Unknown: Yeah, but he called me up and he's like, hey, you know
Edwin's doing Letterman tonight, and then we're at bogarts in
Cincinnati tomorrow, and we need you there with the show learned
and everything. So I joined that band, but they were in the
middle of like a 327 gig year
327 gigs, that's like two on Sundays, a Monday, a Tuesday. We
would
do 21 straight nights with no break.
This is the rich Redmond show.
You got into education, because that's always that's really
confused me. It's like a drooling drummer is teaching.
What great Fourth for God, you go young. Yeah, they're 910,
years
old. But there's actually, there's some beauty in that,
because it's before the hormones kick in,
yes, yeah, once the hormones kick in, it's hard to teach them
anything, because
I do have experience, like when I moved here in 97 you know, I
did Park some cars and wait some tables and make some copies, do
data entry, all that kind of stuff, right, right? But, but I
was like, Oh my God. Like, you know, with my masters, I can
make I think it was like $76 a day as a substitute teacher. And
it really wasn't that bad. I mean, yes, you do spend a lot of
your time, like with classroom management, but if the teacher
is nice enough to leave some lesson plans, and you know what
the heck you're gonna do? It's not the worst thing. And I would
always try to do like, K through four, yeah, because I could feel
like I was actually affecting them somehow. Oh, sure, you
know, whereas after the the puberty hits, yeah, it's just an
uphill battle. Yeah, they start. They Sass you, yeah, that's
when they're in elementary school, they're a little bit
afraid of you, and they really want you to like them. Yes. And
by the time they get to middle school, both of those things are
out the window. So I don't know what the trick is
there. Yeah, like, in second grade, they're like, are you,
Mr. Redman, are you coming out to to the jungle gym for during
the recess? I was like, Yeah, I'll come out with you guys. You
know what I mean? Then your next thing, I'm climbing the monkey
bars.
It's called the structure, yeah.
Oh yeah, the structure. It's called the structure.
I love him. Did you see,
did you see your favorite? Oh yeah, pretty well. I mean, I
love all well.
I mean, it's like, you know, like Sebastian Maniscalco. I saw
him last year for my birthday. We were like, fifth row in the
round at the Bridgestone. We were close enough, I think we
were like, two rows away from, you know, being picked on,
because he picked on everybody in the first two rows. Some guy
came and he had, like, you know, like, a purple suit on some
crazy hat and a giant wallet chain. And do you wanted to be
picked on, covered with rings and, yeah, you know. And
Sebastian was like, Let me guess, you're a musician. He
goes, he goes, a producer.
Oh, no, man.
Oh, excuse me, a producer. The other funny thing I thought was,
he was like, man, Nashville is this town is just nothing but
music. I mean, as soon as I land on the plane, I go, and there's
a bar right there. Somebody's singing. I go in the bathroom.
Some guy's got a fucking drum set in the bathroom, dude. I'm
trying to pee in peace here, man. But and then the third
funny thing, he said, he was like, everybody's moving here.
And so all these people from New York and California are like,
look at I'll give you $2 million get the fuck out of your house
right now.
I'll take the 2 million, but where would I buy Exactly,
yeah, I gotta say, Yeah, I made a note to talk about this in one
of our texts. Limitless. Chris Hemsworth, oh, did you guys
watch it yet? No, okay, do tell Jim. It's like the second
season. He's doing these things. It's a show called limitless. Is
it based on the movie Limitless? No, no, no. It's basically all
about human endurance and brain development and everything. And
apparently, if you want to bridge the gap between a fading
brain as we age, they say, do something that challenges it and
bridges the right and left lobes, right and you know it one
of those exercises could be learning a new instrument. So he
chooses the drums,
and he has how many weeks? He's got two months, two months to
learn, weeks to learn how to play a drum set, but not only to
play it. It's not like he's just gonna do a little recital at the
School of Rock. He's gotta go out there and play the biggest
hit for
what's the Irish kid with the red hair?
Yeah, and he's got to play it at a stadium in front of 80,000
Yeah? And, of course, it doesn't hurt that he's like, a gorgeous
specimen of a human.
But the funny thing is, is that he's carrying his drumsticks
around, yeah? Like, not just a parent like a school kid, yeah.
He's got a stick in each hand, and he's just carrying them
around, like they're, you know, an accessory, yeah, well, it's
great, like, you know Kevin Kevin Murphy.
No, let's talk about Kevin Murphy.
Anyways, Murph place, if he was here, I'd be kissing him. No.
Kevin Dylan, Matt Dillon's brother, oh, yeah, yeah, Andra,
yeah, I got to know each other pretty well because he was a big
Edwin fan. He came out to a lot of shows because he had to learn
how to play drums enough to be John Dinsmore. And my cousin was
always hanging with me. That's killer. And he was always just,
I go, do it. Do it. You go, shit. I love Vietnam, man. He'd
do the whole he would do this.
He's, I love the fact that he was an entourage. He got his
god, yeah, because his brother is hilarious
and playing a part that he was born to play. Yeah. He like his
pedigree for that, but he was typecast bro.
But what am I? What am I? Chopped liver.
You always said that, like, you know, they had, like, a deep
voice.
See him in a while. Is he okay? He's, I don't know. We're not
friends, friends. I just wonder if he retired from Hollywood
because he had a nice little run. He had a great run, you
know, yeah.
And, I mean, I actually just watched the Entourage movie for
the first time, like, a few weeks ago, and it was
good with Haley, Joel Osment,
Oh, that's right, yeah. He was, like, you
know, a perv. He was the Success Kid,
yeah. But grown up better,
all grown up, yeah. So who
is that that we have in the studio today. We've got the
first father and son drum duo, Dave and Nick Harrison are here
now. Dave is a drummer and a producer. He's also a school
teacher. His son, Nick is a drummer, a producer and a mix
engineer. The Harrison family originally hailing from, where's
that? Morgantown, West Morgantown, West Virginia. Dave
went to West Virginia University, School of Music, and
he moved to Nashville, called Nashville home since 1990 that
was the gone country era. Like you, I mean, you couldn't go
wrong there. Like, I mean, Alan Jackson and everybody was like,
it was meteoric. And then you joined the Edwin McCain band in
January 1996 over the next 10 years, you recorded six albums,
including the monster hit, I'll be and then along the way, you
get to work with great luminaries like Maya sharp,
Olivia Newton, John, who need the blowfish. I want to hear
that story. And then you got Bradford Marsalis. That's like,
well, left field,
I'll clarify that. Yeah, okay, well, that's good.
And then, and then Nick, you know, Nick went to MTSU. Did you
study with Lalo? I studied with Lalo and Julie Davis. What an
amazing couple. They're amazing. And then you were in the cadet
strum and Bugle Corps. Yeah, I did one season of cadets. I got
to hear about that because, you know, I was in the murder in the
marching band for eight years, which gives you pretty good
hands. But it's a different animal than the drum corps
lifestyle.
It was incredible. It was it's hard to describe, yeah,
sometimes.
So it sets you up for success as far as, like, teamwork,
preparation, oh, yeah, long hours.
I mean, I it kind of for people who really want to do it, they
themselves discover how to practice by themselves. Yes,
like, it's, it is a very quiet practice for the most part,
because it is. There's only a few spots
on those lines, highly competitive. Yeah, and it
doesn't pay no, it's like you're a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader or
something, you know? Yeah, you're sleeping on gym floors.
Oh, yeah. But now I bet, I bet you've made friends for life
where you're keeping in touch with these
Oh my gosh. I mean, lifelong friends. I talked to a lot of
them, at least weekly, if not daily. Sometimes some of them I
went to school with at MTSU, who are still my best friends I live
down the street from now. Yes, I've got to march with. So it's
we're all over the
place. Yeah. So the playing is at the highest and most intense
level, and the marching is at the highest and like, you're
crab walking and speed walking or walking behind backwards,
because I was in the marching band, I was just like, you know,
I always be focusing on the music. And they're like, you
know, you got 20 steps, and by this downbeat, you got to get
over here to the letter J.
I did a season of mystique as well. And Shane Gwaltney, our
designer, would come in, and he would just ask you, do you think
you can make that in seven steps? And you would give it a
try and fail, and he would be like, cool. That's seven steps
you can take.
You can make it happen. Yeah. So what happens, if you like, is
that really that improvisational? No, do stuff
like this. It's very curious, because, I mean, how long does
it take to do a routine like that? Because you see some of
these marching bands that do, like animations and stuff.
We did that in the Texas Tech. At the Texas Tech, we had a 400
piece marching band, and sometimes we would only have one
week to put a show together. Oh, yeah,
yeah. The world, do you
dance choreography? Pretty much it's different. I mean, every,
every group has a different procedure with drum corps. For
the most part, there are, there are plans like they do, create
drill, create choreography beforehand, because you're
dealing with 154 people at once. Mystique is an indoor program,
so it's 40 kids, and half of those are not even in the drum
line. So it was a little bit easier for for people to come in
and kind of just, you know, have a basic idea of maybe some
shapes, some forms, they look at the floor, they look at the
kids, and kind of just pieces together.
Is that the Music City mystique? Yes, Music City Mystique Is that
Tom Hurst, you know, Tom,
Tom found. At infinity down in Orlando. Yeah, Music City
Mystique is one of the oldest indoor groups that I think they
were founded in 95 something like that. And then where are
the cadets from? Cadets are from Allentown, Pennsylvania. When I
was marching, they had a couple of different cities and all over
Pennsylvania. But when I was there, it was
Allentown. And how long had they been the cadets, when you were
in them, when I marched,
it was their 85th anniversary. Amazing, incredible history.
Yeah, it was, it was a beautiful thing to, I mean, like, you
know, you see a lot of alumni come to other drum corps and
support them, and that's awesome. But to see, like, 100
year old alumni come in and support us was, was pretty
100 years old. Oh yeah, they got their canes. That's what I'm
saying. Like it was, it was, it was
a beautiful thing to see. You know,
testament to a culture though, you know, is that they're
willing to come back and pay tribute and revisit and
everything that's it meant something in their lives. So it
was a
huge, oh yeah. And, you know, it's, I'm sure a lot of people
can talk about their individual experiences with their drum
corps and how powerful it was, but it just couldn't help, like
I couldn't help but feel that cadets just was extra special,
yeah, for their age and their I mean that part of the world has
an intense culture in terms of loyalty, work ethic, work ethic.
Yeah, exactly. So I don't know it was, it was, it was amazing.
A lot of locals there that came to support us, and
and you were a snare drummer, yeah, you're the best of the
best. And it's hard to get on that thing and stay on that
thing. And what is it? 1010? People on a certain line?
Yeah, we had eight that season. So usually eight to nine, eight
to nine.
Typical 10. If you're crazy, I don't like that. I don't like
the odd number. I would go to eight. That's fair. Yeah, eight
is great. 10 Songs are not an odd number.
No. Tom Sawyer, is it
really an odd
bridge? Well, yeah, oh no.
