Speaker 1: Music site.
Speaker 2: The intensity of that music empowered me and gave me
Speaker 2: the strength save me. Otherwise I would have just I
Speaker 2: remember I took a school aptitude test and it said farmer, farmer?
Speaker 2: Why did they think that I would farmer? And I
Speaker 2: will know? I think it may have been. I think
Speaker 2: that may have been the starting gun of like I
Speaker 2: will not be a farmer.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Music Saved Me Podcast, where we focus
Speaker 3: on the healing powers of music. I'm your host Lynn Hoffman,
Speaker 3: and on this episode we get to talk with a
Speaker 3: true rock icon from a legendary band who is also
Speaker 3: an actor, a television host, a novelist, graphic novelist, syndicated
Speaker 3: radio talk show host, composer, recent game show host, contestant.
Speaker 1: The list goes on act I put that in there.
Speaker 3: But secretly, even though he probably doesn't want me to
Speaker 3: mention it. He's also one of the kindest and most
Speaker 3: giving guys I know, with an equally incredible family. D
Speaker 3: Snyder is best known as the badass front man of
Speaker 3: the incredible eighties rock band Twisted Sister, and he also
Speaker 3: happens to be a dear old friend Dee Snider.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2: Well, and great to be here, and thank you for
Speaker 2: all those kind accolades. It's much appreciated. And yeah, I
Speaker 2: love to talk about this because you know, music saved me,
Speaker 2: and I know my music has saved others, which blows
Speaker 2: my mind.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, just because we go way back and I
Speaker 3: kind of think of you as a brother from another mother,
Speaker 3: I think I'm going to start with the hardest question
Speaker 3: up front, which is what you were just talking about.
Speaker 3: Do you remember when music first saved you.
Speaker 2: I fell in love with rock and roll after seeing
Speaker 2: the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ash. I didn't
Speaker 2: see them, I heard about them being there because my
Speaker 2: dad had banned television in our house. But that such
Speaker 2: was the effect of the Beatles appearance that just people
Speaker 2: talking about it made me want to be a Beetle,
Speaker 2: which turned out you couldn't be that, so I had
Speaker 2: to be a rock star. But as I started there
Speaker 2: was an elementary school at that point. But as I
Speaker 2: started growing and became this background layer character some you know,
Speaker 2: I didn't fit in anywhere. I just wasn't. I knew
Speaker 2: I had more to offer, yet I just was one
Speaker 2: of those nobody's in school and at about sixteen, I
Speaker 2: just decided that I would not go silently into the
Speaker 2: night and people would hear from me. They would notice me,
Speaker 2: and they would and I had something to say. And
Speaker 2: it was first the using music to power me, and
Speaker 2: that I was drawn to harder music. It wasn't called
Speaker 2: heavy metal back then. It was hard rock. The bands
Speaker 2: like Cream and Hendricks and Mountain and all these bands,
Speaker 2: and it started a grand bunk wear road and it
Speaker 2: led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, these are all hard rock bands.
Speaker 2: But that intensity of that music empowered me and gave
Speaker 2: me the strength, saved me. Otherwise I would have just
Speaker 2: I remember I took a school aptitude test and it
Speaker 2: said farmer, farmer? Why did they think that I would farmer?
Speaker 2: And I'm going to know I think it may have been.
Speaker 2: I think that may have been the starting gun of like,
Speaker 2: I will not be a farmer. I'm somebody. I'm going
Speaker 2: to beat somebody. And it was the music that lifted
Speaker 2: me up and drove me forward.
Speaker 3: Now, I recalled back after reading your memoir not too
Speaker 3: long ago, you had mentioned something about you you always
Speaker 3: had to shut up and shut up and be good
Speaker 3: and and sit down and do the right thing.
Speaker 1: And say the right thing.
Speaker 3: Was there a moment in your childhood when you just
Speaker 3: decided you weren't going to shut up anymore?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, that's it's interesting you brought that up,
Speaker 2: because in the new graphic novel, he's not going to
Speaker 2: take it. They want to do it's about my senate appearance.
