Speaker 1: Now really.
Speaker 2: Really now really hello, and welcome to really know Really,
Speaker 2: with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who humbly remind you
Speaker 2: not to be petty and please subscribe. Speaking of Petty,
Speaker 2: rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty left this
Speaker 2: world in twenty seventeen, but his music continues to live
Speaker 2: on thanks to hits like Refugee, Here Comes My Girl,
Speaker 2: and Running Down a Dream. But recently Jason and Peter
Speaker 2: were stunned to learn that Petty didn't write those songs alone.
Speaker 1: Really No Really.
Speaker 2: Mike Campbell was an original member of Tom Petty and
Speaker 2: the Heartbreakers and co wrote many of.
Speaker 1: The band's legendary hits.
Speaker 2: In fact, he was considered by Petty to be the
Speaker 2: Heartbreakers co captain, and while much of Mike's career was
Speaker 2: alongside Petty, he notably gave Don Henley.
Speaker 1: The music for his nineteen eighty four hit The.
Speaker 2: Boys of Summer, and he worked closely with Stevie Nicks,
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin, and too many others to name.
Speaker 1: Campbell has definitely had an.
Speaker 2: Impressive career himself, now fronting the band The Dirty Knobs
Speaker 2: and playing and writing music with the legendary rockers like
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, George Harrison and Moore and all
Speaker 2: that got the guys wondering what's it like being the
Speaker 2: unrecognized talent regularly standing just behind and co writing with
Speaker 2: iconic names.
Speaker 1: That question and more is the subject of.
Speaker 2: His newly released book, Heartbreaker, a Memoir and now here
Speaker 2: are two more Heartbreakers And yes they did make me
Speaker 2: say back.
Speaker 3: Jason and Peter, Hello, everybody, welcome to really know really
Speaker 3: that always gets a bell because it makes Peter happy.
Speaker 4: My partner, Peter Tilden. I'm Jason. I say why I
Speaker 4: hate the bell? Please? If I publicly stated why I
Speaker 4: hate the bell.
Speaker 3: You have publicly stated that you hate the bell, tell
Speaker 3: you what I don't know is it?
Speaker 4: Is it your musophonia or whatever? The no, no, no
Speaker 4: no no, although you've proven then I do have music.
Speaker 4: I know. Yes, I'll tell you why. In my thirty
Speaker 4: years in radio, Yeah, okay, the stick of old jocks
Speaker 4: is if you listen to the old guy when I
Speaker 4: got into it's all, it's this, it's hey because they
Speaker 4: didn't have sound effects, they didn't have AI. This was it.
Speaker 4: So it drives me crazy.
Speaker 3: Well, can I say something in response to how much
Speaker 3: you hate the bell and your thirty years of experience
Speaker 3: in radio, I would like to point out I.
Speaker 4: Didn't bring the bell in.
Speaker 3: Somebody a partner in this broadcast with thirty years of
Speaker 3: experience in radio, suddenly there was a bell.
Speaker 4: Because I thought it occasionally occasionally, like every fifteenth episode
Speaker 4: maybe would be funny. Didn't realize it was going to
Speaker 4: be really every time you said, really, know, really, what
Speaker 4: did them?
Speaker 3: If you're not watching on YouTube, I have yet to
Speaker 3: touch the bell in this episode.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about the episode, all right, that's what.
Speaker 3: We have a guest in the studio, and I think
Speaker 3: not not our primary guest, but we have a guest
Speaker 3: in the studio and share number three. This very fine
Speaker 3: young man over there in the hat that says shamanics.
Speaker 4: Shamanics. Yes, we're going to find out more about it.
Speaker 3: Is a very a lovely man that I've known since
Speaker 3: he was a young lad little man who looks just
Speaker 3: like you. He did a video for his band I
Speaker 3: did for Boreo. You bet, Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
Speaker 3: the show. Mister Robert tilden.
Speaker 4: Miter. He knew where the camera right.
Speaker 5: I got prepped. Also all right, it wasn't. It wasn't
Speaker 5: in my nature.
Speaker 4: I was proud to be knock my feet up from
Speaker 4: underneath me. I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: And Robert.
Speaker 4: Robert is here today for a number of reasons.
Speaker 3: One is, uh, just bring your kid to work day,
Speaker 3: bring your kick in the workday. But also your your
Speaker 3: primary career at this moment is music writing, playing all kinds.
Speaker 3: So we have a big, a big music since brand
Speaker 3: are you talking about our other Roberts? I know about Boyle,
Speaker 3: but you also do music outside of Boyle, don't you?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Did?
Speaker 5: I like to score things and produce things and read
Speaker 5: music books and consume and everything.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and you now you play not not sent
Speaker 3: synthically on a keyboard, but you play keyboard.
Speaker 4: Yes, I play everything. I like.
Speaker 5: It's like a jack of all trades in the sense
Speaker 5: where you can kind of do everything, but not to
Speaker 5: the greatest ability.
Speaker 4: You know, you.
Speaker 3: Play real guitar, though, real guitar that's your primary.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, but you play bass, play bass? Keyboard?
Speaker 5: Is that the one you'd love to play?
Speaker 4: I'm struggling.
Speaker 5: I mean the lessons lessons, but also it's like someone
Speaker 5: was talking.
Speaker 4: The other day about learning.
Speaker 5: I was saying I wanted to learn animation or something
Speaker 5: that seems very hard and takes a lot of time.
Speaker 5: And they were just saying, you know, use YouTube university,
Speaker 5: which I thought was a weird term, but you can.
Speaker 3: Just I feel like using I'm actually taking a free
Speaker 3: base course on I. I'm freebasing and uh and it's
Speaker 3: very helpful.
Speaker 4: It is very helpful. I mean, how do you do
Speaker 4: it when you're free bassed? What do you use? I'm
Speaker 4: not giving you tips, wants. This will be the one
Speaker 4: pr thing that will break through all of really, no really,
Speaker 4: Jason Alexander Minte the free base. That's right, good time,
Speaker 4: I knock out a couple of teeth. Make it look real.
Speaker 4: So today's guest, Yeah, is a unique individual. Mike Campbell.
Speaker 4: Mike Campbell met Tom Petty in gains the Florida when
Speaker 4: they were youths and they were mud crutched together. Then
Speaker 4: of course is that a is that a music group?
Speaker 4: That was? That was a group And just remember I'm
Speaker 4: a music moron, so walk me through there. So they
Speaker 4: met when they were kids, and then he was in
Speaker 4: the Heartbreakers. He wrote the really one of the really
Speaker 4: not really. He wrote some of Tom's biggest hits then
Speaker 4: Fleetwood Mac needed somebody to replace Lindsay Buckingham. Who they
Speaker 4: call Mike Campbell and who is he done music with
Speaker 4: Randy Newman, One's Yvon Roy Orbison, Bob Siegert, Joe Cocker,
Speaker 4: Michael McDonald, Jackson Brown and Chicks Ringo. And he was,
Speaker 4: this is going to be this is mind lord to me.
Speaker 4: He's the backup ban the Heartbreakers with a backup band
Speaker 4: for Bob Dylan on tour. So I wonder if Mike
Speaker 4: Campbell liked I knew that was the next thing. Oh,
Speaker 4: I thought, if you Mike Campbell looked gonna like you. Oh,
Speaker 4: he's got to like me. He's got a new book out, Heartbreaker,
Speaker 4: a memoir. Also touring with the Dirty Knobs. But you're home, right,
Speaker 4: You're off the road at this point for a minute.
Speaker 6: I am.
Speaker 7: I'm recording right now, our fourth album. We just started yesterday.
Speaker 7: So I'm at home in La.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very cool. Well, thanks thanks for coming to La
Speaker 4: in La. And he still couldn't come down here to
Speaker 4: the He's busy recording.
Speaker 6: But I'm just saying that sounds like a character I'm
Speaker 6: familiar with.
Speaker 4: I know I had I could have done it from
Speaker 4: my house. I had to come all the way down here.
Speaker 3: People say to me, People say, no, no, Mike, I'm
Speaker 3: not blaming you.
Speaker 4: I'm blaming our our staff. Of course, who couldn't be.
Speaker 6: If you had Katie, she could have taken care of you.
Speaker 4: Boy, Truer words have never been spoken. We're coming next now,
Speaker 4: you're up for it. You're coming next time. And by
Speaker 4: the way, people say to me, is Jason anything like
Speaker 4: the character? I go, no, no, not at all, never complains,
Speaker 4: never irritated, not at all. So I actually want to
Speaker 4: ask the first question, Mike.
