Vince Gill: The INTERESTING Story Behind joining The Eagles PLUS Eric Clapton's Crossroads Concerts

hi this is joe chambers welcome to musicians hall of fame backstage today's show is part three of a three-part interview we did with the great vince gill as in the previous shows vince talks about how he became who he is in his climb to the top of the music business also talks about how he became a member of the phenomenal eagles hope you enjoy it if you do be sure to hit like subscribe in the notification bell so you don't miss any of our new content and again for those of you who want to help we have a patreon account for the museum again vince gill welcome back to musicians hall of fame with vince gill so um how did you get how did you get involved with the uh crossroads concerts oh man that was uh that was a call that i just i couldn't believe i was getting you know truthfully it was at a period it's like i think around 2003 and i'd had this run of of pretty great success with hits and and being you know fairly well received at radio and it was i just started to see it kind of going the other way you know that's what i tell all these young kids i go hey don't let this go to your head they quit playing elvis so they're going to quit playing you so be prepared yeah and so i was kind of i was in that transition you know i was kind of going okay what's next where's where's my next where's my next place you know where i'm gonna find to land and and i'm home one day and the phone rings and i answer it and uh the voice is hello vince it's eric clapton i just want to call and i called see what you're up to you know and i said yeah right sure it is you know who's yanking my chain i thought it was i've been a prankster forever everybody we always trying to prank each other so i thought of somebody with a fake english accent trying to yank that was a pretty good one and he starts laughing he goes no vince really is it's eric i said well whatever you want the answer is yes no kidding and he said he said something real simple to me he just said i'm he said i've decided to have this guitar festival in dallas next summer and i'm only inviting guitar players i like and he said that to me and i said well i'm in you know and it what it did you know he he didn't know that i've gotten to tell him that but it reaffirmed what i'd always hoped people saw me as yeah was a musician yeah you know and to be seen by him as that meant everything to me yes so i just said yeah job well done you know that's that's how i hoped i'd be seen and a lot of times i don't know that in the height of all that you know country music success and and having a bunch of you know i think people see the singer in the song and that's about it sometimes you know and that's okay nothing wrong with that but you know i'm one of the minority people that i like the i like all the frenzy stuff and all the how it gets all put together and whatnot so getting to go do that festival and meeting all those great guitar heroes that i got to meet and be thought of as one of them was you know the best part about that story was amy went with me and so i think i was sandwiched in between joe walsh and james taylor so i'm like i'm going oh god i couldn't be in a worse place you know joe walsh is the most loved person by a crowd i've ever seen in my whole life to this day still and so i think i was after joe and before james or something like that and so i'm going oh boy here comes the country guy you know the token country guy and amy said to me before i went out there she goes i'm going to go out there in the crowd i want to experience this out in the middle of it i said okay she said she came back after it was all done i started with oklahoma borderline a real ripper you know that would really hopefully get me get me off on a good foot with that crowd probably not a lot of them were that keen on who i was and knew much about me so i knew that going in but she said it was so funny she says you went out they introduced you and you started playing and she said the people just started filing out in mass you know to go get a beer go get a hot dog whatever whatever she said and they're all in the process of filing out i said you started playing that solo in oklahoma borderline she says they all stopped and they all turned around and they all came back they all came back into their seats you know she said it's really cool from from my perspective to see to see that yeah you know and and so yeah it's a little bit different you know like like i said i was kind of the token country guy at those crossroads festival shows and and they let they knew i'd had a great band and they knew we could back up and we were always kind of a house band of sorts for half a dozen folks that would come and play in our band and who did you take with you for that oh gosh who was a willie weeks billy thomas tom britt pete john hobbes don sears jeff white and i think that was who's at that first one and i don't remember i can't with a straight face say who all we backed up yeah it was really beautiful speaking of john john huey john would have been there yeah um would you mind telling i was at his uh memorial when you spoke that's one thing too i don't know how you how you do it because i cause i'm i'm crippled when it comes to talking about people i care about yeah and i can't say anything because i fall apart i do too i'm there's always an over and under when i'm gonna cry at some some event like that and it was john's memorial and i think you're probably referring to when i called him up to see if he would be interested in going to work with me yeah you know and i was a huge fan of his you know he played some of my favorite steel guitar i've ever heard my whole life and and from my love for conway in the early days of conway's career john played on everything and then the years that i sang for conway i was conway's harmony singer in the 80s saying on the majority of his records but john wasn't a part of him because that was an era where conway didn't want steel on his records he was trying to be modern and keep up with you know what was going on in country music whatever but so anyway when i call your name has become a hit and i've told you earlier how much i like scottie moore playing with elvis and i like don rich there was always that that guy you know that was kind of help defining who the artist was and i wanted somebody like that i finally had a big hit i go man if mr huey i don't know what he's up to but if he'd come play with me i'd have that that really familiar great you know kind of sidekick you know and so i called him up and i'd never met him