← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
"Steppin ' Out with Patrick Simmons: Stories from The Doobie Brothers"
00:24:28
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- [00:00]
Patrick Simmons
Please welcome aboard the Johnson family.
- [00:03]
Buzz Knight
The whole fam's here for the Disney Cruise. So you know we came to play. And listen, the adults are gonna have a ball. First we're chilling in the infinity pool, onto massages at Sense's Spa, then gliding into Star Wars Hyperspace Lounge for a toast. We're even gonna kick back with Mickey on Disney's private island. That's how we get down. Cause Disney Cruise Line is where we came to play.
- [00:30]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible cleaning items from Charmin, Tide and Downey and dinner essentials from Stouffer's, DiGiorno, Arby's and Violife, plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. This season, let your shoes do the talking. Designer Shoe Warehouse is packed with fresh styles that speak to your whole vibe without saying a word. From cool sneakers that look good with everything to easy sandals you'll want to wear on repeat, DSW has you covered. Find a shoe for every hue from the brands you love like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, New Balance and more. Head to your DSW store or visit dsw.com today.
- [01:31]
Buzz Knight
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- [02:02]
Patrick Simmons
Mom, I need to lay low for a few days.
- [02:04]
Buzz Knight
Lay low?
- [02:04]
Patrick Simmons
What's going on? I only paid for this Hyundai Tucson.
- [02:08]
Ryan Seacrest
Christopher Allen lynch deal. So right it almost feels wrong. Get the car or SUV you want at the Hyundai Getaway sales event right now. Get 2.99 APR for 72 months on the Hyundai Santa Fe, Tucson or Elantra. Visit your local Hyundai dealer today. Offers end March 31. Call 562-314-4603 for details.
- [02:30]
Patrick Simmons
Taking a walk When Tommy took a leave of absence, Jeff said, well, I know. How about Mike McDonald? Remember that guy? I go, yeah, he's great. He goes, what do you think? I go, you should call him I didn't really think of anything except Mike. Mike was going to be a background singer and I was going to end up having to take over the lead vocal slot and pleasantly surprised that Mike was a great singer and kind of took the weight off my shoulders.
- [02:55]
Buzz Knight
Welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. We with your host, Buzz Knight. Buzz explores the fascinating stories and journeys of some of the most iconic figures in music today. He's joined by a true legend of rock and roll, Patrick Simmons, the guitarist and vocalist of the legendary band the Doobie Brothers. With a career spanning over five decades, Patrick has been part of some of the most memorable hits in rock history. Here's Buzz Knight and Patrick Simmons. Oliver, the Taking a Walk podcast.
- [03:26]
Patrick Simmons
Patrick Simmons, great to have you on Taking a Walk.
- [03:29]
Thank you, Buzz. Great to be here. Appreciate your taking the time.
- [03:33]
So since the podcast is called Taking a Walk, if you could take a walk with someone living or dead, doesn't have to be in the music world, but it certainly could be, who would it be and where would you take a walk?
- [03:51]
I'd probably take a walk with Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter. And I don't care where we walk and we don't have to walk. We could just stand there. Wherever they want to walk, that's where I'd be going.
- [04:05]
That's a powerful group, man. You get the Secret Service out of the way and you guys could have some peace and quiet, right?
- [04:12]
Yeah, we don't need.
- [04:15]
So talk about the beginning of the journey. The Patrick Simmons Doobie Brothers journey. How did it start and how did you first become a doobie?
- [04:26]
Well, let's see. Well, I was living in San Jose. I grew up in San Jose. I was, you know, been playing around town since I was a young teenager. Clubs and stuff around the area and, you know, been in quite a few different bands, you know, high school bands and stuff. And a little bit when I was in college and I was playing a club one night in a suburb of San Jose and I got booked with Skip Spence and the band that he had at the time. And it turns out the band was made up of Skip. Skip was a guitar player with a band called Moby Grape had. And he was also the first drummer for the Jefferson Airplane. But anyway, I, I had a. A little duo with another guy and we opened the show and Skip was there with his band, which was John Hartman on drums, who later became the first Doobie Brother drummer Tom Johnston, guitar player for the Doobies eventually, and another guy that they had planned bass at the time. And so that we did a set and then Skip and the guys did a set. And I knew Skip, I was friends with him. And so I went up afterwards to say hi and he introduced me to Tom and John, which was really cool. I really, you know, they were great guys and, and that was sort of my introduction to those guys. And John informed me that they were putting together a band and they were trying to find some other players. Would I be interested? And I said, no. I had a. I had a band of guys that I was playing with at the time and. But I would love to come and hang out because I. I really like them as musicians and. And I. I really thought they were great, both of them, and. And I thought Skip was going to be a part of it. It turns out Skip wasn't. So, anyway, I started hanging out with the guys, Tom and John, just going over there and. And, you know, jamming once in a while and, and hanging out. We became friends and I don't know, it was probably six months later, something like that. They had a gig at a. At a club in town called the Chateau Liberte, which I had played at with some of the guys prior to that time, but that was their first gig. And they said, hey, we, you know, would you be interested? We need somebody to kind of help us round out the. The set. And we need some. Some more songs to. To do an evening of music. Would you feel like coming and sitting in with us and, and playing? We can rehearse. And so I said, sure. And so we were sitting around smoking some kind of herbal substance, God's green.
