[ Eric Dahl for CG ] What musical moments changed your life?
[ J. D. Simo ] The first one was seeing Elvis Presley when I was three or four. They were showing a replay for his birthday or death anniversary of his‘ 68 special where he’ s in all black leather. I just thought he was the coolest thing ever. I grew up in Chicago and we had a great public library, so my Mom took me and we checked out Elvis documentaries. I became infatuated with him and Scotty Moore, and so that’ s the big one that made me want to do music. One of my older sisters was a huge Saturday Night Live fan, so one night she was watching the Blues Brothers movie and I just loved it, and Steve Cropper in particular. Those are the two probably most important.
[ CG ] What was your first instrument?
[ J. D.] I wanted to play really bad, but I originally wanted to be a drummer and my dad told me,“ No.” Then I wanted to play bass and everyone told my parents,“ If he wants to play bass then he should start playing guitar first. Then he can play bass later.” My first guitar was a cheap nylon string seventy-dollar thing that my folks got me and I learned on. It was a little classical guitar and I still have it, but it’ s broken to bits.
[ CG ] Did you move to Nashville for a gig?
[ J. D.] No, I moved to Nashville right before I turned 21. When I got here I had a trash bag of clothes, a portable record player, a blowup bed, and I only had a couple of guitars. I was living right out by the fairgrounds off of Second. I got a manager and I was trying to do an artist thing in the country vein and made a record that will never see the light of day. Through that I met Dave Roe, a bass player in town that played with Johnny Cash. The way I ended up in the Don Kelley Band was because I was behind on rent and was about to be kicked out of my place. None of my family would help me, so in a desperate attempt to make a couple of dollars to eat, I went and played on the street corner downtown. Dave Roe walked by on his way to play with Don and was like,“ What are you doing?” I told him the truth, and out of pity he introduced me to Don. I played as a sub for a year until I got the gig full time, which lasted 4 or 5 years and 1,200 plus gigs. It’ s important for young players because you can’ t get to a certain plateau until the 10,000-hour thing. I never knew what the next song was going to be, and the majority of the time I had never heard it before and would forget at the end of the night. You learn to deal with pressure and with nerves. Every night there would be someone there that I wanted to impress, like T-Bone Burnette, Reggie Young, or James Burton, or countless producers or other players that I wanted to make a good impression on. If I had just gone,“ This is too hard, I can’ t do it,” then I could have packed my stuff and gone home and folded like a house of cards. But if you can barrel through it, then you rise to another rung, as it were. It’ s that experience that can make you into a deeper creative person.
[ CG ] Was Don using the Nashville Number System in his band?
[ J. D.] Oh yeah, but there were never any charts. He would turn around and yell whatever the kick off was and then while he was singing he would shout what the next number would be. After you’ d go one time through a verse then he would expect you to pick it up, which you should if you’ re a decent musician. We weren’ t playing Mahavishnu( Orchestra), we were playing basic form material that you should listen to once and get it. I think a lot of people mystify the session world and all in that regard.
[ CG ] How did you acquire“ Red”, your‘ 62 Gibson ES335 guitar?
[ J. D.] That is the first true vintage guitar I ever got. I played it for the first time and knew it was a special one and I ended up trading to get it. I traded a’ 62 335 for a Varitone that was factory mono, which is very rare. Gibson did a signature model of“ Red” a year ago, and they’ re creating a production model coming out this year. I had given“ Red” to Gibson over a year ago and I got her back at some break in touring back in March. When I got this back it was like,“ This is the guitar I’ ll play until I die.” I’ m not a guy that changes guitars every song. That’ s not my thing at all. Modification wise, the one tone control( furthest back), Joe Glaser and I talked about this for a while because I really like out of phase sounds. He took the neck pickup apart and put a new terminal in to make the tone control a push-pull pot. When it’ s pulled up in the middle position it’ s out of phase, and when it’ s down it is normal. I’ ve had“ Red” six or seven years and when I first got her she looked like new, but now it’ s pretty beat up. I’ m not really attached to it from an intrinsic standpoint, it’ s just my hammer.
[ CG ] Where did you find your vintage Fender Telecaster?
[ J. D.] That’ s a’ 55 telecaster, and I still have my other Tele that I played with Don Kelley. It’ s a great guitar. It came out of St. Louis. It’ s real whooped, all original as far as I know. It’ s never been refretted, and I generally put pretty light strings on it, like 9’ s, because I like it to be kind of changy sounding. I don’ t like the sound of new strings, but I break strings every day. What I do with all of the strings on my electric guitars that are not flat wounds, I take ChapStick and rub it over the strings when I put them on because it deadens them up and I like the way they sound better.
[ CG ] How did you develop the ChapStick method, and do you have a favorite brand?
[ J. D.] It’ s a( Steve) Cropper thing, because somebody told me that Cropper never changed strings – he would change them when they broke. If he broke an A string or a D string and the rest of the set was two months old, that one string would be too bright and would stick out and sound bad. He would take ChapStick and rub it over the new one and it would deaden it to sound more in unison with the other ones. I tried it and I love it. It does what I want to do. Right now I have a thing of Burt’ s Bees
Mar � Apr 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com
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