You guys sticking hearing this song ever, No, Nope, changed my life.
You know, It's it's interesting and I Tommy Burnett's here Iron Smoke,
but I said to him, I wanted to talk to him forever. And
I hope that didn't freak you out because you've had world tours where you played
in front of like thirty thousand people at night with Modern English yep, I
think did you do tours with your own band? Yeah, we're a solid
opener like Towny Burnette band will will be playing with like we've opened up for
everybody from zo Zz Top to the lumin Ears. Yeah, we opened up
for lumin Ears on the roof of Whole Foods during south By Southwest and Austin.
I love south By Southwest. I haven't been there in years, and
I was kind of excited now that I'm doing the podcast, I go,
shit, let's go back. Yeah, south By Southwest and the Montreal Comedy
Fests where two places I always wanted to take my sons. Yeah, well
it's south By Southwest as a blast. Um, when did you do that?
Oh? I went every year and then all of a sudden, COVID
hit, But like it changed a little bit over the years. Right now,
it's more there's film in there, and what I don't think it's like
film. Um, there's like digital yeah, and then there's the music still
and then there's say film yeah yeah, film. They it's crazy. They
built such an amazing thing. But you do like five shows in a day,
and usually like they'll do they'll let me do a corporate gig, yeah,
and then like four that are like you know, maybe a Spin magazine
party back when spinning with the thing. So you play like and you're just
hues are squeaking because you're just done sweat, you know, from playing all
those shows. So you go from where it was the Tommy Burnette band they
did that, but I had a pickup band from down there that I know.
Um, the musicians down there, they were actually living a shotgun shack
they do, yeah, they all lived there, and I think they were
gonna do a film a TV show on these guys. But you go up
in the mountains and all they do is play and then they have parties after
they play at this house and literally like the shotgun Shack, were this a
door in the front and a door in the back. Yeah, And so
you can shoot a shotgun through the house. Um, so we just went
there a yeah and yeah it was like an old car with grass grown over
it and the toilet with beads, like beads in it from a party of
you know that's and we did a one rehearsal and then that day like our
show was like an hour after we did the rehearsal up there. Really wow,
because you know, when I when I think about you, I didn't
know that I didn't know that the Tommy Burnette Band had opened for all those
other bands as well. I knew you had toured, but there's oh yeah,
there's more like there's like outlaws and yeah, you know Charlie Daniels at
how was that? Oh it was great. Do you get to meet them?
Because you know, one of the things that came out yesterday was Metallica
is saying how disappointed they were when they opened for The Stones and O five
because I guess somebody walked in and said, hey, Mick Jagger's gonna walk
through here in a second. He's going to his truck that has all an
entire gym in it, and he's gonna work out before the show. But
don't make eye contact. Yeah, that's that's a thing. Is that really
a thing? Yeah, you've been told that. Well not m I always
thought that was fortunate. Like the top and we've played the guy goes,
everybody get d fi here nice, you're with Homy Burnett, and I'm like,
I've arrived. Yeah I didn't get kicked out because sometimes they take your
pass off you when you're done and you're out, okay, you don't get
to be able to be back there. Um, what was a good Oh,
George Thorre good I played with a couple of times and now George thorogod
I interviewed and I had somebody come to me afterwards and go, he's usually
a dick. Yeah, I don't know is he. I never talked to
him, okay, and the like the first couple of shows I never could
have words with, Like, he just was I didn't even see him.
I'm like, I'm I'm looking forward to him. Maybe I can check his
guitars out and stuff. Nope. Nothing, And then uh, the last
time we played with them, they said, hey, you can hang out.
George says you're cool or whatever, and I was like, all right,
I don't know what that means. But Okay. So then he before
he walked up on stage, he's like, hey, man, you know
yeah, good, yeah, you know. I'm like, well that was
cool. There's a story somebody told me that he met Bob Dylan once and
Bob Dylan went and I love George Thurrogan. I'm like, he's his tone
and some of the stuff he did. But but he goes, oh,
he was really excited to meet Bob Dylan. He goes, Bob Dylan looks
at him, goes, yeah, you're that guy who does the cover songs,
because a lot of his songs cover Yeah, but nonetheless it's George Grocer
Throgan, the destroyer that oh god, you know, I'd like, I
had no idea. So that's gotta be something about you. You realize that
I don't know, no, but like that vibe you're you are one of
the most genuinely cool. I always say there's cool that anybody can be,
and then they're not, but they could be. And then there's guys like
you who just there, you're a cool nobody. You know what I'm saying.
You just it was it's a whole lifestyle. That iron smoke thing is
a whole lifestyle. Yeah, it is a lifestyle. I really believe it's
not a job lifestyle. Yeah, I see that. But when I was
looking up stuff about you, I mean, one of the things that I
know you're very humble and you won't take a lot of credit for this,
but you helped revitalize Fairport. Fairport's exploding and a lot of that has to
do with you. You took something that was a rundown area that had nothing
for decades. Tommy. You went in there, improved it could work,
and now the place is exploding. Yeah, well I know it was.
