Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Radio isn’t just about playing songs—it’s about the people behind the mic, the wild stories, and the grind to make it all happen. Welcome to Talking Between the Songs, where I, Brenden Peach, pull back the curtain on the radio industry with the people who live and breathe it.
Most people think radio DJs just sit around and chat. There's a lot more to it than that. Talking Between the Songs with Brendan Peach, a deep dive with others in the radio business.
Wow, oh, wow, oh, wow. I, I actually recorded this episode back in June of 2025, and, well, I'm just now releasing it. We're not even four episodes in, and I'm already testing everyone's patience. But, hey, better late than never. I, I somehow got through high school and college being a, the, the procrastinator that I am. I'll get through this podcast just the same. Uh, before we get into this episode, though, I do want to mention that this conversation was recorded prior to the passing of Rick McNeil from Rick and Len and later Rick and Cutter on 105.7 WAPL in, uh, in Appleton, Wisconsin. Rick was a true radio legend who spent nearly 40 years on that station before retiring in 2024 due to serious health issues. He passed away just a few days ago. And, well, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge his legacy and everything he meant to the radio community. Uh, now, now, now my guest for this episode is Cutter, co-host of WAPL Mornings with Laura Lee and Cutter. He's also the host and producer of the Cutting Edge Countdown and Cutter's Rock Cast. And you can hear the Cutting Edge Countdown with Cutter on KBEAR 101, the station I'm so proudly the, the brand ambassador for. Uh, he'll- he's on there from Sun- he's on there Sunday nights from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Also, Cutter's Rock Cast, you can listen to that wherever you get your podcasts. It's, it's a must-listen podcast featuring interviews with rock and metal artists. Somehow he balances all of that while being a father, musician, biker. The guy does it all. Please welcome Cutter to episode four of Talking Between the Songs with me, Brendan Peach.
[upbeat music] Hey, it's Cutter, and you're listening to Talking Between the Songs with Brendan Peach. Hello.
Hey, Cutter. How's it going?
Good, man. You?
Doing fantastic. This is, uh, weird, 'cause I watch your videos quite a lot, of your interviews and such. Now I'm like, I feel like I'm the guy you're interviewing, right? [laughs]
I know. I was actually just, uh, before we were talking, I'm behind on my video, my videos of, of Cutter's Rock Cast, so I was editing last week's episode with Dinosaur Pileup, and I'm like, I'm literally, you know, I'm, I'm editing this video, and I can see the background behind me, and now I'm talking to you, and I can also see the background behind me. It is weird. So if I start asking you random questions, I'm sorry.
It, It's okay. [laughs] It's okay. It, it's, it's funny because I'm sure you're probably not used to being the guy being interviewed by another radio DJ.
Nope.
And that's the whole point of this podcast is to get to know people within the industry, and so appreciate you for doing this. Uh, last time I had, uh, Joey and Lauren out of Boise. Now I got you on here. And, um-
Nice
... yeah, so, I mean, obviously, the name Cutter, that has to be, that, that has to be the stage name. Or is that, is that, like, your actual name? Like, 'cause my last name's legitimately Peach, so it's like I was born with a stage name, too.
You know, I, obviously following the station you're on, KBEAR, which, just quick shout-out, the first radio station to ever air the Cutting Edge Countdown besides Razor, so.
Fantastic.
Thanks, Victor.
Yeah. [laughs]
Uh,
uh, and it, it was funny 'cause he, he had me on his morning show. You know, and at the time I'm, I'm, I'm a programmer, you know, on Active Rock Radio.
Yeah.
And he has me on his morning show to be interviewed, which was weird, um, just via phone, and he, you know, he's playing the crazy stuff that he plays. And I'm like, all right. I'm just on the phone on hold listening to Lamb of God at, like, 8:00 in the morning. I'm like, all right. This is cool. But, uh, yeah, besides, besides the station that launched the show and that I was on for years, Razor 94.7, 104.7 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, uh, KBEAR was the, my second affiliate. So thank you guys.
That's awesome. That's really, really cool. I remember there was a specific episode of the Cutting Edge Countdown where, um, you kind of gave us a shout-out because y- you said something along the lines of, like... No, I think you were talking to Miles Kennedy, and you said something along the lines of like, "Oh, there's one particular radio station that will play, like, a 16-minute long Tool song,"
[laughs]
or something like that. [laughs] And it's true. [laughs] KBEAR is definitely the, uh, the only station. Man, it's funny 'cause this is my first ever radio job coming, moving from Southern California to Idaho to be here.
Oh, really?
And it, it's, it's weird how, like, I landed on the rock and metal station that plays the eight-minute long Sleep Token song, the 15-minute version of Typo Negative's Love You to Death or Black Number One or something like that, and it, it's insane to kind of... It, it's, it's great to, if you need to use the restroom and you're live, you can just play that track and then get up and leave and then, you know, take your time. [laughs]
That's true.
Yeah.
That's true.
Yeah.
