Interview: Melvin Seals

Anya Sanchez - August 26, 2024

Melvin Seals, keyboardist of the Jerry Garcia Band, speaks with KGNU’s DJ Jules. Melvin discusses his excitement about returning to Colorado, mentioning their performance at Levitt Pavilion on August 24th. He teases new material and emphasizes his love for surprising audiences with unexpected song choices. Melvin reflects on his musical influences, particularly organists like Billy Preston, and how those artists shaped his style (Interview date: 8/21/2024) 

DJ Jules: I have the honor and pleasure to speak with Melvin Seals. Melvin, are you there?

Melvin Seals: Yes, I am. How are you?

DJ Jules: I am so good today. I’ve got a big smile on my face because I’m on the phone with you, sir. How are you today?

Melvin Seals: I got a bigger smile on my face cause I’m talking with you.

DJ Jules: I love starting off a conversation like that. This is an honor and a pleasure. I’ve got to ask, what brings you here to Colorado? What is on your immediate calendar for these Colorado audiences and listeners?

Melvin Seals: We haven’t been there in quite a while. The little place that we used to play regularly doesn’t exist. Here we are for the first time in probably four to five months, when we normally come there once or twice a month. It’s just time to come back when we have some new songs and new ideas. The band has evolved much further than the last time we played there, and we need to come and share with our Colorado friends.

DJ Jules: I love it. Colorado, we love our music here. KGNU listeners, you have the amazing opportunity to see Melvin Seals and JGB at Levitt Pavilion in Denver on Saturday, August 24th. Melvin, you’re gonna throw down for those Colorado creatures, aren’t ya?

Melvin Seals: I’m going to rock their world. They don’t want to miss this one because I got some new stuff that they have not heard us do. So they want to be there and hear where we are now.

DJ Jules: I love it. I love that there’s new stuff still in the works and you play and have played with so many amazing artists across the board. When new stuff rings true, is it inspired and influenced by who you’re currently playing with, who you’re going to work with? Could you share a bit about that for all of us?

Melvin Seals: I hear songs in the Jerry and Grateful Dead thing, with the exception of one or two, that they have had nothing to do with. Those are the surprises I like to throw in. I’ll give you some great Jerry, some Grateful Dead. And here comes, “Whoa, he did that!” I love those moments. I’ve been sharing those moments in a few places I’ve been playing. So it’s time to share that in Denver. I don’t want to tell you what it is because I look at their faces when I start the song. They’ll either go, “Why is he doing that one?” Or they go, “Oh!” Everybody sings along because they know the lyrics, they sing along. It’s just the surprise of the song that gets them. It’s an oldie but goodie.

DJ Jules: I love that. What beauty and power you hold in the palm of your hand, that you know that you are about to surprise hundreds and thousands of people and just rock their world and give them a grand old time. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. That’s so cool.

Melvin Seals: Yeah. That’s the fun of it all with me. I don’t want anybody to know my program. I think it’s so stale – okay, they did that, they’re going to do this. They may enjoy the music, but they know it. Not here, buddy. I keep throwing a monkey wrench in our situation. I’m throwing you off. What you thought you knew, you don’t no longer know. And I change up. I rearrange songs. I may change the ending of a song from how you knew it. “Oh, whoa, what are they doing?” That’s the moment I like.

DJ Jules: Do you ever get to connect with audience members and listeners after that and see the shock and awe and joy on their face after those moments? Or is it just, you’re feeling it from the stage and getting the full picture energy from the crowd?

Melvin Seals: I’m feeling it from the stage. Because of COVID, I’ve limited my connection of going out in the audience or having a bunch of friends come backstage, because you don’t want to keep getting sick and you don’t know where sickness lies anymore. You just don’t know. But I am quite aware of the audience response. I do read the things they post the next day or the next few days or whenever they choose to write something about the show. I am connected to all of that. There are a few people that have my number or my email and they’ll text me and say, “Oh man, it was so amazing.” I only need to hear one or two to know, okay, it worked. Or, no one said anything, won’t do that any more. Yeah, I’m definitely monitoring and paying attention. I get my cues from the audience.

DJ Jules: It’s a give and take and it’s a dance for both of us, isn’t it?

Melvin Seals: Yes, absolutely.

DJ Jules: It’s a beautiful thing. We got to keep you healthy. We don’t know where sickness comes from because you’ve got a jam packed schedule, my man. You are on the road right now with JGB. Then, I believe it’s September, you’re going to be with Oteil & Friends, and then you’re jumping back in with JGB. You move around, you’re doing the dance in so many different ways.

Melvin Seals: Yeah, my doctor and I can’t figure out what’s wrong with me. Something’s gotta be wrong.

DJ Jules: No, that’s called the zest for life right there, I do believe.

Melvin Seals: Ah, okay. There has to be some reason why I’m doing this. I can’t figure it out.

DJ Jules: It’s not for us to figure out. It’s to just groove with.

Melvin Seals: Hey, that’s well said.

DJ Jules: So how is it for you? Do you have to get into a different mindset when you switch with these different bands and groupings and artists that you play with, or do you just show up as your authentic self and everyone gets to adjust around you?

Melvin Seals: For the most part, lots of bands that play Grateful Dead or Jerry Garcia music try to emulate the band. You have many bands that play Grateful Dead music, and they try to play it like the Grateful Dead played it. I was the keyboard player in the Jerry Garcia band, so I don’t have to play like that guy. I am the guy. So most people are hiring me to be the guy I am. So most of the time when people hire me, they want something that I bring to the table.

DJ Jules: I love that.

Melvin Seals: Yeah. That’s what’s happening there.

DJ Jules: Absolutely. Your career and your talent and your depth. It’s just unmatched. It’s legendary. And it has been an honor connecting with you. Before we end this interview with Melvin Seals, who will be playing on Saturday, August 24th at the Levitt Pavilion in Denver, I must ask, who are you listening to right now? What are you into? What’s getting you moving and grooving?

Melvin Seals: I listened to a lot of organists when I was learning to play as a young boy. Most of all of them have passed on, from Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Billy Preston. More Billy Preston, because he came out of the church just like I did, but he was ahead of me. Billy Preston, I understood his chording and his style of soloing. I could see the path of playing that easier. Jimmy Smith and Joey D and Johnny Hammond and Shirley Scott, all these amazing players, they were too fast for me. You listen to them, their hands are all over the place.

I didn’t have those skills. But Billy Preston was gospel, rock, soul. And that’s the world that I followed. Coming from a young guy playing for choirs and in the church and then getting into a commercial band, how would I approach this? He was the guiding light for me and he played with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Ray Charles. His chops, I could play. So that was one of the main people I listened to and who showed me how I should approach something that I knew nothing about. Playing gospel is a soulful sound, but when you’re playing in some of these rock, jazz, or blues bands, it does vary in a little bit of a different direction, which I knew nothing about.

So most of that I grabbed from him, but I grabbed from every great organist. I heard them all. And if somebody has something, I’m listening to what he has. So I’m a mixture of a whole lot of people. I think I’ve recently dialed into more of who I want to be. I am a foundation of a lot of great players that made me what I am.

DJ Jules: Amazing. Is there anything else you would like our KGNU audience to know before we have to part ways?

Melvin Seals: I just want to tell them, come out and have a wonderful time. Check out what I have to offer you. You will be surprised and you’ll walk away with, “That was amazing.” I’ll be shocked if you don’t do it.

DJ Jules: Amazing. Thank you so much. That was Melvin Seals right there. Levitt Pavilion, Saturday, August 24th. You heard it from the man. Don’t miss it.