RR: And another legend, Sam Moore, played on the album.

EC: You know Sam Moore lives here [Arizona].

RR: I noticed you recorded his vocals at Chaton Recording Studios in Phoenix.

EC: Yeah, Chaton. I knew he lived here. I had done a commercial with him years ago. He did a Phoenix Suns commercial, and it went [Castillo sings in the “Soul Man” pattern] I’m a Suns Fan ditditdatdahditditdah… (laughter) you know “Soul Man,” but “Sun Fans.” Billy Preston was the producer, and I’ll never forget it. I went to the session, and they had these horn players from around town. They had my old trumpet player, Jesse McGuire, and me. I remember this young kid was playing baritone saxophone. We started doing the parts, and they sounded cheesy: ditditdatdahditditdahdah… and the baritone was way up in the top register, playing wimpy. I looked at him and I said, “Hey, man—can you play that down an octave?” He said, “Sure, but it’s written up.” I said, “Yeah, I know.” (laughter) But can you just take it down?” He said, “Well, yeah.” I looked at the ‘bone player, and said, “Same with you. Everything’s too high. There’s no fatness to it.” So we played a lick, and Billy Preston presses the top back and goes, “Do what he says!” (laughter) We knocked the session out real quick, and Sam’s wife comes in, and she’s the manager. She said, “Oh, man, thanks a lot, that really worked out great.”

The thought just never occurred to me. One day, I went, “You know what? Sam Moore lives in Phoenix. I’m going to call him.” So I got a number on her, and soon as I asked her, she said, “Yeah, he’d love to do it.” It turns out he had just done David Sanborn’s new record Here & Gone. [Author’s Note: I interviewed Sanborn for the site in August 2008, and when I asked him about Sam Moore’s vocal contribution on “I’ve Got News for You,” a track from that album, Sanborn replied, “Unbelievable. The Pavarotti of Soul. He’s part of the fabric of all of our lives. He’s the soundtrack. He shaped the direction of where music went. Those records that they did in Memphis—“Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’”—I mean, shit, man, it just doesn’t get any better than that. This voice is just like a nuclear fucking reactor.”]

My manager [Patrick Rains & Associates] manages David Sanborn so he was used to dealing with Sam Moore’s wife so it worked out quickly. She told me, “I want to do it with my engineer at his studio in town. That’s where Sam’s comfortable.” I said, “Whatever you want. I’m cool.” I sent him the files, and we went over one day. It was only me, the engineer Otto [D’Agnolo], Sam’s wife was there for part of it, but it was just me, Sam, and the engineer. And I’m in there, and I am dying. I’m literally dying. “I’m in the recording studio, recording Sam Moore, myself, for my record.” (laughs) I couldn’t believe it. I am such a Sam & Dave fan. I saw them when I was 16 at Mason St. West in San Francisco. I was in the front row, and they had a 13-piece band, all of these horns choreographed—it was a revue, you know. Man, I was changed. My whole life changed when I saw Sam & Dave. They were so awesome. I couldn’t believe that I was in the studio recording him. (laughs)

RR: You had a reunion of sorts on the record with Huey Lewis, who the Tower of Power horns played with for quite a while in the 80s and early 90s.

EC: I love Huey, but Doc [Stephen Kupka, ToP baritone saxophonist] loves Huey Lewis, he idolizes him. They’re best friends. Well, we’re all best friends. We know Huey really well. Doc said, “You know—you ought to call Huey.” By now, I’ve got three people on the record. (laughs) I went from having nothing to having three, and he’s saying, “let’s get Huey,” and I didn’t have any other duets. I was going home, and I thought, “I could split up the verses on “634-5789.” I didn’t even tell Doc. I just called Huey up, and he was really busy. He had one window to do it. He said, “In that window, I have to be with my kids. I’ve _got_to. I promised them, and I’m going to be in Montana. I’ve got a little studio over there so people can record me.” I said, “Great! I’ll send you the files. Just do it.” He said, “Yeah, man. I’m up for it.”

I sent him the files, and wouldn’t you know that he got sicker than he’s ever gotten in his entire life. I mean unbelievable sick. (laughter) He calls me up. I didn’t hear from him, and I’m out on the road waiting to hear what’s going on, and finally he calls me: “I’m so sorry.” You could still hear it in his voice. He was really sick. He said, “Man, I’m so sorry. I got sicker than I’ve ever gotten before in my whole life. I couldn’t even talk. I’m sorry. I haven’t done it. I really wanted to do it, and I’m really sorry, but I know it’s too late now.” I said, “Hey, man, it ain’t too late.” He said, “What do you mean? I thought you were towards the end?” I said, “I’m towards the end, but I’m doing this in between tours, man. It’s done when I’m done.” (laughter) I said, “So, just heal up; when you’ve got a minute, do the vocals, send them to me, and I’ll take care of it. And you don’t have to rush. When you get to it, get to it, and send it to me.” He said, “Great, man. I’ll do it.”

He does it, but (laughs)…he finds out…we didn’t know it was going to be a duet with Huey so we did it in Larry’s key. Larry’s a much higher singer so it’s kind of a stretch for him. He told me: “It seems a little high.” I said, “Don’t worry about singing it like the original because I’d rather have you put a different spin on it. Sing down into the key.”

I think it came out great. I really like it. Some people tell me that’s their favorite cut. I
just got an e-mail from somebody that I respect, and they said, “634-5789—that’s my favorite track.” (laughs) I was really surprised.