Speaker 2: But they wanted to understand how me and that moment
Speaker 2: in time converged and how I was there to be
Speaker 2: that voice to fight censorship in nineteen eighty five. And
Speaker 2: as we look back and as we talked, they found
Speaker 2: out exactly bad. I was a kid that was told
Speaker 2: be quiet, know your place, shush, and you know, and
Speaker 2: just sort of pushed in the background. And at about
Speaker 2: sixteen years old, I got tired of shushing. I got
Speaker 2: tired of not being heard, and I started acting out
Speaker 2: in school and not violently or anything, but you know, well,
Speaker 2: I remember I started wearing a derby that got a
Speaker 2: lot of attention. But I was in a band and
Speaker 2: we became a popular local band, not Twisted when I
Speaker 2: was in high school, and all those things gave me.
Speaker 2: The microphone gave me a place for people to hear me,
Speaker 2: and it really was first my voice that they heard,
Speaker 2: and then in between songs I started yeappen and soon
Speaker 2: I became a thing for d snider to the in
Speaker 2: between parts. As my wife used to say, I like
Speaker 2: the in between the songs better than I like the
Speaker 2: songs because when you're talking, it's entertaining and it's funny.
Speaker 2: But I really was, you know. I got tired at
Speaker 2: round sixteen again of just being a background player and said,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm going to be heard and I will never
Speaker 2: shut up again, and I haven't. Now.
Speaker 3: You said that the music inspired you. Do you believe
Speaker 3: that music has you know, supernatural healing powers, you know,
Speaker 3: something you can't quite put your finger on, but that
Speaker 3: that drove you, or that drives people in general.
Speaker 2: I believe that one I you know, I want to
Speaker 2: say what interestingly? So here I am, you know, listening
Speaker 2: to bands I mentioned, I listen to all the bands,
Speaker 2: and but they're not it's the power of the music
Speaker 2: that is inspiring me. Then I start finding bands like
Speaker 2: Alice Hooper who have messages that are inspiring me. The
Speaker 2: song I'm eighteen was out when I was eighteen, and
Speaker 2: it was I'm getting chills right now because it was
Speaker 2: a line in there I'm a boy and I'm a man,
Speaker 2: and it was like it was like you're on the
Speaker 2: cusp of being an adult, but you're still treated like
Speaker 2: a child. And this was one of the first times
Speaker 2: that the lyrics and Alice was all about anthem. Schools Out,
Speaker 2: you know, all these great anthems. I graduated when Schools
Speaker 2: Out came out. I mean, I'm getting chills, you know,
Speaker 2: like have that song come out when I'm getting out
Speaker 2: of high school. I mean the words now were connecting
Speaker 2: with me and made me as I wasn't a songwriter yet,
Speaker 2: but when I became a songwriter, I said, I don't
Speaker 2: want to sit there singing about you know, heavy metal
Speaker 2: fantasies or sex and drugs and rock and roll. Well
Speaker 2: rock and roll, sure, but sex and drugs. I want
Speaker 2: to say more. I want to inspire people, but at
Speaker 2: the same time, I'm inspiring myself. Our first hit in
Speaker 2: England with a song called I Am Me, and it
Speaker 2: was literally my personal declaration of independence. Who are you
Speaker 2: to look down at what I believe? I'm onto your
Speaker 2: thinking and how you deceive. No, you can't abuse me.
Speaker 2: I won't stand no more. Yes I know the reason,
Speaker 2: Yes I know the score, I am, I'm me, and
Speaker 2: people said, what do you popeye? I am what I am? No,
Speaker 2: But it was just like what as I am? On me?
Speaker 2: It's just a statement. It doesn't matter what I am.
Speaker 2: I'm a person and I have the right to have
Speaker 2: my feelings and my beliefs and my opinions. And so
Speaker 2: I started using the words to further energize and empower me,
Speaker 2: but at the same time hoping that people out there
Speaker 2: were hearing. People like myself who were background players, were
Speaker 2: listening and going, he's talking to me. I hear this. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: he's right, He's right, And I wanted them to be
Speaker 2: lifted up as well. Well.
