Trumpeter Chris Botti Talks Bob Dylan Encounters from Hearts of Fire to Paul Simon Duets

"I see Dylan lean in and say something in Paul’s ear, and Paul just bursts out laughing"

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Botti and Mitchell on the '98 Dylan tour. Photo by Laura Oppermann via jonimitchell.com.

Chris Botti, one of the most prominent trumpet players today, has played with Bob Dylan several times, but always tangentially. He recorded on the Hearts of Fire soundtrack—overdubs, without Bob. He appeared in the Hearts of Fire movie—in the band backing Rupert Everett and Fiona, not Bob. And he toured with Dylan twice—both times accompanying the other artists on the bill: Joni Mitchell in 1998 and Paul Simon in 1999.

With the latter, though, he did officially accompany Dylan, when Bob joined the Paul Simon band to duet on “The Sound of Silence,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and various other songs. (As co-headliners, they alternated who went on first, so half the time Simon joined Dylan’s band for their songs together, and half the time Dylan joined Simon’s.)

Botti recently took a few minutes while getting his Porsche tuned up (he’s a dedicated driver who lives on a racetrack) to share some stories from his moments overlapping with Bob, and a few Joni Mitchell stories too.

Botti briefly seen in Hearts of Fire

How did you get involved in Hearts of Fire?

That was one of my very first gigs that kept me employed. One of the first guys that I met in New York was Arif Mardin. I was like the house horn section at Atlantic Records. So we did the soundtrack to Hearts of Fire, and then they came back and said, “Do you want to actually be in the movie?” So I went up there to Toronto, where they filmed it, for a month or something.

Wow, you were really involved.

I mean, I was just doing a background part, but they wanted the band to be there for the whole thing.

I recently interviewed this guy Beau Hill who was music director.

Fuck yeah. Beau, my man. Beau got us on all [this stuff]. He really came through. I have still to this day an incredibly close friendship with Kip Winger.

Also on the soundtrack.

Yes. And Beau produced Kip’s first few records, and then Beau hooked me up with Warrant and Ratt and Twisted Sister and Poison. I did all this horn section stuff for them. Beau knew I’d just moved to New York. I think he wanted to get me on the union payroll. It was Beau first, and Beau introduced me to Arif, and then Arif got us to play on all these sessions.

What do you remember from filming Hearts of Fire in Toronto?

It’s the first time that I experienced “Hurry up and wait.” You know the film world. I’ve done a couple of those sorts of things over my career. Just how much, oh my God, waiting around, waiting around, waiting around.

I haven’t seen the film since it came out a long time ago. When did that come out?

1987. It was, to put it mildly, not a smash hit.

Right, right.

Beau said what he learned from doing the movie is that he didn’t want to do any more movies.

Toward the end of his career, I did an album with John Barry, and then I guested with him in different places. We did this movie called Playing by Heart, one of Angelina Jolie’s first films. John Barry had this idea to have me stand in front of this hundred-piece orchestra.

We were in the middle of doing that, and Harvey Weinstein came in and just read John Barry the riot act. It was a beautifully heartbreaking film, but they wanted to be more of a rom-com. John Barry was just like, “This motherfucker.” So I saw the diplomatic part of the film world. Like if a director or the movie executive isn’t seeing it the same way, how difficult it is for the people that make the music.

So, Beau’s right.

Then later, on two separate occasions, I was in concerts that shared the stage with Bob Dylan. I was in Joni Mitchell’s band, and we did 20 or 30 shows, a double bill with Bob Dylan. That was 1998. Then 1999, the last thing I did with him was with Paul Simon.

I can tell you this one story, and it’s freaking awesome. When Paul Simon would open the show, Bob Dylan would appear at the top of the steps and come down [for their duets]. He would start “The Sound of Silence,” and Dylan would appear. The whole place is going bonkers.

But Dylan would never rehearse. Dylan is—I’m sure everyone has said this—very reclusive. Because they’d never rehearsed, Bob’s looking over at Paul for like a visual cheat sheet. Paul would go, “Hello, darkness…” and then Bob would just kind of speak it behind him. [Bob voice:] “Hello, dark-ness, my old friend.”

You know, it’s not like they were together like they should be. Every night was kind of challenging, but kind of charming at the same time.

Then, after about 10 shows, I see Dylan lean in and say something in Paul’s ear, and Paul just bursts out laughing. I said [afterward], “Hey, Paul, what the heck did Bob Dylan say to you?” Bob leans into him, because he was clearly not rehearsed, and goes, “Hey, Paul, on a scale of one to ten, how do I match up against Art?”

I’d heard that about him, that he has this wicked sense of humor. That was just so awesome that he was just like, “Well, we’re trainwrecking it…”

I’m sure Paul would have said, “Well, I don’t fight with you like I fight with Art.”

Botti (seen on trumpet) backing Dylan and Simon on “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”:

Did you have any direct interaction with Dylan during these various Joni, Paul, Hearts of Fire things?

I just met him once backstage when he was going through catering on a night when he opened. One of his band members introduced me to him. But I had no real, sitting around a dressing room chatting it up. He would stay on his bus, pretty reclusive, then come right off and go with his band on stage.

One time, Joni went and saw then-President Bill Clinton at the White House. We were playing DC and the traffic was so bad, she came in 30, 40 minutes late. Then she had to get her mindset ready for the gig. So we were keeping Dylan off the stage for an extra hour. I don’t know what that costs for the unions and all that stuff, but Dylan was super cool about it. Not a diva at all.

Do you remember anything else about the Joni tour?

She was just incredible. It’s funny, when you drive to the airport with her in the morning, she loves to talk. She also loves to smoke. She’s smoking and talking, and then the way she talks and the way she observes things, it’s like her songs. It’s just so visual.

How do you mean?

So if we were playing in the middle of Saskatchewan or something like that, and we’re driving to the airport, she would just be commenting on the way the lights reflected off the hills this early in the morning. It’s just so her. You can just see like when she does “Both Sides Now” or whatever, how the visuals just come rolling off her tongue.

It was also one of the few times where a singer really put me in my place. She got cross with me early on in the rehearsals. She was like, “Chris, I’m the batter. Quit knocking me out of the fucking box.” It was something that stuck with me to this day.

You mean if you’re doing a solo or a line, get out of the way when she starts singing again?

Yeah. When you’re on stage, to not allow the tail of the trumpet to interfere with the vocalist. Whether it’s Bocelli or Sting or Streisand or whomever. You want them to have space. And I got a nice little backhand on that from Joni. She wanted me to add texture to the stuff, but in certain areas, obviously I was adding it too close to her voice.

I’m forever grateful she did that. I fucking learned a lot from that experience. Because most of the time, if you’re working with someone, they won’t have the balls to come down on you like that. But Joni doesn’t play.

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Thanks Chris! Catch him on tour and the Botti at Sea cruise. Here’s a fun video of him and Sting doing “Englishman in New York” a few years ago at Sting’s Tuscan vineyard: