Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hi there, so glad you could make it. I think you’re really going to enjoy our guest today because not only is he still part of one of my favourite bands from the 70s, he’s got a big personality, a great voice and plenty of fascinating tales to share.
He’s US Southern rock vocalist Rodney Justo who joined Roy Orbison’s band The Candymen in the 60s before creating his own band, Atlanta Rhythm Section, in 1971. Would you like to hear his story? Well, settle right in. Alright, shaved, hair washed, I’ve even got cologne on.
And I can smell it all the way from the other side of the world. Rodney Justo, lovely to meet you. Thank you so much for your time.
You know, Sandy, you have the name of like a 1960s or 70s singer, you know, and here she is, Sandy K, you know, very commercial sounding name. Your name’s not too bad either. Your name’s done a hell of a lot more than what mine has, I have to tell you.
I don’t know about that. I have a thing about my family’s Spanish, you know, but they wanted me to have the most Americanised name. So my last name was really Justo, but my father’s name was Enrique and they were going to name me Enrique.
And a friend of theirs talked them out of it. I’ve always had a thing about people that are Spanish that have very American names and I complain about it all the time, like, Hi, who are you? My name is Bambi Garcia. You know what I mean? Like Tiffany de la Torre.
You know, it doesn’t make sense. But I’m a bad culprit because I say Justo when my name is Justo. Anyway, let’s get on with this.
I want you to take me through your incredible career. You used to sing on the radio as a kid. Tell me about that.
Yeah, yeah. It’s not like I was singing opera or anything. I was probably six, singing Let Me Call You Sweetheart, a song from my mother.
It was on Mother’s Day. Let me call you sweetheart. I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper that you love me too. How did you get to be on the radio? I had no idea. There’s no one I can call to find out.
I also sang once on television in its infancy. Somehow or another, I sang a song called Mr. Sandman. And while I was singing, the piano player made a mistake.
He was probably 18 years old. But my father says you could see me getting mad on the television when the guy made a mistake. I used to be quite a perfectionist.
Used to be? And I’m not so much anymore. You get older, especially when it comes to the Atlanta Rhythm Section. It’s difficult to explain.
But when people show up to see you, you’re not trying to sell tickets to get people like when you’re a kid and trying to get somewhere in life. They’re all on your side. It’s an unusual thing.
We have a lot, a lot of fun when we play. I don’t know why. I’m a pain in the neck.
I don’t believe that for a minute. When you walked into the room There was voodoo in the back I was captured by your style But I could not catch your eyes Now I stand here helplessly Hoping you’ll get into me I am so into you I can’t think of nothin’ else I am so into you I can’t think of nothin’ else Thinkin’ how it’s gonna be Whatever I can see next to me It’s gonna be good Don’t you know What I’m gettin’ into Gonna love you all over Over and over Me and you, you and me, me and you I know that you started off as a drummer. Yeah, I’d forgotten that I was a singer.
There were very few rock and roll bands and I wanted to be a drummer and I wanted to take this guy’s job. My friend was playing in this band and the drummer couldn’t make it, so my friend said, well, my buddy can make it, he’s a drummer. So I showed up and I said, well, I’m gonna take the job of the guy who’s there.
Well, as it turns out, I later on went to rehearsal and I heard that guy play and I went, I’m never gonna be better than this guy. And at that same rehearsal, the singer didn’t show up and I knew the song. So I said, I’ll sing it so you guys can learn the song.
The guy in the band says, well, you’re not gonna be our drummer, but you’re gonna be our singer. So that’s how it happened. You start off, you don’t know anything.
Everybody’s better than you, you know? But then you wanna, when you get a band together, you wanna be the best band in your school. Then it’s, I wanna be the best band in town. Then it’s the best band in the state.
And what’s holding me back there? I’m ready to go. So you obviously knew that you had some talent for singing. Were your parents musical too? My mother could sing, but she was very shy.
