Speaker 1: Music saved me.
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'm
Speaker 2: going to know I think it may have been. I
Speaker 2: think that may have been the starting gun of like
Speaker 2: I 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 actor.
Speaker 3: I put that in there, but secretly, even though he
Speaker 3: probably doesn't want me to mention it. He's also one
Speaker 3: of the kindest and most giving guys I know, with
Speaker 3: an equally incredible family. D Snyder is best known as
Speaker 3: the badass front man of the incredible eighties rock band
Speaker 3: Twisted Sister, and he also happens to be a dear
Speaker 3: old friend Dee Snider.
Speaker 1: Welcome to music saved me.
Speaker 2: Wen. Great to be here, and thank you for all
Speaker 2: those kind accolades. It's much appreciated. And yeah, I love
Speaker 2: 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, just people talking
Speaker 2: about it made me want to be a Beetle, which
Speaker 2: turned out you couldn't be that, so I had to
Speaker 2: be a rock star. But as I started there was
Speaker 2: an elementary school at that point. But as I started
Speaker 2: 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 funk 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 be 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 and
Speaker 3: say the right thing. Was there a moment in your
Speaker 3: childhood when you just decided you weren't going to shut
Speaker 3: up anymore?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, that's a 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 songs,
Speaker 2: because when you're talking it's entertaining and it's funny. But
Speaker 2: I really was, you know. I got tired at round
Speaker 2: 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 when I say
Speaker 2: what interestingly so here? I am, you know listening to
Speaker 2: bands I mentioned, I listened to all the bands, and
Speaker 2: but they're not it's the power of the music that
Speaker 2: is inspiring me. Then I start finding bands like Alice
Speaker 2: who have messages that are inspiring me. The song I'm
Speaker 2: eighteen was out when I was eighteen, and it was
Speaker 2: I'm getting chills right now because it was a line
Speaker 2: in there I'm a boy and I'm a man, and
Speaker 2: it was like it was like you're in the cusp
Speaker 2: of being an adult, but you're still treated like a child.
Speaker 2: And this was one of the first times that the
Speaker 2: lyrics and Alice was all about anthem. Schools Out, you know,
Speaker 2: all these great anthems. I graduated when Schools Out came out.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm getting chills, you know, like, have that
Speaker 2: song come out when I'm getting out of high school.
Speaker 2: I mean the words now were connecting with me and
Speaker 2: made me as I wasn't a songwriter yet, but when
Speaker 2: I became a songwriter, I said, I don't want to
Speaker 2: sit there singing about you know, heavy metal fantasies or
Speaker 2: sex and drugs and rock and roll. Well rock and roll, sure,
Speaker 2: but sex and drugs. I want to say more. I
Speaker 2: want to inspire people, but at the same time, I'm
Speaker 2: inspiring myself. Our first hit in England a song called
Speaker 2: I Am I'm Me, and it was literally my personal
Speaker 2: declaration of independence. Who are you to look down at
Speaker 2: what I believe? I'm onto? I'm onto your thinking and
Speaker 2: how you deceive. No, you can't abuse me. I won't
Speaker 2: stand no more. Yes, I know the reason yes, I
Speaker 2: know the score. I am I'm me, and people said,
Speaker 2: what do you pop eye? I am what? I am? No,
Speaker 2: But it was just like what aus I am a 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, this, 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've
Speaker 3: told us up front on the show that me Uasac
Speaker 3: has literally your music specifically has changed people's lives and
Speaker 3: saved them. Can you maybe share one or two of
Speaker 3: those stories 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 my gosh, they saved seven lives. What is that about?
Speaker 2: You know, going to press read and I got one
Speaker 2: eye closed, so, like I said, I didn't actually totally
Speaker 2: read it. And it was a guy who using my
Speaker 2: music for inspiration. He was a kayaker and kayak deaths
Speaker 2: happened when the kayak flips over and they get stuck
Speaker 2: in rocks and they drown. Playing my Stay Hungry album
Speaker 2: over and over, he created an air bladder Life Best
Speaker 2: that gives you air for forty five minutes and it
Speaker 2: just I'm getting chills again. Oh my just come out.
Speaker 2: This is years ago, This is years ago, but he
Speaker 2: said you saved seven lives. This year. It just came
Speaker 2: out and people are already And if your album, if
Speaker 2: I hadn't heard your words stay hungry, and we're just
Speaker 2: driving me forward. I wouldn't have stuck with it, and
Speaker 2: I did. And now my invention's reality and it is
Speaker 2: saving lives. So you have seen your music has saved lives.
