Saxophonist Eddie M, known for his work with Prince and Sheila E, along with drummer John Paris from Earth, Wind and Fire, join Joe Kelley on the "Musicians Reveal" podcast to discuss their exciting new band, Back 2 Basics. The duo shares insights into their long-standing friendship and musical journey, reflecting on their early days in the Bay Area and the influences that shaped their careers. They touch on the unique experiences they’ve had while working with legendary artists and how those interactions have enriched their musical styles. Additionally, Eddie and John reveal their plans for upcoming projects, including a new album and a book that chronicles their journey in music. With heartfelt stories and a deep connection to their roots, this episode celebrates the power of collaboration and the spirit of creativity in the music industry.

Takeaways:

• Eddie M and John Paris share their journey of friendship and musical collaboration since childhood, emphasizing their deep bond.
• The podcast highlights the importance of mentorship in music, particularly through their experiences with legendary artists.
• Listeners learn about the creative process behind their new band, Back 2 Basics, and its significance to their careers.
• John Paris recounts the pivotal moment when he almost lost the chance to play for Earth, Wind and Fire.
• The musicians discuss the influence of the Bay Area's diverse music scene on their development and style.
• Eddie M reminisces about the impact of Wayman Tisdale on his life and career, showcasing the importance of support in the industry.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Earth, Wind and Fire
• Prince
• Sheila E.
• Patti LaBelle
• Karen White
• Jesse Johnson
• Bob Dylan
• Collage
• Solar Records
• O'Brien
• The Whispers
• The Time
• D.O.A.
• Sunset Sound
• Magic Hour
• Capitol Records

Hey, this is John Paris at adm.

We're Back to Basics and Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelly. Kelly, let's go.

My next guest here on Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelly. Two tremendous world class musicians who have been friends since childhood.

They have toured and recorded with the likes of Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, Sheila E. Patti LaBelle, Karen White, Jesse Johnson, Bob Dylan and many, many more.

We could spend like the first 10 minutes reeling off those names, but we're really honored to have drummer John Paris, saxophonist, vocalist Eddie Minifield, Eddie M. Back to basics. That is their, their band. And to the roots and great musicians. Thanks to have you brothers on. Thanks.

Hey, thanks for having us.

Thank you. Thank you, man, so much. So good to be here. Thank you, brother Joe.

Yeah, I really appreciate you guys coming on. And let me, let me go back to how far you guys have known each other. I know John was born in Trent, New Jersey.

I was born in Orange, but I didn't spend a lot of time there.

But congratulations.

I always make a joke because I, I was born in Orange, but I lived in Newark. I said it was the, I grew up on the mean streets of Newark.

There we go.

I only spent two years there. My first two years.

That's right.

Yeah, but, but the Bay Area, how did Eddie and John, how did you first meet each other and get this musical bond and friendship start when he.

Came to the Bear? Because I was born and raised in the baby. Yeah, you tell him.

Well, I, I, I came to the Bay in 71. I want to believe. Yeah. From New Jersey, because I was doing stupid stuff and they got me out of there.

And that's one of the first things I noticed was, you know, of course, the diversity in the Bay Area. I mean, it was just a melting pot of nationalities and culture and great music on every street corner. There's music everywhere, right.

Oh, I got very curious because there was some similarities going on, particularly with the Afro Cuban stuff. So I just started snooping around at an early age and by the time I got to high school, the word was out.

The baddest jazz band in California is at Berkeley High. So we would always go, you know, I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, but a few of us, J.

Logan, Bonnie Boyer, we used always, yeah, and get on the bus and go up to Berkeley High and hang out and, you know, watch that incredible band of musicians, man, which is, I mean, they were too young to be that good. It was amazing. And you know, and you know, I always tell Eddie, he doesn't probably Remember?

But I saw this guy stand up and take this solo, and it just blew me away. And he. He just stood up and played his butt off like it was nothing. We were all like, did y'all just hit? Yeah, he did that.

So I, I, you know, Low key started stalking him and found out that they were in this show band that I loved. You know, the band I was in, you know, we were, you know, trying to be fusion cats. But I was.

I grew up, you know, with show, bad band kind of a concept, and Eddie and those guys had a really, really good show band. I just started following around and introduced myself and hoping he wouldn't think I was weird, you know, but, hey, man, you sound like Maceo.

James Brown is my favorite. He's like, oh. And he said same thing back because I was like, okay. We just clicked right away, man. So.

Right. So. So back then, when you're. You're in your young teens, right, or in high school, in your mind, what is the goal? What are you thinking?

Did you have aspirations of any huge stars? Like, I want to tour the world and be a musician, or what was going through your mind back then?

Oh, okay.

There you go.

That was it. I thought John actually went to the same high school I was, Berkeley high, because I would see him so often.

Right, right.

Like, yeah, I wonder, you know, maybe he's cutting class or something. You know, why are we hanging out? But, you know, I would see him all the time, so. But.

But, you know, as we started getting to know each other, we just kind of. I admired his playing because I knew he was in another top 40 band. So I begged him to lead this band and play in my band.

That's like, man, Oh, I mean, begged him. I'm giving them rides to the art station and the train station out here. Like, man, please, man, just go to Japan. We were going to Japan.

So at any rate, make a long story short, I went over to Japan. This was a few years after we had met, and. And I came back and he. He decided to join him and a guy named Cat Gray, which.

Cat Gray played with Sheila as well.

Right.

He was a keyboard player with Sheila's. Now he's on let's Make a Deal with Wayne Brady and all that kind of stuff.

But okay, yeah.

At any rate, we started very young together, and when he joined the band, everything just opened up for us. We just started being creative. We. We started placing music on people. Like groups like Confunction.

We had our own top 40 band that was, you know, pretty huge. In the Bay Area. And same time, John was playing with Sheila part time and, you know, and then Sheila would come and see our shows all the time.

So she became kind of like, you know, a follower of our band all as one, her and her brother, Peter Michael.

Yeah. And you guys are, you know, young, just about to turn 20 and maybe even a little younger than that. Right back then.

Oh, yeah, yeah. At this point, we're about night. Well, yeah, about 19 to 20 years old at that point.

Right.

But so we just kind of hung tight. We was going to all Earth, Wind and Fire concerts to ask. Answer your question, Anytime they came to Oakland, we were there.

I don't know to this day how he was there, but we there together.

You got in the house, you know.

We didn't really know a whole bunch of people. Earth, I don't know, but we, we was pretty close every year.

So we were, you know, and, and we, we go back to our rehearsal spots and, and, and try and emulate what, what we seen or heard, you know, and so we were big time fans. Never had an idea we'd be hanging out, meeting them or John tour with them.

Yeah, we work with all, pretty much all of them individually at one point, you know, through our careers, you know.

Now I gotta ask the drummer, John Paris, when Earth, Wind and Fire, when Maurice came up front to sing, who. Who was playing drums back then?

Ralph, actually. Ralph.

Okay.

First. Yeah.

Okay.

Brother Fred came later. But Ralph was playing, I think even before they changed the name. Reese was up front. I forget who the drummer was in, but yeah, Ralph.

The original nine, as we know now, Ralph was playing.

Yeah, yeah. I had. This was years ago on radio. Had Larry Dunn, Sheldon Reynolds and Mo Pleasure come on the show, the three of the Head.

