An Interview with Doyle Bramhall II – 23 February 2011

An Interview with Doyle Bramhall II

What was your reaction when these legendary musicians came calling? Was it like, “Hey Doyle, Eric Clapton is on the phone for you”?

“I’ll take you back a little before that. I got a call from Patrick Leonard, who produced Roger Waters’ Amused To Death record. Roger was looking for someone who could play guitar and sing vocals with him. They wanted a demo of ‘Comfortably Numb’ and “Money.

“I hated the idea of making a demo of ‘Money.’ The production on Dark Side Of The Moon is amazing, so that was something I just didn’t want to touch. Roger writes lyrics that are very emotionally connected. I felt that, due to my past, I could personally relate to ‘Comfortably Numb.’ It was like putting words to what I was feeling when I was drugged out and completely helpless in that situation of being a drug addict. So one day, I was hanging around my house listening to The Wall. My stereo has one of those karaoke buttons that take the lead vocals and guitar out of phase. We ended up recreating that in the studio, where my vocals and guitar replaced those of the song. The end result is something so close to what the original was, that either way, we knew we had just recorded one of the best demos ever!”

How did Eric Clapton enter the picture?

“I was at the final gig of the Roger Waters tour. My manager had sent him a copy of the Jellycream CD. So, I called him and he said he’d love to meet and maybe play a little guitar. Maybe even talk about covering a few songs for his record with B.B King.

“I was showing him some of my songs, even though I told him that I played left-handed and upside down. This only helped to make things more confusing on how I was playing the song. So, he ended up asking me to play on the record. They ended up covering two of my songs and then Eric invited me back to help do his solo record. Eric has almost single-handedly gotten my name out there. So, I guess you could say this relationship has been very fruitful all the way around.”

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