Hey, hey, John, how are you doing today? Excellent? How
are you fantastic? Dude? I am so proud of you. Oh my
god. The Music Matters challenge is so what we have needed for so long,
and the way that you're spreading it around the nation today is just a
beautiful place to be. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. You
know, I think we're all in this together, and certainly we can agree
that every kid in the country deserves a music teacher, and that's that's really
our end goal with this thing. Well, I know what no music in
school has done, and the reason why is because my wife is a school
teacher, and the way that they move music, they had a traveling teacher
and you might get fifteen or twenty minutes. That's not what music is all
about. Yeah, that just makes me so sad. I mean, you
know, the metrics are clear that music is not extracurricular, that it's critical,
and schools that have a music teacher kids perform better in the sciences.
The graduation rates are higher, their social connectivity is higher, their anxiety goes
down. You know, we could talk for an hour about out all the
metrics and the data, but I mean, it's common sense. You know,
when you have music in your life, especially at a young age,
you know, especially in elementary school, and when you're forming your brain and
your personality and your kind of drive and discipline, music is as critical as
any language. And that's really what I think we're pushing and why this music
matters challenge I think is important, but it's also fun, you know,
it's fun that we can kind of tell our stories and sing a song and
join this movement. I love the way that you said that it's a language,
because it is when you break down a song, and I mean go
to the origin of why that song came into being. Then now let's sit
there and look at how it was written and how a team had to come
together to create the music for it. That, right there is what camaraderie
is all about. You know. I'll tell you a story. I was
in Ukraine a year and a half ago and I was recording a song I
wrote, Can One Man Say of the World with Ukrainian orchestra and a bombed
out airport and a general came over and said, you know through a translator,
you know, I want to hear the song and the and the orchestra
was very moved and and we started playing, and we started I started singing,
and there were tears and and at the end everybody was hugging each other
and it was a very heavy moment. And I realized that none of them
knew the words. They didn't speak English. It was music. It was
the music that brought us together as human beings in that you know, very
heavy situation there. So, uh, I've seen music make miracles through my
life. I could tell you, you know, story after story how how
music makes miracles. And and that's why I think, you know, every
kid deserves a music teacher. It's it's something we can all agree on.
We got to put the website on there because I don't want to forget that.
It's let Music filmworld dot com. And what you're doing is this is
a this is a fun challenge where they get to create a rendition of the
song. Let music Film my world go deeper into that. How is it
that, I mean, their own rendition. This proves to me that music
evolves. It does. And this actually started with a song that I wrote
with some inner city Chicago kids from fairguit Academy a year and a half ago,
and we wanted to write a song because they had lost their music teacher,
and we spent six weeks. The kids wrote the whole lyric, We
went into a recording studio, we recorded it. You can see that video
on YouTube. Let music film my world with Fairgut Academy, Yes and read
that process. We raised three hundred thousand dollars through the Tolman Foundation to provide
a music teacher for that school for three years. They now have a music
teacher. Those kids have a music teacher. And the Music Matters Challenge when
people enter it and make their video telling their story about a music teacher that
mattered to them, sing a little bit of the song, play a little
bit of the song in an instrument, do a little dance. You certainly
don't have to be a singer, and enter the contest the grand prizes.
We're going to do that again. We're going to participate with the winner and
provide a music teacher for a school in need for three hundred thousand dollars for
three years. The winner will win ten grand that doesn't hurt, and we'll
have a school prize where schools can compete and win a twenty five thousand dollars
grant so there's a lot of fun. Whether you win or not. You're
helping and contribute to a school music teacher for a school that doesn't have one,
and hopefully, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, it'll take over America and
we'll have a lot of fun in April. It reminds me so much of
the way that radio was back in the early days, when we would sit
there and listen to Casey casem and dream of one day being talked about on
that show. I mean that to me is the participation, because even the
viewers and listeners will get the opportunity to vote in this process. You know,
it's funny. I actually sat in once for Casey Caseum and did did
the countdown, and I'd never realized how exhausting and hard it was. My
appreciation for Casey Kasea went through the roof. But no, you're exactly right.
You know, everybody has a chance to win. Whether you have one
follower, ten million followers, will have ten finalists, as you said,
at the end of April, in both categories, the school category, the
individual category, and then the public will vote and it should be a lot
of fun, and I for one can't wait to start seeing everybody's videos.
