Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for listening to another episode
of Hey Human podcast.
This is episode 439,
and my guest is Adam Chester.
Adam is known to the Elton John band
as the surrogate Elton,
and since 2,005,
he plays backup and rehearses the Elton and
John band on piano and vocals.
He arranged and conducted Elton's 60th birthday concert
at Madison Square Garden.
And when,
there are choirs and things that sing with
Elton, it's generally Adam who is the conductor
and arranger for that.
He refreshes Elton John on songs that Elton
may not have played for decades.
God knows Elton John has gajillions of songs,
so it's probably really hard to remember some
some that aren't in his regular rotation. So
Adam helps with that. He is an accomplished
performing songwriter in his own right. I have
seen him perform a couple times. He's great,
and he is also the author of the
hilarious memoir Smother,
which is on Amazon
and is a really funny
book
about the
wild
letters and notes and messages that his mom
had given him
over
many decades.
When we did this interview,
Adam talks about his book, and
she has sadly since passed away.
And I want to dedicate this episode to
her. Her name is Joan Chester.
She She did a heck of a job,
raised an incredible human being,
and so this one's for you. Wherever you
are, Joan, up there, looking down,
everywhere, all the places,
you did a good job with your son.
He's a good human.
Adam is awesome, really lovely person,
and, you know, I know Elton John is
going through a difficult time right now, so
I hope they figure out what's going on
there. And
and Elton John is all better really soon.
Check out heyhumanpodcast.com
for links and to learn more about my
guests and the show. Hey Human Podcast is
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Thank you for listening.
Be well. Be kind.
Be loved. Happy holidays.
Here we go.
Adam Chester, welcome to Hey Human.
Thank you very much. Alright. Let's jump right
in. Tell me where you were raised, what
growing up was like, how
you began
getting influenced by music.
I hate music. I just you know, it's
not what I want. I can't I don't
know what I'm doing here.
Wait. No. None of that's true. I started
in music
though, so young. I I mean, there's apparently,
in a box in my garage somewhere,
reel to reel recordings of me singing Beatles
songs at the age of 2 in perfect
pitch.
I don't think my dad was a big
fan of the Beatles.
I lost him at a young age, so
I don't know. But I was singing them
all. And he kept trying to redirect me
to sing more
serious music and kids' songs at the age
of 2 and
he's got a ticket
to high
and whatever words I could, you know, enunciate
at the time. So I don't know. I
guess music,
was always in my life. I grew up
in New Jersey, and I guess we were
in Wayne, New Jersey. I don't I know
nothing about New Jersey because I left when
I was 8
when he passed away, and we moved to
Miami Beach. So I consider Miami Beach more
of my growing up down. You know, I
had a keyboard
at a very young age, and I would
sit there and bang on it. And
when we visit my grandparents
in Miami Beach before we moved there,
they had a piano, and I would literally
sit up and, you know, do that kind
of thing. I was never afraid to make
noise,
which I find a lot of kids
these days,
who I see in The Piano Store, are
afraid
to touch a note, and they recoil.
I never I never was. It's like it
was always just part of my
being. Yeah. Music
and me, you know, and singing and playing
was always
just who I am.
It's like another appendage.
Losing your father
so young
Yeah.
That I'm sure had a great impact on
you.
And Yeah. Especially for a kid that sounds
like you were sensitive and quite possibly a
prodigy. How
do all those things intermingle
at the time?
I don't
know
if I would have attached myself to the
piano as much as I did
when he died of cancer. I was pancreatic
cancer. He was 43.
And I and I was 8 at the
time, and I'm glad we're starting this with
humor.
But, no, I I lost him at such
a young age, and I think that's what
attached me to the piano. I just went
and
just stuck with it.
I I mean, you know, like I said,
I was singing at a very young age,
and I was playing a little tiny organ
my parents had for me in Jersey.
So I I it was always a part
of me, but
his passing, I think, really
made me
stick to it.
Mhmm. Because it became my my only outlet.
You know, my mom, who I wrote a
book about called Smothered,
and it's all funny, and she's still alive.
She's actually in the car. Should I crack
a window?
Right before
he got ill, I started writing little simple
melodies on the piano. So
and I remember the first song I wrote,
it was sort of
a a Rich Little who was an impersonator
at the time.
I I call it my Rich Little of
a piano song. I was trying to copy
what I knew, and there was this one
tune on the Black Keys that I loved
called I Want Coffee, You Want Tea or
whatever it was. It's
Right? And so I
I think I did something based on that.
It was in the same key. So the
first song I ever wrote was.
Very similar.
