Bobby Whitlock: Lord of the Rings

Guitarist/keyboardist for Derek & the Dominos, George Harrison puts 'Mountain Ring' up for auction 
By Peter Lindblad

Bobby Whitlock with wife CoCo Carmel

Black diamonds, it seems, are Bobby Whitlock's best friend these days, at least as far as his jewelry art is concerned.

Practically raised at Stax Records, the Memphis native played alongside soul legends Booker T. & the MGs and Sam & Dave, before joining Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, contributing keyboards to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album and forming Derek and The Dominos with Eric Clapton. But, Whitlock has other artistic interests outside of music.

Much of his attention these days is centered on his ability to create stunning jewelry, including an incredible new piece called the "Mountain Ring," which is being auctioned off right now. The auction began on Saturday, Oct. 11, and will conclude Nov. 29 at 11:59 p.m. Bids are to be submitted by e-mail to: whitlockmountain@gmail.com.

For auction rules, go to http://backstageauctions.blogspot.com/2014/10/auction-for-bobby-whitlocks-mountain.html

"You know, it’s not so much the selling of it, as it is making my art available," said Whitlock. "This is the first interview I’ve ever done that has to do with my art, other than my musical art. And it’s really all one and the same. Art is art, just like love is love."

Bobby Whitlock's 'Mountain Ring'

As a teenager, growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, Whitlock would go through stones and picture making "those big rings, those big, chunky things, and I always like that they symbolized something. I never knew that it’d be something, an art form, that I would express myself at any point."

That is until his wife CoCo Carmel came along.

"My wife and I, have been together 14 years, and the first thing I did was have something made for her, just ‘cause I wanted something unique and it was an earring," explained Whitlock. "And I had this idea that I’d make it for her, and I don’t know … it just seemed like I had a knack for it. And that piece won an award."

Other pieces followed, as Whitlock designed one ring and then another, without ever thinking he'd sell them. He enjoys the entire process, from finding the right stone through the casting of the wax. It was a trip overseas, however, that gave him the idea for the Mountain Ring.

"When CoCo and I went back and forth to Geneva, Switzerland, to perform for 5,000 Japanese people at a symposium they were having, I was really taken by the grandeur of the mountains and the cliffs," said Whitlock. "After going there three times, ‘cause we stayed each time quite a while, you get to know the place, and even when we were shopping ... when I came back and started  fooling around, I came up with the idea of the mountain range, but I didn’t know exactly how it was going to be, because it’s hard to make a mountain range. You don’t just put a stone on top of it (laughs)."

A trip to Geneva, Switzerland, inspired
Bobby Whitlock to create the
"Mountain Ring"

For the piece, Whitlock chose his old favorite, black diamonds, " ... which no one uses on the other end of the spectrum, and they’re beautiful," added Whitlock, who goes through a process of creating the design and drawing it out, then picking the stones, carving the wax, and then casting the gold through the lost wax process.

Making the Mountain Ring even more special, Whitlock used the very last bit of "rose gold" in his possession that was made by a friend, Danny Abbott, who used to render copper into 24-karat gold by "putting a little piece of penny into it," related Whitlock. "He’s no longer around ... and he was an alchemist and an incredible jeweler. That was his thing. He was frustrated because he wanted to be a rock star, you know. Everybody wants to be a rock star, but his gift … now he could play guitar, but his real true gift was incredible art."

That little touch helps make the "Mountain Ring" special. Some of it he used for CoCo's jewelry.

According to Whitlock, a number of people had a hand in making the "Mountain Ring."

"Charles Kirkpatrick owns the Midas manufacturing here in Austin, and there were different artists casting in that, and among them was a girl named Rima," said Whitlock. "She was one of the artists who was designing. And there were several other people … actually, in the making of the Mountain Ring;there were seven people involved in the piling of the wax, and that was one that worked and then we did another one where another artist got involved, and so I just started out with like a rough draft of just something I do, and the next thing you know I presented it to – in this case for the Mountain Ring – to Rima and we bounced around some different ideas and she said, 'Well, how about this, you know? It’s pretty incredible. She’s off doing her own thing here in Austin as well, so it’s never really the same person, except my stone setter Aaron. He’s a big guy, about 6-foot-3, a big man, and it always seemed interesting, setting a stone … that’s most important part of the whole thing, because the whole thing is built around the stone."