The old, the old, uh, uh, I don't know if I can swear, but, uh, it's the old smoke and [beep] song.
Right.
You know?
Right. [laughs] Yeah, exactly.
Head in the log, and what song can I go take a smoke break to? And if I'm lucky, I can also get a [beep] in.
[laughs]
You know, that's the... Back in the day. I quit smoking years ago, but that was the, that was the thing.
[laughs] That's funny. That's funny. So yeah, um, it's funny 'cause I was, uh, uh, I was gonna mention to you, too, looking your name up on Facebook, of course, it says, like, "Please do not-"
I've gotten it so many times.
Y- y- you've gotten that so many times, haven't you? Yeah, exactly. [laughs]
Well, let me just remind everybody that May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and if you need help, please reach out. Uh,
yeah, so my name, just to go back to what you, what you asked in the first place. So this is not my real name. It is a name w- so when I started in radio in 1999, uh, you can see the gray coming in my beard, um, I was 19 years old, and I was fresh out of college, out of broadcast school, and I needed a name to be on the air. And we kind of picked it randomly. Um, it was before we had launched Razor, so it wasn't even, didn't even match that. Um,It just kind of stuck. Originally, my name was Jeff Cutter on the air because in the late ninety s, you know, it's still a little old school, and it was, "Gotta have two names and people take you seriously, but your real name, Andrew Pillert, sucks, so use this name instead." I'm like, "Why Jeff? Doesn't make any sense to me at all. My brother's name is Jeff." That was dumb, so I never called myself that on the air. I just said Cutter and then the new PD that took over right after I got hired was like, "Why don't you just go by Cutter?" Like, "Okay, cool." Now, if I'm at a concert and I meet you and I've been drinking the answer is, when I was in juvie I made the shivs that would cut people.
[laughs] Perfect. Fantastic.
Or, or I was a minor league baseball pitcher and my pitch was the cutter.
Yeah, yeah. I mean-
Depending on how I'm feeling that day. Yeah. [laughs]
[laughs] Right. Right. I know when I first moved out to this area, they're like, "Maybe you can come up with a fake name before you get out here, um, to go by on the air." I'm like, "Well, Brendan Peach is almost a stage name in itself. I m- I might as well just go with that."
Yeah.
And then it, the, the name on the air is Peaches, of course, 'cause you don't expect the six-foot-nine dude to come out of the car, [laughs] you know, that type of thing. And I've, I've picked up, uh, when I was at the Mountain America Center right across the street over here, um, I, I was told I was gonna pick up the drummer for Ice Nine Kills, Patrick, at the time, and they're, they told him, "Peaches is gonna come pick you up." [laughs] And they didn't... And the, the last thing he expected was, like, the nearest seven-foot guy to be like, "Hey, how's it going?" [laughs] And just-
"Hi, how are you?"
[laughs]
Conditioning.
Right, right. [laughs]
Right. [laughs]
So-
Oh, man, it worked. With Brendan, with a name like Brendan Peach, you're either gonna be a radio DJ or a [beep] star. It's one of the two.
Yeah.
I'm glad you picked radio.
Right, right. Yeah, yeah.
We'd be having a much different conversation if that was the case.
[laughs] I have the, uh, the Linktree on my Instagram now, and one of my friends made this joke about, like, v- at the very bottom you put the OnlyFans link and when you click on it, it takes you to, it just Rick rolls you. And it just goes never... It just takes you right to the YouTube Short and I'm like, "I gotta put that on there. With a name like Peaches, I gotta have that on the, [laughs] on the Instagram there." But, uh-
Mm-hmm. You, uh, you better not.
[laughs] But you were, of course... I mean, you were a part of Rick and Cutter for a little while there. Now you're Laura Lee and Cutter in the Morning on 105.7. Is it W-A-P-L or is it Wapple? I, I feel like saying Wapple's funnier. [laughs]
Y- y- you know, a lot of our... The, the radio station's existed for almost 50 years, so it's, a lot of people will say Wapple, you know. I guess back in the fifties when we were an AM talk station, uh, and played, like, you know, I don't know, some- somebody and their orchestra bands, um, it was The Happy Wapple.
That, that's fantastic. [laughs] I like that.
Like, I, I've been wa- I'm like, "Can we please bring that back?" We do a morning news segment at, like, 5:45 in the morning, and I have the old AM news sounder that we had used in the fifties, you know, before it was launched on FM in the, in the mid-seventies, to, uh, to do our news on the morning show. 'Cause I'm like, "That's just too good. You know, it's too good to, to get away from that." Um, but no, it is just W-A-P-L. 105.7 WAPL, The Rockin' Apple.
I, I, I would find it funny if, like, there was an... I would love to listen to, like, an old air check meeting from, like, the 1950s and hear how, like, the program director was back then [laughs] and him like, "You're not putting on that fake voice enough, that Transatlantic voice. You gotta, [laughs] you gotta speak more like that" or something, or, "Promote cigarettes every 15 minutes for kids." Like, [laughs] that's-
"You're not talking about Lucky Strike cigarettes enough, kid."