Speaker 2: 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 us talking heads or saying things. It's
Speaker 3: it's 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 with you know, like the other night
Speaker 2: I played with Ret 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 who comes up, which it
Speaker 2: throws people off a little bit, and I expect, 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,
Speaker 2: Yes I wanted them to hear my words. But so
Speaker 2: many 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 are going to take it
Speaker 2: as their battle cry? And not just me. You hear
Speaker 2: so many musicians like rage as machine killing in the name,
Speaker 2: people like, yeah, you, we won't do what you tell us,
Speaker 2: you know, and they're completely missing the point of the song.
Speaker 2: And so when there are people who come up to
Speaker 2: me and talk to me and share with me, and
Speaker 2: I go, you got it, I often hug them and go.
Speaker 2: I was shouting in the screaming in the night, hoping
Speaker 2: people like you would hear me. And you did, And
Speaker 2: I'm glad I know. And now I'm getting choked up.
Speaker 2: You wanted that, Oh you, Barbara Walters.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, give me my Ba Walter's moment.
Speaker 2: This is why I wear the stung glasses. I'm getting
Speaker 2: too emotional in my old age. I love it.
Speaker 1: 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 over 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, he said, you know, what,
Speaker 2: what are you tell me about? You know, you want
Speaker 2: to be in radio. So you got to love the
Speaker 2: sound of your own voice. And they said, what do
Speaker 2: you mean by that? I said, you need to listen
Speaker 2: to air checks endlessly. You got to record yourself and
Speaker 2: listen back and and it's painful, especially in the beginning,
Speaker 2: so you learn how to get better. But anyway, all
Speaker 2: but it all comes down to it all started with music.
Speaker 2: It's still will wherever be a part of my life.
Speaker 2: I got a great T shirt this is Death by
Speaker 2: Rock and Roll on it and which is a good
Speaker 2: way to go. And you know, but yeah, without it
Speaker 2: I would have and being nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, it can be very personal too.
Speaker 3: I mean when you when you put out new albums
Speaker 3: and music to be judged by the world. When was
Speaker 3: the moment that you realized, Okay, we're really onto something
Speaker 3: musically in terms of creating you know that positive emotional
Speaker 3: feedback with your songs and from your audiences. Why do
Speaker 3: you think your music still resonates to this day. Is
Speaker 3: it because it's anthemic or is it because of the words?
Speaker 1: Is it the melody?
Speaker 3: I mean, there's something magical in there that keeps something
Speaker 3: 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, played on the radio, listen to, lauded and enjoyed.
Speaker 2: I you know, it's very hard. It's hard for me
Speaker 2: just go back to writing for my own head and writing.
Speaker 2: And I wrote and wrote and wrote, and virtually none
Speaker 2: 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: That was painful because once you know, 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 as good as the stuff
Speaker 2: better I write, I knew at one point that was
Speaker 2: death Broughto. I wrote some of the best music of
Speaker 2: my life. The stuff virtually never came out until like
Speaker 2: twenty years later. It was just sort of a it
Speaker 2: got shelved by lecture. It's another story. But I got
Speaker 2: tired of writing stuff that wasn't getting heard after because
Speaker 2: I experienced how amazing it feels and to see I
Speaker 2: call it smiles at the speed of sound we played.
Speaker 2: We would play these festivals. I play these festivals thirty
Speaker 2: fifty ninety one hundred thousand people and when you go
Speaker 2: into the songs, when you go into we're not gonna
Speaker 2: take it and prove, but I see it from the stage,
Speaker 2: it's a it's a smiles that start the front row,
Speaker 2: the first people receiving the audio audio information, and it
Speaker 2: goes all the way to the back. I could see it,
Speaker 2: and then the hands and the body language, and it
Speaker 2: is such an incredible feeling to know you're connecting with
Speaker 2: people on that level. Those moments but it's it's a drug.
Speaker 2: It's very hard because you know later in your career
Speaker 2: and every single rock star talks about this. You know,
Speaker 2: I call new Materialists the bathroom song because I don't
Speaker 2: care what urinary problems you have. The minute the lead
Speaker 2: singer of any band says her ring's off the new album,
Speaker 2: you 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 physically, they played Kashmir. This is Kashmir. 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 that Square Garden too. 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, were
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 were 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 when we got signed, I started hitting
Speaker 2: my stride as a songwriter, really understanding the craft of
Speaker 2: writing a song. And it is, you know, it is
Speaker 2: melody meets meets the music, bed meets the lyrics meets
Speaker 2: the production. It's all those peas that you've studied and
Speaker 2: learned how to achieve, all coming together. And it was
Speaker 2: not 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, nothing like that.
Speaker 2: We're just hearing it's doing great. It's doing great. Come
Speaker 2: home and and Susanne and I walk in. We had
Speaker 2: a pretty big tour in England with big stars. Float
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 gonna bother again. So anyway, which
Speaker 2: I love being a father again. In the car, Ryan
Speaker 2: is turnal 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? Carame w L
Speaker 2: I R Boom. Hit the button where I gonna take
Speaker 2: its playing? I said, all right, I'm going with the
Speaker 2: TRITTECHTA 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 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 so
Speaker 3: I could ask you questions, such a deep thing to do.
Speaker 2: I would stop talking to us.
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 love 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
Speaker 2: just like, holy crap. I could do it again, for sure.
Speaker 2: But Wow, to be twenty something and be that confident
Speaker 2: in your belief system to go and sit down and
Speaker 2: stand before those senators and what have you and speak
Speaker 2: your mind and debate that and argue with them. Pretty
Speaker 2: proud of that. And I'm proud that people view it
Speaker 2: as a heroic moment. I don't view myself as a superhero.
Speaker 2: I do have a cape at home, but I never
Speaker 2: wear it on the street. And I just when I
Speaker 2: hear I heard that that were Ukrainian soldiers were using,
Speaker 2: We're not we're playing, We're not gonna take it. Israeli
Speaker 2: soldiers were playing where I could take it our own military,
Speaker 2: United States military, We're not gonna take it. It lifts
Speaker 2: them up and helps them do a dirty job, and
Speaker 2: it's a dirty job, defending the world's tough job. Then
Speaker 2: I am more than honored because as the military goes,
Speaker 2: it is due to the volunteer army that we have
Speaker 2: that I was allowed to explore all of my dreams.
Speaker 2: I didn't have to serve in the military, thanks to
Speaker 2: my dad and all the great soldiers who in the
Speaker 2: volunteer Army, and I'm allowed. I was allowed to just
Speaker 2: be in a crazy rock and roll band and be creative.
Speaker 2: Of so if something I created because they allowed me
Speaker 2: to create, that lifts them up and inspires them, it's
Speaker 2: full circle as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 1: It 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 them doozies, and that's Fill Courson, 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 wherever you go, the whole
Speaker 2: world knows a song, then I don't even know who
Speaker 2: wrote it anymore, many of them. And that's okay. It's
Speaker 2: you know, if that I leave that legacy and a
Speaker 2: song that that inspires people and empowers people to push back,
Speaker 2: you know, and sometimes you got to push back, no
Speaker 2: matter we have, everybody has to push back. Sometimes. If
Speaker 2: that one song is you know, you know, maybe this
Speaker 2: is maybe maybe I'll write down on my tombstone. He
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 3: Standing over that grave, apparently he took it one left time.
Speaker 2: Like you can't beat that. No one's beat that yet.
Speaker 2: Let 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 wear the glasses, see see you know,
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, it's emotional. Uh you know what feeling's
Speaker 2: mutual like a sister to me. And you know, one
Speaker 2: regret is that you know our past. You know, I
Speaker 2: live 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 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: one of the said to her, is is it's too nice?
Speaker 1: I guess I'll tell you that I can't complain. I
Speaker 1: can't 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 3: Does she get a word in ever? Oh god, I
Speaker 3: don't say just a word in. I'm quiet in the house.
Speaker 3: 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 are going to be
Speaker 2: made into a major motion picture. I just found out.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you more about that. But my favorite
Speaker 2: review so far was Suzette. 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. I was like, why she's it's
Speaker 2: like she's mad about it. By right, the book book,
Speaker 2: it's really good. I'm like, you liked it, she goes,
Speaker 2: don't make me blow more smoke of your butt than
Speaker 2: I've been doing for the last forty seven years. Yes,
Speaker 2: I like it. It's great. She's the tough toughest critic
Speaker 2: 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 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. Thanks. You can just say
Speaker 2: come back on the show when you're ready and we'll
Speaker 2: do it all right, all right, thanks so much, right
Speaker 2: awesome