Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Aaron Neville

Transcript

Aaron Neville · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: My guest today is the one and only Aaron Neville,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: who's got a brand new autobiography. Tell it like it is, Aaron,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Why a book? Why now say liked?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: And why not? Well, I mean, I don't know how
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: many more? Yes, I figured I just do it while
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: I'm still got on my mind. Some of my mind anyway,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: you know, was left of it.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: So how did you actually write the book?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: With a wonderful writer, her name is Beth Edelman, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: she told me the first things that I want this
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: book in your voice. And that's what he did. He
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: put it in my voice.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: But absolutely seems that way. Okay, a couple of things.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: You mentioned a number of things in your book. You
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: say you're retired. Tell me about being retired.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm retired. Uh. When the COVID pandemic came in
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: two thousand and maybe twenty, Uh, I was supposed to
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: go to California and Sarah to him and she don't
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: think I should be on the airplane six hours and
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: with you know, with this thing going around, because they
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: were taking people and taking the temperature and if they
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: had a fever or something. They put them in quarantine
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: and some of them wind up dying by theyself somewhere,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and I just, you know, I'm glad she decided me
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: not to go. And through the years I've and I've
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: been doing a little singing, but I have asthma, and
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I don't have the breadth to you know, hit the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: notes like I used to, Just like Lynda Rond says,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: say she didn't want to cheat the people. You know,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to go out there and old though
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: he don't sound you know, you know I got records.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: You know that's thinking to hear all they wanted me
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: on the record. I still call them records.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I do too. Okay, Uh do you miss it?
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: You know, in a little I don't miss none of
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the traveling and hotels and buses and all that special airports.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I call that airport agony, especially what's going on right now.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: But people are just getting stuck in airports for a week.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: And I've had that done that. You know, your your
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: flight has been canceled and we don't know where your
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: luggage is.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, you grew up in New Orleans, but you're living
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: up in New York State on a farm. That's really different.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: What's it like?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: It's great, it's mondful. I mean this place they have
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: is so beautiful, and it's like I call it in
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Shanton Forest because we have all kinds of animals, bad deer,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: we have fox, we have rabbits, we have all kinds
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: of birds and and it's just peaceful, you know. So
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: like we kind of cut back on the farm. But
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Sarah's still making the air and level. He looks her.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: She mixed with a tumor of ginger, cayenne, honey and
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: lemon and what else the upple side of vinegar and
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: something I drink every day.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Wow, it's keeping in good health. So, but living in
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the city and living in the country is different. Do
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: you have friends you see in the country. Are you
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: more of a loner or you a social kind of guy?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: What kind of guy are you?
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I have three cats, a dog, me and Sarah, you know, so, hey,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I see the male man. I mean, you know, I
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: get out sometimes. It took a ride, Yester, gone for
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: like a few hours, get to see people. But that's
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: that's the enough for right now. With all the stuff
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: going on as well.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: And you talk in the book about staying in contact
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: with some people by the phone. So in phone or
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: in email, you staying in contact with people, how much
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: you're talking connecting.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: I have a couple of few friends, like Morvin. He
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: and I grew up together. He's in the book. We've
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: done some stuff together. We talk about uh pity Pat
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: talk to him every day. He's got cancer and so
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: I try to, you know, help him field have a
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: feel good day, you know. And my keyboard player, Mike Goods,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: we talk every day, and I talk to my kids.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And how about email? Do you use the computer?
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Nah? Not really. I mean I can send the email
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: on my phone, you know, the computer. I'm not computer
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: sad at all.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, most of the book is about you growing up
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and all the bad activities and all the trouble you
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: got in. Was that conscious? You wanted to lay that
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: out that there's much more of that than your music career.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: The thing about it, I couldn't have, you know, done
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: the book. What I'm telling it all, you know, I'm telling
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: it like it is and like it was, and that's
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: how it was back in those days. I was stuck
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and stupid a lot of times, you know.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: So tell me what it was like, you know, New
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Orleans has a different legal system a lot of people
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in what way, since you've traveled the world, is New
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Orleans different from the rest of the country and the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: rest of the world.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: New Orleans is like my brother Sarah says, that an
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: island that's stuck onto the United States because it's a
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: mixture of all kinds of different cultures. You know. They
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: have a Caribbean, trans Italian, Kish, and Creole, you name it,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: and it's you know, you your bond with music. All
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: through your life there's music, and you're gonna die with music.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: With the second line, you.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Know, Okay, So, uh, tell me about your family growing up.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: So when what did your parents do for a living.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Well, my dad when we were kids, him and my
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: uncle Jolly was my mother's brother, George Landry. They were
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: merchant marines. They would go out on the on the ships.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: A couple of times they got shot at me. One
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: time they almost the ship almost got sunk. And then
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: when when he was home, he he was a cab driver.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: He worked in a furnished, a moving place. They worked
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: at a car place. They worked, he worked at the
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: boys home. He was he was a he was a trooper,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: you know, and my mother. She took care of us
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: while they were gone, and she uh went to beauty
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: school while we went the project. Then she went to
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: nursing school so she could fix her hair and help
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: people in the hospital.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: And how many kids in the family, Well, there.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Was six of us. There was Aunt Charles, me, Myla,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: my brother Cyril, and our younger sister cook It she
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: died in nineteen seventy one.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: And you know, if your father's out on the boat
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and your mother's there and there's all those kids, how
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: much supervision was there or could you do whatever you wanted?
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: No, it wasn't that. It is a respecting you know.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: My mom was the greatest. Well we would as she
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: would have us. Well, first it was just met Charles,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: and when I was three years old, my sister came
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: and Syly didn come till about seven years later. So,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: but my mom used to be on the floor with us,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: playing games and telling reading stories and whatever my mom
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: should have done, she did it. You know. She always
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: had a smile on her face and uh always made
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: hers still good, you know.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: And were you a good student? Bad student?
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I was a good student, But think about it, I
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: always had a song in my head, you know. So
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know if the teachers thought, the nuns thought
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I had had the deal whatever. A lot of times
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, got a song going in my head.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: So tell me more about you know where this was
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: there music in the house and you started to sing along.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: How did you ultimately get interested in music admitting by
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the music bug?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Well, my mother and father were big nactin cole Fans.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: They had all his records and h Charles Brown and
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Louis Jordan, uh Dinah Washington and and before we were born,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: my mother and her brother Jolly was song and dance team.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I mean they were the best dancers in the Organs
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: and they had a chance to go out on the
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: road with Louis Prima. My grandmother wouldn't let him go
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: because of the Jim Crow laws. They say they wouldn't
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: have been treated to night right, you know. So my
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: mother said that she would never stop any of us
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: from our you know dream, So she let Charles go
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: out when he was fifteen. She signed for me to
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: play in the French quarters when I was fifteen with
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: a whole blind band, and they used to put on
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: the show sometimes and I host in the project. The
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: jolly would throw my mom over his back and between
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: his legs, and Lindy happened all that, you know, and
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: she taught us how to dance.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, when did you realize you could sing?
