Unknown: Coming to you from crash studios in Music City,
USA, Nashville. This is the rich Redmond show.
What's up, folks? Yep, it's that time. It's time for another
exciting episode of the rich Redmond show. Hey, we're in the
holiday season here in Nashville. Man, the leaves are
falling. It's like a Van Morrison song. My favorite time
in Nashville. It's super crisp. The weather is great. Jim
McCarthy, Jim McCarthy, voiceovers.com, Jim, what is up?
Oh, you know, it's been a minute as my co host, my co producer,
my sidekick, yes, sidekick. But listen, man, we got something to
celebrate. We got over 200 episodes. We do, and I know that
there's some other drum podcasts out there. They've got 600
episodes. They got 1000 episodes. But hey, this is a
commitment. We did this, man, right? That's right. Well, we
started with two a week five years ago. We couldn't keep up
that pace, but now we're at about one a week, right? And I'm
just proud of us, man, and thanks for all your time and
talent. And
you know, we live in different proximities now, so it's going
to be easier. Oh, it's so much easier.
Why? Because I am a spring hillian, like, there's just been
this trend to migrate
south. You're no longer a brand yachan brandia,
yeah, I was on the poor side of Brentwood, but all right, it was
so convenient. And now I'm a spring hillian. I'm a one mile
away from everything. Isn't that crazy, including an awesome
cigar bar where I run into my friend, our guest today, hailing
from Ventura, California, calling Nashville home for 28
years, for 17 years. Now, that's a good gig, great gig, if you
can keep it. And he has the award winning country rock
recording artist trace Atkins. We're talking about our friend
John spittle. What's up, partner? Good to be here. But
you know what? We were on tour together, on the CMT Tour, where
trace was a headliner. Jason was an opener of an opener, because
the middle slot was Billy Currington, right? Think this
was like 2008 right? And that's where we were every night we got
to share the stage together. Some time has passed, but man,
look at this celebrated career. You've also worked with people
like Paul Brandt, Sarah Evans, Chris Cagle, Aaron Tippin, Tammy
Cochran, Kelly, coffee. Matt King, I mean, this is like
taking me back, because we both moved to Nashville around the
same time, 97 for me, 96 for you, right? Why would you ever
leave Ventura, California? Oh, and
it worked out, but worked out what?
What made me move to Nashville was my brother's a bass player.
He moved here a year before I did. And do I know your
basement? Bring
that microphone a little closer to here, if you could bring that
microphone a little bit. Okay. Oh, yeah, get on that. Is that
better? Yeah,
it's nice. So my brother moved here a year before, and he kept
calling me, saying, man, you gotta move to Nashville. And I'm
like, yeah, go to Asheville. You know, I had my stuff going in,
LA and all that. And so my ex wife, I'm a car guy too. So I
had this cool little car, and I just put a crazy price tag on it
and told my ex wife, if it sells for that, we're going to
Nashville. Nice day later, it sold for that guy never been
haggled the price, yeah. So I handed her the cash. Said, Guess
we're going to Nashville. Book the moving truck. Book the
moving truck, which is my dad, because my dad used to have a
sound company, so he had a big box van, and we loaded it up and
drove out to Nashville. Wow. So your dad had a sound company,
but also he was a drummer. He was a drummer first. That's what
he paid the bills with when I was coming up.
Yeah, yeah. And you have a son who's a drummer, an amazing, a
pro drummer. So three generations of spittle working
spittle drummers. That's
it, yeah, man, amazing. What spit what is that? I think it's
English, yeah, yeah. What's my grandpa was English? My grandma
was Irish, the spot
of tea, yeah. Do you like tea or more coffee? No. I mean, this
kind of thing, yeah. But you have good teeth, you know? Yeah,
I worked once for a spittle. Oh, really, in Las Vegas, yeah?
Gavin, spittle. He came from Boston.
Well, I've never met anybody with that last name that isn't
directly related to me. That's crazy.
It must be a small pool of people out of it, yeah, yeah.
And
since Facebook came out, you know, people come out of the
woodwork, yeah, but I don't know if I'm related to them, but
I don't mean I don't meet a lot of redmonds. I know that there's
a there was Lane Redmond she was, God, rest her soul. She was
like a hand drummer. And there's some sort of meteorologist of
prominence and an air traffic controller of prominence that
are Google able, right? So these, I guess these are my
online brethren. What about McCarthy's tons, tons of
McCarthy, tons of drunk McCarthy, McCarthy, I get
mistaken for you. Do you know Paul? Paul McCarthy or McCarthy?
Good funny on. Ever
that one I like. You got the newsy cap on today. I'm kind of
like delivering newspapers. You like it? I like the new look.
That's the news. Are you asking me if I have a new shirt? He has
a way of it. Like, if I, if I buy something, he'll go and he
doesn't like it. He goes, how's that new? Yeah, oh
no. Awkward silence. Yeah.
There's some drum gear upstairs that I like. It's good. Looks
good. Yeah, looks fairly
I've got, I've innovated, yeah, I'm probably gonna set a trend.
He's
got an x hat with the pedal right in front of him, kind of
like Donny win member with, like, you know, so you don't
have to cross your arms. Robert Palmer, and then you could high
stick a lot easier. Oh, totally. You get the full stroke out of
the snare drum, the full stroke, and it's the Hollywood muscles
up up here, yeah, rotator cup. What is it? The rotator cuff.
Are you surgery free? Have you evaded surgeries? No, surgeries.
That's nice. As far as drumming related stuff, yes, I got the
mesh. I got the mesh down here from Did you know lifting, bass,
drums and Hammond organs and stuff over the years?
Yeah, yeah, no, I've been fortunate. Shoulders, wrists,
yeah, all that stuff still good. So what
do you do? Do you do something on the daily physically? Or do
you do some stretching, or before you play? Do you have any
kind of like routines?
I try and stay active. I'm always trying to do something. I
don't have a warm up routine, yeah, you know, I know guys like
yourself, you get the sticks in your hands, yeah? Do all that.
But I'll stretch. I'll do the rolling of my wrists, yeah, you
know, do this, the stretch back, and that kind of stuff. That's
about it, yeah? And then I just sit down and play
now, Ventura, California. I'm being totally ADHD today. I'm
all over the place, but that's what we do. Um,
were you surfer? I did. I surfed when I was younger, yeah,
yeah. Now, is it like a riding a bike, where if you were to get a
go do it, it would come back.
I don't know. Yeah, it's been so long I haven't tried it, but I'm
sure probably would, but when I fell, it probably hurt worse. Oh
God, the coral and all that stuff, and then the sharks.
Well,
I never really didn't see any sharks out there. That's dogs
chief. I
think a Russ Kunkel is a surfer, and one time I talked to him,
and he said, man, they're always there, and they'll always be
there. You can't, you can't think about it absolutely. How
do you not think about it? Sharks, snakes, scorpions and
spiders. Those are the four S's. I don't like
any of them. Is that a thing? The four S's, I just created it.
There we go. Out there,
the 4s and the line through it on the shirt. So was your was
your dad classically trained? Or was he self taught? Did he show
you how to play?
He was self taught. He taught when he was I think he learned
when he was in his late teens, and self taught and played
around Ventura area and in different rock bands and country
bands, yeah, and and did that for a lot of years. Taught me
when I was, like, four or five years old, oh, wow, I blame him
for playing so hard, because when I was a kid, I couldn't
quite reach the snare. And back in those days, you know, they
didn't sell the little bitty kid drum kits. You had to play the
real thing. So he would get me as close as I could to the bass
drum and the snare would be up here. So I'd hit it soft. And he
kept saying, hit it like you mean it. Hit it like you mean
it. Who knows your money?
I always say that hit it like it owes you money. Yeah, right. So
you know that just stuck with me, yeah the whole time. And,
and,
yeah, but you have a clean, strong backbeat. And I always
tell all my students, I mean, learn all the styles you
possibly can, and it's great to learn how to go sping, Spang, a
Lang because if we didn't have spangling, we wouldn't have the
drum set, right? Drum set as a result of of jazz. Um, but if
you got a mean backbeat, you can play anywhere in the world for
the rest of your life. Oh, thank you,
man. You know, yeah, yeah. I think he my dad. I have to thank
my dad for that, because I went through a period in high school
where I joined the band and, oh, what are these rudiment things?
Yeah. And next thing you know, you're wanting to play
everything you know over the top of a song, yeah. And I remember
when he came out and saw me play one time. He told me, he said I
was playing the troubadour. Oh, yeah, Doug Weston's troubadour,
yeah. And I was like, I think I was about 16, and I was throwing
up all over these songs. I mean, everything I knew, throwing up
after the show. He was sitting out there, and I came out and
said, What'd you think? He goes, you wanna know the truth? Well,
yeah, suck. That's some tough love. He said, you lost your
groove. Yeah, you lost your groove, man. The two and four
went away. Your guys were singing and you were. Playing
over the top of them, and yeah, and he goes, I recommend you
kick snare hat. And when you get that down again, then you could
add a Tom, then a symbol, when you
say playing over him. Do you mean like, just Neil peering,
filling over Oh,
yeah. Just, just, yeah, diarrhea,
the drums, yeah. You got to go through that phase. And the
earlier, the better. Yeah, yeah.
