The story of Narada Michael Walden's career almost seems to have a charmed life. Starting in the hazy days of 1974, at the tender age of twenty-one, Narada (pronounced Nar'da, the middle 'a' is silent) finds himself taking over the drum duties of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, filling the shoes of the recently vacated and very formidable Billy Cobham.

No small feat indeed, when you consider not only are you taking over the chair once occupied by Cobham, but your fellow band mates now are Jean-Luc Ponty on violin, Ralph Armstrong on bass guitar, Gayle Moran on keyboards, and guitarist extraordinaire, Mahavishnu John McLaughlin! Talk about pressure!

The challenge facing Narada he met head on. He left his own mark with this band which ultimately set the stage and is now regarded as one of the principal architects of fusion music as we now know it.

Narada and his drum kit were suddenly in great demand, as he found himself keeping the beat with the likes of Joe Zawinul and Weather Report, and the great Carlos Sanatana. He was the primary force behind Jeff Beck's historic album, Wired, forever cementing together the worlds of jazz and rock music.

Narada had an ear and feel for rhythm, which found him right in the center of the Disco music explosion of the late seventies. Bringing with him the fusion sounds he had helped to trail blaze and incorporating them into the dance beat of the day, this gave him his first taste of the "mirrored balled" stardom that was only to explode even more in the next two decades to come.

All of this he was able to do very publicly, while privately he was adhering to the teachings of Guru Sri Chinmoy, something of a personal paradox given the crazy times of the day.

Fast-forward ten years to the mid-eighties. Having perfected his song-writing skills, Narada branches out into producing and cultivating other artists. Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, and Mariah Carey are suddenly in his charge. Then came the kudos; Grammy Awards, Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, he is named Billboard's "Producer of the Year." Narada is now involved in producing and writing for trans-Atlantic artists, more hit songs come, more accolades.

Even with all of this fame and fortune, he still finds time to be involved with numerous charitable causes such as UNICEF, the Breast Cancer Society of America, and the Leukemia Society of America, for which he was named "Man of the Year" in 1998.

And the great music is still being made. Narada has now involved himself with newer, younger artists, such as Tatyana Ali, the great gospel group, the Winans, and re-establishing the Temptations as serious recording artists, by writing and producing "Stay", their first number one hit in twenty-five years! Yes, most definitely a career to be proud of.

But back in the hungry days of December 1974, Narada befriended a young guitarist named Tommy Bolin. He played on his first solo album, Teaser, hung out with him in New York. Narada even went so far as to join his band in the spring of 1976. Now cynics might scoff and say in the grand scheme of Narada's great thirty-plus year career, that the time he spent with Tommy Bolin was insignificant. A mere one night stand in a career that has truly gone on to become multi platinum many times over.

I didn't see it that way, and neither did Narada Michael Walden.

This project began right after the Tommy Bolin Music Festival of last year. Still groovin' with the good vibes of that weekend, the idea of interviewing Narada came to me on the flight home from Sioux City.

I contacted his management team at his Tarpan Studio offices outside of San Francisco. After my initial phone calls and emails, I was put in contact with Lulu Holmgren, who pretty much runs the business side of Tarpan Studios. After explaining what I was I up to, and with her realizing I wasn't some sort of lunatic, we began a great email and phone exchange. She thought the idea was great, only problem was Narada was in Japan for an extended promotional tour for the Music Of Love project, and wouldn't be home till Thanksgiving Weekend. Not a problem, we kept in touch once a month via emails.

The original idea was to have it be an email interview, when I suddenly received a phone call from Narada's office that he was ready, but wanted to do it via the phone, since he really liked my questions, but felt he could better answer them live. That suddenly changed things around, but all for the better.

When the actual interview finally took place, Narada made me feel so at ease, like we knew each other for years. He was excited to talk about his new Christmas album, Music Of Love, and was just as excited to talk about his days playing with Tommy, Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra and anything else I came up with. He was that loving and open.

However, there was a point during the interview I thought I detected a bit of sadness on his part when talking about his time during the spring 1976 Tommy Bolin Band Tour. But he rallied, and even went on to give a great insight of those troubled days.

As you read on, I've tried the best I could to relay the energy and good vibes that Narada put forth during the interview. He made me feel so comfortable. It was indeed a wonderful Christmas present for me.

So, here is the exclusive, and I do mean "exclusive" Tommy Bolin Foundation interview with Narada Michael Walden. Enjoy!

It's just about 4:00 PM, and I look out the window, and notice a light snow is falling over Center City. I smile to myself, and think when we started this project, it was late summer, and it was still 90 degrees. Mimi Perrier from Tarpan Studios answers the phone. "Hi Mimi, it's Art. " "Hello Art! You're right on time, Narada's waiting, let me put you through...."