It was the thing we really needed was cheap rent and high ceiling. So
it wasn't like I had a plan, no, but but my business partner,
Steve Brown found um found that location and the ice and those the high
ceilings for the the stills, and we also could have our grain bins out
front. They look like we call them whiskey missiles and when you pull up,
Yeah, but those hold fresh grains, so you wanted to make sure
it was the freshest ingredients. And then you know hammer Million site, so
you have the fresh crush grains kind of like Sanka or French press. You
want the French press before it goes into the the mash Ton and we use
all Kentucky mindome stills. But when we first moved in there, there wasn't
a parking lot, there was no electricity we put it in there. It
was just a warehouse. But how do you have that vision? Like I
can't. Sometimes I'm amazed how people can walk in to a place and go,
yeah, it's great, and I go, I don't know what you
see, and then they remove a wall and they do something else, and
then you got it. I think your space is one of the coolest I've
seen. It's cool. I think, well, thank you so much.
Could we work hard at it? And it's like it takes the village to
make a bottle of whiskey now, but it's so it's it's everybody kicking in
thoughts. Like when we were going to open them the tasting room. We
had a Christmas party and that room was full of like washing machines, no
windows falling down. There was a ramp going into their building. Yeah that's
the tasting room that we would have the concerts in there and stuff. And
I don't know said their coin operated lunge. I don't know what was going
on. It was the old landlord, like, um, so probably made
a deal with somebody crash him here, you know, like and uh,
we purposely didn't do too much to it because he wanted to make it kind
of feel like illegal to be in almost. Yeah. And I took Josh
Miles back there during that party and I hit his iPhone like little you know,
flashlight, and I'm like, what do you think? He goes it's
plugging play, dude. You gotta do it because he opens up restaurants,
he revelry, and I think even the one in Bushnell's basin is his.
Yeah, um yeah yeah bitter honeys now yeah yeah, but I mean you
have been so we talked about that to success. But is it true you
were homeless at one point? Yeah? It was a runaway. Oh I
was a kid. Yeah, just why they handed me do that? The
fashion show of the Center for Your Services is involved. But I ran.
I used to I used to jump. I was crazy. I don't know
how my parents lived through it, and they that's another story. But I
used to they just box car trains and just end up somewhere like and just
trying to get home and sleep under railroad bridges. Yeah, highway bridges.
Um, how far did you get on a box train as a kid,
I'm not fire man. I I jumped off of Batavia one time, when
you know, I tried to figure out how they kind of get back,
and then I think I made it almost to Syracuse once. But it was
just what years is? Um, jeezus, I was probably in the tenth
grade or something, okay like, um, no sailor, I'm only saying
like, what decade because there's no cell phones? Yeah, no, there
was. That's another point when you're on tour. You gotta wait till the
truck stop. Yeah, man, to make a call to check in at
home, Like my parents when I was a kid, put in an eight
hundred number because we would call where I went to school and where I lived
as such a jerkwater town and they call it upstate New York and stawn by
Rhinebeck. Yeah, it's a beautiful area. It is a beautiful area,
hunch of valley. But we would have to call home from long distance.
So my parents got a call Home America eight hundred numbers so you could go
to a pay phone and he just dialed on eight hundred. Yeah, I
remember those, Yeah, And that. But when I got into modern English,
I made it in the van. That's another crazy story. But they
you know, I went from eating a Snickers bar from the gas station,
cutting in a half and have that for lunch and dinner and some combos sometimes
if I could do. Because I was making a record in middle of Pennsylvania
when I got the call to audition and the singer called me up. They
said he's gonna call the studio. Was the label that got me involved,
and she she said, you know, Robbi's gonna call Robbie Grays in a
call you and it it's the guy that's a singer. He wrote the song
everything, and it was the phone rang and I'm like, okay, here
we go and he goes first thing he said was what do you like to
wear? And I'm like, I'm not afraid to mix polka dots with plaid.
I like to wear shoes that arrive in the room of a couple of
minutes before I do yeah. And then he goes there, he did you
come up? I don't know. I just just like I'm just gonna go
for it. And then um, he said, what kind of guitar do
you playmate? You know, I'm like, uh, and what kind of
guitar do you want me to play? You know, you're the boss,
and then he goes he just hung up after like literally like four or five
minutes nothing and hung up in the label called The girl from the label called
me and said he wants you in New York City tomorrow. Can you make
it? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely, I'll be there. And
I had no car, I had no money and someone's car. I wrote
someone to Telly went and did it wow. And then uh Yoko Ono was
in the kitchen with her son David Bowie was rehearsing down the hallway and I
was like, this is the shot, this is what you know, this
is what they say. Well, especially because you gotta learn all the songs
and drive in New York from middle of Pennsylvania figure all that out. No
sleep, right, fingers are like lines of the fingers from just trying to
get the songs down over and over. And I played three songs and they
go, we'll be right back, and they got out the room. They
came back in they go, um, so what are you what are you
doing for the next three months or so? And I'm like, hopefully hanging
when you guys, and it's like they're like, you're in mate, you
know. I'm like, all right, well, now what a way do
like? And we went right down to the bar and drank Boddington's for the
first time I ever had. They drank the bar out the Boddington's, and
I remember going, I don't what do I do about the car? What
do I do about the guitar? And from right then everything was taking care
of like give him the keys, where's it park, don't worry about the
guitar, and um. I went home and gave a check book to my
dad and went back for rehearsals, and like maybe ten days later, it
was like national television and yeah, you know right, it was shit.