- [07:36]
Earth, as Henry Diltz called.
- [07:39]
And one of the guys who lived in the house there said, God, you guys smoke so much weed, you should call yourselves the Doobie Brothers. And so we said, oh, that's a good idea. We don't. We don't have a name. So we booked ourselves as the Doobie Brothers for this first gig at the Chateau Liberte, which we became kind of the house band after that. We ended up going back there countless times and playing. But that was our first gig and that was, you know, we were the Doobie Brothers on day one.
- [08:10]
And this guy, Dino Rosen. Keith. Dino Rosen, I believe he's the guy that suggested you call yourself the Doobies. Is that correct?
- [08:20]
It is correct, yeah.
- [08:22]
But you thought you might find another name for the band.
- [08:26]
Absolutely. You know, we thought that was silly, you know, name, and that was just for that night. And then, you know, we got a great favorable reaction at the club when we played. And so we thought, well, you know, they asked us back, you know, hey, you know, immediately called us and want us to come back and play. So we thought, well, gosh, everybody thinks we're the Doobie Brothers. We better hang, stick with that name for a while anyway. And we thought, you know, when we got. When we started shopping a record deal, we went to several few different record labels, but we thought by the time we maybe if. If we got a deal that we'd probably end up changing our name, but Warner Brothers signed us and they really liked the name. So.
- [09:13]
Were there any second or third choice names that you remember?
- [09:18]
No, no, I don't think we ever. After that, we never really. Well, we thought it was going to be a problem, you know, because the. It was a little early in the. The pot scene for, you know, a lot of people were smoking pot. But, you know, now it's like everybody smokes pot. You know, we don't even smoke pot anymore. We're kind of over it. Everybody else I know does.
- [09:45]
It's funny how times have changed. Gambling's legal. Pots legal. Right.
- [09:50]
Yeah, would have thought, right?
- [09:52]
Yeah. So the band dynamics certainly were interesting when you guys ran into this guy, Jeff Skunk Baxter. Right. Which. Which was an interesting time, how the Doobies and sort of Steely Dan became intertwined. Can you talk about that period when you first encountered Skunk? And certainly he had a great influence on the band.
- [10:21]
We had, you know, did a lot of shows with SteELY Dan, probably 72, 1972. We went on the road and we did a number of shows with this. It was. See, it was. Marshall Tucker opened, Steely Dan played, we played. And then Savoy Blues Band, Kim Simmons, they were the headliners. And so that was the bill, four bands and it was a large bill. And we did a number of shows with. With that, all those guys. And then we played some other shows later on with Steely Dan, I think with the Beach Boys maybe, and some other. Some other bands. But we. We got to be friends with those guys and particularly Jeff, who's really, you know, was very outgoing. And at that time, Jeff was living in la. I think most of the guys were living in la, but Jeff had really gotten into the scene there doing sessions and stuff around town. And I particularly got to be friends with Jeff and I, you know, when I would get down, I'd call him and I'd go by and we'd hang out and go. He has a little apartment in Hollywood there. And I would go visit him. And at some point I. I said, you know, would you come in and play some steel on a song that I have? And so that was the captain and me, a song called South City Midnight Lady. And he's out, of course. And so I came in and played him the, the song and. Which, you know, further solidified our, you know, relationship. When we would come to town, you know, I call him, I say, hey, Jeff, come on down. You know, you want to come and hang out? You know, sit in with us if you want, you know, feel like jamming on something. So he would sit in and play with us from time to time here and there when we were in the area. And then it got to be like whenever we. Anywhere he would show up anywhere in California, there was Jeff and he would make the trip. You know, he just got. We got very tight as friends and so that was it then. And then later on he left Steely Dan and was kind of like hanging around. We, I think Tyrann, I think the bass player said, jeff, you know, why don't you come and play with us? And Ty asked Tom and myself, you know, what do you think about having Jeff sit in with us? And, and. And Hartman as well. And, and at that time we had Michael Hossack playing drums and two drummers at that point. But it was mainly, you know, John and Tom and myself that had, you know, founded the band. And Tyron said, you know, what do you think about having Jeff play with us? And everybody said, yeah, because we have this relationship with the Moby Grape, you know, I mentioned Skip Spence. Skip, Yep, yep. We always had this vision. We loved the three guitars and they all were just distinct kind of players, you know, Jerry was kind of this country sort of bebop player and Peter, Peter Lewis was this picker. And who else? The. Oh, oh. And Skip was just kind of crazy rock and roller. So we kind of had those. Those elements. You know, I was kind of a little country, you know, not bebop exactly, but I like, you know, played the blues. And Jeff was a great kind of bebopper. And then Tommy was a hard rocking guy. And so we had all the elements that we were, look, that we, you know, sort of projected on ourselves to be that kind of a band with the three guitar players. So having Jeff, you know, kind of, it was a natural progression. So Jeff became a member and was for a long, quite a while and.
