:36):
So is it is it a blessing or a curse
to be grouped as a certain genre, specifically blues or
blues rock.

Speaker 1 (01:30:45):
Let's say in your case, is that.

Speaker 11 (01:30:49):
Is that something that you hold up as a as
a sign of pride or is that something that's that's pigeonholing?

Speaker 10 (01:30:57):
You know, I feel I feel a couple of ways
of about that. When I was a kid, all I
wanted to do was be a blues man. My first
when I first got a guitar, I saw Steve Steve
rayvonn Tribute was Eric Clapton, Buddy got bb King, Robert Cray,
Bonnie Ray, a few others, and I said, I want
to be a part of that thing. And so in

(01:31:17):
twenty ten, when I got to be on stage with
all them at the same time, I was like, it
feels great to be a part of this, but it's
also that other things like well I got I love
being a part of this thing, but I love other
stuff too, and I'd like to do all of that.

Speaker 6 (01:31:34):
So I just I just do what I do and
try not to think about it. And I'm thirty four
years old.

Speaker 9 (01:31:38):
Man, I got out of this, Thank you. It was
getting tired.

Speaker 1 (01:31:42):
We come with this land though it ain't always true,
and you're going going in different directions, like do you
now feel as though I mean the way that that
the times are defined now is just to be fluid,
like non defined. And the new records, yeah, graduation.

Speaker 10 (01:32:02):
Yeah, I think that that I've always wanted to kind
of do that. I mean, Quincy Jones is idle than me.

Speaker 6 (01:32:09):
Been trying to get rid of the genres and all
that for a long time.

Speaker 10 (01:32:14):
And and uh, when I heard Wu Tang spitting over
Albert Kinglis, I was like, I can do whatever I want.

Speaker 12 (01:32:22):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that because you
talked about in your in the promo for the new record,
you talk about like your hip hop influences, Like what
was this?

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
What was some of the hip hop stuff you listened to?

Speaker 10 (01:32:34):
I mean when I was I guess nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
I wasn't allowed to listen to hip hop, but my
buddy Grant would make me tapes put different titles.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
On it, and your parents, yes, why did exactly?

Speaker 10 (01:32:59):
So I was listening to uh like d MX Snoop
Warren g Uh, bone thugs in Harmony.

Speaker 1 (01:33:13):
Bone Thugs in Harmony, never singing harmony. He's right, they
are both totally correct.

Speaker 6 (01:33:23):
I never thought about that the US cross.

Speaker 1 (01:33:25):
There were no harm totally right, totally right. I never
thought about that play.

Speaker 9 (01:33:30):
Did you have you have?

Speaker 6 (01:33:31):
Y'all?

Speaker 9 (01:33:32):
I saw I was just reading something where you did
something with bun Be. But have your text is like
the MCS kind of embraced you in that way from yeah,
because I'm thinking about I'm thinking about Scarface. I don't
want to say Austin, so I think, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:33:45):
Guitar lessons. Yet I forgot about his guitar.

Speaker 6 (01:33:52):
I saw him. I went to go see him in
d C. And I didn't know he played guitar. So
he came on with a guitar.

Speaker 9 (01:34:00):
What Oh, DC will let him play whatever he wants to.

Speaker 6 (01:34:02):
Yeah, so but yeah, so yeah ghetto, Yeah, switch your house,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
So.

Speaker 6 (01:34:13):
I spent a lot of time listening to that.

Speaker 10 (01:34:16):
But I love the production stuff, you know, the production
side of it, you know from Swiss and Dre and
you know the whole you know. I mean, I'm sitting
here what you got, But I got to give it
up to the roots for production and musicality.

Speaker 6 (01:34:30):
In that, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:34:31):
Like that.

Speaker 6 (01:34:33):
That made it to me. It's like this all goes together,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:34:37):
And I can.

Speaker 6 (01:34:38):
I want to be a part of that too. I
want to do that too. I love being a blues man,
but like this ship is tight, you know what I mean?
Like I want to get into this too and figure
it all out.

Speaker 10 (01:34:47):
So I want to put the n PC underneath everything
and put the guitars and live instrumentation on top of.

Speaker 6 (01:34:53):
It, and and use all the colors, you know what
I mean. Do you like jazz?

Speaker 1 (01:35:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:35:07):
I love jazz. I listened to a good amount of it.
Never try to touch it really.

Speaker 1 (01:35:14):
Though, So what what is what is your go to listening?

Speaker 6 (01:35:20):
So what's on my playlist?

Speaker 4 (01:35:22):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
Sir?

Speaker 10 (01:35:24):
I guess yeah? Yeah, John Battis's latest one, Yeah, lm A.
Have been listening to.

