WEBVTT - Prairie Prince 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.680 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob What set God Kiss. 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.040 My guest today is Raiy Quiz, who has a new album, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:22.320 Colors and Passions. Prairie tell us about this album. 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.759 Sees, I don't know where to start other than the 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.160 fact that my sister was a big fan of Ken 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.760 Norden back in the late fifties early sixties, and she 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.760 turned me on to his word jazz records when I 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:42.239 was a youngster. And over the years, I've always enjoyed, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:48.519 you know, poetry, writing poetry, and always went back to 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.000 the memory of listening to his stuff when I was young. 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.240 And one day my sister said, you should really maybe 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:59.000 take up where he left off and do a spoken word, 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:04.160 you know, collaboration with some of your friends and different musicians. 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.240 And so I took it from there and listened to 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:11.759 his album from nineteen sixty seven called Colors. She said, 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.360 well you should. Just my sister, Leslie. I got to 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.160 say her name, because he's one of my biggest inspirations 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:18.279 in my life. 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:19.240 Ten years older. 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:25.480 Was into jazz and beat beat music and was a 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.200 beatnik and before that, you know, early rock and roll, 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.640 and so I grew up with her and all of 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:35.600 that kind of inspiration. So she said, yeah, you should 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.640 maybe take off on where Ken Norden left off and 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.800 do your version of Colors. And so that's what I did, 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.880 and it's taken a while to get it going, but 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:48.680 I finally have finished it. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.480 Tell us about this jazz artist again. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.920 Well, his name was Ken Norden, and he was originally 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:58.919 he was a I think it was a disc jockey 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:04.680 in Chicago in the fifties, and he came up with 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.079 these these records called Word Jazz, and then he had 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.560 Son of Word Jazz, and they were you know, his 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.960 his beat, beat take on anything really just you know, 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.160 like going to the refrigerator at midnight, getting a midnight 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.120 snack and talking about it. And he had this beautiful 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:28.119 resonating voice. And then he'd accompany these scenarios with some 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.920 jazz music or or you know, just some sort of 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.520 a little background. The kind of music was only the 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.040 most important part of it, but the stories were what 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.760 intrigued me. And and then when I finally heard Colors, 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.760 it was much more about the relationship with the music 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:50.480 and his description of these colors. And for example, like yellow, 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:52.600 he would be talking about yellow and there'd be kind 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:57.280 of a happy flute sound just accompanying his his poetry. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.040 And so I mean it's a long, it's a long. 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.120 I started this like eleven years ago, So it was 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.280 a long story starting starting in how to develop these songs, 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.079 and a lot of it became you know, much more 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:18.680 over overproduced than his simple versions of it. But anyway, 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:19.600 that's what I came out with. 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:25.000 Okay, the listening experience, how would you describe? Is there 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:29.440 a story in every song? Is it more jazz music? 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.400 Is it more free form? Well? 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.560 I got to say that each songind Oft started with 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:41.080 my idea about a color. Obviously I would have to 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.440 give you examples because each song is really radically different 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.840 from the next, and it was really about, you know, 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.440 over the years, developing each one of these colors and 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:56.800 the association with a passion also, so for example, red 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.800 is a passion with desire, and I always thought that 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.880 the color red kind of reminded me of sex and 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:09.640 you know, desiring not only sex, but desiring something. And 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.560 where am I going with I can't remember. So then 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.599 I thought to myself, well, maybe I should collaborate with 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.080 some of my musician friends and some of my relatives 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:26.440 and come up with a way of producing these these 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.560 one of these songs, it's one of these tracks. And 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:35.200 so it was really a development series of pretty much 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.000 improvisation for my friends that would come in. I would 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.040 start off with maybe a drum track and a little 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.200 bit of the of the poetry that I'd written about 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:47.080 the song and the passion, and then have my friends 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:51.800 come in and listen to that and then collaborate and 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.480 kind of come up and improvise whatever they felt from 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.880 that idea and the color. So it was really a 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.680 very collaborative project. 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.400 Okay, where did the words come from? I wrote? 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.479 I wrote most of the words from poetry about what 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.040 I thought about the color and the passion and how 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.680 it made me feel and different relationships. 