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Welcome back to another episode of the Piano Pan. I am your host, Yukimi Song.
So here's a little question for you today to my listeners.
What do Van Clyburn, Long Long, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Carole King, and Chick Corea have in common? Ta-da! That's Jim Wilson, an award-winning Yamaha recording artist, concert piano technician, and author of his newly published book, Tuned In, Memoirs of a Piano Man, Behind the Scenes with Music Legends and Finding the Artists Within.
And he is also, of course, the honorable guest of today's episode.
I had an interview session with Jim a few days ago, actually, and then during the conversation that I had with Jim, you will hear a little glimpse into his book.
And also he will share some really incredible stories, crazy stories of Jim's professional relationships, which some blossom later into personal friendships with some of these musical icons that I mentioned earlier from, you know, classical music industry to pop music industry.
Anyway, so having a conversation with him really reminded me that it takes a village to do what we do, right?
And Jim will get deeper into the tech side of the piano world and how he is helping iconic artists feel the sense of freedom while they're performing or while they're working on their songs or working on their compositions.
And well, also, it's important to mention that Jim is also a recording artist and he has recorded 10 smash hit albums and you will hear his journey and creative process of being the award winning musician during our conversation.
All right, let me quickly introduce Jim by reading his bio.
Jim Wilson is far more than a gifted piano tuner and technician. His life story is a testament to resilience and transformative power.
Raised in a broken home in Amarillo, Texas, Jim defined the odds to become a multi award winning recording artist. His book, Tuned In Memoirs of a Piano Man, combines showbiz glamour with profound personal tragedy and lessons learned along the way.
It's not just a memoir. It's a guide that entertains and inspires with invaluable insights for musicians and fans alike.
Jim's musical journey began at age seven with a guitar, leading him to compose music by age nine, moving to L.A. in his early 20s.
He quickly became a go to piano technician for his top artists and played a pivotal role in developing the first MIDI adapter for acoustic pianos in the 1980s.
The sudden death of his closest friend prompted a life reevaluation, propelling him into a successful solo career with the encouragement of his mentor.
With 10 albums, four hitting the Billboard top 20, two PBS specials, and over 75 million streams of his music, Jim has made a significant mark in the music world.
He is also a lifetime member of the Recording Academy.
All right. So before diving in, a warm welcome to new listeners and big thank you to our faithful TPP fans.
Please don't forget to rate and review the show on your favorite podcasting platform.
Dear TPP fans and listeners, I am thrilled to welcome you into this exciting explode with Jim Wilson.
Please enjoy the show.
You are listening to the PianoPod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.
So welcome, Jim, to the PianoPod. So honored to have you.
Oh, what an honor to be here, Yukimi. Thank you very, very much for having me.
Thank you. First of all, congratulations on the release of your autobiographical book.
Tuned in. I see you've also caught the attention of People magazine lately.
Yeah, man, that was it was released on April 1st, which is April Fool's Day.
I think it's a joke, but sure enough, it came out. It's like, oh, man, it's it's been such a such a journey.
It's been a four year marathon, you know, writing this book and and then to have that People magazine honor me with this wonderful, wonderful article on my my whole journey.
And it was just it was a dream come true.
But, you know, well deserved with your impressive track record of your career.
And that, you know, as I make my way through your captivating memoir, I'm about three quarters of the way through.
And it's clear why your story is making waves.
You're not only a Billboard charting recording artist, but also a highly sought after piano technician and servicing the who's who of the industry.
Wow. And then and also pioneering the first media adapter for acoustic pianos.
So today's conversation will delve into your memoir and the diverse aspects of your career.
However, as a classical pianist myself and host of the PianoPod, I would like to start with this topic.
Yes, you as a piano technician and you've worked with, you know, the introductory portion of your book, your story begins with your interaction with Paul McCartney.
Yeah. And you've also worked with legendary figures like Van Clyburn, Lang Lang, Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, Barbara Streisand, Elton John, Phil Collins, Keith Emerson.
So what was it like to work with these legends? Well, let's start with Lang Lang.
I know that the the slant of this, the direction of your podcast is toward classical music.
And I do have a few little fun nuggets, I think, of that you might enjoy of me getting to work with these incredible artists, Lang Lang and Philippe Entremont and Van Clyburn, et cetera.
But just to set the set the table a little bit, the reason that I got into piano tuning, I had wanted to be a singer songwriter.
And I thought a couple of bands I was playing in back in Amarillo, Texas, the keyboard players could also tune pianos.
I thought, well, that'll be a great way to support myself in Los Angeles while trying to make it as a singer songwriter.
We'll get more into that later. But that's how I came to be a piano technician. And one of the very first artists that I got to tune for.
I thought before I moved to Los Angeles, I'm going to go back to Amarillo to kind of get my tuning chops together.
I had heard that Van Clyburn was coming to Amarillo and I thought, oh, my gosh, I really would love to see him perform.
And so I go to the Amarillo Symphony Office. To my good fortune, the receptionist is out to lunch and the manager says, I'm so sorry, there's nobody here, but I'll go ahead and help you.
And what do you do? And I said, well, I'm a piano tuner. I literally had just been two weeks out after piano tuning school.
Oh, really? Well, it just so happens that we we now need one where, you know, our piano tuner left the country, left the city.
Would you be interested? I said, yes. Well, could you tune it tomorrow? So I did the kind of an audition tuning for them.
They really loved it. The very, very first artist that I tuned for was Van Clyburn.
And back when I was first starting, it was it was a four hour ordeal for me tuning pianos, because, you know, it takes a long time to develop that certainty.
I could get the results that I wanted, but it just it was a much longer process.
So they had the Steinway Concert Grand and I tuned for the the it was a brand new Steinway Concert Grand.
I tuned the piano for a Vans concert. And would you meet with the artist?
He has some concerns about the the tone of the instrument.
And, you know, voicing is one of the last things that you develop mastery with when you are learning your piano technology chops.
So he said he found the piano a bit dark. Now, after decades of experience, I feel very confident to deliver whatever tone they want.
If it's brighter, you know, more mellow, whatever.
But unfortunately for me, I was able to get just the amount of additional brightness that he wanted with kind of the low hanging fruit, just kind of lightly filing the hammers.
He was very, very pleased. And at the end of that whole thing of a couple of concerts, he wrote me this wonderful little endorsement.
Dear Jim, thank you for the wonderful attention to detail on the piano care, et cetera, et cetera, which I turned into a wonderful little endorsement and flyer.
But you might find this funny that so it's it's Van Clyburn, Emperor Concerto.
Big night. I'm in the audience. I've just tuned the piano. I'm waiting for the the big thing to begin.
And Van Clyburn comes out, big applause, everything.
The tail puts the tails out and he sits down on the bench and he kind of takes a minute.
He nods to the conductor and he looks up and he sees something. He goes, Wait a minute.
God, what, what, what?
And the piano lid and the piano lid prop should be at right angles.
I see this a lot. And there's another receptacle that's intended for the short prop.
Somebody had put the the lid prop in the wrong receptacle and now is that at the wrong angle.
So Van got up from the bench, went over it around and changed it and to the thing is to the correct angle.
And then he started. But, you know, everybody's heart skipped a beat, especially mine.
But man, what a what a thrill to hear your work as part of this incredible event.
You know, Emperor Concerto, my God, you know, just and one of the masters, you know,
but he was very, very sweet and very, very accommodating.
And what a what a gift to be able to see somebody like that up close and personal.
Right. But it's like that's like one of the very first gigs as a technician.
You already hit the top from the beginning. That's that's amazing.
So much later than how how was it to work with long, long and well, long, long was that was an extraordinary thing.
So maybe I don't know, five, six years ago, long, long and Herbie Hancock were doing concerts together at the Hollywood Bowl.
And they they skipped a night in between.
So like let's say it was on a Monday night and then a Wednesday on the Tuesday on the day in between long, long was doing a
a concert. And then they had a concert in the
and they volunteered to do a commercial for PSA for the World Wildlife Federation, I believe.
