SELBYVILLE — The list of artists with whom keyboardist Bill Payne has played is mind-boggling.
It includes Simon & Garfunkel, Jimmy Buffett, The Doobie Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Bryan Adams, Pink Floyd, Bob Seger, Toto, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Carly Simon, James Taylor and on and on.
“People say I’m really good, or I can’t hold a job,” he joked last week by phone from his home in Montana.
The longest partnership he’s had in music is with Little Feat .
After co-founding the band in 1969, Mr. Payne is the only member who has been part of all its iterations. While Little Feat broke apart in 1979 and reformed in 1987, the performer has been around for it all.
“The only other job I’ve ever had besides music is being a paperboy,” he said.
On Aug. 30, Little Feat will deliver its “Can’t Be Satisfied” Tour at the Freeman Arts Pavilion, starting at 7 p.m.
Never pinned to one genre, the band — known for songs such as “Dixie Chicken,” “Spanish Moon,” “Hate to Lose Your Lovin’” and “Let It Roll” — has immersed itself into California rock, country, boogie, jazz, country, soul and more.
Mr. Payne said much of that style hopping came from the various backgrounds of the musicians who have composed Little Feat over the years.
“You have to be able to pull all different types of music into your vocabulary. Our music sounds simple until you try and play it,” he explained.
“I was talking to (musician) Don Was about that a while ago, and he was replicating songs from our ‘Waiting for Columbus’ (live) album for a show in New Orleans, and I said, ‘Was it harder than you thought?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’”
But an exception to the eclectic mix is the recently released all-blues album, “Sam’s Place,” in which Little Feat backed its conga player, Sam Clayton, on vocals.
The release features a new song, “Milk Man,” plus covers of classic blues tunes. There’s also a live version of “Got My Mojo Working,” and Mr. Clayton and Bonnie Raitt duet on Muddy Waters’ “Long Distance Call.”
It provided a chance for Mr. Clayton to come out from the shadows and into the spotlight.
“I was always hopeful we could do something with him out front because I think he’s the real deal. ... I’ve played with B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Joe Cocker, Gregg Allman. He belongs in that crowd,” Mr. Payne said.
Recorded at Sam Phillips’ iconic studio in Memphis, Tennessee, Mr. Payne played the same piano on which Jerry Lee Lewis cut many of his hits.
“That piano played itself. Some pianos have a tough, harder action to play on, and you have to really adjust a little bit for it. But this one was so free and easy,” he said. “It kind of felt like going into a place that said, ‘Washington slept here.’”
In addition, Mr. Payne said Little Feat is putting finishing touches on an album of originals, which should appear next year.
He’s also working on a book that covers his wide-ranging career, titled “Carnival Ghosts,” with so much material he expects two volumes.
“I kind of thought about this book for a long, long time and only started writing it a few years ago. And I thought about ‘How do you address all the people you have played with over the years?’ and I just wrote them all down without putting their contributions, and it was a remarkable list by any standard,” he said.
“It’s truly a Dickensian tale. I got a selfie with Peter Asher when I was 16 years old, when he was in Peter and Gordon. Ten years later, or thereabouts, I would be in the studio with him, working with Bonnie Raitt and later with Linda Ronstadt, in probably 1980. Then, I would ask him later to manage our band, which he did.”
However, there are a few folks he wishes he could have teamed up with.
“I would love to have played with John Lennon. I did get a chance to play with Ringo Starr. Not that they ever needed me, but I always loved Steely Dan, and I wish I maybe had played on some of their stuff,” he said.
“I did get a chance to talk to (Steely Dan co-founder) Donald Fagen on a tour I was doing with The Doobie Brothers a few years ago. That was a nice hookup.”
While not the main focus of the book, a big section will be on Little Feat, and Mr. Payne hopes to clear up some misconceptions. Over the years, he said co-founder Lowell George has been unfairly portrayed as a drug-addicted monster who fired everyone in the band in 1979.
“I had made the decision to leave the band before we went into what would have been his last album with us, which was ‘Down on the Farm,’” he said.
“I take great care to sort of document Lowell. I don’t want him to be this cartoonish figure. The guy had an immense amount of talent. He went down a few wrong roads, as people tend to do, such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin. It’s a long list. But it does not define who ... they were, or who he was, as a person.”
Touring in support of his solo album in June 1979, Mr. George died of a heart attack brought on by an accidental overdose of heroin. He was 34.
The surviving members finished “Down on the Farm” later that year.
“(Guitarist) Paul (Barrere) and I were accused of taking over the band. Stories get thrown around. I don’t blame people (for) getting the story wrong. They weren’t there,” he said.
Mr. Barrere died in 2019, while original drummer Richie Hayward passed in 2010.
But Little Feat marches on. On the heels of a deluxe edition of its classic 1974 album, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now,” released in June, Mr. Payne said the group is sounding better than ever, with Scott Sharrard on lead vocals, Tony Leone on drums, Fred Tackett on guitars, Kenny Gradney on bass and Mr. Clayton on percussion.
“Tony Leone, who’s our drummer, this guy is unbelievable. He’s not Richie Hayward. But Richie Hayward isn’t him either. And you can’t get a better compliment than that,” he said.
Tickets for Little Feat’s show at Freeman can be bought at freemanarts.org .
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