Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hey Human podcast. This is episode 439, and my guest is Adam Chester. Adam is known to the Elton John band as the surrogate Elton, and since 2,005, he plays backup and rehearses the Elton and John band on piano and vocals. He arranged and conducted Elton's 60th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden.
And when, there are choirs and things that sing with Elton, it's generally Adam who is the conductor and arranger for that. He refreshes Elton John on songs that Elton may not have played for decades. God knows Elton John has gajillions of songs, so it's probably really hard to remember some some that aren't in his regular rotation. So Adam helps with that. He is an accomplished performing songwriter in his own right. I have
seen him perform a couple times. He's great, and he is also the author of the hilarious memoir Smother, which is on Amazon and is a really funny book about the wild letters and notes and messages that his mom had given him over many decades. When we did this interview, Adam talks about his book, and she has sadly since passed away. And I want to dedicate this episode to her. Her name is Joan Chester. She She did a heck of a job, raised an incredible human being,
and so this one's for you. Wherever you are, Joan, up there, looking down, everywhere, all the places, you did a good job with your son. He's a good human. Adam is awesome, really lovely person, and, you know, I know Elton John is going through a difficult time right now, so I hope they figure out what's going on there. And and Elton John is all better really soon. Check out heyhumanpodcast.com for links and to learn more about my guests and the show. Hey Human Podcast is
on YouTube under official Susan Ruth. I'm on patreon at susanruthism. My TikTok and Instagram is also susanruthism. Check out susanruth.com to learn more about me and my other artistic endeavors, and find my albums on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, wherever you get your music. Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human podcast on Apple, Iheart, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening. Be well. Be kind. Be loved. Happy holidays. Here we go.
Adam Chester, welcome to Hey Human. Thank you very much. Alright. Let's jump right in. Tell me where you were raised, what growing up was like, how you began getting influenced by music. I hate music. I just you know, it's not what I want. I can't I don't know what I'm doing here. Wait. No. None of that's true. I started in music though, so young. I I mean, there's apparently, in a box in my garage somewhere, reel to reel recordings of me singing Beatles songs at the age of 2 in perfect pitch.
I don't think my dad was a big fan of the Beatles. I lost him at a young age, so I don't know. But I was singing them all. And he kept trying to redirect me to sing more serious music and kids' songs at the age of 2 and he's got a ticket to high and whatever words I could, you know, enunciate at the time. So I don't know. I guess music, was always in my life. I grew up in New Jersey, and I guess we were
in Wayne, New Jersey. I don't I know nothing about New Jersey because I left when I was 8 when he passed away, and we moved to Miami Beach. So I consider Miami Beach more of my growing up down. You know, I had a keyboard at a very young age, and I would sit there and bang on it. And when we visit my grandparents in Miami Beach before we moved there, they had a piano, and I would literally sit up and, you know, do that kind
of thing. I was never afraid to make noise, which I find a lot of kids these days, who I see in The Piano Store, are afraid to touch a note, and they recoil. I never I never was. It's like it was always just part of my being. Yeah. Music and me, you know, and singing and playing was always just who I am. It's like another appendage. Losing your father so young Yeah. That I'm sure had a great impact on you. And Yeah. Especially for a kid that sounds like you were sensitive and quite possibly a
prodigy. How do all those things intermingle at the time? I don't know if I would have attached myself to the piano as much as I did when he died of cancer. I was pancreatic cancer. He was 43. And I and I was 8 at the time, and I'm glad we're starting this with humor. But, no, I I lost him at such a young age, and I think that's what attached me to the piano. I just went and just stuck with it.