I'm thinking of like an odd number, like 97 beats per minute
as opposed to 96
you know what I mean? I worked with some producers that would
not cut and cut at odd
times gonna be 96.9
Yeah, I had no idea that happened. Yeah,
that's great. It's not I go, Well, we're clocked in at 87 it
feels really good. Make it 88 for no other reason other than
it's even instead of
odd. Is it kind of like a superstition in a way? Or Yes,
really?
And there's certain like, well, there's crazy things. Remember,
like
Ralph Murphy, you know, he was one of these guys. I think he
was at like, bmi or ascap, or one of the big performance
organizations for many, many years. And he mentored so many
up and coming singer songwriters. And he would tell
kids like, look, look at if you study all the hit songs
throughout history, a lot of them would be cut in certain
keys and and there's, there's some, like, favored BPMs that
hit songs tend to fall into. So there is somewhat of, like a
dark art or a science behind some of this stuff. Sure, if
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I marched for four years at Texas Tech University, and we
had this organization called zeta, Iota, tau zit, and that
was the drum line. And I think they had their huge like 100
year anniversary or something like last Saturday. But of
course, I had a family vacation planned in Long Island, New
York. So are they, like, are you coming? I was like, No, I can't
come. But that I sent some heads, like some signed heads
and stuff to like to auction, to like to help the program and
stuff. But that, you know, I'm glad for that experience,
because it gives you chops. It gives you hands that are always
there, but not the kind of hands you guys got. I mean, it's some
dense stuff
they I mean, they. Was 15 hours a day sometimes, of just
training
on those Formica countertop, Remo, right?
Yeah, yeah, we play on those Kevlar heads.
I mean, all the balance, no problems, no problems
with the thing is they, man, they teach you, they teach you
how to protect yourself. You know, that was, that was
something that I really took away to, you know, bring into my
drum set world is, how do I play and continue to play and feel
good and not, you know, you know, tense up, not, you know. I
know a lot of guys who did the drum corps stuff are a little
older than me, who are dealing with, you know, tendinitis
problems, or, you know, early on, arthritis,
yeah, little tennis elbow right now.
Not to mention that, you know, marching sticks are like coat
hanger dowels. I mean, they're so thick together. You know,
baseball, yeah, it's, I just don't get it,
Dave, did you ever play with the Dennis DeLucia model? It was,
like a so thick, and that's what I would use to, like, practice
and warm up. And then when you get on the kit, you get
something a little lighter, and you're like, I'm flying with
these things.
You know, when I was in college, we used a, I think it was a, I
think it was a pro Mark stick, but it didn't have a bead on it
at all. It just tapered
and then stopped. It was a weapon.
It was a baton,
you know, I mean, I was always the worst guy on the snare line.
I didn't have the hands that even, even the business majors
had,
but you had the groove that made his songs, buddy. But the other
thing I noticed about you, Nick, is I was like, I was like, on
your Instagram, and I was like, Oh, my God, this guy's got such
a great everything happening for because in my experience, and I
know this is not a hard and fast rule, but a lot of the guys that
can play super, super dense, intense stuff, as as snare
drummers at the highest level, you get them on the kit, and
they can't always go, boom, whack, boom, boom, whack, and
make it feel good. And you do well, you have the discipline
not to do all the stuff
well. I mean, it's also, it's just a taste thing too. It's
like, I know a lot of snare drummers, you know, from cadets
who were great jazz guys. I loved what they were doing. I
know guys who were great gospel dudes. And, you know, I just
kind of like, you know, because my dad, I grew up listening to
records and albums and listening to, you know, studio players.
What was the first album he turned you on? Was like, hey,
hey, kid. I
feel like my earliest, earliest memories are probably the
greatest hits, Rufus record, Oh, wow. Throw in some Isley
Brothers, nice, I mean stuff like that. Yeah, side, say
again, lakeside, yeah. You know, a lot of like, Motown R B, those
are there you go. And, of course, oh yeah, average white
band, can you know? Oh, nice. Never not
talk about them.
I had all my stuff was in Google Play and but my I only had two
songs in iTunes, and it was pick up the pieces and person to
person by the average white band, yes, and my van would just
automatically go to Apple, you know, iTunes. And I never, ever
turned it off. Just same songs, two songs over those two songs,
and then I put in whatever I wanted to hear. Yeah, I never
turned it off. So I probably listened to pick up the pieces
in person to person every day for six
years. I'll get on, I'll get on a kick like that where, like,
I'll find, like, when Lucinda put out car wheels on a gravel
road 1999 I was just like, over and over and over and so
good people go like, Have you heard this record? I'll listen
to that when I'm done. Listening to the first average white band
record. But so far, yeah, I'm not done still in
so what was your did you come from a musical
family? Yeah. But my parents were classical musicians. My mom
was a music major. They met in music school, yeah? My dad, who
is 93 and just stopped playing the cello, essentially, when he
had an accident about a year, a little over a year 93 that's
wonderful, yeah. And so he was taking cello lessons from Jenny
Young, who was Reggie Young's wife, and I would drive him down
every Saturday for his cello lesson. He have an hour long
cello lesson. I would ride my bike on the Natchez Trace and
come back and take him home, but he studied cello. So they were
very much a very musical family, you know, nice. And then I just
got the bug, and, you know, started on piano, and then a
year of trombone, and
I was pretty good on the trombone for my music education
degree.
You know the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a
dead trombone player in the road? No, you're gonna tell us,
though, the skunk might have been on his way to a gig.
Jim, yes, not bad timing.
I wanted to and I had really good pitch. So the band director
was heartbroken, because he had 20 kids, wanted to play drums,
yeah, and I had this, you know, really good sense of pitch,
which came in handy when I was your background vocal guy. Oh,
yeah, I did all the background backgrounds with Edwin.
That makes you really, much harder to get rid of. Yeah. Oh
yeah, when you got that in a band marketable, yeah?
But now, I mean, it's funny now when people hire me to do
something and they're like, oh yeah, we want you to sing too.
And I'm usually like, no, yeah, just because singing behind
Edwin was was a dream come true, is easy to do. I have a high
voice. I can hit really high notes, so I could do those
singing above, but I can't do oohs and ahs because
I'm yeah,
I'm moving Yeah, and I don't like it. So I just do what I can
and what I can. If it comes very easily to me, I can do it very
well. If I have to work on it, it's a disaster. You can ask
tripper. Tripper had me in the MIPS for a while doing
background vocals and percussion. Trip writer, yeah?
And he wrote out these parts. And I'm like, Dude, you think
you're talking to a background vocalist, yeah, not just saying
it hard and loud behind Edwin. You know, that's not necessarily
what you're looking for.
Always respected it so much. You know, we had Stan Lynch on, I
mean, so he's up there. You get the Phil Collins's of the world,
like Stuart Copeland would jump on, jump up on some of that
stuff. Yeah, levant Levon is, oh, come on, that I don't
know how Carter sang and like that employed the way he did.
That's, that's
special, yeah? But no, it's really funny, because I never,
ever struggled with it. No matter what I was doing on the
kid, I always found it like it just came out easily. The fifth
limb, I was always singing, yeah. And, you know, when I grew
up playing along with Nigel Olsen on Elton John records, I
was always singing, playing, and so it was just second
nature. Isn't that a dude to aspire to? I mean, he's right
there in the great in the pantheon for me. Of like, you
know, the first thing that I ever got a copy of on with on
eight track was Elton John's Greatest Hits, Volume One, so
you had honky cat, you had Daniel, you had Saturday nights,
all right for fighting,
wow, oh yeah, no. Like, the first thing I ever played, like,
dropped a needle on the on the record and played along with,
with my kit, was goodbye. Elvi wrote, yeah. I learned that
whole album. And then about 15 years ago, me and Mike Webb put
together a band with Tony obrada and, like, some serious cats and
did, like the long players type thing. That's killer, because we
just wanted to do is Tony still playing with Chicago, yeah. How
do you believe different? You've heard that. How he got that gig.
That's the crazy
story. Last minute be
available. He was in line at will call to pick up tickets.
Tell Jim the story.
He went to see Chicago and was and they had left tickets where
he knew people because he worked with Satara before, or whatever.
Yeah, and this is the way I heard this, right? I haven't, I
can't verify it's total accuracy, but he had gone to see
them that night. Was standing in line at will call to get his
tickets, and got a phone call and said, We need you on stage
tonight now. Oh, wow. And so he had to go and play the other
guy's rig, and, yeah, and still has the gig.
So I know I'd be like, Hey, let me pee first, okay,
and chart out the entire show.
But I think he knew the book, because, yeah, he'd been kind of
working on the book. I think there had been a little bit of
talk talk, you know, but yeah, just, and I was kind of the same
way with Edwin, like they called me and said, We need you in
Cincinnati tomorrow night with the show. Learned, come on. Is
how you got the gig. That's how I got the gig. Damn. Yeah, I
just showed up.
Well, just while we're on the subject of Chicago, we just got
to do a quick head bow for Wally and Daniel de los Reyes, his
dad, Wally senior, just passed, and he had, how old was he? One
hell of a life. 92 years old, and he still was playing and
passionate
for him. Yeah, you know, getting back to the singing and playing.
Did you know I actually sang and play a song when in high school,
my senior year, nice talent show that's for you. Started
overthinking, thanks. No, I had to overthink this. It was a song
that was easy to sing and play, sad but true, by Metallica, I
don't know that, sad but true, right? So, you know, the only,
the only time we had like 16th notes was, you know, I'm the,
I'm the one who takes you there whenever the, you know, yes, I
was able to do it.
Nice, Jim, I still do it. I played a band called The Get
Down boys, and it's like, Victor Kraus is the bass player and the
Henry brothers. And it's like, serious musicians, yeah, but
it's live band karaoke.
And so people, there's a song book, people can come up and
play whatever. They tell
us what song to learn. Oh, so, like, we did a gig where we did,
like, a Lizzo song, and then spirit of radio, and then, you
know, it's like, all over the place. So you have to, you learn
it before that. We learn them before the gig, before the gig,
and then then these people come up, yeah, the singers are not
allowed to come to rehearsal. It's already four hours.
Actually should be people out of the audience that pay insane
money to come up play those songs.
I think that's what it is, because what the gigs we
normally play are PTO fundraisers for schools, yeah,
and they started because their kids went to these schools, PTO,
PTO, yeah, so, but they're but they have them at like third and
Lindsley and exit in and all this stuff. So they've actually
been together. There for 15 years. I joined him about three
and a half years ago, yeah. And so I actually get to sing lead
Yeah, which, you know, I know where I am in the lead singer
Pantheon, but it's fun and and because it's karaoke, basically
I get to sing Rick James if I want. So it doesn't make any
sense for me to do that in any other Yeah. So we actually have
our 15th anniversary show coming up at the basement on September
19.
It sounds like a Friday to me. It is a Friday. Of course, I've
gone.
