Guitarist G.E. Smith Talks His Career, SNL and Bowie
Recently, G.E. Smith came to Sarasota for an intimate show at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre’s Music Mondays. Time was tight, so we arranged to interview G.E. from his home in Long Island, NY. G.E. and his wife, songwriter, singer and author Taylor Barton have been friends for many years with Sarasota resident Barry Weisblatt. Barry is the owner of WhiteLeaf Events who brought Smith to McCurdy’s and has teamed up with Les McCurdy for these very special Music Mondays!
We asked G.E. about his amazing career as a guitarist and sideman to some of music’s biggest names and events such as Live Aid, Farm Aid, working on Saturday Night Live and on some of the biggest rock tours. He was open, friendly and humble about his place in music.
SP: Thanks for taking the time to do this.
GE: No problem, not often I do an interview after the show, but I had to get as soon as the show was over. I was driving back to Palm Beach.
SP: Enjoyed your interview with Les McCurdy at the show. I wanted to hit you up more about music. I want to start talking about working with Daryl Hall and John Oates from 1979-1985. You did lots of good stuff with them.
GE: The interview with Les was fun. Yea, lots of good stuff. We were all young, When I joined them, they had had “Sara Smile” and “Rich Girl” as hits in the mid 70’s. Then things kinda slowed down. When I joined them, things were pretty quiet, and they were making a record. I played on the record and then we went on the road. We were playin’ joints, not big places. I was getting $200.00 a week, $100 to play guitar and $100 to drive one of the station wagons. Pretty quickly that changed, and it went right up to the big time. Amazing to be a part of that.
SP: What was your experience playing LIVE AID with the band, Mick Jagger and Tina Turner?
GE: As you can imagine, it was fantastic to be there with those people and do that. I already knew Mick a little, I had been working with him on some stuff. The whole experience to be there, I remember standing on the side stage and watching Led Zeppelin and some of the other people who played. It was lucky! I have always been lucky to be a part of these things.
SP: In 1985, right before Live Aid, Hall and Oates played the Fourth of July concert at Liberty State Park. Over 60,000 in attendance and it was on HBO, I think. You can see The Liberty Concert on www.youtube.com What was that like?
GE: It was really fun, the NYPD flew us over in one of their helicopters and took us up and out of Manhattan through the tops of buildings, swooping in on Liberty Island. That was a very exciting thing, and we had a good time. I thought we sounded pretty good that day. Was there HBO back then? (laughs)
SP: Did you ever participate in Farm Aid?
GE: Yes, I did the first one with Daryl solo. All those things were in 1985! LIVE AID, Liberty and Farm Aid. All in that summer, and we did “Live at the Apollo” with the Temptations. After all that, Daryl and John were exhausted. We had been on the road for pretty much six years continuously. You are in the studio making records or on the road for pretty much 9 months out of the year and they were tired and took some time off.
SP: That was when you went over to Saturday Night Live right?
GE: Right, I had no idea that was going to happen! I was just lucky again. Thought I was going to take some time off and got that call. I brought T-Bone with me. We used to call his musical prowess “Professor T-Bone’s College of Musical Knowledge” (laughing.) He was a fantastic musician – just amazing. Me, I am just an old bar band guitar player, but T-Bone was a real musician. He could play all kinds of instruments; he really knew what he was talking about. Stevie Ray Vaughn was the ultimate bar band guitar player, I am in there somewhere, not at his level by any means. That’s where I came from, I came from the bars. They say you start in the bars, you end in the bars, it’s where you go in the middle that counts!
SP: I must ask you about working with the great David Bowie.
GE: Right, I was at a party in Manhattan. David was also there and had a woman named Coco who was always with him, was like his personal assistant. Back then, I had my hair cut very short like a marine, while everyone had long hair. She said David wants to know if you want to be in his video. I said, “Of course, I would love to be in a David Bowie video, should I bring my guitar?” Oh, you’re a guitar player, and she talks to David, and she tells me to bring my guitar and I can play the guitar player in the video. The song was “Ashes to Ashes.” David was living in NYC, so we got to be friends and would go out and do stuff. He was a nice guy. We would go out to dinner and the theater. We went out to L.A. to do the Carson show. The last one that was an hour & a half. They made it an hour after that. So, we were on with Richard Pryor! I got to meet Pryor and Carson which was fun, since I used to watch Carson with my dad when I was growing up so that was fun. It was hysterical to be there after watching it for so long on TV. David was fun to be with and a very intelligent guy.
