1 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,320 Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob left Seth Podcast. 2 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:16,799 Speaker 1: My guest today is feed Way Bill of two Fee. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,440 Speaker 1: Good to have you here, Bob, thank you for having me. 4 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 1: I appreciate it. That's great. Okay, let's start right from 5 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,479 Speaker 1: the beginning. In your everyday life, are you Fee or 6 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: are you John? Well, it depends on who you're talking to. 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: I guess my wife calls me Fee, Elizabeth, and everybody 8 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: in my family calls me Fee, but then uh. I 9 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,319 Speaker 1: at the tennis club they tell me Fee. But at 10 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: the polo club, I played polo and uh. When I 11 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: first started playing polo, I tried to disguise the fact 12 00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: that I was some rock guy, and I told him 13 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: my name was John, so they all call me John. Okay. 14 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: Polo is known as the sport of kings. How does 15 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:02,680 Speaker 1: a row star end up playing polo? Well? I was 16 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: raised on a horse. My brother and I have been 17 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,680 Speaker 1: horsemen our whole lives. My dad was a riding instructor 18 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:13,640 Speaker 1: and a horse show judge. So we grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, 19 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,959 Speaker 1: and we're on a horse from the time I was 20 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:20,560 Speaker 1: about five years old until I bailed out at eighteen 21 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,199 Speaker 1: I was on a horse, and uh, and my brother. 22 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 1: I moved to California and obviously got into music, and 23 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:33,640 Speaker 1: my brother stayed and he still lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, 24 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:37,119 Speaker 1: and he would always and he has horses, and he 25 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: was the one that I mean, he's done everything. He's 26 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: done roping and herding and every kind of discipline on 27 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:46,840 Speaker 1: a horse. And he would always ask people, well, how 28 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: come you don't get a horse, And I said, you know, well, 29 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: I live in San Francisco. Okay, there's not a lot 30 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:57,080 Speaker 1: of horses around here. And and then he he uh. 31 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: He got into polo in Scottsdale, and he was, Okay, 32 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: now I found something that really is fun and really great. 33 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: And and by that time I had moved to l 34 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:09,680 Speaker 1: A and there's you know, he says, you gotta try this. 35 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,000 Speaker 1: You gotta get back on the horse and try this. 36 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 1: You're gonna love it. And so I said, okay, I did. 37 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 1: And I went to the California Polo Club and they said, uh, 38 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:21,959 Speaker 1: I said, I want to learn. It's an arena club. 39 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: It's arena is like arena football. It's a smaller version 40 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: of outdoor polo. And they said, okay. First lessons free 41 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:34,920 Speaker 1: and uh and I said okay, and I just immediately 42 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved to be back on a 43 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: horse again. And so I've been playing for twenty years. Okay, 44 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: So how extensive is the polo scene in southern California. Well, 45 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 1: it's not. I mean, there's there's the Santa Barbara Polo Club, 46 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,640 Speaker 1: which is pretty high end, and we have an arena 47 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: club here in in in l A. And there's also 48 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 1: the Will Rogers Polo Club in l A. And then 49 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 1: in California, there's one in San Diego, there's one in uh, 50 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: Orange County, there's one on San Louis Obispo. There's one 51 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 1: in Temecula. Yeah, there's a bunch of them. There's a 52 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: bunch of clubs all around this and they and in 53 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: the winter in out in the desert in Indio. That's 54 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: big time polo. They have people come from all over 55 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: the USA to play polo out there. How good a 56 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:23,720 Speaker 1: polo player are you and how often do you play? 57 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: I play usually? Well, right now, my horses are out 58 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: at pasture. You have to let them rest. And actually 59 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: next Monday I'm going up to get them and bring 60 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:36,000 Speaker 1: them back to the club and then I'll play through 61 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: the spring and summer. I'm a one or a two. 62 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: They they handicap you from minus to to ten being best. 63 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: And so I started as a minus two and I 64 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: got better and they raised me to minus one and 65 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: then zero and then one and then too. And so i'm, 66 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm just a recreational player. I'm you know, 67 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: I ah. I really try to protect myself and protect 68 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: my horses and never never get to, you know, to 69 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: ultra competitive, you know, where I'm going to hurt myself 70 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,200 Speaker 1: or or or injuring one of my horses. So how 71 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,040 Speaker 1: often do you play? I play? Uh, usually I play 72 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday morning, and then sometimes I play Thursday 73 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,840 Speaker 1: night under the lights, So two to three times a week. 74 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:29,000 Speaker 1: And how many people in arena polo as opposed to 75 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,920 Speaker 1: regular polo. Regular polo is four on the four, four 76 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: on four. Arena polo is three on three. And how 77 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: dangerous is it? Really? Has certainly seen a number of 78 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:41,880 Speaker 1: polo matches and it looks dangerous for those who are 79 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:45,880 Speaker 1: not horse savvic. Yeah, it's dangerous. And you know, my 80 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: wife keeps My wife is really you know, if she 81 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: really worries about me, and I mean people die. You know, 82 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,159 Speaker 1: if you're riding down the field full blast on a 83 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: horse and it stumbles and you hit the deck, you 84 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: could break your neck really easily and die. But in 85 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:08,279 Speaker 1: arena polo you don't ever really it's only a hundred 86 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:10,960 Speaker 1: yards by fifty yards, so you don't really get to 87 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 1: full speed in that shorter distance and it's not as dangerous. 88 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:18,559 Speaker 1: But people fall off and they you know, they break 89 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 1: their leg and break their elbow and break their wrist. 90 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:26,280 Speaker 1: And I've I've had a couple of injuries, but nothing serious, 91 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,679 Speaker 1: you know, just I like cracked a rib once, but 92 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: you know, nothing, nothing too serious. And we play with girls, right, 93 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:38,359 Speaker 1: and so it's a co ed sport and nobody wants 94 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:41,679 Speaker 1: to slam the girls into the wall. It's our club 95 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: is very recreational. Nobody is trying to you know, win 96 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:49,919 Speaker 1: money or trophies or anything like that. It's just fun. 97 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:52,760 Speaker 1: We just have fun. What's the key to being a 98 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 1: great polo player? Number One? You can't think about writing. 99 00:05:57,520 --> 00:05:59,360 Speaker 1: You have to be a good writer. You can't think 100 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 1: about following off the horse and you have to uh, 101 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,000 Speaker 1: you know, it's just hand to eye, you know, I 102 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,919 Speaker 1: played baseball my whole life, and and a ball a 103 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,559 Speaker 1: polo balls about the size of the softball. It's about 104 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: that big around arena ball, and you know, you have 105 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: a mallet and you hit the ball, and you know 106 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:21,920 Speaker 1: there's a lot of rules and you just have to 107 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:26,800 Speaker 1: you have to. You have to be aware, be aware 108 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: of the horse and the arena and all the other people, 109 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:32,919 Speaker 1: and it's just and then be able to hit the ball. 110 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:35,599 Speaker 1: You know, I never had a problem hitting the ball, 111 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: so and once I learned to ride again, you know, 112 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,440 Speaker 1: it's it's easy, it's fun. So you're saying, an arena 113 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:46,160 Speaker 1: ball as opposed to four or four is a different 114 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,160 Speaker 1: size ball. The arena ball is about the size of 115 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:55,240 Speaker 1: the softball. It's like a soccer ball inflated leather and 116 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:58,599 Speaker 1: in an outdoor ball is about the size of the baseball. 117 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:04,640 Speaker 1: And it's solid plastic, really hard, solid plastic. So yeah, 118 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:09,239 Speaker 1: at the ArenaBall, you can use the wall to bounce 119 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:14,360 Speaker 1: it off the wall. It's it's more it's it's it bounces. 120 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:19,720 Speaker 1: You know. Historically polo is seen as expensive. Is it expensive? Well, 121 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,320 Speaker 1: it depends on what level of polo you play. If 122 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: you're if you're going to India or for your going. 123 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: I mean, polo is a big time in Florida. And 124 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: if you travel to Florida and if you have you know, 125 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 1: if you have really expensive horses, it can be really expensive. 126 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:41,640 Speaker 1: But but then again it can be recently inexpensive. You know, 127 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: my horses. I think the most expensive horse I I had, 128 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,640 Speaker 1: I bought ever bought, was like five thousand dollars. And 129 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:53,239 Speaker 1: but people pay a hundred thousand dollars for a polo horse. 130 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: It's just all depends on how high a level you 131 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: want to play and how much does it cost to 132 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: keep a horse for a year for a well, the 133 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,800 Speaker 1: board at my club is seven and fifty dollars a 134 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 1: month per horse, and that includes feed and lodging, and 135 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:15,000 Speaker 1: that also includes a groom to tack up your horse 136 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:19,320 Speaker 1: and to wash your horse and basically exercise your horse. 137 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:23,600 Speaker 1: They exercise six days a week to stay you know, 138 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: they they're athletic and so it's not that expensive. Our club, 139 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 1: we have a great club, California Polo Club is a 140 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,520 Speaker 1: great club and it's not that expensive to play. People 141 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: can start and you know, you can take a lesson 142 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: for like hundred bucks. You can take a lesson and 143 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: and learn to play. And then of course then you 144 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: have to get a horse, and you have to get 145 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:46,640 Speaker 1: a saddle, and you have to get a bridle, and 146 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:48,800 Speaker 1: you have to pay the board, and you have you know, 147 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:52,000 Speaker 1: it adds up. So since you know this so so 148 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:55,640 Speaker 1: much about horses, what is going on with all the 149 00:08:55,679 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: horses dying and horse racing, especially in southern California. I know, 150 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:04,600 Speaker 1: I know it's terrible. Well, no one really knows. I've 151 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:09,079 Speaker 1: read a lot about it. Uh, and some people say 152 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:14,199 Speaker 1: it's a bad track. Uh you know, Uh sometimes they 153 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:18,920 Speaker 1: use artificial uh instead of just a dirt track. It's 154 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 1: it's some kind of artificial composite. And people say that's bad. 155 00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:28,360 Speaker 1: But uh, the ones in Santa Anita where the horses, 156 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: so many horses died, Uh, they don't know. I mean, 157 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:38,559 Speaker 1: horse racing is a bad sport. You know. People spend 158 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: millions of dollars on race horses and then when they 159 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:46,920 Speaker 1: don't win, they tell their trainer, you know, I spent 160 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: a million dollars on this horse. It needs to win. 161 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 1: Do whatever the hell you have to do to get 162 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 1: it to win. So what do they do? They give 163 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:57,960 Speaker 1: them drugs, they give them. It's that simple. It's they 164 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 1: they load these horses up with ugs and sometimes and 165 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,280 Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes they bleed. 166 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 1: Sometimes they push them too hard. The other thing I 167 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: don't like about horse racing is they start them when 168 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: they're two years old. That's too young for a horse 169 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:20,160 Speaker 1: to start racing full speed. They're not grown yet, their 170 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 1: bones are not fully formed. Uh. In polo, you know 171 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,599 Speaker 1: in Argentina, which is polo is the national sport in Argentina, 172 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: they don't even start training a horse untill they're five 173 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: or six years old. So two years old or three 174 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:40,800 Speaker 1: years old is just too young to force a horse 175 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:43,440 Speaker 1: to run as fast as it could go. And that's 176 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,440 Speaker 1: what happens. You know, they all kinds of things happen, 177 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,880 Speaker 1: and you know they it's it's about money. That's what 178 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: it's about, Bob. It's about money. And they don't want 179 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:58,320 Speaker 1: to say that, Oh no, it's it's you know, because 180 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 1: it's money and it's all about money. And they don't 181 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:05,440 Speaker 1: want to close down Santa Anita because they're making a 182 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:10,400 Speaker 1: ton of money. And you know, the people who are 183 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,360 Speaker 1: the people want to race and they want to win money, 184 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:16,440 Speaker 1: and that's you know, it's that's what it's about. So 185 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,440 Speaker 1: you also said you play tennis. Are you a good 186 00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:21,920 Speaker 1: athlete in general and doing a million things or these 187 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: are just your two sports? No, I I I've always 188 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:29,560 Speaker 1: been athletic, and of course being the lead singer of 189 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:32,720 Speaker 1: the Tubes was all always pretty athletic. When I'm doing 190 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:37,000 Speaker 1: ten or fifteen costume changes in the show, you know. Uh, 191 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: but uh, I played. My dad started little league in Scottsdale, Arizona, 192 00:11:44,679 --> 00:11:50,440 Speaker 1: back in gosh, she was nineteen fifty six, And uh, 193 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:53,199 Speaker 1: I started playing baseball from the time I was eight 194 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:56,880 Speaker 1: years old and played baseball all, you know, all the 195 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,600 Speaker 1: way through school through high school and then and then 196 00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:06,040 Speaker 1: even even continued playing fast pitch softball until you know, 197 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:10,200 Speaker 1: until about two thousand three or two thousand four, and 198 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:13,600 Speaker 1: then fat men's fast pitch softball kind of disappeared and 199 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: it became a women's sport, and that's when I switched 200 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:20,079 Speaker 1: to polo. But I've always been athletic. I've always had 201 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:23,719 Speaker 1: some kind of sport. And my wife is a unbelievable 202 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:27,880 Speaker 1: tennis player. She's played her whole life through high school 203 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:31,480 Speaker 1: and college and and uh, she is a great player, 204 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:35,000 Speaker 1: and she's she convinced me to start taking polo lessons, 205 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:40,719 Speaker 1: you know, at seventy years old. And uh, because basically 206 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: she would love me to stop playing polo and start 207 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,960 Speaker 1: playing tennis instead. Okay, so she convinced you to play 208 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,840 Speaker 1: take tennis lesson, Yes, yes she did. Okay, because you said, 209 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 1: I want to make clearify, let's go back to the 210 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:55,000 Speaker 1: very beginning. I always thought your name was completely made up. 211 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:58,680 Speaker 1: Way Bill is your real last name? Yeah, oh yeah, 212 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:00,840 Speaker 1: that's my real last name. And he give us any 213 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:03,240 Speaker 1: history of that because I always think of shipping in 214 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:05,800 Speaker 1: way bill. Do you know where it comes from? Yeah? Yeah, 215 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:09,040 Speaker 1: A way bill is the list of stuff they've they're 216 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:13,520 Speaker 1: hauling in the back of the truck. Yeah. And uh, 217 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:19,320 Speaker 1: well it's my father's father. His name was Jail. Came 218 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:24,240 Speaker 1: from England and uh. Names that end in two l's 219 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:29,080 Speaker 1: are usually an English name. And uh, that was their 220 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: name back in England that they it wasn't changed. That 221 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:36,360 Speaker 1: was you know, before they had the term way bill. 222 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:41,240 Speaker 1: There was way bills. There was the history of the 223 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: family of way Bills. They were from, uh, Brighton, bright 224 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:50,480 Speaker 1: Bristol or Brighton. I think Brighton, England is where my 225 00:13:50,559 --> 00:13:54,280 Speaker 1: family came from okay, and why fee for the uh 226 00:13:54,559 --> 00:14:03,160 Speaker 1: lesson knowledgeable? Ah, that's um well was shortened from Fiji 227 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:07,880 Speaker 1: and one. Back in the old days when we were 228 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:10,360 Speaker 1: all living in San Francisco, living together in a two 229 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 1: bedroom condemned house on Noriega Street. The the the bass player, 230 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:23,400 Speaker 1: UH thought that I looked like the King of Fiji, 231 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,480 Speaker 1: which I could never understand. The King of Fiji was 232 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 1: a black band with an Afro about that day, and 233 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:37,880 Speaker 1: they started calling me Fiji and I. You know, you 234 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: can't pick your own nicknames, that's for sure. Back in 235 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:45,080 Speaker 1: our area, they had nicknames them. So I was Fiji 236 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,720 Speaker 1: and I was Fiji up until the time. Uh. The 237 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:51,840 Speaker 1: our our bass player Rick Anderson, still calls me feed 238 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:56,840 Speaker 1: because we feed fee j fej uh. And when we 239 00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:04,280 Speaker 1: made our first record in ninet for n M Records, UH, 240 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,440 Speaker 1: they wanted us to put They said, okay, well, what's 241 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:13,680 Speaker 1: your name and and and I thought feed. I didn't 242 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:16,840 Speaker 1: want to say. I shortened it then from Fieg. I 243 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:19,760 Speaker 1: took the j off from feedg to fee and I 244 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:22,840 Speaker 1: thought the fee for the way bill, Oh yeah, it's 245 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:27,080 Speaker 1: kind of like terry cloth or you know, probably very good. Okay, 246 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:29,240 Speaker 1: you mentioned your wife. How long you've been married. I 247 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:35,200 Speaker 1: have been married, well, on and off for thirty years. 