So I think we started six o'clock. We're done at eight. I
was
the same saying Nick is like, Hey, do you want to go out and
do the bus? Because you're still you're so busy in town, doing
the mixing and all that, You're never home on a Friday. You're
just never, like, even my Legos with my hairdresser today, and
he was like, you know, I don't work on Mondays, Mondays or
Tuesdays, so you got to catch me on, like, actually, Thursday.
It's like, Dude, I will never catch you on a Thursday. But so
he squeezes me in at 8am on Wednesday mornings,
but uh, calling the dentist from the RIP, and I broke a tooth,
and I'm gonna be in town for one day. Could you please fix it?
I know just people in Nashville understand I might look like,
you know, I'll call my doctor. I'm like, look at, you know, I'm
an entertainer. I really need to get please. Can you get me in?
And they're like, oh, right, you know?
Well, when I first joined Edwin, they were in they I kind of
joined him in the middle of a tour. I did a sub thing for two
weeks, and then, like a third night, everyone comes up, like,
is someone told me, you sing like a bird. I was like, I can
sing. Yeah. So I started doing backgrounds, and it's we got
along great. Who did you replace? A guy named Todd Hall.
TJ Hall is his original drummer, and TJ was also from West
Virginia and but you know, Edwin's saxophone player was the
best man at my wedding, Craig shields. We've been best friends
since I was in junior high, and he was in high school, nice. And
I used to go watch him and go, that's the coolest guy I've ever
seen. He's still the coolest guy I've ever known. Yeah, but he
called me up and he's like, hey, you know Edwin's doing Letterman
tonight, and then we're at bogarts in Cincinnati tomorrow,
and we need you there with the show learned and everything. So
I joined that band, but they were in the middle of, like a
327 gig year
327 gigs. That's like two on Sundays, a Monday, a Tuesday.
We would do 21 straight nights with no break. And that's hard
on his voice. There were three hour shows, and he's out there,
you know, just yeah, there's titanium and leather. Three hour
shows. No breaks, no no. Well, we got a break. Yeah? Evan would
stay out and do, like, acoustic seal songs and stuff.
Wow. He sang, like, full bore, because in the early days it was
very collegey. You're on the circuit, right?
Yeah. And clubs, yeah. Exit in, type clubs, everywhere
we went, yeah. So he played, like, very like, non college
towns, like Boston, you know, I
wouldn't worry about it.
What vocal part did you have? The high part?
Um, well, if it's in the studio, it's Edwin, yeah, because that's
like, so he's screwing the screw like this. So that's all him.
That's all him. That's all Edwin, yeah, yeah. Because, I
mean, he just, he can, he can hit anything he wants. Yeah? You
know, his voice is better now than it was then, but,
but in live situations, situations, it was always me,
you had to do the high part,
yeah? Wow, yeah, yeah. Now, did you leave to make the high part?
But I do
it really badly. I
made babies, and then that kind of caused me to leave, yeah,
because I didn't want to be I'd already missed a lot of like, he
was still in the NICU. He came early, and I had to rush home
for his birth, and then he was still in the NICU, and I had to
get back. Nick was in the NICU, yeah, that's why we named
him Nick man. You were on that gym
there's there's trombone.
And then I had his younger brothers. I have twin boys, and
I was out on the road, and, you know, it just seemed like it was
the right time to do something else. And I had fallen into
subbing as a lark. I didn't need it. I just did it because it was
fun, and I started getting really interested in it.
Well, some of some of these names you have in there, I know
that our friend Nick Buda played he played he played with Cindy
Thompson, he played with Rachel Proctor, he played with Carolyn
Don Johnson. So you guys probably threw some
gigs back and forth. Yeah, we did. And it's so funny that when
the twins were born, they also were very premature, and so they
came, they were supposed to be at the end of February, and they
came on Christmas Eve. Oh, wow. And I had a standing date at the
House of Blues in Orlando the day after Christmas that we had
done, like, six years in a row or something like that. And I
knew I couldn't go. I just I couldn't go, yeah, so I called
Nick beard, and I was like, and would you please go sub this gig
for me? So he went. He did the week all the way through New
Year's for me. And I was so grateful. And he came back, and
he actually scrubbed in and went in and held the babies with me.
And, oh, these guys are like, tight. I love Nick. Yeah, Nick,
haven't seen a while. He was an early he was probably a guest
post covid, maybe like 21 Yeah.
Listen to that one, yeah. But it was funny, because when I went
back to work with Edwin, you know, I saw it, when I said,
Man, how about boy do he goes. That guy showed up looking for
work. I was like, Yeah, you can play.
That guy showed up. Looking for work. That's amazing.
Well, I just did a gig with this get down band. I accidentally, I
do a lot of bike packing your bike.
You talking about a motorcycle, no bicycle because you because
you're screaming to hurt yourself if
you guys rode my bike all the way across the state of Missouri
the first week of July this year, 1821,
2121 two by 11,
it's right, seven and three, travel bike, um,
so we just you got a backpack full of, like, Nutritional Bars
and stuff.
Lots of Nutritional Bars, little, little kitchen. Set up.
You gotta have your tent. Yeah, you know your, uh, everything
you need. This is your zen place that you do for your spirit.
Best. This guy, like dropped, drove me from St Charles to this
I can't remember the name of it now, Clinton. Clinton, Missouri,
nothing, little town. Clinton, Misery. Oh, you have no idea it
was pouring rain the entire time out there. He drops me off. It's
pouring rain, and he leaves. And my car is now 245 miles away,
and here's this bicycle, and I gotta ride the bike back to my
car. Oh, so it's not even your bike. No, it's my bicycle. Okay
with me, but I have to pay a guy to take me so that I can come
back to my car. And it
was west to east, east to west to
east. Gotcha so and it just poured rain the first two days,
and I was and I was by myself. I was supposed to do it with a
friend of mine, but he had to cancel last minute, so it was
just
me. How was was that about a week,
six days, six days of
riding. It's pretty cool, man. So,
so and it poured rain the first two days, and it's crushed
gravel, so it's almost like trying to ride a bike on the
beach. Oh yeah. And I was miserable. I was so miserable, I
almost called him and said, come pick me up. Come pick me up. I
know it's 11 hours, but please, come get me again. I did it, but
I had accidentally booked this bike trip over an existing gig
that I had with the Get down boys. So I sent him to go play
the gig. And so after the gig, I contacted Dave, the leader of
the band. And I said, How'd the boy do? And he said he was
menacingly on point, amazing. So it's
in your blood, man, it's in your DNA. It was fun. Now your
younger brothers, do they play? Yeah, Jack is a saxoy player. Oh
my god.
Both of them have a very pretty natural ability. And just, I
think, feel of music like the way they talk about what they
listen to already is really awesome, amazing. But Jack's a
writer and a saxophonist, and he's going to school for
composition at MTSU. He's taking a bunch of classes right now
that I'm giving him some details on. You know, hey, do this with
this professor. Don't miss this class. Don't miss the midterm.
Can probably this class a little bit. You know, that's been
pretty fun. Yeah, I've enjoyed
that. That's amazing. I'm like, I have three boys, and two of
them went into music, so I'm like, Don Corleone at the end of
God, I never wanted this for you.
Michael, it's tough, but you're like, crushing it, man. So yeah,
I'm trying real hard, right? Yeah? A nice home set up, yeah?
And then when did the, you know, I mean, obviously the playing is
in your DNA. And I heard, you know, your Instagram, you have a
funny Instagram page name, it's melody or harmony. What is it?
Harmony and me with little underscores in between,
yeah, harmony, underscore and underscore me, two E's,
yeah, was harmony a girlfriend
or something? No, that is the last song on goodbye, yellow
brick road. Oh, my God. Okay. It's just like, I'm so moved by
and I just made it my Instagram. I love that one
day that's a little bit harder for people to follow you.
I've been told that I've I've been curious whether or not I
should change it, but I like
it. I love that. But I was gonna say your playing is on point,
that sounds are on point. When did you discover that you had a
knack for the mixing thing? Because that's the thing, you
know,
and I so I changed majors. I was doing music ed, so I was
studying percussion with uh Lalo and Julie Davila. And as much as
I enjoyed it, because I really did enjoy it, it just I didn't
feel like I was gaining the skills I wanted. Yeah, so after
X amount of time of, you know, trying to decide what I want to
do, I decided to leave school. And that's right, I was able to
take just a little basic class on Pro Tools at school. And so I
was asking Jay took all the time questions, how do I do this? How
do I do this? And one day, he just invited me. He was like,
you want to, you want to come check out Penn tavern. I got
some guys I want to introduce you to. And so he brought me in,
and which that kind of ended up turning into, like an unofficial
internship. And I mean, I did that for almost two years,
probably just going in. You know, with the way Jay works,
it's incredible. He, he's an incredible producer. So great,
great visions. And he, what's
the biggest act that he produces? Remind me, okay, um,
didn't he play with, like, like, the wild feathers or something,
or what it was with, uh Americana acts,
steel wood. Yeah, he was with the steel. Woods. Does he live
here in Nashville? Jay. He just moved to Muscle Shoals.
Beautiful spot. Muscle Shoals. I think I met
him, like 12 years ago or something, and then we got
pulled in different directions.
And I never saw, yeah, he's working over at noble steed now,
doing amazing records. But yeah, I just got to see him do his
thing. He drummed on everything he produced. He mixed everything
he was producing. And was just really able to, like, lay his
hands on the music in a really cool, really cool way. And that
I was just inspired by that, yeah, I started, you know,
buying microphones, buying gear, learning how to record. He told
me the best piece of advice was to put a mono overhead and a
mono kick on the drum set and try to make that sound good.
Learn to balance your limbs, yeah, yeah, exactly, you know,
and you're on the sound better.com. I looked you up
there. You got all your products and services up there. Yeah, you
want this? It's gonna cost this. You want this? I scour the
internet. Yeah, there's, there's a, there's a lot of David
Harrison's in music. Is that, right? Yeah, there's like,
guitar players and composers,
and I got a call one day from Jeff Coffin. He goes this Dave
Harrison, I said, Yeah, I guess, Hey, man, I have a friend of
mine who just got a new Mac that he's setting up in his studio,
and I heard that you were the guy to call. I was like, no, if
you give me an hour in the manual, I might be able to
figure out how to plug the power cord, yeah, but I don't know
anything. If you're like, Hey, Jeff, Let's jam it turned out
there was another engineer in town named David Harris. Wow.
So, yeah, that's
crazy. Well, I found you on Instagram. Oh, well, that makes
me and I just followed you, and I found you Dave as well.
Yeah, no. Need to follow me. I just post stupid stuff all the
time. Product,
I love the fact that you posted 50 years ago. I was in a theater
to see
jaws. I went and saw Josh.
It was unbelievable, dude. I saw it last night. It's the
greatest.
Wait a minute. What you like? I was free last night, damn it.
Jaws, in the
future, you went to lunch today, didn't you didn't invite me.