The 'Mountain Ring' has an
ounce of gold and an
ounce of black diamonds

As for Kirkpatrick, Whitlock said, "His thing is, he loves stones. He’s a stone man, and it was six months in finding the star sapphire that’s in the Mountain Ring. It was six months of going through stones and him going to different gem dealers and stuff to find the right stone. So the piece is built around the stone. So if the stone breaks or something compromises the stone, the piece is gone, because you’re not going to get another stone that’s just exactly that size. And everything changes, you know."

At his wife's suggestion, Whitlock is finally letting the public see his work, and he added that reaction so far to the Mountain Ring has been incredible.

"There’s over an ounce of gold in the thing, and over a karat of black diamonds – over a karat and a half or so of black diamonds, I can’t remember what the number is," said Whitlock. "It’s either 48 or 49 diamonds all throughout, and it’s absolutely a beautiful piece. I’m real proud of it. And I never thought about letting anybody see it in a public way, just people near me or in my circle … I don’t know, but it’s okay. We started now. We started Bobby Whitlock Jewelry, and it’s funny how it’s opening the door for something. Everything I do is a one-off anyway, and I may do some commissioned things down the line. What I’m going to do is just turn this “Mountain Ring” into something else, you know, for someone else, and just make that available … I don’t know, it’s just opening the door for maybe a jewelry store. There’s always a song in everything, my life is a song and just like that, the doors open for something like a jewelry store."

We'll have more with Bobby Whitlock in the coming days and weeks as he talked to us about his time in Derek and the Dominos, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and, of course, his work on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

Neal Schon picks Santana over Clapton

Journey guitarist explains how he almost joined Derek and the Dominos

By Peter Lindblad

Neal Schon 2012

In the position he was in, it’s hard to imagine Neal Schon refusing an offer to play with Eric Clapton.

A mere teenager, whose soulful, expressive guitar playing had caught the ear of the man known as “Slowhand,” Schon had dropped out of high school in the 1960s to follow his musical muse. This was the chance of a lifetime. Other guitarists would have given their eye teeth for such an opportunity, but fate had something different in mind for Schon.

“I had a good feeling … I don’t know why, but I had a good feeling I was going to be asked to join the Santana band, because I’d been hanging out with them,” remembers Schon. “I believe I started hanging out with [keyboardist] Gregg Rolie two to three months before I actually got in the band. And him and I would just hang and he’d play acoustic piano, and I’d play some quiet electric guitar and we’d jam. He began picking me up at high school, which I was really not into, and we’d take off and I’d cut school and we’d jam. And then we started hanging out and playing in clubs, and all of a sudden, we were working in a studio. And we’d work out in the studio 24/7 and just go in there and jam and try come up with song ideas.”

On one particular night, while the two were jamming “on some stuff that sounded like ‘Batuka’ on the third [Santana] record, and that was the beginning stages of that song, I believe,” Schon recalls Clapton walking through the door. “My jaw dropped. This was just incredible. And I was so shocked at the time I really think I just said, ‘Hello’ and ‘goodbye’ to the guy,” says Schon.

Clapton soon joined in, trading off solos with Schon. They recorded and played for a couple of hours before Clapton left. “And he said, ‘It was great seeing you guys. I’ve got a gig tomorrow.’ And he took off, so it was wild and that was it,” says Schon.

A dumbstruck Schon couldn’t believe what had happened, and he certainly didn’t think anything more would come of it.

“And then the next day, I come into the studio, and there was a note left there from him to me inviting me to play with him and Derek and the Dominos at Berkeley Community Theatre,” relates Schon, who knew Clapton’s catalog backwards and forwards. “And so, at the time, I didn’t have a license. I got somebody to drive me over there, and I managed to get there about 10 minutes before they went onstage. And I went backstage, and he says, ‘Oh, great. You got here.’ He says, ‘We’re going to go onstage and I’m going to play about seven or eight tunes, and then I’m going to call you up as a good friend, and you’re just going to sit in and jam with us for the whole rest of the night.’ And I said, ‘Great.’ I brought a guitar, and he brought me up onstage and I just went and plugged in, and his guitar tech turned the amp up to 10, and we were off.”

