Speaker 1: Really really, really really no One.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Really No, Really, Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden,
Speaker 2: who can anecdotally claim that no one who subscribes to
Speaker 2: our show has ever gotten skunked?
Speaker 3: So isn't it worth subscribing if only for that bit
Speaker 3: of protection?
Speaker 2: Speaking of skunked, sometimes on this show we find a
Speaker 2: person whose life story is so unique and unimaginable that
Speaker 2: they themselves are really and such a fellow as Jeff
Speaker 2: Skunk Baxter, a missile defense expert in counter terrorist authority
Speaker 2: who has consulted for Congressional committees, the Pentagon, and the
Speaker 2: US intelligence community, while also being renowned as a legendary
Speaker 2: guitarist for artists like Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton,
Speaker 2: Ringo star Barbara streisand and the list goes on and on.
Speaker 3: Really No Really.
Speaker 2: Best known for his work as a founding member of
Speaker 2: Steely Dan and with the Doobie Brothers, his versatility and
Speaker 2: musicality has made him a hugely in demand session guitarist
Speaker 2: from the seventies on through today, But in the mid eighties,
Speaker 2: a series of chance encounters led to a second career
Speaker 2: in the defense industry, where his innate ability to look
Speaker 2: at existing technologies and see alternate ways to use them
Speaker 2: led to a top tier consulting career for a litany
Speaker 2: of major intelligence and defense agencies.
Speaker 3: Imagine Q from the James Bond movies.
Speaker 2: If He Could Shred and here to get his story
Speaker 2: r two guys who also have multiple talents. We just
Speaker 2: can't really discern what any of them are supposed to be.
Speaker 3: Jason and Peter.
Speaker 1: This is an.
Speaker 4: Unusual guest, and I'm meaning because the one intro I had,
Speaker 4: which I'm not going to use is our next guest
Speaker 4: is an intelligence expert who counsels the Pentagon to keep
Speaker 4: us safe and also played the solo on Ricky Dunne
Speaker 4: Don't Lose That number is one, which is the really
Speaker 4: no really, But the real intro is that he's one
Speaker 4: of the most creative guitarists. I grew up with a
Speaker 4: brother ten years older who really exposed me to music,
Speaker 4: so I got to meet Wes Montgomery when I was
Speaker 4: a kid, and some of the greatest guitarists.
Speaker 1: That must have been nice.
Speaker 5: I had a sister fourteen years older whose entire record
Speaker 5: collection was the original cast albums of Broadway shows.
Speaker 4: Which is why you ended up on Broadway. I always
Speaker 4: knew what a great guitarist was, and then I got
Speaker 4: to listen to Jeff and meet Jeff. Would you like
Speaker 4: to share his full name with your living Jeff Skunkbax.
Speaker 4: Jeff is one of the most innovative in creative guitars.
Speaker 4: So just listen to his new album and I went,
Speaker 4: oh my god. So with that, without further ado, Jason
Speaker 4: and I were talking about guitar. We just saw The
Speaker 4: Grateful Dead and we saw it.
Speaker 5: John Mirror, Well, the thing that is, I'm sure it
Speaker 5: isn't even a blip on your radar, but to me
Speaker 5: is the most extraordinary thing. Are the musicians that can
Speaker 5: improvise in their head. They're hearing the melodies in their
Speaker 5: head and instantaneously it's coming out of their lip or
Speaker 5: coming out of their instrument, coming out of their fingers.
Speaker 5: That translation process, to me is extraordinary. And that's what
Speaker 5: Meyer was doing all night long. There's no way he
Speaker 5: designed these solos. He's riffing in his head and it's
Speaker 5: coming out the fingers, and I assume it's coming out
Speaker 5: exactly as he hears it in his head.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I've alway I don't give guitar lessons.
Speaker 1: I only give two lessons. One is us a metronome,
Speaker 1: So if you can't groove, you're not gonna get any work.
Speaker 1: And number two, if you ever watch Oscar Peterson play,
Speaker 1: he's playing, but you can hear him going. Basically, he's singing.
Speaker 1: And I always tell anybody who wants to learn to
Speaker 1: play the guitar is to sit down and sing while
Speaker 1: you play, because eventually you'll be able to connect singing
Speaker 1: the melodies in your head to your fingers, and that's
Speaker 1: how you get what the psychologists call flow, where you
Speaker 1: remove the conscious piece. And that's what most people do
Speaker 1: when they're improvising, is that they're actually translating the voice
Speaker 1: in their head to their fingers.
