00:00:00 - 00:00:24 Ivan Neville

When you have the big gig and super dome opening up for the Stones, you want that show to happen that night. 2019 when we opened up for them, we have one of those shows. That's how I felt about it. We had the home crowd, which was amazing. The Soul Rebels came and joined us. I thought our choice of songs was really, really good, and when we started the first song they shooting, I started singing it.

00:00:25 - 00:00:34 Ivan Neville

The way I felt when I heard that, I was like, oh, this is going to be a good set. And I was not disappointed. It was it was amazing. I was so happy about that.

00:00:34 - 00:01:04 Ric Stewart

Funk songwriter and keyboardist Ivan Neville talks and plays Rolling Stones and New Orleans classics and soul country number ten. I'm Ric Stewart, a filmmaking DJ since the mid 80s, adding some real life podcast to get deeper into soul country. Good God, where we cover tales from the intersection of R&B and Americana. Listen in as we revitalize our cultural roots in Westerns, blues, and right now, a word from our sponsor, Ace Productions.

00:01:04 - 00:01:25 Ric Stewart

Documentary Blues, Rock and soul Country is chock full of exclusive performances and interviews from rock and soul, Hall of Famers and Grammy winner. It's the origin story of Soul country. Check it out at Soul country.com. Well, I even discussed recording with the stones in the 80s, his Americana angle, and taking his Uncle Art's place in the funky meter.

00:01:25 - 00:01:34 Ric Stewart

And here's how it all went down. To get it started here, I'm Rick Stuart. We're back at Soul Country Season three, kicking off with Ivan Neville. All right. And welcome to the show.

00:01:34 - 00:01:36 Ivan Neville

Glad to be here. Thank you for the invite.

00:01:36 - 00:01:39 Ric Stewart

How would you describe the environment growing up musically?

00:01:39 - 00:02:06 Ivan Neville

I got to see some cool characters growing up. You know, Doctor John Allen Toussaint, James Booker and The Meters picked up the guitar. About 1015 is when I some new little run on the piano. And my dad taught me a few songs and, I sat down with Booker a couple times and he showed me a couple of things.

00:02:07 - 00:02:12 Ivan Neville

You know, I can't really look.

00:02:12 - 00:02:36 Speaker 3

At.

00:02:36 - 00:03:15 Ivan Neville

He showed me how to play this one song. That's the New Orleans staple. And if you play piano, you must know this song. It's a song by a guy by the name of Professor Longhair.

00:03:15 - 00:03:25 Ric Stewart

I'm interested to hear your take. So Booker was, like, such an idiosyncratic guy. What would you say? How would you describe, like, how he was different than somebody like Longhair, who was there already?

00:03:25 - 00:03:59 Ivan Neville

He would, like, combine, like, classical stuff with some boogie woogie with some funky knuckle barrel house things that I'm not that I'm not. I mean, my thing gets along his own thing as well, which was amazing. And it was very intricate and not easy to duplicate. Now, the one person that I thought that played Professor Longhair stuff, very, well and and fluently, was Allen Tusa and, a lot of men.

00:03:59 - 00:04:04 Ivan Neville

Mac, Doctor John.

00:04:04 - 00:04:22 Ivan Neville

Doctor John, he had his own version of of of the typical New Orleans piano song. All these guys all played like if they would play the same song, it would all have a slight difference, you know, like the big cheeks that real. So some guys would go.

00:04:22 - 00:04:32 Ivan Neville

And some guys would go.

00:04:32 - 00:04:42 Ivan Neville

And then it was different versions of that. And so, you know that that thing, and nobody played it exactly the same.

00:04:42 - 00:04:53 Ric Stewart

So you were born in the late 50s, right? Yeah. And so when the British Invasion kicks in, you're kind of a little kid, but is that thing grows and becomes Elvis? Yeah. All those other bands. How much of an impact did that make in a place like New Orleans when you're already strong?

00:04:53 - 00:05:11 Ivan Neville

I was when I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show. I remember everybody crying on TV. I was maybe four years old or something like that. Somewhere up in there, I remember that stuff. I remember seeing the Beatles. I remember watching shows and seeing the stones and a lot of these other groups, Herman's, Herman's Hermits and some of these other groups.

00:05:11 - 00:05:36 Ivan Neville

I remember seeing this. There was this program. There were these programs that came on that had, you know, other than The Ed Sullivan Show and shows that, you know, we saw this stuff, but, you know, I, I knew immediately, especially the Beatles and the stones, because I was I was also aware of some music that a man by the name of little, Larry Williams, Larry Williams.

00:05:36 - 00:05:58 Ivan Neville

And it was 45. There was 40 fives around the house, and they were mostly they were Specialty Records 45. So in another. So I would find out later that a lot of that stuff was recorded here in New Orleans, and it was Larry Williams music and Little Richard stuff. And then when I heard some of the stuff from the Beatles, I could hear that in what they were doing.

00:05:58 - 00:06:25 Ivan Neville

So there was definitely a connection, you know, and, kind of, you know, I it was it was pretty it was pretty unique and cool to see and to see how those influences work and to hear later on, like when I hear, Keith talk about that stuff, Keith Richards, you know, how he was, you know, how he, they dug, all that, you know, the great music that they were hearing.

00:06:25 - 00:06:47 Ivan Neville

And, you know, they were influenced heavily by in a lot of those musicians who really appreciated that what they were doing, because they were making this music relevant to an audience that maybe would not have been exposed to it in the way that they were exposed later on. So, yeah, a lot of the blues cats, you know, really appreciated some of that stuff.

00:06:47 - 00:07:02 Ric Stewart

Okay, so then the music kind of changes quite abruptly, like, okay, there were six before and things were kind of more about singing maybe. And then all of a sudden, like there was explorations of electric guitar and the song format really changed in the, you know, LED Zeppelin show up or whatever, like marked to. Yeah, to go heavier and harder in there.

00:07:02 - 00:07:05 Ric Stewart

So like, were you like a LED Zeppelin feel when that was, that was something that.

00:07:06 - 00:07:30 Ivan Neville

I was not at that. Because when that stuff happened, as you talked about early 70s, early 70s, mid 70s, I was really digging the fact that during that time there were so many different types of music that was that was, that was all funky and soulful and had some mixtures of stuff, like it was all mixed with blues and rock and roll and funk.

00:07:30 - 00:07:56 Ivan Neville

King kind of. And you, you and I'm talking about like, key bands like, like Sly the family Stone music one that was pretty, made a huge impact on On Me and for many reasons, let alone the music. That presentation, you know, he had multi-racial. He had, guys, girls, you know, that kind of thing that that stuck out to me as well.

00:07:56 - 00:08:15 Ivan Neville

But then you, you could turn on the radio at any given time during that period. I mean, I'm talking and now because like the late 60s, late 60s, early 70s, late 60s is when slap in the made most of that that mark. But then the things that came after that and then you got James Brown as well.

00:08:15 - 00:08:41 Ivan Neville

Right. Right before slide and James Brown did his thing and he kind of made that funk mob. And but listening to the radio in the early 70s was so fun because you had all this music that was akin to it was all can, but it all sounded different, like nobody was trying to sound like anybody else. To some degree.

