ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 28, 1989
By Steve Newton
I didn’t get it as first. When Alfie from Penta Records told me to call the Four Seasons Hotel and ask for Stanley Tools, the joke name went right past me. And I also couldn’t figure out why Jeff Golub–solo artist and current Rod Stewart guitarist–needed an alias.
So I asked him.
“Well I’ve used that name a few times,” chuckles the blond guitarman, “mostly to hide from people I know more than anyone else.”
Although far from a household name, Jeff Golub is one musician on the way up. As well as having toured with Rod the Mod for the last year, the 34-year-old has just released his debut solo album, Unspoken Words, on the small Gaia Records label (distributed by Penta). It’s an impressive showcase for Golub’s Beck-influenced rock guitaring, and also takes him into jazz and Latin territory.
But it’s a record that would never have been made had Golub not battled to overcome that bane of the working guitarist–tendinitis.
Golub grew up in Akron, Ohio, and picked up the guitar in his early teens.
“There were a lot of really good players in that area,” he says, “and there was a real concentration on guitar, ’cause there wasn’t a lot to do out there. All you could really do as a kid was either get drunk and be a juvenile delinquent or play guitar. I managed to do both.”
At 19, Golub moved to Boston and studied at the famed Berklee School of Music. After playing with various bands, he joined up with New York rocker Billy Squier, and stuck with him for five years’ worth of albums and tours. In 1986, while waiting for Squier to write the music for his next LP, Golub worked with sax ace Bill Evans on his The Alternative Man album.
He admits that the step from crotch-rocker to jazz instrumentalist was a rather large one.
“It is rather strange,” he laughs “But it’s nothing I’ll apologize for. For one thing, I don’t sing–I’ve got the kind of voice where, as soon as I start singing in the shower, people bang on the walls. And I’ve had an interest in a lot of other styles of music for a long time, styles that I wasn’t really able to express on anybody else’s record. I mean, I liked playing with Billy Squier–rock and roll is my main style. Even my solo record is rock guitar for the most part–but in different settings.”
Before taking on his solo venture, Golub worked on Peter Wolf’s Come As You Are album, and it was during sessions for that record that he developed tendinitis in both wrists. Doctors told him the conditon could be chronic, and advised him to rest. With both wrists in braces, Golub flew to Bermuda to relax and write songs for the solo album he hoped he’d still be able to make.
When he got back to New York, Golub went through another round of doctors, but it wasn’t till he hooked up with a movement therapist/music teacher that he learned how to deal with his painful condition.
“It’s mostly related to how I hold the guitar,” he says. “As hard as I play, I was putting too much strain on my wrists. I was actually playing correctly, like jazz musicians play, but they’re not playing with nearly the force that I do. So I had to learn to use my upper body and my arms more. Luckily someone was able to find where the problem was and straighten it out.”
From the sounds of Golub’s spirited playing on Unspoken Words, you sure couldn’t tell that he’s had serious problems with his hands. And on stage with Rod Stewart, his mean guitar licks often steal the show. Golub says he didn’t have any trouble filling the shoes of Andy Taylor (ex-Duran Duran and Power Station), who played most of the guitar on Rod’s latest album, Out of Order.
“To tell you the truth I didn’t really think much about that–not when he’s been preceded by people like Jeff Beck and Ron Wood. I mean, I’m a real fan of theirs.”
And Golub expects to follow in his heroes’ footsteps by being the next guitarist to record with Stewart. Up till now he’s only been playing with him live, but Stewart starts work on his next album in a few months, and Golub’s gonna be there, tendinitis be damned.
“He’s asked me to play, “enthuses Golub, “and that’s the plan. I always hate to say anything before it actually happens, but that’s what we’re supposed to start doing around October. And we’re gonna do it with this whole band, ’cause it really seems to work.”
To hear the full audio of my 1989 interview with Jeff Golub subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 650 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with:
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