Robert Randolph Is Revived, Reborn and Feeling Good Again
Robert Randolph is a musical creative force. His blues, rock and gospel influenced sound, and mastery of the pedal steel guitar are just some of the reasons he been selling out venues for years. Rolling Stone has listed him as one of the top 100 guitar players of all time. Robert stopped by the SiriusXM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about his new album, “Lickety Split.” Excerpts of the interview appear below.
* * *
Ron Bennington: Well, it sounds like you’re returning to that early party sound. I know the last album that you put out three years ago you did some explorations into the blues, but this seems like it’s a touchstone a little bit again.
Robert Randolph: (Laughs) Yeah, man. You know, we’ve been revived, reborn again and happy and feeling good about creating our own music again. So, it’s really been wonderful.
Ron Bennington: What does it take for that to happen? What happens? You go through the road for a while, you get exhausted with it all, you get beat up out there.
Robert Randolph: Nope, you know what, it’s just all about being with the right people – talking music with the right folks. But at the same time you have to – you really have to have a fresh mind when you’re making music – when you’re making great music. When I mean a fresh mind, you just got to go into the studio and relax and make music, not be under the gun or any time frame and so forth.
* * *
Robert Randolph Talks About Inspiration
Ron Bennington: So, you never know when it’s going to come. You can’t treat it like a regular job. Like, I’ll show up at 9, I’ll leave at 5 and we’ll have something. You’ve got to say – Now’s the time, now’s when it comes to me.
Robert Randolph: Well, yeah because you’ve just got to put yourself in the studio. And everybody’s a little different. Some songwriters can sit on their front porch with an acoustic guitar and start looking at the sun and looking at the bees and all that kind of things happening, but bands – with our kind of music you have to get in and plug in and play. We had a great engineer like Eddie Kramer, who – he’s worked with us in studio. I mean, we’ve done 2, 3 days in studio with Carlos Santana, Trombone Shorty’s in the studio with us. I had Buddy Guy in the studio, so when you get all of that energy going in the studio where, for bands – guy’s like me and a lot of the other guys who I’ve patterned my career after – Eric Clapton and all these guys. You’ve got to get in the studio and make music and you’ve just got to record and go. And as for me, as time – as things happen sometimes you could get into something at noon, but you don’t really get something great until 1am. It’s just how it is.
* * *
Robert Randolph Talks About Producing the New Album
Ron Bennington: For you it’s about the song. Once you get in there, what do you care?
Robert Randolph: It’s about having – for me, it’s about having that. Everybody writes songs different. You’ve got folk music, you’ve got rock, you’ve got gospel, you’ve got blues, you’ve got jazz. You know, everybody’s meaning of a song is very different. My meaning of a song is really, having something great to say, always. I’m not the guy that’s going to give you the down side of life. I don’t want to do that. That’s not – my background will come from church and traveling. I like to really pick people up and inspire and get people dancing. So, those are my versions of songs, through the energetic music.
Ron Bennington: So, you’re a positive guy before you become like, a positive musician. You’re just like – Hey, we’ve got to find a way through this, we’ve got to work on this.
Robert Randolph: Always. I always – whenever time I get bad news or I’m feeling a little down. I always say – alright, shoot right through that and go, ok.
* * *
Robert Randolph Talks About Motivation for Becoming a Musician
Ron Bennington: You think it’s still rough to make it as a musician in this country?
Robert Randolph: I mean, it depends on what you’re trying to do. That’s what I tell people. Look, if you’re trying to get rich, man, this ain’t the business to get rich in anymore. That’s come and gone, but if you want to live and have fun and do what you’re passionate about, it’s great. Because look, everybody needs music. We all need music. Everybody listens to music, so the thing is now, you don’t want to start fooling anybody just by being in a business to get rich. Because then – trust me, you’ll have a short career if that’s your only goal. You’re going – Oh yeah, we’re going to sell some units, we’re going to get in, man, we’re going to be big. It’s like, well what is big?
Ron Bennington: It used to be a lot easier for musicians to buy the giant houses than it is today. But if you look, the thing about you that just amazed me is how quickly you were accepted by the legends. I mean, 2001 was the “Wetlands” album?
Robert Randolph: 2000… Yeah, we recorded in 2001 and it came out 2002, yeah.
Ron Bennington: And then in no time at all, every great guitar player in the world is either inviting you on stage, or name-checking you in an interview. And it happened, it seemed like overnight as far as you being considered one of the best.
