Session bass legend Guy Pratt recalled a somewhat odd way he was hired by Madonna, then quickly fired, and then brought back in the band.
Of course, Guy Pratt would stay to record some of the finest stuff the legendary singer's career, namely her massive album and its title song "Like a Prayer." Of course, Pratt has worked with an abundance of some of the finest names in the industry, including Pink Floyd as a touring bassist and with David Gilmour.
During a recent appearance over at Vintage Rock Pod, Pratt looked back on his time with Madonna, particularly the odd way he was hired and all the turbulent times around that period. Asked if he was really hired by Madonna with the singer calling him in the early morning with an odd request, Pratt replied (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
"[Shouting] 'I heard you're funny. Make me laugh!' Yeah, she did... That's true, that's absolutely true. Because it was at the end of that first insane 13-month Pink Floyd campaign."
He continued:
"It was right at the end of it, [longtime Madonna songwriter] Pat Leonard had come to the show, who was my friend from before Pink Floyd, who I'd met through Bryan Ferry, who was Madonna's writer and producer. And he just said, 'What are you doing after this?' And I was like, I had no conception of any sort of life or anything I've done. I assumed I was going to die, I really was so completely, you know, bubbled? And not in a great way, to be honest."
"But I said, 'Well, I don't know. Why?' He said, 'How you fancy playing on the next Madonna record?' I was like, 'Oh my God, that sounds amazing!' So it sounds like, 'Yeah, absolutely!'"
"Because, bear in mind she'd never use bass players before then, even on the Nile Rodgers one. I think Bernard might have played on one song, but it's all synth. So she'd never had a bass player. I probably should have researched that before I said that. But so yeah, the tour ended I went home blah blah blah."
She then asked Pratt to see if he can find a good drummer?
"Then we started arranging it and then he said to me 'Who do you want to play drums?' shaging hell man...Oh my god, I get to pick my own drummer. So I picked this mate of mine who has a habit of doing this... And she'd agreed on that and so I had the section moving and go up."
"Madonna just lost her mind…"
However, things didn't turn out the way he planned. The drummer he found bailed last minute. And then Madonna wasn't exactly happy about it and he was out as well:
"And then he blew it out like a week before we were going out and apparently Madonna just lost her mind, she was like 'Why are we getting this shaging guy? You can't even get a drummer this time!' And I was out... I remember Pat calling me to tell me and I was like 'Mate, please. She can't.'"
However, he got help from another legend of the music business:
"But then — and bless him to his credit… Apparently, the person I have to thank really for getting me [back] is Nick Kamen. Nick was in LA and she was currently walking down Malibu beach in a foul mood and she bumped into Nick in the morning. And she went, 'Do you who this Guy Pratt is? And he goes, 'Oh Guy! He's lovely! Yeah! Guy is great!'"
"So I was back in the picture. Then the next thing I got was this phone calls and it was the first words she ever spoke to me, 'I heard you're funny! Make me laugh!' I love the idea that Pat's last-ditch attempt for getting me on the album is, 'But he's really funny.'"
Going more into the matter, Guy Pratt was reminded about playing bass on not just any song but THE Madonna song — "Like a Prayer." Asked about his bass lines and how they "shine through" on the piece, he replied:
"I know, it's amazing. I still can't believe it. In fact, I would say that was the album where she sort of grew up and became a serious artist, 'the divorce album' as it's known. That's she did the George Michael [collaboration]. She went to the next stage and it was amazing. And also because I had all these amazing musicians on it. And the songs were incredible like fantastically complex songs, a lot of them."
"And 'Like a Prayer', I still have very vague memories of it. But I'm pretty sure that what I wrote, when I did what I did, that I was just mocking about. I'm sure it was one of those, 'Okay, we've got it! Now let's do one, just go nuts!'. And when I clearly did, somehow it stayed on the on the album."
"She then went around the whole band and gave everyone notes."
During the interview, Pratt was also asked about working with Madonna in the studio, particularly the recording sessions for "Like a Prayer," the song and the entire album. He replied:
"Amazing. Incredibly impressive. Very professional, incredible. Everything apart from 'Like a Prayer' was just cut live with the band. I mean, the band...This drummer is amazing, why were they asking me for a drummer, we had Sugarfoot Moffett... The band was amazing. The band was Bruce Gates on guitar, J Windy on keyboards and Pat on keyboards."
"When we did 'Oh Father,' we were just given the chart, we all sat down, we play through it, she sang it in the control room. And even though she'd been singing it, she then went around the whole band and gave everyone notes. And like, really good notes. I remember her say to the 'That one fell at the end, I like that! Keep that.'"
Bass Legend Explains Why Madonna Almost Fired Him: 'She Just Lost Her Mind'
