WEBVTT - Butch Walker's Awesomely Diverse Rock Résumé 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.959 Butch Walker is one of the great contemporary talents of rock. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.000 He's written songs and produced tracks for the likes of 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.320 Panic at the Disco, Pink, and Wheezer, so he has 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.520 fans all over the industry. Even Taylor Swift fell in 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.920 love with one of his tailor's Swift covers. That's what 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.520 led to their joint appearance at the Grammys. Butch on 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:39.120 his Banjolim girl, She's upset, She's gone up about something that. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.560 In fact, Walker's reputation as the l a music scenes 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:50.040 great collaborator has sometimes eclipsed his brilliant, eclectic solo career. 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.960 I hope hearing him today will turn you onto or 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:58.720 reignite your love for his remarkable body of work. As 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.760 a ten year old heavy metal fan and rural Georgia, 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:06.119 Butch Walker was already a multi instrumentalist. His career went 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.520 on to span hard rock, grunge, and now he's putting 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:14.480 out soulful, lyrics focused rock with great pop hooks throughout 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.640 it all. His music has always been honest and original 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:33.360 and catching. When I was in Los Angeles, not too 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.600 long ago, I arranged to meet Butch at a music 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.200 venue in Hollywood so he could play some of his 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.040 great songs in front of a live audience and tell 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.760 me about his path from the Bible Belt to the 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:51.080 heart of l A's music scene. On Hey, can y'all 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.320 hear me? No, no, I'm gonna play some of my 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.160 early stuff. Then of course I want to play some 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.880 of my new stuff to hope you know mine. Welcome to. 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.200 This is a recording of my podcast Here's the Thing, 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.560 which is produced by w n y C Studios in 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.800 New York. I want to thank yeah, thank you, And 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.640 I want to thank um kpc C here in Los Angeles. 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.320 And I want to thank Catalina. I'm told the Catalina 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.959 barn grill there is an actual Catalina. So please join 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:48.080 me and welcoming Butch Walker. Thank you. Maybe I just 0:02:48.840 --> 0:03:05.720 scared off. Maybe you to. It's a beautiful miss Soner 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:19.040 standing from my part of view. Can you feel in 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:28.720 now wheels coming down? I just want you to wear 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:35.520 about me. Everyone wasn't a while. I just need a 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:42.600 sign of light to give me by you can't fair 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:48.280 a smile forever from my mouth and wants was mine? 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:58.040 Is it all over? Fun of the beginning the same name. 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:16.240 There's a man reading icky have and the dull wd me. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:36.920 We're not falling in we flying sorry in between? Can 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:46.760 you say now? I feel it's slow down. I just 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:52.760 want you to way by me. Everyone's in a while. 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:59.840 I just need a sign a light to give me by. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:06.160 You can't fake a smile forever from my mouth? And 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:17.200 once was like, is it over? Funnily begin descend it. 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:40.760 I'm holding steady, I'm restless, you're ready. I just want 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:47.680 you to by being everyone's in a while. I didn't 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:54.839 need a side line to get me. Boy, you can't 0:05:54.880 --> 0:06:00.839 fake a snile forever from my mouth? Water this was mine? 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:20.560 Is it over? Finally? Begin descended, I'm holding steady. I'm restless. 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:30.799 You're ready. I'm holding steady. I'm restless, you're ready, I'm 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:54.920 holding steady. M wow, wow brow. Well. The first thing 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:56.640 I want to say is you told me you were 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:58.960 going to play the guitar. What's with the piano? I 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:03.600 know how many instruments do you play? None? I just 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:05.960 they call it a jack of all trades. I guess 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.560 where did you start out on? Uh? Started out on 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:13.280 drums and Uh, I was very terrible at that, according 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.400 to my older sisters. Started in the bedroom. I was 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.640 eight years old and my parents made the grave mistake 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.400 of taking me to see this rock band called Kiss. 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.400 I was very obsessed as a young metal head, and uh, 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.320 I hear strands of Kiss in your music. Yeah, that 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:36.200 one for sure. But my dad was reluctant to go 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.600 to the show because he was this mountain man with 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.880 a Georgia Yeah, North Georgia mountains, and he loved um. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.040 The accident will come out, don't worry. After a couple 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.720 of SIPs um. He was begrudgingly, you know, at this 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.680 Kiss show because he liked country music and he wasn't 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:53.120 sign up for this and all these guys he was 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.080 nineteen seventy seven, I was eight years old, and he's 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:00.640 wearing this new brown blazer that his mother had got him. 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.320 I just remember everybody there dressed up like the members 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:05.800 of Kiss. In the audience, you know, you had like 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.000 guys that were all like five years old, dressed up 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.120 as Jane and Paul and all these guys with the 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.600 boots and the whole thing. Yes, there was Paul and 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.080 Jeans sitting behind us, and they kept passing like joints 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.320 over my mom and dad to other people. Because it 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:21.680 was the seventies, it was a looser time. You know. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.600 Here I am eight years old, smelling pot for the 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.760 first time, seeing it passed by a guy dressed in 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:30.360 Gene Simmons makeup and you're eight years old. Yeah, And 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.439 my my dad was like a make a Wish Foundation thing, 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:38.679 did you were dying kiss concert? It would have been 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:40.839 my dying wish for sure, and uh And I looked 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.200 over and in a strobe, I could see my dad 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:47.720 choking out Jean Simmons like this behind me before the 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.800 concert even started, and I was like, this is the 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:56.040 best fucking so And that started really eight years I 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:57.760 was a and that kind of started me on my 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.439 road to this. Yeah. I kind of started trying to 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.320 play drums the next day. That was as you do 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.480 as a kid. You're you're attracted to drums their primal 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:11.720 and I realized I didn't like being behind everybody. I 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:16.160 wanted to be out front. And so whenever I was 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.280 playing with this little band that um was in, we 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.880 practiced in my bedroom up in the attic. Uh, and 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.320 they were all like my sister's boyfriends. It was older 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.080 dudes that were already able to drive, and we were 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.760 playing like orio Speedwagon covers and trying to play get 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.880 through a rush song, which failed miserably after two bars. 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:36.960 They would leave the gear there and I would see 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.560 that guitar over in the corner next to my Charlie 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.920 McCarthy ventriloqu was dull, and we're like because I was 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:44.800 still so young, you know, And so I would go 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:46.839 over and pick up his guitar. And then I started learning, 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.840 like on one string how to like pick out songs 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.280 and play along to the radio. And next thing, you know, 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.720 I think my mom uh just was overhearing it and 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.320 thinking like, oh, because she's she's the musical on in 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:04.760 my family, sings and plays piano and she's very good. 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.480 You learned to play yourself for myself, by myself and 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:13.439 with myself, uh around that time a lot, and uh 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:20.160 that changes eventually, it does. But um, well, why would 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:24.319 be a famous musician if not? Whatever? So so UM 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.040 I ended up getting lessons because my mom was like, 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.439 I think he's got talent to do this, and so 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.560 um I ended up taking lessons from a guy locally 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.560 in Cartersville, this little town I was from and uh 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.240 he was great. Uh he taught me, you know, taught 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.080 me Van Halen songs and all the the essentials you know, 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:47.920 and and I was, you know, learning very fast. So um, 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.200 just I got obsessed with it and I kind of 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.400 never looked back from then. I stayed stayed true to 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.080 guitar pretty much the rest of my time. Now do 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.360 you think that for people? I mean, people ask me 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.120 all the time, say, if you take acting lessons, can 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.199 you make it make you a good actor? I say that, 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.320 you know, in my opinion, it can make you a 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:08.000 better actor than when you walk in the door. But 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:09.560 it can't make you a good actor. You have to 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.440 have some inspiration, to have some gift that people have. 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.200 It's uh, that's different. Do you feel the same way 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.000 about guitar playing. Do you feel that you had just 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:19.719 a passion for it? I think so. I think I 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:21.560 think I knew I could do it just because I was. 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:23.360 I had a good ear for picking out I could 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.360 pick out stuff on the radio so quickly, and I 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.040 could I didn't. It was like learning to run before 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:29.800 you could walk, though I didn't know how. I didn't 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.720 have any knowledge of it, or chords or anything. Just 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.720 kind of had the ear and the muscle memory to 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:36.679 be able to pick it out and play it. And 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.520 so you know, the next thing, you know, it would 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.760 be like my parents having their fondue parties and ship 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.600 and they would be coming upstairs and I'd be upstairs 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.440 just playing along to records and the like. You know. 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.360 My mom would be like, play that pretender song, you know, 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:51.880 and so I'd be like, you know, for for company, 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.360 And so I would end up playing little concerts in 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.880 my room for all for all of their party uh guests, 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.079 where people's smoking pot and your father choking people out 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:14.040 of the party. It was pretty civilized. Yeah. He Later 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.560 in life I came to find he was. He was 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.040 a tear. When you're in Cartersville to her how old 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.800 cars will till I graduated high school, which your whole childhood. Yeah, 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.920 And what was the music scene like locally? None? Um, 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.920 so there was no Cartersville was kind of sequestion because 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.160 it was between Athens in Atlanta. I was too young 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.400 for most of that time at home to do anything 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.960 or to go anywhere and play anywhere. You know. I 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.400 did get into a band in Rome, Georgia, which was 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.400 about twenty minutes north of Cartersville, and that's where I 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.599 could find musicians because in Carter's it was kind of 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:53.679 a little bit of a foot loose vibe. There was 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.920 like nobody, nobody playing unless it was the Lord's music. 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.720 And and so you know, I I worked at the 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.880 local music store where I would I would teach guitar 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:05.040 less and when I was a teenager, and you know, 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.000 dudes would come in and I started to grow my 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:08.760 hair out and they'd be like, I bet you play 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.760 that Sitan music. And then I would be like, oh, well, 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.400 what's the picture of Jesus looked like above your mantle? 