ARTISTS

Ampeg SVT Time Live with Darryl Jones

By Dino Monoxelos

***Some filler words have been removed for easier reading. SVT Time episode originally aired February 7, 2023.

Dino Monoxelos: And we are live. Hey, everyone. Welcome to SVT Time, SVT Time Tuesday. It is a Tuesday, another Tuesday, and we’re doing… SVT Time here today. This is the episode—I’ve gotta look—episode 48. So, as I always say, man… We’ll keep on doing these until they throw us out. So, man, I can’t say how excited and happy we are to have Darryl on the broadcast today.

Darryl, how you doing, brother? Good to see you.

Darryl Jones: I’m great, man. Thanks so much for having me, man. I’m excited to do this.

Dino: Man, thank you, thank you so much for doing this. I know you were busy, and I figured, you know what? I’m gonna shoot him an email and hopefully he’s got some time, and when you just came back I was like, yes. It’s like in two weeks.

Darryl: I mean, hey man, we have a long-term relationship, you know?

Dino: You know, it’s funny, I will say this real quick: I remember—this didn’t go in the notes—but I remember… When I first got the AR gig for Ampeg, it was like three weeks before NAMM, and that’s the biggest time for any AR guy, obviously. And I remember, like, I’m in the Ampeg booth, and this is my first—I’ve done millions of NAMM shows—but you were the first artist that literally came walking into the Ampeg room. You gave me a huge hug and said, “Brother, you’re going to be okay,” because you knew I was like, “I don’t know how to do this gig.”

Darryl: Oh cool.

Dino: And you were the first. I’ll never forget that, so thank you. I just wanted to get that out there.

Darryl: Alright. Thanks.

Dino: Dom, how you doing brother, you good?

Dom Liberati: Good, man. I’m good. Sunny out. I’m happy.

Dino: Oh stop. I got my heated vest on and -20 degrees here.

Dom: Yeah, it’s really warm, man.

Dino: I can go from hot to medium to…

Darryl: Wow, you actually have a heated… Wow… heated vest.

Dino: It’s an electric vest; otherwise I’d be wearing, I got my Ampeg going on underneath.

Darryl: Hey man, I don’t have one of those t-shirts. I could use a couple of those.

Dino: I’m gonna send you a hoodie after this too. Yeah, because it’s cold in L.A. this time…

Dom: We need to turn that hoodie into, like, a rumble hoodie. It shakes, you know?

Dino: Right, exactly.

Man, we got so much to talk about, and obviously, we want to start with a little bit about your beginnings. And I will say this—for, I know, kind of reiterating some things here—but, we’re gonna put a link up for your new movie…

Darryl: Okay.

Dino: …because that—I know that basically says, you talk about your upbringing and your mom and your dad and your brother—but you were born and raised in Chicago. Did you come from a musical family, Darryl?

Darryl: Yeah, my dad played drums when he was in high school years and into the service. When he went into the service, I think he played with some of the bands there. My mom was not musical, except in one very interesting way. There’s a song that you’ll learn if you like learning piano, and it’s called “Long Long Ago.”

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: [sings a bit of it] My mother can play the hell out of some “Long Long Ago.”

Dino: Really…

Darryl: The only song she knew on piano.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: But she could—I mean, it was literally… she would stop and start again, and so I did come from a musical family.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: My mom’s a great performer in addition to her wide range of song choices.

Dino: Yep, yep. And obviously I’m sure her—I say this all the time—it’s like some of the best—some of the best musicians aren’t necessarily musicians; they’re just listeners, and they know more about music and who played on what.

Darryl: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: And yeah, that’s how your mom was too?

Darryl: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Both my parents were very, very astute music lovers.

Dino: Yeah. Now, did you start off as a bass player originally?

Darryl: I actually started off using, um—my very first instrument, my dad bought me a practice pad, a little practice pad. I think I was about seven years old. Bought me a little practice pad and some smaller sticks. But before he would let me play that, he pulled out from under the bar this old small xylophone that he had. And he said that he wanted me to understand notes and pitches and stuff like that, in addition to learning to read rhythm and stuff. The xylophone was actually my very first instrument.

Dom: Wow.

Dino: Oh wow. Okay.

Darryl: I’ve been looking for one, like a small one, just to have around the house. Just for the memory, and to use it if I… who knows.

Dino: I’d be willing to bet that Yamaha makes a little xylophone. We’ll do a little bit of research after this.

Darryl: Okay, man, that would be wonderful, man. I’m going to be searching online as soon as they finish here.

Dino: We’re gonna have to talk to the band and orchestra guys about this one.

Dom: Yeah.

Darryl: Yeah.

Darryl: So yeah, that was—and then the practice pad, and then many people know the story that I saw this friend playing in a talent show, and I decided, that’s going to be it. And I didn’t know that it was bass. I just saw him playing a guitar, and when I asked him to teach me to play. He said, “You want to play lead guitar or bass guitar?” I said, “What do you think?”

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: And he said, “Bass guitar.” So that’s how I ended up being a bass player.

Dino: Wow, that is so cool. Yeah. And then—so you started, obviously, gigging around the Chicago area.

Darryl: Yeah.

Dino: What was that like—like that time?

Darryl: Oh, it was great, man. It was a great—there always is a great music scene in Chicago.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: The only problem with the music scene in Chicago is there’s no record industry, or there’s no—it pops up in places now. There are some great studios in Chicago, and there are a few scenes and stuff like that. But, in terms of Chess Records and Mercury and, all of these different record companies that were around Chicago, in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s—they had, they had closed their doors by the time I was kind of coming out on the music scene. But there were still all these great musicians—great blues musicians, great jazz musicians. And, I don’t know—the thing about Chicago is, I guess in a way it was kind of, it was a bit of a paternal and maternal thing to it. So if I went to gigs and, say, we were playing a wedding and I played the jazz stuff well, but I played too loud when I played with them, with the vocalist, the ultra musicians were kind of—they would let you know.

Dino: Yep, yep.

Darryl: You got to hook that up. And if you went to a session and you didn’t read well, then they would say, okay, that’s something you got to, like, work on. So I really do feel like I’m the product of the, of the Chicago music scene.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: And that I’m very much standing on the shoulders of a lot of great musicians.

Dino: And it seems like it was more of a mentoring, you know? You’re playing up to the people that you’re playing with, versus, it’s like you go out on some gigs and guys just beat you down on the gig.

Darryl: Yeah. I don’t know, I imagine that, that, that happens in Chicago too, but for some reason, I don’t know, maybe people saw a little promise in me and decided that, okay, we’re gonna, we’re gonna make sure knows what he, what is she doing. And I got different things from different people, so…

Dino: Sure.

