STEVIE WONDER'S WONDERLOVE BAND ...TOMMY BOLIN BAND ...RARE EARTH
RECORDED OR TOURED WITH
Elton John ...Rod Stewart...Billy Ray Cyrus...Tom Jones...Van Morrison...Eric Burdon...Rick Springfield...Lyle Lovett...Ziggy Marley...Rickie Lee Jones...Ry Cooder...Keb' Mo'...Cher...Queen Latifah...Herbie Hancock...Al Jarreau...John Lee Hooker...B.B. King
and many-many more! CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW
ReggieMcBride is an American bass player born and raised in Detroit, Michigan; listening to Motown records, he began to play bass at the age of 8. At the age of 14, he played in local bands and by that time, he was a sought-after session musician, soon to be on the road with The Dramatics, opening for James Brown. In 1973 he was called by Stevie Wonder to join his band Wonderlove, followed by recording the album Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1974.
His credits include Parliament Funkadelic, Rare Earth, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Keb’ Mo’, Ry Cooder, B.B. King, Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs, Rick Springfield, Herbie Hancock, John Lee Hooker, and many others. Reggie continues to ignite the airwaves with his style and technique of bass playing. In 2005, he released his first solo record, Elements.
Recently, Reggie has established himself as a fixture in the Playing for Change Band, to the delight of audiences across the United States.
CHRONICLES, TRUTHS, CONFESSIONS AND WISDOM FROM THE MUSIC LEGENDS THAT SET US FREE SERIES ONE
…Order yours today on Hardcover or E-book
at bookbaby.com or amazon.com
Featuring over 45 intimate conversations with some of
the greatest rock legends on the planet!
CHRIS SQUIRE... DR. JOHN... GREG LAKE... HENRY MCCULLOUGH...JACK BRUCE … JOE LALA… JOHNNY WINTER... KEITH EMERSON... PAUL KANTNER...RAY THOMAS... RONNIE MONTROSE... TONY JOE WHITE... DAVID CLAYTON-THOMAS… MIKE LOVE... TOMMY ROE... BARRY HAY... CHRIS THOMPSON... JESSE COLIN YOUNG... JOHN KAY... JULIAN LENNON... MARK LINDSAY... MICKY DOLENZ… PETER RIVERA ...TOMMY JAMES… TODD RUNDGREN... DAVE MASON... EDGAR WINTER... FRANK MARINO... GREGG ROLIE... IAN ANDERSON... JIM “DANDY” MANGRUM... JON ANDERSON... LOU GRAMM... MICK BOX... RANDY BACHMAN… ROBIN TROWER... ROGER FISHER... STEVE HACKETT... ANNIE HASLAM… ‘MELANIE’ SAFKA... PETULA CLARK... SUZI QUATRO... COLIN BLUNSTONE… DAVE DAVIES... JIM McCARTY... PETE BEST
By Ray Shasho Peter Rivera is the original voice and beat of Rare Earth, a very hip band of musicians that played an incredible mix of music comprised of rock, funk, soul, and psychedelic fusion.
Rivera (stage name) aka Peter Hoorelbeke was born and raised in
Detroit, Michigan. At the age of eleven years old, Pete received his
first drum set and practiced to the likes of Glen Miller, Sammy Kaye,
and Stan Kenton. The first rock ‘n’ roll records that he purchased were
“Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard and “Blue Suede Shoes” by Carl Perkins.
It was the charisma of Elvis Presley that inspired Pete into becoming a performer, but it was the Detroit music scene inspired by R&B and Soul music that would define Pete’s future.
The Sunliners were formed in 1960. The band had been playing “Get Ready”
for three years on the club circuit. The Sunliners became a smash in
Detroit, but also performed at the hippest nightclubs in New York City.
At the height of the bands success … Motown took notice and signed them to a recording contract. The Sunliners changed their name to Rare Earth and their song “Get Ready” (The
albums long version was reduced for radio airplay) caught fire at top
black radio stations in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington
D.C. as a single. After gaining notoriety on the R&B charts, “Get
Ready” began to climb on the pop charts, finally reaching #4 on
Billboard’s Hot 100.
