Unknown: Drummers get the brunt of jokes and stuff like that.
Oh, I'm getting to that. Yeah. Well, I mean, bass players do
too, though. Oh yeah, you know, because if you look at the chart
of girls to people in the band ratio, you know, typically, the
singer's got two girls in each arm. Guitar players got a girl
on each arm, one girl, drummer got one girl on an arm and bass
players by itself.
Is that how it works? This is the rich Redman show. I get
good stories. We roomed
together for a year. Yes, we did room together for a year when I
was doing Body for Life, and I had my myoplex
shakes absolute on the bus. How did
I not know you did that? Well, you know, I only got because
I hadn't been on the show yet.
I only got, I mean, I think, I think I leaned up a little bit,
but I don't know if I did it all that was rigorous, right? Yeah,
that was a tough. Oh, eating six times a day, six times
a day, salmon burgers.
Now I only eat two or three times a day, and I fast. Well,
most days I will fast until noon or one, really, and that's when
I get my first meal. When do you stop eating?
Um, I try to do it no later than three hours before
bed. Okay, yeah, I'm a big fan of fasting. Yeah, I did it a few
years ago, serious and sometimes going 1820 hours a day. Yeah,
nice. And I was never more alert in my life.
Yeah? Because one, you know, we're just as humans, especially
Americans, we were just shoveling too much food in our
way, too much, you know? Yep,
yeah. But I think our food supply has also been compromised
over the last 2030, years. Did you
guys watch the latest bill burr stand up? I've
half of it. I got half more to go. Okay, so we've watched
it three times, because the first two times we were, like,
only half conscious. We were in and out, you know. Then we
watched it again last night. And man, he's got some good points.
But yeah, food supply is, yeah,
those stand up comics, they're they're brilliant, they're
smart. I love watching the comedians and cars, yeah,
getting coffee, because you see how smart these people, yeah?
Oh, you're just in tune with everything. And
they got to be in tune, you know, they got their radar.
They're like songwriters. Their radar has to be up, but they're
also tapped into a very dark part of life, depending on what
kind of comedy
date. Well, they say that most comedians are damaged human
beings in some way, or they say for some form of trauma, but you
know, the social commentary is at a high level, and just the
ability to walk out on stage without a net and do that thing?
Yeah? Because when we're seeing bill, it's probably at the end
of a three month run culminates. He's got his reps in, he's got
his reps in to where there's less. The connective tissue is
all there, yeah, because I didn't see one cue card, I don't
see one note on stage, nothing, you know, like Bill Maher, we,
you know, I'm a fan of Bill Maher. He, he's always, he's
always had a television show, and then his stand up comedy is,
is icing on the cake. So maybe he'll only, do, you know, 20
shows a year, or whatever. But his thing is, he's got a music
stand, which is, I think it's cool. He's got a little music
stand in the corner with little notes. And he'll just walk over
to the music stand and go,
oh yeah, I appreciate Bill Maher's objectivity as of late.
Well, he's
less far left and more right in the middle, looking at both
sides and going, No, you're an idiot, and no urine. And
which is, which is the conversation that needs to
happen at this point in time. More of a empathic, empathetic,
centrist conversation, yeah, common sense. The empath is your
wife. The empath is my wife.
Absolutely, that's
that's a cool thing to have in your tool chest as a human,
because she's seeing or feeling things that we're not, yeah. But
it also could be
tough because she's seeing things and hearing things
that we're not, no, I mean, it's, you know, we're going on
24 years not
you're doing just fine. I'm just saying, but I was married to an
empath. Yeah, it's heavy.
So housekeeping. Anything new coming up? You want to talk
about, oh, Jim,
you know, when this comes out, it's seven or eight weeks. I
mean, we have so many of these episodes in the can. We're gonna
have merch. We at this point, we will be wearing our own hoodies.
We're not We're not wearing them now, drinking out of our own
coffee mugs, right? And I'm so excited about this merch
company, because she's really classy. She does a great job.
What's the company?
The nesting project in
Antioch, or Smyrna and Smyrna,
yeah, and the idea is that we don't have to hold stock. So if
you really like the hoodie, you really like the baseball shirt,
you really like the coffee mug, it gets built, it gets
manufactured at when you order it, right? Which is awesome.
Yes, super excited. But no, we're just eating some truffles
today from a friend of mine, Stan Z. Three concepts. He just
had me in. Of course, this will be eight weeks old news to do my
master class. Kind of one man show thing over in Erie,
Pennsylvania, had a great time. Put me up in this amazing hotel
room right on Lake Erie. We broke bread. I got to meet some
new people. I got to work with some kids. You know, from there
was this thing called the The eerie art house, and it was
basically, you know, kids after school that have troubled home
lives. They can go and they can do something productive with the
arts, music, painting, all that kind of stuff. Alice Cooper has
a similar thing where you go after school, it's a safe place
for kids to, like, learn Pro Tools and video production or
learn to play a musical instrument, which is a great
thing. Which is a great thing. Yeah. But what about you, buddy?
Anything been kind of happening you want to kind of, kind of
promote, besides your lighting business, or,
well, we've got the Well, I mean, about this time when it
comes out, we'll probably be past the human
Oh, yeah. Your Huey gig will be may 28 at City winery. Jim has
been playing drums for fun for a very long time, but now he's
going to be in the public eye. He's going to be on stage. He's
going to be kicking this band, with
this Huey Lewis trippy band. And give me your honest opinion.
You've watched me play some of this stuff because you've
been words, you've been wood shedding it every day. You've
been living it. You know, I tell everybody, you don't have to get
ready. If you stay ready and you've been immersed in the
material, it's going to be part of your DNA. So I think you're,
I think you're ready, yeah, yeah, man, it's a vote of
confidence, dude, good job, man. Everybody
that's been coming on here has been telling me, like, Oh, I'm
gonna be there, and it's like, all these, you know,
professional guys, heavy weights, and I'm going, that's,
man, no pressure. That's making
you feel good. Yeah, I'm going to the city winery, uh, Friday
night to see the bodines, which a fantastic American rock band,
Wisconsin, yeah, Heartland rock band, heartland, yeah,
Wisconsin, that's heartland, right, yeah. So tell us about
our guest. Hey, we're into it, man. So, you know, born in
Massachusetts, but growing up in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Moncton, yeah, tell me about that. He's been living in
Nashville since 1997 this gentleman, I got to play with
Pam Tillis together for about 18 months, and we had an amazing
time. But he's a fantastic bass player, world class bass
players. Also play with folks like James Bond me, Kevin sharp,
Clay Davidson, of course, I mentioned Pam Tillis, but he has
been the band leader and the bass player for Gary Allen, an
award winning country rock musician Gary Allen for 25 years
talking about my friend Brian arsenal, What's up, buddy? This
is great. I can't believe 25 years have come to pass. I know
first of all congratulations, because having any job in the
music business where you got a nice w2 and they got the fic at
the FICA, the medic they get that they do all the stuff for
you so you don't have suffer on your taxes. And it's the tour
that never ends that's very impressive.
Yeah, I agree. It's just coming here. I didn't think I was gonna
be in it this long, sure enough, you're still here. Yeah, gotta
leave tonight. But you're
a lifer. You're a lifer. You're always gonna be slapping
the best, slapping the best, sleeping the best.
Why didn't he say it that way?
Yeah, it was probably just an improvisational thing where Paul
Rudd was just in the moment, and it was probably, oh, it wasn't
even the first tag, or was an outtake. And like, you know, did
you
see the one where they did they they meet rush backstage? Oh,
yes, yes. And he's like, you know me and Tom Sawyer. He's
like, what'd you say?
Don't they give him kind of like, yeah, don't do that sort
of thing. Or, yeah.
And they eat Neil's sandwich, and Neil gets very mad, my God,
rest
his soul. God, rest his soul. I love that. Judd Apatow, man,
this is 40. Is like, wow, that's like, a holy grail long movie
too. And there's a director's cut that's even longer. Oh my
gosh. I love it when he's like, got his legs spread apart and
he's got his iPhone, he's got the mirror, he's got the camera
on the iPhone. He's like, can you tell me, what is this? What
is this? Is it a hemorrhoid? Is this an anal? Fisher, what is
this? And she's like, can we keep some romance or
privacy? Yeah, brilliant.
There's only been one time where I've had to do that, yeah, in
our marriage. And it's like, it is weird.
Yeah, you do want to keep some you know, it's the old farting
rule. Like, at what point do you start farting around each
other? Ever? If ever. Oh, that's we're way past that. See, I love
the you are totally past that. Yeah?
See, rich, rich has got that thing where you'll say something
and now look at you like a little smile.
Let me ask you this, you did spend a year living together?
Yeah?
We did, yeah. So what was it? Sound kind of strange. I would
never want
anyone else in that band to be my roommate. We were just it was
great
that, yeah, that year, that was a different kind of
year. When was the year? What year was
that? 2000 in the year 2000
so did you have did you pick up on his idiosyncrasies, like when
you bought a new shirt? Did he Oh, absolutely. Well, how would
he approach if he didn't like the shirt? How would he let you
know? Know, I always
like branch shirts, but we had an out. We had a uniform with
Pam.
I dressed kind of, yeah, black, black shows. One time she had
us, remember, we're in LA, and we all went into a store
together, and she said, everybody pick out a shirt. I'll
buy it. Oh, yeah, remember that that's where I got this killer
leopards, leopard printed striped bowling shirt, like
all black with one, one little, tiny stripe right across. I got
the black one with the massive, massive Leopard on each side.
Still have that shirt.
You still have it. Still have man, you still fit into it
because you are highway proportion and you care about
your body. So it's great. Well, thank
you. It's good. Yeah,
I kids am not
now, Jim, are you still on your trying 50? Before 50? I
had the pleasure of having a physical this week. So nice,
little subtle reminder of how awful you're doing. So what did
the doctor say? Oh, high blood pressure. All the things. Is
that mostly, is high blood pressure mostly from stress or
diet, or is it
DNA? Might be hereditary for us, my brother's got high blood
pressure as well, and I think a lot of people do, because I'm
wondering if it's not really all that high, it's just a way to
get meds out there. Oh,
now you're going to the big conspiracy. Orwellian. Well,
could be I've got high cholesterol the last couple of
physicals that I went to a Thai cholesterol, I was like, What's
going on here? Yeah, never had that problem. Yeah, I eat well,
yeah, could be the water I'm drinking, yeah? I
think it's the food supply. I mean, you know, ever since we
interviewed Mike Tirana I've been thinking about that. He's
been in Italy, and, you know, he's loving life over there. The
food's great. He's clean,
yeah. So Mike Taran is this killer, like, like, metal fusion
drummer. And he got, you know, he's lived in several countries,
and he's been living abroad in Sardinia, Italy, and he's like,
man, he goes, I'm into fitness. And, you know, of course, in the
United States, they say, watch the pizza, watch the pasta. He
says he eats pizza and pasta all the time time, and it doesn't
bother him, and he doesn't gain weight, no, and it's fresh.
I know that whenever I've been to Europe, when they bring out a
platter of, like, a deli platter with fresh fruit and vegetables,
it's unbelievable. Taste different. Good it is. Yeah,
it's like the the color of fruit in California, yeah, so much
more vivid.
Oh, god, yeah. The strawberries are just so succulent and
beautiful. And the avocados,
avocados almonds, so green.
Yeah, almonds. Oh, you're an avocado guy, right? Because
you're a
healthcare an avocado guy, yeah, almonds. A funny story. A couple
of years ago, one of the guys in our band knows this. These
people have an almond farm, yeah, and they brought this
massive box of almonds, and nobody was taking any. So I
filled this massive bag, it must have been like 1520, pounds, put
it in my suitcase, because we're flying out of LA the next day.
And sure enough, that thing is going through the security
scanner, and they pull me over. The guys are just watching,
laughing because they know it's coming. And he pulls it out,
pulls it out of my suitcase, and looks at me, and I went,
Albans. He says it like Christopher walking,
not supposed to chip fruit.
