SCOTT WALLER OF SMILE: SMiLE

He Can’t Stop Rockin’

Exclusive USED BIN Interview with

S C O T T W A L L E R of

By Joe Carona

I’ve witnessed some historic moments in music history, in my time. Some, mammoth performances that were canonized over the years, and some turbo-charge sets of stage magic that define an era. When I think of the quintessential live shows that epitomize rock & roll, two immediately come to mind: Van Halen at the US Festival and Smile at Knott’s Berry Farm. Nearly 500,000 rock fans witnessed the crowning moment of Dave Roth’s reign, at the 1983 mega spectacle, while only about 500 caught Scott Waller’s incendiary 1980 set. But rock & roll never forgets.

Hailing from the same Hollywood haunts and Pasadena stages as the brothers Halen, the Smile band captured the attention and collective imagination of the 70’s LA music scene and seemed poised for greatness. With an arsenal of gorgeous pop tunes and glorious arena anthems, Smile dazzled their way to the upper crust of So. Cal rock-royalty. Tommy Girvin supplied the lightning licks, while Mark Poynter brought ivory tickling elegance to the proceedings. The rhythm section of bassist Dave Grammer and the manic skin bashing antics of Jimmy “Mad Dog” Volpe made a Smile show a full service rock & roll spectacle. And out front, Scotty Waller, donning tuxedo jacket, gangster hat, and ballet slippers (?), knocked out audiences with a potent one-two punch of Jagger swagger and sly crooning cool. This guy was the real deal.

I had seen Smile in their early club days (and even earlier backyard keg-party nights), and witnessed their dynamic stage antics and limitless musical range. From stadium-ready classics (Hollywood, Can’t Stop Rockin’) irresistible pop hooks (Loose Ends, Maybe Baby) to majestic power-ballads (Cry Baby, Sailor) Smile were destined to be classic rock radio staples. Smile kicked off the 1980 KMET Summer Concert Series in the most unlikely setting for a rock & roll show; the Knott’s Berry Farm Stagecoach Theater - a rustic wooded hay-ride of a stage with rusted wagon wheels and bales of straw stacked on either side. As the band ignited their fiery set opener Snowblind, vocalist Scotty Waller came bouncing out from the wings, sprinted to stage left, leapt to the top of stacked hay bales, and proceeded to fall some 15 feet off the stage and into the fourth row! The guy never missed a beat though, and proceeded to slaughter the crowd with an explosive night of rock & roll that none will ever forget.

Despite such auspicious moments, Smile persevered for over a decade before hanging up their rock & roll shoes. Sure, Scott Waller fronted other bands (Carlos Cavazo’s Gang of Thieves and his current project Road Crew) and Tommy Girvin has been Eddie Money’s right hand axe-man since the 80’s, but Smile never became a household name. Well, that is unless you’re in my household…

After the flood of emails we got in response to the Smile bio-piece in the last issue of Used Bin, we tracked down Scotty Waller for a follow-up. A few minutes on the phone with the pioneer rocker would have been enough to make me smile, so imagine my surprise when Scott showed up at my doorstep, to reminisce about the Smile band’s past, and dust off some old demos. It may as well have been Roth himself sitting at my dining room table; this was noting less than a freakin’ Twilight Zone episode. At the exact moment that Scott appears at my door, I’m opening the day’s mail, including a small package containing my advance copy of the Brian Wilson “SMiLE” DVD…

Used Bin: Is that ironic or what?

Scott Waller: Wow. That’s amazing. (laughs) Actually, I met the Beach Boys in England last December. They were doing a tour over there. That’s really ironic.

Used Bin: Were you fan of Brian Wilson’s Smile album?

Scott Waller: Oh yeah. The guy’s a genius. We met Brian Wilson one night at Billy Joel’s. Quite a character.

Used Bin: Well, Scotty thanks for coming over. This is very cool.

Scott Waller: No, thank YOU. When I found the Used Bin website, and saw an article about Smile, well, I just couldn’t believe it. So how did the Used Bin come about?

Used Bin: The idea initially was that there was so much great music going under the radar. LPs that should have been classics that end up in the used bin. So plugging bands like Smile was at the top of my agenda.

Scott Waller: It reminded me of Spinal Tap when they’re playing one of their old songs on the radio and the DJ says “currently in the where are they now file”. (laughs)

Used Bin: So where ARE they now? What have you and the Smile band been up to?

Scott Waller: Well, I’ve been working as a roadie. Working on the road. I did KISS for a while. The KISS-Aeromsith tour, I did Boston last year. Sting for about a year. I did Dave Matthews. Right now I’m doing NASCAR. [As we chat, Scott looks through my record collection, and pulls out a stack of Smile bootlegs and the self-titled MCA debut] There it is. The worst album cover of all time. Isn’t that unfortunate? I used to really like the Smile logo though…

Used Bin: Oh yeah, classic.

Scott Waller: You know where the name Smile came from? Queen used to be called Smile. So we stole it. Funny thing was when we were recording our album at the Record Plant, Queen were actually next door in Studio B, and they came in when they heard we were there, ‘cause they wanted to meet “the Smile band”. They said they didn’t know why we took the name; they said it was cursed. (laughs) Brian May was really into astrology; so we went up on the roof with him, and he’d point out different stars and things; he was really cool. The rest of them were a little strange.

Used Bin: So what are the rest of the Smile band doing these days?

Scott Waller: Tommy Girvin is doing well. He’s still touring with the Eddie Money band. Dave Grammer does track lighting for homes, and now and again I get an email from him. Mark Poynter‘s married and he’s got like 19 kids; he’s a tool & dye guy. And Jimmy Volpe’s still playing every Saturday night in Arcadia.

Used Bin: Ah. The land of Taco Lita

Scott Waller: (laughs) Man, I love that place. Those burritos. Yeah. [At this point Scott more closely examines a stack of Smile live bootleg CDs] Man, I can’t believe some of the stuff you got here. Pasadena Civic. The Roxy. The Starwood. Knott’s Berry Farm?! That was the night I fell off the stage…

Used Bin: Yep. Knott’s Berry Farm. One of the most classic rock & roll shows ever.

Scott Waller: Scott Waller: Well, that was one of MY greatest moments. I’ll tell you what, they made us sign some kind of waiver right before we went out on stage, and they said whatever you do don’t get on the hay bales. So of course the first thing I did, man, was jump on top. That was the funniest thing about that night; they go “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Smile…” and the crowd goes “Agghhh!” They go wild. And then I fall, and the whole crowd goes “Oooo…”’. The agony of defeat. But I’ll tell you what, the show went on. And, man, we were in good form that night.

Used Bin: OK, lets go back to the beginning. How did the Smile band get together?

Scott Waller: Tommy and Dave had a little three-piece trio with Brett Taylor, the original drummer. I was working at the school as a gardener at the time, and I heard about Tommy and Dave playing in this little band. I actually knew Tommy’s sister; when I was in 7th grade she and I were in a school play of The Sound of Music. So, me and the Girvin’s go way back. I wanted to ask Tommy if he needed a singer, and I was looking for some way to break the ice with him. So we’re down in Hollywood one night and we saw Rod Stewart driving an Excalibur down the road. We tried to flag him down, tried to get his attention but he turned up the street. So we’re out for adventure, and we figure we’re gonna go find him. So we search the street and finally we see the car. Apparently he had driven his car up on the lawn and did some burn-outs on the lawn. So one of us went up to the door and Britt Ekland answers and we were just laughing and we ran away into some bushes. But that broke the ice. So then we just started in Tommy’s garage. That was back around 1975. We started out doing all covers. The first song Smile ever played together was a ZZ Top song, Tush. But Tommy started writing originals right off. I think Cry Baby was probably the first Smile song we wrote together. And “Lonely Me” was maybe the second one.

Used Bin: So at what point did Brett leave and Jimmy “Mad Dog” Volpe and Mark Poynter join the band?

Scott Waller: We had all these producers telling us that they didn’t like Mr. Taylor’s drumming. He was a great guy too, and I gotta tell you the truth, in the old days we had a certain sound, and then when we got Jimmy we have a certain sound. I thought we were a little more raw back with Taylor, but that was the band’s decision. Then we were a four piece for a long time. I had always suggested that we bring in a keyboard player. I’d been asking Tommy for years, “please, please, please” then one day when I had totally given up on it, I walked into practice, and Tommy’s got Mark Poynter there, who’d played in a band with Tommy Lee before Motley Crue and Tommy goes “oh, we got a piano player.”

