Ravinia 2025 Issue 5

The group’s toured alongside everyone from Parliament Funkadelic to Public Enemy … Bob Weir, Allman Brothers, My Morning Jacket … so many others. How do you fit in with such a wide range of acts and such different styles? I think it’s the dance element. At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make ev- eryone dance. Everybody likes to dance, so they generally have a good time. Tell us a little bit about co-founding the groove group The Greyboy Allstars and in what ways that band has added to your creativity. The difference in The Greyboy Allstars and Tiny Universe is the Allstars is a democracy. It’s a full democracy like it was meant to be. We started this thing, Greyboy Records, and the idea was that everyone would have their own albums on that label. That’s kind of the idea of The Greyboy Allstars and it just turned out that those guys are stellar writers. Writing-wise, it’s been super enlighten- ing and challenging, like I come under the scrutiny of other people. It has definitely refined my writing talents. The list of artists you’ve personally collaborated with is staggering. Do you have any highlights? Yeah, I mean the highlight reel is pretty cool. Playing with Lenny Kravitz … he’s a morning guy. I remember being at his house and him being up at 8 o’clock, out the door by 8:30 and we’re in the studio at 9. That was just like the weird- est thing because I’ve never been in the studio that early. And then just making that music. Those first couple of re- cords [1989’s Let Love Rule and 1991’s Mama Said ] were just groundbreaking. Playing with Lenny, I got to sit in with Bob Dylan. I got to meet Tom Petty and hang out with those guys. I met Yoko Ono. And then from Lenny, him throwing me onto The Rolling Stones gig, so it’s been really amazing. I’ve definitely pinched myself a lot. How exactly did he help open the door for you and The Rolling Stones? He and Craig [Ross], his guitar player, were having dinner with Mick, and Mick mentioned that [saxophonist] Bobby [Keys] was not well and that they were gonna need to find a replace- ment for awhile. The original plan was for me to come in to replace Bobby and then be there when he got back to strengthen the horn section, in case he was not doing well. So Lenny just immediately threw my hat in the ring, and a couple of weeks later, I was in The Rolling Stones! What was it like being thrust into one of the world’s biggest bands and how did you approach fitting into that equation? For once in my life, I was actually pre- pared because I was a big Bobby Keys fan for half my life. I really was pretty studied on the music, in terms of what Bobby brought to the band, so I felt like it wasn’t a hard fit. It was just about concentrating and focusing. I’m only playing 30 percent of the show, so just making sure that 30 percent is spot-on. Between them all, you’ve played many of the most prestigious places in the world. What are a few that stand out? We played a festival, [Grandoozy], a few years ago in Denver. Kendrick Lamar was the headliner and I just remember it being a really fun festival. We played before the Grateful Dead’s [The Other Ones at Alpine Valley] in the early 2000s. That was pretty amaz- ing, and I just remember it being a sea of people. Then we played the first and second year of Bonnaroo. We played the late-night set and it was fantastic. We were playing some really weird sh--. [ Laughs ] We have this one song off of my records, New Ammo , that we had just written. It was called “Odys- seus,” and that was because it was an epic. We went very deep with that one. Do you have any words of wisdom you’ve picked up along the way from the many musicians you’ve worked with and encountered? Oh man, I always mention this from Lenny. I was a band leader when I started playing with him. I already had a jazz quartet and was writing for that, but I remember being in the studio with him, watching him build the music and kind of being like, “How are we going to do this live?” He said, “You don’t make a record for how you’re going to do it live. You make a record to make a record,” and that really stuck with me. I think that’s one of the main things I hold onto. Is there anything you like to impart younger musicians or fellow artists you may be mentoring? You know what, I try to just keep people working hard. Like the beauty of music and art is that you never get to the end of it, so take advantage of that and really spend more time doing art. Outside of music—how was it making performance cameos in the Coming to America movies? Those were super fun, but it was very fast. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am . It’s just a fun thing to be able to say I did. Is that an itch you’d like to scratch further, orwas it just a one-offsituation? Actually, me and a buddy have written up about a 400-page sci-fi [film], so the writing part of things, yes. I realized acting is not my strength. I don’t feel RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUG. 4 – AUG. 17, 2025 10