RR: Obviously, you have worked with Huey Lewis quite a bit. Let’s discuss that era.

EC: He resurrected our career [in the early 1980s]. Well, you know, after that whole disco thing, it was hard for us. Plus, we were all strung out, and everything. We weren’t living right. And because we weren’t living right, we lost everything. That’s really the short story: we weren’t living right, and we lost everything. I lost my home, I lost the home I bought my mother, I lost the restaurant I bought for my family, and I had to move to L.A., all strung out, and try to get my career back on track. We didn’t have no record deal. It was hard, hard times.

It was at a time when all these new bands were coming out—The Knack, The Cars, and then there was this new band called Huey Lewis and the News. I had heard the name, and I thought (you know out of all of these weird bands and weird names), “that’s a cool name: Huey Lewis and the News”—and I was playing at Bill Graham’s Christmas party. This guy shows up, good-lookin’ guy, and he comes backstage, and he’s gushing all over: “Man, I love your band.” We had just done all these new, original songs in the show. He said, “Man, where did you get those songs? They’re awesome!” He’s just going off. I’m looking at him, and he’s obviously allowed to be in the dressing room. This was at the Waldorf, Bill Graham’s nightclub. I’m thinking, “How’d he get in here? He’s got some kind of clout.” He said, “I’m sorry. My name’s Huey Lewis.” I said, “Oh, are you Huey Lewis and the News?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “I like the name of your band.” (laughter) He said, “Thanks, man. We ain’t nothin’. You guys—man, it’s about you guys. I remember being at Winterland with my chin on the stage, with my drummer, Billy Gibson. It’s just the two of us, chins on the stage, in awe. We love you guys.” I said, “Oh, thanks a lot.” Real nice cat. That was it. I just met him.

About a week, or a month later, a short time later, I was doing some recording at the Automat in San Francisco for another act; we were puttin’ the horns on. I remembered we were doing it, and Doc wasn’t there for some reason. It might have been one of the times he had to go into rehab, or jail, or something. The drug thing was really hittin’ us hard. Anyway, Huey Lewis was coming over to the studio, and he said, “Oh, man, how you guys doin’?” By now, I’m hearing about him a little more. I’m seeing pictures of the band in BAM [Bay Area Music] magazine, and he’s starting to get the hype. He said, “What are you guys doing? You guys think you can put some horns on this tune? We’ve got this song that’s perfect for horns.”

He had this song called “Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do.” It was like a Sam & Dave tune. It was really awesome. That’s the first time I heard him, and hear I was thinkin’ they’re going to be one of these [Castillo imitates a simple rock riff] nahnahnahnahnahnahnah… (laughs) you know. Instead, man, it’s really good music, really soulful, and the vocals were cool. We put on this really nice arrangement. I told Doc later, “Man, we did this session with this guy Huey Lewis,” and he said, “Oh, I heard about him. He looks like he’s got a cool band.” I said, “The music was soulful.”

I moved down to L.A. to try to get my act together, and they were down there playing at an outdoor facility somewhere out in Canyon Country. I think it was Magic Mountain. We went out there to go see their concert, and they said, “Would you sit in and play that song?” And then there was this other tune; they showed us the horn lick for “Workin’ for a Livin’”. Greg [Adams, former ToP trumpeter/arranger] sketched out a quick little arrangement, and we went out there and played with him. Then, they came to the Country Club, and we played with them there. We did another thing in Hollywood at the Whisky, or the Roxy, or something, and we started getting really friendly.

Then, he really hit it big with that Sports record. He came to me, and he said, “We would like to take the [Tower of Power] horns out on tour. What would you think about that?” And you know—we were really struggling, the band needed money, and I knew we could make some good money with him touring the world. I said, “I’ll do it. We’d love to do it, only on one condition.” He said, “What’s that?” I said, “You have to promote my band in every interview. We’ve got to be featured prominently on stage with the horn section. I need you to say “Tower of Power” a lot. That’s what I need you to do. And I need to be allowed to bring the band out to the big cities where you’re playing, and do midnight concerts, and you guys got to come in sit in. You’ve got to announce it at the show. I need you to promote us.” He said, “Man, I’d be happy to, and we’d love to come sit in. You can do that whenever you want. I’ll talk about you in every interview. We’ll do it up. We want you guys, and we want your band to do good.”

So, we made the agreement, we settled on a figure for the money, and we hired a publicist for that whole tour to promote the band. With the extra publicity coming from the publicist, with the midnight shows—he would announce it at Madison Square Garden: “Tonight, at the Bottom Line, Tower of Power’s going to be playing.” This was after we’d just killed them through the whole set. We were the highlight of his show. We were prominently featured. Doc would come down in the middle of “I Want a New Drug,” and do this funny dance, and it brought the house down every night. Then [Lewis] would say, “Tonight, at the Bottom Line, after the show, Tower of Power’s playing a midnight show, and me and the guys are all going over there to party. We hope you all come.” The place would be mobbed. We did it in Connecticut, we did it all over the place, and it really helped us.

Plus, right then, Letterman started hittin’ really hard. [Letterman’s longtime bandleader] Paul Shaffer’s a big fan, and so was David. They started having us on the Letterman show, and we did 16 appearances on Letterman before he got a horn section. That, along with Huey, really jump-started the career.

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