Coming to you from crash studios in Music City, USA, Nashville.
This is the rich Redman show
that's right, you're watching your iPhone, your clock, if you
got a clock is correct. It's time for another exciting
episode of the rich Redmond show where we talk about all things
music, motivation, success. Of course, a lot more things, a lot
of things are going to come up. But those are the things that
inspire us. drive us inform us, of course, I'm happy to have my
co host co producer, Jim McCarthy. We love his time and
talent. Jim McCarthy voice overs.com What's up, buddy?
Oh, you know, the same old, same old just podcasting away all the
time?
Well, yeah, you have your many podcasts that you do. And you're
producing about 20 of them. And you got back from New York, your
daughter sang at Carnegie Hall. Tell us about this.
She was, you know, chosen to and nominated and accepted to be
part of a choir performance on a Saturday afternoon. And it was
very interesting to kind of watch it was Courtney and I went
both went up. And, you know, here's the state of affairs of
society in which we live because it's like, Okay, I hope that I
hope this isn't a trafficking effort. So we got to the whole
place the hotel and saw instruments and ballrooms, I'm
like, Okay, this is legit. This is good. It's not like they're
sourcing children for other things. So that was, that was a
nice thing. And it was really cool, because the conductor of
one of the wires is a conductor and a director at Belmont. Oh,
my goodness. You want to talk about a moving performance like
brought us to tears? Well, you
had to be very, very proud. Congratulations. Yeah, no, yeah.
Very nice, buddy. Well, hey, I know you're excited for many
reasons. But you know, we're huge fans of this band. This
drummer it's a special day. Today's guest hailing originally
from Sacramento, California. And since 1979, the drummer and
founding member of the Grammy Award winning pop rock band,
Huey Lewis in the news, our friend Bill Gibson, Bill,
welcome to the show. How are you, man?
Thanks for having me, guys.
This is great. So you're joining us from your home studio
somewhere in Marin County there?
That's correct. Yeah. Fantastic, man. Well, we're
so excited to have this chat. Because I mean, I'm a fan from
way back. Jim and I are already Men of a Certain Age. So we grew
up on the MTV it was like music videos. 24 hours a day. This
will never work. It worked for quite some time. And you know,
we love the DJs Martha Quinn Nina Blackwood. She's gargled
with razor blades. J. J. Jackson, I'm sure you got pretty
chummy with these guys. But we got to see your videos all day,
once an hour every day for years. So to be talking to you,
this is a real thrill.
Thank you, man. Yeah, that was TV was huge for us. Because
obviously, we were like, We were one of the first bands on MTV.
And like you say, they pumped us, you know, relentlessly for
few years there and that really helps out. You know, that was
that was a huge bus boost. For
sure. Yeah. And, you know, at the time, you know, I was doing
a lot of air drumming and it was great. What a great person to
model yourself after because you are an educated drummer, a
trained drummer and foreign drummer, you got great hands a
great feel. Your tracks are all just like, perfect. They're
super clean studio friendly, but it's from the waist down. It
doesn't sound academic. Everything's perfect. And we're
talking about shuffles like off camera. We're talking about
shuffles and how Jim is trying to get his butt into a Huey
Lewis tribute band. He's trying to dethrone the current drummer
because he's just such a big fan of you guys. And they're like,
Alright, man, you know the material but you got to realize
that it's shuffles. We audition on the shuffles because no one
could play triplets anymore. Why? There's no Leroy Big Bad
Leroy browns on the radio anymore. It's all straight
eighth,
so weird. There's no songs on the radio anymore.
It's like, you know, yeah, it's one just one chord and a half
with a three note melody that repeats itself 50 times. And
what the hell can you get out of that?
I know we're sounding like Get off my lawn.
He's not Rando rich. I mean, I know
when you guys were polling, you guys were pulling from Hitsville
USA Motown Stax, you know the tree. Everything is in there r&b
Blue Eyed Soul, big band. The blues rock and roll you know and
we all know Yeah, it's
Can I cut you in on a dirty little secret? Eric Yeah,
drumroll. I am as untrained as I could possibly be. I am self
taught. What I would never think that I do. You I'm a self taught
player. I have recently when COVID hit into 2020, I started
taking lessons. And I'm still taking lessons he's getting with
Henry K. Dale Mehta. I don't know if you know, Henry, he's,
he was the chair of the drum department at Berkeley for about
12 years. He's a Brazilian guy, just a phenomenal human being
and a great player. And I'm, he has reinstalled the passion for
drumming that I had when I first started. So I'm practicing. Now
I practice probably two to four hours a day. Wow. And I'm back.
I'm in the studio every day, and I'm playing a lot. And it's,
it's the best thing that's happened to me and yours.
Was there a period there where you were like, Oh, my God, I
gotta play power love again. And there's just like, a little bit.
You know, I just I've been playing in the same band for 24
years. I mean, we're, we got to, we got to play hick town, man,
the kids want the song, right. So, sometimes there is a period
where you just like, alright, that's the job is the
excavation.
That's, that's exactly right. And, you know, that's what they
know you as and so that's what you have to be for them. Yes.
That's dead. Right. So
what is he so does it are you working on your hands like age
one of the stick control book page 38 of the syncopation book
or you're working on your Samba partido alto all day
long. Now, right now I'm working on metric modulations with with
weckl threes in the kick drum, you know, the left left, right,
right, left, right, right, left. Right, right. And then a one,
it's a shuffle. If you play it 1234 With your left with your
left foot. I don't know if you could hear that.
No, but it looks great. So it's on
Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Yes. Got 1234 That's a shuffle coutume
town katoon. John cucina, John, but if it's Dakka Dakka Dakka
Dakka today, no, no. 1212342234323 and then then you
and I'm working on that and soloing over that and just stuff
that I've I didn't take the time to learn when I was young. And I
knew that if I never did, I would regret it. Wow, I just
knew I was going to regret not taking the time to figure out
the technique and the math behind it. Because drumming is
all math as we know, it's all subdivision. So, you know, if I
just told myself, you know, you, you never studied with it. You
never studied with a teacher, you never took the time to learn
that. That theory and technique and all that stuff. And I would
regret it if I didn't, so I'm doing it.
Amazing. So you're doing and this particular chapter of your
life yeah, man so so for the non drummers out there. What bill is
kind of saying is that a shuffle rhythm would be like done the
Danta and then the one Allah for Allah triphala triphala trip,
but he's I'm tempted to get to get Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka
Dakka Dakka to get it. Reno grouping cycling over a quarter
note and it takes me see how long it takes results. Dukka
Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka
Dukka Dukka Dukka Dukka gotta get Dugu together. Dakka Dakka
Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka if you
add one more 1603 measures Gotcha. Yeah. Wow. Did the guys
give you a drum solo? Was that ever a thing? When you guys?
Yeah,
sure. Yeah, you can find a couple of them on YouTube. I
know that. We were in Germany once playing that show
Rockpalast in, in Germany, and they gave me a drum solo on it.
Yeah, I used to take drum solos on and off. You know, I wasn't
really that comfortable doing it. So I didn't do it that
often. But I you know, I had my fun. Yeah, that's
awesome. And you've been a Yamaha artist for a very long
time. And that was as always, that's you know, I'm a I've been
with dw and I'll be with DW probably till the day I die. But
my one of my little secret, you know, passions like an
instrument that really floats my boat is a lot of that Yamo the
recording costumes the maple costumes. That's what I played
before I played you know, wait, actually I'm staring at a cherry
red weckl mole it's recording most of the kit from like 1985
or something across the room. It's not set up. But I got it
and it was just I don't know it's just the collecting thing
that I like
yeah, no, that was my first kid from Yamaha was a quartz gray.