Yeah, it was crazy, Like Gibson got that's the closest thing to and
I don't because I don't believe it, but that's like the closest thing to
overnight success. But it's not. You were grinded making a record. How
did they find out about you? The girl from the label knew me,
you know, and of me, and I I kept just looking for like
when David Lee Roth needed a guitar player. Yeah, I didn't get the
I got closer a lot of things. No, he that was done,
but I'd always go like, oh um, def leppards, you know,
or whatever, and she'd always look out for opportunities. But I was playing.
I played with Lou Graham, yeah, when he did the Midnight Blue
thing. Yeah, and I thought I had the gig. He's like,
yeah, you're in, and then his his bass player had had a guitar
player. He promised the gig too out in California, I guess, and
louis like I didn't know this happened, and I'm like really, and I
couldn't really use that gig right then? Can you imagine like playing? I
know my friends and X band made some of them and played for Lou Graham,
but it's like this was Lou when Lou was doing solo stuff. Yeah,
right, right, So Midnight Blue album. I remember learning that song
and sitting across from a plane on somewhere near um uh down downtown where he's
got all his cars. He got the big yeah, yeah, yeah he
does. He doesn't tell anybody where that is. So I kind of got
to know Lou a little bit. But later on, right much later on,
and I used to say to him. I saw him in a car
show and I'm like, Lou, I want to see these cars because it's
all muscle cars. Yeah, and then he tells me a story. Now
he's divorced again, but he was married at the time, so he was
gonna play party in the park and I walked up. I was standing there
because I was gonna produce the bands, and his wife gets out robbing and
she's like, Hi, thanks for having lou on the radio show today,
a great interview, and I said, yeah, I go, man,
and it's so cool about the car that he had trailer from California. And
she looks at me and the guy standing behind me going like, Michael,
you're fucking Louke Graham. Yeah, she doesn't get it. He say,
yeah, yeah, it's your money, you earned it. Weird go sometimes,
but um yeah. He It was unbelievable listening to him. The timber
and his voice was just like the Born like it sounded so amazing and just
like the record with nothing just across the like sending across from movie. That's
really cool to hear someone who seasoned as you say that about Lou because I
always thought he was one of the best voices in rock. Yeah, legit,
like he's like he's got how many hits I don't even know, Like
he's got like a place concert right with Foreigner and stuff. And then he
always had kind of a bitter ending there with mc I was gonna say,
mctaylor mcjones, right, Jonah McK taylor was the young guy in the Stones
who probably guitarists like you that they picked up along the way and then they
just ruined that kid. Yeah. I remember him coming on the Old We
Show and then he were trying to get him an eight ball and he was
a mess and eight ball well not him, the whoever whereever venue he was
playing. I was like, yeah, we gotta find this. He was
a mess, this poor guy. He looked awful. But you now have
two kids, you've also done marketing for Richard Branson, and you're in the
Guinness Booker World records. Yeah, and it sound like a fish story kind
of No, it doesn't. It sounds fucking amazing. I'm sound like,
do you ever pause in your life and go, what a ride man?
Not a ride? Oh that's encouraging. I'm just listening to you now.
The lou Graham, The South By Southwest zz Top says were you know,
hey, yeah, he's cool. George Thorogood finally comes out. George Burger
probably doesn't talk to anybody. Yeah, I don't. There's a lot,
but did Yeah, that whole there's there's a lot. The Guinness Book of
World Records thing was, you know, I was armed from the House of
Guitars. He were on his label and there was a show called just for
the Record out of Australia that they wanted us to break the whose descibel level
at the Yeah, and it was one hundred and twenty three decibels I think.
And we got the Guinness Book of World Records plaque at the House of
Guitars with our you know when immaculate Mary. Yeah. The hair, the
hair hair farmer days. Yeah. But that's all I wanted to do was
play guitar when I played hockey, and then I found the guitar and that
was it everything. Nothing else really mattered. Where did you go to school?
High school? I went. I went to Karney for a couple of
years and got kicked out. On my permanent record, it says I was
a bad influence on the Carney family. And then there's a long story,
and it's I don't know if I want to go into that. But the
the guy that kicked me out, the brother kicked me out, got a
busted for soliciting a minor because he used to ask me weird questions. I'd
be like, none of your business, and my dad was so mad at
me. Then that happened years later, and my dad was like, I'm
sorry. I thought, you know, because I was a punk. Yeah,
why would you believe me? I was? It wasn't your old man
came in apologize to you. Well, he told me that there was years
later though, no, no, I understand. But like, I've had
a similar thing. I've talked very openly, not to change things here,
but where I was molested by a babysitter. Oh you're kiddy as a kid
seven years old and yeah and so, and it can fuck you up,
you know, it really can. I'm old now, I've worked through stuff,
but I've had conversations. My mother confronted the dude. Oh my god.