I I mean, you know, like I said, I was singing at a very young age, and I was playing a little tiny organ my parents had for me in Jersey. So I I it was always a part of me, but his passing, I think, really made me stick to it. Mhmm. Because it became my my only outlet. You know, my mom, who I wrote a book about called Smothered, and it's all funny, and she's still alive. She's actually in the car. Should I crack a window? Right before he got ill, I started writing little simple
melodies on the piano. So and I remember the first song I wrote, it was sort of a a Rich Little who was an impersonator at the time. I I call it my Rich Little of a piano song. I was trying to copy what I knew, and there was this one tune on the Black Keys that I loved called I Want Coffee, You Want Tea or whatever it was. It's Right? And so I I think I did something based on that. It was in the same key. So the first song I ever wrote was. Very similar. I never got sued, but I was totally
I was totally into writing. So, but after he passed, it was what I did. And then I started writing whatever love songs a 9 year old can write. I think it was more about melodies than as I got, you know, 12, 13, then it became, you know, let's write a song to make that girl fall in love with me. Oh, wait. Wait. No. No. She's prettier. Let's write a song about her. And, of course, you're playing piano and not guitar. It's much harder to lug a piano from party to party. Or or
the beach. I mean, you know, I was the loser sitting at the beach going, you know, I can play piano. And meanwhile, the guitarist was sitting there serenading everybody. And I'm like, boy, this sucks. So, yeah, it was just something I connected to and and then just stayed with as an outlet. Sure. And our mutual friend, John Penny, who introduced us, who I adore, he said you wrote a song, for Goldie Hawn that his mother then got to her?
That that you know, it it it's one of those charm moments that I have, you know, so many amazing memories. I wrote a song for her when I was, I don't know, 15, a love song. And all I remember, honestly, is the chorus. It was it was literally Goldie. Oh, won't you hold me when I blew? My moments are golden when I'm thinking of you. Even better than the original. It was some sort of ragtime equal, love song. And so I was invited to play her house. I think it was 2 years ago, probably 2021.
May yeah. It was 2021. So 3 years ago. And there she was with Kurt Russell. And and I thought, if I don't say something now, I'll regret this. And she passed by the piano, and I said, Goldie, I I know you're busy. I just I wanna share something with you. I wrote a song for you when I was, you know, 14, and my mom told me to mail it to Goldie Hawn, Hollywood, California. And I don't think you ever got it. I'm like, I did the cassette tape. And she said, I didn't. Oh, play it for
me. And I said, honestly, all I remember is the chorus, and I sang that. She sat next to me on the piano bench at her house. She was holding my arm. I I have it on video luckily because Kate Hudson, her daughter, filmed the whole thing. It's just one of those memories. I mean, she gave me a kiss and she said it was absolutely beautiful, and, oh, she feels so bad for not having received it. Who I love Goldie Hawn. She's the best.
Amazing. I mean, I I yeah. And I really did have a a massive crush on her when I saw her as a child. Everyone. Who didn't? So did I. I I mean, how do you not? It's Goldie Holland. It was adorable. Adorable. And and Kate is sort of that that similar vibe, but, you know, Goldie has this innocence about her. It's just charming, you know. And and there I was sitting next to her at the piano bench and Kurt's, you know, sitting on the couch behind me going you know, you know, it was just pretty
cool. Oh, I love it. Magic moment. Yeah. The 15 year old news was from heaven. I was in heaven. I was in heaven. You know? You know, it just goes to show you that the magic of the US mail doesn't always work. You know. That's just because he should've sent it to Santa Claus. Right. Right. Santa Claus would've done it. I should've. The same kind of address in my North Pole. I, you know, I I shouldn't I I should've done that. You're right. Santa Claus is like, why do
we keep getting Goldie Hawn's mail? Right. You're right. Right. Since somebody course correct this kid, I'm busy. Yeah. Yeah. I I you know, these these charm moments, I I didn't even I mean, I remember that moment, of course, but when you bring it up, it all comes back to life. Yeah. It's yeah.
Lucky to have it on film. I saw that you had taken your piano, your upright piano to your dorm room in college that I live in a walk up apartment and I my poor little upright sits in storage waiting for me, penning me love letters and Yeah. That I don't respond to. Yes. Yes. Susan Ruth, LA, California. You know, that's it. Please take me back. You know, I again, my identity is enmeshed in piano. And so I was in Miami, and I had to get as far away from my mother as possible for sanity reasons.
And I got into USC, Southern California, in music. And I thought, well, I'm not going there without my piano. What kid takes their upright piano to a dorm, you know, 3000 miles away? But it was a no brainer. My mom didn't question me. No one questioned me. And we had it shipped there. And my apartment there with 3 other roommates my freshman year became sort of a focal point of that floor in this, you know, tall dormitory that's still there, Webb Tower, if
anyone from SC listens here. We were on the 7th floor, and there was my piano. And, you know, at least once a week, we'd have a gathering of freshmen and mostly freshmen, but some sophomores, you know, hanging out and singing in our apartment. It became my way of meeting people. It's how I got in a fraternity, which me in a fraternity, seriously. But I walked in and there was a upright piano and I started playing, and I got in the fraternity.
