BSM: You’ve actually played with quite a number of big names over the past three decades. Springsteen, Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and others. What were those experiences like?
JM: Well, they were all different, of course. I mean, the thing with Mick was, I came into my dressing room one new year’s eve, and he was just sitting there. Just me and Mick, you know? So, we both started singing and jamming, and we were both Muddy Waters fans, so we were singing Muddy Waters songs. Anyway, that was just kind of hanging out, having a pretty good night. With Springteen, we did his first tour, around 1974, and I saw him play when there were 75 people in the audience. I was making my first record, and we did his first college tour. His band was great, and I remember getting really close with Clarence [Clemmons] and some of the other guys in the band, as well as Southside Johnny. Anyway, there was one time my band couldn’t get out of L.A., and Springsteen was in town, so I ended up using part of the E Street Band. The Allman Brothers I met because I did a lot of touring with them. My theory is that, all you really have to do to meet these people is stay in the business for 30 years. Anybody can do it...[Laughs].
BSM: How did you end up playing on Kid Rock’s album last year? That one seems kind of out of left field.
JM: I know how it went together. There’s a couple of things I’ve been told, and whether or not they’re true, I don’t know. My brother runs a bar in Detroit. He used to be the Vice President of Sire Records, so he was a big deal in the music business. But he decided to kind of retire and open a bar. And the guy who runs the bar right next to his is Uncle Cracker’s brother, and so...Kid Rock hangs out there, and Uncle Cracker hangs out there. You know, they’re really heavy into Detroit. So, I had heard through Cracker’s brother that Cracker was thinking of using harmonica on a record, but I happened to be in Detroit, and I was going to the bar, and I was going by the bar. They were hanging out there, and I ended up playing harp along with the demo, and they said “That’s great.” Then, when they did that MTV thing with Aerosmith, apparently they asked “Do you know this guy in Boston, James Montgomery?” and the guys in Aerosmith, especially Steven Tyler, said, “Yeah, boy he’s a great harmonica player. You should use him.” So, they liked what they heard, and the next thing I know, I was in Kid Rock’s bedroom, recording the song.
BSM: So you pretty much run the gamut, playing with Springsteen and Jagger, all the way to Kid Rock.
JM: Well, it’s funny, because I never really though about it until you said that, but I guess that does span the gamut. Especially when you include James Cotton and Junior Wells, and I played with Muddy once, and B.B....It’s been
good, you know?
BSM: Playing the blues for over 30 years--you’re pretty much dealing with the same 12-bar progressions over and over. Is it difficult to keep it fresh for yourself?
JM: I think three chords, in a blues, can last a lifetime, you know? There’s so many permutations and there’s a so many different beats, and within that 12-bar framework, you ultimately end up writing songs that aren’t 12-bar blues, anyway. But, you know, I think the main thing about blues is that it’s very cathartic; you can play it and play it and have it be right, and it it has to be fresh when you’re playing. You have to gear yourself up and remember what the song is about, and what emotion the song is supposed to bring about, and what emotions are supposed to come through you, you know? Much like an actor goes out and does the same thing in a play that’s running on Broadway, night after night...If you leave yourself open to that creative energy, night after night, eventually it’s like the music plays you. It’s exhilarating and...COSMIC...and the other thing is, I’m always careful, in my bands, not to tell the other guys what to play all the time. I encourage my guys to play and do something new every night, if they feel it.
BSM: Is there anything you’ve done to keep from falling into playing the same licks over and over?
JM: That’s difficult. Apparently everyone falls into that at one time or another, guitar players and saxophones players. You know when you kind of reach this point when you’re playing similar stuff--and don’t get me wrong, there's some songs that I do that I’ve done different permutations on, played ‘em this way and that way, and I kept coming back to something that I think works really well, and I have no...you know, the same way a classical player can put a tremendous amount of feeling into a piece that has been written for centuries, and he’s playing the exact same notes every time he plays ‘em...Believe me,
there’s a couple of solos I do where I’ve fooled around with them, tried something new, and I keep coming back to the solo that works, and I just like to really feel the way that solo works with the band, and how it fits in with the music, how it becomes part of the ensemble, and I just try to put a little bit more feeling into it every night. So, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to play the same thing. On the solos where the band is really cooking, you can go for two, three, four choruses, if you feel it--on that stuff, you can feel like you’re doing the same thing, and kind of in a rut, and that’s the time you just go back and you start listening to other people to get some ideas, and you start using different positions, starting in a different spot. On those solos, I’ll force myself to start somewhere where I know I’m gonna be in trouble. “Ok, start something over here, because if you can get out of that...” you know. So you have to play something new.

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