Billy Joel's concert at the Energy Solutions Arena in November was a real treat for longtime fans who have followed the Piano Man's career since the 1970s. Joel delivered an outstanding concert with a great mix of B-side rarities and greatest hits.
The only thing missing for vintage-era Joel fans were a few familiar faces in his band. Most notably, it was the first time in three decades Liberty DeVitto was not keeping the beat on the drum kit in Salt Lake City.
Enough people commented on the Deseret Morning News' message board about DeVitto's absence that the News dedcided to catch up with him and recently spoke to him on the phone from his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. The man pounded his kit with such force that at one point in his career he was breaking an average of five cymbal stands a night. ("The cymbal would drop on my snare while I was playing, and I'd have to pick it up and toss it behind me. And it would make this big crash noise, and Billy would look back and say, 'What was that?'"). He now spends much of his time helping others start their rock-n-roll dreams, in drum clinics or with one of his charities that not only teaches children how to play but also gives them instruments.
DeVitto's drumming career began unceremoniously in the sixth grade when his music teacher told him to consider a new instrument because he couldn't play a buzz roll on the "Star Spangled Banner." But after seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, DeVitto decided to give the drums another chance.
"I saw Ringo, and I said, 'That's what I want to do,'" he said.
DeVitto taught himself how to play. He eventually became good enough that he started playing bars around Long Island ("I got in trouble once for playing in a bar when I was 16."). It was around that time that DeVitto played some gigs in clubs on the same night as another Long Island-based group called The Hassles featuring another up-and-comer trying to get his feet wet in the music business, Billy Joel.
The New York bar circuit lead to some jam sessions with Carmen Appice and Vanilla Fudge. It was Appice who then pointed Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels in DeVitto's direction. DeVitto's career seemed to be headed in the right direction, until one night while the band was driving back from Ohio after a gig opening for Grand Funk Railroad. On an icy winter night, with all members of the band piled into one van and DeVitto at the wheel, their van hit a slippery patch of snow and flipped. DeVitto's face smashed against the steering wheel.
"I broke every bone in my face," he said. "My jaw was wired shut. My eyeball sunk into my sinus pocket. I thought I was never going to play again. I thought I was done. I was going to have to get a real job."
DeVitto eventually did get a "real" job, but everytime he drove to work, "I had the radio on. The music kept pulling me back."
A year after the accident, DeVitto returned to drumming. His first gig was sitting in for a friend who played weddings. DeVitto said he arrived at his first wedding gig "thinking I was the big rock star," and then met his fellow musicians for the evening—trumpet, saxophone and accordion players who were "120 years old each." The band leader announced the bride wanted to start with a maranga.
He didn't know what it was. "I thought a maranga was something you ate," DeVitto said.
DeVitto eventually learned how to play a maranga, as well as a bossa nova and other styles of music outside of a 2/4 rock beat.
"It was the best 2 1/2 years of learning in my life," he said.
While DeVitto was paying the bills by being the wedding drummer, he also had another side project called Topper, a band that played a lot of original material mixing Chicago blues and reggae.
"We'd play clubs for $8 a night. Or some nights we would owe the bar money for drinking so much," he said.
Topper consisted of DeVitto, Russell Javors and Howie Emerson on guitars and Doug Stegmeyer on bass. In 1974, Joel asked Stegmeyer to be his bass player for the Streetlife Serenade tour. Joel was living in Los Angeles. After the tour, he moved back to New York and wanted to put together a band with he could record and taken on the road. Until then, the studio band and tour band were different.
That's when Stegmeyer convinced Joel to bring in the rest of his band. The members of Topper, plus the addition of saxophonist Richie Cannata, became what is still today widely recognized by Joel fans as the core classic lineup of the Billy Joel band. DeVitto, Stegmeyer and Javors began recording and touring with Joel on 1976's "Turnstiles" album and continued with a streak of monster albums that made Joel a household name including "The Stranger," "52nd Street," "Glass Houses," "The Nylon Curtain" and "An Innocent Man." David Brown replaced Emerson by "The Stranger," rounding out the Billy Joel band classic line-up. Mark Rivera, the most senior member of Joel's current touring band, joined the group in the early '80s.
