As I describe in the intro below, some 30 years ago now, I met Tony "TC" Coleman.  He was then, playing with a band called Silent Partners. Now, in the summer of 2022, Silent Partners is back with a brand-new album (CD) on the Little Village Foundation label. Like that scorching hot summer night in Houston those many years ago, this scorching hot band’s new CD, Changing Times has been very well received by both critics and the public. With this in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to re-visit an interview I conducted with TC a few years back. This interview has been the most read and most discussed in the 12-year history of BLUES JUNCTION. This not so silent member of Silent Partners lets ‘er rip, which makes it one of my all-time favorites as well.

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Twenty five years ago I was in a blues nightclub in Houston, Texas, called Club Hey Hey. I saw a band that night called Silent Partners. The band’s drummer and singer looked very familiar. I had seen him over the previous several months behind the kit with Albert King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Katie Webster and even the king of the blues himself, B.B. King. So I asked the owner of that establishment, Pete Selin, who happened to be a neighbor and friend of mine, who this drummer was. Pete looked at me like I was a rube and said, “That’s Tony Coleman!” He went on to tell me that his dad was the famous King Coleman who sang the song (Do The) Mashed Potatoes with James Brown’s band.

In the intervening years I have heard numerous recordings that featured this first call drummer. Last January I was visiting with guitarist Otis Grand. He told me I should talk to a drummer named Tony Coleman who Otis described as intelligent, articulate, opinionated, accomplished and a man who has something to say. That combination is a journalist’s dream come true and Tony did not disappoint. Enjoy a conversation with the incomparable Tony Coleman.

David Mac (DM): Let’s talk about your first exposure to music.

Tony Coleman (TC): I was raised by my grandmother in Kissimmee, Florida. She used to put a radio in my crib when I was crying. I used to turn the dial until I heard music and that got my attention. Anytime I heard any kind of music, it didn’t matter what it was, I would tap my feet and clap my hands to the rhythm. That’s all I ever did and I loved it. I don’t know why, but music affected me from the very beginning of my life. I would bang on pots and pans and tap on anything.

DM: Did you pick up any musical instruments before you got into being a drummer?

TC: Drumming was it. I just got into the rhythm. It didn’t matter whether it was country music, jazz, blues or rhythm and blues. If the music had a beat, I was there.

DM: Do you remember getting your first kit?

TC: I do. There was a friend of mine who I went to school with. He and his siblings had a drum kit just sitting in their garage collecting dust. One day I saw it sitting there in the garage and I said, ‘Wow, you have a drum kit. I wish I could have a drum kit.’ The dad said, ‘It is just sitting here. If you want it, you can have it. Take it with you.’ That was my first kit. I was in the fourth grade.

DM: Did you have any kind of training or teaching?

TC: No I didn’t.  If I can hear it, I can play it. That’s the story of my life. I can feel it. I can hear the patterns and I can play them. I was just a natural. It is a gift. Music chose me. I didn’t choose it.

DM: By this point it is the early to mid 60’s and you were probably exposed, like we all were, to a tremendous variety of music that was on the radio in those days. Was there anything in particular that jumped out at you?  

TC: I listened to everything and whoever the drummer was, that is what I was dialed into. If it was the Beatles than I am trying to pick up on what Ringo Star is doing. If it was Sam and Dave then I am listening to Al Jackson Jr., but when I heard James Brown’s band and his drummers, whether it was Jabo Starks, Clyde Stubblefield or Melvin Parker, that blew me over the top. That was it. I thought that I definitely have to be a drummer. 

DM: Was there any particular drummer whose style you emulated?

TC: No... I listened to everybody. I‘m not kidding. It didn’t matter who they were or what they were playing. It could be Bernard Purdy with Aretha Franklin or Levon Helm with the Band. I am listening to the drummers.

DM: How did the broad spectrum of players that you listened to impact your own style?

