Leland Sklar: Legendary Bassist w/ 2000+ Credits to His Name

Interview transcription: 

Warren Huart:

(music). You do have your own thing now, don’t you? Your own Clubhouse.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah, I have a Clubhouse. But I’m not doing any of that there. I mean, the YouTube channel is for the songs, the Clubhouse is for the hang. And the other day, I did my first livestream on that, and they thought I might get about 30 people on that had joined the Clubhouse. But a ton of people have joined. And I ended up with 175 people on the stream.

Warren Huart:

Congratulations.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah, man, it was insane, man. The chat window was scrolling so fast. And next time, I’m going to put the thing that slows the chat window down. But I love the interaction with people, and all the questions, and people talking about stuff, I figure I’ll leave the YouTube channel for all the music and stuff, and I’ll use the Clubhouse for other things.

Leland Sklar:

And then I’ve got another level on that where it’s a one on one FaceTime or Skype. And I did 15 people the other day. And we had a ball. And I just spent the day talking to all these people for 15 minutes each, and playing these songs of theirs, seeing what I thought. And it’s cool. You’ve got to somehow figure out how to get through this insanity that we’re all going through right now.

Leland Sklar:

And you can either sit home and wallow in self pity, or you figure it out. I still want to be interacting and making music. So I’m doing all kinds of different projects and stuff. And we got to do what we got to do.

Warren Huart:

I agree entirely. I have a similar thing that I do where we call it an academy, and we teach. But my main ulterior motive for it is to … I don’t know about you. I don’t know what you were like as a child, but most of us as musicians weren’t particularly sporty. I don’t know about you. And the sports I like were cricket, which isn’t exactly aggressive.

Warren Huart:

And so I wasn’t really in danger of getting any girls through my sporting activities. And I loved music. So now we get to have these little mini communities where we get to hang out with a whole bunch of guys and girls like us.

Leland Sklar:

I think it’s great. I’m really excited about this. And every day, I’m thinking of different things I could do, and add to everything just to keep it up. But it’s so sweet that … My favorite thing is now, when I finally pack it in at night, I’m really an insomniac, so I’m up really late, and I’m up really early. But I lay there and read the days comments on the videos.

Leland Sklar:

And it’s just so sweet how many people talk about, “Man, this is saving my life having this during this terrible period.” And people are sending me pictures like the family sitting at dinner watching the videos on TV and stuff. And I just wanted to put up a couple of videos showing some bass parts. And it just took on a life of its own.

Warren Huart:

Lots of people do this. And lots of other successful people have done this. But I think my humble opinion is, there’s no BS with you, you’re just completely honest. And that’s what makes people connect. I mean, obviously you’re incredibly talented, and you’re working with some of the finest artists in the world. I mean, the straightforward thing is, I’ve been a Facebook friend of yours for many … I don’t know, a good decade. And you’re just honest about how you feel and think about things. From the music, to everything. And that, I think, comes through.

Leland Sklar:

I hope so. I mean, I’m just trying to be me. Got to be me.

Warren Huart:

So what I did last week when we first started talking about doing this is, I decided … I know, of course, all of the huge albums you’ve played on. But I have to be honest, I never listened to The Section solo stuff. So I went back and listened to it. And I thought it was a really quite fun, because it gives a bit of background. Because now of course, you have The Immediate Family, which, for those people that don’t understand, that is the coolest name of a band ever.

Leland Sklar:

It’s Kootch’s. Kootch came up with that.

Warren Huart:

And it also doesn’t speak to ego as well, it speaks to humility of like, “Yeah, we’re like the immediate family. Here’s the famous ones, and we’re like …” I like it. It’s really cool. And Cooch is such a great guy. I got to interview him last year, and it was …

Leland Sklar:

He’s the best. I mean, all the guys. I mean, for me, the real fun part of it is when we’re together. I’m sitting here looking at guys I’ve been with for 50 years, and we all still dig each other.

Warren Huart:

That’s amazing.

Leland Sklar:

[inaudible 00:04:46] those little moments during the creative process where some heads might butt a little bit. But everybody’s egos are so in the right place that you might feel possessive about something you’ve done, but you go, “But let’s figure it out.” Rather than stomping out the door.

Leland Sklar:

But we’re having the best time with it. It’s just such a shame that with all the things going on with the group, that we managed to do it in a time where we can’t … It’s like running into a brick wall in terms of the pandemic. All the things we had planned and stuff are having to be completely rethought. The new album release, the documentary film being made, all these things. But everybody is going through this, it’s not a personal thing. But it’s just a drag that we finally get our moment together again, and now we’re going, “Oh, crap. Now what?” We’ll see. We’ll see how it all goes.

