WEBVTT - Creed Bratton 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.240 So cut to the next morning, and as God is 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:07.200 my witness, is exactly what happened. I'm at my pension 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:12.000 and I look up and there's my liver sitting in 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:14.440 a chair having a cup of coffee, waiting to get 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:19.640 back in my body. Oh God, so bad, so feeling 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:21.919 so horrible. And then I look over on the table 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.959 and there's the tablecloth from the night before and all 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:30.880 these names, Troy, whatever, lamps, things all crossed out, and 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.280 then there's it's a whole bunch of them. Then one 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.640 circled with little stars around it said Creed Bratton, and 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:46.560 I went, oh, that's my new name. Hi. I'm Creed 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.720 Bratton and I played Creed Bratton on the Office. I'm 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.600 also a lot of different names to creditors, but I 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.200 don't want to get into that right now. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.920 Hi, there, foe. Welcome back to another episode of Off 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:08.000 the Beat. It's me Brian Baumgartner today. Well, my guest 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.760 is a very good friend of mine, as you just heard, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.720 Creed Bratton back once again for his third time on 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:21.040 this podcast. But as ever, Creed has more to tell. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:26.760 Creed has lived many, many, many lives, almost nine, but 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.360 not quite his first one. Well, he was a rock 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.759 star in the sixties, touring the world with his band 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.920 The Grassroots. Before you ever heard of him, in fact, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.800 probably before you were even born, he already had multiple 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:47.400 Billboard Top ten hits and two gold records. Creed also 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.560 has a long solo career, with his tenth solo album 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.960 coming out this September. In fact, you've already heard some 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.480 of his music today are Theme, Bubble and Squeak, written 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:03.040 and performed by Creed Breton. And yeah, I forgot he 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.720 was also in the office with me as well, But 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.160 we already recorded two episodes where we talk about that 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.160 a lot. You can go back and listen to those, 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.920 in fact you should, But this time I wanted to 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:19.160 go deeper into his music career, learn how he managed 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:23.360 to become well a legend in both music and acting, 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:27.800 and hopefully hear more of his absolutely insane stories that 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.480 may or may not be true. Folks, if you have 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:36.639 never seen Creed Breton live on stage, I say only this, 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.919 do it. It's worth it. I have known the man 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.040 for twenty years and I have still barely cracked the surface. 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.360 Here he is one more hour for you listeners to 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:53.080 get to know the man. The myth, the legend, the 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.640 most interesting man in the world, the man who well, 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:03.639 here he is Creed Breton, Bubble and Squeak. 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:10.720 I love it, Bubble and Squeak. I know Bubble and Squeak. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.160 I could get every month lift over from the ninetyople. 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.560 How's it going good, Buddy's good to see you. 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:39.720 It's so good to see you. We communicated recently without 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.720 seeing each other. I thought that, uh, I, for those 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.680 of you listening, some of you may know I no 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.680 longer live in Los Angeles proper. And I was up 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.360 in Los Angeles doing some work for the new book 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.800 coming out, and someone suggested that I go into a 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:02.280 coffee shop. I'd never been there for it was delicious, yep. 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.000 So I walk in. The guy starts chatting with me, 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.960 and you know, I'm like, okay, well he knows who 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:10.360 I am. It's fine. And then he stops and goes, 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.800 you know, Creed comes in here every morning, and I 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.640 was like, what wait, what were you serious? And he goes, yeah, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.440 Creed comes in every day, gets his coffee, sits and 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.240 reads the paper or whatever. And so I made the guy. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.040 They they they had the old school post it notes 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.360 where they write down your coffee order. So I took 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.320 a post it note and I said, I'm gonna I'm 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.080 not going to contact Creed. I want you to give 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.720 him this post it note the next time he comes in. 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.080 Sure Enough, a day later, I get I get a 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.159 text message from Creed that he got my post it note. 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:46.360 That was so fun. 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.839 I loved that it was. It was a great grade. 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:50.600 Wasn't it really a prank? It was just a great 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.000 little bit. I walk in there and they're beaming. Uh, 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.719 it's his name, Raymond and Faye, they work in there, 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:00.960 and they said, they look at each other giddy. They said, 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:03.880 somebody came in yesterday and got something for you. Said, 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.840 what are you talking about? They look like for you 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.039 and they have at this little piece of paper, and 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.720 I started laughing. Oh my god, it was a great 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:13.440 great yeah, you know. 