So they had this Steinway D at a rehearsal hall.
Would I come to the piano? Yes, of course.
So I tuned the Steinway D. He comes in and he he's very high.
My pleasure. You know, he's very and he's just kind of arriving, you know, and there's a whole set full of people to shoot him
and and take video and just very politely nodding.
And he sits down to play the piano and he's kind of continuing to get himself there.
So he's looking at the the lights and he's looking at nodding to the production manager.
Hi, good to see you. And then he'll look at me like his tuning sounds great.
And then but what he's playing, you came to me is is Ave Maria and which I think was the encore piece that he'd been playing.
And he's doing this this crossover thing.
He's never once looking at the keys, but and he's kind of his attention is on getting himself here at this set and kind of looking around.
And while he's playing Ave Maria and to be that close to that level of mastery, I was I was verkleemt because just to see this this
artistry, this effortless mastery where he's just playing this piece with such beautiful nuance without even thinking about it.
I was choked up just standing there. You know, I could barely keep it together because it was so stunning.
And they look at me and nods beautiful. You think that's beautiful.
I'm in the presence of a master here is really extraordinary. And we had a chat afterwards about the action of that piano, which it was not my responsibility.
You know, I was just there to tune it. But he was he founded a bit firm.
And to my amazement, no piano technician had kind of taken a minute to walk him through and say, here's what down weight means.
And here's what up weight means. And here's here's let's do some things to your piano to give you a more inviting touch.
As long as we're on that topic. Down weight means how many grams of weight does it take to push the key down?
Up weight means once the key is down, how many grams of weight is the key capable of returning?
So in a perfect world, you have a kind of low, medium to low down weight, meaning it's easy to push down.
So maybe 50 grams, 52 grams of down weight.
And but you still have a nice, healthy up weight, meaning maybe 28 grams where the key moves down easily, but it returns quickly.
So you can you can have many different combinations where it's a really high down weight and a really low up weight,
which probably tells us that you've got excessive friction in the action somewhere.
Or if you have a really high down weight and a really high up weight, not to get too into the weeds here, but it's to walk your listeners through.
I bet that they'll appreciate if you think of a seesaw.
Right. And let's say you have a sumo wrestler on one end and a baby on the other.
Well, obviously, you have too much mass on one end.
And when you push down on the baby end, it's going to be very hard to push down, but it's going to be quick to return.
So that's too much mass now.
So it's always going to be mass friction or geometry, which is the issue with a heavy or sluggish action.
I just told you mass. So let's take off the mass off this one end.
Now it's perfectly balanced. But let's add some friction.
Let's say the seesaw now has a rusty hinge.
It's going to be harder to push down, but it's slower to return.
So that's the basic idea about touch weight.
And as I said, it's always mass, friction or geometry. If it's geometry.
Well, it's a piano action, as we know, is not as quite as simple as a seesaw.
It's in fact three seesaws on top of each other.
So you've got the first one pushes up on the next one, pushes up on the next one.
And if those intersection points are off by even a millimeter and you get the geometry wrong,
suddenly it just is really sluggish and you it really messes things up.
So I had the honor of being the first technician to walk dear long, long through that.
And what a what a sweet, sweet guy.
It just he was, you know, just has this childlike energy about him.
And he was he was just so fascinated with when I was showing him, you know, with a grand weight, how you can do that.
And and what a sweet, sweet man to have that level of mastery and to be just like a child about the whole thing.
It's beautiful. But really shows that how little as pianist I'm not pointing fingers at, you know, Mr.
Long, long, but, you know, how little I know as a pianist about the instrument.
Nor do you really need to. And I get that. And I never want to walk people down a path that they're not interested in.
But if I if they show some sort of curiosity about it, I've kind of had some experience with simplifying these really complex subjects
and into nice little nugget size bits of information that they can digest and walk through the these ideas.
And and especially if it's if your life you want to at least be able to be conversant, I should think, with the caretaker of your instrument.
I find this sluggish and, you know, and then then we get into the world of tone.
And that's that's another thing where us technicians and you concert pianist, we want to have some kind of common ground where we can say,
you know, well, when you say it's bright or when you say it's dull, perhaps we're talking about that it needs some additional kind of vibrancy in the tone.
And then, in fact, it's already kind of a little bit on the bright side, but we just need to add some depth to it.
So there is kind of that communication barrier, and that's where it is good to have some some common ground of knowledge to be able to communicate concepts.
You know, right. So then be being the piano technician for such big names must come with not only the highest quality skills as a technician,
but also requires a unique set of challenges and expectations. Right. And what are some of the unique technical issues you've encountered while tuning pianos for, let's say, Van Kluyber?
Well, that's the first one. So maybe like Chick Corea, for example.
Perfectly. That's that's perfect to segue into. Chick Corea.
I had some extraordinary fortune when coming to Los Angeles. I moved from after about I did piano tuning school in Perkins School of Piano Tuning and Technology in Cleveland.
I did a year and a half in Amarillo of kind of perfecting my skills. And then I decided it was time to move to Los Angeles.
So I moved to Los Angeles in January 1979, drove my van two days, and then I arrived in Los Angeles at 6 p.m. on a Monday.
My friend says, Let's go hear this band. They're great studio musicians. They get together just for fun.
So that was at 9 p.m. So within three hours of arriving in Los Angeles, I had now met these guys who would all become friends and champions of my work.
Seals and Croft. This and that one would lead for me working for Supertramp.
And then that one would lead to another person who would connect me with Chick Corea.
And I began tuning for Chick Corea within months of arriving in Los Angeles.
Chick Corea is a legendary jazz pianist and just an extraordinary. I was so, so grateful to be in his presence.
He's just such a master at what he does. And so he had nine pianos and I tuned his pianos for 14 years.
One of them was he had a Hamburg Steinway D. He had a Bozzi nine foot. He had a Conover giraffe piano, some odd pianos.
He had a Kawhi in the pool room, you know, console. He had all these different pianos.
And then he had a one that was custom made. So we're talking about technical issues that that you get run into.
This guy in the Pacific Northwest, Mark Allen, was a really good woodworker.
He decided that he wanted to make his own piano. Well, it turns out it's kind of kind of complicated.
It's kind of involved. He did a really great job with the woodworking part of it.
And I believe he took a renter action and tried to put it into his his piano.
But he didn't get the geometry quite right. Remember, we just we just walked through the three main reasons you're going to have a action that that's not working right.
It's mass friction or geometry. Well, in this case, he got the geometry wrong.
Well, let me tell you, I was in over my head when he said, Chick said to me, it's like, God, this really feels heavy.
Now, this is kind of interesting here, because in fact, it was the opposite. So I just told you that 50 grams of down weight is kind of a nice medium level of down weight.
So in other words, you keep putting gram weights on the key. And when it finally starts to move down, that's how many grams of weight the down weight is.
Well, you expect to see when you get 55, 60 grams, 65 grams of down weight, that's really heavy.
And he said, this really feels heavy. So I put the gram weights on it.
It was about 40 grams of down weight, which is actually quite light. Well, why would he experience it as being heavy?
There was very little up weight, meaning that you push it down, but it's really slow to return.
So that's the experience of a pianist when they're playing the piano and it is slow to return it.
You just feel like you're kind of walking through mud, you know, where it doesn't return. It doesn't respond. Doesn't have a crisp return.
This really feels heavy, Jim. So fortunately for me, I was a member of the AMM, still a member of the Piano Technicians Guild.
And I turned to a couple of masters who've been at it a long time because, you know, there there are different levels of mastery that you accumulate over the years.
And you learn tuning and then you learn regulation and then you learn voicing and then you learn tone, touch regulation, you know, reweighting actions, et cetera.
So I called my friend Richard Davenport, legendary technician, and he determined that the geometry was wrong.
So we took this piano and it was it was quite a challenge. We finally got us where Chick was happy with it. But it's such an honor to be able to work for such extraordinary masters.
But it's a responsibility because you are the caretaker of their vehicle for artistic expression.
