June 14, 2022 • 43 mins
Abe Laboriel Jr. is the drummer on speed dial for some of the biggest names in the music business, including Eric Clapton, k.d. lang, Eddie Vedder, Melissa Etheridge…and Paul McCartney, as member of McCartney’s band for the past two decades. Son of Mexican bass guitarist Abraham Laboriel and nephew of Mexican rocker Johnny Laboriel, the Berklee-College-of Music-trained drummer has music in his blood. He’s also had the pleasure of playing some of the biggest stages in the world: the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the Queen’s Gold and Diamond Jubilees. Abe tells Alec why drums are his instrument of choice, what it’s like to jam with Sir Paul, and how he tethers great musicians back to the band.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from My Heart Radio back. When you think of the
(00:37):
rhythm section of the Beatles, Paul McCartney on bass guitar
and Ringo Star on drums immediately come to mind. But
my guest today has played with Paul McCartney longer than
Ringo Starr. He's been a member of Paul's band for
two decades. He's also played with Eric Clapton, Chris Isaac,
Katie Lange Sting, My Lean Armor, Steve Winwood. The list
(01:02):
goes on and on. I'm talking, of course, about the
illustrious drummer Abel Boreal Jr. This is a bon drums
with Paul McCartney performing back in the USSR live in
New York City. Musical talent of this caliber runs deep
in the Laboreal family. His father, Mexican bass guitarist Abraham
(01:26):
La Boreal, and his uncle, Mexican rocker Johnny Laboreal. We're
both accomplished musicians in their own right. Abe, a Berkeley
School of Music trained musician, has a particular view of
his role in a band. To me, the drummer is
in service of the music. Number one, Number two to lead,
(01:49):
to drive the bus, if you will, to tell people
where to go, pay attention to everything. I see my
job as listener. First then I have to do But
first I have to listen, you know, to really hear
what's going on. And I can hear when someone's maybe
falling behind or a little bit lost or forgotten something,
and so I have to be paying attention to all
(02:10):
of that. And then on top of that, like for me,
Keith Moon was like a lead drummer, you know, like
Pete Townsend held the rhythm together while Keith play lead
guitar on the drums. It's funny. It's something my dad
and I would always speak of. My dad is a
great musician, you know, like he when he plays live,
he believes that half the audience is deaf and the
(02:32):
other half is blind. And so you have to be
able to reach all of them, you know, So you can't.
For me, I just can't sit still and pretend like
I'm not in it with my entire soul, you know,
I have to try and reach every single person out there.
You grew up in l A. Yeah, born in Boston,
and your family when I was five with a short
(02:55):
stint in Cleveland. Well, my dad being a musician and
he went to Berkeley College of Music, graduated from there,
and my mom was going to medical school at BU
when they met, and uh, when she graduated, she had
an internship in Cleveland, and my dad put his career
on pause for the two years that we were there,
(03:16):
and he raised me you know during that. Yeah, yeah,
she's a doctor. Who who there's a doctor when she
married a musician? Yeah, where did her smarts go when
it came down to get married? Well, I have no no,
And honestly, the two of them compliment each other so beautifully.
They're still together. Just had their fiftieth year anniversary. And um,
(03:37):
my mom she's a behavioral specialist now, a pediatric behavioral
specialist that deals with kids who have fetal alcohol syndrome
and helps diagnose and treat all that kind of stuff.
But she was a classically trained opera singer as a kid,
you know, in high school and in college and plays guitar.
And I used to lead folk worship at the local
(04:00):
Catholic church. That's where my dad first saw her and
fell in love. Was this beautiful woman playing guitar and
was like, I need to I need to meet her. Yeah,
so it's so uh, it's an interesting mix of cultures there.
And she said, I'm going to medical school and he
was like, I think I love you. Yeah, exactly. See,
(04:21):
he's a smart man. He's a genius. He's a genius.
Go to l A when you're five, and what part
of town are you living in for a brief period
of time in Santa Monica, and then when they finally
bought a home, it was deep in the valley and
Woodland hills, yeh, off of a street called Winnetka. So like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(04:42):
that's where I lived for twenty years. No way, are
you serious? I mean, I'm I'm a good deal older
than you, but I mean I said everything I hated
about the valley I grew to love. Yeah. Yeah, it's
it's a lack of pretension. Everybody just normal exactly. Yeah.
Really it's it is a it's a great normalizer, isn't it. Like,
you know, the houses are all pretty cookie cutter. You know,
(05:02):
maybe someone has a double lot here about kids in
schools and soccer teams and baseball team. Yeah. Now, when
you you know, you graduated high school, you pick up
the first instrument you play the drums. Yeah, yeah, that
was the thing that came naturally. Pots and pans at
the age of four, you know, just headphones on, rocking
out to things. I would dabble, you know. They my
(05:23):
parents encouraged, like piano lessons. I didn't really like them.
Saxophone lessons wasn't for me. I was always fascinated with
guitar and bass, but was also intimidated because my dad
is such an amazing prolific musician, So I always gravitated
towards the thing that I could jam with him. He's
a bass player, your dad. Yeah, interesting that the path
(05:43):
your career went. Yeah, you know, I've I've known a
few for some reason, bass players like me. Base players
want to bond with you. Yeah. So you decide you
don't what you You don't want to play guitar, you
don't think it's right for you, and you're drumming, and
how does that happen? Is your dad the one encouraging you? Who?
Or is it you? Are you completely self propelled? It's
(06:05):
it was a combination. So it would be that I
innately just understood music that way, you know, would sing songs,
would play little things, pick up things around the house.
Music was always playing in our home. You know, we'd
be listening to the Bulgarian Women's Choir and then Peter,
Paul and Mary and then everything earth Wind and Fire
(06:26):
and just like you name it. It was always in
rot music. They loved, they loved music. Yeah, you know,
we'd be listening to Pa Pavarotti and you know, whatever
you name it, it was on in our home. My
mom loves to tell a story of going to to
see the Bill Evans Trio when I when when I
was still in her belly, and every time the music
(06:46):
would start, I'd start kicking and was like excited and
the music would stop and then I'd calm down. Yeah
pretty much. So five, yeah, so it's just always around,
you know, always a part of my life. Oh yeah,
you know, I think for me, you know, they finally
got me a drum kit when I was five years old,
(07:08):
and um, it was a gift actually from a percussionist
named Jamie had Ad who plays with Paul Simon now.
But yeah, he put together a little baby kit for
me and I'd sit down and start to play a
little something that my dad would show me something and
then he'd pick up a bass or a guitar and
we jam and that was that. That was me growing
up for at least five years, just kind of every
(07:29):
other day we'd get together and just hang out together
and and play music for an hour or so. And yeah,
so very encouraging. And when I was ten, I finally said,
you know what, I think, I really want to do
this professionally. And so my dad got me then official
lessons at that point, and who was the teacher and
what were they like? So my my first teacher was,
(07:50):
unbelievably this drummer named alex A Kuna who famously played
drums in the Weather Report and uh, you know, played
on you know, percussion on Blondie records and every you know,
I don't know, like all kinds of stuff. He's a
world renowned percussionist and drummer. And yes, so he was
my first teacher. And what was great is that he
(08:13):
he wasn't regimented in the way that you know, here
are the dots and pay attention to just this. He
would have the dialogue with me of playing music together
and encouraging me to explore things. So it was always
more of an intuitive style of learning rather than a
very strict you know, restrictive thing that didn't work for
(08:36):
me trying to have that kind of structured I needed
to be able to like, oh I I hear this thought,
I feel this rhythm, and I want to try that,
And luckily I was surrounded with people who encouraged that. Now,
most people, when they're most musicians I've spoken to, talk
about like the early days being the cover days. You're
doing covers before you get into songwriting, and you're writing
(08:58):
your own song as you're doing cover of other people's music.
What was music you're ten years old, you think you
want to do this professionally. What's the music that's in
your head, that's on the radio or in your Sony Walkman.
I don't know what technology was available when you were
a kid, but I'm assuming Walkman was coming along in
the in the eighties, just starting to happen. You know,
(09:19):
what are you? Who are you? And who are you loving?
What music was you love? Did you love? The big
one for me at that point was Genesis and Phil Collins. Yeah,
that was I mean, you know, I always listened to
a lot of Beatles, listened to you know, led Zeppelin,
all this stuff, Police, But your fathers from where he's
(09:39):
from Mexico City. If your father's Mexican, yeah, born and
from where from Boston. She's Irish Portuguese's Yeah, she's Irish,
Irish Portuguese Mexican and he's a black Mexican. Was there
black music he was craving? Was he into earth Wind
and Fire and well? He interestingly, he was a staff
(10:02):
producer when he was like thirteen years old at Capitol Records, Mexico.