Speaker 3: So our show really, no, really, We're going to talk
Speaker 3: about a lot of things today, but we try and
Speaker 3: find something that makes Peter and I go, what is
Speaker 3: that all about? And your career has done something that
Speaker 3: I find so interesting And I was first made aware
Speaker 3: of it, not specific to you, when I watched the
Speaker 3: documentary I think it was twenty Feet from Stardom about
Speaker 3: the glorious backup singers that are on all these great
Speaker 3: songs and albums that we know and that you know,
Speaker 3: people in the know know who they are, but they
Speaker 3: go largely unrecognized.
Speaker 4: Now you were certainly not unrecognizing your career.
Speaker 3: But what was so fascinating to me when Peter said
Speaker 3: we were having you on was to realize how great
Speaker 3: a writing and playing contribution you had made, certainly to
Speaker 3: the success of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, And yet
Speaker 3: I think the average person may not be aware of
Speaker 3: how large that contribution is.
Speaker 4: And I just want to know how you.
Speaker 3: Because I've asked some other people that are in similar circumstances,
Speaker 3: how that's with you?
Speaker 4: How that? How that? How do you carry that? And
Speaker 4: does it bother you? Is it fine?
Speaker 3: Do you know going in that you know the spotlight
Speaker 3: is probably going to be on the other guy. I mean,
Speaker 3: what what's your journey through being that other guy? And
Speaker 3: yet such a substantial part of these creations?
Speaker 6: Well, thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 7: I can't explain that. Tom always call me the co captain.
Speaker 7: And from the time I met Tom, I mean, I've
Speaker 7: always been a basically shy, quiet person. He's got a great,
Speaker 7: dynamic personality and it was a perfect fit.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 7: I didn't challenge his leadership or his charisma, and I
Speaker 7: was very comfortable because I trusted him and I had
Speaker 7: this great partner who could do all that for me.
Speaker 4: I just.
Speaker 7: You know, so it just our personality has just worked
Speaker 7: that way, you know.
Speaker 4: But meanwhile, the really really for me, you have a
Speaker 4: song like break Now the guitar line is the song
Speaker 4: without that guitar line, It's a bunch of chords, your guitar.
Speaker 8: I agree, and we're out, and we're out, and I
Speaker 8: have no bitterness in that's about.
Speaker 4: No, It's funny as a guitar because I play a
Speaker 4: little guitar. My son who's doing a stay because he
Speaker 4: wanted to talk to you as a group called and
Speaker 4: he the guitar line writing songs is really really interesting.
Speaker 4: So I love playing along with Tom Petty songs and
Speaker 4: you go, wow, these are some basic chords and some
Speaker 4: really interesting chord changes. But then you do your thing
Speaker 4: and it changes the whole dynamic of the song every
Speaker 4: single time. So really, not really going, I said to Jason,
Speaker 4: Really no, really, people should know that he wrote some
Speaker 4: of the biggest songs alongside Tom Petty and then came
Speaker 4: up with not only the music for it and later
Speaker 4: on the lyrics, but the guitar line. So when you
Speaker 4: come up with it, is that ever intimidating where you're
Speaker 4: in there and I know you play studio musician too,
Speaker 4: where you can't find the line that's going to make
Speaker 4: the song great, and it does the guest state for
Speaker 4: a just state for years.
Speaker 7: It's never hard for me. I think that's one reason
Speaker 7: Tom likes me is he could bring a song in.
Speaker 7: It was just the basic chords, and we all have
Speaker 7: We both had the same influences the sixties and the
Speaker 7: Beach Boys, Beatles, Stones, all that, so I instinctively just
Speaker 7: organically would join in. And it was always fun to discover, well,
Speaker 7: what can I add to this without getting in the way.
Speaker 7: And I always had a way of just finding the
Speaker 7: right thing that he liked and that we agreed on.
Speaker 6: Just lucky.
Speaker 3: Really, you know, I do play music, and I do
Speaker 3: know music, but I'm not a musician.
Speaker 4: So if someone.
Speaker 3: Writes it down and I'm lucky and I'm on the
Speaker 3: right instrument, I can play it. But when you're creating
Speaker 3: solo lines like that, are you immediately able to go
Speaker 3: I hear it in my head and it comes out
Speaker 3: in my hands. Is that a direct communication or is
Speaker 3: there a thought process behind it? A technical process of
Speaker 3: getting it to be the thing you hear in your head.
Speaker 7: There's no thought process, really. My gift for my blessing,
Speaker 7: which I'm very grateful for, is a subliminal stream of consciousness.
Speaker 7: All my input to the music. You know, ninety five
Speaker 7: percent of it happens in the moment. Breakdown, you know,
Speaker 7: breakdown just an example. I don't take these things out
Speaker 7: because I like to they come out of the air
Speaker 7: and if you just they passed through you and breakdown.
Speaker 6: For instance, we cut the song.
Speaker 7: Down very simple, and so we cut it the basic track.
Speaker 7: It was maybe six seven minutes long, and I said, okay, well,
Speaker 7: let me play some guitar along with the track they
Speaker 7: recorded me and I just you know, shut my mind
Speaker 7: off and let it happen.
Speaker 4: And just.
Speaker 7: I immediately kind of went to a blues form because
Speaker 7: the mood it's in, and so I knew it along
Speaker 7: pretty bad stuff. Really just letting it happen. At the
Speaker 7: end of the six minutes, I kind of got bored
Speaker 7: with trying to think of stuff, so I just instinctively
Speaker 7: went down. It was there in the air. I didn't
Speaker 7: think anything about it. So I recorded that and said, well,
Speaker 7: we'll look at it tomorrow. I went home and then
Speaker 7: Tom called me back and said, you got to come
Speaker 7: back down to the studio. I'm here with Dwight Twillie,
Speaker 7: and we heard the lick that you played at the
Speaker 7: end of your little jam and that that needs to
Speaker 7: go at the beginning of the song. I didn't remember
Speaker 7: what it was, you know, so I went back down
Speaker 7: and heard it and go, oh, that's it, okay, learned
Speaker 7: it and played it on the top of the song.
Speaker 7: So all the guitar persons you here on Heartbreakers records
Speaker 7: are spontaneous, most of them, and I just let them happen,
Speaker 7: you know. I don't try to analyze or write them
Speaker 7: out or think them out. Occasionally you have to, but
Speaker 7: if I do put any thought process into it, I
Speaker 7: would go to the vocal melody, what's the guy singing?
Speaker 6: What's the O? And I'll find those on the guitar.
Speaker 7: If I get stuck and nothing's coming, I'll just go
Speaker 7: to the melody because I know that's going to work,
Speaker 7: and then I'll turn the guitar around on it and
Speaker 7: turn into something. It's kind of magical, really, I mean,
Speaker 7: I'm still fascinated by it.
Speaker 3: It is magical, and it's magical for people like me
Speaker 3: who you know, I cannot I can hear music in
Speaker 3: my head. I have to struggle to get it out
Speaker 3: through my fingers, you know. I just there's no instrument
Speaker 3: that is such a part of me that the translation
Speaker 3: is spontaneous.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I will find that magical for people that haven't. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I hear you.
Speaker 7: Well, the reason I'm able to do that is because
Speaker 7: I put in the hours of work of learning my
Speaker 7: scales and my craft and my feel so I had
Speaker 7: those tools already, so I don't have to think about that.
Speaker 7: I can just let my fingers do what they want
Speaker 7: to do, and my mind kind of follows them.
Speaker 6: But you know, the.
Speaker 7: Magic metaphor is silly, but it's true. It's like you
Speaker 7: pull a rabbit out of the hat. But that was
Speaker 7: there before, here's here where to come from.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: The music a lot of times, just for me, is
Speaker 7: like that. And the songs too, they just come out
Speaker 7: of the air.
Speaker 3: Well, it's you know, it's the same really in the
Speaker 3: acting world. I find you know, you do all your
Speaker 3: prep and you do your rehearsal, but what you're hoping
Speaker 3: for is in that performance something takes over that nobody
Speaker 3: knew was going to happen, and it's exactly right, and
Speaker 3: it's in the flow and everybody feels it and you're
Speaker 3: not in control of it. You're sort of releasing to it.
Speaker 3: But I've only, like I say, I've only experienced it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: That's where I put my ten thousand hours as opposed
Speaker 3: to where you put yours.
Speaker 4: Solf. Yeah, it is beautiful.
