Waddy Wachtel-This Week’s Podcast
What does it take to make it?
This podcast is a spoken word counterpart to the legendary AC/DC track “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).”
That’s right, it’s harder than it looks, if your dad sells shoes, if you can’t afford the Les Paul you covet, if your link to the industry is the father of the Cowsills, a boorish drunk who’s now your manager.
His buddy Leslie West makes it, gets a record deal, after Waddy taught him licks, but Waddy’s struggling at the Blue Tooth in Warren, Vermont.
After Herbie Cohen tells him how to get out of the draft, successfully.
And while recording with Keith Olsen he’s told he’s the only real musician in the band, the only one who’s going to make it, so he fires the rest of the cats and becomes a sideman.
And that’s where you know him from, the long-haired curly guy who wails backing up the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks and Warren Zevon. That’s one of the best stories, how Waddy helps write “Werewolves Of London,” after eating at Lee Ho Fook.
You see these people on stage and you’ve got no idea who they really are, only an image. And then you meet them and they have stories!!!
I couldn’t shut Waddy down, I couldn’t have him jump ahead to save time, as a matter of fact this is the longest podcast I’ve ever done, but it could have gone LONGER!
I think you’ll love it.
Listen to Waddy Wachtel on…