Darryl: …but just the scene, and also, man, just the desire—there’s a little, maybe there’s a little bit of Second City…

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: …Second City is, as far as that, because we always—a friend of mine, I mentioned him in the movie, in fact there’s a small shot of him in the movie, Lance Dewberry, we—he would always, we’d be hanging out jamming and stuff, and he said, “Man, you got to get your act together, there’s monsters on the coast, there’s monsters on the coast.”

Dino/Dom: [laughing]

Darryl: So we would be trying to have our act together so that if—when we did, or hopefully when we made our way to the coast—we could hang.

Dino: Yeah. Yep, and two completely different coasts too, obviously.

Darryl: No, exactly.

Dino: You’re in L.A., yeah. Man, that’s wild. Now, so you were gigging around Chicago, you’re working, and I remember in the movie you had mentioned how your mom said, “What’s the matter, you aren’t taking those gigs anymore?” You kind of got to get the stern talking to—you got work, you got to keep on working…

Darryl: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: So you’re gigging around Chicago, and you get a call from Miles Davis, from, obviously, through his nephew Vince. Tell us about that. And I’m going to ask you to do your Miles impersonation.

Darryl: It’s just one of those things, man, where Vince Wilbur Jr. and I, we were playing around the scene in Chicago. We were not always on the same gigs, but we’re, we played a lot around town. And I was pretty young then, I was probably 16, 17 years old. And so he picked me up sometime, and we load my amp in the car, we go into a gig, and then we come back and sit in front of my house and just talk about Miles for, like, listen sometimes to stuff, and just dream about playing with them. So this left and went to, went to Japan with Miles, kind of as Miles’ personal assistant.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: And when he came back, he, I figured he was calling me because he was back. Yeah, and, uh, and I was like, “Yo, man, how was Japan?” He’s like, “Oh, it was great,” da da da da… and then he said, “So listen, Miles wants to hear you play over the phone.” And, of course, incredulous, like, “Quit playing around.” He says, “No, man, I’m serious. Miles wants you play over the phone.” And it’s deep, man, because nine months before that I had seen Miles at the Petrillo band show at the Jazz Fest, Lakefront jazz festival in Chicago, and it was one of those things where you’re watching somebody play—Marcus was on the gig at the time, Marcus Miller—and musicians, you tend to put yourself on stage, and you say to yourself, could I do that?

Dino: Sure.

Darryl: Or could I not do that, or he’s doing that better than I can, but that part I could… And you, and I think most musicians are pretty honest with themselves in that, in that situation. But it was then that it kind of occurred to me, like, I could, I could do that. I really felt deeply, and I actually got kind of emotional at that gig, thinking to myself, man, I could, I really feel like I could do that. Yeah. And so then here’s this call from Vince, and, and, and anyway, make a long story short, I’m looking around the house, I can’t find my bass…

Dino/Dom: [laughing]

Darryl: …because practicing, because I’m really embarrassed to say that my bass is in the trunk of my mother’s car, but that’s the truth. As I told you, I hadn’t been taking gigs for a few weeks, and some night I went out to jam with somebody, and, and, and left bass in the trunk of the car, which is completely ridiculous. But yeah, so I, I go back to the phone and I’m like, “Vince, hold on,” and I realized where it was, and I was like, “Hold on.” He says, “No, man, you hold on,” and the next sound I hear is, “Darryl, when can you be in New York?” And I honestly was thinking to myself, this is Miles Davis, I wanted to be—I didn’t want to seem too eager, I want it to be cool.

Dino: Yeah. Yeah. I’ll be on the next flight.

Darryl: But his, his response was just classic Miles Davis. I’m like, oh, I could be there—it was a Monday, I could be there Wednesday—and he says, “What’s gonna take you so long, you’re gonna walk?” So I, quickly, regain my, my balance and said, “No, man, I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”

Dino: Yep, yep.

Darryl: And I did, I flew out to New York that next morning. I actually went into the—I remember went to the dining room after I got off the phone and said to my dad, “Dad, can you lend me a few hundred dollars? I need to get to New York.” And he looked up from the newspapers, reading it, looked up, he said, “For what?” I said, “I have an audition for Miles.” And I didn’t even need to say Miles Davis, because my dad turned—yeah, he’s playing Miles all the time in my house—and he just kind of looked at me like, okay.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: And that was, that’s where everything started.

Dino: Wow, and I would have been like, I’m going with you.

Darryl: Yeah.

Dom: Hop in the car, we’re driving right now.

Dino: Hop in the car, we’re going.

Darryl: Yeah, right.

Dino: Man, what an experience that, I mean, that, for any musician, 90%—I can’t even put a percentage of it, but like any musician that we talk to, it’s like, who’s the one cat that you’ve always wanted… nine times out of ten it’s, it’s, man, I wish I played with Miles.

Darryl: It’s interesting, man, because when I think about, you talk about the field of infinite possibility, playing with Miles, to me, in my opinion, other than being born to my family, playing with Miles easily at that time was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

Dino: Sure.

Darryl: And how many people, when I think about it, man, how many people can say the best thing that could have happened, happened.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: It’s pretty… the moment, the older I get, the more I realized, man, what a, what an incredible gift and an honor to, to play with someone who had so much and who gave so much to the musicians around him.

Dino: Right, right, wow, that’s, yeah, what was your mindset going into that, like, I mean…

Dom: How are your nerves going into that, being so young?

Darryl: That’s interesting, man, because there have been a few kind of pivotal auditions. I auditioned for the Stones and for Janet Jackson.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: One Monday and then the next Monday, and I don’t really remember which was which. Janet, I think, was her first, like it was her first tour, I believe, and so the audition was a little bit more formal, and for that reason I think I was a little bit more nervous. Miles’ audition, I show up at an apartment, we’re going up in the elevator, he’s joking with me, telling me I look weird, somebody told me I look like you, and he said, “You do, around the eyes.”

Dino/Dom: [laughing]

Darryl: But he’s joking around, and then we get upstairs to the apartment, and he says to me, “Listen, if this doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean you can’t play, it just means I’m looking for something else.” So before I play a note, the guy is taking care of me, he’s literally…

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: …he’s literally, because I’m sure he realizes the gravity of it. If he doesn’t dig my playing, then, a lot of, some people, musicians will say, okay, well, I’m done. Yeah, but he realized…

Dom: A music movie of Bizarro alternate universe, you, where you don’t get that gig and then you just become, like, available or something.

Darryl/Dino: [laughing]

Darryl: What a great story line, that’s a great storyline.

Dino: That could be like a part two to the movie.

Darryl: Yeah, and it was really funny about that, that would be great animated, that would really be a great act.

Dino: Oh man.

Darryl: That would be really great.

Dom: Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt—you go play with Jethro Tull or something instead.