So they would send Beatles records another artist that were
on Capitol down to Mexico. He would study those and
then they would re enact or do cover versions. And
he was in bands the Mexican flavor to it, yeah exactly,
(10:23):
so that's where he kind of got his passion for it. Um,
you know my loves you c C C exactly, I
want to hold your your manos. So yeah, you know,
my my grandfather was was also a singer songwriter actor there,
(10:45):
so he was kind of the equivalent of like Paul
Robeson or something and that in that time. Yeah exactly. Uh,
you know, very deep basso profundo voice and uh and
and beautiful song. So my my dad, his brother was
like an Elvis equivalent there, you know, that Johnny Laborelle
(11:07):
and uh yeah, so the they they were an artist's
family growing up in Mexico, so he brought that energy
and this love of all styles of music, but yeah,
in particular rock and roll. He loves. He loves good
old fashioned garage rock. So Phil Collins and Journey are
(11:27):
front and center for you. Was it because Collins was
one of the few percussionist trump men. Yeah, well, it's
also one of the first shows that I saw that
wasn't my dad's bands, So I got to see the
I think it was The Mama Tour was my one
of my first big shows, you know, the laser lights
and the most amazing visuals, and that was my first
(11:49):
experience of an arena concert. You know. Everything else until
then had been clubs or theaters, seeing my dad play
with different people like you know, Al Jaro or musicians
like Larry Carlton and and and these jazz kind of scenarios.
But then to see a big rock concert and my
whole life changed to see that, so I will I
(12:09):
realized I wanted to do that, so I started studying
as much of that as I could. Years ago, when
we did the show thirty Rock, my character. Someone was
talking about Phil Collins and they said, are you a
Phil Collins fan? And I looked around the eye with
I think it was a woman I was trying to
seduce on the show. I took a long pause and
I said, I have two years and a heart and
(12:31):
I love Phil. I love Phil because he knew you know,
I met him and Townsend who I worship him. And
I was a raging, raging I mean, nobody smoked more weed.
And I couldn't afford a We see the same line.
I couldn't afford headphones when I was a kid and
didn't have the money. So I had these two A
and R speakers that I bought from my friend. My
friend needed money, he was broke. He was desperate to
(12:54):
buy like a guitar or something. He was into music.
And I said, he said, I'll sell you my speakers
for like two hundred bucks when they were worth far
more than that. I got these big acoustic research speakers
and I lay down with them next to my head.
BEAUTI I laying on the floor and I smoke a
huge joint out the window, and then laying on the
floor and listen to Quadra Fenia and all that other
(13:15):
stuff and and and when I saw I want to
mention this aspect of it to you because you go
from rooms or clubs or shows you do which I
want to get to your earliest career, when you start
to play with in front of an audience, What does
that look like? What are your first audiences? Where? Uh,
the first few places. There's this great local club that
I grew up at basically watching my dad play, called
(13:37):
the Baked Potato and um, you know I know that. Yeah,
famously they served the world's largest, most delicious baked potatoes.
But what is that. It's a family place. So even
though it's jazz music and you know, yeah at the
time people smoking like crazy and drinking like crazy, but
kids were allowed, you know. So I was able to
(14:00):
go watch my dad play and all the bands there
and those were some of the few first times I
would play live were there. Um, And so then to
go from that to then going to college. I also
went to Berkeley College of Music in Boston and started
playing in bands around there, in clubs you know, small,
you know, two hundred to five hundred. But then I graduated,
(14:23):
go back to l A. And then I get this
gig with Steve v I, who's this guitar legend um.
And that's the first kind of real professional gig that
I got. And that's a theater tour of you know,
two thousand to three thousand cedars. Where Where'd you go?
That was all over the States. So really I was
(14:47):
twenty one when I when I started a kid. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No.
Franton told us when he was he was a child,
he's out there. He's in a car with Ronnie wood Yo,
and Ronnie when wanted him to come and play something
with him or whenever, and they heard he was this phenom.
And he said, he's in the rooms with these guys
and they were all partying their asses off, and he's
(15:08):
like sixteen or fifteen years old. Wow, that's not playing
in local places. It could have been. My parents were
very wise though, and they advised me in saying, look,
you are amazing now, but you don't l A is
a small town. That's one of the largest small towns
out there, and you don't want to be known as
(15:29):
the guy who's pretty good for his age. You want
to wait until you really have your sense of self.
So they encouraged me, and also one of my other
mentors was Jeff brecro Uh, the drummer for Toto, who
sadly is no longer with us. But you don't you
don't want to go right from high school to the NBA? Yeah, basically,
which is what he did. He played in Sonny and
(15:51):
Share when he was fifteen, and then he was in
Steely Dan and then did all this kind of stuff
and he he just he pulled me aside. He said,
the one thing I regret is that I didn't take
time to go to college and really really figure out
who I am. So he gave me a drum kit
as a gift, one of his personal ones, and sent
me off to college with you know, saying, come on,
(16:13):
I want you to do this. So I went to
Berkeley and Boston. Yeah. So I went right back to Boston,
fell in love with how were there? I was like,
I did the full four for the Kid from l
A going back east? What was that like? Oh? Scene,
music scene was amazing. Although the Kid from l A.
One of my favorite stories is in the middle of
(16:34):
winter seeing the sun come out for the first time
in about three months, and I put on shorts and
a T shirt and went outside not realized fifteen degrees outside,
you know, so lessons like that. But I I loved
it to the late eighties by now, right, So yeah,
eighty nine through nine I was there, And what and
(16:55):
what music is in your head? Then? Uh, it starts
to shift from this very frantic jazz infusion jazz to
too much more rock and roll. And I'm falling in
love with the whole grunge movement sound Garden and nine
nine inch Nails and Pearl Jam and that's what you
think you should be playing? Yeah, so that's what this
(17:17):
is what I want to play exactly. And it really
speaks to me on on all the levels, um, you know,
just the the intensity of the riffs and and the
intensity of the dynamics musically, and and the fact that
it wasn't you know about just sex, drugs and rock
and roll. It was there was some thoughtful lyrics and
(17:37):
thoughtful emotions. Actually make use of your Berkeley School of
music exactly. It was a musicianship required. Yeah, yeah, I
know that and that that that exactly. Uh. And and
what was great is that the club scene there. It
was one of those things where you would play a
show and be experimental and I would honestly have these
(17:59):
conversations or friends would say, Wow, man, that really sucked.
We'll see you next week. You know, you're like so
people would come back and support each other and and
be into the journey of trying stuff. And I could
not have done that if I had started right away
in l A. So when you're there, what does a
school you're a famous rock and roll drummer, What does
(18:23):
Berkeley have to offer? What do they teach you? What
it does is it It gave me a place to grow,
It gave me fertile ground. It gave me it's not
so much specifically what the teachers had, but what the
other students that were there had. So we were learning
from each other. You know, I again, go hang out
(18:45):
with another drummer, gop jam with the guitar player, do
all this stuff, and you realize that you're just in
this incredibly fertile area where you can be as creative
as you feel and and try things and and suddenly
discover new sounds and you know, play with different combinations
of musicians and instruments. And then yes, obviously their structure there,
(19:08):
but again the structure, like even for me, it was
too restrictive. To be just a drum student. There So
I ended up switching my major to music synthesis and
production because I figured, if I'm going to learn something
that's outside of my wheelhouse, it should be something applicable
to other things. It's drumming hard, is it trumping? You
think drumming is hard for people to learn? Well, the
(19:29):
elements of it, and and depends on your in my soul,
I'm a drummer cool because I can't stop banging on things.
I'm always banging out the rhythm. Is it hard to learn?
It is hard? Well, there again, it's it's like anything
that you start out at. You have to suck, you know,
dare dare to suck is basically the name of it.
(19:50):
So the coordination of getting everything to line up is
one element, and then obviously keeping the tempo is the
next element, and then making not only both to those things.
Then they have to feel good. You have to make
people dance, you have to make them want to yeah.
And then the fills that's a whole other thing. To
not speed up or slow down, or to be consistent
(20:12):
with the sound. And so after a while, though, these
these are the things you tweak over time. So it's
the ten thousand hours thing. It's all of that, and
you know like you have you have to, Yeah, dare
to suck. Musician Abe Laboreal Jr. If you love conversations
(20:34):
with legendary drummers, be sure to check out my talk
with Mick Fleetwood. What did you think of when you
first came across the TikTok phenomena? It happened in the
most charming way. I said, I can't get on a skateboard,
so I hung myself off the back of a of
a golf cart. And the next thing I know, we're
all on halftime sports programs and god knows what else
(20:58):
his whole life has changed. And I said, let me
tell you, Nathan Fleetwood micos here the rest of my
conversation with Mick Fleetwood at Here's the Thing dot org.
After the break, Abe la Boreal Jr. Tells us about
the fateful day when he was invited to play with
(21:18):
Sir Paul. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's
(21:46):
the Thing. My guest today is drummer Abel Boreal Jr.
This is Abe showcasing his talent with French Canadian singer
songwriter milean farmer on her tour. While it may seem
(22:07):
like La Boreal is completely at home on every stage
he walks on, there was a growing period between that
first big break to being the drummer everyone has on
speed dial. La Boreal shared with us how he came
into his own alongside another major star. I got a
chance to audition for Seal and ended up doing his
(22:30):
first big US tour that um and through that, you know,
he was how does he find you? He through Uh,
this amazing band called Eleven, this producer, engineer, guitar player,
singer songwriter named Alan Johnnies and his now sadly departed wife, um,
(22:52):
Natasha Schneider, And they were fans of mine and friends
with Seal, and he was for a drummer and they
recommended me to him, and uh, yeah, he called me
out of the blue one day and I couldn't believe
that it was really him on the other end of
the phone, and you know, you know, hey man, you
(23:12):
know it's Seal. It's like, you mean the guy whose
record I like? And you know, so yeah, he invited
me to come audition, and um, where that actually in
this in the building that I'm in right now Center staging. Yeah,
so it's it's yeah, this place that has been a
very important part of my life for a long time.
(23:33):
So then I toured with him for about four or
five months, and uh, it was great to be a
part of that's when Kiss from a Rose came out
and Prayer for the Dying and all these great songs
and uh, to be a part of that journey, to
see him transition from again theaters to then arenas and uh,
and then I I took a step back from that
(23:56):
ended up going I worked with this French artist, a
woman named Milen Farmer. That's the first time I ever
really played these enormous you know, twenty thousand, thirty thousand
seat arenas and stadiums, and which was good for me
because that would have been overwhelming, I think with music
(24:16):
that was dear to my soul and emotion, I think
it would have been overwhelming. It was easier to do
that with music that I enjoyed but wasn't so entrenched
in me. Uh, you know, like it would have been
hard to start with Paul or to start with Sting,
you know, but it was easier to do this and
like get used to Oh, the adrenaline rush and will Okay,
(24:39):
how do I how do I adjust myself to to
the first time you hear twenty thousand people scream at
the top of their lungs is really overwhelming. Note I
haven't done one thing yet. Then after you finish with
seal and you go off and you take a little,
a little sojourney with me len Famaire, Yes, what so
(25:01):
that's like nineties six, And then because of that than
the French equivalent of Elvis Johnnie Lady. He he saw
us play and I was like, wait, I want that drummer,
so he he hired me. So I I ended up
spending like three or four years going back and forth
between me, Lenn and Johnny just working in France, touring
(25:22):
every little hamlet. It was lovely. I mean, at the
time it was a little bit difficult. Culture shock, and
obviously we didn't have the tools then that we have
now Internet and uh, you know, guides to be able
to know what the street is that I'm on right now? Yes,
you you. I got lost a lot and and ate
(25:42):
some weird things that I thought, Oh I think I
think that's a stake. Oh that's brains, Okay, cool, Yeah,
you know, so things like that. Yeah, you you discover
to ask more questions than did that end because you
wanted to come home. That was the goal. The I
didn't it isn't. I always just kind of let I
(26:02):
trust things to happen. So I ended up doing some
recording with with Katie Lange, who I just adore and
she's just just one of the best people. And then
and you wrote music with her. Yeah, so we did
this record, and that's what made me like stop doing
the French thing for a minute and just to like, like,
because I had written some songs with her for for
(26:25):
her record Invincible Summer. Now, let me ask you how
that happens, Meaning you've worked with some of the most
famous people in history. Yeah, where does the opportunity come?
Who opened the door for you? To say, Kade, I
gotta show you a couple of songs I've written, Like
when do you know that's cool to pitch? Well, it's
it was more of a It started as a group effort,
(26:45):
me and and the bass player named David Pilch. He
had been writing a few things and I was always dabbling,
Like I say, I'm a frustrated guitar player and on
all the gigs that I've been on, I always end
up singing backgrounds as well, so I do have uh
an understanding of melody and so yeah, so I started
messing around, and I had a few ideas I I played,
(27:07):
I would make my own demos and send them to her,
and then she started writing lyrics to them and and
really fell in love with with a few of my ideas.
So yeah, it just happened very organically. And I'm not
very good at asserting like, Okay, I'm going to I'm
going to sell the world on what I do. It's
more of the natural. These little things pop up, and
(27:29):
opportunities pop up, and surprisingly they lead to the next
You played with k D for how long? I did
two full tours with her, but basically from kind of
nineties seven till about two thousand one, I toured with her,
and then you're getting close to and then that's what
basically I was tour with her when nine eleven happened. Um,
(27:51):
we were in the middle of Denver about to play
a show, and uh and yeah, obviously the world changed.
Everything changed. We all went home trying to figure things out.
At that point, Yeah, home was l a just before
then I had started. I made a record with Paul
that hadn't quite come out yet. We in the early
(28:11):
two thousand one, we recorded Driving Rain. And that's the
first time that I shook his hand and knew I
had made a Uh this wonderful producer named David Kahn,
who has produced everybody from Tony Bennett, Fishbone to the
Bengals to you know, like you name it, he's produced
(28:33):
and um, yeah, it's amazing. Again, that was another phone
call I'll never forget where you know. He We had
never worked together before, but he knew me by reputation
and um, and asked me if I was available for
two weeks to to make a record with Paul McCartney. So, uh,
you know, after I dropped the phone and picked it
(28:54):
back up and said sure, sure, yeah, absolutely no problem
and yeah, so showed up in the studio and and
that's really another beautiful thing is that the way Paul
and I met, it wasn't an audition. It wasn't me
trying to emulate somebody else. It was two musicians getting
to know each other as peers. If anyone could even
(29:17):
you know, deign to call themselves appear, But I was
doing my job. I was doing what I do and
and we go yeah, and we gone on like a
house on fire. You know. Really it was a lot
of laughter, a lot of you know, his ability to
to write music, even on the spot. You know, he
(29:37):
would he would come in with the demo and go,
oh wait, oh, I forgot to write the bridge on that.
Hold on, I'll be right back, and you know, run
away for five minutes and come back. Okay, okay, I
got it all right, let's let's and then we'd record
it to segue to that from a moment. You know,
one thing you see when you watch Get Back, as
I've said ad infinitem to my friends, is that how
hard working they were. Oh. Yes, you know they're gonna
(29:59):
play this Evan song forty times if they have to
play at forty times, and they dig around and they
play with the words and they say whatever, but they're
gonna get this thing. And they're very hard working. Yes,
And I'm wondering in a world where you come on
stage and like we said, they start screaming at the
top of your lungest you haven't even played one note.
I mean, this is the most famous guy in the world,
(30:21):
in the world and everywhere you go people just can't
you know. They love him and love him and love him.
But I wonder when the show's over, does he come back?
So he's just say, oh, it really sucks in that one.
Does he does? He still have that hard working drive.
What's really great is, and this is true for all
of us in the band, is we have we laugh
(30:41):
really hard and love every mistake that we make. We
we embrace them wholeheartedly. When a show is perfect, it's
kind of boring, you know. It's not you don't have
that thing to pin your hat on, you know, to
be able to say, oh, wait, yeah, remember when when
I dropped my stick? You know, and and it becomes
(31:01):
a whole thing. So honestly, it's not it's never that that,
you know, beating yourself up. It's always this energy of boy,
did we miss that one up? And and often, you know,
when that has happened, we'll even stop and restart a song.
It's like, wow, no, sorry, guys, we we completely screwed
(31:22):
that up. We're going to try that again. But in
the audience loves that though, because then that's an event.