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.800 You know what. It just occurred to me, Now, I 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.160 should have I should have at least bought your coffee. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.880 I should have should at least I should have at 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.160 least pre bought your coffee. That would have been, That 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:24.760 would have been, that would have been nicer. 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.680 You've done plenty of things. See who you are? Just 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:32.640 you know, when you just said he done. Steve's laugh 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.360 was enough for all all of humanity to make us 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.280 laugh for all time. Oh boy, Uh. 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.159 It's great. It's great to see you. Now, you've been 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.800 here on the podcast before. Today we're going to talk. 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.800 We're going to talk music. I know you got a 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:53.960 new album coming out, new single just released on July nineteenth, 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:58.239 So I want to talk about your music career because look, 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.279 Creed is not just a television star. Creed is a 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.080 is a music musical star. What does that even mean? 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.719 He's a rock star, He's he was a star before 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:16.479 decades before you had you had ever seen him on 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.279 the office. You grew up in a in a small 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.880 town up there by Yosemite. Yes, but your your mom, 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.560 your grandparents, they were very musical, right, so did they 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.160 give you this, uh, the love of music? They introduced 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:34.280 you to music early on. 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:40.680 Absolutely. My my grandparents. My grandmother played drums, okay, and 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.320 my grandfather they had a band called the Happy Timers. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.159 They were semi professional at Long Beach in the summer, 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.080 I go down and I spend the summer with them, 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:50.200 and I listened to them play all these country and 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:54.520 western the swing, mostly country swing, and but on I 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:58.599 grew up listening watching my mom play mandolin, and she 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.520 was gifted. She was gifted. She put her head back 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:07.040 and just whale. So I played trumpet from a young age. 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.960 I listened to a little Crystal set to b Mitchell 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.240 Reid from Los Angeles, and I knew somebody as would 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.440 come in depending on the weather and other times you 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.520 couldn't hear, but I'd hear all Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.800 Jerry Lee Lewis, all the all the old fifties stuff, 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.000 you know, Eddie Cochran, and I just in Dwayne Eddie. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.560 I love and I love this stuff. So I got 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:36.040 a guitar at a young age thirteen, which is some 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.440 people now are starting really really young, you know. But 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.440 but that was my first guitar. I played trumpet for 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.920 years through call, through high school and stuff, and then 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.840 by time seventeen, I'd figured out enough to start working 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.960 professionally at this band. And then I played played in 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:56.440 college at band it's dances and stuff on the weekends 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.200 to make money. And after college, after Europe with a 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.040 folk trio for over two years. That you know this story. Yeah, 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.240 Then the grassroots, the kids, their great grandparents will know 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.960 this band that I was in. We had Lift for 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.400 Today and Midnight Confessions to our two top ten songs. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:14.960 Yeah. 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:20.160 So but before all that I read that you you 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.520 I don't think I knew this that you actually went 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.400 to college for acting. 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:27.600 Yes, yeah, and then I'm a major. 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.520 So this is like, so we're going back and forth 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.520 here and this, I mean, this is the first time 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.560 we're going. So you wanted to be an actor, yes, 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.880 but you were you were working professionally as a musician 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.440 to help make money, yes, yes, And so why did 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.080 you choose the right path? Not the right path? But 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.559 you have two paths. You could go and continue pursuing 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.920 acting or music. Why why did you go toward music? 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.440 I never picked one, Bryan. It was just whatever whatever 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.439 came it catches catch can. I played the music. I 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.840 acted when I could get in a play. Was in 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.360 LA and you know, it was doing stage stuff and 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.360 you know, then got an agent. That's how it started. 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.160 Like most people, you know, so he pick sees you 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:11.680 and put you in some stuff. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.199 When you when you were in the Young Californians how 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:19.559 old were you then, mid twenties, mid twenties, and so 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.880 how how did that? How did that group initially come together. 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:24.600 These were these were people that you knew. 