Gary James' Interview With
Kal David



Kal David has been in bands that have played The Whisky A Go Go and Hollywood's China Club. In the process, performers like Brian Wilson, Stephen Stills, Joe Walsh and Stevie Wonder, to name just a few, would share the stage with Kal and his bandmates. Kal David's stories are just some of the best this interviewer has ever heard!

Q - Kal, if you're wondering why we're talking today, it's because I came across your name, actually the name of your group, Illinois Speed Pass, in a magazine that was published fifty years ago, devoted to groups that played the Fillmore East and the Fillmore West.

A - Well, Illinois Speed Pass did play both venues. We played Fillmore West with Janis Joplin and Big Brother And The Holding Company, and the opening act, Richie Havens. Then we played Fillmore West with Alvin Lee and Ten Years After.

Q - What was it like to open for Janis Joplin? You must have talked to her, didn't you?

A - Yeah, I did. I went into her dressing room. I said hi. She said hi. I said to her, "Can I have some of your Southern Comfort, Babe?" She looks at me in the eye and says, "My name's not Babe." I said, "Oooh K. Very nice to meet you. See you later." I think she had just had an operation and she was laying down and trying to make herself comfortable. But when she hit that stage, man, she was just all over that stage. You would never know that she was sick at all, but she was sick in the dressing room. She was. But she did an unbelievable show. I made friends with Richie Havens back then. I'd seen him over the years. I love Richie. In fact, he came into a club I was playing. He was playing there the following night. So, he arrived and saw me there and picked me up off the ground, (laughs) and gave me a big hug. Richie was great.

Q - How about Alvin Lee on the other side of the country?

A - Yeah, I never really spoke with him too much.

Q - How about Bill Graham, did you ever meet him?

A - Yeah. Great guy. He had everybody set up on the stage and the risers were on wheels. So the whole band was set up on a riser that was on wheels and he could push it off the stage and push the next band up. And so the changeover time, instead of having everybody set up, everybody was all set up. It was five minutes between bands. It was amazing. I never saw anything like that.

Q - How much would it have cost to see you and Janis at the Fillmore West? Do you remember?

A - Oh, yeah. Big time. Probably three bucks. (laughs) I met a lot of people along the way. Taj Mahal was a buddy. I've seen him many times over the years. Really sweet, terrific Blues man. He's like the consummate Blues man. His music encompasses the history of the Blues. I admire him. But I played these festivals they used to have in the old days. There'd be my band and Blue Cheer and Jefferson Airplane and Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night. All these bands. We were all like together. Johnny Winter. Edgar Winter. These are great memories for me going back in my history, back when I was an infant.

Q - That's the thing about the '60s and '70s, you got to see all these different musical groups on the same bill. I recall seeing a concert in August of 1972 with Uriah Heep as the headliner and the other two acts on the bill were ZZ Top and Earth, Wind And Fire. That's a line-up you wouldn't see today.

A - Oh, man. I mean, Earth, Wind And Fire would have been enough. (laughs)

Q - And in August of 1971 I saw Creedence with Bo Diddley as the opening act.

A - Wow! I played with Bo Diddley one time. I remember I got a call to do this gig with Bo Diddley. Little story here. I went down to the sound check, rehearsal thing and got all set and Bo said, "You know my music, right?" I said, "Sure. I know your music, man. Everybody knows your music. I know that one chord." (laughs) So I start playing. He stops. "What are you playing?" I said, "I'm playing your song, man." He says, "Well, that's my part!" (laughs) You know, the Bo Diddley beat. "That's my part!" I said, "Well what would you have me play Mr. Diddley?" He said, "You play chink, chink, chink, two, three, four, chink, chink, chink, two, three, four." And I played that the whole night while he was playing the other thing. (laughs) He was a trip, Bo Diddley. He was really a trip, that guy.

Q - This is some neighborhood you grew up in, in Chicago. You put together a band called Kal David And The Exceptions with Peter Cetera and Marty Grebb. Kal David And The Exceptions had an experienced lineup!

A - I was very fortunate to run into some of the best musicians that Chicago had to offer out there on the South side. There was actually a club, when I was younger, called Toppel's Under 21 Club. Did you ever hear of that?

