Speaker 1: So cut to the next morning, and as God is
Speaker 1: my witness, is exactly what happened. I'm at my pension
Speaker 1: and I look up and there's my liver sitting in
Speaker 1: a chair having a cup of coffee, waiting to get
Speaker 1: back in my body. Oh God, so bad, so feeling
Speaker 1: so horrible. And then I look over on the table
Speaker 1: and there's the tablecloth from the night before and all
Speaker 1: these names, Troy, whatever, lamps, things all crossed out, and
Speaker 1: then there's it's a whole bunch of them. Then one
Speaker 1: circled with little stars around it said Creed Bratton, and
Speaker 1: I went, oh, that's my new name. Hi. I'm Creed
Speaker 1: Bratton and I played Creed Bratton on the Office. I'm
Speaker 1: also a lot of different names to creditors, but I
Speaker 1: don't want to get into that right now.
Speaker 2: Hi, there, foe. Welcome back to another episode of Off
Speaker 2: the Beat. It's me Brian Baumgartner today. Well, my guest
Speaker 2: is a very good friend of mine, as you just heard,
Speaker 2: Creed Bratton back once again for his third time on
Speaker 2: this podcast. But as ever, Creed has more to tell.
Speaker 2: Creed has lived many, many, many lives, almost nine, but
Speaker 2: not quite his first one. Well, he was a rock
Speaker 2: star in the sixties, touring the world with his band
Speaker 2: The Grassroots. Before you ever heard of him, in fact,
Speaker 2: probably before you were even born, he already had multiple
Speaker 2: Billboard Top ten hits and two gold records. Creed also
Speaker 2: has a long solo career, with his tenth solo album
Speaker 2: coming out this September. In fact, you've already heard some
Speaker 2: of his music today are Theme, Bubble and Squeak, written
Speaker 2: and performed by Creed Breton. And yeah, I forgot he
Speaker 2: was also in the office with me as well, But
Speaker 2: we already recorded two episodes where we talk about that
Speaker 2: a lot. You can go back and listen to those,
Speaker 2: in fact you should, But this time I wanted to
Speaker 2: go deeper into his music career, learn how he managed
Speaker 2: to become well a legend in both music and acting,
Speaker 2: and hopefully hear more of his absolutely insane stories that
Speaker 2: may or may not be true. Folks, if you have
Speaker 2: never seen Creed Breton live on stage, I say only this,
Speaker 2: do it. It's worth it. I have known the man
Speaker 2: for twenty years and I have still barely cracked the surface.
Speaker 2: Here he is one more hour for you listeners to
Speaker 2: get to know the man. The myth, the legend, the
Speaker 2: most interesting man in the world, the man who well,
Speaker 2: here he is Creed Breton, Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it, Bubble and Squeak. I know Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I could get every month lift over from the ninetyople.
Speaker 1: How's it going good, Buddy's good to see you.
Speaker 2: It's so good to see you. We communicated recently without
Speaker 2: seeing each other. I thought that, uh, I, for those
Speaker 2: of you listening, some of you may know I no
Speaker 2: longer live in Los Angeles proper. And I was up
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles doing some work for the new book
Speaker 2: coming out, and someone suggested that I go into a
Speaker 2: coffee shop. I'd never been there for it was delicious, yep.
Speaker 2: So I walk in. The guy starts chatting with me,
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm like, okay, well he knows who
Speaker 2: I am. It's fine. And then he stops and goes,
Speaker 2: you know, Creed comes in here every morning, and I
Speaker 2: was like, what wait, what were you serious? And he goes, yeah,
Speaker 2: Creed comes in every day, gets his coffee, sits and
Speaker 2: reads the paper or whatever. And so I made the guy.
Speaker 2: They they they had the old school post it notes
Speaker 2: where they write down your coffee order. So I took
Speaker 2: a post it note and I said, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 2: not going to contact Creed. I want you to give
Speaker 2: him this post it note the next time he comes in.
Speaker 2: Sure Enough, a day later, I get I get a
Speaker 2: text message from Creed that he got my post it note.
Speaker 2: That was so fun.
Speaker 1: I loved that it was. It was a great grade.
Speaker 1: Wasn't it really a prank? It was just a great
Speaker 1: little bit. I walk in there and they're beaming. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's his name, Raymond and Faye, they work in there,
Speaker 1: and they said, they look at each other giddy. They said,
Speaker 1: somebody came in yesterday and got something for you. Said,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? They look like for you
Speaker 1: and they have at this little piece of paper, and
Speaker 1: I started laughing. Oh my god, it was a great
Speaker 1: great yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: You know what. It just occurred to me, Now, I
Speaker 2: should have I should have at least bought your coffee.
Speaker 2: I should have should at least I should have at
Speaker 2: least pre bought your coffee. That would have been, That
Speaker 2: would have been, that would have been nicer.
Speaker 1: You've done plenty of things. See who you are? Just
Speaker 1: you know, when you just said he done. Steve's laugh
Speaker 1: was enough for all all of humanity to make us
Speaker 1: laugh for all time. Oh boy, Uh.
Speaker 2: It's great. It's great to see you. Now, you've been
Speaker 2: here on the podcast before. Today we're going to talk.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk music. I know you got a
Speaker 2: new album coming out, new single just released on July nineteenth,
Speaker 2: So I want to talk about your music career because look,
Speaker 2: Creed is not just a television star. Creed is a
Speaker 2: is a music musical star. What does that even mean?