00:08:41 - 00:09:03 Ivan Neville

You could hear influences, but it didn't seem like it was intentional. You know, as music is made later on, people were trying to find a formula, oh, this is what's going to be popular. So I want a song like that. People started doing that later on, but back then you would hear a song on the radio and you would say, oh wow, that sounds like nothing I've ever heard of to this point in his.

00:09:03 - 00:09:26 Ivan Neville

Gotta think about it. It's kind of funky. He's got a groove and I'm gonna I'm going to say two take two songs that to me display that that that spirit. One is Rufus, Rufus and Chaka Khan. And it came out with a song called Tell Me Something Good, which is written by Stevie Wonder, by the way. And that song sounded just different than anything I had heard up to that point or what.

00:09:26 - 00:09:49 Ivan Neville

It had the top box thing going on. Clap clap clap. I heard clapping that before, but that was it. Gets a little treatment on it and that song, it had a vibe about it. It sounded decent. And then during the same year or two years, it was a song called Bennie and the Jets and Elton John, and that was like two spectrums.

00:09:49 - 00:10:11 Ivan Neville

They sounded nothing like each other, but the appeal was universal. And yeah, and you got Elton John actually played on Soul Train because that song crossed over back. Like, usually you, you're making black soul music and you crossed over to the pop side. Elton John crossed over to black radio. So that was unique to me. And I dug that.

00:10:11 - 00:10:32 Ivan Neville

People were doing stuff like that. And in any given moment, you could hear a song that sounded like nothing else and that I really appreciated that, you know, in artists and people having the freedom to do that back then. And a lot of it, I guess, was, by chance, an experiment making music, you know.

00:10:32 - 00:10:50 Ric Stewart

Genres are kind of loose and the and they're kind of worthless as descriptions of things like partly because of those reason you think every genre almost simultaneously if you're Elton John or something and fly. And then I saw some of your dates coming up. So you got JJ Gray and Mofo coming up on the bill. He's kind of like, where my, my, my my podcast, it's called Soul Country.

00:10:50 - 00:10:58 Ric Stewart

I kind of do this hybrid where it's Americana. It's kind of swampy. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that, where Americana sits in the New Orleans area, because it's always sort of.

00:10:58 - 00:11:22 Ivan Neville

You know, it's chaos. And I topic for me because I feel kind of a certain way about it now, whereas I really don't know exactly what Americana is, I really don't. I hear my friend, my good friend Bonnie Raitt talks about it a lot. And, you know, I know anything that she does is considered it can be in that genre.

00:11:22 - 00:11:46 Ivan Neville

And some stuff she does is is bluesy. Some stuff she does is soulful a little more and some stuff she does is a little rocking. But it's all and and and then you got a lot of guitar orientated music and some of it not. Some of it electric, some of it more twangy guitars. Oh. That's considered Americana in the singer song.

00:11:46 - 00:12:13 Ivan Neville

And then you got a boozy country kind of thing like JJ gray in them. Dude, that's considered that my my problem with the categorization of music like that is that we played this folk music. My band Dumpster Farm, we played kind of we played funk, funky and we and I don't know that there is, there's not. If you look up, if you try to register a song, it was not a genre called funk.

00:12:13 - 00:12:41 Ivan Neville

To register our music, it says other. So I think funk, it should be under Americana as well. But it's not really. It's not considered that. So that's why I'm, I get a little jaded about that, that that typecast about the label, the label, of a variety of genres to that degree. It just kind of throws me a little bit because I wonder sometimes, where does certain music sit, where will they put you out?

00:12:41 - 00:13:12 Ivan Neville

And because I feel like because this stuff that we play is, is, is influenced by some rock, some blues, some soulful stuff and a little bit of everything, and it's kind of funky and it's kind of got a little dirtiness to it and whatnot. And I think that I think that the idea of what Americana is, I don't know that you can just say, okay, this is Americana or this is Americana, and that's I that kind of that baffles me to some degree.

00:13:12 - 00:13:16 Ivan Neville

And I can't exactly explain, but you maybe know what I'm talking about.

00:13:16 - 00:13:31 Ric Stewart

I know, I know, I've been living that for a while. I mean, I think Americana in some sense is like the quick definition would probably be it's like country for hipsters, you know, it's like the people who don't really want to say they like country have to have something to say, like it's alternative. They had they had an alternative country for a minute that nobody really bought that.

00:13:31 - 00:13:41 Ric Stewart

Right. And then there was the no Depression movement or Uncle Tupelo. And then it was, Wilco. And some of them were pretty major songwriters. So it became like the people were following that and.

00:13:41 - 00:13:41 Ivan Neville

Then and then became.

00:13:41 - 00:13:56 Ric Stewart

A magazine called The Depression. Whatever. And I was like, okay, I don't really follow this whole story. It's not too big for me. But when I realize things like that are giant mountains in the music, like, the band or, you know, stuff that has like, elements of everything, but it's kind of like you could find it at the state Fair.

00:13:56 - 00:14:09 Ric Stewart

It's like such old music, right? Yeah, like like it has to graduate and to be an old bigot there, maybe. Well, I would say that, Tex-Mex probably fits that, too. And it's not as black, but most of them are blues based on country itself. It's kind of a side channel to blues.

00:14:09 - 00:14:12 Ivan Neville

It's crazy. So I you know, this is the best explanation.

00:14:12 - 00:14:25 Ric Stewart

However, let me so in 1970, the area that you're kind of coming of age and things were like you could jump from one rafter the other half real easy. Yeah. So that's what I see. Like the Isley Brothers, you know, they're doing Ohio New Young, right?

00:14:25 - 00:14:29 Ivan Neville

Where they were, they were covering. They did Summer of they did the song The Seals.

00:14:29 - 00:14:30 Ric Stewart

And there was some heavy duty shit.

00:14:30 - 00:14:44 Ivan Neville

Yeah, that was that was crushing. Speaking of which, now that band is a very underrated band as far as influence and how they because they took some things like you, like you mentioning they did Ohio and

00:14:44 - 00:14:46 Ric Stewart

And the Nevilles did too. And were they brought in the love the one you're with.

00:14:46 - 00:14:59 Ivan Neville

Right. Love. The one you were in Ohio and they did, Summer breeze and, some things of that nature, but they were a funky, funk band that was heavily influential.

00:15:00 - 00:15:04 Ric Stewart

And and they are Cincinnati guys originally, so. Yes. Yes, they.

00:15:04 - 00:15:04 Ivan Neville

Are.

00:15:04 - 00:15:09 Ric Stewart

Gas from the Bootsy thing. And you're hanging.

00:15:09 - 00:15:24 Ivan Neville

In there, this guy that played, keyboards with them, that was I think he was kin to them somehow. He was a his name is Chris Jasper. It was a made very unsung cat. Very played some synthesizers, many moons and clarinets and all.

00:15:24 - 00:15:29 Ric Stewart

That kind of stuff. And I paid a lot of attention to Ernie Isley because he'd really like apprentice, the Hendrix style.

00:15:29 - 00:15:33 Ivan Neville

It was like, yes, no, he did it. And he had that funky rhythm thing going on as well.