Years later I didn't know that that's crazy. Yeah, but there was
something about that that made you sort of feel validated. I don't care how
old, you're the same thing with your old man going, hey man,
I'm sorry. They would lock me in a room with a bible all day.
I'd get out, he'd beat he'd hit me with this bicycle rubber thing
on my hands. And it wasn't It was crazy and it was a different
world back then, and um, but it was just I never got like,
I never went to no one who ever went as far as they did
with you don't know, I understand that, but it was just like,
what is that fortitude inside you that you're a lot of kids would fold after
that, right, because you're gonna get the pressure at school and then you
go home and your old man's pissed, right because all this stuff and Carnie,
But what made you never kind of waver on this this thing? I
mean you had like this is it a free spirit? That is that what
you call jumping on trains crazy? I was not. It's it's there's something
freeing about it. Yeah, I guess, but I did, Yeah,
I just didn't. It wasn't right and I knew it and there was something
off. But it's an adventure, man, Yeah it was. It was
okay, you know, but and then I went to Straider. Okay,
I remember, I think I got a fight with the toughest guy in school,
Dom Trenchini. He plays with he's a musician, and we ended up
in a band together afterwards. Back then you get in a fight and then
your best friends after especially guys. Yeah, we were I remember the same
thing. Yeah, there was a smoking lounge back there. Yeah, that
was smoke outside thing every day. I did a lot of dumb things that
was. That was a big one of them, smoking cigarettes. But so
okay, so now you have the Tommy Burtette band at that point, that's
opening up. It's two thousand and eight. You had done marketing, you
were in New York City, and then the bubble kind of comes from.
Yeah that's when. Yeah, yeah, I was. We had an office
on between um Princeton, Princeton Houston on Broadway. You were cranking. I
was working, like literally, I'm a blue collar kid. My dad was
a plumber and my mother was a nurse, living in Webstern, New York.
And all of a sudden, I got a place in Manhattan. I've
got like, you know, a view all the way to Central Park from
down and try back. Dude, I was cranking. I what were you
doing? I was doing Mark I start a radio show called Universal Buzz Radio,
and we built that into three point two million listeners or three point six
million listeners because of the Internet and in a college radio. In his upcoming
bands, like we recorded kid Rock at Water Street. We recorded the White
Stripes at the bug Jar when I looked above the bug jar and he stayed
out. He stayed above the bug jar with his his wife. That everybody
thought as a sister m bag. But oh sh that's right, everybody did
think that. Yeah, I didn't know that he's amazing. I saw Jack
White on on Crossroads. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's like he's I
think he's one of a fantastic guitarist. I wanted to stop cars on Monder
Revenue and go get in here. This guy sound singing like Robert Plant and
playing like Jimmy Page. This guy I was, and then we we hung
out. He's like a he's an encyclople Pedium blue. We hung on at
south By Southwest. I think I stole a bottle off the bar at an
after party and we sat by the porta parties like drinking that bottle and just
talking about music. You ever still talk to these guys, No, I
it'd be like when I run into somebody, yeah, and I go,
hey man, this is you know. Yeah, I don't know if you
remember this. Wow, you're hard to not remember. Yeah, I don't
know. Since some people just like I don't know, how would happened?
Like, you know, I was hanging out nashvillely guy goes. The guy
owns Tutsis and like a lot of other legendary bars there. He's like,
they wanted me to go to his girlfriend's mother's grandmother's birthday party to meet him
because he blew me off that day at a meeting and I ended up saying
happy birthday to his like his girlfriend's grandmother. He's like, let's go to
back Titsis. I go, I can't go to I got a meeting in
the morning. And go they go. If he says go to Tutsis,
wants to meet he wants him to meet your his friend, you go,
and I'm like, all right, I guess we're going. And gall jumped
in the big car and went to Tutsi's. If you know, Tutsi's like
three floors of music, and we went upstairs and that big room and there's
the v section, there's the VIP sections behind the stage, so you're above
the stage behind it. Wow, and his friend's Kid Rock, No ship,
that's where we wanted me to go and talk to hang out. And
but did you see did you remind Kid Rock that you had recorded him at
Water Street? I never really, I kind of I told him. I
go, you know, the Devil Routes are a Cause release in Asia where
you had the live track from Universal Buzz Radio. He goes, yeah,
I remember that, and like that was that was my radio show? Wait
a second, you you ended up on an import? Yeah, we were,
and no one has had live tracks back then. The planet the Planet
of Altams in hanging at Iron Smoke that I got from that release. Wow,
did you made money off that? Oh? No, no, no,
there's no man like we got and and and they we signed an agreement.
I think we made money, but it was like we didn't make I
think it was a couple of grand or something that like we got paid,
like oh was it the royalty? You know what they called mailbox? So
they'd never do that with our Back then, we were just like you know,
cut a bunch of outlawed kids trying to get Willie Nelson to let us
record him and stuff, you know, and then that crew and then um
kid uh the White Stripes got signed a V two, which is Richard Branson's
baby label. Yeah, and they wanted us to marketing him because we were
on college campuses with the radio show, and um it would it just catapulted
like I got all of a sudden. Fused TV hired us for their lunch.
