WEBVTT - Donnie Iris

0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:13.079
<v Speaker 1>Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the MOB Website podcast. I

0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:17.960
<v Speaker 1>guess today is one and only Donnie Iris. Donnie, you've

0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.639
<v Speaker 1>been going through some health challenges. Tell us about that.

0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:27.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, I two years ago I developed uh bladder

0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:32.000
<v Speaker 2>cancer and uh and I had to I had to

0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:37.000
<v Speaker 2>have the surgery to have the bladder removed. And that

0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.760
<v Speaker 2>was like two years ago. But uh, everything's fine now.

0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.520
<v Speaker 2>I've I seem to have beat it. There's uh. I mean,

0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:52.040
<v Speaker 2>I obviously have some problems with no bladder, but everything

0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.760
<v Speaker 2>seems fine now. The doctor told me I'm in the clear.

0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.480
<v Speaker 2>I have to go back every three or four weeks

0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.040
<v Speaker 2>for maintenance, but other than that, everything's cool. Now.

0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:03.440
<v Speaker 1>How'd you discover you had it?

0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.760
<v Speaker 2>Well, I thought I was having a like a kidney

0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:14.319
<v Speaker 2>stone or something, and uh drove myself to the hospital

0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.880
<v Speaker 2>and uh, it wasn't. It wasn't a kidney stone at all.

0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.440
<v Speaker 2>It was my bladder. So I didn't. I didn't quite

0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.440
<v Speaker 2>like the hospital I was in, so I got transferred

0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:32.120
<v Speaker 2>to what's called Hillman Hillman Cancer Center in in Pittsburgh,

0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.120
<v Speaker 2>and uh and there there are uh they're very good

0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.520
<v Speaker 2>doctors and uh they they they took care of me real.

0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.600
<v Speaker 1>Well, so you have the surgery. Do you have like

0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:45.399
<v Speaker 1>radiation or chemo after that?

0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:51.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? I had what's called chemo therapy and immunotherapy. And

0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.000
<v Speaker 2>I remember the doctor calling me and telling me they

0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.320
<v Speaker 2>came out with this immunotherapy they had the fdd A

0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.360
<v Speaker 2>had just the FDA had just approved it, and he

0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.040
<v Speaker 2>was all excited about it and thought it would be

0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.800
<v Speaker 2>it would be a great thing to do. So we

0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.880
<v Speaker 2>did it, and sure enough it worked. It worked very well.

0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.840
<v Speaker 1>Okay. So how long ago did you discovery the problem?

0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:20.919
<v Speaker 2>Two years, I believe, okay.

0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:22.760
<v Speaker 1>And when's the last time you've had treatment.

0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:30.880
<v Speaker 2>I've had maintenance treatment within the last week or two.

0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.440
<v Speaker 1>Okay. And is this something that's been very hard you know,

0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.760
<v Speaker 1>where you felt shitty or it's like, hey, you just

0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:40.239
<v Speaker 1>go through the immunitherapy.

0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:44.480
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. No, No, I didn't get sick at all. I

0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.320
<v Speaker 2>mean a lot of people have told me they've been

0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:52.040
<v Speaker 2>sick after chemo, but I never had any problems with sickness.

0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.880
<v Speaker 1>So after you went through this crisis house, it affected

0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:57.280
<v Speaker 1>your outlook on life?

0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:05.040
<v Speaker 2>Oh uh, I don't know. I just I just thought

0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.079
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do the best I can.

0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.360
<v Speaker 2>I'll just push on. If I can still do shows,

0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.239
<v Speaker 2>I'll still do shows. And uh and sure enough. I mean,

0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.880
<v Speaker 2>we've been able to do shows and there hasn't been

0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.040
<v Speaker 2>any problems other than I have to take a couple

0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:25.000
<v Speaker 2>of pain pills before I go on stage. But other

0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.400
<v Speaker 2>than that, I'm fine.

0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:33.160
<v Speaker 1>Okay, prior to this medical incident, how many shows were

0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:33.920
<v Speaker 1>you doing a year?

0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:42.320
<v Speaker 2>Oh well, that's a good question. I don't even remember. Probably, uh,

0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:48.560
<v Speaker 2>prior to the incident, I'd say i'd say half a dozen.

0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.200
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So you're doing it for fun as opposed to money.

0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:57.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, We're definitely doing it for fun.

0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.720
<v Speaker 2>But that they're the crowds are there, the venues are

0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.560
<v Speaker 2>are generally sold out. So we're we're doing well with it,

0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.600
<v Speaker 2>I mean when we're loving it. And we got a

0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:13.279
<v Speaker 2>new lineup. Now we got uh Jovitally Junior and Jovitally

0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:20.320
<v Speaker 2>Senior playing drums with us. Now Jovially, let's yeah, yeah.

0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.719
<v Speaker 1>Let's hold on for a second. Jovially drummer. Long history

0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:29.840
<v Speaker 1>with James Gang. Yeah, you're from Pittsburgh. Certainly James Gang

0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.880
<v Speaker 1>started in Cleveland. How do you know Jovitally.

0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:42.560
<v Speaker 2>Uh. Well, his son, Junior uh is playing with us now.

0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.640
<v Speaker 2>So I mean Kevin, our original drummer, is no longer

0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:52.560
<v Speaker 2>with us, but uh, Jovi Tally Junior was playing with us, and.

0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.560
<v Speaker 1>We I mean, how do you find Jovially Jr?

0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.159
<v Speaker 2>Well, he uh. For for some reason, he was the

0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.040
<v Speaker 2>guy that we were going to replace Kevin with our

0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:10.120
<v Speaker 2>original drummer, just by auditioning. So he comes, man, he

0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.080
<v Speaker 2>does a good job, and he's still doing a good job.

0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.080
<v Speaker 2>And then he told us about his dad, and of

0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.040
<v Speaker 2>course we were like, oh, yeah, yeah, let's let's get

0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:23.920
<v Speaker 2>to know him. And somehow he started playing with us.

0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.640
<v Speaker 2>So we're up there with two drummers and just having

0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.560
<v Speaker 2>a ball, man, just having a ball and listening to

0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:37.279
<v Speaker 2>Joe Vitelli's or Senior's stories in between the sets are amazing.

0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.640
<v Speaker 2>He tells stuff about Crosby, Stills and Nash and all

0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:43.279
<v Speaker 2>that crap.

0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.400
<v Speaker 1>And where do both of them, the Senior and Junior

0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:48.479
<v Speaker 1>live right now?

0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.159
<v Speaker 2>I think they're both in the Cleveland area.

0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.800
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you live exactly where.

0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.200
<v Speaker 2>I live in a place called Coreopolis, Pennsylvania, which is

0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:01.920
<v Speaker 2>a suburb of Pittsburgh.

0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.520
<v Speaker 1>So how far is that from Cleveland.

0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:09.599
<v Speaker 2>About an hour and a half.

0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.839
<v Speaker 1>So you were growing up, would it be a normal

0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.760
<v Speaker 1>thing to say, Oh, the band's playing in Cleveland, We're

0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:22.200
<v Speaker 1>going to go to Cleveland, or you just stay around Pittsburgh.

0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.320
<v Speaker 2>No, it it was. We played quite a few gigs

0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:30.520
<v Speaker 2>in Cleveland. Our original manager, Mike Belkan was our original manager,

0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:36.440
<v Speaker 2>and he also managed the Michael Stanley Band, and so

0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.720
<v Speaker 2>we did a lot of gigs together. We did, oh,

0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:45.640
<v Speaker 2>the Richfield Coliseum and a bunch of different places with

0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.960
<v Speaker 2>with Michael. It was kind of, you know, kind of

0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:56.320
<v Speaker 2>a two band situation for most of the Cleveland shows.

0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:01.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, let's go back to the present. So you know,

0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:03.799
<v Speaker 1>in the old days, you'd have an agent. An agent

0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.800
<v Speaker 1>would solicit offers. Now that you're doing a handful of gigs,

0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.920
<v Speaker 1>where do the gigs come from?

0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:17.480
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Man, I don't know. Our Our manager now is

0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:23.119
<v Speaker 2>Michael Michael Belkan, who is Mike Belkin's son, and he

0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.360
<v Speaker 2>he just gets all these great gigs for us. I

0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:31.280
<v Speaker 2>think he does a great job. And I don't I

0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.840
<v Speaker 2>don't know how he solicits these jobs, but he he

0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.560
<v Speaker 2>does a great job at it. We're playing, Uh, we

0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.440
<v Speaker 2>don't go any further than Columbus West or Johnstown to

0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.200
<v Speaker 2>the east. So yeah, he's keeping us busy with some

0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:48.200
<v Speaker 2>really nice shows.

0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, any recordings in the future.

0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.720
<v Speaker 2>We haven't really thought about it that much. We're kind

0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:01.320
<v Speaker 2>of into this live gig thing and and uh and

0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.400
<v Speaker 2>not put putting too many too much pressure on ourselves

0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:08.800
<v Speaker 2>for trying to come up with something new. So uh no,

0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.160
<v Speaker 2>we're not really concentrating on it.

0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.960
<v Speaker 1>So what's it like being on stage eight decades later?

0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.960
<v Speaker 1>I mean, you know you started early, you know, is

0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.080
<v Speaker 1>it the same hit from the audience to get stage fright?

0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:22.800
<v Speaker 1>What's it like?

0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:28.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's it's it's a little bit. Uh, I

0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:30.760
<v Speaker 2>don't know. I don't get stage fright, but I go

0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.480
<v Speaker 2>up there, the audience is right into it. They're they're

0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.720
<v Speaker 2>ready to go right off the bat. So I feel

0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:41.120
<v Speaker 2>very comfortable up there. And uh and the shows are

0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.920
<v Speaker 2>usually just just a it's a love fest with all

0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:49.360
<v Speaker 2>these people. They just we're just enjoying each other's company.

0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:56.280
<v Speaker 1>Really, So, are you just a normally energetic guy or

0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.160
<v Speaker 1>do you feed off the feedback of the audience.

0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.319
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I am definitely a guy who feeds off the audience,

0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.680
<v Speaker 2>because usually during the day. I'm a pretty lazy guy.

0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:13.439
<v Speaker 2>I don't do a whole lot other other than sit

0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:18.240
<v Speaker 2>in my front porch and smoke cigars and and that's

0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:20.240
<v Speaker 2>my hobby. Right now, I was smoking cigars.

0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:29.240
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So let's go back to the beginning. You grow

0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.800
<v Speaker 1>up in the Pittsburgh area. How long had your family

0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:33.760
<v Speaker 1>been in that area?

0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:41.360
<v Speaker 2>Well, they were here all their lives. Really. I was

0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.680
<v Speaker 2>born in a town called Newcastle, Pennsylvania, which was right

0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:51.400
<v Speaker 2>outside of my hometown of Elwood City, Pennsylvania. And that's

0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:55.520
<v Speaker 2>where I grew up in Elwood In. I was born

0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.480
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen forty three, So I grew up there, you know,

0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.920
<v Speaker 2>as a kid through high school. And yeah, that's about it.

0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:05.160
<v Speaker 2>Then I want to have to call it.

0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.360
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So were your parents or your parents parents born

0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:09.400
<v Speaker 1>in the Old Country?

0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:16.400
<v Speaker 2>My parents' parents were born in the Old Country? Yes, yes, And.

0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.000
<v Speaker 1>How did they end up in Pittsburgh.

0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.679
<v Speaker 2>That's a good question. I have no idea. No, they

0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.440
<v Speaker 2>came over on the boat just like everybody else did,

0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.079
<v Speaker 2>and just settled in Elwood City. How they settled there,

0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:32.040
<v Speaker 2>I have no idea.

0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.439
<v Speaker 1>And what did everybody do for a living?

0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:44.559
<v Speaker 2>My dad was a steel worker, my grandfather, Well, when

0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:52.760
<v Speaker 2>I knew him, he was retired. Both my grandparents were retired.

0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:57.920
<v Speaker 2>Both sets of parents were grandparents were retired. So I

0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.160
<v Speaker 2>just I didn't know them all that well because they

0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:05.199
<v Speaker 2>passed on as I became like a young teenager.

0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.840
<v Speaker 1>So what did your father say about working in the

0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.600
<v Speaker 1>steel mills.

0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:16.520
<v Speaker 2>He didn't stay in the steel mill all that long.

0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.760
<v Speaker 2>He had quit after a while and started working for

0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:26.400
<v Speaker 2>a company called National Distillers who made whiskey and Old

0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:31.400
<v Speaker 2>Granddad and PM and all these whiskey brands. That's what

0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:33.880
<v Speaker 2>he decided to do. So he became an on the

0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:39.640
<v Speaker 2>road salesperson for these for this company, and that's what

0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:40.719
<v Speaker 2>he decided to do.

0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.880
<v Speaker 1>The kind who stays overnight in a different town or

0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:46.200
<v Speaker 1>did it always come home at night?

0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.320
<v Speaker 2>Oh you know what, I don't even remember. It could

0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.800
<v Speaker 2>have been a little bit of both. But I don't

0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:58.880
<v Speaker 2>really remember at that time. Let's see, I would have

0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:04.160
<v Speaker 2>been oh she, I don't know, by seventeen something like that.

0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.480
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, something like that. I don't remember. So

0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.320
<v Speaker 2>how many kids in the family, Me and my sister,

0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.760
<v Speaker 2>I have a sister, a younger sister, how much younger.

0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:18.240
<v Speaker 2>She's five years younger.

0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.280
<v Speaker 1>And what was her life about.

0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:28.880
<v Speaker 2>Oh, she was a caretaker. She was a good caretaker.

0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:34.439
<v Speaker 2>Her husband developed some problems and she mainly takes care

0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.800
<v Speaker 2>of him and to me to a certain extent.

0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:42.320
<v Speaker 1>So you're growing up in Pittsburgh. Your father's first work

0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:46.160
<v Speaker 1>in the steel mill, then he's liquor salesman. How about

0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.720
<v Speaker 1>your mother and your father and mother's relationship.

0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.920
<v Speaker 2>Well, my mother was actually the one who taught me

0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:59.760
<v Speaker 2>how to sing. I was very young, maybe five six seven,

0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:04.120
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, but she would, uh, she would encourage

0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.440
<v Speaker 2>me to sing. We had a piano in the basement

0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.199
<v Speaker 2>where she would take me downstairs and and uh and

0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.960
<v Speaker 2>and show me what to do and how to sing

0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:18.400
<v Speaker 2>and uh to get some vibrallo in my voice and

0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.040
<v Speaker 2>that kind of thing. But she was the one who actually,

0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:24.880
<v Speaker 2>uh encouraged me to sing.

0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:26.800
<v Speaker 1>Do you know why?

0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.720
<v Speaker 2>I think? Uh, I think that's just the way she was.

0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.400
<v Speaker 2>She was musically. She played church, she played the organ

0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:39.000
<v Speaker 2>or piano in church.

0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:40.280
<v Speaker 1>Uh.

0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:44.880
<v Speaker 2>So, I mean she was just drawn to that type

0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:45.240
<v Speaker 2>of thing.

0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:46.840
<v Speaker 3>Uh.

0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.400
<v Speaker 2>My dad, on the other hand, was more like a uh,

0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.480
<v Speaker 2>just a normal guy. You know. We wanted, I guess

0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:56.800
<v Speaker 2>wanted me to play baseball and so off, which I did.

0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.880
<v Speaker 2>And I wanted to play baseball rather than go practice singing.

0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.199
<v Speaker 2>I guarantee you that, and and so I had a

0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:05.040
<v Speaker 2>little bit of both.

0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:11.000
<v Speaker 1>So did you like singing? And did you sing outside

0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:11.440
<v Speaker 1>the house?

0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.320
<v Speaker 2>I did, but I think I was about nine or

0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:22.920
<v Speaker 2>ten when I did that. I started singing at weddings

0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:29.360
<v Speaker 2>and different events in Ellwood. I remember as a kid,

0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.040
<v Speaker 2>like a nine year old or ten year old kid

0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:38.400
<v Speaker 2>who did a had to travel to Philadelphia and perform

0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.720
<v Speaker 2>on what was the name of that show? I can't remember,

0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:48.200
<v Speaker 2>Paul Weitman or I forget who it was. I remember

0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.080
<v Speaker 2>going up there to do that, and I came in

0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:55.080
<v Speaker 2>second place, and I want to I won a Calvinator refrigerator.

