Little Feat - Bill Payne and Paul Barrere Talk About Their 30-Year Ride

Little Feat
Bill Payne and Paul Barrere Talk About Their 30-Year Ride

by Blair Jackson

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I know you guys used to have a big following in Europe and that you recently returned from there. How is it for you now?
Payne: It was great. For some reason, we sort of lost touch with our audience there for a while. I don’t know if we’d fallen out of favor or what. You know, we live with this duality—the band with Lowell and the band without Lowell. There are different camps, and in Europe for a while there was a feeling that without Lowell, it’s not Little Feat. And, of course, there are people here who think that, too, and there always will be some of those. But when we went over there recently, we did very well.

Well, it’s still a kick-ass band. And disc three, with the post-Lowell stuff on it, is really strong.
Payne: I agree. I think it still works. We’re still having fun, and when I look out at the audience, it looks like they’re having fun, too.

Massenburg is a thread that goes through a lot of the story. When you made the decision to come back in the late ’80s and work with George again, that must have added to the stability of the situation. And Bill, you co-produced several Feat albums with George.
Payne: George is great, and he’s definitely a major reason why those albums when we came back sounded so good. It was nice to have that familiarity, to not have to come in cold with someone new at that point.

The way we approached that first album when we re-formed [Let It Roll] is that we got together and worked on some songs, keeping in mind that we were only going to commit to recording them if we thought they were good enough to stand with our earlier work and not hurt our legacy. I knew we had the confidence to make a great record, and I think we did make a great record in Let It Roll. Does it compare to Sailin’ Shoes, which is another one of those iconic records? Or Dixie Chicken? I don’t know. Each of those is its own little thing, but so is each of the later records. I just want people to walk away from a Little Feat record feeling like they’ve been taken some place. And I think more often than not we succeed on that level. The thing with a band like Little Feat is that because we’ve been so eclectic, everyone has different things they like more than others that we do.

That’s the fun part—that you’re “Dixie Chicken” and “Borderline Blues” and “Easy to Slip” and “Day at the Dog Races,” which I was shocked to read in the liner notes that Lowell did not like.
Payne: I guess he didn’t like fusion music, or whatever you want to call it. But also, quite frankly, I think he felt a little left out because he wasn’t that involved with it. He had actually gone to Paul before that and said, “I’d like you to get more involved with the material.” But then when Paul went and did get more involved…[Laughs.]

I don’t want it to seem like I’m denigrating Lowell at all. His genius is way intact. I mean, what a great songwriter, and his guitar playing, his vocals, his lyrics…He was undeniably a genius. But Paul and I have sort of been characterized as stunting his growth around the time we, quote unquote “took over the ship,” around the time of Time Loves a Hero. We spent an inordinate amount of time explaining that that’s not exactly what happened. And if you look at Lowell’s own album from that time, Thanks I’ll Eat It Here, explain to me why there are so few Lowell George songs on there. And the reason is he stopped writing; he didn’t have the focus and energy to do it. And Paul and I thought we had a great thing in Little Feat, and we worked hard in that period to keep it together and keep it strong.

And now here you are all these years later and you guys are managing the band, too, and if anything, Lowell’s legacy has only grown, not diminished.
Barrere: Right. And it should. But Paul and I also have to worry about what’s happening now with Little Feat, and what’s happening next. We’re always looking forward.

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