Speaker 1: Hi, This is Bobby Brown and welcome to another fucking podcast.
Speaker 2: My livers all twisted up, and you know what I did.
Speaker 3: I loaded up with alcohol, more specifically vodka, whiskey, beer, tequila,
more beer, more vodka, more whisky, and more beer.
Speaker 1: Once an orange whipp ounch whip ounch whip, three orange whips.
Speaker 2: So you're fur I've come here to break your monotony.
Let me have my piece because I'm shooting with this one, folks,
I don't fare man.
Speaker 1: The unsprinted, uncensored, loose tannon of common tanner. Didn't you
say that?
Speaker 2: Why you come out with stink like that? Poop can poop.
Speaker 1: Out o see son.
Speaker 2: Old legends never die, They just lose.
Speaker 1: Weight like a legend and an adamwork bumb of a
lot of light.
Speaker 3: Lenny. Hey, I've got a midget friend, and albin a
friend and another friend who thinks Lord of the Rings
is real.
Speaker 1: Together we call ourselves the Unforgoutable won is he? Let
the fun begin?
Speaker 2: Yes, Carrie, we have heard of van Halen. Hello Las Vegas,
Hello world, and hello my loyal minions. It is good
to see you, and it's always good to be seen.
My name is He Presley is I'm is Anne is
He Presley? My name is is He Presley. I'm the
host of the program. It has called Another fin Podcast,
and we have an amazing show for you this evening.
And I'm bringing on a buddy that I've known for
a few years now. We've crossed paths musically, not on stage.
Speaker 1: But otherwise.
Speaker 2: And uh, I'm on the Cruise of the Edge, which
he is a host of this year and at Soundcheck Live,
which I will be hosting next Wednesday night. This so
not this Wednesday, but that's next Wednesday, the twenty first.
If you are using your math, and make sure you
check out all the socials at Real Lizzie Presley all
the all the way across the board, Twitter, in scram
and Facebook and of course the show page and other
Refford podcast and might get some new people listening this
week because we are going to dive into the prog world,
which is weird for me because I can't count past
Peter Chris. And make sure you subscribe on YouTube and
on Spreaker and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So, ladies and.
Speaker 2: Gentlemen, after all that spiel, we got a hold on
one second, Jimmy because I have to do my uh
my when I do. At the top of every show.
In the words of my close personal friends the Home College,
Dave Austin brack One for the working man, ah God,
bless Beard, Jimmy Keegan, everybody.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Greetings, you have, I have inions.
Speaker 2: I get I think you just create am out of
thin air and they just all they like automatically reproduce.
Speaker 1: Funny noise and don't really say words, but they say yep, yep.
Speaker 2: Sure that one can only hope and hopefully they have
nice boobies. We always like it when there's nice boobies.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Jimmy has a brand new record that is available for
pre order right now. It is self titled, which is odd,
but there is your first solo record, so I get it.
You know, you can go to Jimmy Keagan dot com.
That's to ease. Just look in the description and actually
I'll have the link if you guys are watching on
the YouTube and actually if you're listening on the on
the audio, the link will be right down there, so
you can click on Jimmy Keegan dot com and going
pre order it. How you doing, buddy.
Speaker 1: It's it's been a good it's been a week or
it's been a month, yeah, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm good. It's uh, you know, between gigs and you know,
trying to stay alive. I've been working on, you know,
getting this whole promotion stuff and preparation for the actual
release of this thing. And I've been in every kind
of situation you can be in where I've released some
kind of record except this chair. Yeah, I've been in
every kind of band. I've been a you know, a
band member. I've been a you know, played sessions for
big records, blah blah blah. Who cares. But when you're
not in this chair, you really don't get the respect
what goes into this. And and I'm not doing this
with a label either, So this is all, you know,
done by hand.
Speaker 2: And well that's kind of that's kind of the way
to do it nowadays. You know, you don't really need
a label, but sometimes you do need a label.
Speaker 1: I mean it's well, if you're doing if you're doing
something more along the lines of a Taylor Swift kind
of thing, then yeah you want a label because that's
something you want to market a different way. But you know,
I'm as a fifty four year old drummer. I'm not
going to market to teenage you know, swifties and stuff
like that, although that would be great. I mean, that
would be a great audience because you know what those guys,
you know, what the young kids understand, and that the
the the old kids don't understand is the concept of
sharing and telling your friend and telling people you don't
know about it, and wearing the T shirts. And because
unfortunately us old guys are like, oh, I don't want
to bother anybody, you know, right right?
Speaker 2: Plus plus we're still wearing our kiss t shirts from
nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's other bands have come out since then.
Speaker 2: I know, it's it's odd. You know what you should
have called the album Tate?
Speaker 1: Why is that?
Speaker 2: Because then you'd get that swifty crowd. Oh oh right,
you named it after Taylor? Oh even that because there's
a strong fishing presence in the songs on the record,
Tte goes Fishing.
Speaker 1: You know. Funny thing is I I actually did have
a title for this record, and so there's two Gregs
involved in the In the album cover, there's there's Greg
Crane who did the actual artwork or you know, drew
my face, Ah, if you will. And then there's my
friend Greg the Straps, who did the graphic design for
the whole thing, and I forgot to tell him what
the title was, so he just assumed it was self titled,
and when I got the artwork, I kind of went, yeah,
that'll work.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's that easy.
Speaker 1: I struggled over a title for this thing long and
you know, and hard, and eventually just realized it came
down to a simple mistake of not telling him what
the title.
Speaker 2: What was the title going to be?
Speaker 1: Well, it doesn't matter now, Oh I don't, but I go.
Speaker 2: But I'm just curious. Now you got me all flustered.
Speaker 1: So I had two titles working. One of them was
Settlers because there's a song called where Settlers Go, and
as you do, over the years, I just came to
know that song as Settlers. I didn't really call it
where Settlers Go, so I kind of got used to
seeing that word, and it just was a I like
the way it sounded, not that it held any meaning
or anything like that. Just I just of all the
songs on the album, that one seemed to be the
one that my eye gravitated to. Okay, okay, and then
when I decided, well, I'm not going to do that,
I actually came up with a title and I called
it Notes from my Past because all these there's there's
three songs that are flat out covers if you will, okay, Uh,
there's a Talking Head song, there is a Split End song,
and there is an Andy Grammer song, and the rest
of them are from songwriters that I've worked with over
the course of my life slash career. Okay, so some
of these songs go back to the early nineties, so
that idea of I kind of humorously started also calling
it notes from my Past, because all these songs are.
Speaker 2: That old yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: In terms of their composition, but they've been all worked
new and fresh.
Speaker 2: For the right But yeah, and that's what that's I mean.
I was gonna ask, like, so you you weren't writing
for this record. This is just like you said it started.
Speaker 1: It started out I intended to write with some of
you know, with these writers and write new songs for
a record. But I've never been I've never been a writer.
I've always been a ranger. I've always worked with writers,
and the longer it took me to compose songs that
I thought anything of, the more I realized, will these
guys have songs? I have songs that I've loved for
this long that still stick with it. I still listen
to as if they were you know, a Peter Gabriel
record or a you know, a led Zeppelin record or
you know, something like that. So it just occurred to me,
why don't I just go into these songs that I
worked with them on the composition of and see if
there's anything that I can pull from that, and at
least that'll get things roll. And I was thinking I'll
do one or two, and before I knew it, that's
what the whole record was.
Speaker 2: Okay, So but the cover songs where I mean, obviously
you being in the prog world, you're gonna dig deep,
but also be not being in a prog world. I mean,
the only split end song I know is I Got You.
Speaker 1: That way, you know, right? So that's a later song
of theirs, that's the next album. But six Months in
a Leaky but was the first time I'd heard of them.