The line-up of DeVitto, Javors, Stegmeyer, Brown and Rivera can be seen in superior form in 1985's "Live From Long Island" concert.
Just before the recording of what would become 1989's Storm Front, Stegmeyer and Javors were booted from the band.
"That was tough. They were my friends. It was in a bad way they went," DeVitto said. "You don't get told. You just aren't asked to go on the road on the next leg of the tour. They heard about (being fired) on MTV. It was cold."
DeVitto and Brown stayed with Joel.
"My job security was (Joel) hated to rehearse and I knew all the songs," DeVitto said.
Brown's run with Joel ended after Storm Front. DeVitto continued to record and tour for "The River of Dreams" album, Joel's last full album of pop-rock songs. But he said it never quite felt the same.
"The whole band was new. No one was directly connected to those records," DeVitto said. "The music didn't feel the same. The guys now play good, but they're copying. It's like a cover band doing a Billy song."
Cannata briefly reunited with Joel on the current tour during his 12-show run at Madison Square Garden. But even he said the band didn't have the same feel, according to DeVitto.
Tragically, Stegmeyer, known as "The Sergeant" of the Billy Joel band, committed suicide in 1995. It was during a point in his life where he didn't have much happening on the music scene. DeVitto jokingly, and fondly, recalls Stegmeyer as always being a glass half empty type of person.
"He'd say he was tired of being a workhorse. He'd say, 'I wish I was a horn player. For one minute I'd like to put my horn down and listen to the band.' As a bass player and drummer, we had to play all the time," he said.
But in reality, DeVitto said Stegmeyer loved being part of Joel's band.
"What he couldn't deal with was that someone else was playing his parts, something he had created. Once you're a band member and everyone knows you as being in Billy Joel's band, when you're not doing it ... it really gets to you. All he wanted to do was be Billy Joel's bass player."
Stegmeyer never gave any red flags he was going to take his life, DeVitto said, and there were no indications being kicked out of the band led directly to his suicide. If anything, it may have had more to do with being alone, DeVitto suggested. Stegmeyer was single and had no children when he died.
In 2006, Joel hit the road again for his first solo tour in nearly a decade. DeVitto was not invited. There have been rumors as to what led to the split between Joel and his longtime drummer but no definitive answer.
"The thing I'm most disappointed about ... there was never really any closure to it. Me and Billy never spoke about what happened. Everyone has theories. It has gotten so out of hand, no one really knows anymore."
DeVitto said he has written Joel letters, but they have gone unanswered. While DeVitto is happy with his life today, he said if the opportunity ever came up to sit down and talk with Joel, he would "definitely" do it.
Unlike Stegmeyer's situation, DeVitto said he had three daughters, a girlfriend and other family members to offer support. And, DeVitto has found a new passion in helping children fulfill their musical dreams.
One program is Camp Jam, a summer camp for aspiring rock stars co-founded by former .38 Special lead guitarist Jeff Carlisi. The camp's motto is, "No canoes, Lots of Rock." In several U.S. cities, camp counselors try to encourage what DeVitto called "bedroom players" to follow their dreams by giving them a taste of performing live.
"Bedroom players are kids who jam away by themselves in their room. It's because we saw something on TV or the radio that we said, 'I want to do that,'" he said. "For one week, Camp Jam puts kids in bands with other players that are equal to their playing ability. On that Friday, they do a concert for their parents and friends. Their personality goes from their head is down to they're jumping around the stage on Friday. They realize this is cool."
More information can be found at www.campjam.com.
DeVitto is also involved in Little Kids Rock. The program gives free music lessons after school to children in underprivileged areas. The instruments for the charity-based program, guitars, drums, etc., are donated. A child, for example, can take guitar lessons for free for an entire year. If the student sticks with it, the student can keep the guitar. More information can be found at littlekidsrock.org.
Little Kids Rock has also been busy with iTunes. Free lessons can be downloaded from the non-profit organization. Also, a Christmas song from some students, averaging 14 years old, can be purchased off iTunes with the money going toward Little Kids Rock.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com