You were there, Remember I was there that night that
that happened. He got the lyrics to Yesterday. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah,
it really, it's a great thing when that happens. Perfection
is boring exactly. And when you're with him and with
(31:42):
that band, I should say, you go off and perform
with other people as well, some other legends of music.
I mean, you're off with Sting, you're off with Stevie Wynwood. Yeah,
who I worship When you played with Wind and Clapton, Yeah,
yeah I did. I did that tour, the Blind Faith Repertoire,
which was just I mean that that music is amazing. Yeah,
that's a big part of my laying on the floor
(32:04):
with the A and R speakers next to my head
the time of my life. But so you're touring with them,
and you're working with them, is in the seams of
other tours, like we're literally McCartney saying we can't go
to Rio because I am with Sting. You're gonna wait
for Aim to finish with Sting. It's happened. It's happened
a few times. It's sadly has happened. A few times.
(32:27):
You're like, you know, there was a Grammy performance I
couldn't do because I was in Japan with Clapton, and
you know, so my sub Dave Grohl, did a very
nice job. You know. Yeah, so stuff, stuff like that
has happened. But when you're with these different people, do
they direct you as somebody directing you or do they
hire you because you know what to do and they
(32:47):
don't have to say anything. Does anybody ever come up
to you and offer you some opinions? It's it's funny
all of those guys, and I've been lucky that it's
It's never been like a musical director uh scenario. I mean,
you know where where somebody has the final word, it's they.
They came up in bands, and that's how they still
(33:09):
treat the interaction. They want people who have their own personality,
who are going to be themselves. But at the same token,
respect the music. That's always been my number one rule.
You know, I'm not going to sit there and and
and try and play heavy metal drums on a on
a Clapton tune, so you know, so it's about knowing
(33:32):
the music. Yeah, you know, and again it's not classical music.
My hands aren't tied to play exactly apart. It's living
and breathing and something that we can can all agree.
You know, you adjust to to fit the audience, You
adjust to fit the setting, and also who else is
in who else is in the band, and to make
(33:53):
room for people like you know, I've played with Sting
when there's been an upright bass player and three horn
players and five background vocalists and organs and all this stuff,
and I would have to play a little bit more restrained.
And then I've played with him where it's been stripped
down two guitar players, bass and drums, and there's much
(34:14):
more room to pivot and to have fun, you know,
do things that might throw an entire orchestra off. But
if it's just for people, we know where each other
are are supposed to be and how to Readjust every
scenario is different. I think the people who their musical
styles are. I mean there's some overlap, but they seem
(34:34):
so different. And I think about people who, yes, they
have music in their repertoire that you can play loud,
you know, stadium rock, But I wonder what quotient, what
amount of their catalog can be played in a stadium.
A lot of Stings music seems better played in like
an under ten thousand seat space Yeah, it seems like
it's a kiss more intimate. Definitely. Clapton seems like even
(34:56):
though you can rip it on, you can play the
opening licks of LEI leg everybody that's exactly where we're going.
Not everybody is the same. You can play Helter Skelter,
you can play Revolution, you can play back on the USSR.
You can rip it. I mean you can rip it
and then it can get really intimate. Absolutely, it's amazing
the dynamic that especially that he can command and again
(35:20):
that we can do that in a stadium is crazy.
You know, people get quiet, they do they want to
hear absolutely every every word. Drummer Abe la Boreal Jr.
If you're enjoying this episode, don't keep it to yourself,
Tell a friend and be sure to follow us on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(35:43):
get your podcasts. When we return, Abe la Boreal Jr.
Share some anecdotes about some of the biggest rock stars
he's worked with. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Here's the thing. Drummer Abe la Boreal Jr. Has shared
(36:24):
the stage with some of the most accomplished rock stars
in history. This is Layla from Eric Clapton live at
Buddhakan with abe La Borel Jr. On drums. I wanted
to know just a few of his favorite memories of
playing with these great artists. With k D, I have
(36:45):
to say, every every single night, I have never seen
someone takes such command and control of an entire room.
The room was as much a part of her voice
as she was, so she could she could use the
mic technique and and just fill the room almost like
(37:06):
an opera singer, you know, almost not needing the microphone
in front of her to fill that room, and just
beautiful emotion and intensity. And again the same thing, the
dynamic of being able to whisper a song and then
hit the high notes on constant craving or crying. You know,
her version of crying is still it gives me goose
(37:28):
bumps just thinking about it. What about Clapton, I mean
because to me, I wrote in my memoir that all
those jokes from my generation where people said Clapton was
God in mind when I grew up as a kid,
Clapton was God. Yeah. I mean again, what a tone
that really does come from his hands, you know, And
it doesn't matter what guitar, he picks up. There's his tone,
his fingerprint, his his energy. You know, there would be
(37:51):
nights where between him and Doyle Bramble, who was playing
guitar also in the band, and the two of them
would trade solos back and forth, and I was in
heaven because you know, for me as a drummer, I'm
not so much focused on what I'm playing. I'm focused
on what they're doing, and I'm listening to them like
(38:13):
I get to be the ultimate audience and just to
sit there and listen to these incredible musicians play and
and you know, they they end up orbiting so far,
and my job is just to make sure that we
still know where they're tethered to, that that we're not
all going so far that we lose the audience. Eric
(38:34):
would just have these nights where he was on fire
and would not want to stop playing, And those were
beautiful moments Whenwood seems like such a gentle soul. I've
never met him. Was he like that in person? He's
like a very very deep yea quiet very it's both right,
like honestly, he's both like. One of my favorite moments
(38:56):
in that band was playing Can't Find My way Home.
That is one of the best songs, you know, and
it just had this beautiful dynamic to it and the
way they would sing harmony on that together, you know,
both both Steve and Eric, and it's just lovely. Man Um. Yeah,
he was a fun hang on the road to uh,
(39:18):
you know, the after show of just having a little
glass of wine and and you know, I wish I
could have met him too, because I just love his music. Yeah, Sting,
I've met and Stings somebody who I saw him the
other day in New York. I just bumped into and
and and he was He's always his wife is always
so nice to me. Had a quick with them on
the on the street uptown and Uh. And he's somebody
(39:39):
who you know because he has that movie star glow
to him. Absolutely, he's got that edge. And right when
you think you don't like him because he's so handsome
and he's so rich and talented, then he sings a
song that breaks your heart. Yes, he sings a song
that breaks your heart, and you think the guy really
is pretty damn good. He's the real deal. And again,
you know, one of the loveliest The first time I
(40:02):
UH was hired, you know, because basically he hired me
without us ever having played together. It was again through
word of mouth, and you know that he had this
tour that he had to finish up and promote, and
so he again through reputation and hired me for a
few months. And on our first day of saying hello,
(40:23):
it was the biggest bear hug I've ever received, and
you know, welcome to the family. You know. So it's
he's that kind of guy, just a real tender spirit
and uh you know, yes there's the trappings of of
rock and roll and villas and whatnot, but it was
at his core royalty. Yeah, but he's a guy who
shows up with his bag and his base on his
(40:45):
back and is ready ready at for the lobby call
fifteen minutes before departure, you know. So that's that's the
kind of guy he is. Yeah. And when I saw
you the first time, I couldn't take my eyes off
you know. So you five guys, great night, great show,
great fun. But you fit into a category of you
(41:06):
can tell there's no place else you'd rather be. You
have such a contagious enthusiasm. There's a smile on your face,
not all the time, you're getting down and down and
you're playing, but you seem so happy, you seem so
filled with joy when you're up there playing music. I mean.
And what's interesting is you've drummed for him longer than
(41:27):
Ringo Star drummed with Can you believe it? What are
you guys doing now? The COVID seems to be dissipating
a little bit. You guys, are you gonna go on
tour with somebody? I'm hoping so there's still, you know,
things in the works, and I'm hoping that soon we'll
be able to do some shows, you know, Like the
last time we played with Paul was um the end
(41:48):
of So I'm which show the Dodger Stadium and at
the end of July, and it was it was an
amazing show, Like thank god, it was a wonderful show.
But we were meant ago do you know, to play
a European tour and to play glaston Barry and all
of these exciting things and uh and yet to have
(42:09):
the Yeah, I think so. So I'm hoping. I'm hoping
that we might be able to to to redo some
of that this year. Well listen, I have a real
jones for drummers because I if I played popular music,
I want to play the drums, and you're one of
the greatest of all time. My friend, you are so great.
I can't wait to see you up there again. Matt Well,
(42:29):
thank you, Thank you so much. Man. My thanks to
musician Abe Laboreal Jr. I'll leave you with Abe performing
with Sting on message in a bottle in montro I'm
Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing, is brought to you by
my heart radio jes What is it? Yeah, gorleness good,
(43:08):
Let's go Beffar to despair. I'll sup the soul untruth.
I said that that's soul construths. Yes, yes,
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from My Heart Radio back. When you think of the
(00:37):
rhythm section of the Beatles, Paul McCartney on bass guitar
and Ringo Star on drums immediately come to mind. But
my guest today has played with Paul McCartney longer than
Ringo Starr. He's been a member of Paul's band for
two decades. He's also played with Eric Clapton, Chris Isaac,
Katie Lange Sting, My Lean Armor, Steve Winwood. The list
(01:02):
goes on and on. I'm talking, of course, about the
illustrious drummer Abel Boreal Jr. This is a bon drums
with Paul McCartney performing back in the USSR live in
New York City. Musical talent of this caliber runs deep
in the Laboreal family. His father, Mexican bass guitarist Abraham
(01:26):
La Boreal, and his uncle, Mexican rocker Johnny Laboreal. We're
both accomplished musicians in their own right. Abe, a Berkeley
School of Music trained musician, has a particular view of
his role in a band. To me, the drummer is
in service of the music. Number one, Number two to lead,
(01:49):
to drive the bus, if you will, to tell people
where to go, pay attention to everything. I see my
job as listener. First then I have to do But
first I have to listen, you know, to really hear
what's going on. And I can hear when someone's maybe
falling behind or a little bit lost or forgotten something,
and so I have to be paying attention to all
(02:10):
of that. And then on top of that, like for me,
Keith Moon was like a lead drummer, you know, like
Pete Townsend held the rhythm together while Keith play lead
guitar on the drums. It's funny. It's something my dad
and I would always speak of. My dad is a
great musician, you know, like he when he plays live,
he believes that half the audience is deaf and the
(02:32):
other half is blind. And so you have to be
able to reach all of them, you know, So you can't.
For me, I just can't sit still and pretend like
I'm not in it with my entire soul, you know,
I have to try and reach every single person out there.
You grew up in l A. Yeah, born in Boston,
and your family when I was five with a short
(02:55):
stint in Cleveland. Well, my dad being a musician and
he went to Berkeley College of Music, graduated from there,
and my mom was going to medical school at BU
when they met, and uh, when she graduated, she had
an internship in Cleveland, and my dad put his career
on pause for the two years that we were there,
(03:16):
and he raised me you know during that. Yeah, yeah,
she's a doctor. Who who there's a doctor when she
married a musician? Yeah, where did her smarts go when
it came down to get married? Well, I have no no,
And honestly, the two of them compliment each other so beautifully.
They're still together. Just had their fiftieth year anniversary. And um,
(03:37):
my mom she's a behavioral specialist now, a pediatric behavioral
specialist that deals with kids who have fetal alcohol syndrome
and helps diagnose and treat all that kind of stuff.
But she was a classically trained opera singer as a kid,
you know, in high school and in college and plays guitar.
And I used to lead folk worship at the local
(04:00):
Catholic church. That's where my dad first saw her and
fell in love. Was this beautiful woman playing guitar and
was like, I need to I need to meet her. Yeah,
so it's so uh, it's an interesting mix of cultures there.
And she said, I'm going to medical school and he
was like, I think I love you. Yeah, exactly. See,
(04:21):
he's a smart man. He's a genius. He's a genius.
Go to l A when you're five, and what part
of town are you living in for a brief period
of time in Santa Monica, and then when they finally
bought a home, it was deep in the valley and
Woodland hills, yeh, off of a street called Winnetka. So like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(04:42):
that's where I lived for twenty years. No way, are
you serious? I mean, I'm I'm a good deal older
than you, but I mean I said everything I hated
about the valley I grew to love. Yeah. Yeah, it's
it's a lack of pretension. Everybody just normal exactly. Yeah.
Really it's it is a it's a great normalizer, isn't it. Like,
you know, the houses are all pretty cookie cutter. You know,
(05:02):
maybe someone has a double lot here about kids in
schools and soccer teams and baseball team. Yeah. Now, when
you you know, you graduated high school, you pick up
the first instrument you play the drums. Yeah, yeah, that
was the thing that came naturally. Pots and pans at
the age of four, you know, just headphones on, rocking
out to things. I would dabble, you know. They my
(05:23):
parents encouraged, like piano lessons. I didn't really like them.
Saxophone lessons wasn't for me. I was always fascinated with
guitar and bass, but was also intimidated because my dad
is such an amazing prolific musician, So I always gravitated
towards the thing that I could jam with him. He's
a bass player, your dad. Yeah, interesting that the path
(05:43):
your career went. Yeah, you know, I've I've known a
few for some reason, bass players like me. Base players
want to bond with you. Yeah. So you decide you
don't what you You don't want to play guitar, you
don't think it's right for you, and you're drumming, and
how does that happen? Is your dad the one encouraging you? Who?
Or is it you? Are you completely self propelled? It's
(06:05):
it was a combination. So it would be that I
innately just understood music that way, you know, would sing songs,
would play little things, pick up things around the house.
Music was always playing in our home. You know, we'd
be listening to the Bulgarian Women's Choir and then Peter,
Paul and Mary and then everything earth Wind and Fire
(06:26):
and just like you name it. It was always in
rot music. They loved, they loved music. Yeah, you know,
we'd be listening to Pa Pavarotti and you know, whatever
you name it, it was on in our home. My
mom loves to tell a story of going to to
see the Bill Evans Trio when I when when I
was still in her belly, and every time the music
(06:46):
would start, I'd start kicking and was like excited and
the music would stop and then I'd calm down. Yeah
pretty much. So five, yeah, so it's just always around,
you know, always a part of my life. Oh yeah,
you know, I think for me, you know, they finally
got me a drum kit when I was five years old,
(07:08):
and um, it was a gift actually from a percussionist
named Jamie had Ad who plays with Paul Simon now.
But yeah, he put together a little baby kit for
me and I'd sit down and start to play a
little something that my dad would show me something and
then he'd pick up a bass or a guitar and
we jam and that was that. That was me growing
up for at least five years, just kind of every
(07:29):
other day we'd get together and just hang out together
and and play music for an hour or so. And yeah,
so very encouraging. And when I was ten, I finally said,
you know what, I think, I really want to do
this professionally. And so my dad got me then official
lessons at that point, and who was the teacher and
what were they like? So my my first teacher was,
(07:50):
unbelievably this drummer named alex A Kuna who famously played
drums in the Weather Report and uh, you know, played
on you know, percussion on Blondie records and every you know,
I don't know, like all kinds of stuff. He's a
world renowned percussionist and drummer. And yes, so he was
my first teacher. And what was great is that he
(08:13):
he wasn't regimented in the way that you know, here
are the dots and pay attention to just this. He
would have the dialogue with me of playing music together
and encouraging me to explore things. So it was always
more of an intuitive style of learning rather than a
very strict you know, restrictive thing that didn't work for
(08:36):
me trying to have that kind of structured I needed
to be able to like, oh I I hear this thought,
I feel this rhythm, and I want to try that,
And luckily I was surrounded with people who encouraged that. Now,
most people, when they're most musicians I've spoken to, talk
about like the early days being the cover days. You're
doing covers before you get into songwriting, and you're writing
(08:58):
your own song as you're doing cover of other people's music.
What was music you're ten years old, you think you
want to do this professionally. What's the music that's in
your head, that's on the radio or in your Sony Walkman.
I don't know what technology was available when you were
a kid, but I'm assuming Walkman was coming along in
the in the eighties, just starting to happen. You know,
(09:19):
what are you? Who are you? And who are you loving?
What music was you love? Did you love? The big
one for me at that point was Genesis and Phil Collins. Yeah,
that was I mean, you know, I always listened to
a lot of Beatles, listened to you know, led Zeppelin,
all this stuff, Police, But your fathers from where he's
(09:39):
from Mexico City. If your father's Mexican, yeah, born and
from where from Boston. She's Irish Portuguese's Yeah, she's Irish,
Irish Portuguese Mexican and he's a black Mexican. Was there
black music he was craving? Was he into earth Wind
and Fire and well? He interestingly, he was a staff
(10:02):
producer when he was like thirteen years old at Capitol Records, Mexico.
