Curtain Call with Kevin Curtain and Liberty DeVito

[Music] alright so hey everyone welcome to curtain call I'm Kevin Curtin I'm here today with a very special guest this man right here has one of the greatest drummers of all time having drummed with Billy Joel for 30 years and playing on some of the best records in music history it's truly an honor to be here with him today so without further ado I introduce you to the legendary Liberty DeVito good to see you keV lip thanks for being on the show so great let's get right into it you know I understand growing up in New York big Beatles fan big rascals fan what was it about the drums that got you hooked well I'll tell you what in later years after the success with Billy Joel and stuff like that I never knew quite why it was the drum set why the drums not a guitar and that's piano stuff like that so I asked my father I said why did you get me drums and he said because we didn't make prozac back then yeah so I guess that was a wild kid and he wanted something to calm me down and I guess the drums did it so you know I got asked yeah I just brought up the Beatles and I know years later you actually got to work with Paul right yes so can you tell me a little bit about that experience and how that came about well it was through so Ramone of crisis we got a produce to show most of the albums with Billy Joel yeah I guess see the Paul called him I wanted to see if Phil would want to produce a record with him yeah put a band together yeah so I got a call and they wouldn't tell me who it was with it and I had something very important to do that day and they said you gotta cancel it you gotta cancel it I said I can who is it and they kept saying we can't tell you we can't tell you so in a long run I actually cancelled it went to the studio and found out that it was Paul McCartney and when he walked in the room I the first one to walk in the room was Linda it was back to Hades right Linda walked in the room and I'm thinking like what is Paul McCartney want to do with me I mean back he's a Beatle on nobody you know and so Linda walks in the room and the first thing she does is point at me and says I know who you are we've been watching your videos what Paul McCartney's watching our videos it's insane so then Paul walks in and he walks over to me and I shake his hand nice to meet you and he went over to the next guy and I backed out of the control room and stood in the hallway and said okay calm down he's just a person he's a musician he's the musician he's a beetle sure so I had to calm down I have to leave your room to calm down yeah so finally comes in what you know can you take me through that session and kind of what uh well it was great because so we did two songs and the thing that happens when you work with an artist that you listen to on records you know all your life it happened with Stevie next to the voice that comes through the monitor or the headphones yeah it's so familiar and then you look up and the person is standing right there or sitting on the piano or playing it you know that that's amazing to me yeah you start giggling yeah I can only imagine he must have been just a kid in a candy shop at that point right yeah so can you take me back to the early days of gigging in Long Island and you know meeting Billy for the first time understand you know before you were working with him you were doing a lot of wedding gigs and a lot of bar gigs right so yeah I you know myself Russell Jabir's duck stag by oh and how he Emerson who all play on the turnstiles album yeah Doug got us and fans so well we had a band called toddler yeah Russell was writing all the material it was back in the 70s and we discovered reggae so we were playing reggae blues and stuff like that and we weren't making any money no money so what I had to do was was I had to figure out a way how to make some dough so I got this wedding gig and I'm going to this gig my friend says I I set you up with a band it's gonna be great you're gonna sit in for the drummer he's not gonna make it tonight here borrow my tuxedo and go my hair really is long now and stuff like that and yeah I had played with Mitch Ryder already and done done that kind of thing but I had no money so I go to the gig and the sax player comes in and introduces himself and he he had slicked back hair who's smoking cigarettes drinking scotch much older than I was like yeah twice my age and the accordion player I don't know how he held up the accordion and we saw all there was a trumpet player so it was accordion Saxon from it that was it and me yeah and I'm thinking my career's over what am I doing here you know my hair's down here great you tried that whole thing yeah the first thing that happened was the trumpet player turned around and looked at me and said the bride wants us to start with a merengue I went what the hell is my run again is that something you eat so long story short I ended up staying at the the was called Narragansett end for two and a half years and I learned more in that two and a half years about music you know cuz you got to play a lot of it I think music and stuff like that sure that when I finally did get with Billie and we went in the studio and people are amazed that the the roof - just the way you are which is a brush in the right hand and stick in the left hand right and they're like how did you come up with that it's like Oh Boston over is like that yeah so that that really paid off yeah so when you met Billy for the first time what was what do you remember about that interaction well the first time I met Billy I was playing in a top 40 band actually yeah Doug Billy Billy lived in California and was using studio musicians to record the album's and different guys to go on the road he told Doug stedmeyer one of the toys I want to move back to New York I want the same guys to play on my racket then go on the road with me and I want a New York style drummer and Billy said Doug said I know the guy you know and you know the guy so Billy came to see me play in this top 40 band it was a tabloid decent Bentley guys guitar bass and me yeah and he actually came up and sang feeling all right with the van like you know and the guys in the band kind of knew that okay he's gonna leave because he's gonna get this gig with Billy Joel yeah yeah and that's what happened then I had to go audition for Billy and play with them yeah so I learned all the songs on the on the piano man album and the streetlife serenade or album and we played all that stuff and he really liked what I did and then he said I got this new record that I'm gonna do and let me run some songs by you and see what you come up with and he was amazed at how fast they came up with this stuff yeah but he didn't know for 25 years that Doug had slipped me a tape right new stuff right I knew what he was gonna play yeah yeah so which brings me to my next you know topic in question here we have the turnstiles album here which is really you know one of Billy's best and it's some of the best drumming from lib here and I just really want to go over a couple things on this first off what's your favorite memory of recording this album right here oh it was exciting because it was the first time playing with Billy and we actually did it with just me Doug and Billy in the studio interesting