SP: We are lucky in Sarasota to have a great musical community. How was it for you to work with Mike, RJ, Garrett and Berry? Did you have time to rehearse?
GE: You guys are so lucky in Sarasota! We played that afternoon and did sound check. We were playing blues and blues is sort of a language if you know it, then you can participate in it. Those guys are all really good players and if you listen to what other people are playing, there are only 12 notes.
SP: Feedback was that the show was pretty good on social media. People loved the show. Have you been to Sarasota before?
GE: It was a really nice audience. I went through Sarasota a long time ago but don’t remember who I was playing with.
SP: What was it like being the musical director for a Kennedy Center Honors show?
GE: That was really interesting. The Kennedy Center is a beautiful room, they had a good budget, so I was able to hire really good musicians, I brought the SNL guys as I remember. The most interesting thing for me was when they honored Chuck Berry. For a guitar player, that is a challenge. Chuck played some iconic foundational rock & roll guitar. He’s the guy who invented it! So, I had to go back and learn those records right. Every guitar player can do some kind of Chuck Berry thing or intro, but to really go back and learn them correct, I had to sit down and do it. It was a nice challenge and a lot of fun and it seemed to go well.
SP: On SNL, as musical director were there any standout musicians you played with?
GE: I joined the show in ‘85 and by ‘87 it was popular again as it goes in cycles. I went to Lorne Michaels and said, “If there is a good guitar player in town, let’s invite him on but not tell anyone.” No TV Guide or press, the camera will just come up to them on the show. I started doing that and we had everyone from Buddy Guy, David Gilmore, Eddie Van Halen and Johnny Winter and people like that. Now that was a lot of fun for me as a guitar player to play with those guys and feature them, that was cool. Got to play with Al Green twice! He gave me a real nice compliment, “I haven’t heard anyone play like that in a long time” and said “Wow.”
SP: Do you have a favorite guitarist who influenced you?
GE: Yes, Ry Cooder. I have giant respect for his playing. No one plays like him. He is really a master of the instrument. All the normal people you would think of, Hendrix, Clapton but I love the blues players like Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters, they were big influences. American popular music came from the blues.
SP: I would like to ask you about meeting your wife, Taylor Barton. How do you work in your two careers?
GE: We have been together 34 years now! She is a really good songwriter and writes books. She has a new book just about to come out. I met her on Saturday Night Live. She was working as a dancer on the show. We used to live in the city and had a house on Long Island but when our daughter got older, she wanted to move out to Long Island, so we did. We do shows together occasionally.
SP: You do gigs mainly in the Northeast right?
GE: I play with a guitar player named Jim Weider who replaced Robbie Robertson when he left The Band and Jim played with Levon and the guys while they were around. We have this band called Masters of the Telecaster. Mainly play in New York, Connecticut and around. The last extensive tour I did was with Roger Waters and The Wall in 2016, all around the world! It was incredible because it wasn’t a band, it was a theatrical production. We had to be in a certain place on stage and had clothes you wore, costume change in the middle of the show for everybody. Some of his musicians had been with him for 30 years and were really good. It was quite a spectacle, amazing. Waters is brilliant at putting that stuff together.
SP: After thirty something years you went to Daryl’s House for the T-Bone Memorial with Daryl and John. That version of The Band’s song “The Weight” is my favorite! Link to the song HERE. Thanks for your time GE!
GE: T-Bone was my great friend! Thank you, that is nice of you to say, nice to talk to you.
The next Music Monday is March 25th with saxophonist Bill Evans! Who do Miles Davis, Gregg Allman, Herbie Hancock, Willie Nelson and Mick Jagger have in common? Bill Evans that’s who! Don’t miss out! For info and tickets are at www.mccurdyscomedy.com
Vicky Sullivan Photos