Unknown: When you're in your bedroom and you're like, you're,
you're like, 1516, years old. You're like, I want to be a
professional drummer. I want to, like, tour and like, you know,
and then, like, what actually like, I never, I know you you
can relate. I never, ever envisioned, ever playing in
front of, you know, like half of a million people in Russia,
like,
I can't say that, but that's, yeah, that's a big crowd, bro,
dude.
I mean, just just the, you know, just the things that come about
that are like, Man, I had no idea that I would be here or do
this or do that, or wind up playing with, you know, Dead
Kennedys and, like, just, you know, like, whatever it's, it's
just, it's, it's, it's, you
stick around long enough these and you're a good person, and
you like, you know you got a firm handshake, you know, you
got a great smile. You're a likable person. You know what
you're doing. You know, you show up on time. Your check. You
check all the boxes, buddy. Of course, somebody's going to want
to ride a bus
with you. This is the rich Redmond show.
What's up, folks out there in podcasting land, you hipsters,
you rockers, your jazzers, your folkers, your songwriters,
producers, engineers, whoever's listening to the show, we do
appreciate it. Hey, it's a solo show today. My co author, co
producer, I said co author, we'll probably write a book
together. CO producer, co host, Jim McCarthy. Jim McCarthy,
voiceovers.com, it's your show.co. He's on vacation. I
mean, occasionally we got to do this thing. I'm not going to see
a vacation until maybe the last week of August, and even then,
we'll see if it happens like, you know, you take a vacation,
you retire, that's when you die. You gotta keep moving. You gotta
keep grooving. You gotta do this thing. My mom, she's like,
pushing 80. She's like, working out two hours a day. She keeps
an immaculate garden. She's in the Martini club, she's in the
pottery club, she's in the line dancing club, she's in the
shelling club, and she's like, vibrant. She's living so anyway,
super excited about today's guest, because we go back. We
got history in the Los Angeles and now in the 615, Nashville,
hailing from a little town outside of St Louis, Pacific,
misery, Pacific, Missouri, calling uh LA home for 21 years,
Nashville, coming up on four years. Great friend of mine.
He's a super versatile drummer. He's played with punk legends,
the dead, Kennedys, pop stars, tattoo a blues legend, Geneva.
Is that right? Steve, Jennifer, I'm so sorry, Jennifer, because
I would probably be side stage at some point, watching you do
that, you know, at some point. And also, uh, country rocker
Mark McKay, who we share credits with. We can, we could talk
about him, but, um, I'm talking about my friend Steve Wilson.
What's up,
buddy? What's going on? Baby? Good to see you, dude.
Have you like, Have you listened to one episode of this show
ever? Do you know what you're getting yourself
into? I you know, I might have, I might have pulled some stuff
up and taken a look. And I gotta say, Man, I'm so excited that
we're finally getting to do this. Because I know we've been,
we've been playing the schedule back and forth.
It's like herding cats. I learned that in the south
someone's like, Hey, man, it's like, Chad Cromwell told me,
it's like herding cats. We finally got I was like, What do
you it's just the thing, you know, because cats are pretty
they're pretty hard to herd, yeah, yeah, they're not herd
animals. But we're so busy, and Nashville has become such an
urban the spread, this urban spread, that we're just like,
You know what? Let's just zoom this thing, man. So we're doing
it. So if you guys that are just listening, Steve is killing it.
He's in his voice over studio. He's got tons of drip on, of
course. He's wearing the black tee. That's what we do as
drummers. We wear the, you know, the black
tee, yeah, well, you know, I mean, it's a uniform.
But listen to those pipes, guys. This is, this is like we all got
to have. We're multipreneurs nowadays. Of course we love the
drums, of course we love music. Of course you want to play live.
Of course we want to record, we want to teach, we want to do the
thing. But Steve realized that he had these pipes, and that's
actually, is that how we met the pipes thing, doing the
voiceover,
you know? I think it was, I think I think we talked drums,
like third or fourth, you know, like, I think we were hanging
out. We were hanging out the bow and the rainbow in LA and our
good friend Jason Sutter, introduced us to one another,
and I just remember you and I were chatting it up. And we
wound up going back to Jason's house, a bunch of us after the
bar closed, and I remember I was reading, like a bottle of it.
You're like, read this, read this. It was like a bottle of
like, Heinz 57 ketchup. And you were like, and I'm like,
read me the ingredients.
I just remember, you know,
of course, we were sober and and I remember just trying to. Like,
read, Sal, see, salt, yellow dye, number 15 and but you were
like, early on, one of my biggest supporters. You're like,
dude, you've got a day when I would go six months without
seeing you, and you would be like, are you, you know? Are
you? Are you auditioning yet? Have you got an agent? Are you?
Like, what are you doing? You
know, we got to do that for each other, you know what I mean. But
it's like we do, but I
but, yeah, that's you were one of my very earliest supporters,
which I appreciate. And we still, every time I see you, we
still talk about vo because you were, you were doing acting and
like you were, like, really, like, yeah.
So, you know, it's so, you know, it's funny is, is that it's,
it's like a very Bob Seger kind of moment. It was like, this is,
like, one of those Hollywood nights. It's like, you know,
you're on, you're on the strip, and like, they kick you, you
know, LA is a relatively roll up the streets, kind of early town.
People don't know that, but they kick you out of these places.
And then where do you end up? You're going to end up
somewhere, right? So you end up in one of the boroughs. So we go
to North Holly, North Hollywood. We're doing the thing. We're at
Jason's house. You're reading the back of a Heinz 57 ketchup
bottle, you know, all the genetically modified
ingredients. And, you know, then I'm like, like, Hey, man, we
should, like, we got to support each other with this thing.
Because, yes, at the time I was studying, you know, improv
comedy, voiceover, TV hosting, you know, cold reading, like,
all the stuff I was like, You know what? Maybe there is
something that I could do with this outgoing personality, still
trying to do it little. I don't know if you've known this, but
I'm sure you feel the pain. It's just really hard to do 80
auditions a year and ride a tour bus and live in airports and all
that kind of stuff. But I'll tell you afterwards, but I do
have a new part coming up, and it's very closely related to the
music thing, you know. So I'm probably going to be playing a
drummer, but it's a real Hollywood film, and it's
filming, and so you know what? Hey, let's, let's do it, you
know?
Yeah, that's amazing, yeah. I mean, I, I always thought that,
like, I saw your, you're real, you sent me your real you sent
me your voiceover demo. And, yeah, dude. I mean, it's, it's
there, it's just like, you know, we didn't wake up and we could
play the way we play now. I mean, it takes 10s of 1000s of
hours and years and years to get good at this. Yeah, so, dude,
so good. So we'll get back to the voiceover, because that is
fun. I mean, if you if anybody's just listening, I mean, listen
to that baritone. That is incredible. And, and I know the
kind of work you do, you do a lot of auditioning, you do
studying, but you know, you you read, like, textbooks and like,
you know, instructional things that are like, insert slot A and
the slot B, and I'm like, God bless you, buddy, because that's
there's a little thing called patience.
Yeah, I've heard of it. Yeah, whoa. If you're
listening to this podcast, it means you're already looking to
improve your drumming. Why not level it up in person with me
when you book a one on one day, drum tense drummers from around
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Find out more about my one on one day, drum tensive go to
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But hey, let's go back St Louis, outside of St Louis, Pacific,
Missouri. I love this timeline. At you taught yourself how to
play the drums at four, you got your first set of drums at 11.
You joined your first band at 13. It's all odd numbers here,
except for the four. You got your first gig at 15, and then
your first recording session at 17, and then it was downhill
from there that it was all downhill from there. So tell us
about the love affair with the drums. What sparked it? Was it
like a thing you heard? Did you have brothers or sisters that
were like, dude, check this out. Houses of the holy What was the
thing?
Yeah, I was very fortunate to live in a house surrounded by
me. Positions. My dad plays guitar, sings. He played
locally, wedding receptions. He played, you know, the honky tonk
around town. My uncle Wayne was a bass player. He played for
Stonewall Jackson. He actually lived here in Nashville in the
70s and the 80s, played the Opry, played the Ryman, played
the and then played the Opry in 74 when it opened. So he was my
first, like mentor, and, like, my biggest, like inspiration,
like he, you know, he came home from Vietnam, and was like, What
do I have to lose, you know? So he's, like, I lived through
that. So he packed up. And, you know, my aunt and they moved to
Nashville, and they lived here for, I think, the better part of
15 years. But, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas time
was always like, hitting him up for stories about, like, you
know, what was it like when, you know, so that was kind of like
the real early on, and with my dad being a musician and then me
taking a liking to drums. I just, you know, you've heard it
a billion times. You know, we all beat on stuff walking, you
know, moms, pots and pans and things like that. So they just
got me, like, a little JC Penney's catalog, like, as we
all started out on. And I just, you know, beat that to death.
