![]() “We had this black-and-white TV with the antenna on top,” he adds. And I’m like, ‘Mom, this is not what I want to play.’”Ī pivotal moment came when Baker was about 10 years old. will play ‘Hungarian Rhapsody’ followed by ‘Blue Danube’. “My mom wanted me to always play the boring scales, and I had to play in front of the church like, ‘And now… Johnnie B Baker Jr. ![]() “My dad had an old piano that he painted pink,” he recalls. Florida Online for FreeĪs a kid, Baker wanted to play guitar, but his mom insisted he study piano instead. They had Moms Mabley.”Ģ023 College World Series Finals Livestream: Watch LSU vs. He later found those records stashed away in the back of the house - a trio of delightfully vulgar recordings that bridged explicit comedy with the popular music of the time. But one night when his parents had some friends over, Dusty snuck out of his room and heard them listening to the kind of records he would have been in major trouble for listening to. We had Mahalia Jackson spiritual songs in our house.”įor Dusty’s parents, the old cliché was true: Rock & roll was “the devil’s music.” Or at least that’s what they told him. I was like, ‘Where’s the sanity to it?’ I didn’t understand it until later. I didn’t understand at the time because it wasn’t any words. ![]() “My mom would wake us up to go to school Lou Rawls. “I was the oldest of five, and music was always in our house,” he remembers. ![]() (This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)ĭusty Baker’s love for music was born at home in Riverside, California, about two hours east of Los Angeles. Below are some highlights from our conversation, being shared in exclusive partnership with Rolling Stone. The interview took nearly a year to happen, but when Baker and I finally sat down to talk, the stories came pouring out once again. His memories were so deeply tied to music that I felt obligated to invite him to be a guest on The Nostalgia Mixtape, a podcast where guests like Thundercat, Gary Clark Jr, Amber Coffman, and another WNBA champion, Nneka Ogwumike, have told me those kinds of stories. We talked late into the night about music and life how he saw one of Bob Marley’s final concerts, what kind of music used to get played at Studio 54, and how he got the nickname “Brave Eagle” (more on that later).įor every story Dusty had, there were a dozen laughs to go along with it, and so we stayed in touch. After the game, we went to a nearby bar to celebrate the Astros’ victory on a rare walk-off walk - and, to my surprise, Baker himself showed up with a tote bag of wine bottles, enough for each of us to go home with one. Sitting in some prime seats behind home plate, I was a guest of Sydney, who was a guest of Dusty that night. The origin of this conversation was a last-minute invitation from WNBA champion Sydney Colson to catch an Astros game at the end of the 2021 season. On a recent gameday morning, I sat down with Baker, 73, at his modest high-rise apartment in Houston to hear some of those stories. The 54-year MLB veteran’s first love was music, a passion that led him to forge some incredible core memories arguably more impressive than anything he’s been part of on the diamond. Rather, it’s a manifestation of the cool that radiates from within him. Yet somehow that isn’t even the coolest thing about this future Hall of Famer. As the Astros’ manager places that first, fresh toothpick in his mouth and sets foot on the lightly moisturized dirt of Minute Maid Park, we’ll all have the great honor of watching the man who many say co-invented the high five continue his long, storied run in American sports. affectionately known as “Dusty” because, as a child, he loved to play in the alluvial dirt of Riverside, California - will be there. When the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees take the field for Game One of the American League Championship Series tonight, Johnnie B.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |