Liberty DeVitto – An Xperience Interview – by Liam Sweeny.
RRX: The club was called “My House,” in Plainview, Long Island. You played there, Billy Joel played there, you knew who each other was. Paint for me that scene, that club at that time?
LD: At that time, the club was an underage club. It just served soda; it didn’t have any booze or anything like that. And Billy was in a band called the Hassles. I was in a band called the New Rock Workshop. I was 17. Billy was maybe 18. We just kind of passed in the dark because we were both in house bands and sometimes we played together when they didn’t have a featured act. Like the Sole Survivors would play there, or Jackie Wilson would play there, and my band would open for them. And other bands would play there and Billy’s band would open for them. And then sometimes they didn’t have a big act, and both bands played together, mine and Billy’s. So we knew each other from passing in the night, you know, in the dark, just to say hi, that kind of thing.
RRX: I read that Billy Joel was looking for a New York type of drummer when you ended up connecting with him. What’s that term “New York drummer” mean to you, if anything? If it doesn’t mean anything to you, what was Joel looking for?
LD: No, New York-style drummer. He was living in Los Angeles at the time, and he was using studio musicians to make the records, and a different band to go on the road with him. He wanted to move back to New York. He wanted the same band to record with him and go on the road with him. And the New York-style drummer thing was, he wanted somebody who was aggressive, because in the live show, Billy was very aggressive in his piano playing, and he needed somebody to be as aggressive as he was. So that’s what he meant by a New York-style drummer. Because we live in New York City and … here, you are very aggressive at what you do, especially in the City. So that’s what he wanted.
RRX: Aside from being in the Billy Joel band for decades, you’ve done sessions work for Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Stevie Nicks, Rick Wakeman and many others. I would think these people were larger than life, but at the time, they were you’re your coworkers. Can you give me one cool story about any of the people I just mentioned?
LD: The coolest story was with Paul McCartney. I was 13 years old when the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show. So it was prime for me because I had been told by a music teacher when I was in the sixth grade, and I tried to play the buzz roll in the Star Spangled Banner. The teacher said, “Put the sticks down, you’ll never do anything with the drums.” So, being discouraged as I was, to live my dream when I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, I pointed to the TV and I said, ‘Forget the buzz roll. I wanna do what that guy’s doing back there” with Ringo. So now here I am in the studio years later and I’m gonna record with Paul McCartney. And so I’m thinking on the way there, I’m thinking, “He doesn’t know who I am. He doesn’t really care about me or anything like that.” So anyway, I’m in the control room with our producer Phil Ramone. And the first one that walked in was Linda. This is when he was married to Linda, Linda Eastman. And so, she points right at me and says, “I know who you are. We’ve been watching your videos,” and I was like, “Oh my God, you gotta be kidding me. Paul McCartney’s been watching videos that I’ve been in.” And then he walks in the room and it was like the Dead Sea parted, you know, it was unbelievable. He walked up to me and he shook my hand. He said, “Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you.” And then I had to back out of the control room and talk myself down from the excitement that I actually had just shook the hand of a Beatle. The ones that changed my life and set my course for the rest of my life. Now I just took one of their hands. Yeah.
RRX: You were in the studio. Were you playing at different times, or were you playing together?
DL: We played together. It was myself and Paul and, let’s see, Neil Jason was playing bass, Dave Lavat was playing an electronic keyboard, and David Brown was playing guitar. We were all in the studio together; he was singing. But the greatest part was that we did two songs. After the first song, we took a break. We had some pizza and stuff, and we talked about children, having children, and all those things like that. And then when we went back in the studio again – in between – he would be singing Little Richard songs and Jerry Lee Lewis songs. And we’re playing all those songs, and to hear this voice coming through my headphones, and then be able to look up and see him sitting at the piano was unbelievable.
RRX: Lords of 52nd Street. The Slim Kings. More current projects. When you’ve been where you’ve been, had the experiences that you’ve had, where do you go from there musically? Where’s the dividing line between breaking musical ground and just enjoying yourself? Is there a line?
DL: Let’s mention the Lords of 52nd Street. First, Lords of 52nd Street sought me out, as Russell Jr and Richie Kada (who played on those classic Billy Joel songs) and I played on 11 of Billy Joel’s albums. The other guys played on the classic songs, like “Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “You May Be Right,” and “Italian Restaurant,” those tunes. So the Lords, we got together because we were inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. And somebody said, “There’s so many Billy Joel tribute bands out there. You guys are the real deal. You should be playing these songs.” So that’s what we do. We got a guy that does the Billy part. He plays piano and sings; sounds more like Billy than Billy does now. And we put together a band, and we go around and play theaters, and around the country as the Lords of 52nd Street, which is the name that the producer Phil Ramone gave us on the 52nd Street album when he listed the credits. That’s fun because there’s no rehearsal. It’s like, you know how the song goes, let’s do it.
RRX: Last thing is really just, smoke them if you got them. Anything you wanna say?
DL: This thing that is going on, this clinic that I’m doing, Rensselaer at Rocky Music Studio. I’ll be up there on Sunday, November 17, and the doors are at 2 p.m. I will be demonstrating how I created some of the parts for Billy Joel songs. I’ll be playing some new songs and other songs that I’ve played over the years. We’ll also play with a couple of kids that take lessons at the studio, and they picked ‘You May be Right,” they want to play ‘You May Be Right’ with me. So I’ll be doing that and answering all questions, and just talking about the business and talking about what it’s like to have the life of Liberty DeVitto.