Darryl: No, that’s really great, what a great idea. But yeah, man, so I forgot what I was saying, but anyway, it was great.

Dino: Yeah, yeah. Man, so now you played, how many years did you play with Miles?

Darryl: I played with Miles for four, well, I played with him for two years.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: And then I did the Sting gig, which is about a year long, a little over a year long.

Dino: Yep

Darryl: Then I, I was able to go back with Miles, so.

Dino: Yeah

Darryl: I ran into Steve Thornton in a club in New York, and as soon as I saw Steve I said, “Oh, man, tell Miles I love him,” and he said, “Darryl, you, you call, you call.” He gave me Miles’ number. Where Miles was staying at the time. And I called Miles, it was weird, because I said, “Miles, it’s Darryl,” and he said, “Darryl, I’ll call you right back,” and hung up the phone, and I went, uh oh.

Dino: Uh oh.

Darryl: While I had my hand on the phone, it rang again, and it rang, and it was him, and he said, “Oh, man, I’m sorry I got off the phone so fast, how you doing? What are you doing?” And I told him, “Oh, I’ve been playing with Steps Ahead, we had, I just done a few gigs with them, but I don’t, I’m not working right now,” and he said, “You want to come back?”

Dino: Wow.

Darryl: And it was like the best thing in the world happened twice.

Dino: Yeah, right

Darryl: So it was great to go back.

Dino: I remember part of the story, you left to go play with Sting, he kind of schooled you on that, saying, like, for people coming back…

Darryl: Yeah, no, no, no, he was, he was very honest about that, he said, that’s a difficult thing, to someone leave and then have him come back. And I just stole them, and I said, I think the Sting thing is a really great opportunity for me, and, I mean, I, still to this date I question that, all right.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: But things worked out the way, and really luckily, man, I was able to go back, that was a blessing.

Dino: Now, were you still living in Chicago at the time, or did you move to LA, or?

Darryl: I moved to New York about… I moved in, I think I did an audition for Miles in May, started in June… June 7th, St. Louis, 1983, and I moved to New York, I think I was there all the time after that.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: But I think I properly moved there, that in October of 84. I think that’s the timing on that, I moved to New York, and I was basically there through, until 1990 basically, yeah, 89, I left in December of 89.

Dino: Okay, all right. Man, that’s such a, like I said, I know the story, but just for everybody that’s watching too, it really is, I mean, it is kind of a little bit of a Cinderella story. But obviously, you… opportunities happen because you do so much to put yourself into those positions where the opportunities present themselves, they just don’t happen, you have to put yourself out into the universe for that to happen.

Darryl: That’s what I’m saying, that, that, there were all these guys, this guy again, Lance Dewberry, he turned me on to a lot of music, man, he, we were listening to, so we were listening to Bitches Brew, we were going to jam sessions and trying to jam in that way, so that when I was placed in that situation, I had kind of been…

Dino: Yep.

Darryl: …I had been kind of, I had some experience doing that. I’ll never, never forget the night right before we, I was going to play my first gig in St. Louis. Miles, I had somebody come and get me and brings me to his dressing room, and he says to me, “So you got any questions?” And I’m like, I said, “No,” and I remember he kind of chuckled, but man, I’ve been in bands where I knew how to play behind a vocalist, which was playing about behind Miles, same thing as playing behind, playing with the vocalists, I had done these funky jams, I had a little bit of, of experience playing jazz with changes and stuff like that.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: Though on an electric bass, I kind of, I had been prepared.

Dino: Yeah

Darryl: The music scene, and I guess my teaching from Angus Thomas, all of these things really did prepare me for what was there, so, for what was to come, and so, I was able to, I had something, I had some experience in them about too.

Dino: Sure.

Dom: Coming from the Miles camp in that genre and so young, and then going into Sting, was there, like, a big… were there any big adjustments, just culturally, and going into the pop world a little bit?

Darryl: Only that, that when Sting left the Police, there were a lot of pissed-off Police fans.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: And they came to Sting gigs.

Dino: Yeah.

Dom: And you’re the first guy playing bass other than Sting.

Darryl: Exactly. I remember, first of all, I was surprised at the age of the people in the audience, because, I mean, and we played the first gig in New York at the, the Ritz club, we played three or four nights there, and then we went and recorded, and then started the tour of that following summer or spring. I remember these 15-year-olds with police t-shirts on, standing in the front row, looking at me with their arms crossed, like, what are you gonna do.

Dom: Yeah right.

Darryl: And so there was that, and I do remember some of those same young men looking at me after the gig, like, yeah, cool, so I think that, that band was extraordinary band.

Dino: Extraordinary.

Darryl: We were able to, to convince a lot of people, not even young, young kids like that, so there was that, but in terms of musically, it’s interesting, and I always feel like I do the same thing with every band that I play with, but I think that’s because my concept is to play the song. Whatever the song is…

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: …and if the song requires me to improvise over a funky groove, then that’s what I try to do. If the song requires for me to, to play a part and be consistent with it, then that’s what, then that’s what I do. And so there was, I don’t feel that there was, I mean, obviously, very different kinds of music, but yeah, it didn’t, the musical part of it wasn’t such a good shock, it was more like, you say, moving from the jazz world into this world of rock, or, I don’t know, pop or rock.

Dom: Yeah.

Dino: Yeah, but you were also, you were surrounded by other musicians that also came from that world as well.

Darryl: Oh yeah, no, I mean, again, I forgot that, I just saw the movie, that I was down in Florida for screening, and I saw the documentary In the Blood, and I didn’t realize it, but I actually talk about, talk about, man, I lost my thread there for a second, talk about the fact that Angus turned me on to stay, we were in, down in Carbondale, I was, like, away at school, and he says, man, check out this song, and it was Walking on the Moon, or, I remember listening and going, oh man, now what a cool, what a cool tune, and he said, oh man, the bass player is the one who wrote the songs, and he’s singing, and, or wrote many, much of the music, and he’s singing, and, and so I was definitely aware of Sting, even before, even before the Miles tone, so, so yeah, I mean, that was kind of the thing, is, like, I was interested in playing with the best people, even, and, I wanted to play with Michael Jackson, I’m gonna play with Miles, I wanted to play with all the best people, and so we, we practiced a little bit of everything, and so that again served me later on.

Dino: Yeah, yeah. I remember you saying, like, you didn’t want to be Michael Jackson, you want to play with Michael Jackson.

Darryl: Yeah exactly.

Dino: And somebody else said it too, it’s like, not as a side man, as a band member sort of thing.

Darryl: Well, yeah, I mean. Man, yeah, they’re what we call sidemen, and we probably should come up with a different term for…

Dino: Yeah right

Darryl: …positions or…

Dino: Yeah

Darryl: But, man, I think, generally speaking, musicians, they want to be in a path.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: You know what I mean, I remember watching the Foo Fighters documentary about all the trouble they had, the beginning, and the substance abuse and different things, and just trying to keep the band together, and I remember watching that movie and getting kind of emotional, man, because, uh, I always wanted to be in band.