Recording custom kit with the big deep Tom's you know, and now
I'm playing now Is this the new recording custom kit which is
they made for me which is just best drum set I've ever owned.
That you know, smaller Tom's just what a great sound. Great
sounding kit. Yeah, I've been with him 4040 years this year. I
think
that's great. You You're a loyal you're a loyal endorser. You're
not flying
oils. I'm a loyal Zildjian endorser as well. Yeah,
I mean, that's a lot of lineage there 400 years. Yeah, yeah,
I know what they're doing. They know what they're doing Ramses
just a couple of presidencies. So even
even before the presidency has ever started a
rock Yeah, man. Well,
speaking of that swing field, that elusive shuffle field.
Yeah. You were saying off camera. Your dad was a
frustrated jazz musician. So what happened there? How did how
did the music bugs start for you? Did he push you into the
deep end of the pool? Or was just kind of as encouraging? How
did it how did it all happen?
There was music going at my house 24 hours a day. My, my mom
was the director of the church choir. We had church choir
practice in our living room. She would play the piano and the
church would practice. My dad would come home from work and
immediately put on Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, or
Basie, or Duke Ellington or Miles Davis. So we always had
and my mom loved Broadway musicals. So I not only had
church music gone, I had Broadway musicals. I had big
band jazz, I was really, technically I would say, have I
heard more big band jazz than anyone should ever have to
listen to? to, you know, do to my father? Yeah. And so I was
just raised on jazz and music of all genres. And I loved it. I
just I ate it up. I wanted to be. I wanted to be a saxophone
player. Matter of fact, I was seven, seven, yes, seven years
old. And I was watching Lawrence Welk one Sunday afternoon. And
he had that five piece sack section that was just silky
smooth. And I said, That's what I want to do. I want to play
saxophone. So I went to my school band, and I said, I want
to play saxophone and the guy. And the band instructor said,
Okay, great. Here, you take this instrument home, and he gave me
a clarinet. And he said, it's the same mouthpiece to take this
home and get used to the embouchure. So I took that home,
I started playing but now I'm playing the clarinet I'm going
this isn't the saxophone is does not sound the same. And also, so
it kind of put me off that but however, I stuck with clarinet
for three or four years. Then my father took a job in San
Francisco as an architect at the Port of San Francisco. And, and
we moved to Mill Valley in 1961, right before the British
Invasion, and the Beach Boys hit and everything. And so now I'm
growing up in Marin County, and it just exploded. It just
absolutely exploded. And I you know, but I just took it from
there. I was there a very healthy time. Yeah, I could not
get enough of music of all kinds.
Were you sitting in front of the television? And 1964 for the
Doritos ran solver show? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I went to see
the My, my parents took me to see the Beatles twice. And what,
like most parents would, you're going to see the Beatles Over my
dead body. They were telling my friends, you know, no way. 64
rock'n'roll was Abu man. You couldn't hear it on TV
commercials. You couldn't hear it? Anywhere except for on the
radio. And, and most parents were dead set against it. So I
was very lucky that both my parents were musical. And they
actually liked the Beatles. So I say, yeah, we'll take you and
your sister to go see the Beatles. No problem. So I got to
see him twice. That's alright. Here's a great story for it. I
remember. I remember my dad took me and a couple of friends to
see the Dave Clark Five at the Cow Palace in 64. And I was 13.
And they've parks up there. And you know you I you know, Dave
Clark, the de Klerk five I'm sure yeah. And he was just very
simple. You know, he just great look at guy, you know, woman
killer, super handsome. And he did sit up there and smile and
go, boom, boom, boom, boom, and my dad hits me in the shower. He
goes, see what that guy's doing? This, you're gonna do that? He
says, he's a carpenter. He's just hammering nails up there.
You can't do that. And I And he gave me all the confidence I
ever needed sort of my mom.
That's amazing. That's great. Do you What were you gonna say? My
mom was like, it's almost like the opposite thing. I wanted to
play the drums since I was six or seven years old. Because of
MTV. I would see these guys playing and I'm like, Oh my
gosh, you guys were a part of the trifecta of albums that were
what started my musical love. It was Van Halen. 1984 Huey Lewis
and the new sports. I had my my, I think was my ninth birthday. I
got a boombox and the other girl Hmm, maybe unfortunately, it was
the Ghostbusters soundtrack. I apologize. But you know, I
couldn't help but I didn't know what you know, all the things
that played out after that. But anyway, I said I always wanted
to play the drums on my mom got me a saxophone.
You know what? That's crazy that we all have the saxophone in
common because I love the saxophone man. Read the room. It
really does. It's a great instrument, but man she's got
she's like, I just don't want the noise. My mom was from the
Bronx, in as you bad that too noisy, you know, it'd be like,
you know, okay, but saxophones any better for crying out loud
with squeaky notes and everything. And then finally,
when I was like, 12 years old, they got me this $75 drum set.
And it's, you know, that's all she wrote. Yeah. Yeah. Great.
Amazing. I'm
self taught as well. Well, you
finally got there, though. Yeah. Jim. I
finally. Finally.
I mean, I mean, my thing is, Jim is like, I tell Jim all the time
I'm over. I'm an overeducated rock drummer, but you, but Jim
just has an amazing feel like he could sit down, he could turn on
any song and he could pop in there, and he could stay in
there for three and a half minutes. He's just decided that
he doesn't, you know, he's not doing that for a living. So he
takes the pressure off. So when he goes and sits and plays the
drums, it's just pure joy. He's nothing. Okay. My record.
My regret for not pursuing a musical career ended in 2008
when I met a gentleman named rich Redmond.
And I told you how hard it was. Yeah,
I was like, you know, I'm good. I don't, I'm glad kinda glad I
didn't really pursue that
when I was telling him about the, you know, the, the maxed
out credit cards, and the, you know, eating ramen noodles and
all that, you know? Yeah.
There is that I did that for a good 15 years before we ever did
anything. So yeah, well,
what a story though. I mean, you know, to kind of lay those
foundations that that, you know, you guys were together. You you
and Huey were together for a long time before it ever became
a big thing. But you guys were in clover together as well.
Correct? No, no, no, no, not at all. Okay,
I was not in clover, Clover. I was in a band called Soundhole
here in Marin, which Johnny cola and Mario Shipley and our first
bass player we're in. And we're kind of the union of two bands,
Sean our keyboard player, Shawn Hopper, and Huey, we're in
clover. And the three of us were in Soundhole. And we were all
pals because we all grew up in Mill Valley. So we just, we quit
everything we were doing. Matter of fact, that day, we put Huey
Lewis in the news together. And it wasn't even Huey Lewis in the
news yet it was we I think we were calling ourselves the
fools. But um, but every one of us was doing something else.
Shawn was in Montana filming a movie called Heaven's Gate. He
was part of that movie up there. He was acting in it. He was in
Montana. I don't mean Heaven's Gate. Here. We had Clover had
just broken up. He was delivering natural foods for a
company and Sandra fell. I had quit a band I was playing in
with Jack Cassidy. From the Jefferson Airplane. It was a
punk band called svt. I had just quit that band. Johnny cola was
playing with Sly Stone, he quit playing with sly Mario was
playing with it's a beautiful day, doing gigs and is playing
with his brother John Shep. Polina. And Chris Hayes was a
guy who was playing with his sister, Bonnie Hayes, who's a
very famous songwriter in her own right, wrote a bunch of hits
for Bonnie Raitt, and some other people. And they were playing in
a band together. And we decided on the same day that we quit
what we were doing, and formed the group.