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.920 How short is his hair? I wanted out. The guys 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:21.600 that I was playing with it from Rome. They were 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:25.760 all my age basically, and um we started playing this 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.120 one club in Rome that was basically a u it 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.200 was it was a former pizza hut, and uh we 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:33.840 would go in there and this was during the height 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:37.640 of like like mid eighties eighties metal and we would 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:42.000 build homemade bombs on stage and fire and pyro and 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.760 blow the drop ceiling out of the place like this, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:50.199 and I mean, I can't believe it's still standing. No, no, 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:52.880 uh we I had a key to the place. That's 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.600 how loose this place was. I was sixteen and I 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.079 had a key to this bar. We had a mattress 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.200 under the drum right is there, and we would go 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.560 in there. If we had been partying or driving around 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:05.760 and too much, we would go in there and raid 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.320 the bar. I can't believe I'm telling everybody this, and 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.400 then and then we would and then we would all 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.120 pull out the mattresses and just pass out in a 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:19.760 club and I'd wake up basically pretty much. And this 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.240 was called Ronnie's Rock Cafe. And and Atlanta there was 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:25.800 a place I used to go play, uh called Danny's. 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.440 It was a metal bar on forty Highway forty one 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.560 in Smyrna, and I would go there and I would 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.960 play six nights a week, and we'd do three cover 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:34.960 band sets a night because you weren't you weren't allowed 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.560 to play original music back then at any of the bars, 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.320 even in Atlanta, which was a pretty you know, big city. 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.280 If you were doing the hard rock scene at the time, 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:46.880 you had to play covers. And that was my reason 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.120 for wanting to take the band and all of us 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:54.480 moved to Los Angeles, which is what we did it was, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:00.280 and I moved here with the guys and and we 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.440 lived and if I can recall, we lived. We we 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:05.080 kind of lived around in our van. We lived in 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.360 a motel for a little bit. And then we found 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:12.720 an apartment five blocks from here, Hollywood and Whitley and 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:18.720 and yeah, man, dreams do come true. And uh so 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.200 we were you know, we were. We were sitting there, 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.120 six of us in a one bedroom on air conditioned apartment. 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:29.480 You know, smelled so good, and uh but we loved it. 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:30.640 We were having the time of our life. It was. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.320 That was our college. None of us went to college 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.880 or barely finished high school. Um, so we came out 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:42.480 here at the height of the Guns and Roses, Poison, Motley, 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.960 Crewe Rat, all of that like that, all those bands. 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.080 Um that was huge for us. So we came out 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:50.600 here and ended up in the belly of the Beast 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.920 and we started right away. We pounded the pavement and 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:55.440 found out what we needed to do. This was pre 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.720 cell phones and pre internet, pre anything. So it was 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.400 like we had no idea what to expect. Um had 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:02.800 a girlfriend at the time who was already out here 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:11.040 working at the Tropicana. It's so cliche. Um, but she 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.640 was from Georgia and so she moved out and got 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:18.520 a dancing job, and she would send me flyers of 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.000 all the bands that were flyering on the Sunset Strip, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.880 and that's that's how I learned what they looked like, 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.840 how they dressed, the whole image of everything. So we 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.560 came out here and um, we immediately hit the printer 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.800 shop and we printed up flyers for our first show 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:37.920 that we were ever able to get booked to play. 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:43.120 We played the Whiskey our first show, and we only 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.360 had five originals, so we had to play him twice. 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:51.080 We're gonna play this song again, I'm gonna play it slower, yeah, 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.040 And we ended up getting written up in this magazine 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:55.720 at the time that was a local rag called the 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.200 Rock City News, and they they loved us, say they 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.480 were like tightest on the Sunset Strip, they said, And 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.720 we were like, we only have five songs, but we 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.840 got good and we we definitely learned because we were 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.600 fueled by all these other It was very competitive. It 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.640 was saturated. It was thousands of dudes that looked just 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.200 alike getting off the bus, all on the Sunset Strip, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.200 just like yeah, just like the guns and Roses videos, 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.560 Hey out of the mouth, and um, basically we're just 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.879 down there on the strip promoting and grassroots marketing ourselves 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.159 and trying to convince people to buy tickets to our 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.680 show after they just got a flyer and dropped it 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:34.479 on the ground from the band in front of us. Now, 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.159 when you're in it, when you're a young guy and 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.520 you're in a band, did you enjoy being in a 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.240 band and did you enjoy the camaraderie or was there 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:48.000 a party all along you thought I'd like to No, No, 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.920 I enjoyed it. And at the time, I should preface 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.840 that I was just the guitar player then uh in 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.000 the band that came out here, So I wasn't the 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.600 lead singer. Um I sang and I was able to 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:04.320 do all harmonies and even help with uh. At least 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.720 it was a guy named Jesse, and then I came 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.879 out here with him and Jason and my drummer's slug 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:16.040 And so basically I loved being a guitar player. I 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.080 love being in a band. I loved that camaraderie. Uh. 