And it's not even that I have any particular giant
fondness first one. I mean, I obviously enjoy them, you know,
in the Finn Brothers Crowded House and all that sort
of stuff. Great great records, but that song, for some reason,
kind of hit. I believe in the idea that there
is genetic memory, okay, or some term like that, there's
some kind of similar term like that, And what that
amounts to is I am Irish genetically speaking. You know,
my family generations ago came from Ireland, which means somewhere
in there there's a bit of Dutch and there's a
bit of Scottish and British and all that kind of
stuff that whatever is that makes up Ireland. So consequently
I am I've always been fond of you know, pipes
and drums and big chanty music that's like we're gonna
go break something whatever Jeth wrote Toll and stuff like that,
and it's it's always weird to me because I hear
it and it's like all the hairs on my arms
stick up, and I'm like, why do I Why do
I know this? Why do I feel it? You know,
because it's I think it's just genetic memory. So that
song was one of the first occasions that I kind
of felt that that sort of I don't know why
I dig this, but I dig this. I mean, it's
a great song, but I just had that kind of
it kind of permeated my skin kind of thing. And
so as I started looking for I knew I wanted
to do a couple of covers, and I started thinking
about them. My girlfriend Chris and I were talking about
various other songs, and there were a handful of songs
that came up, and that one was the one that
kept getting the most. You know, but what about that?
But what about that? What about that? What could I
do with that? What could I do with that? So
that that ended up being that one. The talking Head
song was completely left field. I had planned a different
talking Head song, And the longer the covers were the
ones that I was waiting till sort of the end
to track because they were I was thinking they'd be
the easiest, but I wanted to do the great curve. Okay,
same record jump. But the more I thought about it,
the more I kept listening to the song, the more
I realized I didn't want to change it because I
liked the way that song went okay, and I felt
like had anything I do to it almost hinders and
almost instead of making it. I mean cause I don't know.
You can make a cover song better, you make a
cover song different, right, and I just didn't hear it different.
Speaker 2: Hold on, hold on, before we do that, are you
do you do you think of any covers you like
better than the original? Like Johnny Cash.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a perfect example. Yeah, yeah, that's a that's
a that's an example where where the nine is nails
version almost doesn't even matter, right, and it's and I
still think it's great, but it's like, hm, you know,
some people might call it sacrilege, but I think Elton
John's versions of both Pinball Wizard and Uh.
Speaker 2: I wholeheartedly agree with that.
Speaker 1: By the way, Lucy and this guy with Diamonds are
better than are better than the originals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think like the Pinball Wizard is so I mean,
plus you got the visual you know, from the He's
on the stilts and the whole nine yards. It's just
so bad ass. But yeah, I agree, I like that.
Speaker 1: Version, And I know Beatles fans. I'm sure I have
Beatles fans, right, I mean, like, I think that's that
when you say something like that, it sense a shock
wave and all the Beatles fans go, ah, what the hell?
And I know, I know, I know I shouldn't say that,
because how can it be better than the Beatles, But
I just I just like them better. Well, but I
still like the Beatles. I don't dislike them.
Speaker 2: Right, I don't dislike the Beatles either, But I think
the Rolling Stones putting out a new record that blows
the fuck out of the quote unquote New Beatles songs.
Song that they came out with just proves again how
superior the Rolling Stones are.
Speaker 1: Oh well, you're gonna get an argument on me in
that one, but but we'll avoid that. See now my thing.
So here's my thing with the Beatles thing. I mean,
I just said to someone else too, I don't even
know that they needed to release it. I agree with
me for me, and I'm glad they did. It's not that.
I just think there was something about the romance of
that that I'm not expecting when they say it's a
new Beatles, I'm not expecting this to be the best
Beatles song in the world. I'm expecting it to just
be something novel and more more uh more sentimental than anything.
But when I heard it and realized that the lyric
was such a simple kind of just love note. My
imagination went to Paul and Ringo, taking it to John's family,
Julian and Sean and Yoko, and to Olivia's family and
going here, look what we did because of cool technology.
One last little thing, because there there no one knows
what it is to be the Beatles or the Stones
or those few rock bands that have been around so
long that have had It's not just longevity, but it's
the impact that you know Zeppelin had, that you know
Deep Purple had, that Queen had, Michael Jackson, you know,
there's a really select Madonna. You know that it doesn't
matter what genres, it's across the board. But to be
a Beadle or to be a Beatle's family member is
that no one understands it. I've I've had the pleasure
of hanging out with Julian a couple of times, and
our conversation was interesting in that that that sort of
came up in the conversation, not that he said anything,
it's just the the nature of what our conversation was.
It made me really realize that concept of of how
much I appreciate them and also feel for them m hm.
Because by nature, Paul's kids George's kids, you know, someone,
some Ringos kids, Michael Jackson's kids are never going to
understand what it is to be, to to just be
what you and I did and grow.
Speaker 2: Up, right, kids think about Priscilla, not Priscilla at Lisa Marie.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, you want to talk about having the biggest
shadow over you in the history of entertainment.
Speaker 1: Right right, that same thing. It's that's the same principle.
It's like you just you can't get away from the
idea that no matter what happens in your life, you
are that person's kid and the whole world knows who
you are.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And you didn't ask for it, right right.
Speaker 2: I mean I've met I look, I met Lisa once
and it was at a shuffle him through meet and
greet thing.
Speaker 4: It's but I I trust me that that that that
moment is in me forever because obviously you know my
love with the King. But you could just tell how
she was, like she just guarded, you know it just
the body language. She just looked guarded. But I understand it.
I get it well.
Speaker 1: I mean, the my occasion of hanging out with Julian.
So the first song on my record is actually, oddly enough,
it's called The Fishermen three. It's from a The songwriter
on the primary songwriter is Mark Spyrot, who's written for
Bad English and Heart and John Waite and a lot
of great artists. And I played on his album that
that record occurred shows up on originally, so technically that's
a cover as well, but sadly it's not a record
that a lot of people have, although it's a freaking
brilliant record. Julian Lennon actually appears on it on that
song original version. So I met Julian through Mark because
we used to have a residency at the Troubadour every
Wednesday night and he would come in and sit in
it once in a while, and they wrote a song
called Saltwater, which is a gorgeous, gorgeous song, and so
I from that I ended up the first time, all right,
I mean.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, no, no, it just the audio stopped recording. Whatever,
I can fix it later, it's all good.
Speaker 1: So the first night I met him, we finished a
show and he's like, hey, man, I get to all
of us. I'm I'm supposed to go make this appearance
at this club.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I've been like paid to red carpet it, you know,
velvet rope it. And I really don't want to do this,
but you know, if you guys, if you guys aren't
doing anything, it would be great to have like some
friends hanging out. So we all went and that was nice.
It was exactly that everything you hate about, you know, boots, boots,
boots and cats and boots and cats and boots. Yeah, yeah,
young people and alcohol. And I noticed Julian just kind
of chilling off to one side and really just not
part of the whole gang. So I decided just I'm
going to go up and just say hello and you know,
hopefully not intrude on whatever his his solace and everything.
And I just started chatting with him and asking him
like when he's going to do a new record, and
you know, you live in LA. It's small talk, nonsense, nothing,
nothing of major importance. He asked me about a few things,
like you know, who do I like musically? And so
the only the only occasion that I'm that anything resembling
his father came up is when he said, do you
have any influences? I said, well, besides the obvious, and
then I moved on that's it. That's the question I
came to mention and then we kept on. So we
just chatted. It was great and he was fantastic. He's
he's lovely. He's a great guy, very friendly, very easy
to talk to. We talked for something along the lines
of about twenty five minutes. I mean, that's I mean,
this was in a club, that's how that's how good
it was. And suddenly I noticed he started to get
kind of for clemped. He looked a little emotional and
like something was bugging him, and so I was like, hey, man,
you know, I kind of just came over here and interrupted,
you know whatever. You look like, you know, did I
say something wrong? Did I bug you? Am I in
the way? And he's like he's like, no, no, that's
not it at all. And I said, well you want
me to leave? And he's like no, no, no, actually no,
what it is is it just occurring to me that
this might be the longest conversation I've ever had without
talking about my father. Wow. Wow, And you go, yeah,
I have no idea what it is to be in
your shoes. Yeah, that's just living your life.