Speaker 7: That's exactly what you hit the nail on the head
Speaker 7: right there, Jason's exactly that. You have your tools, you
Speaker 7: learn your craft, and you put in a moment and
Speaker 7: rather than script it, you go with it. You know,
Speaker 7: maybe you change the phrase a little bit, and acting
Speaker 7: you would change the word a little bit because it didn't
Speaker 7: feel right in the moment, you come up with something better.
Speaker 6: It just happens. Yeah, and it's like, wow, that was fun.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 4: I was going to say that in learning about your past.
Speaker 4: I mean, you live like a lot of us living
Speaker 4: when you were teenagers in the hell holes and then
Speaker 4: you moved out to the woods, the woods and we're
Speaker 4: sharing a place. But the one thing that always stood out,
Speaker 4: and same with my son, if you love the music,
Speaker 4: you're holding your guitar, you're playing all the time. You
Speaker 4: played constantly, right, that was what you did when other
Speaker 4: guys were going and doing other stuff. And I think
Speaker 4: one of your guys, your roommates went off to the
Speaker 4: Bermuda Triangle, disappeared. Another one went to Hawaii and lived
Speaker 4: his life there. You just kept playing and playing and playing,
Speaker 4: and then you met Tom when you were howled.
Speaker 6: Oh, twenty twenty one something like that in Gainesville.
Speaker 4: By the way, at Gainesville at that time. It's funny
Speaker 4: because the southern thing I would have thought was all
Speaker 4: Allman Brothers. But I did country music for a lot
Speaker 4: of years. Jason actually did some with me, did the
Speaker 4: Brad Paisley videos and stuff. So I got to do
Speaker 4: country music in those years when Keith Urban was coming up,
Speaker 4: et cetera, and I didn't know anything about it, but
Speaker 4: immersing myself in that there's some amazing players, and you
Speaker 4: guys kind of tended toward that, more toward country, more
Speaker 4: toward birds, more toward that kind of sound and beatle harmonies,
Speaker 4: kind of birds harmonies. How did that seep into Gainesville?
Speaker 4: What was around in Gainesville that got you to that?
Speaker 7: Well, the college, you know, the Gainesville is basically the
Speaker 7: University of Florida college community, So it was that young,
Speaker 7: idealistic energy around the campus.
Speaker 6: There were lesser free concerts.
Speaker 7: But the thing about the blues is the South is
Speaker 7: deeply blues and country ingrained, and we grew up around
Speaker 7: all that, you know. But we also were Tom and
Speaker 7: I were really enamored with the whole sixties thing, you know,
Speaker 7: the Beach Boys, the dream of the Golden Sun and
Speaker 7: the beautiful girls, and then of course England with the Beatles,
Speaker 7: Stones Kings, all those great bands.
Speaker 6: That's what turned us on. So when in the South,
Speaker 6: you know, there's a lot of.
Speaker 7: Bands, and as soon as the bands saw the Almond
Speaker 7: Brothers or Leonard Skinner be successful, that you wanted to
Speaker 7: do that, you know, but we didn't.
Speaker 6: It didn't really fit with us.
Speaker 7: We wanted to play Bergie you know, Coors harmonies, and
Speaker 7: that's so we were kind of stood out in a
Speaker 7: way because everybody else is playing all my brother's copies
Speaker 7: and we were doing our own thing. And it's just
Speaker 7: because that's what we were, you know.
Speaker 4: Also, I'm curious about Tom. Yeah, the words intimidating, and
Speaker 4: I think your quote was you can't sell Tom. You
Speaker 4: couldn't talk Tom into anything. So you got a guy
Speaker 4: that I got it. I got it, I got it.
Speaker 3: I feel I feel your pain, Mike. I'm just I'm
Speaker 3: not I feel your pain.
Speaker 4: Robert, do you have something you wanted?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 5: I was just interested because you said you're inspired by
Speaker 5: the Birds and the Beatles and the Stones, and I
Speaker 5: was listening to your guitar parts the other day and
Speaker 5: there's like a tonal quality that I feel like kind
Speaker 5: of bridge the gap between them and the future. It
Speaker 5: sounds like you're doing what they're doing, but in a
Speaker 5: kind of futuristic way with your tone. And I wonder
Speaker 5: is that is that the same kind of just flow
Speaker 5: where you just set your guitar in a certain way
Speaker 5: with the amp and it just sounded how it sounded
Speaker 5: or were you really intentional with that?
Speaker 6: Not intentional, it just the way it is.
Speaker 7: You know, you could take a guitar and amplifier and
Speaker 7: get a sound on it and hand it to Eric Clappton,
Speaker 7: it's going to sound like him. Hand it to B. B. King,
Speaker 7: it's going to sound like him. Hand it to George Harrison,
Speaker 7: or hand it to me, it's going to sound like me.
Speaker 7: It's in the hands And a lot of the tone
Speaker 7: is the way you hit the strings and the way
Speaker 7: you by brought up the strings. Is your own personality
Speaker 7: and the tone. You know, a lot of it comes
Speaker 7: from the way you attack it with your own hands,
Speaker 7: not the amp per se. But also in terms of
Speaker 7: guitar I love all those guitarists, but I also have
Speaker 7: to mention Mike Bloomfield, who's from the blues Caty. But
Speaker 7: that first Paul Butterfield Blues album where Mike Bloomfield is
Speaker 7: just playing all over the place.
Speaker 6: I tried to follow that a lot.
Speaker 7: I studied that quite a bit and tried to get
Speaker 7: inside his tone and his feel and his bending and stuff.
Speaker 7: So I learned a lot off that record as well.
Speaker 7: So you know, you it's like Jason was saying, you
Speaker 7: put your ten thousand hours or how the saying goes,
Speaker 7: and you do your homework, you build your skills and
Speaker 7: your your basic framework, and then you apply that in
Speaker 7: the creative situation and hopefully it'll give you some results.
Speaker 4: Did I see a video that you have more guitars
Speaker 4: than I've ever seen anybody have, but they're on like
Speaker 4: a dry cleaning rack that you can press up press
Speaker 4: a button. Because I've mentioned that. The people and like
Speaker 4: a friend of yours and approuveser Rye and I don't
Speaker 4: know that. I don't. People don't. They go, OU haven't
Speaker 4: seen it, and so I thought, maybe I'm doubting it.
Speaker 4: But it's up in the ceiling, and the guitars are
Speaker 4: how do you press up?
Speaker 6: Yeah, give some guitars.
Speaker 7: Did a little piece on that, and you can find
Speaker 7: it on YouTube probably somewhere. But it's a practical thing
Speaker 7: over you know, my old life. I've collected guitars because
Speaker 7: I love them, but I played them all, you know,
Speaker 7: and if when you get more than a handful, they
Speaker 7: end up in a case or else in a warehouse
Speaker 7: with a stack of cases, and you're in the studio
Speaker 7: and you go, well, where's that, bless Paul. You know
Speaker 7: it's in one of those cases. You know, No, that's
Speaker 7: not it. I always at the warehouse. Oh, there it is.
Speaker 7: So I wanted to have them where I could see
Speaker 7: them and access them because I do use them all,
Speaker 7: you know, like paint brushes when I'm working. So I
Speaker 7: got the idea, I have a cabana out back that's
Speaker 7: got a high ceiling to make a carousel up above
Speaker 7: the room like a Chinese laundry, and put them all there.
Speaker 7: So and put the cases, empty cases away, so I can.
Speaker 6: Walk in and go. There's a less Paul.
Speaker 7: There's a Rickenbacker, and I've got it on a hydra
Speaker 7: hydraulic lift so it comes down where I can reach them,
Speaker 7: and I lift it back up and I've got the
Speaker 7: rehearsal band set up underneath.
Speaker 6: So it's quite a nice vibe.
Speaker 4: How many guitars is that? And do you have to
Speaker 4: do what we all have to do, which is with
Speaker 4: the wife. When did you get that that I've had
Speaker 4: that I've had that? You've never seen that guitar before?
Speaker 7: Yeah, my wife, God bless her. She's talked me into
Speaker 7: buying a lot of things that I was going to
Speaker 7: pass on. She's a blessing. But well, you know, the
Speaker 7: oldest joke is how many guitars does a guitar player
Speaker 7: really need?
Speaker 6: One more?
Speaker 4: One more?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 7: But I love guitars and they are pieces of art,
Speaker 7: and I don't buy I haven't bought one in several
Speaker 7: years because it kind of got all the ones I
Speaker 7: ever wanted, But most of them are vintage and old.
