Richard and Jon recorded some novelty songs in their parents' living room in Beverly Hills in 1971. Jon would send them to a DJ in LA known as Dr Demento who would play them on his live radio show. Woodsy Owl and Mr Ghost Goes to town were a couple. Richard had started playing as a session musician in LA in 1969 during which period he met Tom Hensley, maestro of the keys and also a session player. Richard also joined Neil Diamond's recording and touring band as lead guitarist in 1971, Tom joined in 1975. Diamondville Tom. Tom and Dr Demento (Barry Hansen) had known each other for a while. They met through The Roto Rooter Band in which Tom played sometimes and produced their records. Dr Demento/Barry was a fan and played their records. Tom introduced Richard to Dr Demento/Barry and the three went out to dinner a few times, I remember going with them one night. Barry was a music historian and knew everything about everything. The three of them would gather in Richard's music room after dinner, a converted garage (shown in the above photo) at our house on Lake Hollywood Drive, where Richard stored his collection of 78s and the three would listen to really weird records together. In 1978 or 79 Richard asked Barry if it would be alright to come to the radio show one night and bring his younger brother Jon. Performers would just turn up to play on the show solo and on this particular night is was Weird Al who was debuting a new song. Various people hanging in the studio would play an assortment of noisemakers. Jon told them he was a drummer and so they gave him Weird Al's accordion case to pound on. Thus began the amazing collaboration of Jon and Weird Al that continues to this day.
RB with fellow Cats, Duane Eddy and Jimmy Capps. Photo credit, Deed Eddy
Sept. 18, 2010 Station Inn, Nashville. CD - Release night for "Eric Brace & Peter Cooper: Master Sessions" and "Peter Cooper: The Lloyd Green Album" Here's an end-of-night shot of the players: Eric Brace, Richard Bennett, Pat McInerney, Mike Auldridge, Jen Gunderman, Kim Carnes, Alex McCollough, Jon Byrd, Steve Fishell, Peter Cooper (Photo by Stacie Huckeba)
With Bo Ramsey , credits Pieta Brown
Richard with Mike Henderson
Richard with the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble
With Mark Knopfler
Fats Kaplin , Phil Lee , Richard , George Bradfute at Tone Chaparral
Richard , Marty Stuart and Kent Blanton
Richard with Neil Diamond
Glenn Worf , Rudy Pensa and Richard
Chad Cromwell , Vince Gill , Richard , Big Al Anderson ,
Jerry Douglas , Glenn Worf , Scott Baggett
At Shangri-La studio's with MK and band
Marty Stuart , Richard Bennett , Steve Earle and Harry Stinson
6 February 2002
Here's a link to an interview with Dave where he tells this :
The album, Framed, was made in Los Angeles and it was a fantastic experience. I had Richard Bennett on guitar and Tom Hensley on keyboards, both from the Neil Diamond band. Denny Sewell, who’d recently left Wings was on drums and, for most of the tracks, John Entwistle played bass (Leland Sklar played bass on the tracks when John wasn’t available). John and I had been friends since 1960 but this was the first time I’d had the chance to play with him. The whole band was so easy to work with, they were keen and, obviously, bloody good.
Richard Bennett in a previous life , Neil Diamond gallery:
