If you were to drive a hundred miles east of Los Angeles’ International Airport you would have passed by a seemingly endless urban and suburban sprawl. You would also undoubtedly notice the San Gabriel Mountains to the north and eventually those vistas would be replaced by the San Bernardino Mountain range. If you were so inclined to take the incline, you could traverse some sparsely traveled roads that wind deep into the remote back country wilderness and up to an elevation of 6,000 feet. It is there you would have found this past December a fresh blanket of snow and the man that has often been referred to as the world’s greatest blues drummer, Richard Innes.

It is not the Southern California of palm tree lined boulevards, movie studios or beaches that you have seen in the postcards or in on T.V. However it is the home of a man who has made a living “beating his way through this wicked, wicked world.” He is what is generally referred to as a “first call musician.” For many he is the only call. It is also interesting to note that you better have his home number because he doesn’t feel the need to carry a cell phone or communicate “on-line” in any way.

Maybe the sparse, and what Innes refers to as a simple life style is a metaphor for his approach to his instrument. One could also just as easily say that Richard Innes is literally and figuratively a mile or so above the rest of the pack when it comes to blues drumming.

Innes is not what I would call soft spoken, but is a man who lets his music do the talking. When he does have something to say it is with purpose and unmistakable clarity. I caught up with Inness a few weeks ago and to me our visit was as refreshing as a deep breath of mountain air. Enjoy a conversation I had with a man of great humility, honesty and candor, Richard Inness.  

David Mac (DM): I very much appreciate your time today Richard.  Where are you from?

RIchard Innes (RI): I am from the state of Washington, but I have been in California since I was about three or four years old. So I’m pretty much a California guy.

DM: How long have you lived up in the mountains?

RI: I have been up here off and on the last thirty years or so. I am a country boy and I just love nature. It is a very simple, peaceful life. I just love it.

DM: I love the mountains. It is beautiful, but it is also pretty remote.

RI: That’s the way I like it.

DM: Do you remember when you were first exposed to music?

RI: I have been listening to music my whole life. My parents had an extensive record collection. My grandparents were into music as well. My grandmother had a copy of Confessn’ the Blues by Jay McShann. That is the song that I believe has the first recorded solo by Charlie Parker. I remember hearing that song on a 78. My grandmother loved that record and played it every day. It left a big impression on me.

In elementary school my friend’s older brothers and sisters had all the cool stuff. We might have had a few 45’s, but the older kids had the LPs. I had this one friend whose older sister had records by Muddy, Wolf, Bo Diddley and guys like that. So I was exposed to some good music at a pretty early age. Plus, some of that stuff was on the radio back in those days. You could hear Jimmy Reed or Slim Harpo on the mainstream commercial radio. I felt very compelled to follow that music and play it.

DM: When did you first start playing?  

RI: I was always way into the drums. I played as early as the sixth grade, but put it down for a while. I took a music class in the 11^th grade. Music was an elective in high school, so I picked that over whatever other choices they had.

DM: Did you have a teacher or mentor who was particularly helpful or encouraging in some way?

RI: I had a real good teacher by the name of Ted Johnson. He played in a band you might remember called Les Brown and his Band of Renown. He was the first trombone in that band.

DM: I do remember. Where did you go to high school?

RI: Ramona High in Riverside...It was while I was in high school I met this guy named Rod Piazza. He lived on the other side of town, but he already had a band and I dug what he was doing. We both had a real interest in this particular style of music known as the blues. I got a drum set and learned halfway how to play it. I asked him, ‘Do you think I could play drums with you?’ He said, ‘Maybe’ so we rehearsed and rehearsed. I eventually ended up in his band.

DM: What kind of music was Rod playing back in those days?

RI: It was stone Chicago blues. We were doing mostly Little Walter and some Muddy, Sonny Boy, some Junior Wells, pretty much all over the Chicago map. We even got a recording contract with Blue Horizon Records out of London.

DM: I had heard someplace that you took some time off with Rod to hit the road with Little Richard’s Band. That had to be a trip.

RI: It was a rough trip is what it was. I’ve got to tell you though, the energy on that show that he put on back in those days was like nothing I have ever seen anywhere...ever. When that band was cooking it felt like the people in the audience were a foot off the ground. It was like some kind of a spiritual experience when he had it really revved up and going. He could really move people.