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.719 The front I'm not the front man why yet, But 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:24.840 that's what I want to get to. Why well, I 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.600 don't know. At the time, it was very much a 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.440 an image of the front man was you know, no instrument, 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.960 just a mic stand. You know, the teased out blonde 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:36.760 hair was all just part of a it was all 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.320 part of a blueprint to us. We didn't know that 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.320 it could be different. Yes, absolutely, and he was a 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.280 great like hard rock singer and so that was kind 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:57.360 of important. Back in Jesse, Could I have my check please? No? Uh? So, yeah, 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:02.560 they're back. They're back and joking I know you. Uh, 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:08.520 they're all three still in Georgia actually, and they're still 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:13.159 on that mattress in Rome under the drum stand. That 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.639 mattress won't die. Mattress is a mess. It's horrible. But 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.160 but but but but so the name of the band 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:22.520 again when you were with them was it was a 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:26.560 ban called South Gang and we were and that lasts 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.959 for how long? Not long? Four or five years? Uh, 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:32.280 let's see. We moved out in eight eight and by 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.840 by I think ninety two, we were we were cooked 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.840 and what happened everything? So we how much time do 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.240 you have? I want to hear already hear about your 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:47.200 story then I'll tell you. Um so, well, besides the 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.360 fact that we were kind of growing apart, and I'm 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.800 gonna spare the bloody details because I respect all of 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.000 the guys very much, but you know, we just like anything. 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:57.879 And it goes back to your question about did I 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.520 enjoy being in a band in that camaraderie. It comes 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.640 to an end sometimes, that does, and people start growing 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.240 up are especially when you start playing together when you're teenagers. 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:08.440 I mean it's like getting married when you're a teenager 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:10.919 and then by the time you're thirty, your your different 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:13.399 people and you hope that you grew together not apart. 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.119 But long story long, we were touring and touring and touring. 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:22.600 The scene that we were in was definitely starting to transition, 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.480 uh to like grunge was very was on the was 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:29.600 on the horizon. Um. We could see that that was 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:35.560 gonna be an interesting change in in music, and I 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:37.359 was all for it. I was kind of like, well, 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.360 I'm still a sponge, I'm still soaking all this up. 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.080 I still want to learn every kind of music. I 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.040 loved everycondom music growing up. My sister's record collection was 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.679 everything from you know, Parliament to the BGS to you 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.399 name it, and so I liked I liked everything. I 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:57.720 like to disco, I liked everything, and so um, you know, 0:20:57.760 --> 0:20:59.359 I just didn't feel like sticking to one kind of 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:04.040 music was was gonna satisfy my soul. And so you know, 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.040 we started kind of growing apart that way. And then 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:10.040 we went on a tour in China and we were 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.040 there for six weeks and it went everything you could 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.720 possibly think of it could go wrong, went wrong. We 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:20.840 were the first American rock band ever tour China should 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:23.879 have been the last, because we were there. It was 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:25.840 I don't even have enough time to tell you all 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:31.040 the stories of how incredibly like like heartbreaking and emotional 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:36.560 and crazy it was. You know, well, okay, I'll edit 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.160 it down to the end of the China run when 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.800 we were all basically in different train cars going to 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.359 cities which were thirty hours apart, and we had a 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.399 lot of time to contemplate, um, we were over here. 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:51.720 Our label got basically just wanted to kind of get 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.480 rid of us because this our first record deal was 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:57.600 a major label deal, which you know, I'm happy to 0:21:57.600 --> 0:21:59.159 get into that side of it if you want, But 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.480 it's like that was that was like you know, getting 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:03.359 a lot of things handed to us, you know, a 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.040 big advance to do a big budget record with a 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:13.639 big budget producer, big video. Yes, right, and but um, 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.080 no one else believed in us, so our management kind 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:18.959 of wanted to just get rid of us. So this 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:20.520 whole thing was kind of a little bit of a 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:22.679 get him over and get them out of our hair situation. 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:25.320 And so we were over there and realizing that what 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:27.720 was not really the case, which was like, we're not 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:29.720 going to really make any money from this, We're not 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.440 going to really uh make it break any ground from it. 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:37.960 Um and UM, me and the bass player, Jace, would 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:40.439 sit in one train car and we were plotting our 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.560 breaking up the band, and he kept saying, you should 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:45.479 be the singer, you should be the singer, and I 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:47.440 was like, I'm not a singer. I have dark hair, 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:53.520 you know, And and so eventually we just, you know, 0:22:53.560 --> 0:22:55.639 we started thinking of a new band name. We started 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:57.320 thinking while we were on this train right over there. 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.359 And as fate would have it, um, we were in 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:02.480 one of the cities playing which by the way, I 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:06.399 should mention that we were playing all hockey arenas and 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:08.639 a band that couldn't get arrested in the States, and 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:12.200 we're playing hockey arenas and and some places were playing 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:14.520 on the fucking ice, like sliding all over the they 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:17.640 didn't have The production was awful. It was the weirdest ship. 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:20.040 They weren't allowed on the floor, they had to be 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.520 in the stands. The closest person was a hundred feet away. 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:25.960 They weren't allowed to stand up. There was like, you know, 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:28.960 military guards around the whole place every time. They weren't 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:31.600 allowed to yell. They could only just clap after every 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:36.040 song and sit. So enjoy your freedom, everyone in America, 0:23:36.680 --> 0:23:39.800 because at the time they did not have that. So 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:42.520 the last show we played, which was not supposed to 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:44.800 be the last show, it was the third of the 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:47.440 last show, and we went to this town called ji Lynn, 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:50.880 and we played more of a scale down like UM 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:53.760 Gymnasium almost, and so there was no way for the 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:55.320 people to be anywhere but right in front of us. 