A founding member of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench is also one of the world's most in-demand session musicians, with a career CV which includes contributions to albums from some of rock's most iconic artists, from Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones, to Stevie Nicks and Aretha Franklin, Neil Diamond to Johnny Cash.
"Nobody has been a drag or a pain or a bummer," the 71-year-old Gainesville, Florida keyboard maestro insists in a new interview with Vulture, but that's not to say that every session goes smoothly.
Discussing his work on Damn the Torpedoes, the third record from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, recorded at the legendary Sound City studios in Los Angeles in 1978/'79, Tench remembers that producer-turned-record executive Jimmy Iovine would make the band do 75 takes of every song, which he viewed as "so unnecessary." Recording with Eagles legend Don Henley in the '80s was "like pulling teeth", Tench remembers. And taking instruction from super-producer Rick Rubin on various sessions could also prove challenging, on more than one occasion.
Speaking with Vulture's Devon Ivie, Tench remembers Rubin overseeing his playing on a cover of Ewan MacColl's First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, best known as a 1972 hit single for Roberta Flack, for Johnny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around album. The producer kept asking Tench to simplify his piano playing on the song, to the point where the keyboardist recalls that he was playing just one single note.
"He said, 'That’s great. Do that, but play less and it’ll be perfect'," Tench remembers. "I said, Rick, I’m playing one note, how the hell do I play less? He said, 'I know you can do it.' Somehow, I played the note, and I was able to make it quieter. I played so little that I could barely hear myself. Boy, was it fun. It was like breaking out a puzzle."
While Cash's four-album American Recordings sessions with Rubin would result in some of the most acclaimed music of the country legend's career, including Cash's heartbreaking take on Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, not everything worked.
"Rick wanted to cut Robert Palmer’s song Addicted to Love with Johnny," Tench says. "Not anything like the original pop version, of course; it was in the style of those American records. Still, I remember thinking, This is ridiculous. We gave it a good shot, and he was very sincere about singing it - he sang it well. But it was what you would expect if you know the song: 'Might as well face it, you’re addicted to love.' Johnny finally said, “This isn’t working.” Nobody was bummed or embarrassed. We tried it, but it didn’t work, so let’s try something else."
Read the interview in full on Vulture.
