RR: Sure. When you were the bandleader on Saturday Night Live, that ability to be such a positive, dynamic and well-known guitarist gave you the opportunity to have many guests sit-in with the band. What were those experiences like for you?
GES: Well, obviously, it was like some kind of dream, some kind of late 20th century golden opportunity. I’ve been very lucky. The great thing, which you just touched on, was after the show got rolling, we started to get decent ratings the third year I was there [1985-1995] whenever any guitar player that I liked would come to town, I’d invite him to sit-in. And it wouldn’t matter what genre he was from. We had everyone from Lonnie Mack, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, David Gilmour, Eddie Van Halen—all kinds of different guitar players. I’d invite them to sit-in. It wouldn’t be announced. It wouldn’t be in TV Guide. The camera would come up, and there’s David Gilmour. People would go “WOW. Cool,” and we’d get to play some fresh and, hopefully, good music.
RR: You also worked with Buddy Guy on a project about 12, 13 years ago.
GES: Yeah. It grew out of that. I invited Buddy to sit-in with the band. He came. Of course, he was Buddy Guy. He was great. And he liked the way the band sounded. He liked the horns, and, you know, there were a lot of good players in that band. We did two nights in New York, and two nights out in Chicago at his club, and recorded them all, and it turned into a CD and a DVD.
RR: Going way back to the 1970s, you seem to be able to play any type of music.
GES: I can’t play opera, man.
RR: That was actually my next question.
GES: I’m struggling with opera, man. I tried. I tried to get to like it. I had my classical friends take me to really good opera. I can’t get with it. I can’t help it. I’m down.
RR: You stole my thunder. I was going to ask you about that. I’m disappointed.
GES: No, man. When they get up there and start singing the lines, I just don’t understand it. But the lack is in me, not in opera. Let me be clear, O.K.? Because opera’s obviously a great thing. I know people that I really respect who get opera and love it. I don’t get it.
RR: That leads me to the fact that you’ve got a signature Telecaster series out.
GES: Yeah. First of all, I’d like to know how the opera led you to the signature Telecaster, BUT…no, I’m teasing. I’m with you. I’m kidding. (laughter)
When I was 11, I was starting to work as a guitar player, and I told my parents that I needed a good guitar. I had a cheap electric guitar, but I knew that it was holding me back. My mom took me down to the little local music store in Pennsylvania, and thank God they had a used Telecaster, and she bought it for me. I still have it, and here I am.
Fender, eventually, was kind enough to make that G.E. Smith signature model, which I don’t have the adequate words to express how honored I am, you know, because my whole life is based on playing Telecaster, right? Since I was 11. You’d have never heard of me. I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t own the house of the backyard I’m sitting in unless I was a Telecaster player. So for them to make a guitar with my name on it, and a little input, is just fantastic. I just can’t believe it.
RR: The way I can connect opera with your signature Telecaster is that opera requires the musician to be a smaller component of a much larger whole. I’ve always seen you as someone that—especially in rock ‘n’ roll—has to jump out of that role so you can establish your own sound on that Telecaster. In opera, you’d be almost faceless.
GES: Almost. I guess unless you’re Pavarotti, or somebody. You know—it’s interesting that you say that. Two comments that I will have about that. In the past 15 years or so—I’ve been doing this for a long time so 15 years isn’t the whole of my career by any means—I’ve thought about it: “I don’t just play the guitar. I play the band.” You see what I’m sayin’? If you just think about yourself—whatever your instrument is in any band—and what you’re playing, well, you might play great, but I’ve really tried to think “what’s the ensemble sound like? What do all of our parts sound like together? What can I contribute to that? What suggestions can I make?” That’s where I go—from that.
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