Bobby Caldwell
Bobby Caldwell is a drummer who has worked with: Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, The Allman Brothers, Armageddon, Captain Beyond and more. Originally from central Florida, Bobby began to play the drums as a member of the school band. He became seriously interested in becoming a rock drummer in his early teens by watching the older neighborhood kids play at dances. After talking his parents into buying him a drum set, it didn't take long for him to become a sought after man of his craft. When some regional top musicians contacted him to form the band Noah's Ark, they began to tour, and make a major name for themselves. Word spread of Bobby's high energy talent and enthusiasm, and this caught the eye of the Johnny Winter people. Johnny was in Florida during one of their tour stops and contacted Bobby for an audition. A few weeks later, Bobby was touring as a member of "Johnny Winter And". He appears of the top selling album Johnny Winter And Live. Rick Derringer then asked him to record on the smash hit Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo. Bobby was friends with Duane, Gregg and the rest of the Allman Brothers because of the Florida connection. He would frequently sit in with them as a 3rd drummer and percussionist. He performed at the classic Fillmore East shows.
When times changed and things moved on, Bobby formed a supergroup of sorts called "Captain Beyond". This group featured members from Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly. They are still performing today. Bobby also had an outfit with Yardbirds member Keith RaIf called "Armegeddon". Bobby still plays today and tours on a regular basis. I caught up with Bobby after seeing him in Brooklyn with Captain Beyond, to discuss CB and his career.
R.V.B. - Hey Bobby... Robert von Bernewitz calling from Long Island, New York... how are you today?
B.C. - I'm alright Robert... how about yourself?
R.V.B. - I'm doing good. We got some nice fall weather up here. How is the recovery efforts going down in Florida?
B.C. - It's raining like hell right now.
R.V.B. - Did you experience any damage from the hurricane?
B.C. - No damage, but the power was out for one week.
R.V.B. - That must have been tough with the heat.
B.C. - When you depend on electricity, it's tough.
R.V.B. - What part of Florida are you in?
B.C. - The Orlando area.
R.V.B. - Right where the heart of it came through.
B.C. - Pretty much. They really weren't certain where it was going. It was all very vague. Anyway, I'm going to be up in New York in about a month. We're playing at Darryl's House in Pawling. Then we're off to Buffalo, Cleveland and Baltimore.
R.V.B. - It's nice that Captain Beyond is back touring and into the swing of things by spreading the god music around.
B.C. - We're doing our best to accommodate that.
R.V.B. - I certainly enjoyed the show in Brooklyn. You guy rocked the joint. You played some music from your other projects. The overall sound was real good and the band was real tight. It was great to see you get out front and sing a couple of songs.
B.C. - Thank you very much. I used to front my own band out in LA. I've been doing that for my whole life. Although it wouldn't have made much sense to have this up and running without singing some songs and speaking to the audience and having that kind of intimacy. You can't do it as easily when your behind the drums. You have to get out there.
R.V.B. - The drummer is always buried in the background. The guys with the guitars on always get the bright lights.
B.C. - I suppose. I thought that show went pretty well. I'm glad that you made it down. We seemed to have an exciting group of people.
R.V.B - There was a nice turnout. I was cheating towards the back. I'm a little older and I didn't was to stand up front with the young kids. But as an older rocker, I appreciated the great music that was being played. You seemed to have put a very good band together. How did you find the talent in the group?
B.C. - It's just been a vetting process. You go through people and see what they've got to say. That's the short version.
R.V.B. - I saw that you have another percussion guy that could fill in for you when you did come out front. Everyone seemed to do their roles real well. It was like a well oiled machine. How did you get started playing the drums. Why not the guitar or the bass?
B.C. - That's a really good question and I'll tell you why. It's pretty insightful because a person has to think "Let's see... how did fucking Miles Davis end up playing trumpet?" The short version is, I have an older sister. When I was a child, I was always listening to the radio - I'm talking young - like in the first grade. I'm listening to it all the time and starting to become more enchanted with it. I'm trying to figure out, what are these guys playing that's so magnetic? I was just wild about it. This went on for a number of years. When I got to elementary school, I would go and watch all of these local rock bands.