No, he just wanted to know what I'm doing with a 25 pound bag of
Altman. You're like, Dude, I love all almonds. Yeah, they put
them back in the suitcase and I was on my way. It's amazing. I
would just be like, well,
that's nuts. Oh gosh, I'm sorry. Show yourself out
anyways. Yeah, we did have a good time. And I'm trying to
remember where we went in Los Angeles. That was before I
really spent any time in Los Angeles, but it was a may have
been on Melrose Avenue where she took us. It was like a could
have been, yeah, could have been. But those are the, those
were the the Charlie Sheen bowling shirts that was there
was like a period of time from like 97 to 2001 where we were
all wearing our bowling shirts.
Yeah, yeah. I took it out of the closet five or six years ago,
brought it out on the road, just just as you know, just to see
the reaction, just the reaction. What did the guy say? John
Lancaster, wanted to wear it. Oh, yes. Gotta rest us. He can.
He can rest he could. He could wear anything he wanted. Looked
great. Yeah, yeah, amazing, yeah. Oh, that's
a good thing. So you know, what's the deal with born in
Massachusetts, and then you're in Canada. So
yeah. So my parents were went there in the 60s. I was born
there in the 60s. Show my age, and yeah, I did up to grade one
and two. It was that little place called we we pronounce it
Haverhill. I think spelled Haverhill, haver was about 30
miles, I want to say, east of Boston. So it was there for till
grade two, and then my parents decided to move back to Canada
be with family and stuff. And that's where I grew up until
I'm. Moved here, I think the class of 97 I hear a lot of
people came here in 97 Yeah, I came here, actually a couple
months November of 96 is when I came down to check things out.
Yeah, Nashville was, like a million miles to me. I wanted to
go. I wanted to come here for years. But it just, you know, I
think I did 13 years, 12 or 13 years touring Canada, yeah, with
this artist. Who was it? Well, there was, there was different
artists that I worked with. I mean, I started, would have been
like, right, 8319 83 is when I started. And I went on the road
back then the country circuit out there would have been like
six, seven nights a week. So once I left New Brunswick and I
went out Western Canada, I was out for good so I was touring
678, months at a time before I could come home, my God, and,
you know, just playing country bars, six, seven nights,
sometimes a Sunday matinee, doing all that kind of stuff
when you're
going that long, were you like, Were you still living with your
parents? Or did you have a girlfriend? Or
still, well, still living with the parents that, because I was
out of high school, worked a little bit of a day job before
this band was coming through, there was a club in Moncton
called the urban Chorale, and they had won two or three years
in a row for like, top country bar and yeah. So a lot of the
great, lot of bands were coming through there, even the American
bands. So I used to go down there. Wasn't old enough to get
in. I got 1617, and I would stand outside the door at the
club, because they'd open up the doorman would open up the doors,
let all the smoke out, just cigarette smoke just billowing
out. But I could hear the band. I couldn't see them. They were
around the corner, and I would just stand up there and just
listen to the bands all the time. Then a couple of the
doormen I kind of got to be friends with, and the promoter
of that club, whatever, they just what come here, they bring
me around the corner, just, just little seat there where I could
see the band, and I'd watch the band. So nice of them. Yeah. So
I did that for a little while, and then a couple years later, I
get a phone call. I don't know who gave them my name, but there
was a band coming through town. Was this is the first one that I
went on the road with. And they came through town, and they were
looking for a bass player. I went to meet them, and I was on
the road. The next day. They had fired their bass player right
then and there. And I was on the road. Went to Nova Scotia first,
yeah. And then we went straight out west. Wait
a minute. They fired the bass player after meeting you like
it was his last the day I met them. Yeah, that was his last
night. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So you
must see you just laughable. You're likable. They're like,
this guy's
gonna be a better fit? Yeah, they had no idea who I was, but,
yeah, they just, but then you jump into nine months of living
with them, but, you know, I'm not gonna use any names, but I
went on the road with this band, and I think it lasted about 12
weeks. And starting from night one, it was just constant
fighting every night. We're in a Winnebago
and fighting. You're not even in a
van. You're in a Winnebago. We're in a Winnebago.
I'm talking physical fighting, like these people, they hit they
had some they had some issues. They had some issues. And I'm
like, Were you involved in the fights? I was not involved in
the fights you had to watch. I was watching this. And Brian is
even key. It was kind of like almost every night, but the last
night of the week is when all hell broke loose. Wow. And I
think I got out. I'm still young. I'm like, Oh, I gotta
keep doing this, you know. And I think I was in, we were out in
Ontario, somewhere, playing one place for two weeks straight.
And
really, know the local wildlife, oh yeah. What I mean? Oh yeah.
What do you mean? See there, there's that, but the head tilt,
but, yeah, that was a the last night of that run. It was, was
the biggest fight I'd ever seen. I've never there was bodies fly.
There's people going through drywall, like in the wall. I'm
just like, Okay, I've got to do something. I need a new gig. I
need a new gig. So the next not healthy. The next time we're
going to was Winnipeg, and I had an uncle that lived there, and I
called him up and I said, I think I'm going to quit. I'm a
bit scared. Why you scared? I said, as I explained it to him,
he says, do
I get hazard pay? So you're like 19 years old,
18. I think 1819, thinking that this is how it
is, thinking, this is this is it right here. So we drive to,
well, after the massive fight, we were told to be on that on
the Winnebago at like five in the morning, because we got to
drive to Winnipeg. Was there a girl in the band? There? Was not
in the band, but one of the girlfriends was on the road. Oh
no.
Okay, what kind of a Winnebago was? It was at least a nice one.
Or it was like, you know, 1980s 70s version. Oh, it's definitely
70s. Oh, wow. It makes it even worse. Is 1983 that I'm talking
about? Yeah, so we're talking like, Alabama's on the radio and
and, you
know, I'm making maybe 300 bucks a week, but we had to pay the
gas. He took gas money. Out of all the guys, I'm on the road
778, months, I know I'm just, I'm eating hot dogs and rice and
so but I'm young. I'm like, This is rock and roll, right? Yeah,
no, that's great. Yeah. I'm the country band. So get on the
Winnebago and we go to Winnipeg, and it's halfway through the
week, and I'm in my hotel room. You want to hear these
stories? Oh, totally, yeah,
I can. I can hear fighting. It's three or four in the morning. I
can hear fighting. So I I had my own room. I think it's been too
long to remember, but I opened the door of my hotel room
because I could hear the fighting next door, and I can
hear it's just, it's Armageddon going on, and our names are
getting thrown it and everything. I said, That's it.
So I sneak out the window of my hotel because I didn't want to
walk by the room. And I broke into the they had a horse
trailer that they were hauling for behind the Winnebago with
the gear, yeah. And I had a few things. I had a banjo in there.
He's played banjo, yeah, and broke in there, got my banjo out
and just little knick knacks that I had, whatever. Got all
that out just in case, because that might have been a Friday
night. Saturday was the last gig. My uncle said, I'll be down
there with a couple guys help you get your base amp and all
that out of there. Okay, so we're into the you play four
sets. Always play four sets up at 10 to two in the morning.
That was the 45 on 15 off, 45 on 15 on yet the other off. Some of
those clubs, the stripper would come in and perform. That's
great. Yeah, nice. So here back in that time, so I'm playing,
it's, I think was the four. It's the third, third set. Here comes
my uncle. The door opens. My uncle comes in, and he's got
about 15 guys with him, big guys, and everybody's turning
around, like, it's like a bike game, nice. And I'm
like, came to the rescue, right from A
Bronx Tale, when they go into the bar, into the bar. Now you
can't leave great movie.
Yeah, locks the door so, but, yeah, I quit that night and
but what the hell were these people fighting about? You
missed a chord on the second song tonight, I
know had nothing to do with that. Just, just problems. Did
you eat
sandwich problems
with the booze. So I was in a lot of bands where there would
be a husband and wife fighting all the time. So many bands
who'd be a husband and wife band that was there too. They would
hire the young dudes, and they would be fighting like cats and
dogs, and you could feel the tension on stage. Oh yeah. What
would they fight about? Just, you know, marital thing that
sounds like spinal to take it to the stage. Take it to the stage,
you
know, I gotta say, you know, looking at you in the video
monitors over here, Brian, if you ever wanted to pull off a
Halloween costume, uh oh, Agent Smith from The Matrix, you could
totally do. Oh,
totally. You guys would be mad. I, I've only seen the first
matrix, and that's when it first came out. That's, that's all you
need to see. Okay, that is the other where
the other movies weren't bad. There's a
matrix. Revolutions The Matrix Reloaded.
Well, reloaded was the second. Revolutions was the third. That
girl that you know in the first movie, Carrie Anne moss and the
leather pants. Oh, my God, I'd like to see what she's into
these days.
Sure she was in the last movie. Yeah,
they re heard that was bad. I didn't see it. It was okay,
yeah, yeah. It wasn't exactly. Didn't have the same pizzazz.
Yeah, as the other movies,
women in leather. It's a great thing,
you know, not enough Bazoom, yeah, she needed to fill it out.
Jim likes him.
He likes some curvy,
but, yeah, that's, uh, I guess I didn't get to helica. So that
was, that was my first
13 years of touring with but some of the gigs got better.
Well,
after that i i stayed out there. I got picked up by another band
for about six weeks that wasn't going anywhere. Actually, you
like, there's one funny story about that. I got picked up by
this other band and said, We're gonna come pick you up. That's
wherever, wherever hotel I was at. It's a van, old style van,
and it was a husband and wife. They were nice to eat. They
didn't fight, but their husband wife, they were up in the front,
and just behind the seat there was a piece of plywood like
this, for three guys, drummer, guitar player and now the new
bass player, and the sliding door open, then it was all gear
behind that, yeah, and the sliding door opens and they're
all sitting on their butts like this, with the legs straight out
to the back of the seats. And I had to get in the middle, and I
get in the middle, and I'm, like, they shut the door. We
had, like, about an 810, hour drive to go, and they all
everyone to start laying up cigarettes with the windows up.
Oh, that lasted about six weeks.
Oh, my god, yeah. Gag, you never smoked. Never smoked.
No. And then then I went back home, get another phone call,
same from the same club. Gave my name to these other people from
Ontario. Yeah. I go meet them at the same restaurant, and I'm
with them two days later, driving Ontario. And that that
worked out pretty good. But after a year that I was burning
out being out there, whatever, and on the way home, we were
doing our last trip, and I was getting ready to I was leaving
the band, and we were coming from British Columbia all the
way back to Ontario, with which was their home base, and then I
was going to go home. We made the artist, she had bought a
van, really, really nice van, and but there was hauling a
trailer like you see on the back of the busses here. Yeah, and
just wasn't designed to pull that. We made it all the way
where we cut down through Detroit and come up through
Windsor to go to where she was from, and the van starting to
break down. Oh, no. So I was in the back of that van for the
last four or five hours with my head on the back doors, my feet
up on the closet, and the drummer was back there too, and
we were just hanging out there. The others were in the front,
and they said, we can get home. It's only two more hours home.
Let's let's putter this thing home at 15 miles an hour. We can
get there. So I got back in the van after I'd stretched, and I
switched around and put my head on the closet doors and my feet
on the back doors, which was smart, because we started going
15 miles an hour, but the tractor trailer coming behind us
at about 80. Oh no, didn't see us, and he hit us. He drove that
trailer. I remember seeing the trailer came off the hitch and
went right through the back doors, and I the hitch went,
right? I kind of folded like an accordion, like in a split
second, hmm. And, yeah, so, my
God, you could have died, buddy. It's close. Michael, yeah. So
that's a lot of years of unglamorous touring. So
unglamorous drawings. That's some of the first jobs I did in
Nashville. I reached out to a drummer named Lonnie Wilson, is
one of the most recorded drummers you know him. And he
said, Hey, you know, it's not glamorous. But this girl that
does, she's like, you know, you play in the band houses. You got
to drive out to Phoenix or in the middle of nowhere, and you
stay there for, like, a couple of weeks, and you're staying in
the band house, which is never clean, and it's like, you're
going to get crabs from it. And, you know, it's,
I've got, I've got pictures of the there's some band houses
that I stayed in. I had the actual pictures where I took
pictures of the garbage that we left as we were leaving. Yeah,
seven night, seven night, stay whatever left the garbage there,
and we'd go back there a month later, the garbage. And I told
the guys, I said, check it out. It's the same, same garbage.