Speaker 5: I remember watching a great documentary years ago about Isaac Stern,
Speaker 5: the violinist in China, and there was a section where
Speaker 5: he was teaching protege I mean really gifted young violinists,
Speaker 5: and he was doing a masterclass and this young woman
Speaker 5: got up and she played, you know, sixteen bars of
Speaker 5: a piece and it sounded right, and he went, yeah,
Speaker 5: put the instrument down, sing it, sing what you just played,
Speaker 5: and she sang it and he said, now pick up
Speaker 5: the instrument, sing it as you play it, and it
Speaker 5: transformed absolutely.
Speaker 1: Playing and that was remarkable. Yeah, mostly because of phrasing. Yes,
Speaker 1: the melodies usually are pretty close, but the phrasing is
Speaker 1: I would say sixty percent of why people enjoy what
Speaker 1: you play, it's how you play it, not necessarily what
Speaker 1: you're what you're playing.
Speaker 4: So could you take everybody up this speed of how
Speaker 4: Steely Dan formed Steely Dan. Doobie Brothers came to Doobie
Speaker 4: Brothers brought Michael McDonald in to fold. But what was
Speaker 4: the bas background before that? Because you had a pretty
Speaker 4: interesting childhood up until that point that got you there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I grew up in Mexico City playing a lot
Speaker 1: of rock and roll, learned to play the guitar because
Speaker 1: my parents gave me a when I was nine years old.
Speaker 1: They gave me a guitar for Christmas, kissed me off
Speaker 1: because I wanted a bicycle, but hung it on the wall.
Speaker 1: And then my friend Kurt Bundy, who was a guy
Speaker 1: who lived in the apartment house two doors down, I said,
Speaker 1: I'm taking guitar lessons and if I show you some chords,
Speaker 1: maybe we could play a little bit and I had
Speaker 1: already studied classical piano for about five six years and
Speaker 1: never really thought about the guitar. So I started to
Speaker 1: play it and something the magic Beam whatever it was,
Speaker 1: and went, yeah, this is it, this is where I
Speaker 1: want to go. So that's kind of started it out.
Speaker 1: And then once you know three chords, you're now ninety
Speaker 1: percent on top of every rock and roll song for
Speaker 1: the late fifties early sixties. So I formed a band
Speaker 1: with Abraham le Boreal, who was I was eleven, he
Speaker 1: was twelve in Mexico City, and the next thing we knew,
Speaker 1: we were starting to get calls for gigs. And then
Speaker 1: I got a call from Umberto Sisneros from the Julians,
Speaker 1: which was a very big rock and roll band at
Speaker 1: the time, and they said, hey, would you maybe like
Speaker 1: to come and do some gigs with us? And of
Speaker 1: course I'm in id eleven years old. I'm eleven years old,
Speaker 1: Jesus God. And these bands, by the way, those locals Dorimo,
Speaker 1: those hooli guns, those off some boys. These were big
Speaker 1: Mexican rock and roll bands and famous bands. So now
Speaker 1: I got a chance to play. And then my dad,
Speaker 1: who had a friend, a disc jockey named al Ross
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. Was sending him records because he
Speaker 1: got so many records that he couldn't play. But he
Speaker 1: sent two albums to my dad, hr Is a dirty
Speaker 1: guitar player and Color in Funky by Howard Roberts. And
Speaker 1: when I listened to those records changed my life because
Speaker 1: I've never I never not only heard anybody play guitar,
Speaker 1: because I was listening to West Montgomery, Teddy Bunn, Kenny Burrell,
Speaker 1: you know all the cats. But this guy, I'd never
Speaker 1: heard anything like it. Because the way he played, he wanted.
Speaker 1: He wanted you to come into the fold. So instead
Speaker 1: of dropping a billion semi hemi demi quavers on top
Speaker 1: of you, he opened up with melodies that you could
Speaker 1: relate to and then took you in. And I thought, man,
Speaker 1: this is amazing. So I learned everything note for note
Speaker 1: and there. So from there it's you know, it's hard
Speaker 1: to stay focused with you. I'll tell you why. The
Speaker 1: other big part of this is you're you. You have
Speaker 1: the one of the highest intelligence clearances. Correct. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to get into that too much. What I will
Speaker 1: say is I worked for the Department of Defense, among
Speaker 1: other pope and I do have some some pretty high
Speaker 1: clearances could allow me to do my job.