Speaker 2: He's a rock star, He's he was a star before
Speaker 2: decades before you had you had ever seen him on
Speaker 2: the office. You grew up in a in a small
Speaker 2: town up there by Yosemite. Yes, but your your mom,
Speaker 2: your grandparents, they were very musical, right, so did they
Speaker 2: give you this, uh, the love of music? They introduced
Speaker 2: you to music early on.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. My my grandparents. My grandmother played drums, okay, and
Speaker 1: my grandfather they had a band called the Happy Timers.
Speaker 1: They were semi professional at Long Beach in the summer,
Speaker 1: I go down and I spend the summer with them,
Speaker 1: and I listened to them play all these country and
Speaker 1: western the swing, mostly country swing, and but on I
Speaker 1: grew up listening watching my mom play mandolin, and she
Speaker 1: was gifted. She was gifted. She put her head back
Speaker 1: and just whale. So I played trumpet from a young age.
Speaker 1: I listened to a little Crystal set to b Mitchell
Speaker 1: Reid from Los Angeles, and I knew somebody as would
Speaker 1: come in depending on the weather and other times you
Speaker 1: couldn't hear, but I'd hear all Fats Domino, Everly Brothers,
Speaker 1: Jerry Lee Lewis, all the all the old fifties stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, Eddie Cochran, and I just in Dwayne Eddie.
Speaker 1: I love and I love this stuff. So I got
Speaker 1: a guitar at a young age thirteen, which is some
Speaker 1: people now are starting really really young, you know. But
Speaker 1: but that was my first guitar. I played trumpet for
Speaker 1: years through call, through high school and stuff, and then
Speaker 1: by time seventeen, I'd figured out enough to start working
Speaker 1: professionally at this band. And then I played played in
Speaker 1: college at band it's dances and stuff on the weekends
Speaker 1: to make money. And after college, after Europe with a
Speaker 1: folk trio for over two years. That you know this story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Then the grassroots, the kids, their great grandparents will know
Speaker 1: this band that I was in. We had Lift for
Speaker 1: Today and Midnight Confessions to our two top ten songs.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So but before all that I read that you you
Speaker 3: I don't think I knew this that you actually went
Speaker 3: to college for acting.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, and then I'm a major.
Speaker 2: So this is like, so we're going back and forth
Speaker 2: here and this, I mean, this is the first time
Speaker 2: we're going. So you wanted to be an actor, yes,
Speaker 2: but you were you were working professionally as a musician
Speaker 2: to help make money, yes, yes, And so why did
Speaker 2: you choose the right path? Not the right path? But
Speaker 2: you have two paths. You could go and continue pursuing
Speaker 2: acting or music. Why why did you go toward music?
Speaker 1: I never picked one, Bryan. It was just whatever whatever
Speaker 1: came it catches catch can. I played the music. I
Speaker 1: acted when I could get in a play. Was in
Speaker 1: LA and you know, it was doing stage stuff and
Speaker 1: you know, then got an agent. That's how it started.
Speaker 1: Like most people, you know, so he pick sees you
Speaker 1: and put you in some stuff.
Speaker 2: When you when you were in the Young Californians how
Speaker 2: old were you then, mid twenties, mid twenties, and so
Speaker 2: how how did that? How did that group initially come together.
Speaker 2: These were these were people that you knew.
Speaker 1: Uh No, I had been well. I had a friend
Speaker 1: of mine. I paid his boat ticket or we got
Speaker 1: a freighter out of New Orleans, came into Venice, and
Speaker 1: then he left because he he was couldn't he missed
Speaker 1: his girlfriend. He was worried about that somebody else was
Speaker 1: going to get her, so as the guys do, and
Speaker 1: so he I was by myself, and my plan was
Speaker 1: to go to uh enroll in the Good Institute in
Speaker 1: Munich in German. Why I would learn German, Bryant. It
Speaker 1: was one of the most hardiest artist language possible. Spanish
Speaker 1: would be a French would have been easier, right, German.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm making it really rough on myself.
Speaker 1: I'm coming one day and I was working the electronics factory,
Speaker 1: waiting for the season to start, you know, the sessions
Speaker 1: to start at school. And I was making money, and
Speaker 1: I had some money put away there and I was
Speaker 1: learnning a little German. And I came up to pick
Speaker 1: up my mail at the America Express and there's two
Speaker 1: guys there, Greg Fitzpatrick on acoustic guitar and Lee Zimmerman
Speaker 1: on banjo, he's a banjo that he made himself, homemade banjo.
Speaker 2: He made a banjo.
Speaker 1: He made a banjo from scratch. You know, people can
Speaker 1: people can do this, not me, not you, but people
Speaker 1: can do this. So I heard them. They're playing Green Green,
Speaker 1: Green Green, and it's the new Christy Minschel song and
Speaker 1: uh and I went okay, and they said. They looked
Speaker 1: at me, and I said, you know, can I show
Speaker 1: you something? And I took the guitar and went, do
Speaker 1: do do do? I played the riff for him, so
Speaker 1: just just a free ratification. That's how I didn't say
Speaker 1: that because I was too stupid to say that. But
Speaker 1: then but I showed him, but they went, oh you
Speaker 1: you play? I said, well yeah, and they said and
Speaker 1: they told me we're going to go down to Africa
Speaker 1: and hitch I can play and you know, make money
Speaker 1: and do stuff like this. They were making money at
Speaker 1: the Octoberfest. So I could have stayed on and done
Speaker 1: the school, but I stayed away almost all night long
Speaker 1: with this, in that eleventh hour of the soul kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and I thought, no, this is what I
Speaker 1: want to do. This is what I want to do.
