Speaker 1: Hey, everybody.
Speaker 2: Is he I think you already knew that got an excellent,
excellent show for you this day evening, whenever it is
that you are going to listen to this. Brent Auran's
from Flip along with John Mitchalski. I think I said
it right this time. Author Wellip, thanks for having us
talking about this great book that he put together. And
brn On from Flip talking about the book as well
and telling some great stories.
Speaker 1: Co hosted.
Speaker 2: By my good friend Keith roth Um. It's going to
be an excellent show. It is an excellent show. I
know because I was part of it. I had a
great act show on Saturday night here in Las Vegas.
Thank you to everybody that was able to make it out.
Todd Hollworth Jesus Christ still has it after all these years.
He still has it still as the voice still looks
so goddamn young, damn him. Troy Patrick Ferrell on the
drums conquering the Anton fig stuff.
Speaker 1: Phenomenal.
Speaker 2: Mike Campion from Jean's Addiction playing the bass guitar and
doing some singing. Keith Robert War. Can't say enough about
Keith Robert War. Phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal and he did double duty.
He played with LVDC, the band that we opened up for.
We warmed up, as they say in the business, phenomenal,
absolutely great and great crowd, great songs, good times, great oldies.
You know the stick.
Speaker 1: Not sure who we have.
Speaker 2: Next week, working on that. And make sure you guys
share the show. If you like the show, you want
to tell people about the show, I'm happy when you
do that. And clip click that subscribe button wherever you
listen or watch. Of course you're watching on YouTube, so
you know, subscribe and stuff. And if you do like it,
you know, if you want to donate, you are absolutely
welcome to And oh yeah, by the way, that Peter
was just screaming on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: It was awesome.
Speaker 2: Uh, dollis Ondizy Presley is your cash app venmo Reelizzi Presley, PayPal,
Ezzy Presley at yahoo dot.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know all the.
Speaker 2: Socials at real Izzy Presley, Twitter, Inscrant, Facebook, all the
across the board show page. Another f and podcast. Now
that the mutual bullshit is over, let us start the show. Hi,
this is Bobby Brown and welcome to another fucking podcast.
Speaker 4: Kiss with your Loud music.
Speaker 3: And your Dan Fogelberg, your.
Speaker 4: Zeema, hula hoops and fact Man video games. Don't you
see people today have attention spans that can only be
measured in namos seconds.
Speaker 2: He's got an old legendship and they just food.
Speaker 5: Wait, he's like legend and an adawook from with a
lot of.
Speaker 2: Hello Las Vegas, Hello world, Hello, my loyal minions. It
is good to see you, and it is always good
to be seeing. This is another f and podcast. I
am the host of the program. My name is Ezzi
Presley and I actually have a co host this afternoon.
His name is Keith Roth from the Serious Exam Hair
Nation and Ozzie's Boneyard and the band The Dictators, and
he is a a year long Flip fan. He just
got introduced to the band by of course me on
the on one of the cruises that we do. And
Bryn Arens is back from Flip.
Speaker 5: You haven't been on in a while, but nice to
see you.
Speaker 2: It's good to see you. And John mccoalsky Is that
my saying that correctly?
Speaker 6: Close enough? I say Michowski, but I'll answer that no.
Speaker 2: Oh, well, blame my midwestern self. They are here to
talk about this book that that John wrote with BRN
and with a lot of people actually dive into like
the road crew and all this kind of stuff. It's
very very cool. It is called Flip Thanks for having us,
And of course the subtitle is the story behind the
Little Band that Almost Could.
Speaker 5: I didn't write it. I didn't have anything to do
with the writing, okay, other than other than I mean, yes,
of course I the content, but as far as putting
a book together, writing a book, I had nothing to
do with that or no editorial anything. I think, you, well,
what's the terminology.
Speaker 6: John, uh, editorial control.
Speaker 5: I didn't do nothing.
Speaker 6: It's I think it's cool for the actual of the
readers to understand, and it's not for me to take
the credit, but as a bio, it's nobody in the
spand exercised one ounce of editorial controller. At some point
I sent him like, you know, work in progress, and
they all kind of liked it. But at no point
did anybody say, oh, don't put that in or put
this in, or talk to this guy or don't talk
to that guy. It was such a such a pleasant experience.
I mean, it was just they were digging that I
was into them. And they just let me do it.
And the truth is, and some people won't believe it,
but I hand to god, Brinn never saw the finished
book till it was already out there and being sold.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yep.
Speaker 5: And not even for two weeks or four, not for
four or like two weeks. Even after that, I sat
on my table and I didn't have the strength to
open it.
Speaker 3: Wow, John, let's start all the experiences. So you're like,
all right, let's see what it looks like on paper.
It probably took a while.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right. It just like, yeah, it felt weird
to like, Okay, now it's in a written word form.
I don't think I can handle it. I don't think.
I don't think I can live through it.
Speaker 6: Twice I can understand, like, what is somebody else's summary
of my life gonna look like? I get that. But
they all trusted me with it.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: It was such fun and it was a fast project.
From the moment I contacted Brent first phone call to
the moment we were printing was eight months.
Speaker 3: Wowow, and a lot your passion behind that. That's what
I got it done at expedited and actually, you know,
having the involvement of breat and everybody else. I mean, yeah,
the best clean has happened quickly like that.