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:57.560 So they made them all sit across leget on the floor, 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:04.399 no chairs, and when that show was happening, Uh, it's 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:06.000 closest we were able to get to people. So we 0:24:06.000 --> 0:24:07.880 were very excited because we've been there for six weeks 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:11.080 and couldn't even have any like energy with a crowd whatsoever, 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:13.359 just felt like we were monkeys on display. And so 0:24:13.400 --> 0:24:15.560 in this one we were just like we were jumping 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:18.080 off the stage and making people get up and that 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:21.119 was a no no. Um. So we get back, you know, 0:24:21.160 --> 0:24:22.440 we're up on stage and then all of a sudden, 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:24.399 these people started getting up and then they start running 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:27.160 up on stage and then a little bit of that 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:32.880 like um thing where the mania kicked in and they're 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:34.919 like pulling our We had a very long hair and 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:37.919 they're pulling it and trying to pull us off the stage, 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:40.320 and like guys and girls like trying to you know, 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:44.679 kiss you on the mouth, and and and and and 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:48.280 they were throwing like money and and uh candy, and 0:24:49.160 --> 0:24:52.040 it was really it was. It was like a weird 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:54.800 Fellini movie, but like but if you would imagine like 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:59.080 hard Day's Night, but not harder Day's night. And so 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:04.960 we um, we basically um inside it a riot and 0:25:05.080 --> 0:25:09.120 so they tear gas the place and we were whisked 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:12.199 off the stage. Keep in mind, we're just young fucking 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:15.440 rednecks with leather jackets and long hair, and we think 0:25:15.520 --> 0:25:18.960 this is awesome. We think this is the best thing 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:23.000 we've ever experienced. We're just like high fiving, getting in 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.480 a van going off like we're yeah, we finally got 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:27.960 some action, we got some interaction. We're doing this. This 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:30.760 is great. We're connecting with the people. And then like 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:32.720 we get on a train, we fall asleep, and we 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:35.240 wake up and we are in Beijing at the airport. 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:40.960 No translators, no managers, no one to be found, and 0:25:41.359 --> 0:25:44.160 no cell phones, no internet, no nothing. So like we're 0:25:44.200 --> 0:25:46.359 like sitting there. We don't know where our gear is, 0:25:46.440 --> 0:25:49.840 we don't know where anything is. We see plane tickets 0:25:50.960 --> 0:25:55.399 at our feet, and basically they're just that's in and 0:25:55.800 --> 0:25:58.840 implying that get the funk out of here and go home. 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:02.040 And we couldn't, you know, we didn't know how to 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:04.200 we we couldn't speak the language, We had no translator 0:26:04.240 --> 0:26:07.639 at this point they had all left. Yes, very isolating 0:26:07.640 --> 0:26:10.680 and for kids in their early twenties, it was frightening. 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:12.800 We were very scared. We've never been out of the 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:15.679 country before any of it. So, you know, we're calling 0:26:15.720 --> 0:26:18.760 back home on pay phones, waking our dad's up, you know, 0:26:18.920 --> 0:26:21.680 trying to figure out like how to get our gear. 0:26:21.800 --> 0:26:24.840 Our gear was thirty hours back. Um and the way 0:26:24.840 --> 0:26:28.320 that they transported the gear to these things was literally 0:26:28.359 --> 0:26:31.680 by open truck like like it's like watching an episode 0:26:31.680 --> 0:26:33.879 of mash, you know, and it would just be like 0:26:33.920 --> 0:26:36.199 open trucks with our road cases and stuff of all 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:38.560 of our gear that came over from America, and we 0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:40.800 rented a bunch of gear for it. So like we 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:42.280 were like, we're not going back home. We're gonna get 0:26:42.320 --> 0:26:44.640 sued by the gear companies as well for not having 0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:47.680 any of our gear and our prize guitars and everything 0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:49.800 if we don't get home. So um, this is a 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:54.200 great story about our crew. Um Uh Robert Ragman Long 0:26:54.680 --> 0:27:00.440 and Scary Larry Cromer. They offered to go back by 0:27:00.440 --> 0:27:05.000 car to the last town thirty hours away, find the 0:27:05.040 --> 0:27:08.280 gear and come home with it. And they rode home 0:27:08.320 --> 0:27:12.680 on the road cases in the cargo plane. On top 0:27:12.720 --> 0:27:15.640 of that fifteen hours to make sure our gear got 0:27:15.640 --> 0:27:20.560 back to the States, and Larry moved out from Rome, 0:27:20.600 --> 0:27:23.719 Georgia with me to l A. I taught him how 0:27:23.720 --> 0:27:28.880 to string a guitar. UM. Those guys not surprisingly went 0:27:28.920 --> 0:27:33.320 on to be um two of the biggest most successful 0:27:33.400 --> 0:27:35.760 road crew guys you'll ever meet. They both were they 0:27:35.800 --> 0:27:41.000 both guess who they worked for. Kiss. It all comes around. 0:27:41.240 --> 0:27:44.040 It certainly does. When you decided this group, when you 0:27:44.119 --> 0:27:46.000 when you come back, it's over. We got back and 0:27:46.040 --> 0:27:48.640 we started a new band immediately and just were fueled 0:27:49.119 --> 0:27:52.600 by um just doing things. D I Y you were 0:27:52.640 --> 0:27:55.320 the frontman at this point. I was then, and I 0:27:55.359 --> 0:27:58.040 started I started being the frontman for this new band. 0:27:58.080 --> 0:28:00.520 What did you feel that that require heard from you 0:28:00.560 --> 0:28:02.720 that you didn't have to display before? Was there a 0:28:02.800 --> 0:28:05.600 thing you felt you had to I actually didn't know 0:28:05.640 --> 0:28:07.399 how to be a front man. I'd never done it, 0:28:07.440 --> 0:28:09.639 really so, and I certainly knew that I was a 0:28:09.640 --> 0:28:11.880 guitar player first and foremost, so I was not gonna 0:28:12.359 --> 0:28:14.760 what they call freehand and like to put the guitar 0:28:15.200 --> 0:28:17.120 because I don't know what to do with a mic 0:28:17.200 --> 0:28:19.119 stand while I'm playing, So it's like I need a 0:28:19.160 --> 0:28:22.880 guitar on. It became the crutch, right, But I got 0:28:22.920 --> 0:28:25.080 really I got comfortable with it really quick because we 0:28:25.119 --> 0:28:28.280 played like two hundred shows a year, and we started 0:28:28.320 --> 0:28:30.760 just playing two hundred shows a year every year, and 0:28:30.880 --> 0:28:33.880 you know, for for what would become the better part 0:28:33.880 --> 0:28:37.560 of twenty years. I think I got pretty good at it. 0:28:37.600 --> 0:28:42.400 I guess if I can be not humble being a 0:28:42.440 --> 0:28:52.920 front man, uh musician and producer, butch Walker. Another l 0:28:53.000 --> 0:28:55.840 a music act I love is the band Perta, which 0:28:55.920 --> 0:28:59.560 is perched on the edge of stardom. It's front man, 0:28:59.680 --> 0:29:03.640 Matt Azolka, has the voice, presence and look of a 0:29:03.760 --> 0:29:07.200 once in a generation rock star, but they're not there yet. 0:29:07.880 --> 0:29:10.560 How many jobs you're working, I'd say two and a 0:29:10.600 --> 0:29:12.720 half and what are they if you want to sign? 0:29:13.840 --> 0:29:16.240 I do work for Starbucks and that one is probably 0:29:16.240 --> 0:29:17.720 the one I'm ready to get rid of the most. 0:29:17.840 --> 0:29:20.160 I love them, They're a great company, but four thirty 0:29:20.160 --> 0:29:24.240 in the morning, five days a week and no fucking heart. Yeah, 0:29:24.800 --> 0:29:28.960 usual days like four to one. Last year, I said 0:29:29.080 --> 0:29:32.400 that this interview would end up being our most downloaded, 0:29:33.840 --> 0:29:36.640 and I stand by that prediction. You can beat the 0:29:36.680 --> 0:29:40.400 crowds by texting p e r t A. That's p 0:29:40.640 --> 0:29:44.320 e r t A to seven zero one zero one. 0:29:44.680 --> 0:29:47.680 Now we'll send you a link to my full interview 