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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Bob Left Sets podcast, recorded

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Speaker 1: live here at the tune In Studios in Venice, California.

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Speaker 1: My guest this week is America, probably the world's most

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Speaker 1: famous drummer, the man you recognize from Melancamp, Fogerty, so

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Speaker 1: many other acts. Melissa ether rids the Kennedy Senator honors

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Speaker 1: Kenny aroon Off doing Bob Okay, so it's hard to

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Speaker 1: find a date because you're so busy. So what do

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Speaker 1: you got going on right now? Well, Tomon flying to

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Speaker 1: Chicago to do a the Chicago Drum Show. It's it's

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Speaker 1: with a lot of drummers perform, and I don't do

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Speaker 1: as many of those anymore. But what I'm gonna do,

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Speaker 1: I'm one of the feature drummers, is I'm gonna use

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Speaker 1: my I'm gonna perform, but I'm also doing a kind

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Speaker 1: of a teamwork speech, because it really is what drummers are.

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Speaker 1: We serve songs, we serve artists, we serve bands, and

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Speaker 1: so I have a whole multimedia thing I do. So

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Speaker 1: I perform, but I have the whole show. I have

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Speaker 1: a whole show. Okay, you put it together yourself. You

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Speaker 1: have a consultant. No I put together myself, but I've

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Speaker 1: been working with about four or five years ago. I

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Speaker 1: decided to start getting into the speaking thing, you know,

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Speaker 1: and like anything else, okay, with your motivation giving back

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Speaker 1: or money or both making money and giving and giving back.

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Speaker 1: Wisdom is that. Okay, I'm just getting all the story.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, I because that's so important to me. I decided,

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Speaker 1: and I've been doing these drum clinics for like thirty

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Speaker 1: five years, but now it's more about inspiration. When I

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Speaker 1: wrote my autobiography, I came with all these things and

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Speaker 1: with the bottom lines, I'm gonna go do that and

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Speaker 1: fly back Sunday night. Monday. I pack and then I

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Speaker 1: go on the road for six weeks with Fogerty NonStop

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Speaker 1: and zz Top together. It's a great package, most of

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Speaker 1: the East Coast and a little bit in the Midwest.

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Speaker 1: Then I come home for two days and then I

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Speaker 1: go to Europe for three weeks with my own band

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Speaker 1: called Supersonic Blues Machine featuring Billy Gibbons, and the two

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Speaker 1: albums I made was Supersonic uh. You know, we feature

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Speaker 1: like guitar players like Billy Gibbons, Steve Lucasur, Eric Garrells,

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Speaker 1: Walter Trout, Robin Ford, Warren Haynes, I really to be

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Speaker 1: honest with you, and I don't really want to go

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Speaker 1: on the voad for nine weeks. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: I have a wife at home and i'd like to.

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Speaker 1: This is the first time I ever said that, you know,

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Speaker 1: I always like, well whatever, But so yeah, that's a

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Speaker 1: pretty crazy schedule. On top of which, you know, I'm

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Speaker 1: editing a book, another book, and I gotta keep his

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Speaker 1: speaking thing going, and I'm just dealing with lots of

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Speaker 1: business sessions and all this stuff while I'm on the road.

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Speaker 1: Now do you like this level of chaos? Well, I

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Speaker 1: definitely have been addicted to it most of my life.

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Speaker 1: I'm just starting at my right as we were talking

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Speaker 1: about how we're now seven, kind of getting into mm hmmm,

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Speaker 1: how do I want to manage my time? You know what?

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Speaker 1: You know, one of my one of the things that

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Speaker 1: mean the most to me, and I'm trying to filter

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Speaker 1: on my time and what I do in today towards

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Speaker 1: those things. Now, let's let's assume you were home for

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Speaker 1: a week, or let's say you went to a desert

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Speaker 1: island for a week. Would you freak out or would

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Speaker 1: you say, God, it's great to have a week off

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Speaker 1: for the first time. I would what I would do

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Speaker 1: and one day I can't take a whole day off,

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Speaker 1: but but I can knowing that I have some time

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Speaker 1: during the day to have off. Then I you know,

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Speaker 1: I always have work with me. So it kind of

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Speaker 1: like I reward myself. I work a little bit. I

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Speaker 1: just won't work as much as I would in the past,

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Speaker 1: or I just work all day and then just look

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Speaker 1: out at the beach. Now I want to get on

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Speaker 1: the beach, you know, or hang out and go shopping

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Speaker 1: with my wife or whatever it is. It's just relaxes

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Speaker 1: the mind. And you know, I always have to be

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Speaker 1: when I get on a plane. There's two things I

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Speaker 1: do well, three things sleep, uh, my office, and I

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Speaker 1: like to watch movies, you know, so like watch the

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Speaker 1: bomby iPad, you're download, No, I do well more and

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Speaker 1: more becoming that you know you're on United and then

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Speaker 1: they say download appened. Then you get more more, but

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Speaker 1: then fifty percent time it doesn't work right. It's like like, well,

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Speaker 1: the big thing now you know it's Netflix. You can

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Speaker 1: download to the iPad, so you don't have to worry

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Speaker 1: about a connection. So, uh, how far out are you booked?

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Speaker 1: I'm booked you already. Someone tried to book me. They're

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Speaker 1: trying to book me to be the musical director for

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Speaker 1: this event in two thousand nineteen, and I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: hire Sammy Hagar to do it with me, because then

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Speaker 1: I've been getting into this musical director type thing where

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Speaker 1: you know, a huge, you know, wealthy you guy wants

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Speaker 1: to put on this huge event and I end up

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Speaker 1: being a musical director, and which is It's tedious and

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Speaker 1: a lot of work, everything from monitors to you know,

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Speaker 1: the schematics of of the each band and how many

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Speaker 1: mikes and how high the stage is and or how

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Speaker 1: hi the risers. I mean, it's just everything. So what

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Speaker 1: did your wife say about being on the road all

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Speaker 1: the time. Well, we haven't been on the road six

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Speaker 1: weeks or nine weeks since we met, which was thirteen

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Speaker 1: years ago, so we're not looking forward to that at all.

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Speaker 1: But um, she is fin you up a three year

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Speaker 1: nursing school. This nursing program is like med school. It's

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Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like It's it's kind of caite

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Speaker 1: my first marriage. I was with somebody who was in

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Speaker 1: law school, and I thought that was insane. Now I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm in my my marriage with my wife and I'm

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Speaker 1: watching to go through this. I just would like to

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Speaker 1: be here with her, but it is what it is. Well,

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Speaker 1: we'll get We'll be fine. And did your first marriage

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Speaker 1: break up because you were on the road? Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, dude, I was. I was the model

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Speaker 1: rock and roll guy. Just debauchery. I mean, look at

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Speaker 1: my My book is called Sex Drums Rocking Roll, but

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Speaker 1: probably back then it might have had a little bit

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Speaker 1: of sex, drugs rocking roll. I mean we were I

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Speaker 1: was with Mellencamp and we went in eight years from

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Speaker 1: playing in clubs to arenas uh and sold out three

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Speaker 1: and sixty uh you know seats, you know, no opening act,

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Speaker 1: three hours show. So we were young. Audience was young.

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Speaker 1: Girls were throwing their bars underwear at us. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you do the math. You're on the road for right,

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Speaker 1: we should come home for a week, you go go back

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Speaker 1: out for eight weeks and you eat this NonStop. I

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Speaker 1: mean maybe other people the difference today is they say,

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Speaker 1: is today their cell phone cameras? So I don't think

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Speaker 1: you can probably get away with a lot of that behole,

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Speaker 1: no way, no, never mind, the me too movement. Oh

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Speaker 1: tell me about it. I mean I should be in

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Speaker 1: jail because for just you know, I mean when when

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Speaker 1: what's his name? And I'll frank, you know, put his

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Speaker 1: hand on something. Girls, how many times I did that?

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Speaker 1: But we were laughing. Everybody was laughing about it, you know,

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Speaker 1: the girls. I talked to the girls women, because they're

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Speaker 1: not young spintin. They'll go like this, I take pictures

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Speaker 1: with my hands up in the air now, and I

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Speaker 1: don't sue me. Don't sue me. They go like, I'll

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Speaker 1: sue you if you don't touch me. That's the other side. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm not clutching that because I'm being caught in the across.

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm But the thing is what you're talking about too.

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Speaker 1: It's like, man, you could be a picture and this

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Speaker 1: happened before, where I just you know, you've had a

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Speaker 1: couple of glass wine and you just or take can

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Speaker 1: a picture, but your hand goes around the way so

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Speaker 1: you're pulling in a little close and you could look

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Speaker 1: at the picture and go like wow. But when you

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Speaker 1: were doing it was just like ah, yeah, come here,

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Speaker 1: you know, like letting up in the moment kind of moment,

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Speaker 1: but with no motivation or any any agenda. But the

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Speaker 1: picture tells the story, as Rod Stewart once sang, So

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Speaker 1: you're from western Massachusetts. What was it like growing up

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Speaker 1: in the fifties and sixties and western mass You know

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Speaker 1: stock Bridge? Right? I do? But my audience doesn't, all right,

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Speaker 1: Well that I just want to let them know that.

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Speaker 1: You know, so the stock Bridge, as you know, is

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Speaker 1: a was a very unique place to grow up. Um

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Speaker 1: in Western Masster were all these little towns three miles apart,

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Speaker 1: and I grew up in the hippest, coolest of them all, Stockbridge.

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Speaker 1: Uh you know, we had a summer stock theater right

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Speaker 1: down the half a mile down the hill from me.

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Speaker 1: So we I mean I was hanging out with Anne

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Speaker 1: Bancroft and h you know, Franklin Jell And when he

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Speaker 1: was just making it they're doing summer stock. How do

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Speaker 1: you end up hanging out with them? Well? Oh kay,

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Speaker 1: that's a good question. The real reason why I met

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Speaker 1: is because in that area they had summer stock. Bill Gibson,

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Speaker 1: who wrote The Miracle Worker, lived in stock Which and

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Speaker 1: I went to school with his son, and uh, He

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Speaker 1: was friends with Arthur Penn, who was a director who

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Speaker 1: had done I think he directed Bill Gibson's play Golden

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Speaker 1: Boys on Broadway. He convinced our dependent build a house

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Speaker 1: on the same street in stock which is is a building.

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Speaker 1: I know, I'm jumping, I have it. Didn't Arthur Penn

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Speaker 1: direct Alice's restaurant, just you know, right, okay, But going

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Speaker 1: back to um So, Arthur Penn builds a house on

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Speaker 1: your street, on the street. And and ironically, my brother

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Speaker 1: lives on that street. Identical twindentical twin who's a doctor.

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Speaker 1: And this is like a dirt road. I mean when

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Speaker 1: I say street, there might be like eight houses on it,

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Speaker 1: you know. And it's in woods and everything in pond

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Speaker 1: and you know, and your parents do what for a living?

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Speaker 1: And my mom was a school teacher. My dad worked

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Speaker 1: for Peter J. Swite suits to the division of Kimberley

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Speaker 1: claud There were these paper mills that ran My dad

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Speaker 1: was studied chemistry and his specialty was in paper. And

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Speaker 1: there are these mills that would run there was a

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Speaker 1: river that would run down Vermont, New Hampshire into Massachusetts

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Speaker 1: and Connecticut. They had these mills and and in the

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Speaker 1: town over three miles away, which is radically different than

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Speaker 1: my town as far as uh it was more like

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Speaker 1: we called it them. It was like one of the Greaser's,

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Speaker 1: the tough guys. But they had the mill there, and

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Speaker 1: so my dad would commute three miles a day down down.

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Speaker 1: That's why he moved to western Massachusetts job. It was

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Speaker 1: either that or they we're gonna go to um Minnesota.

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Speaker 1: My mom went from she's from New York and went, well, no,

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Speaker 1: at least Stockbridge is two and a half hours from

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Speaker 1: New York Minnesota. So but anyway, so I'm I'm at

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Speaker 1: my my friend Tommy's house on the street, the Gibsons,

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Speaker 1: and I remember it was my turn. He had a

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Speaker 1: house a little they had a little cottage, and we

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Speaker 1: would jam and play rock and roll out there, you know,

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Speaker 1: probably smoke a little pot was thirteen, and we had

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Speaker 1: the black lights, and it was my turn to go

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Speaker 1: down to the house and sneak some beers out of

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Speaker 1: the fridge. I go down there, I'm a little buzz,

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Speaker 1: grabbed two or three beers, and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: Mrs Gibson, his mom, who's the therapist, says, Kenny, is

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Speaker 1: that You're like, oh shit, I'm busted, and I screamed,

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Speaker 1: put the beers baxtures, come out of here and say

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Speaker 1: hi to everybody. They're having a dinner on a porch

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Speaker 1: at night, the candles and the wines going, and there

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Speaker 1: is a Bancroft, Mel Gibson and Franklin No not Mel

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Speaker 1: gives it wait Mel Brooks so and they would come

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Speaker 1: up and do Summer stock just to get out of

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Speaker 1: the city. That's how it all tied. And then I

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Speaker 1: eventually was in a musical there. And you know, my

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Speaker 1: mom loved the theater because she grew up New York,

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Speaker 1: so she was always getting his tickets. And then she'd

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Speaker 1: get she knew Arthur pen and then we'd be backstage

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Speaker 1: meeting Richard Dreyfus or whoever, Goldie Han, whoever was there

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Speaker 1: acting and and and then you mentioned this Alice's Restaurant.

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Speaker 1: There was this little diner in stock Bridge, and I

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Speaker 1: was in fifth grade. I was a little kid trying

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Speaker 1: to hang out with these kind of cool guy people,

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Speaker 1: and there was this lady called Alice's. Yeah, this little diner,

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Speaker 1: and then she uh eventually hooked up with all these

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Speaker 1: people would come in there like Arlo Guthrie and all

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Speaker 1: the hippies, and and the famous story about Alice's restling

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Speaker 1: for the audience is that they eventually got this church

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Speaker 1: in Housatonic, another little town three miles away on the river,

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Speaker 1: and they got this church and they lived in it

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Speaker 1: like hippies, like you know, Woodstock was only two hours away.

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Speaker 1: So they all had they had this famous Thanksgiving and

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Speaker 1: they had all this garbage and they didn't know what

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Speaker 1: to do with it. So they put it in uh

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Speaker 1: the v W bus, a hippie v W bus, right

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Speaker 1: and loaded up. They go to the dump, but the

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Speaker 1: dump is is closed, so they know what to do that.

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Speaker 1: They're all stone and high and they just dump it

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Speaker 1: on the side of the road down an embankment. Now,

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Speaker 1: my best friend's dad was the chief of police, officer Obie,

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Speaker 1: you remember that was my This this big menacine cop.

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Speaker 1: And he finds out that this is gardenge. Ok, we're

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Speaker 1: getting the real story story for the song is they

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Speaker 1: just dumped on a day you couldn't dump. Did they

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Speaker 1: put it in the dump or they put it on

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Speaker 1: the side of the road, not in the dump, Not

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Speaker 1: in the dump because they couldn't get in and This

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Speaker 1: was like an embankment, like the road and then there's

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Speaker 1: the guard rail and then it goes drops down on

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Speaker 1: a grassy hill. They saw it there, but they don't

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Speaker 1: you know, they're their names were on letters they had picked.

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Speaker 1: I mean it was the evidence was there in the movie.

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Speaker 1: And I don't know if this is too. In the

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Speaker 1: movie they say they have to submit the evidence of

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Speaker 1: the judge and he's blind. That had to be a joke,

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Speaker 1: I would think, so I can that. Yeah, So anyway,

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Speaker 1: and so they didn't. They just were told to clean

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Speaker 1: up your mess. And they ended up bringing it all

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Speaker 1: the way down to the barge in New York City

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason they before they dumped it and so

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Speaker 1: Arlo Guthie wrote a song called Alice's Restaurant, which we

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Speaker 1: can it was a funny story with great lyrics. Arlot

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Speaker 1: lives in that area. Arthur Penn thought it was time

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Speaker 1: to make a movie out of this whole scene. And

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Speaker 1: then I was I could have been in it, but

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Speaker 1: I was like, no, that's not cool. Okay, before the

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Speaker 1: song comes out, because I'm growing up, like you know,

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Speaker 1: hour and twenty away whatever, I know about it from

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Speaker 1: the song, But did you know about it when it happened.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was a big deal. Oh yeah, it

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Speaker 1: was a big deal. They were my I kind of

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Speaker 1: looked up to all those guys. They were all older

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Speaker 1: than me and and I thought they were the coolest,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I was. I wanted to be part

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Speaker 1: of their gang. But I couldn't drive. Alan was a bicycle,

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Speaker 1: and you know, so I was kind of I always

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Speaker 1: go to the restaurant because it was like just a

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Speaker 1: mile from my house and just get on my bike

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Speaker 1: or walked down. It was a food any good killer.

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Speaker 1: It was like it was like a real diner, a

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Speaker 1: cool diner. In Alice was a great cook, and she

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Speaker 1: eventually created Alice Is at Avalok, which was right above

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Speaker 1: tang Wood in Lennox on the Hill. She took over

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Speaker 1: the whole place became the Coose Restaurant hun And you know, Okay,

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Speaker 1: so you're growing up. Your mother is into theater. Did

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Speaker 1: she make you take piano lessons? Yeah? What they age?

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Speaker 1: Did you start piano lessons? Well, it started when I

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Speaker 1: can't remember. She put each one of us on her

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Speaker 1: lap and she teach us a song. And each each

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Speaker 1: kid who was I had my brother, twin brother, and

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Speaker 1: my sister was four years younger. We learned these songs

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Speaker 1: and then you know, she was of the back down everybody.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you're gonna be musical or be a

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Speaker 1: well rounded kid, you studied piano. But one day I'm

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Speaker 1: it's like nineteen sixty four and I'm outside playing with

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Speaker 1: my brother and my mom screams at us to come

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Speaker 1: in the house. I thought I was in trouble, but

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Speaker 1: I wasn't. On our black and white r c A

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Speaker 1: TV set with the rabbit ears and the tinfoil, you know,

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Speaker 1: was he had Salivan show guess Who. And I'm sitting

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Speaker 1: there looking at these four guys with long hair. I

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Speaker 1: could not I was. I was bouncing off the walls.

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Speaker 1: I was. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was,

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Speaker 1: I said, man who? These guys said, well, those are

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Speaker 1: the Beatles. And I was enamored by ringo stars, do

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Speaker 1: rum kids, it and the whole thing. And I literally

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Speaker 1: naively asked my mom to call him up and get

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Speaker 1: me in the band. I had no other I did.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know any other way to do it. Well,

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Speaker 1: pause briefly and get right back to Kenny Aaronoff, recorded

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Speaker 1: live in the tune In Studios in Venice, California. This

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Speaker 1: podcast is brought to you by tune In, which brings

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Speaker 1: together all the live, sports, music, news and podcasts you love, original,

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Speaker 1: live and on demanded audio, all in one place. Go

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Speaker 1: to tune in dot com slash left sense to download

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Speaker 1: and listen. Now more with legendary drummer Kenny Aaronoff. Were

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Speaker 1: you a big fan of music? Were you listening on

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Speaker 1: the transistor? The big thing was my parents always had

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Speaker 1: jazz and classical music on the turntable, you know, and

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Speaker 1: they and show tunes because from New York, you know,

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Speaker 1: it was like you just show tunes, you know, and

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Speaker 1: musicals and you know, West Side Story and this story

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Speaker 1: and that story, you name it. It was there and

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Speaker 1: they would take us. I don't know if you knew this,

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Speaker 1: but in Lennox they had obviously the bost pontif New Orchestra,

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Speaker 1: but they had this thing called Music in and in

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Speaker 1: sixties had a huge jazz uh program up there, and

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Speaker 1: I would go up there. Uh. It was somebody thought of,

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Speaker 1: you know, let's let's create a program out of the city.