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.480 When you laid down the drum track and your friends 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:20.040 came in, were the words already written or wordten after 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.680 the fact, They were mostly firse. Yeah, they were written first. 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.279 It was like a poetry about this color and a passion, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.719 and then I would like take how I felt about 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:34.800 how I wrote that piece and take a particular percussion instrument, 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.679 which in each each track sort of features one particular instrument, 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.920 although it builds with other percussion instruments, but the first one, 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.599 for example green kind of dominated by the kongo drum. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.599 And each one of these tracks is associated with a 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:55.839 piece of artwork that I did, depending on how it 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:58.560 developed it got over the years, but I did paintings 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.120 of each one of my drums and each one of 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.320 the concepts. Okay, now we have the Internet, we can 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:10.680 discover things. But for decades I was wondering where the 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:12.800 hell did the name Prairie prince come from? 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:17.039 Oh you really want to know? Yeah, So I'm a junior. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:24.080 My father's name was Charles Lomprier, Prince senior. I became 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.800 Charles lomp Prier, Prince junior. And the word Lomprier came 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:33.240 from a family name from the isle of Jura of Jersey, 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:39.800 actually English Channel island that was French citizens mostly, but 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.960 they were ruled by the English. So the lom Prier 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.599 was a French name, but it was actually an English 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.320 English governed. And when my dad was a little boy, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.800 he grew up in the South, in North Carolina, and 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.720 he had this old guy named will that took care 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.560 of the kids. His dad was a doctor, and they 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:02.599 had you know, eight or nine kids, and my father 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:07.400 was one of the younger ones, and this guy says, well, 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.040 long Prier, that's what your mom wad calls you. But 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.800 I'm gonna nickname you Prairie. And that's how I came. 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.800 It's literally from old Will liking the word Prairie as 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:24.720 opposed to loan Prier, which was I guess hard for him. Yeah, 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.000 hard for him to do it. But before I was 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:28.800 I mean before I was born, they were gonna name 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.080 me Prairie anyway, they were gonna call me Prairie England. 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.440 So I was never really called Charles or Charlie or 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.040 Chuck or anything. It was always Prairie from the from 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.840 day I popped out. So I did not make up 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:40.720 the stage name. 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.440 Okay, you go to first grade, is your name Prairie 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:45.080 or Charles? 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.360 Unfortunately it's Prairie, And uh god, I just wish they 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.440 could have been a Mic or a George or Jim, 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:53.920 but no, it was Prairie. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.800 And you know, I got a lot of got a 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.000 lot of guf that's my question. Prairie is a cool 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:02.320 name when you're old. When you're young, not cool. Not cool. 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.480 And plus I got like fairy princess because my last 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:07.560 name is prince right, and I got that a little bit, 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.280 but you know, I called cocked some of those guys 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:10.760 out in the recess yard later. 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.680 Well, what kind of kid were you? Were you a 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:17.120 kid who was you know, you have all these artistic pursuits. 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.720 Were you a member of the group? Were you always 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.720 an outsider? What kind of kid were you? Like? 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.800 I mean, I grew up with my mom and dad, 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:30.960 who were they thought outside the thing a little bit. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.160 I mean, my dad was really into music, so I 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.320 really got a lot of my music theory and my 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.560 ideas about music and especially jazz and stuff from him. 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.200 And then my mom was really into art and we 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:46.400 used to go to art classes and stuff. But no, 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:48.320 I was a pretty normal kid. I had grew up 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.400 in Phoenix, Arizona, which was pretty normal, and by then, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.800 you know, early fifties, it was pretty much just like 0:08:54.960 --> 0:09:00.000 living in the desert. So yeah, I didn't have much money. 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.000 I didn't have any you know, necessarily, any like hoodlums 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.400 waiting around the corner, although a few times there were, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.559 you know a couple of guys that wanted to I 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.400 wanted to knock me out, but I ran. And what 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.720 did your father do for a living? He was a 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:19.000 cotton broker. He first in North Carolina. He worked for 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.520 like the company store kind of thing and managed it 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.280 and stuff. And then he got a job opportunity to 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.560 move from North Carolina in the early fifties right after 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:33.720 I was born and and start broking cotton in Arizona 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.040 because there was a lot of business there from the 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.360 Pima Indians and the you know, the Native Americans that 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:45.599 were growing cotton way back day, way back when. Still today, 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.560 Pema cotton sought after really fine, great cotton. 