TC: It made me versatile. When I was still in high school I used to play drums with this disc jockey that played what they called record hops. When I was sixteen I would play dances with this guy. He would have me play the drum beats and rhythms to keep the dancers going between records. So when the record was over, whatever record that was, I would just keep the beat going, whatever that beat happened to be.

DM: What were some of the early experiences you had playing in public with other musicians?  

TC: The first band I ever played with was called Bobby Williams and the Mar-Kings out of Orlando, Florida. It was a big show band and revue, kind of a James Brown style band. We had sixteen people in the band. I was just doing my record hop gig when a friend of mine told me that the musical director for Bobby Williams needed a drummer. So I went over and got the gig. There I am at sixteen years old playing with a bunch of older cats.

DM: The first time I became aware of your drumming was when you hooked up with Otis Clay.

TC: That was my first real professional gig with an artist who was well known. I started with Otis when I got out of the military. I was in the military for a couple of years where we formed a band. One of the guys was from Chicago. He suggested we all move there. We thought we would set that place on fire, but the guys all quit and I ended up working for Otis.

DM: What was that experience like for you?

TC: As you know Dave, Otis Clay is a great singer. Otis is where I really cut my teeth. He was the one that put me in the pocket.

DM: How long were you with Otis?

TC: For about two years, but Otis would refer me to other artists when he wasn’t working.

DM: Such as...

TC: Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Koko Taylor and some of the lesser known local bands. I was, by this time, developing a pretty good reputation as a reliable drummer.

DM: Then you got the big call, the biggest call anybody can get in this field. How did your long association with B.B. King come about?

TC: We were doing what was called, The International Blues Festival. The headliner was B.B. King. Otis Clay was on the bill along with Bobby Bland, Albert King, Little Milton, O.V. Wright, Tyrone Davis and others. We toured all over. The tour wrapped up back in Chicago. We played a jam session at a club in Chicago after the festival. I got up there with the bass player and guitar player from Otis’ band and we did the old Crusaders song Never Make Your Move Too Soon. B.B.’s band had been doing that song, but we killed it. He got up on stage and said, ‘I need to talk to those guys’ and the rest is history.

DM: When was this?

TC: It was September 17^th, 1978. Until last March I had been with B.B. longer than any musician he ever had.

DM: So Boogaloo finally passed you up.

TC: That’s right the trumpet player James “Booglaoo” Bolden has now been with B.B. the longest.

DM: Like Boogaloo ,who took over the trumpet chair from his fellow Houstonian Calvin Owens, you too had some pretty big shoes to fill with Sonny Freeman.   

TC: That’s right. We all loved Sonny. He was one of the baddest shuffle blues drummers around. Not long after I joined the band, Sonny Freeman came to one of our gigs and sat in with the band.

DM: Was that a little intimidating having Sonny Freeman out in the audience watching you and then sitting in with the band?

TC: Everything about those older cats was intimidating to me.

DM: What I think is fascinating is that you traveled the globe with some of the most famous musicians in the world. You were doing exactly what you always wanted to do and getting paid to do it. That must be one of the most gratifying experiences a person can have.

TC: Absolutely. I have been in 98 countries. That’s a long way from Kissimmee, Florida, where I was raised, along with three other siblings, by my grandmother who was on welfare. I remember in high school they asked me which languages I wanted to take, Spanish, German or French...I just told them ‘I don’t need any of that. I can barely speak English.’ I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams having any use for any of those other languages.  

DM: What was it like working for B.B. King?  

TC: Let me put it this way, when you were with B.B. King on a gig you never had a heartache or a headache, a toothache or a belly ache. None of that mattered. It is about the gig.  After the show then you could have your heartache or headache.

I was late for a gig one time. He said, ‘You have one more time to be late.’ I told him my plane was delayed. He said, ‘You had two days to get here, so if you are late again don’t come to work. Just call me and tell me you can’t make it.’

As far as the music was concerned, if there was problem with the music he would let you know. He would say, ‘For two hours I need your undivided attention on stage. After that you can go back to your room, buck naked and hang upside down from the chandelier with a candlestick up your ass for all I care. That’s your business, but when you are on stage with me, I need your undivided attention son.’