Speaker 9 (01:35:34):
Up Yeah, don't do All because the second tripping sound
like boot Up Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:35:44):
And I've been listening to Sammy Davis Jr.

Speaker 1 (01:35:50):
One right, there's another Sammy Davis Jr.

Speaker 9 (01:35:54):
There's a younger person that named himself Sam David Junior.
So I'm just trying to make sure I wasn't confused.

Speaker 1 (01:35:58):
Well, you're talking about the candy Man the can.

Speaker 7 (01:36:02):
That would be, but some is it because for the
junior thing like the connection.

Speaker 6 (01:36:11):
Anywhere, But I was I came across a performance of him.

Speaker 10 (01:36:19):
Doing mister bo Jangles and uh and my son really
loved it and so he started singing it around the
house and I was like, well, let's just get into
Sammy Davis Junior together.

Speaker 6 (01:36:30):
So that's been our musical.

Speaker 1 (01:36:32):
That is the Beauty Discovery.

Speaker 6 (01:36:34):
Yeah, so that's what happened.

Speaker 9 (01:36:36):
I need to movies to get into those episodes on
the Coxtables. I can't even say the show.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
No more on the.

Speaker 9 (01:36:44):
Okay, on The Cosby Show because Sammy Davis Junior had
some really great cameos.

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
But I doubt you will find that anywhere. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:36:51):
Yeah, Tap he was really good in the movie Tap
Tap was hard Ship with Gregory High.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:37:02):
The JT song that the title.

Speaker 1 (01:37:03):
Song, will take It was j T and Regina Bell
and it was not make it like it was, but
it was sorry. Yeah. Yeah, JT's back cooling game.

Speaker 9 (01:37:12):
So that see Gary, this is when forty celebrated.

Speaker 1 (01:37:18):
Yeah, this is this nigga. We're falling. The eyes is back.

Speaker 8 (01:37:23):
I'm with it, Okay, Gary Clark has James and he's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:37:26):
So yeah, I'm also wrapping. I understand, I gotta wrap
this up to bed.

Speaker 8 (01:37:32):
Yeah, who's not going to I'm going to go to bed.

Speaker 6 (01:37:36):
Yeah, I do too, Billy Steve gotta go to bed.
Sounds like a movie Washington.

Speaker 8 (01:37:42):
In the early early morning.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
Yeah, anyway, Bill and Steve could have been to do anyway.

Speaker 8 (01:37:48):
My second bar Mitzvah hosted book and what is uh
your your?

Speaker 1 (01:37:53):
What are you playing on the rest of your year?
Being in twenty nineteen?

Speaker 6 (01:37:58):
The rest of twenty nineteen is tour forever.

Speaker 1 (01:38:01):
That's a good thing. I'm trying to work like you man,
that's yes, that's a good thing. That's an awesome thing.

Speaker 12 (01:38:06):
Yeah, it's a blessed How do you balance it out
with your with your boys and your know what?

Speaker 1 (01:38:10):
What the kids?

Speaker 6 (01:38:11):
A boy girl, boy girl. Okay, I'm just gonna awfully
you just bring them out with me with you.

Speaker 1 (01:38:16):
That's dope.

Speaker 6 (01:38:17):
I'm trying to get to that.

Speaker 11 (01:38:18):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:38:20):
It's a family. So yeah, that's what. We'll just be
out there everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:38:28):
Cool. Well, we thank you for coming on the show, sir.

Speaker 12 (01:38:31):
Yes, man, I'm so happy to learn that your R
and B dude like like R and B arm like greasy.

Speaker 1 (01:38:38):
R and B, like your R and B record. I
want to on it like, let's do like some divince dope.
Garrett Clark, I might have to get it. You gotta
standing there.

Speaker 9 (01:38:50):
Make sure you caught the land first land. That was
Jamison that hit me with them.

Speaker 6 (01:38:57):
Isn't it beautiful?

Speaker 1 (01:39:02):
Anyway? On behalf of Unpaid Bill and Sugar Steve of
the Sugar Steve Network, aren't jazz guitarist? And Boss Bill
is getting angry? Bill? We love you man, Sorry, look
with love. What your bathroom?

Speaker 9 (01:39:20):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
You're gonna be a nigga doing renovations?

Speaker 8 (01:39:23):
Finished, Matt finished, Gary.

Speaker 1 (01:39:25):
We thank you for coming on the sales, coming on.
Let's see you all in the next round. Of course,
loved Supreme, see all later, coust Love Supreme. It's a
production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by the

(01:39:49):
team at Mandora. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where whever you
listen to your favorite shows.