And then, yeah, Dad finally, like, bought me an actual set of
drums when I was 11, and then joined a band at 13 with guys I
knew in school. But I was also fortunate. I mean, me and you
were not too far apart, you know, that time of the MTV era
was for a kid to be 12 or 13 and having, like, being able to
watch headbangers ball or like, or it just in rock videos. And
that was just like, that was like, a just a great not talking
smack about anybody that's, you know, 13 now, but I'm just
saying that was a really golden time to be a kid and music and
in rock and in country too. And I should also add, my sister
was, like, she's as far as, like, where I get my taste is,
is, you know, we're listening to Leonard Skinner, then it's
Madonna, then it's heart, then it's and then it's George Jones,
and it's like, it's pop, it's country, it's hard rock. And she
has, and still does, has, like, this really eclectic taste,
like, before everyone would say, you know how, like, you ask
somebody, Hey, what do you what do you what are you into? What
do you listen to? This? Like, everything. Well, she was saying
that in 1985 when people were like, well, I don't like rap, or
I don't like country music. So she
was, she saw the humanity. And that was like a cross pollinated
all the music, which is, that's a, that's a great sister to
have. And, you know, so you're 12 or 13, so you know, MTV is
pop in your pubescent So, is it, was it, was it Nina Blackwood,
or was it
Martha Quinn? It was, actually, I'm going to go with Martha
Quinn and and I got, you know, and then Adam curry and Ricky
rackman were, like, they were, like, staples of, like, my
weekend diet, you know, like, with the Hard Rock stuff, but
like, yeah, Nina, for sure, Nina sound
like she gargled with razor blades. I did meet Ricky rackman
at the the the bow one night. He was, yeah,
yeah, yeah. He's a super nice guy, yeah, um, so yeah, that's
um, that's kind of how that and then um, you know, like we all
did, like school band. I marched. I played in the concert
band in the winter time. We did the halftime shows at the
football games and the in the fall. And then joined a joined,
joined a rock band when I was 13, some friends in school, and
it just kind of just blossomed from there I was, I was playing
practically every single day from the time I was, you know,
13 until, you know, now, I mean, I never
play you're playing along to records, which is a great
education. But then, because of the academic experience in
school, you could read music, and you understood about playing
crash cymbals and playing the bass drum. And hey, kid, here's
a glockenspiel. And here's a scale on a glockenspiel. And
this is how you play a tambourine, like that. Stuff is
all just invaluable. It's in there, man, you know, which is,
you know, I think that's a perfect combination for someone
who's going to have a life in rhythm, a life in music, you
know,
absolutely, and it was, I had a really amazing he's still a good
friend of mine. I had an amazing high school band teacher. And
you know, in our formidable years, we all need that. It's so
important because you can go left or right, you can go, I
hate this. You had a bad teacher. Yeah, and it can be
disastrous, right?
So you're still in touch with this person, and they must be
proud if they come to a show ever.
Yeah, he he hasn't been out to a show yet. I did get to play. I
was so touched last year. Was it last year or was it two years
ago? I think it was two years ago. He invited me to come and
play his retirement. He retired after 30 years at the school,
and he invited some alumnus so and I got the call to go and,
like, swing a big band, which I hadn't done since I was at MI
with Steve Houghton watching me. You know, like,
wait a minute when you were at Steve, when you were at MI,
Steve, how was still there?
Houghton came by. You know, they would do like the guest, you
know, you've guessed it at pit. So, like, Houghton and Gary
Chaffee would come through and, like, and it was, it was a who's
who's it was. It was a lot of fun. But yeah, there I was. And
so, yeah, he Mr. Soko, and hit me up for that. Still calling
Mr. Sokol. Matt. Hit me up for that. But he was very, uh,
influential even after I, um, graduated from school. I was
looking at MI and was like, hey, what do you think? And he was
like, I he's like, I'll deep. I'll help you with anything you
need to get, like, whatever audition or whatever you need to
get together. I'll give you a hand. Because he's like, I think
it would be a good move. I I've met Greg Bissonette at a clinic
in St Louis one night, and I asked him about it, and he was
like, Yeah. He was like, yeah, it's good. You know. I was like,
one of those people. I'm not so much anymore, but at 1819, I was
like, I had to ask five or six people to make sure it was okay
before I jumped because, you know, I'm moving from a town of
back then, 5000 people, and I'm
thinking Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood and Highland. I mean
literally, like off of Hollywood on Cherokee, like off of
Hollywood Boulevard, yeah. So it was a very, you know, I know you
can relate, man, you think back to what you did when you were 21
and you're like, I, how did, where did I find the courage in
the in the chutzpah? Did, yes, make such a huge move like that?
And, brother, you did it. You did it. And that's and that's
something that that seems to fade in our years, two things
fade, our innocence and our like our our insights as children are
just so pure in the way we see the universe, and the fact that
we think that we can just do anything, and then our throw
caution to the wind and just bravely dive into the deep end
of the pool. It gets harder and harder as these, you know, we
start to have spouses and offspring and bills and
mortgages and stuff, and they're like, Well, I'm confined to
this, and I gotta have water cooler talk every Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then I'm living for
the weekend, you know, dang gang. So, you know. And then you
know what I mean, but it's like, you dude, you did it. So that
was, that had to be, because we're six years apart. So that'd
be, like around 1994
that was, that was actually 98 that I made the move. I made the
move, I made the mistake. I would have gone sooner. But, and
I'm not talking like if you're in, if you're in a band, if
you're listening and you and you and you believe in your band,
and you think there's promise there, don't, don't quit your
band. But I was in a band with the guys that I was in with from
high school and and I was, I stayed around St Louis for a
couple of years after I got out of high school, and it was my
guitar player's father who made him join the Air Force. He was
like, you, you're gonna, you're gonna go into the military if
you're not gonna go to college. And it was because he quit and
went into the Air Force. And I was flipping through a net like
an issue a Modern Drummer one morning, and found and found MI.
And I was like, Hey, Mom, I you know, because I was doing
community college and I hated it, I was gonna go for audio
engineering and stay in Missouri and just study at Webster
University and study audio engineering. But I wasn't really
feeling Community College at all, and I and I saw an ad for
MI and back then, you, you, they mailed you a catalog. They
mailed you literature about the Yeah, and my mom, who worked
three jobs and is my biggest hero, she was like, let's go out
and look at the campus, which was a big deal for us, you know.
I mean, like, it was a big deal to book two flights, go out,
walk the campus, went and also checked out, LA, Ma, you know,
where,
property and all that stuff, yeah,
you know, and looked at that, but I was like, coming from a
small town in Pasadena, was like, kind of the same as it
felt the same. And I got to Hollywood, and it was exciting.
It was exciting, and I got to go, and I toured the campus, and
I and I got to go audit some classes, and that's where I met
Ray luzier. And. Yeah, Ray was so sweet to me. He I was just
audit, auditing a class, and he got me up in an LPW to like,
he's like, you want to play, come on, you know, like, and
that sounds like Ray. He's just so inclusive and kind and the
sweetest
guy ever and, and we're still buds to this day with like,
going on, geez, going on almost 30 years so, so I just had a
really good experience. And then, you know, and once I got
there, I just immersed myself in it, man. I mean, I got the and,
you know, you know, at North Texas, you know, I got the good
fortune my mom afforded me to play drums all day, every day,
for a year and a half before I met the people that are
responsible for who I'm playing with now, and I just had a
chance to go out on tour. And you know, a year and a half of
school, and I was all right, I'm ready to apply what I've
learned, and that's and that's what I did. And I really just
never looked back, and always had, like, enough work and bands
and stuff like that in Los Angeles to kind of
keep me there. And it
always okay. So what was what was that? What was that, Steve,
what was that? What was that first opportunity that took you.
So I originally was working with Dave Weiner from the Steve vi
band. He was him and I went to school at the same time, and I
helped him. We got his demo together, which got him the VI
gig, and he played with VI. He only recently stopped playing
with Steve, I think, a couple years ago. So he had that gig
for decades, and
he's seen a lot of drummers come and go from that the laborious
and the Virgil's and the all the summers that go through that,
yeah, yeah. Jeremy Colson has had it for a very long time. I
believe Colson
has been there for a really long time. It was man Genie before
Colson, and then, like you said, Virgil did a stent,
and, you know, Chris fray, our buddy Chris Frazier,
but so Dave and I were, we're still very close friends, but
I'm I'm walking dude, true story, I'm walking to school.
I'm on Hollywood Boulevard, and this crazy guy with dreadlocks
runs up to me, and I've got a Pantera shirt on and, like a
Zildjian baseball cap. And he was like, you like metal and you
play drums. And he gives me a tape. This is like, 1999 he
gives me a cassette tape. He was like, You should audition for my
band. I'm looking for a drummer. And I'm like, Cool. And I went
and I listened to the music, and I thought it was, I thought it
was decent. It was like, punk meets metal. It was like, this
kind of mashup of the two. It wasn't like, this was gonna get
played on the radio. It was just, I kept the tape and I
thought, you know, I was like, I kind of hold it home. I didn't
really, I didn't call him back. And then, like, a month later, I
see flyers up at school, and it's drummer needed van for tour
us, tour vans warp dates. And I'm like, It's the it's the same
guy. It's the same guy with the tape. So I Well, I'm like,
Christ. I'm like, if they're playing war more, I want to
celebrated its 30th anniversary. Oh man, jeez,
oh man, that's that makes me feel old. They so then I was
essentially, it sounds bad, but I was incentivized. I was like,
okay, and I went in and I learned the stuff and I and just
went ahead and, you know, auditioned, got the gig. We went
on. That's that strike that that started my relationship with Dh
pelegro, and I've worked with DH for man, like, five years in his
band, he had a trio called peligro that he did when he
wasn't playing with Dead Kennedys
that rest his soul man. He died in 2022
20 October of 22 so we
they had been in in, involved in a lawsuit for years with their
with their former singer for fraud. He had embezzled, you
know, quite some, some dirty dealings. Well, they they want
that. So this is like 2001 the the Dead Kennedys. They won
their lawsuit, and they went back at they won the rights to
the name, and they went out on the road. And I was still
playing when dH is banned, but he was like, hey, I need a tech.