So, yeah, I went to lunch today. Yeah,
Kelly, Kelly burrito and myself at 10am I
got a breakfast burrito when they was knocking on the door at
958 Why aren't you guys open? Comes in. He goes, dude, there's
10am give him a break. Man. Chill. Yeah, they haven't even
put
out the hot sauces. Call your friend Jim and see if he wants
to
join you. Oh, no, okay, Jim.
Jim's a little butt hurts a
little bit. Okay. No, I would have thought. I didn't think you
were in town last
night. That's okay, man. I watched, you know, all these
movies that you see on the streaming services that are like
1999 and then two weeks later, it's 1199 it comes down to 499
and then eventually it works its way onto Amazon and prime for
free. And so it was the latest
Final Destination bloodlines.
So I gotta say, I did actually bring my teammate, and he saw
the movie for the first time. No kid, 27 years old, and he's a
cinemaphile. He's like, a video, cinema junkie, and
then he's never seen Josh, the greatest movie ever made for the
first time, right? How much
fun was that? Was awesome for some for someone like me, yeah,
I've been watching it since I'm probably five. Yeah, I've seen
it 100 times. I've probably
seen it on the on this, yeah, big screen. Since I was 13,
did any of the jump scares get you? Yes, me too.
Like I knew for a fact already that Hooper was a spoiler alert,
yeah, Ben Gardner's boat movie, Ben Gardner's boat that was a
great jump scare, but I knew that Hooper was gonna survive,
yeah, and but when the shark was coming into the cage. That was
terrible. You think he's gonna get killed again.
It's also a little bit tainted by the fact that I used to be, I
don't read as much anymore, but I used to be this horrible
bookworm. When I was young. I read Josh before the read
so much different. And Hooper got killed by the shark. Cooper
was a freaking
douche, Yeah, cuz he was banging Brody's way. Yeah, Brody shot
Hooper in the neck while the shark was eating him.
How about one of the greatest scenes is, the way it's shot is,
is the dudo, who is the police captain. He's afraid of water,
which is our thing. Yeah, he's good. Thing is going down, and
he's right about to get in. The shark is coming down. I'm done.
I'm done.
It's quite possibly the most perfectly made movie, yeah,
ever, yeah.
And the great thing about it is it's perfectly made because the
shark didn't work,
and it exactly why, because that Spielberg had to rely on
Hitchcock esque Yes, scare tactic he couldn't release
reveal the beast.
Studio was worried and everybody was sweating bullets, terrible.
Yeah, right, yeah, funny. Have you seen that the offer on HBO?
Yeah, the making of The Godfather not yet list. Yeah,
that like, like, the studio was, like, panicking because this was
going to be a disaster. And now we're talking about the two
greatest movies. Ever Made.
Do you have a Have you seen these films? Yeah, okay. Now, do
you have a like for your generation? Is there a film that
resonates with you that's like, Oh, I gotta watch it. Like, for
me, it's like, alien. I can watch it over and over and over,
and if I see it, I just clear my schedule. I'm like, Oh, well,
fuck. There goes to Yeah.
I mean, I grew up on a lot of stuff that. I mean, I'm sure
y'all grew up with, like, Star Wars was the OGs. It was as
original one, okay. I mean, Return of the Jedi, like, at
least my second favorite
movie, okay, yes, except for the
Ewoks, yeah. You know, they
had to make it cute. I like him a little bit.
Suck it. He was rude. Shrek is probably that movie for me,
though. Shrek is Shrek is one.
It is good. That's when they made like because you were, you
were born in the millennium, 9999 so basically, you remember
having kids around that time. They made movies that we could
enjoy.
Oh no, if I make a list of my top 10 favorite movies without
genre being, you know, Nemo is that's good closer to the top
than to the bottom. Like I love that
movie, psychedelic trip, where the father actually loses his
son. He's dealing with this drama, yeah? And plus
Ellen DeGeneres, of course.
No, it's, I'll sit and watch, we watch those. I took him to the
theater to see Nemo, and then when it came out, I bought four
copies. I wanted, one for his house, one for my house, and two
for the bus.
It was a run where they made great movies for, you know, all,
like, parents could enjoy them because they were like little
adult jokes.
Yeah, now, and I'm like, that was not little though, right
my face. Oh yeah, The Incredibles.
Oh Madagascar too, with Alec Baldwin,
dude. It's loaded I left them moving. The funny
thing is that you had my kid. We took my kids to see, I think I
was at my camis first movie, Madagascar too. Yeah, that's
monsters versus aliens. Yep, great movie.
Oh yeah. How about the Monsters Inc, with my one eye, Billy
Crystal, whoa. Billy Crystal, I would say, like, probably
perhaps the greatest host of the Academy Awards. Oh, by far,
yeah. I mean, Jimmy Kimmel did a good does a good job
clean. Letterman was the worst again, but, and
who did a fantastic job was Conan O'Brien.
Well, Conan's just, yeah, I've never watched one minute of any
show Conan has ever had, but I am addicted to him in YouTube
clips. I will watch Conan YouTube clips all day long. I
like his podcast. I think so self deprecating, but I've never
seen because I don't really watch that kind of TV, like I'm
I was born, you know? I had to sit through regular TV, like,
knowing when things were on, yeah, and then this YouTube
streaming thing is just, that's just what the doctor ordered for
me. Yeah, on demand. I don't like commercials. I don't like,
you know, yeah,
anytime, yeah. Now, are you still you are a Yamaha drum guy.
Are you still Yamaha drunk? Well, don't
tell anybody. He switched. I teach math and science to fourth
graders. No, I'm still a Yamaha guy. But to be honest with you,
I have a Ludwig kit that I bought. I bought it like
somebody bought it for me, and it's just so easy to throw in
the car and go and nowadays, like most venues, have a house
kit, yeah,
but I saw that you have two Yamaha kits. And I was like,
maybe they're passed down from because 119's 82 recording
customers.
That's that's his great kid, um, but he, when I graduated high
school, he got me a Yamaha Live Oak, when that one of the rocks,
one of the original ones, before they took him off the market,
and, you know, revamped them because they got so popular, and
then put them out for apple juice. More. I just
didn't know if you can call it, you know, call the Japanese and
be like, hello. Can I have his
card behind? Dave, who I'll what.
So now, well, that is, that's a perfect transition. I was gonna
say. Now, how did you get into teaching math and science to
fourth graders? And did you go back to school to get your
your education degree? Yes, I had an undergrad in applied
music studies, which you know that and five bucks will get you
a cup of coffee. So I decided I wanted to do it. I kind of, I
kind of fell into it my my wife's a teacher, and she
suggested that I try subbing. And so I started subbing, and I
really liked it. And I found myself like on the road with
Edwin, thinking about students back at the school and and then
I started, I wonder what Johnny's doing today. Yeah, and
I started learning about the school to prison pipeline, and I
just looked at this as like, I think this is something I can
do, and there's a lot of people that do jobs I can't do for the
betterment of people, and this is what I can do, right? And I
kind of saw the writing on the wall with what life was going to
be if I didn't do something different, and I'm not sure I
wanted it, and I just kind of like I got one life, and I have
multiple interests, so I wanted to go do this other thing, plus
it gave me insurance. I mean, Mr. Asthma over here really
needed me to have good insurance. Get your inhaler. Oh,
he was he gave us, He gave us some jump scares, that's for
sure. But. And so I just Yeah, so I went to Tribeca Nazarene
University, got my master's degree in education, elementary
K through six. Nice. And then I went to David Lipscomb and got
el classes and got el certified so students, and I mean, to this
day, I really enjoyed and then, I mean, there's a lot of can
you, can you speak freely on this box? Oh, there's a lot of
bullshit that you have to deal with when you're a teacher. Is a
lot of stuff that's just very, very difficult. But it doesn't
matter, because at quarter to eight every day, the kids come
in, and I'm just so happy to see them. You know, I make fun of
their names, I sing songs about them.
Now, how many years is that you've been doing this. That's
my 15th year. Okay, so in that amount of time, you've seen kids
graduate the system, go on to college, yeah, I've seen some of
that, and some of the other direction, and becoming, well,
and become adults tax paying, you know, citizens, yeah, and
that's got to be, you know, I'm kind of in the same lane, in the
sense that I don't have a job connected to a specific
institution, but I do a lot of mentoring, sure, because I never
had kids, and, you know, I'm working on probably two decades
now of seeing people go on to moving to a great Music City, or
getting into college or becoming part of the industry, and I'm
like, Man, this is so satisfying.
Yeah, it's very satisfying, yeah. And just, you know, my, my
goal is to make this one year of their life where they can grow
and they can enjoy themselves, and then the rest, you pass it
off to someone else, and hopefully some kind hands will
hit that student
as well. Yeah, for me, it was like the most my goal is to
always be the most memorable teacher can I, because I had Mr.
White House in sixth grade, and he was a, he was a British chap
and, and he was just really pushed us. And, you know, we had
a school newspaper, and he encouraged us to read, like,
insanely advanced literature, like, remember that book?
There's this book called The Clan of the Cave bear. It was
that thick. I read that sucker. He wanted us to read, you know,
all the, you know, The Canterbury Tales and the
advanced reading summer list. And I did it in the sixth grade.
Yeah, you know. And he did you do it
because Daryl Hannah was in the movie,
I know you, oh, yes, that's back when you had, you had, you hit
pause, but it was grainy, and nowadays you can just
there it is.
But you know, a lot of it too is, you know, like I said, like,
when Nick was born, I had to leave, and I wanted to come home
and and be a dad, be a dad, you know, and, and I wanted to be a
dad to his brothers. The three of them are the three amigos
there. Yeah, they sit around talking about anime, and do
you have any like like that is, I want to say appreciation. Are
you aware of that sacrifice? I mean, do you have any like depth
and weight of measure of the sacrifice he made?
I think about it a lot. I think sacrifice is a is a harsher term
that I would probably think about it. I would, you know, I
think it was just the right decision, even though I, you
know, I benefited from it. I do think, like, that is what,
that's what I would want to do if I was put in that position.
That is, that is me saying, like, okay, that that's the job.
That is what you have to do.
It's, it was just a decision. I just made a decision, like
something
else, like it was out of your system,
a little bit out of my system. I'd done everything. I realized
that, you know, success was really just a picture of, like a
guy holding a picture of success. It wasn't necessarily
the real thing, like there wasn't that much behind it.
Because I know that, because, to this day, I can't go to Publix
and buy olive oil without hearing myself playing drums.
Yeah, yes, I'm not cool. I'm not sitting in a Scrooge McDuck
vault rolling around gold coins, you know? So it wasn't what I in
those in those terms, it wasn't what I thought it was now, in
terms of having experiences, adventures, and being able to
play great music that I was really proud of, it was more,
yes, I got to play with the premier singer songwriter and
acoustic guitar player of his generation. Yeah, he's one of
the best musicians I've ever known and ever played with.
