SAB Chronicles: End Of An Era
Solvent: After 15 plus years of playing in SAB and the Family Band, you’ve decided to quit…
Brent Ogletree: Yes, I’ve been recently diagnosed with osteoarthritis, and it is located primarily in my hip region, and also flairs up in my knee, ankle and shoulder,… all on the right side. I’ve been in quite a bit of pain for a long time, but I always thought it would just go away. Finally I went to see a doctor. They found osteoarthritis. The first night of a weekend gig would be okay, until I go to sleep, or… not go to sleep, but go to bed… then the first song the next day…it would just hurt like s#!&.
S: I wasn’t going to ask why you quit, because it’s none of our business, but I’m glad you cleared up some of those rumours that were flying around, such as you becoming a blimp pilot, and the one about you getting a sex change.
BO: I can blow up some balloons, and fly around with the stuffed up my shirt if that makes Waxxie happy…
S: Waxxie told me that it is a lot easier to get in to the SAB band than it is to get out of it. One of the main reasons he said that he is still in it, is because he is too lazy to go through the quitting process.
BO: I don’t doubt it, he’s been bitching about quitting the whole 16 years that I’ve been in the band…
S: How hard was it for you to actually approach SAB and break the bad news?
BO: I had to… but it was agonizing for sure. He had a hard time whenever I said I needed a night off…
S: If he didn’t like you taking a night off, I can imagine how much he enjoyed you asking for the rest of your life off. Is this the end of your musical career?
BO: Well, you never know… if I improve with rest, down the road, you might see me playing once a month or something like that. But as far as playing every week, and traveling a lot, being cramped up in vehicles for a long stretch of time, that’s not going to happen.
S: One of the things that SAB said was a major consideration for you, was that now you’ll be around for your kids more on the weekends.
BO: Ya for sure. My son has a hockey tournament this weekend, and I normally miss these kinds of things. So I’m looking forward to being around more.
S: When I talked to SAB, he refused to talk about any of his favorite memories of you being in the band, in case your kids were ever to hear them. Do you have any PG-13 memories of playing with SAB?
BO: It’s all kind of a blur, but there have been many different places we’ve played and many different people that we’ve been able to play with. My favorite memories were the gigs we played in Collingwood, skiing, and really living it up. When we played there, we were always on, and SAB was always in his element, with a predominately male audience of mostly Americans. He was as sexist and obnoxious as he could possibly be, and that works, and they ate it up. They wanted us to be the house band there in Collingwood, but of course we couldn’t do that, but we picked a couple or few weeks a winter, and did that, and it was great. Then new management came in, and saw what we were like… we were getting away a lot…
S: I was there one weekend when the management was trying to crack down on SAB’s behaviour…
BO: I think that was one of the last times we played there actually… they wanted the place to be a little more respectful.
S: That is totally their loss. I never seen a chalet bar fill up after the skiing day is done, and stay busy till last call like that. Normally you’d see skiers come in for a beer after they hill closes, and then vanish. The bar might have night business later on, but I’ve never seen a bar fill up with skiers who stayed till close. You guys made their cash register sing.
BO: I’ve heard that place is not very busy any more …
S: You must have got to play with some pretty big names?
BO: Oh yeah, more recently, like 2 years ago, me and Waxxie got to play with Doucette at the Doug Gilmour and Jim Cuddy bowling fundraiser after party. I’ve played with him a few times, including at Massey Hall, which was great. But, the bowling fundraiser was the best because Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo got up with us and it was just me, him, and Waxxie. He wanted to play “Till I am Myself Again”. Waxxie had never played that before, and I hadn’t played it in years. Waxxie was watching me to get the groove and the shots. Waxxie didn’t know the words, but he nailed the harmonies. After the song was done, Cuddy was totally impressed, he couldn’t believe we actually knew the song. We said: “Of course”. Being able to play an actual Blue Rodeo song with Jim Cuddy was definitely a highlight.
S: SAB has been blessed for many years to have a rhythm section such as you and Waxxie, but I was really interested to see how Waxxie would react when you left, because how long is it going to take him to get back to where he is with you? He has a lot of work ahead in terms of grooming a drumme
BO: Oh ya, it’s going to take some time for him. Me and Waxxie don’t even have to look at each other anymore. You’ll see a lot of bands where the bass player turns around to look at the drummer, to get with him, but I never had to look at his fu(&ing face. Now I really don’t … but I didn’t have for most of the past 15 years, because we were tight. We had it. It never mattered if we never played a song before, we were always bang on the money. And oh ya… another highlight was playing with Rik Emmitt of Triumph at one of the Thanksgiving jams. We got to play Rocky Mountain Way and Lay It On the Line with that guy. That was pretty awesome.
S: You were with SAB when SAB was Ronnnie Hawkins’ band leader?
BO: Ya, I was Ronnie Hawkins’ drummer for two years. And because of that, I got to play drums behind Kris Kristofferson. There’s tons of other people, Jack De Keyser, Downschild, Chuck Jackson, Dave Rotundo, Wild T,… I got to play with a who’s who. A lot of really good guys. I will miss all that, but you know…
S: What are you going to miss most about playing with SAB? The fans, the camaraderie, the SAB bus, or SAB himself?
BO: Uhh… the fans… I didn’t listen to what you said after that, so… the fans… and the 50.