Speaker 6: Well, I had some experience writing. I don't how do
I say this. I'm a school teacher. I'm a science
teacher in the middle scho and during the summers when
I can afford to, I travel to tropical countries in
search of undiscovered species of insects and my areas dragonflies.
So I've published a couple scientific books about that. I've
discovered and named nine species of dragonflies from the South Pacific.
But along the way, I kept detailed journals. Every night,
I'm like living in like huts and stuff with candlelight,
like I'm really backpacking in jungles, and so I kept
journals and I turned it into books of my adventures.
What's it like to backpack across New Guinea, living with
the grandchildren of headhunters and stuff like that. So I
put those Those are all on Kindle. People can find them.
I don't sell a lot because I don't do much
to promote them. But the point is I had my
skills set up already. I knew how not just to
tell a narrative, but to actually format a book and
place the photos and get a good cover going. So
when I got the idea to write one about my
favorite band in the world, I already knew how to
physically do that stuff and get it done. And I
guess it was like I texted Brent on his Facebook
page and said, you know, I want to write a book,
and he said what book, and then he sent me
his phone number and I just called him up and
by the end of like a half hour, Brian, you'll
you'll remember this. By the end of a half hour conversation,
we were just both connecting so well that it was
just on and then it was just Facebook meetings. Facebook means.
Then he called the other guys, say this guy's cool.
Talk to him. And then it was like, you know,
Night Bob would remember that story better than me. And
then it was Nightbob and then it was you know,
maybe Jack Douglas should have a look at this, and
it was just like, man, it was it was a
fans dream come true. It was such a fun, fun book.
Speaker 3: That's another example of another great book. By the way,
something do a book on Nightbob. That's something that needs
to get done as well, since we're talking about him.
Speaker 5: But we've discussed Nightbob is not ready to do it yet,
but of course it's in is and pan gould one say,
author like Jymnasium. But yeah, no question about it. I
couldn't agree more.
Speaker 6: Nightbob. You know how to contact me, you know, as.
Speaker 5: Well as a villa, watch a bill, a coin book.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, so britty when he first contacts you,
I mean, what's what's going through your head?
Speaker 5: Rough, No, that the joke would be wrong number. First
thing I thought it was this guy's got the wrong number.
Cool now we uh. Just prior to this, we had
done a bunch of Ace Raileague dates on the East Coast,
and John and I did hang for a couple of
minutes after one of those gigs, and I did have
a vague memory of that.
Speaker 6: I hadn't even thought about the book at that time.
I was already a fan of the band. And then
it was twenty twenty two. They had an album, first
album outIn long they were torn with Ace, and one
of their gigs was in Pennsylvania, which was like a
two hour drive from my home, but it was the
closest it was ever going to be. So I talked
my best friend, who was a fellow musician. I said,
we got to come see Flip. I hadn't thought about
the book. We went, we watched their set, we met
him a little bit, and then Ace started up and
Ace wasn't having his best night. And my friend who's
not into kiss said, you know, Flip is out of
the parking lot. So he went hung with them and
it was a great half hour, just it was just
shooting the breeze, having a great time. And again I
hadn't even considered the idea of the book yet. So
when I contacted you brand, you had some vague recollection
of that I did.
Speaker 5: I remembered like meeting three or a few really cool
people that night, so I was able to kind of,
don't know, get comfortable with it fast. And you speak
so well, and it was just very easy. We got
talking about music and things, and I think I made
the joke that, dude, it's like we grew up across
the street from each other. It just happened to be
a really wide street.
Speaker 3: That's ch analogy.
Speaker 6: Brett and I are really close in age, and you
know we both I mean, all rock and rollers have this,
but I'm just a rock and roller by dreams. You know,
but all rock and rollers have this older sibling who
was ahead of the curve. They learned all their stuff
ahead of their age mates because they had somebody who
was already into Sabbath and already do this and already
of that. So I had all this stuff. And also,
even though I'm a science teacher, I got the musical background,
so I was able to say, now that's not cherry
on the base on that track, is it? And he go,
You're right. We had freaky in there by, like I
could hear those things, so we were speaking a musical
language which I'm going to make a prison also put
them out their ease a little bit. I wasn't just
some fanboy saying remember that that that Chris Farley thing,
Remember when you did Abbey Road, wasn't that awesome? I
wasn't that guy was able to say, now, who are
you talking about in mister potato Head, because that seems
like a real point in commentary and Britan we say, oh, yeah,
that's about somebody, But I'm not going to tell you.
The average fan isn't coming to you that way. So
I think we just we connected deeply, very quickly.
Speaker 2: The thing that I do like about the book is
when you break down the songs, you get the albums
and then here's the songs and here's the lyrics, and
then there's Brinn talking about, well, this is what that
song is about.
Speaker 6: That was from the moment I conceived of doing this book,
and a little bit easier because Flip has like three
and a half albums. You know they have, right so,
but so you know again, if you have thirty albums,
it's a bigger book. But from the moment I conceived
of it, I said, I want every song to have
the lyrics to on one side of the page, and
then in a text box the band's recollections about it,
because I you know, the whole problems. From the moment
I thought of it, I said to myself, I want
this book to be the book that a fan has
everything a fan wants, because I'd read all the Kiss bios,
the van Halen that there's only one cheap trick bio
out there, and I've said this to other people when
Kiss had that A and e two hour thing going.
