Pino Palladino interview: Meet the shy Welshman who’s played for everyone from The Who to Beyonce

The 66-year-old Welshman on my Zoom call, gazing kindly through oversized fashionable glasses, remembers a phone call that led to him playing on the 21st century’s biggest-selling LP. Although he now lives in Los Angeles – it saves flying 6,000 miles for sessions, he explains, and “the weather’s a bit better” – this month he returns to his hometown to perform his first show under his name in 30 years, as part of the Welsh capital’s celebration of musical innovation, the Cardiff Music City Festival. open image in gallery Palladino at the Poplar Creek Music Theater in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, August 1985 “That was one of those real ‘What the f*** am I doing here?’ moments,” he says. “It’s a more expressive instrument – more sort of classical in a way – although I would have to give credit to people like Danny Thompson and Jaco Pastorius for influencing how I played it.” Palladino also mentioned to Carrie Grant on BBC’s The One Show that he’d stolen part of the melody from the bassoon introduction to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. “It’s so nice to bring that feeling back home.” Pino Palladino and friends play as part of the Cardiff Music City Festival at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on Monday 14 October, preceded by a live interview with BBC Radio 6 Music’s Huw Stephens.