Speaker 6: I like the old ones. They have a better sound.
Speaker 7: And I walk in that room and I see all
Speaker 7: the guitars up there, and I don't have time to
Speaker 7: get to all of you today, you know, But.
Speaker 4: What a great visual. It's such a great, great thing
Speaker 4: to say. But I have a practical question about that, Mike.
Speaker 3: Knowing nothing about guitars, I always thought that if you
Speaker 3: if you didn't case the guitar, that it was prone
Speaker 3: to warping or some sort of damage or straight Is
Speaker 3: none of that true.
Speaker 4: It's perfectly fine, open like that.
Speaker 6: You don't want to leave it out in the sun.
Speaker 7: But if you get a basically you know, comfortable room,
Speaker 7: some people put humidifiers in there.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 7: I'm not that precious about it. You know, they're tough.
Speaker 7: The old ones are made really well. Unless you really
Speaker 7: put them out in the weather. They just sit there
Speaker 7: and they're the same as they were two years ago.
Speaker 4: But don't you worry like I was just displaced because
Speaker 4: of the fires. You know, it was impacted. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: what do you what's your plan? If you hear like
Speaker 4: I don't know what neighborhood you're in, but you hear
Speaker 4: we're going to evacuate when it's coming over the hill.
Speaker 4: Are there three hundred people that are each going to
Speaker 4: grab a guitar? Or how do you get them out
Speaker 4: of there.
Speaker 6: No, well, that's that's a good question.
Speaker 4: What do you what's your plan if you hear like
Speaker 4: I don't know what neighborhood you're in, but you hear
Speaker 4: we're going to evacuate when it's coming over the hill,
Speaker 4: Are there under people that are each going to grab
Speaker 4: a guitar? Or how do you get them out of there?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 7: Well, that's that's a good question. And I did have
Speaker 7: a plan. I could see the smoke from my roof.
Speaker 7: I never got I got to be ready warning. I
Speaker 7: didn't get the evacuation, but I called up the studio
Speaker 7: trucking company, who I have a relationship with. They sent
Speaker 7: a truck over with a couple of guys. I was
Speaker 7: actually in Hawaii when it all went down, maintain. They
Speaker 7: came over to the house and grabbed them all up
Speaker 7: and put them in a safe city. And then when
Speaker 7: things are safe, they brought them back and put them
Speaker 7: back up for you. I don't pamper them, but I
Speaker 7: do treasure them.
Speaker 4: So moving forward with Tom Petty. So the Dylan movie
Speaker 4: is out. My son loved it. Jason kind of was
Speaker 4: not sure about it. We appreciated the movie.
Speaker 3: I wasn't I mean, it's probably sacrilege. I grew up
Speaker 3: with much older siblings, and my sister, instead of having
Speaker 3: the proper music collection of the sixties and epies, the
Speaker 3: at the soundtrack album of every musical and Broadway show novel.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, so I didn't grow up affected by Dylan, you know,
Speaker 3: as much as someone of.
Speaker 4: My head should. So I was fascina.
Speaker 3: I know, I know, believe me, my wife is threatened
Speaker 3: to leave me on many occasions because of this. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I didn't. I didn't think the movie tracked for me.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: It comes down to that artistic integrity decision at the
Speaker 3: end about what he's going to play at Monterey and
Speaker 3: and you know, uh, is he going to serve the
Speaker 3: people that sort of brought him there or is he
Speaker 3: going to be true to his muse? And I I
Speaker 3: couldn't track through the film what that internal struggle was
Speaker 3: all about. So as a nice boy was brought up
Speaker 3: by a nice mother, I would have said, all right,
Speaker 3: what the hell, I'll play electric tomorrow. Let me do
Speaker 3: the festival the guy brought me to today, and I'll
Speaker 3: do my electric set tomorrow. But that was that was
Speaker 3: my issue with the film, other than that's it's a
Speaker 3: really well done film.
Speaker 4: But you you worked with it's amazing now looking at
Speaker 4: you and going, this guy was around Dylan, wrote with Dylan,
Speaker 4: toured with Dylan, played with Dylan, and my producer goes,
Speaker 4: you got to ask him, he's always called enigmatic. What
Speaker 4: the hell does that mean? What is Bob Dylan really?
Speaker 4: What's he like hanging out with He's.
Speaker 7: Like a riddle in size inside a puzzle right outside
Speaker 7: of a wrapt around in enigma. The guy's a genius,
Speaker 7: you know, he's the every true word of the genius.
Speaker 7: That he's got that childlike quality. But uh, responding to
Speaker 7: your Jason, to your thing about the film and going electric,
Speaker 7: h my impression of Bob is he's going to do
Speaker 7: whatever he wants to do. He's not going to worry
Speaker 7: about if somebody thinks it's this or that. He was
Speaker 7: probably just in the mood. I just got my electric guitar.
Speaker 7: I've got Mike Bloomfield over here playing with me. I
Speaker 7: want to plug in and play too, And he just
Speaker 7: did what excuse me? I don't know if we can
Speaker 7: do that on here, but that's the way he is.
Speaker 7: He does what he wants and he doesn't cater to
Speaker 7: anybody's expectations.
Speaker 6: That's the beauty of his personality.
Speaker 4: But when you're hanging with him, is he all forward?
Speaker 6: Movie?
Speaker 4: It's funny. It's funny. A friend who played with Ringo,
Speaker 4: you know, in the All Star band, and he said,
Speaker 4: the first couple of years Ringo, the news was do
Speaker 4: not ask Ringo about the Beatle. He just doesn't want
Speaker 4: to talk about the Beatles. And then as he got older,
Speaker 4: I guess that he got older, he started volunteering and
Speaker 4: then they said you couldn't stop him telling stories about
Speaker 4: the Beatles. Right? What is Doling like to eat dinner with?
Speaker 4: Does he tell Dylan stories? Can you ask him questions?
Speaker 4: Is there stuff that's forbidden to talk about? Is it
Speaker 4: a wor no?
Speaker 7: He's you know, I have had some private just me
Speaker 7: and him at at the table, and it's like he
Speaker 7: told me, he said, you know, I don't like I
Speaker 7: can't communicate or relate to many people, but I like
Speaker 7: musicians because they understand me, you know. And we talked
Speaker 7: about music. We talked about Muddy Waters and blues and
Speaker 7: at one point he goes, you know the world doesn't
Speaker 7: need any more songs. There's thousands of songs. They've already
Speaker 7: been written. I'm not going to I'm just going to
Speaker 7: do something with us. I'm not going to write any
Speaker 7: more songs. And I said, well, you know, Bob, I
Speaker 7: think people would probably like to hear what's on your mind.
Speaker 7: I think he should keep writing songs. But he's just
Speaker 7: once you get over the veneer, oh my god, it's
Speaker 7: so and so, you just get down as two musicians talking.
Speaker 7: That's what he's like. He's just deep into the music.
Speaker 7: And he's very generous, and he's very he's very smart.
Speaker 7: You got to be on your toes.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 7: He doesn't sufferate fools. If you say something stupid, he's
Speaker 7: going to notice it, you know. But he's really sweet.
Speaker 7: You know, he's a great guy, and he's really you know,
Speaker 7: he's it's hard to put in words, but I have
Speaker 7: nothing but reverence for mister Dylan.
Speaker 3: I wonder if you have any insight into this, Mike.
Speaker 3: It's a fascinating moment. It's in the documentary that was
Speaker 3: made when they were recording We Are the World, and
Speaker 3: Dylan is one of the last guys that's gonna solo.
Speaker 6: That night, and yeah, yeah, he gets seen that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he kind of gets his head and in his
Speaker 3: way and Stevie wonder eventually, what it looks like is
Speaker 3: if Stevie wonder sort of does a Dylan impression to
Speaker 3: show Dylan how to sing the.
Speaker 4: Dylan lines, and then he was able to do it.
Speaker 3: But does that do you understand potentially what was going
Speaker 3: on in his head that made him so tighten up
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 6: I have a hunch that he is.
Speaker 7: Has a knee jerk reaction to all the attention that's
Speaker 7: piled on him and the expectations, you know, and he
Speaker 7: walks in the room and oh, what's he going to do?
Speaker 7: He's a genius, It's going to be amazing, and he
Speaker 7: feels all that. He's just like, you know, he's kind
Speaker 7: of in a way, he's kind of shy and like,
Speaker 7: leave me alone. You know, I don't want all that attention.