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Uh? My brother Ought said, when I was a kid
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: in the in the crib by just staying fell asleep.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: So I guess I was trying then. But I used
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: to mimic nating cool and I used to sing. I
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: went to the movies. I was about eleven, something like that.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I sang mona Lisa, pretend none of that songs. And
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: he let me in, give me candy and all. And
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: my brother Or had a do wop group. They would
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: sit out on the park bench in the evening and harmonized,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and they would go around and win the talent shows
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: and get the girls and all, you know. And I
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: used to run up to them and they'd run me away,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: get away to me my kids. You know. I just
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I was persistent. I kept on. He was odd. A
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: guy named issacle Garden we called him easy cool. And
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: a dude named Turk. And finally Isaul said, hey, Kevin.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: He called me Kevin. I don't know why, but I
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: didn't care just love. He said, you hit this note,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: and he showed me the note. Then before you know it,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: they were showing me all the notes how to do
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: the harmonies, which I had later on with the Mickey
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Mouse Morse. I'm doing all the background, but doctor John
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: is playing the keyboard, Rob Watson and starg Us, I'm
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: doing all the background. Uh, the thether Brothers, Uh, Bird
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: on the wire. I'm doing all the background and from
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: them teaching me.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, And at what point did you say, I want
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: to make it this, I want this to be a career.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: I didn't know about a career and all that, but
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: all I knew I wanted to sing. You know. I'd
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: go to the movies and I look at the the
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Cowboys and I'd come out at the moving back in
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: the project and I'd be yodling, and you know, had
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: a mopstick named Pimo Sabi because my host and uh
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: it was just and my brother Ought worked at a
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: record shop and he used to bring along all of
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: the records. But like the Clovers and Over the Sunny Tilon,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: the Oreos, the Hawk Tom's and different groups. Climac Fatter
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Clid mcfatter was one of my favorite inspirations. H besides
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: nakink cold because Clyde had that high tenor, you know,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: and my brother Aught had had a real high tenor,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: like a strong high tenor. But I don't think they
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: ever gave his voice the right you know.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, what was it like growing up in the projects?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Man? It was like paradise back then. You know. It
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: was like a village. You know, everybody knew everybody. And
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: we had a big oval playground but concrete that went around.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: We could state on or ride a bicycle. We played football,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: We played at marbles and spinning tops and kites all
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: in that in that space, and it was like, you know,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: it was just a great place.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: And you talk about football, were you a sportsman.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Back in the days? Then I got to be a
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: teenage I played sandlot football, you know, on the leveo,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: on the medium, on the neutral ground.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Okay. You talk about hearing about heroin and wanting to
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: try it, you know, I was growing up they had
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: all these TV shows saying not to try it. So
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: what was it like? And tell me about that experience.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: I heard all that, but not to try it. But
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I mean something inside of me was inquisitive, you know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I was inquisitive. You I'm fella. As soon as I
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: got to be of age and I saw somebody else
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: doing it, I said, hey, man, hook me up, you know.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: And it happened to be my brother with his gug Bob,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: and uh so I was playing music on the weekends,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: making you know, twenty dollars a night or whatever. That
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: was big money back then. So I come to him
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: and told him that I want to school, you know.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: So he got it and he taught me out of
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the first time. No, you you shouldn't do this, Okay,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I ain't gonna do it next time. Next day, I said,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: didn't some more? I want to get some more and
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it. And I did it. And it
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: was on that.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: And so you did it? How did you do it?
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Did you snort? Did you pop? Do you inject?
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Uh? Charles's girlfriend, Bob. She tied me up and caught
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: me with the you know, my band. She said, oh,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: you got a million dollar bands. I hadn't never done
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: that until, you know, there was a million dollar bands then,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: and uh hey, I fell in love with it. And
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: it wasn't in love with me though, you know, And
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: it didn't kill me that until late on.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: So it lived up to your thoughts of what it
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: was going to be. Oh yeah, but many people say,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: like with any drug, you know it's good at first,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: and then you're always chasing that initial hide. It never
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: lives up to it.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: That's what it called chased, the chasing the dragon, because
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: you're looking for that first hit. You never get that
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: in i' montell yo, d.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: So, okay, you have this girlfriend Joelle, but her family
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't like you, so tell me about that.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Well, it's like this also when I was sixteen, I
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: got this tattoo in my face. On my sixteenth birthday,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: I had been down in the night walk. My boy
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Melvin had just moved on the night once, so I
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: went and the night wab was like, you know, a
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: rough area because the guy back down there used to say,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: I'm from the nine and I don't mind dying. All
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: kind of stupid ship like that. And uh so I
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: had Melvin's uncle's pistol, wasn't it And we took taking
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: goofballs and all the you know, abitious And I'm down
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: in the Sweet Sweet shop looking at the recast record
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: box and couldn't hold of sea and they have my
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: hands in my pocket and I felt some hands on
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: my shoulder turn me around. I thought it was Melvin,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: go introduce me to somebody, and this big tall guy
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: turned me around and punched me out and knocked me
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: back up against the recast box and I run my
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: tongue across my teeth and he cracked my teeth, and
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: that was the most. I didn't care about getting punched,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: but he cracked my teeth, and I come up and
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I shot him, and uh Me and Melvin left out
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: the joint h and ran because I mean we were scared.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: I didn't want hill him, you know, But then we
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: found out that he wasn't dead. And anyway said about
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: my my wife's people. I had a tattoo. I had
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: to get gold teeth in my mouth from that punch.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: You know, I had gold teeth. My hair was processed
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: be call of the counk. So I looking at him,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: and I can I blame mister Rufe and I want
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: me to come around his daughter, you know.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: So how did you convince them that you were okay?
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Because she let him know that she wanted to be
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: with me, So you know, I'd go up there and
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: sit on the sofa sometime, and I play a piano
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: or whatever. When my dad would come home, he used
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: to wait for his sister watching her ballroom, so he
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: had to spoti five come on arm in the newspaper
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: on the other arm, and he come in and said, hey,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: mister Route, and he said, all right, groll and he
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: spanks up from being with me. But she, you know,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess it was a bad boy
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: in me. Whatever she liked, you know, well, we loved
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: each other.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back a step. Tell us more about
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the dagger tattoo on your face.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Well, back in the projects at cross right here or
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: something or something here, one guy at a scull and cross.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: This is almost a scull and crossbond. I'm glad it wasn't,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: because my daddy would have commit murdered. So with this,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: he made me scrubbed with drill opad and out the
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: consult and I look at him not and I have
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: no idea why i'd done that.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, So you're telling me at the time to have
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: a face tattoo was not that uncommon where you were living.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: No, it wasn't.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, And then as you continue to live your life
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: to what the greeded people comment about that tattoo word
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: judge you on that tattoo.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, they had all kinds of rumors out Bet. Later
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: on they said, oh, that tatoos stopped even going on
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: American Bandstand. I never was s gedully going on to
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: American bands dance that I was just a rumor and
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: when I go on showed they put makeup on him
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: to cover it up or whatever. You know.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: You also make the point about the spot above your
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: eye that your mother said that the doctor said that
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: he could have it removed, but you said, it's like
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: one of the greatest She said no, and you said,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: that's one of the best things that's ever you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: been about you.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad she didn't get it taken off. You know.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: It's like it's me And like when the guys used
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: to call me in Melvin moble Face, and Melvin he
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: thought I didn't they were dissing me. I said, oh yeah,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: mobile Face. You know after that, I used to say
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: when I got to be friends. But some of the
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: wrestlers bet Bet, the hit Man, Heart, Cactus Jack, h
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: a bunch of them. I used to stay if I
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: was gonna be in the wrestler that my Monica would
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: be mole faith.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: But little kids or you know, can be really mean.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: When you were a little kid, did people bother you
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: about the mool.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: No, not really No. I think it was something God
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: put there for a reason. You know. It was like
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: a beacon, you know, is the respect.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, So you're growing up, you're growing in the projects.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Did you feel what was the vibe in the world
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: you were living in that you could break out and
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: become rich and famous? Or it was about everyday life
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and just be happy where you are.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Every day life, be happy like you. Oh, I know
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: nothing about no riches than anything like that. Then they
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: didn't cross my mind back in the project. Oh I
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: was rich if I had a fact full of marbles,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: you know, and some candidate. I'm cool because like one
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: of my first jobs at Saint Monica's Catholic School was
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: cleaning the boys in the girl's bathroom and not keeping
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: it with enough money to buy marbles and candid.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Ultimately, Joe Well gets pregnant, you get married, you drop
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: out of school. Tell me about that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we had went to the this movie. She
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: told her mama was going to the movie, and uh,
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: and people always bragging about how many girls didn't had
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: and all that. Joy was the first girl I ever went,
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: you know. But she told her mama was going to
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: see a movie called Vera Cruz. And she got pregnant
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: then and we went back in the Mama said, well,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: what the movie was about? He said, oh, very was cruising.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Mom looked at a relations crazy but uh. And then
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: nine months later, I haven't came up, but they turned it.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: He was there and then they turned him.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: And I, okay, what are her parents say when it
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: turns out that Joel is pregnant.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but this it didn't say nothing to me.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: They probably said they wanted to rather beat her. I
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: don't know her dad was, you know, because he's a
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: rough character.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: But okay, so to what degree are you freaked out?