I think it was Enchanted Spirits or the album.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Real nice, guys.

Yeah, yeah, I had a great time. I actually did a couple of shows with them. Man, that was so much fun.

Okay. Yeah.

Larry Dunn and More Pleasure together.

Yeah.

Bobby Watson was playing bass, but it was fun. We had a ball.

Yeah. So let's move on to that. Connect.

You spoke on the connection of Earth, Wind and Fire and, and Verding White is an important person in both your lives. And I'm gonna ask Eddie about Verding taking you into his mentorship, I believe, before you hooked up with the Paisley in the Minneapolis crew.

Yeah, that was very interesting because as I spoke about earlier, John had been working with Sheila. But then he branched off and his first tour he went on was with the group O'Bryan so.

Oh, yeah, O'Brien. Yeah. Oh, okay. Were you on that Soul Train hit with him?

Yes, sir.

Okay. I was just talking to O'Brien the other night when. Yeah, well, on. On email.

Okay. I gotta. I owe him a couple of calls. I gotta.

Yeah, he said he's coming on the show in a month or two or something. I've never had him on yet.

Oh, that's gonna be fun. I'm glad I'm out ahead of him, though.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right.

So we basically. Vernie had called me and two friends of mine, Larry White, who used to be with the Whispers and big group called Collage.

He did a lot of stuff with Solar Records and Kirk Crumpler as a bass player with Collage and associated with. They were signed Solar Records, but somehow. Well, Verding was good friends with Larry. Larry White, so they called us down.

Verding and Larry Dunn had their big production team back then, so they called us to come to LA and do some. Some writing and stuff.

So that was really my first, you know, major situation outside of home base, you know, and so people always get confused because they want to attach me to everything. Prince was my beginning. Sheila was my beginning. And that's not so true right close to my beginnings. But I would. I. John was on tour, and I.

I don't know how to this day, we still can't figure out how he found me. But I was in a hotel in. In Sherman Oaks. And I'll never forget. 777 Hotel right there in Sherman Oaks. And he found.

We get a phone call in the hotel rooms. He's like, eddie, man, Sheila's looking for you, man. Like, what? This is before Glamorous Life came out. It was about.

So I'm like, okay, well, you know, we were familiar with Sheila, so she would come and hang out and see. See us all the time. So I'm like, what does she want, man? I'm down here with Fernie White, man. What are you talking.

Yeah, yeah, right, right.

I was in a place where, man. Okay, well, I'll call him and just call her, man, George. I'll call her, man. When I get home, I'll be home if, you know, I'll call her.

Little did I know the turnout would be me connecting with her imprints on the major level. But when I got home, she kind of handpicked the band.

She was really wanting John to be a part of, but he was already contracted with O'Brien and darker news to finish the tour. He Wasn't gonna cross that line. So he. But that's how that came about. And the next thing you know, he was running around the country and playing and.

Yeah. And Eddie, I gotta tell you, 41 years ago is the first time I ever saw you on a stage. I was at.

I was at Toad's place in New Haven, Connecticut when we did those warm up gigs. Yeah, I was there.

Please. Oh my God, that was a great. I like that spot.

Yeah.

And that was a. I. Correct me if I'm wrong, that was around the time when Prince showed up at the Cincinnati gig you were playing.

Yep.

And jumped on stage. I think it was Bogarts, right?

I think it was.

Yeah. So there was all that rumors like, oh, Prince is going to be hearing it. We would have gone see anyways because.

He would always do these little pop pop ups. But that was basically our, our, like, get used to the road tour, you know, it was like it was out there because we had never been out as a band.

And he also sent us to Europe and to break it. Break us in and get ready and. But yeah, he would pop out Cincinnati and I think, oh, New York.

He did. He popped up on stage. He did New York.

Yeah. That wasn't. Was it the Ritz, I believe.

I think so, maybe.

Yeah. He would pop out, you know, different.

Places, unannounced, and now it's Webster Hall. Oh, they changed the name.

Yeah, yeah, got it.

Yeah.

So it was, it was a pretty intense experience. And, and within all of that, that how. That's how the Prince thing took off.

So I gotta ask, I gotta ask John about that. Okay.

You had the contract with Don Cornelis Productions and, And also, Brian, when Eddie starts hitting the road and jumps right into the Purple Rain tour, where you telling them, just give me some time, can I jump back on the tour? We're bugging them.

Yes, man. When I tour in without boy, I was at home watching them on tv like.

But you know, the, the cool, the cool thing about it though was, you know, hanging out with O'Brien and all that. And we still had a lot of our friends from the Bay. And in fact, you know, Levi was there before he went with Sheila.

Cat was there, Romy Jeroso, Melvin Davis playing. I mean, we had, you know, a lot of the same connection, right.

And the cool thing about it, you know, was, I mean, we went straight from, you know, four track Tascam to the 24 tracks at Larrabee. And O'Brien was, was. Was probably the most pleasant taskmaster that I'VE ever worked with.

Wow.

He was like. Like Phil Jackson. He knew how to speak to each individual, to, you know, ignite what he saw in them. And.

And I, to this day, you know, I always tell him, man, I appreciate him for accepting me the way he did, because there was some things going on, you know, with musicians and. And Don was like, you know, no, I want him, you know, kind of like, really, the puppet master and all of that.

Yeah, right.

You know, we.

We got in there, man, right away, and went to work, you know, and we, you know, all of us, we were kind of like, you know, you hear the story about Michael Jackson pushing buttons and asking questions and getting our hands slapped right in like that. And O'Brien had the experience back then that we did, and he let us.

And Don, too, to his credit, really showed us how to record records, you know, because it was a different thing, you know, it's a different animal than live, for sure.

So going back to those Soul Train performances, this, for me, the Trail, or maybe some of our viewers and listeners. Who else was in that band Besides you and O'Brien on the Soul Trainer performances and the tuxedos and everything?

Love Life, baby yeah, yeah the love light, yeah, yeah.

So we had Melvin David. That was our musical director. Melvin's incredible, incredible music. Yeah. Carl Denson was playing saxophone. Carl.

Oh, yeah. Hunter playing with us. So live, Right?

Yeah. And they both went with Lenny after that. Romy Jrosso on guitar. Michael Norfleet was playing keys and singing. You know, so we. We had a fun unit. We.

We had. We had two guitars out. Levi actually was our second guitar player.

Oh, okay.

You know, he didn't do that. That performance. You know, Don put Carl on guitar.

Yeah.

And that's actually where we've all met. Karen White. Yeah, that's when we met on that tour. Getting. Getting experience. I wanted to use another word, opening for Cameo every night.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, We've seen Cami a bunch of times. And they opened. Well, when they opened for Rick James, that. I saw the double tour with that. Yeah.

And they were so strong.

It was incredible.

I met three. Well, I actually already knew Chuck Morris, who was playing with O'Brien before me. Chuck was playing.

And then I met Sonny Emery and Rafer Griffin on one tour. Larry. Larry Blackman. Yeah. So I met sonny back in 85.

Ah.

And he was really crazy then. They think he crazy. He was really like Bruce Lee. Like, oh, man, I live in the Bay Area. I've seen it all. No, you gotta see this guy.

Yeah, sure enough, man.

