Episode 01 - The Jammy Party - Robert Deleo

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Hello and welcome to the Altwire Podcast, where we share candid interviews with some of the

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best names in the entertainment industry. I'm Derek Oswald, and today we'll be talking about

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the upcoming record Lessons Learned with our special guest Robert DeLeo. Most of you will

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be familiar with Robert from his work as the bassist and principal songwriter for Stone

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Temple Pilots. Robert is here to promote his first solo record Lessons Learned, and we're

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thrilled to have him on the show. Let's get started.

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We have Robert DeLeo on the phone with us today. Thanks for joining us, Robert. How are you doing?

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It's going as good as it can go. I love doing this on iPhone. I don't have to be on camera and get

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out of my pajamas. I love it.

A little-known secret that people who will be listening won't know is

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that I'm actually in my pajamas as well, so I didn't even get into any special attire for this. So hope

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you're not offended.

Oh man, we got a jammy party in the making.

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Now this is a really interesting record for you, considering that this is the first time

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that you've gotten to explore your full range by recording virtually all the instrumentation

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yourself. Can you talk about what it was like writing this album as compared to some of

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your previous work?

Well, I think all the writing comes from, you know, whether it's,

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you know, whatever atmosphere or thing you're trying to create. It's always from a personal

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experience and more so on the more general side of things. There's a certain, you know,

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thing of sitting down and really getting in touch with the instruments that you have.

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You know, it's funny because I just posted something on Instagram about, you know, sitting

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down with some good friends of mine, which were all my instruments, mostly vintage that

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I really adore. And they really have been like great friends because each time you pick

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up one of these instruments, it leads you in a certain direction of where your feelings

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were intended to go. And that's what I love about old instruments with some age. They

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have a certain quality that inspire me to do that. And that's kind of where it started.

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You know, it was the world has changed, and the world allowed a lot of time to all of

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us. And I took advantage of that time and kind of got reacquainted with my good friends,

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so to speak.

You had a lot of those good friends in a promo photo that you did for this record.

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Given that you've amassed such a huge collection over your career, what would you consider

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to be the most prized of your collection in regards to your vintage instruments?

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You know, as a bass player, I always dreamt of there's certain instruments that you grow

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up watching your idols play. And, you know, James Jamerson of Motown, you know, has always

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been my top-of-the-list bass player. And acquiring, it's actually in the picture at the top row

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on the left, it's a 1959 Fender P bass. And I've always, you know, wanted one of those

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in my collection. That is a beautiful one. As far as guitars go, I mean, there's certain

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instruments that you, electrically speaking, you know, I have a 1963 Gretsch Country Gentleman,

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which is the same as George Harrison's. And, you know, how could you not like George Harrison

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on a 1963 Country Gentleman? But also, the person that guitar is named after is one of

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my favorite guitar players - Chet Atkins. Chet is, you know, I grew up listening to

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him, been a huge influence on me, and really got me motivated on my finger picking. You

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know, music is amazing because it goes down into different people. And, you know, I think

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the way that I got exposed to Chet Atkins was through Steve Howe of Yes. And I've always

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admired Steve Howe. He's one of my favorite guitar players. And he always was a master

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of picking up any kind of stringed instrument and just, you know, just doing something really

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special with it. And, you know, those are the kind of people that I really admire as

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artists that can have these things. And there's another thing in the bottom right of that

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picture of me. It's called a marxophone. And it's kind of a combination of an autoharp

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and a hammered dulcimer. It was used on Doors tracks and some Lovin' Spoonful tracks.

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And it was, I think it was sold door to door in the teens or the twenties. And I found

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this one with all the original music books in it from that age and era. And, you know,

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I'm just always fascinated with different instruments, strings, especially.

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With the marxophone, as you said, that's a very hard-to-get instrument. It's a little

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more rare than your common instrument that you get used at a guitar store, for instance.

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Are there any instruments that are still out of your reach that you're hoping you can find

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one day, maybe some super rare instrument that you've been searching for your entire

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career?

You know, I love Middle Eastern instruments

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too. And there's an instrument called a sarod that I really love. And, you know, I don't

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own a sitar. And, you know, it's always been fascinated by instruments from the Middle

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East, just beautiful instruments. There's a lot of Celtic instruments that I love too.

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I think I need to pay more attention to my travels to acquire these instruments. But

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I have such a love for different instruments. And it's interesting because when you get

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on different instruments, like I said, they guide you in a certain direction. And it's

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like that with guitars too, you know, growing up and having posters on my wall and seeing

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Jimmy Page with a Les Paul and knowing what a Les Paul does and, you know, seeing somebody

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with a Telecaster, and you know what a Fender Telecaster does and, you know, all these voicings

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and great inventions, so to speak, that, you know, became a part of our lives. It's amazing.

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As a fellow bassist, what drew you to the Schecter Model T basses? What makes them

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stand out to you? You know, I worked for Schecter. I was working

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for Mesa Boogie at the time. And this is probably 1990. And right before we got signed and I

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got booted, I got canned, and sacked from that store. And I needed a job, and I went down

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the street, and a good friend of mine was kind enough to hire me at Schecter.

