Whether you realize it or not, Les Dudek is probably one of your favorite guitar players... The famous dual guitars you hear on Ramblin' Man? Dickey Betts and Les Dudek... The cool rolling guitar on Lido Shuffle? Les Dudek... Guitar on Fly Like an Eagle? Les Dudek... The catchy guitar riffs you hear on ESPN and Fox Sports Net? Well, you get the idea. Les recently paid a visit to XMFan for an interesting 45 minute interview. It provided a candid look into the soul of an artist who loves life and continues to breathe rock and roll over thirty years after he filled the shoes of the legendary Duane Allman.


XMFan: Legend has it you taught yourself how to play guitar. Is that true?
Les: Pretty much. I'm going to give some credit to a friend of mine, Mitchell Smith, who played in a lot of the local bands where I grew up. Other than that, I think I took one guitar lesson. The guy tried to teach me how to play "Mary Had A Little Lamb", and that was the end of it for me. I thought, "No, that's just not going to do it for me."

XMFan: Other than the Beatles, were there any other bands that helped shape your musical style in the early years?
Les: Oh, absolutely. The Beatles - at that time - you would've had to been brain dead to have not been a part of that. As far as other groups go, I had a lot of favorites. I really loved The Ventures, all that beach guitar they did with the Moserites. Come to find out, they were really Stratocasters! For a while, I actually played a Moserite because I thought it was the coolest, and then to burst my bubble I found out they were using Strats in the studio. (Laughs) Some local guys got me into the blues and that's when I started digging all the Kings - Freddie, B.B., Albert. Then you had the tail end of the British Invasion, acts that were influenced by the blues like The Stones and Yardbirds.

XMFan: At what age did you know you would make a living as a musician?
Les: You know, it's one of those things where I never really aspired to do this as a living. I really had no idea. It was kind of strange, the only things that seemed to interest me were playing guitar, riding motorcycles, and hunting down skirts. I guess when you're young that's kinda what you do. There was also a war going on, so nothing was set in stone. You didn't know if you were going to be here tomorrow.

XMFan: How did your parents feel about your pursuing a career in music?
Les: When I did my thing with The Allman Brothers, I think that was when they figured out, "Hey, this is for him!" (Laughs)

XMFan: So your work with The Allman Brothers on the Brothers and Sisters album was your first commercial album contribution?
Les: Yeah. I'd already played in a lot of local bands here in Florida, the last one being Power, and we did some recordings up in Richmond, Virginia, to try and get some deals going. I was in another band, Blue Truth, and we went to Nashville and did some recordings there but not much came of it. After I went to jam with Dickey (Betts), I mean literally just a few months after Duane Allman passed away, that was how I got involved with the Allman Brothers. Later in life here, when I think back on it, I didn't realize how short a period of time it was after Duane died. So there I was, standing where he would have been, recording what would really be their first big hit tune.

XMFan: So on Ramblin' Man, just to clarify, you were one of the main guitars throughout the song?
Les: When the song begins, Dickey is the first guitar to play a riff then I'm the second. The interaction continues throughout the song, so basically I play half the lead guitar.

XMFan: Popular music evolved dramatically in the 1970's, and you were right in the middle of these changes. Could you give us a rundown of some of your projects during this time?
Les: Well, I turned down a lot of projects! On the Brothers and Sisters album I played on Jessica. I actually co-wrote the song. Dickey will tell me when no one's around how bad he feels that I didn't get any credit for it. I'd tell him, "Hey, just write me a check and I'll feel a lot better!" (Laughs) But right around that time was when Marshall Tucker first came to town, and I remember jamming with those guys one night in Macon. Toy Caldwell asked if I wanted to be in their band - this was right before they recorded their first album - but I was just about to go on the road with Bobby Womack. Right as I was about to leave (with Womack), I got a call from my manager Phil Walden. Phil told me that there was this guy who wanted me to go on the road, who Phil thought would be a better guy for me. (Laughs) That turned out to be Boz Scaggs. Boz actually came into town looking for me, because he had heard about me and was looking for a guitar player.