I never got sued, but I was totally
I was totally into writing. So, but after
he passed, it was
what I did. And then I started writing
whatever
love songs
a 9 year old can write.
I think it was more about melodies than
as I got, you know, 12, 13, then
it became, you know, let's write a song
to make that girl fall in love with
me. Oh, wait. Wait.
No. No. She's prettier. Let's write a song
about her. And, of course, you're playing piano
and not guitar. It's much harder to lug
a piano from party to party. Or or
the beach. I mean, you know, I was
the loser sitting at the beach going,
you know, I can play piano. And meanwhile,
the guitarist was sitting there serenading everybody.
And I'm like, boy, this sucks.
So, yeah, it was just something I connected
to and and then just stayed with as
an outlet.
Sure. And
our mutual friend, John Penny, who introduced us,
who I adore, he said you wrote a
song, for Goldie Hawn that his mother then
got to her?
That that
you know, it it it's one of those
charm moments that I have,
you know, so many amazing memories. I wrote
a song for her when I was,
I don't know, 15, a love song.
And all I remember,
honestly,
is the chorus.
It was it was literally
Goldie.
Oh, won't you hold me when
I blew?
My moments
are golden when I'm thinking of you.
Even better than the original. It was some
sort of ragtime equal,
love song.
And so I was invited to play her
house. I think it was
2 years ago,
probably 2021.
May yeah. It was 2021.
So 3 years ago. And there she was
with Kurt Russell. And and I thought, if
I don't say something now,
I'll regret this.
And she passed by the piano, and I
said, Goldie,
I I know you're busy. I just I
wanna share something with you. I wrote a
song for you when I was, you know,
14,
and my mom told me to mail it
to Goldie Hawn, Hollywood, California.
And I don't think you ever got it.
I'm like, I did the cassette tape. And
she said, I didn't. Oh, play it for
me. And I said, honestly, all I remember
is the chorus, and I sang that. She
sat next to me on the piano bench
at her house.
She was holding my arm.
I I have it on video luckily because
Kate Hudson, her daughter,
filmed the whole thing. It's just one of
those memories.
I mean, she gave me a kiss and
she said it was absolutely beautiful, and, oh,
she feels so bad for not having received
it.
Who I love Goldie Hawn. She's the best.
Amazing. I mean, I I yeah. And I
really did have a a massive crush on
her when I saw her as a child.
Everyone. Who didn't? So did I. I I
mean, how do you not? It's Goldie Holland.
It was adorable. Adorable. And and Kate is
sort of that that similar vibe, but,
you know, Goldie has this innocence about her.
It's just charming, you know. And and there
I was sitting next to her at the
piano bench and Kurt's, you know, sitting on
the couch behind me going
you know, you know, it was just pretty
cool. Oh, I love it. Magic moment.
Yeah. The 15 year old news was from
heaven. I was in heaven.
I was in heaven. You know? You know,
it just goes to show you that the
magic of the US mail
doesn't always work.
You know. That's just because he should've sent
it to Santa Claus.
Right. Right. Santa Claus would've done it. I
should've. The same kind of address in my
North Pole. I, you know,
I I shouldn't I I should've done that.
You're right. Santa Claus is like, why do
we keep getting Goldie Hawn's mail? Right. You're
right. Right.
Since somebody course correct this kid, I'm busy.
Yeah. Yeah. I I you know, these these
charm moments,
I I didn't even I mean, I remember
that moment, of course, but when you bring
it up, it all comes back to life.
Yeah.
It's yeah.
Lucky to have it on film. I saw
that you had
taken your piano, your upright piano to your
dorm room in college that I live in
a walk up apartment and I my poor
little upright sits in storage waiting for me,
penning me love letters and Yeah. That I
don't respond to.
Yes. Yes. Susan Ruth, LA, California.
You know, that's it.
Please take me back. You know, I again,
my identity
is enmeshed in piano. And
so I was in Miami, and I had
to get as far away from my mother
as possible for sanity reasons.
And I got into USC, Southern California,
in music.
And I thought, well, I'm not going there
without my piano.
What kid takes their upright piano
to a dorm,
you know, 3000 miles away? But it was
a no brainer. My mom didn't question me.
No one questioned me.
And we had it shipped there. And
my apartment there with 3 other roommates my
freshman year
became sort of a focal point of that
floor in this, you know,
tall dormitory that's still there, Webb Tower, if
anyone from SC listens here. We were on
the 7th floor, and there was my piano.
And, you know, at least once a week,
we'd have a gathering of
freshmen
and mostly freshmen, but some sophomores,
you know, hanging out and singing in our
apartment. It became my way of meeting people.
It's how I got in a fraternity, which
me in a fraternity,
seriously.