0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:01.720
<v Speaker 1>I actually had a Calvenator refrigerator, did you Yes, it

0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:03.680
<v Speaker 1>was cheap. That's why we bought it one of my

0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:08.200
<v Speaker 1>first apartments. But let's go back. I mean, you're not

0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.480
<v Speaker 1>singing in the basement and all of a sudden you're

0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:15.000
<v Speaker 1>on TV. I mean, how does this happen that you

0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.040
<v Speaker 1>get on TV? Well, I don't know.

0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:20.640
<v Speaker 2>I used to sing on the radio actually before that.

0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.080
<v Speaker 1>How do you get on the radio?

0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.520
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. My mother somehow arranged it for me

0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:33.320
<v Speaker 2>to get on the some radio show in beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.840
<v Speaker 2>I sang there like every weekend or something for I

0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.160
<v Speaker 2>don't know how many weeks before heading to Philadelphia to

0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:46.520
<v Speaker 2>do that Paul Whiteman show. But I mean, I guess,

0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.640
<v Speaker 2>I guess I was pretty good or something. So I

0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.800
<v Speaker 2>kept calling me back. I kept going back to sing.

0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.040
<v Speaker 1>And what were singing? Oh?

0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.680
<v Speaker 2>Man, I have no idea. I can't remember what I

0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:05.080
<v Speaker 2>was singing. Probably old I don't know, Bennett or Sinatra

0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.280
<v Speaker 2>or some some tunes like that.

0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.960
<v Speaker 1>Did you like doing it or would your mother, being

0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:14.800
<v Speaker 1>a stage mother, making you do it?

0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.520
<v Speaker 2>I suppose I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the attention, the uh,

0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.360
<v Speaker 2>you know, the uh, the thrill of it. But uh,

0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.360
<v Speaker 2>I was young. I mean I didn't know, you know

0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.360
<v Speaker 2>what what what what was going to transpire after all this,

0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.560
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I just I just went along with it

0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:45.480
<v Speaker 2>and uh and I had fun doing it. Yeah.

0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.800
<v Speaker 1>So did you go to regular public school or religious school?

0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:52.560
<v Speaker 2>We went. I went to public school.

0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.240
<v Speaker 1>So if I was in school with you, say, oh, yeah,

0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.840
<v Speaker 1>you know that's the guy who sings. Were you famous

0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:00.520
<v Speaker 1>as the guy who sang school.

0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:07.160
<v Speaker 2>Let me see, I don't remember being famous in school,

0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:12.800
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, I mean I was young. I don't remember

0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.080
<v Speaker 2>if kids would come up to me or not. But

0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.679
<v Speaker 2>the only thing I remember really after singing on the

0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:26.880
<v Speaker 2>radio and stuff, was you know, going into going into

0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:31.520
<v Speaker 2>high school and you know, just becoming whoever I was

0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:32.760
<v Speaker 2>going to be at that time.

0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:34.520
<v Speaker 1>So would you become?

0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:42.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I became a pretty darn good pool player because

0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.960
<v Speaker 2>we used to play pool after school every day down

0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.560
<v Speaker 2>at the place half a block from my high school.

0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.760
<v Speaker 2>We'd go down there and just shoot pool after school,

0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.800
<v Speaker 2>and just I became pretty good at it. Now I'm

0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.600
<v Speaker 2>not quite as good, but I was pretty damn good

0:17:59.640 --> 0:17:59.959
<v Speaker 2>back then.

0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.480
<v Speaker 1>How often do you play now? Oh?

0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:09.080
<v Speaker 2>I still play. There's a club around here in Cranberry

0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.480
<v Speaker 2>that a Cranberry township that I go to, the where

0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.760
<v Speaker 2>they have fool tables there and everything. So every once

0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:16.640
<v Speaker 2>in a while we'll go up there and we'll sit

0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.000
<v Speaker 2>around play pool.

0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.480
<v Speaker 1>Okay, were you a good student? Were you a bad student?

0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.680
<v Speaker 1>Were popular? Were you unpopular?

0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.320
<v Speaker 2>I was. I was kind of a nerd. I didn't

0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.119
<v Speaker 2>I don't think I was all that popular. I was

0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.600
<v Speaker 2>kind of I got good grades, in high school, I

0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:43.000
<v Speaker 2>got uh you know, Uh, I did graduate with honors,

0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.159
<v Speaker 2>So I mean I just pretty much concentrated on school

0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.360
<v Speaker 2>pretty much. Wasn't real Uh that was real popular.

0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.199
<v Speaker 1>So if I talked to the high school, if I

0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.719
<v Speaker 1>talk to you, what would you have said you wanted

0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.879
<v Speaker 1>to be and do with your life?

0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:07.480
<v Speaker 2>Oh man? When I was in high school, yeah, h

0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.240
<v Speaker 2>see at that time, I really didn't know. I mean,

0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:17.040
<v Speaker 2>the plan was for me to go to college and uh,

0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.000
<v Speaker 2>and that's what happened. Uh. You know, I went to UH.

0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.600
<v Speaker 2>I went to Slippery Rock University for about two years

0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:30.480
<v Speaker 2>and then I got I got a call from a

0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.720
<v Speaker 2>group called the Jaggers to uh to hook up with them.

0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.359
<v Speaker 2>Because when I was in college, I had a band,

0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.120
<v Speaker 2>a three piece band that we'd play in fraternity parties

0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.560
<v Speaker 2>and stuff like that. But anyway, this band, the Jaggers,

0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.679
<v Speaker 2>had heard of me and they, uh, they want me

0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.640
<v Speaker 2>to go on an audition because the leader of their

0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.320
<v Speaker 2>band was leaving uh for some reason. I don't know,

0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.520
<v Speaker 2>but uh, so I took I went to auditioned for them,

0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.560
<v Speaker 2>and we had a new band and call the Jaggers

0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:06.639
<v Speaker 2>at that point. So that's when I started into professional music.

0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.840
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you're born in nineteen forty three. Was there always

0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.920
<v Speaker 1>a television in your house or do you remember getting television?

0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:18.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, there was always a TV in my house.

0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.119
<v Speaker 2>Me and my dad used to Those were the days

0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.240
<v Speaker 2>of the rabbit ears and stuff like that, where he

0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:26.959
<v Speaker 2>just tried to put some aluminum foil on it and

0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.359
<v Speaker 2>try to get it to work. But we had a

0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.480
<v Speaker 2>lot of fun doing that. My dad and I we

0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:36.280
<v Speaker 2>put up a big pole antenna in the backyard because

0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.879
<v Speaker 2>there was a hospital behind us, way up high and

0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:43.399
<v Speaker 2>we couldn't get the signal high enough to get you know,

0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.120
<v Speaker 2>to get a good reception. But we figured it out.

0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:46.880
<v Speaker 2>We did all right.

0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:48.720
<v Speaker 1>Then what were you watching on TV?

0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:55.760
<v Speaker 2>Oh man? Stuff like Howdy dooty, uh shit? What else?

0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.399
<v Speaker 2>I can't even remember we did. That's the one that

0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:01.160
<v Speaker 2>comes to my mind right off the bat.

0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.320
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I certainly watched that too. Okay, you're singing, your

0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:10.080
<v Speaker 1>mother plays the keyboard. At what point do you start

0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.199
<v Speaker 1>listening to popular music and listening to the radio.

0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:23.040
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I guess I started listening to the radio a

0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:24.320
<v Speaker 2>lot when the Beatles.

0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.280
<v Speaker 1>Okay, but by time the Beatles hit you're already in

0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:28.040
<v Speaker 1>your twenties.

0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.600
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well let's see, Yeah I was. I was.

0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.480
<v Speaker 1>You're right, so you're conscious at the you know, they

0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.000
<v Speaker 1>say it's a big debate what the first rock and

0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.560
<v Speaker 1>roll record is is? You know, I turned Rocket eighty eight?

0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.080
<v Speaker 1>Is it rock around the Clock? Were you paying attention

0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:46.639
<v Speaker 1>to that stuff at that time?

0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.639
<v Speaker 2>No? Not really, the only thing I've paid attention to.

0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.399
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I grew up. I liked Buddy Hawley. I

0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.000
<v Speaker 2>liked the stuff he was doing. I thought he was

0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:02.520
<v Speaker 2>really good. Know I I was around when when when

0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.719
<v Speaker 2>they they would have that plane crash when they uh,

0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.639
<v Speaker 2>you know, when they died. But I remember listening to

0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:13.360
<v Speaker 2>Richie Vallens and uh and the Big Bopper and all

0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:16.720
<v Speaker 2>that stuff. So I have some influences there too.

0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:21.000
<v Speaker 1>And what about Elvis Elvis?

0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.399
<v Speaker 2>I really I love the early on Elvis when he

0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:27.080
<v Speaker 2>was just when he was just going for it with

0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:31.160
<v Speaker 2>Don't Be Cruel and the hound Dog and all that stuff. Uh,

0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:33.720
<v Speaker 2>that's the Elvis. I really liked the fact I went

0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:41.520
<v Speaker 2>to see his place in Memphis, uh maybe six seven

0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.240
<v Speaker 2>years back, took a trip down there and went and

0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.760
<v Speaker 2>checked it out, and it was it was it was fun.

0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:51.760
<v Speaker 1>No, I've been there too. I'm not the biggest Elvis fan,

0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:56.200
<v Speaker 1>but it's just funny that it's not that big a place.

0:22:57.080 --> 0:23:00.439
<v Speaker 1>Now he's got the three Sony trindotrons to watch the

0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:07.280
<v Speaker 1>three networks in the jungle room. It's got an interesting feel.

0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:13.800
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, after Elvis hits, how about Little Richard, Carl Perkins,

0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:14.640
<v Speaker 1>all that stuff.

0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:18.840
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, Little Richard I admired. I admired him a lot.

0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.520
<v Speaker 2>I thought he was great. Uh. Carl Perkins I didn't

0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:24.560
<v Speaker 2>pay too much attention to. I don't know why, but

0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:29.199
<v Speaker 2>I just didn't. But yeah, Little Richard was uh, I

0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.560
<v Speaker 2>mean he was, he was great. I think Paul McCartney

0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:34.520
<v Speaker 2>might have listened to him a little bit too. A

0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:37.200
<v Speaker 2>lot of the things that he does in that that

0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.119
<v Speaker 2>kind of raspy voice sounds a lot like Little.

0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:44.359
<v Speaker 1>Richard, Long Tall, Sally, et cetera. Okay, yeah, then music

0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:48.720
<v Speaker 1>starts to change to these two dimensional acts like Bobby

0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:53.040
<v Speaker 1>Ride Dell and Fabian. How did you feel about the

0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:53.760
<v Speaker 1>music then?

0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.760
<v Speaker 2>Actually I knew Bobby right Dell. He My manager at

0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:02.359
<v Speaker 2>the time was Joe Rock. Do you remember Joe Rock?

0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:03.480
<v Speaker 1>I don't.

0:24:04.480 --> 0:24:08.040
<v Speaker 2>He was the guy that man is and wrote for

0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:16.160
<v Speaker 2>the Skyliners. Very talented guy. He wrote since I Don't

0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:18.280
<v Speaker 2>have you and this I Swear and all these great

0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:24.360
<v Speaker 2>songs for the Skyliners. But I lost my train of thought.

0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:25.439
<v Speaker 2>Where were we going with this?

0:24:25.560 --> 0:24:27.720
<v Speaker 1>I can't Bobby ry Dell you were talking about?

0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:31.960
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah. So anyway, Joe knew Bobby rid Dell

0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:35.600
<v Speaker 2>and he brought him to my house one time. We

0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:39.000
<v Speaker 2>got to meet Bobby rid Dell and we actually ended

0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:42.680
<v Speaker 2>up producing a record or two for him and James

0:24:42.760 --> 0:24:45.760
<v Speaker 2>Darren the same way we did. We did a couple

0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:50.880
<v Speaker 2>of records for him as producers because at the time

0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:53.760
<v Speaker 2>the Jaggers were hot. We had like a Rapper, which

0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:56.960
<v Speaker 2>was a was a big hit back in the seventies.

0:24:57.040 --> 0:25:01.199
<v Speaker 1>But we'll get back to the rapper point. Do you

0:25:01.400 --> 0:25:04.399
<v Speaker 1>pick up a guitar or an instrument started playing?

0:25:07.280 --> 0:25:09.760
<v Speaker 2>I think I was in eleventh grade when my dad

0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:13.199
<v Speaker 2>bought me a guitar and I started playing it, but

0:25:13.240 --> 0:25:16.520
<v Speaker 2>it didn't last very long. It went behind the college

0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:20.520
<v Speaker 2>because it was hurting my fingers. So I didn't pick

0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:23.800
<v Speaker 2>up a guitar really until I was maybe my second

0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:29.439
<v Speaker 2>year of college. Started practicing. Okay, you know you had

0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:34.160
<v Speaker 2>a piano in the basement. Do you ever play the piano. Uh,

0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:37.280
<v Speaker 2>just a little bit, not anything to speak of.

0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:42.159
<v Speaker 1>No, okay, your father boy guitar, acoustic guitar or electric guitar.

0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:43.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was acoustic.

0:25:44.440 --> 0:25:47.080
<v Speaker 1>So now you're a sophomore in college. What is the

0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:49.160
<v Speaker 1>inspiration to pick up the guitar again?

0:25:51.400 --> 0:25:55.440
<v Speaker 2>Uh? I think around my second year, I was getting

0:25:55.480 --> 0:25:58.680
<v Speaker 2>a little bored with being in college. I started to

0:25:58.720 --> 0:26:01.919
<v Speaker 2>get the inkling that I went to be Uh, I

0:26:02.000 --> 0:26:07.440
<v Speaker 2>want to be into music. Uh, that's probably why I rather,

0:26:08.160 --> 0:26:13.520
<v Speaker 2>I got the guitar and started practicing again and uh,

0:26:13.560 --> 0:26:17.720
<v Speaker 2>you know, honing, honing my chops, so to speak. And

0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:22.199
<v Speaker 2>like I said, playing with a couple of early on

0:26:22.560 --> 0:26:23.520
<v Speaker 2>college bands.

0:26:23.840 --> 0:26:26.879
<v Speaker 1>Okay, a lot happened. If you're playing on an acoustic guitar.

0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:30.640
<v Speaker 1>It's a big step to get an electric guitar, get

0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:34.960
<v Speaker 1>an amp, well, form a band. It doesn't happen instantly. No,

0:26:35.240 --> 0:26:36.840
<v Speaker 1>I might have during that time.

0:26:36.880 --> 0:26:39.960
<v Speaker 2>I might have. I might have gotten an electric guitar

0:26:40.040 --> 0:26:43.240
<v Speaker 2>at the time. I probably did. I don't really remember,

0:26:43.760 --> 0:26:46.879
<v Speaker 2>but I did have an electric and I had an amp,

0:26:47.680 --> 0:26:51.320
<v Speaker 2>and we were we were ready to go. We were

0:26:51.440 --> 0:26:52.800
<v Speaker 2>we were ready to get out and play.

0:26:54.080 --> 0:26:57.600
<v Speaker 1>So you know that was an error where there were

0:26:57.600 --> 0:27:01.440
<v Speaker 1>bands at every corner. If you get gigs, were there

0:27:01.440 --> 0:27:04.840
<v Speaker 1>that many gigs? Were you just better than the other acts?

0:27:05.160 --> 0:27:07.320
<v Speaker 2>Well, I don't know what it was, but we were.

0:27:08.960 --> 0:27:14.600
<v Speaker 2>We had a nine times a week gig at a

0:27:14.640 --> 0:27:19.240
<v Speaker 2>place called Geneva on the Lake, Ohio. We used to

0:27:19.280 --> 0:27:23.320
<v Speaker 2>play seven nights a week and twice on Sunday for

0:27:23.440 --> 0:27:28.080
<v Speaker 2>two jam sessions. So we were definitely owning our skills

0:27:28.160 --> 0:27:31.359
<v Speaker 2>at that time. And we were vocalists too. We all sang,

0:27:31.480 --> 0:27:36.000
<v Speaker 2>we all you know, we all did everything. So and

0:27:36.320 --> 0:27:39.200
<v Speaker 2>it went on like that for maybe two or three

0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:43.639
<v Speaker 2>summers something like that, and we just had a blast.

0:27:43.960 --> 0:27:47.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, wait a second. Not only were you playing at

0:27:47.400 --> 0:27:49.920
<v Speaker 1>Geneva at the Lake, were you living there?

