Times Free Press entertainment reporter Casey Phillips chatted with Paul Janeway, lead singer of Alabama neo-soul ensemble St. Paul & The Broken Bones, about how he’s adjusting to the band’s rapid rise to fame, why he envies Tom Waits and how he accidentally agreed to open for The Rolling Stones.
Q: How has 2015 treated you guys so far? What have been some of the highlights?
A: We did David Letterman in January, which was real special. It’s been a bizarre thing. We released an album in February of 2014, and after a year of an album release, you typically start winding down a little bit and you’re not going and doing late night shows and things like that, but Letterman and those folks dug us and wanted us to come on the show. We were very happy to oblige. [Laughs.]
That was cool because they told us before the taping, “Dave is a big fan,” and I thought that was kind of lip service, like, “Yeah, sure he is.” But it was legitimate; he was a fan and knew of us. That was really special for us to get to do, especially now with him retiring. It was cool to get to do that.
Other highlights? It all kind of runs together. We did a West Coast tour which was great. We sold out two nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco, which was really incredible. It’s a legendary place. They make posters of the show if you sell out. We sold out both nights, so they had posters with both the dates on them, which was incredible. They put it up in the venue, and that was cool because you saw all these amazing artists. It was ridiculous. [Laughs.]