Speaker 5: How does a guy making his way in the wonderful,
Speaker 5: beautiful world of pop music and rock music suddenly wind
Speaker 5: up with the knowledge of the background, the experience, and
Speaker 5: the inclination to start working in the missile defense the
Speaker 5: United States government? How did that transition or how did
Speaker 5: that addition? I should say, Well, actually come to me
Speaker 5: fairly simple. The gentleman across the street his garage filled
Speaker 5: with mud, and he was an earlerly gentleman, and so
Speaker 5: I volunteered to help him dig it out.
Speaker 1: So I went over there and Doug and Doug and
Speaker 1: we finally got the stuff. He said, watch, come in
Speaker 1: for a beer. I said, sure, that's great. So I
Speaker 1: went into his study and the walls were covered with
Speaker 1: photographs of things like sidewinder missiles and the F one hundred,
Speaker 1: the F one o six. He was an aeronautics engineer.
Speaker 1: He helped design the sidewinder missile. So we're having a beer,
Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, I love love airplane, and so
Speaker 1: I think it's the whole concept is really cool. I said, well,
Speaker 1: thank you very much for your help, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you a subscription to Aviation Week in Space
Speaker 1: Technology magazine, which I still subscribe to today, and I
Speaker 1: started reading it fascinated, of course, because it was the
Speaker 1: Russians called it Aviation Leak. It was translated an Honest
Speaker 1: Way to Moscow the day I hit the the hour
Speaker 1: after I hit the news stand in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: So I started reading it. And just around that time
Speaker 1: is when I started working for Roland and a Ki.
Speaker 1: They were electronics companies that focused on musical instruments, and
Speaker 1: at the time we were just the government was just
Speaker 1: beginning to understand the transition between the analog world and
Speaker 1: the digital work. So as I read this stuff, I
Speaker 1: kind of got this. I don't know. I store everything away,
Speaker 1: so I started away in some place in my mind.
Speaker 1: And then I was over in England and I met
Speaker 1: the aviation senior aviation editor for James Defense Weekly, Nick Cook,
Speaker 1: talking to him a little bit about this idea that
Speaker 1: I had about maybe converting the navy as weapon system,
Speaker 1: which is an air defense system designed to protect the
Speaker 1: surface battle and carry battlegroups, and maybe converting it to
Speaker 1: do missile defense. But I needed some knowledge, so he
Speaker 1: gave me an article that wasn't classified, but very few
Speaker 1: people knew about that. Somebody in England had tracked the
Speaker 1: Space Shuttle with an S band radar. So I'm reading this,
Speaker 1: I thought, well, wait a minute. If you can track
Speaker 1: the Space Shuttle, I wonder. So I went back to
Speaker 1: LA and I talked to my buddy John over JPL,
Speaker 1: who was a steel guitar player as well. I said, John,
Speaker 1: I need you to do some math for me. So
Speaker 1: I gave him what I needed and he comes back
Speaker 1: and says, are you looking to track something with a
Speaker 1: a really low RCS RADO cross section? I said yeah,
Speaker 1: I said, well you can do it. Here you go,
Speaker 1: here's the proof. So I wrote an article on how
Speaker 1: to convert the Navy Weapons system a system to do
Speaker 1: theatore missile defense and gave it to Congress and Robacher,
Speaker 1: who then gave it to Kurt Weldon, who was the
Speaker 1: vice chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who calls Dana
Speaker 1: and says, what is this guy from Boeing or Raytheon?
Speaker 1: And he goes, no, he's a guitar player for Thedobie Brothers.
Speaker 1: And so I get a call from Kurt Weldon saying,
Speaker 1: would you be willing to serve take a position on
Speaker 1: the Armed Services Committee with what we're going to call
Speaker 1: the Civilian Advisory Board on Missile Defense. I said, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: I guess so, and that started it all.
Speaker 4: Did people have problems with you in the music world
Speaker 4: that I gotta run? I can only record for another
Speaker 4: two hours because I have a meeting a missile defense.
Speaker 4: Then I got to take a phone call.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing a session with Ringo Star.