[laughs]
"Get in there and sell some product."
Exactly. Exactly. [laughs] But, uh, the one big question, of course, I mean, you were a part of Rick and Cutter. Rick, unfortunately, due to his health, could not do it anymore, and I'm hoping he's doing okay now. Um, but, uh, y- they had... It, it was Rick and Len for, like, the longest time, and the o- only reason why I found out about Rick and Len is, of course, through Opie and Anthony's Jocktober when I li- listened to that old clip, and I was wondering if that ever affected Rick in any way-
Oh
... shape, or form, dude, because, like, if I were ever to be e- e- the victim of that type of thing, I would just hold a grudge for, like, the rest of my life, to be quite [laughs] honest.
Oh, I wish. I wish I could be the victim of that type of thing. Um, I love it when people make fun of me. I think it's the funniest thing ever 'cause I just don't care. But
I, I, I think Rick wasn't a big fan of that, and for obvious reasons. Um, the Opie and Anthony thing, I, God, what they did was... Did, have you watched the... What wa- was it on Vice? It was, like, jock... It was all about the shock jocks, and Howard Stern, and Opie and Anthony, and Mancow, and all these guys. Um-
The Dark Side of the Mic or something like that. I think that's what it was called.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What an interesting look at that stuff.
Right.
Um, but the Opie and Anthony part, that's all I could think of, is how they had done that to Rick and Len, and I couldn't think of two more deserving people for them to have done that to.
[laughs]
Um,
I love Rick. He was an inspiration and hugely influential in my life as a writer and as a, as a radio host as far as applying jokes to on air. Um, I will never be able to be at that level, but, uh, w- the stuff that they did... We have a local comedian. His name is Mike Merrifield, um, and he's, he tours all over the country. He tours with Rob Schneider a lot,
and he was a giant fan of Opie and Anthony, and he's an old radio DJ, too. We had actually worked together a long time ago, and he would come in and fill in if Rick was on vacation, 'cause he had been there for 40 years, so he had, like, 10 weeks of vacation or something. And so he would come in and fill in when Rick was out on vacation, or sick, or something, and he would bring that up every so often, that Opie and Anthony skit, and just how amazing it is, and he'd be like, "But you can't say anything to Rick. He [beep] hates it."
[laughs]
You know? "He won't."
Uh, Rick seems like the sweetest dude, too. Like, I feel... Like, I, I personally am a huge fan of also Opie and Anthony in the old Howard Stern days, but I oftentimes listen to the, t- listen to those air checks too much, and then I think I can get away with it here.And-
No, yeah
... I say one slightly wrong thing, and next thing you know, there's a post about me on Reddit or, you know, the, the big boss man here has a meeting with me talking about how you can't say, like ... 'cause like obviously I like to play the, the heel character on the air, 'cause I'm the guy who was born and raised California. I come out to Idaho and everyone just assumes I'm here to like buy everyone's houses and drive up gas prices and try to make Calif- or try to make Idaho California-based. It's like, no, obviously I'm struggling with everybody else. Like, I'm [laughs] not coming here with money or anything. But, uh, on the air I have like these different California jokes or I'll often make like these different remarks, and sometimes people can get really offended by that type of thing. And you're like, "Wow, this is ... if ... I, I'm, my apologies if it drives you that crazy," you know? [laughs] It's, it's, uh ... So have you, were you, um, born and raised in Wisconsin, or were you just kinda-
Yeah. I've gotten really lucky. So I actually grew up here, um, i- in a small town called Denmark, Wisconsin. Uh, and yes, there is a sign when you pull into the town that says, "Velkommen to Denmark." Um, it's a very Danish community. I am not a Viking. Well, kinda, but not really. Um, and my dog is whining upstairs, so that's cool.
[laughs]
Great. I can't imagine what that's about. Uh, anyway, I, from that small town, which is just kinda south towards the lake of Green Bay, and now I'm, uh, you know, I live still a half hour south of Green Bay, it's like it's ... I just never ... I went to Madison for a little bit. Madison, Wisconsin, is where I went to college. But other than that, I've been here my whole life, uh, as much as I tried not to be. It never worked out that way and I'm still here. And it, it's, it's now, and, you know, in retrospect, being in my mid-40s, it's kinda cool to look back and be married, and my kids are here, and they go to school a couple blocks from where we live. It's, it's like my, my parents are down the road, my brother and sister li- you know, it's kinda cool, 'cause it doesn't happen in this business very often that you can stay in the town you grew up in, whether you want to or not, uh, to be able to do that. And for whatever reason, I was able to do that.
Yeah, I was gonna ask, were you expecting when you got into radio to be that guy that goes from city to city to city? One of my friends, she went from Southern California to Salt Lake City, got laid off within like a year and a half, now is doing a show in Denver. And luckily she was just by herself at the time, but she found her husband in Salt Lake. They moved together to Denver. It's kinda like it was meant to happen type of thing. And I feel bad for most-
Right
... of those radio people that have to go from city to city to city to city and e- eventually find some place. But I'm glad that you're able to stick to your home state [laughs] and be, be in Wisconsin, and I'm sure you probably get recognized everywhere around there.