Dino: Right.

Darryl: Still do.

Dom: Yeah.

Darryl: And I’m in some, I’ve been in some great ones.

Dino: [laughing] Yeah, just a few.

Dom: Just a couple.

Darryl: But yeah, no, man, I think that’s, I don’t know that many musicians, all of that training that I spoke about, speaking of Charlie Drayton, everything I’ve taught myself, or everything I’ve learned, I wanted to learn about music was so that I could be in a great band.

Dino: Yeah, and that’s, yeah, I mean, that’s, it’s funny, the, the country artists I work with, I’m, obviously we’re in a band, and she used… I’m her emotional support bass player now.

Darryl: [laughing] Wow, wow.

Dino: I take that as a compliment, it’s like, yeah.

Darryl: Yeah, man, absolutely.

Dino: You know.

Darryl: Yeah, man, because it’s…

Dom: We’ve talked about before, I feel like there is a personality symbiotic between a lot of different bass players and the role you play in a band, and the fact that you are actually holding down the rhythm and groove, but just in a, a little more esoteric sense, like, I feel like you, typically the personality of the bass player in the band is somebody a little more centered, I feel like, and can be kind of that emotional support for other band members too, I think it’s a lot of reasons why a lot of MDS you see are bassist as well.

Darryl: Hmm… interesting, yeah. I think, man, a journalist asked me about that when I was, the first time I was in France, she asked me, why do you think that you’re the kind of bass player that you are? And I, I’d never thought about it before, but I think it stood my family, man, I think it goes back to my dad, my family situation being so solid, that kind of stability, I understand it, and so I think as I’ve become a bass player, and, like you say, the, the function of the bass does serve this, it is a stability instrument, it’s a stabilizing instrument.

Dom: Yep.

Darryl: Or can be, for the music that requires that, and it can also be a lead instrument, for the instrument, for the music that requires that, but yeah, no, I think that, that’s right, we talk about that a little bit in the movie, like how a personality can suit a certain instrument.

Dom: Yeah

Darryl: I again roll the dice and came up with a great, with a great hand, to, to mix metaphors.

Dino: Literally

Dom: We got a lot of really good questions, I want to address a lot of them. I see Stephen Cooks on, another great bass and big Sting fan, wants to hear a little bit about Kenny Kirkland as well, as so, don’t know if you have any stories to share, or just moments of wow, like everybody else.

Darryl: Kenny… Oh, man, what a great guy. Charming, just a great, great person, great person, so unique and just talented, man. The only Kenny story that I have is not the funniest one, but it’s maybe a really heavy one, considering we lost him. I was living with him when I moved to L.A. I moved to, so I’ve left New York, moved back to Chicago, started a band there, and then decided to move, out of, out of Chicago again, and I decided that I’d go to, to L.A. this time. I was interested in acting and stuff, so when I moved to L.A., said, man, come and stay with me, and was right at the time when he and Bradford and Jeff were doing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, when Jay Leno took over from Johnny Carson, and so he’d go out to work, 2:30/3 o’clock in the afternoon, and he’d be back home by 6:30/7, and sometimes we’d go and hang and start jamming or whatever, and sometimes you go in his bedroom and get some rest. This night he came in, the piano was right at the front door, he came in, he set his bag down, he sat down at the piano and started playing, and I had what could only be described as the most amazing solo Kenny Kirkland performance, because he played classical music, he played some songs, some salsa, he, I mean, he played jazz tunes, he played ballads, he just played from about seven until midnight.

Dino: wow

Darryl: He literally did not leave the piano, and I’m sitting there just watching and listening, and after he got up, I said to him, I said, man, do you, does it, do you know? And he said, I don’t know what I said, I said, do you know how just uniquely gifted you are? And he said, “You know, Darryl, in the last few years I started to realize that I do, my gift is really special,” and it wasn’t boastful at all, it was just him, like, the realization, and that what he had was just incredible.

Dino: Wow.

Darryl: So few musicians have the breadth of ability that…

Dino: Yeah

Darryl: …Kenny was badass on a mini Moog, he was badass on an organ, on a piano, you name it.

Dom: Yeah

Darryl: And so that’s, that’s one of the things that I remember most about it, very generous cat, he wouldn’t let me pay rent, I kept trying to find apartments and couldn’t, and he’s like, “Yo, man, you’re cool here until, until you find what you, what you’re comfortable in.”

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: So it was great, and we, and, for some reason, man, Jeff lived in the duplex right next door, dual duplex, and we would play, man, all times of night, and the neighbors never complained.

Dino: Right

Dom: That’s funny.

Darryl: It’s like they gave us a music, they gave me, like, the Kenny Kirkland had the musician pass, and then…

Dino: Yeah

Dom: Exactly.

Darryl: Three, four o’clock in the morning, we’re in this, swinging out, or, whatever, and nobody ever complained, it was such a situation.

Dino: Wow, yeah, I mean…

Dom: I can’t stand that same experience.

Dino: Like, yeah, hey, we got, we’ve got any Kenny Kirkland next door, we’re gonna complain because he’s, yeah.

Darryl: But three o’clock in the morning…

Dino: Yeah, I’d be out there with lawn chairs.

Darryl: [laughing] No, they love them, they love them.

Dino: Wow, what a great story.

Darryl: Incredible.

Dino: What a great story

Dom: Wow yeah thank you for sharing that.

Dino: Yeah.

Dom: We got another one from Louis Emory asking about the influence that Jameson had on you.

Darryl: Mike Jameson influence was very indirect until very, very recently, man. I’ve not really tried to learn an exact bass line that Jamerson played, but before I became a bass player I loved to dance, love to dance to James Brown songs, love to dance to Motown, and so I think my James Jameson influence comes from before I was a bass player.

Dino: Yep.

Darryl: Because I didn’t realize it until I got out on the scene in New York, and when I would hear a drummer go [sings drum fill], that famous fill that’s on so many Motown records, I would, it would make me, I would go, oh, it was almost like it primed me to play in this certain kind of way, and I can’t imagine that’s anything but me, that Jameson thing just kind of being in my DNA a little bit.

Dino: Yep.

Darryl: From me kind of growing up with that music around me.

Dino: Yeah. It just kind of got ingrained into you.

Darryl: Right, exactly, exactly.

Dino: Yeah, yeah

Darryl: Yeah.

Dino: Wow.

Darryl: Ingrained, definitely. I mean, I don’t know that my playing is exactly like his, but when I, somebody calls the tune, it requires that kind of thing, it seems very natural to me. I don’t go to something that I’ve learned, I just play from what I hear.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: And I think that it goes back to me hearing that stuff when I was very young.