And the onus is on you to deliver if you want a little bit brighter tone. And sometimes you have to kind of walk them through what what it's kind of like Steve Jobs said, the the people don't know what they want until I give it to them.
As arrogant as that sounds, there is something to, you know, edifying people and offering a little bit something different than what they think they want. And they go, oh, yes, that's what I was looking for.
I was looking for more depth of tone. I was looking for more vibrancy in the upper harmonics. But yes, it's it can be a bit of a challenge sometimes.
Now, you in the book, of course, the story was Mr. Chick Korea is one of my favorites because you have such a wonderful relationship with the client, which is, you know, the big giant jazz pianist.
And he would I think he gifted you something very special. Maybe I don't want to give give my audience too much of a spoiler here because I would for my audience to read an actual book. But that's that's wonderful.
And then you also have a, you know, interaction or period of interactions with Mr. Elder John. And then, you know, I really like the story of the Greek tragedy.
Yes. And then so that's really where I realized the impact of being a piano technician. So how do you believe that piano technician contributes to the overall performance of a musician during concerts and studio recordings?
Well, I suppose, you can. It's it's not unlike when you go to a to see a film and you're extremely moved by the whole experience and it has an incredible soundtrack.
It shouldn't sort of jump out at you is like, oh, you know, in other words, the the soundtrack should be something that really enhances the whole experience. And if if they've done their job right, it's kind of a transparent thing that's just there.
So same thing with with servicing the piano. You want the piano to sound great. The senior thing at play here is the artist sitting on that bench and what they are trying to communicate with their art.
They've spent, you know, as Malcolm Gladwell says, the ten thousand hours, you know, of just drilling the the exercises and scales and et cetera, et cetera, to where it becomes this effortless mastery thing where you you're just you're just playing.
And the pianist is kind of part of the audience. You know, so ideally, whatever I do should be second to whatever they're doing. It should only support that.
And what was it like to work with Mr. Elton John, by the way?
Well, there are celebrities and then there's royalty and then there's there's there's that class that of Elton John, Paul McCartney, those icons, the the the icons that will that will quicken your pulse, let's say, you know.
But he's such a smart, smart man and he's really intelligent and very just this wonderful razor sharp, almost Groucho Marx level of delivery of comedy.
And he always takes it on himself to learn about everybody in his universe and what they like. And he'll be conversant about that. And it's a little intimidating at first. But fortunately for me, with every one of these people, I wasn't kind of like I just saw him in a coffee shop.
And I walked up to them and said, Oh, my God, can I have an autograph?
Which I'm not going to lie, I've been there, too. I'm on that level, too. And it's very intimidating. But fortunately for me, certainly with the midi adapter, I was ushered in at a high level, always by one of their peers.
Jim Wilson's got this really cool thing that he does with pianos. It's this midi adapter allows you to hook up synthesizers to your piano, or you can go midi signal out of your piano into your computer, etc.
So I was kind of ushered in with with high praise and and welcomed, you know, so that's that's a different experience than just kind of walking up to them on the street.
But Elton I went to his home outside of London, and near near Windsor Castle.
And it was just even driving down the driveway is like, my God, this is somebody's private residence, you know, this huge mansion and mansion, and this rows and rows of different kinds of cars and there's a Mercedes, there's a Rolls, there's a Bentley, etc.
And he's legendary, he's an icon and but if you if you're present and you're like in the moment, and there's you start to develop a bit of a rapport rapport with them and we're all just humans at the very core.
And if you can kind of get into that space. It's, it's a fun ride. It really is a fun ride and it's not always that easy, but I have been able to find that space with him and, and kind of joke around and he's really funny and like I said razor razor sharp wit.
Yeah, yeah, I read the part and it's incredible that being able to be that close to that, you know, icon almost like, you know, I would have been in a superimposter syndrome.
I'm not even like, say, believe me I've been there but sometimes, you know when you when you have to deliver, it's not like, hey, can I have your autograph it's like, okay, tell me what you're going to do to my piano.
And you have to jump into that mode. And once you finally find a little bit of footing and okay, I know this, I know what I'm doing. And then you can speak with a little bit of confidence and, you know, and you're offering something of value to them.
It gives you the right kind of frames the experience.
Yeah, I also, I'm just curious about Paul McCartney, because my entire family like my, you know, parents and my uncle. They own like an entire thing of albums by Beatles, right, and then they were so proud of that.
You know, the Beatles that the group had such an impact on. It was a global sensation that back then. And then, right and it changed the whole entire industry worldwide.
The planet is extraordinary.
Yeah, so, as I've said a few times, you know there's meeting a celebrity, there's me royalty and then even a little bit higher than else and john for me, Paul McCartney because anybody who was around for that earthquake that happened on February 9 1964 the Ed Sullivan show.
It was an extraordinary thing that happened and I guarantee you there's any artists of a certain age certainly in the pop and rock world.
What got you into music. I guarantee you ask that question.
You're going to hear a whole lot of people who say, I watched the Ed Sullivan show and the second I saw them. I knew that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, because they they blazed, they, they broke through the status quo status quo at that time was, here's the artist
the Pat Boone and you know the A&R man pitches them a song and they, you know, they sing you know, this and there's songs out there like how much was that doggy in the window and these cute little things will hear these guys who you broke the wall down and said no we're
going to write our own songs, and, and you know we're going to have our own look and we're going to sing our harmonies and.
Just, just amazing. So, any, any of us who were around to have that in our musical DNA, where it just penetrates so deeply that it just, it's part of you.
When you meet one of those figures from the musical version of Mount Rushmore, you know, way more than just a celebrity or somebody you've seen on film or whatever.
It's, it's extraordinary, you know, and the very first time I met him.
I was in England I was doing work on.
Actually I was flown over there for a movie called The Little Shop of Horrors.
And Steve Martin this is ages ago, and the Bob Gaudio who was producing the soundtrack for that.
He says to David Page the keyboard player of Toto.
Is there something kind of different that I can do in this movie and page. This is way way early on in the media doctor world scene.
Page says, man, you got to get Jim Wilson and MIDI their piano. And wait what's MIDI.
It's like, so early on. So okay so they negotiated to fly me over to do work on the piano for The Little Shop of Horrors it was being recorded in Pinewood, outside of London, flew me over put me up, you know, in a really nice four star hotel,
which kept me there for 10 days just in case something broke down which it wasn't going to. But I figure as long as I'm going over there one and I shake the bushes and see who I can do else might be over there might be interested.
My client David Foster, big record producer. He had just been working with McCartney on an album.
And I told David I'm going to England. Would you want to tell Paul about this thing. Well of course it's, it's something you want to be able to tell people there's this cool new thing you can do.
So McCartney said yes, and I'm over there in England doing some, some other work as I said for Little Shop of Horrors.
And then, there we go I'm, I'm taken from picked up by limo and my hotel in London, drove and drove and I was drove and Texas I can say that you came.
I was driven to the south coast of England, where studios.
The windmill exactly used to be an old windmill, it's actually got the windmill and, and it's very cool.
And then there's a guy who's here enough in rocks Paul. Hey, how you doing, you must be. He says, and I was to my amazement I actually heard human words coming out of my mouth, you know, because you're just so.
And I guess you must be, I'm going to say Paul.
And it's kind of ease things that it kind of helped quite a bit but even still, it's just, just to, you know, be in the presence of somebody who's changed your world who's changed the face of the planet with their music, you know, I know so many
songwriters and many of them you know if they if you have even one big hit. I mean that's like, you have made it, man.
You have a dozen to have 100, not just hits but classic songs that are part of our musical DNA.
So when you are in the presence of that person it's just so overwhelming.
But I, I, you know, was able to have a little bit of a conversation and.
And I, I'm going to be doing this to piano was all this media adapter and by the way it was you know it was a Humber Steinway be. And I noticed that the touch was a little bit sluggish and me being the cheeky Texan that I am I said, you know,
I noticed that the actions a little bit stiff I can do some things there it needs some regulation and voice, we can have out the tongue. Yeah, how about it.