DM: I know he has finally slowed down a little in recent years, but I don’t know anybody who has maintained that kind of touring schedule for as long as he has. What made him push so hard?

TC: Because he absolutely LOVES his work. He LOVES what he does. He LOVES everything about it. He LOVES playing. He LOVES the music. He LOVES the people. He LOVES the travel. He has dedicated his whole life to pleasing other people. He talks to every fan after a gig until the last fan goes home.

Even now he can’t play and sing like he used to, but he isn’t going to complain. He isn’t going to fuss. He isn’t going to bitch. He is going to go to work and do the very best he can. Believe me we have been in every kind of situation from the very best to the very worst and he is the same on EVERY gig. I never knew anybody who was that much of a consummate professional in every respect.

DM: Let’s talk about some of the studio work you did with him. There are many recordings you played on with B.B., but there are two albums that really stand out in my mind. Let’s start with the 1994 release, Blues Summit.

TC: Oh man, after making that record I could have died and gone to heaven because we played with just about every major blues person in the world. There was Lowell Fulson, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Ruth Brown, Katie Webster, Etta James, Koko Taylor....

DM: Irma Thomas...

TC: Oh yeah...I mean it goes on forever...Robert Cray, Joe Louis Walker, Kim Wilson. It was just incredible making that record. Then we went and did the live show at B.B. King’s Club in Memphis which is where the live footage was shot for the DVD. That was a lot of fun and the record came out sounding really good.

DM: One of the best B.B. King albums to come out in the past 25 years, and without hesitation my favorite from this period, is Blues on the Bayou. It came out in 1998. I always thought of that as the last really great B.B. King Record.

TC: I love that record! We recorded that in Louisiana in just four days. It is just B.B. and the band. You are right Dave, that is a great album. B.B. still had a lot of energy and that translates onto that record.

DM: When did you finally leave the B.B. King Orchestra for good?

TC: I had to finally put it to an end on March 3^rd, 2013.

 DM: Why did you leave?

 TC: I hate to say this, but he was just getting too old. He has slowed way down and I am just sitting up there keeping time while he talks to the audience and tells stories. I got to play man. I am still on fire. I am a young man. I just got to play. (singing) I’m on FIRE!

Something happened however that really set the wheels in motion for me to leave for good. I was on a gig with B.B. at the Hollywood Bowl. Somebody posted a video on YouTube of B.B. In the video I am back there on the drum riser plain as day keeping time with one hand and texting on my cell phone with the other. I saw it and was embarrassed. I knew it was wrong and I shouldn’t have done it. I asked the guy to take it down and he did, but it made me realize that I have to be playing something and not just sitting there keeping time.

In addition to that, I felt like there comes a time when you have to get out of the nest and fly on your own. B.B. is like blood to me. He is family. We still love each other, but I just have to do my thing.

DM: You had left the band before when you got gigs with the likes of Albert King, Bobby Bland and Katie Webster, as well as touring with your own band, Silent Partners.

TC: That is true. I got fired from B.B’s band five times through the years.

DM: Which means you have been hired by him six times, which leads to a two part question. Why were you fired and why did he keep hiring you back?

TC: Because I am a rebel and very opinionated. I guess that got me into trouble. I grew up a young black rebel. I wasn’t into all that ass kissing. I wasn’t into that ‘Yes sir, boss’ and that type of shit. B.B. is from a different generation and there was a huge difference in the world I grew up in as black person in America and the America that he grew up in. My grandmother used to say, ‘Shut up and do what they say.’ That just isn’t me. So when they said a black man in the south can’t go here or can’t do that, I thought that was crazy.

To answer the second part of your question as to why he kept hiring me back, it is because B.B. loved me and he loved my playing.

DM: Most recently you worked with Ana Popovic. Do you mind talking about this experience?

TC: I don’t mind. I am going to have to be honest about this if you don’t mind.

DM: If you want to express ‘honesty’ you came to the right place Tony.