My father was in law enforcement, but he wanted to be a writer. The band that you ended up singing for, the band you started singing for, was called EG and the Hi-Fis? Oh yeah, right. So we joined up with another band.
It was a half a band called The Mystics. They were all Latin guys. We were, we got good, but then we got 10 or 11 guys, you know.
You’d like to start making some money as a kid. I was a little ambitious. You did find a bit of success with them, didn’t you? Well, success means so many things.
I still run into people that when they say, I’ll be out in town and say, this is Rodney. Remember Rodney and the Mystics? Oh yeah, I used to dance with them all the time. They don’t know anything I’ve done after.
You know, my band used to back up all the artists that came into town. One of them was Roy Orbison. And so that’s kind of how I got hooked up with Roy because I met him.
He was such a sweet guy. Only the lonely Know the way I feel tonight Only the lonely Know this feeling ain’t right There goes my baby There goes my heart They’re gone forever So far apart But only the lonely You also backed up for people like Jim Pitney, Neil Sedaka, Fabian, all of those guys. Oh, everybody.
How did you achieve that notoriety that they were booking you to back these guys? As I recall, the first time we played, there was a place 25 miles from here, Clearwater, Florida. And they were starting to put on these shows, bringing in national artists. And my band played there the first time in like a battle of the bands.
Next thing you know, all these people were coming to town and I’m backing them up. And I don’t want to sound Go on, Sam. too obnoxious, but you know, I worked with virtually every artist that there was that had a record in the 60s that came out.
My band backed them up. And I didn’t think any of those guys were any better than me. You know, we would learn their hits.
Maybe they had two or three hits. Some of them had a lot of hits, you know, like Neil Sedaka and even Orbison didn’t have that many at that time. But we would do their hits and then they all did the same stuff.
What did I say? Let’s do the twist. A Bo Diddley song, you know, a Chuck Berry song. And there was essentially everybody saying the same song.
So it wasn’t that challenging. Come on, baby. Let’s do the twist.
Come on, baby. Let’s do the twist. Take me by my little hand and go like this.
Who was your favorite to work with? Roy was great. Gene Pitney was great. Neil Sedaka was very, very talented.
He used to sit backstage playing piano, like, you know, classical music and stuff. We kind of picked on Neil a little bit, you know, because he’s a little effeminate, you know. So we busted his chops all the time.
I’ll tell you a story. I worked with Neil. I played two nights with him, one in Clearwater and the next in Tampa.
And as he was walking out, he turned around and said, who’s that singing? He says, well, that’s Rodney. That’s the guy who was just on stage with him. He says, I want to produce him.
And I didn’t know about this until many years later, that part of it. But I was supposed to go to New York and he was going to produce some songs of me singing. And something happened.
I remember I bought a new suit and everything where he was on the Ed Sullivan show. So I got canceled. And I told my mother, I says, it won’t happen.
She said, what do you mean? She says, I just know, you know, when people are excited about something, they’re excited. If you have an excuse to wait a little bit longer, you know, it’s like a girl. If you got a girl, she’s excited.
You better, lack of a better word, jump on it, you know. Get with it, let’s say. So were you very disappointed? Yes, I was disappointed, but I had got a new suit out of it.
Hey, something good came out of it, right? Tell me a little bit about Roy Orbison because you became quite friendly with him, didn’t you? Roy was the sweetest guy you could imagine. He was just, just a good guy. And I’ll tell you, I’ve told this story before, but I’ll be brief.
My last night with my band, I was working with the Four Seasons. And Frankie Valli, we went out to eat at a diner after the show. And Frankie ordered a cheese omelette.
And he turned to me, he says, Rodney, this is the best cheese omelette I’ve had since I left New Jersey. I never heard of a cheese omelette, okay? What do I know? That was so exotic to me. But I was so happy that Tampa had something as good as New Jersey.
So I says, well, I’m leaving my band. I’m going to work with Roy Orbison. He said, Roy Orbison is the nicest guy in show business.
