Interview With Dave Batti - Ron Beffa

Dave Batti has been playing bass alongside John Stewart longer than anyone. He's had some big footsteps to follow: Arnie Moore and Chris Whelan. Arnie played with John during what some regard as his classic period, and then Chris Whelan, part of the "loudest folk band in America" backed John for the RSO years, the "Hollywood" era. When John started playing with Chuck McDermott, Dave came along and has been there ever since. John has a legendary habit of nicknaming his compadres, such as Chris "The Mountain" Whelan, Dennis "The D-Man" Kenmore, Gary "Maddog" Weisberg, and so on. Dave has a few. My favorite is "Dancing Dave" Batti, but he is most infamously known as Dave "Dave" Batti. "Dave" has been kind enough to share some of the history of himself and his association with John Stewart.    -Ron Beffa

One of Dave's current music projects is the band "Manitou". Check them out. http://www.manitoumusic.com/dave.html

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Ron: When did you start playing music, what inspired you, and why did you choose the bass?

Dave:I started playing the accordion in the 4th grade 'cuz my Dad loved Dick Contino. I learned that you can't play accordion in the marching band, so I switched to the trumpet in the 6th grade (played trumpet all the way through college). Saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and said that's what I want to do...Heard "Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady" and went "wow!"...started practicing the guitar and played my first gig as a freshman in college doing Hendrix, Cream, and Creedence covers. The hot band in college was an 8 piece horn band doing Tower, Sly, JB, Maceo and other funk/r&b stuff...their bass player quit and I really wanted to play with this band, so I practiced real hard for a couple of months and got the gig...fell in love with the bass. That was about 25 years ago.

Ron: You've told me that you were part of the Chuck McDermott Band. Chuck joined up with John for an all too brief period in the early 80's, most notably with the "Blondes" album. When and how did you connect with Chuck McDermott?

Dave: I moved to LA in '79 seeking my fame and fortune. I was playing in a lot of different bands (as always). One of the drummers in several of these bands was Dennis Kenmore (the D-man). We had met at a session where we found out we lived in apartments next to each other! But I digress...his soon to be ex-wife told D that she new this guy named Chuck McDermott that had just moved here from Boston and he was looking for a drummer and bass player (hmmm, I just happen to know a couple of characters)...we "auditioned" (Dennis charged him $$) and ended up having a lot of fun and making a lot of music....and made some life-long friends in Chuck's band. Some very successful musician's played in that band... Stephen Bruton (Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, now solo), Larry Knight (Suzy Boggus, and now some hot female country artist that I can't remember) plus D and Chris Mostert on sax.

The nice thing about Chuck was he was this charismatic, intelligent, witty guy...very warm and a great personality...we really felt like a band/family and played that way. He had grown up in DC and was Joe Kennedy's (Bobby's son and now congressman) boyhood friend. He worked for Teddy's campaign for president in '80 and when Teddy lost the Democratic nomination, came to LA to make music and linked up with D and I....can you see the Stewart connection coming?

Ron: I see it coming! So how did you, Chuck & the D-man connect with John Stewart? This must have been not long after the Dream Babies albums. RSO was going bankrupt, John was without a label, and what happened?

Dave: We were rehearsing, gigging, trying to make ends meet, but having a great time because of the music. Chuck had worked with Maria Shriver on the Teddy campaign. He was invited to a party at Maria's house around 1980 and guess who was at the party? Yes, Mr Stewart was invited to the same party. Maria told Chuck that she had someone that he had to meet because they had so much in common, they were introduced, sat down on a couch and talked for 3 hours. The next week, John showed up at one of our rehearsals and we learned "Gold" and "Lost Her in the Sun". With two songs under our belt, John would show up occasionally at our gigs and sit in .... people would go crazy.

I must admit that I was only vaguely familiar with John when I first met him .... there was that album my Mom had when I was growing up...I loved the song that had the *beep* in it. Then I was a freshman in college and I read a review in the college paper that raved about this new album "California Bloodlines"... I went to the record store where they had Jimi blaring and ended up buying "Are You Experienced?" instead (sorry John ... I did like it when I finally got it in the 80's so I could learn the tunes ... you want the truth right?). I did know "Gold" because it was such a breath of fresh air during all that disco stuff. I didn't realize I was so JS challenged until someone had to explain to me why John did that Monkee's song in his set.

When we first met John, he was playing with "The Loudest Folk Band In America". We opened for John at the Palomino several times. He eventually fired the band and started doing a duo with Chuck. When John needed to hire a band, he hired us ... and that's how it all started.

Ron: Well, you're heading for two decades with John now. That's an amazing length of time. It's interesting that you came in at the end of the "Gold" era. Seems to me that there were really three times in John's career when he attracted a large number of new followers. Those who came in the Trio era, The California Bloodlines era, and the Gold era. Although I became a fan with the same "beeped" Greenback Dollar - (actually I think it was a strum) song in the Trio era, and paid attention to John from that point on, it wasn't until  California Bloodlines, especially "July You're A Woman" and the Willard album that I was really hooked. In fact, when Gold became so popular I wasn't sure if I really liked it! And I too wondered for a few years why John did that Monkees song.

Chuck McDermott helped define a certain brief Stewart era himself. I recall great harmonies and comraderie at that time. Tell us about the first gigs and then the recording sessions with you and Chuck & John. What was happening? How did your own and Chuck's influence shape the music?

Dave: In the early 80s, John would be playing with the Loudest Folk Band in America (LFBinA) and the Chuck McDermott Band (the CMB from now on...Chuck, Dennis "the D Man" (or just D) Kenmore on drums, Larry Knight on guitar [later Stephen Bruton], Jim Mentel on keyboards [later Jeff Snider], and Chris Mostert on sax) would open occasionally at the Palomino. We were recording demos and playing all the time and John would occasionally come by and sit in. He also produced a Chuck demo and helped Chuck with his songwriting and give us advise on the music biz.