So do you want to come out on the road with me? So that's what
I did. And that was my first taste of, like on the other side
of things. And it was, it was. Interesting. We were friends, so
it was cool. It wasn't it, it wasn't, you know, anything too
stressful, but he would disappear at sound check. He
would go get a cup of coffee, or he'd just go walk around, and
I'd set up his drums, and the guys would pee like, hey, we
use, we need to run a couple tunes. You know, this is back in
the floor wedges days. They're still on wedges, by the way, but
like, we need to, like, get sounds. So I just started doing
the sound. I set the drums, tune them, do the sound checks, I did
everything but play the gig. And they just kind of remembered
that. And their tour manager at the time, who's still a good
friend of mine, he he remembered me when this is like, some years
later, they couldn't find DH. He, he had gone kind of off the
grid. Turns out he needed some personal time, but they had
shows booked, and I'm in Europe, and the tour manager calls me on
and he's like, when are you back? And I'm like, I'm back,
like, tomorrow. And he was like, can you learn the DK set in,
like, five days. And I'm like, Well, I'm pretty familiar with
it, and I'm on tour, so my chops are already together, you know?
And I come home and in five days, I would shed their whole
their whole cat, their their set. And in less than a week,
we're playing House of Blues. Anaheim sold out. So this was,
this was, uh, in 22 this was in oh five. Oh, my God. So this is
an oh five. So 20 years ago, 20 years ago. I've been involved in
that camp for 25 if you include my my years as a tech, it's 25
years. So, um,
amazing, but it's an amazing relationship. And you, you won
the trust and the hearts and the minds of the the powers that be,
and you were always there for your friend, and you played
drums for him when he had a solo thing. You set up and tuned his
drums, you filled in for and then, then, then, then you're
doing the thing with the guy, yeah,
yeah. And I thought it was going to be like, like, essentially,
like, one off, like, like, because they couldn't find it,
you know, and they were going to be in big trouble if they didn't
do these shows, legal problems. And it went well enough that
they booked another run with me, you know, five. So we did
another run in Florida, and that was a blast. And then it was,
like, Rich. It was weird. It was like, it was, I mean, it's, it
was crickets for like, a decade. And in that 10 years, I had to
do some other things. I got involved in, like cover bands,
top 40 cover bands. I always my dream when I moved to LA was
like, because I, you know, I love Van Halen, I love Motley
Crue, I love guns and roses. I mean, that was the stuff that I
grew up listening to, and I always wanted to be in a band,
you know, like, I'm gonna get in a band. We're gonna make
records. We're in tour the world, we're gonna conquer,
right? And I thought that that's what I would would was my
destiny. That's what I wanted. But um, through school, um
through going through MI and learning styles and learning
learning how to learn, like, learning how to actually learn
material chart, you know, the things that the invaluable
things that we learn as side guys. I learned how to do that
and I needed work. So I was starting to work in like top 40
circuit and playing in original bands. But what I had learned is
that I can, I'm pretty good at, like, learning other people's
music, like a lot, you know, like, I can listen to a song a
few times. I can make a chart, and I can usually display it
down on a good day, on a good day. So that was a skill set
that I had no idea, that I possessed when I got to LA but
that that became a very, very useful tool, when, when I
learned the DK set, and then, you know, years later, I got
referred To back when God rest his soul. Barry squire. Barry,
his list. I had been hearing about his I heard his name from
the time I got to LA man. They were like,
tell our listeners the
the the iconicness of that gentleman, and really kind of
what he
did. I Okay, I'll try, because he was a very, very super
important figure, not just in LA but in just in our music
industry in general. So Barry was a, was a drummer originally.
He's a dream. Yeah, he was a drummer. And he and I'm gonna.
Give like a very kind of abbreviated definition of what
he did. He was the liaison between bands and record
companies and management companies and hired musicians.
He was the guy that put you need a drummer record company,
management company calls Barry like, we need a drummer for this
band. And boom. You know, he was, he was the synergy, he was
the glue. He was the guy that made, made things happen again.
That's he did a lot, lot more than that. And we just lost him
late last year, late last year, but, but that's a very like I
said. That's a very abbreviated definition of what he did. He
his list was a very coveted in the early 2000s it was a very
coveted thing to get on his list, and it was hard to do
like, I couldn't put I couldn't recommend you rich, right?
Because we're drummers, so, but if I played bass, I could, so
you had to come referred from someone that did not play your
instrument, because we're all buddies in the drum circle,
right? But, and I got recommended, and I and I went
out and I auditioned, my first audition, and I got the gig,
which was great, because I knew I was auditioning for him and
the band. So I got, I got the gig. Couldn't take the gig due
to some we just have just bottom line it was, became. It came
down to, like, money and my schedule and so on and so forth.
So it didn't work out, but it was great that I got the gig,
because I for years after that, he called me for a ton of stuff,
and I'd say half of it, I got nice, or at least got on the
short list, but that's how I got the call for this Russian pop
group called
tattoo, who T, A, T u,
correct. And they were really, really. Their heyday was like 99
2000 2001 like that era they were. They did, they did the
Tonight Show, they did Conan, they, I don't think they ever
did SNL, but they, they were the first record did very, very,
very well. I think it sold something like seven or 8
million copies worldwide.
It was very like, quasi evanescent, you know, gigantic
loops, gigantic guitars, big synths, you know, big Gosh. And
I saw some video out there. You're like, it was a global
tour. Was it not? Yes, it was. It was 20 countries. So you
went, you're going to Russia, you're going to the Eastern
Bloc, you're going to
Japan, Dubai, like
we played in Egypt, nice. I mean, we went, we went, like,
when I say we went everywhere. We played in Armenia,
you're like, you're like, set up in front of the Sphinx. And
you're like, hey, it's not as big as,
I mean, when we think about, I know you can relate. When you're
in your bedroom and you're like, you're, you're like, 1516, years
old, and you're like, I want to be a professional drummer. I
want to, like, tour and like, you know, and then, like, what
actually, like, I never, I know you you can relate. I never,
ever envisioned, ever playing in front of, you know, like half of
a million people in Russia. Like,
I can't say that, buddy. That's, that's a big crowd, bro,
dude. I mean, just just the, you know, just the things that come
about that are, like, Man, I had no idea that I would be here or
do this or do that, or wind up playing with, you know, Dead
Kennedys and, like, just, you know, like, whatever it's, it's
just, it's, it's, it's, um,
you stick around long enough these and you're a good person,
and you like, you know, you got a firm handshake, you know, you
got a great smile. You're a likable person. You know what
you're doing. You know, you show up on time. You're check, you
check all the boxes, buddy. Of course somebody's going to want
to ride a bus
with you. Wow. I appreciate that, brother, I do. I do. I
know I it's but, but the bit Just, just to kind of like,
close it up with with them. They, they were like, that was
the tattoo thing through Barry and and I'm going up, I'm in
that audition at sir there in Hollywood, and I'm up against
some, some guys I knew that were like, like, Oh man, that I know
him, and I'm like, Mohawk earrings. I just got back from
Europe with my I was in a death metal band at. This time, and I
just got home, and I'm like, I'm not, I'm not the right fit for
this. I'm like, I'm a total punk rock, like hardcore guy. I
looked, I looked the part back then, and uh, lo and behold,
that's what they wanted. They didn't want a clean cut pop
drummer looking dude. They they wanted an edge. They wanted
somebody with an edge. So there I was at 29 with my edge. Get
the gig and and I'll tell you what that was. The only time
maybe you maybe did this too. I maybe with Haldane, but like, I
called and woke my mom. I was at a I was at a party for my, ex
girlfriend's birthday party. We were having a dinner, and I got
the call that I got the gig at like 11 o'clock at night in
Cali, which is one o'clock in the morning in St Louis. And I
called my mom and woke her up and told her I got the gig that
for me driving my Bronco with the U haul trailer, 1800 miles
from Pacific
to Holly, the Pacific Ocean. Yeah,
that, I mean, that validated. You know, when my first arena
over in I think it was like in Holland, Estonia, and we played
in a we played in an arena, and I hit and, like, the in, the
Pyros going off, and I'm like, I'm dude. I'm like, That's it.
