November 12, 2025 • 40 mins
Bradley Jay Fills In On NightSide
Music writer and journalist Jim Sullivan joined Bradley to talk about his new book, Backstage & Beyond: COMPLETE: 45 Years of Rock Chats and Rants. Jim has spent his career interviewing and talking to famous rock stars and musicians whose songs dominated the airwaves and music charts. He shared some of his wild and compelling stories with some of music's biggest rock stars over the years!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm telling you bes Boxton's Beach Radio Reading's good friends
and future good friends. It's night side with Dan Ray.
Bradley Jay and for Dan, and we're talking to Jim Sullivan,
rock writer who has had unbelievable experiences with many of
your favorite rockers, and he's sharing some of the stories.
And if you just joined us, let me reset. It's
(00:24):
quite simple. Jim had the good fortune to spend a
considerable time with Alice Cooper and even to golf, not once,
but twice, and I was wondering what it would be like.
I wandered out loud to Jim, what it would be
like to be teeing off? Because I know it's kind
of nerve wracking, the tea off in front of colleagues,
(00:46):
your boss, or maybe Alice Cooper, and you don't want
to embarrass yourself. And I asked Jim, hey, is it
intimidating to tea off and play golf with Alice Cooper?
And he said will yes? Of course he said yes no.
So now we're about to get in to the yes
and the no. Jim, let her rip.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
That's a great intro. Bradley intimidating in the sense that, well,
like you say, anytime you approach the team with people
you know and like you want to play a good game, right.
So with Alice there, Alis is pretty much a scratch
golfer and maybe I think it was a five handicap
when we played. I'm a bogey golfer, roughly maybe a
(01:29):
fifteen or sixteen handicap. Alice is going to be a
much better golfer than I am. That's fine. I want
to just hold my own right. And this I really
don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I happened
to have one of the better rounds of my life
the first we played nine each day. I shot a
forty the first day and a forty four the second
(01:50):
time we played. Alice shot the thirty eight the first time,
and I think he's shot the same thing a second time,
And you know, it was I was so happy that
I played as well as I did, And you know,
it was one of those things where I don't know
what kicked in muscle memory, something I don't know, but
it was just one of those good rounds. So the intimidation, really,
(02:13):
whatever might have been there to start kind of went
away because I was playing so well, so that was good.
The other thing, too, is Alice is a talker. I
mean he's telling stories almost time between shots. And he
knew or knows everybody. He talked about the comedy legends.
He knew Red Skelton, Victor Porge, talked about Jack Benny,
Jerry Lewis, he talked about on his radio from interviewing
(02:36):
Jerry Lee Lewis, who was one of the worst interviews
he had. He talked about Keith Moon, who was one
of the original Hollywood vampires, the drinking and drugging crew
out in la that included John Lennon and Ringo and
make He told want Harry Nilson and this is a
funny one a story Alice told about Keith Moon. Keith
(02:58):
was staying at Alice's Houserizona, but he'd yet to meet
Alice's wife, Cheryl. She comes home to find Moon wearing
a full maid's uniform, asking what she needed clean.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, you can do that when you're Keith Moon. I mean,
that's a very Keith you could do.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's better than something better than some of the other
costumes he chose over the course of his time, and
that was I mean just that kind of story is
just it was priceless. And me as a journalists writer,
I'm scribbling some of the stuff down as we're calling,
and you know, it's like my head is like hit
the right shot. Oh god, that's a funny story. I
(03:35):
got to write that down, and I don't know, it
was a good day. I managed to do both. And
I'm happy to let me ask you.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
This technical questions.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Say you're a social situation, you overhear a story, or
he tells you a story. Do you have to ask
him each time? Is that off? I mean, if there's
really no such thing as off the record in real life.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Now he knows I'm a journalist, and he's not telling
me anything that he wouldn't say on you know, officially
on the record. No, it's a l tree. That is
something that could be could be done. And actually one
of the guys who played with Dave Martin, who's a
member of a Positive Alice, is starting to tell the
story about Elvis and meeting Elvis, and as he started
(04:18):
the story, Dave flipped the video on and so he
got like about a ninety second take of Alice talking
about his time with Elvis and that was pretty fun too,
So it was a little bit performative. But hey, that's
that's you know, it's a good thing we were there
to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Now it's a good time to talk a little bit
about golf and my theory and maybe it's you're better
than I am. Now I guess how to survive playing
golf with your boss and the famous people and.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Not embarrass yourself. The trick is like I get a
high score, but I ay.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Number one thing, don't hold anybody up, don't look for you. Oh,
first off the tee, just hit it in the fairway, man,
Do not hit a driver, hit a three wood or
something just to get you in the fairway. Nobody cares
if it doesn't go far. But it always is a
bummer when it goes in the woods or hits a tree.
(05:15):
And so just get it out there a little bit.
And the other thing, never look.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
For your ball.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Just give up, you know, just give up. You just
don't want to hold them up. And practice a swing.
Get a good swing, so it's not a ridiculous swing.
It doesn't really matter your score. But if you look
okay and you get it and keep it in the fairway,
that's kind of all it takes, and at the end
of the thing, when Alice Cooper has an eighty eight
and Jim Sullivan has a ninety four and you have
(05:44):
one hundred and twenty, it's fine as long as you
made them laugh and stayed in the fairway. That's my theory.
And it's also golf is an inherently funny sport. It's
so funny if somebody whiffs it, if somebody hits a tree.
Everything about it is funny. And I have a feeling
that perhaps golf is one of the few places where
(06:06):
it's kind of okay to make fun of people, like
to force them ahead of you when they're you know,
when they're acting like buffoons.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That's also kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Thoughts Jim Well, I concur with most of that. I
guess the fun for me has to kind of coincide
with a decent score. I get, I get very down
on myself if I'm like in the mid or upper
nineties or something. I really want to be in the eighties,
and I'm I'm pretty frank about that. I mean, it's like,
(06:38):
all right, and didn't do what I'm intended to do
when I started out. Nevertheless, you know, as the cliche goes,
it's golf is a good walk spoiled and you're out there,
you're out in good weather, hopefully you're playing with friends,
people you like, and there's a lot of camaraderie that
comes with it, and that is that's a big part
of the game obviously. That is and the people I
(06:59):
play with. I mean, we're not really competing and we're
not paying for money or anything. We're just playing to
play well. And you want the people you're playing with
to play well. And you know, so we're all rooting
each other on you know.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So Okay, so that zaid after that diversion. Yeah, so
you guys have a couple more stories that we can
get to after this.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
On WBZ. Thanks, It's Night Side with Dan Ray on
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Back with rock writer Jim Sullivan sharing stories. Jim, you
know you have many interactions, but some stories are better
than others. Why don't we let you choose one situation
that has another great story, like the Alice Cooper story.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, here's one. Let's I'll do a Boston based thing. Here.
I'm gonna tell I'm going to give you a quote
and then let you see if you can guess who
said it about who this fella. He is a guitar player.
He was a teenager. He described himself as a dewey
I kid from out of town, from New Hampshire, and
(08:04):
he would go down and see this band. They would
start off as a three piece, and then another guy
would come on stage, and then another guy, and then
finally the singer. They had always said, such showmanship and dynamics. Man,
if you saw that band when they were in their prime,
you were spoiled. You probably expected that's how rock is. Well, No,
they're a cut above. They were like swine the family stone.
(08:25):
They knew how to take a whole arena and just
tear it up. They set the bar for rock and
roll as far as I was concerned. They could stand
toe to toe with any band in the world. Joe Perry,
that was Joe Perry. Who was he speaking about Harism?
He was speaking about the Jake Isles.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Oh you got me. I walked right into that. But
it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's fantastic. Well done, Jim, all right, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Oh that that's really that little anecdote. I mean, I
just love that. I mean, he was a kid, I mean, he's,
you know, much younger is he than the guys from
the Giles Band? Not that much younger, but enough so
that he was a fan coming down to see them.
