Paul Shaffer Comes Home: Our Interview with the “Late Show” Musical Director, Playing Thunder Bay in October

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The voice on the phone was unmistakable and a thrill to someone like me, who has followed this musician on “Saturday Night Live” and the “Late Show with David Letterman”  for decades.

Relaxed, candid and thoughtful, Paul Shaffer was ready to answer questions about his career, his memoir and his hometown of Thunder Bay.

Paul is one of the biggest celebrities to come from the Lake Superior region. He’s best known as the musical director and sidekick for Dave – a 33-year run that ended in May 2015. But he has enjoyed a wild ride, from playing piano in strip clubs at 21 to directing the music for a 1972 Toronto production of “Godspell” with a cast that included future comedy stars Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Andrea Martin and Eugene Levy, then to fame in the Big Apple.

On the way, Paul joined “Saturday Night Live” for five years, playing piano and performing in sketches with the original cast. His other acting gigs have included a short-lived sitcom, “A Year at the Top,” and Rob Reiner’s “This is Spinal Tap.” He was musical director for the Blues Brothers – John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd – and their successful album and tour. He made three trips with Letterman to meet with U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq at Christmas, calling it one of the deepest experiences of his life.

In his witty, revealing 2009 memoir, We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Showbiz Saga, Paul describes some incidents from his childhood in Thunder Bay and his encounters with many celebrities and music legends like Eric Clapton, Miles Davis and another Lake Superior area native, Bob Dylan.

There’s a vignette about Bob’s first appearance on “Late Night” in the 1980s. Paul visited his dressing room with hopes of bonding, but couldn’t get Bob to say a word. Aside from music, Paul even mentioned how the two were linked by Highway 61 while growing up in Ontario and Minnesota. Finally the troubadour looked at Paul and said in his signature drawl, “Do you think you could introduce me to Larry ‘Bud’ Melman?” It was no joke: Bob really wanted to meet the show’s odd, nerdy character played by Calvert DeForest.

Late in the book, Paul tells about announcing on the Letterman show that Thunder Bay had named a street after him (the one in front of the city auditorium). This was around the time of Dave’s famous quintuple bypass. Paul’s recollection of his on-air exchange with Dave went like this:

“Dave, at this very moment, you can move on up to Thunder Bay and boogaloo down Paul Shaffer Drive.”

“What, they named a street after you? I’m outraged! I don’t even have an alleyway in Indianapolis.”

“Dave, you deserve a boulevard.”

“A boulevard, hell … I want the entire interstate beltway around Indianapolis.”

“What would they call it?’’

“Well, they could call it ‘The Dave,’ as in ‘take the Dave, it’ll cut your time in half.’”

“I like it.”

“Or, how about the Letterman Bypass?”

“That’s it,” I said. “I’m calling the governor.”    

Paul has a piece of another street – a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto. He also was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor. He lives in the New York area, but has headlined fundraising concerts in Thunder Bay.

He’ll bring the tight, versatile “Late Show” band – Will Lee, bass; Sid McGinnis, guitar; Will Calhoun of the band Living Colour, drums; Felicia Michele Collins, guitar; Tom “Bones” Malone, trombone; Aaron Heick, sax; and Frank Greene, trumpet. Billing them as The NYC Orchestra, they’ll perform in the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium on October 7 for the concert hall’s 30th anniversary. Expect a night of music and stories, some of which Paul shares with us here.

The Interview

LSM: For your concert in Thunder Bay, I understand there will be some storytelling and reminiscing along with the music. Can you share a fond or funny experience from your years on “Late Show with David Letterman”?

Paul: Every time I do an interview, someone asks: “What is your favorite moment?” Or, “Who is your favorite guest? Who made the greatest impression on you?” It’s always the same answer: James Brown. The first time that he did the show, he was one of the early musical guys who did it, in the ’80s, and came on with two horns of his own and played with my four-piece band. All of us in the band were just tripped-out that we were getting to play with James Brown. He didn’t let us down. It was a music lesson for all of us. So I’ll be telling that story, and playing some of his music, which will sort of illustrate what I’m talking about.

LSM: Do you still have relatives in Thunder Bay?

Paul: I’ve got a few. A few stragglers. My parents are no longer with us. However, they’re buried there. And when I go home, it’s a nice opportunity to go visit them, even though they are not of this plane anymore. And I’ve got an aunt and a cousin and his family. That’s it that’s left. But they’ll be there at this show. … They’ve always been loyal to me and whenever I’ve played up there, they’ve always come out. … Of course, I will introduce them, proudly, to the audience, who knows them anyway. Everybody knows everybody up there.

LSM: What are some of the positive changes you’ve seen in Thunder Bay on your return visits?

Paul: I’ve seen it in a kind of economic slump, but it seems to have survived that slump and to be coming back with flying colors. There’s a new law school there; there’s a medical school there; there is a state-of-the-art hospital there. What more can one say?

LSM: After 33 years, does it seem odd not being the sidekick to Letterman?

Paul: Yes, 33 years is a long time, the longest that anybody has done it so far. And it has been a year since we stopped doing the show. It’s taken the whole year to get used to it, because it really was a way of life for me and my whole family. But now, it’s great to have accomplished it, survived the entire run, and certainly I am very grateful to have had the experience. It was a privilege.

LSM: My understanding is that your band is not on tour, but that this is a special concert in Thunder Bay.

Paul: That’s true. We are not on tour. Everyone in the band is doing their own thing now. However, I brought them back together to do a two-hour fundraising special live on NBC (May 26), which was called “Red Nose Day Special” (for children’s charities). And we were the house band, like old times’ sake. We all went to California to do this show as a band, and it really was like a reunion, a lot of fun.

I have been recording with the band, too – same guys, and gal, from the old show. We are in the studio right now making a record for Rhino Records, which is going to come out in the new year. Rhino is a label that’s famous for nostalgia. And we think people might be nostalgic for our old sound.

LSM: Can you describe the new recording?

Paul: It’s going to be a lot of great songs. I’m kind of famous for my knowledge of early R&B and rock ’n’ roll stuff, and there’s going to be some of that. Existing tunes, some that you’ve heard, some that even I hadn’t heard that were recommended to me by guys more knowledgeable than I. My producer is a guy named Richard Gottehrer, a legend really, who besides producing the Go-Go’s, went all the way back as far as having written “My Boyfriend’s Back,” and then “I Want Candy” in The Strangeloves in the ’60s. … So we’re having fun in the studio is all I can say.

LSM: Have you ever boogalooed down Paul Shaffer Drive?

Paul: It was the first thing I did. … Well, when one considers that to “boogaloo down Broadway” is more a spiritual frame of mind than an actual physical occupation, you know, I did it on Paul Shaffer Drive. Which was a wonderful honor bestowed upon me – that they named the street in front of the auditorium up there where I’ll be playing. They named it Paul Shaffer Drive, and it was a wonderful ceremony that they had, and which I went up for. Unforgettable.

Paul and his band will be boogalooing again along Paul Shaffer Drive for the community auditorium’s anniversary, 7:30 p.m., October 7.