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Speaker 1: Get out of New York in the summer and go

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Speaker 1: to the Booshers, and they created a whole thing. And

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Speaker 1: I'd see Dave blue Back every summer, Ray Charles, I'd

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Speaker 1: see Charles mingus h. I wish I had seen Coltrane

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Speaker 1: and el Fitzgerald, all these great jazz us, And so

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Speaker 1: I was right there. Man, Okay, so you see the Beatles.

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Speaker 1: How do you get a drum? Kid? I couldn't. I

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Speaker 1: couldn't afford it. So my mom goes down to New

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Speaker 1: York Manny's of course, gets a snare drum. How don't

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Speaker 1: she know to go to Manny's. Somebody told her somebody

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Speaker 1: because they were in that whole circle of music and

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Speaker 1: and they knew a lot of New Yorkers. This guy,

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Speaker 1: Dick Cats, was a jazz pianist who actually lived in

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Speaker 1: a house in summer and he was studying at the

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Speaker 1: music in he was doing taking workshops and giving workshops.

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Speaker 1: Who says Manny's is the place to go because there

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Speaker 1: was not really a drum shop there. Definitely wanted maybe

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Speaker 1: there was a music store in our area, but not

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Speaker 1: not not in stock but that's for sure. It was

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Speaker 1: like three times over. So we're down there. My mom

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Speaker 1: goes listen to my kid wants to she says, Mrs Aaronoff,

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Speaker 1: here's a snare um. You buy this snare at um.

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Speaker 1: If he doesn't like it in three months or six months,

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Speaker 1: you bring it back and we'll give you your money back.

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Speaker 1: Who does that? I don't remember. I just remember going

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Speaker 1: to me and he's you know, other than seeing the

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Speaker 1: young Gene Cornish there and then all other famous musicians

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Speaker 1: as a young kid, they would buy and sell stuff

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Speaker 1: so fast you would save your money for a guitar

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Speaker 1: and they go, what do you want feder strata caster? Okay,

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Speaker 1: bring it down? How about this? How much money you

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00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:04,800
Speaker 1: got in your wallet? Touch? As they said today, how

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00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:06,760
Speaker 1: much money you got in your wall? I'm like what

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Speaker 1: they would They would push you in and out right exactly, dude.

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Speaker 1: It was like ruthless. It's like I was nervous when

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Speaker 1: I get in there, absolutely like they do the right thing,

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Speaker 1: you know, I know. Okay, So you got the snare

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Speaker 1: drum and then I got a symbol and I stood

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Speaker 1: up and played. Okay, did you take lessons? Well you

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Speaker 1: know that in no, not high school in uh junior

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Speaker 1: huh even less than that, like up to grade six times.

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Speaker 1: That music teacher that taught everybody ever or there used

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Speaker 1: to be. That's what instructor exactly, That's what I called him,

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Speaker 1: right right, So band instructor, and he kind of taught

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Speaker 1: me how the hold the sticks, and he needed he

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Speaker 1: saw that I was in the drums and it was boring. Man.

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Speaker 1: I had to plan a pad and learned to read,

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Speaker 1: and it was like not fun, was not the Beatles.

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Speaker 1: As far from the Beatles as you give me, so

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Speaker 1: I would. But but that was the beginning of me,

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Speaker 1: you know, trying to read. Trying to to me was

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Speaker 1: like and and and and move forward. In the high

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Speaker 1: school and junior I had nothing to do with the

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Speaker 1: marching band and nothing that wasn't cool. I was playing

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Speaker 1: at clubs, playing Hendricks and the Stones and Beatles and

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Speaker 1: stuff like that. Why would I want to listen to

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Speaker 1: a squeaky clarinet? Okay, so you have your snare, drum

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Speaker 1: and a symbol. At what point do you form a band? Well,

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Speaker 1: right away it was called the Alley Cats, and uh

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Speaker 1: actually have a picture not on me, but and I

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Speaker 1: stand up and play. And then for Christmas or Hanuka

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Speaker 1: or whatever. Basically you had the band. Did the band

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Speaker 1: play any gigs? The first gig. There was a thing

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Speaker 1: called the Grange meeting. And what the Grange meeting was

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Speaker 1: all the elderly's of stock Bridge would meet once a

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Speaker 1: month at the town hall and they discussed how to

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Speaker 1: keep the the the looks and the vibe of Stockbridge,

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Speaker 1: you know, preserved, you know, to say, you know, they

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00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,800
Speaker 1: go over things and the month, and the mother of

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Speaker 1: the piano player, she wasn't too elderly, but she was

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Speaker 1: part of the Grange meeting, said wow, would you like

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Speaker 1: to have my boy and he and his band come

401
00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 1: down and entertain us. We get a call and we

402
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,280
Speaker 1: think we're up playing mass and square guard parents, you know,

403
00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:14,280
Speaker 1: throw my Snares symbol in the in the station wag

404
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:16,879
Speaker 1: and we go down. We set up and to me

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00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 1: it was like I was on the Sulvan Show. I

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00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:21,400
Speaker 1: mean it was like and we're playing, you know, all

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Speaker 1: these Beatles songs and a couple of Beach Boys songs.

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00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:27,320
Speaker 1: We get done. It was maybe five songs and everyone's

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Speaker 1: up dancing and all going like that's what they'd call

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Speaker 1: a rock band, Like it was new, that's that's that's

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00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:35,920
Speaker 1: what the Beatles do. You know, it was this new thing.

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Speaker 1: And we get done, and I'm shutting my eyes and

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Speaker 1: picturing the whole thing. I'm in complete love and flipped

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Speaker 1: out about this. And they said, do you know any

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00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:46,480
Speaker 1: more songs? And we said no, So we played the

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00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 1: same five again. Wow. Wow, I thought the story was

417
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,600
Speaker 1: gonna go opposite. You were playing for the town elders

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Speaker 1: and they were gonna say springtime for Hitler and get

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Speaker 1: all the sting. So okay, So that was the beginning.

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Speaker 1: So when do you get a full drum kid? Well,

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Speaker 1: the next Christmas hun a good time, you know, I

422
00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:05,960
Speaker 1: got a base from next birthday. I got a Floria

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00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 1: toime next and I saved up my money for the

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00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:10,720
Speaker 1: rack time. I just put it together slowly but sure.

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00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:12,919
Speaker 1: And I still have that kid and the funny stories

426
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,680
Speaker 1: that snared him. Um. When I got older, it was

427
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,360
Speaker 1: a kind of it only has six lugs, and when

428
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 1: you only have six lugs, the standard is ten maybe eight.

429
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,359
Speaker 1: It was six because the less lugs and more ringky

430
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: the drummers. For jazz drummers, that's you don't play loud

431
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,199
Speaker 1: and you want lots of tone and dynamics and you

432
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,919
Speaker 1: control every with your hands. So that was interesting at

433
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:37,000
Speaker 1: a six lug and I realized it wasn't really good

434
00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 1: rock and roll drum, so I gave it to some

435
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:43,439
Speaker 1: kid for a couple of bags of homegrown pot. Now

436
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:48,840
Speaker 1: check this out. Whenever became famous, that kid, Carl Landa

437
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,760
Speaker 1: emails me and goes, Kenny, I was about to sell

438
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:53,680
Speaker 1: you snare them on eBay? Would you like to buy

439
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:55,080
Speaker 1: it back? So when I call up a guy who

440
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,040
Speaker 1: knows about buying and selling old drums, just it's probably

441
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 1: worth four to six hundred dollars. So I bought the

442
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,800
Speaker 1: thing back for four dollars. Wow. How many drum sets

443
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:06,400
Speaker 1: do you have? Well, I've had. I've been up as

444
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,159
Speaker 1: much as fourteen. But I'm starting to get rid of

445
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:11,320
Speaker 1: them because it just takes up too much space. They'm

446
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:15,040
Speaker 1: not going to use them. And your original drums were Ludwig,

447
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 1: just like Ringo tweeted the other day that it's fifty

448
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:21,200
Speaker 1: five years since he got his first Ludwig. Kid, And

449
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 1: what do you play now? Tom? I've been with Tom

450
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 1: of thirty five years. What's the real difference between drums?

451
00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,359
Speaker 1: Definitely the manufacturing if if first of all, if any

452
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:34,160
Speaker 1: company can't make a good sounding drum now, they shouldn't

453
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:36,920
Speaker 1: be in the business. It's not rocket science anymore. It

454
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:41,119
Speaker 1: is a formula. But you know, um, the thing I

455
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:43,919
Speaker 1: like about tomah whose they came on strong. It was

456
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 1: a family run business and out of Japan, and their

457
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:53,199
Speaker 1: hardware was extraordinary. They're very creative and innovative company. And

458
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,159
Speaker 1: they they they're a little in common and they and

459
00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 1: I was blown away. And then it was Billy come

460
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 1: from mahavishn Orchestra, Alvin Jones, Uh, all these different cool

461
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 1: drummers literally de Vito from Billy Joel. Uh didn't be.

462
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: I really dug their roster and then I played their

463
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:15,680
Speaker 1: equipment and it was unbelievable. It just sounded great. Now

464
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:21,120
Speaker 1: almost every company has a great sounding drum. But the consistency,

465
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 1: they've never let me down. At any level of drum,

466
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:28,960
Speaker 1: whether it's for the beginner, the quality is extremely high. Uh.

467
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,199
Speaker 1: And they believe you know you don't you know, you

468
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:35,560
Speaker 1: don't be cheap in any level on anything. And that's

469
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,080
Speaker 1: how you get somebody to fall in love with your product.

470
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,240
Speaker 1: And as they graduate up to the expensive kids, you

471
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 1: know that they're committed. And uh, yeah, I could leave time.

472
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 1: I remember a lot of companies tried to grab him

473
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: when I was big like Pearl. They I was a

474
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,880
Speaker 1: Nashville recording a lot down there and the Pearl which

475
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:55,399
Speaker 1: headquarters there. They brought me in they wanted they were

476
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,119
Speaker 1: trying to offer me to switch, and I said, look it,

477
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:02,560
Speaker 1: unless you offer me something that Tom has already given me,

478
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 1: I can't. I'm not gonna leave a company for a

479
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 1: lateral move. It's gotta be something. What is there? I mean,

480
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 1: more advertising now I get I'm I'm I get plenty

481
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,800
Speaker 1: of advertising, more drum clinics and maybe guaranteed, you know,

482
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:17,439
Speaker 1: but I'm on tour all the time. You know, it

483
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:23,480
Speaker 1: didn't make sense. Okay, Um, I'm just thinking a question

484
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 1: about the drums that fascinated me, but it eludes me

485
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,400
Speaker 1: right this very second. But ultimately you get hooked in

486
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 1: with Tanglewood and you go to Boston to be taught drums.

487
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 1: Why don't you tell my audience about that? Well, when

488
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 1: I was a kid, there was no school rock and

489
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 1: in our family everybody went to college and I was

490
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 1: a given. Um. You know, post World War Two. You know,

491
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 1: my dad, my grandparents came from Russia. Education education. My

492
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: dad gets an education. But before you can even really

493
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 1: get starready, flying bombers over Berlin, bombing the ship out

494
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 1: of Hitler at last fifty And when did you find

495
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 1: out about? Uh? Pretty young, because he had these books

496
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,120
Speaker 1: where he was he was the navigator and bomba deere.

497
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 1: I had pictures of like the pictures that scrap books of,

498
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 1: you know, Bombay's opening and bombs going down and what

499
00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 1: do you talked about it? Not really, you know, but

500
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:19,359
Speaker 1: but I I still I have his suit, his his

501
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 1: uh whatever he was, you know, I have the Sudi

502
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:27,240
Speaker 1: war um and uh, my my brother has all his

503
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:31,919
Speaker 1: all those pictures and you know, and my brother smartly.

504
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: They were ten people in these these big, huge bombers,

505
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,680
Speaker 1: and they started that the whole Spielberg type of thing.

506
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,399
Speaker 1: They would get together every year. They still probably are,

507
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 1: but you know, there's only a few left. And there

508
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: were six people in that plane of his. That's out

509
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,119
Speaker 1: of the ten that were still alive when they started

510
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,920
Speaker 1: doing this. Then there was four and the last three,

511
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 1: ironically was pilot, co pilot and navigator my dad. And

512
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 1: then we were all the guys up front last week.

513
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:03,120
Speaker 1: So my brother says, I gotta get this on film.

514
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 1: So he goes and he does seventeen CDs or DVDs

515
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 1: worth of filming interviewing these guys and my brother's psychoanas.

516
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,879
Speaker 1: So he came at it from an interesting standpoint. The

517
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 1: night they get down there. The next day is that

518
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: like the two the weekends UH convention, my dad almost dies.

519
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 1: He has goes into spasms and they have to bring

520
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: the hospital and eventually they put a a pacemaker in

521
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: the defiberator. I think he may have had the pacemaker,

522
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 1: but he needed a defibrillator that would have he He lived,

523
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 1: but he could have died. And my dad said, no, no, no, no,

524
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 1: film filmed these guys and will film me later. And

525
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:49,399
Speaker 1: that's what he did. So um amazing, I mean the stories,

526
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 1: I mean from their perspective. I'm almost dying. My dad

527
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 1: said he saw more planes go down. You just get

528
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 1: in formation and there'll be nine of them. I think

529
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 1: you take off, uh. And these planes were put together

530
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: with spit and glue. They they were they was the first.

531
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:06,360
Speaker 1: That was the beginning of the air force and they

532
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: but they had to do it to to beat the

533
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: crap out of Hitler because he was taking over the

534
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 1: whole world. So um, they get in formation and and

535
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 1: the first plane would send off at a colored flare

536
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: of some sort, so you knew you had to be

537
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 1: with the squadron of yellow. And they get all these

538
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 1: nine planes up and they get in formation, and my

539
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 1: brother asked the pilot, you know who might maybe was

540
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 1: twenty at that time flying, how did you I mean

541
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,280
Speaker 1: you you know, the flag was coming up from below

542
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: and they were blowing out planes out of the sky.

543
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,119
Speaker 1: You see your buddies plane go. You see. It was

544
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:47,440
Speaker 1: just absolute hell and explosions and planes were getting beat up.

545
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: And he said, how did you stay focused? He says, Mo,

546
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: My job was. I just looked at the coordinates I

547
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,239
Speaker 1: had to go. I just ignored life or death. This

548
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,360
Speaker 1: is where I have to go. That's my job. Do it.

549
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: And they survived a couple of times they almost had

550
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 1: they were running out of gas and they are One

551
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 1: time the bomber deer the bombay opened up and all

552
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:11,920
Speaker 1: my dad's navigation plans went. You know how he navigated

553
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,639
Speaker 1: him stars? Wow, the stars. He had to learn about

554
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 1: the stars in case that happened. Thank god they were

555
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: high enough that you can see. And then they had

556
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 1: to you know, he's using protractors and slide rules. I

557
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,639
Speaker 1: remember high school chemistry. I gave up science after the

558
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:34,479
Speaker 1: slide rules. You know they have calculators now. So anyway,

559
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: but you end up going to Boston for so what

560
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 1: happened was, Yeah, in high school, I saw my buddy

561
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: Tommy Gibson was getting better on drums. Uh you know

562
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 1: Bill Gibson's son, and I was like, God, what are

563
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:48,520
Speaker 1: you doing? He said, Oh, I'm studying with the percussions

564
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,479
Speaker 1: from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Are depressed when I want

565
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 1: to do that. So I go down in the summer,

566
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 1: you know they're there, but in the winter he's in Boston.

567
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: So I get a bus, grahound bus to go down there,

568
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 1: and I go to Arthur's house. He says, what's your name?

569
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: Very menacing, slightly whiplash style, you know, like kid, what's

570
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 1: your name? I said, Kenny? Kenny? What Kenny arnofs? What

571
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: have you prepared for me today? I'm like, what Tommy

572
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: didn't tell me about preparing? He said, do you play marimbus? Is? No, Well,

573
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:24,480
Speaker 1: if you prepared a timpany piece for me? Said, I've

574
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 1: never played timpany and I'm just getting smaller and small.

575
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 1: He find says, what do you place I played drum

576
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: sets as well. Let's come down stairs and I'll have

577
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 1: you play some drum set. So he puts on spinning

578
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: wheels by blood, sweat and tears. In thirty seconds, he

579
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: pulls me off the chair and he points to a

580
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:44,760
Speaker 1: rubber practice pad. That was the definitive moment where it's

581
00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 1: like I don't need this, but something told me inside

582
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: me that I do. And that was the beginning of

583
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 1: some severe discipline and you know the winner. I didn't

584
00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: practice a lox. There was a lesson every month, but

585
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: in the summer when he was gonna be there every

586
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 1: week and he's yelling at you and screaming at you,

587
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: I started practice. So then when I was starting to

588
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:10,239
Speaker 1: go to college, there was no School of Rocks, so

589
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 1: I started auditioning, you know Western mass you know college

590
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: so I could be near home. And I get into

591
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: University of Massachusetts, and I had I prepared something on

592
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 1: vibes because my dad got a set of vibes for

593
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: me second hand at Carol's Music Shop in New York

594
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 1: for like three hundred bucks. Had vibes and uh My,

595
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 1: Tommy had timpany. At practiced on timpany and I barely

596
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 1: got into u mass and that's the fear of of

597
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 1: of failure. The day I graduated high school, I started

598
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 1: practicing eight hours a day, seven days a week because

599
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 1: I was terrified to fail. And I was terrified I

600
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: was gonna be way behind. And I was I got

601
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,240
Speaker 1: to school. All these kids that were in marching band

602
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 1: and symphony orchestra that reading skills were better, they could

603
00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 1: follow conductors. I was a rocker, you know, and so

604
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: I was terrified and the fear of failure. I would

605
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 1: practice to they throw me out of the building every night.

606
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: And it gets better because I'm starting to get better,

607
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:13,840
Speaker 1: you know. And to teach you the reason why he

608
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 1: actually with this. If all happened, if your parents had

609
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 1: not insisted you go to college, Jess, I don't know

610
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 1: what I would have done. Probably I would have gone

611
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 1: anywhere because everybody was doing that. Everybody was going to college,

612
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: he said. But it wasn't an issue of saying, funk this.

613
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: I just want to play in a rock band. No,

614
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:32,200
Speaker 1: because I had no business model. Living in stock which

615
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 1: we didn't have. There was nobody who had done it.

616
00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:37,200
Speaker 1: If I lived in New York, maybe I wouldn't done it,

617
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:39,840
Speaker 1: but there was no business. Mom. I was like, how

618
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 1: do you do this? I realized that my mom wasn't

619
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: gonna get in touch of the Beatles, you know, I

620
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 1: realized I was I had no business. Okay. And when

621
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 1: you're going to college with what goal? Just to get

622
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 1: a degree or to then play in a rock band

623
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: or whatever, good good, good question. My brain was saying,

624
00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 1: you get into a symphony orchestra. My heart was saying

625
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: in a rock band. And I always was playing in

626
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: rock bands, jazz bands, R and B bands, any band,

627
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 1: any music was fun. I just did whatever anybody. I

628
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:09,720
Speaker 1: wasn't selective. I just as long as I was playing,

629
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:11,800
Speaker 1: I was having a blast. And how did you slept

630
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 1: the drums around all the time? Not an issue? I

631
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 1: don't care. Somebody had a car. I didn't have a

632
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: car until I got out of college. Somebody always had

633
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: a car or something. We picked them up. They wanted me,

634
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: They get me in the drums. Okay. So you're practicing

635
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,640
Speaker 1: eight hours a day at mass, the eight hours a

636
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: day at home, they getting new mass, and then you

637
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 1: got full load of academics and music. And so I

638
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: practiced the wee hours a night. And there was his

639
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 1: hot cellis is how does a cellis can be in orchestra?

640
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,959
Speaker 1: And uh, she I heard going to Aspen this summer.

