Speaker 1: I Am all in Again. Let's you.
Speaker 2: I Am all in Again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 1: Hi everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Again a
Speaker 1: podcast one of one productions iHeartRadio, iHeart Media, I Heart Podcast.
Speaker 1: We're doing a recap of season one, Episode thirteen Concert
Speaker 1: interrupt Us and we have some very special guests with
Speaker 1: us today, Vicki Peterson from The Bengals, John cow Sill
Speaker 1: from The cow Sills. Vicky Peterson is an American rock
Speaker 1: musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist and
Speaker 1: founding member of the Bengals. Since the band's inception in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, has been integral to their signature sound,
Speaker 1: while also pursuing projects with groups like The Continental Drifters
Speaker 1: and The Psycho Sisters. Beyond her work with the Bengals,
Speaker 1: she has contributed harmony vocals to recording artists such as
Speaker 1: Tom Petty, Belinda Carlisle, and John Doe. John cow Sill
Speaker 1: is an American musician best known as singer and drummer
Speaker 1: with his siblings pop group The cow Sills. He launched
Speaker 1: his career at an early age with a family band
Speaker 1: that inspired the television hit the Partridge Family, and later
Speaker 1: performed with the touring lineup of the Beach Boys for
Speaker 1: twenty three years and recorded with artists like Tommy twotone
Speaker 1: and Jan and Dean. In two thousand and three, he
Speaker 1: married Vicki Peterson, and the couple has since blended their
Speaker 1: musical talents and various collaborative projects. John and Vicki have
Speaker 1: a new album coming out on April twelfth, Long After
Speaker 1: the Fire, which is a tribute to John's late brothers
Speaker 1: and Bill and Here they are, ladies and gentlemen, Vicki
Speaker 1: Peterson and John Colcil. Oh wow, nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. I spent the morning listening to your music.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, yay.
Speaker 1: I'm like two legends sitting here. I get to talk
Speaker 1: to two legends. I was just I have a confession
Speaker 1: to make. I just listened to I saw your live
Speaker 1: version of hair John from a I guess a recent
Speaker 1: concert or maybe it was ten years ago.
Speaker 3: Oh no, it wasn't ten years ago. If I was
Speaker 3: singing here was he involved?
Speaker 2: Well, because it could have been the siblings.
Speaker 3: If it's my siblings, I don't work with them.
Speaker 1: Oh they're so oh, they were out touring.
Speaker 3: Out as the Cowcios. That's my sister, Susan, Pap and Paul.
Speaker 3: Gotcha and they do the Happy Together tour with flowing
Speaker 3: turtles and it's like the old Dick Clark's Cavalcade of
Speaker 3: Stars show. That's a very successful tour that they are
Speaker 3: on every year. Now, okay, that's probably what you saw.
Speaker 1: He's been with for so long that he wasn't able
Speaker 1: to gotcha, gotcha, gotcha? I read I read about the
Speaker 1: Beach Boys things too, God darn it. Yeah, then what happened?
Speaker 2: Just nothing bad happened. It's okay, he said, dog gone it.
Speaker 3: I think what happened?
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I don't even know if I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the episode. So much is just
Speaker 1: interview you guys straight.
Speaker 3: Oh wait a second, but I saw the episode for
Speaker 3: the So.
Speaker 1: What'd you think? What? John? What did what did you
Speaker 1: What did you think? What did you think?
Speaker 3: I told her, I said, Okay, I have to go
Speaker 3: back to the first episode now and see what this
Speaker 3: show goes about, because I never saw the Gillmore's. I
Speaker 3: was always busy doing something else, not a big TV person.
Speaker 3: And uh, and it has it's so successful, and so
Speaker 3: I know I saw how easy it was. But that's
Speaker 3: how I found a lot of things, like let's.
Speaker 2: Say you got I think he was utterly charmed, as
Speaker 2: I think most of us were, the first time we
Speaker 2: ever watched that show and watch the damic between those
Speaker 2: two women and the characters are so great.
Speaker 3: Please do that?
Speaker 2: Please do we should do that more?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Vicky? What was it like? How did the show
Speaker 1: get in touch with you?
Speaker 2: We were It came through an email, if I remembering correctly,
Speaker 2: and we all just jumped at it with what do
Speaker 2: you mean? Gilmore girls? And it turns out that the producer,
Speaker 2: Amy was was a huge fan, had been for a
Speaker 2: long time, and we just jumped at it. Especially the
Speaker 2: idea of doing a live performance in an episode. You
Speaker 2: know that seemed really exquisitely original and fun. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: it just we were very excited and it was. It
Speaker 2: was a really wonderful experience turned out.
Speaker 1: And it seemed I know, nobody ever does it in
Speaker 1: film and TV production, but it seemed like you were
Speaker 1: playing live.