So I did. I sat back and, you know, yeah, took his advice, and
he's never steered me wrong, you know, yeah, he said, Hey, if you
can make that bass player comfortable, that guitar player
comfortable, you'll work amazing. I gotta be able to rest
on you. That's great advice. And do we still have your dad? Yeah,
he's 80. Just turned
80. That's amazing. My dad's gonna be 80 as well. Wow, in
June. That's crazy. He
was 80 in October, and smokes two cigars a day and drinks
bourbon every day. Is that where you got it from? The cigar?
Love, I think I introduced him to it. Yeah, it's
and it's a thing that could run away from you. We were just, we
were talking about, well, we ran into another friend. This is
crazy. I There's a great engineer in town. He's a, he's a
brew of yours as well, JR McNeely. He's amazing. And he's
a fantastic he was a tre, like a tracking engineer, like every
day in Nashville. And I worked with him in 1999 doing a session
for Crystal talifero. And I don't think I've seen him much
sense, but I walk into the cigar bar, and he goes, Rich. And I
was like, Oh my god. So here we are. I don't know how many 20
something years later we ran into each other. Turns out,
yeah, we were talking about George Burns. And the old joke
is like, Hey George, what does your doctor think about you
smoking six cigars a day and drinking all this bourbon and
chasing young women. He goes, I don't know he's dead.
He was good that way. That's a good
one. But then you walked into the room and I'm like, Oh my
God, John, I haven't seen you in forever, right? You
know what the funny thing is about that place you walk in and
everybody's looking at you like, where do I know you from? At
least, that's the impression I get. You
know what it's it's the I feel like I'm ashamed, the amount of
business and pleasure I mixed at a place called the red door in
Nashville. And everybody who knows bring up my name is
synonymous with, like, you need a cheers. You need a place where
you walk in, they go, Hey, Normie, right? So they got good
beer there too. What the best dude, there too, best drinks in
town. So now this is, I'm in a new chapter in my life where
this is going to be, are my cheers, and it's great. It's got
a great let's, let's plug it. Let's plug the place. Let's give
us the love. Yeah,
the mission cigar and social in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Look at
that, guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great place. You can get the
Casa cubata cigar there, yeah? Cigars there, yeah,
a lot. So are you, uh, speaking of cigars, are you of the
opinion? There's so many different types, brands, sizes,
cuts, experiment, try a different one every time. Or do
you like to stick to something? I
went through that phase, yeah, but now I know what I like. So I
I like a Perdomo, yeah? 20th or 30th anniversary, I like the
Maduro wrapper. Yeah, I don't smoke every day. I think
that we're similar, because that's I been going towards the
prodomos, and they have those nice pre packs, like four or
five different kinds. Yeah,
those are great. Yeah, it's a great value. And, you know, I
don't smoke every day, I may look like it if you you know, if
we talk about it, but I don't, yeah, but
I'm trying to avoid that, because my mom was like, Rich.
We're happy you have something that's meditative and something
that can calm you freaking down, but don't do it every day. I was
like, absolutely no, absolutely
do it every other day,
right? And the days you do it, you do maybe two or three
instead makeup for the day. Yeah,
heck, I used to smoke a pack and a half a day of cigarettes. I
didn't know, Jim, I didn't know. I never knew you smoked
cigarettes.
I was my teenage years. Oh, he started when I was 1514,
years old. I could see you doing it now in that hat on the street
corner. Hey kid, I tell
you you smell a good cigarette. It brings you back and it makes
you like man. I wouldn't mind having one right now, yeah? But
then you open up Pandora's Box, yeah? But, you know it's like,
we've quit so many times we could do it again, not that we'd
ever start again, yeah? But, you know, it's you have to
do Chantix, and got all raging. No good. We just the
first time Courtney got pregnant, and I was like, Okay,
that's it. We're just quitting. Wait a minute, Courtney smoked,
too. Yeah? Oh, she was a big smoker. Wow, yep, it's
crazy. I never got into the cigarettes, yeah, yeah. Cigar is
more of a good thing about a cigar. There's a lot of
conversation that could happen around a cigar. It takes a long
time to smoke. You sit down, get to know somebody over Yeah,
unless you smoke it like a cigarette,
which you know, I guess I'm not enjoying it at that point. Hey,
so
tell us about, tell us about this podcast.
So it's called music and cigars with John and Jr, JR McNeely.
You talked about, yeah, and we just started it. It's fun, you
know, we'll see where it goes. But, um, it's on. YouTube. How
many episodes are you in? I think we've got six or seven up
right now. So nice, not too long ago. And as some of those are
music videos, like we recorded Black Dog by Zeppelin, yeah, and
in the cigar shop after hours. So you guys set up your gear in
the cigar shop.
Recorded, yeah, oh my god, oh my Yeah. We
really Pink Floyd song, and there's Have a cigar.
Yeah, it's funny. One of the podcasts I produce right here,
the ales and tails podcast here, I'll put it up
at the camera. Everybody does know that Jim produces about 20
podcasts,
so we actually do beer tasting right in here and do a bunch of
stuff. We've been wanting to get our podcast in there just to do
a remote. You know, they're
great guys. They let us do it. We do interviews in there with
songwriters, musicians, producers, producers, all that
kind of stuff.
I love it, man, yeah. Put that on the dude to do list. And so,
coming to Nashville, what were you doing in Los Angeles? What
kind of work did you go to college and study, or anything,
or man on the streets? No,
I didn't I, you know, I played around in rock bands, trying to
be a rock star, you know, that whole deal. So Viper whiskey,
yeah, places, yeah. And different bands, different
things. And then I got hooked into doing some jingles, doing
session work down there, doing jingles and doing demos and
doing some of that stuff. So that was kind of my bread and
butter for a little while. On top of, I'm a car guy, and at
that time, you had to have a day job. So I was an auto mechanic
for a Chevrolet dealership. Okay? And I had a real cool
service manager that would let me, I could call in that
morning, say, Hey, I just got called to do a jingle in LA. Can
it, you know? Yeah, pick off go, yeah. And I was able to go do
that. I kind of wrote my own hours, yeah, was
it a not on a franchise dealership, but was a
corporately owned or family owned dealership, family
owned, yeah, family owned Chevrolet. That wouldn't happen.
He was real cool. I
have a car background, so,
okay, yeah. And so, yeah, I started doing that, and, and,
and stayed pretty busy and, and then when the Nashville thing
came around. You know, I saw it as a good opportunity to raise
my family in a good place, yeah, and try something different,
something and not have to work on cars, and not have to do
things because California is so expensive. Yeah,
do you work on your own cars here when you got to change your
oil? Do all that kind of I do just because I can, do you
have the gear, like the lift and all that stuff. No. So
the house I live in now is just in a neighborhood, but my father
in law lives two miles from me, and he's got a 50 by 50 shop
with a lift in it. All that
makes it so much easier.
Yeah, so I just take stuff over there. I worked
that. I mean, I got to tell you. I don't, I couldn't tell you how
to change oil if my someone had me at gunpoint, dude,
I swear we need to do, like, a series similar to, like, dirty
jobs, where you just go do things no one would ever think
you would do. Oh, yeah, because I'm so precious going hunting or
fish, deep sea fishing or deep sea
fishing, that sounds fun. You just change and go tower
drinking the night before, like Tully and I have done many
times. Yeah.
But you know, deep not Well, I guess, I guess you could see you
deep sea fishing, changing a tire, changing oil, hell,
changing an air filter.
Now I can change an air filter. And my current handyman, who's a
god, he's a godsend. I'm not talking about the one in your
house, the one that's talking about the guy that is in my
house right now, he showed me how to correctly. WD, 40 creaky
doors. And I'm going around to all of my doors and W D, 48 my
creaky doors. It's so sad. Are you one of
these guys? Are you like Brad from Daddy's home, where you
keep your tools in a fishing tackle box with along with a
tampon. Maybe you know what movie I'm talking about. It's
with Marky, Mark, Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. Oh, my God,
you've never seen that. Which one is it called Daddy's home.
It's a funny parts of it. It's a great movie. Yeah, yeah. He gets
home, he's like, you know, you got any tools like Mark plays
the like will is his character is the stepfather to these kids
who belong to Mark Wahlberg, who's the divorced dad and the
wife and stuff like that. Mark Wahlberg still in love with the
wife to a certain extent. So he comes back in their lives and
tries to drive. Will's character out in the beginning. And, you
know, he acts friendly at first, like, hey, we, we're gonna knock
down this wall. Brad, you know how Marky Mark talks? Marky
Mark, Mark Wahlberg, yeah. And he's like, where are your tools?
Oh, I'll be right back. And he keeps his tools in like, a
hallway dresser. You know that kind of Yeah, you probably have
to watch it.
No. But it sounds very similar to that movie. The other guys
were their cops, right? And they were great to will. Ferrell's
wife is Eva Mendes, and she comes out, and he's like, God,
put some makeup on her present. Could you present yourself
better? And she's gorgeous,
yeah, yeah. And Mark Wahlberg is like, Are you seriously married
to him.
And she's like, Yeah, I know,
great actor. He really has, he really he's a man of many
talents. And then he's like, in incredibly good shape.
Oh, yeah, Marky Mark, yeah, totally. I don't know why I keep
on calling him Marky Mark, yeah. Well,
I mean, that's where it all started. First of all, he was a
Calvin Klein model, I believe then he was a recording artist
and then a serious actor,
would he have been famous, though, without Donnie?