Speaker 2: I think. Look, I think that's a great lesson that
we all need to, you know, learn, Like you know,
I told you I went to the hockey game last night,
and one of the people I took to the game
is Frank Zappa's daughter, Diva, because I'm friends with and
he's like, hey, she's gonna be in town. Please take
her out, show her a good time. She's gonna be
in town for ten weeks. I love for you guys
to hang out, like cool, yeah, whatever, So we took
her to the hockey game last night, you know. And
then I know it sounds like a fucking name dropping,
but this is this is what happened, you know. You know,
I'm friends with Brian Slago for Metal Blade Records, and
his seat with two rows in front of us, and
Lizzie Borden is there, and it's and look, you cannot
introduce her without saying, oh, this is just Diva. You
have to especially do somebody like Brian and Lizzie. You
have to say, this is Diva Zappa her whole name,
you know. And she's not a music gall at all.
Speaker 1: You know, He's just trying to be herself.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. And no, she wasn't weird about it, you know.
It's like she's great and if it's just like normal,
you know, Diva.
Speaker 1: I I've met her a few times. I'm not she's
the She's the one I'm least familiar with I know,
and duezl a lot better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and I love It's amit. It's a fucking riot.
Speaker 1: I love him and I are actually the Actually Moon
is one of the most clever people I've ever met.
And I don't even I know her, but the least
of that too, I mean, I don't know all that well.
But but yeah, they're all great. They're all really sweet people.
And yeah.
Speaker 2: Well it was the funny thing though, was like I
didn't know there was another I didn't know there was
a Diva, Like, oh oh, I thought I was okay, cool,
bad ass, there's another Zappa that I didn't know about,
because it's just not common knowledge, you know, unless you're
a Zappa fan, you know that.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 2: I just I just thought there was a three and
that was ship.
Speaker 1: There's four. Okay, cool bad ass and very cool gal.
All the whole family was was great. I had the
very good fortune to meet Frank and just chill again,
chilling in his kitchen half an hour or so, hanging
out hardly talking about music at all. He asked me
if I was. He's like, I'm assuming you're a musician. Yeah.
I explained why I was there and yeah, but and yeah,
we just talked about you know, like family stuff and
you know, where'd you grow up kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Are Yeah, Well, I mean, look, it's like when I
went to Stone called Steve Austin's house. That's why I
do the bit at the top of the show. Yes,
is he a close personal friend, No, he's not. Can
I text him and he knows who I am?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: But I went over there with Don Jamison because Don
Jamison was doing his podcast, you know, and Steve was
cool as hell, and we were sitting there afterwards just
talking about music. You know, we weren't talking about wrestling. Well,
Don's not really a wrestling guy anyway, so I was like,
I was the only wrestling dork in the room with
one of the most famous wrestlers.
Speaker 1: Of all time.
Speaker 2: You know what, God damn it, Son, But we're talking
about music, and like the best parts, like Don and
Steve were just talking about metal, like like fucking shit
that you know, you can't read the logo metal bands,
you know, they just look like a bunch of like
trees and Steve Austin just stops.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I don't want to ruin my wrap with you guys,
but god damn it. I love Firehouse and Don and
I like dude, those are our bros, you know. So
we ponded over music.
Speaker 2: It was great and Steve is a fucking great guy
because we weren't talking wrestling, you know, like when I
hang out with Jericho, we don't talk wrestling. We talk
about fucking music. Yeah that's not that I hang out
with Jericho on a regular basis, you know, but occasionally
it happens because.
Speaker 1: I know people.
Speaker 2: But anyways, so, but yes, that is an amazing lesson
to learn that, especially when you meet somebody famous, you
don't talk about You just talk. You don't bring up
why you know who they are.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I've had some occasions with people who
were from you know, famous families. But but the conversation
in that case, when it came up to their family,
I didn't bring it up. It was brought up, or
they actually brought it up there. They were like, you know,
are you a fan of my of my mother? Oh?
I am, actually yes, quite a much, quite a bit
that kind of thing. So it wasn't that something that
I brought up as much as it was just, you know,
it was part of conversation, you know. But but I
grew up in La So the idea of coming across
people that are fall into the category of famous, you
know whatever, whether they're in music or television, film or
something like that, a little more common, especially when you're
in the business.
Speaker 2: Right, we're gonna get to that. We're gonna get to that.
We are going to get to that, but we still
have to finish talking about your record first. Got to
bring it back, because that's why we're here. We're talking
about the record. A pamping the record. Gotta sell some copies.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. The one thing, my favorite thing
now that I have started talking about it, the one
thing that I need to mention is is the musicians
that play on it.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of that Walter, you know, I know, you.
Speaker 1: Know Walter, you know, Steve Becketty, you know Jennifer Oberly,
you know j Joe you know who else is on
there that you know? Shane Silowski, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Eric Dover, Yes, trying to think of else, I mean,
but anyway, so you know a lot of the a
lot of the folks that are on there, so knowing
them not only as people, you know them as the
musicians that they are. And one of the things that
I mean, I've always been a session musician, so I'm
used to the idea that we come in to this
artist and add this song. You know, we add this
character to this song, and either we make the song
better or we make you know, whatever, We do what
we can to try and you know, make the song
as good as we can. But when you're on the
receiving end of it, when you have a vision in
mind and you go to a musician that you chose
specifically because you think they will bring that vision to life,
and not only do they bring it to life, but
they bring something way better and the song surpasses your
expectations because of them. I don't know that. I don't
know it on this side of it. I only know
it in that I've been in those shoes. I've been
with those guys and seen guitar player and seen a
bass player like, really, just holy crap, make this record.
But it's not. It's a different thing when you're the
recipient of it, when you ask someone and they bring
they they come with so much more than you expect
and you expect I mean, I think it. He's like
one of the greatest guitar players.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's amazing. He's amazing, and he just.
Speaker 1: He just really really brought so much character. And Jen's
bass playing and Shane's bass playing. Just I mean it. Actually,
when I was doing the final listens like, Okay, is
this mix done? Does this sound like a cohesive record?
That kind of stuff from driving around in my car
and you know, just getting used to it all and
listening for the little details. Yeah, the thing that I
kept coming back to was all the little details that
that everyone added. And it's and it's just that, I mean,
I hope this record is is as much a tribute
to them as the songwriters. It's right, because just I mean,
holy crap, did they just bring a game across the board?
Every single player that's on here singer and you know,
Eliza and Caitlin and then you know Bring. It's just
nuts how how brilliant these musicians are. And it shows
and not always in this you know new Toly bits,
you know, Steve I kind of thing. It's in the detail,
it's in the the attitude and the the subtlety and
and that's my favorite part of it.
Speaker 2: So that being said, let me ask you this, you know,
being your involvement in the progue world and music that
is quote unquote trying to be perfect. That's as somebody
who loves sloppy ship, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I know, perfect is a is a bad word
to me.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, but you know what, but you know what
I mean? Was it hard for you? I mean, well,
did you? Is that the you wanted to not perfect,
but as close to perfect as you want it?
Speaker 1: Accuracy?