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: You're student teeth.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I'm not a freaking I love Joe and I wanted
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: to marry. I tell my mom I wanted to marry
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: because he got married on January the tenth, and the
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: ship my mom assigned for me, I didn't make eighteen
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: till January twenty fourth. I couldn't wait that long. I
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: wanted to, you know, and Joe's parents didn't come to
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: the wedding, and my friend Marvin Melvin was in penitentia,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: so Marvin was my best man, and uh, I think
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: her friend and the army was up, made a made
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: a minor whatever, and my parents were.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: At And that's when you dropped out of high school.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And so how did you provide for the family.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Well, I was working night it jobs like uh at
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: one time, helping to build pre prefabricated houses. Uh. Me
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: and my friend Varne and we started painting together, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: uh later on I started working on the riverfront. But
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: that was about later on, unloading cargo ships on the ducks.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, so Aaron is born, you get arrested, and the
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: family changes his name to Ivan, right, tell us about
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: getting arrested.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Well, me and Marvin stagged league little Red and and
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Charles and a guy named Robert who was planning on
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: going to this picnic that Joe's school was giving up
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: and beat the spring Louisiana and uh so me and
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Marvin said we're gonna get a call to go out there,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: and Robert Blason, I'm gonna help my daddy called and
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: so sure enough he came up and had his daddy's car,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: as we thought anyway, but me and Marvin had got
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: one that night before and stashed it. So we all
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: run up to the picnic and the whole while he's saying, oh,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna call after calling a A motors. Something happened
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: be wrong my daddy call. He's gonna be mad because
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: I was supposed to go and look for a job
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: and blah blah. He's putting it in our heads, you know.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: So meanwhile, something happened to the car, and me and
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Marvin have got in the ford and uh drove to
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: driving to the fellow station and see if and get
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: something to fix the chiproleet. And while we driving, some
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: friends about passing the car, and Marma said catching, and
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I stepped on the gas and all of a sudden
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I looked up there and stopped that intersection and I
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: hit break the brakes forward, I said, break the stuff,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: and we hit him and knock him by half a block.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Then we told him said, look, uh, don't call the police.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Were straighten up. We'll straighten up and we get back in.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: We could straighten up and anything, you know. So anyway,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: we made our story. We won't in the food was
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: in the shiverlet and we walked down the highway and
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: hit him. The police said, was all in that foot. No,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: we went in and Shivelet come to see by getting
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: something to fix it. They left. They come back then,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: the two of them in the covered shotgun tot y'all
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: say you're one in that damn car. Now we want
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: to carkis to in this card. It brought us in
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: the car, brought us a little jail house and uh
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: so we still to our store. We want in the
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: fobs and shiverlet police come here. You the driver. Driver,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: I'm I don't even have no driver less, he said,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: come out of there. I'm sitting in the car and
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: the front seat he hit, hitting a little slapjack in
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: his hand like that. And now I reme much you
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: going on tell me the truth? I said, I didn't
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: tell you the truth of it. And here on the radio,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: come on the Ford Bostos and solah blah blah, and
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: the chepher that said, no, did you note that's Robert
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: he's knowing no robber Blue did it? Cause I said,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: I told you, And suppose of them damn call us out.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: So that's how that went.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Down, And how long Were you in jail that time?
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Six months?
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: So now you talk about the state prison in Gola,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: it's being pretty rough. Were you in Angola at that point?
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: No, I was in the New Orleans Spanish prison, and
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: I looked like I was trying to get the Angola,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: but I never made it. My brother Charles did almost
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: four years in Angola for two marijuana cigarettes. So, uh,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: the guy I did say, I'd be glad to start
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: giving you all ten years of stealing the people. Cause
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: so no, I went past prison.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, So what was it like being in prison?
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: It was It was kind of fun. Really. The first
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: night I was in there, I had a dream that
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I had broke out and I was having fun all
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: around the Orleans and all of a sudden I had
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: to get back in or something bad is gonna happen,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: and I'm trying every kind of way at them. I
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: couldn't get back in. On open my eyes and saw
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: the balls. I said, that was crazy. I mean, you know,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: had had some assholes, and then some time that did
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: be fighting over stuff like looking at the television at
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: the Mickey Mouse Club. Uh, and and that show us
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: my girl I was here before you. That's getting a
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: fight about and that when they sell.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: It, so we hear you know all about prisons with
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: fights and gangs and arguing over stuff. Was that your experience?
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: No, that wasn't all. That wasn't like that all they had,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: you know, some of the tears was like stupid dead
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: one tail called X. And then at one time they
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: was calling it the house a shop because they had
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: this guy in the urban Stell the stand and Crabby.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: There were two assholes. I mean they would they would
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: be down there beating up dudes and they wound up
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: going to penitentia doing the same ship. And uh I
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: when I first went in, I got a reds of
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: blad and I melted it down in a toothbrush to
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: make a shame, which I never had to use. I'm glad.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: And we did a lot of singing. You know, everybody
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: go to jail, they think they can sing. So you
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: know they saw singing spirituals that they get the holy
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: goes to ooh Lord here mercy.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, what does Joel say when you get arrested?
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Well, Christian say, I mean I'm going to jail.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: That's when they changed I have a name to from
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: into having and it.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: You know, you make a big point about that in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the book. Are you still pissed about it?
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: No? No, I mean no, I got my understanding is
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: way better than it was back then, you know.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Okay. Another thing which you referenced in your story with
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: a Ford and Chevrolet, is it you guys were stealing
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: cars on a regular basis.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. It made it so easy. All
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: you needed was sel a papery to stigarette, pack, ball
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: it up and put it behind the next ignition on
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: the three schools and put it in a loose in
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: the study. I mean, you know, hey, who did something
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: like that? So?
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Would you steal a car because you had to get somewhere?
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Or did you steal a car because like there's nothing
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: better to do, let's go joy riding.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: This jar riding? You know, that's it? And uh, one
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: time me and Melvine he kept one for about a month.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: They had a red Uh, but it was fifty one
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: convertible Plymouth. We kept it for about a month. It
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: was stash it and be washing it like it was ours.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Weren't you worried that someone was gonna be looking for
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the car?
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, somebody's gonna be looking for it. And
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: then you know the one time me and Melvin riding
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: and the police pull up on the side and look
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: in the car and didn't see no key. That right,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: pull over.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Now you make a point in the book that you're
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: constantly returning the cars in perfect shape.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: But let's say that must have cracked.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: You must have cracked up a few.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Another, but just cracked that one up coming from the picnic.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: You know, Other than that, we bucked them close to
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: the where it took them.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: And when did you get your first car?
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: By nineteen seventy eight? It was the last of the
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: big thunderbirds. It was like my pride and joy. It
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: was silver and red.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: And how long did you have that car?
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: A few years until because that was seventy eight, probably
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: tell about uh eighty maen.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, So at this point in time, you're married, you
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: get out of jail, you have a kid. What are
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: you doing for work? Then?
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: I had to work on the docks on I worked
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: grand boats. I had coffee boats, what else, rubber, cotton,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: you name it all. I'm down the river. It never
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: was in the same spozzy, you know. That's that made
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: it so cool and they paid good.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: But that's backbreaking work. That's really hard work.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Thing about it, I said, if another man can do it,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: I can't do it. But that fact a how I
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: messed my backup back then, because you know, we want
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I didn't know know about using your legs and all that.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: We just bent over and manhouding, which is actually man
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: holding us. So but because the older guys they had
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: a niche to but it didn't make the thing. They
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: had one initial lift and the rest of the time
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: it's gotten, just gotten it, you know. And they made
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: it easy and we caught on later on, But before
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: that was breaking our back.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: But you go on that you have had back problems
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: as a result of that.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Probably that and other I don't know what else, but
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: I'm not I never used my legs to bend over
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: and pick up heavy you know, coffee sacks and the
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: earl drums, turning them and and they had this hook
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: and the club on one hand, and one time I
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: took the hook all them right through my wrists. Yeah,
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: it was you're.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Thankful And to what where are you singing at this point?