Peter Rivera and Rare Earth became superstars and a part of the Motown legacy.
Rivera became the undisputed leader of Rare Earth, the only white band to score hits with the Berry Gordy, Jr. Motown
Record label … “Get Ready,” “I’m Losing You,” “Born To Wander,” “Hey
Big Brother,” and “I Just Want To Celebrate” were all Top 40 hits. The
albums … Get Ready (1969), and the live double-album set Rare Earth In Concert (1971) won double platinum. Ecology (1970) and One World (1971) achieved single platinum, Willie Remembers (1972) and Ma (composed and produced by Norman Whitfield -1973) went gold.
In 1974, Rare Earth was the opening act for the California Jam
…sharing the stage with Earth Wind & Fire, The Eagles, Seals &
Crofts, Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Peter Rivera and drummers of his sort are an enigma, and part of a
very elite group. Rivera plays drums and sings lead vocals at the same
time. But Rivera is an exceptional drummer; I would rank Pete in the top
20 of all-time … that’s how good he is. But Rivera is also an
extraordinary and soulful lead singer. He’s also a songwriter and has
written two of the most underrated and heartfelt compositions in the
bands history … “The Seed” and “If I Die” (both from the One World album, released in 1971).
After several futile attempts to rejuvenate the band and tour, Peter Rivera left Rare Earth for good in 1983.
In 1992, Peter Rivera formed the Classic Rock All Stars. The core lineup became Jerry Corbetta (Sugarloaf), Mike Pinera (Blues Image, Iron Butterfly & Alice Cooper), and Dennis Noda (Cannibal
& the Headhunters). The band became very successful and toured
extensively until Dennis Noda’s death, and the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
to Jerry Corbetta.
Although Rare Earth was at the height of its success between 1970 to
the mid 70s, a resurgence of their material has been spotlighted on
countless advertisements, television shows, movie trailers and motion
pictures. “I Just Want To Celebrate” was
featured on advertising campaigns for AT&T and the Ford Motor
Company, and the tune was highlighted in the motion pictures … Three Kings, Tropic Thunder, A Knights Tale, and most recently at the end of The Expendables 2 … to name just a few. “I Just Want To Celebrate” was penned by renowned songwriters Dino Fekaris and Nick Zesses. The song was released on the One World album in 1971 and was a #7 hit on the Top 40 charts.
Rare Earth’s version of “Get Ready” has also been widely exhibited on advertisements, TV, and film. The song was written by another Motown legend Smoky Robinson,
and became huge hits for both The Temptations (#29 hit in 1966) and
Rare Earth (#4 hit in 1970). Rare Earth’s 21:32 minute version on the
album Get Ready gained cult status, somewhat like the album
version of Iron Butterfly’s mesmerizing psychedelic rock masterpiece,
“In-A- Gadda-Da-Vida.”
Rare Earth has sold over 30-million records worldwide and was inducted into The Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
Rare Earth continues to tour without original singer and drummer
Peter Rivera. The current Rare Earth features two longtime members …
Saxophonist Gil Bridges and guitarist Ray Monette.
Although those classic Rare Earth hits continue to inspire numerous
generations, there’s been a reluctant effort to report about the man
behind the music, or more specifically …behind the drum kit and
microphone. Peter Rivera lives in Spokane, Washington. He’s co-written a book entitled “Born To Wander” his
Autobiography and story of Rare Earth. He’s currently touring with a
new band of talented musicians and has released an unplugged CD called, ‘Been There ...Doin’ This’ –that includes all of the Rare Earth classic hits.
Rivera recently wrote and released an emotional music video entitled, “Look What We’ve Done”
that sums up the collapsed Detroit economy in a song. It’s an
incredible composition sung to rare video footage of a barren city
captured by Pete’s son. The song also mirrors the economy for the rest
of the nation.