Why total commitment to it, the commitment,
and our manager, the guy who took us on, as our manager, Bob
Brown, said, I'll give you guys $100 a week. And that's what he
you know, ahead of his buck. He was he was Pablo Cruz's manager
at the time, they'd had a few hits, and he was doing well. And
he had some money. And he said, I'm gonna give each you guys
$100 a week to, to quit, why to whatever it is you're doing, and
let's go.
And there's probably a great feeling. You have to trust that
that gut that intuition, like hey, this is man and everybody
gets along.
There's a lot of blind faith as you well know, rich going into
the music business, that you have to think that you're the
best. And you're the best band in the world and you're gonna
make it by hook or by crook, you, you're talented enough, you
know, people are gonna come around and love you eventually.
It's all blind faith, you know? So that's what we had in spades.
You know, we had a ton of that. We were very, very sure that we
were good enough to get by and we were writing a lot of good
material at the time, and we just, we just had a sense that
it was going to happen eventually. And thank you.
The big G in the sky I, you know, I'm thinking back. You
know, when I got we got our little motorcycle gang of guys
together. We were some cocky dudes we were Do we just it's I
think it's a requirement for the first decade. Absolutely.
Where the fucking band in the world. Yeah.
And anytime you're with another bill, you know a man on a bill
you're like, we're gonna give. We're doing a master class today
guy. I mean meanwhile, we're like opening at four o'clock in
the afternoon and the headliner plays at 11pm And we're like,
Master Class guys, these are going to these guys are going to
be watching from the sides. But that
show them how it's done. Are you guys? Snack time?
You need it? Yeah. Do you get Do you ever look around and pinch
yourself and say I have been able to mix business and
pleasure at the highest levels. I have been around the world
with these gentlemen, we all made our dreams come true.
That's got to be a great feeling to still be making music with
these guys decades later.
It's it's, I'm grateful for that every day I wake up, and it's
Yeah, and more so every day I it's when I think back on the
career. You know, I tell friends of mine about things that I was
able to do. And people I was able to hang out with and meet
and and they just look at me and they just shake their head you
know? It's like that they don't even sometimes they don't even
believe me. Yeah.
Well, because because they're probably going back to the water
cooler into the job. Watch what the thing on Hulu last night
back back to the cubicle. I I did the cubicle when I moved to
Nashville, I had to make copies. I was a substitute teacher. I
waited tables, I parked cars. I was like just stick with this
kid don't stop. You can do it. It's really special. It's
rarefied air. And you know to be able to make it at the highest
level. I mean, let's just look let me just put on my my readers
area sports celebrating 41 years I believe and it's and it's just
so relevant and
84 So 40 years this year already came out in late 83. So 41 years
I mean
incredible three number one song seven certified platinum records
3767 single six Grammy noms one when 19 Top 10 singles across
the billboard 100 AC and Mainstream Rock Charts. I mean,
that is a lot of stuff and then to be associated with you know
that Back to the Future movie. I mean, that thing just is the
gift that just keeps on giving.
And credit now now they're actually you're in promo work
for the series ghosts, because they're playing Do you believe
in love? I saw that just the other day. Yeah, that's, that's
like, whenever you see that stuff happened. I'm like, all
those guys were like, hey, like, go into the mailbox again. Now.
When you attain the age that I have, that mailbox, money is
very nice. You know, it's funny, because I sit here in my studio,
I don't have to work, you know, luckiest guy in the world. I'm a
drummer, I don't have to worry about anything. You know, what,
how lucky am I
it's like, it's the virtue of the path less traveled, a lot of
people will take the risk of going into the music business, I
took the risk of not really a risk. I went into radio, which
was basically kind of like my living vicariously through
musicians being in radio, right. So, but that afforded a lot of
cool experiences as well, or my wife and I as we came up, it was
just, you know, didn't pay all that well. And now I'm kind of
playing catch up. But it's one of those things that you look
back and like, man, we've had a lot of cool experiences, a lot
of them you know,
ya know, and those are those are worth more than money.
It really is. What a life you know, and it's all the stuff
that you guys have done. Not only that you guys have, you
know, conquered the mountain of a very difficult business, but
rich and I you know, he and I whenever we interview different
people, I always ask the question, what music is being
made now that we're going to be hearing and 3040 years ago Oh,
man, remember, you know, what are the Don't Stop Believin is
the power of loves the Heart of Rock and roll's? Are there songs
like that being made right now? And my brother? My brother's a
musician. He's been a keyboard player. He's the one who really
kind of introduced me to you guys. Aside from like,
especially with four he's a huge Bruce Hornsby in the range fan.
Yeah. Anything with Pete buddy of ours, Bruce. Yeah, he's a
he's one of the he's a musical snob. So anything that had you
know, distorted guitar was off limits, but anything Van Halen
1984 and on he was a big fan of anything before that. He was
like, Screw it. I don't want it. but it's it's it's kind of
funny, but he and I talk about what's being written now that
we're going to be singing in 40 years, you know, and I sure
couldn't tell you one. Right. I mean, it's one of those things
that you guys were a big part of that huge. You know, we just
watched the documentary on We are the world the other
I have to do it still. Yeah, dude,
that's got like, you know, Huey being, you know, completely
like, oh my gosh, I am just in a room of rooms. Oh, that
was that was. A lot of people have been asking me about that
lately because of that documentary, you know? Yeah.
They said, Yeah, we saw we saw you on the thing. You're over
the smart corner smoking a cigarette. And I am standing on
it.
Did you sing on it? Yeah. Oh, that's amazing.
And the thing is, is that here, you guys are here. I love the
humility of Huey where he you know, it's like, Dude, you can
you can be cocky. You've you've done a lot of good, you know,
amazing stuff by 1985. You know, you put yourself on the map, but
he was still kind of like real human, you know, humble about
it, which is very admirable. Yeah.
That he was given Prince's line because Princeton was a no show.
And some people have been saying that. Oh, he the only reason he
was there. Huey and the news were there was because Princeton
shop. Well, that's not true. So we were invited by Quincy, weeks
before the thing happened, because he knew we could all
sing. And so you wanted we were the only full band there. There
was an old E Street Band. There was no the rest of Germany.
There was no the rest of the Hall and Oates. There was no
full bands except for Huey Lewis in the news, we were all there.
Because you guys have those doowop chops, man. Yeah,
I mean, the vote Quincy knew it. And he, you know, and
it's, you know, it was Tina there as well. I can't remember.
Yeah. Here's the thing. We saw Tina last night, the play a T
pack? Oh, yeah. It's like, gosh, it was like, what happened in,
you know, the 40s and 50s to create just a musical wonderment
that, you know, came to maturity in the 70s and 80s. My goodness,
it's just it was just like, what was it something in the water? I
mean, it
was Tina Turner there. I thought she was.
But it's funny. Because Huey saying after Michael Jackson,
another. Yeah, that's like Yeah, amazing.
Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's some great stories from
that night that I was. I was down at Hueys. The week before
last. In San Diego. I went down for a few days just to go play
golf with him guy and seen him in a long time. And so when I
went down to hang out now, and he was just telling me, he just
gone to the premiere on the previous Monday night in LA. Oh,
for the Broadway play. No, no, no. For the documentary for the
widow. Oh, that's right. Okay, you know, and he showed up and
he says, you know, who was there? Me, Lionel Richie. And
this guy, Alan Klein, I think is his name. The producer, Jeffrey
Klein, or Alan Klein's. Somebody claimed? He said Nobody else.