So he, they leave me there it's a Friday evening I, I work well into my like six to eight hours on the piano, because I really really want to deliver and just give him an extraordinary touch tone and as well as this media adapter and tune it of course.
So, he comes in the next morning, it's Saturday, I'm now kind of past the initial shock of my god that's a that's a beetle.
And I come into will just be here and I need to get myself together to be able to be able to clearly explain to him what I'm going to what I've just done to his piano, and how the piano, how the media adapter works.
And the moment kind of goes on and it's this kind of nice little thing he's in a playful mood and we sit at the piano together on the same piano bench and showing him how it works and he's playing the midi playing the piano, which now I've hooked up to another synthesizer
going midi signal out of the piano into a synthesizer that has some kind of string sounds.
This is lovely. And he plays and you know you can see him just kind of lighting up and it is quite an amazing thing when for the first time in the piano's history, you were able to hear not just the piano but something else coming along with it.
And he's really lit up by it and it just turns into this kind of wonderful moment where he's, he's enjoying playing this we're happy we have a good. We developed this wonderful rapport and.
It's this conversation that goes into all sorts of things, all sorts of areas about Jimmy Page about Yoko about my family about his family and oh my, my aunt is up in Liverpool you must look it up one day and.
It was just this incredible magical hang that ended with him after four hours going anytime you're in the UK just give us a bell. And I did, and I went to his home studio like a dozen times I used to call him with with jokes and.
Yeah, so, you know, at, at some level we're all just people's and you know if if you get in that right zone it's it's a lot of fun.
And so, before, you know, I have so many questions about with these people but yeah, can you discuss your involvement in the development of the first media adapter for acoustic pianos. So, I'm thinking media, so then I thought it was like transferring
from, you know, one digital keyboard into, you know, digital sphere or something like a computer, but then you can also hook up like this my piano. Yes, is with the silent, you know feature, which is also so connecting acoustic to this.
Yeah, sure. What it is. And then also I, when I was a child, I had a Yamaha grand piano. And then, you know, my mother thought, oh, once you know my daughter would, you know, marry or something and then I will be alone so I need the piano that plays some music
for me because I don't, you know, my mother didn't play the piano so she bought this thing, silent piano player piano player piano. Yeah, right. So Yamaha has this this clavier that connects, you know, this machine to the piano then then she is it the machine itself was
like a size of like a mini fridge back then. Right. Yes. And then she would. Yes, yes, the wagon grand. Yes. Right. So, I want to know this technology or that more than that. How did you get involved? I think with this media thing, your career really took off even further.
You know, being able to meet Elton John, Paul McCartney, even like I read Barbara Strident ended up being in your apartment experiment thing. You know, the media.
Barbara Barbara was indeed and she still is she after 35 years she's a client and I was there just a couple of months ago and I, I told her assistant Renata I said, Renata my little maintenance ticker in here indicates.
I haven't been tuned in a few years. I said I presume it's been tuned since said, Oh, no, you're the only one that we let it to touch this like, wow. Okay. But no, Barbara has been a client for many years but Carol King is the one who was.
She was she became a client, and we actually took a road trip together which is another story but the her being in my apartment. That's what it sounds like an interesting setup right there let me clean this up real quick.
So, she needed to hear, she was going to be working on a film. She's a composer as well she was going to do her first film Murphy's Romance and she wanted something different for it.
She wanted to use the midi piano she was going to rent my piano. Could I come over and try it so she came over to my apartment to hear my kawaii kg two which is what I had at the time.
But I installed this midi adapter and so she loved the sound of playing the piano and then doubling what you're playing on piano with like for instance a road sound or string sound.
I'm a spy right now and I had to leave. Do you mind if I stay in place sure just lock up when you're done. And so when I came back she, there's this little note on my piano, Jim, I got the song so she was trying to find the inspiration for writing the song for
the end credits of mercy Murphy's Romance which she did.
And I asked how did I get into the midi thing. Well in my book tuned in memoirs of a piano man available at all fine retailers, wherever you buy books.
In the book there's a recurring theme, which I called the power of one, and, and what I mean by that is how one moment, one gesture, one little chance encounter can change the destiny of your whole life.
And then there have been many of those in my life but in my book I, I described four of them. And one of them was when I was tuning the piano on the set of name that tune which was an old TV show.
And obviously the piano was kind of a very important part of that, because people would go I can name that tune and five notes.
So, but as I was tuning the piano on this on this empty set of name that tune. I noticed across the way there was this guy, setting up a fender roads piano.
And I'm kind of late to my next appointment, and I think, I wonder if that's Chuck Monte this guy who had done this cool modification for a fender roads to make it sound brighter etc.
I'm really late I don't have the time to go talk to him but I'm just going to do it anyway. So that decision right then that turned out to be something that would change my life, because Chuck had heard about me Oh listen I've got a piano at home I would
love you to come work on it I did I did regulation voicing this full eight 10 hour job, a day long procedure.
Anyway, he would put me in touch with these two guys up in San Jose, who were working on this, this new adapter for acoustic piano to go a little bit further left here.
Steve Solani was working at sequential circuits which is a synthesizer company.
The head of sequential circuits was in communication with the head of Roland.
Both companies were kind of in competition with each other, but these guys had this brilliant idea.
What if we were to have a protocol of when you play your synthesizer, we can take a signal go out of that and trigger.
A synthesizer. So this really brilliant idea of how can we work together to create something that that you know a rising tide raises all ships, which they did Steve Solani was working at sequential he got wind of this new protocol that was being
developed called MIDI musical instrument digital interface that would allow you to communicate between synthesizers, he got the idea of what if I take some of their switches
and put them underneath the piano keyboard. And so even before MIDI protocol was fully announced.
And before the very first synthesizer the DX seven that had MIDI capability before that was out. He was working on this thing.
He needed a piano technician to kind of offer input. I became that guy, I got flown to San Jose many many times to help with the how this would best fit inside a piano underneath the keys.
I urged him to come up with lower profile switches because the switches that worked in a synthesizer.
They did work underneath the piano keys, but it really kind of felt a little bit spongy.
And then a number of other things and so I, I became the guy who, for the longest time, you came out was the only guy on the planet you could get this MIDI adapter from and kind of all the studios here in LA, once one studio had it, they, they all had to have it.
And so as I said the, the whole thing of getting flown to England to do work on the piano in the little shop of horror soundtrack which here's the funny thing about it.
If you watch that movie and you listen to the piano, it's like you can't really tell that it's there so so so that I got flown over there to work on that piano, and the end result is that you really can't hear that so much, but it did put me there in the UK,
and it gave me the opportunity to do this work from McCartney Elton Keith Emerson and Phil Collins and sort of, and 35 studios over there so when I first went to London.
They originally said hey we want to have you here for 17 days to install it, and then we want to have you here in case it breaks down I said it's not going to break down I didn't want to be away from my business in LA that long.
So I negotiated them down to instead of 17 days, I'll just stay at 10 days and this four star hotel.
Well, and the, at the, the, I ended up selling so many media adapters and installing so many over there that I ended up ended up staying three and a half months.
I'm over there for three and a half months, every studio over there like I said just a long list of artists and of course everybody.
It's not like I'm selling them. I'm working on fixing their refrigerator or something and repairman is a great thing but, but I was, you know, doing some kind of cool thing to their piano which is the vehicle of the artistic expression so it was really
a heavy time and getting to be ushered in at the highest level and be received by all these people with wonderful wide open arms it was a really incredible time.
Wow, now, you know, so what is it about you that attract so many a listers must be so good at what you do, you know, and you have to know technology and everything of course, and your reputation as a technician reputation as a person but
you know I read the some stories with a listers going, you know, dining out or whatever. Like, yeah, must be something so special that it's an honor that's not lost on me and I'm well aware that the first order of business is, I'm there as a service person,
I'm aware of their piano. But if over the years I've become known for being able to deliver a good result which I'm.
