INTERVIEW: Ladies and gentlemen, appearing tonight: Paul Shaffer
Photo: Paul Shaffer shared a stage with David Letterman for 33 years, and now he’s bringing his concert act to Las Vegas. Photo courtesy of CBS / Provided by artist rep with permission.
For fans of rock ‘n’ roll music and late-night television, the name Paul Shaffer hardly needs an introduction. The legendary bandleader who sat on the same stage with David Letterman for 33 years is not slowing down one bit after his decades on the Late Show.
Now Shaffer is taking his musical act on the road with a multi-month residency at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Performances run Sept. 6-8, Oct. 11-13 and Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at 8 p.m.
“I did it once already last Christmas/New Year’s time,” Shaffer said in a recent phone interview. “I was attracted to the idea right away. I’ve been kidding Las Vegas lounge performers all my life, so it’s only fitting that I become one myself.”
For last year’s engagement and this year’s shows, Shaffer has an all-Las Vegas band (The Shāf-Shifters), and they plan to play all of their favorite songs, encompassing the genres of pop, funk and R&B. “I tell stories about show business and my past and my experiences,” he said. “We [have] different artists we pay tribute to during the show, and we have video going. I’m not doing anything different, just trying to do it better.”
The band gets together for a couple rehearsals before Shaffer arrives in Vegas, and then he leads them through two-and-a-half days of his spirited playing. Anyone who remembers his gig with Letterman will know that Shaffer likes improvisation, comedy, soulful singing and infectious piano playing. His pounding of the keys, his memorable glasses and his sparkly suits are as iconic as Elvis shaking those hips.
When Shaffer is looking for top-notch musicians to play with, he has a few criteria he likes to consider.
“You have to do everything to tell you the truth,” he said. “You have to be a good reader because we have written stuff. Once you have a horn section, which we have, three horns, you have to have arrangements. They have to be able to read them. They also have to be able to improvise, and they have to be able to go with whatever flow. If there’s somebody in the audience who I didn’t know was going to be there, but, boy, I’d like to get that person on stage and sing a number, the band’s got to be able to swing with it. And they all do, too.”
Now that Letterman’s show has wrapped for good, Shaffer finds himself with more time to enjoy these concerts and side projects. In the years since his nightly job winded down, he has recorded an album and continued to appear on stage for a variety of audiences. He recently hosted the Live Music Industry Awards and appeared at the Paley Center for Media.
“I used to do a lot of stuff on the side, but, of course, I always had to be back for that Monday show,” he said. “Whatever I was doing I was doing it in addition to five Letterman shows a week, so compared to that, I feel like I can do anything. I don’t have that anymore. Of course, I miss it, and it was the most fun a person could have. But, yes, I get to try more things, and not only that, but when I start a song now, I get to finish it instead of fading into a commercial. That in itself is a big change.”
He added: “As I look back on the 33 years that I spent with Dave, I realize that I played with almost everybody that was anybody during the rock ‘n’ roll era. When we first started Letterman in ’82, we had a very small studio, and we would encourage the people to come and play with me and the house band. And it made an impact. People still remember, you know, us playing with Eric Clapton or Sly from the Family Stone, and people I think maybe could see what a fan I was. And when I play with somebody, I take it seriously. We used to have to try be better than the person’s own band so that they would feel good about playing with us, and I still feel that’s the case.”
Shaffer has been playing piano almost his entire life. He started at the age of 6 with classical piano lessons, and then he discovered rock ‘n’ roll at age 10. It was at that point in his life that he started learning how to play songs by ear.
“Songs that I would hear on the radio, I tried to learn them on the piano,” Shaffer said. “A lot of kids say, ‘When I saw the Beatles, I switched to guitar.’ It didn’t happen to me. I don’t know why. I just found with piano you could do everything. I used to try to recreate the sounds of my favorite records, all with my own piano. I would play so loud that the sound would all come up around my ears, and I could pretend to be right inside the record. So that was enough for me. Of course, when the British Invasion continued, sure enough bands like the Animals and the Dave Clark Five, who had keyboard players, came out, so I was able to relate to those bands and to those guys. But I never wanted to change instruments.”
For anyone who thought Shaffer would retire after Letterman’s 33-year tenure on the Late Show, they were wrong. There were a couple of weeks when the piano player thought about changing it up, but that didn’t last long.
“I could tell you the truth, when Letterman’s show first wrapped up, I thought it was time to slow down,” Shaffer said. “And I was tired, too. I think we all were from that daily schedule, so I did slow down for a few weeks. I got so depressed, and then I got a record deal. I made a record for Rhino Records about a year and a half ago, and started working on that record, and I cheered up right away. It was laid out in front of me: Life is not for slowing down. Or, to put it another way, there’s no money in slowing down. I just mean that as a joke. That’s what keeps me happy, so I have no intention of slowing down anymore.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Paul Shaffer and The Shāf-Shifters will play Sept. 6-8, Oct. 11-13 and Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Shows begin at 8 p.m. VIP tickets include a meet and greet. Click here for more information and tickets.