Dino: Yeah, just kind of it, I kind of have a theory on that, it’s almost, I call it, like, the cuckoo clock syndrome, where you grow up, I use this example, I grew up in my grandmother’s house, she had a cuckoo clock, but you never heard it.

Darryl: mm-hmm

Dino: The only time you heard it was when somebody else came over the house and said, “Man, doesn’t that drive you crazy?”

Darryl: Yeah, right.

Dino: I don’t even hear it, so…

Darryl: Yeah.

Dino: And it’s kind of the same thing, you grow up listening to a certain style of music or whatever, it’s kind of like your parents yelling at you all the time, eventually…

Darryl: Yeah, yeah, right.

Dino: Eventually you just don’t even hear it.

Darryl: Exactly, yeah.

Dino: I call it the cuckoo clock syndrome, but yeah.

Darryl: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: We kind of did the same thing, my house was Greek music.

Darryl: That’s good, yeah.

Dino: Yeah, it’s like, just listen to Greek music from my parents all the time, it’s like I can play stuff in five and seven, and it’s…

Darryl: Ahhh…

Dino: …you don’t realize you’re doing it, it’s just like…

Darryl: Right, see, that’s interesting.

Dino: I don’t know, it goes like this.

Darryl: Yeah. That’s very interesting.

Dino: So what, after all this, the Stones gig comes up, now were you in LA at the time, or did you audition for them in LA or New York?

Darryl: I actually auditioned for them in New York, but I was living in L.A. at the time.

Dino: Okay, okay.

Darryl: I was living in L.A., and I was actually still staying with Kenny, I’m pretty sure.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: And because that’s, I think that would have been before I got, before I found an apartment, so yeah, I was staying with Kenny, I get this call, I started, like, I’m starting to hear rumblings that something’s going to happen, and I get a call from a friend of mine, Sandy Terrana. I was just with him in Florida. He was a musician who was around Florida at the time, and he was hanging out with the guys who, who eventually became Average White Band.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: So those guys, he was, like, in that music scene, a band called Night Flight. He calls me and he says, “Hey, man, Bill Wyman is leaving the Stones,” and I’m like, “Yeah, but he’s been talking about that.” I mean, I felt like, and I don’t know if this is true or not, but I always felt like Bill Wyman had been leaving the Stones for years and had never done it.

Dino: Right, right.

Darryl: So that’s what I said to him, and he said, “No, man, I think it’s real this time,” and, and that’s why I just remember just kind of… and he said, “Hey, should I get Mixed Management’s number for you?” And I said, “Yeah, please,” and he did, he called me back 10 minutes later. I called and spoke to someone and said, “Hey, I heard that you guys might be looking for a bass player, and if you are, if there’s a list or something, I’d love to get on the list,” and spoke to somebody, whoever I spoke to took my name and my number and said nothing will happen for a while, but yeah, later on I get this call and they want me to come and audition.

Dino: Wow.

Darryl: So I flew to New York and audition at the famous SIR on 58th Street.

Dino: Yep. 58th and 8th, I think, yeah.

Darryl: 56th and 8th, 52nd and 8th, one of those, and it wouldn’t have been 58th, actually would have been 50…

Dino: Is it 57^th?

Darryl: It wasn’t 57th, it was, it was, it’s below 57th, so it had to be 52nd and eighth, I think it was.

Dino: Somebody here will chime in.

Darryl: Yeah, that Hojo, the, the Howard Johnson’s was right around the corner.

Dino: Yep, yep.

Darryl: Which is significant because the HoJo was where I stayed when I went to audition for Miles…

Dino: No way.

Dom: Okay, yeah.

Darryl: …that same hotel, I don’t know what it is now, in Vermont, I think, right now, but it was Howard Johnson’s at the time. Anyway, I go in, I, uh, I was Charlie Drake, we’re really good friends at the time, he said, “So what are you auditioning, and what kind of bass are you using?” And I was like, “Well, I’m gonna take my Sadowsky,” and he’s like, “Man, right in the locker there in SIR is my old P bass, take my P bass, you’re auditioning for the Stones.”

Dom: Yeah.

Darryl: I did play that Sadowsky with the Stones for about that first year, I think, and it worked fine, but he was right, it was a better fit. So I just went in, I started playing, started just to get a sound, I started playing Licking Stick, the James Brown tune.

Dino: Yep.

Darryl: And then they started joining in. I was actually just trying to get a sound, but we jammed on that, and then we played through a bunch of their more popular songs, and I just remember the response from Charlie. It just seemed to me, at some point, when we stopped, he kind of stood up and kind of started pacing a little bit. I thought, well, that may be—it looks like a good sign to me, either that or it’s a bad sign.

Dino: Or a bad sign. [laughing]

Dom: Yeah. [laughing]

Darryl: But I really felt like, man, if it felt as good to them as it felt to me—because it felt good playing, it felt good playing with all of them—I thought, if it felt as good to them as it felt to me, I’ll hear more. And they did call me back. That was in May of 90… that was in May of 93. Okay, I audition again in October of 93.

Dino: Wow, okay, wow.

Darryl: And ended up starting recording Voodoo Lounge with them in November of 93. So I got the gig.

Dino: You got the gig, and now you’re in the studio recording with the Stones.

Darryl: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: Not like you were going on the road—we’re going right in the studio.

Darryl: Yeah, right, exactly.

Dino: Wow.

Dom: Wow, that’s a long wait, too, for something that exciting.

Dino: Do you know, do you have any idea who else auditioned at that time in the first auditions?

Darryl: Oh man, all of the—I’m pretty sure, and you have to check the records, but I’m pretty sure Hutch Hutchinson auditioned, could have easily got the gig.

Dino: Yep.

Darryl: Joyce Pompanado could have easily got the gig.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: Darryl Johnson from the Neville Brothers could have easily gotten the gig. I mean, those are the few that I know about.

Dino: Yeah, I’m gonna see Hutch this weekend. I’m gonna bug him about it.

Darryl: Yeah, I don’t know, okay, he landed well.

Dino: Oh yeah, he’s doing all right.

Darryl: You know what I’m saying, he landed well.

Dino: Absolutely.

Dino: He just got a Grammy—well, Bonnie got the Grammy.

Darryl: Exactly, yeah, but he got a Grammy. He’s been with Bonnie forever.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: Yeah, forever.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: Oh man, it’s funny, because I remember at the time, I was living in L.A. and I was going on my own auditions as well, but I remember hearing that, that kind of the same rumblings, like, hey, Stones are looking for a bass player. And at that time my good friend, Timmy Bogert from Beck, Bogert and Appice, they—we were all teachers at MI at that time, and everybody’s like, Timmy, you should go do this gig, you should go audition.