0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:51.439
<v Speaker 2>Yes?

0:27:51.920 --> 0:27:54.480
<v Speaker 1>Yes, Oh there's got to be some stories there.

0:27:57.160 --> 0:28:00.000
<v Speaker 2>What kind of stories you're looking for here?

0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:03.440
<v Speaker 1>Well, mistiff, drugs and alcohol?

0:28:04.160 --> 0:28:10.040
<v Speaker 2>Sex. Well, I'll be honest with you, at that time,

0:28:10.400 --> 0:28:12.920
<v Speaker 2>there was no drugs or alcohol. Well, there was alcohol,

0:28:12.920 --> 0:28:15.600
<v Speaker 2>but no drugs. I mean, we were we were pretty

0:28:15.720 --> 0:28:19.720
<v Speaker 2>uh we were pretty virgin y virgins at that time.

0:28:19.800 --> 0:28:25.880
<v Speaker 2>But but yeah, we drank, but mainly it was it

0:28:25.920 --> 0:28:29.560
<v Speaker 2>was playing in uh and sex basically.

0:28:30.280 --> 0:28:32.280
<v Speaker 1>Well, you must have been the big stars there because

0:28:32.280 --> 0:28:32.960
<v Speaker 1>you were the band.

0:28:34.200 --> 0:28:36.840
<v Speaker 2>Well, yeah, I mean it was Geneva on the lake.

0:28:36.960 --> 0:28:39.320
<v Speaker 2>It was. There was a couple other places to play,

0:28:39.360 --> 0:28:42.600
<v Speaker 2>but the places we played that called the Cove and

0:28:42.680 --> 0:28:46.880
<v Speaker 2>the Sunken Bar, were the two main places up there,

0:28:46.920 --> 0:28:49.560
<v Speaker 2>and that's that's where we that's where we were playing.

0:28:50.400 --> 0:28:53.120
<v Speaker 2>We used to pit one against the other. We'd play

0:28:53.200 --> 0:28:56.160
<v Speaker 2>one one joint one year and another joint the other year,

0:28:56.200 --> 0:28:59.280
<v Speaker 2>and then playing against each other to try to get

0:28:59.360 --> 0:29:03.800
<v Speaker 2>more money. How was the money, Oh, I don't even

0:29:03.800 --> 0:29:05.920
<v Speaker 2>remember what it was, but at the time it seemed

0:29:05.960 --> 0:29:08.240
<v Speaker 2>like plenty. We did. We did fine.

0:29:09.800 --> 0:29:11.479
<v Speaker 1>And what music were you playing?

0:29:13.520 --> 0:29:17.320
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Man, we were doing we were doing what was

0:29:17.360 --> 0:29:20.080
<v Speaker 2>popular were We were a good cover band. We did

0:29:20.160 --> 0:29:23.080
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of covers from whatever was popular at the time.

0:29:24.720 --> 0:29:27.800
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you're hit in the sixties and one hand

0:29:27.840 --> 0:29:31.000
<v Speaker 1>you got Perry Como. On the other you have four

0:29:31.120 --> 0:29:35.600
<v Speaker 1>Seasons in the Beach Boys. Was that music that appealed

0:29:35.600 --> 0:29:35.800
<v Speaker 1>to you?

0:29:37.640 --> 0:29:42.520
<v Speaker 2>Uh, not as much as other music. I like the

0:29:42.560 --> 0:29:46.160
<v Speaker 2>Beach Boys. I lest certain songs they did. Who else

0:29:46.200 --> 0:29:51.040
<v Speaker 2>did you mention four seasons? Four Seasons? I wasn't a real,

0:29:52.040 --> 0:29:54.520
<v Speaker 2>real big fan of the couple. They had a couple

0:29:54.560 --> 0:29:59.040
<v Speaker 2>of really nice songs though. And who's the other one.

0:29:59.640 --> 0:30:01.960
<v Speaker 1>Well, the Harry Como. I don't expect you're a big fan.

0:30:03.920 --> 0:30:06.640
<v Speaker 2>Perry Como, man, he was. Uh. I used to love

0:30:06.680 --> 0:30:09.200
<v Speaker 2>his TV show man. Do you watch that.

0:30:10.720 --> 0:30:11.800
<v Speaker 1>With those sweaters?

0:30:12.400 --> 0:30:16.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? I love Terry Como didn't live didn't live that

0:30:16.680 --> 0:30:17.560
<v Speaker 2>far from me either.

0:30:18.200 --> 0:30:20.960
<v Speaker 1>So how did you first hear the Beatles?

0:30:22.840 --> 0:30:26.600
<v Speaker 2>I remember driving, uh for a while there, I commuted

0:30:26.640 --> 0:30:29.400
<v Speaker 2>back and forth to college, and I remember hearing them

0:30:29.400 --> 0:30:30.040
<v Speaker 2>on the radio.

0:30:31.760 --> 0:30:33.480
<v Speaker 1>What were your initial thoughts?

0:30:34.560 --> 0:30:37.760
<v Speaker 2>I thought this was great, this is this is great.

0:30:37.800 --> 0:30:40.479
<v Speaker 2>They sound great. I love it. I loved it.

0:30:41.480 --> 0:30:44.240
<v Speaker 1>And how did that affect your career?

0:30:46.040 --> 0:30:50.800
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Man? We uh we we did so many different

0:30:50.800 --> 0:30:55.080
<v Speaker 2>Beatles songs throughout my throughout my history. We did a

0:30:55.160 --> 0:31:00.680
<v Speaker 2>ton of them. Uh, it's just uh. And then the Stones,

0:31:00.720 --> 0:31:02.640
<v Speaker 2>I listened to the Stones. We did a lot of

0:31:02.640 --> 0:31:07.480
<v Speaker 2>the Stones tunes. But the British invasion was awesome, man,

0:31:07.600 --> 0:31:08.600
<v Speaker 2>it was awesome.

0:31:16.280 --> 0:31:19.400
<v Speaker 1>So what year, if you can remember, do you get

0:31:19.440 --> 0:31:23.400
<v Speaker 1>asked to join the Jaggers.

0:31:23.760 --> 0:31:28.760
<v Speaker 2>Oh, let's see, that would have been like sixty eight,

0:31:29.480 --> 0:31:30.760
<v Speaker 2>sixty nine, maybe.

0:31:30.760 --> 0:31:34.200
<v Speaker 1>Sixty eight you're twenty five or twenty six years old,

0:31:34.240 --> 0:31:38.400
<v Speaker 1>you orderly went to college in that intervening time. Were

0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:40.600
<v Speaker 1>you living as a musician or did you have a

0:31:40.640 --> 0:31:47.000
<v Speaker 1>street job? What were you doing what time when subsequent

0:31:47.040 --> 0:31:50.720
<v Speaker 1>to dropping out of college before joining the Jaggers.

0:31:51.160 --> 0:31:53.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well then I went right out of college and

0:31:53.680 --> 0:31:58.240
<v Speaker 2>joined the Jaggers. That's what. We hired a guy to

0:31:58.320 --> 0:32:03.160
<v Speaker 2>book us. So we were playing clubs all throughout the Midwest,

0:32:03.840 --> 0:32:09.320
<v Speaker 2>like six nights a week, staying in one hope, staying

0:32:09.360 --> 0:32:12.880
<v Speaker 2>in one room for for I don't know how long.

0:32:12.920 --> 0:32:17.320
<v Speaker 2>We played like that and learned how and basically learned

0:32:17.320 --> 0:32:17.920
<v Speaker 2>how to play.

0:32:18.880 --> 0:32:21.360
<v Speaker 1>Okay, what was the status of the Jaggers.

0:32:20.880 --> 0:32:28.000
<v Speaker 2>When you joined, Well, they actually were called Gary and

0:32:28.080 --> 0:32:33.320
<v Speaker 2>the Jewel Tones. And when I don't know, either they

0:32:33.440 --> 0:32:35.320
<v Speaker 2>kicked him out of the band or he left the band.

0:32:35.360 --> 0:32:39.160
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what happened. But we renamed the band

0:32:39.240 --> 0:32:43.280
<v Speaker 2>the Jaggers. We you know, tried to come up with

0:32:43.320 --> 0:32:46.760
<v Speaker 2>a name, and we came up with that name because

0:32:46.800 --> 0:32:50.120
<v Speaker 2>here in western Pennsylvania, you walk into the woods and

0:32:50.160 --> 0:32:53.440
<v Speaker 2>you get all these jagger bushes all over your pant legs,

0:32:53.480 --> 0:32:56.880
<v Speaker 2>all these burs all over your pant legs. They stick

0:32:57.360 --> 0:32:59.000
<v Speaker 2>and you get you have a hell of a time

0:32:59.200 --> 0:33:01.920
<v Speaker 2>taking them off. But that's where we got our name.

0:33:02.560 --> 0:33:04.680
<v Speaker 1>And how did it go from Jaggers with an ass

0:33:04.720 --> 0:33:05.520
<v Speaker 1>to Jaggers with.

0:33:05.520 --> 0:33:12.200
<v Speaker 2>A z oh? I don't know. It just seemed cooler

0:33:12.240 --> 0:33:13.960
<v Speaker 2>at the time when we did I don't know when

0:33:14.000 --> 0:33:16.440
<v Speaker 2>we did it, but it's just it seemed cooler.

0:33:17.000 --> 0:33:19.360
<v Speaker 1>So when you joined the band, what was your role

0:33:19.400 --> 0:33:20.000
<v Speaker 1>in the band?

0:33:21.720 --> 0:33:25.880
<v Speaker 2>I was one of three singers. I mean all of

0:33:25.960 --> 0:33:31.400
<v Speaker 2>us sang, so yeah, I did certain songs, the other

0:33:31.480 --> 0:33:34.040
<v Speaker 2>guy did certain songs, so on and so forth.

0:33:34.720 --> 0:33:38.120
<v Speaker 1>And at what point did you start playing original material

0:33:38.160 --> 0:33:40.680
<v Speaker 1>and at what point did you start recording that material.

0:33:44.200 --> 0:33:56.200
<v Speaker 2>We started doing originals like in sixty nine early sixty nine,

0:33:56.400 --> 0:34:02.120
<v Speaker 2>and we wrote some songs. We went up to our

0:34:02.480 --> 0:34:05.920
<v Speaker 2>manager Joe Rock hooked us up with Gamble and Huff

0:34:07.480 --> 0:34:12.359
<v Speaker 2>to go up there to record some songs, which we did.

0:34:13.400 --> 0:34:17.400
<v Speaker 2>And uh, I mean somehow he knew these guys and

0:34:17.560 --> 0:34:19.640
<v Speaker 2>was able to get us in because Gamble and Huff

0:34:19.760 --> 0:34:23.360
<v Speaker 2>was they were they were big time, big time dudes,

0:34:23.920 --> 0:34:27.239
<v Speaker 2>right and uh and and we were like we were

0:34:27.280 --> 0:34:31.120
<v Speaker 2>like a white eyed, a blue eyed soul band. At

0:34:31.120 --> 0:34:35.520
<v Speaker 2>the time. Uh, except for the Rapper, the song of

0:34:35.520 --> 0:34:39.759
<v Speaker 2>the Rapper. But that's what we did. We went up there.

0:34:39.800 --> 0:34:43.160
<v Speaker 2>We did an album with Gamble and Huff came out

0:34:43.200 --> 0:34:48.560
<v Speaker 2>pretty well. Now I'm no longer with the Jaggers, but

0:34:48.719 --> 0:34:51.720
<v Speaker 2>they're still performing and they're still doing some of those songs.

0:34:52.080 --> 0:34:56.320
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you're in the Jaggers. You go to Gamble and Huff.

0:34:56.680 --> 0:35:01.840
<v Speaker 1>You must have thought, man, I made it.

0:35:02.280 --> 0:35:04.359
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean it felt great. I mean we were

0:35:04.400 --> 0:35:07.480
<v Speaker 2>gonna go up and uh and we did. We we

0:35:07.640 --> 0:35:13.080
<v Speaker 2>just we recorded and had a great time. And before

0:35:13.120 --> 0:35:18.480
<v Speaker 2>I knew it, the Rapper had come out and I

0:35:19.040 --> 0:35:24.279
<v Speaker 2>remember hearing it on the radio and I remember, you know,

0:35:24.360 --> 0:35:26.960
<v Speaker 2>everything was like a whirlwind at that time because we

0:35:27.040 --> 0:35:30.560
<v Speaker 2>went out and did the We did American Bandstand. We

0:35:30.600 --> 0:35:34.600
<v Speaker 2>did these shows with like people I used to watch

0:35:35.080 --> 0:35:39.160
<v Speaker 2>on TV, these dancers on American Bandstand. I was like, Wow,

0:35:39.239 --> 0:35:45.000
<v Speaker 2>this is this is unbelievable. But yeah it was. I

0:35:45.000 --> 0:35:46.680
<v Speaker 2>don't know how it happened, but it did.

0:35:47.120 --> 0:35:48.640
<v Speaker 1>So how did you write the Rapper?

0:35:50.600 --> 0:35:52.480
<v Speaker 2>Believe it or not. It was the middle of the night.

0:35:52.840 --> 0:35:56.239
<v Speaker 2>I woke up with the with the song in my head.

0:35:56.960 --> 0:35:59.319
<v Speaker 2>It was a rapper I had it all planned out.

0:35:59.480 --> 0:36:01.520
<v Speaker 2>I brought it into the band and we put it

0:36:01.520 --> 0:36:04.720
<v Speaker 2>together and that was it. That's how it happened.

0:36:05.200 --> 0:36:08.839
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Prior to the Rapper, had you written a lot

0:36:08.880 --> 0:36:10.200
<v Speaker 1>of songs?

0:36:10.760 --> 0:36:14.520
<v Speaker 2>No? No, not a lot. No, I mean early on,

0:36:14.600 --> 0:36:17.719
<v Speaker 2>I did some things that were just like I mean,

0:36:18.120 --> 0:36:20.719
<v Speaker 2>way early when I was like sixteen or so. But

0:36:20.719 --> 0:36:22.880
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, nothing serious.

0:36:23.160 --> 0:36:26.000
<v Speaker 1>Okay, the rapper in the middle of the night. How

0:36:26.040 --> 0:36:28.480
<v Speaker 1>similar was that to the record that came out?

0:36:31.239 --> 0:36:34.239
<v Speaker 2>Uh? Similar in what way? What do you mean?

0:36:34.360 --> 0:36:36.440
<v Speaker 1>Well, the melody, the sound did it sound?

0:36:38.280 --> 0:36:40.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it did it did? It came out pretty

0:36:40.800 --> 0:36:44.160
<v Speaker 2>much the way I had it planned. When I brought

0:36:44.160 --> 0:36:48.680
<v Speaker 2>it into the band, they understood and they just they

0:36:48.800 --> 0:36:50.919
<v Speaker 2>just played it. They played the right parts. They did

0:36:51.239 --> 0:36:53.280
<v Speaker 2>everything that was in my head.

0:36:54.320 --> 0:36:58.759
<v Speaker 1>Okay at the time, forget what rap means today. That

0:36:58.920 --> 0:37:02.360
<v Speaker 1>was a hip turn to rap. Let's sit down and wrap.

0:37:02.400 --> 0:37:03.880
<v Speaker 1>So how did you come up with the term the

0:37:03.960 --> 0:37:04.960
<v Speaker 1>rapper for the song?

0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:08.759
<v Speaker 2>Well, the rapper it was a different kind of rapper.

0:37:08.840 --> 0:37:11.439
<v Speaker 2>It was a rapper that went into a bar at

0:37:11.560 --> 0:37:16.440
<v Speaker 2>night and started rapping the chicks as a pickup line.

0:37:17.120 --> 0:37:20.440
<v Speaker 2>That's what I meant by the Rapper, which is totally

0:37:21.480 --> 0:37:22.400
<v Speaker 2>totally different.

0:37:23.880 --> 0:37:28.800
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you go to Philadelphia to record with Gamble and Huff,

0:37:29.480 --> 0:37:31.799
<v Speaker 1>who records the Rapper? They record it?