00:15:33 - 00:15:39 Ric Stewart

So you playing with Stanton there at the hotel was at the hotel and and he had like Hotel California. You do you bring a little.

00:15:39 - 00:15:54 Ivan Neville

Oh. That was at the ASU. I did I did a few different shows, I would I yeah, kind of had a little thing. I did something kind of monthly where I played that once a month and I would change it up. I did different steam sets and yeah, I remember that. Well, I would say I had two drummers.

00:15:54 - 00:16:02 Ivan Neville

I had standard Elvin for junior playing drums with just me. It was the three of us and I had like a Fender Rhodes and in a synth bass.

00:16:02 - 00:16:04 Ric Stewart

Yeah, that was like a return to the 70s.

00:16:04 - 00:16:06 Ivan Neville

And the two drummers, it was kind of it was transgression.

00:16:06 - 00:16:20 Ric Stewart

And then so the Meters had some country stuff too. The Wichita Lineman, I thought was like the best track. And it was just kind of really, you know, I think there was a need to like also, another piece of advice that musicians sometimes give is you should play every style you can.

00:16:20 - 00:16:21 Ivan Neville

Yes, yes, no.

00:16:21 - 00:16:22 Ric Stewart

Absolutely.

00:16:22 - 00:16:22 Ivan Neville

Yeah.

00:16:22 - 00:16:35 Ric Stewart

Because the country stuff ends up paying off. Like I look back at the whole history of this music because I spent a lot of time being like a suburbanite who, like, was a classic rock devotee. And I was like started to double click on this and realize, you know, it's all about blues and R&B. But then I was like, wait a minute, eventually close the country.

00:16:35 - 00:16:44 Ric Stewart

Yeah. And so, another one was like, when I interviewed, Drifter Junior. He was like, yeah. And Ziggy used to do a version of Delta done. I was like, oh, I wish, I.

00:16:44 - 00:16:45 Ivan Neville

Wish.

00:16:45 - 00:16:46 Ric Stewart

I'd.

00:16:46 - 00:16:47 Ivan Neville

Never heard that.

00:16:47 - 00:16:50 Ric Stewart

But the Aaron Neville story, he talks a lot about Gene Autry and the.

00:16:50 - 00:16:52 Ivan Neville

Cowboys and whatnot.

00:16:52 - 00:17:07 Ric Stewart

So if you were around in the 40s, like, everything was really cowboy stuff and the Gene Autry plus Roy Rogers or, you know, singing cowboy right there, you know? So that was an era. Now you have also I didn't see much on the recording side of it, but it said that you had played with Don Henley and Robbie Robertson.

00:17:07 - 00:17:23 Ivan Neville

You know, I so I it's a funny thing was first of all was Don Henley that I and so I love that credit. Back in the early 80s someone and there was a rumor, someone told me, hey, Don Henley was trying to get in touch with you, and I had no idea, and I didn't even put it together.

00:17:23 - 00:17:44 Ivan Neville

Oh, and I realized, oh, that's the guy, the drummer and the singer from the Eagles. Now, I never we never connected during that time. But I ended up meeting him when I was playing with Bonnie Raitt in the early, early, to mid 80s. And, we were acquainted and we had actually a very, unique, encounter.

00:17:44 - 00:18:06 Ivan Neville

So we were, spent some time together doing a band. You should do these. No nukes, no nukes, greatest hits back in the days. And she they would they were doing one in Ventura, California. And we had a, we had a I'm just going to say we had a fun little couple days hanging out playing the show, myself and Don Henley and, Mr. JD saw you and we were we was not so nice.

00:18:06 - 00:18:31 Ivan Neville

We were. We were some naughty boys as this saying that. And we'll leave it at that. Now credit. I ended up singing backups on a song with Don, a song that Steve Jordan, who was my bandmate in the expensive windows, who now plays drums with the stones, Steve Jordan, had written a song for Don Don and recorded a song that Steve Jordan had written, and we were playing with Keith Richards.

00:18:31 - 00:18:55 Ivan Neville

The expensive Rhinos. We were playing. We were out touring and we were in L.A and we were all going to Hanoi. We did this to a recording studio where Henley was making it was making that album end of the innocence, and it was a song that Jordan had written, and we were in the studio at the session, hanging out, and we ended up singing backups on a song song called Shangri-La.

00:18:55 - 00:19:22 Ivan Neville

And that's the credit with with him. That was the only time I really, what I had was I had back him up playing with Bonnie Raitt, but that was when that was my connection to him. Other than those couple nights hanging out and, in winter, that's another story. Anyway, so Robbie Robertson, he was he had a he had a spot, a room upstairs at Village Recording Studio.

00:19:22 - 00:19:38 Ivan Neville

I used to go over there and we would work on little material, make, try to make, try to write a few songs here and there. But he would bounce a lot of ideas off me. Like we would go, I would go over there and he would play a song for me, says Ivan, what do you think of this?

00:19:38 - 00:20:02 Ivan Neville

You know, it's yeah, it's pretty cool and blah blah, blah. And then we just, I would I spent a lot of time with Robbie and we ended up writing a song called What About Now? And also I sang on I sang backup on a song called testimony on that first Robbie solo record. But funny thing was, he had a song called Broken Out, which was which is an amazing song.

00:20:02 - 00:20:33 Ivan Neville

Rod Stewart recorded a version of it that was a big hit, I believe. I think rod rod had a, a good version of it that did well commercially. But anyway, Robbie had played this song for me and I was a huge Peter Gabriel fan, and he's played this song, and he said that he and Peter Gabriel had worked on this tune together, and I was like, and he played me the demo of them, the first origins of this song and how it sounded, the rough, version of it.

00:20:33 - 00:21:09 Ivan Neville

And I loved it, I loved it, and then over the next year or so, he, we, he recorded maybe a couple, 2 or 3 versions of that song. And I was a part of maybe at least two sessions, big time sessions where musicians came in and I don't I remember maybe a couple of guys, maybe a blueberry or played bass once and Cherry Basil was on drums and a bunch of other some studio cash, and we recorded versions of this song, Broken Arrow and, and which I thought they were mostly it was version were pretty impressive, but I always in the back of my mind, I was always thinking, I like that first version that

00:21:09 - 00:21:28 Ivan Neville

he played for me. And at one point we were sitting in the studio and he was like, so the, you know, how do you like these other verses that we do on, you know, that song? I said, I like the first one you played for me better than all of them. And it's a funny, story because you know what?

00:21:28 - 00:21:49 Ivan Neville

That's the version they ended up doing. They put out on Robbie's record, and I just recently saw Daniel Lanois, while by chance he was in New Orleans doing work and doing some work. And I ran into Daniel Lanois, who produced those records for Robbie. And he was when I told I told him that story, I said, yeah. Robbie asked me which one was the better version.

00:21:49 - 00:22:05 Ivan Neville

Excuse me? I said, the demo, the first one, you see, that's the one they use. That's when he landline mixed it and he used that early version. And I truly appreciated the fact that I felt like Robbie was bouncing ideas off of me like that. He says, Ivan, what do you think? And I was young. I was a kid.

00:22:05 - 00:22:16 Ivan Neville

I was probably in my, you know, mid 20s at the time. And I was coming over to Robbie's studio, like every once a week or so for probably six months or so.

00:22:16 - 00:22:23 Ric Stewart

Yeah, I remember that album that had a lot of guest stars. That was He'd fallen Angel was on that. That was the only one. Yeah, yeah, he had really good though.

00:22:23 - 00:22:24 Ivan Neville

That was our Richard Manuel.

00:22:25 - 00:22:30 Ric Stewart

Yeah. And that was incredible. Yeah, yeah. Like, I guess the next album, story of. I saw him play the show.

00:22:31 - 00:22:43 Ivan Neville

He came to New Orleans and you got Ziggy. We got all the guy, you got Willie Green, he got Uncle Sierra, or it was on it. And then he did. We did the. What about another song with my dad's singing? I'm singing on it, and I co-wrote it with Bobby.

00:22:44 - 00:22:50 Ric Stewart

So what do you take away from working with these guys have had such success as songwriters. Can you actually learn songwriting from somebody else like that is.

00:22:50 - 00:23:14 Ivan Neville

You know, it's kind of a to me, it's all, it's all, it's all by chance. And in. Do you enjoy being a part of the creative process? I mean, it's basically you're just a conduit. You just kind of hanging out and you and hopefully you, you trying to spread some good vibes or would not you try to create a good feeling here and, and maybe it might come out in the song are you a part of.

00:23:14 - 00:23:29 Ivan Neville

And it's basically you just you just have you allow enough innocence and purity to be in, in the room. And that's by being humble about the whole idea of it and maybe a cool song like Come About.

00:23:29 - 00:23:32 Ric Stewart

And then on the stones, it looks like you played on Dirty Work and Voodoo, and.

00:23:32 - 00:23:56 Ivan Neville

I played bass on a song on that, on Dirty Work, on a song called Hold Back. Okay, I played bass on that, and I'm really proud of that track because I've shared the bass track with Ronnie Wood, Ronnie's bass part played, and then half halfway in the song, another bass comes in and and hits me. And I remember that, when we did that, it was such a thrill.

00:23:56 - 00:24:15 Ivan Neville

They were I went, yeah, I ended up singing backups on a couple of tunes and that was when they were kind of making keys were, you know, maybe going a little bit in a different direction for some career. Right. Mick was going to go make some solo records, and Keith was kind of figuring out what he was going to do next.

00:24:15 - 00:24:37 Ivan Neville

And, I guess what was borne out of me being a part of that was when he started working on his solo stuff. I got a call to come and be a part of that of the first, Keith solo stuff. So that was pretty. I worked out pretty cool for this Voodoo lounge. I did play keyboards on that record, along with, Benmont, Benmont Tench and, and Chuck Lavelle.

00:24:37 - 00:25:08 Ivan Neville

So I was in good company, and it was totally, you know, honored to have been, you know, invited to that session. And I sang, I sang backup song, a lot of stuff on that record. And there was a lot of, all everybody around one microphone type of thing, or maybe a few mikes. But I remember we were all in a circle and I'm talking about myself, but I follow Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and that maybe, that maybe.

00:25:08 - 00:25:08 Ivan Neville

And that was it.

00:25:08 - 00:25:12 Ric Stewart

What were some of the tracks that you would point to in that era of stones?

00:25:12 - 00:25:26 Ivan Neville

My favorite was probably there was a song called Baby, Break It Down that I thought was, I love that one. There's one called Fast Car, I believe a fast car. And I sang some.

00:25:26 - 00:25:27 Ric Stewart

I said, I've got a brand new.

00:25:27 - 00:25:30 Ivan Neville

Car, I've got a brand new, I sang some backup song that I think I might.

00:25:30 - 00:25:31 Ric Stewart

That's pretty rouge.

00:25:31 - 00:25:49 Ivan Neville

I got some ghosty vocals on that, like behind mic It. You can't really hear it, but I had to I saying some ghostly vocals there, but. And then there was, distortion there. Keith. You know, there you take away waiting on a call from you.

00:25:49 - 00:25:50 Ric Stewart

It's a through and through.

00:25:50 - 00:25:53 Ivan Neville

Through and through love. Oh, I love that.

00:25:53 - 00:25:53 Ric Stewart

That's a heavy song.

00:25:53 - 00:26:14 Ivan Neville

Oh my God. So Chuck Chuck played piano on it and I sang backups on that. That was. I love that that was a you know, they use that in The Sopranos. I like Love Is Strong as well. I love that one because every time I hear it, I could hear me this little hoarse voice going, you're so sweet enough to, you know, to me.

00:26:14 - 00:26:29 Ric Stewart

What about, suck on the jugular? That was the funkiest track. I remember that, yeah. Yeah, that was the funkiest one. So I wanted to ask you about the shows. I was there in 88 at the Kaiser in Oakland when they had the expensive winos came through there. Do you recall that that era, that tour?

00:26:29 - 00:26:40 Ivan Neville

Yeah, that was a fun band that band that that was arguably probably my most probably some of the most fun I've had playing live with a group of guys.

00:26:40 - 00:26:42 Ric Stewart

Yeah. How did that assemble at the beginning?

00:26:42 - 00:27:04 Ivan Neville

Well, Keith Keith was was tight with with Jordan at the time, Steve and Charlie Drayton. And they were like hanging out a lot, which which is why I actually met. I had already met I met Jordan to Jim Keltner in LA at an old studio that I had me and some friends who had a spot, and Jim Keltner brought Steve Jordan over to that studio.

00:27:04 - 00:27:26 Ivan Neville

So I had been acquainted with him, but this is the first time we hung, and it was at the stones recording Dirty Work. Charlie, Jerry and Jordan were at those sessions, and that's the first time I met Drayton. And, not long after that is when Keith called. Maybe that was dirty. Work was in, what, 80, 85, 86, 86.

00:27:27 - 00:27:27 Ric Stewart

Came out in 86?

00:27:27 - 00:27:48 Ivan Neville

Yeah, something like that. So to why we started fooling around with a lot about 87. We started making that music. So I got a call in 87 and Keith, Charlie Drayton, Steve Jordan and then Keith had always had a fondness for why do you want to tell? And he called Waddy and he called me and we got into a room for like a week fooling around.

00:27:48 - 00:27:50 Ivan Neville

And that became the band.

00:27:50 - 00:27:53 Ric Stewart

Okay. So then like a few years ago and waiting for the man to do, you're.

00:27:53 - 00:28:26 Ivan Neville

On the air with that dude that that that's that's, that, So, yeah, I got a I've got a call, to that Keith was doing this this tune. And so Keith, myself and Steve Jordan went into the studio and we put it down. Me on Dirty Worley, I would call it a nasty, distorted Wurlitzer. I was thinking, I can't get the county gig, so I was kind of playing like a guitar and it sounds like a guitar until I play like a keyboard sounding thing.

00:28:26 - 00:28:49 Ivan Neville

And he said, oh, that's a war. That's. So it was a blast doing that. We cut it to strums, guitar and Wurlitzer and then, Keith, Keith, Steve and I, we had decided that, okay, we all going to do a bass track and she whose bass track is the one. So Keith played bass first and Steve and I never got a chance to play bass.