Speaker 1: So I went took the money out I bought it.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a guitar. Brian, I bought a guitar.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a guitar. Man I bought a guitar.
Speaker 1: I bought some hiking boots, a rucksack, a big anorak,
Speaker 1: a big park it with fur collar from the down
Speaker 1: to their surplus store and this, and then I went
Speaker 1: down there and there they were, and they went. I said,
Speaker 1: let's go, guys. And then two and a half years later,
Speaker 1: you know, I get back forty five pounds lighter to America,
Speaker 1: you know, and I almost I was I'd been starving
Speaker 1: at that time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you weren't eating. Yeah, because it wasn't eating
Speaker 2: because of money. Yeah, because yes, yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: I was stealing. I shouldn't. I was stealing the milk
Speaker 1: off of people's portras. Yes, stay just stay alive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not proud of that fact. But I'm starving.
Speaker 2: You're like Oliver twists pies. Wow, I didn't really, I
Speaker 2: didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the fact is, the Young Californians did a
Speaker 2: world tour. But this world tour wasn't finally curated. No, no, it.
Speaker 1: Wasn't like there's Madonna or you know, you know John
Speaker 1: may Or. No, it's guys going to the youth, the
Speaker 1: youth hostel hostels and you're staying on a cot. And
Speaker 1: then at night we go down to the major place,
Speaker 1: the railway stations walk where it sounds the best, open
Speaker 1: our guitar case to get money. But you when you
Speaker 1: were when we were in Switzerland and Germany, we made
Speaker 1: big money. We thought, oh my gosh, they throw these
Speaker 1: big coins in where we were worth. They're a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, right, they have dollars some of these things
Speaker 1: where we're two and a half dollars these coins, right,
Speaker 1: And then we end up in North Africa and we're
Speaker 1: at a soup kitchen with people with you know, infantigo
Speaker 1: and lionidis. They got these swollen arms and legs and
Speaker 1: cataracts on their eyes. And we're eating the stuff hoping
Speaker 1: we're I gonna die from this from the dog we're
Speaker 1: eating oh yeah, oh yeah, And we and we that's
Speaker 1: and then we hit shots across North Africa and we
Speaker 1: played for the mobile oil. We were about five hundred
Speaker 1: miles out in the Sahara desert playing for the oil
Speaker 1: camps and stuff. But we made some of we made
Speaker 1: good money, and then sometimes we start.
Speaker 2: What what was the decision behind? So you're making good
Speaker 2: money once in a while in well, in western Europe.
Speaker 2: So why so, I mean, is this just young? I
Speaker 2: don't know? Even take like we're going to travel north Africa.
Speaker 1: That was always the plan when they met. We said,
Speaker 1: we're going to go down and go cross north there
Speaker 1: to Egypt, down through the Sudan, continue on and go
Speaker 1: all the way down through Africa. This is down to
Speaker 1: the down to the other bottom of Africa. This is
Speaker 1: the plan. We'll see lions and elephants and and I went, yes,
Speaker 1: this is for me. It's exciting, you know, did you
Speaker 1: did you know? We we got to the Sudan, they
Speaker 1: were running guns. They were running guns. The Congolese were
Speaker 1: running guns. They wouldn't let us in. So we we
Speaker 1: went back and we got a boat to Bay Route.
Speaker 1: Before Bay Route blew up, Bay Route was still the
Speaker 1: Paris of the Mediterranean. And we played at a brothel.
Speaker 1: We played at a brothel called the Kit Cat Club's
Speaker 1: famous famous brothel.
Speaker 2: That is that true? Is that true? To God?
Speaker 1: Truth?
Speaker 2: Truth is the kit Cat Club?
Speaker 1: Like you can look it up. You can look it up,
Speaker 1: but all the shakes, this was the Mid Eastern Shakes,
Speaker 1: and all the movers and shakers, all the gold and
Speaker 1: oil money would go to this place and we'd play
Speaker 1: on the stage in the back. That guy would do
Speaker 1: what they did in brothel.
Speaker 2: Did they give you a cot there at least? Or no? Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, we were disgusting infidels.
Speaker 2: You know, on this trip you became is that I
Speaker 2: don't even know if that's the way to say it.
Speaker 2: Either you you went from you transformed from William Charles
Speaker 2: Shatner Schinzchneider, Schneider, Yeah, to Creed Bratton. Yes, why.
Speaker 1: I had been how do we see this? I worked
Speaker 1: on a movie called cast a Giant Showder, my first film.
Speaker 1: This is so this is nineteen sixty four sixty five,
Speaker 1: and I fell in love with the director's daughter, Lynn Shavelson,
Speaker 1: and we went off to the Greek Islands and had
Speaker 1: this most marvelous time. And she mentioned that that Creed,
Speaker 1: that Chuck rt Mode, which was my stepfather's name, which
Speaker 1: I had taken on. I thought I was legally adopted
Speaker 1: as Chuck ert Mode. I didn't know I was still
Speaker 1: until I got my passport to leave for Europe. I
Speaker 1: found I was still William George Schneider. So I'd used
Speaker 1: chuck Ert mode and Brian. If you can imagine kids,
Speaker 1: you know, going hey, oh, they put their finger down
Speaker 1: their throat and they like pretend like they're throwing up,
Speaker 1: And that was I had no self esteem.