So they would send Beatles records another artist that were
on Capitol down to Mexico. He would study those and
then they would re enact or do cover versions. And
he was in bands the Mexican flavor to it, yeah exactly,
(10:23):
so that's where he kind of got his passion for it. Um,
you know my loves you c C C exactly, I
want to hold your your manos. So yeah, you know,
my my grandfather was was also a singer songwriter actor there,
(10:45):
so he was kind of the equivalent of like Paul
Robeson or something and that in that time. Yeah exactly. Uh,
you know, very deep basso profundo voice and uh and
and beautiful song. So my my dad, his brother was
like an Elvis equivalent there, you know, that Johnny Laborelle
(11:07):
and uh yeah, so the they they were an artist's
family growing up in Mexico, so he brought that energy
and this love of all styles of music, but yeah,
in particular rock and roll. He loves. He loves good
old fashioned garage rock. So Phil Collins and Journey are
(11:27):
front and center for you. Was it because Collins was
one of the few percussionist trump men. Yeah, well, it's
also one of the first shows that I saw that
wasn't my dad's bands, So I got to see the
I think it was The Mama Tour was my one
of my first big shows, you know, the laser lights
and the most amazing visuals, and that was my first
(11:49):
experience of an arena concert. You know. Everything else until
then had been clubs or theaters, seeing my dad play
with different people like you know, Al Jaro or musicians
like Larry Carlton and and and these jazz kind of scenarios.
But then to see a big rock concert and my
whole life changed to see that, so I will I
(12:09):
realized I wanted to do that, so I started studying
as much of that as I could. Years ago, when
we did the show thirty Rock, my character. Someone was
talking about Phil Collins and they said, are you a
Phil Collins fan? And I looked around the eye with
I think it was a woman I was trying to
seduce on the show. I took a long pause and
I said, I have two years and a heart and
(12:31):
I love Phil. I love Phil because he knew you know,
I met him and Townsend who I worship him. And
I was a raging, raging I mean, nobody smoked more weed.
And I couldn't afford a We see the same line.
I couldn't afford headphones when I was a kid and
didn't have the money. So I had these two A
and R speakers that I bought from my friend. My
friend needed money, he was broke. He was desperate to
(12:54):
buy like a guitar or something. He was into music.
And I said, he said, I'll sell you my speakers
for like two hundred bucks when they were worth far
more than that. I got these big acoustic research speakers
and I lay down with them next to my head.
BEAUTI I laying on the floor and I smoke a
huge joint out the window, and then laying on the
floor and listen to Quadra Fenia and all that other
(13:15):
stuff and and and when I saw I want to
mention this aspect of it to you because you go
from rooms or clubs or shows you do which I
want to get to your earliest career, when you start
to play with in front of an audience, What does
that look like? What are your first audiences? Where? Uh,
the first few places. There's this great local club that
I grew up at basically watching my dad play, called
(13:37):
the Baked Potato and um, you know I know that. Yeah,
famously they served the world's largest, most delicious baked potatoes.
But what is that. It's a family place. So even
though it's jazz music and you know, yeah at the
time people smoking like crazy and drinking like crazy, but
kids were allowed, you know. So I was able to
(14:00):
go watch my dad play and all the bands there
and those were some of the few first times I
would play live were there. Um, And so then to
go from that to then going to college. I also
went to Berkeley College of Music in Boston and started
playing in bands around there, in clubs you know, small,
you know, two hundred to five hundred. But then I graduated,
(14:23):
go back to l A. And then I get this
gig with Steve v I, who's this guitar legend um.
And that's the first kind of real professional gig that
I got. And that's a theater tour of you know,
two thousand to three thousand cedars. Where Where'd you go?
That was all over the States. So really I was
(14:47):
twenty one when I when I started a kid. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No.
Franton told us when he was he was a child,
he's out there. He's in a car with Ronnie wood Yo,
and Ronnie when wanted him to come and play something
with him or whenever, and they heard he was this phenom.
And he said, he's in the rooms with these guys
and they were all partying their asses off, and he's
(15:08):
like sixteen or fifteen years old. Wow, that's not playing
in local places. It could have been. My parents were
very wise though, and they advised me in saying, look,
you are amazing now, but you don't l A is
a small town. That's one of the largest small towns
out there, and you don't want to be known as
(15:29):
the guy who's pretty good for his age. You want
to wait until you really have your sense of self.
So they encouraged me, and also one of my other
mentors was Jeff brecro Uh, the drummer for Toto, who
sadly is no longer with us. But you don't you
don't want to go right from high school to the NBA? Yeah, basically,
which is what he did. He played in Sonny and
(15:51):
Share when he was fifteen, and then he was in
Steely Dan and then did all this kind of stuff
and he he just he pulled me aside. He said,
the one thing I regret is that I didn't take
time to go to college and really really figure out
who I am. So he gave me a drum kit
as a gift, one of his personal ones, and sent
me off to college with you know, saying, come on,
(16:13):
I want you to do this. So I went to
Berkeley and Boston. Yeah. So I went right back to Boston,
fell in love with how were there? I was like,
I did the full four for the Kid from l
A going back east? What was that like? Oh? Scene,
music scene was amazing. Although the Kid from l A.
One of my favorite stories is in the middle of
(16:34):
winter seeing the sun come out for the first time
in about three months, and I put on shorts and
a T shirt and went outside not realized fifteen degrees outside,
you know, so lessons like that. But I I loved
it to the late eighties by now, right, So yeah,
eighty nine through nine I was there, And what and
(16:55):
what music is in your head? Then? Uh, it starts
to shift from this very frantic jazz infusion jazz to
too much more rock and roll. And I'm falling in
love with the whole grunge movement sound Garden and nine
nine inch Nails and Pearl Jam and that's what you
think you should be playing? Yeah, so that's what this
(17:17):
is what I want to play exactly. And it really
speaks to me on on all the levels, um, you know,
just the the intensity of the riffs and and the
intensity of the dynamics musically, and and the fact that
it wasn't you know about just sex, drugs and rock
and roll. It was there was some thoughtful lyrics and
(17:37):
thoughtful emotions. Actually make use of your Berkeley School of
music exactly. It was a musicianship required. Yeah, yeah, I
know that and that that that exactly. Uh. And and
what was great is that the club scene there. It
was one of those things where you would play a
show and be experimental and I would honestly have these
(17:59):
conversations or friends would say, Wow, man, that really sucked.
We'll see you next week. You know, you're like so
people would come back and support each other and and
be into the journey of trying stuff. And I could
not have done that if I had started right away
in l A. So when you're there, what does a
school you're a famous rock and roll drummer, What does
(18:23):
Berkeley have to offer? What do they teach you? What
it does is it It gave me a place to grow,
It gave me fertile ground. It gave me it's not
so much specifically what the teachers had, but what the
other students that were there had. So we were learning
from each other. You know, I again, go hang out
(18:45):
with another drummer, gop jam with the guitar player, do
all this stuff, and you realize that you're just in
this incredibly fertile area where you can be as creative
as you feel and and try things and and suddenly
discover new sounds and you know, play with different combinations
of musicians and instruments. And then yes, obviously their structure there,
(19:08):
but again the structure, like even for me, it was
too restrictive. To be just a drum student. There So
I ended up switching my major to music synthesis and
production because I figured, if I'm going to learn something
that's outside of my wheelhouse, it should be something applicable
to other things. It's drumming hard, is it trumping? You
think drumming is hard for people to learn? Well, the
(19:29):
elements of it, and and depends on your in my soul,
I'm a drummer cool because I can't stop banging on things.
I'm always banging out the rhythm. Is it hard to learn?
It is hard? Well, there again, it's it's like anything
that you start out at. You have to suck, you know,
dare dare to suck is basically the name of it.
(19:50):
So the coordination of getting everything to line up is
one element, and then obviously keeping the tempo is the
next element, and then making not only both to those things.
Then they have to feel good. You have to make
people dance, you have to make them want to yeah.
And then the fills that's a whole other thing. To
not speed up or slow down, or to be consistent
(20:12):
with the sound. And so after a while, though, these
these are the things you tweak over time. So it's
the ten thousand hours thing. It's all of that, and
you know like you have you have to, Yeah, dare
to suck. Musician Abe Laboreal Jr. If you love conversations
(20:34):
with legendary drummers, be sure to check out my talk
with Mick Fleetwood. What did you think of when you
first came across the TikTok phenomena? It happened in the
most charming way. I said, I can't get on a skateboard,
so I hung myself off the back of a of
a golf cart. And the next thing I know, we're
all on halftime sports programs and god knows what else
(20:58):
his whole life has changed. And I said, let me
tell you, Nathan Fleetwood micos here the rest of my
conversation with Mick Fleetwood at Here's the Thing dot org.