That's horrible. You
guys aren't selling this very well. It's
like the comedian band house, like, there's probably, like,
Zanies might have, like, maybe, like, a, you know, like, uh, a
comedian house. And
they're never clean. They're never Oh no, no, no. I stayed in
like, old office buildings that were converted into band houses.
And
so when, you know, when you get your gig with, you know, James
Bond, you or Kevin sharp, well, you're like, holy cow, this is
much better. Oh yeah, that story gets good too. Okay. Well, we
like,
well, it shaped your your element for gratitude, yeah.
Oh, absolutely. Because all those gigs I was doing, all
those months like we were loading in our gear, going up
and down in Canada, in the in the winter time, going up and
down stairs with tough touring, old butterfly PA systems and
stuff like that.
But did you think to yourself, Man, this is just how it is, I
guess at that time, yeah. Because what the hell would I
get myself into? I dreamt of Nashville. But since
you're playing the bass and you're gainfully employed, and
obviously you're a likable person, because you just kept
getting gigs,
yeah, gainfully employee. I was, like, I said, making about 250
to 300
bucks a week out there. So what was the first Nashville gig you
got?
Well, so after I came home from that accident, stayed in, stayed
in Moncton for a brief period, went to college for a couple of
years. Oh, yeah, I met, I met a, there was a jazz band playing in
my town when I was off, and I knew who the bass player was
that heard his name. His name was skip back with he's passed
away a few years ago, but great, great guy out of Halifax, and he
was playing this jazz trio, so I went down to see it. Jazz wasn't
my thing, but take it for a walk, man, take it for a walk.
But he was so entertaining. He was one of the cool cats of jazz
kind of thing. And he we struck up a conversation. He says, What
are you doing these days? And I said, Really, nothing right now.
And he goes, Why don't you come to school? Says, I'm the bass
prop there. I said, I wouldn't be able to get in. He goes,
Well, you're 22 maybe at this time. He goes, Uh, just he says,
we're playing tomorrow. Come see me. Bring me a packet of
everything about you. And two weeks later I was in I was going
to college, got in there, got in there. He well, he got me in
there. So were you like playing in the big band and stuff? Well,
here's the thing, there was no music when I went to elementary
school or high school, zero music was given. So I had, I
went in cold turkey. You're like playing by pure feel your
instrument? Yeah. So when I got there was a wake up call,
because all these kids were coming out of different schools,
from Nova, Scotia and Ontario that were coming there for this
jazz program. They had all studied music. Some of these
kids were just ripping. I'm like, What have I gotten myself
into?
Well, he saw something, and you invited you to the program.
Yeah, he
liked me, and we became good friends when we were there. And
I got to meet, you know, I got to be really close with a lot of
those guys. A lot of them have gone on to be teachers and some
of them performers. But I did two years. I was I signed up for
the four year program, but I just did two years because I was
still touring with different bands and and then I worked with
a few more bands out of Halifax, worked with a blues band, and
then I went worked with this other artist from Halifax. And
then when I was working with the arts from Halifax, we had done,
we were doing a telethon. It's a schedule, yeah, get my Canadian
action. When
Joey was wearing his tux and, you know, he wanted to be on
camera, don't you only say open a boat already. Get that out of
the way. It's a dead giveaway. So
who's Sorry, sorry, hey, but
so we went to do this telethon, but there was a few American
Acts there, yeah, so here's where the names might come in,
where you you'll recognize. So one of the groups that were
there were a group called the McCarter sisters. Do you
remember them at all? Yeah, of course. So they were on this
telethon, and the guy that was kind of tour managing them at
that day was guy named Kevin Crampton. Do you remember that
name at all? Drummer played with Jody Messina when she just came
out. Okay, so we got to talking and stuff, and he said, planning
and coming to Nashville. I said, I'd love to go there. I just, I
just haven't gotten there yet. So I said, Have you ever come
down and give me a call? You know, starting that kind of a
conversation. So I'm getting home and I'm going, Okay, I
gotta go. I gotta try to figure out a way to get there. And I
there was a friend of mine, Derek Earl, who was a guitar
player I played with. Hadn't seen him in a few years. Heard
he was driving a truck. So I called. I got a hold of him, and
I said, Derek, I said, caught up for a while. I said, Here you go
to Nashville. Sometimes he goes, Well, I used to years ago. I
used to go through there all the time. Says, My latest routes
I've been doing for the past couple years I've been going. He
said, But if I ever do go back through there, he says, You're
welcome to come with me. I said, I can do that. He goes, Well, I
own my own truck. He says, I can take whoever I want, nice. I'd
love that. So hung up the phone. Next couple of days, I got a
good call from a good drummer buddy of mine, and he was
playing in a country band I really liked from my hometown,
and he said, we're looking for a bass player. So I took the job.
That was in January of
1996 Yeah, and
the band was breaking up around September, October, it was
breaking up, and here I am broke. I don't know what I'm
gonna do. And then the phone breaks. It's November. Phone
rings. It's Derek. He goes, Hey, man, I got good news and bad
news. Good news, I got a trip coming up. I gotta take a load
of moose head beer to Atlanta, Georgia is then. I gotta go over
to Birmingham, pick up some chicken wings, bring back to
Toronto. And when I go that way, I'm going right 65 I didn't even
know what 65 was. Going 65 right through Nashville. I said,
Great. I said, Can I still go with you? He goes, That's the
bad news. He says, I have to leave in four hours. So I'm
like, and he lived an hour away from me. Oh, no. So I'm like,
okay, get on the phone. I call Kevin. I call those people. I
just need a couch to stay on for a couple weeks. This is a great
story, and this I finally threw a friend of a friend, one of the
most Patricia Conroy, you know, Patricia? Yeah, I was gonna say,
like, what are the country? Yeah, she made a few phone calls
for me. Found this girl who had a condo down in Antioch, had
four bedrooms, but they were all taken. She goes, if you just
want to stay for a couple weeks, you know, I'll just charge you
50 bucks a week or something. Just crash on the couch. Nice.
All right? So I'm like, Oh yeah, okay, whatever. Yeah. So I said,
I'll call you back. So she calls me 20 minutes later, says, Can I
give you some advice? She goes, I can tell you're really unsure
and you're kind of nervous. She goes, if I can tell you
anything, she goes, if you don't come right now, the way you're
talking, she goes, you're never coming here. And I said, that's
all I had to hear. That's great advice. That was like, yeah. So
I, I packed a backpack, took one crappy bass with me in the back
of the truck, and, well, how did that girl know about the music
business and that thing of coming or not coming? She, well,
she was an aspiring singer at the time because she owned
condos, and all the people that was staying in her condo, or,
like, there was engineer guy. There was a monitor guy, and the
other girl, I think, worked at Barbara orberson halfway house
for me, up and coming musicians. They were all, yeah, so I stayed
there for a couple weeks, and I never went home. Oh, that's
great, man. And you, the thing is, decision was made because
you were your your balls were to the wall. I mean, you had four
hours to do this or not? Yeah,
call my brother. I said, Will you drive me to a place what's
called Sussex in New Brunswick, and pretty close to, well, not
too close. Did you come with, like, just your clothes on your
back? I just, I came with, like, a week's worth of clothes, my
God, and a guitar.
They are a self made man. 25 years with Gary Allen. You're a
homeowner. You're wearing a very nice shirt. I mean, it's like
those glasses don't look cheap. I wasn't. I wasn't
wearing this shirt. When I left the house, my wife said, you
need shirts. Were you
wearing a Carhartt shirt by chance? No,
not a car. Jim's got them in every color. I recommend them
highly. That's good. Rich loves them. I mean, their their
hoodies look very comfortable, but they're almost too. That.
Okay? They're
very stylish. Now, yeah, tell you. Tractor Supply is very
posh. I like it, yeah, man, yeah. So
what was the first job he got, like, as far as like, like, was
Pam the first No, Kevin, that Kevin. Kevin guy called me up.
Said, if you're in town, he says, This is the first week I'm
here. He says, I got a McCarthy, got a gig in Oh, hi or
something. Are you interested? I said, Yeah, it's kind of a laid
back like, right up my alley was, like an acoustic kind of
country, really soft country stuff. And so I went up there,
and on the gig, there was a bluegrass musician named Chris
Jones, Andy Hull on drums, Andy Hall
on drums. Who? Andy Hall, our last guest, Christopher Williams
was ended up subbing for Andy on the Lee Greenwood gig. Oh, that
was his first opportunity in Nashville, the drummer for
except his first job in Nashville, Lee Green was subbing
for Lee green wow, if you're listening to this podcast, it
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That's crazy. The world gets smaller. How small it gets
because I heard a name on your show earlier, but so
I had a second gig with them, and
Chris Jones had asked me if I wanted to join his bluegrass
band. He was looking for somebody to play bluegrass. And
I said, Yeah, I played bluegrass when I was home. I'd love to do
that. So he goes, I also I get this part time job. He says, at
brugers Bagels. Yes, Erica. He knows brugers Bagels. And I
almost
went today, did you really almost? But I said, You know
what? I don't need the bagel. Well,
I was given a piece of advice from I think it was either John
Colley or the or Colin Ray's band. They'd come through my
hometown years before that. Yeah. I said, Have you ever
moved if you ever moved to Nashville? They said, swallow
your pride. Get a decent day job, yeah, and I did. I said,
I'm not I'm not scared. I ain't scared. So when Chris said, he
said, Not only does this guy pay well for a bagel shop, he lets
you make your own hours. He knows we're musicians, he lets
you was it the one over there on Franklin Road? That one? Yep,
yeah, that's the one I was at today.
And as soon as I started that job. They were like family
there, first of all. And then Chris started a Thursday night,
music night, mostly bluegrass, but music night, but songwriter.
It started getting bigger. All these big songwriters are coming
in. You're meeting
a lot of people at a lot of people there, yeah,
I think because I, because I'd done 13 years in Canada, like
just non stop. I,
I wasn't. I never played on Broadway.
He still to this day, you never went down there. Only time I
played Broadway is
with Gary. Did a couple shows with Gary, and I wasn't. I'm not
saying that in a bad way. I went down there to meet people and
stuff, but I thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to do the day job
thing and work on the road. And so far, it's worked out, you
know, yeah, well, I'm telling
you what. It's an amazing story. What is happening down there on
lower Broadway, crazy. I went there like, three weeks ago to
show some out of towners. They all want to go down there. Of
course, we got that, like, you know, Japanese style, um, six
way walk, yeah, corner there. Like, you know what? I mean,
it's like, people like, Well,
that wasn't a similar when I moved here, yeah, I wouldn't
have made a it was, it was like, think Jim from Rascal Flatts,
Jim Riley. He's like, a ghost town down there. When I moved
here, there was four or five bars. Maybe it was ghosted.
Now we have, like, bars or whatever insane, but the bands
down there, they're like, it's all technology. It's like, it's
like tracks and rolling kits and iPads and in air monitors, and
everyone's got this curated playlist, and that includes 90s,
2000s rock and roll. Yeah, yeah. And if it's really the only
country to really be just on that corner is laylas and
Roberts. Yeah, right on that corner. Maybe a little at
Legends. But even still, it's like, wow, yeah, I rarely go
down there, the metal band down there that they have to play the
90s playbook. So we're talking like, Pearl Jam, sound garden,
like all the stuff. And they did it incredibly well. So what they
do is they had a book, they had a songbook, so they're playing
whatever they want. And then the tourists come up and they're
like, Hey, do you guys know such and such? And they go, these are
the songs we know. So it's almost like a menu. And then
besides each song, there was the price to perform the song. Are
you $20 $40 $60 so you could pay, wow, paid to request a song
a human jukebox.
