Eric is a champ. What a talent! What an honor to play with him, and it was certainly a highlight of my career. I just hope to get to do it again someday. But it wasn't just Eric, you see. It was THAT
BAND...Nathan East on bass, Steve Ferrone on drums, Andy Fair- weather-Low on guitar, Ray Cooper on per- cussion, Katy Kissoon and Tessa Niles singing, and when I first came into the band, Greg Phillinganes was there as first key- boardist, and I was sort of the "second". All of those people are just extraordinary players and singers, and I couldn't believe I was play- ing in this band!! Then when we did the tour of Japan with George Harrison, Greg re- signed. He had been there a long time, and wanted to get off the road and do other things, like produce. So Eric came to me and said, "well, Greg is leaving, and I want to do some dates after this tour with George. Do you want to handle the keyboards on your own, or do you think we should get someone else in?" I said, "Eric, let me sleep on that." The next day I went to him and said, "You know, I think I'd be happy to try this myself. It would give me some room to stretch out and contribute more." So he agreed, and the next thing we did was the "Unplugged" proj- ect. That was like letting the tiger out of the
NEXT KUDZOO AUGUST 16
AD DEADLINE AUG 9th
cage, man. I had loved what I'd done with Eric up to that point, but it was really a rather minor role. When we did "Unplugged," I just couldn't WAIT to play. You must understand that it was a whole different set of music, as well. We had been doing the regular set, and when we rehearsed for "Unplugged," we only had, I think, three days of rehearsals to do something like14 or 15 totally different tunes, or different arrangements, like the treatment of "Layla," for instance. We had rehearsed "Old Love", but Eric
decided he didn't want it in the set. But when we did the show, we played all the tunes we had rehearsed, it had gone just great, and the crowd still wanted more. I don't know why he turned to me, but he did, and said, "What can we do now?" I said "Do "Old Love." So he agreed, and called the tune. Man, I was just laying for that solo at the end, all wound up like a spring, and when it came, it was the huge release I'd been waiting for, and I cut loose. It felt soooooo good to get that out, I just can't tell you. I'll give one more "Un- plugged" story. As you may know, after the song "Alberta, Alberta," he calls out my name, in his English accent, "Chaulk La-Velle!!!" Now, I have this friend that works in the forestry industry, and she tells me, "my little boy, who is about six years old just loves that part where he calls out your name, because he thinks Eric is saying "chocolate milk!"" I just love that! Anyway, after that we had a couple of days off, then went back and rehearsed the regular set, and I had to adapt a lot of what I had done before with him, as Greg had done most of the major stuff before. But I did my homework, and pulled it together for the tour. Along the way, Eric said, "So who's gonna sing those parts that Greg sang?" I said, "Well, I'd like to give it a go." He put me right on the spot then and there, and said.."OK, let's hear it." So I sang the part in "White Room" that Jack Bruce originally did for him,
17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55