That's that's the part that you earn. And then the part that comes to you as the bonus is what people how they receive you.
And ultimately there's.
I'm being able to deliver a good result.
I, I do take it on myself to try to communicate as clearly as possible certain concepts about their piano and if they're curious I will.
I will try to walk them through here's, you know, I find that, are you happy with the tone, I always start with that.
If they say, yeah, I love it.
And if they say, why do you ask.
Just curious you know but if they say, I find it a bit bright it's like good now the doors open for me to communicate about that, because if I find the tone harsh and metallic.
They, they love it it's like, okay, then, yay. If you ever find that you want to make the tone, a bit more rich and warm, I can, there's a thing called voicing you know so many people think, well it's a Yamaha so it sounds like this, or it's a Steinway so it sounds like that
well, yes there are certain traits the tonal traits that each panel has, but that continuum of, of, you know, one extreme being dark, and maybe even dull and dead and then as you move on that, that needle is kind of warm, but a little bit muted and now in the middle
is that it's warm and rich but focused and clear, and then you keep moving at where it's now bright, and this harsh metallic.
And I found that, you know, one man ceiling is another man's floor and, for instance, I don't know if you remember Roger Williams, he was this pianist who played these kind of contemporary.
And the autumn leaves was his big, big thing, very sweet man. He wanted his Steinway B to just be really very very warm and muted. And the other extreme is Eddie van Halen, who had number of pianos and can can we make this family brighter and it's, it's
already so harsh metallic.
Really, okay.
But you know it's to each his own, and your original question was you know what brought me into these circles it's number one you, you know, want to learn your craft, and to deliver the best quality result that you do.
And that reputation opens the doors.
And if a personal relationship grows out of that.
Yay, and if it sometimes it doesn't sometimes you specifically you are summoned there by their assistant, especially at a time when the artist isn't going to be there, so that, and you're put in the category, you know, with, you know, the piano, the house is going to be painted
and the piano will be tuned all the garden work will all be done while the artist is away so that when they come.
You know, they don't have to mess with any of that I get it, and that's totally fine. But in many cases I've had the extraordinary honor of being able to get to know them and have a personal relationship with them and it is a fine line it's a bit of a tight rope,
you know, that kind of opens a little bit for you, then I do enjoy being in the presence of movers and shakers and it's it's rare air to be in that jet stream to be in the creative space of a Paul McCartney or an Elton or, or one of these legends
it's it changed me it's really kind of to to go a little bit further off piste here.
There's a thing in spirits the spiritual world called Shakti Pa.
When you are in the presence of an enlightened master somebody who has spent their life, just really fine tuning their being.
They are vibrating at a really high level. And when you are in the presence of somebody like that, and you feel that energy will something inside you awakens that's, oh, there's a different way of looking at life.
And when you're in the presence of a McCartney or somebody like that, when you get into that space, you sense that something is is there's a different way of being this is possible.
And I found that with McCartney especially when I have the opportunity to to be in a more creative space which you may be coming up on here in a little bit I'll, I'll hit pause on that story for now.
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You have such an extensive career as a pianist and recording artist and we'll get there. But before that, I want to.
But I know your start was actually not as a pianist, you started as a guitarist and turned songwriter. Yes, that's the reason you went from Texas to LA. Correct. Yes, yes.
I mean, it's just really, I don't know, like, out of this world stories in the book, and I'm not going to spoil but what's the start. I let's start with, how did you discover the love for music.
Well, I guess the direct answer that is, my mother really loved her folk music and her Joan Baez records and that kind of got imprinted in my musical DNA and like, Shannon do, you know, Shannon do long to hear you.
And I think there's something about that melodic shape and my mom's love of that that got really baked into my DNA. I can still hear echoes of that kind of a melody to this day.
And I want to hit pause for a second and just say, mad, mad props to your listeners who I know there's a lot of classical pianists in there. I have such high regard and and envy for people who have that level of mastery.
And as far as piano and guitar.
I'm not these stupid little dots and sticks. I don't want any part of it. You know how I wish I would have stuck with it I wish I could, you know, I just I have such envy for people who you know put this music down, and they just go, all right, let's read and
you know they just blow through it. Well, I am not that way you know and as I observe you know there are people are kind of wired a little bit more right brain or a little bit more left brain.
And I think that people who are a little bit more left brain do have a little bit more facility with looking at the printed page and and interpreting that, as opposed to some people like me who are a little bit more right brain.
And have a bit better facility with listening to it and figuring it out. What is that cord and show that I wish you know in the perfect world is the integrated thing where you can read like crazy but you can also hear and you can go to the sixth
chord there that's a three minor that's a add to over three there you know you can you can hear these things. But, like I said, the piano I thought if music is about those dots and sticks I don't want any every good boy does not necessarily do fine.
So, oh, and I, as I mentioned one of the themes of my book is is the power of one how one moment can change your world. And in my case, some about seven now the piano thing is, is a failed experiment for me.
And my mom says hey you want to join me for a little Aaron I'm going to run I said, sure, yes, beats doing homework and jumping the car we go over to a friend's house, a man named toy, how about that for an interesting name.
And so, I'm there, while my mom and toy are talking about grown up stuff drinking Chardonnay and, and I'm left on my own devices as a board seven year old. I'm looking around the room and I see in this corner this this guitar sitting there.
I go in there not watching I just go over there and just kind of pluck the guitar. And then I put it on my knee and I play it. And something lit up in me, because it's just the resonance and.
And this is me on my own this is somebody saying you gotta study these scales you got to do this, you know.
And as we were leaving.
Take your time.
Isn't it funny that after all these decades.
This gesture, still, still moves me.
Because at the, as we're leaving.
This toy says, Hey, I saw you playing that guitar. Do you like it I said yeah it's amazing. He goes, take it it's yours.
And with that one gesture you came he.
Just this lovely gesture, he had no big intention behind it, but he changed my life.
Which is something that you know you never know what what thing that you're in what what gesture you're doing what gifts you're giving you never know the the ripples in the pond that are going to happen after that.
So, honestly, whatever, whatever art I've created in my life.
Whatever difference I may or may not have made to somebody with my music it kind of all traces back to ground zero for me was that little little moment where he says take it it's yours and.
And over the decades I would come to realize the profound sort of metaphysical meaning of that.
Whatever it is that you want to do with your life, whatever it is that you aspire to the only obstacles between you and that are in your head.
Take it it's yours.
You know, you want to reach for it. It's yours.
And, and so that's ultimately the message of my book is, is that all these stories and then ultimately, you know there's profound thing that happens in my life that changes my whole destiny and and makes me pursue my dream with a with a passion.
You know, the ultimately my, my wish with my book, and with my music is that it adds some value but if my story gives one person the tiniest bit of inspiration.
And then it's all worth it to me and if I can hear my grandkids saying, you know, they want to reach for the bat brass ring with I hope they'll, they'll hear me saying, take it is yours.
Well, you know, thank you for really opening up and sharing all the stories and even feelings and as I was reading the book took me your journey I mean I was I feel like I was just really looking at your life.
And it's a really fun, incredible book so I would like my audience to have a have a read, you know, take a look. Yeah, and then just experience and anyway so you know from that young, Jim Wilson, and decided to.
After graduating from high school and they decided to pack up everything and decided to move to LA and being a songwriter then, you know, became a pianist technician technician, I mean, you were a pianist technician before moving to LA but, you know, that skill
of being a pianist became such a, not only gave you the ways to live, because I'm sure living LA is not easy, you know, to make a living I live in New York City, it's tough to make a living.
The big towns can they can swallow you up.
Yeah, it sounds like that. Yeah, sure. So, but not only became that your livelihood but your became your career, and having to have all these contacts that's amazing. But then, now, later on in your life.
You also became a pianist and then have this successful career so let's talk about that. I know we're really moving fast too fast forward but now you have this record of four hitting billboard top 20 record, and also 75 million streams on music streaming
services and more. So, how did you get into this piano career. So you, you took piano lessons, when you were six and you quit, but they came back, but how did you come back and I remember if I'm correct reading correctly.