R.V.B. - Was there a lot of them?
B.C. - Yeah. There was. You would think that we were living in Long Island, New York or New Jersey because there were that many. These people were all in high school and I was just a child. I'm begging my parents to give me a ride to these teen dances, where these bands are playing. I would beg my friends to go with me. I'd say "Come on you gotta go!" My friends didn't give two hoots about it. They didn't give a shit because they weren't into music. We're talking 5th or 6th grade. I was sort of like conning them... "Come on John, let's go. It will be really neat and we'll be like by the girls." There were three instruments that were big at that time. One was guitar, one was saxophone and one of those was the drums. As it got going along, I gradually became more interested in the drums, than the others.
R.V.B. - When you pick the drums there has to be a little talking your parents into it because it's a pretty loud instrument.
B.C. - They weren't having it Rob. I'm telling you that pal. Although they loved me, they weren't having it. They would not buy me a drum set, so I joined the school band. Now to be in the school band, you have to learn how to read music. I couldn't read music but I could out play everybody in the fucking band section... excuse my French. I was in the school band and I was kicking right along.
R.V.B. - Did you do the usual snare drum rudiments or was there a full kit?
B.C. - There was no drum kit. I was playing the marching drum. You're playing in the marching band and trying to fit in with the other drummers. Now I'm really getting more interested in it. I'm still going to these dances so now I've got an insight about playing that the other kids in the band didn't have. They had a limited exposure. So pretty soon I'm first chair in the band. I'm marching at all the football games and everybody thinks I'm a swell guy. (Haha) That's pretty much what happened. I just kind of backed into it. There was a buddy of mine whose parents were the antithesis of my parents. It wasn't that my parents didn't support me. My father came from the old school like "Let's just wait and see. We're not paying to get this done... how do you know he's not going to quit?" My friends parents were like the Cleavers... (Leave it to Beaver). Anything you wanted... they got! He and his older brother. They would buy them guitars and amps and drive them to the teen dances they were playing. They were really behind them. They lived a couple of blocks from my house and they would rehearse there. This is a middle class neighborhood. They'd rehearse in the living room. I'd go out front, standing there - like a foaming at the mouth - rabid Doberman. I'm listening to them going "Man!" At this point, I hadn't worked my way into the front door yet. There rehearsing... stopping and starting. My buddy was playing drums in his own band. He was playing with his older brother. So you could only imagine that when I went home to my parents to have dinner... all I could talk about was "How come he's got a drum set? I can outplay him"... all the stuff you do as a kid.
R.V.B. - Did they finally give in?
B.C. - Yeah they finally gave in. I came home one afternoon and my mother finally talked my father into going down and getting this drum set. It was kind of a piece meal kit. It was a used, old, Gretsch set. It was from the 40's and 50's... they were pretty antiquated. That's what I started off with. From there, I would play with all of these groups that I would get into. I started my journey from there.
R.V.B. - How long did you have that set? What did you eventually upgrade to?
B.C. - That black and oyster pearl set is the exact set that I used with Noah's Ar k. It was the exact kit that Ringo had. I happened to find it in a local retailer here. So I bought it! I didn't buy it because it was reminiscent of Ringo's set. I bought it because it was a brand new drum set. I thought "Boy, am I lucky to get this! I don't care if it's orange." That was the same kit that I used with Johnny Winter. I recorded Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo with it.... Captain Beyond.
R.V.B. - When you started your woodshed work and developing your chops, was there anybody that you were trying to emulate.
B.C. - There was so many great players Rob. The people that I was enamored with were Joe Morello, Buddy Rich and the great jazz guys. I would sit there and listen to what they were playing. You either saw them on a TV special or you listened to a record. I would listen to that stuff "Holy shit!!! What are they doing?" I was not only influenced by the great jazz drummers but also a lot by Ringo Starr - stylistically... the way he played. I just thought it was great. There was a whole list of people that, that opened the door for.
