Nile Rodgers: What It Was Really Like Recording with Stevie Ray Vaughan

Nile Rodgers produced some of SRV's first and his very last recordings. Here he remembers the guitar great.

Nile Rodgers is an all-time great guitarist, songwriter and producer. The co-founder of Chic, Wikipedia says that Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 750 million albums and 100 million singles worldwide. Who knows if that’s true, but his work includes:

-Chic’s “Le Freak” and “Good Times” (which launched rap when it was sampled for “Rapper’s Delight”); "Sister’s Sledge’s We Are Family"; Diana Ross’s "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down”; Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”; Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love”; Daft Punk’s “Get Happy”; and the B52’s “Love Shack.”

And he worked with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the first recordings that brought him to the world’s attention - Rodgers produced David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” - and the last trcks Stevie cut, producing Family Style, Stevie and Jimmie Vaughan’s at-last collaboration.

I interviewed Nile for Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan, but could only use some of material. Below is the entire interview.

Let’s Dance Sessions, Photo - Chuck Pulin

Do you remember the first time you heard Stevie Ray Vaughan?

Yes. When he played my gold-plated hardware Fender Stratocaster guitar, about 20 minutes before he heard “Let’s Dance” in the Power Station Studio C control room.

How did the idea of him playing on Let’s Dance come up?

Bowie had heard him play at Montreux Jazz and was blown away by him. He told me about this amazing new guitarist that he thought would be great for the album’s solos.

[Bassist] Carmine Rojas said that he had heard rumors that David wanted Albert King. Is that true?

Not true. Carmine is getting the story a little mixed up. He’s remembering me saying after hearing Stevie’s first sparsely noted solo, “Why didn’t we just get Albert King?” I regretted saying that almost instantly after realizing how carefully Stevie was listening and respecting the space.

What did you think when you first heard Stevie in the studio?

Why didn’t we just get Albert King? But it didn’t take me long to realize Stevie was something pretty special.

Was he easy to work with on those sessions? Did you do anything to make him comfortable?

He was a breeze. He did all his solos in a day or so. In fact, he went out of his way to make us comfortable by having ribs shipped up from Sam’s Barbecue in Austin, Texas.

Was he intimidated at all?

Not one bit. He loved what he’d heard and knew it was important. He loved it.

Did he have any trouble grasping the music or how to attack it?

Not at all. He just listened down a few times and tore into each song.

Were you involved in the touring band at all? If so, what are your recollections of Stevie during rehearsals and what led to his not being in the band?

I had nothing to do with the touring band other than the fact that most of the guys were guys David met through me. They were the same guys who’d played on the album.

What are your most vivid memories of the Family style sessions?

The huge amount of fun we had. The food we ate. Delivering the eulogy after Stevie’s death and my adventures in Memphis. It was my 1st time going to Graceland, where I bought a souvenir copy of Elvis’ driver’s license. The immense sadness that washed over me like a wave when I tried to listen to the album to check quality control...I cried like a baby.

Tickets to all shows: www.friendofthebrothersband.com

It seems that Stevie and Jimmie were pretty open about what they would do. How much did you steer it?

I did a lot of steering. Like Bowie’s album Let’s Dance, almost all the musicians and engineers were mine. I co-wrote the 1st single “Tick Tock.” We mainly recorded in NYC, which is my home town, with brief stints in Dallas and Memphis.

They had a short window and no band, and little material. Did that feel daunting? Not even a little. That’s what I do. I loved them and had nothing but their best interest at heart.

Can you explain your hunch that Al Berry )bass) and Larry Aberman (drums) would be a good rhythm section for this?

Al, Larry and Rich (Hilton, keys) were some of the finest musicians I knew. They were my band on my VH-1 TV show New Visions. I knew they could easily cut the gig, and I believed that like with Bowie, they’d become the Vaughan Brothers Band.

Al says that he and Larry had a feeling they were originally just going to be used to get sounds before the “heavy hitters” came in. Was this ever really a thought?

It was never even a thought in my mind. It’s funny how differently people experience the same situation. Maybe Al felt that way because he wasn’t in charge and I didn’t speak about it. I just called musicians to make a gig as I’ve done my entire professional life.

What was your contribution to writing “Tick Tock”?

If I remember correctly, the idea originated with me. I’d always loved Kool and The Gang’s music. The intro to one of their songs, “Who’s Gonna Take The Weight,” starts with the phrase “People...the world today’s in a very difficult situation.” I vibe off that and wrote the start of a song called, “People Of The World,” and Jimmie and I retooled it into “Tick Tock.”

What do you remember about recording Brothers with one guitar? Whose idea was that?

I have no independent memory of who suggested it originally, but I’d seen them do it live and was more than game for trying it.

What did you observe in Jimmie and Stevie’s relationship and feelings about working together?

They loved each other greatly. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they hadn’t recorded an album yet. So my approach was to get them over whatever invisible barrier existed that had kept that event from happening until Family Style.

Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.