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:55.120 Okay, the country is shrunk, but when you're growing up 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.840 in Arizona, that's like off the grid. People aware there 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:03.120 was a stayed out there California where they had Hollywood Arizona. 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.520 All they knew was hot and there was Phoenix, and 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.319 people really didn't know anything. So I realized that your 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.840 only experienced for what was it like growing up in Phoenix. 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.400 Like that like being a lizard the sun. You know, 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:19.800 you had your boat bedposts in jars of formaldehyde so 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.680 the scorpions wouldn't crawl up and bite you while you're asleep. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:24.960 You know. 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.240 We didn't have any real air conditioning for the first 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.240 probably four or five years, and had these swamp coolers, 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.280 and yeah, your brain got a little bit fried. And 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:35.640 we didn't even have a television yet. But when we 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:37.600 finally did, you know, there's a lot of a lot 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.960 of indoor and air conditioning, a lot of indoor television watching, 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.600 which has you know, kind of led me into the uh, 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.160 you know, the tubes and the things that came later. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:53.120 But yeah, growing up being a vidiot and watching television 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.239 and being exposed to all the advertisements and stuff in Arizona, 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.120 and you know, but I think I'm not absolutely certain 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.360 about this, but I think the first McDonald's was there. 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.760 It's kind of like a testing ground for a lot 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.880 of the fast food joints or for everything. Was kind 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.200 of try it out in Phoenix before you move it, 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.320 move it, take it to La or anywhere else in 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.839 the country. So it was kind of like a guinea 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:17.280 pig area. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:23.280 Okay, Historically Arizona was a very conservative state, especially when 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.720 you were growing up. Did you feel that, Well, I 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.320 certainly my father did. I mean, he. 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.840 Did not appreciate he was a full on Democrat. He 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.480 did not appreciate the Republican onslot there Bury Goldwater and 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.800 all that. Sure, Yeah, we all felt we all felt 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.960 restricted and refined. I mean, I couldn't wait to move 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.880 out of Phoenix when I was and they followed me 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.079 as soon as I left in sixty nine, they followed 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:56.040 me to San Francisco. So, yeah, we grew up running 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.000 around dodging, dodging stuff all the time. Seems like we 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.240 were hiding from the police or the principals or the 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:04.920 you know, the the guards. 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:09.040 Yeah, okay, So talk about this older sister. How many 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:10.000 kids in the family. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.079 I have two older siblings, both of them girls. I'm 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:20.240 my older sister, Leslie Prince Raymond, and she lives in 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:26.760 the East Coast. Now my younger sister, her younger sister, Helen, 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.760 passed away about five or six years ago from Parkinson's disease. 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:37.520 She was a scientist and research you know, a genius, 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:39.560 and she was a film editor and she got into 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.480 arts and science more than anything. My sister Leslie ran 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:48.200 the arts council in their city, Chestertown, Maryland for years 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.000 and years with her husband, Vince, and they, you know, 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.280 I did productions and I you know, did a few 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.000 backdrops and some set designs for them over the years, 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:01.040 and they're just you know, amazing to sick family. And 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:06.080 my mom same thing. She was an art historian, and yeah, 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.160 we grew up with a lot of wonderful resources for 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:10.920 art and music. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:15.439 So what's it like having a sibling ten years older? 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.320 They so into their life, they're ignoring you, or you 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.319 precious because you're the young child. I am so precious. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.680 You're right, you got it right. They used to treat 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:26.480 me like their little baby doll when they were a 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:31.040 little d eight and ten years older. With my sisters 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.800 and they, yeah, they both loved me, and I love them. 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.560 I missed my other sister so much. But I still 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.560 see my oldest sister, Leslie a lot, and she travels 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:45.600 back and forth. She has granddaughters and sons that live 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.679 in San Francisco, and so she continues to travel. She's 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:54.520 eighty five, just turned eighty five, and happy birthday, Leslie. Okay, 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:59.440 so what comes first? Art or music? Well, this is 0:13:59.480 --> 0:13:59.800 one of those. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.920 And see you you picked those questions that I've tried 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.600 to answer my whole life because they're always and. 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.040 Let me let me clarify. Okay, did you take music 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.640 lessons first? Or were you always drawing from a young age? 