Used Bin: So why ballet slippers? Seems like every show you played in the 70’s you’d come out on stage in ballet slippers. What was that about?

Scott Waller: Oh, they were Cappezzio’s. Those were the cool shoes back then, dude. And they were hard to find too. (laughs)

Used Bin: So it’s the mid 70’s and you’re playing the clubs with Van Halen and Quiet Riot. What do remember about that period?

Scott Waller: We were just in the right place at the right time. I mean, I was at the Starwood every night. Those were good times. An exciting time, with great new music coming out of Hollywood. There were great bands, like Ala Carte and the Sharks all starting to get a following, and a few started getting noticed by the labels. Van Halen… Man, the first time we all heard that, you just knew it was something big. I remember the first time I saw them was in 1974 in a back yard, thinking ‘Wow, man. Cool.”

Used Bin: Used Bin: Smile and Van Halen were staples on the Hollywood club circuit for a long time. Any memorable moments hanging with those guys?

Scott Waller: They were hard to get to know because they were a really close knit group and they didn’t let outsiders in too much. They’d come to my house from time to time and we’d play with them at the Civic. I lived out in Pasadena back then. They’d come over and we’d hang out and have these all-night parties, but they could be a little intense. A few years later, some of the guys ended up at Edward’s house, around the time of 5150, but he’d mellowed quite a bit. He was like, “Hey guys, relax, its like the old days. Have a beer, dude.” Van Halen, their first album; that changed everything. Ted Templeman just really got them, and he understood how to get that sound across. That album was made in just over a week! Back in those days, Van Halen were so smart and focused; they always had a game plan, and everybody’s stories always matched. They were like a machine. They were so tight and so rehearsed, they could set up and play anywhere at anytime. So recording that album was just like running through the set-list for them. And when they popped, they really popped. They went from clubs to arenas real quick. And that was the biggest blow to Quiet Riot. Kevin [DuBrow] wanted their progression to be really fast, like Halen. He wanted to be a headliner.

Used Bin: Smile and Quiet Riot played for a long time together in the clubs; you must have known them pretty well.

Scott Waller: Scott Waller: Oh yeah. We were tight. And Randy [Rhoads] was a good friend. I went to his funeral. He was a cool kid. What a little boy he was. He had like a little boy mentality. I remember one time we were together for Fourth of July and he had these little bitty firecrackers and he was lighting them off, and he was just giggling. It was so funny. He was amazing live. That kid was somethin’ else.

Used Bin: After Halen and Quit Riot got their deals in the late 70’s, Smile were still playing the clubs as the 80’s spawned a new wave of Hollywood bands, like Ratt, and Dokken, and Motley Crue.

Scott Waller: Motley Crue used to open for us. I knew Nikki early on from the Starwood when he was in a band called London. He called me and told me about a new band he was putting together, which ended up being Motley Crue. He said he wanted to do something like the New York Dolls, and said I should come down to sing for them. But Smile was really happening then, and, well, if I knew then what I know now…

Used Bin: Smile had a huge local following at that point. Were labels showing interest in signing the band?

Scott Waller: Scott Waller: We were contacted by every label around, and back then they’d pay to have you come in a record a demo for them. We did hundreds of them, dude. Demo after demo. We did a whole album with Richie Podolor. He did Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, the soundtrack for Easy Rider. He took us under his wing and we recorded a bunch of songs. His version of Loose Ends was the greatest thing we ever did. [At this point, I pull out a vintage Smile demo, and fast-forward to “Loose Ends”] Do you know what this song was about? Well it was our sort of rock tribute to Africa, and a Loose End was a kind of African frog. There were these frogs that would squirt on you; that’s where ‘loose end’ came from. And in the middle we had this vocal part that was like a tribal chant like in some Tarzan movie. And the lyric went “tie ‘em up” and “give ‘em all to Monty” – Monty was a big black roadie we used to have who could pick up a Marshall amp with one hand. (laughs) Richie Podolor recorded Dollar Bills, CryBaby and a bunch of tunes for us, and we used to sell copies of that tape at our shows. And we had this flyer we used to send out, that said…

Used Bin: “...Buy this tape or we’ll kill Volpe”

Scott Waller: (laughs) Right. (laughs) We shot the photo for that flyer in the back of Mark Poynter’s truck, where we’re all standing around Volpe and he’s all tied up and gagged. See. All that kind of fun stuff, the off-the-cuff stuff, that’s what Smile was all about. Not like we were presented on the record when we were on MCA.