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Well, since you said that, I'd be down in the
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: ship old singing, and the guy said, man, you think
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: gonna have been just being in the ship, oh you know,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: to be on TV even uh this or that, you know?
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: And I said, no, man, I got a family see it,
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: and I'm gonna be down in the ship. Will one
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: day I'll get out, you know.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: And how do you ultimately make records back then? Yeah?
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: How did you get your deal?
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: You ultimately do? Tell it like it is? How much
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: recording enough.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: It is?
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Tell me, like to tell me the story.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: When I got out of jail in nineteen sixty, that's
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: when Lara Williams came down and another distract named Lara McKinley,
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: and they hooked me up with many records with Alan
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Tuccent and I got to recall my first record, alln
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Tu Cent Rover Uncle over You. I wrote running the
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: in the Paris prisonal call every day about knowing I'm
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: dreaming of the dead, that I'll be home soon. Every
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: day long about three I'm dreaming of the dead. I'll
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: be free. You know. That was my first record, and
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: that's when I went on the road with Lead Williams.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, you make the point that even though that was
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: a gigantic kid, you got almost no money.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: No money. Well, I mean the first one they was
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: telling me that, uh, you know, go get the bat
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: and rude or something like that. You know, it's that
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: fine over you. Was on the Charice on the R
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: and beach charts. Anyway, it might have been on the
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: regular shot our remembers, but a while back. But uh,
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I went on the road, and I remember Rachelle was
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: telling me he'd be able dubb that song over you.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: So let's just go back before you're on the road
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: to what degree is racism or problem? And we're in
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: New Orleans when you're growing up.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: But what racism, Well, I mean, you know, think about
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: it relected to bothers. It was a place where you know,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: you could go on places you know you wasn't supposed
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: to go, you know, but uh we went sometimes vented
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: in the place we weren't supposed to go. And uh
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: like like to say, uh, sometimes you go in the
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: grocery store and buying something and you get a personal money,
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: they throw your chains back at you or something like that,
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: and you know, and like in the project, I didn't
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: know anything about no racism. You know, there's only white
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: people I saw. Really was the priests and the nuns
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: at the school or the grocery man would have you know.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: And most of the guys around the project they were cool.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: But you know, you on Balance after they moved on
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Balance Street there Lebruso's grocery. This guy, he was nice.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: The majority of them, they they didn't want to touch
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: your hand and ship like that. You know.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: And but you you talk about the police stopping you
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: for no good reason and putting you in jail for
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: seventy two hours.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that was the thing, that a thing called
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: pendent investigation. So me and my bothers be you know,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: just hanging it. One time the police jumps out and
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: my mama's step His name was Turtle, and uh, he said,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: aarone coming in the car, he said, man, when I'm
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: going to jailer he said, oh, well, thank you something
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: by the time we get to the priest, you know,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: stuff like that. And uh. They had one night in
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: the alley between two ballrooms, me and my brother Cyril
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: and a guy named Jake who I made the song
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Brother Jake about. His name was Alfred Rudolph. The police
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: had come there, told I'm just standing in front of
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: the front of the bar and so I said, man,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: I'm tired of being like a roach. Every time the
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: light come on. We gotta run. And so Jake pulled
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: up there and I went out to tell them to
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: come on the joint. And the police must have just
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: popped around the corner to come foop right around it.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: So me and Jake and Cyril went back in his
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: alley and one of them stood by the gate. Let
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: me tell you their now, Barroard Marie. Marie stood by
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: the by the gate, and Bararard came in and for
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: summer reason, he hit Cyril. With Cyril and Jake. They
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: were militant, you know, they were like the cyril name
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: was Umbuku and uh. He hit her with that big
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: long flashlight and I saw a color I had never
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: seen before. It was like called the mom and the truth.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: I grabbed this guy's hand and if he's alive today,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: he got my fingerprints in his in his wrists. And
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I looked a him. I could see the man at
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: the gate sent playing please note because he saw what
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: I was gonna do. I was gonna grab the gun,
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: I said, hit my brother back in. He said, you're
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: all gonna die in this fucking alley, you know, and
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: he was trembling, and and suddenly that god was there.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: Gods didn't know him, going on, go to jail and
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: get the ship over you know. So I told a certainly, come,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: let's go down and get out and go to jail,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: go to central locker. They put us in the car,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: brought us to Napoleon and Britannia. There about seven cars
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: the police waiting. If I wouldn't have been there, they
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: probably killed Jake and Cyril with the man howling and
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: pulling him out the car. They took her and get
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: out the car. They know who you are and all
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: that shit, you know. And so I told something said,
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: may be cool, let's go to jail and get the
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: ship over with. So we did, and that's when Jake
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: we got out. Jake started in the song. I said
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: he had to ride the rail because he was started
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: hit shiking, I mean, catching freight trains around the country.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: And when all the way around, come over down to Florida,
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: come back to New Orleans and went around one of
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: the score places, and the dude caught him off golden
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: and hit him and knock him down and head hit
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: the curve and he died. And uh so, me and
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Cyril we had went to New York. But y'alls and
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: we come back. We're in the ballroom here the police
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: coming in Sam too. I said, okay, we're gonna get
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: this ship over knock. They had a wine out for us,
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: you know. So we get in the car and went
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: down there and just squashed the ship. But and while
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: we're in the car, bro looking at Aaron Nelt, Cyril Net,
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: Alfred Rudolph d o a y'all was glad to hear that,
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: said say, yeah, you probably had another one that that's
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: just still Please cool it, man, Let's go down and
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: get this ship over with. And so we did. But
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: it was one of them things, you know, like John
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: there for seventy two hours, and every time the ship changed,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: they bring the central lock up and pushing in front
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: of the lineup. And if you happen to look like somebody,
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: you can wind up with a charge on. So, yeah,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: it was that was part of my growing up, you know.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: So the people you grew up with, your friends, how
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: many are still alive and how many died before their time?
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: Most of them died before the time. Marvin is still here.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: Don Hobbard is still here. Pitt It Pat the one
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: I'm talking. He's got cancer up. But I talked to
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: him every day to lift his spirits and all. But
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: that's about it. You know. Another one just died. He
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: wasn't in the game and he's just it's time to
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: get out of here, you know. But most of them gone.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: I saw him fall by the wayside.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: So you're in New Orleans. Facts dominoes from New Orleans.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: He's gigantic in the fifties. To what degree were you
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: aware of the musicians were successful? And to what degree
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: did you come to know them? Doctor John, Allen Tussain
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: all these other people.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: Well fast Domina. I thought he was the you know,
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: Ris or whatever, and uh, doctor John. He and I
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: ran the space together back in the day. Is you
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: know the first time I went in the studio. He
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do some background on somebody who's recalling all Onta.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: He recorded all my face stuff on Miny Records from
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty to about sixty full stuff like that.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Well, Alan and Mac were you know, these are icons
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: in America and the rest of the world. Were they
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: icons in New Orleans?