248 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 1: Thirty years to the same woman, to the same woman. 249 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,400 Speaker 1: What's the on and off part. Well, we got married 250 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:46,400 Speaker 1: and then and we got We met in nine at 251 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: a Mayan temple in Guatemala on a solar eclipse January 252 00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:59,000 Speaker 1: July eleven, we met and we were on separate vacations. 253 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:02,440 Speaker 1: She was on a occation with some English school teacher 254 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:04,960 Speaker 1: from Santa Monica and I was on a vacation with 255 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:08,080 Speaker 1: my best friend. And we we were Mayan iss we 256 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:10,960 Speaker 1: were we went there to look at Mayan temples and 257 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:14,640 Speaker 1: we were put both into Mayan history. And we met 258 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: at the Mayan ruin of Tikal on July eleven, and uh, 259 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,440 Speaker 1: the guy that she was with recognized me, and you know, 260 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: came walking out of the jungle and said, hey, you're 261 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:30,760 Speaker 1: fee Waybill from the tubes. And I just went and 262 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: then I immediately fell in love with his girlfriend, and 263 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: and so we spent the day together and then they 264 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:42,160 Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we're going back to 265 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,160 Speaker 1: Belize where we were staying, and they're going back to 266 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,120 Speaker 1: Santa Monica. And I said, you know, I didn't know. 267 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: I was desperate to try to reach this person, and 268 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:55,720 Speaker 1: you know, so it's funny, I asked. The guy said 269 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: he had a video camera, one of those giant video 270 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: cameras that the whole day was taken video. And so 271 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:04,359 Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I said, Randy, you know, 272 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: could I get a copy of the video? Which was 273 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,720 Speaker 1: a ruse, and he goes, oh, sure it called me 274 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:13,200 Speaker 1: when we get back to Santa Monica and I said okay, 275 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:15,760 Speaker 1: and so I did, and then I said, yeah, I 276 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:18,920 Speaker 1: need a copy of the video. Yeah. I said, oh, 277 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,639 Speaker 1: what a what about Liz? What about that girl you 278 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:25,359 Speaker 1: were with? Liz? He goes, oh, nothing, Na, nothing, would 279 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:29,840 Speaker 1: give me, no information at all. And so I went 280 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:31,920 Speaker 1: and got the video and I said, we asked again. 281 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:37,440 Speaker 1: He goes, na, Na, She's no, it's not happening, and 282 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:39,959 Speaker 1: uh so I kind of gave up on that. And 283 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:45,439 Speaker 1: then eight that was July. Eight months later, in February 284 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:50,520 Speaker 1: of two, I'm working out at the Santa Monica Athletic 285 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: Club and she walks in the door of the club 286 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:56,679 Speaker 1: and she was she wasn't even a member, she was 287 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,760 Speaker 1: the guest of a member. And I saw her and 288 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:01,880 Speaker 1: she saw me and I just kind of went, oh 289 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:04,719 Speaker 1: my god, I can't believe it. And then we started 290 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:09,000 Speaker 1: dating and live and then we got married in We 291 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:12,960 Speaker 1: got married in ninety seven, got divorced in two thousand one, 292 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:19,480 Speaker 1: went separate ways uh and and then we got back 293 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:24,880 Speaker 1: together in two thousand eight, like six seven years later, 294 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:28,639 Speaker 1: we got back together. And then we got married a 295 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:34,640 Speaker 1: second time on the anniversary of the day we met, 296 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:43,199 Speaker 1: which was July eleven, uh nineteen. What set en we 297 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:52,720 Speaker 1: got married a second time? Okay? A couple of questions. 298 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:57,119 Speaker 1: Have you been married before? No? Okay? Have any children? No? Okay? 299 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: What happened in those seven odd years when we're separated? 300 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:02,080 Speaker 1: Why did you get divorced? And why did you get 301 00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:04,760 Speaker 1: back together? And when you divorced just on paper see 302 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:07,480 Speaker 1: each other or were you really separate in those eras? No, 303 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:11,159 Speaker 1: we didn't. We you know, I was living in a 304 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:15,000 Speaker 1: little house in Sherman Oaks. You know, we just you 305 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,440 Speaker 1: warn n to the truth. I was back then when 306 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: marijuana was not legal. I was growing pot in the 307 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:25,840 Speaker 1: backyard and with smoke pottle day long. And finally she says, God, 308 00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:28,800 Speaker 1: I can't handle it. You're just smoke poddle day long. 309 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,159 Speaker 1: And then we got divorced, and then you know, I 310 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:34,959 Speaker 1: went out, no, and we didn't see each other for 311 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:40,680 Speaker 1: seven six seven years. I you know, the tubes reformed. 312 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:45,600 Speaker 1: I went back on the road. She uh uh went 313 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:49,159 Speaker 1: to work and and became a commercial real estate agent 314 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:53,920 Speaker 1: and then invested in commercial property and and took over 315 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,879 Speaker 1: her dad's business. Of so she went to work and 316 00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:01,200 Speaker 1: I went to work, and and then, uh, it's funny, 317 00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:06,520 Speaker 1: you know my dad, uh, my dad, besides being a 318 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:10,960 Speaker 1: writing instructor, my dad was a chief engineer of one 319 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:15,280 Speaker 1: of the very first resort hotels in Scottsdale, called the 320 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:20,560 Speaker 1: Valley ho And so he knew how he knew everything. 321 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:24,679 Speaker 1: My dad knew plumbing and electrical and carpentry, and he 322 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:28,280 Speaker 1: could do anything. And he taught my brother and I 323 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: to do that. He he taught us everything. He taught 324 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,600 Speaker 1: us plumbing, he taught us electrical, he taught us carpentry. 325 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:40,400 Speaker 1: So I can fix anything pretty much. And Elizabeth was 326 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:46,080 Speaker 1: was reading this business and getting screwed by various vendors, 327 00:20:46,119 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: by the plumber, by the electrician. But she didn't know, 328 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:51,760 Speaker 1: you know, if they were in a good or she 329 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,119 Speaker 1: didn't know if they were charging her too much. She 330 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:58,480 Speaker 1: just you know, that wasn't something that she really understood. 331 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:00,760 Speaker 1: And so one day she called, she goes, you know, 332 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,000 Speaker 1: I don't know if this is a good plumber or not, 333 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:06,880 Speaker 1: you know all about plumbing. Can you help me with this? 334 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:09,720 Speaker 1: Can you can you check this guy out and find 335 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,560 Speaker 1: out if he's just you know, overcharging me or you know, 336 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:18,080 Speaker 1: And I said, okay, And so, uh so I did it. 337 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,120 Speaker 1: So I helped her out, and I you know, I 338 00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:21,720 Speaker 1: got her a new plumber, and I got her a 339 00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 1: new new electrician and a new eric. You know, I 340 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,760 Speaker 1: pretty much fired everybody she had and got somebody better. 341 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:36,360 Speaker 1: And you know, we started working together and on commercial property, 342 00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:42,159 Speaker 1: and uh and then that kind of rekindled the romance. 343 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,000 Speaker 1: And uh, but I had never you know, I wrote 344 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:48,959 Speaker 1: a I used to I used to live in a 345 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 1: little house in Venice, and I would like I would 346 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,639 Speaker 1: sit up all night and I get hammered and smoke 347 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:58,560 Speaker 1: pot or or drink and write poetry for her to 348 00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:03,359 Speaker 1: her and and then I send a texture poetry and 349 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,600 Speaker 1: I finally put a book together, a poetry book, and 350 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:09,600 Speaker 1: but it was all too and it worked. It kind 351 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:13,320 Speaker 1: of she kind of went, God, you still Anyway, we 352 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:17,040 Speaker 1: got back together because of the poetry book, and uh, 353 00:22:17,119 --> 00:22:20,399 Speaker 1: and then you know, we started living together and and 354 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,399 Speaker 1: uh we got married again. So and we still were together. 355 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: I'm sitting in She's an artist. She loves art, and 356 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:30,879 Speaker 1: she's very besides being a great tennis player, she's a 357 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:34,679 Speaker 1: wonderful artist. And so we turned our garage into an 358 00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:38,200 Speaker 1: arts studio. So we've got this. You know, the cars 359 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:40,880 Speaker 1: are parked on the street, but we have this. That's 360 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:44,960 Speaker 1: where I'm sitting now. We have this gorgeous studio downstairs 361 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:46,879 Speaker 1: that used to be the garage and now we have 362 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,840 Speaker 1: a little kitchen and a little bathroom. And she comes 363 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:53,960 Speaker 1: down here and just is in heaven and has a 364 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,560 Speaker 1: great big wall. I'm looking at this gigantic wall where 365 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,040 Speaker 1: she's working on a piece that's got she's it's got 366 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 1: to be ten ft by eight by ten or something giant. 367 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: And so you know, so I'm just happy as a 368 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:16,320 Speaker 1: clam and so lucky, you know. And so you're about 369 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,520 Speaker 1: to play some live dates. What's the thinking about playing 370 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:22,119 Speaker 1: those live dates? Why with the tombs she's been her 371 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:27,880 Speaker 1: with my solo I was about to play. In fact, 372 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,640 Speaker 1: it was the first gig was supposed to be tomorrow. 373 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:36,240 Speaker 1: I did the solo album My fee Way Bill Rides 374 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,240 Speaker 1: Again and which I said to you, by the way, 375 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:47,640 Speaker 1: and and I put together with my best friend Richard Marks. 376 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,840 Speaker 1: I put Richard. Richard wrote the songs and produced it 377 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: with me. And he's the guy's beyond brilliant and has 378 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,439 Speaker 1: been my best friend for gosh since we met in 379 00:24:02,119 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 1: in the studio with David Foster back in and we've 380 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,320 Speaker 1: written songs all these years. And so we made this 381 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:13,160 Speaker 1: record and uh, and I've never done a solo show ever. 382 00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,960 Speaker 1: And he said, why let's do a solo show is 383 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:19,720 Speaker 1: that you can use my band. I'll help you. We 384 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: can put it together and you can use my band 385 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: and do let's do some gigs. We've never done it. 386 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:33,400 Speaker 1: And so we were supposed to have done gigs this weekend, 387 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: a gig in Phoenix in the Troubadour in l A 388 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 1: and then a gig in Orange County at the Coach House, 389 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: and uh, but that you know, we had it all 390 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:50,480 Speaker 1: set up and then O Macron happened and then the 391 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: whole thing, you know, collapsed, and people are afraid to 392 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:59,240 Speaker 1: go out still, and you know, so so we've postponed it, 393 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,119 Speaker 1: We've post spooned the gigs till the end of the summer. 394 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,440 Speaker 1: But then we've got tubes gigs we've got We're playing 395 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,879 Speaker 1: in March, uh in Chicago and Minneapolis and Omaha, and 396 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:13,479 Speaker 1: then we've got gigs coming up throughout the year. And uh, 397 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:19,880 Speaker 1: you know why am I doing it? Why? Because that's 398 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:25,320 Speaker 1: what I do and I live for the stage. And 399 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:29,280 Speaker 1: I mean it's I mean, you saw me. You you 400 00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:33,160 Speaker 1: went to that David Bowie gig right in at Water Village. Yeah, 401 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,520 Speaker 1: I I absolutely did. I've seen you and I saw 402 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:37,919 Speaker 1: in the Rosy and seventy five. I totally get it. 403 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 1: But let's let's go a couple of different angles. Hey, 404 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,800 Speaker 1: Usually the life of a rock star who is not 405 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:51,199 Speaker 1: commercially mega successful is very challenging financially, How have you 406 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,160 Speaker 1: made it through all these decades? I guess I've just 407 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: watched my money, watched my life. I've invested. I've invested 408 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:03,280 Speaker 1: in our commercial properties, you know, thanks to Elizabeth uh 409 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:08,320 Speaker 1: helping me, and so I've invested in that. And uh, 410 00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 1: you know, I'm not extravagant. I don't drive a Lamborghini 411 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:19,240 Speaker 1: SUV and you know I just uh. Uh, I just 412 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,800 Speaker 1: created life for myself that that I could I could 413 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,359 Speaker 1: deal with, that I could afford, you know, And and 414 00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:36,119 Speaker 1: uh it's been challenging. It has been challenging, you know, 415 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:42,080 Speaker 1: but uh, uptil the point of the pandemic, you know, 416 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:46,160 Speaker 1: we were we the Tube signed with the management company. 417 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,600 Speaker 1: Just like in the beginning of for for years and 418 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,360 Speaker 1: years we had no manager and I was the manager 419 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:58,880 Speaker 1: and I did everything, and but we signed with Jonathan Wolfson. Uh. 420 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:03,200 Speaker 1: And Jonathan also manages Hall of Notes and Lover Boy 421 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:09,320 Speaker 1: and the Tubes and and well once again, a friend 422 00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:14,200 Speaker 1: of Elizabeth's thanks to her, got us an introduction with him, 423 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,520 Speaker 1: and he came to see us out at the Canyon 424 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,800 Speaker 1: Club in Agora Hills and he took us on and 425 00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:23,120 Speaker 1: it's kind of changed everything. We we worked a ton 426 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,520 Speaker 1: in two thou nine. We made a lot of money, 427 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:32,560 Speaker 1: and uh, Jonathan has really really helped us and really 428 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:38,040 Speaker 1: kind of changed everything for us. And uh and then 429 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,879 Speaker 1: of course the pandemic hits, so it's been challenging to 430 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,920 Speaker 1: deal with that and you know, make it through that. 431 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:53,320 Speaker 1: But uh, you know, uh, it's it's amazing and I 432 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:58,480 Speaker 1: never thought this would happen, but people, people just our 433 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:02,680 Speaker 1: songs have endured and people come and people come back 434 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,400 Speaker 1: to see us again and again and again, and it's 435 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:12,360 Speaker 1: it's uh, like I said, I never would have thought that, 436 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:17,560 Speaker 1: but uh and I think also that you know, we're 437 00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:22,440 Speaker 1: very visual, unlike most bands, and we constantly change our show, 438 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:26,399 Speaker 1: and like right now we're doing this complete we're doing 439 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:30,840 Speaker 1: the completion Backward Principle album and we're kind of visually 440 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 1: recreating it with the business suits and the whole kind 441 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:40,560 Speaker 1: of sarcasm and corporate uh parody that created the record. 442 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,360 Speaker 1: And and then you know, next year we'll change it 443 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,520 Speaker 1: completely and we'll do a completely different show and there'll 444 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:51,680 Speaker 1: be different costume changes and well, you know, and it's 445 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,280 Speaker 1: just every time you come to see the tubes, it's different. 