He. He was. Whoo. But, yeah, that.

That experience, man, you know, we were able to really learn the details and the intricacies of recording what works and what didn't work, man. And I hug O'Brien's neck so hard every time I see him because he has no idea how much that. That helped me in my later endeavors.

Yep.

Wow. With all the experience, both of you have been amongst all different types of musicians.

Are there any musicians that you met for the first time or recorded for the first time that you were shaking in your boots a little bit?

Prince.

Okay.

You know, ditto.

Yeah, he had me and John shaking up books years.

Right.

But what.

What was the first time you. You both individually met Prince, or was it collectively?

No, not collectively. No. John ended up joining Mad House years after. And I was saying, man, be careful. I had already left.

You know, I had already been out of the camp by then. But, yeah, my first encounter with him, Sheila put the band together and.

And, you know, we were rehearsing, and about a week into rehearsal, she tells us, oh, Prince is coming up, and he's gonna spend a few days with us getting our show together. Getting our live show together. I'm like, oh, no. You know, and really, at that point, I wasn't really playing a lot of saxophone.

I kind of went over and was doing lead vocals in me and John's band, and not a whole bunch of keyboards just a little bit. So the two main instruments that was my focus had to become, you know, the dominant, and I was, like, shaking in my boots.

But he came into rehearsal, and the first thing he said was, tomorrow, make sure you have tape recorders, because I'm not gonna remember it, and if you don't, it's going to be a problem.

Wow, that's interesting. Yeah.

Yeah.

So we, you know, of course, did everything he said, and. And he just went through each song and changed it. You know, he changed all what we learned from the original recordings. He just flipped it.

He said, people want to hear the record. They stay home. And we're like, man, really? So it's.

With him, he was a lot of life lessons in the beginning and things that I didn't understand then, but later on, it all made all the sense in the world. The main thing he told us, and I'll never forget this, and I. We talk about it all the time. He said, you're no longer musicians in this room.

You're actors.

Oh, okay.

Wow. I didn't spend all of my young life trying to be the Best musician possible. And now I'm an actor. What is he talking about? You know? And for sure, I.

I learned that rather quickly diving in with him, you know? So, John, going on to his encounter with them, I can tell you this first madhouse.

Yeah.

Man, it was mostly saying sign language for me.

Okay.

Yeah.

Or do your best. Do your best.

I had. Was it like two days, three days, two and a half days to learn 15 songs that were all numbers.

No.

Lyrics, you know, so. And then we're instrumentals, man.

And, you know, this was, you know, three sides, you know, three songs per side, so they were long, you know, and, man, it was a lot going on. It's like. And I'm an audio learner, so I'm like, oh, I'm cool. I got this. I was like, oh, I got. I got. I got two days. So they sent me the cd. I.

I do the best I can. Spend as much time as. And.

And of course, as soon as I walk in Paisley park and it all just started running together, you know, I'm like, I have no idea what's what. So we play around a little bit. And I knew Levi, but I. It's my first time meeting Matt.

Right.

And Eric. Eric Lee's Matt?

Yeah. Matt Fink? Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, and the weird thing, the weird story. I saw Matt a couple years ago, just gave him a big hug because I hadn't seen him in forever.

And, you know, I was just being thankful to everybody for being so welcoming to me. And he was looking at me kind of strange and. Because I was telling him what I went through. Through to try to get to learn this material.

And he said, man, he did the same thing to me. You would have never known, because he was mad. He was just so. He looked very comfortable to me.

Right, right.

I assumed that he was, you know, so, you know, we. We, you know, shuffle through a few tunes and Prince walks in and. And the funny thing was, I think the.

The reason why he relaxed with me because I didn't have time to freak out. We were on a break.

Oh, okay.

My back was to the door and Levi's. He's doing this, you know, a piece of chicken in my right hand.

Okay.

You know, and he go, oh, the old man, he turned around. Oh, it's Prince, you know, Prince John. Like, oh, nice to meet you. Okay. Give him my. And he was kind of. Nice to meet you.

He was gonna take him back a.

Little bit, you know, because I. I just. I didn't have time. So it was. That was kind of cool because, you know, I definitely would have been a little nervous and shaken.

So we talk a little bit and he goes, okay, let's play some music. We go on a bandstand. He sits on the anvil case and remember the tunes are numbers. So first thing he does for me.

It goes.

Oh, okay. So I'm, I'm stalling, you know, they waiting for me to count it off, but I'm really stalling because I have no idea what that is.

I don't know what song it is. You know, Eric looks around and I'm like, you know, so he kind of, you know, act like he's warming up and he plays the head for me.

I'm like, oh, thank you, Lord. So I kick it off, I play it. We get through that song. No reaction. Another baseball signal.

Okay, Right, right. That's right. And changing singles every, every game, like.

I have same thing. I have no idea what that is. And Eric, now Eric knows, you know, that I'm in trouble.

And the other thing was that was cool is that we had, you know, Kirk, Tony and Damien were there dancing, the dancers were there.

So yeah, Damon was just on the show. Yeah.

Oh yes, my guy too. Yeah, they, they, you know, kind of took up a little space and time for me to get it together too because, you know, they knew each other well.

They've been around since before Purple Rain, so that kind of helped camouflage that. I had no idea what that song was.

Right, right.

I get through that again, no reaction. So I thought that I was okay.

I started, you know, feeling okay, getting a little comfortable because the band gelled rather quickly for an audition, you know.

Then he goes, so this one song, I think it's 15, I wouldn't remember exactly, but there's a point in the middle where Matt and Levi are playing Farah. Jacob, me and, and Eric, we play Chopsticks. Okay, so you got three against four. Right.

So we play that and I'm just, you know, concentrating on getting through that section because the tune was relatively. It was an up tempo tune. And so he goes, he wants us to play that song again.

I'm know people want me to imitate his voice, but it's too early in the morning. But it's funny when I do his voice, but he goes on Bar 82, I want you to hit that symbol right there. Like, okay, cool, I can count.

But after we got through with Chopsticks and I had no idea where I was. So we in the camp and I go, and, and this is when I knew I. I may be okay. He went like this. He gave me. We took a break.

Three days later, I got a per diem check. I'm like, okay.

Wow.

So. So. So that rehearsal, everything was building up to some European dates, right?

Right. Which didn't happen for Madhouse. That's when they went and did the Sign of the Times, you know, And I was.

Okay.

I was missing. And the last conversation that was. Was relatively pleasant that I had with him where they were looking for me. I'm kind of was like a little vagabond.

Right. Right in. And there we were going to do a video and they were calling and I had no idea.

So I'm at this club in LA doing something that I never do, which is dance.

Okay.

Dance.

I'm in this club, you know, chilling, and it gets dark, and I turn around and this six, nine guy that's six nine both ways taps me on the shoulder and goes, prince wants to talk to you. I'm like, oh, man. I thought, you know, my days of old caught up to me. Oh, no, Chris. And he's sitting up there, you know, on the steps.

I go up there and I'm cautious because, you know, he always wears these boots. I'm like, man, I might, you know, might get one in the neck or something. How you doing?

You all right?

He's like, what's. You know, what's going on? You know, we've been calling you. Do you want to work? I'm like, yes, sir. Are you kidding me? I'm like, what's going on?

