Gerry Brown and Eddie Tuduri discuss groove (part 2 of 2)

This is part 2 of Gerry Brown's conversation with the drummer and philanthropist Eddie Tuduri (The Beach Boys, Del Shannon, Dr. John, Ike Turner, Ronnie Hawkins, Marianne Faithful, etc.). You know why? Because groove don’t lie!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hey ladies and gentlemen, this is part two of the groove don't lie podcast of Eddie Todori. Eddie is the great drum and percussionist for the likes of the Beach Boys, Dr. John, Daryl Shannon, Jim Mustina, and Michael McDonald. So, step back. Here we go. Part two on the groove don't lie podcast. So some things about that accident, how that brought you to trap.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

I don't know any other way around it but to tell you the whole story. Okay. Uh I was body surfing, which I did almost every day. I lived in carp near the beach. It was just something I did almost every day. I had done a gig the night before on on Friday, stat Saturday night, I was playing at a pizza joint in Santa Barbara. Some little blues dump pizza joint we all played at. And it was the last wave of the day for me. I was 20 yards out and all by myself. There were people elsewhere, but not nowhere, not right near me. And I jumped in a wave, like I body surfed. I didn't surf with a board. And I jumped in a wave that took me and it's it's turned me like that and pound, bam, into the into the bottom of the ocean. And I heard a big crack, and then nothing, nothing at all. And then I was floating underwater in this I I don't know how else to describe it. It was like a spiritual abyss. And my body was starting to float this way, and my spirit was floating this way, where there was a light or energy that people talk about, I guess. I don't think there's any descriptive way to say what it was or what it felt like or how. You know, it was just enticing and w like an unconditional love beckoning to go towards the bottom. My body was going this way and my spirit in this way. Then I thought, well, I'm gonna have to drown because I want to discard this as a cage, and so I can continue on this journey, which was beautiful. So I said, well I have to open my mouth and let the water in so I can drown, so I can get on with this. And then I remember thinking, drowning, that sucks. You know, and then and then I thought, how silly, it's nothing compared to where I'm going. So I opened my mouth wide. Right? And when I opened my mouth, I was lifted from the bottom, and I got I saw the beautiful carpenturio sky, and I took a deep breath. And then I was placed gently at the shore, which was quite a ways from where I was, on my back, where the lifeguard with the most seniority on the Central Coast happened to be on duty, and he came over and said, Are you okay? I said, No, I'm totally paralyzed. But I was smiling. And he must have thought I'm delusional, right? I said, No, I'm I'm totally paralyzed. He said, Okay, stay, just stay, stay still. I'll be right back. And he went over and he took some surfboards. We put surfboards up all around me so water wouldn't flow over me while we were waiting. So when the paramedics stayed, and they were the number one paramedics on the Central Coast at the time, as was the lifeguard. So they handled me perfectly. That's how quadruples become worse off when they're handled from wherever it is. Like for me, it was from the ocean here to the ambulance to the hospital. They handled me perfectly. They got me to the hospital on a Saturday. We went right through the double doors, and they rolled me right into the number one surgeon on the Central Coast, happened to be there on Saturday. I don't know what he was doing there, but he said, What's going on here? And they told him, he said, I'll take care of this guy. And they rolled me into the MRI, where they took a picture immediately. And Dr. Connor, his name was, he came in, he showed me the x-rays, he said, Eddie, this is what happened. The sixth vertebra is totally herniated, and it's pressing against the spinal cord. That's why you're totally paralyzed. I said, Okay, so what do we do? He said, Well, I'm gonna have to operate. I said, Well, in like in a week? He said, No, right now. And he laughed, you know, and we were we were jovial. And uh I said, okay, and he said, Well, we're setting up the OR right now. It's an it's an emergency operation, but we're taking care of you right now. I said, Do what you have to do, you know. So they got it together and they rolled me down into the OR. And I was still jovial and smiling, and I, you know, it I was in a great mood and and in the in the bliss of this, what happened. And so they're about to come at me with, and I remember the anesthesiologist. You could see him coming at you. I've had so many operations now. You know, he I said, wait a minute. He said, What? I said, You look just like a bass player I work with in Canada. And this guy was badass. I said, I hope you're at least half as good as he was. And we both started laughing. And then he put the thing over, he says, starts counting, you know, ten of them and I was out, and I woke up laughing. Six, seven hours later, I woke up laughing. I've been laughing ever since, every operation since then. I wake up laughing. All the nurses are like, What are you laughing at? I I don't, you have to be there.

unknown 6:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

That that's your spirit, man. That that that's your spirit saying it's saying thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah. So I I woke up, I went to the ICU, and there were angels in the ICU. Yeah, but I was telling the nurses, I said, you guys don't realize it, but you all have your own angel following you. They said, you know, Eddie, uh, we like you, but you're really laying it on a little thick. I said, no, I'm not. I I'm telling you, you know, you can accept it or not, you know, but I'm telling you what's happening. Then my surgeon's partner came in, and this guy wasn't very nice. I heard that he was a great surgeon, and his name was Jones, but he was just, he had no bedside manner. And I remember he came over and he had a little chart with him, you know, and he'd say, Oh, I'm uh Dr. Jones, I'm your doctor's partner, and I'm just looking in on you. How are you doing? I said, I'm I'm really fine. I'll be walking out of here in a little while. He said, I was kidding. And he said, Who told you you'd walk? I don't, I I don't recall saying it, but I feel it strongly that I said F you to his face. You know, what a terrible attitude to come in with. At this time, at this moment.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Bad timing, bad timing.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

So uh he got a little angry and he walked away. Uh it didn't matter to me. I was there for two weeks, and then they uh they brought me to the rehab in Santa Barbara, it was a beautiful place. Just beautiful. They treated me like gold. Uh it was it was a one of those moments. I I would do it again. I it it was the the moments that the the spirit, the the grace followed it, I would do it again. I hope it doesn't happen. I don't have a lot of time, so I I can't.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

I don't have another 30 years to recover. But anyway, I I just I got to the rehab. Now I was totally paralyzed from the neck down. Nothing. So they were doing everything for me. And they kept saying, you know, you're gonna have to learn how to deal with this. You're a complete quadriplegic, which means nothing from the neck down. But you can live in this body. We're gonna teach you how to live in a chair and how to use these electronic instruments, and you're gonna be fine, don't worry. I said, you know, I love you guys really. I do, I can see who you are and what you're trying to accomplish. I said, but I'm gonna be fine. And they were, Eddie, please, you have to listen to us, you know. I said, Well, I'm listening, but it's going in one ear and out the other, because I'm walking out of here. And they were like, okay. So later on in life, I mean, I just spoke to my physical therapist, like we talk every couple of weeks. The one who taught me how to walk. She was in on every meeting that said, This guy is not ever going to walk or have any normal bodily function.