But I walked in and there was a
upright piano and I started playing, and I
got in the fraternity.
As soon as I realized what I stepped
into, I deactivated,
they call it, as soon as you become
a member.
I deactivated
the following year because it
wasn't for me. But,
again, it was that
beckoning thing in this foreign frat house
with a bunch of dudes drinking beer, and
I I I hate beer. I'm sorry. And
so, you know, there's the piano, and and
it was just my thing. So, yeah, it's
always
it's always been with me.
Did you know that you had an extraordinary
talent?
Because there I've seen piano players, myself included,
who know how to sort of, you know,
play a piano or at least fake it
till you make it. But then there are
people that play the piano and it's it's
transports you to another world, which I would
put you in that category having seen you
perform now Thank you. Where there's such a
nuance
to it. Yeah. I didn't always have that.
I think I think I
in in my younger years, I I overplayed
a lot and that became
just my thing and
it was always joyous and people always connected
but now
I enjoy
when I I enjoy when I play more.
I find that less really is more, and
it's the way you play. An an incredible
composer, human being, I think he's in his
early eighties now, Artie Butler,
who did most of the Barry Manilow,
arrangements and
just an incredibly talented pianist and arranger, said
something to me that I'll I'll never forget.
I heard him play and he was literally,
like,
barely touching the keys.
And I said, Artie,
when you play that chord that way,
it makes me listen more. I I wanna
know what you're doing. And he said,
sometimes the more quiet you play, the louder
it is for someone.
You know, I just was like, oh, shit.
Artie, that's fucking brilliant. I try to take
that in to what I do now.
And you saw me at the Georgian Hotel
in Santa Monica, which I
love that place. And I've decided
it's not the place I wanna sing.
I just wanna play because I
kind of like that vibe.
It makes people feel less obligated
to listen to you when they're having dinner.
They're out on a date. They're out on
a business meeting. If you're singing, it's sort
of more intrusive.
So this is just my take.
And so I sit there and I play.
And,
you know, last Wednesday,
I was playing. I don't have a tip
jar because it's kind of
I don't wanna say gauche, but it's not
the place for it.
And people were dropping off twenties on my
music desk saying, thank you. You made our
dinner. And, I mean, it was
it was overwhelming because I was just sitting
there playing whatever came to my head. You
know, there was a celebrity chef there. He's
got a sort of storied path, so I
won't mention his name. But he invited me
over to the booth and said, hey, can
you play any Doctor. John? And I said,
so I grabbed my cell phone and I
called up his song Wrong Place Right Time
or whatever it is, Right Place Wrong Time.
And I was listening to it and playing
it, you know.
Must have been the wrong time.
Could've been an old
night.
Something like that.
And I was just playing it while I
was listening to it, and and he was
like,
how do you do that? And I said,
I don't know. If I hear the song
and I somewhat know the song
and it's not like
the rack 3 by Rachmaninoff,
I can I can play it? And that's
always freaked people out, and I love love
doing that. I get that. Also, you spent
a lifetime
with this instrument, so you know what it
sounds like. It's your baby.
My friend.
Yeah. It's,
I'm I'm lucky to have it, you know,
and I still have that upright because
my my mom and dad bought it for
me when I was 5.
And so it went from Jersey to Miami
to LA.
And now I've had it I had it
rebuilt. It's it's now a cobalt blue in
color.
And I took off the name
Kohler and Campbell because
who cares about that brand? And I put
Chester and Sons
on the fallboard.
So it's it's totally my piano, and I'll
never get rid of it. A lot of
cool songs were written on that piano by
me. I I think they're cool, but what
do I I don't know. Yeah. And it
is they it becomes a member of your
family. It's Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And that you'll
pass on to your kids if you have
kids, you know? Yeah. I got 2 boys
and,
one's 21, one's 18. My 21 year old
is in New York City doing his music,
and
his voice is remarkable. And his name is
Truman, and he writes music like it's second
nature to him. And then Marcello,
he was doing music. He was doing the
screamo band,
which he was the lead singer in. And,
you know, I gotta tell you,
I don't think I dislike any
music. I see something and everything.
And even the stuff he was screaming was
like, that's it's kinda cool. I I get
the emotion. I get the passion.
Would I play it? No. But I get
it. So, I'm not sure that's something he's
gonna pursue. He's still he's 18. He's figuring
it out. But,
but Truman is, you know, full time New
York doing it, and, you know, I just
hope it all works out. It's It's a
tough
business. Oh my gosh. It's so hard. Yeah.
And you have a you've got a game
on the child naming.