Nobody else was there. This was really odd. You know? Yeah,
it was a great documentary.
It's now I feel really bad that I you know, did not have haven't
watched it. Before the Senate but yeah, it's on my to do list.
I'm so excited about that. Is that how you guys warmed up
backstage every night? You just do a vocal warmup? That's
exactly
right. Yeah, we would sing. We would sing do up stuff we would
sing. You know, we started doing that stuff in after gigs in our
hotel room, when we'd have a party in our hotel rooms, you
know, we got invited a bunch of people back from the gig and
we'd all hang out and till the wee hours and we'd sing. Yeah,
we'd get in the bathroom or the you know, wherever we were, we
just start singing. That's how we got it. Then we sit with you
know what sounds pretty good. We should throw it in the show. So
we started doing a segment of our show acapella. Well,
a singing drummer, I tell everybody, you gotta have some
sort of an angle, some sort of an additional skill to like,
make yourself set yourself apart. You know what I mean?
It's like, whether it makes some, you know, some drummers
and bands now or like, one guy's like, yeah, you know, I do the
booking or I managed I take care of the social media and the
website or I do the marketing it somebody but the singing
drummer, very, very good. I didn't get those pipes. Like I
can host a show but I can't. You're not gonna see me was
everybody always pick in? I'm just not gonna be that guy. But
so I have mad respect and jealousy for that skill set.
Incredible.
Thanks. That's, you can thank my mom for that. You know, bless
her heart. She was saying she sang every day all day, you
know, and taught us all those cool sang songs, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing to me because I know Zanna
can have a rubber tree plant. State law. And so we picked it
all up.
Richard mentioned earlier that there are some tribute bands
that are popping up wonderful. ticular in the past 10 years,
they do an amazing job. We saw them at the Franklin theater.
Take all the hard rock and roll America's number one Huey Lewis
in the news tribute band. And you know, that's one of the
things like I have a lot of tribute bands. I'd love to be a
part of when I get into my 50s and stuff like that. And you
guys are certainly one of them, because it's just fun music to
play, you know, as you well know. But as I sit down and I
try to shake off the rust and start listening to the music,
I'm like, this stuff is actually really challenging. And one of
the things I had the guys on, Tony and Roger Langdon from the
from the band, and they're huge fans of yours. They're actually
really good friends with Sean. Sean is at the show because He
lives down here in Colombia, I think now and they are talking
about Sean popper.
Sean was Minneapolis. For some
reason I thought he was in Colombia. They said he lived
like Mankad. Really? We got celebrities here.
No. Shouting, they
mentioned. maybe I misheard it.
I think one of the unfreeze McGee's guys lives down there.
Oh, yeah. Chris Chris myers. Great. Yeah, great. Yeah.
So basically, they said, I was talking, I said, you know, one
of the hardest songs to me, is stuck with you. Because of that
just straight shuffle on the hi hat. The person you know. Yeah.
And that's actually one of the things he says that's actually
one of the songs we use to audition drummers with. I said,
Well, that's a good song. I said the other one is a couple days
off, which is another shuffle which I wanted to ask you about
was Alex Van Halen was hot for teacher and influence on that
song because it's basically
No, not at all. Not at all. No, no. Although I dug, I never
really listened to that song very, very closely. I mean, I, I
liked what I liked what he did. I like what Van Halen did. But
that song? No, that wasn't the inspiration. It just it just,
it's what the song called for I thought. And
the creative, beautiful thing is that you're doing it during the
choruses on your feet. And then during the verses, you bring it
up with a straight four on the floor, with a shuffle on the
snare, right? Yeah. And then you're doing accents and hitting
symbols on off beats and stuff like that. And I'm sitting there
playing it, you know, and then I watched a video of you you're
actually shuffling with your right hand and then doing your
snare hits with your left. I'm going that's how he's doing it.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's just so right rub shuffle on the
snare drum. You know, it's an old r&b deal, you know, some of
those old r&b tunes?
Well, I I I do have to say that these guys did want to tell you
something. We were talking about it i for the first time in rich
Redmond show history. We have a clip that we're gonna write we
need to do tomorrow. Wow, cool. And it's from my podcast, the
mostly Middle Tennessee business podcast cheap FLUDD. Go check us
out at MM tv.com These guys were on the last episode that's out
all about the Huey Lewis. So it talks about tribute bands and
stuff like that. So here we go. We're kind of leading in with
talking about stuck with you. And then it plays on out. So
here we go. It's stuck with you stuck with you guys. Easy song
to play? Isn't nope, that's shuffled.
You got to keep that tempo. One of our absolute audition songs,
if somebody wants to be a driver that is people pull that field,
because even He himself said, that was one of their toughest
songs to get the field because it's a lot going on during the
show. Yeah. And they played all the time they wrote it, which
makes you so when you ask Bill, yeah, when you talk to Bill,
first of all tell him he's a phenomenal drummer. And we said
so not that it matters. Yeah. Why did you write it that way,
then? It's so hard to lock it. But you know what, I love that.
That's what I started to appreciate about them. So
there you go. Well, you know, that song was written by Chris
Hayes, our guitar player. And we had just gotten off the road.
Well, we were on the road continually then but with Donald
Fagan had just come out with his album The night flying, and iqi
was the first track right. And Chris wanted to Chris just fell
in love with that song. You know, and he wanted to write a
tune without feel. So he did and that was stuck with you. So that
you know that's it. That's IG y basically. IG Y Yes,
the knife fly that is classic. Oh, and the drum sounds on that
record. So crisp, so clean, so perfect. Like your typical
Steely Dan. It's like a science project. You know, we're every
front of house engineer the world's tunes their pa using a
Steely Dan record, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.
Exactly.
Well, speaking of drum sounds and the the these this amazing
body of work, that you guys have a producer that you carried
through Like or was it different on every record.
Our first album was produced by Bill Shinae. The our debut
album, everything after that was produced by Huey Lewis in the
news, you guys self produced, self produced all the way up
until four chords and several years ago, which was produced by
Stuart Levine. And who had done the Crusaders and a bunch of
people, he stored some brilliant guy, he produced that record,
but then we went back to produce our we produce every album
except to, that's
pretty incredible, and speaks to the, you know, the ecosystem of
your band and the team spirit, because usually our producer is
needed to intervene and to have the ability to veto and help get
everybody out of their heads and get a 50,000 foot view. So
that's pretty darn impressive.
We we were, we were very democratic about it all, you
know, and, and it would take a quorum, you know, a majority to
vote down somebody's idea. And if you you had a few feel
strongly cards you could play, you know, no, I'm sorry, I am
going to have to, I'm going to play that Phil right there. I
feel very strongly about it. And I'm just going to play it. And
that's the way it's going to be. Yeah, and you could do that once
or twice a record. And you couldn't, you couldn't abuse
that, that card. So you'd like
the hills that were that made it that were kind of fought over.
She know that comes to mind.
Nothing comes to mind. No, but I know. I know what happened
several times. And you know, and just arrangement ideas and stuff
like that. And, you know, we arranged all this stuff
ourselves. And everybody had a say, you know, everybody,
everybody at a if you had an idea, constructive idea, you
free to offer it, you know, and that's just how we work.
Yes. Now, the horn section. You guys don't always carry a horn
section. How does that work? They were not
our power. We since tower power. We have had a horn section. Wow.
Yeah. And that was 8584. Yeah. 84 They started touring with us.
They were with us from 84 through 89. And so then that was
the thrill of a lifetime. Yeah. Kicking those guys was what a
what a what a thrill for a dry.
Are you kidding me? And, and with your big band training, you
knew just the right things to grab and just the right things
to ignore. Right? Because you can't hit everything. Otherwise,
the dancers get really angry.
No less is more you know, and when, when I see these guys, the
right hit at the right time as any drummer like you guys know,
the right hit at the right time is so more of much more
effective than some guy just symbols all the time. You know,
I got I have another story for you. I want to see John Legend
once. And I don't know who his drummer is. I don't want to dog
him. But, but he ruined the show for me. Wow. You know, John's up
there playing piano and singing the songs. But this guy didn't
play a straight beat for more than four bars. Everything had
to fill everything had a crash. I mean, it was just it was
obnoxious, man. I think that's that new
style. That is it's it's it's expected in modern hip hop r&b
shows to have a drummer that can do the thing
by linear fills forever. And yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think you're
right.
I wouldn't be the right guy for it. I know that for a fact. No,
Neither would I.
But, you know, that's just not. That's not musical to me. Are
you when you're when you're playing the drums? You're
playing a musical instrument. It's not just a noisemaker you
know, you have to play musically. Yes. And that's not
music to me. That's just masturbation on the drums. Yeah,
musical masturbation. Get off my lawn.
Was there was there anybody in
the Senate does it sounds like you want to get off my lawn?
Absolutely. 1,000,000% you want to know what I own it big time
and it's true. It's just
you know, I mean, you know, it's a there's an element of dumbing
down music these days. It's happening I'll say it. But
there's a even like in the 80s as you guys were really you
know, hitting your peak and everything and everything. You
had all the all the hits that were coming out. Were there any
content other contemporaries of yours that you really truly
admired from afar? Like an Alex Van Halen, maybe a Tommy Lee or
Tico Torres or someone like that? Yeah, Jeff.
Jeff Porcaro, who ended up being a good buddy of mine you know,
what guys said? I really liked and admired where guys like
Billy Cobham Dennis changers Yeah. Dave Weckl you know
Vinnie, guys like that those were the guys who I thought were
the trendsetters, you know, right. Yes. No, not that I could
ever play like any of them. But you know, they were just so
tasteful when they played the song. And then when it came to
their turn to show to showcase, they were just freaking amazing.
Well, you know, they were on human stuff as far as I could
tell, you know, yeah, but when it came to playing the song,
they could settle back in and play it just beautifully. So
that's what I had here. Yeah, that's
did you guys record back in the day back in the day recording
tape. Did you guys record to click tracks it was that a thing
that was seeping into the music business in 1983? Or no? Yeah,
yeah, yes. We but it wasn't a click track. I remember playing
walking on a thin line, right, that song. I'm planning to have
a synth arpeggiate arpeggiated synth. So Sean's holding a note
and it's going, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang,
gang, gang, gang, gang, gang,
gang, gang gang, and he just held the note, bang, gang, gang,
gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang gang, you know is and
he kept it going through and that's what I played to. That's
where I got my click track from that's with hard rock and roll.
Yeah. Oh, wait a minute. No, no, no click track and hard rock and
roll. Only thinline. And there was no click track on any other
song on that record. And
then what did you guys use for the heartbeat? Was it like a
sample of a heart or something or what was that
was? That's a Linndrum. That's me on the kick drum of Linndrum.
Well, you go Goo, goo, goo goo. And we overdub good, uh, we
overdub that a couple of times and doubled it up and detuned at
once and you know, detuned it again, no, doubt the sound and
yeah, I love the lens.
It had the gym, the Linndrum had, it reminded me of like a,
like a car from the 70s had the wood paneling, like a station
wagon, you know. And then I ended up getting to meet Roger
Linn because in the early aughts, he had a box a stomp box
called de adrenaline and all guitar players would get these
MIDI cables and would and it would lock to like my drum
machine and then he could my guitar player 50 feet away on a
50 foot MIDI cable could stomp on the box and it would slice
and dice. That that that that that that that that that that
you know, to the Alesis box right Sure. Pretty crazy and now
all the crazy kids just do it with like modeling and Pro Tools
laptops, you know laptops? Yeah, yeah. So for a record, like you
know, 2000 20s Plan B or the Soulsville 2010 Did you guys do
clicks to make editing easy and stuff? No counting off let's go
bring Soulsville
was Stone Cold live soul. We were at Arden and Nash in
Memphis, Memphis. Nice. Yeah, and the band was in the big
room. And the horn section was in another studio with a camera
on me so they could see me play so they could play in time. And
there was zero click on that whole thing. That's all live
very few overdubs.
Man your time and feel are from another lot time man. It's like
it's it's impeccable, impeccable and all your choices. You know,
all the fills are. I call them you know, soccer, their soccer
mom fills because they can play him on the dashboard. They're
very memorable. They're hooky, zap boom Bop, but I suppose back
a dude that is going up. I mean, straight from the Motown
playbook. And the reason they work is because they work. Yeah.
You know what I
mean? But you have a work van and what why wouldn't they work
now?
I mean, he's good at boom. I've probably played does get up Boom
1000s of times. And there'll be 1000s more. It just works.
They're
called Money beats, beats and money fill money fills.
I know.
Just until we just until recently I was playing I played
that fill all wrong. And I finally figured out how to play
it. It's just a it's a six stroke roll to six stroke roll
but it's an it's it's you know, does get at goon back but not my
mom. Yeah.
What were you doing like a like a five stroke road dad's
doing like a buzzer almost with my belly. You know, not even in
fact I am, but
the thing is, maybe you're saying you're not trained but
yet there's some, you know, there's a song where it's like,
see what song is it is. If this isn't really like, gotta do bah,
bah. You know, I mean, great. Was roll, man.
It's a buzzer Oh, it's a double stroke buzz roll. Yeah. Even if
you're untrained, you can figure that out and do play it. You
know, I knew what that was. That's killer.
I just love the fact that the drums are always so big on those
songs. Yeah, really? In front. Yeah,
I never had to. I never had to bitch at the mix engineer to get
the drums up ever wants. Matter of fact, there was many times
I'd say, Can you pull that snare drum down a little bit? You
know, and that's not drummers don't usually know. So yeah, you
know, and that's for album which, you know, stuck with you
and hip to be square and all that stuff is on Jacob's Ladder.
We call Jacob's Ladder. We call that the snare that a Cleveland
because it really is. It's freaking massive man. noxious ly
loud. And we want actually would like to go back and remix that
album. Really. And pull the drums down. Louder Than the lead
vocal. It's horrible.
It sounds like a gunshot. It's got a case by by Lars and the
Metallica Black Album because his drama on there sounded like
a shot like a 12 gauge going off. Yeah. Oh,
somebody hits man harder rock and roll one of the drug if this
is a power, love, do you believe in love hearts. So hit the
square back in tiny.
I want to end even the deep cuts. The B sides are great
songs. Yeah, it's like, I listened to night to sports. You
know, eight, nine years old, got the boombox that was in my
bedroom was nice. I'm painting the picture. Because I remember
the memory being cemented in my mind like a bookmark, laying in
bed listening to these I listen to that, that cassette, front to
back. Nine, nine years old. You know what I mean? And it's like,
I'm impressed. Looking back on something like that hearing that
for me? How does that feel? You've impacted, you know,
influence so many people, myself included my brother, you know,
what does that what does that say to you? How do you? What's
your commentary on that?