641
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 1: She was a junior and what's asking? So oh that,

642
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: but Juilliard has this incredible program at Aspen. So I

643
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 1: find out, I get the papers and I audition and

644
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: uh um, I don't hear from them. And it's the

645
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:59,600
Speaker 1: end of the the the the school year, and I

646
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 1: I'm to go home. I got my dad station wag

647
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: and I got all my stuff and I got I'm

648
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: gonna study with Arthur Press again, and I got our

649
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 1: Almond Brothers type band and uh and so I'm a

650
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: head about two miles out of town. I go, oh, kid,

651
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 1: I forgot my mail. I go back and went I said,

652
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: it looks like I gotta check, and I open it up.

653
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: It's you are accepted to AskMen. I think I was

654
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 1: an alternate because there's two weeks before, so I go there.

655
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 1: I am the absolute, by far, the worst percussious, Sarah.

656
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: These guys were playing remember and Timpani and the Juili

657
00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 1: Yard Youth Orchestra when they were in diapers, and they

658
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 1: were a monster. Now the teacher there was this incredible,

659
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: brilliant man George Gabor, who taught at Indiana University, number

660
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: one school and music in the country, and um, I'm

661
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: blown away by this guy's head. You know, his whole

662
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 1: thought process, his whole he was way deeper than just

663
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 1: playing percussion. So I said, I want to I want

664
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: to go to Indiana University study with you. He said,

665
00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:58,480
Speaker 1: come back in January and audition. I went to No.

666
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 1: One audition. Now demanded an audition. He had to find

667
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 1: a faculty from four different departments from Indiana. That's the rule.

668
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 1: You have to audition for four different faculty head department

669
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:13,120
Speaker 1: heads to get in so that it's not one sided.

670
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:15,839
Speaker 1: And they happened to be up there. They were all

671
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: part of the asaid a lot of Indiana professors would teacher.

672
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:22,879
Speaker 1: I get in and for four years I busted my asset. Okay,

673
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:24,600
Speaker 1: So how many years have you done at you mass?

674
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:29,440
Speaker 1: One year? You mass forward Indiana and every spring I

675
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: would audition to get into tang Wood, which is in

676
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:34,400
Speaker 1: my backyard, which is the number one student orchestra in

677
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: the country, and it's run by the Boston Symbiy Orchestra.

678
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: And the cool thing about being an orchestra you get

679
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 1: conducted by all the conductors that conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

680
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: So I auditioned one year for Vic Firth my you

681
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 1: know the timperest and uh I strike out miserably. Next

682
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:53,759
Speaker 1: year I come back. Did you have stage fight or

683
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 1: you were good enough both? I was nervous man, and

684
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 1: end up doing that summer uh starry with Arthur Press

685
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:04,840
Speaker 1: and had my own fusion band. I never ever stopped practicing, massively,

686
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:08,399
Speaker 1: practicing and um. And then what what is it when

687
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 1: a drummer practice is what do they do well on?

688
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 1: Remember there were scales, and they're there a tunes and

689
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:17,440
Speaker 1: melodies and and arpeggios and technical things. Then I do

690
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,399
Speaker 1: that for like maybe two hours or two or three hours,

691
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 1: and over the timpany the same thing technical exercises. Then

692
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,839
Speaker 1: you're learning uh A tunes and melodies that have been

693
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 1: written specifically for the timpany tuning, and then you play

694
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 1: along with symphony uh you know, um, symphonies, you know

695
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 1: by you know Beetho. And I remember one of the

696
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 1: questions that alluded me when they say tuning drums, how

697
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 1: do you tune a drum? Well, the the whole concept

698
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: is that the shell on top and bottom has where

699
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:48,960
Speaker 1: the shell ends as a bearing edge, and you can

700
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 1: sharpen those edges at a forty five or sixty degree angle.

701
00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 1: The sharper, the more aggressive the drum sounds. The rounder

702
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 1: the edge, the more you have a bigger tuning range

703
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:02,560
Speaker 1: and it's a little bit warmer sounding. Then you have

704
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:05,640
Speaker 1: a head that you put on, and that's a whole variable.

705
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 1: Then there's this uh, steel or metal hoop that goes

706
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: over the head that's just a little bit wider than

707
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 1: the shell. And in that hoop there might be eight

708
00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: six on a tom maybe six lugs snared them eight

709
00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,759
Speaker 1: or ten lugs. And lugs are just like screws, and

710
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 1: on the shell are these little casings that will receive

711
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 1: the screws. And you're basically the concept. You're trying to

712
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: bring this hoop down on top of the head, tighten

713
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:38,680
Speaker 1: that head down on that bearing edge evenly. When you

714
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 1: do it evenly, you get your shooting to get one tone,

715
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: one bing up by like that you want boom. So

716
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,480
Speaker 1: what I do is I tuned the bottom head first fingertight,

717
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:55,240
Speaker 1: get the lugs down, then I start turning equal turns,

718
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 1: like maybe with a tuning a drum key half turn,

719
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: half turn all the way around, half turn, half turn

720
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 1: all the way around, and listen to feel how the tightness.

721
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: Maybe do a quarter turn quarter turn stop there. Then

722
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 1: I put the top head on and I start tuning

723
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:11,360
Speaker 1: it up, and I'm using my ears. I've got this

724
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,960
Speaker 1: technical ability, but I'm really using my ears now at

725
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:16,400
Speaker 1: this point, when does it start to sound good? I'd

726
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,960
Speaker 1: like to have both the top and bottom head the

727
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 1: same pitch, because then the drum sounds like one note,

728
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: don't and each drum does have a sweet spot where

729
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:30,360
Speaker 1: it sounds the best. Let's say Thomas shipped you a

730
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 1: drum kit. How long would it take you to get it?

731
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,400
Speaker 1: Twee you're satisfied. Oh, I could probably get it pretty

732
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:38,760
Speaker 1: good in thirty minutes. But I'm like a speed demon

733
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 1: on it. Uh. You know when I do these drums

734
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 1: seminars um and they have a new kid, I tell

735
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: them ahead of time, get the heads on, get it

736
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,319
Speaker 1: tuned as good as you can, and I come in

737
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,439
Speaker 1: and tweak it real fast. I'll check the bottom head

738
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:54,120
Speaker 1: first of Melia and go like, wamen, this is too tight,

739
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:56,359
Speaker 1: bring it down. Then I started bringing the top head

740
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:57,920
Speaker 1: up or down to the start sound like, and I

741
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,880
Speaker 1: keep tweaking sometimes just one. Now, if you hear a

742
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:05,960
Speaker 1: weird garden good, a weird vibration, I'll feel around and

743
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 1: they might be a head could have a flaw and

744
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 1: it's a little not tight on the on the baring edge,

745
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:15,799
Speaker 1: and so I have to tune that particular lug tighter. Okay.

746
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 1: And when you go to the studio, usually in the

747
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 1: old days, you go to a big studio, the first

748
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:24,560
Speaker 1: thing they're doing is getting the drums sound of tuning

749
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,439
Speaker 1: the drums. Are they when they talk about tuning the drums,

750
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:29,839
Speaker 1: they talk about the same thing you're talking about. Yeah,

751
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 1: I just want to get the You want to get

752
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 1: the drums to sound the best that those drums can sound.

753
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: And if I if, if you're doing it like my

754
00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 1: my well known snare sound from the eighties with Mellencamp

755
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:47,760
Speaker 1: had a ring to it. We would tune after every take.

756
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:51,319
Speaker 1: We we had a recording of that pitch and we'd

757
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: retune to snare at them to get it back to

758
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 1: that pitch. So it was consistent. So if you were

759
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 1: splicing between takes, you had the same tuning then then,

760
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,320
Speaker 1: But but a lot of times I'd go into sessions

761
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:03,520
Speaker 1: and people like, wow, what's that ring? And I'm like,

762
00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:07,799
Speaker 1: that's Kenny aaron Off and they go, well, can you

763
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:10,040
Speaker 1: put a tape on it? I'm like, I don't care,

764
00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,959
Speaker 1: I'm sure whatever, and I would go. At one point,

765
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 1: I was showing up in l A with hundred scenario

766
00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 1: dooms just because I thought more was more. Now I

767
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 1: have my own signature series. I only need about really

768
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 1: six scenaridoms I gotta covered. You're listening to my conversation

769
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 1: with legendary drummer Kenny Aaronoff, recorded live at the tune

770
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 1: In Studios in Venice, California. I hope you're enjoying this

771
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 1: episode of the Bob Left Sets Podcast. If you want

772
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:47,360
Speaker 1: to see photos and videos of Kenny Aaronoff and the

773
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:51,239
Speaker 1: tune In Studios, go to at tune In on Twitter, Facebook,

774
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:55,439
Speaker 1: and Instagram. Now more of legendary drummer Kenny aaron Off

775
00:39:55,440 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: on The Bob Left Sets Podcast. Okay, occasionally you're in

776
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: the studio and the producers say, oh, I want to

777
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 1: rent this specific drum kit, now your your level? It

778
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 1: does that ever happen? Rarely? It's occasionally like they want

779
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:13,439
Speaker 1: or you go in new studio and this is where

780
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:16,839
Speaker 1: the producer always works. And the drums this is this

781
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 1: is what we like to use, or all my dubb

782
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: but they really want Kenny Aronoff complete. Then you have

783
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:30,040
Speaker 1: me bring my drums, dude Fogy nineteen eight, I get

784
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:33,840
Speaker 1: called to do Fogerty record. I'll I'll go right ahead

785
00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 1: and say this. He spent five years practicing all instruments

786
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:41,840
Speaker 1: to get ready to make a record. You know, he

787
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 1: he quit the music business. He was disillusioned by failure

788
00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,680
Speaker 1: after or just all this stuff that went down between

789
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:51,440
Speaker 1: him and the management, and it seemed like everything was

790
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: not a good thing with music. So he let it.

791
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 1: His wife convinced to get back and he spends five

792
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:59,360
Speaker 1: years doing I get called in the fifth year of

793
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,319
Speaker 1: making Blue Moon Swamp. I didn't notice the way later,

794
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 1: and so that's ten years. I'm the thirtieth drummer, last guy,

795
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 1: and so I say, okay, when do you want my

796
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,879
Speaker 1: cartage coming to bring my drums? And were Bob fog

797
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 1: his buzzes. You don't need to bring your drums all there.

798
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:22,480
Speaker 1: John had learned. He he learned how to tune drums.

799
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: He knew that he wanted a Thomas twenty two by

800
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 1: eighteen maple drum kit front head off. He had learned

801
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 1: how to take a piano packing blanket, certain way of

802
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:37,880
Speaker 1: folding it, sticking it in just the right place, a

803
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: certain beater, remo fiberskin three based from head which he

804
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:45,479
Speaker 1: would tune he liked. My favorite start was super Funding

805
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,160
Speaker 1: four with a coded ambassador. He would tune it. He

806
00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:50,359
Speaker 1: hit it down to a science half turn, half turn,

807
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:52,759
Speaker 1: third turn, turn, a quarter turn, and then take mole

808
00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:55,640
Speaker 1: skin and tune it to an F shot. He was

809
00:41:55,640 --> 00:42:01,279
Speaker 1: tuning with my drums. Were you satisfied out? Well? You

810
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:03,840
Speaker 1: know me, uh, the whole A lot of my successes

811
00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:07,320
Speaker 1: served the boss, served, the team, served whatever. But here's

812
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 1: the quirky thing, which is a side story. You know,

813
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 1: I got pretty pretty good at my crafty recording. So

814
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 1: we learned this song and it's me and it's Bob

815
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 1: Glober bass player and John, and I'm thinking we're all

816
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:22,239
Speaker 1: getting this together because we go out and we play

817
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:24,640
Speaker 1: this song two takes and then go back and listen

818
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: to John to make a few comments. Two takes, go

819
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:29,799
Speaker 1: back and listen to it. After six takes, I went

820
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:33,080
Speaker 1: pretty damn good, he says. Now, let's keep going. So

821
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 1: we do it for three and a half hours and

822
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 1: then took lunch break. We did the next song like

823
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:40,439
Speaker 1: this is awesome, and John says me after the first day, says,

824
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 1: you know, I really enjoy working with you man, You're

825
00:42:44,040 --> 00:42:45,919
Speaker 1: the drummer I've been looking for my whole life. Would

826
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:51,759
Speaker 1: you mind coming back tomorrow? I went absolutely creed. So

827
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:53,400
Speaker 1: I go, Okay, what songs are we doing today? And

828
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:58,879
Speaker 1: they went, um, same two songs. I'm like what. So

829
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:02,360
Speaker 1: then I go like, what am I doing wrong? You know?

830
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:04,719
Speaker 1: So I'm trying real hard. This is what John liked.

831
00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I was like, and then he

832
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:10,400
Speaker 1: invites me back next day it's Wednesday and says, all right,

833
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 1: what are we doing today? Same two songs. Thursday, I'm like,

834
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:16,799
Speaker 1: really lose my mind. I'm like, you're not We're not

835
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:18,359
Speaker 1: doing the same too song? I said, yeah, we are.

836
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,239
Speaker 1: And Friday. Then I realized what was happening. Friday, same

837
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:24,440
Speaker 1: two songs, and he invited me to come back the

838
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 1: next week and it was a new set of songs.

839
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 1: But he through those five years, he was such a perfection.

840
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,720
Speaker 1: She was trying to find his voice and his sound

841
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:36,400
Speaker 1: and and the snare them thing. And this is for

842
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 1: the listeners that we had the same issue with Mellencamp.

843
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:42,760
Speaker 1: It was like we were trying to get this unique

844
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,239
Speaker 1: drum sound and you get that, and then you get

845
00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 1: this cool guitar sound and you put it together. It

846
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 1: didn't work. And like if you put red the color

847
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 1: red on a canvas, and then you put red on red,

848
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,680
Speaker 1: it starts to look brown. Literally. So we had to

849
00:43:55,719 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: find frequency where the guitars would not overlap much on

850
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: the snare sound. And that was a challenge. And that's

851
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,799
Speaker 1: why I always bought so many snare dums. And you know,

852
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,279
Speaker 1: I would work with the engineers and I would listen

853
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:11,560
Speaker 1: and oh, yeah, the snare is the same pitch. Let

854
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 1: me tune it down a little bit. And you know,

855
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,600
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five, when the whole you said, yeah,

856
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 1: we would build. You build everything around the drum sound

857
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,040
Speaker 1: you had to get. There was no pro tools, so

858
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 1: you had to get complete takes. You didn't want to

859
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:25,839
Speaker 1: be the guy to mess up a take and then

860
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:28,399
Speaker 1: they have to split tape and you can only get

861
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 1: three takes on one wheel. Now, if you're getting into

862
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:34,720
Speaker 1: two wheels and three wheels, that's five dollars a reel plus.

863
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:37,719
Speaker 1: You're going like, okay, let's listen to take number nine

864
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: that's on real three. Let's go back and listen to

865
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,440
Speaker 1: take number two on reel one. I mean, you really

866
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:47,040
Speaker 1: messing up. The drummer has to play perfect, end time right,

867
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:50,120
Speaker 1: sounds right, feels right, groove right, everything, so they can

868
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:52,080
Speaker 1: build it anything off of that. And I still try

869
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 1: to record like that, even with pro tools. What about

870
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 1: a click track click track? No problem? I love it,

871
00:44:57,200 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 1: use it and not use it started, shut it off. Uh,

872
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: the click track is a is a good mechanism. What

873
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:05,520
Speaker 1: do you explain for those people don't know what a

874
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:07,839
Speaker 1: click track? Click track is? Like a metronome, It's got

875
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:11,879
Speaker 1: a like if the temple is one twenty got cut

876
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:15,080
Speaker 1: cut cut cut personally like a cow bell in my

877
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:20,000
Speaker 1: head because I'm so definite. Has your hearing suffered a

878
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:23,640
Speaker 1: big time? You were the hearing aids. I try not

879
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:26,560
Speaker 1: to well, well, my wife I do. I wouldn't admit

880
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:28,720
Speaker 1: that to anybody, but I'm admitting it on your show.

881
00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 1: I haven't me at home because her voice is very,

882
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:34,239
Speaker 1: very high, and she's English and she speaks quiet, and

883
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:38,719
Speaker 1: to preserve my relationship I because she got sick of

884
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: me saying what okay, so so so the click track

885
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:45,359
Speaker 1: is the greatest thing about a click track is if

886
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 1: you go, if you are editing between takes, you're the

887
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 1: same tempo, right, you can and if you click track

888
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:54,280
Speaker 1: goes all the way through the song easy to make edits.

889
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 1: And nowadays we use pro tools, which are some form

890
00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:01,360
Speaker 1: digital format which means you can go between a thousand

891
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 1: takes in a split second and grab something from here

892
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:06,600
Speaker 1: and grab something there. If you're recording with a click track,

893
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:09,880
Speaker 1: the edit is easy because that takes that out of

894
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 1: that factor out of the equation. What I find though,

895
00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:16,239
Speaker 1: that the challenge for me is to make is to

896
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 1: not allow the track to sound stiff or boring. Sometimes

897
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:23,920
Speaker 1: songs should speed up, you know, could you imagine that

898
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:25,600
Speaker 1: who on a click track? It wouldn't sound like to

899
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 1: be horrible And so um, what I will do is

900
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:32,719
Speaker 1: I will manipulate the click. I'll kind of push your

901
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:36,200
Speaker 1: head and of course come back in the versus and

902
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:38,319
Speaker 1: and so I manipulate the click. I kind of get along,

903
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:42,160
Speaker 1: tip pull back or I And sometimes I've done sessions

904
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:43,920
Speaker 1: who I say, just shut it off after a certain

905
00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:46,400
Speaker 1: point and let it breathe. Okay, So what's agree er,

906
00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:51,839
Speaker 1: There's still sessions, still sessions that you're called for anybody's

907
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:54,160
Speaker 1: So I just did Brian Wilson and that was in

908
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:57,879
Speaker 1: a big studio because there's a budget. Um, I did

909
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:00,120
Speaker 1: something with Sammy Hagar and run DMC and I have

910
00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 1: my own studio. Now. I didn't want to have my

911
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:04,719
Speaker 1: own study. It was a big investment. But when I

912
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 1: saw the budgets change in uh, this project coordinator, Sherek

913
00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:10,719
Speaker 1: Souftcliffe called me up. And I didn't even have an

914
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:12,799
Speaker 1: apartment in l A l A yet, I was still

915
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:14,640
Speaker 1: living in Indiana. Peop would fly me all over the

916
00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: world just for one song because there was a budget.

917
00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:19,960
Speaker 1: People selling records, there was money to be made. It

918
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:21,799
Speaker 1: didn't get any business. You make money, you have money

919
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:24,080
Speaker 1: to reinvest in the business. And we did that. So

920
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,480
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Sherry sucklerf I'll never forget. I

921
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: was at the Sunset Marquis Well, you know, let me

922
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:34,000
Speaker 1: explain Rock and Roll Hotel Block and Rottle Hotel de Bautry.

923
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:37,759
Speaker 1: I was one of the guys there and and uh,

924
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,320
Speaker 1: you know, they would fly me. I'd live in Indiana.

925
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:44,280
Speaker 1: They pay for my my everything, every expense in my parking,

926
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:46,319
Speaker 1: I'd be in first class. I'd land, I'd get a

927
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: cool rock and roll Mustang or some car. Say at

928
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:52,799
Speaker 1: an expensive cool hotel like Sunset Marquis where there I'm

929
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 1: hanging out with you two and the Stones, and it

930
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:58,000
Speaker 1: was a great place to be because you were networking,

931
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:01,560
Speaker 1: and and I could be there for two weeks, three

932
00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:05,279
Speaker 1: weeks a month, and you know that hotel was expensive. Uh.

933
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,360
Speaker 1: And then they would be a per diem and I

934
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 1: would get paid really really well. Sherry calls up, says, Kenny,

935
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:12,680
Speaker 1: if you happen to be in town, I got this session.

