Weird Al Goes Gaga with Help From UCSC and Cabrillo Alum Rubén Valtierra

Anyone who has even half-heartedly paid attention to pop culture over the last 30 years knows of Weird Al Yankovic. He's the parody man of all parody men. But he doesn't do it alone. 

Yankovic's band has remained largely unchanged during the course of his three-decade run. The rookie of the group, keyboardist Rubén Valtierra, has been playing alongside Al since 1991.

Valtierra, originally from San Rafael, is a Cabrillo College and UCSC alum. At Cabrillo, he was part of the award-winning Cabrillo College Big Band and also played in local independent groups.

With a new CD released just this week, and a viral hit in the Lady Gaga spin Perform This Way, Valtierra had a lot to talk to Patch about.

Patch: How did you end up in Weird Al’s band?

Rubén Valtierra: I moved from Santa Cruz in 1990 and after a year I was asked to do something for the Dr. Demento TV show. It was a celebration of his 20^th anniversary and Al was one of the guests. The band was the rhythm section and there was a big orchestra and I said, "Well, where’s your keyboardist?" and he said, "We don’t have a keyboardist right now." I was new in town and I considered Al a big celebrity and I wanted that gig. I had to do some schtick with him and back him up. They liked it and they called me and I’ve been with him ever since.

Patch: Al plays silly songs, but he’s been doing this for a long time with a lot of success. Do you have to be a perfectionist to achieve that?

Valtierra: He’s got more hits than you can believe. We were just taping The View on Tuesday (airing July 4) and Whoopi Goldberg said, "When are you going to stop using the Weird Al moniker? I’ve known you for many years now and you are not weird." She basically said, "You are a genius." The thing is, he really is a genius. We can be playing something and he will know if there’s a single note that’s off. I’ve performed with him upwards of 1000 concerts and he doesn’t forget anything.

He’s such a great performer. Nobody wants to open for this guy or follow this guy. Not because he’s crazy on stage, but because he can sing so well and put on such a great show. He doesn’t get up there and tell jokes. He doesn’t get up there and smash watermelons. He’s not Carrot Top. He’s not Gallagher. Carrot Top and Gallagher would never share a stage with him, because they know that they’d get booed off. The Beach Boys got booed off when they tried to follow us. 

Patch: Al has recently gone viral again with his Lady Gaga parody, Perform This Way. Why do you think this song is having so much success?

Valtierra: Al goes after things that he thinks will be big. He’s been plotting a parody of Lady Gaga for a long time. He’s always got his thumb on the pulse of what’s going on.

Patch: What are your thoughts on the video for the song? (See video in upper right).

Valtierra: In the video you can see me as one of the paparazzi. I didn’t know what was going on. He had some girl there and she was doing all this stuff. Then later I found out he used the technology to superimpose his face. If you Google it, it has millions of hits, so I’m ready to be working a lot in the next few months.

Patch: Tell us about your time playing music in the Santa Cruz area.

Valtierra: I started a group with kids who ended up being super talented. Our drummer’s name was Ben Margulies. He was 15-years-old and already had an attitude. He was telling us how rich and famous he was going to be, and it turned out he was right. We did the thing with him for about two years and we called ourselves City. This was about 1980 to 1982. When that disbanded, he went to New York City and was there for a few years and gave me a call and said, "I’ve been producing this singer. You should buy her album." Well, that was Mariah Carey. So he was going to be rich and he was going to be famous.

Patch: Do you ever get back to the Santa Cruz area?

Valtierra: The last time I was there, we were there to play in Monterey. We had to stay in Santa Cruz because there were no rooms in Monterey. I kind of got sad because I got to Santa Cruz in about 1973 and it was all hippies. It was really pretty and really nice. There was no traffic ever. I don’t know about the whole hippie thing now. I don’t know if it’s relevant, but it was really relevant back in the day. It really felt like we were in the center of youth consciousness, knowing that we had a say in stuff. We had a vote. We protested Apartheid. But where are the students now? Is it a total sense of resignation where they feel like they can’t do anything about it so they just get stoned and forget about it? Where is Santa Cruz now? Where is the movement?

Patch: Why do you think Cabrillo College has been able to turn out so many successful musicians?

Valtierra: I know why. Money. Truthfully, in the 60’s and the 70’s, there was enough money for programs to be implemented around California that promoted the arts. Aptos High was known for having a program where they pushed talent. There was a lot of talent that came out of Aptos High and went into Cabrillo. Really, it comes down to money.