Speaker 2: We were actually you know what? Okay okay, And I
Speaker 2: didn't remember that until we watched it last night because
Speaker 2: I was like oh, I think we're lipsinging and I
Speaker 2: wait no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you guys were nailing it live. It looked
Speaker 1: like it too.
Speaker 3: That's great, that's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great. And did you get to spend
Speaker 1: time with Amy on set? Did she come on?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Amy came into the trailer to our trailer, you know,
Speaker 2: and introduced herself and couldn't have been more enthusiastic and
Speaker 2: sweet and lovely and hilarious. She's such a little character,
Speaker 2: a little bundle of energy, and she's created so many,
Speaker 2: so many great No, she's beyond that. She's she's really
Speaker 2: quite a force of nature. That one. Yeah, And then
Speaker 2: we did get to meet Lauren and and Alexis was
Speaker 2: to say hello, and stunningly beautiful women and so funny.
Speaker 2: Lauren was just as hilarious as Laura. I. I mean, her
Speaker 2: character is very hun into her who she is a
Speaker 2: comedian and as an actor, just really fun.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the journey, you know, the
Speaker 1: formation of the Bengals, the formation of the cow Sills.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that journey because it's so
Speaker 1: exciting to so many people. You know, I'm a songwriter.
Speaker 1: I've written songs. I've been in bands my whole life.
Speaker 1: I had my first band when I was in third grade.
Speaker 1: We played back in the USSR and I'm Not Your
Speaker 1: stepping Stone, and that's all we knew. I used to,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was five, I stood on the
Speaker 1: record player console and sang Beatles songs to my parents and.
Speaker 2: You know, uns familiar.
Speaker 1: Tell me, Tell me about how the journey began, the
Speaker 1: formation of the first group, the first people involved in
Speaker 1: the band, what it was like getting signed, you know,
Speaker 1: your first gigs, and that kind of a thing.
Speaker 2: Well, we both have very different origin stories, I have
Speaker 2: to say, although I think it's fair to say that
Speaker 2: both of us probably started as kids pretending to be
Speaker 2: the Beatles. So difference with John's families that they were
Speaker 2: actually doing it on stage as competent, unlike me singing
Speaker 2: into a toothbrush ord. You know, I tell your story anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we we. You know, my sister and I started out
Speaker 2: singing in the back of the buick and and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, absolutely just inserting ourselves into pop radio of
Speaker 2: the sixties and seventies and loving it. And then by
Speaker 2: high school I had a band with my best friend
Speaker 2: on bass and my sister on drums, and we continued
Speaker 2: that through my two and a half years of college
Speaker 2: before I left, you know, and then sort of our
Speaker 2: journey pared down to just the two of us, just
Speaker 2: Debbie and myself by nineteen eighty, and that's right around
Speaker 2: when we met Susannah. So we kind of just zoomed
Speaker 2: up again and started out as a trio, grabbed a
Speaker 2: bass player in Annette Zelenskis, and then Michael Steele replaced her,
Speaker 2: and just we're part of this little mini movement in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles playing clubs and sort of grabbing from different
Speaker 2: inspirations from sixties and again sixties and seventies music, vocal
Speaker 2: harmonies of birds and the Mamas and Papas and the
Speaker 2: Beach Boys ands and then put that on top of
Speaker 2: you know what was basically a garage band, right, sort
Speaker 2: of post punk.
Speaker 1: You know what, yes, all those elements. It does have
Speaker 1: some punk elements too. I just listened to Fall the
Speaker 1: Hero and yeah, really terrific songwriting. But you know, on
Speaker 1: top of it, those great harmonies, you know, that great singing,
Speaker 1: just so good, such a such an interesting combination of things. Yeah, physician, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what were the crowd sizes? Like in the beginning when
Speaker 1: you started experience, well, when you were playing live shows,
Speaker 1: where were your first gigs? Were you at the Troubadour?
Speaker 1: Were you places like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sort of a storied punk rock club and they
Speaker 2: played with all the punk bands.
Speaker 3: They were really a band that they were embraced by
Speaker 3: the punk world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it has that energy, it has that drive
Speaker 1: to it, you know.
Speaker 2: We just kind of that was sort of the world
Speaker 2: we were moving in. And then we discovered our cohorts
Speaker 2: in the Paisley Underground and then that became a click almost.
