Hitman talks to Kevin Griffin Better Than Ezra and Ezra Ray Hart

Ezra Ray Hart plays December 14th at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio called " 90s Hit and Xmas Riffs". Kevin talks about working with Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray and Emerson Hart of Tonic. Plus He tells us the latest on Better Than Ezra and what's his Whataburger order!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what's going on? It is hitp Man with you
and I've got on the phone with me right now.
Kevin Griffin from Better Than Ezra? Dude, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Man? It's so good to be talking to you. I'm great.
I'm in Nashville. We're about to kick off our nineties
Hits and Christmas Risk tour that we're bringing to San Antonio.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah. If people don't know this, you started up. It's
a band called Ezra ray Hart and it's with you,
but also Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray and Emerson Heart
of Tonic. How did this get together?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, you know, we wanted to stop. We wanted to
start an unstoppable nineties juggernaut band, and we're like, how
do we do that? And the three of us were
hanging out, we were playing at festival out in California, LA,
and we're like, man, we should form a band. Let's
do a band where we play all our hits, we

(00:50):
sing each other songs, we play other nineties hits, and
it's just an amazing nostalgic two hour show. And that's
what we've created. We've been doing it now, honestly for
like like seven or eight years and it's been great
and now now we're bringing a proper tour together. It's
a nationwide tour and we can't wait to hit Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, you'll be in on December twelfth, you'll be over
in Grand Prairie. Then on the thirteenth you'll be in
sugar Land, and then the one I'm going to go
to is on the fourteenth, which is over at the
Majestic Theater in San Antonio. The Majestic Theater. That is
a beautiful theater and that's a perfect place for you
guys to do your show.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
At the Majestic is fine. Man, It's a gorgeous place.
I love it. I've been there. Actually I went and
I think I see I think I went and saw
Bill Burr there or something. Yeah, and I love those
old theaters. We can't play. We can't wait to be there. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now, yeah, we know about the nineties hits. But tell
us a little bit about the Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Rifts now Christmas rifts.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, tell me a little bit about that. What are
you doing, like the classics or or do you guys have.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, yeah, we're doing we're doing classics. We're doing one original.
In twenty eighteen, I was in this kind of Christmas
supergroup with Martin McGrath, Fits from Fits In the Tantrums,
Nick Hexum from three to eleven, a lot of different people,
and we recorded this song called Must Be Christmas, and

(02:20):
it's got about thirty million, thirty million streams. It's actually
kind of taken off as a as a new classic.
It's always on, you know, all on the different streaming services.
But we're going to play that, but then we're going
to play some Christmas classics of course Last Christmas, Little
Saint Nick, and then we do this kind of punk

(02:41):
rock SoCal version of All I Want for Christmas? Is you?

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Oh wow, that's that. That's actually gonna be kind of cool.
You can get your tickets right now, of course, said
ticketmaster dot com. If you want to find out more details,
you can check it out on Ezra ray Hart's Facebook page.
And you also, besides that, you know, you're still doing
some great stuff with better than Nazra. As a matter
of fact, I see that on January you're booked for
the nineties Cruise. Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, man, we so better than NASRAA We continue to tour.
We just played in San Antonio, earlier this year at
Stable Hall, that new place over near the Pearl, right.
But in January we are getting on a cruise ship
with Sugar Ray, with TLC, with in Vogue and it

(03:28):
is going to be a full not just nineties rock,
alternative rock, but all nineties music. It's a six day cruise,
goes out of Tampa. I think we go to Nassau,
all the usual stops. Basically wow. But that's gonna be fun.
That's gonna be that's gonna be interesting.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Now, tell us a little bit about the latest album
called super Magic. Tell me a little bit about the
latest album.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Man. We put that out last year, and that is
our best performing album we've put out in probably fifteen years.
Face and were blown away by. It was kind of
a return to maybe the rock that we started with,
with some with some new influences, of course, but it
was a it was a look at what it was.

(04:13):
We put out a lot of singles but it but
it had been ten years since we had put out
a proper full album, so we had plenty of time
to work on it, build a great catalog of songs,
and super Magic is the result of that. It is
performed beyond our Wildest Dreams. We toured about a year
and a half on it.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Wow, we're talking with Kevin Griffin from Better Than Ezra.
He's going to be with Ezra Ray Hart over at
the Majestic Theater December fourteenth and San Antonio. Make sure
you get your tickets now. So of course, the band
consists of Mark McGrath of Sugar Rain and Emerson Heart.
Emerson Hart to me, he is one of the nicest
guys I have ever met. I gotta tell you a story.

(04:53):
A while back, he actually came down with Tonic and
they did a great show and they signed. They signed
guitar for us, but somebody came to the studios and
stole it. When Emerson Hart found out. When he found
out about it, he actually went and signed another one
and personally delivered it back to us to make sure

(05:16):
that our winners got another guitar. The nicest guy around.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Him, Bibertson and I've known each other for twenty years. Man,
he is that it doesn't get any nicer. And there's
no better voice in music. The guy can I can
sing like Steve Perry or you name our Freddie Mercury.
He's got the best voice he's the best dude, and
we've got him singing a lot of amazing songs that
you guys will dig.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, I actually you are correct. I loved his solo
album that he actually had out a couple of years back.
I think one of the songs was if You're Gonna Leave.
It was a great song. It was a huge, an
amazing I've only got two last questions for you, and
you got it, and this one's I always I always
ask this to now every single interview. I do one

(06:02):
when you come to Texas. What's your waterburger order?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
I do a double cheeseburger burger? Oh yeah, always a
double cheeseburger. Let us fully dressed, Let us tomato, mayonnaise,
no onions.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
I love that. The other one I asked this to
every single rock band all the time, is, you know,
Corpus Christie is a rock town. We have lots of
local rock bands that are here that are doing their
best and doing so great. What advice can you give
to some of the rock bands here in Corpus CHRISTI
to make them go to the next level to where

(06:36):
they can, you know, get to that level where you
are right now.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, I'll tell you man, it's record as much as
you can't. You've got these days with a laptop, You've
got logic or garage band. Record those songs, follows them
up as best you can, and then upload them on
your own through distro kid or tune core. Get them

(07:01):
up online. Work your music with it, you know, on TikTok, Instagram.
Book as many shows as you can, try to get
on south By Southwest, play every dive bar in Texas.
And if you make enough noise with your own music
and it takes off, you know online, suddenly you'll have
everybody knocking in your door. You could be in Corpus Christy,

(07:24):
you know, and be a great band and you can
finally get heard. You really have all those tools at
your fingertips. You just got to you just got to
do the work. But it's a great time to be
in a band, and it's it's easier than ever to
get noticed.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. Well, I appreciate you taking
the time to talk to us today. Of course, again,
Ezra Rayhart, it's nineties hits and Christmas riffs. They're going
to be on the twelfth and Grand Prairie, Texas on
the thirteenth, and sure Land and the one I'm looking
forward to is on the fourteenth at the Majestic Theater
in San Antonio. Get your tickets now you want to

(07:59):
find out more detail else They're all over social media. Kevin,
I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Bud hit Man, thank you so much for this interview
and all the years of support. We will see you
in Texas.