Ivan Neville

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Bob left Said podcast. My guest today is the one and only Ivan Never, who has a new solo album, Touch My Soul. Ivan, you haven't put out a solo album for almost twenty years. Why now? Yeah?

Why not?

You know, VENI late than Never, I guess I was kind of just playing around, playing with my band Dumpster Funk, doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and it occurred to me, oh, let's write a song, Ivnant, and I kind of just came up with a tune, and next thing you know, I got a whole record going on.

So yeah, okay, So how do you know it's a solo record and not a Dumpster Funk record.

Ah, I think you can tell. It's not as funky. It's got a little grease. It's is soulful, but a few more ballads and few more mid tempo, kind of soft kind of.

Sounding things, and.

Topic wise, it's a little more personal from my point of view than with Dumpster So yeah, there's a few few elements that will let you know it's not a dumpster record.

Well, I certainly listened to the record and the record is great. You know, I'm not saying that than you, because you know people of aren't vintage and make new music and usually roll in your eyes. But I guess what I'm saying. In the writing process, how did you know you had a solo album and not a Dumpster Funk record?

You know, it's funny, it's it's it's uh.

The thing about it is, those guys are playing on a lot of this record. The members of Dumpster Funk are playing with me, Tony Hall, Devin Truss, Claire uh ian Neville, Nick Daniels, the whole lot of them in some some form of fashion. They're all involved in this thing.

And we meet up in the middle somewhere.

But in this process, I was guiding the ship the whole time, whereas in Dumpster Funk we take turns driving kind of so to speak.

But here I was doing all the driving.

Okay, do you normally write songs or you suddenly got inspirations that I want to write a set of songs? What was the genesis?

Well, I do write a lot.

I have written a lot with Dumpster Funk, and I've written a lot of lyrics and a lot of ideas that we've had as a group. I've had a big part in a lot of the songwriting. And I wrote some songs maybe a few years ago for a project called Neville Jacobs with a friend of minees by the name of Chris Jacobs. He lives in Baltimore, great singer songwriter, and he and I had a project and we did a little dabbling and co wrote some things, and he actually helped me with a few of these songs as well.

Okay, so you get all the demos, you talk about going into the studio. What's the situation. You have a home studio, use commercial studio? What studios?

It was part It was mostly home studio stuff and a couple of different spots. And it wasn't like I was dem I was I was making it up as I went along, basically, So it wasn't like I demoed and then cut the songs. I was making it up and putting parts on and building the tracks and that's what they became. And it was not like I was going to record them again, like I would build a song with just a piano piece. And maybe this thing

And yeah, so have you heard Steve Winwood's version of why Can't We Live Together?

You know what, I've never heard that. I'm interested to hear that.

You know, you hear the you hear the beat box on the original Timmy Thomas, it's the same song. It's not like it's completely it's really great. As a keyboard player, I think you would enjoy it. But are you technically savvy? Are you a good engineer in the studio.

I am not technically savvy at all.

You know.

The thing is, I there was a period in the late eighties when I did a lot of my own recording. I had a place in Los Angeles where I wrote a lot of songs for my first record, and I did a lot of the engineering.

But this was before it.

Went high tech and it went computer digital and stuff like that, and I was given I was pretty good with a drum machine and all that stuff back then, But for this project kind I kind of dumb me down a little bit, and I haven't really kept up with some of the technical progression that we've made. And

Yeah, okay, the opening track, as you say, is all together. There are a lot of special guests, your father, Bonnie, Ray, Michael McDonald, trompone Shorty. How did they end up on the record? How do you actually record?

Well, that they were These pieces were all done separately in their respective homes or their studios that they go to wherever they live. Like Bonnie has an engineer near her house where she lives in northern California, and she had someone she sang. I sent her the song. Now, the funny thing was Michael McDonald. I had cross paths with him over the last several years, maybe about six or seven years ago, there was a project that I was a part of. It was a live performance thing.

Well.

He happened to be in New Orleans. Oh, he was coming to New Orleans.

And this was like four years ago, like a little bit right before the pandemic. He was coming to New Orleans and I get I text sent them a text. I'm like, Mike, I got this. Oh you're gonna you're gonna be in New Orleans? How long you're gonna be down here for? And we kind of he hit me up and yeah, I'm gonna be down there for a

He did. It was amazing.

It was amazing listening to him, listening to his voice, especially when he left, and me and the engineer we were just listening back at Michael McDonald's voice. This amazing, you know, distinctive voice that I loved. Right, And then I got I've got my dad.

To sing some stuff. And the funny thing was the stuff my dad saying.

For some reason, it didn't I didn't get the right stuff from my dad initially.

And then Bonnie.

I had just finished touring with Bonnie maybe a year before that, and I was I had played you. I known Bonnie for many years, so I found the right time, and I'm like, I got this song, Bonnie, I'm gonna have my dad on it. I got Mike McDonald on it, and I'd love for you to sing on it. And so she she, she said, Okay, send me the song. I said to the song. She dug it. She got with her engineer and she sang a bunch of stuff. Find So I got it back and I listened and

I sent it.

I ended up.

Mike McDonald text me and says, hey, how's it going with that song? Do you need anything else for me? I'm like, yes, sure, I want to do a couple. You want to do a couple of little ad libs?

Perhaps?

And he sang a few ad libs and he sang some little ooh stuff in the beginning. So the first voices you hear on this song is Mike McDonald. He goes in the beginning. So anyway, long story show. I ended up and then I called my dad. I said, Dad, I said, listen, I didn't really get exactly what I need it from you, but I need you to do. I need about five or six just classic Aaron Neville yoldas. You don't even have to sing any words. I just

And so I ended up with all this beautiful stuff.

And that's where I really had a fun time, sitting with an engineer. It was this guy, this guy name is Basie Bob, who helped me with edit all this stuff.

And he mixed that song.

And we sat in his studio and listened to this stuff, and we listened to me singing, and here comes a Bonnie rate little line. Here comes to Mike McDonald line, and let's put an Aaron Neville yola right here. And it was a beautiful thing. I had so much fun doing that.

Okay, So, as I referenced earlier, we're older, the world has changed, acts put out new records and they immediately disappear. So you finished the record. It doesn't sound sounds like you did. Didn't cost that much. How did you ultimately find a record company it amp it up for release.

Well, that that was a I owed. I owed something. I old Dumpster Funk for that.

Dumpster Funk had been talking to this label of the Mascot label group to do a Dumpster Funk record. Now, Dumpster Funk had music in the can that we had been working on over the past, you know, of five, six or seven years, and so we had some stuff that we had gathered up, some music. And then so when Dumpster got to deal with this label, I had this one song, his hay all together song that was done.

And this is like I'm talking, this is doing two.