00:28:49 - 00:28:52 Ric Stewart

What's Keith like is a bass. Is he an easygoing kind of boss?

00:28:52 - 00:29:18 Ivan Neville

He's a he's a great guy, man. He's a really, He's definitely relentless. He's relentless with the groove. He's relentless with the groove and sticking to a theme and a, an idea for a song. And he's going to. He's going to do it until the until it turns into what he's supposed to be. And not like, we really know what he's supposed to be until he gets there and he's going to stay with it until he gets there.

00:29:18 - 00:29:30 Ivan Neville

And then we play like a riff for like a while and then marinate in it and seeing what it was going to go, and then eventually like, oh, that's why we played that so long. Because he turned into this.

00:29:30 - 00:29:33 Ric Stewart

What about mistakes or people like repeating something and then something very.

00:29:33 - 00:29:56 Ivan Neville

He his mistakes or like somebody else's brilliant solo play, he can play like a off note that might sound like, okay, is that all for is it not really off a perfect mistake, you might call it, you know, and he's a, you know, he's a very smart guy and very, very, pleasant to be around, you know?

00:29:56 - 00:30:03 Ric Stewart

Yeah. Those guys are so professional, you know, like, I think they just continue to work and clearly they don't really need to do the work. But this is the best job in the world.

00:30:03 - 00:30:06 Ivan Neville

Yeah. When? Why? I mean, when you when you can still do it.

00:30:06 - 00:30:13 Ric Stewart

It's one of my favorite tracks with that original thing, especially in the live incarnation, was Hate It When You Leave and you had Bobby Floyd for the Red band.

00:30:13 - 00:30:13 Ivan Neville

Bobby.

00:30:13 - 00:30:17 Ric Stewart

Yeah. So what's the story with that guy? He came out of nowhere. Like, he just nails that track.

00:30:17 - 00:30:37 Ivan Neville

Bobby. Man. Bobby Bobby was a really close friend of Charlie Drayton's. And and, Bobby came around and he was all right. Who's around the lot? He helped me with a record I was making called thanks during, during the early 90s. And he he was around a lot during that period when we were making that record. Main offender.

00:30:37 - 00:31:29 Ivan Neville

And he sang a lot. He and he and Bernard found the sing a lot of those background vocals. So he ended up singing, singing some, some adlibs and some stuff.

00:31:30 - 00:31:37 Ric Stewart

So it was around the same time, I guess we were talking about in 88, you put it out. If my ancestors could see me now, what was going on then.

00:31:37 - 00:32:06 Ivan Neville

Around the same time that we would kind of muster an up to, y'know, sting and I was in L.A., living in Los Angeles at the time, and I had written a mess of songs and, yeah, it was kind of my first big, deal, big record thing. And it was a it was a strange time for me, you know, I had written a bunch of songs, you know, I had not, had never fancied myself a songwriter at that point up until that point.

00:32:06 - 00:32:29 Ivan Neville

I'm like, oh, well, I can write some tunes. And I wrote a bunch of songs and, matter of fact, I just, I just found a tape of some bootleg tape. A friend of mine mustered up of a live show from that, the debut show of that band playing that music at the Roxy in Los Angeles in 1988.

00:32:29 - 00:32:31 Ric Stewart

Who did you have on drums for that one?

00:32:31 - 00:32:31 Ivan Neville

On the record.

00:32:32 - 00:32:35 Ric Stewart

During that show or the Roxy? In your band at the.

00:32:35 - 00:32:55 Ivan Neville

Oh, in the band, in the band, there was a guy who was my boss. Amano was on drums, and, Val McCallum was on guitar. Val, I think Val plays with Jackson Browne at this point, and he's played with many, many folks. A guy named Kevin Walsh who's on keyboards as well, and my friend Nick Daniels. The third was on bass.

00:32:55 - 00:32:57 Ric Stewart

You double key.

00:32:57 - 00:33:14 Ivan Neville

And I played keys and I switched sometimes I played bass, sometimes I played guitar. But that record was very special making that record, because Jeff Porcaro was on that record play drums and, coach Danny Coachman produced it was pretty and Whitey was on it as well. My dad saying it was.

00:33:14 - 00:33:18 Ric Stewart

Going to say it was like I was looking at the credits on that album. I was thinking, this is kind of like a Steely Dan. And then you just get.

00:33:18 - 00:33:22 Ivan Neville

They put him in the yacht rock.

00:33:22 - 00:33:25 Ric Stewart

What do you think about those records, the Steely Dan record yourself perfection stuff?

00:33:25 - 00:33:33 Ivan Neville

Man, I love all that stuff in the Michael McDonald. I saw that documentary. What an amazing, story. You know.

00:33:33 - 00:33:39 Ric Stewart

My son, he played in the. Speaking of the band, when they did The Last Waltz, like recreation. He was. He was on the stage.

00:33:39 - 00:33:44 Ivan Neville

He sang the shit out of, You can walk on the water.

00:33:44 - 00:33:45 Ric Stewart

Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:33:45 - 00:34:01 Ivan Neville

Look away though. Life is a carnival ball. He Michael McDonald saying that. Yeah, I got to say he had a couple of times with because I was on some of those last Waltz shows and Michael was in on those, a few of them, but I got to hear him sing it. I'm like, oh, wow, I'm to sing it, but, well.

00:34:01 - 00:34:03 Ivan Neville

Mike Over the Voice.

00:34:03 - 00:34:09 Ric Stewart

Another solo album. You had touched my soul in 2023, so that was the last one. Tell me more about that one that says.

00:34:09 - 00:34:35 Ivan Neville

Yeah, that was kind of, you know, kind of growing up, getting older, a little bit of you, you, you hope you a little wiser, you know, in your, in your, navigating life kind of thing. And, that song was you a lot a lot of reflection. Right? A lot of reflections. You know, I was just kind of looking at myself and looking at, you know, you know, when life was life, man.

00:34:35 - 00:34:43 Ivan Neville

And was it gone? And how's it feel now? And it was a lot of stuff like that. I mean, that's it was born out of that. And then and,

00:34:43 - 00:34:46 Ric Stewart

Get some of the New Orleans cats and Michael McDonald in there.

00:34:46 - 00:35:09 Ivan Neville

Michael McDonald got on that with Bonnie Raitt on that one song being a much more people would have heard that song. It's still available out there. Song called hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang Hey hey hey.

00:35:09 - 00:35:20 Ivan Neville

Hey hey. I'll give up. Hey hey, yeah.

00:35:20 - 00:35:34 Ric Stewart

Okay. So another show that I caught recently. Very recently, I was only 5 or 6 months ago. Was the Geo Leo sort of reunion. Half reunion. You saw that high energy show at the Funk Fest. And what do you feel like? What does it feel like taking your Uncle Art's place in that sort of situation?

00:35:34 - 00:35:58 Ivan Neville

And it's an honor, an honor and a privilege to get to do that, that, you know, and wish he was around. But, you know, I get to feel, try, try and sit in his seat and play what I think he, you know, would have wanted me to be playing on that music, you know, and so all his stuff and they get to play and I it's, it's I get I love I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it.

00:35:58 - 00:36:10 Ric Stewart

So meters and Neville Brothers how do you sort of see their intertwined legacy.

