From Rockstar to Louisiana Preservationist

by Nicole Brice

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but the product of Yankee parents, I first was introduced to the band, LeRoux, and Rod Roddy when I was 6 or 7 years old. LeRoux takes its name from, you guessed it, everyone’s favorite staple in their gumbo, the roux! Rod had recently taken a hiatus from his band and was working at the same business as my dad. My dad would take me to work with him on some Saturdays and I would hang out with everyone, including Rod. Back then, you could NOT go anywhere without hearing “New Orleans Ladies” on the radio and everyone knew the song. Although, the first song that may come to mind when you think, LeRoux, is “New Orleans Ladies”, they are also well-known for many other hits that were on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and they’ve toured with The Doobie Brothers, The Allman Brothers, Journey, Kansas, Heart, Marshall Tucker, and many others.

Here I am now, almost 40 years old, and LeRoux’s music still resonates. I attended a wedding recently, and lo and behold, what did the DJ play? You guessed it, “New Orleans Ladies”!

LeRoux is a classic rock band. They were inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame as its 50th inductee. These incredible musicians have a sound with influences ranging from Jazz to Blues and everything in between. Even though, many line-up changes have occurred over the years, the one thing that has remained is the sound. The Leroux sound is one all its own, and their latest musical offering, “One of Those Days”, released on July 24, 2020, is a true testament to their enduring sound.

I had the pleasure of being reacquainted with Rod Roddy recently and was honored to be able to speak with him at length on LeRoux, Déjà Vu Properties, and what it was like to tour with the greats in the heyday of Rock music.

LeRoux’s, “One of Those Days”, is available on all streaming platforms and more info can be found at www.GulfCoastRecords.net. This album is a musical journey from start to finish. I highly recommend it. From the amazing intro on “Lucy Anna” with drums and keys full circle to the crisp, clean, bluesy, guitar sound on “Don’t Rescue Me”, this album does not disappoint!

The final track on the album is also an amazing new arrangement of the fan favorite, “New Orleans Ladies”, and it includes Tab Benoit as a guest musician, as well. Be sure to check it out!

https://www.leroux.band

https://www.facebook.com/dejavuproperties

RR: Good Morning, Nicole!

NB: Well, Good Morning, to you, too! I’m going to call you “Louisiana Legend Rod Roddy,” okay? ::laughs::

RR: ::laughs::

NB: Tell me a little background on the band after your “heyday,” which, I do not believe a band has a “heyday.” To me, once you have longevity in the music scene, that’s it, and your loyal fans will follow.

RR: Yeah, we disappeared for a while. See, we broke up at the tail end of ‘83 or first part of ’84, and then we kind of did a few so-called “reunion gigs.” Then, um, we kind of just disappeared. Everybody went their own way and then about 10 years later, Razor & Tie Records, unbeknownst to us, released the “Bayou Degradable – Best Of” collection and we met at the House of Blues in ’92 or ’93, and the band had a rehearsal from about Noon to Five, but we hadn’t seen or talked to each other but occasionally, and so we did a show at the House of Blues, and from that point on, we started playing again.

NB: That’s amazing! And music is just not something you can put down and then pick back up later. It’s just always with you. You always have that itch—that need to CREATE something. You guys have had an amazing career and now you have this incredible new album that was released on July 24, 2020. I just have to say that the title track has SUCH a strong opening that I was blown away! I was like, “let me crank this sucker up!”

RR: Yeah, it’s funny because it was released in July, when it was supposed to be released in June. Everything got thrown off schedule because of COVID. It’s doing okay in the states. It’s not in the charts or anything, but it took off in France, of all places, and then across Europe, they were playing it. In fact, it still may be on the Hot 100 Blues Charts. We’ve had three songs on those charts, and a couple of them made it to #1 and then fell back. We had three at one time on the charts, and it’s a shame for us that we can’t go and promote the album because everybody’s in the same bag with COVID and all, but in Europe, it has taken off and so has the video.