Speaker 2: Who were like we were like the gang at school,
Speaker 2: you know, wandering around, you know, just these five bands,
Speaker 2: and you know, no one else could be as cool
Speaker 2: as we were, you know it was. It was just
Speaker 2: really fun. So yeah, I went from you know, playing
Speaker 2: to the bartender and my parents and my grandmother, to
Speaker 2: to playing you know, punk rock clubs, to then finally
Speaker 2: the sort of shining beacon was to play the Whiskey
Speaker 2: of Go Go on the Sunsets. We finally got to
Speaker 2: do that in nineteen eighty two and then I went
Speaker 2: on from there. But the playing the Troubadour and the
Speaker 2: Whiskey a Go Go were kind of that was. That
Speaker 2: was that was the cinnaicle.
Speaker 1: Did you now you went on larger tours, right, I mean.
Speaker 2: Oh sure, yeah, but I mean it took a while.
Speaker 1: You know, people did it.
Speaker 2: The Bengals were an overnight success. We did those early
Speaker 2: van tours. You know, four girls to a hotel room.
Speaker 2: Oh and then the one boy road manager gets his
Speaker 2: own suite. I'm sorry, five girls are roady. Our one
Speaker 2: equipment manager was also a high school friend of my
Speaker 2: sister Debbie's, and she was a female. So yeah, five
Speaker 2: five girls to a room and then the road manager.
Speaker 2: But yeah, we did a lot of tours in the
Speaker 2: early you know, first years, very very scrappy, all in
Speaker 2: a van, sharing hotel rooms, opening up for bands, some
Speaker 2: of which were not well matched with us, and some
Speaker 2: of which were lovely. We toured at the English Beat,
Speaker 2: who couldn't have been more supportive and wonderful to us.
Speaker 2: We sort of aborted our own little club tour when
Speaker 2: we got invited to open for Cyndi Lauper, who was
Speaker 2: also incredibly supportive and lovely too. She was our mama.
Speaker 2: That was not a name dropping, that was actual.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the question. Can legends can't name drop because
Speaker 1: they're legends.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I don't know. We keep looking for those people.
Speaker 3: Are they here yet?
Speaker 1: Like legends do legends just sort of talk about their associates.
Speaker 1: It's not a name so for you know, for somebody
Speaker 1: like me, you know, it would be a name drop.
Speaker 1: See that's on my front door. That makes sense.
Speaker 3: He's dropping off a snare drum for right.
Speaker 1: He's a pain of pain.
Speaker 2: So anyway, but you know, like I was saying with John,
Speaker 2: had a whole different come back here.
Speaker 3: No, we're still talking about.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 3: And you did it and Mira, Oh for sure, Oh
Speaker 3: for sure did I Someone said we.
Speaker 1: Were like still still you kind of are You're very funny.
Speaker 3: I always called her because she does this thing. Yeah
Speaker 3: that's what you do anyway.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, so you yeah, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: Oh? Nobody wants to hear started and where it's going.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to hear about me. I want to hear
Speaker 1: about you. What was the moment, Vicky, the big moment
Speaker 1: when you guys realized you had made it like big
Speaker 1: time mainstream. Was it your first arena that you sold out?
Speaker 1: You played in a stadium, there was a festival. What
Speaker 1: was the moment. Was there one moment where it was like.
Speaker 2: Wow, someone's asked me that recently, and I my moments
Speaker 2: are a lot smaller than that. They're smaller. They're like
Speaker 2: that first time that you hear your song on the
Speaker 2: radio in somebody else's vehicle or somewhere is someone that
Speaker 2: you don't know in song.
Speaker 3: And when you're making your first video, probably like that
Speaker 3: has got to be exciting that somebody's paying for you
Speaker 3: do this.
Speaker 2: Right, first video was very diy again that we paid
Speaker 2: for ourselves on the streets of Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: So here It Takes the Fall.
Speaker 2: No, that was a real world It.
Speaker 3: Takes a Fall. That was a professionally done video and
Speaker 3: it was a great video. Here it Takes a Book.
Speaker 3: I liked it, and I just thought that must have
Speaker 3: been so exciting. You know, Couso's never had ship like that.
Speaker 3: But old.
Speaker 2: I do remember being in Europe when someone told us
Speaker 2: that Manic Monday had cracked the top twenty, and I
Speaker 2: remember running down a hallway in a hotel leaping about
Speaker 2: like a idiot. That's exciting, but yes, very excited. The
Speaker 2: I think it was actually the top ten at that point.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but of course we were in Europe, so
Speaker 2: we never got to We weren't here to experience the
Speaker 2: American version of that.
Speaker 1: What was Europe like for you? Were the audiences receptive? Yes,
Speaker 1: very much so.
Speaker 2: I mean especially in the UK and in Germany and
Speaker 2: parts of Scandinavia really great. We didn't tour enough in
Speaker 2: my opinion, in you know, France, in Italy and Spain
Speaker 2: didn't get there enough as much as we wanted to do,
Speaker 2: but we did do a lot of the UK and
Speaker 2: Germany just great audiences for us.
