WEBVTT - Randy Bachman 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:08.480 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Bob Left Sets podcast. My 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:14.000 guest this week is Randy Backman, legendary musician from Canada, 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:18.360 founding member of the Guests Who, founding member of Bachman 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.479 Turner Overdrive, still playing music doing radio. Great to have 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.960 you here, Randy, wonderful to be here. Okay, well, thank you, 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:29.880 I'll take that to the bank. Get nothing, okay. So 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.640 originally from Winnipeg. So what's that like? I mean, first 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.120 of all, a lot of the funny thing is that 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.440 so much great music comes from Canada, especially now because 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.080 government supports it, whereas we get no support in the 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.880 United States. But people in the United States are really 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.960 ignorant to Canada, even though it's just across the border. 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.680 So what's growing up in Winnipeg Like, Well, I've been 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.040 on tour in Europe and you're going to a record 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.160 store in Germany or Hollander anywhere, and there's a map 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.880 on the wall of Canada. Really would be a gold 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.120 circle around Winnipeg with little arrow going Neil Young, Randy Bachman, 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.760 bt O, the Guests Who, and then around Saskatoon, Joni 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.800 Mitchell around Montreal. So this is like downstairs and the 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.600 records of the Whole Wall. So Canada is very I 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.520 mean the world is very aware of Canadian music. And 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.160 growing up in Winnipeg was amazing. It's dead center in 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.280 the middle of Canada, which is pretty much the middle 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:23.800 of North America. And it's also in the middle of nowhere. Okay, 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.000 just because people know nothing. If you drive south, where 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.280 do you hit In the United States? Minneapolis is five 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:34.320 miles south five hundred. How far north of the border 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:39.520 is Winnipeg about, so you drive down there. But growing 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.000 up there was like Liverpool in the sixties. The drinking 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.640 age was twenty one, so everybody from twenty one under 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.520 went to all the high school dances. So this is 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.320 you know, this is Neil Young, Sugar Mountain. You know, 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:52.920 I can't go to the Team club an Yeah, this 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.160 is like Neil Young and the Squire's Fred Turner and 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.120 the Rock and Devils who became the Turner of back 0:01:57.480 --> 0:01:59.600 d Burton Cummings and the dev Brons, and I was 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.960 in called Chad Allen and the Reflections who when we 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.720 sent in the song shake on all Over, the record 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:06.640 label said we don't like you can't use your name. 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:09.120 We're gonna put guests who under it and we became guests. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:13.000 Who Okay, but you're in Winnipeg. What does your father 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.320 do for a living. He's an optician. I wear I 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.040 class really and how many generations Canadian? Are you an 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.000 immigrant or his parents immiget? My dad was born in Winnipeg, 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.280 but his parents, his dad came from Germany. From Germany, 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.919 why they end up in Winnipeg. Well, there's the same 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.680 thing with my mother's side. They were Ukrainian Polish. They 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.200 landed in Canada. They went to the train station, said 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.280 this is how much money we've got and they said, oh, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:38.800 you could go to thunder Bay, or you can go 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:40.880 to Winnipeg, or you can go you went as far 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:42.400 as your money. Like you see on TV a kid 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.639 running away from home. Here's eighty bucks. I got to 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:45.919 get out of here. Where can I go? Or you 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:47.959 can go to Keepsie, New York? You know what I mean? 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:51.120 That's what they did. So they ended up there. Okay, 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.799 so you're in Winnipeg. Actually, I've never I've been to Toronto, 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.359 I've been to Vancouver, been to Montreal into other places, 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.200 camp I've never been to Winnipeg. So what's Winnipeg like 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.800 when you're growing up. Well, when you grow up and 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.639 you're poor and all your friends are poor, and it's 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:11.520 an immigrant city, you're happy. Your dad works, your mother 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.280 does the house. You've got winter six or seven months 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:16.519 of the year. And when you get old enough to 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.959 stop playing hockey outdoors forty below because then there was 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:21.959 no indoor rinks. You just as a kid, you know, 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.560 to go early and shovel the rink, and you played 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.160 played hockey for a while. But I was a I 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.560 started playing violin when I was six. What was your 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.600 teacher would always say to you, don't play a sport 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:35.960 where they bend your fingers back. Don't you can't play hockey, 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.760 you play, can't play baseball. So consequently I started playing violin, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.640 and I did solo things like running, swimming, riding a bike, 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.120 not with team sports where they would break my fingers 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.560 or hurt my hand. So I kind of grew up 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.800 a nerdy cissy playing violin from the age five to 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.520 fourteen until I saw Elvis on TV and I'm playing 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.560 Royal Conservatory violin classical. Then what is that? And my 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.840 mother's younger sister there and they're screaming at the TV 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:04.920 set and Elvis is on the bottom half as blacked 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.040 out because he's shaken. Run What is that guy doing? 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.480 And why is everyone screaming? That's Elvis Presley? Who? What? 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.240 What's that? Name? Was a weird name the first time 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.599 you heard it, Elvis Presley, that's called rock and roll? 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.000 What's that? It's a guitar? Who's that guy behind him? 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.279 Scotty Moore playing this great hybrid of Chad Atkins, Rold Travis, 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:25.680 Rocketbilie stuff? And I said, that's what I want to do. 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.040 Never touched my violin again. Okay, let's go back for 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.200 a second. Why did you start playing the violin to 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.120 begin with? I'm about five or six, born just after 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:39.920 the war. Um, my parents wanted better for me, and 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.240 they said, okay, we want we will afford to give 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.480 you music lessons. What do you want to play? Drums 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.359 too loud, too noisy, to expense, and what's your next choice? 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:53.160 Piano too lousy, too noisy, too expensive? Well, okay, harmonica 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.400 too little too You know, I end up with a little, 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.480 half sized violin. And you do take lessons in school 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.760 or outside. I took lessons outside Royal Conservatory of Music, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.359 the big deal. But what my mother wanted being Polish Ukrainian, 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.280 and my dad being German, was for me to play 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.479 polkas and jigs and reels at all their house parties 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.560 and weddings and bar mitzvah's. I grew up in the 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.720 Jewish part of towns. Everybody was you might be Russian, 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.080 but you might be Russian Catholic or Russian Jewish. To us, 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.080 there was nothing. We were just a bunch of kids 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.040 growing up there. So there was these mad house parties 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.320 and weddings and bar mitzvahs and bad miss and everything 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:26.800 was going on. And I would go there and play 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:28.960 all this. I mean, I'd play all the Jewish klezmir 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.920 stuff from the violin and and all the Ukrainian policas 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.840 and stuff, and then the odd walls, and it got 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.440 pretty boring after while because all the adults are there 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.760 getting hammered and drunk and dancing like Cossacks and leaping 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:42.200 in the air just like you see in the movies. 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.520 And then and then I'd go and do my kids 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.080 Royal Conservatory Chopin and Tchai Kossi stuff like this is 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.919 such a weird polarization of me. Then when I saw Elvis, 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.800 it was the same thing, this weird polarization of all 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.880 coming together because he would do old Sheep are he 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:01.800 do a church song for his mother, and he was 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.480 trying to be like Dean Martin, like mother loved her 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.680 being Crosby. And then suddenly would outcome this you ain't 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:09.280 nothing but a hound dog rock And where this guy 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.680 would go from being a calm, cool, collected to this wild, 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.559 raving maniac hu Lin. Later when I said, oh, Elvis 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:18.400 is my favorite guy. He's like wild, and they said, 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:20.960 have you seen or heard the black Elvis? Well, who's that? 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.760 It's a little Richard. He wrote two dy Fruity, he 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:25.640 wrote Ready's Head, he wrote rip it Up, he wrote 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.040 all these Elvis songs. Let me hear little Richard. When 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:33.480 I heard, I just went nuts. It's actually like the Beatles. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.280 They felt the same way exactly. Yeah, okay, just go 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:38.120 back in your family. How many kids in the family 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.240 for four boys? And where are you in that higher 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.560 holdest boy? All this place, all the hopes and dreams 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.040 were in you. Yes, and I was the designated babysitter. 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:48.800 Those were the days when your parents said we're going 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.440 out to visit your grandparents, play with your brothers in 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.839 the streets until the street lights come on. Then go 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:55.320 in the house, put on your pajamas, go to bed. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:59.039 They were like, there's no nobody worried about kidnapping or nothing. Exactly. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.560 I walked to school, you know, until like eighth grade, 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.800 and we'd watch to school. And then even first grade, 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.960 you were walking to school, wasn't your mother would take 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.760 you the first day. Okay, take the first day. You're 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:11.680 on your own. So that was that. So I grew 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.280 up with three brothers, but I was then used to 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.880 being a maker of decisions. When it's time to divide something, 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.520 I cut it up. They all get to pick one 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:21.960 to three, four, and I get the last piece. So 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.000 when you're cutting a pie in for you cut it 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.280 pretty damn equal. You don't kind of take the big 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.160 piece first. You wait till your little brothers take the piece. 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.080 So when I left the guests who, nobody would play 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:33.720 with me because I was kind of blackballed. After I 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.040 left the guest who after American Woman, I went to 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.320 my brothers who had kind of played in the family 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.760 band around the house. Okay, so when you were playing 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:45.120 violin at these various cases, were you're getting paid no, okay, 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.080 just a social thing. I got Christmas presents though. Okay, 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.080 So in any event, you hear Elvis, so you switched 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.800 to the guitar. Yeah, how does that happen? Gives a 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.320 little more detail. My cousins played guitar. I had an 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.520 aunt with my own, my mother, younger sister who had 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.200 blonde hair, and a boyfriend with a white Chevy convertible, 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:05.840 and they would take me to all the country music 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.560 fescause they wanted to see the Ray Price violins, because 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.720 violin was very big then the country music fiddle as 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.160 they called it. And but I started to notice the 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.480 guitar players who are thumbs Carlyle and you know, and 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.560 Chad Atkins and Merle Travis, and I'm noticing that. Then 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:21.600 I hear on one of the shows, I see Jerry 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.040 Lee Lewis, and he comes when he plays You Win 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.200 Again in Crazy Arms, the Rape Price song, and suddenly 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.520 he starts doing good, doing good, A whole lot of 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.920 shaking going on, and his hair is beautiful, it's all wavy, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.760 and he stands up. The piano stool falls over backwards, 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.000 crashes on the stage. Everybody looks around. He starts whole 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.920 lot of shaking going on and the place goes crazy. 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:42.600 They go nuts. This is an outrage. What is this 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.920 guy doing to country music? The next day on the 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.040 radio at noon, we come home for lunch from school, 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.040 they play a whole lot of shaking going on twice 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.199 and go, this guy went crazy last night the Winnipeg 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.080 out a toryment iPhone and go, I was there, I 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.280 was there, was it wasn electric, It was incredible. Then 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.319 I see Elvis at the same time on He a 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.080 little bit slower because I want to make sure that 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.319 was Jerry Lee Low Jerry Lee Lewis. But at that 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.440 time he did not have any fame in Calgary. I 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.520 mean he was he was another guy. He was kind 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.040 of a country guy who played this boogie woogie piano. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.320 Is kind of an outcast. So if you listen to 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:18.360 his first records, it's you win again, crazy arms. Uh, 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.000 that's when your heartaches beginning. He was doing Ray Price 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.240 kind of songs with a honky tonk, but he had 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.240 this one song shaken over them when he did it 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.360 change the world. Okay, so you call the next day 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.320 and you were there and was everybody talking about it school? 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.719 Everybody talking about at school did you see Elvis on TV? Yes? 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.680 I did. I'm gonna play guitar. I'm gonna be like Elvis. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:41.720 I really wanted to be like Scotty Moore, but Elvis 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.679 made me play guitar. Okay, So how did you get 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.280 your first guitar? My cousins had a guitar. I went 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.720 to and said, I need to play guitar. The great 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.840 thing about violin is it's a lead instrument. I could 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.480 pick up a guitar and play the lead and everything, okay, 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.160 but therefore strings out a violin and there's six strings. 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:04.800 So they taught me a couple of chords. They said, 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:09.080 we're cousins, and it's a folk guitar, and acoustic is 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:12.360 a chuck Berry blonde single cutaway Gibson. I've seen chuck 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.200 Berry chuck Berry guitar. Are you kidding? In the same 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.360 thing Scotty Moore played with a blonde Gibson guitar. And 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:20.440 so they teach me three chords, and they teach me 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.800 my first song. I walked the line Johnny Cash, so 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:25.920 I learned. I walked the line. I go, this is 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:27.679 kind of like that's alright, mom. I just could have 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.040 played fastest saying, oh, it's the same three chords over Well, 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.360 this is just like hound dogs, the same three chords. 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.760 My cousins come back after a week of being away 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.760 fishing and they come to get their guitar back, and 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:41.760 I could play every song on the radio better than them, 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.120 going what happened? And I could play the leads. How 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.520 can you play the lead? Well, I played lead on violin. 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:47.960 I just found the notes on the guitar and they 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:52.120 go while you're incredible. So that was the beginning for me. Okay, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:56.920 then how did you get a guitar? Sears catalog. I 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:58.839 couldn't afford to go into music, so everything was three 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:03.520 and four dollars. Look at hearst harmony guitar, you want electric, 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.440 it's an extra ten bucks. It's forty nine dollars. You 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.320 buy the guitar, You start to play which guitar? Did 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.520 you buy the acoustical? The election? I bought the acoustic, 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.200 which I found it was a mistake. Nobody could hear it. 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.400 I went to a drummer who was the drummer of 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.160 the guests who to this stake, Gary Peterson. I was fourteen, 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.120 he was twelve. I said, you want to be in 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.920 a band. He says, you know from school, Yes, from school. 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.400 And he also played with all the big bands when 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.480 they came to Winnipeg, when the Dorsey Band came, or 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:30.920 Lionel Hampton. He started playing drums when he was before 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.120 you go into a drum solo with Jean Krupa. There's 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.920 all kind of pictures on me. He was he was 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:37.320 four and five and eight when he's doing it. I 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.120 met him when he was twelve, and he play a 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.360 hockey bank who go to hockey banquet And here's a 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.120 solo from Gary Peterson. Okay for those people who don't 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.000 even know what is a hockey banquet, Well, you're on 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.400 hockey teams, you're playing at the end of the year. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.479 There's a little dinner for the kids to encourage him. 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:58.679 And the best goalie is Canute. The best bad player 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:00.880 is Randy Backman, who does do anything. He's afraid to 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.880 hurt his fingers that can. The best goalie is Gary Peterson. 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.040 He's a stock little guy who plays drums and he's 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:07.520 got the arms and he can dive around and he 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.719 can be the goalie. So it's the little thing. And 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.079 older hockey players come there from the Winnipeg Jets or 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.600 whatever they were called in and they kind of hype 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.880 the kids up on being in the sport. But they 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.319 would also have music. They have music, and this kid 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.800 would play a drum solo, like like Jane Cooper drum solo. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.559 You know, liked rich When you were still even playing 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.640 the violin, you were aware of them, yes, And then 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:30.040 I switched to guitar and said, you want to be 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.040 in a band, and he said, to do what I said. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.080 We'll play the high school dance. Come to the dance 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.400 while they plays records. I know, I walked the line. 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:38.240 I know Bye Bye Love, I know all these songs. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:40.600 We'll just get a mike and sing. It doesn't matter 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:41.960 if you can sing or not. It rock and roll, 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.280 who cares, you know, And you just play drums. And 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.280 he said, and how much will we get paid? And said, well, 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.280 we don't get paid. And he said, well, I play 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.480 in a polka band. I go and play weddings and 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.920 bar mitzvahs and all this stuff, and I get twenty 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:56.599 five bucks a night. And I go, you're kidding. My 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:58.840 dad was making thirty bucks a week as an optician. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.040 You get twenty bucks night, So why don't you come 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.280 with me learn a few things on violin, I said, 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.840 I don't want to play violin, Okay, learn them on guitar. 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.760 So I learned rebel rouser, which is basically a polka. 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.080 You can polk at the rebel rouser to Dwaine anything. 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:13.480 And I learned guitar boogie and a couple other things. 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:15.920 And I learned sleepwalk. And I go and to play 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:17.880 these weddings and I come home with like fifty bucks. 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.120 I'm making more than my dad. I'm fifteen, I'm sixteen. 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.040 And then he says now. Then Gary Peterson says, now 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:24.760 we could play the high school that asked for nothing, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.120 because we've got money in the bank from playing the wedding. 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.040 So one weekend we'll go to the countryside and Winnipeg 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:31.600 and play a wedding on a farm where they put 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.679 you up for night and news you played Friday, Saturday 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.800 and Sunday. There was a bride's party, a groom's freak 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.200 out party, and then the wedding on Sunday whatever. So 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.840 we started to play rock and roll. I got asked 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.360 to play rhythm guitar in a band in a little 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.240 bit slower So the first two. It's just the two 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.480 of you, two of us and one other guy who 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.439 knew rhythm guitar okay. He would sing the songs okay, 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.280 and you were playing on your acoustic guitar, my electric guitar. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.000 I didn't have an app, but this guy had an app. Okay. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.240 How did you switch? You said you ordered the Who's 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.360 the Guitar? From Sears? How did you get an electric guitar? 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.679 Same thing Sears, my electric snow gut. I sold it 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.080 the kid in my classroom. I brought it for thirty 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.240 four I sold it for twenty nine bucks. I put 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.240 that towards the electric. I got the electric, which I 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.400 still have to this day, which is the same kind 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.800 that Jimmy Page played, a little thin black down electro 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.600 or silver tone guitars that was called from the catalog 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.840 beautiful Sound. I still got it today. And then that's 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.480 like sixty years later, seventy years years later. So in 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.240 any event, you have this friend who's got an app. 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.600 He's gonna play rhythm guitar, and you can plug your 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.360 guitar in there, right, and then what are your first gigs? Weddings? 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.480 Then I got a call. We hear you can play guitar. Well, here, 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.000 you're really good. We have it. We have a band 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.280 called Ellen and the Silver Tones, who then became Chad 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.640 Allen and the Reflections, and we want you audition for 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.640 rhythm guitar. Here's an album. Here's an EP to learn 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.920 four songs, and that's the the way. Obviously, taking violin lessons, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.320 you could read music. No, no, no, that was That's 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.560 one another reason I quit. I would go to this teacher. 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:04.760 She would open this thing which I called chopping. It 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.760 was chopin. I want to play chopping again. I really 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.520 like that song. My mother loves that song. It's not chopping, 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.680 its chopin. So my teacher was beautiful, a lady T shirt. 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:16.880 She was great. She'd put my music in front of me. 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:18.920 She'd put in front of her and she would play it. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.880 And when she played it, I could play it. She said, 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:24.680 now you try to play it. I would played exactly 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.800 like her. You should go, well, that's amazing. Practice it 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:29.280 for a week. And say, why would I practice it 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.080 for a week. I already know how to play it. Okay, 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.040 here's two more, and she'd play them. I'd go and 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:34.600 practice them for a week, and I would look at 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:36.000 the notes, and I'd see that they would go up 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.000 and down. It's kind of a clue, like you're going 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.920 like louder or softer, like talking like visual clues. And 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.040 she said, I think you're good enough. I want you 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:48.080 to audition for the Winnipeg Junior School Symphony. It's eighty 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.640 four kids. It's at the school called Calvin I, which 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:53.760 is where Neil Young went to school. So go there 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.480 Saturday morning. You're gonna audition for second violin. There's the 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.680 soloist and then you're you're gonna be playing harmony to 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.520 the souls. There's four violins too, viola's a couple of 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.760 cellows and at a bass. I go there to the audition. 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.760 I'm thrilled. We start to play a song which she 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.000 has played for me, so I know the song. When 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:13.520 it gets to a certain part of the song, I 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.560 play the wrong note. I'm playing blues on a violin. 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.880 We're playing Chakovski or something that that that that kind 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:25.120 of thing right, And suddenly there's tap tap, tap tap tap, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:29.560 and the whole symphony stops and the conductor says, second violin, 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.360 bar thirty two, it's an e natural, not in E flat. 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:35.680 Let's take it from the top. I have no idea 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.360 what this guy's talking about. He's talking Russian or Martian 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:40.400 to me. I have no idea what he's saying. I 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.640 don't even know what bar thirty two is. I'm playing 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.400 by here, heart and Soul and by ear. We played 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.040 again off the top. I make the same mistake. He stops. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.800 He says, second violin, could you please play me an 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.960 E on the violin. It's an open string. I play it. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:56.760 I'll play it up high. I played up high, and 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:58.360 I could plain E flat. I didn't know what he 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:02.240 was talking about, because so now there's seventy nine kids bullying, 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.080 laughing at me. In tears. I pack up my violin. 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:06.840 I go home. My mother goes, how did it go? 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:09.280 I said, I quit. I've never playing again. The next 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.160 night is when I saw Elvis on TV and said, 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.840 oh m G, what is that? That's what I wondered. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.200 That's insane, that's well. I don't want to worry about 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:17.600 any or E flat. I just want to play with 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:19.400 like I feel and have people go nuts. I want 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:21.160 to go crazy when I play the music. I don't 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:23.120 wanna have to stand in and do this Royal Conservatory 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.360 kind of thing that was it never okay, So then 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.520 you hear about chat Allen. They want you to play rhythm, 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.119 Send the the send the EP learned those songs. VP 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.840 is is the Shadows Cliff Richards backup band like the 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.119 Ventures instrumental band. So I'm learning the chords, but of 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.720 course in my head, I'm hearing the lead guitar. I 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.800 go to the rehearsal, the lead guitar player breaks a string. 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.720 I finished playing the song. The whole band is looking 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:50.800 at me, going, you play better lead than our league tar. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:52.240 Do you want to be lead guitar? I said, yeah, 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.919 that's why I came. I play lead man. You know, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.000 I knew all the rhythms, um, So then I became 0:17:58.040 --> 0:17:59.800 the lead. We got the record shake un all over 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.040 a little bit slower. So chat Allen had reflections that 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.600 he made any records before you got involved. No, okay, 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.560 so how do you get that record deal? If you 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.480 even know? We had a DJ in those days, everybody 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.000 was a Dick Clark. So our local TV guy had 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.920 a local TV show called Team Dance Party. He then say, 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.320 we're playing at so and so Community Center tonight. I'm 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.800 bringing chat Allen. The reflections we were named like Cliff 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.480 Richard and the Shadows, chat Ellen and the Reflections, and 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.439 so we go and play this. I got asked was 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.800 his real name chat Allen. His real name was Allen 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.879 cow Bell KO w b L. So he changed it 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:35.639 to chat Ellen to be like Chad and Jeremy. We 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.840 want to be British. We're in Winnipeg. We want to 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.120 we want to be the British invasion of Winnipeg. There 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.080 comes chat Ellen and we become the Reflections to be 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.479 like the Shadows. Then we got a cease and assist 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.720 noticed from a lawyer who represents the Reflections, who had 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.199 a hit called just like Romeo and Juliet. Can't use 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.960 the name me too, But we go, well we can't 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.480 use the name. We send in Shake all Over, which 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.879 we recorded by Johnny KIDNAPO little bit slower, so we 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.600 got the DJ. How do you get a record deal? 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.480 We just sent it blindly to Quality Records and try. 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.520 Every record we got in Winnipeg was on Quality Records. 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.760 They were a big company Toronto who leased records from 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:19.560 chess um Our c A everybody, so they were Canadian 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:21.560 ly when they at least the national pure every record 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.560 I got was on quality records or real records. So 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:26.920 every chess thing I got a Muddy Waters and bow Didley, 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:28.880 Chuck Berry. They were all in quality. So we look 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.360 up the address as eleven eighty birch Mount Road, Scarborough, Ontario. 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.760 You send in your tape. We get okay, well how 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.760 and where did you make the tape? The same guy, 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:42.040 the team Dance Party Guy's name is Bob Burns. He 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.840 becomes our manager. They have a recording studio just like 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.439 this with one microphone in. We get a record from 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.520 a cousin in England called shakun Over with Johnny Kidding 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.560 and the Pirates. We played It's fantastic. We played the dances. 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:56.960 Kids loved this. Guitar riff and bass riff. We recorded 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.360 one night. We sent it to quality records. We get 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.240 a telegram act this is before we could even afford 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.720 long this, and get a telegram back saying this is 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.040 a smash we want to release it. We need to 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.320 b side and what's the name of the band? We say, 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:10.760 we don't have a name. We've got to cease and 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:12.879 desist that we want to put this out. This is 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.240 the beginning of the British invasion. Sixty four. This sounds 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.080 very British and it sounded like Joe Meek the Tornadoes, 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.040 you know, Tellstar with all the echo on it and everything. 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.080 And so we're just gonna do fifty copies with a 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.280 white label, put Shakole over and put guests who undered. 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.679 They sent it out to fifty stations. Nobody knew we 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:32.919 were guys from Winnipeg. They thought it was British. They 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.080 played it was number one in Canada. Then they find 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.959 out it's the punks from Winnipeg. It's Chad Ellen. Reflections 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.240 that got least by Florence Greenberg Acceptor Records in New 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.199 York was taped twenty in Billboard and we're still in 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:45.879 high school. We had no idea what was happening. It 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.400 was amazing. I have to ask, did you make any 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:53.240 money from it? We got asked to go to New York. 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:55.480 The answer is yes and no. We made some money, 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.840 but it was called pacification money. What kind of money 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.720 pacified you? Past? Complete? Well, OK, we gotta go. We 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:05.840 get a silver record for half a million record sales 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.920 and no royalties, and um, so I'm in there on 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.119 state of Florence Greenberg, who you know, owned scepter and 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:14.320 she wrote Soldier Boys. She managed to sell. She managed 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:16.480 John Warwick, her and Paul cant with like a whole 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:18.480 thing there, and we got asked to do the Kingsman 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:20.640 Louis Louis to The Kingsmen were on her label as well. 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.320 So we're doing the Kingsman Louis Louis. But you're still 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.080 in high school. I quit. How old were you when 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.200 you quit? Nineteen twenty. I flung a couple of years 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.120 because of guitar. When I discovered guitar, was like, this 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.159 is it. I don't care about school. Okay, what do 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.480 your parents say about that? You'll never make it? Get 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:40.960 a backup. My backup plan might plan B was stick 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.400 to Plan A. Be a guitar player. Love that that way? 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.000 Backup plan to stick the planet. Yes exactly, So I 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:49.960 stuck to it no matter what people have said to me. 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.920 What would you be if you weren't a successful musician? 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.119 And I would say I would be a musician, not unsuccessful. 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:58.200 But this is what I did since I was like five. 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.040 I played music. I get joy out of it. It's 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:02.879 my whole life. I know when I hear something, I 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:05.240 remember I have a phonographic memory. So I'm trying to 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.560 learn guitar player Chuck Berry record Elvis or Chad Atkins. 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:10.280 I played through once or twice. It's in my head. 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.040 I figure out the notes. I can play it. I 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:13.560 don't need the notes, I just figure out where it 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:15.600 is on guitar. So I was very blessed that way, 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.159 to have a phonographic memory. Okay, So then you're on 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:22.200 tour with the Kingsman, Phenomenal Deianna, the Belmont The Kingsman, 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.960 Barbara Lewis, Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh's unbelievable whole 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:30.040 summer Rock and Roll tour East Coast, New York, Philadelphia, 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.840 all the beaches, all the beach So you went by bus, yeah, 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.080 and the big bus. Well, I have to ask, because 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:37.760 certainly by the end of the decade there were legendary 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.679 escapades on the road. So on your first tour, were 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.400 those escapades there too? They were there, but we were 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:47.320 very innocent kids from Winnipeg. I remember I loved being 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:49.399 in the back of the bus with Diana the Belmonts 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:51.639 because they were like do whopping in the back of 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:55.000 the bus. It was just like amazing. The original Belmonts 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:57.560 and we grew up on that and so it was 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.480 pretty amazing. And then we play a club, I think Albany, 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:02.960 New York, and they said, you want to come in 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:04.640 a club. And I don't drink or smoke or nothing, 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:06.359 so like, I'll go in and have a look at 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:08.560 a club, but like, I'm under twenty one or whatever. 