TC: I produced her last record and did some touring with her.

DM: How did this association come about?

TC: I met Ana in Germany when I was with B.B. She opened for us on three dates over there. I went out and watched her show. I would always go out front and check out the opening band. I would try and see if I could pick up on anything, learn something new and see what that particular band is all about on any given night.

One day we were back stage in the catering area and Ana came up and said, ‘I am Ana Popovic.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know who you are.’ She asked if she could sit down with me while I ate. I told her no problem. Then she asked if I liked her band. I said to her, ‘I think you are alright.’ I didn’t really mean it and she knew it. So we got to talking and I told her that her band needs to be funkier. I said, ‘Your bass player is jumping all over the stage like he has diarrhea, but he’s not playing anything. The drummer might be fast with his hands, but he ain’t laying down no good solid groove, like any good drummer is supposed to. You have a keyboard player and I have no idea why he is even up there.’ She said, ‘What about me?’ I said, ‘You have a nice stage presence.’ I left it at that. She asked me if I produced. I told her I did and she said, ‘Maybe you should produce my next record.’

Then I ran into her backstage at the Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival in Northern California while I was on a gig with B.B. She asked if I had any time off and if so would I produce her record. I told her I did have some time off and I would produce her record.

DM: Why?

TC: I thought she could use some mentorship from an older experienced player. I thought she would appreciate someone of my caliber and stature in the blues business mentoring her.

DM: Is it safe to say that didn’t work out?

TC: No, it did not work out. She rejected most of the things I was trying to share with her. I was trying to help her to get her mind around some of the concepts of blues. She had a hard time adjusting to me because she just doesn’t understand blues music.

I told her ‘Listen, I have heard your records. I DON’T LIKE THEM. They don’t do anything for me Ana. I have heard your music. It doesn’t move me. Other people might like it. That’s fine. I just don’t like it.’ I told her straight up, honestly. Now I told her, ‘I want to give you what I’m about musically. You got to put the rhythm in your blues.’ I told her that she was playing pony tail blues.

DM: What is pony tail blues?

TC: It is people trying to play blues with no rhythm. It’s called pony tail. It isn’t blues. It is like if I said to you Dave ‘Let’s go and have some real good Mexican food’ and I took you to Taco Bell. You wouldn’t stand for it. You would be pissed off. Taco Bell isn’t any more about Mexican culture than Ana Popovic’s music has to do with the culture of the blues.

Dave, as you know, I have toured with Albert King, Bobby Bland, Katie Webster, Johnny Taylor, Etta James and so on, so if I don’t hear those qualities in the music, then it just isn’t music from my culture. It is a different feeling. I am talking about a culture of music. This isn’t a damn hobby. You just can’t pick up a guitar and race up and down the fret board going ‘dweedly, dweedly, dweedly.’ Anybody can do that. That ain’t shit and it certainly ain’t blues.

DM: What is it?

TC: Dave, it is soulless music.

DM: Why does this soulless music have such appeal?

TC: What they are doing is dressing up, or in Ana’s case undressing, an inferior product to market it for mass consumption. It is about lowering the standards. People crave music and they will listen to damn near anything to satisfy that craving. B.B. King, Albert King, Bobby Bland, that is my standard. Of course if you haven’t heard that stuff than people will accept a lower standard to fulfill their need for music.

DM: So essentially it is simply a matter of context and point of reference based on one’s personal experiences with blues music.

TC: You are absolutely right. Hey my grandma can make a hamburger that can kick McDonald’s ass. Ain’t nobody going to buy it only because they haven’t heard of my grandmother. So you get a bunch of half naked woman passing themselves off as blues musicians and get booked at blues festivals and the real players get passed over.

This has a lot to do with the fact that the people who do the marketing are visually oriented. What something sounds like doesn’t even factor into the equation. So you end up with a horrible sounding record with an album cover of a presumably naked Ana Popovic behind a guitar. In fact, I just had an idea. I think I will make an album with my naked black ass standing behind a bass drum. My point is that it is like that old song Video Killed the Radio Star. Now we have all these YouTube video nerds out there obsessed with what the music “looks” like. They are killing the music. If you are just looking, then Ana has got it going on. The question is, are you listening or are you looking?