Used Bin: So eventually your manger, Paul Fry got the money together for Smile to record an album, which eventually got picked up by MCA. So let me ask you straight, what did you think of the record?

Scott Waller: Scott Waller: I thought it was a piece of crap to tell you the truth. There were some great songs there, but they just didn’t come across. MCA brought in their people, and they ended up mixing the magic right out of the tracks. I thought the first version, the first mix, by Lee DeCarlo was heavier and a lot better, than the one Andy John ended up with. Once the album came out, MCA did do a few things; they put the cover art on top of Tower Records, but there wasn’t a whole lot of support. I’d heard MCA was involved in some kind of payola scam or something, and several shipments were confiscated. Supposedly these trucks had a shit-load of Smile albums in it that never made it to stores.

Used Bin: Well that explains a lot; I was at Poobah’s Records in Pasadena maybe a year after the record was out and they had 20 copies of the Smile album, all stamped “promo.” They were all in the used bin selling for 25 cents each. I bought ‘em all.

Scott Waller: Scott Waller: (laughs) Yeah, that sounds about right. That album was probably somebody’s tax write-off. There was a black cloud over the project from day-One. They saw us coming, dude. They had us in that studio for months and months. Just spending money, and Paul didn’t have enough sense… he was supposed to managing us but he was too busy playing Hollywood big-shot and we had stars in our eyes and wanted things to happen. But that album’s a piece of crap.

Used Bin: It was a bit of a disappointment...

Scott Waller: Disappointment? Nah, it was a piece of crap. (laughs) See, we had so many disappointments back then. After the album they took us into A&M studios and we recorded a song for the soundtrack for the Karate Kid. We did this song called You’re the Best and we just nailed it. It was great. And they told us all “you’re gonna be in this movie, and you’re gonna get all this money and blah blah blah…” Then a couple days later it’s like “Oh sorry guys, your song is scratched, and we got Sylevster Stallone’s brother on the soundtrack instead.” Then we were in this other movie Free Ride; oh man... See, there were times when Smile were really good and really knew where we were going, and that was NOT one of those times. Towards the end there we were just falling apart. We’d been doing it for over 10 years, and it was just disappointing.

Used Bin: Did Smile get out on the road to tour in support the record?

Scott Waller: Ah, the tour.. (laughs) Here’s another story of our disappointment. We rented a truck because there was this agency that had booked us for this tour which would start in Key West Florida and work its way up north to finish up in New York. So everyone quit their jobs and we were all packed and ready to go. Finally this is it, the big tour. Then the agency gets busted because what they were doing was having these bands travel up the coast, and they’d pack the gear in these trucks that were full of coke! So they got busted. After a while with Smile it wasn’t just like its not in the cards’ it was more like a black cloud, like someone was saying “No its just ain’t gonna happen.” We couldn’t get a break to save our ass. Volpe split, and then Tommy got the Eddie Money gig and, well, he couldn’t pass that up. I was happy for him. At least somebody got something out of it. We had some good times. But it was time to put it to bed. We were all still playing music though.

Used Bin: Used Bin: So after Smile folded and everybody got involved in other projects, how did you hook up with Carlos Cavazo?

Scott Waller: We started a band called Gang of Thieves. See I knew Carlos from the old days. Before he ever joined Quiet Riot, he was in a band called Snow. And Smile and Snow used to do a lot of shows together. After Smile, Quiet Riot had just broken up, so I called Carlos up one night, just out of the blue, and he says to me “well, you wanna do something?” So I started going over his house. We wrote a whole album. We had a producer and we were ready to go and do the record. Tony Cavazo, his brother was in the band too, and this drummer we knew who was from Florida. We did a few shows; we played Florentine Gardens. We used to bill it as “Gang of Thieves, featuring Carlos Cavazo of Quiet Riot, Scott Waller from Smile, Tony Cavazo from Hurricane… and drummer from Florida” (laughs) But what happened, Kevin DuBrow calls Carlos one day and says they had offers to get back out on the road. That was the end of that story.