So you taught you piano. No. Yes. Yes.
When I was 19, my stepfather gave me an old clunker piano and I thought okay well I can. So I took my James Taylor riffs on guitar and what we call hammer on you know, if you're in the key of D that you go, you, you play the E before you hit the F sharp right so you
done.
You the little hammer on their flick.
So that kind of became a cornerstone to my whole piano style.
And as 19 and then, and then years would go by and I started composing a little bit my, my original dream to move out to Los Angeles to was to become a big singer songwriter.
And I always joke that I, I wanted to become the next Jackson Brown and instead became the next Jackson Brown piano tuner.
And so yes indeed I started tuning for Chick Corea and just it was treated to see these incredible mini concerts you know it would became our routine that after each tuning I would, he would come out and he'd play the piano and, hey, and he
came to respect my musical opinion and he would play me something new that he was working on, or he got into the Mozart phase you know he was playing Mozart, and so I'm not just sitting there listening but I mean with my head into the piano, where,
where the microphones would be so it's this glorious, you know just you're completely enveloped at this incredible sound by one of the masters.
It was, it was amazing. So at one point he, he was curious he's a very smart, he was a very smart man and very curious about many things.
Hey Wilson, would you be interested, I really want to learn how to tune a unison on my own. Would you be interested trading a piano lesson for a tuning lessons.
Wow.
So you know I showed him how to hold the, the tuning hammer, how to set the tuning pan how to set the string, etc etc.
So he showed me this one little exercise which, which I've shown dozens and dozens of people this wonderful exercise you can me, and we can go a bit into the weeds on this one because this is the right place for this.
The exercise itself is nothing. It's, it's like a child's thing, it's a five finger exercise so your, your left pinky is on the C, and then an octave higher your thumb is on the C.
So, so, and you're going contrary motion the right hand is going, but
while the left hand is going.
That's the exercise, but it's contrary motion. While, while the right hand is going.
The left hand is going.
So it's contrary motion.
That is the pattern that you're playing but that's not the point of the exercise the point of the exercise.
And here's the trick, you put your metronome on like 40 or 50 BPM.
Instead of
it's really really slow. And you're sitting there.
And, and, and is walking straight onto the metronome. And what the joy in the first two beats changes, so that the left one would go 15.
So the the C doesn't blend into the G and but there's no gap between them either
So it's this perfect smooth legato. They're all played with the same velocity the same volume. They're all
they're all played with the
Perfectly in time
Let me tell you if you have any timing issues whatsoever issues with with
racing or rushing or dragging
This will shine a huge spotlight on that and if you do this little exercise for 10 minutes a day
You pass the first minute you're going. Okay, I've got this. No, you don't
Be there in this moment and
And also technique. This is where you focus on
The fingertips are resting lightly on the key tops
The only note that is the only finger that's moving is the one that's right now being played
so the
the C in the left hand and the G in the right hand are
Moving and you don't want to flinch the other fingers. They're nice and calm and relaxed
in fact
you kind of maybe want to move your shoulders a little bit so that there's a nice fluidity about it and
You're focusing on only the note that's being played is the finger that's moving and
You'll find that the other ones want to flinch a little bit. Well, that's what you got a
So you focus on that's this is what this exercise will uncover and so I'm grateful to chick for this incredible
the simple little exercise, but
It will uncover timing issues like none other
It has for me and if there's any thing that I think I'm I'm
Relatively good at is I'm I'm happy with my technique. I can I have a fairly smooth technique
You know there
Are pianists who are light years?
In fact, most pianists are light years beyond me because I fancy myself more of a composer than I do a pianist
Like I said, I'm really really envious of probably 99% of your audience who?
who can just look at any piece of music and just play and and
Man, I just have mad props to anybody who's put in those kind of hours to have that level of mastery
But this for me was a great
On-ramp to to be able to have a nice technique a really good
Smooth technique and for me as a composer my main concern was to be able to have
The ability to play what it was. I was hearing in my head
So then you know
When did you start writing?
music for piano
What was the mode what motivated you to finally really take a leap into this right right as I mentioned?
You came here I originally came out here my original dream was
I'm gonna be the next Jackson Brown singer songwriter and I had so much connection with
these great singer songwriters James Taylor and and
And of course Elton John and but really the guitar guys James Taylor and
James Taylor. Did I mention James Taylor?
He was no not yet. Okay. Okay, James Taylor
So I came out here to pursue the same dream
So I came out here to pursue the singer songwriter James Taylor Jackson Brown
That was the image write songs and and or
Also write hit songs. And so I kept looking studying the craft of writing
Hit song and the structure, you know the verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus, etc
and in between writing those
songs
None of which were really that great. They were good and I got good at them in between those I would amuse myself
And I would sit at the piano and think no one's ever going to hear this
But god doesn't it feel great when I do this like 16th note pattern and b minor and then I raise the
Raise the five I do a sharp five. Oh god, isn't that cool? And then I would hear I incorporate that and
And there is a bit of piano
in my
DNA, you know Bach I love Bach and I listened to a lot of classical music in Beethoven
and in Amarillo
I went into a record store and I said, I'm sorry. Where's your classical music section?
And she said you mean like Mozart and those guys?
Yeah, yeah, I'll find it myself. Thanks
Um, but English Mozart so Mozart is in there in my musical dna, too and
And as I became uh as I started writing these pieces just for my own amusement
I was pulling from all these different resources the the like I said the folk song the Appalachian kind of melody and how those are shaped and
then pulling in some some Mozart and
uh all these different influences and switched on Bach was back there and then I was also
Obsessed with Keith Jarrett and the colin concert. I will tell you that I've listened to the colin concert
So many hundreds of times that I I have to be very careful because
If I listen to it, it gets stuck on a loop in my brain. It's it's that
deeply entrenched so pulling from all these different resources
No one's ever going to hear this this stuff, but man doesn't it feel great to just this these things, uh, these piano pieces
and
One of the things that really one of the first pieces of this kind of iteration
I was at dan fogelberg's
ranch in colorado, I wouldn't expect your listeners to maybe know exactly who he is, but he's a
Great great singer songwriter another big influence on me another hero
and um
uh
He was uh, we're
We had these great great hangs at his his ranch in colorado
I was sitting at the piano and I started playing one of these little pieces that I had
Worked on, you know, just like I said pulled from all these different influences
What is that? And so it's just a little piece I do for my own amusement. Well play it again. So I played it again and
He goes god. That is beautiful. I maybe I could do a lyric to it
but
Okay
Well, I said that's great. But the only problem with that would be that
During this b section. I'm carrying the melody in the bass
So it would be sound a little bit weird for the lyric to to hang on that melody
Really it would need kind of a counter melody during that b section because we'll play it again. I did
Boom right another guy he sang this perfect counter melody to the bass line
so the the bass line and the melody kind of interplay with each other and
He never got around to writing a lyric to it
But that would become the illin pipe melody on my first cd, which is northern seascape
so
We co-wrote this piece together and it was
Totally sort of by accident and it was something again intended for my own amusement
And that would become those pieces that I was writing for myself would become the cornerstone for who I am as an artist
And doesn't that kind of speak volumes? It's like
Well, there's what you
Envision yourself to be in what you're striving toward and there's also
What brings you?
What brings you the most spiritual gratification?
