Hal's Death by Jefferson Starship # 3
Interview with Slick Aguilar @ Alameda County Fair 7/8/92
Jefferson Starship @ the Fillmore 5/28/94
Reading my interview transcript below I realize that this
was my first interview; I put out the Papa John first,
however, so these are not in order as done. Next up will
be Prairie Prince and Darby Gould. I guess when all are out I
can figure out order: this was well over a decade ago, so excuse
my poor memory! I never got around to the transcript of the Prairie
and Darby interviews (done the same night), so these will be
appearing for the first time. I don't have the concert for them,
either, but that's ok, as I recall the sound in the San Jose hall
where they performed was extremely muddy. I'll find a suitable
substitute 8').
I have before this tried to match the concert with the interview
but I have not found this Alameda County Fair show (sound was
good at that one!): anyone?
Therefore I picked a favorite JS Fillmore show, and only going through
my reviews did I realize why it was a favorite: I was there!
Btw, this show features both Jack and Marty along with Darby. . . .
*************************************************************
Jefferson Starship the Fillmore 5/28/94
Darby stole the show Saturday. No doubt about it. It was Papa
John's b'day and both Tom Constanten and Merle Saunders
mentioned him and dedicated tunes. The JS were remarkable by
their silence on the matter, although Paul might have muttered
something and my ruined ears missed it (loud it was, very loud).
Merle said that "Fever" was PJ's favorite tune and did a respectful
version for him, as did TC earlier with a blues song.
However the light show had great pictures of PJ and related people
all through the show. No guests, not even Signe.
Paul heard me yell "Shadowlands" and then couldn't refuse when other
people started yelling it too! Bet he smells a hit, but in truth
"the Light" really blew it out of the water and is my favorite of
their new songs now.
I forgot my pen so didn't do a list, sorry. However it was similar
to what you heard, just "mixed up pretty good" 8'). No St. Charles
but they did a wierd thing with "Wooden Ships" that I couldn't place.
With pics of Grace on the light screen Darby sang "White Rabbit" and,
later, "Somebody to Love". Paul mentioned a bit about Grace, maybe
more than about PJ. I haven't heard what Grace's sentence was. . . .*
[*Grace, p.o'd about losing her house to a fire and seeing firemen
taking souvenirs from the smoldering ruins, later went off the wagon and
pointed a gun at a policeman who showed up at the door after hearing
gun fire. She was lucky she wasn't killed; probably did community service
instead]
On "Women Who Fly" Darby took over from the band -- they could have left
and the crowd would have stayed.
On the whole probably the best JS concert ever! well, so far 8'). Marty
was a bit subdued, even during "Miracles", but he's still adjusting to
Darby, it seems. They were off the stage by 11:30 because, as Marty said,
they had a plane to catch.
TC said that "Papa John was here tonight" and from the way the band
played, they believed that. In the long run I guess that was better than
words.
hal
***************************************************************
Files: Flac; interview is from personal master; concert from SBD >
first-gen cassette > WaveLab > CDWave > Flac)
00 Interview with Slick Aguilar
01 Sunrise - Saucers
02 3/5ths of a Mile in Ten Seconds
03 Crown of Creation
04 Today
05 the Light
06 Lawman
07 Miracles
08 Gold
09 Women Who Fly
10 White Rabbit
11 Count On Me
12 Shadowlands
13 I'm on Fire
14 Wooden Ships
15 Somebody to Love
16 Crowd yells for more
17 encore: Volunteers
Transcript of interview with Slick Aguilar:
[This is the first in a series of interviews with members of
the Jefferson Starship: the New Generation, and was conducted
on July 8th backstage at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Also
joining me was JMOORE@gal.arc.Nasa.gov, whose questions to
Slick Aguilar, the group's Strat-playing lead guitarist,
are those of "Jeff". Next in the hot seat is Tim Gorman,
the keyboardist, who'll be answering questions before the free
concert in downtown San Jose on July 23rd, 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m.,
Plaza Park.]
hal: Why are you called "Slick" now?
Slick Aguilar: Well, that happened about twenty years ago; I was
playing with a band down in Miami, and the big sitcom show that was
out then was SANFORD AND SON: and one of the character's buddies
was named Slick Skillet. And so all these cats were older than me,
and I was going to school, the guitar-player kind of thing--
hal: What year was this?
SA: It must have been around '72; so I've been called that for
twenty years, so when people call me "Mark" it's kinda like I
forget that was my name!
hal: I was first aware of you with the KBC Band; was that when you
met Paul Kantner?
SA: What happened was that I was playing with [David] Crosby on the
road, and Marty Balin saw me play and asked me to join his band, which,
I was in his band for about two months and then Paul was out of the Starship.
And he came around the studio that Marty has in his church there in San
Anselmo, and they started talking about this KBC thing, and I told
Marty that "hey, I'd love to play with that!" and he goes, "you would?"
[said in a surprised tone of voice]--not knowing what I was getting
into, you know? We started rehearsing that thing, and it was a whole
lot of fun, btw.
hal: At that time you wrote a song for the KBC album called "Wrecking
Crew" with Tim Gorman--
SA: Tim Gorman put a lot of that together and I helped him, persuaded
him to put it to the band, and I approached the band with that. Timmy
had the makings of that song happening, and I said hey, man, he played
it to me, it was this folky kind of thing, and I said why don't we go
[starts an air guitar] wah, wah, a "Start Me Up" kind of thing. And
so we switched it around and made it a bit of a rocker.
hal: Did you know Tim before this?
SA: Ah, no, KBC started with a different keyboard player. . . .
hal: Who was that?
SA: You know, man, I forget his name; he was in the Tasmanian Devils.
And we also had a different drummer then, Barry Leaventhal, and then
Darrell Verdusco came in right before we recorded the album. At one
time [jazz player] Tony Williams played for two months with us.
hal: Tim Gorman was credited with playing some acoustic guitar on
the KBC album; how come he doesn't play that on the stage?
SA: He didn't play any acoustic guitar on that record, it was just
a typo! He does know how to play guitar, but he didn't do it on that
record.
hal: Do you find that when you are playing with Kantner that he gets
you into the rocker "2/4, 2/4" mode? That's how you adapted "Wrecking
Crew" from a folky song. . . .
SA: Oh yea, Paul draws you right into that by the way he's just
flailing away on that thing and nails it, and he says, you know, he
encourages me to rock it up, to step out there--he'll never say
"hold back, do this kind of thing", so it is a pleasure to play with
him.
hal: Did he ever tell you why he was attracted to your particular
style of playing?
SA: From what I understand, Marty had said "why not my guitar player,
Slick; he used to play with David Crosby" and Paul said "if he can play
with Crosby then he can play with me!" Those two guys are real good
friends, of course.
hal: Kantner has always had distinctive, stylistic guitar players;
your own style seems somewhat closer to Craig Chaquico than Jorma
Kaukonen, just watching how you play. . . .
SA: Yea, well, I like to think that I can cover a lot of those
different styles; I can play rhythm and blues, and funk--you know,
I used to play with KC and the Sunshine Band! I recorded with
Wayne Cochran, who of course gives you that Blues Brother kind of
thing, and then David Crosby, which is a total opposite from KC.
hal: So how did you hook up with Crosby?
SA: A friend of mine, Bobby Ingram, who lives in Miami, used to
play with Les Baxter and the Balladeers; Crosby and Bobby were in
that band, and Bobby moved down to Florida to be near his father,
and Crosby says, "why don't you stay here and be in this band that
I'm starting with Roger McGuinn"; and he goes, "no, I want to be here
and start a family"--the band of course turned out to be the Byrds!
hal: Crosby had his own lyrical, spacey style in contrast with
Stills, the country boy. . . .
SA: Definitely two different styles that blended well with what
they did; they had Nash, from, um,
hal: the Hollies.