Warren Huart:

I was listening to the first album, and I just put on headphones and listened from start to finish. At the end of listening, I’m going to go right to the point, I realize why I believe you guys were and are, continue to be, so successful. Because there was a lot of players and stuff in the ’70s working on the softer California sound. But they don’t speak in the same way that you guys do.

Warren Huart:

And I realized after listening to your solo records, it’s because you’re all massive R&B fans. It’s seeping through. It’s jazz and R&B tons. And even Danny’s solo work, it sounds like he’s listening to Jeff Beck at the time. It’s a combination of the best stuff from the ’60s, with what was going on with the jazz, funk, and R&B of the ’70s. Those solo records are phenomenal. Or whatever, do you call them solo albums?

Leland Sklar:

It’s really funny. When we got signed … I mean, the process was really interesting. When we originally started with James Taylor, it was Russ, Cooch, me, and Carole King was the piano player in the band. And then James encouraged Carole to do some songs at the beginning of his show, because nobody knew who she was. People know who Goffin and King were. But they had no idea it was this 20 something girl, because she was a teenager when she was writing all these hits.

Leland Sklar:

So all of a sudden, she cuts Tapestry, and we’ve got a band member with the biggest record in the world. So she had to move on. And I was doing a project with Tom Jans and Mimi Farina at A&M. Mimi was Joan Baez’s sister. And Craig Doerge was playing keyboard on it. And I just thought this guy would be the perfect guy to replace Carole in the band when she was going to be leaving.

Leland Sklar:

And when we were on the road with James, opening for him, or playing with him. At that point we weren’t opening, we were still just his band. He would do his soundcheck and split. He wasn’t that into it. And we would stay, and jam, and stuff. And finally, one day somebody played us a tape, and they said, “You guys should check this out.” And we said, “That’s great. Who’s that?” And he went, “It was your soundcheck.”

Leland Sklar:

I mean, we weren’t really … We were just playing. We were having fun, and spending our time. And Peter Asher got us a deal with Warner Brothers. The problem, I think was, I think Warners by our pedigree, thought they were going to be getting The Eagles, or Poco, or one of the Perito brothers, one of those kind of things. And all of a sudden, we give them this rock fusion instrumental album. And they didn’t know what to do with it.

Leland Sklar:

So they never really did anything. We ended up as a cult band. Even when we were opening for James and Jackson, the die hard fans loved the band. And the label people just still never could figure out what we were about.

Leland Sklar:

And so it was an interesting period for us. I mean, we played constantly. We had a rehearsal place down on Oxnard, near [inaudible 00:08:59] in The Valley. And every night, we’d go there and play. Had an old Sony, one of those old boom boxes with the built in condenser mics, and we recorded. I mean, we have … There’s got to be hundreds of cassettes of stuff that never got released.

Warren Huart:

Wow.

Leland Sklar:

[inaudible 00:09:15] away. But we would sit and play constantly. And then we would listen to the stuff, and disseminate it, and then create songs out of grooves, and things like that. But I love the guys. But the idea that 50 years later practically, that a chunk of us are still together. I mean, Craig is still around. Craig lives right near me, but we chose to do a different direction doing The Immediate Family. And we’re having a ball though. It’s great, man.

Warren Huart:

Fantastic. I really highly recommend everybody opens up their Spotify and goes to listen to The Section. There’s some prog on there as well. There’s a couple of songs that are seven minutes long with three or four distinct changes, which really speaks to me as well growing up on that kind of stuff. Really amazing musicianship. And your right hand technique on a couple of tracks is phenomenal. Especially for that period of time. You’re playing some Jaco kind of stuff before any of us knew who Jaco was. Really great feel.

Leland Sklar:

Thanks, man. I’m glad you like it. I mean, I go back and listen to it on occasion. And to me, it really still stands the test of time. It’s like going back and listening to Spectrum. And that was ’73. But, man, it feels as fresh today as it felt back then. If its good music, it stands the test of time.

Warren Huart:

Love instrumental music. I find that I get to enjoy it on a completely different level to anything with vocals. And I might sound … Because I can put myself into it. I don’t feel like somebody is telling me something. You know what I mean?

Leland Sklar:

You’re absolutely right. Absolutely. That whole period of King Crimson, [inaudible 00:10:57], I mean, all these groups, man. I was completely into all of those kind of bands. When I met James Taylor, I had never listened to soft rock, or any of that. I was in a band that was a cross between Hendrix and Zeppelin.

Warren Huart:

Sure. Yeah, you can hear it. That’s why I think you guys had the edge. That’s why I think, even though you were involved in that scene, you brought edge to it. And that’s a huge thing. Knowing the prog then, and leaping all over the place, because that’s what I do, I mean, there you go, you get to work with Phil Collins, talking of Brand X. How did that come about?