Speaker 4: Did people have problems with you in the music world
Speaker 4: that I gotta I gotta run. I can only record
Speaker 4: for another two hours because I have a meeting a
Speaker 4: missile defense that I got to take a phone call.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing a session with Ringo Starr, wonderful guy,
Speaker 1: really sweet guy, and I'm playing steel. So we're doing
Speaker 1: this song and I don't know, it's really kind of weird.
Speaker 1: Ringo said, you know, I got a feeling that you're
Speaker 1: going to have to leave. I know a little bit
Speaker 1: about what you do, and I think you know you're
Speaker 1: probably gonna have to leave. I said, well, I don't
Speaker 1: think so. And Mark Hudson was producing it, and he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we're okay. So right in the middle of this,
Speaker 1: the door open to the studio and two guys walk
Speaker 1: in in black suits and they say, you got to
Speaker 1: come with us. Now, my paser had just gone off
Speaker 1: and I hadn't even had a chance to grab it
Speaker 1: until they walked in. You got to go, And Ringo Starr,
Speaker 1: to his credit, said, I totally understand. As soon as
Speaker 1: you've done whatever you got to do, come on back.
Speaker 1: We'll finish the We'll finish the overdub. I thought that
Speaker 1: was very very interesting. You know, I don't know how
Speaker 1: he knew that, but the thing that I that, the
Speaker 1: impression that it left me was here's a guy who
Speaker 1: is totally open, who doesn't see things all well, you know,
Speaker 1: how dare you? Uh? You know you're working for me?
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I accept the world as it is and good And
Speaker 1: when I was walking out the dress, good luck seeing
Speaker 1: a bit.
Speaker 4: Did he ever ask you later?
Speaker 1: What exactly did you leave?
Speaker 4: Never wanted to know.
Speaker 1: No, But it wasn't important to him and to me.
Speaker 1: What was important is we do what we do. And
Speaker 1: he had an open mind, and I just I'll now, no,
Speaker 1: do I like him as a person. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: not close friends. When I have a tremendous amount of
Speaker 1: and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him
Speaker 1: as a person for doing that. So yes, sometimes they clash,
Speaker 1: but most of the time it's okay.
Speaker 4: Never on stage you're performing with the Doobie Brothers and
Speaker 4: two guys on stage.
Speaker 1: And hasn't happened right now yet.
Speaker 5: We're about to do No No in.
Speaker 4: Front of the Armfitch and you're you're off state now?
Speaker 5: Is there is there a b version of you standing
Speaker 5: in the wings at all times ready for that contingency.
Speaker 1: Well, during one of the war games, though, I got
Speaker 1: a call from Make a Wish Foundation and they said,
Speaker 1: we're doing this big show. Can you can you play?
Speaker 1: And I said, see, I you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've got I got two weeks at Nella's Air Force Base.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can leave. And I talked
Speaker 1: to the principals, a couple of generals who were running
Speaker 1: the show, and I said, can I you know, I
Speaker 1: what do I do? They said, you got twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: go do it, come back, but we'll help you get
Speaker 1: there and back, but go do this and halfdays I
Speaker 1: work with they're all musicians. Most of the guys at
Speaker 1: Lawrence Livermore. When I was working there, almost every physicist
Speaker 1: I know as a musician, Brian, Brian may Oh, Brian, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we can stand astrophysics. All these guys are musicians because
Speaker 1: of the relationship between physics and music.
Speaker 4: So, okay, you play Red Team a lot, which means
Speaker 4: you're the enemy and you're anti terrorism. That's the world
Speaker 4: that you're in. You've got to predict what the enemy
Speaker 4: is going to do and why they're going to do it,
Speaker 4: and then how they how they might do it. There
Speaker 4: are a lot of so many questions here about how
Speaker 4: do you stay ahead of the technology, et cetera. But
Speaker 4: I heard you talking about Putin and a lot of
Speaker 4: people don't understand who the adversary is. Could you give,
Speaker 4: for just a moment talk about Russia, China and North Koreen.
