players for the Junior Symphony, and I was one of the instructors. I was already teaching by the time I was fifteen. “Every seven years...’’ t /t r h ile I was at PSU, I was play- w w Ing around town with Billy Larkin and the Delegates, an organ trio. In the summer, we went down to L.A. to cut an album. One day I went by a drum shop and saw Philly Joe Jones outside. "God!” I said, "Here’s my idol, right here!" I asked if he was doing any teaching, and he said, "Yeah, come on in and sign up. "...It got to the point where my lessons would run over an hour and a half, and he’d have other students backed up. After about a month, he said to just come by the house. I stopped paying for lessons and he’d invite me around to the places he was playing. As a result, I was able to play a few gigs for him when he had to go back to Philadelphia. I met a lot of musicians at the time, because I sat in a lot, and we had a lot of after-hours jams. I was living back home with my folks when one day I got a call. Earl Grant was looking for a drummer and I'd been recommended. The next day I had a plane ticket to Reno waiting for me, and I flew off to see about the gig. He said, "All the charts are just like the records." I read through them and found some mistakes. "Well, you can’t be right," he said. "I wrote it and I’ll bet they're playing it just the way it should be." So when I pointed the mistakes out to him, he said, "You got the job!" Two weeks later I was off to Vegas, and that’s when everything took off for me. I had never played for somebody that paid you even when you were off, like on a retainer, and I thought, "Hey, this is great!" We went through Vancouver, Canada, and there was a group called Bobby Taylor and the Van- couvers who liked my playing. When I got back to San Francisco, they called and said, "We've just signed with Motown and we 're going to be the opening act for the Supremes." So I said, "Right on!" packed up my stuff and went to Canada. I was there for about a year, and nothing ever happened. We just worked really hard. We didn’t have to worry about a gig, because the guitar player owned the club. He was about the most untalented person I’d ever seen! Couldn’t sing, couldn’t play the guitar, and he wasn’t funny. Now he’s making a mint! That was Tommy Chong from Cheech and Chong. Then Martha and the Vandellas passed through. Their manager heard me play and told Martha to check me out. She came down and offered me the job. That was 1967, when the whole Motown thing got started for me. At the Motown offices, there was a big card with everybody’s work schedule on it. Groups that couldn’t afford to have their own rhythm section on salary would look at the schedules and pick players they liked, then ask if you could go on the road for a couple of weeks. As a result, I had a chance to play with everybody in Motown. At that time, Motown had a Christmas party every year. Everybody with a contract with Motown appeared all on one show. While one group was playing, all the other people were out in the wings, singing with you. While Martha was doing It was really a musical family. If one guy was having a difficult month, all the musicians would throw in five, ten, fifteen bucks, and go over to the guy’s house and say, “Hey, man, take care of the bills, get some food in for your family. ” They really looked out for each other. "Dancin’ In The Streets,” the Four Tops, the Supremes, Gladys and Smokey and all the others on the sides were just like one big family. Back then, Motown didn't put the musicians’ names on the record jackets. They didn’t get them on until Marvin Gaye started putting them on his...I played over in London with the Temptations, and they recorded The Temptations Live At The Talk Of The Town. On the British version, they had all the credits right on the back, but when the album got over here Stateside, they took them off and used all the reviews and newspaper clippings instead. It was a very, very positive experience for me... When all that was happening, my lifestyle was starting to change too. I started to think more about the business side, about what was going to happen after that big dynasty started to fall...I’ve always been a person who can sort of foresee things and make my plans... When I was in London, at The Talk Of The Town, I met all of the former Beatles, and I was on George Harrison's next album, My Sweet Lord. Ringo Starr and I got to be really tight, we did a lot of talking. He was saying, "Every seven years your lifestyle changes." At that time I was 28. He said, "Look, it’s time; you’re starting to get more into the business side of things now, and that’s what's going to happen. ” It was true. I had just agreed to endorse Cameo Drum Company’s products, and while I was in London I was even doing a little work for them on the side. I was a business major in college, after my music scholarship ran out. So when I got back to the States I was holding down two jobs... When I was touring with the Temptations, I would send 18 Clinton St. Quarterly NOW HAS LIVE MUSIC OLD TOWN SALOON Wednesdays ladies are treated to 75c off all drinks in the house and no cover charge. Fridays and Saturdays there is after hours until 4:00 a.m. Sundays you get two drinks for the price of one from 9:00 p.m. until midnight. Park free across the street and dance at Portland’s westside live country music bar. 15 N.W. 6th ctessass—a 228-1308
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