Because they wanted to do a video. So I asked him about the record. Oh, man.

Which.

Which one was it? Was it.

It was 8:16, and then one unreleased one.

Oh, yeah. I can't remember which record he's working on then, but I asked him about that, and that's when he opened up. It's.

Oh, man, this is some of the best stuff I've.

Blah, blah.

I worked on. It was cool. See you in Minneapolis. Cool.

You know, I imagine that I got the call because I was just all over the place, and next thing I knew, the video came out and Miko was playing drums on it.

Is that the one with the bank robber scene and everything?

No, that's the one I did.

Oh, you did that one. Okay.

And I did a cameo, too. I was a police officer that got shot.

Yeah, yeah. Right, right. There's got to be some more of that footage in the. In the. In the hall.

Yeah, yeah.

Because it's in California now.

Yeah, they shot that one Scene when I got shot about 10 times, I was my own stunt man. And my elbow still hurting for that.

You gotta pull that one up, man. We gotta get a clip of that on the show too.

That's right. Yeah.

That was his acting debut. It was terrible, too.

They were laughing at me. Chris was telling Cat John, looks like Roger. I'm like, really?

Okay, There you go.

What am I gonna say back?

Yeah, yeah, thank you. Don't ever call me Roger.

Just take it and move on.

Act like, yeah, so I got. I gotta talk move. We'll move along right now to the. The Purple Rain tour. I started about five times.

Purple Rain tour and three times at the Nassau Coliseum. I saw her in Philly twice, but I don't know if you remember this gig.

They put the last gig as a matinee show because Prince had to fly for the Oscars the next day.

Oh, wow.

I don't know if you remember that. But anyways, we had tickets. Actually, we slept out for tickets for wow Nuts. Nassau Coliseum in. In Long Island.

But, yeah, that was when Will Call was not together like it is now. That was. We're outside waiting. The Lions packed to pick up tickets on matinee. And I'm hearing Sheila set start.

We listened to she Lee said all out in the parking lot through the doors. We're still out there. We hear 17 days, Prince open up with. And then we just said, we. We. We. Me and my friends started driving back to Connecticut.

And then we. We said, no, we're going back. We went back in. The security guy, we pleaded our case, said we had tickets, we couldn't pick them up.

He let us in for the encore. So what? Yeah, so.

Oh, my goodness.

But I remember we. You guys did. It was an encore with some of the songs from around the world in a day. The house lights went up. Another one of the shows.

Oh, my God.

I think St. Paul Peterson came on stage and. Oh, yeah, it was a jam. Yeah.

Paul would come out every once in a while. Prince would have him come out and, you know, do a little cameo and hang out on the tour. But, yeah, I. You know, it's a bit of a fog now.

Yeah.

About. Because we did so much.

Oh, yeah. I know.

A little small amount of time it was. People send me recordings and videos and different things, you know, because everything's a mess now. Everything's all out.

Yeah.

Just really. It's really sad, you know, because a lot of that stuff, he didn't. It wasn't for the public. But, you know, as soon as he passed on.

Everybody's gone crazy, but I hear and I see stuff. I'm like, man, I do not remember that at all.

Too much information in the. The computer. In the head.

Right.

Yeah.

You know, like you said, it's 40 some years ago, so. Oh, my God. I mean, so much has taken place since then. But, yeah, it. We did random stuff, you know, I mean, for instance, we were playing.

Oh, I can't remember. I think it was somewhere in Ohio. We was on. On. And we had been rehearsing Temptation with. With. With the Revolution.

Right.

Prince had me, you rehearsing with them in sound check. And. And soon as we finished sound check, right before the show started, Alan Le comes up and said, hey, man, pack a bag, Prince.

We're leaving after the show to hit their life. Like what? Mind you, it's like snowing. It's like ridiculous weather where we were. So that happened. Got to la, straight to the whole.

No, we went straight to the Jackson's final concert of the Victory. Yeah, Victory Tour. And. And that wasn't another story in itself, but it was great. Then we camped out for about three days because we had days off.

And that's where Prince decided he wanted to record Temptation By. He didn't want to use the Revolution, so he just took me along and Sheila and Jerome as well.

She didn't play on anything, but it was just me and him tracking that song.

Was that At Sunset Sound?

No, that was a capital record.

Oh, okay.

Everything else was at Sunset. Yeah.

That was his favorite spot to go to, so. So it's playing the horn parts. Did he kind of. We had Atlanta Bliss on the show a few weeks ago. Yeah, yeah. Great guy. Real, real gentleman. Cool guy.

But he was talking about something. The way Prince with the horn players, he would, like, sound some parts out and then let you do your thing or you, you know.

How did he work with a saxophonist, for example?

The great thing with Prince. Well, it worked for most horn players, but it definitely worked for me. Prince didn't play horn. Or he, you know, he.

He had horn ideas, but, you know, that's what you would hear on Dolby X when he played like, the Stabs and, you know, that was kind of emulating his horn section stuff. But he didn't actually have the. Thank God. He didn't have the skill to play or never. I guess he didn't desire.

Because he played everything else and he played whatever.

I did hear one rumor that he. On a demo, he played saxophone. Jill Jones had mentioned. I forget which song dwayne Tudall's book. But I don't. I don't know.

Matt Fink was really curious about, like, hearing if he ever played Sex.

I guess it's like, I would like to hear that too. I would like.

Yeah.

Because I never heard of him trying to pick up a horn, right?

But I guess he. He didn't play the actual part on the record, which was released. But, yeah, talk about. More about recording in the studio.

So he is. He trusted people. I mean, and I was there early on. Eric Leeds was the first one player before me.

He had already recorded the family's album, and Eric was all over it. Matter of fact, he used to throw. Throw Eric in my face. And I didn't even know Eric. And I didn't really know who he was or what he was.

I was like, who is this? You know, we'd be in rehearsal and we come in to the warehouse and he's blasting the family record. And Eric is just killing it.

And so actually, I'll divert a little bit. But we ended up on that Purple Rain tour. I was playing every night with them at the end that I will die for you, baby. I'm a star. Whatever, right?

And one particular night, I look to. To. To my left and here's somebody with a saxophone. And like, I'll just see a tall guy with a me and a saxophone. And it's just like.

Looks like from my distance, it looked like just a little silhouette. And then we get through playing. I was like, who is that with a saxophone? It's like, eric, blow your horn. I was like, that's Eric.

You know, I'm trying to dance and like, what the hell is going on? And Eric kills it, right? And then that's how Princeton did things back then. But he kills it. Then he comes on, you know, eddie, blow your horse.

That was this little.

And Sheila would say, eddie, play your home, grandson. Right? Yeah, yeah, I remember that. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. Got all these calls. But at the end of the day, that's when I learned of Eric. But Eric was always kind of thrown at me in the beginning.

But Prince took a liking to me as we were out there. I mean, my first actual session with him was Ladder. The Ladder.

Oh, okay.

And that was. We had just finished our kind of pre production in St. Paul. We were doing Getting Ready for Purple Rain, and he basically was on stage.

And then we have finished. She was. We finished our show rehearsal. And I'm walking around trying to find some food or something. Next thing I hear to the stage.

I'M like, why is he calling me? I don't, you know, just finish playing, you know, I got an attitude. And so I go get my horn and run to the stage and.