Uh, yeah, a little bit. But, you know, d- I wanted to. That's the thing, like I wanted to move. I wanted to go on that adventure. I wanted to do all that. And, you know, I, I got here, I started at WAPL, and then we launched, our company launched, uh, Razor 94.7, 104.7. I went to Razor, it was a natural fit, stayed there forever. Um, lost my job for a little bit, but ended up coming back a couple years later, uh, and never left. At the time that I was laid off in '08, like so many people were, I was married with a kid on the way, and it just, it didn't make any sense. I, I had a couple job offers, but the ... you know, it's radio, they don't pay enough, and to be able to move a family just didn't make any sense. So I ended up staying, and it worked out, you know. We're still here. But yeah, I really was looking forward to that adventure. My wife now, my second wife, um, we try to forget about the first one, but she's in TV news. So she started in Yuma, Arizona, then Colorado Springs, you know, and then Green Bay. And, you know, now she loves it here, and for obvious reasons she's sticking around. But there's a hope.
For that, for that time that you were, you know, like laid off and such, did you, uh, think that you were potentially gonna go somewhere else for not like radio, but like maybe another career path? 'Cause, um, my biggest fear is to have that happen to me, and then I'm just like stuck and I'm like, "Oh, shoot, I gotta get..." Or I'm like the paranoid guy that has like the USB drive and my car keys like ready to go with everything on it just in case, uh, like something, like, "Hey, you gotta go." And I'm like, "Okay," plug it in the computer, start applying frantically.
Upload it to the cloud, man. You don't need that. It's fine.
[laughs]
Google Drive, secure lock it. It's all good.
All right.
Uh, uh, yeah, I mean, like I actually accepted a job. So I was doing mornings on Razor, and budget cuts, and they ended up going with syndicated Free Beer & Hot Wings, which, listen, I, I love Greg and I, I love those guys a lot.
Oh.
Um, but they took my job. Um, they, and it, they took a lot of people's jobs, and for good reason. It's a good show. But
I accepted a job after that time in Burlington, Vermont, at a rock station, and at the last minute turned it down because they wouldn't pay for my move.
Wow.
So it was like, really, I mean, you're paying me nothing to come take this job, to be an APD and, you know, run the rock station and do the syndicated logs for the sports station and all that, and you're gonna pay me nothing. The only advantage was is that my partner at the time, uh,
what she did for a living had that same job was open in Burlington at the company she worked for. So we're like, "Okay, screw it. That's the sign. Let's go." But then they wouldn't pay for our move, and I'm like, "No, I can't."
Wow. See, I di- I didn't think something like that existed, but paying for the move and such, because when I, when I was first coming out here, I mean, I was working part-time at TMZ, the TV show, and it was during COVID, so I'm like at home-
[laughs]
... on the laptop working there, but I was also working at In-N- In-N-Out Burger, [laughs] and both those were just so mentally draining.
Can I get a double animal style or protein style, please?
[laughs] Yeah.
I haven't eaten one of those in my life.
We, they don't, you guys don't have an In-N-Out in Wisconsin, do you?
No.
They don't.
There's no In-N-Outs here.
I was gonna say, but y- but Culver's, honestly, like I p- like after working at In-N-Out for three years and eating their food and trying Culver's, Culver's my, by far is my favorite place to go, 100%.
Nice. [laughs]
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's-
That's, that's Wisconsin born and bred right there.
Yeah. You got the cheese and everything. [laughs]
Um, I just... So we just had the, uh, NFL Draft in Green Bay. You may have heard.
Yeah, yeah.
We, [laughs] i was sitting, i was in radio row or in media row, excuse me and we're just sitting there. our, our am station were doing their talk shows in there and their sports station and stuff, and i was just sitting there editing some video and doing some things. and um, [laughs] the, the boss for the, the sports station is also the sports guy on our morning show, and him and i tend to have a little fun together sometimes. so we're like, "let's go, let's go in the press area and just shoot a dumb presser." like, i'm like, "okay, what are you gonna ask me?" so he came up with four questions to ask me and i ended it with, uh, i forget exactly what he said, but i'm like, "culver's, go there, get the cutter butter burger. the cutter butter burger is the bacon deluxe, all gluten free, no tomato with extra mayo. it's the cutter butter burger. come on culver's, make it happen." i'm still waiting.
It was-
Yeah
... jammed together too well.
[laughs]
Yes. B- we talked about Victor briefly. Uh, Victor's one of the biggest burger guys there is, and-
Sure
... he treats like culver's adding a new burger to their menu like a national holiday. And [laughs]-
Do you get... Do you guys have a culver's there?
