SOME PEOPLE can’t wrap their head around the idea that Robert Randolph got his start playing exclusively in church, with no knowledge whatsoever of blues, funk or any other secular music. Gospel singers are one thing, but this is a guy whose pedal steel guitar playing and outrageously high-energy live shows have won him comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Sly & the Family Stone. The guy has chops.
And yet, until Eric Clapton (one of his biggest fans) gave him a supporting slot on tour in 2004, and the Robert Randolph & the Family Band song “Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That” began popping up all over TV and movies in 2007, few people outside of the House of God Church knew his name. How could he have crossed over so easily?
For Randolph, it was easy. Church simply crossed over with him.
“The stage is like our church,” says Roberts. “When you go out and see the fans out there, it doesn’t matter if we’re tired or we’ve had a bad day or we’re mad at each other. You see the joy, and you can’t help but latch on to that.”
Also an actor, Randolph recently played Bo Diddley in the Chess Records biopic Who Do You Love, which came out last month. It’s a nice tie-in to his performance Saturday headlining the 30th annual Metro Fountain Blues Festival, since Diddley himself played at one of the first festivals.
Randolph tops a bill that also includes soul singer Bettye LaVette, Santa Cruz blues diva Sista Monica, banjo-reclaiming bluesman Otis Taylor, bad-boy blues harpist Jason Ricci and the Metro Fountain Blues All Stars.
So, would the church folk Randolph grew up with approve of him playing on the same stage as a black-leather-clad, punk-coiffed blues misfit like Ricci? Probably not—he admits there was a certain element of resistance from old-school ministers who didn’t like seeing what some African American churches refer to as the “sacred steel” showing up in Stomp the Yard. But he doesn’t hold a grudge against the finger-waggers.
“God has a plan for everybody,” he says. “The new generation understands, but the old generation will never really understand.”
