So I quit and I was music-less for a few years until I got to be 14 and learned to play guitar, as I said. I played in bands in Tuscaloosa, at the University of Alabama, I played in bands with Eddie Hinton who became pretty renowned after he died and that’s the way it usually goes but… And we had started experi- menting around with some double guitar stuff, twin guitar stuff and so…
The Men-Its
where they were going, they were going to piano lessons. And I thought, “Huh… boy I’d like to do that, I’d like to be able to get out of this class.” I convinced my mother that I wanted to take piano lessons and she bought this seventy-five dollar piano. About the firs or second lesson I took, I thought, “Oh my God, this is the worst thing I’ve ever had to do in my life! I don’t think I like… I don’t want to do this, I’d rather be back doing arithmetic.” But she’d already spent her seventy five bucks and she let me know that she’d already made an investment in me and that, by God, I was going to learn to play piano. But I was stub- born and I did this for a few years there, going to piano lessons and they never let you play what stuff you wanted to play. It was al- ways that old corny shit out of a book and if you tried to play it your way, they hit you on your knuckles with a ruler or something, you know. Every piano teacher I ever had did that and I just hated it. And so it’s a wonder that I ever became a piano player in years following.
Was that when you had “The Men-Its?” Yes, “The Men-Its” and I remember seeing Eric Burdon and the Animals on their first U.S. tour. This would have been probably around 1964, I imagine and Alan Price had this portable organ and I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. And we were already ready doing, the Men-Its, we were playing ‘House of the Risin’ Sun’ and I thought, “Man, if I had one of those organs, I bet that I could play it.” And then we could play ‘House of the Risin’ Sun’ and we would be authentic. (Both Laugh) First thing you know, about 1965, it must have been, I bought a Farfisa portable organ, which was the next thing to a Vox organ. That was a standard piece of gear in bands back then you know, this was before media digital and all that.
The Farfisa, the Doors used that a lot I remember. The best equipped keyboard bands around, the standard rig was a Wurlitzer electric piano and if you had a Wurlitzer piano, you could play ‘What’d I Say’ by Ray Charles and be authentic, so you had a Wurlitzer piano and you had a Farfisa organ sitting on top so you had “What’d I Say” and ‘House of the Rising Sun’ in your arsenal of tunes, I mean, you were unstoppable. So anyway, I bought a Farfisa organ, I got it on Monday, played my first gig with it that Friday night. Played “House of the Rising Sun,” so in five nights, I learned to play. That was my first song. I
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