Speaker 1: Hey, do you guys know the song Glisserin or the
Speaker 1: song machine Head? Okay, I didn't tell Gavin this during
Speaker 1: the podcast, but I used to have this dog named Jane,
Speaker 1: and the dog would constantly go outside of the house
Speaker 1: and then back into the house and outside of the
Speaker 1: house and then back into the house all day lunch.
Speaker 1: You just wanted to go through that door. And he
Speaker 1: had this song called Machinehead, was a giant, giant hit
Speaker 1: and at one section it goes breathe in, breathe out,
Speaker 1: breathe in, breathe out, breathe in. And my wife and
Speaker 1: I used to go Jane's in, Jane's out, Jane's in,
Speaker 1: Jane's out, Jans And he was like a huge part
Speaker 1: without knowing it, he was a huge part of our lives.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be really fun for me to sit
Speaker 1: down and talk to Gavin Rossdale today. Although I didn't,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna tell him that story. Gavin Rossdale, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being here on six degrees with
Speaker 1: Kevin Big And I'm so excited to meet you. I
Speaker 1: don't think we've met, have we no crossed?
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I felt very upset that I
Speaker 2: didn't know if I'd made this within the six degrees,
Speaker 2: but now I guess I have.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, you definitely have, because we we do
Speaker 1: the research on that before we start this embarrassing must
Speaker 1: be loads of course. Well you were. You were in
Speaker 1: a Little Black Book, right with Julia Nicholson. Julianne was
Speaker 1: in Black Mass with me, so right.
Speaker 2: I was in it. I was in that movie so quick.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful story. I remember. It's funny because I
Speaker 2: now live and my kids go to school that way.
Speaker 2: Why I drove out. I seemed like I was going forever.
Speaker 2: And when I got to Canoga Park Avenue, seen far
Speaker 2: outside of LA It's like, god, damn, this is the vallet.
Speaker 2: And I went there and I I always said that
Speaker 2: as an actor is trying to be an actor and
Speaker 2: really loving that whole world. I thought that the thing
Speaker 2: I didn't want to do was any rom coms, you know,
Speaker 2: because I just thought that was a way you could
Speaker 2: kind of just kind of skid and fall out the
Speaker 2: way I wanted to do much more serious stuff. So that, yeah,
Speaker 2: I just that's what, right. So I go there and
Speaker 2: they said, oh, there's this film with Brittany Murphy there's
Speaker 2: a rom com. I said, no, no, no, no, no, we
Speaker 2: don't want to do that, right. We want to keep
Speaker 2: the dark. I want to play the devil's emissary. I
Speaker 2: want to be covered in blood. People generally kill me
Speaker 2: or I killed someone suddenly happened mister dark. I don't
Speaker 2: want to miss the sweet guy in the rain. So
Speaker 2: I went there and fully like, I just was like,
Speaker 2: just hold your ground. It's great to me here. She's incredible.
Speaker 2: Hold your ground. You're not going to do any of that.
Speaker 2: And I walked in this trailer and there's the producer,
Speaker 2: there was the director, and there was Brittany Murphy and
Speaker 2: she just grabbed my hands and said, please we do
Speaker 2: this part. I said, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: I rolled over like that's so funny. You know, I
Speaker 1: have to I want to ask you about that because this,
Speaker 1: this this brings up something that I'm really curious about.
Speaker 1: I don't get a chance that often to speak to you, know,
Speaker 1: but musicians who act, and I'm an actor who plays music,
Speaker 1: and so I have my own theories about all of
Speaker 1: all of it in the way that people react to
Speaker 1: these things. But I'm curious from your standpoint. I mean,
Speaker 1: what was it about acting, because you obviously were had
Speaker 1: thought a lot about it in terms of the kind
Speaker 1: of things that you wanted to do. And it's and
Speaker 1: it's true that comedy is its own thing and can
Speaker 1: be just kind of a blip on the radar. So
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm fascinated about what what pushed you in
Speaker 1: that in that kind of direction.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's just to do with the words
Speaker 2: and with the magic that great actors. You know, obviously,
Speaker 2: my my whole life is creditates words. I think that
Speaker 2: I have this career because of the words that I've
Speaker 2: managed to write, you know what I mean. It's not
Speaker 2: like I didn't reinvent melody. I didn't reinvent music. I
Speaker 2: just did a certain style with a certain my my slant,
Speaker 2: which has been pretty consistent over all this thirty years
Speaker 2: or whatever. And so to do when you read a
Speaker 2: great writer and then you hear a great actor, you know,
Speaker 2: taking those words off the page and making them come alive.
Speaker 2: There's something about that alchemy, a bit like you know,
Speaker 2: melody with chords. If one voice was a chord, something happens,
Speaker 2: and it's just so enticing, Like I just love it
Speaker 2: that rolling and action and everything is dependent on us
Speaker 2: and the scene making it happen, making it real. And
Speaker 2: I just find an endless delight in that, the waiting
Speaker 2: around and rejection and act of work that I could
Speaker 2: do it out. When I sort of stopped, I was like,
Speaker 2: I was like, i'd say I quit acting. I hadn't
Speaker 2: quit acting. I just quit auditioning. In fact, I didn't
Speaker 2: quit auditioning because I still do self taped. But it's
Speaker 2: just like so nice. Sophia Copper gave me a role
Speaker 2: in in her movie The Bling Ring. The last thing
Speaker 2: I did. I got given it, which is really fun
Speaker 2: to be given apart then you get I think it's
Speaker 2: just magical when you lifting off the page. That's what
Speaker 2: I really like. And I can't bear looking at her
Speaker 2: cell phone, just like that wasn't the best take. I know,
Speaker 2: you know, it's fraud and all the same things when
Speaker 2: we listen back to music, but that's what it was.
Speaker 2: And quickly about the Brittany Murphy thing. We had most
Speaker 2: of the credible times she was really spectacular. That was
Speaker 2: such a warm, beautiful spirit, and when we were working together,
Speaker 2: she was so nice to me about it. You are
Speaker 2: really good, you know, really this is really good. Now
Speaker 2: everything I did apparently I got a soft landing because
Speaker 2: they said they did a test screening in New York
Speaker 2: and everyone wanted to end up with you and not
Speaker 2: with the person in the movie. So they cut all
Speaker 2: my scenes. So my part was cut and I just
Speaker 2: left one scene in the in the coffee shop, and
Speaker 2: that's kind of it, just like the most inconsequently, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it's complete. So I was like, I was took
Speaker 2: in the sense of being blooded, you know, like happen
Speaker 2: with you know, Terry Manning cutting out? You know, what's
Speaker 2: his face? You know, beautiful.
