\n <\/span><\/span>Mark \u2018Slick\u2019 Aguilar (Photo Credit: J. Scott Shrader \/ Courtesy of Live Dead \u201869)<\/p>\n Slick Aguilar:<\/strong> Well, out of college, I fell right into KC\u2019s (and the Sunshine Band) studio in Miami. I got to go and attend classes \u2013 I mean, it\u2019s hard to do this in the short little time, Karin. When I was 18 years old, I used to attend classes with Pat Matheny,<\/strong> who\u2019s my age. He\u2019s a couple months younger than me, and he was teaching at the University of Miami. So I got to go and, talk about a heavy hitter \u2013 there\u2019s no heavier guy in the world. He\u2019s probably one of the best musicians walking the planet and what an incredible influence. Somebody turned me on to the Dead when I was in Peru \u2013 I lived in Peru when I was 17, 18, came back up to the States, so when I came back up and met Pat I was probably 19. They turned me on to the Dead down there and so I went from one \u2013 \u200b<\/strong>the Grateful Dead<\/strong> is our rock group but it\u2019s a jazz group, I mean I guess because of their influences musically and drug wise (laughs), we all grew up \u2013 I don\u2019t know how old you are Karin, but I\u2019m 64 and Mark\u2019s the same age and Tom Constanten<\/strong> is older than all of us, he\u2019s older than God (laughs). We grew up on these three minute songs, then I got turned on to this group that plays eighteen minute songs and they just go and it\u2019s magical and it\u2019s so much fun now for me to play with this group because anything goes! And I\u2019ve been a fan of Jerry and Bob and all those guys for all these years and I got to meet and open up for Jerry a couple times and it\u2019s just \u2013 but anyway. So I went from being with KC at 23 and then (David) Crosby picked me up around 27\/28, maybe 26, and I got to play with him and meet all his peers, you know, I\u2019m hanging out with Jackson Browne<\/strong>, and then getting to play with people like Timmy Schmidt<\/strong> when I was 22, 23, from The Eagles and Al Cooper, Carlos Santana<\/strong>. They would all come down to the club that I played at because Bill Szymczyk who produces The Eagles and is also the producer of The Thrill is Gone<\/em>, B.B. King<\/strong>, he would bring all those people down, it was an outdoor, raw bar in Miami \u2013 it was really a cool hang.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> Yeah, sounds like it!<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> He would just go \u2018Yeah, Slick\u2019s playing up the road\u2019 and it was only a block away from the studio and they\u2019d all come down and of course we\u2019d all go \u2018Yeah, come on get up here and play.\u2019 That was in my young, wild days, fresh out of college and having a good time. It just rolled after that. I got in with David, and Marty Balin<\/strong> saw me play and he was having some problems with his guitar player and he called me up and said \u2018Hey would you like to come play with me?\u2019 and I told him, \u2018Hire me!\u2019<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Your life sounds a lot more exciting than mine!<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Oh come on, you\u2019re having fun now aren\u2019t you?!<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> Yeah! Maybe I\u2019m just a late bloomer \u2013 that\u2019s what we\u2019ll call it. (laughs)<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> You\u2019re \u2018in the now\u2019 and the next minute is gonna be really cool too, Karin (laughs). So that\u2019s how you gotta think, it\u2019s all positive and put out the good vibes and it\u2019ll all come back to you.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>So obviously, you started out pretty young \u2013 what was your first musical memory where you remember thinking or knowing that music was a part of you as far as what you were going to do?<\/p>\n \n <\/span>Slick Aguilar (Photo Credit: J. Scott Shrader \/ Courtesy of Live Dead \u201869) <\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> My father played piano, he was taught by nuns in Catholic School and he could read, so we had a piano in my house. After dinner, we would all sit down with him and we\u2019d go over to the piano and he\u2019d sing songs and we\u2019d pick songs out of the piano books that he had. I\u2019d go, \u2018Dad! Play this song – Sweet Georgia Brown<\/em>. Play this one \u2013 I Left My Heart in San Francisco<\/em>\u2019. And he\u2019d sit down and he\u2019d go (singing), \u2018Look at me, I\u2019m as happy as a kitten in a tree\u2019 he could play anything so my first \u2013 I started playing when I was 11, well when I was 9 but I started playing live at 11. I was playing teen clubs \u2013 I couldn\u2019t even get in to those clubs unless I played in the band, you know. I mean, I\u2019m up on the stage playing Ventures<\/strong> songs, like \u2013 \u200bWalk Don\u2019t Run, Pipeline, Wipeout<\/em> and I\u2019m a little kid \u2013 the guitar is bigger than me. So that\u2019s where I come from. It\u2019s just – music is a thing \u2013 you know the guys, everybody that I\u2019ve played with is like, \u2018It picked us\u2019 you know? You don\u2019t go \u2018Hey I think I want to be a musician\u2019. Well if you don\u2019t have rhythm and soul, you\u2019re not going to be a musician, it\u2019s something that you\u2019re born with, it\u2019s in you and then you either decide to go out and educate yourself on it and learn the techniques of it and go that route. I was playing in VFW\u2019s for older guys, guys my age now (laughs).