I’ve known him for years. In fact, he’d already produced a record on me as a single artist. That’s a really big compliment when somebody of that stature talks about someone else and says he’s the nicest guy in show business.
Well, Roy died, I think about 1987 or 88. And I picked up Rolling Stone. And the first paragraph says something like, Roy Orbison was the sweetest guy in rock and roll.
And I says, wow, this is so beautiful. For all these years, for that guy to still have that kind of a reputation in that kind of business. I always noticed how he treated people.
You know, I was at a recording session once and the guy says, oh, Roy, I love those cufflinks. He took them off. Yeah, they’re yours.
Takes them off and gives them to the guy. ♪ ♪ Pretty woman walking down the street ♪ ♪ Pretty woman the kind I like to meet ♪ ♪ I don’t believe you, you’re not the truth ♪ ♪ No one could look at mercy ♪ ♪ ♪ Can be just like me ♪ Roy was the first guy to travel with his own band. I ran into him in New York.
I had just had a heart attack and I knew that he’d had some sort of heart surgery. I says, Roy, didn’t you have some heart problems? He says, yeah, Rod, no. I had a quadruple bypass.
Oh, yeah. And while he’s doing that, he’s smoking these French cigarettes that he loves so much. I’m thinking, wow, I quit smoking after 30 years.
I’m never gonna smoke again. He had bypass surgery and he’s smoking these Galois de Disque Bleu, whatever they were called. I remember them.
I’m thinking, man, why is this guy smoking? So, Rodney Justo, you’re in the Roy Orbison band. You’re on the road now, constantly travelling with the nicest guy in rock and roll. What was it like for you? It was a chance to see the world.
It started out where he couldn’t afford to take the whole band, so he would take one person on his international tours. The Beatles tour, he took Bobby Goldsboro. And then he went to Australia the first time, was there twice, once with Rolling Stones and once with Beach Boys.
The third time I was in the band, he didn’t have money to let me go, so they paid me to stay home. The trees grow tall where I come from The leaves are green and fine I was born in a one-room shack In a field of Georgia pines I grew up and I got tired Of that one-room shack So I went a-wandering And now I want to go back Georgia pines, Georgia pines How I miss that home of mine Up here in the city Just a-wasting my time There ain’t nothing green but the rich man’s money The buildings are so tall the sun can’t shine Oh, how I want to go home To my Georgia pines So how big were the Candymen? And how long were you with them for? Probably four years. We were as good as any group in America, Sandy.
We were remarkably good. When we would play in New York City, I mean, Jimi Hendrix would be in the audience, come up with quest songs, you know, the Mamas and Papas, bass player for the Who, John Entwistle, can I sit in with you guys? You know, Al Cooper. We all got to be pals, you know.
So it was a very, very exciting time.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. The Candymen developed a serious reputation as a great live band.
They’d started life as The Webs, co-founded by guitarist John Rainey and a young lead singer-guitarist named Bobby Goldsborough. When Bobby left to start what would become an incredibly successful solo career, Rodney Justo took his place, but sadly, success eluded them. First time here, then I’m there Round the town and everywhere Searching, searching for somebody who Could love me like he used to do Way after way, day after day I try and get over you I guess the wiring was wrong, you know, we couldn’t get hit records and, you know, we just kind of all went our way.
You did have a few hits. Yeah, the regional hits, you know, baby hits. But not enough, like I say, joking around sometimes, I say, we do some song, I don’t say, I don’t say spooky.
I say, here’s a song that kept us out of the big money. You know, I could have picked any of the songs, but the Candymen was like that. We just, we had adulation.
I mean, I get it on Facebook. I hear people saying best band I’ve ever heard in my life to this day. You know, I don’t know what it was.
We had something magical about us, but we couldn’t get hit records. So we decided to go our own way. Three of us ended up being in the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
Times were different, Sandy, and people got a little opportunistic. You know, we had a chance to record some outside songs, but our management producer, blah, blah, blah, they wanted to grab that money. I’ll tell you a couple songs.