Speaker 2: That's like Rain would do that still today.
Speaker 1: By the way, but yes, yes, because he would. Yes
Speaker 1: he does it if he came. You know, wait, what
Speaker 1: do you breaking do to me to humiliate me?
Speaker 2: He will.
Speaker 1: So she mentioned there wasn't an attractive name, and I
Speaker 1: then I kind of put that thing and I knew
Speaker 1: it wasn't. I knew it wasn't, but for someone that
Speaker 1: I was in love with to mention, well, that name.
Speaker 1: So she goes back to college and I'm in Athens
Speaker 1: at a cafe knowing that I've got to go sign
Speaker 1: up for the draft and I got to go. I
Speaker 1: got to go do my physical in Berlin, and I'm
Speaker 1: dreading this for the Vietnam War, sitting there and having
Speaker 1: some I think it was uzzo or retina whatever, those
Speaker 1: liquorice tasting things they have over there, their alcohol their
Speaker 1: god off, Oh yeah, you know what you've had.
Speaker 2: I know what you're talking about. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I'm there and I meet this this couple
Speaker 1: from Oregon and they're going to Crete, the Isle of
Speaker 1: Crete to teach English, to teach English to the Cretanskay
Speaker 1: cre And I told my story. I said, I've got
Speaker 1: visions of me being a drama you know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: I play music, but I want to go and be
Speaker 1: an actor and playing music whatever I can, you know,
Speaker 1: either one or the other. And they said, well, that
Speaker 1: Chuck RTMO name, that's that's not very good. I said, oh,
Speaker 1: I know, I know it's not a good name. Said, well,
Speaker 1: you really need something besides Chuck Bert Mode. I said,
Speaker 1: I agree about arguing with you. So cut to the
Speaker 1: next morning, and as God is my witness, is exactly
Speaker 1: what happened. I'm at my pension and I look up
Speaker 1: and there's my liver sitting in a chair having a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee, waiting to get back in my body.
Speaker 1: Oh God, so bad, so feeling so horrible. And then
Speaker 1: I look over on the table and there's the tablecloth
Speaker 1: from the night before and all these names, Troy, whatever, lamps,
Speaker 1: things all crossed out, and then there's it's a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of them, and then one circled with little stars
Speaker 1: around it said Creed Bratt and I went, oh, that's
Speaker 1: my new name. Now I don't use Brian. I don't
Speaker 1: use that name until almost two years later. It takes
Speaker 1: me another year to get back, and then another year
Speaker 1: with the Thirteenth Floor. So yeah, So two years later,
Speaker 1: we're signing contracts for Dunhill Records, and I've been chuckered
Speaker 1: and I start to sign as Chucker when I went, oh,
Speaker 1: that's right. So I signed Preed Bratt and I said
Speaker 1: what who who's this cream broad guy? And they said
Speaker 1: that's me, and then they that From that moment on,
Speaker 1: people started looking at me a little like, you know,
Speaker 1: like like people on the show did. They're like, WHOA,
Speaker 1: he's a little weird. This guy's a little weird.
Speaker 2: The thirteenth Floor. Tell me how you got involved with
Speaker 2: the thirteenth Floor that then eventually became the Grassroots.
Speaker 1: I became the grassroots.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I met this guy named Warren Edner who has graduated
Speaker 1: from UCLA, and uh, he had played in a band
Speaker 1: with Phil.
Speaker 2: Spector of All People back and was in college.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, I got pictures of Warren with his Indian's
Speaker 1: band with Phil Spector, you know, and uh, he came
Speaker 1: to we were doing a folk festival and I think
Speaker 1: he might have played there or I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: he did or not. But anyway, he saw us play
Speaker 1: at this folk festival in Tel Aviv. This is before
Speaker 1: we got on the movie the cast Jihant Shadow, and
Speaker 1: he came up and said, you play pretty good guitar.
Speaker 1: I said, you wonder if you want to start a band?
Speaker 1: He said, he gave me his number, Warren. So I
Speaker 1: put that number. And I usually wouldn't pay much attention
Speaker 1: to this movie, but this gun I felt right in
Speaker 1: my gut. So I took the thing and I put
Speaker 1: it under the cardboard bottom of my rocksack, so it
Speaker 1: was down there. Any important numbers I put down under
Speaker 1: this thing that it wouldn't move it. So I'm back
Speaker 1: and I'm staying with my girlfriend who then became my wife, Joanna.
Speaker 1: I just arrived. Within one week, I'm cleaning out my
Speaker 1: rocksack and this paper flutters. I said, oh, Warren, I
Speaker 1: call Warren And in one week we had a band
Speaker 1: and we were playing at this topless joint in the
Speaker 1: Salmon King Valley and Sabernana Valley and the very first
Speaker 1: show I did in La there's a woman topless dancer
Speaker 1: in a chair swinging like this, and if I'm playing
Speaker 1: like this, I would have to move my body aside
Speaker 1: from the michael so she wouldn't get me. So we swing,
Speaker 1: swinging so close to this tiny stage, you know. And
Speaker 1: at the same time she was doing it, she was
Speaker 1: she had these little castles on her.
Speaker 2: They should be one.
Speaker 1: She'd get right tassel in the right breast to going,
Speaker 1: you know, clockwise, and the left one counterclockwise. So she
Speaker 1: come up. I don't know how she did. She was amazing,
Speaker 1: you know. It was hard to concentrate and play music
Speaker 1: and move and I get hit and watch the tassels
Speaker 1: at the same time.