I came up with a concept for a campaign for the subways in New
York and I just started adding zeros to my you know, my quotes.
And then then MTV hired us away. Um MTV two moment, we had
a dog thing because of what we did at south By Southwest. We took
over south By Southwest refuse and then MTV and then it was just like Disney
hired us. I was on like, Okay, so people go to school
to learn how to do this shit. You realize that people pay hundreds of
thousands of dollars to get a marketing degree. Dude, you just did it.
Yeah, pretty much, just kind of all just instinctual. Yeah,
just I was good at UM. I didn't know how to spell entrepreneur,
by the way, and that was like would you call me? You know,
like but it was. It was more about just like I don't I
had a knack for like ideas, Yeah, and they then I put a
team together to do the big ideas. Like, um, when I flew
out to Disney, I'm like, wow, I'm on a lot, you
know. I'm like, this is wild, and they're like, Okay,
we're sitting down in a room, like we got a new movie. It's
it's a it's a it's Johnny Depp playing a pirate and it's gonna be called
Pirates of the Caribbean, and we need to know what to do to like
we really want to take over Hollywood and get people engaged. So it came
up with so Disney hires you no shock him up with ideas for a release
movie releases. We were doing stuff for like ESPN, like setting up boxing
rines in the middle of Times Square. Uh um, what was the other
one? Um the house? What was it? Um HGDV? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, they had something. I don't know we did
we did something, and it's just kind of all so so okay, because
this is fascinating to me, and it's fascinating because every single thing that we
have in this world today started as an idea. Right, So now it
makes sense to me because I've heard the story of UM two thousand and eight.
I'm living back up here, kids and diapers. I'm smoking ribs and
drinking whiskey. Yeah. People have ideas all the time. Man, they
don't follow through. Do you see what I'm saying? I know, but
I talk about that when I speak at schools or whatever colleges, and I
do speaking engagements once in a while. Yeah, okay, And I even
with younger kids, I go that, don't don't give up because you're you
know it's good. You're gonna get knocked down. You just gotta keep going
and pick pick yourself up, and you have faith that you'll You know this
this is life, spice of life. Everybody goes through it. It's not
good times all the time, but that's why it's an amazing experience being alive.
What do I say? It's like a ride for you? Like when
I start a homeless and then they find out you're jumping on box. You're
I I think it's different for you. I think you look at everything as
an adventure. I do. I call it when we go out like with
Jen, my wife, or the kids, we call it an expedition when
we're going away. Yeah, I mean, it's not a vacation, it's
an expedition. Yeah. Because and with you, I bet it is because
you'll find the coolest, most you know, everybody. You're not a tourist
trap kind of guy. No, No, you'll find the authenticity wherever you
are. I dig that. I really really dig that. And I tell
the kids the show, you know, Okay, we're landing in Atlanta.
We gotta find our you know, our connection and make them do it.
We take them back to New York City because they were born there, and
we at like what train'm gonna take and what you know, even if we're
gonna end up in the wrong stop, I just let them, We let
them go. It's it's really incredible. But that that two thousand and eight
thing, I to tie that together in your head, because there's a lot
of weird stuff we're talking about. Two thousand and eight the bottom fell out
in New York City. I was rocking, like I didn't worry about anything
money, like everything we were printing money with the marketing company, had a
great staff. And then two thousand and eight, the bottom fellow the economy
and no one was paying us. I let everybody go. I sat down
and told ten people, I'm like, this has been a great ride.
Yeah, I got two days. I can pay it for two days,
and you're gonna go out and look for jobs right now. It's all like
because it happened so fast, I didn't have anything else and I just I
owed money to American Express was calling me when when Jaggers being born would let
me hang up. I'm like, I'm getting my son from the hospital right
now. I was just born, and they're go, if you don't make
a payment right now, this is going to happen. So that's what was
going on in my world from having all this great stuff too. But I
had my health, and I had Jen, and I had my kids.
You know, that's everything pretty. You know that's good. Yeah, you
can do anything you want if you got your health and you got people love
you and care about you. But that's when I was in the backyard kids
and diaper, smoking ribs, drinking whiskey, and I'm like, Jen,
has anybody done to smoke bourbon like barbecue? And there was only a couple
of companies of course there and balconies, and it was really over smoked,
so we came up with their recipe that was that was not so smot.
Wow. This is what I'm saying, is you realize, like as I
said with the marketing thing, uh, people went to school nice you of
are they do and they sit in courses and they have that and the same
thing probably with who thinks this is what I'm saying to you, So to
come up with the idea and then I'm gonna say this, ninety nine point
nine percent of the people go, no, I can't fucking do that.
But you know when you got to think when that happened, Yeah, dumber
guys in that us, Well I've done That's a good point. So that's
a very good point. And the guys that are like, you know,
it's just doing it and followed to follow through with you is amazing. Dude,
Well, it's having the right people around me too. Well. I
would agree that, you know, the the idea of a self made man
not entirely true because everybody needs, you know, people around them to believe
in it. But that's the thing is you got to find the people that
believe believe in that they're smarter and better at something than you're not. And
you've got to be willing to put that as yeah, yeah, yeah.