Speaker 3: It's interesting because you once told me that, and you
Speaker 3: told us up front on the show that music has
Speaker 3: literally your music specifically has changed people's lives and saved them.
Speaker 3: Can you maybe share one or two of those stories
Speaker 3: that you witnessed.
Speaker 2: This is the only one I need to tell, because
Speaker 2: there's tons of little stories of people who tell me
Speaker 2: that you know, you know that that my music, you know,
Speaker 2: just empowered them and drove them, and always they turned
Speaker 2: to it and lifts them up with my words, you know,
Speaker 2: stay hungry, and we're not going to take it. And
Speaker 2: all these statements that I was making was all we're
Speaker 2: all words of empowerment. I get an email and I
Speaker 2: was to my email address. I don't know how I'm
Speaker 2: an email address. And when I see I don't recognize it.
Speaker 2: I just deleted. But it's said you save seven lives,
Speaker 2: and oh my gosh, when they saved seven lives, what
Speaker 2: is that about? You know, go to press read and
Speaker 2: I got one eye closed, so, like I said, I
Speaker 2: didn't actually totally read it. And it was a guy
Speaker 2: who using my music for inspiration. He was a kayaker
Speaker 2: and kayak deaths happened when the kayak flips over and
Speaker 2: they get stuck in rocks and they drown. Playing my
Speaker 2: Stay Hungry album over and over, he created an air
Speaker 2: bladder life best that gives you air for forty five
Speaker 2: minutes and it just I'm getting chills again. Oh I
Speaker 2: just come out. This is years ago. This is years ago,
Speaker 2: but he said you saved seven lives this year. It
Speaker 2: just came out and people are already And if your album,
Speaker 2: if I hadn't heard your words Stay Hungry and that
Speaker 2: just driving me forward, I wouldn't have stuck with it.
Speaker 2: And I did, and now my inventions reality and it
Speaker 2: is saving lives. So you have seen your music has
Speaker 2: saved lives. How's that?
Speaker 1: That's a pretty amazing story.
Speaker 2: Incredible. You never know who you're touching, who you're reaching.
Speaker 2: The other day, now, the social media I saw I
Speaker 2: saw in Indonesia at a soccer game, hundreds of thousands
Speaker 2: of people singing we're not going to take it in
Speaker 2: some foreign language but waving there, but I'm going, holy crap.
Speaker 2: You know, you don't realize you just can't popular with
Speaker 2: that's art though, whether it's a drawing, whether it's one
Speaker 2: of your shows. You know, I know that you've you've
Speaker 2: done really well in the ratings. You know, you're hoping
Speaker 2: that your message that you're trying to communicate here will
Speaker 2: reach people and help people and lift them up. So
Speaker 2: hopefully you're saving lives to live.
Speaker 3: Oh thanks, Well, you know, ever since I've known you,
Speaker 3: you've you've pretty much been giving back. I feel like
Speaker 3: that's what attracted us to each other to begin with,
Speaker 3: not just that we worked on VH one, but but
Speaker 3: you know, we both wanted to use our platform to
Speaker 3: do good things and to help people, because otherwise it's
Speaker 3: really not worth it. But music specifically is really just
Speaker 3: so special because it's, like you said, it's art, So
Speaker 3: it's beyond just talking heads or saying things. It's it's
Speaker 3: the things that really reach down deep and grab people.
Speaker 3: And what I really want to know, I've been with
Speaker 3: you personally on appearances and seeing how you deal with
Speaker 3: people of all kinds, all walks of life, and you're
Speaker 3: very disarming and you make them feel so comfortable. What
Speaker 3: I want to know, and what I think everyone listening
Speaker 3: might want to know, is how does it make you
Speaker 3: feel when you meet or witness someone who has been
Speaker 3: helped deeply by your music.
Speaker 2: So I don't play anymore. Occasional I'll go do a
Speaker 2: couple of songs, but you know, like the other night
Speaker 2: I played with Red Michael's for a couple of songs.
