|
REALITY: there is
a huge difference between fans and musicians. Fans
get to see a finished product, fans get to listen to the
records that have been cut, mixed, mastered, and
pressed. Does
anyone know what life is like outside of the
finished product? I certainly do.
Early in my life, I
fought with my family - I wanted to play music, but they
wanted me to go to college and get a degree. I ran
away from home at age 13 - nearly 14. All I did
was play music. All I wanted from life was to play
good R&B music. In
the beginning, I was a naive kid, and my playing
reflected that. Yet I was lucky, because I worked
in a large horn band playing R&B and soul, and we worked
constantly - approximately 48 weeks each year. Playing 5-7 nights a week, all night
long, is an opportunity for a lot of practice. You
can imagine 4 solid years of this.
Eventually, I became a pretty good keyboard player.
I was very fortunate
throughout my musical life. I was also young and
crazy enough to make the step and approach many people
who are considered "stars". Sometimes I got what I
wanted: an audition, a chance to play, and be evaluated
for my musical ability, and my questionable personality
to "fit in" as a member of a group.
Sometimes, I
was dismissed out of hand, because of my age and
inexperience. Unknown until this page is being
written - right now - I once auditioned at Wand Records
in NYC, for Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown. I
passed the audition as a player, they liked my playing
just fine, but I was too young to travel, I had no ID at
the time which would have allowed me to work in
establishments that served alcohol. I auditioned
for James Brown in Newark, NJ. He laughed at me.
The last thing he needed was a 14 year old
problem on the road with him. That wasn't all - I
was rejected by Joe Tex and Wilson Pickett, too.
Rejection doesn't feel good. There were a few
other rejections.
In early 1968, I
joined the
Soul Survivors. By then, I had a wallet full
of fake ID.
A little later in life,
1969, I met
Ike. Elsewhere on my website is a fairly
interesting story about "How
I Spent My STAX Vacation". You might like
to read that story,
written in 1996, describing the very first
time I ever saw or heard of the Ike and Tina Turner
Revue. It's incomplete. I left
out the disagreements with Ike, the parts in which we
had some major, major misunderstandings. In
1996, I didn't want to put them on a webpage for anyone
to misinterpret. Now I'll explain a very
small part.
|
In
1969, when I first met Ike, he offered me a
job as his keyboard player. At that
time, I was working on staff at
STAX Records in
Memphis, doing recording sessions and
learning engineering work. After about 5
years on the road, constantly traveling with
bands, I wanted to "settle down" and work in
the STAX studio. I really didn't want
any more "road" at that time of my life -
and Ike knew that right from the night we
met.
Ike exaggerated
a little. He said he had a recording
studio in California. In fact, he did
- however, it was not yet a studio. It
was an empty building which would become a
working studio within several months.
At that time - my first trip to LA - I
was originally under the impression I was
going to LA to record with Ike.
Ike's impression was that I was joining his
band. Understandably, our personal conflicts
began immediately.
On that trip, I rehearsed
and played some shows with I&TT. Very
quickly, Ike and I had our first serious
disagreement, and I was back in Memphis the next
day.
I would NOT make the commitment. I
wouldn't leave STAX, recording, engineering,
and trade all of it for another road band
life. And I didn't want to move to Los
Angeles.
I did NOT give Ike the
commitment, dedication, and loyalty that he needed for
his show.
It isn't hard to
understand. Ike needed and wanted a
reliable, full time player.
I wasn't interested in
that - I wanted to be able to pick and
choose what I did and when I did it.
We
discussed this, and I
made it clear what I wanted in my musical
life. Ike offered me a very, very
generous salary, but I couldn't and wouldn't
make that commitment.
On many occasions, we compromised.
I'd call Ike, he'd call me, we'd set up
something for recording and some live
shows. That was something I could live
with, and Ike had no problems with it,
either. After I left the
STAX
staff, I still wanted to do recording
sessions, rather than spend most of my life
on the road. This wasn't exclusively
limited to Ike. I was very fortunate - and
honored - to have several very good offers
from several large groups, but I
never made the commitment to the road again.
If you read through
some other parts of this
website, you'll learn this same type
scenario has happened many times in my
musical life. For awhile, I was on
staff at Kingsnake Records, but I could not
make that full time commitment,
either. |
Fans can't possibly
understand life "inside the bubble". I'm referring
to the day in - day out interaction, the ups and downs,
the truth, the lies, the chaos, the peace and the conflicts.
Fans have it made -
they buy their tickets and go see a polished show - a
show that may have taken several hundred hours to
perfect - probably a lot more. Fans don't know about
the crushed egos, when a player just is not making the
grade, and is humiliated in front of the rest of the
group. It happened to me, and it doesn't feel
good. I could write a story of what fans don't
know, and it would use up 40 webpages or more.
I'd
rather tell you a story about Ike.
Years back, Ike threw
a tantrum, and fired almost everyone in the group.
Jackie, Claude, and I weren't fired. I
wasn't really playing with Ike at that time, he
only called me
to come in and help put together his new band. At
the time, I knew Ike well - I understood not only his
musical requirements, I also understood Ike.
Rhonda got on the
phone, and in no time, musicians by the dozen were
flying into LA to audition - and I mean dozens
and dozens of musicians. We used Ike's
rehearsal room - part of the block he owned on LaBrea
and Fairview, a few doors away from the studio.
I was staying in Ike's
apartment building, directly behind the studio, no more
than 200 feet from the rehearsal room. Rehearsal
was called for 2:00pm. I showed up at about
1:50pm. The rehearsal room was filled with dozens
of hopeful
players - all wanting to play for I&TT.
Immediately, Ike got
in my face, and screamed at me. Keep in mind, I'd
known Ike for years at that time.
"What fuckin'
TIME is
it, motherfucker? I call rehearsal for 2, and you
drag your ass in here when you feel like it?
Who the fuck runs this show?"
"Well Ike, the clock
in the apartment said 10 before 2."
"Fuck you -
MY
watch says it's after 2. (He showed me his watch.)
You done this shit before, and you ain't fuckin' with me no more - I'm fining you $500. I don't put
up with this shit from nobody."
Ike put out his
hand. There was nothing for
me to say. I handed Ike $500.
Auditions and rehearsal went on all day, until probably 2:00am.
Ike told Jackie and me to go into his office in the
studio, and ended the audition thing until the
following day. Everybody left.
In his office, we
snorted for awhile. I invented a new phrase: "U&TT"
- meaning "unskilled and timeless / tuneless". We laughed at some of the clumsy,
timeless / tuneless
players, talked serious about some of the better ones. Ike handed me my $500. and an
extra $200. We laughed and snorted until the sun
came up.
Do you
understand?
I
understand.
Ike humiliated me in
front of a room full of people. I was his FOOL. And he did it for
a damn good reason. Everybody in that room learned
something: it's Ike's band, and whatever Ike
says is the way it's gonna be.
As it was, we ended
up laughing our asses off - because Ike did set
his watch FAST - so I would HAVE to be late. He
planned it so the people would learn a powerful lesson
in just a few seconds - AND THEY LEARNED.
Maybe you think I'm crazy
for putting up with that. YOU'RE crazy.
I did more in 3 seconds to help Ike than
48 hours of non-stop rehearsal. |
