Nick DeRiso: You’ve had a long association with the Rolling Stones, dating back to the Meters’ mid-1970s world tours and continuing with later sideman gigs of your own with both Keith Richards and Ron Wood. What was the musical connection there?

Modeliste: I think it all starts off with respect, with admiration for the work that we have done. It just so happens that the two tours that we did with the Stones, I got really, really tight with all of the fellas. I really so admire what they have done. I am crazy about their music and I think they would say the same thing about the Meters’ music. That was music that drew them front and center. Behind the music, we got to be friends. Ronnie Wood put together this album for Warner Brothers in 1979, and the group was called the New Barbarians. It was he and Keith Richards, Stanley Clarke, Bobby Keys and myself. We did a mini tour and we did some overseas shows. I got a chance to play with them. We met each other then in a different place: They weren’t with the Rolling Stones, and I wasn’t with the Meters. We just played the music that Ronnie recorded, and some old favorites, and I thought that gave us a chance to enjoy each other even more.