- [14:29]
Ultimately made the Recommendation for Michael McDonald to join the band. Is that right?
- [14:36]
He did. I had been to see Steely Dan soon after Michael joined the band. He was. They Brought him on. They had about three, three or four background singers at one point. Royce Jones was a guy. David Palmer had been in there at the beginning and then they had a gal that was singing back up, maybe more than one. And Mike had been brought in to sing backgrounds and play keyboards. And I thought he was fantastic. And then Jeff mentioned when Tommy took a leave of absence, Jeff said, well, I know. How about Mike McDonald? Remember that guy? I go, yeah, he's great. He goes, what do you think? I go, you should call him. And so Mike joined and, you know, we had that. We had a new element which we all kind of like because we had a lot of keyboards on our songs in the studio. So, you know, know, that was a, for me, a great attraction right there. But I didn't really think of anything except Mike. Mike was going to be a background singer and I was going to end up having to take over the. The lead vocal slot and pleasantly surprised that Mike was a great singer and kind of took the weight off my shoulders and. And it turned out he was just, you know, a super talent. So he more than took the weight off my shoulders. He took the spotlight, which was fine with me. I loved. I loved everything he did. And he brought us a wonderful element to the band.
- [16:10]
And then taking it to the streets. What an incredible album. 1976, produced by Ted Templeman. How did you encounter Ted? And then when you think about the whole process of putting together, taking it to the streets, what can you tell me about that? It was really, you know, such a. An amazing point in the Doobie Brothers.
- [16:35]
Career when we actually, we hadn't been signed to Warner Brothers yet. But they, you know, they were interested in the band and they sent Lenny Warrenker, who was, you know, became actually the president, I think, of Warner Brothers at one point. And Ted was sort of a. A new producer there at the label and they. He was sort of under. Lenny had taken him under his wing and was, you know, teaching the ropes. And so they both came to see us play. We played at the Chateau, which was our, you know, at that point we were the house band, more or less. So. So Ted and Money flew up San Jose and came to see it at the Chateau. And there were these two really straight looking guys in the club and, you know, it was frequented by, you know, the Hell's Angels. There were always a dozen Hells Angels in the club and, you know, all the outrageous mountain people, hippies, you know, dressed in, you know, crazy outfits and just a real wild scene. People smoking weed openly in the club or outside the door, anyway. And so that, you know, their eyes were as big as saucers in this club. I looked across, I knew it was them immediately. They were sitting at this table across the room and saw us play. And they love this. And they had already, you know, really liked the demo we sent them. But CNS play solidified our commitment or their, you know, Warner's commitment to us. So they produced our first record together, and then we went on to do a second record and Lenny bowed out and let Ted take over. So Ted did all the records from then on up through One Step Closer. So he did, you know, eight or ten records for us. Ted was fabulous producer. He just really was really great. The difference between our first album and our second album are day and night. Not that Lenny wasn't a great producer, but he had a different vision for kind of who we were in our identity. And Ted had a better vision for, you know, how to make us more appealing to. To an audience. And so that's. That was how we got together with Ted. The album before Taking to the Streets, I think it was Stampede had been the album before, and we were kind of on a roll. Every album that we put out, you know, we did pretty well at. We had some successful commercial songs and, you know, the audience was growing all the time. And then Tommy was out, and of course we were all like, oh, no, what are we going to do now? And Ted said, well, I. You know, my vision is you're gonna have to take over the. The bulk of the writing and the singing, Pat, and we'll see where it goes from there. And when I heard Mike sing, I thought, well, this guy is a super talent, and I think he can bring something new to the band. And it's. It. It was a leap of faith on my part and a huge leap of faith for Ted and the. The label. And I basically had to talk, kind of talk him into it. Ted didn't take much talking into things with Ted once he heard Mike sing and heard his songs. Ted knows good music when he hears it and. And a good song. So, you know, we just kind of went forward. We knew we had to make a change because Tommy was, you know, he had. He wasn't feeling well and he was kind of. He had lost his passion for. For the band. He really was kind of intent on seeking his own path and wanted to try some other things. And I. I get that we got. We got it at the time, but at the same time, we didn't know where we were going to go with things. As it turned out, you know, we landed on our feet. But thank goodness for Mike. Thanks to Ted for seeing the potential and thanks to Warner Brothers for allowing us to make the change. They weren't confident of it at all. And in fact the head of promotions had approached me prior to that record coming out and sort of read me the riot act and what, what did I think I was doing? You know, who did I think I was? And I tried to explain to him that, you know, this wasn't something that I, that I was hoping for or trying to promote. It was just what I, what we were left with and we were making the best of it. Luckily, that guy got shown the door not because of anything I said, but I think he probably opened his mouth too many times to say the similar thing to other people about their, their endeavors. And so he, they let him go. We had a new guy that again saw our potential and got behind it. So I mean it was pretty much where we thought we were going to be treading water. We were Salem's Strong. So we, we, it was up from there. We're lucky to say the least.