0:37:33.360 --> 0:37:37.239
<v Speaker 2>Uh no, no, I take that back. We were in

0:37:38.760 --> 0:37:42.080
<v Speaker 2>we were at a place called Century Sound Studios in

0:37:42.120 --> 0:37:45.319
<v Speaker 2>New York. That's where we did the Rapper And that

0:37:45.360 --> 0:37:49.839
<v Speaker 2>would have been late sixty nine and the song came

0:37:49.880 --> 0:37:52.360
<v Speaker 2>out in early seventy.

0:37:53.320 --> 0:37:55.120
<v Speaker 1>And who produced the record.

0:37:56.960 --> 0:37:59.880
<v Speaker 2>We did? We did with a friend of Joe Rock's

0:38:00.440 --> 0:38:05.920
<v Speaker 2>what was his name? I can't remember his name anyway,

0:38:05.960 --> 0:38:08.200
<v Speaker 2>we pretty much produced it ourselves.

0:38:08.520 --> 0:38:10.520
<v Speaker 1>And when it was done, did you believe it was

0:38:10.520 --> 0:38:11.200
<v Speaker 1>going to be a hit?

0:38:12.760 --> 0:38:16.359
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know. I had no idea. But it was

0:38:17.160 --> 0:38:20.680
<v Speaker 2>just one of those things. Just one of those things, Bob.

0:38:20.680 --> 0:38:22.000
<v Speaker 2>It's one of those things.

0:38:22.200 --> 0:38:24.680
<v Speaker 1>I mean, did you don't know? Did you play it

0:38:24.719 --> 0:38:27.240
<v Speaker 1>for the record company and they say, wait a second,

0:38:27.280 --> 0:38:28.400
<v Speaker 1>this is the one.

0:38:28.200 --> 0:38:30.839
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we did. We did. We got turned down by

0:38:30.920 --> 0:38:34.200
<v Speaker 2>five or six of them, until Neil Bogart said, Okay,

0:38:34.280 --> 0:38:36.680
<v Speaker 2>we'll take it, we'll give it a shot. So he

0:38:36.760 --> 0:38:38.719
<v Speaker 2>gave it a shot and the next thing we know,

0:38:38.840 --> 0:38:41.640
<v Speaker 2>we're going to American Bandstand and stuff.

0:38:42.280 --> 0:38:46.160
<v Speaker 1>You know, Well, Neil Bogra legendary, you know, in the

0:38:46.200 --> 0:38:50.279
<v Speaker 1>Bubblegum era, then Casablanca Records. He ultimately dot answer at

0:38:50.280 --> 0:38:54.879
<v Speaker 1>a young age, what was your experience with Neil Bogart? Oh?

0:38:55.000 --> 0:38:57.560
<v Speaker 2>He was he was cool man. Well, like I said,

0:38:57.560 --> 0:39:00.759
<v Speaker 2>he was cool because he gave us a chance. I mean,

0:39:00.760 --> 0:39:02.799
<v Speaker 2>you get turned down by all these people, you start

0:39:02.840 --> 0:39:07.320
<v Speaker 2>getting like, what the hell? So I mean, yeah, I enjoyed.

0:39:07.440 --> 0:39:11.600
<v Speaker 2>I enjoyed it. I enjoyed meeting them, and thank goodness,

0:39:11.600 --> 0:39:12.600
<v Speaker 2>he gave us a break.

0:39:13.120 --> 0:39:15.120
<v Speaker 3>So what was it? I mean, the Rapper went to

0:39:15.239 --> 0:39:17.560
<v Speaker 3>number two? I mean, the Rappers one of those songs

0:39:17.560 --> 0:39:19.919
<v Speaker 3>that you were lyve you could never forget it. What's

0:39:19.960 --> 0:39:24.279
<v Speaker 3>it like having, you know what, a gigantic hit?

0:39:28.400 --> 0:39:31.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, man, that just just happens. You just

0:39:31.080 --> 0:39:34.719
<v Speaker 2>don't know. It's just it's something. There's just something there.

0:39:34.800 --> 0:39:38.120
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what it is. It's just it just happens.

0:39:38.160 --> 0:39:41.319
<v Speaker 2>I mean, and we you know, and we hope that

0:39:41.320 --> 0:39:44.359
<v Speaker 2>that happens every time, but it doesn't. It's just just

0:39:45.360 --> 0:39:49.920
<v Speaker 2>it's coincidental. It's lucky, it's it's everything. It's the stars

0:39:49.960 --> 0:39:50.719
<v Speaker 2>and all that shit.

0:39:52.520 --> 0:39:56.600
<v Speaker 3>Okay, now the record's a hit what's your life like

0:39:56.680 --> 0:39:57.759
<v Speaker 3>once the record is a.

0:39:57.800 --> 0:40:02.799
<v Speaker 2>Hit, Like I said, we're we're jet setting all over

0:40:02.840 --> 0:40:05.880
<v Speaker 2>the place, you know, going here and there and everywhere.

0:40:07.040 --> 0:40:11.840
<v Speaker 2>Uh to uh to back the song up, to get

0:40:12.040 --> 0:40:16.600
<v Speaker 2>to get some exposure as people, as musicians whatever.

0:40:17.880 --> 0:40:20.480
<v Speaker 1>Rapper is a gigantic kit. See any money.

0:40:22.640 --> 0:40:26.799
<v Speaker 2>We did, we did. We saw money. In fact, we

0:40:27.000 --> 0:40:31.120
<v Speaker 2>uh as a group, we all went down to this

0:40:31.120 --> 0:40:36.640
<v Speaker 2>this auto dealership in beaver Falls and we all leased

0:40:37.480 --> 0:40:44.640
<v Speaker 2>seven Lincoln Continentals, the big boats with the real long

0:40:44.719 --> 0:40:49.239
<v Speaker 2>front end. They were. They were gorgeous, gorgeous cars. So,

0:40:50.480 --> 0:40:52.560
<v Speaker 2>I mean the money was rolling in and we were

0:40:52.600 --> 0:40:54.080
<v Speaker 2>able to spend it.

0:40:55.560 --> 0:41:01.200
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you wrote the rapper who owned the publishing on

0:41:01.280 --> 0:41:01.840
<v Speaker 1>the wrapper?

0:41:06.719 --> 0:41:12.279
<v Speaker 2>I think we split publishing with the record company. I'm

0:41:12.280 --> 0:41:14.759
<v Speaker 2>pretty sure that's how it worked. We had our share

0:41:14.800 --> 0:41:17.000
<v Speaker 2>of the publishing, they had their share of the publishing.

0:41:17.200 --> 0:41:19.560
<v Speaker 1>Who owns it today?

0:41:20.400 --> 0:41:21.719
<v Speaker 2>Good question. I don't know.

0:41:22.080 --> 0:41:24.359
<v Speaker 1>Well, let's put it a different way. Do you get

0:41:24.400 --> 0:41:25.080
<v Speaker 1>paid on it?

0:41:26.719 --> 0:41:28.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, on the wrapper?

0:41:28.560 --> 0:41:28.799
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?

0:41:29.840 --> 0:41:35.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah usually BMI they send me a check every like

0:41:35.800 --> 0:41:38.760
<v Speaker 2>every quarter. Yeah.

0:41:39.760 --> 0:41:40.919
<v Speaker 1>So's the money any good?

0:41:42.840 --> 0:41:46.920
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? I mean it's it's not anything spectacular, but it's

0:41:47.000 --> 0:41:51.000
<v Speaker 2>a nice little check, a little surprise, little mail money

0:41:51.000 --> 0:41:54.160
<v Speaker 2>every once in a while, never hurt. So yeah, it's nice.

0:41:54.840 --> 0:41:59.720
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you have this gigantic kid. Then what happens

0:41:59.719 --> 0:41:59.920
<v Speaker 1>for the.

0:42:03.239 --> 0:42:08.920
<v Speaker 2>Well, basically what happened is we pretty much had our run.

0:42:10.280 --> 0:42:14.520
<v Speaker 2>There was not any tension or anything, but just just

0:42:14.719 --> 0:42:19.920
<v Speaker 2>uneasiness in the band. People wanted to do other things.

0:42:20.600 --> 0:42:23.719
<v Speaker 2>One of the guys in the band got asked to

0:42:23.800 --> 0:42:27.520
<v Speaker 2>join the Skyliners, so he went with them for a while.

0:42:29.040 --> 0:42:33.600
<v Speaker 2>What I did was I left. I left and came

0:42:33.640 --> 0:42:36.520
<v Speaker 2>into the studio, the studio that we're sitting at right now.

0:42:39.200 --> 0:42:40.960
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what year that would have been, do

0:42:41.000 --> 0:42:45.319
<v Speaker 2>you do you know that the year that we recorded here,

0:42:47.040 --> 0:42:51.160
<v Speaker 2>late seventies. So yeah, right here at this studio, late seventies,

0:42:51.160 --> 0:42:57.760
<v Speaker 2>we're recording and I was learning how to do the stuff,

0:42:57.880 --> 0:43:02.040
<v Speaker 2>the stuff with it on this board and maybe becoming

0:43:02.120 --> 0:43:08.319
<v Speaker 2>an engineer or something. But that's what I was doing

0:43:08.360 --> 0:43:11.440
<v Speaker 2>at the time. And I was also singing some gigs

0:43:11.480 --> 0:43:13.320
<v Speaker 2>with a guy by the name of b. E. Taylor.

0:43:13.440 --> 0:43:14.680
<v Speaker 2>Did you know b E? No?

0:43:14.760 --> 0:43:15.240
<v Speaker 1>I didn't.

0:43:16.360 --> 0:43:22.399
<v Speaker 2>He was a Christian singer. We did, like I don't

0:43:22.440 --> 0:43:25.640
<v Speaker 2>know how many duo shows he and I sang together

0:43:27.320 --> 0:43:31.680
<v Speaker 2>for many years, just as like a side gig. We

0:43:31.760 --> 0:43:37.160
<v Speaker 2>did this and that here and there. In fact, we

0:43:37.280 --> 0:43:41.360
<v Speaker 2>did we did shows up my dad's tavern. After my

0:43:41.480 --> 0:43:45.439
<v Speaker 2>dad no wait, no, wait a minute, after my dad

0:43:45.560 --> 0:43:50.360
<v Speaker 2>quit selling whiskey, he and his partner, he and a

0:43:50.400 --> 0:43:53.160
<v Speaker 2>guy friend of h is hooked up and started a

0:43:53.200 --> 0:43:57.719
<v Speaker 2>place called Loose Tavern, so which he spent a lot

0:43:57.760 --> 0:43:59.719
<v Speaker 2>of time. Man, And this is right around the time

0:43:59.719 --> 0:44:04.920
<v Speaker 2>of the Rapper. So I used to go there all

0:44:04.960 --> 0:44:08.080
<v Speaker 2>the time, and my dad was behind the bar. He

0:44:08.120 --> 0:44:12.120
<v Speaker 2>would be making chili or soup or or meatballs or whatever.

0:44:12.400 --> 0:44:16.000
<v Speaker 2>They go in and hang out with him. And in

0:44:16.160 --> 0:44:20.239
<v Speaker 2>meantime the Rapper was was on the charts. It was

0:44:20.280 --> 0:44:22.799
<v Speaker 2>on his way up. And he used to have a

0:44:22.840 --> 0:44:28.880
<v Speaker 2>thermometer thing behind the bar and he would draw on

0:44:29.000 --> 0:44:32.000
<v Speaker 2>it every day as it went up and up and up.

0:44:32.560 --> 0:44:36.840
<v Speaker 2>So and he was like he had his old chest

0:44:36.840 --> 0:44:39.960
<v Speaker 2>out ship. He was like he was all into it.

0:44:42.120 --> 0:44:45.920
<v Speaker 1>So how hard was it to quit the Daggers?

0:44:48.560 --> 0:44:52.839
<v Speaker 2>Well, like I said, we pretty much we pretty much

0:44:52.840 --> 0:44:55.239
<v Speaker 2>had had it. I mean we you know, when it's over,

0:44:55.360 --> 0:44:59.879
<v Speaker 2>it's over. And when I came into the studio here

0:45:01.360 --> 0:45:05.000
<v Speaker 2>The funny thing was a group called Wild Cherry came

0:45:05.040 --> 0:45:11.560
<v Speaker 2>in and they were going to record here. So the Leafs.

0:45:12.160 --> 0:45:17.640
<v Speaker 2>The keyboard player in the band, Mark avsek, He and

0:45:17.680 --> 0:45:21.600
<v Speaker 2>I kind of hit it off. We were like, okay,

0:45:23.600 --> 0:45:27.000
<v Speaker 2>you know, whenever this is over, let's maybe get together

0:45:27.120 --> 0:45:30.560
<v Speaker 2>and you know, maybe write some songs or do this

0:45:30.680 --> 0:45:34.680
<v Speaker 2>or that. I said, okay, Well, first of all, we

0:45:34.719 --> 0:45:36.600
<v Speaker 2>went out on the road with Wild Cherry.

0:45:36.920 --> 0:45:40.239
<v Speaker 1>Okay, wait, you're in the studio, you see yourself as

0:45:40.239 --> 0:45:42.120
<v Speaker 1>a behind the scenes guy. How do you end up

0:45:42.120 --> 0:45:43.720
<v Speaker 1>going on the road with Wild Cherry.

0:45:44.239 --> 0:45:47.320
<v Speaker 2>Well, well, here's what he did. One of the guys

0:45:47.320 --> 0:45:51.360
<v Speaker 2>in the band was leaving, so Bobby Parsi, who was

0:45:51.400 --> 0:45:53.360
<v Speaker 2>the leader of the band at the time, asked me

0:45:53.400 --> 0:45:55.360
<v Speaker 2>to join him and go on the road with him.

0:45:55.880 --> 0:45:59.200
<v Speaker 2>So I said, yeah, oh yeah, let's go. So yeah,

0:45:59.239 --> 0:46:03.680
<v Speaker 2>I spent I don't know, a year, year and a half,

0:46:03.719 --> 0:46:07.319
<v Speaker 2>maybe two years with Wild Cherry. This was after they

0:46:07.360 --> 0:46:11.600
<v Speaker 2>had this play that fucking music quite so yeah. I

0:46:11.680 --> 0:46:15.400
<v Speaker 2>toured with them for a while and that was like heaven.

0:46:15.440 --> 0:46:19.000
<v Speaker 2>We were flying everywhere. We'd go stay at a hotel

0:46:19.120 --> 0:46:23.880
<v Speaker 2>for a week and get all tanned and stuff, looking

0:46:25.760 --> 0:46:29.879
<v Speaker 2>wanting to look good, and we would say all week

0:46:29.920 --> 0:46:31.719
<v Speaker 2>and at the end of the at the end of

0:46:31.760 --> 0:46:34.400
<v Speaker 2>the week, we'd have a show to do. We played

0:46:34.400 --> 0:46:39.280
<v Speaker 2>like in Albuquerque, I think it was exactly that scenario.

0:46:39.440 --> 0:46:41.000
<v Speaker 2>We didn't play till the end of the week. We

0:46:41.160 --> 0:46:42.399
<v Speaker 2>just sat there and had fun.

0:46:52.280 --> 0:46:57.080
<v Speaker 1>Okay, at what point in this scenario do you get married? Oh?

0:46:57.160 --> 0:47:01.120
<v Speaker 2>I was married in I think sixty eight. I think

0:47:01.160 --> 0:47:03.680
<v Speaker 2>I got married in sixty eight, yeah, or sixty nine.

0:47:04.120 --> 0:47:05.520
<v Speaker 1>How many times you been married?

0:47:07.440 --> 0:47:08.520
<v Speaker 2>Once? Just once?

0:47:09.360 --> 0:47:12.600
<v Speaker 1>And did you get to where's you're still with your wife?

0:47:12.960 --> 0:47:17.080
<v Speaker 2>No, we're still we're we're still separated.

0:47:18.160 --> 0:47:20.919
<v Speaker 1>How long have you been separated?

0:47:21.280 --> 0:47:27.640
<v Speaker 2>Separated? Probably thirty years or so something like that.

0:47:28.520 --> 0:47:31.840
<v Speaker 1>Let's stay there for a second. I lived that life,

0:47:32.160 --> 0:47:36.560
<v Speaker 1>did you? Yes? Unfortunately, How did you ultimately decide to

0:47:36.600 --> 0:47:39.240
<v Speaker 1>get separated?