As soon as I realized what I stepped into, I deactivated, they call it, as soon as you become a member. I deactivated the following year because it wasn't for me. But, again, it was that beckoning thing in this foreign frat house with a bunch of dudes drinking beer, and I I I hate beer. I'm sorry. And so, you know, there's the piano, and and it was just my thing. So, yeah, it's always it's always been with me. Did you know that you had an extraordinary talent?
Because there I've seen piano players, myself included, who know how to sort of, you know, play a piano or at least fake it till you make it. But then there are people that play the piano and it's it's transports you to another world, which I would put you in that category having seen you perform now Thank you. Where there's such a nuance to it. Yeah. I didn't always have that.
I think I think I in in my younger years, I I overplayed a lot and that became just my thing and it was always joyous and people always connected but now I enjoy when I I enjoy when I play more. I find that less really is more, and it's the way you play. An an incredible composer, human being, I think he's in his early eighties now, Artie Butler, who did most of the Barry Manilow, arrangements and just an incredibly talented pianist and arranger, said something to me that I'll I'll never forget.
I heard him play and he was literally, like, barely touching the keys. And I said, Artie, when you play that chord that way, it makes me listen more. I I wanna know what you're doing. And he said, sometimes the more quiet you play, the louder it is for someone. You know, I just was like, oh, shit. Artie, that's fucking brilliant. I try to take that in to what I do now. And you saw me at the Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, which I love that place. And I've decided it's not the place I wanna sing.
I just wanna play because I kind of like that vibe. It makes people feel less obligated to listen to you when they're having dinner. They're out on a date. They're out on a business meeting. If you're singing, it's sort of more intrusive. So this is just my take. And so I sit there and I play. And, you know, last Wednesday, I was playing. I don't have a tip jar because it's kind of I don't wanna say gauche, but it's not the place for it. And people were dropping off twenties on my
music desk saying, thank you. You made our dinner. And, I mean, it was it was overwhelming because I was just sitting there playing whatever came to my head. You know, there was a celebrity chef there. He's got a sort of storied path, so I won't mention his name. But he invited me over to the booth and said, hey, can you play any Doctor. John? And I said, so I grabbed my cell phone and I called up his song Wrong Place Right Time or whatever it is, Right Place Wrong Time.
And I was listening to it and playing it, you know. Must have been the wrong time. Could've been an old night. Something like that. And I was just playing it while I was listening to it, and and he was like, how do you do that? And I said, I don't know. If I hear the song and I somewhat know the song and it's not like the rack 3 by Rachmaninoff, I can I can play it? And that's always freaked people out, and I love love
doing that. I get that. Also, you spent a lifetime with this instrument, so you know what it sounds like. It's your baby. My friend. Yeah. It's, I'm I'm lucky to have it, you know, and I still have that upright because my my mom and dad bought it for me when I was 5. And so it went from Jersey to Miami to LA. And now I've had it I had it rebuilt. It's it's now a cobalt blue in color. And I took off the name Kohler and Campbell because
who cares about that brand? And I put Chester and Sons on the fallboard. So it's it's totally my piano, and I'll never get rid of it. A lot of cool songs were written on that piano by me. I I think they're cool, but what do I I don't know. Yeah. And it is they it becomes a member of your family. It's Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And that you'll pass on to your kids if you have kids, you know? Yeah. I got 2 boys and, one's 21, one's 18. My 21 year old is in New York City doing his music, and
his voice is remarkable. And his name is Truman, and he writes music like it's second nature to him. And then Marcello, he was doing music. He was doing the screamo band, which he was the lead singer in. And, you know, I gotta tell you, I don't think I dislike any music. I see something and everything. And even the stuff he was screaming was like, that's it's kinda cool. I I get the emotion. I get the passion. Would I play it? No. But I get it. So, I'm not sure that's something he's
gonna pursue. He's still he's 18. He's figuring it out. But, but Truman is, you know, full time New York doing it, and, you know, I just hope it all works out. It's It's a tough business. Oh my gosh. It's so hard. Yeah. And you have a you've got a game on the child naming. Thank you. Yeah. True is the it's, you know, it's it's an emotional story about it because, you know, he was he was named after my dad whose name was Elliot. And so everyone said, why don't you name him Elliot?