- [22:13]
And sailing strong Patrick Simmons into 2025 with a new album and tell me about that project, how you're feeling about it and then ultimately you guys will be hitting the road and going out to your loyal fan base.
- [22:31]
The Road is our, is our master. The albums Walk this Road and that, that was a type a song that Mike wrote with John Shanks, kind of a gospel inspired tune, if you will. Pretty rockin gospel blues kind of a thing. And we all sang, we all played. It was really, you know, a great moment for, for us because really Tom and Mike and myself, we haven't put this much into a record as the three of us as writers, like ever. So this is, you know, like having a new direction, if you will. We, we worked a little bit on Taking it to the Streets but Tom didn't really contribute much in that in the way of writing and a minimal amount of playing this record. Everybody contributed and there's a lot more going on in terms of contribution from the three of us. And then John McPhee is as usual putting his butt off. But yeah, it's just a great moment for the band. Everybody contributed songs, worked closely with the producer to make it happen. We worked with each other. Very supportive process that, that we had. And you know, it's nice to have new music to, to play for the audiences. You know, I think that's probably, it's always something at least for us. I got a tickets. Common for most, most bands you like, you love to have something new to play for. Folks, whether it's going to be something they're going to attach themselves to or not, it's still, you know, you're attached to it and it, it's meaningful and there's a lot more passion, if you will, in, in those moments when you have the opportunity to. To play some new songs for people and, and, you know, see how it goes and see how people respond to that. We have been doing Walk this Road and it didn't get great response, and in my opinion, it, it's. It's a, it's a great song and I, and I love it. We have, by the way, Mavis Staples sings on the track, too. I think she knocked my socks off. See, I. Whoops. I have no socks on. And I love that. So that's outstanding. You know, Mavis is so fantastic. But anyway, as I started to say, I, I. It's a great song, but I don't think it isn't the best live track that we have. We got some great, great songs that I think are gonna translate in a live setting. They're going to be really great for us. So, you know, again, it's always, it's always fun to have new music, and I think our core audience appreciates that. The, the average person, they just play us the hits, you know, I just want to hear that, Just want to live. Go down memory lane. And we get that, and we love that, you know, the opportunity we have as well. But like I say, the moments are probably the most fun are when you get to play some. Some new music and you're a little off balance when you're doing that. I think that's important as a musician to, to have to be a little bit unsure about where things are going, and they try that much harder, you know, So I think that's important.
- [26:05]
Oh, Patrick Simmons, I'm so grateful that you came on Taking a Walk. It's a. A real thrill, and I'm so appreciative for the music you and the band continue to give us. It's the soundtrack of our life, and it continues to just lift us up and make us feel good. I'm really grateful you took the time to be on Patrick.
- [26:27]
Buzz Knight
Yeah.
- [26:28]
Patrick Simmons
So nice to be Buzz and walk this road. We're walking, walking that road with you right now.
- [26:34]
Perfect. Thank you, Patrick. I appreciate you.
- [26:37]
Thank you, Buzz.
- [26:39]
Buzz Knight
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts.
- [26:58]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock up savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible cleaning items from Charmin, Tide and Downey and dinner essentials from Stouffer's, DiGiorno, Arby's and Violife, plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. The Unshakables podcast is kicking off season two with an episode you won't want to miss. Join host Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business as he welcomes a very special Guest, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon. Hear about the challenges facing small businesses and some of the oh moments Jamie has overcome. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Chase Mobile App is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates. May apply JP Morgan Chase Bank NA Member FDA Copyright 2025 JP Morgan Chase.
- [28:03]
Patrick Simmons
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- [29:41]
Patrick Simmons
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- [29:43]
Buzz Knight
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- [29:45]
Patrick Simmons
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Ryan Seacrest
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Patrick Simmons
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- [30:02]
Ryan Seacrest
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- [30:04]
Patrick Simmons
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