936
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:14,560
Speaker 1: When we mean, if I happened to be in town,

937
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:17,560
Speaker 1: I said, of the budgets changing, she said, yeah, what

938
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:21,960
Speaker 1: year this, I'd say that in the mid two thousands,

939
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 1: and uh, I went wow. In one month, I got

940
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:28,000
Speaker 1: an apartment. So now all of a sudden I had

941
00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:30,360
Speaker 1: an expensive two and a half to three grand I

942
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:33,160
Speaker 1: didn't have. But for me, it was like take my money,

943
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:35,600
Speaker 1: but don't take that career of mine. Eventually I bought

944
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:37,720
Speaker 1: a house here and then the next step was eventually

945
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,000
Speaker 1: got a studio, two rooms, a control room and spent

946
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,719
Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of thousands on great equipment to sound

947
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,920
Speaker 1: like Kenny Arnold great Mike's drums, says always Mike, and

948
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:50,080
Speaker 1: I've done Avril Levine in there. I've done she went there.

949
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:52,080
Speaker 1: But they sent me the tracks. People can send me

950
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:55,040
Speaker 1: tracks on all the world, Sammy Hagar list, last year's

951
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:57,879
Speaker 1: both this couson and he said, hey, Kenny, I want

952
00:48:57,920 --> 00:48:59,840
Speaker 1: you to play drums on this and it's for me

953
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:03,839
Speaker 1: run DMC or d m C. And I said, well,

954
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:05,480
Speaker 1: do you want me to do it in my studio?

955
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:07,319
Speaker 1: You want to do it in a you know, a

956
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,200
Speaker 1: big room. And he says, send me what your studio

957
00:49:10,239 --> 00:49:12,759
Speaker 1: sounds like. Send him some stuff and went, whoa man,

958
00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:15,480
Speaker 1: that sounds great. Just doing your room so that I

959
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:17,680
Speaker 1: don't charge from my room. I just charge for me.

960
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 1: So yeah, it works. So how much she charge? I guess?

961
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 1: I say, well, you know, I could ask you can

962
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:29,759
Speaker 1: you can decide whether the answer. Let's just put this way.

963
00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:33,239
Speaker 1: It's it's not that expensive, but some people might think

964
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:36,600
Speaker 1: so if they don't have a record deal. Uh. The

965
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:40,600
Speaker 1: fee is for one song, is for the studio, me

966
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 1: and the engineer. I pay the engineer and then if

967
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:46,359
Speaker 1: two or more it drops down, and three or more

968
00:49:46,360 --> 00:49:49,760
Speaker 1: it drops down. Very reasonable. But I'll get these emails

969
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,319
Speaker 1: from ound the world and and and I'll say what

970
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:54,400
Speaker 1: the fee is, and I never hear from anybody. Well,

971
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 1: it happens to all of us. But will you if

972
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 1: someone is willing to pay and you have the time,

973
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:00,879
Speaker 1: you're willing to work for any with anybod Yeah, I'll

974
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:03,880
Speaker 1: work for anybody. And what I do is I'm very

975
00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 1: very detailed chart writer, right, write every note out. And

976
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:08,880
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of that is when I get in

977
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:12,560
Speaker 1: the studio, I'm not wasting anybody's time, including me. As

978
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:14,719
Speaker 1: like being an actor, like let's go and let's do

979
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,560
Speaker 1: the scene, and while I'm still hot, let's do it again,

980
00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:20,240
Speaker 1: and let's do it again. And I like my engineer

981
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:22,480
Speaker 1: to move fast, and I get three takes. Usually the

982
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,080
Speaker 1: first take is just to make sure I wrote everything

983
00:50:24,080 --> 00:50:27,280
Speaker 1: out right. Then it's bam bam bam, and their performances

984
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:29,360
Speaker 1: and that you can hear it and feel it. Okay,

985
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:31,400
Speaker 1: let's go back to Tanglewood. So the first year you

986
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:33,919
Speaker 1: don't make it. What happens the next three year? Second year,

987
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:36,480
Speaker 1: I don't make it, third year, and I'll make it.

988
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:40,879
Speaker 1: And it's almost like strike three year out and fourth

989
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:44,400
Speaker 1: year I get in. Seven percussionists in the whole world.

990
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,080
Speaker 1: I get in. I work with Leonard Bernstein says you

991
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:52,719
Speaker 1: is our you know, another American composer, conductor, Aaron Copeland,

992
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:56,200
Speaker 1: Arthur Feedler, and this is the elite orchestra. And I mean,

993
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: I got great pictures of me and Bernstein. I just

994
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,760
Speaker 1: did that thing. Screwball. Um. I got asked to perform

995
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:07,480
Speaker 1: with David Pack who worked with Bernstein and hung out. Yeah,

996
00:51:07,560 --> 00:51:10,640
Speaker 1: and he had apparently was involved with that that score

997
00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:15,160
Speaker 1: or we're doing something with Leonard's mass and uh when

998
00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:18,480
Speaker 1: he was young and they became friends and Alec Bernstein, Uh,

999
00:51:18,719 --> 00:51:21,680
Speaker 1: Leonard's son I hadn't seen since I was a kid.

1000
00:51:22,239 --> 00:51:26,360
Speaker 1: And it was a great reunion. And uh anyway, Leonard

1001
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:29,799
Speaker 1: was cool man because later on when he uh, you know,

1002
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:33,239
Speaker 1: he I want to concerto competition. This is this is

1003
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 1: this was a tangle whether you want to know Indiana

1004
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:40,040
Speaker 1: University well before let's finish off tangle with So you're

1005
00:51:40,080 --> 00:51:43,120
Speaker 1: there finally the fourth year and other than having a

1006
00:51:43,160 --> 00:51:46,000
Speaker 1: great experience, do you learn anything? Oh my god? That

1007
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:49,400
Speaker 1: was That was elite. Dude. Okay, he's a great story.

1008
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:53,960
Speaker 1: First day, I'm nervous. You know, this is the best workers.

1009
00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:57,800
Speaker 1: I'm nervous still. I mean I've gotten way, way good.

1010
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:01,239
Speaker 1: But it's you know, I'm with the elite from all

1011
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:05,200
Speaker 1: over the world, and says heos Hour one of the

1012
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:08,200
Speaker 1: greatest conductors ever, who is a conductor for Bosses of

1013
00:52:08,239 --> 00:52:12,959
Speaker 1: the New Orchestra San Francisco, who Leonard Bernstein had found

1014
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:15,040
Speaker 1: in Japan and brought him to Tanguin when he was

1015
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:19,399
Speaker 1: a kid. Zaro had an impeccable memory. He walks in

1016
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:25,240
Speaker 1: and conductors the story. Here's to show different styles of conducting.

1017
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:28,759
Speaker 1: He comes in and says to the orchestra, looks at them.

1018
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 1: He's trying to gain power and control. He says, what

1019
00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:33,880
Speaker 1: what are we playing? What are we what are we

1020
00:52:33,920 --> 00:52:38,520
Speaker 1: doing today? We had all the scores memorized, and they say, okay,

1021
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:40,120
Speaker 1: we're doing this is let's play this. It was a

1022
00:52:40,160 --> 00:52:45,920
Speaker 1: revel thing and this conducting style was unbelievable. Wow, the form,

1023
00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:49,400
Speaker 1: the flow, and then about thirty seconds he stops and

1024
00:52:49,440 --> 00:52:52,479
Speaker 1: he rips through all the different sections. You're out of tune,

1025
00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 1: you're behind the beat. You to to establish power. And

1026
00:52:55,600 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 1: at the end of the rehearsal, I'm picking up a

1027
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,200
Speaker 1: lot of cussion stuff on the floor in the back.

1028
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:05,160
Speaker 1: Everybody scattered. It was just me and then I hear

1029
00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:07,720
Speaker 1: some talking. I look up. I'm still on the ground.

1030
00:53:07,719 --> 00:53:12,160
Speaker 1: I look up past my music stands. There's Bernstein with

1031
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:15,840
Speaker 1: those hours and those hours going. I don't understand. This

1032
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:18,799
Speaker 1: orchestra is supposed to be the best, and they're not performing.

1033
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:21,759
Speaker 1: And here's the difference. Leonard put his hand on his

1034
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:26,080
Speaker 1: shoulder and said says, so show some love and compassion

1035
00:53:26,719 --> 00:53:30,880
Speaker 1: and they will play for you because they are the best. Wow.

1036
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:35,440
Speaker 1: And then all the you know, in the percussion world,

1037
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:39,279
Speaker 1: timpany is like the cool spot you know, you're by

1038
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 1: yourself kind of is all the percussion and is timpany

1039
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:45,680
Speaker 1: And timpoty is a very very dynamic instrument. It supports,

1040
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:50,359
Speaker 1: you know, basis when they're doing a long like you know,

1041
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:53,520
Speaker 1: or cellos and on the timpany you're going, you're trying

1042
00:53:53,560 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 1: to make this sustained role that supports, or you play

1043
00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:59,640
Speaker 1: we allowed and you're you're tuning every day. I'm a tunable.

1044
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:02,880
Speaker 1: Have to be in tune because if you're out of tune,

1045
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,840
Speaker 1: like even by a little bit. It's just a virtuostic instrument,

1046
00:54:06,840 --> 00:54:09,680
Speaker 1: and every one of the highest paid people in the orchestra. Anyway,

1047
00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 1: the first week I'm playing percussion, second week, I'm playing percussion,

1048
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 1: third week. Finally I'm the only guy hasn't playing Timothy

1049
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:20,799
Speaker 1: the Bailiest fifth Symphony, this big killer Timpothy part with

1050
00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:27,080
Speaker 1: Burnstein conducting, and oh this killer so you you didn't

1051
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:30,400
Speaker 1: choke a good joke. I crushed it. And the piece

1052
00:54:30,480 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: is so beautiful that I literally had was having to

1053
00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:35,880
Speaker 1: pinch myself while I was on stage, Uh to not

1054
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,400
Speaker 1: well up with here because it's so beautiful. It's so beautiful.

1055
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:42,960
Speaker 1: So this concerto thing I was telling about now we're

1056
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:46,240
Speaker 1: back in Indiana University. Yeah, when I auditioned it U mass,

1057
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:49,160
Speaker 1: I'd never played a remember before I had this vibraphone,

1058
00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:52,840
Speaker 1: which is a metal Mallard instrument, and the members the

1059
00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:56,719
Speaker 1: bars are bigger, and it's a longer instrument. So the

1060
00:54:57,120 --> 00:54:59,520
Speaker 1: you know you're you're gonna miss notes if you're used

1061
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:01,920
Speaker 1: to this aracing of one instrument you missed, you have

1062
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:07,080
Speaker 1: to adapt. So I was the story is at eight

1063
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 1: and I played for the first time just about when

1064
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:14,160
Speaker 1: I was about to turn twenty three. I had worked

1065
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 1: so hard. I had won a concerto competition playing a

1066
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:22,439
Speaker 1: violin concerto that I saw it's all Parlman play in

1067
00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:26,600
Speaker 1: in his performance at Indiana University with orchestra as his encore,

1068
00:55:27,080 --> 00:55:29,880
Speaker 1: and I decided at that moment that would be my

1069
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:33,760
Speaker 1: marimba piece on my senior recital and your senior recital

1070
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:37,640
Speaker 1: at Indiana University you had to play timpani multiple percussion

1071
00:55:38,120 --> 00:55:41,600
Speaker 1: mallet piece uh, and then you could decide if you

1072
00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:44,839
Speaker 1: want to play drums, set or UH. Most people, if

1073
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:47,520
Speaker 1: you were a classical major, would just pick a snare

1074
00:55:47,600 --> 00:55:50,359
Speaker 1: doorm a two, but it's all very classical and virtuosic.

1075
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:54,040
Speaker 1: I picked this piece. I practicing in my senior year

1076
00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:57,600
Speaker 1: um three hours a day, three sixty five days a year,

1077
00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 1: just for that one piece in my recipe idol. But

1078
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:04,040
Speaker 1: teachers blown away by my performance ability and what I

1079
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:06,479
Speaker 1: had done. I had memorized all the phrasings of it's

1080
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:11,479
Speaker 1: a promin, you know, like a violin, and I've done

1081
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:14,359
Speaker 1: such a great job that he said, I want you

1082
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:17,759
Speaker 1: to enter this concerto competition. If you win, you bit

1083
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:20,479
Speaker 1: to perform in the opera hall, which is the size

1084
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:23,560
Speaker 1: of the New York met at Indiana University with a

1085
00:56:23,600 --> 00:56:27,399
Speaker 1: full orchestra, six piece orchestra. I auditioned and I win,

1086
00:56:28,120 --> 00:56:32,319
Speaker 1: and so I the first time. When the night I

1087
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:36,000
Speaker 1: was supposed to do it, I was so nervous, and

1088
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:40,200
Speaker 1: I'm walking to the huge uh opera hall and everyone's

1089
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:42,800
Speaker 1: running out of the building. Looked like the Preside Adventure.

1090
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:47,120
Speaker 1: You know. What had happened is a grid went out

1091
00:56:47,239 --> 00:56:50,400
Speaker 1: in Indiana University and the power was gone. So I

1092
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 1: couldn't perform a blessing because I was nervous. I was

1093
00:56:55,719 --> 00:56:58,319
Speaker 1: gonna make it. I was gonna mess up. So the

1094
00:56:58,320 --> 00:57:01,319
Speaker 1: conductor said to the orchestra, look, we don't have to reschedule,

1095
00:57:01,360 --> 00:57:05,160
Speaker 1: but I feel bad for Kenny didn't get do what

1096
00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:06,960
Speaker 1: do you all like? Let's do it? Look can that

1097
00:57:07,040 --> 00:57:09,880
Speaker 1: do it? So when I did finally perform, you know,

1098
00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:12,120
Speaker 1: it's a weird feeling. They roll like you know, they

1099
00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:15,040
Speaker 1: roll them mber out and I walk. I'm not used

1100
00:57:15,080 --> 00:57:18,520
Speaker 1: to being up front. There's the conductor, the orchestra's back

1101
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:21,240
Speaker 1: is on my back. Is the orchestra on the side

1102
00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 1: of the conductor, And he looks at me says, are

1103
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:27,960
Speaker 1: you ready, and I'm shipping my pants five people in

1104
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:32,520
Speaker 1: front of big opera and we start and I'm going,

1105
00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:34,840
Speaker 1: oh my god, I got this. It's all memorized, you know.

1106
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:37,440
Speaker 1: I got this. And I get into the performance and

1107
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:41,360
Speaker 1: the very last page, right before the cadenza, where I

1108
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:45,560
Speaker 1: have two mallets, and I pick up two more mallets,

1109
00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:48,400
Speaker 1: and it's just like goo goo goo goo goo goo

1110
00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:50,840
Speaker 1: goo goo goo goo goo good good good good good

1111
00:57:51,040 --> 00:57:56,200
Speaker 1: goo go go. But little, a little, a little, a little,

1112
00:57:56,280 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 1: a little, a little bit, a little up and down

1113
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:01,000
Speaker 1: this saying, and I'm like, oh, I got it. There's

1114
00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:03,400
Speaker 1: a couple of missnows. But I tore it up. It

1115
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:07,320
Speaker 1: was huge. That was like the big you have made it.

1116
00:58:07,960 --> 00:58:10,800
Speaker 1: And then I get into the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra per

1117
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:16,160
Speaker 1: my teacher, and I turned it down because while before

1118
00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 1: I had gotten that position, I started studying drum set

1119
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:24,800
Speaker 1: for the first time with wheel badass teacher from Berkeley

1120
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:27,600
Speaker 1: was a jazz drummer, Alan Dawson, and in New York

1121
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:29,480
Speaker 1: one of the biggest session the Hall Bline of New

1122
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:32,800
Speaker 1: York Gary Chester. And I'm starting I'm practicing eight hours

1123
00:58:32,840 --> 00:58:36,240
Speaker 1: a day and I want to be in the Beatles again.

1124
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:42,720
Speaker 1: We'll take a quick break and come back with more

1125
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:47,200
Speaker 1: of my conversation with legendary drummer Kenny Aaronoff, recorded live

1126
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:54,439
Speaker 1: at the tune In studios in Venice, California. This week,

1127
00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:57,560
Speaker 1: I'm speaking with a veritable rock star behind a drum kid.

1128
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:00,680
Speaker 1: In the past, I spoke with Tony Hawk and the

1129
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:04,439
Speaker 1: head of YouTube and Google Music, Lee or Co. Check

1130
00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:06,600
Speaker 1: out the archives of the show to learn how people

1131
00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:09,040
Speaker 1: double down on their passions to make it big in

1132
00:59:09,120 --> 00:59:12,880
Speaker 1: their respective industries. Subscribe to the podcast on tune in,

1133
00:59:13,120 --> 00:59:17,480
Speaker 1: Apple or your podcast player of choice. Okay, let's get

1134
00:59:17,480 --> 00:59:22,800
Speaker 1: back to my conversation with legendary drummer Kenny aaron Off. So,

1135
00:59:23,040 --> 00:59:25,480
Speaker 1: and all this time you're Indiana, the dream of the

1136
00:59:25,560 --> 00:59:28,640
Speaker 1: Beatles had evaporated, or you said, focused on I may

1137
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:31,280
Speaker 1: always played in bands, but yeah, the dude, I was

1138
00:59:31,360 --> 00:59:34,760
Speaker 1: focusing on my my to get through college, to do

1139
00:59:34,840 --> 00:59:38,680
Speaker 1: an excellent job and get a job, and you know,

1140
00:59:38,880 --> 00:59:42,360
Speaker 1: presumably a symphony orchestra. And can you still play the

1141
00:59:42,440 --> 00:59:48,520
Speaker 1: marimba today? I just pulled it out. I haven't remember. Because, uh,

1142
00:59:49,280 --> 00:59:52,720
Speaker 1: the president of Kodak Film wants to do a documentary

1143
00:59:52,760 --> 00:59:57,560
Speaker 1: on Kenny and when he played them that piece, he went, dude,

1144
00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:00,320
Speaker 1: we need an excerpt for that in the document entry.

1145
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,160
Speaker 1: So I started to pull the murmber out with the

1146
01:00:03,320 --> 01:00:06,120
Speaker 1: idea that I would learn to work up a part

1147
01:00:06,160 --> 01:00:10,360
Speaker 1: of that piece, just you know, and uh oh yeah,

1148
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:12,960
Speaker 1: I could get back up, just you know, just putting

1149
01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:14,880
Speaker 1: in the time. Right, So how do you end up

1150
01:00:14,880 --> 01:00:18,400
Speaker 1: with melocap? Well, so I turned on Juice from I'm

1151
01:00:18,560 --> 01:00:21,600
Speaker 1: living at home, I'm humbled, and like here I am.

1152
01:00:21,680 --> 01:00:23,800
Speaker 1: I played with Burnesty. Now I'm back in my own

1153
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:26,840
Speaker 1: house where I grew up, practicing in hours a day, traveling,

1154
01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:29,080
Speaker 1: trying to play in some bands in New York. And

1155
01:00:29,160 --> 01:00:31,440
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys from Indiana called me up. So

1156
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:33,440
Speaker 1: we want to start a band with the idea of

1157
01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 1: the business modelers, get a record deals, sell records, go

1158
01:00:37,160 --> 01:00:39,480
Speaker 1: on tour like the Beatles. I went and one of

1159
01:00:39,520 --> 01:00:42,200
Speaker 1: the dads invested thirty grand. This is the nineteen seventy seven.

1160
01:00:42,240 --> 01:00:44,120
Speaker 1: It's a lot of money. We got a truck, lights,

1161
01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:47,080
Speaker 1: p a and we're in a band house. Loved it,

1162
01:00:47,200 --> 01:00:50,240
Speaker 1: moved back there. After three years, we didn't get a

1163
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,720
Speaker 1: record deal, and I decided I'm twenty seven. I decided

1164
01:00:52,720 --> 01:00:55,040
Speaker 1: I gotta should probably go to New York. I knew

1165
01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:57,240
Speaker 1: more people New York than l A, so I'm gonna move.