Speaker 7: I'm not I'm not God. I'm not going to show
Speaker 7: you the truth. You find that for yourself. I think
Speaker 7: that's what it is. It's just like that on my face,
Speaker 7: you know. And he makes some nervous and self conscious
Speaker 7: as anybody would be.
Speaker 4: Yep, but you know I.
Speaker 6: Saw that Stevie Wonderner showing him how he should sing it.
Speaker 6: It was hilarious.
Speaker 7: Maybe I think he really appreciated it because he took
Speaker 7: the heat off him.
Speaker 4: You bet.
Speaker 3: He seemed to really just blossom right after that. Oh
Speaker 3: I can I can do that?
Speaker 4: Okay? You know Yeah.
Speaker 3: My impression was, yeah, you know, if it were me,
Speaker 3: I I sort of projected into Bob Dylan in that moment,
Speaker 3: and I thought, if I were in that room, you know,
Speaker 3: I can, I can sing a little, but I'm not
Speaker 3: going to open my mouth in that room.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, you surround.
Speaker 7: Us, say, if he walked into a movie to do
Speaker 7: a cameo and and you were nervous, maybe there was
Speaker 7: some starlets there that you were like, oh my god,
Speaker 7: it's Steven Spielberg or whatever, and they said okay, uh
Speaker 7: be George, and he'd be like and somebody was sipping
Speaker 7: and go, oh he do it like this?
Speaker 6: Oh yeah right. I know that it was kind of
Speaker 6: like that, you know happens.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 5: I was wondering from just working with different artists like
Speaker 5: Dylan and Patty, did you feel like you had to
Speaker 5: channel different parts of your musical self to write and
Speaker 5: play with them, or was it you feel like you
Speaker 5: kind of had one unanimous kind of writing brain with
Speaker 5: with these people, like with with Dylan, did you have
Speaker 5: to have different expectations of a kind of guitarist and
Speaker 5: writing a partner or was it just all kind of
Speaker 5: one collaborative thing.
Speaker 7: Well, whoever you're working with, you know, Roy Orbison or
Speaker 7: Delish Fan.
Speaker 6: Whoever, you bring your skills to the table.
Speaker 7: And you you try to give them what they want,
Speaker 7: what you think they might want to hear from you.
Speaker 7: You know, it's interesting because sometimes people hire you to
Speaker 7: do something and they want you to do what you do,
Speaker 7: and you come in want to do what they want
Speaker 7: you to do. You know, like try to maybe they
Speaker 7: want something like this, but it's not. You're always channeling.
Speaker 7: You're always channeling your influences that you draw on them
Speaker 7: when you can and hopefully they're there for you them.
Speaker 4: Who you know? I read that you guys open. I
Speaker 4: always loved seeing concert bills that are weird, even growing
Speaker 4: up in Philadelphia where I was. You'd go to the
Speaker 4: Electric Factory and you'd see like a bad example of
Speaker 4: like Abba and Frank Zappa. Some promoter would put things
Speaker 4: together just because they got them the dates for free
Speaker 4: and they try and build it. I know, you guys
Speaker 4: opened for Kiss. What was the weirdest, weirdest billy you
Speaker 4: were ever on? We thought the weirdest.
Speaker 7: Bill that was there. That's in the book is a
Speaker 7: great story about that. It's hilarious, but the weirdest bill.
Speaker 7: At that stage of our career, they were trying to
Speaker 7: hook us up with anybody, open for this, open for that,
Speaker 7: jump on this, And one day after it was in
Speaker 7: the Midwest somewhere, they had us opening for the La Express,
Speaker 7: which was a jazz band. You know, it's like a
Speaker 7: lot of you know, saxophones that do out up they do,
Speaker 7: but you know, it had nothing to do with us
Speaker 7: at all. And so they were the headliner and we
Speaker 7: were the nobodies. So we came on before them to
Speaker 7: these jazz afficionados and I remember we walking the stage.
Speaker 6: And what's this the monkeys?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 7: Nice that? Yeah, but we did. We showed them. But
Speaker 7: that was the weirdest mismatch I've ever Wow.
Speaker 4: Well, the other thing is the leap from you're playing
Speaker 4: small clubs, the coffee houses, and then there were the
Speaker 4: clubs that were like three hundred, three hundred, ten one thousand,
Speaker 4: your first time you're playing a stadium. What's in your
Speaker 4: head when you're looking out at that and you're trying
Speaker 4: to connect with that crowd. I mean in theater, Jason
Speaker 4: that always told me that it's black. You can't really
Speaker 4: see them again, the first couple I'm experiencing them sonically,
Speaker 4: they cannot seeium. You come out at one hundred thousand
Speaker 4: seed or sixty thousand cedar, what's coming back in you is?
Speaker 4: It must be intense first of all, but what are
Speaker 4: you focusing on it?
Speaker 6: Focus on the music, you know.
Speaker 7: And it's interesting that the big, huge crowds, like we've
Speaker 7: played at the US Festival there's two hundred thousand people,
Speaker 7: or Hyde Park, you know, sixty thousand people. And when
Speaker 7: you have a situation like that, you can't you feel
Speaker 7: it and you see.
Speaker 6: Them all, but you don't see their individual faces.
Speaker 7: You just see this collage of people, you know, and
Speaker 7: so it just becomes kind of a backdrop and you
Speaker 7: try to just play like you were in a fifty
Speaker 7: seat club. And interesting thing is is when you're in
Speaker 7: a small room and you can actually see their faces,
Speaker 7: you're really in connected with them.
Speaker 6: You actually play to them, and the.
Speaker 7: Bigger crowds you're playing to the collage and you're just
Speaker 7: trying to make it as real as you can. But
Speaker 7: there's no direct person on person communication. But the sound
Speaker 7: is pretty overwhelming. It's like somebody opens an oven in
Speaker 7: front of you.
Speaker 6: It's like.
Speaker 7: It's quite an experience. But there is a difference. But
Speaker 7: it was never intimidating playing the bigger places because it's
Speaker 7: so big. You know, it's out there and they're hearing
Speaker 7: a whole different mix than you're hearing up here, so
Speaker 7: you're hoping that they're getting a good show, but you
Speaker 7: just try not to let it affect you just do
Speaker 7: your thing.
Speaker 4: Well, is it as fulfilling or do you like playing?
Speaker 4: All these bands that are play these huge venues always
Speaker 4: end up, whether it's The Stones, whoever, doing McCartney still
Speaker 4: play small gigs every once in a while. Yeah, Is
Speaker 4: it because it's more fulfilling seeing the people's faces rather
Speaker 4: than that collage?
Speaker 7: Probably? But both are great. You know, it's like saying,
Speaker 7: what's better recording in the studio or playing live? Well,
Speaker 7: they're both great and they're different, But yeah, I mean
Speaker 7: a smaller gig. I think I've read Keith Richards said
Speaker 7: the best room for rock and roll is about two
Speaker 7: hundred people. And I know what he means, because the
Speaker 7: thing about the smaller rooms is everybody's hearing the same sound.
Speaker 7: The walls are right here, we're all in the same sonics,
Speaker 7: we're all in the same era. And when it's a
Speaker 7: big gig, you've got your monitor mix and then you've
Speaker 7: got these big speakers way out here throwing something out
Speaker 7: there to all these people.
Speaker 6: There's a disconnect. But that all comes down to the songs.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 7: You want to just make sure the songs connect with
Speaker 7: whether it's one or you know, eight hundred people, whatever
Speaker 7: you know.
Speaker 3: Mike, I'm going to ask you the musician version of
Speaker 3: a question I get as an actor all the time
Speaker 3: because I do a lot of live by performing.
Speaker 4: So it's twofold one.
Speaker 3: Is you're up there, you're having a great night, everything's
Speaker 3: going great, and you suddenly realize either you're bladder, your
Speaker 3: sphincter is in desperate need of attention and you've got
Speaker 3: another hour on the set, or or you're in the
Speaker 3: middle of the thing and you go, I have no
Speaker 3: idea what freaking chord or lyric, Just it goes out
Speaker 3: of your head. You know, even though you've played it
Speaker 3: a thousand times. Have you had that happen? And what
Speaker 3: you're react either of those things happen and what you're reacting?
Speaker 6: Okay, let me I'll answer the first question first.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 6: If you're grinning, you grin and bear it.
Speaker 4: Uh huh.
Speaker 7: If you're smart, you'll prepare yourself before you get on
Speaker 7: the stage. And if you get up there and it's think,
Speaker 7: oh no, nothing I can do? You know it was
Speaker 7: waiting at the end, you run to the restroom. You know,
Speaker 7: that's that nobody ever thinks question.