Thank you. Yeah. True is the it's, you
know, it's it's an emotional
story about it because, you know, he was
he was named after my dad whose name
was Elliot.
And so everyone said, why don't you name
him Elliot?
And I said,
I I don't think I can call my
son my dad's name. It just doesn't feel
right to me.
So,
you know, I I mean, to me,
Truman
and Elliott as his middle name made sense.
So,
in my mind, he's the true Elliott.
I lost the argument for the second name.
Although I love Marcello,
you you know, my idea was to call,
my name for him would have been Emmett,
but my wife hated that name.
And in Hebrew, Emmett means true. And I
thought, oh, we'd have a whole true theme
going. That didn't work. So but I he's
Marcello. He's not Emmett, and I, you know,
I adore them both.
Yeah.
I always think about when babies are born
that they must whisper their names to you
or something.
Something like that
maybe. 8,000
books that I had taken
an interest in were guiding me to
what name speaks to me. And,
you know, when that whole
true Elliot thing came, I thought, oh my
god. That's it. I mean,
it was clear.
And there was a moment we were thinking
of naming him Elliot Truman. And then I
said, I I can't do it. I can't
can't call him Elliot. And then
he looked like a Truman.
And Marcello
looked like a Marcello.
So you're you're right. I I think they
adapt
to what you named them.
They become that. Yeah. I say it a
lot on this show. I don't think my
parents got my name right. I don't know
what my name is. I don't think Oh,
wow. Yeah. It's weird. It's never fit me
for whatever reason.
Alright. Well, I'll try to think of something.
I I I'll do it in a song
though. Oh, I got it.
Susie.
Oh, won't you hold me when I'm blue?
Oh, wait. No. That's Goldie. Never mind.
I'll figure it out. When you went off
to college, I understand it's when you started
receiving letters from your mom.
Oh. Oh, Jesus. You know too much. Yeah.
He
began writing me snail mail. We didn't have
cell phones then, so
there were no calls, really.
And they were ridiculously
hysterical,
mostly very short letters.
Sometimes there would be a couple of valid
weird points,
but it would always end with some tidbit
of insanity.
It was blah blah blah, don't drink rainwater,
you know, a whole paragraph of crap ending
with, yes, there's a resistant form of gonorrhea
going around. Wear a condom. And I saved
them all because I knew
they were insane.
And and one day, I was just the
book came out smother, s apostrophe mother. Abrams
Publishing
did it.
I got signed for a TV deal
before
I wrote the book,
which was crazy. And the TV show,
it never got off the ground.
I'll finish that story in a second.
And then I saw all these letters. I
my wife was like, why don't you start
a blog?
And so I started a blog based on
one of the
letters
key points. 1 of 1 of 1 of
the letters key points, which was please don't
eat sushi.
Love mom.
And that became
the the blog that started this thing. And
then
I decided I might as well write a
book and do a through line
of my life around these letters
and how I was growing
and the letters weren't.
I mean, it was just
still insanity.
And the funny thing is I kept
getting
re signed
by William Morris
to do a television show.
They were gonna find a, a showrunner to
do the script, and it just never took
off. But at one point, Jack Black was
involved.
I was sitting in an office at one
time with Gary Marshall across the desk writing.
We wrote,
he and I wrote
a TV
idea.
I read it and I hear Gary's voice,
you know, but,
I was sitting in a room across from
a desk
for about 4 months with Gary Marshall and
that
I I tell people that my mother killed
Garry Marshall because it was right as we
were finishing it that that he died. And
I thought,
well, you know, that that figure,
but it there were some very funny moments.
So cut to now,
a dear friend of mine, Bob Kushel,
who wrote 3rd Rock god, I hope it
was 3rd Rock. He'll kill me if I'm
wrong. 3rd Rock is a great show. Wow.
What a show. He he's he's brilliant. But
he never wrote a movie, and he and
I started talking about
this idea
of this overprotective mom and a musician
who happens to work with a famous
celebrity
as I, you know, work with Elton.
He wrote a screen he wrote a screenplay,
and now there's a director attached,
Andy Fickman, who is,
you know, just wonderfully funny. So we'll see
where it goes. But see, all these years
after,
it that idea still seems to resonate.
I I tell my kids, look,
you'll
be rich.
I'll be long gone, but maybe it'll become
a success, I hope. But these there's all
these fun little projects going on in the
back round that
keep me smiling aside from just playing.
Yeah.
So you get out of college and you
start playing,
with people and you're doing your you're writing
your music.
Where did Elton come along?
Well, Elton came in second after
Barry White. I got introduced to the r
and b singer,
Barry White,
by a friend of mine, Paul Kaufman,
and his business partner. And I forget how
they knew him, but
we met.