AC: Hello Narada, this is Art Connor from Philadelphia, for The Tommy Bolin Foundation, how are you?

NMW: Oh really good thank you, you're in Philadelphia?

AC: Yes, right in downtown Philly. A belated welcome home from Japan from everyone at the Foundation.

NMW: Oh, God bless you, thank you so much man. I also very spontaneously just flew to the White House, and did the TNT Christmas show for Special Olympics, which will be airing tonight on TNT. (Show aired on December 19th, and again on Christmas Eve) I'm on one song with Stevie Wonder, and I'm on the closing song with everybody.

AC: You were there for quite along time working on the Christmas album, Music Of Love. Can you tell us briefly how the project all came together, and how you were able to get artists like Sting, and Stevie Wonder to participate?

NMW: Sure, I'll talk about anything. We released this album for the holidays called Music Of Love. It has Stevie on there and this beautiful girl named Kimberly Brewers, doing a great duet called "I Love You More." And Sting and Yolanda Adams are together on a duet, "Where Will You Be For Christmas?" And En Vogue is on there.

AC: You did this all for UNICEF?

NMW: Yeah, all proceeds go to children at Christmas time, so we're really happy about it.

AC: How did you get all these artists together?

NMW: It was kind of hard, I had my girl Lulu who works for my studio here, (Lulu Holmgren is actually the manager of Tarpan Studios) just call like crazy, myself calling like crazy, Ron Weisner, another manager, pulling in his contacts, kind of like a grass roots thing, and making it happen you know. But people all have a heart for children so that made me feel good. But it was very hard. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Challenging, just wore us out!

AC: How did you approach producing the various artists? Did you already have a set of ideas of what you wanted from each of them, or did you encourage collaboration and sharing of ideas from everyone concerned?

NMW: Well, I would have an idea, which I would share with them, but if they wanted to do something else, I was always open to that. Like in Stevie's case, he wanted to compose his own song, and that took almost the final hour to get it composed, written and produced. Sting, I sent him a song and he loved it! So that made our life easier, so I had to get it recorded, get it prepared for him, he came out and I had Yolanda come to the studio. He had three hours to sing, so we just got it out of him the best we could. You know, that was a piece of cake.

AC: It sounds like you are very pleased how it came out.

NMW: Yeah, I am very pleased.

AC: Why was Japan chosen to record the album?

NMW: I didn't record it in Japan, I recorded here in my studio, and also in LA but it comes out in Japan this year, because that was the deal. I was given the funding from a company in Japan to actually put the album out, so they said they wanted to have it first one year on their own, and then next year, I'll try and release it everywhere.

AC: You spent a lot of time there. Japan is a country rich in their own culture and art dating back hundreds of years. Why do you think the Japanese, especially the younger generation, are so drawn to our Western culture and music?

NMW: Well, because they are so disciplined and so polite, I think you always like the opposite. There's an affection for the opposite. Plus, there's a great love for America. I think since World War II, with all the soldiers being there, and bringing cigarettes, gum, candy, music, jazz, and blues, all of that really actually became a part of their culture.

I had a ball there, they just treat me like a god, and I love it! I'm so happy to have that kind of love and respect you know? Because America kind of goes on these waves where they think their elders are disposable, and I don't like that. So I like to go where people love me and are kind to me.

AC: Well, a lot of us old Tommy fans and music fans know who you are, and we love you! Are you ready to walk down Rock and Roll memory lane?

NMW: Of course!

AC: Now for our younger fans and readers eager to hear about your time many years ago playing and recording with Tommy, can you tell us how the two of you originally met?

NMW: I remember being outside Electric Lady Studios, down in the Village [E.L.S. Street Entrance, on Right.]. I was leaving from a session with Mahavishnu Orchestra working on the Visions Of The Emerald Beyond, and he was just coming in as I was leaving, that's when we very first met. He was signed to the same management company as we were signed to, Nat Weis Entertainment. He was also on Nat's label at the time, Nemperor Records.

AC: Which had a very direct Beatle connection at the time.

NMW: Nat was tight with the Beatles' management, mainly Brian Epstein.

AC: Brian had some interest in Nemperor early on when it was being set up.

NMW: Yes! And Brian and Nat were very, very dear friends, that's the Beatle connection you're talking about. So, that was the first time I met him, and we started talking about he was making an album on Nemperor, with Nat Weis, and of course I knew Nat Weis, because he was managing John McLaughlin. That was our first connection.

AC: So then you ended up actually playing on Teaser on the track 'Marching Powder.' There are some heavy duty hitters on that track - Jan Hammer, yourself, David Sanborn, and of course Tommy.

