CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It’s been a long time since Dion DiMucci was “A Teenager in Love.” But at 80, the veteran Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s still got it.
Dion's latest album, the guest-packed "Blues with Friends," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Albums charts. With contributions by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, Jeff Beck, Paul Simon, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, Brian Setzer, Van Morrison, Steve Van Zant and others, it's Dion's first No. 1 album ever and his first chart-topper of any kind since "Runaround Sue" ascended the Billboard Hot 100 back in 1961.
The 15-song set also finds the Bronx native in as fine a form as he's ever been, strong in voice and exuberant in performance. Released by Bonamassa's new label Keeping the Blues Alive Records, "Blues with Friends" is another career high point for Dion, and proof that he has every reason to be happy having the blues.
An interesting time to release a new album, no?
Dion: I gotta tell ya, it’s been great for me because life is good with a project, right? Instead of sitting here twirling my thumbs or having to watch “Judge Judy” or something, I’ve got this going on. You know what I’m saying?
How did "Blues with Friends" come about?
Dion: I couldn’t have planned it if I tried. I had been writing for about four years, since the last album (“New York is My Home”) and working on my play, “The Wanderer.” I had these 14 songs, 12 of them were new, and I thought, “Man, these are about the best batch of songs I ever had,” so I thought I should go in and cut them. I got into a little studio down the street and knocked ‘em out in three days, and Joe Bonamassa came over to the house -- his manager lives about five houses from me down here in Florida -- and heard “Blues Coming On” and said, “I want to play on that.” So, I said, “Hey, great...’”and took him to the studio and he just blew my head off. I thought, “Man, this is really raising the bar. This is the gold standard right here.‘”
Did that spark the idea of bringing in more guests?
Dion: It kind of ignited the vision for it, because I started thinking, "I'm gonna ask my friends, my very talented, artistic, masterful guitar-playing friends to play on these songs. I started casting, like for a movie. I thought, "'Bam Bang Boom,' that's a Billy Gibbons tune. I hear him on that. Then I had this big ballad ("Can't Start Over Again") and I thought, "Wow, Jeff Beck is the only guitar player that can make me cry," so I shot an email to him and he said "yes" immediately." And it just went on like that. The album was exciting for me to hear what my friends, these great artists, came up with. It was thrilling, very exciting every time I put a song on there or went into the studio.
Did you give the guests much direction about what you wanted?
Dion: (laughs) Nah, I didn't tell any of these people what to do. I just gave them the song and they infused their vision of what they were hearing in it. These people are really artists. They're distinctive. Who plays like Sonny Landreth? Who plays like Brian Setzer? I'll tell you -- nobody! You can get a harp player, but you're not gonna get John Hammond, y'know? I guess what I'm saying is I realize how limited I am; I could make a great record, but I can't come up with what these people infused on this.
You've been in the blues lane for a few albums now. Did you get to rub elbows with some of the old blues guys back in the day?
Dion: I met Lightning Hopkins and I met Mississippi John Hurt and I met Skip James at the Newport Jazz Festival in ’64. I used to go down to the Village in the ’60s. Maybe I wasn’t hanging out, going to dinner with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, but I would hear them up close, right in front of me, even when the Paul Butterfield Blues Band started and played the Village. I always loved it. I remember one time, I forget what venue it was, but the Butterfield Band was there and it was snowing and it was just me and my wife and another couple, and they entertained just the four of us. That’s a memory, for sure.
"Hymn to Her," with Patti and Bruce, is an interesting choice because you'd done it before (on the 1987 gospel album "Velvet & Steel") and because you did it with those two.
Dion: I always loved that song, but I was never happy with where it was, with where it was living, so to speak. So, I wanted it to kind of live somewhere else. I played it for Patti; She’s like the Jersey soul girl, and I thought, “Man, if I could get her to do some harmony parts on this and answer me here and there,” but I didn’t really have a concrete idea. So, I gave her the song and she says, “Well, let me do something. I’m hearing some stuff on there.”
Was having Bruce join the party inevitable?
Dion: We go back a long way, but...Bruce says (Scialfa) took the song and she's the one who arranged it. She's the one who stacked the vocals and heard this kind of like holy spirit on it. And she had an idea for the (guitar) solo, and he walked in the room with the guitar and just laid something down. It was in December, almost Christmastime, so it was a beautiful gift to me.
What's happening with your Broadway musical, "The Wanderer?"
Dion: Well, they rescheduled for April 8 of next year, and I’ll tell ya something -- it’s phenomenal. The kid who wrote the story (Charles Messina), he knows how to write something of substance, in a very entertaining way. Everything’s in it; You’ve got, like, rock ‘n' roll street history and you got action. You’ve got romance, betrayal, humor -- and the music. The way he situated the music in it is incredible. I’m not a Broadway guy but, wow, it’s a trip. I can’t wait ‘til people can see it.
It's been 60 years since your first solo album, "Lonely Teenager." What kind of long-view perspective do you have about your career now?
Dion: I've always loved creating. I've always loved taking people on a trip, and it's always fun for me to make up sounds and to put a three- or four-minute song together and take people on a trip. I found out when I was young, sitting on the stoops of the Bronx, that I could solve the world's problems in three minutes. I could resolve conflict within four verses. I could write a song, y'know? And I'm so grateful I still can, and that people want to hear them.
We lost Little Richard this year. You were a contemporary of his, so I'm betting you have a good story.
Dion: I knew a side of Little Richard that probably a lot of people don’t know. He was a very warm, kind of thoughtful, generous guy off stage. But my favorite Little Richard story is not about him. It’s about his mother, Leva Mae. I was walking by his dressing room one time at the Brooklyn Fox. She was sitting by the door and saw me and was like, “Young fella? Son? Darlin'? Could you come over here for a second?” So, I walked over and bent down to where she was sitting and I’m face to face with her. I said, “Yes, m’am” and she said, “You got soul.” (laughs) I used to tell Richard that, “If you told me that I would’ve forgot it. But your mother told me that. It’s like hearing from heaven.”