The music world hasn’t caught up to Vernon Reid’s genius yet. For close to four decades, his guitar has wowed audiences. He has also impressed countless musicians. His band Living Colour remains as busy as ever. The group is platinum and multi-Grammy Award-winning.
Vernon’s latest solo release, Hoodoo Telemetry, came out this fall. I was excited to catch up with one of my favorite guitar players. We discussed a collection of songs he once worked on and then shelved. The tracks show his incredible range as a player. They mix rock, jazz, blues, funk, and sounds only Vernon creates. A talk only about the new album? Not even close.
Instead, I got an incredible conversation about his new music. We also talked about his role in the Ozzy Osbourne Back to the Beginning celebration. He shared a lesson in humility that stayed with me. Vernon is an epic talent. He also founded the Black Rock Coalition in 1985. It is a New York–based artists’ collective and nonprofit. The group is dedicated to promoting creative freedom for Black musicians. It also supports their artistic work.
Rock, race, radio, and more. Vernon Reid is such a special talent and person.
His new release Hoodoo Telemetry is a ride. Here is a bit of my conversation with a man I just met and felt like I have known my whole life. What a joy it was to talk music with Vernon Reid.
TC- Hoodoo Telemetry is not a record to be broken down; it’s a record to enjoy and just take the ride. It’s interesting that these songs were crafted a while back, then shelved, then brought back, then worked on. Talk to me about doing a record like that.
VR- Just like anything else, things happen in time, and sometimes people are not ready for whatever. It’s not the time. Like a song like Beautiful Bastard.
I had been working on a follow-up to Mistaken Identity (solo record), and I was part of a huge purge.
There was a kind of Black Monday purge across the board. A lot of artists were being dropped by the label.
TC: That was your Sony days in the 90s, right?
VR- Yeah, the Sony days, and that was very difficult. It wasn’t just for me, but a lot of artists were dropped like the A&R men’s favorites or whatnot. There was an economic purge at that time, and that was very depressing. It was not a great time.
But I was still writing, and a lot of the songs I was writing at that time dealt with difficult times. There’s a great phrase — “Situationship.” It was “Situationship.”
TC- That’s an album title!
VR- I taped a guy who was in the subway, and he was homeless (for this record). He was incredibly polite. He goes, “Good afternoon, everyone. Could you help me with something to eat today?”
“Good Afternoon, Everyone” is the song.
His rage — he’s incredibly polite. He doesn’t scream, and doesn’t yell. He’s obviously intelligent, but the rage at his circumstances and that people are taking for granted what they have in their life.
Is there anyone that hasn’t taken for granted what they have in their life? “Can you help me with something to eat today”?
He’s also talking about, “you think you’re different from me and I’m here because of circumstances and it could happen to you.”
TC- I deeply feel these songs, but that’s the type of artist that you are. You’re an artist who emotes. When I saw you at Back to the Beginning, the final Sabbath show, I thought you were an MVP.
Rudy Sarzo on bass was an MVP to me that day. Nuno Bettencourt obviously was an MVP. I felt like you were the guys — the glue that held the day together on the projects that you were doing that day. Seeing you up there, being a guy from my area — I’m in Jersey and not far from the city — we’re each other.
Seeing you up there, an amazing Black rock guitar player being represented, it made me feel proud and good.
VR- The fact that Tom Morello was the musical director. He put the whole thing together. I was really incredibly proud of him. It was great to see my friend William Duvall from Alice in Chains.
TC- I want to talk to you about BRC. I mentioned this as we started, and thinking “he’s probably never going to believe me,” but Black Rock Coalition meant a lot to me. “It started 40 years ago. Wow — 40 years!”
VR- We’re not that old. (It started) in 1985.
TC- I remember a friend mentioning to me — because we would go see all these great artists, whether it was King’s X or 24-7 Spyz or Bad Brains. I had bought the John Butcher record and loved that record.
We saw the turning of the tide. Eric Gales was coming out. Lenny Kravitz came, and he did something a little different.
Lenny was, in the beginning, more of his folky granola-y thing. Joan Armatrading was somebody who was all over MTV and nominated for a Grammy. So there were colors that were around us at that time.
A friend of mine said, “There’s these guys in New York — they’re starting something called BRC — Black Rock Coalition. These guys, Vernon Reid and Greg Tate, who writes for the Village Voice, are starting it. We got to keep going and seeing these bands.” It was such a movement.
Last week, I had on a good friend of mine — and I’m sure you know him — Ayron Jones, an amazing guitar player and an artist that is incredible. I feel like nobody knows where to put him right now because we’ve got to box everybody. Before I chatted with him, I searched out some information thinking “Ayron is the record holder for number ones at rock radio for a Black solo artist.” I’m like, “I’ve got to bring that up.” At first, I said that to Ayron and he’s like, “I think it’s me?”
He wasn’t even sure. I don’t want to box him in as the Black guy doing rock. However, when you’ve had two number ones at rock radio on a debut record happening during COVID time, and you’re not out touring and promoting, and then you get a number two, and then you get a top five — that’s got to be recognized. It just has to.
It circled me back to 1985 when you put BRC together with Greg Tate.
VR- Yeah, we started. We started everything, and we’ve never stopped. This is the conversation. The inspiration for me was rock. For me, rock, of course, was Led Zeppelin but it included Funkadelic too.
Funkadelic was a rock band. I’m talking about those early records — America Eats Its Young, Cosmic Slop.
They were rock stars, and it was rock and roll. Right? War — War to me, after Eric Burdon, was a rock band. That’s the reality. When Cult of Personality came out, I was on the cover of the guitar-playing magazine. I’m eternally grateful for it, but I got on that cover because Ernie Isley didn’t get on the cover.
That was a crime to me. Mind you, all of the guitar players that got covers of Guitar Player magazine — I loved them. Rory Gallagher, Jan Akkerman — I love these guitar players, but Ernie Isley was systematically ignored.
He wasn’t a music critic’s favorite, but he had that sound — Hendrix’s sound — survive on top-40 hits. Still, he was denied attention when he was young. He was pretty and was in his prime and denied his rightful place.
At the same time, what was happening on radio — radio was becoming segregated. There was a time on WNEW you could hear James Brown and Marvin Gaye. There was a time where you would hear Queen on WBLS because the DJs were free. They were like film auteurs, right? Frankie Crocker and Scott Muni — they played what they wanted to play.
Nobody was telling Scott Muni what to do. Nobody was telling Frankie Crocker what to do.
TC- They were doing shows!
VR- They were doing shows.
My chat with Vernon was the kind I cherish — organic and unscripted. One of the most fun and enlightening I’ve done. I’m so happy he’s still making music his way.
Hoodoo Telemetry paints many colors, sounds and emotions. In the AI world we live in these days, Vernon restores my faith in artistry. Check out my full chat down the musical rabbit hole with Vernon Reid- on my Carr Stereo Podcast.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
