Made up of the acclaimed John Popper on harmonica, Chan Kincla on guitar, Brendan Hill on drums and Bobby Sheehan on bass, Blues Traveler is dubbed, New York's most dangerous live band. This interview is one of the last with the now deceased Bobby Sheehan.
DM) Your bio lists you as 'New York's Most Dangerous Live
Band'. Are you guy's all from New York originally, and what's
the story behind that?
BS) Well, we grew up in Jersey right outside of New York,
in 1987 we all moved to New York. We've been here for 7, 8 years
now. That's were we started out playing, just playing in the
bars in the lower Manhattan, lower east side, and down in the
village. We got to one point where we were playing 5-7 nights
a week between Houston and 14th street, just everywhere all along
that whole strip.
DM) Where did you guys initially meet in New Jersey?
BS) We met in High School over there, and then moved to Manhattan
right after... Well John [Popper], he's the singer, a year ahead
of us, and the other three guys, we're all in the same class.
When we got out of school, we all moved into New York City.
DM) I noticed Paul Shaffer was on keyboards. I know you've
played on Lettermen a lot... what brought Paul on?
BS) I think Dave is a fan of our music, and they've had us
on the show a couple of times, and that's how we met Paul, and
Paul has always been cool, so when we needed some keyboards we
just gave him a call, and he just came over.
DM) I noticed a lot of publicity is given to John Popper,
with the harmonica and when he was in a wheelchair. Does that
get weird at times when you have a group and one person dominates
it in some sense?
BS) Not really... John's harmonica playing is what it is,
and it deserves a lot of attention, I think. As a whole, Blues
Traveler's sound is a combination of all four of us, and however
the press wants to look at it, it can.
DM) When did you learn to play bass?
BS) I taught myself to play, just hanging out in my basement.
Just playing around, and when I got out of High School, I went
to New York and went to jazz school for a semester or so, and
a lot of what I learned I learned off the streets of New York,
just hanging around.
DM) Brother John is about your younger brother, what's the
story behind that?
BS) Well, that song was written a bunch of years ago, maybe
1988. Johnny was having some personal problems, and during one
rehearsal he disappeared, but he came back and everything's cool.
DM) During this year's H.O.R.D.E concert you were playing with
the Allmman Brothers. How was it?
BS) We've actually done a lot of shows with the Allmann's.
The last 4 summers, we've done a couple of shows with them. This
one was more of a co-bill with the H.O.R.D.E. for the first year.
It's always fun working with those guys.
DM) Lately in the music industry there has been an upsurge
of 'tribute' albums for one artist or the other. For example,
the Elton John album, the Grateful Dead album or the Kiss album.
If your band could work on an album like this for any artist,
which artist would it be?
BS) At one point we were going to do something on a Zeppelin
Record... I know they asked us to, I don't know if we ever did
it though, I don't think we ever did... but it would be fun to
do a Zeppelin one. It would be fun to do a Hendrix one or a Marley
one.
DM) How would that opinion differ from the rest of the members
of the band?
BS) I think they'd pretty much go along with that, but I'm
sure have their own ideas too. None of them would be like, 'No
that's a bad idea.' But I'm sure some of them would want to do
a Clash Tribute record or something.
DM) Is there ever a time, when one of the other members would
think your ideas are way out there... and how do you resolve
that?
BS) Pretty much we have a policy, if somebody comes up with
an idea all we got to do is try it. You can't say no, that's
crazy, I won't do it. You got to say, no, that's crazy, let's
try it. And if you try it, usually you know after if it's crazy
or not. If it works, pretty much everybody knows it. And if it
doesn't, it doesn't.
DM) What would you consider your fan base, the stereotypical
Blues traveler fan?
BS) I guess a live music lover. There's all different kinds
of people. We have a really diverse group of fans.
DM) Is there any one song off the albums, that you'd choose
as your favorite?
BS) That's a really hard question. I like all our songs a
whole bunch. I really love to play the song 'Alone' off our first
record. And off this cd, it's so new, I like them all equal.
It's almost like asking a parent, "Which kid do you like
best?"
DM) On this new album, there's an instrumental called, "The
Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." Is this your first instrumental,
and how was it recording it?
BS) We did an instrumental on "Save our Soul" called,
Manhattan Bridge. In the recording of it, the song has to be
able to say it's message, just with the music. There's maybe
some more changes, or there will be... it just doesn't stick
on one groove, or if it does, then there will be a solo going
on.
DM) Is there any one musician that you would like to be able
to work with in the future?
BS) Good question. I'd like to work with Neil Young. I've
done a little recording with friends and stuff. Shannon and I
put together another band, and play at a ski-resort, ski for
a week, and play to pay for our trip.
DM) What's the name of that band?
BS) Either The High Plains Drifter' or 'Is This For Real',
or Chance, Fruits and Vegetables... we change the name all the
time.
DM) Has that ever brought up tension within the group.
BS) No, not at all. We just do it for fun.
DM) Is the band really close, and do you find yourself hanging
out with one member more then others?
BS) Shannon and I hang out the most, but we all are really
close. But we've known each other forever. I'd take a bullet
for any of them. (coughing heavy)
DM) Are you okay there, I notice you have a pretty bad cough
there?
BS) Well I'm a smoker.
DM) I noticed the cat [on the cover of the album] is a smoker
too?
BS) Yeah, he's a smoker too. That's been our logo for a long
time. The black cat has always symbolized Blues Traveler. We
were in New Jersey jamming one day. It was one of the first jams
which was all improvisational. We came upstairs out of Bernie's
basement which is where we used to rehearse. We were listening
to the tape of rehearsal... cause we used to have a box down
there, and we used to just press record, whatever we were playing.
We were listening to the tape, and this black cat came up and
just started hanging out with us, and was sorta grooving with
us. And then as soon as the tape was done, the cat just turned
around and spilt. So we called that jam, the Black Cat Jam. Then
when we moved into New York, we met a friend of ours who was
an artist and he made posters for our shows. So we asked him
to make a funky looking cat smoking a big, fat joint... and that's
what he drew.
DM) Is there any one show you have done which you'd consider
your favorite?
BS) There's been a handful. We did a show last summer, not
this summer but last summer, in Vermont with us and the Allman
Brothers, and that was our favorite show. There was a lot of
interaction between the fans, and a great jam. There is also
one we did with Neil Young and Pearl Jam up in Canada, in a stadium
and that was a very fun show.
DM) I noticed right after you thank Eddie Vedder and Neil
Young in the cd, you thank Dan Akyroyd. Why Dan Akyroyd?
BS) Well, John's [Popper] initial attraction was from the
Blues Brothers movie, and so over time we've gotten to know Dan
a bit.
DM) What are the future plans of Blues Traveler?
BS) To keep doing what we're doing, and bring it to more and
more people. We've been recording a live record through this
tour, and I think the next record will be a live record.
Out of all the interviews I've done, this was the most unique.
I was wondering the entire time why Sheehan seemed so distracted.
Some questions would completely confuse and baffle him and seem
to make no sense at all. Maybe it was how I asked questions,
or maybe, just maybe there was a slight correlation between his
excessive coughing and choking over the phone, the cat's... smoking
tendencies and his seeming... higher level of distraction then
normal.