Darryl: Right.

Dino: And he, at that, he was kind of at that point in his career, he’s like, “I’m done. I’m here teaching.” And so, but man, yeah, I remember that time, like, same thing, it was kind of like, well, Bill Wyman’s leaving the Stones, and it was kind of the same conversation, like, he’s been leaving the Stones for the last 15 years or so.

Darryl: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: And as they say, the rest is kind of history at that point.

Darryl: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: So, the rhetorical question—and you can tell me to piss off after this and all—but what’s it like playing with the Rolling Stones?

Dino/Dom: [laughing]

Dino: Playing bass for the Stones.

Dom: In stadiums.

Dino: Yeah, come on…

Darryl: The way I… that’s not the first time someone has asked me that question, and the best way for me to answer it is, it’s as great as you imagine it.

Dino: Okay, fair enough.

Darryl: It’s literally, you walk out on stage, and I’ve played over the years, even before then…

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: Join that band, started playing with them, I played in front of a lot of big audiences, but it’s pretty cool, man, to walk out on stage and there’s 60, 80, or 100,000 people in the audience that know the songs, that are excited to be there, that it’s gonna be an experience.

Dino/Dom: Yeah.

Darryl: And you feel all that on stage, man, and then I’m standing next to a guy who is just carving it up on the guitar. He’s—Keith is, still now, he’s always trying stuff, he never plays a song the same way twice, just great. Everybody’s in really great form now, Ronnie’s playing beautifully, always. I listen to Ronnie, I’m like, what are you, record-ready Ronnie? Every show I hear from you sounds like you’re on a record.

Dino: Right, right.

Darryl: Just the beginning, middle, and end, and Mick, of course, is, and Charlie—it was incredible playing with Charlie.

Dino: Yeah, I can imagine, like, the ultimate timekeeper.

Dom: Yeah.

Darryl: Just great.

Dino: And they love—like, I read Keith’s book a while back, and it seems like they toured and they gig just because they love playing. They love it.

Darryl: No, they do.

Dino: Yeah, but unfortunately they’re not the type of guys that can go down to Joe’s Bar and Grill and pick up a—pick up a gig just to play.

Right, yeah. It’s gonna be on that scale, so yeah, it just seems very authentic, and like he’s always trying to improve, he’s always trying to learn, and he just—they just love playing music.

Darryl: Yeah, absolutely.

Dino: And it’s not about the money or anything like that…

Darryl: Well, it’s about that too, but…

Dino: Yeah, no, but…

Darryl: [laughing] No, man, I mean, obviously they could be kicking back, but they—I think they love it, and I think they really love doing what they do, and yeah, it’s great.

Dino: So let’s talk about the movie, Darryl. How did… it’s obviously, I know it’s been in the works for a while, but how did that come about? Because, first of all, I will—to anybody that’s watching, it’s on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

Darryl: Yes.

Dino: And if—dude, just go buy it or rent it, just, that’s all I’m gonna say, it’s an hour and a half of education of Darryl…

Dom: Can you share the title for everyone?

Darryl: Not even, man, it’s actually—I think it’s eight… 92 minutes, 82 minutes.

Dino: Is it 82 minutes? I thought it was like an hour.

Darryl: 82… Yeah. Something like that, that would be about right. The title is “In the Blood.”

Dino: Yep.

Darryl: That title’s taken from a song that I wrote that’s in the—I perform with a band that I put together, it’s, it’s a song about family basically, and we’re actually going to release that song coming up, probably the beginning of next month.

Dino: Nice.

Darryl: In the Blood. We’ve already released a song called the American Dream that also is in the movie, it plays over the scenes, the montage of the civil rights movement photos and all of that stuff, that part of the movie. But I heard, when I listened back to the cue that I wrote for the movie, I was like, that sounds like a song, so I fleshed it out and had to make—Trimulus, a good friend, come on and help me with the lyrics. And so yeah, that’s just the tune, it’s actually available now on Spotify and all of the different things, it’s called American Dream.

Dino: Now you’re singing on a lot of this stuff too?

Darryl: Yeah, I’m singing on American Dream and on In the Blood, yeah.

Dino: Okay, you need a bass player by any chance? [laughing]

Darryl: [laughing] You know what, I do sometimes need a bass player, because some of the stuff I’m trying to play is—I can’t sing and play at the same time, but so far I’ve been—I’ve been able to, yeah. Actually, I use a bass player in the movie, yeah.

Dino: Yeah, it’s…

Darryl: He’s an old friend of mine. Killer bass player, pocket like you wouldn’t believe. His name is Charlie Hosh, Charles Hosh—I call him Chuck-a-luck—and he played with the Emotions, and he played with a number of groups, but he’s playing with us now. He was playing with the Emotions when they were on tour with everyone, the Earth, Wind and Fire.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: I mean, he’s just, he’s… I could tell you a story about Chuck if we have time for that, because I learned from him too. Somebody—I’ll tell you quickly—somebody said to me, “Darryl, you’re around town in Chicago, you’re playing nicely on the jazz gigs, you sound good, but man, you gotta hear Chuck-a-luck.” I heard it from like half a dozen people over a period of time, and I was, well, let me hear Chuck-a-luck then.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: When I heard him play, he was so dedicated to the group and so in it that—the first time I saw him play—he was rehearsing to the core, and he was just giving himself to it.

Dino: Wow.

Darryl: I was like, I got it, I’m gone.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: I only needed to hear him play for literally a minute before I realized, oh, I can actually give myself over to this in a way that I saw him doing. And it was one of the most valuable lessons. He’s still a great friend, a great inspiration, and he’s—somebody needs to snap him up, because he’s a badass on bass.

Dino: Yeah, that’s cool. For a second there in the movie, I thought—for a split second, because the camera panned across him—I thought it was… from Fishbone, um…

Darryl: No, man, that’s Chuck-a-luck.

Dino: That’s Chuck… okay.

Darryl: Chuck-a-luck, everybody get him to Chuck-a-luck, because he’s something else.

Dom: All right.

Dino: That’s cool, yeah. Let’s talk about—I know we’re kind of running, we’re probably, we’re gonna go over a little bit here if it’s all right, but I don’t want to take you too long—you have a line of basses and guitars as well…

Darryl: Yes.

Dino: …that Dom and I—remember, last time you were in Calabasas, Dom and I played, man, it’s still…

Dom: Butter.

Dino: Yeah, and it was like, until I re-watched the movie and heard your basses in the movie, I was like, damn, those things sound really, really good. So tell us a little bit about that.