Leland Sklar:

I was hired, I think it was around ’79 or ’80, to work on a Lee Ritenour album. And Rit hired Phil also. And so when I went in the studio … I mean, I knew Phil from Genesis. But I mean, that was it. And he knew me from James Taylor, and my stuff. And he was also a big fan of all the TV shows, because I did all of Mike Post’s TV shows like Rockford Files, and The A-Team, and all those things. And he was-

Warren Huart:

Oh, wow.

Leland Sklar:

Loved all that stuff. And it was rally fun playing together. And he asked me if I would do his first projects with him, Face Value and stuff. And at the time, I was committed to a James Taylor tour, and I couldn’t. But I said, “Man, I’d love to do something with you down the line if it’s possible.”

Leland Sklar:

And he called me in ’84 and said, “Are you free to come over?” And we did No Jacket in ’84, and then started touring in ’85. And Phil is absolutely one of my favorite drummers I’ve ever worked with. And I think one of the true blessings in my career is the players I’ve gotten to work with. Not even so much the artists, but the players.

Leland Sklar:

And one day I’m with JR, the next day I’m with Keltner, the next day I’m with Zigaboo, or whatever. I mean, all these different guys. But Phil sits way up there as just such a solid groove, great player. And it was just one of those things that, man, as soon as we started working, I just … It was so comfortable, and so good. And plus, his writing sense, his pop sensibility and stuff is just crazy.

Leland Sklar:

But I love Phil dearly. I don’t know if there’ll be any future at this point. I know they had planned on a Genesis reunion later at the end of this year. But with the pandemic, it’s tentatively, I think, postponed until next year.

Warren Huart:

I presume you would play bass, and Mike would play guitar.

Leland Sklar:

No, no, because-

Warren Huart:

A full reunion?

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. Well, not full reunion, because Gabriel wouldn’t be there, or Steve Hackett. But it would be … And Phil’s son, Nick, would be the drummer, not Chester on it. But it would be Mike, Tony, and Phil, and Daryl. But when they do Genesis, Mike and Daryl trade off the bass seat. I mean, I would do it in a second. I mean, if they called and said, “Look, we’re both going to play guitar, play bass on it.” But they’ve got their scene.

Leland Sklar:

But at this point, who knows what’s togoi to happen. My year was … I was busy solid through February next year. And now when the pandemic hit, my book was wiped clean. It was like I bought a new date book and there’s nothing in it. And all these things that were canceled are either canceled, postponed. Nobody knows yet if they can rebook.

Leland Sklar:

So we’re in a netherworld right now. It’s this weird alternate universe in this industry of trying to just figure out what’s going to happen in the future. And it’s pretty scary.

Warren Huart:

Are you doing remote session work?

Leland Sklar:

I’ve never recorded at home before. I’ve never had a studio.

Warren Huart:

Oh, wow.

Leland Sklar:

But some friends of mine called me, this friend of mine, Gussy Miller. And he called me up, and he said, “Look, my friends of mine are doing a cover of Easy Lover. And would you like to play on it?” And I said, “Well, look, when I do all my videos, I’m doing it on an iPhone. I can’t record with it.” And he had a friend at SSL. And they sent me over an interface.

Warren Huart:

Great.

Leland Sklar:

And so I ended up just pulling up Garage Band, and called Steve Postell from The Immediate Family. And Steve walked me through how to do it. And I ended up putting bass, and filming it while I put it on for this Easy Lover cover. And then I stuck it up on my YouTube channel. And it’s had 170,000 views now.

Leland Sklar:

So I just had Ian Paice contact me from Deep Purple, about doing a couple of tracks. So I’m going to do some. I’m not going to get totally into it at this point I don’t think, just because there’s so many things going on right now that I don’t want to spread myself so thin that I’m not really dedicating the time to the things that, for me, still are important.

Leland Sklar:

But I’ve got about four things where people have wanted me to play bass on. And I’m waiting for files at this point. They’re going to finish them up before they send me for my parts. And I’ll see how it goes. If I get really comfortable with it, I might open the flood gates a little bit.

Leland Sklar:

But when I look at everybody else’s set ups … I mean, the pandemics been so weird, because if somebody has wanted me to do something, I would just call John [Gilliten 00:16:42], or one of my friends, and I would just go over to the house, because they have great home studios, and we would just put the bass parts on there, and then go eat. So I’ve never really felt the drive to do anything.

Leland Sklar:

And I’m really not a writer. I’ve always loved being a part of projects, and helping with on site arranging, and stuff while we’re tracking. But I’ve just, when I’m home, the idea of actually working at home never appealed to me. I’d rather be doing yard work, and playing with my dogs, and stuff. Because there was enough work. There was enough work going on that when I was home, I wanted to be away from it.

Leland Sklar:

And suddenly, now there is none of that. So I’m looking at it all. But at this point, I think the most critical thing is just people staying alive and healthy.