Al Cooper played for me two songs. He said, you ought to record these songs. Okay, I’ll tell Buddy about it.
No, we don’t want to do any outside songs. I’m not even sure who it was, but I went to a Prokoharum concert in New York, and when I got introduced to him as one of the Candymen, he said, oh, I know who you are. Yeah, I’ve got a song for you.
I’ve got a perfect song for you guys. And he started, conquistador, your stallion stands. Da, da, da, da, da.
Conquistador, your stallion stands. In need of company. Like some angel’s haloed brow, freak of purity.
I see your uninflated breast, has long since lost its sheen. And in your desmos face, there are no signs which can be seen. Though I hope for something divine, I can see no place to unwind.
Conquistador, your vulture sits upon your silver sheet. In your rusty scabbard now, sand has taken seat. And though your jewel-encrusted blade has not been plundered still, she has washed across your face, taken of its fill.
Though I hope for something divine, I can see no place to unwind. Go back and tell our producer, you know, I met this guy in the Proco Harm, he’s got this song, Conquistador, he said it’d be great for us. Nah, nah, nah, we don’t wanna be doing the outside songs.
Okay. I love that record. By the way, it’s a good thing you don’t have to learn the song because it makes no sense.
The words don’t make any sense. No, I mean, Conquistador, your stallion stands. Most songs have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
You know, this thing is just helter-skelter, like what? It’s like that other big hit that makes no sense. Like Skip the Last Fandango. What? If that song had made sense, it would have been one of the biggest copyrights of all time.
The melody is so strong. Yeah. We skipped the last fandango Turned cartwheels across the floor I was feeling kind of seasick The crowd called out for more The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we call out for another dream The waves have brought the train And so it was later As the miller told his tale Let our faces first just go steep Turn the water Shade all of it I love Kroko Hammer, and they were a big influence on the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
We used to do a Salty Dog live when we first got together, yeah, because we were so enchanted with that chord progression. Just step back a little bit for me before you get to call yourselves Atlanta Rhythm Section. Okay, Sandy Kay.
You left the Candyman in 1969 for a band called Noah’s Ark. Yeah, yeah. Why? I had to eat.
I had a family. It was just a local band. Ironically, it says Noah’s Ark, but it was the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
It was Barry, Paul, Robert, D.A.R., and me. Their feelings were hurt that they didn’t get to play on the record. Then the record came out, and it says Noah’s Ark featuring Rodney Justo.
If it was my idea, they didn’t like that. And I understand why, but still. And that record you’re talking about was Purple Heart with the B-side Stormy, yeah? Right, right, yes.
So what you’re telling me is that Stormy was actually the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Yes, yeah. If you really listen to it right now, it’ll make sense to you.
I mean, you just listen to the music track, and you’ll hear it’s a jazzed-up version of Stormy, yes. That was the Atlanta Rhythm Section. You were the sunshine, baby Whenever you smiled But I’d call you Stormy today All of a sudden That old rain’s falling down And my world is cloudy and gray You’ve gone away Ah, Stormy Yeah, Stormy Bring back that sunny day Yesterday’s love What happened was, with respect to the Atlanta Rhythm Section, I’m sitting home, I get a phone call from Buddy Bowie.
Buddy Bowie was our Svengali. You know, he wrote the songs, he produced the records, he managed us, this band was his dream. ARS.
So, I get a call, he says, Rock, I’ve been listening to a song, an album called Super Sessions. Steven Stills, Al Cooper, Mike Bloomfield. If that could be a Super Sessions, why can’t there be a Super Group? I don’t know, buddy, why not? He said, well, here’s what I’m planning on doing.
I’m building my own recording studio. I can record all I want to, whenever I feel like it, and I’m putting together a Super Group, before the term was even heard of. And before anybody built their own recording studios.