This is like two twenty twenty when they said during the pandemic twenty twenty twenty twenty one or something like that, when Dumpster got to ink the deal with Mascot label group, and they offered me a side a deal as well based on the one song. So now we worked the Dumpster record a little bit, we played tour and all that stuff, and now it's time for me. I have to write about eight or nine more songs. That's basically what happened.

Yeah, okay, so the record is done. You're talking to me, but how do you plan to get the word out? And you're gonna go on the road as I've been.

Right, Well, I plan on going on the road this ivan where it makes sense, especially early on, and then I'm gonna incorporate some of this stuff, maybe one or two things where where it also.

Makes sense with Dumpster Funk.

I might even do some double duties with Dumpster when where we can where I might open up some Dumpster Funk sets some shows and do an Ivan set. But I'm gonna do whatever I have to do to get this music out there, to get it get it heard by some folks. So I'm ready to play.

You know. So what's it like having your father be Aaron Biftels.

You know, it's pretty cool because he's a he's a very cool guy man, and it was very you know growing up with him. He was he was larger than life, you know when I was a kid, but for.

Many reasons, not just because he was this singer guy.

Because when I was young, he hadn't really found any like real success like he had. He was known around town a bit, and I knew that by the time I was maybe seven years old or something. He had this big hit song called tell It Like It Is, and we we I remember hearing that song and everybody's saying, this is going to be a hit record.

And all this stuff. And he didn't make he didn't make any money.

Off of that that music, so we didn't wait, wait.

Wait, since I'm talking to you, do you have any idea if it was a big hit record. While he didn't make any money.

The business side was not together at all, and the people involved, you know, there was a there were a lot of shady dealings going on in those days, and somebody made some money, I'm sure, because it sold a lot of a lot of copies and it was maybe made it to maybe number.

Two anyway, But this guy is big.

He was He was generally a big guy, and he was kind of tough and he I saw the respect that he commanded from the people on the streets. I'm talking about in the neighborhood. Like, not music people, I'm talking about street people. They respected this guy, Aaron Neville was respected, you know, not only in the music but on the street. I mean, you know, he's got a tattoo in his face. He had a tattoo in his

So you know what it was.

It was very cool growing up with him, and then when I got to be a teenager, he and I got really close again.

For there was some reasons that, you know, there.

Was a time when he and my mom kind of didn't see i'd I, and so I got to spend a little bit of time with him as a teenager, and he kind of treated me like I was kind of a grown up a little bit, and I felt pretty cool to get to hang with him during that period. And sooner later, him and my mom they ironed things out and we were back together as a family. And by this time I started playing piano, and he showed me a couple of songs on the piano he showed me the first songs that I lunged how to play.

Well when he was when they were young, he was a bad dude.

And my mom's folks didn't like my dad too much, so they changed my name from Aaron to Ivan, and I still have his middle name. His name's Aaron Joseph Neville Senior. My name is Ivan Joseph Neville. I have a younger brother who later was he was named Aaron James never Junior. So I was able to grow up being the oldest of my siblings and kind of known as Little Aaron but I was Ivan, so I had my own identity, which I didn't have to totally live

How many kids in the family.

I have two brothers and his sister, and I'm the oldest.

And what are your two brothers and your sister up to?

My sisters retired? She but ye know, she retired and she works. She works works in a civil sheriff's office. She's been working there. She worked there for thirty some years and retired. My youngest brother, Jason, he sings and he performs. He's got a band. He plays around town in New Orleans. His name is Jason Chason Neville. And my other brother, little Aaron, we call him Fred's. He took on his own identity too. His nickname is Fred. But he's Aaron Jr. And he does all kinds the

Okay, so your father has this huge hit when you're like seven, while you're growing up, does your father what's he doing for a living? Is he singing for a living or does he have another job?

He was singing, and he had other jobs as well, Like there were times when he was singing and he would go on the road, in which I got to tell you, I would I would welcome the times when he was gone.

There were times when he would leave because he was a tough guy.

He was a tough He was a stern father figure in our house, and when he was gone it would seem a.

Little easier around around for me.

I could get away with more stuff with my mom than I could with my dad.

But he when he was around, he played music.

He had some jobs and he played with my uncle aunt and stuff like that.

But he also had jobs working on the riverfront.

I remember one time he showed up at the house with a van would have sit with cigarettes and I can remember the Yeah, the van had like cigarettes and candy and stuff. He had all kinds of jobs, all kinds of little jobs. But the riverfront was a was a mainstay. That was his bread and butter. Like when he didn't have any singing jobs, he would go work on the riverfront.

So my mom worked.

My mom worked, she worked, She worked at Charity Charity Hospital in New Orleans. My whole child, all my childhood.

Yeah, I was gonna ask about that. Thanks for answering telling me the story. So until you he had come with age like eighteen, does your father ever strike it rich or is he struggling and doing different stuff while you're growing up?

You know, he didn't strike it rich, but he was maintaining. By the time I was eighteen, the Neville Brothers had started playing as a group. He and my uncles, my uncle Art, Charles and Cyril. They started playing as the Neville Brothers around nineteen seventy seven, I would think, And they started, uh seventy seven, seventy eight, and they started They were making decent money as they started out, And then I started playing with them pretty early on, like maybe late.

Seventy eight, early seventy nine. I started playing with the Nevill.

Brothers as as an additional keyboard player and singing backups and stuff.

So, what what kind of kid were you growing up?

I was pretty I was pretty smart early on, and I started acting up, and I liked sports a lot. But you know, I was pretty excitable. I was pretty like fidgety and talked a lot. I told you know, I was. I would tell a lot of stories and stuff, and I was a pretty good kid.

But I liked sports.

I like play football, and I was musically inclined.

I knew that I had I had a slight ability to sing a little bit, but I was very shy about it. And I did pick up a guitar when I was about ten years old, and I asked my mom. I said, Mom, I wanted guitar. She bought me a guitar from the five and dime store. It was a little electric Japanese electric model with a little some little little amp. And I would play a little bit. I'd play a couple of bass lines or guitar lines from Sliner family Stone songs, maybe simple sing a simple song

Okay, you said you were living with your father. Your father showed your stuff. Go a little deeper. How you picked up the piano.

Okay, Now, so at the time I was I was living, I was I was living with my mom. When I started going up to my dad's house, he was still living in our old house where we had where I had grown up at. And then when my mom and him he got back together. We were all together on a street called Valence Street, and Valence Street was pretty much Neville Central. My uncle Art lived down the block a block away. My grandmother's house, where my dad and

They were all around and my dad.

We had my mom's She was my mom's piano that she played as a kid. She took piano lessons as a child and her mother and her parents bought her a piano. And that piano was in our living room in our house uptown, and I would sit down and fool around my dad. You know, there was a guy by the name of James Booker, and James Booker was a family friend. He went to grade school with my dad, he went to high school with my mom, and he

That's some cool stuff. So my dad taught me a song.