446 00:28:54,640 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: And we're doing a visual uh visual you know, portrayal 447 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: of of what a record or a song or whatever. 448 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:13,200 Speaker 1: And uh, I don't know, it's just we've we were 449 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,280 Speaker 1: so lucky to have endured this many years and to 450 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: be this healthy and you know, everybody in the band 451 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,520 Speaker 1: is really healthy and that everybody really wants to play, 452 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:27,120 Speaker 1: and so it's just been it's just been wonderful. You know, 453 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: A couple of decades back. Bill Spooner, who was one 454 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,440 Speaker 1: of the creative forces in the band, separates from the band. 455 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 1: What happened there. I don't know how to couch this, 456 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:44,160 Speaker 1: but drugs, drugs happened. That's pretty definitive explanation. Let's also 457 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: talk about the era in terms of the Tubes and 458 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:52,560 Speaker 1: also your songwriting with Richard Marks and with Toto. Do 459 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,440 Speaker 1: you have a royalty stream or is that stuff pretty 460 00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,800 Speaker 1: much in the weird view mirror if there ever was no, no, 461 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,320 Speaker 1: I do. I still that I do, and that also helps. 462 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: I never sold my publishing or my writer's royalties, so 463 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: I do have a publishing stream. And also, the strangest 464 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:18,360 Speaker 1: it may seem, after forty years, we actually recouped with 465 00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:24,120 Speaker 1: Universal because you know, Universal owns everything. They bought a 466 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,560 Speaker 1: a M and they bought Capital where all of our 467 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:32,400 Speaker 1: product originated. And so we get royalty checks hard as 468 00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:38,720 Speaker 1: it maybe to believe from Universal twice a year. So yeah, 469 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: we do have a royalty stream. I mean, it's not massive. 470 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: It's not like Richard Marx's royalty stream, where you know 471 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: he sold forty million records and and owns it all. 472 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:52,840 Speaker 1: You know, every record was a license so, uh, it's 473 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:57,120 Speaker 1: not like that, but uh, it's really it really helps, 474 00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:01,479 Speaker 1: you know. And and I'm the you know, I've I do. 475 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:06,280 Speaker 1: I pretty much do everything. I'm the publisher, administrator, I'm 476 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:11,520 Speaker 1: the you know, I'm I kind of. I do the merch. 477 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:15,360 Speaker 1: I booked the tour, I booked the hotels, I booked 478 00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:21,960 Speaker 1: the cars, I booked the air. Uh. And lately Elizabeth, 479 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:27,120 Speaker 1: Elizabeth has taken over some of the uh, some of 480 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: the work with me. And she helps with the merch 481 00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 1: and helps with the v I P beaten greet and 482 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:39,200 Speaker 1: she's kind of become my my mentor and road manager, 483 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:44,840 Speaker 1: personal assistant, and and nurse. She's the she's the sexy 484 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:49,160 Speaker 1: nurse in the show. Now, So that's all a plus, okay, 485 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,000 Speaker 1: And do you charge the other guys for doing all 486 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,760 Speaker 1: that work? No? Okay, let's go back to the beginning. So, yeah, 487 00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:59,880 Speaker 1: you grew up in the fifties and early sixties, short haircuts, raw, rod, cetera. 488 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:04,680 Speaker 1: The Beatles come along. Were you into music where you transformed? 489 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: Did you want to be into what happened then? And 490 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:12,760 Speaker 1: I've done I've done this interview. The Beatles. Just Beatles 491 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:16,240 Speaker 1: changed my life. The Beatles made me want to be 492 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:20,280 Speaker 1: a rock and roll singer. And it changed everything when 493 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:26,320 Speaker 1: the Beatles came out. Uh uh I was. I was 494 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:31,040 Speaker 1: a freshman in high school and uh when the Beatles 495 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:33,280 Speaker 1: came out, that's all I could think about. And I 496 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,520 Speaker 1: actually I you know, I wanted to be a baseball player, 497 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:40,200 Speaker 1: and you know, and it all, it all became. I 498 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: went to this high school, Scottsdale High and back then 499 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:48,800 Speaker 1: we had an unbelievable theatrical department. We had a whole 500 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:53,480 Speaker 1: building that was dedicated to theater arts, and we had 501 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:56,600 Speaker 1: a shop, and we had a giant auditorium. We had 502 00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:00,640 Speaker 1: a three thousand seat auditorium where we could do plays. 503 00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: I did, like from the time way just to be clear, 504 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:08,120 Speaker 1: you mean three thousand seats right, yeah? I thought you 505 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 1: said no, no, no, three thousand seed auditorium. And we 506 00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,920 Speaker 1: would do plays, you know, I did. I did plays 507 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,120 Speaker 1: all the way through high school. I did Sound of 508 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,640 Speaker 1: Music and the Music Man and Little I played Little 509 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:26,440 Speaker 1: Abner as a ninety pound weekly and we did dramatic. 510 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,040 Speaker 1: We did Syranodo Bergerac and we did student We did 511 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,720 Speaker 1: I just did plays and we and I was in this. 512 00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 1: We had a vocal group what's called the Scotts Still Singers, 513 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:44,480 Speaker 1: And it was a group of about forty people, you know, uh, soprano, 514 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:48,840 Speaker 1: alto tenor bass, about ten of each. And we would 515 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:53,040 Speaker 1: perform I mean we would go to like state competitions 516 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:57,800 Speaker 1: of choral competitions and we would perform like Baroque to 517 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:04,920 Speaker 1: Bach and handles Messiah and all these really complicated pieces, 518 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,280 Speaker 1: uh and uh. And so I spent all that time 519 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:14,720 Speaker 1: singing these classical type stuff, wanting to be a rock singer, 520 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:19,000 Speaker 1: and listening to the Beatles all day long and letting 521 00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 1: my hair grow. We used to have a rule if 522 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:27,640 Speaker 1: your hair touched the collar of your shirt, you got expelled. 523 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,319 Speaker 1: And I mean back then, you know you had you 524 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:35,000 Speaker 1: couldn't wear jeans. Believe me, I remember you had to 525 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: wear a colored shirt. You know you couldn't. And you know, 526 00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:42,880 Speaker 1: I think, you know, I was gonna say my I 527 00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:46,160 Speaker 1: think I I got it. And and you know today 528 00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:50,040 Speaker 1: I still I still have the voice I had when 529 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:53,040 Speaker 1: I was a kid. I can sing all these songs still, 530 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,399 Speaker 1: and I love it. And but I think, uh, my 531 00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:02,719 Speaker 1: mother was a singer before my mother. I was born 532 00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:07,640 Speaker 1: in Omaha, Nebraska, and my mother lived in Omaha and 533 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:14,560 Speaker 1: my mother's family. My mother's mother immigrated from Sicily. She 534 00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:19,759 Speaker 1: couldn't speak English. I'm half Sicilian and half English and 535 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:24,239 Speaker 1: uh and my mother and back then, you know, if 536 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:28,880 Speaker 1: you were Italian, it was kind of second class citizen. 537 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:33,760 Speaker 1: You know. It's like you know, uh if it's funny. 538 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:39,760 Speaker 1: I just read the uh, the Caaplan book on Sinatra. Uh, 539 00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:42,160 Speaker 1: the two books he wrote, The Voice and the Chairman, 540 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,600 Speaker 1: and when he was young. That's the way they treated Italians. 541 00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:48,360 Speaker 1: They were they were second class citizens. If you were 542 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:52,759 Speaker 1: an Italian, you were either a mob guy or you know, 543 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:57,800 Speaker 1: you were so anyway, she but she was a singer 544 00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,719 Speaker 1: and before she got married, she used to sing with 545 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,839 Speaker 1: big bands that came through town and they would they 546 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,280 Speaker 1: would she was like the one they hired to sing, 547 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:13,239 Speaker 1: you know, begin the beginning and the standards that the 548 00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,400 Speaker 1: big bands would play. Tommy Dorsey, She's played with Tommy 549 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:21,399 Speaker 1: Dorsey and uh, so I think I kind of got 550 00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:25,759 Speaker 1: that gene. And we my house was when I was 551 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,280 Speaker 1: a kid, we sang all the time before the Beatles. 552 00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:33,040 Speaker 1: We all you know, she my mom loved Broadway musicals 553 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,080 Speaker 1: and we would always get uh Broadway soundtrack albums, And 554 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,160 Speaker 1: we had a great big record player, one of those 555 00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:45,040 Speaker 1: giant SEV cabinet record player things, and we would sing 556 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:48,920 Speaker 1: all day long. And we're always singing. She was singing, 557 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,320 Speaker 1: I was singing. My brother really wasn't much of a singer, 558 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:58,320 Speaker 1: but I really just you know, dove in and uh, 559 00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:02,719 Speaker 1: West Side Story. When West Side Story came out, I 560 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:05,640 Speaker 1: flipped out and I learned all of the songs on 561 00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,520 Speaker 1: West Side Story. And actually, I have have you seen 562 00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:10,799 Speaker 1: the movie, the new movie lately? I have not seen 563 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: the new movie. I have not seen it either. I 564 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,400 Speaker 1: don't know how Stephen Sondheim is gonna work. You know 565 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:20,280 Speaker 1: that some of the lyrics in When You're a Jet 566 00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:26,239 Speaker 1: are not exactly politically correct anymore. Yeah. Uh, And the 567 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:30,320 Speaker 1: Scuttal singers were famous. We used to win the state 568 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: competitions for choral groups and so every you know, everybody 569 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:38,080 Speaker 1: knew about the singers and they had like special jackets 570 00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:42,839 Speaker 1: with with with you know, of emblems, and you know, 571 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,239 Speaker 1: it was it was a big deal in scotch Dale. 572 00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:47,960 Speaker 1: It was a small town. And uh, I mean there 573 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: was when I moved to scutt Deal, there was still 574 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:53,719 Speaker 1: hitching posts in front of the grocery store and you 575 00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,799 Speaker 1: could ride your horse to town and hitch it up 576 00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,320 Speaker 1: in front of the grocery store and get your groceries 577 00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,080 Speaker 1: for your family, put him in your saddle bag, ride 578 00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:08,720 Speaker 1: back home. Uh. But anyway, so when I was before 579 00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:15,840 Speaker 1: my freshman year of high school, uh, they held auditions 580 00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,400 Speaker 1: for you know, there was the Scots Chiel Singer was 581 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,240 Speaker 1: like a varsity group. It was mostly all juniors and seniors, 582 00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:27,960 Speaker 1: but there was a freshman version of it that you know, 583 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,200 Speaker 1: you could get in the freshman version and then after 584 00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:33,040 Speaker 1: a couple of years move up to the to the singers. 585 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:38,759 Speaker 1: And so I wanted, you know, you had to audition 586 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:45,240 Speaker 1: for for the for the the two directors, the freshman 587 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:51,600 Speaker 1: director was his name was Deb's Valentine. And the the 588 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:55,600 Speaker 1: senior director was Joe Esley. His name was Joe Estley. 589 00:38:55,719 --> 00:39:00,000 Speaker 1: And they got Joe sli changed my life too. And uh, 590 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:05,480 Speaker 1: so I auditioned and I signed up and I sang 591 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:15,640 Speaker 1: Maria from West Side Story Acapella and they were and 592 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:21,640 Speaker 1: so Joe Esley was so impressed that he said, look, 593 00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:26,080 Speaker 1: Deb's this, I want this guy. So I was the 594 00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:30,600 Speaker 1: first guy ever to be put straight into the senior 595 00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:34,319 Speaker 1: to the varsity Scottsdale Singers and didn't have to go 596 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:39,640 Speaker 1: through the freshman route and in the freshman group, so 597 00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:42,279 Speaker 1: I went straight to the singers as a freshman. And 598 00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:45,560 Speaker 1: you know, after a year or two, he started giving 599 00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:50,440 Speaker 1: me the solos, the arias in and handles Messiah and 600 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:56,840 Speaker 1: various things, and he would just it's funny. He would 601 00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:59,719 Speaker 1: just you know, he would constantly go to, you know, no, 602 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,560 Speaker 1: do this, do this, do this. He was always you know, 603 00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,240 Speaker 1: trying to help or and you know, I was an idiot. 604 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:10,920 Speaker 1: I was a fucking idiot. So I you know, I 605 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,799 Speaker 1: would say, you're you know, you're on my case and 606 00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:17,000 Speaker 1: I would oh. I used to always think he's on 607 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,319 Speaker 1: he's why is he on me? On me? On me 608 00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:22,239 Speaker 1: all the time. And so one day I went into 609 00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,720 Speaker 1: his office and I said, you know, Mr Esley, why 610 00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:28,440 Speaker 1: why are you it's always me? Why are you always 611 00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:32,479 Speaker 1: on me? And he goes, you know, and he sat 612 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:37,600 Speaker 1: me down in his desk and he goes, you have 613 00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:41,840 Speaker 1: got something special. You know, you've you've got a great voice, 614 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:44,600 Speaker 1: and you've got something special. And he was also the 615 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:47,880 Speaker 1: director of all the plays too, and he says, you 616 00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,560 Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna let you just slough it off. 617 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,880 Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let you ignore it. You've got it. 618 00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:58,920 Speaker 1: You've got to to develop, you've got to do You've 619 00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:01,120 Speaker 1: got to do this. You can't. I just let it slide. 620 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,879 Speaker 1: And so I kind of went, oh wow, really? And so, 621 00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:07,520 Speaker 1: I mean, he was the one that cast me as 622 00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,360 Speaker 1: Little Abner as a ninety powder weekly, and I'm like, 623 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:14,439 Speaker 1: Mr Asley, am I you know, Little Abner is a 624 00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:18,240 Speaker 1: big stud. You know, he's a big muscle bound guy. 625 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:21,520 Speaker 1: I said, do I wear a big muscle suit or 626 00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:23,680 Speaker 1: You're gonna make me a big muscle suit to wear? 627 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,040 Speaker 1: And he said, no, you just have to think big, 628 00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,279 Speaker 1: I said. He says, when Peppi Yokum jumps off the 629 00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:44,160 Speaker 1: roof into your arms, you better be thinking big. Okay, Okay, 630 00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:46,840 Speaker 1: So you graduate from high school, you go to college, 631 00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:50,040 Speaker 1: and you drop out. Why do you drop out? Oh? God? 632 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:54,880 Speaker 1: I started being an anthropology major. I still love anthropology. 633 00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:57,719 Speaker 1: I love I love the whole genre. And then I 634 00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:01,600 Speaker 1: switched to oceanography, right, I mean in Arizona, and I'm 635 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:04,080 Speaker 1: obsessed with the ocean and I want to go to 636 00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:06,840 Speaker 1: Script's Institute. I want to transfer this. Well, you know 637 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,920 Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen. And you know, we Arizona. Uh 638 00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:13,240 Speaker 1: we did. My family didn't have a lot of money. 639 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:16,080 Speaker 1: My both my mom and dad worked and I was 640 00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:19,840 Speaker 1: a latch key kid. Me and my brother, and uh 641 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,280 Speaker 1: we went to Arizona. I went to Arizona State because 642 00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:25,800 Speaker 1: if you were a resident, you know, the tuition was minimal. 