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:11.879 So we get into this club and there's beautiful, beautiful, 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.760 beautiful women there and these guys all get a chick 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:16.760 and I just go back on the bus and wait, 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:19.399 and then they come in and they're really upset because 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.240 the chicks they've got our men. It's a tranny bar. 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:26.440 And the first time I see a gorgeous woman, I'm going, wow, 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:29.480 this is this looks like Marilyn Monroe or Jane Mansfield. 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:31.080 And I found it it's a guy, you know what 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:33.359 I mean. Like, and so Doon the Belot's guys are 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:35.399 there freaking out, like we got this chick, we got 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:38.840 our hand up her her dress and guess what a 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:41.080 surprise party, you know that kind of thing, like he 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:44.159 didn't participate, no, And then I also saw these guys 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.320 taking a cigarette with little tweets and pulling out some 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:51.440 of the tobacco and putting in something else, some white 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:53.520 powder or something, and then putting in the tobacco and 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:55.639 doing a whole package of cigarette then just smoking it 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:57.840 all that. I didn't know what this was. We're like 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:02.240 innocent kids from Winnipeg, you know what I mean. And uh, 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:04.399 that went all the time. And then we get to 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.119 New York after that tour. Because we were such a 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:10.800 good high school band, we played what was on the radio. 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:13.159 To play these high school dances, you wouldn't played what 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:15.840 was on the radio. So you played Ray, Charles and 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:18.040 and Elvis and the Beach Boys and the Beatles. You 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:21.480 played everything, the Charel's and everything. So Florence Greenberg managed 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:25.000 and wrote for the Charell's. She also had a connection 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:28.720 to the Crystals and the run Nets. So us white 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:31.600 guys got to back the Street and four black chicks 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:35.359 all over New York City, which was fine in New York. 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:38.480 When you go to Chicago summer and race riots would started. 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:42.359 Our dance co ops would come in with guns and 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:45.000 tear gas and there would be blood baths and it 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:49.080 was absolutely horrific. And six sixty six, the segregation. We'd 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:51.760 pull into a gas station down south, they come up 0:24:51.760 --> 0:24:53.280 with the shotgun and shoot in the air. You can't 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:55.639 come in here, you guys with those the black girls 0:24:55.680 --> 0:24:57.480 go to the back door. You guys come in the 0:24:57.520 --> 0:24:59.920 front door. And we hadn't We didn't know this. And Winnipeg. 0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:02.159 When you're in Winnipeg growing up and it's pretty much 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:05.520 all white and a black moose to town, you idolize them. 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:08.639 They are Diana Ross, they are Ray Charles, They're Jackie Robinson. 0:25:08.640 --> 0:25:11.320 There Joe Lewis the brown Bomber. We thought black people 0:25:11.320 --> 0:25:13.880 were like something really super duper special because we only 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:16.719 saw the famous ones on TV and are in our 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:20.679 hockey trading cards, are our basketball card, baseball cards, and 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:22.159 so it's like it was a real shock to us. 0:25:22.160 --> 0:25:24.359 So that whole tour is a big eye opener for us. 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:31.120 We'll take a quick break and come back with more 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:34.399 of my conversation with Brandy Backman, recorded live at the 0:25:34.400 --> 0:25:42.080 tune In Studios in Venice, California. I love having musicians 0:25:42.080 --> 0:25:45.600 in the studio like Paul Rodgers of Bad Company and 0:25:45.720 --> 0:25:49.080 Nancy Wilson of Hart. This week on the podcast, we 0:25:49.160 --> 0:25:53.600 have Randy Backman the stories galore about his humble beginnings 0:25:53.640 --> 0:25:57.320 playing the violin in Winnipeg to playing arenas around the 0:25:57.320 --> 0:25:59.920 world with the guests Who and Backman, Turner over Dry. 0:26:00.680 --> 0:26:03.280 Whether you come for the music or conversations about the 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:06.200 tech business, be the first to hear next week's episode 0:26:06.200 --> 0:26:10.199 by subscribing to the podcast I'm tune in, Apple Podcast 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:14.000 or your podcast player of choice. While you're there, please 0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:18.000 be sure to rate and review. Okay, let's get back 0:26:18.040 --> 0:26:21.880 to my conversation with Randy Backman. Okay, let's go back 0:26:21.920 --> 0:26:25.080 to Winnipeg. So what happens You said, what happened when 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:27.640 you saw Elvis? What happened when you saw beat the Beatles? 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:35.360 Similar kind of thing change, a world changing event. Um, 0:26:35.520 --> 0:26:40.119 Suddenly every guy in every band could sing. The drummer 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:43.080 and the guests who, Gary Peterson sang Ringo songs. I 0:26:43.119 --> 0:26:47.119 got to sing George Harrison songs. The other guy, Burton 0:26:47.160 --> 0:26:49.240 Cummings or the other good chat Ellen before he left, 0:26:49.600 --> 0:26:51.560 and then we got Burton Coummings from Chat Allen left, 0:26:52.040 --> 0:26:54.440 Uh would sing the Paul and John songs. So all 0:26:54.480 --> 0:26:56.679 my life I've been singing George Harrison songs. Hence my 0:26:56.720 --> 0:27:00.280 new album by George. Okay, we'll save that for Walls 0:27:00.280 --> 0:27:03.440 we're getting the history. Now. You talk about Winnipeg being 0:27:03.440 --> 0:27:07.280 a little Liverpool. Did you know Neil Young, Did you 0:27:07.320 --> 0:27:11.159 know Joni Mitchell? And how did you come to know that? Well, 0:27:11.440 --> 0:27:13.199 when you're playing at Community Center and you have a 0:27:13.200 --> 0:27:15.480 big gretch guitar like I had, and an echo machine 0:27:16.040 --> 0:27:19.640 and an AMP, everybody came to see you to look 0:27:19.640 --> 0:27:21.560 at your guitar, and your amp didn't care about you. 0:27:22.119 --> 0:27:24.119 That was a big deal. At least. I grew fifty 0:27:24.119 --> 0:27:25.800 miles to New York City and used to go in 0:27:25.800 --> 0:27:28.280 your high school years go to Manny's just to look 0:27:28.320 --> 0:27:30.680 at the start. I mean, you go to the show. 0:27:31.200 --> 0:27:35.399 It's just amazing. We were fascinated, right, So every Saturday 0:27:35.480 --> 0:27:38.240 I'd get on the bus, I'd go down town to Winnipeg. 0:27:38.440 --> 0:27:40.600 There was a two blocks stretch there where there was 0:27:40.600 --> 0:27:42.200 an Eatons which is kind of like a Sears, and 0:27:42.359 --> 0:27:45.160 Hudson's Bay, which is like another Sears. Two blocks in between. 0:27:45.160 --> 0:27:47.679 We're all music stores and clothing stores. We would go 0:27:47.720 --> 0:27:50.840 to one, get chips in gravy. That's all we can't afford. 0:27:50.840 --> 0:27:53.800 Meet Neil Young, meet Burton Cummings, walked down the street, 0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:56.520 stand at the window and stare at the Fender guitar 0:27:56.880 --> 0:27:59.239 that Buddy Holly played on Ed Sullivan last week. They 0:27:59.240 --> 0:28:00.760 wouldn't let us play if they knew we didn't have 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:03.119 any money. Who we could even go and try. We 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:05.720 just look at the guitar and dream, look at it sideways, 0:28:05.760 --> 0:28:07.240 look at it this way, look at it that way. 0:28:07.359 --> 0:28:10.040 Look at the orange gretch that Eddie played on Bandstand 0:28:10.280 --> 0:28:12.439 and Chad Acts played in Eddie Cochran played, and just 0:28:12.480 --> 0:28:15.439 look and dream with the guitars. Finally you can afford 0:28:15.480 --> 0:28:17.920 a guitar. So so I got an orange gretch. Newly 0:28:18.000 --> 0:28:19.720 On would come to see me playing my orange gretch, 0:28:19.760 --> 0:28:22.000 and he bought an orange gretch. When he did a 0:28:22.000 --> 0:28:24.040 gig with the Squires, he had to call us and say, 0:28:24.200 --> 0:28:26.200 I don't have an amp. Are you guys playing next Friday? 0:28:26.200 --> 0:28:27.760 Can I brow the amp? Yeah, we'll bring it down. 0:28:27.800 --> 0:28:29.720 We'll watch you play. We'd go watch Neil and the 0:28:29.760 --> 0:28:32.400 Squire's play all through Jim Kale's with a bass player 0:28:32.440 --> 0:28:34.600 in the guests who his concert amp, which was two 0:28:34.720 --> 0:28:37.439 channels and two inputs, so it had four infuts. So 0:28:37.480 --> 0:28:40.160 you plugged your microphone in the singers sang into one. 0:28:40.400 --> 0:28:42.040 You put the bass on the other the guitar and 0:28:42.120 --> 0:28:43.720 the other and you had a set of drums with 0:28:43.720 --> 0:28:45.080 no mics, and you would and played a high school 0:28:45.120 --> 0:28:47.880 dance one am on one amp. Well, how big a 0:28:47.880 --> 0:28:52.000 speaker was here? There's four tens and ender concert AMPKF. 0:28:52.000 --> 0:28:53.720 You turned it just right to sound it pretty good. 0:28:53.840 --> 0:28:56.040 There was no stereo then, this was like the sixties. 0:28:56.040 --> 0:28:58.040 Everything was mono. When it was a record player, they 0:28:58.040 --> 0:29:01.480 had one speaker on the stage. So then did you? 0:29:02.040 --> 0:29:05.480 Was Neil Young singing? Then he sang a song called 0:29:05.520 --> 0:29:09.040 I Wonder which was horrific, And I sig song called 0:29:09.080 --> 0:29:11.680 Stop Teasing Me, which was horrific. But his forte was 0:29:11.720 --> 0:29:14.400 guitar playing, and he copied Hank Marvin's from the Shadows. 0:29:14.440 --> 0:29:16.640 He had a song called Sultan and Aurora. I wrote 0:29:16.680 --> 0:29:18.840 a song called Maiden Lingoland, the same gratch, guitar, the 0:29:18.840 --> 0:29:21.760 same echo. We were like parallel twins. They're doing each 0:29:22.320 --> 0:29:23.760 the same kind of thing. But he was on one 0:29:23.760 --> 0:29:25.520 side of town. I was on the other side of town. 0:29:25.800 --> 0:29:29.280 And then what about Joni Mitchell. She came to Winnipeg 0:29:29.400 --> 0:29:32.400 quite a few times. When Chad Allen, after we finished 0:29:32.400 --> 0:29:35.000 the Kingsman tour, went back to Winnipeg. We weren't the 0:29:35.040 --> 0:29:37.600 top band anymore. We have been gone two months. There's 0:29:37.640 --> 0:29:39.840 all kind of high school dances, all the lakes around 0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:43.000 Winnipeg and resorts. The next bands up. We're tied for 0:29:43.200 --> 0:29:46.360 number one spot. Burton Cummings and the Devrons, Neil Young 0:29:46.400 --> 0:29:49.880 and the Squires. Okay, what do we do? We're dethroned. 0:29:50.320 --> 0:29:52.200 Chad Allen says, nobody knows who I am. I'm not 0:29:52.280 --> 0:29:54.720 Chad Allen and wore everybody called me guess who. I'm 0:29:54.720 --> 0:29:56.280 sick of the name. I'm going back to college. He 0:29:56.320 --> 0:29:59.760 goes back to University of Manitoba. And where's he today? 0:30:00.320 --> 0:30:04.440 In an old folks home? Wow? Yeah, uh? He goes back. 0:30:04.560 --> 0:30:07.560 Could we eliminate the competition? I know how? I call 0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:09.240 Burton c Commings his mother who went to school with 0:30:09.240 --> 0:30:11.160 my dad. Hello, Rhoda and Burton come to our meeting. 0:30:11.200 --> 0:30:13.719 Shirt I asked him to join the Bandy breaks up 0:30:13.720 --> 0:30:16.000 to den runs. He joins the guests. Who we go 0:30:16.080 --> 0:30:19.000 to We go to Regina to play a gig. Johnny 0:30:19.040 --> 0:30:21.479 Mitchell's playing the new Prairie Princess, the new Gordon Lightfoot, 0:30:21.520 --> 0:30:25.000 the new Leonard Cohen, the new Bob Dylan, female blonde hair, 0:30:25.080 --> 0:30:27.720 big blue eyes, great guitar, great voice. To go to 0:30:27.760 --> 0:30:31.600 see her at that gig, and Regina meet Jonnie Mitchell there. Okay, 0:30:31.640 --> 0:30:36.880 anybody else I'm missing who made it from Winnipeg. Well 0:30:36.880 --> 0:30:39.000 since then there's been a lot of Laurie mckinnets come 0:30:39.040 --> 0:30:42.320 through there. Tom cochrane came from clear Lake through Winnipeg. 0:30:42.560 --> 0:30:44.600 Just like you say they come through London, they really don't. 0:30:44.640 --> 0:30:47.320 They come from Birmingham or or Brighton or something or 0:30:47.520 --> 0:30:51.200 in Tranti say they come to Toronto. But Timmins, can 0:30:51.320 --> 0:30:53.560 you come to a little town to the big twe 0:30:55.160 --> 0:30:58.320 I think it was the end of the train, Like 0:30:58.360 --> 0:31:01.000 I said, when your parents are Grant came was immigrants 0:31:01.160 --> 0:31:04.000 and they had forty bucks. This will get you to Winnipeg. 0:31:04.040 --> 0:31:05.520 And by the way, if you're in Winnipeg, if you're 0:31:05.600 --> 0:31:08.200 Ukrainian or Jewish, go to that end of town. We 0:31:08.240 --> 0:31:11.560 don't like you guys. You're dirt. All the British people 0:31:11.600 --> 0:31:13.240 you go here. This is the uppity party town with 0:31:13.240 --> 0:31:15.360 all the nice trees. You guys are way out there. 0:31:15.360 --> 0:31:17.400 So we all we we went out there. But I said, 0:31:17.440 --> 0:31:20.520 we grew up eating dirt. And parogies and things like 0:31:20.560 --> 0:31:24.080 that and borshed and all that stuff, and we were happy. Okay, 0:31:24.120 --> 0:31:27.240 So what music is? What kept it all together? The 0:31:27.240 --> 0:31:30.240 house parties? Like I said, the barn miss was the weddings, 0:31:30.280 --> 0:31:32.280 all this stuff. What the kids? Twelve? And this is 0:31:32.240 --> 0:31:34.800 his birthday party and he gets thousands of dollars. I 0:31:34.840 --> 0:31:36.480 want to be Jewish, you know that kind of thing, 0:31:37.000 --> 0:31:39.720 like wow, okay, by getting a yo yo in a 0:31:39.760 --> 0:31:42.080 Superman comic and this kid's getting a thousand bucks to 0:31:42.200 --> 0:31:44.240 start a business when he's nineteen, you know what I mean. 0:31:44.600 --> 0:31:46.840 So you convinced Burton to be part of your band, 0:31:47.160 --> 0:31:50.440 and you've decided to continue under the Moniker guests, and 0:31:50.520 --> 0:31:55.040 so then what happens? Um we do a song called 0:31:55.120 --> 0:32:00.240 His Girl, We get a call from England. We like 0:32:00.360 --> 0:32:04.560 this record a lot. It's getting played in Canada. We 0:32:04.600 --> 0:32:07.680 want to sweeten it. What does that mean? We recorded 0:32:07.720 --> 0:32:10.800 in three tracks in Minneapolis. It means we'll put it 0:32:10.840 --> 0:32:13.640 on three tracks on a four track. We want to 0:32:13.640 --> 0:32:15.880 add a fourth track of a foogle horn and strings. 0:32:16.440 --> 0:32:19.040 What we're rough? And well? The Beatles are doing us, 0:32:19.040 --> 0:32:20.880 so are the Fortunes. Remember you got your troubles. I 0:32:20.920 --> 0:32:23.440 got mine and had the bird background, Google hornet and 0:32:23.440 --> 0:32:26.120 stuff like that. Well, okay, we'll do anything for a hit. 0:32:26.600 --> 0:32:28.880 Thinking about a little bit slower. You had that deal 0:32:29.000 --> 0:32:32.920 with the label in Toronto. So now when you're recording 0:32:32.920 --> 0:32:35.160 in Minnesota, who's paying and what label is it? We're 0:32:35.160 --> 0:32:38.200 still paying? We have no idea about royalties. O. We 0:32:38.240 --> 0:32:39.920 went to Florence, agreement said we've had a hit. Was 0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:42.000 shaken all over. They said, here's four dred bucks a 0:32:42.040 --> 0:32:45.000 hundred bucks each. That was it. Okay, but who when 0:32:45.000 --> 0:32:47.920 you made this second record was getting played in Canada? 0:32:48.480 --> 0:32:52.160 Who released it? Same label? Quality record? But they sent 0:32:52.240 --> 0:32:55.280 it to guys just said we're gonna call you. Guess who. 0:32:55.640 --> 0:32:58.440 They sent it to England, Philip Solomon, who owns part 0:32:58.440 --> 0:33:01.160 of Pirate Radio. He owns King Wreck. It's we also 0:33:01.200 --> 0:33:03.040 know he's part of a what can I say, a 0:33:03.120 --> 0:33:06.080 family syndicate kind of thing. And so we go to 0:33:06.080 --> 0:33:08.280 England without a contract and we're so excited. We get 0:33:08.320 --> 0:33:10.560 on a plane. I don't even sign a contract. We're 0:33:10.560 --> 0:33:13.360 gonna be the new Beatles were from Winnipeg. Blah blah blah. 0:33:13.440 --> 0:33:16.000 Well he sends a check, so you can go no, no, 0:33:16.480 --> 0:33:18.520 So you're going on your own money, going our own money. 0:33:19.040 --> 0:33:21.960 We buy new clothes, suits to look like the Beatles. 0:33:21.960 --> 0:33:23.920 Remember they had the beat of follow the suits and 0:33:23.960 --> 0:33:26.240 all this stuff. We buy new gear. We're forty granted 0:33:26.280 --> 0:33:28.920 the Holy Fly to England. Our first day there, we 0:33:29.040 --> 0:33:32.320 go to meet Philip Solomon at King Records. We find 0:33:32.320 --> 0:33:35.600 out he's part of the Pirate Radio station. I'm pirate radio. 0:33:35.720 --> 0:33:38.480 Was very blatant. We don't need to play your record, 0:33:38.920 --> 0:33:41.640 but we'll sell you commercial time. Our commercial time is 0:33:41.640 --> 0:33:45.960 a pound a second. You one hundred seconds played of 0:33:45.960 --> 0:33:48.320 your record. That's why records they were all two minutes long, 0:33:50.280 --> 0:33:52.280 seconds played. Give us a hundred twenty pounds, will play 0:33:52.280 --> 0:33:54.280 your record between four and six. They played it like 0:33:54.320 --> 0:33:56.920 a commercial. They're playing it off shore and everybody England 0:33:56.960 --> 0:33:59.120 listening to it because BBC is not playing nothing. They're 0:33:59.160 --> 0:34:03.200 fifty home grown talent and it's all Frankie Vaughan and 0:34:03.240 --> 0:34:05.280 all this weird stuff, and you know, Cliff Richard getting 0:34:05.280 --> 0:34:09.200 played and all that stuff. Britain has a whereas Canada 0:34:09.239 --> 0:34:11.759 has Ken Conner Britt calls you want to call it, 0:34:11.760 --> 0:34:15.080 Germany has Germ con So it helps the local talents. 0:34:15.640 --> 0:34:17.879 So we paid money through Philip Solomon and we owed 0:34:17.960 --> 0:34:20.279 him money. Then we go there said, okay, we want 0:34:20.280 --> 0:34:23.040 you guys to sign a contract. You get four hundred 0:34:23.080 --> 0:34:26.839 pounds a week each? What eight? What do you mean 0:34:26.960 --> 0:34:30.799 each for the band? Four pounds? What? I'm gonna put 0:34:30.800 --> 0:34:32.400 you on tour in Australia. This I'm gonna send this 0:34:32.440 --> 0:34:34.239 record to Australia, abill. This is a long called his 0:34:34.320 --> 0:34:40.440 Girl and um so when do we get royalties? What 0:34:40.560 --> 0:34:44.040 don't you understand about four hundred pounds a week? What 0:34:44.120 --> 0:34:47.120 do you mean? How long is this contract? Three years? 0:34:47.800 --> 0:34:49.640 You get four hundred pounds a week for three years. 0:34:49.960 --> 0:34:51.560 Where does all the other money go? It goes to 0:34:51.600 --> 0:34:55.520 pay the machine, the expenses to this that that really 0:34:56.680 --> 0:34:58.440 take or leave it? You don't have a contract. You're 0:34:58.440 --> 0:35:00.440 here in England, you're in the whole. We looked at 0:35:00.480 --> 0:35:02.160 each other. We've been through enough by then we just 0:35:02.239 --> 0:35:05.960 walked out. We didn't sign the contract. We had nothing. 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:09.000 On the way out, we meet a guy named Jerry 0:35:09.040 --> 0:35:12.960 Dorsey who's also desperate. We're standing outside. We don't know 0:35:13.000 --> 0:35:14.640 what to do. We're in Soho and his outside of 0:35:14.640 --> 0:35:18.720 his offices. Twenty minutes later, Jerry Dorsey comes out and 0:35:18.719 --> 0:35:21.160 we go what happened? He said, I took the deal? 0:35:21.760 --> 0:35:24.400 What certainly for three years they're changing my name to 0:35:24.440 --> 0:35:30.439 Angelbert Humperdink. Okay, we're in England. We're in the whole 0:35:30.480 --> 0:35:33.240 forty grand We've got rooms at the Regent Palace Hotel 0:35:33.280 --> 0:35:35.680 and Piccadilly. I say to the band, Okay, I've got 0:35:35.719 --> 0:35:37.400 a few bucks saved in my own money. How much 0:35:37.440 --> 0:35:39.120 money have you got? We just don't want to go 0:35:39.160 --> 0:35:41.480 home with our tails. But when we left Winnipeg, you 0:35:41.480 --> 0:35:43.640 can see this in a video. Guess who are leaving 0:35:43.640 --> 0:35:46.440 for England. The whole cities are waving. It's like the 0:35:46.440 --> 0:35:48.440 Beatles landing in Winnipeg. They're waving good bye to us. 0:35:48.440 --> 0:35:49.880 You're gonna make it in England, the guests who are 0:35:49.920 --> 0:35:52.600 gonna be big the whole city. See the radio stations there, 0:35:52.680 --> 0:35:55.040 the TV and everything. We can't go back a week later, 0:35:55.080 --> 0:35:58.560 going we got shafted, we got screwed, blah blah blah. 0:35:58.719 --> 0:36:02.120 So we call up Tony Hiller, who runs meals music 0:36:02.200 --> 0:36:05.759 that published shaken all over Hi. We're the guests who 0:36:05.800 --> 0:36:07.839 and he goes, oh, we know you guys are the 0:36:08.080 --> 0:36:10.480 a lot of ny Kid. Families very happy over you guys, 0:36:10.520 --> 0:36:12.080 because then after that that who did the song and 0:36:12.080 --> 0:36:14.719 everybody redid that song over and over again, and you 0:36:14.760 --> 0:36:16.520 were the first guys to do it after Johnny kidding 0:36:16.520 --> 0:36:18.440 the Pirates. What do you do in England? Well, we 0:36:18.520 --> 0:36:20.640 just met Philip Solomon and we've got shaft he said, Oh, 0:36:20.640 --> 0:36:22.319 I know Philip used to work for him. I know 0:36:22.400 --> 0:36:25.239 you got shafted. Why don't you come in and be 0:36:25.560 --> 0:36:27.279 I've heard your stof Why don't you be a demo band? 0:36:27.280 --> 0:36:30.080 I've got to cut some songs by two of my songwriters. 0:36:30.800 --> 0:36:32.840 You cut these two songs. I won't pay you, but 0:36:32.920 --> 0:36:35.360 bring two of your own and you can record. They 0:36:35.400 --> 0:36:37.160 can go home and say you record in England, So 0:36:37.200 --> 0:36:40.120 go to Regent Sound. We don't have any to record. 0:36:40.160 --> 0:36:42.440 Neil Young has given me his demo from Buffalo Springfield. 0:36:42.560 --> 0:36:44.719 We record Flying on the Ground is wrong for Neil. 0:36:45.000 --> 0:36:47.600 We're the first band ever recorded Neil Young song outside 0:36:47.600 --> 0:36:50.520 of him. Recorded a silly song I wrote called There's 0:36:50.520 --> 0:36:52.280 No Getting Way for You that never makes it anywhere. 0:36:52.480 --> 0:36:55.000 We record the song called this Time Long Ago. There's 0:36:55.120 --> 0:36:57.520 very much like the fortunes you got, your troubles I 0:36:57.600 --> 0:36:59.719 got mine, got the flugal horning in the strings and 0:36:59.760 --> 0:37:02.520 every thing, and we can go home with a master. 0:37:02.600 --> 0:37:04.120 We go home and send it to Quality Records and 0:37:04.160 --> 0:37:06.520 they go fabulous, great, they put it out. We have 0:37:06.560 --> 0:37:09.080 a hit record in Canada. So we turned this defeat 0:37:09.120 --> 0:37:12.040 into a triumph. We've we've recorded Regent Sound where the 0:37:12.040 --> 0:37:14.520 Beatles just recorded. We got this song this time long ago. 0:37:14.920 --> 0:37:16.759 We've done a Neil Young song flying on the Ground 0:37:16.840 --> 0:37:19.520 as our follow up single. Quality Records doesn't know what 0:37:19.560 --> 0:37:22.600 to do with it. Our contract expires. We're a free band. 0:37:22.880 --> 0:37:25.359 We're forty grand in the whole. We come back. We're 0:37:25.360 --> 0:37:30.920 gonna break up. Their Canada needs their money. Low's Music 0:37:30.920 --> 0:37:33.080 Store needs their money because we've gotten stuff on credit. 