I caught your performance at the Rock Hall over the summer. Seemed like you had a great time playing on the plaza there.
I love playing no matter what. That was great. I really enjoyed playing and am really glad the Rock Hall asked me to play there. I think it was Beatles month, and they asked me to play some Beatles songs. I think we played three, and we really loved it. That was with my trio, and we’re all Beatles nuts, of course.
How did the idea for this tour with Jerry Harrison that brings you to the Goodyear Theater come together?
I think it was 2017 or 2018, and I was doing a couple of tours. [Harrison] would come to the shows when we were in the San Francisco area where he lives. We kept in contact all this time. We would be backstage talking about things. More than once, we talked about how it would be great to revisit that 1980 ten-piece touring band. I used to tell him that it needed to be done now because the world is in kind of a dark place, and this was just before COVID, which would make things even worse. We thought it would be great to do a 40th anniversary tour for Remain in Light in 2020, the record that I played on and the one we toured behind. That got derailed. Meanwhile, Jerry produced a band that was called Turkuaz. They’re now called Cool Cool Cool. They were together for ten years, and those Talking Heads albums were their main influence. Jerry called me and said he solved the problem of how to do the tour because he found a band that was perfect for it. I saw them play, and the third song in, I said, “This is perfect.” That is when it started making sense.
What was it like to play those shows together last year?
We started on the basis of doing festivals. We didn’t have to have a full-on show. We went back to the YouTube of a 1980 Talking Heads show in Rome. That was hugely popular. We used that as our blueprint. We’ve added a few new wrinkles, but we do most of the material from that show. We have an 11-piece band and a horn section and female back-up singers. That brought some other new things into the picture. Apart from that, we have guitar players, keyboardists and a great percussionist and drummer. The bass player is now my bass player from my trio, Julie Slick, who I’ve known for 15 years. It’s one big happy family. It does exactly what I hoped. It’s such a joyful show. You can’t stay in your seat. You want to get up and dance around. It doesn’t matter if you are an older fan or newer. Everybody there seems to have a great time.
Former Talking Heads’ singer David Byrne has such a huge personality. What is it like to do these songs without him?
We’re not trying to sound like David Byrne or do his thing at all. We have four or five different people who sing. It’s divided between people. [Former Talking Heads’ members] David [Byrne], Chris [Frantz] and Tina [Weymouth] have all given their blessing. Everybody is happy about it. There is no way you can really replace those people. The music stands the test of time and as long as you play it faithfully with the right kind of attitude and energy, it can be done.
I think you were involved with Talking Heads prior to Remain in Light. How did you first get involved with the band?
They came to the David Bowie show that I played at Madison Square Garden and were blown away. Next thing I knew, I was going to their shows. They invited me to three of their shows. On the third show, they said, “We’re doing ‘Psycho Killer’ as the encore and why don’t you come on stage and play it with us?” Of course, I knew the song, but I had never figured out the chords or anything. They said, Tthat’s okay. Just come out and freak out like you do.” I waited until the end when it came to the craziness and just went crazy on guitar. They loved it, and I loved it. Then, I went to New York at some point to play for some record labels. They were at one of the shows and cornered me at the stairwell and asked me to stay an extra day and play on Remain in Light.
Did you really finish your parts for the album in one day?
That’s all I had was one day. My band was waiting for me. I got a lot of stuff done quickly. As I was setting up my gear in the room, I was checking my sounds and making something happen, and they were jumping up and down and every excited. Then, one of the first things that happened was they told me to go out into the room and stand around until I think there should be a guitar solo and play one. I did that, and it went really well. I could see them going crazy. I played a second guitar solo. That became “The Great Curve.” It’s a very unusual record and has so many layered sounds, and that’s why they had to increase the band from four members to ten. When you do that, everything is in one key. Chris and Tina had laid down their bass and drums. There was no signpost whatsoever. As a guitar player, that’s as good as it gets. You don’t have to worry about key changes or modulations or anything else. You just play in that key and have a great time
To what extent did the band try to get an African groove onto the album?
I didn’t know it at that time. It was something I noticed that was going around, especially in New York where there was a fever for it. It seemed like all the artists were doing it. With the Talking Heads, I think a lot of it was David and Brian [Eno’s] influence.
How much did you interact with Brian Eno, who produced the album?
Well, Brian is kind of a quiet guy. I have done several records with him with David Bowie and Laurie Anderson. You have time sitting between takes, and he’s a quiet conversationalist. I would just let him be himself, and I would respond. I really like him. I think he’s done amazing, great things. I’m a big fan.
What was the tour like?
We went on tour with the expanded band. I was on that tour. There is a video called Talking Heads Live in Rome 1980. Loads and loads of people love that film. Some people claim it to be the best concert films ever, even though it was filmed by someone in the audience. Our show is based on that performance. It’s based on trying to create that same vibe of joy and funky music. We leave out all the slow stuff, so you can just get up and dance.
Did that show stand out?
Yeah, it did. I think no one expected it to be so exciting and well-attended. You expected it in New York but not in other countries. As we learned over the tour, Talking Heads were rising to fame very quickly. I was watching it happen. When we played in Central Park, there were 125,000 people there. It’s not like we weren’t used to that size of an audience, but there’s something about the Rome audience. There’s an electricity there.
The album remains a classic. What’s your sense of why that is?
It’s a very unusual sounding record. There was nothing else like it at the time. I think it’s really because the Talking Heads are such a great band. That was, to some people, the best they ever were. They had reached a point of confidence, and their music was being played at every bookstore and restaurant in the world. It’s because of the Talking Heads and Brian Eno, who had a big part to do with it. I’ll take a little bow, but I’m only a small part.
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This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 7, 2023.