piano bass and drums that's it yeah so we were listening back and Billy said you know I can use guitar on this well we said we know guitar plays okay so eventually that's how all topper became Billy rails band right but you know I mean this I'm just looking at you know we were actually listening to this album before we were here and you know just the start of it say goodbye to Hollywood you know you're channeling mr. Hal Blaine and say goodbye to Hollywood and I'm wondering at the very end of that song I hear Billy yellow you know DeVito you know what are you doing is that what he's saying I say DeVito where you're going where are you going he's he was always dubbing a vocal part yeah the studio and I was sitting sitting there listening and when he got to that part I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and they left it in very New York yeah and any other interesting stories I mean I know the angry young man at some of the best drumming that I've ever heard on record um is there anything else that was interesting from recording this yeah angry oh man the part that goes right yeah you can hear me playing a drum beat in the background yeah but mostly you hear this yes Billy we were listening back to it and Billy said I want I want a like galloping horse on and I want this and he started to play on his chest yeah I said you want that and he goes yeah I said you want exactly that we said yes so what we did was went out of the studio lays him across a bunch of chairs and I laid on his chest get out of here Wow that's a whoo Wow all right so you know I mean just real quick obviously you have New York state of mind summer Highland Falls which is you know one of the greatest songs of all time in my opinion one of Billy's best is and I understand the story behind that was you were dating someone at the time that was listening to Joni Mitchell right that's the filament yeah the beginning right and that's where you can help because the same drunk yeah right exactly so no I mean it's just you know if you if you're now familiar with turnstiles it's you know classic album one of the best and some of the best strumming from lip you know it's funny about this yeah record it's like this record only sold 50,000 copies right no but since the other element came out sold more but yeah oh this will put these thousand copies but through our touring career yeah we will always turn Styles heavy yeah like we always did some AHA Falls we always did know extent mine did Jamie man Miami 2017 right right no more songs from this album than any other oh yeah interesting so next up we have the classic 1977 the stranger album and we have on the back here with mr. Phil Ramone who produced the album we have Liberty here Doug rest in peace he's no longer with us anymore Ritchie in the middle and then Billy all the way over here listen this is not to get this bottle of wine here rest in peace which is all over with us and a bottle of wine above so what what do you remember about I mean I want to get into the album too but what do you remember about this classic photo and just the photo shoot from that day what do you remember about this well it was done in the macaroni factory something like that in yeah in New York City which isn't there anymore and I just remember we went down there to eat yeah and there was a photographer there anybody started taking pictures yeah just there's some great outtakes of that photo - yes we're pouring the Wow yeah so this this album again another classic and you know I really want to talk about a couple couple different songs but first scenes from an Italian restaurant yeah a lot of different changes in that song goes a lot of different places how long did you have to rehearse that and was that a you know when you recorded was it just one take the whole way through or what how did that go down that's all we were actually doing it on the road already before we were in the studio God but at the beginning we were just doing the brother and I report him yes thought the song was just to burden yeah and then he added the rest of it yeah all that kind of stuff yeah so we were doing it already on the road right who went in and recorded it just like that one yeah one true and do you remember was it a lot of tapes was it just a couple tapes couple of texts couple tapes done yes Wow unbelievable yes by the way I mean I know there's people out there that have heard it a million times but there's probably some people that maybe haven't heard if you haven't heard it go listen to it it's one of the greatest songs of all time um a couple other songs on here that I'd like to talk about you were talking about just the way you are before yeah that's another another one you were doing on the road yeah it was sounded more like you are the sunshine of my life c1 this terrain it was more like that yeah and then you know phil was ramones was like no no no we're gonna come up with something different yeah yeah it's interesting yeah and and moving out anything do you remember anything about record and moving out I remember when I first heard it really I went to Billy's house yeah his apartment he was living in the city of this yeah and he sang me moving out but it sounded like this it sound like Anthony works in the grocery store saving his pennies for some day I said schmuck that's left in the rain but you've done this backup oh man yeah and so but he loved the lyrics so much that he he changed the melody of it yeah and that was written because we used to travel a tour on the turnstiles album yeah we used to stay at like a Holiday Inn or something like that yeah and we'd all go out and meet by the pool we were down south and Richie would play the part of Grandma and I would be the cousin that came out from the city and Billy lived on Long Island and the Holiday Inn became Billy's house on Long Island and we would say uh Richie be like oh it's wonderful what you did with the place and I'm like whoa I love the pool out here is fantastic and Billy would be like you got to come in and see the basement I refinish we got a bar down and everything you know and then he'd say when are you coming out when are you moving out of the city what are you and that idea came oh and and the boy goes dun dun dun Anna Billy always just to clear his throat by going yeah and I understand the the car at the end of that was recorded that was Doug's Corvette right folks go then I had a Panasonic tape recorder with a microphone with a wire on yeah we taped it to the rear bumper yeah and we just rode around yeah loved it loved it and only the good die young one of your you know classic you know just drunk I mean the drumming on that it's just fantastic how did you come up with that B was that something you came up with someone else kind of well his story is that it was written in a rage on yeah and you know I he says like faintly remember yes saying that but of course is to develop in the reggae closes you ever been to Jamaica is Jamaica train station in Queens right where the long lro to change trains down and but it's funny because that beginning let in the began to do good you get to ticket that and and the whole groove to it yeah you know you there's only certain amount of notes that a drummer can play a certain amount of things that drop a complaint uh-huh so we great drummers you know good drummers borrow great on the steel sure that whole thing the beginning lick and the groove to that is from Jimi Hendrix song called up from the skies okay are the axis both of em yeah you listen and it starts the same way yes but but you have you have this great way of making it your own especially like we were talking about before Sega by the Hollywood classic Hal blamed but you you kind of make it your own and it sounds like a liberty you know sound and obviously you had Bruce Botnick doing the mix on that has a nice full sound whereas you know Phil Spector you know records they were great but you know a little different you know so anyway you know getting back to Phil Ramone do you have a favorite memory of working with him in the studio I know he was a great guy he was so great we called him Uncle Phil he was he was the musician be the glass rang we trusted everything he said but he was also very funny we had a lot of love yes when we made those albums yeah one example is he had a brand new shirt on kenderson the runner shirt yeah we just saw have no what a pizza for lunch that day is it the pizza a little bit of sauce falls on short she wipes it off yeah takes another bite a little more sauce falls on the third time it happened he looked at the pizza and said ok you want the shirt take the shirt that's great what um what do you think was the greatest lesson you learned from him just being in the studio with them and just watching him do what he did I learned well the first thing that we did in the studio was moving out that was the first song we recorded yeah and Billy wanted us to go yeah Phil came up to me he goes no this is what people remember yeah remember right and that's how we're how cost they have a choice for and he he showed me that you know how important that is to make people regular people that don't know anything about music understand what you're doing that's great yeah he really wasn't one of a kind and yeah moving on here I want to get into you know we only have a certain amount of time today there's so much stuff to cover there's so many great albums so many great you know you know just things that Liberty contributed you talked about two records I did eleven lay it's it's amazing and I'm sorry but we can't cover everything today but I do want to jump to one of my favorites which has Frankie Valli written all over it as we know uptown girl I'm curious what do you remember about recording that that track and also you know the beginning drum fill in the bridge what were those your ideas was that Billy was that you know can you kind of the beginning drum fill it was just one of those things he counted it off I probably didn't do it the one before yeah but it just came out like that and somebody once told me they said you know what that drum fill is yeah it says your name it says yeah and the break yes with the trenches yeah I remember going after billion saying this is what the for season huh I love it long that force law because I love the for salt meat isn't class love them yeah it's great anything funny from that session I mean was there anything interesting or just uh I don't know well there's some things I can tell you about yes of course but I mean there's just there's a lot of harmonies in that song and you know oh yeah a lot of harmony set that came later though you know that came later yeah the studio guys came in and saying all that stuff yeah yeah but the the song when he originally played it for everybody it was the other way around it it was uh and went at that and then uptown girl something like that and yeah Phil one no it should go this way it's really interesting yeah very cool we all you know Billy wrote the songs but everybody in the studio at the time had a Paul contribution and the arranging of it yeah cool so you know moving on you know you've you've done what a lot of drummers and musicians hope to do you know in your career which is creating your own sound who are some of your favorite drummers okay first was of course well my mother loved Gene Krupa yeah so I really you know a lot of guys drummers like Buddy Rich I like you true but I think she was more of a solid music man not a soloist but even though he did solos but yeah more of a music man but what really got me playing drums was Ringo ring applause when the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show that was it I was hooked I was 13 years old yeah and you know that yeah but because they were from England and they like had straight hair with bangs and everything I then I was a tie and then my hair curled up ins up I really couldn't relate until the Young Rascals came out he nothing I was really that were Italian than that yeah and yeah and dandy know they know he's not a Ringo off the stool for oh yeah yeah yeah and then from that went on to Mitch Mitchell Ginger Baker and one of my favorite drummers of all times is Jim Capaldi from traffic oh I love Jim Kabal yes a lot of traffic influence and Billy's songs like you know the traffic was always sure there's so still oh yeah you know oh yeah I'm guessing you like hell Blaine to Lyon who does you know I was disappointed when I found out that how bland was eight of my favorite dramas isn't that I mean his story is unbelievable you know I uh two years ago at the damn show I see over there he came up I played with Ronnie Spector we did a show all night and I had and how came up and with me played be my wow that's great that must have been you know he doesn't have the power that he used to have right but when he started that boom boom boom yeah it was like oh that's it right yeah and I mean all the stuff you did with the Beach Boys I mean it's just unbelievable you know some of the greatest yeah so you know you've toured all over the world with Billy you know and everywhere in between do you have a favorite venue or favorite show that you did well going to going to Havana Cuba in in 79 yeah was very exciting that's great we went over 150 other musicians yeah you know that was great but going in the Soviet Union was a major unbelievable how many people were there like 250,000 we played three days in Moscow three days in Leningrad yeah doesn't exist behind that wall we're a line that wall I mean what was that like for you though tell me and well we did a couple of gigs in England first yeah before we went over to warm-up and so we had a couple days off and I'm you know going around they said get some food bring things put things in your suitcase that you can eat because you might not want to eat when you see there yeah yeah so I got yeah then I'm walking around I'm thinking okay I'm getting ready to go to what I perceived to be the enemy because I used to have to hide under the desk kids you're gonna kill us you know and I'm thinking I'm going on Lufthansa which was World War two okay we beat the Germans alright yeah I'm going behind this wall that they don't let people out right and my name is Liberty oh my god what am i doing that's great butters yeah what a warm welcome yeah I mean I said I stood on the land of the Soviet Union and looked up at the sky and I thought that's the same sky that's over us and yeah it's government's that fight not the people right people right so what I got asked what's the nicest compliment you've ever