S2 E14: G. Love on Keeping the Philadelphonic Alive, Using His Music to Empower People and Ordering a Hamburger

Summary: G. Love & Special Sauce is one of the pioneers of the blues and hip hop style of music that is so prevalent these days. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1994 and made G. Love famous. With their latest album "The Juice" (2020), G. Love is out to prove that his "Philadelphonic" sound still has relevance and in fact can be empowering to his listeners. The man whose real name is Garrett Dutton is convinced: the world needs more G. Love, now more than ever. The Philadelphia native and I talked in an empty radio studio at WXPN-FM in University City, right before his soundcheck ahead of an album release party at World Cafe Live. He reached back into the early days of Special Sauce, talked about why he knows "The Juice" is about to be freshly squeezed on his adoring fans and even enjoys a surprise I brought with me. Recorded on December 13, 2019 at WXPN-FM in University City. Podcast includes the album's lead track "The Juice" at the end. In this podcast: G. Love tells us what he is loving these days (2:00), how he is empowering people through his music (2:58), why he knows "The Juice" is a great record (3:52), being careful with "actually" as a descriptor (4:55), why using Keb' Mo' as his producer was such a perfect fit (5:40), why G. Love is not meticulous at all, which goes into a discussion of how to decide if he should eat Burger King or McDonald's (7:55), takes us back to 1993-1994 when G. Love & Special Sauce released their debut album and were renting a loft in Old City (8:40), that legendary New Year's Eve party at said loft that led to 869 cigarette burns on the carpet (9:40), when G. Love & Special Sauce finally made it big (10:45), how he reacted when he walked into Tower Records on South Street and first saw himself on his album cover (11:50), why he at first didn't like his picture on that debut album (12:15), how people initially reacted to a white kid playing "garage rock and roll while rapping" (12:45), my surprise begins! (14:20), G. Love and I hum the Action News theme (14:42), the story behind how G. Love bought the guitar that became his signature instrument - the Crucianelli Elite (15:50), how G. Love became his nickname (18:10), going back to the days of street performing in Philadelphia (20:40), why he ran into problems and took his street performing to Boston - and which town made him more money (22:20) and finally the lead track off his new album "The Juice" (22:55).