Robert Randolph: Yes. If that’s what they consider me as. I mean, I took it more as, really for me to get better and these guys appreciate something different that I brought. It’s like what Eric Clapton said. He’s like – Man, I thought I saw all the guitar music. I thought I heard it all. Here’s a guy that grew up with Clapton, I mean with Hendrix and the Beatles and Stones and Elvis and everybody else. So, it’s like – Man, I’m expecting you to take this to a whole other place and inspire everybody else. Inspire a whole other generation because you just inspired me. And the same thing as Carlos Santana and a lot of these guys. So, I see it as guys like, me, Derek Trucks, the Black Keys, Jack White, we’re sort of that next group of guitar guys that, we’ll all be old and gray… (laughs)
Ron Bennington: …talking about some other kids some day.
Robert Randolph: Hey, man. It’s like the 12-12 concert. It’s like – Hey, we’re going to the 20-50 concert, man. And it’s Robert Randolph and Jack White and Black Keys and we’re all rolling out there.
Ron Bennington: Anybody intimidating you, when they invite you in? Anybody intimidating when they want to play with you? When you look up and you just see a Carlos Santana or an Eric Clapton? It doesn’t give you…
Robert Randolph: No. I just see those guys as – for me, I just kind of see it as just, let’s go and make some music. I don’t know if I get – Stevie Ray Vaughan would intimidate me. If I ever met him, he would intimidate me because there’s not a day that don’t go by that I don’t listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan. So, probably Michael Jackson too. I’m a Michael Jackson fan.
* * *
Robert Talks About Some of His Idols
Ron Bennington: Stevie Ray was the first one for you to hear and say – Wait… wait, there’s other stuff I can do?
Robert Randolph: Yeah. Well, it’s the voice things and the soulfulness that he played with. He was one of those guitar players that just kind of, kind of did it all. I never saw him play, but I’m just listening to this stuff and I’m like – This is so soulful and so precise and just so on. It kind of – I immediately gravitated toward it from being in church because we were always taught we can’t noodle, you can’t play to yourself. You always had to make a connection and that’s where our, sort of our whole soulful thing came from. So, you’ve got to make that, sort of connection. You just can’t noodle. Like, even when we came into 2000 – when we came onto the scene in 2001 and we start playing these jam things. People are like – Man, we just love you guys because you guys just don’t noodle. You don’t noodle along. With some of those bands, you know…
Ron Bennington: Some of it is how quick your fingers are and you’re doing gymnastics and all that kind of stuff, but there is no connection to the instrument and no connection to the audience.
Robert Randolph: Yeah, and the audience likes this groove, these things to happen. And that’s why – I think Carlos Santana because he’s a guy that always… If you listen to Carlos, Carlos is real. He’s always had the guitar with the melodies with the chorus and it was like a scene and it was with all of his music. I mean, you listen to “Black Magic Woman” and all these different things, it’s like, it’s not a normal song, but you’re into it because there’s this whole thing that happens. And that becomes Carlos Santana. So, he’s not trying to write a bridge. It’s his thing. He can noodle for 20 minutes if he wanted to, but he’ll tell you like – No, man, I’m not going to noodle. You play, man. You make it good, man, so the woman can dance and you can do that and then you can get out and go to another song.
* * *
Robert Randolph Talks About the Song “Born Again”
Ron Bennington: Tell us a little bit about “Born Again.”
Robert Randolph: “Born Again” is really a – it was about a love song. Meeting somebody special and feeling really good about yourself again. All guys, we can kind of relate. And women, you can kind of relate too. When everything’s been sort of a social drag and you got the wrong person and now you’ve got this new person in your life. But the song winds up being some spiritual sounding song because everybody’s going – Born again, born again. Which, is all this connection. You meet the right person, you’re like – Hey, I want to dance. Let’s go to church, honey. You like, church? We ain’t been to church in 20 years. It’s ok, come on. I’m feeling good.
Ron Bennington: So, it’s all coming from the same place for you? Where all these good things are coming from.
Robert Randolph: Yeah, it all feels good, man. “Born Again” is a great love song. We wrote it in – it’s not really a love song, but it’s a feel good song. It makes you feel wonderful. It’s got the elements of blues, rock, gospel, reminds you of a lot of different things and it makes you want to dance. It makes you want to go hug somebody, so “Born Again” ladies and gentlemen. Off of the new record “Lickety Split”, we recorded it in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ron Bennington: Robert Randolph, always great to see you, my man. And I’ll see you next time coming through.
Robert Randolph: Thank you very much.
======================================================
You can order “Lickety Split
” on Amazon.com and Follow Robert Randolph on twitter @RRTFB