Darryl: Yeah, I don’t know when it came, but I was doing—speaking of MI, Musicians Institute—I was teaching, I was doing like some classes there, some private, some master classes and some private instruction there, and someone mentioned to me that you can, because you’re like kind of an adjunct professor at the time, said you can take any of the classes for free. And I remember back to being out at the Fender Custom Shop and running into a guy named Dave. I can’t remember Dave’s last name now, but he’s one of the elder guys who was—I don’t know that he was working in the custom shop, but he was affiliated with those guys. He was telling me there’s a luthier class out at Musicians Institute, so when I put those two things together, I thought, luthier class, I decided to take the class. I took—only took one semester, I didn’t even finish, because I got called to go out on the road, but I did come back in town just in time to finish my project bass, my… you make one instrument a semester, and I made this bass, and I let a few people play it, and they were like, man, this is—this is actually not bad for a first try. And I decided, I went to the teachers and said, hey man, I want to—I want to build more of these, and they said, you should go to John Carruthers, he was the head of the department at the time.

Dino: Okay, yep.

Darryl: And he also had his shop out in Camarillo, so I went out, I showed him what I’d done, and he says, okay, there’s a few problems here, and we worked on those, and we built a bass that I started playing. I took it on the road and started playing with the Stones—that was in 2012.

Dino: Wow, okay, wow.

Darryl: So it’s been that long, and just over the years, man, I’ve just been building, trying to learn more about a way to make an instrument and to repeat it, and to have it come out and have them all feel cool, but also be slightly individual. So we use the new technology for the parts of things that we want to be consistent, and we use some hands-on for those things that we want to, to be individual.

Dino: Yeah, yeah.

Darryl: And the basic idea is to do a—we have, like, a few bass models.

Dino: Yeah.

Darryl: And, but we also will do—it’s almost, what I see it as is a kind of a quasi custom-shop, boutique instrument company.

Dino: Yep, yep.

Darryl: So you can get what you want, or within a certain framework.

Dino: Yep, yep.

Darryl: Or you can get—you can play what I play. I decided, when I was doing the Tele-type instrument, that my bass model would be more like Keith’s Tele, so it’s got a humbucker in the neck position. And we’re doing all sorts of things, man, we’re going to do some with dual humbuckers with the Tune-o-matic bridge, like a kind of Les Paul Tele, we’re doing some with Charlie Christian pickups, we’re doing—we’re doing a Strat with Jazzmaster, with a Jazzmaster pickup setup.

Dom: Nice.

Darryl: So we’re trying a few interesting things, and I’m really excited about it, man. I think one of the—I never had the feeling until I—it was actually during the Covid years, or during the time of the pandemic, I built an instrument, and I was sending them off to different people in different places, but this guy came to my house, he’s actually director of the film that I worked on the music for, his name was Ali Leroy, he bought a bass from—he’s bass player and film director—he bought a bass from me, and he came to pick it up, we both got our masks on because it was at that time.

Dino: Yep, yeah.

Darryl: And I hand him the bass, and he sits down and he starts playing, and he plays it some more, and 10 minutes pass, another 10 minutes passed, another 10 minutes passed, and he looks up at me and he says, man, I’m wearing this mask so you can’t see the huge smile on my face, because how I feel like this instrument is really gonna—and I thought, wow, man, that’s a different feeling than somebody appreciating your bass playing.

Dom: Mm hmm.

Darryl: It was like—and so I’m kind of hooked, man. One other person that I sold the instrument to, I hope he won’t mind me relaying this, but he had loss in his family, somebody he was very close to, and he said, man, I was walking around… I received the instrument, and he wrote me a note when—when he got it and played it, and he said, man, he’s really—walking around for the last few weeks in a pretty deep, deep funk, and he said, when the bass arrived and I opened the case, he said, before I even played it, I realized this is going to bring me back.

Dino/Dom: Wow.

Darryl: That’s—I want to build instruments that—that, that—and if I could build a bunch of them, man, then I will. If I can only build a few of them, I think, I just, it’s—I think it’ll be great to have something out in the world, it’s got my father’s name on it, Jones, and that they’d be great instruments, that they’d be instruments that people feel good about. That’s, that’s what I’m interested in.

Dino: Yeah, and inspires people to play.

Darryl: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Dino: That’s just it, you inspire people to create. That’s the old saying, you teach a man to fish versus bring him a fish sort of thing.

Darryl: Exactly. Absolutely.

Dino: That’s cool. Okay, so we’ve come to this portion of the show.

Dom: Oh, my favorite part.

Dino: You don’t even know what it is yet.

Dom: Yeah, it’s the same 10 questions as last time.

Dino: Yeah, so we do this thing now, it’s 10 rapid-fire questions that I fire off.

Darryl: Okay, okay, yeah…

Dino: It looks like a lickety-split, we’re still trying to come up with a—still trying to come up with a, with a catchy name for it, but anyways, so I’ll give you the 10 questions and you answer as quick as you can, all right, ready to go?

Darryl: Let’s do it.

Dino: P bass or Jazz bass?

Darryl: Both.

Dino: [laughing] That’s not fair.

Darryl: PNG.

Dino: Passive or active?

Darryl: Passive.

Dino: Okay, B15 SVT or Pro Series?

Darryl: SVT.

Dino: Okay, cable or wireless?

Darryl: Wireless.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: Yeah, you gotta have some show with your business.

Dino: Yeah, right.

Darryl: Show business.

Dino: So this is subjective, but pick or fingers?

Darryl: Oh, I do so much of both, but I would, I guess I would have to say fingers.

Dino: Hey, I never said…

Darryl: It doesn’t even feel right.

Dino: I never said these were good questions, I just said they’re questions.

Darryl/Dom: [laughing]

Darryl: Yeah, I say fingers, I started with fingers. Actually, I started with my thumb.

Dino: Which ones…

Darryl: Thumb.

Dom: Thumb, I like that, thumb is the best.

Darryl: Which ones?

Dino: In-ears or floor wedges?

Darryl: Both.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: I use both.

Dino: Yeah, I was gonna say, right, in the Stones I know you do… pedals or no pedals?

Darryl: Pedals.

Dino: Okay, travel-related, window or aisle?

Darryl: Aisle. I don’t want to climb over people.

Dino: high bunk or low bunk?

Darryl: Low bunk.

Dino: Okay, and last one is black with white piping or silver and blue anniversary? We’re talking cosmetics, and Ampeg cosmetics.

Darryl: Black with white piping or…

Dino: Or the blue and silver anniversary.

Darryl: Blue and silver, baby. All the way, all the way.

Dino: That’s cool, it’s—that seems to be the consensus, so…

Dom: Yeah.

Darryl: That’s cool. Like I said, what—what happened to the saucer knobs? I’m just thinking about that for the first time, what’s happening with that?

Dino: You know what, that’s—you’re not the first one that’s asked that. It pretty much comes down to machining, trying to find somebody that can do them.

