This one's everyone's favorite bassist audition story, who's told it around Nashville over the years. I first heard it as attributed to Rick Price recently ex of the Georgia Satellites,and he's my sentimental favorite for being who it actually happened to. I've also heard it attributed as happening to Howie Epstein of TP's Heartbreakers, God rest his soul. And I've heard it attributed to Garry Tallent but I don't believe it because I believe Garry would have told me at some point. So for the sake of my first and fave pick, I shall refer to the hapless auditionee as Rick Price.

Everyone who auditioned got two songs. You got the option to hear it once or twice before playing it and the band was always nice enough to ask for THEMSELVES to hear it which I think was mighty sweet of them.

So one of Rick's tunes, as I heard it told, was "Beast of Burden" and the band started playing it very, very, very slowly. It was so slow it sounded like it might ground to a stop, but neither Charlie nor Keith would speed it up and Rick noticed that no one in the band seemed to care in any way that it was going as slow as molasses. It just appeared to be the way "Beast of Burden" was supposed to be played this time, as far as the Stones were acting.

So he thought, should I say something? Is this a test?

He sidled over near to Charlie, careful to keep a slow bass groove best as he could, and he leaned down towards Charlie's ear. Charlie was drumming in his own little world with no idea Rick was bending over to him until Rick spoke.

"Reckon it's a little slow?" Rick offered.

While continuing to play,Charlie slowly turned his head towards Rick, and up to meet his eyes.

"It'll pick up in front of eighty-thousand, mate." Charlie said and then turned back away, back into his own wonderful little world.

Tommy

Thank you for these great stories!

By the way, who was the "band" then: CW and Keith for sure and I assume also Jagger. But were also RW and Chuck involved in the auditioning?

C

It's my understanding that it was just basically THEM: Mick, Keith, Charlie, Ronnie and a minimal crew, like two guys, just handling sound issues and cueing up songs. VERY private otherwise. I've never heard of a keyboard player being mentioned as having been there, could've been, but I bet they were smart enough not to have anybody else in the mix when they were replacing half the engine room.

don't have time now, but got a great run-down of the whole audition process second hand from a dude in NYC, nobody famous but a good session guy, who got a shot and it swallowed three days of his life. his tale is nothing earthshaking but for a stones freak it is a great look into the stones behind the curtain doing what they do. when i have more time maybe later today I'll screed it out.

tw

great story!
can't wait to hear the other you mentioned.
ciao

bardo

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..five strings, three notes, two fingers, one @#$%&..

take a look at my RS tribute band:
[www.stickyfingers.it]

[www.facebook.com]

>> three chords <<

three NOTES - namely D, G & B. really! :E

great story, From4tilLate - lookin forward to the other one too

Thanks for sharing! Nice story!

with sssoul Wrote:
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> >> three chords <<
>
> three NOTES - namely D, G & B. really! :E
>
> great story, From4tilLate - lookin forward to the
> other one too

:-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

;-)

ciao

bardo

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
..five strings, three notes, two fingers, one @#$%&..

take a look at my RS tribute band:
[www.stickyfingers.it]

[www.facebook.com]

Great story.

Another funny bassist audition story told to me by Kenny Aaronson, currently the bassist for John Eddie, a NJ rocker. Kenny has played with Dylan, Joan Jett, Billy Idol and others.

Apparently Kenny was at home in NYC with his girlfriend. According to Kenny, he was in the shower when his girlfriend burst in the bathroom telling him that Mick Jagger was on the phone. He burst from the bathroom, dripping wet and without a towel to take Mick's call and make arrangements for the audition. Re: the audition itself, Kenny told me that he also played Beast of Burden. He said the boys were genuine and very friendly. Obviously, he didn't get the gig, but came away with some cool pictures of himself with Mick and Keith and great memories, of course.

Here's an interview and pictures: [www.tomguerra.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-07-03 15:46 by dj.

That's another thing I've heard that's consistent. Everyone I heard about who got the phone call to audition got it directly from Jagger, not from any assistant or secretary, but from the man himself. Talk about hands-on!