Speaker 1: I don't even know that story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a good story, don't know it anyway,
Speaker 2: Some people have been in a I shouldn't say, but
Speaker 2: some people have been in Terry Manic movies that ended
Speaker 2: up not being in.
Speaker 1: Terry man Okay, I'm gonna look at.
Speaker 2: That wonderful a friend of mine, no story. So yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I just thought it was right a passage,
Speaker 2: but I just love it. I also like not the
Speaker 2: pressure of someone else starting their creative process like I
Speaker 2: someone writing it, and you know, like musicians, we start
Speaker 2: with a like an empty screens, like sitting there with
Speaker 2: a guitar. Okay, makes me interesting to do something.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Do you see the parallel with that? Do you see
Speaker 2: the parallel?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I do one hundred percent. I mean I
Speaker 1: think that I think that you you make a lot
Speaker 1: of really great points, one of which is is that
Speaker 1: we really are we really need the great writing. And
Speaker 1: the great writing is the thing that that you know,
Speaker 1: I've said bad lines and I've said good lines, and
Speaker 1: good lines are a lot more fun and it's a lot,
Speaker 1: it's a lot you know, easier to be good if
Speaker 1: someone is doing great writing. I think that the the
Speaker 1: one of the things that really proved that and drove
Speaker 1: that home was this, uh, the kind of the golden
Speaker 1: the new golden age of television, when all the writers
Speaker 1: from movies kind of went, you know what, we're kind
Speaker 1: of man on the totem pole here, so we're going
Speaker 1: to go to television where we're going to be number one,
Speaker 1: we're going to be showrunners, we're going to be creators.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, television just blew up. And
Speaker 1: it was because the writers made that move. And I
Speaker 1: think that, yeah, you know, I also would would agree
Speaker 1: with you that I would much rather get apart without auditioning,
Speaker 1: I've done both ADI and I've done that.
Speaker 2: I thought i'd put in some good auditions recently and
Speaker 2: I good enough. I did it with Jack mcbree as
Speaker 2: a friend of mine, professional actor. So we got to
Speaker 2: the point where these self tape you can really can
Speaker 2: watch your back even though it's quite hard, and you
Speaker 2: can be like, okay, just get the one that I
Speaker 2: don't suck, you know, and so if we get it
Speaker 2: good enough, because often with auditioning, especially if you know experience,
Speaker 2: you know you don't have the don't always have the chops.
Speaker 2: You might need a couple of moments like I had
Speaker 2: this wonderful action coach Howld Guskin, and you oh.
Speaker 1: Wow, I knew how Yes, I actually worked with him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I work with him a lot. I tried
Speaker 2: out for The Good Shepherd. So I did four auditions
Speaker 2: for Denier four, and just at the Leo part where
Speaker 2: he was playing the main character. I went to London
Speaker 2: and I auditioned with Leo, so the two with de Niro,
Speaker 2: two of the casting people, and then they switched to
Speaker 2: Matt David. So DeNiro was really man. If he cast me,
Speaker 2: we'd be doing movies together, you know, but instead I'm
Speaker 2: just on the total pole as a musicians still. But
Speaker 2: he he said to me, he really liked and he said,
Speaker 2: you've got to work with Harold because he's going to
Speaker 2: really help you. So I worked with Harold, and his
Speaker 2: whole thing was just remember a movie is just a
Speaker 2: series of rehearsals, series of rehearsals. Every TAKEE is a
Speaker 2: series of rehearsals. That's it. So when you take that away,
Speaker 2: you kind of go over things, doing things, but you
Speaker 2: might have do your best work in the first one.
Speaker 2: Go into an audition and they kind of give you
Speaker 2: two shots of it. For a musician or someone who's
Speaker 2: a little out there regular environment, you could be forgiven
Speaker 2: for needing like a couple of takes. Just fucking this
Speaker 2: is nothing to get out of the way of yourself,
Speaker 2: because you know, something worse than being in your own way,
Speaker 2: you know. And so so doing these self tapes, which
Speaker 2: I did one for like in treatment, I did one
Speaker 2: for him. Is that that me the Righteous Gemstones?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's no way I was ever going to
Speaker 2: get it, but I certainly would. I totally went for
Speaker 2: it and had a laugh in it.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2: In a sudden accent.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, he's.
Speaker 2: Really really good. So those self takes are pretty good.
Speaker 2: And I think to the point where I think, well,
Speaker 2: you know what, you get to a point where you
Speaker 2: just realize that it's so particular what they want in
Speaker 2: the casting. It doesn't even matter about it performance. It
Speaker 2: couldn't be like just the way you smile. It could
Speaker 2: be the way you walk. It's anything that makes the
Speaker 2: makes it come alive for them. You can't take it
Speaker 2: too personally that they wanted, you know. I mean, Billy
Speaker 2: Crudup got my part in A Good Shepherd, for example,
Speaker 2: acts of ridiculous that evening. It's like being in the
Speaker 2: running with like, you know, Usain Bolts, you know, and
Speaker 2: quick dash with Usain Bolts. It it was a tricky
Speaker 2: one all the time.
Speaker 1: But keep it up. I mean it sounds like you're
Speaker 1: doing some some you know, he's still doing doing it,
Speaker 1: still exploring it, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I actually, I mean I'm always because I've you know,
Speaker 1: had a band since since the nineties, I'm always like,
Speaker 1: if somebody does two things, I'm like, why shouldn't they
Speaker 1: paint or why shouldn't they also you know, why shouldn't
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan play baseball? Let me shut up? You know,
Speaker 1: it's like people get sort of. But my theory is
Speaker 1: is that, and you may disagree with this, is that
Speaker 1: the people are more accepting of a musician doing some
Speaker 1: acting than they are actor playing music. And there's a
Speaker 1: couple of reasons for this. Number one is that when
Speaker 1: somebody looks at you and what what you create, you
Speaker 1: are on a higher plane, I think than actors are.
Speaker 1: You are in a It's like I think I think
Speaker 1: rock stars are are deities in a way, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's such an emotional connection to the song that
Speaker 1: keeps becoming more and more and more the soundtrack of
Speaker 1: our lives. It's a corny thing to say, but it
Speaker 1: really is true. I mean, these, you know, your songs
Speaker 1: become just a moment in people's lives. Whereas a movie,
Speaker 1: you know, you see it, then they see the see that.
