TORONTO – When he was a teenager in Toronto, Philip Sayce hung around local blues haunt Grossman’s Tavern, played guitar and soaked up the instrumental wisdom of masters sometimes several times his age.
There were a lot of “zonked” Monday mornings at school, his head slumped against his desk.
The teacher who got through to him wasn’t in a classroom, anyway; it was late blues great Jeff Healey.
Sayce vividly remembers the first time Healey invited him onstage at a club in Kensington Market, and they noodled on some Cream songs.
At the end of the night, Healey wanted a word.
“He said, ‘Hey man, you want to join my band? … We’ll take you out on the road, we’ll groom you and get you ready to go out on your own,'” Sayce recalled recently.
“I was doing cartwheels. So Jeff took me under his golden wing and gave me an opportunity that I’m eternally grateful for.”
Sayce was only 19 at the time.
Since then, he’s joined Melissa Etheridge’s band, wowed Jon Bon Jovi and finally released a solo disc in his home country, this week, titled Influence.
The Wales-born Sayce talked to The Canadian Press about his unique career path.
So you joined Healey’s band at 19. Weren’t you nervous?
There was pressure. I certainly felt a certain sense of self-consciousness, playing with this master. I’d only been playing guitar about five years or so at the time, and to stand next to someone who could perform and channel and improvise and play at that level — it would be freaky for the heaviest cats in the world.
I just dug in and did the best I could to find out who I was. And he gave me room to learn to be who I am. He embraced me for me and he didn’t try to push me in any way or anything.
He let me front the band a couple times and sing a couple songs. He just really embraced me and gave me a chance.
Onstage with Melissa, how do you show what you can do without stealing the spotlight?
It’s her house. You’re on her stage. I always approached performing with her as that — I was a guest in her house. She’s a ridiculous performer, whether you like her music or not.
I really admire her in a lot of different ways, as an artist, as a humanitarian, she does good work in the world.
She was very generous, she gave me a lot of room. She encouraged me to stretch and go for it: “Go! Go Go! Is that all you got?”
Those people weren’t there to see me. They were there to see her. So that was really the approach I took.
You joined Melissa in performing at a Grammy event in New York honouring Bon Jovi. In his speech, he gave you a “special nod” and called your playing “pretty fabulous.” How did that feel?
That was pretty awesome. He’s a real gentleman. He’s a nice guy.
Melissa was so kind to set it up in a way where she gave me room to play and really go for it and do the best that I could in the moment.
She knocked the ball out of the park, and I did my best to knock the ball out of the park in my own way. They were really gracious about it. They were very nice cats.
I was really moved by their feedback. It meant a lot to me.
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