ESCONDIDO — J.J. Cale is enjoying his lunch in a corner booth at Olive Garden, cloaked in the anonymity he's taken pains to cultivate throughout his long career in music. But now it looks as if his cover has been blown.
A middle-aged woman approaches and introduces herself. He stiffens for an instant, then relaxes. "Oh, I've been talking too loud again," he says with a smile.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, February 26, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
J.J. Cale: In Tuesday's Calendar section, the credit on a photograph with a profile of musician J.J. Cale was misspelled. The photographer's name is Jane Richey, not Rickey.
"Not really," she says. "My husband and I are big fans of Eric Clapton, and I think you co-wrote an album with him . . . . Could I please ask for your autograph?"
"I guess," Cale replies. "I can't sign Eric's name," he adds with a wink as he puts his neat signature on her business card.
These are the moments Cale has worked to avoid, but when it's over he has to laugh at the timing -- he'd just been recalling the week that his old pal Clapton spent in this northern San Diego County town to work on their 2006 duo album, "The Road to Escondido."
"Every restaurant him and I went to, we couldn't eat for all these people," says Cale, his Oklahoma twang still pronounced after decades in Southern California. "He's used to it, but I didn't really want that. I wanted to be able to play music, and then when I went out in my private life, my personal life, I didn't want to be famous.
"If you notice, nobody's coming over here in this restaurant and do what they do to Eric Clapton. So I pulled that off."
With an exception here and there, obviously. Still, Cale has stuck to his guns. He does few interviews, and most of those are by phone. He rarely performs live, and he didn't put his picture on his albums for the first 15 years of his career.
Cale considers himself semi-retired and expects every record to be his last. That includes his 16th album, "Roll On," out today on Rounder Records. Like most of them, it was prompted more by the urging of business associates than by any ambition on Cale's part.
Turning 70 in December has reinforced his reluctance to tour, but against all odds he's planning to play some West Coast dates in March, his first performances in almost five years. The Southern California shows are March 27-28 at McCabe's, March 29 at the Belly Up in Solana Beach and March 30 at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.
"When I sit down and play the guitar, I'm 20 years old again," he says. "I have as much enthusiasm as I always did. Making the music picks up your day, but doing the business does not, and the trouble with gigs is there's a lot of business with a gig.