Almost everybody's favorite moment is the scene of Gene and
Paul sitting in the living room with Paul's feet up
on the couch, just shooting the shit. I wanted this
book to be what it would be like for a
Flip fan to be sitting in the living room with
the four guys sitting around, just telling the story the
way they remember it. So you haven't mentioned it yet, Izzy,
but like so much of the book is in the
band's own words, Like I transcribed their stories and dropped
him in because I thought, who better to tell it
than them? The book the kids want, the kids the
fans would want.
Speaker 5: That's how it struck me funny. Even back in the seventies,
I remember rock bands and interviews Aerosmith. Yeah, for the kids.
Speaker 6: That just fell out. And that's because I'm a school teacher.
But you know, you'd much rather have a book say
about Cheap Trick, with lots of quotes from Rick and
Bunny and those guys telling it from their point of
view than a third person thing saying I looked it
up on Wikipedia and this is what I got. And
I had the luxury of that, so I used it.
Speaker 5: To the think that's pronounced Flip.
Speaker 6: That's coming Britain to your next project?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you know is he says to me.
You know we're talking music and I've known is he
for a little bit at that point and he goes,
are you hip to Flip? You know Minnesota band? I'm like,
Minnesota man, I love Minnesota rock. You know the replacements
Bosker do you know? Obviously Prince, I'm like, who the
fuck is Flip? You're gonna have to edit that because
you've got.
Speaker 1: To shoot.
Speaker 3: And then he starts sending me stuff on it. And
then you know, I go down the rabbit hole. I mean,
because a lot of things in the nineties, you know,
it passed me, you know, I was in the thick
of it. And then uh, and then find that out,
you know, you work with Mick Ronson and you know,
you have these records out. Then is he sending me
YouTube videos? And then I bought the album and I'm like,
how did I miss this? And then I started sending
like to my fellow music coologist and we're like, you know,
we're in New York. You know, we're in New Jersey,
I mean, and we feel like we know everything. And
then here's this great band from Minnesota, and it's so
cool to discover a cool band like you guys, because
you know, you have great songs I'm a big cheap
trick fan. You know, you can hear the influence is
a cheap trick, but you know it's got the theatrics,
it's got every it's got the whole package. And the
more you dig down the rabbit hole, you just say
to yourself, this is cool. And now there's a great
book that I could read about Flip more so than
flip Apedia, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 6: Well, I was talking to Izzy before we started rolling,
and I was telling him that the way I found
the band like you grow like You, Keith, growing up
on the East Coast wouldn't have known about it. And
in twenty thirteen, which I can't believe is eleven years ago,
already the math insists on it. But I was watching
three sides of the Coin Tommy Summers. They got into
a conversation about who's your favorite, Who's a great band
that a lot of people don't know about, and he
kept saying Flip Flip, Flip flip. So of course I
went to Amazon, which is what we do nowadays, and
everything was out of print, so you got what you
could get, but I got their second album. Was listening
to it, I was immediately they were like one of
my favorite bands in the world on first play, and
then I started digging for it and digging for it,
and then I just became so intimately, I don't know,
connected to it. It was just so awesome. And you know,
Flip could be mistaken for a crazy ass frat boy
party band. Fact, they have played the role of a
crazy fret boy party band in a movie. And uh,
as some you know, a lot of bands got that shot.
You know, they'd be in some movies, some college kid movie.
But and b Brynn won't cop to this, but if
you sit down and listen to what they're talking about,
Brenna is writing about, you know, how you feel and
experiences and what the hell's going on in your head,
and that really grabbed me. Brinnin has brinn this is
your oh, shut aw shucks moment. But Brinna has a
real knack with lyric writing and and and plays plays
on words lines like did I read you write? You know,
stuff like that, And sometimes I have to go back
and listen again and say, wait, wait, did I hear
what I thought I heard? And you say, oh wait
a second Okay, So I was really deep into it
and I've been out here in New Jersey like an
evangelist for Flip ever since. Then, all of a sudden,
I had finished my last book, which was one of
my travel jungle stories, and I I was reading a
lot of rock bios and I'm always looking for the
next book, and I suddenly said, man, these I like
these books, and this is a book that nobody's done.
There's any number of Kiss books or Elton John books
or Beatles Beatles books is a library of those. And
I said, you know, it's got to be a couple
thousand Flip fans who would really really like this, And
I know what I'd like it to be. And Brin's
heard me tell us too many times. But in our
first conversation, the first phone conversation I had with Brann,
we were part of the way through and he just said,
if you don't mind me asking, why do you want
to write this book? And I immediately said, because I
want to read it.
Speaker 3: I want to read it.
Speaker 6: You know, it's like this deserves to be written, and
if nobody's going to do it, I wanted to be
right and I will do that.
Speaker 3: So how do I get it? John?
Speaker 6: Exactly? How do you get the book. Ah, well, yes
it is for sale you first of all, for the
world out. If you just Google flip with two p's
thanks for having us, you'll be directed quickly to rock
Steady and band camp, where it's for sale for twenty
five roughly twenty five bucks plus shipping. That's it for now.