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:29.400 Uh No, I had been well. I had a friend 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.679 of mine. I paid his boat ticket or we got 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.439 a freighter out of New Orleans, came into Venice, and 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.040 then he left because he he was couldn't he missed 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.320 his girlfriend. He was worried about that somebody else was 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.000 going to get her, so as the guys do, and 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.720 so he I was by myself, and my plan was 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.320 to go to uh enroll in the Good Institute in 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.319 Munich in German. Why I would learn German, Bryant. It 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.880 was one of the most hardiest artist language possible. Spanish 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.480 would be a French would have been easier, right, German. 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.240 So that's what I'm making it really rough on myself. 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.120 I'm coming one day and I was working the electronics factory, 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.640 waiting for the season to start, you know, the sessions 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.720 to start at school. And I was making money, and 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.200 I had some money put away there and I was 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:15.640 learnning a little German. And I came up to pick 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:17.440 up my mail at the America Express and there's two 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:22.280 guys there, Greg Fitzpatrick on acoustic guitar and Lee Zimmerman 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.000 on banjo, he's a banjo that he made himself, homemade banjo. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:27.120 He made a banjo. 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.679 He made a banjo from scratch. You know, people can 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.800 people can do this, not me, not you, but people 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:37.520 can do this. So I heard them. They're playing Green Green, 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.679 Green Green, and it's the new Christy Minschel song and 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.520 uh and I went okay, and they said. They looked 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.760 at me, and I said, you know, can I show 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.439 you something? And I took the guitar and went, do 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:49.400 do do do? I played the riff for him, so 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.360 just just a free ratification. That's how I didn't say 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:53.920 that because I was too stupid to say that. But 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.000 then but I showed him, but they went, oh you 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.040 you play? I said, well yeah, and they said and 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.240 they told me we're going to go down to Africa 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.520 and hitch I can play and you know, make money 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:08.400 and do stuff like this. They were making money at 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.240 the Octoberfest. So I could have stayed on and done 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.439 the school, but I stayed away almost all night long 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.839 with this, in that eleventh hour of the soul kind 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.160 of thing, and I thought, no, this is what I 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:22.960 want to do. This is what I want to do. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.600 So I went took the money out I bought it. 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.520 I didn't have a guitar. Brian, I bought a guitar. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:30.560 I didn't have a guitar. Man I bought a guitar. 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.360 I bought some hiking boots, a rucksack, a big anorak, 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.000 a big park it with fur collar from the down 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.720 to their surplus store and this, and then I went 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.080 down there and there they were, and they went. I said, 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.920 let's go, guys. And then two and a half years later, 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:50.480 you know, I get back forty five pounds lighter to America, 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.240 you know, and I almost I was I'd been starving 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:53.920 at that time. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.920 Yeah, because you weren't eating. Yeah, because it wasn't eating 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.880 because of money. Yeah, because yes, yeah, okay, yeah. 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:06.240 I was stealing. I shouldn't. I was stealing the milk 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.520 off of people's portras. Yes, stay just stay alive. Yeah, 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.439 I'm not proud of that fact. But I'm starving. 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:22.880 You're like Oliver twists pies. Wow, I didn't really, I 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:23.800 didn't know that. 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:25.920 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.440 I mean the fact is, the Young Californians did a 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:38.040 world tour. But this world tour wasn't finally curated. No, no, it. 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:42.559 Wasn't like there's Madonna or you know, you know John 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:47.319 may Or. No, it's guys going to the youth, the 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.640 youth hostel hostels and you're staying on a cot. And 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:52.640 then at night we go down to the major place, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.960 the railway stations walk where it sounds the best, open 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.280 our guitar case to get money. But you when you 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.559 were when we were in Switzerland and Germany, we made 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.480 big money. We thought, oh my gosh, they throw these 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.080 big coins in where we were worth. They're a lot, 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.319 you know, right, they have dollars some of these things 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.640 where we're two and a half dollars these coins, right, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.160 And then we end up in North Africa and we're 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.680 at a soup kitchen with people with you know, infantigo 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:22.000 and lionidis. They got these swollen arms and legs and 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.600 cataracts on their eyes. And we're eating the stuff hoping 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:26.880 we're I gonna die from this from the dog we're 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.320 eating oh yeah, oh yeah, And we and we that's 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.840 and then we hit shots across North Africa and we 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.360 played for the mobile oil. We were about five hundred 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.960 miles out in the Sahara desert playing for the oil 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.559 camps and stuff. But we made some of we made 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.760 good money, and then sometimes we start. 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.800 What what was the decision behind? So you're making good 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.320 money once in a while in well, in western Europe. 