Warren Huart:

It’s definitely a strange time for human history. I think we’ve obviously been through these things in the past, but we weren’t as aware.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

I think you bring a lot of joy to people, as you pointed out at the beginning, because you’re playing back songs of artists that you’ve worked with, you’re giving a twist and interpretation. And one of the joys that I had when I worked with you on Dick’s song was, we had … How many people did we have in a room? I think we had 25 or…

Leland Sklar:

Yeah, it was pretty packed.

Warren Huart:

We had three keyboard players. Because we had Freddy, Fred Mandel. Or did we have two? We had piano Hammond. I think we had two keyboard players.

Leland Sklar:

I think we had two. Yeah.

Warren Huart:

Four acoustic guitar players sitting in a circle or something.

Leland Sklar:

It was nuts. But it was so good. And plus, it was for such a good cause.

Warren Huart:

It was.

Leland Sklar:

St. Jude’s hospital. And Dick, man, it just breaks my heart that he passed after that, because I know just talking to him that he had had issues that he was dealing with. But you hope at that point, when you think you’re past them, that you’ve got a good stretch in front of you. So it was …

Warren Huart:

Yeah, such a beautiful guy. Wonderful player, and incredible songwriter.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. Yeah. No, he was definitely a force of nature.

Warren Huart:

At that point, he’d already had the stroke. But he still played with so much feel, even though he couldn’t whizz around the fret board like he used to in the ’70s. He still had more feel than most people will ever have.

Leland Sklar:

Hey, B.B. King. You can take shred monsters and stuff, and B.B. could bury them with one note.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Leland Sklar:

So it just depends what you’re looking for. I mean, I go through this a lot where, being an insomniac, I’m always, in the wee hours, perusing YouTube and stuff. And every time I pull up the Berkeley site, or any of these things, and I look at all these bass player’s videos, it’s all about chops. Very few people post anything about how to craft a song. A bass part for changes. I mean, all the guys that are sitting there slapping away, are basically sitting on an E, and doing all kinds of stuff on it.

Leland Sklar:

And it’s not to denigrate that. I mean, total admiration of the dedication and facility that they have. But it’s like John Petrucci and I used to laugh about it, and we go, “Oh, those are chops.” And that’s a guy that’s going to sit in a booth once a year and impress people for a minute with how fast he can play, or how much facility he’s got.

Leland Sklar:

But at a certain point, I would do discussions during clinics, and I would say, a whole note is really hard to play. There’s a lot of options with it and stuff. And id go into a whole dissertation about a whole note. And guys will be just be sitting there going, “What?” And I go, “all that stuff.” If your chops are up, you can get through a lot of that. But just trying to find…

Warren Huart:

I have a good memory of the Dick session with you. I think we ran the song four or five times, and Dick is like, “That’s the take.” And so you came in. And we played back. And you were like, “Oh, I want to fix that bar.” And so I’m like, “Which bar?” And I go … And you had one note of your whole bassline that you felt was on top, was in front of the kick. And I was like, “Oh, I’ll just move it.” And you went, “No.” And you went back in and punched the one note.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

And I always remember going, “Yeah. I missed that.”

Leland Sklar:

It’s like doing a project, and you’ll play the first chorus, and they go, “Oh, that’s great. We’ll just cut and paste it.”

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Leland Sklar:

For the next chorus. And I go, “No, the next chorus has to move. It has to develop.” I mean, this stuff has to be organic, and … I always tell people, “Look it. Let me leave getting the part I want. Now, the minute I walk out the door, if you want to start cutting and pasting, it’s yours. You do whatever you want with it. But I want to leave feeling I’ve done the best job I can.” And that’s just having …

Leland Sklar:

And especially coming from the old tape days. I mean, you fix things. You weren’t sitting there, and you’re thinking, “Oh, I can just move this bar around.” And that stuff. It’s like singers, man. You get in front of a mic, there wasn’t people out there pitch correcting, and comping 15 vocals to get a vocal out of it. Most of the singers I worked with get in front of a mic, and they’d sing top to bottom, and it would be the vocal. Because they could sing.

Warren Huart:

I’m sure you feel the same way, I think it’s as much to do with producers as anything else. I feel like it’s a responsibility for us that have been doing this for a while, that when we’re working with younger artists, to help them, help them get better.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah, I agree.

Warren Huart:

Which means pushing them.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. And also educating them. Because so many, especially young artists, come from having only known this technology, and knowing that you don’t have to get better, because you can fix the better through the technology, as compared to putting it down to where you don’t need to fix it.

Leland Sklar:

And it’s hard. When I’m in the studio with young artists, the last thing I would ever do is say, “You should have been there when it was analog.” Because you sound like grandpa. You sound like an old fart who’s talking about … But if younger artists come to, when we’re working, and they say, “What was it like with tape?” Then I’m happy to talk about it, but they need to open the door to it.