Speaker 2: Because I mean, like for me personally, sometimes mistakes are magic. Absolutely,
Sometimes sometimes sloppiness is magic, you know.
Speaker 1: Well, hence your love for the Rolling Stones. I mean,
one of the best things about the Stones is that
sort of they always sound like they've had a few
beers too many, and that's the charm of it. I mean,
that's Charlie Watts is far from perfect, but no one
sounds like Charlie Watts. No, no one has that that
feel and that groove. And it's I love when the
best thing about an artist can also be the worst
thing about them in the depending on who you're talking to.
I love it because they do this thing, I hate
it because they do the same thing. Wait a minute,
I love that kind of thing. So I mean, yeah,
from the producer point of view, what I was always
looking for. You know, it's funny because we mentioned Jen
Jen overly. She is a perfectionist. Okay, well, she's a
perfectionist in a certain manner of speaking. Most of the
parts that half the parts she played for me were
in the studio together, and half of them she sent
to me. The ones she sent to me, I hadn't.
I just said, here's the song, send me some bass.
And I got what she gave me, and and it
was great, And I was just like, yeah, when when
we tracked together in the same room, I'm trying to
think which one was the one that we did. Yeah,
Fisherman three, the same thing. First song she plays on that.
That's a first take, top to bottom, first take. Now
it wasn't the only take, right, But you wouldn't let
me that she get to do another path and she'd
get to do this and she'd get to die. I'm
just learning the song. I'm just figuring this out, and
I'm just going I have everything I want right right, Well,
let me do another take, I'm like, all right, I'll
hit record again, and she did it again, and I
think we did it three times total. Bit the first
take is the one I kept.
Speaker 2: Do you do you prefer being in the same room,
being able to look at somebody as you're doing it,
or do you like the digital I'll just send it
to your world.
Speaker 1: I think I like I like being in the same
room just because well, first of all, I just I mean,
everyone that's on the record I love to death, so
I like being with them. The hang is is yeah,
almost more important than the child, right, I don't know it.
I think there's part of me that loves because I
love the creative processes. I love it viewing the creative process.
I love seeing people go, you know what, what if
we did this? And I also love the technical side
of it. I like micing things up. I love the
engineering aspect of it. I mean, that's probably seventy percent
of the joy in this record was that side of it,
was the recording of it and the mixing of it.
And I like the conversations that spring out of it.
I like because in almost every occasion I didn't tell
them what to play. I just said, what do you hear,
because in most cases either it was like I said,
it was the cover song, or these songs had versions,
there were demos already. Yeah yeah, so I'm handing them
the demo. You know. There's a song well where Settlers Go.
That song was originally recorded for a different artist for
a different purpose that that got shelved. But the guitar
player on the original track was Ross Bolton. Okay, and
Ross Bolton is just again one of the finest musicians
ever walked the planet, and he laid down this very specific,
very fascinating guitar part. And so it was the only
occasion where I came into it kind of going, stay here,
stay in this lane. This is already done. If I
had my way, I would have just poureded his guitar
part forward and used it. But A we couldn't find
the original two inch tapes and B it was in
a different key. I had to change the key.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, but you can do that digitally.
Speaker 1: Now, you can do that digitally now. I just didn't
really want to do that. But but but I went
to Steve Eckerty to play guitar on it, and after
listening to the song a couple times, with him. He goes, Man,
he did this for two of the guitar players. He goes,
if I wasn't, if I was crazy, i'd swear this
this sounds like Ross Bolton. Well, actually it is and
same he plays on Fisherman three as well, and he's like, man,
this feels like it just needs like the Tim Pierce treatment.
I'm like, well, oddly enough, it's Tim Pierce playing on
the original record. And he's like, that's crazy. So it's like,
I mean, that's why I gravitate to to Steve Eckerdy
for a lot of those guitar parts, because he has
that same type of I don't mean he sounds like them,
but he has the same He's the same kind of
session player. Yeah, yeah, yeah, mentality of how he hears
things and approaches the guitar. And so it's funny that
he picked those two guys, you know, just off of sound.
Are you a Are you a big Elo guy?
Speaker 2: Because I got a big Elo vibe from the record.
Speaker 1: Wow, I am a big Elo guy. But I don't
really remember thinking about them over the course of this.
But it's interesting you would say that, because yeah, I
am a big Elo fan. I love the big harmonies.
I love, Yeah, I love the grandeur of elo and
you know, it's the Beatles if they'd kept.
Speaker 2: Going interesting interesting. But so as far as the Beatles.
Speaker 1: It's actually it's actually a George Harrison quote. He's like,
why do you use Jeffline to produce your records? Well,
he pretty much makes records. You know. It just sounds
like the Beatles, if we'd kept going. That's that was
what something with that effect. It's not an exactly.
Speaker 2: Are you now? Me? With the Beatles, I prefer the
fun pop shit for over the drug ear stuff.
Speaker 1: What about you? My two favorite albums are Revolver and
Rebe Soul and then and Then. I I mean, ask
me tomorrow. It's like Pepper, I'm not I'm not a
huge fan of the White album, but I like it all.
I'm pretty even because my tastes go across the way.
I love silly, fun music as much as I love deep, cerebral,
you know, heavy stuff. And I think the Beatles have
always been very good about walking that line. They They're
really good at writing, you know, a fun dance pop
tune as well as something that makes you go, wait
a minute.
Speaker 2: Well do you find it?
Speaker 1: You say?
Speaker 2: You do love silly, fun stuff. Do you find it
hard being in the prog world and you know, doing
what you do to be able to let that side
of you shine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's that's actually, it's one of the challenges
in the prog world of reminding people that you know,
it's supposed to be fun, right exactly. I mean, even
if the lyric is I mean, I've got a song
on the record called comfort Girl. There's nothing happy about
that song. It's a very it's topical origins are one
of the most sad and depressing moments in human history,
but there still should be joy in tracking it. I mean,
actually was one of the most joyous vocal tracks because
I worked with my friend Greg who wrote the song.
You know, he helped me with the vocal and it's
the one that I walked away feeling the most emotional about.
But yeah, I mean, that's the worst thing about the
progressive rock world is that everybody takes everything so seriously
and it's like, dude, you know, just lighting up, man,
it's all just fun and goofy. And I mean, if
you I wish you could see the notifications I've gotten
the same notification for the same hotel thing five times
in a row here, someone really wants me in this hotel.
When you see an interview with like Rick Wakeman or
something like that, and you see how silly he can be,
that's when you go, okay, good. At least he he
doesn't take it seriously in that regard. He takes the
playing of it, the craft seriously. But it's like, if
you know, if you're not laughing and goofing off and
being you know, if you don't have a bit of
humor and everything you do, go home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, it's like so Rob Rob that
puts on the jam on cruise to the edge of
the Late Night Live or yea, yeah, Rob ruts and
he like last year he reached out to me. He's like,
I want you to do something.
Speaker 5: I go what.
Speaker 1: He goes that phrase, I've heard that phrase somebody. Yeah.
Speaker 2: He goes, talk to Portnoy like, okay for what. He goes,
I want you guys to come in there and play
some fucking kiss songs. And I'm like, I go, dude,
they will riot. He goes, I know.
Speaker 1: You gotta do it though, And I brought it up
to Portnoy. He's like no way, man, they'll fucking it.
Speaker 2: So we didn't do it, Like, dude, come on, these
Kiss Gieks and those bands, let's do this. Oh that
would be But here's here's my here's a weird point
about Kiss though. I was before one of my Israeli
tribute gigs. We were sitting in the room talking doctor
the band, and an interesting point came up. You listen
to those first three Kiss records, especially the first one
songs like one hundred thousand Years, it's kind of caveman
Prague because they're.