Speaker 4: Where we're at with them and what we may not
Speaker 4: understand about what their endgame is and how you have
Speaker 4: to deal with them, because it's in front of everybody's
Speaker 4: mind right now because of the Ukraine, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Well, one of my friends, General Hayden, who was a
Speaker 1: vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we worked
Speaker 1: together a lot in the Shruber war games. I used
Speaker 1: to drive him not something made him miserable. I was
Speaker 1: on the Red team. That was my job. We were
Speaker 1: friends and none of us took it personally. But one
Speaker 1: day there was a meeting with some of the Joint
Speaker 1: chiefs and some of the gamers and he said, Skunkin
Speaker 1: wants you to describe Russia for me. In five seconds
Speaker 1: said yes, sir, it's a nuclear armed gas station run
Speaker 1: by the mafia. And General Heyden went up there you
Speaker 1: go any questions, and in a sense, that's really what
Speaker 1: it is. They are. They make all their money. I
Speaker 1: would say eighty five percent of the money that they
Speaker 1: make comes out of the ground. They make some weapons systems,
Speaker 1: some are good, some are not so good. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Kalishonakov obviously is a fine salt weapon, but their
Speaker 1: airplanes tend to fall out of a sky. Although they
Speaker 1: are brilliant aeronautical engineers, they just manufacturing is not so good.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they dig everything out of the ground and
Speaker 1: then they sell it oil and gas and coal, and
Speaker 1: they just sell it to everybody, and that way they
Speaker 1: don't really have to make much. I mean, I do
Speaker 1: own a Soviet made electric guitar, which is just a
Speaker 1: hilarious piece of junk, you know, designed by the Soviet
Speaker 1: Radio Electronics Ministry of whatever the hell it was, with
Speaker 1: more crap in it. But okay, they took a shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, nobody buys those guitars. They buy oil and gas.
Speaker 1: So Putin realizes that and basically runs his country on
Speaker 1: revenue from oil and gas. And China now is buying
Speaker 1: everything that Putin can get out of the ground, so
Speaker 1: they've formed a partnership. The Russians do make a few
Speaker 1: weapons that are pretty good, although they're buying more weaponry
Speaker 1: from North Korea than they are really making, and also
Speaker 1: China supplying them with electronics to build drones and things
Speaker 1: like that. But Putin believes that Russia was dealt a
Speaker 1: bad hand and that after the followable in Wall, that
Speaker 1: the countries in Eastern Europe that left the Russian sphere
Speaker 1: now need to be back in and the whole crimea
Speaker 1: thing was just a It's just a prelude to what
Speaker 1: we're going to see in the future unless somebody sets
Speaker 1: steps in and changes that.
Speaker 4: Steely Dan iconic band jazz rock funk. They did everything
Speaker 4: and they were notoriously fake water, Fagan and his partner
Speaker 4: mister Becker, we're tough task masters.
Speaker 1: Did you?
Speaker 4: You're an amazing player, Like I said, you have some
Speaker 4: iconic solos which people still want to hear a note
Speaker 4: for No, you play just because they're in everybody's You
Speaker 4: talk about embedded in people's head. It must be amazing
Speaker 4: for you hearing them and you having the different, different
Speaker 4: view of it because you were there. You remember what
Speaker 4: happened that day, et cetera. Was it that tough bean
Speaker 4: Stewley did and you were one of the founding members.
Speaker 1: Well, again, like everything else, things tend to morph, things
Speaker 1: tend to develop and change. In the beginning, in the
Speaker 1: first three albums or first two albums, for sure, we
Speaker 1: were a band. Everything was grew out of the relationship,
Speaker 1: the musical relationship between the members of that band, Becker
Speaker 1: and Fagan had. Because of the success of the band,
Speaker 1: I think they wanted to expand on their songwriting and
Speaker 1: they want to to expand into bringing other creative points
Speaker 1: of view, and which makes perfect sense. I got no
Speaker 1: problem with that at all. As a matter of fact.
Speaker 1: For me, the thing I liked about Steely Dan was
Speaker 1: I always felt that a good guitar solo was a
Speaker 1: composition in and of itself. It had to have a beginning,
Speaker 1: a middle, and an end. It should stand on its own,
Speaker 1: even though it it was part of a larger concept
Speaker 1: or a larger piece of music. It should fit inside,
Speaker 1: It should compliment, but it should be a standalone. So
Speaker 1: to me, the idea that I think what Becker and
Speaker 1: Fagan were striving for in the in the in the
Speaker 1: later albums, with pushing other musicians to the wall, was
Speaker 1: to get them to understand that they were What they
Speaker 1: were looking for was a composition. A solo as a composition.
