Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Re-reading drummer Jim Keltner’s interview in the November 1981 Modern Drummer, something he said about Buddy Rich made me smile. I decided it warrants reposting.

Here’s part of what I wrote about Keltner at the start of his MD interview:

Trying to establish a representative interview with Jim Keltner requires a sense of humor. The way he plays drums and the way he is seem to be so alike. Talk to Jim on Monday about drum heads, for instance, and you’ll get a different answer than you would if you asked again on Friday. We conducted this interview on and off for several months, putting the finishing touches to it only weeks before publication.

I had forgotten all about our interview preparation, and how much I enjoyed talking about life and drums with Jim Keltner.

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Jim Keltner: Let me tell you something about Buddy Rich. Everybody says that he’s real conceited and you can’t talk to him, right? A few years ago, Emil Richards took me and my wife to see Buddy play at a musician’s night in a restaurant in Glendale. All the musicians in town were there—especially drummers!

So after his set—which was incredible—we all went back to see him in the dressing room. I’m just watching him sitting there and talking and having been buzzed on how he played so incredible.

He looked real small and kind of vulnerable. So I went over and I said, “Can I kiss you, man?” I reached down and kissed him on the cheek. Everybody in the room was thinking, “OH SHIT WHAT’S JIM DOING? HE’S CRAZY! BUDDY’S GONNA KILL HIM!”

But he was so gracious and beautiful. He understood where I was coming from. He could feel what I felt in my heart, you know. He is an incredible man. Everybody’s got a reputation of some sort if they’re in the limelight at all.