Interesting question, because I feel like he's almost as far as,
like, global Oh, he's absolutely, totally surpassed.
But
Donny was the catalyst that attracted the attention to the
family, because it was Donnie Wahlberg of the backs that the
Backstreet Boys, but New Kids
on the Block where it was, were those the bye bye bye guys, or
is that another group? No, that came
that bye bye bye. Yeah, yeah.
Song was prominently featured in Deadpool and Wolverine. Oh
yeah. Jim is a serious Marvel guy. Is there something we would
never guess about you? Like that you're a super fan of,
I like the Marvel stuff, but I'm not a super fan, yeah, I don't
think I'm a super fan of anything, yeah. Really, like,
Well,
I mean, I worked at a Chevrolet dealer, I would imagine more
vets Camaros. No, really,
I'm into the more the old muscle cars, like the old, old Camaros,
right? Nothing like you may know what this is, but like a tubed
out old muscle car with the blower hanging out of the hood,
that's kind of my, my thing wild, you know, not mine.
You rev the engine and the whole car torques exactly, you know,
old
drag racer. You have one of those in your possession. Not so
since moving back here, I haven't but my dad has a 1930
model, a that I built the motor for, and it's got about 450
horsepower. He puts it around he lives out in Lebanon, so he he
puts it around town, takes it to car shows.
Well, it is quaint. Yeah, Tennessee is charming. It really
is. You just got to watch out. When you get out to the far
outskirts, you start hearing banjos, yeah, you
gotta be careful. You gotta just run. It's a big squealing. I'm
not sure if it's like that anymore. It's getting very
bougie now, like even down into Lewisburg. That's where the
overflow from Columbia is going to go, yeah? I think so. The
next explosive growth area, I think, is going to be Lewisburg.
Think so, yeah, probably.
But I'm hoping that Spring Hill becomes like freaking Pasadena,
just just money flowing in, property values, just
skyrocketing the roof. Next thing you know, you and I got
gargoyles. Gargoyles. Yeah, we got gargoyles by our mailbox,
and we got little spitting Greek kids. And
there's nothing that's stopping you from doing that now,
yeah, I don't know if my neighborhood, they would like
the gargoyles, yeah,
like cement, black gargoyles with red eyes.
It's funny, my house was known as the party house. The couple
that moved out was the loudest couple in the neighborhood, and
then here I come. Oh, wow. I'm, I'm, we're the loud couple with
the drums, and I just played the drums. Been there six weeks,
played the drums for the first time, just had my little Darrow
Jones PDP kit, you know, just almost like ding duck a ding,
just to ease him into it. And then slowly played along to some
Eagles records. So far, so
good, so good. I don't have any idea. I'll go upstairs and play
when everybody leaves here, because my kit is upstairs,
yeah, and I just have a ball. There's wood shed and
everything. And sometimes the people that work here will be
outside, and one girl Sydney, she's like, I was down by the
mailbox, and I could still hear you. Jim
is Jim is self taught. He is a he has the thing. He's a rock
drummer, like he's he can bark away on the high hat. He's
cracking rim shots. He's burying the beard. There's a nice
balance between the limbs. He knows the vocabulary of a rock
drummer. He doesn't read music. I'd love for him to read music,
but he he's, you're just a natural.
If I only had a charting course of a certain personality, yeah,
he wants me to do a charting course. We're gonna film it in
2025 so by, I say this publicly right now, where you can by
Christmas of 2025 we will have a very nice charting course. How
about by Hanukkah? Okay, well, that's, yeah, that's early
December. Is
it going to be Nashville numbers or
no? Because Jim rallies got that covered. I'm going to go in my
lane, which is how to create the quickest drum chart you could
possibly create, yeah, in real time, because I have my
students. I'll turn the thing over. And I'll say, All right,
here you go. We're gonna both chart as much of this song as
humanly possible. Four bar intro, verse, eight bars pre.
Chorus, three measures a stop on beat two, the fourth bar. So I'm
writing it all in real time, and they're looking at me like, oh,
Mike. I'm like, Yeah, dude. And we start, we'll start with,
like, hurts so good, right? Boom, crack, boom, crack, boom,
boom. And then I'm like, Okay, you just got to get faster. So
you got to chart five songs a day, every day, and so then
you'll have it so down that if anybody calls you and says, Hey,
I need you tomorrow, 60 songs, no rehearsal. You
got this dude charting songs is a saving grace. Saving Grace I
could, I couldn't imagine learning 45 minutes worth of
songs without having that, without having it that, and even
heard it here. Kids, when I use, I use a the Nashville Number
System as a base, yes, and then notated here and there for
certain punches. So you do, like, 1451, I do 11112222, and I
go all the way through four. Like, I'll list out 121111222,
211112222, all the way. If there's, you know, 16 bars and
there's four, right? Yeah, and then I go onto the course, start
over at one, and that way, at a quick glance, if I look over the
one, starts it over in that next section of the song.
Interesting.
So you have a modified now, do you introduce, like western
classical notation, like Bob,
Bob breaks and punches and diamonds and, you know, those
kinds of
things. So Jerry Rowe, it's kind of interesting. Jerry Rose has
become that one of the hottest session drummers in Nashville
right now, and he does kind of like a Larry London thing, which
is 11111, you know, and it's, and that's cool. So my thing is
more like, here's the intro, four bar and intro four, right?
Verse, one, seven stop on beat, one, there, and then I'll, maybe
I'll write the kick drum and snare drum pattern there, boom,
crack, Boom. There you go, crack. And I got my BPMs up
here, right? Whatever you need.
So to me, there's no right or wrong. You could take any method
and morph it to work for you. You know Sean London, Larry
London son, yeah. So he's the one that showed me the Larry
London method, yeah. And then it just got to where it was all
those ones, too many ones, I'd get lost, yeah. So that's when I
started doing the 1234, just, uh, for me, yeah. And I told him
about it. He told me it was stupid. So if you know Sean the
numbers that you said it in, well, he became,
like a great lighting designer. I think that his his craft now,
yeah,
he does, uh, video, walls. Video, yeah. Oh, really, yeah,
interesting, yeah,
yeah. So just tell us, really quickly, since we don't have a
sponsor, what all your side hustles are here at this in this
building,
all the side hustles, let's see we have the podcasting, which is
the, it's your show.co, right, where I am somewhat actively
involved, or fully involved with podcasts on some degree or
another, we have incredible doors, and you're local here. If
you ever have a garage door issue, call me. Where we fix
garage doors. Maintain installing new garage doors.
Upgrade lighting. We do a lot of light. We manufacture our own
lighting over if you've been through a car wash with all the
colored lights, yeah,
probably did you guys do the one down on Columbia Pike on Main
the domain drag in Spring Hill.
You're talking about the one by Lowe's, yeah, it's like, right
behind the mission. Those are by the mission.
There's two. There's one up by Lowe's. There's one down by the
cross things, yeah, there's one off
port Roy, we don't mention them. Those
are, yeah, okay, no, they went with they went with somebody
else.
I wish I would have known about the garage door thing. I just
replaced the garage door spring myself.
Oh, did you Yeah, gotta go. How long did it take? Great. Now,
Jake, did you go from left to right?
I don't know what that means. You have to. I'd I did the I
only got one. I don't have one on each side, right? But I
bought the tool to, is it good and balanced? That's good and
balanced? Good. Put it up there. Hangs right there.
Yeah. And they have their own Wi Fi network. Now the my two where
you and it lets you know every time you open the garage and
close the garage, which is like, smart, smart, so smart, the
garage
weighs something, so you gotta have the spring to offset the
weight. Gotcha, the opener doesn't pull it up. It just
guides
it, yeah? Well,
if he's got problems, he knows where to now, who to call.
That's amazing. I don't have to do it. That's
right. Incredibledoors.com call 931348,
door, nice, Jim, without in lieu of a sponsor, we get to pimp our
wares. So when you first moved to Nashville, who was the first
artist you met? What was your first gig of note that started
to get the ball rolling?
I did a My first one was a guy named Marty Brown for about two
weeks. He was a songwriter, wrote the I'm from the country,
I'm from the country, and played with him for a little bit. And.
Then played with Matt King. After that, he was like a quasi
Christian pop rock Matt king, or was he country? Oh, he was just
country, okay, and now he owns his own coffee thing. He's
married to Heidi Newfield, okay, yeah. They live in North
Carolina. I think. Okay,
so she moved, huh? My wife used to massage her,
yeah. I think they have a place here and there. He started a
coffee place in his hometown. They used to live up
in West Haven, or she did, but maybe she was married to a
sports agent at one point. That's
right, that's right. So, so I played with him for a little
while, and then that led into playing with the guy named Neil
Cody. And he was more the kind of indie rock kind of thing. And
did that. And then he lost his record deal. You know, lot of
these new artists, you know how it goes. And then after that, I
played for a Canadian artist, Paul Brandt. I did that for a
couple years, year and a half, and I juggled Sarah EVANS At the
same time. So you spent a lot of time in Canada with Paul, right?
