Back in the early 1980s, I asked Creem if I could interview David Letterman. They said sure, but I had to get it for myself. So I called Letterman's manager Jack Rollins and was told to drop off some clippings. I did and a couple of weeks later received a gruff, it was was alright with Rollins if it was alright with Letterman. To cut a long short, Letterman shot me down. And except for getting invited to tapings a coupla times a year, that's as close as I've ever gotten to Paul Shaffer. And I am a big Paul Shaffer fan. Till Friday night.
If all you know about Shaffer is his work with Letterman, you haven't scratched the surface. In the 1970s he was House Pianist for Saturday Night Live, and also worked with the Blues Brothers. Paul was also the musical director for Gilda Live On Broadway, one of my favorite theater going experiences from back in the 1970s!
Paul has said he was in in unrequited love with Gilda (and seriously, weren't we all?) and to be quite honest, his wife looks a lot like her!!!
In 1982, he joined Late Night and 30 years later…
The list of musicians Shaffer has worked with is breathtaking. I got this off Wikipedia, " Donald Fagen, Ronnie Wood, Grand Funk Railroad, Diana Ross, B.B. King, Asleep at the Wheel, Cyndi Lauper, Carl Perkins, Yoko Ono, Blues Traveler, Cher, Chicago, Luba, Robert Burns, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Nina Hagen, Robert Plant, Peter Criss, Scandal, Brian Wilson, Late Show regular Warren Zevon, jazz trumpeter Lew Soloff, jazz saxophonist Lou Marini and bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs"
And that doesn't include everybody who has walked through the door at NBC and CBS Late Night.
I was at the Deana Martin concert Friday evening and Shaffer was sitting behind me. After the set I asked Paul for a photograph and he kindly asked if I would like one with him. Me, being an incomparable ask thought he meant if I want one with him and his wife… anyway, I got the pix!!
See it above, and thanks Paul for the picture and for a lifetime of great music.
Now how about that long awaited interview???