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, no doubt.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: They spent okay, so Alter, you're on sure with Larry
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Williams based on your head. Eventually you go to Los Angeles.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: You fly there because Larry Williams is gonna help you
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: make it. Larry Williams has some success, but he turns
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: out to be a crook almost for sport.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Well he was. When we was on the road, he said,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: I'm fat of being temped out here. That's what we
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: call it. See, I'm going on pimp and back to
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: LA And he did so. When I got up there,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: he picking that from the airport. He stopped off at
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: a one of his little hotels, like told to one
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: of his women, and I can hear him up, you know,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: speaking louds of whatever. And I'm sitting in the car
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: and the police pull up. Guys said, hey, it was polite.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Say how he said, who are you? Said, aaron Nevia
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: blah blah blah. So what do you to, mister Williams.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: I said, it's gonna be my manager, Your manage it.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: What do you you know you'll stick a man a
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: burglar or what a pimp? I said, No, I'm a singer.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: He said, okay, well they call me Red. I move.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: I'm out of Wilsa district. So I see you over there,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: and a few days later I saw red over there.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: He said, told you and that that it was on
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: every time we left the the house that get picked
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: up half the time.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Now ultimately you get arrested and join a firefighting crew.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Tell me about that.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: Well that happened on I had done maybe with three burglars.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: This is the third one. It's on Sunset Boulevard. And
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: a guy rant at a step in van with the
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: sliding doors, and it was a man's clothing store and
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: it was next to a woman's clothing store. The man's
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: clothing store at a Burgerlon. So they popped the lock
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: on the woman's store, went through the wall had a
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: hole this big, but you can walk, walked through the
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: arm little suits, so it looked like somebody that saw us.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: And everybody left. It went different spots, and me and
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: a guy named Steve set out on this bench on Sunset.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: So he said everything quieter would check out, so he went.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: He stood. I said, must be all right, so I
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: went back. As I was coming towards the truck, I
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: heard some talking, so I slipped the door open, the
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: guy in and slid the door back closed, and I
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: could hear him as they getting closed, and guy, Michelle,
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: someone's in the place. And I'm high, I had hair
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: on and we eating coke, so I had to do
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: that to be done that dumb shit. So I'm all
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: kind of visions gone through my head. I'm trying to
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: pitch it, and the guy out, hey, what are you
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: doing that? And I said, man, be clean enough, leave
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: us alone. And the lady said, I didn't hire nobody
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: to clean up my police, and that shit was so
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: funny than me. I was tumble standing back of the
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: food in that damn truck, and all of a sudden
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: I heard Larry come out and they got in the squabbling,
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: and Larry hit to do it and knock him down.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: The woman started screaming. The parking lot felled up. I'm
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: trying to get the door open, and it would not
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: open nothing. It would not budge until the Sheriff of
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Hollywood and all them that. Then they slid up like
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: it was greased. I sat on the running board a
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: little cigarette and just waited, you know, And he come
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: up and said, what's that. I said, I guess I'm busted,
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: you know. But they ran Larry and them all through
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: the Hollywood heels and uh put me in the car
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: over the hand because behind my back from about that
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: was about ten o'clock till about three in the morning
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: while they calm in the hills, and right now I
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: got to click my thumb to get it right from
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: that handcuffed being so tight on my wrists and uh anyway,
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: the man asked me who was there. I'd give him
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: some phony names. He knew I was lying. He said,
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna send you to Saint Quentin. I said, I
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: guess that it was Saint Quentin, and uh Larry got
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: me out in a bond, got me a lawyer, and
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: the lawyer talked to the probation department and all that.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: So uh I went to court sound guilty on two
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: cons at second degree burgers and then let me go
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: home for about a month to you know, well, come
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: back and do my time. So when I come back,
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: uh Larry had set it up for me to hang
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: out with these two girls then Audie and Kim who
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: ill called Chuckling and Vanilla, and uh I was hired.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know what all happened at that, but they
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: were giving me a send off a party, and I
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: was trying to get hired, and start could feel them
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: and I got the jail. When I got in front
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: of the judge. It was supposed to be Judge brand
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: who my mom and Joe that wrote letters to and
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: all that he was supposed to go light and instead
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: Judge Brandt was on vacation and Start as I was
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: in there giving out time like it was free ice
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: water or something five to lfe, ten to twenty, you know,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: all that kind of and I'm thinking about running and
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: I kept saying, no, it's run. You ain't gonna be
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: the same. So you got to take you issue. So
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: I stood in front of judge. I felt like I
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: was about two feet tall, and he said, Aaron Never's
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: found guilty of two counts to second green burglar. I
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: finally sent you with the love prescribe. He been saying
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: that to everybody. You know, my heart just sunk. He said,
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: one of fourteen years of Saint Quentin. And he said
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: but when he said but, I was holding on to
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: a piece of kite through it. But what he starts
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: to spend that time to put you on a three
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: year provision, providing you do the first year for the County.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you Johanna, thank you Saint Jude, you know. And
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: uh so that was cool, you know. And I got
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: that to the central I mean not central lot to
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: Elie County and they had my hand because of this
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: black dude from Kelp from Texas. Told lanky dude to
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: walk around like he's the baddest line in the jungle.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: You know, everybody come get out of my say, man,
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: you better freeze that ship man. And then we're walking
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: through the to the Ellie conneck. They got about ten
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: guys together and some dude and them, so take that
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: fucking hat off and the whole god, I didn't even
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: have no hell say tell your mama to take I
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: had a sucker and you know, I'm ready for whatever.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: So the first thing the man say, well do you
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: want to do your time inside outside? That's a no brainer, man,
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: I'm want too much time outside. Okay. So I went
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: to the wayside on the Rancho close to Pasadena up
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: in the and what the mouth there was anyway, they
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: had a forest forest fire camp with a T shirt
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: to fight forest fires, and the place was like a
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: little town. It had like, uh fit the barracks on
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: one side, fit the on my side with yeah library
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: or uh where you eat and everything in the middle
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: and on the end there where you trained for the
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: forest fires. And I try to suck up everything and
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: try to learn it to the utmost so i'd be safe.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: And this guy, Robert, he walking down the walk with
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: get out of my way, and he messed with a
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: couple doing had him hand up against the building and ship.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: It didn't detern though, until we got to Camp eighteen,
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: which was we locked up and got officers barracks when
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: bricks and had the state of the old gym, cafeteria
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: and everything. All the rest of the camps are like shacks,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: wooden shocks. So Robert, still acting stupid, he messed with
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: the little white dude, I'm gonna take the food or something.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Dude had him turn upside down. So he went to Siberia.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: That's what they call the hole. You don't go to Siberia.
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: So we never seen him in the more and one day,
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: I'm the sergeant took a liking to me. He said,
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: what you doing in place like this? I said, I've
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: done some stupid shit, man, I gotta pay for it,
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: you know. And one day I was he got me
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: at the buffe his office, you know, with the buffer machine,
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: and one of my records came on and the man
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: said that was mister Aaron never so I said, no,
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: you mean missed sixteen nine fifty five. We left, but yeah,
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: so he was cool. Man. I was glad I was there.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: And the forest fires back then wasn't like they are
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: the day though to day they on steroids.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: So how depressing was it to be in the work
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: camp with your record on the radio and having been
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: on tour as a singer.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: It wasn't the person at all. I figured I was
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: in the right place. I was satisfied. I wasn't getting
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: no visitors. But this this guy from Mena and Louisiana,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: his family would come up and his mother would call
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: me out, you know, to sit with them. I mean
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: I was. I was. I mean his too. Chicana dudes one.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Then Pedro and John we worked out together and I
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: was looking at the Hawk. I was like, man, I
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: love this, you know, building my body up, and uh
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: so when I came out there, I was like, my
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: clothes wouldn't fit me.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: So this is when you first started to work out. Yeah,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: Now it seems from the outside the youth continue to
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: work out the rest of your life. Is that true?
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, man, sir, I worked at twice this morning,
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: so you know, at least full time of the week.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: And do you like the process or you like the
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: way it makes you look or the way it makes
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: you make strong? What about it is appealing to you?