<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Well, I bet they had some good stories (laughs).<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>I don\u2019t know, I didn\u2019t really talk to them all that much. They were a little intimidating then, I was only 11.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Fun fact \u2013 I used to bartend at an American Legion, so I\u2019m familiar (laughs).<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>(laughs) Ok, yeah then you know exactly what it\u2019s like in there.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> So you\u2019ve been doing it for quite a few decades \u2013 I\u2019m going to ask a two part question kind of. Do you have a favorite decade of music as, first off, a fan and then a favorite decade of music as far as your own musical journey? Maybe you were touring with a certain band or really getting into your own style or something like that? So, a favorite decade as a fan and then, as a musician and are they the same, are they different?<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> Uh, as a fan \u2013 you know, I was so busy studying and trying to be a good guitar player that I kind of missed the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s. We\u2019ll sit around and somebody will go \u2018Oh, did you ever listen to this band?\u2019 and I\u2019d go, \u2018no\u2019 \u2013 because I was studying guitar players. So I don\u2019t know a lot of, you know, Supertramp<\/strong>, I don\u2019t know a lot of these bands. I know their one hit and I\u2019m sure they had more than that but I meet these people later on in my life and I see them or play with them and I hear these songs. A fan \u2013 in the 70\u2019s I was digging James Brown<\/strong>, going into the funk thing because I was playing at KC\u2019s studio, which is actually TK\u2019s Studios down in Miami, so I was just getting my musical chops together, you know all the (guitar sounds) and you get your wrist going and you\u2019re muting with your left hand over here, just getting a sound. It\u2019s almost like chicken pickin’, you know what I mean? And my favorite time that I was playing was with the Starship<\/strong>, I played with them for over 20 years and Paul Kantner<\/strong> and Marty Balin<\/strong> and some of my closest friends \u2013 Paul\u2019s no longer with us but, yeah. Playing with Papa John in that band was great \u2013 do you know who he is?<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>I know of him \u2013 not as familiar as with him as KC and Jefferson.<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Papa John Creach<\/strong> was an old, black violin player \u2013 we called it the fiddle, an old fiddle player \u2013 he played the blues. You could probably go on You Tube and look up Slick Aguilar and Papa John and some stuff will come up. Playing with him was like playing with John Lee Hooker<\/strong>, like playing with B.B. King, he\u2019s incredible. He was way old, he played with everybody in the world \u2013 he played with Frank Sinatra, Oscar Peterson<\/strong>. One time I saw Ray Charles<\/strong> in the airport in Vegas and I\u2019m flying to L.A. and I was staying at Papa\u2019s house that night and I go, \u2018Papa, guess who I flew with tonight!\u2019 – I said hello to Ray and he said \u2018Hey baby what\u2019s happening?\u2019 (laughs) you know with his head rolling. And I said, \u2018Papa, I flew with Ray Charles!\u2019 and he said, \u2018Did you tell him you know me?\u2019 I thought like, \u2018Well, no that wasn\u2019t the first thought in my head there\u2019 (laughs). He goes, \u2018I know Ray!\u2019<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>So you could drop Papa\u2019s name to anybody and they would say, \u2018Oh yeah, I got a story about him!\u2019 huh? (laughs)<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Yeah, he was incredible and fun! I wheeled him through the Baseball Hall of Fame. We were driving down from NY, we had a day off and we saw a sign, it said \u2018Cooperstown\u2019 which is where the Baseball Hall of Fame is. Steve Kaiser was riding with me and we were riding with Papa and Gretchen, his wife, and he goes, \u2018Slick, Baseball Hall of Fame, 11 miles, should we do it?\u2019 and I go, \u2018Papa, you wanna go to the Baseball Hall of Fame?\u2019. He says, \u2018Smokin Joe Williams\u2019 and we said, \u2018Who the heck is that?!\u2019. He said, \u2018Smokin Joe Williams \u2013 Homestead Grays.\u2019 We go to the \u2018Negro Section\u2019 \u2013 that was what they called it and there\u2019s a big cardboard, life-size cutout and it says \u2018GRAYS\u2019 across his chest and who is it but Joe Williams! So Papa, we\u2019re just wheeling him through there and it was just great times. So yeah, Starship was probably my fave and Crosby was a good point in my life too.<\/p>\n [bctt tweet=”You just hit this moment of happiness where you go, ‘Yeah, that\u2019s what we set out to accomplish!’ \u00a0You never know what\u2019s going to happen. – Slick Aguilar<\/strong>” via=”yes”]<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> So we\u2019re still curious, you\u2019re the first of the group that I\u2019m getting to talk about \u2013 we want to know how this all came together and you guys decided that \u2018The Days Between\u2019 was your time and these were going to be the people and kind of all those intricate details \u2013 how did that all come to be?<\/p>\n Tom Constanten performs beside Slick Aguilar (Photo Credit: J. Scott Shrader \/ Courtesy of Live Dead \u201869) (Note:<\/strong> Tom Constanten will not<\/u> appear at the Days Between performance.)<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> Ok, so this is what happened \u2013 since I put in all those years, it was almost 25 years, and Paul passed and the band was going to keep going and I went through a whole liver transplant so I was out the loop for a while. I called up a friend, Michael Gaiman<\/strong>, who is the manager of this now, who was also the manager of the Starship and I knew him from David Crosby<\/strong> in \u201882 and \u201883 and this is how we got the gig with Paul Kantner and I said to Michael, \u2018Why can\u2019t I go do my own version of the Starship, The Jefferson Starship thing?\u2019. I was in the band longer than anybody besides Paul Kantner, Paul had more time and I played with him longer than anybody ever did and Marty Balin. And he goes, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s do this.\u2019 Years before, 15 years before that, we used to bring Tom Constanten<\/strong> on the road, Michael knew him. He brought him out to open up for us. You know, it\u2019s like, you got the original keyboard player from The Grateful Dead<\/strong>. He\u2019d go out and he\u2019d play solo and we became good friends and I\u2019d say, \u201cTC let me come out and play with you\u201d, and he\u2019d go, \u201cWould you?\u201d and then I started playing with him at night and then all of a sudden, the drummer is coming out and the keyboard player is coming out and we\u2019d have a little band going on there. Then I said to Michael, about 2 \u00bd years ago, I said, \u201cDude, I wanna do a Starship thing, an Airplane-Starship thing,\u201d and we called that the \u2018Airplane Family\u2019 and we brought in other people that were affiliated in some sort with them \u2013 you either played with them or you had family ties, like Darby Slick<\/strong> \u2013 he never played with Starship but he wrote Somebody to Love<\/em>, so we brought him in. So we used to do that and we started doing I Know You Rider<\/em> and we\u2019d do Cold Rain and Snow<\/em>\u200b and just doing some Dead stuff. TC, you know, is the only living keyboard player from The Grateful Dead. So when I said to Michael that I wanted to do the Starship thing, he goes, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we bring TC, add a couple people to it\u2026\u201d So we kicked around a couple names and low and behold, Mark came up and later on, we were looking for a bass player to replace Peter Kaukonen <\/strong>[Editor Note: Peter Kaukonen is the younger brother of none other than legendary Jefferson Airplane & Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen<\/strong>], and I had called Mark up and said, \u201cHey man, what about Robin?\u201d So, there\u2019s another guy from RatDog<\/strong>. We had Robin, Mark, sometimes Jay Lane<\/strong> and Ezra Lipp and this round we\u2019re using Joe Chirco<\/strong>, great drummer. So that\u2019s how that all came about and we were all really banking on The Airplane Family to take off and really do well but all of a sudden, it was like the magic that happened between us \u2013 Mark and I and TC \u2013 it was just superseded that.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> Took on a life of its own.<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Yeah and it\u2019s so much fun to do because it\u2019s total freedom. You just listen to what\u2019s going on around you and you just ride the wave.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Do you think, in instances like that, that everyone is more connected to each other or to the music? <\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> I think they both go hand-in-hand. I think for one, the music thing but also, we\u2019re looking at one another and making eye contact and we know when it hits so there\u2019s that connection between the soul, the bodies, you know? It\u2019s like \u2013 Mark and I would start playing and then we\u2019d hit this stuff and then we\u2019d look at each other and smiles would just come on our faces (laughs).<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>(laughs) Yeah, I\u2019ve seen that onstage a few times and I always wonder about the inside jokes and connections and what they\u2019re translating to for the musicians.<\/p>\n Slick Aguilar (L) with Mark Karan (R) hitting that moment of happiness which is what we set out to accomplish. (Photo Credit: J. Scott Shrader\/courtesy of Live Dead \u201869) <\/p>\n S<\/strong>A:<\/strong> You just hit this moment of happiness where you go, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s what we set out to accomplish!\u201d You never know what\u2019s going to happen. It\u2019s like, you go to Dead shows and half of them aren\u2019t that good and they\u2019re still working on it. They\u2019ll even say, \u201cWe went through half the show and then all of a sudden it clicked!