1166
01:00:57,840 --> 01:01:01,280
Speaker 1: And then I hear about two weeks leaving, I hear

1167
01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:06,880
Speaker 1: about this Johnny Cougar, guy singer songwriter said Johnny Cougar

1168
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:09,840
Speaker 1: just fired his drummer last night or something. They got

1169
01:01:09,880 --> 01:01:12,360
Speaker 1: in an argument, and I started thinking, well, that's a

1170
01:01:12,480 --> 01:01:15,720
Speaker 1: guy on MTV. I'm not a huge fan of music,

1171
01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:18,680
Speaker 1: you know. I was more in diffusion, you know, more technique.

1172
01:01:18,680 --> 01:01:20,320
Speaker 1: When you're younger, you want to play as many notes

1173
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:24,440
Speaker 1: as possible, and this was a songwriter, and I went

1174
01:01:24,520 --> 01:01:26,480
Speaker 1: but down. On the other hand, I was into the

1175
01:01:26,560 --> 01:01:29,640
Speaker 1: Beatles and the Stones and songs, so it was in

1176
01:01:29,760 --> 01:01:31,600
Speaker 1: my blood. So I went, wait a minute, this guy's

1177
01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:35,000
Speaker 1: tourings making I want this bad. So I called up.

1178
01:01:36,200 --> 01:01:37,840
Speaker 1: I had the guitar players number, and he said, well

1179
01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:39,760
Speaker 1: call me a couple of weeks that we're just going

1180
01:01:39,800 --> 01:01:42,880
Speaker 1: through some stuff and call me, says um. John had

1181
01:01:42,920 --> 01:01:47,280
Speaker 1: asked around who's the best drummer in Bloomington and people says,

1182
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:49,960
Speaker 1: you could check out this guy, Kenny. I learned that

1183
01:01:50,640 --> 01:01:53,960
Speaker 1: that name from just being hard worker and the guy

1184
01:01:54,080 --> 01:01:56,480
Speaker 1: that's always going for it, you know, just it just

1185
01:01:56,600 --> 01:01:59,640
Speaker 1: exuded out of me. So, um, I get an audition.

1186
01:01:59,720 --> 01:02:01,880
Speaker 1: I said, what should I do? And they said, be

1187
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:04,680
Speaker 1: familiar with the John Cougar record, which had I need

1188
01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:07,440
Speaker 1: a Lover on on ear from that and so covered

1189
01:02:07,440 --> 01:02:11,920
Speaker 1: by Yeah, and which gave him some money. So that

1190
01:02:12,120 --> 01:02:15,120
Speaker 1: the thing is, they said, be familiar with it. With

1191
01:02:15,240 --> 01:02:18,800
Speaker 1: with my training, I wrote every note doubt and memorized

1192
01:02:18,840 --> 01:02:22,000
Speaker 1: every song, so practicing my six hours six to eight hours,

1193
01:02:22,040 --> 01:02:24,640
Speaker 1: say that was that I didn't realize, but that was

1194
01:02:24,800 --> 01:02:28,560
Speaker 1: the discipline I've learned at Indiana University and U MASS

1195
01:02:29,040 --> 01:02:33,080
Speaker 1: and asked me and Tangwood. That prepared me unusually for

1196
01:02:33,760 --> 01:02:37,200
Speaker 1: a rock band audition. And and then I would like

1197
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:40,439
Speaker 1: literally go, I'd yell out a song and start playing

1198
01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:42,360
Speaker 1: without the music. I mean, I had it down. So

1199
01:02:42,520 --> 01:02:46,480
Speaker 1: I show up at John's house almost didn't get the audition.

1200
01:02:46,560 --> 01:02:49,600
Speaker 1: First of all, I beat up five cars leaking oil

1201
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:52,400
Speaker 1: on his driveway. He's looking at that, looking at me.

1202
01:02:52,680 --> 01:02:55,000
Speaker 1: I'm dressed, not cool. I have a beard, and I

1203
01:02:55,080 --> 01:02:57,840
Speaker 1: didn't know what cool was back then, and UH had

1204
01:02:57,920 --> 01:03:00,920
Speaker 1: no style. And and then he sees me pull out

1205
01:03:01,040 --> 01:03:05,480
Speaker 1: this mammoth drunk kid, you know, double bassed from twelve

1206
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:08,680
Speaker 1: times a billion symbols. I walk up to him, Hey,

1207
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:12,600
Speaker 1: John Tenney, who was John Mellencamp turns around, walks into

1208
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:15,640
Speaker 1: the house and went, wow, this guy is not a

1209
01:03:15,680 --> 01:03:18,560
Speaker 1: happy guy. He was going through a divorce also, And

1210
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:22,000
Speaker 1: I didn't also realize and I say in my book,

1211
01:03:22,040 --> 01:03:25,600
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, here's a guy from India and he goes,

1212
01:03:25,840 --> 01:03:28,800
Speaker 1: he gets a record deal, his manager, Tony de Freeze

1213
01:03:28,880 --> 01:03:33,280
Speaker 1: that gave Bowie his name, Ziggy start Us. John makes

1214
01:03:33,320 --> 01:03:36,640
Speaker 1: a record. He shoves the record across him and John goes,

1215
01:03:36,840 --> 01:03:39,920
Speaker 1: who's Johnny couz Is that's you? He says, that's not

1216
01:03:40,040 --> 01:03:43,360
Speaker 1: my name me cripping the rust belt. He goes, he

1217
01:03:43,440 --> 01:03:45,560
Speaker 1: probably went home and got his asked kicked by his uncles.

1218
01:03:45,680 --> 01:03:49,120
Speaker 1: That that resolved everything with fistfights, you know what I mean.

1219
01:03:49,320 --> 01:03:52,680
Speaker 1: They were like brick players. Not only did he have his,

1220
01:03:53,080 --> 01:03:54,560
Speaker 1: and he said, well, if you want your record to

1221
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:56,439
Speaker 1: come out, your name is Johnny Cougar. So he gets

1222
01:03:56,800 --> 01:03:59,600
Speaker 1: he takes that and loses his deal. A year later,

1223
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:02,040
Speaker 1: Now he's Johnny Couse. This guy was not a happy guy.

1224
01:04:02,520 --> 01:04:04,680
Speaker 1: He was fighting, and I didn't know anything about it.

1225
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:06,760
Speaker 1: I was just happy to be playing in a band

1226
01:04:06,840 --> 01:04:10,320
Speaker 1: that was on the radio. John was in fear of

1227
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:14,320
Speaker 1: losing his deal again. So I auditioned and I said,

1228
01:04:16,120 --> 01:04:17,960
Speaker 1: they said, you know any these songs? I said, I'm

1229
01:04:18,080 --> 01:04:20,560
Speaker 1: familiar with some of the songs that I pick one.

1230
01:04:20,640 --> 01:04:23,240
Speaker 1: I picked one, and I'll never forget. I mean, I

1231
01:04:23,360 --> 01:04:26,720
Speaker 1: just destroyed everything. I broke symbols, sticks. I figured, well,

1232
01:04:26,760 --> 01:04:30,680
Speaker 1: they must play loud in arenas. And John's mouth was open,

1233
01:04:30,720 --> 01:04:32,520
Speaker 1: his eyes are bugged out. He gets up after two

1234
01:04:32,600 --> 01:04:35,919
Speaker 1: soon goes upstairs and yells, Mike, get up here. Mike

1235
01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:38,400
Speaker 1: goes up and I'm packing. I'm nervous. I really want this.

1236
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:41,480
Speaker 1: Mike comes down, looks at me, smiles, shakes my hand, says,

1237
01:04:41,880 --> 01:04:46,920
Speaker 1: welcome to Hell. I'm going. What does he mean by that?

1238
01:04:48,040 --> 01:04:51,120
Speaker 1: I found out that was the beginning, and uh, and

1239
01:04:51,240 --> 01:04:54,040
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make this quick. I tell everybody I'm

1240
01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:56,600
Speaker 1: going to Elie to make a record at Cherokee Studios

1241
01:04:56,640 --> 01:04:59,600
Speaker 1: on fair effect. I am so excited. I've told everybody.

1242
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:02,200
Speaker 1: I get here and I'm staying at the Chateau Marmont

1243
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:07,280
Speaker 1: and uh rock and Roll Hotel also and in two days, John,

1244
01:05:07,400 --> 01:05:09,040
Speaker 1: we have a band meeting, John says you're not on

1245
01:05:09,120 --> 01:05:11,920
Speaker 1: the record, and as he starts to say, you go

1246
01:05:12,040 --> 01:05:14,880
Speaker 1: back to Indiana, I said, no fucking way am I

1247
01:05:15,000 --> 01:05:17,800
Speaker 1: going back home? And I'm scrambling, I'm trying to negotiate

1248
01:05:17,880 --> 01:05:21,320
Speaker 1: a deal. I'm humiliated, and I'm thinking in my head,

1249
01:05:21,440 --> 01:05:24,320
Speaker 1: don't you understand I played with Bernstein blah blah, had

1250
01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:27,040
Speaker 1: nothing to do with serving this song or getting a

1251
01:05:27,160 --> 01:05:29,640
Speaker 1: song on the record. I asked drummers all the time,

1252
01:05:29,680 --> 01:05:32,640
Speaker 1: what's your purpose when you're making a record of what's

1253
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:35,280
Speaker 1: your purpose as a drummer? And they fumbled around. I say,

1254
01:05:35,400 --> 01:05:37,920
Speaker 1: the purpose of a drummer when you're making records get

1255
01:05:37,960 --> 01:05:41,400
Speaker 1: the song to be number one. That's it. Every part,

1256
01:05:41,560 --> 01:05:45,680
Speaker 1: every idea, everything you say, everything you think. The goal

1257
01:05:45,920 --> 01:05:47,480
Speaker 1: is to get the song on the radio to be

1258
01:05:47,600 --> 01:05:50,040
Speaker 1: number one. Because when it does, then you made millions

1259
01:05:50,080 --> 01:05:52,680
Speaker 1: for the company. Then they say who played on it? Oh, Kenny,

1260
01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:54,760
Speaker 1: Let's get him on the next one, and the next

1261
01:05:54,840 --> 01:05:56,560
Speaker 1: one and the next one. And that's how I ended

1262
01:05:56,640 --> 01:05:59,320
Speaker 1: up on so many hits and being a team player

1263
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:02,320
Speaker 1: and getting a long and adjusting. Monday, it's bb King

1264
01:06:02,360 --> 01:06:05,560
Speaker 1: and Bonnie right, Tuesday's out and John Wednesdays, the Smashing Pumpkin.

1265
01:06:05,640 --> 01:06:09,160
Speaker 1: I mean they're all different. Everything is different, and you

1266
01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:13,560
Speaker 1: have to be able to adapt. And so I I

1267
01:06:13,640 --> 01:06:17,080
Speaker 1: didn't have any of that yet. So I was I

1268
01:06:17,240 --> 01:06:19,000
Speaker 1: was fighting and I just said, John, I'm not going home.

1269
01:06:19,880 --> 01:06:21,720
Speaker 1: I'll sleep on the floor. I said, are you am

1270
01:06:21,760 --> 01:06:23,440
Speaker 1: I still your drummer and he said, yeah, you're not

1271
01:06:23,520 --> 01:06:25,600
Speaker 1: playing on the record. He was perplexed. He didn't know

1272
01:06:25,640 --> 01:06:27,520
Speaker 1: what to why I was asking because I was sleeping

1273
01:06:27,560 --> 01:06:29,160
Speaker 1: the floor. You don't have to pay me, which is

1274
01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:31,840
Speaker 1: probably the deal breaker. And then I did. I watched

1275
01:06:31,880 --> 01:06:35,080
Speaker 1: these guys and I learned from them, and I was like, wow,

1276
01:06:35,200 --> 01:06:38,200
Speaker 1: I was quite an education about tuning how to play

1277
01:06:38,280 --> 01:06:41,360
Speaker 1: these radio friendly drum parts that serve the song. I

1278
01:06:41,480 --> 01:06:44,040
Speaker 1: went home and set up my eight hour day practice routine,

1279
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:47,120
Speaker 1: got Stones Records out, Credence Records out, a C d

1280
01:06:47,240 --> 01:06:50,600
Speaker 1: C Records, started up trying to I mean, it's much

1281
01:06:50,640 --> 01:06:54,160
Speaker 1: easier to learn something that's technically hard than to learn

1282
01:06:54,200 --> 01:06:59,120
Speaker 1: how do you practice simple? There's no book on simple Simple.

1283
01:06:59,280 --> 01:07:02,520
Speaker 1: It's like looking through him, like it's like looking to it.

1284
01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:08,160
Speaker 1: Uh microscope where playing technicals looking through a telescope. They're

1285
01:07:08,160 --> 01:07:11,840
Speaker 1: both valid just different directions. So I was befuddled. How

1286
01:07:11,880 --> 01:07:14,040
Speaker 1: do you so? The only one you could do is repetition.

1287
01:07:14,080 --> 01:07:16,840
Speaker 1: I just kept playing the Stones Records, started to understand

1288
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:19,920
Speaker 1: it and let me jump two years later. So that

1289
01:07:20,040 --> 01:07:23,880
Speaker 1: album you didn't play on was American Fool I did.

1290
01:07:23,920 --> 01:07:26,200
Speaker 1: American Fool I did. It was nothing matters when one

1291
01:07:26,200 --> 01:07:30,919
Speaker 1: of it did so, which was not successful. It wasn't

1292
01:07:30,960 --> 01:07:33,120
Speaker 1: considered successful even though he had two singles in the

1293
01:07:33,200 --> 01:07:37,680
Speaker 1: top forty. But he almost but the two this time,

1294
01:07:37,920 --> 01:07:41,280
Speaker 1: I think in then he did a video with the

1295
01:07:41,360 --> 01:07:45,480
Speaker 1: egg Lady from that Crazy movie and then, uh, the

1296
01:07:45,600 --> 01:07:49,480
Speaker 1: other one was ain't even done with then. I kind

1297
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:51,400
Speaker 1: of an R and B thing. Cropper was the producer,

1298
01:07:51,760 --> 01:07:56,160
Speaker 1: Steve Cropper, you know, and and I didn't know this,

1299
01:07:56,360 --> 01:07:58,800
Speaker 1: but you're right. It was not considered successful when we

1300
01:07:58,880 --> 01:08:02,640
Speaker 1: were making American Fool two years later, which that got

1301
01:08:02,720 --> 01:08:05,320
Speaker 1: two Grammy Awards. The most the story on that as

1302
01:08:05,360 --> 01:08:07,480
Speaker 1: they finished the record and the label said we don't

1303
01:08:07,480 --> 01:08:10,480
Speaker 1: want to put this out, it's right because after nine weeks,

1304
01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:12,920
Speaker 1: I felt like I'd been and this is where I

1305
01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:16,200
Speaker 1: came up with the iconic Jack and Dian drum apart,

1306
01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:20,120
Speaker 1: fighting for my life um, thinking that if I don't

1307
01:08:20,320 --> 01:08:22,840
Speaker 1: come up with something, I'll be replaced again or fired.

1308
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:25,000
Speaker 1: And I come up with that song was off the

1309
01:08:25,040 --> 01:08:27,080
Speaker 1: record gone, nobody knew what to do with it, and

1310
01:08:27,640 --> 01:08:30,280
Speaker 1: I programmed this drum machine thing because that one of them,

1311
01:08:30,439 --> 01:08:33,640
Speaker 1: which I thought is hideous. I'm being replaced now, not

1312
01:08:33,800 --> 01:08:36,960
Speaker 1: by a human, by by a machine. I went, this

1313
01:08:37,160 --> 01:08:40,880
Speaker 1: is what's going on here? And then they that wasn't

1314
01:08:40,880 --> 01:08:42,280
Speaker 1: good enough, so I had to come up with this.

1315
01:08:43,120 --> 01:08:48,080
Speaker 1: They wanted like persent part the Red Sea right now. Now,

1316
01:08:48,640 --> 01:08:50,479
Speaker 1: I'm like, what, I have to come up with this

1317
01:08:50,560 --> 01:08:54,000
Speaker 1: drum part? Thank god I did. Became John's biggest, most

1318
01:08:54,000 --> 01:08:57,880
Speaker 1: successful single. I made million dollars for the company, not

1319
01:08:58,120 --> 01:09:00,880
Speaker 1: for me. But he's still like one of the is

1320
01:09:01,000 --> 01:09:04,200
Speaker 1: one of the greatest songs played from the eighties. And

1321
01:09:05,439 --> 01:09:08,040
Speaker 1: after we after that, I go home. I felt like

1322
01:09:08,080 --> 01:09:11,240
Speaker 1: I've been in Afghanistan for nine weeks. John calls here

1323
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:14,360
Speaker 1: two weeks later says, we're not done. We got only

1324
01:09:14,439 --> 01:09:18,240
Speaker 1: four songs. Record label doesn't like it. Uh, we only

1325
01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:20,320
Speaker 1: got four songs. Two guys have gotten fired. Me and

1326
01:09:20,439 --> 01:09:22,320
Speaker 1: John was got in a fist fight. John was a

1327
01:09:22,400 --> 01:09:27,760
Speaker 1: complete manic, crazy man, and he you know, did some

1328
01:09:27,880 --> 01:09:31,800
Speaker 1: crazy stuff and I just went after him. Anyway, we're

1329
01:09:31,920 --> 01:09:33,800
Speaker 1: out in the band without tail between the legs, and

1330
01:09:33,840 --> 01:09:36,559
Speaker 1: that's what John Road. Hurts so good. And we came

1331
01:09:36,600 --> 01:09:39,400
Speaker 1: back out here six months later and recorded the Cherokee

1332
01:09:39,640 --> 01:09:41,719
Speaker 1: the same room that I was told not to play

1333
01:09:41,760 --> 01:09:45,200
Speaker 1: and finished the record. And then and I was in

1334
01:09:45,280 --> 01:09:47,439
Speaker 1: the same room at the Chateau Marma when Jack and

1335
01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:50,280
Speaker 1: Ian went to number one. The first song that came

1336
01:09:50,320 --> 01:09:53,040
Speaker 1: on off of that record that let off was hurt

1337
01:09:53,080 --> 01:09:55,559
Speaker 1: So Good. It stayed at number two for six weeks.

1338
01:09:56,560 --> 01:09:58,519
Speaker 1: And this is on the top one d This meant

1339
01:09:58,680 --> 01:10:01,599
Speaker 1: something back then, the top one hundred med something. Yeah,

1340
01:10:01,760 --> 01:10:03,640
Speaker 1: it was for those listening when you were in the

1341
01:10:03,720 --> 01:10:06,720
Speaker 1: top one hundred. You couldn't get away from that song

1342
01:10:06,880 --> 01:10:09,640
Speaker 1: was on every station on the radio. And then we

1343
01:10:09,720 --> 01:10:13,080
Speaker 1: had MTV, so we were on. We were it was obnoxious,

1344
01:10:14,120 --> 01:10:17,519
Speaker 1: just you couldn't get away from us. And then they

1345
01:10:17,600 --> 01:10:19,280
Speaker 1: say it started to go down a little bit and

1346
01:10:19,320 --> 01:10:21,679
Speaker 1: they said released Jack and the hand. They released Jack

1347
01:10:21,720 --> 01:10:24,360
Speaker 1: and Diane. He creeps up Jack and hurts what good

1348
01:10:24,360 --> 01:10:27,240
Speaker 1: didn't leave. Now we have two singles in the top ten.

