Video Interview: Bobby and Jane LaBelle Mason

Bobby Mason & Jane LaBelle Mason

Interviewed by Jan Garrett

December 2022

2025.016.0002

Jan Garrett [00:00:11] So welcome back everybody. We are… suddenly everything has multiplied, and we’re being joined not only with Bobby Mason, but also now Jane LaBelle Mason, and Jane, how are you related to this guy?

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:00:29] Well, I am the lucky girl who’s his wife, and I’ve also known him a really long time.

Jan Garrett [00:00:36] Yeah, I know.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:00:37] Since ’75.

Jan Garrett [00:00:40] I was going to say, before we even talk about you and Bobby together, can you tell us a little bit about when you came to Aspen? And there was a recording studio, and you were a photographer, and you had clothing… Can you tell us a little bit about your history, please?

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:00:56] Okay. Well, I was at the University of Denver, and Jill Sheeley and I hitchhiked up to Aspen a few times, and that was my introduction. And, you know, it was the same thing. I loved it, like everybody. And in ’72, I moved up there, dropped out of college my senior year and moved to Aspen.

Jan Garrett [00:01:23] Got a degree in Aspen.

Bobby Mason [00:01:25] Yeah, she did.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:01:30] So actually, before I was working at the studio, I had a little bit of connection with Starwood, just, you know, watching them. So I kind of became the seamstress for the band and…

Jan Garrett [00:01:44] Oh, wow.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:01:45] …I made a shirt for Bobby, and I made, like, a gambling suit for David Holster. And when they played the Roxy in L.A., getting their record deal?

Jan Garrett [00:01:58] Yeah.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:01:59] Um, Ringo Starr was in the audience, and he came backstage and said, “Who made that suit?”

Jan Garrett [00:02:05] What?

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:02:05] That was one of the high points of… getting to meet Ringo. I think he forgot about it afterwards, but…

Bobby Mason [00:02:15] When he woke up the next day. {laughter}

Jan Garrett [00:02:19] That’s awesome.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:02:20] Yeah. So, but the real story I wanted to tell about Bobby…

Jan Garrett [00:02:24] Yeah.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:02:25] So when he was in Starwood, and this was at the point where Bill McEuen, who owned the studio, I was the studio manager. My first husband, Richie Cicero, who you all know, was the engineer. So we were there, and Bill was trying to get the record deal for Starwood, and he was having various producers come up, once they got the deal, a lot of different people to see Starwood. And one of them was George Martin. And having been a Beatles fan most of my life, that was like, to me, George Martin was amazing. Just such a gentleman, such… you know, his everything. Anyway, so after he declined on Starwood, not once, but twice, he contacted Bobby and said, “I want you to come to London. I want to produce you. Just Bobby Mason.”

Jan Garrett [00:03:30] What??

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:03:31] Yeah.

Jan Garrett [00:03:32] I never knew that. No… but what??

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:03:34] Nobody did. You think Bobby’s going to tell that story? No.

Jan Garrett [00:03:38] So what happened?

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:03:40] He declined.

Bobby Mason [00:03:42] Evidently, I declined.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:03:43] He declined because Starwood was still together, and he felt the loyalty to Starwood, not to break up the band.

Bobby Mason [00:03:50] Who fired me immediately.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:03:53] So anyway, that has… and I didn’t know that story until relatively recently either. It’s just not a story that people know, but that just gives you an idea of just how good Bobby Mason is.

Jan Garrett [00:04:11] Well…

Bobby Mason [00:04:12] Do I feel uncomfortable sitting here? Yes.

Jan Garrett [00:04:16] That’s a great story. God, that’s a big deal, George Martin. Wow.

Bobby Mason [00:04:22] Yeah.

Jane LaBelle Mason Yeah.

Jan Garrett [00:04:23] Jane, do you have other stories? I have a feeling that, you know, there’s a lot of stuff that Bobby is too modest to speak about himself, but, you know, you’re right in the middle of it, so… what?

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:04:36] So that’s why I’m trying to…. we’re, as we’re writing the book, kind of trying to pull out these amazing stories that he has.

Jan Garrett [00:04:46] So people need to know that sooner or later, there will be a book, right?

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:04:50] Yes.

Bobby Mason [00:04:52] Well, yeah.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:04:53] Yeah, we’re working on it.

Jan Garrett [00:04:56] I love that.

Bobby Mason [00:04:56] It is. It’s…

Jan Garrett [00:04:56] And also… go ahead, Bobby.

