John Popper – HuffPost 3.1.11
Mike Ragogna: John, how were you “discovered”?
John Popper: Well, it depends at which point. I was in my high school jazz band as the third trumpet player because I had been playing harmonica in the school parking lot. I was in the remedial class. They were going to put me in a school for stupid people or retarded people or something, but I could play this harmonica. The remedial lady, she went and talked to the high school band teacher. He said they didn’t really have harmonicas in the high school band, here is a trumpet, get out of my office. So, I was in the beginner band and we’re doing “She Blinded Me With Science,” and they were going around the room for solos. I did a terrible third trumpet solo. I had the harmonica in my trumpet case, I had three. Luckily, I had one in the right key though. The band teacher said, “Try it.” As soon as I was done with that solo, I was in the first string band. The principle was checking me out and people were gathering around to watch me play. The next day, everyone knew my name and it sort of started there.
When I got into the music school, I had such horrible grades. I’m talked to the dean and he was looking at my transcripts at The New School for Social Research–they just started this jazz program. He was sitting there shaking his head going, “I don’t know John.” I had a harmonica in my pocket and played for him, and he was like, “Oh, just go on in,” and they put me in the school. So, there are little moments of being discovered that just continue. I guess when we got signed to our label was at the New Music Seminar in ’89. They drove it into us that we had only 45 minutes to play our set, so we crafted a perfectly tailored set that showcased every feature of our band. Right before we started, somebody came in and said, “Buddy Miles is here and wants to sit in with you guys.” He kicked the bass player off and did a bass solo, he kicked the guitar player off his guitar and did a guitar solo, and every solo is like four hours long; he does a nine hour drum solo. Our set was so blown that it was funny. The record label liked the way we handled it and signed us. You could say we got discovered when our video came out. It was our fourth record when we broke big time.
MR: But there’s more to the story, another school story?
JP: Our parents told us, “If you stay in school, we will pay for it.” So, after high school, we all claimed we were going to school in New York City. Then, we would all just skip class and figure out how to be a band. Like, we were being subsidized, we had a window there. We were at a music school that was really good and had good teachers there, but basically, we got free amps and all of the rehearsal time we wanted. Also, some nice stuff to learn, but the second we paid our rent, we quit school. In our mind, that’s when we made it, we felt like we were a family–Blues Travelers is a family. We are all living in the same apartment and the second we could continue feed ourselves doing this, we could just weed the rest of the stuff out. That’s the thing, what is “making it,” what is success? It’s really doing what you love, expressing yourself, and feeding yourself.
MR: This is terrific advice for new artists. By example, you show how important it is to keep goals in mind.
JP: Because you’re going to have to live with it. Whatever you plan to do to make it, you better like it because they will want you to do it again and again.