00:36:10 - 00:36:38 Ivan Neville

That is is kind of a, it's almost a, it's almost a sore topic because it just is for this reason was when the Neville, when the Neville brothers got together with the Migos and made a record called Wild Shot Tours. To me, that was like the first Neville Brothers record. I mean, it was featuring my great Uncle Johnny Dixie jolly to watch out for to George Landry, and that's why they got together.

00:36:38 - 00:37:07 Ivan Neville

They converged to, to make this music, this Indian new Orleans traditional stuff put to the group that it being the music and the brothers together. My thoughts were why isn't that a band? Why couldn't that be a band? My I was in. So, this is in 1976 or so when they were making a recording somewhere around there, and I'm thinking, why are they not a band?

00:37:07 - 00:37:14 Ivan Neville

The meters with the brothers, they would prove the world, but it wouldn't.

00:37:14 - 00:37:16 Ric Stewart

The politics was not to be.

00:37:16 - 00:37:49 Ivan Neville

Yeah. And so that being said, yeah, yeah. In acceptance. Okay. This is how it happened. The meters, what they did and what my uncle Art and those, the guys that were with him on that ride, which is, you know, George, Leo. And then Cyril joined up with the meters. And at some point in, they created a thing that was unlike anything else and has influenced multitudes of every musician that I know has been influenced by them, some of them.

00:37:49 - 00:38:11 Ivan Neville

And when the brothers got together, which I thought was, an amazing, gathering when they decided to form a band, I was I was kind of torn because I was upset that Art and Cyril left to meet us at what I thought was the pinnacle. I thought they were about to hit that little edge that they had been trying to get to.

00:38:11 - 00:38:33 Ivan Neville

They've been a band. They've been a cult band for a long time, and maybe they were going to be may have some sort of commercial success. They were slated to play on Saturday Night Live, and it ended up being not the full band. My aunt and uncle Cyril didn't make that gig, ended up in the meters with a couple of David Bettis played keyboards and that was it.

00:38:33 - 00:38:37 Ivan Neville

Then the brothers joined up together to form the Neville Brothers.

00:38:37 - 00:38:39 Ric Stewart

Was that already like 78 when it.

00:38:39 - 00:38:40 Ivan Neville

Was 77.

00:38:40 - 00:38:42 Ric Stewart

Or so? Because they had that New Directions?

00:38:42 - 00:39:06 Ivan Neville

Yes. And that record, that song I record was kind of name. I thought it would make a little noise, you know, and it wasn't meant to be, but the Nevilles were was born out of that, and I'm grateful for that because they did a home. I like my uncle Art. That's pretty cool that he he still, he founded two of the most influential in New Orleans bands album was The Meters and the Neville Brothers.

00:39:06 - 00:39:18 Ric Stewart

Yeah, I've heard George Porter Jr talking about it a little bit. It was like they did the vocals. They didn't have a great singer in the band in in the instant in the initial phase, they were instrumental and then they were fumbling. They bring in zero.

00:39:18 - 00:39:19 Ivan Neville

That's, you know.

00:39:19 - 00:39:29 Ric Stewart

That was creating some tension or whatever. But like, yeah, they didn't spend their energy on trying to be a doo wop group when they were young or whatever, you know, like they did. They were coming out of that space. They're coming out of this rhythm where.

00:39:29 - 00:39:47 Ivan Neville

The band trying to do some funky kind of allows him some similarities. The book Booker T and the MGS, you know, if you could because of the instrumentation. But they had another thing with blues drumming and the rhythmic, components of what they were doing. Very unique, very unique.

00:39:47 - 00:39:54 Ric Stewart

When the Nevilles, of course, featured fire on the by and yeah, and hey Pocky way, we're like some of the standards coming up. The meters songbook was a.

00:39:54 - 00:39:55 Ivan Neville

Bit of a repertoire.

00:39:55 - 00:39:56 Ric Stewart

Yeah, it's just available.

00:39:56 - 00:39:58 Ivan Neville

Yeah.

00:39:58 - 00:40:13 Ric Stewart

So we talked a little bit about the. Yeah. Okay. So let's call it country. So country and Rock getting together was one of those stories that, like I said, it's kind of covered thoroughly in this, podcast. But, you know, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Lou Jordan, one of the, the pioneers of the music, were doing that already.

00:40:13 - 00:40:29 Ric Stewart

They were kind of bringing some country element, Slim Harpo, the Baton Rouge thing, in a certain way. Like anytime you get closer to the country, you get some new ideas coming in. And I thought that the what do you think about the stones kind of concepts there? Because on so many different country songs, have you had to play any of those?

00:40:29 - 00:40:32 Ric Stewart

Like there's that kind of like Honky Tonk Women or

00:40:32 - 00:40:49 Ivan Neville

Oh, you know what? I try? I probably, maybe, maybe once or so being been a part of somebody trying to play Honky tonk home, but there's some bluesy country vibe kind of thing. And, yeah.

00:40:49 - 00:40:51 Ric Stewart

No, it a lot of invention. No doubt.

00:40:51 - 00:41:01 Ivan Neville

No doubt. Yeah. And it's the way the guitar twangs on that is definitely got. You know, I mean, I hadn't really thought of it like that, but that.

00:41:01 - 00:41:12 Ric Stewart

Well, you know, like, okay, so it's the Honky Tonk Women give me the blues, but the Honky Tonk Blues was a Hank Williams song from 1950. Yeah. So they were writing, like a prequel or whatever this parallel track is.

00:41:12 - 00:41:13 Ivan Neville

When I look.

00:41:13 - 00:41:21 Unknown

At.

00:41:21 - 00:41:27 Unknown

Bluegrass.

00:41:27 - 00:41:33 Unknown

You know.

00:41:33 - 00:41:41 Unknown

La la la la la la la la.

00:41:41 - 00:41:50 Ivan Neville

Long.

00:41:50 - 00:42:05 Ric Stewart

There's gonna say that's in the category. Or there's a subcategory of of Keith lyrics where it's like, he can't tell if he's in love with a woman or the drugs. Because there was, there was connection. You guys just play. Yeah, he's got that same probably as a connection. Is it like a romantic connection? It's the drug connection.

00:42:05 - 00:42:20 Ric Stewart

Yeah, yeah. And that was like, she blew my nose and she blew my mind. Yeah. But, Okay, so another one was, 2019. So. Saw your dumpster funk show opening for the stones. I got some footage to cut in when I cut the little highlights. Right. What does it feel like carrying the room to the big band comes on?

00:42:20 - 00:42:21 Ric Stewart

There's a whole nother vibe there.

00:42:21 - 00:42:22 Ivan Neville

Which one? You tell me.

00:42:22 - 00:42:24 Ric Stewart

Was the 19 2019 the super?

00:42:24 - 00:42:38 Ivan Neville

No, Don't do That was. That was one of those nights that was like, pretty exceptional, I gotta say. You know, so imagine you play play 20 shows, you play 20 gigs.

00:42:38 - 00:42:47 Ivan Neville

I'm going to say I'm going to go out and say ten of those shows or just ordinary gigs and, you know, pretty cool.