I'm like, this the Bronco, the U haul trailer, the studio
apartment full of roaches on Hollywood Boulevard. I mean,
let's, like, just everything was just validated. And I think that
that's so that, and paying off my my student loans to MI
through playing the drums. I mean, these are just things that
are just cannot put $1 sign on the validation that you get, the
feeling you get from like I had, I set a goal, I had a dream, and
it's not only been met, it's been exceeded. And you know, and
it's just you exceeded
your own expectations by 100 by being forward thinking and by
being a person that takes action and
it that's a great thing, man, you did it.
I did it, and I felt like when I left la after 21 years, I felt
like I had I think it's important. It's not the most
important thing, but I think it's important to the to feel
like I set out what I intended to accomplish, and and I, and I
didn't feel like I left anything. I scratched all the
itches that I intended to when I when I left, I had just kind of
gotten to a point to where I needed a change. I mean, you and
me, when we met, that was the heyday of, like, the ultimate
jam nights. And like the sound
sound check live with Ferlazzo at the Lucky Strike. We we lived
at the Lucky Strike. And the funny thing is, is that God
bless and it was very Hollywood in the sense that they call it a
jam night, but it is so structured and so organized for
you listeners out there, there's there's spreadsheets and there's
emails, and there's sign ins and there's wristbands, and it's
like, this is, I mean, this is Hollywood. There's like, the guy
with the earpiece at the door, and he's like, 300 pounds, and
it's all muscle, and it's like, you ain't getting in if you're
not on the list. And you get in there, you wait around all
night, because at 1026 I'm supposed to play a sound garden
song that goes between 445464, and seven, four and and, and I'm
gonna, I'm gonna wait to do it, because maybe some guy with a
cigar will go, Hey, kid, you sound great. Come on. I got a
studio down. Yeah, we just do these things. But it is not a
jam. A jam in middle America is like, Hey, do you know? Do you
know tush or do you know what I mean? Do you know taking care of
business. Do you know All right? Now this is like, Okay, members
of Alice Cooper's band, members of rat, members of y and t,
members of Jason Aldean, members of the Dead Kennedys, and
there's everything. Was like a super group. And it was fun,
man.
It was a blast. It's, it was, it was such an awesome time to be
there and be a part of that. I remember our good friend Matt
Starr. He one night I was trying, you talk about, like, I
started my Barry a minute ago. You talk about, like, hard to
break in. It was hard to even be considered to be invited to play
that, to play a jam, to play a jam, to your point, was a, I
don't mean to call it an unpaid gig, but you you learn the
material like you were gonna go
play, like it was gonna be a TV show, like it was gonna be
filmed, and that's how you have to live your life in Hollywood,
because some. Buddy, a tastemaker or 20 is going to be
in that audience? Yeah,
and I was, I was one of the lucky few. I was one of the
lucky few that actually got a gig from going to those I was, I
was in a band called Heaven and Earth, with the amazing Joe
Retta on vocals and and the incredible Lynn Sorensen from
Bad Company, and my good friend Mike Mangan, who's now playing
with the cult, wow. So yeah, it's
and of course, Stewart. I love Stewart. I gotta mention
Stewart.
Stewart. Stewart Smith, Stewart Smith, the founder of the
feast, dude, dude, dude, because you know what like look at, like
so superlazzo and and Glenn Sobel had the sound check thing,
which was at the home base that the Lucky Strike. Then he had
Eric Hamill holding it down at the Viper. And then you had Matt
holding it down at the the the whiskey, yeah. And then there
was, like, there was several nights a week, and, and, you
know, you never you know you might be playing kiss. You might
be playing, you know, I'm playing a cranberry song with
the bass player from quiet riot, Chuck Wright, right? Chuck
Wright, and you just never know. And it was just always so fun.
It's like, a lot of, hurry up and wait. But we did it, you
know, we did it. It was, it was, it was a subculture. It was like
something that you do in the current state of things. And
thank God, because, you know, you were talking about all those
cover bands you were in. It's like cover bands, man, you
probably had to. You were working in probably Orange
County all the time,
right? It was either Orange County or the valley, yeah,
because the, as we both know, there is no, there's no cover
bands in Hollywood. I mean, like I lived at the beach, which we
can talk about, that
I lived at the beach. I know what you're gonna say about the
beach. It is. It is a 24 hour, eight days a week
party. Oh yeah, dude, it's non stop.
And then where, when I crashed with you, when I was going
through my couch, crashing, yes, or crashing phase in Los
Angeles. Um, what was that little area you stated, over by
the airport.
I lived in a city called El Segundo.
El Segundo. Who
could forget? Man, yeah, you
I remember, and you were, you were in town, and I'm like,
dude, I'll just leave a key under the mat.
I'm like, what you're saying? You were like, it
was such a safe is, I think it still is. It's such a, such a
safe neighborhood. It's a great place to live. It was, but you,
yeah, you were keeping like, you're like, Dude, I I literally
get up at 6am and I'll be home at three in the morning. And I'm
like, that's fine, man. Just like, I only,
I need, I need a place to lay my head for three hours without
actually suffering the sleeping in the rental car for three
Yeah, no, I don't think, I don't think I even saw you the whole
race, dude, best, best guest ever. I never even saw you
because I would either be asleep when you would get in and then
you would be gone before I would get up. But yeah, great place to
live, great apartment. I still miss it, but yeah, when Star
asked me to sit in, I remember just going home and, like, I
woke my ex up, and I'm like, I have to play the gym, you know?
It was like, such a, you know. And from that, it just then I
just got the call, you know. And I just kept getting the call,
Hey, are you available? Do you want to play this, you know,
this Ozzy song, or this, you know, this Van Halen song,
which, but, yeah, the the the cover band stuff, that's what
that I mean, that's what we were doing. Like, I say an unpaid
gig, but it's like, you, you rehearse the material like you
were gonna be on TV. You had to be on time. You had and then you
couldn't mess up. You're playing with guys like you said. You
could be on stage with, who knows. Like, who who knows?
That's where I met Mark McKay, and for lazos jam, I met so many
good friends, and it was just it was so cool that, like, I know
people that were there already know this, but those who don't
like any night of the week, like Monday night you were at the
Viper Room, you know, Tuesday night you're at the whiskey.
Wednesday night, you're at Lucky Strike. Thursday night, you're
at Sayers club. And it was, like, every week for the rock
circle. La, so big that I did start to try to go out and hit
some of, like, the R, B nights.
There's like, a hit, like, a Hip, hip hop, gospel chops kind
of thing. And then there's, like, there's the jam night at
the baked potato. And then. You know, there is still some stuff
happening. I mean, it's always going to, hopefully it's, you
know, an entertainment Mecca, you know, like you're gonna have
Marvel movies, you're gonna it's gonna drip down, there's gonna
be music, there's gonna be musicians all that. But, yeah,
so mark McKay, you know, I mean, you know, you're playing with
him and so, but, but let's really talk about this dead
Kennedy thing, because that is a relationship that goes way back,
and it's so funny. It's like, I might have like, a punk attitude
or approach at times, but I never was like a punker. Like, I
had a mohawk, I had a faux hawk. It was purple, it was red. But
like, I was never, like, you know, and then I realized, oh my
god, there's this guy, like Josh freeze, like he plays on sting
records, and he's, like, a huge session drummer, but he has this
pump. Well, let me check this like, so there's like, like, but
the cool thing about the me kind of like binging Dead Kennedys,
is there was some of that double time, but it was never like,
super extreme temples,
like, just gotten, did you gotten? Did you got? Did you
got? Did you got to
like, maybe that's the top I was like, wow, I can manage that.
But it's got to feel different to it's just like pure energy,
pure aggression. Because, you know, you living in Nashville
for four years, playing with Mark and other guys, and I don't
know if you've played on a lower Broadway, we can talk about
that, and your thoughts on all that. But, you know, most things
in Nashville there's like a this, I call it the Nashville
plot. There's like a plot where it's like, you're between like
69 BPM and 89 bpm. You're in there, so you're playing real
chunky, even hats a very bottom as kind of Dune or, a, a, you
know, a, a, heartbreakers kind of do bad boom, right, right
down the middle, like jumping tricep guitar, so it's, it's a,
it's a different like both styles need energy, focus, time,
groove, feel absolutely it's got to feel good to go out with a
punk crowd and like haka loogie and slam slam a Red Bull, and
twirl your stick and break a cymbal. And it's got to be,
it's, it's like war. It really
is. And, and I'll, I'll just say this, I'll be the first to admit
it. And, and I was the least likely, and still am the least
likely punk rock drummer ever. I mean, I knew who they were, but
I did not grow up playing this stuff. I didn't really even grow
up listening to it. I like the Ramones. I mean, I like a lot of
it, but the fact that I wound up where I'm at is really not like,
Oh man, you know, like I would have I was listening to, like I
said earlier, like I was listening to, like, a lot of
stepple Torah and splaire and Pantera. And before that, I was,
you know, still am, was into the crew and Van Halen and Def
Leppard. I mean, like, and then, like, I just learned how to play
this music, and I, and I fell in love with it. And how are
the fans? They've got to be, because that's sweet. That isn't
that is an older punk band in the sense that if somebody was
in their teens and they were following the Dead Kennedys, and
all these multi decades go by, and now they're grandparents,
yeah, but they're showing up. And they got a couple, they got
a little touch of Hot Topic On right? And they're, like, trying
to, they're keeping it alive, you know,
you know, rich, I'm very, very blessed in that, you know, I
took over the helm for, you know, like, they're big shoes,
you know, like we don't have DH anymore,
no excuse my ignorance. Was DH the second drummer.
He was a guy named Ted was the first drummer they had. But DH
was there the longest, you know. He was there from 81 to 86 and
then he was with them from when they won their lawsuit. No one
up until his passing in 22 I mean, he he literally played a
show with them in Europe, and came home, and I think he passed
away just like, maybe a few weeks later, after they, like,
got home from the road. But speaking specifically about the
Yeah, speaking specifically about the fans I I've been so
lucky to be like embraced and and thanked and it i Each night,
I say something about DH, we pay, we pay homage to him every
night at every show. I
was gonna say, you know, like you know, drummers usually have
the gift of gab, and we're usually very outgoing people. So
you have been blessed with this opportunity every night to. To,
to get a microphone and to talk about the legacy, and you're
sitting in that seat, and you're very humble about it. I mean,
you're very you're more than capable to beyond capable to to
move the ship forward. But you know, that's got to be a cool
thing, man, to talk every night. It
is, it's cool. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's, it's a
when you're talking about bands, iconic bands, specifically in
drummers and coming in behind someone who's so respected
that's a fairly small club, not a lot of guys in that club,
yeah, um,
and, yeah. I mean, it's,
it's an honor, and it can't really ever be taken for granted
or forgotten while you're why you're there and who made that
opportunity possible for you. And I think it's just, uh, I
appreciate the fact that the guys, um, give me the
opportunity. It's maybe 45 seconds, but that's 45 seconds
that I get to talk about DH, and
everybody's like,
yeah, man. People absolutely love it. You know what I mean,
even I just got home from Spain last week, Portugal and
Lisbon, I saw I was I was on. I was catching up. You know what's
the quickest way to catch up on somebody's entire life? Go to
their Instagram, pretty much. So, yeah, you know what the
funny. I toured lit. I toured Lisbon in 1994 with the North
Texas State one o'clock lab band. Wow, so, but I was too
young to really appreciate it, and too nervous, because I was
like, oh my god, tomorrow we are doing a live recording on the
history of big band music from 1920 to 1994 so if I went back,
I would totally enjoy it. So tell me, how was it? How was it
you
should go back? Because you, I know you've heard like there's a
lot of people moving from the United States to Lisbon, wow. I
mean, it's got a lot of Americans that are expats, or
they're, they're in supply over there. The weather is
essentially Santa Monica. Oh, my God. I mean, I got there, and
I'm like, it's, it's like, you need a jacket at night, and it's
perfect in my language. It's like, I'm like, oh, that, Oh,
that's why. And it's not, you know, it's a beautiful city. I
mean, it's, it's, I was fortunate. The tour was great,
nine shows, 20 days, lots of time to go explore Granada and
like Majorca. We flew into Majorca and had a few days
there, and the shows were killer, and going places like
Porto and Portugal and I, we talked about Lisbon, and just,
it was just Dude, it was like, and we had a great crew, Rich. I
didn't have to, like, I had a drummer as a tech.
And what's up doesn't always happen. Doesn't
always happen, but Paulo was the best. He must have taken a
picture the first night of the first gig, because every night
I'd come in, my stuff was, like, exactly, I didn't have to move.
Yeah, it's just, it's just like, little things like that that are
just like, I don't know, I just that is amazing, so, but it was
a man, it was a blast, and and I was ready to come home three
weeks is the long run, as you know. But it was, it was nice to
come home, but it was also like, Geez, that was, like, that was
just, like, an incredible, incredible tour, man. It was so
much fun.
Do you think that these guys are ever going to record some new
music? Or they're not in that mode in their life? I think that
you can't completely take it off the table. They do talk about
it, which, you know, I'd be like, let's go. Let's, let's
record some new music, you know. Or even if they just, like, redo
files, do files, you know, just send files, send files, read,
you know. Or even just like, there's one song we do every
night, and I'm like, That is such a great song. Why wasn't
that a single? And, well, it almost was. And I'm like, Well,
put it out like,
were the Dead Kennedys getting airplay? I mean, we're talking
like college radio, triple A radio. They weren't on modern
rock radio,
right? The the the cool, one of the coolest things about them is
that their success. Is not, it's not tied or tethered to the
radio or right TV. They just, they just, they get a touring,
relentless touring, and like Buzz and street like they just,
they are everything they built is from just really good songs
with clever lyrics and like, it's, like, it's, it used to be
that easy, right? It used to be that easy, and now it's slightly
a little bit more complicated.
It is so complicated, is like, are we are, you know, we were
relying on traditional radio or relying on satellite radio? Are
we doing playlists? Are we doing relentless touring? Are we doing
American Idol or the voice? Are we doing all everything
combined? And it's like, God, good luck. But I will tell you,
you know, as you know, guys like us, you know, we have our craft.
Yeah, we have a big smile on our face, and someone's always going
to need a great drummer.
So there you go. Well, and so far, that's, yeah, that served
us well. Man, yeah, it's, it's, it's an interesting life choice.
It's not one that you Well, I don't know, man, and you're
probably the same way. I just, I just, there wasn't anything I
wanted to do. I think you have to be that. I wouldn't say
crazy, but maybe a little you just focus. I don't want to do
anything. I don't, I don't have any interest in doing anything
else. But this so
there has to be a focus. Yeah, that is not only bordering on.
That is probably Bullseye in the middle of obsession, yeah, yes,
because I remember studying Vinnie abassy and do videos. And
now I and then buying his book rock steady, and, you know, and
you're in the trenches, and you're copying and you're
modeling. And then I look back at those do videos nowadays, and
I'm like, Wow, this was pretty low budget, right, but, but it
stands the rainbow in the dark and last in line and all these
amazing songs that were recorded, it sounds shitty, but
I don't even know why they call it sound shitty. It's because
Sound City, I mean, so many amazing runners, Tom Petty,
Vinny Dio, so many great things were recorded there. Did you get
to
go and record? I know Matt. I know Matt started, we did that
thing for charity. So grow bought that console, and it's
it's in 606 now it's crazy. And I did this, and I got to, I got
to record into that console. We did a record. We did we I, we
contributed a song for charity. This is going back years, years
ago, but, and I just remember number one being in 606 which
is, if you're a Foo Fighters fan, you love nirvana. You love
Dave Grohl. It's pretty magical place, just to begin with. But
like, then there's that, there's that's, that's the Neve, you
know, that's the, that's the need, that's the Appetite for
Destruction. Never mind rumors. It's that console, right? I
don't know why people would ever call it sound shitty. And I
think, I think, you know, I think Rick Springfield did a lot
of his stuff there. I mean, it was like that was a magical
building in the middle of the, you know, the valley, man, the
San Fernando Valley. Say, what you want. I mean, we wouldn't
have the movie, you know, we wouldn't have Boogie Nights. We
wouldn't have, we wouldn't have so many things. Thank God for
that little valley that right made so many amazing things.
Really did yeah.
It was, yeah, it was, it was such a incredible time. And I
loved my time there. I loved my time in LA. I miss it. I love to
go visit now, but, but I was gonna
ask you, how are you loving, you know, Nashville? So you got,
like, it's not quite the Nashville that I experienced 28
years ago. You know, coming from Texas, like, you know, Texas is
the south, but it's kind of its own subculture. And, you know, I
really don't have any problem with Texas. I think, like, the
roads are super wide, the people are pretty proud. They're pretty
friendly. It gets hot, but, you know, there's a there's a
culture there. There's a support for the arts, their music
education is at its highest level in the state of Texas. I
really don't have a problem with Texas at all. But, you know,
moving here, I was like, oh my god, meet in threes, and there
was, like, hay bales, and there's, you know, no valet
parking. Forget about sushi. I mean, like we, we have come a
long way, baby. Yeah, so do you, you know, are you loving
Nashville, or are you just realizing that, hey, everyone is
coming here, and I'm here and I'm in line. I mean, I'm so glad
I'm in line. I moved here 28 Years ago. So, you know,
hopefully, if somebody needs a drummer, they or a voiceover
artist or they're going to think of rich or Steve. Steve, it's
the Steven rich show. Brought to you by brought you by Heinz 57
ketchup, brought
to you by icebreakers.
Yeah, I don't have it. What am I? Got this, I I'm, it's water,
I promise, don't freak out. Yeah, it's been, you know, like
I had the good fortune, you know, people in our industry, we
have the good fortune of seeing if we think a new place might be
a good fit. So I started coming out here for work with Mark.
With mark in 2018 when we played the Ryman. So that was my first
gig in Nashville. Was the Ryman
Auditorium. Look at that, buddy. That's the mother church. And
it's like, Whoa,
yeah. We we were direct support for Ted Nugent. And I remember
Mark calling me on the phone. I'm driving in North Hollywood,
I'm driving my car. And he was like, Hey, what are you doing?