received from either appear or a music legend the nicest compliment I have ever received yeah I'd like to sleep with you tonight some pretty girl says no I got a few of them I mean stayin tapped me on the shoulder once they said you're a great drummer why I said thank you because no no you're a great drummer yeah and well you know I just did a film a film a documentary called a hired gun check that out by the way if you haven't seen it it's on Netflix check it out and when Kenny Aronoff says Billy Joel sound like Billy Joel of course of liberating to me though you know it's like you really don't think about that attachment yeah or how people actually listen to the songs you know what the real music lovers do you know the people that know that yeah yeah oh absolutely oh yeah absolutely absolutely so what um what is a song you wished you drummed on that you didn't drama oh Jesus so many oh maybe a couple maybe a couple I wish I drunk on Strawberry Fields yeah oh you know actually uh when we did the curtain the song Laura mm-hmm you know that's at home was tip of the hat to the Beatles but Laura sometimes I close my eyes in the solo section and I think is that the Beatles there's at us yes you want to sound so much like them right yeah yeah let me ask you um this is a good one I think it's a good one you tell me if you were to have a drum off with anyone dead or alive who would you pay my drummer playing again you drumming off against another drummer dead or alive I'd be better on a jerk-off come on if you have two drums and higher gun they forced me to do this drum solo yeah I never did the drum solo all right what about this via to play with someone else you know maybe maybe not a drum off but just playing with someone else dead or alive that you wish you would have played well I Labour's Hal already yeah yeah I mean those guys were great and the guys you know the guys that played on the four seasons records yeah the guys that played with beyond those guys yeah yeah got it so you know let's let's move on here advice for today's generation of musicians and drummers maybe up-and-coming what's what's the advice from from the master here master fader no it was different back when boost with Billy you know there was a NR people that came to the clubs that you played and they will check out the bands and and they would say you know it be that come to my office on Monday we're gonna sign you a record deal yeah and they would do that it would happen that's the way it happened today it is so difficult to get a record deal you know they won just to hear they want to hear a finished record yeah I mean mixed they want everything else yeah everything and then they do the 360 yeah everything right you know so unless you have the passion you forget it yeah the passion is the only thing that drives you yeah I still love to play and that's why we're doing what we do yeah I mean believe me you have to be there Jai I mean have you done it for so long and Richie and Russell tell you the same thing yeah it hurts but I love to do it so yeah well god bless and you look great I mean you know thanks so let me ask you you know I was poking around on your Instagram and we're coming up to the you know second year it's hard to believe of princes passing and I saw that you had a story on there back in 83 you were with Stephen I should be receiving it yeah so can you tell me that story what was going on there he came to see the show it was at the Meadowlands I think yeah or something like that anyway he came to see the show and he was sitting in one of the rooms yeah and you couldn't go up to him yeah shake his head but I had my daughter my oldest daughter now is 37 yeah it was like four years old yeah and he just kept making faces at him yeah yeah so that was kind of weird like Prince miss is that my daughter you know but I was also very good friends with his last drummer John John black law was passed away very sad you know and yeah three stories about Prince and probably bet it turns out like the modern drama cover Prince allowed them to use image of him and interesting yeah so he what he was taught you know yeah he was just unbelievable yeah all right so I wanna I want to have people know where they can find you on social media but also where they can check out the Lords of 52nd Street which is the group that you're touring with right now yes so and and also if you want to talk about your charity to the little kids raucous you know that's that's great well the Lords of 52nd Street we're on we have a Facebook page and no we have a website the Facebook page usually has more changes on it sure in the website us yeah and you know you can write to us there yeah or you can write to me on Facebook I have a Facebook page I have a fan page and a personal personal page yeah give more response on the personal page yeah I also am in another band called the slim kings the slim can we we do all original material you've had placements on TV oh yeah all the time and so there's a slim kings on Facebook too and we also have a whole website and then this little kids rock yeah look it's right the Drock puts instruments in the hands of kids in underprivileged schools yeah where the music curriculum has been taken out you know they feel that you can learn teach a kid one chord and yeah they could play 25 songs yeah it's a kid the next chord in the progression they can play 50 songs when I teach a kid the third quarter of the three chord progression they can play 150 songs yes and if you teach them what they want to know now they will eventually be interested in curious about like the classics and they'll want to go back and know where things came from and stuff like that so it's a great organization we do a gala every year last year we played with Smokey Robinson at night and people like that you know we believe every night here Brian Wilson's playwright we'll see how was that how is that well I tell you what we saw like you get a chill when you're doing it calmly no Wilson singing it you know one of the best yeah yeah it was great I can only imagine yeah well listen for this show you can find us on Facebook Twitter Instagram curtaincall 87 on Twitter and Instagram really appreciate the support I want to thank this guy again Liberty thank you you are the man I wish you all the best in in the future here of what's to come and is there anything else we could look forward to it meaning you released sending you any any any more records or anything else coming up well there's a new album out by this kid Jesse hit hinge yeah yeah plan that that's the latest thing yes yeah hook him up it's a really good album you sing it right to kid yeah and you know me and Richie just did some work for the government yeah nice public service thank you yeah so we're doing a lot of stuff like that yeah very good all right well thank you again and we'll see you guys soon very good [Music]