Yes, yeah, but you know he would only tour in the winter time. I
don't know why they do this, the most freezing time of year, most
freezing time they would, they would tour in Canada. So it
worked out well for me, because the new artists, like Sarah
EVANS At the time, was a new artist, artist. She didn't tour
in the winter time that much. So it was great. I could go out
with her and then go out with Paul, and then go back out with
her. And it worked.
Did she have that song out where that with sucks in the bucket,
with the drum intro, born to fly from, uh, Matt Chamberlain,
yeah.
Born to fly. That was just what I actually was with her when,
when they recorded all that, and then when it stayed in for a
little while after that. And then after her, I went on to
Aaron Tippin for the time and and then the road manager that
used to manage, I uh, used to manage Paul Brandt, yeah, called
me for the trace gig. And, well, first he called me for Chris
Cagle, and then Chris Cagle, I've just filled in dirt
drummer, John Stacy. Do you know John Stacy? You
know John Stacy? Yeah, cuz he used to play with Mark chestnut,
right? I believe he lives in Texas. Now
he does, yeah, well, he fell or did something and tore his
shoulder up. So I filled in for about three months, yeah, and
then he called me for the trace gig, and I got the trace gig,
and rest is his. So it seemed like everything was
relationships, relationships, personal recommendations,
absolutely. So to get the trace gig, no audition, no audition.
It's basically like, hey, we'll meet you at the bus, see at the
Kroger, yeah, yeah. And I almost didn't take the gig, because at
that time I had heard that he'd been through about three or four
or five drummers, ouch. And I was like, I got a solid thing
here with Aaron right now, I don't know if I want to Yeah,
and so Steve, the guy that that recommended me, said I did. I
wouldn't recommend you if I didn't think you could do it.
Okay,
what was the reason why he went through all the drummers, they
just got better opportunities, you
know, I don't know. To this day, I don't know. I never asked, and
I went in, no rehearsal. Basically, we met at sir, and
all we did was kind of line check everything real quick, and
then packed it up. We were gone. Went to the first gig. And first
gig was Detroit hoedown in Detroit, downtown hoedown in
Detroit. Yeah. When was this? Uh huh. What year this would have
been 2002
okay, so he was, he was coming up at that point, I
think, right, yeah. So he'd already had some hits, yeah? He
went through some aa stuff, and then coming back up again, yeah.
First song, I believe, was every light houses on and drinking
thing, thinking, yeah. And this time was when Chrome and I'm
trying, and those songs were Yeah, or coming up
is trace still doing that kind of lady pleasing dance? That's
his thing. Aaron builds a bike. Chris Cagle cries, and trace is
dancing.
Aaron Tippin builds a bike on stage. He does in real time. He
does that work a man, whatever it is, it's a stick, really,
yeah? Like a motorcycle, no, no, bicycle. Like a bicycle. And he
donates it at the end to kids. He
builds a like, takes it out of the box. So here's the phrase,
really, they pre staged, pretty sure about this, yeah, yeah,
that's his thing. So he just sits there and he's got his
tools in. He's they roll them
out in a thing that looks like a toolbox, and he pops out, and
then he starts building this bike. Amazing, bro. So, yeah, so
we did this downtown, oh, down. And I'm reading charts, and, you
know, going through the songs, thinking everything's going
good, done. We walk off the stage. Coach, and I felt pretty
good about it, and we're waiting to go back out for the encore
and trace. Looks at Steve the road manager, and says, where'd
you find this boy? I thought, I'm fired. I'm fired. And he
goes, I have my ways. And he said, as long as I got a career,
he's got a gig, awesome, and I've been there ever since,
that's
what you want to hear. Man, I just got, I just got the chills.
I
have a feeling you said it in a much deeper voice, much deeper.
There's
more so my trace Atkins story on that CMT tour. You know, totally
our bass player has got the the hair, yeah, it takes at least an
hour to do his hair. And it's like, you know, you know, your
spiky, modern mess, messy musician hair is just supposed
to be, you know, it's supposed to look like, there's no effort,
just the get out of bed, look right? But it's very meticulous.
So Tully is in the dressing room. In the hall. Trace is
walking by the open doorway. He sees Tully in his underwear, no
shirt, with the flat iron going hairspray, fixing his hair, and
he he walks past, comes back, looks in the room and goes,
Jesus Christ.
That sounds like trace, amazing story. And
then I have played shaker, maracas, tambourine, hand claps,
finger snaps on a couple of trace records. And the one time
I remember being in the studio with him at treasure Isle, he it
was that weird time where there was like that. There was that,
like, kid in the, in the, in the bubble, oh, bubble. Boy, oh
yeah, that was floating away. Balloon. Boy, we were totally
glued to the television that day. Wow. Like, in between all
the takes. But he's just a, he's he strikes me as a very imposing
figure, but it seems at the heart of it, he's a teddy bear.
Oh, he's
a great guy. He and he's softened over the years, you
know, yeah, but yeah, he's a great guy. Treats all of us
very, very well, and I got nothing but good to say about
him. Yeah. Now, who's in the band now? Now we have a guy
named Chris Hoey on bass, Brent mccullo on keyboards. We call
him b Matt Brian Wooten on guitar, yeah, great guitar
player. And another great guitar player, Brent Wilson on guitar,
who I knew from playing with Andy Griggs. Andy Griggs, right?
And it was funny, because when we started, when I first started
with trace, we did a bunch of shows with Andy Griggs, and
Wilson was with them, yeah, you know. So then now he's band
leader here, yeah. Now all the relationships,
all relationships. So the majority of those gigs, they
were non audition situations, right? I feel like that has
always been the way in Nashville, yeah, it's a, it's a
system where people want to ride the bus with their friends,
people they know, they like, they trust, because we're only
playing for the one hour a day, right? So, well, that's amazing.
And I love that because, you know, Al Dean pulled me aside
one time and said, as long as I'm doing this, you're playing
the drums. That's, doesn't that feel it just feels cool,
yeah. Did you know? Well, you guys, you came up with him from
the bottom, yeah. I
mean, in 2002 when you were doing that downtown, hoe down, I
was there with a band called rush low, with Tim rush low. And
it was me Kurt and totally and, yeah, you know it was, it was
six piece band, which is like two people too many. I think,
when it comes to a band, you know what I mean? But we had, I
mean, we had a great time. Everybody was awesome. But
that's a lot of mouths to feed, but
I can't be your friend anymore. Soft hit,
right? We got the top. We got the 13 with that sucker. You'll
see
rich at age 32 right?
Yeah. But age 31 age 3202
it came out, God, to be 32 again. Oh, I'd love it. Would
that be amazing? I
wish I could be 32 and know what I know now, but it's impossible.
It's impossible. It just doesn't work like that. My son's 3031
Yeah, 30 what? 31 What if you could just impart the knowledge
you have, like, not trade places with yourself, but somehow beam
your experience and knowledge to your 30 year old version of
yourself back in time.
That would be awesome. What would you tell I wonder how much
different I'd be now. Wow, I would just say
one word. What's that? Bitcoin? Yeah, right, when you hear about
it in 2013 just spend the $100 on it,
the whole thing. So now here's the deal. I got some friends who
got in early on the coin, and they got up to $2 million Wow.
And instead of cashing. Out. They, they kept riding that
wave, and it went way down, yeah, but it's at an all time
high now. But, yeah, maybe it's up to 3 billion for him. Did
they sell that? Did they sell out? I don't know. I just
remember going, Oh, dude, so close. Yeah, that's the whole
thing with gambling. You're like, Well, surely if we could
do two, we can do four, right?
That's the thing, is that, you know? But it's a currency, so,
and it's a store of value, and you got all these countries that
are starting to adopt it, it's, that's the thing, you know,
that's what I'm looking at. And you got the, you know,
devaluation of the dollar that's happening, and all that stuff,
and they're actually talking about it becoming the next world
reserve currency, and there's only 21 million of them. Do you
limited, limited
supply? Do you think that we are going to live to see that
crazier things have happened? I mean, everybody laughed when it
said it would get to, you know, $50,000 what are you out of your
mind? And then it did. And now, you know, $100,000 you're,
they're talking about a hitting 400 million at some remember,
we were talking about nfts. Did you ever go out and get an NFT
No, but we had, we had a guy on that was into it, yeah, Gordon
Campbell, that's right, yeah. And he was, that was the first
time you and I heard about it. We looked into it. Gary V got
behind it. He was a big proponent of it. And he'll even
tell you, he's like, look, yeah, it's at a lull right now, but
it's going to come roaring back. You just watch,
Hey, Gary V unless he's got a team of people, he respond. He
gave me, sent me a DM, really. Gary fees, I reposted one of his
things, and it was like, it was just something like, don't sweat
the small stuff. And it's all small stuff. He wrote it on a
cocktail napkin, and he posted, and I, I reposted it. It was
something like that, or was it's like the most important thing
are the soft skills, not anybody can learn the hard skills,
something like that. So I reposted it, and then I got a DM
from him saying, keep pushing, keep building. Wow, yeah. Do you
think that's him?
You know, he says he he. I believe him, if it comes from
his account, that's him. That came from his account. So that's
him. He was probably in the back of a taxi cab, probably, and he
just received, like this kid, a bone. You're one of the 100,000
people that commented or reposted, and, yeah, he just
grabbed yours. And, you know, that's what he does. I mean,
it's crazy. It's the Taylor Swift effect. That's how he get,
gets his followers just very personal involvement,
very personal. Yeah, so let's brag on your son a little bit.
