Session musician extraordinaire AL PERKINS spoke to broadcaster Mike Rimmer

Al: I became a Christian early on. I was baptised in Texas at a little Baptist church when I was 11, so I just sort of rocked on from there, you know. I did that I'm going to church kind of thing. By the time I went out through the Army, everybody thought that'll really ruin him. Wait till he gets out of the Army, he'll be a different guy. God seemed to be with me through all of that. I came out and started playing music and ended up going to California. A lot of the groups I worked with did a lot of drugs 'n' drinkin' 'n' stuff. But somehow God was able to keep me from the desire to even know what it was like which was a great blessing for me. It wasn't a temptation for me. Half the time somebody was high, I didn't know it. I just thought they were acting strange. So I was the last to know. But I spent a lot of time by myself, walking or seeing the sights when a lot of people were doing other things. I found a church out in California once I was out there, it was early '70s and the Jesus movement had just been going on. I was asked by a friend of mine to come down and check out Calvary Chapel when it was still in the tent, early '70s. I went down there and man, it just felt so good. It was like all the love that you felt from the Lord and from everybody. The music was long hair guys playing rock and roll music. Chuck Smith was smiling and teaching. I enjoyed it so much. I found the fella that invited me to come down there, amongst 2,000 people. The first guy I approached turned out to be his roommate. I asked this guy, Do you know Don Hampshire? and he said oh, yeah, he's my roommate, he's right over there. He was standing there behind the crows as they were ending the service. He always had this big bushy moustache and he's always smiling. I said hey, Don, this is really great, how can I join? He laughed and looked at me and said you can't join and I thought boy, he knows more about me in the spirit. I said I can't? He said you're a Christian, aren't you? And I said yes. He said you don't need to be a member here. You're part of our crowd. So I thought that was pretty cool too. I really got grounded going to that church. I should say re-grounded because I didn't learn as much growing up in the church when I was young. I always wanted to get out of my Sunday clothes and go play. But it brought me back to a sinner and it made me realise a lot of things that I could do better so I really thank the Lord for that, for sending somebody to show me that.

Mike: You've got a reputation for being a session player who wasn't ashamed to talk to the musicians that you were working with about your faith. So you would go in and you would play sessions and you would try and lead people to Jesus. And yet you still got work. That's astounding, isn't it?

Al: Yes, it is. Playing live too. At one point I was wearing this military khaki shirt with private stripes on it and everything else on it was things about Jesus - He's the real thing and all those kind of tags. People seemed to - I don't know - I wasn't pushy. I like to talk about the Lord so I'd wait for an opportunity to talk with whoever. But through that Chris Hillman came to the Lord and Richie Furay came to the Lord. That was really great to see. I used to go out on the beach if we were close to the beach and I'd talk to people.

Mike: The way Richie Furay tells it thought he didn't want you in the Souther Hillman Furay band because you were a Jesus Freak.

Al: Yes, that's right. I had this big fish thing on my striped wood guitar and when he saw that he just said No way! He had a friend who was a fan. This friend had a camper and I guess he had travelled around to see Richie and the other groups that he had been in. He was a close friend who was into the Eastern religions and things. I thought, from hearing Richie talk, Richie was getting ready to make a decision to go whole hog for one or the other: Christianity or something else. And so I asked him if we could come up and talk with him some night, during dinner.

Mike: I understand you didn't talk: you played him a preaching tape.

Al: We listened to one of Chuck Smith's tapes for about an hour, I guess and I think he was still a little bit undecided. But Nancy, his wife, she came to the Lord. It's strange how people respond. I tell my wife this too. Sometimes it's like some people water with the Word and some people cultivate, some people plant and others reap. So, it wasn't really us directly that led Nancy to the Lord. But it's really interesting how the Lord works through these things.

Al Perkins and Emmylou Harris

Mike: He was so against it and then suddenly Richie Furay becomes - the harder they come, the harder they fall!

Al: He's been such a brilliant man of God with his church and everything. It's just great to see. It's wonderful. We still see Chuck occasionally too, when we get out that way. He's still preaching even though he had a stroke. Tommy Coombs and I and my wife went in to see him and his great smile was still there. He had to sit in a big chair at the podium but he's just the same guy.

Mike: There have been some ups and downs in your life. It hasn't always been easy for you. Things have gone wrong. I know that Richie Furay wrote "One Summer Night" for you - was that when you were going through marital difficulties?

Al: Yeah, it could be. My wife at the time had been with me whenever we went up to speak with him and Nancy and down the road our marriage fell apart and it was a real tough time. Similarly after we'd talked to them and shared with them, the devil came in and tried to rip that apart too. It was miraculous how that was saved. I always thought being a musician was not the greatest occupation for a marriage and for raising a family. I thank God for my boys but it is very hard on both parties sometimes to be gone so much. So, that's part of it I think but through it all I'm humbled by how much God has given me, even in the midst of trial and tribulation and failures too. I try to encourage people a lot: if you're not getting some flak maybe you're not as deep into the Word or the Lord as you will be. If you're counting for the Lord you're going to get a few arrows and darts thrown your way. Thankfully, I've had good health - he's blessed me with that. I still get to play and enjoy playing with various people and play on the road still.

Mike: You have a wealth of musical experience in terms of the number of different artists you've played with. When you think back over your career, which sessions or artists you've hooked up with stand out for you as being special?

Al: That's a good question. The Lord's really led me through a myriad of different situations, none of which I expected to be really successful, for the most part. Some people that are already successful will have you play and you think well, maybe that's heard and maybe it's not heard. But I guess sometimes your first experience playing for people who come to see what you recorded, that's probably the greatest feeling - people coming to hear what you do, or hear the group that you're in. As far as artists, there have been so many. I've enjoyed different personalities of course but still artists in their own right. Dolly Parton comes to mind and Emmylou and I've been in and out of several groups with Chris Hillman from the Byrds. One of the funniest things that happened was I got a call one night when I was in LA from Joe Walsh. He asked me if I had my banjo - I'd just started playing banjo in the mid-'70s because I really liked how Berny Leadon used it. So I said no, it's down on Santa Monica. So he said how long will it take you to get it so I said probably about an hour. He said we're out at Record Plant; we need a banjo part if you can come out there. We tried to find Taj Mahal, can't find him so you're it.

Mike: So you were second call.