Yeah. Yeah, music has always had an impact on the community, but
sometimes people will kind of shy away from that thought when in fact, I
remember when Dolly said that music is how people got their news, that's how
they learned about other communities. That's amazing, you know, and isn't that
true? And I think we can learn from history by music, right you
listen to the music of the sixties. You get a sense of the times
through through music in ways you can never get from reading a book or reading
an article. And I think that's why, you know, we've kind of
lost a little bit of that. I think with kind of the segmentation of
music, you know, the conglomerates of radio stations, I think we've lost
a little bit of that. And I think this is one way that we
can remind ourselves that music is a critical piece of our culture and how we
express ourselves and how we come together and how we talk about the world around
us. And I think that's what we want to make sure every kid has
the opportunity to grow up with that in their lives. One of the things
that maybe I'm a jerk or so, but I'll see somebody that's extremely shy,
And the first thing that I'll ask them is are you doing anything with
music? Are you are you are you tapping on things or what are you
doing? Because music brings you out of being shy. It gives you an
opportunity to display your art. We're not going to judge you. It may
be, you know, you might be out of tune, but we're still
going to love you. You know, when we started this class with the
kids from Farragut, so many of them were so shy they didn't want to
talk. You know, I understand that they weren't musicians, they were just
kids who liked music. And by the end, they were singing to each
other, they were hugging each other, they were best buddies. And you
know, one last little story that I think, you know, really takes
this to the limit. I remember one day I was walking off stage and
Superman, my song was embraced by the autistic community when it came out,
and there was a family with an autistic boy and he's about nine years old
and severely on the spectrum, couldn't interact with you, was kind of having
an episode, and the mother said to him, Hey, hey, hey,
this is the Superman singer, this is a Superman guy. And this
kid literally stopped kind of his tantrum. He stood up, He walked right
to my face, two inches away from my face. He looked me in
the eye, and he sang the whole Superman song verbatim. And at that
moment it was almost like a religious experience. I'm like, Wow, there's
something about music that transcends and and that really I think kind of, you
know, formed my passion for music. For all these kids, you know,
wherever you are, you know, whatever your capabilities, and and I
still get chills when I think about that, young man, Do you have
a lot of memories of of, you know, doing music in school,
because I mean I can. I can still see my my seventh grade course
teacher, as well as the room that we were in, the different tiers
that we all had to sit in. The altos were over here, and
the bear tones were over here. Of course. Yeah, I mean I
had this music h this this writing English teacher in high school, uh who
was a bass player, and that was his passion. And he let us
do anything. He let my He let me write my final essay on Steely
Dan, you know, analyzing you know, Asia and and you know that
guy, you know, was formative and in my you know, my music
journey. And I think nobody was happier when I started to have success than
him because I think he felt a part of my success. He was a
part of my success, you know. So so folks like that along way
my voice teacher, you know, people like that. It's really you know,
you look back with wonderful memories, you know, starting with my mom.
So it's it's a way to pay it forward for them. And also,
you know, one great thing about this Music Matter Challenge is it recognizes
all our great music teachers across the country who do such an amazing job.
Wow analyzing Asia. I was a jock on the radio on an AM radio
station. We depended on Asia to keep us on the air because this evil
monster FM radio was stepping up. Thank you Steely Dan for saving radio.
Yeah. Yeah, I could still listen to that record, you know,
over and over and over and over again. You know, probably one of
the best sonic, sonically sounding records and music musicianship ever made. One of
the things that we need to do is we need to show some love to
Kayley in the way that there is a story here on how this seed started
and got you involved. Yeah, you know, the Tallman's Kaylee and her
father Glenn, just doing credible work around the world, particularly in Chicago where
they're from. She's so passionate. She was a former member of our Armed
Services. She's a musician herself, and her family is funding this whole Music
Matters Challenge. They also help me go to Ukraine. They do amazing things
and Kaylee's kind of passion, her heart, her love for kids. You
know, we were at Farragut Academy a month ago and talking to some of
the kids there and just to watch her interact with them. She is a
saint on earth. So this doesn't happen without the Tomlin Foundation. You know,
we always all have, you know, good ideas and want to try
to make the world a little better place. But you need people with resources,
and they are the ones funding this effort. They're the one providing the
music teachers for the schools, and you know, thank God for them and
all their amazing work, not just for the Music Matters Challenge, but throughout
the whole nation. Forbes magazine just recently announced that Don't Stop Believing is now
the biggest single of all time. And I disagree with that because I believe
the greatest single of all time is sitting in someone's bedroom right now and it
has to come out. But who is going to teach that child to bring
that song out? Arrow, you're hired as our spokesman that I could hit
better myself. And hey, and look, I spent a year finding Steve
Perry's voice teacher because I wanted to study with that guy because the voice,
you know, the voice was a huge instrument, a huge instrumental part of
my life. And and I love that. Don't stop believing is the biggest,
biggest single ever because I've probably sung it and listened to it ten thousand
times myself. But you're right, Yeah, the best song, the best
songwriter, the next Elvis is sitting somewhere and just needs a chance and just
needs to be exposed to music. And that's what we're doing. And before
we're done, we're going to make sure every kid in this nation has a
has a music teacher and has that chance, especially in our inner city schools
where many of them do not have a music teacher. Well, I believe
that we need music teachers because they really do train us how to speak in
tune as well, because as you grow through high school and let's say you
get into a debate, a debate class, you've got to be able to
speak in tune. You've got to have a pace, you pitch, your
volume, your tone, And that to me comes from a music teacher.
