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Ralph Johnson was in the KUNV studios talking jazz, how he got out from behind the drums and how he was destined to be in Earth Wind and Fire.
Highlights and extended interviews from 91.5 Jazz and More's morning show.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
got a special guest in the studio this morning. His name is Ralph Johnson and he is a percussionist. He's a frontman with Earth, Wind and Fire. And you've done a lot of stuff. Hi, Ralph.
Unknown Speaker 0:11
Well, good morning. And how are you?
Unknown Speaker 0:13
I'm great, man. Glad to be here. Glad to have you with me.
Unknown Speaker 0:16
Well, I'm glad to be here too. So you know,
Unknown Speaker 0:18
tell me about your beginning. Well, it
Unknown Speaker 0:21
actually started when Christmas. No, no, seriously. started when Christmas, I woke up and it was a snare drum under the Christmas tree. Yeah. And I was like, wow, Santa Claus, man, and he did the thing. So I started taking drum lessons at the age of eight years old, okay, and just kept going, man, you know, started forming little bands in the neighborhood. And, you know, junior high school, I was in the band in high school, and then, you know, it just kept going and going and going. And in 19, December of 1971, I auditioned for Earth, Wind and Fire. And the rest is history. Well, so they say. So, yeah, it turned out pretty cool. If you had told me that. I would be in a band for 50 years, I'd say like, Oh, come on, man. Really? That's great. You know, but it's been, it's really been quite an adventure. It's been a learning experience, you know, highly educational.
Unknown Speaker 1:29
And when you started with Earth, Wind and Fire, Maurice was still involved.
Unknown Speaker 1:33
Absolutely. He but this was his whole concept was and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He left Ramsey Lewis, he was at Ramsey Lewis, his drummer and came out west, you know, left Chicago came out west. There was a hole actually, it was a whole nother Earth Wind and Fire. And they had cut two albums, a Warner Brothers, but they didn't really do anything. And quite honestly, Warner Brothers didn't really know how to market black music.
Unknown Speaker 2:03
I'm from Chicago. Okay. And Maurice was working sessions with my uncle who plays guitar, and some of my other relatives that are ones a percussionist. And they all told him he was crazy to move to LA and start a band.
Unknown Speaker 2:17
Well, sometimes crazy, pays off crazy works, you know, and he pulled it off. And then in 72, we did an audition for Clive Davis, who was then the president of Columbia Records. Matter of fact, Claude, we were just in New York about a month and a half ago celebrating Clive's 90th birthday. That's wonderful. And we are definitely one of his favorite groups in law.
Unknown Speaker 2:44
He was definitely an innovator in the record row.
Unknown Speaker 2:46
There's no doubt about it. brilliant man. No doubt about it.
Unknown Speaker 2:49
Oh, he's kind of a visionary and just knew what he was doing. He had the sixth sense. Yeah. And a passion for it. See, that's what sets him apart is the passion.
Unknown Speaker 2:58
Yeah. And he's still in the office every day. Right now. Still in the office every day. Wonderful, you know, and so it worked out man. And Ty was very hands on he loved us. We had the right promotion and marketing team. And you know, by 1975, we had our first hit shining star and it just kept going from there, you know, so, here we are. 50 years later, still doing what we do still loving it. I don't know what to say. I can well, I do know what to say I've been very blessed.
Unknown Speaker 3:29
And your your love of jazz is obvious. Oh, I love it when especially when you do the show for us on Saturdays. Well, thank you epicentre. 6.7, the finest in jazz. And more. I agree with you 100%. Are
Unknown Speaker 3:43
you ready to go to jazz scape?
Unknown Speaker 3:45
Yes, I am. Okay. All right. But anyway, I'm kind of a disciple of people like we're a hands. Yeah. Elvin Jones. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 3:56
Keep naming them.
Unknown Speaker 3:57
I had a Tony Williams funny thing happened to me. I had always wanted to figure out Elvin Jones. I never could was always above me. Yes. And I had a date with a girl that I really wanted to go out with. And I took her to Mr. Kelly's in Chicago. I Yeah. Right. And that was the night that God gave me the epiphany. And I discovered what Elvin was doing. And I ignored her so completely that she left.
Unknown Speaker 4:21
Well, I can see how that could happen. I have a great Tony Williams story. Go
Unknown Speaker 4:25
ahead. Because Tony is one of my
Unknown Speaker 4:26
idols. Oh, man. You know, Tony had a great teacher in Boston, Alan Dawson at the Berklee School of Music. And so Tony comes in to LA is playing a very famous jazz spot. Then on quango Boulevard called Catalinas, which is now on Sunset Boulevard. And so I tell my students that man tonight I'm gonna take you to see a tremor this is just going to kill you. And now I had heard about Tony but I had never seen him alive. So we go down to the club and we catch this that. And when Tony Williams finished playing all that stuff, I went into a depression. And both my student and I walked off the club. And on the drive back home, we were totally silent. I don't think I touched my drums for two weeks because I because the question was, well, if Tony is playing all that, what are you doing? You know, so? Nah, man, Tony Williams. Oh, yeah, my goodness. Did you ever get a chance to see?
Unknown Speaker 5:32
Yes, I did. In fact, I went to a clinic that he did. Oh, and Tony, these things that he was 17 when Miles hired him. That's right. And he was also the only drummer that Miles gave total freedom to and you hear it? You hear it? One of my favorite interviews with Miles Davis is when they asked him about Tony Williams. And he said, Tony is my music.