I think he taught me the song called Cabbage Alley, which was a meters song. My uncle Art it was a riff my uncle Art and it was kind of a riff that he had kind of got from Professor long Here, and I learned that song first. I think my dad taught me Such a Night by Doctor John. He taught me that, and one time when Booker was visiting, he taught me a song by Professor long Here called Big Chief. And those were my first ones that I that I kind of would fool around with.

And I immediately.

Started making up little songs, like I started trying to write pretty quickly, and I was just that was it?

What was the inspiration to write? I don't know.

I've listened to the radio all the time, and I liked, you know, I liked all the local music that New Orleans is just known for all the stuff that.

You hear around and you hear on the radio, but.

You'd also hear this other stuff you'd hear, you know, like like I liked a lot of different music as a kid. I liked the Beatles, I like the Stones, I liked the Family Strong Jackson five. But in the early seventies there was a lot of great music that was playing that I had really dug a lot, like Elton John stuff and later on the Doobie Brothers at late seventies, and there was I started wanting to try to write songs.

How did you end up becoming proficient at the piano?

I just I don't know. I just kind of kept doing it.

I kept at it, I kept playing a little bit, and I kept I would sit down and just make up little chord progressions. And when I was in high school, when I was in eleventh and eleventh to twelfth grade, I was in the stage band and the teacher, his name was mister Francis. He would let me sit in the back room. There was a little piano room, and he'd let me sit in there and just play around. And I would just be in there, playing and making

You know, Okay, New Orleans is its own world, and really the average person doesn't understand it in terms of music. There was a heyday with Fats Domino. Then Doctor John got signed to Atlantic in the early seventies, there was another push. But explain New Orleans to us and where you lived in the city.

I can only explain New Orleans by talking about the signature dish. And it's called gumbo, and it's kind of a mixture of everything. It's a little bit of this like gumbo from when I was growing up and my mom and they made gumbo.

They had a little bit, a little bit.

They put some chicken, they'd have some seasoning onions, bell peppers, celery, and garlic. They mix in a little bit of that. They saltaste some chicken. They add some sausages to it. They add some shrimp, some crab meat, and they would make this thing called the root. And by the way, my mom's maiden name, my mom's family's name was root l o Ux, So they knew something about making a root.

And that's the second line.

And it's like, so there was music involved in every aspect of New Orleans life, and it's all about the celebration. And you know, I don't know, there's something about the mixture of that, and you got the Caribbean vibe.

You got the Caribbean rhythms that you hear in New Orleans music.

How that was a cross influence, like the Caribbean was influenced by New Orleans music, like reggae reggae was influenced by New Orleans music, as New Orleans was influenced by all those sounds from all over the Caribbean and things of that nature.

So, man, there's a it's just so uh so gumbo.

Gumbo is the simplest way for me to put how I you know what I I mean when you think of all of the count and you think of doctor John, and you think of the Professor long Hair's and and and uh and the Meters and and Alan Tucson, and then you got the Marcella's family, the Neville family, the Baptiste family, the Lasti family, all these music the Andrews, all these musical families and and just it's it's it's

Okay, let's talk more socially. You know, Bourbon Street, Party Street. Then you go to the other side of town. You have big homes. You have to lane where you grew up. What was it like, and you know, did the experience racism? You know, what was it like just living in the world.

Yeah, there was, there was. There was definitely some racism.

And you know, the neighborhoods in New Orleans is so unique because you know, where I live right now, it's not much different than where I lived long time ago, back in the days on Valence Street. Right now, if I walk three blocks toward the lake.

I'm in the hood.

I mean I'm in I'm in a neighborhood called Central City where they might you might hear some gunshots go off around there on a regular basis. You gotta watch it, watch it back, you know, you know, be aware of your surroundings and stuff like that.

Anyway, but if you walk three blocks toward the river.

You in a place called what you called, it's called uh hang On hang On Garden District.

The Garden District is lots of old beautiful New.

Orleans homes and it's obviously predominantly white, you know, And that's kind of how New Orleans has always been.

I mean, when I grew up on Vallence Street, we.

Had a little area I would say in between Colisseum Street or maybe Perry Street. Perry Street to the River was predominantly black, but so so. And I lived three or four blocks from Perry Street, but if I walked half a block across Perry Street, it was it was. It was similar to the Garden District. It was white neighborhoods. And it was when I when I've come to know as like maybe old old white New Orleans money, you know.

And St.

Charles Avenue was within walking distance from my house growing up. And Saint Charles Avenue is absolutely old, big gazillion dollars, million dollar homes. They look like, you know, they're like mansions. And some of them also some of them take on there. There's a few of them that have like a plantation vibe to them. I ain't gonna lie, right, but.

There was this thing.

There was a division because Marti Gros, the Mardi Gras parades were that was most that was uh, that was mostly for white people. So the black people had their one parade, it's called the Zulu Parades. So they figured they would mock themselves and they would go and be on floats in blackface, and that's that's that parade is one of the most popular, most beloved parades of all But it's still and mind you don't want to tell you the truth. It's you would think it would be

I went to predominantly white school in grade school from first grade all the.

Way through seventh and that school is still predominantly white. And that's that blows my mind, you know, and the

Good morning? Stuff like that, And it's.

Over the last especially recently, you know, you know, people because because everybody's opinions about this and that, political beliefs, religious beliefs and all this, we've we've come to let our opinions divide us so drastically. Whereas I think, you know, I guess for a long time, maybe in politics a lot of us agreed to disagree about some things, but

The things of that nature.

So you know, this song hey altogether is basically I was trying to, you know, say something without being preachy, but have put a positive spin on. Look, if we just all if people just send hi to one stranger a day, if you walking down the street and you see somebody you've never seen in your like, you say hey, how you doing? And that person responds it says, oh, hey,

Okay, so do you finish high school?

I did.

I finished high school. I finished graduated from Walter oh Coin Senior High School. I had, by the way, I had going to several schools.

I did.

I did a few little hands antics that went on starting with my I think in seventh grade, I started acting a little bit out and I, okay, moved around, But I did. I finished high school. I went to college. How long did you go to college? I went to college for a couple of semesters, maybe three semesters, and I and I quit.

I started playing with the news a.

Little bit slower. How did you quit college and end up playing with the devil Brood?

I was still I was in college, and I was going let me see, I was going to university in New Orleans. And I had my band. I had a band that me and some of my friends, a band called Renegade, And we were playing around, playing like you know, like wedding receptions or school dances and stuff like that, and a couple of frat parties here and there, and I just kind of didn't I wanted to study, and I knew that I should have studied harder. I knew that I really wanted to I needed to apply myself

Okay, how did you literally start playing with your dad and your uncles because they had a group. I mean, you know, do they want to let you in?

Right? No, that's that's a good question.

I don't know what were they thinking.