Here’s an in-depth interview with the original lead singer and drummer for Rare Earth and longtime member of the Classic Rock All Stars … PETER RIVERA. Ray Shasho: Hi Pete, I know you’ve been pouring concrete outside your home, what kind of project are you working on? Peter Rivera: “I have a driveway that comes
up from the street into a two car garage and its all asphalt except for
the porch. This was a very old house that was abandoned and I rehabbed
the whole house. It’s a small house for me and my wife, but just perfect
for us, and I have a studio in here. The driveway was all asphalt and
we have these big trees and everything was bumpy and water just sat on
it and just ridiculous. So, I finally bit the bullet and said it’s got
to be done, so they put in a whole walkway around the house, a driveway,
and the two car garage … and it’s all beautiful. It was a big job, we
got rained out two days ago and it poured yesterday. So, it’s finally
done, and I was out there powerwashing and cleaning all that crap up.” Ray Shasho: So, you’re living in Spokane, Washington now? Peter Rivera: “I was in
Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho which is about thirty miles from Spokane, and
lived there in the 90s for a few years raising the kids, but once they
took off and went to college, then we went back to LA in 2003, and then
came up here in 2009.” Ray Shasho: Are your children close by or scattered around the country?
“I’ve got one son in Vero Beach, Florida and he and his wife are
entrepreneurs in the medical billing world. My other son is a
professional photographer and has done all my video work, and loves
baseball so much that he goes off and plays every summer for these teams
that pay him really good. He’s the Independent league all-time homerun
hitter. He plays for the Somerset Patriots. My daughter is married and
teaches fastpitch softball. She played in Europe and Holland for four
years, and played on The Dutch National Team. When she came back, she
was the pitching coaching for The University of Tampa, and then left
Florida and came out here. She has her own academy now and teaches
fastpitch.” Ray Shasho: I’ve noticed on your website that you’ve started to pick up a bunch of new gigs around the country. Peter Rivera: “Next Thursday, I’m playing
at this show called ‘Pig Out in the Park’ in Spokane, Washington and the
whole city turns out for it. It’s a four-day event and we’re going to
be doing Thursday night which is the opening of the big stage, and it
should be a great crowd and a lot of fun. Then I’ll be going to Kansas
City for a private show and then a couple of other shows … but always
working on shows and never know when they’re exactly going to popup.” Ray Shasho: Back in the Rare Earth days, you guys were very popular here in Florida …especially Miami. Peter Rivera: “Yea, Miami
Marine Stadium, and in Ft Lauderdale, and we played Curtis Hixon Hall in
Tampa, Jacksonville a bunch of times … Florida was a great state for
us. It wasn’t too bad when you were leaving two feet of snow in Detroit
and headed down for Florida.” Ray Shasho: Your latest CD is a
collection of Rare Earth classic material performed unplugged. Are you
currently performing an unplugged setlist onstage? Peter Rivera: “I’ve got two configurations
of what I do … I go out there unplugged with Joe Brasch on the acoustic
guitar and Danny McCollim on keyboards, and I play percussion … you may
have seen that video on my website … and we do that show.”
“Then we also do a show where there’s seven of us, and we’re fully
plugged in, and I’ve got a couple of girls singing background, we’ve got
guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, percussions, and the nucleus of the
show is the Rare Earth hits.”
“So we do those in both configurations. The unplugged allows us the
opportunity to stretch out a bit, and it’s a very intimate kind of
situation where it kind of draws the crowd in. The crowd has commented
many times that they really have a nice chance to listen to us and hear
everything clear. And the big band … that’s the big band … here we go.
And some places want the big band, the problem is, they don’t want to
pay for the big band because we have seven airfares and seven hotel
rooms, and it’s just lots of money. That’s one of the reasons I went
with the trio.”
“I love the trio more than the big band because we have so much fun
together; it gives me more time to talk with the folks in the audience
and be intimate without the distraction of six other people standing
around on stage while I’m talking. It’s a different thing but still the
same material, and the same impact. The unplugged is real strong because
I play a bass drum too while I’m playing congas. We played to 3,500
people in Michigan a couple weeks ago and it was just awesome. Sometimes
buyers, they think in their mind, unplugged … aw man; it’s an acoustic
guitar and a bongo player. And I say it’s not a coffee house kind of
thing, it’s a full out show.” Ray Shasho:A very powerful music video that you wrote and performed most recently is “Look What We’ve Done.” Peter Rivera: “Look What We’ve Done” was
actually spurred onto me by my good friend in Detroit. He’s been in the
car business since we came out of high school, and of course I went
towards music and he went that way, and after all these years he’s a
pretty big time guy in Detroit. With all the problems that came … people
losing jobs, and the auto industry shutting down … he use to say to me,
“Man, look what we’ve done to ourselves, you’ve got to write a song
about that, I’m really upset about it.” I said Aw Rick I don’t know. So,
he’d talk to me and kept telling me to write a song about that.”
