You've worked with a few legends in your time. What's it like playing with Jack?

“You get past the whole legend thing, but then you don’t. He is who he is. Of course, we’re both carbon-based creatures breathing oxygen, so in that sense we’re alike. Whether it’s Carlos Santana or James 'Blood' Ulmer, they’re both carbon-based creatures breathing oxygen, as am I.

“The ‘Oh-my-God-I’m-playing-with-Jack-Bruce’ thought never goes away, and that’s fine. It’s OK to stay a little bit in awe of these people. But at the same time, the godlings are just folks. I revere Jack Bruce, but I also see him as a dude. He’s fun, and he’s humble, too. He doesn’t want to be this guy that people have to bow down to. That would be a horrible way to carry yourself, I would think.”

Both you and Jack have a deep love of the blues. Is that something you bond over?

“Yeah, sure. The blues is a big bond with Jack and myself. It’s the basis for where I’m at, and I think it’s there on the album.

“Jack is of a certain generation – the Keiths and the Micks and the Jimmy Pages – one that’s so steeped in the blues. Those records that they listened to were so hard to come by. They had to really seek it out. His whole generation, it's also a class thing. He was part of the working class, and so this music came to him in a way that was powerful. He chose it, and that holds a lot of meaning.

“As for myself and what I bring to it, it’s entirely different. I remember when I produced James 'Blood' Ulmer, and somewhere during the making of that record, I started going back and listening to Howlin’ Wolf. What he did on Spoonful was deliver the sense of abstraction that had tremendous impact.”