We Heart Music had the opportunity to chat with Don Was as he embarks on a tour with his new band, The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, with a stop at The Dakota on May 21st. So, how excited was he to hit the road?

“I’m super excited,” Was replied. “I haven’t done this in over forty years.”

It was in the Eighties when Was formed Was (Not Was), releasing four albums with the party hit “Walk the Dinosaur” launching him into national prominence.

A brand musical adventure with a group of friends from his hometown? “There is something about starting from scratch that’s incredibly gratifying.”

Was said he was really excited about The Dakota show because it will be the first of the tour and there is “… something magical about that first gig. Because you go in with a Zen beginner’s state of mind.”

Was has spent most of his career as a record producer. I told him while lining up his interview, I was also researching an upcoming show. And as I exchanged emails and read about singer/songwriter Jill Sobule, there was his name as producer for Sobule’s California Years.

I asked if it was a statistical probability that his name would appear and he said, “I heard that some 180 thousand records a week go up on Spotify. So statistically it’s a long shot.”

‘I don’t know what the f*ck you’re talking about, but if you want to make a record, I would love to.’
–
Neil Diamond

Was has produced around 200 albums with collaborations ranging from The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan to Willie Nelson and the B-52’s. Along the way he won six Grammys, one as Producer of the Year for Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time. I asked him how does a person “get hired” to produce an album. Was it through networking, word of mouth or more of an interview process?

“I’ve only cold called one person,” Was replied. “I had just won a bunch of Grammy’s and feeling confident. And I called
Neil Diamond and said, ‘I think you are a great rock n’ roll artist, but you lost your way.’ And he paused for a long time and said, ‘I don’t know what the f*ck you’re talking about, but if you want to make a record, I would love to.’”

Was found the secret to producing a successful record is finding musicians that you respect and don’t mind losing an argument to. “The key idea is to kind of take your ego out and not think about what you’re playing or what you’re doing, but to adhere to what everyone is doing and to be part of the greater whole.”

I told Was that I’ve always admired those who can wear a Stetson with nary a horse and asked how he came to find his signature hat.

“It was 1996,” he replied. “I was producing a record for Richie Sambora, and we were working in my house in L.A., and he had a hat maker come to the house.”

The hatmaker was from Baron and Sambora said Was should get one made. Being receptive, Was showed the hatmaker two album covers. One was a Merle Haggard album and the other, Bob Dylan’s Desire. “Do a combination of these two hats. And the guy made it and showed up two weeks later and I put it on, and it felt like I was born in it.”

Was is on his sixth iteration of the original and even got John Mayer to have one made, the result seen on Mayer’s album Paradise Valley. “But we made a deal that we wouldn’t wear them to the same place.”

I told Was I enjoyed his interview with Henry Rollins on The Sound of Vinyl and how they believed the physical limitations of an LP – with twenty minutes to a side – gave artists the opportunity to tell a story with their songs. I asked him if he had a favorite example of this and he mentioned his favorite record of all time, Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil. “I really gravitated to side two. Side two really has healing properties.”

Was said that listening to Shorter’s saxophone sounds like a conversation. “When I listen to side two, I imagine we are walking down the street together. And Wayne is like a big brother to me, and he’s telling me things to avoid.”

Besides being a musician, producer, composer, Was has been the President of Blue Note Records since 2011, an offer given to him by chance during lunch with an executive at Capitol Records, and one he readily accepted because of his love for the venerable jazz label. And one of the joys of working at Blue Note? Getting to know Shorter and having him rejoin the label at the end of his career.

“He was all that and more,” Was said.