JPG: Turning back to music, I read the Billboard article where you described this album as a return to your roots as a church musician in New Jersey. In what ways because I feel that’s always been a part of you?
RR: Well, it always has but it’s just more so now than ever; being really comfortable in who we are and the sounds that we make and the message. It all has to do with the timing of what’s going around in the world, and when you look at all the other musicians and all the other artists, you just go like, “This is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
I’ve been on other labels. I get together with people and you write songs and you do these things and they go, “Let’s stray more towards this and…” “Hey man, that ain’t what I do. Call somebody else for that.” I’m here to inspire people, make people dance, make people happy, create this rock and roll church experience for people. That’s what it’s really about.
When you really look at it, when you look at how we came into the scene, we were just innocent church guys. I didn’t know anything about rock ‘n’ roll, blues, none of that music. We played in church our whole lives, grew up in the north New Jersey area. It’s just that our style of church music was very rock ‘n’ roll bluesy anyway. And what’s funny is almost all of the songs that we’ve done; that I’ve recorded over the years, almost all of that stuff has been taken from elements of church or some old church tape that I was watching. “I Need More Love,” “Ted’s Jam,” all those things we would play in church.
There’s been plenty of other songs on other records, same kind of thing. What’s weird is that’s like my library of music, all of these thousands of church tapes. These things are like gold for us because all of those guys that I grew up watching, a bunch of them are dead now, but all of the guys that I grew up watching that’s the Muddy Waters, that’s the Hendrix and all that.
JPG: What role did The Word play?
A lot of people don’t know that The Word was actually a tribute to the sacred steel tradition. That’s what it originally did, what it was. When the story started to get out, Medeski, and the North Mississippi Allstars, they’re like, “Hey man, let’s do a gospel style record like this.” At the time, I was like 20 years old or something. They had heard that I was starting to play out. They were like, “Hey, let’s get this guy.”
Because what happened, our church’s history, the reason that it never got it was because the older guys were never allowed to play outside of the church. For many of those guys, that’s all they knew. I was just a young guy at the time. I’m like, “I’m stepping out.” This is a much bigger thing than to be hiding amongst all these people here for 100 years…
JPG: Now, people have discovered Sacred Steel that probably never would have.
RR: Oh yeah. Santana and those guys told me and Clapton, “When we first heard this music, we were like what the hell is this?” And it’s influenced Clapton, Derek Trucks, all these guys, Santana. That’s really what it meant.
It creates a conversation that I had with Carlos Santana. He was like, “Look man, you’re the guy. You’re the guy who’s always bringing this positive church, slide guitar, rock and roll sound to the thing. That’s what you do. Just like I’m the guy that makes Latin music sound, it’s actually African music, but I make it sound Latin and rock ‘n’ roll and sexy, man.”
It’s just one of those things where you know that I’m the guy that’s always gotta provide these messages and outlook. And you look around the world today, man, and what’s going on, thank God for this record.
JPG: It’s funny you mention that because I was going to ask you about feeling a responsibility to be positive during these times. Is that on your shoulders and you are ready and willing to run with it?
RR: Well, of course, I would. I feel that especially in this time, it’s very contradicting and very confusing to people when you look around today and see all of these music artists and they’re speaking up against something. Well, hell. What type of music are you making, man? How you gonna speak up now when all the music that you makin’ is shooting and killin’ and all these other things, disrespecting women and men and all this kind of stuff?
JPG: So, you think they should be making more positive music to go along with their views?
RR: I tell you what. If you go back to the ‘70s and the ‘60s, all those guys were stepping up — Marley, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder — these were the biggest artists in the world. Michael Jackson did it with every single record he did. These are the biggest artists and now everybody’s like, “Hey, I’m going to come out and tweet this. I’m gonna to say this.” Then, they want to go back and make some sort of degrading music.
JPG: For yourself with all the mess-ups with the record companies, and we were just referring to the crazy times we live in, how do you stay positive? Is there anything that you lean on? Is it a struggle for yourself to stay that way?
RR: Man, to be honest with you, I live a good life. Life is short, it’s also long. (laugh) If you allow all these things to really bother you…I grew up a church guy and I already know what the end is and, really, what life is about, and it’s really about us helping one another and picking each other up.
So, if I get depressed, I become one less person who’s joining the depression movement instead of using the voice…Almost every show, I get some kids, some old lady, some middle-aged person, whatever, going, “Man, I just feel so good. This music…thank God for you.” That’s really what it’s about, being an example. That’s all we have is to be an example for someone else. Kids look up to us. Kids look up to me. Other people do when they having hard times. I get it all the time. “Man, your music got me through the day today.” It’s kinda what it is.
JPG: Listening to the new album sure picked me up, especially the opening songs, the title track and “She Got Soul.”
RR: What’s funny is that whole segment of “Got Soul” and “She Got Soul” is taken from an idea if you walked into our church; you would feel that whole segment. You would go outta one thing right into the other; both songs kind of go together. It’s a whole scene where a singer would be playing and here comes the preacher man going, (sings) “Now…wait a minute.”
JPG: speaking of singing, what led you to bring in Anthony Hamilton, Darius Rucker and Cory Henry? Did they say, “Hey Robert, if you ever need a vocalist call me” or did someone suggest them?
RR: I’ve known Darius Rucker for 10 years. What’s funny is we’ve never made music together but we always talked and hung out in Nashville, talked sports ‘cause he’s a big sports guy. He’s a Carolina Gamecocks fan and I’m an Alabama fan. So, we’ve been talking smack about that for God knows how long every college football year. Between Darius and Anthony Hamilton, I’ve known those guys for so long.
What’s funny is “Love Do What It Do” was the last song I wrote on the record, man. We had actually tracked 10 songs and we took a break ‘cause we had a show down in Nashville and we were supposed to come back and spend another two days to record and finish another three songs. So, we had a day off on a Friday in Nashville. One of my buddies said, “Hey, what are you doing?” I said, “Nothing.” “Let’s just get together and see if we could write a song.” I was like, “Alright, I’m not doing nothin’ anyway.” We went over there in the morning, started jamming together, sitting on the porch. Next thing you know, out came that song. We laid the demo down and everything. I tried to sing it. “I can’t sing that way.” I let my sister sing it or one of my other cousins sing it, too. Then, I was like, “It’s got a country twang to it but it got to be a soulful country guy, somebody with soul because we the record is Got Soul. Darius came out to be the perfect choice that we agreed on. I called him up. I sent him the song. He was like, “Hey, I’m down. I’m ready.” It was cool.
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