Speaker 2: It's more fun than anything. But touring recording albums, it's
Speaker 2: not what I do. But I do a lot of
Speaker 2: signing appearances a lot, and people line up and I
Speaker 2: try to get each person on that line. They wait
Speaker 2: sometimes for hours. They're a moment, you know. I was
Speaker 2: trained really well by members of Kiss. I won't name names,
Speaker 2: but I did my first signing with members of Kiss
Speaker 2: and they were so rude to the fans. We were
Speaker 2: sitting at a table together. I just said, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to be that guy. These people waiting and how
Speaker 2: could you not look them in the eye, How do
Speaker 2: you not shake their hand? How can you not take
Speaker 2: a moment to acknowledge how much their passion for you do.
Speaker 2: But on those lines, everybody's got a story, and I'm
Speaker 2: always glad to hear it. And you're tired of hearing this, No,
Speaker 2: I'm never tired of hearing it, never ever, ever. And
Speaker 2: I get people coming up to me in tears, shaking
Speaker 2: because I meant so much to them, the music meant
Speaker 2: so much to them. And a lot of times they
Speaker 2: share with me a story, a memory, something. With the
Speaker 2: younger ones, often it's with their parents now who passed on,
Speaker 2: and they talk about how they shared my music or whatever,
Speaker 2: and that's a lasting memory. So I find that, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm always welcoming to everybody comes up, which it throws
Speaker 2: people off a little bit, and I expect that, I
Speaker 2: don't know that they want to bite their head off.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, yeah, I'm just I'm honored
Speaker 2: and I'm touched. Yes, I was trying to reach them. Yes,
Speaker 2: I wanted them to hear my words, but so many
Speaker 2: people don't hear what I'm saying. They hear the catchphrase.
Speaker 2: And I won't go political, but there are people on
Speaker 2: many people who use where I'm going to take it
Speaker 2: as their battle cry, and not just me. You hear
Speaker 2: so many musicians like rage as a machine killing in
Speaker 2: the name. People like, yeah, you, we won't do what
Speaker 2: you tell us, you know, and they're completely missing the
Speaker 2: point of the song. And so when there are people
Speaker 2: who come up to me and talk to me and
Speaker 2: share with me, and I go, you got it, I
Speaker 2: often hug them and go. I was shouting in the
Speaker 2: screaming in the night, hoping people like you would hear me,
Speaker 2: and you did, and I'm glad it helped. And now
Speaker 2: I'm getting choked up. You wanted that? Who are you?
Speaker 2: Barbara Walters?
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, giving me my Barbara Walter's moment.
Speaker 2: This is why I wear stung glasses. I'm getting too
Speaker 2: emotional in my old age. I love it. Well.
Speaker 3: You were once quoted as saying, there's so much about
Speaker 3: your life that you didn't see coming, referring to all
Speaker 3: the incredible things that you've been able to accomplish in
Speaker 3: your career, you know, both career and personally. But looking
Speaker 3: back on your life now, how much would you say
Speaker 3: music played a role? I know that seems kind of obvious,
Speaker 3: but you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I was my mindset a third a third,
Speaker 2: but it was, but it was really It's not really true,
Speaker 2: it was maybe a third. Like so much more of
Speaker 2: my life came after music. And I'm not talking about you.
Speaker 2: I played until it was my sixties, but a lot
Speaker 2: of it was you know, reunion shows and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: There was that, you know, up until forty where I
Speaker 2: was you know, actively, really really creative musically, and you know,
Speaker 2: so I got so that was a part of my life.
Speaker 2: And then I went into acting in voiceover and radio
Speaker 2: and TV and reality too much reality TV and writing books, screenplays.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be directing next. So I said all
Speaker 2: those things. But it really is all about the music
Speaker 2: because the music is the foundation, the platform that set
Speaker 2: me up, that lifted me up, It liberated me, it
Speaker 2: freed me, It gave me the platform to do these
Speaker 2: other things. Now, minds you, as we all know from
Speaker 2: the great David Lee raw taking over for Howard Stearn story.