After the break, Abe la Boreal Jr. Tells us about
the fateful day when he was invited to play with
(21:18):
Sir Paul. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's
(21:46):
the Thing. My guest today is drummer Abel Boreal Jr.
This is Abe showcasing his talent with French Canadian singer
songwriter milean farmer on her tour. While it may seem
(22:07):
like La Boreal is completely at home on every stage
he walks on, there was a growing period between that
first big break to being the drummer everyone has on
speed dial. La Boreal shared with us how he came
into his own alongside another major star. I got a
chance to audition for Seal and ended up doing his
(22:30):
first big US tour that um and through that, you know,
he was how does he find you? He through Uh,
this amazing band called Eleven, this producer, engineer, guitar player,
singer songwriter named Alan Johnnies and his now sadly departed wife, um,
(22:52):
Natasha Schneider, And they were fans of mine and friends
with Seal, and he was for a drummer and they
recommended me to him, and uh, yeah, he called me
out of the blue one day and I couldn't believe
that it was really him on the other end of
the phone, and you know, you know, hey man, you
(23:12):
know it's Seal. It's like, you mean the guy whose
record I like? And you know, so yeah, he invited
me to come audition, and um, where that actually in
this in the building that I'm in right now Center staging. Yeah,
so it's it's yeah, this place that has been a
very important part of my life for a long time.
(23:33):
So then I toured with him for about four or
five months, and uh, it was great to be a
part of that's when Kiss from a Rose came out
and Prayer for the Dying and all these great songs
and uh, to be a part of that journey, to
see him transition from again theaters to then arenas and uh,
and then I I took a step back from that
(23:56):
ended up going I worked with this French artist, a
woman named Milen Farmer. That's the first time I ever
really played these enormous you know, twenty thousand, thirty thousand
seat arenas and stadiums, and which was good for me
because that would have been overwhelming, I think with music
(24:16):
that was dear to my soul and emotion, I think
it would have been overwhelming. It was easier to do
that with music that I enjoyed but wasn't so entrenched
in me. Uh, you know, like it would have been
hard to start with Paul or to start with Sting,
you know, but it was easier to do this and
like get used to Oh, the adrenaline rush and will Okay,
(24:39):
how do I how do I adjust myself to to
the first time you hear twenty thousand people scream at
the top of their lungs is really overwhelming. Note I
haven't done one thing yet. Then after you finish with
seal and you go off and you take a little,
a little sojourney with me len Famaire, Yes, what so
(25:01):
that's like nineties six, And then because of that than
the French equivalent of Elvis Johnnie Lady. He he saw
us play and I was like, wait, I want that drummer,
so he he hired me. So I I ended up
spending like three or four years going back and forth
between me, Lenn and Johnny just working in France, touring
(25:22):
every little hamlet. It was lovely. I mean, at the
time it was a little bit difficult. Culture shock, and
obviously we didn't have the tools then that we have
now Internet and uh, you know, guides to be able
to know what the street is that I'm on right now? Yes,
you you. I got lost a lot and and ate
(25:42):
some weird things that I thought, Oh I think I
think that's a stake. Oh that's brains, Okay, cool, Yeah,
you know, so things like that. Yeah, you you discover
to ask more questions than did that end because you
wanted to come home. That was the goal. The I
didn't it isn't. I always just kind of let I
(26:02):
trust things to happen. So I ended up doing some
recording with with Katie Lange, who I just adore and
she's just just one of the best people. And then
and you wrote music with her. Yeah, so we did
this record, and that's what made me like stop doing
the French thing for a minute and just to like, like,
because I had written some songs with her for for
(26:25):
her record Invincible Summer. Now, let me ask you how
that happens, Meaning you've worked with some of the most
famous people in history. Yeah, where does the opportunity come?
Who opened the door for you? To say, Kade, I
gotta show you a couple of songs I've written, Like
when do you know that's cool to pitch? Well, it's
it was more of a It started as a group effort,
(26:45):
me and and the bass player named David Pilch. He
had been writing a few things and I was always dabbling,
Like I say, I'm a frustrated guitar player and on
all the gigs that I've been on, I always end
up singing backgrounds as well, so I do have uh
an understanding of melody and so yeah, so I started
messing around, and I had a few ideas I I played,
(27:07):
I would make my own demos and send them to her,
and then she started writing lyrics to them and and
really fell in love with with a few of my ideas.
So yeah, it just happened very organically. And I'm not
very good at asserting like, Okay, I'm going to I'm
going to sell the world on what I do. It's
more of the natural. These little things pop up, and
(27:29):
opportunities pop up, and surprisingly they lead to the next
You played with k D for how long? I did
two full tours with her, but basically from kind of
nineties seven till about two thousand one, I toured with her,
and then you're getting close to and then that's what
basically I was tour with her when nine eleven happened. Um,
(27:51):
we were in the middle of Denver about to play
a show, and uh and yeah, obviously the world changed.
Everything changed. We all went home trying to figure things out.
At that point, Yeah, home was l a just before
then I had started. I made a record with Paul
that hadn't quite come out yet. We in the early
(28:11):
two thousand one, we recorded Driving Rain. And that's the
first time that I shook his hand and knew I
had made a Uh this wonderful producer named David Kahn,
who has produced everybody from Tony Bennett, Fishbone to the
Bengals to you know, like you name it, he's produced
(28:33):
and um, yeah, it's amazing. Again, that was another phone
call I'll never forget where you know. He We had
never worked together before, but he knew me by reputation
and um, and asked me if I was available for
two weeks to to make a record with Paul McCartney. So, uh,
you know, after I dropped the phone and picked it
(28:54):
back up and said sure, sure, yeah, absolutely no problem
and yeah, so showed up in the studio and and
that's really another beautiful thing is that the way Paul
and I met, it wasn't an audition. It wasn't me
trying to emulate somebody else. It was two musicians getting
to know each other as peers. If anyone could even
(29:17):
you know, deign to call themselves appear, But I was
doing my job. I was doing what I do and
and we go yeah, and we gone on like a
house on fire. You know. Really it was a lot
of laughter, a lot of you know, his ability to
to write music, even on the spot. You know, he
(29:37):
would he would come in with the demo and go,
oh wait, oh, I forgot to write the bridge on that.
Hold on, I'll be right back, and you know, run
away for five minutes and come back. Okay, okay, I
got it all right, let's let's and then we'd record
it to segue to that from a moment. You know,
one thing you see when you watch Get Back, as
I've said ad infinitem to my friends, is that how
hard working they were. Oh. Yes, you know they're gonna
(29:59):
play this Evan song forty times if they have to
play at forty times, and they dig around and they
play with the words and they say whatever, but they're
gonna get this thing. And they're very hard working. Yes,
And I'm wondering in a world where you come on
stage and like we said, they start screaming at the
top of your lungest you haven't even played one note.
I mean, this is the most famous guy in the world,
(30:21):
in the world and everywhere you go people just can't
you know. They love him and love him and love him.
But I wonder when the show's over, does he come back?
So he's just say, oh, it really sucks in that one.
Does he does? He still have that hard working drive.
What's really great is, and this is true for all
of us in the band, is we have we laugh
(30:41):
really hard and love every mistake that we make. We
we embrace them wholeheartedly. When a show is perfect, it's
kind of boring, you know. It's not you don't have
that thing to pin your hat on, you know, to
be able to say, oh, wait, yeah, remember when when
I dropped my stick? You know, and and it becomes
(31:01):
a whole thing. So honestly, it's not it's never that that,
you know, beating yourself up. It's always this energy of boy,
did we miss that one up? And and often, you know,
when that has happened, we'll even stop and restart a song.
It's like, wow, no, sorry, guys, we we completely screwed
(31:22):
that up. We're going to try that again. But in
the audience loves that though, because then that's an event.
You were there, Remember I was there that night that
that happened. He got the lyrics to Yesterday. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah,
it really, it's a great thing when that happens. Perfection
is boring exactly. And when you're with him and with
(31:42):
that band, I should say, you go off and perform
with other people as well, some other legends of music.