Q - I can't say that I have.

A - It was run by two brothers, Dick and Bob Toppel. They had a stage and you could buy near-beer and you could buy soft drinks. Bands would come there and play. I used to go there a lot. Some of the best guys would go in there, and we were all kids, 18, 19, learning our craft. I met Marty there. He was playing there with a group with four saxophones. I met Paul Cotton there. Also, the drummer we worked with, Denny Ebert, he used to call himself Denny Dean. I met Denny there. I had this idea to put together like a super kind of group and just play around. We ended up doing very well. And we were critically acclaimed at the time. So, by the time we were all 21, actually Marty was a little younger, we were playing bars. I mean, in Chicago it's a really good training ground because most of the gigs are 9 PM to 5 AM on Saturdays. 9 PM to 4 AM on the weeknights. You play seven sets, seven sets! 45/15.

Q - One band has to play all those hours? That's the kind of thing I heard about Hamburg, Germany. The only difference was there were three or four bands that would rotate the time they'd be onstage. You had to lay seven sets?

A - Absolutely.

Q - Your voice and fingers can't hold out, can they?

A - Somehow we managed to do it and survive. I was playing The Whisky in Chicago and that's a five night a week gig, 9 PM to 4 AM and then 9 PM to 5 AM on weekends. 45/15. You had a fifteen minute break. Seven sets a night. I'd be coming home from Saturday night and my Dad would be going out to play golf. (laughs) "Hi Dad." "Hi son." I was still living at home, but I was a nightlife guy, playing on the wrong side of daylight.

Q - That's what your job entailed.

A - Yeah. It was really great training, I'll tell you. My chops were so up when I was in my twenties. Actually, my chops were up for many years. Sometimes I'd be playing five night a week gigs and then I'd look for a Monday or Tuesday gig. And so, I would be playing seven nights a week. Seven nights a week, man. Long gigs. I just couldn't get enough of it then. If I had a night off, it'd make me nuts.

Q - You were a determined musician, that's for sure.

A - Well, I really felt it. And I still do. It's a funny thing about music. You can get lost in it. Inspiration is all around.

Q - In 1966 you won a regional Battle Of The Bands with the grand prize of an appearance on American Bandstand. What was that experience like, meeting Dick Clark?

A - Oh, he was cool. He was a really cool guy. He really kind of started us on the road we were meant to be on. By leaving Chicago and appearing on that show, the world gets smaller when you travel. I always thought about California. I always thought that maybe I'd go there some time. Actually, when I was twelve my family moved to California and then we moved back to Chicago when I was fourteen. (laughs) It was a great experience and it was amazing we won. All those bands! I think there were fourteen or fifteen bands that were competing and we won.

Q - What songs did you play?

A - I have no idea. (laughs) I don't have any recollection of the songs we played. I'm sure they were covers. We weren't writing at that point. But, we were called The Rovin' Kind.

Q - Right.

A - And The Rovin' Kind, when we got our record deal with Columbia, we changed our name to Illinois Speed Press. We were discovered by Jimmy Guercio, the guy that did Chicago.

Q - Their record producer.

A - So, Jimmy decided we should be called Illinois Speed Press. It's the name of an old newspaper they saw on the side of a building. He said, "Okay. You can be Illinois Speed Press." Kind of a psychedelic sounding name.

Q - I like The Rovin' Kind better.

A - Eh. (laughs)

Q - Do you like Illinois Speed Press better than The Rovin' Kind?

A - I think I did. I don't really care now. (laughs) It's all part of my history now. A long time ago. There's so much that I've done since then that it's hard to remember how I felt at the time, although I do have some great recollections of beginning to go on the road and discovering what it was all about. This is back at a time when four guys would get in a truck, a twelve foot truck. A couple of guys could ride in the front and couple of guys could sit on the equipment in back, sucking in fumes. We didn't care. We went all over the place like that. All over the place. Couldn't do that now. (laughs)

Q - No, you couldn't 'cause there's no place to play.