You know the funny I'm gonna I'm gonna go back a little bit and tell you My first paying gig was with my dad.

My dad he had a gig playing for a house party.

This group of people that purchased this club called the five oh one Club that is now known as Tippetinas, one of the most beloved and famous UH venues to play in New Orleans. Tippotina's. There's a group of people that that that bought that club. They used to have house parties that were in a basement in a house on Calton Avenue, and my dad was hired to play a party for them.

So he got me.

He got my great uncle George Landry Beating, also know his big Chief Jolly of the watch oppatuita jolly. Myself and my dad performed at these folks party and he there was a piano, there was a set of Hunger drums, there was a cow bell and tambourine, and we all accompanied one another and we played some songs together and there was a lot of weed smoke going on in this party.

It was a fun party and all of that kind of stuff. Back then.

This was magnets is in the seventies. This is like maybe nineteen seventy seven, seventy six, seventy seven. And my dad paid me one hundred dollars. He gave me a hundred dollar bill. After the night was done, I was like, what one hundred dollars for this? I got to play music and smoke pot and I got a hundred hundred dollars for that. I like that, so shortly after when my dad and his brother started the Neville Brothers. Now I eased into it. Now I didn't immediately start playing.

They did.

They did.

I think it was their second or third tour they did. They toured California, and I think it was called the Mardy Gra Mambo, and it was the Neville Brothers along with Doctor John and maybe I made I think it was the Neville Brothers Doctor John, and I think and it was. And they brought along my great uncle, Big Chief Jolly, and it was the Never brother with the Wild Chopp of Toolers and Doctor John opened the show. And I went along as dressed up as an Indian,

Come play somebody that funk and clavinet on right place. I would go play the right place, wrong time with him lavinet.

And that was my.

First uh uh entry into being with the Never Brothers band. Then when we got back home, I had started writing some songs. They let me come join the band. I came in the band. I started playing the second or third keyboard because they were at the time.

There was another keyboard player.

There was a guy named Jerald Chilman, my uncle Art, and here comes Ivan as well. So there was three keyboard players in that version of Neville Brother's band.

Okay, you said your father was a tough guy. Were your uncles like Campa? Were they different?

Oh? They were, you know what, They were very in their own ways, like Art.

Was more of the father, I would say, kind of a father figured all of them. To everybody, and he was kind of he was the big brother, and they all respected art. And how I looked at my dad. I saw how my dad and him looked at art. So art scared the.

Crap out of me.

When I was young, I was like, I was behaving really well when I was around art.

Usually at all times.

We got really close and we started playing music together.

But my uncle Cyrriel was the youngest of the brothers, and he was closer in age to me and so, but he had a wild streak in him, and he was kind of the one that was more apt to go kind of buck wild and kind of had to keep an eye on soil back back then.

And my uncle.

Charles was the quiet one who was probably the most lethal of all of them as far as being being a tough guy. Charles is probably the most dangerous one of all. But he was quiet, very soft spoken. But don't get on his bad side, do not. He would quietly give you a look like okay, and you would know, you would know, okay, okay, I'm gonna shut my mouth up.

Not only are you going on the road leaving the home still a teenager making money with your father. So what do I know, the eye fage guy and this is long before smartphones, etc. They go on the road, they're drinking and drugging, you know, having sex whatever. That is part of the road. But you're also out with your father.

So what was your experience Like I was, Hey, I was the youngest one, and those guys were all like mostly kind of they were all married and stuff like that at the time.

So I was definitely doing all of that, all of the above. I was drinking, drugging, I got a lot of the overflow. I got a lot of the women that those guys didn't spend time. They didn't you know, they were like busy being cool guys, and they I would do all of the dirty work for them. Believe me, I know. I loved that. Part of it is weell because I had to think for drinking and doing drugs. I really enjoyed that stuff at that time. I really did.

Okay, So how does it evolve from you playing in the Double Brothers to the next thing.

I ended?

I wrote a bunch of songs. I started writing a little bit more. I got an opportunity to go to California once with UH and and perform and record with a group called Rufus Rufus Uh you might know Rufus and Shaka Khan.

Shaka was the singer with the band Rufus.

Well, they did a recording that Shaka wasn't wasn't was not involved in it, and I was on a.

Record with them.

The record was called Sealed and Red, and I sang some of the songs. I wrote a song that was on that record and played keyboards on some of the stuff. And that was my first real trip to Los Angeles

Pretty pretty, pretty pretty good, and.

That kind of UH that that that in a later time that would come, that relationship would come back and I would I would explore more stuff with them. But around nineteen eighty four eighty three, I went back to Los Angeles and I moved to Los Angeles, maybe eighty two eighty three, probably eighty.

Three eighty three.

I moved to Los Angeles and I met a friend who was playing, who had previously played.

With the Brothers.

His name was hutch Hutchinson, hug Hutchinson was playing.

He had met Bonnie Raid and some other mutual friends that I knew some I knew of some of these people, but he had joined Bonnie Rate's band. So in nineteen eighty four I got a gig playing with Bonnie Ray and I played with her from maybe eighty four to maybe eighty six or eighty seven, maybe three four years, three years or something like that.

Well, that was a dark period in her career where she lost her.

She she had she she didn't had your loss. You had didn't have the deal at the time, a record deal, and she was mostly playing to like a cult kind of following. But did she had a loyal a loyal following, you know, on the circuit and it was not you know what she would later do in the later in the later eighties, she would And it's basically you know what, it's basically probably a product of what she did.

With her life.

She kind of straightened her stuff out a little bit because we were all partying. It was the eighties, and by the time I left her group, uh, she had she started. She changed her life a bit. And then she's I mean her in her her story. You know, that's her story. But I know she ended up making that record of Nick a time late eighties in that catapult of her career to a whole nother level, and she became a big star.

Okay, you're playing in her band, you gotta check. But are you happy or you say, man, I want to do my own thing, you know what?

I was very happy. And then at some point while while I was not on the road, we had a little studio place we called the Room, and it was on It was on Santa Monica Boulevard, Santa Monica, right off of Vine Street, and it was right near all kinds of other classic Clover studios, which was a famous studio that I think Bruce Springsteen, maybe.

Even maybe even Elvis might have recorded. I don't know.

I heard all kinds of people recorded right across the parking lot from our little place. Paramount Studios was a maybe on the other side of the street, as was SI R. It's a lot of stuff going on around there, and I would be in this place. I started writing songs there. I started developing what would become my first album and my answer if my ancestors could see me now. So basically, when I stopped playing with Bonnie around eighty six or eighty seven, I started working on that music.

But yeah, okay, how does it end with Bonnie?

No, we were I had, I think, I wanted. I wanted.

