Eddie Martinez 2024 Interview

“There’s a time when the phone’s ringing and burning up, then there comes a time when the phone doesn’t ring as much. That’s just reality,” Eddie Martinez says. “I think every guitarist experiences that in one way or another, especially when you’re in the studio session scene. You have your period when you’re hot, and then the time comes when you’re not. It is what it is.”

For the better part of the 1980s, nobody was hotter than Martinez. Thanks to his arena-quaking rhythms and paint-peeling solos on Run-DMC’s groundbreaking single Rock Box, the guitarist’s prodigious skills – everything from walloping crunch to buttery-smooth grooves to whacked-out, explosive leads – was sought out by the likes of Robert Palmer, David Lee Roth, Steve Winwood, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger and a host of other music legends.

“It was an exciting time,” says the Queens, New York-born guitarist who began his career in the mid-’70s playing with the funk-rock band Labelle. “It was the culmination of a lot of years when I played with people like Nona Hendryx, George Duke and Stanley Clarke. A lot of situations didn’t call for frontal guitar, but other opportunities emerged that called for me to crank it up. I was kind of bubbling under the surface for a while, and then it all kind of exploded. It was like a sequence of events that just blew my mind.”

Martinez laughs at the serendipity of it all, especially since he admits that he never had a career path mapped out. “In my early days, I just wanted to work,” he says. “It’s funny – back then, the West Coast guys were attracted to the East Coast studio scene, and guys on the East Coast were enamored with L.A. I was listening to what Steve Lukather and Michael Landau were doing. Larry Carlton and all the other guys were tearing it up in L.A. “I was blown away when I read how they had cartage – their gear would be driven out to the studio. They had their choice of amplifiers and trunks full of guitars. And here I was, on the D train with a gigbag and my Boss pedal. I didn’t have all the toys like those guys.”

As the hit records piled up in the ’80s, his toybox grew. “When I started getting busy, I was like anybody else,” he says. “I got the big Bradshaw rig. That was the thing. I had everything from Fender tweeds to Marshalls.” One particular Marshall amp remained a constant: a 50-watt Marshall combo that he purchased in 1977 at Music on 48th Street in Manhattan. “That’s the sound on Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love and a lot of tracks,” Martinez says. “Harry Colby modified it, and it became a beast.”

Martinez’s halcyon days of rocking the charts and big stages are very much in the rearview mirror, and he’s made his peace with that. Now 71, he lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works on music at his own pace and plays gigs with local musicians when the mood strikes.

Eddie Martinez with Robert Palmer on American TV show Nightlife (1986)

Riptide marked a significant sonic change for Robert Palmer. What was looking for when he brought you in?  

“It wasn’t really talked about. I’d recorded with [producer] Bernard [Edwards] before; he knew I was adventurous and liked to get big sounds.”

Did they ever refer to the big guitar crunch you got with Run-DMC?

“No, they didn’t. That sound was in my head, though, and the engineer, Jason Corsaro, was able to facilitate that. Jason was unbelievable. It was a big collaboration with everybody. We wanted stuff to sound big and different.”

How did you go about that?

“We had my 50-watt Marshall in there. Jason had a different way of recording it, especially for the Addicted To Love solo. We spent more time working on the sound of the solo than the actual solo. This was at Compass Point. What we did was, we had the cabinet in what would be considered a live chamber. 

Most of the big guitars were cut in this room at Compass Point that was just above the main studio. I’d say the room was maybe 10 or 15 feet square, and the amp was in there. Jason took a feed off the cabinet from the microphone and fed it into a tiny Fostex monitor speaker. 

That got us this real crispy sound; in itself it would sound very strident, but when you blended it with the girth of the Marshall you’d get the definition. That was for the solo only.”

Now, clear something up for me. For years, Andy Taylor from Duran Duran has been credited with that solo.

“You know, I thought that myth had been put to bed. That’s me on the solo, and I did it in one take. Jason Corsaro was there when I did it. He’s no longer here, but [keyboardist] Jeff Bova was around when we were recording it. [Drummer] Tony Thompson, Bernard Edwards, the assistant engineers… I know that I played it. Plus, I don’t think it even sounds like Andy. Not to disparage him – he’s a rocker.

Andy did play some crunchy rhythm things, but it was after we cut the track and after I did the solo. I like what he played on it. It was really cool, and it contributed to the song. He wasn’t down at Compass Point to do that. I believe he did that in New York at the Power Station. I haven’t seen Andy since the ’90s. I should say I consider him a friend, and I hope he’s healing.”

That solo is pretty great for one take. It's very bluesy, and you get some good squawks out of your bends.

“My mindset for that solo was the great Billy Gibbons. That’s what I was kind of vibing on – the Reverend.”

Your approach was pretty different on Palmer's Simply Irresistible. That solo is way shreddy.

“[Laughs] I got away with murder on that. I wanted to do something 180 degrees different from what I did with Addicted. Yeah, I went pretty nuts on Irresistible.”

A Kimberly guitar signed by RP and his band + all the girls from the Addicted To Love video!

At a certain point, did you intentionally pull back from doing a lot of touring?

“Yeah, after my daughter was born in ’86. I toured with Robert Palmer in ’86, ’88 and ’91. Those were big world tours. There was a point in there when I was rehearsing with Rod Stewart to go out on the tour, and I kind of backed out of it at the last minute. I knew that Robert had the Heavy Nova album coming out, and I thought I’d rather play Simply Irresistible than Hot Legs.”

Wow. You quit Rod Stewart tour before it began?

“I did. It’s just one of those things; I backed out of it. Rod’s a sweet guy. He wooed me to come out on tour and I agreed, and then I decided not to do it. He said, ‘Oh, I bet you’re going out on tour with Robert.’ And at that point, I hadn’t spoken to Robert. I had no idea that I was going to tour with him because I fundamentally said, ‘Bye, Robert, I’m doing this.’ It wasn’t easy leaving that situation.”

You had quite a bond with Robert.

“Oh, yeah. Not only was he a dear friend, but he was also a bad-ass musician. He had such eclectic tastes. We’d listen to Billie Holiday, Jobim, Nat King Cole, Jimi Hendrix, Sepultura – you name it.”

Robert Palmer listening to Sepultura - that blows my mind!

“He was big into metal. I’ll tell you, there was something very special about working with him. He was level-headed and adventurous, and he had a sense of humor. He wasn’t burned by ‘rock star-itis.’ 

The collaboration that took place on the albums I recorded with him was magical. I may be known more for other tracks I played on through the years, but working with Robert Palmer was the best of times and where I defined my style.”

Joe Bosso (Guitar World - 2024)

Voir aussi :

• Eddie Martinez Shares The Studio Secrets Behind Classic Records  (Guitar World - 2023)