0:47:40.160 --> 0:47:44.000
<v Speaker 2>Oh? That that that was just that was just going

0:47:44.080 --> 0:47:48.200
<v Speaker 2>to happen. I mean we were separated physically, so you know,

0:47:50.440 --> 0:47:54.680
<v Speaker 2>so that becomes that becomes the thing. You're physically separated

0:47:54.719 --> 0:47:58.919
<v Speaker 2>for so long you're separated, So that's that's what we were.

0:48:00.800 --> 0:48:02.680
<v Speaker 1>So who was this woman you married?

0:48:04.000 --> 0:48:05.399
<v Speaker 2>Her name was Linda.

0:48:07.320 --> 0:48:09.520
<v Speaker 1>And Rod you meet her? Yeah?

0:48:09.560 --> 0:48:13.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, oh man, I met her at a club that

0:48:13.880 --> 0:48:18.440
<v Speaker 2>we played in uh in beaver Falls, would called the

0:48:18.480 --> 0:48:23.040
<v Speaker 2>Club Natural, And we played there like six nights a week,

0:48:25.080 --> 0:48:28.319
<v Speaker 2>every night, and she would come in there and I

0:48:28.440 --> 0:48:31.520
<v Speaker 2>noticed her, and that's how it happened.

0:48:32.520 --> 0:48:34.400
<v Speaker 1>But who wanted to get married? Who are you?

0:48:36.480 --> 0:48:41.160
<v Speaker 2>Oh man? I guess we both did. We uh yeah,

0:48:41.160 --> 0:48:43.879
<v Speaker 2>we decided to get married, and we did and had

0:48:43.880 --> 0:48:49.080
<v Speaker 2>two wonderful daughters. And now I have five great grandkids,

0:48:49.360 --> 0:48:57.239
<v Speaker 2>not great ganches, but grandkids, and I'm loving it.

0:48:57.719 --> 0:49:02.960
<v Speaker 1>Okay, But you're a musician and you're the breadwinner. What

0:49:03.040 --> 0:49:06.480
<v Speaker 1>does she say about your career moves? Leaving the Jaggers,

0:49:06.520 --> 0:49:08.640
<v Speaker 1>going to work in the studio, going on the road

0:49:08.680 --> 0:49:11.440
<v Speaker 1>with Wild Cherry? Was she cool with it? Did she

0:49:11.480 --> 0:49:14.640
<v Speaker 1>want you to quit? Get a regular job? What'd you say? Oh?

0:49:14.880 --> 0:49:17.040
<v Speaker 2>No, no, no, no, she was cool with it. She

0:49:17.320 --> 0:49:23.400
<v Speaker 2>uh you know, everything every move I made, she was,

0:49:23.719 --> 0:49:27.080
<v Speaker 2>she was there, she was, she was into it. You know,

0:49:27.120 --> 0:49:29.680
<v Speaker 2>you need to do what you gotta do. I mean,

0:49:29.719 --> 0:49:32.960
<v Speaker 2>you don't hear very much of that, but it's true.

0:49:33.160 --> 0:49:35.320
<v Speaker 1>And then, of course the obvious question is why have

0:49:35.360 --> 0:49:39.880
<v Speaker 1>you never gotten divorced? Oh?

0:49:40.800 --> 0:49:46.759
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, never found it, never found any use

0:49:46.800 --> 0:49:50.319
<v Speaker 2>in it, really, I mean, why.

0:49:51.000 --> 0:49:54.120
<v Speaker 1>Well, has she found someone new? If you found someone.

0:49:53.880 --> 0:49:57.760
<v Speaker 2>New, Yeah, she's she's she found somebody. I found someone

0:49:57.760 --> 0:50:03.600
<v Speaker 2>and everybody. Everybody's happy. We still get along great. Yeah.

0:50:03.760 --> 0:50:07.759
<v Speaker 1>And is she off the payroll or you still supporting her?

0:50:09.040 --> 0:50:11.080
<v Speaker 2>Well? I do what I can for her. Put it

0:50:11.120 --> 0:50:11.560
<v Speaker 2>that way.

0:50:12.520 --> 0:50:18.560
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, So you go on the road with Wild Cherry.

0:50:18.840 --> 0:50:19.759
<v Speaker 1>How does that end?

0:50:23.560 --> 0:50:30.759
<v Speaker 2>M Well, that is at the point where Mark av

0:50:30.840 --> 0:50:37.800
<v Speaker 2>second and I start this new songwriting team and start

0:50:38.480 --> 0:50:40.640
<v Speaker 2>Donnie Iris and the cruisers.

0:50:40.760 --> 0:50:45.160
<v Speaker 1>Stop for one second when you stop being Dominic Arachi

0:50:45.719 --> 0:50:47.759
<v Speaker 1>and become Donnie Iris.

0:50:48.160 --> 0:50:52.040
<v Speaker 2>Oh that was long before. That was way before nobody

0:50:52.040 --> 0:50:56.200
<v Speaker 2>could ever pronounce my last name, and it was just

0:50:56.239 --> 0:50:59.480
<v Speaker 2>the right thing to do. I just change because basically,

0:51:01.520 --> 0:51:05.040
<v Speaker 2>although my name wasn't Dominic, my mother always called me

0:51:05.360 --> 0:51:09.160
<v Speaker 2>down neat Donnie. She didn't like Donny, she liked Donnie.

0:51:09.239 --> 0:51:13.640
<v Speaker 2>So my first name was Donnie. My last name is Jiachi.

0:51:14.680 --> 0:51:17.160
<v Speaker 2>So I had to change that because nobody was ever

0:51:17.160 --> 0:51:19.960
<v Speaker 2>going to get that right. I changed it to the

0:51:20.000 --> 0:51:24.839
<v Speaker 2>way it looks irase Iris. That's why I changed it. Now,

0:51:24.880 --> 0:51:27.800
<v Speaker 2>everything's cool, nobody makes mistakes.

0:51:27.440 --> 0:51:33.160
<v Speaker 1>So you got this songwriting partnership with Mark Abset. Yeah,

0:51:33.560 --> 0:51:35.560
<v Speaker 1>and take us forward from there.

0:51:38.000 --> 0:51:42.880
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, we decided to get together and write

0:51:42.880 --> 0:51:45.360
<v Speaker 2>some songs. So we get down in my basement and

0:51:45.440 --> 0:51:50.360
<v Speaker 2>beaver Falls at my house in beaver Falls, and and

0:51:50.480 --> 0:51:53.000
<v Speaker 2>we start there was I had a piano in my

0:51:53.080 --> 0:51:59.840
<v Speaker 2>basement and and we start clinking around, start writing tunes,

0:52:01.600 --> 0:52:05.040
<v Speaker 2>and before you know it, we had I don't know,

0:52:05.280 --> 0:52:09.919
<v Speaker 2>six or seven songs ready to go for whatever, and

0:52:10.120 --> 0:52:16.160
<v Speaker 2>uh went into the studio and uh and we recorded

0:52:17.080 --> 0:52:22.840
<v Speaker 2>back on the streets. The first album was had Leah, Agnes,

0:52:24.200 --> 0:52:32.520
<v Speaker 2>uh and and the others whatever. But uh, we ended

0:52:32.600 --> 0:52:35.320
<v Speaker 2>up on a label called Midwest Labels.

0:52:35.480 --> 0:52:39.480
<v Speaker 1>Wait, wait, let's go back. You're recording the record at

0:52:39.520 --> 0:52:43.000
<v Speaker 1>the time. Agnes is a date. There was somebody on

0:52:43.080 --> 0:52:47.080
<v Speaker 1>some sitcom, some woman that was always blowing the whistle

0:52:47.120 --> 0:52:49.840
<v Speaker 1>called Agnes. How do you come up with the name Agnes?

0:52:52.520 --> 0:53:04.439
<v Speaker 2>Funny thing? Agnes rhymes with everything, right, it rhymes with everything, gladness, sadness.

0:53:05.040 --> 0:53:08.880
<v Speaker 2>You know. There's that's why we that's why we use

0:53:08.960 --> 0:53:12.399
<v Speaker 2>that name. That's exactly why we use the name.

0:53:13.000 --> 0:53:17.520
<v Speaker 1>Okay, tell me about the creation of Aliah.

0:53:17.600 --> 0:53:27.400
<v Speaker 2>All right, this is a story. So, Leah was a

0:53:27.480 --> 0:53:32.360
<v Speaker 2>woman I knew who was dating the drummer in our band,

0:53:35.440 --> 0:53:39.520
<v Speaker 2>and uh, I just thought she was beautiful. It's just gorgeous.

0:53:40.520 --> 0:53:42.600
<v Speaker 2>So but I didn't know her. I just knew her

0:53:42.640 --> 0:53:48.799
<v Speaker 2>from a distance. And later on in life, I have

0:53:48.920 --> 0:53:51.680
<v Speaker 2>to go forward here because tell you the end of

0:53:51.719 --> 0:53:56.839
<v Speaker 2>the story. I go, I get into somehow, I get

0:53:56.880 --> 0:54:04.160
<v Speaker 2>into mortgage banking, all right, bear with me here. I

0:54:04.200 --> 0:54:08.160
<v Speaker 2>get into mortgage banking and I start doing business with

0:54:08.239 --> 0:54:21.080
<v Speaker 2>this girl. Anyway. The girl was Leah's daughter, and I

0:54:21.120 --> 0:54:23.839
<v Speaker 2>didn't find this out too and like, I was doing

0:54:23.880 --> 0:54:27.880
<v Speaker 2>business with her for a period of time, and I

0:54:27.920 --> 0:54:33.080
<v Speaker 2>asked her, I said, you know, is your mom Leah?

0:54:33.400 --> 0:54:36.359
<v Speaker 2>She said, yeah, yeah, she has a flower shop right

0:54:36.480 --> 0:54:41.040
<v Speaker 2>up the road here. I said, we gotta go see her.

0:54:41.960 --> 0:54:44.920
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I mean when I went up, I saw

0:54:44.920 --> 0:54:48.839
<v Speaker 2>her again. It's just as beautiful as ever, and it was.

0:54:48.920 --> 0:54:51.080
<v Speaker 2>It was a great time. We hung out together, me

0:54:51.160 --> 0:54:54.359
<v Speaker 2>and Leah and her daughter been hung out. We just

0:54:54.400 --> 0:54:56.200
<v Speaker 2>go places and have a good time. Man.

0:54:57.680 --> 0:54:58.959
<v Speaker 1>So how did you write the song?

0:55:01.440 --> 0:55:04.439
<v Speaker 2>Uh? The song went through several phases. Really, it went

0:55:04.480 --> 0:55:11.719
<v Speaker 2>through a an anti war idea. Uh, it went through

0:55:11.760 --> 0:55:16.239
<v Speaker 2>a I forget. There might have been one more, one

0:55:16.280 --> 0:55:20.400
<v Speaker 2>more thing, but it ended up as the we we

0:55:20.480 --> 0:55:23.680
<v Speaker 2>had that. We had the vocal course in the background

0:55:23.719 --> 0:55:28.280
<v Speaker 2>in our heads, the ah Leah. It was like a chant.

0:55:28.960 --> 0:55:34.120
<v Speaker 2>It was like a Gregorian chant. And and we looked

0:55:34.160 --> 0:55:36.320
<v Speaker 2>at it other and we said, Hey, that's that happens

0:55:36.360 --> 0:55:40.160
<v Speaker 2>to be a name. It happens to be the name Leah.

0:55:40.280 --> 0:55:42.759
<v Speaker 2>So let's let's go with a girl. Let's go with that.

0:55:44.200 --> 0:55:46.959
<v Speaker 2>This is all crazy shit, but it's the truth. It's

0:55:47.000 --> 0:55:51.399
<v Speaker 2>just that's the way it happens. That's the way it happens. Man.

0:55:53.200 --> 0:55:55.840
<v Speaker 1>How did you stock the vocals? I mean that record

0:55:55.880 --> 0:55:56.880
<v Speaker 1>has a unique sound.

0:55:58.080 --> 0:56:00.480
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we we did. The we did had a lot

0:56:00.520 --> 0:56:05.600
<v Speaker 2>of stacking at the place, just just for the effect. Really,

0:56:05.680 --> 0:56:08.960
<v Speaker 2>the we layered one on top of the other for

0:56:09.960 --> 0:56:13.560
<v Speaker 2>I don't know how many how many tracks there were. Jerry,

0:56:13.600 --> 0:56:19.520
<v Speaker 2>the original engineer here, would remember, and Mark Mark probably remembers,

0:56:20.120 --> 0:56:22.200
<v Speaker 2>but I don't have any idea how many times I

0:56:22.280 --> 0:56:25.800
<v Speaker 2>did that. But uh, but it had a certain sound

0:56:25.920 --> 0:56:28.680
<v Speaker 2>to it. It had a chewiness to it. It had

0:56:29.880 --> 0:56:32.839
<v Speaker 2>it had this jump out of the radio at you

0:56:32.880 --> 0:56:35.520
<v Speaker 2>when it comes on. It had that kind of feel

0:56:35.560 --> 0:56:39.840
<v Speaker 2>to it, which was something we hadn't planned.

0:56:41.800 --> 0:56:45.279
<v Speaker 1>So what happens? First, do you finish the album and

0:56:45.320 --> 0:56:48.120
<v Speaker 1>look for a record deal or you cut Aliyah look

0:56:48.160 --> 0:56:48.879
<v Speaker 1>for a record deal.

0:56:50.160 --> 0:56:52.920
<v Speaker 2>We have the album finished, so we give it to

0:56:54.400 --> 0:57:01.799
<v Speaker 2>uh Belkan Maduri in Cleveland and to uh and their

0:57:01.920 --> 0:57:05.759
<v Speaker 2>their uh their staff, the people they work with to

0:57:05.800 --> 0:57:09.440
<v Speaker 2>get records promoted and so on and so forth, and

0:57:09.680 --> 0:57:15.400
<v Speaker 2>uh uh they get it on the radio. Uh and

0:57:15.520 --> 0:57:21.360
<v Speaker 2>these radio stations are adding it like uh w b

0:57:21.560 --> 0:57:26.200
<v Speaker 2>z Z, I think it's bezz in Boston, Saint Louis, Dallas,

0:57:26.320 --> 0:57:30.480
<v Speaker 2>all these all these radio stations are adding the record.

0:57:30.800 --> 0:57:36.280
<v Speaker 2>They're adding it, and we're thinking, I mean we're not like,

0:57:37.680 --> 0:57:40.760
<v Speaker 2>we're not like twisting arms to get them to play

0:57:40.760 --> 0:57:46.880
<v Speaker 2>the song. They're playing it, and uh, before we know it,

0:57:46.880 --> 0:57:49.400
<v Speaker 2>it was. It was spreading all over the country and

0:57:49.480 --> 0:57:51.680
<v Speaker 2>it was a It was a hit. It was a

0:57:51.800 --> 0:57:58.160
<v Speaker 2>hit album oriented rock song, not necessarily a pop tune,

0:57:59.000 --> 0:58:00.880
<v Speaker 2>but it did make it way up to I think

0:58:00.960 --> 0:58:04.160
<v Speaker 2>twenty nine or something on the Billboard charts.

0:58:04.560 --> 0:58:08.320
<v Speaker 1>Okay, let's go back. You cut the record, you give

0:58:08.360 --> 0:58:11.680
<v Speaker 1>it to your managers. What do they do about getting

0:58:11.720 --> 0:58:12.439
<v Speaker 1>a record deal?

0:58:14.560 --> 0:58:20.080
<v Speaker 2>Well, they after they had done what they did, they figured, okay,

0:58:20.240 --> 0:58:25.720
<v Speaker 2>it's time to make a deal. They knew people in

0:58:27.880 --> 0:58:34.400
<v Speaker 2>at MCA, so they sell the record to MCA, and

0:58:34.920 --> 0:58:39.240
<v Speaker 2>so now we have a large company behind it that

0:58:39.480 --> 0:58:44.959
<v Speaker 2>can do to do more for the band. So yeah,

0:58:45.080 --> 0:58:48.360
<v Speaker 2>they they sold the masters to them.

0:58:48.920 --> 0:58:53.120
<v Speaker 1>Okay, but the record said Carousel Records. What was up

0:58:53.160 --> 0:58:53.360
<v Speaker 1>with that?

0:58:54.160 --> 0:59:00.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was an offshoot of MCA. It was managed

0:59:00.280 --> 0:59:04.240
<v Speaker 2>by a guy of the name of Rick. Oh what

0:59:04.360 --> 0:59:10.400
<v Speaker 2>was his last name, Rick? I can't remember, Rick Frio,

0:59:10.800 --> 0:59:15.880
<v Speaker 2>Rick Frio, Yeah it was. It was his his deal

0:59:16.040 --> 0:59:16.720
<v Speaker 2>with mc A.