And they were a band, the Giles Fans Band I
saw when I was a kid too, and Terry was
completely right. It was like they set this standard and
(09:14):
you go, my god, this is good and then you
see other bands that aren't as good and you realize
what you have in your midst in New England is
this terrific kind of house band called the Jay Giles Band,
which lives on with you know, and Peter Wolf with
what he does and his solo stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Wolf if you listen, and that's quite a tip of
the cab, that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Well that's I swear, Jim. I swear.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I used to work at Concord Hospital as an operating
room technician as I was seventeen eighteen, and we would
there was a school of nurses with eighty nurses. They're
all all alone, they're nobody to hang around with but me.
So we would go and see bands. And we went
to Senipee and I swear to God that there was
(09:57):
some band in this little club with not even not
even stage, maybe like a one.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Foot rise of stage at a place.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
It wasn't the tune in, but it had some kind
of weird name like that.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
The dud drop in, And I swear it was Arowsmith.
It might have been I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Gonna I'm gonna just assume that's the case, and I
hope that was an early Aerosmith and they were good.
Now you you talked to David Bowie at some length
a number of times, and you talked to Angela and
got kind of a conflicting or a different viewpoint. That's
that's a pretty interesting dynamic to share from most two sides.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, well, yeah, Angela Angie Bowie, his ex who royally
or wrongly claims a lot of credit for the Ziggy
Stars period, the costuming and the attitude and all of that.
She had written a book about David, not very complimentary,
and kind of went into his massive drug abuse problems
back in the day. So that's part of the Bowie chapter,
(11:00):
you know. And I, you know, I had dinner with
her and wrote a story about her and thought, well,
this included in the Bowie chapter because it is part
of his world. Even if she was sort of an
antagonist at that point. Bowie himself just man, gracious, incredibly intelligent,
(11:20):
and this is one thing I really liked. I mean,
when we talked, he didn't have an agenda per se. Yeah,
sure he was promoting a show or an album. I mean,
that's kind of implicit in doing these things. But he
was very willing to follow a question that maybe didn't
pertain to that, or a tangent or even I remember
(11:41):
talking to him about this cartoon that had been done
in the Nameless Rock Press that had Bowie as this
vampire circling a hip rock club scene, trying to pick
up on the latest trends so he could incorporate them
into his music. And he just loved it. He said, well,
you know, that's kind of accurate. That is what I do.
(12:01):
I am a bit of a vampire that way.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
He never denied that.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
No, I mean a lot of stuff exactly. I mean,
you know, the professionals with an amateur's borrow professional steel,
and you know, I mean he was so proud about that.
But he was such a sponge for so many different
kinds of music, and it confounded some of the sands
because he was, you know, from the Gland period, to
the Plastic Soul period as he called it, and and
(12:31):
and arward and then you know, forming Tin Machine and
doing uh, you know this this rock that kind of
moved in the nine inch Nails direction and at some point,
so you know, and the man had an incredibly expansive career.
I was fortunate enough to talk with him at several
junctures of that career, and uh, you know, it's you know,
(12:52):
just his death was frankly devastating. I had just started
listening to the album Black Our album that he had
put out he died. I guess it was the day
after two days after it came out. And in listening
to the album, the songs are eerie, they're spooky, they're
kind of like, have him looking at death, it seems like.
(13:17):
And I'm hearing this the first time when he was
still alive, and then a day or two later the
same songs and listening to again, point, Oh my god,
is he really did he really predict his own death?
Is he really writing about what was going to happen?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yes, he knew, he knew, and he didn't share it
with anybody, but maybe Tony Visconti, his producer and another
player and like maybe one other person, and.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
It was very private.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, quite and uh.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
An accomplishment to make such a work of art, as
you know, and while you are dying, it's quite a thing.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And you know, actually just bringing that up Warren Zevon,
who just went into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously,
of course, seems sort of thing. He made his final
record The Wind after his cancer diagnosis, and he was
he was somebody I knew quite well, and he was
kind of coaxed through the record by Jorge Calderon, you know,
(14:13):
one of his his co writers over the many years,
and you know, kind of pushing him to go out
on a good note, which he did, and that, to
me is an amazing record. If he does a version
of Dylan's Knocking on Heaven's Door, it'll it'll just bring
you to tears, because you know, if anybody's knocking on
Heaven's door, if you believe this a heaven, well that
(14:35):
would be somebody singing it who is really almost there,
you know. And and the season if you haven't seen
the Rock and Noll Hall of Fame induction thing, I
guess it airs again January first on Network TV. It's
quite a moving tribute that Letterman does to him, and
it brought back just seeing the montage, I brought back
(14:56):
a lot of great memories for me too. I spent
a lot of time with Warrenthy over the years, and
you know with the final time that was two thousand
and two and two thousand and one, and you know,
it was just big hugs and you know, I don't
want to cheer up now, but you know, great, great time.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
A couple of things about Bowie. Earlier we heard about
a guy who was who who Inhales secondhand smoke from
Keith Richards Well, similar thing we did my boss Oedipus
and I at the time at w PC and went
into Bowie's limousine and went through the ashtrays and took
a cigarette butts, then went back to the station and
(15:37):
smoked one of them ceremoniously on the air so that
we might get some of Bowie's magic molecules into our bodies.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So it was kind of a similar thing.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And also there was David supplied me with one I
guess kind of the pinnacle of my attire rock career.
I think doing MCing at the Orphan but I believe
is tin.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Machine you know, it's a it's a big.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Deal to MC in a big place like that, And
so the lights go up and you go out and
your manly adrenaline Russian and you do a very brief
and you try to do professional intro and you ended
up with David Bowie and he comes bounding out and
I go bounding off and he he puts up his
hand for a high five, and he gives me a
(16:20):
high five in front of everybody. And it was a
good high five, not a miss. It was like bam.
And that was like pretty pretty much the pinnacle.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So I have a couple.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I was just gonna say, all downhill from there.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Absolute I have some questions.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
You're a pro interviewer. That's what you do.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It's what you've done for a long time. How about
giving us a couple of dues and don'ts when it
comes to you know, some something or two or three
that might help a rookie avoid embarrassment, give him a
head start, some dues and don'ts. I don't know if
you thought about that.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
But sure, I mean the most simple thing is through
your research, you know and don't I mean, try to
incorporate as much as of it as you can in
your head or wherever you're notepad, wherever you're doing it,
so you're you're there. You're at a level when you're
starting where the guy doesn't have to explain things to you,
(17:20):
so you're able to ask questions that make sense that
maybe he maybe certainly before, maybe he hasn't, but you're
immediately establishing that you've done your work. You're on par
with him in terms of I talked about this earlier,
in terms of you know, being a professional and doing
your job. The other thing I would say is, I mean,
(17:41):
don't be of sequist, don't be fawning, don't be starstruck.
Try to just consider it a conversation. It's a conversation
where obviously you want to draw things out of this person.
But if it's if it is more of a conversation,
and this is obviously kind of what you do too
broadway on the air. Is you're going back and forth.
(18:03):
You're not just throwing a question out and waiting for,
you know, a chunky paragraph of an answer. Perhaps you
may I mean, that may happen, and that's fine too,
but if you can give a little bit of your life,
your perspective and engage them in your thoughts. They will
play off that, or some of them will, maybe some
(18:24):
are too self possessed to do that. But I think
I've been pretty lucky and that when I've talked to
people in the things other than their lives their work,
they enjoy that. They enjoy going a little off topic
topic being them. And you know, I don't know exactly
how to develop that skill, and I'm happy that that's
(18:45):
part of my skill set, but I think it's an
important thing to do to be able to relate to
people who you know, have a level of fame that
may be shall we say, above your.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Own right and you meason not being fine and related
to that, does that end? What I was What I
was trying to do is put myself in their position.