And I said, I I don't think I can call my son my dad's name. It just doesn't feel right to me. So, you know, I I mean, to me, Truman and Elliott as his middle name made sense. So, in my mind, he's the true Elliott. I lost the argument for the second name. Although I love Marcello, you you know, my idea was to call, my name for him would have been Emmett, but my wife hated that name. And in Hebrew, Emmett means true. And I thought, oh, we'd have a whole true theme
going. That didn't work. So but I he's Marcello. He's not Emmett, and I, you know, I adore them both. Yeah. I always think about when babies are born that they must whisper their names to you or something. Something like that maybe. 8,000 books that I had taken an interest in were guiding me to what name speaks to me. And, you know, when that whole true Elliot thing came, I thought, oh my god. That's it. I mean, it was clear. And there was a moment we were thinking
of naming him Elliot Truman. And then I said, I I can't do it. I can't can't call him Elliot. And then he looked like a Truman. And Marcello looked like a Marcello. So you're you're right. I I think they adapt to what you named them. They become that. Yeah. I say it a lot on this show. I don't think my parents got my name right. I don't know what my name is. I don't think Oh, wow. Yeah. It's weird. It's never fit me for whatever reason. Alright. Well, I'll try to think of something.
I I I'll do it in a song though. Oh, I got it. Susie. Oh, won't you hold me when I'm blue? Oh, wait. No. That's Goldie. Never mind. I'll figure it out. When you went off to college, I understand it's when you started receiving letters from your mom. Oh. Oh, Jesus. You know too much. Yeah. He began writing me snail mail. We didn't have cell phones then, so there were no calls, really. And they were ridiculously hysterical, mostly very short letters.
Sometimes there would be a couple of valid weird points, but it would always end with some tidbit of insanity. It was blah blah blah, don't drink rainwater, you know, a whole paragraph of crap ending with, yes, there's a resistant form of gonorrhea going around. Wear a condom. And I saved them all because I knew they were insane. And and one day, I was just the book came out smother, s apostrophe mother. Abrams Publishing did it. I got signed for a TV deal before I wrote the book,
which was crazy. And the TV show, it never got off the ground. I'll finish that story in a second. And then I saw all these letters. I my wife was like, why don't you start a blog? And so I started a blog based on one of the letters key points. 1 of 1 of 1 of the letters key points, which was please don't eat sushi. Love mom. And that became
the the blog that started this thing. And then I decided I might as well write a book and do a through line of my life around these letters and how I was growing and the letters weren't. I mean, it was just still insanity. And the funny thing is I kept getting re signed by William Morris to do a television show. They were gonna find a, a showrunner to do the script, and it just never took off. But at one point, Jack Black was involved.
I was sitting in an office at one time with Gary Marshall across the desk writing. We wrote, he and I wrote a TV idea. I read it and I hear Gary's voice, you know, but, I was sitting in a room across from a desk for about 4 months with Gary Marshall and that I I tell people that my mother killed Garry Marshall because it was right as we were finishing it that that he died. And I thought, well, you know, that that figure, but it there were some very funny moments.
So cut to now, a dear friend of mine, Bob Kushel, who wrote 3rd Rock god, I hope it was 3rd Rock. He'll kill me if I'm wrong. 3rd Rock is a great show. Wow. What a show. He he's he's brilliant. But he never wrote a movie, and he and I started talking about this idea of this overprotective mom and a musician who happens to work with a famous celebrity as I, you know, work with Elton. He wrote a screen he wrote a screenplay, and now there's a director attached, Andy Fickman, who is,
you know, just wonderfully funny. So we'll see where it goes. But see, all these years after, it that idea still seems to resonate. I I tell my kids, look, you'll be rich. I'll be long gone, but maybe it'll become a success, I hope. But these there's all these fun little projects going on in the back round that keep me smiling aside from just playing. Yeah. So you get out of college and you start playing, with people and you're doing your you're writing your music. Where did Elton come along?
Well, Elton came in second after Barry White. I got introduced to the r and b singer, Barry White, by a friend of mine, Paul Kaufman, and his business partner. And I forget how they knew him, but we met. And Barry was a towering, big human being. And his catchphrase in conversation was show you right. And you would see him, and the first thing he'd say is show you right. You know? And he'd give you a big hug, and you'd be like, I this pretty scary. But he was so cool.
And I was working with him and one of his kids, Barry White Junior, to do an album. And we recorded a couple of songs that I wrote and I played on and I sang. And I was like one day I looked at Barry senior. We were alone in his studio in the valley at his house. I said, Barry, what's Barry Junior doing on the, in the group? And he said, he's gonna dance. And I was like, he's gonna dance. And great. I I didn't get it. I didn't get it. And I I I feel terrible, but I said I can't.
I I don't he's gonna dance? That didn't happen. I was the one who said, you know, I I don't really get it. And I think that really pissed Barry senior off. And I get it because I was basically saying no. You know, here I was this cocky 22 year old kid telling Barry White senior, you don't really wanna work with your son. I don't I mean and I feel terrible because who knows that could have been something.
But it led me to get a job at a record store in in Hollywood, and in walked Elton John's guitarist, Davy Johnstone. I knew who he was immediately because I was a huge Elton fan. And that's why my working with Elton is so ironic to all the kids I know from high school. They're like, you had posters all over your room of Elton. I mean, I I tried to get his glasses when when I first started wearing frames when I was 11 or 10. I mean, I was obsessed with Elton. And here, Davy gets handed in my lap.
We became instant friends. There's nobody else I I love more in this business. Not only one of the greatest guitar players, but truly he and his wife Kaye, incredible human beings. And one day we he was playing live gigs with me around town. This reminds me of something. I was a I was 13 years old in Miami, and my band Thunder and Lightning, stupid name, was with Louis Mizrahi and Wayne Huttman and Jeff Schiff. These names mean nothing to anyone but to me. Okay?
But we were introduced and the camera was there. And when the camera came to introduce an Adam Chester on the keys, I had an itch on my nose. And you tell me what this looks like here. It looks like you're picking your nose. Yes. Horrifying. That was my first big break on television. And I did this when I was with you, and I'm I'm like I was cracking my nose. I'm like, I gotta tell her this story. Anyway, so Davy was playing gigs with me everywhere around LA, and he was recording my original
music with me. And this is the kind of human he is because he thought it was it was great, and he wanted to do it. And then in about 2,004, he came to me and he said, hey, Adam. You know, Elton doesn't like to rehearse. And, the guy we've been using, he's the keyboardist, but he doesn't sing. And now he's not playing keys anymore. Would you be interested in doing it? So, I started rehearsing the band, I guess it was 2,000 5 when we first started having rehearsals.
So almost 20 years. Elton heard a CD they made of me playing and singing his parts. And he's like, let's bring him to Boston and have him rehearse the choir there. So it was in Boston, I got to meet Elton, and we were by a this is just a funny story. We were by a we were in a church rehearsing in Boston, and I'll never forget it. It was 12 noon. And, of course, the church bells were ringing 12.
And I was standing outside the church with Davey, and Elton was on his way in for the first time to rehearse what I had been rehearsing with the band. And Athnot, for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. And I was just thinking this is one of these insanely surreal moments where I'm waiting to meet my hero and these bells are ringing and I'm all nerve. He had heard me on CD. Of course, I had heard him on albums for my entire life. And car pulls up, big limo. That wasn't the place to meet.
And so I went back inside to the church. I waited for him to come up to stage, and we had a hug on stage. We met each other. And I'm sitting at a little keyboard over here, and he's at the piano over there in front of me. The band behind me, the small choir, the voices of Atlanta, they were called, I think, and the crew, the the sound crew. No audience, just, you know, sporadic manager, whatever.
And we start playing these songs from the album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Girl Cowboy because it was the reunion the anniversary tour of that album's release, release, like, whatever it was, 30 years, whatever it was. So Elton hadn't played these songs in decades, except for Someone Save My Life Tonight. That was from that album. Everything else he hadn't played. So he was supposed to have done his homework and come prepared to his first rehearsal.