R.V.B. - You mention Ringo. I'm a big fan of his and his artistic style of playing. Maybe his chops weren't like Carmine or the other rock greats but he sure knew what to play, where it was needed, and he sure played on a lot of hit songs.
B.C. - (Haha) That's an understatement. What can you say? It almost goes to philosophically, what constitutes a great musician? Is it how many hot licks I can play, like Bud Powell or Art Tatum on piano back in the 30's??? Maybe. Or is it playing the right thing at the right time? Whether it's Bert Bacharach or Amad Jamal or Ray Charles. Am I playing the right thing at the right tie to enhance the music? It's kind of a misunderstanding of the viewer. I understand that people like the flash and all of the fancy stuff. That's your right! All the songs that Ringo played on... you don't have to be Buddy Rich. You just have to bring the best out of the music. That's doing your job.
R.V.B. - You were in a band called the New Englanders prior to Noah's Ark. How did you come up with that name?
B.C. - I didn't come up with the name. These were guys that were all in college. I was like the child prodigy... so to speak. When I was 15, everybody was talking about me. They had to come up and drive me to where the band was playing. The New Englanders were a really good kind of folk rock band. 1965 was the birth of folk rock. Everybody wanted to sound like that, whether it was the Byrds. One of the guys in the band - Nick Hope - later went on to play n a prominent folk band. In the band, everything was jingle jangle guitars. Come 1966, the early stages of heavy music had begun. Do you remember The World Discotheque, out by Roosevelt Raceway?
R.V.B. - Not sure?
B.C. - I started playing there in 1966 with another band from Florida. Here I am and I barely know how to fucking add. When you're 15 or 16 years old, you barely know how to get out of your own way, but you're out there doing it. I'm doing all these things unsupervised and playing all of these places. When I look back on it I say "Boy, it could have been real "dodgey" back then." Somehow the lord looked over us. It wasn't just in New York. I was playing in Florida and I was out trying to do something. I wanted to do something big. I didn't to end up as some goofball around Florida... I had no interest in that. If I was going to do it, I wanted to do something big. That's the way I still feel.
R.V.B. - Sounds like you were on the right track.
B.C. - Well I was trying. Fortunately it worked out. It was touch and go at times.
R.V.B. - Where were you originally from? Did you go back home and form Noah's Ark?
B.C. - I lived near Orlando in Winter Park. I would come and go but I would always go back there. I lived with my parents and they would say "Where did you go last night?" I would say "I played over in so and so". "What time did you get in?" "Oh about 2:30." During that time, this guy wrote me a letter. He lived in Tampa Florida. He was talking about this great group he wants to put together. So I said "Hmmmm??? That sounds like that might not be a bad idea." Pretty soon the formation of Noah's Ark started. We had a lot of big plans. We managed to get two or three singles on Decca... to see if we could get arrested.
R.V.B. - Where do did you record those singles.
B.C. - We did some in Florida and some in New York.
R.V.B. - Were you happy with them?
B.C. - At the time they were probably ok. You have to take those opportunities... whether it's ideal, great or OK. If you could get a record out on anything and get some radio airplay from it... people are talking... that was a big deal. We did what we had to do and got some regional airplay down here.
R.V.B. - Did the record company help out in any way to promote you guys?
B.C. - We got no promotion. We did it on our own. Their idea was like "We'll pay for the recording and we'll put it out. We'll make whatever it makes. If it doesn't do anything, we'll write it off." You have to make a few breakthroughs, like The Rascals did on Atlantic. If they hadn't had any real response from the greater New York area, they would of just been another number. Because they got it Atlantic became "Ohhhh... maybe these guys are a lot greater than we thought. And who's this other band The Lovin' Spoonful? " It works that way.
R.V.B. - You got to get out in the trenches. Were there any gigs that you remember with Noah's Ark, that went real well?
B.C. - Well there was a lot. It was a very, very popular band. We're talking playing Friday and Saturday night... not all week long... a couple of nights a week. If I was bringing home maybe a hundred dollars for those two nights - after gas - I'm doing pretty good. I'm not getting rich but I'm doing pretty darn good. The band was very successful and popular. We played the second Miami Beach Pop Festival as a support group. We played many shows with different people, through the years. Everybody from Grand Funk to Canned Heat. You name it we did it.
R.V.B. - That sounds like you had it going on for sure.
B.C. - We were trying to get somewhere. Little by little the popularity grew.
R.V.B. - How long were you with them?
B.C. - Almost 3 3/4 years.
R.V.B. - So obviously things started picking up for you. You landed some good contacts. How did your break come about?
B.C. - That's a spectacular question and the answer is even more spectacular. This is to show you how fate works. Whatever you put out to the universe that you want to do... the more you talk about it or think about it and work at it, the more you draw it to you. I got my break one afternoon... I'm still playing with Noah's Ark... my roadie calls up and wants to know what I'm doing. I said "I just finished practicing for two hours", which I did every day. He said "That's great. How would you like to come down to this guys house? In Winter Park - the town that I live in. "We're down her with Johnny Winter. We're having a big jam session. We'd really like you to come down and jam." I said "I'm not interested." He said "Oh, come on Bobby. Come on down." This guy loved music. He ate and drank it... and he was working for us. I said "David, I don't like to jam with people. It's a waste of time. You get nothing out of it." So he let it go. We talked about where Noah's Ark is playing next week. He says "Why don't you just come down. It's really a lot of fun." We just stayed on the phone and finally he comes back to it again. He says "You're not doing anything right now. Just sit in and play a little bit and have some fun. Everybody will be down here... the people you know." "Oh fuck... I said alright." This little voice inside me said "You need to go do this." So I said "OK... I'll come down." So I went down there - and it's the summertime - and I'm standing outside leaning against my car. I'm saying hi to all these local people that normally I wouldn't socialize with... that's another story. (Haha) It's like 200 degrees outside... it's July. I hear them inside playing and every so often, I'd see Dave. He was there walking around and talking to different people and having fun. I said "David, how much longer is it going to be? Come on... am I playing? I'm down here and it's hot. I want to get out of here." I said "I'm gonna go home and eat dinner with my parents and take out my girlfriend... who was probably a 15 on the scale from 1 to 10.
R.V.B. - (Hahaha)
B.C. - It was like - if we're going to do this very much longer... I'm done. I just don't care that much. The interesting thing is that I didn't have this kind of need to be noticed. I've always believed in myself. I wasn't a big Johnny Winter fan - to be honest. I knew that Jimi Hendrix was something special but Johnny... I thought Johnny was great from what I could tell but what could I tell. All that I could hear was on record. Everuone was standing around and finally he says "They're ready for you." So I walk in the door Rob and they're all standing there. Everyone is standing in the living room of this guys house. It's Johnny... Rick Derringer... Edgar Winter... Randy Hobbs (the bass player)... Steve Paul... they're all standing in there. By this time I'm pretty doggone frustrated... I'm hot and I don't care anymore... if I cared much to begin with. I politely said "Hello. How are you doing?" I went over and sat down on this drum set that was in there.
R.V.B. - Was it playable?
B.C. - It was playable, but not that great. I started playing this real intense kind of pattern. It was a Tony Williams type of pattern, and they all joined in. Now we're all paying. We don't know what we're playing but we're all playing. This is going on and everyone is looking around. We're going from one thing to another. We'd do like a slow blues and then we'd do a little bit more straight ahead rock and roll. We played for 35 to 40 minutes and at the end of it, we came to this crashing halt! Johnny looks at me and he says "Can you travel?" He didn't know anything about how many years I had been in and out of New York trying to get arrested. "Yeah". He says "I want you to be in my band." Now remember, Johnny Winter, at the time of this conversation, is one of the top ten greatest grossing concert attractions in music... not record sales. He didn't sell those kind of records. But "live-wise", everything was a sellout. Every show... you fucking name it. So he says "I want you to join my band." Just behind him this voice says "I want you to join my band." That was Edgar. Now I'm sort of like stuck. I'm thinking to myself "Wait a second... this isn't a fucking jam session. This is an audition." I didn't say anything. I was just thinking." That's exactly how it happened. At any point, that thing could have been derailed.