[Music] alright so hey everyone welcome to curtain call I&#39;m Kevin Curtin I&#39;m here today with a very special guest this man right here has one of the greatest drummers of all time having drummed with Billy Joel for 30 years and playing on some of the best records in music history it&#39;s truly an honor to be here with him today so without further ado I introduce you to the legendary Liberty DeVito good to see you keV lip thanks for being on the show so great let&#39;s get right into it you know I understand growing up in New York big Beatles fan big rascals fan what was it about the drums that got you hooked well I&#39;ll tell you what in later years after the success with Billy Joel and stuff like that I never knew quite why it was the drum set why the drums not a guitar and that&#39;s piano stuff like that so I asked my father I said why did you get me drums and he said because we didn&#39;t make prozac back then yeah so I guess that was a wild kid and he wanted something to calm me down and I guess the drums did it so you know I got asked yeah I just brought up the Beatles and I know years later you actually got to work with Paul right yes so can you tell me a little bit about that experience and how that came about well it was through so Ramone of crisis we got a produce to show most of the albums with Billy Joel yeah I guess see the Paul called him I wanted to see if Phil would want to produce a record with him yeah put a band together yeah so I got a call and they wouldn&#39;t tell me who it was with it and I had something very important to do that day and they said you gotta cancel it you gotta cancel it I said I can who is it and they kept saying we can&#39;t tell you we can&#39;t tell you so in a long run I actually cancelled it went to the studio and found out that it was Paul McCartney and when he walked in the room I the first one to walk in the room was Linda it was back to Hades right Linda walked in the room and I&#39;m thinking like what is Paul McCartney want to do with me I mean back he&#39;s a Beatle on nobody you know and so Linda walks in the room and the first thing she does is point at me and says I know who you are we&#39;ve been watching your videos what Paul McCartney&#39;s watching our videos it&#39;s insane so then Paul walks in and he walks over to me and I shake his hand nice to meet you and he went over to the next guy and I backed out of the control room and stood in the hallway and said okay calm down he&#39;s just a person he&#39;s a musician he&#39;s the musician he&#39;s a beetle sure so I had to calm down I have to leave your room to calm down yeah so finally comes in what you know can you take me through that session and kind of what uh well it was great because so we did two songs and the thing that happens when you work with an artist that you listen to on records you know all your life it happened with Stevie next to the voice that comes through the monitor or the headphones yeah it&#39;s so familiar and then you look up and the person is standing right there or sitting on the piano or playing it you know that that&#39;s amazing to me yeah you start giggling yeah I can only imagine he must have been just a kid in a candy shop at that point right yeah so can you take me back to the early days of gigging in Long Island and you know meeting Billy for the first time understand you know before you were working with him you were doing a lot of wedding gigs and a lot of bar gigs right so yeah I you know myself Russell Jabir&#39;s duck stag by oh and how he Emerson who all play on the turnstiles album yeah Doug got us and fans so well we had a band called toddler yeah Russell was writing all the material it was back in the 70s and we discovered reggae so we were playing reggae blues and stuff like that and we weren&#39;t making any money no money so what I had to do was was I had to figure out a way how to make some dough so I got this wedding gig and I&#39;m going to this gig my friend says I I set you up with a band it&#39;s gonna be great you&#39;re gonna sit in for the drummer he&#39;s not gonna make it tonight here borrow my tuxedo and go my hair really is long now and stuff like that and yeah I had played with Mitch Ryder already and done done that kind of thing but I had no money so I go to the gig and the sax player comes in and introduces himself and he he had slicked back hair who&#39;s smoking cigarettes drinking scotch much older than I was like yeah twice my age and the accordion player I don&#39;t know how he held up the accordion and we saw all there was a trumpet player so it was accordion Saxon from it that was it and me yeah and I&#39;m thinking my career&#39;s over what am I doing here you know my hair&#39;s down here great you tried that whole thing yeah the first thing that happened was the trumpet player turned around and looked at me and said the bride wants us to start with a merengue I went what the hell is my run again is that something you eat so long story short I ended up staying at the the was called Narragansett end for two and a half years and I learned more in that two and a half years about music you know cuz you got to play a lot of it I think music and stuff like that sure that when I finally did get with Billie and we went in the studio and people are amazed that the the roof - just the way you are which is a brush in the right hand and stick in the left hand right and they&#39;re like how did you come up with that it&#39;s like Oh Boston over is like that yeah so that that really paid off yeah so when you met Billy for the first time what was what do you remember about that interaction well the first time I met Billy I was playing in a top 40 band actually yeah Doug Billy Billy lived in California and was using studio musicians to record the album&#39;s and different guys to go on the road he told Doug stedmeyer one of the toys I want to move back to New York I want the same guys to play on my racket then go on the road with me and I want a New York style drummer and Billy said Doug said I know the guy you know and you know the guy so Billy came to see me play in this top 40 band it was a tabloid decent Bentley guys guitar bass and me yeah and he actually came up and sang feeling all right with the van like you know and the guys in the band kind of knew that okay he&#39;s gonna leave because he&#39;s gonna get this gig with Billy Joel yeah yeah and that&#39;s what happened then I had to go audition for Billy and play with them yeah so I learned all the songs on the on the piano man album and the streetlife serenade or album and we played all that stuff and he really liked what I did and then he said I got this new record that I&#39;m gonna do and let me run some songs by you and see what you come up with and he was amazed at how fast they came up with this stuff yeah but he didn&#39;t know for 25 years that Doug had slipped me a tape right new stuff right I knew what he was gonna play yeah yeah so which brings me to my next you know topic in question here we have the turnstiles album here which is really you know one of Billy&#39;s best and it&#39;s some of the best drumming from lib here and I just really want to go over a couple things on this first off what&#39;s your favorite memory of recording this album right here oh it was exciting because it was the first time playing with Billy and we actually did it with just me Doug and Billy in the studio interesting piano bass and drums that&#39;s it yeah so we were listening back and Billy said you know I can use guitar on this well we said we know guitar plays okay so eventually that&#39;s how all topper became Billy rails band right but you know I mean this I&#39;m just looking at you know we were