They're traveling around, they have their particular hell they're living in.
When I would talk to them a lot of time,
it would be daytime, like you, they've been up on
nine maybe, they they didn't get much sleep, they eat
(19:19):
awful food. They're riding on a bus maybe, And if
you come at it and ask them about that daily life. Uh,
that was always a good starting place for me. And
agreed with what you said. About being prepared because then
you get respect from them.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
That's what you need to do.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
A good job. Yes, yes, yeh yeah. You want to
establish that you've done your work, and I think you're
treated with more respect if you show that, and that's
just you know, it's a good way to do, the
way to go in. One thing I wanted to mention
is just some of the people we were talking about
here and this just struck me when we were talking
(19:57):
about the Sevon Roy Orbison was one of my favorite singers,
the most operatic rock singer there ever was, and I
was fortunate enough to see him several times and interview him.
I actually ended up doing the last interview he ever did.
It was a phone interview from France. It was before
a week or so before he played the Channel Club.
(20:19):
He did two dates there in Boston, and it was
you know, I mean the fact that it was his
last interview. Obviously I didn't know that no one knew that,
no one knew he was he had a heart problem,
I don't think, but in retrospect, it was just sort
of astonishing to realize that these were kind of the
(20:39):
last published thoughts that he had, and the really sad
part is that he had just made this comeback record
hadn't been released yet. I had an advanced tape of
it was a terrific album, and he was so much
looking forward to working those songs into his set in
the next year. And the enthusiasm he had, and that's
(21:00):
sort of feeling of being reborn, you know. He carried
that with him and everyone I think around him has
the feeling that this is going to launch him once again.
And he died. And you know the interview that I did,
the chapter that's in the backstage from the on boat.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
You know, Jim, I help to go.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I'd love to stay a few minutes after just to
finish the story on the I hate to cut you off.
I don't unfulfilled like that, and I do want to
plug the book a little more so, maybe five minutes
after this break, just to give it a clean clothes
if you if you would do that, that'd be great.
Stubborn Bzy, It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w
(21:41):
B Boston's news radio. By these four hours are flying
by the night side with Dan Ray badly Jay for Dan,
We've been talking with Jim Sullivan, rock writer, a person
who's been in Boston. He's a Boston staple. He's been
here along with you for all these years. Any show
you were at, he's probably there. He's got a book
backstage Beyond Complete forty five years of Rock, Chance and Rinse.
(22:06):
Jim Sullivan is his name, and I'm so glad he
wrote the book because I was looking for something to read,
and it's such a pleasure to read a well written book.
It was such a pleasure to read Peter Wolfe's most
recent well most recently Peter Wolf's book, because it's also
well written. And Jim, just before the break, was talking
about Roy Orbison, and I didn't want to have to
(22:29):
have him curtail that meaningful story, So we'll just finish
that up and I'll I'll say thank you and say goodbye.
So take your time as much as you want.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Jim, well, it was kind of near in the end
of it. I mean, when I saw Roy play that
show at the Channel, it felt so good to hear
the voice coming out of that little o of a mouth.
He's smallest mouth, biggest sound, and the place was packed.
He did two nights, and it was again because of
(23:03):
having done the interview and knowing how optimistic he was
about the future. Even if he wasn't playing those songs
that night. He felt he couldn't because they did the
audience didn't know them. He felt it would be cheating
to play new songs that they didn't know. I mean,
you could disagree with that. I kind of did a
little bit. I wish he had, but you know, that
was his feeling, was that they had to be out
(23:24):
there in the public before he could perform it. And
so knowing that was to come, or thinking I knew
that was to come, that made that concert that I
saw where he played you know, all the hits that
you know that so responsible for, he wrote most of
them too. And just having that feeling of walking away
from that show and just feeling the warmth and the
(23:46):
love in that room from him and among the crowd
itself just one of the best feelings you can have
at a show, and that's probably a good way to
leave it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Thank you so much for your time, and thanks all
the time you spent writing a book. You know as
much as well as anyone. It's hard to write a book,
even when you were a good writer, it's very difficult.
So thank you for your efforts and let me assure
you that it is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I recommend it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
You can get it at Trouser Press, but you can
go to Amazon and get it. Probably not in the
bookstores because it's been out for a while, so you know,
no shame in going to Amazon. In this case, Backstation
Beyond complete forty five years of Rock Chance Chats rants
Jim Sullivan, including eleven new chapters. So thanks so much
(24:33):
for all your time. Oh and by the way, by
the way, I love you. Don't live that far away
from me. I don't know if you're a big walker,
but perhaps you and or your wife Rosa would like
to get out there and walk. Maybe they'll be safety
in numbers. We can stave off the e bikes together
and stay.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yes, that's something we share, isn't it. Yes, the fear
of getting hit by the e bikes. Yes, yes, what
would be all whole other night. I'm sure Bradley to
talk about that, but yes we can. We could do
a neighborhood walk and protect each other. Okay, thanks so much,
all right, thanks for having me, Bradley.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, well, what a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I must say that, as many of you know, if
you have a long, long term relationship with somebody, say
in your industry, whatever it might be, whether it's at
the ball bearing factory or at the country, whatever you do.
It's nice to look back and feel this bond, a
(25:33):
long time bond like Jim came.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Into town.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Or a little before I did, Man from down from Maine,
I believe, and you know, for decades, see each other
at shows, nod have a beer, chat on and on
and on. It's like some folks go to church. This
was kind of you know, some the community for many
(26:00):
where you see folks and is it church? But this,
these these clubs would be where we would see each
other and the whole community people from even when I
started out on college radio, Boston was and I don't
think it was you. I think I think it was
quite unique. I don't think it was a common thing
(26:21):
to have the college radio scene and the professional radio
scene so tight tightly knit together.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It's open lines. Now.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I'm going to continue to just chat about this, but
you can jump in with anything you want if you
want a garment on the yes, the end of the
government shutdown and how it turned out, if there's something
you wanted to chat about, or if you just wanted
to say Hi, that's cool, that's fine, six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty very chill. Or I can just talk whatever
(26:53):
you like. So I'm going to kind of continue talking
about you know, our world, Gym's world and my world.
And for many of you, your will because you like
to go to the rock shows. As I was saying,
it's wonderful to have these long term relationships. And let
me talk about the Boston scene a little bit and
(27:14):
how unique it was. Many of you were a part
of it.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Many of you were in it. Many of you were there.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
If you have any any observations or remembrances of particular
clubs and what it meant to you, what maybe the
music meant to you. But back to the tightly knit community,
and it involves a little bit of my history. Maybe
I should take this opportunity to give you a quick
(27:40):
rundown of my employment history. Grew up in New Hampshire.
First job breaking blueberries, which is hell low bush blueberries.
You got to rake them in the hot sun four
cents a pound, terrible. Hell knew I didn't want to
do that or do anything outside for a job. Next
(28:01):
job washing dishes. Compared to that blueberry raking, I loved
washing dishes. It was at that point I guess I
got my first car, nineteen sixty seven three speed Mustang
I'll rusted out. Cost seventy five dollars. Next job was
in the hospital, because they wanted to wash dishes in
the hospital, but there were no jobs. I happened to
(28:23):
know the daughter of the administrator of the hospital, and
everyone else's washing dishes in the hospital, and they having
a good time. And I was at this little restaurant
halfway out of town. I kept bugging them. They said,
you know, we don't have any dish washing jobs left,
but keep bugging us. We'll we'll find something for you.
(28:43):
When I say keep bugging us, I thought they meant
every day. So every day I called them up every day.
I thought that was what they meant. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Finally,
I guess they got so burned out they said, we're
going to create a job for you. We're going on
a We want to have somebody to detail the operating rooms.