Speaker 1: And that lasted. So you guys were experiencing success for
Speaker 1: what period of time until it disbanded?
Speaker 2: I would say, yeah, from what we were working hard
Speaker 2: from eighty one through eighty nine? Okay, yeah, okay, but
Speaker 2: you know in the quote unquote hit years were probably
Speaker 2: more eighty five to eighty nine.
Speaker 1: I think the question a lot of people have is
Speaker 1: why things end? Why not keep going? And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I hear this a lot with Gilmour, Why
Speaker 1: did you guys end?
Speaker 3: It was?
Speaker 1: It's so great and why can't you just keep going?
Speaker 1: Why did it end for you guys?
Speaker 2: Probably for different reasons than Gilmore ending, although there's probably
Speaker 2: some crossover because you put every ounce of your being
Speaker 2: into this project, and after a while that well starts
Speaker 2: to run a little dry, and instead of doing what
Speaker 2: you did when you were, you know, twenty two and
Speaker 2: it was so fun and you were willing to endure
Speaker 2: incredible discomforts and inconveniences and whatever, and loss of your
Speaker 2: own private personal life. Eventually that that of you know,
Speaker 2: off of one one for all sort of fades and
Speaker 2: you start to realize what else there is in the world.
Speaker 2: And I think that was true for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: There was that. There was also physical exhaustion. There was
Speaker 2: also the sense that we were no longer a unit
Speaker 2: and working towards a common goal. I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people started thinking different things and going in different directions,
Speaker 2: and that will pull apart, you know, a.
Speaker 1: Family like this creative process is interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at that point, we were all almost thirty or
Speaker 2: just over thirty, and none of us were married and
Speaker 2: had kids, and we're all kind of you know, we
Speaker 2: had joked at one point about having mangle baby year.
Speaker 2: We're all going to take a year off and get
Speaker 2: pregnant at the same time, you know, on the road
Speaker 2: nursery school. Yet I didn't have any Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 1: It's tough for the music business. Music business is tough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: Really such so interesting.
Speaker 3: John tell us a little bit about I had a
Speaker 3: question to get back together after you guys stopped in
Speaker 3: eighty nine.
Speaker 2: And we spent another nine years apart, like to do
Speaker 2: things in yes and nights.
Speaker 1: Oh so you took you took nine year break and
Speaker 1: then go back together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, and I mean we did. And then we
Speaker 2: did go our separate ways in our separate lives, and
Speaker 2: I went to New Orleans and joined this incredible collective
Speaker 2: called the Continental Drifters, made beautiful music with his sister
Speaker 2: Susan now my sister too.
Speaker 4: Her not anything like season, and had a wonderful musical
Speaker 4: experience completely different from the one I had just add
Speaker 4: in the eighties, you know, very different experience with.
Speaker 2: Phenomenal songwriters and singers and musicians, and learned all about
Speaker 2: New Orleans and the musical heritage there, and yeah, it
Speaker 2: was just it was fantastic. And then we start of
Speaker 2: getting the Bengals started getting offered to do these you know,
Speaker 2: sort of weird eighties package tours, and I was like, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: anything remotely like that. I refuse, and yet I started.
Speaker 2: Then I would get occasional phone calls from Susannah who
Speaker 2: would say, you know, like, well, I'm just thinking, maybe
Speaker 2: be fun, kind of fun to do something again and
Speaker 2: get back together, and I don't know, And I was like, well,
Speaker 2: I would only be remotely interested in that if you're
Speaker 2: talking about actually writing new material and being a functioning
Speaker 2: musical and you know, I'm not interested in going back
Speaker 2: and you know, being on the sort of being a jukebox. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know you would, honey, that's the difference between us.
Speaker 2: I just that did not appeal at all to me.
Speaker 2: So not to you know, not to have have any
Speaker 2: cast any shade on anything that we had done musically
Speaker 2: in the past, because we definitely embraced that now and
Speaker 2: have been for years. But at that moment in my
Speaker 2: top in my life in nineteen ninety nine, I was
Speaker 2: only interested in creating things, not recreating things.
Speaker 1: There you go, right, needed the Muse returned in a
Speaker 1: different form with a different band, and that's how you
Speaker 1: feel alive. Yeah, No, I understand that. Interesting. Interesting, Are
Speaker 1: you guys playing any gigs today?
Speaker 2: And no live shows planned at the moment?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, yeah, we have to do the podcast. They
Speaker 3: couldn't work today.
Speaker 2: We do have a book coming out in February. Let
Speaker 2: me just let me just plug this one we do.
Speaker 2: That's great February on the Bengals Authorized Biography.
Speaker 1: Very okay, okay, yeah, that's uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We've got a documentary in the works, so we've
Speaker 2: got some different ways to look at the history of
Speaker 2: and the you know, hopefully the contributions of that band.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's fun.