Speaker 1: Some people don't look at it that way. Some people
Speaker 1: look at it kind of in a linear fashion where
Speaker 1: you're just heading down the road, going down the track
Speaker 1: and just you know, it's solo. Here bop to you
Speaker 1: drop and you can't stop. You know. Great. But for
Speaker 1: me this was this fit the way that I looked
Speaker 1: at things. Again, listening to Howard Roberts, every solo he
Speaker 1: ever did, everything he ever did was a composition.
Speaker 4: Which you can hear by the way the new album's
Speaker 4: the speed of Heat Before you go? Can I give
Speaker 4: you names and you just give me like reactions to
Speaker 4: the names like whatever comes to your mind. Because you
Speaker 4: played a little a lot of.
Speaker 1: These people, I'll consider it. Doris Roberts, I can do
Speaker 1: both of you. Elton John incredible human being. I played
Speaker 1: in his band for a little while where became friends,
Speaker 1: and I got nothing but good stuff to say about him.
Speaker 1: Eric Clapton don't know him that well, and I have
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of respect for his ability to change
Speaker 1: the way that people listen to guitar.
Speaker 4: Playing Donna Summer, he did the hot stuff so look
Speaker 4: Yeah and Bad Girls.
Speaker 1: That was the first use of a guitar synthesizer on
Speaker 1: a number one record. But she was a sweetheart and
Speaker 1: she was a musician's musician. She got in there with
Speaker 1: both feet, got her hands dirty, was involved in everything,
Speaker 1: soulful and just. It was like working for Dolly Partoner.
Speaker 1: You just wanted to do it.
Speaker 4: That was the next one, Dolly Parton again.
Speaker 1: Angel unbelievable and incredible musician, a lot of depth. I
Speaker 1: don't think people understand the depth of her musical ability.
Speaker 1: Bob Weird, we just saw the dead. Yeah. Bobby was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun and I still to this day.
Speaker 1: You know, I produced an album for him, We had
Speaker 1: a good time, and I have a lot of respect
Speaker 1: for him because there are people that are I guess
Speaker 1: the guitar player and the Grateful Dead. The sort of
Speaker 1: lead guitar player was the focus point. But Bob, see,
Speaker 1: anybody can play lead. That's my attitude. And when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, I learned to play lead with two fingers,
Speaker 1: you know, and all that's all you need to know
Speaker 1: to play in a surf band. Playing rhythm is a
Speaker 1: different ballgame. It has a lot to do with understanding
Speaker 1: how the bass and the drums and the guitar interact.
Speaker 1: You need to be able to keep time, you need
Speaker 1: to be able to be in a pocket, and you
Speaker 1: need to be able to glue together a bunch of
Speaker 1: different pieces. So I have a tremendous amount of respect
Speaker 1: for Bob Weres playing as a rhythm player. That's a
Speaker 1: hard gig when it comes to a lot of music.
Speaker 1: I am pedestrian.
Speaker 5: So when I went to See The Dead with Peter
Speaker 5: at the Sphere, this fantastic screen is able to show you,
Speaker 5: you know, Bob Weird at twenty feet tall, and I'm
Speaker 5: watching and it seems very minimalistic, and I thought, am
Speaker 5: I hearing what he's doing. I mean, I'm catching everything
Speaker 5: John Mayer is doing, and I'm hearing the bass really well,
Speaker 5: and I'm catching the two drummers, and I'm hearing the keyboards.
Speaker 1: But am I am I hearing? And then as I
Speaker 1: started to try and zero in on what he was.
Speaker 5: Doing, the economy of what he was putting out there, And.
Speaker 1: There's the difference between Miles Davis and Disney Gillespie.
Speaker 3: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: Disney Gillespie was it's a little difference between Miles Davis
Speaker 1: and Disney Gillespie. Uh huh. Disney Gillespie was a note master.
Speaker 1: I mean it was unbelievable what that man could do.
Speaker 1: Miles Davis said, I'm never going to be Dizzy Gillespie.
Speaker 1: So what I'm gonna do is pick and choose what
Speaker 1: I believe to be the right notes. Sometimes it's what
Speaker 1: you don't play. Gary Katz called me one day and said,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this female artist. I pretty much finished the record,
Speaker 1: but it needs you to come in and tell me
Speaker 1: what this record needs. And I need to bring all
Speaker 1: your stuff, you know, and you just sit through the
Speaker 1: So I went down there. It was a village built
Speaker 1: his recorders, so I sat and listen to the whole record,
Speaker 1: and I said, Gary doesn't need anything, It's just fine.