Speaker 2: Well, you didn't play in those kind of places for
Speaker 2: very long. Nope. Eventually ten or several top ten hits.
Speaker 2: Four of your albums charted in the Billboard Top one hundred.
Speaker 2: I mean you were a rock star.
Speaker 1: Wes, Yes, well, I Phil Ambryant. I don't think you.
Speaker 2: Don't know that. That's well, that's true. But for you
Speaker 2: in the sixties in Los Angeles being a rock star,
Speaker 2: who did you consider to be your peer at that time,
Speaker 2: or your peers. There's a big music scene in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: It's a huge music scene. We uh, we're off there.
Speaker 1: You're working all at times, so you're not hanging much.
Speaker 1: And we toured with the Doors, Yeah, and we got
Speaker 1: t I got tight with the Doors. I John Densmill
Speaker 1: was my best man at my wedding. We were close.
Speaker 1: He was a good friend. The Young Rascals, we toured
Speaker 1: with them a lot. We hung out with Gene Cornish,
Speaker 1: the guys at Three Dog Nike, we played with, We
Speaker 1: played with everyone because you know, Brian, we just toured
Speaker 1: with with everybody at that time. I guess for the grassroots,
Speaker 1: as we started out in folk rock, we would be
Speaker 1: considered in that, in that Buffalo Springfield kind of genre,
Speaker 1: you know, with that folks folk rocky stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: they were a better band. They were a better band,
Speaker 1: without a doubt. But we had we had We had
Speaker 1: some good singers. Warren and Rob were really really good vocalists,
Speaker 1: you know, and we had great producers and some really
Speaker 1: good songs.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we had a good run. We had a good run.
Speaker 2: I guess what I'm I guess what I'm getting at
Speaker 2: is so for me, when The Office begins to take
Speaker 2: off and we start getting recognition, and I mean in
Speaker 2: terms of the show and winning awards and were invited
Speaker 2: to fancy parties and like, so for you had you
Speaker 2: experienced do you feel like you had experienced that before
Speaker 2: back in the sixties.
Speaker 1: Like, no, No, that's the Office was the first rush
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff. And we went to in
Speaker 1: New York and we stayed at the Four Seasons, and
Speaker 1: we played the Tonight Show, the Johnny Carson Tonight Show,
Speaker 1: and we did all this. We did the TV show, sure,
Speaker 1: but as far as go people saying we'll come on
Speaker 1: this show and hang with us, you know, or coming
Speaker 1: to these parties and stuff. No, we didn't have that.
Speaker 1: We I really felt that it would. You know. The
Speaker 1: Office was a whole other animal. It's just yeah, that
Speaker 1: that rarefied air. We just all of a sudden gasping
Speaker 1: to get more.
Speaker 2: Right. But in the sixties, you're invited to the Playboy Mansion.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I see, I was invited to
Speaker 2: the Playboy Mansion. So you were in the you were
Speaker 2: in the Toronto in the sixties, yeah, and then what
Speaker 2: then forty years later I was I was invited only
Speaker 2: forty years later than you were years later. But you've
Speaker 2: experienced all of that sort of Hollywood and I'm putting
Speaker 2: air quotes on thatchery well Los Angeles, Like how do
Speaker 2: I say this? The kind of clubs and I don't
Speaker 2: mean clubs, but I mean like where you you're only invited.
Speaker 2: You can't go unless you're invited. You can't guess that's
Speaker 2: the thing, right.
Speaker 1: When when you when some a lister brings up there
Speaker 1: having a hot tub party and you're playing celebrity pud touch,
Speaker 1: these are the only places that you can you're can
Speaker 1: get invited.
Speaker 2: To, right, Yes, what what is I hope that was?
Speaker 1: You can cut that one.
Speaker 2: No, I enjoyed it for you. What is the what
Speaker 2: is your favorite experience that you had during that time?
Speaker 2: During that run, I mean you you were doing movies too.
Speaker 2: I know you did a movie with Doris Day, Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh.
Speaker 1: But I gotta say that with Brian Keith, he come
Speaker 1: to the set, he wouldn't have any makeup on, you know,
Speaker 1: he was like he was like Spencer Tracy. They put
Speaker 1: makeup on, he would take it off. He hated it
Speaker 1: and he just looked everybody else. They looked like thick,
Speaker 1: like a mud, and he was just like gone, where
Speaker 1: is he was? Right there? She had You've heard the
Speaker 1: jokes about the door stay filters, all the filter in
Speaker 1: front of the camera, right, yeah, there were they were
Speaker 1: there with we. We said, what the hell? What are
Speaker 1: all those things out fronts? I thoughts her filters, you know,
Speaker 1: and you can cut. You can see George Carlin. This
Speaker 1: is first movie with you know, he's George Carnes in
Speaker 1: this movie. And theything click clicking, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he comes boop, there's this mud, this dirty water
Speaker 1: from the Doris and then everyone's clear again.
Speaker 2: But look young, what's your favorite experience that you had
Speaker 2: during this time?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: I think from a musical point of view, our second
Speaker 1: album Feelings, the band instead of using the Wrecking Crew
Speaker 1: for for some of the stuff or the bass and
Speaker 1: the drums, Warren and I played on a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: but we didn't use our bass player and our drummer.
Speaker 2: We did.