“So one day, I got this idea and wrote that song. Then I called Rick
back and said here it is. He said, “Okay where can we get video?” So I
got my son, who is a photographer, and he shot all the video and did all
the editing, and of course …we did the song. We went to Detroit for
about three or four days and shot all the video, he put it altogether
and we put it out there …“Look What We’ve Done.” On that video … it
shows three little houses in a row and the third house on the right was
the house I grew up in, that was our little brick cubicle.”
“I think it’s a pretty cool song and it’s still holding up right now.
It may have taken place in Detroit but really it’s widespread, it’s
like a tsunami wave over the country. It affected a lot of people when
Detroit shuts down … I mean the ripple effect is incredible. I’ve been
trying real hard to get that song more and more exposure, even to the
political arena. I had a guy come up to me in Michigan who is the
president of the UAW and he said, “Man, I want to use that song on our
website at our next convention,” and I said … be my guess, that’s what
it’s for. I think it’s just a good song for addressing that social
issue, and we do it at all our shows.” Ray Shasho: Pete, I also enjoyed your book “Born to Wander.” Peter Rivera: “I was going to do a sequel to it and just leave all the pages blank. (All laughing)”
“But I left off in the book with the Classic Rock All Stars … and
sadly, Jerry Corbetta has Alzheimer’s now, and Dennis Noda on bass …he
committed suicide, and I didn’t want to keep going with Mike Pinera,
I’ve been with him for sixteen years … I just want to be doing what I’m
doing now. I’m more peaceful now and can choose dates when I want to,
when they come in. It’s not like I want to be the big baseball bat
swinging boss, but I do like the fact that I can make the final
decision. And after sixteen years, it was a democracy of sometimes who
lobbied the most, and I don’t want to live that way in a band …so I’m
not.” Ray Shasho: So I’m assuming that you’re still not talking with Gil Bridges and Ray Monette? (Ex Rare Earth bandmates) Peter Rivera: “No we’re not. With Ray, a little bit through social media and Rare Earth forums …you sounded great on that … and I hope you’re doing well.
Just stuff like that …but with Gil, absolutely no contact at all. It
was in the book on how all that happened. A couple of booking agents
said, we could probably get you a bunch of dates if you’d only get back
together with Rare Earth, and I said, I don’t think it’s going to happen
because we’ve kind of washed each other out. So they went to Gil and he
said, “I’ll go to my deathbed before I reunite like that.” Ray Shasho:It’s amazing because you guys were together since The Sunliners. Peter Rivera: “Yea, but when you’re in a
group and there’s a particular person that you are not necessarily tight
with and you kind of pretend that you are for the sake of the group.
And if you peel back all the other group members and these two members
are standing there and you have no real reason to be buddies because you
are just totally different … that’s what happened. It sounds childish
and it probably is … but, it is what it is …which is a song that I’m
writing right now.” Ray Shasho: I had a similar
conversation with Mark Farner … but as music fans, we’re always hoping
for reunions from bands like Rare Earth or Grand Funk Railroad. It would
certainly be huge for today’s music scene, but just a shame that it’s
not going to happen. Peter Rivera: “I think what happens is when
you initially break off you say okay that’s it. Then somebody does
something, and somebody retaliates, and somebody retaliates again, and
then it gets out of hand and you look at it and say …wow, even if we
wanted to we couldn’t repair this because you did all this to me since
we broke up, and then the other person says you did all that to me since
we broke up, and it just gets worse and worse.”