1349
01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:32,439
Speaker 1: That's huge, and we John's career seriously launched. Then that

1350
01:10:32,680 --> 01:10:36,360
Speaker 1: was like a right, So millions of records, one Grammys,

1351
01:10:37,080 --> 01:10:39,240
Speaker 1: We were on a Saturday Live, we were on every

1352
01:10:39,280 --> 01:10:42,240
Speaker 1: TV show, imaginable, and I was in the room. They

1353
01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:44,240
Speaker 1: shout to my mom when the song went to number one,

1354
01:10:44,360 --> 01:10:46,760
Speaker 1: Jack and Dane and the same movement where I got

1355
01:10:47,320 --> 01:10:49,439
Speaker 1: told not to play the record. But my fear was,

1356
01:10:50,600 --> 01:10:53,479
Speaker 1: holy sh it. Not everybody thinks I can do this again?

1357
01:10:53,960 --> 01:10:56,240
Speaker 1: Can I? How do I prepare for? How do you practice?

1358
01:10:56,720 --> 01:10:59,200
Speaker 1: There's no method. I was very insecure about, like, oh

1359
01:10:59,240 --> 01:11:01,519
Speaker 1: my god, god, do again. I'm not really number one?

1360
01:11:01,840 --> 01:11:04,240
Speaker 1: No way, Oh man, what do I do? What do

1361
01:11:04,320 --> 01:11:07,519
Speaker 1: I practice? I gotta do this again? And obviously, okay,

1362
01:11:07,640 --> 01:11:10,439
Speaker 1: did you get the proper respect from John in terms

1363
01:11:10,439 --> 01:11:14,479
Speaker 1: of your addition to Jack and Diane. He never would

1364
01:11:14,520 --> 01:11:16,680
Speaker 1: would tell me such a thing. A matter of fact,

1365
01:11:16,760 --> 01:11:20,200
Speaker 1: he told me years later. I thought about this. He said,

1366
01:11:20,320 --> 01:11:22,720
Speaker 1: you know this is that makes that songs that guitar part.

1367
01:11:23,040 --> 01:11:27,160
Speaker 1: But about to me, it sounds like now I think

1368
01:11:27,200 --> 01:11:29,040
Speaker 1: he wanted me to sign off on it or something.

1369
01:11:29,120 --> 01:11:32,240
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. John's don't mean anything. Hell not.

1370
01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:35,439
Speaker 1: The programming the drums were a big part of that.

1371
01:11:35,640 --> 01:11:40,760
Speaker 1: But John would never tell me ever to my face

1372
01:11:41,040 --> 01:11:43,280
Speaker 1: that I was doing a good job. He just he

1373
01:11:43,400 --> 01:11:46,280
Speaker 1: was like the Bobby Night coach of Indiana University, just

1374
01:11:46,680 --> 01:11:49,680
Speaker 1: completely big. You know Bill Belichick. Well I don't know

1375
01:11:49,680 --> 01:11:52,160
Speaker 1: about Bill Belichick, but you know Bobby and he's never

1376
01:11:52,200 --> 01:11:54,320
Speaker 1: get a compliment. It's like he gets his people to

1377
01:11:54,680 --> 01:11:58,639
Speaker 1: always fight to be better. And John, for seventeen years,

1378
01:11:58,680 --> 01:12:01,200
Speaker 1: I was trying to come up with beats that would

1379
01:12:01,240 --> 01:12:04,639
Speaker 1: make his songs unique. And that was my what degree?

1380
01:12:05,200 --> 01:12:08,439
Speaker 1: What is this process? Did people start to pay attention

1381
01:12:08,479 --> 01:12:13,280
Speaker 1: to you as an individual? Yeah? Scared when the well

1382
01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:16,479
Speaker 1: about the American fool, But then the home record I

1383
01:12:16,560 --> 01:12:18,960
Speaker 1: started to get a sound, were starting to we push

1384
01:12:19,040 --> 01:12:22,200
Speaker 1: the drums up front. John wanted our songs to blow

1385
01:12:22,360 --> 01:12:25,960
Speaker 1: any song that came on the radio before us and

1386
01:12:26,120 --> 01:12:29,479
Speaker 1: after us. Great mentality. It's like, so I want the

1387
01:12:29,560 --> 01:12:31,880
Speaker 1: drums loud, I want vocals. I want this thing to

1388
01:12:32,960 --> 01:12:35,519
Speaker 1: just me the loudest thing on the radio. And it was.

1389
01:12:35,880 --> 01:12:38,320
Speaker 1: And it worked because we were competing with either Tiger

1390
01:12:38,439 --> 01:12:42,080
Speaker 1: and at the knee and Ivery and then he was

1391
01:12:42,120 --> 01:12:46,240
Speaker 1: so good it was like a C D C. You know,

1392
01:12:46,760 --> 01:12:50,880
Speaker 1: And uh so I get hired to do. I have

1393
01:12:51,000 --> 01:12:53,120
Speaker 1: to say it was actually probably after Scare Call and

1394
01:12:53,200 --> 01:12:57,960
Speaker 1: the Scarecrow record, my sound became locked down as this wall,

1395
01:12:58,240 --> 01:13:00,800
Speaker 1: what do they do? Who is that? That sound? That

1396
01:13:01,360 --> 01:13:04,679
Speaker 1: so powerful? It was like a drum record, simple drum pus.

1397
01:13:05,000 --> 01:13:07,200
Speaker 1: So then I get calls to do like buyd Setser's

1398
01:13:07,240 --> 01:13:09,920
Speaker 1: first solo record, Night Feels Like Justice, Blend the Car

1399
01:13:10,080 --> 01:13:12,160
Speaker 1: Heaven on Earth, which went to number one, And I'm

1400
01:13:12,200 --> 01:13:15,200
Speaker 1: starting to get these calls, you know, to to record,

1401
01:13:15,400 --> 01:13:18,479
Speaker 1: and then uh, John and a eight. We went from

1402
01:13:18,560 --> 01:13:22,720
Speaker 1: I went from number nineteen eighty eight John on it

1403
01:13:22,880 --> 01:13:25,760
Speaker 1: was like another Man did, which I didn't play drums on,

1404
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:28,479
Speaker 1: American Fool, which I played drums on, which had pink

1405
01:13:28,520 --> 01:13:30,920
Speaker 1: houses of authority and coming down. Then it was Scar

1406
01:13:31,080 --> 01:13:34,320
Speaker 1: Car Now we're arena rock band too. Was selling Milliams

1407
01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:37,559
Speaker 1: records in Jubilee, which we rechanged this whole. We came

1408
01:13:37,640 --> 01:13:39,679
Speaker 1: up with a whole new sound of violent and according

1409
01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:43,000
Speaker 1: together Americana and we're selling out arenas. And then John

1410
01:13:43,080 --> 01:13:47,400
Speaker 1: quits last show of the Jubilee tour, hands me a

1411
01:13:47,439 --> 01:13:50,280
Speaker 1: bonus check when they actually had bonus checks. He says,

1412
01:13:50,360 --> 01:13:54,920
Speaker 1: I quit and I took it literal he didn't quit,

1413
01:13:55,040 --> 01:13:58,280
Speaker 1: but I thought he just gotten divorced, had car payment,

1414
01:13:58,400 --> 01:14:01,840
Speaker 1: child payment, uh, you know, mortgage, blah blah blah. And

1415
01:14:01,840 --> 01:14:04,000
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, I'm at the most of

1416
01:14:04,120 --> 01:14:06,519
Speaker 1: this guy and never saw it coming. He can just quit.

1417
01:14:06,560 --> 01:14:09,280
Speaker 1: He's got millions in the bank. I don't he can

1418
01:14:09,360 --> 01:14:13,000
Speaker 1: quit whenever he wants. I'm like, that will never happen again.

1419
01:14:13,360 --> 01:14:15,960
Speaker 1: And that's where I went. I freaked out. And then

1420
01:14:16,000 --> 01:14:19,120
Speaker 1: I started to look at the same thing everybody else saw,

1421
01:14:19,600 --> 01:14:22,000
Speaker 1: but look at it different. I went, I've been working

1422
01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:24,439
Speaker 1: with one rock star for eight years, and I'm gonna

1423
01:14:24,479 --> 01:14:26,600
Speaker 1: go work for all the other ones. And so I

1424
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:29,840
Speaker 1: started coming out here. To what degree did you pitch people?

1425
01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:32,240
Speaker 1: And to what degree were they looking for you both?

1426
01:14:33,240 --> 01:14:35,360
Speaker 1: I was all over the radio, and then when they

1427
01:14:35,400 --> 01:14:37,720
Speaker 1: started hearing and I was coming out here, and one

1428
01:14:37,760 --> 01:14:41,960
Speaker 1: day I get this call, Hey, Kenny, it's Don Don Was.

1429
01:14:42,680 --> 01:14:46,600
Speaker 1: I'm like, from What's not? Was? Yeah, how did you

1430
01:14:46,640 --> 01:14:50,920
Speaker 1: think you're playing an iggy pop record? Now, Don was

1431
01:14:51,000 --> 01:14:53,200
Speaker 1: really just beginning. He was renting a house up in

1432
01:14:53,600 --> 01:14:57,040
Speaker 1: Low Canyon. He says, Now, don you know it wasn't

1433
01:14:57,040 --> 01:14:58,800
Speaker 1: I was to be honest, I go to the record

1434
01:14:58,840 --> 01:15:01,920
Speaker 1: plan to meet him. I go right up to the singers,

1435
01:15:02,000 --> 01:15:03,599
Speaker 1: the black singers. I thought he was a black guy,

1436
01:15:04,720 --> 01:15:09,120
Speaker 1: and I go, so Don, and then he says, Sweepy goes,

1437
01:15:09,160 --> 01:15:11,560
Speaker 1: I ain't know Donn was, and I go over to

1438
01:15:11,680 --> 01:15:14,519
Speaker 1: Don Was, not knowing it's Don. Was said, dude, when

1439
01:15:14,520 --> 01:15:17,479
Speaker 1: does Don could get here? And Don starts bursting out laughing,

1440
01:15:18,040 --> 01:15:22,880
Speaker 1: he's Barefoot's got the afrot laugh aces I'm done. Was,

1441
01:15:23,320 --> 01:15:26,400
Speaker 1: I'm like, what you sound like that on the phone.

1442
01:15:26,479 --> 01:15:29,120
Speaker 1: I was laying lass off and Sweepy is laughing. All

1443
01:15:29,160 --> 01:15:31,599
Speaker 1: those guys are laughing. So Don says, look at Iggy

1444
01:15:31,800 --> 01:15:34,080
Speaker 1: wants to meet you first, which I thought was cool

1445
01:15:34,120 --> 01:15:36,599
Speaker 1: because he has vibe. So I go to his house

1446
01:15:36,680 --> 01:15:39,320
Speaker 1: and you know, Iggy's sitting laying down on the count

1447
01:15:39,320 --> 01:15:40,960
Speaker 1: and he says, you know, I played Timpany in high

1448
01:15:40,960 --> 01:15:43,920
Speaker 1: school in Detroit, and I WHOA, I played Timpany too,

1449
01:15:44,120 --> 01:15:47,040
Speaker 1: and he liked me. So I played on that record

1450
01:15:47,120 --> 01:15:50,200
Speaker 1: and one night when Don said Don, they said Donna

1451
01:15:50,200 --> 01:15:52,240
Speaker 1: has to leave. He's going to the Grammys. He wins

1452
01:15:52,320 --> 01:15:54,720
Speaker 1: two Grammys for Nick of Time and one for Love

1453
01:15:54,840 --> 01:15:57,280
Speaker 1: Check Be fifty two. All of a sudden, Don is

1454
01:15:57,320 --> 01:16:01,719
Speaker 1: getting I'm ton of calls. Now I do Bob Dylan's

1455
01:16:01,720 --> 01:16:03,840
Speaker 1: record with him. Now I do Bob Seger with him.

1456
01:16:03,920 --> 01:16:06,280
Speaker 1: Now I do Elton John with him. And then I've

1457
01:16:06,320 --> 01:16:11,880
Speaker 1: been working with Don since nine. The big thing I

1458
01:16:11,960 --> 01:16:14,800
Speaker 1: do with Don as we do these big, huge extravaganzas

1459
01:16:14,880 --> 01:16:20,200
Speaker 1: like the uh, the Greg Allman Tribute, so I get

1460
01:16:20,240 --> 01:16:22,880
Speaker 1: to play with twenty artists Tomorrow Hagger Tribute while I'm

1461
01:16:22,920 --> 01:16:26,040
Speaker 1: playing with Loretta Lynn and Keith Richards and Don Henley,

1462
01:16:26,080 --> 01:16:28,479
Speaker 1: and then he's just one after another. And then I

1463
01:16:28,560 --> 01:16:32,320
Speaker 1: did the Kenny Rodgers Tribute with you can imagine, you know,

1464
01:16:32,439 --> 01:16:35,880
Speaker 1: Dolly Pardon, Lionel Richie, all these It's just and then

1465
01:16:36,160 --> 01:16:39,439
Speaker 1: and then that, and then having done the Kennedy Center Honors.

1466
01:16:40,120 --> 01:16:43,559
Speaker 1: For the viewers listening, it's like I write meticulously every

1467
01:16:43,720 --> 01:16:46,519
Speaker 1: single note, doubt uh that I'm gonna play. I have

1468
01:16:46,680 --> 01:16:50,920
Speaker 1: tempo marking's, I have a vocal cues, I have guitar cues,

1469
01:16:51,360 --> 01:16:54,680
Speaker 1: and Don basically he's the musical director. But once the

1470
01:16:54,720 --> 01:16:58,240
Speaker 1: show goes, I'm I'm I'm counting off the tempo's ending

1471
01:16:58,280 --> 01:17:01,200
Speaker 1: all the songs. Uh. He he hands the baton to me,

1472
01:17:01,720 --> 01:17:04,320
Speaker 1: and I'm timing. I know the script of the show,

1473
01:17:04,439 --> 01:17:07,920
Speaker 1: the flow of the show. I'm looking over to see

1474
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:10,400
Speaker 1: when Don Henley walks on looking for the next artist.

1475
01:17:10,640 --> 01:17:12,880
Speaker 1: Are they gonna speak into the micro They not, and

1476
01:17:13,120 --> 01:17:14,960
Speaker 1: I have to make a decision. I got my hands

1477
01:17:15,040 --> 01:17:16,680
Speaker 1: up here, I've got the click going in my ear.

1478
01:17:16,840 --> 01:17:19,120
Speaker 1: I've grabbed the attention to people. The guitar players are

1479
01:17:19,120 --> 01:17:23,559
Speaker 1: the keyboard player. This is get ready, one two, three, four,

1480
01:17:23,680 --> 01:17:25,479
Speaker 1: And as soon as the song is over, I gotta

1481
01:17:25,560 --> 01:17:28,840
Speaker 1: click going for the next song. So it's already going

1482
01:17:29,240 --> 01:17:32,120
Speaker 1: because you could go from one two to one twenty.

1483
01:17:32,280 --> 01:17:34,679
Speaker 1: It's not much, but it makes a difference with vocals.

1484
01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:38,639
Speaker 1: So don I make Don's life easier. I mean, I'm

1485
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:42,719
Speaker 1: making tweaks and adjustments on charts until ninety minutes before

1486
01:17:42,960 --> 01:17:45,960
Speaker 1: the show, and it's a sixteen camera shoot and they're

1487
01:17:46,000 --> 01:17:50,599
Speaker 1: recording it. I can't mess up. Ninety minutes before the show.

1488
01:17:50,800 --> 01:17:53,080
Speaker 1: I get all my charts, and I didn't take pictures

1489
01:17:53,160 --> 01:17:55,360
Speaker 1: of them, put them my iPad, put them in order,

1490
01:17:56,160 --> 01:17:58,160
Speaker 1: and usually have thirty minutes to eat and get ready,

1491
01:17:58,240 --> 01:18:01,360
Speaker 1: and then I'll do this whole performance. Let's just say hypothetically,

1492
01:18:01,800 --> 01:18:05,599
Speaker 1: you're booked that they can't get you. That just happened. Okay,

1493
01:18:05,680 --> 01:18:08,120
Speaker 1: who do you say to get I let them decide,

1494
01:18:10,720 --> 01:18:15,679
Speaker 1: great answer. Okay, so Mello Camp decides he's not retiring. Meanwhile,

1495
01:18:15,720 --> 01:18:18,400
Speaker 1: you've built this whole business from the session work. How

1496
01:18:18,439 --> 01:18:20,200
Speaker 1: does it end with you in Mello Camp? Well, that

1497
01:18:20,360 --> 01:18:23,519
Speaker 1: was the beginning of headbutting, because now I took myself

1498
01:18:23,600 --> 01:18:27,360
Speaker 1: off the small teeny retainer. I mean, that's such an

1499
01:18:27,400 --> 01:18:30,439
Speaker 1: obvious flare up in the sky. But I you know,

1500
01:18:30,479 --> 01:18:32,920
Speaker 1: I thought, well, you know this way, he can't tell

1501
01:18:33,040 --> 01:18:35,439
Speaker 1: me when he wants me, but you don't tell him

1502
01:18:35,479 --> 01:18:38,360
Speaker 1: Melancamp retainer or not when he wants you. He wants you.

1503
01:18:38,880 --> 01:18:42,840
Speaker 1: And this has happened before or after that. What I

1504
01:18:43,000 --> 01:18:45,120
Speaker 1: was saying that John was like, I'm making more money

1505
01:18:45,160 --> 01:18:50,080
Speaker 1: in the studio and I in the studio that I'm

1506
01:18:50,160 --> 01:18:52,800
Speaker 1: with you and I've made you millions. That's what I'm

1507
01:18:52,840 --> 01:18:56,000
Speaker 1: thinking to my head. And I'm treated with respect and

1508
01:18:56,160 --> 01:18:59,559
Speaker 1: nice and John, I'm not even gonna put him down,

1509
01:18:59,720 --> 01:19:04,439
Speaker 1: just say it wasn't his demeanor to be nice, like

1510
01:19:04,640 --> 01:19:08,000
Speaker 1: nice nice, and so I would like be in the

1511
01:19:08,120 --> 01:19:11,439
Speaker 1: car those last five years after we got back together,

1512
01:19:11,600 --> 01:19:14,360
Speaker 1: and then we're back you know when we finally get

1513
01:19:14,400 --> 01:19:17,240
Speaker 1: back together officially as a band in nine and I'm

1514
01:19:17,360 --> 01:19:19,800
Speaker 1: driving to the student gonna rock on the rock. I'm

1515
01:19:19,800 --> 01:19:21,479
Speaker 1: gonna get and I get in there, and John was

1516
01:19:21,560 --> 01:19:23,719
Speaker 1: going through a lot of I mean, in all fairness

1517
01:19:23,760 --> 01:19:26,080
Speaker 1: to John, he was like running all the business. He

1518
01:19:26,200 --> 01:19:28,800
Speaker 1: was dealing with interviews, dealing with the record labels, dealing

1519
01:19:28,800 --> 01:19:32,040
Speaker 1: with managers, dealing with merchandise. He was dealing with this everything,

1520
01:19:32,160 --> 01:19:36,719
Speaker 1: and uh, I think you know he had relationship issues.

1521
01:19:36,800 --> 01:19:38,760
Speaker 1: It was just tons of stuff. And then he had

1522
01:19:38,760 --> 01:19:41,240
Speaker 1: a heart attack eventually, and it was like there was

1523
01:19:41,280 --> 01:19:42,880
Speaker 1: so much times to play. When I get in the studio,

1524
01:19:43,360 --> 01:19:46,839
Speaker 1: he'd had sunglasses, he'd be smoke con cigarette, the blinds

1525
01:19:46,880 --> 01:19:52,040
Speaker 1: would be drawn and it was just depressing. And once again,

1526
01:19:52,160 --> 01:19:55,640
Speaker 1: no insult to him, but he was suffering. But I

1527
01:19:55,840 --> 01:19:58,120
Speaker 1: walk in there and I would feel it and it

1528
01:19:58,240 --> 01:20:00,800
Speaker 1: was no fun. And I'd be like, come on, let's

1529
01:20:00,840 --> 01:20:03,840
Speaker 1: go up. We'd be in this dark place for an

1530
01:20:03,880 --> 01:20:06,920
Speaker 1: hour and a half. Now let's cut this song. And

1531
01:20:07,000 --> 01:20:11,000
Speaker 1: I'd be like constantly trying to coach myself and like,

1532
01:20:11,200 --> 01:20:13,439
Speaker 1: no dis respect to John at all. Man, he was

1533
01:20:13,479 --> 01:20:15,519
Speaker 1: going through a lot. Man. He was running the whole show.