Speaker 1: We did though on this second album and they took
Speaker 1: a shot with it and we had a song called
Speaker 1: Feelings that our original Kenny Fukumoto wrote Boom boom boom,
Speaker 1: feel It's me feel So we were at Oxnard and
Speaker 1: we played uh Live for Today Midnight Confessions the crowd
Speaker 1: where they love that, but we played Feelings, which was
Speaker 1: our song. It was our song, but it was our
Speaker 1: song that we'd played, you know, completely, and the crowd
Speaker 1: went like just they started it started galvanizing ituse with
Speaker 1: that kind of song, And at that moment I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go. We're the band, we are the ship
Speaker 1: were the rest of the real deal. It was short lived,
Speaker 1: but that was a moment where I thought, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is genuinely exciting stuff. That when that grout crowd is
Speaker 1: there with you like that, joining you, and they's they're
Speaker 1: moss mash pitting or whatever it is called. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: they're bouncing up and going and stuff like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was great. That was That was a great moment.
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of other things, but as far as
Speaker 1: what I wanted, I wanted respect from from people for
Speaker 1: the music. It wasn't anything else but their respect and
Speaker 1: doing good art, good art.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about why the band ended? Why you left?
Speaker 1: I had an epiphany after the Johnny Carson show. We
Speaker 1: were heading back to the hotel and I listened to
Speaker 1: the band music from Big Pink, and that was that
Speaker 1: was a just a paradigm shift in my consciousness as
Speaker 1: far as what you can accomplish. And that's not the
Speaker 1: same that we could become the band. But I thought
Speaker 1: that we had already done this. It wasn't. It didn't
Speaker 1: wasn't as successful as the studio produced stuff. So the
Speaker 1: ones they saw what it was, it wasn't didn't do
Speaker 1: as go I on the charts. They went back to
Speaker 1: the old formula. And I really wondered they should have
Speaker 1: stayed with us a little longer and give us another
Speaker 1: shot to stay longer. I mean, they gave us the
Speaker 1: shot they did. I'll be fair about that, fair play.
Speaker 1: And I've said I told him, I said, I think
Speaker 1: we should go off in Woodshed. I think we should
Speaker 1: come up with their own stuff because we're not gonna
Speaker 1: have credibility. And they didn't want to do it. And
Speaker 1: a lot of people think it's because I dropped acid
Speaker 1: at the film or and it couldn't finish the show.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't that at all. A lot there's a
Speaker 1: lot that was another Friday for most rock bands. You know.
Speaker 1: It was this thing that I wanted to do that.
Speaker 1: So they said, if you're not happy, you can leave
Speaker 1: and we'll give you a settlement nights.
Speaker 2: And I took it.
Speaker 1: You know, I left, and I've thought for a long
Speaker 1: time maybe it was a bad move. But obviously, as
Speaker 1: we know, it all worked out worse out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you left the grassroots in nineteen sixty nine, you
Speaker 2: put out a solo album in two thousand and three. Yep,
Speaker 2: now we know what you were up to in front
Speaker 2: of the camera, if you will, musically, for you, what
Speaker 2: changed or shifted or evolved for you during that time?
Speaker 1: Okay, I think the big that's a good question, Ryan,
Speaker 1: that's a really good question. I uh, don't, don't get
Speaker 1: deadly go to your head, just did I won't.
Speaker 2: I get one every month.
Speaker 1: I don't get any I don't get anything. I'm jealous,
Speaker 1: just jealous to give that. I think what happened is
Speaker 1: that at that time I had to go out and
Speaker 1: with my guitar and play these little clubs, and uh,
Speaker 1: I've did another kind of jokes, but I would go
Speaker 1: play it. And so with my acoustic guitar, I had
Speaker 1: to sing and I had to write songs. So I
Speaker 1: started writing. I had been writing songs, but I started
Speaker 1: writing more personal songs, and trust me, I wrote a
Speaker 1: lot of really bad songs. I mean, you know, hundreds
Speaker 1: of songs that were like oh people, oh God, and
Speaker 1: you move on, you move on. Finally you get something
Speaker 1: like all the Faces comes along, and then you start.
Speaker 1: Then I guess you put enough time into it. The
Speaker 1: muse says, well, you're worth it now you you've you've
Speaker 1: paid your due. Is we're going to give you some
Speaker 1: better material. And I think it was just because I
Speaker 1: wasn't just playing lead guitar in a band. I had
Speaker 1: to stand up with my hand, stand up and be counted,
Speaker 1: write my songs, sing them myself. I had to serve
Speaker 1: the songs with my voice. And as you sing in
Speaker 1: clubs and tour, you get stronger, you get a stronger voice,
Speaker 1: you know. And I think on this, the songs you've heard,
Speaker 1: the voices, the voice is getting stronger. It's just getting better.
Speaker 1: It's just the way it worked, the way it works.
Speaker 1: So that was a good It was a good thing.
Speaker 1: What are the uh the obstacles? Was Marcus Aurelius and
Speaker 1: the stoics said, the obstacle, You know, obstacles the way
Speaker 1: you get you get obstacles in your life. They're not
Speaker 1: the end, they're not a problem. Just you just become
Speaker 1: adaptable and you get stronger.
Speaker 2: Because so earlier in your career when you were a kid,
Speaker 2: did you consider yourself a singer? No.
Speaker 1: I always thought I would sing harmonies with the Torques,
Speaker 1: the band I played when I was young, and I
Speaker 1: would sing, But I never considered myself just a guitar
Speaker 1: player mostly, and I'd sing harmonies and I staying some
Speaker 1: leads with the grassroots, but they were you could hear that.