You ever see the band that does karaoke, live karaoke? Sure you
seen that. We saw that at Mercy lounge when we first moved here.
Yeah, yeah. And I always brought this guy up that loves singing,
like Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, yeah? And he had a
wandering eye, like a lazy eye, oh yeah. He'd have, like, you
know, that kind of Yeah, but his eye would be like, chameleon
hunting and fishing.
I love chameleons,
not as much as octopus.
It's hunting and fishing. That eye
that's horrible. Is he looking at me. Maybe he is.
I mean, I mean, I was in the SPAS Maddox. And, I mean, if the
spasmatics, well, they still exist. But, man, if they, if the
SPAS Maddox would play down on lower Broadway, I don't think
they do it. They do mostly privates, and then they have,
like, a weekly somewhere that they pack out, but they would
crush it down Well,
I mean, Steel Panther has to come and play downtown. They've
never done that. I
see a hell of a show. Well, they would probably play the Ryman or
assembly food hall. I don't
think they'd play some. I saw the marathon. Music Works, yeah?
So that's more their
venue. That's where I saw them, yeah, East Side bowl when? Well,
you know, we had Eric Pritchard on, you know, and he's the
drummer for Megan Maroney. And it turns out, like I met this
kid at at the Atlantic drum collective, like, when he was,
like, 12 years old or something, and now he's Megan Maroney, is
band leader, and they're playing. There's this brand new
venue in town called the pinnacle, and it's, I'm excited.
They're playing on April 8 and ninth, or ninth and 10th, and
hopefully I'm gonna go see the kid play. You know? Yeah, pretty
crazy. He's
been on your show, yeah? Okay, sat right there.
It's crazy. Commit right now. And so he's gonna see him. No,
I am. I think it's gonna happen. I think he's gonna hopefully. I
think he's gonna come through for his his old friend. But you
know how it is, it's not every band gets as many tickets as
they want. Like, I get away with murder. I have a lot of people
come see our shows. He's like, I gotta check with my tour manager
and all that. You know, I like, I'm like, kid, I get it. Kid,
yeah,
I get, oh yeah, we get, we get the stick with that, yeah, if I
been a long time since I've asked anybody, but it's like, I
know the deal. Yeah. Say No, I don't care.
But you know, you got to ask, yeah, Ask,
and you shall receive. You know what? I mean, it's like, you
know, not always,
yeah, but every time I ask you, I give you the out.
Well, except when you know I need drum gear.
I think the, I mean, you're, I mean, you're gonna come see us
this year in Michigan, that was at Pine at Pine knob for four
tickets, buddy. We've got two, we've got two nights at Pine
knob, the
full service next stage, on stage greets, hang out in the
Zen room. Use everybody. Just
don't Dick my drums. Okay,
don't Dick my drums. Dick, you know, like in, like in a step
brothers, don't put your balls in my drums. Yeah,
one day you just got upset about that, once it's not gonna
happen. Okay, I haven't even got the famine, have I talking too
much?
How does, how do you get from crashing for $50 a week to
working with all these artists? So, yeah, you're at the fort.
Where am I? Oh, yeah. So, so the McCarthy sisters, yes.
So the way I got the James Bond Andy Hall. Andy hole. See, he
was playing with, he was playing with, what Andy Hall's son? I'm
gonna rewind a little bit, because there's a name I forgot
to throw out. Yeah, I heard on. Here's George Lawrence. George
Lawrence, I were you first guy I met the first week I was here. I
don't remember how I met him. Super. He says, Why don't you
come out with me meet some people, I said, so he took me
down to you'll remember the name of this. So demumbrian, yep. At
the end of the street there was a bar. Right at the very end was
a country bar, yep, and Mike Kennedy was in the band, yes,
16th Avenue, something like that. Hey. He took me. I said,
this is cool, because it reminded me of home, as all the
country got all the musicians are hanging and jamming and
playing. That's where I first heard Keith horn play. And I'm
like, again, what? What is happening? Yeah, yeah, but, but
it didn't last very much longer anyway. So I hang out with
George for a little while, and he goes, you've already got a
gig. I was doing the McCarthy thing, whatever it was, just,
you know, just a couple of shows. But then Andy Hall had
started playing with James bottom me, and they were looking
for a bass player. He said, call this guy. I did a couple gigs
with him, nice and Andy was super cool to me because I still
didn't have a car in town. I was still new in town, no money, and
Andy would come pick me up for bus call and all that kind of
stuff. The first the first gig I had with Bonnie, I drove to
opera. Mine to meet the bus, and it's gonna be my first time on a
tour bus. I'd never been on a tour bus. Yeah, and I'm waiting
there in the parking lot, waiting and waiting. And I don't
know if you remember there was a club downtown, the happy
something, and they had, they had a Partridge Family bus. Do
you remember that the happy Have A Nice Day Cafe, have a nice day
Cafe, and they had a Partridge Family bus? Do you remember that
bus? And just ironically, the timing, that thing pulls around
the corner, and I'm like, that's not about You're kidding me. And
then all of a sudden, you know, the privos comes behind. Was a
Silver Eagle, actually, that time. But, yeah, what a great
band. That was a great band. Good bunch of guys. Bonham was
great. So played with him for about a year, and then did about
a two year stint with Kevin sharp, yeah, Kevin sharp. Now,
Kevin passed, right? Kevin passed a few years ago. Yeah,
yeah. I never got the full story from the guys yet, but,
and then after sharp, that was Lee Turner, right
to Lee Turner, yeah, who's with Darius now, yeah, yeah, he's,
he's still there. He was, he was the band leader when I was
Kevin, yeah. So then after the Kevin sharp thing was done, I
was sitting at home, back at brugers, just filling in some
time, yeah, and I get a phone call from Did you ever work with
Brian hinge cliff, yeah, you know he had passed a few years
ago. He passed, but he called me up. He says, Brian, Brian.
Brian. He says, I double booked myself. Can you cover for me? I
said, Yeah. What? Yeah, it's one gig. I'll do it for you. It was
with clay Davidson, yeah. Big guy, big, big guy, kind of
Southern, trying to bring back the kind of like outlaw vibe.
Great. Singer, yes, powerhouse singer. And so I learned, I
learned the show they were, they were going to be opening up for
Mark chestnut down in Biloxi, Mississippi, yeah. So I learned
the show Brian was off to do. I'll catch him or somebody, or
the kinleys or something. So I go do this gig. And on the gig,
I knew the guy, some of the guys from chestnuts band, and they
said, This is all after Pam. I'm losing my timeline. That's all
right, yeah. Because after after sharp is when the PAM thing came
in. I got the phone call to go audition for PAM, yeah, and I
was and I thought, I'm not gonna get this gig. I said, just,
well, I just want to go say I did it. No, that's all. So I
went to work that day brugers, because my my audition was a
five or six at night, and I went to work and I left the same work
clothes on bagel doe all over me. And I walked in there, and
because I was last, she had to go. And we criss crossed each
other. She goes, You must be Brian. And I said, I am. She
goes, I gotta go. She's but they're recording you and
everything. I'm gonna hear it later on. I said, No, just good
luck in there. So I go in, and what a killer band. Kevin Adams,
Kevin James Pennebaker, James Penn guitar, Mike toppins, Mike
Topps, we didn't have Lana yet. Chicken, chicken, calm, chicken.
Yeah,
most, most steel players in Nashville gym, they have to have
a nickname that is part of the barnyard animal family. Steel
players only, yeah, glass. Steel players, yeah, they got they,
they have nicknames.
They'll they'll tell you they're a different breed, chicken,
steel players, moose, yeah,
pig. What's your player to play other instruments, though, if
they really wanted to, of course,
like, well, like our steel player can play a little bit of
banjo, acoustic guitar, bass, same as ours. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. Man,
now with drummers, and drummers get the brunt of jokes and stuff
like that. Oh, I'm getting to that. Well, I mean, bass players
do too. Oh, yeah, you know, because if you look at the chart
of girls to people in the band ratio, you know, typically, the
singers got two girls in each arm. Tar players got a girl on
each arm, one girl. Drummers got one girl on an arm, and bass
players by himself.
It really depends on who makes the chart. It could be made by,
you know? It could be made by a doesn't
the the drummer leave with the girl in the song Rosie by
Jackson Brown. You familiar
with that song? I'm not familiar with that song. But also, like,
I mean, look at, you know, Neil Young, Cinnamon Girl, the
drummer waits for his girl. She's a Cinnamon Girl, you
know? Yeah, we're one girl. People.
Did you guys watch the Bob Dylan movie? The I started, I
started a show me. I started last night. Yeah? And the
internet kept going in and out, in and out. So not impressed. I
finally got, I finally got upset and said, I'm gonna finish. Got
halfway through. You were impressed the movie,
yeah. Well, what about his acting? It's a hard role to
tackle, and he passed. He's probably filming the dune movies
while he was doing it.
The guy, yeah? Charlotte Charlamagne,
oh. Timothy, yeah, that's right. Chalamet galamet,
yeah. I was, you know, I was never a big Dylan fan the
beginning,
you know. I mean, it's like, it's poetry, you know. But I
mean, it's interesting to see with like Pete Seeger and those
other guys. They were passing the baton, and they were, you
know, they were like, This is the new, this is the new.
Learn the history what went on. I was never a big. Bob Dylan
today. So I thought, I'm, I want to learn as much as I can, like
I didn't know that about much about John Baez,
yeah. They had a little tour of love of Yeah, yeah. He
was, we saw them in Hartford, probably in the late 90s. He was
opening up for
Steel Panther. Anyways.
Paul Simon, okay, yeah, yeah, that guy's okay. And Paul Simon
was headlining, had gad on drums. Oh yeah, Gad. But it was
literally like, when's he done this? It was
a scene. Bob Zimmerman, that's when I saw, I guarantee
it, Gordon life, I
saw Gordon life, he also
runs the Men's Warehouse. Okay, okay. How's it go again? Yeah,
I guarantee it.
Hey, man, Men's Warehouse has gotten my money. They've
China, yeah, you were calling me Nordstrom, right? Nordstrom
Rack, right from rack,
yeah, man, I love sifting through that stuff, because
you're like, oh my god, All Saints for a third off. Sign me
up. Then you have to wait on that exorbitantly long line that
they're trying to get you to, like, buy candles and popcorn as
you're leaving.
Yeah? Food, yeah, all the impulse items, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sorry, buddy interrupted. That's so rude.
So
we're at the PAM story, right? So, yeah. So I got the call for
the PAM thing. I got the call actually the day my grandfather
passed away, Pennebaker called me, I'm sorry, and he said I was
in Best Buy. I had to pick up something Best Buy. He goes, Oh,
you got the gig. I said, I got the gig like, and I didn't come
really prepared for that gig. But he said, No, you got the
gig. They liked your sound. They liked all this whatever. And I
said, Here's, I'm gonna give you the name and number of the
drummer, rich Redmond. They say it like that. Probably he would
have said it like rich Redmond, yes. Sorry, James, yeah. But
actually, Larry and Jeff Armstrong I work with, yeah,
they've worked long time with James. So small world. But yeah,
he said, I'm gonna give you the number so you can call him if
you guys want to get together before the rehearsals. And I
think I walked out the door and you were already calling me. I
had the old Nakia phone with the antenna. Hold up the antenna and
you flip it. He used to make fun of me about that. Well, it's
amazing. At least you knew when
you hung up the phone it was you hung up the phone.
Did he say? Oh, that a new phone.
He goes, dude, you need Rich is like, we're having lunch one day
downtown. He's, like, you need a new phone, and we gotta fix some
new glasses too. Remember, you had these little, little black
glasses. They were like this, then, oh, what? Who the heck am
I to give advice
back then, gee, you're still rocking the VO five moment at
that point. No, I What kind
of haircut that I had back then. It's probably just short. It's
really, really, really short, short and
Spike, yeah, yeah. Because when I met you, you were, you were
doing the red Mohawk faux hawk,
yeah. Man, I've had purple and all that. So they used to make
the like a gel, like, like a product, but it was colored so
you could change the color of your your tips every, every day,
red, purple. I don't think
you're doing that when I was there. No, I don't think so. I
remember those glasses, because I said, Okay, where do I get
those? He said, I just got them a couple months ago. He says
they, they cost me 1200
bucks. I said, 12.