Speaker 2: You can't just start doing radio out of nowhere. It's
Speaker 2: a craft. And I've been doing radio for thirty years
Speaker 2: and I've gotten as you know, we've worked together, I've
Speaker 2: gotten good at it. But it has nothing to do
Speaker 2: with me being a rock star. It has to do
Speaker 2: with putting the hours, getting on the mic, listening to
Speaker 2: the life. But I tell people said, you know, what
Speaker 2: do you what are you tell me about? You know,
Speaker 2: you want to be in radio, So you got to
Speaker 2: love this out of your own voice. And they said,
Speaker 2: what do you mean by that? I said, you need
Speaker 2: to listen to air checks endlessly. You got to record
Speaker 2: yourself and listen back and and it's painful, especially in
Speaker 2: the beginning, so you learn how to get better. But anyway,
Speaker 2: all but it all comes down to it all started
Speaker 2: with music. It's still will whaterever be a part of
Speaker 2: my life. I got a great T shirt this is
Speaker 2: Death by Rock and Roll on it and which is
Speaker 2: a good way to go. And you know, but yeah,
Speaker 2: without it I would have and being nothing.
Speaker 3: You know, it can be very personal too. I mean
Speaker 3: when you when you put out new albums, and music
Speaker 3: to be judged by the world. When was the moment
Speaker 3: that you realized, Okay, we're really onto something musically in
Speaker 3: terms of creating you know that positive emotional feedback with
Speaker 3: your songs and from your audiences. Why do you think
Speaker 3: your music still resonates to this day. Is it because
Speaker 3: it's anthemic or is it because of the words? Is
Speaker 3: it the melody? I mean, there's something magical in there
Speaker 3: that keeps something alive for that many years.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'll start by saying, one of the reasons
Speaker 2: I stopped writing is because after you've written and had
Speaker 2: it received, play it on the radio, listen to lauded
Speaker 2: and enjoyed. I you know, it's very hard. It's hard
Speaker 2: for me just go back to writing for my own
Speaker 2: head and writing. And I wrote and wrote and wrote,
Speaker 2: and virtually none of that music landed with anybody.
Speaker 1: Was that there and.
Speaker 2: What to write and write and write? Or no, it wasn't.
Speaker 2: It was painful because once you know you in the beginning,
Speaker 2: once you've had your children and your songs like your children,
Speaker 2: and you've been out there and people are just enjoying them.
Speaker 2: Very hard to go back to writing in a in
Speaker 2: a in a void and just playing it for yourself
Speaker 2: and not really having anybody hear it. And when you say,
Speaker 2: these songs are just as good as the stuff better wrote,
Speaker 2: I knew at one point that was death broto I
Speaker 2: wrote some of the best music of my life. The
Speaker 2: stuff virtually never came out until like twenty years later.
Speaker 2: It was just sort of a it got shelved by lecture.
Speaker 2: It's another story. But I got tired of writing stuff
Speaker 2: that wasn't getting heard after because I experienced how amazing
Speaker 2: it feels to see I call it smiles at the
Speaker 2: speed of sound we played. We would play these festivals.
Speaker 2: I play these festivals thirty fifty ninety one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: people and when you go into the songs, when you
Speaker 2: go into we're not gonna take it and prove, But
Speaker 2: I see it from the stage, it's a it's a
Speaker 2: smiles that start the front row, the first people receiving
Speaker 2: the audio audio information, and it goes all the way
Speaker 2: to the back. I could see it, and then the
Speaker 2: hands and the body language, and it is such an
Speaker 2: incredible feeling to know you're connecting with people on that
Speaker 2: level those moments. But it it's a drug. It's very
Speaker 2: hard because you know later in your career and every
Speaker 2: single rock star talks about this. You know, I call
Speaker 2: new Materialists the bathroom song because I don't care what
Speaker 2: urinary problems you have. The minute the lead singer if
Speaker 2: any band says her Ring's off the new album, you
Speaker 2: can see people running for the bathroom. Okay, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: I mean it's said. I tell the audience, I say,
Speaker 2: I see you, I see you that I saw I
Speaker 2: saw Zeppelin. More Physical Graffiti came out and that is
Speaker 2: his greag Garden and they said this one's off the
Speaker 2: new albums called Physical Graffiti. They started playing Physical Graffiti,
Speaker 2: not because they played Kashmir. This is Kashmere. Half the
Speaker 2: arena went to the bathroom or to get a beer
Speaker 2: because nobody knew the song. Nobody and it sounded like
Speaker 2: crapping mad Square Garden. But I'm going, oh my god.