Speaker 1: You know, you see somebody's doing movie, then you see
Speaker 1: him doing different movie. Then you see him do a
Speaker 1: different movie. They see him doing different movie. It's not
Speaker 1: it's it's not like this kind of constant presence. And
Speaker 1: the other thing is that most people think acting is
Speaker 1: probably pretty easy. If you know, most people think, well,
Speaker 1: if I look like Tom Cruise, I could act to yeah.
Speaker 1: Or they've or they've or they've been in the school
Speaker 1: play and you know, their parents told them that they
Speaker 1: were good. But most people know that playing a guitar
Speaker 1: is hard because if they go and pick up a guitar,
Speaker 1: they don't there's no it's you know, you can't just
Speaker 1: play a guitar. It just doesn't. It just doesn't work
Speaker 1: that way. Even if you've stood in front of the
Speaker 1: mirror and you know, held your bar soap and sung,
Speaker 1: you know that that's that's something that that you don't
Speaker 1: look at you or you know, Springsteen or whatever and go,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I could definitely do that. So I think
Speaker 1: that there's a there's a it's there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a forgiveness that happens when it comes to actor
Speaker 1: musicians acting. And by the way, I'm I'm all for it.
Speaker 2: It's interesting, isn't it, Because it's it's it's it's like
Speaker 2: that just speaks to how you feel about It makes me,
Speaker 2: you know, because I feel bad because it's like I
Speaker 2: think you're great, and I don't think that because somebody
Speaker 2: is a great actor, they shouldn't be also great musicians
Speaker 2: as well, you know he obviously you have seen Johnny
Speaker 2: have a late run with Jeff Beck, which is pretty extraordinary. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't make it ready with Jeff Beck. Obviously you
Speaker 2: got Jared with thirty seconds to Mars probably the one
Speaker 2: example of a well, he's just ketch him in the
Speaker 2: he's so in the zeitguys because of his fashion connections
Speaker 2: and he's an incredible actor. So it's weird because the
Speaker 2: reason I say that is because I have a cell.
Speaker 2: I'm defensive the other way because I always think it's
Speaker 2: really hard to compete with actors because actors are much
Speaker 2: more famous in the sense of it reaches a much
Speaker 2: broader audience, like my audience is a is a small audience,
Speaker 2: will say a movie audience. So it's just weird because
Speaker 2: we all have slight not hangout because it's not that heavy,
Speaker 2: but things were. It's a little harder for us. So
Speaker 2: for you, you think it's the other round, and me,
Speaker 2: I'm the other one. I'm like hey, we all feel
Speaker 2: slightly like, hey, please are can I have some more?
Speaker 2: It is true alive of just being creative people. There's
Speaker 2: always a sense of a degree of insecurity because because
Speaker 2: you put it. You know, for instance, you don't have
Speaker 2: to do a band, like when if you do just
Speaker 2: your acting, you can always just blame the Yeah, musn't
Speaker 2: regressed best writing. What can I tell you? It's what
Speaker 2: I got this this year. But whereas on your band,
Speaker 2: you're on your own, no one playing with yourself.
Speaker 1: No one blame myself, and there's no character between me
Speaker 1: and the audience. Like when like I always say that,
Speaker 1: you know, even if I do an interview, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of performing, you know. Or but if I play a
Speaker 1: song that I've written that is about something personal, that's
Speaker 1: just it. Like that's it. It's me, Like it's I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: Who are you? You know that? Right? You realize that,
Speaker 2: Like when I think of you, it's you, your beautiful wife, Kirie,
Speaker 2: this incredible I think of that. You can tell me
Speaker 2: I'm completely wrong. I think it's a great actor, serious
Speaker 2: musician giving herself to art music. As an exemplary relationship.
Speaker 2: I've never seen you where you guys aren't skipping and
Speaker 2: looking really really great together. I can't mention that all
Speaker 2: the time. But so what I'm telling you is that
Speaker 2: as an audience as one of your audience members, I
Speaker 2: do know that's what you mean to me. So when
Speaker 2: you sing, that's the songs we hear, you know, and
Speaker 2: that's who you are, and it's interesting. You may you know,
Speaker 2: you may have manifested it, will manufacture the elements of it,
Speaker 2: as we all do, because you know that's that's the
Speaker 2: way of life. But I think that as life reveals itself,
Speaker 2: as we mature and get smarter, we realize that nothing
Speaker 2: matters except quality and doing things well. So when you
Speaker 2: do a great song, everyone's happening here. Like I say this,
Speaker 2: here's another thing that I think, Like, there's way too
Speaker 2: many songs in the world, way too much music. It's
Speaker 2: like I love to go on to any of the
Speaker 2: streaming services and see who's new. I just like it
Speaker 2: because it's however, but there's too many new songs. But
Speaker 2: there's never enough great songs, never enough, never enough. You
Speaker 2: can if your song's great, everyone's like fantastic, are putting
Speaker 2: in the pantheon. We need this one, you know. So
Speaker 2: it's just down to people to be free and full
Speaker 2: of quality.
Speaker 1: You have written so many great songs, I mean, so
Speaker 1: many great songs, and I am. I'm sure you've answered
Speaker 1: this a million times. And this is part of the
Speaker 1: hard part about doing a podcast, as you can find
Speaker 1: yourself in the position of having to ask people things
Speaker 1: that they probably have been asked a million times. But
Speaker 1: I'm just curious about just a thumbnail of the process.
Speaker 1: And I asked this, you know, as a as a fan,
Speaker 1: but also as a songwriter. I'm just always interested in
Speaker 1: how what people do. The guitar is sitting over there
Speaker 1: in the corner. Is it an acoustic guitar? Do you
Speaker 1: pick it up? Do you write things down on your
Speaker 1: traps of paper? Are they on your phone? Do you
Speaker 1: start with a lick? Do you start with an idea
Speaker 1: with a title, with a how does it go? How
Speaker 1: does it work?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm always trying to be recepted a bit Machadelian,
Speaker 2: you know, anything less see of any interest. I'm just
Speaker 2: wondering if I can you know how it can affect me,
Speaker 2: and I put lots of notes. You know, it might
Speaker 2: take put an idea down, But I'm of the mindset that,
Speaker 2: like I have a studio in my house, and I
Speaker 2: just believe in the process of going to work.