It was a piece I went to the overpriced it's right next to
the record store image optical on West End. Yes, it was the
most pricey bougie optical place in Nashville. And of course, the
sales lady was probably really cute, and she was like, Well,
you know, we have a, you know, we have a program you could pay
them off or, like, you know, it's called layaway.
Yeah, I walked in there after you told me that, like, a few
weeks later, said, I'm gonna go down. Gonna go down there check
out some frames. I walked in and there's one lady. She was busy
with somebody, and as she's walking by me, she says, she
goes, I'll be with you in one second. And she pulled a pair of
glasses off and stuck them on my face. Those look great on you.
She kept walking like she just picked a pair. Didn't even look
at them. Those look great on you? Hard courses where rich
buys,
yeah, I don't think I would pay $1,200 for glasses. I because
after that I started probably going to like, lens crafters or
something like that. Yeah,
Costco, yeah, Costco, yeah. I'm Tractor Supply. You can't get
glasses of Tractor Supply.
Love Costco. So we
had time. We had fun, man. We played the wolf den. We played
some big festivals.
We got together, and you're at your bedroom, and we Yeah, hey,
now rephrase that, yeah, but you were living with Curt and Tully,
Yep, yeah, in Yeah.
Require this kind of music.
We lived on. We lived on 3309, quail run court in Donaldson,
tech, Donaldson, Tennessee, your
neighbors own the sitar, right? Restaurant. The next door
neighbors own sitar. Yeah, I remember that, yeah. So what you
do in the bedroom?
We worked on the music.
Grab that cheer. It's. And this is an old trope,
grab your pens, little bit of paper.
Oh no, no good. And we're not digging this. I know it's good.
I remember we used to do this, um, in episode one through 25 of
the rich Redmond show. It's hard to bring it back and bring it
back in the year two in the year 2020
was 2000 and we worked on me, Vita loca and shake the sugar
tree. And then, you know,
we played the opry a bit. Played the
opry a lot, because that was the year she was being inducted, and
remembered
Vince Gill jumped up on stage with us, and we worked on the
song backs backstage.
I really like that. Was a new album. She thunder
and roses. Thunder and Rose.
Really good. And, yeah, he came out, and I was still, I'm a huge
Vince fan. And yeah, here he was coming, came in the back
dressing room to rehearse once with us. Yeah, came out on
stage. We did that. And we did a, yeah, we did a lot of this,
like a bird
dude. So now he's a, he's like, a, he's like, doing Glenn fries
part, I believe in the Eagles. And they're playing, they're
doing a residency at the what's the thing in Vegas, though?
Sphere? Oh, they're doing sphere. So is Kenny Chesney.
They're doing a run at the sphere. That'll be you two. Was
doing that? No, it's been, YouTube's been doing it.
Nick booth is playing, yeah, okay, lucky to
do the sphere. Hopefully we'll do it at some point. I mean, I
think it's going to become more and more common for the for
bands to do it, but they're just, you know, getting the
creme de la creme bands like, I mean, the Eagles, you too.
Green Hill, dead, wow, yeah, man, yeah, yeah. Well,
we had a blast. But then how does the thing with Gary Allen
happen? It was so after, right?
So soon after, Pam, that's when hinge Cliff called me, yeah, and
said, Can you cover for this gig? And I said, I said, that's
one gig. It's a lot of lot of stuff to learn. I said, but I'm
not doing anything. Of course, I wanted to help him out, so I got
on the bus with those guys, and I was they all went to the back
of the bus. I stay up at the front to keep working on the
material we do the gig in Biloxi, Mississippi. I knew a
couple of guys in chestnuts band, and they came up to me and
said, Are you not with Pam anymore? And I said, No, I'm not
with Pam anymore. They said. And then the bass player, Steve
Ledford, Steve led for Steve, yeah, man. He says, Uh. He says,
I think Gary Allen's auditioning in like, a couple of days, and I
said, Oh, okay, because I kind of know them. He says, You want
me to make a phone call? I said, Sure, yeah. So he went and he
called, he came back, he goes, they said they're full, or
they're this was a Saturday. They were auditioning. On
Monday, said they're full, but because I called, he said
they're going to take one more
nice that was me Steve led for was always really so good man
about town, that was always like trying to hook people up with
super good auditions. Isn't it funny now that that 20 years
later, there are no auditions, it's mostly like people call
people and they go, you're perfect for this. Are you
available? Yeah, there's a rehearsal, and if you don't cut
the rehearsal, you're out. But most people are just the
professionalism is you know that you're gonna have to know the
material.
Knows when I play with when I went out to audition for Bonnie,
they took me right on the road. There's a few before me. It was
right out on the road, which I thought was strange. Was like,
what if you don't do the first night, and you still got two
more nights to go? You know what? I mean? Yeah, but sharp, I
had to audition for. Am I auditioned for? But we still do
auditions. I guess mostly it's more like just to meet the
person I when I call them up, I say, I know you can play, I know
you're you know through I just know you can play us the band
leader for Gary, but we want to meet you. We will play a couple
of tunes, whatever, but we're going to go hang on the bus
after and we're going to get to know you. Yeah, because that's
to us, the most important part, what are you going to be like on
the bus? On the bus?
Because that's the 23 hours. You know, the 24th hours is an
expectation. But another small worldishness thing, and
something that we have in common is that in before I got the odd
four, I think I even moved to Nashville, or right after, I did
audition for Gary Allen, I think you told me over at the woodshed
in East Nashville, which is probably like a Bougie
restaurant. Now, is
that that two story building? Okay, that's where I edition for
Kevin sharp,
yes, and I and it was, what was Gary's record? Chrome plated
hard or broken hard something was early on. Well, the first
one was used hard for sale. Used her for sale. So that was his
traditional first record. I'm auditioning. I'm like, I think
my friend Craig flew in from, you know, Los Angeles. I saw
some familiar faces auditioning. Lee Kelly got the job. Oh,
Lee got that job. He was the drummer when I when I started.
So I went, went in for my audition. Lee was the drummer.
Super nice to me, yeah, just, I got the jam with him. Gary was
doing some benefit for what's the guy that Lee plays with
named Kendall? Some Kendall, he wrote right where I need to be,
forgetting his name. But I went down there with Gary said, I'll
get up and jam with you, you know. And Lee was playing drums
and just solid. Just, he said, I haven't played this in. Years. I
didn't believe this. Yeah, I can't do my Lee Kelly
impersonation, but he just, man, he was, Well,
Lee Kelly has got a southern accent. He does, yeah, yeah. You
know, we had him on the show, maybe, I don't know, 20 episodes
ago or something. Just so great to catch up with him. But you
know, he's a lifer. You know you're a lifer, yeah? So when
you get the gig, you're not the band leader right away, but you
eventually become the band leader. Gary
approached me somewhere up north and asked me if I wanted to do
and I'm
like, I don't know, what are my responsibilities? Yeah.
He said, Well, if you don't take it, I'm gonna give to somebody
else. I said, Okay, I'll give it a try. But as band leader, seems
like that
thing pretty much runs itself, right? You got to come up with
intros, outros, endings. Outros,
endings. No, everybody I have, when I said, when we go into
rehearsals, it's everybody, everybody has democratic
process. Yes, yeah, everybody's doing that. It's nice. So look
at these great drummers you've had. Seth Roush, Seth rush,
currently with Carrie Underwood, yeah, Matt Billingsley,
currently with Taylor Swift. Here he's doing well, yeah. Tim
Horsley, who had did some time with Keith Urban, Tim was with
us forever. Tim was with us seven or eight years. Yeah,
and Dana, drum roll, timpani, live from Hollywood, California.
Larry bed now, now we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna totally
make Larry Babb blush, even though he will never listen to
this. Probably
very bad, very bad. Some nights he has to set up my air drumming
set.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Larry Jim, I would love to have Larry Babb on
this show. Yes, he should. I don't know if he would do it.
I'll bring him here. He is so shy. See when he sees this, he's
laughing already. He is so awe, shucks. And he is one of the
most underrated drummers in this city. He's a real he's a
monster. When I saw him play with big and Rich, I was like
whole just, when did he play with them? Crushing it.
He played with us for a while, left us to go play with, I
forget who it was. And then he, before he came back with us, he
did a stint with big and rich again.
He put the Wreckers. Maybe, did he put the Wreckers or one of
those country alt girls, or it was like a girl, it was a flavor
of the moment girl. She maybe had a couple of singles, but I
remember that. But I watched him play side of stage with bigger
rich. I was like, This guy is owning
this Oh, when I Yeah, it was a different show than what we do.
And he was just like, Who's that guy? Yeah.
And then when he it's like, larger than life, and then he
gets off the drums and and he's like, Oh, shucks, you know,
don't, don't try to give him a compliment. Oh no, that's
kind of like you. You're an aw shucks guy. There are a lot of
people that have been on lately that have sung your praises,
because you spoke into their lives in a positive you made a
positive impact. Per your mantra, makes
such a positive impact, and I incorporate him in my in my ear,
drumming show, okay, do it? Give me a twirl? Well, it's not just
the twirl. It's the Lake
of the stick right lick. Let's all do it.
I want to get some of your
you get all those kind of noises. Why aren't you doing an
album? Just those noises? I
because I've watched a few of your interviews with
drumming on the rich red shoe. I'm
usually doing metal, though, yeah, I gotta put on the show.
Oh, yeah. So,
like, like, 80s, sunset, strap metal. Like, like, Well, my
first, my first go to is a Canadian rock band from the 80s.
All that he's not, you're not gonna get you're not gonna get
it. You're not
gonna get it.
Triumph, honeymoon suite. Well, that's a new go. I got a
new girl that's definitely on the playlist. That's definitely
on the playlist. Dude I used to play with the drummer out of
Halifax. He's not the original drummer. Original drummer of a
crate. And don't, yeah, play with them for a while. I think
he played on the live album. I think, yeah, is hein? But yeah,
honey, they're still doing it. They're still doing it. You're
still doing it. My first, my first go to is a little band
called Coney hatch. You remember that? No,
no, I know Coney Island. I just Coney
hatch, a little song called Monkey Bars. Yeah,
yes, but what's the beat?
Just kind of like a, kind of like the new girl now,
where you're always kind of like a closeted drummer, maybe, maybe
ever sit down to play it a kid?
When this starts to speak after a show, yeah? When it speaks a
lot then, then the kind of in the old days, I'm retired now,
yeah, drumming kind of retiring, yeah,
sat down, real drum. No, really, actually,
a few years ago, Gary had owned kit, dw, kit, nice, my air
drumming kit is always a odds, Canadian, oh, Canadian, yeah.
That that'll be my favorite. My favorite ones were the, is it
Northfield? North
drums north
I just did the wood stick drum festival outside of Seattle, and
one of the dudes had no North kit. Are you serious? Billy
Willie, that I told you about my friend? Yeah, you had one?
I yeah, I went to see Burton Cummings in concert years ago,
back in the early 80s, maybe, yeah, and his drummer had,
that's the first time I'd seen that takes up a lot of space,
and I thought it was the coolest thing. Then I saw that cases for
him. Burton was playing his piano, and I was doing
something. He was looking at something on the piano. I said,
I What is he doing? So I, I was in the bowl section, so I walked
down, I could walk on the floor, and I went up there. And how
Canadian is it that he was watching the Stanley Cup
playoffs on a little TV, on his piano while he was doing the
concert?
Oh, my god, wow. Yeah. Well, so you did play hockey for some
time, right?
12 to 13 years. I mean, you're formerly youth,
and your youth, it's dangerous. I'm surprised you have all your
teeth.
I started when I was five in Massachusetts. Was a goalie.