A - Well, right now there's no place to play, but I have faith that there will be live music again and there's going to be some kind of normal. I have faith in that. You can't keep it down forever.

Q - The Rovin' Kind had two singles out. One was on Roulette and the other was on Dunwich. Is that correct?

A - Yeah. Dunwich Records was in Chicago. That was our first forte into the record business. We actually recorded covers. I don't even know why we did it, but we recorded "My Generation" by The Who. (laughs) Why would anybody want to re-do that? But, we did. We were performing these things live and we were scouted by this record company. We didn't have any original songs, so we just did the stuff we were doing in the clubs. I sang "Didn't Want To Have To Do It" by The Lovin' Spoonful. On the B-side, we did a Monkees' song. (laughs)

Q - You were all over the map, weren't you?

A - Well, you know... Anyway, we did do some Blues back then because Blues was very much a part of my upbringing. I didn't realize it at the time, but there was a lot of stuff on the radio in Chicago that was Blues based or just Blues. I mean, Jimmy Reed was all over Chicago radio. I don't know if he was all over the country. We learned a lot of Jimmy Reed songs. I felt that they were easy. Then I realized, not so easy. It's kind of subtle what they do. Blues became my favorite genre. I've been doing it ever since. I've been recording my solo stuff, which is years ago in the '80s.

Q - The Rovin' Kind were the house band at The Whisky A Go Go. Are we talking Los Angeles?

A - No, Chicago. There's a Whiskey in Chicago.

Q - I didn't know that. Did any famous musicians of the time come through that Whiskey in Chicago?

A - Jackie Wilson did a gig at The Whiskey. We were there and man, he was amazing. I never saw anybody perspire as much. (laughs) He sweated through his shirt, his jacket. He was killin' it. He was all over the place. He was just wonderful.

Q - I always thought of The Whiskey A Go Go as being in Los Angeles.

A - We played there too. We played The Whiskey in L.A. quite a bit.

Q - Okay, so did Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix ever come into the club while you were performing?

A - Jim Morrison came there often. He would dance around on the dance floor and then he would crawl up on the stage and he would do that snake dance that he does. (laughs) He was kind of crazy.

Q - He would dance on the dance floor by himself or with a partner?

A - He would dance by himself on the dance floor and then he would crawl up on the stage, which was pretty high. The stage at The Whiskey was pretty high. It was like five feet high. He would get up there and dance in from of the band by himself.

Q - He wouldn't sing with you guys, would he?

A - Oh, no. He never did. And Hendrix came in there. I went and sat with him in a booth. I said, "I got something to show you." I showed him a picture of Jimmy James with Curtis Knight And The Squires. Jimmy had a process and he was wearing a bow tie. He just chuckles. Unfortunately, I did not get him to sign that photo. I still have that photo. If he signed it, it would have been quite a keepsake. Stephen Stills came through there. I was onstage and one of the songs we were doing was a Buffalo Springfield song called "Hung Upside Down". So, we performed it and then Stills came up to me 'cause I was singing it and said, "Hey, that was pretty good." I said, "Thanks, man." My road manager came running up to me and he said, "What did he say? What did he say?" I said, "Who?" He said, "That guy you were just talking to. That's Steve Stills." I said, "Oh, was it? He liked 'Hung Upside Down'." So many people came in there. Eric Burdon came in there a lot.

Q - You also performed at Hollywood's China Club with your band, The Kal David Band.

A - Oh, yeah. That was later on.

Q - You did something called the Pro-Jam there. You really had the best of both worlds. You had your own band and then people like Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder and Stephen Stills would come on stage with you.

A - Yeah. Absolutely. John Entwistle played there often with us. Rick James was there quite a bit. Paul Young played there, sat in with us. The night that Paul Young was there, I knew we were going to do "Everytime You Go Away" and I own a Coral electric sitar, the instrument that played a major role in that record. So, I brought that with me and played the sitar. Then Redbone shows up. They had a record called "Come And Get Your Love". On that record there was also a Coral electric sitar which I had onstage with me when they showed up. So, they started that tune and they didn't expect that I would have that instrument. It was pretty cool. In my band we had four or five brass players every week. Mostly it was guys from Tower Of Power or Jack Mack And The Heart Attack. The best horn players in town, the best guys. I had a great bass player, a great drummer. We had a full rhythm section plus the horns and percussion. I had Arnold Lucas playing percussion. He's great. Then of course Laurie (Kal's wife) had her group, The Brunettes singing background for me. So, it was nine, ten pieces. Something like that, A big group, but it was a big venue.