Speaker 1: It's the timing of when the record was made too,
because that's still Prague was still popular, right, yeah, grand
scale general.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but like if you the way that Peter played
in the bass lines and some of the weird chord changes,
like what what the fuck are they doing? You know,
It's like I thought it was a good point. Caveman
Prague is like, all right, cool, God damn it. Now
I have to say I like progue but and let
Jimmy let me. Uh So, you grew up in Hollywood
and you were in the industry. Are you still in
the entertainment industry on the on the acting side, or.
Speaker 1: You not aggressively I mean, I've done some voiceover things
here and there. I mean, if someone cast me in something,
i'd do it. Well, yeah, absolutely, I don't. I don't,
but I don't have an agent anymore, and I don't,
you know, go out for auditions.
Speaker 2: So why were there no songs from Back to the
Future and over the top of Electric Bugaloo?
Speaker 1: God damn it.
Speaker 2: And this is where I'm pissed off that I was
not able. I forgot about getting the Shoot it, Dad,
shoot it, because of course Jimmy was the fucking voice
of Sherman Peabody and Back to the.
Speaker 1: Future Sherman Peabody pines that, you know what, So for
the for the simplest little thing, it's what two two
three lines? Yeah, space alien from Mar's Dad, shoot it,
shoot it. He's muted in the human form. Shoot him.
So I'm sure I was in there tracking for maybe
five minutes. But but here's here's the that session in
a nutshell. It's it's one of those things that I mean,
even in the movie passes by it. It's just it's
one of those things that on a resume, other than
the fact that the movie was so successful, it doesn't
even go on the resume. It's like, what you know,
it's a loop job. They could used to call it
looping or alternate dialogue recording. But I I go to
the studio and well, I got dropped off, and I
don't even remember where we recorded it. I think it
was that universal in there in there in the studio
they have on the lot. I walk into the control
I open the door to the main studio and you
know big studios have the double doors and everything like that.
And as I'm opening one door, the other door is
opening and outwalks Robert Samchis, Steven Spielberg and Michael J.
Speaker 2: Fox. And how old were you at this time?
Speaker 1: I was fifteen going on the scene.
Speaker 2: Because you sound like you're three.
Speaker 1: Well, I also had to imitate the guy.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so it's it's.
Speaker 1: Really it doesn't sound anything like because I'm doing an
impression of him, right right. He just wanted a different,
a different Yeah. Yeah, anyway, So I mean, of you know,
if you're any if you're alive in that period of time,
those three people and even Robert Zamcchis was still kind
of on his way up. This would have been the
cement that, like now we know who he is. But
you know, two of the greatest directors of that decade
along with the biggest possibly the biggest television star of
that decade. And eventually you know, movies and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And they walk out at the door and it's like hi,
and Spielberg says, oh, you must be here for the
for the loop Jump. Yeah. Man, there's there's some snacks
up there. Go ahead and just make self comfortab We've
got a few more things that we're doing before, but
you know, just hang out and we'll be right there
with you as friendly and down to earth as could be.
Michael J. Fox was leaving, so he said, Hi, you know,
we shook hands and you know, good to meet you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Nothing, I mean, that's it. That's the extent of it. It
was all, you know, four seconds of saying hello and
everything like that. And they all walk out and I
go in the studio. Now there's the engineers and the
text whatever like that, and some assistance and whatnot, and
I sit in the back just I'm going to be
out of the way. I've been in a studio before,
I know what it is. I'm just going to be
flying the wall here until it's my turn. A few
minutes later, Robert Semechis, Steve Vin Spielberg come back in
the room, and again, I'm fifteen years old, and they
are communicating with me as if I am a consomate professional.
Speaker 2: They do.
Speaker 1: They care nothing of my age. They are not speaking
down to me. They are speaking to me. This is
I know what I'm doing. I was as the autocasion.
I didn't audition, okay, I was. I was called in
because the casting agent for this job. I knew very
well because I've done a bunch of auditions for them.
So they just said, Jimmy, you're you're perfect for this.
Just go down and take care of it. Oh, okay, thanks.
I had no idea what it was. I didn't know
what the movie because this wasn't this movie didn't exist yet,
so I was, you know, but I knew that Zamechis
was tied to it, and I knew that was Ambling
and that's Spielberg. But that's that's a very impressive thing
to walk into a studio and have these guys talking
to a teenage kid like a professional rights as I'm
meaning I'm a professional. They were just they were friendly,
They gave very little direction other than like, when I
finally got out there, they gave me, you know, let's
do a couple of alternates, maybe shift the pitch a
little bit, you know this, and that was it. Otherwise
they let me do my thing. It was funny, you know,
there were some jokes told and everything like that, and
the whole event lasted maybe twenty minutes.
Speaker 2: But it's something that it's something that lasted a lifetime.
Speaker 1: It's a lifetime obviously because a I knew who those
guys were and the movie became this giant movie and
you know it's still you know, cycling around today, right.
But the thing is, when you have professionals of that
caliber treat you like a professional at that age, that
sticks with you, right, And that's something that you take
with you as you go along in your career. How
do you communicate with people? And you just you wonder
why when you look at Spielberg movies, all the kid
actors always put on these unbelievably brilliant performances, you know,
et all of the kids in that top to bottom,
even the little kid in uh Close Encounters, when you
find out how they got him to say some of
those lines and everything like that it's just just mind
blowing to have that that sense about them. But they
all talk about what a what a kind and and
caring person Spielberg was. It was never second directors. Whenever
the kids were involved. He was always the director on
the thing. It was alternate you know, ads or you
know second unit directors. Yeah, he was always there for
the kids, and every one of them talks about them
with the utmost respect and love like family. And that's
that says a lot. I mean, you take that forward,
you move. It helps define you, I mean a lot
of ways.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, so we've learned two important lessons this evening.
And I like that was what what were your thoughts
when you saw the movie for the first time.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I mean it was fun. It was
it was you know, funny, and it was a hoot
and I love you know, I mean, all the actors
in it are all great. You know, it's it's meant
to be fun, right, It's not a movie that's I mean,
I love when people start getting into the analysis of
the time and all that sort of God.
Speaker 2: Dude, it's just like it goes back to music. We
do it because it's fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're supposed to walk, you know, Spielberg, And that's
I mean, not that Spielberg made that one, but but
Zamechis was his protege. So like when those guys make movies,
they understand the difference between we're making Shindler's List. Yeah,
you know, we're making Jurassic Park. Right, one gets an oscar,
the other one gets the crew the oscar because of
the technical achievements. But Spielberg's not looking for an oscar
on that movie. Why it's just a silly you know, yeah,
popcorn exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why I love basketball. That's why I love
Beads of Glory, you know, because I want I know
how bad my life sucks. I want to escape for
a little while. That's why I love eighties music. It's
all about the party and the hookers and the hole
is in the cocaine. And that's why I hate nineties music.
Is like you're reminding me that my life sucks because
you're singing about how bad your life sucks.
Speaker 1: Right right right, someone else's life socks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no exactly, but yeah, but that's that's why
I love what I love. That's why I am like
I am, Yeah, you.
Speaker 1: Know, no, but that's great. But that's the thing is
I mean, you have to have a balance of all
that stuff. You have to be able to walk into
some movies and go that was just silly and wonderful,
you know. Is it an Academy award?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Right, But it doesn't matter. It achieved what it was
supposed to achieve. I had a great time. I'm glad
I spent the two hundred and eighty seven dollars to
see this movie. How much there's a movie now, don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it's ricolculous. I mean it's like, you know,
it's like when you tour the hat around, it's like
turning the in Ginova because you also, we're in over
the Top. I was, what do you remember about that?
Speaker 1: How did I remember the audition? So I don't.
Speaker 2: I haven't watched this movie since i've known you.