So so where do you Okay, so you come up with the idea,
you start looking for recipes. Yeah, so are you doing this in your
kitchen? Well, we did in Um friends kitchens and people help start the
businesses kitchens and backyards, and I liked um, Pappy, Yeah, yeah,
back when you can buy it for thirty five forty bucks a bottle on
the shelf, what is it now? It's around there, but as soon
as you're taking out of the store, it's one thousand or twelve h But
yeah, that's the recipe was based on a weeded bourbon. And that's where
I met Drew, our master distillers Brilliant, and he was young and he
was working on still on the Fingerlikes. I went to Fingerlikes is stilling and
talk to Brian McKenzie about what we're doing and show them the designs for everything,
and he goes, I don't have the capacity. I gotta make my
own. There's a guy up up to Lake Um called Montezuma Winery and I
went to them and Bill Martin and said, I need a still, you
know, so you know, a chicken smoker. I was smoking at Graze,
trying to figure that out on a chicken smoker. Yeah, I was
trying to I started, and you literally you did it well. Yeah,
with with people around me that could help me. But I just like I
knew, I knew what I liked and like the Bernheim like kind of saying.
And then it's adjusting the recipe and what triple char on the barrels.
And I didn't even know that um bourbon turned brown because of the char and
the barrel. Yeah. I thought all spirits were clear until they were like
sitting. And that's so you know more than I know. Yeah, but
I only know that because I'm an alcoholic and I really like blue problem.
I love brown. I do love the brown stuff. Yeah, my old
man loved the brown stuff. I'm Irish. That's what happened. Well,
my Grandpa Joe and my dad Joe. Grandpa Joe too, I did too.
Yeah, Grandpa Joe, he's first, first and last on the old
dance floor. You know, I always had a Jenny red eye and a
cigarette, a cigarette. I remember fishing, and you know, yeah,
he's Italian. I'm like mostly Polish, but I get my Italian from Uncle
Joe, Okay, Grandpa Joe, Dad Joe. That's that's incredible. The
so you went and smoked all this stuff yourself and then it just kind of
but then other people are seeing this and just buying in. Yeah. It
was like my business partner, Steve I mentioned Brown, He's he said it,
there's not a lot of competition. I'll pay for the first you know,
round and everything. But now it's like we're we're attached at the hip
thick his thieves, you know, like and he's, um, he's a
really smart wealth guy, like money guy, UM, and just in general,
really really savvy. And he that that happened. And then when we
finally came out with our recipe after trials, we had like three hundred cases
and I asked my distributor at the time, what if we sell out?
I got the van was Scully on it. I'm in front of five thousand
people in front of Zazy Top without a drop and a bottle, going,
oh, ironed smoked tonight, You're gonna be healed by the powers of rock
and run and whiskey. Can I get a namen? Brothers and sisters,
you know, iron smoke, you know, And we came out and he
said, it take a year before you sold out, and we sold out
in a week and a half. Holy shit. Yeah wow. And were
I was counting on the guy down in the Blake, Bill Martin, to
make carshed off. We were counting on them. And that's when we found
Fairport because we had to make our own and we were a New York state
farm distillery. But anyway, that's it was. So when you think about
it, zz Top has their own whiskey. Yeah, yeah, they don't
make it. They didn't do that. No, they didn't go find a
chicken. What did you have a chicken smoker? He partnered with something I
wish he would have partnered with us. Um, did you try? I
put it past him and then we're supposed to talk about it, and then
that don't the thing him out. But he's he's an interesting guy. When
you're in front of him, you can talk for hours. But you know,
getting a hold of him after that fact, he's a little different.
But he's like, he's a great guy. You a talented guy. And
um, he gave me a bottle of his tequila. So I was I
think my next moment going to reach out to him to see if he'll do
our bourbon's Asian and his tequila Asian. Our bourbon barrels. Oh, i'd
be pretty good. It's a good idea. That's a great idea, and
he's a good guy. I just don't know if he'll do it because of
the bourbon thing now he's doing, I hear you. Yeah, because he's
got somebody that he does it with already. Yeah, he's got a I
think it's course hair or about cones. I forget which one. How satisfying
was it for you to have Fortune Magazine call you one of the best bourbons
outside of Kentucky? Can I read what they wrote? Yeah? The Iron
Smoke Distillery smokes its grains over applewood before using them in distillation. The process
results in a bourbon that doesn't have a sweet, syrupy notes expected from the
category. Instead, on the palette, abundant spice and smoke join in bringing
to mine char grilled, peppered meat covered in maple syrup a must try for
those who delving into bourbon but have a hard time with the sweetness found in
most expressions. It's crazy that had to be, Like, I don't know,
is that the kind of the Crown Jewel for you to go, hey,
we really, I'm not that you did it. Didn't have markers along
the way to show this is going well. But what an honor. Yeah,
super high ratings we got from Bill Murray's Whiskey Bible out of the UK,
but five put us ahead of Buffalo, Trace Plantin's, Basil Hayden,
Pappy Rye and I'm not saying this other guy said he rated us higher.