And
Barry was a towering,
big human being. And his catchphrase
in conversation
was show you right.
And you would see him, and the first
thing he'd say is show you right. You
know? And he'd give you a big hug,
and you'd be like, I this pretty
scary.
But he was
so cool.
And I was working with him and one
of his kids, Barry White Junior,
to do an album.
And
we recorded a couple of songs that I
wrote
and I played on and I sang. And
I was like
one day I looked at Barry senior. We
were alone in his studio in the valley
at his house.
I said, Barry,
what's Barry Junior doing on the,
in the group? And he said,
he's gonna dance.
And I was like, he's gonna dance. And
great.
I I didn't get it. I didn't get
it. And I
I I feel terrible, but I said I
can't.
I I don't he's gonna dance?
That didn't happen. I was the one who
said,
you know, I I don't really get it.
And I think that really pissed Barry senior
off. And I get it because I was
basically saying no.
You know, here I was this cocky
22 year old kid
telling Barry White senior,
you don't really wanna work with your son.
I don't I mean and I feel terrible
because who knows that could have been something.
But
it led me to get a job at
a record store
in
in Hollywood,
and in walked Elton John's guitarist, Davy Johnstone.
I knew who he was immediately because I
was a huge Elton fan.
And that's why my working with Elton is
so ironic to all the kids I know
from high school. They're like,
you had posters all over your room of
Elton. I mean,
I I tried to get his glasses when
when I first started wearing frames when I
was 11 or 10.
I mean, I was obsessed with Elton. And
here, Davy
gets handed in my lap.
We became
instant friends.
There's nobody else I I love more in
this business. Not only one of the greatest
guitar players, but truly
he and his wife Kaye,
incredible human beings.
And one day we he was playing live
gigs with me around town.
This reminds me of something. I was a
I was 13 years old in Miami, and
my band Thunder and Lightning,
stupid name, was with Louis Mizrahi and Wayne
Huttman and Jeff Schiff.
These names mean nothing
to anyone but to me. Okay?
But we were introduced
and the camera
was
there.
And when the camera came to introduce
an Adam Chester on the keys,
I had an itch on my nose.
And you tell me what this looks like
here.
It looks like you're picking your nose. Yes.
Horrifying. That was my first big break on
television. And I did this when I was
with you, and I'm I'm like I was
cracking my nose. I'm like, I gotta tell
her this story.
Anyway,
so Davy was playing gigs with me everywhere
around LA, and he was recording my original
music with me. And
this is the kind of human he is
because he thought it was it was great,
and he wanted to do it.
And then in about
2,004,
he came to me and he said,
hey, Adam. You know,
Elton doesn't like to rehearse. And,
the guy we've been using,
he's the keyboardist, but he doesn't sing.
And now he's not playing keys anymore.
Would you be interested in doing it? So,
I started rehearsing the band, I guess it
was 2,000
5 when we first started having rehearsals.
So almost 20 years. Elton
heard a CD they made of me playing
and singing his parts. And he's like, let's
bring him to Boston
and have him rehearse the choir there. So
it was in Boston, I got to meet
Elton,
and we were by a this is just
a funny story.
We were by a we were in a
church rehearsing in Boston,
and
I'll never forget it. It was 12 noon.
And, of course, the church bells were ringing
12.
And
I was standing outside the church with Davey,
and Elton was on his way in for
the first time to rehearse
what I had been rehearsing
with the band.
And Athnot, for whom the bell tolls, it
tolls for thee.
And I was just thinking
this is one of these insanely
surreal moments where I'm waiting to meet my
hero
and these bells are ringing and I'm all
nerve.
He had heard me on CD.
Of course, I had heard him on albums
for my entire life.
And
car pulls up, big limo.
That wasn't the place to meet.
And so I went back inside to the
church. I waited for him to come up
to stage, and we had a hug on
stage. We met each other.
And I'm sitting at a little keyboard
over here,
and he's at the piano over there in
front of me.
The band
behind me, the small choir, the voices of
Atlanta, they were called,
I think, and the crew, the the sound
crew. No audience, just, you know, sporadic manager,
whatever.
And we start playing these songs from the
album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Girl Cowboy
because it was the
reunion
the anniversary tour of that album's release,
release, like, whatever it was, 30 years, whatever
it was. So Elton hadn't played these songs
in decades,
except for Someone Save My Life Tonight. That
was from that album. Everything else he hadn't
played.
So he was supposed to have done his
homework
and come prepared
to his first rehearsal.
And so we're in this
building either near the church or in the
church. Now I don't remember, but
but we were there, and
he forgot how to play Better Off Dead,
ironically,
from that album.