actually listening to this album before we were here and you know just the start of it say goodbye to Hollywood you know you&#39;re channeling mr. Hal Blaine and say goodbye to Hollywood and I&#39;m wondering at the very end of that song I hear Billy yellow you know DeVito you know what are you doing is that what he&#39;s saying I say DeVito where you&#39;re going where are you going he&#39;s he was always dubbing a vocal part yeah the studio and I was sitting sitting there listening and when he got to that part I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and they left it in very New York yeah and any other interesting stories I mean I know the angry young man at some of the best drumming that I&#39;ve ever heard on record um is there anything else that was interesting from recording this yeah angry oh man the part that goes right yeah you can hear me playing a drum beat in the background yeah but mostly you hear this yes Billy we were listening back to it and Billy said I want I want a like galloping horse on and I want this and he started to play on his chest yeah I said you want that and he goes yeah I said you want exactly that we said yes so what we did was went out of the studio lays him across a bunch of chairs and I laid on his chest get out of here Wow that&#39;s a whoo Wow all right so you know I mean just real quick obviously you have New York state of mind summer Highland Falls which is you know one of the greatest songs of all time in my opinion one of Billy&#39;s best is and I understand the story behind that was you were dating someone at the time that was listening to Joni Mitchell right that&#39;s the filament yeah the beginning right and that&#39;s where you can help because the same drunk yeah right exactly so no I mean it&#39;s just you know if you if you&#39;re now familiar with turnstiles it&#39;s you know classic album one of the best and some of the best strumming from lip you know it&#39;s funny about this yeah record it&#39;s like this record only sold 50,000 copies right no but since the other element came out sold more but yeah oh this will put these thousand copies but through our touring career yeah we will always turn Styles heavy yeah like we always did some AHA Falls we always did know extent mine did Jamie man Miami 2017 right right no more songs from this album than any other oh yeah interesting so next up we have the classic 1977 the stranger album and we have on the back here with mr. Phil Ramone who produced the album we have Liberty here Doug rest in peace he&#39;s no longer with us anymore Ritchie in the middle and then Billy all the way over here listen this is not to get this bottle of wine here rest in peace which is all over with us and a bottle of wine above so what what do you remember about I mean I want to get into the album too but what do you remember about this classic photo and just the photo shoot from that day what do you remember about this well it was done in the macaroni factory something like that in yeah in New York City which isn&#39;t there anymore and I just remember we went down there to eat yeah and there was a photographer there anybody started taking pictures yeah just there&#39;s some great outtakes of that photo - yes we&#39;re pouring the Wow yeah so this this album again another classic and you know I really want to talk about a couple couple different songs but first scenes from an Italian restaurant yeah a lot of different changes in that song goes a lot of different places how long did you have to rehearse that and was that a you know when you recorded was it just one take the whole way through or what how did that go down that&#39;s all we were actually doing it on the road already before we were in the studio God but at the beginning we were just doing the brother and I report him yes thought the song was just to burden yeah and then he added the rest of it yeah all that kind of stuff yeah so we were doing it already on the road right who went in and recorded it just like that one yeah one true and do you remember was it a lot of tapes was it just a couple tapes couple of texts couple tapes done yes Wow unbelievable yes by the way I mean I know there&#39;s people out there that have heard it a million times but there&#39;s probably some people that maybe haven&#39;t heard if you haven&#39;t heard it go listen to it it&#39;s one of the greatest songs of all time um a couple other songs on here that I&#39;d like to talk about you were talking about just the way you are before yeah that&#39;s another another one you were doing on the road yeah it was sounded more like you are the sunshine of my life c1 this terrain it was more like that yeah and then you know phil was ramones was like no no no we&#39;re gonna come up with something different yeah yeah it&#39;s interesting yeah and and moving out anything do you remember anything about record and moving out I remember when I first heard it really I went to Billy&#39;s house yeah his apartment he was living in the city of this yeah and he sang me moving out but it sounded like this it sound like Anthony works in the grocery store saving his pennies for some day I said schmuck that&#39;s left in the rain but you&#39;ve done this backup oh man yeah and so but he loved the lyrics so much that he he changed the melody of it yeah and that was written because we used to travel a tour on the turnstiles album yeah we used to stay at like a Holiday Inn or something like that yeah and we&#39;d all go out and meet by the pool we were down south and Richie would play the part of Grandma and I would be the cousin that came out from the city and Billy lived on Long Island and the Holiday Inn became Billy&#39;s house on Long Island and we would say uh Richie be like oh it&#39;s wonderful what you did with the place and I&#39;m like whoa I love the pool out here is fantastic and Billy would be like you got to come in and see the basement I refinish we got a bar down and everything you know and then he&#39;d say when are you coming out when are you moving out of the city what are you and that idea came oh and and the boy goes dun dun dun Anna Billy always just to clear his throat by going yeah and I understand the the car at the end of that was recorded that was Doug&#39;s Corvette right folks go then I had a Panasonic tape recorder with a microphone with a wire on yeah we taped it to the rear bumper yeah and we just rode around yeah loved it loved it and only the good die young one of your you know classic you know just drunk I mean the drumming on that it&#39;s just fantastic how did you come up with that B was that something you came up with someone else kind of well his story is that it was written in a rage on yeah and you know I he says like faintly remember yes saying that but of course is to develop in the reggae closes you ever been to Jamaica is Jamaica train station in Queens right where the long lro to change trains down and but it&#39;s funny because that beginning let in the began to do good you get to ticket that and and the whole groove to it yeah you know you there&#39;s only certain amount of notes that a drummer can play a certain amount of things that drop a complaint uh-huh so we great drummers you know good drummers borrow great on the steel sure that whole thing the beginning lick and