Speaker 2: So so you know, it's hurtful as a career an
Speaker 2: artist to see your music not being respected. So that's
Speaker 2: why I I walked away from it. That's why I
Speaker 2: walked away for it. As far as your question about
Speaker 2: you know when it all comes together, well, first of all,
Speaker 2: Twisted it was together I was with them for eight years.
Speaker 2: They were together two years before I got there. I
Speaker 2: was the only songwriter we you know, I say, with
Speaker 2: the Tupac Shakur of retired metal bands, because a JJ
Speaker 2: French keeps finding new tapes to release. And I listened
Speaker 2: to these early songs and my god, I'm embarrassed. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, No wonder we didn't get signed. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: those songs are terrible. You know, as I said with
Speaker 2: radio writing, songwriting is a craft. You have to get
Speaker 2: good at it. So by the time we got the eighties,
Speaker 2: and that's right around when we got signed, I started
Speaker 2: hitting my stride as a songwriter, really understanding the craft
Speaker 2: of writing a song. And it is, you know, it
Speaker 2: is melody meets meets the music, that meets the lyrics,
Speaker 2: meets the production. It's all those pieces that you've studied
Speaker 2: and learned how to achieve, all coming together. And it
Speaker 2: was that understanding that, you know, put us over the goldpost.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you that that moment where I knew
Speaker 2: we arrived. Okay, yes, so we were all we in England.
Speaker 2: We just released the album. But back in the old days,
Speaker 2: when you were a child, you would know about this.
Speaker 2: It took in America, it took like eight weeks, seven
Speaker 2: eight weeks for the record to get out to the stores,
Speaker 2: get out to the radio stations, sach, get out there,
Speaker 2: you know. So we went to Europe immediately upon release
Speaker 2: of the record because over there the countries are like states,
Speaker 2: and you can go to England and you know, the
Speaker 2: information has been received, play shows, and we're hearing that
Speaker 2: in the States. We're not gonna take it as doing well.
Speaker 2: We're hearing about a lot of ads going on and
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. But it's all internet and nothing like that.
Speaker 2: We're just hearing it's doing great, it's doing great. Come
Speaker 2: home and and Susette and I walk in. We had
Speaker 2: a pretty big tour in England with big stars. Floated
Speaker 2: into the house as I always do, and I am
Speaker 2: a god. And Susan goes, yeah, empty the diaper pail.
Speaker 2: It smells horrible, okay, And I go empty the back.
Speaker 2: He goes, Now you go up to the dairy barne
Speaker 2: and get some milk. Okay. So you know what I
Speaker 2: thought it was? It was a rock star too. Two
Speaker 2: hours ago. Now I'm ana bother again. So anyway, which
Speaker 2: I love being a father again in the car, Ryan
Speaker 2: is turn the radio. We're not gonna take its playing
Speaker 2: W B A B No. I wonder what's playing on?
Speaker 2: What was it on the other station? Came w L
Speaker 2: I R boom. Hit the button, We're not gonna take
Speaker 2: its playing. I said, all right, I'm going with the
Speaker 2: TRITECHTA the other rock station in town w P L
Speaker 2: J boom where I could take its playing. Every station
Speaker 2: was playing where I could take it. I'm going, all right,
Speaker 2: this is happening. When that happens, I've never had that
Speaker 2: happen on the radio ever, you know, with anybody's music.
Speaker 2: You know you've arrived. You know that was the moment.
Speaker 3: Yes, And I want to ask you more, but I'm
Speaker 3: running out of time, unfortunately. But maybe you can tell
Speaker 3: the story about how Lenny brought to you on stage
Speaker 3: and they were throwing bottles. Let me and that's a
Speaker 3: pretty emotional story, which I remember when you told me,
Speaker 3: and when I was reading your autobiographies that you made
Speaker 3: me read sitting next to you on a plane.
Speaker 1: So I could ask you questions.
