[ 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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