“I know Mark Farner real well and know Don Brewer, and I’d never say
to Don Brewer … hey how’s Mark, or when are you guys going to get back
together, because I know the story, I worked with Mark. He told me;
every time I put down Mark Farner/Grand Funk … I get a letter. You know
Don Brewer is a lawyer. So if Mark Farner does one thing out of line
…boom, he gets a threatening letter. So it gets to the point, okay, I’ll
just do it on my own and won’t use the name and stuff like that, and
you go on with life.”
“An agent I was just talking with said …if Grand Funk Railroad were
to get together, they could get them six and seven times the money,
probably get up to $150,000 a night in certain places, maybe other
countries, if they were reunited … but they aren’t going to do it.” Ray Shasho: I was delightedly surprised to hear “I Just Want To Celebrate” at the end of The Expendables 2. I can’t believe how many times I’ve heard that tune on advertisements, TV and movies. Peter Rivera: “It’s amazing how much they use it. Recently, I heard Nicorette and Hershey’s S’mores using it as a re-record. But on The Expendables 2 my
daughter said it was our version that’s in there, so it’s time for me
to call the Screen Actors Guild and say, hey … where’s my little money?
And it aint much I tell you.” Ray Shasho: The ways it’s been played, you’d think you were making millions. Peter Rivera: “Well I
didn’t write the song … the writers are doing really well, but the only
time that I get paid is like when they did the AT&T commercial, and
the way you get paid on that is at the time we recorded the song. On
that particular night there was a union contract issued and we got scale
for the union contract. So all they’re required to do is pay you scale
again, the same amount as forty years ago, but because they play it in
so many markets you get scale here, and here, and here … and so it’s
pretty substantial when the AT &T commercial comes out. I got
several-several thousands of dollars for that one, when they do a movie
its several hundred dollars.” Ray Shasho: Two of my favorite Rare Earth tunes are Peter Rivera compositions … “The Seed” and “If I Die.” Peter Rivera: “It’s really great that you
picked out those two songs. I’ll listen to them once in awhile and say …
not bad! Not bad! I played a show a few years back for the Viet Nam
Vets, it was amazing, a couple thousand people there and they stood up
tents and everything, and it looked like the show MASH. They were
driving jeeps around and dressed in camouflage clothing, they do these
ceremonial tributes to the guys who have fallen, and have the portable
wall there. It’s really an emotional kind of gig. They insisted when
they hired us that we played “If I Die.” Ray Shasho: Is “If I Die” solely about the Viet Nam War? Peter Rivera: “It was just a song about guys going off to war, and it just happened to be in 1971 during the Viet Nam war.” Ray Shasho: Are you disappointed that you didn’t get to write more of the music with Rare Earth? Peter Rivera: “Motown was always trying to
find us writers, the only reason those songs came out is … Tony Clarke
was the producer of The Moody Blues and Motown brought him in to do an
album on us. Tony came in with his ideas from England and all that, and
Motown just didn’t understand it, but we were diggin’ it. So we were in
the studio and started writing. Everyone in the band started writing
ideas down and I did “If I Die” and “The Seed.” Tony was axed from the
project and they handed it over to Tom Baird. And Tom really liked the
songs, so we went in and completed them and it came out on the One World album. So that’s how those songs came out.”
“Motown had that machinery where a producer got an idea about an
artist, once he got the okay from the committee, he’d go in and do some
tracks on that artist and then the committee would say okay we like the
tracks now you can put the singer on them … they did it in steps like
that. The writers were all over the place trying to find songs for
their artists. So when we came, they kind of looked over our shoulders
and said we’ve got to get some songs for these guys from these writers.
We were sitting there going; well we want to write stuff too, we had
some ideas but it really wasn’t too approved of in the first couple of
albums.”
“We did Tom Baird songs, which were great, “Born To Wander” and some
of that, and then Norman Whitfield was brought in because they thought
the Ecology album wasn’t going to be that strong, and Whitfield
came in and did “I’m Losing You.” Between “I’m Losing You” and “Born to
Wander” there were two producers. Then when we did the One World album, it was back to Tom, and he was cool enough to like “If I Die” and “The Seed.” After that we did the Rare Earth In Concert album and then it was time to do another album.”