1534
01:20:16,120 --> 01:20:19,080
Speaker 1: But it wasn't fun to be around. So eventually John

1535
01:20:19,200 --> 01:20:21,920
Speaker 1: called me and I was doing something and I can't

1536
01:20:21,960 --> 01:20:24,280
Speaker 1: make it. I think I was with little Feet out here.

1537
01:20:24,840 --> 01:20:27,600
Speaker 1: We'll just cancel. Tell them. You gotta tell them that

1538
01:20:27,760 --> 01:20:30,479
Speaker 1: you're not available when I call you. I said, doesn't

1539
01:20:30,520 --> 01:20:34,559
Speaker 1: work that way. They you know, producers build rhythm sections.

1540
01:20:34,600 --> 01:20:37,800
Speaker 1: They want Kenny in this studio with that bass player.

1541
01:20:38,000 --> 01:20:41,280
Speaker 1: And if I'm gonna constantly be bambling, I think gonna work.

1542
01:20:41,520 --> 01:20:46,320
Speaker 1: And there was no It eventually ended where we parted ways,

1543
01:20:46,400 --> 01:20:49,400
Speaker 1: you know, And what's your relationship with him? About? If

1544
01:20:49,439 --> 01:20:51,160
Speaker 1: I play with him like I've done stuff with him.

1545
01:20:51,280 --> 01:20:53,840
Speaker 1: We joke like I did the mer hag contribute. He'll

1546
01:20:53,880 --> 01:20:55,439
Speaker 1: come up and slug me in the arm, you know, uh,

1547
01:20:55,680 --> 01:20:57,880
Speaker 1: And we'll stand in front of each other, and you know,

1548
01:20:58,800 --> 01:21:03,120
Speaker 1: he's a very serious guy, but our conversations are fun, funny,

1549
01:21:03,320 --> 01:21:06,160
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of like we make He'll make

1550
01:21:06,200 --> 01:21:08,000
Speaker 1: a dig at me, but it doesn't bother me because

1551
01:21:08,000 --> 01:21:09,920
Speaker 1: you're playing like the Merle Haggard tribute. Have you ever

1552
01:21:10,000 --> 01:21:13,160
Speaker 1: played with him in his band? I played with Merrow

1553
01:21:13,600 --> 01:21:17,120
Speaker 1: Another Don was saying, where you know Willie Nelson and

1554
01:21:17,200 --> 01:21:21,280
Speaker 1: Merroll came on to do Poncho and Poncho and Lefty Lefty,

1555
01:21:21,560 --> 01:21:25,200
Speaker 1: and they were for some event. I played with Morril

1556
01:21:25,200 --> 01:21:27,720
Speaker 1: a bunch of times, you know, okay, But in terms

1557
01:21:27,800 --> 01:21:31,599
Speaker 1: of John Mellancamp, oh, not in his band. No, it's

1558
01:21:31,640 --> 01:21:35,720
Speaker 1: only one of these things where like the Obama inauguration,

1559
01:21:36,240 --> 01:21:38,120
Speaker 1: And that's that's how I broke the eyes. I was

1560
01:21:38,160 --> 01:21:41,040
Speaker 1: playing Obama Inauguration. I played with twenty four artists. One

1561
01:21:41,200 --> 01:21:43,639
Speaker 1: was Melancamp and I thought, I don't want to wait,

1562
01:21:43,680 --> 01:21:46,639
Speaker 1: it's gonna be awkward, so I wait till I see him.

1563
01:21:46,800 --> 01:21:48,720
Speaker 1: So I called him up on the phone. They go,

1564
01:21:48,920 --> 01:21:52,280
Speaker 1: John's Kenny, Hey, Kenny, Oh, oh, Kenny, how are you?

1565
01:21:52,360 --> 01:21:54,280
Speaker 1: He was really friendly. So this I want to let

1566
01:21:54,320 --> 01:21:57,160
Speaker 1: you know that it's really cold on stage. We're outside

1567
01:21:57,280 --> 01:22:00,960
Speaker 1: and you up what Lincoln is and we're down below you.

1568
01:22:01,120 --> 01:22:03,479
Speaker 1: So you really are kind of alone. I just know

1569
01:22:03,640 --> 01:22:05,479
Speaker 1: you'd like to be around the band. Just what I

1570
01:22:05,560 --> 01:22:07,400
Speaker 1: just want are You're still hitting a lot of symbols

1571
01:22:07,800 --> 01:22:10,400
Speaker 1: and went, yeah, and we're doing pink House. I said,

1572
01:22:10,400 --> 01:22:12,799
Speaker 1: you know the third chorus where you sing stop singing,

1573
01:22:13,000 --> 01:22:16,000
Speaker 1: it's a drum solo and it's just symbols going crazy,

1574
01:22:16,320 --> 01:22:18,559
Speaker 1: and he goes, this is motherfucker. I'm gonna come down

1575
01:22:18,600 --> 01:22:21,479
Speaker 1: there and take those symbols up. And I said, I

1576
01:22:21,600 --> 01:22:25,360
Speaker 1: hope you do. I'll get more camera. It was kind

1577
01:22:25,360 --> 01:22:28,200
Speaker 1: of he really wanted to know if he was performing

1578
01:22:28,280 --> 01:22:32,679
Speaker 1: right after Biden's speech because he wanted the attention. You know. Okay,

1579
01:22:32,920 --> 01:22:35,679
Speaker 1: so is Mike the only guy left from the original band?

1580
01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:39,439
Speaker 1: That's right. I went and saw them here at the

1581
01:22:39,479 --> 01:22:42,760
Speaker 1: Hollywood Bowl and I have to say it wasn't the

1582
01:22:42,840 --> 01:22:45,080
Speaker 1: rock band that I was in, but it was cool man.

1583
01:22:45,160 --> 01:22:49,880
Speaker 1: The songs were great, except he placed Jack and Diana

1584
01:22:49,920 --> 01:22:51,880
Speaker 1: Cousty guitar and I got to the drum field he

1585
01:22:52,000 --> 01:22:55,720
Speaker 1: skipped it. He didn't even play. Just well, that's a

1586
01:22:55,760 --> 01:22:58,360
Speaker 1: tribute to you on some level. Okay, So now you're

1587
01:22:58,400 --> 01:23:00,519
Speaker 1: playing sessions, but you all still go out of the

1588
01:23:00,600 --> 01:23:03,160
Speaker 1: Road with Melissa Ethridge for ten years on and off,

1589
01:23:03,360 --> 01:23:05,880
Speaker 1: Joe Cocker for ten years, on and off, Pumpkins for

1590
01:23:05,960 --> 01:23:09,240
Speaker 1: one year, a Bob Seger for one year, and Fogrety

1591
01:23:09,280 --> 01:23:11,920
Speaker 1: now I'm up to twenty five years. Okay. So first

1592
01:23:11,960 --> 01:23:14,960
Speaker 1: you're playing sessions. At what point do you decide do

1593
01:23:15,040 --> 01:23:18,600
Speaker 1: you end up going down the road on tour. You know,

1594
01:23:20,520 --> 01:23:23,640
Speaker 1: this is what makes me different. Is like for the

1595
01:23:23,720 --> 01:23:26,320
Speaker 1: viewers out there, usually you're either a session drummer or

1596
01:23:26,400 --> 01:23:28,360
Speaker 1: you're a touring drummer. So a couple of us like

1597
01:23:28,479 --> 01:23:32,280
Speaker 1: Jeff Percarroll did it, uh, Jerr Robinson, Jared and toured

1598
01:23:32,360 --> 01:23:35,280
Speaker 1: that much. You didn't want to ever leave town because

1599
01:23:35,280 --> 01:23:37,320
Speaker 1: you don't want these sessions. What I did was I

1600
01:23:37,439 --> 01:23:39,840
Speaker 1: was living Indiana. I was recording in l a lot,

1601
01:23:40,160 --> 01:23:42,040
Speaker 1: but Nashville was only four and a half hours south

1602
01:23:42,120 --> 01:23:44,240
Speaker 1: of me. So I started a whole business down there.

1603
01:23:44,520 --> 01:23:47,000
Speaker 1: I was making, you know, playing with Johnny Cash, the

1604
01:23:47,080 --> 01:23:50,400
Speaker 1: real the real guys, uh, you know, Willie Nelson's Waylon

1605
01:23:50,520 --> 01:23:55,200
Speaker 1: Jennings and and then in the country pop schlock started coming.

1606
01:23:55,280 --> 01:24:00,760
Speaker 1: I was playing on that too, But I I I

1607
01:24:01,160 --> 01:24:06,599
Speaker 1: was juggling everything, and in New York sometimes, and when

1608
01:24:06,640 --> 01:24:10,200
Speaker 1: I went on tour with Seeger and Melissa, I struck

1609
01:24:10,240 --> 01:24:13,040
Speaker 1: a deal like this. I got paid a lot, but

1610
01:24:13,120 --> 01:24:16,200
Speaker 1: I said, you pay me on show day. On days off,

1611
01:24:16,280 --> 01:24:19,200
Speaker 1: you don't have to pay me, but those are my days.

1612
01:24:19,400 --> 01:24:23,280
Speaker 1: And I would fly anywhere to make records and keep

1613
01:24:23,320 --> 01:24:24,840
Speaker 1: it all going. All right, There are issues of getting

1614
01:24:24,880 --> 01:24:28,120
Speaker 1: back in time for the show. I got two big

1615
01:24:28,439 --> 01:24:33,360
Speaker 1: ones recently. Fog I'm in Mumbai, India with my band,

1616
01:24:33,400 --> 01:24:36,840
Speaker 1: Supersonic Blues Machine with Eric El's and Billy Gibbons, and

1617
01:24:36,920 --> 01:24:40,000
Speaker 1: I'm being promoted. So this is the classic thing fogies

1618
01:24:40,040 --> 01:24:41,800
Speaker 1: get a gig. I'm not unretained or I don't have

1619
01:24:41,880 --> 01:24:43,680
Speaker 1: any So we've got a gig the day after and

1620
01:24:43,720 --> 01:24:46,400
Speaker 1: I'm like, huh, I can make it, but it's gonna be.

1621
01:24:46,880 --> 01:24:48,280
Speaker 1: I can make it, but I'm gonna be in Mumbai

1622
01:24:48,360 --> 01:24:50,639
Speaker 1: the day before, so you've gotta cancel it. Went I can't.

1623
01:24:50,880 --> 01:24:54,320
Speaker 1: It's my band and I'm being promoted. It's Kenny Aaronoff.

1624
01:24:54,560 --> 01:24:57,840
Speaker 1: It's my band. You gotta cancel it. So I said,

1625
01:24:58,400 --> 01:25:00,840
Speaker 1: let me see what the flights are, you know, instead

1626
01:25:00,880 --> 01:25:03,360
Speaker 1: of like there is no no, that's my new thing.

1627
01:25:03,439 --> 01:25:05,680
Speaker 1: There's no no. You just just come up with keep

1628
01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:10,280
Speaker 1: the conversation going. So I'm like, okay, look, I'm wanna

1629
01:25:10,360 --> 01:25:12,640
Speaker 1: let me look into this. So I said, I'll make

1630
01:25:12,680 --> 01:25:15,760
Speaker 1: it work. So I leave the stage. I figured out

1631
01:25:15,760 --> 01:25:18,599
Speaker 1: I catch a four am flight from Mumbai to Dubai

1632
01:25:18,840 --> 01:25:22,840
Speaker 1: to me our layover. Unless is a military coup or

1633
01:25:22,960 --> 01:25:27,360
Speaker 1: sandstorm that goes to Houston. My only problem is I

1634
01:25:27,479 --> 01:25:29,120
Speaker 1: land in Houston five thirty. I have to be on

1635
01:25:29,280 --> 01:25:32,040
Speaker 1: stage at nine. And at San Antonio the problem was

1636
01:25:32,120 --> 01:25:37,080
Speaker 1: the rush hours insane is not the problem, but getting

1637
01:25:37,120 --> 01:25:39,160
Speaker 1: into Texas as a problem. So I tell them that.

1638
01:25:39,200 --> 01:25:41,680
Speaker 1: They're like, no, no, no, I said, Okay, let me

1639
01:25:41,680 --> 01:25:43,920
Speaker 1: see what else I can do. I get a private chet.

1640
01:25:44,040 --> 01:25:47,080
Speaker 1: Somebody offers me a private chet for five dollars if

1641
01:25:47,120 --> 01:25:49,400
Speaker 1: I get them v I p passes. Now I land,

1642
01:25:49,640 --> 01:25:52,479
Speaker 1: I can get there by six thirty. I tell them

1643
01:25:52,520 --> 01:25:56,280
Speaker 1: that they're like what, they can't believe I got that together.

1644
01:25:56,479 --> 01:25:58,920
Speaker 1: They're like, well, what if? What if something really happens?

1645
01:25:59,000 --> 01:26:01,479
Speaker 1: I said, And I went to the next level. I

1646
01:26:01,560 --> 01:26:03,880
Speaker 1: got my buddy Stephen Perkins to sub for me in

1647
01:26:03,960 --> 01:26:06,320
Speaker 1: case I didn't make it. He went there, he learned

1648
01:26:06,360 --> 01:26:08,960
Speaker 1: the whole show, did sound check, and I made it

1649
01:26:09,040 --> 01:26:12,160
Speaker 1: on time, and I did the show, and then I

1650
01:26:12,160 --> 01:26:15,080
Speaker 1: would love that. I was like Piston Vinegar. I I

1651
01:26:15,479 --> 01:26:17,360
Speaker 1: the fact that you know that it was a challenge

1652
01:26:17,439 --> 01:26:20,360
Speaker 1: made me. The adrenaline flowed and we kicked as the

1653
01:26:20,479 --> 01:26:23,000
Speaker 1: next day though we had we got on Don Henley's

1654
01:26:23,080 --> 01:26:26,400
Speaker 1: jet and flew all the way to New York or

1655
01:26:26,520 --> 01:26:30,000
Speaker 1: somewhere east. And that's when I felt it. I was like,

1656
01:26:30,160 --> 01:26:32,639
Speaker 1: oh man, and we had a couple of shows there,

1657
01:26:32,760 --> 01:26:37,800
Speaker 1: corporate shows, and I was hurting. Yeah, no, we just

1658
01:26:37,920 --> 01:26:39,519
Speaker 1: had for some reason, we want his jet. I just

1659
01:26:39,680 --> 01:26:42,280
Speaker 1: used that as a cool thing to say, so, but

1660
01:26:42,400 --> 01:26:46,320
Speaker 1: but um, I was gonna say, you know when you know,

1661
01:26:46,400 --> 01:26:49,200
Speaker 1: I was in business class of first class, so that

1662
01:26:49,600 --> 01:26:52,479
Speaker 1: that flash slept the whole you know, eight hours. So,

1663
01:26:52,720 --> 01:26:54,560
Speaker 1: so who have you not played with? You want to

1664
01:26:54,600 --> 01:26:58,000
Speaker 1: play with? Well, my super group I played with Sting,

1665
01:26:58,200 --> 01:27:01,120
Speaker 1: but my ideal super group would be staying obviously, I'm

1666
01:27:01,160 --> 01:27:04,080
Speaker 1: bass singing and Jeff Beck on guitar played with Beck

1667
01:27:04,360 --> 01:27:07,000
Speaker 1: played on Blaze of Glory with him, but never played

1668
01:27:07,160 --> 01:27:10,320
Speaker 1: with him. You played the drums on Blaze of Glory. Yeah,

1669
01:27:11,479 --> 01:27:14,479
Speaker 1: I forgot you know. So yeah, and Jeff Beck, this

1670
01:27:14,560 --> 01:27:16,800
Speaker 1: is a great story. John. One day I get a

1671
01:27:16,840 --> 01:27:19,599
Speaker 1: call out of Blue I'm in Nashville. The chords is, Hey,

1672
01:27:19,680 --> 01:27:22,639
Speaker 1: k's John bon Joeli. I'm like what he says, Hey,

1673
01:27:23,200 --> 01:27:25,759
Speaker 1: I got this project. I want to record two songs

1674
01:27:25,920 --> 01:27:30,720
Speaker 1: for this movie soundtrack. Are you available? BLA Bla says yeah,

1675
01:27:30,920 --> 01:27:32,559
Speaker 1: So I'll call you a couple of weeks, it comes

1676
01:27:32,720 --> 01:27:36,160
Speaker 1: I got four songs. Oh my god, that's awesome for Okay, cool,

1677
01:27:36,320 --> 01:27:38,080
Speaker 1: I'll call you a couple of weeks, dude, like, I'm

1678
01:27:38,080 --> 01:27:39,840
Speaker 1: doing the whole soundtrack. I'm doing I got a whole album.

1679
01:27:39,920 --> 01:27:43,360
Speaker 1: It's a whole concept. I'm even acting the movie. Okay,

1680
01:27:43,400 --> 01:27:45,880
Speaker 1: we're gonna nail down you. Still available to said yep,

1681
01:27:46,120 --> 01:27:48,320
Speaker 1: calling a couple of weeks called says I got good

1682
01:27:48,360 --> 01:27:51,439
Speaker 1: news and bad news. I'm like, oh, no, what's the

1683
01:27:51,479 --> 01:27:55,160
Speaker 1: good news? Jeff Becker is on the record, what Molly

1684
01:27:55,240 --> 01:27:58,320
Speaker 1: hro what's the bad news? Jeff wants Terry bos you

1685
01:27:58,520 --> 01:28:05,599
Speaker 1: play Johnny side other way? No, but you know, Terry's great,

1686
01:28:05,880 --> 01:28:08,240
Speaker 1: Jef's great. I get off the phone and I start

1687
01:28:08,320 --> 01:28:12,000
Speaker 1: pacing back and forth and I'm so bummed out, you know.

1688
01:28:12,520 --> 01:28:14,559
Speaker 1: And then get a call from the co producer, Danny

1689
01:28:14,640 --> 01:28:18,439
Speaker 1: korschmer Hey, Kenny's Danny. What's up? Man? He says, um,

1690
01:28:18,640 --> 01:28:20,840
Speaker 1: hey man, get you drums there. On Tuesday at nine am,

1691
01:28:20,920 --> 01:28:26,040
Speaker 1: I went, Danny, have you spoken to John Lady? Yeah? Well,

1692
01:28:26,080 --> 01:28:29,840
Speaker 1: I says, I'm not playing on the record. Terry Bojo says,

1693
01:28:30,160 --> 01:28:34,040
Speaker 1: what that's not yet? You're the right guy for the record, Terry,

1694
01:28:34,120 --> 01:28:36,960
Speaker 1: and then he said something very very smart that I

1695
01:28:37,479 --> 01:28:40,720
Speaker 1: should have known better. There's no way Jeff Beck is

1696
01:28:40,720 --> 01:28:43,519
Speaker 1: gonna be there on a tracking session. Let's do take

1697
01:28:43,640 --> 01:28:47,479
Speaker 1: number four hundred. No, you record this song, you bring

1698
01:28:47,600 --> 01:28:50,000
Speaker 1: Jeff into just a couple of takes and it's done.