Well, you know, it just adds to my gratitude. Really? You know,
I've had so many people write letters to me personally, and to
the whole band, but to me personally sing the song you
wrote on that album? You know, I wrote some of these tunes,
right? So the song you wrote forest for the trees on the
picture, this album, got me through chemotherapy. And I have
and I have that I have you to thank for me beating cancer.
Wow, God, I've had, I've had several of those types of stuff.
You got me through this period of my life, you know, and it's
just, it's what it's, it's, it would be easy to kind of not to
discount it. But just to kind of brush it off and say, Yeah,
that's cool and everything. But that, wow, you made a difference
in someone's life. And that's really what we're trying to do.
Right. Right. As human people, we're trying to move people,
we're trying to make a difference in their life for the
better.
And so I think the guys who are in the tribute band that I
played before, their modus operandi is, of course, do the
best tribute to you guys. You know, and they do an amazing
job. If you ever get an opportunity to see them. I
strongly suggest it. Yeah, they'd love to meet you. But
their modus operandi is to reintroduce the music to the
vernacular of society. And I'm like, Yeah, it really is. It's a
music that's kind of like, you know, I'll ask people in
business networking groups, and tell them about me, you know,
kind of sneaking my way into this band. And they go, who, and
then like, they're in their 20s. I said Huey Lewis in the news,
and they're like, Yeah, I've never heard of him. I go, but
have you heard of the song? And they go, Oh, I know that song.
You know what I mean? Yeah,
well, yeah, I say that a lot. People you know, they, you know,
when you go to like a doctor appointment, maybe. And they'd
girl checking in is asking you a bunch of questions. And she's in
her 20s and says, What do you do, sir? I'm a musician. And
then when you as soon as you say I'm a musician that piques
people's curiosity. Oh, do you? Do you play in a band? Yeah.
What kind of music do you play? Why it's kind of rock and roll
r&b. You know, it's odd. Do you play at the band? Yeah. Now
comes to the 100 questions. And you know, and it says, What do
is do you play? Is it anybody I would have heard of? I said,
Well, I don't know if you've ever heard or you listen to
news. And a lot of people nowadays, like you just said. No
idea. Yeah, no. You know, but and then I say, Have you ever
seen the movie Back to the Future? Oh, yeah. Well, that's
our music in it. Power, love. Oh, I know that song. Yeah, so
that's that's where the door opens. Remember
what remember the guy who told Marty he was being too loud?
Yeah,
yeah, that's my guy.
Also, there's, you know, there's someone getting chopped up in
the movie American Psycho to your music. Well, yeah, the song
I wrote. That's amazing. See, now this is why you don't have
to work Bell. That's why you're just sitting around on a
Thursday in the middle of the afternoon judging, just
need like a TV show like Glee to reintroduce it to society like
they did for Don't Stop Believin
Well, what's happening now funny, you mentioned that we
have a play opening on Broadway, right? On April 19, called the
hard rock and roll. And it's, it's, it's a fictional story of
a couple in love. And he's trying to figure out whether
he's going to leave his day gig and you know, and or he's going
to stick with the band, or he's going to leave and do his day
job so he can marry the girl. And, and it's our songs, tie the
story together, right? So I'm hoping that a lot of people are
going to be reintroduced our music to this, you know, yeah,
it's
a work for Mamma Mia. Right? Exactly. Yeah, it really did. I
mean it put ABA back on the map. Yeah, so because for you because
you guys deserve it. I mean, you need to be reintroduced.
That's kind of us thanks. It's from
the bottom of my heart because you're a huge part of my you
know, musical landscape growing
it to me to get your right there on the MTV what the police send
the Van Halen EMT
getting to the MTV videos, I mean, you know, every time a
Huey Lewis and the News video came on, it was almost like
seeing what we know nowadays is viral content, you know, what do
they do now? Because it was always a funny video very off
the cuff out of left field. Yeah, you guys cut up and have
fun. And it's funny, the live videos when I was you know,
impressionable, eight, 910 year old kid. I'm like, it looks like
these guys just got out of their day jobs. And now they're
playing a gig. Right? They look relatable. They you just talk to
them. They don't even look like rocks like traditional rock
stars. And that was not at all I just got my job being an
accountant for the day now. I'm playing the drums. Yeah, matter
of fact, I've
been. I've been I was asked once at backstage at a gig.
Seriously, backstage is getting some guy asked me if I was the
band's accountant. Ah, can you do my taxes? I said no,
honestly, asshole up there, make a noise.
Count yourself lucky that you don't have to, you know, cut
your hair like this. And this is an overpriced hair cut, man, I
just got it done today. It was like how much and I gotta face
every three weeks, you
got you guys and rush basically just lowered is going to do our
thing. You know, we're gonna buck the trends, we're not going
to try and do a gimmicky thing, you know, rushed, and they they
stuck to their guns for 40 years, built a huge following.
And now you know, Geddy Lee is just like, I'm just, I'm just
getting man anatomy. And you know, Alex is Alex Neil was
Neil. And that people admired him for it. I think the same
kind of effect plays in this too. Yeah, you know,
we, that was our, our, you know, kind of Mo was keep our tongue
firmly implanted in our cheek when we did all these videos,
you know, make them funny. And you know, we were not going to
be a political we're going to be in a political band. You know,
even though we all have our opinions, we were not going to
be you to you know, we were just not going to do that. We were
going to be a light hearted. Take your mind off your
bullshit. When you go see us have a good time band. That's
what we're going to be. And as we and we succeeded. That's what
he did. Yeah. You know, I read something the other day, it said
that the average person and their lifetime affects 80,000
people, whether in a good way or a bad way. So thinking about
someone, Jim, think about like a like Bill, Bill Gibson. I mean,
you did all the music around the world several times, millions
and millions of people you've affected in a positive way. And
that's my mantra. That's my purpose in life. My purpose in
life is to affect people in a positive way and change lives. I
wrote it down. Soon as I wrote it down, it came out of the
ether. It got real, it got more real and I started manifesting
more things in my life that aligned with that purpose
statement. But just that just think about that. I mean, that
is incredible. It's football stadiums full of people that
you've affected.
Yeah, that's right. Really. Right. And, and all really not
knowing we were doing it. Yeah. Until until it started coming
back to us.
Yeah. Now speaking of that, touring, you know, I've done
most I've been to like, I think 20 countries, a lot of in and
out, you know, let's fly to Australia. We're gonna play two
shows and then be all jet lagged and then have to come back home.
But You probably visited majority of the continent
several times. Back in the day, did you enjoy the international
touring or were there some split? Like I got a sense of his
stomach. So like, if I spend time in like South America or
India, it's not going to be the greatest time for me because
I've got a really sensitive stomach. But tell me about your
international.
I loved every second of it. We we we spent a lot of time in
Europe. We months on end we'd spent in Europe. And I loved
every second of it. I ate it up, man. I don't have a sensitive
stomach. I am a foodie. I love all the different foods. You
know, I I would love going to Japan. I just absolutely love
it. Oh, yeah. And South America was great. And you know, it's a
little more third world than I was expecting, but I should have
known better but but it was beautiful. And you know, the
people were great. And I loved every minute of it. I don't I
don't I can't tell you a real bad experience overseas. I don't
think
amazing. That is awesome. No, I've got I like all the food
too. I am a foodie. I just don't know how it's gonna affect me.
