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| Known by Sly as the drummer who could play "sloppy tight and raggedy clean," Bill Lordan joined Sly & the Family Stone in 1974, replacing Andy Newmark, who had replaced Greg Errico. Bill provides those sweet drum licks on all of Small Talk (1974) as well as a few tracks on High on You (1975). He appeared in many of the group's notable live performances, Including their 1974 appearance on "Soul Train," a week of shows as Sly hosted "The Mike Douglas Show," "Rockin' in the USA" and Sly's Madison Square Garden wedding. |
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| Bill joined the group after a chance encounter at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. Slated to lay down some tracks for Bobby Womack, Bill was rehearsing his parts, waiting for Bobby, when Sly and his entourage happened to walk by and enter an adjacent room. Eventually someone emerged and asked Bill if he could sit in on one of Sly's tracks. Bill told me: "I said sure, and went into the control room. There was Sly in all his glory. He asked me to put headphones on, I played the track, and afterwards heard a lot of commotion in the control room so I figured I did something good. I came out and he turned around and looked at me and said 'You are in the Family Stone!'" Sly had Bill record some more songs, then took him around to several studios in LA and would have him do the songs over again in each one. These would eventually comprise the "Small Talk" album. |
| Bill speaks of Sly: "He'd tell me to play sloppy tight and raggedy clean. I'd say 'sit down and show me.' He didn't have a lot of drum chops but he had an uncanny sense of rhythm that was just genius. I would pick his brain whenever I could -- it was a real learning expereience for me. Before I knew it we were going to go out on the road, with no practices at all. Our first gig was at a black college in Texas and I was nervous because I had never played any of the songs before! I remember I was with Freddie in the dressing room asking him things like 'how does that one start?' 'When does it change?' tapping on my leg, etc. After three nights I had it down! I guess you could say I was just in the right place at the right time." |
| After staying in the group for several years, Bill then continued his career with Robin Trower, including drumming on their platinum album "Bridge of Sighs." Bill presently resides in Appleton, Wisconsin and is performing and recording with the Chris Aaron Band, featuring Corey Sterling from the Kenny Wayne Sheppard band. He also finished recording a new CD in Chicago with Chris Shepard, who won a grammy for work with the Smashing Pumpkins. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]. |
| (Thanks to Bill Lordan and Kate Williams) |
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