The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring.
If there's anybody who knew how to play in a studio, it was Duane Allman.
I started out with the guitar and was a studio musician back in the 50s, and then got shot in my finger.
I like Steve Gadd, everything he did with Steely Dan. There's so many. I like everything.
I came to L.A. in 1970, and my desire and my training was to be a studio musician, which I had read about in my senior year in high school.
I was a studio engineer out in L.A. for about six or seven years, and I played sideman for different people, and played in bar bands. I was an old man of 32 when I made my first album.
As you know, I played a little trumpet with Elvis. I overdub a few drum licks here and there on a session, but I'm not a drummer by any means.
My father was a studio musician, played for a lot of people like Frank Zappa and a lot of R&B bands, and was always gone doing that. Then when he was home, he was practicing. And so I always saw it, and I always wanted to do what he did.
I used to think of George Michael as being mechanical, like a scientist in a white coat, working in a laboratory, creating perfect harmonies, and all the while I was secretly admiring him.
My earliest professional musical experiences were really as a session player, and every day was an adventure. Three sessions a day, every day, and you never knew who you would be working with until you arrived at the studio.
I used to suffer from stage fright, which at times was an ordeal. I won't perform live again. I'm going to do some TV shows and videos but nothing else... I don't like to travel too much or do concerts. I'm more of a studio and home girl.
Scotty Johnson is a guy who I've worked with on a lot of my tours and albums, and I'm always blown away by his musical knowledge and playing.
I've played with so many people that I never really noticed that I was playing with so many people until after it was compiled on the Internet. I just kept going. I haven't even heard half the records I've played on, to tell you the truth.
In most of the stuff that I've done over the years as a sideman, I wasn't really a session musician, because to me, a session musician is a guy who makes his living in the studio, and I never really did that.
Recording and touring are totally separate universes for me and it's strange and refreshing when they invade each other momentarily.
I played all the guitar parts except the guitar solo on 'Beat It.'