He's the Ableton expert, right? Oh,
yeah. I mean, hit that kid. He just sent me some files today.
He goes, Dad, I just found this new tube preamp, and you should
hear it on the snare drum. And, I mean, he's all about it, yeah?
He lives, eats and breathes drums, but he's making a living.
He's making a living. He plays down on Broadway, and that's
kind of his steady gig. He plays there Thursday through Sunday
with the same group of guys. So it's not like he's hustling
different things, different locations, right? But the same
couple, yeah, a couple different locations, and then, and then he
plays with a guy named Peyton Smith, a new artist out so he
goes on the road with him. They're on their way up to your
guys's neck of the woods this weekend, probably going to play
the wolf den in Mohegan Sun, right? Something like that. No,
he didn't mention that, but he's, he's going up that way,
and, you know, he's doing great
or something, huh? Maybe Daryl house, yeah,
holding. And then he's, uh, you know, he's, he's got his little
drum room in his house, like, I do, you know? Yeah, he used to
use mine come over and record at my place. Yeah. And then now
he's got his own and, yeah, he's, how old is he? He's 31
okay, you don't look old enough to have a 31 year old, my
friend, I'm 58 Wow, buddy, yeah. No, you don't look it. Congrats.
Hair dye. Well, that and, you know, just a career in music and
the car business, my goodness, yeah, you're ahead of the game.
Yeah,
big time. Somebody yesterday was like, I said, you know, since
how long have you been playing it, since 1976 and he goes,
what? I was like, yeah. And he goes, What are you doing? I was
like, olive oil. You just gotta have, I'll put olive oil on
everything. There
you go, yeah, that's my salad dressing. Yeah, that's
right, the best thing you could have, yeah, yeah. And you're a
half Italian, and then occasionally some honey mustard.
Mine, I got too much sugar. Yeah, sugar. I gotta cut sugar.
Eat some sugar with me. I
don't think those are the lyrics.
How the song goes back
to this drumming thing, um, what are some, some highlights of
your career with, um, trace some, like, amazing venues you
guys have done, or tell because you've done the all the Conan
O'Briens, the Jay Leno's, the Jimmy kimmels, the Jimmy
Fallon's, Ellen New York, the NYC live, all the award shows,
right?
Yeah, man, I think one of the coolest things is playing
Carnegie Hall. Wow. So the opry actually did a thing at car.
Carnegie Hall. Oh, great. And it was us and Vince Gill, and I
can't remember everybody that was on it, but it was an Opry,
you know, a short Opry, but just to play Carnegie Hall, that was
kind of cool. You know, my daughter
sang there last February.
Oh, that's great. And you're a puddle of tears. Were you not
incredible? She could, she couldn't care less. But you
know. Well,
for me growing up, you know, my dad being a drummer, I listened
to Chicago a lot, and they had Chicago live from Carnegie Hall,
so that just stuck in my head. And then to play my hometown of
Ventura, we played the fair. We've done that three or four
times, the Ventura County Fair, yeah. So, you know, be there,
and all my friends and family be there. That's awesome. They
have that mid State Fair, which is in Paso, Robles, Apostle
Robles, and then you have the California State Fair, which is
in Sacramento, Sacramento, and there's another one that's in
Pomona. I
forget what? Yeah, oh, Lancaster, or Pomona somewhere
down there. Yeah, man. So
I love my California. So
when you guys go back and you play like your hometown where
you went to high school. And you know, did you have high school
crushes? I did, yeah, did you? Did they still live there? Do
you know they do and did they? Did you make sure be like, Oh
yeah, come on, yeah. Check me
out. Yeah, check me out.
I actually married one of my high school crushes. Did you
that was your Sunday? Was it your So Sandy, well, my first
wife, we dated in high school, and then, you know the typical,
on and off again, kind of separate for six months, back
together, kind of thing, whatever, and then got married.
But Sandy, my wife. Now, I knew her in high school. I knew her
parents. Her parents were our band boosters for the marching
band and stuff. So it's I kind of got to know them. And so, you
know, when I went through my divorce, I was talking to her
parents one time and and they said, well, Sandy, could help
you out. She's been through an ugly divorce, you know. And if
you got any questions, so I did, I reached out, and next thing
you know, it's like, Hey, she's still cool. Did she know that
you had a crush on her? She does now. You never told her back
then I liked her, and I told her best friend that I liked her,
and did you tell her I like her? Yeah, exactly. It was one of
those kind of things, yeah. And the best her friend, Shelly,
said, You're not good enough for and I was, I was a bad kid in
school. I was not a good kid, just getting into trouble, all
kinds of trouble all the time, just so I believed it. Maybe
that was he'll never date you. So I never tried, yeah, yeah. So
anyway, it's
funny, did you have the same thing, Richard? You have
somebody that, I guess it would be you left Connecticut when,
oh,
man, yeah. So I left Connecticut was 11.
Okay, so basically, all of your teenage years occurred in
my first kiss, and my first girlfriend was Debbie Durham,
and we wear our matching police synchronicity shirts. So cute,
yeah, but
you didn't, but I'm talking about somebody like the
unattainable, the crush that never reciprocated, you know.
And now you go back to El Paso with, you know, driving this
power I always
got, I always get reciprocation.
There was this one girl. There was this one girl that I went to
high school with that was always like, I won't mention names,
right? But, uh, she always looked down on on the people I
hung out with, right? And then when I went back and played the
Ventura fair the first time, all of a sudden, she's my best
friend. How do you like me now? You know, oh, good to see you.
So proud of you. Oh, you've done so great. And you're you want to
say something, but yeah, all you could do is say thank you. You
know, yeah, I mean, but you want to say, Yeah, well, back then
you didn't think so. Did
you want to come back stage?
Wink, wink. You want
to say a few words into the mic?
Damn Jim. We're gonna get like, an X rating,
parental advisory, talking about, you know, during sound
check. Do you want to say some more?
Yeah? Ventura County Fair and Carnegie Hall, yeah, yeah. Now,
have you got you have you guys done the, I mean, you're doing a
lot of sheds, yeah. Did you guys ever do the Hollywood Bowl?
I never have. I've never have. I wish I could. Damn, never done
it. Have you done it? Well, we did
it one time. It's way too long ago. It is time to do it again.
Yeah, I would love and the Greek theater. Man, that would be
nice. I saw a lot of shows there,
yeah. Is that a notable place, the Hollywood Bowl? Yeah,
because
the Beatles have played there Hendricks.
I mean, if you live in Southern California, that's the place to
go see somebody. Yeah, they're that in the Greek, yeah, yeah.
The thing about the Greek is crazy, is that that neighborhood
is so manicured and meticulous and bougie, yeah, and all those
people have to go to. Traipsing through that neighbor. Yeah, for
like, it's crazy year round, pretty much
have a hellish, hate Hoa, hellish.
Totally, totally. So what any other funny, funny stories from
about 17 years with trace? Uh,
not that I could tell on here. Yeah. I mean, what you know,
does he have you over for barbecues and hangs and stuff,
really. Oh,
he's pretty private in that, yeah. But, you know, where does
he live, huh? Where's he live? He lives
that way, 444,
yeah. He doesn't live far from here, really. You know, a lot of
them are around here now, yeah, he used to be in Brentwood, and
then part of it now, he's outside of Nashville, south.
Yeah, so, but yeah. I mean, it's great. We all cut up and give
each other a hard time. Yeah, you'd think we hate each other
the way we give each other, you know? You know, yeah, but at the
same time, we all got each other's back.
Johnny Rabb had a story about him.
Yeah, I was, I think he was, I think he was playing, Johnny was
playing with Tanya Tucker. Tanya Tucker, and I think trace was
opening for her, or something. They were playing together,
yeah, and the band was just kind of left hanging because she
wasn't there. And trace kind of came in and said, look, let's
just entertain the crowd. And you know, you let's just, you
know, you guys know that they were just completely riffing,
wow, just to make sure the crowd was entertained, yeah? And trace
was like he was just kind of lending himself as a leader of
the band, yeah, kind of bailing those guys out. So
Johnny's been with collective soul a long time now. Yeah,
crazy. Yeah, that's a good that's a good game. Remember him
telling me about that? It's a great song book. And then look
at some of these companies you, you're with Ludwig. I remember
that pasty innovative, yeah, but I don't remember you being with
pasty. It's a newer thing, right? I've
been with them 10 years or so now, nice. Yeah, I was with
Sabian, yeah, Dave McAfee, you know, I just grew up listening
to Bonham and that, that sound of those 2000 twos and stuff,
kind of just stuck in my head. So when I got the opportunity to
to do that, I went that route. They're there. They've been
great to me. Do you
go with those kind of like that, those kind of, like rock
symbols, or do you go like, dark energy, darker stuff?
Yeah, I got some darker stuff. But live, but I use 2002
crashes, nice, signature ride. Are you still a rack guy? I
still got a rack like the racks, yeah, yeah. It makes it easy on
my drum tech. I'm a big rack guy, yeah, yeah. Like, yeah,
Rex, who's your tech guy named Tim Thurber, great guy, good
drummer, you know, and he does a great job for me. Yeah? Changes
heads. Does everything. Did you hire him? No trace hired him.