0:37:33.440 --> 0:37:35.880 We have no money. I get a call from a 0:37:35.960 --> 0:37:39.439 friend saying, Hey, I'm the producer of a television show 0:37:39.520 --> 0:37:42.000 called Let's Go, and all you gotta do is play 0:37:42.000 --> 0:37:44.440 the Top threty music is a half an hour Long's 0:37:44.480 --> 0:37:46.920 gonna play the Top fifty and Billboard the Top one. 0:37:47.000 --> 0:37:49.000 We'll pick the songs each week. Can you read music? 0:37:49.480 --> 0:37:52.120 And of course I say yes, even though we can't. 0:37:53.680 --> 0:37:56.000 And I say, who's writing the charts? He goes, Bob mcmallan. 0:37:56.000 --> 0:37:58.160 And I knew Bob mcmall and he was like Winnipeg's 0:37:58.160 --> 0:37:59.880 George and Martin. He helped all the bands, but he 0:38:00.000 --> 0:38:03.080 wrote little charts for string string quartets and everything. So 0:38:03.120 --> 0:38:04.799 I get his phone number and I call him, say, Bob, 0:38:04.800 --> 0:38:07.279 have you written the charts? This is like on Thursday night. 0:38:07.520 --> 0:38:09.480 We got to go on Friday and play five or 0:38:09.520 --> 0:38:11.440 six songs for Larry Brown? Have you done the charts? 0:38:11.800 --> 0:38:13.360 And he doesn't know. He's not supposed to tell me. 0:38:13.360 --> 0:38:15.840 We're supposed to show up cold and play the charts. 0:38:17.600 --> 0:38:19.319 He says, well, I've got this one done and that 0:38:19.360 --> 0:38:21.359 one done, and I got last train to Clarksville down. 0:38:21.440 --> 0:38:23.319 I got this downe I'm going okay, I'm writing them down. 0:38:23.880 --> 0:38:25.880 I run out and buy the six records Burton, and 0:38:25.880 --> 0:38:27.840 I learned them write out the courts. We practice Sturday 0:38:27.880 --> 0:38:29.960 and Sunday we go in. They put the music in 0:38:29.960 --> 0:38:32.919 front of us. We played the songs. Larry Brown comes 0:38:32.920 --> 0:38:35.920 and goes, wow, not only can you read play these songs, 0:38:35.960 --> 0:38:37.719 you sound like the records. And he goes to me, 0:38:38.280 --> 0:38:41.279 you can't really read a damn thing. You're right, he said, 0:38:41.320 --> 0:38:44.360 But you got the job. So that paid us eighteen 0:38:44.400 --> 0:38:47.400 hundred bucks a week as a band. And then we 0:38:47.520 --> 0:38:49.839 come back and we're now the Kings of Winnipeg again. 0:38:49.840 --> 0:38:51.960 We get all the high school dances. So besides getting 0:38:52.120 --> 0:38:54.360 eighteen hundred bucks, can you getting two and fifty night 0:38:54.400 --> 0:38:56.520 for high school dance? We're still making two or three 0:38:56.560 --> 0:38:58.839 or four hundred on the weekend. We pay off our debt. 0:38:58.880 --> 0:39:00.719 We get out a hole. We get a call from 0:39:00.760 --> 0:39:04.000 Jack Richardson, who's producing things Go Bad Or with Coca 0:39:04.040 --> 0:39:06.680 called these co commercials, the Ray Charles and other people singing. 0:39:07.760 --> 0:39:10.440 He's in Toronto working for McCann, Erickson and ad Agency, 0:39:10.480 --> 0:39:14.160 but he's the music producer. He calls it and and 0:39:14.200 --> 0:39:16.160 he says, will you guys do a thing for Coca Cola? 0:39:16.160 --> 0:39:17.720 And go yeah, we want to do a coke commercial. 0:39:17.760 --> 0:39:19.239 He says, no, No, I want you to do a 0:39:19.280 --> 0:39:21.480 whole album. I want you to do one side of 0:39:21.480 --> 0:39:23.960 an album. And I want the other band called the 0:39:24.080 --> 0:39:27.279 Stacados who later became the five Man electrical band who 0:39:27.280 --> 0:39:30.279 wrote signs of those great hits. They're Canadian, yes, they're 0:39:30.320 --> 0:39:32.880 from Ottawa. So we want to do an album that 0:39:32.960 --> 0:39:36.160 you can only buy with ten coke caps from Coca 0:39:36.200 --> 0:39:39.080 Cola and a dollar, so it will be ten cod caps. 0:39:39.280 --> 0:39:41.919 We'll call it a wild pair. So you're half the pair. 0:39:42.239 --> 0:39:44.279 The other half of the pairs the Staccatos. You and 0:39:44.360 --> 0:39:46.400 Burton write five or six songs, and I'm gonna get 0:39:46.440 --> 0:39:49.080 less Simerson in that band to write five or six songs. Well, 0:39:49.200 --> 0:39:52.319 they put it out. It sells eighty thou copies. He goes, 0:39:52.320 --> 0:39:53.719 this is like a gold album. We couldn't get a 0:39:53.719 --> 0:39:56.120 gold album because it wasn't sold through record stores or 0:39:56.400 --> 0:39:59.200 Canadian Record Association or anything, but we had to hit record. 0:39:59.400 --> 0:40:01.359 Then Jack interest and calls us up and goes, your 0:40:01.360 --> 0:40:03.640 stuff is pretty good. I watch you every Thursday on 0:40:04.080 --> 0:40:06.720 Let's Go on CBC. We're just kind of like the BBC. 0:40:06.840 --> 0:40:09.480 There's We had the show for two full years where 0:40:09.480 --> 0:40:11.239 our producer comes to us and goes, it's getting a 0:40:11.239 --> 0:40:14.040 little redundant. The charts then were very slow. Now you're 0:40:14.040 --> 0:40:15.960 on the charts. It's gone in two weeks. They're your 0:40:16.000 --> 0:40:17.600 song with the last two or three or four months 0:40:17.640 --> 0:40:19.520 and we're playing the same songs over and he said, 0:40:19.520 --> 0:40:21.600 why don't you write your own? But they've got to 0:40:21.600 --> 0:40:24.480 be good enough. To fit in between Vanilla Fudge doing 0:40:24.520 --> 0:40:26.840 You Got Me Hanging On and Heye Jude and the 0:40:26.880 --> 0:40:30.160 Supremes doing you know, Stopping the Name of Love. It's 0:40:30.160 --> 0:40:31.399 got to be good enough to fit on. I won't 0:40:31.440 --> 0:40:33.280 put it in the show. So comings and our start writing. 0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:38.200 Jack Richardson, here's a song, These Eyes, and he goes, wow, 0:40:38.560 --> 0:40:40.040 I'm going to mortgage my house and I don't want 0:40:40.080 --> 0:40:42.120 you guys to come to Toronto and record this album. 0:40:42.320 --> 0:40:44.120 So keep sending me all your demos, and we got 0:40:44.120 --> 0:40:46.960 the demos are recorded on TV. We're just pulling on TV, 0:40:47.000 --> 0:40:50.360 sending him real toy reels. He compiles an album. We 0:40:50.440 --> 0:40:52.960 go to Toronto record and he says, I've got a 0:40:53.000 --> 0:40:55.480 guy with ears to mix your album. I said, we 0:40:55.520 --> 0:40:57.120 all have ears. What are you talking about? It said, 0:40:57.320 --> 0:40:59.600 this guy has ears. Man, you don't know what I 0:40:59.640 --> 0:41:02.160 mean by years. Well, who's this guy. Well he's twentiesy genius. 0:41:02.200 --> 0:41:05.000 His name is Phil Ramon. So we said, okay, we've 0:41:05.000 --> 0:41:08.000 never heard of this guy. He mixes the album. It's great. 0:41:08.520 --> 0:41:10.279 We go to his studio A and our studios in 0:41:10.320 --> 0:41:13.040 New York. We record These Eyes. That thing you're here 0:41:13.080 --> 0:41:15.839 with Phil Ramon doing that that song still sounds great 0:41:15.880 --> 0:41:18.000 in the radio. Phormon is amazing. And I met him 0:41:18.000 --> 0:41:20.680 earlier when I was at with Florence Greenberg, because he 0:41:20.680 --> 0:41:23.520 did all John Warwick songs with Bert back Iraq. Once 0:41:23.560 --> 0:41:25.359 the demos are to inccepted, he took him over to him. 0:41:25.360 --> 0:41:27.720 He transferred them over and Bert's they're leading the orchestra 0:41:27.760 --> 0:41:29.600 and doing all that stuff with John Warwick. So I 0:41:29.680 --> 0:41:31.880 knew Phil and he was really a great guy. That 0:41:32.040 --> 0:41:35.000 we had to hit these eyes and then a little 0:41:35.000 --> 0:41:38.760 bit how'd you write it? Um? At the Joni Mitchell 0:41:38.960 --> 0:41:42.200 concert in Regina, do you know these stories? Because you're 0:41:42.239 --> 0:41:45.800 asking me the right questions. At the Joni Mitchell's story 0:41:46.560 --> 0:41:49.759 the Joni Mitchell gig at their four Dan Regina, it's 0:41:49.760 --> 0:41:53.000 sold out. Everybody's coming to see this Prairie princess because 0:41:53.040 --> 0:41:55.160 she's headed to l A. She's signed to Asylum Records 0:41:55.239 --> 0:41:58.440 or something, and she's under the wing of Elliott Robertson, 0:41:58.520 --> 0:42:01.680 David Geffen and Neil Young Brodby Stills the National Little Thing. 0:42:02.800 --> 0:42:04.680 The place is sold out and I'm there with the band. 0:42:04.920 --> 0:42:08.760 Burton Commings is there. There's an empty table with reserved 0:42:08.800 --> 0:42:11.400 on it and in walks. These two gorgeous chicks are 0:42:11.400 --> 0:42:14.239 blonde and brunette, and everybody goes, wow, they're clearly not 0:42:14.320 --> 0:42:17.080 from Regina. They got t shirts on at the University 0:42:17.080 --> 0:42:20.000 of Arizona, University of Utah, and they look American and 0:42:20.040 --> 0:42:22.600 they're wearing shorts and they're beautiful ones, blonde, ones, brunette. 0:42:23.160 --> 0:42:25.360 I'm a very shy guy. My dad had five brothers. 0:42:25.400 --> 0:42:28.040 I have three brothers. I didn't even know how to 0:42:28.080 --> 0:42:30.760 talk to a girl. So I say to our road manager, 0:42:30.840 --> 0:42:32.720 Jim Martin, who we called Jumbo. He's a big Guy's 0:42:32.719 --> 0:42:34.640 also our balancer, but he drove our truck and lifted 0:42:34.640 --> 0:42:36.920 our gear. Jumbo, can you go over to that table 0:42:37.400 --> 0:42:39.719 see those two chicks. See if you can sit at 0:42:39.719 --> 0:42:43.920 the table, talk to the blonde and not the brunette, 0:42:44.360 --> 0:42:45.880 and if you get lucky, call me over to the 0:42:45.880 --> 0:42:47.880 table and introduced me to the two of them, and 0:42:47.920 --> 0:42:52.040 then get away from the table. He calls me over. 0:42:52.640 --> 0:42:54.920 Joni's up there singing. She's just got married to Chuck Mitch. 0:42:54.960 --> 0:42:56.960 Or my name is Jonny Anderson. He's got married Jonie 0:42:56.960 --> 0:43:00.399 and Chuck Mitchell. Sheefter singing these great songs. I said 0:43:00.400 --> 0:43:02.480 at the table. Jim Martin leaves the table and I 0:43:02.560 --> 0:43:05.120 say are you together? And said, yeah, we're sisters. What 0:43:05.200 --> 0:43:06.840 can I take you home? Yeah? Our dad dropped this 0:43:06.920 --> 0:43:09.080 off and you could take us home. So I got 0:43:09.160 --> 0:43:10.840 enough guts driving them home to night to say to 0:43:10.840 --> 0:43:12.800 the burnette, I have tomorrow night off? Can I do 0:43:12.840 --> 0:43:14.040 you want to go to the movies? I have a 0:43:14.120 --> 0:43:16.640 night off? Sure? Okay, what do you do? I play 0:43:16.640 --> 0:43:20.399 in the band. I go to pick her up. I'm early, 0:43:20.440 --> 0:43:24.399 it's my first date. She's late. I get ushered into 0:43:24.400 --> 0:43:26.480 a room. It's like this. There's a piano, a plant, 0:43:26.800 --> 0:43:30.200 a little piano, and a couch. I've had no train 0:43:30.239 --> 0:43:32.080 and there's the piano. I've had no training on the piano. 0:43:32.360 --> 0:43:34.400 But when I got to be seven or eight, playing 0:43:34.480 --> 0:43:37.280 violin was a drag. My parents brought my next brother 0:43:37.360 --> 0:43:41.160 the ultimate polka instrument that Lawrence Welk accordion. So my 0:43:41.160 --> 0:43:43.520 brother's playing accordion and he hated it because we're a 0:43:43.520 --> 0:43:45.279 little in your five and they put an accordion on you. 0:43:45.560 --> 0:43:48.799 You look down, you can't see it. See there's keys there, 0:43:49.160 --> 0:43:51.160 and there's oompap buttons here, and you got to move 0:43:51.239 --> 0:43:53.279 his left hand to Pump. He hated it. I used 0:43:53.280 --> 0:43:54.960 to get him to lay down, put the according side 0:43:55.000 --> 0:43:57.120 with Neil Pump and he'd pull it this way. I'd 0:43:57.160 --> 0:43:58.480 sit in front of him and I learned to play 0:43:58.480 --> 0:44:01.560 in the key of C. So, with nothing to do 0:44:01.600 --> 0:44:03.480 in this room, there's no TV, there's no radio, I 0:44:03.520 --> 0:44:07.080 go over to the piano and go boom boom boom 0:44:07.120 --> 0:44:13.120 boom that KFC boom boom boom boom, and I sing 0:44:13.480 --> 0:44:17.480 these arms are waiting to hold you. She comes down. 0:44:17.520 --> 0:44:19.200 We go on the date I showed it. The Britany goes, well, 0:44:19.280 --> 0:44:21.040 we can't start it with these arms. I'll start with 0:44:21.120 --> 0:44:23.600 these ice car every night and make these arms long 0:44:23.640 --> 0:44:26.239 to hold you again as the second line, and we 0:44:26.280 --> 0:44:28.600 write the song in fifteen minutes. And I've got all 0:44:28.600 --> 0:44:30.880 these jazz cards I've learned from this jazz guitar player. 0:44:31.120 --> 0:44:33.520 When you get into these eyes, there's a lot, a lot, 0:44:33.560 --> 0:44:35.600 a lot of chords in there, with weird bass notes 0:44:35.600 --> 0:44:37.759 that are jazz based notes and stuff that I never 0:44:37.840 --> 0:44:40.160 ever thought of would be in a pop song. Because 0:44:40.160 --> 0:44:42.799 pop song there was like three songs. It was Louie 0:44:42.880 --> 0:44:45.439 Louis and hang On Sloopy kind of thing. These eyes 0:44:45.480 --> 0:44:48.080 has a lot of incredible jazz cards and modulations where 0:44:48.080 --> 0:44:50.560 it changes. And we wrote that in fifteen or twenty minutes. 0:44:50.560 --> 0:44:53.200 And when Phil Ramon heard that they did the strings 0:44:53.239 --> 0:44:56.120 that came out. It was like a million selling record 0:44:56.200 --> 0:45:00.239 and we got our gold record from the g soon 0:45:00.320 --> 0:45:02.440 was on our c A. Yes, how'd you end up 0:45:02.440 --> 0:45:05.040 on our CIA? What? Jack Richardson started his own little 0:45:05.120 --> 0:45:07.760 label in Toronto called Nimbus nine, named after the Clouds, 0:45:08.280 --> 0:45:10.640 and we had a hit in Canada and then he 0:45:10.680 --> 0:45:12.920 sent it around, just like quality that sending it to England, 0:45:12.960 --> 0:45:15.920 he sent it to the States and Don Berkheimer Rocco 0:45:16.000 --> 0:45:18.120 like an extra New York heard and said, while this 0:45:18.160 --> 0:45:21.080 is number two in Canada and in Detroit, Rosalie is 0:45:21.080 --> 0:45:23.279 playing in Detroit. She was a legend. And who would 0:45:23.280 --> 0:45:25.719 play in Detroit and I mean Windsor and they'd hear 0:45:25.719 --> 0:45:28.120 it in Detroit, then Cleveland that he would get played 0:45:28.120 --> 0:45:31.839 in the whole Ohio area, and then Pittsburgh, I mean 0:45:31.960 --> 0:45:34.600 you know, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and then played in New York 0:45:35.320 --> 0:45:37.439 and so let's sign this band. So we went down 0:45:37.440 --> 0:45:39.839 there and we signed with our CIA And what about 0:45:39.840 --> 0:45:45.239 a manager? Um? I pretty much managed the band at 0:45:45.239 --> 0:45:47.239 the time, being the oldest guy, the oldest brother and 0:45:47.280 --> 0:45:50.680 looking after the band um before I quit to go 0:45:50.800 --> 0:45:53.400 on the Kingsman Louis to Louis Louis Tour. I didn't 0:45:53.400 --> 0:45:55.839 want to get a job my dad. And I'm playing 0:45:55.880 --> 0:45:57.480 in a band and making a h fifty bucks a week. 0:45:57.520 --> 0:46:02.960 My dad's still making sixty fifty week optometrist. And he'd say, Son, 0:46:03.040 --> 0:46:06.040 I got you a real job. Oh really, Dad, what 0:46:06.160 --> 0:46:09.840 is it. You're gonna sell shoes at bad at shoes Okay, 0:46:10.320 --> 0:46:12.640 show up at four thirty and you gotta work till nine. 0:46:12.680 --> 0:46:14.680 I said, I have a gig at nine, So I'd 0:46:14.680 --> 0:46:16.400 go there and work because my dad sat up with 0:46:16.440 --> 0:46:19.160 his friend, which is next door to his optometrist shop 0:46:19.160 --> 0:46:23.120 where he's selling eyeglasses. And uh, I'd go there and 0:46:23.120 --> 0:46:27.160 work till my break, which was seven fift And when 0:46:27.160 --> 0:46:28.920 I got my break, I would take it and it 0:46:28.960 --> 0:46:32.440 would not go back. I'd go to the gig. How 0:46:32.480 --> 0:46:36.319 long did that last? One night at best? Exactly two 0:46:36.320 --> 0:46:38.360 weeks later, Son, I got you another gig. I know 0:46:38.400 --> 0:46:41.560 you didn't like the selling shoes one. And the reason 0:46:41.600 --> 0:46:43.200 I didn't like selling shoes one it was like it 0:46:43.239 --> 0:46:46.919 was boring. It was like three dollars an hour. When 0:46:46.920 --> 0:46:49.040 you're a new kid, they give you all the worst people. 0:46:49.040 --> 0:46:51.440 So I would get this bomba that would be two 0:46:52.080 --> 0:46:54.919 pound woman from the farm with Bunyan's on her feet, 0:46:54.960 --> 0:46:56.480 and all of a sudden, I'd have to measure her 0:46:56.520 --> 0:46:58.080 feet and put her on. I ASTOK, give you a 0:46:58.080 --> 0:47:00.759 great looking chick. And when you're seventeen or eighteen and 0:47:00.840 --> 0:47:02.279 a good looking chick sits in front of with a 0:47:02.280 --> 0:47:04.320 short dress and you gotta measure her defeat and legs, 0:47:04.760 --> 0:47:08.400 you get a a thing happening in the crotch right 0:47:08.400 --> 0:47:11.200 and you gotta stand up right. And so I had 0:47:11.320 --> 0:47:14.279 enough for that job. And so the next next one 0:47:14.360 --> 0:47:19.480 is at Simpsons Sears men's wear suits. So they trying 0:47:19.520 --> 0:47:21.120 to teach me to upsell, and I hate doing that. 0:47:21.120 --> 0:47:23.239 I hate that to this day. When the guy comes 0:47:23.239 --> 0:47:24.600 in for a tie, tell him it looks good and 0:47:24.600 --> 0:47:27.040 then show him a suit. Sell the guy a suit, 0:47:27.120 --> 0:47:28.719 then sell him a pair of shoes and her shirt. 0:47:28.760 --> 0:47:33.000 I hate doing that. Um So that lasted until the 0:47:33.040 --> 0:47:37.319 break and then we gotta shake over becomes a hit. 0:47:37.400 --> 0:47:40.279 I quit school, Okay, I go back at your later 0:47:40.320 --> 0:47:43.359 payoff my parents house, buy my dad a car. He says, 0:47:43.400 --> 0:47:44.960 you don't. You don't need a backup plan. I said, 0:47:45.000 --> 0:47:47.200 my backup planets. Stick to Plan A, Plan B, stick 0:47:47.280 --> 0:47:54.319 to Plan A. That's what I'm doing. You're listening to 0:47:54.360 --> 0:47:57.239 my conversation with Mandy Backman, recorded live at the tune 0:47:57.280 --> 0:48:02.560 In Studios in Venice, California. I hope you're enjoying this 0:48:02.640 --> 0:48:05.799 episode of the Bob Left Sets podcast. If you want 0:48:05.800 --> 0:48:09.800 to see Randy and me in the studio, we post videos, photos, 0:48:09.800 --> 0:48:12.879 and sound bites from our guests as they joined me here. 0:48:13.480 --> 0:48:18.080 Visit apt tune in on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Now 0:48:18.239 --> 0:48:20.800 more of my chat with Randy Bachman on The Bob 0:48:20.880 --> 0:48:27.760 Left Sets Podcast. Okay, so now Phil Ramon mixes the record. 0:48:28.040 --> 0:48:29.600 You have a hit in Canada ends up being a 0:48:29.680 --> 0:48:31.840 huge hit in America. I remember these eyes. I was 0:48:31.840 --> 0:48:35.480 taking geometry. They have imaginary numbers, we say, these eyes, 0:48:36.040 --> 0:48:42.399 but in any of them. Uh so, what happens? It's weird. 0:48:42.440 --> 0:48:45.960 We signed with our c A Records. They say to us, 0:48:46.000 --> 0:48:49.480 you can't use A in our studios anymore. Phil Ramon Studios, 0:48:49.719 --> 0:48:52.160 which is amazing. I mean, Simon Garfunkel did all this 0:48:52.239 --> 0:48:54.359 stuff that you're now with. Our CEO got to use 0:48:54.480 --> 0:48:57.359 r c A Studios And guess what studio we got 0:48:57.400 --> 0:49:00.640 for you, the one bing cross as we cut White 0:49:00.680 --> 0:49:06.279 Christmas just from Are you kidding? Yeah, but you're gonna 0:49:06.320 --> 0:49:09.200 love it being cut their brother. We're going we can't 0:49:09.239 --> 0:49:11.560 get a drum sound. This is for the whole first 0:49:11.600 --> 0:49:13.120 album of the Guests, who was done at A in 0:49:13.160 --> 0:49:16.879 our studios with Phil Ramon. Every song sounds wonderful. It's 0:49:17.080 --> 0:49:20.120 it's not dated, everything's wet. The room had a great sound. 0:49:20.160 --> 0:49:22.040 He had a great reverb and all that kind of stuff. 0:49:22.320 --> 0:49:25.000 Great machines, great ears, you like, Jack said, this guy's 0:49:25.040 --> 0:49:28.440 got ears. We start to cut the canned Weet, our 0:49:28.480 --> 0:49:31.560 second album, and the reason we was Wheat was from Wheat, 0:49:31.560 --> 0:49:33.839 sweet country and candical like prairies worthy girl the Wheat 0:49:34.280 --> 0:49:36.719 and so our song our album is called Candyheat. The 0:49:36.760 --> 0:49:39.560 album sounds terrible and we say to Jack, we can't 0:49:39.560 --> 0:49:41.279 even get a drum sound in here. It's dry, it's 0:49:41.280 --> 0:49:44.439 an an okaic chambers like. It's terrible, and he says, 0:49:44.560 --> 0:49:47.000 I have a plan because I know we're not going 0:49:47.040 --> 0:49:49.279 to get a hit record out of this studio. The 0:49:49.360 --> 0:49:51.319 sound isn't right. Radio is gonna want to hear the 0:49:51.360 --> 0:49:54.719 same thing. So let's tell everybody at our c A. 0:49:55.080 --> 0:49:57.799 I've never told this story before. By the way, let's 0:49:57.800 --> 0:50:00.839 tell everybody. Say, you have a gig this weekend at 0:50:00.920 --> 0:50:03.880 something beach out in Long Island. I forget what it's called, 0:50:04.600 --> 0:50:07.200 Jones Beach. You gotta get get Jones which you're gonna 0:50:07.239 --> 0:50:09.759 pack up your gear Friday night at two o'clock, get 0:50:09.800 --> 0:50:11.640 in the car, drive to Jones Beach, will come back 0:50:11.640 --> 0:50:15.000 Sunday afternoon. Just start recording here Monday morning. He has 0:50:15.040 --> 0:50:17.880 booked a in our studios. He has picked two songs 0:50:17.960 --> 0:50:20.480 from Canned Wheat that we're gonna do with throw Ramon. 0:50:20.800 --> 0:50:22.359 We go in there and set up fiel Ramon gets 0:50:22.400 --> 0:50:24.040 a song but a boom but a being, and Anari 0:50:24.160 --> 0:50:26.720 gets a song we called Laughing and she's come undone. 0:50:27.200 --> 0:50:30.560 They go on Canned Wheat. If you listen to cann 0:50:30.560 --> 0:50:33.600 Wheat today, the whole album sucks. It's very, very, very 0:50:33.719 --> 0:50:36.840 very dry, and these songs jump off the turn the 0:50:36.960 --> 0:50:39.719 off the vinyl. It's undone and laughing. They got this 0:50:40.280 --> 0:50:43.520 sound that was there. We also had a song on 0:50:43.560 --> 0:50:47.880 there called No Time that was so terrible. We recorded 0:50:47.920 --> 0:50:49.960 again for the American Woman album with a with a 0:50:49.960 --> 0:50:52.680 better sound, and it was a hit for us. Okay, 0:50:52.680 --> 0:50:56.000 so then obviously Laughing is a hit and she's come undone. 0:50:56.000 --> 0:50:59.719 It's kind of a you know, underground classic in America. 0:51:00.000 --> 0:51:04.360 And then what happens with the third album, We well, 0:51:04.520 --> 0:51:07.080 we caused a strike at our. They found out the 0:51:07.120 --> 0:51:09.239 engineers played the album they're mastering at our c A 0:51:09.760 --> 0:51:12.879 what are these two songs? This isn't our sound. They 0:51:12.920 --> 0:51:14.800 find out that we snuck into A and our studios. 0:51:14.840 --> 0:51:17.319 We have what's called the NABAT strike National Association or 0:51:17.320 --> 0:51:20.600 Broadcast Engineers Technicians. There's a strike. It's called the guests 0:51:20.600 --> 0:51:23.440 who strike. These guys won't work in the studio. So 0:51:23.480 --> 0:51:25.200 we have to settle the strike. We gotta go talk 0:51:25.200 --> 0:51:28.040 with union leaders and all this stuff. So we say 0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:29.799 to our say, we can't record here anymore. We need 0:51:29.840 --> 0:51:30.880 to go at A and or. You can't go to 0:51:30.960 --> 0:51:32.319 A and R. It's got to be our c Okay, 0:51:32.320 --> 0:51:35.520 build us a studio. So they go to Chicago and 0:51:35.560 --> 0:51:37.800 they build us a studio. Because we're still living in Winnipeg. 0:51:38.080 --> 0:51:39.520 We're driving all the way to New York, is three 0:51:39.560 --> 0:51:41.760 thousand miles to record and then driving home on weekends. 0:51:42.000 --> 0:51:45.200 I mean, it's crazy. And so they build us a 0:51:45.200 --> 0:51:47.440 studio in Chicago to our spects and to Jack Richards 0:51:47.480 --> 0:51:50.080 and Specs. We got a great engineer, they're called Brian Christiansen, 0:51:50.520 --> 0:51:52.200 and we record there and that's the sound of the 0:51:52.200 --> 0:51:55.919 American Woman album. Okay, so the album after ken Weed 0:51:56.040 --> 0:51:59.399 is an American American woman. Okay, how do you write 0:51:59.400 --> 0:52:04.480 American him in? We are still living in Winnipeg. We're 0:52:04.480 --> 0:52:07.319 crossing the border where gas is cheaper. We always go 0:52:07.360 --> 0:52:09.759 to the same gas station, which in the old days, 0:52:10.200 --> 0:52:13.360 the gas station was a glass tube with the leaders 0:52:13.360 --> 0:52:14.759 in it. You can see the gas going down. It 0:52:14.800 --> 0:52:16.920 wasn't a digital kind of thing. And so would we 0:52:16.960 --> 0:52:19.160 sit there watching the gas go on, filling up our vehicle, 0:52:19.440 --> 0:52:21.840 and this farmer who would always fill up his tractor 0:52:21.880 --> 0:52:24.560 there and his thrashing machine, would say to us, where 0:52:24.560 --> 0:52:26.719 are you guys going now? And I say, we're going 0:52:26.760 --> 0:52:29.120 to Boston. We're playing a plotfest with Joan Bayaz and 0:52:29.200 --> 0:52:31.920 Richie Havens and next time where you going San Francisco 0:52:31.960 --> 0:52:33.840 to play with Frank Zapp and the Mothers? Where are 0:52:33.840 --> 0:52:36.000 you going? This time, we're going to Texas to play 0:52:36.040 --> 0:52:39.520 a gig. And I said, but before we go down there, 0:52:40.680 --> 0:52:42.759 the guy at the border, I couldn't understand you talked 0:52:42.800 --> 0:52:45.200 like boss hog On because I had a big fat 0:52:45.280 --> 0:52:48.160 guy Boord, a guy with a real Southern drawl, Like 0:52:48.280 --> 0:52:50.440 I'm saying, hey, boy, before you go down to Texas, boy, 0:52:50.440 --> 0:52:51.799 you got to go in this building over there, boy, 0:52:51.800 --> 0:52:53.480 and make sure you're going too that building. Boy, I said, 0:52:53.480 --> 0:52:55.080 I didn't understand the guy. He said, We've got to 0:52:55.080 --> 0:52:57.520 go into some sort of service building. And I don't 0:52:57.520 --> 0:53:00.440 know what he meant. And the guy filling the gas 0:53:00.440 --> 0:53:04.239 tanks did he did? He say selective service, and I said, 0:53:04.239 --> 0:53:06.319 maybe that's it. It's a white building with an American flag. 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:08.600 He said that selective service. Do you know what that is? 0:53:08.680 --> 0:53:11.359 I said, I have no idea. Is it's the draft board. 0:53:12.040 --> 0:53:16.480 They drafted Vietnam War. They drafted my son a year ago. 0:53:16.480 --> 0:53:20.040 He's dead. My nephew turned eighteen last week. They got him. 0:53:20.040 --> 0:53:22.400 The next day. He's in fred Bragg to training him 0:53:22.400 --> 0:53:24.000 to go fight in his Vietnam and drawing. They're gonna 0:53:24.040 --> 0:53:27.279 get you, guys. You're between twenty and thirty. You're healthy Canadians. 