Robert Berry who’s career has been nothing less than spectacular working with the likes of Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, Sammy Hagar among many more. Armed with a multi-instrumental way of life, Robert has been doing his thing for over 30 years now.

Empire Extreme got to talk to Robert about his past, present and future.

EE: Hows it going?

RB: A little rainy, but the sun is out so it’s not to bad.

EE: How was it like working with Hush?

RB: Those were a lot different times, we could play a club here like in Silicon Valley in the early 80s and bring in 500 people and make $2,500. Apartments were like 250$ a month and food and car payment. The band would play twice and week and after all the cuts for managers and stuff, 800$ a week in your pockets. You wasn’t getting rich but you could pay your bills and make a living just doing that. It’s crazy to think of the lifestyle back then compared to now that was only 20-30 years ago. What I worry about now the younger generation like my son, where the game has changed so much.

EE: How was it like to work with Emerson and Palmer on the 3 project?

RB: That was great to, because they were a huge arena band being in ELP. They both wanted to start something new and build from the ground up, that was great for me, we were playing 1,000 seat places and most people haven’t seen those 2 up close like that before. It was always sold out and rushing to get in. To see Keith and Carl get close to the Audience and shaking hands, going back to their roots and they treated me very well. They empowered me to just be myself and do what I love to do. The only problem was they wanted to play these smaller places but didn’t bring the smaller equipment. They had the huge amps and huge drum sets, and I was Squeezed in between them. We even had a grand piano on stage. We also played places like Madison Square Garden. We had a successful time for the short period it lasted a year and half, we had a #9 Record, we made a lot of money, it was really something. The real ELP fans didn’t want to give it a chance and wanted to bring Greg back. The Emerson fans were so critical of him, which unfortunately they were critical of him right before his Suicide. He didn’t do well with the criticism, he had surgery on his arm and couldn’t play up to par that he wanted to and it effected him emotionally, although he was still fantastic. I don’t know why people had to do that being with the fact he was so great and left such a great catalog of music.

EE: Hows was it like working on the 3.2 album after he passed away?

RB: That was difficult, while he was alive and working on it. It was easy to communicate with each other and work on stuff over the phone. We both work on parts and send each other digital stuff and when we wanted to work we could instead of just setting studio time. When I got the word from his ex wife that he was gone, I couldn’t believe it and we were having so much fun. We got works he had another surgery on his arm, and had some heart problems and he was depressed. The record company was really excited about this project.

EE: Did you feel satisfied with the album after it was finished?

RB: I didn’t know what I really had. I spent about 6 months not wanting to do after he died. I think we wrote 4 songs before he did. We had the ideas and the album laid out and the blueprints were done but only 20% of his stuff finished, I didn’t know what to do. I had an idea that his son Aaron would want to do other with me, that would be a good idea. I sent him a really hard song and he couldn’t play it, but it gave me the spark to want to play with myself. I knew what Keith wanted, and I know how he plays and I wanted to finish it but didn’t have any plans on releasing it. The record label really wanted to put it out, but I didn’t know what I had and if it was good or bad. So before we did that I checked with two people, the guy who runs the 3 Facebook page Rolf and he knows everything about the band 3 and know a lot of people that talk about it, I sent him some songs and he loved them and said I needed to put them out. Then I sent it to a girl in Scotland that knows Keith and she plays keyboards and would be a critic, and I sent her the whole album, and she replied “How did you do that?” With a big question mark. I feel like Keith was there. I let the record company release it.

EE: How was it like working with Sammy Hagar?

RB: In the mid 90s, Van Halen was planning on kicking Sammy out, and they didn’t want Sammy to use Michael Anthony on his solo shows. So Sammy asked me if I wanted to play bass for him and I said “Of Course”. Working with Sammy was amazing, everything he touched turns to gold. I just seen Sammy’s band The Circle last year, and when they do Van Halen songs, Jason Bonham puts on headphones and I’m playing the keys on the Van Halen stuff, even though I’m not on the stage it’s all done digitally.

EE: Is there anyone you haven’t worked with, that you would love to?

RB: I’d love to work with Jeff Beck. Jeff doesn’t know how to play the guitar… he is the guitar. I don’t know how he does it. He’s amazing. I would love to play with McCartney, he plays the bass and uses cords and notes that aren’t typical ones. The most important thing to me now is this Tour for 3.2, I’ve put a band together and playing my 30 years of my rock career. I’m just going to go out and do me, and play music and hope everyone enjoys it.

EE: Do you have any dates lined up yet for that?

RB: We have about 8 dates or so lined up in October on the East Coast. We haven’t posted anything yet, we want to wait and post them all at once. We do have one big one I can mention and that’s ProgStock.We are headlining the Saturday Night.

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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