LES DUDEK
Les Dudek is one of the great, unsung guitar heroes of the classic rock era. His name may not be as familiar as the Allman Brothers or Steve Miller, but he contributed to the albums that defined those artists. Dudek also worked with Stevie Nicks, Cher, Dave Mason and a host of others, as well as collaborating with Boz Scaggs on the classic Silk Degrees album with its hit single "Lido Shuffle".
In 1989 Les joined John Kay & Steppenwolf replacing longtime guitarist Rocket Ritchotte who left to join David Lee Roth's band. Dudek's period with the Wolf was somewhat brief and not one of his favorite career memories.
Jim: Tell us a bit about your current band and are there any plans to release a new CD anytime soon?
Les: I have Dan Walters on bass guitar, keyboards & background vocals and Billy Carter on drums. This three man band smokes. We're playing my two FM radio hits "City Magic" & "Old Judge Jones" a long with songs from all six of my solo albums, and a few of my un-released new ones as well. We're also playing all the hits that I played on or was affiliated with other artists, such as, "Ramblin' Man" & "Jessica" from the Allman Brothers, "Lido" from my four years with Boz Scaggs and from my Steve Miller days I'm doing "The Stake" & a song I co-wrote on his "Book Of Dreams" LP "Sacrifice". I also do a song that Miller & Boz wrote together titled "Goin' To Mexico" from the Steve Miller 5 LP.
As for a new CD, I have about eight songs ready for a new CD at this time, but, I'm in no hurry to start recording it yet. Unless of course, a major record label wants to chime in and cut me a deal, in that case, I'll start on it right now.
Jim: Are all of your solo albums now available on CD?
Les: Yes, I'm happy to report all six of my solo albums are now available on CDs and the Dudek, Finnigan & Krueger or DFK album will also be out on CD soon. Since there will never be another DFK album, (Jim Krueger who also wrote "We Just Disagree," died in 1993), I thought it would be a nice touch to add two more songs from the original recordings that did not make the original record release because of vinyl time restrictions. When we finally get through the red tape with Sony/BMG you will find it at my site www.lesdudek.com
Jim: Your resume as a session musician is mind-boggling, you've recorded with a lot of big names, the Allman Brothers and Steve Miller just to name a couple. How did you get your foot in the door (so to speak) to get your career started?
Les: That's to much to type, so I'll give you my stock answer. Being in the right place at the right time..........
Jim: I heard you actually co-wrote "Ramblin' Man," and "Jessica," with Dickey Betts but went uncredited for it. Is that true? Also, were you offered the guitarist role in the Allman Brothers replacing Duane after his tragic accident?
Les: The writing is partly true. Dickey wrote "Ramblin Man". I played half the guitar parts and helped Dickey arrange all the guitar parts on "Ramblin' Man". As for "Jessica", I co-wrote that song with Dickey. I came up with the bridge section. The part that goes to G. And I also played the acoustic guitar on it. At the time, Dickey said to me, he didn't want me to play the lead guitar harmonies with him on "Jessica", because we already recorded "Ramblin' Man" with all the guitar harmonies, so he didn't want the critics to think I was gonna be in the band. Remember, these recordings I did with them took place only months after Duane Allman had died, and I was the first guitar player to record with them after Duane's death. Meanwhile, the Allman's manager Phil Walden was telling me, Les, I'm gonna make you a star, I'm putting you in the Allman Brothers.
Well, though Dickey did march me into Walden's office, and told him, Les should be credited for co-writing "Jessica", it never happened. I think the reason I was never given credit or royalties was because Walden was mad at me. Phil didn't know that the whole time he was trying to put me in the Allman Brothers, Dickey was telling me stuff like, now that Duane is gone it's his band, and he didn't want to share the stage with another guitar player. So when Steve Miller offered me a job in his band, I left Macon, Ga. and moved to San Francisco. I think it pissed Walden off, so I was never credited for co-writing "Jessica" and was never paid any royalties.
I played golf with Dickey about five years ago, just after the Allman's kicked him out of the band. I asked him if he wanted to do some dates together. We entertained the idea and it looked promising there for a while, until he lost it one night and got arrested for spousal abuse. Before all that, Dickey mentioned to me finally after thirty years he said, Les, I feel bad about that "Jessica" thing. I said Dickey, you don't have to feel bad about that "Jessica" issue anymore. He said, I don't. I said no, you can just write me a check. He gave me a cold stare and said, I don't feel that bad....... I said, I didn't think so.........
Jim: Of all the session work you've done what are some of your favorites, the ones that really stood out for you musically, the ones you look back now on and say,....yeah, I'm glad I was a part of that?
Les: The ones that stand out the most would be when I recorded "Ramblin' Man" with the Allman Brothers. It was with the original band, Barry Oakley was on bass, and I was standing where Duane would have been, only a few months after he died. That was a very magical and spiritual moment for me. It was what I would equate to an out of body experience. Then we were all listening back to it in the control room, when it ended you could hear a pin drop, no one said a word, finally Red Dog said, man, that's the best I've heard since Duane. That was an unforgettable moment in my life. The rest is history.
Another memorable session was when Steve Miller invited me up to Seattle to cut some songs with him after the Joker tour. Actually, I was playing with Boz Scaggs at the time on that tour, but each night at the end of Miller's show, he would invite Boz, James Cotton and myself up to play his encore with him. That was a cool tour. Anyway, Miller invited me up to Washington after that tour. We recorded a lot of stuff that ended up on his "Fly Like An Eagle", "Book Of Dreams" and "Living In The Twentieth Century" LPs, he even recorded a song that I co-wrote with his road guitar player at the time, James "Curly" Cooke, titled "Sacrifice".