(29:04):
They did an orderly who would sort of swab it
down on a daily basis, but they wanted somebody to
detail it in the cracks. No one had ever done it.
We're talking with the toothbrush, and I did that. I
won't go into the gory stuff I saw, but I
was very intrigued by the whole thing. And sometimes I
would see emergency operations and people assisting on them that
weren't doctors. They said, oh, we're operating room technicians. We
(29:28):
learned it in the service. And so when the when
the high school guidance counselors said what do you want
to do, I said, I want to be one of them.
I want to be an operating room technician. They never
heard of it. Six months later guidance counsel called me down.
You know what is there's some school unconquered that will
teach you how to do this. I signed up. There
only took six people. I got in, and when I
(29:52):
was seventeen, I went to school to be an operating
room technician. And I worked in the emergency room and
the operating room and saw some horrific things. Probably got
PTSD very stressful. Then one day I visited friends at
U and H and I didn't realize how cool college was.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Wow, this is easy.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
These people just sit around, they go to class speak
when they want study.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Some drink. Peer society thinks that's fine. Who knew? I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
My parents didn't tell me how cool college was. I said,
I want college, So I got in, went to college,
got on the radio. Then college got over and I
couldn't do the shows anymore. But I missed it, so
I used to hitchhike back up to the school while
I was working at TGI Fridays in Newbury Street once
(30:41):
a week. Actually, I took the bus up and hitchhiked
back every week from Durham, New Hampshire to Boston just
to do the show. Then somebody said, hey, you ought
to talk. I know this guy at Boston College ought
to talk to them.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
I did. I got on there.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
That led to a gig at a place called Wyan
and Lynn, and they used to have to take the
bus out there, do a show and then sleep overnight
on a black plastic, sweaty couch, take the first bus
back in the morning. Back then, everybody smoked by the
way on the bus. Everyone on the bus was smoking.
(31:18):
At that point, being on the college radio and on
the and on w l Yan which became FNX, you
were in the scene and in Boston. As I mentioned,
unlike other towns. The people at the big station WBC,
and they were also college DJs, and so when you
would go to a show, everyone was there. You kind
(31:42):
of knew them, they kind of knew you. You were
on the air in Boston, even if it was college.
I started sending tapes. Finally, after the fourth one, through
attrition and just persistence, I got a gig.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
I didn't get fired.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
They stayed there twenty eight years and then transition to talk,
which was a real challenge, and there were many doubters,
but not me. I didn't doubt it. And I and
there are other some other folks that had my back
and still have my back that I really appreciate it.
You know who you are, and here I am. That's
(32:21):
the short version, but you can see how folks like
our guest Jim fit in there. I'd never really shared
my early days with you, like working in the restaurants
and stuff, but I kind of I think that stuff's important.
I don't know if kids do it anymore, no idea.
(32:41):
I don't no idea. I'm not gonna bother to find out.
But those humble jobs really really make me appreciate everything, everything, everything,
and it's not a minute or a day that goes by.
Then I'm not thankful for the past and not thankful
(33:02):
for being able to sit here.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
And speak to you today.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
WBZ News Radio ten thirty, you're.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
On Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, all of a sudden, everyone calls at the end, folks.
May I recommend you'll have more time if you call
earlier on in the show. But on the other hand,
I'll take what I can get. It's nice to hear
from you. Maybe you weren't around then. First we have
Joline Jolene, Jolene Jolene from Beverly.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
How you doing, Joelene, I was.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Doing better before you started singing that all along. I
love Dolly Parton, but I wasn't crazy about that song.
But it's okay. I love your personality, Bradley, and I
like it when you're filling in for anybody. Morgan or Gan,
we're writing find you or hear you. When you were
(34:00):
talking earlier about AI, I believe it was. I am
just so caught up in this. I understand so little
about it. But the more they talk about probably getting
the term wrong. But giant AI or giga AI, the
(34:24):
super fast and overwhelming AI that could end humanity.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
You know, you know more about it than I do
in some ways. If you if you want to learn
more about it, you know what I recommend, and I
recommend this to everybody you do. YouTube will tell you
anything you need to know about anything.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
YouTube find out more.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Yes, I know, and I'm going to. There was somebody
the other night that was explaining it the best I've
heard so far, and my husband showed me how to
look up his podcast. So many podcasts on YouTube, and
I'm looking forward to saying that he was getting into
(35:12):
these two huge buildings in New York. I believe that
a lot of people, uh say it. One of them
was built by AT and T and they think it's
just something to do with them, But yeah, it's because
(35:39):
super speedy AI is going to need a lot of
energy and a lot of cold to do what it's
programmed to do. That they need these two huge, thirty
store and buildings that has nobody in them except just
(36:01):
air and cold.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Thank you very much. It's very interesting. I wish you
could call it a little bit earlier, but I really
appreciate the confidence and since you didn't have much time.
You can call either tomorrow night or the next night
when I'm on.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Thanks. I appreciate it and call a little earlier.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I just know that I'm not going to have time
to get to Rick tonight, so I don't want to
keep you waiting, but we'll go to Maria in New
York and finish up with Maria. Hi, Maria, Hi, Hey, Hey,
Maria Hi.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Thank you for taking my call. I'll make it quick.
I just want to thank you for all the years
at WBCN that you did. I'm sixty three now, and
when I was eighteen and you know, learning more about
music outside of my world. You guys introduced me to
you two and it was life changing and it was awesome.
(37:02):
And used to go to the channel back in the day.
And when I moved to Upstate New York in ninety three,
and every time i'd make a trip home, I would
get on four ninety five and put on WBCN and
it was just magic. So thank you for that love.
(37:22):
The interview tonight told another DJ that I listened to
named Ronnie Dark with the Wax Museum on Sunday nights.
They only play Vinyl OK and I was like, you
got to listen to this interview, So can you confirm
that it'll be available tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
To absolutely okay, and you can just go to night
Side on demand. Is that correct again? NID Nightside on
Demand and just scroll to it and it will be there.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Might be okay, we'll be there very soon.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
All right, awesome, thank you, thank you so much. Looking
forward to hearing you tomorrow night. You're welcome.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
By the way, it would be the fan favorite Michael
Cooin taking care of legal business tomorrow. There's a lot
of weird stuff going on out there to cover, you know.
It turns out, Mike, excuse me, Rick and Bill rick Ga,
we do have two minutes.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
So I stayed on the line for that reason. You
don't have to sing, Ricky, don't lose that number to me,
just like but no, I just wanted to say hi,
it's great to have you. And I was having this
Korean Kim Sheen. I was thinking to you because you
got the travel podcast and you eat all different types
of food, and I wanted to ask, are you a
fan of Kim che.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
You know what? It's pretty salty, right, super salty? Am
I right on?
Speaker 6 (38:37):
Ye, It's spicy, It's really good. But it's it's got it.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, I'd like.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
To taste about. I try to stay away from a salt.
Do they make that by burying? It's cabbage and a
bunch of other stuff? Do they bury it? Is that
how they make it?
Speaker 6 (38:51):
That's my understanding. It ferment's in the ground. They might
do it different, well.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Different commercial stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Probably couldn't afford to bury it all the ground and
dig it up, but that was the original way.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Probably.
Speaker 6 (39:04):
Yeah, it's a fermentation. I find it to be unbelievable,
and the helps of my ass and reflex it really
helps the gut because of the ginger. But anyway, I
won't keep you because you got to wrap the show up.
But great to have you and happy Thanksgiving. If I
don't catch up at you anytime soon, it's coming up,
so a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Oh yeah, Well, thank you so much for being with us.
I truly do appreciate and and thanks for the kind words.
Speaker 6 (39:31):
Absolutely all right, take it easy, take care.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So you mentioned the travel I have a YouTube travel
channel and you can find all the stuff I do,
the original music. My boy, you know, it's a it's
a place where you can find out all about me.