But
you know, Imodium, baby. Yeah, though. I
keep the Imodium lab in business.
Unfortunately, I don't have any of those issues. That's great.
Anything and I do.
Why fortunately. Because you're you aren't see you are subjected
to a whole new you know, culinary deal. Oh, when you when
you travel, you know? Yeah. I can remember being in Finland
once we were in Helsinki, and the and the Finnish record
company took us out to dinner. And first they took us to a spa,
where we did the saunas and the you know, the cold plunge and
all this stuff. It was fantastic. We loved it. And now
they take us to a restaurant. And they they're serving all
this food and we you know, kind of have to ask them what we're
eating and you know, and they saw Yeah, now that's reindeer.
Okay, great. That's reindeer we're eating? And then they see,
then they serve some steaks, you know, go oh, this is delicious.
Steaks. Well, you know, is this This is beef, right? No, no,
that's bare. You know? And so we were eating bear steaks. And so
I mean, you're just getting stuff you'd never find here, you
know, and, but it was delicious. I loved it all. Thomas
Lang told me a story one time because he goes to China all the
time. He's almost like Thomas Lang is almost like Tom Cruise
and China. He's so there. There's like giant billboards
for the guy because they love drummers. And China's he,
they'll go over there and he's like, he was the same thing.
People all of his people that hired him took him out to this
beautiful fancy dinner and however many star restaurant and
he was just devouring this dish. He was in a nice brown gravy.
And he devoured in the and they said he loves the chicken
eyeballs, get him some more chicken eyeballs. He didn't know
what he was eating. He just was devouring these chicken. And
he's like, well, well, I love him, I guess
is the scene from funny farm with Chevy Chase where he's
eating the goat testicles? Yeah, sheep testicles and happened to
us in
Japan. We were in the record company over there. Took us to
what they told us was the best Chinese restaurant in Japan. And
then Tokyo was the top of a skyscraper was like 70 storeys
up, you know, overlooking Tokyo. And, and we are eating this
stuff that says clear. Looks like noodles, clear noodles. And
we're thinking oh, this is some kind of noodles. You know, and,
and our sound guide. Jimmy says, Hey, what is it? What kind of
noodles is this in and they guys Oh, see Jerry as I see Jerry.
See Jerry once I see. Oh, see jelly. Oh, it's jelly fish. Oh,
okay. We're jelly fish. So now we're eating jelly fish. And now
there's the 1000 year old egg they pull out, which is a quail
egg that they bury for a while. I don't know, they they actually
bury in the ground. And it turns about 12 different colors. Very
pretty. But it's you know, it's discolored egg. The aerated
quail egg. Yeah, and that's all and then shark fin soup, which
is shark fin in a soup. It's just stuff you would never ever
eat anywhere else. But interesting. For sure. It's
like the guy who first tried an oyster. You know? Who in the
world in their right mind said you know
what? I'm going to crack this thing open and eat it. And yeah,
hey, what's inside of that? It
looks like the stuff that comes out of my nose when I sneeze but
why not? Let's try Yeah,
it looks tasty. It also there's a little fine print at the
bottom of all those menus that say, enter your own risk may
cause extreme illness and hospitalization or death. Okay,
that's a parmesan on their.
Back to the music last night. It reminded me of story when we
watched the Tina Broadway show reminded me of a an her
documentary they put out about two years ago or so they talked
about her first big breakout song when she was reinventing
herself was what's good love got to do with it. And she was
reticent to record it. She didn't want to do it. But she I
guess she heard the demos. And I think, who I think it was Olivia
Newton John, that was on par to sing it. But you know, they
wanted a team to do it. And Tina was like, well, it just doesn't
fit my voice. It's not powerful enough. And then she ended up
doing it. And it became a big hurt the best thing that ever
happened to her right. Was there any of the songs that we know
today that you guys are like, not sure if I really want to do
it, then all of a sudden it became huge.
Yeah, heart and soul. Really one that comes to mind that was
written by Mike Chapman and Nicky chin. And it was had
already been released as a single by the Busboys and exile,
the band exile, who was Mike Chapman's band had had it on one
of their albums. And they, they, they pitched it to us, they said
this song be perfect for you guys. And so we worked it up,
and we're gone. And I don't know, I don't know. And you
know, we heard the bus boys version. And we thought, Well,
we think ours is better. And we heard I loved exiles version. I
don't know if you've ever heard exiles, but it was really, and
we pinched some of their ideas for it. And actually, by the
time we got around to recording it for sports, we have made it
our own and, and it came in it just came out great. You know,
there was some some songs we recorded that we had vision of
it being a lot better than it actually turned out after you
were done recording it. And, and and never made up never made it
onto an album, we thought, well, this for sure is going to be a
great song, but we just couldn't get it right in studio. And then
conversely, there was songs that we didn't think were great when
we were working them up in rehearsal. And we go in and
record it. And it just everything came together. And it
was great. Yeah. Interesting,
you know, because our, Jason's manager started off in the
business as exiles. road manager, I think he was like,
say sell T shirts. And then he became the stage manager and
then became a road manager. And then now he's a manager, a
manager, one of the most powerful music managers. So
doesn't matter what you're always working your way up.
Yeah, on the ground up one
day, also don't ever forget. You see the same people on the way
down that you saw on the way up? Sure. Yeah. So be kind to
everyone.
Why I see that I've ever been been a problem with you because
you are just, you're a smiley guy. Yeah,
I'm basically a happy man. And, and, yeah,
yeah. Awesome. Was there ever a missed opportunity for a
potential duet with Huey and somebody else like, again? I
could imagine that if he and Tina ever, you know, did a duet
together. It would be an amazing thing. Now. Yeah, that would be
great.
Well, we did we did a duet with Winona. Mom on one of our
unplanned b There's a duet with her. She sings with Huey. I'm
not in love yet. Working on it.
That's very cool. Well, Jim, member we had Huey we we had
Huey on episode 107. Our friend our mutual friend Chris Cohen
was nice. Just connect. And he and he said he will probably
give you 30 minutes and we just all hit it off. He gave us an
hour. We had a great time. But we you know, we were talking
about you know his hearing issues. I I'm assuming that
there's no no touring.
No, got he cannot steal any full frequency sounds just turns into
distortion for him. And especially the low end if you
know and if the if music, he can't hear your music. And
that's the thing that makes me so sad about it. He cannot put
on a record and listen to it. He can't like one of his favorite
albums and mine as well that both our fathers turned us on to
when we were quite young. His dad by the way was a frustrated
jazz drummer as well. His dad and my dad are very similar
guys. And and I think that's part of the reason why he and I
hit it off initially you know as as kids, but was World shoot.
Where was I going with that?
Oh, something about a record that you and Huey both love. Oh
yeah. Frank
Sinatra and Count Basie orchestra live at the sands, are
you Yeah, and Quincy with a young Quincy. Jones arrange you
know, it was it was Rufus speedy Jones I believe I gotcha. If or
Sonny Payne It was either sunny or Rufus. So and I don't know if
you guys guys have ever heard that album. It's called Live at
the sands it was recorded in 58, I think. And it is one of the
best live albums you've ever heard in your life. And it's one
of his favorites and of mine as well. And he can't put that
album on listen to it, because it sounds like he says, It
sounds like a jet engine to him. So by virtue of that he can't
make out pitch. So he just can't sing. We've tried.
These are bone conduction headphones, does he try those?
He's tried to do the same thing.