I wanted to start working more on my own stuff, and I was ready that I had written all these songs and I got a chance to. So I was talking to some people about managing me as well, and I talked to someone that was at the time, Bill Graham was managing my dad and my uncle's and someone over there was talking to me about doing getting getting myself a record deal and stuff like that, and I joined up with them with Bill Graham's management company, and

Okay, how did Diddy Gorchbar end up being the producer I had?

You know, when I met I met Danny through some other mutual friends. So when I was when I did the Dirty Work album, is where I met Steve. No, you know Steve Jordans a matter of fact, No, you know what I met. Jim Keltner brought Steve Jordan to our studio in La one time, and that's when I met Steve Jordan. But when I went to these dirty Work sessions there Steve Jordan was and he and Charlie Drayton were at those sessions and we got acquainted during

He was a cool guy. I just didn't at.

The time, I was really partying heavy and I was one. I was into playing music, but I was into having a good time as well. My priorities I don't know what. I guess the music was at that time. The music was more important, but I still I wanted to have a fun time. And I met with this guy, I think his name was David Segerson and to maybe produce and he I didn't He and I didn't really click, so they said, well we maybe, and I happened to meet up with with Jordan and someone we were doing

There was Coach. That's where I met Coach.

And we were sitting in a room hanging partying, and and I had heard of Coach. I'd heard he had done work with Don Henley and stuff like that. And he was a cat who had been around on the California scene and played with Linda Ronstat and James Taylor and all this stuff.

So I and I met Cooch and he was a cool guy.

And then his name came up, said maybe, how would you feel about working with this guy, Coach Dandy Kochmint And I'm like, yeah, you know what, I just hung out with him like two weeks ago with Jordans and them. Yeah, I could. I could work with that cat. But you know what funny thing was, he wasn't. He didn't let me get away with all my party and ship stuff. When we when we got the recording, he was he put he put the he put the foot down and was like, you know what, dude, this is your record.

Okay, you actually have a hit and you're on MTV. I think that's why I first became aware of you. What was that experience like for you?

It was it was a lot of fun. I was kind of I was a little bit confused because it seemed to me like the label. The people at the record label were not They didn't understand because I was my music was not. I wasn't didn't sound like some guy that was from the Neville family in New Orleans, first of all, and I didn't sound really like a black guy at the time. I was making music that sounded more rock pop kind of stuff. So they didn't really know what to do with me, I thought, and

In a John Ritter movie called skin Deep.

I was doing a lot of stuff, and you think that it would have translated into a little bit more a more success and more uh touring and more money, but you know what, and it was a combination of maybe a little miss uh, I ain't gonna say mismanageable, but them not really knowing what to do with me because I did everything I thought I was supposed to do.

I was getting high as.

A kite on a daily basis, and so that was probably that probably had something to do with some of the non productive factor, because there were times when I did I would I didn't show up for a thing, a thing or two here and there. I maybe didn't show up, or I showed up, and maybe the people were maybe like, damn, I we wish he wouldn't have showed up because I was doing a lot of drugs. I was doing a lot of coke, drinking a lot,

In a big way.

Because by the time the nineties, the nineties hit and then we did I did an. The second record never came out on Poly Poly Door, the follow up never came out. I was pretty I was doing I was pretty heavy into getting high and.

The drug the drug use and all that started.

Taking a uh kind of a uh you know, taking a precedent over the music.

And it was that was I was.

It was more important for me to get loaded than it was to make music. Now I was still making music and I was still playing. I was I did Keeps second record, we did another couple of tours. I

I was in the Viper Room, and it was a hot night.

The Stones were in town that week playing and it was like star studyed. It was like all the musicians. It was a musicians dream to be in this room. I think the band Bernard Fowler and Stevie Sallas and Carmin Rojas had a band and I was playing with them a little bit, and up on stage at some point was all of us, Billy Gibbons from Zz Top, Michael Hutchins from in Excess, and Adam Durrants from County Crows, and it was women like you wouldn't believe in drugs

Now. It took me until nineteen ninety eight to make that change.

And yeah, it was like I got, okay, you have to ru music the VIP room, I mean fun. How do you make the change?

What is that look like it took a long time.

It took some another couple of years, and I was just kind of delving deeper into the drug world, and you know, I was doing you know, I had been doing cocaine and drinking like on a regular basis every day. I was smoking crack at the time I was doing that, you know, I was. I was pretty miserable, and you know, I'm fortunate that I escaped. I had gone to I had gone to rehabs. I had gone to drug treatment centers. I had been to five of them up to this point.

And I didn't.

It didn't work, it didn't take and I went to rehabs five more times. The sixth time was my last time. The last time I went, I was in nineteen ninety eight. And it wasn't anything spectacular that had happened. It was just that I was just I had this big hole in the middle of me, this big hole inside me that was I couldn't fill it. And with all the drugs and all the alcohol, I couldn't fill that hole. And I knew it, and I went to I called someone. I called the guy by the name of Buddy Arnold.

And he said, you.

Know what, don't o D don't go to jail. Call me when you're ready. So this is about around June of ninety eight, so August two, two or so months later, I was in that same kind of frame of mind, in the depths of despair, and I.

I called Marty.

I said, Marty, can we get a hold of Buddy tonight because I need to go and I don't want to wait until tomorrow. I don't want to wait till Monday. We can go right now. And it was a Thursday. The funny thing was there had been an intervention that was playing that following Sunday at the Universal Amphitheater where the Neville Brothers, Doctor John and bb King were playing the show. And the brothers and Doctor John had they had talked to Buddy had talked to these people, and

I got into it, you know.

And I knew people I knew Bonnie and Steve Bruton and Mike Finnegan and Marty and a few other people that I knew that were musicians who had gotten sober. So that helped and that inspired me. And I saw others who had done it, you know. I saw Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. He used to go to this one meeting. I used to go to saw a guy named Tony Morehead used to he was this big time tour manager. And I saw a bunch of people

Am I gonna be creative and all this crap?

And when I started, I was playing with a band called the Spin Doctors at the time, that was the last gig.

On the block.

Their fame had kind of waned a little bit. They had kind of they had peaked and were kind of on the downslide from where they where they where their peaked success was. But they were still working and they

Okay, the first five times you went to uh, was that because somebody told you you had to go? Or was not because you wanted to go? You know what?

Every one of those times it was for one of those type of reasons. The first time I was told to go, the second time I had another reason to go. I went because I had my The second time I went my Oh no, the second time I was gone, I was going to be arrested. I was going to be arrested. Second time I was going to maybe go to jail. I had gotten popped. I got popped in

Maybe it'll stick, maybe it won't.

But for me.

Those other times didn't It didn't work, and I.

Was okay, so the five times it doesn't work, How long does it take until you fall off the wagon?

Well, some sometimes it took like the next day.

I sometimes it took one day.

Sometimes I would leave a rehab.

