Posted July 2, 2002
ROBERT
GILLESPIE: A TALK WITH
POWERTRANE'S MOTOR CITY
GUITAR ACE
INTERVIEW: KEN SHIMAMOTO
POWERTRANE PICTURES: MELISSA LE FURGE
(all others courtesy of Motor City
Music)
Detroit is definitely a city known for its fiery guitar slingers and explosive
frontmen. And there isn't another axeman in the Motor City who's worked with
more top-flight Detroit frontmen than Robert Gillespie, a 30-year veteran of
the rock'n'roll wars.
Those of us lucky enough to catch Scott Morgan's Powertrane with Deniz Tek and
Ron Asheton on their recent swing through the northern United States and Canada
(an operational definition of nirvana for fans of Detroit Rock Action) got to
hear Robert going head-to-head with the Iceman on Morgan classics like "Earthy"
and "Dangerous," taking Radio Birdman's "Hanging On" much
farther than Chris Masuak ever did, and making his mark with a tour-de-force
solo on a song called "Taboo" that he co-wrote with Rob Tyner. (You
can hear Robert's work with Rob on the "Do It!" MC5 bootleg, as well
as the "Rock and Roll People" set that Mike Leshkevich released on
his Motor City Music label
in 1999.)
In 1978, Robert teamed up with the legendary but obscure Johnny Angelos (ex-Pink
Peech Mob, Mighty Quick, and Amboy Dukes) to co-lead the Torpedos, who played
a punk-tinged brand of straight-ahead rock'n'roll at a time when few others
were attempting to conquer Clubland with original material. (Motor City Music
has also released "No Refills," a compilation of studio and live Torpedos
material.) Robert's association with the ORIGINAL soulful Detroit rocker, Mitch
Ryder, dates back 20 years and includes a stint in Mitch's band during a period
when the Detroit Wheels' monstrous drummer, Johnny "Bee" Badanjek,
had returned to the lineup after his seventies band the Rockets folded. Robert
appeared on Mitch's albums "In the China Shop" and "Red Blood,
White Mink."
In the early '90s, Robert spent three years with the Motor City Rockers. He
also rejoined Mitch Ryder's band and began an association with ex-Rationals/Sonic's
Rendezvous Band blue-eyed soul brother supreme Scott Morgan, playing together
in the cover band Motor Jam. Robert was tapped to add the sting to Scott's 2000
single "Satisfier" (included on the "Medium Rare 1970-2000"
compilation), and in 2001, started performing regularly with Scott in Powertrane,
along with the young rhythm section of Chris "Box" Taylor (also guitarist
for Mazinga) on bass and Andy Frost (ex-High Rollers and spiritual heir to Scott
Asheton).
Robert's a CLASSIC rock guitarist. By that I DON'T mean that he plays in the
style of the 12 or 13 bands rotated by corporate "Classic Rock"-formatted
radio. Rather, he's a player who understands and has mastered what USED TO be
the Fundamentals - tone, touch, attack, ideas. His sound - blues-drenched, vibrato-laden,
with a gorgeous, harmonic-rich tone - is the perfect vehicle for his melodic
ideas, which are impeccable. (As Real O Mind Records honcho Geoff Ginsberg put
it, "I called Robert to make the "Satisfier" session because
he ALWAYS knows EXACTLY what to play.") He's won so many music awards in
Detroit that they've retired his number. He keeps the fire of Detroit rock guitar
burning brightly, and passes on the torch to younger players through his work
as a guitar teacher. Robert joined us at the Bar from his home in Detroit on
May 3, 2002.
K: First of all, congratulations on the recent set of dates with Powertrane.
All of the reports I've read were ecstatic, and I was lucky enough to see the
shows in Cleveland and Ann Arbor. What'd I miss in Toronto, New York and Philly?
R: Yes, we did some great shows and they got better each time we played. NYC
was the biggest and the craziest, fans jumped onstage - Pete Marshall (from
Iggy's band) sang on some Stooges stuff. Philly was also real cool, I never
saw so many young pretty girls and guys with video cameras!
K: I heard you had to leave Mitch Ryder's gig 15 minutes into the set to make
it to the Khyber the Philly. Was Mitch cool with that?
R: Well, I only missed the last two songs, Mitch was O.K. with it, we went on
a little late because of some equipment problems.
K; When did you start playing guitar, and what inspired you to?
