Howard Jones, back on tour, reflects on hippie ideals: \u2018There was a lot of good about it.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI grew up listening to a lot of their music and I love Bill Payne\u2019s playing, although I know a lot of people wouldn\u2019t think I did,\u201d Jones said. \u201cBut it\u2019s such great music, and great music is great music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little Feat\u2019s 1975 gem, \u201cAll That You Dream,\u201d is the second-to-last song heard in the final episode of the TV series \u201cThe Sopranos.\u201d The band\u2019s songs have also been showcased in at least 30 other films and TV series, from \u201cNew Girl\u201d and \u201cThis Is Us\u201d to \u201cX-Men: Days of Future Past\u201d and the Cameron Crowe-directed \u201cAlmost Famous.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, Little Feat\u2019s legacy has been saluted by tribute bands on both coasts, including Sailin\u2019 Shoes and Feat Prints, and \u2014 in Japan \u2014 by Little Cheat. In 1989, the title of Little Feat\u2019s superb 1973 album, \u201cDixie Chicken,\u201d inspired the name of a then-new Texas country-music group called the Dixie Chicks.<\/p>\n
More recently, Little Feat\u2019s music has been embraced and performed by a new generation of artists that includes Sierra Ferrell, Marcus King, Molly Tuttle and Shakey Graves. Several generations of jam bands cite Little Feat as foundational, although almost none has come close to matching the group\u2019s seamless stylistic range and command of percolating grooves and noodling-free improvisations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the fact that we couldn\u2019t be easily categorized gave us our longevity, which has been a blessing and a curse, but I think more a blessing,\u201d Payne said, speaking from his home in southwestern Montana, where he has lived full time since 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t locked into any particular kind of sound,\u00a0but the reality was we did have a sound, we had a voice. I\u2019ve often said that you\u2019d have to be in 10 different bands to play the width of and breadth of music that Little Feat has played over the years! But it always sounds like Little Feat, no matter what we do, which is a pretty good trick. So, if we play \u2018Happy Birthday,\u2019 it\u2019s gonna sound like Little Feat.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Little](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sut-l-music-littlefeat-01.jpg\")
Little Feat co-founder Bill Payne is now completing his memoir, which will be published in February. His second solo album, recorded in Nashville, is due out by the end of this year. (Polly Payne)
\n\u2018Carnival Ghosts: A Memoir\u2019<\/p>\n
Payne is now completing his memoir, \u201cCarnival Ghosts: A Memoir of Life, Loss, and Rebirth with Little Feat,\u201d which will be published in February by the Simon & Schuster imprint Regalo Press.<\/p>\n
The 365-page book, which includes a foreword from author and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, is written in both prose and poem form. It chronicles Payne\u2019s life from his days as a California teen surfer and church organist to the keyboardist who has been featured on hundreds of albums.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long book because I\u2019ve led a long life,\u201d said Payne, 77, who also took many of the photos that appear in his memoir.<\/p>\n
Part of the book focuses on his extremely prolific work as a recording and touring artist outside of Little Feat. Payne\u2019s voluminous recording credits range from Ronstadt, Raitt, Lovett, John Lee Hooker, Kinky Friedman, Pink Floyd and B.B. King to Donna Summer, Buddy Guy, Stevie Nicks, Cher, Bob Seger, and at least four former San Diegans \u2014 Stephen Bishop, Rita Coolidge, JJ Cale and A.J. Croce, who performs at Humphreys on Sept. 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, I view music for what it is, a language,\u201d Payne said. \u201cSo, if musicians are having a conversation on stage or in the studio, in order to have that conversation, you have to know the language. What is the vocabulary that you\u2019re digging into? What can you contribute to that vocabulary?<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have to audition\u00a0like I did for my first band. As time went on, people knew who I was. And I\u00a0figured: \u2018Well, if they\u2019re calling me to play on the record, they must want me to do what I do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne is happy to be back on the road, at least for now. But he admits the billing of Little Feat\u2019s current concert trek as \u201cThe Last Concert Tour\u201d is a bit misleading, which is something of a Little Feat tradition.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s fifth album, 1975\u2019s \u201cThe Last Record Album,\u201d was soon followed by three more: \u201cTime Loves a Hero\u201d in 1977; the epic live double-album \u201cWaiting For Columbus\u201d in 1978; and \u201cDown On The Farm\u201d in 1979, which was released barely half a year after the death of doomed Little Feat mastermind George.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re calling \u2018The Last Farewell\u2019 is going to take about two-and-a-half-years to wind down,\u201d Payne said. \u201cAnd when the ship comes to dock, we can still record if we want to and there might be some concert residencies we want to play or a special festival that pops up.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the options are endless, in terms of playing. But the real reason for doing this farewell tour is to get us off the bus and off the grind of touring, and I think that\u2019s probably a wise reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne is all too familiar with the ups and downs of Little Feat, which disbanded and regrouped twice in its first four years of existence alone. The band only toured seven times between 2000 and its 50th anniversary tour in 2019. Barrere, who was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2015 and died four years later, was unable to tour with the group in 2013 and missed the summer leg of its 2019 tour.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sut-l-music-littlefeat-01-01.jpg\")