0:53:27.480 --> 0:53:29.279 You've got green cards. That means you can work in 0:53:29.320 --> 0:53:31.400 the state's pay tack in the states and be drafted 0:53:31.640 --> 0:53:35.120 and fight for the States. What do yourself a favor. 0:53:35.200 --> 0:53:37.280 Go into town here and pretend you're getting some chips 0:53:37.280 --> 0:53:40.120 and drinks for the road. You already got your gas. 0:53:40.640 --> 0:53:43.239 Keep driving. When you get to this highway, turn left, 0:53:43.239 --> 0:53:46.000 go up through Duluth, Go back to Minnesota and Louth, Minnesota. 0:53:46.160 --> 0:53:48.839 Get into Canada, turning to green cards. Don't come back 0:53:48.880 --> 0:53:51.239 to the States of the wars over. Everybody's protesting the war. 0:53:51.280 --> 0:53:54.719 It might be over soon. Wow. I call Texas. We 0:53:54.760 --> 0:53:57.480 don't go to Texas. We want to go to Texas 0:53:57.520 --> 0:53:59.040 to see Buddy hally as if he's going to be 0:53:59.040 --> 0:54:02.200 there waiting for us, right, or Roy Orbison or somebody 0:54:02.200 --> 0:54:04.440 like that. We get to this place in Toronto, I 0:54:04.480 --> 0:54:06.680 call an agency. This is Valentine's Day. We're gonna play 0:54:06.719 --> 0:54:11.760 Valentine's Day dance in Texas February. We get to Toronto 0:54:12.200 --> 0:54:13.840 early in the morning and I say, I call the 0:54:13.840 --> 0:54:15.719 agency and I say, do you have any gigs? This 0:54:15.760 --> 0:54:17.960 is Randy Backman from the Guests who and we're we 0:54:18.040 --> 0:54:19.719 need some gigs. In Torontesse. Guys. So, yeah, when do 0:54:19.719 --> 0:54:22.560 you need gigs? I said, tonight? What we're in town? 0:54:22.600 --> 0:54:26.279 We we we're draft dodging from the States. Really these 0:54:26.360 --> 0:54:29.640 West Valentine's Everything's book. But we just had a consulate cancelation. 0:54:30.040 --> 0:54:31.719 One guy's got laryng right, it's the middle of the 0:54:31.719 --> 0:54:33.759 winter in Canada and he can't sing to you. Go 0:54:33.840 --> 0:54:36.680 can you go play a curling rink tonight in Kitchen 0:54:36.760 --> 0:54:38.919 or Waterloo? And I say, how much does it paints? 0:54:38.960 --> 0:54:40.520 Is four bucks? And that's what we're gonna get in 0:54:40.520 --> 0:54:43.919 Texas anyways, So I say, okay, we go and play 0:54:43.960 --> 0:54:46.719 this curling rink. You know what curling is the worst? 0:54:46.719 --> 0:54:49.960 Everybody knows. That was Resolve of the Olympics. Yes, they 0:54:49.960 --> 0:54:53.239 put plywood on the ice. It's freezing in there. It's 0:54:53.280 --> 0:54:57.480 like it's minus ten um. Plywood's on the everybody's there 0:54:57.480 --> 0:54:59.840 in Tucson Park because we're playing a three hour dance. 0:55:00.239 --> 0:55:02.480 We're playing beach Boys and Beatles and all that stuff. 0:55:02.560 --> 0:55:05.040 And I break a string. I didn't have a tech, 0:55:05.320 --> 0:55:08.000 a tuner, a spare guitar, a roadie. I had nothing. 0:55:08.520 --> 0:55:11.000 You broke a string, Burton coming, says Randy broke a string. 0:55:11.000 --> 0:55:13.359 We're gonna take a break, talks among yourself. There's pot 0:55:13.400 --> 0:55:16.400 free pop run over there, DJ playing records. Randy's changing 0:55:16.400 --> 0:55:18.359 a string. So I'm changing my string on the guitar 0:55:19.080 --> 0:55:20.840 less Paul, and I'm tuning it up, tuning it up. 0:55:20.840 --> 0:55:22.600 As I'm tuning it up, I'm going down. Don't then 0:55:23.160 --> 0:55:27.760 don't don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't do that. 0:55:29.000 --> 0:55:34.120 The whole audience stops talking and I go, wow, I 0:55:34.239 --> 0:55:37.000 gotta remember this riff, and I keep playing. I'm on stage. 0:55:37.000 --> 0:55:39.520 I'm on my knees in front of Burton's piano, tuning 0:55:39.520 --> 0:55:41.120 to the piano. Didn't even have a tuner. You tune 0:55:41.120 --> 0:55:42.480 to a piano when you had a piano player in 0:55:42.520 --> 0:55:46.000 those days. So I see Gary Peters in her drummer. 0:55:46.000 --> 0:55:47.840 I get on stage. He starts playing the riff. I 0:55:47.840 --> 0:55:50.480 see Jim Kale. Burton finally comes on the stage and goes, 0:55:50.680 --> 0:55:53.480 what is this? I said, I'm making it up, but 0:55:53.600 --> 0:55:56.840 just sing anything. And there's something about when you don't 0:55:56.840 --> 0:56:00.279 write music, I can't are The way to remembers thing 0:56:00.560 --> 0:56:03.000 is to put something silly to it, like when Paul 0:56:03.040 --> 0:56:06.440 McCartney wrote, yesterday, he called scrambled eggs. The next day 0:56:06.480 --> 0:56:09.520 he had to find syllables that fitted scrambled eggs. Baby, 0:56:09.560 --> 0:56:11.040 how I love your legs. If you ever saw him 0:56:11.040 --> 0:56:14.080 and Jimmy fallon, do it, it's hilarious skit. They also 0:56:14.120 --> 0:56:16.640 writes the second verse, which was never done. So he 0:56:16.719 --> 0:56:19.640 got scrambled eggs and said yesterday. So Britain is singing 0:56:19.680 --> 0:56:21.400 the first thing that comes to his mind, which is 0:56:21.960 --> 0:56:24.720 American Woman, stay away from me. It's a statue of liberty. 0:56:25.000 --> 0:56:27.600 It's that Uncle Sam and the stars and stripes. Uncle 0:56:27.640 --> 0:56:31.239 Sam wants you. That's when we were terrified. So he 0:56:31.280 --> 0:56:34.320 sings American Woman stay away from Me four times. I solo, 0:56:34.400 --> 0:56:36.719 he sings it again. We go to play it the 0:56:36.719 --> 0:56:40.840 next night. We can't remember it. I started out tuning 0:56:40.880 --> 0:56:43.640 my guitar again until I fall into dunt dhunt and 0:56:43.680 --> 0:56:46.840 we do it again. Then somebody records it. We played 0:56:46.840 --> 0:56:49.320 for Jack Richards and he goes crazy. This number one record. 0:56:50.160 --> 0:56:52.160 Do you realize when you say we don't want your 0:56:52.160 --> 0:56:56.000 war machines? It's an anti war song. Radio has been 0:56:56.040 --> 0:56:57.600 told not to play in the ant. They won't play 0:56:57.600 --> 0:56:59.480 Country Joe one two or three. What are we fighting for? 0:56:59.680 --> 0:57:04.440 All the playing is Gary Sense, Sergeant Barry Sounded, Fighting Men, 0:57:04.840 --> 0:57:07.160 the Green Ray, all that kind of stuff. They're only 0:57:07.200 --> 0:57:10.200 playing war songs, not anti war song. And this is 0:57:10.200 --> 0:57:11.480 going to be number one. It gets to be a 0:57:11.560 --> 0:57:14.600 number one album and single, and then the DJs realize 0:57:14.680 --> 0:57:16.520 it's an anti war song. It's too late. They can't 0:57:16.560 --> 0:57:19.920 not play it. Okay, that's a monster ship. I remember 0:57:19.960 --> 0:57:21.800 listening to it to the first night. I got stoned. 0:57:22.200 --> 0:57:25.920 That leads upland too so. But then the band breaks up. 0:57:26.640 --> 0:57:30.200 Well I leave why I had been with him at 0:57:30.200 --> 0:57:33.960 that point nine years the drug culture came in. I 0:57:34.240 --> 0:57:36.920 didn't smoke, drink or do drugs. I also had to 0:57:36.920 --> 0:57:39.840 think all the gallbladder problem that every night I'd have 0:57:40.000 --> 0:57:41.920 a gallbladder attack and I didn't know what it was. 0:57:42.000 --> 0:57:44.200 You're on a ninety day tour and you go to 0:57:44.240 --> 0:57:45.720 the hospital at night. They said, coming in the morning, 0:57:45.760 --> 0:57:47.240 we're gonna give you the stuff to drink and take 0:57:47.240 --> 0:57:49.560 an X ray. Well, I'm in Philadelphia to more, then 0:57:49.560 --> 0:57:52.640 I'm in Pittsburgh, then I'm in Boston. Well, you you 0:57:52.680 --> 0:57:54.880 need to start stand still and go and see a doctor, 0:57:54.920 --> 0:57:58.200 because every night I have blood both ends in the bathroom. 0:57:58.560 --> 0:58:00.760 Incredible pain. We have gall black, just like somebody putting 0:58:00.800 --> 0:58:02.720 knife in you and just turning it and turning. And 0:58:02.760 --> 0:58:05.480 this last two or three hours. And my roady Jumbo, 0:58:05.600 --> 0:58:08.040 the same guy would take me to a hospital and 0:58:08.080 --> 0:58:10.080 they say, you've got to keep this guy in here, 0:58:10.120 --> 0:58:11.800 or you gotta send them home. So I just called 0:58:11.800 --> 0:58:14.560 my doctor who birthed me into the world in Winnipeg 0:58:14.560 --> 0:58:17.320 and said, I'm coming home. I need some tests. The 0:58:17.360 --> 0:58:19.840 band had a week off. This is an amazing happenstance. 0:58:20.160 --> 0:58:22.880 The band had a week off. We're playing west Chester, Pennsylvania, 0:58:23.400 --> 0:58:25.920 playing in a church. In a church, the stage is 0:58:25.960 --> 0:58:28.680 like this high the low ceiling, so you can walk 0:58:28.760 --> 0:58:32.040 right up to the stage. We're playing on stage. This band. 0:58:32.280 --> 0:58:34.400 You can tell it's a band. The five guys come in. 0:58:34.840 --> 0:58:36.800 They look as weird as us. They're not the normal 0:58:36.880 --> 0:58:38.920 guys in the suits and ties dancing with girls at 0:58:38.960 --> 0:58:42.600 the church, dance their whackle. Weird new musicians. So they're 0:58:42.600 --> 0:58:44.560 standing right in front of they're watching every note we're playing. 0:58:44.560 --> 0:58:46.600 When we're all done, this guy comes says, Hi, my 0:58:46.680 --> 0:58:50.560 name is Bob Sabellico. Um, this is my band, and 0:58:50.600 --> 0:58:52.280 we play all year stuff. All the guest is, we 0:58:52.400 --> 0:58:55.200 love your your music. It's great, but I can't figure 0:58:55.200 --> 0:58:57.560 out she's come undone. All the jazz chords and some 0:58:57.640 --> 0:58:59.560 of the chords in these eyes, I can't figure them out. 0:58:59.600 --> 0:59:01.520 We show to me, I said sure, he said, come 0:59:01.520 --> 0:59:04.320 to our house later. My dad's a rich contractor. Our 0:59:04.360 --> 0:59:06.160 whole band practices in our base. We have a p 0:59:06.320 --> 0:59:08.240 A a hammered to be three. All the apps are there. 0:59:08.640 --> 0:59:10.200 Go to a party in his house. I teach them 0:59:10.200 --> 0:59:12.880 the songs that night to go home. Have a gallbladder attack. 0:59:12.960 --> 0:59:15.480 They say, you got to go home. The band has 0:59:15.480 --> 0:59:17.080 a week off, five days off, and then they pick 0:59:17.160 --> 0:59:18.360 up again, and then we've got to go play the 0:59:18.360 --> 0:59:21.120 film or east closing of the film work which I 0:59:21.160 --> 0:59:23.240 want to play. I go into my doctors, so you 0:59:23.240 --> 0:59:27.520 have a gallbladder problem. Will schedule your your surgery for them. 0:59:27.560 --> 0:59:31.320 But all you can eat until then is skim milk, saltine, crackers, 0:59:31.760 --> 0:59:35.040 and jello without sugar, like gelatin. That'll fill you up. 0:59:35.160 --> 0:59:37.600 Don't need anything else because it's got fat or sugar. 0:59:37.680 --> 0:59:39.520 Your goal better. So you've got a bunch of gall stones. 0:59:40.400 --> 0:59:41.560 So I go to the band and say, look, I 0:59:41.560 --> 0:59:43.240 gotta stay home. I gotta stay on this diet. But 0:59:43.800 --> 0:59:45.120 if I stay on this diet and I don't have 0:59:45.120 --> 0:59:47.480 any attacks, I want to come and play the film 0:59:47.480 --> 0:59:50.640 wre And the band says, well, we've got gigs. We've 0:59:50.640 --> 0:59:52.920 now gone from seven and fifty bucks a night to 0:59:53.120 --> 0:59:55.280 ten and twelve and fifteen thousand a night because of 0:59:55.280 --> 0:59:58.120 American woman hitting number one. We've now gone from opening 0:59:58.160 --> 1:00:00.680 the show to catching. We're closing show like the Beatles 1:00:00.720 --> 1:00:03.240 when they were like opening for Roy Orbison or somebody else. 1:00:03.280 --> 1:00:06.200 Do you go to headlining the show? So I say 1:00:06.240 --> 1:00:10.120 to the band, out of my own pocket, I'll pay 1:00:10.160 --> 1:00:14.760 Bob sabella coo, because you know he knows all the 1:00:14.800 --> 1:00:16.760 songs he went to his party. I taught him undone 1:00:16.760 --> 1:00:19.280 in these Eyes. So rehearse with him for friendings, go 1:00:19.280 --> 1:00:20.760 to his base. When you stay here, I'm flying home 1:00:20.800 --> 1:00:24.480 to Winnipeg. Bob Sabellico plays with the guests who for 1:00:24.520 --> 1:00:27.840 ten days he's famous. He plays for ten days, then 1:00:27.880 --> 1:00:30.280 he goes back to his band. They come back to Winnipeg. 1:00:30.640 --> 1:00:32.200 They got a couple of guys to take my place, 1:00:32.240 --> 1:00:34.560 Kurt Winters and Greg Glasgogo. I knew really well. I 1:00:34.640 --> 1:00:36.440 go black and play the film, or gig with them 1:00:36.440 --> 1:00:38.320 the film or researchers. My last gig with the guests 1:00:38.360 --> 1:00:41.520 who and I said goodbye. But on the airplane there, 1:00:41.520 --> 1:00:44.120 I'm so hungry. I take a drink that the stewardess 1:00:44.120 --> 1:00:46.360 gives me of apple juice. I get to the film, 1:00:46.360 --> 1:00:47.800 are going and play. We're doing two sets of the 1:00:47.800 --> 1:00:50.720 film in between the sets of the film. Or I 1:00:50.800 --> 1:00:53.040 go in and I have a gallbladder attack in the bathroom, 1:00:53.080 --> 1:00:55.280 which is the most disgusting thing you'll ever see in 1:00:55.320 --> 1:00:58.080 your life, like the worst gas station of all time. 1:00:58.320 --> 1:01:00.840 This is at the film Wore. There's stuff all over 1:01:00.880 --> 1:01:03.280 the floor. I mean everything's all over the floor in there. 1:01:04.160 --> 1:01:06.280 So but when you have a gallbladder attack, it's like 1:01:06.320 --> 1:01:08.400 breaking your leg or something, or getting a burn or 1:01:08.440 --> 1:01:11.560 getting punched in the face. Your body suddenly kicks in 1:01:11.560 --> 1:01:15.880 this adrenaline and everything feels wonderful for a while. So 1:01:15.920 --> 1:01:18.120 the second set of the film, Or I go out there, 1:01:18.120 --> 1:01:20.640 my gall blighter attacks over. I wiped, I'm cleaned up, 1:01:20.840 --> 1:01:23.480 and I'm on adrenaline, and I am rocking like Clapton 1:01:23.520 --> 1:01:25.720 in the Free World or Hendrix and everyone looking at 1:01:25.760 --> 1:01:27.800 me the band that we already had the meeting that 1:01:27.880 --> 1:01:30.680 this is my last gig. I'm out. I am playing 1:01:30.720 --> 1:01:33.080 my ass off. It's incredible, and it's the film More. 1:01:33.480 --> 1:01:35.200 It was just incredible. Okay. So do you have your 1:01:35.200 --> 1:01:39.760 gallbladder removed? No? Okay, do you still have your gallbladder? Yes? 1:01:40.360 --> 1:01:43.360 What do they do? Well, I'll tell you the story. 1:01:43.760 --> 1:01:47.720 I finished the film More, I go home. The word 1:01:47.800 --> 1:01:49.439 is out that I'm leaving the guests who my house 1:01:49.520 --> 1:01:52.960 is getting egged and toilet papered. Okay, just to be clear, 1:01:53.440 --> 1:01:55.920 other than the gall bladder, what did your motivation for 1:01:56.040 --> 1:02:01.080 leaving the band? I had a son tell him, I 1:02:01.120 --> 1:02:02.680 had a baby daughter on the way. I've been on 1:02:02.720 --> 1:02:05.320 the road ninety days and we're facing another ninety day tour. 1:02:05.840 --> 1:02:08.920 I married a very, very beautiful woman from Regina that 1:02:08.960 --> 1:02:11.920 I met at the Joni Mitchell concert and it was 1:02:11.960 --> 1:02:13.920 one of those two girls. Yeah, I'm married her. We 1:02:13.960 --> 1:02:16.320 had six kids or lists. Tell who had to hit 1:02:16.400 --> 1:02:17.920 she saw hid. He's now in my band playing with 1:02:17.960 --> 1:02:21.040 me every night. So are you still married to her? No? No, 1:02:21.120 --> 1:02:25.240 we got divorced and live happily ever after. Okay, but 1:02:26.000 --> 1:02:28.320 so you say and what do you plan to do 1:02:28.440 --> 1:02:30.560 now that you're out of the band. I just planned, 1:02:30.560 --> 1:02:33.520 that's it. I all I got is get healthy. So 1:02:33.560 --> 1:02:35.720 a couple of months and we leave Winnipeg because my 1:02:35.760 --> 1:02:38.200 house is getting egged and toilet paper and everything, it's 1:02:38.240 --> 1:02:41.720 all everywhere. People are bringing their garbage on my lawn 1:02:41.720 --> 1:02:44.000 and lighting it on fire and it's stinking, and so 1:02:44.160 --> 1:02:47.000 we got to get out of town. My renette, her 1:02:47.040 --> 1:02:49.880 name was Lorraine. Her family has moved to Saskatoon, which 1:02:49.880 --> 1:02:52.960 is where Joni Mitchell's from. I get an offer from 1:02:52.960 --> 1:02:56.200 a band at Saskatoon to produce them. Why not, I'm 1:02:56.240 --> 1:02:58.840 not doing anything. I've learned how to produce from Jack 1:02:58.920 --> 1:03:00.960 Richards in the phil Ramona kidding. These are the best 1:03:01.000 --> 1:03:03.080 guys in Canada and the States. So I'm go and 1:03:03.120 --> 1:03:06.880 start working with this band and were really strange thing 1:03:06.960 --> 1:03:10.800 happened to me. I had a gall bladder attack again. 1:03:12.120 --> 1:03:14.560 Unthinking LYE took a sip of orange crush that you get, 1:03:14.600 --> 1:03:17.560 you know, that's all that syrup, and it started up again. 1:03:18.520 --> 1:03:21.720 And UM, I don't know if you're into this or 1:03:21.760 --> 1:03:23.439 your readers are into it, but and I've never told 1:03:23.520 --> 1:03:25.800 this story. I don't know why I'm telling you this. 1:03:26.400 --> 1:03:31.360 I got faith field. So these guys come in, their 1:03:31.400 --> 1:03:38.000 missionaries and my brother in law who's also a missionary. 1:03:38.480 --> 1:03:40.880 They anoint my head with oil. They put their hands 1:03:40.880 --> 1:03:44.240 on me and they say, you're you're healed, You're fine. 1:03:44.840 --> 1:03:46.560 This is the Friday night I've had the gold. I'm 1:03:46.560 --> 1:03:48.320 set to go in the next morning. I go on 1:03:48.400 --> 1:03:52.360 Saturday morning. The doctor says, blah blah blah. It's a 1:03:52.400 --> 1:03:54.720 long weekend. I said, look, I've had actually, i've got 1:03:54.720 --> 1:03:57.280 sixteen gall stones. It's killing me. You gotta take the money. 1:03:57.280 --> 1:03:58.480 So I don't want to take him on less I 1:03:58.480 --> 1:04:00.640 can see your x race. So trying to call my 1:04:00.720 --> 1:04:03.080 doctor on a long weekend. It Saturday morning, there's nothing 1:04:03.120 --> 1:04:06.160 shaken until Tuesday morning, the Monday's holiday. Because I've called 1:04:06.200 --> 1:04:08.400 your doctor. They're gonna send your X rays. There was 1:04:08.440 --> 1:04:10.120 no fat accent, and they can send your extrays on 1:04:10.160 --> 1:04:12.000 air can on the airplane. I'll send somebody to get 1:04:12.000 --> 1:04:14.760 them with like a messenger service. Meanwhile, I'm gonna take 1:04:14.760 --> 1:04:17.440 my own X rays. So I drink this barriam junk 1:04:17.920 --> 1:04:19.840 gets in, goes in me. I go and get my 1:04:19.880 --> 1:04:21.760 extras taken. He said, you don't have any goal stones. 1:04:22.360 --> 1:04:25.160 What do you mean you don't have any goals? Maybe 1:04:25.160 --> 1:04:27.640 you've passed them, maybe they're stuck somewhere else. So we're 1:04:27.680 --> 1:04:29.120 gonna give you more stuff to drink. It might be 1:04:29.160 --> 1:04:32.840 in your intestines or somewhere else. I stayed there for 1:04:32.880 --> 1:04:35.840 two days drinking the stuff. There's nothing in me. My 1:04:36.040 --> 1:04:38.400 x rays come Tuesday morning. He looks at them, and 1:04:38.400 --> 1:04:40.919 he looks at the X rays taking He says, you're fine. 1:04:40.960 --> 1:04:42.960 You can leave the hospital. You don't have any goal stones. 1:04:43.240 --> 1:04:46.800 What happened, I said, I was given a blessing. I 1:04:46.800 --> 1:04:49.640 I guess I was faith field. I was in such 1:04:49.680 --> 1:04:52.040 a pain when these guys said it. I believed it 1:04:52.080 --> 1:04:54.640 in my brain. Are their brain or something or I 1:04:54.680 --> 1:04:58.120 did feel some incredible power when this was happening to me. 1:04:58.600 --> 1:05:00.560 I've seen it happen on TV. I did believe it. 1:05:02.440 --> 1:05:05.960 I'm healthy. I go back home at eight o'clock every night, 1:05:06.480 --> 1:05:09.439 I'm downstairs playing guitar. I've done this for like fifteen years, 1:05:09.480 --> 1:05:11.520 playing guitar. My wife says to me, you gotta start 1:05:11.520 --> 1:05:13.800 another band. You're driving me cuckoo. I wake up three 1:05:13.840 --> 1:05:16.080 in the morning. You're not in bed you're downstairs with 1:05:16.120 --> 1:05:18.840 the headphones on playing guitar. So I started another band. 1:05:18.920 --> 1:05:21.840 Neil Young comes home plays says, I've broken up with Crosbie, Sales, 1:05:21.920 --> 1:05:24.960 Nash and Young. I'm on my own. Well, actually, I've 1:05:25.000 --> 1:05:27.120 broken up the Sprinkle. They want me to join Crosbie, 1:05:27.120 --> 1:05:29.040 Szells and Nash. I'm trying to get my name at it, 1:05:29.080 --> 1:05:31.400 so I'll be Crosby, Seals Nash and Young plays me 1:05:31.440 --> 1:05:32.960 a couple of tracks. He helps me get a deal. 1:05:33.000 --> 1:05:35.919 I started country band like Poco, like Buffalo Sprinkle, called 1:05:35.920 --> 1:05:38.200 Brave Belt. Neil gets me a deal for PRIs. I 1:05:38.240 --> 1:05:40.080 go down there and do two albums with the PRIs. 1:05:40.120 --> 1:05:42.280 It doesn't sell. It's at the tail end of the 1:05:42.320 --> 1:05:45.920 country rocking, just before the Eagles burst out. I get 1:05:45.920 --> 1:05:47.560 Fred Turner in the band I know from the early 1:05:47.600 --> 1:05:51.400 Winnipeg days. We changed Great Belt three becomes back when 1:05:51.440 --> 1:05:56.840 Turner Overdrive one. Okay, but Brave Belt is on Reprieve. Yes, 1:05:57.120 --> 1:06:02.280 why do you think it wasn't successful? Um? I didn't 1:06:02.400 --> 1:06:07.680 want to be a second rate guest who Burton comings 1:06:07.720 --> 1:06:09.680 is one of the greatest voices in rock and roll, 1:06:10.600 --> 1:06:13.400 like Elton John an operatic voice. Stree and a half 1:06:13.400 --> 1:06:15.600 four octaves. He can sing a ballad. You can sing 1:06:15.600 --> 1:06:17.400 Old Danny Boy and make you cry like true to 1:06:17.480 --> 1:06:20.280 his Irish roots. He could scream like Eric Burton, we 1:06:20.400 --> 1:06:21.920 got to get out of this place. He could scream 1:06:21.960 --> 1:06:24.600 like Robert Plant. He's got a great voice. What could 1:06:24.640 --> 1:06:26.840 I do? I had a Neil Young voice. I sang 1:06:26.880 --> 1:06:29.640 Brian Wilson parts, I get around, I sang the high Thing. 1:06:29.680 --> 1:06:35.320 I wasn't a singer, and so rather than be a 1:06:35.400 --> 1:06:37.439 second rate guests who, I'd rather be a tenth rate 1:06:37.480 --> 1:06:40.280 guests who and not even compete in the pop market. 1:06:40.560 --> 1:06:42.960 Do country music, get a pedal steel, be like Poco, 1:06:43.080 --> 1:06:45.480 Richie far Ray and Polka who left Buffalo Spring, Be 1:06:45.600 --> 1:06:48.040 like Neil and Steven Stills and Manassas and whatever they 1:06:48.040 --> 1:06:50.120 were doing. Do what you're wanted to sing harmony, play 1:06:50.160 --> 1:06:53.160 blazing rock and roll guitar. Nobody would work with me. 1:06:53.200 --> 1:06:54.880 I was blackballed after I left the guests who I 1:06:54.880 --> 1:06:57.360 had to produce myself, pay for my own sessions with 1:06:57.440 --> 1:06:59.960 my royalties that were coming very meager royalties from the 1:07:00.160 --> 1:07:02.800 eyes and laughing and undone and all this stuff, and 1:07:04.640 --> 1:07:08.160 produced myself. Neil Young got me the deal came to 1:07:08.240 --> 1:07:10.880 Brave Belt three more. Auston and Don Schmissli called me 1:07:10.960 --> 1:07:13.040 and said, we can't keep you on the label anymore. 1:07:13.120 --> 1:07:15.160 It would be too much of a favorite. To Neil, 1:07:15.200 --> 1:07:17.320 We've already done you a favor. You're not meeting our 1:07:17.360 --> 1:07:20.080 bottom line. We're gonna go with America on Gordon Lightfoot, 1:07:20.120 --> 1:07:23.240 who we just signed a Canadian and you can't produce 1:07:23.280 --> 1:07:26.280 yourself like Gordon Lightfoot's taking Lenny warrenk Or if you 1:07:26.360 --> 1:07:30.080 take Lenny, we'll keep on the label our templement. I said, no, 1:07:30.120 --> 1:07:32.240 I'm producing myself. Nobody knows what I'm doing. I don't 1:07:32.240 --> 1:07:34.280 even know what I'm doing. I'm just I'm floundering here. 1:07:34.280 --> 1:07:36.360 I'll find it. They said, we're sure you'll find it. 1:07:37.720 --> 1:07:39.320 I find it when I get Turner in the band, 1:07:39.360 --> 1:07:41.360 chat out and leaves again. He left the Guess Who 1:07:41.680 --> 1:07:43.520 and then he leaves the Brave Belt and he started 1:07:43.560 --> 1:07:44.800 with him is the only guy would play with me 1:07:44.800 --> 1:07:48.480 in Winnipeg. He leaves the band. Fred Turner comes in. Suddenly, 1:07:48.520 --> 1:07:51.919 Fred Turner has got this Harley Davidson, John Forgerty voice. 1:07:51.960 --> 1:07:54.400 We started doing Creed this clear water. Everybody's up dancing 1:07:54.600 --> 1:07:57.360 our country music. Everybody's yawning, like when's the next rocket? 1:07:57.400 --> 1:07:59.440 When you're gonna play American Woman. I didn't want to 1:07:59.440 --> 1:08:02.160 play any guest who stuff. I wanted to start from scratch. 1:08:03.240 --> 1:08:05.240 So Fred turners in the band, and we get heavier 1:08:05.240 --> 1:08:07.840 and heavier and heavy and heavier. And there was a 1:08:07.880 --> 1:08:10.800 revolution music at that time. We go to a club 1:08:10.800 --> 1:08:13.360 and the guy say, okay, coffee houses are over. People 1:08:13.360 --> 1:08:16.080 aren't sitting listening to lyrics anymore. They're up dancing to 1:08:16.160 --> 1:08:19.080 Proud Mary and and jumping Jack flashes off. You got 1:08:19.080 --> 1:08:21.280 to write stuff like that, so I started writing like 1:08:21.320 --> 1:08:24.080 The Who and the Stones and Creans clear Water. Fred 1:08:24.120 --> 1:08:26.760 has this big voice. I sing relief for Fred. Every 1:08:26.800 --> 1:08:29.360 once in a while, I sing like David Crosby Neil 1:08:29.400 --> 1:08:31.479 Young song. You don't need a big, powerful voice, you 1:08:31.560 --> 1:08:33.599 just need kind of a cool voice that gives the 1:08:33.600 --> 1:08:35.840 other guy ar rescue or relief. Picture a relief hitter. 1:08:36.560 --> 1:08:39.160 And we've become back and turn over drive. Now you 1:08:39.200 --> 1:08:43.920 switch to mercury, right? Yes? How does that happen? When 1:08:44.040 --> 1:08:47.400 more Austen let me go? I had the album cut 1:08:47.439 --> 1:08:49.599 on my own dime. I had no money from her priest. 1:08:51.280 --> 1:08:55.160 I'm paying the band a salary out of my royalties, 1:08:55.200 --> 1:08:57.160 and I'm paying my own corn flakes and gas bill 1:08:57.240 --> 1:08:59.559 and my rent. And now I've got two kids and 1:08:59.600 --> 1:09:03.519 a wife. We're getting near the end. I'm sending out 1:09:03.600 --> 1:09:09.000 real to real tapes. I have twenty six refusals, beautiful letterheads. 