The night didn’t end there.

“It was really fun to play and then afterwards, he invited me to go to the hotel with him,” says Schon. “He wanted to sit down and talk, so I went and as we were talking, he was asking who I listened to, and I told him, 'Him.' And he didn’t believe me, so I picked up an acoustic guitar and I started playing note for note ‘Crossroads’ off the Wheels of Fire record. He was like, ‘Wow!’ And he gave me a really kind compliment, and at that point, he said, ‘Well, would you be interested in moving to England and coming and playing with me?’ And I was just like, ‘Whoa.’”

Caught completely off guard by the proposal, Schon wasn’t prepared to answer, “Yes,” even though he could be forgiven for accepting it on the spot.

“I had just barely moved out of my folks’ apartment and was hanging out with Gregg in Mill Valley, in Marin County, north of San Francisco,” says Schon. “And man, I said, ‘I don’t think I’m ready to move to England, although I’d love to play with you.’”

To some extent, Schon felt an obligation to the members of Santana. He’d spent about a month in the studio with them, and Schon had an inkling he’d be asked to join Santana. Fortunately, he was right.

“I also felt that Derek and the Dominos were not going to last that long,” says Schon. “It just appeared that there were some issues going on in the band that I could sense, much like an animal, you know (laughs). It was not like the best time period.”

His prediction was eerily accurate, as Derek and the Dominos, racked by drug abuse and other vices, barely held it together between 1970 and 1971, recording the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs before the whole thing disintegrated – although a live album, In Concert, would be released in 1973.

Meanwhile, Schon did eventually land with Santana, joining the band in 1971, just in time to lend his talents to the Santana III album, helping the band forge a tougher, more rock-oriented sound.

“We were really quick in the studio, everybody played live, and there were a few solos that were overdubbed,” recalls Schon. “And I usually got ‘em in one take. I remember we were in and out, and it was a great experience. Great record – I love it to this day.

What people may not know is who actually played lead guitar on one of the LP’s biggest hits, “Everybody’s Everything,” which featured horns by Tower of Power. “I actually played lead guitar on it. And Carlos played rhythm guitar and bass on that,” says Schon.

Ironically, Schon’s association with Santana was also short-lived.

“Well, during the duration that I played with the band, there were people coming and going,” admits Schon. “There were a lot of fall-outs happening. There were a lot of drug issues, and everybody was into a different thing. It got a little crazy and intense, and people were getting pissed and they’d take off and then someone would be replaced for a second.”

Even though the end was near for Schon, he did contribute to Caravanserai , an album he still loves. “’Song of the Wind’ is amazing on that, which is a song Carlos and I just winged, and I actually play the first solo on that; he played the middle solo and I played the last solo on that, and you know, it’s two chords, and we just improvised and played.” And that’s what Schon’s been doing his whole life, as he proves on his latest solo album, The Calling, out now on Frontiers Records.

Schon collaborated with former Journey band mate Steve Smith on the record, and to Smith, it was sort of like being back in Journey ... with some glaring differences.

“Working with Neal on The Calling was very similar to how we worked together with Journey,” said Smith. “We have an easy rapport, a creative chemistry and get right to the task at hand. The atmosphere is fun and we are excited about the music that we are creating. There were two main differences: With Journey we did the writing and rehearsing well before the recording of the album. That way by the time we got to the studio, we knew what we would be recording. With The Calling, Neal had four songs prepared when I arrived at Fantasy Studios. After I recorded those songs on the first day of recording we spent three more days coming up with ideas for tunes and recording them as we went, so the process moved much faster than a Journey recording. The other difference was that the team was not the five Journey band members, who would contribute ideas to the songwriting, arranging and recording process. The team was Neal, keyboard player Igor Len and me. Of course, The Calling is Neal’s album, so he took the lead and did most of the writing and arranging with Igor and I assisting with ideas and direction when needed. Neal is a prolific writer and every time he picks up a guitar, he’ll come up with some new ideas.”

And that’s something Clapton and Derek and the Dominos never got the chance to see up close.