It will make it available more widely event she will lee.
But this was totally self published I did. The only
thing I did not personally do is Brinn's brother, Kai,
who was the second guitarist in the band for many
years and who is a graphic artist of great renown
out in La, volunteered to do the cover, and he
did the cover, for which I'm tremendously grateful. Of course,
I got all of the intellectual property, all the lyrics,
and all the photos from the band, But everything else
about this was done on my desktop and Microsoft Word
every last bit. I did all the type setting, everything,
and I had for several years before I was a teacher.
I made my living basically in glorified typing pool in
a big company, so I learned how to line edit
and do all that stuff in format. And of course
I'd done a bunch of my travel books already, and
I would like to say if it doesn't self glorify
me too much. If a real publisher gets their hand
on this book, I think they'll probably say who is
your editor? And I'll be able to say that was me, Oh,
who was your type setter?
Speaker 3: Me too.
Speaker 6: I really really worked on the quality of it, and
I think people will find it it's a nice product.
But the feedback we've got so far from people is
they say it's a really fun read. It takes them
back to where they were. They really hear the voices
of the group because of the way I wrote it.
When Brin's quoted, they kind of hear him, and when
Eric's quoted, they hear him. And that's what I'm digging
the most is people say they just love in the experience.
For me, it was a labor I love to write.
Speaker 5: I just use the word to flip and intellectual in
the same sentence.
Speaker 3: But before you jumped on, Bryn, we were talking about documentaries.
I mean, you know, take this book and just you know,
you guys tell the side of the story in front
of the cameras. I mean that would be another great
thing to do too as well, you know, because I'm sure,
hopefully you got some of that great footage from some
of the early days and the shows. I mean there's
so much history there and videos and you know it'd
be cool and all the stunts, I mean that was
you know, you're a guy that's got a lot of courage.
I mean, there's not a lot the shyness thing never
entered your body because I've read some of the crazy stint.
It's that you pulled, you know, in New York and
with the tour group, you know, finding your way in
MTV and Cereal on the crowd. They're a cheap trick show.
And you know the post office record release. I mean,
this is fucking great man.
Speaker 5: I'm like, you know, you know you cool.
Speaker 6: You did your home Keith. You read the book. Well,
it doesn't always happen.
Speaker 3: I want to get the book. It's like, you know,
it's all like one beautiful compilation to see it all.
But you know that's how. I'm a music head, you know,
and I'm sure bring your music. I know, is he
is so well I am.
Speaker 5: And at that time, at the beginning of Flip, I
was reading a sib vicious book, a sex pistol book,
a Malcolm McLaren book and a Johnny Rotten book kind
of all at the same time, and they used all
these things. Like basic that I thought were really interesting
were the idea of taking a band like the Sex
Pistols and to open up the ut like have them
play in Texas where it would create a ruckus like
our motto. You know, so many bands when they rehearse,
they sit down after rehearsal with the proverbial beeer and go, hey,
what if you know, what if we did this? What
and we would actually is that you were there? I
feel like the movie Tommy Boy. Yeah, you were there.
You know. The next day we would actually start working
on the what is And that's where you kind of
get all that stuff and the whole team. Everybody pitched
in to get these things done. Everybody. It wasn't a
one man show. It wasn't you know. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great it's a great story. I mean
when you were talking about the book, we were talking
about the No Monk book, which a vicious or the Yes, Yeah,
it's as a musician, it's inspiring because you could see
like what it was all about, you know, and you know,
to create things for yourself. I mean, you know, because
it's up to you to make it happen. I mean,
you know, when you have a record deal, all it
is is basically you've got a credit card that eventually
you're gonna have to pay it back, so you can
let that balance build up. But you know, you got
to you got to do things on your own. And
that's what was really inspiring about your story, how you
went out and should happen for yourselves.
Speaker 5: Well as a young person, when I would when the
New York Dolls and Kiss and really the early seventies
New York scene by and large, I always imagine these
guys black Sabbath. Actually the early English groups included deep purple.
When I would see their stage sets, I imagine them
either building it in their rehearsal space, warehouse, garage, whatever
it might be. And there's always been an element to that.
And that was at a time Aerosmith's drum riser. The
drum riser had fur on it. It was a noticeable thing.
The production values back then were kind of such that
these drum risers and different things people would put together
like in their garages on a day.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 5: That was always really and still is quite frankly to
this day, very appealing to me.
Speaker 2: Well, you've always heard those stories about know, the early kiss,
the levitating drum riser. There's people back there, you know,
pulling on chains to make it go up, and you.
Speaker 5: Know, like and shims.
Speaker 2: Okay, well you know that that brings it back to
the whole kiss thing too, because it always comes back
to kiss. They did all themselves too, you know. It's like,
and you guys really really built on that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would imagine Sean Delaney at some point had
screwdrivers and fucking duct tape in his hands and ship.
Oh yeah, and I've seen it. Was funny. Living in
New York and working with Bill a Coin, I got
the chance to, like before they cleared out one of
the warehouses to go in there.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 5: And I was stunned to see all this ship with
like Elmer's blue and glitter and duct tape, and I'm like,
oh my god, this stuff looks like I might have
made it.