R: I got my first guitar at around eight-years-old from my grandmother. She
tuned it to an open chord, layed it down on my lap and I played it with a butter
knife, Hawaiian bottleneck style, because I was too little to hold it up. My
grandparents were very musical southern folk and listened to Chet Atkins, Boots
Randolph, Floyd Kramer, etc. Grandpa played fiddle and mandolin and Grandma
played piano and organ. Then when I was 10 in ' 64, I saw the Beatles and that
changed my life!
K: It must have been great coming up as a guitar player in Detroit in the'60s,
with so many great players. Talk a bit about your early influences.
R:Yes, it was great, there was so much music here - the ballrooms, clubs, concerts.
I remember hearing Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels on the radio, along with
the Rationals, they were the biggest local bands, then the Amboy Dukes. In 1968
when I was 14, my first concert was the Cream on their farewell tour at Olympia
Stadium. I also witnessed the MC5 that Thanksgiving at the Crows Nest East,
they blew me away!
K: What were your earliest band experiences?
R: I joined my first band when I was 12, we played in the basement and the garage,
then finally backyard parties. By the time I was in high school, I became a
really serious musician and began writing songs and hooked up with Jimmy Marinos
and Mike Skill and had a band called Albatross after the Fleetwood Mac song.
After high school, I was in a band called Limousine and we did a single, "You
Got The Power," about the 18-year-old right-to-vote and it got some airplay
locally.
K:
How did you start working with Rob Tyner?
R: I first met Rob at the Red Carpet in Detroit at a Rockets gig, we sat in
with them together and exchanged numbers, that was early '76. We started hanging
out and writing songs and decided to put a band together.
K: What was Rob like to work with?
R: Rob was really great, I'd never met anyone so talented and such a powerful
singer.
K: Tell us a little about the controversy when Rob billed you guys as the
MC5.
R: Well, Ken, I asked Rob what we should call the band and he said, "We
should call it MC5." I figured he knew what he was doing. Rob thought he
had the right to do so because Wayne and Fred toured Europe without him and
called it the MC5, and when Wayne got booked out of town with his band, Kramer's
Kreemers, it was as the MC5.
I'll never forget playing Ypsilanti at the Underground and Ron Asheton getting
into it with Tyner; "What are you doing? What's wrong with you?" Ron
said, "You can't do this." Well, we did it. Brass Ring started managing
us and putting on all their big arena shows with Alice Cooper, Rush, Blue Oyster
Cult, Cheap Trick, Cars...we did some big gigs.
K: From the Kramer Theater show that Motor City Music released as "Rock
and Roll People," it's easy to hear how hot and exciting that version of
the Tyner band was, and the song "Taboo" that you co-wrote with Rob
was one of the highlights of the recent Powertrane gigs. How much original material
did that Tyner band have?
R: Tyner and I wrote about a dozen songs, all of them really great; we recorded
some as well. I would like to put that stuff out one day...it's real powerful!!
K: Why didn't the Rob Tyner Band break outside of Michigan?
R: Because we didn't get a record deal. We did some demos for Atlantic
and Brass Ring tried some others, but they passed. It was the wrong time for
hard rock, it was New Wave happening then, we were victims of timing.
K: How'd that band come to an end, and how'd the Torpedos get started?
R: After about two years I just felt like it was over, I had a great time working
with Rob but I felt like it wasn't growing.
K: For those of us who missed out, talk a bit about Johnny Angelos.
R: I knew Johnny from years before when he was with the Gold Brothers and Larry
Carsman, their guitarist was my teacher and had me come down and sit in at the
Red Roach on Plum St. That was '69, then I saw him singing with Ted Nugent and
the Amboy Dukes in '71, he was like Rod Stewart only better, he had the Detroit
edge.
K: What was it like trying to gig in late '70s Detroit playing original music?
R: The Torpedos were it then, we started out playing at Bookies for $25, then
by the end we were drawing three or four hundred people at $4 a head, making
money and selling records. Detroit had lots of clubs then and we played every
week.
K: Did you guys finance your own recordings?
R: Yes, we recorded it at Fiddler's Music in Detroit and Brian Williams put
it out on his label. Four Winds.
K:
How'd you get started playing with Mitch Ryder?
R: I met Mitch the first time while I was with Tyner...late'77...he was just
then forming his new band. Mitch came and saw us play and wanted me and the
drummer Ralph Serafino to join him then...we were already established and gigging
with Tyner and turned him down.
In early '83 I heard "When You Were Mine" on the radio and went crazy,
I loved it! Then I heard he was looking for a guitar player and went more crazy!