Yeah, and he came in. The guy before that was a guy named Matt
Sawyer, and Matt's still with the organization, but he's he,
he's kind of like an assistant to the road manager. Now, gotcha
so. But yeah, Tim takes good care of me, man. He He knows how
I like the tunes and yeah, all that, I
hardly have to. Isn't that nice? Just now, do you guys, are you a
sound check band, or are you at a point in your career where
we're just like, I'll see you at the gig? You
guys don't know we sound check. That's nice. Yeah, we sound
check mainly for the front of house guy, yeah, you know. So
our ear mix has always sounded great, yeah? I hardly ask for
anything. You know, you get to that point like, like, where you
don't even have to, every once a while, trace is singing a little
softer, maybe his throats hurting him, or something. I
might point and yeah. Other than that, never have to set it and
forget it, yeah, which is great, yeah, yeah. I couldn't go back
to wedges. So spoiled. Yeah. I remember the first time I used
years was 2000 with Pam Tillis at the Strawberry Festival in
Plant City, Florida, wow. And we had to stick those little foam
things in our ear. And I was like, Oh my God. What if this
fills up with sweat and then, and it
was like a heavy click gig, and they just get used to it. Yeah,
you know, yeah,
yeah. No, I love it. I couldn't imagine doing a gig on wedges
anymore, yeah? Like, when I do the Opry, I don't put the cans
on, I put, I put a earbud in with the click, and run it off
my iPad, yeah, and then, so, you know, but they blast it there,
back there, so it's like, okay, yeah, that's the only time I
hear A wedge mix anymore. The,
I'm not sure if, if he still is, but being that you mentioned
Bonham and how you're kind of big heisty fan. Have you read
Alex's book, brothers? I haven't yet. I want actually right
behind you on the shelf. Okay, yeah, listen to it. I'll read it
real quick. Yeah, what's that? Oh. Read it real quick, do a
good book report at the end of the show.
Did you read it or listen to it? I listen. I have to listen to
like, audible. Yeah. Do you have an audible subscription?
I could share it with you. No, it's good. No, yeah. You know
it's a good book. Yeah. I'm wondering if he still uses I
don't know if he ever used ears, because I remember him talking
about Alex Van Halen, talking about at the beginning of,
beginning of a tour, his wedge would be on, like, two or three,
and by the end it would be up to 10. Yeah, I
don't think he's an ear guy. I don't think so. I don't think
all those guys were wide open on the wedges. Yeah,
you know, I was about 10 feet away when they played on
Hollywood Boulevard and Dave got knocked in the nose and was
bleeding on national television. You there? I was 10 feet away
from that scene, really? Yeah, they closed down Hollywood
Boulevard, right in front of the jar deli, chocolate and and the
and Jimmy Kimmel's Theater, which is the, what is that
theater
anyways, right there. So basically, you, you saw the
whole performance and everything. Oh, yeah, that must
have been amazing. Incredible. Yeah, nuts.
I saw them on their fair warning tour. Oh, wow, yeah, the forum,
yeah,
that was the back where they they weren't touring with Black
Sabbath. Then was it this? Or were they headlining? That have
been they were headlining, yeah, yeah. I mean, was this legend
hold true? I mean, in terms of the stuff you'd hear about him.
They were just a band, a force to be reckoned with.
They sounded so good. They sounded so and it was loud,
yeah, loved it. And just, you know, and what impressed me most
was Eddie Van Halen did his guitar solo, you know, doing his
solo. And he's running around, you know, and doing the whole
whammy bar thing, accurate as hell doing it. And then he turns
down the volume and plays an open G clean, and his guitar is
in perfect tune. Yeah. I'm like, I mean, he's basically shaken
the guitar by that thing. It just blew me away. He never used
distortion boxes or pedals or anything. I was his aunt, yeah,
straight to his aunt. He was just, and that's, I think it was
the singer from Smashing Pumpkins, yeah? Billy Corgan,
yeah. He had an opportunity to play his guitar, and he says,
You don't use any, you know, pedals or anything. He goes,
nope. He goes, it blew his mind. He's like, how do you get the
sound? Yeah,
it blows. It blew me. They blew me away. David Lee Roth was
ultimate, ultimate front man. Front man, yeah, you know he's,
he was, he was an actor. He was, he wasn't really a singer and
a and a martial artist, the kicks
off the drum riser with the splits and all this stuff. Oh
yeah, you know he I like both van Hey. I like Van Hagar. I
like Van Halen. I like both equally. I don't, I don't really
have a preference, but, you know, one had more swagger, one
had a little more attitude and drive, yeah, and more pop, you
know, melodies. And that
first song off of 5150,
good enough. Yeah, hello, baby.
That was like a big middle finger to Dave. Well,
you know what the funny thing is? Is like, sadly, Dave, if
they did a reunion, which is impossible now, but if they did
a reunion, Sammy could sing Dave's stuff. He could Dave.
Dave cannot sing Dave. Dave can't do it.
Well, we I saw them over the summer when they came to
Nashville. Sammy did the best of both worlds tour, and it was
very good. That was the second show that Kenny Aronoff sat in.
Oh, wow. Because they had to, you know, Jason Bonham had to
go. His mom got sick, yeah. And then they called Kenny, and he
learned the whole show in a day, 24
hours, stuck it on his iPad. My
brother was there at that show, said, Kenny killed it. He
crushed it, said he did it. There were a couple of
moments where he messed up, where I was like, Oh, wow, okay,
you know, that was one of those moments. But you're like, you
know, it's
then you just do this.
Yeah, so trash can ending,
yeah, but it's, it's a great book. It really kind of opens
your eyes, and it made me give it gave me a whole new
appreciation for the 1984 album, because that's the album that
got me in the music, like everybody has, that moment that
you break off from your WHY DID YOU SAY
me and you, that was a catalyst 1984 in synchronicity. That's
right, yeah, yeah, there was
synchronicity in 1984 both. So that was the first album that
basically introduced me to my music that I liked, and broke
off from what was my parents music, right? And to hear the
stories that album almost didn't happen, really, like Ted
Templeman was like producer in name only it was Don Landy and
Eddie, Ed Van Halen, apparently he didn't like being called
Eddie. Okay, that's Edward or Ed. And the 5150 studio came to
be because of that album. Wow, because he was trying to fly.
Under the radar of Warner Brothers. He wanted to do
keyboard heavy songs, piano heavy songs. That's how jump was
born, and stuff like that. And Ted Templeman heard, I guess,
the demo of jump. He says, This sounds like a baseball stadium
song, right? This is not a hit, yeah. And it was their biggest
hit ever. Ouch.
My first encounter with with Van Halen was running with the
devil, and I remember, got that album, took it home, put the
needle down, and that started off in that, yeah,
just like,
Man, that is turn it to 11. And how
about Michael? He's seriously underrated. Oh, seriously
underrated, glue, yeah,
man, he really has high voice.
Oh, yeah. I always thought that was Ed, yeah, singing those
parts, I did too back
then. But, uh, and you know, back then you didn't have
YouTube, right? So no videos, no even MTV and all that stuff
wasn't out. So the stuff Eddie was playing, you're like, What
is this guy doing right?
Isn't it strange, also, how massive it sounds, and you don't
even think twice about it, but with no rhythm guitar player in
the band, when they go to the guitar solo, it's just bass
drop exactly right? And that nuts. And Anthony just holding
it down.
Yeah? I mean, he's got to make the changes. Yeah. He misses the
changes. That's not good, yeah? But
the funny thing is, is that here we are a group of three drummers
sharing our like we all understand we're not guitar
players. You know, with some of us may understand the nuances of
playing the guitar, but not like a guitar player knows. We all
have an immense appreciation for Eddie Van Halen. Oh, absolutely.
You know what I mean, 100% there's no other there's no
other guitar player that I can think of that you have that kind
of appreciation for. And then the only way I could chalk it up
to is the fact that when he picked up that guitar was like
an organ, it was like a part of his body. Yeah, the I feel
like the only other guitar play that transcends the instrument
to where you're like that doesn't sound like any other
musical instrument in the
world, Steve. I agree, yeah. I mean, Steve, I and he's not
as he's not as popular. He's not a household name like Edward,
right? But every time I see him play, I noticed, I know there's
a lot of processing. I know there's there's pedals involved.
It, it sounds like an alien.
I agree device, I agree and, but would there be a Steve Vai
without Eddie Van Halen? No,
but that's the other thing. Is that Steve Vai, and I get what
you're saying, that the thing that I sent you today, what they
what those guys are saying about you. Oh, yeah. Is that there are
drummers and then there that played the drums like they're
the drums. Then there are drummers who play it like
musically, right? They find themselves in the song. That's
maybe the appreciation for Ed that we all
had, yeah, yeah, because he played for the song. I mean,
yeah, he did these ripping solos, but, I mean, listen to
those rifts, right? You know, and his rhythm guitar playing
was amazing, yeah,
you know, his appreciation for finding what else the guitar
could do. Yeah, was, it was just something off the charts. You
know, I always appreciated him, and I didn't know why my brother
too. He's my brother's a keyboard player, right? Piano
player. And when he was visiting here in early October, we were
hanging out in my backyard, he's like, put the video for hot for
teacher on. So we watched the hot for teacher video, and both
of us, when Eddie gets up on the library tables and he does the
guitar solo, both of us were, like, leaned in, yeah, because
it's like, did you like that part too? Because we found out
in that podcast. I did a podcast episode on my podcast with him,
and we found out so much about each other after 50 some odd
years of being brothers. And it was, you know, it's like, I like
that part. Did you like that part, too? Back in the day, when
it came on MTV, he's like, I love this part, but he's just in
the, you know, mug into the camera and everything. I'm like,
that was the best part of the video. Okay, you know, except
for the beginning, like, sit down Waldo. I mean, that's
drumming is just so good. Oh man. You know, just the
guys that look past Alex Van Halen are missing it,
but I think as of late, he's gotten a lot more I agree. You
know,
his timing was wonky, his stuff was but you know what? It was
goose. But his parts were just commitment
to the performance. And he played with his brother like
they were just, hey, he wouldn't
play with anybody else, right? I think that's why did you look at
any of the stuff he auctioned off?