And so we're in this building either near the church or in the church. Now I don't remember, but but we were there, and he forgot how to play Better Off Dead, ironically, from that album. And we start playing, and he stops all of a sudden, and he can't remember the chord. And he says, Adam, what what is that next chord? And I said, it's I'm telling Elton what his song is in front of everybody. And it was one of those, again, a surreal moment that somebody caught on film because they were filming
it, but I've never seen it. This was 2,005. And I don't even think we had cell phones in 2,005 unless you had General MacArthur's big Yeah. That giant Yeah. Right. I didn't have access to that that moment, unfortunately. There we were, you know, rehearsing that song, and he kinda got it. And we went on to the next song, and then he got kind of pissed off that he didn't remember how to play these songs. And he walked off the stage. He was like, fuck this. Nobody wants to
hear this old shit anyway. And he walked off the stage. Out of the auditorium, he's gone. So you have to still picture now the dead silent of all the crew, the small choir, the band, the sporadic members in the audience. I'm at the little keyboard and a microphone, and he's gone. And I said, well, that went well. And everybody started laughing in the band and it was like, oh my god. What do I do now? You know, I called my wife when I got back to
the hotel. And I said, I think I'm coming home. I think the show's canceled. And then the very next day, he was back. He knew his shit. I don't know what happened. But and he said, no. No. No. We're gonna drop that song that I don't wanna do because I really don't wanna play it. Great. And he did most the entire album, and it was it was immaculate. He was incredible that next day of rehearsal. He just had to feel his feelings and get it out and then That's all it
was. You know, and everybody said, you know, he had such a temper and all this nonsense. That was the only time that I personally really experienced anything. He's he's always been nothing but kind to me. Yeah. So He he strikes me having never met him and only have, you know, interviews and and performances to go on. He strikes me as somebody who is exceptional at their craft on a level that is godlike. And I don't mean that in a in a disrespectful way, but in as in god
is speaking through this person. Yeah. And that that's gotta be anyone that can play like that in my humble opinion, and this goes for any artist who can paint like that or sing like that or whatever, they are experiencing the world with such a rawness and understanding that is beyond normal human consumption Yeah. That it's probably gotta be almost like being an open nerve walking through the world, you know. And all these people watching you expecting you to be
perfect Wanting. All the time. Yes. And it's not possible. So, a funny tag to that story as a thank you for my work getting everybody ready, Elton, said, you know, I want you to sing with the choir for the show. There were, like I think it was a 10 member choir. It was very small. It was an all gospel choir. I was the only, white straight Jewish guy in the entire choir. And I would have loved every second of it, but they had these dance moves
that they needed to do. They were doing these very, you know, like, what looked like a salute. They would point. They would turn. They would shake. It was bizarre. And so the night before the first show in Boston, before we went to Madison Square Garden for 3 shows, by the way, I was in my hotel room with one of the members of the choir teaching me these dance moves. I didn't know what the hell I was doing because I don't really dance. I I sit in front of a piano because I don't dance.
I don't like to to do crazy moves. So when we got to the garden, I thought I had to step down by then because it had been several days. And we finished the first show. I walk outside the garden. I'm with some friends and these people stop me. And they said, hey, weren't you that guy on stage singing with Elton? And I said, yeah, I was I was part of the choir. And I thought, oh my god. Somebody recognized me. This is so awesome. And they said, they continued. Did you win your spot to be up there?
Oh, my god. That's hysterical. That's hysterical. Because I I look like an idiot. I'm sure pointing and diluting and turning and all these very not demure moves and Like, did John Oyu money? Or Oh, my god. It was, I mean, I loved singing it. There was one song we did. It's on I put it on YouTube because I found a clip of it someone sent me where the the jumbotron at the garden caught me in split screen with Elton.
So check this out. It was this song from the Cap Fantastic album called Curtains, where it ends with a big, You know, very sing along thing. And the choir was singing it very straight, which for a gospel choir who wasn't straight, it was very, very odd to hear, and I was one night at the Boston Garden, I think it was called then, Davy told me he spoke with Elton and Elton wanted me to continue belting it out and with some gusto.