“We got in to do Willie Remembers with Tom Baird and I
remember the day we finished that album, we were loving it because we
had some songs on there. We were diggin’ the album and walked in, and
Suzanne de Passe who was Berry Gordy’s right hand man just looked at us
and said, “Now that you’ve got that out of your system, we ought to go
and do a real album.” When Willie Remembers came out it didn’t
get any promotion at all, and that’s when they said the only way to save
a dying ship was to bring Norman Whitfield in.”
“Motown thought the only redemption to our career was Norman
Whitfield because he had, “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone,” “Ball Of
Confusion,” “Just My Imagination” and he was Norman Whitfield of Motown.
Norman was a great guy, a great producer, and rest his soul, but the
political side of it back then was … they just didn’t trust anybody
except in their own stable of people. So Norman came in and we did the Ma
album. I always called it the Norman Whitfield album played by Rare
Earth. And you didn’t get the essence of Rare Earth. As a result, Ma
got just a little bit of attention but nothing serious, and we didn’t
have the hits, so things just started getting worse. So after Ma came out that was pretty much it man.” Ray Shasho: So do you think it was good decision to sign with Motown? Peter Rivera: “It was a great decision
because we had nothing else; we were a band in Detroit playing in the
clubs, and the whole Motown experience came about not because they were
out hunting for bands and they found us, and not because we had 4-
million hits on You Tube, because none of that existed, we were a hot
band in Detroit that’s true, but like I said in the book … Gil’s friend
wanted to manage us and he had a friend that was a hairdresser (salon
owner), he did Berry Gordy’s ex- wife’s hair. As soon as the manger got
Berry involved to get us into Motown, and we signed at Motown, he blew
off the hairdresser. The hairdresser guy became friends of mine and he
would later say that they would have meetings with him on how to divide
and conquer the band, because he wanted to split me and Gil up.”
“Was it a good decision to sign with Motown? …Yea, because you don’t
pass up an opportunity like that. And when they invited us down to the
studio, we packed up our stuff and went down there and played into the
wee hours of the morning for a week and did the, Get Ready
album, and well … what’s going to happen now? Well nothing happened for
two or three months, and all of a sudden somebody in Baltimore played
it, somebody in Washington D.C. played it, and something started from
that, and the whole rest of the story takes place.” Ray Shasho: Rare Earth was aligned
perfectly to be spotlighted on album rock FM radio stations in the 70s.
The band had some incredible jams on those albums that included hard
rock and psychedelic fusion. I think the turning point was the Norman
Whitfield era. Peter Rivera: “I think where Motown made a mistake, was
when they panicked and they brought in Norman Whitfield, and once
you’re not selling records with the company, it’s like nobody wants you
anymore. And then we were having internal problems with jealousy and
there were drugs involved and stuff like that, and everybody was acting
crazy and it just kind of went away.”
“But what should have happened …I believe the management should have
taken us all to some house somewhere and said, okay look guys, here’s
what’s happening … you need to put all this stuff aside …almost
sequestered us somewhere. Then leave us alone with Tom Baird in the
studio and give us a month to see what we can come up with, as well as
listen to some songs from other writers. Because it got to a point where
the writers didn’t want to give you anything from drawer A, they’ll
give you the drawer B stuff, but once you get a hit … here comes all the
stuff out of drawer A, once you stop selling records that drawer is
closed again, they’re looking around to give other people those songs to
because other people are happening and relative to what’s going on. So
it was harder for us to get songs.”
“But you look back at forty years ago and say … it is what it is …
Now, I’m sitting here trying to book a trio. But I’m real happy with
what’s happened. I’m 67 years old now and I look back on it now … and I
was just at dinner at my doctor’s house … and we’re riding our Harley’s
up to northern Canada tomorrow and gone four days. But we were talking
last night, and reminiscing about the past … I look back and it was just
great! I was just so thankful for having lived through it, and I’ll
never be able to explain it to everybody. How fortunate was I to live
through all that, and maybe it’s unfortunate that I can’t continue to do
that, but I don’t need all that notoriety anymore. My life is balanced
out, I’ve got family and I’m happy.”