Speaker 6: One of the things that one of the things that
happened in the process of all this. The book came out,
and then Brinn called me and he said, listen, we
might want to do a book signing in Minneapolis, and
I said, it's cool. I'll come out for that. And
then he called me a little while later and he said,
you know some of the other guys, because now the
drummer was in Florida and the bass players getting a moved.
I always said, the guys may come together so we
can all sign together. And I said, no, it sounds
very good. I'd love to see the guys again because
I'd met them all before the book even was a thing.
Be cool to meet them all now that we've done
all this FaceTime. And then he said, you know, we're
thinking of actually doing a set, well, play a set,
and I said, it's awesome. So we arranged for me
to get there in time to be there for their
first rehearsal in over a year in some recording studio
in Minneapolis. And so I'm there with my favorite band
in the world. I'm there in the room, they're playing
some of my favorite music ever. And all this I
even got when they were done rehearsing. They even gave
me the shot to record myself singing freak with them,
just so I could have it as students a dream
come true. But at the end of it, we're all
sitting around. The guys are all very pleased. They're pleased
with rehearsal. They're frankly, it was really heartwarming. Each one
of them took a private moment somewhere during that week
to come up to me and say, you know, it's
really meant a lot to us if somebody came out
of nowhere and really cared and did this. But an
interesting moment with Brynn. He came up to me and
I don't think either one of us thought about it,
but we were talking about what you guys were just
saying about how Brynn with Flip has always been we'd
think of wouldn't it be cool if but Flip would
take the extra step of doing it. Wouldn't be cool
if there was a pillow fight? Ki, I get some pillows?
Would it be cool if we dropped cereal on the
travrom a helicopter, KI find the guy from General mills By.
Brynn walked up to me and he said, you know,
it just occurred to me, you writing this book is
the same mentality somewhere I, as the author said, wouldn't
it be cool if I just tried to find a
way to contact Bren and do a book. And I
think in a very subtle way that we didn't realize
till the show was almost over. That was an emotional
connection that somebody, out of the blue said I'd like
to do this and I'll just find a way to
do it right right. And I don't say it to
praise myself. I'm talking about the connection we had was
partly like wow, it's like little rascals. Hey, let's build
a fire station and have you know, let's just do it.
And I think this was an example of hey, this
is something I want to do. We'll figure out a
way to do it. And it was just such a joyous,
fun experience and once in a lifetime it was really
really I always said to everybody else, they said, you
know where, how do you think this is going to go?
I say, look, if we break even, I'm happy. This
was like a this is a joy ride right.
Speaker 1: Well, I tell you what.
Speaker 2: In the book it brought back some memories for me,
that stuff that I had forgotten about. And in the
nineties we had we had a caller ID at the house,
which not a lot of people had, and it likely
said it said it like it said the name out loud,
bobber like whatever. But all of a sudden I see
the caller idea and it says Brent Arens, Like, what
the fuck is how one?
Speaker 1: How does he know who I am?
Speaker 3: Too?
Speaker 2: How does he get my number? Then I realized, oh yeah,
I'm friends with Freaky and he's like, hey, you know
Anyboddy that can print a cereal box? And when I
was looking through the book, when I got to the
cereal box part, I'm like, oh my god, I forgot
about that, you know, and I can't find mine. I
have it somewhere, but but yeah, just kind of brings
you back to, you know, like one of your favorite bands, Hey,
how do we do this?
Speaker 3: And what a genius marketing idea? Right? You know it's
in a cereal box, but you know with the CDs
and the way things were stocked, you know, stocked in
record stores to have its own space. I mean, you
know you're always thinking, I'm surprised that's some corporate uh
you know an r. I mean, some corporate record label
didn't hire you just from marketing just for your ideas,
because it's genius.
Speaker 5: Stuck really and you nailed it again, you're right, and
that totally happened.
Speaker 6: It was strack it all in its own wrecks because
it couldn't fit in the record.
Speaker 5: And it's only you know, cardboard stand up advertising, and.
Speaker 6: Who wouldn't want that?
Speaker 3: You know? If I saw that in the record store,
I would have discovered Flip before is he turned me
on to it. If I saw your band and those
visuals and heard those songs, I would have been in.
I would have been and so many people I know
would have been in because you know, we love the
Dolls and Kiss and you know and punk rock and
the Ramones and Richard l all that stuff, and I
mean you and Chief Trick. You know, it's all intertwined
in this great package. Notice Flip And as I say,
my favorite saying is better late than pregnant. So I'm
glad I got to.
Speaker 6: And we're hoping to correct that. Man, We're hoping to
get the word out more people be checking it out
and saying, man, I like this, I like that, I
like this. Cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: The kelest thing to me that could happen is for
somebody who's a Flip fan to get their hands on
this book. But they don't live in Minneapolis anymore, live
in Seattle. They live in Austin and they have another
friend who's a musicologists and the guy says, what's that book?
He said, read it? And all of a sudden, the
guy's looking for the CDs and the downloads well base.
Speaker 3: You know, and you know he was like that, dude,
are you kidding me? You don't know this band?
Speaker 1: Like it was like, dude, I go into Sebastian Bach, vote.