So I was up there going, and so they put me in split screen at the garden and captured this. And it was like, oh my god. The choir hated me. They they were so pissed because they're like, what? How? What is he doing? This isn't a solo act. You know? And I get it, but I was told to do that. And it was it was mesmerizing for me to be in a split screen with Elton and doing this call and response with him.
And you could see in his face that he was like, And every night, we did I guess we did 2 shows in Boston, maybe 3. And then we did 3 at the Garden. Every night, Baby came to me and said, Elton loves what you're doing. Keep doing it. Do more. And I was like, I'm so by the last night, I grabbed the mic off of the mic stand. I'm like, I'm doing it. You know, I was I I felt so empowered by that because it was like there were no dance steps during that freaking song. And it was about
the passion, and it all came out. It was it was so cool. So cool. That's great. I've I read that you were now called surrogate. That's Davey. Davey called me the surrogate Elton. He he he called me my my secret our secret secret weapon. And then he said, you're my surrogate Elton. And so I thought, surrogate Elton? Well, if you shorten sir, that's sir. So I'm sir Elton with a u r. That makes sense, baby. And he said, I came up with that. You know?
So, yeah, they call me the surrogate Elton then and I'll never do an Elton tribute band. It's it's just not what I do. And I I play and sing his songs as if I wrote them. And that's, I think, what makes them special because I feel so connected to his music having loved him and his music since I was, well, right right after my dad died, I think, is when I really started getting into pop and and, you know, Kapton and Taneil, because Kapton was such an
amazing keyboard player, and Neil Sedaka. And and then I started getting into r and b and Prince and, you know, all the dance groups of the seventies, Tavares, then Earth, Wind, and Fire. You know, that became how do I connect with that music on the piano? How can I play, you know, an earth, wind, and fire song on the piano and make it sound like they do? You know, it became fun. And, you know, I don't think of myself at all. There are piano players who can play rings around me.
But what I do, I think, is special. I I I think I connect to the piano in a way that that is very personal. And and I like to tell people that I I play these songs as if I wrote them because that's when I get close to them. I'm not trying to I'm not trying to do a tribute act. I'm not trying to play them exactly the way they did it unless that's what's being asked. And and when I was rehearsing
Elton, that's what was being asked. We want you to play it the way Elton plays it so when he stepped in, we'll be familiar with what what to do. So in that sense of the word, I was playing very much like he was doing it. But when I'm on my own, I I make them my own.
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And when you sit down at the different pianos, this is something that I guess I didn't realize until I got my first piano that, like, that was mine as an adult, you know, that as I was wandering through the piano store and sitting down and playing, I mean, there were some very expensive pianos, but it wasn't really I wasn't responding to them like I did when I when I finally came upon the one that I chose. It was like a a relationship was immediately
formed. It was such an interesting feeling. Yep. That that so I manage a piano store in Sherman Oaks, called Faust Harrison Pianos. And it's really a great store with a ton of pianos that, you know, vary in prices and size and whatever. But, you know, people ask me on a daily, what's your favorite piano in here? And I say, it depends on the day because it's a different piano sometimes. Sometimes I'm I'm not connected with that piano the way I was this one today.
In a a different store I was working in in LA called David Abel's for a while, John Bryan came in, who's a very famous composer for movies, scores. He did I Heart Huckaby. He's a genius, and and he produced, Fiona Apple's album. He said something to me in the piano store that I never forgot. He said, some pianos have songs to sing, and and and they're not done singing them, you know. And I thought, well, okay.
And I I get it, you know. I just was given I was gifted a baby grand piano by some friends of ours, and I wrote a song on it. You know, like, the first night I had it there, it it I was lucky. It it sang to me, and it's an instrumental song. I sent it to my son, Truman, and I said, you think it needs lyrics? And he came up with some lyrics, and I thought, some of these are actually pretty good. Maybe this could be a father son duo
thing. Who knows? Whenever I play the chord, I'm like, this is different, and this is this is special. It's called I forgot who I was, and it's it's really deep and very kinda cool. Nice. Beautiful. Yeah. Thanks. And you can be seen playing out and about in in LA. Yep. The Georgian Room at the Georgian Hotel on Wednesdays, that's in Santa Monica. The Sunset Marquis, most Tuesdays, that's a sing along party. You know, I can't get away with just playing there. I gotta sing, and it's it's a party.