Q - You were a studio musician at one point. You played on Johnny Rivers' records?

A - Yeah, and I toured with John quite a bit.

Q - What was he like to work with?

A - Johnny's great. He's a better singer than you would realize. He's really a good singer. He's not that great of a guitar player, which is why he always carries a guitar player with him. But sometimes when he's got the small gigs, like when he plays state fairs, he'll play the guitar solos himself. He ain't bad, but he's not like the best. But his singing is just spot on. He's really good. He gets a little nervous when he's got a gig. He's like, "Don't talk to me!" (laughs)

Q - Did he play that guitar solo on "Memphis"?

A - Yes, he did.

Q - That's not bad.

A - Not bad at all. We used to play that together in unison. On the nights when he was really feeling good about it, he would back up to me and we would play that (solo) together. We'd be touching backs. Back to back. Always good for show. (laughs) People love it. So, we did a lot of cool gigs, all over the world actually with John. Johnny's really a great artist. I'm glad to have worked with him.

Q - Did you work with other artists in the studio?

A - I wasn't first call, but if somebody would be on vacation they'd call me. (laughs) I had a guy who thought of me as his Blues guy, who whenever he had a Bluesy commercial or Bluesy recording to make, he would call me. Unfortunately that guy isn't in business anymore. Everybody's got a studio in their house now. So, it's not the same anymore at all. I don't do much studio work at all anymore. There was a time. I had a McDonald's commercial and every day I had checks, like four or five checks with fifty bucks, sometimes three checks for fifty bucks. It was a summer commercial, so that lasted for three months. Then it repeated again the following summer. That's nice. (laughs) Commercial residuals are really nice. I worked on an album with Jennifer Warnes called "Famous Blue Raincoat". The original title was "Jenny Sings Lenny". It was all Leonard Cohen songs. "Jenny Sings Lenny" was kind of a lame title, so they changed it to "Famous Blue Raincoat". I'm all over that. That was a very interesting recording session, or several days of recording. The vocals were very intense. They were written out by the guy who arranged for Brian Wilson. I can't think of his name right now. He did some arrangements for The Beach Boys. He did these vocal arrangements that were written out and we had to read them and they were like five parts, different stuff at different times. Some of the best singers in L.A. dropped out of those sessions because it was too difficult.

Q - Does that mean you could read music?

A - I could. I don't do it every day, so I don't read quick, but I can. When I'm doing it a lot, it's a lot easier. I read the hell out of a chord chart. If somebody throws me a chord chart, I can come up with parts and play a really nice thing. But if they throw an actual chart in front of me that's got music written out, I need to spend some time with it. Sometimes when you're in the studio they throw you the chart and the red light goes on and that's it. You've got to play it right the first time without a mistake. (laughs)

Q - And if you do make a mistake, you don't get a call back.

A - You got it. I've been in situations like that where, "Okay, here you go. Rolling." I'm like, "Wait a minute. Where's this on the guitar?" And so, I would have to pause and just study it for a minute before they turned the light on. There were times when I didn't get a call back definitely because of that. That's okay. I'd rather do a session where they're hiring me for me like this guy that thought of me as the Blues guy for his company and whenever he had something in that bag, he would call me and I'd play it.

Q - You were signed to King Records and later Vee Jay Records. What year were you signed to Vee Jay?

A - Oh, man. I was a kid. That would have been '61, '62, something like that, '63. I was signed to King Records and I went down and met with Sonny Thompson, who was a guy who wrote and produced all of Freddie King's stuff. I sat with Sonny for awhile. He said to me, "Well, what do you think of Freddie King?" I said, "Who?" And he gives me a collection of Freddie King records and said, "Go home and listen to this stuff and then let's talk again." That changed my life, I'll tell you. Freddie King is a giant. Of all the Kings, I love B.B. and I love Albert. I love them all, but Freddie was certainly a hero.