Leland Sklar:

And certainly with the quality of engineers and stuff, the digital technologies, I mean, there’s some beautiful sounding records that are all cut that way. It’s not like the early days when it really was a little sterile and mechanical. So I don’t … It sits on the lap to me, pretty much on the engineers lap at the end of the … I always look at the engineer is, if you got five guys in the room, you got six guys in the band, because the engineer is always a part of that, because without them, it doesn’t matter what you’re playing in the room.

Leland Sklar:

There’s so many times where I hear stuff in the phones, and we’re playing, and then you go listen to a playback, and you go, “What happened?” But the other times where you walk in, and you go, “Oh, man, this sounds fantastic.”

Warren Huart:

And from my perspective as an engineer, I’m only as good as you guys.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. So I mean, it’s a very symbiotic relationship. And the production seat is a whole other discussion. But that relationship between musicians and engineer is really, to me, what it’s all about. If you can translate through the engineer, what the bands doing, and make it there, then you’ve got music. And I appreciate that. And I never hesitate to tell engineers when we’re working, “Oh, that sounds great, man.” Or, “Can we tweak this.” And 90% of engineers aren’t on an ego trip about, “Hey, man, hey, man, that’s my …” Yeah.

Warren Huart:

I remember enjoying the fact that I barely compressed you. I think I may have had a compressor in there just in case. But I don’t remember the needle moving. There’s a handful of guys …

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. I hate compression, and I hate limitation. I always figure, this is where it all is. And it was really funny, I was doing a clinic, a masterclass at Berkeley. And I was sitting with Steve Bailey. And he was just laughing, because we had recorded something. And he said, “I sat there watching a wave file.” And he said, “It’s the most even wave files I’ve ever seen.” He said, “Man, there was no peaks and valleys unless it was a musical one that needed to be there.”

Leland Sklar:

I don’t think about that. I mean, I just play. I don’t intellectualize my playing. I just do what I do and hope it’s going to be good for the song.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, you’ve developed it over decades of playing. You can speak to this much better than I can. But obviously you know, if you hit the string too hard, it frets out, there’s less low end. There’s something that makes an accomplished player like yourself, just gives us beautiful, big, fat tones, which means I have to compress less on when I’m mixing, less EQ, less everything.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. Well, and it’s also with great engineers. I mean, when it comes time to mix, I mean, it’s really tragic when you see a projects been handed off to somebody to mix it, and you see the poor mixer, he’s dealing with all this. As compared to just nuances, because it was recorded so poorly in the first place. And there’s so many projects that I’ve done where I’ve always asked, especially in the days of, “Can you just run me a cassette, or burn me a CD of the rough?”

Leland Sklar:

And there’s times where you go back, and then you A/B that against the finished product, and you go, “Man, they lost it.” Yeah. I mean, it was so magical when we were cutting it. And by the time they finished dinking around with the stuff, the whole essence, and the juices, and all that stuff are somehow sucked out of them. And you go … The people don’t know, because they don’t have anything to compare it to. But as a player, you’re privy to that early stage of it when it really was something special.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, I agree with you. I think there was a period where record companies were in control, which was that late ’90s to mid 2000s, when the CD sales were going crazy. And they just felt like everything had to go to X, Y, and Z person to mix it.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

And going back to some of those records, it’s just horrible.

Leland Sklar:

Well, it’s horrible because … And also, those engineers, the mixing engineers, weren’t there for the track. They don’t know the vibe that went on. And I always thought, “Why not just let the guy who recorded it mix it?” But it was all that thing like, “Well, this guy just had a huge hit record with Counting Crows.” Or somebody like that. And so they want that vibe, they want that thing. But it’s a different record.

Leland Sklar:

I’ve never quite gotten all that stuff. But that’s the politics. And it’s like there’s always that thing between, there’s music, and there’s music business. And sometimes they are diametrically opposed. I’ve heard record executives, when they didn’t know they were being heard, talking about what a nuisance musicians can be.

Warren Huart:

What was the Frank Zappa quote? Because he was talking about in the late ’60s, when he started, how record company executives were better because they didn’t understand. They were just 60 year old guys in suits that were just looking all these 20 year old kids. He said the problem was, is when all the 20 year old kids became the record executives, and then started thinking that they knew best.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. Yeah, it’s really a shame. Or some of the guys who learn just enough catch phrases to be a nuisance in the studio. And you go, “Just …” I would always tell people, I’d say, “To me, my favorite record producers, they smart enough to hire the right guys, and then they can tell when everybody is hungry, so they order lunch, and put their plastic down.” Done. Let everybody work. But sometimes they come in, and they want to get involved. And they’re making … And fine, whatever. But they’re making … That’s why I put the producer switch on my bass that doesn’t do anything. As long as somebody sees you flip the switch, they’ll hear something different, even though there’s no wires, or anything going to it.