unknown 9:44

Ever.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

And we have to teach him so that we can start working with him so he can live in this body and he can live with this life, this new life. Well, I'll, you know, that in the round, they all get together and they say, Well, there's this guy, Jerry, and he broke his neck and his leg and his arm. What can we do to put him back together? So all the therapists go around the table and they say, This is what I can do, this is what the physical therapist can do, the occupational therapists, the internists. It's a beautiful thing. You know, they all think, okay, this is this is we're gonna put this guy or this lady back together, and here's how we're all gonna chip in to do it. Every one of them, and I know it because I know I turned out I dated two of them after that. You know, and you know, I said, you need to tell they couldn't talk about it, but after 12 years, Vika, who is one of the loves of my life, the lady who taught me how to walk, I said, Vika, you got you, you must tell me what what was what were you guys talking about in the round every day before we worked together? And she said, Eddie, you were they wrote you off. We wrote you off. We thought you would never walk, you would never get any of dysfunction. All the medical evidence, all of it, proves that we're right and we don't know what's happening for you. But you have to start embracing that. You may not even walk or have this, you know. I said, you know what? I I can see how kind you are and all of you, and I love you all for it, but you're all wrong. I didn't say that negative, angry kind of way. Walk out I was there six weeks to make a long story short. I remember uh working with Vika and in the gym. There were parallel bars just across from where I was in my wheelchair, and she was trying to work with my ankles and see if she can move my. I said, you know, you're wasting your time with all this. She said, Eddie, I'm doing my job. You have to, you know, come on. We were friends by then. I said, look, roll me over to the parallel bars. You go to one end and I'll start at this end and I'll walk to you. Will you leave me, will you leave me alone then? You know? She said, I could see it in her face. Like, I'm gonna get in trouble for this because he's gonna fall on his ass. But how else are we gonna prove to him that, you know, he needs to let us help him? So she rolled me over and she went to the other end and I looked at her. I didn't know if I could walk. I was just so she I said, You ready? She said, Yeah. And I took two steps, two steps forward, and then she she started crying, and I started crying, and she ran down and we hugged and just bawled in each other's arms for a minute. And I said, Okay, give her that wheelchair and all the rest of this shit. And let's teach me how to walk. My legs are gonna be fine, you know, and that was it, you know. From that day on, we learned how to walk. There's a whole system to walking, the way you move your hips and your shoulders, and where the the how with the gate between your feet and and what is your stride, all of it, you know, and there's notes. So we worked and, you know, how many days later it was, but I walked out. Just like I said, I went with a cane, you know. And I'm still I stayed volunteering at the hospital for three years. So I had a very close uh relationship with them, still do. I still do, that's 30 years ago. And uh, you know, there was no way uh to explain how this happened, how it unfolded without uh my telling that story. Now, during my the course of the time I was in the rehab, when I started moving, my hand came back. This hand came, I can wiggle my toe, just like I told that guy in the in the ICU, I said, I'm wiggling my toe, I'll be out of here. I wiggle my toe. I said, okay, that's the beginning. And then I could move this hand. So I had like I had some drums. I asked my friend to bring me some drum space and uh some percussion stuff. And uh, my friend Greg Leroy, he's a guitar player I worked with a lot. And he did, and let me get a stick. I have one right here. So, you know that railing on the side of your bed, right? Yeah. And so the guy, the guy was watching us, Oscar, in the ward. I said, Oscar, can you just go on my food tray with his hands? So he went, that dot that that that that. So this little old lady comes in, Edith, she was almost in her 80s. She had spinal cord surgery, she was hurting. She rolled in, she said, Eddie, I want to play. I said, Okay, Edith, we had a cowbell. Don't ever bring a cowbell to the hospital. We had a cowbell. I said, Edith, can you just go one and two and three? Right? So she couldn't quite get it. But Ted, my neighbor, who was in worse shape than any of us, I can do it. I said, he only had one hand, too. And the the Oscar was, I don't know. I said, just put the cowbell on his chest and give him a stick. What could happen? Can he get in trouble? Right? So Oscar did that, and sure enough, he got it perfectly. One, one, two, and three, yeah. Now we still needed, I want to play. I said, okay, just go. And right? So we had this ensemble, which I've kept in my mind to this day. We have a new curriculum I just wrote for it's called the senior class. Uh I teach them how to read the parts and play in an ensemble with four different instruments, all from that day, all from that day in the rehab.