Speaker 3: By the way, nobody thinks that. You know, you might
Speaker 3: you might have another bit of attention being taken somewhere.
Speaker 7: But yeah, well that doesn't happen too often, you know.
Speaker 7: If you're but if you're like drinking six beers and
Speaker 7: then go on stage, you're going to have trouble about
Speaker 7: forty five minutes into the ship.
Speaker 6: But I don't do that. And the other question.
Speaker 4: Was going up on the lyric or getting lost in
Speaker 4: the song.
Speaker 6: That's a good question.
Speaker 7: I'll give you an example of that in my new
Speaker 7: life now as the singer in front of the band,
Speaker 7: Like when I was in the Heartbreakers, I had the
Speaker 7: easiest job. And I never had appreciation for all the things,
Speaker 7: all the moving parts that Tom was dealing with at
Speaker 7: that microphone.
Speaker 6: I'm just back there. Oh yeah.
Speaker 7: And I never could forget them. You know, if I
Speaker 7: if I make brain forgot, my fingers would have memory.
Speaker 4: They just do it.
Speaker 7: But I would always just thought, you know. But now
Speaker 7: that I have in to front the band, remember the words,
Speaker 7: sing on pitch, connect with the audience, all these things,
Speaker 7: there's a lot of tasks. Yeah, and I found thank god,
Speaker 7: now I can get a teleprompter if I get stuck.
Speaker 7: But I found that not the guitar chords, but the lyrics.
Speaker 7: Sometimes I'll be up there and okay the solo. I'm
Speaker 7: getting lost in the solo and I got to sing
Speaker 7: the verse when it comes up, and I.
Speaker 4: Go, uh huh, oh, I know, what's that word?
Speaker 6: What's the first word? You know?
Speaker 7: Or sometimes if it doesn't, sometimes it'll come to me right,
Speaker 7: they'll split second before I'm supposed to say.
Speaker 6: If it doesn't, I just make something up.
Speaker 4: You and I talked in the same language, my friend,
Speaker 4: So what did you working with? Wedn't even talked about
Speaker 4: George Harrison and the Wilbery's, but when you learn if
Speaker 4: you're taken away. We talked about Dylan. You work with Harrison,
Speaker 4: you worked with some of the biggest guys, you worked
Speaker 4: with Ringo, you worked with Warrens. I always said, what
Speaker 4: did you take away? Did you learn something from Dylan
Speaker 4: that you took with you? Did you learn from Harrison?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 7: If you pay attention, you learn from everybody you work with.
Speaker 7: You pull something, you observe them, and you go, oh,
Speaker 7: I could do I could do something more like that.
Speaker 7: It'd be good for me, or you know, they all
Speaker 7: inspire you and I'm always learning. I always pay close
Speaker 7: attention the people like that. You watch them, how they work,
Speaker 7: how they their processed, their creative processes and their work
Speaker 7: ethic and all that.
Speaker 4: But there's some watching from Dylan. Is there something specific?
Speaker 7: Well yeah, there were so many things. But one thing
Speaker 7: I like, uh that I learned I think from Dylan,
Speaker 7: which I think Tom also learned, is to be.
Speaker 6: Fearless and be brave.
Speaker 7: Like before the Heartbreakers worked with Dylan, we were kind
Speaker 7: of old showbiz. We get our set list, it had
Speaker 7: we work on it, have an arc to it, and
Speaker 7: that's it. We're gonna go out, We're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 7: please the people, We're gonna work them up, we're going
Speaker 7: to ingratiate with them.
Speaker 6: And then Bob comes along.
Speaker 7: It's like, I'm just going to do what I like
Speaker 7: and if they like it, fine, it's not they can
Speaker 7: go get some popcorn, you know. And it's like there's
Speaker 7: some freedom in that, like, oh, okay, well we're going
Speaker 7: to try this song. We didn't rehearse it, but be
Speaker 7: brave and courageous. We can make this work because we're good,
Speaker 7: you know. And there's something to that that I think
Speaker 7: I did learn the spontaneu he definitely in The Dirty Knobs.
Speaker 7: We're very spontaneous, will change anything at any time, and
Speaker 7: it creates a lot of kinetic energy.
Speaker 4: You know. That's very cool.
Speaker 3: I want to ask you a question, Mike, ause we
Speaker 3: as we start to tie up for Rob here and
Speaker 3: Rob you can tag onto my question as much again.
Speaker 3: So Robert is, you know, the primary writer and the
Speaker 3: front man for this this band that's begun to do
Speaker 3: quite well.
Speaker 4: Boyo, young guy in his twenties.
Speaker 3: But I'm imagining the music business when you guys began
Speaker 3: versus what's happening now and what he's facing is a
Speaker 3: very different creature. How do you navigate it? And do
Speaker 3: you have any advice for guys like Rob who are
Speaker 3: who are you know, really banging away and banging away
Speaker 3: at it somewhat successfully, but it's still an upward slog.
Speaker 4: Yeah what what's? What have you learned or how do you?
Speaker 3: Do you have any advice for the young guys who
Speaker 3: are trying to navigate this stuff?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I hear, I hear you. And it is so
Speaker 7: different now than when I started out. It was a
Speaker 7: different game plan to try to keep it together and
Speaker 7: be successful, completely different game plan. I don't even really
Speaker 7: understand the social media music scene. You know, we still
Speaker 7: sell vinyl. We do okay with the vinyl and stuff
Speaker 7: and some CDs I guess, but mostly we do vinyl
Speaker 7: and streaming whatever that you know, I don't even know.
Speaker 7: But it's so because it's alien to me. I know
Speaker 7: it's different though, and I know that building a career
Speaker 7: in this world is like the wild West. I mean,
Speaker 7: so my only advice would be just do what I did.
Speaker 7: You know, love what you do, and if they don't,
Speaker 7: if you don't sell millions of records, at least you're
Speaker 7: doing what you love to do you know, And maybe
Speaker 7: you will. But my hunch is if you're doing something
Speaker 7: like I never did it because I thought I was
Speaker 7: going to be rich. I never thought I would. I thought, sure,
Speaker 7: I'll never be rich playing the guitar. I'm not George Harrison.
Speaker 7: You know, I'm not John Lennon. I'm just some dumb
Speaker 7: kid from Jacksonville. But you know, my thought process was not.
Speaker 7: I think a lot of bands now they think of
Speaker 7: TV and social media and they want to be famous,
Speaker 7: you know, or be a celebrity. I think that's a
Speaker 7: dark hole. I think it's the wrong way to go
Speaker 7: about music. For me, it was I never thought about that.
Speaker 7: I would dream about it, but it was like this
Speaker 7: unattainable dream. But what I did do is I loved
Speaker 7: it so much. I love playing the guitar, I love listening,
Speaker 7: I loved writing. And I would have done it no
Speaker 7: matter what. If I ended up pumping gas for a living,
Speaker 7: I'd still be playing music. And if I think, if
Speaker 7: you love it, then you're going to be okay, you know,
Speaker 7: whatever happens.
Speaker 6: If you if you love what you're doing, you've already
Speaker 6: won the game.
Speaker 4: True that that's beautiful, man.
Speaker 5: I mean also the thing because I also, I don't know,
Speaker 5: you've given me a lot of I think musical inspirations,
Speaker 5: So hearing that is just wonderful.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 7: You know, in the industry, I mean, the industry is
Speaker 7: always more things Like I talked to my managinery. He says, well,
Speaker 7: last week we did this, This week, we have to
Speaker 7: do this to get your record played. So it's just
Speaker 7: you know, don't get hung up on that because it's
Speaker 7: going to always morph.
Speaker 6: I keep dreaming. I have this dream that there's.
Speaker 7: Going to be a sunflare and it's going to zap
Speaker 7: all digital music and no social media, no cell phones,
Speaker 7: and we're going to have to go back to playing
Speaker 7: music and making records.
Speaker 4: How do we how do we trip in? Let's do
Speaker 4: the globe the solar flare telethon, have people singing in front,
Speaker 4: donate money to create a god. Before we go, I
Speaker 4: got to mention one thing. You and your wife are
Speaker 4: so involved in dog rescue, and I thought that was
Speaker 4: important to go out on that too.
Speaker 7: So well, thank it's Paul the TAZZI found and thank
Speaker 7: you for mentioning that. Uh my wife and I. If
Speaker 7: you read the book, there's a great story of how
Speaker 7: we met. We were brought together by a dog, and
Speaker 7: we just got a new puppy.
