![]() ![]() What I remember most about the performance itself is that I was wearing this hat called a mambo sock and a big heavy jacket. ![]() I said, “No, you’re gonna have to give me yours first, because this is too weird.” When we played that night, the first autograph I was asked for in my life was from George Clinton, because we were sitting at a table together. We soundchecked and all of them came up to us afterwards and said it sounded good. It was a crazy crowd that we had to now soundcheck in front of while they sat at banquet tables, relaxing and waiting for their turn. George Clinton was there because he was inducting Sly, so a bunch of the guys in the Family Stone are there too. lang was there because she was inducting Etta James. There’s Springsteen’s band, John Fogerty’s there, Ruth Brown is there with Bonnie Raitt, who I actually knew through a friend. We get there and the room is even heavier. It’s Hollywood stuff, so they do soundcheck at 8AM. We watched them for a while and then we took off because we had to be there early the next day. Classic Ginger Baker! It felt like reliving rock history. Cream was supposed to rehearse an hour before us, but Ginger Baker hadn’t shown up yet. To this day I think we’re still the only unknowns who played the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, so I understand why they were thinking. What if Benmont comes in on the second verse too?” We played it again with him and it sounded good. Why don’t you play it and we’ll see if it works.” We played it and Robbie said, “That’s actually pretty good. I started apologizing, and Robbie was like, “Nah, I get it. But there was total silence, and everyone just laughed at me. I wasn’t thinking, but I didn’t want to be a problem, so I said, “Nah, we can do it ourselves.” I didn’t mean to sound arrogant at all! I just didn’t want to be a hassle for anybody. We were shooting hoops with Eddie Vedder for a bit, and then we go back in and Robbie’s like, “Do you want to do an arrangement with all of us?” The house band was Don Was, Jim Keltner, Benmont Tench, Robbie on guitar, maybe Springsteen. In the ’90s, you could take Eric Clapton for granted, so when he played that riff I was like, “Right, that’s Slow Hand, of course.” Clapton grabbed his guitar, but he couldn’t remember the riff to “Sunshine Of Your Love,” so Jack Bruce had to remind him how it went. We can see Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, Robbie Robertson, and Don Was around the room just watching, and as I waved to Robbie I saw Bruce Springsteen standing with him too. We worked out a version in an apartment in the Oakwoods we got for that night, and then we drove down to the Valley the next day to the rehearsal space.Īs we were in the parking lot, I heard the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” being played inside, and I thought, “Wow, that sounds like a really good version of that song - just like the Doors.” When we walked in, it was the Doors, with Eddie Vedder singing. ![]() My dad gave us a ride to the airport, and we stopped at Tower Records to pick up a bunch of Van Morrison cassettes so we could figure out which fuckin’ song to play. It was Sunday afternoon, the show was Tuesday, and rehearsal was the next day, so we had to get back down to LA and figure out which song to do. How would you feel?” I told him I’d think about it and call him back, and two minutes later he calls me back and says, “Are you out of your fuckin’ mind? You don’t think about it - you do it.” They were thinking of having Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers come in and play a Van Morrison song, but Robbie recommended you. Van Morrison is about to get inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but he’s not coming. I’d only been home for a few days, and I got a phone call from our A&R guy saying, “Robbie Robertson called me up. We were in the middle of recording our first record, and we’d gone home for a few weeks off before we came back to put some guitar and mandolin stuff on it. ![]()
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