George Porter Jr. will celebrate his 75th birthday with a show featuring many of his close friends. The show will be 7 p.m. December 26th, at The Fillmore New Orleans. He advised showgoers to get there early.

Best known as the bassist and vocalist in The Meters, Porter and the band inspired generations with their unique New Orleans style and swagger that would evolve into funk. His skill and style as a musician brought him work with many important acts over the years like The Dead, Paul McCartney, Patti LaBelle and many more.

We caught up with the bassist to discuss his 75th birthday show, his busy year performing over 120 shows on the road and how George Porter, Jr. continues to grow as a musician.

What do you have planned for the show at The Fillmore? It’s your 75th birthday, right?
The show at the Fillmore will be my 75th birthday. My wife and my daughter started my birthday parties probably around 15, 20 years ago. It’s been pretty much something we’ve done every year, except the first year of COVID we didn’t do it and on my 70th birthday, I didn’t do it. Mostly because Colonel Bruce [Hampton] had his 70th birthday and he passed away on stage, and that kind of freaked me out. My 70th birthday was gonna be the same year as his so I blew off that birthday year.

What’s the setup going to be like?
Originally, we were gonna do it on a riverboat, but then it got sold. So, we lost that boat but I wanted a big stage. I wanted to do double drum kits, double bass rigs, three guitar rigs, two keyboard setups and a horn section. Basically, I wanted to be able to have musicians not have to go through set changes. I wanted the stage to be a full generic setup.

I imagine it may have been a few years for some of the players, but you have performed with everyone who will be on stage?
Every person on the list are musicians that I have played with—a few this year too. But then the rest over the last 15 years. All of the separate bands that I put together, I left it in the hands of those individuals to put together their setlist. The only set list we programmed was the group of guys that’s gonna be playing The Meters’ music and The Runnin’ Pardners’ set. I’m having four special guests coming up with the Runnin’ Pardners’, all people that have written songs for [us], Leslie Smith, Susan Cowsill and Anders Osborne and Mia Borders.

Will you be on stage the entire time?
No, but the only time I’m not gonna be on stage is just during the Tony Hall set ‘cause I asked that I’d have at least a half an hour shut down.

That’s a long time to be on stage. How do you keep up?
I’m gonna take my nap that half hour. [Laughs]

You have almost a superhuman level of endurance because you never seem to stop. You’ve been doing touring gigs all year, right?
We counted it up the other day. We’ve done 120 live performances away from New Orleans and probably about 50 or 60 in the city.

I think you inspire many young artists—in the same way as Art Neville took you under his wing and inspired you. How do you feel like you’ve inspired the next generation of musicians?
I’m just being careful, you know? I’m making sure that I give the right message to young players. It is a passing of the baton. I am almost now a senior citizen. [Laughs] So senior citizens have to be cautious of what they say when they say and how they say it. I wanna make sure that I give the right message to the young and some of these older players need messages too.

Thats true! We are often all are always growing. 
We certainly hope that we continue to grow as players, but some of us get lazy. When that happens they stop caring about what they do and how they do it and then the audiences start to back away from ’em.

How do you keep from slipping and to continue to grow as a musician?
My continued growth is because I have young players around me that have a great deal of respect for me. But more than that, they have a great deal of respect for the music itself. With the Runnin’ Pardners band, I go out my way to seek the players’ contributions to the music. I solicit their input and I listen. I don’t go out and listen all the time but I do listen.

You’re a very humble person but when you have a young player or somebody approach you and talk to you, what advice do you usually give them?
It depends. I don’t just automatically submit advice. I usually respond to a question that someone asks about the industry or what they’re doing, you know? After I got sober, a lot of my friends thought that I was gonna be preaching sobriety and stuff like that. I don’t wanna preach. I mean, I’ve been asked to teach and do seminars and stuff like that but I’m not there yet. I think that professionally I’m still learning the craft the way I wanna be, I’m learning how to be a better songwriter. Maybe I’m kind of being a little selfish but I don’t think I’m ready to be a teacher.

When do you think you’ll be ready?
I don’t know. [Laughs]

What makes somebody ready? Didn’t you just also get an honorary degree from Loyola?
Yes, I did. Yes, I did. [Laughs]

What qualifies a person more than something like that?
I don’t know. We have to find out. Maybe I need to take a couple students and see if I know what I think I know. [Laughs]

How do you feel now that you’re about to turn 75?
I feel I’m healthy right now. My doctors are telling me that all is well but they say that if I do a few other things I could probably see 85. They’re suggesting I exercise and eat less big, fat fatty stuff and stay off the ice cream, I might get to be 95. [Laughs] For the most part, I’m in a safe place. I have a lady friend that’s involved in my life as well as my kids that keep me in check about making sure that I eat right, and get rest. My lady friend now makes me take vacations, take some downtime. I would think that if my wife was still alive, I would be taking more vacations than normal, or she probably would’ve already had me retired.

One last question to close us out, do you feel being born on the day after Christmas has affected you in any way?
No, but it used to. When I was a kid, it affected my presents. I had an aunt that used to give me one sock on Christmas day and gimme the other sock on my birthday. She did it for a few years. But lately, I think my mom had gotten to the point where she would give me two small presents, you know? If she was gonna spend $50 on a present for me. She would give me a $25 present on Christmas and a $25 present on my birthday. I’ve gotten used to it. I’m okay with it.

 

For tickets to celebrate George Porter Jr.’s 75th birthday, visit this link.