At least twice or three times I left rehab and went straight back to getting loaded. At least three times. There was a couple of times where I maybe stayed sober for maybe ninety days, three months. Maybe once I stayed clean for it, maybe six months. And yeah, maybe twice I stayed clean along a little bit longer than normal. But it was pretty much inevitable until I figured out that I was done and that I don't you know,

What edge is there?

Okay, I feel a little bit uncomfortable, so what let me just try to look within and feel some comfort here if I can't. And I kind of just took it. I took uh. I took kind of pride in in in getting getting through those times, and especially early on it was more difficult. As time went on, it just got easier to do.

And at this late date, did you ever go to a meeting?

I still do? Yeah, I still go. Yeah.

Okay, so you you play with the spin doctors. What's the next step? After that?

I started working on some of my own music again, and I did a record called Uh. The record was initially called Saturday Morning Music, but I repackaged that same record, and I something a friend of mine that I that I met. His name is Gary, Gary Gold. He he was we we had an acquaint I was acquainted with Bruce Willis, and Bruce Willis had a studio up his house up up up maul Holland near Colewater Canyon and

We did the record.

It was put out on a label that Bruce had kind of come up with, and he didn't want to be involved in that business anymore, and so he let me say take the record, do what you want with it, and I re released it and repackaged it. It was called initially Saturday Morning Music, and then it was the re released version was called Scrape, and it was some songs that a lot of songs that were written about kind of where I was at that point and trying to you know, trying to be a man and trying

You know. Okay, rehab is expensive. Sometimes insurance pays. You know, what was it like financially for you? Okay?

So the first five rehabs were all paid by insurance. I had done enough sag stuff where I had done enough songs and films and things of that nature. And over the years that I was able to, I had insurance to pay for rehabs and they would pay probably what fourteen fifteen grand or something, and I would maybe do pay like a deduction or what they call it a prem what they call that the.

Deductible, the deductible.

I would pay maybe something, And there were times when I didn't pay, I didn't pay anything. But the last one was paid for by Music Cares and by MAP Music Musicians' Assistance Program. They paid for me to go to that last one. The insurance was used up on the first. I went five times and it was paid for and that last one I had run out of all of that stuff. And Music Musicians Assistance Program, now you know, it is Music Cares, and that's what they do.

Did you have any did you have any guilt? Did you think that helped you? Oh?

That I had used up all of these people's money, that U using MAPS money?

Oh, you know?

And no, I didn't have any joke I felt.

I was so kind of I was so tore up and just kind of desperate to try to get my life somewhat together.

Because I knew.

I was like, you know what, I might not get another chance like this, and I better try to do this. I've had chances before and I blew them, So maybe this is the one.

Let me try it, you know.

Okay, So you play with spin Doctors, you make another record which you know as me package comes out twice. Where does that leave it? I ended up?

I end up?

Uh I did that record. I soon started. I got back my uncle Art. My uncle Art had had a back surgery and I had to come and help him out, and I subbed for him with the Neville Brothers. This is in maybe two thousand and one, two thousand and two. While the time I was those records had come out and things of that nature. I ended up playing back with the Brothers. I played with my dad and my uncles for a while. And during that time I started

Okay, a couple of questions. First, you're cleaning, so you're out with the brothers. What are they doing?

You know what?

Those guys had pretty much mellowed out during this time. They were not doing They were all cleaning their own ways. I mean, they weren't like practicing, uh a twelve step kind of thing or whatever, but they were they were pretty tame.

Like there was a bus.

There was a there was maybe two tour buses, and one bus was the bus you went on if you didn't want to be around marijuana smoke. And the other bus was the bus that people some of the younger people like my you know, some people in the band that still smoked and you I was on.

The clean bus. I was on the clean bus, and yeah it was cool.

Okay, some people there's just turned out California sober people occasionally have a drake or keep people occasionally smoke, and then ultimately that David Crosby smoked a little bit, are you.

I'm one hundred percent sover since nineteen ninety and I've had nothing but maybe an advil.

That's it, you know, Okay, So tell us a little bit slower how you end up forming the band that becomes dumpster Fuck.

I got an offer to play the Jazz and Heritage Festival in two thousand and three, and I was thinking to myself, what do I want to do. Do I want to put together a band to back up ivan Neville And I'm thinking, no, you know what, I want to put together a band like just I want a band of guys where I don't sing all the songs, where I got other guys that sing and we all can play and create some cool, unique thing. And I was thinking, so I said, yeah, that's what I'm going

And we had.

Juniora mcgeechee, Japanese guitar player who's a New Orleans Cat became a New Orleans Cat on guitar as well, And that was the first version of Dumpster Funk, and I called it dumpster Funk I had. I had written some songs with my two younger brothers, and there was a song that we had that I came I was trying to think of what's stinky, what's really nasty and stinky, and I came up with the with the term with the word dumpster funk. I'm like, dumpster funk, what's nastier

In the morning. We played right after Doctor John.

Doctor John had a set, He had a set set and it was called a night Tripper.

He did the night trip a set.

Nobody had seen that in years, and we did a Dumpster Funk set right after Doctor John Knight Triper set, and it was crushing and that was like, Okay, we're this.

Is a band.

This is a band, And we basically became a full time band the following year and yeah.

How many dates a year do you play as Dumpster Funk?

I don't know how many dates we play a year, Maybe one hundred or so, maybe something like that.

Maybe, So that's you main source of income in this period. You you're playing with the brothers and the two buses, you get called at O three to do jazz Fest the next five years years or so in between before it becomes full time dumpster Funk. What are you doing?

I was Dumpster Funk. I could do others stuff. I had other projects.

I had another project that we did that was born out of the out of Katrina, called the New Orleans Social Club, and that was a band with myself, myself, Raymond Webber.

George Porter Jr.

And Leon Os Telly from the Meters along with Henry Butler. We did a record we were stranded in Austin just right after Katrina. We did a record called sing Me Back Home. And they had a bunch of special guests uncle, my uncle, Cyril, Willie T from New Orleans or Willy Willy Willie T, h Irma, Thomas trum On, Shorty John Bote, and some others I can't think of right now I think sub Dudes.

That was a record called sing Me Back Home.

That was a project that we played maybe six dates a year with that group, and just obvious recording sessions with various people would call me up to play on a record here or two or whatever her and just stay. I just stayed busy doing stuff, you know, and Dumpster played a lot of shows.

Where were you when Katrina happened?

I was in Brazil. We were in Brazil playing a gig. Tony was doing an annual gig in Brazil in the month during the month of August, and we were over

And we were all over there in Brazil.

And then we were watching it, watching the news as best we could, and we saw this hurricane coming to hit New Orleans, we got stranded over there, which I mean, if you're in Brazil, it's not the worst place to be stranded, I guess.

And then we couldn't come back to New Orleans.

