That, however, was just one side of the story. For a youthful Robben Ford, his big break was anything but. At 22, he was playing in Tom Scott\u2019s jazz-fusion group, L.A. Express. Soon, they\u2019d be hired as Joni Mitchell\u2019s live band, later playing on her studio albums, Miles of Aisles and Hissing of Summer Lawn.<\/p>\n
Latest Videos FromGuitarPlayer<\/p>\n
Harrison was in attendance at their London show, and he subsequently claimed the band for himself, ahead of hitting the road to support his fifth studio album. It was meant to be a dream gig for Ford.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an amazing opportunity to be able to work with a Beatle,\u201d he tells Thinking About Guitar with a degree of diplomacy. \u201cGeorge was always my favorite Beatle, but the music was very simple, and it was already done. So you learned the part, and you played the part. It wasn\u2019t a challenging gig.\u201d<\/p>\n
You may like<\/p>\n
Considering his jazz-tinted background, being reduced to a sideman playing cowboy chords wasn\u2019t thrill-a-minute for the hotshot guitarist. His issues, though, ran deeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no creativity asked of me in that situation,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt was a hard tour; George couldn\u2019t sing; he had really terrible laryngitis. We were in private planes, and sometimes we\u2019d be in venues for 15 hours a day. The show was three and a half hours long. At the Cow Palace in San Francisco, we played twice in one day. It was really hard physically and emotionally, and mentally it was kind of rough, I have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robben Ford on George Harrison\u2019s Problematic 1974 Dark Horse Tour #thebeatles – YouTube
\n![\"Robben](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789092373_877_maxresdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Then there were the drugs. A day after first meeting Harrison backstage at that Joni Mitchell show in England\u2019s capital, he was whisked into the studio. There, he said, there was \u201ca box of cocaine on every shelf,\u201d<\/a> and that behavior didn\u2019t change on the road.<\/p>\n The tour ran for 45 shows, and the whole time, Ford felt like an outsider.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lot of what went on during the \u201870s,\u201d he says, again taking the diplomatic route. \u201cYou had all those cats, and I was 22. I had my 23rd birthday on that tour.<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I know these guys are older than me, and they\u2019re doing their own thing,\u201d he goes on. \u201cIt was very hard for me, actually. I felt like a fish out of water in that bunch, in that group of people. So, it wasn\u2019t really fun. It was something I really kind of had to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n On a positive note, he did get through it. He returned to Joni Mitchell\u2019s side the following year before being invited to write a guitar solo for Steely Dan\u2019s \u201cPeg\u201d in 1977, though he didn\u2019t make the final cut. His next big gig would prove to be his weirdest<\/a>. That\u2019s probably why he\u2019s largely remained a solo act since.<\/p>\n![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/zQbdrx8SC77sE7qG8mvtNK.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n