Speaker 6: You yo, but I think I've had in Goldwaite either one.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean another guy that you mentioned was you
know I was telling you before I worked with David
Johansson for twenty over twenty four years now, and I mean,
this is a band that he would like. He doesn't
love a lot of rock and roll, but you know
he doesn't know flip is he will? But this is
a band because you were mentioning the lyrics, how you know,
it's an infectious you know, there's a lot of great
melodies in there. But if you really dive in to
what he's saying with Bryn's saying, I mean, it says
something and that's you know, another beautiful thing about the band.
Speaker 6: I think one of the things that's really artful about
Brin's lyrics is they're not too on the nose. You
can you listen to it and you say, oh, may
he's talking about talking about somebody talking about a situation.
But it's not those kind of very literal lyrics. I
went to the store and bought a thing, and then
a thing happened, and the thing happened. It's about what's
going on in people's heads and that allows you to
reflect on people you know and what the things you've
lived through, and then that makes that song yours right. Well,
there's a real high art. There's a real high art
to that. And yeah, from Heat Miser over here has
that and.
Speaker 2: Look the and the one the one that sticks out
that I that I noticed in the book is from
I Wish I was a Planet, where he says swallowing stars,
What the hell does that mean?
Speaker 6: But it works, Yes, it just sounds good, it plays good.
There's got to be some of that too.
Speaker 3: Is there a new record in the works, Rien, Uh?
Speaker 5: I think so. I believe so the material is. I
think I believe I have the material.
Speaker 3: Yeah, perfect timing, you know, with the book and now
a new record and obviously you guys are back together.
Speaker 5: I have spoken to John fields about it. He's up
for it. The truth of the matter is, for me,
I kind of need some form of management in places.
I'm sure you understand. And I have been talking to
a couple of different people that I really like. So
hopefully I'll get some help.
Speaker 3: Hopefully people we'll see this, and uh, you know I
want to help.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I'm hoping people see it too.
Speaker 6: Yes, that's for your own selfish reasons. How could you
be so selfish?
Speaker 3: Is he?
Speaker 6: How could you use a podcast to promote yourself so flagrantly?
Speaker 2: I would never do anything like that. And I know
Keith does have a hard out. He has to bounce
here really quick. I got got how long?
Speaker 1: Nine minutes?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh all right?
Speaker 3: We want to keep it that long unless you wanted
to wrap it up is well, no, it's up to you.
An Elvis impersonation gig coming up or something, right.
Speaker 2: No, no, No, An's Faily tribute gig this Saturday night,
Saturday Saturday. We have a Todd Howworth playing with us,
so we're going to do all the Frailey's combat stuff
with him, which is badass.
Speaker 3: He was in Jersey for a while.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, whereabouts in Jersey are you, I'm.
Speaker 3: In Central Jersey. I'm in a you know, in your
Red Bank. Are you familiar with Red Bank?
Speaker 5: But Central Jersey?
Speaker 3: I get Yeah, we get offended when you call it
South Jersey, and you know, because it's uh people always
say once they go over the Driscoll Bridge at South Jersey,
We're not We're I'm about forty five to fifty minutes
out of the city, sort of.
Speaker 6: Stone pony Ish area.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little further north. I mean a little bit
north than that, but yeah, which is a It was
the best kept secret in the world. And sadly after
nine to eleven, I mean, well, you know, obviously a
lot of people came this way, and then after COVID,
I mean you know this, if you google our area,
it's just it's considered a suburb of New York City.
Speaker 6: Now, well, Kevin Smith movies are all red Bank, right
down the street.
Speaker 3: Kevin is right down the street. And all those guys.
Speaker 6: Facing Amy and all those clerks, that's all Red Bank.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's all Red Bank.
Speaker 1: Yeah, except which was Eden Prairie, Yeah, Prairie.
Speaker 6: He needed a skank your them all, so he had
to go to the west.
Speaker 3: He just opened up a real big theater in Atlantic Islands,
which he's doing a lot of great stuff, you know, cool.
So it's a it's a well, you know, you're North Jersey, right,
so I am.
Speaker 6: I am up here in the north Marstown Marstown, Yes, yes,
historic Lawstown.
Speaker 3: And they had the great studio.
Speaker 6: Marstown's awesome. I love it. I was a nature kid
and I got Woods five minutes this way, and I
got New York forty minutes that way, and it was
dreamed for me, perfut in.
Speaker 3: New Jersey, right what I mean what I'm saying. You know,
it was such a cool thing where yeah, Jersey sucks,
but then you know, because we liked it right where
it was. But it was a great artist community where
you could afford to get apartments and you know a
lot of rehearsal spaces and people I like.
Speaker 5: After that, I've always liked New Jersey. Spent a lot
of time there. After I moved to New York City.
I was fortunate enough to meet Richie ran A Stars
and spend a lot of time with Ritchie.
Speaker 3: Great guy. I love Ritchie.
Speaker 5: That yeah, great guy. That Bergen County I believe he
lived in Yeah, yeah, just on the other side of
the river.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Britain.
Speaker 2: How much how much of the merchandise stuff and the
and the marketing, how much of that did you learn
from just growing up on Kiss and how much of
it was Bill?
Speaker 5: It was all us, none from Bill. What Bill brought
was yes, say yes to almost everything. Like when we
got kicked off of the Evanescence tour, for instance, I'm
in the back of the bus and Bill is on
the cell phone with the agent that we had to
sign with, who was Evaness's the agent to get the dour.