It's just BRADLEYJ dot O R G B R A
l E y j A y dot org.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Once again.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I'm so thankful for the opportunity to speak with all
of you once again. It feels like home because it
is home. Thank you Rob Brooks, and thank you producer Marita.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Bye.
It's night Side with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm telling you bes Boxton's Beach Radio Reading's good friends
and future good friends. It's night side with Dan Ray.
Bradley Jay and for Dan, and we're talking to Jim Sullivan,
rock writer who has had unbelievable experiences with many of
your favorite rockers, and he's sharing some of the stories.
And if you just joined us, let me reset. It's
(00:24):
quite simple. Jim had the good fortune to spend a
considerable time with Alice Cooper and even to golf, not once,
but twice, and I was wondering what it would be like.
I wandered out loud to Jim, what it would be
like to be teeing off? Because I know it's kind
of nerve wracking, the tea off in front of colleagues,
(00:46):
your boss, or maybe Alice Cooper, and you don't want
to embarrass yourself. And I asked Jim, hey, is it
intimidating to tea off and play golf with Alice Cooper?
And he said will yes? Of course he said yes no.
So now we're about to get in to the yes
and the no. Jim, let her rip.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
That's a great intro. Bradley intimidating in the sense that, well,
like you say, anytime you approach the team with people
you know and like you want to play a good game, right.
So with Alice there, Alis is pretty much a scratch
golfer and maybe I think it was a five handicap
when we played. I'm a bogey golfer, roughly maybe a
(01:29):
fifteen or sixteen handicap. Alice is going to be a
much better golfer than I am. That's fine. I want
to just hold my own right. And this I really
don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I happened
to have one of the better rounds of my life
the first we played nine each day. I shot a
forty the first day and a forty four the second
(01:50):
time we played. Alice shot the thirty eight the first time,
and I think he's shot the same thing a second time,
And you know, it was I was so happy that
I played as well as I did, And you know,
it was one of those things where I don't know
what kicked in muscle memory, something I don't know, but
it was just one of those good rounds. So the intimidation, really,
(02:13):
whatever might have been there to start kind of went
away because I was playing so well, so that was good.
The other thing, too, is Alice is a talker. I
mean he's telling stories almost time between shots. And he
knew or knows everybody. He talked about the comedy legends.
He knew Red Skelton, Victor Porge, talked about Jack Benny,
Jerry Lewis, he talked about on his radio from interviewing
(02:36):
Jerry Lee Lewis, who was one of the worst interviews
he had. He talked about Keith Moon, who was one
of the original Hollywood vampires, the drinking and drugging crew
out in la that included John Lennon and Ringo and
make He told want Harry Nilson and this is a
funny one a story Alice told about Keith Moon. Keith
(02:58):
was staying at Alice's Houserizona, but he'd yet to meet
Alice's wife, Cheryl. She comes home to find Moon wearing
a full maid's uniform, asking what she needed clean.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, you can do that when you're Keith Moon. I mean,
that's a very Keith you could do.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's better than something better than some of the other
costumes he chose over the course of his time, and
that was I mean just that kind of story is
just it was priceless. And me as a journalists writer,
I'm scribbling some of the stuff down as we're calling,
and you know, it's like my head is like hit
the right shot. Oh god, that's a funny story. I
(03:35):
got to write that down, and I don't know, it
was a good day. I managed to do both. And
I'm happy to let me ask you.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
This technical questions.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Say you're a social situation, you overhear a story, or
he tells you a story. Do you have to ask
him each time? Is that off? I mean, if there's
really no such thing as off the record in real life.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Now he knows I'm a journalist, and he's not telling
me anything that he wouldn't say on you know, officially
on the record. No, it's a l tree. That is
something that could be could be done. And actually one
of the guys who played with Dave Martin, who's a
member of a Positive Alice, is starting to tell the
story about Elvis and meeting Elvis, and as he started
(04:18):
the story, Dave flipped the video on and so he
got like about a ninety second take of Alice talking
about his time with Elvis and that was pretty fun too,
So it was a little bit performative. But hey, that's
that's you know, it's a good thing we were there
to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Now it's a good time to talk a little bit
about golf and my theory and maybe it's you're better
than I am. Now I guess how to survive playing
golf with your boss and the famous people and.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Not embarrass yourself. The trick is like I get a
high score, but I ay.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Number one thing, don't hold anybody up, don't look for you. Oh,
first off the tee, just hit it in the fairway, man,
Do not hit a driver, hit a three wood or
something just to get you in the fairway. Nobody cares
if it doesn't go far. But it always is a
bummer when it goes in the woods or hits a tree.
(05:15):
And so just get it out there a little bit.
And the other thing, never look.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
For your ball.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Just give up, you know, just give up. You just
don't want to hold them up. And practice a swing.
Get a good swing, so it's not a ridiculous swing.
It doesn't really matter your score. But if you look
okay and you get it and keep it in the fairway,
that's kind of all it takes, and at the end
of the thing, when Alice Cooper has an eighty eight
and Jim Sullivan has a ninety four and you have
(05:44):
one hundred and twenty, it's fine as long as you
made them laugh and stayed in the fairway. That's my theory.
And it's also golf is an inherently funny sport. It's
so funny if somebody whiffs it, if somebody hits a tree.
Everything about it is funny. And I have a feeling
that perhaps golf is one of the few places where
(06:06):
it's kind of okay to make fun of people, like
to force them ahead of you when they're you know,
when they're acting like buffoons.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That's also kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Thoughts Jim Well, I concur with most of that. I
guess the fun for me has to kind of coincide
with a decent score. I get, I get very down
on myself if I'm like in the mid or upper
nineties or something. I really want to be in the eighties,
and I'm I'm pretty frank about that. I mean, it's like,
(06:38):
all right, and didn't do what I'm intended to do
when I started out. Nevertheless, you know, as the cliche goes,
it's golf is a good walk spoiled and you're out there,
you're out in good weather, hopefully you're playing with friends,
people you like, and there's a lot of camaraderie that
comes with it, and that is that's a big part
of the game obviously. That is and the people I
(06:59):
play with. I mean, we're not really competing and we're
not paying for money or anything. We're just playing to
play well. And you want the people you're playing with
to play well. And you know, so we're all rooting
each other on you know.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So Okay, so that zaid after that diversion. Yeah, so
you guys have a couple more stories that we can
get to after this.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
On WBZ. Thanks, It's Night Side with Dan Ray on
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Back with rock writer Jim Sullivan sharing stories. Jim, you
know you have many interactions, but some stories are better
than others. Why don't we let you choose one situation
that has another great story, like the Alice Cooper story.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, here's one. Let's I'll do a Boston based thing. Here.
I'm gonna tell I'm going to give you a quote
and then let you see if you can guess who
said it about who this fella. He is a guitar player.
He was a teenager. He described himself as a dewey
I kid from out of town, from New Hampshire, and
(08:04):
he would go down and see this band. They would
start off as a three piece, and then another guy
would come on stage, and then another guy, and then
finally the singer. They had always said, such showmanship and dynamics. Man,
if you saw that band when they were in their prime,
you were spoiled. You probably expected that's how rock is. Well, No,
they're a cut above. They were like swine the family stone.
(08:25):
They knew how to take a whole arena and just
tear it up. They set the bar for rock and
roll as far as I was concerned. They could stand
toe to toe with any band in the world. Joe Perry,
that was Joe Perry. Who was he speaking about Harism?
He was speaking about the Jake Isles.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Oh you got me. I walked right into that. But
it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's fantastic. Well done, Jim, all right, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Oh that that's really that little anecdote. I mean, I
just love that. I mean, he was a kid, I mean, he's,
you know, much younger is he than the guys from
the Giles Band? Not that much younger, but enough so
that he was a fan coming down to see them.