643 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:31,359 Speaker 1: And uh and uh so and also I decided, well, 644 00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:34,359 Speaker 1: I'm going to be a serious actor. Now, no more 645 00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:38,040 Speaker 1: of this musical comedy stuff. I'm gonna do Ibocident and 646 00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:42,680 Speaker 1: check Off and Macbeth. And so I went straight to 647 00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:46,560 Speaker 1: the drama department and and I started doing those kinds 648 00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:53,520 Speaker 1: of plays. And then finally I went I I finished 649 00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:56,439 Speaker 1: my freshman year, and then kind of halfway through my 650 00:42:56,760 --> 00:43:01,279 Speaker 1: sophomore year, I flipped out and I just went, this 651 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,120 Speaker 1: is boring. Oh my god, you know, god, I don't 652 00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:09,080 Speaker 1: want to do this. And uh and you know, I 653 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:14,880 Speaker 1: had a group of friends that we used and we 654 00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,080 Speaker 1: were all into music and we used to go one 655 00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:20,040 Speaker 1: of the one of the guys in the group had 656 00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:24,600 Speaker 1: this trailer He lived in a trailer way outside of 657 00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:28,040 Speaker 1: town on Baseline Road, and so we would all go 658 00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:30,800 Speaker 1: out there, you know, five or six of us would 659 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:36,200 Speaker 1: go out to his trailer. His name was Terry, Terry molloy, 660 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:42,080 Speaker 1: and and we would play music and and smoke pot Okay, 661 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:45,719 Speaker 1: we play music and smoke pot all all night long. 662 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:49,600 Speaker 1: And uh you know, and I had moved This is 663 00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:51,440 Speaker 1: when I was. I had moved out of out of 664 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,640 Speaker 1: I mean, I moved out of my parents house the 665 00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:56,839 Speaker 1: day I turned eighteen. And I had a job, and 666 00:43:56,880 --> 00:43:59,759 Speaker 1: I got an apartment in Tempee near the college. And 667 00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:04,400 Speaker 1: I had a job. And I worked at this pottery store, 668 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:06,960 Speaker 1: which is kind of ironic because my my wife is 669 00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:10,520 Speaker 1: now totally into pottery and we have a we have 670 00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,560 Speaker 1: a wheel, and we have a kiln and she's making 671 00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:17,160 Speaker 1: stuff all day long. So but I worked in this 672 00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:23,760 Speaker 1: pottery store and I used to pack cactus, little baby 673 00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:34,239 Speaker 1: cactuses in boxes to send to like Minnesota, where it 674 00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:39,200 Speaker 1: would instantly die because there's you know, it's too cold 675 00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:42,640 Speaker 1: for cactus. That's why they're not growing in Minnesota, is it. 676 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:51,600 Speaker 1: And uh so, so Terry found out, you know, and 677 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:53,719 Speaker 1: and we were all kind of of the same, you know, 678 00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:57,759 Speaker 1: tune in, turn on, drop out, it was kind of 679 00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:02,160 Speaker 1: and we took a LSD. You know, it was the 680 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:07,560 Speaker 1: world of kind of Timothy Leary world, Ah, and he 681 00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:14,000 Speaker 1: found out about this town in northern Arizona. There's a 682 00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:18,040 Speaker 1: town called Jerome on the very it's it's on the 683 00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:21,759 Speaker 1: side of a mountain called Mingus Mountain, and it's in 684 00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:24,880 Speaker 1: the Verde Valley. It's about midway in the middle of 685 00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:30,880 Speaker 1: the state of Arizona. And there used to be a 686 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:35,360 Speaker 1: gigantic copper mine there run by a company called Felps 687 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:43,439 Speaker 1: Dodge Mining. And they they they dug all. I mean, 688 00:45:43,719 --> 00:45:48,360 Speaker 1: the whole town was full of tunnels and caves where 689 00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,719 Speaker 1: copper mines where they would mind the copper. And so 690 00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:57,680 Speaker 1: they eventually they sucked out all the copper in the 691 00:45:57,719 --> 00:46:00,640 Speaker 1: mountain and they said, okay, well that's were done. And 692 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:04,600 Speaker 1: they left and they left, and they had a whole 693 00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:07,759 Speaker 1: lot of people working for them, these miners and the 694 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:11,799 Speaker 1: minders all had little shacks on the side in the 695 00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:15,200 Speaker 1: town of Jerome. And Jerome was pretty much a ghost town. 696 00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:19,479 Speaker 1: It was abandoned. There was nobody there left. And once 697 00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:23,319 Speaker 1: the mind left and all the minders left, it was 698 00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,120 Speaker 1: a major ghost town. There was nothing. There was like 699 00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:30,879 Speaker 1: one bar, there was no gas station, there was one 700 00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:33,719 Speaker 1: there wasn't a hotel, there was nothing. There was just 701 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:37,440 Speaker 1: a few people really, you know, seniors, seniors that had 702 00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:41,080 Speaker 1: lived there the whole life, and they didn't leave. So 703 00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:44,640 Speaker 1: Terry says, you know, we can, we can move to 704 00:46:44,719 --> 00:46:48,120 Speaker 1: this ghost town. And there's all these miners shacks and 705 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,040 Speaker 1: nobody gives us, they don't care. So you could just 706 00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:54,719 Speaker 1: have one. You can just squat in one. You can 707 00:46:54,880 --> 00:47:00,279 Speaker 1: just homestead one. We used to stay homestead and we went, 708 00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:05,600 Speaker 1: oh really okay, So like eight of us moved to Jerome. 709 00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:08,560 Speaker 1: We just we said that's it and I quit school. 710 00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:12,759 Speaker 1: My parents freaked out, I mean completely freaked out, and 711 00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:16,680 Speaker 1: we moved to this little town and I had my 712 00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:20,800 Speaker 1: own minors shock. Everybody got their own minors shack. And 713 00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:26,240 Speaker 1: there's no this was you know, there's no indoor plumbing. Okay, 714 00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:30,319 Speaker 1: so we had an outhouse. There was h The electricity 715 00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:33,600 Speaker 1: had all been turned off, so there was no electricity either. 716 00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:38,560 Speaker 1: So you had like like hurricane lamps for for light. 717 00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:44,960 Speaker 1: And we all just we had we had nothing. I 718 00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,080 Speaker 1: had no money. I remember I had eight cents in 719 00:47:48,239 --> 00:47:51,480 Speaker 1: my jeans and I had eight cents in there for 720 00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:55,160 Speaker 1: a long long time. And we used to go from 721 00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:58,080 Speaker 1: various people would have would have dinners, you know. They 722 00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:00,680 Speaker 1: would they would say, okay, well dinners at my house tonight, 723 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:04,239 Speaker 1: and we'd all go there. And my dad used to 724 00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:07,919 Speaker 1: bring me a twenty five pound bag of brown rice 725 00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:11,279 Speaker 1: from Phoenix, and so I when I got a bag 726 00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:13,640 Speaker 1: of brown rice, I'd have dinners. Okay, well we have 727 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:20,720 Speaker 1: a big dinner of brown rice. And I I mean, gosh, 728 00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:25,000 Speaker 1: I lived there for probably this was January of n 729 00:48:26,719 --> 00:48:30,120 Speaker 1: and I lived there for about four or five months, 730 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:36,239 Speaker 1: maybe with absolutely nothing, no money, no nothing, and just 731 00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:40,760 Speaker 1: you know, we're a bunch of hippies were surviving and 732 00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:43,000 Speaker 1: we loved We had a great time. You know. People 733 00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:45,960 Speaker 1: would come up from the city and they would bring drugs, 734 00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:49,239 Speaker 1: you know. Okay, so how do you make it from 735 00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:52,480 Speaker 1: the booties to being a roadie for what it becomes 736 00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:56,359 Speaker 1: the tubes. Well, I'm gonna tell you. I finally got 737 00:48:56,400 --> 00:49:00,720 Speaker 1: sick of having no money. So, uh, I heard about 738 00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:07,160 Speaker 1: this rancher who was looking for cowboys. He's looking to 739 00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:10,960 Speaker 1: hire a couple of cowboys. He needed help. His name 740 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:14,840 Speaker 1: was Dave Perkins, and so I went to Dave Perkins 741 00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:22,719 Speaker 1: and he was, Uh, there's a town in Arizona called Perkinsville, Uh. 742 00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:27,960 Speaker 1: His father was this patriarch of Perkinsville. And his father 743 00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:36,359 Speaker 1: drove a herd of hundred longhorn cows from Texas all 744 00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:40,520 Speaker 1: the way to Arizona. You know, when he was a kid. 745 00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:44,880 Speaker 1: And he had five sons, and he owned all this property. 746 00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:47,799 Speaker 1: He was the big deal. And each of the five 747 00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:50,400 Speaker 1: sons had a ranch. He gave each of them their 748 00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:55,480 Speaker 1: own cattle ranch. So Dave was the youngest son and 749 00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:57,800 Speaker 1: he had his own cattle ranch. And the other guys 750 00:49:57,840 --> 00:50:02,920 Speaker 1: were pretty much rednecked cowboys, you know they were. They were, 751 00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:08,680 Speaker 1: shall we say, a conservative group and except for Dave. 752 00:50:09,239 --> 00:50:13,040 Speaker 1: And Dave was a little forward thinking. And you know, 753 00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:16,920 Speaker 1: he had some kids, and he divorced his wife, and 754 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:19,800 Speaker 1: then he had a lady living with him and helping 755 00:50:19,880 --> 00:50:22,759 Speaker 1: him run his ranch. And so I came up to him, 756 00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:26,200 Speaker 1: and I had long hair, and you know, not Fiji hair, 757 00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:31,000 Speaker 1: but uh, I said, Dave, you know I grew up 758 00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:32,880 Speaker 1: on a horse. I can ride. I can help you, 759 00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:37,480 Speaker 1: because he needs somebody to go out. He had two 760 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:45,840 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand acres of forest service least land. Okay, 761 00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:48,320 Speaker 1: he did known it. He leased it from the Forest Service. 762 00:50:48,719 --> 00:50:52,200 Speaker 1: And on this and the Forest Service based on how 763 00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:56,360 Speaker 1: much feed there was, and there was no feed because 764 00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:00,000 Speaker 1: of the desert. They would tell you how many cows 765 00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,640 Speaker 1: as you could run on this land, and so the 766 00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,080 Speaker 1: number was one hundred and fifty. He could have a 767 00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:09,279 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty mother cows on this two hundred and 768 00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:14,640 Speaker 1: fifty thousand acres, And twice a year you had to 769 00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:19,600 Speaker 1: go out and round up these hundred fifty cows and 770 00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:23,680 Speaker 1: bring him back and breed them to the bulls so 771 00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:27,000 Speaker 1: that they would make babies to make you know, Hamburger 772 00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:30,000 Speaker 1: out of And so that was the way it worked. 773 00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:32,400 Speaker 1: And so every twice a year you got to go 774 00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:35,000 Speaker 1: out and round up the cows and bring in the 775 00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:40,520 Speaker 1: bringing the babies and bringing brand. And I was a cowboy. 776 00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:42,680 Speaker 1: I was a cowboy, just like in the movies. And 777 00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:45,640 Speaker 1: I always wanted to be a cowboy. You know, when 778 00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:47,799 Speaker 1: I was a kid, all I did was watch westerns. 779 00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:50,960 Speaker 1: And you know, I watched all those westerns and all 780 00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:55,040 Speaker 1: those big stars started as you know, Steve McQueen wanted 781 00:51:55,120 --> 00:51:59,600 Speaker 1: dead or alive or they all cowboys, John Wayne and 782 00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:02,520 Speaker 1: every Clint and now I mean they all. I wanted 783 00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:04,920 Speaker 1: to be a cowboy, and so I got to be 784 00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:07,440 Speaker 1: a cowboy, and so I would ride out on my horse. 785 00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,759 Speaker 1: He gave me a horse, and I'd ride out. And 786 00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:14,440 Speaker 1: it wasn't as hard as it sounds to find cows 787 00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,240 Speaker 1: because there was no water, so the cows would always 788 00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:20,600 Speaker 1: be near the water. And so you'd go to wherever 789 00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:23,799 Speaker 1: the river was and you'd round up cows because they 790 00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:26,640 Speaker 1: would be there drinking water, So round them up and 791 00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:28,880 Speaker 1: bring them back to the ranch. And then you'd separate 792 00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:32,520 Speaker 1: out the boys from the girls. And then the boys were, 793 00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:36,040 Speaker 1: you know, castrated. This is fascinating, But how do we 794 00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:40,200 Speaker 1: get from here to rock and roll? Oh? Sorry? Well, 795 00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:43,759 Speaker 1: when I was a kid, before I left, I used 796 00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:48,080 Speaker 1: to go watch bands in Phoenix. I mean, you know Alice. 797 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:51,319 Speaker 1: Alice started in Phoenix Cooper and he had a band 798 00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:54,439 Speaker 1: called the Ear Wings and I used to go watch them, 799 00:52:54,680 --> 00:53:00,520 Speaker 1: and Roger Steen and Prairie Prince and a guy David 800 00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:03,960 Speaker 1: had a trio in Phoenix called the Red, White and 801 00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:07,000 Speaker 1: Blues Band and they used to play at a little 802 00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:11,000 Speaker 1: club called the v I P in downtown Phoenix. And 803 00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:12,840 Speaker 1: I used to go to this club all the time 804 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:16,800 Speaker 1: to listen to music, live music, and they were great. 805 00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:18,879 Speaker 1: They were a great band, and they you know, they 806 00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:22,480 Speaker 1: did all this original material. And Roger used to play 807 00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:26,279 Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendricks songs because he loved Hendricks. And so I 808 00:53:26,320 --> 00:53:29,400 Speaker 1: would go see them, and I became friends with them, 809 00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:32,120 Speaker 1: and I was, you know, kind of just a hanger 810 00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:35,960 Speaker 1: on her, and I, you know, I was looking for 811 00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:42,400 Speaker 1: some way, you know, to get into music somehow. And so, uh, 812 00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:44,920 Speaker 1: when I moved to the mountains, when I moved to 813 00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:51,319 Speaker 1: the Verde Valley, uh, uh, you know, I everyone, you know, 814 00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:54,160 Speaker 1: I go back to town to get whatever, get asked 815 00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:56,960 Speaker 1: my parents for money or something, and I would say, 816 00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:59,520 Speaker 1: you know, this is so great up here. And and 817 00:53:59,560 --> 00:54:02,279 Speaker 1: they every once in a while they would drive their 818 00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:06,719 Speaker 1: truck up there. Uh. They had a big they had 819 00:54:06,719 --> 00:54:10,360 Speaker 1: a milk truck that was converted into their equipment truck, 820 00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:13,120 Speaker 1: and they would they had a generator and they would 821 00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:18,240 Speaker 1: drive up to the mountains and set their gear up 822 00:54:18,239 --> 00:54:24,000 Speaker 1: out in the desert and just play to the cactus right. 823 00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:29,759 Speaker 1: And uh. The guy that I worked with, his name 824 00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:32,600 Speaker 1: was Michael Walker. He met a girl and they wanted 825 00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:35,440 Speaker 1: to get married, and they wanted a band for the 826 00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:39,680 Speaker 1: wedding at the at the Perkins Place. And I asked Roger, 827 00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:41,680 Speaker 1: I said, you want to You know, these guys have 828 00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:43,759 Speaker 1: like a two hundred bucks or something and they need 829 00:54:43,760 --> 00:54:47,200 Speaker 1: a band to play for the wedding and and so 830 00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:49,359 Speaker 1: you want to come up and do it? And they 831 00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,520 Speaker 1: said yes. So they came up and they played at 832 00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:59,360 Speaker 1: Michael Walker's wedding. Okay, and when they did they what 833 00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:05,640 Speaker 1: happened us When Prairie Prince graduated from high school, he 834 00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:09,239 Speaker 1: was an artist. He's still an artist. He's he's the 835 00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:13,600 Speaker 1: one that does all of our album covers and everything. Uh. 836 00:55:13,719 --> 00:55:17,319 Speaker 1: Prairie got a scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute 837 00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:23,680 Speaker 1: to begin school in the fall of nineteen and Uh. 838 00:55:24,040 --> 00:55:28,320 Speaker 1: Up until that point, they had no roadie that the band, 839 00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:31,359 Speaker 1: they didn't have anybody. And so when they came up 840 00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:33,520 Speaker 1: to play for the wedding, they said, hey, do you 841 00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:38,239 Speaker 1: want to do you want to be? Actually, actually the 842 00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:41,400 Speaker 1: bass player asked me if I wanted to be in 843 00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:47,840 Speaker 1: the band and play logs African logs, and I said logs. 844 00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:50,120 Speaker 1: He goes, yeah, you know, we'll get these big logs 845 00:55:50,239 --> 00:55:52,440 Speaker 1: that are like hollow down and you can play him 846 00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:56,399 Speaker 1: it's kind of a I went, but also, we need 847 00:55:56,440 --> 00:56:00,719 Speaker 1: you to drive the truck to San Francisco. Uh went, oh, 848 00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:04,839 Speaker 1: I see, okay. And I by that time, by that time, 849 00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:06,880 Speaker 1: after being on the ranch for about a year and 850 00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:09,640 Speaker 1: a half being a cowboy, I made fifty dollars a 851 00:56:09,719 --> 00:56:14,399 Speaker 1: month plus room and board to be the cowboy. And 852 00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:16,440 Speaker 1: I said, I kind of got I kind of said, well, 853 00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:19,640 Speaker 1: you know, I kind of done this whole cowboy thing, okay, 854 00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:23,600 Speaker 1: And so I said, okay, So I drove the truck 855 00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:27,520 Speaker 1: in the in the summer of sixty nine, I drove 856 00:56:27,600 --> 00:56:32,960 Speaker 1: the truck to San Francisco and uh. And that's how 857 00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:35,680 Speaker 1: it all started. That's how I became a roady to 858 00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:38,600 Speaker 1: the band. And you know, we got a little house 859 00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:42,239 Speaker 1: and in the Sunset District and we would do little 860 00:56:42,280 --> 00:56:44,640 Speaker 1: gigs here and there, and I was the road he 861 00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:51,120 Speaker 1: and I. I had no idea at all about any 862 00:56:51,239 --> 00:56:58,200 Speaker 1: kind of electronic knowledge. I had no knowledge. I knew 863 00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:03,200 Speaker 1: too put the O N switch in the O N position. 864 00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:07,600 Speaker 1: And that was the extent of my knowledge. And so 865 00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:10,680 Speaker 1: how do you end up in the band? Well, I'll 866 00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:13,920 Speaker 1: tell you. They had a manager. Okay. We had a 867 00:57:14,320 --> 00:57:17,080 Speaker 1: guy named John Spear who was the manager. And he 868 00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:19,880 Speaker 1: was also there like high school friend. He had no idea, 869 00:57:20,200 --> 00:57:23,360 Speaker 1: but he was a hustler and he was you know 870 00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:30,640 Speaker 1: he uh uh. He got us a gig to play 871 00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:37,920 Speaker 1: at this nine seventy Expo seventy in Osaka, Japan. Okay. 872 00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:42,720 Speaker 1: It was an ex exposition World Exposition in Osaka. And 873 00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:46,240 Speaker 1: he got us a gig to play at the San 874 00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:52,240 Speaker 1: Francisco Pavilion. Okay, like five sets of a day and 875 00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:56,760 Speaker 1: the and the wet. It's funny because at the time 876 00:57:57,440 --> 00:57:59,800 Speaker 1: we had changed the name Rogers band was called the 877 00:58:00,080 --> 00:58:04,240 Speaker 1: White Blues Band, right the trio, and they had they 878 00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:07,080 Speaker 1: for some reason, I don't know why. Actually they had 879 00:58:07,160 --> 00:58:13,480 Speaker 1: changed the name to Arizona, okay. And John got them 880 00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:16,840 Speaker 1: to hire us at the San Francisco Pavilion. But the 881 00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:19,360 Speaker 1: guy goes, you know, you really can't. It's not gonna 882 00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:23,480 Speaker 1: work for a band to be called Arizona representing San Francisco. 