When Tommy Emmanuel was invited to jam with Les Paul during his long-running New York residency, the Australian acoustic guitar virtuoso quickly learned the legendary guitarist wasn’t a man to be trifled with.
Paul may have written his name into guitar folklore with his game-changing electric guitar design — having nearly worked with Leo Fender before his Gibson relationship blossomed — but what he could do on the instrument was hardly second-rate, either.
Between 1995 and 2009 — when he died, aged 94 — he held a residency at the small, cosy jazz and blues club, Iridium, packing it to capacity each night with fans eager to see Paul and his guests. He loved inviting guests to share the stage with him. Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards and Billy Gibbons were just some of the six-string whizzes to be extended an invitation during that time.
For two nights only — believed to be in 2007, when Paul was already in his 90s — Emmanuel found himself seated at that storied high table. And while he thought the first show went off without a hitch, he quickly felt the sting of Les Paul’s disapproval over what he’d done onstage in the 180-capacity room at 1650 Broadway.
“I take a little solo, then throw it back to him, I play one more tune, like ‘Caravan’ or something like that, and then I bow and go off,” Emmanuel recounts the plan of action with Q104.3 New York. “I didn’t make anything of it, and I was being very low-key.”
Low-key, it turns out, wasn’t what Les Paul was after.
“When he finished the first show, I was sitting in the dressing room, and he came straight in like a rabid dog,” the Australian continues. “He said, ‘I know what you’re doing! You think I’m old. Don’t you ever hold back onstage again. When I call you out there, you get up there! You give it hell. You give it all you’ve got!’
“I looked him right in the eye, and I said, ‘Okay, Les, I will.’”
He was a man of his word. Night two was a rather different affair.
“He calls me up, I come running out there, I crank my amp up, and I go straight into ‘Classical Gas,’” he says. “The audience erupted at the end, jumped to their feet. They were screaming. Deafening. And just going wild.”
If Emmanuel, in that moment of jubilation, thought he’d had the last laugh, he was about to have the smile wiped from his face. That honor belonged to his host.
“When they finally calmed down,” he goes on, “Les gets on the mic and says, ‘Ah! So he waits till I’m old to come and beat me up!”
Speaking to Guitar Player previously, Emmanuel dished out his top tips for guitarists, including why it's “part of the musical dialog” to learn from fellow players, and why covering songs can unlock parts of your playing you never knew existed.
Back in April, he also revealed his grueling pre-show routine. It's not for the faint-hearted.