And they're playing, you know, the Ladder. And he said, just play. Just play it out. Okay.

So we played for about an hour or whatever, and then Jerome comes to the stage and says, eddie, come here, come here. He grabs me, we run outside, and I'm like, where are you taking me, man? This is like an adventure, right?

And he takes me to this big mobile recording truck. And the Prince had. I had no idea about mobile recording at that time. I'm like, what are you taking me to this truck for? We walked inside.

Big old studio. He recorded that song. And I'm hearing myself playing. Like, how did that happen? You know? Yeah, so.

So where. What arena were you in when it was recorded?

That was Pre production in St. Paul.

Okay.

All the pre production at this auditorium in St. Paul.

Did. Did he have a fall in the bathtub? I remember hearing us. Oh, okay. Were you there for that hurt?

I was there. I didn't witness it. I. I was somewhere probably, you know, running my mouth or something.

But yeah, the next day he had a band aid, like, over the scar. But, yeah, he took a fall.

Yeah, I read about that. Yeah.

Yeah, that was pretty bad. Yeah, but he. He was such a strong guy. This guy would beat his body up daily out there.

And the stuff that he, you know, diving off those speakers and, you know.

Running those high heels. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, but he. He was such a strong cat back there. I mean, he just. He was a daredevil, right?

So. So another guy, you had affiliate from the Minneapolis State. Both of you, we could see both the. In the Love Struck video, Jesse Johnson.

Yeah, we had Jesse on the show years ago. I'll tell you my experience. But Jesse Johnson, great guitarist. And how'd you guys get hooked up with Jesse?

Well, Jesse, I don't know how he found me. Well, he located me and he was working on the Love Struck record. He said, addie, can you come out here for. I just want to record. I wanna.

I'm recording, you know, so he feels pretty good now. John can. He could do everyone. So, yeah, I'll just do it.

Yeah, that sounded. I was hearing him a little there.

He'll get to him. But he called me out and I stayed with him maybe a couple of weeks. And then he asked about John and. Because he knew. Well, Jesse's. He's like.

He knows every. Everything and everybody knows what's going on? So I was like, okay, yeah, man, let's call John.

And next thing you know, John, me and him, was shooting a video. And. And we ended up. He ended up hiring our band, our top 40 band. And we took that record on the road. Love Struck Record. We toured with that.

I saw. I saw him, the band before you guys hooked up with Jesse, with mostly Minneapolis.

Oh, yeah.

Tim Bradley. And we saw him at the Ritz Webs Webster hall there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had the Minneapolis boys. But Jesse's never happy, so he was searching for something. So he flew out and seen our band.

We had a little rehearsal spot. He came in and we kind of just played for him. And he was like, okay, I want to hire. I want to hire the whole band.

So he took our whole band besides one person. But at the end of the day, he felt, you know, and it was brutal. Jesse was a bit. I. I don't know, John.

Was he as wild as Prince was with rehearsals and. Or.

Yeah, I would say yeah. Because half the time you didn't know what it was that he was so mad about that he wanted Prince would, you know, you know what he wants.

Not be like, God, dog, do I suck that bad? What it was which Jesse, you would have no idea. He would be mad at somebody else and be looking at you.

That's true.

And I want to do it so bad, but I love him. I'm not gonna do it. We had a conversation, and I knew I was in trouble.

Come on, Jesse.

Paris, he beat the hell out of us, man. But we got it right.

Yeah, we got it right.

So did you do a lot of dates with that band or were they sporadic?

Was not. We did more rehearsing than actually tour days. Yeah, we were out for maybe a couple of months, John.

Yeah, yeah.

But we rehearsed, like, two or three months. We in San Rafael. Jesse and Kim came out here to California and. And we all. It was brutal. We did 12 hours rehearsals, six, seven days a week, you know.

Did you do the Budweiser Super Fest in msg? I don't think maybe that was before. Yeah. Because I saw Jesse on the Budweiser Superfast.

Did we do the Bud Fest with Karen, though, right?

Yes. Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

A lot of.

Yeah. I'll tell you my brief Jeff C. Johnson experience. He was great to have on and everything, but it was. You ever see that sketch on Saturday Night Live?

Chris Farley, the motivational speaker, drinking coffee down in the basement. Then he comes up and does his, like, thing.

I Did the intro, and all of a sudden I'm hearing a guitar, electric guitar playing to start off, and it's Jesse, like, just jamming before he even speaks.

Yeah, I love it.

Yeah, it was good. I got. I got the tape in the closet. I got to convert it to digital upload. Yeah, I'm sure that. Sure. It's gonna be great.

Well, you know, it's gonna sound amazing.

Yeah.

Always playing, man.

You talking about a field pocket genius, man. That dudes, He. He. He would demonstrate the difference in how he wanted to be feeling. You would know right away. You get in it, you know, he.

That dude's got a current with him, man. That's just remarkable.

Yeah, yeah.

You guys mentioned Prince being the one. You were shaking in your boots. I met Prince, but it was at a record signing in New York, and I talked to him online a bunch of times. Conversation.

But it was like the group that I was shaking my boots was meeting the time, the first day. Because all of a sudden you walk in the dressing room and there. There's your, like, guys you followed all your life.

And absolutely.

They're right in front of you.

So. Yeah, yeah.

But you guys are all friends with. With the guys from the Jelly Beans. A mutual friend. Yeah.

Yeah, man. Love us. I'm trying to remember. I think I met Bean first. We went to some show they were doing, and Sheila had us go to something.

I met Bean and Jesse that day. It's like, yeah, 5ish or something like that.

Yeah, we're real. Real. We stay connected. Matter of fact, we pretty much text every day.

Yeah. You did a New York gig with him, right? Yeah, Cutting room.

Yeah, we did a couple of those. Probably gonna do something this year, but Bean's our guy. He's. He's the sweetest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We just had Monty Moyer on the show. Yeah, yeah.

Monty's a sweetheart, too.

Yeah, yeah. All nice guys. Yeah.

I thought that show. That was a great show. Great show.

I appreciate. Yeah, yeah.

I gotta see that. Y'all did see.

Yeah, thanks. Appreciate it. So. And one thing I got to give credit, like, I mean, you guys have seen everything in the business.

You could tell stories for days, but the Minneapolis Cats in the time, Clean living people. You go backstage, you don't see anybody passed out on the couch and stuff like that. And, you know, and you guys have been around a lot of stuff.

The entertainment business is tough, so.

Yeah, absolutely.

So credit to the credit. The guy's still doing it and still doing it the right way.

Yeah, absolutely. That's the one thing Prince taught and he didn't allow for, for as far as he could see. Had to uphold your. Your position by being on top of things.

You know, it was funny for us, you know, John had to experience it, too, to a degree. You know, we had to have our own makeup cases, and we were like, what the hell? We put no makeup for. We just waking up, you know, and we had to.

We had to put makeup on and make sure we. If we left our room to go down in the lobby, we had to be dressed. He wasn't coming in in sweatsuits and all that kind of stuff. It was.

It was like he wanted you to be prepared if paparazzi or anybody was taking pictures, you had to look the part hard. And I think the dress code made a difference. And. And it's like etiquette, you know, just proper etiquette. It taught us, you know, don't.

