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THE KEYBOARD MAN ON HIS BAND LITTLE FEAT AND LOWELL GEORGE By Michael Buffalo Smith
BILL PAYNE
Jackson Browne to Beck to Jimmy Buffett – and that’s just some of the "B"s. “ This archived interview first appeared
18 years ago in the summer of 2000. My how time flies. But time also loves a hero, and Bill Payne is nothing short of a musical hero. The following is our interview, just as it went down in 2000.
••• Little Feat is a band in every sense of
the word. Through good times and hard times, through personnel changes and even the death of their fearless leader Lowell George, the band has kept their unique and infectious sound alive and well.Othe than a temporary breakup following George’s pass- ing.)
The official Little Feat website says,
“Payne co-founded Little Feat with the late, great Lowell George in 1969, has been Little Feat’s keyboardist – and its pilot – through- out the band’s existence, writing and singing such beloved classics as "Oh Atlanta," "Day or Night," "Time Loves a Hero“ and ”Gringo,“ while ”steering a ship that was rudderless," as he puts it. He’s also contributed to hundreds of records as a sideman. The list of the artists Payne has recorded with is as lengthy as a small-town telephone book, ranging from
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Bill Payne, an original member of the leg- endary Little Feat, is a musician in every sense of the word, from his countless studio sessions playing piano for everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Beck. In this exclusive in- terview, Payne spoke about the new Little Feat album, Phil Lesh and Friends, the im- portance of the internet to the music world, and reflected on the late, great Lowell George.
Let's start with the new album. Tell our readers about the new Little Feat album, Chinese Work Songs. About three years ago, the label we were with, Zoo Records, did what a lot of labels do these days, and folded. We were put in the position of looking for a new label, and our manager at the time, Tim Burnette, who is with Gold Mountain, had checked out CMC Interna- tional, and he felt like it was the kind of label we should be with. It has heritage artists, or another way to say it is older artists, and he felt like it was a good place for us. And Tom Lipsky, who is the president of the company
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