Wonderful people are like, did you use a click? I was like, No,
I had Edwin. I didn't. He was the click. Yeah, that dude's
guitar is guitar. He's the best drummer that's ever
been. Well, that always works really good on the on the six
eight feel, because six eight is better without a click. It just
is. Yeah, those extra two beats, those extra pesky two beats when
we
when we cut out b the producer, Matt srlytic, we were sitting
around for an hour while he was programming the click to get a
little bit faster toward the bridge and then come back down
into the tempo map. Yeah, it's tempo mapping, and I'm just
sitting there going, let's just do it old school. Why are you
doing that? Well, we want to feel more real, and
let's just play it real. Yeah,
I was gonna do that anyway. Yeah, at my time, I felt really
confident with my time. I thought my time was really good.
It was like, I don't have chops, I don't. Have independence, like
a lot of people have, but I can keep time, yeah, all day long.
Now, when did you get married? What year? Oh, which one, I
guess the one that brought you everything here, Gigi
and I married. I think it was 1985 nice so. And we got
engaged, we dated for a week, and then we got engaged, and
then I drove to New Hampshire. And I moved to New Hampshire
because I was studying with Gary Chaffee in Boston. And after a
summer of that, you know, comments like, well, you don't
really seem to have any technique problems, but it's
because you don't have any technique that one that would
hit home. But I kind of realized, like, I love a lot of
things, and one of the things I don't necessarily love is
sitting at a drum set for 12 hours a day. I'm not Vinny Cal
you. I appreciate him. You want to play with songs, songs, and I
want to go fishing, yes?
Just whatever. Yeah. You know, really good
fisherman. Yeah. Now it's my dad's a lot easier to look like
a fisherman.
You gotta have the gear. My brother is like a, like a, like
a fly Fisher, fly fish.
Oh, yeah, I haven't gotten it as RSR, the river.
He makes his own, you know. And, you know. And then he said, he
said, I want to take you fishing one time rich. And I was like,
do I have to wear those gigantic boots that go up to your Yeah?
He just cracks up to this day. He he quotes and be like, do I
have to wear those ridiculous boots?
Waiters, yeah, into the bicycling thing. So I do have to
wear the ridiculous shorts. You have to, because otherwise
you Chief doing distances like that. Yeah? And I only asked
because I've been really getting into biking myself. Oh, right
on. And, you know, I actually want, at my age being so old, I
want to get back. I want to get more into, like, the E biking,
but not because of the laziness aspect of it. I just want to
enjoy it, yeah, and build up my stamina.
Yeah, sure, they're great. I mean, I'm out there on the
Natchez Trace, and guys on E bikes are just right past me.
And I don't, you know.
So what is it? Is it have like, a tiny little motor on
it, or something, got a motor, and it's pedal assist. So if you
come up to, like, like, in my case, there's like, a bunch of
hills out here. And if I want to run all the way down to Main
Street on my bike, it'll, it'll knock the wind out of you, you
know, I mean, that's doing its purpose, right? But with any
bike, it just, it just, it makes it more enjoyable.
Did he wear like, a helmet?
Oh, yeah, I had a bad wreck last September, and came around the
corner and the whole bike just went out from under me, and I
separated my shoulder. And, well,
you know about Dennis Holt's accident? You know Dennis Holt,
the session drummer in Nashville. He had, like, a
horrendous motorcycle or bicycle, because it because a
deer. I almost
got hit by a deer once. How fast do you go on average?
I'm not a real speed demon. I don't really want to go fast.
Anything over 30 miles an hour. I'm nervous and I don't like
it. That's pretty dang fast. Yeah, I mean, that's, I'm lucky
if I get, you know, 15 miles an hour.
It's funny, because there's a there's one down, is this Murray
County? Well, this is Williamson, but not too far from
right?
So there's one down in Murray County, Down Columbia that I do
every year, called the Scarecrow. And I do it's 45
miles, and I do that one, and it's just in a day. And then
then there's gravel ones like the gravel grinder and the
gravel revival. And those are brutal, because those aren't
even roads, they're just destination. What bike shop do
you like around here? What's your choice Mohab, and they do
most of my work in Franklin, okay? And then pretty much
Mohab. Is that where you guys are? Franklin? No, I live in
Bellevue. Try to drive you guys had to drive 90 minutes. Yeah,
we came down early. How about that traffic? Well, we didn't
hit any because, you know, I took a half day off school
because I knew, like, if I taught the whole day I wasn't
gonna get I think
it's so cool you guys just like, you know, because this show is,
like, herding cats. It's like, you know, the guest list is so
long, all the people that I want to get, but then I'll, I'll cast
the net, and I'll send it out to eight drummers, and the first
two that come back like you're booked, because I, you know, I
got to get somebody right, so I appreciate
you. And I talked about doing it for a while, and I was kind of
like, well, why would you know? And then I thought, you know, it
might be fun. Yeah, yeah. So I get to bring my best friend, my
favorite trimmer in the world.
I love this. Oh, my God, total. You know, Jay and Max Weinberg
situation here, man, yeah, yeah, Nick
was playing saxophone in the band, and then one day he just
comes to me, he goes, Dad, I really want to play drums. Like,
well, we got him, so he just started playing. And I'd never,
I don't think I ever gave you a drum lesson, ever.
He taught me how to play 50 ways and pretty shuffled
nice. But those are intensely complicated. It wasn't the
first. I still can't play them. Yeah, the pretty shuffles
belongs to a futures and people, yeah, many people should, yes. I
see a lot of people
using it because you got, you got the little quiet footnote,
oh yeah, in there that shapes the phrase.
That's how I've been in my song. Dogs. Now, instead of doing the
book, I don't, it's good night tip
your waitress, you just wear like that's been a tick of mine
for since I was in high school. Don't play sit down at the kit
and I play 50 ways. It's just what I do, you know? And now I'm
actually playing with someone who does 50 ways in their show.
Nice. And I gotta tell you, it's a lot harder
just to get it to land and feel good with the inner dynamics
cars coming out of the courses back into the thing every single
time, I always flub for a couple of beats.
You know, yeah, and Steve cat is one of them. He's the most
recorded drummers in history, but he's also one of the nicest
guys. Yeah, I've
never met him, but I've only seen him once, yeah, but if I
was gonna see him once, it was on the Paul Simon rhythm of the
sage store. So that was, when did you see that 92 was right
after they did the Central Park thing? Okay? They were here at
Starwood
because I saw them. I want to say 99 or maybe 2000
Star Wars was Antioch, right? Yeah, out there.
And if that show was still going, I'd still be sitting
there going, sure, yeah, it was unbelievable. Richard T was in
the band. Michael Brecker was in the man. God, it was, yeah,
it was a big old like, ensemble.
Okay, so there's a saxophone relationship here, big because
you had to play sax for a little bit,
right? That my story was, I wanted to play the drums, and my
mother said I had it too loud. She wasn't wrong. Why don't you
play the saxophone? I always like the sack.
Okay? And then you start on the sax. Yeah, I started love sex.
Yeah, I wouldn't mind giving it a shot. Now,
it's a great, I mean, it's, it's linear, so it's very easy to
understand how notes work. I had a great time, just like,
learning how to play music, understanding how to read music,
how to just get a grasp
So, and then you get to, you know, you get to really sell it,
you know, with, with, like, the Dave Koz thing, you know, like
in the Kenny G thing, and the circular breathing. So I was
just up in Long Island. And, of course, you know, in Long
Island, you got to play one Billy Joel song. I played with
this local band, and the saxophone player, he plays sax
and Debbie Gibson's band. But I love it when there's a melodic
solo on an instrument, whether it be guitar, saxophone, and the
person takes the time to learn it, no for note, because, you
know, soccer moms can sing it, they can hum it. Sure you gotta
do it. No for no. And he did that, you may be right solo. No
for no.
And
I was like, oh, yeah, you got me on the very first drummer jam
that I did, yes, and it was the Stuart Copeland one, yeah?
Douglas corner, I did hungry for you, yeah. And so I brought in
two sax players. Yes, it was Nicholas and Craig Wright, oh,
my God. And that was played four notes 10 years ago, okay? And
then, but then there's also
Greg right, Eric Church's drummer, yes, he played. Those
were my two sacks.
Where was I that night? Oh, my God, those drummer jams. Man,
we've had, we've had a Jerry Gaskill one. We had a Stuart
Copeland one. We had a Neil Pierre one. We had an Alex Van
Halen one, the Phil Collins one. We did, do we have a Do we have
a bottom one daughter?
Bottom? Yeah, the bottom one. You had a Jeff won, but those
were before they really took off.
Dude, that's seven right there. But there's a picture on your
Instagram, way, way, way down of you sitting on the Alex Van
Halen, kids, wait, what did you play?
I played incredible rock because Junior's Great.
Oh, perfect. It the flam on snare on the snare on beat four,
you can't beat
Oh no, I had it was so much fun. And you got to come to some of
those. So, yeah, I
got to see the Phil Collins one. I did the Stuart Copeland one
with
you. And you know, he did a loud jams when you were still 15,
yeah, like one or two. Actually, he
did Jojo, oh, my god,
that was hard.
He just was so great. And he's up there playing, you know, he
wants, I'm nervous for him, you know, he walks on stage just a
couple things, looks around, 123,
he's nice. Away. And people are coming up to me, go, he's got
your time
35 years.
Yeah, no, it's, I'm always developing. It's the first thing
I check, like, you know, like when I sat in with this band in
Long Island, the first thing I did was gather all the footage
from all my friends immediately, just made sure that I was, is,
is it as good as I remembered it feeling, you know what I mean?
And I'm hard on myself, but that's the number one thing.
Yeah, I used to have the mini disc player, and I would record
my monitor mix, because I had, like, a little mix mixture, you
know, I had my two mix and then I was, you know, I had, I ran a
few loops, not a lot of stuff. Yeah, I wanted to have complete
control over it sure, because when you don't, you end up it's
tighten up your butt cheeks. You can't hear that. Ashley Simpson
on SNL, yeah. So I was recording my monitor mix every night, and
then listening to it after the gig, and going, Well, why the
hell did I play that film that just broke everything that was
and so I really just got that gig down to this essence of. Of
and at one point I did an entire tour with one a kick drum, a
snare drum, a hat and one cymbal. Yeah, that was the rig
for the whole that's awesome. And then God, Hendrix is on
fire, man. I've been covering that lick up all this time, you
know. So it really was a great eye opener. Wow.
What was it like when you guys did the Van Halen one? What was
it like to sit behind that kit?
That's awesome. It felt great.
It was set up great, yeah, because we weren't allowed to
adjust anything
you gotta Yeah? So, I mean, this, the seat heights got to
remain the same. I think
that was the only thing we were allowed to adjust, was the seat,
seat, yeah?