I mean, you're off with Sting, you're off with Stevie Wynwood. Yeah,
who I worship When you played with Wind and Clapton, Yeah,
yeah I did. I did that tour, the Blind Faith Repertoire,
which was just I mean that that music is amazing. Yeah,
that's a big part of my laying on the floor
(32:04):
with the A and R speakers next to my head
the time of my life. But so you're touring with them,
and you're working with them, is in the seams of
other tours, like we're literally McCartney saying we can't go
to Rio because I am with Sting. You're gonna wait
for Aim to finish with Sting. It's happened. It's happened
a few times. It's sadly has happened. A few times.
(32:27):
You're like, you know, there was a Grammy performance I
couldn't do because I was in Japan with Clapton, and
you know, so my sub Dave Grohl, did a very
nice job. You know. Yeah, so stuff, stuff like that
has happened. But when you're with these different people, do
they direct you as somebody directing you or do they
hire you because you know what to do and they
(32:47):
don't have to say anything. Does anybody ever come up
to you and offer you some opinions? It's it's funny
all of those guys, and I've been lucky that it's
It's never been like a musical director uh scenario. I mean,
you know where where somebody has the final word, it's they.
They came up in bands, and that's how they still
(33:09):
treat the interaction. They want people who have their own personality,
who are going to be themselves. But at the same token,
respect the music. That's always been my number one rule.
You know, I'm not going to sit there and and
and try and play heavy metal drums on a on
a Clapton tune, so you know, so it's about knowing
(33:32):
the music. Yeah, you know, and again it's not classical music.
My hands aren't tied to play exactly apart. It's living
and breathing and something that we can can all agree.
You know, you adjust to to fit the audience, You
adjust to fit the setting, and also who else is
in who else is in the band, and to make
(33:53):
room for people like you know, I've played with Sting
when there's been an upright bass player and three horn
players and five background vocalists and organs and all this stuff,
and I would have to play a little bit more restrained.
And then I've played with him where it's been stripped
down two guitar players, bass and drums, and there's much
(34:14):
more room to pivot and to have fun, you know,
do things that might throw an entire orchestra off. But
if it's just for people, we know where each other
are are supposed to be and how to Readjust every
scenario is different. I think the people who their musical
styles are. I mean there's some overlap, but they seem
(34:34):
so different. And I think about people who, yes, they
have music in their repertoire that you can play loud,
you know, stadium rock, But I wonder what quotient, what
amount of their catalog can be played in a stadium.
A lot of Stings music seems better played in like
an under ten thousand seat space Yeah, it seems like
it's a kiss more intimate. Definitely. Clapton seems like even
(34:56):
though you can rip it on, you can play the
opening licks of LEI leg everybody that's exactly where we're going.
Not everybody is the same. You can play Helter Skelter,
you can play Revolution, you can play back on the USSR.
You can rip it. I mean you can rip it
and then it can get really intimate. Absolutely, it's amazing
the dynamic that especially that he can command and again
(35:20):
that we can do that in a stadium is crazy.
You know, people get quiet, they do they want to
hear absolutely every every word. Drummer Abe la Boreal Jr.
If you're enjoying this episode, don't keep it to yourself,
Tell a friend and be sure to follow us on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(35:43):
get your podcasts. When we return, Abe la Boreal Jr.
Share some anecdotes about some of the biggest rock stars
he's worked with. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Here's the thing. Drummer Abe la Boreal Jr. Has shared
(36:24):
the stage with some of the most accomplished rock stars
in history. This is Layla from Eric Clapton live at
Buddhakan with abe La Borel Jr. On drums. I wanted
to know just a few of his favorite memories of
playing with these great artists. With k D, I have
(36:45):
to say, every every single night, I have never seen
someone takes such command and control of an entire room.
The room was as much a part of her voice
as she was, so she could she could use the
mic technique and and just fill the room almost like
(37:06):
an opera singer, you know, almost not needing the microphone
in front of her to fill that room, and just
beautiful emotion and intensity. And again the same thing, the
dynamic of being able to whisper a song and then
hit the high notes on constant craving or crying. You know,
her version of crying is still it gives me goose
(37:28):
bumps just thinking about it. What about Clapton, I mean
because to me, I wrote in my memoir that all
those jokes from my generation where people said Clapton was
God in mind when I grew up as a kid,
Clapton was God. Yeah. I mean again, what a tone
that really does come from his hands, you know, And
it doesn't matter what guitar, he picks up. There's his tone,
his fingerprint, his his energy. You know, there would be
(37:51):
nights where between him and Doyle Bramble, who was playing
guitar also in the band, and the two of them
would trade solos back and forth, and I was in
heaven because you know, for me as a drummer, I'm
not so much focused on what I'm playing. I'm focused
on what they're doing, and I'm listening to them like
(38:13):
I get to be the ultimate audience and just to
sit there and listen to these incredible musicians play and
and you know, they they end up orbiting so far,
and my job is just to make sure that we
still know where they're tethered to, that that we're not
all going so far that we lose the audience. Eric
(38:34):
would just have these nights where he was on fire
and would not want to stop playing, And those were
beautiful moments Whenwood seems like such a gentle soul. I've
never met him. Was he like that in person? He's
like a very very deep yea quiet very it's both right,
like honestly, he's both like. One of my favorite moments
(38:56):
in that band was playing Can't Find My way Home.
That is one of the best songs, you know, and
it just had this beautiful dynamic to it and the
way they would sing harmony on that together, you know,
both both Steve and Eric, and it's just lovely. Man Um. Yeah,
he was a fun hang on the road to uh,
(39:18):
you know, the after show of just having a little
glass of wine and and you know, I wish I
could have met him too, because I just love his music. Yeah, Sting,
I've met and Stings somebody who I saw him the
other day in New York. I just bumped into and
and and he was He's always his wife is always
so nice to me. Had a quick with them on
the on the street uptown and Uh. And he's somebody
(39:39):
who you know because he has that movie star glow
to him. Absolutely, he's got that edge. And right when
you think you don't like him because he's so handsome
and he's so rich and talented, then he sings a
song that breaks your heart. Yes, he sings a song
that breaks your heart, and you think the guy really
is pretty damn good. He's the real deal. And again,
you know, one of the loveliest The first time I
(40:02):
UH was hired, you know, because basically he hired me
without us ever having played together. It was again through
word of mouth, and you know that he had this
tour that he had to finish up and promote, and
so he again through reputation and hired me for a
few months. And on our first day of saying hello,
(40:23):
it was the biggest bear hug I've ever received, and
you know, welcome to the family. You know. So it's
he's that kind of guy, just a real tender spirit
and uh you know, yes there's the trappings of of
rock and roll and villas and whatnot, but it was
at his core royalty. Yeah, but he's a guy who
shows up with his bag and his base on his
(40:45):
back and is ready ready at for the lobby call
fifteen minutes before departure, you know. So that's that's the
kind of guy he is. Yeah. And when I saw
you the first time, I couldn't take my eyes off
you know. So you five guys, great night, great show,
great fun. But you fit into a category of you
(41:06):
can tell there's no place else you'd rather be. You
have such a contagious enthusiasm. There's a smile on your face,
not all the time, you're getting down and down and
you're playing, but you seem so happy, you seem so
filled with joy when you're up there playing music. I mean.
And what's interesting is you've drummed for him longer than
(41:27):
Ringo Star drummed with Can you believe it? What are
you guys doing now? The COVID seems to be dissipating
a little bit. You guys, are you gonna go on
tour with somebody? I'm hoping so there's still, you know,
things in the works, and I'm hoping that soon we'll
be able to do some shows, you know, Like the
last time we played with Paul was um the end
(41:48):
of So I'm which show the Dodger Stadium and at
the end of July, and it was it was an
amazing show, Like thank god, it was a wonderful show.
But we were meant ago do you know, to play
a European tour and to play glaston Barry and all
of these exciting things and uh and yet to have
(42:09):
the Yeah, I think so. So I'm hoping. I'm hoping
that we might be able to to to redo some
of that this year. Well listen, I have a real
jones for drummers because I if I played popular music,
I want to play the drums, and you're one of
the greatest of all time. My friend, you are so great.
I can't wait to see you up there again. Matt Well,
(42:29):
thank you, Thank you so much. Man. My thanks to
musician Abe Laboreal Jr. I'll leave you with Abe performing
with Sting on message in a bottle in montro I'm
Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing, is brought to you by
my heart radio jes What is it? Yeah, gorleness good,
(43:08):
Let's go Beffar to despair. I'll sup the soul untruth.
I said that that's soul construths. Yes, yes,
Host
Alec Baldwin
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