Besides gigs all over the LA area, we had Tuesdays at O'Mahoneys in Santa Monica locked down. It was great fun with a lot of local musicians (and sometimes audience) sitting in....a party where we would play everything from our originals to country/blues/rock covers. At the end of the night, it was nothing for a dozen people to be on the stage having a great time....and there were various musician/comedian/actors/friends always falling in ... shall I drop some names? Besides John sitting in, people like the aforementioned Maria Schriver and Arnold, Kevin Pollack (he'd walk in wearing a trench coat, walk on stage and go into his Columbo ... it is the best in the business ... crowd goes crazy even though at that time people didn't know who he was), Beverly D'Angelo singing "Great Balls of Fire" with the CMB, Bryan Brown so inebriated that he's dancing with "The Munz" cheek to cheek, Joe Kennedy, Jeff Bridges, T-Bone Burnett sits in, etc. ....it was great. Sometimes the best was late at night when it would start thinning out about 1 AM and there would be more people in the band than in the audience...that's when some of the best playing occurred...nothing like a sad country ballad at closing time, that's when we were living our art (or at least we had had enough alcohol to make us think so).

One time John came in with Chris Whelan and I think it was right after John had dissolved the LFBinA. I think Chris was disappointed that John was going to do a solo for awhile and didn't appear too happy...and that's the last time I saw Chris although I know he worked on Blondes and with John's son Mikael as road manager for the Pointer Sisters for awhile in the 80s.

John did some solo gigs and opened for Stevie Nicks (Blonde Star) on her Bella Donna tour while all this was happening. He then formed a duo with Chuck while working on the Blondes album. This was the time that he started using D in the studio on drums and I actually did a session for the album as well. Next time John needed a band, it was Chuck, D , and myself, basically the CMB.

I can remember the first rehearsals at John's house in Malibu. I was living in the San Fernando Valley and had to drive over Kanan-Dume Road to get to John's...and yes, I did crank up Gold as I was "...driving over Kanan"...man what a rush....can you imagine?...playing the hits with "The BigGuy." John's house overlooked the Pacific...what a view...John + the view made things a bit intimidating. We were all a little nervous (the CMB, not John). We were working on the usual (Gold, Lost Her in the Sun, Runaway Fool of Love, Midnight Wind, Kansas, Mother Country, etc.) plus all the songs on the just released Blondes to see which ones worked live. I had memorized the entire album's bass lines and arrangements so I could be totally prepared. John started with the first cut Tall Blondes....we played about 8 bars and then John said "Nah, that doesn't feel right." ...and that's the last we saw of that song! D and I looked at each other feeling a little less secure than when we walked in. We then worked on Queen of Hollywood High (BTW, a great song to play) and it went much better and the rest is history. The first gig we played was The Cellar in Los Altos...lot of great memories at that club.

The second gig was a benefit at Pepperdine College in Malibu with celebrities such as Johnny Carson, Cheech & Chong, Levar Burton, Ali McGraw emceeing and introducing musical acts such as Eddie Van Halen & the Surf Punks, Brian Wilson, Stephen Stills and others I can't remember (we did this 3 years in a row and I'm on data overload ... but I do remember one time Cecily Tyson was introducing an act and in the dressing room her boy friend Miles Davis was hangin'..MILES DAVIS for God's sake!!! He stood there in the middle of the room with this black cloud over his head and everyone was so in awe and intimidated by him, that no one would go up and say anything!).

A couple more rememberances about those Malibu benefits that we played: I remember sitting with John Hoke inside the Pepperdine Gym waiting for the organizing committee (John was one) to show up and get us organized...sound check, dressing room, etc. Ali McGraw walks up to me (I had a John Stewart road case, so she knew I was with John) and said "Is John here?". I said no and she said, "Good, I'm not the only one who f***ed up and is late."....all I can say is Ali McGraw said the f-word to ME!...Ali McGraw said the f-word to ME!...Ali McGraw said the F-WORD to ME!...(see Pat Boone called ME on the phone reference on Deep in the Neon).

The other moment frozen in time was standing outside in a circle of people shooting the breeze with John, Brian Wilson, Stephen Stills, Eddie Van Halen (He was drinking a Big Mouth Ale) a couple of other guys, and me....what the heck was I doing there? Cool anyway.

So Katherine Ross introduces John on stage and we have like 20 minutes to play. We play 3 or 4 songs and then John introduces "our special guest" and out walks Linda Ronstadt to sing with us...I've died and gone to heaven! Very cool.

Ron: Dave, I think everybody would die if Linda Ronstadt came out to sing with them. Linda did in fact sing on several of John's songs. The one that knocks me out is her vocals on "The Queen of Hollywood High" on the Blondes album where her voice soars perfectly with the music. Did Linda come into the studio to record with "the boys" or were her vocals added in later? Who else was hanging with you guys when you were cutting Blondes?

Dave: Unfortunately, Linda came in the studio while the boys were home sleeping. She added the vocals later and all I can say is what a great singer and a long-time friend of John's.

The only thing I remember about Blondes is going down to Larrabee Studios in West Holywood really late at night and recording Queen of Hollywood High and one other song which I can't remember and having a great time. The cuts we did didn't make the album (TBTAMC?), but it was fun!

Right after Blondes John decided to form his own record company, Homecoming, with Chuck and I helping out. And we're now headed for Johnny Stew, the Homecoming Years.

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to be continued at a later date

1997 - 2000

back to Clack's Cellar