Then I simply had to have the gig. I went down and auditioned and I guess I
was the best man for the job. I knew about open tunings and capos and learned
every song on his new record that he'd done with Mellencamp and his guitar player.
I think a lot of people told Mitch he should get me.
K: I've heard live audience recordings by that band when Johnny Bee was back
on traps - that band was so hot it was SCARY. How'd you like playing with Bee?
R: I love Bee, we were really tight, we played together six years. I really
miss him, he is the most consistent drummer I've ever played with.
K: Mitch has a whole different career in Europe than he does here in the States.
How do the shows he plays over there differ from the ones here?
R: Well, in Europe, Mitch doesn't have to play "Jenny Take A Ride"
and "Devil With A Blue Dress;" they only know him from [his] 1979
[appearance on the German TV show "Rockpalast"] forward. In Europe,
Mitch isn't an oldies act, he's done a dozen or so records there that he's known
for there. The audience is younger and more appreciative, I love it and can't
wait to go back this summer. I can really stretch out with my solos.
K: It seems like everybody in Detroit digs the Romantics, but whenever they
talk about them, they APOLOGIZE for the fact that Jimmy Marinos is no longer
in the band. What kind of stuff were you doing with Jimmy in the Motor City
Rockers?
R: I played with Marinos and Skill in high school, so we go way back, I got
the Romantics their first gig ever. Rob Tyner and I were looking for an opening
band for a show at My Fair Lady in April '77, so I took him over to hear those
guys and we liked them a lot and convinced them to play. Jimmy is a great drummer,
he only played on one song on the M.C.Rockers record. The Rockers were like
Detroit's version of L.A.Guns or Hanoi Rocks, but we were two years too late.
When the record came out in '93, it was all about Seattle/grunge music and we
missed the boat. By the way, the Romantics sound really good with Clem Burke
playing drums!
K: How'd your association with Scott in Motor Jam come about?
R: Gary Rasmussen, the bass player called me.
K: And is it true that was just a COVER band? It seems bizarre.
R: Yes, it was Gary's project, just a cover band to make money. I was still
in Mitch's band then as well, luckily.
K: How'd you wind up playing on Scott's "Satisfier" single?
R: My good friend Geoff Ginsberg called and asked me, and I was honored to do
it.
K: And Powertrane evolved from that?
R: Yes it did, we started the band last year in March.
K: Talk a bit about the young rhythm boys, Chris "Box" Taylor and
Andy Frost.
R: No problem, I love those guys! They kick my ass every gig, I couldn't ask
for a better rhythm section. Chris is a good guitar player as well and plays
bass from that point of view, which I like. Andy is very powerful and has the
knowledge to play the shit right, he's listened to the Stooges and MC5 and has
the right edge!
K:
Was the recent Powertrane tour with Deniz Tek the first time your paths had
crossed, and were you aware of his previous career?
R: Yes, I hadn't met him until last November in Ann Arbor. I saw him with Dodge
Main and heard some of his stuff with Radio Birdman. Deniz is really special,
I really love him after working with him.
K: How were you able to make that combination work with three (and sometimes
FOUR) guitarists onstage?
R: When you have great players who are willing to play together as a band it's
easy. Deniz and I are big Rolling Stones fans and know what weaving is, you
have to try and make two guitars sound like one, or play parts that really compliment
each other. Sometimes we just double the parts and layer it, on the Stooges
stuff we kind of let Ron go wild as only Ron can do. Scott is a wonderful guitarist
as well, we play great together also.
K: What do you consider your best work on record?
R: I'd like to say it's the new stuff I'm working on now, the best is yet to
come...but there are bits on everything I love, the three albums with Mitch,
the Tyner stuff, the Torpedos, the live Powertrane stuff coming out.
K: I've seen pictures of you with all kinds of different equipment. What's
your current stage setup?
R: I use Fender Strats and Gibson Les Pauls with heavy strings and big necks
for more sound. Lately I've gotten into one pickup stuff like my '59 Les Paul
Junior or my '69 Dan Armstrong, my favorite guitar is my '59 Gibson 355 mono.
Depending on how much room there is on stage, I use Marshall heads and cabs
with Fender Twins, I just got a really nice tweed one. For pedals I use a Tube
Screamer and a stereo chorus.
K: What's next for Robert Gillespie?
R: Recording and playing with Powertrane and with Mitch, touring Europe this
summer and teaching.
K: Since we're in a Bar, what do you like to drink?
R: I like red wine, a nice Merlot or Belvedere vodka.