NMW: Yeah that's right. The thing that people have to know about that song is that it's all live! Because we would be ready to over dub stuff, you know we're very sophisticated in our recordings but that particular song was extremely spontaneous. I enjoyed it so much, because we learned it on the spot, and recorded it on the spot, and every note you're hearing is done live. And it was my first time actually recording live with Jan Hammer.

AC: I don't think a lot of people know that, I'm sure they think it's a studio track with the usual layers of dubbing.

NMW: No, it was not. You're hearing note for note what Tommy wanted us to play, or to hear and to do or whatever came out, and that's what it is, and BAM! There it was.

AC: Was that the only thing that came out of those sessions?

NMW: Yeah, I think we did another jam, which I don't really know what it was anymore. But, I recall us doing a few others and learning that song and maybe doing one more jam or something, but that was the primary song. There was a lot of buzz in the room you know, cause David Sanborn alone is a killer, everyone was just at their prime.

AC:That's right, we were all in our early or late twenties.

NMW: In my case I was in my early twenties, I was like twenty-three or twenty-four.

AC: Has it really been that long ago?

NMW: What year was it?

AC:The Teaser tracks you are on were probably done early on in 1975.

NMW: I was then twenty-two.

AC: How about that! Twenty-two years old, playing in Electric Lady Studios with all of those great musicians, exciting times they must have been!

NMW: We didn't think about it like that, we were just making music we loved. You see the reason I was comfortable playing on that track, I had just finished Visions Of The Emerald Beyond with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in that same room, produced by Ken Scott.

So when I brought my drums back down there, they set them up right back up in the same spot where I had been for about a month during those sessions.

AC: Which brings us to a year later, 1976 when he invited you to join the band.

NMW: Yeah, that's true, but as we were recording 'Marching Powder', we went out on the street and hung out, and I told him, "When you go on the road, let me know, maybe I'll join you." And that was us, like you know, just us talking shit basically.

AC: But he took you up on it.

NMW: Yeah...that he did.

AC: From a fan base the first Tommy Bolin Band, TBB1, has always been considered the best line up, because it was yourself, Tommy, Norma Jean Bell on saxophone, Mark Stein on keyboards, and Reggie McBride on bass guitar. It was never duplicated, and obviously never will be. Were there plans to record a proper group album with that lineup?

NMW: Not necessarily, no... we just played live and ...(Narada pauses here to collect his thoughts) You know I left the band before it ever became materialized to actually record anything as a group. Because by that time, it kind of got just too far out.

(For a brief moment, I got the feeling Narada suddenly may have felt a bit sad talking about this, having not thought or talked about the TBB1 situation in years)

AC: Right, well there are about four or five different recordings of the band live with you on the skins. I know we're going way back, and if it's uncomfortable to bring all of this up, we can go onto something else.

NMW: No, it's not really, it's ok, I remember everything, ask me anything.

AC: Tommy just came off of Deep Purple, which was another whole line of music, and there were other things involved, what was he listening to, or what did he want the band to be listening to before you went out on the road? Was he tired of the metal and hard rock?

NMW: No, no, it was very simple. We rehearsed at SIR in LA and Hollywood,

AC: Where do you see music going, or where would you like to see it head?

NMW: Music on the black side, on the R&B side is always pioneering. Like a rocket ship. It's almost getting to the point it's gotten so sophisticated in a way, sophisticated in rhythms that the white young kids can get to it because they dig hip hoppers . The white young kids out on the East Coast and the West Coast really dig what the black kids are doing, like Destiny's Child, and all of the rap that DMX is doing.

Those rhythms, that progressive beat, and I think that is going to spill over to rock, where rock is going to become even more advanced, where people are going to want hear more of the hip rhythms in rock. You're already getting a taste of that with bands like Barenaked Ladies, from Canada, doing all that progressive reggae vibe into pop music, and busy rapisms into pop music. You're going to be seeing a lot more rhythm on the pop side.

And on the R&B side, I hope that we have more melody, getting back melodically, that's my hope. For example, like that record, the number one R&B record that's out now it's really unique, it's kind of a Japanese melody. (Narada starts singing Ja Rule's "Everything Little Thing We Do") That's really interesting, because it has the incredible rhythms and that very unique melody. I like that kind of thing.

AC : A question from our gear heads and kit freaks. What's your drum set up like these days?

NMW: I'm endorsed by Pearl Drums now, back in the day I had Gretch, but Gretch would never give me anything for free! (laughing) And Pearl will, so I use free things, and I make them mine. I make them sound like I want them to sound. So Pearl has been very kind to endorse me and give me things I like. I also use Paiste cymbals. I used to use Zildjian's but they never gave me any free cymbals either, so I stopped using their stuff (laughing). Finally I found the ones I really liked that gave me the right timbre and the tone.