But that was a game changer for the real kind of sours of bribbons globally.
And then this the thing with with um, you know, the ten
best Bourbons beyond Kentucky from Forrest magazine. This isn't stuff we're paying for ad.
I'm sorry, I said fortune. It is for Forrest magazine, but
this isn't stuff that we paid like some people do an ad and they go,
but we need to do this. It was a surprise. I was
on my couch watching some Netflix binge or something, and um, my phone
started going off. And when my business partners around Kurshner, I think he
was in the first he goes, this is real, and I'm like,
yeah, it's really. They did it and call us, you know,
So it was legit and it was it was those things are game changers,
um, because you can you think your baby is beautiful, but until like
somebody else goes, yeah, that's a good fun that's funny because then on
the other side, you've become like a big supporter of local music another love
of yours. It's like you've taken two things that just kind of go well
together, right, the urban making you just almost a uh like you're you
know, you're creating and orchestrating, and then you got that. Do you
ever miss though? I mean, I know you got a lovely, supportive
wife, a great business going, but do you ever miss the thirty thousand
people screaming? You know when you're playing, you do a little bit.
It's yeah, and the more they try and throw me off the boat,
the more you hang on to the side. And somebody else said, like
you ever do you ever think about giving up? I'm like, do you
ever think about giving up sex? No? Yeah, right, I'm not.
I'm like, I'll still play, but I don't have to tour.
I don't have to do that, right, And it'd be I'd love I
love it's it's it sounds fun. Yeah, like but like I'lbio Fernandez.
He's gotta he's gotta be always some family. When you got a family and
everything and you gotta do that. Yeah, that's that's a different story,
right, you know, I can pick and choose, like I'll do.
I did a couple like a Harley Davidson event in Orlando, Okay, you
know over the winter or whenever, and fly in, fly out in two
or three dates here and there. That's about it. How do people find
you to book those things? Just through the website? Yeah, it's it's
it's a combination of just like maybe they like the song I like beer,
yeah, you know, or whatever, or they're a fan of Modern English
or they're a fan of iron smoke and they want me to be there,
And it's always it's everything's intertwined. Now, yea my whole story and when
your lifestyle and that's what I dig about it, dude. It's like you
walk into your place and it's just got a cool vibe. The people that
you hired are all cool people. You never you never see you never see
an asshole. Do we have a zero asshole policy of both sides of the
bar, the customers in and that just comes with a territory. He was
the first guy to walk in when we were doing our We're gonna open up
our tasting room. Yeah, and he goes, this is amazing. This
is gonna be great for Fairport. He was all about it. He always
he was the only He was the first one and probably only one in the
beginning that saw what it could be when he saw our you know, I'm
like, we're gonna do our own burlesque show, is gonna produce, We're
gonna with our friends, We're gonna do concerts, We're gonna do endless community
events for fundraisers, whatever we need to do, and it's gonna be part
of the brand. So it's not just a bar. It's an extension of
like Goodwill and yes and fun time. It is you know, hopefully people
don't feel safe when they're there. Yeah. The music is always sad.
The acoustics and there are great. The way you've done it all, it's
kept that rustic kind of look, which I love. Yeah. I think
that was the only time I got mad and was like someone was painting over
some stuff and I'm like, no, no, no, no no.
We talked about this, and um, I'm lucky enough to and you know,
fortunate enough to have people that believe in the vision and help me with
that vision and got it, you know, yeah, because some people are
like, oh, we gotta sand blast everything and make it clean. I'm
like, no, no, yeah, I want to bomb out. You
know. Yeah. It fits, it fits everything. It fits the label
of the of the bottles, it fits all. That's that's incredible. Man,
You've got it. What a ride, Tommy, What a slipping ride.
You got to write a book or something. Yeah, you know what,
someone needs to do a documentary about you. Oh jeez, that would
be fascinating. It'd be funny. I don't know about it. But yeah,
there's so much on the way to you know, like it's kind of
like dancing between the rain drops, you know, like it's just you kind
of keep keep dancing on. But oh, man, with all thanks,
that's humbling, an I said, I mean, I'm serious. I've always
been like I'm telling you, I've wanted to do this with you because I
knew if you scratch the surface, there's a lot of layers to this un
there's so many more stories. I'm sure I'd love to have you back sometime
to stop myself from going oh yeah, and then yeah, but I see
that'd be awesome. See that's the thing. Yeah, it's it's it's been
amazing anybody doing Universal Buzz radio at all? No, we people still want
those shirts. The guy from Ween loves the shirts, and the couple other
guys are like, it's a spaceboy. I always wanted to be an astronaut,
So I mean the logo a kid in a space helmet for Universal Buzz
and that wasn't we just built a brand. I remember seeing Universal Buzz stuff
everywhere. Ye started on here. Yeah, and then that's pretty much how
I met Jen, like my wife, Okay, the radio program, Okay,
I have I make up a story. We'll talking about that later on.
I'm traveling, Like again, a great made up story. They're like,
really, the more you talk about it, really no, but you
gotta have fun with people. Yeah no, but did you meet any Was
there ever anybody who you really wanted to meet and then you met them and
it was just really disappointing. M Any rock stars or anything. You seem
to have a vibe about you that they they're very open and accepting of you.