Also has the best chance of bringing spiritual gratification to
Somebody else, you know
If it's something that's really true and authentic to you, it's going to communicate a lot better
Yeah, and i've listened to your albums a little bit
For the last few to few weeks or so since we started talking and they're very very beautiful
so
some of them are like uh, some
Sort of like a collaborations and the others are like your solo and then I hear some
You know piano with other instruments and sometimes there are solo pieces and then what are the
What do you call these genres?
uh
It's not pop, but it's like um
A sort of mixture of jazzy jazz style pop style with a classical elements. Yeah a little bit
Um, I just call it piano feature instrumentals. There's a blanket term contemporary instrumental
um
in terms of billboard and
The way they categorize things here are our little categories
Little categories and if you're not that then you're that and it's certainly not jazz
But they put me into new age
I'm a tiny bit allergic to that term because and no not to knock anybody in that genre because
There's some really wonderful calming stuff, but it's usually not melody driven and that's that's the main
thing for me is
my i'm really um of the opinion that
You should be able to take your composition walk away from the piano and sing the melody
So the melody should be strong enough and attractive enough to stand on its own
and i'm very very much in that school of thought of
Strong melodies and those are the things that stays with stay with you
Uh, but so they put me in the new age category in my first record made number 21 in the new age
Uh category which is really a hell of an honor and i've since been there four different times
Wow, that's that's incredible. So you have really so many fans
Who are you know faithfully listening to your music and you know, uh streaming from streaming, right? Yeah
Yes. Yes, and and you know at the end of the day, it's it's not what I set out to do
But I would much rather have this
dream
of
My music connecting with the right people in the right way and
You know the 75 million streams
I'm believe me. I'm grateful for that. It wasn't the big, you know big fanfare
How he's
singer songwriter playing big tours, etc
But my music has value to the right people in the right way and that's
more
Uh gratified to me than than any other
Thing I could wish for
Well before you know going into the next segment
I you mentioned that in you know, while we were communicating before our interview session
You said there isn't a limitless
Reservoir of tomorrow's yeah, so could you share?
Um how
What led me to that? Yeah
realization, yeah
well
as
As we were talking about little jimmy moves to los angeles with the idea of becoming singer songwriter. That's the big mission
and
I'm
Writing these pieces in between that they're just for my own amusement
and
I kind of didn't quite know what
What was ringing true for me? The old whole singer songwriter thing wasn't kind of resonating with me
but the thing that really
Changed the direction of my whole life my best friend
died of a heart attack at the age of 37
it just
Grabbed me by the collar. My brother had died
A decade earlier
Younger brother of a heroin overdose and that shattered me
Claude's passing shattered me in a different way because
Claude and I were dear friends and we would get together we'd do mastermind sessions
and we'd talk about our goals and our dreams and and I could
you know
New house we'd support each other in our dreams and
And I just watched him check off each one of these little
Dreams like a like off of a grocery list, you know, it's just staggering to watch him
He became david foster's right-hand man and just an amazing ranger and producer
Songwriter with hits by selene dion. It's like oh my god
And then we got into the personal stuff if he could just uh see himself in his new home with his wife that he was hoping to
You know, he was wanting to be married and have kids and he envisioned his little kid running into daddy make me pancakes
You know all the way down to that. We were
The detail the nuance of our dreams. I thought ladies and gentlemen stand back watch how it's done
This is how you manifest a dream
and then he
died
and just
Two months later, he was born
He died and just
Two months prior to his passing
He played this sonata for me on piano. Well, he like me
He was he had achieved a certain success in a one arena
But what he really wanted to do he wanted to step out as a solo artist and this sonata was like, oh my god
It's so beautiful. It's staggering
and
And so there I am in the hospital room. I'm holding his cold hand. I go what the hell happens to those dreams now
And I saw how easily
They could just vaporize
you know
and
That was really the that was the turning point for me in my life and I realized
There isn't a limitless reservoir of tomorrows. There isn't a guarantee of anything
So whatever it is you want with your life, whatever it is you aspire to get the hell on with it
so
it was that
Shock that wake-up call that slap in the face that jump into an icy pool that made me go. Okay
Oh my god, what happens if I get that tap on the shoulder times up pencils down turn in your assignments as is
Let's go
I thought okay
George Winston had had great success. I enjoyed listening to his piano
Music
If he did it I can do it. I want to put together a record of these pieces that I
I enjoy playing so much
and if 10 people hear this record
And they go
You know what Wilson could come up with a nice melody. These are
These these this music has meaning for me. I enjoy it
If that's the worst that came of this then that's what I want to do. So I really
Got serious and I thought okay
I started I wanted to be a little bit more than just piano solo piano
And in my universe at the time was this guy Eric Riggler. I'd heard him perform. He played illin pipe
You know the Irish bagpipes they say and and penny whistle Irish flute
And I loved that and I started just sort of pulling from these elements from my universe at the time
And you know, I was very friend friendly with you know, the top la session cats and
And one of the first people that I called was my friend Davy Johnstone the guitar player for Elton John
and
I thought I want him to play guitar on my
my first CD
And he's such a sweet guy before I could even
Have to muster the the courage to say
Hey, Davy, will you play on my record before I'd even said that I said so I'm
I'm thinking about putting together an album of piano stuff and oh, that's great, man. You want me to play on it?
so so
You know, it's really amazing. You came in when you are really on purpose and and
You are on your true life mission
And you're moving forward with conviction. It's amazing to watch how the universe just kind of
unlocks doors for you and
Just Davy played on my first record and and Eric Wiggler the illin pipe player. He just man that he was he
came into my life at exactly the right time and then Dave cause this wonderful sax player and
And it was this interesting little
cauldron of
of
People and influences Mike Landau a great session player
But and everybody was doing something a little bit out of their out of their wheelhouse
In other words, Davy Johnstone wasn't doing what he would do with Elton. He was doing this kind of
Classical guitar, you know nylon string guitar
Mike Landau would bring over his his Roy Rogers guitar is his he called, you know and do
Do this and then Eric Wiggler was doing his Irish flute
on top of my piano instrumentals and it was this kind of interesting collection of things and
And uh, it's really amazing. Like I said when you're really on
Right there on your life's purpose everything kind of
Falls into place for you certainly did with me. Well, yes. Yes
I agree, but I think also you've really worked hard and you know
Yeah, as I i'm reading your book and coming from you know, uh, uh, challenging childhood
And then you really did work hard and you also have the probably I haven't met you in person
But have the charm to attract
People yes, and especially people like, you know
Elton John and you know and Chick Corea and
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Now let's continue with the show. I I want to know what the what was the inspiration for
writing tuned in
well
Yukimi the
Pandemic hit. I don't know if you remember that it was a this thing called covid. Oh, yeah
Probably you've forgotten about it by now. Maybe
Oh, I I still remember
Yes, I still remember yeah, I know it was an astounding thing and and
You know, you heard about something happening over in china and and then well, that's not gonna happen here
And then oh my gosh, it's in san francisco. And then the next thing, you know, just in a short order
Shut down the whole world, you know the whole
and
we're all stuck at home and
And I finished some musical projects that I had and some musical videos and and one of the the big
thing on my to-do list for my whole life was writing down some of these stories and I thought okay that
Let's roll up the sleeves and start putting these stories down to paper
and
Ultimately, it became about the bigger narrative
You know, there's there's writing these fun stories, which I've had
kind of a like I said, it's a rocket ship built for one and
And i've had such an extraordinary
Opportunity to meet some of my childhood heroes and get to interact with them and to be inspired by them on my musical journey
So I knew that really I needed to get these stories down
Ultimately, it evolved into
The bigger narrative of well, who did I come in the become in the process of trying to achieve this?
How how on earth did I even get in there?