Warren Huart:

I remember the first time I worked with Dan, who’s actually my neighbor, Dan Rothchild, as a producer. I was producing a track. And everybody was just lethargic. And I was like, “Hey, I think let’s order some lunch.” Dan stops, and looks at me, and goes, “Good production.”

Leland Sklar:

It’s so true though. I mean, a really good producer will be able to read the room, and know, “Man, it’s time to … Let’s take a breather here. Let’s get everybody some …” The only thing you hope is that you’re not cutting tracks in a way where the most intense up tempo track is going to be the one you cut after lunch.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Leland Sklar:

Go for a ballad just to get everybody working [inaudible 00:30:32] wheels been greased. But it’s a funny thing. I mean, the thing I love so much about music is the fact that it’d be one thing if you were working at General Motors, and putting on the same part every day. But the fact that, even though we’re making music all the time, every experience is unique, and different. And it could even be the same bunch of people. But just biologically, you’re whatever. That day, how you woke up, what your drive was like to get to the studio. That can all effect the outcome of the music.

Leland Sklar:

So I find it fascinating. And I never get tired of it. I mean, after this many years, that phone rings, man, I’m still excited about going to work, and seeing who’s on the date, and what kind of music we’re playing. Because generally, I don’t know anything until I get to the studio. I have no idea if I’m doing reggae, funk, country, or anything. It’s not until the artist arrives, or there’s a demo or something that you know what you’re doing.

Warren Huart:

That’s a good thing to talk about. I get approached by a lot of young musicians, and they want to be session players. And they’re always technically very gifted, like we were talking about, they may have been schooled by really great people, gone to really great schools. And the thing I always try to tell them is that when working with guys like yourself, you’ve worked with every single singer songwriter you could imagine ever, of all different genres. And when you hear something for the first time, like you talking about, you go into a studio, you bring that massive amount of acquired knowledge.

Warren Huart:

And the best session players in the world sound like they’ve been playing in the band for the last 10 years on the road. And that’s a really hard thing to try and tell young players, because young players think it’s all about, “Well, Lee just basically went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I could do that.” It’s like, “Yes. But would you?” Would you do that? You can do it. But would you?

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of people that impose themselves on songs. Yeah, so much of it is just listening, and finding what the song wants from you, not what you want to put in the song as much. And if a song requires, if it’s suddenly a Tower of Power thing, a Rocco part, if you’ve got the chops to do it, it’s great, man. I love doing something like that.

Leland Sklar:

But if it’s suddenly a Reba McEntire song that’s a lamenting ballad, that’s mostly whole notes and half notes, I’m good with that too, because that’s what the song wants. I’m not going to leave that day going, “Now they don’t think much of me because I didn’t show off my chops.”

Leland Sklar:

I remember Hal Blaine told me a story. I tell it a lot. But he went down to San Diego to do a gig. And there was a young bass player on the gig. And the guy just whipped out everything he had, man, he was roaring. And when it was all through, he came all puffed up to Hal, and said, “So, man, what do you think?” And Hal looked at him and said, “I think we need a bass player.” Flacid immediately.

Leland Sklar:

But there is that element. When you’re young, you’re really trying to whip it all out and show everybody what you got. But as time goes on, you realize it’s really the song that I’m here for. It’s not for me, it’s not for anything else, it’s really for that song. And so much of that does come with experience, and also just having … I was fortunate that the household I grew up in, my folks … Even though it wasn’t a musicians household, it was a musical household.

Leland Sklar:

So my parents were incredibly eclectic in their record collections and stuff. So I was listening to Martin Denny, and I mean, all kinds of different varieties of music. So when I started in this, I had an appreciation for everything. I wasn’t like … I get guys that write to me all the time that say, “Oh, I’m a metal guy.” And all that. And I go, “Well, that’s …”

Leland Sklar:

But the thing that I love is when somebody says, “I’m a metal guy, but I had no idea about Sedaka.” Discovering things. And even if it’s not going to change what they play, it’s changing their ear. And they might bring something different to their metal by just listening to another kind of music.

Warren Huart:

Oh, I agree. I feel like, if there’s one thing in current music that I feel is missing, is that crossover that we used to have in such abundance.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah. Yeah. It’s tough. I mean, things have changed and morphed in so many ways into other things that you just try to hold onto the values that you really found so appealing when you started your career. But you embrace things. I always just tell people, man, “I just do not want to be an old fart.” I’m as excited now at 73 as I was at 23 when we were…

Warren Huart:

I agree. I don’t want to be the wagging finger. I talk about it a lot. I watch a lot of videos that I understand they’re trying to help, but reinforcing that John Bonham was the world’s greatest drummer in every video is a little exhausting. It just comes across, when you’re 21 years old, like, “Don’t even bother, kid. It’s all been done.”