And they were a band, the Giles Fans Band I
saw when I was a kid too, and Terry was
completely right. It was like they set this standard and
(09:14):
you go, my god, this is good and then you
see other bands that aren't as good and you realize
what you have in your midst in New England is
this terrific kind of house band called the Jay Giles Band,
which lives on with you know, and Peter Wolf with
what he does and his solo stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Wolf if you listen, and that's quite a tip of
the cab, that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Well that's I swear, Jim. I swear.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I used to work at Concord Hospital as an operating
room technician as I was seventeen eighteen, and we would
there was a school of nurses with eighty nurses. They're
all all alone, they're nobody to hang around with but me.
So we would go and see bands. And we went
to Senipee and I swear to God that there was
(09:57):
some band in this little club with not even not
even stage, maybe like a one.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Foot rise of stage at a place.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
It wasn't the tune in, but it had some kind
of weird name like that.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
The dud drop in, And I swear it was Arowsmith.
It might have been I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Gonna I'm gonna just assume that's the case, and I
hope that was an early Aerosmith and they were good.
Now you you talked to David Bowie at some length
a number of times, and you talked to Angela and
got kind of a conflicting or a different viewpoint. That's
that's a pretty interesting dynamic to share from most two sides.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, well, yeah, Angela Angie Bowie, his ex who royally
or wrongly claims a lot of credit for the Ziggy
Stars period, the costuming and the attitude and all of that.
She had written a book about David, not very complimentary,
and kind of went into his massive drug abuse problems
back in the day. So that's part of the Bowie chapter,
(11:00):
you know. And I, you know, I had dinner with
her and wrote a story about her and thought, well,
this included in the Bowie chapter because it is part
of his world. Even if she was sort of an
antagonist at that point. Bowie himself just man, gracious, incredibly intelligent,
(11:20):
and this is one thing I really liked. I mean,
when we talked, he didn't have an agenda per se. Yeah,
sure he was promoting a show or an album. I mean,
that's kind of implicit in doing these things. But he
was very willing to follow a question that maybe didn't
pertain to that, or a tangent or even I remember
(11:41):
talking to him about this cartoon that had been done
in the Nameless Rock Press that had Bowie as this
vampire circling a hip rock club scene, trying to pick
up on the latest trends so he could incorporate them
into his music. And he just loved it. He said, well,
you know, that's kind of accurate. That is what I do.
(12:01):
I am a bit of a vampire that way.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
He never denied that.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
No, I mean a lot of stuff exactly. I mean,
you know, the professionals with an amateur's borrow professional steel,
and you know, I mean he was so proud about that.
But he was such a sponge for so many different
kinds of music, and it confounded some of the sands
because he was, you know, from the Gland period, to
the Plastic Soul period as he called it, and and
(12:31):
and arward and then you know, forming Tin Machine and
doing uh, you know this this rock that kind of
moved in the nine inch Nails direction and at some point,
so you know, and the man had an incredibly expansive career.
I was fortunate enough to talk with him at several
junctures of that career, and uh, you know, it's you know,
(12:52):
just his death was frankly devastating. I had just started
listening to the album Black Our album that he had
put out he died. I guess it was the day
after two days after it came out. And in listening
to the album, the songs are eerie, they're spooky, they're
kind of like, have him looking at death, it seems like.
(13:17):
And I'm hearing this the first time when he was
still alive, and then a day or two later the
same songs and listening to again, point, Oh my god,
is he really did he really predict his own death?
Is he really writing about what was going to happen?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yes, he knew, he knew, and he didn't share it
with anybody, but maybe Tony Visconti, his producer and another
player and like maybe one other person, and.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
It was very private.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, quite and uh.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
An accomplishment to make such a work of art, as
you know, and while you are dying, it's quite a thing.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And you know, actually just bringing that up Warren Zevon,
who just went into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously,
of course, seems sort of thing. He made his final
record The Wind after his cancer diagnosis, and he was
he was somebody I knew quite well, and he was
kind of coaxed through the record by Jorge Calderon, you know,
(14:13):
one of his his co writers over the many years,
and you know, kind of pushing him to go out
on a good note, which he did, and that, to
me is an amazing record. If he does a version
of Dylan's Knocking on Heaven's Door, it'll it'll just bring
you to tears, because you know, if anybody's knocking on
Heaven's door, if you believe this a heaven, well that
(14:35):
would be somebody singing it who is really almost there,
you know. And and the season if you haven't seen
the Rock and Noll Hall of Fame induction thing, I
guess it airs again January first on Network TV. It's
quite a moving tribute that Letterman does to him, and
it brought back just seeing the montage, I brought back
(14:56):
a lot of great memories for me too. I spent
a lot of time with Warrenthy over the years, and
you know with the final time that was two thousand
and two and two thousand and one, and you know,
it was just big hugs and you know, I don't
want to cheer up now, but you know, great, great time.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
A couple of things about Bowie. Earlier we heard about
a guy who was who who Inhales secondhand smoke from
Keith Richards Well, similar thing we did my boss Oedipus
and I at the time at w PC and went
into Bowie's limousine and went through the ashtrays and took
a cigarette butts, then went back to the station and
(15:37):
smoked one of them ceremoniously on the air so that
we might get some of Bowie's magic molecules into our bodies.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So it was kind of a similar thing.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And also there was David supplied me with one I
guess kind of the pinnacle of my attire rock career.
I think doing MCing at the Orphan but I believe
is tin.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Machine you know, it's a it's a big.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Deal to MC in a big place like that, And
so the lights go up and you go out and
your manly adrenaline Russian and you do a very brief
and you try to do professional intro and you ended
up with David Bowie and he comes bounding out and
I go bounding off and he he puts up his
hand for a high five, and he gives me a
(16:20):
high five in front of everybody. And it was a
good high five, not a miss. It was like bam.
And that was like pretty pretty much the pinnacle.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So I have a couple.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I was just gonna say, all downhill from there.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Absolute I have some questions.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
You're a pro interviewer. That's what you do.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It's what you've done for a long time. How about
giving us a couple of dues and don'ts when it
comes to you know, some something or two or three
that might help a rookie avoid embarrassment, give him a
head start, some dues and don'ts. I don't know if
you thought about that.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
But sure, I mean the most simple thing is through
your research, you know and don't I mean, try to
incorporate as much as of it as you can in
your head or wherever you're notepad, wherever you're doing it,
so you're you're there. You're at a level when you're
starting where the guy doesn't have to explain things to you,
(17:20):
so you're able to ask questions that make sense that
maybe he maybe certainly before, maybe he hasn't, but you're
immediately establishing that you've done your work. You're on par
with him in terms of I talked about this earlier,
in terms of you know, being a professional and doing
your job. The other thing I would say is, I mean,
(17:41):
don't be of sequist, don't be fawning, don't be starstruck.
Try to just consider it a conversation. It's a conversation
where obviously you want to draw things out of this person.
But if it's if it is more of a conversation,
and this is obviously kind of what you do too
broadway on the air. Is you're going back and forth.
(18:03):
You're not just throwing a question out and waiting for,
you know, a chunky paragraph of an answer. Perhaps you
may I mean, that may happen, and that's fine too,
but if you can give a little bit of your life,
your perspective and engage them in your thoughts. They will
play off that, or some of them will, maybe some
(18:24):
are too self possessed to do that. But I think
I've been pretty lucky and that when I've talked to
people in the things other than their lives their work,
they enjoy that. They enjoy going a little off topic
topic being them. And you know, I don't know exactly
how to develop that skill, and I'm happy that that's
(18:45):
part of my skill set, but I think it's an
important thing to do to be able to relate to
people who you know, have a level of fame that
may be shall we say, above your.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Own right and you meason not being fine and related
to that, does that end? What I was What I
was trying to do is put myself in their position.
They're traveling around, they have their particular hell they're living in.