So, because he was a, he was a high snare drum guy, yeah, you
know, it's
worked for me. I had to crank that damn thing because I'm a
low rider like Tommy Aldrich, which is probably not great for
my
back. So, I mean, but basically you were hitting it. What naval
level right around there,
he found a video of me playing all weight recently. It was
interesting. I wish I had learned the, you know, you don't
get, get to get on the kit. So sometimes the drum to drum
specifics, right? As a macro rhythm, I knew that all I have
to do is kind of like phrase this around the existing drums,
because it could actually get
on the kit, two up and two down, yeah,
and you're a one up, two down, yeah, right. But you did. You
played fly by night, and that was the, I'd never heard of the
drummer jam. That was the first one I ever went to, yeah, and,
but then I was watching everybody, and everybody was
coming off going, God, that drum sets, terrible. Oh, really.
Well, it was just, you know, massive, massive kit.
It wasn't, I mean, he didn't really set him up. Neil didn't
really set him up very ergonomically, back, no,
but it was funny, because and then Murphy went
up and
did limelight, and I thought he just crushed that. And then that
was the first time I ever heard Billy play. He closed the show
with LaVilla strong Jada. And I was like, Who is this kid? Yeah,
Billy, Billy Freeman. Oh, god, yeah, Billy's great. And I was
like, Oh, the future of drumming in
Nashville. He's a, he's he's a, he's a Vinny type guy. It's so
funny. We had him on the show is his wife bought him a birthday
greeting from Vinny caluda. That's awesome.
Well, this is gonna sound like I'm making this up, but I swear
I'm not. I'm in West Virginia. I'm in college. I'm trying to
figure out the second verse of keep it greasy off of Joe's
Garage. And I can't find the count, yeah. And I go, I
remember hearing that Frank Zappa lived in Sherman Oaks,
California. So I'm gonna call 411, ask for Sherman Oaks and
look for a number for Vincent or Vinnie coluda spelled it. They
gave me a number. I called it. Vinnie answered, come on, this
is amazing. And we talked for 45 minutes, and he was the nicest
person in the world.
And you're like, Hey, man, I'm I mean, you explained yourself,
yeah, hey, I'm calling from West Virginia.
I grew up 10 minutes down the road from where he grew up, so
we knew a lot of the same people. I played in a band I put
myself through college playing with a singer that Vinnie had
played with in the past. Yes. And then we also have a mutual
friend, Randy Sander Beck, who was Kevin Murphy's teacher at
ETSU, who was my teacher at WVU,
wow. But you know, if you look at the Zappa songbook, I feel
like Joe's Garage still. It's, it's so holds up. Yeah, it's
incredible. That's my favorite. It's the whole thing Joe's
Garage. Lucille has messed up. My mind is my favorite if you
want to hear how to play reggae fusion, oh, and then the most
incredible way.
And those buzz rolls in, that fat snare drum, and those hats,
he's like, 22 right?
And it was just recorded in like, you know, Zappos basement.
It's, I mean, it's, to me, it's like, just ridiculous drum sound
thing, yeah, so on those Gretch drums, those yellow ones, yeah,
unbelievable.
Just they sound so good. And, and, and it was weird, because
the first thing I've heard Vinny on was Gino Vannelli Walker,
night Walker. Yeah, dude, because my friend Jim
florekovich, he's at one of those Pittsburgh guys union
town. Oh, you never heard of any call you to, yeah. Oh, man,
Vinnie. And he plays me Nightwalker. And I'm like, What
the hell is this, you know? And then he goes, Oh, you got to
check out Joe's Garage. So that's how I kind of and I'd
already had zoo to lower, so I was already bozzy owed, but I
hadn't really heard Vinnie before, so and then it was just
everything Vinnie, yeah, but Gino was the gig to get because
he went from Graham Lear to Casey Sherrell, yep, to mark
crani to
Vinny Cal You did to David garabali, yep.
And he's got some young, Oh, that 22 year old lion now
fire, yeah, because Gino is a drummer, and he knows drumming,
yeah, you know so and, you know, it's funny, because, like, when
I was 25 I lived in the same town as my parents, and I talked
to them once every other month for 10 minutes, and he and I
talked. Got a phone four times a week, and it's an hour and a
half
Wow, because we're talking
about Mark crane, commonality. We're talking
about Barrymore Barlow, you know, Jim,
do you have the YouTube pipe through the system? Uh, what do
you need? I just would it's just a kill to hear just eight bars
of Lucille has messed up my mind, please. Lucille has
messed up my mind. It
sounds like roto times it
is perfect.
Yeah, I just, I just turned my next roommate of mine onto that
record not too long ago, and you just the look on his face. I was
like, I'm gonna start showing this album to people. I think
it's good.
Well, it's funny because we were outside in the waiting to come
in, you know, yeah, he got here a little early, and I'm showing
him average white band videos, and he's showing me slipknot.
That definitely just happened,
that new drummer, and Slipknot, I mean, it's like all the
drummers have been amazing. But, you know, we were talking to
Jay. That is Eloy coscro. I mean, yeah,
oh no, tight.
I've just never seen somebody hit so hard and great sound like
great sound is great, great tone, great time and totally
accurate.
Yeah, yeah, he's undeniable. It's I
did I miss the beginning?
Oh, we'll hear it again if you want.
There we go the way it straightens out at the very end.
I
love all the symbols with no bass drum.
Yeah.
Ike Willis. Is he still alive?
I'll be singing this in the stairwell at school tomorrow. Is
that where you go?
My kids, Nobody's allowed to talk, but not because they can't
talk in the store, because they can't mess up my singing. Yeah,
as soon as we hit it, I'm like, I guess you wonder where
Nice?
So, yeah, I sing
in the stairwell at school, because the acoustics are
unbelievable. Oh yeah. Like, those 50s do up groups, yeah.
And then the kids are all just like, Oh, shut up. And I'm like,
I have a SAG after card.
What do you have, kids?
Yeah, the sad, the sag residuals, any, anytime you sing
on a late night television show, the pay, the pay is much better.
Oh yeah. So I always like, just give me a microphone. But so the
two guys that sing, Jack and Tully, their checks are fatter
anytime we do a late night show, if you'd be so surprised, like,
ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna pull back the curtain. You know
what it pays to play the Tonight Show, $500 but do you think it's
like you it's like a thing like, Oh, my God, I'm gonna play that.
And it's incredible accomplishment. Like, 500
bucks. Oh, that's 750
Yeah. See, you make little bit
more for a little bit learn
how to rep. I don't know how those guys remember all that
stuff. Somebody who's got the the dense flow, like, what's his
name,
the the white rapper, kid, Eminem, yeah.
Oh no. It's I, it's so far beyond me.
And the rhythm, the rhythm structure to fit it all in. It's
like
Buster rhymes. That's, it just boggles my brain.
Maybe just do like gang vocals, like doubling the vocals.
I'm so busy back there I can't be singing. I'm sweating and
grunting, twirling.
Lincoln TV is such a weird thing. I did the view, yeah, you
know, because everyone was the wedding guy, you know. And we
got there and, and I didn't end up singing any background. All I
did was play shaker, and could not ask for more. And they
didn't even have that mic. And I got my 500 bucks, or whatever it
was, yeah, and, and it was funny, because it snowed really
bad, and we couldn't fly out. So I was stuck at the Omni Hotel,
and I just, I went through that mini bar and the mini fridge and
ordered room service and just took the took the robe and
skipped out
Regis tab, I'm so happy that you and I broke our pattern of you
being my Uber because you were my Uber driver for like, two
events. Oh, did I you were like, you're like, I'll drive you
home, kid. Oh yeah,
we're at the red door, and I'm like, rich, let me, let me run
you home.
Thanks. I have been drinking. I've just been doing meth all
night.
The red door, thank God, yes. So my new
red door is right up the street. Is the mission cigar bar right
there as my so good. But near Z, you know what? You know near,
yeah, he, he went to the mission cigar lounge in downtown
Franklin on the square. He really nice. It's really nice,
really, yeah, that's cool.
We might be doing some podcasts there. Great vibe, man.
Yeah, I used to go to a cigar bar down on Jim Umbrian with
Buda. Oh, it was like a whiskey cigar place,
yeah, was it next to 10 roof or whatever? Yeah, it
was right next to tin roof. What was that? It was seven years.
Seven years. What's your go to stogie?
I doubt
I'm the last guy in America I still smoke.
Oh, good cigarettes. Yeah,
camels, Marlboro lights.
I'm on Marlboro light special select now, but it was, it was
camel lights for a long time.
Do you lie to your doctor? Do you lie to him? Or you? Did you
say, like, yeah, I smoke.
Yeah, that's what am I gonna do lives? What
are they up to? A pack now, $357.28
and I don't, you know, I do that, and then sometimes I vape,
and I do a little both. And, you know, somebody asked me just the
other day, said, I don't know how anybody can smoke anymore. I
was like, I don't know how anybody can't Yeah, awesome. Me
and Chris Nix are always, you know, I quit for two and a half
years. Yeah, I didn't touch a cigarette. And was it? Was it
miserable? No, not really. I gotten past the misery part. You
know, the first couple of months, I can't imagine.
Were you the worst kind of quitter? Were you like, you
caught a secondhand smoke whiff, and you're like, Oh no, no, no,
I didn't, because I mean to me, No, I never did that stuff. I'll
smell it. And I'm like, Oh
yeah, it was weird. I didn't touch one for the longest time.
And then when we did the Phil Collins thing, I was doing
auxiliary percussion and a lot of hand Sonic stuff. Yeah, so I
was at the rehearsal all day long, and at the end, nicks and
I are out in the driveway, and he's got a camel light. And I
was like, I let my guard down, just for a second, and took one
one cigarette. And two and a half years was out the window
like that. So I know if I ever really do successfully put them
down. I could never go back. Yeah, I learned that much.
They still make camel wides.
Probably not this one awful. The hash on that thing would just
because, you know, I was on stage with Edwin, and I just
always had a funny Carlos. He'd be holding a note, and I'd be
like, you know, it was Steve Gadd in one trick pony with his
cigarette smokes just going into your eye, and you couldn't be
happier, and you're just playing, and you're covering
yourself with ash, and because he's ridiculous, it's so stupid.
Can I try smoking rich? No, never. Just so smart. Yeah. I
mean, like, really, like, if there's one thing I would change
if I went back in time, I would never
start. I really feel bad about the cigars, because I just know
that still, the smoke is getting into your
Now, ultimately, you know, you know when to say when, yeah,
yeah, right now when
it's so funny. For years, I've always been the, you know, the
Catskills manager, like my impersonation of anybody in the
music industry. And now I that guy. I'm a, I'm an old goat in
Nashville, like, survivor of decades in the industry, smoking
a
cigar, yeah? Crazy guy, yeah. Oh, that guy's been here
forever, yeah?
But at least, you know, it's so funny that even though you're
not touring, you get to lay your hat in in the Music City, one of
the last places for the music business. But we're all in the
same place at the same time recording, and there's a great
well of talent, like you just named like, five bands that you
play with at the third and Lindsay of the world. And, you
know, tell you the truth, I have been looking for some fun thing
that I could do where we do, like a like a guilty pleasures
type or long players type thing, where we could play four times a
year or something, and it's a big event, and Nashville comes
out, it's just hard to find.