And we start playing,
and he stops all of a sudden, and
he can't remember the chord. And he says,
Adam,
what what is that next chord? And I
said, it's
I'm telling Elton what his song is
in front of everybody. And it was one
of those,
again,
a surreal moment that
somebody caught on film because they were filming
it, but I've never seen it. This was
2,005.
And I don't even think we had cell
phones in 2,005 unless you had General MacArthur's
big Yeah. That giant Yeah. Right. I didn't
have access to that that moment, unfortunately.
There we were, you know, rehearsing that song,
and
he kinda got it.
And we went on to the next song,
and then he got kind of pissed off
that he didn't remember
how to play these songs.
And he walked off the stage.
He was like, fuck this. Nobody wants to
hear this old shit anyway. And he walked
off the stage. Out of the auditorium,
he's gone. So you have to still picture
now the dead silent
of all the crew, the small choir, the
band,
the sporadic members in the audience.
I'm at the little keyboard and a microphone,
and he's gone. And I said,
well, that went well.
And
everybody started laughing in the band and it
was like, oh my god.
What do I do now? You know, I
called my wife when I got back to
the hotel. And I said,
I think I'm coming home. I think the
show's canceled.
And then the very next day,
he was back.
He knew his shit. I don't know what
happened.
But
and he said, no. No. No. We're gonna
drop that song that I don't wanna do
because I really don't wanna play it. Great.
And he did most the entire album, and
it was
it was immaculate.
He was
incredible
that next day of rehearsal.
He just had to feel his feelings and
get it out and then That's all it
was. You know, and everybody said, you know,
he had such a temper and all this
nonsense.
That was the only time that I
personally
really experienced anything.
He's he's always been nothing but kind to
me. Yeah. So He he strikes me having
never met him and only have, you know,
interviews and and performances to go on.
He strikes me as somebody who is exceptional
at their craft on a level that is
godlike. And I don't mean that in a
in
a disrespectful way, but in as in god
is speaking through this person. Yeah.
And that that's gotta be anyone that can
play like that in my humble opinion, and
this goes for any artist who can paint
like that or sing like that or whatever,
they are
experiencing
the world
with such a rawness
and understanding
that is beyond
normal human consumption
Yeah. That it's probably
gotta be almost like being an open nerve
walking through the world, you know. And all
these people watching you expecting you to be
perfect Wanting. All the time. Yes. And it's
not possible.
So, a funny tag to that story as
a thank you for my work getting everybody
ready,
Elton,
said, you know, I want you to sing
with the choir for the show.
There were, like I think it was a
10 member choir. It was very small. It
was an all gospel
choir.
I was the only,
white straight
Jewish guy in the entire choir.
And I would have loved every second of
it,
but they had these dance moves
that they needed to do. They were doing
these very,
you know,
like, what looked like a salute.
They would point. They would turn.
They would
shake.
It was
bizarre.
And so
the night before the first show in Boston,
before we went to Madison Square Garden for
3 shows, by the way, I was in
my hotel room with one of the members
of the choir
teaching me these dance moves.
I didn't know what the hell I was
doing because
I don't really dance. I I sit in
front of a piano because I don't dance.
I don't like
to
to do
crazy moves. So
when we got to the garden,
I thought I had to step down by
then because it had been
several days.
And
we finished the first show.
I walk outside the garden. I'm with some
friends
and these people stop me.
And they said,
hey,
weren't you that guy on stage singing with
Elton? And I said, yeah, I was I
was part of the choir.
And I thought, oh my god.
Somebody recognized me. This is so awesome. And
they said,
they continued.
Did you win your spot to be up
there?
Oh, my god. That's hysterical.
That's hysterical.
Because I I look like an idiot. I'm
sure pointing and diluting and turning and all
these very not demure moves and Like, did
John Oyu money? Or Oh, my god. It
was, I mean, I loved singing it. There
was one song we did. It's on I
put it on YouTube because I found a
clip of it someone sent me where the
the jumbotron at the garden
caught me
in split screen with Elton.
So check this out. It was this song
from the Cap Fantastic album called Curtains,
where it ends with a big,
You know, very
sing along thing.
And the choir
was singing it very straight, which for a
gospel choir who wasn't straight,
it was very, very odd to hear,
and I was
one night
at the Boston
Garden, I think it was called then, Davy
told me he spoke with Elton and Elton
wanted me to continue
belting it out
and with some gusto.
So I was up there going,
and so they put me in split screen
at the garden and captured this.
And it was like, oh my god. The
choir
hated me.
They they were so pissed because they're like,
what? How? What is he doing?