When I would talk to them a lot of time,
it would be daytime, like you, they've been up on
nine maybe, they they didn't get much sleep, they eat
(19:19):
awful food. They're riding on a bus maybe, And if
you come at it and ask them about that daily life. Uh,
that was always a good starting place for me. And
agreed with what you said. About being prepared because then
you get respect from them.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
That's what you need to do.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
A good job. Yes, yes, yeh yeah. You want to
establish that you've done your work, and I think you're
treated with more respect if you show that, and that's
just you know, it's a good way to do, the
way to go in. One thing I wanted to mention
is just some of the people we were talking about
here and this just struck me when we were talking
(19:57):
about the Sevon Roy Orbison was one of my favorite singers,
the most operatic rock singer there ever was, and I
was fortunate enough to see him several times and interview him.
I actually ended up doing the last interview he ever did.
It was a phone interview from France. It was before
a week or so before he played the Channel Club.
(20:19):
He did two dates there in Boston, and it was
you know, I mean the fact that it was his
last interview. Obviously I didn't know that no one knew that,
no one knew he was he had a heart problem,
I don't think, but in retrospect, it was just sort
of astonishing to realize that these were kind of the
(20:39):
last published thoughts that he had, and the really sad
part is that he had just made this comeback record
hadn't been released yet. I had an advanced tape of
it was a terrific album, and he was so much
looking forward to working those songs into his set in
the next year. And the enthusiasm he had, and that's
(21:00):
sort of feeling of being reborn, you know. He carried
that with him and everyone I think around him has
the feeling that this is going to launch him once again.
And he died. And you know the interview that I did,
the chapter that's in the backstage from the on boat.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
You know, Jim, I help to go.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I'd love to stay a few minutes after just to
finish the story on the I hate to cut you off.
I don't unfulfilled like that, and I do want to
plug the book a little more so, maybe five minutes
after this break, just to give it a clean clothes
if you if you would do that, that'd be great.
Stubborn Bzy, It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w
(21:41):
B Boston's news radio. By these four hours are flying
by the night side with Dan Ray badly Jay for Dan,
We've been talking with Jim Sullivan, rock writer, a person
who's been in Boston. He's a Boston staple. He's been
here along with you for all these years. Any show
you were at, he's probably there. He's got a book
backstage Beyond Complete forty five years of Rock, Chance and Rinse.
(22:06):
Jim Sullivan is his name, and I'm so glad he
wrote the book because I was looking for something to read,
and it's such a pleasure to read a well written book.
It was such a pleasure to read Peter Wolfe's most
recent well most recently Peter Wolf's book, because it's also
well written. And Jim, just before the break, was talking
about Roy Orbison, and I didn't want to have to
(22:29):
have him curtail that meaningful story, So we'll just finish
that up and I'll I'll say thank you and say goodbye.
So take your time as much as you want.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Jim, well, it was kind of near in the end
of it. I mean, when I saw Roy play that
show at the Channel, it felt so good to hear
the voice coming out of that little o of a mouth.
He's smallest mouth, biggest sound, and the place was packed.
He did two nights, and it was again because of
(23:03):
having done the interview and knowing how optimistic he was
about the future. Even if he wasn't playing those songs
that night. He felt he couldn't because they did the
audience didn't know them. He felt it would be cheating
to play new songs that they didn't know. I mean,
you could disagree with that. I kind of did a
little bit. I wish he had, but you know, that
was his feeling, was that they had to be out
(23:24):
there in the public before he could perform it. And
so knowing that was to come, or thinking I knew
that was to come, that made that concert that I
saw where he played you know, all the hits that
you know that so responsible for, he wrote most of
them too. And just having that feeling of walking away
from that show and just feeling the warmth and the
(23:46):
love in that room from him and among the crowd
itself just one of the best feelings you can have
at a show, and that's probably a good way to
leave it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Thank you so much for your time, and thanks all
the time you spent writing a book. You know as
much as well as anyone. It's hard to write a book,
even when you were a good writer, it's very difficult.
So thank you for your efforts and let me assure
you that it is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I recommend it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
You can get it at Trouser Press, but you can
go to Amazon and get it. Probably not in the
bookstores because it's been out for a while, so you know,
no shame in going to Amazon. In this case, Backstation
Beyond complete forty five years of Rock Chance Chats rants
Jim Sullivan, including eleven new chapters. So thanks so much
(24:33):
for all your time. Oh and by the way, by
the way, I love you. Don't live that far away
from me. I don't know if you're a big walker,
but perhaps you and or your wife Rosa would like
to get out there and walk. Maybe they'll be safety
in numbers. We can stave off the e bikes together
and stay.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yes, that's something we share, isn't it. Yes, the fear
of getting hit by the e bikes. Yes, yes, what
would be all whole other night. I'm sure Bradley to
talk about that, but yes we can. We could do
a neighborhood walk and protect each other. Okay, thanks so much,
all right, thanks for having me, Bradley.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, well, what a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I must say that, as many of you know, if
you have a long, long term relationship with somebody, say
in your industry, whatever it might be, whether it's at
the ball bearing factory or at the country, whatever you do.
It's nice to look back and feel this bond, a
(25:33):
long time bond like Jim came.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Into town.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Or a little before I did, Man from down from Maine,
I believe, and you know, for decades, see each other
at shows, nod have a beer, chat on and on
and on. It's like some folks go to church. This
was kind of you know, some the community for many
(26:00):
where you see folks and is it church? But this,
these these clubs would be where we would see each
other and the whole community people from even when I
started out on college radio, Boston was and I don't
think it was you. I think I think it was
quite unique. I don't think it was a common thing
(26:21):
to have the college radio scene and the professional radio
scene so tight tightly knit together.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It's open lines. Now.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I'm going to continue to just chat about this, but
you can jump in with anything you want if you
want a garment on the yes, the end of the
government shutdown and how it turned out, if there's something
you wanted to chat about, or if you just wanted
to say Hi, that's cool, that's fine, six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty very chill. Or I can just talk whatever
(26:53):
you like. So I'm going to kind of continue talking
about you know, our world, Gym's world and my world.
And for many of you, your will because you like
to go to the rock shows. As I was saying,
it's wonderful to have these long term relationships. And let
me talk about the Boston scene a little bit and
(27:14):
how unique it was. Many of you were a part
of it.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Many of you were in it. Many of you were there.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
If you have any any observations or remembrances of particular
clubs and what it meant to you, what maybe the
music meant to you. But back to the tightly knit community,
and it involves a little bit of my history. Maybe
I should take this opportunity to give you a quick
(27:40):
rundown of my employment history. Grew up in New Hampshire.
First job breaking blueberries, which is hell low bush blueberries.
You got to rake them in the hot sun four
cents a pound, terrible. Hell knew I didn't want to
do that or do anything outside for a job. Next
(28:01):
job washing dishes. Compared to that blueberry raking, I loved
washing dishes. It was at that point I guess I
got my first car, nineteen sixty seven three speed Mustang
I'll rusted out. Cost seventy five dollars. Next job was
in the hospital, because they wanted to wash dishes in
the hospital, but there were no jobs. I happened to
(28:23):
know the daughter of the administrator of the hospital, and
everyone else's washing dishes in the hospital, and they having
a good time. And I was at this little restaurant
halfway out of town. I kept bugging them. They said,
you know, we don't have any dish washing jobs left,
but keep bugging us. We'll we'll find something for you.
(28:43):
When I say keep bugging us, I thought they meant
every day. So every day I called them up every day.
I thought that was what they meant. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Finally,
I guess they got so burned out they said, we're
going to create a job for you. We're going on
a We want to have somebody to detail the operating rooms.
(29:04):
They did an orderly who would sort of swab it
down on a daily basis, but they wanted somebody to
detail it in the cracks. No one had ever done it.
