Luther Rix, Rolling Thunder's Elusive Percussionist, Speaks

1975-11-29, Coliseum, Quebec City, Canada

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Courtesy Luther Rix

Update June 2023: This interview is included along with 40+ others in my new book ‘Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members.’ Buy it in hardcover, paperback, or ebook here!

Scarlet Rivera always gets called “mysterious,” but, to me, the most mysterious Rolling Thunder band member is percussionist Luther Rix. He was a core member of the Rolling Thunder band for the entire 1975 tour, but there’s relatively little information out there about his role.

That’s partly because, by virtue of being a percussionist playing alongside a drummer (Howie Wyeth), it’s difficult on the tapes to pinpoint Luther’s exact parts – except the unmistakable congas on “Hurricane,” that is. It’s partly that he doesn’t appear in Renaldo and Clara except occasionally in the shadowy back of the stage. And it’s partly that, by his own admission, he’s not much of a self-promoter.

But Luther was nice enough to take some time a few weeks back to answer my questions, both about his role on Rolling Thunder and his career overall. Thanks to Rob Stoner for connecting us.

What was your career like before Rolling Thunder?

When I was a teenager, I was a cello student and a good one. My teacher was in the Washington National Symphony, and his teacher, Fritz Magg, was teaching at Indiana University, so I went there as a cello major. At that time, believe it or not, it was the world's largest music school. I didn't last very long. After I think one semester, I changed my major to percussion. I was in the Midwest for a little while, played a lot of jazz and two seasons with the Indianapolis Symphony.

Then I moved to New York and got into rock and roll. I was with a band which at the time was one of the big psychedelic bands on the East Coast, The Group Image. I played with another band that was quite big in New York for a while called Ten Wheel Drive with Genya Ravan. It's another one of those things that was a real hot prospect that didn't really pan out, but it was fun for a while.

I had some folk-rock background [too]. Before I went on Rolling Thunder, I played with Mary Travers from Peter, Paul, and Mary for quite a while. I met Rob Stoner along the way, played with him occasionally with his own thing.

As you probably know, the Rolling Thunder band began gathering momentum like a rolling snowball. Bob would go around to clubs in the Village and hear people play and stuff and ask them if they wanted to do a tour, and they all started going around with him, and pretty soon they had a band.

I wasn't in that whole process of getting to go around and have a good time at the clubs. I was the only one that was called up by Rob and asked if I wanted to do the tour. Hired like a regular musician. They [had] picked a percussionist who didn't work out. Apparently, he was too much of a hardcore Latin percussionist and had a hard time fitting in with the folk-rock thing. I just got called up and hired for the gig because the other guy didn't work out.

It wasn't hard for me to find things to do with congas and Latin toys because I was, basically, a rock and roll drummer who had played a lot of that kind of music on the drums and on percussion. I also played with Buzzy Linhart, another folk-rock guy who was real hot at the time. When I started with him, it was just the two of us and I played congas and other stuff. I had a lot of background in that stuff, so I slid right into the groove.

You were first hired to play congas on “Hurricane”on the Desire album.

Sure. I didn't play on most of the cuts. In fact, I think that Hurricane may have been the only one I actually recorded on. I got to play congas on that, and they were right up front, which pleased the heck out of me.

What do you remember about that recording session?

It was like a typical Bob Dylan session from what I came to find out, in that Bob picked a take strictly in terms of which vocal rendition he liked the best, and that was the one. It was a common attitude in the folk world, at least in those days. Doesn't matter if there's mistakes or whatever. As far as the actual recording session, I just remember that I was there, and I made up a part, and it turned out to work pretty well.

Do you remember if you were given instructions, "I'm looking for this or that," or did you just sit down and wing it?

I was standing up and winging it. I had a stand for the congas - but I was definitely winging it. We did a few run-throughs, and I got to learn the tune and see what Howie was playing and all that.

When plans for the tour got underway, what do you remember about the rehearsals?

It was pretty loose. The typical thing at rehearsals was, if Bob had a suggestion, he'd whisper something in Rob's ear, and Rob would turn around to the band and say, "Bob said--" [laughs] I had a hard time getting used to that. I wanted to say, "Hey man, Bob's right there!" But that was the way it was.

I noticed as time went by that all anybody had to do was walk in the room and go, "Bob says…" and everybody would go, "Okay, what, what, what?" If you said, "Bob says we're all going to go out and take a dump in the snow," people would head to the exits pulling their pants down.

I thought that Bob was a pretty cool guy. I didn't get to hang with him much, but once in a while he'd come over and talk to me for a few minutes. I think he felt like he ought to, especially because we hadn't really had a chance to get to know each other. A nice enough guy.

I remember one time, as the tour was winding up, I said to him, "I'm really looking forward to getting back and sleeping in my own house.” He looked at me like, "What?" Like he was just dumbfounded. Such a thing had never occurred to him. I think that's who he was, and maybe still is. His real home was being on the road with the band. That was it for him, whereas I had two or three modes that I was equally satisfied with, one of which was just being in my house.

What was life like on the road?

They were deliberately staying at New England resort hotels in the offseason. We'd go stay at some hotel, and there would never be anybody there. They would just open up some rooms for us and open up the kitchen. Every place we stayed, it was deserted except for the band.

Bob probably loved that.

I liked it too. What can I say? You go to the bar, and there's nobody there but you. You get a drink right away.

You are always listed as percussionist, and that's one of those words that can mean a whole bunch of things. What were you actually playing?

I had a bunch of stuff up there. Congas was my main instrument, but there were tunes where I didn't play conga at all. Maybe I just played a shaker, or I would play tambourine with one hand and hit the backbeats on the congas with my other hand, that kind of stuff. I had, I think, two cymbals, both of which I could crash with a hand if I needed to. They were pretty thin cymbals, very crashable.

Were you on stage for all the songs? Again, it's hard to hear in the audio who's playing what between you and Howie.

When I watched the movie, I noticed there were some cymbal crash accents when I was staring right at Howie on the screen, and he was definitely not playing them. So my part was coming through most of the time.

I don't remember whether I actually played on every tune. I never had a chance to go out in the audience and see things from the front. If I had, maybe I would have suggested that they position the camera a little differently so you could see those of us over on the side. I only found that out later.

One of the great things, for me about seeing the [Scorsese] movie was I could actually see what the show looked like, and especially get to see Bob sing. That was very emotional for me. And to watch Stoner---actually, pretty much anybody who was singing with Bob, watch them channel Bob like a psychic or something. The same expression on their face even, not to mention the same vocal inflections and stuff. Stoner was the best at cloning Bob. That was fascinating to me. It's great for me to see the movie, except for the parts that I didn't understand, like Sharon Stone mystically appearing on the tour.

One of the great parts in the movie that is not made up was that mahjong performance where it's you and Bob right before the tour kicks off playing for a bunch of old ladies. Do you remember that?