And then on occasion, the Chateau Marmont, which is, again, just one of those Hollywood iconic places. And I'm like, oh my god. Belushi died here. I you know. And his ghost is there. Everybody's ghost is there. Yeah. Crazy. I like that place. It's got so much stuff going on. Lot of stuff, you know, you just look around, you're like, focus, focus, focus. Yeah. You know? Well, not on just but the energy of that place is real wild. Yeah. Yeah.
They all have their own different energies. The Georgian is where Dick Van Dyke got his start in vaudeville over 60 years ago, and they redid the room as a speak easy. It's so beautiful. Yeah. I I I adore it. The food is impeccable also. Pretty damn good. I know. I know. I'm trying to eat light, but, it's so good there. So good. I'm not a great piano player. I can get by on a couple things. I I wish I my piano was here because practice, practice, practice is the only way.
Mhmm. But I do for whatever reason, when I pick up a guitar and I play it, like, I could play the guitar. I could play the rhythm of it and all that, but there's something there's something about a piano. And Yeah. My question is, I think a a lot of people are intimidated by the piano. Mhmm. Not just because of its size, but just it seems like so much math.
You know, it seems complicated. And anytime I see a a piano in an alleyway that's been abandoned, you know, or or, you know, come take my piano free, I I just add Yeah. What is some maybe advice for people that are are intimidated by the instrument? It's all the same notes. There's only 12 tones and they just repeat. So once you get the pattern of where everything is, the black keys are 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3. It it's all the same. So while it may be mathematical, I'm terrible in math.
But to me, the the image is very clear. And it's the space in between these black notes where these white notes fall, and they just repeat. They're all the same. And it's just okay. So where do I wanna start? The black notes are sort of, like, dreamy that way. And then there's all the white notes which sound less dreamy. And there are only really 12 different tones, which are if you combine the white and the black notes. And that's it. And then it just keeps repeating and repeating.
I tell people who are intimidated to not be afraid to make mistakes because it it's the mistake it's when you make the mistake that your ear should say, what was that? And how do I make that resolve in a way that is different? You know, this chord. And keep building it kinda creepy crawly even if you have to. But to resolve somewhere, then it makes sense. You know? You know, going up or down. It can go so many places. It's insane. It's this is all the same thing, but it represents infinity.
So if you can sort of grapple with the idea that it's okay to do what sounds like an error and then resolve it to something if you must, and you've got a film score. And then you play that wrong note, and then then you've got a film score. It's like this episode of Star Trek when this is how much of a geek I am. The original Star Trek when McCoy, doc the doctor, gets infinite brain power, and he knows how to repair Fox brain. And he says to to captain Kirk, he says,
Jim, this is child's play. It's so easy. It's child's play. And he eventually forget because the power runs out after a certain period of time. And and Spock helps him repair his own brain. But I get back to my point. It it's almost child's play that it's so complicated, yet it's so easy to just sit here and go and land where you may and then make it work. Yeah. Yeah. You just have to be willing to do anything. So that's my childlike advice to keeping it as simple and innocent
as possible. It's it's a plethora of crap that you can make sense out of. Well, that's the freedom that children have that we somehow lose. Yeah. You mustn't lose it. You mustn't lose it. That, yeah, that that ability to just create out of nothing and not worry about what it means. Correct. Not worry about what it sounds like because sometimes the most offensive chord can be different. I'm I'm one of those who goes, you know, I make a mistake. Oh, I meant to do that. You know? You
know? Because somehow it makes sense. See, that could be a mistake because I've got an f and an f sharp, which really isn't very pretty. But by filling it with some other notes and then maybe moving the whole thing down or up then it starts making more sense. Film score number 4. Also, nobody really knows our mistakes Right. On the outside world. That's us. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Do you have a website that people can track your schedule and come see you? It's, adamchester.com.
I'm on instagram@_adamchester. But, yeah, I always promote on Facebook, for all of my, older friends because none of my kids friends look at Facebook. It's like, what the heck is that? I promote on Facebook, Adam Chester. Yeah. And I'll put links on heyhumanpodcast.com so people can find stuff really easily. Brilliant. Thank you so much. This this was a blast. You're the best. Thank you for listening, everyone.
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