883 00:58:24,320 --> 00:58:26,520 Speaker 1: And so he goes, how about They went, well, how 884 00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:28,520 Speaker 1: about if you just take the A off the end, 885 00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:34,720 Speaker 1: you could be Arizon Okay, great, okay, So we went 886 00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:40,760 Speaker 1: wheat and and he also got us the transportation there 887 00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:44,479 Speaker 1: back and back then there was a shipping company called 888 00:58:44,520 --> 00:58:48,760 Speaker 1: the American President Lines. It was a it was a 889 00:58:49,640 --> 00:58:53,080 Speaker 1: It wasn't like a princess cruisers or celebrity cruises. It 890 00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:57,640 Speaker 1: was a company that actually just it was a a 891 00:58:57,720 --> 00:59:01,600 Speaker 1: ship that transported you to Japan. It was a big 892 00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:06,240 Speaker 1: passenger liner, right, And he got us a gig to 893 00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:11,320 Speaker 1: play on the ship for our passage. You could go 894 00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:14,320 Speaker 1: for free. All you have to do is play to 895 00:59:14,760 --> 00:59:19,600 Speaker 1: two concerts on the ship and then and so that 896 00:59:19,640 --> 00:59:23,800 Speaker 1: was actually the first time I actually performed in front 897 00:59:23,800 --> 00:59:26,720 Speaker 1: of an audience. I became the opening act for the 898 00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:29,840 Speaker 1: for Arizon, and I had my because I used to 899 00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:32,600 Speaker 1: play guitar and I used to sit out there in 900 00:59:32,640 --> 00:59:36,880 Speaker 1: the desert and play Roy Orbison songs to the cactus 901 00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:41,040 Speaker 1: and just sing like Bob Dylan songs and folk songs. 902 00:59:41,080 --> 00:59:44,200 Speaker 1: And so I knew a couple of songs, and they said, 903 00:59:44,200 --> 00:59:46,080 Speaker 1: will you be the opening act? You can play your 904 00:59:46,080 --> 00:59:49,200 Speaker 1: folks songs, And so I would play Roy Orbison song 905 00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:51,680 Speaker 1: or a Bob Dylan song and play a couple of 906 00:59:51,720 --> 00:59:54,160 Speaker 1: songs and I'd be the opening act. Well, what happened 907 00:59:54,560 --> 01:00:00,320 Speaker 1: on the trip on the way over there, we got 908 01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:04,919 Speaker 1: caught smoking pot in our in our state room, and 909 01:00:05,120 --> 01:00:08,560 Speaker 1: they kicked us off the ship. In Hawaii, and so 910 01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:11,200 Speaker 1: then we had to wait for the next one to come. 911 01:00:11,600 --> 01:00:14,280 Speaker 1: There was they had about five or six. They had 912 01:00:14,320 --> 01:00:18,880 Speaker 1: the President Wilson and the President Roosevelt, and they got 913 01:00:18,920 --> 01:00:22,200 Speaker 1: all these ships named after presidents. And so we got 914 01:00:22,200 --> 01:00:25,520 Speaker 1: on the second one and we made it to Japan 915 01:00:26,840 --> 01:00:30,800 Speaker 1: and then uh we did that. We played for six 916 01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:35,920 Speaker 1: weeks at this at Explo seventy at the San Francisco Pavilion, 917 01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:40,600 Speaker 1: and you know, we we you know, it was great. God, 918 01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:44,640 Speaker 1: I never it was wonderful and uh, you know, we 919 01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:47,880 Speaker 1: met Japanese girls and we had such a great time. 920 01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:54,080 Speaker 1: And on the way back, same thing. We got caught 921 01:00:54,080 --> 01:00:58,240 Speaker 1: smoking pot in the ship and so they didn't kick 922 01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:00,320 Speaker 1: us off the ship, but they stuck us in the 923 01:01:00,520 --> 01:01:05,000 Speaker 1: steerage compartment where there was all these bunk beds, you know, 924 01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:10,840 Speaker 1: with Filipinos smoking cigars, which was pretty hurting. And but 925 01:01:10,960 --> 01:01:15,240 Speaker 1: then David the bass player, he there's there's like a 926 01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:17,800 Speaker 1: preacher on board. This is I mean, you couldn't you 927 01:01:17,840 --> 01:01:20,840 Speaker 1: have to write a book coming this is ridiculous. He 928 01:01:20,880 --> 01:01:27,880 Speaker 1: gets caught having sex with the preacher's daughter. Okay, I 929 01:01:28,000 --> 01:01:30,720 Speaker 1: know this is I mean, I'm being honest, this is true, 930 01:01:31,560 --> 01:01:36,360 Speaker 1: and so they kicked us off the boat again in Hawaii, 931 01:01:37,520 --> 01:01:42,080 Speaker 1: and so uh and we met some hippies in Hawaii 932 01:01:42,160 --> 01:01:44,400 Speaker 1: and we went and stayed at their place and you know, 933 01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:47,560 Speaker 1: smoke pot all day long. And so then we got 934 01:01:47,600 --> 01:01:52,360 Speaker 1: the next boat back to the next President line back 935 01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:56,320 Speaker 1: to San Francisco. So when we got back, they were 936 01:01:56,360 --> 01:02:01,920 Speaker 1: so mad at this guy David, that they kicked him 937 01:02:01,920 --> 01:02:04,920 Speaker 1: out of the band. Okay, they kicked him out of 938 01:02:04,960 --> 01:02:07,920 Speaker 1: the band. And so then there's just Roger and Prairie 939 01:02:08,560 --> 01:02:15,360 Speaker 1: and and I used to sing his he was the 940 01:02:15,440 --> 01:02:21,120 Speaker 1: lead singer of the band, David, And so they still 941 01:02:20,960 --> 01:02:24,560 Speaker 1: we still practice in our garage in the house on 942 01:02:24,680 --> 01:02:27,680 Speaker 1: Oreega and I would go down and sing his parts, 943 01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:33,080 Speaker 1: and you know, we just screw around playing singing. And 944 01:02:33,120 --> 01:02:35,160 Speaker 1: they tried to find another bass player, and we put 945 01:02:35,200 --> 01:02:38,240 Speaker 1: an ad in they hate Ashbury Free Press bass player 946 01:02:38,280 --> 01:02:43,200 Speaker 1: wanted and we they auditioned all these guys and and 947 01:02:43,960 --> 01:02:45,800 Speaker 1: they didn't like it. They were none of them were 948 01:02:45,840 --> 01:02:51,000 Speaker 1: good enough to be in the band. And so another band, 949 01:02:51,120 --> 01:02:56,520 Speaker 1: Bill Spooner's band, based on our recommendation, they had a 950 01:02:56,520 --> 01:03:01,000 Speaker 1: band called the Beans okay, and the and Bill moved 951 01:03:01,200 --> 01:03:06,760 Speaker 1: his band from Arizona to San Francisco also, and they 952 01:03:07,040 --> 01:03:09,160 Speaker 1: they were a four piece band, the Beans. They had 953 01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:16,120 Speaker 1: a drummer, keyboard, bass, guitar and uh and the and 954 01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,960 Speaker 1: they had a manager named Lauren, and Lauren and John 955 01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:23,680 Speaker 1: were good friends. And after a while they kind of 956 01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:27,440 Speaker 1: gave up trying to find the bass player, and John 957 01:03:27,520 --> 01:03:31,280 Speaker 1: talked Lauren into letting Roger and Prairie joined Bill's band, 958 01:03:31,880 --> 01:03:36,360 Speaker 1: so there would be two drummers, two guitar players, and 959 01:03:36,360 --> 01:03:43,240 Speaker 1: and and I talked my I actually talked myself into 960 01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:46,560 Speaker 1: being the background singer. And Roger said, yeah, you know, 961 01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:48,320 Speaker 1: he's a pretty good singer. He's been singing in the 962 01:03:48,320 --> 01:03:51,400 Speaker 1: garage with us, and and you know, nobody was getting paid, 963 01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:55,440 Speaker 1: so it really didn't mean anything. And uh, there was 964 01:03:55,480 --> 01:03:59,040 Speaker 1: not like another mouth to pay. So I became the 965 01:03:59,080 --> 01:04:02,560 Speaker 1: background singer for the Bill's band, the Beans, and we 966 01:04:02,560 --> 01:04:07,720 Speaker 1: were the Beans, and I didn't we didn't have many gigs, 967 01:04:07,760 --> 01:04:10,720 Speaker 1: but you know, we we got a few gigs here 968 01:04:10,720 --> 01:04:12,640 Speaker 1: and there. And I was the background singer and I'd 969 01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:19,280 Speaker 1: sing background vocals and uh, I sang too loud. That's 970 01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:22,280 Speaker 1: what they kept saying, Dude, you're the background singer. Okay, 971 01:04:22,520 --> 01:04:24,800 Speaker 1: you sing too loud. You're just supposed to blend in. 972 01:04:25,080 --> 01:04:28,120 Speaker 1: You're not blending your tooth. And then finally, instead of 973 01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:29,720 Speaker 1: kicking me out of the band, they said, well, why 974 01:04:29,720 --> 01:04:32,320 Speaker 1: don't you sing the lead? Why don't you sing this? 975 01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:36,320 Speaker 1: And then you know, we used to we we did 976 01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:40,320 Speaker 1: a few cover songs and and I said, you know, 977 01:04:41,720 --> 01:04:45,160 Speaker 1: I used to. I used to do this. Uh, when 978 01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:49,120 Speaker 1: I was in in elementary school at Loloma, at Scot's 979 01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:52,800 Speaker 1: the Loloma Elementary School, they would have an assembly where 980 01:04:52,840 --> 01:04:57,320 Speaker 1: you would do, uh, you would do you'd perform, you know, 981 01:04:57,720 --> 01:05:00,520 Speaker 1: you could do some kind of act and if you 982 01:05:00,520 --> 01:05:03,000 Speaker 1: you know, it was a competition. It was like, you know, 983 01:05:03,480 --> 01:05:07,240 Speaker 1: the Battle of the Bands, only only there weren't any bands. 984 01:05:07,720 --> 01:05:19,440 Speaker 1: And I I one time, uh, I my bit was uh. 985 01:05:19,480 --> 01:05:22,720 Speaker 1: I would dress up like a soldier and I would 986 01:05:22,720 --> 01:05:27,520 Speaker 1: sing this song. I actually lip sing this song called 987 01:05:27,680 --> 01:05:32,800 Speaker 1: please Mr Custer. Remember that song? Actually I don't please 988 01:05:32,960 --> 01:05:37,640 Speaker 1: Mr Custer. I don't want to go and and in 989 01:05:37,720 --> 01:05:40,760 Speaker 1: the song, the guy gets shot by the Indians and 990 01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:45,120 Speaker 1: he goes and the arrow would come sorry and he 991 01:05:45,120 --> 01:05:52,760 Speaker 1: would die. And I would take up a baggie, a 992 01:05:52,840 --> 01:05:59,320 Speaker 1: ziplock baggie and put stage blood in it. And when 993 01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:01,360 Speaker 1: the art in the song came for the guy to 994 01:06:01,400 --> 01:06:05,520 Speaker 1: get killed and the arrow, the arrow sound was on 995 01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:10,960 Speaker 1: the record, I would slap the baggie and blood would come. 996 01:06:11,040 --> 01:06:13,640 Speaker 1: I wear a white shirt and the blood was squirt 997 01:06:13,680 --> 01:06:16,800 Speaker 1: out and I would fall and I would die. And 998 01:06:16,880 --> 01:06:20,360 Speaker 1: so I said, you know, I have this I could 999 01:06:20,440 --> 01:06:22,760 Speaker 1: I could do this cowboy. I have this funny cowboy 1000 01:06:22,800 --> 01:06:25,480 Speaker 1: bit I could do. And that's kind of kind of 1001 01:06:25,640 --> 01:06:28,440 Speaker 1: we kind of started with the theatrics with that kind 1002 01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:30,840 Speaker 1: of thing. And I said, and so I would dress 1003 01:06:30,920 --> 01:06:33,720 Speaker 1: up like a cowboy and I where I'd made these 1004 01:06:33,920 --> 01:06:38,240 Speaker 1: furrey those hop along Cassidy furrey shaps I made out 1005 01:06:38,280 --> 01:06:43,240 Speaker 1: of carpet, and I would put wear a white cowboy 1006 01:06:43,280 --> 01:06:46,440 Speaker 1: shirt and put the baggy underneath my shirt with blood 1007 01:06:46,440 --> 01:06:49,200 Speaker 1: in it. And we used to do this song by 1008 01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:55,040 Speaker 1: Marty Robbins called El Paso. Remember He'll Passo out in 1009 01:06:55,160 --> 01:06:58,120 Speaker 1: the West Texas town of the l Passo and anyway, 1010 01:06:58,120 --> 01:07:00,160 Speaker 1: in the same in the song, the guy gets shot 1011 01:07:01,440 --> 01:07:04,160 Speaker 1: and he would get shot and then I slapped the 1012 01:07:04,240 --> 01:07:06,840 Speaker 1: bud and the blood would go all over and I 1013 01:07:06,880 --> 01:07:10,720 Speaker 1: would die, and oh my god. They thought that was 1014 01:07:10,800 --> 01:07:14,960 Speaker 1: just the greatest thing, and so that's how it started. 1015 01:07:15,040 --> 01:07:17,680 Speaker 1: And then we started doing, okay, well let's do this 1016 01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:19,440 Speaker 1: kind of bit, and let's do it. I used to 1017 01:07:19,480 --> 01:07:23,960 Speaker 1: do Carmen Miranda and we would sing Brazil and I would, 1018 01:07:25,080 --> 01:07:27,680 Speaker 1: you know, Carmen Miranda had a big head dress of fruit, 1019 01:07:28,560 --> 01:07:30,720 Speaker 1: and so I would make all the heros with a 1020 01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:33,080 Speaker 1: fake and I would wear platforms and I would put 1021 01:07:33,120 --> 01:07:35,320 Speaker 1: real fruit on my head and then I would like 1022 01:07:35,400 --> 01:07:38,480 Speaker 1: eat the grapes as I was singing, and we sang Brazil, 1023 01:07:39,600 --> 01:07:43,880 Speaker 1: Brazil and in Portuguese. I would sing it in Portuguese, 1024 01:07:43,880 --> 01:07:49,200 Speaker 1: all Brazil, Brazilio and uh and do carben rent And 1025 01:07:49,280 --> 01:07:53,920 Speaker 1: so we started developing these characters and and uh and 1026 01:07:53,960 --> 01:07:59,960 Speaker 1: then Quelude and then you know, it's just and then 1027 01:08:00,520 --> 01:08:09,840 Speaker 1: what the rest is history? I guess. So, how do 1028 01:08:09,880 --> 01:08:12,240 Speaker 1: you get a record deal with A and M? We did. 1029 01:08:12,320 --> 01:08:16,519 Speaker 1: We started with the traditional method of sending cassettes out, 1030 01:08:17,080 --> 01:08:20,360 Speaker 1: you know, sending a little cassette out to everybody. We 1031 01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:23,800 Speaker 1: sent cassettes out there all the couple nothing. We got nothing. 1032 01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:29,080 Speaker 1: And uh. At that point, we we had met this 1033 01:08:29,120 --> 01:08:37,160 Speaker 1: guy named Kenny Ortega, and Kenny Ortega was uh. At 1034 01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:40,320 Speaker 1: that point, he was just a he was a dancer 1035 01:08:41,360 --> 01:08:44,320 Speaker 1: and he he had just come back from a regional 1036 01:08:44,760 --> 01:08:48,200 Speaker 1: tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, and he was like a 1037 01:08:48,360 --> 01:08:51,800 Speaker 1: dancer and he wanted to become a choreographer. And he 1038 01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:54,400 Speaker 1: saw us playing in a little club in San Francisco 1039 01:08:54,880 --> 01:08:58,640 Speaker 1: and and trying to do this theatrical stuff, and he 1040 01:08:58,680 --> 01:09:01,640 Speaker 1: came to us and he said, you know, uh, I 1041 01:09:01,760 --> 01:09:05,720 Speaker 1: can I can refine this. I can I can do this. 1042 01:09:05,920 --> 01:09:08,200 Speaker 1: I can do this. I can help you guys. So 1043 01:09:08,200 --> 01:09:11,439 Speaker 1: he said okay, and so we brought him on and 1044 01:09:12,840 --> 01:09:15,320 Speaker 1: I think it was Kenney's idea. Actually, he said, let's 1045 01:09:15,320 --> 01:09:19,920 Speaker 1: do a Let's do a video of of the of 1046 01:09:19,920 --> 01:09:22,720 Speaker 1: of you doing your theatrics and doing k lude and 1047 01:09:22,800 --> 01:09:26,599 Speaker 1: doing all these and send the video out. So that's 1048 01:09:26,600 --> 01:09:28,439 Speaker 1: how we got signed. We sent A and M a 1049 01:09:28,560 --> 01:09:35,639 Speaker 1: video tape of us performing live and doing lude. And 1050 01:09:36,960 --> 01:09:39,759 Speaker 1: this guy at A and M. His name was Kip Cohen. 1051 01:09:39,880 --> 01:09:43,400 Speaker 1: He was A and our guy, and he thought it 1052 01:09:43,439 --> 01:09:46,160 Speaker 1: was great. He went, oh my god, these guys are 1053 01:09:46,240 --> 01:09:49,719 Speaker 1: so fucking weird and you know, and and they're good, 1054 01:09:49,800 --> 01:09:52,160 Speaker 1: they can play, and they've got this other whole theatrical 1055 01:09:52,200 --> 01:09:58,519 Speaker 1: thing going. So they signed us, and uh, and and 1056 01:09:58,680 --> 01:10:01,479 Speaker 1: was so great. And back when they it was at 1057 01:10:01,479 --> 01:10:07,679 Speaker 1: the Charlie Chaplin Studios on Libreya and uh, and it's 1058 01:10:07,720 --> 01:10:12,240 Speaker 1: in Herb and Jerry, I mean Herb used just I 1059 01:10:12,240 --> 01:10:16,760 Speaker 1: mean yeah, Herb used to sit around and it was 1060 01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:19,840 Speaker 1: kind of like a little enclave. It was like the 1061 01:10:19,920 --> 01:10:22,280 Speaker 1: parking lot was in the middle and all the buildings 1062 01:10:22,280 --> 01:10:25,040 Speaker 1: around the outside. It was like at a big square 1063 01:10:25,720 --> 01:10:29,080 Speaker 1: and uh and Jerry's office and they had the on 1064 01:10:29,080 --> 01:10:32,360 Speaker 1: one side was the recording studio. They had a recording 1065 01:10:32,400 --> 01:10:36,400 Speaker 1: studio and we'd go there and and Herb was just 1066 01:10:37,160 --> 01:10:39,519 Speaker 1: Herb had his own office and he just sat there 1067 01:10:39,520 --> 01:10:41,840 Speaker 1: and played his horn all day long. So it's just 1068 01:10:41,920 --> 01:10:44,439 Speaker 1: her played his horn. And we were you know, if 1069 01:10:44,439 --> 01:10:46,920 Speaker 1: we went to do like do an interview or do 1070 01:10:47,720 --> 01:10:52,439 Speaker 1: or record in their studio or paint we painted flying 1071 01:10:52,520 --> 01:10:56,120 Speaker 1: records on the side of the wall and you know, 1072 01:10:56,439 --> 01:11:00,960 Speaker 1: just to get get a little extra money. And it 1073 01:11:01,080 --> 01:11:03,320 Speaker 1: was great, it was and it was so great. So 1074 01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:05,479 Speaker 1: how does the name get changed from the Beans to 1075 01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:12,360 Speaker 1: the Tubes? Good story there? Another band from New Jersey 1076 01:11:12,760 --> 01:11:16,880 Speaker 1: came out with the record on I can't remember what 1077 01:11:16,960 --> 01:11:22,080 Speaker 1: label was on, but they were called Beans, just Beans, no, 1078 01:11:22,320 --> 01:11:28,320 Speaker 1: the uh just beads. Uh, and they came out with 1079 01:11:28,360 --> 01:11:32,880 Speaker 1: an album, and I mean I remember calling the record 1080 01:11:33,040 --> 01:11:35,280 Speaker 1: we had the album, went oh my god, there's somebody 1081 01:11:35,280 --> 01:11:38,720 Speaker 1: and another band called the Beans. What you know? And 1082 01:11:39,120 --> 01:11:42,519 Speaker 1: I even called the record company. I said, dude, we're 1083 01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:45,040 Speaker 1: the Beans. We're in San Francisco, We're the Beans. You 1084 01:11:45,040 --> 01:11:48,080 Speaker 1: can't beat the Beans anyway. Yeah, well, tough ship. We 1085 01:11:48,160 --> 01:11:53,800 Speaker 1: published you know that. You're dad. Sorry. So we had 1086 01:11:53,800 --> 01:11:59,000 Speaker 1: to pick a new name, and uh we we we went, 1087 01:11:59,120 --> 01:12:01,439 Speaker 1: we sat down and went, look, we got to change 1088 01:12:01,439 --> 01:12:07,240 Speaker 1: the name. Okay, So every every your assignment is to 1089 01:12:07,960 --> 01:12:12,720 Speaker 1: uh come up with ten names and we're gonna put 1090 01:12:12,760 --> 01:12:15,840 Speaker 1: them all in a hat and then we're gonna pick 1091 01:12:15,840 --> 01:12:20,120 Speaker 1: out a name and that's going to be it. And 1092 01:12:20,200 --> 01:12:23,920 Speaker 1: everybody and everybody put in came up the gas Men. 1093 01:12:24,960 --> 01:12:29,720 Speaker 1: The another was another Larry and Mary. I mean, there 1094 01:12:29,800 --> 01:12:37,000 Speaker 1: was all kinds of weird names. And uh, Mike Cotton 1095 01:12:37,640 --> 01:12:40,200 Speaker 1: the since actually he wasn't even in the band at 1096 01:12:40,240 --> 01:12:43,600 Speaker 1: the time. He wasn't. He was a synthesizer player and 1097 01:12:44,400 --> 01:12:48,240 Speaker 1: uh he had this gear, but he really didn't know 1098 01:12:48,240 --> 01:12:51,360 Speaker 1: how to use it at that point, and uh, but 1099 01:12:51,479 --> 01:12:53,800 Speaker 1: he was a friend and he was from Arizona and 1100 01:12:53,880 --> 01:12:56,360 Speaker 1: he was living with us and helping, and so he 1101 01:12:56,479 --> 01:13:05,240 Speaker 1: put in, uh, tubes, rods and bulbs, tubes, rods and bulbs, 1102 01:13:06,000 --> 01:13:13,920 Speaker 1: and which which are different kinds of cells of the eyeball. Okay, 1103 01:13:14,800 --> 01:13:17,960 Speaker 1: and he thought, this is perfectly. We're a visual so 1104 01:13:18,560 --> 01:13:20,800 Speaker 1: why not, you know, have a name that refers to 1105 01:13:20,960 --> 01:13:25,639 Speaker 1: some kind of visual reference. And but what happened was 1106 01:13:27,920 --> 01:13:30,439 Speaker 1: we we decided to let our dog pick the name. 1107 01:13:31,400 --> 01:13:34,880 Speaker 1: We had a prairie had a dog named Sandwich. It 1108 01:13:35,000 --> 01:13:39,200 Speaker 1: was like a ridge back mixed. It's a great dog. 1109 01:13:39,320 --> 01:13:45,200 Speaker 1: Sandwich was a great dog. And they put mayonnaise on 1110 01:13:45,240 --> 01:13:48,160 Speaker 1: the slip of paper that said tubes, rods and bulbs, 1111 01:13:48,880 --> 01:13:51,679 Speaker 1: and Sandwich went right for the mayonnaise and picked out tubes, 1112 01:13:51,760 --> 01:13:56,360 Speaker 1: rods and balls, and we went, okay, tubes, rods and bulbs. Boy, 1113 01:13:56,439 --> 01:14:00,360 Speaker 1: but it's it's a kind of a tongue twister, you know, tubes, 1114 01:14:00,479 --> 01:14:03,360 Speaker 1: rods and bulbs, and they're gonna end up shortening it 1115 01:14:03,439 --> 01:14:06,840 Speaker 1: to like TRB or something. So he said, let's just 1116 01:14:06,920 --> 01:14:10,400 Speaker 1: make it the tubes. You know, the tubes, and it's 1117 01:14:10,439 --> 01:14:16,400 Speaker 1: you know, the boob tube and you know cathode ray tube, 1118 01:14:17,200 --> 01:14:22,280 Speaker 1: laser tubes, fallopian tubes. We tried. We were at one 1119 01:14:22,320 --> 01:14:25,200 Speaker 1: point we're going to, well, let's make it the like 1120 01:14:25,439 --> 01:14:30,320 Speaker 1: a real reference, a TV reference because we're visual, and 1121 01:14:31,360 --> 01:14:35,559 Speaker 1: we'll make it the boob tubes, and nah, boobs. That's 1122 01:14:35,600 --> 01:14:39,920 Speaker 1: not gonna work. You can't just say boobs in your band. 1123 01:14:40,720 --> 01:14:43,800 Speaker 1: So we just shortened the tubes. Okay, how do you 1124 01:14:43,880 --> 01:14:45,920 Speaker 1: end up working with Al Cooper on the first album? 1125 01:14:45,960 --> 01:14:48,800 Speaker 1: It was a record company's choice. Al was just, you know, 1126 01:14:49,080 --> 01:14:55,160 Speaker 1: l was you know, I really didn't understand, you know why, 1127 01:14:55,280 --> 01:14:57,880 Speaker 1: but they thought we were kind of bluesy and he 1128 01:14:57,920 --> 01:15:01,519 Speaker 1: was a blues guy and I don't I don't know, 1129 01:15:01,680 --> 01:15:05,840 Speaker 1: but you know, he was. He was. He was a 1130 01:15:05,880 --> 01:15:08,160 Speaker 1: piece of work. I'll tell you. Al was great. And 1131 01:15:08,320 --> 01:15:15,880 Speaker 1: uh uh uh he actually and we had and we 1132 01:15:15,880 --> 01:15:18,240 Speaker 1: we went through all the songs and we finally picked 1133 01:15:18,240 --> 01:15:19,960 Speaker 1: the songs that we were going to be on the record. 1134 01:15:20,320 --> 01:15:23,280 Speaker 1: Al wanted to, you know, when we had this one song, 1135 01:15:23,360 --> 01:15:27,559 Speaker 1: white Books on Dope, and Al said, you know, there's 1136 01:15:27,560 --> 01:15:29,840 Speaker 1: a long there was a long instrumental part. And we 1137 01:15:29,880 --> 01:15:33,240 Speaker 1: also had this other song called Mala Gania salar Rosa, 1138 01:15:33,320 --> 01:15:38,640 Speaker 1: which is a you know, a Mexican song and we 1139 01:15:38,720 --> 01:15:42,800 Speaker 1: kind of actually we there was a band at in 1140 01:15:42,880 --> 01:15:48,800 Speaker 1: Japan at the Mexican Pavilion, and they were incredible mariachi 1141 01:15:48,840 --> 01:15:52,160 Speaker 1: band and they played we got that song, but we 1142 01:15:52,280 --> 01:15:56,000 Speaker 1: recorded them playing Mala Gania salar Rosa and we made 1143 01:15:56,000 --> 01:15:58,759 Speaker 1: our own version of it. And actually that came from Japan. 