0:29:47.720 --> 0:29:51.520 with Matt and his bandmate Colin Kenrick, plus a link 0:29:51.600 --> 0:29:55.000 to their Instagram so you can listen and feast your eyes. 0:30:04.880 --> 0:30:08.680 I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the thing which 0:30:08.760 --> 0:30:12.600 Walker landed a major record deal with his very first band, 0:30:13.120 --> 0:30:17.760 the self described hair band South Gang. He's on guitar here. 0:30:18.120 --> 0:30:33.120 They're single Boys Night Out. Yea impressive, but there was 0:30:33.200 --> 0:30:36.920 one skill Walker says, the band was missing when we 0:30:36.920 --> 0:30:38.880 did the South Gang stuff. We needed help with our 0:30:38.920 --> 0:30:42.040 songwriting because we had not really developed that part of 0:30:42.040 --> 0:30:44.640 the brain yet. And um, I said, can we get 0:30:44.680 --> 0:30:48.240 this guy, Desmond Child to be our executive producer and 0:30:48.280 --> 0:30:50.840 co writer. And that's the one thing the label did 0:30:50.880 --> 0:30:53.680 that I was liked about as they got him, and um, 0:30:53.680 --> 0:30:56.200 he's he's a legend. Described him for people who don't 0:30:56.240 --> 0:31:00.560 know him well. Desmond was responsible for everything from the 0:31:00.680 --> 0:31:04.960 huge Kiss hits to all of the big Bong Jovi 0:31:05.160 --> 0:31:10.200 hits Alice Cooper. Uh. He he was like the hottest 0:31:10.360 --> 0:31:13.280 ship on the street at that point as a songwriter, 0:31:13.400 --> 0:31:15.720 Like he couldn't be beat for that, for that kind 0:31:15.760 --> 0:31:18.360 of no, no, no, no, he was. I think he 0:31:18.400 --> 0:31:21.240 was out of New York. But you know, Desmond's gay, 0:31:21.600 --> 0:31:24.719 and so when I started going over to work with him, 0:31:24.720 --> 0:31:26.440 me and the singer started going over to his house 0:31:26.440 --> 0:31:29.360 and working with him. We were just these dumb rednecks 0:31:29.400 --> 0:31:34.560 from Cartersville, Georgia and I'd never even met anyone gay yet, 0:31:34.920 --> 0:31:37.360 and I was just part of the tunnel vision and 0:31:37.400 --> 0:31:39.600 the blinders that came from being in a small town 0:31:39.640 --> 0:31:43.720 where you just thought that that was weird, which is 0:31:43.760 --> 0:31:46.600 a bummer. And you know, I didn't know how to 0:31:46.880 --> 0:31:49.160 I was stand offish about it. And I remember one 0:31:49.160 --> 0:31:51.560 time we were working on a song keep in Mind. 0:31:51.560 --> 0:31:54.960 I was like twenty uh, and I said, um, something 0:31:55.000 --> 0:31:57.560 about a lyric and I said, oh, man, that's gay, 0:31:57.600 --> 0:32:01.719 and Desmond goes, what do you mean gay? And my 0:32:01.880 --> 0:32:05.280 heart fell into my feet because I was like, oh fuck, 0:32:05.400 --> 0:32:08.719 I just insulted my idol. And when I came up 0:32:08.720 --> 0:32:10.320 with the next line and it had love and that, 0:32:10.480 --> 0:32:13.440 he goes, what do you know about love? You're not 0:32:13.480 --> 0:32:17.520 even a person yet, And he was right, and and 0:32:17.640 --> 0:32:20.080 that's exactly I think. When he said that, it made 0:32:20.120 --> 0:32:22.640 me think a lot about you know, I needed to 0:32:22.640 --> 0:32:24.600 open my mind up to a lot of things, and 0:32:25.080 --> 0:32:27.200 you know, coming out here did that and going through 0:32:27.200 --> 0:32:31.360 those experiences did that. Um we made a record together 0:32:31.520 --> 0:32:34.440 and then of course that nothing happened from it and 0:32:34.840 --> 0:32:39.880 we we fell out and never talked again, and um, god, 0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:43.800 twenty years later, this was not that long ago. Um. 0:32:43.840 --> 0:32:48.400 I was in the airport with my wife and child 0:32:48.480 --> 0:32:50.880 and we were in the airport at the American Airlines 0:32:51.400 --> 0:32:54.760 lounge or whatever, and I saw this guy and I said, 0:32:55.960 --> 0:32:58.080 I man in the weirdest deja vu. I was like, 0:32:58.920 --> 0:33:01.560 that looks like the guy that used to answer the 0:33:01.640 --> 0:33:04.920 door when we would go to Desmond's house to work. 0:33:05.640 --> 0:33:08.840 And then I look over over his shoulder with two 0:33:08.920 --> 0:33:14.200 little beautiful blond haired boys, Desmond, and I was like, 0:33:14.720 --> 0:33:18.440 that's Curtis and that's Desmond. They were together then, there 0:33:18.480 --> 0:33:23.160 together now. And I walked over and I was like Desmond, 0:33:24.040 --> 0:33:26.000 and I was like, I know you're not gonna remember me. 0:33:26.040 --> 0:33:28.080 It was a long time ago. And he just got 0:33:28.160 --> 0:33:29.880 up and hugged me, and he goes, I've been following 0:33:29.960 --> 0:33:33.800 your career. I'm so proud of you, and you're a 0:33:33.880 --> 0:33:39.680 person now and I'm a person now. Well, what's when 0:33:39.680 --> 0:33:42.360 you're songwriting with someone like him? What does he teach you? 0:33:42.960 --> 0:33:46.120 He taught me everything that was boot camp, like learning 0:33:46.120 --> 0:33:48.600 how to write songs with him. He was tough, you know. 0:33:48.760 --> 0:33:52.160 He taught me inner rhyme and melody and don't be 0:33:52.200 --> 0:33:54.520 afraid to be literal, don't be afraid to like tell 0:33:54.560 --> 0:33:57.160 a story and reach for people's heart strings instead of 0:33:57.160 --> 0:34:00.880 being too precious and two, UM inside with it as 0:34:00.920 --> 0:34:03.000 far as like the lyric goes. And I mean, that's 0:34:03.000 --> 0:34:05.120 why he wrote some of the biggest songs ever. And 0:34:06.040 --> 0:34:09.280 I think that that's a beautiful That was a beautiful 0:34:09.320 --> 0:34:11.759 first crash course to go through and songwriting. And I 0:34:11.760 --> 0:34:14.320 took it with me all the way to Now, Um, 0:34:14.320 --> 0:34:17.719 what's one of the earliest songs you wrote that you 0:34:17.840 --> 0:34:19.959 said to yourself, you know, you sit back and go 0:34:20.680 --> 0:34:26.560 that's pretty good. That works way later in life, I 0:34:26.560 --> 0:34:30.520 had gone through a band, uh that had a marginal 0:34:30.600 --> 0:34:34.359 hit at radio later, an alternative band called the Marvelous Three, 0:34:34.400 --> 0:34:40.000 and that was like, um, that was like late nineties, UM, 0:34:40.040 --> 0:34:43.759 and I wrote this song about selling out, and sure 0:34:43.840 --> 0:34:45.319 enough it got played on the radio and got us 0:34:45.360 --> 0:34:47.719 a record deal and we sold out. And it's a 0:34:47.719 --> 0:34:50.640 good song, and I was, I was, you know, proud 0:34:50.640 --> 0:34:52.600 of it, but I knew that there was so much 0:34:52.640 --> 0:34:55.239 more to learn and and I wanted I wanted to 0:34:55.239 --> 0:34:58.920 tap into more emotional songs. I guess because you know, 0:34:59.040 --> 0:35:01.480 that was a very SNAr arkey, cynical kind of a song. 0:35:01.520 --> 0:35:03.960 For a while I couldn't write anything about love because 0:35:04.080 --> 0:35:08.680 Desmond had scarred me. Uh and so um. I did 0:35:08.719 --> 0:35:12.799 this record called a solo record in the early two 0:35:12.800 --> 0:35:17.120 thousand's called Letters, and I think I was most proud 0:35:17.200 --> 0:35:20.280 of that. I remember you met my manager backstage, Jonathan. 0:35:20.320 --> 0:35:22.880 He's been my manager for twenty years and he's pretty 0:35:22.960 --> 0:35:26.200 much the reason I'm even alive, because I would have 0:35:26.280 --> 0:35:27.880 jumped off the ledge a long time ago if not 0:35:27.960 --> 0:35:32.080 for him. And that's the first time I remember him going, 0:35:33.000 --> 0:35:35.800 this is really good, because he doesn't say that that often. 0:35:36.440 --> 0:35:39.000 And um, and you know there was some songs on 0:35:39.040 --> 0:35:42.080 there where I remember that moment clicking. Um. There was 0:35:42.120 --> 0:35:44.760 a song on there called Joan that I had written 0:35:44.800 --> 0:35:47.480 that I think was one of my more I'm I'm. 0:35:47.480 --> 0:35:49.160 I was really proud of it when I wrote it. 0:35:49.600 --> 0:35:55.120 Will you play it for us? I'll try m m 0:35:59.280 --> 0:36:17.480 m m m h. John moved away to Carlelorado said 0:36:17.640 --> 0:36:23.840 she'd found God and a boyfriend as well, one that 0:36:24.200 --> 0:36:30.080 won't hit her or make a feel shadow. There's a 0:36:30.120 --> 0:36:48.680 lot to learn about Joe. Before I moved in, John 0:36:48.880 --> 0:36:53.360 had a fling with the Landlore, so she got to 0:36:53.520 --> 0:37:00.360 stay here for free. I'm not out of genius. I 0:37:00.640 --> 0:37:10.800 figured out there's a lot to learn from John. After 0:37:11.120 --> 0:37:24.920 allest time you're waiting around, stop at the place where 0:37:24.960 --> 0:37:44.600 they slowly misplaced your life, go get it right. I 0:37:44.719 --> 0:37:52.120 when to close to catch drustful work. Spotted little box 0:37:52.320 --> 0:37:59.120 I had not seen before, all kinds of letters never 0:37:59.360 --> 0:38:05.200 got and to a guy in Colorado since nineteen nine 0:38:05.239 --> 0:38:11.279 and four, I long was wrong. I sat in open 0:38:11.600 --> 0:38:18.200 and no certain order. Letter or two She talked about 0:38:18.440 --> 0:38:23.960 blisters and bruises of anger, that she bought a hand 0:38:24.160 --> 0:38:28.520 gonne to learn how to shoot. And the last letter 0:38:28.719 --> 0:38:33.520 said that she had to get out. But I could 0:38:33.920 --> 0:38:38.840 make out the rest of a note from the bloodstains 0:38:39.000 --> 0:38:47.040 all over the page of the letters. And a lot 0:38:48.160 --> 0:39:01.920 to learn. There's a lot I learned about John. After all, 0:39:04.120 --> 0:39:13.520 lest you were when the right to stop at the 0:39:13.680 --> 0:39:25.760 place where they slowly mass place your After all, lest 0:39:26.280 --> 0:39:36.319 time you winther to stop at the place where they 0:39:36.600 --> 0:40:37.840 slolely mass place your no go can you right? Ah? 