AC: I remember seeing the brief interview you did for the TBA video from a few years back, where you were saying you were knocking the paint off the drums playing with Tommy.

NMW: Well, you know what happened was Billy Cobham told me that! Billy Cobham and George Duke were looking down from the balcony at the Roxy. And I was so frightened, because that's Billy Cobahm up there with George Duke! So we play our entire show and all of that, and George and Billy came back stage afterwards, and Billy, it was one of my first times really meeting him again after Mahavishnu Orchestra, and he said to me, "You were banging the paint off them drums!"

AC: I'd like to close with just a few more questions about Tommy if I may. Would you ever consider supervising or producing a Tommy Bolin tribute album? Fans would love to hear Stevie Wonder take on a song like "People, People," or perhaps a strong voiced woman like Whitney or Mariah tackle "Dreamer" with Jeff Beck doing the guitar solo. Someone of your stature could make this work.

NMW: Of course! I am the director head Indian chief! (laughing) I will play drums on a couple of jams and do my own tribute to him. The problem is these type of artists are very hard to get to do anything besides their own projects, they're just tough. Whitney, Mariah, Stevie, those that you just named, are the hardest on the damn planet.

I couldn't get Whitney or Mariah on my Christmas album! Mariah, because she is signed to Columbia, they won't let their artists do other projects that don't come out on a Columbia label. Very difficult, extremely difficult. But I think you can get other people without quite as big a name to do tributes. People that would have a heart for Tommy, maybe more on the rock side.

AC: I think a lot of people would be glad to hear that you would be interested in a project like this.

NMW: Have the cats find a budget, and I'll help in anyway I can.

AC: Narada, here's where we are going to get to the nitty gritty. You knew Tommy as a musician and as a friend. Of all the great guitarists that you have worked with over the years, John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, where you would you place Tommy in that hierarchy?

NMW: Well it's like stars in the sky. You got Venus, you got Mars, and you got the Sun and the Moon, these beautiful star clusters that I love, like the cluster where the Japanese souls come from.

Anyway, you need all the planets in the sky, you need all the other stars that are there to help the universe stay in balance, and that's how I look at the great ones. The great ones that make a beautiful light in the sky that lights our hearts that lights our spirit when we hear them. And that's how I look at Tommy, and John Lennon, and Jimi Hendrix, the great ones who have given so much a part of their lives to music, a part of their soul and heart, that they are eternally with us, their gift is their music for us.

I don't rate them against the other, they could never compete with each other, because each one brings such a special way of doing something. Like no one can do what Jeff Beck does, you see what I'm saying to you? Jeff has his own touch, his own artistry that only he does. And the same with Jimi Hendrix. No one, I don't care who, I loved Stevie Ray Vaughan, but he wasn't Hendrix. See what I mean? Only Jimi's Jimi. Only Steve Ray is Stevie Ray.

Tommy Bolin is Tommy Bolin. I would have liked to have seen him live longer, so he could have even done more if he was here, what he would have loved to have done. But given his short life, he was so beautiful, and so profound, and so loving, he was very cosmic in his thinking, he loved to take time to build his solos.

AC: Where do you think he would be musically if he were here today, would he be in a new vein, or maybe just on an island somewhere?

NMW: That would be his choice, if he wanted to keep playing music. I mean he was the kind of cat that would keep that rock/ funk thing alive, because he was very strong in that world. He could do the rock, like Deep Purple, he understood rhythm, he also understood melody. He would be the kind of guy that would have further advanced the rock world. Like what Sting does. Sting advanced the rock world. That's what I think.

AC: In the New Year, what projects are coming, are you planning a vacation or anything?

NMW: I'm not going to take a vacation right now. I'm building new artists, new people and keeping it alive, my heart is to write new songs for the new age coming, and I want to do many, many, great things. So just always stay tuned. One thing up front, I'm going to be mixing the album recorded at Carnegie Hall this year for the Rain Forest Concert, with Sting, Elton John, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Ricky Martin, the show we did last April, I'll be mixing and producing that, it should be out this April coming.

AC: I really appreciate the time you took to spend with us to do this, and to talk about all of your great music and of course Tommy Bolin. On behalf of the Tommy Bolin Foundation, I would like to wish you, your family, and your staff at Tarpan Studios, a very happy holiday season, and all the best that God can bestow in the New Year. We look forward to all of your new projects and seeing you soon in the New Year.

NMW: God bless you to! And I want to leave a message to all of the fans: Tommy's spirit looms large at this holiday season, bright like the brightest star in the sky. To remind us... get all of the bull shit out of your life! And as Tommy would always say, "If they can't take a joke, Fuck 'Em!" (Laughing)

AC: (Laughing) Thank you so much!

NMW: Love to all of you, Peace!