Q - And immortalized in "We're An American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad. Up all night with Freddie King. I got to tell you, poker's his thing.

A - Yup. I was up all night with Freddie King too. (laughs) I never recorded anything for King. I did some demos. We had a contract that if we didn't record, that would expire in six months. They just let it expire. We never went in the studio. Had some good experiences with King Records. I remember sitting out in front of King Records with Billy "The Kid" Emerson. He had a record called "You Make The Trip And I'll Pop The Whip". (laughs) We were sitting out there and we were in my Mom's car. I used to drive my mom's Pontiac. I was sitting out there and he's drinking Ripple. This was in the afternoon and he's getting high in my car. I'm thinking I hope doesn't spill anything. My mom will smell it and I'll be in trouble. But anyway, that was quite a lesson, working with King. Then I got signed to Vee Jay, which was another Black label in Chicago, owned by Vivian Carter and I can't remember their names now. They were great. They were really cool. I had really nice experiences up there. My producer was Calvin Carter. Calvin Carter was one of The Spaniels, if you remember from the '50s, The Spaniels. Well, he threw me in a room with John Lee Hooker. I had my guitar. Hooker had his guitar. He said, "You guys just play for awhile." So there I am with John Lee Hooker. I noticed that he wasn't playing the change properly, like in a twelve bar Blues, he's playing thirteen, fourteen bars, sometimes eleven. Whenever he felt like making a change, whenever his Mississippi upbringing would tell him this is, when I'm done making a statement, you'd make the change. I wasn't going to say to him, "Excuse Mr. Hooker, but you're not playing the Blues properly." (laughs) I wasn't gong to say that to John Lee Hooker. But I learned a whole lot about, watching the guy and following him and making sure I was playing the right changes because the right changes could be what he was doing, not what I think is right. If it's not exactly twelve bars, it's still the Blues. And nobody knew the Blues better than Hooker.

Q - Keith Richards would probably envy you.

A - Yeah. Keith Richards. I had a chance to jam with Keith Richards too. I was playing with Etta James and we were playing at the Lonestar Cafe in New York City. All of a sudden I see some girls carrying a guitar case, like six girls walked in and they've got this one guitar case and then I see some guys with an amp. They're carrying an amp over their heads 'cause it's a small club and it's packed. So, they're carrying this amplifier over their heads. Then behind this entourage is Keith Richards. We take a break, go into the dressing room and there's Keith. He's offering us whatever he had. I won't say, but he had half a bottle of Jack that he had drunk the first half of the bottle himself and he had some other things to offer. And then we went onstage and played a Keith Richards song that Etta recorded. What was the name of that song?

Q - I wouldn't know. I'm more of a Brian Jones fan myself.

A - Yeah, I like Brian because he was the first guy I ever saw playing a Firebird guitar, before Johnny Winter. I said, "That's an interesting guitar." Then somebody offered one to me, the guy at Barney Kessel's Guitar World in Hollywood. I brought my SG guitar in there because the neck came right off. So they were re-attaching the neck on my SG and he said, "Well, take this guitar to use. It's a Firebird." I said, "That's a funny looking guitar." They never got it back. I played that guitar for years. In fact, I still play it. I'm a Firebird guy. So, thanks to Brian Jones. (laughs)

Q - I take it you never met Brian Jones.

A - No. No, I never did. And I never had the pleasure of meeting Mick Jagger, although I did hang out with Keith for awhile.

Q - Did you like Keith Richards?

A - Oh, yeah. He was a very amiable, friendly, approachable guy, for a guy that's a Rock star like Keith Richards that would have people schleping an amp over their head so he could sit in on one or two songs. (laughs) He was a real Rock star, but he was a really down to earth person. I think it's because where he came from, humble beginnings and all that. He lives in Connecticut of all places. But yeah, I liked Keith.

Q - You're saying Keith Richards lives in Connecticut today?