unknown 15:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

And it was, you know, it wasn't a simple, like a drum circle thing at all. They had to learn the parts, play different instruments, and stick to their part. So it wasn't boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. What time is it? Boom, boom, boom, boom. You know, it wasn't one, it wasn't a drum circle. It was the rhythmic arts project. It's its own thing. It's it's what it is. It's a proven, you know, studied, a peer-studied methodology, channeled, and with edu with special education over the years. It's a real deal. And it's been 30 years now. It's still going strong. Uh I'm a little slower, but it's still, you know, many people in many places are still doing it. I have a young lady that's working with us, Debbie, who is terrific. Debbie, Debbie Major is a lead singer in a soul band. She has twins. They're 35 years old, cerebral palsy, and autism. So she's been part of this population for 35 years, strong.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Very dedicated, devoted to her kids. I've never seen anybody like her. She brings tears to my eye. The other one's independent. She checks in on them all day long. If they call up, we hang up. You know, Gage is on the phone. Bye. You know, and then she'll call me back, you know. Or Jacob and Gage. They are they are an amazing, amazing young man. And she's my hero. I mean, not only is she one of us, she's she's a you know, a funk butt, as Bonnie Bramlett used to call her. Funk butt. Bonnie said, yeah, we're the funk butts, man. I said, all right. And uh that's that's her Debbie. She sings great. Everybody loves her, she helps everybody. I don't know how she does it. She she works about five jobs and and takes care of these two boys and teaches and sings at night. Like I she's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

You know, Eddie, Eddie, this all comes from you. Why? How? Because from the moment when you were under the water, you were you were projecting. You were projecting a positivity that is it's been with you. People nowadays, it's it's very it's kind of it's sad, but it's simple. It's like you are what you project, that's your reality. You were put in a situation, and it's like okay, well, I'm this is the situation, but you know what? I'm projecting that I will walk again. And you never wavered. I never doubted it. You never doubted it, and now and you've gone on, and you've never doubted this. So the universe brings people like these into your life. It's no coincidence, man.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

I I belie I believe that. I do. I I try not to dwell on it because then I feel I feel so lucky and so honored and privileged to be in this body doing what it is I do. And then I never I I learned how to play drums again. I mean, I was totally paralyzed for the first few weeks. Nothing. It seemed like all these things happened for a reason, obviously. I mean not to quote that adage, but it's true. And I felt like I was given everything from zero to a hundred. I was zero and then ten percent, twenty, forty percent, sixty, and then a hundred percent. Never quite a hundred percent. I realized that I'm disabled, that that's no big deal to me. But I think all of those stages brought a different learning curve, a new lesson. This is what you need to learn. You need to pay attention. I fall down and I end up in the hospital. So you never we never stop learning, and regardless of how good our lives have become and how how successful we are spiritually or or you know in our professions or in our relationships, regardless. We need to pay attention.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Gotta pay attention.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah. So life is good. I I thank God for my broken neck every day. This wouldn't have happened. This wouldn't have happened. I don't know what happened. I would have been playing in a blues bar for 50 bucks a night at 78 years old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

It's an incredible it's an incredible story. I mean, I and it's it's ongoing. But but uh I hear a documentary. I'll just say it out loud, man. I hear there's a documentary. Yeah, no one's ever really approached me about that. I I thought I think so. It's it's it's an incredible doc and if if because of uh I forget which movie it was w that won an Oscar because the guy was he couldn't hear. I forget what movie that was. Oh, he couldn't hear it was maybe a few years ago, but your story, the fact that you know, you the people and this happened and how you just you knew and you approached it that way, and you approach it that every day. You haven't wavered.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

I got to play again was really I I always played uh traditional style. Always. Now uh my these I can't feel these fingers and my hand. There's about only about 40%. But enough. It works enough. I so I had to learn match grip, right? So I just took when I when I was able to hold two sticks, I just took out my Louis Belson book read through all the stuff and then and then I did stick control and then I did uh Louie's twenty six basic rudiments. That was it. I got I don't play with the speed or dexterity, but who needs it? Who did who needs it? Who needs it? Yeah. So and I learned how to play uh a djembe. I I didn't I never played a djembe or percussion before. Trap. I had to learn because I had to use a djembe to to to teach the lessons the way the lessons were you you've taken the course. Yes. So you can't do that on a drum set. So so then I started li I like the dr I like the djembe. I've done gigs. I've done like swing gigs with just just one djembe. Pearl makes a bunch of great stuff. These drums are amazing. I I don't know if you can hear you can't really hear on on Zoom. Well I'm here, I'm hearing It's my trap drums, really. And you can go use them on a gig. I mean, Luis, all the guys that have come to all my gigs, they all jump in on these things. You know, the best guys in the world. And I'm enjoying it. You know, I I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I just play what I'm feeling. I don't know, I've never studied percussion.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

You know.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

I guess I I have taken I took some you remember a guy named Jerry Steinholtz? I do Jerry Steinholt. Jerry Steinholt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I studied with him at uh yes, God bless.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Yeah, yeah, I used to see him back in the day at uh at at NAM shows and things like that. It was it was uh Richie Garcia that introduced me to him.

unknown 23:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Study with Jerry at one time or another, it seems. I have a record now. We just put a record out uh this month with Jerry on it. Like it's called Scratch, and I I'll send it to you. I'll send it to you. I'll send you an MP3. And uh Dominic Genova on bass, I I love his playing. Joe Tomano played keyboards and sang, and uh Lon Price played Sass. It's kind of a Rick thinks it's a fusion record. I I don't, you know, I think it's kind of a maybe that's what they were playing. I was just playing Fatback through the whole thing. But I'll send it to you. Tell me what you think. Scratch.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

All right.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah. Uh we have stuff we've been doing. I have another album called Uncle Fat Back with Lenny McDaniel, the guy's a singer because he's coming from New Orleans. And uh we played together for years, and Rick Hannah's in that too. And yeah, we're putting that together now. Nice. Putting it out on YouTube. There's no no rhyme, no reason to it, just to do it, you know, just to have it out. That's great. I mean, we play on so many records. I don't know about you, but I was thinking the last few days I knew we were gonna have this talk, and I was trying to find a record that I was proud of. I am. I I have stuff I really like. When you asked me about uh a record that I really felt, and it's to me, and we've all done 50 records or more, but you know who Jimmy Messina is?

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Lyons of Messina? Yeah. Jimmy and I had a great I I broke my neck while I was in his band. I mean, and we didn't see each other for a while, and then we became really good friends together. Well, I did a record with him right before I got hurt. The last in fact, the last gig I did was with Jimmy. And the record is my I I would never have thought that because I I would think like I have I did a record with Ike Turner back in in the 70s with the iCats. I got it. I was 25 and the the it was a dream come true. I don't even I get who's what I'm thinking about it. That's how cool it was, right? And that would be, you know, and then there were there were a lot of other groups that were really funky that that I really cared about. That group in Canada, I sent you a copy of something. In the 80s, I moved to Canada for five years. Right. Just played clubs with these funk bands. And you know, there's that, but the Jimmy Messiah record was not really my style, but the way it came out was I I don't know, I've have you ever played on things and went, that's not me, but I really like it.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Yes, yes, I have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

You know, you go, well, that that wouldn't be my, you know, my choice. But this record of all the years and all the records is my it's it's called Watching the River Run or Watching the River Flow, I forget. And it's the best record I ever played on. Just and it's there isn't a funk thing or an RB song on it. But Jimmy's very, very rhythmic, and the songs were all logged in the cinos, you know, angry eyes, and all these stuff from Jimmy's past. And I love it.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Great, great.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

How how many records you can you say that about? You know, like I really like that. I really like it. You know, I I don't know if I I don't know if I can get a copy of that. If I can, I'll I'll send it to you.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Uh Eddie, love you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Oh man, Jerry, thank you, man. I always I would have never imagined we'd do this, you know, years ago. But thank you so much. I can't tell you, I'm I'm really proud of that you would even ask me.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

We want to thank Mr. Eddie Todori for everything and the sharing of his journey. Thank you, Eddie. And by the way, support trap.