Don't mess up, you know, guidelines. So I. I respect and appreciate that. And that's.

So you never got an endorsement from a big cosmetic line. Yeah.

You missed.

You missed the opportunity for some extra money for the touring musician.

Yeah, we had to do it. It was.

Yeah.

I mean, I'll never forget about her. I'll tell you quickly, but he. She wanted to go. We had to go to the Grammys one year.

We weren't playing, and she wanted me and Carl Padazzo to go with it. So she made us wear our uniform. And I don't know if you remember the uniform. I had a long cape with coins going across my chest.

Right, right.

Yeah, man. And Carl was dressed like, you know, he had, you know, the Latino type suit, but he had the red stripe in his hair.

I mean, we were dressed like we were doing the show.

Right.

I felt like, what the hell? You walking down the aisle. You know, we were guests. We would just. And I'll never forget, that was the first night at Michael Jackson.

So we go to the Le Dome restaurant afterwards because Lionel Richie was there and Sheila was close with Lionel. They worked together. But anyway, he was in the room with Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor, and we were like, oh, man, this is Michael's here.

Never met him. So Lionel takes his kind of peeks through the door and lets us see him for a second. And the first thing Michael says, I like your outfit.

He was with Prince.

No, it was Lionel, Elizabeth Taylor and Michael having.

Oh, okay.

Where. They were just.

Okay, right.

My soup or something. You know, they weren't even. But it was, you know, that was dinner for Them. But I'm like, I finally meet Michael Jackson and I'm looking like a freak.

I just left the circus. I'm like, yeah.

I like your outfit. So maybe you inspired. I mean you could see later years that maybe the Yeti, he didn't wear.

Any robe or be big with coins. Coins. But he didn't have a long like Gladiator Ro, you know, hitting the ground. I was like, man. But hey, that was a part, man.

Yeah, at least, at least you were there. You guys have rubbed shoulders and great musicians, all you. So hey, I gotta ask. Moving on to John's.

You guys have both played tremendous high profile gigs, but John with Patti LaBelle. And then we'll move on to the seat. The drum kit that you've held for, wow, 24 years. Coming up on 25 or close to it for. For Earth, Wind and Fire.

The elements as a dj, when I first got into radio, used to say earth, wind and fire. First. Let's talk about Patti LaBelle. We, we're good friends with John Blackwell and I know he, he played for Patty when.

When was probably after you, right?

Yeah, that was. Man, that was my little brother.

Yeah.

Well, you know, we had an opportunity to do a television show here which would have been locally local for me, which was our whole band with Sheila. Sheila was. MD was a magic hour. So I'm doing that. You know, my daughter was three years old and you know, I wanted to be hands on.

So I'm like, okay, I have to find a guy that would come in here that would understand the James Brown type cues that Patti LaBelle's musical director was given. James Bud Ellison, Wide Away. He was a genius. He was amazing, but he was, you know, you had to watch him all the time.

You know, temple, change, break down, all kinds of stuff. Right. Who could I call? And the very first person that came to mind was John.

Wow.

Blackwell. I saw him when he was playing with Cameo and I introduced myself because I'd really never seen anything like that. Young.

He was too young to be playing like that. And he looked at me and started singing these Patti LaBelle intros and in and outs and something like, you know me, you know who.

I couldn't believe it. I was like, I was blown away. So we, we clicked right away. That was my guy.

So I had to think of somebody that they was just gonna totally forget about me with called John, you know, to come in for Patty and. And you know, Prince would always be sneaking around anyways. He loved Patty and he would always come to Shows. And he continued that.

And that's how he saw John playing with Patty.

For Patty. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was funny because, you know, you talk about like the, the mega stars and how things are run. John.

John used to call me up and he would talk. He never mentioned Prince's name on the telephone. It was always your boy.

Oh, I'm in the studio, I'm up in Minneapolis, you know, your boys, you know, we're waiting for this. And his money, blah, blah, blah. And. And I'm thinking it's like it was the mafia and the phones were attacked.

Don't say it.

Yeah, yeah. So that, you know. But yeah, the last time I spoke to him was January 1st, the year that he passed away.

He called up and he was asking help for his wife about getting some voiceover work. And I said, how you doing? He says, I'm just trying to learn how to walk. So.

Yeah, yeah, Heavy. Yeah, he called me. It was probably like 3 o'clock in the morning singing this Paleo bell. He.

There was this one intro that we, that we would do that, you know, the drums were just like, they weren't on any time, but the director would. So I would just go crazy. So he would call up, singing that to me on the phone. When your phone rings at three in the morning.

Yeah.

Answering, okay, somebody dead or My house is on fire. And I don't know.

Right, right.

I answer the phone in his black. Well, here. Oh, John, he would do the whole thing where he would say a word to me.

Yeah, he. I don't think he had any concept of time and stuff like he, he did call me goes, I've been working on some new music.

I want you just to listen to some of it. He started the first track, played the whole album straight through, the one with Charlie Singleton on it.

And, you know, I didn't want to be rude and say, I gotta go walk. Yeah, he just played it straight through. Oh, what do you think of this? Or maybe he narrated in between tracks.

Oh, man.

So. So with the Earth, Wind and Fire drum seat, was it from Patty to Earth, Wind and Fire?

Well, you know, actually the Patty LaBelle story is actually pretty interesting too, because she was. Was needing a sub for three weeks because their drummer was out with someone else and they had done pre production in the whole nine.

And Patty actually called Sheila to do it.

I didn't know that one.

Yeah, yeah. Sheila was supposed to do the three weeks, but she's like, I can't do it because I'm out with Prince. But My drummer can do it.

Called me up, came out, you know, an audition, and things went well. But, you know, it was kind of a turbulent time for me during that, because my mother knew Sarah. Sarah lived in Trenton, not too far from us.

So I was gonna, you know, surprise her, you know, with either I got it or I didn't get it. Guess what? I was hanging out with, you know, Paley Bell. But unfortunately, she. She passed before I got the. The news that I had the gig or not.

I didn't have. But, you know, once I got it, that was a great. You know, it kept me working and kept my mind off of, you know, the celebration of, you know, what. I.

My mother would have loved that, but, you know, I feel her. And it was really cool to get that gig, but that's how that happened. I was really just supposed to be a sub. It turned into eight years.

Yeah. And. And, you know, high profile. And then on to Earth, Wind and Fire, which flashy costumes. Well, you. You're.

You're kind of toned down compared to the rest of the band was in the 70s, right?

Yeah. Because. And. And thank God, because those costumes were heavy, man. I can't afford to lose any more weight. But that. That was so Robert Brookings.

Oh, yeah.

Rest in peace. That's.

And that.

That was really the key for my connection, you know, because Maurice had been mentoring Robert since He was, like, 8 years old or something. So he had a great, great trusting relationship with them.

So Robert became Phillips MD Philip would do his solo gigs, Had a lot more, you know, jazz stuff in it. But you. You know, you can't be a member of Earth, Wind and Fire and do anything else and not do some Earth, Wind and Fire.

So in his set was at least six Earth, Wind and Fire songs with the same arrangements. So that's when I got the opportunity to play for Phillips Band through Robert, of course. That's when they knew I could do it.

So that's how the opportunity came for me. And it was another kind of, like, emergency type of a situation. But, you know, I.

