" But for the multi-instrumentalist — who's spent 40 years playing mostly saxophone for Billy Joel and has worked with Foreigner, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall and John Oates and Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, among others — the smell is actually pretty sweet. (Excerpt from Ultimate Classic Rock)
"It's the greatest thing because I get to be on the side of the greatest bands that ever existed," says Rivera, who recently published a memoir, Sideman: In Pursuit of the Next Gig, with a foreword by Starr. "Think about it: If I was in a band, a frontman or something, I wouldn't have played on 'Sledgehammer.' I wouldn't have been in Foreigner. I wouldn't have done any of that. I can't imagine having a single gig that would be more rewarding than being a sideman."
Written with Mike Poncy, Sideman takes a tour through Rivera's life and career, from attending New York's High School of Performing Arts through his days slugging it out in clubs and studios. .
There's no shortage of stories in Sideman's 258 pages, nor in a typically animated, freewheeling conversation with Rivera shortly after the first of Joel's stadium dates with Stevie Nicks.
On Meeting John Lennon
A Beatles fan like countless others, Rivera met John Lennon in the mid-'70s when the ex-Beatle was part of a group called BOMF (Band of Motherfuckers) and residing in New York City's Record Plant, where Rivera had janitorial duties.
"He was in Studio C and I was literally cleaning the garbage ... 'cause Roy Cicala [house engineer] let us have studio time and rehearsal time," Rivera says. "It's like going into Technicolor is all I can say. I guess Roy and Jimmy Iovine knew me well enough that [they thought], 'Well, I guess he can hang. He won't step on his tongue the whole time.' You worry you're gonna say too much and then you don't say anything, but saying less is better.
"But, yeah, it was crazy stepping into that room. It was like meeting the all-powerful Oz and finding out he wasn't the guy with the levers and all that. He's just a great guy, and he was everything you'd want him to be — and more."
Rivera and BOMF wound up backing Lennon for his final TV performance on April 18, 1975, playing "Imagine" during a tribute special for British entertainment mogul Sir Lew Grade, with whom Lennon had a fraught relationship.
Having toured frequently with Starr and played with Paul McCartney through both Starr and Joel, Rivera is one Beatle shy of a grand slam. "I never met George [Harrison], not even an introduction," he says. "But I'm batting .750 with the other guys. I'd be in the Hall of Fame twice with those numbers."
On His Longtime Billy Joel Gig
Rivera's four-decade tenure in Joel's touring band means "everything" to him. "The most important thing is the gratitude I have for the position and the respect I have for him as a bandleader," he says. "He's always like, 'I just want to be in a band,' and [I say,] 'Yeah, but you happen to write some of the world's best songs' — as Tony Bennett calls him, the walking American Songbook. And Billy and I share a lot of joy for [Jimi] Hendrix, Cream. He loves Traffic, as I do, [and] the Rascals. We have a lot of commonality in our collection of music, so getting to play with somebody for 40 years who actually loves the same music I do, it's great."
Rivera is equally exuberant about Joel's ongoing stadium tour with Nicks, which launched on March 10 in Los Angeles. "Some people said, 'Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel? I don't get it.' But it was incredible. Her band was amazing; her songs are incredible. Billy came on and sang 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.' It's two icons — she's the California hippie, he's the quintessential New Yorker — and somehow the music met right in the middle. There are nine shows slated for this year, and I can't imagine that people won't want to keep coming out. It's a wonderful show."