Just wait for my average white band, covered band, and that's
it. That's it for me. I'm just doing that
well, you and I were supposed to do some, some big event, and you
and I were going to switch off on percussion. And then Jason
booked something last minute, and then I couldn't do it at
all, and you did all of the auxiliary percussion. I can't
remember what it was like a year or two
ago, yeah. But yeah, it's funny, because it's, I feel connected
to all of it, and I'm I just played on a record with my boy,
Eric Hamilton, and then I've been playing Eric Hamilton since
night, and then you mixed it, and he's mixing the album, which
is kind of like having your son do your colonoscopy,
because he's pulling up all the files he
can see where the like. Can see where the mistakes are. Then
I'm going to move that.
He gets the call from me. Hey, man, second snare drum hit in
the second course, man, you're going to have to tuck that thing
to the right just a little bit. He does it for me. I do, but I
came from an era where you didn't get to do that. You had
to learn when to cough so that you knew like you're listening
to a song you played on with your buddies. And you know that
snare drums coming late so you because it was on two inch tape
and there wasn't any moving, yeah. But now we get to fix
everything. So I get to sound like, you know, which is good,
and. Bad, others good and bad.
Yeah, you got the, what is power of love? Yeah, when it comes in,
it's, there's a flam between the kick and the snare.
Oh, yeah. That was a thing back in the day when we recorded to,
I feel like, you know, chime in. But when we recorded to tape,
and there was a four on the floor, feel if you flamed a
little bit between the kick and snare was fat, and it was you
looked the other way, and it was very acceptable. But now
everything is just so well.
This is what happened when engineers became producers,
instead of coming from the music. You had these engineers,
and they're like, up on the grid. You know, I don't want to
say who, because I don't want to bad mouth anybody. But there was
a record that sold 10 million copies, maybe 12 million copies.
And I talked to the guy who mixed it, and the producer
turned it in, and every hit from every drum was so on the grid.
Yeah, it didn't sound human at all, yeah. So this guy had to go
and, like, introduce humanity into moving things off of the
grid, yeah, you know. And he goes, and he said, that just
sucked, like he it took him a month to fix the fixed tracks.
Wow, to unfix them.
Yeah, so 10 million copies here,
that's, I wonder if that's going to make a comeback, especially
now that AI is so the rage, and it's good, taking over the music
industry and creative and all this other stuff. You got to
wonder if that's going to make like, the way they used to
record a thing again, you know, a band on the
floor kind of already is, if you look at like, what Lewis Cole's
doing, that's, that's the only thing I'm interested in. Did you
record it in your house, in the stairwell? It doesn't have to be
perfect. It's just beautiful. Yeah. And he turns me on to
stuff all the time, and I turn him onto stuff. We're going to
see Noga Erez this week. I don't know if you've ever checked that
no band out of Israel. And the new thing, and it's just in time
for an old, fat guy like me is playing really light, and it's
cranking the freezing but just playing light because there's no
nobody's on headphones. Yeah, there's no monitors. You're just
playing and they're making you're shooting your video and,
man, some really good music is coming out of that stuff. Nice.
I don't know if you've seen the the nowhere stuff, if you've not
checked it out, dude, that's 21st century music at nowhere,
nowhere, K, N, O, W, I, E, R, nowhere. It's Lewis Cole and
Genevieve arcoty, wow. And dude, do yourself a favor.
Yeah, it's as good as it gets. Well, I like that when you're
you know. I mean, you see that a lot in roots music and
Americano, where it's like a much lighter touch.
Yeah, much the drums sound huge. I mean there, I mean watching
some of that Beatles documentary on ringum. I mean, like, there's
times where he is hitting, but there's also times where, I
mean, we talk about, talk about this all the time, where the,
like, the idea of the drums were huge in our heads, but really it
was a single microphone standing on top of but, you know, the
performance is what's huge, yeah, you know
the humanity, right? Every
picture tells a story. Mickey
Waller, yeah, my favorite. And you listen to trash hat rock,
it's like a, it's probably a Ludwig club date kit with a
couple of mics on it, and they're all in the right ear.
All the drums are in the right that's
one of my favorite records, man, that records and they just came
back from the pub.
Yeah? You know, Oh, we did we because we did Maggie Mae on a
record, like we decided to, one day at sound check, we just
started jamming, and we decided to learn Maggie Mae, and we
learned it, and then we did on the record, and we said we had
to get in and actually analyze it. And there's so many wrong
notes, just you can tell they cut it once, and they were like,
it's fine, move on. And it's been part of the fabric, guys,
yeah, for 50 years.
Incredible, incredible. Hey, with you living here since 1990
Yeah. Do you guys have a father and son restaurant? You guys go,
do you love for your favorite kind of food?
Kind of, not really one between the two of us, because he's a
ramen guy. So what's your ramen joint?
And black dynasty has some of the best food in Nashville,
hands down. Where's that that's over. It's over. It's like, kind
of by Sylvan Park, black dynasty, white dynasty. It's in,
it's in a brewery called Bearded Iris. Oh, wow. Those guys,
they're just, they're insane. They travel to Japan a bunch to
go.
Jim's got a beer
podcast. Bearded Iris got some good stuff. Oh yeah.
It's actually when I got into beer, because I was going over
there eating ramen all the time, and they were telling me to
start pairing beers with the bowls I was getting, and you
need to listen to the ales and tails podcast on your coaster
there.
Yeah, but that's nasty. Ready? Can we keep the coasters
Absolutely, yeah.
Man, got coffee cups for you too. Yeah. You guys are taking
home the iconic
deal, it's not dishwasher safe. Okay, remember there.
We found out the hard way. It came out it looked like
a the Hulk, you know, like old gamma.
No, we need to do. We need to get a t shirt with the mug on
it, and that says underneath, not, not dishwasher safe. Yeah.
Yeah, thing that'll be my school mug, because I have to hand wash
my dishes at school. Yeah, yeah. How's your teacher lounge? Is it
fun? Gossip and stuff happening in there? I don't go in it ever.
Do you brown bag it a lot of times? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if
not, I run over to the twice daily and get a cheeseburger.
And, you know, I'm still like, what school is it that you teach
it? Yeah, I teach at Gower Elementary, which is right next
to McCarthy's bookstore over there on the west side.
Used to so I substitute Todd at all the because you know that
back in the day, in 1980 would be like, you have a job request
at Gower Elementary.
I remember I would get like, 57 calls a day. I was like, if I
could book sessions like this, I'd be incredible.
And then we had, I had the Map Quest it to figure out how to
how to get there. That was like, and
then print it out. We have survived some technology. Man,
are you finding those calls to increase over time? Because, I
mean, the teaching professions kind of,
well, there's no subs anymore. They've ruined the whole thing.
What do you mean? What do you mean? Well, we can't get subs
where everybody's just on their own. Now there's no that whole
thing is just,
they can't find anybody to sell it. Just made it, I
don't know. They keep tinkering with it, and less and less
people want to do it. And I'm so stupid because I worked in
Swimming Pool Heater factories and painted gas stations, and I
could have been subbing the whole time. Yeah, indoors.
Well, I mean, it's pretty I mean, you got to get your
tuberculosis shot and you got to get a background check the
eye fingerprint check. Yeah, that went okay, yeah.
But
so when you say you're on your own, what if you can't make it?
What happens? We just the principal figures out we have
classroom associates, which are like subs that come to school
every day and they put them to work, and then we have a few
people that are still kind of in the system, but it's, it's, it's
not what it was when you were in it, wow. And when you were in
it, you would get 30 calls a day. Oh, it's insane. And what
the worst part was, I figured out that if, if they, if you
show up before 11 o'clock, you get the full day's pay. So
they're calling you at 630 in the morning and you're just
going, Nope, yeah, nope, nope. And everybody get that 10
o'clock go all right on the land
loop. Oh, the perfect job for somebody who wants to be a
musician, because if you get a gig or a recording session or
something, you just don't go, the computer doesn't go we
really need, you know, just on to the next call.
Totally. Hey Jim, ask your question
buddy. You know I'm actually looking up.
I do have to clarify what they sure have done, but we'll get to
that.
Okay, so you're waiting on me. Okay,
you find your special questions, and I'll take your normal
questions. So if you guys had to play you guys, each can end you
might have the same, same band, but if you had to be in a
tribute band, then only play that music for the rest of your
life. What? What band? I'll let him
answer for me, average white band. Yeah,
it's all I care about. Uh, that's hard. Do
you know Steve? Are you friends with Ferroni? No, okay,
I wouldn't dare Yeah,
and 77 I cut school to go down and wait in line to get tickets.
And I got there at seven o'clock in the morning, and they opened
the ticket window at 10, and I was the only guy standing, yeah,
first ticket, amazing. And I saw them on that tour, all right.
And I did get to ask him a question when he did a clinic at
four long ago. I got to ask him. So you really, I'm so deep on
him, yeah,
yeah,
okay, so, but who would what band would you
probably rush? Yeah? I mean, they're my favorite, yeah,
now what that'll keep it interesting
for the rest of your life. I mean, I'm in a bit of a power
windows phase right now, nice, but I think permanent waves to
grace under pressure, that's, that's permanent waves, moving
pictures, signals, grace under pressure is the keyboard. Ears.
It's just unbelievable. I like signals, the music's crazy.
Talent windows, big money I used to play, be able to play that
note for note. Well, that was
permanent waves or something that's no signals. Power signals
factor, big money. Big money's on power windows. Yeah, that's
power window, yeah.
And I stopped at signals, like I bought the record, all excited,
like every other rush record, and put the needle down, and it
was over. I was done
with because of the keyboards. No, yeah, no reason at all.
I was just done with them, and I took 35 years off, and then
rediscovered him, rediscovered him. And it turns out they
didn't wait for me. They just wouldn't have made music anyway.
They were like, Dave, stop listening. We should probably
hang this, right?
You got to appreciate the fact that with the documentaries they
made in the last 20 years on those guys, they really just say
they played the they didn't give a damn, and it's they just, you
know, the people followed along, or that they did. They had a
raving fan base.
The craziest thing was, and I can't say this 100% sure, but
I'm pretty sure I was at Neil's very first gig with Rush. Oh my
God, because they were, they were opening for your right heap
at the Pittsburgh civic arena, and I remember. Going to see
your eye heat. So I probably saw rush on Neil's very first gig
ever. But I don't remember, because I didn't really discover
them until all the world's a stage, yeah, and from that point
it was on, I saw him like four times on the Fair Board of Kings
store, and I was the biggest rush fan in the world, amazing.
But then R B just took over that, yeah, just became
everything was R B for me, so, so then he's like, you know,
dude, you're really missing out, man, you gotta listen, he is
missing out. Great pressure. Late 80s era is crazy, yeah,
it really was. I'm a fan of that
era. I love it that it's not nostalgic for you Nick, it's
actually new, yeah, because we live, we live through it, you
know?