R.V.B. - How many people were in that room?
B.C. - Maybe eight people.
R.V.B. - I guess most of them knew what was going on.
B.C. - No... I'm not sure they did. Johnny knew what was happening. I'm not sure anybody else knew the score...s except that they were looking for a drummer. It just so happens that several places that they stopped... Atlanta... Jacksonville... my name came up, with the different people that they would ask. At the time I was in there jamming with them, they didn't know me from Adam. They didn't know that I was the same person that they had been told about in these previous cities. Two weeks later I was playing with Johnny Winter And, and I was off to the races.
R.V.B. - Did you give an answer right then and there or did you go home and ponder it?
B.C. - I wasn't going to delay my answer because once I realized what the game was, I wasn't going to be coy. I said something about how much I'd like to play with Johnny, in front of him. So it just sort of took off. We didn't get together straight away. For all I know, they may have tried out another person. I think they pretty much had their mind made up after we played.
R.V.B. - Did you break it to your band gingerly?
B.C. - Yeah, but more important, I had to tell my parents. You know what??? I think I just hit a home run here! One of the biggest attractions in rock music just asked me to join his band. Then I told my girlfriend. That was moderately received. Then I told the people in Noah's Ark and that was worse received.
R.V.B. - What was on your slate - to get up to par - to go out and do your first show?
B.C. - Pray that I could remember what the songs were that I was supposed to learn.
R.V.B. - (Hahaha)
B.C. - They gave me a list of songs to go over and listen to.
R.V.B. - Did you have a rehearsal or go right out and play?
B.C. - There was about a two week gap before we were out playing. I had time to go home to read... listen to the songs. I was still going to make mistakes but I was fairly prepared.
R.V.B. - Not to downplay the music but Johnny Winter is kind of like the Rolling Stones, it's slightly rough around the edges.
B.C. - Well bear in mind, at this particular moment, Johnny - as big as he was - was still coming into his own. They couldn't get him to cut any 45 type radio record. They were having trouble trying to get him to record a single. All they had was the albums. Fortunately for Johnny, FM radio was exploding. They were playing underground albums. That was huge at that time. Now, radio is cooperating. If Johnny had songs that were a lot more accessible, he would of had a much bigger pallet, but at that moment it was happening and OK.
R.V.B. Were you on tour for a while before the Johnny Winter And Live album came out?
B.C. - We were playing out everywhere. We were in Europe at the Royal Albert Hall. We were in the south of France. We played Shea Stadium. We were out there doing it and then they decided to do a live album.
R.V.B. - So now you're a young kid who's playing with Johnny Winter and you're touring Europe, how are you feeling about yourself at this time?
B.C. - I'm not really sure. I'll tell you why I say it like that. I wasn't parading around like I was something special... that's for certain. As I said earlier, I always had this feeling that I was going to go somewhere. I always knew it was going to happen. Once I was in that position, it wasn't that I didn't consciously appreciate it because I did. The same about being grateful, because I was. I had this feeling of "Hey, this is where I belong anyway." It felt natural for me to be doing this.
R.V.B. - When I was a young teenager, I bought the Johnny Winter And Live album with my hard earned, odd job money. It was a rock and roll staple at the time. I wore it out. A lot of other people in my circle bought it also. There is raw energy on it that is hard to top. Did you feel the energy and was there any difference in that performance than other shows.?
B.C. - Well remember, they were live. You're just trying to get the best live performance. They didn't come from just one night. Some came from Miami. Some came from the Capital Theater in Port Chester. There was a second album that came out about six years ago which was from The Fillmore East. I think it sounds better than the first one. It has different songs on it and it's great... if I may say so. The sound quality.