0:40:38.920 --> 0:40:44.000 You got me? You got me? Um you got me? Um? No? 0:40:44.160 --> 0:40:45.759 I just I just you know, is it? I just 0:40:45.800 --> 0:40:49.680 think that you um you know you play or you're 0:40:49.680 --> 0:40:53.520 this wonderful guitar player and you're wonderful, this wonderful singer musician, 0:40:53.760 --> 0:40:56.799 and then other people want your opinion about what they're 0:40:56.800 --> 0:41:00.160 supposed to do. That's a huge leap. They try us 0:41:00.200 --> 0:41:02.759 to you to help them decide where am I going 0:41:02.840 --> 0:41:07.480 to go? I want your advice worse okay, but how 0:41:07.480 --> 0:41:09.319 does that begin? He was the first person that comes 0:41:09.360 --> 0:41:13.360 to you and says, help me. Well, um, I was 0:41:13.400 --> 0:41:18.040 making our own bands records because we couldn't afford studio time. 0:41:18.120 --> 0:41:19.719 It was very expensive back in the day to get 0:41:19.719 --> 0:41:21.560 into a really good studio, and back in the day 0:41:21.600 --> 0:41:24.400 there was no computers to make records on. You had 0:41:24.440 --> 0:41:26.400 to make them on these big expensive tape machines and 0:41:26.480 --> 0:41:29.239 boards and big studios, and it was, you know, two 0:41:29.280 --> 0:41:31.719 thousand dollars a day in some of these places, and 0:41:31.840 --> 0:41:33.600 like that. Nobody had that kind of money when you're 0:41:33.600 --> 0:41:37.160 making a demo to get shopped for a record deal 0:41:37.280 --> 0:41:41.239 or whatever. And demos usually sounded terrible if they weren't 0:41:41.239 --> 0:41:44.239 recording in big studios. Very hard to make recording sound great, 0:41:45.239 --> 0:41:47.880 whereas now on computers. You know, everybody makes the records 0:41:47.880 --> 0:41:49.640 on computers and they sound like a record the minute 0:41:49.640 --> 0:41:53.440 they just opened up the fucking computer and hit play, 0:41:53.640 --> 0:41:55.440 and it's like even the demo sounds like it should 0:41:55.440 --> 0:41:58.360 be on the radio. But I was making records in 0:41:58.400 --> 0:42:03.120 my parents Raj and I set up a little makeshift 0:42:03.120 --> 0:42:05.920 studio and I would record all these um punk and 0:42:06.000 --> 0:42:09.160 metal bands in Atlanta hundred bucks a day, two hundred 0:42:09.160 --> 0:42:11.200 bucks a day, whatever I could get. You know, they 0:42:11.200 --> 0:42:13.719 weren't really demos. They were people would make their independent 0:42:13.760 --> 0:42:16.600 records and they would press them on CDs at the time, 0:42:16.640 --> 0:42:19.360 and they would sell them at their shows and whatever. 0:42:19.960 --> 0:42:23.080 UM and I did some bands that started to get 0:42:23.400 --> 0:42:25.960 noticed a little bit back after after I moved back 0:42:25.960 --> 0:42:27.759 from l A to Atlanta. We moved back there and 0:42:27.800 --> 0:42:30.000 we lived there for a better part of sixteen years. 0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:34.320 And that was pretty much, uh where I started really 0:42:34.400 --> 0:42:37.799 figuring it out and getting honing the craft, so they say, 0:42:37.840 --> 0:42:40.800 and getting really good at recording with very little gear 0:42:41.160 --> 0:42:44.239 in a very little space. And the band that I 0:42:44.320 --> 0:42:49.640 mentioned that had the the marginal hit song at alternative Radio, 0:42:49.719 --> 0:42:53.759 the Marvelous Three, I recorded that whole record in a 0:42:53.800 --> 0:42:57.520 living room with like two microphones, and I did the 0:42:57.560 --> 0:43:01.440 whole thing, uh just beginning to end. I had learned 0:43:01.560 --> 0:43:04.799 how to record on this new fangled software called pro 0:43:04.880 --> 0:43:09.040 tools on a very archaic Mac computer and I had 0:43:09.080 --> 0:43:12.200 to learn it all by scratch. Uh. And so that 0:43:12.320 --> 0:43:14.359 song ended up getting picked up and started getting played. 0:43:14.360 --> 0:43:16.880 And then all of a sudden, I had um record 0:43:16.920 --> 0:43:21.520 companies calling that with their artists going hey, who who 0:43:21.520 --> 0:43:24.359 produced that song? And I'd be like, wow, I did, 0:43:24.719 --> 0:43:27.920 who recorded it? I did, who who sang it, who 0:43:27.920 --> 0:43:29.360 played it? Who wrote it? You know? And it was 0:43:29.480 --> 0:43:32.680 like I did. So I started getting asked to work 0:43:32.719 --> 0:43:37.319 on other people's records flatly. Um see. One of the 0:43:37.320 --> 0:43:39.880 first things was there was a band called SR. Seventy 0:43:39.880 --> 0:43:42.440 one that I did a song for that uh that 0:43:42.640 --> 0:43:45.440 became a bigger hit, and they kind of wanted a 0:43:45.480 --> 0:43:48.440 song like that song that I wrote that was for 0:43:48.560 --> 0:43:51.279 my band, and so we did one and it got 0:43:51.320 --> 0:43:54.560 bigger than my own band song. And I was like, hmmm, 0:43:55.880 --> 0:43:59.759 I might like this job. And then um, this girl 0:44:00.000 --> 0:44:06.319 Everril Levine called, and then Katie Perry and then and 0:44:06.360 --> 0:44:09.239 then Pink and then um, you know, and then from 0:44:09.239 --> 0:44:11.319 there it just went kind of nuts. I had like 0:44:11.520 --> 0:44:15.080 Fallout Boy and Weezer and Panic at the Disco and uh, 0:44:15.120 --> 0:44:24.799 now Green Day some job. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. 0:44:24.880 --> 0:44:27.799 It's a fun job and it comes with some some 0:44:28.000 --> 0:44:31.920 ship sometimes and sometimes you come home and you're like, God, 0:44:31.960 --> 0:44:34.280 I'm so bummed. I don't want to do this. And 0:44:34.280 --> 0:44:36.800 and I'm not gonna name names. It's not necessarily because 0:44:36.840 --> 0:44:38.279 of an artist. It's just you can just have a 0:44:38.280 --> 0:44:39.719 bad day. And you can have a bad day with 0:44:39.760 --> 0:44:42.080 the artist, and you can have a bad day with 0:44:42.160 --> 0:44:44.319 your gear. You can have a bad day not being 0:44:44.360 --> 0:44:46.960 able to like feel like you're giving any direction or 0:44:47.200 --> 0:44:50.320 having anything to contribute. And you know, back to answer 0:44:50.320 --> 0:44:52.520 your question a little bit about like how what goes 0:44:52.560 --> 0:44:54.640 into it is, you know, there's a lot of you, 0:44:54.800 --> 0:44:57.840 You're you're wanting to these people are wanting, they're leaning 0:44:57.880 --> 0:45:01.360 on you to offer up some sort of gold ferry 0:45:01.440 --> 0:45:04.440 dust that doesn't exist to be to like, you know, 0:45:04.520 --> 0:45:07.279 make this magic happen. And sometimes that's not there. But 0:45:07.360 --> 0:45:10.520 sometimes I found that a lot of it was just 0:45:10.560 --> 0:45:13.680 bullshitting my way into this business and just saying I 0:45:13.719 --> 0:45:16.560 got this, I know what to do and um, and 0:45:16.640 --> 0:45:19.200 so a lot of it was just common like commandeering 0:45:19.320 --> 0:45:22.839 the ship and being like okay, um, let's let's try 0:45:22.880 --> 0:45:24.400 this song in a different key. Let's try it with 0:45:24.440 --> 0:45:26.920 a different groove. Let's try it with this. Let's um, 0:45:27.000 --> 0:45:29.600 you know, let's let's uh whatever. I mean. There's guys 0:45:29.680 --> 0:45:35.399 that have methods that they will torment the artist and 0:45:35.440 --> 0:45:39.280 to too and you know, mental manipulation to get something 0:45:39.320 --> 0:45:41.359 out of them. That's not me. I don't do that, 0:45:41.719 --> 0:45:44.399 and I'm and then there's other people that just want 0:45:44.400 --> 0:45:46.880 to do it fifty million times because they're not hearing 0:45:46.920 --> 0:45:50.680 it the way that they're hearing it in their head. Um, 0:45:50.760 --> 0:45:54.440 and uh, that's not me either. Um. I tend to 0:45:54.480 --> 0:45:59.359 go with the This sounds cliche, but I go with gut, Like, 0:45:59.440 --> 0:46:01.839 if it's like making the hair on my arms stand up, 0:46:01.840 --> 0:46:04.359 maybe that's gonna make millions of people's hair stand up 0:46:04.360 --> 0:46:06.759 as well on their arm. And some people will just 0:46:06.880 --> 0:46:09.800 scrap it because they want perfection or they want or 0:46:09.840 --> 0:46:13.239 they want it to be technically precise. And I don't 0:46:13.239 --> 0:46:15.359 care about that. My favorite records growing up and had 0:46:15.360 --> 0:46:18.360 all that stuff. You know, you could hear, you know, 0:46:18.440 --> 0:46:21.000 on led Zeppelin records, you could hear the John Bonham 0:46:21.000 --> 0:46:22.759 when he's playing. You can hear him in the microphones 0:46:22.840 --> 0:46:28.399 going like that sometimes and you're like, what the funk 0:46:28.520 --> 0:46:32.239 is that? And and it's that's that's the stuff that 0:46:32.320 --> 0:46:35.040 makes like a little stone teenager in their bedroom with 0:46:35.040 --> 0:46:38.799 headphones zone go mental. They love it. So let's talk 0:46:38.840 --> 0:46:44.320 about your concept album. What was the genesis of that? Um? Well, 0:46:44.440 --> 0:46:51.560 so I started the record um a few years ago. Uh, 0:46:51.560 --> 0:46:54.319 and I just I started realizing that when I was 0:46:54.360 --> 0:46:57.480 writing this new batch of songs maybe for a new record, 0:46:57.520 --> 0:47:00.560 that I couldn't really I couldn't really write at anything 0:47:00.680 --> 0:47:04.600 that was the typical love story break up you know. 0:47:06.120 --> 0:47:08.680 You know, my girlfriend left me. I'm sad, you know, 0:47:08.760 --> 0:47:10.680 and that's There's a lot of songs there, you know, 0:47:10.800 --> 0:47:12.440 to pick from in the world. And I just kind 0:47:12.440 --> 0:47:14.799 of got burned out on that. And all I could 0:47:14.840 --> 0:47:17.960 think about was one of the problems that seemed to 0:47:18.000 --> 0:47:22.000 be growing and America and then and rearing its head. 0:47:22.040 --> 0:47:24.839 It actually had always been there, but I think just 0:47:25.520 --> 0:47:28.960 has gotten a lot more exposure in the last few years. 