SASS JORDAN On Touring With A Pre-Fame TAYLOR HAWKINS - "It Was Like He Suddenly Felt Like He Was Catapulted Into It, And He Was Living The Dream"

21:14 Monday, 15 May 2023

Sass Jordan recently released Live In New York Ninety-Four via Deko Entertainment (ADA/Warner Music Group). The show was recorded at the South Street Seaport in NYC during the 1994 Rats tour. The band at that time, along with Jordan, consisted of Tony Reyes (bass, vocals), Taylor Hawkins (drums, vocals), Nick Lashley (guitar), and Stevie Salas (guitar).

Sass is featured in a new interview with Greg Prato for Songfacts, in which she discusses touring with a pre-fame Taylor Hawkins, releasing Live In New York Ninety-Four, and missing out on a Stateside breakthrough. An excerpt follows...

Greg Prato (Songfacts): "How did the idea come up to issue Live In New York Ninety-Four now?"

Sass Jordan: "Somebody I work with said to me, 'Sass, one of the main questions we get on your site is, when are you going to do a live album?' And that stuff is sort of peripheral to me, because I'm always wrapped up in my own "cacara," as we say in Italiano. But I did know that we had this recording somewhere in a box.

Compound it with the fact that my friend said, 'It's also been a year since Taylor passed. Maybe it would be nice to do some sort of a tribute to him, because we know how much he meant to you.' And I thought, 'Right there, my dear, is a fabulous combination of reasons to put this record out now.' It's always about timing, isn't it? And it felt right to me."

Songfacts: "What did Taylor bring to the band at the time?"

Jordan: "This was his first professional band, so he was learning the ropes. Just being on a tour bus, traveling from country to country - because we were in Europe as well with that tour - and being a part of a working band and playing these huge shows. His whole life up to that point, he was 22 I'd say, had been dreaming of doing this. It was like he suddenly felt like he was catapulted into it, and he was living the dream. He was having the best time ever. And his incredible joy and his incredible energy just made everything kick up a notch.

It's very easy to get jaded and cynical when you're in a rock band on the road, especially after a couple of months, so his energy was like that little spark that lit the fire, that kept us just like [let's out a scream]. It was a wonderful, wonderful time... and also a horrific time, I'm not going to lie - because nothing is always 100% great or 100% terrible.

What was difficult about it was being on the road. It's exhausting and it just wears you out. You get worn out emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally. That can get you into states of moods and states of being, "Why am I alive?" [laughs] I mean, that happens in regular life, too. But everything is compounded in a situation like that. It's just so intense, and the pressure is intense."