Local Music Gear Exclusive Interview
Written By: Dan O'Donnell
“My grandmother took me to see the Jackie Gleason Show. To my dismay, Jackie Gleason was on summer hiatus,” West, who was born Leslie Weinstein, said. “I started to cry when the announcer told us. Then Elvis Presley hit the stage and started gyrating around and playing the guitar and I was hooked. I never got to see Jackie Gleason, but Elvis changed my life.”
He also said that musicians have to be aware of their tuning in order to be a success, and to know the notes that make up the chords in the songs they play. “Please mention how important it is to stay in tune before shredding and making a fool of yourself,” the veteran guitarist said. “Listen to the chord changes of the song you are going to solo on and learn the chords and play them first. Most of my solos come from notes within the chords; how do you know where you are going, unless you know where you have been?” Then, perhaps echoing some of Felix Pappalardi’s advice, West added, “Don’t waste the note!”
His next album is scheduled out in early 2013; it will feature guitarist Jonny Lang, among others. West also recently released an instructional DVD, “Big Phat-Ass guitar.”
Written By: Dan O'Donnell
Leslie West is a guitar
legend that time has been good to, probably because he refuses to live in the past.
Sometimes called a pioneer of heavy metal,
his band Mountain blew away attendees at the original Woodstock concert (it was
their fifth gig), and established him as a hard driving, hard playing guitarist
with a no-holds barred approach to his sound. It also made him celebrated for
the uniquely rich tone he coaxed out of a single-pickup Les Paul, Jr., which
was his preferred guitar for decades.
While he learned to play
guitar at about nine years old, he first started playing on a ukulele. “When I
got an actual guitar with six strings, I didn’t know what to do with the extra
two,” West said. It was a happy accident that led to him wanting to play
guitar.
“My grandmother took me to see the Jackie Gleason Show. To my dismay, Jackie Gleason was on summer hiatus,” West, who was born Leslie Weinstein, said. “I started to cry when the announcer told us. Then Elvis Presley hit the stage and started gyrating around and playing the guitar and I was hooked. I never got to see Jackie Gleason, but Elvis changed my life.”
Rolling Stone Magazine said
Mountain was like a louder version of Cream. Both were three-piece bands with
virtuoso guitarists, but the similarities didn’t stop there. Felix Pappalardi, a
producer on Cream’s “Disraeli Gears” album, first produced a song for The
Vagrants, West’s first band. He then became Mountain’s bass player when it
formed after The Vagrants broke up.
Leslie West went on after
Mountain broke up to form “West, Bruce and Laing” featuring former Cream
bassist Jack Bruce along with original Mountain drummer Corky Laing. In fact, Jack Bruce wrote “Theme for an
Imaginary Western,” which would become one of West’s most played songs, along
with “Mississippi Queen.”
Noted for his quirky
personality and sense of humor, West has appeared often on the Howard Stern radio show and even served as musical director on Stern’s short-lived FOX TV
series. And he keeps plenty of company with big name stars too.
His most recent CD is a
testament to the kind of musicians that want to work with him—it’s a blues
guitarist’s dream featuring soaring solos from some of the highest-caliber rock
musicians working alongside West.
“It was a whole lot of fun
doing this album,” West said. “Nothing was piped in. It was all done with me
seated across from these guys—Slash, Zakk (Wylde), Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, Steve Lukather and Kenny Aaronoff. Add in a great producer,
engineer, photographer, Jenni (West, his wife)…it was just a good time!”
The resulting combinations
make for a blues album that exhibits a spectrum of guitar styles, all brushed
with West’s trademark blues guitar. “I’m proud of this album,”
West said of “Unusual Suspects.” “It makes people smile, cry and reflect.”
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| Unusual Suspects Album Cover |
The guys on the album have
made an impact on West—he lists them as some of his favorite musicians.
“Zakk Wylde…calls me father
West and I call him my son,” West said. “He is absolutely the most politically
charged guy. Don’t let that Viking look fool you, he’s got a brilliant mind.”
Of Slash, he said “This is
the most down to earth, humble guy I ever met. I asked him to play on my album,
he just shows up. No entourage, no tech, just Slash and his guitar and (he)
says, ‘here I am’ and then he shredded the shit out of it!”
He also tells a story about working
a session with Billy Gibbons. “He is such a character!”
West said of Gibbons. “We were in California plugging away on the song
‘Standing on Higher Ground’ from ‘Unusual Suspects.’ Every few minutes he would
get up and leave the studio, then be gone for a few minutes…come to find out he
was playing liar’s dice with my wife and the studio techs. He even had his own
dice and a pad of two dollar bills!”
His fondest recollections,
though, are for Felix Pappalardi, who, tragically, was shot by his wife in 1983.
“He taught me everything I
know about playing less. He was a classically trained musician and a
professor,” West said. “Before him, I tried to play fast and add too many
notes. He taught me to make each one count.”
Pappalardi also gave him his
favorite guitar of all time, West said. Pappalardi gave West a Les Paul that
West used when he was recording tracks for the “Who’s Next” album. “I later gave that guitar to
Pete Townsend right after we finished recording on the “Who’s Next” album,”
West said.
For years, West was seen on
tour sporting Les Paul, Jr.’s. He became famous for his use of Sunn amplifiers
in the years after Woodstock, and was often photographed in front of walls of
them. A former pawnshop scavenger, West said he enjoyed going to local stores
and pawnshops to pick up gear when he was in cities on tour.
