Mark Rivera On “All Mixed Up” 3-12-23
Mark Rivera calls himself a “sideman.”
In fact, that’s the name of his new book, Sideman – In Pursuit of the Next Gig.
A better term for Mark might be “jack of all trades.” Though perhaps best known for his saxophone playing, he also plays guitar, flute, keyboards, and he sings.
Working over the years both in the studio and on the road with artists such as Billy Joel, Foreigner, Hall & Oates, Peter Gabriel, Ringo Starr and more, he has been a part of the soundtrack of our lives for more than 40 years.
Mark and Jim Monaghan first met during the Foreigner 4 tour and he connected with Jim to talk about some of the amazing stories in the new book.
Mark Rivera Interview Excerpts
Bobby Mayo and myself, we were in Nice, where I actually proposed to my wife and then the following day or two two days later, we were playing in Rome.
And two of the wives decide at the last minute they wanted to go to Rome.
So Bobby and I were asked, could you get on a seven o’clock flight? Bob said, heck yeah, we’ll get on a flight.
Turns out we’re riding around on Mopeds the whole day.
They were the band was waylaid, but the end result was we had this big dinner and after the dinner, Bobby and I get back on our Vespas. And now it’s about midnight and we tripped around the Vatican all day.
So we just went back in the Vatican. Hey, well, nobody stopped us.
There must have been a sign said forbidden.
We get in there with tripping around and all of a sudden these like I think might have been Swiss army guards or somebody with Uzi’s. They say, “Passaport. Passaport.”
And of course I didn’t have my passport.
So Bobby and I look at each other. “Uh, musica musica.”
And he goes, “passaport.”
They said, “I’ve been waiting for a girl like you….”
So they let us go by again, the power of music and by God’s grace, we didn’t get arrested or shot.
Deep Purple’s John Lord
I was about 15 and I went to see Creedence Clearwater and Deep Purple opened up for them.
And as it turns out, you know, in the Fillmore East, I used to sneak down from the, from the nose bleeds and find a seat in the orchestra that was open.
And I’d always go like two or three seats in, so I didn’t want to be too conspicuous.
So I’m sitting there at about 12 and I’m sitting there watching Creedence and Deep Purple had just finished their set.
All of a sudden I looked to my left and this guy looked like Jesus with his long red hair, the big mustache and beard.
And I look over it. It’s John Lord and I’m freaking out.
I’m like, “I’m a huge fan. ‘Hush’ is the greatest song. And the organ solo is the greatest piece of music I’ve ever heard.”
He goes, “Thank you, kid,” and he walks away.
Fast forward to the tribute for Jim Capaldi, and now I’m the (musical director) for that with people like Pete Townshend and Joe Walsh and John Lord decides to join us, uh, to fill out the band.
And at the end of the first rehearsal, I said, can we just do “Hush” one time? So I got to sing “Hush.” He played the organ.
After that, so I said, by the way, John, do you remember years ago you were opening up for
Creedence Clearwater Revival and you walked out into the audience and he turned to me and I swear, he said, “You were that kid.”
It just completely blew my mind.
Meeting John Lennon
Meeting John Lennon, you can’t imagine what that’s like. It’s like walking into Oz.
I remember just February 9, 1964 hearing John.
Oh, yeah, the first time I heard his voice, I was like, that’s over. That’s what I’m going to do.
I spent so much time staring at the back of that album because I want it to be one of those guys.
I want to be in a band.
Recording “Urgent” With Foreigner
Well, what had happened was Mutt Lange, who I was in the band, Tycoon. He knew my M.O.
He knew as a musician, the greatest thing we could do is react.
And that’s what I did.
He he had the wherewithal to press the little red button. It didn’t cost any more money. So press the red button to record.
I was still getting a headphone mix. And so now Mick (Jones) and Lou (Gramm) the first meeting, they say “I have an idea for this. I have an idea for that.”
And, you know, they had they had a little bit of vodka. They played football.
The joke was football, vodka, football take vodka, football take this one for like four hours.
And at the very end of it, Mutt calls them and he says, I want you to hear something right now. And he plays the track with what you heard that there, that there, that there, that there, that there.
And Mick goes, “That’s fantastic! It’s like Morse code. It’s perfect!”
And Mutt said, that’s the first thing Mark is played when he walked in.
The thing about a musician is your presence and the ability to respond in the moment.
Because once you’ve played it four or five times and someone says, Oh, remember what you played on this track? You’re already thinking. And the worst thing a musician could do is think because you take yourself out of the moment.
I don’t mean that like as a tongue in cheek. You don’t need to think. You need to just just react.
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