R.V.B. - You did a lot of important shows there... sometimes two a night. I guess you had to be in good physical condition to play these long high energy shows?
B.C. - Unbelievable.
R.V.B. - Was it youth and adrenaline? Did you exercise?
B.C. - I think it was all of it. You had to be in good condition to play like that. You saw me there the other night in Brooklyn. I was doing long shows back then and at the same time I was playing with the Allman Brothers. So I'm playing their fucking set. Then I'm going back and changing my shirt and come back out with Johnny. (Haha) It was pretty intense.
R.V.B. - We lost some drummers who didn't take care of themselves. Did you stay away from recreational nonsense?
B.C. - Well no. We were excelling in recreational drugs. If you had put the drugs that Johnny Winter And, and The Allman Brothers, and The Rolling Stones and a few other people together, you might have been able to fill up Manhattan.
R.V.B. - (Hahaha)
B.C. - That's just the way it was. It wasn't a big secret. Everybody was doing it. I told a buddy of mine who is about 34 years old - He was in Atlanta when we were there last month - I said "Ron... don't you realize that all of those historic recordings and groups that you love... all of these people who were recording them were impaired. Nobody was straight... none of them were straight. I don't care if they were drinking a half a gallon of wine... they were smoking pot... they were drinking beer... they were snorting coke... I don't care what they were doing... they weren't stone sober recording these songs. He goes "Wow! Really???" You can same the same thing for all the jazz guys also. That's how it was.
R.V.B. - It's been going on for years. I read stories on Glenn Miller's band. He would fire people if they got caught, but they we're doing it anyway. So you had your stint with Johnny... did The Allman Brothers thing happen at the same time period? Did you play with them when you were off with Johnny? Is that how it worked?
B.C. - I had known The Allman Brothers from Florida. Once I got with Johnny, I would run into them and we all started staying in touch. They would say "Why don't you come out and play with us?" So I would go out on the road with The Allman Brothers... not hang out in the city too much and go have fun. It always was a lot of fun. It really was like a family at that time.
R.V.B. - Did you do the Stony Brook show out on the Island with them?
B.C. - I didn't do that show.
R.V.B. - I see. You knew the guys and managed to slip into some pretty historic live recordings with them.
B.C. - When I think about how big the Live at the Fillmore East album was... you know when that was recorded??? They weren't headlining The Fillmore East that night... Johnny was. We were the headliner. I told Gregg one time "Gregg, the way this is laid out on the album, it sounds like you guys are the headliners?" He just laughed "It's funny how that goes. It's just the promotion and record people. They want to make it look as good as possible." And that's true. Those are a couple of very well known live albums, that's for sure.
R.V.B. - Another record that I have is the classic All American Boy. It sounded like it was a little cozy recording environment and was produced by the very well known and talented Bill Szymczyk. He produced a lot of top selling records.
B.C. - A couple of the Eagles albums as well.
R.V.B. - How was it working with him on All American Boy?
B.C. - It was great. The only people that did the whole album was Rick (Derringer) and I. It was just me, Rick and Bill.
R.V.B. - From an insider's standpoint, how was it working with Bill?
B.C. - I'm not sure how to answer that? He just did his job. You weren't going to confuse him with George Martin. He took what we gave him and tried to enhance it. He did a fine job.
R.V.B. - How did the collaboration process work of making these tracks with the three of you? Did Rick have them all set to go or did you help him out?
B.C. - I helped him out on a few things. For the most part, he had a basic idea about what he wanted to do. Then we would talk about it. We had playing together so much with Johnny that we had an almost automatic connection when we started working together. "What do you want to do here? Oh the song is like this. OK let's see what we need to do." That kind of deal.
R.V.B. - You were in basically in a high energy blues situation. Johnny Winter had Blues in his soul. Rick Derringer was part of that process. The Allman Brothers were blues influenced. The early 70's had a lot of experimentation. When this period was over, what did you say to yourself when you started Captain Beyond?
