Robert Randolph is on a mission. Specifically, he wants pedal steel guitar to achieve a status in popular music on par with the standard six-string. “There’s a world there that’s untouched,” he says. “Few people outside country music have ever even played the instrument. I’ve sort of been the guy to take it into the mainstream, but five or 10 years from now someone else will be the Jeff Beck or Jimi Hendrix of pedal steel.”
It’s fitting that Randolph brings a religious fervor to his chosen instrument. The 28-year-old honed his craft in the House of God Church, an African-American Pentecostal denomination in which “sacred steel” guitar playing has a 60-year tradition. Schooled by sacred steel pioneers Ted Beard and Calvin Cooke (“the Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters of sacred steel players,” says Randolph), the New Jersey native has since paid homage to these neglected masters of the instrument.
Randolph's 2002 debut, Live at the Wetlands, ventured into the secular world. Since then he and his Family Band have released two discs―Unclassified and Colorblind―that mix rock, R&B, and funk in newfangled ways. Most recently, Randolph announced that he'll re-unite with jazz keyboardist John Medeski and members of the North Mississippi Allstars for a handful of year-end performances. Dubbed the Word, the side-project collective first strutted its gospel-rock stuff back in 2000.
No matter who he's got on-stage with him, Robert Randolph's aim is clear. "I want to focus on the celebratory side of life," he says. "Too many people focus on negative things. I don't even watch CNN any more because everything that's covered is so negative. It all goes back to my roots. I also want other people in rock and blues to expand on the pedal steel and use it more. It’s about everyone coming together to make a single joyful noise."
Your guitar of choice is a 13-string pedal steel. But didn't you start out playing six-string lap steel?
That's right. I got a black Oahu lap steel when I was 15 or 16. I wasn't really serious about playing at the time, but I started learning stuff from the older guys in my church—Ted Beard and Calvin Cooke and the other sacred steel players. As I learned from them I went on to play 10-string and then 12-string. Eventually I went to the13-string and came up with the tuning I use from listening to people like Eddie Van Halen and the Allman Brothers. I wanted to go beyond the traditional pedal steel and get into other styles. With the 13-string I could get more of the highs and lows and chords I was hearing from regular guitar players.
You've said in the past that hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan when you were a teenager was especially important to you. How so?
In my opinion he's the most artistic guitar player we've ever had. Hendrix was great but I think Stevie Ray had a bit more soul in the way he played. There was so much passion and heart there. That's what I related to, coming out of a church background.
How did steel guitar come to be the instrument of choice in the House of God church?
That goes back to the 1920s and 1930s, with a fellow named Willie Eason. There were these poor black churches in the south and the people couldn't afford organs and pianos. So they would save up 20 bucks or so and buy a little lap steel. They used them to back up church singers, and over the years the players started developing different styles. Willie Eason was the first to do that.
Why has it taken so long for sacred steel to become well known to the general public?
It really has to do with the history of the church we were in. Like a lot of churches, our church didn't like the idea of their musicians going outside the congregations. It was that way for years, but eventually other people did start to learn about the church. That's when some of the sacred steel guys started playing to secular audiences—people like Aubrey Ghent and Calvin Cooke and Chuck Campbell and Phil Campbell. When I came along, I wanted to take it completely into the mainstream.
What advice have the veteran players given you?
Calvin has given me lots of advice about tone. He says playing pedal steel should be like squeezing an orange. You want to get that last drop of juice, and make the notes talk. Pedal steel has such a big voice, you don't have to play too many notes. Calvin was also the first rock and roll kind of guy in the sacred steel world. He played with distortion and used wah pedals and things like that. That had a big influence on me.
Does that also relate to the idea of trying to make the guitar sound like the human voice?
That's right. Henry Nelson and Lorenzo Harrison were the sacred steel guys who could really make the pedal steel sing. I grew up listening to tapes of those guys and couldn't believe the sounds they were getting. Part of the sacred steel tradition is to pick up on what the singer is doing and take that to another place. You're trying to emulate the singer who you're accompanying. Today I listen to real singers—people like Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin and Anita Baker—in order to try even harder to make the guitar sound like a singer.
How exactly is the technique you use different from the technique country pedal steel players use?
Lots of things I do are different. And that also applies to the equipment I have built for me. I do a lot of tweaking. I use specially-wound heavy gauge strings, for instance, because I play really hard and aggressive. As far as technique goes, it’s just that I'm geared more toward rock and roll than country steel. Country steel has a lot of swirls and is geared more toward country picking.
Isn't the tone bar you use different from that of country-style players as well?
Yes, but that's really more about how you're taught to play. If I give a Nashville player a tone bar that I use he's still going to play his way. The sound comes from his hands. It's like, if you pick up the same guitar that Eric Clapton plays, you're not going to sound like Eric Clapton. There aren't any short cuts.
Have you spent much time with Nashville-style players?
Yes. Our church headquarters is based in Nashville, so I've been going there every year since the early '80s. Buddy Emmons and Speedy West and Lloyd Green really invented the way pedal steel is played in country music. We would go to the pedal steel shops and those guys would be in there. They were intrigued by the things that we—the sacred steel players—were doing. And of course we were intrigued by the things they were doing. It was a give-and-take thing.
Around the time you made your last album, you spent lots of time with Clapton. Did he impart any special wisdom or advice?
He and I talked about how he came up with some of his songs, and the mindset he gets into when he's writing. We've been known as a jam band but he saw more potential in what we were doing. He said he wouldn't necessarily give other jam-oriented bands the same advice, but he saw a potential for longevity in our case. I was with him when he was recording his last album as well and took in a lot of information from that. We actually wrote some things together.
Are you trying to get away from your reputation as a jam-band artist?
Well, I want to write memorable songs. When people think of jam bands they think, "Oh, you don't have any songs. You just go out and play." But the Dave Matthews Band, for instance, has a busload of songs. On the other hand, if you had never heard of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and you saw them play live you would think, "Oh, this is a jam band." The same is true of Stevie Wonder. He jams out on "Superstition" like nobody's business.
The Word's Winter Tour Dates:
12/26 – Hartford, Connecticut – The Webster Theatre
12/27 – New York, New York – Terminal 5
12/28 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Electric Factory
12/29 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club