Speaker 1: Every day, So you go every day. Okay, that's what
Speaker 1: I was going to ask.
Speaker 2: Well, when i'm when I saw, I mean, when I'm in,
Speaker 2: I mean I I apologize as well, so really quick,
Speaker 2: because I didn't get this great thing. In fact, No,
Speaker 2: I don't want to be telling you this because you
Speaker 2: like this. David Putnam do you remember the Killing Fields
Speaker 2: English producer? His son is like my greatest friend, like
Speaker 2: my whole life. We grew up together because when we
Speaker 2: were kids, like eighteen nineteen years old, we're bumbling around
Speaker 2: in London, staying up, you know, three nights in the
Speaker 2: row and going out to everywhere fun. He said, don't
Speaker 2: forget you. You know you got losers want to be songwriters. Okay,
Speaker 2: don't forget Tim Panelly five days a week, nine to five.
Speaker 2: And that ruined me. I didn't. My dad was an
Speaker 2: amazing dad, but never not don't My dad was a
Speaker 2: kind of hands off kind of dad. Really sweet, great man,
Speaker 2: but busy, single mind and workaholic, and so I don't
Speaker 2: have any He wasn't the pearls of wisdom. He wasn't
Speaker 2: the you know, Matthew McConaughey, you know, the great sort
Speaker 2: of like life lesson thing, you know, inspiring but this man,
Speaker 2: David Putnam said to me those words, and it almost
Speaker 2: it at once made my life, ruined my life because
Speaker 2: it just means that I don't sit around waiting for inspiration,
Speaker 2: wait till four in the morning, sit with an acoustic
Speaker 2: that I don't get in the way of that. So
Speaker 2: if that wants to happen, I'm going to do that.
Speaker 2: But and I know that Johnny Cash, he waits for inspiration,
Speaker 2: So it's it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter how you
Speaker 2: get it's all different, freaky person. But I go in
Speaker 2: a sit in my studio and I start to make songs.
Speaker 2: I may make music like I'll get to take a
Speaker 2: song title that I have, maybe some lyrics already have
Speaker 2: I need a page of the lyrics like burntalp into alum,
Speaker 2: and then I that will give you a mood and
Speaker 2: it gives me a tempo and I'll start imagining what
Speaker 2: that what that what feeling? That that title was? That?
Speaker 2: What was that feeling? And that feeling is usually turned
Speaker 2: by tempo because tempo is going to be your first
Speaker 2: source of inspiration and then the key. When you've got
Speaker 2: that tempo, then you put it make a drum be
Speaker 2: beat and start putting it. I just I just add
Speaker 2: to it until I like it enough. Let's play it.
Speaker 2: And then once I get a bit of a maybe
Speaker 2: two sections of music that go to the drums, I'll
Speaker 2: just start to just sit back and just then I'll
Speaker 2: let it play and I'll just look out of the
Speaker 2: window and I'll start to jam to it. And that's
Speaker 2: really that basic, because it's.
Speaker 1: Just so this is so exciting for me. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how excited I am to hear this. I
Speaker 1: love the I love the idea of the tempo thing,
Speaker 1: and then the tempo leading to a drum groove, and
Speaker 1: then the I mean, this is.
Speaker 2: A drum groove, then what hands with the drums? You
Speaker 2: tend to just you know, I find a drum program,
Speaker 2: and those drums will have an inherent tuning to them
Speaker 2: that I won't really be aware of, because it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, the tune to a numb So when you
Speaker 2: play to a groove, there's just some bits of the
Speaker 2: guitar that work, and they go, oh that fits in
Speaker 2: real nice, that fits. Like you love someone be like
Speaker 2: oh we're not friends. Oh that's not friends, no friends,
Speaker 2: no friends. Friends. It was just a friend and so
Speaker 2: I go. And then once I put it, I can
Speaker 2: either do it with the bass or the guitar. But
Speaker 2: the bass will make it more a lot, the guitar
Speaker 2: will make it more in your face, and the bass
Speaker 2: will make it more languid and more like my kind
Speaker 2: of want to be dub guy. And then from there
Speaker 2: I just keep add things and only allowed to add
Speaker 2: things if they help me get to the vocals. So
Speaker 2: what I now I can do good enough engineering, put
Speaker 2: the songs together on pross, organize them, can play everything,
Speaker 2: and programming will you know, soft sense? That's so crazy?
Speaker 2: And then and then I have an engineer that comes
Speaker 2: in that it calls my vocals. Then I invite my
Speaker 2: band to come on there and see what they may
Speaker 2: want to change on how they want to be affected
Speaker 2: by it.
Speaker 1: So even on the solo records, you bring other players
Speaker 1: in or do you sometimes do everything on the song.
Speaker 2: Now, on the solo record, I was actually more collaborative.
Speaker 2: I went to people's studios and wrote songs for them. Okay,
Speaker 2: it should be called my not solo record.
Speaker 1: This is fairly a fairly new thing for me to
Speaker 1: go and write with other people. To me writing aside
Speaker 1: from writing with my brother was always a I always
Speaker 1: looked at it as a singular sort of expression because
Speaker 1: it had to just be me, and it had to
Speaker 1: just be my limited, you know ability, and.
Speaker 2: You know, you're got to go nowhere and hip hop.
Speaker 1: Right, I know exactly, or or or or country or
Speaker 1: pop or or anything really in these days, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're either James Taylor or you're you know everything else.
Speaker 1: But for the first time, my brother and I and
Speaker 1: all and me separately have also gone and sat in
Speaker 1: a room with people that we didn't know and and
Speaker 1: met like a like a strange kind of speed dating thing.
Speaker 1: And it's a very I find it to be very
Speaker 1: vulnerable obviously, but also like super exciting and just the
Speaker 1: idea that I mean, I've struggled over a song for like,
Speaker 1: you know, months, But the idea that you just have
Speaker 1: this you know whatever for four hour window and you
Speaker 1: actually walk away with something, how do you do? How
Speaker 1: do you find that experience?
Speaker 2: I find exhilarating. My biggest fear is that I I'm
Speaker 2: really good at saying I actually forget it, and then
Speaker 2: I get that rid of that and change that lyric,
Speaker 2: you know, and I suddenly have a whole new thing.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm really it's funny. When I first started
Speaker 2: writing songs and the first songs are over bush, there
Speaker 2: was there was no horizon. I didn't think about it.