and he answered well hello i said is this john hewitt yes sir i said hey i was just uh my name is vince gill i'm a young artist and just had my first hit record and and and i've just been a lifelong fan of yours and and i just wondered what you're up to he said well i was just sitting down on my last bowl of ice cream and i said well i meant professionally he laughed and i said but what i really like about you is there's more than one in a night he goes hell yeah so i said i've got the right man i said i you know would you consider you know well i'm working with loretta a little bit and i said well you know we did this do this and it'd be great to and he said well give it a give it a whirl and he did he came on board with a young bunch of young pups and and we all idolized him you know he got treated like a king in our band and and we had so much fun you know and i remember he called me for first gig he said now what do i wear i said what do you mean he goes well do you have a uniform and i go no we'll have uniforms because i wear whatever i want i said yeah i said man this isn't like probably anything you've ever done not the twitty birds he said okay great you know so he loved it he really enjoyed it because it was you know a lot of freedom and when he first went with us what i remember most was all of our gigs were with conway we were opening for conway and george i was playing with george jones and conway twitty in between because george demanded to go first and conway demanded to close so i was one idiot with one hit song in between these two legends but had mr huey there and he loved it because he he was getting to be treated like like royalty right and all the other twitty birds were kind of i know a little bit you know envious of of of john and so that that was uh it was a beautiful 13 or 14 years of my life and he played on all my records um you know paul played on when i call your name paul franklin a lot of people don't remember that but paul was so much in demand at the time playing with mark knopfler and all that that that was not a feasible uh move for him and so then many years later i got i've gotten to play with the best steel players that ever left but the other story i was referring to i wasn't even right were they that was a great one i loved that one too but it was about the i got to do my thing oh i can't tell that i'll tell you that one in private what was that well he had a he had a ritual that was beautiful i won't go into the details of the ritual because it's a little a little rough but you know he had false teeth and and so he'd have to do his teeth and then he you know and i roomed with him because i couldn't afford single rooms for all the guys in the early days and so we were roommates and and he you know you got to leave me enough time to do my thing i said okay so i'd get all my stuff done by noon and give him a couple it took it took a good two hours to watch him do this and it was the greatest thing i ever saw you know in the in the preparation of looking sharp you know you'd have that hair dryer and he'd come on for a while he'd work on his hair and then it stopped you'd hear yeah you know over his hair and always it was you know still players never had a hair out of play yeah that's the one i was talking about there's more i'll tell you later yeah well yeah you told it at the church so i figured you could well yeah well i'll keep it there i i've got an interview with him too i'll give it to you if you'd like to have it what was it like playing with vince on the road to me it was the greatest job i ever had i mean even though i grew up with conway and we were friends and all that something about events i mean vince is what you see is what you get i mean he's just he's got a heart big as this building and everything was first class with him everything we did we'd go on the bus and he'd have food like all in all the cabinets and stuff would be loaded down with food and if it started getting low he'd make the driver pull over and say hey we need to stock up you know but he was just the greatest guy in the world to work with and still is i i i he called me i called him the other day and he said he was writing a song he said i said what are you doing and he said all my care writing one of them songs he said where you can get up real high on it so i assume kind of assume that maybe i get to play on this next album he's right and getting ready to cut cut again so i hope he gets to play on it but but he was just he's another guy that would kind of like tell you like i mentioned before that how he wanted to sound or you know he let you play in and he'd give you his idea and said let's try this and it made you really work to please him like playing live on the road uh one time he never got onto me but one time and he didn't get on to me then we were right in the middle of a song and the song had a three minor in it and i played like a a five against the three minor which works but he wanted a a real three minor but i had slid up did it and and somebody was doing a solo turn around and vince was walking on he was kind of casually walked over in front of me and grin you know he says don't play that again and no don't play that anymore please just kept smiling turn i said okay he walked around you knew what he was talking about that he walked back over and just like nothing ever happened and i never played it again but and that's all he had to say i because you know what i played fit but it wasn't what he wanted to hear he wanted to hear a true three minor and uh but that was the only thing he ever told me don't play or you know in all the 12 years but uh he just and it that made it makes you want to make sure that you're satisfying him you know try to play every lick you've played to please him well uh not a slouch player himself oh yeah i i knew he was a good player but i've heard him on the stage like not on the show but through doing sound check we'd get off on some tune and i mean he would it might be a blues tune that whatever the tune called for he could play to fit that tune i mean he could get his blues as you wanted to get and we'd get him from some jazzy tune and he would start he'd change his tone and his total technique and everything changed he went to playing like jazz you know and he i was just amazed i just sat there just looking at him like i can't believe i'm hearing this you know because he's just he's just a great player and great talent probably one of the only people that could have done justice in my opinion too what i think is the greatest eagle song record anyway was i can't tell you why yeah yeah that was a great