Speaker 1: He said, that's why I pay you triple scale.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you for coming coming to our little chew.
Speaker 1: The guys that know.
Speaker 4: The album is called The Speed of Heat, his first
Speaker 4: solo took it.
Speaker 1: It was fun and by the way, I got to
Speaker 1: give a lot of credit to C. J. Vanston who
Speaker 1: was my partner on this thing, and thank you for
Speaker 1: appreciating the Oh, so it's wonderful.
Speaker 4: And also you re envisioned like do it again, where
Speaker 4: you completely took it apart. It's almost it's so creative
Speaker 4: because you know it's the song, but it's not the song,
Speaker 4: but it is the song, which which wraps your head
Speaker 4: around what we were talking about, thinking outside of the
Speaker 4: box and taking stuff and re envisioning it and being creative.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I love that you.
Speaker 1: Was inspired kind of by John Coltrane. These are a
Speaker 1: few of my favorite things. Which is a very simple tune,
Speaker 1: but but John he did with it it was upside down,
Speaker 1: inside out, backwards.
Speaker 4: And also yourself being a guitarist, I know I can
Speaker 4: play and Jason goh it's pretty good. And I go
Speaker 4: and I know my limit total limitations. I listened to
Speaker 4: you and it feels like it's limitless. So thanks for that.
Speaker 5: It's a very really amazing to wait till you see
Speaker 5: how sales jump after this episode and Brank.
Speaker 4: I hope, I hope a lot of people get to
Speaker 4: hear it.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for your hospitality, Jeff Scott. Faster than.
Speaker 3: As another episode, I really don't really it comes to
Speaker 3: a close.
Speaker 2: I know you're wondering, you are some other celebrities that
Speaker 2: have unusual hobbies or sad games? Well, I'll fill in
Speaker 2: that picture in a moment, but first let's thank our
Speaker 2: guest to Jeff skunk Baxter on Facebook.
Speaker 3: He is skunk Baxter.
Speaker 2: On Instagram, he is at Jeff skunk Baxter or you
Speaker 2: can follow him on his website Jeff skunk Baxter dot com.
Speaker 2: And now the answer to the question, who are some
Speaker 2: other celebrities that have unusual hobbies or side games? Well,
Speaker 2: Dan Spitz, the lead guitarist of the thrash metal band Anthrax,
Speaker 2: is also a Swiss certified master watchmaker.
Speaker 3: You can watch him on TikTok get It.
Speaker 2: Jack White, the guitarist and lead singer of The White Stripes,
Speaker 2: is also a furniture upholsterer.
Speaker 3: No points for guessing his favorite color and pattern.
Speaker 2: Keanu Reeves is an amateur race car driver, having debuted
Speaker 2: in the Toyota gr Cup in twenty twenty four, and
Speaker 2: we all know.
Speaker 3: He can drive a very speedy bus.
Speaker 2: Your local honey, maybe courtesy of either Morgan Freeman or Beyonce,
Speaker 2: both of whom have taken up beekeeping, or that's the
Speaker 2: buzz at least. Actor Nick Offerman is a master woodworker
Speaker 2: and makes wooden furniture. If you're pining for some, contact
Speaker 2: his company Offerman Woodshell Hollywood magnate. Seth Rogan is way
Speaker 2: into ceramics and once studied alongside our own Jason Alexander.
Speaker 3: Seth now makes ceramic bongs, ashtrays.
Speaker 2: And other smoking accessories out of his company houseplant.
Speaker 3: I understand Seth personally tests each product.
Speaker 2: Actor Daniel day Lewis is a master cobbler, and I
Speaker 2: suspect his wearing shoes made by his own hand on
Speaker 2: his feet. And finally, actor Jim Carrey, when he's not
Speaker 2: being dumb or dumber, spends most of his time as
Speaker 2: a master painter and cartoonist whose work has been shown.
Speaker 3: At galleries across the country and the lesson.
Speaker 2: Most people are more than one thing, except for those
Speaker 2: of us here at really know, really who are trying
Speaker 2: to be just one thing more successful.
Speaker 3: It's not going great. Maybe we should take up beat keeping.
Speaker 3: Really and it really is production of iHeartRadio and Plase
Speaker 3: Anderton