And I'm like, because we were, we were, it was being thought
about if we were going to be able to do the tour or whatever,
you know, and and it was like Virginia Beach, and it was like,
some dates in Ohio, and, yeah, but then it was like, the Ryman,
you know, which is like, we'll do the four to get the one, no
offense, but that's just, that's just the way it is. And he was
like, you might want to pull over. And I'm like, okay, so I
pull over in somebody's driveway. And he's like, we got,
we got the tour. We're gonna, we're gonna play the Ryman in
July, and I'm like, freaking out, amazing. So we did that,
which was so special, so special to be the only, the second
member of my family who, where there's many musicians in my
family, but to be the second member of my family to get to
play on that stage, I called my dad from the wings, and I was,
like, talking to him, and I'm like, so nervous. I I've played
TV, and I was more nervous there for that show than I was for
playing TV. I mean, that was like, so because I've been
hearing about this place my whole life, since I was a little
kid, hearing about the Grand Ole Opry, right? So, well,
it is the longest running radio show of all time, and for
various periods it was a television show when, when I was
with Pam Tillis, we lived at the Ryman, I mean, at the other
location for the, you know, the Opry, and we were always on
television. And it's like, you got to get on. There's a house
kit. There's a house drummer, you know, but was, you were
doing a full blown show, right? You had your own kit.
So, yeah, you know, I we got a kit for the run from SAR here in
Nashville and and I had that the show went great. Was amazing. I
had family in attendance. My fiance, her mom and sister came
down from Maryland for that show. I mean, it was, it was
really, really, really special. We had to go to Roberts
afterwards for fried bologna sandwiches and, you know, like
we and beers. We had to do that, right? But, you know, right
after we play the Ryman,
my favorite Honky Tonk on the entire planet. Do you agree with
me 100%
and not only that, probably maybe the only like, it's like
the last one, it's like the last authentic, like, it's the
last Honky Tonk. There should be a documentary. And like, if any
filmmakers are listening out there, I want to be, I want to
somehow be involved in this thing. Because I'm not a person
that finds themselves down there a lot. But if I do go down
there, I'm going to Roberts. That's top of the list,
without a doubt. You go to Roberts. Layla is also, is, is
cool too. It's like second so, so you, you get involved, and
then you get me on as the narrator for, for the last honky
talk at all,
listen to those voice like, I'm like, I'm like, hey lady. And
you're like,
you always sounded like, you don't sound like Jerry Lewis,
Hey lady, don't
Hello, Roberts, it's a fucking party.
It's a party, right? So, here's here. Here I am. I've been
talking about moving here was since like, 2016 right, before I
got the Heaven and Earth gig, which was phenomenal. It was a
great gig. I mean, it was salaried. I mean, I mean, I'm
not going to argue with that. Very generous people there
involved. It pushed my move out, because I got a gig. I got a gig
in LA and it was fun. And I'm playing, like, Deep Purple, like
Kenny Aronoff played on the record. And I'm like, I'm coming
in, and I'm copping Kenny stuff, nice and, and then, yeah, it was
a blast. And I'm. At him a few months later, and he couldn't
have been nicer to me.
He's a real wallflower.
He should really, he should really open up. I gotta. Did I
told you my Kenny Aronoff story, didn't I? You're about to right
now. I'm about to right now. We were at a good friend of mine,
Ronnie. She's a awesome guitar player. Played with the
runaways. She booked a session. She used to play with Kenny when
she was when Kenny was out with Fogarty, or doing a trillion
other things. You know, I get the call and and so we're in,
we're in Sunset Sound there in LA and we're doing, and she got,
and she's, she's got like, three or four songs she wants to
record, and she's got any on one or two, and me on one or two. So
as I'm doing a sesh with Kenny, he comes in, he plays on my kit,
which was cool, sitting right over there, and and I'm talking
to the we're done, you know, and we're talking it was, it was
like a masterclass watching him do is, like, listen and the
yellow legal pad and make his chart. I'm watching him and,
like, I'll watch him go on. He does, like, two takes, and it's
done, just sick and, and we're done, we're out, we're out in
the live room and word, and I'm talking to someone, I'm talking
to, talking to Ronnie or somebody, and he was like, You
should do voiceover and I'm like, thanks. I'm trying to, I'm
like, I dip my toe in the water. So I my story is when I, when I
say, Kenny Aronoff heard me play. He told me I should do
voiceovers.
It's not that's horrible, that's terrible. And funny and
incredible.
Dan and Jerry AT Pro drum, they laughed. They thought it was
pretty
funny. Have you ever done the groove of the day on the Vine
Street? There?
I did, man, I got to do it. I got to do it last year,
actually. No, I got to do it in 23 Yeah. What
am I? What am I saying? I watched it on your Instagram.
It's like, you did, you did a thing. Like the groove was like,
there's like,
du gust, goes to do Gaston cutting. Yeah, it was the
that was it you, you got the gig? No, it was, it was no
pressure, dude. I remember going in to see those guys and and I
had just landed from probably Nashville, and I hadn't slept, I
think I did a gig the night before. Was really, really,
really, really tired. But when Jerry's like, so you want to,
are you familiar with the day? And I'm like, Yeah, I'm
familiar. He's like, you want to do one? And I'm like, even
though I've got plane sleep, you know, like three and a half
hours, I'm like, I'm not gonna say no. So on those acrylic dw
is that was the best I could put together on, like, three and a
half hours. You could probably see the bags under my eyes, but
no, they're, they're sweet guys. And that was a that was a lot of
fun. You know, it's just such
a piece of history, Hollywood history, and that drum shop
across from the, you know, the local 47 musicians union. And
then if you walk out the door and you take a right, you go to
cactus taqueria number something or other that I love the best.
That's why I go right there. And there's no bathrooms, and so you
got to go into the neighborhood next door and pee behind the
building. It's like crazy.
Oh yeah. Did you know pro drums got a toilet? I didn't know that
until, like, they have a they have a restroom in pro drum. I
was, I had been shopping there for 15 years,
and you didn't know
I, like, drove up from, like, El Segundo. I
knew because they have, like, like, a very they have these
very yellowed, weathered from the sun posters of like Steve
Jordan and Dave weckle over the toilet. It's amazing by the
Yamaha, by the Yamaha hip gig. Get
right, right the weckel with the mullet, yeah, oh,
dude, I had that mullet. I had this vo five mullet, bro,
dude, I had, I had one. I had, I had, I like to think, like guys
like us, we had mullets before. They were ironic, like when they
were just, like, it was just a hairstyle, you know, like, it
was like,
it was just, it was just vo five hairspray curls,
yeah, little herbal essence.
And then we would come home from the club, and there was no smoke
heaters in a lot of places, and so you would open up your drum
cases, and it would smell like the Philip Morris factory, and
your hair would like, and there was like, you would you take a
shower, and then you could see the smoke coming out of your
hair.
Literally, literally, like, like, people asking you if you
smoked. You're like, No, I'm a nightclub musician, and your
teeth are all yellow, and you're like. You got yellow teeth, your
clothes. Think it's crazy.
You're in Nashville. You got a great gal. You're engaged, yeah,
you're loving Nashville. So, so I'm sorry, just this is like,
no, no, yeah. How did you finish your Ryman experience? You're
the second person in the history of your family, to play the
Ryman Auditorium.
So that was incredible. And like I was saying, you know, like in
our industry, I would always just in 18, I wanted to move
here. I wanted to move here. In 16, got a gig, pushed it out 18,
play the Ryman. I'd get a car, I'd get a hotel, I'd spend a few
extra days I'd always tried. And then with janava, I was coming
out here in 2018 and 2019 to do the Americana fest with her so
and then Christine, my fiance, her her work, her company, had a
massive conference at the gaylord in 2019 so between
playing the Ryman, doing Americana TWICE, TWICE, TWICE,
and coming out with Christine for the conference at the
Gaylord, like I had, like, chances to come out and, like,
check Nashville out. I mean, I had been I came down here with
my dad when my uncle lived here, but I was very young, and I
didn't really, you know, like, now, you know, as an adult, but
I but coming from Missouri, I mean, it's not that it's
different, because we're not, you know, we're not in the south
where I, you know, where I'm from. But like, and certainly
coming from LA, it was very, very, very different. But like,
you know, I'm like, I could, I could totally, totally fit in
here. I could totally do this. I could, I think I could make this
work. And, um, so, so, yeah, so I, I came out here. I actually
moved here originally in December of 2019 and was just in
time for the tornado and the pandemic to basically shut
everything down. So when, when the town so in March, when
everything shut down. I mean, I had built up a little bit of a
network, but there was, there was, as we both know, there was
no music, there was no there was no gigs, there was no Broadway,
there wasn't nothing. So I, I decided I packed up, and I
couldn't afford to stay here, so I went home and I helped out my
mom, who was having some health problems, and I'd always wanted
to teach, so I started applying to like School of Rock and
places that were doing virtual drum lessons.
Wait a minute, did you did you work with Angie and Kelly
mccrite over at the School of Rock?
