Paul Shaffer has had the rare pleasure of living out just about all of his childhood musical dreams. And now after being out of the limelight for two years, he's living out some more. NY1's Budd Mishkin filed the following One on 1 profile.
An afternoon with Paul Shaffer means a little music, like the hit he co-wrote, "It's Raining Men."
"God bless Mother Nature. She's a single woman too," Shaffer sings.
It includes a little something to eat.
"Love me so matzah!!" he says, taking a piece. "Is that on your card? he is asked. "Paul Shaffer, loves him some matzah!" he jokes.
And stories. Tons of show biz stories.
"This is James Brown's organ from his living room," Shaffer says, giving a tour of his West Side apartment..
Paul Shaffer is back.
There is a new CD with his longtime collaborators, bassist Will Lee, guitarist Phylicia Collins and the rest of his troupe from the "Late Show With David Letterman." They are again known as the World's Most Dangerous Band, reclaiming their name when Shaffer was Letterman’s sidekick on Letterman's late-night NBC show in the '80s and early '90s.
This is Shaffer's first big project since the final days of Letterman's CBS show in May, 2015, the end of a 33-year run.
"The Letterman show ended, and I thought it's time to sit back and finally take a breather. And I took one breath in, and already, I was bored," Shaffer says. "I got bored and a little depressed, and it was very clear to me I need to keep making music."
About a year into his sabbatical, Shaffer got a call from a record executive asking if he wanted to make a record. Shaffer called it a lifesaver.
Now, he and the band have begun a tour, resuming a unique musical career.
There's hardly a rock and roll great with whom Paul Shaffer has not played.
"The greats of my era, when I got to play with them, they got to hear that I had studied them and was a devotee, and a devoted fan. Maybe that's why I was able to play for them," he says.
The Letterman show became must-see late-night TV in the early- and mid-'80s and Shaffer quickly became an integral part of the show, much more than just a bandleader.
The show, especially in the '80s, mocked show business, lovingly.
"That's always been my thing, and a lot of people don't get it. But yes, that duality," Shaffer said. "How can you not love Sinatra? But how can you not chuckle a little bit when he made that album Futures?"
"A guy like Sammy Davis, Jerry Lewis, that's what we aspired to. And yet, we had a lot of fun kidding them too."
Shaffer is a proud New Yorker of more than 40 years. In the aftermath of 9/11, he took part in a campaign to entice visitors back to the city.
"Damned right you want to come to New York. It's the greatest city in the world," he said in an ad for the effort.
He's often seen on the town. In addition to his apartment on the West Side, he has a home in Westchester.
But Paul Shaffer is a proud Canadian, born and bred in Fort William, Ontario, now known as Thunder Bay.
His dad was a small-town lawyer who loved show business.
In high school, he joined a cover band of older musicians called The Fugitives.
He went to his father's alma mater, the University of Toronto, and studied sociology and philosophy. He hated it.
Shaffer held a summit meeting with his father, asking for permission to give music a chance.
"Give me a year. Let me try it for a year. If it doesn't work out and I don't get any work, maybe I'll go back to school, become a lawyer like you," Shaffer says. "Anyway, they were supportive. Took that year, played all kinds of low-rent gigs, to bar mitzvahs to weddings to strip clubs and everything in between, and a tour of missile bases in northern Quebec."
"The one gal from that tour of military bases said, 'I'm auditioning for Godspell, show coming from New York next week. Could you play for me?"
Shaffer was the music director for the the 1973 Toronto production of Godspell with an amazing cast, performers who went on to substantial careers in television and movies.
"Martin Sort, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber," he says. "And I said, 'Yeah, this is great, but when I get to New York, you're going to see, I am going to find some talented people.' Turned out they proved themselves to be the funniest of all."
Once in New York, Shaffer landed with the original house band on Saturday Night Live and established himself as a go-to sessions player. His career was set.
Since then, he's played with the greatest musicians in the world without ever having to leave New York.
But there was one time, a concert tour with the Blues Brothers in 1980. They flew from city to city in a rickety twin engine prop plane. Some of the musicians touring with him had played with rock icons who died in plane crashes, like Buddy Holly and Otis Redding.
"So I said, 'Let's just at least write the song about this rock tragedy, so at least there's some income for our progeny,'" he says.
"Rock Tragedy, including several members of the MGs," Shaffer sings.
And that didn't end up on Casey Kasem's top 40?
"You have an exclusive on this. I don't think I've ever recorded it before," he replies.
Shaffer’s ability to joke and ad lib, seen almost nightly across his long association with Letterman, led to a memorable cameo in the iconic 1984 mockumentary, "This is Spinal Tap" as record promoter Artie Fufkin.
In it, he says, "Will you do something for me? Do me a favor? Just kick my ass, OK? Kick this ass for a man?" "
So how often do people come up to him and say, "Would you just kick my ass please? Would you just kick my ass?"
"One of my hits.Thank you, thank you for referring to one of my hits. And yes, of course. And I still do get it," he answers.
At 67, Shaffer has the best of both worlds, enjoying a family life - he's been married been 1990 and has two grown children - while realizing just about all of his musical dreams.
Any post-Letterman doldrums have faded, no match for his passion, making music.
"And I was not bored or depressed anymore," he says. "That's why I say it was a lifesaver, I'm happy now, having fun."
And when we listen to Paul Shaffer make music, so are we.