\u201d It doesn\u2019t always click but you gotta put it out there. It\u2019s like, to win the lotto, you gotta buy the ticket. <\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> All these musical acts that you\u2019ve played with over the years, they are a little different but consistently, as far as live music, how have you seen the crowds change over the years? Have you seen basically, the same crowd growing older with you or?<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>No, there\u2019s a whole new thrust of young people coming in and I\u2019ve said this before to somebody \u2013 I\u2019m watching 20 year old kids singing the lyrics to \u2018St Stephen\u2019 and \u2018Dark Star\u2019 and these songs was their parents time and really some of their parents are even younger than I am, but these little kids are just singing all these things and it\u2019s just a cycle that goes around and gets passed down from generation to generation. The Grateful Dead \u2013 I mean I go out on the road and I see more cover bands and more tribute bands of the Grateful Dead than any other band in the world. It\u2019s just a fun music to play and you don\u2019t even have to play a Grateful Dead song and this is what\u2019s gotten down with me. It did this to me, 30 years ago, I was playing in bands down in Miami and we would take a song like Love the One You\u2019re With<\/em> and Jerry would go out and do cover songs \u2013 he would go out and do Motown, After Midnight<\/em> into Eleanor Rigby<\/em> he does Dear Prudence<\/em> he does some Smokey Robinson<\/strong>, he does all that kinda stuff but he does it to a treatment where he would sing a little bit of it and then let it go and see where it goes, see what happens.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>One of my favorite things as a fan is hearing, you know a bluegrass band or a reggae band play a Grateful Dead song or a Tom Petty<\/strong> song or even a hip-hop song. It\u2019s just so interesting to me. It\u2019s so cool to hear what people are going to do with a song that you think you know so well.<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>And just see how they interpret it.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Exactly \u2013 and some of them end up being better than the originals.<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> Yeah there\u2019s just no \u2013 the sky is the limit, you can just go ahead and do what you want. No one is there going, \u201cNO! No, you can\u2019t do that.\u201d It\u2019s more like, let\u2019s take this one and go south and then let\u2019s go north, you know, whatever you take it in all directions. That\u2019s what I love to do. I\u2019ve been doing that in my own bands, I was never in a top 40 cover band. When I played in my young career, and had to play clubs and stuff, I didn\u2019t do the top hits, I did really cool songs, I mean, I was playing Grateful Dead 35 years ago and nobody down in Miami was doing that.<\/p>\n Live Dead and Riders (L-R) Slick Aguilar, Mike Falzarano, and Mark Karan (Photo Credit: J. Scott Shrader \/ Courtesy of Live Dead \u201869) <\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>What is it that you think you\u2019re most excited about with this Live Dead and Riders 69<\/strong> and the days between stint?<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Well, I\u2019m really excited about the future and see where we can take this thing and go with it and create our own and bring our own songs and give it this treatment. I\u2019m excited for the future of the whole thing. We\u2019re putting out hard, playing and putting everything into it and it\u2019ll be fun to see what happens. We want to build the crowds, you know, come out and see us and hang out with us, it\u2019s a really fun gig, we speak musically, I think you\u2019ll really enjoy it. You\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>It\u2019s getting quite an interest down here and people are getting excited so I highly doubt anyone will be disappointed.<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> No, we\u2019ll have a lot of fun.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>So I have one question that I like to ask everyone that I get to interview because it gives a little insight into you as a person, music fan and musician. Musical bucket list \u2013 is there an instrument that you want to learn or a venue you want to play, someone you haven\u2019t seen live yet or maybe a collaboration you\u2019d love to see happen? Anything on that list?<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Yeah, I haven\u2019t been able to play with any of The Beatles (laughs). Paul McCartney<\/strong> would be a lot of fun. <\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Well, he\u2019s still out there doing his thing so it\u2019s definitely possible!<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> Did you see the segment of \u2018Car Karaoke\u2019 with Paul McCartney?<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Yes! I love that segment and his was pretty good.<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Oh his was great! Remember the part where they\u2019re in the pub and he goes, \u201cPlay a song on the jukebox, go ahead, pick any song, it\u2019s free!