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.880 So why so, I mean, is this just young? I 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:02.200 don't know? Even take like we're going to travel north Africa. 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.960 That was always the plan when they met. We said, 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:07.559 we're going to go down and go cross north there 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.840 to Egypt, down through the Sudan, continue on and go 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:12.720 all the way down through Africa. This is down to 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.680 the down to the other bottom of Africa. This is 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:20.800 the plan. We'll see lions and elephants and and I went, yes, 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.800 this is for me. It's exciting, you know, did you 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.080 did you know? We we got to the Sudan, they 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.760 were running guns. They were running guns. The Congolese were 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.920 running guns. They wouldn't let us in. So we we 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.040 went back and we got a boat to Bay Route. 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.280 Before Bay Route blew up, Bay Route was still the 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:45.320 Paris of the Mediterranean. And we played at a brothel. 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.480 We played at a brothel called the Kit Cat Club's 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:49.880 famous famous brothel. 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.600 That is that true? Is that true? To God? 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:52.920 Truth? 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:55.280 Truth is the kit Cat Club? 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.480 Like you can look it up. You can look it up, 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:02.640 but all the shakes, this was the Mid Eastern Shakes, 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.000 and all the movers and shakers, all the gold and 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.920 oil money would go to this place and we'd play 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:09.880 on the stage in the back. That guy would do 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:11.000 what they did in brothel. 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.640 Did they give you a cot there at least? Or no? Yeah? 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.000 No, we were disgusting infidels. 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:24.880 You know, on this trip you became is that I 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:26.320 don't even know if that's the way to say it. 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:32.080 Either you you went from you transformed from William Charles 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:38.440 Shatner Schinzchneider, Schneider, Yeah, to Creed Bratton. Yes, why. 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.520 I had been how do we see this? I worked 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:47.080 on a movie called cast a Giant Showder, my first film. 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.280 This is so this is nineteen sixty four sixty five, 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.239 and I fell in love with the director's daughter, Lynn Shavelson, 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.720 and we went off to the Greek Islands and had 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.440 this most marvelous time. And she mentioned that that Creed, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:06.000 that Chuck rt Mode, which was my stepfather's name, which 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:08.360 I had taken on. I thought I was legally adopted 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.400 as Chuck ert Mode. I didn't know I was still 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:13.600 until I got my passport to leave for Europe. I 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.760 found I was still William George Schneider. So I'd used 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.520 chuck Ert mode and Brian. If you can imagine kids, 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.120 you know, going hey, oh, they put their finger down 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:26.720 their throat and they like pretend like they're throwing up, 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:28.320 And that was I had no self esteem. 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:31.800 That's like Rain would do that still today. 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:33.840 By the way, but yes, yes, because he would. Yes 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:35.400 he does it if he came. You know, wait, what 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.080 do you breaking do to me to humiliate me? 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:37.520 He will. 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.440 So she mentioned there wasn't an attractive name, and I 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.560 then I kind of put that thing and I knew 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.720 it wasn't. I knew it wasn't, but for someone that 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.520 I was in love with to mention, well, that name. 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:53.640 So she goes back to college and I'm in Athens 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.760 at a cafe knowing that I've got to go sign 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.640 up for the draft and I got to go. I 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.160 got to go do my physical in Berlin, and I'm 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.119 dreading this for the Vietnam War, sitting there and having 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.400 some I think it was uzzo or retina whatever, those 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.400 liquorice tasting things they have over there, their alcohol their 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.240 god off, Oh yeah, you know what you've had. 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:18.880 I know what you're talking about. Yeah. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.719 Yeah. So I'm there and I meet this this couple 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.960 from Oregon and they're going to Crete, the Isle of 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.080 Crete to teach English, to teach English to the Cretanskay 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.960 cre And I told my story. I said, I've got 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.880 visions of me being a drama you know, blah blah blah. 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:39.719 I play music, but I want to go and be 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.800 an actor and playing music whatever I can, you know, 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.520 either one or the other. And they said, well, that 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.520 Chuck RTMO name, that's that's not very good. I said, oh, 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.560 I know, I know it's not a good name. Said, well, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.160 you really need something besides Chuck Bert Mode. I said, 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.040 I agree about arguing with you. So cut to the 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.879 next morning, and as God is my witness, is exactly 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:04.200 what happened. I'm at my pension and I look up 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.639 and there's my liver sitting in a chair having a 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.639 cup of coffee, waiting to get back in my body. 