Unknown Speaker 5:53
Whoa, that's a deep statement for miles really deep. You know? Yeah, yeah, man. No. So yeah, man. That was Tony Williams.
Unknown Speaker 6:01
You know, he was a phenomenon and a great composer. Yes. And a great bandleader. Yes. Yes. And knew how to put people together just the right way.
Unknown Speaker 6:10
Well, you know what, and speaking of putting people together, that's what Maurice had goalless. Because we were all drafted. I mean, you know, when I did that audition, it was just myself verdine And the guitar player at that time, Michael Biel. Just three of us jamman. And when the jam session was over, routine, comma, reason reason why did you think man what you can eat and produce? Like, no, it's the cat we want to get. We wanted a band, you know, so it just kind of went on from there.
Unknown Speaker 6:48
Now, did you start as the drummer with the band? Yes. Okay. Yeah. How'd you get out front?
Unknown Speaker 6:53
Amen. It's a great story. We were filming. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band BGs and Aerosmith. And on and on and on. I think Tina Turner was in there. And we had covered because every band that was in the movie was covering a tune we covered got to get you into my life, which is one of those tracks I played on. And but at the time, we had two drummers, the other drummer was Freddie white. Okay, so we're both in the back. They're getting ready to shoot the scene. And it's Maurice and Phil out front. And George phase on our choreographer, choreographer who was coming off the Broadway play, The
Unknown Speaker 7:40
Wiz was looking at the shot. And he said, Ralph, come down here, here, get off the drums, come down here, stand right here, sing with Maurice.
Unknown Speaker 7:54
And I was like, what? You know, and from that point forward, I was never able to get back into Trump's they wanted me out front. Okay. And so I said, Okay, well, that's, you know, that's what it is. And that's what it is. But I wanted to go back to something because I said I was drafted, please do. I have one of the best Vietnam stories ever. Okay. And I never went to the service. So in 72, I get a draft notice Selective Service. I'm one a. Now if you were one, A, you were going, there was no, I went through the whole process and went down to the induction center, did the physical, blah, blah, blah, I was on my way out of here. And so, as a side note, this is how I know that God wanted me to do Earth, Wind and Fire. So I'm like, Vietnam Come on. So but then I get a second letter from the Selective Service. It says, You are now one ah, that designation means you are not subject to processing for induction. And I could not figure out how it changed. But I found out that, um, during the time that I was drafted, there was supposed to be a 90 day moratorium. There was supposed to be no drafting, but they kept drafting. So six guys took the Selective Service to court and won the case based on that. And 10,000 of us got off. I was in at 10,000. Well, that's great. That's great story. Man. I say absolute truth. Because otherwise I was I was out of here.
Unknown Speaker 9:43
Well, I remember how heavy it was when I had to go register. Yeah, because I was in that same era and but they classified me one age from the start.
Unknown Speaker 9:53
Whoa. Not too many people know about that classification. I
Unknown Speaker 9:57
know. Because the five and the five following year, my number in the lottery came up number three. And unlike Boy, am I glad I didn't get a one a
Unknown Speaker 10:08
wow. Yeah, I was I started out one eight with one. Ah, all right, you know.
Unknown Speaker 10:13
So now you guys are still doing your thing. You're still traveling, you're stronger than ever heard you at the Venetian last year. And it is stronger than
Unknown Speaker 10:21
ever a very successful engagement at the Venetian. We're at the Venetian. And my agent slash manager, Vince verser, who's sitting to my left, causing me says, Amen. It's a 24 hour jazz station here. You should come over and do an interview and put together a playlist to now I don't know, events had already talked to them. Or if he just after I said, Yes. Went and say, Hey, man, guess who I got? I don't know how that works. I'll have to talk with Vince about that. But anyway, I said, Yeah, I'd love to, I'd love to do an interview, you know. And I came over. And then next thing I knew I was being asked to do two hours on Saturday from six to eight. And I was like, what? Because I was already involved with a store, an internet station. This is so funny. And in a station here out of Vegas. And it's so funny, because I would call on Saturdays. And I would say so how are we doing the numbers? And they he would he would say this man, man, Ralph, you had 100 listeners? I was like, wow, okay. 100 listeners. So I'm not quite sure what the listenership here is here for this station at that moment when I come on, but it's got to be more than 100 I can guarantee
Unknown Speaker 11:45
it's more than all right. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 11:47
So I'm happy. Yeah, we're really
Unknown Speaker 11:49
happy to have you. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. It's always good for me to sit and talk with not only somebody in the industry, but another percussionist. Amen. You know, because we have something different going we got a thing we got a brotherhood that nobody else has. No, and that's a good thing. They can't get to it. And I want to thank you for spending some time with me.
Unknown Speaker 12:07
Oh, man, no problem, man, you know, anytime and well Adams gonna
Unknown Speaker 12:11
tell you anytime you want to come in. You're welcome in my in my studio.
Unknown Speaker 12:15
Okay. Well, I do appreciate that.
Unknown Speaker 12:17
Thank you, Ralph. And we've been with Ralph Johnson. I want to thank all of you for listening this morning. And stay with us and hang out groove with us at 91.5 Jazz and more.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai