Digital Interviews: You started out on the saxophone when you were 10 years old?

Robben Ford: Yes. At 10, I started playing the saxophone because I saw someone play it and it just totally inspired me. I had an epiphany. I was just, “That’s it! That’s what I want to do!” That was the first instrument I really fell in love with, and ran with.

DI: How did you cultivate an interest in music?

RF: Both of my parents were musicians. My father was a professional. My mother never was, but they were both very musical. The whole family had musical inclinations. My older brother is a drummer. My younger brother’s a harp player -- blues harp. We had a band together in our teens.

DI: That was the Charles Ford Band?

RF: Yes.

DI: You taught yourself the guitar?

RF: By 13 I started fooling around on the guitar. My dad showed me a couple of chords, and then I just, basically, started trying to play what I heard on records. I learned most of the chords that I know out of books, and the rest just by listening, playing, listening, playing, you know.

DI: When did you move from your hometown of Ukiah, California, to Los Angeles?

RF: First, I moved down to the Bay Area, around San Francisco. I didn’t actually live in San Francisco, but all around there, and played for a while with my older brother. We had a little blues band, and we wound up working with Charlie Musselwhite.

DI: Was that your first “professional” gig?

RF: Definitely. I was 18.

DI: What did you take away from that experience?

RF: Well, it was a strange experience, because Charlie didn’t really like my guitar playing. He did like my saxophone playing. But, he didn’t really need a saxophone player; he needed a guitar player. [laughs]

DI: You were headed in the guitar “direction” at that time?

RF: I definitely was, but Charlie liked my brother Pat so much that, basically, he hired me so that my brother wouldn’t leave. That’s how I got my first professional job. [laughs]

DI: And then you worked with Jimmy Witherspoon?

RF: I put together a group after the experience with Charlie. I was trying to move more toward playing, what I considered, real jazz. Out of Chicago blues, and B.B. King and that thing I’d been into. So, I put together a group of different musicians -- guys that I met locally in the Bay Area. On our third or fourth gig, we opened for Jimmy Witherspoon. He showed up with only a guitar player, so he asked us if we’d back him up for the weekend, which we did, and then he invited us to be his band. So, we jumped in.

DI: How did you get to play with Joni Mitchell?

RF: During the two years I worked with Jimmy Witherspoon, I was seen and heard by various people, and among them were members of the L.A. Express, who were backing Joni for that tour. Tom Scott. Roger Kellaway was the keyboard player originally, at the beginning of the tour. Max Bennett on bass. Max had heard me playing with Spoon, and Roger Kellaway had heard me playing at this guitar festival that I was a featured artist on. So they invited me to join the band, and I wound up touring with them for that year, basically -- 1974. Most of ’74. During that time, I met George Harrison when we were in England, and he invited me to do his next tour -- his only tour, which was the end of that same year. I worked with Joni all through 1974, up until October or November, and then in November we cut the L.A. Express’ second album -- the first for me. Then Tom Scott and I went straight into rehearsals with George Harrison, and toured with him for two months.

DI: So you had been playing blues, but then you, kind of, moved into the jazz arena.

RF: The music I was listening to was John Coltrane, and mainly a lot of the Impulse artists. In particular, John Coltrane and Miles Davis, of course. But I was listening to a lot of saxophone players -- Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman. Those were the things I was really into, so I was trying to find something that made sense for me to be doing on the electric guitar.

DI: A lot of people can really only play one style, but you, from the beginning, have had a varied repertoire.

RF: I’ve always liked a variety of music, although the things I’ve really been drawn towards, initially, were the blues, then jazz, and then classical music. I’m into traditional American forms -- blues, jazz and then Western classical music. These are the things that I listen to. Pop music, of course, I dug when I was a kid, like everybody else, but when I was growing up, the pop music was Junior Walker & the All-Stars, Otis Redding, and Aretha Franklin. The dose was R&B, and, of course, the English Invasion, which preceded that.

DI: Tell us a little bit about the Yellowjackets.

RF: I put the band together to do my first solo album, which was called The Inside Story, on Elektra Records. That band, in that form, did the record, but Russell Ferrante was the only guy who was free to go on the road with me, so Russ and I continued to work together. The group got back together again a little bit later on, and we started playing locally. Then my manager suggested we shop a separate deal for the band. I was signed to Elektra, and had already done my album with the band, but the band wasn’t signed. I was already, at that point, starting to move towards more vocal-oriented music, and the band was a fusion band. So, we shopped a separate deal for the Yellowjackets, and I became a featured artist with the group that I had started.

DI: What were some of your most important musical experiences?

RF: The two big ones were Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Witherspoon. Jimmy Witherspoon was just a great commanding presence on stage. He was a great leader. Where he led, I was glued to him. It was like, “Wherever you’re going, man, I’m right there with you.” And Joni was the same way.

DI: She had a definite idea of what she wanted to do?

RF: She’s just herself. Spoon’s the same way. It’s not so much an idea -- although, there are ideas, of course -- but it’s really just that they’re so who they are. Joni is a genius, and she was at the prime of her career when I worked with her. Court & Spark was the album, the zenith of her career. The glory of her career was right at that time. So, I was there at a very fortunate time. Plus, I was working with the L.A. Express, which was a bunch of great and already-evolved musicians. And I was kind of evolving. [laughs] I was working with people who were all great, and I was learning so much. I learned more from those two situations about how music doesn’t have to be one kind of thing, because I was, sort of, a blues and jazz purist. I learned how to be a versatile musician within the context of the L.A. Express and Joni Mitchell. That music, you couldn’t even pin it down -- it was just beautiful music.

DI: And you also played with Miles Davis.

RF: The thing with Miles, that was sort of like a coronation. That was like knighthood. It was like having gone through the ordeals and the growth, and finally reached Miles Davis, and he goes, “Yes, you are worthy.” [laughs] To work with Miles Davis truly blew me away. I mean, that was the only thing in my career that really blew me away. The other things -- when I was invited to play with the L.A. Express and Joni, I didn’t realize what a great opportunity that was, at first. But I worked into it, and they all treated me like an equal, and it was just great.

DI: How old were you?

RF: I was 22 when I joined them and did that tour. And I had my 23rd birthday on the George Harrison tour, which was right after that.

DI: You worked with Miles in 1986. What other adventures were happening in your career around that time?

RF: Well, right before I worked with Miles, I toured some with Michael McDonald. I worked with Michael, off and on, for about a two-year period. I was trying to find my voice as a songwriter, and going more towards vocal music, which I already had been doing. But I was getting these other jobs where, basically, I wasn’t featured, so it wasn’t my thing. I was, even though people didn’t know it, working more toward R&B and vocal-oriented music. So, after playing with Miles -- in fact, during the time I was playing with Miles -- I signed with Warner Bros. And in 1988, through no fault of my own -- the record should have come out much sooner -- finally the album Talk To Your Daughter came out, and that was a blues record, and it was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Recording that year. It was the beginning of my solo career, really, even though I had done the solo album on Elektra, The Inside Story, where the Yellowjackets started.

DI: So were you going back into a blues sound?

RF: I’d already been working in that way. I was playing blues, a variety of things, whenever I would play on my own. I would play some fusion works. Russell was still writing in that way, and he was playing with me whenever I played. But I didn’t really have a band; it was just jam bands.

DI: This was in 1988?

RF: Talk To Your Daughter came out in ’88, but the initial recording started in 1985.

DI: Your next release, Robben Ford & the Blue Line, didn’t come out until 1992.

RF: Well, when Talk To Your Daughter came out in ’88, that’s when I started [thinking], “Okay. It’s me. I’m doing my thing. I’m making records now. I’m touring on my own now.” That’s when things started to come together.

DI: Were you nervous about going in that direction?

RF: No, I’d been trying to do it for years. I just was being thwarted by record companies.

DI: Did you start with a stripped-down, trio setting?

RF: I wanted at least a quartet -- I really wanted a quintet. I did a quintet tour, I did a quartet tour, and then I did a trio tour. The money was so bad that the only way to do it was a trio tour. [laughs] So I called up [bassist] Roscoe [Beck] and [drummer] Tom [Brechtlein], and said, “You guys want to do this as a trio? What do you think?” So we rehearsed for a couple days as a trio, and took off, and we wound up touring like that for four years. We eventually got a keyboard player.

DI: Did you enjoy touring or recording more?

RF: All of it. I’m happy doing any of it. Oh man, I like just making music. The satisfaction that comes from making records is just unique unto itself, and the satisfaction of playing live is unique unto itself.

DI: Do you get into the production aspect, as well?

RF: I’ve produced virtually every record I’ve ever done. I like working with people, but if it’s my record, I’m going to have the last say. Definitely. But I’m very open. I hire people because I know they’re the best person for the job. A good producer is somebody who picks the right people. You don’t tell them what to do; you just pick the right person.

DI: Your release Tiger Walk was real funky. Tell us about the making of that album.

RF: I really wanted to do something that was just fun, and not vocal-oriented. I didn’t want to be writing lyrics and singing. I loved that band from Keith Richards’ records -- Charlie Drayton on bass, Steve Jordan on drums and Bernie Worrell on keyboards. I wrote the music for that band. I hired as producer -- he really engineered the record and made the phone calls -- great guy, good friend, Niko Bolas. He’s very good friends with all of those guys, so he called them and got their interest. It’s like a rock-R&B album.

DI: You’ve been a regular at Yoshi’s in Oakland for a while.

RF: I go up there every year, year and a half, and do a week. It is a great jazz club. Good sound system. Great people working it. We have great crowds there when we play. It’s a good situation for me. I do two shows a night for six days, and it’s a great scene.

DI: Tell us about your latest release, Supernatural.

RF: It’s an album of, what I consider, the best songwriting I’ve ever done. I think it’s the best record I’ve ever made. To me it represents a lifetime of looking to find my own voice as a singer/songwriter, and I’m very proud of it.

DI: What are you looking to do in the future?

RF: I’m probably going to be recording a new album in December. I really can never speculate on what it’s going to be, because it’s always different.

DI: With all the touring you do, when do you do your writing?

RF: Generally, in the past, I’ve taken a three-month break just to write -- at least two to three months. That’s worked out for the last few records that I’ve done. But this next one is going to be written while I’m touring with Phil Lesh. [laughs]

DI: Were you familiar with Phil's music before?

RF: I was not. No.

DI: Tell us how you became a member of the group.

RF: The drummer, John Molo, is very close with another good friend of mine, and my name came up in conversation. He said, “I wonder if Robben would be interested in playing with Phil?” She gave him my number, he called me up and said, “Would you be interested?” I said, “Sure,” not having any idea what I was getting into, but he sounded like it’s a good thing, you know. Phil called and asked if I wanted to come up and jam for a few days, which I did. I’m in Southern California, and he flew me up, and put me up for three days, and we jammed.

DI: Did you receive some songs in advance?

RF: They did send some stuff to me, but I had no time to really look at it. So, it was very fresh. It was a ball. We just had a ball. I left, and he played with some other people, and then he called me up and asked if I wanted to do the tour.

DI: What are some of the favorite songs that you might have in this repertoire?

RF: It’s, in some cases, hard for me to say because I don’t know the titles. We have about an 80-song book. I like “Box Of Rain” a lot.

DI: Phil worked with Jerry Garcia for so many years, that many people who come to the shows really want to see how you can play. You’re a focal point. Can you handle that pressure?

RF: Oh, yeah. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’m here because it’s a great deal of fun. There’s a lot of music being made and it’s too fulfilling to be worried about anything. [laughs] It’s great. It really is great.

DI: Didn’t you work with Paul Barrere and Bill Payne before?

RF: I recorded with Little Feat. The album was Down On The Farm.

DI: What’s it like working with them now?

RF: It’s great. They’re people who are very realized. They’re making music, and they’re making it with authority. That’s the kind of people you want to be working with, where you’re just free to do your thing. We make it easy for each other.

DI: On this tour, are you getting fulfillment in your jazz influence? Do you get to let loose?

RF: Totally. I’m doing everything I do, and just about any time I like to do it. It’s just incredible that way. There’s no other gig like this.

DI: How do you view Phil as a bass player?

RF: He’s got a totally unique style, and I am intrigued by it more and more. You just start being drawn in.

DI: What would you say to somebody who is starting out in the music business?

RF: The most important thing is that you make sure you follow the music, which is a musician’s way of saying follow your heart. The two things are intertwined. You know, when you even mention the phrase “music business,” the older you get, the sourer it sounds. It’s a terrible business, you know. Music and business have nothing to do with each other; there’s no correlation, so it’s always a rub. I would encourage people, don’t be swayed by the music business. If you’re truly, in your heart, a musician, stay one, and let the business find you.