The Wrecking Crew! Page #3

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they can call the union

- for a guitar player.

- That's right, so...

So it's what you put into it,

because how many days are,

in fact, we're all here.

And it's what you put into it

that's not written.

Yeah, well, in fact, everybody

can... that's sitting here,

I remember doing

different things

that weren't

ever even thought about.

And then, all of a sudden,

become part of the record,

and part of signature

of the record.

We all used to produce our own

parts. It's that simple.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- To make it swing, yeah.

You know, the first thing

that I ever did

that smacked of any kind

of rock and roll

was some kind of date,

which I don't even know

who the artist was.

There wasn't a minor 7th chord

in the bushel, you know?

It was all pretty vanilla.

That's when I knew

something was different.

At the time, I was doing

the Ozzie And Harriet TV show.

- Ah.

- Then all of a sudden,

you know, I'm doing this show.

And then, they...

One day, they come up with...

Well, Jimmie Haskell comes up...

- with Ricky Nelson.

- And with Ricky Nelson, said...

- It's rock and roll.

- "We're doing

this rock and roll stuff."

I don't know

what they're talking about.

Just laid out a chord sheet,

and says,

"Play behind Ricky Nelson."

So pretty soon,

you've ended up...

We were starting

to get involved in this.

That's what took me to L.A.

in... In 196...

Summer of 1960, uh, to play

in the Ricky Nelson band.

Working with those people

like that

was a perfect showcase

for what would happen later.

Which I had no idea

that I would ever be

the "session" player.

I didn't even know

what that meant.

We learned how to play

rock and roll

right there on the job.

Hey, you know,

if they want this...

I can do that.

You know, that's Latin...

That's Latin music.

That's nothing, you know.

You can do that all day long.

There were some purists,

like there is

in every way of life,

some people will not compromise.

Not that they couldn't.

They wouldn't, most of the time,

permit themselves

to, you know...

They felt that they were

at a certain level.

And playing rock and roll

was perhaps a little bit

beneath them.

And they didn't want

to get into it,

whereas, our guys,

we welcomed the rock and roll.

They didn't play that sh*t.

they didn't know about it.

They didn't like it.

And I started out

playing demos mainly,

you know, $10 a song,

and I got to eat that day, and...

I had three kids to earn

a living, and that's it.

And the money was important

to pay the rent.

And so I did what

all the rest of the guys did.

I got, uh, a fender guitar

and put the light gauge strings

where you could

bend 'em from here to Christmas.

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