"There are so many great guitar players I've been blessed to work with," Narada Michael Walden tells us from his home in San Rafael, California.
Dude is not kidding.
Walden is, of course, best known as a hit-making and Grammy Award–winning producer for the likes of Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Starship and others. But his first big gig was drumming in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, playing with John McLaughlin and company over the course of three albums between 1974 and ’76.
Walden moved on to play with Tommy Bolin on Teaser and on tour; with Jeff Beck on Wired; on Allan Holdsworth's first solo album, Velvet Darkness; on three songs for Robert Fripp's Exposure, and with Carlos Santana.
A Michigan native who's released a dozen albums of his own, Walden was even in Journey for a minute, playing with the group at Lollapalooza in 2021 and co-producing its latest album, Freedom, in 2022.
That's a formidable track record of legends to play behind, and Walden has love for every one of them — which he expressed broadly on this trip down memory lane.
John McLaughlin
“I was living in Pasadena in '71 when they dropped that album The Inner Mounting Flame. I just happened to be in a record shop and had just enough money to buy it, and when I heard McLaughlin and Billy Cobham going, it was something like I'd never heard before, so precise, just killer. It just blew my mind. I would woodshed on that record and get introduced to that sound, practice my drums and just soak it in.
“When I moved to Connecticut I was able to go to a show. I knew John was into prayer and meditation life; his guru was Sri Chinmoy. After the show I was fortunate enough to meet a disciple, and he walked me around the back of the stage, where I met McLaughlin.
“I said, ‘I’m Michael Walden, and I want to be like you. I’ve never seen anything like that.’ He said, ‘It's largely to do with my prayer life, my meditation life. I’m going to see the guru at six in the morning back in Queens. Give me your number. I'll give you a phone call.’
“A week later, I'm living out in the middle of the woods in Canaan, Conn., and it's John on the phone. He said, ‘I want you to go to meditation and meet the guru in Norwalk, Conn.’ It changed my life. He wanted me to come down for weekly meditations, and I did.
Mahavishnu became my Hendrix. When I joined the band, it was a dream come true.“
— Narada Michael Walden
“John would call me every now and then to meet him at this restaurant in Queens where I played on his guitar case, in 7. He realized I could hang with him a little bit. We played again at another meditation in the Village. The third time we jammed at my band's barn in Canaan, with Billy McCoy on piano and Ralphe Armstrong on bass.
“John scared the hell out of me. He looked at me with a stone face, playing so incredibly — but it was a stone face. I had to close my eyes to not get thrown by him and just keep up with him.
“Not long after that he said, ‘I want you to join my band.’ It happened over time; I think it's because I became a disciple and got in the same groove, meditation-wise and prayer-wise. And musically we hit it off because I was a real fan of his. I always wanted to be Jimi Hendrix's drummer, but Mahavishnu became my Hendrix. When I joined the band, it was a dream come true.
“I'm very indebted to Mahavishnu for opening the door to get me in. I didn't know how to make it; it's the hardest thing in the world to know how to make it. He opened that door. It was like he anointed me; without that I'm not even here. I went out to do great stuff in my life because of Vishnu.
“People don't understand that the love for music is so high. What McLaughlin taught me was to listen. And I learned to watch his body; his body would just rock when he got high. I saw him get out there and just become the music. It was so inspiring.”
Robert Fripp
“Robert Fripp came on my scene around '77, '78, when I was still in New York before I moved to California. I played a little club, McHale's, that all the musicians played in New York, a little bar up towards Harlem. Some heavy cats would be in there. I was in there playing one night and right by my bass drum was this little English-type gentleman with glasses on who reminded me of Robert Fripp. And it was him, with my bass drum right in his face!
“He said, ‘Would you come play on a recording with me?’ I said, ‘I’d be honored,’ ’cause I was really inspired by King Crimson when I was in high school; it was part of my DNA. So I went to the session the next day with myself and the great Tony Levin on bass, and Robert showed me a song called ‘Breathless.’ I just tore it up with everybody. It was just a little trio — electric guitar, bass and drums.
“[Fripp] was very grounded and very staid and kinda quiet. But when he'd say something it was like dropping a bomb. There's a section in ‘Breathless’ that goes into this odd meter and you had to really keep counting it — it'd go even meter, odd meter, even meter, odd meter, and you had to keep counting. I wanted to get over it so I could be free in it, but I wanted to make sure I didn't mess it up for him ’cause my love for him was so deep. I wanted to make sure I did good for him.”
Carlos Santana
“I met him in '73, in Mahavishnu's living room, when I went to his house the first time. Out of the kitchen, into the living room, walks the superstar Carlos Santana. When I was at Western Michigan University for three semesters, all the black kids from Detroit, when they wanted to get high and do their exams and study, Carlos Santana's first album [the Santana band’”s 1969 debut] would be on their stereos. That was their music of choice — funky and Latin and get-high music.
“So Carlos was a damn superstar, and here he is in John's house saying hi to me. I was just flabbergasted by meeting these great champions together; it wasn't long before they did the Love Devotion Surrender album.
“Carlos has always been the kind of guy that would talk about God all the time. You never meet anyone like that; a lot of people talk about God, but Carlos would talk about God all the time — ‘I’m just so grateful to be alive. I'm so grateful to have God in my heart…’
“That's his name: Devadip — the eye, the lamp, the light of God. That’s how he lives, and that's how he plays. He's crying. Those long notes, I equate it to holding lightning; he could hold lightning in his hand like Jimi would do, those long, crying notes. He'd be crying for God. He's very sensitive that way.
“And he wants you to cry with him. He doesn't want no bullshit. He doesn't want cute and clever. He wants the snot out of your nose. He wants your sweat out of your brow. If you can bleed, he wants you to bleed. He's one of those kinds of cats.”