We did a long tour with The Steve Miller Band after The Joker came out in '74. I was playing with Boz, and the James Cotton Band would open. At the end of Miller's set, he would bring Boz, myself, and James Cotton out and we'd finish the show. After the tour Miller invited me up to Seattle and we cut a bunch of tracks that ended up on at least four of his albums. Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams were a couple.

Around this same time I was contacted by Herbie Herbert, who was telling me he wanted to get the two "guitar banditos of the Bay Area" together to form this new band, to do the dual guitar slam thing. Basically he wanted me and Neal Schon to be in this band he was going to call Journey. He already had the name and everything. The one thing he didn't have was Perry. Steve Perry wasn't in there yet, so it literally went down like this: I was invited to go down to Columbia Records, which was right across the street from where Herbie wanted me to come for the first Journey rehearsal. So I went to the rehearsal and Greg Rolie was there, Ross Valory, Neal Schon, Aynsley Dunbar. They were really into this heavy jazz-fusion kind of stuff. After playing a couple of tunes I told them I had to go across the street for a minute, and I walked into Columbia records. As it turned out, the President and Vice-President of Columbia records offered me a solo record deal right there on the spot. So now I had to decide what to do... Go with Journey? Do this solo record? In one week's time, I went from doing absolutely nothing to having to decide whether to go with Columbia Records and have Boz Scaggs produce me, or I could go with Capitol Records and have Steve Miller produce me, or I could join up with this new band called Journey. I guess because of my affiliation wit Boz, I had been playing with him the longest, I decided to go ahead and start doing my own records. Had Perry been hanging out that day, I probably would have done the Journey thing. I thought that Perry brought that whole unit together with that voice, man. Rolie was a good singer, but let's face it, not like Perry. Perry was just a great vocalist.

I was offered the Chicago gig when Terry Kath died (in 1978). Bob Dylan offered me a job. I did end up doing the thing with Stevie Nicks, and Cher. I hung out with Cher probably a little longer than I should have! (Laughs) She kind of sidetracked me a little from my thing, you know? (Laughs again)

XMFan: Speaking of Cher, you acted in the movie MASK with her back in 1984, playing the part of a biker named "Bone." Did you enjoy the change of pace away from the music scene?
Les: It was really interesting. I'd never aspired to be an actor, but Cher and I had been hanging out - she'd been riding on the back of my motorcycle for seven or eight months - and we'd just been kinda tooling around. She was building what I call "The Egyptian Mausoleum" in Venice Canyon, so we were staying out in Venice Beach where she had a really nice condo. Kind of a neat thing to bop up and down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) on a Harley together, you know?

So we had been doing some method acting, and they needed a guy that had long hair, played guitar, and rode a motorcycle. As it turned out, Sam Elliott and I were the only two guys in the whole movie who could actually ride a motorcycle! (Laughs) I thought it was kind of hysterical. Also, it was kind of like being in Kindergarten between takes. What do you do? Uh, well let's tell some jokes to kill some time.

I'll never forget one morning. Sam Elliott got an early call, and I got a call later in the day, and when I got to the set everyone was really gloomy. They told me, "Hey, watch out. Sam's really pissed off because he got an early call and hasn't done anything yet." There was another scene that wound up getting cut out of the movie, where we were all standing next to each other and lowering a motorcycle into a grave. Harry Carey Jr. was originally supposed to die in the movie, but they cut it out because they didn't want too much death. The kid was already going to die at the end of the movie, so I guess they thought, "Let's just save it for the kid." But I was standing by Elliott and we're lowering this motorcycle, and no one's saying a word. No one would talk to Sam because he's pissed. Finally I just looked up at him and said, "Hey Sam, who gets to do what we're doing and make the kind of money we're making? Are we having fun yet?" He looked at me with one of those Sam Elliott shit-eating grins and said, "You know, you're right Les!"