Speaker 2: That's in the works.
Speaker 1: And fans are when they find out who you are,
Speaker 1: they recognize you, they come up to you. The fans
Speaker 1: are still engaged.
Speaker 2: With Yeah, you know, in a performance arena. I mean
Speaker 2: I can go to the market, no one's gonna bug me.
Speaker 2: But when we're performing together, yes, absolutely, both John and
Speaker 2: I have that blessing actually that that people come up
Speaker 2: to you and remember you and hand his design.
Speaker 1: Beautiful, beautiful John, it's your turn, buddy, my entrance.
Speaker 3: He ya is there is Well. When I was a
Speaker 3: little kid, I lived in Newport, Rhode Island, but before
Speaker 3: that I lived in Ohio. And before that I lived
Speaker 3: in Rhode Island, but then we moved to Ohio. And
Speaker 3: that's so I'm about three or four, So that's where
Speaker 3: I first remembered any kind of music coming from my
Speaker 3: brother built upstairs in his bedroom in Can't, Ohio. So
Speaker 3: that's probably nineteen fifteen nine, nineteen sixty, okay, because I'm
Speaker 3: a little kid, and I remember turning five there. And
Speaker 3: then we moved to Rhode Island and then just life
Speaker 3: kind of went on and we saw the Beatles on
Speaker 3: Edge Sullivan. But before that we were singing a lot
Speaker 3: of folk songs because Bill and Bob played guitars and
Speaker 3: and there was just always music around.
Speaker 1: So you just you have this big family you have you.
Speaker 3: Have from got five older brothers, one younger sister, a mom,
Speaker 3: and a dad.
Speaker 1: And you had a family band. You sort of.
Speaker 3: Started family band. We're just a family at that point.
Speaker 2: SA songs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we just we just sat around the house and sang.
Speaker 3: I mean it was like watching TV. So and then uh,
Speaker 3: we moved for Rhode Island, and then of course Bill
Speaker 3: and Bob are playing hoot Nannies with their friend. They're
Speaker 3: a little bit older, like, you know, twelve and thirteen older,
Speaker 3: and and then it's just kind of morphed into the
Speaker 3: Beatles came on the scene Ed Sullivan. A lot of
Speaker 3: people my age who are musicians, beatles are our inspiration
Speaker 3: unless you're a different kind of person and not just regular.
Speaker 3: And so we watched that and as soon as it
Speaker 3: was over, we went in our one of the back
Speaker 3: bedrooms and all put on guitars and put on the
Speaker 3: records because we already had the records and sinking them,
Speaker 3: you know, just goofing around. And we did that along
Speaker 3: with always we watched westerns all the time. So we'd
Speaker 3: go in our bedroom and my oldest brothers they'd set
Speaker 3: up the whole thing like there was a bar and
Speaker 3: all this stuff, and we'd have cowboy fights, you know, pretending.
Speaker 3: I mean we would pretend to, you know, go over
Speaker 3: a table, flip over the bed. You know, we're just
Speaker 3: pretending we're in Bonanza. And the little Joe got in
Speaker 3: a fight. But in the same room we did.
Speaker 1: This double Blackie yea.
Speaker 3: Yeah. We all had Fanner fifties tied to our leg
Speaker 3: man and I don't know if you know what a
Speaker 3: fan or fifty is, but that was that was the
Speaker 3: most realistic toy gun you could have.
Speaker 1: With sure I had I had my holster and my
Speaker 1: cap gun.
Speaker 3: Was that a nowns this series with which was Little
Speaker 3: Joe with a left handed gun, which none of it
Speaker 3: could really do, but we woren't there anyway if we
Speaker 3: want to be a little Joe.
Speaker 1: So Vicky, let me ask you a question. You worked
Speaker 1: with Tom Petty, you worked with the Go Gos, you
Speaker 1: worked with Hoody and the Blowfish. Yeah, tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about working with Tom Petty.
Speaker 2: The best part the first time that happened is is
Speaker 2: we got a phone call and I think it was
Speaker 2: actually Mike Campbell who had this idea. They were working
Speaker 2: on a song and couldn't quite get it over the
Speaker 2: finish line. It needed something, and I think it was
Speaker 2: Mike who said, we need we need vocals. Let's call
Speaker 2: the Bangles And we shut up like late at night
Speaker 2: at a studio and they played us the song Waiting
Speaker 2: for Tonight, and we build some Bangle stuff over the
Speaker 2: top of that. It was so fun to do this.