We did a pillow fight at the end of the show.
We had vacuums and leaf blowers and as you remember
is he were very studious about cleaning up after ourselves
and said it was only clean on stage, there was
everywhere else. The road manager punched our road manager, Cole
cocked him in the back of the head. That was
as we were walking towards the bus after the show
and the crowd was going fucking ape shit right. We
went over to killing We killed totally killed it. We
were hot, and so later that night Bill was in
the back of the bus and I'm sitting with him
in the lounge and he's talking to the agent, and
the first thing I hear is Bill say, well, you
said you wanted a rock and roll band open up
for him, and then hung up on the guy. And
that's when I went, yeah, like the first time I
ever played back in black, you know, on trump'sing guitar.
At the same time, was showing off to Bill in
a warehouse waiting for everybody to get there to rehearse.
My joke is that's what you come up with when
it's your turn to bring the beard or rehearsal and
nobody else shows up.
Speaker 3: That's what happens.
Speaker 2: Well, you talk about, you know, just being on fire
when you're you know, when you guys are playing. You know,
I heard so many stories about that tour you guys
did with Ever Clear and the Mayfield four. Oh like
beginning of the show, you guys were first on, there
was another band, then there's Mayfield four, and then.
Speaker 1: And then Never Clear.
Speaker 2: But they would make you and Freaky stay in costume
until the very end to come back out because you
guys are going over so big, right.
Speaker 6: Yep, you road which your road crew hated because they
had to keep everything ready for you to do that
last five minutes.
Speaker 5: I'd be remiss if I didn't finish my statement because
you had asked the question how much of it was
you guys and how much of it was Bill? A
coin because it's very you know, by proxy, Bill is
telling me to do all the things I'm doing I'm
thinking of without having to say him because of what
I was influenced by earlier. So at that point, quite frankly,
it's a semi ethereal thinking. But I was already listening
to him tell me what to do. And I was
in the fifth grade. So when I came up with ideas,
they flowed with him and he just never said no.
So like once again the back in Black thing where
I did that while just him, he goes, do that tonight.
We played the first half and we got done, and
I did it and it went over huge, and he goes,
You're going to be doing that every night now. So
shit like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, one question I wanted to ask you, Brnn,
is you know I'm a huge Mcronson fan. You know
I did get to meet him as a fan when
I was a kid, But what was it like working
with him? And I also heard that you guys were
the first people actually work in Paisley Park in a
Prince's studio. So, I mean, that's like an incredible experience.
Speaker 5: It was a game changer for me because what happened
at that session was Mick Ronson and myself got along
like a house on fire. And at one point I
asked him why he was why he took the gig,
and he pointed at me and he says, you're the
best natural guitar player I've ever seen in my life. Wow,
and me yeah, And he introduced me. Then he got
us a show with I when the Hunter Ronson band
Why Ui Orta album was touring and when he introduced
me to my hero ian Hunter. That's how he introduced me. Wow.
And when we got done making the record, Mick mixed it.
I wasn't even in the building at the time, and
you know, there was reports that people thought it was
a little heavy on my guitar and that I that
I was there when mix mixed it, and since he
and I got along so well, that I influenced the mix,
when in truth, I had absolutely nothing to do with
it whatsoever. It was kind of an interesting thing.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: He ruined meeting a lot of other rock stars for
him because as you know, he was from Hall, he
was from a small industrial esque town and Assault of
the Earth individual. What an incredible experience, Uh fucking great?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I met him. He was
playing with Ian and you know, I've got to know
Ian's another great guy who I've got to know throughout
the years. But I mean I think that was and
I met a lot of people, you know, from radio
and as a musician. I think the only time I
ever really got starstruck was around Mick Ronson, because you know,
this is the guy behind Hockey Dory and Ziggy starred
us and you know, everything he's done, even the Wildhearts,
And I was just such a fan, you know, and
I was like, it's Mick Ronson. You don't meet Mick Ronson.
And as you said, he couldn't have been the nicer guy.
But you know, to do that, and to do it
at Prince's studio, I mean, what was the vibe in
that place? I mean that must have been sick.
Speaker 5: It was super cool. Yeah, we were the first, you know,
people to go in there and rent the studio, I guess.
And I'll tell you one story that was really funny.
My then manager at the time his name was herb
Guardians from the nineteen sixties, managed Buffy, Saint Marie, the
Young Rascals, a lot of the first cast members of
the first rung of Saturday Night Live, Ed Bagley, Junior,
Bill Cosby, and a plethora of other musical artists. Him,
myself and Mick Ronson were at the kitchen at Paisley
Park Studios and Prince walked in to meet Mick and
say how said go, and he said great, and he
introduced everybody and we shook hands with him except for
my manager, this very large, funniest guy I ever met
in my fucking life, very large, aging man with big
gray hair like you like you would picture a nineteen
sixties manager. And he's standing over his arms closed, and
Prince goes to shake his hand, and he goes, what
you don't recognize me? And Prince goes, should I? And
he goes under a cherry moon, I'm the guy who
bought it. Lego had only sold one copy and that Prince,
and Prince should obviously know him, because if it only
sold one copy, wouldn't he know who it was that
bought it? I fucking walked I walked away. I walked away.