“I used to be king of the
pawn shops,” West said. “Started in Texas with Mott the Hoople and Mick Ralphs,
who later was the guitarist in Bad Company. We would go shop around for all the
Les Pauls all over the south.”
He was famous for using a Gibson
Flying V, which had been modified to hold a P-90 in the bridge position; the
neck pickup was removed, and he used the hole where it had been as an ashtray.
West’s favorite music store
now is Lark Street Music, in Teaneck, NJ, but his days of pawnshop guitar hunting
are over. In 2006 he signed an exclusive deal with Dean Guitars to design his
own signature model guitar, the USA Soltero Leslie West model.
“I only play my Dean Leslie
West signature models and a Dean Flying V (onstage),” West said. “I tweaked my
model so it just feels good in your hands.”
The Leslie West signature
model is made of a mahogany body with an ebony fretboard and while it looks
similar to a Les Paul Jr. with a little wider body it has a carved ridge above
the pickup for West to rest his thumb while playing. It also has a P-90 style
humbucker called the “LW Mountain of Tone” pickup and a V-shaped neck, which
West says is custom fitted to his hand.
One other difference—in
typical West style, the volume knobs go to 11. After the first time playing
one, West reportedly declared, “it just isn’t loud enough,” prompting the
change.
While a Marshall amp fan for
most of his career, he has switched his amps too, he said. “I always loved Marshalls for
the studio (but) recently I found a new favorite,” West said. “I’ve been using
Blackstar heads and cabinets.”
Not long after the completion
of “Unusual Suspects” West, who has suffered from diabetes throughout his
career, underwent surgery to amputate his right leg above the knee. That
surgery, while a hindrance, hasn’t stopped him from playing live but has proved
to be somewhat challenging according to his wife, Jenni West.
“Transportation is tricky. We
have to check out every detail of the trip,” Jenni West (who became Leslie’s
wife at an on-stage ceremony at the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock
concert) said. “How long is the flight? Can we get the front row on the plane?
Is the bathroom backstage chair accessible; are there ramps for the stage? “
She said one of the most
frustrating factors is the lack of tour buses with wheelchair lifts. Not one
company in the US sells a wheelchair lift for a tour bus according to Jenni.
Leslie has had to adjust his effects
board so he could hit the pedals with his left foot, though he just had a setup
built that allows him to switch effects by hand, she said, and his guitars had
to be padded because they hit him higher when he’s sitting down.
Unable to tour to support the
album, most bands would have been forced to accept lowered sales, but Jenni
West said that’s not what happened.
“Not touring may have
deterred from sales a bit, but the tragedy helped with air play. Gotta find a
silver lining, right?” Jenni said. “It was very well received, hit number four
on the Billboard blues charts.”
On his latest album, West
uses his voice as a weapon, hitting counterpoints to his screaming guitar. He
gets his sound, he said, by a combination of three effects—an OCD distortion box, a tube screamer, a TC Electronics (Chorus) Zoom for octave effects, and an
a/b box to switch back and forth.
He uses light picks made by
Pikcard, and DiMarzio cables. He also uses D’Addario strings, with a twist—he
uses half a pack of .009’s for the top strings and half a pack of .010’s for
the bottom strings.
When asked what type of
guitar he likes to play around the house, he was unhesitating in his answer. “My wife prefers acoustic,
neighbors too!” West said. “Funny though, our two cats love the sound of the
electric guitar. Every time I plug in they come running like it’s a dinner
bell.” As for advice for guitarists
who want to create a sound like his, West says it’s not just about practice,
but about playing with people you can learn from.
“It’s not as easy as
1,2,3…practice!” West said. “I was lucky enough to have (legendary session
musician) Waddy Wachtel from Stevie Nicks’ band as a next door neighbor growing
up in Forest Hills (Queens, New York). By the time I heard a song on the radio
and (got) down the stairs of my building, up the stairs to Waddy’s building he
had already learned it and he’d show me how to play it.”
He also said that musicians have to be aware of their tuning in order to be a success, and to know the notes that make up the chords in the songs they play. “Please mention how important it is to stay in tune before shredding and making a fool of yourself,” the veteran guitarist said. “Listen to the chord changes of the song you are going to solo on and learn the chords and play them first. Most of my solos come from notes within the chords; how do you know where you are going, unless you know where you have been?” Then, perhaps echoing some of Felix Pappalardi’s advice, West added, “Don’t waste the note!”
Leslie West is currently
touring with Edgar Winter, Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer in the “Rock and
Blues” tour. His tour dates stretch from the New York City area to Anaheim, CA.
His next album is scheduled out in early 2013; it will feature guitarist Jonny Lang, among others. West also recently released an instructional DVD, “Big Phat-Ass guitar.”
Leslie and Jenni West support
several charities, including the Amputee Coalition of America (www.amputee-coalition.org), www.whyhunger.com, which is a group fighting to
establish adequate nourishment worldwide, supportautism.org, an autism
awareness group, and woundedwarriorproject.org, which seeks to enlist the
public’s aid to help fill the needs of wounded veterans.
Posted 08/2012
© 2012 localmusicgear.com All rights reserved
Posted 08/2012
© 2012 localmusicgear.com All rights reserved
