Gary James' Interview With
Crystal Taliefero



Crystal Taliefero has performed with the best of 'em. We're talking John Mellencamp, Bob Seger, Garth Brooks, Joe Cocker, Michael McDonald and the list goes on and on. Since 1989, she has been associated with Billy Joel. We spoke with Crystal about her musical career.

Q - Is Billy Joel doing one concert a month at Madison Square Garden?

A - Yeah.

Q - Is that enough work for you or do you have to do something else?

A - At the moment it's enough. I'm doing other things anyway. We're all doing other stuff. That's the beauty of performing once a month. We actually perform about two shows a month.

Q - Two?

A - Yeah. We do about two shows a month. We perform at Madison Square Garden once a month. It's good! It's perfect!

Q - You're a studio musician?

A - Yes, I am.

Q - So, that means when you're not working with Billy Joel there's a possibility you could be in the studio, right?

A - I just did a session right before we came out to New York for a Blue Grass artist.

Q - Blue Grass?

A - I know. (laughs)

Q - Because you work with so many different artists you will always be on call.

A - Yes.

Q - Are you a drummer or are you a percussionist? For people who don't know the difference, why don't you explain.

A - I would say a percussionist has a lot more toys than a drummer. (laughs) It's more hand-held instruments and things to beat on. I play congas, timbales, those kinds of instruments. Then at times we also have the sounds that are triggered from pads like the modern sounds that allow triggering. I think I only get to use triggering in this band on maybe two or three songs. They're maybe just a tom feel or a hit thing or some claps. I consider a percussionist the flavor. It's like you're cooking and you want to put those spices in there, we're the spice. (laughs)

Q - It almost goes without saying that you can't go to school and learn what you can do. So, is this a God given gift you have?

A - I would say so. In my case I would definitely have to say so. I didn't choose this job. It chose me. I didn't say I'm going to be a percussionist, this is what I want to do. It's not that I don't appreciate it, on the contrary. I'm so grateful 'cause I had no idea what I was going to be doing. I was just growing up. What I did, which I thought was most helpful, is that I listened and I followed directions very well. That is what took me over the top. My brother said do this and I said okay. It's kind of like if you don't do it I'll beat you up. I said okay. We're joking about it, but that was pretty much it. When I ended up doing all these different things, it was, "I want you to learn this part. I want you to learn that part," and I'd just do it. Okay? And it turned into a career. It's funny. It's crazy.

Q - Is it true you were playing clubs when you were just eleven years old?

A - Yeah.

Q - Didn't you have to have one of your parents with you?

A - Absolutely. My father and my mother, but my father used to tote us around with his car or rented vans. The first band that I can remember was called Black Mist, and that was back when I was eleven years old. I remember the first gig. Oh, wow! I made twelve dollars. I saw that money and said, "This is mine. I earned this, right?" That was like a lot of money to me. From then on it was like, "I like doing this. This is kind of fun."

Q - How many people were in that first band of yours?

A - My brother. He started the band. He played guitar. He was the band leader. We had Steve Gilmore, he was a drummer as well. We had a full band, drums, two bass players, guitar, keys, trumpet,s ax and two male singers.

Q - How many people in that band?

A - Nine.

Q - That first gig must've paid around $180.

A - Probably. (laughs)

Q - How many sets did you have to play for that money?

A - Three 45-minute sets.

Q - They sure got their money's worth out of Black Mist.

A - Oh, yeah. (laughs) My brother was only fourteen. I was eleven. I think the oldest guy in the band was nineteen. Between sets I had to sit in the kitchen. Some places, other establishments, I will not eat their food, period, from my experience of being in kitchens, sitting there watching these people do what they do. I was thinking, "No way!" (laughs) Who knew, right? Then we changed the name of the band. We changed it to Magic Mist 'cause we started getting into more of an eclectic style of music. I graduated out of high school. My counselor told me to forget about going to college because, "You'll never make it." He was a real jerk. I went to my parents and told them my counselor said not to go to college, to go into the military. My father said, "Who said that to you!?" I said, "My counselor." He said, "Do whatever it is you want to do. If want to go down to the Indiana School Of Music, go. Audition. If you make it in, great! If you don't, then figure out what else you want to do, but don't let anybody tell you you can't do something that you want to do." He was always like that. Very supportive.

Q - So, you were discovered, for lack of a better word, by John Cougar Mellencamp, who saw you perform in a club. Had John Mellencamp not walked into that club, would we be talking today?