Speaker 2: Such a deep thing to do, I would stop talking
Speaker 2: to her.
Speaker 1: Listen read this first before we talk.
Speaker 3: I had read recently that the Israeli Defense Force asked
Speaker 3: you if they could use we're not going to take
Speaker 3: it as their battlecry to fight these terrorists. And I
Speaker 3: thought to myself, that must just blow your mind.
Speaker 1: A and B.
Speaker 3: You're kind of like a superhero. And I bring this
Speaker 3: up only because you have a new graphic novel that
Speaker 3: you just recently released and you're the superhero on front.
Speaker 3: He's not going to take it. And I just wanted
Speaker 3: to ask what that was all about. Is this your
Speaker 3: true self finally getting to come out and be the
Speaker 3: comic book hero.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a comic book I was always a comic
Speaker 2: book kid. I loved comics. One of the things I
Speaker 2: picked up when we didn't have TV in our house
Speaker 2: reading comics. And yeah, nothing better than seeing yourself represented
Speaker 2: as a superhero. And people, if you read, he's not
Speaker 2: going to take it. No, I don't have a cape
Speaker 2: or anything, but they just the perception of that's put
Speaker 2: forth of me going to Washington is that I was heroic.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you, looking back on it, I go,
Speaker 2: I can't believe that I was able to walk with
Speaker 2: pants that tight and balls that big, Okay, because I
Speaker 2: mean I look as a wall. My god, I just like,
Speaker 2: holy crap. I could do it again, for sure. But Wow,
Speaker 2: to be twenty something and be that confident in your
Speaker 2: belief system to go and sit down and stand before
Speaker 2: those senators and what have you and speak your mind
Speaker 2: and debate them and argue with them. Pretty proud of that,
Speaker 2: And I'm proud that people view it as a heroic moment.
Speaker 2: I don't view myself as a superhero. I do have
Speaker 2: a cape at home, but I never wear it on
Speaker 2: the street. And I just when I hear I heard
Speaker 2: that that were Ukrainian soldiers were using we're we're playing
Speaker 2: We're not gonna take it. Israeli soldiers were playing where
Speaker 2: I could take it our own military, United States military,
Speaker 2: We're not going to take it. It lifts them up
Speaker 2: and helps them do a dirty job, and it's a
Speaker 2: dirty job, defending the world's tough job. Then I am
Speaker 2: more than honored because the military goes it is due
Speaker 2: to the volunteer army that we have that I was
Speaker 2: allowed to explore all of my dreams. I didn't have
Speaker 2: to serve in the military, thanks to my dad and
Speaker 2: all the great soldiers who in the volunteer Army and
Speaker 2: I'm allowed. I was allowed to just be in a
Speaker 2: crazy rock and roll band and be create. So if
Speaker 2: something I created because they allowed me to create, that
Speaker 2: lifts them up and inspires them, It's full circle as
Speaker 2: far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 1: Sure is. And it's so powerful.
Speaker 3: And I'm so happy for you that you've been able
Speaker 3: to make such a fruitful, an amazing career, not only
Speaker 3: for yourself and your family, but how much you have
Speaker 3: touched the lives of just generations of people and you're
Speaker 3: helping countries. Your legacy. The last thought is you know
Speaker 3: your musical legacy. How proud are you of that?
Speaker 2: Look, my manager always says, you only have two hits,
Speaker 2: make him doozies, and that's Fill Carson, you know Phil, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and because he works with somebody with Foreigner and you
Speaker 2: know he signed Abbah and Genesis, and yes, guy's responsible
Speaker 2: for about three hundred and seventy five million records sold
Speaker 2: ac DC. But my two big songs are some of
Speaker 2: the most licensed songs of the eighties. They're sort of
Speaker 2: that we will rock you and we're the champions of
Speaker 2: the eighties as far as licensing goes, which is crazy.
Speaker 2: And then you know, I told you that. Just saw
Speaker 2: a thing of in Eurasia at a football game, one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand people singing, we're not going to take it.