“Mark Farner and I were talking … we believe that we’ve got another
hit in is, and we have to believe that always, because that’s what keeps
you going. It may never happen but once you lose that feeling …I think
that’s why guys commit suicide or turn to serious drugs or alcohol and
just give up. Sometimes it’s tough when you sit there and go … what good
am I anymore? You have to be careful because when you’ve had a run at
notoriety and fame and all that stuff, you have to be careful that it
doesn’t go to your head in a certain way, so when it’s not there … you
just can’t live with yourself. Or you have the risk of getting
hopeless.”
“Eddie Guzman (Longtime Rare Earth conga player) was a diabetic and
he was drinking, I went out to see him shortly before he passed and I
looked at him and said …Eddie, what are you doing man? But he just drank
himself to death. Mark Olsen (Longtime Rare Earth Keyboardist) wouldn’t
stop drinking either and he had all these problems …and I said Mark,
you’re a good looking guy, you have a beautiful wife, a daughter …
what’s going on here? He just couldn’t stop drinking. I get moments when
I’m just kind of down and I go … wow man, what I’m doing now is just a
futile attempt … but then the next day I go wait a minute … I’ll hear
something like … it is what it is and I’ll start writing that song.” Ray Shasho: Pete, what was the thought process when Motown created the Rare Earth record label? Peter Rivera: “Motown wanted to do this
white-rock-FM-label and they didn’t have a name for it. So we suggested,
why don’t you call it Rare Earth Records, and a friend of ours actually
drew the picture (that tree) on the record label. Nobody knew what they
were doing back then … there was Gordy Records, Motown Records, and
there was Tamla Records, and they’ve been in existence for years doing
things a certain way and all of a sudden we were coming out saying
things like posters and artwork on our album covers and they didn’t know
from all this. So they bought a lot of our suggestions and when we said
Rare Earth Records … they said we liked that. Then they bought several
masters from groups from England. They thought …anything from England
sells so let’s buy some English groups. It became a stepping stone for a
lot of well-known groups. (Some artists on the Rare Earth label …The
Pretty Things, UFO, Toe Fat (became Uriah Heep) and Stoney &
Meatloaf). So we were like the favorite baby of that group.” Ray Shasho: I watched Rare Earth
perform at the Baltimore Civic Center back in 1973 with Funkadelic and
the Ohio Players, to a sold out arena of 13,000 people. My friend and I
were the only white folk there. Being an all white band, did you ever
receive any kind of racial tension while headlining a predominately
black concert lineup or audience? Peter Rivera: “Never. As a matter of fact
for the first year after “Get Ready,” ninety percent of the audiences we
played were a black audience in the big cities. It was just phenomenal
and we had a great time man. Everybody was just so nice to us and there
was no racial crap at all, we were out there doing what we did and they
loved what we were doing. It was just a great time and I had a ball.
People in the big cities seemed to be a lot looser than out in the
outlying areas.”
“One time when we were just beginning and “Get Ready” came out, we
got this job offer to play a place in Washington, D.C. and it was a
downstairs club in a totally black community. We pulled in and it was
only twenty minutes from Georgetown, and a couple of the guys got really
nervous. We went back to the hotel after the soundcheck and they said,
man, I’m not playing there … they were scared. The owner of the club and
his assistant came to our hotel and said, “Look you guys, we know that
you may be feeling funny about this or that but we assure you that
nothing is going to happen to you, people are going to love the fact
that you are there, please come to the show, we promise they’ll be no
problems whatsoever. So we went over there and we did the first nights
show and I think we played there a week and had a phenomenal time. After
that, we never had a problem with our own anxiety and got out of that
judgmental attitude right away.” Ray Shasho: Who were some of your friends from the Motown days? Peter Rivera: “David Ruffin was a really
cool dude, he use to come into the club where we played. We’d get him up
on stage and he’d sing with the band. I’d been over his apartment a
couple of times and hung with him a bit, but kind of stayed away because
there was a little too much crazy stuff going on for me.”