This isn't a solo act. You know? And
I get it, but I was told to
do that.
And it was it was
mesmerizing for me to be in a split
screen
with Elton
and doing this call and response with him.
And you could see
in his face that he was like,
And every night, we did I guess we
did 2 shows in Boston,
maybe 3. And then we did 3 at
the Garden. Every night, Baby came to me
and said, Elton loves what you're doing. Keep
doing it. Do more. And I was like,
I'm so by the last night, I grabbed
the mic
off of the mic stand. I'm like, I'm
doing it. You know, I was
I I felt so empowered by that because
it was like there were no dance steps
during that freaking song. And it was about
the passion, and it all came out. It
was it was so cool.
So cool. That's great. I've I read that
you were now called
surrogate. That's Davey. Davey called me the surrogate
Elton. He he he called me my my
secret our secret secret weapon.
And then he said, you're my surrogate Elton.
And so I thought,
surrogate Elton? Well, if you shorten sir, that's
sir. So I'm sir Elton with a u
r. That makes sense, baby.
And he said, I came up with that.
You know?
So, yeah, they call me the surrogate Elton
then and I'll never do an Elton tribute
band. It's it's just not what I do.
And I I play and sing his songs
as if I wrote them. And that's, I
think, what makes them
special because I feel so connected to his
music
having loved him and his music since I
was,
well, right right after my dad died, I
think, is when I really
started getting into pop and and, you know,
Kapton and Taneil, because Kapton was such an
amazing keyboard player, and Neil Sedaka. And and
then I started getting into r and b
and Prince
and, you know, all the dance groups of
the seventies, Tavares, then Earth, Wind, and Fire.
You know, that became
how do I connect with that music on
the piano?
How can I play,
you know, an earth, wind, and fire song
on the piano and make it sound
like they do?
You know, it became fun. And, you know,
I don't think of myself at all.
There are piano players
who can play rings around me.
But what I do, I think, is special.
I I I think
I connect to the piano
in a way that that is very personal.
And and I like to tell people that
I I play these songs as if I
wrote them because that's when I get close
to them.
I'm not trying to I'm not trying to
do a tribute act. I'm not trying to
play them exactly
the way they did it unless that's what's
being asked. And and when I was rehearsing
Elton, that's what was being asked. We want
you to play it the way Elton plays
it so when he stepped in,
we'll be familiar with what what to do.
So
in that sense of the word, I was
playing very much like he was doing it.
But when I'm on my own, I I
make them my own.
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And
when you sit down at the different pianos,
this is something that I
guess I didn't realize until
I got my first piano
that, like, that was mine as an adult,
you know, that
as I was wandering through the piano store
and sitting down and playing,
I mean, there were some very expensive pianos,
but it wasn't really I wasn't responding to
them like I did when I when I
finally came upon the one that I chose.
It was like a a relationship was immediately
formed. It was such an interesting feeling. Yep.
That that so I manage a piano store
in Sherman Oaks, called Faust Harrison Pianos. And
it's really a great store with a ton
of pianos that, you know, vary in prices
and size and whatever.
But, you know, people ask me on a
daily, what's your favorite piano in here? And
I say,
it depends on the day
because
it's a different piano sometimes.
Sometimes I'm I'm not connected with that
piano the way I was this one today.
In a a different store I was working
in
in LA called David Abel's for a while,
John Bryan came in, who's a very famous
composer
for movies,
scores. He did I Heart Huckaby.
He's a genius, and and he produced,
Fiona Apple's album.
He said something to me in the piano
store that I never forgot. He said,
some pianos
have songs to sing,
and and and they're not done singing them,
you know. And I thought, well, okay.
And I I get it, you know. I
just was given I was gifted
a baby grand piano by some friends of
ours,
and I wrote a song on it.
You know, like, the first night I had
it there, it it
I was lucky. It it sang to me,
and it's an instrumental song.
I sent it to my son, Truman, and
I said, you think it needs lyrics? And
he came up with some lyrics, and I
thought,
some of these are actually pretty good.
Maybe this could be a father son duo
thing. Who knows?
Whenever I play the chord,
I'm like, this is different, and this is
this is special.
It's called I forgot who I was,
and it's it's really
deep and very
kinda cool.
Nice.
Beautiful.
Yeah. Thanks. And you can be seen playing
out and about in in LA.
Yep. The Georgian Room at the Georgian Hotel
on Wednesdays,
that's in Santa Monica.
The Sunset Marquis,
most Tuesdays,
that's a sing along party.
You know, I can't get away with just
playing there. I gotta sing, and it's it's
a party.