In this on the same piano bench as Paul mcgartney in the first place
You know, it's because um this musical
Goal that I had
Which would evolve over time as we said
and
So my hope with the book of course is that you know,
I hope with the book of course is that people get to
Be entertained by these fun behind the scenes stories with these music icons
but I also hope that my journey as an artist and and the struggles that I
Encountered and the obstacles that I overcame
That that maybe serves to inspire somebody on their
musical mission as well
Use whatever whatever your dream is because the same
fundamentals apply, you know
And one of the one of the
Fundamentals of storytelling is character
plus want
plus obstacle
equals conflict
And I did study the craft and you talked about the evolution of this book
I wanted it to be
As good as it possibly could be I studied with
Two different writing coaches one was in south africa. We had had a weekly zoom and we would go over anything. Yeah, and
it was nine in the morning for me and six in the evening for her and
She took no prisoners, man. She didn't uh pull any punches and it's like
This is all good and these are good stories, but you
If in order for this to land, it can't just be summary summary summary and she taught me, you know
Rule number one
Show don't tell
So show us don't tell us I was really angry. Okay, you're telling us that you're angry show me
You know the blood vessels in my neck started bulging that you know, etc, etc
and
um
So she taught me the fundamentals of that and I studied
The structure novels in my my book is more structured like a novel, you know act one two and three
Act one two and three
And then the inciting incident happens there the point of no return happens there
so I really studied the craft of it and
it became uh, just like literally everything every album that i've ever done everything I
I get into it and the more I get involved in the better. I want it to be and I want it to be this
um
You know I wanted to have meaning so
I eighty five thousand words
you know, it's a four-year marathon and just
Just going over I probably 10 did 10 different drafts
there's the first time through the blueprint draft and you go through and
kind of make each thing better and better and better and
Well, what a what a process and it was based on april 2nd. It hit number one
on four different categories in amazon and piano
and music and it's a really, really good process
and it's a really good process, but you know
Sound the composers biographies, etc, etc. So
It's really really gratifying to have it be connecting with people and people are
emailing me and saying oh my god, it's mesmerizing and
That's what I know. I've succeeded when I've
When people are inspired by my journey, that's my biggest mission with with this is that
sharing my knowledges, um, give tips like
I've been doing that i've been studying
Community comment manuscripts and I thought that through our
Memoranda
Oh really? Oh my goodness. No, you're too short.
But I will be doing an audiobook version of it and that'll be out later this year. So.
Oh, wonderful.
Yeah. Great.
There you go. Chimed In Memoirs of a Piano Man and then the subtitle is
Behind the Scenes with Music Legends and Finding the Artist Within.
So.
Perfect title. Yeah. Perfect title.
Yeah. Now, so along with that, I just want to know your thoughts on fame.
So throughout your career, you've been surrounded by famous people and you pursued probably some
sort of fame or because you were in Hollywood of late 70s. Oh, still you're in LA, I'm sure.
So, but then you were in that really late 70s, early 80s, that, you know, bubble, you know what
I mean? Yeah. So what's your perspective on fame and success? Well, there's fame and of course,
that's a very tantalizing thing. And when you're living in Hollywood, it's a very image-based
town and it's hard not to get wrapped up in that whole thing of fame and money and what house do
you live in and what area and what car do you drive and all that. But really success for me
is measured in, you know, how I've reached people with my art.
The what the mission of art is, you know, to speak to our innermost spiritual beauty.
And music has the power to do that, to transcend. And that's certainly my mission. That sounds very
lofty and comparing it to that. And that is my mission. And I'll do it on whatever level it can.
If I get, if it's an email that I get from somebody saying, oh my God, I've listened to
Cape of Good Hope, you know, hundreds of times, it's my morning routine or,
you know, and now I'm getting it with my book. You know, people are saying, wow, it's just,
I'm so mesmerized. I'm drawn in. I'm inspired to get on with my dream. That ultimately,
that's my measure of success. So you ask about, you know, what's fame and success.
The fame thing, it's kind of a little sidebar thing, but it's the true measure in my life.
It's the true measure is creating some level of art that has the power to transform on some,
even subtle level. If you're amused for a few hours reading this book, or if you're
inspired on your journey, that's my mission. And I certainly appreciate you giving me a platform to
speak to folks. And I've really, really enjoyed chatting with you and wonderful curiosity. And
obviously, we're made cut from the same cloth and that we love this thing called music and
here's to music and it's wonderful power to transform.
Yes. Yes. Great. So do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?
Don't do it. Go back. Be an accountant. Do anything but music.
I would be the same.
I would be the same. You know, it is challenging. Anybody who's
jumping into that pool, you know, wanted to be in the arts, be it music, be it pop music,
classical music, whatever, acting, painting, the arts. It's the most gratifying thing that you
could ever hope for. It's also the most challenging thing. And you better be prepared to,
you know, as Malcolm Gladwell says, like we said, those 10,000 hours, you know, you got to put in
the hours and study the technique and study the scales. Ultimately, I did, by the way, I did study
with a piano teacher in Cleveland as I was going to piano tuning school and made me do all the
scales and the heavy lifting. And those things are of great value. But, you know, to an aspiring
pianist, aspiring artist, focus more on what it is that you want to say as an artist and try to
make yourself happy. Wasn't that the ultimate lesson for me? You know, it's like, here I am
struggling trying to write these songs that people are going to, you know, it's going to make the
you know, it's going to make the top 40. And ultimately, what would define me as an artist
is these pieces, pieces that I was composing for my own amusement. And what brings you the most
spiritual gratification for yourself, the art that you create is what's going to have the best shot
at bringing spiritual gratification to somebody else listening to it as well,
adding value to their lives. So for our listeners, so please check out Jim's tuned in memoirs of a
piano man, which is available on all digital retail platforms. And also, I would really
highly recommend to listen to his recordings on all major streaming services, right?
Yes, a nice landing page. If you're interested about the book or my music,
jimwilsonmusic.com slash tuned in. And that's where jimwilsonmusic.com is where my music
can be heard in my videos. And then on one of the pages on that website is jimwilsonmusic.com
slash tuned in and tells you kind of the story behind the book and gives you some links where
you can go buy it if you're interested. Well, Jim, it's been a wonderful conversation.
Thank you. Oh, yeah. Thank you for really opening up to me and then sharing your story.
Now, before I let you go, we have one more thing to do, which is the rapid fire question segment.
And then I will ask you some silly questions, but I wanted to answer them as short responses
as possible. However, these questions may reveal who truly you are. So, oh, yeah, I know. So
let's start with easy ones. Level one question number one. What is your comfort food?
Comfort food, German chocolate cake. I'm going to try to do with the least amount of of thought.
I thought I'm going to give you. That's always been a fun food. Delicious, gratifying, not healthy,
but it's OK. Great. No judgment here. How do you like your coffee in the morning?
With cream and one cup of creamer. There we go. Strong French French roast. Cats or dogs?
Both. As it happens, we have a cat, Maxie, who is just the most extraordinary blessing in our lives.
She's just the she's she we're teaching her how to do high five. She's very constant reminder of
the importance of playfulness. So and then are you a summer person or winter person? I'm going to go
with summer. I love driving up the California coast to Big Sur. Nothing like it. Nothing like
it. Beautiful summer day. Now level two questions. Oh boy, here we go. What skills or what skill have
you always wanted to learn but haven't had a chance to? Oh, goodness. Wouldn't it be amazing
to be an astronaut and to go up into space and and be on the space station and and to be able
to see the Earth from that point of view? What is your word or words to live by? Commitment.
What is the most important quality you look for in other people? Humor, sense of humor.
Oh, that's a good one. Name three people who inspire you living or dead. Paul McCartney,
Chick Corea, and Gandhi. Okay, now level three. Two more questions to go.
Name one piece in your current playlist. Angel by Sarah McLachlan. Feeling the blank. Music is blank.
My salvation. Wow, that's a good one. Nobody has ever said that. I mean it with all my heart.
It really was. It's you know when that gift of a guitar was given to me when I was a kid
that was like somebody throwing a lifeline to a struggling kid and it gave me a means to
give me an identity. I'm you know gave me a way to process these emotions that I couldn't quite
deal with. It was my salvation. Wonderful. Wow, that's powerful. Thank you, Jim. So that concludes
this episode of the PianoPod. Thank you once again, Jim, for joining my show today and sharing your
stories, insights, and expertise. So for the PianoPod listeners and viewers, please visit
jimwilsonmusic.com to learn more about Jim's career and connect him on social media. All the
links are in show notes and thank you to my wonderful audience and fans for tuning in today.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on wherever you get your podcast and
remember to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thank you if you are
watching this. So follow that PianoPod on social media to get the latest piano news via Facebook,
Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. I will see you for the next episode of the PianoPod. Thank you.
Bye everyone and thank you, Jim. Thank you, Yukimi, for having me. Thank you everybody for listening.