8. JJ CaleNaturally

It was so different and so laid back and his voice is almost whispering on this album – in fact he is at some points on the album. I think it’s the feel, his voice and again the guitar playing; it’s so seductive, I think that’s a good word for it, for JJ’s style. It was simplistic but very seductive. If I don’t have a great guitar sound, I can’t play. The sound of what I’m playing has to be great to start with to inspire me to play, and I found his guitar style and sound, especially on this album, set a tone for a lot of other people to start working on how he found it. I think he was playing this Harmony guitar and he was a tweaker, he would tweak and mess with the guitar, and I think the back was off of the guitar. It’s a very special instrument anyway, and the sound is just phenomenal.

I remember seeing an interview with JJ once when he was asked: “When were you first aware of when people were listening to ‘After Midnight’?”

“Weeelllll. Everything was normal,” he said, “until one day I went to the mailbox and had this huuuuuuuuge check in the mailbox!” Then he said “And guess what, they kept comin’!” And that was great, you know, because he was a very laid back down-to-earth guy. I got to meet him once, but didn’t really get to talk. I just sat in with him once in the 70s in LA, he invited me up onstage and I really enjoyed playing with him.