Neo-soul pioneer D'Angelo is, hands down, one of the most elusive artists operating in the industry today. Despite the 14-year hiatus between his second and third albums and sparse releases, his repertoire has immense staying power – not only due to its game-changing innovation but also due to the public's fascination with the mystique surrounding the artist.
This all boils down to the fact that the multi-hyphenate D'Angelo, once dubbed “R&B Jesus,” is obsessed with details and musical nuance, as reflected in his three albums: his 1995 debut Brown Sugar, 2000's Voodoo, and 2014's Black Messiah.
In a recently resurfaced – and extremely rare – video interview with music journalist Nelson George that was filmed before the release of his seminal 2014 album, D'Angelo gives his take on the essence of funk, alongside a snippet of his groove-fueled guitar chops.
“I remember George Clinton said, ‘Rock and roll is like the blues sped up.’ It's like a faster version of the blues. So funk is kind of like – it's not as slow as the blues, so it's right in the middle, you know? But I think the whole concept to me, and what funk really means to me is, it's Black rock and roll,” he says.
Later in the interview, he shows off the pink G&L guitar given to him by his mentor, Jesse Johnson – the prolific guitarist from the original 1981 lineup of Prince's funk-rock group The Time. The guitar, an Invader likely from the mid-'80s to early '90s, had been modified with a pickup selector switch instead of the usual three mini-toggle switches.
D'Angelo also confirms that this is the same guitar that appeared on the cover of Johnson's 1986 Shockadelica album, before showing off his guitar skills with a quick, unaccompanied solo rendition of a Parliament-Funkadelic track.
In a 2014 Red Bull Music interview, the once-in-a-generation artist talked about adding guitar to his multi-instrumental arsenal and how the Prince collaborator and producer was key to his guitar journey.
“It’s a natural progression for me, but honestly, I just feel like that’s where it’s going,” he admits.
“Years and years of crate-digging, listening to old music, you kind of start to connect the dots. I was seeing the thread that was connecting everything together, which is pretty much the blues. Everything soul or funk kind of starts with that; that’s kind of like the nucleus of everything, the thread that holds everything together. It’s kind of just a natural progression.”
Furthermore, D'Angelo discloses that he feels his piano style, his primary instrument, has always sought to emulate the guitar and bass. Therefore, when he began taking the guitar seriously, there was an interplay between wanting to make the keys sound like a guitar, and vice-versa.
“I played a lot of keyboards, but I really wanted to produce the sound that was in my head. It’s like I’m looking at the guitar and bass more like meat and potatoes and keys like coloring over the top of it, you know?”
Speaking about Jesse Johnson, who played a significant role in D'Angelo's nascent guitar journey, D'Angelo says that the two experienced an “instant kinship,” which made the Black Messiah artist feel comfortable exploring this new side of his artistic palette.
“We finally met at Raphael’s [Saadiq] studio in Cali, in Blakeslee. He came through and the first thing he did was give me a couple of guitars. Gave me a Minarik, the black Minarik that I play now and he gave me one of his [other] guitars [referring to the G&L Invader].”
Prince was another common link between Johnson and D'Angelo. The former worked closely with the Purple Rain hitmaker for a number of years, while the latter's fascination with Prince is well-documented. Many have compared their shared penchant for a multi-instrumentalist approach to songwriting and for keeping a tight lid on their work.
“I’m sitting with him [referring to Johnson] shredding and, like, we went out and did a couple of shows in Europe. And you know before then, just sitting with him and he’s showing me things, I’m asking him questions, asking him about just everything. Prince," he asserts.
“I mean, you know, it gets a little hairy because the Time and Prince, that feud was very real. But you know there’s no love lost. He still speaks with a high love and respect for Prince,” he said before concluding with: “I’m just like a sponge, you know, just trying to soak everything in.”
In other Prince news, an unreleased Prince documentary claims his iconic While My Guitar Gently Weeps solo at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was an “act of revenge” against Rolling Stone.
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