{"id":116626,"date":"2016-04-29T08:34:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T12:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=116626"},"modified":"2021-02-10T09:57:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T14:57:12","slug":"steve-winwood-said-hey-prince-is-over-there-and-i-said-i-guess-hes-playing-with-us-steve-ferrone-drummer-for-tom-petty-the-heartbreakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=116626","title":{"rendered":"“Steve Winwood said, ‘Hey, Prince is over there.’ And I said, ‘I guess he\u2019s playing with us?'”- Steve Ferrone, drummer for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"giphy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThere has been so much ink spilled on that epic Prince guitar solo during the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and I love it all. (I read a piece yesterday, I’ll track it down, that referred to Prince’s performance that night as “pure blood sport.”) I’ve seen a couple people say that Petty seems a bit miffed that Prince is “taking over”, but I have never agreed with that. Petty’s job was to play back-up to Prince, and keep that section of the song going over and over and over until Prince was done. Petty is the band-leader, the conductor. It’s up to him to sense when Prince is “coming down” from what he’s doing, and signal to the rest of the band it’s time to close it all up, and he does that by a casual wave of his arm, seen by everyone onstage, as well as by Prince. Petty keeps his eyes on Prince the entire time, because there’s an ESP connection that has to go on between a lead singer and his guitar-solo “side man”, so that they’re in sync. So no, I don’t think Petty was up there fuming, “Look at Prince showing off.” This ain’t middle-school, people. These are professional musicians and rock stars and if anyone understood that Prince was, say, “touched” and bigger than most of them, it was these guys. You think Tom Petty doesn’t know that Prince is “better” than him? You think Tom Petty was, in some ways, surprised that Prince “took over”? I think everyone on that stage was blown AWAY<\/i> (imagine seeing that solo up close, as you play along and try to keep your shit together) – not pissed off that Prince was showing them up. Puh-leez. He’s Prince. Of course he’s showing them up.<\/p>\n

All of this is to say: There’s a great piece in the New York Times about that guitar solo, with reminiscences from most of those guys onstage: The Day Prince’s Guitar Wept the Loudest.<\/a> I’m sorry Harrison’s son wasn’t interviewed, but I suppose his huge grin during Prince’s guitar solo (that brings me to tears) needs no explanation. It’s great to hear Petty remember that crazy day, because it confirms my own feelings that of course, no, Tom Petty wasn’t fuming that Prince “stole” his moment. <\/p>\n

There are a lot of great gems in the piece, and much that I didn’t know. The lack of rehearsal. The wondering whether or not Prince would even DO the solo, or if “the other guy” would do it. <\/p>\n

This, though, from Steve Ferrone (Petty’s drummer) is the take-away for me. <\/p>\n

I had no idea that Prince was going to be there. Steve Winwood said, \u201cHey, Prince is over there.\u201d And I said, \u201cI guess he\u2019s playing with us?\u201d<\/p>\n

So I said to Winwood, \u201cI\u2019m going to go over and say hello to him.\u201d I wandered across the stage and I went up to him and I said, \u201cHi, Prince, it\u2019s nice to meet you \u2014 Steve Ferrone.\u201d And he said, \u201cOh, I know who you are!\u201d Maybe because I\u2019d played on Chaka Khan\u2019s \u201cI Feel for You,\u201d which is a song that he wrote. I went back over and I sat down behind the drum kit, and Winwood was like: \u201cWhat\u2019s he like? What\u2019d he say?\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I was sitting there, and I heard somebody playing a guitar riff from a song that I wrote with Average White Band. And I looked over and Prince was looking right at me and playing that song. And I thought, \u201cYeah, you actually do know who I am!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God, that moves me to tears. But it’s worth it to read the whole thing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been so much ink spilled on that epic Prince guitar solo during the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and I love it all. (I read a piece yesterday, I’ll … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,23],"tags":[2453,1570],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116626"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165816,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116626\/revisions\/165816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}