0:59:18.760 --> 0:59:22.440
<v Speaker 1>Okay, could you believe you had another hit?

0:59:24.520 --> 0:59:30.640
<v Speaker 2>No? No, it's like ten years later is another one coming?

0:59:30.800 --> 0:59:34.240
<v Speaker 2>So no, I you know, that's what you hope for,

0:59:34.440 --> 0:59:36.920
<v Speaker 2>but you don't really expect it. It's just like I

0:59:37.000 --> 0:59:41.120
<v Speaker 2>say that, that stuff just happens. It's just he hit

0:59:41.160 --> 0:59:43.960
<v Speaker 2>the radio and before I knew it, it was happening

0:59:44.000 --> 0:59:44.720
<v Speaker 2>all over again.

0:59:46.120 --> 0:59:48.360
<v Speaker 1>Okay, and do you immediately go on the road.

0:59:50.760 --> 0:59:53.800
<v Speaker 2>No, we don't. We Uh. What we do is we

0:59:53.920 --> 0:59:57.360
<v Speaker 2>start hearing. We start hearing a bunch of clamoring to

0:59:57.480 --> 1:00:03.840
<v Speaker 2>put the band together. So so first of all, I

1:00:03.880 --> 1:00:06.760
<v Speaker 2>put I put me, and Mark put the band together.

1:00:07.360 --> 1:00:10.880
<v Speaker 2>We just I remember going to a local place here

1:00:10.920 --> 1:00:16.120
<v Speaker 2>in New Brighton and hearing some some dude play from Erie, Pennsylvania.

1:00:16.960 --> 1:00:20.680
<v Speaker 2>Who well, I said, yeah, this this guy could do it.

1:00:20.760 --> 1:00:24.960
<v Speaker 2>So his name is Marty Lee. He's my guitar player

1:00:25.000 --> 1:00:30.360
<v Speaker 2>to this day. He came and joined the band. And

1:00:30.960 --> 1:00:34.080
<v Speaker 2>that was one guy. Mark Avsek knew this drummer by

1:00:34.120 --> 1:00:38.080
<v Speaker 2>the name of Kevin Valentine, so he had Kevin on board.

1:00:39.360 --> 1:00:41.440
<v Speaker 2>And I knew this bass player by the name of

1:00:41.480 --> 1:00:47.600
<v Speaker 2>al Britton McClain who also decided to come into the

1:00:47.680 --> 1:00:51.360
<v Speaker 2>studio and play on it. He was on board. And

1:00:51.400 --> 1:00:55.440
<v Speaker 2>then of course me and Mark and then we we

1:00:55.600 --> 1:00:57.520
<v Speaker 2>put it all together. And then, like I say, there

1:00:57.560 --> 1:01:00.480
<v Speaker 2>was a clamoring to put the band together. So we

1:01:00.520 --> 1:01:04.520
<v Speaker 2>reheart We rehearsed for I don't know two three, four weeks,

1:01:05.000 --> 1:01:08.800
<v Speaker 2>and we put the band together, and before you know it,

1:01:08.840 --> 1:01:18.680
<v Speaker 2>we're opening for Nazareth, seeger H, Teddy, Nugent, all these people.

1:01:18.720 --> 1:01:23.200
<v Speaker 2>We're opening up for these great people.

1:01:31.000 --> 1:01:33.360
<v Speaker 1>Some people have been in the business for a long

1:01:33.440 --> 1:01:37.840
<v Speaker 1>time and they're friends with all these people. Are you

1:01:37.960 --> 1:01:40.800
<v Speaker 1>the type of person you know who's friends with these people?

1:01:40.880 --> 1:01:43.680
<v Speaker 1>You say, no, I'm a guy from outside Pittsburgh. I've

1:01:43.680 --> 1:01:45.640
<v Speaker 1>met these people. I'm in my own world.

1:01:46.960 --> 1:01:51.880
<v Speaker 2>Well I met you know. I think one of the

1:01:51.880 --> 1:01:55.200
<v Speaker 2>best tours we did was was with Loverboy, because I

1:01:55.240 --> 1:01:57.800
<v Speaker 2>got to meet these guys and we kind of had

1:01:57.840 --> 1:02:00.560
<v Speaker 2>fun together. I mean, Mike, Mike know and I have

1:02:00.680 --> 1:02:04.000
<v Speaker 2>become friends. Every once in a while run into them

1:02:04.000 --> 1:02:09.080
<v Speaker 2>because we're doing a recent show somewhere. But yeah, we

1:02:09.080 --> 1:02:12.680
<v Speaker 2>we did a tour through the Midwest. The lasted for

1:02:12.840 --> 1:02:16.120
<v Speaker 2>maybe I don't know, three or four weeks or something

1:02:16.200 --> 1:02:23.280
<v Speaker 2>like that, and they were they were just great Midwest entertainment,

1:02:23.440 --> 1:02:27.640
<v Speaker 2>starved people and here comes lover Boy and Donnie Iris

1:02:27.640 --> 1:02:32.400
<v Speaker 2>and we're rocking him to death. Big crowds, great, great crowds,

1:02:33.080 --> 1:02:35.840
<v Speaker 2>and it was it was just that was the best

1:02:35.880 --> 1:02:38.080
<v Speaker 2>tour I ever did, best tour I ever had.

1:02:38.240 --> 1:02:41.280
<v Speaker 1>Okay, when you're an opening act for some of these stars,

1:02:42.200 --> 1:02:47.400
<v Speaker 1>is the audience paying attention? Are you playing through people talking?

1:02:47.480 --> 1:02:48.040
<v Speaker 1>What's it like?

1:02:49.000 --> 1:02:56.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? It varies. The Loverboy tour was just great. They

1:02:56.000 --> 1:02:59.560
<v Speaker 2>they they were into it no matter what. But when

1:02:59.560 --> 1:03:04.600
<v Speaker 2>we first went out, we opened for Nazareth in Saint Louis,

1:03:05.560 --> 1:03:09.880
<v Speaker 2>and you know, Nazareth. I looked out into the audience

1:03:09.920 --> 1:03:15.080
<v Speaker 2>and I saw a sea of I don't know, camouflage,

1:03:15.320 --> 1:03:18.600
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what. It was, just like, oh, this

1:03:18.680 --> 1:03:21.800
<v Speaker 2>might be a problem. I get out there. I got

1:03:21.840 --> 1:03:24.560
<v Speaker 2>my yellow suit on and my bow tie and all this,

1:03:24.960 --> 1:03:28.320
<v Speaker 2>and I know they're going to hate me, and for

1:03:28.480 --> 1:03:33.000
<v Speaker 2>sure they just they started booing from the first moment

1:03:33.080 --> 1:03:39.120
<v Speaker 2>we laid from the first note, and we got through it.

1:03:39.200 --> 1:03:41.240
<v Speaker 2>I think our set was like a half an hour.

1:03:42.360 --> 1:03:44.480
<v Speaker 2>So we get through it, and we come to Leah

1:03:45.720 --> 1:03:49.800
<v Speaker 2>and we start that and I can remember seeing the

1:03:49.880 --> 1:03:52.640
<v Speaker 2>audience and all kind of turning around, looking at each

1:03:52.640 --> 1:03:55.640
<v Speaker 2>other and saying, I know this song. I know this song.

1:03:56.120 --> 1:03:58.320
<v Speaker 2>And at the end of it, by the end of it,

1:03:58.400 --> 1:04:02.720
<v Speaker 2>they were clapping, and it was it was worth. It

1:04:02.800 --> 1:04:06.480
<v Speaker 2>was worth all that craziness just just to hear that.

1:04:09.480 --> 1:04:13.000
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So how much were you working. It sounds like

1:04:13.040 --> 1:04:14.280
<v Speaker 1>you're working a lot.

1:04:15.120 --> 1:04:19.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, we were. We did. It's been it was

1:04:19.880 --> 1:04:22.720
<v Speaker 2>such a whirlwind. I think we were going from one

1:04:22.760 --> 1:04:26.040
<v Speaker 2>gig to another. I think we had a tour bus

1:04:26.080 --> 1:04:28.520
<v Speaker 2>and all that stuff we were going. I don't know

1:04:28.560 --> 1:04:34.040
<v Speaker 2>where we went after that, but I mean we were

1:04:34.040 --> 1:04:36.000
<v Speaker 2>working we were definitely working.

1:04:36.800 --> 1:04:43.720
<v Speaker 1>And now it's the MTV era and there's a video. Yeah, yeah,

1:04:43.760 --> 1:04:47.840
<v Speaker 1>will tell us about that, all right, which one do

1:04:47.880 --> 1:04:48.240
<v Speaker 1>you want?

1:04:48.400 --> 1:04:48.760
<v Speaker 2>Which one?

1:04:48.800 --> 1:04:51.080
<v Speaker 1>Were talking about it from the very beginning.

1:04:52.080 --> 1:05:00.560
<v Speaker 2>Aliah oh okay u Aliah somehow gets on MTV and

1:05:00.760 --> 1:05:07.240
<v Speaker 2>Agnes somehow gets on MTV uh as recordings and we're like,

1:05:08.800 --> 1:05:13.080
<v Speaker 2>you know, we're on MTV, man, we're on MTV and

1:05:13.360 --> 1:05:19.440
<v Speaker 2>uh but then they added they added uh uh Leah

1:05:19.720 --> 1:05:24.480
<v Speaker 2>the live version from uh from where we were playing

1:05:24.480 --> 1:05:29.080
<v Speaker 2>in Cleveland. But yeah, I mean it was great stuff,

1:05:29.200 --> 1:05:29.920
<v Speaker 2>great stuff.

1:05:31.040 --> 1:05:36.040
<v Speaker 1>Okay, are you now recognized because you're on MTV?

1:05:37.560 --> 1:05:41.120
<v Speaker 2>Uh yeah, yeah, now now and then now and then

1:05:41.200 --> 1:05:42.920
<v Speaker 2>I am.

1:05:42.800 --> 1:05:44.920
<v Speaker 1>What about in the height in the eighties.

1:05:46.800 --> 1:05:50.080
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I remember going to a place called Kennywood Park

1:05:50.120 --> 1:05:55.120
<v Speaker 2>here in here in Pittsburgh. It's a big amusement park.

1:05:56.520 --> 1:05:59.919
<v Speaker 2>And I was there and people were coming over to me, man,

1:06:00.240 --> 1:06:02.800
<v Speaker 2>like I was there with my daughters, my wife and

1:06:02.840 --> 1:06:06.200
<v Speaker 2>my daughters getting trying to get them on rides and stuff.

1:06:06.320 --> 1:06:08.720
<v Speaker 2>People are coming over and get my autograph and all

1:06:08.760 --> 1:06:14.000
<v Speaker 2>this stuff. I'm thinking, Wow, what's going on? Man? They

1:06:14.040 --> 1:06:15.080
<v Speaker 2>had recognized me?

1:06:15.240 --> 1:06:21.600
<v Speaker 1>Yep, Okay, why was it called the Cruisers.

1:06:23.360 --> 1:06:29.480
<v Speaker 2>Well, uh, originally I wanted to call ourselves the Turnpike

1:06:29.720 --> 1:06:33.640
<v Speaker 2>Cruisers because it seemed like I was always going back

1:06:33.680 --> 1:06:38.200
<v Speaker 2>and forth on the Turnpike, you know, to to Mark's house,

1:06:38.240 --> 1:06:42.840
<v Speaker 2>to the studio here or there whatever. But after we

1:06:42.920 --> 1:06:44.960
<v Speaker 2>thought about, we thought, oh, let's just change it to

1:06:45.000 --> 1:06:47.440
<v Speaker 2>the cruisers. Cruisers would be better.

1:06:48.160 --> 1:06:50.240
<v Speaker 1>And was it always going to be Donnie Iris and

1:06:50.280 --> 1:06:53.480
<v Speaker 1>the Cruisers or was it the Cruisers and stuff? Was

1:06:53.560 --> 1:06:55.720
<v Speaker 1>always going to be Donnie Iris and the Cruisers?

1:06:55.880 --> 1:06:58.320
<v Speaker 2>It was, Yeah, it was always going to be Donnie Iris.

1:06:58.360 --> 1:07:00.680
<v Speaker 2>I mean I was doing all the h not all

1:07:00.720 --> 1:07:03.480
<v Speaker 2>of I mean, Mark did so many vocals with me,

1:07:04.080 --> 1:07:07.920
<v Speaker 2>but usually uh, you know, the vocals were going to

1:07:07.960 --> 1:07:13.120
<v Speaker 2>be basic my concern, and we just that's that's what

1:07:13.160 --> 1:07:13.560
<v Speaker 2>we did.

1:07:14.640 --> 1:07:18.000
<v Speaker 1>Okay, at some point you have to make another record.

1:07:18.440 --> 1:07:19.360
<v Speaker 1>How does that happen?

1:07:22.560 --> 1:07:27.280
<v Speaker 2>We decide to. We decided to come back here to

1:07:27.400 --> 1:07:32.200
<v Speaker 2>this studio and we write some songs again. Some of

1:07:32.240 --> 1:07:34.959
<v Speaker 2>them were some of them were written ahead of time,

1:07:35.760 --> 1:07:40.080
<v Speaker 2>some of them were done in the studio as as

1:07:40.200 --> 1:07:46.880
<v Speaker 2>jam sessions, and but we won this time. We wanted to,

1:07:48.960 --> 1:07:51.600
<v Speaker 2>We wanted to have see. We mixed the first album

1:07:51.720 --> 1:07:56.720
<v Speaker 2>Everything Right Here and the follow up album, King Cool Album.

1:07:56.760 --> 1:08:03.600
<v Speaker 2>We wanted to have it mixed where the heck you are?

1:08:03.800 --> 1:08:06.760
<v Speaker 2>Where we where? I can't remember where it was mixed,

1:08:06.800 --> 1:08:10.959
<v Speaker 2>but we wanted a different place to mix it, and

1:08:11.000 --> 1:08:16.160
<v Speaker 2>so we did. We got a different mastering people involved

1:08:17.840 --> 1:08:22.519
<v Speaker 2>because we wanted to have more fidelity out of the songs.

1:08:23.760 --> 1:08:27.519
<v Speaker 2>Because what we found out here was the most of

1:08:27.560 --> 1:08:30.559
<v Speaker 2>the songs we did were kind of mid range ye

1:08:31.439 --> 1:08:36.360
<v Speaker 2>in in in the spectrum of in highs and lows.

1:08:36.439 --> 1:08:38.720
<v Speaker 2>It was more of a mid range thing, which might

1:08:38.720 --> 1:08:42.479
<v Speaker 2>have been a good thing for the for the Aliah record.

1:08:42.800 --> 1:08:46.400
<v Speaker 2>I don't know who knows, but we decided to do

1:08:46.479 --> 1:08:48.920
<v Speaker 2>a different on the second album, and it's the second

1:08:48.920 --> 1:08:50.599
<v Speaker 2>album sounded really good, I think.

1:08:51.720 --> 1:08:54.120
<v Speaker 1>So. Tell me about the writing of Sweet Merrill Lee

1:08:54.160 --> 1:08:57.000
<v Speaker 1>and was there in the back of your mind how

1:08:57.040 --> 1:08:58.280
<v Speaker 1>do we follow up Alia?

1:09:01.240 --> 1:09:05.479
<v Speaker 2>Well, uh, I got to give most of the credit

1:09:05.560 --> 1:09:08.200
<v Speaker 2>for something like this to Mark. I mean Mark comes

1:09:08.280 --> 1:09:11.639
<v Speaker 2>up with lyrics like he's waking up in the morning,

1:09:11.680 --> 1:09:16.920
<v Speaker 2>you know, he's just like uh so he he put

1:09:16.920 --> 1:09:20.680
<v Speaker 2>all the lyrics together, went into the studio said here

1:09:20.720 --> 1:09:25.880
<v Speaker 2>you go. I went in started singing basically that's it.

1:09:26.800 --> 1:09:30.720
<v Speaker 1>So what was the experience after the second record as

1:09:30.720 --> 1:09:32.200
<v Speaker 1>opposed to the first?

1:09:34.920 --> 1:09:36.760
<v Speaker 2>This experience after thee in.