I looked through it wishing I could buy it. I'd have to sell
my house, right? You know, buy a drum set. The acrylic is coming
for me. I'm so excited that LP Latin percussion, which is
celebrating 60 years Alex played LP percussion, and so they're
releasing a limited edition Alex Van Halen cowbell that I'm gonna
take on tour this year. Yeah, really, yeah. That should do a
little endorsement video. It should be rifing at drum
paradise. Harry, be on the lookout for my Alex van.
Inhaling tribute.
You ever try his sticks? The Vader sticks are locked. Oh,
they're like, 18 inches, are they really? Yeah, and he had
the, he's not a big guy, right? But he could wield those things
like they were, you know? They were, like, playing with
baseball bats, yeah? Like,
dude, I love it. Um, now what? Speaking of rock and roll, you
got a project called the brave I do now, I was looking for you
guys on Spotify. I couldn't, is it? Is it on
there? There? Yeah, there. And Apple Music, okay, all that. So
it was a group of guys I played with in late 80s, early 90s, in
California, you got the band back together. What's that? You
got the band back together, yeah, got the band back
together. And we all live in different parts of country. The
singer, guitar player lives in California, the bass player
lives in Indiana, and I live here. Yeah, so we just shot
files around the country and made our record, yeah, and it's
great, and JR McNeely mixed it. Okay, great. Mixed all three of
them. Nice, yeah, it's a fun project. You know, we're never
going to tour. How many tracks there's? There's three albums
worth, three albums, yeah? So there's like 30 some songs
there, okay, yeah,
all right. Man, yeah. Everyone checked out the brave on Apple
Music and Spotify. Gotta check that out. Man, yeah, fantastic.
Um, geez, Jim, do we want to maybe do the Fast Five? Go
ahead, and then I'll let you do your favorite question. As you
guys, thank you for allowing me. Okay, favorite
food? Mexican food. Yes, spicy. What's your
favorite restaurant here you're in Spring Hill, Mexico.
It depends for what? Well, we've got alcohol, Mexican Yeah, yeah,
we've got Acapulco. We've got Don Arturo. Don Arturo Tito's.
Yeah, you got another one that's opening right in front of all
across from the L something.
Yeah,
right for tacos, street tacos. I like La Via over there by the
Grecian, right, right, right, right. If you just want good
street tacos, really, that's they have street corn there too.
Sometimes they do. I've been in there once. I need to go back.
La Via, it's by the Greek restaurant and that strip mall
behind the mission over there. Yeah, kind of Yeah, great. And
then
there's a place we just went last night, my wife and I went
to Tito's, and they got this thing called Mexican plate
that's really great. But there's a new place called mix. I want
to say it's Mexican. Mexicali, but I know I'm not right on
that. And it's down there. Do you know where embers is Bar and
Grill? If you go down 31 towards Columbia, there's a
in the upper set. Yeah.
Okay, so it's right there. It's a new place. Used to be a
furniture store, right? Yeah, I've eaten there, yeah, and
they're pretty good. My business partner, uh, invited us out
there once. It's hard, coming from Southern California. Oh, I
bet, Hey, I found a place that's next to Publix. Cali burrito. I
Cali burrito. I've been there twice, dude, Cali burritos.
Tacos are great. Okay, so
I've only had the chicken burrito because it's, I like, a
basic burrito. It's chicken Pico and guac. Oh, there you go,
dude. Yeah, dude, try it with their Alpha store.
Oh, yeah, okay, or even the California burrito.
Yeah, that's good too. Yeah.
So you're saying go with the
tacos, yeah? And Adrian, the guy that owns this great guy, and
they have breakfast tacos
too, which I'm a big fan of. Yeah, I love the Spring Hill
aspect of this episode. I
know. I'm telling you we were all spring aliens. Now I'm
celebrating it.
And there's such character to this town that is somewhere.
It's what
the we're finding it. I went to the for a coffee shop, for a non
corporate coffee shop. I went to the fainting goat.
Yeah, love it. There's actually, oh, it's a good, good new place,
but we got to make sure we tag him in this Bruno's Deli. Oh,
really, Neapolis, it's where boomers used to be, okay, yeah,
the music store using, yeah, yeah, way even, Wayne back,
Italian deli. Buddy, Brunos. Well, Brunos, Brunos cannolis.
They got the black and white cookies. They've got chicken
parm, eggplant sandwiches, all
the stuff. And so, as the owner, like, from out of town, from
California, Okay, gotcha. But he's, he's FBI, full blood
Italian.
You never heard that. I have never heard that, probably
because I'm only half but, you know, it's a strong gene. So
speaking of coffee and the fainting goat, favorite drink,
bourbon. Bourbon, nice
in particular, my,
my, if I had to pick like an everyday that's affordable.
Because, you know, Bourbon could get expensive, sure, but I'm not
a bourbon snob, so it doesn't matter to me, but I like wood
for double oaked. Yeah, yeah, nice. That's a good go to
everyday drink. There's another one called 1792 that's a cheaper
bottle, but it's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Are you a bourbon
guy
or whiskey guy? Totally. Are you? Yeah? Is it bourbon or
whiskey? Kind of the same? It's kind of the same. Yeah,
it's when you get into the rye, yeah, that it's different. Okay?
And
I'm not a rye or a weak guy. I like the good. Just give me
straight bourbon or whiskey. Let's
not mess with the thing. It's like, it's like, you know,
everybody knows that our band in the early days was a we Crown
Royal, right? It just seems like to be a thing in country music.
But once you start doing crown, Apple, Crown cranberry, it's
like, come on, it's sweet enough. Yeah? You know,
I can't even do an old fashioned, like some people
order an old fashioned. It's like, yeah, I don't need the
syrup. Yeah, I'll give that to my wife. Yeah, we
kind of did like, a win in Rome. We went to Disney World in
Florida in 2016 for the first time with our family. And it was
the first time living with a little bit of margin, getting
out of radio in the car business. I was doing my own
thing, and we were able to turn a one week vacation into a two
week vacation. And while we were down there, just to kind of be
like I said, When in Rome, at least what we thought Rome, we
bought Kenny Chesney's blue chair rum, and I think it was
the vanilla, and then we'd have rum and cokes instead of beer
and wine that we'd normally drink. Yeah, it's a different
kind of drunk. Oh, it's so caloric, and it's just, I mean,
after about three of them, you're like, What's my name?
Yeah,
in 2015 when we were doing the Chesney thing. At the end of the
night, I'd come out and play two songs to back him up, and then
his drummer would come out and do it was like a four song
encore, but Kenny would come and just like, just be covering us
in rum, right? Sticky. It was all over his drums and stuff.
And I was just in the dog house. Man,
that's horrible. Yeah, why were you in a dog house? It
just, I mean, I'm like, I'm easy to blame. You know, you didn't
do anything well. I mean, I know what. He wouldn't wait till, no,
no, Kenny, don't pour rum all over me.
Well, the tech is just sitting there, just looking at it,
going, really,
totally, what favorite color black do you and I so, yeah, I
gotta figure out something here, because it's definitely
happening here. Yeah, yeah, that's okay. I look like a black
and white cookie. You look like you got the salt, and I look
like a tan black and white cookie. Now these next two
questions, Jim hates because they're so hard. But do you
would you have a favorite song?
Yeah, I had, I could, can I say two real fast? Yeah? First one
would be the ocean Zeplin, yeah? Because every time I hear it, it
takes me back to my dad cranking that song, yeah, when I was a
kid. So that song that, whenever it comes on, it's like, turn it
up. And then the other one for me would be dog man by King X,
yes, wow. God, that is one of my faves. Dude,
the singing just
lays it down.
Yeah.
Jerry Gaskell, highly underrated, amazing musician,
amazing team player, band. Guy, yeah, that, to me, is their
ultimate record.
I agree. I agree that song shoes, I need to listen to it.
Oh, man, do do your years a favor. Dog.
Man, another three piece band, yes. So when the guitar solo
happens,
yeah? He switches that distorted kind of bass sound and just
kills it. Yeah? I saw them at the Brooklyn Bowl.
They still sound great. I saw
him at 328 performance hall back in the day. Remember that place?
It's gone. It's way gone. Yeah, favorite movie
two, again, serious movie. I love this, yeah, serious movie,
anything I love Gran Torino mcclinx Wood, nice. Get off
grumpy, yeah, the grumpy old man that ends up giving everything
to the people he started out hating. Yeah. And spoiler alert,
if you haven't seen that movie, right? And then, and then, funny
movie, Step Brothers. Oh, fantastic.