song yeah and he did he he really you know if you're going to go after one you really need to hook it and he i think he really did a great job i think he's done a great job on that well he's like a dad you know yeah and i think he loved me like i was his kid i think so too yeah it was really a special special relationship he's got a wonderful wife too oh miss g yeah it's awesome for all the years i was in the time jumper she would she would work the door yeah you know after john passed they kept her coming and made her a part of it all so um eagles i mean pretty good exit pretty good last gig what in the heck i mean well yeah i mean it it's it's not something you can dream up you know it's not something you could dream up and think about and aim for any kind of stuff you know did you just get a call pretty much you know irving talked to larry through don and uh i think you know don told me in in confidence he said you're the only guy i wanted you know that i would have done this with which meant the world to me you know i mean we were we'd become friends um through working on his cass county record i went and sang and played on a bunch of that and and uh and i knew glenn very well in the 80s we shared the same manager when the eagles were broken up larry fitzgerald managed glenn's solo career and mine at the same time so i was around glenn a lot and joe and i met at the crossroads shows and we wanted to do a band like the traveling wheel brace together where we might get michael mcdonald sheryl crow and nora norah jones or something had this really cool little that's a great idea fun jam band you know and and had some fun and but then this this tragedy happened with the passing of glenn and and most people i think them included thought that they wouldn't do it again you know and uh and so they said would you would you consider it and i said when do we leave you know it's always been my favorite band best song the songs i mean yeah it's it's it's mind-blowing every night i'm sitting up there playing these songs going oh there's new kid in town oh there's lion eyes oh there's i can't tell you why oh you know it's just like you know i asked don early on when we first started doing this i said what's the first song you and glenn ever wrote and he smiled and he said desperado and i said i don't believe it yeah i said you didn't write a half a dozen lame songs he goes no that's the first song we ever wrote together it was meant to be yeah and lioness that's still got to be one of the greatest of all time but but you're right i don't even know how you pick a a an eagle's greatest song i mean every one of them and you were talking earlier about playing halfway you know but the lead break on i can't tell you why it's tremendous but most anybody could play it almost you know i think that's a that's a great mystery that everybody thinks some of this stuff is so hard but you look back at some of the greatest records ever made and the reason they're they're great is a lot of people could play them yeah it wasn't hard for you to play some of the creedence licks that john played or some of the stones licks you know and you could find your way through so many of these songs and and i think that's there's a great there's a great truth in that of of you know it doesn't have to be complicated to be great yeah it doesn't have to be hard to be great it just has to be great yeah yeah well the garage that whole garage band era the bands could come close to sounding well i mean you could play wild thing and and all this stuff and and wipe out yeah getting back to the eagles to me it's like you got you got london and mccartney and and tom petty and mike campbell i think are got to be there at the very top and and then glenn and don in question and he's i love his his lyrics and uh um one of my all-time favorite songs was boys of summer i'm like this is great and then i find out oh it's mike campbell and on hindley how can you go wrong you know so are you are you writing with them any no i don't i don't foresee any of that happening i think they probably take something in and say hey what do you think i might at some point with don say hey i got this idea i do it yeah well you know i'm i'm uh i'm certainly not gonna go i've been wise and yeah knowing when and when not to speak yeah we're all great when i saw you here it works you know it's it's different and it's not as good as the original you know i don't sing like glenn and don't pretend to and and you know and that's the thing you know i i try to i see a lot of people making negative comments about me being in that band so it's not it's not going to be the eagles without glenn like i get it you know it's my favorite band too i don't want to i don't want to hear me seeing new kid in town but the the other option is not possible right right so i'm just trying to you know do my part to keep some great songs afloat you know keep them going let me tell you i learned something just my little self here you don't listen to what people say on the internet or whatever because they're out there you know i know yes so it's good and bad you know that's that's the key to life is never believe the good stuff they say about you or the bad stuff well you can believe the good stuff i'm telling you and i appreciate your helping us sure we did the very when we did our grand opening over there a matter of fact and you said then uh neil young said the same thing i'm happiest not being a rock star but being in the pocket with duck and the guys in the back and you said pretty much the same thing i appreciate you coming and giving up your time today and everything and everything else you've done you're a good guy well right back at you you've been a good friend to all the all the musicians that don't get the love and credit they deserve appreciate it thank you all for watching and catch us next time on musicians hall of fame backstage [Music] you

Channel: Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum

Views: 623,692

Rating: 4.9295387 out of 5

Keywords: Musicians Hall of Fame, Joe Chambers, Vince Gill, Country Music, Country Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll, The Animals, House of the Rising Son, Musicians, Studio Musicians, Guitar, Singing, Singer, Bluegrass, Records, Radio, Mountain Smoke, Hit Records, That thing you do, Steve Wariner, Kentucky, Gibson, Glen Campbell, Ricky Skaggs, Session Musicians, The Wrecking Crew, Let me love you tonight, Rosanne Cash, Brian Wilson, Sting, When I call your name, The Eagles, Eric Clapton

Id: 1Vtx8oG_eWc

Length: 21min 11sec (1271 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 31 2020