You're so right, you know, it matures us. It forces us to
be disciplined. We fail, and then we we we have successes. You
know, you can't just pick up a violin and start to play it.
You know, you learn that there's stages and it takes time, and it's
worth it to invest yourself in the arts. It gives people who maybe are
not athletes a way to escape and find a passion. Again, you say
it perfectly. It lets us find our voice, our heart, and our
soul. And at a young age, it's so critical right to do that,
you know, certainly, even you know in my age. You know,
I'm fifty nine years old. You know, I love hearing stories of
people in their seventies picking up a music instrument. I'm teaching themselves how to
play. You know, it's great when you're five, it's great when you're
eighty five. You know, it's great for all of us, and you
only got one hundred years to live. So I'll end with that. When
I'm blessed with the opportunity to talk to all of these my magnificent authors that
have got books out right now, one of the things that I always bring
up is music because I have a passion for music. And I asked them,
what were you listening to when you were putting this book together? My
God, John, they have got the greatest stories of who they put into
their life as they're writing those words. Interesting, like, give me a
couple examples of some of the artists they listen to. So like when they're
right, it depends on like on the different scenes. Like for instance,
if it's a scene that you know that's like very Tom Cruise, like they've
got the dramatic music in the background, they'll have orchestra music. They'll sit
there and they'll utilize their album collection, and I love the way that people
are talking about that because they want the real music behind them. Or they'll
sit there and they'll listen to a Hootie and the Blowfish. They'll listen to
popular music so they so they can get back into the culture of what they're
writing about, especially these ya authors for young adults, My god, when
they say that they're going to go back ten or fifteen years, they've got
to put themselves back there, and music is what puts them there. So
music teacher, teach that, you know, that's so fascinating. And you
know, I have a lot of friends in Hollywood too, and and and
I know they do that as well. And there's nothing better, you know,
for for a film or a scene when you you you mesh the perfect
scene with the perfect music. You know. I've been blessed to have a
lot of my songs in film, and I've watched people do this. It's
an art, but yeah, it's it's a you know. When I when
when when the Iraq War started, I started getting emails from our troops who
talk about how they use music to escape, to pump themselves up for a
mission, to calm down, to connect with home in so many different ways,
you know. So I think music has a place for everybody whatever you
do, especially our soldiers. And to see that music helps their mental wellness
is it was an education to me. So yeah, I mean I think
we could go on and on, but I think we all use it in
ways we need it. Well, look at the way that you're using music
in your own personal life right now. Going out there on the road with
a four string quartet. Oh my god, that's an exploration. It's so
amazing. I have these a list Broadway players, my violin player Katie just
won a Tony Award, and to play with them every night across the country
and small venues and do a very intimate show and a storytelling show. And
you know when they play to Superman or A Hundred Years or Chances or the
Riddle, you know, the songs take on a new dimension and they're so
wonderful people. They love you know, all these you know, string Broadway
players want to be rock stars and they love playing rock music and they're cookie
and fun and so we just have a blast. And as I said,
it's an intimate family show. We always do a song that recognizes our troops.
And and so yeah, we're already next week in Fargo. We're going
through April seventh, and I'm taking a little detour to Israel for a week.
Then I'll come back and we'll wrap a cord tour on the on the
West coast. So it's gonna be a wild month. Wow, you know.
When you're sharing that story, I'm sitting here thinking, Wow, the
nerdy kids in course and the nerdy kids in orchestra got together on your stage.
I mean, is it that? To me? Is what a music
teacher is all about. Yeah, and I'm a nerdy math major, you
know. So all the nerds are gonna be hanging out on stage and we'll
nerd out together once again. The website is let music Filmyworld dot com.
How does it all play out? What is the big day? Because you
know how we are, we're procrastinators, John, what they need to put
the move on now? We will be launching the twenty sixth, March twenty
sixth on Good Morning America three, and that day the website goes live.
But you can certainly go right now to the website and check it out and
watch some videos and see what we're doing, see all the details that let
music Filmoworld dot com. But yeah, we go live March twenty six The
contest will run through the end of April. Then we'll tip, we'll pick
ten finalists, and in a couple of weeks we'll have the vote, and
I believe it's May fourteenth, we'll announce the winners and it should be a
blast, and I appreciate you having me on your platform and making people aware
of it. You've got to do some videos and things when you when you
crown that king or queen the music teacher of the year you've got, you've
got to put some pictures up so that we can embrace it and make this
grow well beyond twenty twenty four. Oh, you're exactly right, thank you.
This is just step one. We're not a one and done. This
is step one for the music from our world project. So let's kick it
off. Let's make it a success, and then we'll we'll continue until every
school has a music teacher. We're not going to stop toward we have that
realized. Oh man, I love where your heart is. Please come back
to this show anytime in the future. John, The door is always going
to be open for you. Arrow You're the best. Thank you, my
friend. You bet you'd be brilliant today. Okay, you got it,
you too, Thank you.