Yeah, we have a couple here in Idaho Falls for sure. And yeah, it's, it's... I tell my friends back at home to try it, but they don't have a culver's in Southern California at all. So that when, when one of my friends come out here and visit me, that's the first place we're going, is to go get that, that culver's butter burger or the cutter butter burger as we say. [laughs]
Yeah. Well, that's only if you have to be gluten free like me. If you don't have to be, then don't do it.
Oh, yeah.
You can have all, you can have all the gluten.
I would say LA might be your place then if you, if you want glu-gluten free. I mean that's ev- everywhere down there.
Dude, I know. I mean, I've been to LA a bunch of times and it is easy to eat there, there's no question. Um, but it's fine. I don't...
[laughs]
LA's fun to visit.
It's fun to visit. Not, not a fun place to be at. I get it. 'Cause uh, i was just there visiting home because I went to ACDC at the Rose Bowl, and-
Ooh, nice
... and I went to, my friend Matt lives on Hollywood Boulevard, and we went to LA to and from like four different times 'cause I'm originally from Orange County, that area, so it's like going to LA, it's like going to like taking your garbage out initially. [laughs] 'Cause you just go to LA and you're like, "This place is just trash," [laughs] and like, "I don't wanna deal with this 45-minute commute like to go five miles." [laughs] It's utterly absurd. [laughs]
Yeah. Oh, that sucks.
Right.
That sucks.
[laughs] But, uh, yeah, so you were born and raised Apple- or you were born and raised in Wisconsin. You got Denmark, Wisconsin. You, you got into radio there, and then you also of course do the Cutting Edge countdown, hence why I was able to reach out to you and everything. And securing that type of program or being able to do that type of program, balancing the morning show and balancing that, how do you find the time to really conquer both? 'Cause I, I, I get overwhelmed here with all the stuff that we do. I can only imagine how other radio guys do it, especially you.
Uh, naps. Um, nah, you know,
it's just... Okay, to, to really understand this, I almost have to go back in time. So when I was laid off from, from Razor forever ago, uh, I was DJing and bartending, right? You gotta make ends meet. And I started working part-time for a Top 40 station in town, different company, and just to keep my chops up, and they had offered and, you know, whatever. Well, the program director of that radio station was a big metalhead. Top 40 radio, soccer mom radio station, Slipknot's his favorite band. Um, I'm like, "Okay, we're gonna get along just..." Plus he rode a Harley and I ride and it's, it just made sense. So he was like, "I know you have ideas for shows. You've done specialty shows on other radio stations. What would you come up with, you know, in the realm of metal?" And I'm like, "Well, I don't wanna step on Full Metal Jackie's toes. I love her to death." Um, I'm like, "But I love old school metal. I just do." You know? The, the... I love telling the story. I love the history of music. That's, that my absolute favorite thing. I was that kid in school that would go to the library and check out every autobiography I could find of every rock band that existed, you know, obviously in the days before the internet. And I just love the history of it. I would read everything. And so I'm like, "Okay." We decided to launch a metal show called Hangar 19. Obv- obviously it'll play on Hangar 18 by Megadeth if, you know, you get the reference. But so we launched this show. It was a three-hour classic metal show. Turned out it did step on Full Metal Jackie's toes a little bit. Um, but it was successful in a way, and we got on, you know, I don't know, a dozen, 15 radio stations or so in classic rock mainly. And we played, you know, Metallica and Judas Priest and, and Iron Maiden and Sabaton and everything in between and told the story of heavy metal. And I did it with
stars of heavy metal, you know, whether that's a record producer, whether that's Rob Halford, you know, just, and everybody in between. But after learning a little bit more about the business of syndication and networks and things like that, I decided not to renew my contract when it was up. And in the meantime, I had gone back to Woodward, uh, Community Media or Woodward, uh, Radio at the time, and went back to Razor. So it put a little hitch in between that, my business partner and I, um, because he's at a competing company here in town. So we couldn't play the show locally at all.
Hm.
Because they couldn't have my voice on one of his radio stations, and it couldn't be on our radio station 'cause he produced it. So
we canceled it, whatever. It went on with a new host for a little bit. I gave up the rights and then it, it died. Um, and Full Metal Jackie lives on as she should. She's incredible. But
when I was on Razor, I'm like, I, I, I just, I had the bug, man. I just wanted to do something. Now I know how to do it. Now I know how to produce a s- a syndicated radio show. You know? We have friends in the business. We have friends that work at other radio stations. People are losing their jobs. Programming's hard. Uh, we need content on the air. How do we get content on the air that's more than just music? Streaming is be- is starting to become such a big thing. You know? Satellite radio, you know, all that stuff, right? So-We need content. How do we do content? Well, the easiest way to do content is to interview rock stars Okay? How do we do that and turn that into a show? So I started doing a countdown show. There wasn't... The only countdown show at the time that existed was LA Lloyd. Um, and I love LA to death, but it's a little bit different. He doesn't do it the same way I'd wanna do it. And I'm like, also how do we do it where we take every play that exists at Rock Radio from the week and add that up? Not just the one chart that people pay for, not just the Billboard chart that nobody can afford to look at, but the... Everything. You know what I mean? So I figured out a way to do it, and I still talk to rock stars every week, and we do a countdown show. So I launched it on Razor and worked out the bugs and the math and all that stuff, 'cause, yeah, there is math in radio, kids. Um, a lot of it actually, which is stupid. And I, I figured out how to do it, and I figured out a way to produce it in segments, two hours, uh, and send it out to, to radio stations. And, you know, like I said, once I got it launched on Razor and worked out all those bugs, Victor was the first person to air it on KBEAR, and then it came in from there. And, um, it's, it's kinda been cool, but it's completely independent. I do it on my own, and there's no network involved. It's literally just me sitting right here where I'm sitting right now producing the show every week. So that's how that show came about.
