When Arthur went into the studios to record “Scotties Song” for Columbia Records, he asked me to play on the session… After a few days of equivocation I finally decided to play!

My reluctance to be involved with this group was because he was going to refer to them as “Love,” I made it clear that that was a nonstarter!

We resolved the situation and the group was to be called Arthur Lee and Band Aide!

I played the sessions, but was totally unsatisfied with the results, and requested my participation be nixed, it was!

On a break, Arthur and I were walking down the hallway (mind you Columbia Records is a huge complex, with several studios and at any given moment, many “Big Name” entertainers would be recording there) coming the other way was Johnny Mathis, Arthur sees him and excitedly greeted the singer, “hey what’s happening Man, what’s goin on!”

Mathis, unaware who he was, looked at Arthur and kind of squealed and took off running, if he were being timed he may have broken the world’s record in the one hundred meter dash.

Mathis rushed into the studio screaming incoherently, that he was being mugged, out comes Hal Blaine who was working on Johnny’s session, he sees me doubled over in laughter, and then notices Arthur who was standing there frowning….and he too started laughing, pretty soon word had gotten out and several of us were having a “smile” at Arthur’s expense.

After a few minutes, Mathis came back out and one of the engineers introduced him to Arthur, Arthur arched his eyebrows, looked down
his nose and told Johnny Mathis to go F*** himself, then he turned and walked away.

Johnny Echols