Of course, I have a lot more memorable moments in the studio recording, but, one more that stands out is when I did a benefit rap record with Muhammad Ali for World Hunger. Just hanging out with the Champ for a day was very, very, cool.
Jim: I really liked the DFK album, I think it is a highlight in your career. However, there was no follow up album and the band broke up. What happened?
Les: Boy, did you just open up a can of old worms. The Dudek, Finnigan & Krueger Band or DFK was probably the best band that I was ever in. It was the brainstorm of our manager at the time Jason Cooper, who was also managing Dave Mason, and Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones. I was on my third album for Columbia Records "Ghost Town Parade" and Finnigan and Krueger were doing their first and only albums for Columbia. Instead of me going out and doing a tour of my own, to promote my "Ghost Town Parade LP, Jason, our manager, had the bright idea to put me, Finnigan & Krueger together in one band. The idea was to promote all three of our separate solo albums together. It turned out to be a very, very, bad idea. It was very confusing to the public, we didn't have a DFK album out yet, and they were promoting DFK. So after a long four month tour, which we did with Kansas, we went in the studio and made a DFK record. Well, by the end of making the record, we changed managers, and a million dollars later, from tour support, production costs for, a record and a video, Columbia dropped us all from the label. That project basically ended my career with Columbia Records. I managed to squeeze out one more solo record with Columbia "Gypsy Ride", but they did not promote it, rather, they just let it die, even after it got picked "Top Pick" in all the big record trades, Billboard, Record World and Cash Box all gave it "Top Pick". To this day Sony/BMG, who now owns all the rights to my old Columbia catalog, claims I owe a false amount of money on my solo records account. Columbia took large amounts of money that DFK owed and put it on my solo account. Contractually, they were not supposed to do that, but they did it anyway. Because of that, it makes my solo records look like I never sold any records at all, when in fact, my four solo LPs on Columbia sold well over a million, and are selling even more today, since they have now all been re-released on CDs. Now all the royalties that would be coming to me are being paid on a debt they I don't even owe.
I'd like to quote an old friend at this time, he wrote this about the Music Business......."The Music Business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S. Thompson
Jim: How did Black Rose (w/Cher), come about? Can you tell us a bit about that? Also, to the best of my knowledge, the Black Rose album has never been released on CD, is that correct? And, could you tell us how you landed the role of a drug dealer in the movie "Mask"?
Les: Ok, a three part question. I was
having a cocktail at the Rainbow, on Sunset Blvd in LA one night, this was after the DFK record came out. A friend came up to me and said he heard Cher was auditioning players for a rock n' roll album she wanted to do. So I went down to check it out. When I got down there, who showed up right after me, Mike Finnigan & Steven Stills. Well you can imagine what happened next. We turned it into one big jam session. Cher got all pissed off at us, so she stopped us and said, Hey, I didn't rent this joint so the whole town can come down here and jam, whoever is interested in helping me with my project for real can meet me down at Nick's Fishmarket for dinner right now. So I thought, hell, I'm gonna go down to Nick's and get some dinner. One thing lead to another and the next night Cher came over to my house, she wanted to know for real if I would help her with her rock n' roll record, so, I said I would. The rest will be in my book.
Yes the Black Rose album has been re-released from a company in Germany, as an import, a few years back. I don't think they made a big fuss about it. But they changed all the artwork. That really pisses me off. It would be cool if an American Company would release it the way it was. Maybe I'll tell the company that released my Columbia catalog to put it out. It's to bad that album has a black cloud over it though. The critics think it just didn't do well, when in fact, the biggest problem was that Neal Bogart, the President of the record label at Casablanca Records, died right after it was released. So that was the end of that. It was a good record, one for the archives. I think Casablanca only had two other artists, Donna Summers and Kiss.
As for Mask, let's see. First let me clear this up. I was not a drug dealer in the movie, that was the other guy, I was one of her biker boy friends. They were looking for a long haired musicain who was a biker to play one of Cher's biker boy friends in the movie. DA! not a far stretch don't you think. I mean, I lived with her for three years, she bought me a Harley for the Black Rose tour I did with her, so, she rode on the back a lot. Go to my web site www.lesdudek.com and see for yourself on my gallery page. Guess you could say, we were ready for the part.
Jim: In the late 80's (1989 I believe), you joined John Kay & Steppenwolf as their guitarist. How did you come to join the Wolf, and was John Kay easy going and easy to work with?
Les: Yeah, I sat in with the Wolf for a little while in 1989, I think it was for a little over a month. My friend and fellow guitar player Ron (Rocket) Ritchotte had been playing guitar with the Wolf for quite some time. Rocket and I also did the Black Rose thing with Cher, we were the two guitar players in her band. Anyway, Rocket found out David Lee Roth was looking for a guitar player, so he auditioned for David and got the gig. I think Rocket was with David for about a minute. But, Rocket was bored with the Wolf gig and wanted to move on. Can't say I blame him. I wasn't doing anything at the time, Rocket told me that the guitar slot in Wolf was open. Rocket explained to me that the Wolf was a pretty stiff gig. Meaning everything was sequenced, I would have to play to a click track. It's like your playing along with a record. At the time, I didn't care, all I was interested in was a good pay check. So I auditioned and got the gig.
As for John, he's as up tight as any band leader I suppose. My experience with him found, he expects you to be completely loyal to him, you must be 100% dedicated to him, however, if you run into a problem and need his help, he'll be the first to walk away and leave your ass out to fend for yourself.
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