I'd been playing that music with bands, you know, my whole life, so I knew what that was. But when that opportunity came, Philip. Okay, this. I got to tell you this really quick, right?

They were in a pinch, and they were in New York in a cab. But I have no idea what's happening. Philip is calling me. Robert's calling me, going, hey, we need you to come out here and beat these drums.

I'm thinking. He's thinking about Philip. When we going where we going? Japan or whatever? He's like, no, it's with Earth, Wind and Fire.

I'm like, man, I don't have time for this. I hung up. By the way, he's a prankster, and I'm in Phoenix at this. What is. What was it? Eddie Chatone, right? Wayne Tisdale's record engineer.

Our guy, Otto, right? I run into him at this damn show, and he says, I got a project, man, I think you'd be great for was this rock record.

And I was really excited about that because I need me to get a chance to do this. And these prolific writers from Phoenix write these great songs. We 25 tunes in, and I'm like, yeah, man, I. I had hair back then.

I'm gonna be the black dude in the rock band. You know, I was excited, you know, Right. So Robert calls back and he goes, man, I'm serious. You know, we need you to come out here.

I was like, robert, stop playing with me. I don't have time for this. I hung up again. So now he's pissed.

He calls up, but he don't want me to know for some reason that Phillip's in there because he's, you know, he's being the md, Right?

Right.

Blah, blah, blah, this and that and the other. And I'm pretty good with voices. And this is how God works. Philip says, tell him if he can do it, we're gonna stop looking.

And that's when you know, that feeling you get. My whole body just ran cold, you know? I was like, oh, it's real. It's like. It's really serious. So I almost lost that gig hanging up on the musical.

Wow.

That close.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One more time. I probably wouldn't be on this. This interview right now.

No, no, you never.

It'll take a total different turn. That's how that happened.

Now. Now, what's your affiliation working with Bob Dylan? Because that. That's pretty cool.

Now, see, there's a misprint.

Oh, okay.

But however, we were at Sunset Sound.

Okay.

Working on, I think. Oh, right. Yeah. Robert had called us to do.

I don't know if she want us to know this, but we were working on a Kim Basinger record, doing some overdubs, I think. Yeah. He called Eddie and Robert. Yeah.

Was it the other girl?

You're right. No, you're right. It was. It was Dale Bozio.

Oh, Dale Bozio.

Yeah.

The drummer.

Yeah, exactly. Right. We did do something for Kim, but this time it was Dale Bozio. Right, Eddie?

So if you know about Sunset Sound, it has basketball court out there, you know, so I love basketball. I go out there and I'm shooting around, you know, on the break, I'm shooting around and it's dark. Now it gets dark. You can't really see.

And I see this figure come out and, you know, he's headed toward the basketball court. So I throw him the ball. He's shooting nowhere near the basket. Yeah, let me give him another one. Shoots it. It goes over the backboard.

Now it's getting hilarious to me. I throwing it to him and he's just like, is this guy blind or something? Throwing up by shooting Now I'm like, okay. Now I'm like, the ball.

Boy, this is getting ridiculous. I talk to him one more time and he says, you know, this is the only place I know that you can shoot at a basketball court and see the stars. Oh, snap.

I'm shooting.

Well, shooting basketball with Bob Dylan. That's the connection. I never put playing on his record. I wish I did.

But you taught him how to drain the three, right?

That part was hopeless. He was. He wasn't gonna catch beautiful person. You could feel it. I could feel the energy. That's why I kept feeding him the ball.

What a beautiful soul, man. And we just talked about music and you know, while we were there. Oh, so cool, man.

Well, another thing that's ultra cool is you guys have known each other. I know we've gone through the whole history of you guys and still friends, still working with each other, still smiling and laughing. Oh, yeah, okay.

But. But yeah, brother.

They're real, brother.

Yeah, we. We talked about it in the intro about. About your project you're currently working on. Have released music, the single Manhattan Blue.

Also, you re record a song for your buddy, the late, great Wayman Tisdale, after the game. So let's get into Back to Basics and. And the DOA on production and all the other stuff going on. What. What's the genesis of that project? And.

And what have you been doing with it lately?

Back to Basics. Basically, me and John, we. We actually started this idea some years ago and got really focused on it in.

In when Covid kicked in because, you know, everybody was like, what are we gonna do with this time? You know? Right. So. But we had already started recording different things and we had a song that we. We titled and we called it Back to Basics.

So through Covet, we were thinking, oh man, let's just finish the project and do you know what we gonna call it? And we both just had a thing. Let's Call it Back to Basics. We basically wanted to label.

Label the whole project that way because it's speaking about our. Our beginnings together a bit before and when we came together and to.

To this point because we had done so much in this industry together, separately and together that we wanted to ac. Actually we're in the process of writing a book about our lives together and all these stories we're giving.

We only giving you a snippet of stories but it'll be right. But instead going to sum this whole project up. It maybe have.

May have to be two books but at any rate we're starting the book and it's going to match the recording.

Yeah, I saw some clips you guys going back and showing the sites and you guys growing up. Where can people. I mean it's on YouTube but is it on your respective sites? Oh we did when you're in the Tesla. Yeah, yeah.

That's little snippets of what's showing.

This book is going to break it all down and it's going to talk about our beginnings and it's going to show pictures where we grew up and you know it's going to really. And it's going to tell the whole story.

From the beginning we felt we wanted to leave something for our great, great, great, great, great grandchildren, you know. You know and I. We want to leave a message and we also will want to encourage and inspire kids that are trying to go at this. You know that's.

That is our responsibility to work with some incredible people and still doing that. And we want to pass on what we gained from it and leave it in to these kids hands.

That's our responsibility because we're you know we've done a lot of stuff right and and the kids need to know how to get there, how to achieve and how to attain it and keep it, you know, fresh, you know to stay in this for as long as we have been. But we've been blessed so we want to bless others. So.

So, so where. Where's the best. We'll have it in the links in our description on. On. On both audio and video sites. We have but the.

To purchase the music and to keep up to date on Back to Basics John and Eddie. Where's the best place?

All streaming platforms, Spotify, itunes, Tidal, you name it, we're on all streaming platforms. And the first single. We must talk a little bit about that. John could share about Tisdale. Why we went about that. The Tisdale song.

Yeah, we, we you know basically just wanted to say hello to all the people that helped us along the way, you know, I mean, there's so many people that loved on us. We could do three or four projects before we just start writing songs, you know, that come out. Come out of our head.

But we could say thank you for another five, six CDs.

Yeah.

First person that came to our head was Wayman. First person right away, because, I mean, if you've ever met him, this guy got a smile like Magic Johnson is real. He was so loving and giving.

He gave us our time. His time, you know, let us do whatever we wanted in the studio. He wanted it like, he treated it like a band.

And we just never forgot the time that he gave us, man, with our families. Hey, shout out to Gina. And, you know, we became a part of the Tisdales out there, man, and we. We just got.

Had such a warm vibration from him, man, that we just had to say thank you for his time. And the first person we thought of was. Was Wayman. So we like, wow, why don't we just do that?

So we all played on that original recording from the first record, Power Forward. So when. That would be a cool one. Art Dixie wrote it with. Along with Waymond, who ends up being part of our management team.