Warren Huart:

That’s what I love about what you’re doing, is that you have no pretensions. I think maybe it’s a blessing of being a phenomenal player. And thank you for bringing up Rocco Prestia, because I heard a lot of Rocco’s playing in The Section stuff. But I think one of the things is the fact that makes your channel so great, and what you do so great is that you don’t come across like that at all. It’s a refreshing take. Not the, “Oh, the kids of today.”

Leland Sklar:

Yeah, yeah. Because there’s phenomenal young musicians. People say, “Well, what’s the future like in music?” I go, “It’s in great hands.” I mean, there are some fantastic young artists out there. And my concern is really the business. And so many projects that I work on now, the phone call you get after you finish the project is from a manager going, “Any ideas what we can do with this?”

Leland Sklar:

Because like in the old days, you have the labels, you knew you were going to get screwed by them. I mean, that was the nature of the beast. But they had that machine in place that got you air play, that got promotion, and all that stuff going on. That now, so many projects that I work on are indie projects. The family meets some guy who’s made money in Silicon Valley, and always dreamed about being part of the music business. And puts up some money to get in the studio. But they don’t know what to do with the thing after they finished it.

Leland Sklar:

And that’s really the difficulty. The talent it out there. Man, there’s some monsters. Then you get into seeing the eight year olds that are evidence that aliens have fathered kids on this planet. I mean, you’re just going, “Are you kidding me? Give me a break.”

Leland Sklar:

But it’s an adventure every day. You just don’t know. The thing I like is, you don’t know what’s around the corner every day. It’s like that musician’s paranoia. The minute you’re last gig ends, and there’s nothing in front of you, you think, “I’m never going to get called again. It’s over. I’m done.” And then the phone rings.

Leland Sklar:

So I mean, but you never … It’s really hard to get away from that mentality, because you were, as a kid, growing up, the families and all that generally are always going, “Yeah, he’s playing now, but at some point, he’s going to get serious and maybe get a law degree, or open up a tire shop, or something.” But musicians, we’re always looked at as these vagabonds.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, my dad always used to say, “Stop banging on that bleeding banjo.” Lee, thank you ever so much. I really appreciate your time.

Leland Sklar:

I’m so sorry about last week when everything got…

Warren Huart:

I’m sorry today we were late because we had our internet go down. God bless it. But I bet you if I booked you for a session for 11, you’d be there at 10:30.

Leland Sklar:

Oh, absolutely. The day before. It was really funny, there’s a gal named Vicky Ableson, who does this stream every day kind of thing. And I screwed up, and this was before the pandemic, and she does it out of her house, where I go to get Mexican food, up in Montrose.

Leland Sklar:

And I go up, and I walk up, and there’s a guy coming up the stairs too. It’s in a condo. And we’re both standing at the door. And I said, “Oh, I’m going here too.” And I knock on the door. And she opens the door. And she looks at him, and she looks at me. She goes, looks at me and goes, “What are you doing here?” And I said, “Well, we’re doing our thing.” She goes, “No, you’re next week.” And she was interviewing this other guy doing her thing with him. And he was a TV writer. And I just said, “Well, actually, I was just checking to make sure I had the right directions.” And then I scurried away.

Leland Sklar:

So occasionally. But usually, like you said, 10:30. That’s another one of the things I talk about if I do a clinic or something. That’s that really the ethic of studio work, or any kind of work like that is, if it’s an 11 o’clock, you’re not pulling in the parking lot at 11. You’re in your seat, you’ve tuned, you’re ready to go. If there’s charts, you’ve rifled through them to see if there’s anything that you really need to give a little heads up to beforehand.

Leland Sklar:

The artist could show up two hours late. That’s their prerogative. But you as hired help, be professional about this. It is a profession even though it’s called playing.

Warren Huart:

I want to add that the session that you and I did, the St. Jude’s one, is available for a download. And we have been giving al of the money for the sales of it to St. Jude’s. And it has done really, really well. In fact, St. Jude’s sent us a plaque. 2020 certificate of appreciation in recognition of outstanding support in helping St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital to keep its promise to children families battling cancer and other deadly diseases.

Warren Huart:

So for anybody that wants to download the multi tracks, all of the money goes to St. Jude’s. Dick was a wonderful guy. And I’m glad I got to meet you out of that.

