Hello again 311 fans! Time for the latest edition of the spotlight. This week, let’s meet Robert Solivan!
Robert was the age of 19, in the year 1997, when he first discovered 311. He knew the songs “Down” and “All Mixed Up,” but didn’t really pay too much attention to them at first. He then joined a CD club where he bought 10 CD’s for a penny. “The ones I remember are Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits, Grateful Dead Skeletons in the Closet, Music and Grassroots. I didn’t know that 311 had two other albums so I thought I’d give them a shot. When I put in Music I liked it right away, everything about it, I don’t have to preach to the choir here. And it continued with Grassroots. After these two albums became part of my rotation it was Tim’s Santana sounding guitar style part in Nutsymptom that impressed me the most. Another thing I liked was Nicks certainty about being here today, tomorrow, next week and, next year. He was right. I then borrowed forever The Blue Album from my friend. It rocked.”
Since 1997, Robert has been seeing 311 live consistently in the San Francisco Bay Area. It started on Halloween at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. He’s lost count of exactly how many times he has seen them. In 2008 he was at 22 shows and he said he remembers this because he briefly thought he had seen them enough. “Then I realized some things. First off, Uplifter had just come out and I loved it, It was their ninth album. There were no bands I liked at the time or even now that made that many albums that I liked so much. Specifically the Beatles who were life changing for me. And there are more 311 songs that I like than The Beatles. At that point I realized 311 was my favorite band and I wanted to see them every time they came around.”
Favorite show so far for Robert has been 311 Day 2014. “For that marathon show I heard more of my favorite songs than any other concert than I have been to.” First show he traveled across the country for was Pow Wow. “I took the bus because I had a bunch of stuff the plane wouldn’t let me have. It was an experience that I wouldn’t recommend. I fly now.” He also made it on the Jamaica cruise and plans on going on the 2019 cruise.
When asked if he has a favorite song, he said a less complex question would be favorite album. “I’ve bought every album during initial release since Transistor and listened to them religiously until the next one comes out and repeat. I Love every album and have twenty three years of positive stories for every one of them.” Currently Mosaic is his favorite. He said a start to some 311 magic was when Transistor was released and he bought it the week it came out. “There was a Tower Records commercial for it. Bought it after work, took it home, put it in the cd player pressed rewind to see if there was a secret track and there was. I always rewound or waited for a secret track after the last track because of various other albums at the time that did it. Mind Blown they had one. Mind blown again a couple months later when I see them live for the first time and they start the show with it dressed in their Halloween costumes. I have a story for every single album released since. Going to shows and swapping them are the best.”
Concord, California, is where Robert grew up. It’s about 30 miles east of San Francisco. His mother was born in Mexico and he was raised as pop-cultured as anyone else was in the 80’s. He and his family listened to R&B, Soul, Funk, Rap, & Salsa music as he grew. Then at 15 he was introduced to AC/DC Live and his musical interests broadened. “From there Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power lyrics were memorized and Rock & Roll albums whether classic or modern started to rule my life. Jimi, Marley, Zeppelin,The Beatles, RHCP, RATM, Sublime, 311 around here somewhere, System of a Down, Slipknot, Fear Factory, Machine Head, Mudvayne.”
Currently Robert has five favorite active bands that he has been listening to solidly for a few years. Obviously number one is 311. Second is Passafire. “Ten years of listening to these guys and seeing them live and they just keep getting better. They are catching up to 311 with six stellar albums.” Third band is Faith No More. He got into them in 1999 after they broke up but then in 2010 they reunited. He said if they had kept making music and hadn’t broken up they would probably be his favorite band right now. Number four for him is T.V. on the Radio. “They’ve been solid to me for a decade and I just saw them three nights in a row in Berkeley to be far from disappointed. I cancelled Back to the Beach for it and don’t regret it.” Then number five is The Cave Singers. “They’re like if Creedence Clearwater and Fleetwood Mac had a baby band with Joe Cocker singing, that would be them. Saw them open for a band called Calexico in 2007 and I never stopped listening. They ended up having a song in Sons of Anarchy season three which was random.”
For Robert’s interesting fact about himself that people may not know, I’m going to let him tell it to you in his own words. “One interesting thing about me that people don’t know is that I partied a little too hard being a creature for a little more than a while and became homeless for a couple days. Drugs messed my life up like sleeping behind a building for a couple nights with nowhere to go all bridges burned homeless. This was the From Chaos/Evolver era. The first day of homelessness I traded my electric guitar for an acoustic. Was going to spend half of my money on a 311 sticker at a smoke shop to put on my guitar case but the guy gave it to me for free. I still have the guitar case. Stumbled upon some meeting ending while urinating in an alley one night and someone noticed my sticker on my guitar and we talked music. They ended up having a room for rent and I found two jobs the next day. I liked Rock & Roll and speed. The speed stopped in 2005. I like that Cannabis is legal now. Never stopped me from smoking it. It’s always felt legal here. It’s been medicinal 20 years now in California but now it’s recreational. Nice to have one less thing to be paranoid about after a sesh. I’m open about it now with my kids. They know the medicinal values of it and that it’s the delivery person at the door who has the herb. And we can grow it once we have more space. Totally legal.”
Right now Robert is just “a working class Brodel.” He is employed as a security guard for live events, mainly concerts in the San Francisco area. “I’ve meet a bunch of famous people worked epic shows and get to stand front of stage or work backstage for every genre of music and be that cool security guard that wants you to have a good time.” He and his love Hannah have 3 sons. “Nick is 11, Tim is 9, and Chad is 1 ½. Just kidding, that’s not their names.” They took the kids to their first show at Cali Roots in 2014. “They enjoyed the whole show and behaved so I bring them now. They are true fans and know the music so I have to bring them or I would miss them. It’s a whole new level of enjoyment watching them mesmerized just trying to imagine their point of view of what’s going on. I love it. My older son will be 13 next 311 Day and the two of us are going to go. So 311 Day 2018 was a send off to an era for me of 311 journeys being a sort of get away from my family. I missed my kids during the show because they were playing our favorite songs. And seeing Nick in Dad mode for his kids doing that Coco song really assured me that I am at the right place for my 311 fandom right now. Being myself and being a Dad . I have to say though that my kids favorite band is 21 pilots.”
Guilty pleasure for Robert right now he said is the song “Til the City’s on Fire.” He said its a classic scenario where he isn’t used to the sound of a song and isn’t sure if he likes it then it grows on him. “311 has made music through the the years that I wouldn’t normally listen to if I it wasn’t 311 along the lines of TTCOF. There’s angry and hard music I love but 311 was always there with positivity to keep me straight.”
To 311, Robert would like to say: “Thanks for helping me become a better person and I miss the Bay Area shows at the Warfield, Fillmore and Greek Theater.”
To all the other fans out there:
“It seems we have the unity down. There’s always room for tolerance.”
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Thanks Robert for sharing your story! I hope everyone enjoyed reading it. Now go start your week being the amazing, positive crew you are!
Much Love – The Runt