Photo credit Suzanne Witkin
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
James Intveld: We’ve got a 2003 Chevy 3500 Express, which is like a 15 passenger van that has been modified for six captain chairs and the back of it is set up for all the gear and it’s got about 200,000 miles on it right now. I’m always under it repairing stuff!
Grey DeLisle: I tour with The Blue Ribbon Boys and we use Eddie’s Dodge minivan. My kids once asked me, “How many babies does Eddie have?” Ha! When we were on tour in Europe last year, we had to use a moving truck because we borrowed our friend’s van and put the wrong kind of gas in it. What a nightmare. We’re slowly paying them back for their completely ruined engine!
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Intveld: Well, we’re kind of creatures of habit, so we find certain things that we think are kind of healthy, like, if we can go to a Cracker Barrel. We’ll do those in the morning. There’s also Waffle House, so we’ll probably get eggs and whatever and then for lunch, it’s not our favorite thing, but Subway. It’s one of those places where it’s always the same. If you get yourself a turkey sandwich, and you know, just have them run it through the garden, that’s kind of a salad and you’re also getting some protein.
DeLisle: Well… I hate to admit it, because it’s so awful and corporate, but Starbucks. Everyone can kinda get SOMETHING they’re familiar with. We call it “The Embassy” because it’s a little taste of home no matter where you are.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
Intveld: When I was younger, I broke a lot of strings and as I got older, it really has a lot to do with your technique. I don’t have very acidic fingers, so I don’t really corrode the strings very quickly, like some people do but there’s a thing that I learned from Charlie Feathers back in the day when he came out to LA. I did a couple of gigs with him and he had lost his voice, so I did the shows with him and Patrick Woodward said to me, “Hey, you should sit down with Charlie because he’s a really good rhythm player and he wants to sit down with you and go over some stuff.” First thing he did was give me his Martin and I started playing it and I broke a string.
He looked at me and kind of shook his head and it scared me a little. I was like, oh, man, I just screwed up. Then he said, “This is how you should strum,” and he showed me. I can’t even really remember the details of that, but I do remember that there was something about it that now I hardly ever break strings.
I can play really hard, too, but I don’t break strings. Funny thing is, when my brother was on tour with Rick Nelson, I noticed he didn’t strum hard at all but he would break strings every show.
DeLisle: I’ve been playing the autoharp for most of my life and never ever broken a string. Take that, Rick Nelson! God rest his soul!
Where do you rehearse?
DeLisle: We rehearse in my living room and try not to get too loud. It’s not ideal. Once I saw my 75 year-old neighbor peeking at us from his driveway and I got nervous but the next day he said, “You don’t have to keep it down when you’re rehearsing! That’s MY kinda music! Good ol’ Chuck!”
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
DeLisle: I wrote my first song when I was around 5 years old. They used to make us take naps on a little mat at school and I hated it so much! I was BORED to tears but boredom is such a gift because it sparks creativity. More kids should get bored these days!
The song was called “Buckle Shoes” and it was a shameless rip-off of “King of the Road.”
“Just got my Buckle Shoes
Don’t need your pushin’ blues
My pocket carries big time money
I don’t need yours this time honey!”
It didn’t make much sense… but Roger Miller is still one of my songwriting heroes.
Describe your first gig.
Intveld: I grew up in Compton and I kept getting into fights so my parents decided to put me in Catholic school. I started in the fifth grade and you had to be in the eighth grade to be able to play in the ensemble, the music ensemble, but there weren’t any guitar players in eighth grade or seventh, and there was, I think, one guy or two guys in sixth grade. I’d been playing since I was 8 years old so they came to me and said, “I hear you can play guitar.” I said, “Yeah?” She goes, “Well, you’re supposed to be in eighth grade but we don’t have anybody in that grade who can play…Will you try out for the ensemble music group?” So we ended up trying out and forming a band called “Freedom.” We practiced in Mark Pepper’s garage. Our first show was playing at the church fair that summer. We were already backing up all the girl singers and the choir…and I was playing guitar at mass….so they asked us to play at the church bazaar, and that must have been 1969 or 70 when we did that? That was my first gig!
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
DeLisle: I have done it all. Lots of waitressing! I cleaned houses. I used to do singing telegrams…. I joined an amateur contest at a gentleman’s club once….and won 1500 bucks! I still technically have a great job outside of music doing cartoon voices. I’ve been Daphne on Scooby-Doo for 26 years! That career allows the band and I to make records every year and tour them properly! It’s one heck of a side-hustle.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
DeLisle: Since I book myself, write my own songs and own my record label (Hummin’bird Records), I’m actually able to hold on to a LOT more of the money that I make in music. I’m a complete control freak so there is just no other way for me. It’s a lot of work but I think it’s paying off!
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Intveld: What I know now that I didn’t realize when I first started out is….if you want to be successful in the music business, you have to treat it as a business. I always thought you could just be a great artist and be SO good at what you did that people would recognize it and take you aside and take you up the ladder and all these great things would happen for you. You hear all these success stories that happen like that where people fall off the truck and they become famous or they get discovered someplace but most of the time that’s not very realistic. You have to treat it as a business.
That’s what Bing Crosby did. That’s why he was so famous! He had a business degree and he was singing with these minstrel bands and that was all good in the beginning, but he turned himself into this icon. It’s not just an accident that he made that happen. He actually was driving that whole thing! He started his own label! I think he was on Brunswick and he started Decca and that was HIS label. He said, well, I’ll just be the record company, after he kind of knew the ropes, obviously it was a lot easier in the 30s and 40s, but what I’d tell anybody now is to be a good businessperson. If you love music, you can love music, but you have to remember that it’s a music BUSINESS.
DeLisle: Yeah…I agree with James. Nobody is going to care about your music more than YOU DO! I started my own record label when I was 25 years old and for a brief time I decided to let go of the steering wheel and sign with a label – Sugar Hill (mostly because I wanted to be on the same label as Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, and Dolly) but ultimately I found that I really like being in charge of my own destiny. Every day I’m making calls, co-writing, recording, planning tours, posting reels and just doing anything and everything I can to get my music heard in this big ol’ crazy world. I guess I’m on the Bing Crosby plan!