Leland Sklar:

It’s great. And I’ve been having fun. I’m kicked off of … I’m still in blockage time on Facebook again. I’ve got, I think another two weeks to go before I’m back on. But the thing is, I always enjoy whenever I see any of your stuff on there, and stuff you’re doing. It’s always really … It’s a treat, man. And I hope we can sort out some kind of stuff to do.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. And I’m a huge fan of Nico, so if there’s something we could do all of that, and I can help support that, and make it happen, and facilitate it, that would be amazing. Whatever we can do.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah, we’ll keep in touch on all that stuff, and I’ll keep you posted what we’re up to and stuff. And I’m going to go see if I can find another version of Her Town Too that I can get up. It’s so funny, when they screw me out of these things, then I do a video explaining what’s going on. I say, “I’m pissed.” And the Her Town Too might get 17,000 views. And then the one that says, “I’m really pissed.” Suddenly gets 80,000. It’s all so screwy. I just go, “Man, this is nuts.” But I’m enjoying my YouTube. I’m really having fun.

Warren Huart:

Well, you’re doing an amazing job. There’s going to be a link underneath, but I’m sure pretty much everybody that watches my show already watches yours as well.

Leland Sklar:

Yeah, any time you want to … Yeah, just give me a shout, and I’m happy to come back.

Warren Huart:

Amazing. I really appreciate it.

Leland Sklar:

Okay, man. Well, Warren, man, it’s always a treat to see you here, and thanks for inviting me over to play in your yard.

Warren Huart:

Thank you just the same. And I’m going to ask a version of this Louise question. Can I read it out specifically so I don’t mess up Louise’s question? We have a mutual friend in Louise Goffin. And I said to her I was going to be interviewing you. And I said, “What would be the one question you’d want to ask Lee?” And she said, “Ask him the secret of his long and happy marriage to Maureen. They’re a great success story.”

Leland Sklar:

I love Louise. I mean, I’ve known Louise since she was a little squirt. And she’s grown into such a talented beautiful woman. She’s great. Maureen and I, we’re going to be celebrating our 50th anniversary in December. I mean, I knew her before I knew James Taylor. We met back in college.

Leland Sklar:

I think it’s just appreciating each other for who we are. And neither of us … Like a record, you don’t come in and impose yourself on it. You figure out what’s needed by you, by that song, or by that relationship. And that’s what you go for. And of course, I mean, it has its ups and downs, and all that.

Leland Sklar:

And that was difficult, on long tours and stuff, where you’re gone for months and months on end. And we’ve never had kids. So it was pretty much her and the dogs, and stuff. But she’s got her own life too. I mean, not working. But I think the pandemic, this quarantine has been much harder on her than it has been on me because she’s very, very social. Has her girlfriends, and they go out to the movies, and out to lunch. And all that’s stuffs shut down. So it’s been harder. Where I’m like … Other than working, I’m digging being just here, and doing what I do.

Leland Sklar:

But I think a lot of patience, and understanding, and knowing everything is not going to always be smooth. But you figure out how to smooth it out when it isn’t. It’s tough. But that’s great Louise threw that one out there. She’s such a sweetheart.

Warren Huart:

She is a real sweetheart. I’ve known her since late ’80s. So I recorded her one of my first proper recordings.

Leland Sklar:

Oh, cool.

Warren Huart:

When I was, I can’t remember, I was 20, or 21, or something.

Leland Sklar:

That’s great. Yeah, I mean, back when … I mean, we started in ’70. I mean, she and her sister were both these little kids back then. And I knew Jerry really well, and stuff. And just to … Especially with her, she’s more visible than her sister in terms of music and all that. And she’s just delightful. And the apple did not fall far from the tree with their family. So many of them are like that.

Leland Sklar:

I mean, that’s like Phil’s son playing drums with us. I mean, Nicholas was a really, a solid drummer at four. And he’d be out on the road with us. And when we started this last tour, he was 16 years old. And he pretty much auditioned for the gig. It wasn’t like, “Oh, it’s Phil’s son, of course he’s going to be out there.” He really …

Leland Sklar:

And during the two years we were on the road, two years plus, he, man, evolved. And he was hungry to get better. I mean, it was like every day we were all mentors with him. And he wanted information. He was like a sponge just eating it all up. And you’d see it in his playing and stuff.

Leland Sklar:

I mean, I’ve known Nate since he was born, and Russ’ kid. And just to become the great engineer, and everything that he became. It’s great. I love it. I think it’s great. But Louise is a prime example of that to me.

Warren Huart:

And such a sweetheart. Thank you ever so much.

Leland Sklar:

My pleasure.

Warren Huart:

It’s been absolutely amazing. There’s going to be a link down below to Lee’s channel. I’m sure you’re already following it, but if you aren’t, please follow it. There’s also going to be a link to the course we were talking about where all of the proceeds go to St. Jude’s. And I really appreciate all your time. Thank you, my friend.

Leland Sklar:

Bye-bye.

Warren Huart:

Thanks. Bye-bye. (music).