X-Pensive Winos

Steve and I thought we ought to make a record and started to put together the core of the X-Pensive Winos--so named later on when I noticed a bottle of Chateau Lafite introduced as light refreshment in the studio. Well, nothing was too good for this amazing band of brothers. Steve asked me who I wanted to play with, and first up, on guitar I said Waddy Wachtel. And Steve said, you took the words, brother. I had known Waddy since the '70s and I'd always wanted to play with him, one of the most tasteful, simpatico players I know. And he's completely musical. Understanding of it, empathetic, nothing ever needing to be explained. He's also got the most uncanny ultrasonic ear, still tuned high after years of bandstands. He was playing with Linda Ronstadt and he was playing with Stevie Nicks-- chick bands--but I knew my man wanted to rock. So I called him and said simply, "I'm putting a band together, and you're in it." Steve agreed that Charley Drayton should be the bass player, and I think it was just a general consensus that Ivan Neville, from Aaron Neville's family from New Orleans, should be the piano player. There was no audition process whatsoever.

K. Richards. Life