That's the-
The reason I [clears throat]
Sorry.
The reason I have it is just because I, again, I got the bug to, to do something like that, and it's... I love talking to people. I love talking about music, and I'm sure you do, too, right? Like, I love music, man. I love talking about music. I'm a musician myself, and I just like talking about music. And sometimes I can get heady. Sometimes I'm talking about guitar riffs and structures and all that, and I'm like, "Oh, wait, most people don't know what that means. Let's change the subject." But, um, I just like doing that, and we've made so many friends over the years, you know, whether they're rock bands, uh, or again, managers, producers, whatever it may be. So let's have a conversation, spotlight a band, and then count down the biggest rock songs that exist that week, but for real, not a [beep] version of it.
Right.
You know? Um, so I take every... There are, there are four rock radio charts, um, and I add them all up, including the secondary one, which is all the radio stations that nobody wants to pay attention to in little, itty bitty towns. Uh, you know, Idaho Falls probably right on the cusp of in between that.
[laughs]
Um, but, you know, go to, um, uh, uh, what's south, southern Idaho? Uh-
Oh, like Pocatello and... Or like s- way south?
Yeah.
Or where would you-
So the radio... There's a radio station there that airs the show. There would be considered a secondary, a secondary market, right? A, a market that, I don't know, s- 50,000 people, 70,000 people total.
Right.
You know? In the, in the whole area, not just the city, but the whole area. Um, well, they count, too. Those are still people listening to music. So let's count all of it. Um, so that's what I do. And doing a morning show on top of it is hard, but, you know, it is what it is.
Yeah, it's crazy that-
And Laura's a great partner, and she's an old radio programmer as well, and she's been great.
It, it's crazy that, like, um... 'Cause I, I, m- as guy who inter- preps for interviews myself, I al- always like to ask, like, how do other people prep for it? Do you kind of just mix in questions that you have typed up on the screen, mixed in with, like, stuff that you have based off the conversation? 'Cause, like, I was watching your Tyler Connolly, Tyler, uh, Typo, uh, Theory of a Deadman, uh, interview-
Yeah
... and the first thing you mention is the Miller High Life hat that he wears. And it's like, that's a good icebreaker, and I always try to find that sort of icebreaker to kind of start the whole thing, keep the whole thing. 'Cause when I was talking to Rory of Dayseeker last week, um, I kind of-
Love that. I love Daysea... I love Rory. I love Dayseeker so much.
They're fantastic.
Yeah.
[laughs]
Yeah.
But, like, with Rory, I was talking more so about, like, hey, we kinda grew up in the same area. Like, you're in Orange, California. I'm in Seal Beach. Like, talk, trying to talk to him about it, and it, it... The whole icebreaker thing. But when you prep for an interview as a whole, do you s- often watch other people's interviews and then kinda say, "Well, they already asked that. Let me scratch that question off," or, "Maybe I could ask this based off of that question that they asked there," that type of thing?
Um, not a lot. If, if I watch other people's interviews, it's more for what... It's not for what the interviewer... And no offense, you do a good job, Peaches. But the... I'm, I'm more for what, what are they talking... What's the answer? What are they talking about? You know what I mean? And how do I base questions off of that? But outside of that, I don't... It's other than knowing the information, I don't write out questions. Um, I'll have some bullet points just so I don't forget, um, like, you know, when the album's coming out, what tour is happening, uh, you know, what the current singel- single is, that sort of thing. Names. Names are important sometimes, especially for bands you don't know or you're just introducing to. But that's it. That's the only thing I write down, um, because it's, uh... Otherwise, how... I like having a conversation. You know what I mean? And if I can get into s- a conversation with somebody like Tyler talking about his Miller Genuine Draft hat, which was hilarious 'cause that was so spontaneous, 'cause the, the camera turned on and he's wearing this Miller Genuine Draft hat, and I'm from Wisconsin. You know, we used to drink Miller Genuine Draft back in... It's like, "Where the hell did you get that thing?" You know? And then, boom, okay, conversation has started. Now we can talk, you know? Um, I brought this up on the air the other day just 'cause we were talking about Lemmy in Motörhead. There's a guy in town who used to photograph him a lot. There's a new documentary coming out about him, um, about the photographer, not about Lemmy. But how years... This is, uh, this was sort of the aha moment where I'm interviewing Lemmy of Motörhead, and I have all my questions written out, you know, all that stuff, and it was about the documentary, the movie Lemmy. And in that movie, in the... I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a, a scene where his kid-Like Lemmy has a kid who is also a musician but he works in stu- he's a studio musician. He doesn't tour. That's, you know, he produces, he does that and he
is talking to his son and his son is explaining what he does
and there's a moment where Lemmy looks at his kid and just has a
I'm so proud of you look on his face. Other than that, Lemmy doesn't change his facial structure at all. I don't know if he can't, you know, whatever. But-
[laughs] Right
... he just doesn't, you know, throughout the whole movie. It's just, "Yeah, I'm Lemmy," you know? I mean, like, it's Lemmy. Who cares?