Speaker 1: So what scene? I mean, were you in the movie?
Predominantly there's a center scene. There's a turning point in
the movie where so the basic principle of the movie
is that, for those that haven't seen it, Stallone plays
a truck driver arm wrestler. He arm wrestles on the
side to kind of make extra cash. He apparently had
a relationship with this wonderful woman who was very the
daughter of a very wealthy man, and they had a child.
But because the wealthy man couldn't stand the idea of
his dark being with this guy, he ruined the relationship.
Now that's all implied. It's very poorly implied in the movie.
We really don't know a lot of this. We just
kind of why is he not with her anymore? He
seems to really love her, and yeah, yeah, yeah, she
doesn't hate him. She's all defensive, like, I don't get what.
But then we meet, you know, Robert Louis's character, and
we realize, oh, he's kind of a jerk. Oh he's
a big jerk. Oh he's a really big jerk. Oh okay,
maybe that had something to do with but it's again,
it's very poorly implied. So Mom is very ill in
the hospital and she decides that, you know, Dad needs
to meet and really get to know his son. So
he picks up So Stallone's character picks up David Mendenhall's
character at his military school, and they're going to take
him across country to bring him back to see Mom
who's in the hospital, and on the way they bond, Well,
of course they don't immediately bond. You know, this is
a military kid, mostly raised by Grandpa, who's the jerk
and everything like that. So he's being a jerk to
dad as well, and he's believing all the stories that
were told. Somewhere in the middle of it all, they
stop at a truck stop and have food and Stallone's character,
which we don't know if his name is Lincoln Hawk
or Lincoln Hawks because he's called both in the movie,
notices a bunch of kids playing pinball in nineteen eighty five.
I don't know how many kids played a lot of
pinball in nineteen eighty five in coffee shops, but anyway,
there I was with my buddies. One of the kids
was the kid that played Waldo in the Hot for
Teacher video. Really yeah, the one on my left. I
want to know that kid more than I want to
know you.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1: And his dad, with no costume except for the fur coat,
was Waldo. As he gets older. At the end of
the movie, whatever happened to Waldo? And we show his
dad getting out of the limousine with the girls. That's
his actual dad. And that's how he looks anyway. Wow,
So we do this whole scene where he convinces me
to arm wrestle him. Now I'm much bigger than him
in the film. I'm actually in stilt boots and walking
on quarter apples, which are three inch boxes, and I'm
way taller than everybody in the movie. In reality, we
were all about the same size.
Speaker 2: Hence why do this? Hence why then IMDb they call
you big Boy Richie?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's some one version of the script, my
name was Richie, and another version of the script, my
name was big Boy. And in one version of the
script he says the buddy says, smash him Richie, So
I have a name. But that wasn't the final script.
The final script was, you know, just smash him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right. Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt.
Speaker 1: So they yeah, anyway, So that's the scene. It's me
armor whistling the kid and you know, between Stallane, the kid,
me and my buddies, and it's sort of this turning
point where he gives him the big speech about the
world meets no one halfway made me halfway. You know,
if you want it, you got to reach out and
grab it. You gotta take it, and that's the scene
where he they bond and then from that point on
everything's good.
Speaker 2: So that's like the predecessor to the Rocky Balboa speech.
What he's talking to his kid after his kid basically
tells him to fuck off because he wants to get
back in the ring again. You used to be able
to spit right here in my head, and he did
that whole you know, the world hits you hard, you
gotta get back up.
Speaker 1: That's basically the same speech, one degree to the left.
Speaker 2: And according to IMDb, it is Lincoln Hawk because Susan Bake.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I know, I know, okay, all right. Well,
of course throughout the movie. Throughout the movie, Robert Loja
calls him hawks. We get back in here.
Speaker 2: Hawks because uh, because Susan is Christina Hawk.
Speaker 1: Yeah I don't know that. Yeah, you know, yeah, his
character's name was Lincoln Hawk. But throughout the movie, yeah,
Robert Losa calls him hawks.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I forgot Terry Funk was in this.
He was, oh, you have did you have any have
any paths crossed?
Speaker 1: Was sly? Oh yeah, I mean obviously when we shot
the whole movie and then you know script readings and
stuff like that, table readings, and how was he to
work with? He was great. I actually, I mean I
have a really same thing. I I can go in
the same deal about that. This was not you know,
the highest production standards in the world. That was a
you know, Canon Films. Yeah, but when he was on
the set, he was He had a lot of great energy,
very positive, very constructive. A lot of our lines were improvised,
and he oh nice, he nurtured that. He's like, you
wouldn't say that, would you, No, well, what would you say?
You know that kind of stuff. He was, you know,
but always kept the spirits up. It was two days
of filming. Our elbows were just on fire because we
were on plexit. They had to put plexiglass down on
the ship so we weren't breaking the glass of the
the the pinball machine. So bruised for days. But you know,
four kids, four teenage boys, and he kept the spirit
up and everyone on the there was you know a
lot of extras on the set. So yeah, he was.
He was a pleasure to work with. I have nothing
but positive things to say about him. You know, he
knows what he's doing as silly and formula as some
of those movies are. He knows what he's doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean that's kind of why he's
at where he's at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and so yeah, I mean I'm glad again,
I'm also glad that that's sperience was a positive experience,
regardless of you know what's you know, how silly some
of his movies are. Yeah, he was, he was fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we're not we're not going to get into
Break into Electric Bugloo because that could be an entire episode.
Speaker 1: Uh, good luck finding me in that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, but let's let's talk about, you know, end
up with something that's gonna be a lot of fun
and in a couple of weeks, cruise to the Edge.
You are you've been on in the past as a
member of spocks Beard. You're no longer in spocks Beard,
and you've been just on hanging. You've been on playing
with h with Walter and a whole bunch of other people.
Speaker 1: J J Patterns, Saeking Animals. Did it last year? Yeah?
Is it last year?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Last year?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And you uh, you're a host this year along
with my close personal friend and bandmate Mike Dawson from
The Adam Carolla Show.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that was kind of a surprise. I I
had had no intention of doing the cruise this year,
mainly because I booked other work. You know, when I
when I knew that Patterns Seeking Animals wasn't gonna wasn't
gonna go on the cruise, I just did, you know,
what you normally do, and booked other work. And I
don't know where I get a text from Larry, from Larry,
who produces the cruise. Hey man, you want to host
the cruise. I'm kind of looking at the camera doesn't show,
but you know, I'm sitting at my my studio desk
and I'm looking up, going what host the host the cruise?
And then the follow up text explains, you know that
the circumstance with John Kirkman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately, but we love John Kirkman.
Speaker 1: Guys, yeah, fantastic. He won't be back.
Speaker 2: He will be back, but finger struck away. I love them.
Speaker 1: But uh, I kind of went, wait a minute. So
I consulted with a few people because one of the
issues is as a working musician, I can't just turn
down work once I've booked it. I mean a I've
already booked it, so I have to sort of honor that, right.
But but there was a lot of money over that week,
and so I sent a message about that and that
all was taken care of. So the professional aspect of
it all was covered. Turns up, Brian Tishy is covering
for me in one of my nigs. Thanks Brian.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, God bless Brian Tishy.
Speaker 1: But yeah, once all the you know, the details were
worked out, then it became one of those things I went, great,
so I'm hosting the cruise. I don't even know what
that means. And then so you know, Roy and I
still haven't spoken to Dawson. I've met him before. I
met him on the last cruise that I was on.
Oh okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, and yeah he's great. He's great.
But uh but it was like we finally had some
conversations about, Okay, what does this fully? I knew some
of the bits like what does it fully entail? And
I talked to Rob as well about you know, some
stuff I'll do with him and various things. But but yeah,
that's gonna be a hoot. I it's right up my out.