B.C. - "Don't forget to get paid." I'm kidding. I had been sitting on the idea of trying to do some music that would not be something that you would typically hear. I had been sitting on that for a long time. Remember, I'm a jazz lover playing heavy music. I was a big Beatles fan and I listened to all sorts of music. I was way much more than just a drummer - if I might say that. I remember being in Boston one night and we were going to see Elvin Jones. It was some of the Allmans and myself. I was talking to the late Butch Trucks about... kind of whining to him "I can't wait to do something different." He said "Just save up your money and you'll be able to do whatever you want." It was very practical advice. I knew that there was something special that I wanted to do. When they contacted me about getting together, Johnny was taking a hiatus. I thought "Let's get out there and talk about it."
R.V.B. - The guitar player of Captain Beyond was your buddy from Florida.
B.C. - Correct.
R.V.B. - How did Rod Evans get into the mix?
B.C. - Rod had relocated here from London when he was let go from Deep Purple. He had met an American girl and they settled in LA. I think that Rod was going to pursue a solo deal. Rod had a couple of singles out on Capitol. He was introduced to us by management that was involved with Iron Butterfly. They didn't really know him well but knew he was in town. When we got together and met, we sat down and talked about everything. It was spectacular.
R.V.B. - Now you have a supergroup on your hands. You have all the makings of a supergroup.
B.C. - Yeah, that's right, but we didn't even think of it like that. It was really weird. We were the last people to be thinking tat. We were thinking "Well what are we going to do? Now we've got the people. We've got the people behind us... lot of contacts blah, blah, blah. But what are we going to do? What kind of music are we going to do?" This is where we really started digging in and going out to Rhino's house. We went to Rhino's house everyday - like a job - and rehearsed... even the weekend.
R.V.B. - Now when you say rehearsed, It was rehearse/wrote. You were coming up with ideas and creating material for an album.
B.C. - We were just trying to figure out what we were going to do. One of my major influences was, we weren't going to play this stuff in a predictable fashion. That was the main thing that I kept emphasizing... we're not going to do that. So if it would be a certain situation, I'm going to try to railroad it - without losing the idea - and make it something that's not predictable. I'm tired of playing stuff when you know exactly what's going to happen. That's is kind of what we all agreed to. We would proceed, and be stretching the boundaries, and looking to do things a little bit different.
R.V.B. - When you felt that you were ready to go out, the Capricorn gig came about? Was that the catalyst to jump start this?
B.C. - We did a demo. The one that's out now "The lost and found tapes."
R.V.B. - I've worn it out already. A quick story about it. My promotion company sent it to me unsolicited. I put it on while my wife and I were relaxing outside having a few cocktails. By the third song I was hooked and going who are these guys? I dug it right away. Cleopatra Records sent it to me.
B.C. - The opening of that CD, was the actual demo that we shopped around. We played it for The Allman Brothers and different people. When Duane heard it, he got on the phone with Capricorn and called Phil Walden who signed us.
R.V.B. - It was an excellent demo. It was love at first hear. The band Armageddon, Did you try anything different with that outfit?
B.C. - That was another experimental band with a great singer/songwriter... harmonica player Keith Relf. The whole band was English except for me. It was a mismanaged but it was a tremendously awesome band.
R.V.B. - What are you proud of with your place and accomplishments in music?
B.C. - Just giving people something, or being a part of something that has lasted. I'm still involved in it. We're going to be doing some more albums with Captain Beyond and myself. It's about trying to create the music that is special. This is what we're striving for. It's like "Hey. It's just not another day at the beach." We gave people music that they still listen to, to this day. This is the thing I feel the best about... It's lasted.
R.V.B. - You have a lot to be proud of. You've made some great music. You've made a good mark. I'll try to see you at Darryl's House.
B.C. - Rob, listen you did a great interview. I really mean that. Great questions. Stay in touch.
R.V.B. - I appreciate the detailed answers and I'm looking forward to showcasing your story.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz
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For more information on Bobby Caldwell visit his website theofficialbobbycaldwellsite
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