SA: Yea, Cros' from the Byrds, and Stills from Buffalo Springfield;
Paul and David are similar a lot with the lyrics, they are kind of
heavy; Crosby was also responsible for a lot of those harmonies in
CS & N . . . he was from singing in choirs and that kind of thing,
and his harmony was just a strange sort--
hal: Yea, I've heard it described as "a low flute" voice.
SA: And that "nail" sound, he gets right there in the middle, and
it's wide open because someone's on the top, and Stills over there,
and he's just free to roam! He hits some really interesting notes.
hal: Do you know anything about his upcoming second solo album?
SA: I thought he was too busy trying to be a movie star! I'm glad
he's finally doing it; I haven't talked to him in about three months.
Last couple of years he's been trying to be an actor; he was in HOOK,
BACKDRAFT, and the Roseanne show.
hal: So how did you occupy yourself when the KBC Band folded? And how
did it fold?
SA: Well, there were some difficulties between Marty and Paul. It was
a little tough there [makes a few off-the-record remarks].
hal: What did you do in that period, then?
SA: I started working on a solo instrumental, Larry Carlton kind of
thing. . . .
hal: Session player for James Taylor?
SA: Yea; took a lot of classic tunes, plus originals, and tried to go
that route; this was when "New Age" had come in. Now I have a nine-
piece band called the Slick-Hurley Band, which features Tim Gorman,
Donny Baldwin from the old Starship; Randy Forrester, Ed Early,
and Danny Ray from Elvin Bishop's band; John Garnishe from Clintons/
Clemmons' band, and Aidan Mullen; and Kevin Hurley, and I think that
covers pretty much everyone there. But it's really happening! Rock!
hal: How did Paul approach you about the new version of the Starship?
SA: You know, from last summer, we were doing the "Wooden Ships Band",
the three of us, and we covered a lot of the songs that we were doing
here [tonight], like "Crown" and "Blows".
hal: Had your relationship with Tim at that point become really
comfortable? Just the three of you sounded almost as strong as with
the other musicians you have now. . . .
SA: Musically, yea, we had nearly everyone there except bass and drums,
and Papa John, of course, who is really amazing! People come out and
see him and all he just has to do is just walk out on the stage; he's
the highlight every night . . . he's ten motherfuckers and eight sons of
bitches!
hal: I interviewed ZZ Top once and Billy Gibbons said that they had
a fourth member, "Time, son!" Do you feel time has been sending you
in this direction? Did you have a classical background or has it
always been rock n' roll?
SA: Rock and roll, basically, I grew up on the Beatles and the Beach
Boys; but my father played keyboards, well, piano, I don't think they had
"keyboards" then! And he listened to all these musicals like "Hello,
Dolly!"
hal: What's his name?
SA: Domingo Aguilar. He used to bring home all these tunes and he
brought me up on chord changes instead of all this 1-4-5 stuff that
most kids grow up on--I was listening to Tony Bennett, "South Pacific",
and "West Side Story", and these were my influences. Then suddenly
the Beatles came along, and the Four Seasons, you know, back there
singing "Big Girls Don't Cry", and I loved all of it and sucked up
as much as I could.
hal: So when Kantner brought you back into his band you were playing,
along with a few new songs, a lot of old songs: you and the audience
have heard these before, so how do you approach that?
SA: There are certain things, certain signature lines, that I have
got to play, but then again it's wide open and Paul cuts me loose
and says "hey, come up with something".
Jeff: So you aren't confined by how Jorma played something?
SA: No, not at all; like "Wooden Ships", I've played two different
versions: I've played Crosby's version which has nothing to do
with the Airplane version, and that's how I learned the song; but
then after I had played it with Crosby, now I'm playing a line in
there that Jorma did play and which Paul likes to hear; so I use
part of what I got from David and part of what Jorma put in there.
hal: Kantner has kept the 60s, Robert Heinlein-vision of the future
alive in his music: do you feel that visionary influence in how
he pushes you "out there"?
SA: Oh, definitely: when you work with someone like that you have to
think like that; I know him real well, and I try to listen to him and
see what he's seeing out there. Sort of play "take me!" He used to
go "Slick, make your own acid" and I said "Paul, I don't _do_ acid!"
I've got nothing against it, but. . . .
hal: Oh well, he's probably done enough for all of you 8').
SA: Yea, he has! And he'd name some drug, you know, "play like it's the
Summer of Love", and I'd go, "Paul, I was twelve during the Summer of
Love!--I'm 38", and his eyes were wide, you know 8').
hal: Does he often catch you by surprise like that?
SA: Actually, I do know what he's going to do, but sometimes, yes,
he surprises me; and that's what keeps the fire going. We never
want it to get stale where everyone knows what you're going to do;
"let's move on", and I'm happy about that.
hal: So you guys are recording an album?
SA: We've been talking about it and in the fall we are shooting to
do that; we're looking for a new label right now.
Jeff: What's the story with all the people that have worked in
this group in the past--RCA, Grunt, have all those bridges been burnt?
SA: Oh yeah, man, like RCA has had the longest suit going on there.
hal: Talking with Jorma, it seemed like in the old days artists had
the freedom to play with whomever they wanted, but now the labels
place huge restrictions on that creative process.
SA: Like, I had to ask Crosby to sing on something; I did a couple
of Crosby songs on my solo venture there, and I said "David, why
don't you sing a little bit on this cool kind of Latin version of
your song" and he said "no, I can't, my record label won't let me".
It's like, shoot myself in the foot. . . .
hal: So it is sorta easy to figure out what songs would be on the
new Starship album--
Jeff: Yea, like "Shadowlands". . . .
SA: Uh-huh, "Shadowlands"--"In a Crisis" wouldn't be as it was
someone else's song [World Entertainment War, Darby's other band].
But "I'm on Fire", and he has got some other ones like "Which Side
Are You On", and I'm sure he's gonna throw in everything; he's got
a good idea and we all like the direction.
hal: Are you going to write any more songs?
SA: I'm working on it and hopefully they'll let me put something
on it; you never know.
hal: So how would you approach Kantner with a new song? Strum it
for him?
SA: No, I'd give it to him on a tape; I'd have it demo-ed out first
and give him a great idea of how it would sound: he's very open,
he's a great cat to work with like that.
hal: What is he like in rehearsals--do you know beforehand what is
going to happen?
SA: Oh, you never know, you never know just what the hell is going to
happen; it's like a gig. We come out here and our setlist is like this
and he'll look at the crowd and go "let's change this; it's moved".
hal: Apparently you stole a show recently in Mississippi by letting
a little girl strum your guitar on stage. . . .
SA: I come from a family of eleven kids, so everytime I see little
kids sitting out there with their parents and stuff I'll try to
cheese it up with them; I took her hand and put my pick in there and
let her strum for me. They get a big kick out of it.
hal: Did Paul have anything to say about playing in Mississippi?
SA: Not really, he had more to say about playing in Columbus, Ohio,
where he incited a riot and they whisked him out the back--we were
a little worried that there might have been a warrant out for his
arrest 8').
hal: Oh. Well, I thought "Other Side of this Life" would have
gone over well in Mississippi. . . .
SA: A good friend of mine wrote that!
hal: Fred Neil?
SA: A very good friend of mine; actually I know him better than
those guys [Paul and Jack]; he's living up in Humboldt County right
now. I met him through Bobby Ingram; Bobby's just an old folkie;
Vincent Martin, and Fred Neil, they did "Tear Down the Walls"; these
guys are all from Coconut Grove in Miami [Florida is Slick's home
state].
hal: Well, thanks, and do you have any words for the computer net people
reading this out there?
SA: Yea--hey man, you guys have a great thing going, and we get the
lists all the time, your papers, so get it out there!