I don't have any trouble talking.
Speaker 2: Oh you don't, you don't And look, I mean, I'm
I've never listened as a quote unquote host on all
these but I technically am because I do a lot
of the band intros and you know, help out and
have fun, you know, so you know, and of course
the late night shit show karaoke right right, right right,
always always a hoot, especially on a Cruise of the
Edge because the thing, this is the thing I love
about Dream and Karaoke and Cruise of the Edge is
it seems like the band guys go up there and
sing songs to annoy prog fans.
Speaker 1: That's the last vote we were on.
Speaker 5: That was it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was me and Kneely and Scott Tunis and
and a bunch of these total super high level musicians
singing dancing queen.
Speaker 2: And yeah that's what it's about. It's like, my god,
I can only hear a forty five minute Pio Peter
Gabriel song so many times.
Speaker 1: Let's do some abba. So so this was so, this
was the best part we did. We're the last night, right,
so they have the party. Yeah, and I got up
and sang your Love the.
Speaker 5: Jose Is on a veg.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the wait the Outfield song, and a
bunch of people jump up behind me, you know, and they're,
you know, singing the background parts. And I have these
alternate lyrics that I've gotten to sing over the years,
just because you know, you sing a song enough times, right,
And so I'm and I'm thinking, it's all we're doing
this for, you know, to be silly as well. And
I'm singing all these crazy alternate lyrics and having a blast,
and and everyone's you know, it was that it was
everyone was having a great time. And at the end
of it, John Young walks out from Life Signs and
he says, Oh my god, I can't believe this. You
know now I can remember his name, the singer for
the Outfield.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I have I have a device.
Speaker 1: Oh Field band, Tony Lewis. Tony Lewis. Oh wow, you're good.
Speaker 2: You beat me to it.
Speaker 1: He comes to me. He says, man, I've I was
friends with Tony for years and years and years. We
were best buddies. I texted his wife while you were
singing this, and I got her on FaceTime and I
was playing only for you. I should have gone wait
a minute, I was doing silly lyrics to this. Oh no, oh,
to this. I'm sure this wonderful woman. I'm just going,
oh my god. If I'd have known that, I would
have taken a little I would have at least sang
the song.
Speaker 2: But you know what, it makes it better that way.
Speaker 1: Well, it turns out she was like, oh my god,
that she actually laughed at the other lyrics, anding like that, right.
It ended up being very fun and very sweet and
everything like that, but like, what a bizarre surprise. I
was here texting with Tony's wife widow and like.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Oh that is fucking hilarious. One more
thing before we go, I want to give a shout
out to Soda Stick for sending me the sweet hockey.
Speaker 1: Sweater sort of stick there.
Speaker 2: You know Minnesota, there's some they make shirts and hats
and stuff.
Speaker 1: They know their hockey. Man, of course they know their hockey.
Speaker 2: It's it's all about Minnesota sports. It's awesome and they
have They're sending me a Michelob Golden White jersey and
it's my favorite beer in the world, which you can
only get in the Upper Midwest. But so I wanted
to give them a shout out and check them out.
You'll see the links in here. We've done a lot
of these kiss throwdowns where we do the first three records,
the second three records, and then the four solo records,
and it was always all drummers. It was Portnoy, Charlie Bononte,
Roy Mayorga Nice and uh Well, and then Eddie Trunk
joined because he's so fella kissick myself and Paul Gargne
from Meddle Edge magazine and the first one we had
this conversation about Peter Cris and I made the comparison
and we went around the room. We were around the
zoom room, you know, getting their thoughts on this about
how Peter Cris and Ringo Starr are the most how
do we say this, the most underrated drummers that get
the most shit, But there are two of the most
influential drummers of all time. I want to get your
thoughts on that.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll add to that. So the three, well, let's say,
the foremost influential drummers of all time would be exactly
as you said, Ringo Star, Peter Chris, Neil Peter, and
John Bonham. I think it's very funny when you look
at those four. While I consider Ringo to be technically
great as well. Peter, you know, he did well.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the here's the thing about Peter's playing. Peter
came from a big band swing, yeah, and that's what
he brought to the rock world. Now, when he started
getting fucked up, it declined. But as it tends to do,
as it tends to do, especially for drummers. But I mean,
if you listen to Kiss, a live one which we
all know was re recorded, the only thing that is
live on that record is the drums, the only thing
they did not re record. So that says something about
Peter's playing, especially on No That's what I mean.
Speaker 1: He does his thing and and it's again, there's a
difference between when I'm when I'm talking about you know,
like Dave Weckel or Vini Kelly, I'm not just talking
about the performance, but I'm talking about the technique and
the grace and there's all these other adjectives that come
online when it comes to these drummers. But it but
it has nothing to do with impact, right. You know,
My favorite Jeff Bercara song of all time is Dirty Laundry,
and he plays dun't debt, dun't debt, dun't debt the
whole song. The best drum fill on my mind is
the is the going into the last chorus, don't debt,
don't get goh. And it's impact, it's effect. What effect
did it have? How did it kick off that chorus perfectly?
Is it hard? No, that's not the point. Musically speaking,
what effect did it have? So when you look at
someone like a Peter Cris, you're not talking about the
technical aspect of what he's doing. You're talking about the impact. Right, well,
look how did it how did it fit within the song,
and how did it how did it uh support the song?
And then what impact did it have on the fans?
Speaker 2: And obviously you know, well look, but here's the other
thing about that too. And I say the same thing
about Steven Adler. Nobody can play those songs like them.
They can play the songs like when Matt Storm joined
Guns n' rolls is he said, I cannot play these
songs like Steven Adler yea, And he couldn't. Eric Carr
could not play those songs by Peter Chris because he
was a bottom guy. Yeah he could play him, but
he couldn't play him like Peter and that's I think
that's another you know, go back to going back to
like sloppy guitar playing. Sometimes that's part of the magic
that nobody can. Tommy Thayer can't play those solos exactly
like Asraeli because he doesn't have Ace Fraeli's hands. You
can't play those songs exactly right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's feel and right whatever condition was happening at
that time and whatever was going on. But that's what's
funny about it is that the the top most most
influential drummers ever are are this weird juxtaposition of technique
and feel and in the middle is like the Bonham
and like I would add Buddy Rich to that as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I wanted to get into that. That's that's you know,
Buddy is the epitome of feel and technique. He had
all of that within that that genre of music. You know,
Bonham is feel and technique. Neil is more. I wouldn't
even put him in the same category as technique. I'd
put him over with feel because it was more the
way he played those songs right. And again, there's drummers
that I can critique just as much as I can
praise I can critique Neil.
Speaker 2: Too, Yeah, I don't like to.
Speaker 1: I prefer not to critique anyone in general. And I
hate it when people have these who was the worst
drummer ever? Who's the worst guitar player ever? It's like, dude, really,
what's the worst idea ever?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this conversation.
Speaker 1: But that's that's what I think is fascinating, is like
I would you would never think to put Ringo Starr
in the same category with Buddy Rich. They're they're over here,
and yet they absolutely are because of impact, because of
because of intent, because of the point. Ringo doesn't play
this music. He doesn't play that Buddy, and Buddy doesn't
play that music, So if you put Buddy in his chair,
it would sound weird that either of them couldn't play
something in that world. Buddy would probably have a more
successful time in that. But it's not the point. It's
how did it impact the song that they were tasked
to play? And you know what influence did it have
on the listener? And you know, you can't beat the
Beatles for that kind of thing. You can't beat Neil,
you know, and and Bonham, and you know, there's like
there's a lot of other guys that fall in that Categoryah,
but but these are the guys that really kind of
defined that concept. That was the first ringo was the
first time that a drummer showed up on television. And
the following day there was something like Ludwig had something
like two hundred and some odd orders for drum kits.