“But we knew Marvin Gaye really well, he’d be in the next studio from
us and we’d talk to him in the hallway. I was in the studio when Stevie
Wonder was twelve years old, he was singing songs for the Fingertips album
and I was watching him. And Smokey Robinson was very nice to us, Levi
Stubbs was great … everybody we met was very nice and cordial to us.
They would come in the studio while we were recording …playing and
singing while some megastar is there watching through the glass was kind
of intimidating sometimes.”
“But Berry Gordy didn’t want to have too much to do with us.” Ray Shasho: You wrote a letter to the Motown museum for not including Rare Earth anywhere inside the building? Peter Rivera: “I’m out there on the road …
this is years ago, and Motown was having a 25th anniversary and we
weren’t even invited. Then the 50th anniversary came and we weren’t on
that either. It was just a couple of years ago and I was back in Detroit
shooting for the “Look What We’ve Done” video and my son was there of
course, and we went over to Motown to take a picture and he said, “Huh,
Motown … it’s just like a house? I said, yea. So he took some video and
then I said let’s go on in. So we went in, and I had Joe Brasch with me
and my son, and I started pointing out … this is studio ‘A’ and it’s in
time capsule. I told them I use to set up my drums right over there and
we looked in the control room and my son says, “Wow this is amazing” …
because to see a studio like that now is like prehistoric. So we walked
around the hallways of the place where they have all the displays and
everything and kept looking and looking … and there was nothing there of
Rare Earth. My son looks to me and says, “Don’t you have any of your
stuff in here dad?” I said …well …I guess not son.”
“So I wrote that letter two years ago. The other day I came across
that letter and I thought …I’m going to post it on Facebook, and I got
about fifty replies from people who were just outraged by it. I just did
it to get it off my chest and get it out there. But you know what …it
is pretty bad; Mark Olson’s kids, Eddie Guzman’s kids, even John Persh …
these guys are all deceased. Just put one or two of our album covers in
there and say Rare Earth was here. It would be great if my grandson saw
it one day. I just thought that it was pretty flaky. I don’t want to
make too much of it because pride is one of the seven deadly sins, but I
just thought … legacy, legacy, legacy, and why not? So I wrote the
letter, I’m not sure what it’s going to do? To not acknowledge us
doesn’t take away from them, it just adds to them we think … but maybe
they don’t see it that way.” Ray Shasho: Pete ... final thoughts? Peter Rivera: “I put
thirteen new songs on CD Baby over the past year, and you can hear
previews on CD Baby. I’ll be putting one minute previews on my website
peterrivera.com and my other website www.peterriveramusic.com.
So I’m in the process of doing that and there are quite a few songs
that I feel really strong about. And we’ll see what comes out of my
little studio in the springtime, because the wintertime is when I’ll be
in there.” Ray Shasho: Thank you so much Pete
for spending time with me today and especially for all the fantastic
Rare Earth music over the years, and we’re looking forward to some great
new songs by Peter Rivera. Peter Rivera: Thanks buddy …take care! Peter Rivera official website www.peterrivera.com Peter Rivera music website www.peterriveramusic.com Peter Rivera new music on CD Baby … www.cdbaby.com/Search/cGV0ZXIgcml2ZXJh/0 Purchase Peter Rivera’s Autobiography and story about Rare Earth at amazon.com Contact classic rock music journalist RAY SHASHO at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com Purchase Ray’s very special memoir called ‘Check the Gs’ -The True Story of an Eclectic American Family and Their Wacky Family Business … You’ll LIVE IT! Also available for download on NOOK or KINDLE edition for JUST .99 CENTS at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com-Support Ray so he can continue to bring you quality classic rock music reporting. ~~Pacific Book Review says Ray Shasho is a product
of the second half of the 20th century, made in the USA from parts
around the world, and within him is every trend in music, television,
politics and culture contributing to his philosophical and comically
analytical reflections collected in his fine book of memories. I found Check the Gs to
be pure entertainment, fantastic fun and a catalyst to igniting so many
memories of my own life, as I too am within a few years of Ray. So to
all, I say if you have a bit of grey hair (or no hair), buy this book!
It’s a great gift for your “over-the-hill” friends, or for their kids,
if they are the history buffs of younger generations trying to figure
out why we are the way we are.