00:42:47 - 00:43:18 Ivan Neville

Five of them could have been great, but something happened that contributed to them not being so good. The other five, just probably one out of 20 gigs out of 21, that everything works like you wanted to work, everything you could imagine it being it, nothing goes wrong. Every song is what you think it should sound like. The feeling you're getting from the audience is just perfect.

00:43:19 - 00:43:42 Ivan Neville

So I'm saying one out of 20 now, all of them are good, but there's one out of 20 that's amazing. And you get the, and then you want it to happen at the right time. It never usually does. It usually happens on a Tuesday night in Poughkeepsie or wherever, somewhere. You know, it's not, you know, that's the biggest crowd in a small room or something.

00:43:42 - 00:44:05 Ivan Neville

But when you have the big gig and the big stuff in the Superdome opening up for the stones, you want that show to happen. That night in 2019, when we opened up for them, we have one of those shows. That's how I felt about that night. We had the home crowd, which was amazing. The Soul Rebels came and joined us, and I thought our choice of songs was really, really good.

00:44:05 - 00:44:19 Ivan Neville

And when we started the first song, as soon as I started singing and the way I felt, and when I heard, I was like, oh, this is going to be a good set. And I was not disappointed. It was. It was amazing. I was so happy about that.

00:44:19 - 00:44:26 Ric Stewart

That one fits the, the album title of My Ancestors Can See Me. Yeah, yeah, because you were sitting in the spot where the meters were in 76 or whatever.

00:44:26 - 00:44:47 Ivan Neville

And not only that, there was another little, another little bit of, some kind of there's another little, in 1981, the Neville Brothers had opened up for the stones in the Superdome in 81. And I was on that guy. So I was probably the only one to do it twice.

00:44:47 - 00:44:51 Ric Stewart

When do you enjoy opening the big shows? As much as just playing your own audience?

00:44:51 - 00:45:11 Ivan Neville

It depends. Depends on the night that that night happened to be one of those amazing nights. We weren't feeling the right, right vibe, was there, right? Cosmo's way in our favor and everything was just working. Have you worked it so far? It turned out the way it was supposed to to be, and it was an amazing night.

00:45:11 - 00:45:27 Ivan Neville

But you don't happen all the time. So I'd like. And I like to play any time. Small venue, large venue. But you just you hope for those nights. And that's why we do what we do. Because, you know, that night could be any. It could be any night, you know, and it's going to it's going to be joy.

00:45:27 - 00:45:51 Ivan Neville

It's going to be love felt on all of those nights. But there's that one time in a blue moon that everything is just perfect. And we just kind of developed over the years and developed a few, you know, different ideas of how to present this funk, this dumpster farm. You know, nasty, dirty, stinky funk music.

00:45:51 - 00:45:53 Ric Stewart

And you also appear on the jam band circuit, right?

00:45:53 - 00:46:16 Ivan Neville

So we go there, we do some extended interplay and stuff like that that we've always enjoyed doing. That's kind of where we kind of got grew, grew alive, grew legs in the show, and we done like maybe four records over the years. And we've had a bunch of covers that we've picked over the years that we've played that we could pull out and say, oh, let's play that years, let's pull that one out and play that.

00:46:16 - 00:46:21 Ric Stewart

So writing songs versus playing shows, how do you divide the time up to.

00:46:21 - 00:46:40 Ivan Neville

Make it on? Yeah, I want to do all of it. You know, I mean, songwriting is not something that, you know, I get to go through periods where I'm kind of not coming up with anything, but you got to keep trying. That's what I see as you try to write one. Try, like Allen used to say, try to write one every day.

00:46:40 - 00:46:54 Ivan Neville

So I haven't been doing that lately. What I need to I need to, listen to my words. I just said I need I need to practice that one. Try to write with. And even if it's not a good one, write one every day and then eventually you will write a good one.

00:46:54 - 00:46:56 Ric Stewart

Were you watching Western movies much in your day?

00:46:56 - 00:47:07 Ivan Neville

Like, I like a good Western. I never read the music thing to in my like, like the way my dad did when he was watching that gene Autry and all that stuff. I, you know, I'm a fan of the Western.

00:47:07 - 00:47:10 Ric Stewart

Any any favorite Westerns, come to mind.

00:47:10 - 00:47:23 Ivan Neville

Probably tombstone with, Kurt Russell and, Val Kilmer, Val Kilmer, Doc Holliday, that that Doc Holliday was the best and probably, Silverado. Those to tombstone. Silverado.

00:47:23 - 00:47:29 Ric Stewart

Yeah. That's the modern era. Almost. Yeah. Fun anecdotes about tours or parties. That'll never happen again.

00:47:29 - 00:47:29 Ivan Neville

For an anecdote.

00:47:30 - 00:47:32 Ric Stewart

Yeah. And I think that comes down to just.

00:47:32 - 00:47:54 Ivan Neville

Oh, I can just give you a punchline. And then next time you'll knock. It's almost like we got a spot that we've been recording at, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we develop over the, near future. You know what we can, I like I like going into a room and just kind of seeing what happens.

00:47:54 - 00:48:41 Ivan Neville

You know, it's making up stuff on the spot. And we've been doing a lot of that.

00:48:41 - 00:48:43 Ivan Neville

You know, that's going to be called. But that.

00:48:43 - 00:48:44 Ric Stewart

As beginning.

00:48:44 - 00:48:45 Ivan Neville

A lot with that is. Yeah.

00:48:45 - 00:48:51 Ric Stewart

So, so it's still New Orleans related. Are you playing any of the standard New Orleans songs with Dumpster Funk?

00:48:51 - 00:49:19 Ivan Neville

We do a couple of them. We, we pull out a few meters tunes here and there, because we, we feel like we can represent that music in its truest version, you might say, because we've kind of, you know, kind of source of that stuff. And we come up on it, we love it. Tony Hall has got a strong history with the meters, as do I, as do Ian.

00:49:19 - 00:49:34 Ivan Neville

And we've got a drummer by the name of Devin trust Claire. So young Cat who can who's captured that vibe and incorporated it with his new school kind of thing. And it's really amazing.

00:49:34 - 00:49:38 Ric Stewart

Other collaborations coming up for anything in the horizon.

00:49:38 - 00:49:59 Ivan Neville

We've got some live shows that we've probably going to do some stuff with George Porter Junior. We always like collaborating with George. So right now that's kind of, something to look forward to. And I'm open to, to many, many ventures. So we'll see what we can come up with. But right now we've got a song that we're going to put out.

00:49:59 - 00:50:22 Ivan Neville

It's going to be on all those formats. And we've got we had it's been in the can for like a minute and we've been waiting for the right time to put it out, and it's called songs called Let's, Let's Do It. And, it's kind of, based on,

00:50:22 - 00:50:30 Ivan Neville

Those chords, that's the chords. It's kind of bluesy.

00:50:31 - 00:50:59 Ivan Neville

And it's the song is based on the idea of we we versus meet like we is better than me. Like I'm good, but together we we could be great. Okay. So it's about that concept. It's doing things together. The hook says let's do it. Do it to it. And I'm just gonna give you the first line, all the good you see in me.

00:50:59 - 00:51:04 Unknown

What I've got, I'll put it in.