That's a lot of pressure, man, goalies, goal, yep, what? But as
soon as I moved to Canada, I wanted to be on the ice. So got
on the ice. I pretty much was a defenseman. Most of my when I
got, when I was getting to high school, I was losing interest. I
was getting more into music, and I just, I was just losing the
interest of hockey, but I wanted to play at least one year high
school, and I did. These guys are getting really serious,
really serious. Yeah, very fast, and I was just my heart wasn't
there, so I finished after that and didn't go back.
Are you still a fan rock? I'm not a big, big fan. I follow
my dad is my dad's been waiting for the Toronto Maple Leafs to
win the Stanley Cup. Think the last time they won was like, 40
years or 60s or something.
Because did you realize you probably don't know this about
me. We talk about athletics sometimes when we talk about
your speed skating career, and what else did you do? Wait
a second. I didn't know that. What's What's this now, I had
like, a one year of trying to go very fast around the ice.
Have you ever seen him roller skate?
I think I saw a video online when I used to disco roller
skating. I'm pretty good. Yeah, okay, we're going, pretty good.
We're going, Dude, you're damn good. We're gonna
go to the skate center in Brentwood. We're gonna do some
roller derby, dude. The funny thing is, is that we like, like,
I went Kara and I went to go to the skate center, the Brent went
there, and we were thinking, you know, it's gonna, they're gonna
be playing disco music, like most skating players, yeah, but
they were playing like, you know, Dua Lipa and, you know,
Kyle, you know, all the, I want
to hear
Bruno Mars, all that stuff, yeah, I, actually,
I played hockey, yeah, I did, but it was roller hockey. You're
from Connecticut, aren't you? I am okay. So we played in a
Costco parking lot or Home Depot parking lot. What part of
Connecticut?
Danbury. Danbury, western side. My aunt and uncle live there
right now, and I'd have to look in my phone. It's very close to
Danbury,
Brookfield, New Milford, no Bethel, no Greenwich, Stamford,
reading. They
used to be in Stanford, but there, I'll look it up before I
leave.
Yeah, but Waterbury, water, I think it's water. Yeah, it's
there the town halfway between Danbury and Hartford.
Yeah, they have the berries and the ports, yes, okay, we have
the bills. Well, you had the Hartford and the Hartford
Whalers back the Hartford whale, way back when, way back on the
water whale, the Carvel cake. Then we
had the Danbury trashers, which was run by James. He was owned
by James Galanti, who ran automated waste disposal. Okay,
and apparently he was the model, as the lore goes for Tony
Soprano, really, his son is even named AJ.
There's a lot of Mafia in waste disposal, oh yeah, because they
could dispose of a lot of things in that business. It's
funny. You say Tony sobrino during the pandemic, you know,
we're trying to find my wife, trying to find something to
watch. And she goes, Why don't we start the surprise? I never
seen the sopranos really like, that's just too long. And I
said, Okay, let's watch it. It
holds up. Glad I did amazing, unbelievable.
It's funny, because the technology, yeah, it's dated.
That's what bothers me about watching it, because when
they're dated like that, but it was still, what
do you mean flip like the Yeah, pay phones, just this, you know,
it's not up. It's 20 some odd years. What about six in the
city
she watched? I mean, yeah, I get sucked into that.
In the sopranos, there's, I want to say it's a second season
where they're trying the FBI is trying to bug his house. And you
remember the song that they played, the Peter Gunn police
mashup? I don't, I don't think, oh, but you've ever heard that
Peter Gunn, which
I'll be watching. Okay, I can't remember
that. I'm gonna
look for it. Yeah, yeah. Jim's gonna do his Joe Rogan, assist,
love it. Love it. Hey, get on there, kid. Hey. Um, so. All
these drummers you've worked with, um drummers, what is the
common thing that makes you want to get on stage with with one of
these guys? Is it like a common thing? Is it like their energy,
their their their groove? Is it their personality off the drums
or like, what are you looking for when you have to audition a
new drummer for Gary Allen,
I'm back in the oh, there it is. That
almost saved the question, right?
I found it Unit Five. Do a visual contact. You've never
heard this.
I've played this song a million times.
Listen to this blend. It's one of the one of the best mashups.
Yeah, you blend, your blend
unit one, approximately one minute, you'll have the made
great Jetta, SC team, the location read, secure. You have
one hour and 30 minutes.
Wow. Perfect template, great. Yeah, and they say even with the
guitar, strum.
Oh, right. Maybe
I'll include this at my playlist when I start DJing for $10,000 a
pop.
That could be the Here comes the bride.
DJ, Redmond
is coming. Seriously, yeah, what's DJ? What does he want to
play? Well,
I'm only doing 50 shows a year with Aldi. I got six months to
go do weddings,
50 or 60 shows with Gary. So maybe, maybe that we could do
the tag team. Yeah, dude,
if you can sell $10,000 DJ wedding, I'll, I'll be your
assistant to help you set up. Okay, and I'll
only charge you $1,000 I'm telling you, this is what these
guys are getting paid, dude, if you can make it happen, I'm
serious, I'll help you with that. Nice. Yeah, I'll set
everything up, and you just show up and I'll be a roadie. Oh,
you're gonna be my the John Hall of my DJ equipment. All right, I
can totally do that. It's amazing. That's amazing. So, you
know what? You don't have to worry about the the drumming
question, because it's the whole thing, it's like so they have to
be, they have to be affable, they have to be able to take
direction. They have to have good time. They have to know the
material, like all that stuff, yeah. And they mostly have to be
a great hang. All these dudes are cool dudes. They're all
great, all great guys. It's that hang comes back to be the best
musician in the world. If you can't, you can't live on that
bus. Yeah, you can't get along. What
does that mean? You can't get if you just know, just, you know,
how do you define that? And how do you train somebody to be a
quote, good hang. Is it just instinct? Is it just it can be
taught, you know? Well, what
some of the things are like,
Well, you've been with Tony and Kurt all these years together.
It's
like a shared space, right? So everyone's like, you know,
everyone has to, like, share the space, and someone's got to put
their butts somewhere. And then, you know, you, you throw your
trash away, you wipe the counter, you know, you lift the
lid, you take your shoes and you put them next to your bunker,
under the bunk. We don't, we don't do any of that, yeah?
Really, just kind of like being tidy, you know? Yeah, it's just,
I'm trying to think of the best way to say
it. But every every band has its own culture. Every tour bus has
its own culture.
Oh, absolutely, every business has its own culture. The biggest
thing is, I speak on,
did you guys ever have to hire someone that he's just, like,
No, this ain't gonna work. There's
when we are trying to find
the jack character, Jack size, more, yeah, we went through many
people, yeah,
yeah, yeah. It's just, it's just, and sometimes, a lot of
times you make a mistake, like, there's a lot of good people out
there that we've had and just different guys are like, No, I
don't think it's going to work out. And we just, you
know, but, but Jack was familiar with you guys, especially the
core, because of Amy Daly and stuff like
that. I met Jack in 1998 because I played with his wife, Amy
dahli, and then I also saw Jack with House of dreams on RCA with
Tom Hurst on drums, and Britain Cameron singing. Tom played with
us for a short while, right? Oh, yeah. Tom
played with us. Yeah. Well, if you ever need another guy, man,
I'm coming out of hiding. I'm,
yeah, that's right. I'm bad. I feel bad that I didn't mention
Tom Hurst.
Oh, Tom's a great mention. Jim McCarthy, either
Jim, you're so busy you can't, you can't be gone. 150 days
a year is how much you guys are playing. If you
do 50 shows, you might be gone as much as 120 days or something
with travel.
Well, my, my, I'm here to replace you. Okay.
Oh, you got a hick down? Down, yeah, he's got it. He learned
kick down. Oh, yeah. Jim can play naturally by feel like so
many things I can
remember. I only I memorized by hearing, yeah,
how many songs are you guys doing in that's pretty much me?
Well, I can chart, but I but it's mostly from
you have to memorize to, just like I do. Yeah, I'm a I'm an
audible, uh.
What's that? An audible
learner? Yeah? So, yeah, right, even when I memorized an entire
George Carlin bit and passed off as a college project one time,
wow. Love George, yeah. I mean the nuances, the inflections,
the tempos, everything. When I started selling cars with
Mercurio, yeah, they wanted, you know, it was one thing to sell
the car. You had to then convert to selling all the other stuff,
the mop and slop, the extended warranty, all that stuff. And I
didn't know how to really frame all that stuff. So I put my
phone in front of Mike, and I said, Give me your spiel. And he
sold, like, four products. I recorded it. I listened to it
over and over.
I didn't know that Mike was selling cars before he got into
the Yeah, financial I met a racket. Oh, okay,
yeah. He was one of the people that was nice to me in the
business.
Jim has done a lot of things over there. I see that. Yeah.
What year did you move here? Oh,
five. I was in radio from 97 to 13, which is how well you and I
met via MySpace because you wanted a voiceover lessons. Yep,
we never well, I've coached you in voiceover. I've never given
you a lesson.
No, I've never taken a lesson. I just tell him, Hey, I got a job.
And then he introduces me. I coach him. Yeah, he'll be like,
go up on inflection.
Mainly, it's, it's Oh, for Christ's sake, rich, what? Just
say it like this, yeah,
yeah, yeah. And I'll do Oh, and then I'll give him portion of my
profits. And then I go, Oh, God,
amazing. They're actually paying you for this. You're
getting on the bus tonight. Getting on the bus
tonight. Yeah, yeah, going to Georgia. I think we're in
Georgia. Tifton. Tifton, Florida. Georgia Line. Jelly
Roll in Florida. Nice fort. Lauderdale, oh, that's
gonna be crazy. Talk about a drummer, my goodness. Cody ash.
He's great.
Yeah, you did an interview with him. Didn't, yeah, I think so,
yeah, yeah. I regret missing
that one, because that was one of the that was probably the
ones I had to, I had something that popped up, and you made it
a, just a, you a solo,
yeah? So zoom, zoom, via zoom. We like this in person thing.
It's just neat, because we'd smell each other musk, you know,
we could really, it's great. Yeah, you got three cameras
going, right? It's an amazing thing. So how many dates this
year, buddy?
I think, I think we usually do about 65 Yeah, that's a
comfortable thing for Gary. 65 ish, yeah, yeah. You
know, I'm good for that. Yeah, you know, quarter million
dollars a year tell Larry,
which is tell Larry,
dude, say hi to Larry for me. And you know what, Jim and I,
we've got a date. Saturday night. We're going to the
mission cigars fifth anniversary party
where I went with you. Mission, yes. Mission cigar, I wish
you were there. I wish you were coming. We
need to invite our friend Luis. Last
time I went to you know Luis Espaillat, I've never met him.
Oh my god, I've never met him.
He's like, you have to meet Brian, all
of our bass players here. He lives in
West Nashville, yeah, okay, okay. He's gonna drive out here
and smoke scars. He came out
and hung out with my wife and I Okay, because he came into the
room when, before we interviewed him, and we kind of looked at
each other. He was he might have been earlier. Maybe we were
running late, yes, but I looked right at him. Michael, stare
toes, yeah, yeah. I instantly like them. Same thing with you.
I mean, it's like, oddly for the bass players,
you know, it's really great, is it? Well, air drum, everybody
that is in my life
is a good person. Everybody in
my life is a wonderful person. Oh, for the most part, you know
what? I mean, everybody that's getting invited on this show is
a wonderful person, because if you're not, you
ain't getting on the present company.
Amazing. Hey, what's your favorite color? Favorite color?
Yeah, oh, probably green. Oh, my gosh, breaking the street. Nice.
A nice
yeah, we had a lot of blue, like, well, I'm wearing blue. We
only 20 blues. No, that's nice. That's a nice, deep, uh, indigo
blue, which is sexy. What about food? Which are you and I have a
lot of tacos together. But what's your favorite, uh, food
or dish?
I'm a big seafood I'm from the lobster capital of the world,
lobster roll, man, yeah, I'm a big seafood guy. Scallops. Love
it. Fried clams. I love fried clams now. Um, lobster, lobster.
