There is an all-star tribute show of Sly and The Family Stone’s music, coming to hotspot Moe’s Alley on Thursday, March 12th. The band consists of half of ALO, plus Ray White of Frank Zappa fame, and includes legends like (David Nelson Band’s) Mookie Siegel. One name that should pop off the poster, is Vicki Randle .
In the past, multi-instrumentalist Randle has played, or toured with, pinnacle legends such as Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion and Herbie Hancock. You might recognize her face, and presence, from her long tenure with The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992, until 2009.
“I only toured with one band after I left the show, and that was Mavis Staples. I was 38 when I got The Tonight Show in 1992. So I had already had a full life of touring. I started when I was 20,” Randle says, from her home in the Bay Area.
Randle currently plays with a number of bands. For the last 13 years Randle’s “Black Dyke” band, Skip the Needle slays crowds. “We are for queer women. Three of us black, and all of us grew up playing rock music,” Randle states proudly.
Being the first female member of a late-night band, on a show with an incredibly long run, with upwards of 14 million viewers a night, five nights a week, was an opportunity most musicians can only dream of. But it’s a real job. Which means sacrificing a lot of personal freedom.
“The guys could go over and play at the Baked Potato,” Randle begins. “I played a different kind of music. I wasn’t necessarily only a jazz musician. So, if there was a show in town and I could get there, after Jay–we finished shooting right around six. But for the most part, it was really hard to make plans. There was always these wars going on between the two main (Leno and Letterman) shows. So, if they took a hiatus, we couldn’t take a hiatus at the same time. And our hiatuses were only a week.
“So we worked all the time. We just worked all, you know, five days a week. And if they wanted to shoot something or needed to do something, contractually, we had to prioritize The Tonight Show. So it was hard to do other work, which is one of the reasons I wanted to leave the show,” Randle concludes.
In person, do not doubt that Randle is an iconic and authentic force, as you would have hoped to believe. At the Sly Stone tribute, you will see somebody who relishes every second onstage. “It’s always been an emotional experience for me. Music just fills me with joy. I can’t imagine doing it any other way,” says Randle.
Note that there’s a lesson inside the story of the brilliant mind of Sly Stone. A man who brought forth such joy with “Dance to the Music” (1968), “Everyday People” (1968), “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”, to name just a few. For Stone’s life was also riddled with addiction and missed opportunities, and that’s something Randle knows something about.
“I’m a sober alcoholic. I’ve been sober for 45 years. And I fully understand, at least for myself, that drug addiction and alcoholism is a disease that most people don’t think about as a disease. If he (Sly) had died young of cancer, people would have felt sorry for him. And true, cancer doesn’t usually make you not show up. (Laughs) I mean, to cause all the mayhem that he caused. So, we earn our bad reputations for sure. Not everybody is lucky enough to get sober,” Randle says.
With no intention of slowing down, Randle is touring this summer with the most influential hardcore punk band–Detroit’s MC5. “My friend Brad Brooks, who’s the lead singer, wrote a new record with Wayne Kramer and asked me to do some overdubs and vocals.And then asked if I wanted to play bass. Everything that’s happened to me in the music industry has been unplanned and completely out of left field. And then I asked myself, wait, can you do this? And, I thought, I love those songs. I played those songs in my band when I was in high school,” Randle laughs, as she gets ready for another gig.
A Tribute to Sly Stone happens Thursday, March 12th at Moe’s Alley, 1535 commercial way, Santa Cruz at 8pm. Tickets are $40adv/$45 door