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: Everything? The feeling of the iron, you know, and even
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: the stuff when you're running or doing cody and stuff.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: But I liked all of it because I know I'm helping.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: I feel it, you know, even when if it hurt,
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: it's good.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Hurry, Okay, you go back to New Orleans after you
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: do your time? Is this when Joel essentially kicks you
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: out of the house.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: It wasn't. It wasn't that I know when I go
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: back from doing my time. Is nineteen sixty four, and
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: my daughter I understand his bond.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: And uh.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: So we moved in in a house on Chestnut Street,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: and uh let's see sixty five, Hurricane Betsy came and
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: uh me and Melvin started doing roofing work after that
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: because his dad knew what it was a roofer and
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: we made money doing that. That ran out and this
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: guy named Sydney and Uh, George came by with a
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: big bag of weed. They wanted to use my house
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: to you know, bag it up manicure. But if they
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: do with it, my children are at school. Joe was
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: at work, said, yeah, have all come up. So they
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: gave us a big cake pan full of weed and
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: then gave us a bag with the stems. He got
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: a letther cake pan out and kid was good. So
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: we're selling dollars joints, you know. And I went uptown
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: where George used to live and uh, selling dollar joints,
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, this guy dropped the handkerchief
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: to the narcotic agent that tangle I Red was on
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: the corner. He was a dope pusher and tangled Red
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: has just got in the car and pulled off by
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: me being red like, they jumped down on me. And
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: I had about twenty joints, and I'm thinking, wow, I'm
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: going there and go. Charles already up there doing five
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: years to two joints and he was cutting sugar cane
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: or it was dean in humane. Later on, anyway, my
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: daddy got my lawyer and he came up with something
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: like motion to suppress the evidence, and I got me off,
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: got me off, and you know, wow.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: But how does your wife end up moving out of
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: the house?
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: That wasn't until after that was like seventy two, that
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: was later.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, So what was happening between this thing with getting
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: arrested with the twenty joints and uh then uh, your
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: wife moving out? You moving to New York? What were
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: you doing in that period? Working on the docks singing music?
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: What I was working on the docks singing recording? Uh,
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: I worked the painting houses, driving the truck. I worked
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: with both brothers constructing where they would uh, putting cables
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: under the ground, you know, underground cables. They did some
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: hard weight, but they paid. The riverfront paid the best.
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: If you got three days on the riverfront, you had
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: a good payday. And uh, that's what I was doing.
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: I didn't mind. And when I went to the hiring
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: hall in the morning, had you know a lot of
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: hundreds of people out there trying to get work. And
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: the guy would always have me because you know what,
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: I came to wait because some guys would get out
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: there and doing the rain dance. You know, as soon
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: as they get on the gate, man, I sure we
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: shoul rain so I can go home, said, well, why
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: did you come out of there brought somebody else could
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: have who wanted to work for the air their job,
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: So tell us about ultimately going to New York.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: Well that was after let's see, seventy Joe left. Jason
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: was born in seventy and one. Joe left around seventy three,
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: and uh me and Cyah went to New York to
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: be with Charles Taker. We could, you know, do some
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: music stuff up there, which we did do some music
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: stuff we did, like a trio called Myself the Wild
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Chappe of Tulis, which is my uncle John's Indian drive.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: And uh we played clubs we did we didn't want
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: called catch a rising Star with Richard Bells, a comedian.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: He was in See and he told the people when
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: these guys came up, we thought this coming in the robbers,
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: but give him a listener, give really sound good. I
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: mean we were jamming. I was playing keyboard and singing.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: Syriah was playing his gum dad and singing. The show
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: was going on singing.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you go back to New Orleans and you
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: end up working with your uncle Joly.
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: Well with let me see nineteen seventy six. Well, first
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: of all, I got another story. Then nineteen seventy five.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: This guy, he was a singer all in his name
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: little Sonny, and he's coming to me and my brother
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: lawn lug it. Hey, man, you score me some coke? Man,
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: I know. The guy had, of course tell him no,
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know when that brother, you know,
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: he kept on. I gave in and I scored some
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: coke on. I did it a couple of times, and
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: he brought his boy, Freddy, and I scored for Freddy
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: twice and the mother with you know you didn't hear
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: the mother with hunted since you I didn't pay attention
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: to it. And when I did pay attention that it
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: was too late, because uh Freddy called me on the phone,
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: say you get some more that. I said, no, man,
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: the man going out of town. And I said, well,
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: you know i'd get some hair on. When he said that,
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: my heart just I knew what the hell it was. Said,
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: no brain, no dealing man. And I was helping a
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: so called friend out, you know. So I hung up
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: and Pooshi passed and I tell him about it. He
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: gave me a giant and I smoked it and laying
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: he just waiting because I knew something's gonna happen. The
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: last thing I know I heard, I'm running through the alley,
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: bang on the door, and I got them walked through
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: and I had to look small window like opening, saw
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: Freddie out there with a steal gray suit with a
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: star skin husch gun on him. Say it Freddy out
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: of posse. Ain't no ready, that's office to see. That's
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: when I went to the court again. And first of all,
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: just my lawyer said, just pray you don't get this judge.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: As soon as I got my papers, Judge Edward G. Boyl,
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: the hanging judge. So me enjoy going My mama's dead then,
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: so we enjoyed was going to the steps on our
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: knees at Saint Anstraine and gone to Saint Jude and
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: saying our prayers. And I went to the court and
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: was so found guilty of too uh sales and arcotics.
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: The agent and the man told me that sends you
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: the one to fifteen years in the federal penitentiary. And
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: you said, I don't know why I'm doing this, but
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna spend that sentence and put you on a
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: three of probation. Say thank you, honor, but I had
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: to go in a battle for about six months after that.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm walking out the courthouse and this black
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: dude who was the Federal Marshal, his pistolf, He said,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know you had in this courthouse, but these
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: shackles was for your ass. You ain't got me now,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: I ain't coming back in your no more. And that
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: was it. But the judicial system.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: So you had to be clean for six months. What
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: was going on with you and the dope after that?
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: Well, I was still in my six months up. I
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: went back again. I mean I was kind of dead.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: I was like doing time right then.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: So tell me that it's after that you work with
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: your uncle johny.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he called out of love his down Shall was
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: still in the yoke and aught and cereals with the Meters.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: So he called us nice, said I wanted to do
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: my Indian music with me, and so we went in
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: the studio and set in nineteen seventy six and then
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: the Wild Chappatola's album with the Meters and the Nether
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: Brothers and a guy named Willie Harper helping us do
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: the background. And I mean we went there. We didn't
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: have to tell nobody what note to take it. It
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: was just and we had never been together, all four
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: of us, and had been two of us or three
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: of us. You know, this is all four of us together,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: and it was just so easy and the album playing
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: out so good, and he said, well, we wanted to
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: do the Nether Brothers because Joall has said that that
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: her mama and our mama had told him that she'd
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: like to see all of us together. So said, yeah, man,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: that's a good idea. So in nineteen seventy seven we
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: started rehearsing and stuff, and we got to deal with
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: Capital's Records to make album that Jack Niche produced, and
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: uh came out in nineteen seventy eight. That's when I
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: was able to buy my seventy eight Thunderbird, and Uh,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: I guess that was the start of the Never Bros.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, from that point, is it pretty much go up
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: and up and you're working on the road or is
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: it dipped down again?
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: Uh? It wasn't. It was working. I didn't I had.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: I didn't have to go back on on the river
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: front anymore after that because we started working regular and
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: h it was like to eighty one when we were
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: playing at Tippetinas and Bett Midler came in and I
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: was singing telling like it is, and She's just slid
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: down off us stool like it was.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: She dug it and she asked us did we have
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: a contract, cause that was just the one one record
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: deal with Capitol Records. He said, no, we don't have
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: a record. She called Jered Morrison, herb alphat at the
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: A and M Records. Man, check these guys out, you know.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: So she set it up so we had a chance
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: to do an album for A and M Records. That
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: was nineteen eighty one. Joe Down was the producer. And
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: that's what I'm saying, man, it's time for me to
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: get off the pot, you know. So I was ready.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: I was scared, you know. It was like the kid
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: in me, you know, just I know about the streets,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: but I don't know about no rehab and all that stuff.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: But the manager at the time, his name was Bill Johnson.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: He set it up for me to go in this
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: place called DePaul, which used to be a sanitarium. So anyway,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: we had to go do this album in New York
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: called Fire on the Bayer and I's brought them up
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: drugs up there to hold me to come back. But
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: I'm scared because I'm you know, I don't know when
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: the rehab he is. And it was like the little
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: kid in me. It was like, you know. So one
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: one morning, about three o'clock in the morning, I'm in
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: the in the room and this guy named Elliott, he
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: was a writer. He was doing the story on us,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: so he was in. I'm playing the piano. My friend
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: John Brenners from Petaluma, California, he had had let me
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: his recorded tape recorder, and I'm playing Sam Cook and
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: the soul said, were you there when they crucified the Lord?
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: And he's so wonderful? And I had to stand up
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: in front of my class in the sixth grade and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: Reppe recited a poem called Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: teach me how to pray? And I started playing like
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: somebody told me how to play it and how to
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: sing it. And I recorded on one of my albums.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: But that was like the little kid in me. I
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: have a that that recording. I called him my my
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: inspiration up tape because I could hear the frightened Aaron Neville,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: you know, and uh, if you want to send it
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: to you. Uh. Anyhow, I had a lot of things
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: happened on that on that session. Matter of fact, Whitney
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: Houston and my mom sang background on some of the
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: songs on Fire on the Buyer, and Uh, Keith Richards
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: said that to him, that was the best album of
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: the year, and uh, the strength I was doing Mona
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: Lisa and Joe Donn got Leon Pandorvis he is a
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: keyboard player for Saturday Night Live. And Water was there,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: who was out friend from New Orleans has done a
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: lot of Alan Tuson and stuff, a lot of bunch
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: of other people stuff and Joe was hip Tim. So
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: Joe asked him and said, well, what else do you
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: need a piano in your run? He said, no, I
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: just need a tune in folk. So he wrote the
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: Choice with a tune and folk. And while we're in
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: the studio, uh, the New York String session, they played
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: Leon's person that was killer Man and they snickering at
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: at whatever, like he's a country bumpkin and stuffing. You know,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: he gets put the put the music out there, and
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: they played it and after that they had to get
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: up and hit their pons on the on the music
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: stand and give him his problem. I had tears him, asking, man,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: get that man is proper, you know. And I was
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: dedicating that song to my mom and dad and it
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: was a very special recording for me.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: What did you learn in rehab?
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: Well, I learn that dope it's not your friend, and
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: that when you take it, it's attacking your organicize, you know.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: And when you get that good feeling and there's just
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: no good feeling, it's doing something you kidney or you
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: liver your pankers or some shit, you know, and h
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: but uh, it didn't stop me. I stopped, Yeah, stopped
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: when that time and the next time, but I had
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one, we went on the road the Nevils
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: doctor John Arma Thomas. We went to Japan and Australia,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: New Zealand. First night I turned in the bed and
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: I tried to turn back my back. I wouldn't turn.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: Aller to do is roll out the bed, crawl to
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: the phone and call it the road man, say John's
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: come get me. Middle wheelchair. Got to go to the hospital.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: He came and got me, and they they didn't know
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: what was wrong, and I could. They didn't understand what
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: I was staying. I don't know what they were saying,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: or I was staying pain hurry, pain hurry. It was
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: hurting everywhere, and they was giving me vaca and the
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: ship and massages and whatever else they do, but none
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: of it work. So we over there like a month.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: If I would have left, the gigs would have folded
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: because my record was hit over there. It was everybody
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: plays the fool. And so I would tell tell him
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: to rule me to the stage in the wheelchair and
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: put a chair out on the stage and I stand
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: up and I hold hold my thighs because this felt
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: like they was opening up with the side of the
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: you know, and I had to walk and I sat
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: down on a chair and once I st to singing,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: I didn't pay attention to the paint. I looked at
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: the audience and it was in. It was cool until
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: the gig was over, and then the paint come back
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: and hurt everywhere. So that was like a month. I
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: came home. I went to one doctor said, oh, we
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: got to go in. I said no, I think I'll
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: get another second opinion, and went to another doctor said
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: the last thing we want to do, said, uh, said,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: he had had his back operator on and he sent
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: me to stress relief chiropractice and he told him to
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: do a lot of walking, but also give me in
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: the Viking and you know, so you get hooked on him.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: And uh. So that was ninety one. I was off
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: and on it, you know. And then about two thousand
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: and two I went into a re have another rehab,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: the same one I haven't had been in.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: So you went to rehab that time. What was different
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: about going other than you were in different drugs? What
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: was different about going to rehab the second time?
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: Well, that's one of the guys, Drew Pinsky, and you
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 2: probably heard him, of course, he said he said one's
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: too many and the thousands not enough. Said, damn, that
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: makes so much sense. Once too many and a thousand
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: not enough. And you know they give you all the
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: history of it too, what it's doing to your thing,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: you know. So I got out at and I was off.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: That was like like two thousand and two. Two thousand
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: and four, My wife Joelle had had this call and
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: she worked at the hospital, and she said, I am
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: going to adopt. I know most of the day, you know,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: and our friend next door doctor Chris Boom. I said, Chris,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: did you come over here and take a look at
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: at Joel? And he came over and he checked out
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: and he said, Joel, I think you get a cat scan.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: So she went to get a cat scan and the
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: doctor said, wow, she had small cell lung cancer right
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: close to a trick. So it was inoperable. And doctor,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: so she had three months and something punched me in
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: the heart. Joe said, so in other words, you give
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: me the death sentence. I said, oh no, that was
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: I came up. I can't explain that feeling, you know.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: So me and her and my sister we started having
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: a prayer vision with all the churches and prayer and
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: and Joe lived by another three years.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: So now that's a big factor in your life. Religion
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: and seeing Jude. Will you ever question your faith or
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: you're always a believer.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: Always a believer that people say will get mad and Joe,
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: this is God's will. You know, I get mad at
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 2: as Joel. Look God, I say, unless she's going to
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: heaven because I watched them go through hell.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: But you also talk about going to pray at the shrine.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Do you pray today? And do you go to church today.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: I pray I've been doing since the pandemic. I've been
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: doing it on TV. I say rose every day and
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: watched the Mask and I just got prayers that I say.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: I got a little altar, little peel and kneel on
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: and stay prayers looking at at the at the trees
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: or whatever.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: You know. Okay, you in the book, you go on
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: and on how much you love Joel and you don't
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: talk about any third parties. But were you faithful all
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: these years?
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: That's the meeting known for you to find out. I mean,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you about the the two girls that.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: That time out to.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know what happened because I was I was inegraated,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: So just leave it at that.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: Okay. So now you know, fire on the bio comes out,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: Bill Graham becomes your manager. So you know, do you
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: feel like you really admitted because you were frustrated before?
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: What's he experienced?
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: You mean when Bill Graham came in? Yeah, well he
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: was knocking doors down for us. You know, it was
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: like he was showing us off. You know, this this
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: is the nevils how much tell to check him out?
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: You know, the Great of Dead Huey Lewis, Santana, Uh
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: build his tongue that we went on the Amnesty toil
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: with you two and Peter Gable Stinging, John Bias, Miles Davis,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: old bunch of people's on that.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: So you were on tour, you know, constantly, and a
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: lot of times with Household and Nemax, you know, the
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stones, et cetera. Did you hang with these people?
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: Did you become friends or did you pretty much just
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: hang with your brothers now?
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: Because I was friends at all the man Keith's still
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: friends and you know he coporeduced my album, My True Story,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: and Santana. He's like a brother Huey Lewis, you know
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: with his name is Jared Goliah He he and I
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: used to talk together.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: And how did you meet Linda Ronstaff?
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: Well, the nether brothers were playing at the World's Fair
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four in New Orleans. We were playing
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: at Pete Fountains Club on the ground and the Welfare
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: and she was Linda was there with Nelson Riddle's band
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: at the Amphitheater and after her show she came somebody
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: told him that her never brother was playing, so she
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: came to see us. Somebody told me she was an
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: audience and I dedicated a song to and I call
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: up on stage, but she told her. She told the
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: press that she don't usually do nothing imprompt like that,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: but she wasn't gonna say no there I never and
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: we sang some duop together and all the after the
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: expo autograph she stayed to Aaron Love, I'll sing with
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: you anytime, any place, anywhere and any key. And it
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: was on then. So that was eighty four. Eighty five. Men,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: Alan Howson was starting a thing called New Orleans Artists
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: Against Honger and Homelessness, and I asked her to come
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 2: down and do the benefit but she so sure, so
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: and the manager Peter Ashley, came down and we were
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 2: down at two Cents Studio and the first thing we
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: thought to sing together because we both came up Catholic,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 2: was ive Maria and we sang that in harmony and
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: uh peter A said yeah, should do it record together.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: I said, hey, I'm paying for that, and Linda was damned.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: So you know, that was eighty five, So it took
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: a couple of years, but it was right on time,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: you know. When she called me to do the four
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: songs on Cry like a Ryan Stone, and we did
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: don't know much And I told her Mesh at the Grammars,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: I was joking, but not joking because it was that
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: great of a song, you know, And sure enough, so
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: I still missed up. We talked, you know, every a
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: few days a week or something like that.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: So what was it like having that level of success
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: after all these years?