DM: OK, we have identified the real problem which is real blues musicians are losing gigs to this kind of smoke and mirrors marketing. What is the answer?

TC: The answer lies at the root of all evil in America, which is the uneducated, unappreciative bullshit.  They are uneducated as to the seriousness of what these people represent. They are unappreciative for those who came before. In my country, the United States of America, we have been brain washed not to like the old shit and to love the new shit. It’s marketing. I got a brand new iPhone yesterday and they come out with new one next week. We are programmed and conditioned to want the new one, not because it’s better, but because it is new. There are a lot of old cats who can play the shit out of the blues, but can’t get booked on a festival or get a record deal because they are booking pony tail blues with short skirts. It’s not better, believe me.

DM: Tony it is what I call ‘artificial obsolescence.’

TC: Thank you. I couldn’t have said it any better. The reason blues is so great is because the best blues is timeless. Why? Because it touches your soul. All you have to do is close your eyes and then find out if the music moves you. I mean close your eyes and listen to this artificial new shit and then close your eyes and listen to Albert King. I guarantee you will pick Albert King every single damn time.

DM: You of course are preaching to the choir here Tony, because I have always contended that you could take the average person, I am not talking about musical talents like yourself or an old record nerd like myself, but the average person and let them hear the straight natural blues once in their lives and they will be better off for the experience. It doesn’t have to be couched in any esoteric or academic terms. It doesn’t have to be packaged or marketed in any way. I say, sit down, shut up and listen for five minutes. If that person has a pulse, they will like it.

TC: I couldn’t agree more. We talked about this before Dave but the music of African-Americans has become the music of the world. It is our culture that we have shared with the world. It is our gift to the world.

DM: What is it about this music based in African-American culture that has had such a universal appeal for so long?

TC: It is because it is based on the rhythm of your soul. We don’t have to get into a whole history lesson to go back and analyze this from the beginning of time. Here in America, black people had the church where people are clapping their hands and singing. In America, you always had certain people who didn’t like you just because you were black. You were getting put away, beaten, strung up and pushed to the side. We had to deal with all of this and we dealt with it by making a joyful noise. We have a pray to God to save us, we have a paranoia and we have a kiss my ass all at the same time attitude. That’s black culture in America.

We never had a sense of entitlement. We always felt we had to be twice as good just for a chance of survival and a chance we wouldn’t be pushed to the side. All of that comes out of our music. It is pure raw emotion. You just have to let it go. It all comes through our music. If you just give me a chance, I will make you dance and shout. Listen to a black Baptist preacher and the music in a black Baptist Church and then go and listen to a preacher and the music in a white church. You are probably going to fall asleep in a white church.

DM: (laughing) No way.

TC: You know what I’m talking about. If you are asleep you might miss the message. You go to a black church Dave, we are going to make sure you get the message. We are going to grab you by the throat. You are not going to miss the message, believe me. It is like in the Blues Brothers movie when they are in the church and John Belushi is yelling ‘I see the light. I get it. I get it.’ Blues music is deeply rooted in all of this.

DM: In the past several years however it seems fewer and fewer people are ‘seeing the light.’ Large segments of society are being taught that there is no such a thing as real blues any more. The music that we found so irresistible for so long is being shelved for what you call “Pony Tail Blues” and what I call “Blues–Light.” Is this just complete ineptitude on the part of the powers that be in the blues world? Is it just trying to market this music to a wider i.e. whiter audience? Is it out and out racism or a combination of all these things?  Maybe it is something else all together.

