Robert Randolph, a 23-year-old sacred steel player from Irvington, may be
what Sam Cooke was to gospel singing and Jimi Hendrix was to electric guitar:
a secular pioneer and an innovator on his instrument. Not bad for a kid who
played the pedal steel to keep off the mean streets of Newark; unlike many of
his friends.
Comment on how you seem to be an overnight success as a nightclub act, but
you've actually been paying your dues for quite a long time by performing in
the church.
What do you think of playing the Jammys, the JVC Jazz Festival and Gathering
of the Vibes all in the same weekend.
After all the years of playing in the church, how does it feel now to be
obtaining success so quickly, to be able to quit your day job after only a few months
of playing clubs?
You take that out of the church and people recognize because gospel has had
such a strong influence on rock 'n' roll, but church folk just know gospel,
not its evolution into rock 'n' roll.
They've always played for the church. There's some folks who consider that
sacred and don't want it to come out of the church. But how is your approach
to your instrument different in a nightclub than it would be in a church?
*All the music we have played, we could play in church. When you're
getting into the way you word a song, like people in the Christian world, all
they want to sing about is God or Jesus.*
What about 'I Don't Know What You've Come To Do?'
So it's not so much the style of playing, it's the secular material you
choose to do that you couldn't do in church. So you can make the pedal steel
guitar sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix in church the way you
do in a nightclub?
*Oh yeah. I knew about those sounds from the older guys. They got into
using a wah and a distortion. I picked up using the wah from the older guys,
like Chuckie Campbell and Calvin Cooke and Ted Beard, but as far as Stevie
Ray's aggressiveness and his fast picking I picked up from him and brought it
into the church.*
Pedal steel also has a rich tradition in country music. Has that influenced
you at all? If so, how have you taken those traditions and made them your own?
And that's something nobody has ever done before.
And especially the improvisational way you play it, jazz. Obviously John
Medeski's really digging you. He's putting out a record with you. So you
gotta be a good jazz player to play with him.
How does playing a 13-string pedal steel instead of the typical six or
eight-string affect your playing?
It doesn't sound as rich, doesn't have as much vibrato?
You're the only sacred steel player to obtain secular success?
*Well you have the Campbell Brothers, who went into the folk
scene. They've been doing well. But they mainly do a church set at a folk
festival. They wouldn't do 'Voodoo Chile.' But it's great for them. For me,
I'm the younger guy. Most of the other guys hold offices in the church.
They've been in the church their whole lives, now their in their 30s, 40s,
50s and 60s. It wouldn't go over as well in the church if all of a sudden
they were leaving after 30 years of playing in the church to go play secular
music. Me, on the other hand, I'm young, so everybody's like, 'Go ahead. Go
for it.' Some people are like, 'No, it should only be in the church.'*
It's kind of the way Sam Cooke was with singing. Do you think the younger
sacred steel players will follow your path?
Being in the documentary and on the compilation, do you feel you've made your
mark in the history of sacred steel if you'd never come out of the church or
not?
You've brought so much attention to sacred steel and pedal steel innovation
that it leads me to say that you are what Sam Cooke was to gospel singing and
Jimi Hendrix to electric guitar: a secular pioneer and an innovator on his
instrument. With that in mind, comment on how you gravitated to the sacred
steel to stay off Newark's mean streets while your parents were getting
divorced and on how, having done that, you're certainly on the right road to
accomplishing your muical goals.
Even though your father is a deacon? Even a straight-laced family like yours,
it's hard to avoid?
Why did you gravitate to the pedal steel instead of other forms of gospel
music or, for that matter, rap music, which is huge in Newark?
*Pedal steel is a challenging instrument. Two other church buddies — we
were all about the same age — they were playing the pedal steel in the
church. Then we were in competition with each other. My cousins were playing
string instruments. When I'd go to their houses in Detroit and Ohio, it would
be a challenge. Once you start playing music, you're there for hours. You'll
intend to be there for one hour, you'll be there for five or six hours. It
just helps when you have people your same age to play
music with instead of being on the street. That's really what helped me out
and gave me the real energy.*
Are you surprised that young people are so into your rootsy, for the most
part instrumental music?
A lot of the kids who dig you — call the NYC Freaks — are really into Jerry
Garcia, who was a good pedal steel guitar player. Since gaining this
following, have you check out any of Garcia's pedal steel work?
Tell me about with Medeski and the North Mississippi Allstars on 'The Word.'
How much of The Word is original material and which ones are yours?
What are plans for The Word?
'The Word' is coming out before a record by your own band. What's the plans
for that?
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Bob Makin, a New Jersey music write for 20 years, has been covering the jam
band scene since 1988. Jam bands can send him info at makinclan@aol.com and
material to PO Box 6600, Bridgewater, NJ 08807.