And then we I flew to Hawaii from from uh, from from Brazil. We had a gig in Brazil and in Hawaii Jumps to funk it. We played in Hawaii and then uh, we found out that New Orleans was underwater and all of that, that all that in that that uh happened here, the tragic stories that we heard about people that were in New Orleans.

It was pretty pretty pretty sad.

What happened to your property in the world? You know what?

At that time, I was in between stuff.

I had a place in California with my with my my ex wife and my daughter, and I had kind of been spending most of my time in New Orleans at my mom and dad's place. And that place got maybe eight feet of water in that house. And I never went back to that house. My mom and dad never went back to that house.

So where are your mom and dad now?

Well, my mom passed away in seven and my dad's living in New York. Now, he's living in New York he got remarried and he's got a farm up there in New York, upstate New York, and he's chilling. He and his dog Apache and his wife Sarah, My mom, Joel rue Neville. She passed away in seven. She died of cancer.

And uh.

Okay, southern California kind of like New Orleans without humidity Hawaiian between New York state farm could be more different from New Orleans. Yeah, and he's happy that, you know, It's funny.

He loves it.

And for years, I don't think he ever really cared for New York that much.

I remember when we used to go to New York. He couldn't.

He'd stay in the hotel room the whole time, in all the club sandwiches and the hey good way to get out of there. But he had had some experiences in New York that I guess maybe you know, and some of it was was he had some dark times in New York back in the days that I'm sure he doesn't regret, because they had a lot of stuff was bowing out of that. But he loved it where he is now. He's got a farm. He and his wife they up there growing garlic and eating their fresh

What can it become?

That's a hard one.

The definition, you know, what funk is is just vibe, man, and it's kind.

Of where the groove. You got the groove, you.

Got drum space, and it can be you know, you got the one, you got the one that, but then you got space. And my, my, my idea of funk is where where the notes are not played in between the notes is to me is where the funk lives. You got the one and then you got the space. Boom d do do do boom.

Could do you can do do big, big dude? You know that. I mean, that's just something that just came to mind, just all though. What that is.

But funk is very is it's all kinds of funk. There's a lot of different variations of funk. But to me, funk is where the where the notes are not the space in between the grooves.

You're touring, you're with dumpster funk, with just a funk band in your own unique way. What's the status of funk in America in the world today.

There's a lot of groups that are borrowing from the period, you know, there's a lot of funks that a lot of groups that try to that. I guess they've listened to that stuff that were coming out of the seventies, the early seventies specifically, And there is there are some there is some music out there that's pretty funky and nasty.

There is some stuff, and I guess in its own way.

It's being kept alive, it's being it's it's still it's still growing, it's still generating, and it's still it's still regenerating, like it's influencing next generations and because of what what what funk did for hip hop and how that regenerated funk in some way, and it keeps, it keeps kind of reinventing.

Itself in some kind of in some way or another.

And I think it's alive and well, I mean, you're not gonna hear as much of it as you, you know, as you used to hear, but it's it's alive and well.

Okay, you play the dumpster Funk. You have this new solo record. The game used to be completely different. The game used to be I want to get a label deal. The label is going to spread the name and hopefully something catches fire. Today there's so much stuff in the marketplace. Are you fine with being where you are? Or you'd have a desire or a burning desire to have more people aware of your music?

Yeah, I definitely want you definitely, you definitely kind of uh.

You want you want more people to be aware of what you're doing.

I feel like I got, you know, I got some cool messages in some of this music, and this music is very it's very refreshing, I think, and it's soulful, and I really want people to hear it, you know. And I mean in this day and age, you got to hope that, you know, right, people hear it and you maybe get some songs and some films or some some that and that and that venue that's kind of where you know, it can really get that extra little leap to the next next thing, to that extra little life.

So how many times have been married?

I've been married once and soon to be married again.

I'm with Okay, okay, how many kids do you have?

Two kids?

One one on a grown young lady by the name of Ivy, Ivy Joel. She's thirty two, and I have a son who's nine. His name is Isaiah.

Okay, okay, a little bit slower. So you have the daughter with your first wife. What is your daughter up? What is Ivy up to today?

Ivy is right now, Ivy's working. She works for groomed for grooming pets. She's really into animals and she does, uh she does. She has a little dog walking side business and she works at a pet grooming place. And she's a hustler. She does a little bit of everything. She does a I think she does a little driving, does a little delivering stuff and yeah, she but she her passion right now is dog grooming animals, grooming animals.

Is she off the payroll?

Is he off the pay rum? You know?

Not?

I mean not really, but.

Kind of you She's got she does her own thing, but actually I still help out a little bit.

Okay. And then did substances break up your first marriage or what happened?

Nah, it's just kind of you know, we you know, we kind of grew apart somewhere in there. I mean, there was a lot of that, you know, the substance when when when?

When?

When when all that stopped? You know, and you kind of just grow kind of apart from a person. You know, we kind of grew apart and it just wasn't the same. Uh, we weren't on the same path anymore, you know to some degree, and you just kind of, I don't know, you outgrew I don't know. Your relationships just do that sometimes where you just he's somewhere else, you know, and.

It Okay, So you're saying it wasn't the drugs an alcohol that broke up the relationship. It was when you got sober.

That's probably is the combination of the two, because the drugs and alcohol made it very There were some dark periods in there, but when the so when the so so sobriety started, that wasn't it wasn't exact like if that's not if you're it's hard. It's hard to be on the exact same page with someone, especially on that path.

So that uh, she had her own path.

In that avenue, and and I have my own path, and we basically grew apart.

I mean we and we're friends.

Okay, this woman you're going to marry imminently? Is she the mother of the nine year old?

She's the mother of the nine year old?

Yes? Yes, So why do you suddenly get married after all? You know?

Yeah, you would go there right, you know. It's you know, one of those things.

Man.

I love I love her, and.

I just kind of I think we should we should we should just do it, you know, sheould just be married, you know, and then it just and you know what's funny is my my son was like, why why do you remmmy? He have different names? And that's come up before. But I don't even think she wants to change her name. I think she's going to keep her own last name. She didn't want to change her name in the novel, so, uh whatever.

So how did you beat her?

I met her? I met her actually through music. I met her through music at uh at.

Uh maybe I've first met her at at tip of tin as as a matter of fact, and mutual friends.

Mutual friends.

She she knew some some some uh, we had some similar acquaintances and happened to kind of some sparks, kind of had something and something happened. We saw each other one time and it was like, oh you how you doing? It's not and then went from there and then next thing, you know, we've been together for quite a while.

Okay. I could tell only after a couple of minutes that you're a great guy, a great friend, great to hang around. So is this part of your success that people like you and they will want to hang around you? Say that again?

I didn't. I didn't get that cause yet.

Okay, you're there's something about you that's very inviting. Talk to you and it's like you're intelligent, you're warm, you're laughing, you're good. Hay, okay, is that been part of your success? Like you know, working with Bonnie of course you knew much, or working with Keith, you know, do they just like being around you? You know?