Speaker 2: So there's no horizon, just right, Try me good, try
Speaker 2: me interesting. Yeah, it's dark, it's great. And then when
Speaker 2: you've made a number of records at this point in
Speaker 2: my life, I'm like, whoa, there's the horizon. I got
Speaker 2: twenty three songs perfore and burdened, you know damn what
Speaker 2: I'm going to do. So it really has forced me
Speaker 2: to become a much better editor because I realized that
Speaker 2: I wasn't so much as lazy before more sort of, oh,
Speaker 2: the guitar player is going to take care of that section.
Speaker 2: If I haven't done the best section, then it's going
Speaker 2: to make it bit so somehow, would let be as
Speaker 2: thorough And what I've really been into is being super thorough,
Speaker 2: not just throwing songs away, but coming in the morning,
Speaker 2: be like, Okay, the song's as good as this weakest part.
Speaker 2: Like if your middle eight is not very good, that
Speaker 2: song is not very good. The song is as good
Speaker 2: as the weakest part. And so if you've got a
Speaker 2: weak part, of the song. God, let me.
Speaker 1: Write that down. This song is only as good as
Speaker 1: its weakest part.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe. I mean, it's probably not true, but
Speaker 2: it's I feel that. So if I leave that studio
Speaker 2: after four hours, I'll be next day not going to again.
Speaker 2: I got a better part for the week bit.
Speaker 1: But the week wow, well you guys Bush as a
Speaker 1: new record, right loaded, Yeah, yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 2: It's well, it's the greatest hits. I never wanted to
Speaker 2: do greatest hits. I only got to write one new
Speaker 2: song for it, so it's the weirdest thing to do
Speaker 2: one song and then there'd be a whole record that
Speaker 2: was a nice, feeling, amazing, And I never want to
Speaker 2: do it because I'm really obsessed about staying at the
Speaker 2: present and not wanting to stop this job because I
Speaker 2: really love them being around all day with nothing to
Speaker 2: do in Rhode Island to play tonight because you give
Speaker 2: the life to it. But I just yeah, yeah, well,
Speaker 2: it's more to be honest to do with just keeping
Speaker 2: it going, and it's like a celebration. It's funny because
Speaker 2: now with the sets, want to play live these shows.
Speaker 2: Right now, I'm playing a bit more of the kind
Speaker 2: of older stuff as well. You still always do that,
Speaker 2: but not a new.
Speaker 1: So you've been touring, You were touring touring, We were
Speaker 1: at this summer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was out the summer and then I just
Speaker 2: had a few weeks off, an hour out for a
Speaker 2: few weeks for this thing. And I'm probably touring a
Speaker 2: bit too much. But these shows are really good fun. There,
Speaker 2: you know, a place we haven't been for a while,
Speaker 2: secondary tertiary market, so people are really grateful. It's really cold,
Speaker 2: so it feels it feels very different from the touring
Speaker 2: up recently. But I'm halfway through seven songs through a
Speaker 2: new record. Yeah, yeah, because then I would feel really
Speaker 2: creative in bankrupt if I was just didn't have those
Speaker 2: songs I heard the Springsteen.
Speaker 1: It's a Bush record or or yeah, oh great.
Speaker 2: I don't think that anyone should no rock band, No,
Speaker 2: No one wants rock band singers through solo records, just
Speaker 2: like please sing in the band. You know, they're like please.
Speaker 2: Everyone wants that more. I had a successful run with
Speaker 2: the solo thing, but I just didn't like it. I
Speaker 2: didn't like my name on the radio. It just felt awkward.
Speaker 2: People knew because of Bush people be like that was great.
Speaker 2: When's the band get back together? You know, people just
Speaker 2: want the full power. It's if you're not given the
Speaker 2: full benefit, and it somehow comes across like again, this
Speaker 2: is my parent, my prison. It comes across like you
Speaker 2: want to You know, you're saying I don't really need
Speaker 2: my band and they really like me. I don't need
Speaker 2: my band and I need my bad amazing and I
Speaker 2: love them and doesn't feel right now. I just saw
Speaker 2: Corey Taylor from slip Knot doing a solo show and
Speaker 2: he's amazing and so he's allowed to do it. But generally,
Speaker 2: I think people want the bands, don't They don't. Wouldn't
Speaker 2: you prefer to go and see you want to go
Speaker 2: to see you too? You don't see Bono on his
Speaker 2: new record that he hasn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I want. I think that's true. I
Speaker 1: think I want to see the band. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think if there's you know what exceptions would be. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean I think.
Speaker 2: You know tones or you want to see crosses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean. On the other hand, I also
Speaker 1: think that that you know, if if you are an artist,
Speaker 1: then you did you did it. You know, you you
Speaker 1: explore things with the band that sometimes you go, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm I need to explore something just
Speaker 1: by myself. I just need to do that. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I certainly don't begrudge anybody from one to check that out.
Speaker 2: Yeah I don't. But you know, the thing is is
Speaker 2: that what it makes me feel is that if you
Speaker 2: if you look at the chronology of a band, if
Speaker 2: if someone steps out as a solo record, it's weird
Speaker 2: because I mean, Don Henley is a perfect example someone.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't care, right, it's not a bad
Speaker 2: to care about or no, but I guess he had
Speaker 2: simultaneous parallel careers. But I suppose, yes, I don't really,
Speaker 2: I don't really have a point about that. Man. But
Speaker 2: I certainly personally like everything that I do to be
Speaker 2: through the prism of Bush because it's just me at
Speaker 2: my best. It's me where I think people want me
Speaker 2: the most.
Speaker 1: That sounds like an album titled the Prism of Bush.
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Speaker 1: You are here to highlight a very pressing cause that
Speaker 1: is going on in American society these days. And it's
Speaker 1: a topic that you know, I have been you know,
Speaker 1: certainly thinking about for a long time and sadly continue
Speaker 1: to think about, and that is gun violence, this increase
Speaker 1: in gun violence in this in this country. And I'm
Speaker 1: thrilled that you're here to talk about this today. But
Speaker 1: I'm also thrilled that Mark Barden is here with us,
Speaker 1: and we'll be joining us now. Who is the co
Speaker 1: founder of Artists for Action. How do you guys know
Speaker 1: each other?
Speaker 4: Gavin was kind enough to invite me to sit in
Speaker 4: with them at the Irving Plaza gig in New York
Speaker 4: about a month and a half ago. Yeah, yes, it
Speaker 4: was a launch for Artist for Action.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, Mark how a handsome man. That was
Speaker 2: a great night, right and New York. We had a
Speaker 2: good time. That was a great night. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: It was such a blast.
