![\"will-lee-Issue-No30\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/will-lee-Issue-No30.jpg\")
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His nightly gig on the Late Show With David Letterman<\/i> makes Will Lee one of America\u2019s most visible bassists. Since 1982, Lee has excelled in the pressure cooker of live TV, backing countless guest stars. He also tours with Israeli guitarist Oz Noy and takes the stage weekly with the Fab Faux, a group that performs stunning recreations of the Beatles catalog. Now Lee is releasing Love, Gratitude and Other Distractions<\/i>, his first solo album in 20 years. And though it boasts guests like Allen Toussaint, Pat Metheny and Billy Gibbons, it\u2019s still Lee\u2019s show, with soulful vocals complementing stunning bass work.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the genesis of the record?<\/b><\/p>\n
At first I didn\u2019t know it was going to be a record at all. I got started with the song \u201cMiss Understanding.\u201d I thought, \u201cHey that\u2019s pretty cool, that\u2019s fun.\u201d And who cares about albums anymore, right? All you have to do is put a song on iTunes and call it a day. But then I wanted to record \u201cSmile.\u201d When I had these two songs I realized they\u2019ve got nothing to do with each other. So who cares? If this is ever going to be a collection, just treat it like a greatest-hits record. I felt like \u201cGratitude\u201d should be the first one, somehow.<\/p>\n
An autobiographical tune?<\/b><\/p>\n
Very much so. They all are, but that one\u2019s directly related to my alcohol\/cocaine recovery trip that I\u2019ve been on for the last 28 years. I entered rehab on March 1, 1985, and I\u2019m lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What pushed you to do the album?<\/b><\/p>\n
I kind of started to explode with information after enough years had gone by. Writing is a time-consuming, selfish project, and you really have to be focused. The only thing that got in the way was the gigs, because I love to do everything.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the Late Show<\/i>, how does the band put together the commercial bumpers?<\/b><\/p>\n
For the play-ons we try to grasp onto something we know about the guest\u2014maybe their name or a movie they\u2019re pushing. But we don\u2019t have a lot of time to figure it out. Everything happens in that same place, whether it\u2019s a comedy rehearsal or a whole band doing a soundcheck. And we have 10 or 15 minutes to figure out our night\u2019s duties.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Any of the countless guests stand out?<\/b><\/p>\n
James Brown back in \u201982. We had a heavy combination of respect and fear when he walked in. But something happens when he gets behind a microphone. There\u2019s a body language that happens\u2014he\u2019s able to undulate with his movements. James is totally establishing the groove, where there\u2019s no doubt of what to play. It was nothing but a pleasure, and we just couldn\u2019t do wrong. We were like the Godfatherettes! He was one of the giants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You work on the very stage where\u00a0<\/b>Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles.<\/b><\/p>\n
And I never forget that. It\u2019s so ingrained in my being. After I watched that February 9, 1964 telecast, I went back to the drums I had had for years and never played. Suddenly this was my world\u2014I now knew what to do. I saw the obvious equation: \u201cDo this and chicks scream with delight!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Any advice to aspiring musicians?<\/b><\/p>\n
If you called my formative years of playing so-called crappy gigs \u201cpaying dues,\u201d I would disagree. I\u2019ve never felt like I was anything other than super lucky to be playing music at all. And I think that\u2019s the attitude anybody has to have. You have to just love it to death, and realize that the music is the boss.<\/p>\n
\u2013Bob Cannon<\/p>\n
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WILL LEE Late night TV\u2019s ace of bass releases a star-studded solo project \u00a0 His nightly gig on the Late Show With David Letterman makes Will Lee one of America\u2019s most visible bassists. Since 1982, Lee has excelled in the pressure cooker of live TV, backing countless guest stars. He also tours with Israeli guitarist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[4411,5337,7306,7299,7305,6718,734,970,7260],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11328,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326\/revisions\/11328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}