Yeah, exactly.
But in that moment he did and I caught it. So I- I's talking to Lemmy and he's giving me the standard 30-second answers, you know, that he's probably given a thousand times before and I brought that up and the conversation changed completely. All of a sudden now we're just two guys talking and I went, "That's it. That's it." You gotta find those moments, you know what I mean? And if, if you can do that right off the bat, cool, but otherwise it's, it's just let's just talk. Talk about the music, talk about the inspiration, um, talk about why you play, you know, and, and we'll see what happens from there.
That's crazy. You got to actually talk to Lemmy in person. Like, that's a, that, that would've been a cool dream guest of mine. I also would love, like
if I c- ever could, Peter Steele just because we're both the same height-
Oh
... and I'm just like, dude, like [laughs] and I would, I would've asked like-
Mm
... what's it like to be m- your, our height together and try to sleep on those beds in that tour bus? Because that, I, I could never be in a band 'cause I'd be losing my mind, all claustrophobic [laughs] in the... And Lee Jennings of the Funeral Portrait, he's about, like, 6'5" and I chatted with him about it and he's like, "Yeah, I always get the extended bed." I'm like, "Oh, that must be nice." [laughs] All the other guys are squished in.
And it's d-
[laughs]
Dude, first of all, you used, that's the second time you've mentioned Type O Negative-
Yeah
... since we've started talking. Um, can we just, can we just nerd out on a second on how Love You to Death is the greatest love song ever written?
Oh, for sure. 100%. I, I just helped with a, a marriage proposal up in Rexburg and, um, they're like, "Can you determine the soundtrack?" And I'm like, "What? You're wanting me to do the soundtrack for, like, the whole proposal?" And I'm like, "I'm the rock and metal dude. Like, I'm not gonna m- pr-" But I realize the, the, the guy who's proposing, um, huge into rock and metal and so I'm like, you know what? Maybe he's never heard of Type O before, so I put Love You to Death as the song [laughs] that, like, when they were pulling up to the gazebo you just hear that, but then also I think I also had, uh, Ice Nine Kills' Can't Help Falling in Love, that cover. He was also a huge Sleep Token fan, so we had to put that into the little mix there-
[laughs]
... too. But I was like, man, I think I did a pretty good job, but thanks to Type O for being, you know, the band that they were. [laughs] And-
Of course
... yeah, yeah. The great, l- great, one of the greatest songs. I mean, I didn't really get into them really until, um, Victor sort of introduced me to more of their stuff and that's how I kind of gotten more caught up, of course, throughout the time that I've been here with what's been, uh, what's huge, what bands are coming up, what bands are underappreciated. And I, I, I can tell my music taste has gotten a whole lot heavier now to the point where my family doesn't want me to touch the, the aux cable, anything like that, if that still exists, or the Bluetooth or anything 'cause they, uh, [laughs] they just don't, they don't like it whatsoever.
[laughs] That's hilarious.
[laughs]
I have a l- I, I have one Peter Steele story.
Oh, awesome.
There, do you... I don't know if you ever heard a band called Full Devil Jacket.
No, I haven't.
Okay. So there was a band in the early 2000s, part of the nu metal explosion, called Full Devil Jacket, and there was a guitar player in that band, his name is Jonathan Montoya, and he ended up playing in Saliva for quite some time as well, uh, post Full Devil Jacket. But he went to school
or lived next, something like that, with, uh, one of my old coworkers from here, from, from WAPL, um, a guy who plays, uh, [laughs] he plays, I think he plays professional poker now. But-
[laughs]
... um, anyway, so Full Devil Jacket's on tour with Type O Negative. So and I'm 20, I don't know how old I was, 22 at the time, and, 21 maybe, and anyway, we call
Jonathan one day. We're in the studio and just, just to say hi or just to mess with... I mean, I don't even remember the reason why, but we called him
and, uh, he, whatever. He said, "Call back. Call back." So we called back a little bit later, but I called him back. I called him back and this deep, brooding voice gets on the phone and he's like, "You know, Jonathan, Jonathan's phone. This is Peter." And I'm like, "Shut up, Jonathan. You... Shut up. Put Jonathan on the phone." Like-
[laughs]
I don't remember exactly what he said, but he was like, you know, whatever. It was, but it was Peter Steele, like, had taken Jonathan's phone and answered it and I thought he was just messing with me because he knows I'm a Type O Negative fan, or I think he knew I was a Type O Negative fan. Um, and I don't remember the rest of the story as far as why we called him, you know, what we were doing even, but just the Peter Steele part of he answered the phone. Like, I literally talked to the guy and had no idea-
[laughs]
... 'cause I thought he was just messing with me.