00:51:04 - 00:51:13 Ivan Neville

You throw in your so we can we. Let's do it, do it, show it.

00:51:13 - 00:51:18 Ivan Neville

We gonna take it to the max. Let's see.

00:51:18 - 00:51:20 Speaker 3

The.

00:51:20 - 00:51:39 Ivan Neville

Time to be it. I'm gonna show you where it set.

00:51:39 - 00:51:45 Ivan Neville

That was a nice note. I had to play it twice.

00:51:46 - 00:51:59 Ivan Neville

In it? Yeah, and I just. Yeah.

00:51:59 - 00:52:00 Unknown

This is a.

00:52:01 - 00:52:25 Ivan Neville

Dig in on the moment. Taking it all in and. Right to the changes. Laughing now and then. I keep looking for the happy.

00:52:25 - 00:52:37 Ivan Neville

It just passed me by. Let's just keep on, keep on trying I'll be running till I fly.

00:52:37 - 00:52:45 Unknown

I feel good for a minute.

00:52:45 - 00:52:52 Ivan Neville

Might just last a lifetime. You get the love you.

00:52:52 - 00:53:01 Unknown

Put in it. The latter is only how you plan.

00:53:01 - 00:53:07 Ivan Neville

And that's it. I'm more of an I've been. That is dumpster.

00:53:07 - 00:53:08 Ric Stewart

Yeah. How do you keep yourself?

00:53:08 - 00:53:12 Ivan Neville

Same as dumpster funky. Who's knows? There is no difference. But it just depends.

00:53:12 - 00:53:14 Ric Stewart

Where you take one of your solo songs and play it with dumpster.

00:53:14 - 00:53:37 Ivan Neville

Fire. Yeah, we played a couple. We bust a couple of them. Tony Hall wants to play more of them than I do with the dumpster, but I kind of keep some of them separate cats from the, Touch My Soul record. And it was kind of. I was thinking about about, navigating the road of life. And, how would you get older?

00:53:37 - 00:53:55 Ivan Neville

You find out, you find out more things, and you find out how much more you want to learn. You know, how much more you open to checking out and receiving. You know what I'm saying? And then you find it out, like, it's more about the journey. And it's not about arriving at some place. It's about which.

00:53:55 - 00:54:17 Ivan Neville

Which what do you see all along the way? And that's what that song is about. It's about because because everybody's searching for this, this magic pill or something that's going to make you feel good. And I'm finding that there is no there is no such thing. But we get little moments where we feel cool and that sometimes we get moments when we feel extraordinary.

00:54:17 - 00:54:30 Ivan Neville

But that helps us get through the moments where we're not feeling so good and and it all passes. But it's all part of this joke that we're on. And so that's kind of what that song is about.

00:54:30 - 00:54:34 Ric Stewart

But about the hanging out with the guys aspect. Like, does that kind of drive you to oh.

00:54:34 - 00:54:55 Ivan Neville

Man, I love it, I love it, I love doing that. I love that we get to share our lives, you know, and we get to, you know, go through things together and we traveling and stuff and we see you and stuff and we, we've had a tough year, man. We've had a tough year. Last year we lost one of our one of our my my brother Nick too and used the third.

00:54:55 - 00:55:17 Ivan Neville

I've known him since I was ten years old and he's been in bands with me for since the 70s, you know. And then he's he's been a, you know, the part dumps. He was like the one of the cogs in this whole thing. And he's gone, you know, and we're having to keep going on without him, you know?

00:55:17 - 00:55:36 Ivan Neville

And then we lost another guy that was like a, my friend from my neighborhood who drove. He drove the sprinter, our vehicle for us, and he passed away. So it's just heavy, you, when you lose loved ones and it's a part of life. It's a part of life. That government I'm talking about navigating you. It's just ride.

00:55:36 - 00:55:58 Ivan Neville

And sometimes you, you're riding through some rough terrain, but eventually you're going to get to a nice little road. How long that road's going to last? You don't know, it might get rough again, but it kind of made it becomes apparent how you use one to offset the other, you know? And then that's kind of what when I'm figuring it out, you know, that's what we do.

00:55:58 - 00:56:10 Ivan Neville

I mean, to get to be playing music that sometimes it's going to make somebody's day, it's going to change somebody's attitude or how they feel about something. It's an amazing gift to get to be a part of that.

00:56:10 - 00:56:13 Ric Stewart

So Ivan, thank you very much. Thank you so much.

00:56:13 - 00:56:14 Ivan Neville

Thank you. Thanks for.

00:56:14 - 00:56:19 Ric Stewart

Dropping by. Thank you. And, that's why we do it. It's down home. I figure I have to go to the house with the peeps.

00:56:19 - 00:56:31 Ivan Neville

All right? Yeah, it's a nice little spot. This is the nook. Yeah. You know, courtesy of of the boss lady. Miss Ashley. Yeah. You know, she keeps you in. Yeah. Place looks kind of cool.

00:56:31 - 00:56:36 Ric Stewart

All right, well, till next time a man. Thank you very much.

00:56:36 - 00:57:09 Ric Stewart

So country number ten is in the books with special appreciation to Reed Mathis for our theme. We rise ten was brought to you by Ace Production with the Blues Center and support the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Tune in again for more roots music, culture and lore as season three progresses with the cosmic Appalachian sounds of Olivia Wolf and Steely Dan session guitarist Dean Park and fun trailers, highlights, playlists, and a full archive of episodes at Soul country.com.

Ivan Neville

Soul Country #10

Airdate Jul 12, 2025

Podcast 57:17

Recorded in New Orleans, LA

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Description

Ivan Neville plays and talks thru an illustrious history – recording with the Rolling Stones in the 80s & 90s, becoming a sounding board for Robbie Robertson’s solo efforts, stepping into his uncle Art’s shoes for the Funky Meters show at Funk Fest 2024 and his festival dates jamming with Dumpstaphunk. Ivan has seen it all, and taking the cue from his father Aaron Neville’s golden pipes, he registers a great vocal every time. He plays Longhair, Dumsta, Keith and Mick and original compositions in this down home and funky episode of Soul Country. Sponsored in part with grants from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.

More about Ivan Neville

Born August 19, 1959, in the Crescent City, Ivan—son of R&B icon Aaron Neville and nephew to The Neville Brothers—grew up steeped in funk, soul, and jazz. A multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire on keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums, he's left an indelible mark on the industry. Ivan's journey kicked off in the '80s with his debut album If My Ancestors Could See Me Now (1988), boasting hits like "Not Just Another Girl" and a duet with Bonnie Raitt. He toured with Raitt's band, played keys on The Rolling Stones' Dirty Work and Voodoo Lounge, and collaborated with Keith Richards, Don Henley, and more across 300+ recordings. Founding Dumpstaphunk in 2003, Ivan fused NOLA grooves with contemporary funk on albums like Everybody Want Sum (2010). Post-Katrina, his work on Sing Me Back Home (2006) highlighted resilience, while his 2023 solo effort Touch My Soul earned OffBeat's Best Piano/Keyboard award. Tune in as Ivan shares family tales, career highs, and fresh projects, embodying the enduring spirit of his hometown. Don't miss this soul-stirring chat!

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