Chet loved artists. He did. But he was caught up in the system. He had two hats. He had to have 'em because he did two things: he was an artist, and he was an executive.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker seemed so sophisticated and bad. I wanted to be like that.
Meeting Chet was a life changing moment for me.
Johnny Mercer started Capitol Records, and he brought in Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole. He just let them sing whatever they wanted, and it became the best record company in America.
The great thing about Nashville back in the day was that the old guys hung out where the young guys were. The established writers like Harlan Howard and Jack Clement gave us encouragement and passed the guitar, you know? Chet Atkins let me sit in on his sessions. Everybody was good to us, and everybody loved the music.
Jimi... He was the gov'nor and that's it. He was brilliant, wasn't he?
He helped make Living Things even more crazy than I wanted it to be. He added old-fashioned piano and classical folk music - that weird otherworldly vibe - all these elements got onto the record.
Jim, as just a spoken poet, was not that good. He needed the music behind him. He felt a security and a sense of abandon when the music existed around him.
Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.
Maybe if they all could he combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things.
Elvis wore a halo. Otis Redding did, too. You knew you were playing with a star when you played with them.