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: That was great? Man. I was able to do a
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: lot of Joel and kids and all, and you know
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 2: that right them and the wrongs and life is good.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: So is this all instinctive? You don't have to rehearse?
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: You can just show up and sing no problem back then?
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: So then you're working with your brothers, you ultimately make
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: solo albums. Do you feel at this end that you've
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: gotten the respect and achieved the success you deserve?
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: I think so, you know, I'm not. I appreciate the
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: people that bought my records and came to my constrations
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: and all. And I ain't got no regrets, you know.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: And you know you're on your brother the road with
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: your brothers. The money has to be split, you know,
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: four ways, never mind the other players. How are you,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: how did you do? And how are you doing financially?
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: But it did good, I mean, you know it as ways.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: But I's done the record with Lenda that opened a
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: lot of doors. So it's you know, then when I
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 2: did the Judge Johnson granted that open Country people, you know,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: and m we did good, you know, and like I
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 2: feel like I played but the baddest band in the land,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: the Neville Brothers. Like this guy named Eric Copp used
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: to be a tech man and played keyboard it. He
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: used to announces the New Orleans the Mighty Mighty Never
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: brother They used to run a chill when they say
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: that because we were in Mighty Mighty Never Brothers.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: And so you know, there's a hit you get performing
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: live you can't get sitting here your living room. So
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: what was the key to winning the audience over? What
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: do you mean you show up on stage, you get
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: big applause. How do you make sure the audience is
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: with you and lift the audience up through the show.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: Just don't go fake and be you be real? You know,
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 2: do what you do. This is what I do. I'm
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 2: not gonna tap dance and jump up and down. I'm
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: gonna say, you know, and I'm gonna make my voice
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 2: touch you say something in you because it touches something
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: in me.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, you start to gain success everywhere you go, do
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: people recognize you?
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, well man, heyp and so you like that
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 2: or do you not like that? It's cool? You know
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 2: when when we're living in the city, we'll be walking
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: down the street and all of a sudden you might
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: hear somebody hit the bridge legend, oh she and stuff
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 2: like that. You know, that's that's cool.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: And how about ultimately being on TV and in movies?
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: How did that come about?
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: And did you enjoy that? I did? Uh? I think
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: the first time I did was with Dennis Quid and
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: John Goodman and Jessica Lang and Timothy Hutton on Everybody's
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: All American, which they did done in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 2: Then I did it one in New Orleans but uh,
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: Zander Lee but who was it? J Ryan Hull and
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 2: Nicholas Cage and I forget the latest name. Anyway, I
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: played a bartime in that one. I played a jail
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: a jail cell buddy with Mickey Rope in a movie
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 2: called The Last Ride. So you know, it was all cool.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: And then Joel dies, But ultimately you meet your new
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: wife who's a photographer. How does that happen?
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 2: How does that happen? Joe died January fifth, two thousand
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 2: and seven. And I was a basket case. The doctor
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 2: gave me some kind of nerve pure for my nerves
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 2: and stuff, and every time I laid on it felt
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 2: like little things creatures were scurring around on the bed. Said,
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 2: now I can't take this. But meanwhile, Joelle had all
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: this narcotics, said that she didn't want to take. She
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 2: had morphine, the uh percose perkadan, but the other one
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 2: is that I can't think of the name of it.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 2: But anyway, she had all this drugs. So I went
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 2: to that because that's it was familiar. And then but
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 2: that ran out. I would get the doctors the right prescription.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 2: I could get them on this street, you know. And
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: uh so two thousand and eight, you know, I was
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 2: I had to go on the road. Nobody else knew
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 2: what I was going through. You know. That was my
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 2: my solo. Uh that was just for me. And uh
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: let's see it get kind of emotional, you know. Anyway,
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 2: the Nevills was going back Joell after after she was
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 2: diagnosed with the cancer. Hurricane Katrina came in two thousand
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 2: and five, so we moved to Nashville, and that's where
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 2: she died in Nashville. And uh, like I said, took
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 2: all those drugs and May. Matter of fact, I met
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: Dreell in May, and I met Sarah and two thousand
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: and eight people magazines sent out to to photograph the
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 2: Nevels for their return to the Jazz best since Katrina.
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: And we did it at the Nevile's office up on
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 2: the balcony, and when I saw something about it, I
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: just I don't usually do that, but it's just my
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: eyes caught hers and I just never stopped looking at
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 2: the whole time she was taking it. She was so professional,
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 2: you know she and she got pictures just right. And
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: after the session was over, everybody else left and I
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 2: stuck around until she had never heard of never Bro.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: So I'll give up a copy on my book and
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 2: I give let her hear some of the music and on,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: and I asked my phone numb. She gave me an
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: office number, and I waited a couple of days and
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 2: I called and it was cool. And also I started
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: calling every other day and we got start getting closer,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 2: and so I'd go up to New York and be
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 2: with them. By that time, I moved from Nashville to
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 2: coming to Louisiana. That's like about on a half from
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: New Orleans across the lake. And so she would come
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 2: there sometime and I backs and forwards and the next thing,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: and it's talking about moving together and uh, and were
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 2: trying to make sure we could, you know, buy something
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: together and all. And so I want to check my
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 2: credit and stuff. And she'd look at the credit and
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 2: my credit was down in the dumps. And I thought
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: everything on up and up, but she started looking and
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 2: finding all kinds of discrepancies. Uh, things getting was missing.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 2: A lot of money was missing, and the business manager
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 2: we had to wind up sewing to get some of
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 2: the money back. And so anyway back and forth from
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: New York. One time she was in Coventant and was
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 2: getting ready to go out to dinner, and I want
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: my pocket to get the cookies and and pull the
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: cockies out of about ten vikings fell on the ground
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: and Sarah she had and Data is a guy who
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: who was the drug addict before, and she knew what
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 2: it was about. She said oh no, not this ship again. No,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: So I had to make a choice. I gave her
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: had about two hundred pills and gave U she's just
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 2: this caught it. That was it number over. So here
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 2: I am. But this November we'll be married thirteen years.
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: Wow. Great story. Let's go back to New Orleans. To
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: what degree is New Orleans although you don't live there
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: anymore the same or is it different? After Katrina?
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: It was different? I mean it was like that water
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 2: is sit there for so long and then telling them
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 2: what was in that water from all of the like
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 2: they have these train cars out on the facts with
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 2: all these different chemicals in it and all that everything
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 2: people had under this, you know, under cleaning, under the
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 2: sink and dead folks, all that was in that water.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 2: I had that friend of mine who still lived on
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 2: that they she had never had an allergy, but now
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: she had to get a shot alleges shot every month.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 2: So I don't know.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: And what about your kids? What are your kids up to?
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: And to what degree do you have a connection and
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: support them?
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 2: They talk all the time. Well, you know I haven't.
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 2: He's on the road a lot, my son Jason, him
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 2: and his wife, they have a band Jason nevan Is
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 2: Funker Stole Band. They do a lot of new all
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 2: and stuff, but they did that sound too. They was
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 2: just in somewhere in Mexico or a son airon. He
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 2: does some kind of jobs. My daughter in the staying
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 2: seat waits for the Civil sheriff Department.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, Aaron, I want to thank you so much for
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: taking time with my audience. You know, these stories are
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: amplified and they're a lot more in his book, which
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: is very easy to read. So once again, Aaron, thanks
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: for taking the time to tell your stories.
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: Bob, you bet. Until next time. This is Bob left
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: sets
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 2: Sh