I worked at the School of Rock in Kirkwood, Missouri, just St
Louis. Oh, you went back home. I went home to help out. My mom
gotcha was having some health problems, and it was kind of
like one of those things, complete transparency. Like, as
much of a drag as it was that we were all, we were all out of
work. I mean, we were all sitting at home. I mean, there
was about not a whole lot going on, but in hindsight, you know,
that was I kind of was exactly where I needed to be. I like, I
was right there. Like, you know, my mom had a minor stroke, so it
was good. It was good to be there and help with doctor's
appointments and grocery shopping and pharmacy runs and
things like that. But it also provided me an opportunity,
because there was I, I'd always wanted to teach, but I've always
been on the road, you know, so I've never really taken the time
to, like, have students, you know? It's just, I just it the
it just the opportunity never presented itself. So I thought,
let's make some lemonade, right? I was like, here's an
opportunity. So I got on with School of Rock there in
Kirkwood, Missouri, and then I also was working for monzingo
music,
and, oh, Jeff, Jeff,
Jeff, sweetheart, killer
drummer, and he does, like, kind of like uplifting presentations
and such, and I've done things for him. What a great guy.
Yeah. So that's I was at monzingo, and I was working at
School of Rock, and that's kind of what I did rich, until I was
kind of getting calls that things, this is like the summer
of 2021, that things were starting to kind of open, open
back up down here, and Mark McKay and I, we, we were direct
support for reocc. Bead wagon the summer of 21 we did a we did
two and a half weeks with them in July of 21 and I said, when
we get off the road opening up for reo, I went home and I
bought a car, and I packed it up, and I came back here, and
that was in September, so July, and then I staggered. And then I
finally, really, I like, got here in September 21 and I no
more back and forth. I like, I, I stayed put, and I've been here
ever since, man and I, I love it, man and, you know, yeah, got
engaged. We own a home here in town, which is a big deal. Makes
you feel,
you know what? That's like, you're part of the culture,
yeah,
yeah, if you own, if you own, property, where you where you
live, you know, that's kind of like, it's very like, you feel,
definitely more of the fabric of of your community. So, and I
absolutely, you know, love it. It's just, I do my airport gigs,
you know, I do my Johnny Cash tribute act, and I play with
Dead Kennedys, and I I play really traditional country, or I
play very extreme punk rock, and then I'm also available to do
sessions or, or what else, whatever else comes down the
pipe.
Now, Steve, do you? You know, I'm glad you're here full time
and welcome. Do you have your mobile tracking thing over to
the your left right there? Like set up for drums to record or
No, I'm not currently set up right now to record at home. I
do vo from home, but, but I definitely the room is like,
we've been here a year in this house, and it's definitely taken
me with work and back and forth and in and out of town. It's
taken me that long just to even get my voiceover booth kind of
treated and up and going. But remote tracks is definitely
something that I'm interested in. I'm already, you know, doing
single track for my voice, but, but definitely, I love playing
live. I love the road. I love, you know, I traveling airports
and you know that stuff. You know that it doesn't, it's not
for everybody it but even in being in my late 40s, that kind
of stuff, it does not it doesn't bother me. I actually kind of
miss it when I'm home for too long. So
I do not have a problem with it at all.
Excited to go to Australia coming up in September with dead
Kennedy. First time for that never been New Zealand,
Australia. Just don't
go swimming with the crocodiles. But in watch out for the snake,
spiders, scorpions and sharks.
Yeah, I was going to say, what did they say? Shake your shake
your boots before you put them on. Yeah. We were there in
20. Definitely do that. We were there in 2015 like we after a
show with, like, the whole band and crew at this, you know,
outdoor eatery and such. And, you know, it's in the summer, so
it's like the sunset so late and but we see this palm tree just
like shaking, like it was, like 10 feet away. And we're like,
what is that? He goes, Oh, don't walk by my it's just a city
back. This thing was a monstrous veins in the, you know, like a
bat. It was like a bat, you know it's like, but he's, like, just
a city bat, night. No, it's just like a rat for them. You know
what? I mean, like, but this thing had like a four foot
wingspan. It was up in the tree, and it was all veiny, and you're
like, that's a bat. It looks like a pterodactyl.
I was gonna say, Dude, this like something left over from like
the dinosaur age, right?
Yeah, it's down there, bro, it is down there.
Well, I have that to look forward to. I have large bat
birds to look forward to. Yeah, I've never been and i i gotta
say that I've put off going because I've always hoped and
prayed like Japan came work came through. I got to go to Japan
for work, and I got to see all of Europe through work and South
America and all these places. And I'm like, it's gonna happen.
It's gonna happen. I'm like, I'm work is somehow some there's too
much music. They love music, too much over there for me not to
get to go to Australia with a band, certain places, I've
surrendered to the fact that her, Christine and I are just
going to have to go on our own dime. But I'm like, not that's
going to be, that's going to be a work trip. I can feel it. And
sure enough, that's
one of the perks of doing what we do, is being able to travel
the world on someone else's time. And we're actually, we're
actually going back to Australia for 25 days in February. So, oh,
wow, exciting, buddy. Super excited. So maybe I'll do some
international tours, international clinics, because
I've never done a whole lot of international clinics, you know,
because we'll have days off in between, which is kind of some.
Kind of interesting to look forward to. But, man, if
everybody wants to check you out. Steven Wilson, musik.com,
it tells the whole story.
That's it. That's my site. I'm very proud of it. My good friend
kata did a great job building that up for me. So we worked a
lot, lot of back and forth on Well, it's nice. It
tells people how to find you. The bio is brief and sexy and
sweet, and there's video footage of you playing, there's
recordings, there's your tour dates, which are up to date,
which I'm sure, give it five years it will not be up to date,
but in the meantime, your tour dates are up to date. You know,
I interviewed Chris McCue, and he's like, I said, Man, your
tour dates are 10 years old. On the thing. He's like, Yeah,
yeah, no, no one ever keeps the tour dates. Just go to
Instagram. But no, it looks great. And then, how do you
promote your VO, is that another site? Do you have an agent?
Voices, 123, what do you do?
It's Steve Wilson. Vo.com is my
I should have checked that out. Yeah, everyone, check that out.
Steve, Wilson, vo.com and I need to connect you with Jim
McCarthy, who's my longtime friend of 18. Yeah, the coast of
my podcast. And he does some steak work, but he calls a lot
of his work hamburger work, which is he does a lot of things
like press one to try to talk to someone. Tried press two to
never, ever speak to someone, ever again in your entire life,
and press zero to fuck off. So he does a lot of those kind of
things. You know? Yeah,
yeah. I would love to meet him. I would love to meet there's a
great organization here in Nashville, the Tennessee
voiceover. With Christy Bowen over there. They're, they're
great people to know,
yeah, I'll give them a plug. And they're,
they're, they're terrific, great. Lot of classes, a
coaching, they will help you with an audition, you know, like
I've went in there.
I've been with pearl drums for 18 years, and I
was out Pearl Sabian, you and I have in common. So if we ever
did a clinic tour, the common bomb would be Sabian. You're
with the Vader. They have a stick called the it's called the
Los Angeles or it's called the LA. It's a lesson.
It's the, it's
the LA session, I think
is that la session, I like,
I play
a power 5b acorn tip. Then Chad, my good friend, Chad, over at
Vader, who takes such good care of me. He screened my name and
my handle. I got the Boomstick now so he
I was, like, so stoked for that. And Steve Boomstick
Wilson, I love that.
Yeah, dude. Like, it's, they make a good product. They really
make a good product. Everybody's making a really good product.
And, you know, Sabian, like, I'm assuming, like, so for me, like,
I got 15 or 16 inch hats. I never have less than a 22 inch
rod. I got 220 inch crashes. And then I have a holy China. And
holy China is that the best China symbol ever known to
man. I mean, they're, they're monstrous man. They're so nasty.
I love, I love Chris. It's such good. I just got the the 15 inch
evolution hats that weckel hats, and I absolutely love them. And
stanky hit me to Superman's 20 this session, ride, man, that
the HH session, right? It's a dude. It's so versatile, great
stuff. Love all the HHS stuff, but, but yeah, yeah, that's
they're great companies, man. And you know what? What more can
you ask of a company than you call they call you back. You
need something, they take care of it, you know, I mean, and in
return, we just, we talk it up and promote it anywhere we can,
in any way we can. So, yeah, they're very, very lucky. I
don't if it's not broke, you know, I've been with Pearl 18
years. I've been with Sabian 17 years, invader for like, seven,
eight years, and, yeah, it's just like, it's, it's, they're
great products,
and you're a loyal human being, and that's a great thing. What
is your go to snare drum with pearl? Is it that? Is it that
sense of tone? It's like a budget snare drum, but it's
badass, and everybody records on it, or like
that. That thing I just got the session select, which is a birch
and mahogany, African mahogany blend. It's not the most
expensive snare drum in the world, but by God, it's a six
and a half and it cracks. It was on a backline kit, and I. Was
like, geez. And I called John up, and I'm like, How do I get
my hands on one of these? I'm like, I gotta have one of these.
