RR: But the people you got were heavy hitters, though.
EC: Well, I did eventually. What happened was that I couldn’t get anybody. I had done the tracks that I produced. When we were cutting them, we stayed pretty close to the original in the rhythm tracks. Then, talking it over, we said we need to do a few that are not original—do a left turn rhythmically. I said, “What we’ll do is on my tracks, we’ll put our stamp on it with the horns, vocals, and strings.” And, you know, the rhythm tracks are also very much Tower of Power. What I’m saying is that arrangement-wise within the rhythm tracks, we stayed true to the original.
We decided that we were going to get another producer to do a few tracks, and George Duke’s name came up. We just said, “Why don’t we go to George Duke, and say, Here’s what we want you to do. We want to pick four songs, and we want you to go left on them, immediately, in the rhythm. And we came up with some specific ideas about that. He was really good with that.
[Duke] is a really liked guy in the industry. Everybody knows him. We figured that he’ll get us some guests. And he was having a hard time. He’s the one who told me that story: “People are just gun shy.” The only name he was coming up with was Ashanti, and he wasn’t able to pull it off.
By fluke, we knew this chick that worked at the zoo in Minneapolis. They have an amphitheatre there where we have some really great gigs once or twice a year. This chick started working for Joss Stone as a personal assistant, and she was friendly with Larry [Braggs], our singer. She e-mailed him and said, “Hey, guess what. I’m working for Joss Stone, and she’s a big fan of the band and digs your voice.” So Larry tells me that, and I said, “Let’s ask her to sing a tune.” At this point, I’m trying to get anybody. I wasn’t even that sold on Joss Stone. I knew that she was a white soul singer from Britain. She was decent, but I wasn’t like “man, let’s get her. We’ve gotta have her,” but I was like “let’s get someone.”
We got in touch, and she said she’d do it. After talking with her more, my manager worked out that she would do two songs. We were happy about that, but then when she came, right before she showed up, my manager said, “Oh, now they’re saying they’ll only do one song.” I said, “Why is that?” He said, “I don’t know, but that’s what I’ve been told by her people.”
And then she shows up and she’s like this gangly white chick from Britain. She comes in, and you can tell she talks a lot, because when she doesn’t know people, she just comes in and talks a lot. Very sociable, she’s a young kid, she’s nice enough, and I’m talking to her, and she goes out there and opens her mouth, and I was completely stunned. She was like a Supreme Soul Diva—like a veteran Soul Diva. Every time she did a take, she went to another place. I told the engineer: “Save every single thing she does.” (laughter)
She was groovin’ on the first tune with Larry—“(Heaven Must Have Sent) Your Precious Love.” Then, she comes in and says, “I thought we were going to do two songs?” I said, “So did I, but I was told that your people said you would only do one.” She said, “Who said that?” I said, “Somebody that works for you told my manager, after we were told you would do two, that no, you’ll only do one.” She said, “No, I’d love to do two.”
Meanwhile, the session was over. We had flights booked. We were flying out of town. I said, “Well, look—what are you doing?” She said, “I’m in town recording with Raphael Saadiq.” I said, “If I hook it up for next week, will you come back?” She said, “Yeah,” She came in, and I didn’t even come to the next session. She just did it with Larry and George Duke. It was his production on that tune. She sang “It Takes Two.” He sent me the disc the next day, and I thought: “Man, this chick is unbelievable.” I just loved it.
RR: You were able to get Tom Jones, as well.
EC: That was another struggle. We had done a tour with him, and he’s been a fan of the band for years. He’s an icon, he’s nice enough, but he’s not real intimate, you know what I mean? When you’re on tour with him, even though he’s a fan, he’ll come in and joke around for a second, but he keeps his distance.
With that being said, we got in contact. Our drummer, our past drummer, Herman Matthews, was his drummer so we told Herman, “Tell Tom we want him to do a guest shot on the record.” He comes back and says, “Yeah, he’d love to do it.” We were going to do a Sam & Dave tune, we got the ‘Yes’ and everything, but we never really heard from him, or his manager. We were getting closer to the end, and we kept telling Herman “He’s not getting in touch.”
Finally, Doc [Stephen Kupka, ToP baritone saxophonist] tells me “You know, his son is his manager. His name’s Mark Woodward. Do you remember him?” I go, “Why would I remember him?” He said, “We got high one night in Hawaii in the late 70s, all night long in the hotel room in Hawaii—just you, me, and him. It was Tom Jones’ son, and he was just gushing all night about how his dad loves us.” I said, “You mean that weird white guy—are you kidding me?” (laughter) He said, “No.”
I called up Herman and I said, “Hey, man, give me Mark Woodward’s number. I’m not getting no response out of Tom.” So he gives me an e-mail [address], and I send him an e-mail and I just came right out with it: “I’m told Tom Jones has consented to be on our record. We’re almost done. We need either a ‘Yes,’ or a ‘No’.”
Within five minutes, I get a call from Mark Woodward. He said, “I’m really sorry. We’ve known about this for the longest time. Tom’s just been busy, and blah blah blah.” I said, “Look—I understand. All I’m tellin’ you is that we really want to do this, and we’ve got to do it soon. We’re going to be in Vegas next week while he’s there for the whole two weeks.” [Woodward] said, “You know, Tom doesn’t like to sing in Vegas. He doesn’t
like to sing when he works, and he doesn’t like to sing when he’s in Vegas. Is there any chance we can do this some place else when he’s not working?”
I said, “I’ll go wherever you want and do whatever you want. I just need him to do it.” He said, “What about L.A.?” I said, “Perfect,” He said, “Really?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Next week?” He said, “Absolutely.” So we fly to L.A. We got a really nice studio, Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank. He shows up right on time, just totally relaxed, relaxed, talking like we’ve been best friends for years, real intimate style, the whole time he was there. He was there for about 3 and a half hours. It was really comfortable. He did a great job, and it just worked out wonderfully. I was really pleased about that.
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