TC: It is combination of all these things of course, as well as something that I like to call, “the shitstem.” It is made up of a bunch of people who have no respect for this music. They are the people who take advantage of this music for their own personal gain and not for the betterment of the music. They aren’t real. They are phonies and they make me sick. They make me want to throw up. They are in the blues business to rape it. Then they want you to kiss their ass. Fuck ‘em. I am not part of that crowd. They don’t do anything for me anyway. They know who they are and, I know Dave, you know who they are. These people need to get the fuck out of the way so the rest of us can get back to keeping it real. 

DM: In the spirit of keeping it real as you say, there is a subject that people try to avoid as if it doesn’t exist and that is race. In my view the subject of race in America is one that should be discussed with a great deal of sensitivity, respect and intelligence, but it should be discussed. 

TC: THANK YOU!  You know we have cultural differences. That is a fact and nobody, well almost nobody Dave, is willing to even talk about it. People are afraid to talk about it. People are afraid they might offend someone. These cultural differences are a beautiful thing. You have the music that is associated with all cultures. You have German culture and the music that is associated with October Fest for instance. Mexican culture on both sides of the border and the music that is associated with that. The music is different and beautiful and those differences in my view should be enjoyed and embraced.

I have a friend I have known for years, Willie Nelson. Willie however dresses a certain way that reflects his culture and what he is about as a guy who grew up in Central Texas. What if one day I decided to put on a cowboy hat and boots? He would say, ‘Tony what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you sick or something?’

Yet you have these white guys who are pretending to be blues men by dressing in two tone shoes and wearing these outfits that look like it is Halloween. They are trying to be a blues man, by dressing like a black man. I say, be like Willie and be your own man.

You got people out there saying ‘It is not about black, it’s not about white it’s about the blues.’ BULLSHIT! Blues is a black thing. Make no mistake about it. Everyone is welcome to enjoy it. Everyone is welcome to attempt to play it, but the blues is black.

DM: Tony there is a lot of very talented white blues players out there and there has been for some time.

TC: I know a lot of white people who are excellent blues musicians who do it their way.  

DM: For example....

TC: Jimmie Vaughan of course. He is coming from a very real place. He was hanging out with Freddy King up in Dallas as a kid. He heard it and he loved it. He listened to it, he studied it and he felt it and made it his own. He always knew what the fuck he wanted to play.

I used to play at Antone’s in Austin, Texas, with B.B and Albert King. Stevie Vaughan would always come down and check us out. He was deeply into it like his brother. This wasn’t a surface thing with them. Stevie became the white blues savior for white blues musicians, who only picked up on one aspect of his playing, but make no mistake he was a very serious musician.

Take Duane and Greg Allman. They felt it. I saw them in Northern Florida when they were called the Allman Joys. They knew it. They learned it from black people in Daytona Beach who weren’t even allowed to sit on the beach. Those guys could play this music because they felt it in their soul. You can’t fake that.

I like Kim Wilson. Check out Delbert McClinton. He can sing the shit out of the blues. That dude has some serious soul going on in his singing. These guys that I mentioned, and there are many others of course, are coming from a very real place. They aren’t like these soulless wankers out there who don’t know shit and they can’t play shit.  

DM: Who is “they?”

TC: You want names.

DM: (laughing) probably not, come to think of it.

TC: In the interest of keeping it real, I’ll give you one anyway, Eric Clapton. He ain’t no blues man. Are you kidding me? He is a blues wanna be. We were hanging out backstage with B.B. and he walked by us and one of the guys said, ‘Wow that’s Eric Clapton.’ I said, ‘Fuck Eric Clapton.’ This guy said, ‘But Tony, he did so much for the blues.’ I told him, ‘The blues did more for Eric Clapton than he ever did for it.’ This guy then tries to explain to me that we brought the blues to England and these English guys got turned on to it. I say, so fucking what. So fucking what...the blues is going to be whatever it is with or without Eric Clapton.

Check out his version of Further on up the Road by Bobby Bland. (singing like Clapton) I listen to that and think ‘What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you have rocks in your mouth?’ Compare that to the original. It is as bad as Pat Boone doing Little Richard songs. You can hear when it’s real. When it comes from the heart, that’s when it’s real.