A - My brother and I both went to I.U. (Indiana University). We started another band and we also had the other band back in Gary, Indiana called Magic Mist, which faded out eventually 'cause we had another band at I.V. called Midnight Movers. (laughs) That was an interesting band. That eventually turned into Kilo. Kilo was the band. We're playing all the frat houses and we're the first multi-cultural band on campus. We had one guy that was a cowboy dude, straight up from Indiana. He had a cowboy hat. A farmer, John England. Then we had another guy who was mixed. Then we had my brother. Then we had a Jewish guy on keyboards. The we had Shawn Pelton on drums, who's now the Saturday Night Live drummer for the last twenty or something years. He's from St. Louis, White cat. And then there's me and there's my brother and another singer we put in, Georgia Jones. And that was the band and we did all the frat houses. We started off by saying, "Pay us a keg." (laughs) Then eventually we started making all kinds of money to the point where we bought our own truck, our own sound equipment, our own lights. It was all paid off by the time I left to go off with Mellencamp. My boyfriend at the time, who became my manager, was stealing from us. You can understand how difficult it was. (laughs) So, we had to dump him. You can't do that and take my money too. You're out of here. (laughs) It was funny. Everyone was saying we're making more money than we were before! I said, "Hmmm. I wonder why." (laughs) But yeah, it was cool. It was a great time.

Q - Was your big break having John Mellencamp see you in a club with Kilo?

A - Yes.

Q - Had John Mellencamp not seen you that night, would you have gone on to Billy Joel? Would we be talking right now?

A - Well, here we go. Are you ready for this? I don't think you have this part of it. Kenny Aronoff, I don't know if you're familiar with him.

Q - I interviewed him.

A - Okay. Kenny Aronoff was John's drummer, okay? Kenny Aronoff went to Indiana University, Bloomington, same school. Kenny Aronoff was also my drummer. Shawn Pelton's instructor was Kenny Aronoff at I.V. (Indiana University), okay? So, that's how that connection came in. We didn't know who Mellencamp was really. We knew who he was, but we were doing Pop music and Soul. That was our thing. So, Kenny used to come in and get some funk with us. So, he used to just kill it. That's how we got to know Kenny. One night John shows up at the club, Jakes. Come to find out, hey, Johnny's in the house. That's how that happened. I didn't know he was going to be there. No one knew he was going to be there. It was like, "That's cool!" Kenny brought him in there, right? I didn't know at the time he was looking for some singers. He left like after the first song, or second song. I thought we must suck, man. Wow! Come to find out, I get a phone call the next day from Kenny saying, "Hey man, John wants to meet you." I was like, "Oh, really? I thought he didn't like the show. He left." "Oh, no. He got sick and had to leave." I said, "Oh, I can be there Monday." "No, he wants to see you in about thirty minutes." I'm like, "Okay." So, my brother and I were rooming at the time. We had a townhouse together. He was sleeping 'cause he had a little too much to drink the night before. You know the gig. So, he had a little hangover. I said, "Hey, Chuck. What do you think about me going on tour?" He said, "With Who?" "With this guy named Johnny Cougar Mellencamp." That's what he was called at the time. He turns around. "John Cougar Mellencamp? Go! Get out of here!" I said, "What about the band?" "Don't worry about the band! This is good for all of us. Get out of here." So, I go. Kenny takes me out to John's house and we're sitting in the backyard. I said, "I've got to be honest with you, I don't know anything about Rock 'n' Roll." Then he said, "Well, you have thirty days to learn it!" So, I was in the band pretty much. That was it. That's pretty much the gist of the whole thing. And I've been going ever since.

Q - I noticed you also went on to work with The Bee Gees and Bruce Springsteen.

A - Well, let's go back. Bob Seger, "American Storm" tour, Joe Cocker, The Bee Gees, Richie Samborra, Mellencamp, Billy Joel of course. Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Brooks And Dun, Enrique Iglesias. I'm missing a couple of guys. I'm sorry, but those are the ones I remember.


Q - When you're in the company of such a well known guy like Bruce Springsteen, are you, how do I put this, in awe of him? Billy Joel as well as the list of everybody else you've worked with.