NB: You know what’s crazy to me is that the overseas fans are eager to get new music from their favorite artists. It’s like anything that’s put out, they love it. They are very loyal.

RR: Now, I will say that all this “new” music that is out, I just can’t wrap my head around it, ya know? You know, they sample parts of songs and well, that’s cool, because I remember in the ‘50’s when Dad was listening to his stuff and I was going, “Eh, I don’t get that.” …but it changes and with the new album, what it did, was pull back those feelings that people had of the old music. I think that we got away from doing fun music to where it’s all just, kind of, cliché songs now. I think that this album really reached in and pulled out those feelings of when music in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s just kind of “felt good”…and was like a “road trip”…ya know, fun times? I think that’s what’s connected with people and I think that’s why it’s done really well.

NB: Well, I just want to say, the guitar sounds you guys have on this album, are just amazing. That’s one thing, when I’m listening to new music for the first time, I like to zone in on the guitar and the drums. On “Don’t Rescue Me,” the guitar sound on that is like, “whoa!”…this album is amazing…to which you said, it is “feel good” music. It gave me that late ‘70’s, early ‘80’s bluesy rock vibe.

RR: Jim did a lot of writing on this album and Jim and Tony are just two outstanding guitar players, but with totally different styles and even when Jeff Pollard was in the band, Tony and Jeff had different styles and it all worked together. You’ve gotta give Jeff Glixman credit. He’s worked with Kansas and he’s got a list a mile long of artists he’s worked with. It was totally different from when we did all of the other albums, but it had been years since we had done serious studio work, and after it was all said and done, it was like “wow!” He wowed the band and I’m glad people like you pick up on that, because he spent quality time pulling those sounds and putting it all together. It’s awesome.

NB: Like I’ve said, I’ve been a music lover my entire life. Dad was really big into music and he taught me at an early age about bands like Deep Purple and Ten Years After, and so there I was, like 3 years old getting all that music thrown at me, so now, as an adult, I’ve gotten into the more technical side of it. My husband says I ruin songs because I’m so critical, ha!

RR: ::laughs:: Right

NB: One more thing I want to touch on with the new album is the song, “Lucy Anna.” I love the intro with the drums and the keys. Awesome!

RR: Ain’t it cool?

NB: Yes!

RR: See that was song we struggled with whether we were going to do it. Our previous singer, Keith Landry, a friend of his wrote that song and we recorded it at Dockside Studio about ten years ago and that’s Leon, one of the original bass players playing on it and so after we recorded it, we just kind of sat there and when we started working on the new tunes, we tried to make sure we had stuff on this album that would connect the dots to earlier LeRoux and it’s like “Take a Ride on a Riverboat,” which just gets all the Louisiana folks going. It’s a feel good, fun song.

NB: It’s a crank up in your car song!

RR: …and see, it’s got this good Louisiana funky piano, the acapella, and it really works live and is a fun song to play.

NB: Oh, definitely, and another thing I love, too, is that there is another version of “New Orleans Ladies” with Tab Benoit.

RR: Exactly! For a while there, Tab toured with Leon and David Peters. I think they toured for about two years together and when they do “New Orleans Ladies” live, they do it slow, and so we said we want to redo that song and we really liked doing that version with Tab on stage, so we said, “let’s try to do that,” and it worked out really well.

NB: So now, I’d like to touch upon what you currently do in the rest of your spare time. Okay, so you go from LeRoux to Louisiana Preservationist? Give me a little background on all of this because I hear about it from Dad all the time.

RR: I love old buildings. I’ve just always loved them and Lisa, my wife, has always loved redesign and moving furniture around, so when we got together, I had just moved back to a little house in Houma, and she said, “Let me help you fix it up.” So, we did, and it got noticed. I said, “this is fun,” and it went from there.

NB: Wow, so you guys are just rocking and rolling! So, you go from music success to this, and what else do you see in the future? Do you want to continue doing this?

RR: ::laughs:: You know, we’re going to do this as long as we can, but, even when we get close to the end and get frustrated, we can’t stop. ::laughs::