Everything really is he's tried. He's been to every ear hearing
clinic in the United States and some overseas. And he's he's
tried everything. There's the doctors just go off all the
doctors to go we don't know if this is something we just don't
know, that side 14.
I didn't really know the persona of Huey until we interviewed
him. And he's such a he's a sweet guy, very human, very
humble. They'll try us sensed a lot of humility from him. And it
was actually kind of piled on he did an amendment or an addendum,
I guess to the back behind the music that he did 20 some odd
years ago, they rereleased it with him watching, you know, the
footage from the earlier version of it. And he addressed them in
the years disease and his how he felt when they had you guys had
to stop touring. And I had to appreciate the fact that he was
more concerned about putting everyone out of work than his
own. Yeah, you know, well being. Yeah,
that's, well, I was I was more concerned about him, obviously.
But because he had a he had a dark time there for about a
year. That came down and and it was I had to do a lot of kinda,
you know, boosting him up, you know, to just make sure you just
didn't completely crash. But he was he was up at his place in
Montana. And he, you know, he was just, there was nobody else
there. And he couldn't hear and you know, like, like, like you
said he was worried about our entire crew and ban and
everything was just, you know, was 35 people that were, you
know, out of work. And he was more worried about that than
himself so that you're right. That tells you a lot about the
guy. Sure. Well, yeah, man.
That brotherhood of a band comes together, though. That's good to
have. I don't know. But you guys were there to help them out and
support them? Yeah. Yeah, man.
Very, very fortunate. Well, Bill, we just what a pleasure. I
want to just give a shout out to my dad, because my dad, same
way. We love the big bands. And he loves Gene Krupa. And he was
just always so like, you can do that son, you know, and it was
so encouraging. I think that he secretly wanted to do it, and
he's like, let's get you lessons, you can go do what I
didn't get to do because he became an a cat, he became an
accountant.
So you had that same encouragement from your parents
that I did maths. And that and that when you're young is enough
to get you to to get that blind faith in you. Yes. You know, to
go, I can do this.
And I'm gonna saying I can just blame my parents that because
they always told us that you gotta have sent a lot. You gotta
have something to fall back on. Jimmy. You can't you that your
music. You got to be in the right place at the right time
and have my father would always say, Yeah, gotta have a gimmick.
But here you go into the phone business and go to college and
told my brother and I that and my brother to this day, he's in
his 50s he's 50 though is a little bit younger, I think.
Yeah. 53 and he he's like I always still hear dad in the
back of my head going you need something to fall back on. I'm
like, but on his deathbed, he told you he regretted telling
you that now he knows you would have made something and it's
like Damn it, just do it. Now you got the resources you got a
legal law degree come down to Nashville and combine the
superpowers and you know, do it man Jim, I hope your brother
listens to the show, man because you're always and I've told him
I'm blue in the damn face. I'm the black sheep in the family.
I'm the one who you know took the path less traveled and did
the radio thing and it's paid off you know? So yeah,
man creative pursuits creative pursuits. Well, Bill we love
you. This was so special for for us to spend this time together.
We usually end the show with the Fave Five. I'm going to ask you
your favorite things favorite color? Blue. All right, you get
the blue shirt on there Blue Pearl, snap love it. Favorite
food or dish that's All right Ah he's a foodie drumroll
that the yeah that's that's a tough one for me man i like it
all
marine county let a good sushi man a
lot of good sushi a lot of good everything San Francisco off
incredible after living in California be in California boy
oh boy all these years would you ever entertain living anywhere
else?
No
Jim knows how much I love California it is like I tell you
what. Favorite trip in New York?
No favorite drink at all when I was drinking and it was a Myers
and OJ I haven't. I don't drink so but you know it was Myers and
OJ. And that was my favorite.
What's What was my dinner a
vodka with Michael Myers is Rob It's a dark rum. Oh my god.
So in the in the early days of touring your little drink next
to you was rum and orange juice. It
was the band drink. I never drank when I played. Nice.
Never. But it was the band drink. Yep. When
did you give up the hooch? Oh I'll see. That's good. Can't
remember. Can't remember.
That's a long time.
I love it. I'm favorite. This is hard. Jim doesn't like this
question. Because it is so hard. But it's a song. It What is your
favorite song? This thing comes on the radio no matter what
where you are. You're going to crank this thing up. Now that's
hard, isn't it?
Yeah, tough one because it's so subjective and seasonal.
Favorite song? Oh my god. That's like saying what's your favorite
painting? You know? Yeah. The screen.
Well, what's your favorite song at the moment?
It favorite song of the moment probably is a song that my
daughter is doing called stargazing. Nice. I'm working on
it today. And you're producing your daughter's. It's killing
me. Well, I'm helping her I'm not really producing her. But
I'm putting some keyboard tracks on a song that I wrote for her
so
incredible. And then what about your favorite movie favorite
film? Ah, probably. Wow,
that's another one that's got a failure. Yeah, we
get a lot of Shawshank Redemption. You know what? Pulp
Fiction Jaws Back to the Future?
Yeah, that was No, I would say something like, it's a mad mad
mad mad world.
Nice.
Black and white. Nose color. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's pretty funny
movie.
Nice.
I like comedies.
Do you binge all the Netflix comedians, like there's any
specials? I've seen them all. Like, I'll turn it on and say,
maybe somebody's got a new special. And my current favorite
comedian is Jim Gaffigan. He's clean and prolific. Yeah, he's
great. And you can rewatch his stuff and get the same laughs
Yeah, yeah. No, that's a real talent to have a tight, nonstop
laughing poignant hour of material. Every few years
a new the new Curb Your Enthusiasm is has just dropped.
And it's my gallon. I watched the latest episode last night
and it's great. I love all the curves. Oh, guys,
every day. I love the fact that it was I it's I'm proud. It's an
improvisational in the sense that it's looking at, we gotta
get from point A to point B but how we get there. I don't care.
And that is amazing. Because I took a year in my life. I
studied improv comedy in Los Angeles. And it was frightening.
I just wanted to in my midlife, I wanted to get away from the
drums bill and just try something different. That was
creative. And kudos to any improvisational actor that can
get something from point A to point B and make it look
effortless. Wow. It's intense. So do you like to be found on
the worldwide web? Did you have a website? Or?
I don't personally the band does and I can be I can be contacted
through the band's website. Okay. Huey Lewis in the
news.com. And there's a there's a if you want to ask anything
Bill's available to answer.
I love that. Well, Bill, thank you so much. This was a long
overdue conversation. I hadn't seen you in like eight years.
I know. You know, I was gonna say I really enjoyed meeting you
that night in Nashville and, and I would hope and we'd had a
chance to talk longer, but it was just a short, quick deal and
but I enjoyed media and I've been a fan to you guys. And
thanks. Yeah. Great
to talk with you guys. Both, man. Thanks so much for being
here. And you know, hey, I realized the hard way I got your
cell phone number I can send you a weird means
you can send me anything you want at any time.
I love it. I mean, thanks so much. I
don't have his cell phone number.
I got yours as well. So watch what you send. Yeah, yes.
Send me the weird stuff. Jim, thank you as always, buddy and I
know this was a special time for you because it's such a fan.
Absolutely. Thank
you for having me. Hey
Keller, to all the listeners out there. Thank you so much for
your support. Be sure to subscribe, share rate and
review. It helps people find the show. And until then, see you
next time. Thanks, Bill.
Thank you guys.
This has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe rate and follow
along at rich redman.com forward slash podcasts.