\u201d and then you hear, \u201cIt\u2019s been a hard day\u2019s night\u2026.\u201d And everybody turns around and goes, \u201cOh my GOD!!\u201d<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Yeah that must be such a fun segment to do!<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Well, we played The Cavern Club in Liverpool seven or eight years ago and the guy who does The Magical Mystery Tour, there was like 5000 people that auditioned for the gig, to be the guide, and he won it because of his knowledge of The Beatles. So anyway, he was there that night and I played In My Life<\/em> and Eleanor Rigby<\/em> I do instrumental versions of both of those, a la Jeff Beck<\/strong> kinda sorta thing. He took us on a mini-private tour on a little bus the next day and it was just our band and road crew and I got to stand in front of McCartney\u2019s house \u2013 the house you saw that they went into. We also went to Ringo<\/strong>\u2019s home and John Lennon\u2019<\/strong>s and George Harrison<\/strong>. I\u2019ve got pictures of all that and one of me at Strawberry Fields which is an orphanage and it\u2019s behind John\u2019s house \u2013 his Aunt Mimi\u2019s house, now he lived better than the rest of them and she was a little more upscale. We went to Penny Lane \u2013 so when I saw that bit with McCartney, it was cool because I had been all of those places, I stood in front of that barber shop. It was way cool. This is what this guy told us, we were standing at Strawberry Fields and he said Aunt Mimi used to say, \u201cJohn you can\u2019t go back there, it\u2019s the orphanage, the king or the queen said it\u2019s against the rules.\u201d And John said, \u201cWell, it\u2019s nothing to get hung about.\u201d That\u2019s where that line comes from in the song. Now back to Eleanor Rigby \u2013 he goes, \u201cNow I can\u2019t do this when I do the tour with 60 people because they can\u2019t be trapesing through the cemetery but come here I want to show you something.\u201d He pulls over and said, \u201cSince you played that song last night, I want to show you something.\u201d He took me to the grave of Eleanor Rigby.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Really?!!?<\/p>\n \n <\/span><\/span>Slick Aguilar (Photo Credit: J. Scott Shrader \/ Courtesy of Live Dead \u201869) <\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Oh yeah, I\u2019ve got a bunch of cool pictures of it. It says \u2018Here lies John Rigby\u2019 and then below that it says \u2018Eleanor Rigby, wife of John\u2019 and you\u2019re going \u2018Oh my god, Eleanor Rigby, there it is!\u2019 (Starts to sing they lyrics) \u2018picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been\u2019 and there\u2019s the church right there! Now how the hell \u2013 McCartney and Lennon must\u2019ve been out there smoking pot or something! I mean they went and saw the grave, I mean they had to have seen the grave, they weren\u2019t notables or anything.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> Now that\u2019d be a real story, what were they doing there?<\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> Yeah, because they met right across the street because he showed us, he said \u201cRight there is where Paul McCartney first played with John, John was playing with the Quarrymen<\/strong> and Paul came in and said \u2018Hey you\u2019re doing that all wrong\u2019 and John got all pissed off and Paul showed him and then John goes \u2018Hey, will you join us?\u2019 And you\u2019re standing there and you\u2019re not that far from Eleanor Rigby\u2019s grave. My bucket list would be to be in Paul McCartney\u2019s band.<\/p>\n KM: <\/strong>Pretty good \u2013 I think we can make that happen and by we, I mean you of course (laughs).<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>(laughs) You just gotta think positive.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong> Slick, it was so much fun talking to you and I\u2019m looking forward to seeing you in the days between.<\/p>\n SA: <\/strong>Thank you – enjoy the rest of your day and I\u2019ll see you down there.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n To see Slick Aguilar perform with Live Dead \/ Riders \u201869<\/strong><\/strong> at The Hamilton, you can purchase tickets below.<\/p>\n Thursday, August 2<\/p>\n Doors: 6:30PM<\/strong><\/p>\n Show: 8:00PM<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n![\"Mark](\"\/\/www.dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/345.jpg\" "\\"Mark")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Slick](\"\/\/www.dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/131.jpg\" "\\"Slick")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Slick](\"\/\/www.dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/174.jpg\" "\\"Slick")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Mark](\"\/\/www.dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/355.jpg\" "\\"Mark")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Live](\"\/\/www.dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/059.jpg\" "\\"Live")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Slick](\"\/\/www.dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/327.jpg\" "\\"Slick")
<\/span><\/p>\n