Darryl: Yeah, saucer knobs…

Dino: Here’s one thing that you guys probably don’t know, is Ampeg use those same saucer knobs, they’re the same saucer knobs that were on the original Music Man StingRays.

Darryl: Oh, really.

Dino: Yeah, like the very first Music Man StingRays.

Dom: You’re talking, like, on a B15?

Dino: Yep, yep, on an SVT too. You know who taught me that, Darryl, was Dan Lakin.

Darryl: Oh really, wow, okay.

Dino: Yeah, because Dan called me up a while back, and he was looking for the original saucer knobs for one of his basses that he was working on.

Darryl: Oh, I see.

Dino: And he says, yeah, he says, I called you because it’s the same knobs that were used on the early B15s and SVT, yeah.

Darryl: You know what, I meant—to be honest with you, I can’t even remember quite what they look like, but I remember the SVT that I used with Miles, which was…

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: I think it was Jaco’s, or it was Mark, Big Mark’s… what is Mark’s last name? Because I didn’t remember his last name, but he was an attack on when I was playing with Miles.

Dino: Okay, so you used an SVT with Miles.

Darryl: An SVT with Parkey replacement speakers, before Larry had moved into cabinets—he was just doing speakers at the time.

Dino: Yep, that might have been Jocko’s cab.

Darryl: Yeah, I think it was.

Dino: I still bust whenever I see Larry about that—the, the Bostonian, the New York, are going head-to-head talking about bass heads, like, wait a second, I was like, wait a second, didn’t you—your first cabinet was an SVT cab loaded with your aluminum coil.

Darryl: Oh, you’re right.

Dino: So knock that off.

Darryl: That’s right. It’s funny, I have been thinking about actually doing a rig like that.

Dino: Okay, you know who you can call.

Dom: In white too, in white.

Dino: In white, yes. Dom, we owe Darryl a white SVT, by the way.

Darryl: I’ll take it.

Dino: So we will get that.

Dom: Let’s make two at least.

Dino: Yeah, right.

Dom: I’ll take one.

Dino: Man, Darryl, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the show.

Darryl: My pleasure.

Dino: And just getting the chance to hang, because I know it’s been…

Darryl: Yeah, it’s been a while.

Dino: It’s been—I think the last time I saw you was at NAMM with Dom.

Darryl: Yeah.

Dino: That was the NAMM before Covid shut everything down.

Darryl: Was that January 2020 or 2019?

Dom: I think we did the shoot, uh…

Darryl: We did do that…

Dino: Oh, that’s right, yeah.

Dom: But that still was, like, a year ago at least.

Dino: No, the shoot was two years.

Darryl: Yeah, yeah.

Dino: The shoot was pre-Covid.

Darryl: Yeah, was it that January, or was it—was it that January or before, like the February, I mean, the—yeah, before the March that everything shut down.

Dino: I think we did the shoot before the NAMM show, because that NAMM show, they shut everything down right after that, Covid happened and that was it.

Darryl: That’s right, right, yeah.

Dino: Or, you know what, it might have been right after NAMM, because I think I came to LA right—I was doing something out—I was doing a European thing with Ampeg and Yamaha, and I think I came to LA right after that, so it was right around that time though. But yeah, man, it’s good to see you.

Darryl: Good to see both of you guys.

Dom: So good to see you, yeah.

Dino: Hopefully we’ll…

Dom: I’m gonna go, uh, freak out on these Jones instruments right now.

Darryl: Yeah, man, check it out, let me know.

Dom: I will be.

Dino: I remember last time when you had them in Calabasas, like, we didn’t want you to leave with them, just leave those—leave those right here.

Darryl: Yeah, right, no, I didn’t have hardly any instruments at that time.

Dino: Right.

Darryl: But we’re working on it, man, we’re working on it, we’re gonna—we’re about to go mainstream.

Dino: Yeah, yeah, and like I said, man, if—if you watch the video you get a good feeling for what these basses sound like and what they look like, and I mean, we’ve—Dom and I have played them firsthand, and they’re just, yeah.

Dom: They’re amazing.

Darryl: We gotta do something more, man, I’d love to do something more with it.

Dino: Absolutely. You going to be on the East Coast anytime soon, do you think?

Darryl: No plans to be on the East Coast until—yeah, probably not until March, I think, I’m gonna pass.

Dino: Actually, are there any projects you’re working on that you can let us know about or talk about?

Darryl: Other than—well, yeah, there, there’s a few things. There is—I did a record with Keith Carlock, Bill Evans, and Robben Ford, that record was—it was released a little—a few months ago, I guess. We’re gonna do a run at the Blue Note in Tokyo.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: That’s in mid-April. Mid-March I’m playing at the, the Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville with Bill Evans and Keith Carlock. I don’t know who else is on that gig, but I think—I think Billy Gibbons is on that gig.

Dino: Oh wow.

Darryl: And somebody else is on that gig, but it’s for charity, for musicians, something like MusiCares or something like that.

Dino: Okay.

Darryl: So that’s coming up in March, mid-March, yeah. And I’ve got my, my two singles, man, I got the one that I released in October, American Dream, please check that out on Spotify, and be on the lookout for—in, In the Blood, the title song from the—from the documentary, it should be around in about 30 days or so.

Dino: Okay, right on.

Dom: Is that album with, with Keith Carlock out, you said?

Darryl: Oh, that album is out. Oh man, what’s the name of it? I’ll have to post.

Dino: I can hear Hodgy in the background right now frantically trying to find it. Hodgy’s actually been posting all these links and everything, so thank you for doing that, yeah.

Darryl: Oh cool, yeah, appreciate it.

Dino: Right on. Well, man, again, I can’t thank you enough. Hopefully we’ll be able to see each other soon in person.

Darryl: Absolutely, I hope so, I hope so.

Dino: And, man, everybody watching, thank you so much for joining in. What can I say—Erin, thank you, in the background, for putting this all together, and of course Hodgy for throwing all the links up for us here, and, and my lovely co-host Dom, for, for having my back every time. Every time, he gives me a heart attack, he’s like, I’ll be there in five minutes, because obviously we, we come from meetings to go to do this.

Darryl: Yeah, right.

Dino: We’ll be like—I’ll be looking at the clock on it like, we got…

Dom: Five minutes.

Dino: Yeah, three minutes.

Darryl: Yeah, right, right.

Dino: Anyway, man, thank you so much, and we’ll see everybody in two weeks. I think we’ve got Zach Rippy.

Darryl: Oh, dude.

Dino: We’ve had to reschedule him a few times, but studio producer, this is going to be a Suite talk, we’re going to talk mostly about the SVT Suite, so thank you guys so much, and we’ll catch you on the next one.

Darryl: All right, man, all right, thank you.