“Tom would say, ‘Play your guitar with a car key.’ It was very experimental”: Little Feat's Fred Tackett recalls Tom Waits' left-field approach to guitar playing – and his one-of-a-kind studio sessions

Left-Fred Tackett peforms at Ryman Auditorium on March 16, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee; Right-Musical guest Tom Waits performs on the Late Show with David Letterman, Thursday May 14, 2015 on the CBS Television Network.

Little Feat guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Fred Tackett has played with a who's who of the music industry – recording with the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimmy Webb, Paul Anka, Joan Baez, and Cher. Among his many anecdotes on left-field (and not so left-field) recording sessions, one in particular stands out: his experience recording Swordfishtrombones with Tom Waits.

“That was very, very cool because Tom was very experimental,” he says in a new Guitar World interview. “Some of the stuff was really kind of angular, with odd guitar licks that I’d play over and over and over throughout the whole song. He actually had that written out.