A - Yeah. When they're touring the States he's got a home there. And so he just stays there. I don't know if he has a plane, but he goes where he needs to go. I think Clapton lives here too when he's in the States, but he has a plane. He flies home every night. He goes to a gig, plays, and they fly him home. He never sleeps in a hotel. He goes back to his bed wherever he is.

Q - I don't blame him. Do you? After all these tours and spending all that time in hotels.

A - If I could. I remember when Clapton said "I'm gonna stop when I' 70." Then he's 71 and he didn't stop and he still hasn't stopped.

Q - The Beatles had some releases on Vee Jay, the label you were on.

A - Yeah, their first stuff. "Twist And Shout" came out on Vee Jay Records. And so did "Please Please Me". They were also signed to Capitol Records, so those two companies got into a big lawsuit. Eventually they ended up on Capitol of course.

Q - When you were on Vee Jay, did you ever see a photo of The Beatles or hear their music, before they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show?

A - I definitely did. I definitely dug 'em from the every first note I heard. I was a fan of The Beatles. Peter (Cetera) was a huge McCartney fan. You could probably tell by what he played on all the Chicago records. He's big on Paul McCartney's melodic style of playing the bass. I met John Lennon, but I never met any of the other Beatle guys. When I joined the Fabulous Rhinestones, there was a gig, an anti-war demonstration gig in New York City. They closed down 6th Avenue and the stage was at the top of 6th Avenue and as far as I could see were people. All the way down 6th Avenue, for blocks and blocks were people. It was a light rain, so there were a lot of umbrellas bouncing up and down. It was rumored that John Lennon was gonna show up. We did "Give Peace A Chance", and so we're playing the song and he turns to me, 'cause I'm the leader of the band, and say's "Keep on playing." So, we did and he and Yoko left the stage and got back in their limo and drove off. So those were the only words he said to me. In my heart I felt like John Lennon told me to keep on playing. So, I'm still playing. (laughs)

Q - Do you remember what year you heard The Beatles records on Vee Jay?

A - I don't really remember the year. A lot of that stuff is pretty hazy to me right now. Our producer, Calvin Carter did play these Masters for us before they were released 'cause we were there at the time.

Q - Did you see The Beatles' photos as well?

A - Yeah. I saw the album cover.

Q - What did you think of their haircuts?

A - I stopped, we stopped cutting our hair at the time. We started dressing a little more English. There were a couple of stores in Chicago that you might find on Carnaby Street in London. I was one of the first kids on my block to have Beatle boots. I actually bought a couple of suits with Nehur collars, but that didn't last very long. They were out of fashion a couple of months after they were in fashion.

Q - How much success did The Fabulous Rhinestones have? You were in that group for how long?

A - Probably five years. We had a good run. We had an original group of Rhinestones, then we had a second group of Rhinestones. Me and Harvey Brooks were like the main cats. He was a great, amazing bass player. He played for everybody. If you ever get a chance to read his book, it's called View From The Bottom. It details his playing with Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Miles Davis. Harvey and I had this group for quite some time. I've had some great, amazing bass players I've played with, but man, he was just a mutha. He's amazing. Still is. He lives in Israel now. He's playing all the time. But Rhinestones, that was something, I'll tell you.

Q - Why did you decide to shorten your name? Raskin wasn't a bad name. Easy to pronounce and spell.

A - Raskin is not a bad name. When I recorded my very first record, which was on Ardore Records, a pretty obscure Chicago label that didn't ever have a hit, but I did make those records for them. I had a couple of original songs that were written by Carole King way back when. So, we went into the studio and cut those songs and my producer, whose name was Lou Reisner, he said, "You gotta change your name," and I said, "Well, I'll try to think of it." By the time they pressed the record, it said Kal David And The Exceptions. I was like, "Who's that?" (laughs) He changed my name to Kal David. At the time I was in high school, I brought the record to the school store. They had a jukebox. I had to put it on there. I'd go to lunch there and play it for everybody when I was 18. That was pretty cool. The record really never went any place, but I had studio experience by the time I was 17.

Q - You could do that kind of thing back then.

A - There's something pretty special about going into a studio where hits were made.

Official Website: www.KalDavid.com

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