Speaker 2: It was such an honor. And then years and years later,
Speaker 2: we'll just we'll just fast forward a couple other interactions
Speaker 2: in the meantime, but fast forward to I was a
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen music heres was honoring Tom Petty as the
Speaker 2: person of the Year Musician of the Year, and he
Speaker 2: said the first song he thought of to do was
Speaker 2: waiting for Tonight and and he asked us to sing
Speaker 2: it with him. And then it was like, well, let's
Speaker 2: do this some too. Let's do this some too. Do
Speaker 2: you want to play guitar on this one? Let's do this.
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm in the Heartbreakers. It couldn't have
Speaker 2: been a more exciting moment. It was like one of
Speaker 2: the best talk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a hell that's a hell of a band.
Speaker 2: It was insane.
Speaker 1: They were like that Heartbreakers band. Wow, it was a.
Speaker 2: Great American band. They were like the American rock.
Speaker 1: They really were. I mean they are. They were just
Speaker 1: a mind blowing band.
Speaker 3: Well, Mike and been both having new products out too
Speaker 3: right now, so I'm just yeah, I'm telling you record
Speaker 3: and Mike Campbells.
Speaker 1: You know their drummer Steve Lynch, stan Steve yeah, Steve yeah,
Speaker 1: Steve yeah. I did an EP I don't know six
Speaker 1: seven years ago, eight years ago, and Steve was he
Speaker 1: was in the session. He played, he played drums sessions.
Speaker 1: He's what a great talent.
Speaker 2: And before him Stan Lynch of course, and we we
Speaker 2: were thrilled. Last week we got an email from Stan
Speaker 2: because he had heard our song a thousand times and
Speaker 2: he and he had to email us to say, you guys,
Speaker 2: that that was just really great.
Speaker 3: He goes, he writes really really big letters.
Speaker 2: Really that felt that was that was great to hear.
Speaker 2: That was really nice.
Speaker 1: He you got that band, that band. I was just
Speaker 1: watching a video of them in Chicago. They did a
Speaker 1: Black Leather Woman live.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean the soul of that band is just bluesy Chicago. Wow.
Speaker 1: That's a dangerous band. Oh my god. And you got
Speaker 1: to play with them.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's amazing, right.
Speaker 1: Wow, John, you played with the Beach Boys. You were
Speaker 1: in the Beach Boys. You were playing Bob Dylan, you
Speaker 1: were Chuck Berry. Wow, what's going on? Brother? I have
Speaker 1: been in the room with many people, you know, the
Speaker 1: two like of all the shows I've ever seen in
Speaker 1: my life, and I've seen a lot of people live.
Speaker 1: I've seen everybody live. The Beach Boys, I saw them
Speaker 1: in the early eighties and Fort Lauderdale on the beach,
Speaker 1: and then they were in a high school auditorium I
Speaker 1: don't know a year later back in Florida, and it's
Speaker 1: the stunning part about that was how many hits they have,
Speaker 1: because every single song was a massive hit, and it
Speaker 1: was just one after another after another after another, and
Speaker 1: you're like, I never realized they had this many hits
Speaker 1: and it was like two hours of hits. What was
Speaker 1: that experience like for you?
Speaker 3: It was amazing. I couldn't believe it, you know. I
Speaker 3: put a We've known them for a long time. I
Speaker 3: mean my family, I've known Mike. Our first show, I
Speaker 3: think the Couseles we we opened up. It's called sound
Speaker 3: Blast sixty six. Nineteen sixty six, there was a Yankee
Speaker 3: Stadium show and that's what it was called. And the
Speaker 3: Cowtles opened up for Stevie Wonder Ray, Charles Eda James,
Speaker 3: the McCoy's, the Birds, the Association, and the Little Stevie
Speaker 3: one Under and Beach Boys with the Headlights. And so
Speaker 3: that's the first time I ran into them and got
Speaker 3: to say hey. But it was an amazing thing. I
Speaker 3: was sitting on my couch one night. I had played
Speaker 3: with Jan and Dean for several years, so I met
Speaker 3: I worked with Mike and Dean. They would do these
Speaker 3: spring breaks thing like in the early like eighty eighty one.
Speaker 3: I can't remember the day, but around that era and
Speaker 3: I was broke. I mean, I was living in a
Speaker 3: car sometimes, and so I was really happy to run
Speaker 3: into a few friends up in Santa Barbara. Whe was
Speaker 3: Jeff Fosquet and who had just joined the Beach Boys,
Speaker 3: and so he introduced me to Mike Love on the property,
Speaker 3: and so I ended up doing these Mike Love and
Speaker 3: the Endless Summer Beach Point gigs. I did a couple
Speaker 3: of them, and then Mike and Dean Torrents of Jan
Speaker 3: and Dean would go out and do these spring break things,
Speaker 3: and so that's how I kind of got into the
Speaker 3: got the organization of this time around. And then I
Speaker 3: kind of blew it because I was i'll behaved person
Speaker 3: on the road because I think I'm funny, you know,
Speaker 3: but a lot of people don't think my humor is funny,
Speaker 3: like Love is. People don't think he's funny, but I do.