So we're like, wow, this will be a cool little circle. And our sister Size Smith, who just.

That's right.

Yeah.

Killed the vocals. It was amazing. And that's when we knew we had something like, okay, we can. We can do this. This could be really fun.

So we have some more features that we're doing with. With, you know, actual. Not like, hey, you know, who would be good for this? These are, like, people we came up with in the industry as.

As kids and that we've, you know, spent a lot of time with, which is. Man, that's amazing. You know, it's a very rare thing. So we just wanted to take advantage of that and love on our people.

You know, and that's what we did. And. And D.O.A. of course, he works with Wayman as well.

Right.

He taught Wayman a great deal of bass and production.

Story, too.

We'll tell you about right there. So DOA Came in and played all the bass parts, helped produce, and it just was a big part of that song. I want everybody to grab that because it's.

It's a masterpiece. It was with S.A.I. s Smith and D.O.A. brought to it. I mean, it was just incredible. So that leads us to our next single, which is out right now.

You mentioned the Manhattan Blue.

Yeah, yeah. Real nice. Smoothed out version.

Yeah, that was one that came to DOA started and he sent me track doctor he sends me things. Hey, man, what you think about this? Can you play on this, man?

You know, we kind of do stuff like that and, and I, when I heard it, I was like, man, this is a soundtrack. I don't know we gonna do with this. This is like. It kind of just had you tearing up and that was just on in demo mode.

Wow.

And so me and John took it and we just started adding to it and then we thought about who can we get the same? And I'm like, man, you know what, John, we should grab side. I mean, I'm talking about after the game, but we talked about orchestration.

So we grabbed a girl. Our. She's our hero. Her name is Nicole Neely. She's an incredible arranger and just the sweetest woman on this planet. She's.

She's blessing a lot of people with her gifts right now. But Nicole Neely, she's. She does all orchestration and tour with Lauren Hill currently. But she's amazing. So we called her. She did the orchestration.

All real strings.

Yeah, that's right.

Everything is just really came together on that song. And, and, and the feel of it, dear.

When he, when he sent it to me, he was like, man, it's just the thought about being in Manhattan, you know, it's blue, you know, smoky room with some, you know, soft things happening in the background. So that came about, we kept it to what it was. Manhattan blue. And it's, it's doing a lot. It's making moves.

And we're actually still in the midst of promoting it and getting it out there even more so right now, first of the year.

So. Yeah, I think, I think you got a great, great sound on that one. Thank you.

And you guys, you know, in between getting back out on the road and stuff, I'm sure you guys are. Come on, we got to record, right? Where do you record when you're back? Both back in the Bay Area?

Oh, everywhere. Well, we start, you know, of course, course John has this. John and I have our separate production studios.

So we start ideas and we just send a lot of files and we end up in the studio tracking, you know, especially with John live drums and all. And then whatever production we need to add. So wherever we are, we can. Between here and la, we just go in and, and get whatever we need for us alive.

But we're in the process of finishing the ep but. Because by the, by the third quarter, we should be dropping The. The whole album. Album. The whole cd. And as well as close to being done with the book.

So. Yeah, but we have some real cool bangers coming out after this second quarter. Y'all gotta be.

DOA is going to be on another one that we also. We did. That's a dedication to. To our brother Robert, too.

Yeah, man.

Let me. Let me let y'all know something about DOA that y'all. This dude is. Is. He's the most. One of the most phenomenal musicians and his production skill.

I can't believe he was my roommate. So shout out to our brother, Derek doa Allen, man, that guy. And I mean, whenever we need him, he. He's right there. Never.

No, what y'all need, you know, I mean, that's.

And. And DOA is part of a trivia question. Who are the two musicians from the Bay Area filled in on the time when they went to Yokohama, Japan?

There you go. Yeah. Bobby G and doa. Yeah. Morris Hayes was there too, but he's from Arkansas.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, the Bay Area. I mean, when I'm, you know, of course we're not out there, but when we see you guys play live and. And the jams. I mean, the Chucky Booker, when you.

I think it was at Yoshi's, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, something about you guys in the Bay Area and throw down live and, you know, it's like, wow, you know, La Jer Harris and stuff like that. You guys, what. What do you attribute, you know, that great live presence when the goosebumps are coming up on our arms, you know.

It'S something about the Bay Area, you know, And I tell. We always speak about how we were blessed to grow up here because we were so exposed to so many genres of music.

I mean, on one radio station, you would catch Fleetwood Mac, and then you would catch Tower Power and then James Brown. So it was. It was no separation going on when we were coming up in the Bear. And you just got good music.

Music, yeah, majority of those, you know, from Journey to Sly to, you know, Santana, it was all Bay Area based. We thought that was happening everywhere, you know, like it was here. But it was. We were just blessed to be around that atmosphere.

Derek DOA basically started in the church. You know, he kind of the church player.

When we met doa, he just kind of went out to John, pulled him in to Karen White, and from the moment we connected, we connected, you know, just as brothers.

Yeah.

More so the musicians. Yeah, we bonded and did a whole bunch of great stuff with Karen and many others. So it was. It was just his playing is so different and unique.

Yes, sir.

And funky. It's just, you know, all that Chucky Booker stuff that he did with Chucky, from Janet to Chucky's Records and other productions is very.

It's very unique in many ways. So we just been blessed to be around great people and become, you know, a brotherhood. That's what we celebrate. That's what we celebrate now.

So to have him a part of the Beat Back to Basics project is amazing. I also want to give a quick shout out to Sean Rayford. Sean Rayford was.

He was on the writer on Manhattan Blue Saxophone Artists that Derek's producing behind. And myself, we do some work with him. Him a lot. So, you know, it's. It's been a blessing to be exposed and have a lot of.

A lot of great family around here.

Yeah.

The complete. Right. When that's released, we got a real big surprise coming.

And then you got to come out with some dates, you know.

Yeah, we're probably going to have some. Some dates in between because.

Okay.

But the next is gonna be a banger. We'll share that with you real soon because. Yeah, that's coming out.

Yeah, we do radio too. So. Yeah, it's been an honor for both you guys.

Coming on, you know, reading you guys on the liner notes because back when the albums are coming out, I see you guys in a lot of places and to have you on the show, it's been, you know, a really great day for me. So.

Hey, Joe, real quick question. How come I got a little J right there?

Cause you smelt it like that.

Yeah, yeah, I didn't. I didn't touch it. I didn't touch it. Yeah, when I edit it, I have to. Yeah. What you got, Paris? And in all caps behind.

Oh, there. Yes. Yeah, there you go.

See, there you go.

Yeah. Yeah.

So Eddie M, Eddie Minfield and John Paris brothers, man. Thank. Thanks for coming by. Back to Basics. We'll have the links. People can get the. The music out now. And thanks for all those great memories since.

Wow. Early 80s 84. Keep on going strong. Hopefully we got a lot more. We'll all be here offering more.

Go. Let's do it.

We'll. We'll shoot you the next single because you already got the current one.

Right.

Shoot you that right before it comes and so you can start. We'll.

We'll drop it.

Yeah, we appreciate you, man. Thank you.

All right. Thanks, John. Thanks, Eddie.

Having us. All right, brother.

Thank you. Peace.

All right. Sa.