I'd like to think so. I'd like to think that, you know, people kind of have a fun time around me, and I'm I'm kind of I'm a funny guy sometimes as well, and I try. I tend to to to be in a decent mood for the most part, and I tend I think people kind of enjoy being around me a little bit, and I really, I really appreciate that.

Actually I'm not a bad guy.

Okay, but uh, in typical life, and I realize every day isn't identical. But you're home. To what degree are you in contact with other people? Texting, email, talking on the phone, or only when you need something? What's your life like?

I stay in touch with people. I call people sometimes just to say hi, you know. I call people and say, hey, it was up, Yeah, how you doing.

I'm you know what.

I talked to a buddy of mine, a friend. Uh uh his name, his name Dwight. I talked to Dwight. I was just thought of I thought about him, and I'm like, uh, you know.

I just called him up.

I called him up.

Hey, how you doing? Said, oh, what's going on?

Man? So glad you called. But you know what, I have a friend that I've known since I was I've known him since I was in ninth grade, and we talked almost at least every few days. And I do stuff like that, Like I got folks that I kind of just stay in touch with and I just we just you know, have conversations and talk.

Are they civilians or are they in the business.

My boy, my friend Rage Rage, I've known, you know what. He's not in the business now, he's a civilian. But he and I actually wrote songs together be back in the days. We were songwriter. We were budding songwriters when we were teenagers. But he went on to do some different things as and I stayed into the music and me and I just are close friends and we've remained close for many years.

Yeah, okay, So in a typical day, are you hearing from other musicians? Is that constantly going on? Or is that only when you cross paths.

That that that happens? Look mostly mostly the close circle, our inner circle. I hear, you know, like I might hear from George Porter Junior every you know, every so often, Hey, what's up by and blah blah blah. We have something to talk about. We have a show that we're doing in the coming weeks, and we may talk about that. I talk to Tony Hall, who plays bass and dumps the funk and he plays on my record, the solo record. I talk to Tony pretty every day. I talk to

Every day, say good morning. The rest of the day.

What happens the reason say good nothing more, just say good morning.

Somebody might text later on it says oh I'm late, hey, But I usually send good morning in some in a foreign language. I go and look up good morning in many languages, and I send my text via whatever language I found that looked interesting for that morning. I send it and my aunt, my aunt athel Groth, she will go and look up that language and tell me what

Well, you're talking about you're talking about good morning? Are you an early morning person.

Or I'm early.

I got well, I have a nine year old, so he goes to school, so I got it. My first uh, my first duty of the day is I got to make him breakfast at like six forty five.

So I'm up. I'm up, six thirty five, six forty I'm up.

Okay. And you talked about being down and ultimately going to rehab, and then you said just a few minutes ago that you're a generally up guy. What's it like when you're down?

You know, that happens sometimes, it's just it's just kind of it passes, basically. I mean, you kind of have times when you feel a little when you and that's usually when I'm thinking about when I'm in my own mind, almost in my own head, thinking about me, that's usually when the the uh, the more negative uh ivan comes to the fourth to the fourth to the uh to

Thinking of someone else other than myself.

It changes my concept, it changes my outlook, and I use that tool a lot. If I get into a funk, I try to think of what I could do maybe for someone else, or I'll call someone that may need a helping hand in some nature of some kind.

And that's kind of what I do in those situations. Now, I know you've ben asked a million times and I don't want to. I'm not looking for some story that hasn't been.

Told, but since you know, what's the story with Keith Richards.

Keith is absolutely an amazing cat man. He's so intelligent, he's so like, very nice man.

All the stories that we've always you know, heard about.

Keith over the years, and how notorious he's known for being. Now I've been hey, I've been around him and some hell in some serious Hans, and we've had some amazing Hans.

But he's probably the most.

I would say, the most productive and structured person in those kind of environments that I've ever been around. Like when we when we were into those kinds of things, like into the whatever substances who were doing or whatever.

He was always the guy that was focused on the music.

And whereas another like myself or other would be waiting for the next round of drink and drug, he's still playing this riff.

You're like, oh my god, look at him.

He's all about the music and he's one of the most productive people I've ever been around in that mindset, I mean, you know, and to see him how he's you know, he's had to adjust his his situation in his life. As you get older, you have to change a little bit, you have to. And I mean Keith's with Keiths with seventy what is he seventy eight or seventy?

How old is.

I mean?

You right?

I mean, look he's man, he's and they're they're just working on a new record from what I understand, and a possible another tour, you know, so he's still doing it. Man, He's He's an amazing cat. He's always been.

A very a very sweet man to me.

You know, He's like a big brother, an uncle, and uh yeah, I cherish uh my time with him and in my relationship with him.

I really do.

He's seventy nine eighty at the end of the year December. You know, people like Bonnie and Keith. Do you keep in contact with him or you're just gonna run into him at some point?

No, I keep I keep I keep contact with Keith. I mean, you know, you you've got every blue moon or so. I might call him up just to see what he's doing, to check in with him, and he's not like he's got a cell phone. Well, you know, I've ever seen him with a cell phone. So I called him on his landline at home when I kind of maybe maybe get a heads up and just find

He sees my name, you probably pick up and say, oh, hey, I was up.

And we'll have a chat and talk or whatever, and that's it. But yeah, I do stay in touch with him.

Okay, you've been through a lot. We've delineated it, both the drugs and alcohol. You have a pedigree with your family, You've had successes and solo artists to what degree are you concerned about legacy If everything just goes around like now and you end up dying twenty years from now, are you happy or not if you want to die twenty forty years now, are you really concerned with leaving your mondy?

You know, I kind of.

I just want to do the best I.

Can while I'm around here, you know, and try to just enjoy the rest of this journey, you know. And I want my son to remember his dad's cool guy and uh uh, you know, a righteous person that you know, try to be helpful to others, and just what I just want to to be remembered as someone who tried to help a little bit, who tried to help someone else when he had the chance, and to.

That's mostly it, you know.

And it made some good music here and there, you know, and hopefully some of this music will, you know, people will listen to it and it will create those times and places that music has done for me in my life, because there are songs that I hear that remind me of places and people, and hopefully some of my music touches people like that, you know. That's that's really all I can ask for.

Well, on that note, it's been great talking to you Ivan. Really you're a great guy. I want to wish you luck on the record. And once again, as I say, you know, people send me this stuff and you know I rolled my eyes, but I was shocked your stuff is.

Thank you very much, thank you, thank you.

I wish you success. I can't tell you whether you're going to have it or die right right people, but if people met you when they hurt the record, you know you've got a good shot.

Thank you very much, man, I really really appreciate it. Thank you a lot. Man. Thanks for talking.

Man.

I enjoy talking to you.

I love talking to you too. In any event, till next time. This is Bob Leftsis