Full disclosure,
my super phonic gets a big workout. I love my phonic, and
I've got a carbon fiber snare drum that was made for me from a
boutique company called Rocket shell in Sacramento. What's up,
Paul? And I absolutely love that thing too. So I'm a, I'm loyal,
but you know, like, you know, like, you're a DW guy that bell,
that bill bronze is a six, six snare drum. What do you what are
you using? What's your Monday through Friday on tour the the
snare drum is just a matching five and a half by 14 maple
snare drum that matches the maple 1970s DW technology, like,
I just they have so many different shell configurations
and cross pollinations And the, you know, gum and cherry wood
and, like, you know, Maple mahogany. I do have a maple
mahogany kit, that's my main recording kit. But on the road,
it's just like, I just keep it so stupid. I just go with this
normal off the shelf maple kit, you know, 1316, 1824, five and a
half cookies. Let's count it off. You know,
I love it, dude. Keep it simple, yeah. I was gonna say, so
you're, yeah, you're using wood on live. That's great,
man. I mean, yeah, even though I'm a very much a metal snare
drum guy, I have, you know, 90% of my collection is metal snare
drums. And then some of the deeper drums are treated in a
way with double ply heads and gaff tape and such to mimic a
wood snare drum. You know, I just love metal drums, you know,
yeah,
me too. I do too. I love a metal snare drum. I really do. I
really do. Yeah, I'm trying to find a black beauty from like,
you know, at least, maybe even like the 90s, for under $2,000
you know. And it's been, it's, it's, it's tricky.
You know what I found there's,
there's a, there's a cat in town who's like, he's kind of like
one of our keltners, our Nashville keltoners, Brian,
Owings, what's up, Brian? He's, we keep missing each other, but
you know, he's like, you know one of the guys that will play
with, like a loose end or Roseanne cash? He's that cat,
and he's, probably has 25 100 year old black beauties. He's
that guy. And he's like, I was like. I was like, I want a 1920
Black Beauty. Where do I get it? He goes, just go to reverb. He
sent me a link. He goes, here's a 1920s Black Beauty, six and a
half for $1,300 he said, buy it right now, right now. Yeah, and
I, and I did so I have 119 20s Black Beauty just, you know,
just because we've been doing this so long, does it end up on
everything? No, because sometimes the off the shelf, six
and a half from forks, drum closet, that's got the trick
throw off, and the, you know, the, yeah, the rock locks, and
it's just all ready to go. And it's just like, it beat the shit
out of it, you know? But dude, that's,
you deserve it, man, that's a great fine.
Yeah, I keep looking, you know, I keep looking. I'm we have the
good fortune like of being on the road. I got a 1970 super
phonic five. They clearly didn't know what they had. I well, I
got it for, I think I paid $200
for it. Well, that's always great
at a mon past shop in New Jersey. And the only question I
had for the guy is, can you ship it to my house in Nashville? And
he was, yeah, he's like, no problem.
So that's a fun pastime on the road. You know, you're in, yeah,
you're in Hoboken, New Jersey. You're gonna, you're gonna get a
nice cup of coffee. You're going to get a bagel scooped or
unscooped, and you're going to go and you're going to go to the
thrift shop and look for drums or something. You
know, totally, I remember I texted Joe travers, what's up,
Joe? Joe, what's up? Joe's Joe
walks in odd time. He's like, left, right, left, right, left,
right, right, left. He's in
seven. He's walking seven.
Real quick, real quick. You know he was, he was good, he got, he
was gonna go out with Eric Johnson. And I'm like, Dude, you
just must be like, You must be just like, this is years ago. I
was like, You must just be like, in the shed, man. Just like,
he's like, no.
He's like, I just listened to it. I'm like,
What's up? Joe travers, we got, we got to have a nice chat,
too, Joe, I called you, and I was like, Is this a good deal?
And you were like, like, that. Buy it now. Now don't wait. You.
Uh, get that go to an ATM, if you have to, like, get that drum
and and that and
ATM,
Hey, so, so, um, here's the deal. What's your, what's your,
what's your favorite color, uh,
McIntosh green, like granny apple green.
Never have gotten that that's by that's because you're a unique
individual. Yeah, I like that. What about your favorite food or
dish?
Well, favorite food
is Italian, and if, if it was on a deserted island last meal, uh,
kind of boring, but I'd probably have to go spaghetti and
meatballs, yeah,
but it's just so great. And then you have a some Chianti, and
then you're on a tablecloth, the red and white checkered
tablecloth, yeah, and some guy's got an accordion, and you're
just like, I'm ready.
Let's go Amore. Here we go.
Ooh, nice press. Oh, my God,
you press. So what about, what about favorite drink?
My favorite drink,
adult or all, all
genre may give me milk, you know, 2% whatever.
Well, my favorite beverage is probably coffee. Yeah, come on.
I mean, I mean talking about something that I can have any
time of the day, like I can, I can drink coffee at 10 o'clock
at night and enjoy it. So, yeah,
I will usually not do it at 10 o'clock at night, but you're
right. I mean, I could push it to like, six o'clock at night,
something like that. And I don't know about you and your touring
mates, but we're like, simple guys. We're just like, what's
our rider on the bus? The strongest coffee known to man,
like alien blood, like seeping through the whole of the ship.
You know what? I mean, we just give
us coffee, like a like an engine block, like the oil pan out of
it. Yeah?
Dude, incredible. He's so easy. So what about your favorite
drummers? Like, you know, if you had, like, your Mount Rushmore
of drummers, um,
I would have to put bottom up there. And I really love Steve
Smith. Wow,
the open bass drums and the solos from the 80s, so fluid and
awesome. But to hear him, I mean, the guy not to we can go
down a rabbit hole about him, but like to hear him is jazz,
and then, like, the stuff he did with journey, I mean, I just, I
am like, that's like, it's the same guy, and it's just to me.
It's just like,
oh my god, it's, I love that vital information, especially
the like 90s vital information, with the fact sonar snare drum
was kind of small, it was a little bit smooth, you know,
yeah, um, those two, I mean, you gotta mention Vinny, you know. I
mean, with the sting stuff alone, you know? I mean,
yeah, and then, you know,
I love Dave Grohl. I love the way I love the veracity of
Dave's playing and and I, growing up, I was a big fan of
both Mike Portnoy. I loved the the early Dream Theater stuff,
and I loved nirvana. I loved the idea of taking veracity and a
vocabulary and and merging them so like, and it's basically kind
of like what would become. That's what be, in my opinion.
It's kind of like what Joey Jorgensen did with Slipknot in
those early days, was he took prowess sheer, like the chops,
but he beat the crap out of the drums too. So it was like, yeah,
that that gets my tail wagging. I like to hear, like, power and
like, you know, Kishi, like, tissue can do that. Tissue can,
like, be coming through a wall and then, like, just burn around
the times. You're like, geez. Like, like, all that stuff he
did with, like, pride and glory that record, I mean, like, he's
all over it. It's just that's,
that's what's fun
to me, yeah, man, I think that's a perfect combination of peanut
butter and chocolate. Is, is that you. You are. It's a com
it's like a smart cave.
That's the best way I've ever heard it put it's like a
caveman that went to community college. And it's like, hey, you
know, read Little Women, read Catcher in the Rye, read The
Canterbury Tales, but you're still very hairy and your
knuckles are scraping the ground 100% Yeah, yeah. I love that. We
both feel that way. And I do, you know, I will say this. He
hasn't been on the show yet, but God bless him. He's asked me to
be at four bottom Bonzo bashes, and you've played those. I think
Brian Tisch is one of the greatest modern rock drummers we
have alive today. 100% I had agree he has a real special
thing. Yeah, he does. He really does. And you know what? Who
else does? Steve Wilson, Oh, you're too kind. Thank you,
buddy. I love it, buddy. I miss you so much. I know that we love
cigars. I love the fact that you're living in Nashville right
now. I love that you got, you know, since you and I met, we
both got great gals. We got homes. You know, it's, it's,
it's all a great thing. And if people want to come see you this
year with the Dead Kennedys, how do they find out where to find
you?
They can go to my website, they go to Steven Wilson music.com or
they can cruise over to dead kennedys.com we are currently
nothing in the States right now on the books, but we are headed,
like I said. We're headed to New Zealand and Australia in
September, and in the meantime, I'm going to be here in town,
and I gig around local here and there when I can, and and then,
if not, I'm in this booth and talking into a microphone. So
it's good stuff.
I love it. Kenny your office, right? You're like, Hey, you
should do voiceover. And you're doing the thing, man. You know,
everyone takes Kenny's advice,
and if Kenny gives you some advice, you should probably take
it.
That's dude. I love it. I tell you what, I probably won't see
in the month of July, because it's always everyone's craziest
month festival season. But I know that there's an amazing
cigar bar here in Spring Hill called the mission. You walk in,
they've got the most insanely expensive smoke eaters. You
leave and you're like, oh my god, did I? Did I go to cigar
bar? It was amazing. Was amazing experience. So we'll do the
thing. So everybody check out. Steven Wilson music.com and the
voiceover is Steve Wilson vo.com,
Steve Wilson vo.com,
I'm super happy for you. I'm just very proud of you, and I'm
proud to call your friend. Thank you Rich. I love you buddy. I
love you, man. And hey to all the listeners, be sure to
subscribe, share, rate and review. It helps people find
this crazy little show, and we need all the help of all the
noise today and leave us a five star rating and review on Apple
podcast. It really does help things, and we'll see you next
time,
thanks, Steve, this has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe,
rate and follow along at rich redmond.com forward, slash
podcasts. You.