Speaker 1: It really was tell us about artist for action, It
Speaker 1: tell us about your starting it and you know, give us,
Speaker 1: give us the give us the backstory for those of
Speaker 1: us that don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, as Gavin mentioned, I lost the youngest of my
Speaker 4: three children. I didn't lose something.
Speaker 2: He was murdered.
Speaker 4: Our seven year old son, Daniel was shot to death
Speaker 4: and say elementary school. And I will just never get
Speaker 4: used to that. I will never get It's not something
Speaker 4: you just get over. We just try to move from
Speaker 4: one day to the next. And you know, I took
Speaker 4: very seriously this this mission on to prevent this catastrophe
Speaker 4: from happening to other families. And very soon after that tragedy,
Speaker 4: we started this work with Sandy her prowess and really
Speaker 4: did a lot of thoughtful research to learn how how
Speaker 4: this happens and what are the drivers. And one of
Speaker 4: the key takeaways is that there are always warning signs.
Speaker 4: Of course, he hurts themselves or hurts others. And we
Speaker 4: developed programs that we bring to schools at no cost
Speaker 4: to teach young people and their teachers and their parents
Speaker 4: how to look for those warning signs and then give
Speaker 4: them the tools to take the next steps. To connect
Speaker 4: that person or themselves to whatever help or services they
Speaker 4: might need before it becomes something more serious. And it's
Speaker 4: been wonderfully successful. And just from the programmatic approach alone,
Speaker 4: I think I don't know if we can announce, but
Speaker 4: there may be more already than fifteen school shootings that
Speaker 4: were imminate and planned and ready to happen that students
Speaker 4: trained in our program saw something that they thought was
Speaker 4: indicative of a tragedy about to happen, and they made
Speaker 4: that intervention by telling a trusted adult or using our
Speaker 4: anonymous supporting system, and that horrible thing was intervened upon
Speaker 4: and didn't happen, along with hundreds of suicides. So we're
Speaker 4: very very proud of that work. And IO, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: feel very privileged to be able to honor my Daniel
Speaker 4: through this work. And then we've also been able to
Speaker 4: write policy, and we just kind of come at this
Speaker 4: from a different, less polarizing, less divisive positioning, and we
Speaker 4: just say, let's start this conversation with what we agree on,
Speaker 4: and we could all agree that we want to protect
Speaker 4: our kids, and we can all agree we want our
Speaker 4: neighborhoods to be safer and our communities to be safer.
Speaker 4: So we were able to pass policy with bipartisan support
Speaker 4: in both the state and the federal level, which I'm
Speaker 4: also very proud of. And the people that come to
Speaker 4: work for Santy her Promise are just amazing and outstanding
Speaker 4: and passionate and smart, and it's honored to do this
Speaker 4: work alongside them. And from this Through this work, I
Speaker 4: met Matt wraich reich Reich and his organization Artist for
Speaker 4: Action Artists for Artists. From Artists for Artists came this initiative,
Speaker 4: Artist for Action, which is basically focused on gun violence
Speaker 4: in America, and it's a place for musicians and influencers
Speaker 4: and artists to come together. It's a coalition of musicians really,
Speaker 4: and we have some wonderful, impressive talent and individuals in
Speaker 4: this movement now who have a safe place to tell
Speaker 4: their fan bases. This is something that's important to me
Speaker 4: and it should be important to you as well, especially
Speaker 4: if you think about you know, death by gunfire is
Speaker 4: the number one cause of young people under nineteen in
Speaker 4: this country.
Speaker 1: Now just blows my mind.
Speaker 4: Diaggering, I know, and I first.
Speaker 1: Came across my radar, I was just it's just so
Speaker 1: hard to imagine that anyway. I'm sorry, Mark, go ahead.
Speaker 4: I mean, well, yeah, I mean that's it. That's the key,
Speaker 4: that's the key takeaway. And I just feel like if
Speaker 4: since that is the number one killer of people nineteen
Speaker 4: and under in this country, it should be everybody's number
Speaker 4: one issue, or at least one of your main issues.
Speaker 4: And so the Artist for Action is a place for
Speaker 4: musicians who have influence and who have a fan base
Speaker 4: who want to educate them that this isn't an issue
Speaker 4: that and as Gavin said, there are so many issues,
Speaker 4: but this should be one of them. And many of
Speaker 4: those other issues are drivers to gun violence. Poverty, food insecurity,
Speaker 4: racial injustice, all of these things are contributing to gun violence.
Speaker 1: But how could we possibly move this out of you know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned it being a non partisan cause. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think one of the hardest pieces of dealing with
Speaker 1: this gun violence thing is the political politicalization of it.
Speaker 1: You know, it just it's it just should not be
Speaker 1: a political issue. It feels so it feels so I
Speaker 1: mean when I mean, I'm sure there were political issues around,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to keep kids not smoking, but it
Speaker 1: just didn't feel the same way. It didn't it didn't
Speaker 1: become a thing that you were on one side or
Speaker 1: the other. I mean, if there's anything you.
Speaker 2: Problem see it's been seen as a sort of a
Speaker 2: h a taking away people's rights, and it really there's
Speaker 2: no disconnect there. It shouldn't be political because it's not
Speaker 2: taking people's rights. Where you know, what's what what Mark
Speaker 2: and what the charity is doing. It's just is educating.
Speaker 2: I mean that's all that. It's just educating. And if
Speaker 2: you're notice, it's not about you'll never remove guns in
Speaker 2: America because it's it's it's just it's in the DNA
Speaker 2: and and you know there's there's so many gun holes.
Speaker 2: The majority of gun holders don't kill people, like the
Speaker 2: vast majority. It's just these people with these psychological issues.