the groove to that is from Jimi Hendrix song called up from the skies okay are the axis both of em yeah you listen and it starts the same way yes but but you have you have this great way of making it your own especially like we were talking about before Sega by the Hollywood classic Hal blamed but you you kind of make it your own and it sounds like a liberty you know sound and obviously you had Bruce Botnick doing the mix on that has a nice full sound whereas you know Phil Spector you know records they were great but you know a little different you know so anyway you know getting back to Phil Ramone do you have a favorite memory of working with him in the studio I know he was a great guy he was so great we called him Uncle Phil he was he was the musician be the glass rang we trusted everything he said but he was also very funny we had a lot of love yes when we made those albums yeah one example is he had a brand new shirt on kenderson the runner shirt yeah we just saw have no what a pizza for lunch that day is it the pizza a little bit of sauce falls on short she wipes it off yeah takes another bite a little more sauce falls on the third time it happened he looked at the pizza and said ok you want the shirt take the shirt that&#39;s great what um what do you think was the greatest lesson you learned from him just being in the studio with them and just watching him do what he did I learned well the first thing that we did in the studio was moving out that was the first song we recorded yeah and Billy wanted us to go yeah Phil came up to me he goes no this is what people remember yeah remember right and that&#39;s how we&#39;re how cost they have a choice for and he he showed me that you know how important that is to make people regular people that don&#39;t know anything about music understand what you&#39;re doing that&#39;s great yeah he really wasn&#39;t one of a kind and yeah moving on here I want to get into you know we only have a certain amount of time today there&#39;s so much stuff to cover there&#39;s so many great albums so many great you know you know just things that Liberty contributed you talked about two records I did eleven lay it&#39;s it&#39;s amazing and I&#39;m sorry but we can&#39;t cover everything today but I do want to jump to one of my favorites which has Frankie Valli written all over it as we know uptown girl I&#39;m curious what do you remember about recording that that track and also you know the beginning drum fill in the bridge what were those your ideas was that Billy was that you know can you kind of the beginning drum fill it was just one of those things he counted it off I probably didn&#39;t do it the one before yeah but it just came out like that and somebody once told me they said you know what that drum fill is yeah it says your name it says yeah and the break yes with the trenches yeah I remember going after billion saying this is what the for season huh I love it long that force law because I love the for salt meat isn&#39;t class love them yeah it&#39;s great anything funny from that session I mean was there anything interesting or just uh I don&#39;t know well there&#39;s some things I can tell you about yes of course but I mean there&#39;s just there&#39;s a lot of harmonies in that song and you know oh yeah a lot of harmony set that came later though you know that came later yeah the studio guys came in and saying all that stuff yeah yeah but the the song when he originally played it for everybody it was the other way around it it was uh and went at that and then uptown girl something like that and yeah Phil one no it should go this way it&#39;s really interesting yeah very cool we all you know Billy wrote the songs but everybody in the studio at the time had a Paul contribution and the arranging of it yeah cool so you know moving on you know you&#39;ve you&#39;ve done what a lot of drummers and musicians hope to do you know in your career which is creating your own sound who are some of your favorite drummers okay first was of course well my mother loved Gene Krupa yeah so I really you know a lot of guys drummers like Buddy Rich I like you true but I think she was more of a solid music man not a soloist but even though he did solos but yeah more of a music man but what really got me playing drums was Ringo ring applause when the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show that was it I was hooked I was 13 years old yeah and you know that yeah but because they were from England and they like had straight hair with bangs and everything I then I was a tie and then my hair curled up ins up I really couldn&#39;t relate until the Young Rascals came out he nothing I was really that were Italian than that yeah and yeah and dandy know they know he&#39;s not a Ringo off the stool for oh yeah yeah yeah and then from that went on to Mitch Mitchell Ginger Baker and one of my favorite drummers of all times is Jim Capaldi from traffic oh I love Jim Kabal yes a lot of traffic influence and Billy&#39;s songs like you know the traffic was always sure there&#39;s so still oh yeah you know oh yeah I&#39;m guessing you like hell Blaine to Lyon who does you know I was disappointed when I found out that how bland was eight of my favorite dramas isn&#39;t that I mean his story is unbelievable you know I uh two years ago at the damn show I see over there he came up I played with Ronnie Spector we did a show all night and I had and how came up and with me played be my  wow that&#39;s great that must have been you know he doesn&#39;t have the power that he used to have right but when he started that boom boom boom yeah it was like oh that&#39;s it right yeah and I mean all the stuff you did with the Beach Boys I mean it&#39;s just unbelievable you know some of the greatest yeah so you know you&#39;ve toured all over the world with Billy you know and everywhere in between do you have a favorite venue or favorite show that you did well going to going to Havana Cuba in in 79 yeah was very exciting that&#39;s great we went over 150 other musicians yeah you know that was great but going in the Soviet Union was a major unbelievable how many people were there like 250,000 we played three days in Moscow three days in Leningrad yeah doesn&#39;t exist behind that wall we&#39;re a line that wall I mean what was that like for you though tell me and well we did a couple of gigs in England first yeah before we went over to warm-up and so we had a couple days off and I&#39;m you know going around they said get some food bring things put things in your suitcase that you can eat because you might not want to eat when you see there yeah yeah so I got yeah then I&#39;m walking around I&#39;m thinking okay I&#39;m getting ready to go to what I perceived to be the enemy because I used to have to hide under the desk kids you&#39;re gonna kill us you know and I&#39;m thinking I&#39;m going on Lufthansa which was World War two okay we beat the Germans alright yeah I&#39;m going behind this wall that they don&#39;t let people out right and my name is Liberty oh my god what am i doing that&#39;s great butters yeah what a warm welcome yeah I mean I said I stood on the land of the Soviet Union and looked up at the sky and I thought that&#39;s the same sky that&#39;s over us and yeah it&#39;s government&#39;s that fight