Keyboardist Bill Payne on writing with Robert Hunter, drummer Richie Hayward’s legacy and Little Feat’s new album Rooster Rag

From Blues to Rags

Rooster Rag started as a blues project probably about five years ago but that didn’t fully transpire. Other songs began to surface that weren’t particularly blues songs – Fred Tackett had a beautiful tune called “Church Falling Down.” So the thing morphed and then I got a call from our manager Cameron Sears about [Paul Barrere] and me writing with Robert Hunter. Paul sent him some music and Hunter had him send back some lyrics but [Barrere] wanted to change a few things. Hunter didn’t want him to and so that fell by the wayside. But Hunter and I now have ten songs we’ve written with each other.

Direct Connections

Hunter and I haven’t met – our connection has been through the Internet. What’s happened with that is – on some level – it has gotten rid of the noise factor. If you can talk to somebody or get into a discussion, it prolongs the process. This was a much cleaner way to do things. Hunter obviously is a great lyricist but he’s also a great writer: He can say in very few words what he needs to say. And I found that a refreshing approach. There is a lot of trust involved between the two of us.

Late Bloomers

I was primed and ready to start writing, but I hadn’t written in probably seven years [before the sessions for Rooster Rag ]. I was doing a lot of work on my photography and we were putting out a lot of live albums – I don’t wake up in the morning going, “Gee, such and such needs a new song for the record, let me write it for them.” I’ve never done that and wasn’t about to start now. [Laughter.] I have also finally started [playing solo gigs] after 63 years. I’m a late bloomer. [Publicist/writer] Dennis McNally and I have been on the road together – I’ll play some songs, show some of my photos, talk with Dennis about Lowell George and Richie Hayward, and tell other stories. The idea is not to teach but just to share things.

Islands of Music

Playing with Phil Lesh [in 2000] brought back the idea of jamming for us and what it represents. It was a reintroduction. I grew up at a time when all bands did was get up there and play in the key of E and A for a half-hour and, to me, it wasn’t any fun. But Phil did what Zappa and Miles Davis did: They would work out little islands of music that you would swim to. This allowed you to have the music feel like it was swirming about and swirling about. We knew what jamming was like, so we never ever stopped doing it with songs like “Dixie Chicken,” but it allowed us to put it into more places in the tune.

Original Opinions

The whole idea of Little Feat, from the beginning, and the reason I wanted to join the band – and what we set about doing – was to have a platform to explore and try all manners of different music; blending all different types of music. George would have liked some stuff we are doing today and some stuff, he would go “eh” and other things he’d go, “I don’t know.” That’s the way it is. The first time I played “Oh, Atlanta” for everybody, I was thinking, “They’re gonna go, ‘This is great!’” But they didn’t give a damn. It was like, “Oh, what else do you have?” I said, “Hey! I don’t care if you guys like this song or not. We’re going to play it.” That’s a band though. You try and figure out what people are going to do and often times, it surprises you.

Remembering Richie

[Our drummer] Richie Hayward was one of those guys who absolutely knew how to play a shuffle and more, and it caught some people by surprise – he had a feel that wasn’t just a straight Charlie Watts kind of thing. Our new drummer Gabe Ford can take those feels that Richie played – not the fills but the feels – and make them happen. When I saw that, I knew we had the guy. Richie Hayward is one of a kind. I miss Richie – you bet I do. But Ford [has been] growing in that particular seat in an exponential fashion in the past couple of years. He was fully endorsed personally by Richie – he was his tech. I showed Gabe around Montana recently and he joined me for my solo shows. That’s how much I think about this guy. He absolutely owns the position in Little Feat as the drummer now.