Speaker 6: Recently.
Speaker 7: I read something once I said, look, dogs are a
Speaker 7: blessing and a get. They come into your life and
Speaker 7: they have a job to do. Their job is to
Speaker 7: make you happy for the twelve years or whatever. And
Speaker 7: when their job is done, they say goodbye and they
Speaker 7: send another dog into your life somehow mystically to come
Speaker 7: in and finish the job that they didn't finish. So
Speaker 7: I like to look at it like that because it
Speaker 7: always is heart wrenching. But my new dog, we just
Speaker 7: got a puppy and he's like joy does joy all
Speaker 7: through the house, this little energy, this guy.
Speaker 6: And I know someday maybe he will outliard me.
Speaker 7: I don't know, but I don't care. I want to
Speaker 7: enjoy them while I'm here, you know. And dogs are great.
Speaker 7: I can't endorse them more. They make your life better.
Speaker 4: Check out it's foundating the book and it's in there too,
Speaker 4: about the meeting of the meeting of the dog and
Speaker 4: you and your wife. It's a heartbreaker memoir. The dirty
Speaker 4: knobs are out not right the second because you're sitting
Speaker 4: at home, but you're out on tour, So go see
Speaker 4: them because why not? Why why wouldn't wouldn't you? And
Speaker 4: continue success man and doing what you're doing.
Speaker 3: D Campbell, you're You're a good dude.
Speaker 6: You are. Thank you.
Speaker 4: I don't know what you learned, Robbie, you learned stuff.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I thought it was just it was just
Speaker 5: kind of like a masterclass. And hearing a hearing a collaborator,
Speaker 5: like a Keith Richards type of guy's really interesting.
Speaker 4: It's interesting being in that position. And it's so funny
Speaker 4: giving him back the line that you couldn't talk Tom
Speaker 4: into anything, and he goes, I could, so he had
Speaker 4: currency because he when you're that powerful a songwriter, and Tom,
Speaker 4: I guess need notes, he needs you. Even though he's
Speaker 4: a big ego and a big name and a big
Speaker 4: hit maker. I guess he still knew. Like I said,
Speaker 4: if you hit heart, if you hear some of those songs,
Speaker 4: the guitar line is the song is the melody to
Speaker 4: the song, good luck, good luck, good luck. I'm backing
Speaker 4: up and leave it so and bands are bands are heard? Right, Robert?
Speaker 4: How many bands have you been in? Now? We're not
Speaker 4: even It's always this guy. And I thought this guy
Speaker 4: didn't show up. This guy's drunk.
Speaker 5: When you were asking the enigmatic question of what that means,
Speaker 5: I feel like he kind of defined, like he embodies
Speaker 5: what that means. He has a very kind of interesting
Speaker 5: indirect way of answering certain things right he knows, you know,
Speaker 5: like about Dylan cannot really connect with people, but only
Speaker 5: connect with musicians. There's just certain things that he answers,
Speaker 5: ways that he answers that are indirect, but you know
Speaker 5: what they mean.
Speaker 4: But the mystery is still there. My weirdest Dylan experience
Speaker 4: was my only Dylan experience, was when we were living
Speaker 4: up near Malibu. I went to the Malibu Movie Theater
Speaker 4: and it was tiny, and I think we went to
Speaker 4: see Blade two. Why, I don't know. We probably had
Speaker 4: nothing else to do. And we pull in and it's
Speaker 4: kind of a little empty shopping center and a pickup
Speaker 4: truck pulls in next to my car. Now there are
Speaker 4: a million space truck pulls in right next to my
Speaker 4: car and really close, and I go, look at this
Speaker 4: a hole? What is this about? And I get out
Speaker 4: of the car and I'm walking into the theater and
Speaker 4: it's Bob Dylan coming to see Blade two. And we
Speaker 4: sat in an almost empty movie theater, which is tine.
Speaker 4: It's a really small theater. Yeah, and I didn't watch
Speaker 4: Blade too. I watched Bob Dylan watching watching Blade too,
Speaker 4: and it was the most bizarre thing because he didn't
Speaker 4: do anything odd. He looked like a normallyasion there got
Speaker 4: up and left, but it was almost like a ghost.
Speaker 4: You know, he comes in. You can't believe you're seings
Speaker 4: based on absolutely nothing. My knee jerk.
Speaker 3: Thinking about Dylan as far as relationships with people, you know,
Speaker 3: there's a little bit of a doesn't quite always read
Speaker 3: the room. But along with that is also this savant
Speaker 3: ability two for poetry, for words, for music, for.
Speaker 6: It.
Speaker 3: It must be fascinating to live in that. Because he's
Speaker 3: not a great singer, he knows he's not, doesn't matter,
Speaker 3: and yet you know he's fronting the thing. I find
Speaker 3: Dylan fascinating. You know, I'm not kidding that. I just
Speaker 3: wasn't music be aware. As a teenager, all the guys
Speaker 3: around me were being very affected by Dylan and all
Speaker 3: his contemporaries.
Speaker 4: I was, you know, I know you're doing you were
Speaker 4: doing so. But I love that he's fear. I love
Speaker 4: I have a thing on the computer I pulled and
Speaker 4: I'm going to quote it horribly, but I said, what
Speaker 4: would you create today if you didn't have any fear?
Speaker 4: Because that stops. It's the great stopper. And you know
Speaker 4: what on that segway, nothing's going to stop us from
Speaker 4: talking to David Googan. What a great radio I am.
Speaker 4: I am a little afraid I'm not gonna David makes
Speaker 4: me laugh because he always signed, by the way, David
Speaker 4: great question when I you know, I did a little
Speaker 4: prep with David and he said, you know what, find
Speaker 4: out what it means and what the hell's and thematic
Speaker 4: mean with Dylan what does that mean? So thank you David.
Speaker 9: I have to say, Peter, you missed out. Blade two
Speaker 9: is one of my favorite.
Speaker 4: Pictures. But I mean missed out. I paid for it.
Speaker 4: I went and saw it. Yeah, but you were watching Derek.
Speaker 4: You know what Blade won. I went with my friend
Speaker 4: Howard and it was I was doing Morning, the Morning
Speaker 4: Show and it was in a premiere. It was with
Speaker 4: the stars and Wesley Snith and it was in a
Speaker 4: huge theater and I fell. It's a one time name.
Speaker 4: One other person in Blade went out out the Dwarf.
Speaker 4: See what Stephen. It was wasn't Stephen Dodorf and played Yeah,
Speaker 4: he was the bad gun. Come on, please, who played blades?
Speaker 4: So christmosophic? So I fell asleep. So he was all
Speaker 4: asleep in this theater snoring. They wake me to Blade.
Speaker 3: You're lucky, You're lucky, Wesley Snipes didn't take your head up.
Speaker 9: So David Blade Blade two is much better than Blade went.
Speaker 9: But that's my personal opinion. Actually, a couple of things
Speaker 9: on the on the correction meter.
Speaker 6: Dylan.
Speaker 9: Now you guys mentioned Dylan playing at the Monterey Folk Festival.
Speaker 9: While Dylan did play that festival in nineteen sixty three,
Speaker 9: that was notable because that was his first West Coast appearance.
Speaker 1: That was not when he went electric. That was at
Speaker 1: the Newport.
Speaker 9: Folk Festival in sixty five.
Speaker 3: That was Peter's mistake, right, I wouldn't have said any
Speaker 3: of that, that was all.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have said that twice.
Speaker 9: Absolutely, And also you got to me thinking of as
Speaker 9: far as collecting of guitars, if people are interested in
Speaker 9: what many people believe to be the largest significant collection
Speaker 9: of guitars, that is the jim Ers, I hopefully I've
Speaker 9: got considered right name right, he is the billionaire owner
Speaker 9: of NFL's Indianapolis Colts, and he has a collection of
Speaker 9: over two hundred guitars, including Dylan's electric guitar when he
Speaker 9: played at the New Part.
Speaker 4: And Cobain's guitar. He's got insane stuff. I mean, he'll
Speaker 4: pay whatever he has to pay to get paying from
Speaker 4: the ceiling. I don't think display cases. I think he don't.
Speaker 4: Did he also buy David Gilmore's black Stratocastes? He did?
Speaker 9: I mean did, And it's actually if you're I believe
Speaker 9: it's on a.
Speaker 4: Year long Indian app tour. Yeah, yeah, you can go.
Speaker 6: See it now if you're in that very cool saying collection.