The greatest show I have ever seen was with Little Richard and Fats Domino. It was in Vinson, Louisiana. We were on this revolving stage and as Fats went off, the stage turned around and there we were with Richard out in front singing and playing Keep a Knockin’. Man you talk about swinging, burning rock&roll, it was happening. He was still at the top of his game, no question.

DM: How long were you with the Little Richard band?

RI: I was with him for a month or two in 1970. It got unbearable, so I just went home.

DM: Unbearable?

RI: Let’s just say we didn’t get along sexually. He had some ideas that I had no interest in.

DM: At this point, you were now back working with Rod. I know this pre-dates the Mighty Flyers. What was the name of Rod’s band back then?

RI: It was simply called, The Rod Piazza Blues Band and then Bacon Fat when we had the record contract. I was with Rod for five or six years or so. Then Rod got real sick and I had to bail on him, as did our bass player Jerry Smith. I felt real bad about that. I still feel bad, but I had bills too.

That’s when I met Al (Blake). That was in about 1973. He had Fred Kaplan on piano and Hollywood Fats on guitar. They were all friends and doing trio gigs in those days when I hooked up with them. We brought in Jerry on bass.  

DM: How long was Jerry with the band?

RI: Jerry didn’t work out, so he left after a few months and we got Larry Taylor in there. He was still with Canned Heat which was a pretty big deal back in those days.  

DM: There are those who consider the classic lineup of the Hollywood Fats Band to be one of the preeminent ensembles in modern blues. I know that is a long time ago, but what are your thoughts and recollections about that experience.

RI: I thought we were pretty good at what we were doing at the time, but there was very little appreciation for what we were doing at the time. We played in Laguna Beach a lot, Huntington Beach, places like that, but after about ten years of beating our heads against the wall and still standing on square one, we pretty much dissolved. I guess we didn’t complety dissolve. We did get together briefly right before Fats died and then the rest of us have reunited on Al’s solo albums and on what we call The Hollywood Blue Flames,who made three records over the past few years. We still do gigs occasionally when our schedules allow.

DM: In your opinion why did the Fats Band, with that much talent and musical acumen, a band that is still revered to this day, attract so little attention back then?

RI: We were just so foreign. There were all these big hair rock bands out there. We didn’t look like rock stars to say the least. I think one thing that is noteworthy is that nobody was using an upright bass in those days...nobody. People were not used to seeing that on stage for instance.

DM: I suspect it was a conscious decision on the part of the band to use an upright as opposed to an electric bass.

RI: That’s right. It was the sound and authenticity that you get with an upright bass which is the sound we were going for. I mean Larry can play an electric bass as well, but you have to have the right instrument to make the right sound. If you are going to make a T-Bone Walker type sound, it just doesn’t work on an electric bass

DM: Richard, face it, those audiences who were used to disco, glam rock, punk rock or whatever the flavor of the month was back then wouldn’t know T- Bone Walker from shinola.   

RI: (laughs) Dave, you are absolutely right about that. Like I said, we just looked and sounded so foreign from anything anyone had seen or heard. We may have been ahead of our time...I don’t know. 

DM: I think history would bear that out. The Hollywood Fats Band exited the stage, so to speak, just ahead of the blues revival of the late 80’s and 90’s. You have had a long association with a musician who had a lot to do with that revival, Kim Wilson.  

RI: Kim was starting to make blues albums without The Fabulous Thunderbirds. The first one was called Tiger Man and it had George Rains on drums. Around this time he moved back out here to Southern California and needed a drummer and I fit the bill for that. So I played on his second “solo” album, That’s Life in the early 90’s. I have been with him ever since.

DM: Twenty plus years and counting. That’s quite a run.

RI: ...and we aren’t done yet. Here’s the thing about Kim; he is the full package. He’s got it all. He’s got the vocals. He obviously has the harmonica chops. I would say hands down, he is the best harmonica player out there. He is also a very hard worker. Make no mistake...Kim Wilson is the real deal. He is special.

Some of my top musical experiences on the road and in the studio have been with Kim. We have cut hundreds of tracks together. A lot of this material is some of the best stuff in my career and I think it is some of the best stuff in his career as well. I think Kim would back me up on that.

DM: The long running Kim Wilson’s Blues All-Stars reunited you with Larry Taylor. Aren’t you and Larry playing on virtually all of Kim’s solo (non T-Bird) recordings? 

RI: Pretty much...in addition to that at the height of everything back in the 90’s we would be out on the road for six to eight weeks at a time. Go home and rest up and back out again. We played a lot of gigs together that’s for sure.

DM: What is it that makes the Innes/Taylor rhythm section the revered musical institution that it has become? To my ears, it is the best. There really isn’t anything like it out there.

RI: Here is what it is in a nutshell. I used to play in Little Richard’s band as we talked about. Larry played in Jerry Lee Lewis’ band a decade earlier, so we have a pretty wide scope on 50’s rock&roll and R&B in our background. In addition to that, Larry has a pretty broad range, jazz wise. We are both into jazz. So we both have a strong jazz foundation that we can also work into the blues thing that we do.

DM: There is history of this type of rhythm section in blues that doesn’t much exist anymore.

RI: Exactly! Thanks Dave for bringing that up. Take Wynonie Harris...he had jazz guys on his records. He had Mingus on bass for instance and guys like Arnett Cobb and all these sax players who were jazz guys. There were a lot of jazz players that were on blues and rhythm and blues records back in the day. Larry and I have some of that. You are right, not too many rhythm sections anymore have that in their DNA.  

DM: You played on a lot of gigs with someone who we lost recently, Lynwood Slim.  You were also on several of his recordings. He is a guy who had some jazz in his DNA as well. Let’s talk a little about playing with Slim.

RI: He was just plain fun. His gigs were fun. He had a sense of humor about it. He was fun to work with. He might turn around and look at me and we would laugh about something right on stage. He had a great sense of humor which I think is essential.

The main thing with Slim was he was honest in his performance. He wasn’t trying to be something he wasn’t. He also had that relaxed style which I just love. I am on his albums including the one with Kid Ramos on guitar and Fred Kaplan on piano called Too Small to Dance. We were called the Big Rhythm Combo on that one. I play on Back to Back with Junior Watson and on a great record called Last Call. There are just so many records and sessions I don’t remember them all.

DM: You played on a wonderful album that came out in 2007 called, Going Back Home with Phillip Walker.

RI: That’s right. It is a great record. It is really down home. I like playing the down home stuff. I believe that is what I excel at. I have always dug Phillip. I met Lightnin’ Hopkins through Phillip Walker. Larry and I used play with Lightnin’ Hopkins at the Ashgrove in L.A. and at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach.

DM: It must have been a kick in the pants to play with an icon like that.

RI:  You talk about a thrill... you don’t know what he is going to do next. He was full of laughs man. Lightnin’ was the greatest.  

DM: The fact is you played with many of the old masters way back in the day with the Fats Band.

RI: We got to play with all those old blues guys and let me tell you there were a lot of them out here back in the day. Dave, I was just lucky to be here in the L.A. area that’s all. Many of the great bluesmen ended up in L.A. because the record companies were here. If I had lived in another city I wouldn’t have those opportunities.  

DM: Do you remember some of the players that you got the opportunity to play with back in the day?

RI: Let’s see...Big Joe Turner, Roy Brown, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Lloyd Glenn, Percy Mayfield, Johnny Shines, Louis Myers and Otis Rush, Albert Collins as well as Lightnin’, who I mentioned, come to mind.  

DM: You were still a very young man back in the 70’s and there you are quite literally sitting in the same spot as Earl Palmer for instance. Did you have an appreciation at the time as to what kind of a heady situation in which you found yourself?

RI: Absolutely! These were giants. I respected these men like my father. Do you know what these men did? These men taught you how to BE a man. That’s what they did.

DM: You have played with so many musicians through the years. Even this short list for instance encompasses so many styles within the blues idiom. How do you adjust your playing to accommodate so many styles?   

RI: It is pretty simple. I play the song. I play what I think the composition requires. I apply myself to the song rather than to try and second guess what this guy wants me to do or that guy wants me to do. I am generally knowledgeable enough that I am at the very least in the ballpark. (Laughs) Let’s just say, I don’t get lost very often.  I have always been able to switch gears with these guys pretty easily.

DM: As far as the great blues drummers of the past, are there any that you would like to talk about that have had an impact on your approach to the instrument?

RI: Yes there is. The first one is a guy who gets overlooked a lot and that is S.P. Leary. He was one of the most brilliant stylists of all time. S.P. Leary could burn it down. He could scare the shit out of you. He could really play.

He made some duet recordings with Otis Spann on those records from the series called Chicago/ The Blues/ Today. I saw those guys live in L.A. and they cooked even more than their playing on those records, if you can believe that. S.P.’s style is unique and he doesn’t get much credit for that. When he was on, he could sure swing that stuff. Fred Below is another favorite, Odie Payne is another. There are just so many; you have B.B. King’s guys like Sonny Freeman. You have Earl Palmer who played with everybody, both in New Orleans and Los Angeles. Again, there are just so many guys that have had at least some impact on my approach.