Yeah, it's funny, because when I was born in Haverhill, I had the
accent because I was born there, and I went to school up to grade
two, and when I moved back, when I moved to Canada, I got teased
because I was saying cat, and my father and stuff like that, back
to cat. And I finally lost that, and I come here and they're
making fun of me for saying, Sorry,
sorry. How Canadians get anything done? Because all you
do is apologize. I was here
for like two weeks. I was at Kroger on in Antioch. I had to
get stamps or something like that. The girl said I got a
glove for a second. I think she had these bathroom or something.
I'd be right. Actually put the be back in five minute sign. Now
there's a lineup forming behind me, and there was an older lady,
three or four people back, and she goes, is anybody here? And I
said, Oh, she she was. She just had to go out and vote for a
second. And she goes,
you're Canadian. You're one of those. I'm already Canadians.
And I'm like, Are You Psychic? Or I had no idea. Like, hey,
you know what? I gotta go. I I'm going back to drumeo, which is,
um, I forget which province is very west.
I believe that might be West. I know that you've been the
Sabian, which is a very right. That's my that's my province
over
on that. So anyways, I gotta go back to drumeo for the first
time in seven years. Do Canadians hate us right now or
museum? I can have a hard time getting in getting out. I mean,
you're
gonna pull me in that you're gonna pull me in that debate. We
don't get political here.
Oh, sorry, that's right, that's right. No politics. But anyways,
I hope I can get in and out quickly. But you know, I'm going
for work, which is, should be a problem, and they're gonna give
me
all the relevant paperwork. Just say, just say, you know me,
yeah, that's what I did. You guys know the Arsenal family,
yeah, yeah. Biffa, yeah.
Just, just, you know, say, really rounded out words, hey.
So I haven't asked this in some time, and it could stumble. You
could stumble on it. If you stumble, no problem, we'll move,
move on. But what's your favorite song of the moment or
all time. What's something that you will continually visit song
wise? Um, it's
not looking good, Jim. So it's a tough question. What do you
think? What do you think I'm gonna say?
I mean, I'm I didn't get around to asking you your favorite
bands, so I would probably no
rush. Are you gonna say rush? Yeah, I'd have to say April, if
it was a song, April. Ryan grape, Barenaked Ladies. Great.
Another Yeah. Saw them in their first year.
Big Bang Theory theme.
That's not true. Barenaked Ladies, though. I'm gonna
stick Canadian. I'm gonna go with the band. The weight.
Oh, wow. That is incredible. If
I'm driving, that song comes on. That's cranking. Robbie
Robertson, yeah, take a load of
dude. Incredible. Now, what's your favorite film of all time,
or of the moment?
I like, geez, I like comedies. I love action. But if you said
favorite film. There's a film that I really like that. I
There's a film called, have you seen green book?
Oh, yeah, but the upright bass player with this upright bass
player, but Sebastian Maniscalco in it? Yes, he
has a small part in it. Yeah, it's about. It's about. It's
actually true, based on true stories. Of course, Courtney's
mother knew the guy. That's a nice film, really small world.
It's, it's a tugs at your heartstrings and great, great,
great movie, great message about it, and everything. That's
credible movie. But I love being tugged on my heart string. But I
love action, you know, like, I like the Jason Bourne series
totally. I love comedies. I like any
kind of Jason, stay them.
Stay them. I Jason Statham. They're kind of all the same
movie,
they are. But, I mean, he just so good at doing, you know what
to expect?
Yeah, I'm a regular guy.
He's kind of like the John Wick stuff. I like the first one, but
then
I like the first one, yeah, but then it got gratuitously
violent. I'm
a regular guy. You have a past, and I used to be really, you
know, into fighting and guns, and I just want to be left alone
and keep my bees. Is that the Christopher Walken? That's Jason
Statham. Oh, that state of me doing that. I don't know why he
sounds like this.
That's actually a horrible impersonation, but there's a
cross between Trump and walking. I think he
definitely is walking. Okay, so those are great. So your colors.
You got your green, you got your What did you say for food?
Because it's seafood, fried clams. Dude that in Nashville,
good clam chowder. Doing good you gotta,
you gotta be up New England or up north, anything north. His
name is like Chinese. I love Chinese food, but the more north
you go, I don't know. Why
did I say drink. I think I know it's
good little bourbon. Where do we start? Yeah, good. What he
brought I like, well, I like bourbon and like what? I like
Scotch in the wintertime, yeah.
Oh, you said scotch. You said scotch, yeah. So Brian, it was
so sweet. He bought us a couple bottles of basil Hayden. They're
up there on the shelf, right there.
Yeah. So, getting back to chowder. Real quick. Chowder,
chowder. The last time my I had some New England Clam Chowder,
believe it or not, which was amazing, Grand Central Terminal,
really? Yeah. Oh yeah. You
were telling me about that. Yeah. You know, I think a Grand
Central I think about the old joke about, hey, I'm gonna make
you clean the toilets at Grand Central. You know what I mean?
Or probably in the 70s when it was awful. Yeah, it's very
bougie, right?
Is it bougie? Now, nice. We were
there, uh, February of last year, and it was Courtney. Had a
lobster roll and I had, yeah, it was like, just how I remember it
straight climb chatter, yep. I think the last climb chowder I
have was probably in the Portland Maine airport, or
something like that.
I just right, yeah. But did you get, is it good pizza in Boston?
Yeah, I love the that's
my favorite pizza in Boston. Really,
I don't know why. Why is it kind of like New York style with a
thin slicers? Yes.
Okay, yes. And I just don't know what it is, and I can't find
anywhere here that duplicates it. Hey,
New York pizza. You can't find New York. I mean, Nellies and
Joey's, when they first opened, Nellies very first opened it,
not so much. Now they've changed it. Frankie's is good. Where's
frank it's next to Home Depot. It's like, just on the other
side of where Nellies is. We got to go to Frankie. Okay, yeah,
okay. Sal's isn't bad. Salvos here,
yeah, because we have two or three sales locations in
Nashville. But out here the salvo we've got salvos, which, I
think it's the same company
in the same Plaza as the mission.
What's the place downtown that closed last year that everybody
was going to?
Oh, Joey's. Joey's closed. They used to closed up shop, and,
believe it or not, they hung a sign on the door. Didn't tell
anybody that they were doing. They just wanted to. They were
just done. You know, they put a sign on the door, and, like,
everybody was pissed, like, to the point where the news
channels came out. Thank you for 20 years pretty much. Yeah,
we're done. But now they have a place out in Murfreesboro. Oh,
I'm gonna screw it up. Emerald, it's like, the Maka Bella, it's
like, it's an event space, yeah. And they actually will cater
nice Joey's house of pizza, really? Yeah? Okay, I had that
family on my podcast, those Macca family.
Oh, did you really, yeah? I only great people. I went there once,
maybe twice, and they said, Well, wait, we go in there. And
it was just like, it's
entertaining, entertaining. It's entertainment because, I mean,
literally, the mom will be taking the orders. Crescenza,
yeah. And the daughter is, you know, like, Paul the second,
fourth, unbelievable. And like, you know, the you come in, like,
what'd you get out on here? Hey, honey, what do you want? What
would you like? Oh, yeah, it's alive. You remember going there
in Brentwood. It's got a lot of character. Remember? Yeah, you
gotta take your pills and we go get some pizza.
Yeah, gotta take my lactates. I keep that lab in business.
Buddy, tell you what you got any food allergies? Are you just
great? You got an Iron Stomach?
No. Allen, no, not. That's great. You know what? My
allergies were bad when I was in Canada, when I moved down here,
yeah, they all went away, nice someone, someone told me, they
said, Give that a little while. And I said, whatever. And about
four or five years later, it's not as bad as it used to be, but
a little bit came back. So I think, I think May and November,
my May is my worst month. Itchy eyes. Oh yeah, guys, make great.
What is the Who are your favorite bait? Like, what got
you to pick up the bass? Who are your favorite bass players?
I remember the first time. You know what? I remember the first
time I picked up the bass, buddy of mine. We were just teenagers,
got a call to go audition for this little country band, just a
female singer and her drummer buddy, and He, God love him. He
didn't know how to play that. He was great guitar player. He
really didn't know how to play bass. But he said, Will you go
over with me? Says, I'm gonna try this out. Sure. So I went
over there and he should I wish I had this base. To this day,
she had a base. It was like a Sears thing, stranger, like two
to three inches off the neck. And when I had learned a guitar,
I learned I didn't like playing with a pick. I always played
with my fingers, finger style, but I would listen to the
country tunes, and I'd pick up a little bit of the bass lines,
you know, just simple stuff. Anyway, he as my friend I say,
long story short, and my friend Glenn Cunningham would say,
You're too late. So Steve tried to play bass. He auditioned for
this gig, whatever. And there's like, he's he stopped. He said,
this, this is not going well. He says, I can't do this. And she's
like, she's all cool, whatever. So we're leaving. And he sees
this, 1950s Les Paul, original Les Paul in the corner. And he
goes, whose is that? She says, My dad got me that for my
birthday a few years ago. I really never played. He goes,
Can I try it? Because Go ahead. So he picks it up. He gets the
guitar. She goes, I was going to hire guitar player anyway. She
goes, I didn't know you can play guitar. And she looks at me. She
goes, Do you play bass? And I said, not really, but I'll try
it. So I picked it up and I played root, just root fifth,
and just those little pickup lines. We started the band right
then and there. Nice the next day, we were all excited. Just
teenagers, we go in the next day to learn 30 or 40 songs just to
make a set. And didn't I find the we had the recorder play
recording those old tapes, we hit play and record. And didn't
I find that tape in my attic? Oh, my God, you gotta use that
to a digital format. It already is, yeah, that's incredible,
yeah. So it's comical, you know, yes, yeah. But anyway, yeah. As
time went on, I started listening to, oh, well, I was
getting into rock a little bit, you know, being in Canada, I saw
all the Canadian bands. Yeah, they all came to the Coliseum
down the street. I remember going to see the lover boy, and
they had this opening act. We never really paid attention the
opening acts. Never knew the names. So we were there. I'm
just three, three deep at the front row with my friends,
whatever. You know. And we're waiting for this opening act,
the band comes out, and they're jamming. I'm like, where's the
singer? And all of a sudden this guy comes through us, pushing us
like we're thinking, he's trying to get to the front of the
stage, like he's trying to get to the stage. He was trying to
get to the stage. There's a young guy named Brian Adams, 18
or whatever. He got up there, and he blew us away, still doing
it, still doing it, still singing the same key, but he got
up there. So lover boy, stop trying. From their heyday when
they had laser light shows was, yeah, I've never saw rush. Never
saw rush living. How can you be a bass player? I know never saw
rush. I did go see I did go see him. Get it. Oh, he's right,
yeah, he's right. But I did go see giddy Lee was doing a book
signing a couple years ago downtown, at that basement. So I
thought I bought the book, this beautiful book of all these
bases he's collected. And I went down there because he was going
to sign, he's going to do a little speaking thing, whatever,
and he was going to sign the books. So I go down there not
thinking to myself, what's, what's the new base? The big
one, that's the base, basement east. That's east, right, yeah,
what's the original one? Called just the basement of the
basement? Yep, just the base. And then Grimes was upstairs.
Okay, so I go to the basement East. I when I had to park like,
10 blocks away, I thought, Uh oh, this is probably going to be
packed. This place was super packed. And then he gets up
there to do a little bit of a question and answer with two of
his producers, or whatever, and then they started asking
questions. And it reminded me of, did you ever see the SNL
skit where William Shatner comes out to the it's all the Star
Trek nerds, whatever,
and they're asking guys, you need to move on. Have you ever
kissed a girl so
so these people are saying, the one lady, God love her. She gets
up, she goes. So my 12 year old son is learning to play the
bass. Do you have any any advice for him? And, you know, get his
like this with his, get the glasses. Dad's like practice.
He's just, he couldn't have been any more enthused that now that
night, anyway, he he goes to sign the books, and they start a
lineup, and I'm way at the back because I didn't want to be up.