1144 01:15:59,400 --> 01:16:03,000 Speaker 1: But Alt wanted to stick that in the middle of 1145 01:16:03,160 --> 01:16:07,160 Speaker 1: White Punks. He said, as we fade down and before 1146 01:16:07,200 --> 01:16:10,240 Speaker 1: we come back up, we'll go right to malan and 1147 01:16:10,320 --> 01:16:13,840 Speaker 1: stick it in the no al. No, we can't, so 1148 01:16:13,880 --> 01:16:19,639 Speaker 1: we didn't. Anyway, we didn't do that. And but we 1149 01:16:19,640 --> 01:16:26,679 Speaker 1: were at the we were at Sunset Sound back when 1150 01:16:26,680 --> 01:16:32,840 Speaker 1: it was on Third Street, and and when we were 1151 01:16:32,840 --> 01:16:35,479 Speaker 1: doing White Punks on Dope, we wanted, you know, we 1152 01:16:35,520 --> 01:16:39,680 Speaker 1: wanted a big uh. We wanted a big group to 1153 01:16:39,880 --> 01:16:43,720 Speaker 1: sing the big chorus White Punks on Dope. And so 1154 01:16:45,439 --> 01:16:49,240 Speaker 1: we went down there was another band UH playing down 1155 01:16:49,240 --> 01:16:53,679 Speaker 1: the hall and and we didn't know who they were, 1156 01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:56,880 Speaker 1: and we just said, can you guys come and help us, 1157 01:16:57,360 --> 01:16:59,479 Speaker 1: and can you all sing this big chorus with us 1158 01:16:59,479 --> 01:17:02,639 Speaker 1: and white so Dope? Yeah, sure? Coming out. What turns 1159 01:17:02,640 --> 01:17:07,960 Speaker 1: out it was the Eagles, and but they wouldn't let 1160 01:17:08,040 --> 01:17:10,519 Speaker 1: us put their name on the record, and they said, oh, 1161 01:17:10,560 --> 01:17:13,439 Speaker 1: we can't do that because that's you know, that's okay. 1162 01:17:13,439 --> 01:17:16,200 Speaker 1: So the album comes out or is the band happy 1163 01:17:16,240 --> 01:17:18,720 Speaker 1: with the album? I wasn't happy. I mean I I 1164 01:17:18,840 --> 01:17:21,040 Speaker 1: loved you know, I was so thrilled to be to 1165 01:17:21,120 --> 01:17:23,639 Speaker 1: make it, actually make our first record. I mean, I 1166 01:17:23,680 --> 01:17:29,120 Speaker 1: was overjoyed. I was so thrilled and as was everyone 1167 01:17:29,439 --> 01:17:31,719 Speaker 1: we you know, it was really a lot of fun 1168 01:17:32,040 --> 01:17:38,160 Speaker 1: and uh, but we had created this song what do 1169 01:17:38,200 --> 01:17:41,800 Speaker 1: you Want from Life? And they the record company said, 1170 01:17:41,800 --> 01:17:43,600 Speaker 1: well this, I think this is the first single, what 1171 01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:49,400 Speaker 1: do you Want from Life? And uh, uh, you know, 1172 01:17:49,400 --> 01:17:55,720 Speaker 1: and it has the the kind of the the end 1173 01:17:55,760 --> 01:17:58,400 Speaker 1: part when you know, if you're an American citizen, you're 1174 01:17:58,520 --> 01:18:00,360 Speaker 1: entitled to He didn't get in his shape goal of 1175 01:18:00,720 --> 01:18:03,880 Speaker 1: microwave eleven, don't watch the cood diet to jam, I'll 1176 01:18:03,880 --> 01:18:06,479 Speaker 1: personally illustrate in the privacy, on on and on and 1177 01:18:06,520 --> 01:18:08,880 Speaker 1: on and on. How about a new car? You know, 1178 01:18:09,920 --> 01:18:12,720 Speaker 1: Winnibego heard of winnebegos word giving him away and that 1179 01:18:12,840 --> 01:18:16,920 Speaker 1: was from cal Worthington, And uh, cal Worthington used to 1180 01:18:17,000 --> 01:18:20,519 Speaker 1: be in Arizona. Before California, and we had all these 1181 01:18:20,560 --> 01:18:27,000 Speaker 1: references to well they cut the first what the first 1182 01:18:27,000 --> 01:18:30,120 Speaker 1: thing they did was cut all that out and edited 1183 01:18:30,240 --> 01:18:33,120 Speaker 1: the song without that. They went, oh, well if we 1184 01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:36,240 Speaker 1: I said, but that's the that's what makes it so 1185 01:18:37,200 --> 01:18:40,880 Speaker 1: hilarious and unique. And you know they want, yeah, but 1186 01:18:41,040 --> 01:18:44,600 Speaker 1: you're gonna you'll be you'll be earmarked as a novelty 1187 01:18:44,640 --> 01:18:50,439 Speaker 1: band if you leave this in soh So they cut 1188 01:18:50,479 --> 01:18:53,559 Speaker 1: it out and it's you know, it didn't really do 1189 01:18:53,600 --> 01:18:56,479 Speaker 1: anything as a as a first single. Okay, so you 1190 01:18:56,560 --> 01:18:59,200 Speaker 1: make the record without, which I believe is your best 1191 01:18:59,240 --> 01:19:02,880 Speaker 1: work and certainly classic some of VAL's best work. The 1192 01:19:02,960 --> 01:19:07,479 Speaker 1: next record has don't Touch Me there, but it's done 1193 01:19:07,520 --> 01:19:11,679 Speaker 1: with Ken Scott. But what what was the band's view 1194 01:19:11,720 --> 01:19:15,400 Speaker 1: on the final product there? Kin Scott probably didn't say 1195 01:19:15,479 --> 01:19:20,000 Speaker 1: ten words the whole time we made that record, you know, 1196 01:19:20,120 --> 01:19:23,519 Speaker 1: and we made it at at Studio A on the 1197 01:19:23,600 --> 01:19:28,400 Speaker 1: lot at A and M, and uh, you know, we 1198 01:19:28,400 --> 01:19:32,040 Speaker 1: we'd go out and and play and we'd come back 1199 01:19:32,080 --> 01:19:35,160 Speaker 1: in and okay, how was it Kennon. Ken would just 1200 01:19:36,240 --> 01:19:42,360 Speaker 1: sit there and to kind of go wasn't perfect and 1201 01:19:42,400 --> 01:19:46,559 Speaker 1: that's it and nothing else, and you know he was 1202 01:19:46,640 --> 01:19:50,559 Speaker 1: I guess a brilliant engineer, you know, and you know, Okay, 1203 01:19:50,560 --> 01:19:52,360 Speaker 1: well let's go back out and do it again. And 1204 01:19:53,760 --> 01:19:57,040 Speaker 1: but Don't Touch Me There actually charted. That was our 1205 01:19:57,479 --> 01:20:07,280 Speaker 1: first our first charted single, uh and uh, which actually 1206 01:20:07,360 --> 01:20:10,400 Speaker 1: was not written by us. It was written by Jane 1207 01:20:10,640 --> 01:20:14,040 Speaker 1: Jane Dornacker, who was one of the two bets, and 1208 01:20:14,400 --> 01:20:19,559 Speaker 1: a guy named Ron Nagel. And uh, you know, we 1209 01:20:19,560 --> 01:20:22,679 Speaker 1: were thrilled. I mean, we gotta we were. We made 1210 01:20:22,680 --> 01:20:26,600 Speaker 1: the top forty, you know, so uh and that was 1211 01:20:26,920 --> 01:20:30,720 Speaker 1: that song was a great visually, really great. We we 1212 01:20:31,160 --> 01:20:36,680 Speaker 1: used to uh, we'd go into a town and we uh, 1213 01:20:38,200 --> 01:20:42,719 Speaker 1: we'd get somebody to loan us there Harley Davidson, Harley 1214 01:20:42,800 --> 01:20:45,960 Speaker 1: Davidson motorcycle because we we used to do this. It 1215 01:20:46,040 --> 01:20:50,120 Speaker 1: was like a you know, the bad boy Marlon Brando 1216 01:20:50,360 --> 01:20:54,920 Speaker 1: from the Wild One and the Girl and we do 1217 01:20:55,040 --> 01:20:57,880 Speaker 1: the song on a motorcycle and I would ride the 1218 01:20:57,880 --> 01:21:01,120 Speaker 1: thing onto the stage, you know, and rev it up 1219 01:21:01,160 --> 01:21:04,960 Speaker 1: and get smoked, you know, really loud, and and then 1220 01:21:05,000 --> 01:21:12,200 Speaker 1: we would sing don't touch Me there and uh and uh. 1221 01:21:12,280 --> 01:21:14,360 Speaker 1: And the funny thing was with I mean, the bit 1222 01:21:14,439 --> 01:21:20,120 Speaker 1: with the song was the there was her knee, you know, 1223 01:21:20,360 --> 01:21:23,200 Speaker 1: and I would be trying to touch her knee and no, no, no, 1224 01:21:23,200 --> 01:21:30,120 Speaker 1: no to as a preparoity. And so you know we 1225 01:21:30,320 --> 01:21:34,639 Speaker 1: used to every time we you know, and for a while, 1226 01:21:35,520 --> 01:21:39,320 Speaker 1: I mean for a while, we uh uh we had 1227 01:21:39,360 --> 01:21:43,280 Speaker 1: a we had Well, eventually they wouldn't let us bring 1228 01:21:43,680 --> 01:21:50,200 Speaker 1: a combustible Indian engine machine into the gig, into the venue. 1229 01:21:50,600 --> 01:21:53,880 Speaker 1: You couldn't bring a motorcycle on stage, you know, to 1230 01:21:54,240 --> 01:21:57,160 Speaker 1: fire hazard. So we would we kind of built this 1231 01:21:57,280 --> 01:22:02,479 Speaker 1: fake motorcycle out of a frame and tin cans and 1232 01:22:02,520 --> 01:22:08,840 Speaker 1: ship and we would have Mike on his our synthesizer 1233 01:22:09,200 --> 01:22:13,200 Speaker 1: fake the noise of a of a of an engine 1234 01:22:13,800 --> 01:22:16,840 Speaker 1: and uh so that was you know, okay, And how 1235 01:22:16,840 --> 01:22:19,160 Speaker 1: did re Styles end up in the band doing that 1236 01:22:19,280 --> 01:22:23,759 Speaker 1: duet with you? Well, really was a prairieous girlfriend, okay. 1237 01:22:24,320 --> 01:22:30,960 Speaker 1: And she was gorgeous, and you know she was not shy, okay, 1238 01:22:31,240 --> 01:22:35,919 Speaker 1: she was willing to you know, show her breasts and 1239 01:22:35,920 --> 01:22:40,560 Speaker 1: and just she kind of started as a you know, uh, 1240 01:22:40,760 --> 01:22:43,720 Speaker 1: she started as just one of the dancers. You know, 1241 01:22:43,800 --> 01:22:47,280 Speaker 1: we had five dancers. We had Leland and the Snakes. 1242 01:22:47,320 --> 01:22:53,120 Speaker 1: We had Leland, this this this troop of of uh 1243 01:22:53,120 --> 01:22:56,200 Speaker 1: of four girls that we found in a little club 1244 01:22:56,240 --> 01:22:59,920 Speaker 1: on Polk Street in San Francisco, and we would they 1245 01:23:00,000 --> 01:23:04,280 Speaker 1: were the dancers, and so Kenny would choreograph them and 1246 01:23:04,560 --> 01:23:08,200 Speaker 1: they would and then we would do kind of special stuff. 1247 01:23:08,200 --> 01:23:10,639 Speaker 1: She would do bondage with me and she would do 1248 01:23:11,160 --> 01:23:14,000 Speaker 1: she would play various parts like the other girls did, 1249 01:23:14,520 --> 01:23:19,920 Speaker 1: and and then we kind of realized, you know, she's 1250 01:23:19,960 --> 01:23:24,920 Speaker 1: a pretty good singer, and so we started having she 1251 01:23:25,360 --> 01:23:28,120 Speaker 1: kind of worked her way into being a featured vocalist 1252 01:23:28,160 --> 01:23:30,720 Speaker 1: with us. So how does Mingo Lewis end up in 1253 01:23:30,760 --> 01:23:37,000 Speaker 1: the band Mingo Lewis, Well, he was a drummer friend 1254 01:23:37,040 --> 01:23:41,360 Speaker 1: of Prairies, you know in San Francisco, and uh, you know, 1255 01:23:41,439 --> 01:23:44,160 Speaker 1: he started, you know, he said, oh just let me, 1256 01:23:44,920 --> 01:23:47,720 Speaker 1: you know, let me sit in with you guys, and 1257 01:23:47,720 --> 01:23:52,280 Speaker 1: and he would bring his congas and he was just incredible. 1258 01:23:52,320 --> 01:23:55,120 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure he still is. Uh. And he 1259 01:23:55,120 --> 01:23:58,120 Speaker 1: would play his congas and said, oh god dude, and 1260 01:23:59,600 --> 01:24:04,880 Speaker 1: uh oh. We always loved the idea of two drummers 1261 01:24:05,680 --> 01:24:10,080 Speaker 1: when we first when we first joined Bill's band, we 1262 01:24:10,120 --> 01:24:13,200 Speaker 1: had two drummers. There was Bill had a drummer named 1263 01:24:13,240 --> 01:24:18,240 Speaker 1: Bob McIntosh and and Prairie and Bob would play together, 1264 01:24:18,280 --> 01:24:23,519 Speaker 1: and Bob was like the really solid, you know, really 1265 01:24:23,600 --> 01:24:27,439 Speaker 1: solid guy, and Prairie was the flourish, you know, ad 1266 01:24:27,520 --> 01:24:30,960 Speaker 1: lib kind of guy. And they really were great together. 1267 01:24:31,160 --> 01:24:37,519 Speaker 1: And Bob unfortunately died of cancer in before we ever 1268 01:24:37,560 --> 01:24:41,559 Speaker 1: got a deal, in I think seventy two. He got 1269 01:24:41,680 --> 01:24:45,960 Speaker 1: limph node cancer and it just killed him and it 1270 01:24:46,080 --> 01:24:49,120 Speaker 1: was really sad. And so we always kind of liked 1271 01:24:49,160 --> 01:24:53,360 Speaker 1: the idea of two drummers. And then so when Mingo started, 1272 01:24:53,680 --> 01:24:55,840 Speaker 1: you know, we said, Okay, that's great, let's go back 1273 01:24:55,840 --> 01:24:58,559 Speaker 1: to two drummers. And then we did a couple of 1274 01:24:58,560 --> 01:25:02,840 Speaker 1: tours with him, and uh, he wrote that song god 1275 01:25:02,840 --> 01:25:07,120 Speaker 1: Bird Change on the third album, and and we you know, 1276 01:25:07,160 --> 01:25:11,240 Speaker 1: we carried two drummers, and he was I was incredible. 1277 01:25:11,320 --> 01:25:13,680 Speaker 1: He's a great, great player. But you made him a 1278 01:25:13,720 --> 01:25:18,120 Speaker 1: full member of the band. Okay, the next album, you 1279 01:25:18,200 --> 01:25:21,000 Speaker 1: end up doing a cover of Captain beef Hearts, My 1280 01:25:21,160 --> 01:25:24,080 Speaker 1: Head is My Only House and Less It Rains from 1281 01:25:24,080 --> 01:25:27,960 Speaker 1: Clear Spot, his most commercial work at that point, most successible. 1282 01:25:28,120 --> 01:25:29,439 Speaker 1: How did you end up doing that? How did you 1283 01:25:29,520 --> 01:25:32,519 Speaker 1: end up meeting beef Heart? We were huge beef Heart fans, 1284 01:25:33,000 --> 01:25:34,960 Speaker 1: I mean that he was in it. I mean, we 1285 01:25:35,080 --> 01:25:38,000 Speaker 1: loved beef Heart. We you know, we had seen him 1286 01:25:38,280 --> 01:25:42,880 Speaker 1: quite a number of times in San Francisco his band play, 1287 01:25:43,000 --> 01:25:45,799 Speaker 1: and you know Zappa too. We were big Zappa fans. 1288 01:25:45,840 --> 01:25:49,120 Speaker 1: We loved Frank Zappa and saw Mothers of inventioned quite 1289 01:25:49,160 --> 01:25:53,840 Speaker 1: a few times. And uh, you know, we were just 1290 01:25:55,240 --> 01:25:58,280 Speaker 1: we We found out that beef Art lived out in Lancaster, 1291 01:25:59,080 --> 01:26:01,320 Speaker 1: and we ahold of him. You know, we had seen 1292 01:26:01,400 --> 01:26:03,479 Speaker 1: him a number of times, and we got ahold of 1293 01:26:03,560 --> 01:26:08,639 Speaker 1: him and we asked he also played his his horn 1294 01:26:09,080 --> 01:26:13,160 Speaker 1: on Cathy's Clone on that album, and uh, and we 1295 01:26:13,200 --> 01:26:16,080 Speaker 1: told him, yeah, we're gonna do We're gonna do one 1296 01:26:16,080 --> 01:26:19,719 Speaker 1: of your songs. My head is my only house and 1297 01:26:18,960 --> 01:26:22,360 Speaker 1: h and we got him into the studio and uh 1298 01:26:23,200 --> 01:26:26,120 Speaker 1: and let him just I mean, we just said, here's 1299 01:26:26,160 --> 01:26:33,000 Speaker 1: the song. Just go just freak out, you know. And uh, 1300 01:26:33,160 --> 01:26:36,479 Speaker 1: he was such a cool guy. I mean, and how strange, 1301 01:26:36,560 --> 01:26:40,439 Speaker 1: how strange was he in real life? He wasn't that strange. 1302 01:26:40,520 --> 01:26:42,919 Speaker 1: I don't, I don't, you know, he wasn't that strange. 1303 01:26:43,320 --> 01:26:45,960 Speaker 1: He was a pretty normal guy. I mean, he wasn't 1304 01:26:46,000 --> 01:26:48,800 Speaker 1: into drugs or anything like that, or alcohol and We 1305 01:26:48,880 --> 01:26:51,160 Speaker 1: had a fine recording session with him. It was not 1306 01:26:51,240 --> 01:26:54,559 Speaker 1: a problem. And he was great on his soprano sas 1307 01:26:55,080 --> 01:26:57,000 Speaker 1: you know on that song Gosh, I think he did 1308 01:26:57,040 --> 01:26:59,640 Speaker 1: it and just one or two takes, you know, he 1309 01:26:59,680 --> 01:27:04,160 Speaker 1: was so good. And at that point, uh, I don't 1310 01:27:04,160 --> 01:27:06,240 Speaker 1: know if he was still performing with his band at 1311 01:27:06,240 --> 01:27:10,479 Speaker 1: that point, but we used to see remember the drummer 1312 01:27:10,560 --> 01:27:13,760 Speaker 1: drumbo or would would would do a solo with just 1313 01:27:13,880 --> 01:27:17,680 Speaker 1: his hands. He'd break, he'd throw his sticks down and 1314 01:27:17,800 --> 01:27:20,640 Speaker 1: just start playing this kid with his hands. And and 1315 01:27:20,680 --> 01:27:25,200 Speaker 1: then and Zorn Rollo would you know, had a a 1316 01:27:25,240 --> 01:27:30,080 Speaker 1: toaster he had turned into a hat. And oh god, 1317 01:27:30,840 --> 01:27:33,880 Speaker 1: they I mean they were theatrical. I mean we loved that. 1318 01:27:34,040 --> 01:27:38,280 Speaker 1: We loved the theater. Anybody theatrical. I mean Alice. I 1319 01:27:38,320 --> 01:27:42,760 Speaker 1: mean we've played with Alice many many times and I 1320 01:27:43,080 --> 01:27:49,760 Speaker 1: were you know, I've I've I've done his charity's he's 1321 01:27:49,840 --> 01:27:52,639 Speaker 1: he's a good guy, Alice Is. He has a great 1322 01:27:52,720 --> 01:27:57,960 Speaker 1: charity foundation in Arizona, the Solid Rock Foundation. And we've 1323 01:27:58,000 --> 01:28:00,960 Speaker 1: done his Christmas show, and we've in his golf tournament 1324 01:28:01,000 --> 01:28:05,559 Speaker 1: in April, and we've toured with him. And I think 1325 01:28:05,680 --> 01:28:09,400 Speaker 1: eighteen that we went to the UK with him and 1326 01:28:09,520 --> 01:28:13,400 Speaker 1: opened for him in big in Wembley. We played Wembley 1327 01:28:13,439 --> 01:28:17,280 Speaker 1: Arena and all these big thirty thousand theaters with him 1328 01:28:17,400 --> 01:28:19,680 Speaker 1: and have played a lot of gigs with him over 1329 01:28:19,720 --> 01:28:23,080 Speaker 1: the years. You know, Shef is Sheep is a good guy. 1330 01:28:23,160 --> 01:28:27,639 Speaker 1: His manager, Chef Gordon, is a good guy. And uh so, 1331 01:28:27,760 --> 01:28:29,800 Speaker 1: I mean we were always kind of drawn to those 1332 01:28:29,880 --> 01:28:32,280 Speaker 1: kinds of people, those kind of theat you know, the 1333 01:28:32,439 --> 01:28:36,920 Speaker 1: Genesis in the early days that would do a visual 1334 01:28:37,320 --> 01:28:42,520 Speaker 1: type of performance or the plasmatics. Remember Wendy O Williams. 1335 01:28:42,640 --> 01:28:45,679 Speaker 1: I saw him at the Whiskey, right. Really, I knew 1336 01:28:45,680 --> 01:28:49,520 Speaker 1: Wendy and I always used to kid her because she 1337 01:28:49,520 --> 01:28:52,280 Speaker 1: she I said, Wendy, you stole my chainsaw bit, right, 1338 01:28:52,439 --> 01:28:55,920 Speaker 1: you know, I was my bit. And I gotta ask 1339 01:28:55,960 --> 01:28:57,760 Speaker 1: you because I remember, you know, seeing you at the 1340 01:28:57,880 --> 01:29:00,720 Speaker 1: Rocks before the album came out. Yeah, and you had 1341 01:29:00,720 --> 01:29:04,080 Speaker 1: a printed list of the songs and one of them 1342 01:29:04,160 --> 01:29:06,400 Speaker 1: was rock and Roll Hospital. I believe it was the 1343 01:29:06,439 --> 01:29:09,320 Speaker 1: name of the song. You ran through the audience with 1344 01:29:09,560 --> 01:29:12,280 Speaker 1: this chainsaw and then said, oh, we're to have to operate. 1345 01:29:12,560 --> 01:29:16,200 Speaker 1: Whatever happened to that song, well, it never got recorded, 1346 01:29:16,640 --> 01:29:19,200 Speaker 1: It never got recorded. Rock and Roll Hospital never got 1347 01:29:19,240 --> 01:29:23,040 Speaker 1: recorded where I would come out as the doctor and 1348 01:29:23,040 --> 01:29:27,160 Speaker 1: and you know the with the chainsaw stabbing through a 1349 01:29:27,280 --> 01:29:30,280 Speaker 1: table with the and it was a guitar. It was 1350 01:29:30,320 --> 01:29:33,559 Speaker 1: a pregnant guitar, and then I would pull out the 1351 01:29:33,560 --> 01:29:39,439 Speaker 1: little baby guitar and ah, I and I and I 1352 01:29:39,479 --> 01:29:41,680 Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know. We we every was in 1353 01:29:41,760 --> 01:29:43,800 Speaker 1: a while. We think about, well, I mean, we've brought 1354 01:29:43,800 --> 01:29:46,400 Speaker 1: it back two or three times over the years and 1355 01:29:46,439 --> 01:29:50,280 Speaker 1: done it just you know, as a as a show piece. 1356 01:29:50,880 --> 01:29:54,599 Speaker 1: But it never never got recorded. It never got recorded. 1357 01:30:01,400 --> 01:30:04,720 Speaker 1: So how did you end up working with Todd? Like 1358 01:30:05,000 --> 01:30:08,360 Speaker 1: you knows as you probably it was Prairie, Prairie New Todd, 1359 01:30:08,960 --> 01:30:12,360 Speaker 1: and Prairie still plays with Todd. He just went out 1360 01:30:12,360 --> 01:30:15,840 Speaker 1: with him last year. We have to we have to 1361 01:30:15,880 --> 01:30:18,240 Speaker 1: book way ahead of time in order to get to 1362 01:30:18,400 --> 01:30:22,760 Speaker 1: book Prairie so that Todd doesn't scoop him up. Uh uh, 1363 01:30:24,680 --> 01:30:29,120 Speaker 1: But Todd, we I don't know how. I guess I'm 1364 01:30:29,120 --> 01:30:31,760 Speaker 1: sure I guess it was through Prairie that we met him. Uh. 1365 01:30:32,160 --> 01:30:34,559 Speaker 1: But that out with the first album we did with him, 1366 01:30:34,640 --> 01:30:44,080 Speaker 1: Remote Control, was I think, I mean it was, you know, 1367 01:30:44,160 --> 01:30:49,920 Speaker 1: I always I don't. Uh. You know the phrase can't 1368 01:30:49,960 --> 01:30:54,280 Speaker 1: beat the demo right where you make this great demo 1369 01:30:54,760 --> 01:30:58,000 Speaker 1: and you take it into the studio and then you 1370 01:31:00,120 --> 01:31:02,800 Speaker 1: can't you know, you try this, and you try that, 1371 01:31:02,920 --> 01:31:07,120 Speaker 1: and you try and you try fifteen different ways of 1372 01:31:07,120 --> 01:31:10,519 Speaker 1: of making it better and then and then none of 1373 01:31:10,520 --> 01:31:13,120 Speaker 1: them work, and then you end up going back to 1374 01:31:13,200 --> 01:31:16,920 Speaker 1: the demo again. And I've always thought that. Uh. The 1375 01:31:16,920 --> 01:31:24,160 Speaker 1: thing I love about Remote Control is uh, uh we 1376 01:31:24,200 --> 01:31:28,639 Speaker 1: had no time to second guess ourselves. You know, we 1377 01:31:28,680 --> 01:31:31,280 Speaker 1: had a we you know, every year we used to 1378 01:31:32,000 --> 01:31:36,000 Speaker 1: uh we used to make a record in December January 1379 01:31:36,040 --> 01:31:41,479 Speaker 1: February because the tour would always like started April or 1380 01:31:41,600 --> 01:31:44,120 Speaker 1: March or April, and we would tour all year long 1381 01:31:44,200 --> 01:31:47,519 Speaker 1: in the United States or go to Europe or go wherever. 1382 01:31:48,280 --> 01:31:51,320 Speaker 1: But we tour constantly from like April to the end 1383 01:31:51,320 --> 01:31:56,200 Speaker 1: of the year. Uh So we had a short window 1384 01:31:56,240 --> 01:32:00,679 Speaker 1: of time two create a new record. And we did 1385 01:32:00,680 --> 01:32:04,280 Speaker 1: this like over and over and you know whatever, twelve times, 1386 01:32:04,720 --> 01:32:08,120 Speaker 1: and so we had a we had only a month 1387 01:32:08,560 --> 01:32:12,400 Speaker 1: I think the month of January in that year that 1388 01:32:12,400 --> 01:32:15,639 Speaker 1: that we did Remote Control, which was I think seventy nine, 1389 01:32:16,680 --> 01:32:21,920 Speaker 1: and uh, we didn't have any you know, and you know, 1390 01:32:22,360 --> 01:32:24,920 Speaker 1: after the first two or three albums, you kind of 1391 01:32:25,000 --> 01:32:28,679 Speaker 1: run out of songs, you know that you've created all 1392 01:32:28,680 --> 01:32:31,760 Speaker 1: those years before you got the record deal, right, So 1393 01:32:31,840 --> 01:32:38,759 Speaker 1: we didn't have any songs, really, and I had I had, uh, Uh, 1394 01:32:38,920 --> 01:32:44,080 Speaker 1: I'd read this book. I'm a veracious, voracious reader, and 1395 01:32:44,280 --> 01:32:48,640 Speaker 1: I had read this book by Jersey Kosinski. And I 1396 01:32:48,720 --> 01:32:51,800 Speaker 1: read all of his books. The Painted Bird was a 1397 01:32:51,800 --> 01:32:56,479 Speaker 1: great book. And uh one of his books was called 1398 01:32:56,520 --> 01:32:59,759 Speaker 1: Being There, Okay, And so I had read this book 1399 01:33:00,000 --> 01:33:04,320 Speaker 1: all Being There about the about the rich kid who 1400 01:33:04,439 --> 01:33:08,080 Speaker 1: was put in a you know, a boarding school or 1401 01:33:08,760 --> 01:33:12,760 Speaker 1: or daycare and never got to do anything. It was 1402 01:33:12,960 --> 01:33:15,639 Speaker 1: all he did was watch TV and he had no 1403 01:33:15,760 --> 01:33:21,440 Speaker 1: real experience of life. It was all virtual experience. And 1404 01:33:21,520 --> 01:33:25,000 Speaker 1: so I had this idea, and I approached Todd with 1405 01:33:25,200 --> 01:33:29,000 Speaker 1: I said, you know this. We grew up in Arizona, 1406 01:33:29,360 --> 01:33:34,360 Speaker 1: the band, and we watched TV all day long because 1407 01:33:34,680 --> 01:33:37,679 Speaker 1: you know, it was a hundred and fifty in this summer, 1408 01:33:38,760 --> 01:33:41,680 Speaker 1: it was a hundred twenty degrees outside, so you were 1409 01:33:42,040 --> 01:33:44,800 Speaker 1: you know a lot of time was spent watching TV. 1410 01:33:45,280 --> 01:33:48,360 Speaker 1: And that's why I you know, watching all those Westerns 1411 01:33:49,160 --> 01:33:53,240 Speaker 1: Cereals series on TV. And it's kind of where I 1412 01:33:53,320 --> 01:33:55,080 Speaker 1: kind of got the idea that I wanted to be 1413 01:33:55,120 --> 01:33:59,840 Speaker 1: a cowboy so bad. And I said, let's let's you. 1414 01:34:00,120 --> 01:34:03,120 Speaker 1: I figured this book is obscure. Nobody has ever heard 1415 01:34:03,120 --> 01:34:06,000 Speaker 1: of this book. And I'm gonna I'm gonna take this 1416 01:34:06,120 --> 01:34:10,439 Speaker 1: idea and turn it into remote control with Todd. And 1417 01:34:10,640 --> 01:34:13,120 Speaker 1: you know about the idea of the kid who just 1418 01:34:13,640 --> 01:34:18,160 Speaker 1: has no real experience. It's all virtual experience. He doesn't 1419 01:34:18,160 --> 01:34:20,479 Speaker 1: know anything. He doesn't know about love, he doesn't know 1420 01:34:20,520 --> 01:34:24,040 Speaker 1: about feeling, he doesn't know about anything. It's all TV. 1421 01:34:24,800 --> 01:34:31,400 Speaker 1: And so, uh we had we had some musical material 1422 01:34:32,200 --> 01:34:37,439 Speaker 1: and uh so Todd said, he goes, Okay, this is 1423 01:34:37,439 --> 01:34:41,080 Speaker 1: what we're gonna do. We're gonna we're gonna show up 1424 01:34:41,120 --> 01:34:45,599 Speaker 1: the studio every day and then in the morning, we're 1425 01:34:45,640 --> 01:34:49,479 Speaker 1: gonna write the lyrics to a song, and then we're 1426 01:34:49,479 --> 01:34:51,240 Speaker 1: gonna take a lunch break, and then we're gonna come 1427 01:34:51,280 --> 01:34:53,360 Speaker 1: back and then we're gonna figure out the music and 1428 01:34:53,400 --> 01:34:56,080 Speaker 1: record the song in the afternoon, and then we're gonna 1429 01:34:56,120 --> 01:34:59,040 Speaker 1: put on the vocals at night, and by the end 1430 01:34:59,120 --> 01:35:01,720 Speaker 1: of the day we'll have a whole song. And so 1431 01:35:01,840 --> 01:35:03,960 Speaker 1: that's what we did. We would go in and we'd 1432 01:35:03,960 --> 01:35:06,400 Speaker 1: all sit down together, all of us, seven of us 1433 01:35:06,479 --> 01:35:11,160 Speaker 1: with Todd, and say, okay, what's the what do you 1434 01:35:11,280 --> 01:35:15,240 Speaker 1: what's the first thing you do? Well, turn me on? 1435 01:35:15,960 --> 01:35:19,040 Speaker 1: Turn it you turn it on? Right, Okay, first song 1436 01:35:19,200 --> 01:35:22,840 Speaker 1: is going to be called turned me On. And so 1437 01:35:22,920 --> 01:35:25,400 Speaker 1: we'd sit there and we'd all brainstorm turned me on, 1438 01:35:25,600 --> 01:35:27,920 Speaker 1: turned me onto. And then in the afternoon we go 1439 01:35:28,320 --> 01:35:30,400 Speaker 1: do the music and then we put the vocals on. 1440 01:35:30,640 --> 01:35:32,280 Speaker 1: Then the next day we command and tell you now 1441 01:35:32,360 --> 01:35:37,759 Speaker 1: what okay, uh, TV is King, We love TV. Okay, 1442 01:35:37,920 --> 01:35:40,720 Speaker 1: TV is Kate. That's the next song. So and we 1443 01:35:40,800 --> 01:35:46,920 Speaker 1: did that for the whole record. And but like I said, 1444 01:35:48,000 --> 01:35:52,160 Speaker 1: we didn't have any time to go back and second 1445 01:35:52,200 --> 01:35:54,559 Speaker 1: guess ourselves and go, oh no, well this could be 1446 01:35:54,560 --> 01:35:56,479 Speaker 1: a little bit better. And though if we do a 1447 01:35:56,479 --> 01:36:00,320 Speaker 1: little you know, echo on this or delay on this 1448 01:36:00,640 --> 01:36:05,040 Speaker 1: or that, are just no. Just go with your gut, 1449 01:36:05,520 --> 01:36:09,760 Speaker 1: go with your instinct, go with your first impression and 1450 01:36:09,880 --> 01:36:13,760 Speaker 1: do it. And then you can't change it because you 1451 01:36:13,760 --> 01:36:17,280 Speaker 1: don't have the time or the money because the tour 1452 01:36:17,400 --> 01:36:19,480 Speaker 1: is coming up and the record's got to be released. 