A - You know what? That was crazy how that came about. I was in my lawyer's office, pretty much broke, just cryin' the blues about how is he able to ask for payment from me when I don't have a job. So he goes, "Well, you've worked with everybody." I said, "I haven't worked with everybody. I haven't worked with Bruce Springsteen and that will never happen." And I cannot make this up to you, while I was in his office the phone rang and it was our production manager who I found out later also worked with Bruce. He asked me what I was doing. I said, "I'm in my lawyer's office, broke, and he's still charging me." And then he said, "Do you want to come out and do a gig with The Boss?" Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen? I said, "Sure!" Then he said, "I'm sending you your flight schedule. You're flying out tomorrow." "Tomorrow? I don't know any of his music." He said, "Just get on the plane, Missy." Somebody said, "Was that Bruce on the phone?" I said, "No, it was his production manager, Boomer." Our production manager with Billy as well. I couldn't put it together 'cause I didn't know he worked for both. I said, "I gotta go. I gotta get a bunch of music before Best Buy closes. So, I go thinking I'd get as many Bruce Springsteen records as I can get. I'm like going nuts. I'm not gonna make it, but I'm up all night. No sleep, just getting enough courage to do the thing. I just said, I'm gonna take a skirt, a pair of jeans, two pairs of undies, a pair of socks, a toothbrush, toothpaste. That's it. Just basic stuff for two days 'cause I'm not gonna last two days. At least I had the opportunity to audition for Bruce. I was happy with that. (laughs) So, I get there and Boomer picks me up from the airport. I thought we were going to go to a hotel and I'd get a couple more hours of studying. So, he takes me straight to the shed. We were at an airport hanger. I can't remember the name of the airport. So, I get in there and I see some of Billy's crew in there. "So, what do I do?" "Don't worry about it. Just get up there." I went, "Oh, great." Welcome to L.A., right? So, I get to the end of the stairs and I'm just standing there and guess who walks in. Bruce. The crew guys go, "Aw shoot, Bruce has never walked in on an audition." "Why'd you have to tell me this?" So, Bruce walks on stage, "Hey, how you doing?" I say hi. He goes right in to it and says, "Can you stroke a few chords Chrys? I said, "Yeah. I can do a 1-3-5." He said, "I wrote most of my songs 1-3-5." We're just joking about it, right? He said, "Alright, stroke," and he started playing some chords and then he goes, "You got a nice stroke Chrys." I said, "You think so?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "Let me introduce you to my little friend." It was a capo. I didn't know what a capo was. He said, "I'm going to put it on a fret and I want you to play certain songs in different keys." I'm saying this is great. Then he said, "Can you sing with me and play?" I said, "I'll try." So, I started singing some harmonies with him and the next thing you know he says, 'cause there was a set of congas in the band then, "You think you can stay and play with the band, practice with the band for a little while?" "Sure. I don't have any other place to go. I'm here." Then he said the rest of the guys have been practicing for a month. I came in nine days before the first show. So, I'm practicing with the band. One day goes by. Two days go by. Five days go by and I'm so hungry and tired of washing my stuff out in the face bowl 'cause I only had two days worth of clothes. So, I finally got so exhausted I couldn't learn anything else. I was up for like five days because after rehearsal I would go back to my hotel room and start learning something else. I was determined. Maybe that's partly what got me the gig. On the fifth day I was so tired. I told George Travis I really appreciate this opportunity, but I can't go on anymore. My brain stopped listening. I can't hear anything. I was completely exhausted. I was as hungry as you would not believe. He said, "Are you sure you want to go?" I said, "This has been an awesome experience, I am so grateful that I had this opportunity." The next day George came up to me and said, "Well, what's your number?" I said it's 516..." Not that number. "What's your price?" And that's how I got the gig. Then Bruce said to me, "Have you ever been down front before?" I said, "Yeah." "I'm gonna move you down here. It's gonna be me, Shane Fontaine, and you." I said, "Whoa, let me back that up. You're talking about a totally different space. A totally different vibe." He said, "This is gonna happen. What you do in the back, you don't do out here." (laughs) I was like, "Okay. So, now what do I do?" (laughs) "Just stand there and be you." That was heavy. I said the back was me too. He said, "Yeah, but this is a different you. You stand near me. You play the part and be a thing. Do you know what I mean? Be you." I was like, "Okay." That was such an awesome experience. I can say that. It was heavy.

Q - Billy Joel seems like such an easy going guy, but is he demanding? Is he tough on his musicians?

A - Yes, he is.

Q - That's what I thought you would say.

A - Why?

Q - I just have this idea he's a perfectionist.

A - He is.

Q - He must rehearse his band so much.

A - No. Here's the deal: This is just from my perspective 'cause he has a relationship with everyone in the band and crew and his staff. He has personal relationships with all of us. It's really cool actually. Everybody's on the same level. I'm no better than this other person. That's the way he treats everyone, which is rare. His thing is this: I pay you for a responsibility and a duty and a job to do here for my organization, for my plan, for my concert tours. I hired you to work for me. That's already understood. It's never said, but it's understood. So, I expect you to know your responsibilities. If you don't, it's somewhat on you. You're out! So, we all do our parts. Sometimes we may get one or two times to rehearse it, actually play the song through. And that's it! That's all you get. (laughs) I remember Dave Rosenthal called me. He was the designated musical director and he said, "This tour, Billy expects everybody to up their game." I was like, "Okay." That meant anything you were kind of messing up on in the past, you better correct it. Go back and refer to the music and get it as close as you can to how it's done. After so many years of playing the same music, you start putting your own stuff in it. Everybody's gotten back to the recordings. That means for the sound as well.

Official Website: www.CrystalTaliefero.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.