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:16.159 Oh God, so bad, so feeling so horrible. And then 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.800 I look over on the table and there's the tablecloth 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:24.320 from the night before and all these names, Troy, whatever, lamps, 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.720 things all crossed out, and then there's it's a whole 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.760 bunch of them, and then one circled with little stars 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.400 around it said Creed Bratt and I went, oh, that's 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.840 my new name. Now I don't use Brian. I don't 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.360 use that name until almost two years later. It takes 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.600 me another year to get back, and then another year 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.040 with the Thirteenth Floor. So yeah, So two years later, 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.680 we're signing contracts for Dunhill Records, and I've been chuckered 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:55.720 and I start to sign as Chucker when I went, oh, 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.920 that's right. So I signed Preed Bratt and I said 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.280 what who who's this cream broad guy? And they said 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:04.359 that's me, and then they that From that moment on, 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.800 people started looking at me a little like, you know, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.080 like like people on the show did. They're like, WHOA, 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:11.520 he's a little weird. This guy's a little weird. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.760 The thirteenth Floor. Tell me how you got involved with 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:38.400 the thirteenth Floor that then eventually became the Grassroots. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:39.480 I became the grassroots. 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:39.919 Okay. 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.760 I met this guy named Warren Edner who has graduated 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:49.359 from UCLA, and uh, he had played in a band 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:50.080 with Phil. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.960 Spector of All People back and was in college. 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.800 Really yeah, I got pictures of Warren with his Indian's 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.920 band with Phil Spector, you know, and uh, he came 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.920 to we were doing a folk festival and I think 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:06.719 he might have played there or I'm not sure if 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.040 he did or not. But anyway, he saw us play 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.560 at this folk festival in Tel Aviv. This is before 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:15.760 we got on the movie the cast Jihant Shadow, and 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:17.600 he came up and said, you play pretty good guitar. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:19.480 I said, you wonder if you want to start a band? 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.840 He said, he gave me his number, Warren. So I 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.720 put that number. And I usually wouldn't pay much attention 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:28.760 to this movie, but this gun I felt right in 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.520 my gut. So I took the thing and I put 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.720 it under the cardboard bottom of my rocksack, so it 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:37.400 was down there. Any important numbers I put down under 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.280 this thing that it wouldn't move it. So I'm back 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.440 and I'm staying with my girlfriend who then became my wife, Joanna. 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.639 I just arrived. Within one week, I'm cleaning out my 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.639 rocksack and this paper flutters. I said, oh, Warren, I 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.960 call Warren And in one week we had a band 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.800 and we were playing at this topless joint in the 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.280 Salmon King Valley and Sabernana Valley and the very first 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.640 show I did in La there's a woman topless dancer 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:11.000 in a chair swinging like this, and if I'm playing 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.840 like this, I would have to move my body aside 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.680 from the michael so she wouldn't get me. So we swing, 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.639 swinging so close to this tiny stage, you know. And 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:21.879 at the same time she was doing it, she was 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:23.600 she had these little castles on her. 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:24.720 They should be one. 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:27.680 She'd get right tassel in the right breast to going, 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.960 you know, clockwise, and the left one counterclockwise. So she 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.480 come up. I don't know how she did. She was amazing, 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.080 you know. It was hard to concentrate and play music 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.240 and move and I get hit and watch the tassels 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:39.960 at the same time. 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.080 Well, you didn't play in those kind of places for 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:49.399 very long. Nope. Eventually ten or several top ten hits. 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:54.280 Four of your albums charted in the Billboard Top one hundred. 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:56.000 I mean you were a rock star. 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:58.840 Wes, Yes, well, I Phil Ambryant. I don't think you. 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.680 Don't know that. That's well, that's true. But for you 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.639 in the sixties in Los Angeles being a rock star, 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.160 who did you consider to be your peer at that time, 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:16.320 or your peers. There's a big music scene in Los Angeles. 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.520 It's a huge music scene. We uh, we're off there. 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:21.360 You're working all at times, so you're not hanging much. 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.080 And we toured with the Doors, Yeah, and we got 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.520 t I got tight with the Doors. I John Densmill 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:28.520 was my best man at my wedding. We were close. 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:31.320 He was a good friend. The Young Rascals, we toured 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:33.800 with them a lot. We hung out with Gene Cornish, 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.560 the guys at Three Dog Nike, we played with, We 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:38.880