Speaker 3: So there's too many details, but I ended up in
Speaker 3: the Beach Boys in two thousand along with my friends
Speaker 3: Scott Tatten, and I was on piano for the first
Speaker 3: seven years and singing, and then they moved me to
Speaker 3: the drums after that, and then I had a great
Speaker 3: career with them. I played twenty three years with the
Speaker 3: Beach Boys, had the best time, best catalog. They treated
Speaker 3: me so well. And then I don't know the details
Speaker 3: of why I always let go, but that's fine because
Speaker 3: it's a revolving door of musicians.
Speaker 1: I am twenty three years.
Speaker 3: Three years, believe me. Three of those I was how
Speaker 3: do I stop? And you know, and Vicky say, when
Speaker 3: are you stopping? So we can have the rest of
Speaker 3: our life before we die. So it was things were
Speaker 3: meant to be. So we have our project together after
Speaker 3: Beach Boys is over and and it's fun. This is
Speaker 3: our retirement. Vicky Peterson and John Colson.
Speaker 2: We never would have had a moment to record a record,
Speaker 2: much less promoted and tour on it. If if John
Speaker 2: was stiltory with the Beach Boys.
Speaker 3: Eighty shows a year.
Speaker 1: The year and what kind of venues were the Beach
Speaker 1: Beach Boys do you want us to play? And any
Speaker 1: kind of venue?
Speaker 3: Any kind We'll play your backyard birthday party?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Really much? Oh much? It wasn't up to me. So
Speaker 3: so they were gettingcho I get paid the same no matter.
Speaker 1: What Beach Boys. The Beach Boys were doing, like you know,
Speaker 1: private parties and things like that. So getting a ton
Speaker 1: of requests like from you know, people that can afford
Speaker 1: a band.
Speaker 3: Like absolutely, and we play small theaters, twelve hundred theaters rights.
Speaker 1: What's it like being so deeply embedded in pop cultures?
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys have had so many songs featured
Speaker 1: on TV shows, films, Austin, power, stranger things. Do you
Speaker 1: get excited when you hear Vicky like, for example, a
Speaker 1: Bangals song in pop culture today? What's that like? You
Speaker 1: could be anywhere and you're hit with a bangle song.
Speaker 2: What's that like in the drug store? I mean, that's
Speaker 2: that's that's great and and I love getting these requests
Speaker 2: for you know, for TV shows or for films. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's that is one way to keep the music alive
Speaker 2: sin sink, you know, And that's taking a song possibly
Speaker 2: out of its context and it's not necessarily going to
Speaker 2: be at a you know, eighties themed bachelorette party. It
Speaker 2: might be something completely different, and the somebody, the director
Speaker 2: of the producer, came up with this idea, well, what
Speaker 2: if we use you know here, it takes a fall
Speaker 2: in this completely different context in it And I love
Speaker 2: when that happens, you know, when it's sort of used
Speaker 2: outside of the expected use. You know, Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3: It's I'd be happy to see it anywhere.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it's yeah, it's it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Would you ever get the band together, Vicky for a
Speaker 1: special occasion?
Speaker 2: Of course?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I never say never, not anymore.
Speaker 1: I'd love live music. I just love it. I love
Speaker 1: to be around it. I love to play it. I
Speaker 1: love to do.
Speaker 3: It and help it.
Speaker 1: You guys are legends. Your genius is your great song, right.
Speaker 1: People deserve, people deserve to hear your music. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of music out there today, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of really good music out there today, but
Speaker 1: but what it's missing is a band, the human connection,
Speaker 1: the power of people playing on stage together live like harmonizing.
Speaker 1: I don't think there was a better time than the
Speaker 1: late sixties, mid mid to late sixties, and well actually
Speaker 1: the entire sixties, even the late fifties with all those
Speaker 1: brilliant you know, I heard the Beatles demo when they
Speaker 1: got turned down, initially five song demo. It was so
Speaker 1: good that it just it blows your mind how good
Speaker 1: they were when they were teenagers and they said.
Speaker 2: No because guitar bands were on the way out, right, Okay, right,
Speaker 2: guitar bands were on the way out, just like there
Speaker 2: is no rock and roll right now, right, Well, it
Speaker 2: will come back. There will always be.
Speaker 3: You know, well it exists, but not in the mainstream
Speaker 3: rock and fill will never go away now seeing the
Speaker 3: live shows, Jesus lizard, I mean people are out there.
Speaker 3: They're not in the pop world.