1699
01:28:50,920 --> 01:28:53,800
Speaker 1: He's not gonna be there making a record with bon

1700
01:28:53,920 --> 01:28:56,280
Speaker 1: Jovie from like you know, eleven in the morning, the

1701
01:28:56,320 --> 01:28:59,000
Speaker 1: eleven at night. That's not his style. I was right,

1702
01:28:59,479 --> 01:29:01,360
Speaker 1: so he says, So anyway, tell you a tech the

1703
01:29:01,479 --> 01:29:03,240
Speaker 1: bring the drums here by nine am. So I played

1704
01:29:03,320 --> 01:29:06,640
Speaker 1: on the record. So why is the drummer always the

1705
01:29:06,680 --> 01:29:11,439
Speaker 1: business guy in the group. I don't know. Maybe you've

1706
01:29:11,520 --> 01:29:14,000
Speaker 1: learned to have to defend yourself. You're the guy you

1707
01:29:14,080 --> 01:29:16,320
Speaker 1: know all the music jokes. You know, you've got the

1708
01:29:16,360 --> 01:29:18,040
Speaker 1: brand and the guy that's oh yeah, and then we

1709
01:29:18,080 --> 01:29:20,680
Speaker 1: got a drummer, you know. I don't know. I think

1710
01:29:21,320 --> 01:29:23,479
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a good question maybe, but that's

1711
01:29:23,560 --> 01:29:25,280
Speaker 1: what you do. You agree with that that usually the

1712
01:29:25,520 --> 01:29:31,120
Speaker 1: drummers the business guy. The drummer in many cases Danny

1713
01:29:31,160 --> 01:29:34,639
Speaker 1: Surfing from Blood, Sweat and Tears, Mick Jagger is the Stones,

1714
01:29:34,720 --> 01:29:37,120
Speaker 1: but Charlie Watts. It all goes to Charlie. You know,

1715
01:29:37,240 --> 01:29:40,840
Speaker 1: he's one of the guys. Uh, silent leader. Um. And

1716
01:29:40,960 --> 01:29:44,800
Speaker 1: that's just form my intuition. Um. You know there's other

1717
01:29:45,120 --> 01:29:50,000
Speaker 1: Don Henley definitely running the show, you know. Um. Um,

1718
01:29:50,720 --> 01:29:53,920
Speaker 1: I think the drummers are you know, we have to

1719
01:29:54,680 --> 01:29:59,040
Speaker 1: defend ourselves, stick up for ourselves, protect yourself, make sure

1720
01:29:59,040 --> 01:30:02,040
Speaker 1: you don't get screwed. You know, maybe that's part of it.

1721
01:30:02,720 --> 01:30:05,560
Speaker 1: What's the most memorable gig you've ever played? May not

1722
01:30:05,680 --> 01:30:08,640
Speaker 1: be the best you performed, but your favorite where you

1723
01:30:08,680 --> 01:30:12,200
Speaker 1: go I'm in the pocket. This is a great experience. Well,

1724
01:30:13,400 --> 01:30:16,320
Speaker 1: one of the most memorable ones besides the concertom was

1725
01:30:16,360 --> 01:30:19,200
Speaker 1: recording with the Buddy Rich Big Band. Scared the living

1726
01:30:19,320 --> 01:30:21,720
Speaker 1: crap out of me. I walk in there. I'm the

1727
01:30:21,840 --> 01:30:25,320
Speaker 1: last guy. There's a tribute record to honor Buddy Rich.

1728
01:30:25,800 --> 01:30:29,120
Speaker 1: And so they got they got all these great drummers

1729
01:30:29,360 --> 01:30:31,760
Speaker 1: and Neil Pert and Cathy, which decided they should have

1730
01:30:32,640 --> 01:30:35,160
Speaker 1: Kenny Aronoff and you know a couple of rock guys

1731
01:30:35,240 --> 01:30:38,400
Speaker 1: that are big. So Cathy calls me up and says,

1732
01:30:38,439 --> 01:30:40,679
Speaker 1: I want you to pick two songs. So I picked

1733
01:30:40,760 --> 01:30:44,719
Speaker 1: jazz songs. Actually just one songs, big swing face, she says,

1734
01:30:45,000 --> 01:30:47,200
Speaker 1: because they sent me some rock songs that were like horror.

1735
01:30:47,200 --> 01:30:49,599
Speaker 1: Buddy wasn't the rock drummer and the music wasn't good.

1736
01:30:50,120 --> 01:30:53,360
Speaker 1: So I picked this great jazz tune, big band jazz tune,

1737
01:30:53,640 --> 01:30:56,400
Speaker 1: and I'm excited. But I've got sessions book three weeks

1738
01:30:56,640 --> 01:31:01,200
Speaker 1: before every like New Orleans, LA, Nashville in Montreal. So

1739
01:31:01,280 --> 01:31:03,200
Speaker 1: I said, Kathy, I better book me as the last

1740
01:31:03,240 --> 01:31:05,400
Speaker 1: guy last day in case I don't make it. And

1741
01:31:05,560 --> 01:31:07,599
Speaker 1: she calls me a couple of weeks before and says, look,

1742
01:31:07,640 --> 01:31:10,880
Speaker 1: everyone's doing two songs and I'm like, God, I don't know.

1743
01:31:10,960 --> 01:31:13,600
Speaker 1: I want. I was about to say I would love to,

1744
01:31:13,680 --> 01:31:14,760
Speaker 1: but I don't know if I can pull it off

1745
01:31:14,840 --> 01:31:16,880
Speaker 1: straight no chaser. He says, we think you should do

1746
01:31:16,960 --> 01:31:19,640
Speaker 1: straight No chase. I went what I says, all right,

1747
01:31:19,800 --> 01:31:23,000
Speaker 1: all right, Oh now I'm nervous. It's really fast, and

1748
01:31:23,720 --> 01:31:26,280
Speaker 1: so I said, well, okay, but I I got the

1749
01:31:26,320 --> 01:31:28,720
Speaker 1: final say if it's no good, and she's okay. So

1750
01:31:29,040 --> 01:31:31,800
Speaker 1: I barely get any sleep the night before because I'm

1751
01:31:31,920 --> 01:31:34,200
Speaker 1: according late and I have to fly from Montreal. I'll

1752
01:31:34,240 --> 01:31:36,800
Speaker 1: go through customs. I get there. I'm so tired and

1753
01:31:36,880 --> 01:31:39,519
Speaker 1: I get to New York. I don't lay down on

1754
01:31:39,600 --> 01:31:42,240
Speaker 1: the bed, you won't wake up, and and uh so

1755
01:31:42,520 --> 01:31:44,840
Speaker 1: I purposely walked the studio from the hotel just to

1756
01:31:45,200 --> 01:31:48,160
Speaker 1: keep myself awake. I walk in there and there's cameras

1757
01:31:48,280 --> 01:31:51,120
Speaker 1: and everyone's filming me, and the band is looking at

1758
01:31:51,160 --> 01:31:52,560
Speaker 1: him in and they looked at me like I was

1759
01:31:52,600 --> 01:31:56,680
Speaker 1: a janitor, like who's that guy? You know? Like, and

1760
01:31:56,760 --> 01:32:00,160
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I'm like nervous. And so eventually get

1761
01:32:00,200 --> 01:32:02,080
Speaker 1: the drums and it's a new time a drum kit

1762
01:32:02,320 --> 01:32:04,880
Speaker 1: with a new shell. So I'm trying to figure out

1763
01:32:04,880 --> 01:32:06,439
Speaker 1: how the tune is and Neil post going, let's go

1764
01:32:06,560 --> 01:32:09,040
Speaker 1: on the clock. You know, I'm the last guy last day.

1765
01:32:10,000 --> 01:32:12,040
Speaker 1: So go to the van and talk about the arrangement.

1766
01:32:12,080 --> 01:32:13,760
Speaker 1: A big swing face, says, well, we actually do it

1767
01:32:13,760 --> 01:32:16,160
Speaker 1: a little differently. I'm like, oh no, so I make

1768
01:32:16,240 --> 01:32:18,880
Speaker 1: my adjustments. We record. After four takes, I go in

1769
01:32:18,960 --> 01:32:22,760
Speaker 1: there and Neil says, all right, and one what's just yeah?

1770
01:32:23,320 --> 01:32:24,639
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I need to do it again.

1771
01:32:24,680 --> 01:32:27,080
Speaker 1: It's a little bit I can do it better and said,

1772
01:32:27,080 --> 01:32:30,120
Speaker 1: oh no, you only get four takes, Like, well, why

1773
01:32:30,160 --> 01:32:33,040
Speaker 1: didn't you tell me that in the beginning, I'd be like,

1774
01:32:33,120 --> 01:32:35,160
Speaker 1: you know, okay, this is my last shot. I thought,

1775
01:32:35,160 --> 01:32:37,479
Speaker 1: I have as much as I want. So they bring

1776
01:32:37,560 --> 01:32:39,760
Speaker 1: in the expert, Freddy Gruber. First I had a kid

1777
01:32:39,880 --> 01:32:42,559
Speaker 1: sounds great, So that was it. I got voted out.

1778
01:32:43,000 --> 01:32:46,840
Speaker 1: Now we're doing straight now Chaser. Now I'm like fight mode.

1779
01:32:47,120 --> 01:32:49,720
Speaker 1: It's the it's a super Bowl. So I get in

1780
01:32:49,840 --> 01:32:55,000
Speaker 1: fight mode and uh, it's blazing fast and it's a

1781
01:32:55,080 --> 01:32:58,679
Speaker 1: solo at the end. The thing that's miracous. I played great.

1782
01:32:58,800 --> 01:33:02,439
Speaker 1: I'm reading music and great. The solo was impeccable. I mean,

1783
01:33:02,600 --> 01:33:04,519
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it was genius, but there was not

1784
01:33:04,680 --> 01:33:07,360
Speaker 1: one flaw like oh he's out of time or oh

1785
01:33:08,760 --> 01:33:10,920
Speaker 1: it was like and it was just and I'm telling you,

1786
01:33:10,960 --> 01:33:13,280
Speaker 1: when I was playing so fast, I looked at my

1787
01:33:13,320 --> 01:33:17,280
Speaker 1: hands and went, wow, who's playing that? I can't play

1788
01:33:17,400 --> 01:33:20,080
Speaker 1: like this? Who's playing? And I said, shut up, Kenny,

1789
01:33:20,320 --> 01:33:22,519
Speaker 1: who's ever playing? He's doing a good job. You don't

1790
01:33:22,520 --> 01:33:25,120
Speaker 1: want to interfere with that guy. It was literally an

1791
01:33:25,120 --> 01:33:26,880
Speaker 1: out of body it was flowing. It was just that

1792
01:33:26,960 --> 01:33:31,120
Speaker 1: whole flow thing. And so yeah, I have a lot

1793
01:33:31,200 --> 01:33:34,000
Speaker 1: of great experiences of Kenny Center Honors and Obamas, But

1794
01:33:34,400 --> 01:33:37,120
Speaker 1: that one stands out because it was so different, so unique,

1795
01:33:37,439 --> 01:33:40,800
Speaker 1: so scary, so terrified, and I lose the occasion. So

1796
01:33:40,920 --> 01:33:43,960
Speaker 1: it's extremely memorable. So you wrote a book, and for

1797
01:33:44,080 --> 01:33:46,640
Speaker 1: those people listening who were interested, the book is not

1798
01:33:46,720 --> 01:33:49,120
Speaker 1: a typical rock memoir. It's really Kenny story covers a

1799
01:33:49,120 --> 01:33:50,840
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff, but much more in depth. I

1800
01:33:50,880 --> 01:33:52,519
Speaker 1: really recommend I've read a lot of these books, just

1801
01:33:52,640 --> 01:33:54,840
Speaker 1: not because Kenny's here, but it's really great. But you're

1802
01:33:54,840 --> 01:33:57,320
Speaker 1: also now right, what's the name of that book again?

1803
01:33:57,680 --> 01:34:00,280
Speaker 1: That's called sex Droms rock and Roll? And I wanted

1804
01:34:00,320 --> 01:34:02,360
Speaker 1: to put a whole bunch of others. By the way,

1805
01:34:02,439 --> 01:34:05,760
Speaker 1: three pages got cut out, just too many sessions, but

1806
01:34:06,560 --> 01:34:08,840
Speaker 1: I wanted to put this this other thing in there,

1807
01:34:09,120 --> 01:34:11,719
Speaker 1: and so I decided to write another book. What an idiot?

1808
01:34:12,040 --> 01:34:14,000
Speaker 1: This book is more are you live in your life loud?

1809
01:34:14,040 --> 01:34:15,760
Speaker 1: Are you dying on the vine? It's like how I

1810
01:34:15,880 --> 01:34:19,880
Speaker 1: became successful? How to make success? You're not born successful?

1811
01:34:20,760 --> 01:34:23,559
Speaker 1: There's no magic pill. How just a little kid from

1812
01:34:23,600 --> 01:34:26,000
Speaker 1: a town of three thousand. I mean, everybody's got stories

1813
01:34:26,040 --> 01:34:29,240
Speaker 1: like this, But now I'm putting in some deeper things,

1814
01:34:29,520 --> 01:34:32,000
Speaker 1: like you know how to connect the head with the heart,

1815
01:34:32,120 --> 01:34:35,120
Speaker 1: and you know how you you can't do it just

1816
01:34:35,240 --> 01:34:37,479
Speaker 1: from your brain. You can make yourself do stuff, but

1817
01:34:37,560 --> 01:34:40,920
Speaker 1: you really have to connect with your heart to be exceptional.

1818
01:34:41,320 --> 01:34:43,160
Speaker 1: And that's what I've I've done a lot of work

1819
01:34:43,200 --> 01:34:45,120
Speaker 1: on that in the last year, and I'm starting to

1820
01:34:45,160 --> 01:34:46,800
Speaker 1: put that back in the book. This book will be

1821
01:34:47,880 --> 01:34:50,760
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's got team leadership stuff in it,

1822
01:34:50,840 --> 01:34:53,680
Speaker 1: but it really is how to de beat your own

1823
01:34:53,760 --> 01:34:56,960
Speaker 1: demons and become successful. Now, your brother is a psychoanalyst.

1824
01:34:57,040 --> 01:34:59,400
Speaker 1: Did you discuss these issues with him? We I've been

1825
01:34:59,479 --> 01:35:01,800
Speaker 1: trying to talk to him more and more about this

1826
01:35:01,920 --> 01:35:05,200
Speaker 1: stuff because he's, you know, an executive coach and I've

1827
01:35:05,200 --> 01:35:08,280
Speaker 1: been working with an executive executive coach. It's brilliant stuff.

1828
01:35:08,320 --> 01:35:10,360
Speaker 1: You know. Some people think it's phony blown. I think

1829
01:35:10,400 --> 01:35:13,680
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing. It's uh, it's it's it's pretty good.

1830
01:35:13,680 --> 01:35:15,840
Speaker 1: And my brother does it. So we have these great talks.

1831
01:35:15,920 --> 01:35:19,040
Speaker 1: It's it's it's basically you know, you you know, we

1832
01:35:19,200 --> 01:35:23,960
Speaker 1: all have we all created ways to survive as as

1833
01:35:24,000 --> 01:35:26,599
Speaker 1: little kids, and so as an adult you can't ever

1834
01:35:26,720 --> 01:35:29,760
Speaker 1: get rid of like those those triggers you know, but

1835
01:35:29,920 --> 01:35:32,880
Speaker 1: you can come up with new agreements. That's what's happening

1836
01:35:32,920 --> 01:35:35,679
Speaker 1: to me. Okay, I got a new deal. When somebody

1837
01:35:36,439 --> 01:35:38,840
Speaker 1: it's like, for example, it's not personal when John fog

1838
01:35:39,000 --> 01:35:41,759
Speaker 1: he wants to put me in a little plastic house

1839
01:35:41,920 --> 01:35:45,439
Speaker 1: that's they're discussing on stage to keep the sound away

1840
01:35:45,439 --> 01:35:47,320
Speaker 1: from his ears or something. At first, you go like,

1841
01:35:47,520 --> 01:35:50,400
Speaker 1: I'm not getting that. You know. Now it's like, well,

1842
01:35:51,360 --> 01:35:54,599
Speaker 1: hey man, he's just trying to do something that makes

1843
01:35:54,680 --> 01:35:57,479
Speaker 1: him feel good. It's not about me. That's a whole

1844
01:35:57,520 --> 01:36:00,200
Speaker 1: flip because you can go I can't believe of that

1845
01:36:00,280 --> 01:36:02,960
Speaker 1: person is talking like that. Well, a lot of times

1846
01:36:03,040 --> 01:36:06,560
Speaker 1: it's it's not even about you, it's about them. You know.

1847
01:36:06,840 --> 01:36:08,600
Speaker 1: They're the ones going through this ship. You just have

1848
01:36:08,720 --> 01:36:12,719
Speaker 1: to be in their way. So I'm handling things differently

1849
01:36:12,800 --> 01:36:15,360
Speaker 1: based on that, not taking it personally. I can still

1850
01:36:15,479 --> 01:36:18,000
Speaker 1: decide what I want to stick around or not, but

1851
01:36:18,120 --> 01:36:22,160
Speaker 1: it isn't because of that emotional trigger and dynamic. I

1852
01:36:22,160 --> 01:36:23,880
Speaker 1: don't know if that's the best example, but that's a

1853
01:36:23,960 --> 01:36:25,640
Speaker 1: tip of the iceberg of some of this stuff. And

1854
01:36:25,680 --> 01:36:28,320
Speaker 1: so to be successful, you have to be able to

1855
01:36:28,439 --> 01:36:30,880
Speaker 1: navigate through this stuff. If you really want to have

1856
01:36:31,080 --> 01:36:33,960
Speaker 1: a a full career, and that's what I'm trying to do.

1857
01:36:34,040 --> 01:36:36,240
Speaker 1: I'm writing in the book, I'm I'm really pushing the

1858
01:36:36,320 --> 01:36:39,400
Speaker 1: speaking business to be an inspirational because I love being

1859
01:36:39,439 --> 01:36:41,559
Speaker 1: in front of the drums. Going back to the drums.

1860
01:36:42,120 --> 01:36:45,599
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, the next step. You've been listening

1861
01:36:45,640 --> 01:36:48,719
Speaker 1: to Kenny aaron Off. I'm a Bob left Sets podcast.

1862
01:36:48,840 --> 01:36:51,880
Speaker 1: As you can tell, he's not only drummer extraordinary, but

1863
01:36:52,000 --> 01:36:54,960
Speaker 1: rack and tour extraordinary. We could literally go on for

1864
01:36:55,000 --> 01:36:57,360
Speaker 1: another hour, though, but I'm afraid of burning out my one.

1865
01:36:57,439 --> 01:36:59,040
Speaker 1: If you'll have to come back tell some more rock

1866
01:36:59,080 --> 01:37:03,320
Speaker 1: and rolls, Kenny, thanks so much, dude, I and all

1867
01:37:03,400 --> 01:37:07,439
Speaker 1: you fans out there, thanks for listening. Okay, until next time,

1868
01:37:08,000 --> 01:37:14,920
Speaker 1: Bob left Sets with Kenny art Off. That wraps up

1869
01:37:15,000 --> 01:37:18,040
Speaker 1: this week's podcast with Kenny Arnoff. The guy had such

1870
01:37:18,120 --> 01:37:20,200
Speaker 1: great stories I canna let him go on for hours.

1871
01:37:20,280 --> 01:37:22,599
Speaker 1: I was afraid of burning you out. Hopefully I'll come

1872
01:37:22,640 --> 01:37:26,120
Speaker 1: back with more rock and roll stories. Thanks for listening.

1873
01:37:26,479 --> 01:37:29,040
Speaker 1: Don't hesitate to email me at Bob and left sets

1874
01:37:29,120 --> 01:37:33,479
Speaker 1: dot com with feedback and suggestions. I may not always respond,

1875
01:37:33,840 --> 01:37:37,040
Speaker 1: but I read every email. Until next time I'm Bob

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01:37:37,200 --> 01:38:00,120
Speaker 1: left sets, thank me. Don't know exactly m