But sometimes which I always think is a great thing, because you're like,
you meet your hero and you could you remember what they were wearing,
what they said, all this stuff, and then if they blow you off,
that's a that's a big moment for people that that can be. But
it doesn't sound like you had it at all. That's good. I mean,
that's good man. I've seen them treat people bad lee around Yeah,
me like, and that's a turn off, Like yeah, boy from me,
I'm like, yeah, not to me, but to somebody else.
And I'm like, man like Gene Simmons, for instance, always stops and
listens and says hello if they're like I've been a big fan of my whole
life. I've seen him do it. He did it to me before.
He always stops and says thank you. So I wasn't. We're a kiss
fan. I interviewed him once. He's brilliant. Yeah, he's a brilliant
marketing guy. But he also knows it's nice and that it's because of the
kiss army. Yea, yeah he does and really intelligent. Some woman spoke
called up and spoke Hungarian to him and he answered her, oh yeah,
and I was like, man, yeah, he's he was a guy who
doesn't disappoint at all, and I think shocks people. It was well sun
Dance. I used to have to play for entertainment for the celebrities, so
you know, um Dennis Quaid. I had to tell Timothy Hunton he had
to sit out one song because he wanted to play drums again. But my
job was to get them. The celebrit used to play for entertainment and it
was getting images, so all the slums had to go there. It was
like a three story gifting house in Park City Yeah and street yeah, and
then everybody. Every everybody I played with was cool, like the Edge game,
his guitar to play like. He was the Sherbet looking one. Matt
Sorum sat in on drums. It was Pedro from Napoleon Dyning. Yeah,
he's harmonica. One time I got it called they go the Hobbits want you
to come back to the Gifting House and there after hours and I'm like,
all right, I thought it was a band and it was actually Elijah Wood
in the Hobbits. That where we stole a bottle of vodka from the vodka
booth, played music on how did you get that gig? With Sundance?
It was It was weird It was like through and through Gibson and endorsement and
through some friends that had friends out in Park City that I knew, and
it all just came together because there's there was a guy in Park City.
His name was Rich Wyman and Rich when I lived there it was ninety three,
and he would play all the bars and stuff, and he was really
trying to make it, make it, make it. Valerie Burton Elli's brother
was lived there, was a good friend, and Eddie van Halen U came
out saw him and funded the record and everything, but I don't think it
ever went anywhere for this poor guy. And then I saw I was backstage
at a van Halen concert and I said, Eddie, do you know Rich
Wine? And we talked for like ten minutes about Rich. He loved him.
He goes he's a great piano player, all this stuff, and he
played all over Park City. But I but he would die to get gigs
like that. He never got it. It was it was I met Valeri
Burtnelli at a bar in Park City during the song and so I was like,
what was she doing that? Because she wasn't really doing much back then.
It wouldn't make sense now, I didn't really her brother lived. Her
brother lived in Old Park City. Did you ever go down into Old Park
City? Yeah, so he lived in She's a sweetheart, man, mean,
no, I never did. I didn't. I just I met a
brother, but that was it. Yeah, she's super sweet. But yeah,
what's so? What's next now for Iron Smoke? Just keeping the making
the best bourbon we can you know, and growing. We got a five
x growth plan right now. We got a grand from the state. Okay,
Um, we need to make more bourbon. It doesn't come out of
the facets and we make everything there so we don't put filler in. We
make it all for the Iron Smoke. Everything's locally sourced. When we see
New York State Farm Distillery, it's all from our region. Yep, Carla
Rush right down here in Williamson. He grows our wheat and corn. We
go out there and visit him. You know, it's it's truly a really
great farm distillery, great vibe. We're part of the New York State Distillers
Guild. But next for us is is the making sure we can make more
as we grow. Yeah. Um. And then we were having a bourbon
festival in October twenty and twenty first it is going to be music culture in
Bourbon. It's called hohocin Nanni. Yeah wow. And um we're working with
the guys that work with BONARYU out of Louisville. Yeah. So we're gonna
try and build a franchise out of it and have some fun and props promote
tourism to the fingers of the fall we want. It's a great time idea
like having the follow and the harvest season, which is super important to you
know, making bourbon makers and spirits makers. And but that's gonna be a
ripper. Yeah. I want to come down to do the podcast there do
it? Yeah, I really would love it. Great. Yeah, well
thanks so much for your time. Man. I know, I don't know
what your days are like. I think they get a little crazy. It's
everything. Yeah, thankful, I'm busy. Yeah. Well that's a good
thing. That's a great thing. Do you mind if I close with this
again? No? I love it and never leave Aboddy without playing this song.
That's funny. The guy I'm not with the toy guitar player. They're
like, oh you're the guy. You are still get a residual. I
gotta tell you, probably the coolest guy in Western New York, Tommy Burnett.
Seriously, you gotta just go. If you haven't been to Iron Smoke,
you gotta go to Iron Smoke, and you gotta you gotta make it
happen. Thanks. Thanks,