DM: I don’t know if you are aware of this, but there are those out there that consider you the world’s greatest blues drummer. What is it about your playing that puts you in that discussion?

RI: Let me start off by saying I never thought about myself as being the greatest anything. I will say, I always feel compelled to do my best. When I pick up those sticks I am all there...100%. I keep it simple and make every note count. I always keep in mind that it is not about me, it is about the song.

DM: That could be some pretty sage advice for anybody trying to learn this music. Is there something very specific about your style that might separate your playing from others or something you would like to impart to young people who are trying to learn the seemingly lost art of blues drumming?

RI: I play with a slightly delayed back beat which puts some air between the notes. It gives the music a chance to breathe. I think it makes the entire band sound better which of course is the whole idea in the first place.   

DM: What do you have on your calendar in the immediate future?

RI: The Kim Wilson Blues All-Stars are working on a new release as we speak. We have about twenty five tracks in the can and are going to be going back in the studio here in a week or so and cut a bunch more. Kim is talking about making a limited edition two record set on vinyl, kind of a collector’s edition kind of thing. Whether that happens or not we will just have to wait and see. Don’t hold me to that. It is definitely coming out on CD.

DM: Let’s run down who is going to be on the new record and the players that make up this all-star ensemble.

RI: There is Larry and myself as well as Barrelhouse Chuck on piano and Billy Flynn on guitar. There is also a new member of the band, Big Jon Atkinson. He also plays guitar on the album. We recorded the whole thing down at Nathan James’ place in Oceanside. Nathan even plays guitar on a few tracks.

DM: I know there have been some discussions regarding a new Hollywood Blue Flames album.

RI: That’s right. We are planning on going into the studio in January to do another album. Al has a whole new batch of songs. We are planning on having Big Jon on that record as well. That is supposed to take place in January, so I am also looking forward to that.  

DM: You must have done several interviews in your long and high profile career. However, while doing my research for this interview, I couldn’t find any.

RI: There is a reason for that. I haven’t done any. 

DM: Why?

RI: Because the writers out there just don’t care about the rhythm section. They want the guitar player or front man/singer. I mean who wants to talk to the drummer. He is just the guy in the back. I don’t mind, I still do what I do and you know what...they can’t do it without me. (laughs)

DM: I also noticed you have never “won” one of those Blues Music Awards that this Blues Foundation gives out each year in Memphis. Congratulations, you are in excellent company.

RI: (laughs) Thanks Dave...I guess I must have been an ok drummer for a couple of years because I got nominated twice a few years ago, but lost out to Sam Lay. I thought he did a pretty good job back in the 60’s and 70’s. At least they gave it to a guy who I think deserved it.   

DM: Let me shift gears if you don’t mind. It is my understanding Richard that you are dealing with some pretty serious health issues at the moment. I respect that you are entitled to your privacy as it relates to this or anything else for that matter, so if you don’t want to talk about that I understand.  

RI: No problem...I came down with colon cancer and then another cancer in my throat, but I have been fighting it for a about a year and a half with chemo and radiation. The chemo has kept the cancer numbers down so I’m doing alright. I’m still playing gigs. I’m still doing what I do. I consider myself lucky at this point. I’m not done yet. I’m eatin’ the bear now and the bear ain’t eatin’ me every day. So that’s a good thing.

DM: That’s a very good thing. Richard, you have played on so many significant recordings and with the best musicians in the business over the past few decades, I know we couldn’t even attempt to cover them all, so I didn’t even try, but is there anything you would like to talk about that we didn’t cover or that I didn’t ask you.

RI: I would like to let your readers know that I am just so grateful that I was born when I was born and that I am able to involve myself in the music that I love. I love this music as much as I love anything. I have been very successful in that I have had the opportunity to play with the people that I respected. As far as the music goes, I have had a great life. I am just so respectful of this music and so grateful that I have been able to play it.

You know I have been doing this for a very long time and have always been kind of in the shadows, which is fine by me, but after all these years I do appreciate you shining a spotlight in my direction. Thanks Dave.  

DM: Thank you Richard this has been an honor and a privilege to get a chance to visit with you today. Thanks for your candor and thanks for all of your musical contributions to the blues lexicon. 

Click here for Richard's Discography