RE: [Harp-L] Lester Butler

[Ryan Hartt <rhartt1234@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've told this story a few times and was able to find it in the archives.

>>I first saw the Red Devils on TV in 1991. I was flipping channels and happened

upon a E! channel special for the grand opening of the first Planet Hollywood

they should a quick clip of Bruce Willis playing harp so I decided to stick

around and see if there was anymore music. Towards the end of the show they

showed about a minute of the Red Devils and it blew my 16 year old mind! Lester

was blowing a jump in E and playing breaks ala James Cotton et al. I've seen it

and done it a million times since but it was something else at the time. At the

end of the tune Bruce Willis announces "Lester Butler and the Red Devils". The

show was on about a million times that month so I taped it, which I have since

lost and I keep waiting for that bit to show up on Youtube. Lester and some

permutation of the Red Devils played at a lot of the Planet Hollywood openings

and were featured in a few more E! specials.



I was thinking "Those guys have to have a record out." and filed the name away

and kept scouring record stores. One day, about a year later, I was in my local

Record Town and there it was "The Red Devils - King King" I was pshyched. As I'm

walking to my car and unwrapping the tape I see it on Def American. "Wait a

minute. Isn't that a Rock label?" and then I saw it was produced by Rick Rubin.

"Wait a minute. Didn't he produce LL Cool J and the Chili Peppers?" I was

convinced I had bought the wrong band...until I popped in the tape. That record

has a certain mystique about it. It is one of my all time favorites.<<


Ryan