Speaker 3: What I liked about hearing about the guitar rack Laundri
Speaker 3: is that it makes the little piccadillo in my guest
Speaker 3: house seem a little less strange.
Speaker 4: You know about the couch, the pneumatic couch. So can
Speaker 4: I can I mention that so Jason has this log
Speaker 4: cabin guesthouse, which is very nice, and the couch there's
Speaker 4: a big sofa and it faces.
Speaker 3: Well, there's a problem because the way the room is configurated,
Speaker 3: there's a large screen sort of projection on these on
Speaker 3: the north end of the room, but the fireplace is
Speaker 3: on the south end of the room. So if you're
Speaker 3: putting in furniture, where do you orient the couch. It's
Speaker 3: a problem you oriented to the fireplace, oriented to the screen.
Speaker 4: So why did you put a big screen over the fireplace?
Speaker 4: You couldn't. It wasn't over the fireplace. I said, why
Speaker 4: couldn't you put a big screen everyone wall?
Speaker 3: First of all, you're gonna have to look look above
Speaker 3: the mantle anyway.
Speaker 4: Jason, the first time I'm there in the back house
Speaker 4: when I met him thirty plus years ago, was he
Speaker 4: something the couch is It rises pneumatically, you turn it,
Speaker 4: it goes back down and it now faces whichever direction
Speaker 4: you want.
Speaker 1: Right like on a lazy Susan.
Speaker 3: It's on a lazy Susan that is lifted pneumatically into
Speaker 3: a six feet into the air, so the couch legs
Speaker 3: can pass over all the surrounding furniture as you rotated,
Speaker 3: and then it floats gently back down to the floor.
Speaker 4: Which not to give away secrets as much like how
Speaker 4: they do the Houdini experience at the Magic Castle. But
Speaker 4: you didn't hear that from too it.
Speaker 3: Our friend Wayne Night when the when the table started
Speaker 3: to rise during the Hodini seance in the Pitch Black,
Speaker 3: I hear from way night. Well, there can be no
Speaker 3: natural explanation for this phenomena.
Speaker 4: It must be Houdini. And then the guy who was
Speaker 4: doing the seance when it's the strangle right night, because
Speaker 4: that's his whole job. Robert, thanks for joining us. Yeah,
Speaker 4: appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Robert Tilden of Boyo can continued success to you, sir,
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. As the man says, if you're
Speaker 3: pumping gas, it's okay, just make the meus.
Speaker 4: That's what heat myself. But you know what, pump gass
Speaker 4: as good as you're playing guitar. Yeah, do it with
Speaker 4: a rhythm, Yeah, never half hearted. Have you ever driven
Speaker 4: out of gas station with the pump stilling? I did it.
Speaker 4: You know what happens, It goes with it. I just
Speaker 4: it rips off and they charge you a lot of money.
Speaker 4: But it breaks off, I guess. And when I did it,
Speaker 4: I was distracted as one time I did it. Well, okay,
Speaker 4: he didn't tell me this. I'm learning something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my god, David you too, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: there we go.
Speaker 4: I was distracted and I pull out and you get
Speaker 4: that sinking feeling you go oh, and then you hear
Speaker 4: a noise. Thank god, they know they're idiots, so it
Speaker 4: doesn't spill and explode. It cuts off. But then a
Speaker 4: guy walks out to here and goes, happens.
Speaker 8: All the time, and then says, it happens. Bill, answer
Speaker 8: your bill, and you drive up with the sinking feeling
Speaker 8: you get when you realize I didn't I paid, but
Speaker 8: I got back in the car and the phone kept
Speaker 8: talking and didn't take it out of the thing. Oh
Speaker 8: my god, right, it's a it's a hard I mean, I.
Speaker 5: Was, Yeah, I was, to be honest, I was selfishly
Speaker 5: more worried about my car and what that implied.
Speaker 4: I thought, I maybe you would the car and thank you. Yeah, well, David,
Speaker 4: where'd you do it?
Speaker 1: I did it.
Speaker 9: I was driving from Oregon to Idaho, and uh I
Speaker 9: when I got out of the car about you know,
Speaker 9: one hundred miles later, I discovered you know, the thing
Speaker 9: stuck in.
Speaker 4: There and the dog leash, which was yeah, boy, wow,
Speaker 4: that kills that. That that's right from vacation. Thank you everybody,
Speaker 4: ladies and gentlemen, keep making the music. We'll see you
Speaker 4: next time. Here are really No Really, and always make
Speaker 4: sure when you've done puffing public service announcement than really.
Speaker 2: As another episode of Really No Really comes to it close.
Speaker 2: I know you're wondering what stars of the music world
Speaker 2: started in the background of other famous singers. Well, I'll
Speaker 2: carry you to the answer and home. But first let's
Speaker 2: thank our guest Mike Campbell. His book Heartbreaker, a Memoir,
Speaker 2: is available everywhere now and his website The Dirty Knobs
Speaker 2: dot com lists tour dates and ticket of ails. On Instagram, YouTube,
Speaker 2: and Facebook, he is at Mike Campbell Official, and on
Speaker 2: x he is at Mike Campbell HQ. You can also
Speaker 2: find the music of our guest host Robert Tilden on Spotify,
Speaker 2: where his band is Boyo. Find all pertinent links in
Speaker 2: our show notes, our little show hangs out on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube,
Speaker 2: and threads at Really No Really Podcast, And of course,
Speaker 2: you can share your thoughts and feedback with us.
Speaker 1: Online at reallynoreli dot com.
Speaker 2: If you have a really some amazing factor story that
Speaker 2: boggles your mind, share it with us, and if we
Speaker 2: use it, we will send.
Speaker 1: You a little gift. Nothing life changing, obviously, but it's
Speaker 1: the thought that counts.
Speaker 2: Check out our full episodes on YouTube. Hit that subscribe
Speaker 2: button and take that bell so you're updated when we
Speaker 2: release new videos and episodes, which we do each Tuesday.
Speaker 2: So listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
Speaker 2: Pop Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And now
Speaker 2: the answer to the question what stars of the music
Speaker 2: world started in the background of other famous singers, Well,
Speaker 2: the truth is that many of today's star music artists
Speaker 2: began anonymously backing up other great artists.
Speaker 1: But here are a notable few. Mary J.
Speaker 2: Blige was a backup artist, earning her first credit on
Speaker 2: eighties rapper Father MC's track All Due for You. Cheryl
Speaker 2: Crowe sang backing vocals for Michael Jackson and traveled on
Speaker 2: his Bad tour in the late eighties.
Speaker 1: She appeared in the music video for Dirty Diana.
Speaker 2: Luther Vandross was the go to backup singer throughout the
Speaker 2: seventies and sang behind stars like David Bowie, Bette Midler,
Speaker 2: and Ringo Starr when Stefani was actually the backup singer
Speaker 2: for No Doubt, the band started by her brother Eric
Speaker 2: and his partner John Spence, but after the tragic death
Speaker 2: of John Spence, Steffani was moved up to lead singer
Speaker 2: and the rest is history. Katy Perry sang backup vocals
Speaker 2: for the Christian metal band Pod and performed with them
Speaker 2: live on The Tonight Show with Jay Lenna. Before John
Speaker 2: Legend became a legend, he was a background singer and
Speaker 2: musician for artists like Alicia Keys and The Black Eyed Piece.
Speaker 2: Cher was a noted backup singer for producer Phil Spector
Speaker 2: and sang in the back of hit tunes like Dadoo,
Speaker 2: Ronram and The Righteous Brothers. You've Lost That Love and Feeling.
Speaker 2: Whitney Houston was singing back up at fourteen years old
Speaker 2: for stars like her mom, Sissy Houston, as well as Wilson.
Speaker 1: Pickett and Aretha Franklin.
Speaker 2: Michael McDonald can be heard behind artists like Stephen Bishop
Speaker 2: and most notably Steely Dan.
Speaker 1: His angelic harmonies are.
Speaker 2: Most recognizable on the song peg And Lastly, Mariah Carey
Speaker 2: was studying cosmetology and working as a waitress when she
Speaker 2: got hired as a backup artist for eighties Poff and
Speaker 2: R and B Sensation.
Speaker 1: Brenda K.
Speaker 2: Starr all that to say that the voice behind the
Speaker 2: star voices is often the person to notice the most.
Speaker 1: Take it from me.
Speaker 2: The guy who opens and closes for two other guys can.
Speaker 4: Hit really no, really
Speaker 1: Really really is production of Blase Entertainment.