0:47:28.960 --> 0:47:32.439 And that's hate. You know. I just was like, well, 0:47:32.960 --> 0:47:35.040 nobody wants to hear this kind of fucking record from me, 0:47:35.400 --> 0:47:39.359 But um, I couldn't stop writing all these songs about it. 0:47:39.440 --> 0:47:44.440 And it was just really hurting my heart and bearing 0:47:44.440 --> 0:47:46.839 on my conscience too. Of growing up in it and 0:47:46.880 --> 0:47:50.000 thinking about how how I got out of it, and 0:47:50.040 --> 0:47:52.120 how a lot of people I know haven't and how 0:47:52.640 --> 0:47:56.960 it's affected relationships, uh, you know, with with even relatives 0:47:56.960 --> 0:48:01.240 and friends and um and and so I started writing 0:48:01.239 --> 0:48:03.759 this record, and my in Jonathan, my manager, was like, 0:48:03.960 --> 0:48:07.080 it sounds like you're kind of making a rock opera, 0:48:07.239 --> 0:48:10.279 like there's an actual storyline. And I didn't think about 0:48:10.280 --> 0:48:12.879 it at the time, and I was like, you're right, 0:48:13.040 --> 0:48:16.040 it is. And so I started hunkering down and writing 0:48:16.520 --> 0:48:19.759 this story, you know, loosely based on my my childhood, 0:48:19.760 --> 0:48:21.759 in my life and my dad and a lot of 0:48:21.840 --> 0:48:24.799 characters are in the story. And I've had it done 0:48:24.800 --> 0:48:28.720 for two years. I sat on it and I didn't 0:48:28.760 --> 0:48:32.160 think I wanted to put it out. And you know, 0:48:32.480 --> 0:48:34.319 it's not like I thought, oh, the problem is gonna 0:48:34.360 --> 0:48:37.680 go away. You know, problem is not going to go away. 0:48:38.200 --> 0:48:39.920 And I'm not like trying to change the world. And 0:48:40.320 --> 0:48:42.920 nobody knows who the funk I am anyway, So it's 0:48:42.920 --> 0:48:44.920 not like if I put a record out there are 0:48:44.960 --> 0:48:47.120 millions of people are going to go like, oh you 0:48:47.160 --> 0:48:49.919 know or or fuck you you know when they hear it. 0:48:50.239 --> 0:48:53.040 But um, but I had to say I'm going to 0:48:53.120 --> 0:48:55.680 do this. I'm gonna put it out because it weighed 0:48:55.800 --> 0:49:00.160 too heavy on my heart not to. But it's called 0:49:00.200 --> 0:49:05.240 American Love Story, and it's basically, you know about, um, 0:49:05.239 --> 0:49:09.880 this white, middle aged bigot who grew up with a 0:49:09.920 --> 0:49:14.560 pretty bad father and never really was taught love and 0:49:14.680 --> 0:49:17.839 only kind of rehearsed what he heard. The problem with 0:49:17.880 --> 0:49:20.560 this record is that a lot of the songs are 0:49:20.600 --> 0:49:25.359 sung through his perspective, and that makes a little tough 0:49:25.400 --> 0:49:27.399 to not preface it when you're playing some of those 0:49:27.400 --> 0:49:29.319 songs live, because people are gonna be like, what the 0:49:29.400 --> 0:49:33.560 fund did he just say? You know so? Um? But 0:49:33.680 --> 0:49:36.960 I was really intrigued and inspired by an old record 0:49:37.000 --> 0:49:40.120 by Randy Newman called Good Old Boys that that was 0:49:40.160 --> 0:49:42.920 a very, I thought, a very controversial record when it 0:49:42.960 --> 0:49:46.120 came out, Um, talking about the problem of like racism 0:49:46.120 --> 0:49:48.480 and hate in America. You gonna play a couple of 0:49:48.520 --> 0:50:16.360 songs for us? Yeah, I can do m M. I 0:50:16.480 --> 0:50:21.040 remember in my younger years walk into a city pool 0:50:22.239 --> 0:50:26.680 Guillen called a fagin from this boy on new in school. 0:50:27.880 --> 0:50:32.160 His dad and never for him, grew up outside of 0:50:32.280 --> 0:50:38.120 town with a lack of education. Year the options went around. 0:50:39.360 --> 0:50:43.560 Sometimes I'd see that boy in class, the bruises on 0:50:43.680 --> 0:50:50.080 his eyes read and pretty swollen. Teem's tangled up in pride, 0:50:50.760 --> 0:50:55.719 repeede and memorize reatory about it be in God's way. 0:50:56.480 --> 0:50:59.560 I fight. Don't follow the good book, then there'll be 0:51:00.040 --> 0:51:03.520 some hill to pay. I don't blame me, but how 0:51:03.640 --> 0:51:08.160 you turn out I have it's hard to breathe. You 0:51:08.239 --> 0:51:11.719 were born into what you came, and now I was 0:51:11.800 --> 0:51:15.920 born this way. I can try to show some passion 0:51:16.800 --> 0:51:21.720 before you take that shot out here in the open, 0:51:23.880 --> 0:51:49.400 whether or like it or not. Driving on from a 0:51:49.560 --> 0:51:54.799 party with friends on Saturday night, I came up on 0:51:54.920 --> 0:52:00.360 the wreckage and Nicole was party night. The boy only 0:52:00.640 --> 0:52:06.080 fagging like bleeding, almost dead. He wrapped that truck from 0:52:06.239 --> 0:52:10.360 drinking and the wind she made his head well. I 0:52:10.520 --> 0:52:14.160 pulled him from the driver's seat, said help was on 0:52:14.239 --> 0:52:18.640 his way. For my head up upon his chest and 0:52:18.719 --> 0:52:23.880 said it'll be okay. As he focused on my likeness, 0:52:24.040 --> 0:52:28.560 I can see it in his eyes. Everything eats ought 0:52:28.680 --> 0:52:32.440 to hey will find to save his life in the 0:52:32.640 --> 0:52:37.919 iron knew about this, I told him with a smile. Yeah, 0:52:37.920 --> 0:52:41.680 your God must work in stranger ways than your heart. 0:52:41.719 --> 0:52:45.960 Will allow well. He fought his hand behind the tears, 0:52:46.480 --> 0:52:52.560 eyes blood shotting down, his rebel flag tattooed hand holding 0:52:52.719 --> 0:52:55.680 mind to him, he said, please don't blame me for 0:52:55.800 --> 0:53:00.880 how it turned out. I learned a little. I was 0:53:00.960 --> 0:53:05.240 born into what I became, and you were born this way, 0:53:06.200 --> 0:53:10.279 I can try to show confession. It might be all 0:53:10.360 --> 0:53:18.880 a guy out here in the open, whether A like 0:53:19.320 --> 0:54:12.440 it night M there was, it's something that you Uh, 0:54:12.480 --> 0:54:15.839 it's done. Are you still recorded it? It's done, It's coming. 0:54:16.120 --> 0:54:20.200 I did it, Thank you, thank you. Um. I'm excited 0:54:20.239 --> 0:54:22.600 for people to hear it. It's not all fucking bummers. 0:54:24.200 --> 0:54:26.680 It's actually it's a very upbeat sounding record, and the 0:54:26.760 --> 0:54:28.239 kind of the way the way I made it was 0:54:28.640 --> 0:54:32.799 I wanted it to reflect the timeline musically to what 0:54:32.880 --> 0:54:36.000 I was listening to on the radio during my upbringing. 0:54:36.040 --> 0:54:38.640 So it kind of uh, when people hear it, it it 0:54:38.680 --> 0:54:42.000 will if they're around my age, then they might get 0:54:42.040 --> 0:54:43.480 a kick out of it because it kind of goes 0:54:43.520 --> 0:54:47.680 through the styles of songs. It's very uh, late seventies, 0:54:47.719 --> 0:54:51.279 early eighties vibes on a lot of it, and it's 0:54:51.280 --> 0:54:55.680 pretty fun production. I do a lot of I can't 0:54:55.719 --> 0:54:57.439 wait to hear it. Do you have a son? Who's 0:54:57.480 --> 0:55:01.160 how old? James? He's twelve? Is he? Is he a musical? 0:55:01.400 --> 0:55:03.879 He is? He can sing? He does theater. He's done 0:55:03.920 --> 0:55:08.279 like eight plays already. He's killing in theater and very 0:55:08.360 --> 0:55:13.279 much an artie, quirky weirdo. And I love it. I 0:55:13.320 --> 0:55:17.000 think we should. I think we should. Uh take a request? 0:55:17.040 --> 0:55:23.520 Who here has a burning desire? I can't hear anything 0:55:23.560 --> 0:56:16.200 they're saying. Let's see uh okay, m California girls. I 0:56:16.280 --> 0:56:23.200 haven't move in the mouth, just a certain wing, see 0:56:23.280 --> 0:56:29.000 it is? It always seems so a right? Oh in 0:56:29.040 --> 0:56:33.600 the shower at the end of the day, I'm left 0:56:33.600 --> 0:56:36.480 with the tab and not a word to say because 0:56:36.520 --> 0:56:40.440 I see your face and the turn out. My line. 0:56:43.040 --> 0:56:48.879 SI keeping other night by this fire and dring some 0:56:48.960 --> 0:56:54.640 wine because it's the closest thing that you want to find. 0:57:01.960 --> 0:57:07.000 New York ladies that driven crazy, can't keep up on 0:57:07.239 --> 0:57:12.200 from the south and lazy. This town stays open too late. 0:57:12.320 --> 0:57:18.800 Four these are bars. Maybe it's because it's got too 0:57:18.800 --> 0:57:24.840 many faces, cram like fishes in compact places. Is this wild? 0:57:24.880 --> 0:57:32.560 All of them seemed desperate and alone, sipping back up 0:57:32.960 --> 0:57:38.800 the cigarettes, but only for the night, because as the 0:57:38.960 --> 0:58:27.360 closest thing that you are gonna find. Hollywood girls took 0:58:27.400 --> 0:58:31.960 all my penis back in eight I felt for a 0:58:32.040 --> 0:58:35.959 minute I wake up in one or why I never 0:58:36.080 --> 0:58:41.360 left here because then Georgia girls all getting hammered and 0:58:41.400 --> 0:58:42.959 get a beard in their face and they just start 0:58:42.960 --> 0:58:45.480 getting all funked up and talking about politics and racing 0:58:46.200 --> 0:58:50.120 till I say stop and shove the cotton further down 0:58:50.200 --> 0:58:54.360 my ears. That's what I do, and my hands are 0:58:54.480 --> 0:58:58.200 full of that stick is set from your back. Y'all 0:58:58.280 --> 0:59:05.120 chose a pie. Ah, it's just the closest to you are. 0:59:38.840 --> 0:59:43.280 You really are so talented, it's unbelievable, how great you are, 0:59:43.280 --> 0:59:46.880 how talented you up? Let's go it up. What's Walker? 0:59:47.880 --> 0:59:59.560 And thank you all for coming. Butch Walker's groundbreaking rock 0:59:59.640 --> 1:00:04.040 oppera American love Story, drops May eighth. My thanks to 1:00:04.200 --> 1:00:08.520 Zach McNeice for mixing the live music in today's episode. 1:00:09.080 --> 1:00:11.720 I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the thing.