Speaker 2: Never expected the music to reach that far. And you know,
Speaker 2: and if I leave a single song behind and it's
Speaker 2: become a folks song already, and wherever you go, the
Speaker 2: whole world knows a song, then I don't even know
Speaker 2: who wrote it anymore, many of them. And that's okay.
Speaker 2: It's a you know, if that I leave that legacy
Speaker 2: and a song that inspires people and empowers people to
Speaker 2: push back, you know, and sometimes you got to push back,
Speaker 2: no matter we have, everybody has to push back sometimes.
Speaker 2: If that one song is you know, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: this is maybe maybe a'll right down on my tombstone.
Speaker 2: He didn't take it.
Speaker 1: Well, he did not take it.
Speaker 2: He didn't well, eventually he died.
Speaker 1: But if you're standing over that grave, apparently he took
Speaker 1: it one left time.
Speaker 2: You can't beat that. No one's beat that yet. Let
Speaker 2: me know when they do.
Speaker 3: I'm well, oh my gosh, I hope that day never happens.
Speaker 3: It's just such a pleasure to know you and call
Speaker 3: you a friend, and I'm so grateful that you would
Speaker 3: come on and do this for me today and share
Speaker 3: all of your personal emotions.
Speaker 1: I almost brought you to tears.
Speaker 2: Oh well, that's why I wear the glasses, see see you know,
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, it's emotional. You know what, feelings mutual
Speaker 2: like a sister to me. And you know, one regret
Speaker 2: is that you know our past. You know, I live
Speaker 2: in la You got you and your husband in Connecticut,
Speaker 2: you know, And it's tough to see your friends. But
Speaker 2: it's always whenever we get in the air, we just
Speaker 2: it's like we've never met. We don't miss a beat.
Speaker 1: No, we don't.
Speaker 3: And one time you told me I was too nice,
Speaker 3: and I'm a little less nice now, so maybe something
Speaker 3: will happen.
Speaker 2: That's an old time story for another show. People me
Speaker 2: and Lynn talking about doing a show together, and that's
Speaker 2: what they said to her, is is it's too nice.
Speaker 1: I guess I'll tell you. I can't complain. I can't
Speaker 1: complain here.
Speaker 2: Someone like me, somebody like me doing radio me. You
Speaker 2: have to push back, that's right, you can't. You can't
Speaker 2: be because I'm so like you know, like like that.
Speaker 2: You gotta be able to say, hey, I disagree with
Speaker 2: you on that. No, you know what, just be like
Speaker 2: my wife. You have to be like my wife. You
Speaker 2: got to. You gotta be able to say no.
Speaker 1: Does she get a word in ever?
Speaker 2: Oh god, I don't say just a word in my
Speaker 2: quiet in the house. I don't talk virtually at all.
Speaker 2: You would think I'm I'm a quiet one. Everybody'll let
Speaker 2: everybody else shine in the house. Just a little side
Speaker 2: on my book Frats. By the way, my novel Frats
Speaker 2: is out now available in stories. Is going to be
Speaker 2: made into a major motion picture. I just found out.
Speaker 2: I can't tell any more about that. But my favorite
Speaker 2: review so far was Susette. She read it, She comes
Speaker 2: and sort of we're just sort of there. She goes,
Speaker 2: the book's really good.
Speaker 1: I was like, why, it's like she's mad about it?
Speaker 2: By right, just the book book, it's really good. I'm like,
Speaker 2: you liked it, She goes, don't make me blow more
Speaker 2: smoke of your butt than I've been doing for the
Speaker 2: last forty seven years. Yes, I like it. It's great.
Speaker 2: She's the tough, toughest critic of all.
Speaker 3: Listen, I don't mess with a woman who will get
Speaker 3: on her own house's roof to clean it.
Speaker 1: By yourself.
Speaker 3: D thank you so much for being on music save
Speaker 3: to me. I wish we had another day and a
Speaker 3: half because I still have so much to talk to
Speaker 3: you about.
Speaker 1: But maybe you'll come back again soon.
Speaker 2: Well you know a guy.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 2: You can just say come back on the show when
Speaker 2: you're ready and we'll do it all right, all right,
Speaker 2: thanks so much, right awesome