When you go on stage, it’s like a big conversation. Music is about what you have to say on that particular day.” So says Paul Wertico, drummer for Pat Metheny (and Chicago’s Ear Wax Control), who it seems would be happy to communicate exclusively through playing music. Not that he isn’t verbal—quite the contrary. It’s just that music is his passion, and when he’s behind the drums, he definitely speaks from the heart. The music has always been foremost in his life. “If I had to choose between a $100 gig or a $15 gig that was more musical, I’d always take the $15 gig, without fail. I think a lot of musicians don’t do that, because it’s hard to make a living playing music. I’ve starved and maybe I’ll starve again, but whatever it is, the responsibility has always been the music, never the business angle of it. It […]

December 1985 Issue