One other time, I heard this big SLAM! It's was Sam's Winnebago door flying open, that had been caught by the wind. I heard him yell, "Hey Dudek!" I looked at him and he said, "Come here, I've got something to ask ya!" So I went over there and he said, "Hey man, I didn't know you played on Ramblin' Man! Get your ass in my Winnebago and have a real beer with me!" On the set, everything was near-beer, and all the joints we were passing were Prince Albert - you know, fake stuff. So he made it a point to invite me in so we could talk about rock and roll for a while.

XMFan: Tell us a little about your favorite guitars.
Les: I used to like Gibson until they wouldn't give me any. At one point I had acquired all the vintage guitars I could ever imagine from them. I had a '56 Les Paul, a '58, a '53. Had a '60 SG, and a '68 Les Paul that my mom and dad had given me. All of those were stolen except for the one my mom and dad gave me. I was really glad that one didn't go because they gave it to me when I was about fifteen. It's kinda been with me through this whole thing; I used it to play Ramblin' Man and most every other session I did. I put together a couple of Strats years ago, and have been playing Strats more than anything these days. I put one together in San Francisco back in '74, I think it's got a '69 neck and '74 body, and had it hot-rodded by John Carruthers out in L.A. I call her Margaret. Man, she's a hell-bitch!

XMFan: Do you have any personal favorite bands you follow these days?
Les: Not really. The Chili Peppers are cool, the Spin Doctors while they were happenin'. I don't really like the way the music industry has become so one-sided, it's all about selling a record and making a buck. It's not about developing or maintaining any kind of art. It's just a racket, just a business now. I love the Hunter Thompson quote, "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." (Laughs)

XMFan: Because you do so much studio music for television, do you follow any TV shows?
Les: Well, I used to watch Howard Stern a lot, until they kicked him off! (Laughs)

XMFan: What are some TV projects you have been involved with?
Les: Well, that rockin' guitar stuff you hear on ESPN and Fox Sports Net. On the E! channel, the music for Wild On and Search Party for a while. I get some play on Friends and other sitcoms, various TV and radio commercials. They call it library music, which for me is a side project, because I can basically do them in my sleep. They put you in the studio and just say, "Keep it drivin' Les, keep it smoking."

XMFan: Tell us about upcoming album plans.
Les: Well, I have about eighty-five percent of a new album written. The one that's out now, called Freestyle, hasn't really been released yet but is available on my website. Lots of companies have been approaching me and wanting to release live radio simulcasts I've done over the years, but I've been thinking that I have material in my archives that I can finish and would sound nicer. I just found out a couple of days ago there's a new label in L.A. that's interested in putting it out in stores.

XMFan: I've heard you'll sign items that people purchase from your website store.
Les: At their request I will, whatever items they buy through here. Go to www.lesdudek.com I'm also working on my dates page to try and keep things current. I'm playing with Marshall Tucker next month at some big biker-bash thing, then playing with Little Feat in Chattanooga, Tennessee in June. I'm thinking they want to put this record out also in June.

XMFan: Do you have any comments about the music industry and what you have learned over the years?
Les: It's disappointing. That's probably the best thing I can say about it. (Laughs) It's enlightening to see guys like Clive Davis resurrect someone like Carlos Santana and put him with Rob Thomas and some of these other young artists. It was such a good match and sounded really good, but Carlos was just doing the same thing he ever did! Carlos is just a great, great player. Clive is also really into that boy-band kind of thing right now, so I don't know. It's always been tough for artists, and the technology today is making it even tougher. What can I say?


Les' solo material can be heard on Deep Tracks, ESPN, Fox Sports, and E! Les' contributions to bands such as The Allman Brothers, Boz Scaggs, and The Steve Miller Band can be heard on XM Cafe, Deep Tracks, The '70s, and Top Tracks.