1:09:09.520 --> 1:09:13.879 Jack Holtzman Electric with the butterfly, Herb Belfort with the trumpet, 1:09:13.880 --> 1:09:15.800 the silver trumpet of A and M. We passed. We 1:09:15.840 --> 1:09:19.800 passed passes from everybody passes a pass from Mercury Records. 1:09:19.840 --> 1:09:23.160 In January. Before that, I had met Charlie Fatch, who 1:09:23.200 --> 1:09:25.479 was the guy who signed us, and he said, you've 1:09:25.479 --> 1:09:27.760 got to put your name on the record. Every mighty 1:09:27.760 --> 1:09:29.760 trying to hide out be calling Brave Bell. Put your 1:09:29.800 --> 1:09:32.120 name in their radio. Guys are recognize your name and 1:09:32.120 --> 1:09:34.240 he might get a spin. They might play it because 1:09:34.280 --> 1:09:37.800 they recognize that you've written hit songs. So I'm trying 1:09:37.800 --> 1:09:39.759 to find put my name on there. We call ourselves 1:09:39.800 --> 1:09:41.840 back Main Turning. There's me and my brothers and Fred Turner. 1:09:42.000 --> 1:09:44.479 We're called back Fin Turner. For a while, people think 1:09:44.479 --> 1:09:46.920 we're like seals and crops, or Brewer and Shipley. A 1:09:46.960 --> 1:09:49.240 guitar and a mandolin singing one toke over the line. 1:09:49.439 --> 1:09:51.640 We're blowing coffee mugs off the table. We're playing this 1:09:51.640 --> 1:09:56.800 powerful rock and roll, so um we cut the the 1:09:57.000 --> 1:10:00.360 I send bt O three again to Charlie Fatch and 1:10:00.400 --> 1:10:03.040 he calls me up and I hear side one cut one, 1:10:03.400 --> 1:10:05.880 give me your money please. It's a Saturday morning for you. 1:10:06.080 --> 1:10:09.200 You're working Saturday morning. Yeah, I'm listening to your record. 1:10:09.840 --> 1:10:11.600 I just got back from met him and can and 1:10:11.640 --> 1:10:15.519 that whole thing, and um, my desk is cleared off 1:10:15.520 --> 1:10:17.320 at the end of January, and I look at all 1:10:17.320 --> 1:10:19.880 the new stuff and a guy named Bud Scopa, who 1:10:19.920 --> 1:10:24.000 you might not know, was his assistant clearing off my desk. 1:10:24.040 --> 1:10:25.599 And when you put everything in the trash can from 1:10:25.640 --> 1:10:27.519 last year because I'm coming back with a new budget, 1:10:28.280 --> 1:10:31.559 one tape Never Fail into the trash can and written 1:10:31.560 --> 1:10:33.960 on it was your name back when in red Sharpie. 1:10:34.200 --> 1:10:36.840 So I'm playing it now. Is the whole album like this? 1:10:36.920 --> 1:10:38.680 He's playing side one cut one to go, Charlie. The 1:10:38.680 --> 1:10:41.000 whole album like that. It's in your face four and 1:10:41.040 --> 1:10:43.000 a half minute rock and roll. Listened to Fred Turner 1:10:43.080 --> 1:10:46.160 sing and he says, I'm flying Toto l A right 1:10:46.200 --> 1:10:48.400 now to play stuff for Erwin Steinberg and all the 1:10:48.439 --> 1:10:50.240 guys in l A on who we're gonna sign. We 1:10:50.400 --> 1:10:52.600 just got Rod Stewart who had like Maggie made and 1:10:52.680 --> 1:10:55.080 came out and because we've lost your Rye, heap for 1:10:55.200 --> 1:10:57.599 some other band. We need like a rock, heavy rock band. 1:10:58.400 --> 1:11:00.120 And he said how much you got into the album? 1:11:00.120 --> 1:11:02.200 And I said, man, I've got like ninety eight thousand 1:11:02.240 --> 1:11:04.639 dollars and money in salary and studio costs, and I've 1:11:04.640 --> 1:11:06.720 been flying all over trying to get this mixed with 1:11:06.760 --> 1:11:08.439 Phil Ramone who then was out of the game. And 1:11:08.479 --> 1:11:12.960 I had Shelley Yatkison and Elliott Shiner who were Phil's 1:11:12.960 --> 1:11:16.920 assistant then. Who are no big dude producers working on 1:11:16.920 --> 1:11:20.120 that with me? Um Charlie says, I want to sign it, 1:11:20.160 --> 1:11:22.120 but I can't give you all your money back, but 1:11:22.120 --> 1:11:23.639 I'll give you a five album deal. So you've got 1:11:23.640 --> 1:11:25.160 to recoup a little bit, and recoup a little bit 1:11:25.160 --> 1:11:28.519 and recoup a little bit. And so we're gonna ask 1:11:28.560 --> 1:11:31.120 you for another album in eighteen months. We're gonna put 1:11:31.120 --> 1:11:33.479 this one out. So he puts it out and it 1:11:33.479 --> 1:11:36.519 gets a modicum of air play. We get a call 1:11:36.560 --> 1:11:38.479 from a guy named Scott Shannon, who you might know, 1:11:39.840 --> 1:11:43.280 who's down south in St. Louis, and he says, we 1:11:43.360 --> 1:11:45.360 have a big thing planned at a drive in theater 1:11:46.080 --> 1:11:48.679 where at night, when it's dark, they play Girl Can't 1:11:48.680 --> 1:11:50.880 Help It and rock around the clock. But at from 1:11:50.920 --> 1:11:53.639 six o'clock on, we're serving hot ducks and pizza. There's 1:11:53.640 --> 1:11:56.200 a stage in front of the drive in theater projected 1:11:56.240 --> 1:11:58.800 the screen, and we're having bands play live. And we 1:11:58.840 --> 1:12:00.479 had so and so booked, but so and so has 1:12:00.520 --> 1:12:03.280 been in a car accident and he's dead. I think 1:12:03.280 --> 1:12:06.960 it's Dwayne Alman. Can you come and play? Well, we 1:12:06.960 --> 1:12:08.719 don't have anything to play, but I've got your new album, 1:12:08.800 --> 1:12:10.120 and if you agree to come and play for k 1:12:10.520 --> 1:12:13.559 K s C with a pig on it um, I'll 1:12:13.560 --> 1:12:15.920 play one of your tracks from bt O one every hour. 1:12:16.560 --> 1:12:18.479 So when you get here in three and a half weeks, 1:12:19.040 --> 1:12:21.120 you won't you won't have a hit song. You'll have 1:12:21.120 --> 1:12:24.360 a twelve hit songs. Everybody will know every song, really okay, 1:12:24.439 --> 1:12:26.639 And by the way, you're playing for nothing. We don't care. 1:12:27.479 --> 1:12:29.760 We drive in there, we play, everybody knows every song 1:12:30.160 --> 1:12:33.200 we're and then the next station in the chain played 1:12:33.240 --> 1:12:36.160 next station, the Chain play next Charlie Fashion. Irwin Steimer 1:12:36.200 --> 1:12:38.479 called me saying, we're getting airplay, we're selling album. You're 1:12:38.479 --> 1:12:40.680 not hit a million albums. What's going on? You've had 1:12:40.720 --> 1:12:43.840 two million albums. Guess what? We want another album? And 1:12:43.920 --> 1:12:48.400 that first eighteen months. Instead of one album, we did 1:12:48.400 --> 1:12:50.519 a third album. It was number one, not Fragile with 1:12:50.560 --> 1:12:52.040 the Ain't Seen Nothing You Know on as a number 1:12:52.040 --> 1:12:54.640 one single. B t O two with Letter Ride and 1:12:54.680 --> 1:12:56.840 taking Care of Business on it was number eighteen, and 1:12:56.920 --> 1:12:58.800 b t O one was number forty eight. We had 1:12:58.840 --> 1:13:01.680 three albums in the top fifty. Three songs in the 1:13:01.720 --> 1:13:05.120 top fifty is like what happened like two years suddenly, 1:13:05.360 --> 1:13:07.360 But we went on the road ninety days at a time, 1:13:07.720 --> 1:13:10.080 took a week off, cut the album ninety days took 1:13:10.439 --> 1:13:12.880 and obviously Lorraine fell out of love with me and 1:13:12.920 --> 1:13:18.960 I didn't know my kids and I got divorced. We'll 1:13:19.000 --> 1:13:21.280 pause here for a brief moment and get right back 1:13:21.320 --> 1:13:26.440 to Randy Backman. For those who don't know, I'm primarily 1:13:26.479 --> 1:13:29.479 a writer, go to left sets dot com. We can 1:13:29.520 --> 1:13:32.840 catch up with my daily squeeds in addition to reading 1:13:32.840 --> 1:13:35.320 my commentary on music tech in the world at large. 1:13:35.720 --> 1:13:38.000 They'll be the first to find out when we've published 1:13:38.000 --> 1:13:40.840 a new podcast. Go to left sets dot com and 1:13:40.880 --> 1:13:44.880 sign up for the newsletter. More with guitar legend Randy Backman, 1:13:45.000 --> 1:13:49.800 recorded live at the tune In Studios in Venice, California. 1:13:50.720 --> 1:13:55.519 Let's uh go a little bit slower. First album with Turner. 1:13:55.800 --> 1:13:58.479 You get some action, but there's no national hit. No. 1:13:59.000 --> 1:14:00.519 And then Charlie says to me, you know how to 1:14:00.600 --> 1:14:03.479 write hits. Write a hit, don't write these album cuts 1:14:03.479 --> 1:14:06.559 with two solos and five verses. Enough of this stuff. 1:14:06.600 --> 1:14:08.920 I'm having this problem with Rod Stewart. He didn't want 1:14:08.920 --> 1:14:11.200 a single. Let Zeppelin. They don't want to single. They 1:14:11.200 --> 1:14:13.880 want to sell albums. Guess what you can sell albums 1:14:14.040 --> 1:14:16.840 and singles. I know what that means more tickets at 1:14:16.880 --> 1:14:21.800 the box office. Is playing auditoriums, you're playing twentyeder hockey 1:14:21.840 --> 1:14:24.679 arenas and stadiums. That's the difference between the hits. Okay, 1:14:24.680 --> 1:14:28.519 So the second al BT O two is the breakthrough record. 1:14:28.720 --> 1:14:33.160 Singles it has we ain't seen nothing one, it has 1:14:33.240 --> 1:14:37.400 let it ride and taking care of Business? Okay, So 1:14:37.439 --> 1:14:41.400 how do you write taking gear of Business? That starts 1:14:41.400 --> 1:14:47.759 in seven in Scepter Studios in New York. We're recording 1:14:48.120 --> 1:14:51.599 Excepter for Laurence Greenberg is the boss there. Her son, 1:14:51.720 --> 1:14:57.000 Stanley Greenberg is the engineer. He's blind, so he's twiddling 1:14:57.000 --> 1:14:59.280 these knobs, getting a great son of darn works demos 1:14:59.280 --> 1:15:01.960 and we're cutting records there. John's doing your demos with 1:15:02.000 --> 1:15:04.599 Bert Backrock and Hell David, Ashford and Simpson were also 1:15:04.640 --> 1:15:07.479 pitching songs and everybody. This is the the alternative to 1:15:07.479 --> 1:15:13.320 the brill building there. So Paperback Writer comes out. We 1:15:13.479 --> 1:15:16.960 love it, but it's pretty much a copy of Johnny 1:15:17.000 --> 1:15:19.200 be Good The day in the life of an average 1:15:19.200 --> 1:15:21.599 guy who learned to play guitar in a cabin made 1:15:21.600 --> 1:15:24.280 of earthen would Johnny be Good? And I'm a sorry maddim. 1:15:24.280 --> 1:15:25.720 When you read my book to a year to write, 1:15:25.720 --> 1:15:27.519 when you take a look, I want to write a 1:15:27.560 --> 1:15:31.200 thing about Stanley Greenberg, who's a blind engineer who comes 1:15:31.200 --> 1:15:35.040 to work every day with a white button down shirt, 1:15:35.640 --> 1:15:38.840 a tweet tie, a tweet jacket with patches on the el, 1:15:39.080 --> 1:15:42.640 little leather patches, tweet pants, and brogue shoes. This is 1:15:42.680 --> 1:15:46.240 August in New York. It's ninety with ninety humidity. We're 1:15:46.240 --> 1:15:49.000 all wearing cutoff and flip flops. Stanley comes to work 1:15:49.040 --> 1:15:52.160 every drade draft. Stanley, why do you dress this way? 1:15:52.200 --> 1:15:54.080 Because I want to look like George Martin. He's the 1:15:54.120 --> 1:15:55.720 best producer in world. Get he's right, and you do 1:15:55.800 --> 1:15:59.280 look like him. I've met him. That's exactly what he wears. Okay, 1:15:59.479 --> 1:16:02.920 I'm writing a song that George Martin should produce, and 1:16:02.960 --> 1:16:04.719 I'm gonna call it white Collar Work. And I'm gonna 1:16:04.720 --> 1:16:07.200 write it about you, Stanley Greenbrig because you always wear 1:16:07.240 --> 1:16:08.800 a white button on call. I'm gonna call it white 1:16:08.800 --> 1:16:12.360 collar Worker. It's going to be exact copy of paperback writer. 1:16:13.000 --> 1:16:14.800 So when you when you leave the studio every night 1:16:14.800 --> 1:16:17.839 at ten o'clock, why do you leave at ten o'clock? 1:16:18.120 --> 1:16:20.400 Because we're just getting rolling a musician coming at noon. 1:16:20.680 --> 1:16:22.519 We're used to playing from nine to midnight. That's when 1:16:22.640 --> 1:16:26.240 musicians are really juiced up. Is I take the train home. 1:16:26.280 --> 1:16:27.760 I don't live in New York. I can't afford to 1:16:27.800 --> 1:16:29.720 live in New York. I'm taking the train. I go 1:16:29.760 --> 1:16:32.160 to Grand Central station. I go, you're kidding? Can I 1:16:32.200 --> 1:16:34.080 come with you? I want to write a song about you. 1:16:34.080 --> 1:16:36.240 I need to see what you do. He says, Okay, 1:16:36.240 --> 1:16:38.160 don't try to help me. I've been blind all my life. 1:16:38.200 --> 1:16:40.200 I have a white cane. So how do you get 1:16:40.200 --> 1:16:44.080 to Grand Central from here there on West fifty four? Um? 1:16:44.120 --> 1:16:47.080 Because I count steps, I go your kidding, this is 1:16:47.120 --> 1:16:50.840 my first experience with the vision impaired person. And he said, 1:16:50.880 --> 1:16:52.680 don't try to help me. So I go out and 1:16:52.680 --> 1:16:55.280 sits turned right here, and I count five hund and 1:16:55.280 --> 1:16:58.200 eighty five steps. Really do listed for the tweets, and 1:16:58.280 --> 1:17:01.679 you're the cross wall. Then I walked creator and eighty 1:17:01.760 --> 1:17:03.759 five steps that way. Then I listen for the tweet tweet. 1:17:03.920 --> 1:17:07.320 Then I walk eight steps that way. It's Grand Central station. 1:17:07.680 --> 1:17:10.680 I am amazed. This is a quarter after ten. The 1:17:10.720 --> 1:17:13.479 streets are empty. It's like Vanilla Scott, you know they're 1:17:13.479 --> 1:17:17.719 tom The streets are empty. Everyone's in the Madison Square 1:17:17.760 --> 1:17:20.320 Garden still a quarter to eleven, or they're in the 1:17:20.320 --> 1:17:22.639 theaters till ten thirty or eleven. So the streets are empty. 1:17:22.680 --> 1:17:25.200 So we get there and I say, very disappointed, standing 1:17:25.280 --> 1:17:28.040 nothing to write about. I have no fodder. I have 1:17:28.040 --> 1:17:30.960 no not even a hook line except white collar worker. 1:17:31.000 --> 1:17:34.120 That's gonna be white collar worker, just like paperback writer. 1:17:35.320 --> 1:17:36.840 I said, when do you come in? He said, I 1:17:36.880 --> 1:17:40.000 take the eight fifteen into the city. I go, oh, 1:17:40.320 --> 1:17:42.840 you get up in the morning from your alarm clocks. 1:17:42.880 --> 1:17:45.080 Weren't you take the eight fifteen into the city. When 1:17:45.160 --> 1:17:46.680 you get here, he says, I get here about quarter 1:17:46.800 --> 1:17:50.960 to nine, and the train smells incredible because all these 1:17:50.960 --> 1:17:53.120 women are putting on makeup and proof. You can't see 1:17:53.120 --> 1:17:55.720 what they're doing. You get here a quarter to nine, 1:17:55.720 --> 1:17:57.960 he said, Yeah, I walked to work to start my 1:17:58.000 --> 1:18:01.080 slaving job to get my pay. Like there's the first line. 1:18:01.080 --> 1:18:02.559 You get up in the morning from the alarm clocks. 1:18:02.560 --> 1:18:04.240 We're going to take the eight fifteen to the city. 1:18:04.479 --> 1:18:07.800 There's a whistle up above, people pushing, people's shoving, and 1:18:07.840 --> 1:18:10.320 the girls trying to look pretty. If your trains on time, 1:18:10.360 --> 1:18:11.880 you get to work by and I start to slave 1:18:11.920 --> 1:18:14.320 a job to get your pay. You ever get annoyed? 1:18:14.360 --> 1:18:16.040 Look at me. I'm self employed. I like to work 1:18:16.040 --> 1:18:18.280 at nothing. Like my father would keep saying, son, you 1:18:18.320 --> 1:18:20.240 work at nothing all day. What is that music business? 1:18:20.280 --> 1:18:22.400 You don't do anything, I say, Dad, you would understand 1:18:22.439 --> 1:18:23.840 it's all in my head. I'm writing songs and we 1:18:23.840 --> 1:18:26.519 had and doing RIfS in my head, so I play 1:18:26.600 --> 1:18:30.519 that verse, but my it stops after that verse and 1:18:30.600 --> 1:18:35.120 we go wide call the worker, white calor worker, and 1:18:35.200 --> 1:18:37.120 I played for the band and they gag on the song. 1:18:37.160 --> 1:18:39.080 And so your verses are great, they're great, Johnny, be 1:18:39.160 --> 1:18:41.360 good versus. But you've got to get rid of this 1:18:41.400 --> 1:18:43.800 white collar worker thing. So it never makes it on 1:18:44.600 --> 1:18:47.320 We'd Feel Soul, Canned Weed, or American Woman. It never 1:18:47.360 --> 1:18:49.400 makes it on Brave Belt one or a Brave Belt two. 1:18:50.600 --> 1:18:52.640 It never makes it on bt O one, which is 1:18:52.680 --> 1:18:55.720 Brave Belt three. We're playing a club in Vancouver now, 1:18:55.800 --> 1:18:59.920 Fred Turners, our lead singer. The first album is a 1:19:00.080 --> 1:19:02.799 success as far as an album goes. It's gold headed 1:19:02.840 --> 1:19:05.599 for platinum, and we're headed to play a club. And 1:19:05.680 --> 1:19:07.559 people think you're really rich when you have an album 1:19:07.560 --> 1:19:09.599 on the charts, but you're paying off all your studio 1:19:09.680 --> 1:19:11.559 bills and all your loans. You're paying back your father 1:19:11.600 --> 1:19:14.000 and your grandmother and everyone who gave you twenty bucks 1:19:14.040 --> 1:19:17.639 or whatever. So we're playing six nights a week, five 1:19:17.960 --> 1:19:19.960 fifty minutes sets a night with ten minutes. So I've 1:19:19.960 --> 1:19:23.360 started seven ended one. I guests a Saturday night. Fred 1:19:23.400 --> 1:19:26.719 Turner says, I can't sing anymore. My voice is shot. 1:19:27.280 --> 1:19:29.680 You gotta sing the last set. I go what I 1:19:29.720 --> 1:19:31.920 gotta sing the last All I sing is like the 1:19:32.000 --> 1:19:35.240 high part. And I get around and I can sing. 1:19:35.320 --> 1:19:43.120 Bob Dylan so um, I say, okay um. Bob Dylan 1:19:43.160 --> 1:19:44.640 has a song goed She belongs to Me, But I'm 1:19:44.680 --> 1:19:46.840 not gonna do it that way. But Rick Nelson had 1:19:46.880 --> 1:19:49.080 a much better version, and I'll do that. And the 1:19:49.080 --> 1:19:52.200 club owners going last set Saturday night, I turn up 1:19:52.200 --> 1:19:54.599 the heat. I gave everyone free pretzels and popcorn. They 1:19:54.600 --> 1:19:57.000 gotta buy booze. I'm selling this is the last round. 1:19:57.320 --> 1:19:59.840 Get them up dancing. I start, she belongs to me. 1:20:00.000 --> 1:20:03.720 It's really bad. Nobody's dancing. Santana had a song without 1:20:03.720 --> 1:20:06.640 them called Oya como Va. I don't know any Spanish, 1:20:06.720 --> 1:20:11.479 I know Ukrainian. I start to play don don don 1:20:11.720 --> 1:20:13.679 the minute start that. Everybody's up dancing, and I saying, 1:20:13.680 --> 1:20:19.560 ohya como va, Farogue's way, Obama's a bowl abortioned or 1:20:19.640 --> 1:20:21.800 the commo ba hold off. I'm doing all these lyrics. 1:20:21.880 --> 1:20:24.000 Everyone's laughing, you understand me. The rest of people are 1:20:24.080 --> 1:20:27.559 drunk dancing. They don't care, and I'm warning, what am 1:20:27.600 --> 1:20:29.760 I gonna do next? They're up dancing and the club 1:20:29.840 --> 1:20:33.120 gowners going okay, okay, and he's going like this, keep 1:20:33.160 --> 1:20:35.360 it rolling TV talk for keep doing it, don't cut it, 1:20:35.520 --> 1:20:37.800 keep it rolling, keep them once they sit down at 1:20:37.840 --> 1:20:40.599 the battle to get them up again. Keep them dancing. 1:20:40.680 --> 1:20:42.600 So a light goes on in my head. On the 1:20:42.640 --> 1:20:44.920 way to the gig that night, a DJs on there 1:20:44.960 --> 1:20:46.920 and he says, there's this Darryl B on C FUND 1:20:47.040 --> 1:20:48.880 Radio and we're taking care of business, and I go, 1:20:49.560 --> 1:20:51.640 what a song title? And I write it down. I 1:20:51.680 --> 1:20:54.800 have a songwriting kit in my car, McDonald's napkin and 1:20:54.880 --> 1:20:57.880 a smash crayon left over from one of my kids, 1:20:57.920 --> 1:20:59.519 and I write down, taking care of this. You've got 1:20:59.600 --> 1:21:01.920 to write these things down or you forget them. The 1:21:02.080 --> 1:21:04.120 simple like I wrote down, Let it write. I wrote down, 1:21:04.120 --> 1:21:06.080 you ain't seen nothing yet, because like the great dream 1:21:06.120 --> 1:21:07.960 you had last time, when you say, Randy, I gotta 1:21:07.960 --> 1:21:09.240 tell you about this dream I had, and I said, 1:21:09.280 --> 1:21:10.880 what is it? G I kind of forget it's it's 1:21:10.960 --> 1:21:13.559 gotten faded away. So I write it down. It goes 1:21:13.760 --> 1:21:15.640 on the shelf next to my heart. Of a few 1:21:15.680 --> 1:21:18.320 of my favorite things, which are the lyrics to White 1:21:18.360 --> 1:21:20.880 Collar Worker. And in the middle of a coma vault 1:21:20.920 --> 1:21:23.000 with everyone dancing and me wondering what am I going 1:21:23.040 --> 1:21:24.840 to do next? Is light bulb comes on and goes 1:21:25.640 --> 1:21:29.639 the band is your hostage. They're on stage. They've said 1:21:29.720 --> 1:21:33.439 no to this song for four albums. All you gotta 1:21:33.479 --> 1:21:35.479 do is turn around and say to them, play this song. 1:21:36.320 --> 1:21:41.760 You're on stage, there's three people dancing. I stopped. Where 1:21:41.840 --> 1:21:45.120 goes do do do? Boy? I turned around, go follow me, 1:21:45.200 --> 1:21:46.920 play these three cards? They go what And I start 1:21:47.000 --> 1:21:50.000 to and I sing my verses. They get up in 1:21:50.000 --> 1:21:51.360 the morning. When I get to the hook, I don't 1:21:51.360 --> 1:21:54.080 stop and do white Collar Worker. I think taking care 1:21:54.160 --> 1:21:57.599 of business. It fits taking and got to the next 1:21:57.640 --> 1:21:59.280 time I say the band singing, They sing it and 1:21:59.360 --> 1:22:02.760 I answered them every way every day it's all mine 1:22:02.800 --> 1:22:05.320 and working over time and I go, oh my god, 1:22:05.479 --> 1:22:10.160 thank you. The angel song has shot another arrow in me, 1:22:10.320 --> 1:22:12.080 just like when I did an American woman on the stage. 1:22:12.080 --> 1:22:14.640 And you get that feeling of energy. And here's a 1:22:14.680 --> 1:22:16.679 gift from the gods. You poor sawd You've been working 1:22:17.080 --> 1:22:19.800 eight years on the song. Guess what here's the final 1:22:19.880 --> 1:22:22.080 piece of this puzzle. And we did that song for 1:22:22.160 --> 1:22:25.240 thirty minutes. It ended the set. We'd stopped the song, 1:22:25.360 --> 1:22:27.559 the audience would sing, they felt the energy on stage. 1:22:27.640 --> 1:22:29.840 My brother keep the kick drum going, and the song 1:22:29.960 --> 1:22:31.960 goes and goes and goes. We go to record it 1:22:31.960 --> 1:22:34.559 a couple of weeks later, all Vancouver studios who book 1:22:34.560 --> 1:22:36.880 We go down to Seattle. There's a brand new theater. 1:22:36.920 --> 1:22:39.519 They're started by Danny Kay, the actor, and Lester Still, 1:22:39.520 --> 1:22:43.320 who wants about six radio stations, Lester Smith, so it's 1:22:43.360 --> 1:22:46.800 a less Case Smith Studios. And so we go in 1:22:46.880 --> 1:22:49.160 there and we're recording the album and Spread says he 1:22:49.200 --> 1:22:51.280 wants me to sing taking Care of Business as a 1:22:51.320 --> 1:22:54.320 good relief song for him and stop doing the Santana 1:22:54.400 --> 1:22:56.479 Parogie song and the bad Bob Dylan actually sing a 1:22:56.520 --> 1:22:58.760 song that's on our album. So I sing taking Care 1:22:58.800 --> 1:23:01.760 of Business. So the studio just like this. We've been 1:23:01.760 --> 1:23:03.360 in there since about eleven in the morning. It's not 1:23:03.439 --> 1:23:05.000 one o'clock. The next morning, we've been in there like 1:23:05.080 --> 1:23:07.360 fourteen hours. There's a knock at the door. We're set 1:23:07.400 --> 1:23:10.679 to go home. I've sang the song once it speeds 1:23:10.720 --> 1:23:12.639 up and slows down. We don't care. It's a release song. 1:23:12.960 --> 1:23:15.080 I hide it on side two near the last cut 1:23:15.200 --> 1:23:17.360 on side too, so nobody will here until the end 1:23:17.400 --> 1:23:19.519 of the album. There's a knock at the door. Open 1:23:19.560 --> 1:23:21.439 the door. There's a guy standing there with three pizzas, 1:23:22.360 --> 1:23:24.960 big Frizzy black Beard, frizzy black hair, and army cap 1:23:25.000 --> 1:23:28.840 fatigue cap, army suit on. Since you guys order the pizza. 1:23:28.840 --> 1:23:30.920 The guys about six ft four, six ft five. I 1:23:31.000 --> 1:23:34.120 say no. Tried on the hall. Steve Miller's cutting file 1:23:34.200 --> 1:23:36.040 like an Eagle album there and then Warris cutting why 1:23:36.080 --> 1:23:38.280 can't we be friends? On? Everyone's using this new studio 1:23:38.560 --> 1:23:41.559 because Lester Smith owns six radio stations. And if you're 1:23:41.560 --> 1:23:44.679 cutting his studio, guess what you got played on six stations? 1:23:44.720 --> 1:23:46.960 The paddle day with the big DJ there. You gotta 1:23:46.960 --> 1:23:50.799 played in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, all the way down to Portland, everything. 1:23:52.320 --> 1:23:54.759 So he goes down the hall, gets rid of the pizza, 1:23:54.840 --> 1:23:57.080 comes back, knocks on the door and I say, yeah, 1:23:57.360 --> 1:24:00.080 pizza's gone. He said yeah. I said, what kind do 1:24:00.240 --> 1:24:02.439 for you? You look like you wants something, He said, 1:24:02.479 --> 1:24:04.360 I've been listening to this song you've been playing for 1:24:04.400 --> 1:24:07.160 the last twenty minutes, taking care of business, and it 1:24:07.240 --> 1:24:10.880 sounds like I could really use a piano. And I said, yeah, 1:24:11.040 --> 1:24:12.960 I know Elton and I know Little Richard, and they're 1:24:12.960 --> 1:24:14.800 in l A right now at a big party. I'd 1:24:14.840 --> 1:24:17.040 love to get them. Money said, I'm a keyboard player. 1:24:17.080 --> 1:24:18.479 I don't deliver pizza to the end of the month 1:24:18.479 --> 1:24:20.280 when I can't pay my rent. Would you give me 1:24:20.360 --> 1:24:22.920 a shot? I go, what, We've been here fourteen hours 1:24:22.960 --> 1:24:24.320 when the pianos not even too And he said, I 1:24:24.360 --> 1:24:26.639 don't care. I said, okay, I'll give you a shot. 1:24:26.640 --> 1:24:28.000 Who am I not to give a guy a shot? 1:24:28.040 --> 1:24:30.160 I don't mind what somebody gives me a shot. Okay, 1:24:30.200 --> 1:24:32.519 here's your shot. Throwing the mike clothes the lid. He said, 1:24:32.560 --> 1:24:34.200 what do you want? It said, give me some Elton Johnson, 1:24:34.360 --> 1:24:37.280 Dr Johnson, Little Richard, like making a pot pourri. Then 1:24:37.360 --> 1:24:40.360 maybe we'll pick a style needed the whole song and 1:24:40.640 --> 1:24:42.200 cell he plays it once. I said, good enough, go 1:24:42.320 --> 1:24:45.920 I'm gonna wipe it out. The next day he goes home. 1:24:45.960 --> 1:24:48.679 He goes delivering pizza. We go back to sleep. Charlie Fatch, 1:24:48.760 --> 1:24:50.639 the guy who signed us, flies in a day early, 1:24:50.720 --> 1:24:53.120 supposed to come a day later, comes in a day early. 