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, so a little let me, let me
Speaker 1: get into this because it's just it wouldn't be so
Speaker 1: much fun. I just my favorite people in the world
Speaker 1: are songwriters. I just I worship songwriters and people that
Speaker 1: do it as well as you two do it deserve
Speaker 1: an audience.
Speaker 3: And I do want to say this album that we
Speaker 3: have done, I don't know if you know the history
Speaker 3: of this, but what this project is the first thing
Speaker 3: that I always have wanted to do. And Becking I've
Speaker 3: always discussed this is my brother Bill and Barry who
Speaker 3: passed away, wrote some incredible songs and I have heard
Speaker 3: them my whole life. I'm not a big writer, although
Speaker 3: I do right and I can fix a lot of songs.
Speaker 3: I had bridges and you know, more music and melody
Speaker 3: I'm top line guy. But the album is songs written
Speaker 3: by Bill cowcill and Barry cowcilm and it's just the
Speaker 3: best of their stuff really and to do this, I
Speaker 3: just remember them doing these songs.
Speaker 2: Arry Barry wrote some of these songs as a teenager
Speaker 2: year old songs. And so we.
Speaker 3: Enjoyed making it and it's great and we're connected to it,
Speaker 3: and so we just said, let's put this out. You know,
Speaker 3: it's just beautiful. And Alan who who this wouldn't happen
Speaker 3: without him, who is our producer, just made it sound beautiful,
Speaker 3: you know, his production values, and so that's what I
Speaker 3: speak to a song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what we're bringing out to the world.
Speaker 3: Right now, is we're bringing these songwriters to you and
Speaker 3: to the brothers a lot.
Speaker 1: Just really thank you for sharing that. That's very touching
Speaker 1: and that's that's the reason to perform and a reason
Speaker 1: to share your music with an audience. Is just what
Speaker 1: you're doing right now. It's just a beautiful, rare it's
Speaker 1: very rare thing making that connection. And talking about bridges,
Speaker 1: the bridge and hair. I'm obsessed with bridges. I put them.
Speaker 1: I try to, I try to, you know, you try
Speaker 1: to come up with some great bridge.
Speaker 3: Me too.
Speaker 1: It's so much fun to get something that's even close
Speaker 1: to being a decent bridge and then lead it back
Speaker 1: into the into the main. But the one in Hair
Speaker 1: is just just it's so good, it's so good.
Speaker 3: We recorded hair e Fort Carl Reiner got the gods
Speaker 3: to re record this song lips and getting due to
Speaker 3: hairs and chain. So we're in the studio and it's
Speaker 3: about this bridge. It took fifty eight takes because every
Speaker 3: time it came to the bridge, I slowed down, and
Speaker 3: there's editing. This is analog. Baby. When you said the
Speaker 3: bridge and hair, I just gulped and left.
Speaker 1: Leave it to me to bring up the gray memory.
Speaker 3: I tortured, I tortured my brothers. I think, by God,
Speaker 3: he's taking forever and so you hear it. It's but
Speaker 3: it's a whole different thing. So it's okay to have
Speaker 3: the time anyway.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, beautiful, beautiful record, beautiful songs, guys, real pleasure.
Speaker 1: And you know, uh, Jackie, and I'm gonna have your information.
Speaker 1: I'll be in touch, we'll be in touch. I let's
Speaker 1: let's set up. Let's just do what we can do.
Speaker 1: You know, I just I always think, you do what's doable.
Speaker 3: And uh, we'll be in Europe the next month. But okay,
Speaker 3: I'm touring with Peter Parrott, the only Ones.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well it'll take that long to set
Speaker 1: it up anyway, so by the time you get back,
Speaker 1: you'll just walk on to a stadium stage and just
Speaker 1: rock out sixty thousand today. Guys, what a pleasure, Vicky,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Uh, John, just love you guys,
Speaker 1: and your music is important and impactful and fantastic and
Speaker 1: fun and beautiful and uh it means a lot to
Speaker 1: a lot of people. And keep going and let's see
Speaker 1: what we can do together. It would it would be
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. I have, I have, I have
Speaker 1: some good relationships in the music world, and uh and
Speaker 1: and let's let's put something together because I think it
Speaker 1: would be a real gift too to whatever audience shows up,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what we can do.
Speaker 3: Okay, lovely, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Absolutely our pleasure. And we didn't really talk about the episode.
Speaker 1: Did you love the episode? Yeah, we love the episode.
Speaker 1: It was great. All right, thanks guys, Bye, guys, be good, Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, that's going to do it than get a
Speaker 1: Vicki Peterson and John Calcil And remember where you lead,
Speaker 1: we will follow. Stay safe, everyone, do everybody, and don't forget.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at i Am All In Podcast
Speaker 1: and email us at Gilmour at iHeartRadio dot com