[laughs] That's, that's funny. I've heard, I've heard he's, like, one of the nicest dudes. He was one of the nicest guys 'cause Victor, when he met him when he was, like, 15, um, or something like that-
Oh
... I guess he, like, like, gave Victor a big hug or whatever and I was like, that's a... It's always the tall dudes that are the nicest and you gotta worry about the short guys. Like, you know-
Mm. Agreed
... like, like Ronnie, like Ronnie Radke for sure, you know, [laughs] Corey Taylor. Like, all the, all the little guys [laughs] are the loudest. [laughs] Well, well thank you, Cutter, big time for joining me. I saw the big countdown timer pop up on the Zoom call like, "You're running out of time. Upgrade to Zoom+," so. [laughs]
Oh, that thing. I hate that.
Yeah.
You know, we end up conversations, you know, d- for the, for the rock ads and countdown and even the morning show and it's like, damn it, we're at 30 minutes already? How'd that happen?
R- right. Yeah. Yeah. I lo- I love interviews like that where, like, you just look at the clock and go, "Oh, oh, this time, this much time passed by." So well, appreciate you, Cutter-
No problem
... for, for doing this, man, and yeah, it's, it's great to... 'Cause I was wondering that when I was-Starting with this podcast, I was like, "I gotta get Cutter, I gotta get Lou Brutus of course, I gotta get, um, eventually Victor on here too," and, uh, ev- like, and try to go for, like, the local people first before I try going towards the LA area. 'Cause I, I tried a couple of times already to try to-
Oh, wait a minute. Didn't I listen, I, I listened to the first episode on my way home today, like the first 10 minutes of it anyway.
My friend John-
'Cause a lot of people are from LA.
Yeah. My friend John, that's the only reason why he was able to do it, is because I think he went, like, behind iHeart's back or something. I don't know. 'Cause I tried reaching out to, to Gina Grad-
Okay
... of the Woody Show, and she, I think she gave me that excuse of like, "I don't wanna do it, but I don't wanna say that to him," so I like, "Oh, iHeart has a contract where I can't do podcasts externally. Thanks. X-O-X-O," [laughs] or something like that. So yeah.
I mean, maybe that's a thing. God, that's stupid.
Yeah. Yeah, I've been wanting-
Well, why would you want, why would you wanna promote your brands? That's dumb.
Yeah. Yeah, I was trying to g- I'm trying still to get cr- uh, Booker, Chris Booker, 'cause he h- has such crazy stories about working with Howard Stern and all that. And I would love-
Uh-huh
... to get, try to get, I'm, uh, my, I was like, maybe I should try reaching out to either Opie or Anthony, just to see if they would [laughs] even respond back.
Are they still alive?
They're, they both are, yeah.
[laughs] Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they're both fossilized.
Do they still hate each other?
Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. Opie is, like, going live on Facebook, going on rants, and then Anthony d- does, like, a whole broadcasted show, um, from his basement. And I think he's also back in radio on some random station in New York or something like that. I don't know how they allowed him back on the air, but...
One of them go, like, super, super tinfoil hat.
Anthony did, yeah. Anthony went far right.
Okay.
O- Opie went far left. [laughs] It was just... It's, and then then you have Sam and, uh, Jim, who do, like, their own things, and Sam's still on Sirius. Jim is the com- of course doing comedy and podcasts and such, but-
Right
... it, it's, it's funny. It's kind of watching, like, the, the two parents go separately, and then those two kids, you know, they do their own thing, and I feel like-
That's wild.
Yeah. But, uh, I would love to try to get them.
Don't you just get back to the days where when it comes to politics, we all just hate everybody?
Exactly, yeah.
Miss those.
I mi- I miss all of that stuff. I miss the whole, uh, just like everyone getting the lawn for the, like, you know, just the, the, the... I showed Victor a website that was hilarious. It was called, like, Goods Unite Us or something like that, and it's, you can look up a company and it'll tell you how exactly they lean on the political scale. [laughs] It's just like this whole thing. [laughs]
You know what I care about a, when a company, I don't care where they lean on the political scale. I care if they, uh, are killing kids.
Right. [laughs]
I care if it's, like, you know, contaminated plastic in their products. That's what I care about.
Exactly. [upbeat music]
Thanks for listening to Talking Between the Songs with Brendan Peach. If you enjoyed the show, please share, subscribe and rate the podcast. Talking Between the Songs is hosted by Brendan Peach and is a production of Riverbend Media Group. For more information and to contact the show, visit riverbendmediagroup.com.