It's His Life

"Southern man. My lovely friend.
Great bass player. Rock and Roll
aficionado whose quiet and dignity
 graced my band and my life."
Bruce Springsteen, 3.15.1999

     
          Garry Wayne Tallent was born  on October 27^th , 1949 in Detroit, Michigan. His family lived in several locations around the eastern United States before settling in Neptune City, NJ, just a few blocks from Coast Cities Coaches. He has four brothers (Thomas, Charles, Roger and Steven) and two sisters (Brenda and Elaine). He has two kids: Isaac and Olivia. Garry attended Neptune High School in his sophomore year, joining him in the graduating class of 1967 was his good friend and current neighbor (Southside) Johnny Lyon of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and Vini (Maddog) Lopez, who played  drums in several bands with Garry and Bruce (from Child to the E street Band).

          When the British Invasion came it was supposed that every band needed a bassplayer and since he knew  the roll of the bass from playing tuba he became the    bassist of his band. He learnt the instrument by playing the lines of such greats as Motown bassist James Jamerson, Duck Dunn, Paul McCartney, the Stax horn section, etc., as he said in an interview for Bass Player: "I stole from everyone!". 
           In the late 70's he took some lessons from Jerry Jemmot, who was the bassist in many Atlantic R&B recordings.

          When Springsteen temporarily disbanded the band in 1989, Garry relocated from the Jersey Shore to Nashville, Tennessee where he established himself as a record producer and studio bassist.  MoonDog Studios, located 10 minutes from Music Row in West Nashville, was named after John Lennon’s first band with Paul McCartney, rock ‘n roll djay pioneer Alan Freed’s nickname, and “a guy who was a classical composer who looked like a Viking and used to hang out outside Columbia Records in New York,” quoted Garry. In 1995 Garry joined with engineer Tim Coats and singer/songwriter Ron LaSalle's Truth Management to form a new record label, D'Ville Record Group. Headquartered in Marathon Village, the label  focused on "the other side of Nashville" music. Go to The Working Man for more details about his Nashville work.

          In 1999 Bruce and the E Street Band went back to the road for one of the greatest tours in rock&roll history with a final stand in NYC's Madison Square Garden. The tour gave us a bunch of new songs that deserve to be recorded in the studio with the band in top form. I hope and I'm sure you do, they'll walk together for a long time, making the great music they have always done.

          The E Street Band is touring in support of "The Rising" , the first Bruce Springsteen's studio album with the E Street Band in a long time. I've been to 4 shows so far and I can testify that the Bruce and the band are in top form.