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This is an excerpt from a Gary Katz interview I had seen on YT but can't find now - but I found an excerpt and pasted below. Pretty incredible and hilarious. You gotta love Steve!
"One day, you’re talking about the song called “Aja” that has some really interesting anecdotal material, that song. Especially with Steve. We’d never worked with Steve. I’m too embarrassed to go into the reasons why, but we’d never worked with him. When we got to “Aja,” my cadre of musicians as far as drummers, wasn’t up their alley. It wasn’t for Jeff Porcaro, it wasn’t for [Jim] Keltner. It was obvious who was going to play that track, just for the 32 bar drum solo. None of my guys were going to do that. We did this out in L.A. at Producer’s Workshop and it was just a fabulous band. Victor Feldman and Chuck Rainey and Joe Sample. You know, all of our guys who we loved. Steve knew them like they were corner buddies because, with all of these guys, it’s a clique. So when he walked in, it was his guys. These are guys he’s known for 30 years and played with. I went out and actually had to introduce myself because I had not known him. The chart was long. It was 16 pages. So they built a horseshoe of music stands for Steve, to put all of the pages around the drum kit.
After a little while, Steve said to Joe and Chuck, “Just play it so I can hear how the song goes and I’ll make some notations on the chart for myself.” Donald went out as he usually did and stood in some corner and would sing a scratch vocal low, so the guys could hear it while they are playing. Walter and I were in the control room with Bill Schnee, a very famous engineer and producer at Producer’s Workshop, which was really his studio and he was the only one who knew how to make it work. He said, “Okay, let’s do one.” The track you hear is the only time he played it.
Once. As it’s going on, both Walter and I [are looking at each other]. For whatever reasons each of us had, we had never hired Steve [before this session]. And as we got to the end, it was just so fantastic, Walter turned to me and he said, “Maybe we’ve made a mistake.” That’s the only time he played that track, was the first time. Months go by and we were mixing in New York because we’re not particularly fast about how we do things. We were just about finished with the mix of “Aja” at A&R with Elliot Scheiner. It’s as good as you can imagine something sounding on those speakers in the control room. It was magically great. Someone walked in and said, “Hey, you know Steve is down the hall, he’s playing with Michael Franks.” I said, “Oh, cool, Donald, I’ll go down and let him know we’re here.” I did that and he was finishing up. When he was done, he came in and said [his greetings].
He was feeling good. I said, “Sit down, I want to play you something.” We played him “Aja,” which was finished. He sat right between the Altec 604 Utility [speaker] cabinets. It was great sounding. The track ends and he said, “Wow, who is playing drums?” Donald, Walter and I, Roger Nichols and Elliot, are just looking at each other. Because he wasn’t kidding. I say, “You are, stupid!” He went, “Really? I’m a mother******!” It’s the best laugh we had in all of the years."
"One day, you’re talking about the song called “Aja” that has some really interesting anecdotal material, that song. Especially with Steve. We’d never worked with Steve. I’m too embarrassed to go into the reasons why, but we’d never worked with him. When we got to “Aja,” my cadre of musicians as far as drummers, wasn’t up their alley. It wasn’t for Jeff Porcaro, it wasn’t for [Jim] Keltner. It was obvious who was going to play that track, just for the 32 bar drum solo. None of my guys were going to do that. We did this out in L.A. at Producer’s Workshop and it was just a fabulous band. Victor Feldman and Chuck Rainey and Joe Sample. You know, all of our guys who we loved. Steve knew them like they were corner buddies because, with all of these guys, it’s a clique. So when he walked in, it was his guys. These are guys he’s known for 30 years and played with. I went out and actually had to introduce myself because I had not known him. The chart was long. It was 16 pages. So they built a horseshoe of music stands for Steve, to put all of the pages around the drum kit.
After a little while, Steve said to Joe and Chuck, “Just play it so I can hear how the song goes and I’ll make some notations on the chart for myself.” Donald went out as he usually did and stood in some corner and would sing a scratch vocal low, so the guys could hear it while they are playing. Walter and I were in the control room with Bill Schnee, a very famous engineer and producer at Producer’s Workshop, which was really his studio and he was the only one who knew how to make it work. He said, “Okay, let’s do one.” The track you hear is the only time he played it.
Once. As it’s going on, both Walter and I [are looking at each other]. For whatever reasons each of us had, we had never hired Steve [before this session]. And as we got to the end, it was just so fantastic, Walter turned to me and he said, “Maybe we’ve made a mistake.” That’s the only time he played that track, was the first time. Months go by and we were mixing in New York because we’re not particularly fast about how we do things. We were just about finished with the mix of “Aja” at A&R with Elliot Scheiner. It’s as good as you can imagine something sounding on those speakers in the control room. It was magically great. Someone walked in and said, “Hey, you know Steve is down the hall, he’s playing with Michael Franks.” I said, “Oh, cool, Donald, I’ll go down and let him know we’re here.” I did that and he was finishing up. When he was done, he came in and said [his greetings].
He was feeling good. I said, “Sit down, I want to play you something.” We played him “Aja,” which was finished. He sat right between the Altec 604 Utility [speaker] cabinets. It was great sounding. The track ends and he said, “Wow, who is playing drums?” Donald, Walter and I, Roger Nichols and Elliot, are just looking at each other. Because he wasn’t kidding. I say, “You are, stupid!” He went, “Really? I’m a mother******!” It’s the best laugh we had in all of the years."
