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SE: My friend that used to play with him, David Tanner in Tulsa, fantastic piano player, singer
played bass, played everything; wiz kid! The two of them got a nightclub together called Cardo’s
Cadillac and they were having Gatemouth Brown booked. So, I asked David, “Hey I got to meet him.”
I got there and we just hit it off immediately. We talked about music and… just one of those things.
We talked about 30 minutes before they got a sound check. He said “Why don’t you go open for me?
Do a song and then the band will bring me on.” So long story short, I did it and he loved it. He said,

“I want you to leave with us in the morning.” That was like [going from] playing beer joints with 20
people in ’em to playing bigger places, festivals, theatres here and there. It was an awakening like,
“Whoa; There’s a whole other world out there.”

BK: So what did you learn from playing for / with them, from those experiences that you were able

to use later on in your own career?

SE: With Gatemouth Brown I
learned so much… Roy Clark
J.J. Cale
was a big influence. Really!
How they handled a crowd.
You learned so much from

Gatemouth Brown, how he
handled the audience.
Everybody does it different. I
didn’t go solo for years after
that, but you always carry

those things with you.

BK: You relocated to LA in the
mid- ’80s…

SE: Yeah, I moved out there in

March of ’83.

BK: Where you played with the Shirelles, Marvelettes, JJ Jackson, The Drifters, The Coasters, Gary
"US" Bonds and Peaches & Herb. A good chance to learn a different, more soul infused perspective.
How did you feel about that?

SE: It helped me. Growing up I loved all kinds of music. Living in Tulsa, JJ Cale, the Leon [Russell]
thing. We grew up with the GAP Band. There was always a mixture of blues, Gospel and country,
soul, and Rhythm and Blues. I mean I love everything from George Jones to Muscle Shoals…
Everything coming out of LA and New York was good. So really, all those influences, and being a
sideman for all these acts. You’d get to go out with The Coasters, The Shirelles, The Marvelettess,
Gary “US” Bonds and Peaches & Herb, and you just get that soul. I played nothing but rhythm guitar

so that was good. I had that period I was one of the first calls to play rhythm guitar with one of
those acts on the road, so that was cool. There’s deeper knowledge; I loved every minute of it.

BK: You’ve said that your biggest thrill as a performer was when you opened for BB King at the
Performing Arts Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma and he called you out to play with him and the band not
once, but twice. Tell us about that.