I'm way at the back wall, yeah. And I thought this is probably
going to take an hour, four hours later, oh my gosh. I like,
I wanted to get that book sign. That's what I was there for,
like, so I go up there. I finally get up there, he's like,
What do you want? Cat? Can imagine how tired he is just
signing these books. Yeah. And I said, Hey, Gideon from, I'm from
Moncton, New Brunswick. I said, big, big, big fan, whatever. And
he's just and he's writing and he's writing and he's writing,
and I'm thinking, He's man, he's writing a book for me, whatever.
And it passes the book back over. Says, Thank you, whatever.
And I'm scooted out whatever. I walk all the way back to my car,
10 blocks, where I get in there, I open this up to read it, and
it says, Thanks, Brian. No way. That's all. It's wanted to
keep making it look like you, I don't know. Yeah, thanks, Brian.
He's
kind of a jokester, but I mean, four hours of signing books, Oh,
I get it torture. Oh, absolutely,
did he hide it? He made it look like he was writing all this
stuff. And then he just, I
couldn't see that, like where he was. I just could see that his
hand was going like this. I thought he's writing a book
there, or whatever. And then it was, I should have brought the
book to show you. It just says thanks. Brian had a little
smiley face. That's amazing. And then they used to play less than
a mile down from where I grew up, at a was a French college
down there. They played the what they had the first drummer,
John. John was
the first drummer, working man, rutsy, run, see,
he went on. He went
on, he went to be a bodybuilder. Oh, really, yes, like Joe Pisco.
Oh, really. And, you know, but it's funny. It's like, does he
kick himself for not seeing it through the Pete Best? Would
they have been? Would they have been as big without Neil? I
doubt it. Oh,
I doubt it. I always tease. Hilarious. I'm more of a ROTC
guy. Does Larry? Oh yeah, I think that's what he first. I
could be wrong, but I think Larry's bacon, like, like, one
of my favorite bass players is Jimmy Johnson, and plays with
Lee Sklar, plays with James Taylor, yeah, and I had no idea,
because I don't follow the music. Larry falls, but Fleming
the BBs, I think is okay. And the James is cool. And so he
introduced me to that when I told him I like Jimmy Johnson,
and Larry listens to a lot of that stuff. Yeah, yeah. He'll be
on the plane. What are you writing? Charting out some drum
thing, and there's no white left on the paper. It's just all
black, all black.
That's amazing. I got, we have to get Larry on the show. I
mean, you have to, oh my God, he's just such a well, he's just
such a good drummer. Can
I? Can I be on two at the same time? I'll just sit there and
not say a word, sit right there. Yeah, they got the third chair.
I'll be right there. Yeah. Well, because he's shy, he's super shy
bringing up. I'll bring two or three more of those bottles.
He's, he's super shy. I'll make it even better. I'll play. Air
drums.
Have him sing it, and then you play the air drums. You guys
must have a super fun bus. But hey, I was gonna tell you
tomorrow. I got a tracking day over at my friend Tony Morris.
You know Tony was on the show. He's the first guy in Nashville
to float the floors and put a studio in his garage. It sounds
like the power station in New York. It's incredible. So I'm
doing four tracks for a singer songwriter, kind of a rock, rock
and roll kind of a thing. Lee Sklar is gonna play big. Get out
of here? Yeah, he's here tomorrow. No, he lives in
Pasadena, so my I'll be tracking in Franklin. Then we'll take my
drumming and turn it into little ones and zeros and send it over
the internet. Waves.
You asked me a favor. Lee was my first inspiration, right?
Lee was the stuff on Carole King's tapestry, anything
he's done, like running on empty by Jackson Browne is like one of
my top five albums, and he's just anything he does. I got to
meet him briefly. He was playing nice as God. He was doing a show
with Harry Shearer's wife, forgetting her name, right?
Harry Shearer, Harry Shearer's wife, yeah, final tap, right?
Yeah. She's a great piano player. And he was just, it's
just the two of them. Just the two. I need some drums. Yeah,
that's one of my favorites. But yeah, he played there. He's so
smooth. And then when Jimmy Johnson took over his spot, and
James Taylor is just, just the bands with Steve Gadd. And I
remember going to see James Taylor at TPACK, and I didn't
know who the drummer was. I'm like, Who's this guy? I was
expecting. Steve Jordan had been filling in for a while, and I
thought Jordan was going to be there, or this is what James
Taylor, or gad Yeah. And I was like, Who's that guy? I didn't
know it was Keith Carlock, yeah. And I had no idea who he was. I
went to school with Keith. I knew he would change. He killed
it. He killed it that night. Killed it.
He lives in Franklin, Tennessee. I never see him, Keith, what's
up? We keep I've asked him to be on the show. He's and I got him
at a particular time when he was, like, taking a break from
media right now. I'm like, That's mad respect, man. Wow.
You know, you know me. If somebody asked me to be on a
podcast, I'm like, when you know, yeah, yeah. Well, that
being said, rich, can I get you on my podcast? Oh, I was my
third appearance, right
second. So I make sure that the angle is good. Last time it was
bad, I looked like I I looked like I had eaten, you know, 12
pizzas.
That's exactly what I was thinking. You're
not gonna get chance rich looks so
freaking fast
this angle. Oh, my God. Hey. So
when I asked for a little, just some bullet points on you,
you're like, ain't no Wiki on me. You're so funny. But if,
what if somebody wants to like a Wikipedia. What if somebody
wants to get in touch with you? What's the best way?
I'm very private, nobody. I love that about
I still have my my so I never got rid of the social media
pages because, like, I thought, if I get rid of Facebook, I
think a lot of people still get a hold you through messenger,
like they sure do. They don't know how well. So I kept
Facebook for that nice I still have my Instagram account, but
then I get on there in time. Are you a
is it a quirky name, like Brian plays bass, or is it just, I
think
it's BFA?
I don't even know you know that terrible. So
you know what'll happen if you type in your name into the
Google Nader, Brian Arsenault base, all your social pages will
come up. Oh, really,
I actually did that, yeah, and it's kind of cool. What's it
say, Jessica? Because one of the pictures you look like Chris
Evans,
who's that? I'll bitch. It's cool. Marvel, yeah, capital
America,
I know why you got the PAM job. Why? And not only a great bass
player, great hang but she probably thought you were
handsome, so
she was the high cheek bones man. She's cute. Yeah,
we got some good stories on those days, but probably can't
tell them. James Lana, oh yeah, chicken, you know, there's
there. Can I tell one good please.
Was she a nice person?
Pam is a new nice boss, and she knew what she wanted, and she
would not stop until she got
why can't we get? Well, let's get her on. That's such a big
part of your history. Yeah,
yeah, I want to be there again. Yeah. Now we were, we were doing
a gig with Pam. We were going to California. Yeah, we were at the
National Airport, and it was busy that day, and me, and me
and Richard, just two young guys, just all excited. We're
sitting there with our backs of the window, like waiting for the
plane, whatever busy. And James Pennebaker, our tour manager, he
was, he had his briefcase, and he had to go to the bathroom.
And he goes, Hey guys, watch my briefcase. I gotta go to the
bathroom. You see where this is going. Watch my briefcase. We're
going to the bathroom. And so me and rich, we board the plane,
we're sitting together, we're still partying and stuff. We're
just being crazy, and we're like, where is James?
Everybody's on the plane, and here he comes. He's coming down
the aisle, and he's just glaring at us. And Rich is looking at
me, going, what's wrong? What's wrong with him? But why was he
looking at us like that? And he comes up to us, and. Course.
We'd left his briefcase sitting there in the airport, and he had
all the all
the money, all the cash, tons of cash. We just left it there. We
just left his briefcase full of money, his laptop, everything
just sitting there.
Could tell you the time we're in Seattle and rich ordered the all
you could eat sushi for the table. And everybody said, Who
ordered all that? And because it was like, what you don't eat,
you have to pay for you have to pay for us what the sign said.
So it was Lana and James and me. I didn't even eat sushi at the
time, and Lana and James said, I'm not paying for that. And
Rich, I mean, there must have been
25 rolls there
Rich. Rich started eating and
eating and eating. He started hiding stuff under ashtrays, in
flower pots, everything. And the guy is amazing. The girl came
over and said, and you said, Ma'am, there's still half. You
said, she looks at him, he looks at her and says, I just, I
didn't know about the sizes. I just, I just can't eat all this
stuff. She goes, Oh, we just put that up there. She goes, You
don't pay for that.
Are you serious? But that's the thing, is that you didn't.
They're talking about the stuff that's still left in the, you
know, the sneeze guard area. Oh, maybe, okay, that's a joke. You
didn't, you didn't get that what he was purple. If you, if you,
you order all you can eat, you you're gonna pay for what you
don't eat. So that's all. It's a joke. It's like, Haha, because
it's all left in a buffet.
You, I thought it was, they were serious. You were purple. You
were you were turning purple and blue,
not green.
Oh, there was a game. It was a day off. It was a day
it was a day off. Yeah, I can eat like that. Before a show, I
started eating sushi. After that, I had a few pieces,
yeah, after that, was introduced to mercury poisoning, I
could not decide what to eat today. It was like I I did my
fast, and then I was today, I was ready to eat, so I drove by
brugers. I drove by Pete sushi. I couldn't decide, do I want
sushi? Do I want eggs on a bagel? I ended up with third
watch with, like, eating a bunch of eggs and first watches.
What's that? First watch? Third Watch, first watch, first watch.
Third Watch is a television show. Sorry, it's a it's a
police procedural. Is it third one? Okay? I think that's so
funny. I can't remember third or fourth, third or first even say
second watch, the third watch is a television show. Is it? It was
like, about 15 years ago, okay? It was like, the life of a
police
officer is Los Angeles. We haven't even been on a second
glass.
Well, you know what? I know? Okay, so everybody you know look
up Brian Arsenal on the internet. It's a r, s, e n, a,
U, L, T. I love reminiscing down the memory. Congratulations on
all your success. I'm super happy for you. You're a bass
player. That is a homeowner. You and I can go smoke cigars at the
mission. We have a great time. Jim wasn't this fun. It was.
It's not. It's fun catching up with an old friend and then just
being happy for their success. I mean, this is a tough business
man,
when I get the job as their drummer,
Jim is out there. He's doing, but he just doesn't have the
time family claiming. Man, huh? I name it and claim it. Well, he
does, yeah, that's how he got this, Huey. That's Huey. It's
what you got to do. I met
the guy from the Huey band, and I said, I'm going to be your
drummer. Just accept it now. Yeah, which Resistance is
futile? Which guy was that? Well, he was, he's, I mean,
these are guys that, you know, have day jobs and stuff like
that, the tribute band. So he owns a flooring company here
locally, but the band is based out of California, and his
brother is the Huey
Roger. Hey, maybe, maybe when I pull the carpets out of my
house, I could hire him to do the floors. Yeah, you
Ben that you're playing with is based out of California, yeah.
Oh, wow. And they
play all over the country. They've got different, you know,
segments of musicians in parts of the country. Life's gonna be
the Spring Hill drummer. My brother is gonna be playing with
them as well.
Yeah, amazing, yeah, I think
huey's guitar player. Son lives next to our steel player. Up in
Hendersonville. There
is somebody,
maybe no one of the guys when they played the Franklin
theater. Sean the keyboard player, yeah. Sean, that guy,
yeah. He was at the show. Huey's keyboard player,
okay, well, Jim, we're just happy you have this outlet, man,
because you work so hard. You know, 20 podcasts. Yeah, it's a
lot going on. Brian, thanks buddy. Yeah, I appreciate you.
Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate the thing. Oh, it's
so exciting. People are looking at the list of who you're a
great storyteller. You know, I've got more. You got more. I
love it. He's a great story. Jim, thanks for your time and
tell us and to all the listeners, we sure do appreciate
it. Be sure to subscribe, share, rate and review. And so many of
you have been going to Apple podcasts and leaving us a five
star rating and leaving us a nice review. So thank you. We do
appreciate it, and we'll see you next time. Thanks. Brian, thank
you. Thanks, Jim,
this has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe, rate and follow
along@richreadman.com
forward slash, podcasts you.