1:24:53.520 --> 1:24:54.960 What do you Why are you here daily? Because I'm 1:24:54.960 --> 1:24:56.479 going to LA to play them your new album. Well, 1:24:56.479 --> 1:24:59.080 we're not even done. Play me the album. I want 1:24:59.120 --> 1:25:01.200 to hear the single playing letter right, it goes great, 1:25:01.320 --> 1:25:05.759 wonderful single, the guitars, the harmonies, that's great, guts taking 1:25:05.760 --> 1:25:07.400 care of his Let's say to the engineer, don't play 1:25:07.439 --> 1:25:09.760 the piano track. We haven't even heard it back. So 1:25:09.880 --> 1:25:11.800 we listened to the whole side one. Here's let it ride. 1:25:11.800 --> 1:25:13.439 He's happy because you've got to do an edit that 1:25:13.439 --> 1:25:15.200 because it's very long. There's a breakdown, and said, yeah, 1:25:15.240 --> 1:25:17.040 I can edit that because if you didn't do it edit, 1:25:17.080 --> 1:25:19.920 then radio did the wrong. You had different singles everywhere 1:25:19.960 --> 1:25:24.880 you went. Um. So halfway through the song, the engineer 1:25:24.920 --> 1:25:27.760 pushes up the fader and incomes to the piano and 1:25:27.880 --> 1:25:30.400 Charlie leaps out of his chair and goes, what on 1:25:30.600 --> 1:25:34.680 earth is that bt O with the piano? That is 1:25:34.840 --> 1:25:38.120 amazing because none of you guys will listen to me. 1:25:39.640 --> 1:25:43.559 You are guitar bassed and drums ZZ top guitar, bass 1:25:43.640 --> 1:25:47.960 and drums. Do be brothers guitar, bass and drums. Almond 1:25:47.960 --> 1:25:50.439 Brothers guitar. You know everybody's guitar based and drums. You 1:25:50.520 --> 1:25:53.599 want to be different. Elton owns real estate on Top 1:25:53.680 --> 1:25:57.400 forty radio and AM Radio. Elton is everywhere. Let me 1:25:57.520 --> 1:25:59.640 hear the whole track. We're back up. We playing the 1:25:59.640 --> 1:26:01.360 whole track. Could go that's amazing. That will get you 1:26:01.400 --> 1:26:03.880 top for the airplane that and let it ride? Are 1:26:03.920 --> 1:26:06.040 you kidding? Let it ride? Starting with harmonies with you 1:26:06.160 --> 1:26:08.960 guys and the jangling beat and heavy guitar and like guitar, 1:26:09.680 --> 1:26:11.760 and then this comes out as a party track. TC 1:26:11.960 --> 1:26:15.519 be taking care of business? Amazing. Who's playing the piano? 1:26:16.960 --> 1:26:20.960 And I say a pizza delivery guy and he said, no, seriously, 1:26:21.040 --> 1:26:23.720 who's playing the piano? I'd say, Charlie. A guy brought 1:26:23.720 --> 1:26:25.360 pizza here last night. He asked to play piano. And 1:26:25.439 --> 1:26:27.240 let him play piano. He's gone, I have no idea 1:26:27.240 --> 1:26:29.439 who he is. Where'd you get the pizza from? I said, 1:26:29.439 --> 1:26:32.160 I didn't know. We didn't order the pizza. So he says, 1:26:32.320 --> 1:26:34.280 so I go down and knock under our Steve Miller steball, 1:26:34.280 --> 1:26:36.400 where'd you get the pizza? I don't know. I didn't. 1:26:36.400 --> 1:26:38.000 We didn't get to go down to wars thing. It's 1:26:38.040 --> 1:26:40.880 like walking to Cheech and Chunk's basement. There's a cloud 1:26:40.960 --> 1:26:43.599 of smoking there. I can't even see these guys. Where'd 1:26:43.600 --> 1:26:45.240 you get the pizza from last night? They say it 1:26:45.360 --> 1:26:48.120 is last night, Man, it's still last night. Nobody knows 1:26:48.120 --> 1:26:49.720 where the pizza came from. The I may just come 1:26:49.760 --> 1:26:51.360 and cleaned up the studio, right, because when you're a 1:26:51.360 --> 1:26:53.760 studio basically ordered Chinese and pizza all the time, or 1:26:54.000 --> 1:26:55.920 Greek or something, or spaghetti, and you eat and you 1:26:56.280 --> 1:26:58.080 don't have to wait to be served. The food comes in, 1:26:58.200 --> 1:26:59.800 you eat it in like five minutes. The wolf pack 1:27:00.000 --> 1:27:03.240 eat and then you're back to recording again. So I 1:27:03.320 --> 1:27:04.960 go to the lady at the front of the studio 1:27:04.960 --> 1:27:07.840 and say, here's the yellow pages where you started Antonio's. 1:27:07.880 --> 1:27:10.439 I'll go halfway to at Mario's for on every pizza 1:27:10.520 --> 1:27:13.040 place within two blocks of the studio and see if 1:27:13.040 --> 1:27:15.200 they have a pizza to every guy that looks like 1:27:15.280 --> 1:27:17.880 Fidel Castro. He had a big, frizzy black beard and 1:27:17.920 --> 1:27:20.640 hair and wearing an army out fatigue off it. I 1:27:20.680 --> 1:27:23.439 get lucky in my third phone call. Yeah, we have 1:27:23.520 --> 1:27:25.800 a guy like that looks like that. Can you tell 1:27:25.840 --> 1:27:27.880 me his name? No, we can't give employees names over 1:27:27.960 --> 1:27:30.000 the phone home. How do I get this guy? Would 1:27:30.000 --> 1:27:32.680 you want a pizza? Yeah? Yeah, we'll take When does 1:27:32.680 --> 1:27:34.880 he start works six o'clock? Okay, send him with a pizza. 1:27:34.920 --> 1:27:37.040 What do you want? Send yesterday's pizza. We don't care. 1:27:37.080 --> 1:27:39.600 We just want to meet the guy. He comes in. 1:27:39.680 --> 1:27:43.040 His name is Norman Dirkey. That's the piano here and 1:27:43.120 --> 1:27:45.800 taking care one take by the piano. That's why one 1:27:45.920 --> 1:27:48.240 versus like Dr John, the next one like Elton John actor, 1:27:48.280 --> 1:27:50.720 the next one like Little Richard. It's all this potpourria 1:27:50.800 --> 1:27:54.200 piano style. Norman Dirky did do work at that studio. 1:27:54.240 --> 1:27:55.920 I didn't know, but he did commercial work there because 1:27:55.920 --> 1:27:58.800 he was a musician. He work wherever he got gigs. Um, 1:27:59.360 --> 1:28:01.160 so we find out his name. He was in the Union. 1:28:01.240 --> 1:28:03.160 We give him credit on the album that's the piano 1:28:03.240 --> 1:28:05.360 you hear. He then went on to be Bett Miller's 1:28:05.479 --> 1:28:08.040 musical director on your first North American tour. And when 1:28:08.040 --> 1:28:10.880 I played with Ringle Star Lstar band, we toured the 1:28:10.920 --> 1:28:12.560 world and came back. We ended here in l A 1:28:12.600 --> 1:28:16.160 at the at the Greek Theater and the l A 1:28:16.200 --> 1:28:21.679 Philharmonic plays there, and the pianist was Dorman Turkey. Really yeah, okay, 1:28:21.920 --> 1:28:25.200 and then that's a long story, but that's a great story. 1:28:25.200 --> 1:28:27.400 I love the story and it's amazing. So how about 1:28:27.439 --> 1:28:30.360 you Ain't seen Nothing yet? That is a reject song 1:28:30.520 --> 1:28:33.160 I'm producing bt O. I always had what was called 1:28:33.200 --> 1:28:35.320 the work song. We'd go in and I'd want to 1:28:35.320 --> 1:28:37.120 get a really good kick drum, then a good snare, 1:28:37.120 --> 1:28:39.120 and you'd move the mics around, crawl around, get a 1:28:39.160 --> 1:28:40.679 good bass on. Then I'd go and add a nice 1:28:41.160 --> 1:28:44.160 clean guitar track and nice jangly rhythm track and then 1:28:44.240 --> 1:28:47.680 this powerful sledgehammer in the face, powerful guitar thing. That's 1:28:47.680 --> 1:28:50.839 what heavy rock was, basically pop music with heavier courses, 1:28:50.960 --> 1:28:53.479 like bigger, heavier things like I could make Sugar Sugar 1:28:53.520 --> 1:28:56.040 into a heavy rock song just with guitar sounds. So 1:28:56.160 --> 1:28:59.400 I have this work track one of my brothers, the 1:28:59.439 --> 1:29:02.519 one who played a kordion that I got to burn 1:29:02.600 --> 1:29:06.360 these eyes on stutters. So I don't know if you've 1:29:06.360 --> 1:29:08.240 got any brothers, even if you've got sisters, actually only 1:29:08.280 --> 1:29:11.639 have two sisters. You tease each other, you put each 1:29:11.680 --> 1:29:13.960 other on your short seet. Each other's bad. You tire 1:29:13.960 --> 1:29:16.160 your laces and not so the kids can't put on 1:29:16.240 --> 1:29:18.160 their shots, you know that kind of thing. So me 1:29:18.200 --> 1:29:20.240 and my brother has always played pranks on each other. 1:29:20.960 --> 1:29:22.760 So my brother who started. I think I'm gonna take 1:29:22.800 --> 1:29:25.920 this work track where the guitars out of tune, and 1:29:26.040 --> 1:29:28.400 it's totally a wreckage of a track. But it's got 1:29:28.439 --> 1:29:30.800 the heavy, powerful guitar and at you see that, it's 1:29:30.840 --> 1:29:33.560 got the nice jangly thing copying Dave Mason, only you 1:29:33.640 --> 1:29:36.000 know and I know in the verse of course, and um, 1:29:37.680 --> 1:29:40.040 I stutter over it. We mix one cassette and put 1:29:40.080 --> 1:29:42.879 it aside. Charlie comes to hear the album. It's not fragile, 1:29:42.920 --> 1:29:44.759 here's not that fragic, goes well, this is the beginning 1:29:44.760 --> 1:29:47.160 of something new. This isn't heavy rock. You can call 1:29:47.200 --> 1:29:49.840 this heavy metal. This is incredible. And here's Rolling down 1:29:49.840 --> 1:29:51.400 the Highway and a couple of other songs deal though 1:29:51.400 --> 1:29:53.559 they are pretty good. Are looking for a song now 1:29:53.960 --> 1:29:57.719 to be in the top three on Top forty. Taking 1:29:57.760 --> 1:29:59.880 care of Business was great, it's like top ten. You eight, 1:30:00.200 --> 1:30:03.000 um let it ride number four. I want to get 1:30:03.040 --> 1:30:04.599 you up to in the top one or two or three. 1:30:04.800 --> 1:30:07.040 That would be really amazing. I said, that's the album. 1:30:07.080 --> 1:30:09.599 We've been on road for ninety days. We have we're 1:30:09.760 --> 1:30:11.560 in here for five days. We cut our albums in 1:30:11.640 --> 1:30:13.200 five days and beat you and mixed it on the 1:30:13.280 --> 1:30:15.800 sixth just balancing the tracks on the sixth day. It 1:30:15.920 --> 1:30:18.800 wasn't rocket science with this band. Once you got the sounds, 1:30:19.120 --> 1:30:22.640 we played everything over and over and over, and so 1:30:22.760 --> 1:30:25.040 we play the album. He goes, I need more stuff, 1:30:25.040 --> 1:30:26.880 and the engineers and wanted to play him the work track, 1:30:27.680 --> 1:30:29.760 the throwaway track, and Charlie jumps out of his chair 1:30:29.800 --> 1:30:33.280 again and he says, what, there's another track, And I say, Charlie, 1:30:33.360 --> 1:30:35.719 it's a train wreck. I haven't even tuned my guitars 1:30:35.720 --> 1:30:38.519 out of tune. Okay, all our instruments are put away. 1:30:38.520 --> 1:30:40.519 I can't even redo the guitar and it we're done, 1:30:41.360 --> 1:30:43.719 and I played for me, go that is really charming. 1:30:44.280 --> 1:30:46.960 When you hear the jangly rhythm, it lifts, it's right, 1:30:47.280 --> 1:30:49.360 it's a foot above the vinyl. When you hear that back, 1:30:50.040 --> 1:30:52.360 it's magical. Radio radio is gonna love this. You put 1:30:52.400 --> 1:30:54.360 it on it. It's a it's a morning track for 1:30:54.479 --> 1:30:57.120 morning drive. It's a sunshiny day and you ain't seen 1:30:57.200 --> 1:30:59.680 nothing yet. I go, okay, let me re sing it 1:31:00.200 --> 1:31:01.960 because there's a Michael. I try to resing it. It 1:31:02.000 --> 1:31:05.519 doesn't work. It's like it's like Tony Bennett, baby bad 1:31:05.600 --> 1:31:09.320 Michael Boom. You ain't see nothing yet. It doesn't fit. 1:31:09.400 --> 1:31:11.080 He said, leave it the way the charming, it's never 1:31:11.200 --> 1:31:13.000 the same. I said, well, I'm copying the way my 1:31:13.080 --> 1:31:16.800 brother talks that you're never gonna four get four get 1:31:16.960 --> 1:31:19.479 that kind of thing because you just leave it. I say, okay, 1:31:19.560 --> 1:31:23.240 it's terrible. I'm gonna remix out of remixing and Sound 1:31:23.280 --> 1:31:26.080 City in l A. So I go to Sound City 1:31:26.240 --> 1:31:28.000 and I'm there and if the sun City is in 1:31:28.040 --> 1:31:31.439 its heyday, right, that's in the mid seventies and bucking 1:31:31.479 --> 1:31:33.519 am Nicks have been in there there auditioning for Fleetwood 1:31:33.560 --> 1:31:36.799 mac Lindsey Buckingham's put his guitar through a Leslie speaker. 1:31:37.160 --> 1:31:39.120 He's blown the speaker on the Leslie, which is a 1:31:39.200 --> 1:31:41.799 little triangular horn. There's a big one in the bottom. 1:31:41.800 --> 1:31:44.200 There's a little triangular horn that spins around. The speakers 1:31:44.240 --> 1:31:47.599 are being fixed. So I said to my engineer, Mark Smith, 1:31:48.040 --> 1:31:50.080 I need to disguise my guitar. There's no such thing 1:31:50.120 --> 1:31:52.519 as a harmonizer or to retune your guitar, and there's 1:31:52.520 --> 1:31:55.200 no guitars there mixing like for three days. So I 1:31:55.240 --> 1:31:58.280 want to disguise my lead guitar. So can we run 1:31:58.320 --> 1:32:01.200 it through the leslie and give it the swishing sound 1:32:01.320 --> 1:32:03.320 and we'll put an echo repeat on it, so you 1:32:03.439 --> 1:32:05.120 hear the repeat and you won't listen to that the 1:32:05.160 --> 1:32:09.479 guitars out of tune. We go out there and the 1:32:09.640 --> 1:32:12.200 top speaker's gone, and I said, what can we use 1:32:12.240 --> 1:32:14.240 as a speaker? He said, all the speakers as a cone. 1:32:14.680 --> 1:32:17.320 Let's use this. It takes a cola Coca Cola cup, 1:32:18.240 --> 1:32:20.080 jams it on the top of these wires with this 1:32:20.200 --> 1:32:22.360 little thing, and it's spinning your own the mic on it. 1:32:22.479 --> 1:32:25.120 That's my lead guitar. And you ain't seen nothing yet. 1:32:25.640 --> 1:32:27.640 Out of tune with a cocaco And we have a 1:32:27.720 --> 1:32:29.600 picture of this and like a true story with a 1:32:29.640 --> 1:32:31.760 slap echo and someone who goes to dad, who da 1:32:32.240 --> 1:32:34.760 da da dada. It repeats itself, so you're listening to 1:32:34.840 --> 1:32:37.640 more than just the guitar. Sol and I started my 1:32:37.680 --> 1:32:39.960 way through it. There's bad van Morrison impression that I'm 1:32:40.000 --> 1:32:42.519 going shall a lot, just like Brown Eyed Girl and 1:32:42.560 --> 1:32:45.840 I'm having fun. It's a stupid party track. Charlie says, 1:32:46.280 --> 1:32:48.679 this is a career song, just like taking care of Business. 1:32:49.160 --> 1:32:50.760 This is gonna go on the album. That's the first 1:32:50.800 --> 1:32:53.400 B two album that had the extra song, the ninth song. 1:32:53.520 --> 1:32:55.920 We only worked with four side to get about twenty 1:32:56.000 --> 1:32:57.720 to twenty two minutes because it was violent. Both sides 1:32:57.760 --> 1:32:59.880 have to be the same amount of volume. The more 1:33:00.280 --> 1:33:02.640 time you had, the volume went down here dividing the 1:33:02.720 --> 1:33:07.280 space between more grooves and uh so we put the 1:33:07.320 --> 1:33:09.560 five shorter songs on one side. He releases it, it 1:33:09.640 --> 1:33:11.840 comes out as a single. It goes to number one 1:33:11.880 --> 1:33:14.320 and twenty two countries. It's a gold single. It's a 1:33:14.360 --> 1:33:19.200 platinum single for us, and it wants an award five 1:33:19.280 --> 1:33:21.960 or six years ago from the Stuttering Association of North America, 1:33:22.479 --> 1:33:24.240 that was the best stuttering song of all because but 1:33:24.320 --> 1:33:27.360 a real guy and was done in loving fun. Do 1:33:27.439 --> 1:33:28.720 you know what I mean? That kind of thing? So 1:33:29.400 --> 1:33:33.240 that's some of my greatest hits are our train wreck 1:33:33.320 --> 1:33:36.599 accidents right okay, which brings us the four wheel drive. 1:33:36.880 --> 1:33:40.040 You're so big and people are anticipating that, and although 1:33:40.080 --> 1:33:43.519 it's successful, it is not seen. What is the league 1:33:43.600 --> 1:33:45.840 of the two previous recreence? Do you see it that way? 1:33:46.160 --> 1:33:50.479 It came out too soon. We we are me the band, 1:33:50.520 --> 1:33:53.880 are caught in this bubble of one album in eighteen months, 1:33:53.880 --> 1:33:55.840 and suddenly we've got three and eighteen months and they're 1:33:55.840 --> 1:33:58.639 on the top fifty and you want another one? Oh, 1:33:59.000 --> 1:34:01.919 who can we copy? That's good? Oh, let's copy ourselves. 1:34:02.920 --> 1:34:05.599 Let's make hey you like you ain't seen nothing yet 1:34:05.720 --> 1:34:08.160 a guitar intro. If that would have come out nine 1:34:08.200 --> 1:34:10.599 months later, it would have been solid four wheel drive, 1:34:10.680 --> 1:34:13.559 big powerful song. Every trucker lies in, every four wheel 1:34:13.640 --> 1:34:16.519 driver and loves that song. Four wheel drive, four wheel rides, 1:34:16.560 --> 1:34:19.400 side by side, four wheel drive. It's like amazing song. 1:34:20.160 --> 1:34:22.840 It just came out too soon. We flooded our own market, 1:34:23.200 --> 1:34:26.040 We burst our own bubble. It's sold millions of copies, 1:34:26.320 --> 1:34:28.080 but we were into like Bato two and three, like 1:34:28.200 --> 1:34:31.000 eight million, nine million, a million in England, a million 1:34:31.040 --> 1:34:33.439 in Australia. We're selling tens and twelves and fifteen million 1:34:33.479 --> 1:34:37.439 albums around the world. Suddenly we just we ran out 1:34:37.479 --> 1:34:41.920 of steam. And again I don't know my wife and kids. 1:34:41.960 --> 1:34:44.040 I go home, my kids cry when I picked them up. 1:34:44.040 --> 1:34:47.479 I'm a strange guy. But had you got remarried at 1:34:47.560 --> 1:34:49.599 this point? No, I was still with my first wife, 1:34:49.640 --> 1:34:52.719 had six kids with her. Okay, so how does bt 1:34:52.880 --> 1:34:58.240 O end? It ends with a dreaded five letter word 1:34:58.280 --> 1:35:00.680 called disco or is that four letter d I S 1:35:00.760 --> 1:35:02.960 C O five other words? It was pretty much the 1:35:03.080 --> 1:35:07.000 end of every rock band. No longer between gigs, between tours, 1:35:07.280 --> 1:35:09.160 could you go home and play a club and get 1:35:09.240 --> 1:35:11.760 maybe two grand five guy for for the week when 1:35:11.800 --> 1:35:13.680 you're home, because you gotta work in your home or 1:35:13.680 --> 1:35:16.439 you're spending your rothies. You're burning your your fuel, right, 1:35:16.479 --> 1:35:19.160 you gotta keep adding to the pile of fuel. And 1:35:19.360 --> 1:35:21.639 so they would hire like a Donna Summer or somebody 1:35:22.320 --> 1:35:25.000 with a dat or you know, player or a cassette 1:35:25.000 --> 1:35:26.599 and they would go and look good or a chick 1:35:26.720 --> 1:35:29.559 usually doing disco singing uh and sing three or four 1:35:29.640 --> 1:35:31.760 song and hire three of those a night, pay them 1:35:31.800 --> 1:35:33.920 fifty bucks each and everyone's happy. But they weren't playing 1:35:34.000 --> 1:35:37.439 rock bands. So you try to do something different. So 1:35:37.600 --> 1:35:39.960 you the Doobie Brothers, they've got Michael McDonald they had 1:35:40.000 --> 1:35:42.080 taken to the street, the horn section, all that kind 1:35:42.120 --> 1:35:46.560 of stuff. Um, a lot of guys rolling stones that 1:35:46.640 --> 1:35:49.760 I miss you, disco kind of beat which you know 1:35:50.320 --> 1:35:52.519 did it, which kind of cool. And I thought, well, 1:35:52.520 --> 1:35:54.519 I'm gonna go back to my Ben McPeak days, my 1:35:54.720 --> 1:35:57.240 bill Ramon days. Get to get a horn section. I'm 1:35:57.240 --> 1:35:59.400 gonna do my wheels, won't turn instead of going done, don't, 1:35:59.680 --> 1:36:01.400 I'll be like Fats Domin I have a horn section, 1:36:01.439 --> 1:36:06.200 going to do do do do, reinforcing our stuff. The 1:36:06.280 --> 1:36:10.240 band hated it. It just didn't work. And pretty much 1:36:10.439 --> 1:36:13.439 radio had played at that point so much bt O 1:36:14.200 --> 1:36:17.240 literally so much. Even now they play a lot, uh, 1:36:17.479 --> 1:36:21.240 which is great. I'm thrilled all these mistakes get played 1:36:21.320 --> 1:36:25.280 over and over again. I still play the mistakes on stage. Okay, 1:36:25.600 --> 1:36:28.280 So the band ends, and do you feel at this point, Well, 1:36:28.320 --> 1:36:30.320 I've been on the road for fifteen years. I just 1:36:30.400 --> 1:36:33.400 want to stay home and you then start my own 1:36:33.520 --> 1:36:35.519 I have my own studio, And did you have any 1:36:35.680 --> 1:36:38.360 desire to make it back to the top of it? 1:36:38.680 --> 1:36:41.519 Of course that's my big desire to this day start 1:36:41.600 --> 1:36:43.920 a band called Iron Horse. We have a hit on 1:36:43.920 --> 1:36:45.960 Scotti Brothers Records. Goes to the number one in Italy. 1:36:46.040 --> 1:36:48.080 I go into Italy with the number one record I 1:36:48.160 --> 1:36:52.080 Am Elvis and Italy it's incredible, number one record with 1:36:52.200 --> 1:36:56.280 stuttering with sweet Louis Louise with a big hit. I 1:36:56.400 --> 1:37:01.559 come back Um. Fred Turner wants to join the band. 1:37:02.280 --> 1:37:04.120 We just want to be called Iron Ours, so we 1:37:04.240 --> 1:37:07.800 call herself Union. We meet Lenny Pizza, who's just done. 1:37:08.200 --> 1:37:12.719 Girls just want to have fun with So Lenny Pizza. 1:37:12.760 --> 1:37:14.960 Here's what I've done. I've got my own studio. Here's why. 1:37:15.200 --> 1:37:17.960 He says, great, I'll sign you guys. We put out 1:37:19.080 --> 1:37:22.519 a double A side. My song is called main Street USA. 1:37:22.640 --> 1:37:25.120 That's kind of a rap record, rock and roll rap record. 1:37:25.439 --> 1:37:27.840 Fred puts out a song called on Strike by Union. 1:37:28.560 --> 1:37:31.280 The Yankees are on strike or baseballs on strike and 1:37:31.320 --> 1:37:33.760 New York. Lenny Pizzas flaves New York this song is 1:37:33.760 --> 1:37:37.400 gonna rock your face off playing it on New York radio. 1:37:37.479 --> 1:37:39.280 This is on strike and the Yankees are on Psyche 1:37:39.320 --> 1:37:41.000 are somebody's on strike. I don't know who's on Some 1:37:41.080 --> 1:37:44.640 baseball guys are on strike. It comes out on a 1:37:44.760 --> 1:37:48.759 long weekend, so the guys who normally meet every Monday 1:37:48.800 --> 1:37:51.240 morning who pick what records are gonna get played. They 1:37:51.280 --> 1:37:55.800 aren't there. The substitutes are there, and they liked the record, 1:37:55.840 --> 1:37:57.960 and they start to play it. At the end of 1:37:58.000 --> 1:38:00.680 the week, we're on a d forty stations. I get 1:38:00.720 --> 1:38:03.320 a call from CBS Portrait. You've got to come here 1:38:03.320 --> 1:38:04.960 to New York. We're celebrating and being on the thing, 1:38:05.040 --> 1:38:07.559 but we need to have a business meeting. What kind 1:38:07.600 --> 1:38:09.680 of business meeting? So I go into this meeting and 1:38:09.720 --> 1:38:13.439 they say to me, Um, we use indie promotion guys, 1:38:14.400 --> 1:38:18.400 and somehow you bypass these guys and you're on the radio. 1:38:19.320 --> 1:38:21.720 So we usually pay these guys some money and the 1:38:21.800 --> 1:38:24.240 band pays them half the money. So unless you come 1:38:24.320 --> 1:38:27.080 up with the money, you're going to be taken off 1:38:27.120 --> 1:38:29.720 the playlist. And I go, what are you kidding? Is 1:38:29.760 --> 1:38:31.840 this like extortion pay all that kind of stuff. No, 1:38:32.000 --> 1:38:34.760 it's not. It's high level radio promotion. These guys help 1:38:34.840 --> 1:38:36.680 us with programming or whatever they want to call it. 1:38:37.120 --> 1:38:40.320 And I said, look, I don't have any money. I'm 1:38:40.320 --> 1:38:41.960 going to call their bluff. I called their bluff. The 1:38:42.000 --> 1:38:45.560 record vanished, gone, went from hundred forty station in the 1:38:45.600 --> 1:38:49.280 first four days, does nothing zero. So I was off. 1:38:50.600 --> 1:38:54.160 I've had some great adventures. So then where does that 1:38:54.320 --> 1:38:56.960 leave you? Well, it leads people still with a dream 1:38:57.000 --> 1:39:00.160 of writing a hit song. Um. It leads me to 1:39:00.400 --> 1:39:04.640 right now. UM. A few years ago got offered a 1:39:04.760 --> 1:39:06.720 record deal which is really weird, out of the blue 1:39:06.720 --> 1:39:08.519 by a friend of mine who brought Two North Records 1:39:08.880 --> 1:39:10.720 up in Canada, which is really a great label. They've 1:39:10.720 --> 1:39:13.040 had Bruce Colburn forever and a couple of other really 1:39:13.080 --> 1:39:15.400 good acts that when you call heritage acts, they just 1:39:15.479 --> 1:39:18.679 keep recording and touring for for decades. And Buffy, Satan, 1:39:18.680 --> 1:39:21.280 Marie and other friends of mine are on there. And 1:39:21.400 --> 1:39:23.679 so he offers me a record deal. I get inducted 1:39:23.680 --> 1:39:26.080 into Nashville Musicians Hall of Fame. I go down their 1:39:26.120 --> 1:39:28.360 new Young's there because Ben Keith has pedaled steel players 1:39:28.720 --> 1:39:31.479 being duck. I'm there with Kenny Wayne Shepherds, who's fitting 1:39:31.479 --> 1:39:34.040 in for Stevie a Van because Step Round, Double Trouble 1:39:34.240 --> 1:39:37.599 are inducted. I'm inducted. Frampton's inducted, Billy Gibbons is there. 1:39:37.640 --> 1:39:40.200 It's phenomenal. We'll leaves their playing bass. It's I'm in 1:39:40.360 --> 1:39:42.720 like my element of rock and roll guitar, and I said, 1:39:43.000 --> 1:39:44.599 I guess what. I just got offered a record deal, 1:39:45.120 --> 1:39:46.920 and he says, do yourself a favor. Don't do the 1:39:46.960 --> 1:39:49.160 same old Randy Backman ship. So what do you mean. 1:39:50.000 --> 1:39:52.080 Don't do the same stuff. Do something totally different. Be 1:39:52.200 --> 1:39:55.080 like me, reinvent yourself. Shock everybody. You lose some fans, 1:39:55.160 --> 1:39:57.479 but you get some new fans and your real diehard 1:39:57.520 --> 1:39:59.920 fans will love this little ride. You're going, this little deeptour. 1:40:00.800 --> 1:40:03.960 So I go back to Canada again, invite to see 1:40:04.000 --> 1:40:06.559 Tommy out and Stratford we have the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, 1:40:06.640 --> 1:40:08.880 but every year like a jazzer. So they have Stevie 1:40:08.880 --> 1:40:11.000 Wonder at a jazz festival, or Michael McDonald or Steve 1:40:11.040 --> 1:40:14.800 Winwood or something. They're having Tommy. So they invite me 1:40:14.880 --> 1:40:18.879 to Tommy. I'm sitting behind keep Pete Townsend and desk mechanics. 1:40:18.920 --> 1:40:22.000 Who's the guy who produced Tommy? And I'm knowing Pete 1:40:22.040 --> 1:40:23.519 for a long time. We argued over the name of 1:40:23.520 --> 1:40:24.960 the guests who and the who wait back in the 1:40:25.040 --> 1:40:28.160 sixties and he leans back and he goes the drummer 1:40:28.200 --> 1:40:32.160 is incredible. I've got to meet this drummer. Drummer is incredible. 1:40:32.200 --> 1:40:34.200 It plays every note like Keith Moon and Keith in 1:40:34.640 --> 1:40:37.760 Pinball Wizard. I've got to meet this drummer Dale, I said. 1:40:38.160 --> 1:40:41.120 Dale is a girl. Dale is a woman. What I said? 1:40:41.200 --> 1:40:43.880 The program says Dale Brendon, it's Dale and Brandon. I 1:40:44.000 --> 1:40:46.400 know this girl. She drums in a country Banner, written 1:40:46.400 --> 1:40:48.200 songs with them. I've done gigs with her, he said. 1:40:48.240 --> 1:40:50.240 It can't be that she has her own drums. Call 1:40:50.280 --> 1:40:52.439 she drumm Me says she's eight, She's got a hundred students. 