Good Wolf. Did you touch my drums? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. What's your
favorite song of the moment? Rich. Oh, currently,
man, I have my guilty pleasures playlist. It's so funny. Let me
go through some of these. But some,
sometimes you have a share some of these, like you have, you
know, current favorite songs, yeah, you know, I guess mine
would be my go to I've been, like I said, I've been listening
to a lot of Van Halen, 1984 I have a renewed appreciation for
Girl Gone Bad. Yeah? So if you listen to that song the
beginning, that's an underrated song. Yeah, there's so much
going on. You know, if he's doing that with one hand or two,
I'm sure you know, and he's blank, yeah,
you know, everyone got.
So check this out. So this could be play. This could be a
playlist that the spasmatics could play. There's, there's a
band in Nashville called the guilty pleasures. And they, you
know, they play a couple times a year at third and lensley. But
these are just, and I know you guys, it's gonna resonate with
you, because Rob, similar age escape the piano, the pina
colada song by Rupert home. Uh huh. Love it. That's Steve shot
rock. That's Steve Jordan. Now, is it really? He's two drummers
on that track, but a very young Steve Jordan is one of the
drummers. Wow.
How does it come
in? No, no heads on the bottom. Toms sailing. Christopher cross,
lot of space. Perfect drum track. Runaway current list,
yeah, this is runaway train. So asylum, missing you. John Wayne,
lonely all night. John Mellencamp, Betty Davis, eyes.
Kim Karns, Sunday, Bloody Sunday. You too. In a big
country, big country. Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Cindy Lauper,
you make me feel like dancing. By Leo Sayer. Steve Gadd on
drums, don't stop till you get enough. Michael Jackson with
John Robinson every time you go away. Paul Young, and the list
goes on in there, uh, long Tong, Sally, Little Richard, we
wouldn't have rock and roll without Little Richard, right?
Never got his due. I agree. I agree. You guys ever remember
seeing there was a, there was a Grammy Awards, and this had to
be 30 years ago. And Buster, Buster, point Dexter, hot, hot,
hot up, and Little Richard representing Song of the Year,
or Best New Artist or something. And Little Richard opens the
envelope, and he said, the winner of Best Artist Goes to
me, because none of this would have happened without me? Oh,
wow. And I'm just like,
incredible drop the mic,
yeah? Anyways, those are some guilty pleasures in there. There
you go. They're mostly, some of it's the production, some of
it's the drumming, some of it's where it takes me. Reminds me of
my youth, and some of it is just, like, there's just amazing
songs, yeah?
And, you know, it's that way, like I grew up listening
everything from Chicago to Zeppelin to bad company to tower
power to all that stuff. But my dad had it all, yeah, you know,
because
my brother came to town, one of the songs that I've been playing
along with, and it's a very difficult song to play, is
escape by journey. Which you ever listen to that song? It is,
it is, there's a lot going on. Steve Smith was Steve
Smith man when just a couple, when he used to lay into it. He
was great. I mean, he's great, a technician now,
yeah? I mean, there's like four different parts of that
song, yeah. It's nuts, amazing. Jim. Ask your favorite question.
Okay? So you have to pick, like, all of a sudden everything
ceases in your life, musically. And you know, you have to pick a
tribute band to be in, and tribute some sort of band for
the rest of your life. Who? Who's it gonna be? You gotta
play the music every night, over probably over again,
if it's not King's x, because nobody would show up to that,
because not a lot of people know who King x is, I'd say something
completely off the wall, because I played rock stuff my whole
life, so probably Earth, Wind and Fire.
Oh, yeah, nice. I love earth. You remember? Yeah, kick the
horns, having the
horns, you know, you don't have to play that hard, right? Yeah,
Earth Wind and Fire amazing
that they are. And, you know, it's like John Robinson said,
what you know, if you don't know the Earth Wind and Fire song
book, you're missing out, right? You know,
Yeah, amazing drumming.
I will say that Bill Gibson is still an underrated drummer
because a lot of that stuff is kind of hard to play. I've been
playing a lot of Huey Lewis. There
you go. Yeah, a lot of the the faster 12 eights,
right? Make it feel good, yeah, right, yeah, that, that stuff
will throw you off, yeah, sure. Oh, you got to have a good day
playing that for me, at least.
No. Amy, no one's playing those kind of shuffles anymore. No
one's playing,
no, yeah, and then
stuck with you. Oh, shuffle
on the hi hat.
Did that fast?
You know, you know a shuffle that that's always played wrong
and hard to play, if you, if you haven't studied it, is tush and
Dude, that's a double shuffle. But the kicks going to Doom, to
Doom, to doom. It's not, it's and most guys go, you know,
right? The kick drones go to doom.
So a double shuffle on both hands. Both
hands, and
then the kick drum. You want to play the quarter note, right?
But it's just to do.
Oh, I wonder if Frank, still, you know, was playing it that
way, towards the and, or if, because it seemed like a lot,
sometimes a lot of people will just knucklehead it to make it
more powerful. Sure,
to do, right?
Well, I saw them and he didn't play it that way. So he we did a
show with him years ago, and, yeah, they he wasn't playing
it that way. He's kind of another
underrated
guy, too. I think
so totally you know that Billy Gibbons is a part time
nashvillian. Now he's always shopping at the Trader Joe's in
green hills. Oh yeah. You go, still have the beard, huh? Oh
yeah, and the little beanie. And does he? Yeah? He's a cool cat.
It's crazy. He's the kind of guy you've run into him everywhere.
The rainbow, boom, you'll see him. Trader Joe's you see him?
Yeah, wow, yeah. Maybe he's following you around. Like,
that'd be cool.
Very, very cool. So any plans for the holidays, and what are
you looking forward to in 2025
we got 28 people coming over for Christmas. Oh, my God,
trace one of them. Huh? Is trace one of them. No, you ever have
like, the Moxie be like, Hey, why don't you swing by this
weekend? Hang out, have a beer. No, really. Well, he's not
having a beer. No, he's not having a beer. Or just have a
non alcoholic beer, right?
No, no. He treats us all good and stuff. But it's not like a
buddy buddy kind of situation. I'll totally
be like that, yeah. What are you doing this weekend? Come on.
Yeah, you
know. And it's like, maybe he's just, well, you never invited me
over. Why should invite over you? Maybe
that's what if you did. Maybe he'd shocked me, that's right,
by showing up. Maybe he's waiting to BS. Maybe, yeah, you
never know
the answer to the question if you don't ask Yeah,
man, 25 when you could have Jason over your house? Yeah,
we live closer. Now. You do much closer now 25 I yeah, look
forward to being probably do about 50 to 60 shows with Trey,
nice and still doing stuff out of my drum room. Yeah,
nice. So how do you ever do you do some advertising for that, or
it's just kind of word of mouth. It's word of mouth people in the
know
and anymore, like, I don't even have a Cartage kid anymore,
yeah, most of the stuff now is house kids. You bring cymbals
and snares and, yeah,
percussion. And so you're finding yourself on Music Row
doing this stuff occasionally, yeah,
yeah, doing that stuff. And then, you know, out of my drum
room at home, got clients in California, France, Missouri,
the French guys like, yeah,
oh,
to be culturist here. I mean, yeah,
culture is, yeah, yeah, well, I mean, dude, you are just we have
so, so many similarities. We have a lot of similar tastes,
yes, and super happy for you. Oh, thanks. Super proud of you.
And look, look forward to 2025 as well. If people have
questions or they want to reach out to you, you got a.com What's
the best way for people to
find you? I don't they could email me? Yeah. JP,
spittle@gmail.com
JP spittle@gmail.com
or find me on Facebook, direct message me, or Instagram. Love
it, you know, right now, that's
how these crazy kids are doing all that these days,
Facebook, Instagram, yeah, I don't
know if they're using Facebook as much these Well, no, no, this
for the older crowd. Yeah, I do like Facebook chat. I love
people. It's been Facebook's been part of my life since 2009
right? You know, or maybe it was seven, I forget, whenever it
opened to the public and we all jump ship from MySpace, right?
Oh my
gosh, you and I have 81 mutual friends. John, ah, that crazy.
There you go.
Well, yeah. Well, hopefully you let you in, and then we can all
meet at the mission. Yeah, let's do it. I sent
your friend request. Did you get it that quick, wow,
put me on the spot. Now, John, is there anything that we didn't
bring up that you would like to be public record?
I try and hide most of that stuff. Oh my God.
Speak now or forever. Hold your peace. Oh,
my God, amazing. Well, it was just so fun to host you and to
you know, to be back on each other's radar. Yeah, man, we're
in each other's lives again. Man, that's great. Super cool.
Yeah, we got to meet up more often. We'll do the thing. Yeah,
everyone that's John spittle, look him up. Was the email
address one more time. JP
spittle@gmail.com JP spittle@gmail.com
to all you guys and gals out there, we appreciate it. Be sure
to subscribe, share, rate and review. It helps people find the
show, Jim, we appreciate your time and talent like as always,
we'll see you next time. Appreciate it. This
has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe, rate and. Follow
along at rich redmond.com, forward slash, podcasts you.