Yeah, that’s right. So, he tells me, well, who’s in the band? I said, well, I got Robert and Dean, you know, from the Candy Men, you, J.R. Cobb from Tastics Four, who’s a friend, and Barry Bailey and Paul Goddard, who were like the top two bass player, guitar players in Atlanta. So I says, okay.
I packed up, moved to Atlanta. I’m a family man, you know, and I didn’t particularly want to move to Atlanta. I’d move away from my family, my friends, what have you.
My father says, oh, no, son. Your family is not your mother and I anymore. You have to go where opportunity takes you.
You know, especially in the kind of career that you’ve chosen, it’s speculative. So you need to go where the opportunity is. So I moved to Atlanta.
We spent a lot of time making records for other people. As station musicians? Yes. Yeah.
Not enough time, you know, working on our own stuff, you know, and I was seeing a background in other people’s records. And it’s okay. I mean, I like seeing a background, but there’s no future in doing it in Atlanta, Georgia.
All right. Tell me some of the people whose records you were singing on then. B.J. Thomas.
We cut three big hits with B.J. Joe South, Billy Joe Royal, the Classics Four, naturally. There’s a guy named Richie Supa, who was in Hair. He brought his own band the first time.
The drummer was Liberty DeVito, who was with Billy Joel for so many years. That took up quite a bit of our time, and we would try to record our own stuff while we were doing the other artists’ stuff as well. I just can’t help believing When she smiles up soft and gentle With a trace of misty morning And a promise of tomorrow in her eyes And I just can’t help believing When she’s lying close beside me And my heart beats with the rhythm of her sighs This time the girl is gonna say This time the girl is gonna say For more than just a day While you were with Atlanta Rhythm Section, you did record your first album, didn’t you? Yes, ma’am.
We were on our first tour, and we started off in Quebec City, and it was a tour with Deep Purple. Oh, beautiful. This should be fun.
Well, I don’t know what happened to Richie Blackmore, the guitarist. He wasn’t there. A guy named Randy California was playing guitar, who was in Spirit.
So we played the first night, and then we never saw Deep Purple again. They just disappeared. The whole tour fell apart, nothing.
And we’re like, what do we do now? What do you mean? Yeah, they just, the dates were all gone. Somehow or another, as I recall, we had airline tickets, but we played a gig, sorry, in Youngstown, Ohio, with Buddy Miles and Savoy Brown, and then we left for California. Well, when we were out there, you know, I wanted to work live.
I like working live dates. I like people. I like the whole environment.
So I’m telling Buddy, you know, there’s Rolling Stones out here. They’re getting ready to start working again, man. They haven’t played a tour in a long time.
We got to get on a Rolling Stones tour. Huh, okay. So he comes back one day.
He says, boy, did I sign a deal today. I’m thinking, oh, beautiful. I’m going on the road to Rolling Stones.
He says, I just came back from Hanna-Barbera. What, Hanna-Barbera? You mean like the Flintstones? The cartoon kind of people? Yeah, yeah. He says, we signed a deal where we’re going to cut all the tracks for a TV show called Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids.
I’m thinking, where does little Rodney fit into this picture? Well, you know, I’ll put you down in the section as a background singer. I’m going, dude, I didn’t move away from home to sing on cartoon shows. Plus, to be honest, I haven’t talked about it too much before.
I had a daughter that had some health problems. And like every stupid musician, I didn’t have insurance. So I have to pay all this money.
So I says, well, if I’m going to be singing background records, I’m going someplace where I can make some money doing it. So I, once again, packed up everything and moved to New York. That’s why you left Atlanta Rhythm Section then.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. How did that first album do for you? I think it went vinyl. I wish it would have released on aluminum or something.
You’re the one I’m thinking of. I run into people now that are fans, and they are very nice to me. And they say, I wore the grooves off that first album.
And I’m going, well, thank you. That’s nice of you to hear. I can’t complain because people always have been nice to me.
There’s the occasional haters. That’s the nature of the world with the internet and Facebook and what have you. But, Rodney Justo, you really were responsible, at least in part, for bringing about this whole Southern rock genre, weren’t you? Because you started this new sound that a lot of people ended up copying.
Yes, I think so. You’ve got to remember, when we started, there was no such thing as Southern rock. There were the Allman Brothers, but they’re really a blues band.
They’re not a Southern rock band. To me, a Southern rock band is the Outlaws, Marshall Tucker. To me, these are Southern rock bands.
We don’t sing about pickup trucks. We don’t sing about Willie and Waylon and drinking and all that. That’s not us.
I try to choose my words carefully, but our chord progressions and lyrics tend to be a little bit more… Sophisticated? Yes. I can’t help it, but I’m very careful about what I say. It’s just a matter of being respectful.
I understand. I’m not trying to say these others aren’t good. Sometimes I hear some of these bands, and you hear one band, another band comes up, and I’m going, didn’t I just hear that song? It sounds an awful lot like that song the other band did.
By the time you get to the third or fourth band, it’s like, I know I’ve heard this song before.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. I don’t know what the heck we are, you know.
We thought we were going to be a rock and roll band. But the hits became classic rock songs, you know, in America at least. With those songs, as long as we can put one foot in front of the other, we can work.
You know, but between So Into You and Imaginary Lover and Spooky, I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight, Do It or Die, Champagne Jam. I mean, those are pretty substantial hits. Living in a danger zone.
The world could end tomorrow. I don’t need a name. I’m resourceless.
But I won’t let it bother me tonight. It was tough in the beginning for Atlanta Rhythm Section. Those first few albums did fail to generate any meaningful chart action.
You’d gone off to New York and you were replaced with a newcomer by the name of Ronnie Hammond. So what are you then doing in New York while these guys are trying to cut their teeth in Atlanta? Well, two things. As I mentioned, I started doing studio work, but I made a lot more money doing it.
I also became a band leader for BJ Thomas. And I also sang for a guy, his name is Roy Buchanan. Most people don’t know who he is, but to some people he’s a legendary guitarist.
And a nice guy with problems, but it wasn’t musically challenging. I mean, I’m singing songs that I thought I would never sing. Like baby songs, you know what I mean? Like people that are just starting out to be a singer, that’s the kind of stuff they sing.
Let me put it to you this way. I kind of had an idea about some of the songs he was going to be doing. Because two friends of mine were already in the band, they played on his records.
So I go a day early, the first gig is in Pittsburgh. They say, show up for rehearsal. Oh, great.
He doesn’t show up. I don’t meet him until the first gig on the stage. And that’s not the way I operate.
But he says that. So he starts talking, he says, do you know Johnny B. Goode? Well, I probably know half of it. Eh, just sing half of it twice.
Tells me. OK. I’m like, oh boy, this is exciting.
And the only song that I did that was kind of like singing was a Neil Young song called Down by the River, which I look forward to singing that, which moves out of six weeks. He probably did it about five times. But the other time I’m singing like, there’s an old song out when I was a kid called In the Loo.
Well, now they call my baby, Patty, but her real name, her real name, her real name is Linde loo. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Now they call my baby Patty, but her real name, her real name, her real name is Linde loo.
Yeah, yeah. Now they call my baby Patty, but her real name, her real name, her real name is Linde loo. Well, she’s so fly, fair, good-lookin’ You never know what my baby’s gonna do If I didn’t lose her Well, she could walk you down the street On a castle, a castle, a castle, a castle And look around You never know, you never know, you never know What my baby’s gonna put down And everybody always tells me I got the cutest little girl in town I never know it’s right That’s the kind of stuff I’m doing when I’m going, Oh, this is not challenging, this is terrible.
And as you said before, you’re a perfectionist, or at least you were then, so that must have really irked you. So how did you come back to be part of Atlanta Rhythm Section? Well, in 1978 in San D.K., I retired. I had a family, and I was separated from my first wife.
We were getting divorced. Came back to Tampa, ran into my first girlfriend that I was supposed to marry. I had an overwhelming love for her.
I decided that I was gonna have children, so I called my first wife. She was living in Puerto Rico. Please come home.
If you come home, I’ll give you the house, I’ll give you a car, I’ll give you money, I’ll do whatever. So I retired from the music business. I got my new wife.
I did go back in 1983 for a year. Ronnie had had some problems, and they called me and asked me to sing. I said, boys, I don’t sing anymore, I’m out.
No, no, please help us, we got gigs, work, you gotta do this, we can’t cancel. Oh, God. Okay, so I learned the songs.
It was supposed to be for six weeks. It ended up being a year. I left again, and I had a job like everybody else has, and I was content.
I worked hard. I was so happy to go to bed the same time as my wife every night. That was, to me, such a big, big treat, you know, because as a musician, she’s going to bed.
I’m up till 3 o’clock in the morning, you know. I’ll never forget riding around with my boss one day. I was getting close to retirement.
He says, well, Ron, what are you gonna do? I says, I don’t know, Larry. I’d like to get my golf game in shape and just hang around with my wife. He looked at me.
He said, what’s the matter? I never heard anybody say they wanted to hang around with their wife before. But I did that. I was there for 28, 29 years.
And when I retired, I got approached about coming back to the band. They had another singer for years, a nice guy. But there were some problems, internal problems, I guess.
And they talked about coming back. And I’m like, well, I don’t know. I haven’t sung in a long time.
In 29 years, I haven’t sung a note. So Buddy Bowie and Dean Daughtry, the keyboard player, called me up and convinced me to do it. So I came back.
It’s been 12 years. In the cool of the evening, everything is getting kind of blue. I call you up and ask you to see a movie.
But you say no. Got some plans for tonight. And then you stop and say, all right.
Love is kind of crazy with a spooky little girl like you. You always keep me guessing. I never seem to know what you are thinking.
And if the birds that you kiss will show your little eye, we’ll be awake again. I get confused because I don’t know where I stand. And then you smile and hold my hand.
Love is kind of crazy with a spooky little girl like you. Spooky, spooky, yeah, yeah. The band, I can’t go around saying the band is better than ever because that insults the people that love the original version of the classic version of the band, let’s say.
But I know how good the band is because I was in the first version of the band. And we’re not so much a band anymore. We’re an act.
We’ve got enough songs. I mean, I came back and they were doing the same show they did in 1983 when I went back. I went, has nothing changed in like 30 years or whatever it is? So I said, I want to be able to do enough songs that we can change our set depending on where we’re playing.
If we’re playing on a date with Leonard Skinner, we’re not doing do it or die. It doesn’t make sense. I’m not going to be crooning songs.
So we do a rock-oriented set. So we’re able to do that. And I’ll tell you, the other very unusual thing is that we’re all pals.
Believe me, the original version of the band, that’s another reason I was out. I didn’t like to be seen with some of the guys. They were just boors.
It was painful. But we are pals. In fact, we were together last week.
And I told the guys, I says, you know, every band has a jerk. Every band has one. I says, so look around.
If you think the rest of the guys are nice guys, it’s you. Come on. Give me a break.
Yes, friend. Have us a champagne jam. We’re going to have us a champagne jam.
Grab the guitars and let’s play some blues. Don’t want no whiskey. Give me some high-pass blues.
Have us a champagne jam. We’re going to have us a champagne jam. We’re going to have us a champagne jam.
Let’s have some first-class fun. Everybody want to play some. Rodney Jester, which is your favourite song to sing from Atlanta Rhythm Section catalogue? They’re both on two separate ends.
I love Do It or Die because it’s the closest to singing. And at the other end, I love Do A Champagne Jam because it just rocks. It just feels so good to sing it.
So you’re having a lot of fun these days out on the road with them, huh? Yes, I do. Let me put it to you this way. For the most part, I get on a plane.
I get off the plane. Usually somebody picks me up and they treat me really nice. I go sing.
People give me money. More people treat me nice when I come home. Sounds perfect to me.
What’s to walk away from? I mean, I’m no kid. I’m not an old man. I don’t think like an old man.
I still have a good time. I laugh every day about something. That’s awesome.
Well, you’re in terrific shape and I love your sense of humour and your optimism and your outlook on life. I just think you’re fabulous. Of course, I don’t know if we’ve ever really had any hits in Australia.
Yeah, of course you have. All those ones you reeled off. Absolutely.
It sounds like crazy, but there’s a big difference. Like in England, we never had a hit. Is that right? No.
Even though we played there without me, the other version of that played. But I’ve been wanting to go back there forever. And I would like for some of the other guys in the band that haven’t really experienced international travel.
I don’t care about the money. I don’t care. I never cared about money.
Well, that’s not true. I never let money dictate things to me, I’ll put it that way. Other than when I had to take care of my family.
But if you just work for the money, that’s all you get. I work to travel, to be places, to meet people, to see things. You know, that’s why I work.
I’m amazed that after so many years of not singing, and I’m assuming that you didn’t spend any time every day practicing and keeping up your chops, your voice is just as good as it ever was. Yeah, yeah, I think they’re little things. You know, you go a long time without singing.
It’s like an exercise, I guess, you know. I was talking about Roy Buchanan. Roy Buchanan was always doing things with his fingers.
He said, if you see a baby, he can do all kinds of stuff. You move them and mold them. He said, for some reason, I’ve always done that.
That’s why his fingers are so flexible as a guitarist. But he was always stretching, you know. It’s not the notes that are different.
It’s getting in and out of the notes. It’s hard to explain. There are little things you do as a singer that I just don’t do anymore, or maybe I can’t.
You know, I sing more and more like a white person, you know what I mean? I would have loved to have been a rhythm and blues singer. That’s how I wanted to be, but my voice is too clean. You know, I sing the same notes, and I think I’m being soulful, but I think maybe some people think not, you know.
I know singers that have these raspy voices. Oh, he’s good. I’m going, not really.
You know, I’ve just got a raspy voice. We love the Atlanta Rhythm Section, and we love your voice, Rodney Justo. And I’m so thrilled that you’re back with the boys in the band and having a fabulous time doing it.
We are. We’re having a great time. It’s nice after the show, people go, boy, you guys look like you’re having so much fun.
We are. I mean, we’re pulling pranks on each other. Okay.
As long as it doesn’t affect the music. You know, I’ve been doing this a long time, and when I talk with promoters, they ask me to do things, I go, you’re the customer. Do what you want me to do.
They look at me like I’m crazy. So long as it doesn’t interfere with us sounding good. Which Atlanta Rhythm Section song would you like us to go out on? Well, I’m assuming that you would want to give them a hit.
So if that’s the case, I would say probably Imaginary Lover because I have the most fun with Imaginary Lover. I tell people that it’s the last song we do at night. I say I’d like to thank you for coming out.
We’ve had a good time. We’d like to let you know that we are the Nostradamus of rock and roll. They call us like Rockstradamus because now the big thing, everybody, is about selfies.
Let’s take a selfie. Can I have a selfie? Let’s do a selfie and put the camera up. Well, we wrote about selfies 40-something years ago.
We called it Imaginary Lover. They usually, oh, my God, you know what he’s talking about. Imaginary lovers Never turn you down When all the others turn you away They’re around It’s my private pleasure And fantasy Someone to share my wildest dreams with me Imaginary lover Rodney Justo, thank you so much for your time with us today.
I’ve so enjoyed chatting with you. Thank you, Sandy Cain. Thank you for everything.
I appreciate it. Because it’s a beautiful day You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Beautiful day Oh, I’ve had the element that you’re gone away It’s a beautiful day.