1453 01:36:19,920 --> 01:36:22,479 Speaker 1: So that it all works That's why I kind of 1454 01:36:22,520 --> 01:36:25,400 Speaker 1: love that album. And uh, you know you're going in 1455 01:36:25,400 --> 01:36:28,559 Speaker 1: the wrong direction commercially with A and M. Right then 1456 01:36:28,640 --> 01:36:33,280 Speaker 1: you get dropped, right, ultimately picked up by Capital. You 1457 01:36:33,320 --> 01:36:35,080 Speaker 1: know what was going through the heads of the band 1458 01:36:35,080 --> 01:36:37,919 Speaker 1: when you're having you know, less and less commercial success 1459 01:36:37,960 --> 01:36:39,960 Speaker 1: and then you're dropped And how do you get a 1460 01:36:40,040 --> 01:36:44,600 Speaker 1: deal with Capital? You know? Give us the background on that. Okay, 1461 01:36:44,800 --> 01:36:48,960 Speaker 1: our live performance just I mean it was always art 1462 01:36:49,000 --> 01:36:51,640 Speaker 1: for art's sake. I mean, you know we're gonna go 1463 01:36:51,720 --> 01:36:53,960 Speaker 1: out and do a show that it's going to blow 1464 01:36:54,040 --> 01:36:57,439 Speaker 1: your mind. We're gonna spend money. We don't care if 1465 01:36:57,520 --> 01:37:01,639 Speaker 1: we're in debt. We don't care. It's all about the show. 1466 01:37:01,800 --> 01:37:06,280 Speaker 1: It's about the art. And we really were worried about 1467 01:37:06,400 --> 01:37:08,280 Speaker 1: you know, every every time we did a record for 1468 01:37:08,320 --> 01:37:12,320 Speaker 1: A and M, they would give us an advance. You know, 1469 01:37:12,439 --> 01:37:14,880 Speaker 1: back then it was peanut money. It was like a 1470 01:37:14,960 --> 01:37:19,639 Speaker 1: hundred grand or something, and we never recouped. We never 1471 01:37:19,680 --> 01:37:22,360 Speaker 1: made enough sold enough records to pay off the advance 1472 01:37:22,439 --> 01:37:25,439 Speaker 1: to make it. But we didn't care because we had 1473 01:37:25,439 --> 01:37:29,240 Speaker 1: a show that blew people's minds. I mean, we created 1474 01:37:29,320 --> 01:37:33,519 Speaker 1: a leg a visually, a visual performance legacy that's pretty 1475 01:37:33,600 --> 01:37:38,840 Speaker 1: much unmatched by anyone, I think. But so you know, 1476 01:37:38,920 --> 01:37:40,679 Speaker 1: we would go out on the road and we would 1477 01:37:40,760 --> 01:37:45,120 Speaker 1: I mean one whole one time for the completion backward principle. 1478 01:37:45,360 --> 01:37:49,559 Speaker 1: I mean, we built a set that was all around. 1479 01:37:50,640 --> 01:37:57,360 Speaker 1: So you can't pack round stuff in a truck very efficiently, 1480 01:37:58,160 --> 01:38:00,599 Speaker 1: you know, so you have to get an another chart. 1481 01:38:01,160 --> 01:38:03,720 Speaker 1: Oh we don't care. Fuck it, we don't care. It's 1482 01:38:03,880 --> 01:38:07,080 Speaker 1: so what So, I mean a couple of times, you know, 1483 01:38:07,200 --> 01:38:09,840 Speaker 1: we ran out of money out on the road and 1484 01:38:09,880 --> 01:38:11,960 Speaker 1: the manager had to call up A and M and go, hey, 1485 01:38:11,960 --> 01:38:14,200 Speaker 1: look they're out of you know, they're promoting your record. 1486 01:38:14,240 --> 01:38:16,800 Speaker 1: They're on the road, they're out of money. We need 1487 01:38:16,840 --> 01:38:19,600 Speaker 1: to send us some money. So they would send the 1488 01:38:19,680 --> 01:38:24,120 Speaker 1: money and add it to the tab, you know. And 1489 01:38:24,160 --> 01:38:27,160 Speaker 1: so finally that got to be, you know, as you say, 1490 01:38:27,280 --> 01:38:29,719 Speaker 1: that got to be. You know, we ended up leaving 1491 01:38:29,720 --> 01:38:34,080 Speaker 1: ANM just massively in the red. And we you know, 1492 01:38:34,160 --> 01:38:37,040 Speaker 1: we gave him publishing, we gave him everything. We could 1493 01:38:37,320 --> 01:38:40,840 Speaker 1: just keep doing the show. It was about the show. 1494 01:38:41,439 --> 01:38:47,360 Speaker 1: And uh so when we went to I mean and 1495 01:38:47,400 --> 01:38:50,120 Speaker 1: then and then so they dropped us, and so then 1496 01:38:50,439 --> 01:38:56,000 Speaker 1: we uh looked every high and low for another company. 1497 01:38:56,479 --> 01:39:02,640 Speaker 1: And we met this guy at uh Capitol who who 1498 01:39:02,800 --> 01:39:06,680 Speaker 1: uh was? His name was Bobby Columbi. He was an 1499 01:39:06,680 --> 01:39:09,599 Speaker 1: A and R guy, okay, but he was a drummer. 1500 01:39:10,240 --> 01:39:15,040 Speaker 1: He used to be in Blood, Sweat and Tears, right 1501 01:39:15,080 --> 01:39:20,280 Speaker 1: and still owns the name right. Bobby loved Prairie Prince. 1502 01:39:20,960 --> 01:39:23,360 Speaker 1: He just thought, oh my god, this guy is so so. 1503 01:39:23,479 --> 01:39:27,879 Speaker 1: Bobby Columbia as an an our guy at at Capitol, 1504 01:39:29,240 --> 01:39:33,479 Speaker 1: convinced them to give us a deal. He gave. They 1505 01:39:33,479 --> 01:39:37,240 Speaker 1: gave us a three record deal, but each record was 1506 01:39:38,479 --> 01:39:42,360 Speaker 1: based on the performance of the record before it. They said, 1507 01:39:42,360 --> 01:39:45,080 Speaker 1: if the first record does nothing, you're not going to 1508 01:39:45,120 --> 01:39:48,959 Speaker 1: get another record the second ring, you know. So anyway, 1509 01:39:50,320 --> 01:39:55,960 Speaker 1: and and Bobby had this guy David Foster, okay, and 1510 01:39:56,760 --> 01:40:02,760 Speaker 1: David Foster, and he thought, oh god, you know well, 1511 01:40:02,800 --> 01:40:05,040 Speaker 1: I mean, the only thing we knew about David Foster 1512 01:40:05,200 --> 01:40:08,479 Speaker 1: was he just did Boogie Wonderland. Okay, that was the 1513 01:40:08,520 --> 01:40:12,040 Speaker 1: record before us Earth Wind and Fire, Boogie Wonderland. He 1514 01:40:12,080 --> 01:40:15,480 Speaker 1: had a number one song after the Love Has Gone Okay, 1515 01:40:15,600 --> 01:40:21,840 Speaker 1: And we were very skeptical. Okay, we went on and 1516 01:40:21,960 --> 01:40:24,799 Speaker 1: Bobby was saying, when you guys gotta get on the radio. 1517 01:40:25,400 --> 01:40:28,400 Speaker 1: You gotta sell records. You've got it. In order to 1518 01:40:28,400 --> 01:40:31,800 Speaker 1: get a second record here, you've got to make a name. 1519 01:40:32,040 --> 01:40:36,160 Speaker 1: You've got to do something commercially. Oh god, we're just 1520 01:40:36,240 --> 01:40:39,280 Speaker 1: going on, man. And then so David Foster came up 1521 01:40:39,320 --> 01:40:46,599 Speaker 1: to San Francisco and uh to meet with us and 1522 01:40:46,840 --> 01:40:49,040 Speaker 1: you know, to kind of check out our songs and stuff. 1523 01:40:49,600 --> 01:40:57,639 Speaker 1: And and I mean, I mean, the guys, guys unbelievable. Okay. 1524 01:40:57,920 --> 01:41:04,559 Speaker 1: He is a brilliant posician, a brilliant arranger. I mean, 1525 01:41:04,800 --> 01:41:07,320 Speaker 1: he came up and we said, okay. He goes, okay, 1526 01:41:07,400 --> 01:41:10,599 Speaker 1: we'll play me some songs. I said, okay, well okay, 1527 01:41:10,640 --> 01:41:15,000 Speaker 1: So we played him this song Amnesia, and he goes, well, okay, 1528 01:41:15,040 --> 01:41:17,240 Speaker 1: and then he sat down on the piano and he 1529 01:41:17,320 --> 01:41:20,240 Speaker 1: kind of, you know that, he goes, what if you 1530 01:41:20,320 --> 01:41:23,840 Speaker 1: kind of did a modulation here and kind of a 1531 01:41:23,880 --> 01:41:27,000 Speaker 1: big kind of put in this kind of oo part 1532 01:41:27,080 --> 01:41:34,200 Speaker 1: and kind of and we were just oh, you know he, 1533 01:41:34,439 --> 01:41:37,200 Speaker 1: I mean, he just floored us. He floored us with 1534 01:41:37,320 --> 01:41:41,760 Speaker 1: his brilliance and we just went, wow, man, this guy, 1535 01:41:42,200 --> 01:41:47,000 Speaker 1: this guy, this is amazing, you know. And and like 1536 01:41:47,000 --> 01:41:53,439 Speaker 1: like he said, what about ballads? You know, you have 1537 01:41:53,479 --> 01:41:57,840 Speaker 1: any ballads. He went, well, you know, we did a 1538 01:41:57,840 --> 01:42:01,920 Speaker 1: ballot on the last record, and you know, it wasn't 1539 01:42:01,920 --> 01:42:04,920 Speaker 1: a single. And because you know, the company's looking for 1540 01:42:04,960 --> 01:42:07,200 Speaker 1: a ballad, they're looking for a ballad to be the 1541 01:42:07,200 --> 01:42:12,120 Speaker 1: first single, because ballads are happening, you know, it's everybody 1542 01:42:12,160 --> 01:42:17,519 Speaker 1: has got a big rock ballad coming out. Journey R 1543 01:42:17,560 --> 01:42:20,200 Speaker 1: e O. I mean, all these bands were having huge 1544 01:42:20,280 --> 01:42:25,120 Speaker 1: success with ballots, and we just kind of went, well, 1545 01:42:25,240 --> 01:42:29,960 Speaker 1: you know, but Vince, our keyboard player, Vince well Nick, 1546 01:42:31,160 --> 01:42:34,360 Speaker 1: uh he said, well, you know, I have this kind 1547 01:42:34,360 --> 01:42:40,360 Speaker 1: of progression I've been working on, and so he started playing, Uh, 1548 01:42:40,439 --> 01:42:44,000 Speaker 1: I don't want to wait anymore for David, and David 1549 01:42:44,040 --> 01:42:48,160 Speaker 1: went wow. And then you know, David sits down and 1550 01:42:48,200 --> 01:42:51,840 Speaker 1: go again and then and then you put a modulation 1551 01:42:52,000 --> 01:42:55,439 Speaker 1: and then the big finish and then the chorus out 1552 01:42:55,640 --> 01:43:00,840 Speaker 1: and the you know, payoff, and and he said, man, 1553 01:43:00,880 --> 01:43:03,400 Speaker 1: this is it, this will this will work. And I 1554 01:43:03,479 --> 01:43:06,320 Speaker 1: had written the lyrics to it. Uh, he goes, let 1555 01:43:06,360 --> 01:43:09,120 Speaker 1: me hear the lyrics. I wrote game the lyrics because man, 1556 01:43:09,160 --> 01:43:11,439 Speaker 1: this is this is what they're looking for, this is 1557 01:43:11,479 --> 01:43:14,360 Speaker 1: what Capital is looking for a ballad like this. And 1558 01:43:15,200 --> 01:43:21,800 Speaker 1: so we just kind of went this, Okay, you know, 1559 01:43:22,080 --> 01:43:26,880 Speaker 1: this guy is incredible. Okay, let's we're good with this. Okay, 1560 01:43:26,960 --> 01:43:32,639 Speaker 1: let's do it. We're good with this. And uh at 1561 01:43:32,640 --> 01:43:36,599 Speaker 1: the time, we had a manager. His name was Ricky Farr, 1562 01:43:37,120 --> 01:43:40,160 Speaker 1: and Ricky Farr was a Welshman who had a big 1563 01:43:40,160 --> 01:43:44,200 Speaker 1: Sounded Lights company. Uh and he used to do the 1564 01:43:44,200 --> 01:43:48,240 Speaker 1: the the Sounding Lights touring for big you know, Rod 1565 01:43:48,360 --> 01:43:51,920 Speaker 1: Stewart and Stevie Wonder and just you know, he was 1566 01:43:52,040 --> 01:43:54,760 Speaker 1: a big time company and he had never managed the 1567 01:43:54,800 --> 01:43:57,599 Speaker 1: band before. And he was the one that first took 1568 01:43:57,680 --> 01:44:01,519 Speaker 1: us to England. He goes, you guys, with your kind 1569 01:44:01,560 --> 01:44:06,800 Speaker 1: of sarcasm and your parody, they're gonna love you in 1570 01:44:06,840 --> 01:44:10,040 Speaker 1: the UK. So he took us right away. That the 1571 01:44:10,080 --> 01:44:12,679 Speaker 1: first thing he did was take us to England and 1572 01:44:12,880 --> 01:44:16,479 Speaker 1: uh and that was a really smart move. I mean, 1573 01:44:16,479 --> 01:44:20,000 Speaker 1: we are huge in England and are in the UK, 1574 01:44:20,439 --> 01:44:28,719 Speaker 1: and so uh, you know, we just we we we 1575 01:44:28,720 --> 01:44:31,679 Speaker 1: we went for it right away. We went for David 1576 01:44:31,720 --> 01:44:36,000 Speaker 1: Foster and uh and we did that. We did, you know, 1577 01:44:36,760 --> 01:44:43,559 Speaker 1: I actually uh uh we we you know, we got 1578 01:44:43,600 --> 01:44:45,720 Speaker 1: towards the end of the recording of the record and 1579 01:44:45,920 --> 01:44:48,600 Speaker 1: when we still had weird songs. We still had, you know, 1580 01:44:48,760 --> 01:44:52,040 Speaker 1: Mr Hate and Attack of the fifty foot Woman. And 1581 01:44:52,720 --> 01:44:55,840 Speaker 1: you know it wasn't like you know, it wasn't like 1582 01:44:55,920 --> 01:44:59,160 Speaker 1: it was all so commercial, and so you know, we 1583 01:44:59,200 --> 01:45:04,960 Speaker 1: wanted to maintain our weirdness and uh and we got 1584 01:45:05,040 --> 01:45:08,360 Speaker 1: to the end of the project and he goes, well, 1585 01:45:08,400 --> 01:45:11,400 Speaker 1: you know, we we I know they want to release 1586 01:45:11,720 --> 01:45:16,559 Speaker 1: a ballad, but uh uh they all they want that. 1587 01:45:16,720 --> 01:45:19,320 Speaker 1: We need a rock song. We need an A O 1588 01:45:19,600 --> 01:45:23,519 Speaker 1: R kind of rock song. And we played you know, 1589 01:45:23,800 --> 01:45:26,360 Speaker 1: he goes, I don't hear it. I don't. I don't 1590 01:45:26,520 --> 01:45:29,080 Speaker 1: you haven't played it. You don't have that. And so 1591 01:45:29,160 --> 01:45:31,160 Speaker 1: he was the one that said, you know, I have 1592 01:45:31,240 --> 01:45:35,360 Speaker 1: a friend, this this studio musician guy who's in a 1593 01:45:35,360 --> 01:45:38,800 Speaker 1: band called Toto. His name is Steve Luca Fur. And 1594 01:45:38,880 --> 01:45:41,519 Speaker 1: he goes, how about if we meet you and I 1595 01:45:41,640 --> 01:45:43,559 Speaker 1: and Steve meet and we try to come up with 1596 01:45:43,600 --> 01:45:48,840 Speaker 1: a rock song. And so we did, and we met 1597 01:45:49,600 --> 01:45:54,240 Speaker 1: early one morning out in the valley here and and 1598 01:45:54,280 --> 01:45:56,400 Speaker 1: Steve came up with talked to you later in about 1599 01:45:56,439 --> 01:46:01,880 Speaker 1: ten seconds, and I mean, the guy is brilliant, and 1600 01:46:01,880 --> 01:46:06,320 Speaker 1: and so you know, we we we recorded talked to 1601 01:46:06,320 --> 01:46:12,080 Speaker 1: you later and uh, and he's it's okay. I mean 1602 01:46:12,120 --> 01:46:14,800 Speaker 1: that's what we got it, you know. And I think 1603 01:46:14,920 --> 01:46:17,280 Speaker 1: you know that I told you before we were doing 1604 01:46:17,280 --> 01:46:20,439 Speaker 1: Completion Backward Principle. I think Completion Backward Principle was our 1605 01:46:21,479 --> 01:46:26,200 Speaker 1: greatest record. Uh. I mean I love the first album, 1606 01:46:26,240 --> 01:46:34,880 Speaker 1: but we've been doing Completion Backward live, uh, the whole album, 1607 01:46:35,000 --> 01:46:38,160 Speaker 1: like top to bottom, starting well, talk to you later, 1608 01:46:38,280 --> 01:46:41,719 Speaker 1: and right on through the whole album, and it's really 1609 01:46:41,760 --> 01:46:45,479 Speaker 1: gotten a great response. And I love those songs. I 1610 01:46:45,520 --> 01:46:50,559 Speaker 1: love Amnesia and I love Mr Hayde. I completely go mental. 1611 01:46:51,960 --> 01:46:57,120 Speaker 1: I mean I I could be a X murderer if 1612 01:46:57,120 --> 01:47:00,479 Speaker 1: with the straight I love it. I love that. I mean, 1613 01:47:00,479 --> 01:47:04,080 Speaker 1: I love the I love you know, I do these 1614 01:47:04,160 --> 01:47:07,800 Speaker 1: characters and I lose myself, you know, I just completely 1615 01:47:07,880 --> 01:47:11,320 Speaker 1: lose myself in the character and in the and I 1616 01:47:12,000 --> 01:47:16,479 Speaker 1: sometimes I get a little out of control. But uh, 1617 01:47:18,400 --> 01:47:21,599 Speaker 1: you know it's so great to be able to do that, 1618 01:47:21,640 --> 01:47:24,120 Speaker 1: to have the venue, to be able to do that. 1619 01:47:24,320 --> 01:47:26,800 Speaker 1: You know. So you make that record, you have a 1620 01:47:26,800 --> 01:47:29,680 Speaker 1: certain amount of success, then you team up together and 1621 01:47:29,720 --> 01:47:32,559 Speaker 1: you even have more success. So tell me about outside inside. 1622 01:47:32,600 --> 01:47:36,040 Speaker 1: You know, we had we had great success, as you say, 1623 01:47:36,200 --> 01:47:40,280 Speaker 1: and we get ready to do the next record, and 1624 01:47:40,280 --> 01:47:43,799 Speaker 1: and Faz says, you know, let's let's try it again 1625 01:47:44,479 --> 01:47:47,080 Speaker 1: with you and Luke and I, let's try it again. 1626 01:47:47,200 --> 01:47:49,439 Speaker 1: And so we got together and we wrote She's Beauty 1627 01:47:49,439 --> 01:47:54,599 Speaker 1: in about ten minutes, and I mean, once again, Luke's 1628 01:47:54,640 --> 01:48:02,920 Speaker 1: just you know, crazy, crazy good and uh uh we 1629 01:48:03,000 --> 01:48:05,960 Speaker 1: had a great time recording that record, and and and 1630 01:48:06,439 --> 01:48:08,559 Speaker 1: you know we would it would have been even a 1631 01:48:08,600 --> 01:48:12,120 Speaker 1: bigger selling record if it hadn't been for this guy 1632 01:48:12,200 --> 01:48:16,680 Speaker 1: named Val Garay who was the manager of Martha Davis. 1633 01:48:17,439 --> 01:48:19,840 Speaker 1: And I had known Martha for a long time, and 1634 01:48:20,040 --> 01:48:22,880 Speaker 1: we wanted to do we wanted to do a duet 1635 01:48:22,960 --> 01:48:27,599 Speaker 1: on the record, and and so we we picked this 1636 01:48:27,720 --> 01:48:33,320 Speaker 1: song mony Monkey Time, Curtis Mayfield song, and Martha came 1637 01:48:33,360 --> 01:48:36,479 Speaker 1: in and we did a duet on Monkey Time, and 1638 01:48:37,600 --> 01:48:42,519 Speaker 1: uh it was I mean, Fause just said, Okay, this 1639 01:48:42,640 --> 01:48:45,040 Speaker 1: is great. This is gonna be the second single after 1640 01:48:45,120 --> 01:48:48,880 Speaker 1: She's a Beauty. And but then when we get ready, 1641 01:48:49,040 --> 01:48:51,000 Speaker 1: you know, She's a Beauty is a big hit, goes 1642 01:48:51,040 --> 01:48:59,040 Speaker 1: to number two. H h yeah, that's you know, I mean, 1643 01:49:00,360 --> 01:49:02,559 Speaker 1: I so wanted to number one record, but I mean 1644 01:49:03,439 --> 01:49:08,000 Speaker 1: it was so good for us and so great and 1645 01:49:08,000 --> 01:49:14,320 Speaker 1: and uh and you know it's still people go crazy 1646 01:49:14,360 --> 01:49:18,200 Speaker 1: when we played that song, and so we're ready to 1647 01:49:18,240 --> 01:49:21,559 Speaker 1: follow it up with the second song, second single, Monkey Time. 1648 01:49:22,120 --> 01:49:28,840 Speaker 1: And her manager, the manager of the Motels, this guy says, no, 1649 01:49:28,920 --> 01:49:31,840 Speaker 1: you can't release this. Uh, this is We've got a 1650 01:49:31,840 --> 01:49:35,439 Speaker 1: Motel's record coming out in about six months, and this 1651 01:49:35,520 --> 01:49:38,679 Speaker 1: is gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt that it's gonna hurt 1652 01:49:38,720 --> 01:49:45,360 Speaker 1: the sales of this record. And everybody flipped out. Okay, 1653 01:49:46,080 --> 01:49:49,760 Speaker 1: I mean at this time, at this point we had uh. 1654 01:49:49,920 --> 01:49:53,920 Speaker 1: We were with the management company Fitzgerald Hartley and they 1655 01:49:53,960 --> 01:49:57,920 Speaker 1: also managed Total and Mark and Larry. You know, we 1656 01:49:57,960 --> 01:50:01,000 Speaker 1: went to the record company. No, no, no, this is 1657 01:50:01,040 --> 01:50:04,200 Speaker 1: only going to help you. This is gonna help your 1658 01:50:04,320 --> 01:50:11,679 Speaker 1: Motels record. No now and Motels were also on Capitol uh, 1659 01:50:11,960 --> 01:50:14,960 Speaker 1: and he and jumped at it. He went to the 1660 01:50:14,960 --> 01:50:17,599 Speaker 1: record company and said, you can't put this out. I 1661 01:50:17,680 --> 01:50:21,320 Speaker 1: refused to let you. I'm gonna jumped it. I'm gonna 1662 01:50:21,400 --> 01:50:28,040 Speaker 1: sue you, I'm gonna uh and I everyone was just flabbergasted. 1663 01:50:28,080 --> 01:50:31,519 Speaker 1: We couldn't understand it. And and he did it, and 1664 01:50:31,560 --> 01:50:33,640 Speaker 1: we couldn't release it. We had to go. You know. 1665 01:50:33,760 --> 01:50:36,120 Speaker 1: We fought it for you know, I don't know a 1666 01:50:36,120 --> 01:50:39,720 Speaker 1: long time, and finally we realized, now they're not going 1667 01:50:39,760 --> 01:50:42,040 Speaker 1: to do it. You've gotta if you want to do it, 1668 01:50:42,120 --> 01:50:46,280 Speaker 1: you have to rerecorded. You have to peel out her 1669 01:50:46,360 --> 01:50:50,920 Speaker 1: vocal and re recorded. And so we went back in 1670 01:50:51,000 --> 01:50:58,080 Speaker 1: the studio and we replaced her vocal with h one 1671 01:50:58,120 --> 01:51:01,120 Speaker 1: of our one of our dances at the time, Michelle 1672 01:51:01,120 --> 01:51:04,120 Speaker 1: Gray her name is who ends who is now Todd's wife, 1673 01:51:04,800 --> 01:51:09,160 Speaker 1: and and she did a wonderful job. It sounded great. 1674 01:51:09,280 --> 01:51:14,280 Speaker 1: But it was six months later. The whole month everything 1675 01:51:14,400 --> 01:51:19,599 Speaker 1: was gone, momentum gone, you know, and so it never happened. 1676 01:51:19,680 --> 01:51:24,320 Speaker 1: It never it never charted, and you know, the momentum 1677 01:51:24,360 --> 01:51:36,639 Speaker 1: of the record. That was it. The record was done. Okay, 1678 01:51:36,680 --> 01:51:40,720 Speaker 1: So after all that success with Foster, how do you 1679 01:51:40,800 --> 01:51:43,639 Speaker 1: decide to then work with Todd Agan, which ultimately kills 1680 01:51:43,680 --> 01:51:47,240 Speaker 1: the band. I was hoping you wouldn't ask that, But 1681 01:51:49,880 --> 01:51:51,479 Speaker 1: I don't know how to see this, but I think 1682 01:51:51,640 --> 01:51:55,560 Speaker 1: it was for the best. As I look back in retrospect, 1683 01:51:56,040 --> 01:51:58,840 Speaker 1: I think it was time for me to move on. 1684 01:51:59,640 --> 01:52:02,839 Speaker 1: But of course I didn't know that then, did I? Uh, 1685 01:52:02,880 --> 01:52:09,080 Speaker 1: And everybody flipped out. What happened was David came. You know, 1686 01:52:09,200 --> 01:52:15,920 Speaker 1: David was booked to the third album, and uh, David 1687 01:52:16,000 --> 01:52:18,600 Speaker 1: came and sat down with the band and he goes, Okay, look, 1688 01:52:19,200 --> 01:52:22,320 Speaker 1: we had great success with talk to You Later, even 1689 01:52:22,360 --> 01:52:26,160 Speaker 1: more success with She's a Beauty. So what I want 1690 01:52:26,160 --> 01:52:32,080 Speaker 1: to do is I want to right four songs with 1691 01:52:32,800 --> 01:52:36,920 Speaker 1: Fee and Luke and I like we did on talk 1692 01:52:37,280 --> 01:52:42,519 Speaker 1: to You Later and She's a beauty. And so that 1693 01:52:42,600 --> 01:52:46,519 Speaker 1: way I've got I've got a first, second, and third 1694 01:52:46,600 --> 01:52:51,479 Speaker 1: and fourth single and you know, one of you know, 1695 01:52:51,560 --> 01:52:55,320 Speaker 1: a couple of them bound to work, and it's gonna 1696 01:52:55,360 --> 01:52:57,439 Speaker 1: be you know, it's gonna be huge. It's gonna be 1697 01:52:57,439 --> 01:53:03,840 Speaker 1: a big, massive record. And uh. And on the B side, 1698 01:53:05,080 --> 01:53:08,000 Speaker 1: you guys can do whatever you want. You can produce it, 1699 01:53:08,400 --> 01:53:10,840 Speaker 1: you can write it, you can do any songs you want. 1700 01:53:11,240 --> 01:53:14,800 Speaker 1: You can. I don't care. You can do whatever you want, 1701 01:53:16,040 --> 01:53:19,400 Speaker 1: and I will let you do whatever you want. And 1702 01:53:19,560 --> 01:53:25,160 Speaker 1: all I want is side. That was what he proposed 1703 01:53:25,200 --> 01:53:32,880 Speaker 1: to the band, and everyone everyone said and so and 1704 01:53:32,920 --> 01:53:35,559 Speaker 1: the band said, you know, I don't we don't want 1705 01:53:35,600 --> 01:53:38,840 Speaker 1: to do that. No, we're a band. You can't tell 1706 01:53:38,920 --> 01:53:43,600 Speaker 1: us what to do. We're a band. And I was 1707 01:53:43,640 --> 01:53:49,960 Speaker 1: the only one going, man, guys, you gotta just you know, 1708 01:53:50,160 --> 01:53:54,320 Speaker 1: don't don't, don't let your pride fault, you know, kill 1709 01:53:54,400 --> 01:53:58,440 Speaker 1: us here. It's it's okay, you know, it'll be okay. 1710 01:53:58,760 --> 01:54:03,080 Speaker 1: And now they wouldn't do it. I don't know. In retrospect, 1711 01:54:03,120 --> 01:54:07,040 Speaker 1: I understand, you know, it's they their pride was hurt. 1712 01:54:07,120 --> 01:54:09,360 Speaker 1: They felt, you know, we're a band, you can't tell 1713 01:54:09,479 --> 01:54:15,520 Speaker 1: us what to do. Uh And and also they were, 1714 01:54:15,560 --> 01:54:18,800 Speaker 1: you know, they were I think a little miffed that 1715 01:54:18,920 --> 01:54:22,599 Speaker 1: the two hits that we had we had were written 1716 01:54:23,880 --> 01:54:29,240 Speaker 1: by me and Steve and David and uh. So they said, no, 1717 01:54:29,320 --> 01:54:31,800 Speaker 1: we're not going to do it. And the management said, 1718 01:54:31,840 --> 01:54:34,080 Speaker 1: don't do this. The record company said don't do this. 1719 01:54:34,320 --> 01:54:37,920 Speaker 1: I said, don't do this, the agency said don't do 1720 01:54:38,120 --> 01:54:44,600 Speaker 1: everyone said don't do this. And they went, no, we're 1721 01:54:44,600 --> 01:54:47,120 Speaker 1: doing that's what we're doing. And so they got Todd 1722 01:54:47,200 --> 01:54:52,520 Speaker 1: back on the phone and they said, you know, and 1723 01:54:52,560 --> 01:54:58,200 Speaker 1: they made and I I I was devastated. I have 1724 01:54:58,280 --> 01:55:00,160 Speaker 1: to say. I went to l A and I said, 1725 01:55:00,200 --> 01:55:03,440 Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm gonna do. And I made 1726 01:55:03,440 --> 01:55:06,360 Speaker 1: a record. I made I made my first solo record, 1727 01:55:07,320 --> 01:55:10,760 Speaker 1: uh with David Foster, because he was there sitting there available, 1728 01:55:11,120 --> 01:55:13,680 Speaker 1: and I talked the record company into letting me use 1729 01:55:13,800 --> 01:55:17,200 Speaker 1: him for a solo album, and they said okay, and 1730 01:55:17,240 --> 01:55:20,560 Speaker 1: then the band went ahead without me in San Francisco 1731 01:55:20,880 --> 01:55:24,560 Speaker 1: and made a record with Todd and and I came 1732 01:55:24,560 --> 01:55:27,080 Speaker 1: back and you know, I got my record done, and 1733 01:55:27,120 --> 01:55:29,080 Speaker 1: I came back to San Francisco and they went, well, 1734 01:55:29,400 --> 01:55:32,920 Speaker 1: you know, our records almost done, and you know, you 1735 01:55:32,920 --> 01:55:34,840 Speaker 1: can We've got a couple of songs that you can 1736 01:55:34,880 --> 01:55:38,680 Speaker 1: sing if you want. And you know, up until that point, 1737 01:55:38,760 --> 01:55:41,080 Speaker 1: I had pretty much sung every record, every song on 1738 01:55:41,080 --> 01:55:45,720 Speaker 1: the record, and so I was pretty much crushed. And 1739 01:55:45,840 --> 01:55:49,040 Speaker 1: I sang a couple of you know, I brought them 1740 01:55:49,040 --> 01:55:52,880 Speaker 1: one song, uh that I didn't use on my solo record, 1741 01:55:52,880 --> 01:55:56,280 Speaker 1: piece by piece, and we recorded that and then I 1742 01:55:56,520 --> 01:55:59,920 Speaker 1: sang I did another song that I wrote about Marlo 1743 01:56:00,080 --> 01:56:05,040 Speaker 1: Brando Stella I've written. I loved Marlon Brando, He's the 1744 01:56:05,040 --> 01:56:09,560 Speaker 1: best I've I've written a whole bunch of songs over 1745 01:56:09,560 --> 01:56:11,640 Speaker 1: the years about Marlin and Brando. I could have been 1746 01:56:11,680 --> 01:56:15,480 Speaker 1: somebody about the you know, on the waterfront, and I 1747 01:56:15,520 --> 01:56:22,000 Speaker 1: wrote Stella from street Car named Desire, and uh so, anyway, 1748 01:56:22,400 --> 01:56:26,800 Speaker 1: I ended up doing just three songs on the record, 1749 01:56:28,040 --> 01:56:34,920 Speaker 1: and it didn't do well. As you know, it didn't 1750 01:56:34,920 --> 01:56:41,000 Speaker 1: do well. And I at and we without and did 1751 01:56:41,040 --> 01:56:45,400 Speaker 1: the tour, and the tour didn't do well, and everything 1752 01:56:45,520 --> 01:56:49,880 Speaker 1: kind of crumbled around us. The management said, well, you know, 1753 01:56:50,280 --> 01:56:52,600 Speaker 1: we're gonna have to release you guys, because this is 1754 01:56:52,680 --> 01:56:56,880 Speaker 1: a huge mistake. And then you know, the record company 1755 01:56:57,400 --> 01:57:02,360 Speaker 1: pretty much released us the day the tour began. So 1756 01:57:03,040 --> 01:57:06,320 Speaker 1: you know, the tour starts at April one, and on 1757 01:57:06,320 --> 01:57:10,360 Speaker 1: on March one, they release us. And so we go 1758 01:57:10,480 --> 01:57:13,440 Speaker 1: out and we have all this national tour book. We've 1759 01:57:13,480 --> 01:57:17,000 Speaker 1: got no record company support, no A and R guys, 1760 01:57:17,120 --> 01:57:22,560 Speaker 1: no promotion, no record play, no radio play, I mean nothing, 1761 01:57:22,680 --> 01:57:27,360 Speaker 1: we got nothing. So it didn't go well. And so 1762 01:57:27,440 --> 01:57:33,360 Speaker 1: I got back. We got back and uh I just went, 1763 01:57:33,480 --> 01:57:38,000 Speaker 1: you know, we we the management had left us. I mean, 1764 01:57:38,040 --> 01:57:41,920 Speaker 1: I was so discouraged and so uh and I thought, 1765 01:57:42,000 --> 01:57:46,400 Speaker 1: you know, well, I guess this is this is this 1766 01:57:46,480 --> 01:57:49,920 Speaker 1: is this could be great. I've gotta I've gotta, I've 1767 01:57:49,960 --> 01:57:52,360 Speaker 1: got to start my own life. You know, I had 1768 01:57:52,360 --> 01:57:56,480 Speaker 1: been you know, we had been a seven man band 1769 01:57:57,080 --> 01:57:59,960 Speaker 1: for at that point, we had been a seven man 1770 01:58:00,000 --> 01:58:05,120 Speaker 1: band for about fifteen years, and we did everything together. 1771 01:58:05,600 --> 01:58:10,160 Speaker 1: We split everything evenly. We were a bunch of hippies. Okay, 1772 01:58:10,160 --> 01:58:13,960 Speaker 1: we're a bunch of hippies. And whatever it was, everybody 1773 01:58:14,000 --> 01:58:17,720 Speaker 1: decided together. We did it all together. It was all together. 1774 01:58:18,280 --> 01:58:22,200 Speaker 1: And I just thought, you know, it's time to grow up. 1775 01:58:22,440 --> 01:58:26,600 Speaker 1: It's time to be a man and grow up and 1776 01:58:26,600 --> 01:58:32,280 Speaker 1: and take responsibility for yourself. And so I said, okay, guys, 1777 01:58:32,360 --> 01:58:37,840 Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna leave the band. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, 1778 01:58:37,920 --> 01:58:40,800 Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna leave town. Pretty much. I had 1779 01:58:40,840 --> 01:58:43,880 Speaker 1: to leave town, and so I did. So I just 1780 01:58:44,320 --> 01:58:48,280 Speaker 1: packed up and I got my car and I drove 1781 01:58:48,320 --> 01:58:52,680 Speaker 1: to l A. And I had a girl. I had 1782 01:58:52,680 --> 01:58:54,880 Speaker 1: a girlfriend at a time at the time that I 1783 01:58:54,920 --> 01:58:58,840 Speaker 1: was living that was living in l A. And her 1784 01:59:00,600 --> 01:59:05,480 Speaker 1: her parents owned some apartment buildings in l A. So 1785 01:59:05,560 --> 01:59:08,280 Speaker 1: they gave me an apartment, you know, really cheap, because 1786 01:59:08,280 --> 01:59:10,880 Speaker 1: I didn't have any money, and you know, we spend 1787 01:59:10,920 --> 01:59:14,240 Speaker 1: everything on the show, and I didn't have much money, 1788 01:59:14,280 --> 01:59:16,120 Speaker 1: and so they gave me a cheap apartment. And I 1789 01:59:16,160 --> 01:59:23,240 Speaker 1: moved here, and and I, you know, I I just 1790 01:59:23,680 --> 01:59:26,320 Speaker 1: I just you know that. And you know what happened 1791 01:59:26,840 --> 01:59:31,080 Speaker 1: was I started writing songs with Richard Marks, and I thought, 1792 01:59:31,120 --> 01:59:33,760 Speaker 1: you know, and I just had blind faith. I just said, well, 1793 01:59:33,880 --> 01:59:38,120 Speaker 1: you know, I gotta I've gotta make my own life. 1794 01:59:38,440 --> 01:59:41,360 Speaker 1: You know, I've been I've been a part of a 1795 01:59:41,400 --> 01:59:44,280 Speaker 1: group for so long, and I've got a stand up 1796 01:59:44,320 --> 01:59:47,560 Speaker 1: for myself and I've got to you know, I've got 1797 01:59:47,560 --> 01:59:50,760 Speaker 1: to get my ship together. And I and you know, 1798 01:59:50,800 --> 01:59:55,080 Speaker 1: I had known Richard and and I think at the 1799 01:59:55,160 --> 01:59:58,720 Speaker 1: time we had maybe written a couple of songs together. 1800 01:59:58,760 --> 02:00:03,840 Speaker 1: I think we wrote had written that Vixen hit. You know, 1801 02:00:04,920 --> 02:00:06,800 Speaker 1: I've been living on the edge of a Broken Heart, 1802 02:00:07,560 --> 02:00:10,200 Speaker 1: and we had a big hit with that. And so 1803 02:00:10,240 --> 02:00:13,600 Speaker 1: I said, I said, let's write. He said, I want 1804 02:00:13,600 --> 02:00:16,720 Speaker 1: to be. This was before he had a record deal, 1805 02:00:16,800 --> 02:00:18,920 Speaker 1: before he had just at the at that point, he 1806 02:00:18,960 --> 02:00:21,760 Speaker 1: was just a songwriter and had written songs for a 1807 02:00:21,760 --> 02:00:26,360 Speaker 1: lot of other people, Kidney Rogers and and uh a 1808 02:00:26,400 --> 02:00:29,240 Speaker 1: lot of people, and so he said, I want to 1809 02:00:29,280 --> 02:00:33,400 Speaker 1: be I want to be an artist. I want to perform. 1810 02:00:33,440 --> 02:00:40,320 Speaker 1: So he got a deal at Manhattan subsidiary of Capital, 1811 02:00:41,160 --> 02:00:43,240 Speaker 1: and he said, let's write some songs from my record, 1812 02:00:44,440 --> 02:00:47,520 Speaker 1: and I said, okay, great, so we did so I 1813 02:00:47,560 --> 02:00:52,160 Speaker 1: think we wrote. I wrote four songs for him on 1814 02:00:52,320 --> 02:00:58,560 Speaker 1: his first record, and you know, he's he is a 1815 02:00:58,600 --> 02:01:02,440 Speaker 1: big hit for record sold three million elbows, I think, 1816 02:01:02,960 --> 02:01:07,520 Speaker 1: and uh and uh, and then we you know, the 1817 02:01:07,560 --> 02:01:09,400 Speaker 1: next record, and I wrote more songs with him on 1818 02:01:09,440 --> 02:01:11,920 Speaker 1: the next record and the next record and the next record, 1819 02:01:11,960 --> 02:01:16,040 Speaker 1: and and I just, you know, I thought to myself, 1820 02:01:16,080 --> 02:01:19,400 Speaker 1: you know, this is this is this is the right 1821 02:01:19,440 --> 02:01:24,680 Speaker 1: thing to do, you know, I I I you know 1822 02:01:24,720 --> 02:01:28,440 Speaker 1: that the way things happened wasn't great, but it was 1823 02:01:28,480 --> 02:01:33,680 Speaker 1: good for me because I stood up and and you know, 1824 02:01:33,800 --> 02:01:35,920 Speaker 1: I was a man. I stood up and said, Okay, 1825 02:01:36,000 --> 02:01:39,960 Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna lead my own path, 1826 02:01:41,120 --> 02:01:42,880 Speaker 1: you know, lead my own way. So how did you 1827 02:01:42,920 --> 02:01:46,680 Speaker 1: meet Roger Richard Marks? I met him. He wrote a 1828 02:01:46,760 --> 02:01:50,840 Speaker 1: song for in in eighty three. He wrote a song 1829 02:01:50,920 --> 02:01:55,160 Speaker 1: for Lionel Ritchie and he came to l A to 1830 02:01:55,440 --> 02:01:59,040 Speaker 1: see him recorded. He got at eighteen years old. He 1831 02:01:59,080 --> 02:02:02,640 Speaker 1: placed the song when Lionel the Guy's brilliant Okay. His 1832 02:02:02,800 --> 02:02:09,360 Speaker 1: dad was a jingle writer in Chicago. He wrote the 1833 02:02:09,400 --> 02:02:14,520 Speaker 1: double Mint Gum jing Built. He wrote my dog's better 1834 02:02:14,560 --> 02:02:18,839 Speaker 1: than your dog, my kennel ration. He wrote all these singles, 1835 02:02:18,880 --> 02:02:20,880 Speaker 1: so Richard, and he was the keyboard He was a 1836 02:02:20,960 --> 02:02:24,360 Speaker 1: jazz keyboard player. Dick his name was Dick Marks. He 1837 02:02:24,480 --> 02:02:29,640 Speaker 1: was an incredible guy, really great, and he taught Richard, 1838 02:02:30,040 --> 02:02:36,240 Speaker 1: you know, music theory and keyboards and writing stuff. I mean. Anyway, 1839 02:02:36,680 --> 02:02:42,040 Speaker 1: Richard came UH to l A and he wanted to 1840 02:02:42,080 --> 02:02:46,360 Speaker 1: meet David Foster, and he knew about him, and he 1841 02:02:46,400 --> 02:02:49,240 Speaker 1: asked Lionel, and David's goes, yeah, he's doing the tubes 1842 02:02:49,280 --> 02:02:55,320 Speaker 1: down the street at Lion's Share uh and and Lionel 1843 02:02:55,360 --> 02:02:57,280 Speaker 1: set it up where he could Richard could come to 1844 02:02:57,320 --> 02:03:03,800 Speaker 1: the studio and just watch and and he did. He 1845 02:03:03,800 --> 02:03:06,400 Speaker 1: showed him one day when we were in the studio recording, 1846 02:03:06,600 --> 02:03:10,480 Speaker 1: and you know, he's just sitting back there. And at 1847 02:03:10,480 --> 02:03:14,080 Speaker 1: the end of the session he goes, he had no 1848 02:03:14,280 --> 02:03:18,120 Speaker 1: he knew of me, and he said, Hi, I'm Richard Marks. 1849 02:03:18,160 --> 02:03:20,360 Speaker 1: He introduced himself and he said, you know, I think 1850 02:03:20,400 --> 02:03:23,320 Speaker 1: your lyrics are really interesting. Would you write a song 1851 02:03:23,360 --> 02:03:30,560 Speaker 1: with me? I said, I don't know who. He goes, 1852 02:03:30,640 --> 02:03:35,080 Speaker 1: I'm just a kid from Chicago, and I said, well, okay, okay, 1853 02:03:35,640 --> 02:03:38,640 Speaker 1: no problem, Let's write a song. And so I did. 1854 02:03:38,680 --> 02:03:41,240 Speaker 1: We wrote a song. We wrote a song called who 1855 02:03:41,320 --> 02:03:45,400 Speaker 1: Loves Your Baby, which was the tagline from ko Jack 1856 02:03:47,640 --> 02:03:51,080 Speaker 1: and which is I put on my first solo record, 1857 02:03:51,120 --> 02:03:55,160 Speaker 1: who Loves Your Baby. And you know, we just kind 1858 02:03:55,160 --> 02:03:58,880 Speaker 1: of clicked. We just we couldn't be more different. Okay, 1859 02:03:58,920 --> 02:04:04,320 Speaker 1: we couldn't be are different people. Uh you know, he 1860 02:04:04,760 --> 02:04:08,000 Speaker 1: but it's just something. I'm the godfather to his sons. 1861 02:04:08,080 --> 02:04:11,160 Speaker 1: He has got three beautiful sons who are very very 1862 02:04:11,200 --> 02:04:17,160 Speaker 1: talented musicians, and uh, you know, I've just like I said, 1863 02:04:17,200 --> 02:04:20,839 Speaker 1: for like thirty thirty eight forty years, we've been best friends. 1864 02:04:20,840 --> 02:04:24,160 Speaker 1: And we still right together all the time. And I 1865 02:04:24,200 --> 02:04:29,080 Speaker 1: know his son's very well. And uh he lives out here. 1866 02:04:29,200 --> 02:04:31,560 Speaker 1: He lived in Chicago for years and years and then 1867 02:04:31,760 --> 02:04:37,000 Speaker 1: he divorced his wife and moved recently moved to l 1868 02:04:37,040 --> 02:04:41,160 Speaker 1: A And uh so we see each other a lot, 1869 02:04:41,240 --> 02:04:43,280 Speaker 1: and you know, and over the years we've been we've 1870 02:04:43,280 --> 02:04:46,320 Speaker 1: been working on this record on the my my solo 1871 02:04:46,360 --> 02:04:48,560 Speaker 1: record of the fee Wave, the Rights Again record. We 1872 02:04:48,600 --> 02:04:53,600 Speaker 1: started making this record gosh in two thousand thirteen, for 1873 02:04:53,920 --> 02:04:57,320 Speaker 1: like seven years ago, we started making it. The main 1874 02:04:57,440 --> 02:05:00,920 Speaker 1: the first song I used to go every summer when 1875 02:05:00,920 --> 02:05:03,880 Speaker 1: he lived in Chicago. I used to go to Chicago 1876 02:05:03,960 --> 02:05:10,440 Speaker 1: every summer. And his parents had a cabin in Manaqua, Wisconsin, 1877 02:05:11,200 --> 02:05:14,280 Speaker 1: way up in northern Wisconsin. And we would go with 1878 02:05:14,320 --> 02:05:17,120 Speaker 1: the boys on a boys trip to Wisconsin. And we 1879 02:05:17,320 --> 02:05:19,680 Speaker 1: drive up there and spend a week at the cabin 1880 02:05:20,480 --> 02:05:23,080 Speaker 1: and go fishing, and we go first BacT riding, and 1881 02:05:23,120 --> 02:05:26,880 Speaker 1: we go go kart you know, just have a great time. 1882 02:05:27,280 --> 02:05:32,240 Speaker 1: And so that summer the boys were getting older, and 1883 02:05:32,440 --> 02:05:34,960 Speaker 1: the summer of two thousand thirteen, I went up there 1884 02:05:34,960 --> 02:05:37,000 Speaker 1: and I said, well, look and we've done another boys trips. 1885 02:05:37,040 --> 02:05:40,280 Speaker 1: We went whitewater rafting and with in Wyoming and we 1886 02:05:40,360 --> 02:05:43,080 Speaker 1: do all some all some kind of a boy's trip 1887 02:05:43,920 --> 02:05:46,120 Speaker 1: and we went. I went up to the summer and 1888 02:05:46,360 --> 02:05:49,680 Speaker 1: the boy said, you know, we'd want ago. We want 1889 02:05:49,680 --> 02:05:51,960 Speaker 1: to hang like hang out with our girlfriends and go 1890 02:05:52,000 --> 02:05:54,880 Speaker 1: to the movies. We don't want to do a boys trip. 1891 02:05:57,080 --> 02:05:59,760 Speaker 1: I came all the way from Okay, and so Richard said, 1892 02:06:00,040 --> 02:06:03,360 Speaker 1: and he had a studio at his house, and he said, well, 1893 02:06:03,440 --> 02:06:07,720 Speaker 1: let's go write a song and let's do and then 1894 02:06:07,960 --> 02:06:09,960 Speaker 1: he said, let's do a solo record for you yes, 1895 02:06:10,000 --> 02:06:15,080 Speaker 1: about time he had he hadn't done one since and 1896 02:06:15,400 --> 02:06:19,560 Speaker 1: which he helped me with also, And so we went 1897 02:06:19,560 --> 02:06:23,200 Speaker 1: to the studio and we wrote, Uh, we wrote four 1898 02:06:23,240 --> 02:06:28,040 Speaker 1: songs Fake the four songs on the record, Faker we wrote. 1899 02:06:28,080 --> 02:06:33,360 Speaker 1: Faker was the first song we wrote. And and uh, 1900 02:06:33,480 --> 02:06:36,880 Speaker 1: and then you know, I got busy, He got busy. 1901 02:06:37,040 --> 02:06:38,760 Speaker 1: I went on the road. He went on the road, 1902 02:06:38,880 --> 02:06:42,240 Speaker 1: and you know, it just years and years kept going by, 1903 02:06:42,400 --> 02:06:46,560 Speaker 1: and we we never got, you know, back around to 1904 02:06:46,680 --> 02:06:53,040 Speaker 1: it until until the summer of two thousand nineteen. He 1905 02:06:53,240 --> 02:06:55,600 Speaker 1: just he had he was here in California and he goes, 1906 02:06:55,800 --> 02:06:58,280 Speaker 1: let's do it. It's been too long. It's been five 1907 02:06:58,360 --> 02:07:01,480 Speaker 1: years since we started. Let's go back and finish it. 1908 02:07:02,480 --> 02:07:04,440 Speaker 1: So we did. So we went back to the studio 1909 02:07:04,560 --> 02:07:08,840 Speaker 1: and we finished the record. And I'm really proud of it. 1910 02:07:09,280 --> 02:07:14,760 Speaker 1: And uh, like I said, at the beginning, we were, 1911 02:07:14,800 --> 02:07:19,880 Speaker 1: you know, he goes, let's do some gigs. Okay, I'll, I'll, 1912 02:07:19,440 --> 02:07:22,839 Speaker 1: I'll give you my band, okay, and we'll do gigs. 1913 02:07:23,440 --> 02:07:27,640 Speaker 1: And we had it all planned for the for May 1914 02:07:27,840 --> 02:07:32,200 Speaker 1: of because I you know, I've got the whole month off, 1915 02:07:32,560 --> 02:07:35,680 Speaker 1: I'm not touring, and well, and we'll do some gigs, 1916 02:07:35,760 --> 02:07:41,200 Speaker 1: and of course COVID killed it in and then and 1917 02:07:41,240 --> 02:07:45,160 Speaker 1: then as we thought the whole pandemic was was fading away, 1918 02:07:45,880 --> 02:07:49,200 Speaker 1: we planned, we booked more dates for January of this year, 1919 02:07:50,080 --> 02:07:53,640 Speaker 1: and and then the whole thing got killed again. So 1920 02:07:53,720 --> 02:07:56,120 Speaker 1: how did you get back together with the Tubes? I 1921 02:07:56,960 --> 02:08:02,320 Speaker 1: left the band in like eighty seven something like that 1922 02:08:02,880 --> 02:08:05,320 Speaker 1: and moved to l A and pretty much had no 1923 02:08:05,440 --> 02:08:09,720 Speaker 1: contact with them. They went on for a while. It's funny. 1924 02:08:09,880 --> 02:08:13,320 Speaker 1: They they called up the guy the bass player they 1925 02:08:13,320 --> 02:08:20,640 Speaker 1: had fired, you know, years ago, and and said, you know, 1926 02:08:20,800 --> 02:08:22,800 Speaker 1: we lost our lead singer. You want to come back 1927 02:08:22,800 --> 02:08:25,480 Speaker 1: in the band. So he came back, and they went 1928 02:08:25,520 --> 02:08:29,480 Speaker 1: out for a while as the Tubes without me, and 1929 02:08:29,560 --> 02:08:32,440 Speaker 1: had this guy as the lead singer. But he he 1930 02:08:32,520 --> 02:08:35,480 Speaker 1: had been in Hawaii smoking pot for twenty five years 1931 02:08:35,520 --> 02:08:38,080 Speaker 1: and he had no voice. He couldn't sing it. He 1932 02:08:38,120 --> 02:08:40,680 Speaker 1: couldn't sing, he couldn't hit the high notes, he couldn't 1933 02:08:40,720 --> 02:08:45,440 Speaker 1: sing She's a beauty. And so they did not go well, 1934 02:08:45,840 --> 02:08:50,360 Speaker 1: and you know, and finally they gave up and they said, Okay, 1935 02:08:50,440 --> 02:08:54,760 Speaker 1: that's it, We're done. And then they hadn't worked for 1936 02:08:54,760 --> 02:08:59,480 Speaker 1: a while, and uh, and then I told you we were. 1937 02:08:59,240 --> 02:09:03,760 Speaker 1: We were popular in Europe. Uh. We had done some 1938 02:09:03,840 --> 02:09:11,960 Speaker 1: big during the heyday in like in like Uh we 1939 02:09:12,000 --> 02:09:15,040 Speaker 1: went there first time in seven and then we went 1940 02:09:15,080 --> 02:09:22,680 Speaker 1: back in se you know we we So anyway, a 1941 02:09:22,760 --> 02:09:29,360 Speaker 1: promoter from Germany, his name was Henning Turgel contacted the 1942 02:09:29,360 --> 02:09:34,520 Speaker 1: band and said, ah, you guys haven't been here for 1943 02:09:34,560 --> 02:09:37,600 Speaker 1: a while. You know, we hadn't been there since three 1944 02:09:37,840 --> 02:09:42,840 Speaker 1: This was He said, I am going to offer you 1945 02:09:42,880 --> 02:09:51,840 Speaker 1: a six show tour of Western Europe and the UK. Uh, 1946 02:09:53,040 --> 02:09:59,680 Speaker 1: but only if fees in the band. That's the deal. 1947 02:10:00,040 --> 02:10:05,400 Speaker 1: M And so they called me up and they said, 1948 02:10:06,120 --> 02:10:11,280 Speaker 1: we have this offer, you know. And and I, you know, 1949 02:10:11,440 --> 02:10:16,920 Speaker 1: I was very skeptical and uh, I said, well you 1950 02:10:16,960 --> 02:10:22,080 Speaker 1: know what what what is? You know, what's happening with 1951 02:10:22,120 --> 02:10:28,960 Speaker 1: the band? He went, well, you know, Uh, Bill was 1952 02:10:29,000 --> 02:10:32,600 Speaker 1: not in the band anymore because, like I said, drugs 1953 02:10:33,320 --> 02:10:37,520 Speaker 1: and Mike the synthesizer. He he left the band when 1954 02:10:37,560 --> 02:10:40,520 Speaker 1: I left. He moved to New York City and he's 1955 02:10:40,720 --> 02:10:45,320 Speaker 1: done very well as a graphic designer. And UH and 1956 02:10:45,400 --> 02:10:50,520 Speaker 1: the keyboard player Vince audition for The Grateful Dead in 1957 02:10:52,760 --> 02:10:57,880 Speaker 1: UH when there other keyboard player died and he got 1958 02:10:57,880 --> 02:11:01,800 Speaker 1: the gig. So Vince is in The Grateful Dead, Mike's 1959 02:11:01,880 --> 02:11:09,200 Speaker 1: gone bills battling addiction, and they've got another keyboard player. 1960 02:11:09,240 --> 02:11:12,080 Speaker 1: So there are a four man band with a different 1961 02:11:12,160 --> 02:11:14,840 Speaker 1: keyboard player. And they said, this is the story, and 1962 02:11:15,320 --> 02:11:18,760 Speaker 1: nobody's nobody's everyone's grown up. You know, we're not doing 1963 02:11:18,800 --> 02:11:22,240 Speaker 1: drugs anymore. You know, I thought them for years, I 1964 02:11:22,320 --> 02:11:24,240 Speaker 1: was the only guy that didn't do drugs. I was 1965 02:11:24,280 --> 02:11:28,120 Speaker 1: the only guy. And it was really difficult, you know, 1966 02:11:28,200 --> 02:11:30,560 Speaker 1: to go into a city and and all they thought 1967 02:11:30,560 --> 02:11:35,400 Speaker 1: about who's the coke dealer, you know, and and they said, no, 1968 02:11:35,600 --> 02:11:37,920 Speaker 1: we're all we've all grown up. We're not doing it. 1969 02:11:38,000 --> 02:11:44,800 Speaker 1: We're all straight. I said, really, yeah, And okay, I said, okay, 1970 02:11:44,840 --> 02:11:48,360 Speaker 1: So we did it. So I I went back to 1971 02:11:48,400 --> 02:11:51,880 Speaker 1: the band and we did this sixty show tour in 1972 02:11:51,880 --> 02:11:58,600 Speaker 1: in in the spring of and and I had so 1973 02:11:58,680 --> 02:12:01,920 Speaker 1: much fun that I just I said, okay, well, let's 1974 02:12:02,000 --> 02:12:08,480 Speaker 1: keep doing this. And so here we are, gosh, thirty 1975 02:12:08,560 --> 02:12:13,839 Speaker 1: years later, almost in almost fifty years from the beginning. 1976 02:12:14,400 --> 02:12:17,960 Speaker 1: So Fee, thanks so much for doing us. You know, 1977 02:12:18,040 --> 02:12:20,960 Speaker 1: I loved hearing about the polo, and certainly I'm a 1978 02:12:21,040 --> 02:12:23,760 Speaker 1: huge tubes fan, some of the bottom lines, some of 1979 02:12:23,800 --> 02:12:27,320 Speaker 1: the rocksy even when one time, Hollywood Bolivard when the 1980 02:12:27,360 --> 02:12:29,400 Speaker 1: first album came out, I was working in a sporting 1981 02:12:29,400 --> 02:12:32,200 Speaker 1: goods store and you did an in store it Peaches 1982 02:12:32,320 --> 02:12:35,920 Speaker 1: Records and came dressed up totally is kulud. Oh God, 1983 02:12:35,960 --> 02:12:38,560 Speaker 1: I remember that I stopped there in my lunch break. 1984 02:12:38,640 --> 02:12:40,520 Speaker 1: So it's a great honor to do this with you, 1985 02:12:41,080 --> 02:12:43,280 Speaker 1: so thanks so much for doing that. Thank you for 1986 02:12:43,360 --> 02:12:47,360 Speaker 1: having me. You know, I read your letter and I just, 1987 02:12:47,600 --> 02:12:50,120 Speaker 1: you know, I think so. I think you're so great 1988 02:12:50,240 --> 02:12:53,240 Speaker 1: and it's really a privilege and an honor. A few 1989 02:12:53,320 --> 02:12:57,200 Speaker 1: year podcast. Thank you so much for having Until next time, 1990 02:12:57,800 --> 02:12:59,160 Speaker 1: This is Bob left Sense