Really slow. I was probably sweating, I was probably red
in the face. And I'm walking back towards the control room,
mumbling to myself, we're done, it's over. And I hear
mixed Cuban heels coming behind me. Walked in the control
room and I turn around. I go, it's over, isn't it.
We're out of here, and he goes, I had to
leave so I wouldn't start fucking cracking up. Man, that
might have been the funniest thing I've ever seen in
my old bucket.
Speaker 1: Well, so how does Prince respond to that?
Speaker 5: I don't recall. I think it's fair to say I
immediately went into shock.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you don't know what just happened. You probably
went over and over in your head for hours after that.
Speaker 5: I just went, this guy's balls are like that big.
There was no there was no reasons whatsoever. But this
is the kind of humor herb hat. He was very
cutting nineteen sixties, managing a lot of comedians, you know
in that area what's it called, what's the word I'm looking?
You know, Bleeker Street area, New York City in the
nineteen sixties of a kettle of fish, you know, the
bitter and when Ratlin Bones lived in New York City
and he managed us. We played all those places, Kenny's
cast Away, all of it. Loved it, fucking loved it,
China Club, Limelight, CB, GBS, a few times with Nightbob mixing.
Yeah yeah, New York City, man, Yeah, baby, it was
a great time, really fucking great, really fucking great.
Speaker 3: Well it moved and moved over to the next borough now,
which is uh, you know, Brooklyn is doing something.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, thank's going on there.
Speaker 3: But New York City will make a comeback. And that's
what I loved about Minnesota too, because the first time
I was out there, it is like the mini Apple,
you know, I mean, it's it's a great town for music.
The people are awesome, and you know, I know first
first Avenue in Lake Elmo, those are.
Speaker 5: My Lake Elmo excellent and Lake Elmo.
Speaker 3: A friend of ours, you know, where we were crashed
out and first at what a beautiful city man, and
you know, and a great culture for music and art
and rock and roll and gone.
Speaker 5: To the game.
Speaker 3: What was it the gay eighties? What was that place?
Speaker 1: Nineties?
Speaker 5: Yeah, nineties, it was great, you know.
Speaker 3: The sheriff Yeah, yeah, great, you know, great restaurants. It's
very cool man, and.
Speaker 5: Good couches to sleep on when John comes to town.
Speaker 6: By the way, I'm going to throw in something here
because you were talking, both of you were talking so
much about how really just essentially nice. Some of these
guys were mick ronson herb Gart and all that. And
one of my lasting feelings about this whole book experience was,
and I say so, in the last chapter, it really
was apparent these are four men, the original lineup. The
four men really really like each other, and that just
came through with every contact. They liked each other back
in the day. They liked each other when they weren't playing,
they were still in touch. They like each other now
it's there's a warmth and a fellow feeling and an
ease of interaction that is just contagious. So when I
entered that world, I was just so embraced by it.
And in the world of writing rock bios or Hollywood bios,
most of the juice comes from all that guy said
that guy's shit and the other guy said he's still
was crap, And there's literally none of that, And nobody
exercised one ounce of editorial control on me. But there
wasn't any need for it. These people got nothing to hide.
They love each other and it comes through and the
quality is there in those recordings. So the recordings speak
for themselves, even though I tried to speak for them
for two hundred and eighty pass But it was just
as a fan who knew a little something about how
to write a book. It was a dream project, it
really was. And these are nice, nice people who like
what they do. And the subtitle of the book, the
Little Band that Almost Could, comes from the fact that
they had their setbacks, but they never really stopped trying
because this is what they do.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: They had a shot at a big record contract in
the company folds. They had a shot at a record
contract and the vice president changes. They had a shot
at a contract and somebody sues the company for back royalties.
The company goes away, but they kept persisting because this
is just in their bloodstream. This is what they do,
and they can count on each other. They all got
each other's backs. And I'm telling you, if the day
after tomorrow Britton calls these guys and says, hey, you
want to do a thing, the answer is going to be, yeah,
when should we show up?
Speaker 5: We do have a couple of days coming up.
Speaker 3: Good, what do you got caught up?
Speaker 5: Got a hard set? Sure yet, but I have a
lot of plays day Wallace before there.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, I look forward to seeing you. You know,
I can't wait to hear you know whatever you got
going on to do record and you go, hopefully a
film whatever the case may be. But uh, I think
Izzy really for getting me into the band.
Speaker 3: But I love the band.
Speaker 5: Well, it's been great to meet at Keith.
Speaker 7: I know you're on limited time, so we you know, Yeah,
I'd like to pick yourself at some point with all
you guys, but uh, you know, John Brenn, great, great
seeing you guys. Great talking about flipp and uh keep
on keeping on and Isy you demand.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: That's what I love to hear. On that note, we're
say again where we can get the book Amazon?
Speaker 6: Uh no, not Amazon, the Amazon. They'll they'll get it
in band camp rock Steady. If they seek me Google
Flip with two p's. Thanks for having us. They will
get connected to it.
Speaker 2: All right, John mc mit chalski, there we go, Brent
awrens Keith Roth.
Speaker 1: My name is Izzie Presley. Thanks for having us Thanks.
Speaker 5: For having us love buddy, it's.
Speaker 3: Be a part of it. Thank you so much.