Used Bin: Did you continue to stay in touch with the other guys from Smile?

Scott Waller: After Smile broke up, Tommy and I used to room together in Duarte. Which was nice, because he’d go off on the road with Eddie Money, and I’d have the pad all to myself. That’s back when I was tending bar. Not a pretty time in my life, being a bartender. So I was looking for anything to do besides listening to drunks for 8 hours a day. I started working in San Pedro in a little English pub, and I met these guys who were roadies. Well, we struck up a friendship, and one day, I don’t remember how it came up, one of them starts talking about Smile. So I go, “dude, I was the singer”. And he looks and me goes, “oh, dude, you’re that guy!” (laughs) So we became friends, and I started working with him as a roadie. He got me a job. After a while, well, we’d just put so much time and effort and money into Smile, and well, you can only take so much disappointment, then you have to find something else to do… [At this point we sample several ancient bootleg recordings of 70’s Smile shows, which illicit Scotty’s drop-jawed astonishment.] Oh, dude, this stuff is SO old… Rocking Chair, that was one of Dave’s songs. Surprise Pie that was one of mine. The Mountain I think that was my favorite. It was actually called Misty Mountain. Wow, I gotta tell you the truth, it’s a little difficult for me to listen to some of this. I watch some old videos sometime. But this was a long time ago. With my band Road Crew we play Down In Hollywood. Brian always wants to play the old Smile stuff. I always wonder if anybody these days has even heard any of this crap? Although when Tommy’s on tour with Eddie Money people still turn up in the crowd and hold up the Smile album. (laughs) I mean we only sold like ten copies…

Used Bin: You did get back together with the guys for a few Smile reunion shows.

Scott Waller: Yeah, we did a couple of reunion shows. The first one was the greatest. That was so much fun. We played for three and a half hours and did every song we knew. We had a sort of a reunion just a couple years ago, when one of our old roadies, Skip, contracted some brain disease, so his wife contacted us cause he wanted to see us play one last time. So we said sure. It was pretty awful but it was good to see everyone and run through some of the old tunes.

Used Bin: Well, Smile certainly had a wealth of great tunes.

Scott Waller: Scott Waller: We had some tunes. Some of the ballads were really strong. Sunday and Sailor. I wish somebody would cover those, just so it wasn’t all completely in vain. That’s why when I saw Smile in the Used Bin, I can’t tell you, dude what it did for me to see that. That somebody gave a shit. Put me on the Mailing list, there’s some great stuff in there. I love all the “Mom” jokes. Funny shit. So who’s this band Mudpie I’m always seeing mentioned in there?

Used Bin: Well, that was my band.

Scott Waller: Well, let’s hear it. Pop it on and gimme some Mudpie. (At this point, we listen to a Mudpie CD, as Scotty smiles and bounces his head in time to the tune. A surreal moment for me, indeed…)

Used Bin: So tell me about your new band Road Crew. How’d that come about?

Scott Waller: My friend Brian McKinley plays guitar. We just started writing songs. I thought it was really good stuff. So we recorded an album and we’re trying to shop that around. What I’d really like to do is get a deal that’d put us on the road; maybe in Japan. Seems like there’s still an audience for this music over there. I’d love to get out on tour.

Used Bin: So like the songs says, after all these years, you “Can’t Stop Rockin”…

Scott Waller: Well, I‘d always hoped we’d end up touring the world, but Smile just never got a break. I guess I just never found my niche. But I’ve been on the road as a set carpenter, and it has allowed me to see the world. I toured Europe with Luther Vandross; and all over Africa. That was fantastic, dude. I worked for the Sultan of Brunei for a few months. I lived in Jamaica for a year. I went down there with Kid Rock and I just stayed. I was in this little grass shack, and it was pretty cool for a while. So somehow I ended up on the road after all. You just never know how things will turn out…

…and that’s something to Smile about…