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Nice. And he runs Schecter now, by the way, Mike

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Cervolo and we worked together there. Schecter built my first bass for me when we got signed

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that I used on Core and toured with for quite a while. I still have that bass. They made

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me what I wanted, and they were very, very kind to me and made some great basses for

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me that I used throughout most of my touring through the 90s, all of my touring through

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the 90s and early 2000s.

In your announcement for this record, you

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spoke on how your life has revealed many changes. What stories were some of the most important

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ones for you to tell on this upcoming album?

Well, I think the main focus and the main

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thing here I had to come up with for the whole journey was universal feelings that we all

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feel. Love, heartbreak, love gained, love lost. And there's really nothing new I'm writing

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here. I guess it's just my version, my interpretation of that. And I think it was a matter of kind

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of coming up with a title for the record. And at the end of the journey, I thought these

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were all lessons learned. That's pretty much put the bow on the whole experience and journey

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that I've gone through.

In line with the title of the album, over the

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course of your career and lifetime, what have been some of the most challenging experiences

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or hardest lessons for you to learn?

You know, there's been many. I moved

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out here from the East Coast when I was 18. And I lived in my car, and I came out here

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with $1,200 to California. And I don't know if I really came out to make it. I think I

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fooled my mom into telling her I was going to go to art school just till I, you know,

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looked like I was going to do something. But I moved out here and got a $250 bass. I got

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a Music Man Stingray, a 78 Music Man Stingray. Back when they were $250. Wow. And I bought

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a $650 1976 Volkswagen Rabbit. And the car died, and the bass got stolen eventually. So

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I definitely learned not to put instruments in the trunk of your car when you're going

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to see a gig because it will get stolen. I also learned from that to not get a 1976 Volkswagen

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Rabbit. Because I think I had to drive every five miles, I had to get out and fill up the

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radiator because I just I didn't have enough money to fix it. So I ran that thing into

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the ground. And I started working at Mesa Boogie up in the valley in a not a very nice

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area of the valley. And my owner at the time was right around Christmas time, and he was

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unloading the register without the door locked right before we were closing. And two guys

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came in and held us up, and I had a I had a 38 in my gut. And I had my hands tied with

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whirlwind cable. And I there was a big lesson there learned it was called that lock the

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door before you open the register and start counting money. So all that led into being

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in a band and getting signed to Atlantic Records. And you know, things took off very quickly.

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And one of the biggest things I learned came from a gentleman by the name of Tom Carolan,

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who was our A&R guy at the time, and he said, fasten your seatbelt. And that was a big lesson

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I learned from Tom Carolan is I did fasten my seatbelt and it was quite a ride through

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that. You know, relationships and like I said, more universal things happening in life that

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everyone experiences. You know, still trying to figure out what life and love really is.

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You know, I think that's really what this album is about is just taking a look at what

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life and love is really is and questioning it. You know, yeah, it's been quite a journey

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there.

Hey, I think I can speak for pretty much every fan of your music out there that

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I'm happy that you made it out of that holdup. The world might have been robbed of a quite

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talented musician if that had gone a little bit differently.

So oh man. Yeah, I remember

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I remember getting a 38 in my stomach and saying we're going to have a party. That's

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what I remember coming from his mouth and tied us up in the back with whirlwind cable,

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guitar cable. You know, it's funny, they got $140.

For all that trouble, $140.

They got $140

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but there was a 1956 Fender Strat in the window that was probably at the time worth about

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five grand. They didn't take that.

Makes no sense, right?

Right. Yeah.

Just to kind of

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wrap things up a little bit; you had been talking about universal languages and universal

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things that everyone goes through. I consider music to be one of those spiritual universal

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languages that everybody can identify with for artists. It's like imprinting your own

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spiritual energy onto a recording forever. How often have you considered the musical

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legacy that you're leaving behind?

You know, I respect it, but I want to move forward.

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I think music is eternal. And as long as you're, you know, we're all we're all mortal. But

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music, music is a way of making yourself immortal. And it'll live on and on. And the music that

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I listened to from the 1920s, 1930s, I mean the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. This is all music that

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not only is immortal, but it really becomes a part of your DNA. And it's something that

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I feel in music every day. I feel that. And I think being a musician and having a certain

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way to channel life into music, it's a gift, man. It's a gift. And I never take

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it for granted. It's my friend. It's my therapist. It's my love. Sometimes it's a gift to be

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able to do that. I want to keep moving forward. And like I said, to answer your question,

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I do respect the past immensely.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I just want to,

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you know, thank you for always being so insightful. We actually first spoke a couple of years ago

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back when Jeff first joined the band. And back then and even now, you always give the

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best thought-out answers. So I appreciate it.

Thank you, man.

Hopefully, nobody forces you

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to go on camera within the next couple of interviews. That way, you can, you know, enjoy

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your coffee and stay in your pajamas if possible.

So they're going to be like, Whoa, hey, where

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is Robert DeLeo? Where's he at? Who's this?

Oh, thank you so much for joining us. And

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I really do hope you have a great rest of your day.

Oh, Derek, thank you so much, man.

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So kind of you, man. Thank you. Thank you.

That brings us to the end of this episode.

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Thanks to Robert DeLeo for joining us to talk about his upcoming new record. And thank you

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for listening to the Altwire podcast. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us

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on Apple podcast, and be sure to come back for more episodes. Until then, this is Derek

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Oswald, and thanks for listening to the Altwire podcast.