Speaker 2: So that's why I was so honored to be involved
Speaker 2: and will continue to be in it. And you're play
Speaker 2: you're doing a show, you're coming up, You're doing a
Speaker 2: show for Artisfaction, right, Yes, yes, I mean I want
Speaker 2: to keep any you know, it's just a wonderful thing
Speaker 2: that Mark's doing and it's all about sustainable you know,
Speaker 2: we have we have we all have an audience. And
Speaker 2: I've never pushed anything down the throat to the people
Speaker 2: that like Bush you know, or you know, push too
Speaker 2: much on them. But this is the first time where
Speaker 2: it's been really a case of talking to people, just
Speaker 2: making them aware that there is these there's this recourse
Speaker 2: because everybody wants recourse. Nobody wants this violence. Everybody wants
Speaker 2: to find a way through. And it's silly to think,
Speaker 2: you know, it gets lost though it's it's political. Oh,
Speaker 2: you want to take our freedoms? No, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: we want to like to help these disaffected youth. What
Speaker 2: Mark says, that's the number one killer of kids under nineteen.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean? It's not bad enough
Speaker 2: that the food industry is trying to do that sort
Speaker 2: of one with all the sugars and all the terrible food,
Speaker 2: all the chemicals. It's like mental help. So I think
Speaker 2: it's incredible. Mark.
Speaker 1: Do these kids go out all over the country or
Speaker 1: they are they available? How would people find those kids?
Speaker 1: Is it something that the schools reach out for or
Speaker 1: do you actually go and distribute them? Explain how that
Speaker 1: works in a practical way.
Speaker 4: So we don't charge anything. We do all of this
Speaker 4: work based on the generosity of our donors. Because we
Speaker 4: don't want to let costs be a barrier, and we
Speaker 4: want to be able to bring these and they're basically
Speaker 4: just trainings come in there. We have a training called
Speaker 4: say Something where we train students how to understand, interpret,
Speaker 4: and identify at risk behavior either in themselves and others,
Speaker 4: and then empower them with the knowledge that they have
Speaker 4: to tell their trusted adult and that could be their teacher,
Speaker 4: it could be a faith leader, could be a coach,
Speaker 4: it could be a parent. But tell somebody, and they
Speaker 4: can tell them in person, and they can use our
Speaker 4: anonymous reporting system, which is staff would trained professionals around
Speaker 4: the clock and report that at risk behavior, and then
Speaker 4: that trusted adult knows who to connect with they can
Speaker 4: get they're all everybody's all trained, and then get help.
Speaker 2: It might be.
Speaker 4: Somebody like Timmy's pulling hair on the bus, okay, so
Speaker 4: that could be addressed in a one appropriate way. Or
Speaker 4: Timmy is packing his backpack with guns and he's gonna
Speaker 4: shoot up the school tomorrow. That's that's a different kind
Speaker 4: of intervention. And so our trainings teach folks how to
Speaker 4: do those triage those tips, and our crisis center triages
Speaker 4: those tips and responds accordingly, and we build clubs into
Speaker 4: the school so it's not just an assembling in September
Speaker 4: they forget about it. We want to build this curriculum
Speaker 4: into the culture and the climate of the schools, so
Speaker 4: students from the caids, from kindergarten all the way through
Speaker 4: twelfth grade, it just becomes part of their culture and
Speaker 4: part of who they am. They are, and it's more
Speaker 4: than just stopping the bad things, but it's also fostering
Speaker 4: a culture of compassion, inclusion, kindness towards what another. We're
Speaker 4: watching it work and it's and the long range goal
Speaker 4: is at scale and over time we will have that
Speaker 4: positive influence on the culture and get back to some
Speaker 4: of those those ideas that you were talking about earlier
Speaker 4: about kindness and compassion and less divisive and you know,
Speaker 4: gave it to your point about education and awareness. You know,
Speaker 4: if you identify as a responsible going owner, which most do,
Speaker 4: you are already doing all the things that we're just
Speaker 4: that we're asking, like safe storage, go through the background
Speaker 4: check before you acquire a weapon, make sure you store
Speaker 4: it responsibly so that a five year old in your
Speaker 4: home doesn't pick it up and cause a tragedy and
Speaker 4: so sore. There is there is a very well flooded
Speaker 4: mechanism that is trying to force that figure down people's
Speaker 4: throats that and and mislead them to think that any
Speaker 4: kind of rational safety regulations is equivalent to the slippery
Speaker 4: flope of confiscation, which it's not.
Speaker 1: It just which is not. That's the disconnect, is the
Speaker 1: slip righty slope of that they're going to come and
Speaker 1: I just the messaging that that that they have been
Speaker 1: able to put across that any kind of discussion around
Speaker 1: anything background checks, you know, assault rifles, magazine size is
Speaker 1: always going to be a precursor to goodbye guns. It's
Speaker 1: just the it's it's so interesting because it feels like
Speaker 1: what you you know, one of the things that's great
Speaker 1: about talking to you, Mark is that you are so
Speaker 1: clear on the messaging and uh and you have such
Speaker 1: a terrible, terrible personal connection to this, to this issue
Speaker 1: that you know that it's it's uh, I mean, we
Speaker 1: just we need we need you out there all the time.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you have other things you want
Speaker 1: to do, like play your guitar and music. Yeah you
Speaker 1: want to play music, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: You know, And it's been a journey back to that
Speaker 4: at the beginning, you know, Daniel and and James and
Speaker 4: Adlie were all very closely connected to my music and
Speaker 4: it was not the comfort mechanism that one would think.
Speaker 4: And it's been a journey back and some wonderful folks
Speaker 4: along the way. My six degree story is my good
Speaker 4: friend and one of my bass player of friends, Jimmy
Speaker 4: Kanneely filled in for your guy Paul Paul Gazone in
Speaker 4: Phoenix years ago. Folks like Jimmy Kanneely, Folks like Kevin Rossdale,
Speaker 4: Rick Krn, Matt Wright, all these foot folks that have
Speaker 4: just you know, been wonderful souls that have come into
Speaker 4: my life that have helped me along into this journey.
Speaker 4: My kids you'll meet Natalie in two weeks, have been
Speaker 4: just wonderful support mechanisms. So that now music is back
Speaker 4: to where it should be and I am back to
Speaker 4: my true self as a musician.
Speaker 1: And you've got callous You got callouses on the on
Speaker 1: the tips of your fingers.
Speaker 4: Hell yeah, yeah, So yeah, we're ready for our show
Speaker 4: at ny You on December seventh with Artists for Action.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, yes, I think this will actually unfortunately air after.
Speaker 4: The show that was a great show that was.
Speaker 1: Do you guys I still remember that show?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What is what is the what? What is the most
Speaker 1: pressing need that the organization has right now?