Bobby Mason [00:04:59] I was going to say, it started out with people that I… when we came to Aspen, there was nobody that had moved there that was famous yet. John Denver was just starting to get known, when he first moved to, you know. And Jimmy Buffett wasn’t famous yet, and the Eagles were weren’t the Eagles yet. So it was like we all showed up there and kind of played and partied and stuff like that. But I wasn’t playing with these famous people. I was just playing with another musician. So that was… it blows me away, you know?

Jan Garrett [00:05:42] Oh, right.

Bobby Mason [00:05:44] And I’m really happy that I ended up where I’m at right this moment.

Jan Garrett [00:05:52] Yeah.

Bobby Mason [00:05:53] You know. Anyway, please, Jan.

Jan Garrett [00:05:56] I want to say one thing, which is… and, Jane, you were in on this, too… being a resident of the Roaring Fork Valley, I just know any time I would walk down the street of Aspen in the company of Bobby Mason, you couldn’t go one block before there would be five people, you know, that would come up to Bobby. “Bobby!” you know, “Hey!” you know, and I don’t know how you could remember the names of all those people, Bobby. But everybody did know and continues to know who you are, so…

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:06:32] Yep.

Bobby Mason [00:06:33] Well, I’ve matured enough, Jan, that I can’t remember anybody’s name now.

Jan Garrett [00:06:39] I love that.

Bobby Mason [00:06:41] If I try, it’s like I go, “Okay, that’s gone.”

Jan Garrett [00:06:45] One thing I will say, and I think this is just a lovely thing, is when you and Jane got together and realized that you were, you wanted to get married. And it’s like, how in the world would you create a wedding that you would be able to invite everybody who wanted to come to your wedding? I mean, you’d have to get the Houston Astrodome, I don’t know. And so I love what you guys came up with about how you should actually do the wedding ceremony. Can you tell me about that?

Bobby Mason [00:07:16] Yeah.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:07:17] Well, we’d thought of a few venues, and either they weren’t big enough or they were going to cost a ridiculous amount of money. And Bobby was playing, Bobby and Starwood were playing at the Deaf Camp in six months, so we said, ‘Hey, let’s get married at the Deaf Camp picnic.” So that’s what we did. So that way anybody who wanted to come could come. I got the best band, my favorite band ever, to play.

Bobby Mason [00:07:53] And I got paid.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:07:54] And he got paid.

Bobby Mason [00:07:57] Which is… how many people get paid to play their wedding?

Jan Garrett [00:08:00] To play their own wedding. I love that.

Bobby Mason [00:08:04] It was so perfectly beautiful.

Jan Garrett [00:08:10] Yeah. It was.

Bobby Mason [00:08:12] But to have everybody there. One of the things I really loved is Jane says, “I don’t know if I can, actually physically, I’ll just pass out if I get on that stage. I don’t know if I really can do this.” Scared, you know? And I said, “You’re gonna be fine.” She gets up there, and she goes, ‘Oh, this is kind of nice up here, isn’t it?” So now I can’t keep her off the stage. Just kidding. But, yeah.

Jan Garrett [00:08:43] It’s a very special view, looking out at all the people who love you, you know? What else, guys? Anything else that you want to bring up? I mean, we have…

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:08:55] I don’t think so. I mean, obviously there are tons of stories, but specifically about Bobby, I kind of wanted to tell that one. That’s a gem.

Jan Garrett [00:09:05] Yeah. And Jane, I do want to say, I love your point of view, and I’m so glad that you’re part of this. And I remember you during those lovely, you know, that age of the music and just you being there. I remember that you took a wonderful picture of my daughters, my twin girls, when they were about two years old or three years old, modeling some of the beautiful clothes that you had made. So I just want to say, I think you’re a star in your own right. So I want to bring that out.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:09:39] Thank you.

Bobby Mason [00:09:39] I totally agree.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:09:41] Being seamstress for the band was one of the best.

Jan Garrett [00:09:44] Oh, yeah. All right.

Bobby Mason [00:09:46] Good song.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:09:47] Really fun. Yeah, good song.

Jan Garrett [00:09:50] Write that song, Bobby. That’s a killer song.

Bobby Mason [00:09:53] No, Elton John already did.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:09:54] Elton John already did. It’s “Tiny Dancer.”

Jan Garrett [00:09:58] Oh, “Tiny Dancer.” Well, do it differently. Do it the Bobby Mason way.

Jane LaBelle Mason [00:10:04] That’s true. Then it’ll be even better than Elton.

Jan Garrett [00:10:07] Well, all right. Thanks again, you guys.

Bobby Mason [00:10:11] Well, thank you for having us.

Jan Garrett [00:10:13] Yeah. You’re great.

Bobby Mason [00:10:14] I love seeing you.

Jan Garrett [00:10:15] Yeah. See you next time. Bye.