We're talking with the toothbrush, and I did that. I
won't go into the gory stuff I saw, but I
was very intrigued by the whole thing. And sometimes I
would see emergency operations and people assisting on them that
weren't doctors. They said, oh, we're operating room technicians. We
(29:28):
learned it in the service. And so when the when
the high school guidance counselors said what do you want
to do, I said, I want to be one of them.
I want to be an operating room technician. They never
heard of it. Six months later guidance counsel called me down.
You know what is there's some school unconquered that will
teach you how to do this. I signed up. There
only took six people. I got in, and when I
(29:52):
was seventeen, I went to school to be an operating
room technician. And I worked in the emergency room and
the operating room and saw some horrific things. Probably got
PTSD very stressful. Then one day I visited friends at
U and H and I didn't realize how cool college was.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Wow, this is easy.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
These people just sit around, they go to class speak
when they want study.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Some drink. Peer society thinks that's fine. Who knew? I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
My parents didn't tell me how cool college was. I said,
I want college, So I got in, went to college,
got on the radio. Then college got over and I
couldn't do the shows anymore. But I missed it, so
I used to hitchhike back up to the school while
I was working at TGI Fridays in Newbury Street once
(30:41):
a week. Actually, I took the bus up and hitchhiked
back every week from Durham, New Hampshire to Boston just
to do the show. Then somebody said, hey, you ought
to talk. I know this guy at Boston College ought
to talk to them.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
I did. I got on there.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
That led to a gig at a place called Wyan
and Lynn, and they used to have to take the
bus out there, do a show and then sleep overnight
on a black plastic, sweaty couch, take the first bus
back in the morning. Back then, everybody smoked by the
way on the bus. Everyone on the bus was smoking.
(31:18):
At that point, being on the college radio and on
the and on w l Yan which became FNX, you
were in the scene and in Boston. As I mentioned,
unlike other towns. The people at the big station WBC,
and they were also college DJs, and so when you
would go to a show, everyone was there. You kind
(31:42):
of knew them, they kind of knew you. You were
on the air in Boston, even if it was college.
I started sending tapes. Finally, after the fourth one, through
attrition and just persistence, I got a gig.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
I didn't get fired.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
They stayed there twenty eight years and then transition to talk,
which was a real challenge, and there were many doubters,
but not me. I didn't doubt it. And I and
there are other some other folks that had my back
and still have my back that I really appreciate it.
You know who you are, and here I am. That's
(32:21):
the short version, but you can see how folks like
our guest Jim fit in there. I'd never really shared
my early days with you, like working in the restaurants
and stuff, but I kind of I think that stuff's important.
I don't know if kids do it anymore, no idea.
(32:41):
I don't no idea. I'm not gonna bother to find out.
But those humble jobs really really make me appreciate everything, everything, everything,
and it's not a minute or a day that goes by.
Then I'm not thankful for the past and not thankful
(33:02):
for being able to sit here.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
And speak to you today.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
WBZ News Radio ten thirty, you're.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
On Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, all of a sudden, everyone calls at the end, folks.
May I recommend you'll have more time if you call
earlier on in the show. But on the other hand,
I'll take what I can get. It's nice to hear
from you. Maybe you weren't around then. First we have
Joline Jolene, Jolene Jolene from Beverly.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
How you doing, Joelene, I was.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Doing better before you started singing that all along. I
love Dolly Parton, but I wasn't crazy about that song.
But it's okay. I love your personality, Bradley, and I
like it when you're filling in for anybody. Morgan or Gan,
we're writing find you or hear you. When you were
(34:00):
talking earlier about AI, I believe it was. I am
just so caught up in this. I understand so little
about it. But the more they talk about probably getting
the term wrong. But giant AI or giga AI, the
(34:24):
super fast and overwhelming AI that could end humanity.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
You know, you know more about it than I do
in some ways. If you if you want to learn
more about it, you know what I recommend, and I
recommend this to everybody you do. YouTube will tell you
anything you need to know about anything.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
YouTube find out more.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Yes, I know, and I'm going to. There was somebody
the other night that was explaining it the best I've
heard so far, and my husband showed me how to
look up his podcast. So many podcasts on YouTube, and
I'm looking forward to saying that he was getting into
(35:12):
these two huge buildings in New York. I believe that
a lot of people, uh say it. One of them
was built by AT and T and they think it's
just something to do with them, But yeah, it's because
(35:39):
super speedy AI is going to need a lot of
energy and a lot of cold to do what it's
programmed to do. That they need these two huge, thirty
store and buildings that has nobody in them except just
(36:01):
air and cold.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Thank you very much. It's very interesting. I wish you
could call it a little bit earlier, but I really
appreciate the confidence and since you didn't have much time.
You can call either tomorrow night or the next night
when I'm on.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Thanks. I appreciate it and call a little earlier.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I just know that I'm not going to have time
to get to Rick tonight, so I don't want to
keep you waiting, but we'll go to Maria in New
York and finish up with Maria. Hi, Maria, Hi, Hey, Hey,
Maria Hi.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Thank you for taking my call. I'll make it quick.
I just want to thank you for all the years
at WBCN that you did. I'm sixty three now, and
when I was eighteen and you know, learning more about
music outside of my world. You guys introduced me to
you two and it was life changing and it was awesome.
(37:02):
And used to go to the channel back in the day.
And when I moved to Upstate New York in ninety three,
and every time i'd make a trip home, I would
get on four ninety five and put on WBCN and
it was just magic. So thank you for that love.
(37:22):
The interview tonight told another DJ that I listened to
named Ronnie Dark with the Wax Museum on Sunday nights.
They only play Vinyl OK and I was like, you
got to listen to this interview, So can you confirm
that it'll be available tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
To absolutely okay, and you can just go to night
Side on demand. Is that correct again? NID Nightside on
Demand and just scroll to it and it will be there.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Might be okay, we'll be there very soon.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
All right, awesome, thank you, thank you so much. Looking
forward to hearing you tomorrow night. You're welcome.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
By the way, it would be the fan favorite Michael
Cooin taking care of legal business tomorrow. There's a lot
of weird stuff going on out there to cover, you know.
It turns out, Mike, excuse me, Rick and Bill rick Ga,
we do have two minutes.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
So I stayed on the line for that reason. You
don't have to sing, Ricky, don't lose that number to me,
just like but no, I just wanted to say hi,
it's great to have you. And I was having this
Korean Kim Sheen. I was thinking to you because you
got the travel podcast and you eat all different types
of food, and I wanted to ask, are you a
fan of Kim che.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
You know what? It's pretty salty, right, super salty? Am
I right on?
Speaker 6 (38:37):
Ye, It's spicy, It's really good. But it's it's got it.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, I'd like.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
To taste about. I try to stay away from a salt.
Do they make that by burying? It's cabbage and a
bunch of other stuff? Do they bury it? Is that
how they make it?
Speaker 6 (38:51):
That's my understanding. It ferment's in the ground. They might
do it different, well.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Different commercial stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Probably couldn't afford to bury it all the ground and
dig it up, but that was the original way.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Probably.
Speaker 6 (39:04):
Yeah, it's a fermentation. I find it to be unbelievable,
and the helps of my ass and reflex it really
helps the gut because of the ginger. But anyway, I
won't keep you because you got to wrap the show up.
But great to have you and happy Thanksgiving. If I
don't catch up at you anytime soon, it's coming up,
so a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Oh yeah, Well, thank you so much for being with us.
I truly do appreciate and and thanks for the kind words.
Speaker 6 (39:31):
Absolutely all right, take it easy, take care.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So you mentioned the travel I have a YouTube travel
channel and you can find all the stuff I do,
the original music. My boy, you know, it's a it's
a place where you can find out all about me.
It's just BRADLEYJ dot O R G B R A
l E y j A y dot org.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Once again.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I'm so thankful for the opportunity to speak with all
of you once again. It feels like home because it
is home. Thank you Rob Brooks, and thank you producer Marita.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Bye.
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