Speaker 1: You could hear the early recordings. It's very tentative. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a sweet voice, but it's not confident, certainly
Speaker 1: not confident at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you put out six solo albums with Kindred Records
Speaker 2: in the two thousands. Was there something that happened for
Speaker 2: you that enabled you to become really prolific in terms
Speaker 2: of your writing and recording music during that time?
Speaker 1: Persistence and uh and also just uh. I it helped
Speaker 1: a lot with the office. Right right off the bat,
Speaker 1: I was able to go out and tour again. And
Speaker 1: when we first when I first started touring, I didn't
Speaker 1: have the bits. I didn't have the I had to
Speaker 1: I've sat there just sweating bullets or trying to come
Speaker 1: up with something to say in between the songs. Eventually
Speaker 1: I wrote, I started writing material and started working and
Speaker 1: people laughed. And then before the show was over, I
Speaker 1: was doing tours and when we were on hiatus and stuff,
Speaker 1: and people come up and so we came because you're
Speaker 1: so funny, but we really love those songs. You know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go download these songs. These songs touch us emotionally.
Speaker 1: And at that moment, Ryan I thought, Okay, okay, uh,
Speaker 1: this is legit and I'm not just go and smoke
Speaker 1: up my own ass. You know. It's uh, it's there's
Speaker 1: are good songs. And then I started Then when when
Speaker 1: you get the confidence to believe you're doing something good,
Speaker 1: then you you you'll project more and you'll, uh, you'll
Speaker 1: not only enthusiastic. I was definitely enthusiastic. I just had conviction, confidence, confidence.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys, if you do you ever have the
Speaker 2: opportunity to see this guy, if he's ever in your town,
Speaker 2: let me tell you something. I was lucky enough to
Speaker 2: go to a big concert that that Creed that was
Speaker 2: at the Roxy, right, ye, yes, at the Roxy. The
Speaker 2: historic Roxy Theater on Sunset Boulevard there in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you what, guys, he is a rock star. No,
Speaker 2: there's no pretending, there is no like this. He is legit.
Speaker 2: It is a show and I would guess that we
Speaker 2: broke records for how many people were in the Roxy. Now,
Speaker 2: maybe back in the sixties they jammed people in the fire.
Speaker 2: Marshal wasn't looking at it, but I'm telling you it
Speaker 2: was jam packed and a lot of fun and everybody
Speaker 2: really enjoyed it. You started your own label, Alien Chicken
Speaker 2: several years ago. Why'd you decide to do that?
Speaker 1: Well, first of let me say about the rock saying
Speaker 1: it would have been a good show, but with you
Speaker 1: there and Angela there, then that's that's where the people
Speaker 1: came out because of the show. It was also charity
Speaker 1: for the Australian Wildfire's Wildfires thing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's still the same thing. I was Kendrick's Music
Speaker 1: as my publishing company. When it became my company, Alien Chicken,
Speaker 1: I just changed. I just went over to just ok
Speaker 1: as a matter of course, just change it over to
Speaker 1: Alien Chicken.
Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah, last time that I talked to you here
Speaker 2: on the podcast. You'd put out an album slightly altered,
Speaker 2: although some would argue it is morely significantly altered. But anyway,
Speaker 2: it's your title. You get to do what you want. Now.
Speaker 2: Right now as we speak, you're working on your tenth
Speaker 2: so incredible album, dow Pop. It releases in the fall.
Speaker 2: Talk to me just first. I know you have your
Speaker 2: second song just out. I'll talk about that in a second.
Speaker 2: What was your journey from Slightly Altered to dow Pop.
Speaker 1: We had more time, and we also had I wrote
Speaker 1: a couple of songs we recorded just me and Dylan
Speaker 1: O'Brien because of the COVID thing, and then when it
Speaker 1: was over we get the band in there. We took
Speaker 1: time and I was able to when I got back
Speaker 1: touring again, I was able to sing these songs live
Speaker 1: in front of the audience to find which ones worked,
Speaker 1: which ones didn't work. So this is more of a
Speaker 1: SELECTI process. Also, four of the songs, always Dreaming of You,
Speaker 1: the one that you you have now, the second single
Speaker 1: I wrote that with Dylan O'Brien, just out July nineteenth.
Speaker 1: July nineteenth, and then Tuga Wore I wrote Dylan, Excuse Me,
Speaker 1: Billy Harvey Turned the Corner of the Universe, which is
Speaker 1: already out with Vance DeGeneres, Ellen's brother who ran Steve's company.
Speaker 1: That's where I met him in the set one day
Speaker 1: and it's got very funny, really good guy and I
Speaker 1: write great stuff. And then my Jeff Pearlman, who's just
Speaker 1: a great guitar play wrote this comm country song called
Speaker 1: toy Bote and uh, it's we got We've got Dean
Speaker 1: Parks on this album, Elliott Easton from the Cars, so
Speaker 1: playing on a couple of songs. It's it's just the
Speaker 1: it's by Brian's the best album, so proud of This
Speaker 1: album really is a good one.
Speaker 2: Is your this is you think this is the best album?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure of it. I'm sure of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I have That's why I'm going out of my
Speaker 1: way to get a publicist and go through all of this. Suddencuse,
Speaker 1: I really believe it warrants it.
