Lance Lopez's Blog

MAY 2006 - "Sorry it took so long man. I'm just getting over a bitch of a cold," Lance Lopez explains. "I know we were supposed to do this last month, but I'v just been sick as a dog." For a moment I try to rack my brain and think of a single interview we've planned that actually did get finished on schedule. Quickly, we're off on another subject. Lopez has that warm, colorful, southwestern personality. He draws you in easily with his countless stories and easygoing nature; the kind of guy you want to keep buying drinks for so that he'll finish the next story. He also seems weirdly ageless, I'm guessing late twenties, but I'm really not interested to find out for sure as he spews out yarns like he's been on the road twice that long.

Lance Lopez: A little tabasco makes this trick easier.

Lance Lopez spent the early years of his life gigging around in blues and cover bands in New Orleans and southern Florida until the age of 17, finally settling in Dallas, TX. Around that time, he began his dues-paying journey, backing up soul legend JOHNNIE TAYLOR and eventually Verve blues guitar maestro LUCKY PETERSON. After a few years together, Peterson convinced Lopez that it was time for him to strike out on his own. The network of musical contacts that Lopez had discovered through extensive tours led him to none other than BAND OF GYPSYS drummer Buddy Miles. "We immediately just gravitated toward each other," Lopez remembers. "I came off the road, and he moved down to Texas. So, we hooked up. Initially my first disc was going to be Buddy on drums and Chuck Rainey on bass. Chucks just a legendary session player; hes played with just about everybody. He along with Bernard Purdie and Cornell Dupree were the band back in the early 70s on just about everything! So me, Buddy, and Chuck were gonna do a disc, but somehow it fell through. But there was a lot of writing that happened between me and Buddy at that time. Eventually Buddy hooked me up with a young drummer that he had kind of taken under his wing there in Fort Worth. I had a kid [bass player] that went to school with me in Dallas. The BAND OF GYPSYS had always been our gospel, man. We always talked about how cool it would be to have a band with Buddy Miles on drums, me on guitar, and him on bass. Well, finally I was living at Buddys house in Fort Worth! So I gave him a call and he came running. I brought Buddy in to produce the first record actually."

But somehow, tensions between Lopez and Miles killed the project before it was complete. Although the two recorded a number of tracks together, Lopez shelved the sessions and took a 6-month break from recording. It seemed they may never see the light of day.

Lopez's next step involved his good friend Jay Newland, a veteran recording engineer whose impressive roster included famous blues and gospel artists like BB KING and CLARENCE "GATEMOUTH" BROWN. Although Lopez had decided to shelve the Miles recordings indefinitely, Newland convinced him to come to NY to meet with him and see if the recordings could be salvaged. It turned out to be a success. "Jay came in and fixed a lot of stuff, pulled out the best tracks," says Lopez. " I went in and did one or two takes, singing em. Jay took them back to NY, mixed and mastered them. He totally salvaged that project. Thats actually one of the ways he met NORA JONES in New York. Shed just left Dallas, and he told her about this kid from Dallas hed been working with! He gave her a copy, and now theyre doing badass! (laughs). But the fact was, he came and saved that record. It did really well in Europe at the time. Im talking to a couple of people about a possible re-release, with some bonus live stuff - I had a ton of live stuff recorded from that tour. The record was called First Things First and it came out in September of 1999. It went out of print about three years ago."

Lance with Jeff Beck. "I'm telling you Jeff, the TV doesn't even have to be on when you program the VCR."

A European tour followed release of the "First Things First" disc. Previous tours with LUCKY PETERSON had created quite a buzz for Lopez in the European market. The combination of European momentum and the dawn of the internet sent copies of "First Things First" flying out all over Europe. Lopez toured that year with the likes of JEFF BECK, ALVIN LEE, MICK TAYLOR, and STEVE VAI, among others. (cont'd)