Well, honestly, like, I was in middle school, and I was that
was, like, the first record I ever waited to come out. Was
their last studio album, Clockwork Angels. So I got to
sit there and be excited for a record to come out, and then it
came out. And I remember being downstairs watching videos on
the computer. Wow, the documentary is playing. And I
think, I think my dad told the story that one of my brothers
was like, come on, come on, dad. Show him. Show him. And my dad
goes over, like, behind the computer, and pulls out this
envelope that had two rush tickets to at Bridgestone. That
would have been what, like 2013 that's one of the greatest
memories of my whole life. I have a, I mean, this is a rush
tattoo from that record. Wow, man. So, I mean, I think about
this. I think about seeing Russia. My dad, white band,
yeah.
So what is that? A
rhythmic thing? Yeah, it's from the cell. Person, person, okay,
so
I just had fun, you guys.
I see a letter at that letter to that got that
on the EF for show you with a haircut.
The thing about
the this was, I heard this and I decided to become a drummer,
yeah? Like I heard the song, I heard this lick. I still think
the drummer that played on this was the original drummer for the
average white band, and I think he's one of the greatest
drummers that ever lived. And I've only ever heard him play
eight songs, yeah, and because he passed away, he died of a
drug overdose when he was 25 when pick up the pieces was
still moving up the charts. Don't do drugs kids. Don't do
drugs kids. And then feroni came in and replaced Yeah, but
Robbie, like you go listen to that record, man. You're just
like he would have played on Steely Dan records. He was that
good. Jim Gordon, good, he was Bernard Purdy good,
you know, Oh, how about that? Jim Gordon, My God, what a
horrible thing you're hearing voices he was, he was this
incredible session drummer, like, you know, the Carly Simon
era and the, oh
yeah, all that kind of, the one that, that picaro
just Yeah, so vain, incredible. Heard voices in his head. Killed
his mother. Oh, wow. And he's in prison for life.
Man just recently passed away.
Wow, I just not that long ago.
Well, hopefully his prison experience was not
tending on a high note, anyway.
On the other hand, I'm a motivational speaker.
On the other hand,
on a much higher note, it's funny because people will come
up to me and go, are you still playing a whole lot? And I'm
like, No, I'm not really playing as much as I used to, but the
boys kicking ass. So the franchise?
Yes, franchise is a
good the Harrison family.com legacy.
So that's Dave Harrison, and that's Nick Harrison. How do you
guys like to be found? Do you have like an easy
you know, we established or Instagram.
Do you like people signing in your DMS?
Like, I've never understood this well, like people would call me.
How'd you get my number? I want to get business cards made up
that just say, Dave Harrison, recovering asshole, and no phone
number, no.
It's amazing. I contest information.
Are you an AFM guy? Were you always like a union guy?
You know, very little, actually, very little. I didn't do a lot
of the Union session stuff. I did a lot of custom type work
when I was, when I was doing a lot of sessions I did. I worked
all the time, but it was not, you know, Chapel Hill, six songs
in three hours. I hated that crap. Yeah, I didn't like doing
it.
I have an idea for that business card. What is it? Put a phone
number on there, but it's not the right phone number. There
you go, and it goes to recording of you saying I gave you the
wrong phone number for a reason. Leave me alone in
this day and age. I thought it'd be funny to have a business
card, but you have to put it under a microscope, and it's
everything I've ever done in my entire life,
or the phone number goes to Kevin Murphy,
because He will not
answer. He will not
answer, leaving messages all the time, and then I hear back from
him three weeks later.
Don't you think he needs his own podcast? Oh, my God, he needs
his own television. Delightful curmudgeon.com.
Yeah, I met him when he was a freshman at ETSU. Oh, you guys
go back that far, wow. And the Kevin Murphy that we all know
and love is just such a teddy bear. Old Kevin Murphy.
Was nuts come out to
Edwin Giggs, and he would take my phone and put it in, like
Chinese,
I can't do anything with this phone, because
who was that American Idol guy that he played with in the early
days?
Yeah, that he was the
green guy. Yeah,
Josh Grayson. Josh gray that's when I met him, that era.
So we were doing
a gig, and I was playing with Jessica harp. I used to get
those road gigs where you're playing with the person who has
a deal at the moment, kind of, you know. And we played a gig
with him somewhere in New York, somewhere upstate New York and
and I said, I said, Hey, man, I'm just, I don't, can I just
play your drums? And he goes, Yeah, sure. So pretty good. He
comes up, he goes, Did you bring your own snare drum and cymbals?
I was like, no. I said, I used your sticks amazing.
Got it, walked off the stage. I didn't know you
guys went back that far. That's crazy.
I love him. I was doing a record, speaking of Rush, I was
doing a record that was being produced by Peter Collins, and I
got called in to do percussion, nice overdubs, and so I'm
working all day on the record. And man, I just kept going, man,
these drum tracks are killing me. These are drum sets are so
good. And finally, I just had to break down. I was like, Who is
the drummer on this stuff? And they're like, Oh, he's a brand
new guy in town. Just got to town named Kevin Murphy. And I
was just like, I was started crying. I was so proud of him.
Nice. The tracks were amazing, yeah. And I just love I saw him
with tonic. I mean, I saw him and tonic a bunch of times when
I was with them, but I was playing with Carol and Don
Johnson. Yeah, we went to see Sheryl Crow and train, and tonic
was playing on the in the parking lot, right? And so I'm
just sitting there watching tonic, just going, what a great
man. Look at this drummer, you know. And I know Kevin really
well, you know. So I'm like, Oh my God, he's so good. And then
he looks at me, sees me, and it's like he just, you know,
reached down and took the little lid off of the red button and
just pushed that. Just took off show for me. And I was just
one handed role, same species of person.
I mean, so what is, what is the story with Branford Marcellus,
so Branford, you know, he lives in North Carolina, and we used
to do these gigs with hoodie and the Blowfish there's like,
Monday after the Masters gigs, and that this was like that, but
it was like something to do with the BMW car corporation or
something. It was in Greenville, South Carolina. And Branford is
just hanging out, and he's playing with Hootie, and he's
playing with us, and he's just really cool. And then we're in
the dressing room, and we're just talking to Branford. And be
like, the cool thing about Branford, he's just awesome to
talk to. He's just really nice. And so I said something about
like, I was like, you know, I'll be totally honest with you,
like, if my monitor mix is great, I really don't give a
shit if the mains on are on or not. Like, I don't care about
the audience. I don't care about their entertainment. I just care
about the musicians I'm playing with. And I do it for me. I
don't have an altruistic bone in my body when I play music, it's
just for me. And he goes, Yeah, I know. Man, like, back when I
was with Sting, I used to, I go, Wait a minute, you played with
Sting, Jimmy the blue turtles. And he goes, Yeah, for like,
oh, fuck, man.
And Hendrix. Lee, Hendrix
is on the floor crying loudly. Hendricks, the bass player,
yeah, he was with Edwin. He was so, you know, it's just
something I just did to goon on, you know, Bradford. But then
I've got a snare drum and a set of brushes, and Branford and I
are just working out jazz, and a half an hour jazz ended up
having a ball. I just can't believe it's even happening. So
we finish up, you know, I'm putting my brushes and stuff,
and I said, Hey, man, I gotta go. I gotta go jerk off and
update my resume. That's funny as a joke. Yeah, I put Bradford
Marcelo.
That's amazing. Well, he's never really played. He seems like the
more approachable the Marcellus
brothers, oh, he's, he's just like you and me, except that
he's forgotten more about music than we'll ever know.
And he was the band leader on The Tonight Show for some time
as well for Jay Leno.
And I just took Jack to see him with the Nashville Symphony, and
it was unbelievable, amazing. So, yeah, so that was, that's a
joke I did not play
with I love the story. I don't play at that gym. How about this
father and son team here? Did you avoid meeting them? Did you
find your weird questions?
Or I kind of, I'll say, I don't like that one. I'm sorry. So
maybe I did. What are you looking forward to in the coming
months?
I a weird
one for me. I got two bicycle rides. Yeah, I'm doing the
gravel revival and the Scarecrow, and we're going to
see Noga Erez, and then we're going to see Steve Ferroni with
Paul Jackson. And I can't remember everybody that's on
that
gig. Where's that? Leslie, I.
What you're going to totally be able to go talk
to the guy? Well, yeah, I might be able to, I get, kind
of let him break the ice for you, yeah, because I took him to
see
Dave weckel, and then he's not there at the table with us for
the longest time. He goes back and said where he goes, I'm
backstage talking to Dave fearless. Well, he deserves to
go talk to Dave. Yeah, I've never actually practiced, so I
don't have nothing to say.
What are you looking forward to the next couple of
months? Well, I just moved into a new place, living in Donaldson
now, so I'm just excited to that's the new East Nashville.
Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I've never really explored there too,
too much.
So Whataburger there now, let's say again, you got a Whataburger
there now, and you have a red door.
Thank God I was living in Antioch, and that Whataburger
came in clutch after, like, late nights and stuff. So yeah, just
making music, I'm producing, mixing, drumming, excited for
all of that. I love it. And Karina
Hardesty, yeah, Karina Nicole,
Karina Bridget. Bridget, she's a new artist. She's from the
Northeast, and an amazing kind of Americana soul, like one of
the most amazing voices I've ever heard, nice my life. And
we're working on some some new music. You get
her, get her a record deal. Kid, you know,
your troubles are over. Yeah,
I just, I want 20% chocolate. That's good, man. Well, it's,
this was so fun, and it's, and it's a first, and I think it's
probably going to be the last father and son team.
Well, I mean, you know, I'll be back in 20 beauties kid, yeah,
and beauties kids coming up. Is he really how I saw Dave Black
had his kid behind the kit? Oh yeah, no. My comment was, I
said, be careful with that. I said, you don't know the pain of
watching your son become twice the drummer you ever I do crazy.
Oh my god, yeah, no, I never made life, so I have to live to
you guys. That's right, hey. So thank you guys. I really
appreciate, really nice. Thanks for making the trip. And you
know, we go way back, and it's so cool to see all your Rising
Phoenix, rising trajectory. Ask him
whose favorite record producer is. Who's your favorite
record producer? That's a great Barry White, yeah.
Ask him what his favorite band is.
So you know about we have that drummer here. Ed, green. Ed,
green. Oh, is that right? We had him on the show like six years
ago.
Oh, no kidding. Yeah. I have to go look for that one. Yeah, ask
him his favorite band, favorite band right now, I'm a sugar.
Love it, man. Just fun, right? Fun, awesome. We got to make
sure these guys get mugs. We're gonna make it happen. And to all
listeners, thank you for watching. Thank you for
listening. Be sure to subscribe, share rate and review. It helps
people find the show and until next time, we appreciate it. See
you. Thanks, guys.
This has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe, rate and follow
along at rich redmond.com forward slash podcasts. YOU IN
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