Joey Spampinato of NRBQ also auditioned and his wife told me, he was told to come back after his first 2 song set the next day. Keith And Ronnie both gave him thumbs up but in the end they let Charlie pick. They also didnt want to break up Q at the time either. Keith is a big fan. Joey's wife also told me Mick was afraid of how much Keith and Ronnie liked and allready knew Joey...Keith picked him as his bass player for Hail Hail....

Some "official" story from the Big red book, "According to the Rolling Stones"...
Ronnie tells the story: he was inviting every candidate to a Guiness; Daryl was very happy accepting the offer, it was just the gate opening for his audition...
On the other side, Keith says that he was very carefully looking at Charlie's face during the tests.

whatever, they got it wrong. picked someone from an entirely different genre, and it sounds like it...

Beelyboy Wrote:
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> whatever, they got it wrong. picked someone from
> an entirely different genre, and it sounds like
> it...

Gotta agree with that. I think Charlie only picked him because he had a jazz background and had played with Miles Davis and Charlie is a huge jazz fan.

Is this a fishing thread? Bass?

"No Anchovies, Please"

Beelyboy Wrote:
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> whatever, they got it wrong. picked someone from
> an entirely different genre, and it sounds like
> it...


It's called " The Guiness Effect "

and we like it...

NRBQ is pretty done after 35 years...So maybe its time for Joey Spampinato on the NEXT TOUR and ALBUM!

BostonStrangler Wrote:
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> Joey Spampinato of NRBQ also auditioned and his
> wife told me, he was told to come back after his
> first 2 song set the next day. Keith And Ronnie
> both gave him thumbs up but in the end they let
> Charlie pick. They also didnt want to break up Q
> at the time either. Keith is a big fan. Joey's
> wife also told me Mick was afraid of how much
> Keith and Ronnie liked and allready knew
> Joey...Keith picked him as his bass player for
> Hail Hail....

I'm guessing you spoke to Kami Lyle, and not his first wife, Skeeter Davis. (Yes, THAT Skeeter Davis!)

If so, did Kami offer any reason for the "hiatus" that the Q went on shortly after their 35th Anniversary shows three years ago? The apparent split between founders Terry Adams and Joey Spampinato have cause a lot of Q-heads to view Kami as the group's Yoko Ono...

Kami is the one who told me the story of Joey audition. Terry Adams has some tendinitis and is completely CRAZY! Tommy Ardilino too.. Joey and Kami live in Brewster Mass on Cape cod...Joey plays for Kami at some of her gigs. She plays trumpet and sings well too.. I hope they do something soon though.. I love those guys. Last summer Joey sat in with the incredible casuals a killer cape cod band that Johnny Spampinato plays in. Johnny is also the current guitar player for Q..

Right.

I've heard about Terry's health problems, and it's no surprise that he's CRAZY...

It comes with the territory of being one of the most brilliant piano players/live performers ever.

I saw the Q at the two "38th Anniversary" shows they did in Northampton in April.

Both Big Al and Johnny played.. but mostly Al.

The interaction between Terry and Joey seemed fine as well.

Word in Nashville is the 'Q broke up because of Johnny's inability to follow in Big Al's footsteps, and thus his lack of chops frustrated the other guys. Totally unfair to expect him to match up to Al, but the fact is that when Al was in the band you had four guys who were unsurpassable. Four guys all with perfect pitch in the same band. Johnny ain't of that caliber and it became the elephant in the living room between Terry & Tommy vs. Joey. I mean, how do you fire a guy's brother? So they broke up instead. That's the word on the street here. Check with Kami and tell her hi for me. I can't see her as any kind of Yoko. Skeeter maybe, but not Kami.

Tommy

Johnny can hold his own though...I've seen him with the casuals and Q and the dude can play. But big al he aint. LEts hope for the best and hopefull they'll patch things up. I have Terry's new Cd. Not Bad but not Great either.

When I auditioned, they just said it was to obvious I was a Stonesfan...
I played everything exactly as Bill, had the facial look of Keith, the hair of Ronnie, but no, it was to close to home....

Vilhelm
Nordic Stones Vikings