not the people right people right so what I got asked what&#39;s the nicest compliment you&#39;ve ever received from either appear or a music legend the nicest compliment I have ever received yeah I&#39;d like to sleep with you tonight some pretty girl says no I got a few of them I mean stayin tapped me on the shoulder once they said you&#39;re a great drummer why I said thank you because no no you&#39;re a great drummer yeah and well you know I just did a film a film a documentary called a hired gun check that out by the way if you haven&#39;t seen it it&#39;s on Netflix check it out and when Kenny Aronoff says Billy Joel sound like Billy Joel of course of liberating to me though you know it&#39;s like you really don&#39;t think about that attachment yeah or how people actually listen to the songs you know what the real music lovers do you know the people that know that yeah yeah oh absolutely oh yeah absolutely absolutely so what um what is a song you wished you drummed on that you didn&#39;t drama oh Jesus so many oh maybe a couple maybe a couple I wish I drunk on Strawberry Fields yeah oh you know actually uh when we did the curtain the song Laura mm-hmm you know that&#39;s at home was tip of the hat to the Beatles but Laura sometimes I close my eyes in the solo section and I think is that the Beatles there&#39;s at us yes you want to sound so much like them right yeah yeah let me ask you um this is a good one I think it&#39;s a good one you tell me if you were to have a drum off with anyone dead or alive who would you pay my drummer playing again you drumming off against another drummer dead or alive I&#39;d be better on a jerk-off come on if you have two drums and higher gun they forced me to do this drum solo yeah I never did the drum solo all right what about this via to play with someone else you know maybe maybe not a drum off but just playing with someone else dead or alive that you wish you would have played well I Labour&#39;s Hal already yeah yeah I mean those guys were great and the guys you know the guys that played on the four seasons records yeah the guys that played with beyond those guys yeah yeah got it so you know let&#39;s let&#39;s move on here advice for today&#39;s generation of musicians and drummers maybe up-and-coming what&#39;s what&#39;s the advice from from the master here master fader no it was different back when boost with Billy you know there was a NR people that came to the clubs that you played and they will check out the bands and and they would say you know it be that come to my office on Monday we&#39;re gonna sign you a record deal yeah and they would do that it would happen that&#39;s the way it happened today it is so difficult to get a record deal you know they won just to hear they want to hear a finished record yeah I mean mixed they want everything else yeah everything and then they do the 360 yeah everything right you know so unless you have the passion you forget it yeah the passion is the only thing that drives you yeah I still love to play and that&#39;s why we&#39;re doing what we do yeah I mean believe me you have to be there Jai I mean have you done it for so long and Richie and Russell tell you the same thing yeah it hurts but I love to do it so yeah well god bless and you look great I mean you know thanks so let me ask you you know I was poking around on your Instagram and we&#39;re coming up to the you know second year it&#39;s hard to believe of princes passing and I saw that you had a story on there back in 83 you were with Stephen I should be receiving it yeah so can you tell me that story what was going on there he came to see the show it was at the Meadowlands I think yeah or something like that anyway he came to see the show and he was sitting in one of the rooms yeah and you couldn&#39;t go up to him yeah shake his head but I had my daughter my oldest daughter now is 37 yeah it was like four years old yeah and he just kept making faces at him yeah yeah so that was kind of weird like Prince miss is that my daughter you know but I was also very good friends with his last drummer John John black law was passed away very sad you know and yeah three stories about Prince and probably bet it turns out like the modern drama cover Prince allowed them to use image of him and interesting yeah so he what he was taught you know yeah he was just unbelievable yeah all right so I wanna I want to have people know where they can find you on social media but also where they can check out the Lords of 52nd Street which is the group that you&#39;re touring with right now yes so and and also if you want to talk about your charity to the little kids raucous you know that&#39;s that&#39;s great well the Lords of 52nd Street we&#39;re on we have a Facebook page and no we have a website the Facebook page usually has more changes on it sure in the website us yeah and you know you can write to us there yeah or you can write to me on Facebook I have a Facebook page I have a fan page and a personal personal page yeah give more response on the personal page yeah I also am in another band called the slim kings the slim can we we do all original material you&#39;ve had placements on TV oh yeah all the time and so there&#39;s a slim kings on Facebook too and we also have a whole website and then this little kids rock yeah look it&#39;s right the Drock puts instruments in the hands of kids in underprivileged schools yeah where the music curriculum has been taken out you know they feel that you can learn teach a kid one chord and yeah they could play 25 songs yeah it&#39;s a kid the next chord in the progression they can play 50 songs when I teach a kid the third quarter of the three chord progression they can play 150 songs yes and if you teach them what they want to know now they will eventually be interested in curious about like the classics and they&#39;ll want to go back and know where things came from and stuff like that so it&#39;s a great organization we do a gala every year last year we played with Smokey Robinson at night and people like that you know we believe every night here Brian Wilson&#39;s playwright we&#39;ll see how was that how is that well I tell you what we saw like you get a chill when you&#39;re doing it calmly no Wilson singing it you know one of the best yeah yeah it was great I can only imagine yeah well listen for this show you can find us on Facebook Twitter Instagram curtaincall 87 on Twitter and Instagram really appreciate the support I want to thank this guy again Liberty thank you you are the man I wish you all the best in in the future here of what&#39;s to come and is there anything else we could look forward to it meaning you released sending you any any any more records or anything else coming up well there&#39;s a new album out by this kid Jesse hit hinge yeah yeah plan that that&#39;s the latest thing yes yeah hook him up it&#39;s a really good album you sing it right to kid yeah and you know me and Richie just did some work for the government yeah nice public service thank you yeah so we&#39;re doing a lot of stuff like that yeah very good all right well thank you again and we&#39;ll see you guys soon very good [Music]

Transcript for:Curtain Call with Kevin Curtain and Liberty DeVito

Transcript for:
Curtain Call with Kevin Curtain and Liberty DeVito