Following day it's like, we can't fulfill these orders. Are
you crazy? It's going to take us, you know, two
years to do that. I don't know what their answer was,
but that's the right that one drummer showed up on
television and two hundred just for one company because he
played Ludwig drums. Nobody can top that. Nobody can top that.
You know, Lars Lars Ulrich has this huge influence, you know,
and it's why he's the primary endorser with Toma Drums.
Is he the best, the best drummer for Toma Drums?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: Right, No, but the impact and you know, the way
he hit and the way his audience reacted to what
he did. Tons and tons and tons and tons and
tons of guys played drums because of him, and you
can't deny that, and you have to say, celebrate that
because you know, that's the point. It got people listening,
and it got people interested in more than just listening
to music, but playing music.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the most important thing. It's like getting
people and that's why, like, I'm all for Grenit Van Fleet.
I don't care if they sound like led Zeppelin. There's
kids going to those shows looking at that stage or
a dad. That's what I want to do.
Speaker 1: Sure, absolutely, you know that's and that's how I feel
about any band. It's like, I'm not a I'm not
a fan of Metallic. I mean, I like a couple
of their songs here and there. I understand, I understand
them more than I uh than I like them. But
it's who cares. That's that's for me. It's my opinion
for someone else has no no, no validity. It's just it.
But you can't get around the fact that those guys
influenced million, potentially millions of kids. Yeah, absolutely know, thousands
and thousands and thousands of kids to play music.
Speaker 2: Do you think, really you you were talking about Buddy Risch,
Do you think the big guys from that era still
have an effect on kids today?
Speaker 1: Aids Grayson N. Kreutman. I don't know how you say
his last name. He's now the drummer for Suicidal Tendencies.
He started putting out videos a little while ago, playing
along to big band mostly Buddy and uh you know,
Louis Belson and stuff like that, and his videos are
getting millions and millions of views.
Speaker 2: Really awesome.
Speaker 1: It only takes one person to remind us how great
this era of music was, and this era of music was.
You know, I didn't grow up a big band fan,
but I mean I went and saw Louis Belson, and
I went and saw I saw Buddies, both Buddy and
Louie's last shows at Disneyland.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: And do I I own a couple of their records
and anything like, But I wouldn't consider myself a big
band fan in that I you know, I seek it out,
but I get it. I respect it, and when I
see it, I know that every single one of those
musicians is a monster. But every once in a while
you'll get someone, you'll get a you know, whether it's uh,
you know this this this this young guy you know
playing all this big band stuff and playing so great,
or it's Harry Connick Junior singing like, uh you know,
like you know, I don't know that he sings like Sinatra.
He sings more like a He's more of a crooner
like Dean Martin. But when you get these guys that
are doing that kind of thing and re energizing that
kind of music and bringing it back again, it's love.
It's it's brilliant because it reminds everyone the importance of musicians.
They're hiring full bands and big bands and taking them
on the road, and suddenly there's a reason to be
a trumpet player again. There's a reason to play trombone,
you know, and you know, saxophone.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think saxophone is missing in the in
the music world.
Speaker 1: No, I think we I think we had a bit
too much of it for a while. I think that's
it's it's time for us. I think we're in the
middle of a sabbatical on saxophone. And I'm cool with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But then I watch any of the cruises, like, God,
how is so bitch magic?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's true. I mean any of the great
sax players. You know, you look at you know, the boss,
and you got it. You know, it's it's not it
really isn't, you know. Bruce Springsteen without without the sidekicks
and everything, and right right, no, I get it. It's
part of the part of the vibe and everything. So yeah,
I mean, I love any musician that can inspire another
musician to play they're They're fine by me. That is
going to respect you and I'm gonna love you. I
don't care what kind of music you play, and I
don't need to buy your music. It's but I'm still
gonna respect you and I'm still gonna appreciate you and
be thankful that you're there doing that.
Speaker 2: Yep. And look, people can hate on Nickelback all they want,
but they're still selling Order to Read every fucking night.
Speaker 1: Good for that. I I don't know why anyone would
hate Nickelback. I can see why you wouldn't necessarily buy
their music, but I don't know why anyone would hate them.
They're nice guys and they make good records. Yeah, if
you like guys sing like that. But you know, well,
there's a comedian that did a whole stick on that, Like,
I don't know why you don't like that. It's talked
about Nickelback, and he talked about who's the guy that
does uh drive ins Oh, Guy Fieri. Guy Fieri. Here's
here's a guy and his whole bit, and I wish
I knew his name to credit this comedian who does this,
because it was great and I'm not gonna do the
comedy of it, just the point that he makes, right,
Why are we hating on this guy? Here's a guy
that that has that developed a TV show that goes
around and features small, independent fam often family owned restaurants
that no one would ever hear about in a million
years except for those few people in that area, and
features them on national television and now you know, internet television,
where the whole world can see them and does wonders
to drive up their business and celebrates the whole idea
of an independent restaurant, the idea of an individual making
a difference in a community and very often in the
process raises money for the community when he's there, gives
ship tons of money to charities, and people hate him.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you when my guy fied hatred started.
He had just won Next Big Food Network Star, the
competition show, so he got his own show, and he
used the phrase on his new show, I need to
de Bling for this, and then I was I'm out out,
I'm god.
Speaker 1: But right, okay, well that's a bad choice and phrases.
But really, I mean, but that's the thing people rip
on him, and but the reality is that's who this
guy is. He's out there bringing you know, attention to
all these mom and pop restaurants that desperately need it
and reminding us of what's important about a community restaurant,
you know. I mean, I wish we had that in
the music industry, reminding us of how important community. You know,
music stores are, and you know how important pro drama is,
and you know all these shops that really just celebrate
the drummer or the guitar player or whatever it is.
So how do you how do you speak poorly about
that guy? You don't so anyone that.
Speaker 2: Does, it's like really, yeah, but he said I need
to delink for this.
Speaker 1: That's what I think.
Speaker 2: It's the it's the image, and it's the people just
can't look at him. I think that's a lot of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know, if I was a rest owner and he
showed up outside my door, I look at him all day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it. I'm gonna hit the ultro music
here and boom ladies and gentlemen. Jimmy Keegan. I did
not realize that this show would go hour and a half.
I figured it's.
Speaker 1: About an hour and a half.
Speaker 2: We went almost I thought this is gonna be a
half an hour forty five minutes. I can tell me
in that's great and I love it, and I'm sad.
This is the first time I've had you on in
all the years that I've known you. I'm serious, I'm serious.
I'm mad at myself. I am literally mad at myself.
Check out Jimmy Keegan dot com. That's k E E
G A N.
Speaker 1: And click that little uh by the.
Speaker 2: Record gimmick, which is going to be available March first,
and we will see him on the not Munsters of Rock.
I'll be getting off Monsters of Rock, having a night
of refreshment and getting right back on the look for
a cruise to the edge.
Speaker 1: That is March fourt he no no, no, no, no,
no seventeen seven eight.
Speaker 2: We get we get off the boat on the third team,
and then I fly home and then nurse cankles.
Speaker 1: Well, at least you get again. I have some good lobstock.
Speaker 2: I mean whatever, Jimmy Keegan, great to talk to you.
Make sure you guys check out all the socials at
Real Lizzie Presley all the way across the board. Twitter
is a Facebook and of course the show page. Another
reffering podcast, Jingo Jimmy King. You can find all the
socials on the website, order the record and we'll see
you next week with maybe uh guitar player from scatter Brain.
This has been another efferent podcast. My name is Iszzie Presley.
I'm the host of the program and don't forget what
I lack of talent I make up for in the
cock