1:40:53.120 --> 1:40:55.160 We go back, stay, she meets her. It's her, I 1:40:55.200 --> 1:40:56.760 said her. A man, I want I want to do 1:40:56.800 --> 1:40:58.640 an album with you. The drums who played were so 1:40:58.840 --> 1:41:01.200 Keith Moon. She's got exact kit. She's in her own 1:41:01.240 --> 1:41:03.320 room with Mike's. She got a monitor. She's watching the 1:41:03.360 --> 1:41:05.920 guy she's playing. It's amazing. And so I say to 1:41:06.040 --> 1:41:08.160 my manager, I want to do an album like Black 1:41:08.240 --> 1:41:11.680 Keys or The White Stripes. Me on guitar told the 1:41:11.760 --> 1:41:14.000 Rock and Blues I want to honor the British invasion 1:41:14.040 --> 1:41:16.719 of Clapton and Hendricks Cream and the who power guitar 1:41:16.800 --> 1:41:19.679 and drums is that you can't do what you're jumping 1:41:19.720 --> 1:41:22.960 on the Bandwagon, get somebody else. I see a bass player, 1:41:23.040 --> 1:41:25.719 a tall, beautiful chick playing with Ladies of the Canyon, 1:41:26.000 --> 1:41:30.000 which is like Canadians crazy Horse for knewing, But it's 1:41:30.040 --> 1:41:33.519 four chicks, beautiful, long hair and there blazing playing rock 1:41:33.600 --> 1:41:35.519 and country rock. So I asked the bass player she 1:41:35.640 --> 1:41:37.280 wanted to just do with this one project with me? 1:41:37.840 --> 1:41:39.880 And she's wearing a John in Twistle t shirt and 1:41:39.960 --> 1:41:42.600 she studied at McGill. She's, you know, standard based and 1:41:42.640 --> 1:41:45.200 reads notes, but she loves rocking out like John Entwistle. 1:41:45.880 --> 1:41:47.120 So I say, do you want to do an album 1:41:47.160 --> 1:41:49.000 with me? We'll just set up, we'll do it live 1:41:49.080 --> 1:41:50.920 in like four or five days, Power Tree. I'll show 1:41:50.920 --> 1:41:52.800 you the song we learned it once. It's blues. It 1:41:52.840 --> 1:41:55.639 ain't rocket science, it's all feel out of the blue. 1:41:55.640 --> 1:41:57.560 I call a friend of mine, Kevin Shirley, who I 1:41:57.640 --> 1:41:59.519 helped out twenty years ago, and he was stuck in Canada, 1:41:59.560 --> 1:42:01.639 came to Deuce Rush, couldn't get back into the States. 1:42:02.040 --> 1:42:03.479 I get him through to a radio show for me. 1:42:03.479 --> 1:42:05.080 I said, Kevin, you wow me a favor. He said, yeah, 1:42:05.080 --> 1:42:07.400 I do, and um, I see what are you doing? 1:42:07.439 --> 1:42:09.760 So I'm doing the led Zeppelin, Box said, ac DC 1:42:09.920 --> 1:42:12.360 Box said, I'm doing I don't know who he's doing 1:42:12.400 --> 1:42:15.560 all the Scorpions or something last year. He said, but 1:42:15.640 --> 1:42:17.080 I do your favor. I have a week off. I'll 1:42:17.080 --> 1:42:18.639 come to Toronto. Can you record an album in a week? 1:42:18.680 --> 1:42:21.080 I said, no problem. He flies in, I have these songs. 1:42:21.080 --> 1:42:23.600 I do an album called Heavy Blues. He takes it 1:42:23.680 --> 1:42:25.559 back to and mixes. Its incredible, he said, I got 1:42:25.640 --> 1:42:28.719 my next door neighbor to play on a track. Who's 1:42:28.760 --> 1:42:31.240 that Joe Bonamasa, Oh cool. I listen to it. I 1:42:31.280 --> 1:42:33.720 go wow, Maybe I should have some guests. So I 1:42:33.800 --> 1:42:37.680 get Neil Young, Peter Frampton, Robert Randolph Scott Holiday from 1:42:37.720 --> 1:42:39.960 the rival Sons and get all these guns. And Jeff 1:42:40.000 --> 1:42:42.519 Healey from the grave his wife. Let's me get an 1:42:42.560 --> 1:42:44.880 old track of him, this his guitar off and put 1:42:44.920 --> 1:42:46.880 it on a tribute to him. I have these seven 1:42:46.920 --> 1:42:48.920 guest guitar players. I mean, that's one of the best 1:42:49.000 --> 1:42:51.880 albums I did. Then the next better one is getting 1:42:51.920 --> 1:42:54.040 this idea to do my new album by George, the 1:42:54.080 --> 1:42:57.920 George Harrison Album. It's the most spiritual thing that I've 1:42:57.960 --> 1:43:01.200 ever done that I feel. That's the ratists working. Put 1:43:01.240 --> 1:43:04.200 the American Woman alb up there They're not fragile album, 1:43:04.439 --> 1:43:06.760 and put up the by George album. Though that's my 1:43:06.960 --> 1:43:09.920 triad of greatness in my life, honestly. So this is 1:43:10.800 --> 1:43:15.640 George Harrison covers using the words, but the riffs and 1:43:15.680 --> 1:43:19.120 the melodies are different, absolutely different. When it starts out, 1:43:19.160 --> 1:43:22.040 you have no idea what song it is. People play games, 1:43:22.120 --> 1:43:24.040 they have party games. Now they put on this record 1:43:24.280 --> 1:43:26.280 and they sit there betting I can name that in 1:43:26.400 --> 1:43:28.479 eight seconds. I can name that song in ten seconds 1:43:28.600 --> 1:43:30.679 or twelve words or whatever. And then when I start singing, 1:43:30.720 --> 1:43:32.840 everybody sings along. They all know the words every George 1:43:32.840 --> 1:43:37.160 Harrison song, and even the guitar solos in the songs 1:43:37.240 --> 1:43:39.800 are taken from other Beatle solos and put in a 1:43:39.880 --> 1:43:43.240 different song. So in and then then I wrote the 1:43:43.280 --> 1:43:46.000 first song between Two Mountains, which I said what I felt, 1:43:46.200 --> 1:43:50.400 how George felt. Going to a session with mont Lennon 1:43:50.640 --> 1:43:53.400 and Martin McCartney with thirty gems each, and then they 1:43:53.479 --> 1:43:55.760 call write maybe twenty each, and after they're all done 1:43:55.800 --> 1:43:59.040 and tired out, George, do you have a song? Oh? Yeah, 1:43:59.080 --> 1:44:00.640 I got a song called ACX Man. I got a 1:44:00.680 --> 1:44:03.080 song called something. I got a song you know, called 1:44:03.160 --> 1:44:07.240 Piggies or something, so I wrote between two Mountains. I 1:44:07.320 --> 1:44:09.240 wrote it in a daze, in a haze one night, 1:44:09.439 --> 1:44:12.680 in a weird psychedelic dream. I don't take psychedelics, but 1:44:12.800 --> 1:44:15.880 it was a really weird dream. If you've got kids, 1:44:17.280 --> 1:44:20.160 our little brothers or sisters, and you're asleep, you know 1:44:20.280 --> 1:44:22.000 when they walk in the room, even though you're asleep, 1:44:22.680 --> 1:44:24.400 you sent the presence in the room where you're doing 1:44:24.479 --> 1:44:26.840 your father and you wake up your little kids there 1:44:26.880 --> 1:44:28.280 with a Teddy Bearer blanket. Oh, if you had a 1:44:28.320 --> 1:44:30.519 bad dream coming to bed with daddy, they fall aslee. 1:44:30.560 --> 1:44:32.360 If you take them back to the crib, you sent 1:44:32.479 --> 1:44:35.040 somebody's in the room. So this happened like two years ago. 1:44:35.320 --> 1:44:37.000 The whole album is done. I want to get one 1:44:37.040 --> 1:44:40.360 of my songs on there because I've been George all 1:44:40.439 --> 1:44:42.679 my life and every band I've sung George Yarrison side. 1:44:42.960 --> 1:44:45.559 I bought his book, I've got his paintings. I phoned 1:44:45.600 --> 1:44:47.160 his house at Friar Park when I left the guests 1:44:47.160 --> 1:44:49.040 who to see if I could join his band, which 1:44:49.200 --> 1:44:51.080 was Clapton was in his band. There's no way I 1:44:51.120 --> 1:44:52.960 was going to get in his band, but I talked 1:44:53.000 --> 1:44:56.360 to him and I love the guy left his peacefulness 1:44:56.360 --> 1:44:58.120 in quietness, and I left how he dedicated the last 1:44:58.120 --> 1:45:00.960 part of his life too, really gin and spirituality and 1:45:01.000 --> 1:45:02.760 saying with John Lennon, war is over. You can have 1:45:02.840 --> 1:45:04.720 peace and put their career on the line and don't 1:45:04.760 --> 1:45:08.000 do commercial stuff anymore. Do songs that really means something. 1:45:08.040 --> 1:45:09.880 And when the Beatles came to New York and met 1:45:09.920 --> 1:45:11.679 Bob Dylan, he said, now that you have the attention 1:45:11.720 --> 1:45:14.800 of the world, say something. And they started to say something. 1:45:15.439 --> 1:45:18.560 So I have this feeling in mind, and I have 1:45:18.680 --> 1:45:20.880 this presence in the room. And I get up out 1:45:20.920 --> 1:45:23.040 of my bed this two o'clock in the morning, and 1:45:23.200 --> 1:45:25.599 I go next door and I said at my computer, 1:45:25.720 --> 1:45:30.840 I start to type, there's peace within. Just close your eyes, 1:45:31.400 --> 1:45:34.920 breathe in the power, and just realize. I learned to wait. 1:45:35.320 --> 1:45:37.439 My time would come. I'd celebrate because I was the 1:45:37.520 --> 1:45:41.360 one between two mountains. And I go, WHOA, this isn't me. 1:45:41.400 --> 1:45:43.040 And I feel these school I feel the goose bumps. 1:45:43.080 --> 1:45:46.000 Now saying that to you, I feel this weird thing 1:45:46.520 --> 1:45:49.680 that George wasn't piste off between these guys. He was 1:45:49.840 --> 1:45:53.040 grateful because they made a greatness of two mountains. And 1:45:53.120 --> 1:45:54.880 it's just like us being on the TV show. We 1:45:54.920 --> 1:45:56.960 had to write songs. Original song Burton Night have fit 1:45:57.040 --> 1:46:00.320 in between the Beatles and the Stones and the Beach Boys. 1:46:00.560 --> 1:46:02.240 George had to write a song that when it came 1:46:02.280 --> 1:46:04.200 time to play the song, it had to fit in 1:46:04.320 --> 1:46:06.920 there between Lennon McCartney's best and maybe one of the 1:46:07.000 --> 1:46:09.200 worst that got bombed Thumb and George has got in there. 1:46:09.720 --> 1:46:11.080 So I had this feet and then I wrote the 1:46:11.120 --> 1:46:14.240 second verse more about us in life, the mountain of 1:46:14.280 --> 1:46:17.080 good in the mountain and evil were between two mountains. 1:46:17.560 --> 1:46:19.280 And then I had a three. I've never written an 1:46:19.280 --> 1:46:23.840 ABC song that's ABC and then repeats ABC always on 1:46:23.920 --> 1:46:25.320 the of course on a hook, and of course on 1:46:25.400 --> 1:46:27.800 hook and a B A B A B and so something. 1:46:27.840 --> 1:46:30.040 I write this different kind of song, and I'm gonna 1:46:30.080 --> 1:46:32.280 put three pieces of music behind us that are very distinct. 1:46:32.320 --> 1:46:35.720 I'm going to borrow from George's Beatles stuff, and I 1:46:35.840 --> 1:46:38.400 start to bore some Indians cuitar stuff from some tablet, 1:46:38.800 --> 1:46:40.519 and I write the song and the solo in the 1:46:40.600 --> 1:46:44.200 middle is his greatest solo I think from and I 1:46:44.320 --> 1:46:46.759 love her. Doo Do dooe. So when you play between 1:46:46.800 --> 1:46:48.479 two mons in the middle of here too do Doo 1:46:48.600 --> 1:46:51.719 Do Do Do, and you go, where is that from? Wow? 1:46:52.360 --> 1:46:54.160 That's from man I love Her? And then you listen 1:46:54.200 --> 1:46:56.200 to Don't Bother Me, the solo from tax Man's and 1:46:56.280 --> 1:46:58.800 Don't Bother Me the solo from My Sweet Lords is 1:46:58.880 --> 1:47:01.360 in a different and song, and so if you're a 1:47:01.400 --> 1:47:03.920 guitar freak, and then listen to this album, going wow, 1:47:04.320 --> 1:47:06.920 I'm playing Georges solo in a different song, and so 1:47:07.040 --> 1:47:08.760 it's really cool. I had a lot of fun. We 1:47:08.840 --> 1:47:10.120 had a lot of fun. You listened to the album 1:47:10.120 --> 1:47:12.760 in entirety, it should be listened to. It's entirely like 1:47:12.800 --> 1:47:16.519 a Beatles album because it's book ended with between two 1:47:16.600 --> 1:47:19.320 mountains and the other one's done with backwards loops and 1:47:19.360 --> 1:47:21.880 all kinds of noises and tape flipping around like film 1:47:21.920 --> 1:47:23.160 at the end of a film, and all these two 1:47:23.240 --> 1:47:25.800 d dude like Strawberry Fields Forever. We just had great 1:47:25.840 --> 1:47:27.479 fun and figure, I'm not going to get any airplay. 1:47:27.960 --> 1:47:30.559 Miles Ago nuts I was invited to England for John 1:47:30.640 --> 1:47:34.000 lennon seventy fifth birthday about four years ago. Went to Liverpool. 1:47:34.400 --> 1:47:37.559 His sister Julia Broadis brownies, which was John's favorite birthday cake, 1:47:37.600 --> 1:47:40.120 gave us John Lennon glasses. I go to see Beatle 1:47:40.720 --> 1:47:42.360 the Beatles show there. Let it be a friend of 1:47:42.400 --> 1:47:44.840 mine was putting it on there. I'm really immersed in Beatles. 1:47:44.880 --> 1:47:46.519 I ride the bus, I get my haircut at Penny 1:47:46.600 --> 1:47:49.120 Lane barber shop and all that. I come back and go, wow, 1:47:49.240 --> 1:47:51.479 that was great. John Lennon. Me at John Lennons birthday. Yeah, 1:47:51.479 --> 1:47:53.320 I'm there with a bunch of Canadian lawyers and stuff 1:47:53.320 --> 1:47:56.080 and guys, what kind of George with the youngest Beatle? 1:47:56.120 --> 1:48:00.320 Whence heat? Whence Heat seventy five? Great? Whence the birthday? 1:48:00.320 --> 1:48:02.760 For well, I got an excuse to do an album, 1:48:02.800 --> 1:48:04.599 so I do something weird and different, like Neil Young said, 1:48:04.600 --> 1:48:06.800 don't do the same old stuff. Get a reason for 1:48:06.960 --> 1:48:09.719 doing it. And the first one was the sixties blues 1:48:09.800 --> 1:48:11.680 with these two girls and we totally rocked out. And 1:48:11.760 --> 1:48:14.320 then doing this George Yarrison thing with my band who've 1:48:14.360 --> 1:48:17.839 been together thirty years, who know every Beatles song backers, 1:48:17.840 --> 1:48:19.479 and my son Tell who grew up on the Beatles. 1:48:19.520 --> 1:48:21.000 I'd go on the road and come home all my 1:48:21.080 --> 1:48:23.800 Beatle records would be all over the house, laid out, 1:48:23.840 --> 1:48:26.400 not in their not in their sleeves or jackets. I'm 1:48:26.400 --> 1:48:27.880 about to tear a strip off of you. Of my 1:48:27.960 --> 1:48:31.320 best friend says to me, Are you nuts? Your son 1:48:31.520 --> 1:48:34.680 is steadying the Beatles? Do you understand what that is? 1:48:35.360 --> 1:48:38.360 These guys took the word from a yeah yeah yeah, 1:48:38.920 --> 1:48:42.800 to z to zed in Canada, to z with marmalade 1:48:42.840 --> 1:48:45.400 skies and relax your mind and float down screen. These 1:48:45.439 --> 1:48:49.280 guys took the world through bubblegum pop abba heavy metal 1:48:49.400 --> 1:48:52.000 like She's so heavy. These guys did everything your son 1:48:52.120 --> 1:48:54.360 setting leave them alone by you, by yourself, a set 1:48:54.400 --> 1:48:56.439 of Beatle stuff. Let your son have these and listen 1:48:56.479 --> 1:48:58.559 to them. So we're all really to the Beatles stuff. 1:48:58.600 --> 1:49:00.600 So to get these guys together saying we're gonna do 1:49:00.720 --> 1:49:03.599 ten George ten or twelve George songs and by the way, 1:49:03.640 --> 1:49:06.920 we're gonna make them unrecognizable. I've got these groups from 1:49:06.960 --> 1:49:09.679 the tax Man I do like in a fast Chicago 1:49:09.800 --> 1:49:12.559 likes easy top dude, do do do and we stopped. 1:49:12.640 --> 1:49:14.240 Let me tell you how it will be to do 1:49:14.439 --> 1:49:16.880 do Do Do? And it's like when we do that 1:49:17.000 --> 1:49:18.640 live the crowd goes nuts and they don't know what 1:49:18.800 --> 1:49:21.080 is because we solo for the first two minutes. Okay, 1:49:21.240 --> 1:49:23.120 so at this late date, how much how many live 1:49:23.240 --> 1:49:26.559 dates are you doing? Well? We started George's birthday febr 1:49:28.000 --> 1:49:30.240 Kings in New York. We went to Canada luckily. Now 1:49:30.360 --> 1:49:32.599 things are staggered. Things came out first as a download. 1:49:32.920 --> 1:49:35.080 Then see these now the vinyls of the vinyls this big. 1:49:36.320 --> 1:49:40.280 I went through a transition on the date of the eclipse. 1:49:40.840 --> 1:49:42.320 So I have a picture of the eclipse. That's the 1:49:42.360 --> 1:49:43.840 cover of my album. That's me going in though my 1:49:43.880 --> 1:49:46.679 new phase of life with moving to a new city. 1:49:47.000 --> 1:49:48.760 I'm gonna get a new woman in my life. I've 1:49:48.760 --> 1:49:51.439 got a new album, I've got did you did you 1:49:51.520 --> 1:49:53.559 do all those things? Did you move to? In the middle. 1:49:53.720 --> 1:49:55.680 I'm going home to say goodbye to my house. I'm 1:49:55.720 --> 1:49:58.439 flying to my new house in Victoria next Friday. I 1:49:58.680 --> 1:50:01.360 have a couple of women waiting to both partner. You 1:50:01.439 --> 1:50:04.759 are so alive, it's unbelievable. How about the old days 1:50:04.800 --> 1:50:08.160 to the royalty still come in? Yes, and a wonderful 1:50:08.200 --> 1:50:10.840 things happening in the world to me and everybody else. 1:50:11.400 --> 1:50:14.760 It's called reversion of copyrights. They expire after a while 1:50:14.760 --> 1:50:17.240 and the original creators can apply to get them back. 1:50:17.280 --> 1:50:19.960 So we're working on that. But things got really really 1:50:20.040 --> 1:50:23.639 good in the nineties when classic rock radio came out 1:50:23.640 --> 1:50:25.600 as a format. Could before that they only play a 1:50:25.720 --> 1:50:28.240 Golden Old or a Graveyard groovy or some old thing, 1:50:28.320 --> 1:50:31.160 and they play Monster Mash or something like that on Halloween. 1:50:31.720 --> 1:50:34.880 Now it's like a whole format. And then everything came 1:50:34.920 --> 1:50:36.519 out and c D and every goon that brought our 1:50:36.600 --> 1:50:39.240 album and vinyl and bought it in c D and 1:50:39.320 --> 1:50:41.040 now those are gone, the other by him and Vinyl 1:50:41.080 --> 1:50:44.599 again there. I just remastered eight BTO albums that's coming 1:50:44.640 --> 1:50:48.960 out as a box set in November with outtakes, and 1:50:49.040 --> 1:50:50.960 they all sound similar, no, because they're all mastered by 1:50:51.000 --> 1:50:55.360 the same guy. And for and preparing the Monster Bto 1:50:55.439 --> 1:50:59.639 Truckload it's called that will be remixes of everything without 1:50:59.720 --> 1:51:02.439 take and intakes and other solos because you could try 1:51:02.520 --> 1:51:04.600 one or two solos. Now you just linked in the 1:51:04.640 --> 1:51:06.519 song because you got protos. You make the solo twice 1:51:06.520 --> 1:51:08.880 as long you're bringing your other solo that nobody's heard 1:51:08.920 --> 1:51:11.479 before that might even have a mistake and what's wrong 1:51:11.520 --> 1:51:13.720 with the stakes? Neil Young plays them all the time, 1:51:13.760 --> 1:51:15.000 you know what I mean, and so do I like 1:51:15.200 --> 1:51:17.360 They're part of being the mistakes and what makes something 1:51:17.479 --> 1:51:22.240 great human exact exactly. So I've got Japanese recordings of 1:51:22.320 --> 1:51:24.639 the Beatles when when they got them to master in Japan, 1:51:25.680 --> 1:51:28.360 they couldn't read the mastering notes. So the end of 1:51:28.439 --> 1:51:30.479 tax Man or the end of my Guitar, generally, we've 1:51:30.840 --> 1:51:33.840 Paul Party makes twelve based mistakes. I played that for 1:51:33.880 --> 1:51:36.440 all my friends and they go nuts Paul making mistakes. 1:51:37.240 --> 1:51:39.559 They love it, so it's great to have those mistakes 1:51:39.600 --> 1:51:44.360 in there. Okay, So what's the dream? Presently? The dream 1:51:44.479 --> 1:51:47.519 is to have the George album be a success, to 1:51:47.640 --> 1:51:51.120 play one song called You Liked Me Too Much, which 1:51:51.160 --> 1:51:52.800 I did in Gypsy Kings sound, to play it on 1:51:52.880 --> 1:51:55.479 the Grammys with the Gypsy Kings, who I saw last 1:51:55.520 --> 1:51:59.280 week in London and they were just great. So I 1:51:59.320 --> 1:52:00.880 gotta tell you, can you listen to You Like Me 1:52:00.960 --> 1:52:03.880 Too Much? It's to change la la la la. And 1:52:03.960 --> 1:52:06.200 we're singing in Gypsy and my son sings in Spanish, 1:52:06.760 --> 1:52:08.680 so if I can do that song anywhere with the 1:52:08.720 --> 1:52:11.320 Gypsy Kings, it would be I've seen them ten times. 1:52:11.360 --> 1:52:14.120 I love these guys well. The amazing thing talking to 1:52:14.280 --> 1:52:17.720 someone of your generation, which is my generation, who is 1:52:17.720 --> 1:52:21.320 a musician, I must say I have not encountered someone 1:52:21.800 --> 1:52:26.479 as optimistic and enthusiastic about music at this late date. 1:52:27.000 --> 1:52:31.360 You're really excited and it's infectious. Thank you. While I'm 1:52:31.439 --> 1:52:33.800 still a fan. I am on my own radio show 1:52:33.840 --> 1:52:36.040 and canic called Randy's Vinyl Tap, and I play all 1:52:36.120 --> 1:52:38.160 my old vinyl and I tell my stories like I've 1:52:38.200 --> 1:52:41.400 told you about Brian Wilson or Paul McCartney touring the 1:52:41.479 --> 1:52:44.080 ringo stary that nobody knows these stories. So I will 1:52:44.120 --> 1:52:46.479 do a two hour show. It's o Saturday Night on CBC, 1:52:48.080 --> 1:52:50.200 and I tell the story. I'm in my thirteenth year, 1:52:50.920 --> 1:52:52.720 so to do the show, it's like a two hour 1:52:52.840 --> 1:52:55.280 theme one. One thing will be girls names, and next 1:52:55.280 --> 1:52:56.800 thing will be boys names. The next one would be 1:52:56.840 --> 1:53:00.240 summer songs, driving songs, songs about hope, songs about love, 1:53:00.680 --> 1:53:02.800 songs about the Earth for the Earth Day. And that 1:53:02.880 --> 1:53:06.000 allows me to play fifty or sixty years of rock 1:53:06.040 --> 1:53:09.000 and roll, from Little Richard right to Lady Gaga. Do 1:53:09.080 --> 1:53:11.439 you know what are you Are you a hip hop fan? 1:53:11.560 --> 1:53:14.719 Are you play everything? Yeah? If it fits my theme, 1:53:14.760 --> 1:53:17.280 and that's why people love my show. It's like old radio. 1:53:17.600 --> 1:53:20.840 You were. Old radio is with cousin Brucey or Latman Jack. 1:53:21.080 --> 1:53:24.040 They played the Ames Brothers and then they played Johnny 1:53:24.080 --> 1:53:26.160 Horton North to Alaska. Then they played Elvis, and they 1:53:26.200 --> 1:53:29.160 played the Stones Can't get a Satisfaction. Then it played 1:53:29.200 --> 1:53:32.360 Steven IVI gour may blame it on the Boston Nova, 1:53:32.400 --> 1:53:33.439 you know what I mean. And then they played the 1:53:33.520 --> 1:53:36.320 Ventures and they played everything. Radio was exciting. You never 1:53:36.479 --> 1:53:40.120 changed the channel. When you listen to radio every Saturday, 1:53:40.120 --> 1:53:42.720 you listen to the Top fifty, you listen fifty nine, 1:53:42.760 --> 1:53:45.160 you listen what's number one? You listen all day long. 1:53:45.960 --> 1:53:48.599 Now everybody's changing. You can hear the same song every 1:53:48.680 --> 1:53:51.040 day at ten on all these radio stations. I know 1:53:51.160 --> 1:53:53.080 it's it's certainly not what it once was, but you 1:53:53.240 --> 1:53:56.599 are still what you once were. You're very but as 1:53:56.640 --> 1:54:00.599 I said earlier, exciting and enthusiastic and Rhan, you're listening 1:54:00.600 --> 1:54:03.280 to Randy Backman on the Bob Left Sets podcast. Ready, 1:54:03.320 --> 1:54:04.920 thanks so much for doing this. Thanks you are a 1:54:05.000 --> 1:54:07.519 legend and it's a thrilled to talk to you than 1:54:07.600 --> 1:54:09.080 what I thought, Well, what did you think it was? 1:54:09.080 --> 1:54:11.280 Because you're gonna slam me, You're why would you think 1:54:11.280 --> 1:54:15.599 I'm gonna slam you? Because you're very opinionated, which is good, right, 1:54:16.200 --> 1:54:19.120 And my son saying, don't talk about to politics. My 1:54:19.240 --> 1:54:21.680 manager just saying, talking about vitamins bumps into health and 1:54:21.720 --> 1:54:24.400 I'm met to health and all. But what you did 1:54:24.560 --> 1:54:27.160 was really great, was really a nice ride for me 1:54:27.280 --> 1:54:31.240 through mytory of my life. I can all the records 1:54:31.280 --> 1:54:34.440 you're mentioning. I have my own specific stories where I 1:54:34.640 --> 1:54:37.160 was when I heard those and off the first b 1:54:37.320 --> 1:54:39.800 t O album, I had my one of my too 1:54:39.840 --> 1:54:43.040 closest friends from college, he's from Kansas City, and they 1:54:43.240 --> 1:54:46.120 played it there. We just played Kansas City, Okay, they 1:54:46.680 --> 1:54:50.440 they played it there, and I was unaware of the 1:54:50.560 --> 1:54:54.160 record with the New York City radio market. And then 1:54:54.200 --> 1:54:56.480 of course bt O two comes up and it's the 1:54:56.520 --> 1:54:59.240 biggest band in the land. As I say, I literally have. 1:54:59.560 --> 1:55:01.040 I can tell you you know this is about you, 1:55:01.160 --> 1:55:03.000 but I can tell you where I heard four Wheel 1:55:03.080 --> 1:55:05.800 Drive in Mammoth, California the first time. I can tell 1:55:05.840 --> 1:55:09.400 you being slipping some golfers around hearing you know you 1:55:09.440 --> 1:55:12.440 ain't seen nothing yet. It's like these songs are part 1:55:12.480 --> 1:55:15.280 of the American in the world fabric. That's my stage show. 1:55:15.440 --> 1:55:17.480 Is this just what I told you? From shaking over on? 1:55:17.880 --> 1:55:19.760 I tell every story of every song. I tell George 1:55:19.800 --> 1:55:22.240 Harrison's stories. So I started with three George, and this 1:55:22.240 --> 1:55:23.440 is We did the true of our a couple of 1:55:23.520 --> 1:55:26.120 nights ago, and then last night in Palomino Club and 1:55:26.160 --> 1:55:28.680 the night before in Kansas City. People are sitting down, 1:55:29.080 --> 1:55:30.760 they don't want to stand up and dance. They danced. 1:55:30.800 --> 1:55:32.560 Near the end. We come up with a tax man 1:55:32.640 --> 1:55:35.240 and taking care of business. And by the way, Elvis, 1:55:35.320 --> 1:55:37.640 she was taking care of business as his logo, his motto. 1:55:38.320 --> 1:55:40.960 Elvis made me start to play guitar. I wrote, tc B, 1:55:41.320 --> 1:55:44.920 it's on his tombstone TCB. I've seen Priscilla saying Elvis 1:55:44.960 --> 1:55:47.320 heard a Canadian band singing that song and said, that's 1:55:47.360 --> 1:55:50.919 my logo. So tc B, my connection with Elvis is complete. 1:55:51.160 --> 1:55:55.080 You have now come full circle above left. I was 1:55:55.080 --> 1:55:57.600 gonna ask another question, but this full circle we should 1:55:57.680 --> 1:56:05.360 end there. Thanks again so much. City. That wraps up 1:56:05.440 --> 1:56:08.680 this week's episode of The Bob left Sets podcast recorded 1:56:08.760 --> 1:56:12.400 live at the tune In studios in Venice, California. It's 1:56:12.400 --> 1:56:15.640 a mepic stories and a bunch of fun. Email me 1:56:15.720 --> 1:56:18.520 at Bob left sets dot com if you want to 1:56:18.560 --> 1:56:21.680 tell me what you thought. Until next time, it's Bob 1:56:21.840 --> 1:56:41.040 left Sets. Think me reas don't know exactly