Speaker 2: So when you're about to release an album, I've always
Speaker 2: been curious about this do you have is it Is
Speaker 2: it like a movie? Do you view it like that
Speaker 2: where you have sort of an overarching story or an
Speaker 2: idea from for this album from the get go, or
Speaker 2: does it evolve and change as different songs and different
Speaker 2: collaborations that you just mentioned feed into it too, and
Speaker 2: and and make up the individual songs.
Speaker 1: That's a good wow, that's a really good question too.
Speaker 2: It's number two. That's not a roll, My man's a roll.
Speaker 1: The the theme of it is is the down pop
Speaker 1: thing is on the picture is me talking to a
Speaker 1: couple of alien robots. It says, uh, it's for that's
Speaker 1: from chipping the Chip in my brain song no I wrote.
Speaker 1: I wrote ten songs, six six by myself, four with
Speaker 1: other people. Each song is indifferent, but when the the
Speaker 1: Chip in my Brain came along, that kind of set
Speaker 1: the tone for the album cover. So there's really no
Speaker 1: rhyme or reason too. Uh, it's just ten really good
Speaker 1: songs and the theme the theme. If there's a theme,
Speaker 1: it's because it's the artwork theme that holds it together. Okay,
Speaker 1: But my songs are always yearning spiritual growth, overcoming versity,
Speaker 1: just me my life.
Speaker 2: You've continued to do that, Yes, Yes, that is a
Speaker 2: that is a constant journey for us, all for all
Speaker 2: of us. But you're very you're very open about that
Speaker 2: for yourself, which I admire. About you.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you man. I don't I feel obviously very
Speaker 1: very lucky. And if not a day goes by that
Speaker 1: I don't give gratitude for how my life is turned out.
Speaker 1: It's astonished. I have to pinch myself. Really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's it.
Speaker 1: So the album comes out September twenty seventh, as you
Speaker 1: know you July and I think you said July nineteenth.
Speaker 1: You know more about this thing than I do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is it done? Is the album done?
Speaker 1: The album's absolutely done, completely done.
Speaker 2: Why are you making us wait for it? Then? Well,
Speaker 2: what is this? Let's just look look look oh oh
Speaker 2: I'm looking at it right now, guys, dow Pop. What
Speaker 2: a what a great picture that that artwork. We'll post
Speaker 2: a picture of this. That artwork should win. And you're
Speaker 2: going on tour of course.
Speaker 1: On tour and playing the Baked Potato with my friend
Speaker 1: Tim Hawckenberry, Charlie Ferrager and Sebastian Lenz on the tenth okay,
Speaker 1: and then well then where all the four of us
Speaker 1: are going to go out in September and do a
Speaker 1: California tour in a spreader that that will be so
Speaker 1: people in California look for us we'll go. I'll be
Speaker 1: coming through with the band in a spreader van, big one.
Speaker 2: Are you going to stay in hostels?
Speaker 1: If I could find one, I would in California?
Speaker 2: All right, last question. You know, I don't reveal anyone's age,
Speaker 2: but it occurred to me that you are of a
Speaker 2: similar age as the two uh gentlemen, to put it nicely,
Speaker 2: who are are running for president? Right now? Let me
Speaker 2: ask you this here and now, for your fans and
Speaker 2: for this nation, Creed, would you consider running for president.
Speaker 1: My fellow Americans? Uhh, that's really so rough, you kid. No, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: That's what they need is Creed for president.
Speaker 2: That is Hey, listen, let me promise you this. You would,
Speaker 2: You would get my vote and I and I suspect
Speaker 2: Creed you would get a fair number of votes for
Speaker 2: the presidency. You're always, as I said before, striving to
Speaker 2: be a better person and to continue to work on
Speaker 2: yourself to make the world a better place. And you
Speaker 2: do that through well just who you are and also
Speaker 2: your art. So I want to thank you for that.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for your friendship. I want
Speaker 2: to wish you all the best on dow Pop and
Speaker 2: uh yeah, next time, I'm going to be up there
Speaker 2: and go to your coffee shop. I'm going to call
Speaker 2: you in advance.
Speaker 1: Call me, call me, we'll call me in and we'll meet.
Speaker 2: We'll meet now now, I know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love you, Brian.
Speaker 2: I love you too much.
Speaker 1: You are an inspiration to me too, because you're not
Speaker 1: that character Kevin and He but ladies and gentlemen, he did.
Speaker 1: He came to it and did it every day and
Speaker 1: people I know believe he's but he's not that guy.
Speaker 1: Far as far as the cooler, yes, yes, much smarter,
Speaker 1: much muchmarter.
Speaker 2: Creed, have a good summer, Creed. Great to talk to
Speaker 2: you as always, and uh, well, next time I'll buy
Speaker 2: you that coffee. Come back as many times as you like,
Speaker 2: my friend, You are always welcome here with me. Listeners,
Speaker 2: listen to his new single I'll always be dreaming of you,
Speaker 2: and keep an eye out for Dow Pop coming out
Speaker 2: in September and between now in September, you can fill
Speaker 2: your ears by coming back here and listening to me.
Speaker 2: It may not rhyme, it may not be melodious, but well,
Speaker 2: we try to have fun. Until next time, everybody, have
Speaker 2: a great week. Off The Beat is hosted and executive
Speaker 2: produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee.
Speaker 2: Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Emily
Speaker 2: Carr and Seth Olanski, and our talent producer is Ryan
Speaker 2: Papa Zachary. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by
Speaker 2: the one and Only Creed Bretton