He used to come to visit with B.B., but he never would even talk to the band. He would walk right by us and not say a word like we didn’t even exist. He wouldn’t even look at us. I don’t like him. I don’t like his music. I don’t like his attitude.

DM: Let’s talk about a guitar player who has lived in London for many years that you have worked with and who was the subject of an interview feature here at BLUES JUNCTION a couple of months ago.

TC: My blues brother Otis Grand! I love Otis Grand. He is heart and soul. He is the real deal. He is honest. He respects the music. I played drums on the album he did with Anson Funderburgh and Debbie Davies years ago. Otis and I both played with Ike Turner. In fact, I played with Ike in your neighborhood Dave over at the old Golden Bear right across from the pier in Huntington Beach. Ike’s talents were phenomenal. I learned a lot about drumming from Ike.

DM: You also worked with another one of the all time greats who like B.B. King and Ike Turner first started making a name for himself in Memphis over sixty years ago...

TC: The great Bobby “Blue” Bland! He was like the Ray Charles of the blues. He had great songs, incredible arrangements and like B.B. said, he was not only the greatest blues singer, he was the greatest singer of any genre.  He also had the best bands. Jabo Starks was Bobby’s drummer before he hooked up with James Brown. He was the guy on Turn on Your Love Light and Don’t Cry No More.... mercy. I got with Bobby in the early eighties.  We would listen to some of his old records and he said ‘You need to play that. If you can play that, then you are my man. When we are on stage and you see my leg moving then you know you are playing it right.’

DM: We have talked about this before, but you hold Bobby Bland personally, as well as professionally, in the highest regard.

TC: Bobby was a very special person. He was one of the sweetest souls ever to walk the planet.

Musically, you couldn’t touch him. His band was not the type of band you could just sit in with. You've got to know what the hell you are doing to play in his band. There are so many chord changes. There are orchestrated parts. If you could play in Bobby’s band you could play with anybody, Ray Charles or Duke Ellington, anybody because there was so much musicality to his stuff. It was arranged that way. It wasn’t just some guy jerkin’ off with his guitar. There was real serious musicality involved.

DM: Yet he had some of the best guitarists in the world come through his bands. Was Wayne Bennett still with the band when you signed on with Bobby?

TC: Yes sir! He was just so good. He could play jazz chords, rhythm parts, fills...everything. I played with both Wayne and Mel Brown. They were both awesome guitarists.

DM: You mentioned jazz chords. Can you play jazz?

TC: I am a jazz faker. Kind of like those blues fakers out there.  Years ago Miles Davis wanted me to join his band. I told him that I am not a jazz drummer. Miles said, (doing a Miles Davis impression) ‘I don’t play any mother fucking jazz, I play Miles.’ I hold jazz drummers in the highest regard and I can fake it, but I know it isn’t real and it is not what I feel. 

DM: (laughing) Your Miles Davis impression is way better than mine. Let’s talk about your drumming. How would you describe your style?

TC: It is crisp. It is solid as a rock. It is about consistency, consistency and more consisistency. I always play to the best of my ability whether it is fast or slow, soft or hard, loud or quiet. I try and give the music a pulse. That pulse is undeniable. You can’t run from it. I know all the accents. I play with feeling. I never play with click tracks. I hate click tracks. If someone wants me to play with click tracks, I don’t care who they are I will tell them to call somebody else. I play with human feel, human time. A lot of drumming today has no heart and no soul. My playing is like the Sears Tower in Chicago. It has to sway to withstand the winds. If it was too rigid it would crash.

DM: What would you like people to know about Tony Coleman that they may not know?

TC: I would like people to know that I am a very diverse person with a variety of interests. I am politically active. I love to golf. I like anything to do with space.

DM: Space?

TC: When I was kid we would drive about an hour to Cape Canaveral and see the rocket launches. I have always had an interest in space exploration. I would like to see us go back to the moon.

DM: Back here on earth, what is next on your musical launch pad?