And then on occasion, the Chateau Marmont, which
is, again,
just one of those Hollywood iconic places. And
I'm like, oh my god. Belushi died here.
I you know. And his ghost is there.
Everybody's ghost is there. Yeah.
Crazy. I like that place. It's got so
much stuff going on.
Lot of stuff, you know, you just look
around, you're like, focus, focus, focus. Yeah. You
know? Well, not on just but the energy
of that place is real wild. Yeah. Yeah.
They all have their own different energies. The
Georgian is where Dick Van Dyke got his
start in vaudeville
over
60 years ago,
and they redid the room as a speak
easy. It's so beautiful.
Yeah. I I I adore it. The food
is impeccable also.
Pretty damn good. I know. I know. I'm
trying to
eat light, but,
it's so good there. So good.
I'm not a great piano player. I can
get by on a couple things. I I
wish I my piano was here because practice,
practice, practice is the only way.
Mhmm. But
I do for whatever reason, when I pick
up a guitar and I play it, like,
I could play the guitar. I could play
the rhythm of it and all that, but
there's something
there's something about a piano.
And
Yeah. My question is,
I think a a lot of people are
intimidated
by the piano.
Mhmm. Not just because of its size,
but just it
seems like so much math.
You know, it seems complicated. And anytime I
see
a a piano in an alleyway that's been
abandoned, you know, or or, you know, come
take my piano free, I I just add
Yeah.
What is some
maybe advice for people that are are intimidated
by the instrument?
It's all the same
notes. There's only
12 tones
and they just repeat.
So once you get the pattern of where
everything is, the black keys are 3, 2,
3, 2, 3, 2, 3. It it's all
the same.
So while it may be mathematical,
I'm terrible in math.
But to me, the the image
is very clear.
And it's the space in between these black
notes where these white notes fall,
and they just repeat. They're all the same.
And it's just okay. So where do I
wanna start? The black notes
are sort of, like, dreamy that way.
And then there's all the white notes
which sound less dreamy.
And
there are only
really
12 different tones, which are if you combine
the white and the black notes.
And that's it. And then it just keeps
repeating and repeating.
I tell people who are intimidated
to
not be afraid to make mistakes
because it it's the mistake it's when you
make the mistake
that your ear should say,
what was that?
And how do I make that resolve in
a way
that is different?
You know, this chord.
And keep
building it kinda creepy crawly even if you
have to. But to resolve somewhere,
then it makes sense. You know?
You know, going up or down.
It can go so many places.
It's insane.
It's this is all the same thing,
but it represents
infinity.
So if you can sort of grapple with
the idea that it's okay to do
what sounds like an error
and then resolve it to something if you
must, and you've got a film score.
And then you play that wrong note, and
then
then you've got a film score.
It's like this episode of Star Trek
when
this is how much of a geek I
am. The original Star Trek when
McCoy,
doc the doctor,
gets infinite brain power,
and he knows how to
repair Fox
brain. And he says to
to captain Kirk, he says,
Jim, this is child's play. It's so easy.
It's child's play. And he eventually forget because
the power runs out after a certain period
of time.
And and Spock helps him repair his own
brain. But I get back to my point.
It it's almost child's play
that it's so complicated,
yet it's so easy to just sit here
and go
and land where you may and then make
it work.
Yeah.
Yeah. You just have to be willing to
do anything.
So that's my childlike
advice to keeping it as simple and innocent
as possible. It's it's a plethora of
crap
that you can make sense out of. Well,
that's the freedom that children have that we
somehow lose. Yeah. You mustn't lose it. You
mustn't lose it. That,
yeah,
that that ability to just
create out of nothing and not worry about
what it means. Correct. Not worry about what
it sounds like because
sometimes the most offensive
chord
can
be different. I'm I'm one of those who
goes, you know, I make a mistake. Oh,
I meant to do that. You know? You
know? Because somehow it makes sense.
See, that could be a mistake because I've
got an f and an f sharp,
which really isn't very pretty.
But by
filling it with some other notes
and then maybe
moving
the whole thing down or up
then it starts making more sense.
Film score number 4. Also, nobody really knows
our mistakes
Right. On the outside world. That's us. Correct.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Do you have a website
that people can track your schedule and come
see you? It's, adamchester.com.
I'm on
instagram@_adamchester.
But, yeah, I always promote on Facebook,
for all of my,
older friends because none of my
kids friends look at Facebook. It's like, what
the heck is that? I promote on Facebook,
Adam Chester. Yeah. And I'll put links on
heyhumanpodcast.com
so people can find stuff really easily.
Brilliant. Thank you so much. This this was
a blast. You're the best. Thank you for
listening, everyone.
Bye.
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