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:16.960 The same thing, right, just next to each other. And 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.640 I'm still doing it right next to each other like 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:24.400 I took, you know, I took early drawing classes my neighborhood. 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.480 We had a magazine and we would draw pictures of 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:28.960 dinosaurs and had a little printing machine and we'd print 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.080 them up and make little magazines. And that was you know, 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:36.320 like fourth grade, I started taking snare drum lessons and 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.720 drum lessons from the school band, and probably fourth fifth 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.680 grade I was in the school band. But at the 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.840 same time, my art teacher, whoever was teaching art at 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:51.360 the same time, was just enjoying, enjoying watching me and 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.920 teaching me art. And I would have millions of sketch 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.160 books and coloring books and everything my whole life. So 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:00.120 I guess you'd have to say, if you have to 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.400 find me, it'd have to be a renaissance man in 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:05.120 the wrong era. 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:11.000 Okay, what inspired you to play drums? Because they come 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.840 there with all the instruments of clarinet, the trombone. Why 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.400 the drums? Yeah? 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.680 Again, my dad inspired me when he was young because 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:22.920 he used to tap dance in the kitchen. He would 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.480 throw some sand down, do some soft shoe and a 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.240 little tap dancing and claims I never really heard him 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.400 play the drums, but he claimed he played drums along 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:35.160 with silent movies when he was young, really young. He 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.760 would piano player and he had a snare drum and 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.360 he would play along with the Silent movies that were 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.040 playing in the tournament. Whenever it was twenties, I guess, no, 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:52.000 maybe earlier and so, and he could taught me how 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:55.760 to handbone, so that was my first drum, really was 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.120 my leg. And he taught me how to play the spoons, 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.480 some spoons and yeah, that kind of thing. So I 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.880 latched onto the drums. They tried to get me to 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.520 play piano. I took some piano lessons for a few years. 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.640 My other sister played piano, so she always had a 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.680 teacher coming over to the house. And I started taking 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.640 piano lessons, and I got to a point where I 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.240 just went, really. 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.880 Hate this music that they're trying to teach me. It's 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:27.360 just it's just not good. I mean, Mary, Mary had 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.920 a little lamb or something, but you know, can you 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.600 just boogie woogiet it a little bit? Learn how you know, 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.840 you just play it like that, and then the exercises 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.560 the handle exercises hand and I think that's what they're called. 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:42.360 And then all of a sudden, one day. 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.040 The phone rang and my mom answered, and she goes, well, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.240 I'm sorry I tell you about your piano plate. The 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:52.400 teacher just died, and he died in a car accident. 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.920 I didn't laugh. I felt bad for the guy. But anyway, 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.520 I got out of that. So that then right after that, 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.960 I got a snare drum. They bought me a snare 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.000 drum for Christmas, and that was it. And then I 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.760 just started building up my drum set, you know, piece 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:10.840 by piece for the next few years. 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.919 Okay, Yeah, you take drums in school, you play in 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.800 the school band orchestra, whatever you call it. Yeah, were 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.440 you playing in bands before the Beatles or was it 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:24.520 like so many people you saw the Beatles that this 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:25.280 is where I'm going. 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.120 I mean, the Beatles definitely did that to me. For sure, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.199 I saw them. But yeah, I was playing in the 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.439 school band and that was boring too, because it's like 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.760 I was in the percussion section. So you play either 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.880 the bass drum, the snare drum, or the symbol big 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.080 crashing at the end of each you know, phrase or something. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.479 And then I saw the Beatles on but no, I 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.800 wasn't in a band yet, but it was shortly after 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.080 that I got into a surf band. But that's that's 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.960 a different story. But yeah, I saw the Beatles and 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.440 I just went, wow, that's just so amazing, and so yeah, 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.520 a couple of my friends in my neighborhood started a 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:10.040 little surf surf band. We were called the Regents, and 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.000 I think it was nineteen sixty six, early nineteen sixty six, 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:16.760 so the Beatles had already been out for a couple 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:18.600 you know, at least a year and a half are already, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:23.000 so I was already really in tune with them. The 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.920 surf band didn't last very long, and then I got 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.480 a call from from who ended up being the guitar 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.960 player on the Tubes, Roger Stein, and he said, I'll 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.960 have this band. We're doing mostly Beatles songs and we're 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:43.560 called the Bards bar Ds, and come over and try 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.040 out for it. If I did. We had a band 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.639 called the Bards and we played it was it was 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.520 you know, we're doing mostly the Beatles, sixty five sixty 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.280 six stuff, which was no reply and all that kind 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.400 of stuff. So yeah, I was in a Beatle band 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.600 early on. How did you know Roger Steve? I knew 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.359 him through somebody else that went to my school and 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.480 he was in. He was the other guy in the 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:13.080 Bards was knew me from my school and Roger was 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:15.679 already playing with him. So I guess it was the 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.840 guy from my school that said go come over an audition, so. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:21.360 He knew you were a drummer. 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.080 Yeah, he already knew I was a drummer because of 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.960 the surf band. Yeah, I think we played. I think 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.320 our band played at like the Junior prom or something 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:30.680 like that. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.359 We wait the Bards or the surf band. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:36.360 The surf bands were called the Regents. 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:41.359 Yeah, the Regents actually played some paid gigs. We we 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.480 didn't get paid. I don't think actually we did. We 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.000 got the first gig we did was I think we 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.040 only did two. We did one at a Chinese restaurant 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.360 on New Year's Eve and we got paid like fifteen 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.520 or twenty dollars or something like that. And then the 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.760 school hired us for one of the dances and we 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.840 did that and then lee guitar player's name was Quirky 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.600 Kirky Anderson, and he was kind of a juvenile Blink 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.040 when he went and got in trouble and so the 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:17.320 band broke up. Are you with piand of surf music? 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:19.160 I am? 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.480 I am a big fan of surf music. And it 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:23.639 was funny because we lived in Arizona and there was 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.320 no surf. We just wanted to go, you know, be 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.240 surfers and you know all that kind of stuff. And 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:34.360 we actually, I mean I still believe that we started 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.640 or kind of invented skateboarding because I hadn't really heard 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.800 the songs about skateboarding, you know, sidewalk surf and all 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.000 that stuff. Jana Deine and uh and we used to 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.000 make our own and just go. There were these sidewalks 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:49.200 out in the desert and we would skateboard on the 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.719 sidewalks and make him you know, just make him out 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:56.840 of roller skates and plywood. Anyway, where am I going? 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.920 Am I going with this? Well we'll talk about grab 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.520 were to go sidewalk surf, it would be so yeah. 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:05.760 So I was a big surf fan. I started getting 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:07.480 you know, in my bedroom, so I had my set 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.600 drum set up in my bedroom. My parents were so 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.040 wonderful because they they really stuck up for me. They 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:17.720 the neighbors would go like, well, god, you know, he's 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:20.480 banging on the drum set, you know, and we're trying 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.160 to have our five o'clock news hour or something like that. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.320 My parents would go, well, usually you know, just you know, 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:28.600 put some of your plugs in or you know, I 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:30.040 don't know what. I don't know what they told them, 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.960 but they they backed my neighbors off, and I was 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.280 able to pretty much play anytime I wanted to, along 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:38.680 with my stereo which was next to my drum set, 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.200 and I put on Surf music ventures I recall Dick 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:47.639 Dale and I just you know, play alongder that crazy 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:49.800 surf and I have still have all my forty fives. 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.280 I put my Surf forty fives and then you know, 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.840 then that phased into the Beatles and the Stones and 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.760 all of the English Invasion stuff. But yeah, Surf was 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.680 my first love for learning how to play the drums. 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:08.440 Listen. Surf was my first love. Janet d Oh, Janetded, 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.720 I love Janed. Yeah, yeah, I could talk about I mean, 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.680 I know Deed at this point, but no kidding. It's 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.600 like those records. There's an album, a live album called 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:22.640 Command Performance. I just played that at infinitum. But now 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:26.080 you're in the Bards. What's the status of the Bards 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:30.160 or the Bards playing gigs? You know that. 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:32.800 I don't know if we ever really had a gig, 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:37.960 and we must have played somewhere like at a cyo thing, 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:42.000 or maybe we did a few shows that like the 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:48.639 Insane Asylum, like lunchtime gigs stuff like that, which was 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.800 kind of crazy in Phoenix, but I don't really recall. 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:55.560 I think it kind of broke up. At least the 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.000 one guy that got me in that was from my school. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.840 He moved on or got fired or some of the 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:06.280 bass player that we got later was more into blues, 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:11.560 and so Roger and I and this guy John John 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:15.280