Speaker 4: Well, like I said, we it's it's a lot of
Speaker 4: resources to develop and to train, implement and sustain these
Speaker 4: programs on one hundred percent efficacy. We're doing you know,
Speaker 4: multiple research programs to to to inform our work to
Speaker 4: continue to do it better. A lot of moving parts
Speaker 4: and you know, we don't charge anything for it, so
Speaker 4: we need people, bodies, volunteers, dollars, networking, you know, all
Speaker 4: of that folks to just just learn about what what
Speaker 4: Sandy her Promise is doing and what we're not doing.
Speaker 4: You know, I think I think we are. We appeal
Speaker 4: to folks across the political spectrum because, like I said,
Speaker 4: we're just out there protecting kids. We're just out there
Speaker 4: making our community safer. We're building a culture of upstanders
Speaker 4: who are more more kind and more inclusive of one another.
Speaker 4: And there's really no barriers to entry there.
Speaker 2: Come on, is it like Artists for Action or said
Speaker 2: hook Promise that they combined? How does that work? Like
Speaker 2: you were to choose one organization because it's pretty easy
Speaker 2: for what should they go to.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, don't make me do that. They're both
Speaker 4: they're both different, you know, they're both doing the same
Speaker 4: they're both looking for the same outcome is to reduce
Speaker 4: gun violence in America. And it's a huge, complex problem
Speaker 4: and there are all those cultural issues that we spoke to.
Speaker 4: There are also many ways to approach it from you know,
Speaker 4: from a solution perspective. Uh, and so one of those
Speaker 4: you know we talked we've been talking about. The common
Speaker 4: thread through here is education and awareness and getting the
Speaker 4: word out of what folks can do to be part
Speaker 4: of this narrative, to be part of the I know,
Speaker 4: we have the numbers, we always have. We just need
Speaker 4: folks engaged. And that could mean making sure you're voting
Speaker 4: for folks who are protecting you know, us from gun violence.
Speaker 4: It means it means helping an organization of your choice
Speaker 4: that resonates with your own personal values. It doesn't have
Speaker 4: to be standing in promise. Artist for Action is building
Speaker 4: a coalition of musicians to get the word out to
Speaker 4: their base, to tell those folks to get engaged in
Speaker 4: this conversation and to be doing something, to doing something anything.
Speaker 4: So so there are different approaches and as many different approaches,
Speaker 4: we need folks to be engaged data as man them
Speaker 4: as they can. And like I said, if it's not
Speaker 4: your number one issue, it should be, but it should
Speaker 4: be definitely one of your issues.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to give a little call to action
Speaker 1: here that might is going to be a surprise for remark.
Speaker 1: But five minutes before we got on this podcast, I
Speaker 1: learned that there is a twenty five thousand dollars matching
Speaker 1: grant in my name and that if people go to
Speaker 1: I believe it's the Artist for Action website, they that
Speaker 1: that six degrees of KB or I can't know exactly,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly what it's called, will be there
Speaker 1: and there will be a matching grand of twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which is uh, so you can, we can,
Speaker 1: we can all do a little something in that way,
Speaker 1: whatever you have to to give or it.
Speaker 4: That's amazing, thank you, that's so so amazing. And both
Speaker 4: organizations do great work. Artists for Action has held events
Speaker 4: where they have donated the proceeds to Sandy her promise
Speaker 4: and so it's all good and it'll all good go
Speaker 4: to helping us train more students and preventing more tragedies
Speaker 4: and building their culture, so.
Speaker 2: Like preventing thing hopelessness, Like, it's so weird to be
Speaker 2: outside of this, knowing what you've been through, Daniel as
Speaker 2: a father, and I'm just standing like in the horror
Speaker 2: and it just takes me back to these these kids
Speaker 2: who do That's like the degree of not analyst hopelessness
Speaker 2: is what's really change, you know, And that's not these
Speaker 2: kids who think they have nothing in their lives and
Speaker 2: this is any kind of solution. It's just it's so
Speaker 2: hard to wrap your brain around that. Anybody sees that,
Speaker 2: and then you pair.
Speaker 4: That what you pair that with with you know, this
Speaker 4: very uniquely American easy access to firearms. I mean, we
Speaker 4: have all kinds of mental health issues in around the world.
Speaker 4: Mental illness is not the driver of gun violence. It's
Speaker 4: usually folks suffering mental illness or usually the victims of
Speaker 4: gun violence. And and so I think mental illness itself
Speaker 4: is mischaracterized. Many folks who commit these atrocities are not
Speaker 4: string diagnosable mental illness. They are lacking anger management skills,
Speaker 4: they're lacking in conflict resolution, They're lacking in any number
Speaker 4: of support systems, but you pair all of that with
Speaker 4: easy access to firearms, and that's where it becomes this
Speaker 4: national disaster. Why we have almost fifty thousand gun related
Speaker 4: deaths in this country every single year.
Speaker 1: You know, this is exactly why we have what I'm
Speaker 1: hearing here today is exactly why we have this podcast.
Speaker 1: Because you have Gavin who is taking his incredible success
Speaker 1: and using it in a way to highlight something that
Speaker 1: he cares passionately about. And we're putting the microphone in
Speaker 1: front of Mark who has taken this unspeakable tragedy and
Speaker 1: turned it into a force for good. So I want
Speaker 1: to thank you both for what you're doing here, what
Speaker 1: taking the time to hang out with me and speak
Speaker 1: about this incredibly important issue. So Sandy Hook promised artists
Speaker 1: for action New Bush record loaded. Look for new Bush
Speaker 1: music coming down the down the Park, down the Pike.
Speaker 1: Uh and uh and and if you get a chance
Speaker 1: to hear Mark Bardon play, go here and play and
Speaker 1: any anything anything besides November seventh that's coming up that
Speaker 1: or you're playing out at all?
Speaker 4: Mark, Oh, I have to think you know, I do
Speaker 4: you know I'm trying to do as many pickup gigs
Speaker 4: and and other things as I can. But Artists for
Speaker 4: Action is going to be doing a series of very
Speaker 4: important concerts across the country. So I think Nashville, Los Angeles,
Speaker 4: San Francisco, or are some of the ones that are
Speaker 4: on the on the slate. I don't have dates for
Speaker 4: all of those yet, but I'll keep you in the loop. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'll never forget that that gig we did at n
Speaker 4: y U on December seventh.
Speaker 1: Kevin, Yeah, me either either. Thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for being here. I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thanks love, Thank Kevin.
Speaker 1: Thanks, Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of
Speaker 1: Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If you want to learn
Speaker 1: more about Artists for Action, head to Artistfaction dot org.
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