The current lineup of Little Feat is led by band cofounder Bill Payne, far left. (Fletcher Moore)
\nRockin\u2019 down the highway<\/p>\n
During Little Feat\u2019s downtime, Payne toured as a member of the Doobie Brothers between 2015 and 2021. He first collaborated with the Doobies on the band\u2019s second album, 1972\u2019s \u201cToulouse Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle Feat were not the Doobie Brothers \u2014 we didn\u2019t have hit records,\u201d Payne said. \u201cI love those guys, they\u2019re dear friends and wonderful people. We\u2019re just two different bands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The late George is still widely hailed as having been Little Feat\u2019s most visionary member and Payne matter-of-factly refers to him as both a mentor and a genius. But it is as an ensemble of similarly talented and musically omnivorous equals that the band made its biggest impact.<\/p>\n
And if Little Feat\u2019s members sometimes had fiery arguments about their music (and they certifiably did), it was a reflection of the band\u2019s devotion to doing the very best it could, on record and on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cArguments are healthy,\u201d Payne said. \u201cThey force you into an area, a territory, called \u2018conviction.\u2019 What do you put your conviction behind?\u201d<\/p>\n
He chuckled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I played my song \u2018Oh Atlanta\u2019 for the band,\u2019 he recalled, \u201cyou would have thought I gave them something that was not conducive to their thoughts of what constituted a great song, or a good song, even. I just looked at them and said: \u2018We\u2019re playing this song, whether you like it or not.\u2019 That happened a few times.<\/p>\n
\u201cBands are wonderful, but it was never \u2018Lowell George & Little Feat,\u2019 or \u2018Bill Payne & Little Feat.\u2019 It\u2019s Little Feat. Everybody in the band can have a voice in it, and a lot of interesting things happen because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rollicking \u201cOh Atlanta\u201d has been a highlight of Little Feat\u2019s concerts for more than 50 years. Payne laughed when asked if his band mates eventually agreed he was right to insist the band add the song to its repertoire.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said, \u201cbut they did like it. We were fortunate with Little Feat to have the songs that we had at our disposal. A lot of listeners didn\u2019t know who wrote what. They didn\u2019t even know who sang what. People thought that Lowell George wrote \u2018Oh, Atlanta,\u2019 not me. Some people thought I wrote \u2018All That You Dream.\u2019 No, Paul Barrere wrote most of it, I wrote some of it, and Lowell sang it. It was a group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne is now completing his second solo album, which he expects to be released by the end of the year. While he hopes to keep making music indefinitely, he believes Little Feat\u2019s plan to record and do select concerts \u2014 but not go on the road \u2014 is a sound one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the idea was to stop touring was thrown at me, I was in the later stages of being 76,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, at 77, I kind of look at it and say: \u2018I know Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger are still out there in their 80s, and I feel relatively good at 77. But I\u2019m not sure what I\u2019m going to feel like three years from now, or two-and-a-half years from now.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I like the idea of winding it down a little bit. And I\u2019m working more now than I\u2019ve ever worked in my life, which is kind of the way these things happen, I guess. But I love doing this and I love being involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the key to life \u2014 if you can do it \u2014 is to be active, be inquisitive and be mindful of the people you surround yourself with. May they all be more interesting, and more intelligent, than I am!\u201d<\/p>\n
Little Feat \u2018The Last Farewell Tour\u2019<\/p>\n
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7<\/p>\n
Where: Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island<\/p>\n
Tickets: $93.20<\/p>\n
Online: ticketmaster.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is Little Feat the most influential American rock band that never achieved mainstream success, in large part because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[168425,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-421725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-little-feat-cofounder-bill-payne-reflects-on-his-bands-triumphs-and-tragedies","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Little](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sut-l-music-litllefeat-01.jpg\")
Little Feat is shown, circa 1973, with its classic lineup. The band\u2019s members, from left, are bassist Kenny Gradney, percussionist\/singer Sam Clayton, guitarist\/singer Lowell George, keyboardist\/singer Bill Payne, drummer Richie Hayward and guitarist\/singer Paul Barrere. (Sam Emerson)