George Porter:

00:05 - Born December 26, 1947 in New Orleans in the 3rd ward; His mother sang and his dad listened to a lot of jazz
-Lot of jazz on the radio when he was a kid; Local musicians on the radio--Blues and R&B

03:50 - Popular bass players; Ellis Marsalis relation; AFO record
06:25 - Art Neville is the reason he plays the bass; Piano was his first instrument; He picked piano up quicker than Zig (his cousin?)

08:00 - The Royal Knights was his first band; He was 15-16 years old in 1961-1962; He played guitar and drums
-Him and Zig didn't get along when they were younger; The Royal Knights backed up singers (Earl King, Ernie K-Doe, etc.) at fraternity parties

11:45 - New Orleans musicians got drafted for Vietnam but he was too young and had a twisted spine
12:25 - Art hired him to play guitar for a gig; The bass player had to leave, so he started playing bass

13:30 - Learning how to play guitar; Got an acoustic guitar when he was 10; Pope (Benjamin Francis) played bass and guitar
-People used to play both bass and guitar; He'd pass Pope and his grandpa playing the blues when he'd go to classical guitar lessons

16:00 - 2 recitals; They learned popular songs in classical guitar style
-For his second recital, he played St. Louis Blues instead of the song he was supposed to play and that was the end of lessons

18:30 - Learned how to read music; Him and Pope would switch out on bass and guitar; Classical guitar set him up to play bass

20:00 - The Royal Knights - no one in that band became famous; played with them for many years
-Frat house band in New Orleans and Baton Rouge; The were hired as a backing band; Tulane more than Loyola

22:15 - He stayed in New Orleans for the Vietnam War; Aaron had a hit ("Tell It Like It Is") and Art went on the road with him; Studio on Nicholas St.
25:00 - Played with Irving Banister and the All-Stars; Famous for a guitar solo; 1966 was a big year
27:40 - Figuring out when he joined the Neville's; He was with Irving for 3-4 months
28:10 - About the middle of 1966 Art, Leo, different drummer than Zig, and George started playing; Sophisticated Cissy

30:00 - Art asked him if he wanted to play in a new band; They started playing at the Night Cap; Glen was the original drummer
-Lists other band members; Glen got sick and Zig filled in for him for a couple of weeks; Late 1966

32:50 - Moved to playing on Bourbon St. in 1967; Sometimes they'd play 8pm-5am; They played a lot of covers
-Art was lead vocals and George and Leo did background vocals; Zig didn't get a mic until after they recorded an album

35:00 - Allen Toussaint approached them to record with Lee Dorsey; No song titles or lyrics--just laying down rhythm tracks
36:45 - Walter Payton; Neville Ville; His parents split up and he moved to Neville Ville; He knew Cyril Neville from school

38:45 - After Lee Dorsey, Allen had them come back to record more; Alan was never in the studio with them even though he was the producer
-They wrote the first three albums in the studio

41:30 - 3 albums and 15 singles
41:50 - Touring; Chitterlings circuit; Macon, Georgia

43:00 - Band wanted to change leadership in late 1969; Art got blamed for the problems with Josie Records; Financial issues
-Marshall always had contracts to his advantage; Art left the band for a few months;
-Marshall owned the name "The Meters" and tried to make another band with Art with that name