1:09:36.800 --> 1:09:40.439
<v Speaker 1>Terms of how did it feel, Alia was the biggest

1:09:40.479 --> 1:09:43.800
<v Speaker 1>solo hit you ever had. So now you're following it

1:09:43.880 --> 1:09:47.680
<v Speaker 1>up with King Cool. You're having success, But do you

1:09:47.840 --> 1:09:52.960
<v Speaker 1>feel like you're losing momentum, maintaining momentum, gaining momentum? Oh?

1:09:53.040 --> 1:09:56.240
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I thought we were pretty much maintaining what we

1:09:56.320 --> 1:09:58.960
<v Speaker 2>had with King Kol because Love Is Like a Rock

1:09:59.160 --> 1:10:03.840
<v Speaker 2>was fairly pop. There was a couple of other tunes

1:10:03.880 --> 1:10:08.240
<v Speaker 2>on there that that we still do live that that

1:10:08.320 --> 1:10:11.280
<v Speaker 2>people remember. I mean they were played enough to where

1:10:11.880 --> 1:10:18.559
<v Speaker 2>they were recognizable, like a song called Tough World. Uh,

1:10:19.600 --> 1:10:22.960
<v Speaker 2>you know, just little pickets, little things here and there.

1:10:23.320 --> 1:10:26.519
<v Speaker 2>They're still recognized when we play them on stage other

1:10:26.600 --> 1:10:27.559
<v Speaker 2>than the big hits.

1:10:28.080 --> 1:10:30.160
<v Speaker 1>So tell me about coming up with Love Is Like

1:10:30.160 --> 1:10:30.559
<v Speaker 1>a Rock.

1:10:32.439 --> 1:10:35.280
<v Speaker 2>That was an in studio jam. We what we did

1:10:35.479 --> 1:10:39.479
<v Speaker 2>was we had a tight tape machine and we made

1:10:39.520 --> 1:10:43.599
<v Speaker 2>a loop out of it, a physical loop out of it,

1:10:44.800 --> 1:10:49.640
<v Speaker 2>and you know, within a certain tempo. I mean, we

1:10:49.680 --> 1:10:52.120
<v Speaker 2>had that we had the loops set up from one

1:10:52.160 --> 1:10:55.439
<v Speaker 2>side of the studio to the other to make this

1:10:55.520 --> 1:10:58.479
<v Speaker 2>big tape loop. Anyway, that's how we came up with

1:10:58.520 --> 1:11:03.200
<v Speaker 2>the with the beat, and pretty soon Marty put in

1:11:03.280 --> 1:11:07.639
<v Speaker 2>the uh, the riff, the guitar riff and the bass

1:11:07.720 --> 1:11:11.599
<v Speaker 2>riff and this and that. It all came together and

1:11:11.640 --> 1:11:16.400
<v Speaker 2>then the very end uh we wrote we wrote the

1:11:16.479 --> 1:11:18.800
<v Speaker 2>lyric our Love is Like a Rock.

1:11:20.439 --> 1:11:23.240
<v Speaker 1>So you worked that record, Tell me about recording the

1:11:23.280 --> 1:11:24.519
<v Speaker 1>next record, The High End.

1:11:24.439 --> 1:11:28.559
<v Speaker 2>Mighty, The High and Mighty. We had all kinds of

1:11:28.600 --> 1:11:34.200
<v Speaker 2>problems with in the studio that some of the that

1:11:34.400 --> 1:11:38.880
<v Speaker 2>was a that was a gut wrenching experience because the

1:11:39.880 --> 1:11:46.320
<v Speaker 2>studio tape at the time wash was coming apart. They

1:11:46.360 --> 1:11:51.760
<v Speaker 2>were the the not the shiny side, but the other

1:11:51.880 --> 1:11:56.120
<v Speaker 2>side where the where the music's at it was. It

1:11:56.160 --> 1:12:00.320
<v Speaker 2>was deteriorating for some reason. We had no reason, no

1:12:00.439 --> 1:12:07.680
<v Speaker 2>idea why, but for that reason we had to We

1:12:07.720 --> 1:12:11.960
<v Speaker 2>had to just like go with what we had. And

1:12:12.000 --> 1:12:14.479
<v Speaker 2>it still didn't sound that bad. It came out okay,

1:12:14.600 --> 1:12:18.360
<v Speaker 2>but just the vibe in the studio wasn't there that

1:12:18.520 --> 1:12:23.679
<v Speaker 2>it should have been, and that's what I think, that's

1:12:23.760 --> 1:12:27.120
<v Speaker 2>really why that album was not successful.

1:12:27.400 --> 1:12:30.599
<v Speaker 1>So what's your attitude going into recording the next album?

1:12:30.680 --> 1:12:31.599
<v Speaker 1>Fortune for ten.

1:12:33.920 --> 1:12:39.920
<v Speaker 2>Ooh, we felt a little better, then felt a little better.

1:12:41.800 --> 1:12:44.439
<v Speaker 2>I honestly don't remember what we've done this, Like, I

1:12:44.479 --> 1:12:47.759
<v Speaker 2>don't ten to twelve albums, and I don't remember exactly

1:12:47.840 --> 1:12:48.920
<v Speaker 2>what songs are on there.

1:12:49.200 --> 1:12:51.760
<v Speaker 1>Well, let me talk about some of my favorite songs. Well,

1:12:51.760 --> 1:12:54.439
<v Speaker 1>can you tell me about Stage Door, Johnny?

1:12:55.000 --> 1:12:57.760
<v Speaker 2>Oh, yeah, I like that tune. I thought that was

1:12:57.800 --> 1:13:03.519
<v Speaker 2>a good tune. Yeah, we don't do it anymore, but

1:13:04.280 --> 1:13:08.040
<v Speaker 2>because not that people, not that many people remember it.

1:13:10.080 --> 1:13:13.200
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I thought that was a good song. It's

1:13:13.479 --> 1:13:17.040
<v Speaker 2>one that we could have continued on, continued on with.

1:13:17.200 --> 1:13:22.600
<v Speaker 2>But I think that whole record, that whole the whole

1:13:22.960 --> 1:13:27.519
<v Speaker 2>story behind it, just give us a bad taste of

1:13:28.320 --> 1:13:31.439
<v Speaker 2>what can happen when things are right in the studio.

1:13:32.200 --> 1:13:35.360
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's just, you know, we stayed away from

1:13:35.439 --> 1:13:37.040
<v Speaker 2>that record as much as possible.

1:13:37.520 --> 1:13:39.920
<v Speaker 1>Well, what was such a bad experience in the studio.

1:13:41.160 --> 1:13:45.800
<v Speaker 2>Well, the problems that we were having with tape, with

1:13:45.920 --> 1:13:49.400
<v Speaker 2>the problems with the studio, everything was the things just

1:13:49.439 --> 1:13:49.960
<v Speaker 2>weren't right.

1:13:50.560 --> 1:13:53.160
<v Speaker 1>Actually, I'm talking about the next album, Fortune for ten.

1:13:53.320 --> 1:13:54.920
<v Speaker 1>What was your experience recording that?

1:13:56.360 --> 1:14:02.679
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Uh, Fortune for ten was it was a pretty

1:14:02.720 --> 1:14:07.400
<v Speaker 2>good time. I remember. I remember doing the songs and

1:14:07.439 --> 1:14:10.680
<v Speaker 2>taking them into uh take him to Cleveland, try to

1:14:10.680 --> 1:14:14.240
<v Speaker 2>get some uh uh some airplay on it. I went

1:14:14.280 --> 1:14:18.559
<v Speaker 2>to see kid Leo. Uh do you remember him Choreo

1:14:18.880 --> 1:14:23.439
<v Speaker 2>of course mms, yeah, yeah, we I remember going in

1:14:23.479 --> 1:14:25.639
<v Speaker 2>and he said, well, what the heck is Fortune for Ten?

1:14:27.200 --> 1:14:30.760
<v Speaker 2>I said, I said, you know what, it's my glasses,

1:14:30.840 --> 1:14:35.519
<v Speaker 2>the glasses I used to wear. That's what the name

1:14:35.640 --> 1:14:40.720
<v Speaker 2>of the glasses were, Fortune for ten. That I told

1:14:40.800 --> 1:14:41.720
<v Speaker 2>him that's what it is.

1:14:44.600 --> 1:14:47.720
<v Speaker 1>How did you decide to name the album Fortune for ten?

1:14:48.920 --> 1:14:52.320
<v Speaker 2>Well, I'll be like I said, it's just, uh, let's

1:14:52.360 --> 1:14:54.920
<v Speaker 2>give it a name. So I named it after my glasses.

1:14:56.680 --> 1:14:59.280
<v Speaker 1>And then and my other favorite song on that album

1:14:59.400 --> 1:15:01.680
<v Speaker 1>is Never Did. Can you tell me anything about that?

1:15:02.960 --> 1:15:05.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? That Never Did us a good song. That was

1:15:05.360 --> 1:15:10.799
<v Speaker 2>written by Albritton McClain or bass player who's a massive,

1:15:11.240 --> 1:15:15.599
<v Speaker 2>massive talent in his own right. He sings, he plays,

1:15:17.479 --> 1:15:21.400
<v Speaker 2>he he was he was a gifted player. This guy.

1:15:22.800 --> 1:15:26.160
<v Speaker 2>I mean, he brought a lot to the table if

1:15:27.479 --> 1:15:32.200
<v Speaker 2>if musicians listened to the bass and some of the

1:15:32.240 --> 1:15:35.439
<v Speaker 2>stuff he does he does on My Girl and uh

1:15:35.960 --> 1:15:38.439
<v Speaker 2>and some of the other things that he does little

1:15:38.520 --> 1:15:43.000
<v Speaker 2>nuances that he does. He's he's he's just he's just

1:15:43.040 --> 1:15:47.240
<v Speaker 2>a cut above. He's got natural ability.

1:15:48.160 --> 1:15:50.800
<v Speaker 1>On that album, there's a song do you Compute? This

1:15:51.040 --> 1:15:54.559
<v Speaker 1>was before everybody had a computer on their desk at home.

1:15:55.200 --> 1:15:56.519
<v Speaker 1>Where did that even come from?

1:15:57.320 --> 1:16:02.200
<v Speaker 2>It came from Mark. He bought the guitar. The atari

1:16:02.479 --> 1:16:08.760
<v Speaker 2>thing is. Yeah, Uh, he bought that, and uh he said, Man,

1:16:08.800 --> 1:16:11.960
<v Speaker 2>we got to get into this uh this computer thing,

1:16:12.080 --> 1:16:15.240
<v Speaker 2>I said, And if we would have had the money,

1:16:15.280 --> 1:16:18.360
<v Speaker 2>we would have spent some money on uh, you know,

1:16:18.600 --> 1:16:22.080
<v Speaker 2>on Microsoft and all that ship. We just we just

1:16:22.120 --> 1:16:27.240
<v Speaker 2>didn't have the money. But anyway, yeah, we we got

1:16:27.240 --> 1:16:30.840
<v Speaker 2>the computer. Mark was very much into computers. He still is.

1:16:30.960 --> 1:16:33.720
<v Speaker 2>He's just like, well he's he's a genius. What can

1:16:33.760 --> 1:16:37.840
<v Speaker 2>I say? But yeah, we just had fun with the

1:16:37.920 --> 1:16:40.759
<v Speaker 2>video and that thought it was a pretty cool video.

1:16:48.640 --> 1:16:51.680
<v Speaker 1>So then it ends with mc A. How does it

1:16:51.800 --> 1:16:53.640
<v Speaker 1>end with m c A.

1:16:54.640 --> 1:17:00.599
<v Speaker 2>Well, it's it's kind of a long story, but basically

1:17:00.640 --> 1:17:03.920
<v Speaker 2>what happened is we weren't happy with what Rick Freo

1:17:04.160 --> 1:17:08.800
<v Speaker 2>was doing on his end, uh, and Mike Belkan and

1:17:08.840 --> 1:17:11.960
<v Speaker 2>I just, uh we just decided we wanted to get

1:17:12.040 --> 1:17:17.679
<v Speaker 2>away from them and uh and move on. So we did.

1:17:17.760 --> 1:17:20.320
<v Speaker 2>We did. There was a whole court thing involved in

1:17:20.520 --> 1:17:24.640
<v Speaker 2>uh and uh. You know it ended up where they

1:17:24.680 --> 1:17:27.960
<v Speaker 2>did let us go. So we were on our own time.

1:17:28.000 --> 1:17:28.639
<v Speaker 2>We were fine.

1:17:29.600 --> 1:17:34.040
<v Speaker 1>Okay, at what point do you realize, Wait a second,

1:17:34.160 --> 1:17:38.479
<v Speaker 1>this isn't working. I'm gonna working at a mortgage shop.

1:17:41.680 --> 1:17:47.120
<v Speaker 2>Oh let's see, No, when was this? This was? Okay? Yeah?

1:17:47.160 --> 1:17:53.040
<v Speaker 2>Like right after that, right after that, me and a

1:17:53.080 --> 1:17:57.280
<v Speaker 2>buddy of mine, we were kind of local celebrities around here.

1:17:57.920 --> 1:18:02.040
<v Speaker 2>He he was a local celebrity because of football he played.

1:18:02.360 --> 1:18:04.920
<v Speaker 2>He played for the Steelers. He played for Kansas State

1:18:05.280 --> 1:18:08.760
<v Speaker 2>and he played for the Steelers, and he and I

1:18:08.800 --> 1:18:11.439
<v Speaker 2>were kind of kind of a big deal around here.

1:18:11.560 --> 1:18:17.840
<v Speaker 2>So this guy who owns a mortgage company says, I

1:18:17.920 --> 1:18:19.840
<v Speaker 2>want you to come and work for me. We think

1:18:19.880 --> 1:18:25.120
<v Speaker 2>we can use your names to do business. Okay, I'll

1:18:25.120 --> 1:18:28.600
<v Speaker 2>give it a shot. So I had nothing else to do.

1:18:28.680 --> 1:18:30.880
<v Speaker 2>We were involved in lawsuits and all kinds of shit.

1:18:30.920 --> 1:18:35.559
<v Speaker 2>I didn't want to be bothered with. So so I

1:18:35.680 --> 1:18:40.720
<v Speaker 2>become a mortgage broker and I did that for like,

1:18:42.560 --> 1:18:46.080
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, six six seven years something like that

1:18:46.600 --> 1:18:50.479
<v Speaker 2>started our own business, being two partners started owned business

1:18:50.479 --> 1:18:55.120
<v Speaker 2>and mortgage business, made made money doing that and uh

1:18:57.280 --> 1:19:00.439
<v Speaker 2>and eventually, of course, you know that isn't going to

1:19:00.520 --> 1:19:03.240
<v Speaker 2>work out for me. I figured, Okay, we brought this

1:19:03.360 --> 1:19:05.880
<v Speaker 2>business up into something, we'll sell it now. So we

1:19:06.000 --> 1:19:09.000
<v Speaker 2>sold it, made some money on it. I went off

1:19:09.120 --> 1:19:13.559
<v Speaker 2>my own and just I just kind of waited it

1:19:13.600 --> 1:19:16.720
<v Speaker 2>out really to see what we were going to do.

1:19:17.960 --> 1:19:21.559
<v Speaker 2>And Mark at the meantime was going to law school.

1:19:23.479 --> 1:19:26.640
<v Speaker 2>He went to case Western University and graduated in like

1:19:26.680 --> 1:19:31.800
<v Speaker 2>two and a half years. And because of all these

1:19:31.880 --> 1:19:35.960
<v Speaker 2>lawsuits and stuff that we were getting involved in, I

1:19:36.000 --> 1:19:43.360
<v Speaker 2>guess he wanted to be a music infringement attorney. You know,

1:19:43.439 --> 1:19:47.880
<v Speaker 2>he figured he he was always calling there and so

1:19:48.000 --> 1:19:50.519
<v Speaker 2>that's what he's doing now. And he's doing great at it.

1:19:50.640 --> 1:19:56.680
<v Speaker 2>He's like he's making just you know, lawyers, they make

1:19:56.960 --> 1:19:59.840
<v Speaker 2>tons of money, and God bless him, he's doing great.

1:20:00.200 --> 1:20:00.360
<v Speaker 1>Now.

1:20:00.360 --> 1:20:03.000
<v Speaker 2>We're still going out and having a good time doing shows,

1:20:04.000 --> 1:20:10.240
<v Speaker 2>just handpicking these great shows we're going to. We are

1:20:10.240 --> 1:20:16.080
<v Speaker 2>going to the Bahamas the February or March or next

1:20:16.160 --> 1:20:21.920
<v Speaker 2>year at We're gonna do some show with Billy Ocean

1:20:22.200 --> 1:20:27.040
<v Speaker 2>or I think Billy Billy Ocean. Uh, Yeah, I think

1:20:27.080 --> 1:20:30.120
<v Speaker 2>it's him and like two or three other like big

1:20:30.200 --> 1:20:32.880
<v Speaker 2>name bands, and I'm like, I'm into it. Yeah, let's

1:20:32.880 --> 1:20:36.080
<v Speaker 2>go because it's on a stage where the stage looks

1:20:36.120 --> 1:20:40.040
<v Speaker 2>like a big clam. It's a big clam that we're

1:20:40.040 --> 1:20:42.960
<v Speaker 2>going to sing on, and it's like, I can't wait. Man.

1:20:44.280 --> 1:20:48.919
<v Speaker 1>Okay, would you make more money at being a mortgage

1:20:48.920 --> 1:20:50.800
<v Speaker 1>broker or being a musician.

1:20:51.280 --> 1:20:53.479
<v Speaker 2>Being a musician, No, no doubt about it.

1:20:54.000 --> 1:20:57.040
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So from beginning to end, how long were you

1:20:57.080 --> 1:20:58.040
<v Speaker 1>a mortgage broker?

1:20:59.680 --> 1:21:03.000
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Maybe five, six, seven years something like that.

1:21:03.560 --> 1:21:07.559
<v Speaker 1>And what's the key to being a mortgage broker? The

1:21:07.640 --> 1:21:10.960
<v Speaker 1>key to be successful? Oh?

1:21:11.040 --> 1:21:16.880
<v Speaker 2>Oh, just it's like anything else, just like uh, getting

1:21:16.920 --> 1:21:20.639
<v Speaker 2>to know people, getting to the getting to the getting

1:21:20.640 --> 1:21:23.720
<v Speaker 2>to the point where you trust each other. You're doing

1:21:23.840 --> 1:21:25.840
<v Speaker 2>trying to do them a good job. They're trying to

1:21:25.840 --> 1:21:29.920
<v Speaker 2>do a good job too, and that's how you build

1:21:29.960 --> 1:21:33.000
<v Speaker 2>up these uh these contacts. Yeah.

1:21:33.720 --> 1:21:35.759
<v Speaker 1>Was it depressing to have a street job.

1:21:38.840 --> 1:21:43.800
<v Speaker 2>No, not really. I mean I guess I guess it was.

1:21:43.920 --> 1:21:46.400
<v Speaker 2>But I never got to a point where I let

1:21:46.439 --> 1:21:51.040
<v Speaker 2>it really affect me. You know, I just went with

1:21:51.120 --> 1:21:55.960
<v Speaker 2>the flow, and you know, everything was cool. It was successful.

1:21:56.080 --> 1:21:58.479
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, that was fine.

1:21:58.920 --> 1:22:01.120
<v Speaker 1>Okay, tell me about the lawsuits.

1:22:03.439 --> 1:22:07.160
<v Speaker 2>Well, let me tell you about the first one. The

1:22:07.200 --> 1:22:12.479
<v Speaker 2>first one was over Leah. There was a guy from

1:22:12.760 --> 1:22:18.280
<v Speaker 2>the from Detroit who claims that who used to who

1:22:18.360 --> 1:22:21.920
<v Speaker 2>used to go into the studio. He used to make

1:22:22.320 --> 1:22:28.479
<v Speaker 2>tapes like the little cassette tapes, and he would send

1:22:28.479 --> 1:22:33.000
<v Speaker 2>them out to all the record companies, and he felt

1:22:33.040 --> 1:22:39.840
<v Speaker 2>that we had to have heard his tape before we

1:22:39.840 --> 1:22:43.599
<v Speaker 2>were able to do Leah, which of course was bullshit.

1:22:43.760 --> 1:22:46.200
<v Speaker 2>I mean, we wrote that song down in my basement,

1:22:47.320 --> 1:22:51.120
<v Speaker 2>you know. So anyway, we go to court for all this.

1:22:53.560 --> 1:22:57.560
<v Speaker 2>In the meantime, we're spending all our money on lawyers

1:22:57.680 --> 1:23:03.080
<v Speaker 2>and music experts, all this crap, spending all this money

1:23:03.080 --> 1:23:08.720
<v Speaker 2>that should have been ours with the record and he

1:23:10.240 --> 1:23:14.639
<v Speaker 2>So anyway, what it comes down to is we won

1:23:14.720 --> 1:23:18.959
<v Speaker 2>the lawsuit. He didn't get anything, but we lost everything.

1:23:19.040 --> 1:23:21.840
<v Speaker 2>We lost all the money from the fucking record. It

1:23:21.880 --> 1:23:26.360
<v Speaker 2>was just like, oh, well, let's move on, you know,

1:23:28.560 --> 1:23:30.280
<v Speaker 2>painful experience.

1:23:30.400 --> 1:23:32.360
<v Speaker 1>And you're seeing another lawsuit.

1:23:34.680 --> 1:23:37.040
<v Speaker 2>Oh, let me go back to this one. First. The

1:23:37.720 --> 1:23:44.120
<v Speaker 2>lawyer for this guy from Detroit was Bob Sear's attorney.

1:23:45.960 --> 1:23:50.000
<v Speaker 2>He was Bogs I mean, come on, man, I mean

1:23:51.280 --> 1:23:57.880
<v Speaker 2>never mind. Anyway, the other lawsuit was the one with

1:23:58.040 --> 1:24:02.920
<v Speaker 2>MCA we and the one we wanted to get away

1:24:02.960 --> 1:24:07.280
<v Speaker 2>from them and move on, and in the end we did,

1:24:08.040 --> 1:24:15.479
<v Speaker 2>but you know, they it was just it was just

1:24:15.560 --> 1:24:18.200
<v Speaker 2>something that I guess had to go to court in

1:24:18.320 --> 1:24:21.920
<v Speaker 2>order to have some sort of ending to it, you

1:24:21.960 --> 1:24:22.439
<v Speaker 2>know what I mean.

1:24:23.000 --> 1:24:24.200
<v Speaker 1>Was that expensive too?

1:24:25.320 --> 1:24:31.080
<v Speaker 2>Yes? It was, Yes, it was. I mean, here's basically

1:24:31.120 --> 1:24:34.280
<v Speaker 2>what happened was. I said Mike, my manager, I said, look,

1:24:34.760 --> 1:24:37.080
<v Speaker 2>I ain't got the kind of money now to go

1:24:37.640 --> 1:24:40.720
<v Speaker 2>do another lawsuit. He said, don't worry about it. We'll

1:24:40.760 --> 1:24:44.599
<v Speaker 2>take care of it. So at least cost wise, I

1:24:44.720 --> 1:24:45.240
<v Speaker 2>was okay.

1:24:46.439 --> 1:24:49.640
<v Speaker 1>So, you least the leaking Continental at the height of

1:24:49.680 --> 1:24:53.320
<v Speaker 1>the Rapper when it was Donnie iris and the Cruisers,

1:24:53.960 --> 1:24:56.400
<v Speaker 1>was that ever financially successful.

1:24:55.840 --> 1:24:59.719
<v Speaker 2>For you, Donnie Irison the Cruisers?

1:25:00.120 --> 1:25:00.280
<v Speaker 1>Right?

1:25:01.360 --> 1:25:04.200
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely.

1:25:06.040 --> 1:25:08.800
<v Speaker 1>And at this late date, is there any income from

1:25:08.800 --> 1:25:10.680
<v Speaker 1>those songs on those records?

1:25:11.120 --> 1:25:13.639
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, like I said,

1:25:13.640 --> 1:25:17.880
<v Speaker 2>we're doing great gigs for the most part, sold out

1:25:17.920 --> 1:25:24.280
<v Speaker 2>gigs to venues about you know, twenty twenty five hundred people.

1:25:26.680 --> 1:25:30.880
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, I mean they're just they're great shows. Now

1:25:30.880 --> 1:25:34.920
<v Speaker 2>I'm off for a while, but our next show will

1:25:34.960 --> 1:25:42.600
<v Speaker 2>be in Pittsburgh with With Sticks and Reo Speedwagon, so

1:25:42.640 --> 1:25:45.519
<v Speaker 2>I'm looking forward to that. That's in August. But in

1:25:45.560 --> 1:25:48.360
<v Speaker 2>the meantime, I'm just gonna relax, smoke cigars and have

1:25:48.400 --> 1:25:48.960
<v Speaker 2>a good time.

1:25:49.880 --> 1:25:52.360
<v Speaker 1>Okay, where did this cigar thing come from?

1:25:54.240 --> 1:25:57.439
<v Speaker 2>You know? I used to smoke cigarettes like they were

1:25:57.479 --> 1:26:00.280
<v Speaker 2>going out of style. I mean, I was smoking three

1:26:00.320 --> 1:26:02.400
<v Speaker 2>packs a day. As soon as I woke up, I

1:26:02.439 --> 1:26:05.599
<v Speaker 2>smoked a cigarette, as soon as I got on the phone,

1:26:05.600 --> 1:26:08.719
<v Speaker 2>I smoked a cigarette. I mean. It was awful until

1:26:08.720 --> 1:26:11.080
<v Speaker 2>one night we were doing the show somewhere. I don't

1:26:11.080 --> 1:26:16.479
<v Speaker 2>remember where it was or anything, but I came close

1:26:16.520 --> 1:26:18.759
<v Speaker 2>to passing out on the stage. It was so bad.

1:26:20.600 --> 1:26:23.719
<v Speaker 2>So I got the nicotine gum, I got the patch,

1:26:23.800 --> 1:26:25.960
<v Speaker 2>I got all that stuff to try to quit smoking.

1:26:27.439 --> 1:26:30.960
<v Speaker 2>But eventually I came back around. Only this time I

1:26:31.080 --> 1:26:34.200
<v Speaker 2>came back around to cigars because you don't have to

1:26:34.240 --> 1:26:37.800
<v Speaker 2>inhale them. You can enjoy them for the pleasure of

1:26:37.960 --> 1:26:43.559
<v Speaker 2>just blowing smoke. And I've had no problems since, no

1:26:43.640 --> 1:26:48.559
<v Speaker 2>problems with my voice, no problems with energy, nothing.

1:26:49.000 --> 1:26:53.559
<v Speaker 1>It works, just going back to the money for one second.

1:26:53.760 --> 1:26:58.080
<v Speaker 1>What are you living on now? What's paying the bills? Now?

1:26:59.520 --> 1:27:08.920
<v Speaker 2>Well, it's it's uh, it's gigs, royalties, social Security. Ah.

1:27:09.479 --> 1:27:15.680
<v Speaker 2>But like every every every every quarter, I get a

1:27:15.800 --> 1:27:20.080
<v Speaker 2>check for you know, all my songs and uh. And

1:27:20.160 --> 1:27:23.879
<v Speaker 2>now I'm with Mark Avssek put me with Warner Chapel,

1:27:24.800 --> 1:27:28.120
<v Speaker 2>who really gathers up great, great stuff, so I get

1:27:28.120 --> 1:27:32.920
<v Speaker 2>some money from them. Uh, and I'm doing fine.

1:27:33.520 --> 1:27:38.120
<v Speaker 1>So if you never did another gig, is there enough

1:27:38.200 --> 1:27:39.840
<v Speaker 1>money from royalties to live on?

1:27:41.960 --> 1:27:46.519
<v Speaker 2>Mmm? Yeah, I think so with the with the Roorty

1:27:46.560 --> 1:27:49.599
<v Speaker 2>money and the Social Security, I could I could get by.

1:27:50.040 --> 1:27:52.360
<v Speaker 2>But I don't plan on quitting anytime too. I mean

1:27:52.400 --> 1:27:56.320
<v Speaker 2>something would something bad would have to happen, and I'm

1:27:56.400 --> 1:27:59.800
<v Speaker 2>hoping that doesn't happen because I'm want to keep going.

1:28:00.960 --> 1:28:04.760
<v Speaker 1>Okay, let's go back a step. You leave mc A.

1:28:05.360 --> 1:28:10.840
<v Speaker 1>When you leave mc A, are you feeling like that's

1:28:10.880 --> 1:28:13.400
<v Speaker 1>such a bad situation. I just got to get out

1:28:13.400 --> 1:28:16.000
<v Speaker 1>of here or is it more of if we're with

1:28:16.160 --> 1:28:19.080
<v Speaker 1>somebody else, we're going to have more success.

1:28:19.479 --> 1:28:22.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I mean we weren't sure. We just wanted we

1:28:22.200 --> 1:28:24.759
<v Speaker 2>just wanted to get away from them, and we knew

1:28:24.760 --> 1:28:28.080
<v Speaker 2>our people, you know, Mike Belch and the CARMANDERI and

1:28:28.120 --> 1:28:31.320
<v Speaker 2>those guys. They knew enough people that maybe we get

1:28:31.320 --> 1:28:36.120
<v Speaker 2>a shot to somebody else. But basically we wanted away

1:28:36.120 --> 1:28:39.400
<v Speaker 2>from m c A. They were at that time, they

1:28:39.840 --> 1:28:43.479
<v Speaker 2>were really not not that good a record company as

1:28:43.479 --> 1:28:48.920
<v Speaker 2>far as we were concerned. So, you know, whatever whatever

1:28:49.000 --> 1:28:53.280
<v Speaker 2>happens after that, we thought, you know, we gave m

1:28:53.360 --> 1:28:55.920
<v Speaker 2>c A a shot. It didn't happen. We'll just take

1:28:55.960 --> 1:28:57.719
<v Speaker 2>our chances from here on out.

1:28:58.040 --> 1:29:03.040
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you take your chances. You never have major success

1:29:03.200 --> 1:29:05.760
<v Speaker 1>after that? What did it feel like? And at what

1:29:05.880 --> 1:29:09.479
<v Speaker 1>point did you give up the dream?

1:29:09.760 --> 1:29:21.000
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Hm uh, you know, I don't know. Something something inside,

1:29:21.080 --> 1:29:25.200
<v Speaker 2>I guess keeps you going. And the fact that Mark

1:29:25.280 --> 1:29:28.320
<v Speaker 2>Avsek and I were, you know, just such good friends

1:29:29.200 --> 1:29:35.160
<v Speaker 2>and we've been through so much that you know, we figured,

1:29:35.200 --> 1:29:37.519
<v Speaker 2>you know, just let's just keep going. And then there's

1:29:37.760 --> 1:29:44.080
<v Speaker 2>and then this cancer thing happens, and and all of

1:29:44.120 --> 1:29:51.120
<v Speaker 2>a sudden be I think, because at least partial partially

1:29:51.200 --> 1:29:54.559
<v Speaker 2>because of it, we're getting all these great gigs again,

1:29:55.600 --> 1:29:58.040
<v Speaker 2>and we're playing in front of a lot of people,

1:29:59.240 --> 1:30:04.599
<v Speaker 2>and uh, and we're just basically hardly even believe in it.

1:30:06.000 --> 1:30:10.760
<v Speaker 2>But here it is again, and we're just we keep

1:30:10.800 --> 1:30:14.920
<v Speaker 2>looking forward to more shows because there's so much fun

1:30:14.960 --> 1:30:20.519
<v Speaker 2>anymore that I mean, I'm just enjoying it. I'm enjoying

1:30:20.560 --> 1:30:24.240
<v Speaker 2>it like it's the first time I've ever played. It's

1:30:24.280 --> 1:30:24.840
<v Speaker 2>been great.

1:30:26.400 --> 1:30:31.000
<v Speaker 1>Well, I've enjoyed talking to you, Donnie. Thanks so much

1:30:31.040 --> 1:30:34.200
<v Speaker 1>for talking to my audience. I wish you good health.

1:30:34.479 --> 1:30:37.080
<v Speaker 1>May you die on stage in your nineties.

1:30:39.600 --> 1:30:43.640
<v Speaker 2>That's what I plan on doing, brother, And thank you

1:30:43.720 --> 1:30:45.840
<v Speaker 2>for everything. Bob, It's been a pleasure, man.

1:30:46.280 --> 1:31:12.400
<v Speaker 1>You bet till next time. This is Bob left set