TC: Oh yeah, a classic David Mac segue. I am working on putting a band together to do a tribute album on Bobby Bland. I am going to gather up a lot of the old guys who had played with Bobby and do a tribute to him.

DM: What stands out as your favorite part of being a musician?  

TC: I love the camaraderie and the respect we musicians have for one another. Working with different guys from different bands who understand each other is very special. When I was first starting out B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Albert King were roughly the same age as I am now. They had so much knowledge, so much wisdom and were so open and willing to share that with us younger guys who wanted to learn. Everyone had such love and respect for one another. They also had love and respect for the music. I really love that.  

DM: In the course of our discussion you had some pretty strong opinions about some particular musicians. You said some very provocative things as it relates to race, culture and what you call the shitstem. So I have to ask you, who cares? Why should anyone care as to what is or isn’t called blues? Why should anybody care which artists get promoted as blues artists by the record labels, managers, talent buyers, blues societies and so on? Who cares if the best selling artists are ones that have no or at the very least, very little idea about blues music? Why should we care if there are blues publications and D.J.s who can give a rat’s ass about this music? Why should we care if pop stars, rock stars and television actors try and pass themselves off as blues musicians? Why do any of these things matter?

TC: Because these things represent the wholesale destruction of our culture. I know that there are people everyday rolling over in their graves and saying, ‘My goodness, this is what our music has turned into. People don’t have any more respect for our creation than this.’ That makes me sad. If this doesn’t turn around I will go to my grave crying. I think there are people out there who have no idea what this music means to our culture. When people take a dump on this music it is not only an embarrassment, it is an insult.

Let me ask you this Dave, do you think that I have spent a lifetime playing with B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Albert King,  Etta James, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Otis Clay and Katie Webster just to name a few, and expect me to like what is going on out there and NOT say anything? These people were serious about the blues and I am not going to treat this music with any less respect than these people who have contributed so much to the music.

DM: Tony, there are those who have said that African- Americans have turned their back on the blues. What are your thoughts as it relates to that assertion?

TC: African-Americans have turned their backs on bad music. Who can blame them? There is nothing worse than bad blues music. I would also like to add that African-Americans are first and foremost Americans. They don’t want to hear about picking cotton and a mule farting in your face any more than anybody else. They don’t want to hear about that shit. They want to be part of the American dream just like everyone else. Those thematic elements of old time blues might be a turn on to some old white hippie dude. Why? I don’t know, but it doesn’t do shit for me. The only cotton I ever picked was out of an aspirin jar.

Let’s take Johnny “Guitar” Watson. He was an innovator and a showman from day one. Black audiences embraced him throughout his career because he always represented something new and exciting. He kept adding elements of funk to his music for instance. He was fun and you can dance to his brand of blues. He sang about universal themes that anybody could relate to. He represented an American success story while playing the blues. That is an irresistible tonic to African- American audiences.

His popularity with black audiences coincided with the white academics “discovering” pre-war acoustic blues players and trotting them out at folk festivals and what not. Black people weren’t attracted to that music in the 1960’s. So the media says, ‘Black people don’t like blues.’ That’s just bullshit.  

DM:  In closing I have to ask you Tony, you have done many interviews through the years. I have read many of them over the past thirty or forty years. None of the ones I have read “sound” anything like this. Has anybody allowed you to speak your mind and then turn around and “publish” your views?

TC: No...

DM: In your opinion, why is that?

TC:  Everybody is afraid of the truth. They would rather be a part of the shitstem than embrace the truth. They want to use the blues to have a platform for their own agendas which has nothing to do with the music. They worry about being liked. They are afraid they will be ostracized if they speak out. They know the truth, but they are afraid. These people, who are offended by the truth, don’t do anything for me anyway. If you don’t like me or my views, I don’t give a damn. I know who I am. I am an American and proud of it. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. So I am free to think what I want and brave enough to say it.

DM: Thank you Tony. This was long overdue. I enjoyed it very much. Stay in touch.

TC: (laughing) Are you kidding Dave? You won’t be able to get rid of me.   

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